Chapter 55: 53
The seventeenth of March, Evening after dinner, Hogwarts Castle, Room of Help.
The vast room, about the size of basketball courts, if not two such fields, painted in dark tones, was deserted. There was not a single thing in it, not a speck of dust that could indicate any semblance of constant use of it, but still there was something in it that stood out from the general picture of the empty hall, or rather two things.
The first was the runes that covered the entire room. There seemed to be no end to them, there were so many of them. Together they created lines, circles, shapes and much more. You only have to look at them once and your head starts spinning. A more knowledgeable magician, after examining these runes, will say that they are not such runes. The entire hall was strewn not with runes, but with ancient Indian symbols. So ancient and forgotten that even of the runologists, let Merlin, ten percent will be able to figure out what is being said here, at least in general terms. Alas, at the moment there were no such knowledgeable people here or nearby, so they would not be able to explain the meaning of this room, as well as these symbols.
The second is the boy who was currently standing, half naked, in the center of one of the "figures" reminiscent of Solomon's star, and with all his eyes he was watching his left hand, raised opposite his chest. What's unusual here? From time to time, changes occur in the hand itself, or rather transformations. Either it will change color to matte black, or it will become covered with scales, or something else out of the ordinary.
Here we go again. From the tips of my fingers to my forearm, changes began to occur. At first the hand swelled, about one and a half times, then shrunk to twice its original size. The next step was to change the fingers - the nails became longer and sharper, taking on a predatory shape, and their color became greenish-black. A moment later, the skin that came into contact with the nail began to change. With every moment, millimeter by millimeter, it began to be covered with thin scales. As soon as the fingers became covered with scales, an additional joint grew on them, making them longer than before.
"Success," thought Calder as he watched the fruit of his training. Most of the palm was covered with scales just like those of a winged comrade, which couldn't help but rejoice. "It's time to start the second step."
Concentration, desire and will, that's all a magician needs. Literally one moment has passed and before that the greenish scales begin to fade. Now it has faded, lost its shine, even shrunk, but it has become much stronger. If you look closely, you can see black smoke that began to emanate from the boy's palm. It did not rise strictly upward, but seemed to envelop the hand in a ghostly black glove.
"A little more, a little more," the guy's concentration was incredibly high. There were countless broken capillaries in each eye, indicating fatigue and some stress, but this did not stop him for a moment. The goal is closer than ever before. - Last step…"
It seemed like this was it, a moment of triumph, but it was just a deception, an illusion created by a tired mind. The hand that had previously inspired power and otherworldly awe somehow changed dramatically. The smoky glove disappeared, "swelling" appeared all over its surface, even seemingly painful and not inspiring confidence. Instantly, my arm was broken in several places. A bone of a strange gray-green color was visible in several places. A terrible sight that does not bode well.
"Fuck," the guy exclaimed in his mind. The right hand, instantly turning into a wide blade, cut off the left hand. The boy himself jumped ten to fifteen meters in one giant leap and stared intently at the marked limb. - Failure again. And what am I doing wrong?"
The hand that was cut off swelled five times and then exploded. The explosion was not strong, no. It's just that during the explosion, black liquid scattered in all directions, which even in appearance looked dangerous. Don't forget about the bone fragments, which flew for much longer than this liquid. Therefore, Calder decided to stay away from her, so to speak, just in case.
"Of course, I understand everything, I've only been training for the second day," the guy began to think, looking at his left arm, which was currently growing back at an accelerated pace. "But I have a strong feeling that I'm missing something." Something so obvious, but still invisible. And realizing this becomes somehow sad. And if you remember how many fruitless attempts there were before this..."
In support of this thought, the stomach made a sound comparable to the roar of a hungry bear that was awakened in the midst of hibernation, as if saying: "Feed me. Otherwise I'll eat you myself." Although the guy had dinner recently, building material does not come out of thin air, which is logical. And this despite his Prana, which could replace the growth needs of the same new arm by forty to fifty percent. This discovery shocked Calder when he learned about it.
Turning towards the exit, the guy headed towards his things and bag, which prudently served not far away, at the other end of the room.
"The dragon and thestral genes are more than interesting, I would say even an order of magnitude more interesting than the same troll genes," the guy again plunged into thoughts, still chewing a chicken sandwich. He has a lot of them with him, thanks to the brownies. — The first ones are incredibly stable, so much so that it's almost impossible to just implant them into yourself. They almost completely reject any influence on themselves. And the advantages of these genes are undeniable. One of them is the large capacity and "power" of magic cells. "I thought they were the same for all magical creatures," the guy grinned at his stupidity. — Second, the prana they produced was incredible. Already now the young dragon has it "stronger" than me three times. And this is just the beginning. Norbert is only a week old, maybe a week and a half old. And he didn't purposefully train her, but I've been doing this for a long time. It seems that there are only two poles, but how many more there are is not known. Well, it's okay, over time I will be able to subjugate them. This is just another obstacle that I will overcome."
Having finished eating, the guy put on his clothes, threw on his bag and headed out. At the very exit, with a wave of his hand, he hung a set of familiar hidden charms. Until they arrive in the "training" class, they will hang on it constantly. Why such difficulties, because he could have simply cut himself off saying: "I changed the place of training." The answer is simple: the classroom is located near the passage that he still needs.
The usual walls, torches and turns. This is not to mention paintings, armor, statues and other decorative items. Over these six months, all these objects became familiar, deeply imprinted in the boy's memory.
"The Thestrall genes are a complete mystery," the young man's thoughts continued during the journey. With his magical sense, he monitored the situation simply automatically. — I still don't understand how death gave life? How do thestral cells process Death Mana? How? If it was like liches or zombies, then fine. But no. If the first ones are dead and mana simply maintains the connection between soul and body, thereby giving certain pros and cons, then with these horses everything is completely different. Lots of questions to which there are no answers yet."
Walking near the door of one of the classrooms, Calder stopped. A magical sense captured someone's presence behind the door. Usually there is no one here, literally at all. Just an empty class and that's it.
He listened and heard nothing.
"It looks like a concealment charm," Calder concluded, nodding to himself. "According to my magical instincts, it's a guy and a girl." Of course, I have one idea why they decided to retire…" - his lips broke into a barely visible, malicious grin.
Taking out his wand, Calder whispered in his mind:
"Tangebilia," mana responded to his command and did everything as it should. The door became clouded with mist, and then it became transparent. Success, however, as always.
The picture that appeared before the guy's eyes confirmed his thoughts. Two teenagers were kissing against the wall, directly opposite the door. Nothing special for a boarding school. This happens everywhere.
By the way, the guy was familiar to him; his red hair gave him away. It was the Gryffindor prefect, Percival Weasley. Family hope.
After looking for a moment, Calder was about to dispel the spell, when one small detail pricked his mind. So subtle that he didn't notice it initially. Emotions. They were wrong for this situation. The boy has been able to feel them for some time now and is starting to get used to it, so he paid attention.
Weasley reeked of gloating, triumph and some kind of evil happiness or what? The girl was contradictory - all her emotions were about happiness and submission to another, they were real, but somewhere there, in the round dance of these feelings, there was hopelessness and slight madness. And indeed, she just stood still and smiled stupidly. This shouldn't happen, it's wrong. Such emotions and behavior are more typical for people subjugated by magic.
Without getting too excited, the guy decided to check it out. Having entered the room, because of the spell he could not be heard or seen, he removed the visual disguise for only a moment, but this was enough for the girl to notice him. At the same moment, he pointed the Psi Probe in her direction and looked through the last memories. In theory, he doesn't need visual contact, but reading thoughts goes much faster this way.
What he saw confirmed his worst thoughts - Weasley had cast an Imperius subjugation charm. And it seems this was not the first time, because after one bunch of memories came others about how Percy used these charms on this poor girl who refused to meet with him, and raped her, saying everything he would do to her right in the eyes. And then he ordered me to forget it, until next time.
This shocked the guy. He stood there like that for about ten seconds, but then, having collected himself, he decided to act. And Weasley began to undress, apparently he couldn't bear it. Well, I'll have to disappoint him.
A soft wave of Psi energy lulled the girl, who began to fall to the side. Surprised, Percy went into shock. Without giving him time to comprehend the situation, Calder, with a wave of his hand, stunned and tied him up. Approaching him, he tried to look into his mind, but to no avail. Something prevented him from doing this.
Examining him with magical vision, Calder noticed a small chain hanging from his neck. Using telekinesis, he removed it from his neck and threw it aside. You never know... And literally at the same moment...
"Fuck, what the hell is this?" — the guy jumped to the door in one leap, capturing the sleeping girl with telekinesis.
Weasley's aura was terrible. It seemed that all the most disgusting colors of rot were mixed in it, as well as black and brown along with red flowers. Not only was she disgusting in appearance, but her behavior was also strange. Like an octopus, she devoured all the magic nearby, releasing another, rotten Mana. The smell was still there. Calder shuddered with disgust.
"For some reason I didn't want to touch him," Calder thought. "Maybe Psi can work normally in this aura?"
Having tried to direct the Psi to this "creature" several times, the guy realized: he had one "question" that he could ask the mind of this creature. And for some reason the guy doubts that he will be able to find out whether DDD is a villain or something else so important. Therefore, there is only one topic left that is currently interesting to him. This man's sins.
Concentrating, the boy sent a probe from Psi to Weasley in order to find out what else he had done. A moment—that's how long it took him to decide the fate of this bastard.
Having put Weasley to sleep, Calder erased his last memories with an impulse. Using telekinesis, I put the chain back on.
"He'll sleep for a long time, but for now it's worth taking care of the girl."
With her, everything was a little more complicated - sooner or later, memories of Weasley would return to her, and this should not be allowed, because with it would come grief and madness. Approaching the girl, Calder opened her eyes and, with the help of Psi, plunged into her mind.
Opening her eyes, she found herself in an art gallery. She was big and bright. The countless paintings in it were reflections of her memories. Here are her parents, and here is her younger brother. Here is her first admission to Hog, as well as the joy after casting her first spell. Each of these paintings was bright, lively, giving joy.
"Beautiful," the guy smiled at the corner of his lips. Looking around, he noticed what he was looking for. At a distance from the other paintings was a dark door covered in cobwebs. Approaching it, Calder pushed it open and went inside.
He found himself in a kind of crypt of cultists. Skeletons of people lay everywhere, and it smelled of cold and death. Blood painted all the walls. And glossy black paintings hung all around the perimeter. You shouldn't even guess what is hidden behind them. The cracks that surrounded everything around did not inspire confidence either.
"Abomination and sadness, that's what comes to my mind when I look at this," Calder said sadly. — Each picture is one evening with this geek, as well as with his older brothers. It looks like he's been tormenting the girl for several years now, the ghoul," his gaze became more and more furious. "The girl was slowly going crazy, she hadn't forgotten these memories." Each use of imperius brought them back."
At that very moment, when Calder looked at these pictures and scenes of torture, triple rape, the use of curses, and also bullying, a blue flame was kindled in his soul. The flame of cold rage and anger, it will not calm down until it destroys the culprit.
The boy did not resist him, but on the contrary, he released him into the ore, thereby giving him free will.
In an instant, the entire room was lit up with blue flame. It was furious. His tongues embraced everything. Gradually, picture after picture, skeleton after skeleton - everything turned to dust, but even this burned down without leaving anything behind. His hunger was insatiable.
Leaving the room, the guy let the flames consume all these memories, as well as the room itself along with the door. As soon as the flame destroyed everything, the guy took it for himself. There are still a couple of things left to do. One of them is to close the hole in the mind.
"In place of the old, new always comes, right? So why don't I give this new one?" - thought Calder and in an instant created a large picture at the site of this gap. It's empty for now, but it will fill up soon. In the girl's mind, a lot is connected with water: colors, paintings, the smell of the sea, the feeling of the sea breeze. This is proof that she has a gift in this school. So why not give her this knowledge? Not much, just a little, but enough to create a foundation in her mind? And sprinkle some minor mental science knowledge on top?
"And I will disguise all this with false memories of visiting a mysterious room that appeared on her way. After all, this is Hogwarts, a magical castle. "Everything is possible here" - this thought finally reduced the rage in the guy's soul, but did not extinguish it. No, she's biding her time.
Twelve hours of subjective time. That's exactly how long it took Calder to do this. It could have been faster, but he wanted to do everything for this girl as efficiently as possible.
Coming out of her mind, he was convinced that in reality no more than an hour had passed. These were good. In another twenty minutes, he carried her to Halflough's living room and woke her up there. He performed all his actions with the help of Psi, so as not to leave traces. And it's easier to work with the mind this way.
After making sure that everything was fine with the girl, and also that the fake memories were as they should be, he went to his next goal.
"Wait a little longer, Percival."
With every step his eyes burned stronger and stronger. It seemed as if a gray-blue flame had engulfed all eyes and was about to burst out, destroying everything in front of it.
And at that moment, a new picture came to life in the soul of the remaining unknown girl. It depicted the waters of a black lake, calm and majestic, illuminated by sunlight, a giant sun that hung in the clearest sky. And on the shore of the same lake, with her feet in the water, a girl was sitting. There was a book on her lap, and her face was raised up, straight to the sun, under its warm rays. A happy smile played on the girl's face. She lived and rejoiced.
Returning to the Weasleys, Calder began to do what he had planned at the very beginning. Using the spell, he healed all the marks from the ropes, and also removed the remnants of the stunning spell. Lifting his body with telekinesis, he headed towards the moving stairs. Arriving at them, Calder, with the help of still telekinesis, straining all his strength, took complete control of the body. He did all this in the shadow of the corridor, standing so that the portraits would not notice him.
Weasley stood up somehow jerkily. He turned his head and walked towards the stairs with an unsteady gait. With every second his steps became more and more confident. Now you couldn't tell that he was unconscious, except perhaps by his eyes, but, alas, his head was down and they were not visible.
Approaching the edge where the stairs would soon arrive, he stopped. After standing for a couple of seconds, he took a step into the abyss. The body of what was once a man, and then became a monster, flew down from the fourth floor of the castle. Just a couple of seconds later, his head collided with the floor, splashing blood, bones and brain across it. Instant death. At the same time, pictures screamed, signaling an incident.
So Percival Weasley, the family's hope and a "good" man, was gone.
No one alive saw this, with the exception of one person. His gray-blue eyes, burning with an otherworldly flame, followed this from beginning to end, not missing a single detail. And there was no pity in them. Just cold emptiness.
"An inglorious death for the monster that once replaced a man thirsting for fame and recognition. The most important thing is, don't you think so, Percival?"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone