Small waders pinned down their beak. Rising its head, the bird gulped brine shrimps. Feeling full, the red-necked phalarope extended its wings. The wader left behind The Great Salt Lake. Sitting close to the shore, a wizard turned to the next page of his newspaper. One after the other, his eyes switched back and forth, searching for something any mention of his presence.
Burning flames were raging the heart of the city. Reaching the sky, this red sea of destruction was captured and immortalized in the 'Patriotic DailiNews' newspaper front page. The paper's articles mainly reported about this disaster that touched the heart of New York City. The furthest witnesses only saw the sky turning red from their house while many who survived described the true horror of this night.
The last article of the page contained the story of Roy Mora, a wizard in his twenty who was sleeping at home when the accident struck. ' At first, I didn't understand what was going on. After a small drink with some friends, I fell asleep quite fast in my bed. I was happy with a dream of wonderful witches but something forced me to wake up. The scream, that noise, I can't forget it, I can't. I still heard it when, I'm alone.
At that time, my ears hurt so much. I felt worse than having a rusty nail in my head. When it stopped, I chose to check outside. I wanted to see what caused this. That was the best decision in my life. If I didn't, I wouldn't be alive today. I was too out to lighten up the apartment, and didn't see the shattered glasses on my floor. I cut my feet with it. I cursed for this damned night. I was short on ointment and potion so I had to go outside. When I reached the ground level, there was tremor, a big one. I couldn't stand right. I laid low on the ground.
Only luck saved my life. When it stopped, behind me, my building, my home was collapsed. That's crazy. I stayed there, unable to move. This was too strange. I didn't understand. The screams for help didn't phase me. I was, I don't really know, too shocked. I don't know how much time I was in this trance, but when the sky became red my body acted by instinct. I sprinted away with all my strength... '.
The rest of the newspaper related the official investigation of this breach of secrecy. Within a ray of kilometers, only damaged and burned concrete remained despite the effort of many squads to repair the damages. The magic used in this place was cursed, harder to heal. To hide the existence of magic, the MCUSA had succeeded to make the non-maj believed it was the result of terrorist attacks from a foreign organization.
The wizard massaged his temple. He had been out for almost a week. The paper didn't mention anything about him. Maybe his presence hadn't been noticed during this night. The whole night he had been under disillusionment, was it enough. Summoning fire, he burned the paper. He couldn't bring it in Great Britain. There was also no notes of the summoning nor the creatures. The government should have restricted those informations, and fed an edited version to the public.
Glancing one last time to the birds across the lake, the wizard gripped a pen before space distorted.
Leaves waved under the wind's touch. Space twisted in the Seven Oaks Forest. In the empty clearing, a recurrent visitor appeared. The invisible fluctuations of magic dissipated. The orphan's heart soothed. That forest had been his refuge, his feeding ground and training place. As wild as it was, the youth recognized this wood as a home. Different from the castle and yet, similar. Both places were important.
Setting up the ward stone in place and marking runes in the air to prevent unwanted visitors to come, the wizard removed from his suitcase the still unconscious unspeakable. Magic penetrated the man's dream, another layer of fake memories fill his head. The recollections wouldn't be detected as such by anyone entering the mind. No blurs nor disturbances were visible from the first day to the last one. Moreover, the ritual adept added some mechanisms to integrate any new memories to the preexistent structure if the father went to meet his family, friend or a mind-probing old man.
Before releasing the wizard, the invisible orphan casted a dozen of Confundus charms on the sleeping man. As soon as the father woke up, he slapped his cheek. He couldn't believe he fell asleep. The job was so boring. For days, he witnessed the usual sight of the reading orphan. All days long, except for food and sleep, the student only read the school books around the forest border. Maybe it was time for him, to go home and enjoy summer with his little Grace.
At the pop sound, the younger wizard put away his book of necromancy. This problem was almost done. The man wouldn't come back for days, but he would remember the spying job. The only liability was the prospect of a potential sudden visit from the headmaster. The possibility was low with the international incident, the Great Britain situation after Black escape and the Dementors failure, but not non-existent.
Walking back to the clearing, the wizard cut his arms and let blood floated around him. When he reached his limit, the wizard concentrated to let his new improved vitality to close up the wound. The process was slower than a spell, around a minute, but didn't consume any magic. The paleness from the blood loss stayed. Vitality helped his regeneration power, but the gain was more on the endless energy he felt. He would need less potion for tiredness. Training and study would last longer.
In the middle of the clearing, the wizard command part of his blood to trace a perfect circle with an equilateral triangle inside an hexagon whom six corners were contained by the circle. Engraving lines on the earth with a silver knife, the ritual adept connected all sides of the multiple figures while adding runes for the conversion of ingredients and stability of sacrifices.
The six liters of floating red liquid turned into crystals of different diameters. Conjuring 28 liters of water, the wizard transfigured them into marbles of pure solid water. The two components were disposed around the circle center, between the triangle and the hexagonal sides. Opening his suitcase, the orphan retrieved 11.2 kg of carbon, 2.225 kg of ammonia, 1.27 kg of lime, 625 g of saltpeter, 605 g of Phosphorous, 200 g of salt, 182 g of sulfur, 157 g of sodium bicarbonate and 14 other elements to toss them in the ritual circle center.
Infused with magic, the red marking created some crimsons arcs as the energy converged toward the center. Crystals and marbles glided toward the structure's lines. At contact, the two liquids dissipated, absorbed by the conversion. At the center, the 14 elements merged into a black orb. Attracting the other elements, the orb fed upon the red lines. When no ingredient remained, the conglomerate failed to keep the solid form and filled the circle with a pinkish substance.
A white stick emerged from the puddle. The thing didn't stay white. The surrounding substance enveloped it. The pink solidified on the form. Another stick pierced the liquid. The process continued with the other three that followed. Gripping the earth, the five fingers helped an arm to gain consistence. Slamming the ground, the naked muscles pulled out the rest of the body. Half emerged, nail and skin generated from the fingertip before covering the full body.
Swinging the silver blade, the wizard marked the fresh skull with his necromancy signature. The link between servant and master was strengthened this way. The mental connection could send orders and get feeds back faster. Clothing the flesh golem, the orphan imprinted basic orders for it to feed and sleep at the right time. Moreover, it had to spend the day reading a book around the orphanage's pond. Furthermore, it had to hide in the forest at the first sign of the headmaster visit and send an emergency signal.
Satisfied with the result, the wizard waited for his creation to leave the clearing before retrieving corpses from his suitcase. Like the clone and the undead servants, the teenagers' skulls were carved with the necromancer mark. The flesh unhooked from the body. The puddle of red and pink let the bones knelt in front of its creator. Unlike the previous servant, those skeletons didn't have strong links.
Waving his ring arm, the wizard witnessed his faithful servant responding to his order. Each of the older servants caught a new skeleton and moved feet away from each other. The ritual adept retrieved a necromancy tome from his bag. One could further the link and quality of his minion with appropriated circumstances. One, the necromancer could summon a soul of a devoted servant and encased it into a new vessel. The orphan turned pages for another method.
Strengthening the body of the skeleton strengthened the master-servant connection. Many processes existed for this purpose either potion, ritual or sacrifice. Interested, the reader focused on this knowledge section. Following the drawing in the old tome, the ritual adept traced two circles in the earth, one big with runes for assimilation and a smaller one. Ordering the headless servant to enter the big circle and a new skeleton to move into the smaller one, the master touched the skull of one and the shoulder of the other with his hands. The old servant on his left and the skeleton on his right. Magic engulfed both.
" Beatius est magis dare quam accipere. ", silence followed the wizard words. Bit by bit, small dots of blue fire extinguished from the right creature. The skeleton posture lowered as seconds fell. Unable to stand alone, the wizard hand grabbed the skull in place. The rest of the bones rejoined earth. Smoke escaped the ribs. The tibia followed the same fate. Nothing but black dust tainted the smaller circle. The skull broke. The essence contained inside had left. All transferred to the other servant.
The reinforced servant was still headless, but the link with its master was the strongest of the bunch. Commanding a new skeleton to hit a tree, the bone left a mark on its trunk. The depth was like a hammer hit. A servant approached the same tree and launched his arm forward. The new hole was deeper. The headless servant walked toward the brown sapling.
The posture and cohesion weren't as stiff as the other skeleton. Swinging his fist against the wood, the bones penetrated it another layer deeper than the previous one. The increase in strength and overall fluidity weren't great, but they existed. To improve the quality, he had to sacrifice quantity. The wizard knew where he could find many Inferius.
Using the red circle, the ritual adept crafted another clone before both cracked spaced.
The wind was calm. Yet, rising from faraway, the sea rose to be crushed against the darkened rock. Keeping his creation close to him, the wizard followed the Horcrux's memories and reached the cave entrance. Not walking on the wet stone, the ritual adept flew along the seaside with his clone floating behind. The stone wall in front of him would only reveal the entrance when the weakness payment was fulfilled.
Not willing to waste his magic to brute force the passage, the wizard dropped some of his creation's blood on the stone. Unknown to physical pain, the clone didn't resist. Drenched in red, the stone crumbled. The doorway revealed the edge of a great lake in a cavern so high that the ceiling was out of sight. A misty greenish light shone far away in what looked like the middle of the calm water.
The wizard knew the defensive mechanism set in this place, any water would vanish. Moreover, summoning charm would wake up the inferi below the lake. That army was his secondary objective. Since the memories stored inside the silver crown were all discovered, the ritual adept wanted to obtain the other cursed objects. They should contain new knowledge. If not, those soul partitions could become a good sacrifice.
Deploying his wings, the intruder summoned orbs of fire to illuminate the whole place. Except for the island in the lake center, the cavern was empty of anything but giant salt crystal. Hid behind a rock formation, the boat for the transport was enchanted so that only one wizard of age could be transported in it. This was an awkward trap made by the dark lord in his youth. Any wizard with a broom or that could fly could bypass this.
Setting foot on the island the green robe recalled that Horcrux, Salazar Slytherin's Locket. The dark lord had used the elf of the young black to drink the potion contained in the basin under his eyes. Deep inside, rested the cursed object. The Emerald Potion couldn't be penetrated by hand, vanished, parted, scooped up, or siphoned away, nor transfigured, charmed, or otherwise made to change its nature.
That potion, named The Drink of Despair was invented to induce fear, delirium, and extreme thirst to the drinker. The memories inside the diadem had the mention of its effect, but not the process to craft it. The orphan knew that each soul part was linked to the other, I regretted destroying the diary without taking advantage of it. Imperiusing his clone, the orphan waited for the liquid to disappear.
Under the strong will, the artificial human couldn't stop drinking the potion which made its body convulse. Despite the lack of soul, feeling and magic, the clone showed the emotion of fear, borrowed from the mental link with its creator. The name of a girl was implored. The orphan could penetrate the clone's mind and watch what it was witnessing, but he had already guessed and didn't wish to see it.
Force-feeding the clone to finish the potion, the wizard ended the creature agony when no liquid remained.
" Betrayed by your own man. ", the green robe gripped the fake locket. He laughed a bit. He didn't know why.
The note inside the dark copy was a mockery. ' To the Dark Lord. I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match you will be mortal once more. R.A.B. ', the locket broke. The pressure snapped it. No cut nor blood resulted in the gripping hand.
Taking a deep breath, the wizard controlled himself. His grasp loosened. The cursed memories affected his mind more than expected. He had to be more cautious about it. Waving his hand, five reinforced skeletons knelled before the green robe. Magic escaped the wizard body. Invisible lasso of fire cut the island root. The uproot platform floated above the lake. Like a living being, the fire constructs devoured the island top to left only a plate surface.
Taking positions, the five servants stopped moving as the master drew circles around them. The five circles were surrounding a sixth one whose size was greater than the others combined together. The border of the floating island formed the seventh circle which engulfed all the previous one. Adding runes and modifying the necromancy equation in the tome, the ritual adept adapted the new set up to reinforce all his servants at the same time with a bigger range of sacrifices.
Disturbing the water with the clone corpse, the green robe flew next to his floating island. The lake, infested with dead bodies react at the second the flesh entered its cold embrace. Hundred of hands emerged from the water. Those inferis were specials. They were made to fear the fire which was fatal to them. With the use of summoning charm, the wizard grabbed a dozen of them and removed their limbs before placing them inside the center circle on his sacrificial platform.
" Beatius est magis dare quam accipere. Exhibeatis corpora vestra hostiam viventem. ", red glowed on the circle's lines. Hands grabbed air, feet kicked nothing and teeth knacked emptiness. Unable to free themselves, the inferis burned. Green lights emerged from their cores. The light diminished while the blue flames in the servants' sockets grew brighter.
Counting the number remaining, the green robe conjured a fluffy armchair of gold and blue.
Located north of Kent County in eastern England, the Jones family house was sold. The previous house of wood and stone owned by the Jones grandparents were no more. The town of Medway, constructed on the river with the same name had undergone some changes since the last two Jones didn't come back to this place. Under the supervision of the goblin, the house and properties were liquidated years ago.
Watching the foreign restaurant at the place of his gone grandparent house, Mikhael didn't reveal anything on his face. Since the accident years ago, he never tried to reach anything from his family. Comparing the address with the one in his memory, he knew he was at the right place, but the building wasn't the same nor the owner. The lady's mind wasn't protected. She acquired the place for half the price and never questioned why.
The orphan walked away. His grandparent lived there before, but the family graveyard was at Gillingham. Accelerating, the wizard put disillusionment on himself while he entered the woodland cemetery. Among the empty earth streets, tombstones were covered with leaves. Glancing at the memorial graves, the orphan continued his path. Olivia and Daniel brought him and his brother among those trees a day before the new year feast, to pay respect to Daniel's father who died during the world war.
The slate didn't change except for the lack of maintenance. No flower nor anything but the stone decorated the graves next to it. The family members were put in a familial grave. 'Here rests Olivia Jones, a kind wife and loving mother 1958-1986', the orphan didn't read any other slate. He sat next to the lone stone. Hands hiding his eyes, he didn't move at the cold contact.
" Do you miss them Misha ? ", the lilac scent was faint.
" I miss... ", the orphan couldn't finish his sentence.
She was gone.
Near the end of August, an owl came to the orphanage. The bird was hesitant. The receiver felt off. Approaching the reading orphan, the bird clawed the person's shoulder. The orphan didn't phase as drip of blood tainted his clothes. The owl insisted. There was no response. The nocturnal bird shook the letter in on its leg. It froze. The bird starred into nothing before flying away.
Catching the letter left behind, the invisible wizard healed his clone and clothes before returning to the cavern. He had almost finished there. The letter was from Luna. She wanted to meet him in a week at the Leaky Cauldron. She was coming back from North America where her father investigated The Great Fire. The trip was fun, but it wasn't for that she wanted to meet him in person.
Activating the sacrificial platform, the wizard considered his choice. Part of him didn't want to meet her. Their friendship had been degrading with the last months. He liked her presence, but his chest hurt remembering the excuses she gave to see the savior. That boy was more affected by the werewolf death than anyone else. Did she pity him, thought the orphan.
Straightening his back on his floating chair, the wizard dismembered another batch of summoned undead from the lake.
Entering the Leaky Cauldron, the orphan nodded at the pub owner. The student spent Galleon to get some light meal while waiting for the blond witch. The inn wasn't as full as usual. The poster of the wanted men and the ministry security agents' presence didn't encourage the business. Different rituals and exorcisms filled the wizard head. Since the diadem knowledge had been thoroughly analyzed, the green robe wanted to dissociate the object to the dark lord soul.
While the Horcrux strengthened the affinity to the dark arts, it was also the wraith anchor to the living world. To destroy this opponent, the wizard had to remove all the soul partition. Fiendfyre and basilisk venom could destroy them, but the container would also suffer the same fate. The wizard didn't want that. The Ravenclaw's Diadem was said to grant wisdom to the wearer, it could be useful.
Taking a bite of his meal, the green robe saw the younger witch coming to his table.
" Hie Mikhael. You look great. Did you lift while I was gone ? I almost didn't recognize you. Are we friend ? ", the blond girl sat next to him.
" Do tell me. ", waving his wand, the wizard set a Silencing Charm around their table.
" I meant it... all ripped. Sorry. ", the witch tightened her lips. " I, it's harder than I thought. ", she offered a wry smile. She was serious now. " It was easier before. ", she broke eye contact. Taking a piece of the offered half-eaten meal, she ate in silence. Her feet swung under the table. Still fixing the food, she cleared her throat.
" Last year, I spoke with Ginny. We share a lot more than before Hogwarts. She's getting better. ", the girl pushed away a potato with the fork. " That's not what I wanted to say. ", the potato was crushed by the girl. The witch looked away. " I don't know how, but I made a new friend. Even if you two don't get along. ", twisting her hair, the girl paused for a moment. " Harry is nice. ", she released the fork.
" Please, that's not it. I'm afraid. ", Luna caught the orphan as soon as he got up. " I tend to beat around the bush you know. ", her expression was watering. " I lost my mother when I was nine, your ? ", she stayed standing.
" Six ", was the wizard response.
" I like pudding. ", she starred at the orphan.
" What's your point Luna. ", the green robe left a tip on the table.
" I'm losing you Micky. That's better than Mike. I don't like it. We are drifting apart. ", she followed him outside of the pub. " You were, my first true friend Mikhael. ", she seemed hesitant to continue. " I know you hide things from me. Everyone does, have secrets, but, your, are different. The more I guessed, the more it frightened me... I'm sorry. ", she started sobbing. When warm arms enveloped her short frame, she relaxed. " That's our first real fight ? ", her smile was true.