Author's Note:
I am SO sorry it took so incredibly long to get this chapter up. There is no excuse and I'm sorry, I'm just glad to finally be posting it. I plan to go back to posting weekly on Sundays for those who are interested. Happy Easter, Christ has risen!
Peace,
~ThaniMag
Chapter 11: A Weapon Revealed
"I'll lead," Hermione heard Draco's voice from ahead in the darkness. "Lumos!" light blossomed from the tip of Draco's wand, illuminating the passageway.
There was nothing much to see. The little group of wizards and witches stood in a narrow rectangular passageway. The passage wasn't wide enough for Hermione to stretch out her arms on either side. The ceiling was a foot above her head, low enough to make Rasputin have to bend over. The passage was made out of plain cement. The path went forward about fifty feet and then took a sharp turn to the left, spinning out of sight.
Draco pushed past Albus and Lily and strode into the lead. The rest of the group followed.
Hermione stared at the stooped form of Rasputin ahead of her with burning curiosity. She had so many questions for him.
"Rasputin?" she asked warily of the large man. He grunted to show that he was listening, but kept walking forwards.
"Do you mind explaining what in the world that was in there?"
His deep voice boomed back at her from around his body. It echoed many times off the close walls before fading into silence. "No questions until we're safely away from here."
The group walked the rest of the way in silence. They followed the twists and turns of the tunnel, getting closer and closer to the exit.
Finally, after half an hour of steady walking, they reached a dead end. "Hm…What do we do now?" asked Draco, stumped.
There had been no forks in the path, no other routes to take, they had simply followed the one there was. The path had taken a sharp turn to the left and just ended in a blank wall of cement that was identical to the rest of the passage.
"Wow, and you're an Auror? This is kind of pathetic; sorry but it is." Albus was completely unimpressed. He was leaning against the wall of the passageway with his arms crossed across his chest.
"Don't talk so disrespectfully to your elders," growled Scorpius. He too was leaning against the wall of the passageway, but for a different reason. Albus just looked bored, while Scorpius was using it as support; he was still suffering from his many injuries.
"Oh relax Malfoy, I'm not attacking anybody's reputation or anything." Albus strode forward and jumped, pushing the ceiling up and out.
A patch of moonlight poured in through the spot where Albus had pushed the roof away. He turned and sent a smug look at Draco before turning and clambering out.
"I knew that was there of course..." muttered Draco to himself.
One by one they clambered out onto a sidewalk. Scorpius needed a bit of help climbing up, and Bill handed the limp form of Zoë up to Draco before climbing up himself. Finally Hermione pushed the square section of sidewalk back into its place, making the passageway completely invisible.
They stood in a narrow abandoned alley. Down at one end of the alley the occasional car could be seen driving by.
"What now?" wondered Lily out loud.
"Well, first I think we should treat Scorpius's injuries and revive Zoë," offered Draco. Zoë was revived in an instant and Draco treated his son's wounds while Lily filled Zoë in on all that had happened.
Hermione turned to Rasputin. "Now, for explanations."
Rasputin shook his head. "Let's talk back at my place. We can use Side-Along Apparition to get us all there."
Hermione nodded in agreement. "Anyone have any objections?"
"You mean besides the fact that we don't know this man at all and who knows what he plans to do to us?" asked Draco, eyeing Rasputin warily.
"If he wanted to hurt us what's to stop him from doing it now?" Albus defended Rasputin.
"We're on our guard now, and ready for him," replied Draco matter-of-factly.
"We weren't prepared in the tunnel—he could have gotten us then. Plus he fought with Grease to defend us in the night club."
"That's true I guess…" Draco acknowledged Albus's point. Through the whole exchange Rasputin just stood and watched them with mild amusement.
"Well, if it's decided that I can be trusted, at least for now, I would like to depart. Who knows how far behind our pursuers are; they may have found the passageway."
"Okay, let's go," said Draco, still looking a little warily at Rasputin.
"Everyone grab each other's elbows so that we're all touching." There was a short pause while everyone followed Rasputin's orders. "Okay, now I'm going to Apparate. Just hang on and relax."
The next instant they were standing in a large dining room. A long oak table filled the length of the room. Big oak chairs of the same style as the table ran along it. Large tapestries adorned three of the walls and the fourth held a large mirror that reflected the faces of the group of wizards and witches.
Rasputin's large shoulders suddenly sagged, and he grabbed hold of one of the large oak chairs to support him.
"Are you okay?" Hermione stepped forward anxiously.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Rasputin stood to his full height again but his dark face was slightly paler, and a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. "Come with me."
Rasputin left the dining room and took them down a long carpeted hall. Here, too, the walls held many tapestries. There were tapestries of dazzling balls and parties with gentlemen and ladies in grand clothing, there were tapestries of agreements being made with great and powerful leaders, there were tapestries of great battles and wars with all manners of terrifying magical creatures, and tapestries of anything you could imagine.
The teenagers stared in awe at the great pictures as they followed Rasputin.
They passed many closed doors as they walked down the long hall, hiding who knew what type of secrets behind them.
Finally Rasputin stopped in front of a door and entered, followed by the rest of his companions.
It was a sitting room, or maybe a private library. A thick, plush green carpet covered the floor from wall to wall. Bookshelves lined three of the walls and part of a fourth. A great marble fireplace stood in the center of the fourth wall and one large window was set in the wall above the fireplace. Through the window could be seen large empty plains and in the far distance a range of mountains.
A large couch, three chairs that matched the carpet, and a couple of coffee tables also filled the room.
With a wave of his wand Rasputin summoned a few more chairs out of thin air so that there were places for everyone to sit. He also summoned a tray of food and drinks.
"Help yourself to refreshments as you would like them."
Albus threw himself onto the couch after grabbing a pumpkin juice and a pastry or two. Lily followed his example and sat next to him, followed by Zoë who sat next to her, and, to all their surprise, Scorpius who sat next to Zoë. It was a large couch though, so they all fit comfortably.
While some people were still grabbing snacks of food and drinks, Hermione asked curiously "Where exactly are we?"
"We're in the plains of Montana, a bit north of Billings."
Hermione's jaw dropped in surprise.
"I like the open, the cool air and the solitude."
"Then why were you in Chicago?"
"A person can only take so much solitude." Hermione just shrugged in response.
Once everyone settled down Hermione got straight to the point in her matter-of-fact way. "So what did Blaise Zabini want with you, Rasputin?"
"I've never met that man before in my life, though it's pretty obvious what he was after." He held out his arm, palm up, and suddenly there in his open hand appeared a glittering weapon. It was a deadly looking dagger. The blade was long for a knife and shone where the light caught it. The hilt was set with all sizes of emeralds that glittered with every turn of it in Rasputin's hand.
There was an intake of breath throughout the room. Albus' eyes hardened with desire. "What is that?" gasped Scorpius, "I mean, it can't be any ordinary sword."
Rasputin snorted. "This is no sword, the blade is far too short, but in answer to your question, no, it is far from an ordinary piece of steel. This dagger possesses a vast amount of power," answered Rasputin.
"Where did you come by this weapon?" asked Hermione curiously.
"It was given to me by my father, who got it from his father, who received it from the hands of Salazar Slytherin on his death bed."
The room was silent for several minutes as everyone stared in disbelief and shock at Rasputin.
"But—but—that's impossible! Salazar Slytherin lived one thousand years ago!" said Draco in shock.
"That he did, yet my family is no ordinary wizarding family. We are part of a special and powerful race of Warlocks. There aren't many of us on this earth, and not much is known about us. We have greater magical prowess than most wizards, and we live a lot longer, and by that I mean a LOT longer."
"How old are you then?" asked Scorpius with curiosity.
"Over three hundred years old," answered Rasputin.
"Wow, you're pretty agile for such an ancient man," said Scorpius in awe. Lily rolled her eyes.
"If you're part of such a powerful race of warlocks, then how did Blaise Zabini beat you in a duel?" asked Albus in doubt.
"I don't know. He's somehow managed to harness a strong power to his command—a dark power."
"And what of that thing?" Albus pointed at the glittering object in Rasputin's hand," What powers does IT have? What can it do?"
"It is an implement of Slytherin's will. It is a thing of deception and guile, as you would expect of a tool of Salazar Slytherin's. It has many capabilities; I'll show you one such ability." There sat Rasputin one minute, the dagger laying in his open palm, and the next instant, Rasputin was nowhere to be seen. Another gasp filled the room.
Suddenly Rasputin appeared again, but now he was leaning on the mantle of the fireplace, a small smile on his face. "Invisibility is only one of its many powers."
"So why did Slytherin give this weapon to your family, why not to his heir?" asked Bill, itching with curiosity.
"My grandfather and Slytherin were closer than brothers; there was a . . . bond between them that was forged over many years and experiences together. Also, at the time of his death, Salazar did not trust his own son; they had their differences and had had a falling out."
There was a tapping at the window suddenly. Everyone turned to see a snowy white owl sitting on the windowsill and knocking her beak on the pane of glass again and again. "Hedwig!" cried Hermione, leaping from her seat and to the window. After opening the window, she took the letter that Hedwig proffered her.
Hermione read the name on the envelope and then turned to Draco. "It's for you!" she said in surprise.
Draco looked equally surprised as he took the letter and proceeded to read it.
Hedwig flew over from her perch on the windowsill and landed on Albus' shoulder. She then went on to nibble on one of his pastries. Albus let out a little yelp of pain as she missed the pastry and nipped his hand. "I swear this bird is so old it has gone half blind!" In anger he swatted at the owl. Indignantly, Hedwig dodged his hand and bit his ear.
Albus yowled in pain and made another furious swipe at the white bird. Hedwig dodged once more and then hooted and flew over to perch on Hermione's arm. Albus glared at Hedwig while rubbing his bleeding ear; Hedwig glared back. "That bird deserves to die," he said ruefully.
"Why, because you don't have manners?" asked Zoë sarcastically.
"Didn't you see it almost take my ear off?" said Albus looking sorry for himself.
Zoë snorted. "After you tried to hit her for no reason, yeah, and I'd hardly call a little scratch almost taking your ear off."
Albus stopped glaring at Hedwig and turned and started glaring at Zoë, who pointedly ignored him.
Draco looked up from his letter. "It's from Potter's wife, Ginevra; it says to contact her at her office as soon as I can. You don't happen to have any floo powder, do you Rasputin?"
Rasputin grunted and, with a wave of his wand, a pot of floo powder appeared on the ground at Draco's feet.
Rasputin went back to his seat to leave space for Draco to access the fireplace. A roaring fire burst into life with another wave of Rasputin's wand.
Grabbing a pinch of the floo powder, Draco threw it into the grate, calling out the address of Ginny's office, and sticking his head into the now green flames.
Ginny was sitting at her desk. She was in a worse state than Draco had ever seen her in before. Her hair, which was usually silky smooth, was sticking out in crazy disarray. Her eyes were hollowed out by the large black rings under them. Her face was pale from exhaustion.
"Hello Malfoy, I've been waiting for you," she said with relief in her voice as she watched Draco's head floating in the flames.
"I contacted you as soon as I got your owl."
"I'm surprised it took Hedwig so long to find you."
"Well, with all due respect, I'm in America, and today's been pretty crazy. We've been all over the place."
"Any luck with finding Scorpius?"
"Yes, in fact I'm with your daughter, your son, your sister-in-law, your brother-in-law and a girl, who, I'm to understand is your husband's cousin's daughter."
Ginny burst from the exhausted, slumped position she had been in. She was surprised to hear that Lily and Zoë were in America, but she was more concerned about her son. "Is Albus okay?"
"Yes, he's fine; we all are, though, like I said, it's been one heck of a day. There is something you should know: we ran into Blaise Zabini and a group of his men, and they attacked this man, Rasputin, who we're with right now. They seemed to be trying to get a magical weapon from him."
"Blaise Zabini is in America?" Ginny asked in astonishment.
"Yeah, why?"
"Less than a day ago Zabini and group of men attacked your manor and robbed a book from your library; that's actually why I was contacting you."
"They attacked my manor? Is Natalie all right?" asked Draco anxiously, his wife's safety the only thought in his mind.
"Yes. Thankfully the Aurors that I stationed there were able to send a signal to me and I went with reinforcements. Unfortunately, though, we weren't able to stop them from stealing one of your texts."
"Do you know which one it was, by any chance?"
"Yeah, I asked Natalie. The name was The Founders: Before and After Hogwarts. Do you know what he could possibly want with that book?"
Draco thought silently for a few minutes, his mind flipping through his memories. He had read every last text from, his extensive library, he just needed to place exactly which one it was. Finally his mind clicked.
"Of course! Everything makes so much more sense now!"
"What? Why? What information was in that book?"
"I think you should travel here quickly by floo; it would save us all some trouble explaining things multiple times."
"Good idea."
Draco drew back from the flames and rose to his feet in Rasputin's sitting room. "What did she say?" asked Hermione curiously. Draco quickly filled all of them in on what Ginny had told him.
"She's on her way here, and I'll explain what I can remember."
A few minutes later Ginny shot spinning out of the fireplace, and sprawled on the carpet amid a small pile of ashes. Hermione gave her a hand and helped her to her feet.
Ginny immediately turned, her eyes searching for only one person. She spied Albus sitting on the couch, and froze immediately. "Albus…" she whispered very faintly.
Albus locked eyes with her. "Yes mother?" he asked politely.
"Whatever it is that I've done, or failed to do as your mother, I'm so sorry…"
Albus immediately looked away, uncomfortable. "I would rather not talk about this right now mother."
Ginny gazed at her son with anxiety and longing. "Okay, whatever you want."
"Well…" began Draco hesitantly, looking at Ginny for confirmation to keep going. She nodded sadly without saying anything, "Well, it's time for a history lesson."
