(A/N this is the second sequel to Liquida Tenebris, and follows a slower time line than Repetere Tenebris. Either can be read in any order, since they wont be 'connecting' for some time.)

If everything seems under control,

You're just not going fast enough.

Mario Andretti

"She'll be here soon. Are you going to get dressed?"

"Do I look as if I'm even going to get up?" Nate rolled away from his advisor as if to prove that no, he was not.

"It doesn't set a good precedent," Prosper warned, and Nate snorted.

"Honestly don't care, she can see me in the nude." Nate said, then added;

"Why are you even here, I'm naked."

"I knocked. Several times."

Nate could tell that his advisor had his arms crossed, though he wasn't facing him.

"I don't recall letting you in," Nate said, though he honestly didn't care.

He and Prosper Malfoy had grown up together.

Nate would probably call him his best friend, if someone forced him to admit it. Which, coincidently, no one could.

"Alright, fine. Be naked. I'll keep her in the entrance hall until you get up, shall I?"

"Cant you just do that shit?"

"The press will be here. Would you like me to tell them that you're shirking your duties on the first day?"

Nate turned back to glare at his advisor.

"Oh, for fuck. Okay. Gimme ten."

"And your friend here?"

Prosper gestured to the blonde girl that had been tucked under the blankets the entire time. Nate grinned.

"That's why I asked for ten minutes." Nate winked and Prosper quickly left the room.

"Miss Radley, How do you think you'll do in your new role?"

Cora fought the urge to duck her head or bite her lip. Her etiquette professor had forbid it. She was to look the reporter right in the eye, or, if she couldn't do that, right between the eyebrows, because there was no way to tell the difference.

"I believe I'll do quite well. I can only hope my partner is as exemplary as I plan to be."

She had heard rumours about Nate Riddle.

That he was a womaniser, violent and in no way prepared to lead the nation that his fathers had built.

Cora hoped that these were untrue.

She was about to find out. The nerves gnawing in her gut were reaching a pressure point, and she had no privacy to vent.

Not until much later.

She had brought her younger sister with her as a source of comfort. Her parents had allowed it, but only for a week. Her sister was two years younger than her sixteen year old self, but she was infinitely wiser.

Cora secretly thought that her god father should have chosen Annalise instead.

Her father said it had had something to do with her red hair.

She had asked him if he knew more, but he didn't. Just that Harry had been a god father to at least nine generations to her family.

No one knew why.

She hoped to ask Nate, when she met him.

She swallowed hard, looking for her sisters face in the crowd.

Annalise nodded and smiled when their eyes met.

"You seem quite confident. What can you tell us about Lord Potter and his choosing you?"

Her etiquette professor had warned her about this, too.

She said that the press was merciless, and would fish for information on the Lord's the second she arrived.

Nate was vicious with them. She had read the interviews.

But he had just lost his parents, he was expected to be angry.

Cora knew nothing much about the man who picked her for the toughest job in the world. So she did the safest thing she could think of, and glazed over the question completely.

"I'm confident because I've trained for this since the day I was born. Lord Potter chose me, because he felt I could do this. And I can."

She wanted this to be over. She wanted to get this done, so she could rest.

Another reporter reached his arm out as if he was trying to tear her from the stage, such was his enthusiasm.

She withheld a sigh and nodded at the man.

"What do you plan to change as our new leader?"

She blinked down at him for a moment, again debating the difficult question.

"I only aim to improve on what our Lord's began," She said, hoping it was sufficient.

The reporter smiled at her and nodded, and she smiled in return. A blonde man come from inside the Riddle Manor, and stood to greet the reporters with his arms behind his back.

"I'd like to formally welcome you all to Riddle Manor, and ask that I might steal this lovely lady from you for a time. The Manor will be open to the public for a short time in a little over an hour. Thank you for your patience." He took Cora's arm and led her through the doors of her new home.

Her breath caught as she entered, having never seen a building so old, or so elegant.

"My name is Prosper Malfoy. I'll be your advisor." The blonde man said beside her, but she didn't pay him much mind.

Her brain was still trying to wrap itself around the decadence she found herself in.

Huge bay windows with floor length dark blue curtains, curving spiral staircases, three of them. Lounge chairs scattered the room seemingly at random, blue, silver and green cushions were piled around.

The floor was wooden, dark and shining, though not much could be seen of it through the tremendous plush rug, dark blue with a silver trim, matching the curtains perfectly.

A large fire place held a blazing fire, and in front of it, coiled together and clearly sleeping, were two enormous snakes.

"Are they-? I mean, it's not possible," Cora turned to her new advisor and he shrugged, inclining his head to the snakes.

"Nagini and Hellion. No one knows why." Prosper still held his arms behind his back.

"They should be dead,"

She'd learned at a young age that the Dark Lord Voldemort had many horcruxes. It was something Harry had told her on his few visits. Harry had advised her to make some herself.

She hadn't.

He had told her that he and the Dark Lord had made their Fertura snakes into receptacles for their soul pieces.

So she knew well and good that they should not be here.

"We'll be moving them when we open the manor to the press." There was a warning in Prosper's tone, one that said that she needed to keep quiet about the snakes.

Two masked Death Eaters descended the stairs and bowed at her feet, though she had not yet been initiated as the Dark Lady.

Cora shifted uncomfortably, not sure what to do in this situation.

"Oh, get up, she's clearly the new maid," A voice snapped from behind her and she spun.

A lemon yellow haired teen stood before her with a tooth brush in his hand.

His eyes were equally yellow, and Cora had to look away from them.

His robes were bright red, almost as eye catching as his hair, though somehow not clashing with it. He was, oddly, not wearing any shoes.

She knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was Nate Riddle. Her soon to be partner. The two Death Eaters had stood at his command, and Cora felt as if she needed to command them back onto their knees, knowing she wasn't making a very lordly first impression.

"My Lord, I humbly present you, Lady Cora Radley." Prosper said from beside her, and she swore she heard sympathy in his words.

This was not going well.

"Oh, you're not a maid. Had me fooled, you did." He stuck the toothbrush in his mouth; letting it hang there as he stared at her.

Cora didn't know how to react to him, all she could do was shift uncomfortably.

"Well," He said, taking the tooth brush out.

"It was boring as fuck meeting you. This is going to be tits, I just know it." Nate shot a glare at Prosper, as if this was all his fault.

The young Malfoy shot a small glare back.

Nate stalked back up the stairs he had come from, and Cora looked at her advisor pleadingly.

He gave her a sympathetic look and led her to sit not far from the fire. The two Death Eaters had vanished.

"I have to give you a small debriefing before tomorrows ceremony, would you like it now or later?" Prosper sat across from her; leaning forward and propping his elbows on his knees.

Cora sat ram rod straight and once again wished that the day was over.

She was not ready for this.

"Now is good," She said quietly.

"You'll need to pick a name for yourself. The Dark Lord insisted that all successors from this point have a name that represents them."

Cora hadn't known this.

"Harry didn't." She said, not prepared to make that choice she had no idea where to start. She only had a day to come up with it.

"No," Prosper admitted, looking concerned. His almost white hair falling into his eyes.

"I don't have enough time," She said, frowning.

"I'm sorry my Lady. Things have been being overlooked a lot around here as of late." He looked sad for a moment before hiding it away.

"No one is expecting a clean trouble free transition," He offered her, and she took comfort where she could.

"Has Nate chosen a name?" She asked.

"Yes, he will be Lord Kollane."

Cora nodded, though she didn't know what it meant.

"Kollane." She repeated. It sounded good. Like it commanded respect. Prosper nodded.

"What does it mean?" She asked, hoping to use his name as an example, a basis to build hers on.

"You'd have to ask him."

The snakes stirred behind the Malfoy, one leaving the room, hissing.

"I think they try to communicate, sometimes." He said absently, watching the smaller, but still overwhelming snakemove out of the room as if it was gliding on water.

"That's Hellion. He's a little smaller and a little light than Nagini."

Cora nodded, her eyes finding their way back to her advisor.

"Do you know why Lord Potter chose me?" She asking, trying to keep all the pleading from her voice.

She desperately wanted to know what Harry had seen in her infant self, so that maybe she might find it herself.

"I could tell you another time, perhaps. It's getting close to the opening."

"No!" Cora yelped, then; softly,

"Please, I have to know now."

He nodded in understanding.

"I'll give you the short version. This is what he told me. When he was young, and still trying to find his way, a girl named Ginny helped him figure himself out. She was fierce and small, he said she was much like an angry little red fox. He said that without her, he wouldn't have been able to make the decisions he needed too. She was your ancestor. You're her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-gr eat granddaughter." He counted the 'greats' on his hand, his head bobbing as he did.

"He looked after her family, your family, and was named god father to each new generation as they came. You were the first to be born with red hair since Ginny Weasley. He said he held you and could feel her, see her in your eyes."

Cora said nothing, not quite sure how to take the man's words.

"I can help you pick out a name. Tonight, after the Gala."

"There's a Gala?" She asked, feeling increasingly tired.

"Yes, a meeting of the most influential. It's held in your honour more than Nates. These people wish to meet you before the ceremony. Nate has already spent his whole life in the spot light."

Cora nodded, not expressing how overwhelmed she felt.

"Well, thank you for your offer. I'd be most grateful."