The Fortune-Teller

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"Why do you have so many books about Astronomy?" asked Frank, sorting through the bookshelf on the living room.

"Because I enjoy Astronomy and I like reading about it sometimes," said Feliks, stretching his neck to be able to see the other from where he was standing, by the stove, while he finished cooking.

"Reading about Medicine is not enough?" He heard the other mutter. "Do you have anything on herbs?"

"I happen to have one or two. I can look for it after dinner," he said, turning of the stove and setting the table.

"I do know some stuff about herbs and spices but I it would help to learn more in order not to look like an idiot trying to find something I don't know," said Bryce, approaching the table and sitting down.

It had been almost a month since Frank arrived at London and the man had decided that he had enough of being stuck inside the house while Feliks was at work. He then proceeded to look for a job in the surroundings and found one at a tea shop. It was not what the gardener had expected, but at least his work was about something he already had some knowledge and passion about. It had also improved Frank's mood, giving that now he was more eager to leave the house and get to know London or get motivated about other things aside from mourning the Riddles… He had, for example, even started to try growing a kitchen garden on Ravenwood's minimal garden.

"Tell me," said Frank, serving himself with stew. "Did you see anything different the past few days?"

Feliks laughed. Yes, he had been seeing magic much more frequently now, but he suspected it was because now he knew what he was looking for or at least didn't ignore what, before, he would have thought that was a trick of his mind.

"I think I saw a wizard yesterday," he said. "On Charing Cross… A man with weird clothes and magic trailing behind him."

"What's wrong with wizards and their clothes?" asked Bryce. "I thought the extravagant fashion was just a thing of the Black Siren's clients."

Apparently it was not. Since their visit to the underground pub, Ravenwood had spotted four people he suspected of being wizards and witches and all of them seemed not to understand how the current fashion worked: a man wore a long, velvet cloak in the middle of London, another was wearing garments that seemed to belong to the last century and the witches sported hats and more modern dresses and skirts, but that seemed mismatched or too colourful.

"Talking about the Black Siren," said Feliks, raising his eyes to look at the other man. "I was thinking about going back there this week."

Frank's eyes lit up with excitement. Of all the people, Frank Bryce was the one he would least suspect that would enjoy an illicit wizarding pub. But there he was, beaming at the perspective of going back and Ravenwood suspected it was not just because there was a chance of him meeting Miss Celestina Warbeck again.

"Do you think we can get more information there?" the gardener asked.

"I think it's the only place we'll get more information, for now," he answered. "If we want to go looking for the investigation reports into the Ministry, we need to know how to get in there."

"First we need to know where is this Ministry of Magic," muttered Frank. "I don't think we'll find any information on its location on the Yellow Pages."

"That's exactly why we're going back to the Siren." Ravenwood grinned. He was also curious about how his body would react to the magic he was going to see in the pub now… He wanted to know if he would be able to avoid another migraine thanks to a sensory overload caused by magic.

"Where do you reckon this Ministry is located?"

"I have no idea. I mean, we found the Black Siren under a public garden… Their Ministry could be anywhere."

"Yes, but I think a Ministry would be too big to hide under something."

"They have magic, Frank," said Feliks. "I wouldn't be surprised if they can hide anything anywhere they want."

And that was exactly what worried him.

Dr. Ravenwood wished he was not so tired the night they went back to the Black Siren. It was a Friday night and he left the morgue and went straight to Radcliffe Square Gardens to meet Frank, who had managed to get to Chelsea without getting lost (the man was still getting used to London and getting lost in the city was still a common thing). The pub underneath the garden was full and cheerful with its jazzy music and delighted clients.

"I see you couldn't resist being away for too long," said Jane Fletcher, approaching the table where they had sat and resting her hands on their shoulders. "Glad to see you again, boys. In what can I help you?"

"Could you bring me some of that whiskey of yours, dear?" asked Frank, flashing the dashing smile that had surprised Feliks so much the first time he saw it.

"Would you like the same, love?" asked Jane, looking at the doctor.

"Oh, no, thanks… Do you have anything that's not alcoholic?"

"There's Gillywater and Butterbeer, which is not alcoholic despite its name," she explained. "It's quite a chilly night out there, isn't it? I think a Butterbeer will suit you."

The witch winked at them and left. When he looked around, Ravenwood caught a glimpse of some already known faces: Alfie was there in the company of Lilah; the beautiful veela named Ludmilla was sitting on the other side of the room, today with a similarly handsome young man that Feliks suspected being her brother, Boris (he was, indeed, very handsome and his face was, too, worth studying, just like his sister's). The group of goblins from their last visit was there too, laughing and showing trinkets and jewellery to each other, discussing their worth and trading items among themselves.

"All right, so… Who do we ask about invading their Ministry?" whispered Frank, watching the other clients.

"We thought we wouldn't me be seeing you again!" They both turned to see Alfie, who was pulling his friend, Lilah, with him towards them. "I told you they'd come back, most people do."

"Good evening," she said, following the wizard and sitting by their table.

"Hello," said Bryce, smiling. "We've been busy; we couldn't find time to come."

"What's important is that, now, you're here," said Alfie, taking a sip of his drink and placing the plate he had brought with him on the table. "Dragon balls? They're delicious."

"I… Just ate a sandwich at work, before I coming here," said Feliks, smiling awkwardly after looking at the weird titbit.

"At Friday, we always save ourselves for eating something here," Lilah explained, picking one of the dragon balls and eating it. "The food here is way better than at the Ministry canteen."

"You work at the Ministry?" asked Frank, leaning in towards the witch, smiling and looking genuinely interested.

"Yes, I'm an exotic symbols analyst," she explained. "Flora is an arithmancer, she's also in the Ministry."

"I'm just a bookseller," said Alfie, pouting. "But I do have gorgeous editions of rare books such as Merlin's teachings on memory charms or Ye Old Magical Relics."

"What do the two of you do for a living?" the witch asked, resting an elbow on the table and resting her chin on her hand.

"I'm a gardener… Was a gardener, now I'm working at a tea shop. Still working with herbs and plants, thought." Frank laughed, shrugging. "But I was a soldier. I was in the army for about a year and a half."

"You were an auror?" the wizard asked, arching his eyebrows.

"Auror? No, I mean… I was in the army, the… regular army," Bryce tried to explain.

"He means the Muggle army," said Feliks.

"You're a Muggle?" Alfie's eyes widened.

"I told you they were Muggles," said Lilah, looking pleased to see her assumption was right. "The questions you were asking last time gave you away. But don't worry, what happens in the Black Siren remains in here. And it's not as if the Ministry is too worried about what happens inside a place like this." She went back to look at Frank. "So, the army? You fought in the war the Muggles talk so much about? And then you became a gardener?"

"Yes. I got shot, you see." The man tapped his leg and indicated his cane. "When I came back, I started working as a gardener."

"You know Herbology is one of the fields in the wizarding world that can actually be studied and performed by Muggles and wizards alike," Alfie explained. "Of course it's easier for a wix to work with magical plants because they can use magic to deal with them, but a Muggle can do it too if they have the necessary materials."

"That's really interesting," said Frank. "Maybe I'll go take a look at your bookshop to find a book about this Herbology thing."

"I have the newest edition of 1000 Herbs and Magical Fungi, complete with the most beautiful illustration by Wilhermina Miraphoria." The wizard smiled widely. "And I think I still have one or two copies of an older book about magical plants… It had only one edition, it's from 1926. The publisher said the illustrator vanished and they didn't want to update the book with another artist on the lead."

"What about you, sir?" asked Lilah, gesturing to Feliks.

"Dr. Ravenwood talks to the dead," said Bryce, grinning as he saw the shocked look on the wixes' faces.

"You're a necromancer?" asked Alfie, looking a mix of aghast and intrigued, just as Miss Fletcher returned with their drinks.

"I'm sorry for the delay, a couple of harpies were bickering about their foo-" Jane was saying just as she arrived. "Who's a necromancer?"

"I am not a necromancer," the doctor said, making sure to say the 'not' with emphasis before scowling at Frank.

"What? You said yourself that's what you do." The man laughed, reaching for the glasses Jane had brought them. "Thank you, Miss Fletcher."

"How can a Muggle work with necromancy?" Lilah frowned. "We don't learn about it at Hogwarts."

"We don't learn a lot of things in Hogwarts," said the barmaid. "But, really, Mr. Ravenwood, necromancy is not a very well seen kind of magic-"

"I'm not a necromancer, really." Feliks laughed, nervously. Great, now these wizards and witches would think he worked some kind of suspicious magic. "I'm a doctor."

"A doctor?"

"That's what Muggles call healers, love," said Jane, leaning against Frank's shoulder. "But why would you say he's a necromancer if he works with healing, Alfie?"

"Frank just said he talks to dead people," the wizard explained, gesturing to the two Muggles. "How can you talk with dead people if you're a healer?"

"I have a degree in Medicine, this means I'm a doctor or, as you call it, a healer," Ravenwood began to explain, wondering how different the medical field was in the magical world. "My studies in medical school aimed to healing people or at least giving them comfort throughout their illnesses, but after I graduated I specialized in Pathology, which is a field of Medicine that deals with the study of diseases-"

"Isn't that what healing is about?" asked Lilah.

"Aye, but Pathology studies the modification an illness causes to specific organs and how we can identify these changes in order to diagnose a disease," he explained. "I have no idea of how this works in the wizarding community, but to Muggles, a diagnose involves the patient's history, the physical exam and, sometimes, other exams, which can include the histopathological exam… Which is when the doctor takes a piece of the sick organ and send it to us for analysis. We study the tissue and try to find what's going on."

The wixes looked at each other for a moment, confused. Feliks asked himself if this whole concept (cutting off part of an organ and sending it to someone take a look) sounded barbaric to magical people or if they had something similar in their medical field.

"But what does it have to do with necromancy?" asked Jane to Frank, who simply gestured for the doctor to continue his explanation.

"I then specialized in Forensic Pathology, the field which tries to determine someone's cause of death through an autopsy," Ravenwood continued, seeing their faces light up with understanding, even thought there was still a hint of doubt in their eyes. "I work with the police, most of the times. There are autopsies that are performed on people who died of natural causes… You ken, people who died at hospitals or at their homes while being assisted, but what I work with nowadays are with the bodies of violent or suspicious deaths: murders, accidents, bodies found around the city. During the blitz, we had a lot of work with identifying the victims of the bombings."

"And how does that actually work…?" asked Lilah.

"The autopsy? We take a good look at the body, searching for apparent wounds and signs that may indicate the cause of death, and then open them up to look on their insides and see what's wrong in there," he said and he could swear Lilah and Alfie turned a little green. "That's what Frank means by saying that I talk to the dead, because… I like to think of it like that: a conversation without words. We learn a lot about these peoples by looking at their corpses, not just about their death, but also about their lifestyle, medical history and occupation."

"But," muttered Jane, narrowing her eyes. "It is still a kind of necromancy, if you think about it. Not a necromancy involving dark magic or anything like that, but…"

"If you think that necromancy is the art of talking to the dead or divining the future through them," said Lilah. "You're, somehow, a necromancer."

"But-" Feliks started to think of another argument, but just sighed and shrugged. "Aye, call it what you want." If these witches and wizards wanted to see him as some kind of sorcerer who could talk to corpses, there was not much he could do right now.

"You said your job is to find out how someone died," said Miss Fletcher, arching a brow and looking at Frank. "And you said you came to the Black Siren looking for the person who killed your friend."

The man gave her a charming, albeit awkward, smile and waved his hand as if trying to explain something.

"Your friend was murdered?" asked Alfie. "How?"

"That's a great question and that's the reason we came here in the first place," said Bryce, gesturing to Feliks. "Dr. Ravenwood here was the one investigating the case-"

"So you teamed up to go look for the killer?" The wizard now had sparkles in his eyes, as if he had been seeing something really fascinating in front of them.

"A man was killed, Alfred," said Jane, scowling and slapping the young man's shoulder before looking back at the Muggles. "I do hope you manage to find what you're looking for. From what I gathered, your encounter with Copper ended up being productive, am I right?"

"Yes, doll," said Frank, grinning. "It was most productive."

"That's good. Now, if you excuse me," said Miss Fletcher, turning to the doctor and winking before leaving. "At least take a sip of your Butterbeer, doctor. I promise it's not laced with a love potion, although it's tempting."

Ravenwood did taste the beverage and was surprised to find out it was actually good: surely not as strong as the firewhiskey Frank was having, but warm and sweet. He couldn't taste alcohol in it and silently thanked Jane Fletcher for it, as he was still afraid of having another migraine crisis after this visit to the magical pub.

Lilah was now pulling Alfie from the table, trying to convince him to dance (there was no live performance that night, but the song playing in the background was cheerful and dance-worthy). The wizard just showed more motivation when the handsome young man with pale blond hair, the one who apparently was a male veela, smiled at him and demanded a dance.

"There you are." Frank laughed, finishing his glass of firewhiskey while Feliks was still in the first third of his butterbeer. "You just rose from a pathologist to a necromancer."

The doctor laughed, trying not to let it show that he would love if he could truly talk to the dead. If he did possess this gift, he would be able to talk to the Riddles and ask them exactly what had happened, his job would be way easier that way (and a small part of his mind quietly reminded him that if he did talk to dead people, he would even be able to share a few words with his mother).

"Excuse me, gentlemen?"

Both men turned to see a tall, dark skinned woman standing right behind them. She had the subtlest smile on her full lips and a purple shawl covering her dark hair cut short against her head. Feliks could see the gardener's eyes take in every possible detail of the woman's figure (focusing a bit more on the golden ring on her nostril) before he let himself smile too. It was not the charming smile he had in storage for Miss Fletcher or Celestina, but a small, almost sly smile of someone who recognize a good opportunity and is willing to take it.

"Hello, ma'am," said Frank, indicating one of the empty chairs on their table.

"I couldn't help but hear your conversation with your friends," she said, walking around the table and sitting in front of them, her elegant hands folded over the table and making the wood under her fingers acquire a faint violet colour to Ravenwood's eyes. "And I can't help but remember your conversation with Mr. Coppersnout a few weeks ago."

Bryce's expression turned serious for a moment, before warming up again.

"I didn't remember you were there after-"

"I was not eavesdropping," she said quickly and then gestured to her neck. "I was waiting for my partner to show up and trying to come up with an excuse to why I was not wearing her gift anymore."

Feliks remembered the necklace Frank had won on his game with the goblin, a delicate thing with a blue gem hanging from it. He also remembered the said necklace was in the gardener's pocket right now, as they had decided to take their prizes (except the secrets) back to the Black Siren in order to see if they could use them to something useful (meaning Frank thought they'd be able to sell something).

"I meant no offense, Miss…?"

"Zabini, Eleonora Zabini," she said with a smile.

"Well, Miss Zabini, I didn't mean to imply you were eavesdropping," Bryce continued. "By the way, I'm Frank Bryce and this is my friend, Dr. Feliks Ravenwood."

"We've heard about the two of you here." The woman snapped her fingers and soon a small, big-eared and big-eyed creature came running to their table, balancing, on his skinny fingers, a silver tray with a cocktail on it. "You attracted a lot of attention."

"Oh, did we?"

"Of course, Mr. Bryce." Eleonora took the glass from the tray, taking a sip from it while the creature vanished from her side. "Two handsome young man don't pass by unnoticed."

Feliks felt his cheek burn and cursed himself for it. The witch's fingers, now trailing the rim of the glass, left behind a bright violet light, the same thing he saw on her cards the day she was playing with Frank and the goblin.

"And what can we do for you, my dear?" asked Bryce, leaning back on his chair and letting his fingers play with the handler of his cane, which, until now, had been resting against the table.

"Actually, it's what we can do for you." Zabini looked around and waved again. Another woman approached the table, as elegant as the other and with clothes and jewellery just as rich. "This is Valentina and you have something she gave me."

Frank stared at the two women, now sitting side by side with their fingers entwined, before putting his hand into his coat and pulling out the gold string with the blue pendant he had won at his game.

"You mean this?" he asked, handling the jewellery with care.

"Exactly," said Valentina, glaring at the other witch for a moment. Ravenwood wondered how mad she had been when she found out her friend (for the lack of better term) had lost her gift on a gambling table.

"From the way I see it, it's I who have something you want." This time it was Feliks' turn to glare at his friend. He never knew when he should be worried about Frank's sudden surges of bravery and defiance. Especially when the receiving end of this behaviour had a magical wand that could put them down in a split second.

"From the way I see it, you still don't have access to any more detailed information on the death of your friend," said Miss Zabini with a grin spreading across her red-painted lips.

Frank stared at her for a moment and the doctor tried to stop himself from smiling at the lady's spirit.

"All this information is at the Ministry of Magic," said Feliks, finally attracting their looks. He took a deep breath and continued: "Unless you know how we could get to it-"

"That's exactly what we have to offer," said Eleonora and the other witch shifted at her side. "A way for you to enter the Ministry in exchange for the pendant."

Ravenwood looked from the women to Bryce.

"And how do we know you're won't make something up or tell someone in there about us?" asked Frank.

Valentina pouted and pulled a small bag from her lap, opening it and grabbing what looked like a document, much like a passport, then tossing it onto the table. Feliks caught the document and analysed it: it was a little booklet with a purple cover and a 'M' on it. When the man opened it, the insides were made out of yellow-ish pages filled with identification data, which included name (Valentina Pickering), birthday, hair and eye colour (brown/brown), height (1,60m), type of wand (ebony, dragon heartstring, thirteen inches), , the department of work (Department of Magical Transportation) and an identification number. There was also a big M on the top of the first page, Valentina's photo and signature, her fingerprints and a big bright red stamp that crossed all the three pages and that read "WITHDRAWN".

"I know the Ministry from the inside," the witch explained. "After all, I've been working there for almost fifteen years by now. Until about two months ago, when they decided to sack me because of a stray portkey… As if the Minister himself doesn't create non-official portkeys to America or Brazil just so he can enjoy a walk through New York or a day at the beach in Rio de Janeiro. But the moment I create a portkey to take Eleonora on a trip to Finland so we could see a dragon's sanctuary, they sack me."

"They've been looming over Tina since she asked for the divorce," Zabini explained.

"Atticus is still the Junior Assistant to the Minister, though," she groaned. "Even after he made a good money selling some apprehended ingredients."

"He's Junior Assistant for almost seven years now, dear, he's never gonna get out of this position," said Eleonora, petting the other's hand.

"I hope so." Valentina stuck up her nose and then looked at the two Muggles. "You can say, gentlemen, I'm not very fond of the Ministry of Magic at the moment."

The exchange had been made, or at least the first part of it. Still hesitant, Frank returned the blue pendant to the witches, who beamed at it when Eleonora put it back on her neck. Valentina had vowed to bring them everything they'd need to enter the Ministry a fortnight from that Friday (she even wanted to perform something called an 'Unbreakable Vow' to make them trust her word, but Feliks insisted it was not necessary) and, still smiling (although they didn't know if it was because of the return of her pendant or because of the chance of revenge she'd get with the Minitry), paid another shot of firewhiskey for Frank and another butterbeer for Ravenwood.

"I think you will do great," said Miss Zabini, watching the two Muggles with care. "You're a perfect Gryffindor, no one would even think you didn't come from that house." She pointed at Bryce and, then, at the doctor. "And you have this wizard-y feel about you… What would you say, Tina? Ravenclaw?"

"Maybe," said the other witch. "But sometimes he sounds like a Hufflepuff."

The men didn't even try asking what they meant by Gryffindor or Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, imagining it must've been some kind of wizarding slangs. They simply smiled and went on with the conversation.

"We can try to find out," said Eleonora, grinning at the other woman.

"Oh, no, I have a better idea." Valentina pulled her small bag once again, fishing from it a velvet pouch and opening it on the top of the table.

"Oh, no, ladies." Frank laughed, shaking his head as he saw a deck of cards laying inside the velvet. "Not today, I'm sorry. My head is already fuzzy with this whiskey of fire."

"Who said you need a clear hear for this kind of game, hon?" The witch smirked and then turned to Feliks. "But if you don't want it, your friend can play for the two of you."

"I don't know how-"

"Don't be silly. It's not as difficult as the cards Nora plays with your friend and that awful goblin." Valentina giggled and took the deck from the table, turning the cards up and revealing several different pictures in each of them, none looking like a regular playing card. "We're not playing with luck and money here, but with far more interesting things."

"Don't tell me you want to read our futures with cards," muttered Frank, half-laughing, but soon stopped when he noticed how interested Ravenwood seemed to be on the cards.

They watched as the witch shuffled the cards with swift and deft hands until she spread them on the table on a long line. When Feliks looked up to her, she raised three fingers to indicate the number of cards he should take. At first, the cards looked stained with colours (violet and yellow), but, after concentrating for a moment, the man was surprised to see that it managed to vanish, at least for now, so he could choose without any interference. Ravenwood picked three cards with care and spread them on the table, one after another.

"Let's see," whispered Valentina, turning the first card and smiling brightly. "Death."

The picture on the paper was that of a skeleton in black robes and a sickle on its bony hands. Feliks felt a shiver run down his spine and saw Bryce shift uncomfortably beside him.

"Death means change, the ending of something followed by the beginning of another," she explained and then turned the second card. "The Page of Cups… It means you're a creative one, willing to dream and open your mind to everything. You're intuitive and emotional."

"Ravenclaw," whispered Zabini, laughing softly.

"And at last… The Three of Wands. It's change again, but now it's about how you deal with it. Things are changing, your plans are working and it's time for you to embrace this change in your life, revel in it and take the situation in your own hands," she explained, staring at the three cards for a moment. "You're this creative person, full of hope and dreams, and something happened that set a change in your life." She tapped the Death card. "And this change presented you to the Three of Wands and now you have something big ahead of you and it depends of you on how it'll turn out."

Feliks stared at the cards, furrowing his brows. He was a man of science, after all, he was a doctor and he worked with physical proofs: bullet wounds, damaged tissues, symptoms and signals of diseases, medications that had their effects thoroughly documented… But he would be lying if he said those cards meant nothing to him. Just like how he gave in to instinct and decided to follow the colours and lights that had been part of his life forever, he was now choosing to believe in a set of paper cards. Part of him was laughing at this decision, another was glad he took it.

"I know magic exist," said Bryce, making the doctor come back from his thoughts. "I can see it!" He pointed at Alfie and the veela boy, who were now sitting at another table, making their drinks float around them. "But these…"

Before he could continue, Valentina had gathered her cards and shoved them into Frank's hands.

"Shuffle them yourself and pull your cards, Mr. Bryce," she said, winking.

Frowning, the man did as he was told. Frank's hands were as deft and swift as the witch's, although less elegant. The cards bent under his fingers more like they were taking orders rather than as a magic trick (as it had seemed with Valentina's), but, by the end, they were lined on the table, face down, and the gardener was picking three cards randomly without much ceremony.

"There you go," he said, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest.

"The Tower. Change is upon you too, dear, but for you it was way more difficult. You were sitting in your kitchen, having a nice cup of tea and then, suddenly, it struck you," she said, tapping her nail on the lightening that struck the tower on the card. "It shocked you, scared you and made you think everything was crumbling, but, just as Death means new beginnings, the Tower, too, carries this meaning because with every destruction there must be construction."

Feliks took a quick glance in Bryce's direction. The man's face was serious as he stared at the cards and Ravenwood remembered a few days ago, during their first visit to the Black Siren, the reaction the other had upon finding out that Morfin Gaunt had been locked up without being proven to be the murderer of the Riddles. That day, the death of his friends finally struck him was just like the picture of the lightening hitting the tower.

"The Strength is pretty self-explanatory," said Valentina as she turned a card that showed a woman and a lion. "You have enough power in you to overcome the obstacles in your life, but you're also filled with emotion and fear… And you need to learn how to tame these in order to become balanced enough to analyse a situation and know how to win it. If there's something bothering you – which I think there is, giving the Tower -, try not to jump ahead of everything to act out of impulse. Your emotions are strong and they can be dangerous if you do not learn how to control them."

Bryce cocked his head, still looking at the cards while his lips pressed one against another, causing a small, pensive pout to form on his mouth. He was expectant to see what the last card would bring, even though it all started with his disbelief.

Both Valentina and Miss Zabini giggled when the last card was turned.

Feliks didn't know if he should be scared or delighted, for the Three of Wands was facing them once again.

A/N: You know when you're watching a movie and the title comes up in a dialogue and you get all 'ahaaa!'? That's how I felt with this chapter.

Answering the Guest's review: I'm really happy to know that you're enjoying the story and that, so far, most of your questions have been answered. Regarding your question about how Tom Riddle Sr was spared of being in the army: I actually went with what JK Rowling gave us about the Riddles. We get quite a lot of emphasis on Frank Bryce being an ex-soldier, while it was never mentioned that Riddle Sr served during the war (we know that he was at home by 1943, when Riddle Jr showed up and killed him). I have a few headcanons regarding it in order to try to explain it to my own 'there-must-be-an-explanation-for-everything' mind hehehe... Back in 1939, Tom would be 34 years old, from what I read in the beginning, most of the men who were drafted were in their early 20s, so... let's say they started to call men in their 30s that hadn't yet enlisted by 1940? Anyway, in spite of that, mental illness or physical disability were reasons for someone to stay away from the military service. Now, I know that our understanding of mental illness is really different from that time, but I usually imagine Riddle Sr actually being pretty serious on the panic syndrome/PTSD + depression. Again, I'm not one of the doctors who would evaluate these men back then, I don't know what they'd think during an examination of a man with a serious psychiatric history + (I imagine) a pretty bad reaction to just being put under examination, but if the guys went 'yeah, whatever, he can do it'... let's just go with the fact that the Riddles were rich and Thomas Riddle (in my headcanons) had some influence with these guys (maybe from a former post during the WWI?). You know how this goes. But, yeah, the matter of 'why wasn't Tom Riddle Sr in the army during the WWII?' was something that I asked myself many times since I started writing about the Riddles and, being someone who loves to study this time period (actually, we have a lot of classes about it in school... in middle school and then on high school again, and repeat it on the third year of high school because that's when we do our preparatory course to get into university and the WWII is one of the periods that examinators enjoy the most... It's been six years since I finished high school, but I still love to study about the WWII, especially when it comes to researching for my writing). Anyway! Sorry for the long text here, which is mostly based on headcanons created by me and some friends (Cella/otomriddle, especially, is great regarding headcanons of the Riddles). Again, I'm happy to hear you're enjoying the story ((:

And Vika... Thanks for the review! You know the whole story and you still come here, read and review it. Bless you.

I hope you guys enjoyed it and, please, leave a review telling me what you're thinking (: