Author's Note: This chapter is going to explain Vol de Mort's personal history, which includes roaming all over the world. It's not important to know all the place names and people mentioned. They're just to flesh out his travels.
Chapter Nine: L'histoire de Monsieur Vol de Mort (Voldemort's story)
Henri did not speak to Ronald and Hermioniah of the scene he'd witnessed before they'd set out on their journey. And neither did they mention it to him. To his relief, they kept their hands to their paddles. No more embraces, not even much conversation. Paddling was hard work. To keep their spirits and tempo up they sang an old Courer de Bois song that Hermioniah quickly picked up. Damayaga had taught her a great deal of French, and with all this opportunity for practice, her command of the language was improving every day. It would soon be difficult to believe that French wasn't her native tongue. It seemed Henri had not overestimated her keen wit.
Around the fire that first night of their journey, Henri decided it was time to tell them in full all he had learnt from Dumbledore before the Intendant's death. His friends were after all prepared to risk their lives for his sake. They deserved to know everything.
Briefly he sketched out Vol de Mort's origins, how his rebellious mother had fled into the wilderness to escape her family's beatings. There she had taken up with an Iroquois warrior, lying to him about her wealth and importance, but the connection had not lasted long. The rights and wrongs of the situation were difficult to know. Both parents were dead now, the mother in childbirth, the father murdered by his own son in revenge for the mother's death.
"The Jesuit fathers found him among the Iroquois," continued Henri. "Even then he showed nothing but loathing for those who had raised him. He was obviously partly of French descent, so they felt duty bound to take him back to Quebec as he desired. He was educated here, made powerful allies, and began his plot to take over New France."
"By taking to the warpath," finished Ronald.
Henri smiled crookedly. "Non. Not at first, Ronald. He first demanded that the Intendant give him an appointment."
"Sacré Bleu, Henri! Do you mean to tell me that Monsieur de Vol de Mort attempted to obtain a position in the administration of New France?"
"Indeed he did, and would have succeeded, if Monsieur de Dumbledore had not stopped him. The intendant in his very last talk explained to me that it was he himself who refused the Sieur this place, when he came to visit him in Quebec, after Vol de Mort came back from his long years in the mother country."
"What had he been doing until then?" asked Hermioniah, who was listening attentively, her eyes bright with interest.
"Before he came back here to New France? Ah, that is a long story. After he left for France at the age of eighteen, it seems he took up his mother's name, but little is known of him in that period. You see, he reached la Belle Patrie, then he disappeared almost without trace. The Intendant heard that he had joined the Levant Company, that trades with the Turkish Empire, where one of his mother's few surviving relatives still had a position of influence.
When Monsieur de Dumbledore heard of him again, it seemed he had travelled far in the eastern lands and learned many strange and evil things in secret circles of Constantinople. Some say he spied for the Grand Vizier. He may have had other business, too. It was during this time that he acquired the locket where he put one part of his soul, the one that belonged to Charlemagne. That he stole from a monastery in Jerusalem."
Ronald's eyes were wide with astonishment. "So the Intendant believed that was his real reason in going to France? To steal that one locket?"
"It was only one of his reasons, Ronald. The intendant himself did not claim to know all of what Monsieur de Vol de Mort achieved for himself in this time, but it seems that his plans required a great deal of wealth. There was a famous pasha, one Ibrahim Bey, who had amassed great wealth and booty in war, and was one of the heroes of Constantinople, until someone poisoned the Grand Vizier's mind against him. But when the Sultan decided he must be garrotted, it turned out that his great collection of treasures and ancient heirlooms had somehow already mysteriously vanished. He had lately been a frequent companion of the future Sieur de Vol de Mort. When Vol de Mort left the employment of the Compagnie de Levant it appears that he had already gathered several millions of livres at least, from his secret dealings with the Turk. Some of this wealth he used to purchase the ruins of all that was left of the old seigneurie of Vol de Mort, the former home of his mother's family. After that he could drop his old name completely, and call himself Monsieur de Vol de Mort!"
Ronald laughed. "Which gave him his right to be called 'de', as though he'd been gentleborn. He is such a snob, Henri!"
"That is what Monsieur de Dumledore said! Nor did he stop with that. Being an ambitious Frenchman, he wished to be of the noblesse as well!"
"Like his mother, the descendant of Charlemagne?"
"Exactement. At first he hoped to purchase the position of 'secretaire du roi', which gives automatic hereditary nobility to anyone willing to pay for it, but since that was slow to achieve and is said to cost hundreds of thousands of livres, it seems that Monsieur de Vol de Mort took a short cut instead. When our king was short of funds, in the last war against the accursed English, he sent his governors sealed envelopes with letters patent of nobility, to sell to whoever wished to buy them. It seems that Monsieur de Vol de Mort threatened one of these governors into giving him one of these letters, free of charge, and writing his name in to be ennobled."
"But didn't the king's servants notice that they received no gold Louis for this letter patent of nobility?" asked Ronald. Hermioniah looked confused.
"Unfortunately not. Monsieur de Dumbledore explained to me just how it works in la Belle Patrie! When the governor has made sufficient money in bribes, he would send the required gold to Versailles, and would say that he had just sold the letter. But I believe he met with an 'accident' first, and the gold from the letter he was believed to have sold was naturally required from his heirs. In the meantime Monsieur de Voldemort decided he did not have the time to obtain permission to elevate his seigneurie into a comté, and so he took another short cut, and just 'called' himself le Comte de Vol de Mort - without any justification whatever!"
"Then his title of nobility's false?"
"It's undoubtedly false! At present, at least. The Intendant feared that Monsieur de Vol de Mort has many friends still at Versailles, with the ear of ministers close to our king, that in time may make the title official! Not that anyone here in New France even now dares to deny it!"
"Or to say it, even, Henri!"
A look of understanding came over Hermioniah's face. "I understand! That is an old belief among us, that if one says the name of such an adept in evil magic, he can hear you, and you will draw his attention upon you."
"I've heard that too," admitted Ronald. "I do not believe it. Not any longer."
"No, it is a superstition," agreed Henri. "The real danger is to fear his name but still, very few in New France will even dare to mention his name. Even your family, Ronald, cannot let go of that old fear, and merely call him the Sieur sans un Nom, instead of Monsieur de Vol de Mort!"
Ronald bit his lip. "It is not easy, Henri," he said after a while. "Not even for me, though I speak his name for your sake. But you shall never convince Ginevre. She will not pronounce that name for anything. She hasn't the courage of a man. Or of Hermioniah," he added quickly, seeing the look on her face. He turned to Hermioniah. "You're not like most women. You're almost an honourary man."
"No one shall ever call you a flatterer," snapped Hermioniah, but did not pursue the subject.
In peace, they lay back in their furs and watched the stars. Presently, they fell asleep.
Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews. I really appreciate them. I'm having lots of fun writing this. A friend who knows a lot about French history gave me the ideas for Vol de Mort's backstory here.
Anyway, next chapter is Ginevre again. Well, not only Ginevre, also the rather pompous Captain Percivale Véslée.