Chapter 13: CHAPTER 13: THE TRAGEDY

“That day, the day Daphne told me the story of my family, it was quite satisfying. After asking countless times to others, I finally got my answer.”

 

-Edgart on his family’s story

 

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The rest of the semester were pretty boring for Ed, he continued to have duelling lessons with Flitwick, and the Quidditch match that Snape refereed happened, he didn’t watch it though, Ed, Richard, along with Daphne are studying and experimenting spells, the three got quite close, although Richard and Daphne were closer, they were often caught chatting alone when Ed was late.

One day, on the 26th of May, Richard and Daphne were taught how to duel and the tactics of it by Ed.

“Here, you can distract your opponent with simple spells that are enough to make them step back, while you’re doing that, you also transfigure some kind of hole, or a spike maybe, then make them fall into that hole, or tripped because of the spike.” Ed explained, while he casted a barrage of spells while also transfiguring a small spike, so if someone stepped on it, that someone will tripped. “After that, just finish the job with lethal spells if you’re actually fighting for your life, if you’re not, then just tell the opponent to give up.”

The other two just watched Ed doing his thing, after that Ed told them to practice it with each other, both of them were competing with each other, and by the end, it was a tie between the two of them.

“That was exhausting.” Daphne commented while sitting on a chair.

“Yeah, it was.” Richard also commented, he lays down on the floor, his face showing a smile.

Ed just chuckled at the two, he looked at both of them, and said, “So what do you want to learn next? you can learn duelling tactics on your own after this.”

Daphne looked at the other two boys hesitantly and said, 

“I-I want to practice my family magic here, but I need you to make an unbreakable vow, so you won’t tell anyone.”

The two boys looked at each other, shrugged, then Richard asked, “Okay, but I don’t know how to cast the spell, Ed knows it though.”

Daphne looked surprised by the two boys, then questioned, “You agreed just like that? It’s serious, you know! You’ll die if you break it.”

“We know.” Said the two boys spontaneously.

Daphne looked dumbfounded at the two boys lack of care, but before she could say anything, Ed continued,

“Besides, we’re not the only ones who need to swear, you’ll need to swear too, I have a family magic too you know.”

Daphne looked at Ed intently and said, “Right, speaking about your family, I forgot to tell you about this, but I asked my mother about your family, and no wonder you’re this powerful this young, your family is quite something.”

Ed piqued with interest, then asked, “What do you mean? What did she say?”, Ed thought that this is a chance to know more about his family, because before this, he always asks Gilligan about some stuff concerning his family, and the answer is always either ‘A story for another day’, ‘I will tell you later’, or ‘you need to find that yourself’, which annoyed the hell out of him.

She looked at Ed’s owl mark on the back of his hand, then said, “My mother said that if you have the owl tattoo on the back of your hand, try to be nice to you as much as possible, and don’t provoke you in any sort of way.”

“Really?” Ed was surprised, “Why is that?”

“It's quite the story, do you want to hear it?” said Daphne, while bringing up the letter from her mother.

“Well of course, I’ve been asking everyone, but they won’t tell me for some reason.” Ed said annoyedly.

“Everyone?” Richard finally asked.

“Yes, well, everyone that might know anyway, I even asked Dumbledore about my mother, but he won’t tell me. He said I need to find it on my own, and I searched in the library about my family, nothing, absolutely nothing.”

“Well, you need to hear this story for sure then, it’ll explain why it didn’t exist in books, because it’s intentional by the other pureblood family.”

“Wow, my family is that famous?” Ed asked sarcastically.

“Okay, you want to hear the story or not?”

“All right, let’s hear it.”

“Finally, okay, it started at the first wizarding war.” She spoke.

‘First Wizarding war?’ Ed thought, “Okay, then what?”

“Your family was relatively unknown then, only a few people know of your family, Dumbledore being one of them.”

“Yes, I know about that, my grandfather was friends with him, along with Nicolas Flamel.”

Daphne just nodded, and continued, “During the war, The Dark Lord needed ‘allies’, so does Dumbledore, the two sides fought for a couple of pureblood families, but like my family, a lot of them remained neutral, and a couple joined the death eater’s side because the Dark Lord forced them.”

“Okay… I assumed my family remained neutral also.”

“Yes, well, they were neutral, for a time.”

“Until…?”

“Until one day the death eaters targeted your family.”

“Oh, I know where you’re going with this. My family retaliated right?”

“Oho my friend, in the letter, your family didn’t just retaliated, okay, let’s start from the night of the attack.”

“That night your family was at a ball that was arranged by a neutral family that is also targeted, because the death eaters didn’t know where your ancestral home is, so they waited for the whole family to go out.”

“When was this?” Ed asked, his face already grim.

“Around 1978.”

Ed just nodded and signal to continue.

“There were four Aldrich that night, Edwyn Aldrich, your grandfather, Darius Aldrich, you father, Isabella Aldrich, your mother, and Darius’s sister, Arisanna Aldrich.”

“Wait what? I have an aunt?” Ed asked, ‘did I see her in the family tree? I only focused on the alive one back then, so that means…’ His face turned grim even more.

Daphne just nodded and continued, “The death eaters surrounded the other family’s home, and slaughtered the guests of the ball, the only left standing was your family, the death eaters got heavy losses just because of your family, half of the eaters that were sent to that place were dead, and that’s a lot.”

Ed just nodded then Daphne continued, “But then, a death eater commander, a long-time friend of the dark lord, Avery Sr. caught your father’s sister, he brought them to their camp, rape her, used the cruciatus curse on her and killed her after that.” Said the blonde girl grimly.

The room went silent for a couple of minutes, then Ed asked her, “How old was she?”

“I think 24-25,” Daphne said.

Ed just sighed and signalled Daphne to continue.

“After that your family went to the camp and found the body, they were so outraged that…” Daphne took a deep breath and told them what happened.

“Your family hunted every member that participated that night that they could find and their families, including Avery Sr. and Jr., they burned all their properties, ravaged their cemeteries, and finally, they executed them in the most horrible way.” Daphne paused for a second and continued.

“They gutted their backs, pulled their ribs and skin, and made it look like they had wings.” Richard hearing this almost threw up.

“So, in other words, the blood eagle.” Ed just nodded. “Then?”

“They put the still alive death eaters in front of their houses, forcing them to watch it burn to the ground.”

“After that, they joined Dumbledore’s side, making the Dark Lord enraged because of the heavy losses. The Aldrich made Dumbledore’s side stronger because of your family tremendous spell power, your father was the most feared, probably still enraged because of the death of his sister, your grandfather died not long after your father’s sister died, some say because of the sadness was unbearable, and Dumbledore’s side was always winning after your family turned to his side.”

“The death eaters were never the same again after that, three years later, the dark lord fell.” Said Daphne and closed the letter.

“That’s why there was no mention of your family in the books, because the pureblood families that secretly sided with the dark lord were ashamed and scared, so they closed off the matter. And it almost considered a taboo to say your family’s name, especially to the families that sided with the dark lord, even us the neutral family didn’t even mention the matter to their descendant like me, because it was just too brutal and humiliating, more than five pure blood families were slaughtered that day.”

The room went silent again, Ed just sighed tiredly, ‘this is a lot to take in…’ he thought, ‘Gilligan… you and I will have to talk.’.

“Then,” Ed suddenly said, “Do you know my mother’s maiden name? I searched for it, but I didn’t find a pure blood family that has a daughter named Isabella.”

Daphne looked at Ed strangely, and said, “Well I thought you knew about this?”

“I didn’t, I asked Dumbledore, remember? but he wouldn’t say.”

Daphne pondered for a while, then said, “Black.”

“What?”

“She was from The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.”

Ed looked surprised, “What?” he said, “There’s no Black that was named Isabella.”

“It’s because she changed her name, she hated the name that was given to her.”

“Then what was her name?” Ed asked, he got an idea of who his mother is, black hair, dark eyes, a Black, but then…

“Bellatrix.” She said, “Bellatrix Black.”

Ed sighed, ‘I forgot that it isn’t just me who knows the future, but my whole family, turns out my father changed something too, well, they already changed a lot when they interfered with the war. I wonder who tortured Neville’s parents? And would Sirius still be killed?’

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“Was she banished? From her family I mean.” Ed asked. Curious about the fate of her mother.

“Sorry Ed, I only know that. I can owl my mother again if you want.” Daphne said apologetically.

“No, it’s fine, I’ll find it myself.” Ed waved his hand to Daphne.

“Well, remind me not to mess with your family if I ever did something stupid.” Said Richard jokingly, who has been quite this whole time.

Ed just chuckled, he then looked at Daphne again, “Okay, enough about the letter, so how about it?”

Daphne looked at him strangely, and asked, “How about what?”

“The vow?”

“Oh right, the vow, okay, I accept too.”

“Then what about me? As I said before, I don’t know how to cast it.” Asked Richard.

“Then you’ll be the vow holder.” Said Ed.

“What?” asked Daphne, not knowing where this is going.

“We’re going to make the vow to Richard, not to each other. So, we will swear not to tell anything to Richard.”

“Is that even possible?”

“It should be.”

Daphne just nodded, and the three made the unbreakable vow to each other to not tell anything about Daphne’s and Ed’s family magic.

After that, the three didn’t practise at all, they went to their respective dorm room early and said that they won’t be meeting until the exams are over, Ed however, took his suitcase to the bathroom and opened the suitcase.

But unlike before, he didn’t enter it, but he closed his eyes, he thought about the location of the family tree, his body suddenly turned pitch-black, a dark blue glow can also be seen on the edge of his body line, then, he disappeared, only leaving traces of pitch-black paper shreds. The suitcase instantly closed and locked itself again.

Ed then appeared in front of the family tree, he had blinked to the place, his first time doing it without supervision of Gilligan. He didn’t feel like he apparated, he feels fine, no nausea, nothing.

He scanned the Tree and looked at his name. He traced back and looked at his father’s and mother’s name, still alive, then he looked beside it, and sure enough ‘Arisanna Eryl Aldrich’ was written there, not glowing.

“Gilligan…” he called the owl softly. The owl appeared behind Ed.

“So, it’s all true?”, He traced his aunt’s name with his hand and asked Gilligan, “My aunt was killed so horribly like Daphne told me?”

“Your father and grandfather were so enraged back then, they broke the second rule, they killed women and children who are innocent.”

“I would do it too if it were me.” Said Ed and looked at the owl sharply.

“Oh, I allowed them, so does Baldeth, she’s quite fond of Ari.” Defend the owl.

“Baldeth? Who is she?”

“I never told you, did I? well, you never asked, and I don’t particularly like her, so…” The owl shrugged.

“Get to the point Gilligan.”

“She’s like me, the difference is she can go outside as long as she’s near an Aldrich, how do you think we destroyed those pureblood families in a single night?”

“So, she’s with father and mother now?”

“Yes, she’s the artefact that will get the Aldrich family to other worlds, and also the Guardian of the family, so she will be with the patriarch all the time.”

“I thought you’re the guardian of the family?”

“I’m guarding the library Little Edgart, and keeping your family secrets, not guarding you, if I need to guard you, then I need to go outside.”

Ed just shrugged, his body then turned pitch-black again and blinked to the living room, appearing in front of the fireplace.

Ed looked at the portrait in front of him, the photo of his parents, Darius and Isabella Aldrich, he looked at her mother especially, and asked Gilligan who followed him.

“So, it turns out my mother is Bellatrix Lestrange from the book, I don’t know how I feel about this.”

“You don’t have to feel anything, she’s quite different from the books you read, love can change you drastically.”

“So, she really loved my father? Not like the obsession Bellatrix had with Voldemort?”

“No, your father worked hard to ensure that she won’t go down that path.”

“Does he love her though? Or did he just want to change the future?”

“They both loved each other if that’s what you’re asking.” Refuted the owl.

Ed just went silent, and looked at the portrait, he then asked again,

“Does she know? About the books?”

“She does, that’s why she changed her name, she’s disgusted by her old name because of the books.”

“Then, what about her family? Do they banish her? She married an unknown pureblood family after all.”

“No, she didn’t get banished, her father was dissatisfied when Bella and Darius got married, but at least it was a pureblood family, albeit unknown and neutral. After the slaughter at the ball, her father, Cygnus, even though was more dissatisfied because they fought the death eaters, whom he supported, but he still didn’t disowned her because she married such a powerful family, and her sister-in-law was killed as well, so it was normal to retaliate, although I suspect he was scared also that the previously relatively unknown family could wiped out two pureblood families in one night.”

Ed just sighed, he pondered a while of what he should do, and asked again,

“Then should I visit my grandfather? As far as I know, he’s still alive.”

“It's up to you Little Edgart.”

The owl just disappeared, Ed just looked at the portrait intently and sighed.

The next morning, he woke up early in the morning, Ed did his routine, he circled the lake, did some spell training, and showered, after that, he walked with Hermione to the Great Hall, he was quite all the way, Hermione noticed and spoke,

“What’s wrong?” she asked worriedly.

“Hm? Nothing, just thinking about family stuff.” He answered, he then saw Draco Malfoy also entering the Great Hall.

“Listen, could you go to the long table without me? I need to talk to Malfoy for a minute.”

“What for?” she eyed Ed suspiciously, she then turned around to see Draco talking with a girl, presumably Pansy Parkinson.

“Don’t worry about it, like I said, family stuff.” Ed answered, he ruffled Hermione’s hair, making her blush, then walked towards Draco.

“Hello Malfoy.” Said Ed flatly.

Draco looked at Ed suspiciously, eyeing him up and down, and asked, “What do you want, Aldrich?”

“I need a favour.” Ed said, with a cold tone.

“And why would I do a favour for a mudblood like you?” said Malfoy, while smirking, the girl beside him chuckled thinking Ed was crazy to ask Malfoy a favour.

Seeing Malfoy’s attitude, Ed just sighed and chuckled, “it’s fine if you don’t want to do it, but I need you to owl your mother that I asked if she could bring me to talk to her father at summer, made sure to mention my name, and don’t call me a mudblood in the letter, otherwise, you’ll probably be hogged alive by her.”

Hearing this, Malfoy instantly froze his smirk, he pondered for a while, and asked,

“Why do you want to meet my grandfather?”

“No reason, just family stuff. If you don’t want to do it, it’s fine.” Ed said, he waved his hand lazily, and walked away.

Malfoy hearing this looked at Ed’s back suspiciously, he thought for a couple of minutes, much to the strange looks everyone besides him gave, he realised something then he took a paper and a quill, then wrote something to it, he then rushed to the owl post.

Ed seeing Draco’s behaviour on the Gryffindor long table just chuckled, ‘Thank merlin he caught up with what I was hinting.’ He thought.

Everyone besides Ed also looked at him with strange looks, seeing him talking to Draco and making the blonde git rush immediately is weird in itself.

“What did you talk about with Malfoy?” said Ron curiously.

Ed looked at the redhead, and said, “Nothing, just some things to take care of, and I gave the task to Malfoy, he’s just curious about who I am, so he immediately did it.”

Ron just looked at Ed suspiciously, and asked again,

“And who are you?”

“I don’t know, that’s why I ask Malfoy.”

“Really?”

“Really.” He lied.

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