HI ALL: good news. I have chapter 21 (here) and 22 written. Working on 23. Things are quiet at work for the first time in years so I'm able to flow some some content. Getting excited as we're getting close to the first(?) climax. Still wrestling with the crocodile that is the ending but hold on fam.
Previously on A Shadowed Soul...
Spotting another fighter throwing killing curses he pulled a knife from his leg holsters and threw it, burying it in the back of his skull. As some of the group turned to fight him he disappeared back into the shadows, appearing behind the Order team. At this point the Order members were corralling the final 3 combatants, all having surrendered after watching their brethren fall.
"You and Tonks seemed distant after the raid," Sirius broached the topic gently as he, Kai, and Remus walked towards the Shrieking Shack.
"I think she tries to pretend that I'm not a dark wizard. And I pretend that she doesn't. Then again, she doesn't know what I've been through, what made me who I am today."
She blushed, then tried to channel Blaise usual nonchalance, "I'm a know it all, and I needed to know if you were a good kisser. "
Chapter 21: A Fanged Perspective
Kai growled in frustration as he stood from his meditation. Weeks of work and he was no closer to designing a ritual to free him from needing his dagger to draw in wild magic. After his capture by Tom Riddle, he had become obsessed with ridding himself of that weakness. The helplessness that he had felt in those dungeons needed to never happen again.
After speaking with the original Lord Gryffindor, he had shifted to attempting to design a ritual, with Athena's help, that would help him break free. When she was unable to truly help he had lost his temper and taken it out on her. Suffice to say, his calls to her to apologize were currently being ignored. He might need to sacrifice a goat to the return of her favor.
He had considered bonding to another god for help with this task, but Athena was possessive and their bond was strong. As he had already bonded with Apollo as his second, this left him with dwindling options.
Arms threaded around his waist, "No luck?"
"She's still not speaking with me," he bit out. From what he'd heard from Remus...hee had his father's temper.
She chuckled, "Serves you right for scorning a woman."
He stepped out of her arms, "You're not helping."
Tonks crossed her arms, the long black hair of her natural form not hiding an elegantly raised eyebrow.
"Looking to earn the silent treatment from a second woman?"
Kai groaned, shoulders relaxing, "I'm being an ass, aren't I?"
"Yup," she hugged him again, her nose against his, "but at least you have a nice one."
She slapped his ass, cackled, and ran off to her duty patrols.
"Gods save me from the women in my life..."
Ensuring the door was locked and his quarters were empty, Kai stripped and shifted into the form of Nicolas Gryffindor. Opening a secret compartment in a truck he pulled out a set of Wizengamot robes and the sword of Gryffindor to complete the outfit.
He had a very important appointment before his afternoon classes. Gathering up magic, he stepped into the shadows and shifted into the back room of his Wizengamot office. Quickly, he called a house elf to bring up tea and biscuits and opened a book at his desk, attempting to appear like he had been there for a time.
Minutes later a quiet knock came at the door and Melissa stepped into the room.
Nicolas Gryffindor had approached his star reporter with that story that took bravery to publish. It took almost half an hour to lay out to her the information.
"You can't be serious," the reporter stared at him like he had grown horns.
"100% serious."
"But…it just can't be true. How did no one know this?"
"I'm sure some of his original Death Eaters knew but were made to swear a secrecy oath."
Kai, as Nicolas, was looking to let loose the story of Tom Riddle's parentage.
"And you have documentation for all this?"
"I have info on Tom Riddle, how he went through school, his jobs. I have memories to back up that he's the son of the last daughter of the Gaunts and a muggle also named Tom Riddle. There's even a bit of evidence that he went back and killed his paternal family after graduation. Do I have a memory of Voldemort confessing he's Tom Riddle? No."
She leaned against the desk in his Wizengamot offices, her brow knit in concern. "You're right. This is dangerous."
"I know. We need to get that information out, but I won't ask you to risk your life here."
"Is there any way we can do this as a 'forced' article by the ministry? It'll get run with no author byline but be an 'important announcement by the ministry'? To minimize backlash against the paper… " she got up and paced the wooden panelled room.
"I'll run that by Amelia. Are you still be interested in writing the article? You could take claim for it after the fact, when the war is over."
"I'll do it. Get me all the documentation and memories you have and I'll write it. "
"Next week we're going to start our open, honest, and non judgmental discussion around blood purity," he paused as the class grimaced. "This is your chance to ask questions, give reasoning, find evidence of your claims. I've added magical research journals to the library. These journals focus on research into magical genetics studies. If you have an opinion, try to support it with facts or study results. The components and arguments in these essays will be dealt with in the classroom component of next week's classes."
Kai hopped up and gestured to the woman sitting in his chair, "Now, since I know you've been eyeing the beautiful lady sitting at my desk, so I'll introduce you to my friend Hitomi. She's going to help with an exercise today."
Hitomi was a tall Japanese-Canadian women with very short dark hair and perfect white skin. She looked almost ethereal. None of the students, however, would have guessed that she was also a vampire.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," she said, bowing slightly, her voice clear and smooth, reassuring.
The class was suddenly very interested.
"Most real battles you'll fight will be against adult fighters, and since you're still young, likely more skilled fighters as well. You need to learn to use teamwork in order to overcome a more formidable opponent. That's where Hitomi comes in. You need to experience what it feels like to try and fight a much more capable fighter."
Draco studied the women. If Boudreau said she was a skilled fighter, she was likely devastatingly skilled.
"You'll take on Hitomi one group at a time in different scenarios. Your groups are on the board. I recommend you take this very seriously."
Draco noted that he was paired with Blaise, Longbottom, and Padma Patil. That could be worse.
As he approached his group he heard Blaise mutter to Longbottom, "No screwing around today."
He wondered what Blaise meant. Longbottom may be a bit slow, but he'd never accuse him of not trying. Then he saw Longbottom give Blaise a smirk and a wink and he didn't know what to think.
'What the hell am I missing?"
They walked through a side door into an arena like they'd competed in before, but the arena floor is dark.
Hermione, Susan Bones, Justin Finch-Fletchley, and Dean Thomas were in the first group. Hermione and Susan were deep in discussion over what they could be facing.
"Your scenario is a classroom attack. You'll be in your seats in your transfiguration classroom when the attack happens. I won't tell you any more than that."
Kai directed them to the door to the arena and the lights came on. The rest of the class shifted to the seats to watch.
"Where do you think the attack will come from," Longbottom whispered to Blaise.
"No idea. They're both twisted. Seems like he's going to go for some kind of real world instances where we may be attacked by Death Eaters."
Draco would never adjust to how much knowledge Blaise had of the Shadow.
"By that logic she'll probably come through the door," Draco chimed in, "as they wouldn't come in from the ceiling for example."
Neville looked at Draco. The boy had been damn near decent this term, and an excellent potions partner. He wondered if engaging more with him would continue to mellow him out.
"Good point Malfoy, though she could portkey in or come in through a back room or window."
The blonde boy looked at Neville considering, "True. You can never…"
BOOM!
The 'exterior' wall blew in, throwing glass and debris into the fake classroom.
The girls dove under their desks, escaping the impact, but Dean got hit with debris and was pinned. A stunner flew out of the cloud of dust and he was out.
Justin quickly charmed a fast wind to blow the dust back out the window while diving and rolling behind the teacher's desk.
When the dust cleared no one could be seen. The three remaining fighters looked around and saw no one. Hermione cast a revealing charm on the room.
"Justin, behind you!" she yelled and immediately changed position to avoid attack.
Justin whirled in his crouched position, curse on his lips and immediately fell unconscious, a small hand falling on the back of his neck.
The sound of his body hitting the floor told the girls what they needed to know. Hermione cast disillusionment spells on both of them as Susan cast sound and scent dampening spells on them. Splitting off they moved slowly and soundlessly to the exterior walls, trying to get her in their sights.
"Two can play that game girls," a voice came from behind them.
They whirled to see the smirking woman leaning against the back wall. They dropped the charms and attacked full force with various charms. Hermione shot water at her feet followed by a freezing charm. Susan tried an advance immobilization charm thrown at her upper body.
The small woman batted their spells away with her wand hand and fired a variety of unknown spells their way. Forced to dodge they rolled behind desks and kept on the move, attempting to slip spells behind Hitomi defenses.
Suddenly the woman ran and leaped over the desk, flipping in midair and hitting them both with stunners before they knew what was happening.
They awoke to her smiling face, "Not bad," she smiled as she pulled them up.
Kai and the class clapped as soon as all 4 were awake.
"Well done! Justin and Dean, you were unlucky to be the first in her sights. These kinds of situations can be extremely confusing. Was it an attack or an accident? Different causes require different responses. What is important is that you understand your current reflexes under duress and work on ingraining better ones if need be."
Almost all groups failed spectacularly to defeat Hitomi. That was one point that Kai had intended to make. They were getting better, but they were years of study away from being skilled fighters. Blaise, Draco, Padma, and Neville had done very well. Neville was beginning to show his true skills. Hitomi had actually had to dodge and be a bit strategic to defeat them team.
The class settled down in their desks, still talking excitedly about the exercise. When they were all seated, they were surprised to see Kai lean back in his chair and Hitomi take the lead in the classroom.
"Last week you were assigned to research vampires and explain your thoughts on them in an essay," she said. "Tell me what you found out."
Hermione's hand flew up, "Vampires are magical creatures that survive by drinking blood, or life force, from other living beings."
"That's true, when a vampire is born or made, their body ceases to be able to attain nutrients from food. They drink the blood of other living beings to gather the energy they need to survive," the small women elaborated
"Vampires are currently banned by the ministry. Meaning that they're too be killed on sight by aurors," Susan recited, somewhat uncomfortably.
"And why do you think that is?"
"Because they're a danger? Don't they frequently kill witches and wizards they prey on?" asked Padma.
"No," Hitomi corrected, "In other countries vampires live alongside other magical beings in peace. Vampires can survive off the blood of animals and donors. You see, people that have experienced it… like being bitten by vampires," she glanced at Kai, "well with some special exceptions."
The students looked at her in horror.
"Vampires do have their own unique culture, which is yes a bit ..different...from human cultures, but really you wouldn't likely be able to tell a vampire from a human if you met them. If they didn't want you to know, that is."
No way, the class disagreed.
"Well, would you believe me if I told you that I was a vampire?" Hitomi questioned, smirking.
They all stared at her, bar Blaise, looking her over again and again. No, they didn't believe her.
She flashes a fang that had extended from her normal looking teeth, "Well, you should."
Momentary pandemonium followed until Kai cast silencing spell on the class. "Are you done?" he asked blandly. They settled back down and Kai released the spell.
"Are all vampires like you Ms Hitomi?" Padma asked.
"Are all humans like you?"
Padma paused, "Ah yes, that was a stupid question."
"I'd say vampires are like any population. There are some really good ones, some really bad ones, but in general everyone is pretty okay. I'm sure there are some like me out there. Of course there are vampires alive that have been alive for thousands of years. As you can imagine they have a different perspective on life."
Hitomi got serious, "Going back to an earlier discussion. You've met me and you now know that I'm a vampire. English laws say that you need to now contact the ministry so that they can come kill me. Do you think that's right?"
They all looked at Susan, knowing her aunt ran the DMLE, "It's true," she said with a large frown.
Kai spoke for the first time, "What do you think we're trying to show you here?"
"Vampires are actually pretty okay?"
"We shouldn't judge people we don't know?"
"Our laws are totally fucked up?"
Kai laughed with Ron Weasley for the first time.
Voldemort languished in a chair in the quarters of his potions master. He was angry. Very angry. Many of his generals were dead; those left were a few men he could trust from the first war, but few had that spark, that mania, to do what needed to be done.
There had only been one successful raid in the last 3 months. Somehow either the Shadow or the Order and Aurors knew precisely where they were going. The first two times he'd mercilessly tortured his generals to find the leak, but the next time he didn't tell anyone and just port keyed them to the location… and still… Aurors appeared immediately, even in muggle areas. No tracking charms or other tracking devices had been found.
He could smell the fear in his men. The shameful, disgusting, fear that on the next raid they'd face the Shadow or Azkaban.
That would soon end. Designing the ritual had been easy. However, capturing the final ingredient, the Shadow, would be the most difficult part of the process. It would be the most enjoyable part, however.
"Getting at Shadow will be very difficult. He can sense most uses of disguises or animagi."
"What about about the Imperius?" the disfigured wizard asked.
"I'm not certain. Not to my knowledge. "
The vampire had recovered fully from the blood withdrawal but was still not able to leave the base for fear of retaliation by the Riker Society. Voldemort could tell that this hindrance angered the vampire greatly.
"We need him to make a mistake. He need him to act without thinking. We need to strike him where it will hurt."
The Dark Lord grinned maliciously.