Shadow Play Chapter 25
Chapter 25: Countdown
After a much quieter breakfast with Blaise, Harry left just as the main bulk of students came down to the great hall for their own morning meal. Noticing he had a few minutes, he hurried back up to the common room to have a look at the shadow beast carcass, and figure out how it had died – the way Orion had said it, they were all but invincible and yet a non corporeal patronus was able to kill it quite effectively.
He removed the cloak and grimaced – these things were really ugly. The skin, if it could be called that, was blotchy and looked like it had been burning slightly, and Harry reckoned this must be a product of the light as it hadn’t been there before. The limbs were much too big – they bulged with muscles that probably didn’t function in the physical world but obviously did in their own realm, whatever that was. Their teeth and claws were also too large, almost caricatures of nature that were more horrific than funny. The claws and teeth, incidentally, reminded him more of metal than of bone – the claws gleamed coldly in the light and Harry noticed that they had managed to scratch the stone beneath the beast, despite it being very dead.
He prodded the hide and grimaced again – it felt scaly, and almost sticky, and Harry wiped his hand on his robe before continuing. Its mouth and nose were on a snout, like a dogs was, but the jaw obviously couldn’t shut properly from the teeth. In fact, he was sure if the jaw did close fully, the teeth would injure the beast. The whole thing resembled a cross between a panther and a wolf, with scales and the odd proportions aside. The eyes were jet black, just like the majority of the scales, but now had what appeared to be cataracts in front of them. Harry thought back to the morning encounter and frowned, wondering what had happened. The light from his full corporeal patronus had only made it retreat to the dark corner of the room. Then it had pounced and got caught in Blaise’s non-corporeal patronus.
“So maybe the light was blocking it from returning to the shadows,” Harry muttered, looking at the spot where it had died. The gaseous patronus had enveloped the beast, sending away the shadows it could shift to and forcing it to remain in physical form, something it couldn’t do without dying.
Now that the dorm was clear, Harry headed up whilst levitating the carcass and, after tipping the contents of his trunk onto the bed, enlarged the trunks interior to fit in the carcass and his school items. After locking his trunk and heading back downstairs, it was almost time for his first lesson of the day, and he ran out of the portrait hole, heading towards the defence against the dark arts classroom.
Professor Gordon accepted Harry’s covering for Orion without question and set the class a task to complete in pairs. As they paired off, Neville quickly tagged Harry with a meaningful look to say that he needed to speak to him. As they took the equipment from the front desk and began work.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you for a while,” Neville said quietly as they worked, their voices masked by the general din of the other students.
“So why didn’t you?” Harry asked, passing a quill to Neville. It wasn’t like they never saw each other.
“Because I needed to talk to you without Orion being there,” Neville replied. Harry frowned – it wasn’t like Orion and he spent every minute together, and they weren’t even in all the same classes. He pointed this out and Neville gave Harry a sideways look. “Yeah, well – it’s not like he’s always easy to see, right?” Neville shook his head. “My seeing is getting stronger, more refined – I look at people and I can even see a piece of their destiny, if they have one.” Harry raised an eyebrow. When Neville started talking about his seeing, it usually meant trouble, and destiny – Harry had never liked the topic of Destiny. “And I see it on almost every one now – even the people I spend no time with, which didn’t happen before – I see some of the Slytherin's and what they will be, what their destiny is, but there’s only one person that I can’t work anything out on now, and that is Orion.” Harry frowned – did that mean he saw a lot or nothing around Orion?
“Well, what is it you see around him?” Harry asked, wondering if he could help. Neville sighed, tapping their project with his wand.
“That’s just it – everything around him is blurred to the point of being unintelligible. I thought it was because of his being a shadow mage at first but you came in clearly enough – around you I see things I can’t explain for the most part, but Orion... I think he’s blocking me,” he finished, not looking at Harry.
“Why would he do that?” Harry asked, his frown deepening. “And how?”
“How I don’t know, but he does know more about the mages than anyone alive, he probably learned how to do all sorts of things when the mage powers were strong in the world. Nor do I know why, but it might have something to do with where he goes at night.” Harry blinked several times and did the complicated wand wave it said to do in the book.
“He goes there with me,” Harry said, and Neville shook his head.
“No, Harry – he doesn’t.” Harry noticed the strange look in Neville’s face and Neville sighed. “Sometimes you come back early – a couple of hours before sunrise, say, and you drop onto bed while he sits, waits for you to close your curtains and then takes off quietly, changing into the shadows.” Harry blinked and looked at the other boy incredulously, about to point out that this was very far fetched but Neville cut him off. “I saw him with my own eyes. Sometimes I pretend to sleep when you come back. And he always does this – he sneaks out, making damn sure you don’t know about it.” Harry was unsure of what to say to that. Could Neville be wrong? Then again, Orion had been caught in the sunrise this morning....
“How long has this been going on....?” Harry asked, not looking at Neville as he asked. He felt the other boy shrug slightly, uncomfortable.
“At least a couple of weeks,” he replied, mimicking Harry’s wand waving. “I first started noticing when I tried to figure out what it was that was stopping me from seeing around him. Then I noticed he wasn’t there when I woke up to go to the bathroom once, but you were. At first I thought it was a girl... but then I got a blast of seeing one day last week – he’s losing focus on his objectives. What that entails I don’t know, but that’s what the message was – he’s losing focus of his objectives, his priorities are changing. I don’t reckon it’s a good thing.”
Harry left the classroom feeling confused – he hadn’t been able to keep his mind on the project and had almost destroyed it in a mistake he had made while analysing Orion’s behaviour over the last few weeks. Had Orion shown signs of another agenda in his mind – had he been more distracted than the war could account for? Was he in two minds about their side of the war? Or was it that he doubted they could win? Would he abandon their side for hope of an easier victory? Harry couldn’t believe that – Orion was no coward, certainly not a traitor either, but then Harry had never had such open access to Orion’s thoughts as he had to Harry’s – come to think of it, Orion’s thoughts had usually been veiled, and Harry suddenly felt that he had been too open to the voice that had been in his head. Now, made physical, the knowledge he had gained from Harry’s mind was suddenly useful to him – was Orion really in two minds about fighting along side Harry?
Lines of similar thought ran through Harry’s mind, twisting into scenarios and bleak outlooks. Harry did concede that he had better keep a more watchful eye on the other shadow mage from now on, although to what end he was as unsure as with Neville’s seeing. Without wanting to, his mind turned to the worst case scenario – an all out battle between Harry and Orion. Would he win? Did Harry know how to fight another shadow mage? The obvious answer was no, but Harry reckoned Orion knew, and that thought seemed to add to his feeling of unease and distrust – not that he would need it, but the fact that Orion hadn’t told Harry made him feel somewhat that he had been lead along to give Orion the advantage in any future fight between them, as ridiculous as that sounded even in his own head. No doubt, Harry had the upper hand where wands were concerned – he could overpower Orion with a great effort in the light, if wands were the only factor to consider, but Orion was full of tricks – hidden knives that he could probably take Harry’s toes off with from the other end of the great hall.
His focus didn’t return properly until the sun began to set, and Orion’s return became possible. He waited in the dormitory, pretending to read a book and putting a show of being nonchalant that he hoped didn’t appear false. He didn’t even know which book it was he was reading, all he knew was that it was the right way up and held lightly enough that it might be considered casual. This would not be a confrontation – just a question, all he would do was ask a question, the same as he would if Neville had not spoken to him that morning. Nonchalant – casual.
He felt the shadow of Orion approaching and looked up with what he hoped was a bored expression on his face as Orion appeared, landing softly in the room.
“You missed breakfast,” Harry commented, closing the book and placing it down beside him on the bed.
“Yeah, well… I guess I missed a lot of things today,” Orion said sheepishly. Harry shrugged.
“I thought I’d cover the important bits first,” he replied. “So how come you didn’t make it back before sunrise?” Orion shrugged, crossing over to his bed.
“I went out looking for Valdis’ hideout, I couldn’t sleep. Anyways, I found it but couldn’t use the shadows because the building is made up of that same stone that the alliance meeting place was – sun rose while I was concealing myself from some guards.” Harry nodded and let it go, but that story… something about it really did reek of bullshit. Harry picked up his trunk and put it on his bed.
“Well, on to less important things,” he said, opening the trunk. Orion immediately jumped back as the dead shadow beast became visible, reaching for weapons. “Relax, it’s dead,” Harry said, shrugging. Orion cautiously approached the trunk and looked over it.
“Should I ask how you came to be in a position to have a dead shadow beast in your trunk?” Orion asked. Harry shrugged and recounted the events of that morning, studying Orion’s reactions – he had been curiously absent when the attack had happened. Strange, that.
“It was waiting for me when I woke up this morning,” Harry said. “And I didn’t kill it, Blaise did.” Orion blinked and looked at him incredulously.
“Blaise?” Harry nodded. “Killed a shadow beast?” Harry nodded again.
“With an incorporeal patronus – killed it pretty quickly, where my full patronus just drove it back.” Orion’s incredulous frown deepened.
“You’re not kidding, are you?” he asked, looking back at the trunks contents. “You’re actually telling me that one of the things that killed an army of mages on the plains of Versii was killed by little old Blaise?” He paused as Harry nodded. With a slightly stunned look, Orion blinked. “I feel so proud,” he said, his voice sounding completely bewildered.
“How do you suppose it got here?” Harry asked, closing the trunk. Orion sighed, still looking at the trunk.
“The city must have appeared into the open air sometime during the night, and this one left, sensing the shadow mage activity involved with Hogwarts. I don’t think Voldemort could have got them to work for him – we wouldn’t be facing a war if he had tried. No, it must have acted alone, but the others worry me – shadow beasts are more than capable of killing entire populations alone, but they don’t usually work in less than pairs, and they don’t have a sense of geography in this world – only sense of beings. If all of them left the city, the world just became a much more dangerous place to be in, and it’s possible that this castle is the worst place to be.” Harry shrugged.
“Well, we have a way to kill them now,” he replied.
“That doesn’t mean we’ll be able to kill them before they kill us – it’s still a lot easier for them, we have to hit them with a spell.”
###
Orion didn’t leave that night – maybe because he was starting to realise Harry was getting suspicious. Harry and Orion had agreed that they would attack the place after Harry had looked at the place and they both agreed on the plan of attack. The knowledge that their shadow abilities would be useless brought a whole new obstacle for them – this attack would be the hardest they had mounted yet, as their main advantage in stealth and escape was automatically taken away. It was reminiscent of the ancient city, although that had been large enough to hide in easily enough, as the guards couldn’t cover all the entrances. This castle Orion had spoke of would be a lot smaller and probably more easily defended.
The morning broke to reveal a darkened sky that poured forth a torrent of rain, making Hogwarts look very gothic, even more so than usual. Lessons were quite depressing. Harry had decided that he could only trust Orion for now, as they had been through a lot and no matter how bad it may look, Orion betraying him just didn’t feel like it was plausible. Still, a part of him was wary still, he kept this as repressed as possible. No doubt the other mage was hiding something, but whatever he didn’t want Harry to know about, Harry doubted that it could be anything worse than a girl off campus or something.
Professor McGonagall brought out an immediate test for the class, much to the student’s dismay – the day was cold, wet, and now it appeared that every teacher had decided to have a day of pop quizzes for the sixth years, as every sixth year in between periods seemed annoyed, dismayed or absolutely terrified. The testing in McGonagall’s class was transfiguration theory, meaning long answers that made the wrist and writing hand ache before they had finished half the paper.
Leaving their first lesson in a less than optimistic mood, Harry and Orion along with the other Gryffindors headed towards their next lesson, which for most was DADA, which involved a short test in defence theory and a more extensive practical and oral examination which allowed most of the students a period of rest before their turn. Harry was finished his test by almost half way through the lesson, and once finished the students were allowed to leave to prepare for their next lesson, which Professor Gordon had hinted that would also have a quiz to tackle.
As he entered the Gryffindor common room with every intention of dropping into the couch by the fire, a flying ball of feathers similar to Ron’s Pigwideon made a beeline for his head, forcing Harry to duck as the owl flew right over his hair and into the back of the fat lady’s portrait, bouncing back and falling towards the floor and swooping just in time to not smash into the hard stone floor.
The owl didn’t stick around, so Harry guessed that the letter it had dropped at his feet required no reply. Opening the parchment, he immediately recognised Dumbledore’s flowing script.
Harry – please come to my office between your Defence and Charms classes. Professor Flitwick has been unavoidably caught by a mild case of Marian flu and thus the lesson will be cancelled, please circulate this information among your peers. A notice has been put up on the bulletin board of each house, but I know how effectively the grape vine moves information around the school.
Albus Dumbledore.
Sighing, Harry showed the nearest student – a third year he didn’t know – the letter before trudging out of the common room and heading up to the headmasters office.
As he entered, the first thing he noticed that for a man with the magical variant of the flu, Professor Flitwick appeared to be in remarkably good health.
“Well that was a fast recovery,” Harry stated, looking from the diminutive professor to the headmaster. Albus indicated that he should take a seat and Harry did so.
“As you can see, Professor Flitwick is in perfect health, the Marian Flu story is just to allow him several days to work uninterrupted on the charm sense you gave him.” Harry nodded, looking for the point.
“…ok,” he said, dragging the first syllable. “So… what do you need me for?” he asked, trying to keep this short. Albus smiled.
“Oh, nothing we need you for,” the Headmaster said, sitting back in his chair. “Although there was a job we thought you might volunteer for a job that we have.” Harry blinked and wondered again where this was going. The headmaster checked his watch and smiled. “Ah, here they come.” There was a stagnant moment where nothing happened until the clock struck the eleventh hour, where upon there was a small flash of light and two people appeared in front of the desk holding a Hogwarts crest engraved wooden shield portkey. “Ah, perfect timing, I was just arranging a guide for you,” Dumbledore said pleasantly, smiling at the new arrivals. Harry blinked at the colour of the boy’s hair – a bright neon yellow with black highlights…
“I believe you have met Mr Potter?” The headmaster said, eyes twinkling.
###
After a brief introduction of the charms master to Raine and Ted, Harry was asked to guide them around the castle and show them the main areas – the charms corridor, the great hall and the Gryffindor tower, and then take them to lunch. As the introductions came to a close, Dumbledore handed them over to Harry, who led them from the study and down into the corridor.
“It’s good to see you guys again,” Harry said, hugging Raine and giving Ted a manly half-hug. Both of them were wearing casual clothes, jeans and t-shirts, Raines shirt ended above the belly button.
“You too, how’ve you been?” Ted asked, wiping a stray lock of neon yellow hair out of his eyes. Harry decided to just give the short answer to that.
“Yeah, been good. So how come you two are in Hogwarts?” he asked, leading them towards the great hall first, as it was the easiest thing to get to in the castle. Raine shrugged.
“Well, the Canadian Magical education system is a little different from yours – we don’t really have OWLs in the fifth year, but in the sixth we have an equivalent exam and a personal project in any discipline we wish that counts to a quarter of the year’s marks. You can do this in another school if you wish, to make use of specialist departments or expert professionals such as Professor Flitwick,” she explained.
“So you’re here to do this project and then you’re gone again?” he asked. Ted shook his head.
“Nah, we’ve both done our projects – finished them last year so we could go to Imbellis in the project’s period and have a mid year holiday. We get four weeks to finish this project, so we thought we’d come help you out with the charm you sent Raine and see a bit of England.”
“Professor Flitwick and I will be working on your charm together,” Raine said to Harry.
“And I was hoping to procure some hard to find ingredients for some potions I’m working on. Canadian law makes it kinda hard for students to get the ingredients – the students here aren’t put under the same restrictions.” Harry suddenly had a thought and looked over at Raine.
“Wait, how did Flitwick find out you knew about the charm?” Harry asked Raine, frowning. She shrugged.
“Professor Flitwick and my Charms professor were opponents in a duelling competition a decade back or so, and they challenge each other every couple of years to a rematch and in between they like to keep in touch about their current students and projects. Flitwick asked if he had anyone he could spare for a period of research, and my charms professor recommended me.”
“Half the eastern seaboard recommended you,” Ted muttered, earning himself a swat on the arm.
“Anyway, long story short, I sent professor Flitwick all the work I had managed to do on the reading you sent me and he asked if I could assist him here. I start tomorrow.”
“So how come I’ve not seen any project students before now?” Harry asked. Ted shrugged.
“Mostly students stick to the Western Hemisphere, it’s easier in terms of travel and there are enough schools that you can pretty much find whatever you need. Europe can bring up complications in language, and it’s generally accepted among students that European approved projects are marked harder than Canadian/American ones, although I’m not so sure it’s true. Hogwarts is well known for having stricter marking professors than other schools in Scotland, though – basically, you have to be pretty good to request Hogwarts.” Harry reckoned this reputation was earned through professor McGonagall – she was certainly strict enough.
###
After the short tour, they entered the great hall for lunch ahead of the other students, apart from a few sixth year charms students who had made a decision between an early lunch and another study period. Ted and Raine were very impressed with the long tables at which the food appeared.
“In our school, there’s a food court that has the food on display on a long table and we put what we want on our trays,” Ted said, looking under the table and then back as a plate of rolls refilled itself. “This is much cooler.”
The few present that were of the DA came over to meet the new arrivals; Ted’s hair went down very well with the Hufflepuff students, and a girl even tried to pick him up, though Raine whispered her a few words that made her blush and apologise before returning to her table, embarrassed. Generally the Canadians were well received – they got along well with the Ravenclaws, getting into discussions quickly on their specialities – Ted on potions and alternative ingredients for a Gregor Potion (which Harry didn’t even know of), and experimental Charms for Raine. Suddenly Harry felt slightly dumb, which made him chuckle – at least Hermione would finally have someone she could go into brain overdrive with.
As the hall filled quickly, soon everyone around Harry was meeting the newcomers. As expected, Hermione and Raine hit it off almost immediately, suddenly going into a conversation about charms that (from what Harry gathered) required nine wizards and had powers to hide islands completely, encompassing them in space outside that of normal space, and was what hid Imbellis from all muggle detection, despite the heavy muggle traffic in the Mediterranean. Amazingly, Raine actually corrected Hermione on an obscure piece of apparently relevant information Hermione had come out with.
The two gained a slight reputation almost instantly, when Harry let slip that he had met them when he had been on the run from the ministry. They pointed out this only entailed sharing the same hotel, but soon there were rumours that they had harboured him from the Law, and there was nothing they could say that would stop these rumours. Ted and Raine had asked Harry for a late night catch up session, but Harry had unfortunately had to decline – he had plans for tonight.
###
Harry watched the castle of Nimue Valdis intently, from all angles – this was going to be a nightmare to attack. It was a small castle – definitely more than a house because it had ramparts and even a small tower in the centre, but there were at least six lookouts on duty on the outside, with no way of knowing how many were inside – as Orion had reported, the entire castle was made out of that strange stone that prohibited Harry and Orion’s ability to shift to shadow, and he had almost been spotted earlier by a guard while testing that theory – he had tried to enter the castle through a lightly guarded entrance, and had been forcibly dragged back into the physical world. It had taken a desperate roll to the side to kep himself hidden from the man’s gaze.
The surrounding grounds of the castle were all brown, and from what Harry could see nothing was growing there at all, not even a blade of grass. This disturbed him, though he didn’t know why. He also made note that there was no cover to hide in between the castle and a surrounding treeline that encircled the castle and its grounds no less than two hundred metres from the castle itself, meaning any attacking force would be spotted before they reached the walls. Not that it would bother him or Orion, but it did mean that the castle was designed with defence in mind, which was to be expected, of course, but it gave him an idea of what to expect. Given that they no longer had the shadow mage abilities as an advantage here, Harry was sceptical that he and Orion could storm it successfully without help, and a surgical stealth attack would be extremely difficult, as the positioning of the guards allowed for observation of a direction from the castle and also one of the other guards at any one time, and they were big on making wand flashes to signify all clear every ten minutes, the signal passing around quickly. Harry guessed he and Orion could take the guards in a fair fight, but he doubted the backup they would call would be so lightly brushed aside. Quickly they would be surrounded and bombarded from above, and that was if they attacked from the ramparts. The tower was out – it was completely sealed except for a balcony with a door leading inside that had mountains of magic laced into it. It practically gleamed with it, and no doubt it was a defence against intruders on brooms, which suggested there may be more magical defences built into the castle’s design. The balcony also had two wizards with broomsticks looking out over it, although why they hadn’t just used the door, Harry didn’t know. These guards overlooked the entire castle, as the balcony ran right round the tower, and would make taking the guards in the ramparts impossible without being spotted, and attacking them first was out of the question because once touching that black stone, Harry and Orion would no longer be able to shift into shadow while in such close proximity, and would be stranded.
The main entrance pretty much ruled stealth out, being the only feasible entrance point due to being less guarded than the ramparts and easier to break through than the door of the tower. But breaking through it would raise instant alarms, and thus they would need an advantage of numbers in any strike force that tried to take the castle. A stealth attack would only make any attempt at a withdrawal impossible, by letting them trip an alarm while either inside the castle or unable to shift on the ramparts, and those were fights Harry doubted he and Orion could win because of sheer potential enemy numbers. The castle looked like it could hold at least ten times the amount of guards that were visible, while still having room left over.
No, for a successful attack, Harry and Orion would need help – and quite a bit of it.
###
Harry managed to get in a few hours of sleep before he was awoken for breakfast by Orion, who was interested in the conclusions Harry had come to. After telling him the quick version, Orion concurred and pondered what they should do – neither wanted to put the DA in any danger if they could help it, and anyway – no matter how far the other students had come, they were simply too few to attack the castle, and it wasn’t the sort of work that the Order of Phoenix could undertake – and again, Harry doubted they had the manpower. No, there was only one group Harry and Orion could really ask for help and expect enough of it – the Aurors.
Straight after breakfast, Harry skipped the first period to write a letter to Tonks, explaining that they had found Nimue Valdis’ hideout and that they would need help to attack it. He also included a vial of his memory of scouting the black castle, and information that he and Orion had gathered. Sending the package off with Hedwig, Harry distantly watched as the owl flew off south, heading towards London.
Making a spur of the moment decision out of boredom, Harry headed down to the charms corridor, wondering what progress – if any – the charms professor and Raine had come up with. He bypassed the classroom, which had a substitute teacher teaching the fourth years now, and instead headed for Flitwick’s study. He was surpised to find that Flitwick himself wasn’t working, but was watching Raine, who appeared to be sitting in a trance and making complicated movements with her wand that left trails of golden light hanging in the air, like threads.
“What’s she doing?” Harry asked the professor, whispering. Flitwick, squeaking slightly in surprise of Harry’s stealthy entrance, took a few moments to tear his eyes away from the hanging threads of light before answering Harry’s question.
“She is reconstructing the charm you read with a weaving – it’s an old way of reproducing charms that works very well if you can master it, but most cant and so use more modern, but less efficient techniques. In fact, I’ve only known one other person her age to know this technique and to be able to use it, it’s quite remarkable.”
“Hermione?” Harry asked, not even expecting to be wrong. Flitwick’s smile broadened.
“Your mother,” he replied, looking back at Raine’s handiwork as she continued to move her wand almost like a needle, interlacing the magic. “She’s recreating the magic in the way it reacts with the other parts of the spell, and the interactions are manifested by the weaving effect. Once the spell is complete, individual threads probably wont even be visible, although it wont be possible to recreate it entirely from what we have, but a partial reconstruction will tell us quite a bit about it.” Harry stared at the weave Raine was making for a moment before looking at Raine herself – her face was so fixed in concentration that he wondered if his presence had even registered.
“Can she um… Can she hear us?” Harry asked, feeling a little silly for asking, which turned into a slightly more validated feeling in his mind when Flitwick shook his head.
“No no, she’s too busy for that right now – it takes a charm readers’ total concentration to recreate a spell, especially one this large and complex, so the rest of the world completely melts away. In a little while, I will take over with the weave she has made, and we will take it in turns until the weave is as complete as we can make it, it should be no more than a week thanks to the work we have both done on it already.” Harry nodded, thanking the professor for his time and taking his cue to exit before heading back to Gryffindor tower to get his bag for his next lesson.
###
Working on the charm was obviously quite exhausting, which Harry realised that night when Raine promptly fell asleep in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room, mid-sentence with Harry and Ted about the work she had done and how far they were. Ted just shrugged at Harry and conjured a blanket to put over their sleeping friend, before heading off to catch up. The evening was mostly taken up by idle talk about their friends in Imbellis and comparisons between the Canadian school Ted and Raine attended and Hogwarts – the Great Bear Institute for Magic was situated in the Northwest Territories, on a small island close to the western shore that was concealed by various magical spells and was also unplottable, much like Hogwarts. Unlike Hogwarts, there were no apparition wards except after curfew. Although students were discouraged from apparating around the castle, they weren’t stopped from apparating away to the eastern shore, where there were some settlements that included shops and night clubs, in a region Ted said was named Echo Bay, which had a lot of mining history in uranium. He said there were many apparition points within the area, which meant the students could travel around freely, but most opted out of doing this outside of the summer months – the Great Bear Institute was located within the arctic circle, and temperatures there could go as low as twenty seven degrees centigrade below freezing in the coldest months, and never rose above eleven degrees centigrade in the summer. Apparently, there were strict rules about alcohol consumption, and there was a spell that alerted each head of house to the condition of those arriving back from outside the school, and anyone returning inebriated got their travelling rights removed and had to wear a ‘cuff’ – a thin bracelet device that prevented the wearer from apparating, sort of an individual anti-apparition ward.
Also unlike Hogwarts, the building that the Great Bear Institute was housed in was a modern one, dating back only twenty years due to what Ted described as a “Fucking brilliant story that involves a hot teacher, a sex spell gone wrong and a very embarrassed politician”. Standing nine stories tall, it and the surrounding three miles where hidden from view from the locals and had its very own, magically controlled microclimate, and included not only a quidditch pitch, but also some muggle sport fields, including what Ted called football and Dean called ‘A travesty to the great name of the original game’, basketball and what Ted called soccer, which Dean made an offended noise at. However, on all other points, Dean and Ted agreed, and even got to discussing the last world cup matches of soccer, Ted doing his very best not to call it soccer, and Dean doing his very best to not get offended when Ted slipped up.
By
It was almost half past midnight when a small barn owl flew in through the open window and landed next to Harry, brandishing a piece of parchment with a short note on it.
Hey Harry,
We’ve got a couple of other leads on her hideout, you should pass the information through the proper channels, you know – protocol would mean we’d have to check it out before we commit to any action. To be honest, I can’t really use the information until you do that – the department isn’t big on unconfirmed tip-offs, too big a risk of an ambush.
I’ll talk to you soon, and remember – proper channels, ok?
Nymphadora
Harry blinked. What the hell? No way would Tonks be that big on protocol, and since when did she sign (or even admit it was) her name with ‘Nymphadora’? Something was wrong, he was sure. He wondered why there was hardly anything on the parchment. Was Tonks trying to say something without writing it?
As Harry began checking if there were any invisible messages with magic, the portrait hole opened up and a girl in Gryffindor robes that Harry had never seen before stepped in, looking around as if to do a headcount. She had auburn hair, bright blue eyes and the buttons of her shirt were somewhat tight at the chest. Seeing that the seventh years were heading for the stairs to go to bed, she closed the portrait and walked over to Harry, who inconspicuously folded the parchment up and put it in his pocket. She was very pretty, Harry noticed – a knockout, even, and full of confidence, it seemed, unlike most of the students that hadn’t met him, sitting down right next to him and striking up conversation.
“Deep thoughts?” she asked, wearing a pleasant smile that made his knees feel slightly less stable. Harry gave her a sideways look before he responded.
“You could say that,” Harry said, shrugging slightly and giving her a small smile. She grinned.
“Oh my God, you gave me ‘the smile’!” she said, her eyes twinkling. Harry frowned, puzzled, and made a small jump as her hair started changing colour from the pretty auburn it had been to a sharp neon pink, and her face started to change shape slightly to more heart shaped, and her eyes took on a violet colour. “Wotcher, Harry!” Tonks said, grinning. Harry blinked and looked at Tonks and then the uniform.
“Hey, Tonks,” Harry said, feeling awkward. She grinned.
“Aw, you’re blushing!” she said, giggling. Tonks wiped a lock of hair from out of her eyes and put her hands on her knees, looking up at Harry. For some reason she preferred being petite, despite being able to change that at a whim, something that he had always found odd, as the only petite girls he had ever met had always said they wished they could be taller.
“What do you mean, blushing?” Harry asked, giving what he expected was a very incredulous look. Tonks giggled harder, and Harry realised his face was feeling a little hot.
“I can’t believe you gave me the smile!” she said, making Harry more confused. He pointed that out and she only giggled again. “Oh come on, Harry – you saw these,” she said, lifting her breasts slightly through her shirt and jiggling them at him, “and went in to horn dog mode. But hey, I guess I can’t blame you for it – I am a babe.” Harry could only blink as she spoke, and shook his head in defeat as he sat back as her face took on a more serious look, although there was still a twinkle of laughter in her eyes. “I came to talk to you about the letter, cut you off before you did something stupid.”
“Stupid like…?” Harry asked, feeling the heat leave his face a little.
“Like following what I said to do in the letter,” Tonks said, standing up and looking around. “Come on, let’s talk somewhere more private.”
###
Harry shifted them onto the roof as per Tonks’ request and was glad to be wearing his hoody – it was a very cold evening, and he doubted Tonks would want to stay.
“Christ it’s cold,” she said, rubbing her arms. “but at least no one is going to walk in on us.” She moved into the wind shelter of a nearby tower wall and slid down to sit, gesturing for Harry to do the same, which he did. “The letter was a decoy,” she said bluntly, shrugging. “Basically, I figured someone might be checking your mail before you are, so a little false messaging might have been a wise precaution.”
“Ok, so I’m guessing that the real message is why you came to see me?” he asked, understanding the weird message when she nodded. “And so the whole school girl uniform and that smile you gave me was for…?” Tonks paused trying to suppress a grin.
“Well, that was just for kicks – I wanted to see if I could get a rise out of you. Plus it was an excuse to get into school uniform again – I haven’t worn it since a boyfriend two years ago, glad I was able to get out the stains of the robe. I should really go to school disco.” Harry shook out all thoughts of Tonks in a skimpy school uniform (especially hard for the fact that she was sitting right next to him and actually wearing a school uniform. “Anyway, to business.” Her whole persona seemed to change at that, and she sat up straighter. “I looked over the memory you sent me, that castle looks like the place – at the very least, it’s a stronghold of some sort, and we definitely could use a win right now. I passed the memory on to my superiors, their deciding what to do tonight, but I doubt they’ll ignore this, it’s too high a target. I didn’t mention your name, don’t worry – Aurors are allowed to have confidential sources of information.” Harry nodded, glad his name had been left out of it.
“What do you mean, we need a win? I’ve been looking for news of the war in the Prophet every day, and I haven’t read anything yet,” he said. Tonks sighed.
“We’ve had five skirmishes with the dark alliance’s troops,” she replied, her voice sounding bitter. “Two we flat out lost, fighting Sabres and death eaters near Manchester. God only knows what they were doing – they escaped with only five casualties, while our forces were wiped out. We tracked a suspected Valdis follower to Cornwall nine days ago, and ended up killing him, but not before he took seventeen aurors down with him – Seventeen! In each meeting we’ve had with the alliance’s troops, we’ve either lost or won with such a high cost that our ‘victory’ has tasted much more like a defeat. Auror morale is practically non existent, the only reason my team and I aren’t dead yet is because we’ve been providing protection to the ministry. Half the people who go out on a mission to take down the enemy don’t come back, and the other half sometimes don’t either – if we don’t win something soon, aurors will start quitting left and right!” Harry swallowed the lump in his throat – how could he not have known about this? “The Prophet is under gag orders,” Tonks said, her voice softer. “The ministry is screening everything they post, either putting a spin on it or holding it all together – the plan is, if it doesn’t look at least half way a victory, we don’t print it. If the public can’t read it without feeling more afraid than before they did, it’s stopped.” Harry swore softly.
“So you think we can take that castle successfully?” he asked, taking the topic to more current events. “I mean, I don’t have a floor plan or anything, just the outside that you saw.” Tonks shrugged, hugging herself slightly.
“That’s not a problem, the castle is a very specific design, or so I’m told – the interior architectural drawings are on record, it’s just a question of getting passed the perimeter defences and, more to the point, the magic keeping the region concealed and outside normal space, but I guess you can handle that. Soon we’ll have a plan drawn up, and the attack will take place. I take it you’d like to be a part of it?” Harry nodded, and she smiled softly, almost disappointedly. “Yeah, I thought as much. That’ll be taken care of, too.”
There were a few moments where neither spoke, and only the cold air stirred. Tonks conjured a blanket and wrapped herself in it, throwing some over Harry as well. The blanket was badly patterned, as if the weaver had changed their mind about diamonds and had gone for circles half way through, which became snitches by the end, clearly indicating that Tonks still didn’t have the best grasp of household spells. Still, it provided a lot more warmth than nothing. They stayed outside in silence for a while, both thinking of a suitable thing to say, but neither actually talking until the cold began penetrating the blanket.
“I think I should head back home now,” Tonks said, yawning slightly. Harry nodded, taking hold of her arm and shifting her back to her warm London flat. She managed to keep Harry for a couple of hours where they talked about things, dodging the subject of the war with a deliberateness that both could easily read. Harry suggested that she meet Ted and Raine sometime, that she would probably like Ted. She asked if he was cute, and Harry replied that his Canadian friend didn’t swing that way. Tonks told Harry of an absolutely disastrous date she had been on with a junior ministry member that had ended with her knocking the guy out after he got drunk and dry humped her at the theatre.
Harry realised it was probably the only thing she had been able to laugh at all week, and guessed that was what the whole deal with the school uniform and the flirty behaviour was – she was just as low on morale as the rest of the aurors. Harry was suddenly glad to be sitting there with her, making her laugh at stupid things that had happened at school and such.
Tonks fell asleep shortly after three in the morning, and Harry gently took off her shoes and covered her in the blanket, laying her out on the sofa before turning out the lights and heading back to Hogwarts. He was glad to find Orion hadn’t gone to check out the castle again, and told him the relevant parts of Tonks’ visit. Orion was glad to hear that they would most likely be attacking the castle within a week or so, and even more so that the aurors were likely to be joining them.
In the mean time, they had preparations to make.
###
Voldemort looked down at the man huddled at his feet, a look of hunger on his face. To his left, Nimue Valdis stood, coolly assessing the man.
“You’re positive?” she asked. The man nodded, straightening his back. Unlike most who ended up on the floor at their feet, this one was useful, and was not being tortured. He was reading the ancient writings at the base and sides of what appeared to be a closet. Voldemort would have been nonplussed about it had it not been for the translators eagerness to read all the city had to offer. Also, this ‘closet’ was mentioned in other parts of the city, including the control tower. His translations were slow – he had been working on the three lines around the closet for some two hours now, so he would never be useful for controlling the city, but he had said something about this ‘closet’ being the key.
“Beyond any reasonable doubt – this holds the key to controlling the city, as I said before…” He finished scribbling the last of the translations and began reading. “Alright, I’m finished. From what I can tell, the chamber is a teaching device, and will magically imbue you with the knowledge of your choosing, including how to read the Babylonian and control the various functions of the city.” Voldemorts eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas eve at the thought of all that knowledge – the power and knowledge of the ancient mages! Including and not exclusive to the secret of true immortality. Voldemort made a step towards the door, but the translator put a hand out to stop him. “I wouldn’t, my Lord – this is a cursed object. Any knowledge you learn from it is cursed so that it will rebound on you.” Voldemort hesitated, frowning – cursed objects were nothing new to him, he’d even made a few himself, but cursing knowledge? What did that mean?
“What sort of curse?” Nimue asked, her eyes shifting from the machine to the translator. He shrugged. The man shifted his glasses and stood back from the machine.
“Well, that’s determined by what knowledge you take from it, I suppose – I doubt it’s supposed to kill you outright, that’s not its purpose. More that it stops someone from using it gratuitously – I would imagine the knowledge of immortality would be cursed with unavoidable death, or some such – perhaps being trapped within the confines of a container for eternity. But the machine will decide when it is used, what curse to bestow on someone.” Voldemort nodded.
“Call for one of the Sabres,” Nimue said coolly to a death eater, who went scurrying off. Voldemort approved – they were practically useless beyond fear through numbers, they might as well be put to good use. And better one of them than someone useful. The translator shook his head, wincing. “Yes?” Nimue asked, one of her eyebrows lifting. Voldemort had to admire her disguise – the girl’s body she had changed into was quite attractive, and a cunning ploy that would keep authorities guessing as to whether she was captured or not, having a twin like that. The translator pointed to the line at the bottom.
“This line is the line that speaks of the curse,” he said, kneeling down. “And this second part, it says that the curse will follow the king – basically, anyone ordered into the chamber that bears your mark or your loyalty, their curse will be afflicted on you as well. And due to the alliance spell, I would imagine that means all four of you who made the pact.” There was a short pause while Voldemort considered the ramifications of that – it meant no one could take the knowledge without being his enemy.
“Are you trying to say, it is useless to us?” Voldemort hissed dangerously. The man began shrinking in fear, and made stuttering noises to the contrary. Voldemort allowed the translator time to recover from his anxiety before deciding whether or not to kill him.
“N-no, My Lord, it is useful to us – If you were to put someone in the chamber that has not accepted your mark, or better yet – has refused you in the past, that person would not be able to pass the curse on to you.” Voldemort drew his wand slowly.
“That does not help much, considering anyone who has refused him would work against him,” Nimue pointed out, drawing her own wand. The translator’s eyes widened so far it looked as if they might fall out, and he got out the one word that could save him from torture.
“Imperious!” he said, making them pause. “Th-the machine, it would not recognise the imperious curse as it is not loyalty or mark, and anyone taught the information required could then be put under the imperious curse to control the city through – all you need is someone who has refused to accept your mark!” Voldemort and Nimue looked at each other, for a moment considering, and then putting their wands away. Voldemort took a moment to think silently, before gesturing to the translator to continue working on controlling the city.
“I think it’s time I had a talk with an old friend,” Voldemort said, forming a plan. “One that has been eager to regain his old position within my inner circle.” He turned to the death eater, returning with one of the sabre men. “Find me Lucius Malfoy!”
###
A/N: Hey all. I plan to wrap this story up within the next few chapters, and after that I’ll do Demon Within – until I’ve at least done three more chapters for this story, Demon within is on hold.
Recently I’ve been focussing on my own fiction, instead of JKs, hence why this took so freaking long, as this fanfiction malarkey is just a side gig for when I’m not writing my own stuff. Call me pretentious but I’m hoping to get published as a real author someday, and I can’t do that with fanfiction. I now have a beginning and end plotted out, various characters that I’ve given names and backgrounds and plots for their part in the story. I’m actually quite pleased with how it’s coming along so far, albeit I’m still planning it, I have a draft more or less written out for the first chapter and I have loads of stuff already planned out. Anyways, I’m taking a break from the original piece now, and back to fanfiction.
Recently (29th september), I learned that FFNet HASNT been uploading my chapters properly - in fact, it only uploaded the first two thousand words each of my last two chapters. I can't explain this I'm afraid, but I'm thinking about moving it to an alternate site to help negate any of FFNets technical problems. Any suggestions as to where? For now, though, chapters will be uploaded here, on this blog - at the very least, you get the formatting I used.
~Thor
posted by Thor Nairda at 9:49 AM
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