Chapter 1: No safety
Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel were in a good mood. They were both going over some samples of elixir mixed with dragon's blood, and for them it was just another day in Paris. Nicholas and Perenelle had been alive for many centuries, as such, they had never really bound themselves to others through friendships as their friends all came and went eventually, and they had outlived all of them.
Even professor Dumbledore...
They had taken the news of his death as a hard hit to themselves, and though they had outlived many, the death of Dumbledore was something that struck far too close to home...
It felt in many ways personal...
They did know Dumbledore and things were never as easy as it seemed, when Dumbledore was around. Not even his death, which in the end resulted in the death of Voldemort.
Nicholas felt tired, and though about wanting to get to bed early, but there was one thing he had to check out before he and Perenelle called it a day´s hard work…
Their experimentations took place in a room, that looked like a study, and even though Nicholas was a Wizard, there were barely any magical obtjects in it, exept from a cauldron, and some Elixir and fresh dragons blood…
On the far end of the room, stood and old and dusty looking cupboard, and Nicholas had his eyes set on it…
He approached it, opened it and saw the last bottle of Elixir.
The one bottle of the elixir of life was still half-full, and it would be over a year before they would run out…
He remembered the conversation he had with Dumbledore in his office at Hogwarts School:
"Nicholas my friend, this can't go on…"
"How bad was it…?"
Dumbledore had looked at him with his searching eyes, Nicholas had his Occlumensy shields up, and they were not penetrable…
"I am hoping you were not trying to search for something inside my mind Albus…"
Dumbledore had chuckled and had answered:" What makes you think I could ever get the thought of doing that…?"
They had both chuckled and laughed at that response and Nicholas asked: "so what has happened?"
"Voldemort almost got his hand on the stone…"
"Almost?"
"Well he would not have been able to get it, as he wanted it and wanted to use it. I made sure such desire kept him for getting his hands on it…"
"And I think you are a genius Albus…"
Dumbledore chuckled: "How long do we have to dance around the subject?"
"You do know Albus if the stone is removed I cannot produce more life elixir, and what you are going to ask me to do is not necessarily something my wife will be agreeing with…"
"That is why I wanted to talk to you about it… If Voldemort had gotten his hands on your stone, he would have been not just expanding his own years of life, but it could have brought him back, and the last thing we need is to having him back correct?"
Nicholas knew that Dumbledore was right about that, but the elixir was an addiction to both his wife and himself…
Not taking it would result in their own death…
Not taking it was literally committing double suicide…
Nicholas said: "Don't think any different about me Albus, but at this point it is also my wife's decision…"
Dumbledore's eyes were not smiling anymore: "But you know that I am right Nicholas, I thought that after a couple of centuries you would know the best choice from the bad one…"
Nicholas gazed upon Dumbledore and felt Dumbledores´s sage like personality surrounding him and he said: "I will destroy the stone. We have enough elixir to bring our affairs in order, but if my wife is not all right with this Albus, I will do no such thing in destroying the stone. We have truly been alive for many centuries then good are, but we know every single little detail about one another, the embarrassing and the good, and so you must understand that I don't do anything unless she knows what I am doing…"
"I thought as you are the creator of the stone…"
"You thought wrong Albus… I love my wife more than any man has ever loved his wife… and after so many years, I respect her opinion even more… If I were a man who was not tied to marriage, I would probably had destroyed the stone by now, but as I am married, I need to hear Perenelle´s opinion as well…"
"As you wish…"
Perenelle had not said a word after Nicholas had told her what he and Dumbledore had talked about, but instead she took a letter out of her pocket and showed it to Nicholas…
On the letter was written with black ink that made pretty curves: We will destroy the stone…
Nicholas asked: "Did he?"
"No he did not send me a letter, but I had a feeling that the stone was going to be the subject of talk. We will destroy the stone so Voldemort cannot return to haunt out world again…"
Nicholas looked upon his wife, and he remembered the first day he had met her...
The year was 1341 when he strolled through the almost empty market and his eyes fell upon Perenelle…
Her hair was in curls, her skin smooth but rough as she was used to work, and even many years later, she was still so beautiful…
His social skills had been lacking but he had gotten close enough to her to talk with her, as she was buying a few eggs…
"Pardon me Madame; my name is Nicholas Flamel, what is your name…?"
"Perenelle, I would like to stay and chat but I have to buy some food now…"
The Plague had been hitting hard back then, and many people succumbed and died…
Entire villages were dead, and women were burned on the stake…
"Should I even approach her?", he had thought to himself. Maybe if you tell her the truth, you are burned at the stake with all the other unlucky witches!"
He found his courage to continue the conversation, but Perenelle were already walking away from him…
Nicholas wanted to buy her something, so he went over to the markets butcher and bought a large ham…
Usually a ham would be cut into smaller slices and get sold, but he had bought a big one that had not been cut, where after he paid for it in solid gold…
He went after Perenelle and asked her: "Is there anyone waiting for you at home, children a husband or someone?"
"I live alone, and sir please don't follow me… I do not mean to be rude…"
He had shown her the large ham and said: "If you have the fireplace, then we can have a little feast…"
She stopped up and looked at Nicholas as if he had gone mad.
She looked at the ham and then she said: "I… I guess you can come with me home…"
Nicholas knew that for Perenelle it was all about survival, but he really wanted to get to know her…
She lived in what looked like a small house of stone that stood up close to other houses that were similar built…
There were not a lot of space to move about inside, but they eventually started the food preparations…
Nicholas was an excellent cook and when they sat down to eat, he enjoyed seeing Perenelle eat, for she had back then seemed to be one of those women that was not served meat often, and could not afford it.
They heard a horse outside the house, the sound of it hooves rhythmically passing by until it was brought to a halt…
There was a knock on the door and Nicholas fingers went underneath his clothes to the wand within.
Perenelle asked: "Who is it?"
The door swung open and three men without a knight's amour, and holding three axes, burst into the room…
The man that had sold Nicholas the ham pointed at him and yelled: "THAT'S HIM! THAT IS THE ONE WITH THE GOLD!"
Nicholas got up and took out his wand as Perenelle sunk back together against the wall…
Nicholas yelled: "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Green light flew out of his Wand and the one that yelled was cast against the wall dead…
The two others stopped dead in their tracks and a second ball of green light hit the second attacker, who fell down stone cold dead…
The third light hit the third attacker, who was thrown outside where he came from and Perenelle screamed…
She yelled: "STAY AWAY FROM ME DEVIL!"
Nicholas looke at her amused and asked her: "Do I really look like the devil to you?"
He said: "Watch this!"
Nicholas made an ordinary stone march into the little house, so it seemed like the stone was about to go to war and then he said: "Perenelle there are many like me, Witches and Wizards alike… If you tell anyone about this, you will be burned. Besides, I want to be with you and teach you what I know. Now you know that there are Wizards and Witches… Come with me and I shall teach you how to make Gold…"
Perenelle had not trusted him, but had feared for her life, when she saw the three attckers fall down dead like that, so she had ventured with him out of fear. As Nicholas explained magic to her, she eventually started to trust him and together they had ventured home to Nicholas where he told her about magic, showed it to her and explained it all to her and it was not long before Perenelle started accepting magic as a part of life…"
She had felt a bit like Alice Liddel that fell down the Rabbit hole, and the more she learned the more she wanted to know, and as Nicholas taught her more and showed her this world of magic, her heart surrendered to his and they were married, and ever since then they had stayed together…
… and she were wise as she wanted the stone destroyed, for she had seen Nicholas perform dark magic, and all gods would never forgive them if Voldemort was going to get the stone…
Therefore, the stone was destroyed with Dumbledore as a witness to its destruction…
Nicholas and Perenelle was done for the day and went into the living rom filled with books about philosophy. They sat down and watched Muggle TV, a remake of the TV-series F.R.I.E.N.D.S the one were Joey kills everybody, and Nicholas and Perenelle were holding hands…
They did not notice the shadowy figure looking in through their window…
As they sat and watched the show, Nicholas himself found that Muggle stuff like TV´s and telephones, wild they were endless fascinating they just filled up to much space…
He was preoccupied with these thoughts, that he did not sense the black smoke coming in through the keyhole, and did not notice that the smoke took the form of a man all hidden in dark shadow…
It just stood in the room with them, and saw Joey picking up the chainsaw and cut Monica's throat over with it, while he yelled: "THIS HAPPENS BECAUSE RUSS SAID I WASN'T HIS BEST FRIEND!"
Nicholas looked at his wife and said: "Should we change the channel?"
"No, I like this show, besides I saw you cast that curse on those three people years ago…The chainsaw doesn't seem so scary anymore…"
Nicholas was laughing loudly at that, but then he suddenly had a feeling of being watched…
He stood up and yelled "PERENELLE GET BEHIND ME!"
Perenelle became even whiter in her face as they looked at the uninvited guest…
They saw only a face of what looked like a man, cloaked in shadow…
The face was as white as Chalk, with blood running out of eye sockets, where the eyes should had been, but now were only empty. The face lacked lips, and teeth as sharp as an icepick, could be seen with blood running down them…
The face smiled and a voice that seemed to be reaching across time and space, a voice born out of countless of centuries of screams were heard…
"The Elixir…"
"There is no Elixir here…"
"The Elixir…"
He grabbed his wand but the creature came flying towards him, arms appearing like a Russian farmers sickle, and struck his throat and Nicholas gasped after breath, as he slowly drowned in his own blood…
Perenelle ran towards the closet grabbed the bottle and drank everything in it, so the creature could not lick it up from the floor…
"Come on, drink, drink, and drink it all up! She thought to herself, as mere seconds went by…"
The creature with the bleeding eye sockets now flew closer to her, and white eyes suddenly appeared within the sockets, but there were something about those eyes…
Perenelle was muggle born, with no magical power except being able to produce elixirs, but she had seen enough to know that the face was some kind of illusion, while the white eyes were the blood came from, were the true eyes of her attacker, and those eyes hated more then she thought possible…
Pure hate radiated from them…
The sickle for hands were hovering above her, and right before they came down, her last thoughts were on Nicholas, and then the Sickles hit her, and she felt no more, and the faced laughed, then cried and screamed as it flew away from the house and out in the cold night…