Caster’s Chronicle: I

Lucius Malfoy walked into the dining room, lacking his usual swagger. Ever since his failure at the ministry, the Dark Lord had taken great pleasure in berating him and loading him up with menial tasks. He lost his standing amongst the inner circle due to a bunch of brats, and it infuriated him. The brief stint in Azkaban was something he was still recuperating from. To add oil to the fire, his son was now tasked with an impossible mission which would most likely lead to his death.

He almost walked up to the head seat habitually. Thankfully, he caught his faux pas before anyone saw him. Ever since the Dark Lord took up residence at his own house, it was like he no longer owned the house. It was all for the betterment of his family, he told himself and sat on his new seat.

Apart from him, Narcissa was the only one on and about this early in the morning.

"Good morning dear," he said as a plate of toast and a cup of tea appeared in front of him.

"Morning. Did you hear from Draco yet?" she asked, a worried expression permanently plastered on her face ever since Draco was assigned his suicide mission.

He sighed and shook his head as he slowly dug into his breakfast. There was anticipation in the air as this was supposed to be the day when the Potter brat's new newspaper was supposed to hit the shelves. Caster's Chronicle, he had to give it to the brat though, the name was catchy. The Dark Lord hadn't said anything about it and had only scoffed when he heard that the brat was releasing a newspaper.

Lucius was worried though. From what he heard from Draco and Severus, and from his personal experience as well, he knew that the Potter boy had a mouth on him. If his staff were anything like the owner, then this would definitely be baiting their organization as a whole. He did not fear Potter and his ilk. But he feared the new interlopers that were on and about.

None of the squads that got hit by them survived. Heck, one single man decimated the Bones raid and Bellatrix was the only one who survived that. Even she was not left spotless as the cursed cut plagues her to this day. He was afraid that his sister-in-law's frayed sanity might finally break due to the rage that consumed her nowadays. The treatment done to the cursed wound was dodgy, despite their vast resources and she would often have one of her episodes when the wound would start acting up and she would lose her mind due to her rage.

He was afraid that the newspaper would goad them into doing something which would put him personally in the crosshairs of those interlopers.

An owl flying into the room interrupted his thoughts as two newspapers were deposited in front of him. He discarded the Prophet and picked up a copy of Caster's Chronicle immediately.

As opposed to the whimsical formatting of the Prophet, the Chronicle had a clinical formatting that seemed more professional. There were three articles on the front page, but his attention immediately zoned in on the front headline.

He sucked a breath, knowing that this would not be a good day. Right beneath the headline were two photos placed side by side. One was of a young teen in Slytherin garbs, pacing in what seemed to be a poorly lit chamber. Behind him, in quite a distance was a statue of what looked like Salazar Slytherin himself. The other picture was of the Dark Lord in that graveyard, flanked by masked members of the organization. Under the pictures was a caption that cemented Lucius's fears that this would not end well.

The self-proclaimed Lord, Voldemort (Pictures sourced from memories provided by Harry Potter). The caption said.

He then focused on the article itself.

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Voldemort Unmasked

by J. Jonah Jameson

On December 31, 1926, Tom Marvolo Riddle was born to Tom Riddle Senior and Merope Riddle, née Gaunt. Riddle Jr attended Hogwarts during 1938-1945 as a member of the Slytherin house. On all accounts, Riddle was touted to a peerless wizard of his generation. Yet, Riddle went on to be employed by Borgin and Burkes after his graduation despite numerous other lucrative job offers, including several positions at the Ministry. All of the aforementioned facts are a matter of public record.

What is not commonly known is that Tom Riddle Jr is none other than the self-proclaimed Lord Voldemort. In fact, if you rearrange the birth name of Riddle, you get the anagram 'I am Lord Voldemort'.

"He hated the fact that he had to share his muggle father's name. Said that in his veins ran the blood of Salazar Slytherin. He did not want to ever associate with his 'foul, common muggle father,' in his own words. What dear Tom is willfully ignoring is that the same foul, common, blood runs through his veins as well. He didn't seem to mind much when his 'filthy father's' remains were used in a necromantic ritual to somehow resurrect him. Hypocrisy runs deep in his veins along with Slytherin's blood or whatever," says Harry Potter who has been in numerous conflicts with Riddle ever since the fateful night in 1981.

>> Cont'd on page 4

Lucius snarled as he turned the page with shaky hands. This newfangled format that Potter's paper was following was surely some muggle nonsense. Although, he had to grudgingly admit that it was effective. There were more pictures and headlines now in the front page as a result, and the second and third pages were littered with advertisements along with various other articles. Despite his hurry, a bright advertisement for the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes caught his eye. Shrewd tactics indeed, he thought. He then reached the fourth page and continued reading the article.

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Hypocrite is the correct term, as his maternal family could not count amongst any list of exemplary witches and wizards either. The Gaunt family was one mired in controversy over the ages. Apart from the rampant inbreeding, and disfigurement due to said inbreeding, they were also involved in several disputes.

Marvolo Gaunt and Morfin Gaunt, Riddle's grandfather and uncle, were charged with assault on ministry employees, resisting arrest, attempted murder, obstruction of justice and contempt of Wizengamot. The latter was even convicted of murdering his muggle in-laws. At one point during Morfin's imprisonment, Albus Dumbledore presented a memory to the Wizengamot and appealed for his release. The reason being that Morfin's memory had been tampered with, and the true killer of the Riddle family was Tom Riddle Jr himself. The appeal didn't amount to anything as Morfin soon succumbed to Azkaban's tender mercies. Nothing was done about Riddle since he was no longer in Britain at that point, and was deemed to be missing. One point to be noted is that, at the time of the murders, Tom Riddle was still underage. Patricide at sixteen, even though conventionally unproven, was not the only juvenile crime that Riddle was associated with.

Just prior to the summer of 1943 when the Riddle family was killed, Hogwarts was struck with tragedy. Fourteen year old Myrtle Warren was found dead following the opening of the Chamber of Secrets. Rubeus Hagrid was suspected for her death, and summarily expelled due to him possessing a pet acromantula. Which makes no sense as Myrtle did not have any physical injury on her, while acromantula couldn't kill anyone without contact. Framing someone else for his crimes seemed to be the modus operandi of a young Riddle.

The last and final member of the Gaunt family, Merope was not free of crime either. Traumatized from a young age due to the abuse from her father and brother, Merope led a harsh life. Partially due to her inherently weak magic, and partially due to the lack of formal magical education, she was degraded as a squib and often abused by her own family. Said abuse was recorded in the case files of Bob Odgen, Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad. Odgen personally witnessed Marvolo attacking and choking Merope. Upon saving her, he himself was attacked by Morfin in return.

When her minders were arrested, she eloped with Tom Riddle Sr. Her marriage with Riddle Sr is stated to be a sham, as per testimonies from Little Hangleton. Riddle Sr had claimed that she had hoodwinked him into a marriage and then one day his mind was clear of whatever she had done to him. It is suspected that love potions or the imperius were at play and that Riddle Sr left her once he was free of the influence. Merope lost her life soon after Jr's birth at Wool's orphanage.

"When he was ranting and raving about his ancestry in the graveyard, he mentioned that his father left his pregnant mother when he found that she was a witch. He seemed to be bitter due to the abandonment issues he obviously has. He said that his father left because he didn't like magic, but I don't think that really was the case. Either ways, Riddle was pissed that his father left him, and he had to be raised in a muggle orphanage. He proudly stated that he later killed his dad when he found out his identity. He is absolutely insecure about his own heritage and masks it behind the facade of being a champion of the purebloods. In the end, he is just a terrorist, nothing more, nothing less," states Potter.

When inquired whether any Death Eaters were present for this discussion, Potter recounted some of his previous encounters with Riddle. "When he was monologuing in the graveyard, Pettigrew was the only Death Eater present. He stopped talking about his family the moment the rest began showing up. I am sure that the rat might not have spoken to anyone else about it because he was a sniveling coward and speaking about it might have cost him his life. Some of them might know, because Tommy boy must have gone to Hogwarts with them. One thing I know for sure was that he came up with the pretentious name even before he killed Myrtle. He left some sort of an impression in the chamber like a magical portrait that wouldn't shut up about the plans of grandeur he had at age sixteen. We know that portraits only know what their subjects had imprinted on them."

Upon further research, it can be confirmed that Death Eaters like Avery, Lestrange, Rosier, Mulciber and Nott had fathers that attended Hogwarts along with Riddle. Sources that wish to stay anonymous claim that they already deferred to Riddle during their school years. The fathers might not have shared their knowledge about Riddle's muggle heritage with their sons, but it doesn't seem like they stopped their scions from joining Riddle in his crusade against those not of pure blood.

Therein lies the hypocrisy of the whole Death Eater movement. They claim to be fighting for pureblood supremacy, yet, several prominent pureblood families have been killed by the Death Eaters. Moreover, whatever complaints they have about first gens and half-bloods being given preferential treatment over them was directly due to their own wrongdoings. Several purebloods were punished for their acts during Grindelwald's war. Instead of learning from their mistakes, they repeated them during the first war instigated by Voldemort. Those not directly caught were let off due to lenient measures. Some of those who were caught red handed were let off due to bogus claims. They riot if they are punished, they riot if they are let free to be productive members of society. This just goes to prove that they are not acting for the betterment of anyone other than themselves.

"My family were purebloods. That didn't stop the Death Eaters from killing them. All that remains now of my family are myself and my aunt. Even we would have died a couple of weeks ago if it weren't for the vigilante," says Susan Bones, niece of Amelia Bones, the head of the DMLE.

"They are cowards, the lot of them. In the last war, both my parents were permanently hospitalized by the rabid dogs called Lestrange and Barty Crouch Jr. They are so depraved that they tried to send someone to St Mungo's to finish off what they started. Is this the nobility of these so called pureblood champions? No shred of honor, no shred of sense," states Neville Longbottom, who was involved in an altercation with the Death Eaters earlier this summer.

"Ironically, the 'muggles' that they look down upon so much, have proven that inbreeding leads to debilitation and deformities, both physically and mentally. Here we have living proof of said crippling debilitation in the mental front. The only reason Riddle doesn't look like a gremlin, like the rest of his family is because of his father's blood. The nincompoop then decides that he would rather look like a snake than look like the most human looking member of his family," says Hermione Granger, a first generation witch, whose family was murdered in a Death Eater raid this summer.

She further adds that, "We wasted more than a decade on this war already. So many lives lost, so much time wasted. At the end of it, we have nothing to show for it. The war has restarted, forcing our generation into it as well. If this cycle continues, we are finished. We will only be fighting for the rest of our lives. Nothing major has been innovated in recent times. We have stagnated for years, and this stagnation will continue as long as we kowtow to these miscreants and let them demolish our society. The rest of the world is moving forwards, it is time we do as well."

Statistics stand on the side of Hermione Granger. The economy and the population of Britain has been steadily recovering this past decade. There were no major changes as several brilliant minds were lost to the war. The entire country spent so long building back its strength, and now things are back on the downward spiral yet again.

"Lunatics like Tom, and his posse have no place in a civilized society. Just because my friends accompanied me and fought back against these morons, their families were attacked on my birthday. They go around killing people left right and center, and they get away with it because the general populous is too scared of the head honcho. Whereas the truth of the matter is that they are severely outnumbered. If every single bystander cast a stunner at them instead of running away, the Death Eater movement would have bit the dust a decade ago. We all have wands, yet why do most of us act like we are powerless? If things continue the way they are, there won't be enough magical blood left in our country. There would be no point in fighting, because there would be nothing left to fight for," says Harry Potter, who has been vocal about Riddle despite the yearlong attempts of the ministry and the press, to suppress his voice.

This war is not about purity of blood, this war is not about saving magic or whatever reasons some might spout. This war is purely for the sole sake of power. Mentally unstable maniacs like Riddle, and his legion of terrorists haven't stopped harassing the citizens of this country ever since they were publically outed during the debacle at the Ministry. Although, their activities have diminished ever since an unnamed group of vigilantes have been attacking the Death Eaters. As the entire world is watching the events unfold in Britain, it is paramount that the Ministry take proper steps in curtailing this threat. In an age where focus on development should be on the forefront, the country is embroiled in a large scale conflict over archaic beliefs. Beliefs which have already cost the country a lot. All this bloodshed, due to the insidious dreams of a severely unstable kid, who has grown up to be the biggest menace of the country.

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Lucius placed the paper back on the table and rubbed his temples. He could already feel a headache coming. He spaced out, going through the contents of the article in his mind once again. Narcissa also seemed to be in a similar state as she had just finished reading the article in her own copy of the paper. To her, this huge reveal would be a major shock for sure. Lucius was so deep in his musings that he hadn't noticed several other members coming in and sitting down for breakfast.

He was aware of this secret. Only because the Dark Lord entrusted him with the diary. A diary which was indirectly mentioned in the article. A diary which was destroyed due to his folly, and caused him no small grief. His nerves still ached with phantom pains from the cruciatus curse the Dark Lord had put him under when he learnt that Lucius had thrown away the diary, leading it to its destruction. The blasted diary was the main reason he was sent to the ministry on that raid for the prophecy. He was supposed to redeem himself, yet here he was, another failure in his ledger.

Contrary to what others might think, it did not bother Lucius that the Dark Lord was a half-blood. He was from the lineage of Salazar Slytherin and that was enough. Moreover, even if he was a common mudblood, what could they do? Could they dare leave his service? No. Anyone who harbored such thoughts would be flayed alive. At the end of the day, power was the only thing that mattered. And power was something the Dark Lord had in spades.

When everything was said and done, when they emerged victorious, who would care about insignificant details? When Potter was dead and all the copies of this blasted rag were burnt out of existence, history would be what they claimed it was. Lucius did not care as long as he was one of the top members of the new regime. Some members of their organization might be bothered by the reveal, but none would dare even think about it in front of their lord.

In the end, this grand reveal was mainly for fence sitters and the other purebloods who were skeptical about the whole thing. Those who were already in their pockets would be too afraid to do anything else. Those who were unaccounted for would be the issue. He could name several families who would no longer think about joining their cause because of this one single article. More blackmail and hostages would resolve it as well. What he was unsure of was how the Dark Lord himself would react to this.

As if summoned by his thoughts, the Dark Lord himself walked into the room and sat on the head seat. Lucius turned around and saw several pale faces. It looked like many others had read the article and were sweating in fear, waiting for the inevitable eruption.

Predictably, Bellatrix was the first one who went off the rails.

"How dare these mudblood scum print such nonsense? These blood traitors and mudbloods seemed to have forgotten what we are capable of," she screeched as she tossed the paper up high and unleashed a burst of fiendfyre on it.

Everyone shouted out in alarm and scrambled away from the table immediately. Everyone sans the Dark Lord. He just raised his eyebrow at her and picked up his own copy. A casual wave of his wand extinguished the cursed flame.

"Sit down everyone. Stay silent for a moment Bella," he said as he gazed at the front page. As time went on, his gaze turned murderous. The pages of the newspaper turned on their own and he continued to read.

On the side, Lucius could hardly breathe as a suffocating aura had taken over the room. The more time went on, the more potent the aura became.

"They dare," he hissed at last, the paper spontaneously combusting in his hands. Lucius sat still, afraid to move even an inch.

"Give us the word my lord! I will go and torch every single shop which advertised this rag. I will kill each and every single person associated with this nonsense!" she shouted, spittle flying all around, magic dancing violently around her.

"Silence," he did not shout, but the authority and malice in his voice was palpable. Lucius had never seen the Dark Lord like this. He had seen him flying off the handle in his rage multiple times, but this was something new, and he felt more afraid for his life than ever.

"We will do no such thing. An unstable child, am I? Potter has grown quite the set of balls over the summer. Moreover, to think that there would be someone who dared to write this tripe and print it even…" he trailed off as he paced to and fro, deep in thought.

"Milord, what are your orders? We will purge anyone who dares to say these lies," squeaked out Rosier in false bravado.

He did not say anything in return and looked at everyone standing there one by one. Knowing what was coming, Lucius immediately opened up his mental protections and did his best to throw any unfavorable thoughts to the back of his mind. Not all Death Eaters were capable of occlumency. It was an obscure branch of magic and was not taught at school after all. Practitioners were either taught by their families or were self-taught through rare tomes. Amongst their order, even those that were capable of it, were nowhere near proficient enough to attempt deceit. Their best bet was to bare their minds and pray for the best.

The first one to fall was Yaxley. Lucius did not avert his eyes from his lord as Yaxley spasmed and writhed on the ground, screaming in pain due to the cruciatus. Lucius had seen several members under the curse, he had been under it several times as well, but this time, it seemed to top it all. The fury of the Dark Lord translated over to the curse and apparently broke through his personal records.

As Yaxley kept screaming and rolling around, Lucius heard Avery yell out in pain and follow suit. Nobody apart from the two unfortunate souls moved a muscle as they did not move their eyes away from the Dark Lord. Several beads of sweat were flowing down his forehead, but he did not dare move at all. It was then that Lucius felt his lord's presence in his mind. He stood in apprehension, waiting for his own cruciatus. Surprisingly, it never came. Instead, the Dark Lord's lips twitched in amusement. Lucius breathed a sigh of relief as his eyes had already moved on to the next target.

As Jugson fell down next, Yaxley slowly got up, panting and trembling. It seemed like it took him a lot of effort to just stand up straight. Avery, Selwyn and Travers were the others who succumbed one by one, suffering two at a time. In the end, Avery was the last one to be relieved, as they all shakily got up.

After a tense few minutes, everyone was standing upright, waiting for the Dark Lord to speak.

"Let this be a lesson. Never doubt your lord," the Dark Lord said as he snapped out a killing curse at Avery. It was faster than usual and hit Avery dead in the face.

"Now, what to do?" he said as Avery's lifeless corpse hit the floor.

"We can-" started Rookwood, but was immediately halted by a cruciatus contacting his chest.

"It was a rhetorical question. Do not speak for a minute," he said as he released Rookwood from the curse and sat on his seat. He then hissed in parseltongue and Lucius could immediately hear Nagini slithering towards Avery's corpse.

"Do everything possible to find out where the paper's office is. I want location, I want names, I want everything there is to know about this little operation," he said at last, looking intently at the ones who were still operating inside the ministry.

As several members mumbled their agreement, he then looked towards Bellatrix. The noise of Avery's corpse being dragged off by the snake pierced the silence, unnerving Lucius. He prayed that he never met such a humiliating fate.

"I… appreciate your enthusiasm Bella. But that won't be necessary. I am sure that due to utter fear, all those who put up advertisements for the paper would remove it soon enough. Your lord is merciful. We will not punish fellow purebloods for their misguided folly," he almost crooned, and Bellatrix swayed, as if hypnotized by his words. Lucius knew that it was all a bunch of bullshit and that if the Dark Lord wanted to, he would attack anyone and everyone who dared offend him. Blood status had never stopped him and it never will. The reluctance in this case was due to something else.

"No, we will not waste our diminishing numbers on these pointless raids. Yet, an example needs to be set. It seems like the people of Britain are forgetting my might."

That was the crux of the matter. If they were all at full strength, Lucius was sure that they would have all been ordered to demolish a lot of places. Recruitment was down in the dumps and all the new recruits were already six feet under due to the infernal vigilantes. Heck, they did not even know if it was just one person like the Bones raid or if it were multiple people targeting them. The precision of their counteroffensive and the ruthlessness sure suggested an informed group of people.

"Yes, my lord. We must make an example of them," she said eagerly.

"I sent Potter several birthday gifts. Yet, he remains unappreciative. I wonder if he will care if we started taking out the families of more of his friends."

That was another difficult task as far as Lucius was concerned. After the attack on Potter's birthday, the Longbottoms and the Lovegoods had holed up somewhere safe. Snape could not provide them any useful intel on that front. As for the Weasleys, apparently the mudblood Granger was on the outs with them and she had dragged Potter along with her. Still, they could mount an offensive. Although it would be risky because Dumbledore would be sure to respond swiftly to an attack on his favorite blood traitor family. Not to mention the blasted interlopers who would intervene for sure.

"Milord, my son sent out a letter, saying that Potter seemed to be close with Bones and Abbott as of late," said Nott. Lucius grit his teeth in frustration as this was the sort of thing that he used to be on top of. If only Draco wasn't being such a melodramatic moron as of late.

"Bones hmm, up the assassination attempts on her. How hard is it to kill her when the woman is in the damn ministry?" the Dark Lord stated, staring at Yaxley. He immediately fell on his knees and started babbling his assurances and apologies. Obviously still shaken up due to the cruciatus.

Lucius knew that Yaxley had a hard task ahead of him. From what Yaxley had previously said, the woman had become immensely paranoid and seemed to be preparing for something. If his hunch was right, Lucius was sure that Yaxley and his buddies inside the DMLE would soon find themselves in a sticky situation. Bones was not someone to take attacks on herself and her family lying down. Whatever she was doing, she was going to be a massive pain. He knew better than to speak about it though. He was already skating on thin ice, and if he gave any ideas and it backfired, he would be killed for sure. Maybe the paper did have a point about the Dark Lord being unstable.

He immediately threw that errant thought to the recesses of his mind and drew his protections around his mind tightly. Fat load of good they would do if the Dark Lord wanted to take a peek.

"The Abbott woman is a mudblood isn't she? What a shame, a sacred twenty eight family, consorting with filth. We will make a point then. We shall make a bold statement. A statement which they would not forget. I will show them why they should still be afraid of speaking my name."

Lucius had a sinking feeling in his stomach. He had honed his instincts on the political and business front, knowing when to capitalize on something and when to pull out. This seemed like an obvious course of action. Too obvious. Everyone else connected to Potter was in hiding. That set off his instincts screaming about this upcoming raid, but he smothered that quickly. There was nothing to question, nothing to ponder upon. Only orders to follow, or he would end up dead. If worse came to worse, it seemed like the Dark Lord himself was participating. How could he not, after the attack on his name?

"Any news about these so called vigilantes?" he asked tersely.

None of them had anything positive to report and could only pray for not being held under the cruciatus once more. By this time, Nagini had returned and the snake moved through the crowd unimpeded and curled up around the Dark Lord.

"Expedite on it you fools. Prioritize that task. Get me information about the vigilantes and about the newspaper. Now get out of my sight," he dismissed them as he stroked Nagini's forehead.

Before they could leave though, his voice called out again.

"And find me this Jonah Jameson. Bring him to me alive," he ground out through gritted teeth.

Lucius gave his affirmation and practically fled from the room. He silently snatched a copy of the paper on the way out, intent on finding out if any other landmines awaited them in that infernal rag.

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If you want to talk to me on discord, please find the invite in the auxiliary chapter.