In Servitude to the Dark || Tom Riddle

𝘽𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙏𝙤 𝙃𝙤𝙜𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙨

August 31, 1993

Aster arrived early enough to beat the mad rush and found Neville sitting in a compartment all by himself. "Can I sit here?" she asked, deciding it was better to sit with her friend than with the shaggy old man snoozing in the back of the train.

Startled, Neville spun around, almost losing his grip on a potted plant in his hand. "Oh! Sure, Aster," he replied with a smile, and then his smile widened even more. "Wow, you look great! Those are really nice robes." And then he started blushing and stammering after realizing what he'd just said. "Umm...not that you don't usually look great..."

Aster burst out laughing, allowing Neville to relax. "I'll forgive you if you help me with this trunk," she said, and Neville jumped up to help. "I decided to treat myself this year."

After they got the trunk stored, Aster sat across from Neville. She cocked her head at the potted plant. "What's that you got there?" She reached up to touch the bulbous looking plant.

"Oh, careful!" Neville quickly pulled it out of reach. "It's a mimbulus mimbletonia." Seeing the blank look on Aster's face, he explained. "One of its defense mechanisms is to squirt stinksap if it feels threatened."

Aster flinched at the implications of that but nodded in understanding. Giving the plant one last curious look, she then looked up. "So how did your birthday go?"

By the look on Neville's face, he was happy to actually have someone to share his summer with. "Oh, it was great. Uncle Algie got me the mimbulus mimbletonia and Gran took me to the International Greenhouse of Magical and Exotic Plants. And I want to thank you again for your gift. I'll never forget my wand again." Then his smile faded. "After I sent you that you-know-what.." Neville whispered, not wanting anyone to hear. "I sort of felt bad for sending you an empty book. It seemed like a good idea at the time..."

Aster gave the normally shy boy a smile. It seemed he only got timid and nervous when he was around a lot of people. "It was a great gift," she countered. "I already have some ideas on breaking the enchantments." Or at least Marvolo does, she mentally corrected herself, recalling what Marvolo had discovered last week about the grimoire...

(begin flashback)

Aster was just finishing revising for third year potions when her concentration was interrupted by Marvolo cursing himself. Curious at what could inspire such a reaction from the normally calm apparition, Aster found Marvolo studying the Prince Grimoire.

"Did you find something?" she had asked, noting the pages were still blank.

Marvolo nodded still disgusted with himself. "Every grimoire is sealed by a magic that only their line can break," Marvolo explained, and Aster nodded, having heard this before. "The Slytherin Grimoire seal is broken by soaking the book in a snake venom that has to be coaxed out of the snake by parseltongue."

"And since the Prince line are potion masters..." Aster muttered, coming to the obvious conclusion. "It has to be some kind of potion only they can make? But what kind of potion?"

"The formula could be passed down from generation to generation orally, in which we have reached a dead-end," Marvolo said. "Or there is some kind of revealing mechanism in the pages of this book to give us the formula. If that is so, I suspect only the blood of a Prince can unlock the secrets within these pages."

(end flashback)

Aster had been discouraged after hearing this. After all, this was Snape's blood they were talking about! Marvolo seemed hopeful enough though, so they agreed to put the project aside until they could get their hands on a sample of Snape's blood.