AN: Written for headagainstthesky's The Cursed Object Competition! Over in HPFC. Hope you like it!
Cursed Object: Number Twenty: Key.
Prompt: Fight
Also this is a prequel story of five chapters of a later story I have in mind for. Hope you figure it out :)
Wanna thank my beta: Hyper Caz for her help! She's the best!
If you are reading this, then you are fortunate, very fortunate.
For I am a simple writer, a simple witch, a simple seer who knows what has happened, what is happening, and what is going to happen. Simple actions will cause this event, these deadly events, that one would never wish upon their worst enemy.
But for now, I will only write about the history of the object that will lead to the destruction that I have seen. It is a key, an old, golden key with various intricate designs.
Unfortunately, no one will ever know how dangerous, life-changing and horrible this old cursed key is. I will be the only person to know and I am too much of a coward to tell someone, anyone, for fear of being taken away from my family.
And the only way for me to keep this nightmare, this event, from disappearing from my mind is to write it. And you, reader, will know how this horrible event happened.
How a simple key started it all.
You see, it was locked away, safe from any human being. This old key, dating back to the late nineteen-thirties, opened a door which held a deadly, nasty, unstable magical creature deep in the Department of Mysteries, in a chamber that even many Unspeakables didn't know existed.
And one may question – why would they keep this creature in the Department of Mysteries, when it belonged in the Department of Magical Creatures? Well, you see, the Ministry – Cornelius Fudge, to be exact – decided to keep this little creature locked away from prying eyes and curious hands. The few Unspeakables at the time even thought that Fudge was a loon to keep that bloody thing there. But those few kept silent, and those few made themselves forget that there was a key that could open the door to that horrid beast.
The history of the key began decades before, when Gellert Grindelwald was at the prime of his power and decided to lock up his most dangerous experiment. Few people knew what he had done, or simply made themselves forget. But, you see, if one forgets history, then history will repeat itself. He created this hideous creature called the Umgubular Slashkilter.
The Umgubular Slashkilter was as small as a mouse and as furry as an ape, unmenacing by its size, but an ugly sight to see. It had red beady eyes and the teeth of a piranha. It was also infected with a virus, a deadly virus that was delivered by a bite and could then infect people, turning them into a sort of Inferi, but they weren't truly Inferi, for the way those are created is very different from the ones we know a –
Well that is another story for another time.
And the reason for creating this creature was because Grindelwald had failed to make his army of Inferi. He wasn't able to handle it; the creation of Inferi was an act too powerful, too dark, even for him. It was the kind of magic that a young man a decade later, a man who could trace his family roots to Salazar Slytherin, would be able to control, would be able to handle, but he would not be able to understand the extent of it, not like Gellert had.
Before Grindelwald fell from grace due to his own friend Albus Dumbledore, he had decided to hide the creature in his home country of Hungary in a cage that was made of steel and protected by various spells, charms and hexes. If anyone wanted to try to take it, or even look at it, they wouldn't be able to. But he wasn't as pompous as the young man that appeared a decade later. Grindelwald had gotten an old golden key with intricate designs that had belonged to his great aunt. The key had magical properties, his great aunt had told him. And he knew that the key would be perfect to lock up the creature he had made. After all, it was infected and not even he wanted to let it out.
He knew what it could cause, what dangers it held.
He locked it up "for the Greater Good".
Gellert Grindelwald hid the cage deep in Hungary, along with the key that he had cursed, so no one would be able to un-curse it. It was too strong, too powerful to break. Gellert was the only one who knew how to destroy it, how to truly control it.
And one day when Gellert was going to visit his creature, the one he had created, he was met by his old friend, Albus Dumbledore. Grindelwald knew then that he actually cared for his kind, wizards and witches, and he confessed to his old friend what he had created.
"I call it the Umgubular Slashkilter." He waved his hand at the cage and Albus was about to peer in but he stopped him. "No. Don't get near it, or it will hurt you."
Albus' blue eyes did not twinkle; he looked horrified. "What have you done…"
"An end to humankind, my friend, a simple mistake, the result of the hunger for power, and I regret it with all my heart," Grindelwald answered. "But do not be afraid, for I have placed various spells, curses and hexes on the cage and on this key." He showed his friend the key that lay on a grey velvet cushion, locked in a wooden box engraved with the Deathly Hallows symbol that he had made for his reign.
"I have cursed the key, so no one can fight for it, so no one will become a victim of this horrible creature." His blue eyes looked at Dumbledore. "This key holds the continuation of humanity, and the destruction of it. I trust you, my old friend, that you will keep it here, away from any human, any creature. For I am the only one who knows how to control it and stop it."
This was one of the last times that Albus Dumbledore could be called a friend by Gellert Grindelwald, the creator of the Umgubular Slashkilter, the owner of a cursed key that held the lifeline of every single muggle, wizard, witch and creature alike.
AN: So I hope you liked it! Please review and alert it, I will have the second chapter up by this month :D maybe by next week or so, Caz and I are busy with Uni so that will be first, but I promise that I will update fast!