Loyal | Tom Riddle

5: The Lake

"Travers," said Tom brusquely, his dark robes billowing behind him as he stalked into the Slytherin common room.

Nikolai glanced up immediately, nearly spilling ink onto his Potions essay in his haste. "My Lord?"

A cold smile tugged upwards at the corners of Riddle's lips. "I have a job for you."

✧ ✧ ✧

The Great Hall was filled with bleary-eyed students as the post arrived through the ceiling, owls swooping downwards and delivering all sorts of items to the tables below.

Arabella forked a bit of breakfast sausage into her mouth lazily as she unrolled the Daily Prophet, scanning the headlines for anything remotely interesting with John peering over her shoulder.

"What's this?" he asked, prodding his butter knife at a picture of a handsome man standing proudly that she had overlooked. "Why the bloody hell is your father on the front page?"

"'Wizard defects from Ministry, kills many,'" Arabella read out loud, distantly, before letting her eyes linger on the photograph itself.

Her face fell right away as she quickly read the story beneath it, her breaths growing rapid.

"What?" John asked softly, his face lined with concern. "It wasn't him, right, Ara?"

She shook her head, lowering the newspaper with shaking hands and teary eyes. "I-I can't -- he couldn't have -- but -- why? Why would he?"

Arabella let out a sob, causing a sort of silence to fall across the table as she covered her face with her hands.

"I'm awfully sorry, Arabella," Will finally said awkwardly from the Hufflepuff table, cutting across the quiet that had now spread across the entire room.

"That's terrible," Penny Gregors, a fourth-year from Gryffindor, said woefully.

"I feel horrible for you," added Henry Cahill, the quidditch captain.

Little Ethel Hatfield looked close to tears herself as she offered her condolences, along with nearly the entire table and all the professors that had wandered over, worried by all the grave faces from Gryffindor House.

John wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, letting her bury her face into his jumper as she wept. Over her quivering head, he was able to read the article.

Yesterday evening, there was a breach of security in the Ministry of Magic that has since been related to the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, who has been amassing an army in Eastern Europe since last April. This is one of the first known cases of a highly-ranked British wizard's defection to Grindelwald.

The Head of the Department of International Magic Cooperation, Alaric Travers, is believed to have stolen several hundred confidential documents from at least twenty countries containing sensitive information before fleeing to join Grindelwald. Travers was stopped before leaving the Ministry, where he pulled his wand out and killed five employees of the Ministry (see Page 6 for information about the victims). Several others are currently being treated at St. Mungo's for their injuries.  Following this attack, Travers managed to escape Britain via the floo network to an unknown location, presumably either in Hungary or Czechoslovakia. Inquiries are being made into the Departments of Security and Magical Transportation for their lapses last night, and Aurors have begun their investigation into what could have prompted Travers into committing treason.