"Who was his birth family?"

"His mother's family was the Gaunts," Dumbledore says, "A pureblood family that died out in the forties, and that was the last to claim provable descent from Slytherin. His father was a muggle."

"I'm guessing that's not, uh, common knowledge among his supporters."

He smiles a little. "That doesn't seem to be the case."

"I hadn't known."

"...I knew but I also never actually cared. He told me lots of weird minor things like that."

" - Oh speaking of him being weird, he can body hop if his current body's destroyed. That might require active Horcruxes, but I don't think it depletes his Horcruxes, or if it does he has a completely ridiculous number, because he acted like being hit with the Killing Curse was something to playfully pout over and not actually avoid. Either whatever Lily Potter did to him went much farther than destroying his body, or he was just laying low for ten years after his supposed death, since his previous turn around had been measured in days."

There's further murmurs.

Minister Bones nods and turns to Ellie, asking questions about her encounters with the Diadem and Diary.

The diadem was like they said, the bit of him in it tried to possess her. Sort of migrating into her head? But he was blocked out.

The diary was a bit different, actually. It was more- sucking Serpens into it and building a new construct for him. He was kind of like a ghost that was turning solid, before the diary was destroyed.

The diary spoke, yes? Did it say anything in particular?

Gloating. Showed how he came up with his name based on a dumb anagram. Boasting about how Serpens was easy to trick, compared her to her grandfather.

Seemed more like a teenager than the current Voldemort.

Did he seem to have any new information since the forties that he didn't get from Serpens Malfoy?

She's fairly sure he didn't.

Interesting...

The conversation then turns to focus on Fay and Bellatrix, mostly about the qualities of the Cup, how to identify Horcruxes... They seem set to go late into the night, and there's a break midway through.

Ellie's having a bit of a headache. But this is important, so she'll stick it out.

Does she want to stretch her legs during the break? Though there's not much interesting in the house, and they've already gotten warnings about the Order still not having cleared out every cursed object the Blacks thought was appropriate to keep in their house...

Maybe just to get a drink. Wandering a minefield is not her idea of a good time.

Fair.

Maybe if they get the library cleared enough to wander in, though...

You know it.

Giggle.

(Bellatrix should be able to navigate it all, actually, but right now she seems kind of busy answering questions...)

They are technically here on business.

Lean.

Fair, yeah.

Lean.

Kiss.

Back to the meeting, then?

Back to the meeting.

They don't learn much else before it's over, though the members of the Order seem to be adjusting to Bellatrix - and to the girls being worth listening to.

Andromeda Tonks and Narcissa Malfoy approach them at the end - they're Bellatrix's sisters, and Andromeda's daughter Auror Tonks is trailing behind them curiously.

(Bellatrix is... Not comfortable with this.)