"…so there I was, totally naked in the middle of the Great Hall, everyone staring at me and Professor Flitwick strolls over." Sirius chuckled ruefully. "I stand to attention and say, Sir, I'm afraid that I can only report partial success on that Alternative Invisibility Charm project you assigned. Now, Flitwick looks up at me, then he says I can see that it was a failure. I suggest you go back to your room and find some way of covering up its shortcomings."
Harry snorted into his drink and accepted a towel from Gilligan to mop his face clean.
"Anyway, I scurry out there and get new robes on, and later on, I found out that when Flitwick played along, he and I accidentally convinced everyone that I hadn't been naked, only my robes had been, so McGonagall didn't bother to even take points despite me flashing the whole school!"
Harry put down his drink before he could spill it.
"You were nuts." He shook his head and from across the room, Remus looked up from the paperwork that he had on the small desk that Gilligan had provided for him.
"I'm sorry, were nuts? He still is."
"I resemble that remark." Sirius chuckled.
Harry shook his head in amused despair, then glanced over at Remus.
"By the way, what are you doing over there, Remus?"
"Just finishing a few things for Padfoot." Remus shrugged. "Okay, Sirius. I just need your signature here to finish it off."
Sirius rose to his feet and ambled over to where Remus was holding out a quill for him to use. Taking it, he looked over the sheet of parchment and then signed it.
"And done!" He declaimed. "Thank goodness. Bad enough having to mark all that schoolwork, but sorting out the mess of the Black finances? Urgh."
"Hey, I did most of it for you." Remus protested.
"And you got paid very well for doing so." Sirius shot back without hesitation. Remus opened his mouth to reply, paused, and then shrugged.
"True. True."
"So. You got everything sorted for the Ball? And when is it?"
"Yes and Boxing Day," Harry replied after finishing off the remains of his drink. "I'm joining Hermione at her parent's home on Christmas itself, Neville will be there as well. I'll be heading over for lunch and staying until after dinner."
"Have you been there before?" Sirius asked and Harry shook his head.
"Nope. I'm looking forward to seeing Hermione's home. I know Neville's looking forward to seeing what a non-magical home is like."
"You know, I visited your mother's home once." Sirius mused. "It was after she finally agreed to give James a chance. I… was fascinated by the light switches. Kept turning the lights off and on. Lily didn't let me live it down for months. She even came up with stick-on light switches charmed to turn the dormitory lights on and off and had your father place them in the dorm for her. First time I saw McGonagall actually laugh..."
Harry leaned back as Sirius continued to reminisce with the occasional comment thrown in by Remus.
.
.
"That's it." Gellert said almost sadly as he looked at his Obscurial Detector. "MACUSA just got the last one."
"They do seem to have upped their game, don't they?" Voldemort asked almost rhetorically as shouts of excitement sounded outside. "So, five for now. Do you think that there will be more back in England?"
Gellert frowned in thought. "Possible, but unlikely. I only ever encountered one and her brothers had managed to develop spells to restrain her during her fits. It was her that got me interested in Obscurials, but I didn't see their true power until I went to America. I would have been able to persuade that Obscurial to join me, had it not been for Newt Scamander."
"And now we have five, not one, all of whom are able to control their power and trust us," Voldemort smirked. "Now, how do we get them back to the UK? Portkeys are out, even if they did work with Obscurials, they would be detected…"
"Which means a Muggle method is required," Gellert noted. "Although I have a slight fondness for cruise ships, it would take several weeks to cross the ocean and I am not certain if the children would be able to restrain themselves from using their powers for that long."
"So… private boat or take a plane." Voldemort mused. "I vote for the boat. There are quite a few in private ownership, it won't be too difficult to liberate one for us."
"Boats are expensive." Gellert protested. "Even I know that."
"Well, I have a little project I need to do which ties in nicely with acquiring a seagoing vessel, so with a little observation, I am certain we can select the correct boat." Voldemort countered. "With reinforcement runes on the hull, cooling charms on the engine and the fuel tank charmed to be ever-full and the tents transferred into the cabins, even a small boat will become our personal cruise ship…"
Gellert stared at Voldemort in amazement. "You can do this?"
"I had the boys do some research for me on boats." Voldemort shrugged. "I must admit, though, it was Mark's idea to begin with. Apparently, it was a storyline in a comic and he liked the thought."
"It is a good one." Gellert grinned.
"It will also give us a mobile base, especially if we can enchant it to fly." Voldemort mused. "I know from Peter… that is my Peter, not young Peter, that the Weasleys had a car that could fly and turn invisible, apparently by a combination of runes and charms. Since we know that it can be done…"
"…then between us, with our combined knowledge, we should be able to duplicate the effect." Gellert nodded in agreement. "However, I am curious, what is this project you mentioned?"
Voldemort paused, then cast a privacy spell around them.
"You know how I have returned from the dead multiple times. I use Horcruxes, better ones than the attempts of previous wizards, and I have used my experiences along with various books from the libraries of my former followers to rediscover and improve the technique that the Egyptian Priest-Mages once used. Would you like to learn how to make an anchor for your own soul as well? One that does not actually split your own soul in the making?"
Gellert's smile turned almost feral. "I'm listening."
.
The night air was chilly, but Gellert ignored it easily thanks to the warming runes sewn into his clothes. Below them, a boat rocked at anchor and Voldemort cast a series of spells.
"Excellent." He finally stated. "Four down there and all are Muggles. No Muggleborns or Squibs."
"Unlike the previous three boats." Gellert glanced over. "Out of interest, why are you so concerned about that?"
"It's what Herpo the Foul fell victim to." Voldemort shrugged as he set his broomstick into a slow spiral downwards, checking in all directions to ensure that they would not be disturbed. "When one uses the Killing Curse, it causes a backlash based on the victim's magical status, and the younger the victim, the stronger the backlash as their magic is still wild and untamed. Even using the Killing Curse on an adult wizard causes some damage to the soul as a result of the backlash, although that damage fades over time. But if you kill a magical child, the damage is far more severe and can cause your soul to temporarily shed a portion of itself. Normally, it will return and re-bond, albeit in a way that still causes a considerable amount of spiritual scarring, but if you are prepared, you can place that fragment in an object to anchor you, albeit at the cost of some mental stability.
"However, the Egyptian Mage-Priests had a different method. They used a spell to shred a Muggle's soul and fashion it into a spiritual anchor. As long as that anchor was intact, their souls would remain in control of their bodies regardless of physical state and they could use more spells to drain the vitality of others to restore themselves from undead to living once more, assuming that the body was still generally intact. However, this could be countered by a ritual that removed the brain, eyes, and other internal organs such as the heart, making the body far harder to control due to the missing senses…"
"The Myths of the Mummies!" Gellert exclaimed in recognition.
"Indeed." Voldemort nodded as he fished out a Hand of Glory from his robe and lit it with a wave of his wand. "It was only a small number of Priest-Mages who chose that path, but the stories still remain… mainly in the Muggle world, oddly enough. Hmmm, good. All of them are asleep and will not wake while the Hand stays lit. Now, let me give you the spell…"
The two wizards locked gazes, and then Gellert nodded.
"Got it… and it's so simple!"
"Needs a lot of power, though," Voldemort noted as he touched down on the deck of the boat. "None of my followers, present or past, could have performed the spell. Not without spending days in bed from magical exhaustion, that is. Are you ready?"
"I am." Gellert nodded as he carefully placed his broomstick underneath the ship's tiller wheel. "And what do we do about the parents?"
"We take their skills, of course," Riddle answered, sounding slightly surprised. "Do you know how to pilot a boat?"
"Good point. Parents or children first?"
"Parents, I believe. Should we need to delay in order to recover, children are far easier to restrain." Voldemort mused, then he reached up and pulled open the collar of his jacket, allowing a small snake to poke its head out. "Do you have the item or being you wish to use?"
Gellert patted the dagger sheathed on his belt. "I do indeed. I once used this dagger as a focus for controlling Adolf Hitler. He wore it almost everywhere… until someone stole it and replaced it with a duplicate. I still believe that it was my old friend who did it since when I retrieved it and sent it to one of my safehouses, it was then that he confronted me. I still wonder if it was his idea, or that of hisfriend Moody."
"You fought Mad-Eye Moody?" Voldemort paused to look at the older man.
"I was the one who took his eye."
"Impressive."
.
.
Harry stepped out of the small Switching Room and glanced around at the room he found himself in. On one side, stairs climbed up the wall while before him, a door offered access to the Hogsmeade high street.
"I see that you've completed the remodelling," Harry noted and a holographic avatar of Jor-El appeared.
"I have, sir. Although I have not changed how the outside looks, I have incorporated multiple shield arrays and retractableweapons mounts. Furthermore, I have relocated the sensor-remote relay into the attic for better protection against discovery."
"Excellent." Harry smiled, then he looked at the row of handle-less doors, each with a small plaque. "If all the Switching Rooms are here, what's upstairs?"
"Private living quarters, sir, should you choose to spend some time living in Hogsmeade rather than at the Pottery or Hogwarts. The flat at Diagon has also been remodelled and Iremodeledn the liberty of adjusting how the rooms operate. Each one now has two doors and switches when all the doors are closed. In addition, the second door cannot be opened until the first one is closed, but the end result is that when you walk into the room and the door automatically closes behind you, you simply walk out of the other side at your destination."
"That's… brilliant," Harry admitted with a smile. "No need to turn round, you just walk straight through. I'm impressed."
"Thank you, sir."
Harry looked round again, then headed for the central door which was marked with the simple legend Pottery. As he approached, the door slid open, closing behind him as he went home.