Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition
Team Pride of Portree
CHASER 3: American Horror Story
Optional prompts: 3 (object) broken mirror
7. (word) fatal
15. (location) Durmstrang
Word count: 2943
Beta by: Eben, Oni, Sarah, Shannon and Heather. Thank you so so much!
Author's note: This is a story that was plotted together with my dear friend, Ebenbild. We decided to work a plot together and then write our own story based on it. The result was...an idea...two different outcomes. Please check her story too, it is awesome! Her title is ...Broken Mirror.
The story was inspired by combined Murder House, Coven and Roanoke.
OoO
Their actions were fatal. They shouldn't have done that. They shouldn't have hurt his family. They would feel the same suffering. No one would rule here but him. They would all pay.
The Muggles would pay. Fire raged through him.
OoO
Viktor had seen the man at the feast and couldn't believe it. Even in school could he not escape the journalists? Mind you, this one was the strangest he'd ever seen. But he was still a journalist.
Ever since he'd become famous, things had taken an unexpected turn. Some things he'd expected; fame was a two-faced knife after all. But...he was still a teenager; albeit one that played professional Quidditch. Still, he was a student. And the girls—girls who'd been with him at school for years without giving him a second glance—noticed him all of a sudden. He did want to date; he just wanted to date someone who wouldn't act like a crazy fan.
He guessed he shouldn't be surprised that the headmaster would invite the press. Karkaroff was very proud of him—'Krum, the star of Durmstrang'. But he was surprised by the little girl that followed the journalist. Ugh. She probably was a rich fan who paid to be there. At the thought that he would have to endure squealing in addition to an interview, Viktor just wanted to hang his head. They all headed to the headmaster's office in silence and waited to be called in.
The blond man and the girl went ahead, and Viktor could see Karkaroff gesturing for him to come with them. He sighed, thinking, 'If I must…'
He assumed the man would be asking him about the World Cup.
When he entered the office, the man turned around and looked surprised, and the girl wasn't with him, which was weird; Viktor had assumed she'd be there too.
"Viktor, I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Xenophilius Lovegood. He's the chief editor of the Quibbler, an English newspaper."
Karkaroff looked expectantly at Viktor, but Xenophilius didn't seem to notice.
To Viktor's surprise, Xenophilius turned to Karkaroff and asked, "Aren't you afraid?"
"What?"
"Aren't you afraid to be the headmaster of such a school? Its history is very dark. The majority of the headmasters have suffered mysterious deaths, and those who have lived left the country. Do you know why?"
Viktor had to do a double take. The man wasn't there to interview him? Karkaroff was stunned too. The headmaster was looking at the reporter with wide eyes, clearly unprepared.
"I'm sorry, you're...here to interview me?"
Mr. Lovegood looked confused. "No, I'm here to study the history of this school. I told you in the first letter I sent. Strange things have been known to happen at Durmstrang. I want to get to the bottom of it. To find out what happened and why."
Karkaroff looked embarrassed. Viktor could guess why. He hadn't actually read it. He'd assumed that the man was here for Viktor.
"Well, yes, indeed. How much time do you think you will need?" It seemed that the headmaster was willing to go along with this charade, and Viktor thought 'why not?'
He was quite interested himself. He knew Durmstrang had a dark past, but from the way Xenophilius described it, it was much darker than everyone thought. In the past, there had been students who thought that they felt a presence watching them, and strange things did happen regularly, but everyone, Viktor included, had believed that it was just because of the Dark Magic that had been here all this time or the school ghosts, who mostly preferred not to be seen.
The journalist looked pensive. "Well, I'm planning to investigate and search the archives until the school year ends, actually. I have my daughter to help me, so I can manage. The plan is to come back sometime in the future in order to test what I've discovered, or even search more."
Karkaroff nodded. Viktor wasn't sure he was doing it to escape from the man or if he was simply too baffled by the situation. Viktor was sure there was little his headmaster, a former Deatheater, hadn't seen or done, but this clearly was unexpected.
"I guess," Viktor voiced out in a heavy Bulgarian English, "I can go now." Karkaroff waved him off.
Viktor left, but decided to study the matter himself. It was as exciting as it was scary. Until now, he'd done the same as all the other students and had ignored all the strange things happening here.
Now, he needed to know the truth. It felt like a switch had been flipped inside of him. He would follow Mr. Lovegood.
OoO
Salazar had always been ambitious, he'd always dreamed of greatness. So he'd left the little island that the Slytherin family called home. He'd dreamed of being able to use his magic properly, not live in fear of the Muggles in the nearby town.
OoO
The next morning at the Quidditch pitch, Viktor excused himself from Flying Class. At Durmstrang, they had the option of taking flying classes as an elective up to the last year. The teacher knew he was proficient enough to skip a class and let him go without questions. After breakfast, Viktor saw Xenophilius Lovegood heading towards the Library Archives, and he proceeded to follow him.
He thought he was doing a pretty good job at not being seen, hiding behind a shelf and trying to get to the archives, when a musical voice called out from behind him. "Why are you following Daddy? Are you searching for the truth too?"
Viktor turned and he was faced with the blonde girl from last night. She was wearing a floral dress and a weird necklace around her neck. She looked at him expectantly, and Viktor was happy to realise that she looked at him as if she didn't know who he was.
"I…"
The girl patted his arm.
"It's okay. You can help me. Daddy always says I'm the better investigator."
Viktor looked sceptically at the girl. But alas, she didn't give him time to think too much about it.
"I'm Luna, and I'm a Ravenclaw who passed in year three at Hogwarts."
Viktor was confused. Wasn't she then supposed to still be in school?
She looked at his puzzled expression and said, "Durmstrang and Hogwarts end at different times; we're starting two weeks earlier so we finish the same. That's why I was able to come with my father. And I'm really glad. He'd been working to get access here for a long time, though this place is positively full of Nargles and Green Stars."
Viktor decided he didn't want to ask about those. Maybe they were the reason the students felt watched all the time and maybe they were responsible for all the broken mirrors in the bathroom. Viktor wanted to focus on this 'lead' first. Of course, there was the possibility that they weren't real since he'd never heard of them before; but the girl looked smart and very serious. It was weird to see a serious expression on what he perceived as a 'dreamy face,' but he understood that. His expression always made people assume that he was unintelligent.
OoO
He travelled. And then he met three people who would become his best friends. Or at least that was what he thought they were. Until they refused to help him.
OoO
Viktor followed Luna into the library; was it possible for a third year to make him feel stupid? He felt small next to her. They started with the Staff records, grabbing a box and moving to an old storage room in the back to look through them. Viktor reckoned no one had been there in ages. He put the books on the table, and Luna closed the door. The room looked...old…and there was that feeling again, but Viktor was used to it. It didn't worry him that he was feeling it; he just had to know why.
"Luna?" He said, looking at the girl. She'd been silent all of a sudden, and that worried him.
She was staring at a broken mirror with a snake on it, but it didn't reflect anything. It seemed...broken.
"I'm coming," she said and turned to him, but while she did, something strange happened. He could see a shadow on its milky surface.
"Luna…" He pointed to the mirror, but it was gone before she could see it.
"What?"
Viktor shook his head. He must have imagined it.
They searched all the records for details of the past headmasters' fatal experiences, but they didn't actually find anything to help their cause, and neither did Luna's father. Viktor was still surprised that the man would bring his daughter to such a gruesome investigation, but one thing he'd learnt in the past two weeks was that Xeno Lovegood was exactly that kind of man. The only thing that seemed relevant were the old documents they'd found in the Mirror Room, as he called it now. They were records of an old property here, long before Nerida's time. Viktor had been to the ruins once, but they were...too creepy. He felt sadness and desperation coming from there. He didn't like it.
OoO
He'd wanted more to his life but he would soon learn there was a price to pay for leaving. As a teacher, he felt fulfilled, with a mission, but when he went back to visit his family, it was too late. They were dead, burned by the Muggles.
OoO
Strange things had happened ever since he'd seen that shadow in the broken mirror. Things he couldn't explain. Everyone felt watched constantly, and sometimes objects would get hot enough to burn to the touch for seemingly no reason. A fire had started despite the cold, cloudy weather...and then it had rained, like the sky was crying.
OoO
They were investigating his past. They had to stop before ... it was too late.
OoO
Viktor had left the school and parted ways with the Lovegoods once the school year was over. Both were going to research in the summer, although he wasn't sure how much time he would get, thanks to the Quidditch World Cup. Bulgaria was in the running to go to the finals. Viktor was surprised no one else had questioned Xeno about his investigation. They just seemed to ignore it. Even the headmaster seemed preoccupied and agitated, but Viktor didn't exactly know why. It wasn't thanks to the journalist and his daughter. Luna had told him Karkaroff hadn't spoken to them since the first day.
OoO
Rage coursed through his veins, he wanted to destroy them all. But he feared that to do so alone would be suicide. Fury in his heart, he returned to his friends to seek their help.
OoO
Viktor was excited to visit Hogwarts; not only did he have the chance to see one of the best schools in the world, but he was going to see Luna, his...friend. It felt so nice to have a friend who never once asked him about his fame; even his old friends did that from time to time. But not Luna. She was just...Luna. He'd investigated a bit over the summer, asked his grandma about Durmstrang's past. The only thing she could say was that the strange things had happened before and that the ruins belonged to a town that had been consumed by fire a long time ago.
Viktor met with Luna right after the feast and shared with her what he'd learnt. She looked pensive for a moment.
"I think we should check the Hogwarts records. Maybe we can find out about that fire since my school is older."
Apparently she was on good terms with the librarian because they were granted access. They went to the archives every day he wasn't preparing for the Triwizard Tournament. Far back in the Archives section, they'd discovered a classified records room. They finally managed to enter after months of work figuring out the wand motions to unlock it. They had to get the right combination through trial and error. When they finally entered the door, they both hit the wall hard, breaking the mirror on the side.
"Doesn't...doesn't this look like the mirror at Durmstrang?" he asked, going to look closer. Luna followed, and, indeed, the broken mirror was identical with the other. He turned and then turned to look again, but the shadow wasn't there.
OoO
The Muggles needed to pay. His family needed to be avenged. Hate grew inside him like an uncontrolled fire.
OoO
They worked a lot and found many interesting things, but nothing related to the fire. Finally, a few days before the last task, they'd found information on the Founders' origins.
"Wow, Salazar Slytherin is not from Great Britain," Luna said and Viktor blinked. "He's from this tiny island in the Baltic Sea."
"Baltic?"
"Yes…" She pointed to the centuries-old parchment sitting on the table.
Viktor froze. Salazar Slytherin's homeland was where Durmstrang now stood. As a student, he knew of its location, but had been bound by oath never to tell. Things were now moving in his head, connecting the dots.
"Luna? Salazar Slytherin...burned a town, didn't he? He burned everything and all that was left were ruins, right?"
And just like that the girl caught on, eyes as wide as saucers.
"Yes, he did."
However, they didn't have much time to ponder their discovery after what happened in the Tournament and his headmaster's disappearance. Viktor was pretty sure the man had fled back to Durmstrang; the place was Undetectable.
They decided to go back as well and break into the classified records there too.
OoO
They refused to help, and instead tried to console him, cheer him up. He grew bitter as he realised they were all too kind to harm anyone. It was a fatal mistake. Salazar took care of them all.
OoO
Viktor was right. Karkaroff had indeed hidden in Durmstrang, in the furthest room in the Archives. It was small and had a broken mirror on the wall. He did not know it, but it was what Viktor and Luna had called the Mirror Room.
Karkaroff didn't notice the mirror in the beginning; being focused on his Dark Mark. But when he had, he got an unnerving feeling of being watched. There was some sort of shadow in the mirror that seemed to follow him.
When Viktor and Luna managed to get into the classified records room once again, upon opening the door, to their surprise, they saw Karkaroff in the middle of the Mirror Room looking wild and scared. Upon seeing them, he ran past them shouting about snakes and mirrors. He disappeared, leaving the two alone.
OoO
He grew more distant with each passing day, fighting constantly with the others. The hate and the need for revenge grew inside him; he couldn't stand to see Muggles and Muggleborns.
OoO
They started to search the room, determined to get to the bottom of things. From what they'd discovered so far, it seemed that Salazar Slytherin was responsible for the strange things around the school. His family had come from the island. Also, he was the one who'd burnt the town whose ruins could still be seen today. The question was why?
He had found a document about the Slytherin family. They had owned the place, basically until they had been killed by Muggles.
"Viktor?" Luna said, alarmed, grabbing his arm. "We have to go! Now!" She yanked him hard towards the door. He followed her desperate look and saw the same shadow in the broken mirror, but this time it was surrounded by flames which were coming rapidly towards them. They barely made it out before the room exploded in flame. A moment longer, and it would have been fatal. The fire had burned everything within the room, but miraculously only the room.
OoO
Slytherin house stopped accepting Muggleborn students and the friends started fighting every day. Then one day, he disappeared. He was never seen again.
OoO
They already had most of the information. The last piece of the puzzle came the day Karkaroff was found dead with a broken mirror next to him. It was clear there was something more powerful than just a curse or haunting involved. There were both and none.
Both Luna and Viktor were worried about the future of any headmasters. After the war, they published their findings as a warning. Strange things had happened in Durmstrang; fatal incidents and more might happen if something wasn't done.
Salazar Slytherin had caused the death of all the people who lived here, long before the Durmstrang founder came, and he'd cursed the land for eternity to suffer as he'd suffered. The mirror was an old family heirloom, the only one he'd taken to Hogwarts to remind him of his Headmasters had died because they'd dared to think themselves masters on his own land, just like the Muggles did.
No one was Master here, but him.
OoO
Salazar arrived at the island to see the ruins of his home. They killed by fire, so by fire they would die. The land would be cursed forever. No one would rule here again. Not peacefully, at least. The fire reign would be fatal.
Long flames formed around him, taking power from his hurt and his desperation, from his rage and sadness. Soon everything was on fire. The night flashed white.
In the morning, a spectre could be seen watching the ruins, a broken mirror shining in the dawn's light. The last heirloom of the Slytherin house, now reflected what remained of Salazar.
A shadow of who he had been.
OoO
Fin