Chapter 5: Chapter 5.
"Do you have a pet?"
"I do have a dog, but how is this related to anything?"
"Obliviate."
I felt every memory related to her dog being erased, one by one. When I was done, she had that typical blank look on her face.
"Do you have a pet?"
"No."
"Did you ever have one?"
"No."
"That will be enough, thank you a lot for your cooperation."
I walked away from my twentieth "surveyed" muggle and headed back, this was enough, I was pretty confident with my Obliviating charm after all this training.
Since Zach has been exposed to the real world at Hogwarts, there was no longer any reason to keep him locked inside, so now we were authorized to go out if we wanted. Zach needed to explain where he went and what he was doing but for me it was unnecessary. And thanks Merlin for that because if I had to speak with them every time I go out, I would end up cursing them. I had spent most of my first week of summer reading in parks and training on muggles. I had to stay subtle though, Aurors were always on the look-out for major muggle abusing cases.
I mounted the scooter I had stolen from a muggle and drove back. The motorized muggle vehicle was quite easy to use and with a few well placed momentum charms, it could go almost as fast as an average broom. The advantage over a broom was of course the non effect it had on muggles. James and Lily wouldn't ask any question about it, they just didn't care. And if Zach asks, I'll tell him I bought it. I could actually have bought it but stealing from muggles was so damn easy.
I had been stopped once by a police officer and a single weak confusion charm had been enough to evade any problem. At first I had thought I'd need to find a way to remove the Trace - the Ministry's tracking charm on underage wizard's wands - but then I remembered I had already done it back in my first trip to Knockturn Alley and congratulated myself for this foresight.
I parked the heavy thing against a bush and entered the house by the back entrance.
Tonight is the night, I'm getting that damn diary. I hadn't that much of a plan but with Blaise in my grasp, I hoped it would go smoothly. Only thing missing is that invisibility cloak... I'll steal it just for the night, he won't notice.
I had asked Zach to give me the cloak, I had thought I could put pressure on him, manipulate him, use his weak resistance to emotions - but he proved stronger than expected. It was a mistake to let him get friends and build confidence, I should have come for it right after Natasha died.
After this story of Voldemort coming back to life and this episode with the not-so-lame professor Quirrel, who actually was possessed by the undead Dark Lord, James had started giving lessons to Zachary.
Combat, tracking, tactics, leadership, broom riding, everything James was good at.
James had rejected the Head Auror position after the war, to raise Zachary, he was one of the best Aurors in the department. I could have used a bit of training too but he expressly turned me down when I simply proposed to watch them training. The training was only for the one who would have to fight one day: Zachary Potter, The Survivor.
I was climbing the stairs when I ran into her. Oh please not her.
Zach's friends sometimes visited him at home, and I always managed to not be here. But this time, it looked like I had failed.
"Oh, hello." she greeted coldly.
I smiled like I was genuinely happy to see her bushy head and responded politely.
"Hello to you, Hermione." I started climbing the rest of the stairs when she grabbed my shoulder, making me turn around.
"Actually, Harry, I'd like to speak to you about something important."
I was starting to get slightly annoyed at her rudeness but kept smiling. Smiling is not that hard, or is it?
"Unfortunately, I don't have much time, maybe another time?" I offered, taking a step up.
"Well, you will listen to me, Harry." her face changed from cold to angry in a blink, "Zachary told us everything about that terrible accident and your sister." I felt the heat drain from my blood.
"We understood that you were quite close but it was an accident, Harry. And Zachary feels really guilty about it, it's really not necessary for you to insist and bring it up to make him uncomfortable. Look, I know you're not cruel and you do that only because you need someone to blame, but you have to stop. Zachary needs a brother, not an enemy. And you do as much. Your disinterest concerning our dangerous adventure against Quirrel was mean, Harry - You didn't even ask how he was when you visited him! Do you realize he almost died?"
By the time she finished spewing her bullshit, I was seething. My polite mask had held until I opened the mouth to answer.
I pinned her against the wall, my forearm buried in her throat, and whispered with the tiniest amount of anger I could manage to let out in my furious state:
"What do you know about me? What the fuck do you know about me and Zach? Not cruel because I was sorted Hufflepuff? Or not cruel because I'm the brother of the fucking Savior of Light? Listen to me you filthy piece of unwanted garbage, if you do so much as to try convincing me that I should be more friendly to my brother again, I'll rip your nipples off and glue them to your eye sockets with the Permanent Sticking Charm." I released her and watched her collapse on the ground, gasping for air and coughing loudly.
"Zachary fucking killed my sister and he should be happy enough with me not transfiguring his bed in a pool of magma during his sleep." I spat finally before climbing the stairs again.
As I was calming down, I considered obliviating her but then the message would be lost, and I couldn't afford to get so mad at her every time. I nearly lost control just now...
And if she was going to tell on me, well whatever, I'm only a perturbed eleven years old. My threats over another eleven years old are no important business whatsoever.
I read the clock on my wall, it was five in the afternoon and my visit to the museum was planned at seven, when most of the people would be eating. I had sent an owl to Blaise from Diagon Alley, a few days prior, and he had replied positively to my rendezvous proposition. I had quickly explained him I had an invisibility cloak so we would be totally incognito and he wouldn't have to worry about his grandfather asking question, he had answered that it was indeed a good idea.
I cast a small eavesdropping charm at the thin wall separating my room to Zachary's one, forming a small discolored area on the pastel purple paint, and placed my ear against it. I had two hours to get the cloak. My plan was to enter the museum with Blaise and once inside, force him to grab the diary and come out. But if the clerk saw us enter the museum, I would have to obliviate him too. And that was too risky, if there happened to be other people in the hall at this moment, I wouldn't be able to. The superior version of that plan was to sneak in the museum with Blaise using the cloak, and get out the same way with the diary in Blaise's hand and my wand on his neck.
"...no, I never thought he would be Hufflepuff, but with the accident and my sister... it's believable, you know, when I said they were always together, I meant they were always together, and losing her must have been harder for him than for me..."
It looked like Hermione didn't tell them what happened in the staircase but instead was fishing for information about me. Great.
I was waiting for something like "Hey, why don't we all get out of the room to do something!" to finally get that damn cloak, but it didn't look like it was about to come.
"Don't you think he could be in Hufflepuff only to hide his... dark side?" hesitated a girl voice.
"Nah, you can't manipulate the Sorting Hat, if he's in Hufflepuff, that mean he's a true Hufflepuff." affirmed another voice, probably Ron's.
"I know he's pretty smart, he was always reading books with my sister and he always understood stuff faster than me when we were young." replied Zach. Sure did, you're nothing but a spoiled kid - me, on the other hand, I had to grow up in this fucking family, I had to survive.
"And he's probably fairly powerful, everyone is in the Potter line. I don't think I ever heard of a Hufflepuff Potter by the way... But he doesn't have a dark side, Hermione, and if he did, like Ron said, I'm sure the Hat wouldn't allow him anywhere else than Slytherin." he finished, sounding like he barely believed his own words.
"So why Hufflepuff? I don't imagine him mourning his sister and crying in his bed, he's the best Hufflepuff first year and I'm sure he holds back, do you remember when he transfigured that rabbit in the umbrella stand?"
"Was that the time you didn't stop raving about it for three weeks? Yeah, that rings a bell." teased Ron.
"I talked with him about it, Hermione, and I think Hufflepuff is the house he needs. Maybe not the one he belongs to but the one he needs to forget her."
I punched the wall, making it shake weakly with a loud bang. Forget her? FORGET HER? You fucking cunt!
I fell back in my bed and reconsidered my decision to not kill Zach, staring angrily at my ceiling. Someone knocked on my door, I casted a quick Finite on my eavesdropping charm and watched Zach open the door.
"What was that noise?"
"What noise? I didn't hear anything." I lied, focusing on my facial expression.
"Nevermind, let's go guys." he turned to Ron and Hermione, who was doing her best to not look at me in the eyes and closed my door. I heard them climb the stairs down.
I jumped out of my bed, exited my room, sneaked in Zach's lair and looked around. Quidditch posters covered every available space on the walls, most of them charmed to stay still - it would drive anyone crazy to live in a bunch of moving pictures. I scanned the room and spotted his trunk, near the desk. It was opened, half of its content scattered in the room and the other half still inside. If I had a cloak to hide, where would I hide it? I grinned.
Our trunks were the same model, it came with a secret compartment triggered by a password. And I knew my brother's password, thanks to his lack of discretion when the trunk seller had configured them.
"Open Sesame." Very original by the way, dickface.
The hidden compartment sprouted, offering me a handle to pull. I pulled it and revealed its inside, where was laying the wonderful shiny, silvery cloth, gleaming with the sunlight that beamed from the windows. I took it, feeling it for the first time in my life, the watery texture was incredible, it was soft and slippery, as if it tried to escape my grasp.
I forced myself out of my reverie and stuffed it in my satchel, closing the secret compartment with the same stupid password, rolling my eyes: "Close Sesame.".
I went back to my room and decided to depart immediately. Waiting at home served no purpose, it was even an unnecessary risk. I grabbed the scooter's keys and looked around my room, trying to see what I could have forgotten, seeing nothing, I opened my window and jumped in our backyard.
I started the engine - muggle devices are really incredible sometimes - and drove to the nearest magical town. Leaving from somewhere else than Godric's Hollow was meant to shuffle my tracks a bit, if someone were to try and retrace my path.
I reached Griningham Croft after a few minutes, which I spent appreciating slaloming between muggle cars on the road. I parked the scooter on a parking lot and walked to the road, putting my dark cloak on and covering most of my face with a band of cloth. I wasn't using any aging potion tonight, so I'd have to be extra careful not to be recognized, not that people knew about me, but so they would have nothing on me if someone were to ask them. "A dark cloaked small guy" was still better than "A little kid, maybe 12 years old, with green eyes and messy raven hair".
I took my wand out and waved it over the road, standing on the pavement.
At first, nothing happened, but suddenly, a loud bang shook the ground and a three-stories bus literally spurted out of the void and landed on the road, making a loud screeching noise as the tires bit the asphalt. The incredible vehicle drifted, wobbling dangerously, for a few feet and stopped dead. I heard the soft jingling of the cooling bus as I walked to the front access, the enchanted metal still faintly glowing from the heat and magic it went through.
"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wi-" started the annoying teenage driver.
I stopped him by handing him a piece of paper that read "Idea Alley" along with a handful of sickles. I wasn't about to reveal my soon to be twelve years old beautiful voice. He looked at it, nodded and started the bus again without giving me a second glance. At least he knows when to leave people be.
A few minutes later, I was in Idea Alley, under the invisibility cloak, waiting for Blaise near the museum. There were a lot of Aurors in the streets, I even saw a wizard protected by two Mage Knights, there probably was an important event in the area.
Mage Knights were the most dangerous things in the world, they were wizards who had gone through body enhancing rituals to be stronger, faster and many other things like blood regeneration and such. Those rituals were forbidden for the citizens, but the Ministries still used them to serve their own purposes. Most of the rituals were dark, and very dangerous.
The first Mage Knights were born in the Middle-Age, when a knight was not strong enough to beat a cockatrice his king ordered him to slay. He then asked an enchanter to enchant his weapons and armor, but also his body, so he could strike harder and run faster. The ritual on the knight failed and he died, but the enchanter decided that the idea was good and enchanted his own body, being certain he could handle it. The rituals worked and he killed the cockatrice with his enhanced capacities. He then became a full time magical warrior for the king and the other kings got their own Mage Knights. Since this day, Mage Knights were a special brand of wizards, dangerously strong and fast, their thick metallic armor weighted tons and could take much damage before breaking, their weapons were unbreakable and razor-sharp, sometimes even imbued with fire, lightning or other destructive effects.
Now our days, Mage Knights were mostly the Ministry's special intervention forces and mercenaries. There were some weaker than other, but their mere presence would dissuade one to attack anything in the area.
Having two of them as bodyguards was really over-the-top if you were anything else than a minister.
Zabini got here just as I was admiring the sword of one of the Mage Knights, covered with runes. He sat on the bench, as we had agreed previously.
"Time to get it rolling." I whispered, placing my hand on his shoulder.
He jumped a bit at my contact and nodded, standing up. I quickly dragged him in my cloak, hiding him from the world.
"Hello, Harry, that's a very nice cloak, where did you get it?"
"Family heirloom, let's go." I answered shortly, shaking his hand.
We got to the museum with very few chatting on the way and walked through the hall and the museum entrance.
"I wouldn't have believed it if someone told me I'd sneak in my grandfather's museum without paying." he whispered, grinning at the idea.
I didn't respond, I was starting to get stressed, I looked around in the museum, there were a few people here and there, but the place was big enough to stay incognito.
"Here's the storage's room." he designed the private door. Oh right, I told him I needed him to get through that door.
Well too bad, mate, but I came for something else.
"Iocatio." a small glowing band appeared in the air in front of Zabini's dumbfounded look and plunged on his mouth and nose, sealing them.
I then tripped him and pinned him to the floor, the cloak still on us, his legs were probably visible but we were hidden behind a few dozen items anyway. I buried my wand in his neck with more violence than necessary.
"Listen to me, Zabini, I no longer have the Trace on my wand, and I can hurt you really, really badly if you don't do what I ask. Don't believe me?" I snatched his wand out of his pocket and muttered with my best Serbian pronunciation, in a guttural voice, Led Spaliti.
The curse found its way on Zabini's back and he started to wiggle under me, probably yelling in pain behind my muzzling charm. Damn, these Serbian spells sure are useful.
I stopped his pain by countering the torture curse and whispered in his ear again, pressing my wand on his neck. "Do you understand? I will not hesitate stunning and torturing you if you try to escape or to disobey."
He nodded softly, tears starting to flow. I felt bad for him, I was being a real asshole. I'm only doing what needs to be done.
"You will stand up and walk to the black leather book I'm pointing to. I will be walking behind you, wand on your neck. If you try to get out of the cloak, I will hurt you, if you try to fight me, I will hurt you. Now stand up."
He stood up and we walked slowly to the book. "Pick it up, it won't do anything, you are keyed in the wards." He grabbed it. "Keep it in your hand and walk forward."
My heart was beating faster than ever, cold sweat dripped down my back. I can't go back now, I'm really doing it. If he tries to run, I won't be able to stop him in time. I have to trust him to be afraid enough.
We reached the entrance and exit and walked into the hall.
"Stop. If you are seen by the clerk, I will have to kill both of you. So don't even think about it, your life is worth more than a book isn't it?" I threatened while taking my wardbreaker scope and bringing it to my eye.
The orange string was not linked to the book anymore, It must have naturally broke when we got out of the museum.
"Let's go again." I whispered, pocketing the scope and pushing my wand deeper in his neck. I felt him shiver and sob. He is only eleven or twelve after all, I must have scared him big times.
We slowly exited the museum and reached a side street, not quite as empty as I would have liked but still very unpopulated. I led him between two buildings, in a shadowed alley. I grabbed the diary from his hand and violently pushed him against a wall, out of my cloak. He turned to me, red with tears and anger.
"Finite Incantatem. I'm sorry Blaise, but I really do need that book." I explained, shrugging, wand still pointed at him.
"You're not getting away with this Potter, even if you kill me." he tried, more pleadingly than he probably wanted.
"I'm not killing you, and yes, I am getting away with this. Nobody knows we were here and nobody knows we were even collaborating." I grinned proudly, looking around to see if anybody was hearing.
"Anyway, I only removed the spell so you could tell me one thing, who else is keyed in the wards?" I asked. If he was the only one outside of Zabini Senior, that could be dangerous and killing him would actually be an option.
"I'm not telling you, Potter, fuck you."
"Icatio." the band of light jumped on his mouth again, I took a step, and punched him as hard as i could in the stomach. He collapsed to the floor, and raised his head to me, pain readable on his traits.
"I'm not here to play games Zabini, see your wand? I can snap it, I know how to. Really easy actually, you just have to gather magic in your hand and force it through the wand as you snap it." I explained, taking each end of his wand in my hands.
"Are you going to tell me or do you want me to break it in half and hammer the pieces in your balls?"
He nodded. I used his wand to remove the charm on his mouth.
"Give me my wand back and -" he started. I was sick of it already, I kicked him in the guts, cutting his breath and repeated my request.
"Who else, Zabini?"
He caught his breath and spoke, "My grandfather, my two cousins and the storage manager." Mmmh, that leaves enough suspects for them to not find out about Blaise. I really didn't feel like killing him, not like that, not here and now. If I can reach my goal without killing anyone, I'm all for it.
"Thank you Blaise." I raised my wand and started swinging it.
"Wait, you ca-"
"Obliviate."
Scared.
Scared shitless.
That was how I felt the days following my museum adventure.
I had performed masterfully in the heat of the moment but now that I thought calmly about it, I was pissing in my pants. I trusted my obliviation to hold, even against a thorough inspection, as long as Zabini didn't call in Master Obliviators, and even then, the memory would take a few years to get back. But that wasn't likely. What scared me was the idea that somehow, something or someone saw me and that Zabini Senior would one day kick my door, wand blazing. A security system I didn't notice? A way to record what happened in there?
If they do so much as to find out Blaise was involved, I'm already in the orange zone on the fucked-o-meter.
2 AM.
It was time. I slid my hand under my pillow and grabbed the small diary. I frenetically flipped the cover and began to read. At last I was about to learn how to protect my mind.
I am the Great Hellard of Parrington, called Hellard The Tempestuous and this is my diary. But beware, reader, for this is no usual diary. If you wish to learn how to protect your psyche, flip the page. Only someone worthy of my teaching will be able to flip that page.
I stopped reading and inspected the edge of the page, the other pages looked like they were stuck under it, I blew on it and they didn't do so much as to waver.
Well, here goes nothing. I grabbed the corner and flipped the page. It was unusually hard to flip, it was resisting to my pull and eventually, it snapped open. I was now in front of a big square hole. A pitch-black, apparently bottomless gap.
If you see something you don't understand, stick your fingers in it. I teased myself on what I was about to do. I knew it was a bad idea but oh well, I didn't go through the trouble of getting the diary to give up now.
I slid a finger in the hole, and suddenly, it became larger. It kept growing until I realized it was still as small as before, only I was plunging into it. My vision was soon filled with nothingness as I fell into the book.
Funny, last time I experienced anything like that, I was in a coma for the next six weeks.
I woke up, laying on a smooth surface. Smooth and cold. Very cold even. I opened my eyes and looked around. Ice cold.
I was in the middle of a huge icy island. Not quite an iceberg, too big to be an iceberg.
"I don't know, Potter, I would say iceberg. A huge one, that is." uttered a deep growly voice. I spun around, slipping on the ice and balancing myself with difficulty.
"Pictures an iceberg and isn't even able of standing on it? You're quite the buffoon, Potter."
Hellard.
He was tall, very tall. He was thick and looked like his skin could take a pickaxe strike from the half-giant gatekeeper without any problem. If I had to describe him in a word, it would be Viking. He looked like this image of a Viking everyone had, strong and rough. His face was all wrinkled and he had a medium blond beard from his hair to his neck. He was dressed with red robes, but it was constantly varying between different tones of red.
"Exactly, Potter, and did you guess where you are as well?"
Great, he reads my mind, should have suspected that.
"I'm guessing we're in my mind?"
"Two points for ... whatever house you're in." he laughed throatily before taking a seat on a protrusion. "We are indeed in your psyche, Potter. This landscape, quite unusual by the way, is a representation of your mind."
I looked up, in the sky and saw stars, galaxies, suns and planets like I never saw before, slowly rolling in the impenetrable void of space. The view was breathtaking.
"We seem to be in space, an iceberg lost in space. Usually, people picture an island or a mountain, somewhere on good old earth." he muttered pensively, staring in the void above our heads.
"What are you exactly?" I asked, bringing my attention back to him.
"I am a finely crafted piece of magic. A memory, a piece of mind, a series of thoughts, imbued into a book. I am, as long as someone pours magic into me. But I can only be in the realm of this person's psyche."
"Which brings me back to the lesson." he finished, showing the landscape with a sway of his arm.
"This, the infinite space around us represents the outside, where your mind doesn't spread, where the other minds are."
He then pointed to me in a dramatic motion. "You, represents your thoughts, your spirit, your personality."
"And this -" he pointed to a colossal spike of ice. " represents your memories."
As I stood up to get a better view of the transparent spike, I saw my memories glittering inside it, like a shoal of fishes, swimming around in that huge shard of ice.
"Or at least, this is what I understood." concluded Hellard, breaking my daydream. Or was it just a dream?
"So, how do I go about defending all of this from attacks?"
"Straight to the point, Potter, I like that. For the moment, your psyche is completely open, except for a few dangerous natural walls here and there, but no Legilimens will ever be stopped by those."
"To defend your memories and your thoughts, you will have to make a fortress out of this iceberg." he paused, watching me intently.
"If you were on your own, it would be near impossible, and that's where I make my entrance. I will attack your iceberg with true Legilimency attacks, and little by little, you will understand how to raise walls from the ground, then you will understand how to raise traps and when your mind will finally be a true fortress, no magic will ever be able to crush it and access your psyche." he ended with a clap of his hands.
"Why do you need to attack me to explain how to raise walls? Can't you just tell me?"
He smiled.
"Legilimens."
Suddenly, I heard a loud and distant sound and the ground shook heavily, I slipped on the ice and looked up. A huge whale-like thing was racing from outer space to my iceberg, and before I could do anything, it crashed against the ground, sending shattered ice everywhere, breaking countless spikes and protrusions. I was thrown away by the impact and landed brutally one the ice. I noticed that it didn't hurt at all, I was not even wounded.
I stood up and looked at the monster, It was already flying away, spreading shards of ice everywhere in its path.
What the fuck was that, by Merlin's ball sack what the flying tit was that. I was already resorting to exotic swearing, a sign that I was really shaken.
"That, Potter, was a standard Legilimency attack." chuckled merrily Hellard at my astonished face.
"I have to build a fortress to resist this kind of attack?" I was shocked, that thing could have blasted through any kind of ice fortress.
"That was the most blunt approach, Potter, you fortress must resist this and any kind of other threat, like a mice sneaking in." he explained.
"See how your landscape is destroyed? See all this ice scattered everywhere? That is your material, Potter."
"Every time I will attack you, it will create more material, your iceberg regenerates itself, and you will use this ice to build your fortress. I will teach you how to control your mind, how to control this landscape and build with its raw material."
I was astounded, this was way more than anything I had imagined, this was insane. But then again, I do have important things to protect, and it will only get worse.
"How much time shall it take?" I asked, hoping for the best.
"Time in this place doesn't mean much, everything happening here is only a few thoughts in the outside realm." he explained, opening his arms dramatically, "one hour here is only a few minutes out there, maybe five at most. Building the fortress with my help will take you five to ten years in there." he concluded and walked away to look at some piece of ice.
After a quick exercise of mental calculus, I came up with an answer: "So, twelve times less than ten years at worst. A year in this book... about a nine thousand hours. That's quite a lot but I'm sure I can fit them in my schedule for the next four years or so."
"Are you sure you want to take this path, Potter? This is where most people give up and find another way to not get their mind read."
"Quit babbling nonsense and explain me how to build my walls already." I grinned.
"Harry, come in our compartment!" commanded Louise, grabbing my arm and pulling me.
We were on the Hogwarts Express.
I had spent all summer in parks, my hand slipped in my bag and my fingers in Hellard's Diary. It had totally wrecked my perception of time but that was the least of my concerns.
My inner fortress was progressing neatly, Hellard had been amazed by my capacities to calm my mind and raise walls with my focus. Like the Hat, he talked about natural capacities.
For the moment, my fortress was taking the form of a big cathedral-like building, but it was still very soon and the walls were still thin and crude, the fortress would be at least five times bigger when I'd be done with it.
However, the repeated assaults from Hellard had put me in a constant headache and state of irritability.
Zach had been very suspicious of me and kept asking questions about where I went and what I was doing. He probably had followed me with the invisibility cloak but all he could see was me apparently sleeping on the green grass of the park. Taking him off my back would be a great improvement, I almost cursed him a few times.
"I was thinking of taking a compartment for myself, my head hurts. I need calm." I replied, putting a hand to my forehead and hoping she would get the message.
"Oh you want to be alone with Loren, right? Well she's with us so whatever."
I had been sent a few letters during summer from my housemates, most of them from Loren, she wanted to see me. I was so busy with Hellard I had to reject her.
Louise had sent a few too but I barely responded, she needed to understand she was pissing me off.
"No, I just want to be alone, alright? See you." I walked away from her, my loyal trunk hovering behind me like a dog, and found an empty compartment. I locked the door and was about to close the curtains when I saw someone familiar walk by my door.
Zabini, dressed in fine magenta robes, didn't look at me twice, I was no longer Harry in his mind, but just a random student. An idea came to me. I slightly slid the door panel, just enough to let a spell exit and muttered Legilimens.
It wasn't my first try at Legilimency, I had read the mind of several muggles during the summer. It was easier than I thought, at least with a wand. The connection between me and Zabini opened, projecting his mind on my internal screens. After a small disorienting zoom in and out, I was thrown in the scene I was looking for.
Zabini was reading a book about Trolls and Elves when the Zabini mansion's door slammed against its frame, the thunderous sound echoing in the whole building. Zabini jumped and looked around.
"What in the world..." he muttered before putting a bookmark where he stopped and placing the book on a table. He walked to the hall, only to be greeted by his grandfather bellowing at the top of his lungs.
"Stolen! One of the world's only of its kind! And they left no traces, the wards haven't even been touched according to those damn warders! What am I paying them for?" He was pacing back and forth in the hall, shouting to no one and everyone.
Blaise's mother emerged from the living room, baffled by her father's antics. She was tall and gorgeous, dark hair falling down her shoulders and giving a nice framing to her cleavage, waist and hips hardly fitting in her very tight figure-hugging dress.
"What are you rambling about, did you get robbed?" she asked apprehensively.
"A break-in! They came in, took one of my most precious pieces and vanished away! No trail to follow, nothing! We don't even KNOW how they managed it!" he was furious.
"So, you don't have any suspect?" asked Blaise, intrigued.
"No, the only suspect we have for the moment is the storage manager, as he's keyed in the wards. He's under investigation right as we talk but I'm sure it's not him." he finally stopped pacing around and sat in a cushioned armchair.
"Aurely!" he shouted.
A small House-elf popped out of nowhere and bowed in front of the old Zabini.
"Firewhisky!"the elf nodded and popped off.
"Now we'll have to trust the Aurors to do their job properly." he said darkly while taking the glass his elf had presented.
The scene melted in a mess of black and grey, and the channel was cut, tossing me out of Blaise's mind. I was back in the Hogwarts Express, only a second after I had muttered the incantation. Zabini shook his head and looked around quickly before going on his way. He would probably think he just remembered that for no reasons - it happens, after all.
What I saw was good signs, he didn't suspect his own family members, like I thought. So it would be either the manager or Mr. X.
I grinned, relieved, and locked myself in the compartment, closing the curtains and charming the lock to make it impervious to a simple Alohomora.
I opened the diary inside my satchel and slid my fingers in the holes. I could do the building on my own, but having Hellard around was good to get tips and tricks, that and the raw material to build my stronghold.
I closed my eyes and jumped in my inner self.
I uncorked the phial and swallowed the home-made Pepper-up potion. I felt it slid down my throat and wake my body up. I shivered slightly and dropped the empty phial back in my satchel. I'll fill it again tonight.
Tonight? What time is it anyway? I brought my wristwatch before my eyes and read the time, 11:14am. Fuck, I'm late again. I grabbed my satchel and started running to my Charms lesson.
Using the diary was becoming more and more unbearable, I was now totally lost when I came out of it. I couldn't follow the time, I missed lessons, I was late everytime, I was given detentions and missed them, it was all collapsing. The headache didn't help at all, it was worst every time and put me in a state of passive hostility that shocked my fellow housemates. So I avoided interacting with them the most possible, I was under Notice-Me-Not charm all day and I didn't talk to anyone until they came on their own.
Do I need to replenish my ingredients? I think I don't have any dried Japanese moss anymore...
I didn't sleep more than three or four hours a night, the headache was killing me and my Occlumency lessons were the only place where it didn't hurt. So I used my bed time to build my walls.
Consequently, I had started brewing my own stock of Pepper-up in an unused classroom, the ingredients were available by owl post so it was really not a problem. I consumed about three Pepper-up potions per twenty four hours. It was a lot.
I ran through the corridors, wincing at my headache and reached the Charm's classroom door. I opened it softly and sneaked inside. The Notice-Me-Not charm was dead useful in those circumstances. When I succeed in applying it, that is. My constant state of pain and aggressiveness had made casting spells difficult, if I didn't focus on making my mind calm, I would overpower my charms or fill them with negative intent, which could prove disastrous.
The class had started for more than fifteen minutes and everyone was already in the practical exercises. Sneaking in this mess wasn't difficult. I found my way behind Lynn McWhorter and dropped on a chair.
I looked around and saw everyone playing with balls. I analyzed Lynn, he took his leather ball and threw it in the air, like everyone was doing, and when the ball started dropping back down, he raised his wand and shouted Aresto Momentum. The ball slowly reduced its speed but still hit the floor pretty hard.
Cushioning charm? I never tried that... I thought absently while grabbing a ball in the basket. I walked back to my seat, opened the book and read the wand motion. A short flick followed by a circle motion of the wrist, duration of the circle motion depending on the target's speed, keep the wand pointed at the target.
I tossed my ball high in the air, trying to ignore my pounding headache being even more annoying than usual. As it started to drop again, I carefully performed the motion and muttered the incantation.
The ball didn't stop.
Instead, it flew horizontally, like a cannonball, faster than I thought possible for a leather ball. Nobody noticed it at first, it had been totally silent. Then the ball hit a cupboard. The ball went through the glass and thick wood like they were mere pieces of paper, and hit the wall with a thunder-like sound, the front panel's glass literally exploded, nailing hundreds of small shattered pieces of glass in everyone near it. And as everyone processed what happened and started to feel the little pieces of glass embedded in their skin and robes, the cupboard fell to the ground with a loud crash, revealing the hole in its back.
Then there was silence.
I quickly used the distraction to grab a ball from the basket, pretending to be moving closer to see the mess like everyone else.
"Everybody, calm down, anyone who has been hit by the glass, please go to the hospital wing at once." instructed Flitwick, waving his arms as high as he could to be noticed.
"It can happen when you mess up a spell, who did it? You will not be punished." he asked to the little crowd. I stayed silent.
He walked up to the wall and pushed the crashed cupboard aside with a wave of his wand. He summoned a chair from his desk and climbed on it to look at the leather ball inlayed in the wall. About half of it was in the wall, a few deep cracks ran from the impact point.
"I often see spells misfiring, but to be able to embed a leather ball in Hogwarts' stone, that is an impressive and dangerous feat." he declared to the class. "This ball would probably have beheaded anyone on its path..." he added, touching his chin, fascinated.
I swallowed. This spell overpowering issue is becoming a major issue...
"Anyway, please be careful with your wands, and for the one who did that, you must ask me before trying again, I will not take it lightly if I see another of those death balls." he declared with a big smile.
"Back to the lesson!" and he walked back to his desk, his chair following him, trotting on its legs.
I spent the remaining time faking the spell, without using any magic at all. I couldn't afford to send another "death ball" as Flitwick happily called it.
When the bell rang, I walked off, swearing at myself for being so bad. Whatever, I'll find a way to fix that. What time is it? 12am, lunch time. Great I'll grab something to eat and get in my lab, I need to fill my Pepper-up phials again. And I have two more hours to spend building this damn fortress...
Building my walls would take time, but nowhere near the amount previously calculated. It would be over way before, fortunately, but I still had to spend a few thousand hours in a coma, fingers slipped in a book.
I walked to the end of the Hufflepuff table, where most of the students were sixth or seventh years and grabbed a chicken leg and a bowl of mashed potatoes - I slipped everything in my satchel and headed to the sixth east tower, third floor.
Once here, I unlocked my own locking charm with the countercharm and entered the not-so-abandoned classroom. My cauldron was resting in the center of the room, cold dry pepper up potion inside it. Some potions, like the pepper up, could be left to cool down and salvaged later by reheating it, even if the books forbid it. You just had to make sure it was still homogeneous.
I casted a small Incendio under the cauldron and started to eat while it was heating. The chicken leg was crispy and greasy, just like I liked it, and the mashed potatoes were covered with a thick gravy, in a word, delicious.
I finished my delightful meal and stirred the now liquid again pepper-up brew. It will be enough for at least ten phials before I have to start again. I reduced the flames with the adjustable heater and got the Diary out.
Here we go again.
I opened my eyes again. I was back in my lab. My watch, placed on the table, indicated 1:38pm. I wasn't late, for once.
I stood up, feeling sick, and walked to my cauldron. The potion was boiling softly. I stopped the fire and filled four phials. I took my satchel and walked off, this afternoon I had potions, I had forgotten Snape's last detention, I was sure to get another one but it could be worse if I showed up late.
As I was walking through the countless staircases, I felt my stomach complain. Usually it was just the headache, but this time, I felt like throwing up. Probably just the bad Occlumency/mashed potatoes mix.
I spotted a bathroom in a corridor near the stairs to access the dungeons and hurried into it. I was really about to throw up, my brain was screaming in pain and my stomach seemed to try to scream louder.
I grabbed the edges of the sink and looked at myself in the mirror. I was a wreck, I was pale, I had nasty bags under my blood-injected eyes - which looked terrible on green eyes - and my hair seemed to be longer than usual, not much, about an inch. It suddenly came, from the bottom of my insides, I vomited right in the sink, barely holding myself to the edges.
I coughed a bit and spat in the pool of vomit before opening the water to clean it. I splashed water on my face and looked again.
It barely made me feel better to puke, now I had a bad taste in the mouth. My anger rose abruptly. Why the fuck does that happen? Why can't I handle this!
"Wake the fuck up, Harry!" I shouted at my reflection before punching angrily the mirror, cutting my fingers and smashing the glass.
"Harry? Are you alright?" asked a feminine voice from behind me.
I spun, startled, trying to find my wand in my robes.
"Oh my god, your hand, let me see that!" it was Hannah Abbot, she ran to me and grabbed carefully my hand.
"Why did you do that, are you crazy?"
"Drop it Hannah, let's go to potions." I spat, too furious to be nice.
"Oh no we don't, you have to be treated, Harry, those are big cuts!"
"Let me go, Hannah for fuck's sake, DROP IT!" I barked and pushed her back, really mad now.
She got her wand out and pointed it at me menacingly.
"If you don't let me bring you to the hospital wing, I'll bring you myself!"
I lost it. I grabbed my wand, raised it and before I could stop myself, "Kroz Sve!"
The dark Serbian perforation curse hit her in the thigh, boring a tunnel in her flesh. I didn't immediately regret it, the raw pleasure I was getting from the dark magic was dominating my headache, I felt better than I ever did since I had started Occlumency. I felt really great.
But then she screamed, and I opened my eyes. She was on the wet floor, holding her right thigh, her face bent in an expression of pain I hadn't thought I would ever saw on her. I must had hit a vein because blood was literally squirting out of the round tunnel I had carved through her leg. It was flowing everywhere, forming a large pool under her as she started to faint. I reacted immediately, I casted an Obliviate on her just before she fainted, successfully erasing the incident from her memory.
Then I crouched, grabbed her and lifted her. Damn she's heavy, even without all this blood.
I ran with her in my arms, her blood making a neat trail behind us, and kept casting Lumos and Nox to erase the spell from my wand's short term memory.
After half a minute of running in the corridor, I found professor Jenkins and shouted at him for help.
He ran to me and analyzed anxiously her wound.
"Dark magic, this wound needs to be countered before I can fix it, she's losing a lot of blood, go get Madam Pomfrey, kid! NOW!" he yelled frantically, casting spells over her wound.
Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit! Fucking hell what have I done, why, why? I was running to the hospital wing, trying to find out why I had done that.
It felt good. It felt damn good. The answer was simple, and thinking about it, I couldn't even feel my headache anymore, it had felt really good to release my anger on something and to feel the bliss of dark magic flowing in my body.
I reached Madam Pomfrey, panting, and managed to let out a few words in a second.
"Student... hurt... badly... the dungeons... GO!"
Pomfrey got the message, probably because of my alarmed tone or blood covered robes, and left without any question, racing to the dungeons.
I was standing, alone, in the infirmary, bloody and exhausted. I sat on a bed and reviewed my situation. I obliviated her pretty good, in her state of panic it was pretty easy, this part of her memories will be such a mess they won't ever be able to recover it. I can say that I heard her yell and when I arrived, she was down and the assailant gone. The good old "it was already like that when I came" excuse. Always work.
I calmed down and casted a few standard spells with my wand to make it more believable than a series of Lumos and Nox. I noticed that spells actually worked easily now. This little outburst had sort of fixed me.
A few minutes after, I heard a commotion outside the infirmary and stood up. The doors slammed open and Hannah came flying horizontally, her wound bandaged, followed by madam Pomfrey, professor Jenkins and professor Snape.
She was placed in a bed and madam Pomfrey accio'd a blood-replenishing potion from the shelf. As she was forcing the thick liquid through Hannah's mouth, Jenkins turned to me an crouched, putting his hands on my shoulders.
"What have you seen, student? Tell me everything." he asked in that you-can-confess-to-me-son tone.
"Well, I was walking to the dungeons to attend professor Snape's lesson -" I started, without hiding my anxiety, after all who wouldn't be anxious in that situation?
"Nice of you, Mr. Potter, you don't usually bother to." said sarcastically Snape. "Your wand." he added, presenting me his hand.
I placed my wand in his palm and continued my story.
"When suddenly, I heard her scream. It was really a terrifying scream, I knew she was badly hurt. So I ran to the source of the yell and after a few second of searching where she was, I found her in the bathroom." I finished, and quickly added "Is she gonna be okay?", patting myself on the back for having thought of this.
"She will survive, luckily, professor Snape knew the exact counter curse, that saved us the trouble of canceling the curse, which takes considerably more time." he explained, turning his head toward Hannah, who was now silently sleeping. "Did you hear or see anyone, anything else?"
Snape was analyzing my wand and found only plain first and second year everyday spells. He quickly gave it back after half a dozen spells reviewed.
"Nope, nothing. She had already fainted when I came so I think the assailant ran away. But anyway, she will remember, right?" I'm a second year Hufflepuff, I don't know anything about memory charms.
"She may have been obliviated, that means her memory has been deleted. We will have to wait for her to wake up."
"What do we do if this guy do it again?" I asked in my best whinny voice.
"Don't worry, Mr. Potter, he was lucky this time, but you can't run around hurting students in Hogwarts." Yes I can. But he's right, had there been any paintings or else seeing me in and out the bathroom, that could have turned badly for me.
I was released and ordered to go back to my dormitory to rest. I lay in my bed and stared at the ceiling. So, dark magic feels good, that's nothing new. But dark magic is actually a cure for this shitty headache now. I can't go around cursing everyone to feel good...
I stayed here for the rest of the afternoon, half sleeping, half awake, daydreaming about destruction and violence. A way to release all this anger and pain I earned at each Occlumency lesson.
I was awoke by Ernie McMillan.
"Harry, pal, wake up! There's an event tonight!"
"C'mon Harry it's not the time to sleep, although the time to sleep should be defined by when you sleep..." added Loren pensively, "...but whatever, just wake up, it's going to be fun!"
I came out of my bed and walked to the bathroom. I was looking a bit better. At least not as pale as this morning. Straight out of my inferi books...
We were walking to the great hall, with about all the Hufflepuff first years. In the deafening noise of our hoard, Loren quickly briefed me:
"The Defense professor organized a dueling club, because of the aggressions. First Flitch's cat, but that wasn't too serious, it was just a petrified cat, and now Hannah getting almost killed with dark magic! So he said he'll teach in a dueling club so students can defend themselves. And Snape is in! They're doing the first lesson in the great hall tonight." she exclaimed, turning around to smile to me.
"That sounds totally dumb, if the guy used dark magic to attack Hannah, he's probably good enough to beat any second year."
"I know, but that's not the point, the point is that it's going to be fun!" she replied, still walking backward. How does she do that?
We reached the great hall and took our seats in the makeshift amphitheater they had placed around the dueling stage. It was a standard dueling stage, minus the protective wards. At the north end was standing Snape, as gloomy as ever, and in front of him, at the south end, was Lockhart, the useless Defense professor.
Lockhart then quickly launched in a small rant about how great he was at dueling and how had this neat idea of forming a dueling club, and presented Snape as "his assistant".
It was clear to everyone that only Lockhart in this room thought of Snape as an assistant. He then proceeded to get humiliated in front of the whole student body by being blasted by a disarming curse and falling sprawling on the floor. As everyone laughed, Snape took the lead and opened his mouth to speak. Everyone stopped immediately to let him talk.
"I will now call your name, and you will come to duel. Disarming spell and harmless hexes only." he paused, his lips twisted in a nasty grin. "Potter!" Damn. He fucking hates me. Oh well, I can deal with that, I'll just have to lose.
I stood up and took a step forward as Snape continued "Against Dra-" he stopped and looked at me funnily. My brother was also standing. He didn't mean me, fuck.
He started to laugh softly, a dark chuckle that would give nightmares to any Hufflepuff firstie. "Potter against Potter, very well, let's see how powerful is the Potter line." he smiled unhealthily.
The crowd was now cheering, not for me but neither for my twin apparently since Zach was currently seen as the Heir of Slytherin or whatever bullshit was the rumors at the moment. I guess they're just cheering to see blood.
Losing on purpose to stay undercover was one thing, but to lose to Zach? This was beyond my capacities.
"Bow!"
We bowed.
"On my three, one... two... three!" counted Lockhart, flashing a bright smile to the excited crowd.
I knew he would start immediately with the disarming charm, he only wanted to end it. I sidestepped it easily, feeling its power as it skimmed near my chest, and shot an Incutio at his wand hand. The advantage of this minor striking spell was that it was very fast. The curse hit him in the hand, throwing his wand away. It didn't break any bones, a Potter was too powerful for that, even that young. Zach jumped after his wand.
STOP. Lose, just fucking lose, Harry. People are already wondering how I did that.
I threw a laughable knockback jinx at him, deliberately aiming at the ground, he rolled, jumped on his feet, wand in hand.
"Incarcerous!" he shouted, I was astonished, that was an advanced spell for such a young age. James sure had taught him well.
I let the ropes bind me and fell to the ground, captured.
Lockhart was amazed, he came on the stage, clapping loudly. "Amazing, simply amazing, thank you, both of you for this astounding duel! Zachary Potter wins!"
He laughed brightly for a few second and asked Snape to free me. Snape did so, and when I stood up, he looked me in the eyes. I felt the intrusion immediately and broke eye contact. I walked away without a word, letting Snape stare at my back suspiciously. Damn this Snape guy, he was here when I found Hannah, he's really suspicious now. I'll have to watch my back, with this chamber of secrets thing going on, he'll probably investigate on me.
"Very well, Potter, but that was a bit too easy don't you think, it looked like your twin gave you the win to me." mocked quietly Snape, grinning again.
"Draco Malfoy is your true opponent tonight."
Silence in the crowd.
I smirked, Malfoy was my first dark magic victim ever, and the memory was pretty amusing. You'll always be little weeping ferret to me, Malfoy.
Two weeks after the Abbot incident and the dueling club, I decided that enough was enough. I couldn't stand studying Occlumency day and night and stay the nice Harry Potter at the same time. I needed a way out. I needed to feel better. Dark magic.
I had been summoned by my head of house, professor Sprout, a few days prior.
"Take a seat Harry, we need to talk." she offered me a seat.
"Do you know why?"
"My grades?" it wasn't hard to guess, I dropped from first of the class to middle of the class.
"Exactly, Harry. I know we are experiencing a bit of a hard time with the aggressions and I understand it's very hard for you who have witnessed Hannah so close to passing away. If you feel the need to talk about it, come to me, Harry, your grades were excellent last year, I would like you to get better and make up for it" she said, her round face showing nothing but concern for me. "Is there anything I can do, Harry?".
"Thank you, professor Sprout, but I'm just going through a rough spot, with Zach being called the heir of Slytherin, and all of that..." I lied smoothly.
"I'll do my best, professor."
After this little interview with my head of house, I came to the decision to give in and use dark magic as much as I'd need to both do my Occlumency lessons and keep my Hogwarts face on.
How? Simple, I would sneak in the Forbidden Forest, find an animal to attack and wreck its shit until I have enough.
Thankfully, the Hufflepuff dormitories were located next to the greenhouses, so the path to the forbidden forest was totally free, I only had to go through a bridge and walk along the rocks behind the gatekeeper's hut to reach the forest. There was no door between me and the forest.
And it was exactly what I had done. I was now progressing inside the Forbidden Forest, wand in hand, adrenaline flowing in my veins. I felt good only knowing that I was about to get some action. I reached a clearing, and glanced at the sky. The stars beamed through the sky like there was no atmosphere between us. It reminded me of my inner world.
A growl interrupted my musing. I turned my head to my right. I couldn't see what it was, the high grass reached my hip and the natural darkness of the night seemed to be accentuated in this forest. The clearing I found myself in was lit with moonlight, but the growl came from behind the edges, into the trees. I took a few steps forward and heard the same loud, deep growl, but this time followed by a shrill screech. I stopped. There were two creatures in there.
Suddenly, a beast came out of the trees, trotting toward me and screeched before taking off - to the sky. It was an Hippogriff. Half-eagle and half-horse, the majestic beast of feathers and muscle was now flying away over the treetops.
The growl from before resounded again in the clearing, this time clearer and closer. There was another beast here, probably the one who had chased the hippogriff away. I spun around. It was a big, heavy, meaty boar.
Maybe not exactly a boar but it was what it looked like, a ten feet high and twenty feet long boar. Its black eyes were staring at me, saliva dribbling from its bared teeth. Its enormous body was slowly moving up and down with each breath it took, making a deep rolling growl.
"Well ain't you the big boy..." I teased, slowly raising my wand. My senses were more accurate than ever, adrenaline pumping in my blood at a crazy rate, boosting each of my heartbeats with a surge of thrill.
I opened my mouth to make a witty comment, but the beast didn't let me. It charged forward, taking three steps before I could react. The ground was shaking under the weight of the bag of muscles throwing itself at me.
"Aspernum!" I shouted, keeping my stand. The purple repelling spell hit the beast and reduced its speed a bit, making it change course slightly. I lost no time and sent a good old Kroz Sve. The orange-black drill-like curse dug into the boar's fur and quickly found the flesh, tearing through it. It stopped a few inches in and broke. It all happened so fast, the beast was still charging at me. I threw myself to the side, casting an advanced dark cutting curse at its leg.
"Secaferox!" the deep blue scythe-like curse smashed against its legs and shattered without dealing any damage. Damn, this guy is strong, I need to put some more power in my spells.
It almost trampled me, its hoofs reducing the grass and dirt near my legs in a thin layer and missing my limbs only by luck. It finished its travel, having trouble stopping its insane momentum, and faced me again, growling loudly. Blood was oozing from the perforation curse I had hit it with. The joy of using dark magic was adding to my battle trance, it felt wonderful.
I inhaled deeply, watched it sprint toward me, enraged, demented. I took aim and shot another Secaferox. This time I gathered all my intent to hurt, and pushed all the magic I could muster. I felt the heat rushing in my arm, and it exploded at the tip, producing a blinding blue flash. I saw the enormous blue scythe hit the beast head on, opening a deep gash across its face and sides, blood sprayed everywhere while its body continued its course, crashing on the ground with a loud thump, followed by a big cloud of dirt smoke and rocks flying in its trail.
I fell on my knees and took a huge breath, I was in a daze, it was unreal, the second the spell had connected, I felt all this pain being converted into pleasure and sent back to me. I was shuddering under the starlight, stained with blood and dark magic.
I stayed like that for a few minutes and fell on my back, starting to feel the post-battle exhaustion. I felt absolutely great, I was here in my element. Killing stuff, tasting blood... it's really fucked up but I guess dark magic does that. And I'm not complaining about it.
As the dirt absorbed the pool of blood under the carcass in front of me, I saw a bunch of black skeletal horses emerge from the forest and carefully approach me.
"Thestrals, I presume... Oh, you came for your dinner, my pleasure, go ahead." I indicated the dead boar and lay on my back, arms crossed behind my head. The sky is gorgeous in there...
They eventually started eating the boar and drinking in the blood lake it had created.
No headache, no anger, I feel like a brand new man. Plus, I have mastered that advanced dark slicing curse, that's really neat. I should start studying stupefy and other "big" spells. I had learned the Secaferox curse in a spellbook I got from Sherry, it was a very advanced curse, depending on how much power you put into it, it could really cut anything. It was one of those spells that were only limited by the caster himself. Also, being dark, it caused really nasty wounds that would take a lot of time to treat, with potions and such. Not your standard Episkey. And of course, it required quite the firepower to block in combat, an usual Protego would get sliced in two no matter how strong it is. It was the real stuff. And it felt really, really good.
I stayed a bit in the forest before forcing myself to come back to the dormitory. This fortress isn't gonna build itself, is it?
AN: You probably figured out by now, but I'm gonna write the whole story in this style, jumping from scenes to scenes.
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