A/N: You'd think that, with it being half term, updates would speed up. Well, you're wrong. My updates are slowed by revision (aarrgghh!) for finals (is that the word for it?) and colouring my pictures. Not to mention that writing Shakespeare language is suddenly becoming a lot harder for me. I'm having a bit of a block. I would have put this up a few hours sooner by my Internet was acting up last night and I had wait until morning.
Okay, enough excuses. This chapter is more background than action. We're finding out more about Cassius Incubus and beware of the surprise about Onyx!
Power of the Moon
Chapter 21: The Highwayman
Whew! And what a day it has been! Two drunken fights to break up and not to mention that warlock's 'coming-of-age' party! Thank God I'm not doing the night-shift! Madam Rosmerta walked out to clean the tables outside with a cloth and a bucket of water. She wrinkled her nose at the sight of the mess some customers had made. Stepping over a few bits of broken glass, she proceeded to mop up some spilled ale.
Rosmerta then found out that it had been there for a while and had dried, making it hard to clear off. So, she enchanted the cloth to scrub at double speed and proceeded to wipe over the tables. As she did so, she looked up and saw someone hurrying down the high street. He's certainly in a hurry she thought I wonder what he's up to.
He then ran right past her and he saw the runner properly. With a shock, she realised...long red hair streaming out behind him...his cloak curled around his left hand...a long white coat...Incubus! She simply froze as the murdering vampire ran past her pub without even looking at her. Wow, I thought he'd look round for a moment there!
Still, he might be up to some dastardly deeds. Recklessly, she made her choice and followed him, just tailing him so she could hide easily if ever he turned. Wand in her hand, she hurried after him and, after a long time, he surprisingly came to the Hog's Head pub and stopped right in front of it. From the light coming from it, she could see him scowling, his fangs extending a little. Always a bad sign. He pulled out a knife. Not the knife from inside his coat she'd heard about. A different one, like a butcher knife,
"A plague on thy house!" he growled and threw the knife up at the sign with the pig's severed head. It embedded itself in the wood with a splintering noise and made the sign spin around several times very fast. When it finally stopped, she saw that the knife had gone straight through the painted animal's eye. She stared. Why did he hate the Hog's Head? He looked around for a bit and then spotted a horse tethered by it, that whinnied nervously at the sight of him.
He scratched his chin in thought for a moment, contemplating something. Then, in all of a flurry, he hurried over to the poor animal and leapt open its back. He whispered something undoubtedly foul in its ear and then kicked it off down the high street, leaping over the fence and out of Hogsmeade. A man rushed out of the pub and cried,
"HEY! HE STOLE MY HORSE! STOP HIM!" But there was nothing anyone could do. Incubus had, once again, escaped.
INCUBUS DRAMA IN HOGSMEADE
Late last night, the steadily-becoming-infamous vampire Cassius Incubus was first sighted in Hogsmeade by Madam Rosmerta, 32, landlady of the famous public house, The Three Broomsticks. At eleven o'clock last night, Rosmerta saw this, 'I'd had a very rough day and I was clearing up outside. Then, I see someone running down the high street and I recognised him.
'Incubus certainly did look like he was in a hurry. I followed him, he came to the Hog's Head pub and gave it this really foul look. He then got out a knife, said something like 'a plague on thy house' and threw it at the pub. It went straight through the sign like a bolt. He then saw a horse tethered up by the side. He then mounted the horse, whispered something to it and then off he went like a shot.'
As if this wasn't enough, this shocking incident was followed closely by another. An assistant at the Three Broomsticks (who will remain anonymous for security reasons) caught up with our reporters just before they left and told them a very chilling tale.
'I was just getting Madam Rosmerta a mulled mead since she said she was feeling shaky after her encounter with Incubus. Can't say I blame her, either. I went into the cellar to pour some out when I hear this scream upstairs. I dropped the mug that I was filling and I ran back up.
'The sight there chilled me to the bone! Rosmerta was lying dead on the floor in a pool of blood and there he was. Big as life, his red hair looking like the fires of hell...it was him! Cassius Incubus! He had been kneeling over her and drinking her blood. He didn't see me. He didn't turn round. He just stood up, ran off and out a back window. I heard the sound of horse's hooves outside and, by the time I'd finished my owl to the Ministry, he was gone.'
On closer examination of Madam Rosmerta's body, we found that the cause of death had been a stab to the heart and teeth marks were found on her throat. Also, all of her jewellery and the money from her purse gone. Could this mean that, not content with simply killing and terrorizing, Incubus had also taken to theft? In light of these new events, all residents of Hogsmeade village have given Ministry booklets of safety that warns to take security measures on their houses.
Villagers are warned not to take any jewellery outside with them or large sums of money. Aurors have been specially ordered to guard and patrol the village. All Hogwarts visits to Hogsmeade have been cancelled until Incubus's capture and execution. Any student who tries to sneak into the village will be escourted back by Aurors and given a series of detentions. The Ministry has imposed a curfew on all children in the village. Any child caught out after dark will be escourted home and no underage wizard or witch must go out at any time without an adult.
The villagers have been seriously shaken by this incident. All names have been changed to protect the innocent,
'I find it so amazing that only one vampire can just do these things and get away with it!' an angry Mrs Rochester said, 'With all the security measures put in, surely he would have been caught by now. Incubus has killed and now he's a thief. He has to be stopped right away and thrown in Azkaban! He mustn't be allowed to get away with this! The Ministry needs to capture him and put a bolt through his heart!'
Mrs Ingram says 'I can't believe he'd attack Hogsmeade. This quiet little village. And the attack on poor Madam Rosmerta, I think, was just cowardice. He heard her tell the reporters and he killed her for it. It's just disgusting! I agree with banning Hogwarts students from visiting. It's for their own safety! Personally, I don't think any children should be allowed out alone until Incubus has been turned to ash!'
An uproar in the Great Hall at breakfast that morning greeted this news. Incubus sighted and Madam Rosmerta murdered! No one was disappointed about not going to Hogsmeade. Not one person wanted to go near that village now after the attack. Even a fully recovered George (it would still be a few days before Fred recovered from his shock) was put off the trip to Zonko's he was planning. Percy gave him a lecture that was by no means needed or appreciated,
"Quite right too! This is a dangerous criminal we are dealing with, George, and I don't want to..."
"Percy!" George growled, truly angry, "Incubus is enough of a reason for us not to go there!"
"Oh," he looked abashed, "Well...sorry, I thought you might...well...disagree..."
Hermione said, "I agree with Mrs Rochester. It's so amazing that Incubus hasn't been caught yet. I mean, he's not your ordinary vampire and they're normally easy to get rid of. You'd think someone would have caught him by now. He can just disappear into thin air! He's becoming worse than Black!"
Baron was nothing short of outraged about the attack. He blurted out his feelings in Snape's office when they called a meeting. He suddenly slammed his hand down on the table and yelled, "Tis cowardice, sure! Bloody, remorseless villain!"
"Vaya, we should have seen it coming." groaned Zirconia, only quieter than Baron, "I was afraid something like this would happen."
"The worst is yet to come." put in Madam Topaz, who'd been newly introduced with Luna, "Nekros will not stop Incubus and his highwayman ways."
"He did nae mind last time, either." sighed Sabian, "And Incubus was the worst one of the lot! All highwaymen eventually ended up lynched but nae Incubus. That's how he started his life of crime actually. As a highwayman. The story is Nekros just spotted him on the road standing up a stagecoach and found that he had potential. He had a chat with him afterwards and asked him to join him as a Dark Sorcerer. Well, Incubus being Incubus, he was nae going to say nae."
Snape scratched his chin thoughtfully, "Sabe, what is Incubus's story? We have heard background on you, Baron and the war but I've hardly heard any of Incubus's history."
"Well," Sabian sat down like an old man telling a story of 'the good old days', "as you might have heard, Incubus used to be Julian Weasley. Now, the Weasleys were very rich then. The same status as the Malfoys and with a round dozen children..."
"A dozen!" repeated Snape, incredulously.
"Aye. And all of them out of cause merry hell for us professors!"
Somehow I feel really lucky that only two Weasleys who are troublemakers in this day and age! Snape thought. Twelve troublemakers; that had to be a nightmare,
"Mum always asks herself where she went wrong with them." put in Ginny, realising something, "Now we know why they are the way they are; it's in their blood!"
"Aye. They were wee little terrors! Actually, I should nae say all of them. There was one...the youngest, Julian. Now, he was very different from all the others. The odd one out, if you will. Not only because he was the only Weasley to go into Slytherin out of all of them..."
"And the last." Ginny scowled, bluntly. This earned her a piercingly angry look from Baron that made her flinch. Sabian continued,
"He was nae a bad lad. But he was always a very quiet little laddie. A bit of a loner too. A very good student though. Och, the best in most of his classes, never misbehaved. A pleasure to teach but what worried all of us teachers was his inability to socialise. We sat him in groups to try and get him to make friends but there was nae a time that it ever worked."
Sounds a bit like me when I was younger. Snape thought. I didn't really have many friends either…
"We found out that his brothers and his sisters had been teasing him about going into Slytherin. It was such a blow to us professors to find out that such a nice young boy could be victim to torment from his own family! I remember he had received a Howler from his mother for going into Slytherin too. It went off at breakfast, screaming at him for his choice and all his family were laughing at him. He just ran out of the Great Hall in tears. Some first day for that poor laddie!"
"Oh." Ginny said, sympathetically, temporarily forgetting that the little boy they were talking about was now a hardened criminal and losing some of her animosity for him,
"The eldest out of them, Jeanne, didn't join in the torment campaign of Julian though. I remember overhearing their conversation a few days later. Julian was crying awfully and saying 'They torment me for who I am. Is there something wrong with me?' and she told him 'Julian, even though you're in Slytherin...oh, what's Slytherin, anyway? It's just a house. Nothing to worry about.' That's exactly as she said it. She was right of course. All it really is in the end, is it nae?"
Harry and Ginny began to see that Sabian had a point,
"But, the students then were very similar to what they are today. They did nae share Jeanne's view. The bullying went on as he progressed through his school life. He nae showed it on the outside...och, he was a great pretender. We tried to get him to tell us who it was but he insisted that it was nae a person. That there was nae a thing wrong and he was happy. He was lying though. I actually witnessed some Gryffindors pushing him around in the corridors. I put a stop to it, gave all the boys detentions and wrote to their parents. I was quite horrified at the fact that most of the gang was his brothers and their parents simply did nae care about their son getting bullied. Lord knows what happened back in his home.
"Once, the matron was treating him for a leg injury and, y'know what she found? Bruises, some fresh, and scars all over his body. The Head of Slytherin House was extremely worried by then (she was really protective over her students) but Julian always just shook his head and said it was nae anything to worry about. But Julian still did nae strike out until one very fateful day...och, I remember it well. Just a normal day. Nothing about it to suggest something would happen. It was in his third year. Just at the end of the day. I go out into the courtyard and find some of the poor laddie's own housemates turning on him. Aye, some Slytherins! Usually, they left him alone and he left them alone. Now, a lot of Julian's feelings had been bottled up and I think it reached such a point that Julian just snapped.
"The Malfoys at the time were nae rivals with the Weasleys. They were just two houses alike in dignity. The Malfoy heir, Rigel, who was in seventh year at the time was even courting Jeanne. He was there at the time and was one of the ones teasing him. Aye, I remember. Rigel was reading out one of Julian's essays in a mock voice and laughing at a few parts."
The image came to Harry's head easily. He could imagine an older version of Malfoy jokingly reading out an essay and Julian (who, for some reason, resembled Percy) sitting on a bench, getting steadily more angry and upset, "Julian just stayed quiet like he usually did. Until Rigel started getting to him. Before I could move a muscle, Julian just stood up and clouted him right in the chest. It was clear straight away that his hidden strength was great. Strong as something possessed, the Charms mistress said afterwards. Rigel was knocked back and some of his ribs were broken. I heard it from the other side.
"I'd nae heard a place in Hogwarts so still in all my existence. There was nae a person that could believe what just happened. Julian just stood there with a whole new brutal expression on his face. We could really see Cassius Incubus in him at that point. He then Summoned his things and ran out of the school. All the way, he was yelling 'Damn you all! I call up the demons of Hades. For, thou shall all burn in hell!'. A lot of people said afterward that he'd really gone mad. The teachers chased him, I near broke my legs doing it, but we lost him around Hogsmeade. The next day was the real shocker.
"Rigel got a letter from his parents saying that his youngest sister had died. Only five, I think that girl was, poor little lass. Apparently struck a death blow to the head and then thrown into the reeds of a riverbed. Her parents were with her in her last moment and they asked her who did it. She said 'Julian Weasley'." The room was in a state of numb shock. Ginny couldn't believe that her ancestor would do a thing like that. Not even the Malfoys would kill five-year-olds!
"Aye," Sabian nodded, gravely, "And that was just the start of the problems. Jeanne then found out about Rigel bullying her brother and she did nae take very kindly to it. They had this really big row, their voices could be heard from the towers and, in the end, Jeanne announced that their relationship was over. Now, he was nae going to take that for an answer. He was nae the type to do that. So, he dragged her from her dormitory into the courtyard in the dead of night and then...guess what?"
"I'll hazard a guess at killing her?" Harry suggested, grimly,
"You're absolutely right, Harry." Sabian nodded, gravely, as though he was telling Jeanne's parents of the death, "He drowned her in the fountain and then was out of the school like a shot just like Julian. It was him screaming that woke me and brought me running. What a terrible sight to behold! Jeanne newly killed, face down in the fountain, and Rigel's fading oaths that he would kill Julian or die trying. I was the one to tell the Headmaster all about it. Everyone thought he was so distraught that he'd gone mad. I would nae be surprised if he had.
"Again, we could nae catch him when we got to Hogsmeade. Och, students were fast. The next day came the bad news. Rigel was found dead on top of the clock tower with a broken neck and his body was rather...ah...mangled. I was near the lead of the people who rushed up to the top when the bell boy screamed blue murder. It seemed he did die trying."
Sabian closed his eyes for a moment. In that moment, a many tentacled animal decided to twitch in its jar of liquid on one of the shelves. There was a low bubble-like noise accompanying the movement,
"Of course, the Weasleys were nae prepared to be in a feud with any family, let alone the Malfoys. They were peaceable, wanting nae a fight with anyone without a reasoned attempt at putting it right. In an attempt to stop it, they put in the newspapers that they had had disowned Julian and, if ever he tried to return to them, they would pass him straight to the authorities to be lynched or else kill him on sight. But Mr Malfoy would nae have any of it. Oh, no, that did nae justify two of his seven children murdered. He wanted revenge and he wanted it badly."
Personality traits are passed on through families too. Snape mentally noted,
"It would have turned ugly if Edward had nae intervened. Edward; y'know, Gabriel's father. He was Baron of Hogsmeade at that present time. I think we might need the Moon Mirror so we could get the feel of the situation. Ginny, you'd better do it. The date was eleventh of November, 1689, at eleven am exactly."
Ginny slipped the Moon Mirror off from around her neck and it enlarged, the patterns and pearls disappearing but the Mirror still reflected nothing. After positioning it on an enlarged silver stand she produced from her pocket, she said to it clearly, "Eleven am. The eleventh of November. 1689." The picture formed slowly like the Moon Medallion picture. It formed into the picture of the hall that they had seen in the Shrieking Shack only sleek and in its full glory, hardly recognisable. It was full of people. In the front seats were unmistakably the Malfoys and the Weasleys of the time. The Malfoys were on the right aisle and the Weasleys on the left. They were silently glaring daggers at one another.
People filed in and when the hall was full, a door at the head of the room opened and a man wearing rich burgundy robes and carrying a cane with a gold dragon's head. He looked like Lucius Malfoy's twin with Harry's hairstyle walked up to the podium. The room fell into silence as he entered, "That's Edward." muttered Sabian. Harry could see younger versions of Baron, Sabian, John and a Japanese-looking woman had to be Baron's mother in the upper galleries.
"I am sure your ears hath received the tidings. Of this mutiny between the houses Malfoy and Weasley that hath disturbed this village. As thou sees, my loss of mirth is for this reason. If thou houses wish for peace, I implore thee coincide now. Tobias Weasley, stand." A man in the front row with red hair stood, "Corvus Malfoy, stand." A man with white-blond hair stood, "Now, come thou two there before us."
The two men did as they were told. They stopped a few feet short of one another, glaring at one another. Edward stepped down from the podium and came down so he was just in front on them. He addressed the both of them, "Gentlemen, see what a scourge is laid on thy wrath. Fate has chosen to kill your joys with hatred. All are punish'd. Thou art two households alike in dignity and should have dignity. Absolve thyselves and trouble us not."
"Absolve?" repeated Corvus, pointing at Tobias, outraged, "How, pray, canst I absolve? My younger and my heir sleep i'th'mausoleum for his children's acts!"
"And thy son," put in Tobias, "ist the cause of my elder's sleep. My younger hath been banished at thy spider's hands!"
Sabian scowled and shot up out of his seat, "Trickery! Thou hast not the care!" he objected, standing up. Tobias looked as though he was about to shout back but Edward silenced him and looked up to an uncharacteristically fuming Sabian,
"Sabian, what ist you cry?"
"My Baron," It sounded strange to call Edward 'Baron', "I am the Potions master, as thou knowest, and therefore, hath known him for twice two years. Slytherin hath seen one Weasley. Twas Julian." This caused quite a sensation around the hall. The rest of the Weasleys' cheeks were burning like this was the most unimaginable shame. The villagers were asking the Malfoys for confirmation which they got, "He had not a quiet hour there. No relish in his work came for torment marred his happiness. Nay, not a moment of happiness he had. The world buys not the respect of his own kin!
"Mercy's deathday was his tolerance's. Torment from Rigel of Malfoy came and he could not endure't. Hailing a blow, he flew hence where we could nae reach."
"Ist this the birth of this loss of peace?" Edward asked, ignoring Tobias' obvious want to interrupt,
"Aye, I have said it. Tobias, thou referest to Julian in grief. Fie, for shame! You have ne'er grieved for his misfortune in thy life." Sabian was distinctively angry, something that rarely happened and surprised the people watching,
"Lord Baron," Tobias turned sharply to Edward, "I implore of thee to spurn hence this man. This mere Scotsman speaks slanders…"
"Slanders?" Edward repeated, incredulous and angry himself, "Ne'er have I beholdst such slander from thou! I charge thee for a liar! The saints canst speak more lies than Sabian! Be silent, thou wrangler, and keep thy slander! I'll hear no more of't!"
In the argument, Sabian had sat back down and Christine had come over to whisper something in his ear. Ginny distinctly heard one of the Weasley girls mutter something where the words 'stupid' and 'Scotsman' could be heard,
"Very well," Edward's voice silenced the whisperers, pinching the bridge of his nose, "'tis worthy tidings brought to mine ear. If 'tis true, then the Malfoys are but a little from blameless. 'Tis his kin that made the villain. However," he rose his voice again, since an angry outburst had come from the Weasley part, seething brothers and sisters furious at this accusation, "if thou canst not move thy hearts to forgive, lo, I give thee chance to reconcile and end thy bloody deeds."
There was a very long, tense silence as both Malfoy and Weasley just glared at one another mutinously. It was the sort of silence that could make your heart stop. The tension in the room was almost unbearable. Even little children didn't dare break the silence, being so awed by it. After a very tense moment that seemed to last forever, Corvus spoke, "Thy issue hath taken two of mine. 'Tis bloody crimes but 'twill not continue. The issue of Malfoy and Weasley are part'd."
"Amen," Tobias added, "let our enmities never rise to burn."
Ginny, on Sabian's command, then turned off the Moon Mirror. It clouded and shrank back as a small, circular mirror on silver pearls. Sabian then resumed his story, "Well, they were both as true as their words. They did not do any more killing but they were enemies forever. I cannae believe they still are now. Anyway, I don't know how he turned into a vampire but all I know is that, during his trial, Jeanne helped him escape the Ministry and he must have been inducted into a vampire pack while on the run,"
"Which vampire pack?" Ginny asked, curious,
"The Moon Fangs." This news was greeted with a gasp from Ginny and wide eyes from Snape. Harry frowned, feeling as though he was missing something,
"Who are the Moon Fangs?" he asked, feeling that he ought to ask rather than continue confusion,
"Oh, for goodness sake, Potter!" Snape sighed, "I know you knew nothing about the wizarding world but I don't know you were ignorant of this much! Didn't Miss Granger bother to inform you?"
"Drop the sarcasm, Professor." Ginny scowled, making him scowl in turn but it shut him up, "The Moon Fangs are one of the most famous vampire packs in Britain. Perhaps in all of Europe. All because they fought against the Dark Side during the war of the Exiled."
"Aye, aye, aye." Baron sighed, wistfully, as though remembering happier times, "'T'were gentles of excellence."
"Aye." Sabian nodded, "And Julian must have run away from them before the war started because he resurfaced a couple of months later as Cassius Incubus, the vampire highwayman of Hogsmeade town. The bane of all unwary travellers. He was such a successful one because, when he said 'Your money or your life', he meant 'Your money and your life.' After holding up the stagecoaches, he killed everyone, drained their blood, even along with the horses, and threw the coaches themselves in the river or ditch. That is, after he ransacked it of everything of value. I saw the coaches that he'd plundered around the paths outside Hogsmeade as men dragged them out to identify the bodies within." He bowed his head, shaking his head, "Needless, pointless killing."
"And that's what he's planning to do now?" Harry suggested, seeing that a change of subject was in order,
"Definitely, lad." Sabian nodded, twisting his goatee around his finger, "He then became a Dark Sorcerer, one of the Exiled. I'm not sure how it happened but I heard that Nekros approached him after he looted a coach belonging to a French noble. When he was at the height of his powers, his area of expertise was controlling people. Nekros, as you may have guessed with his treatment of poor Draco, specialised in torture and Onyx, though you'd never have guessed it, simply loved to kill."
"They sound a little like the Unforgivable Curses." put in Snape, after a bit of thought, "Incubus is the Imperious; Nekros is the Cruciatus and Onyx; the Avada Kedavra."
"Aye, they invented those spells." Sabian nodded, "The three Unforgivable Curses are a milder type of Sorcery. Not that it makes them any better than the ordinary type; they just require less magic and more people can use them. That's why they're so dangerous.
"Incubus, as you know, was a very proud, very jealous man with such a lust for power and high status that you would hardly know that he was once the shy, reclusive Julian. It was this craving that drove him to kill Onyx because he was so jealous of her. Mind you, Onyx was quite an easy victim for him. You see, she isn't a Sorceress as such. Aye," Sabian nodded at their surprised expressions, "even though she has a Moon Item and can use it, she's never did a bit of Exiled magic in her whole life. Always puzzled me that she could use a Moon Item and her skin is black when she has no Sorcery in her."
Seeing their faces, he hastily added, "Not to say she was nae powerful because she was but she never even started the Seven Stages. Incubus and Nekros merely allowed her presence for servant and spy purposes, sometimes for an assassination that they felt too simple for them. We did nae even know about her until a few years into the war when Zirconia defeated her. And Nekros completely dominated her, along with Incubus. All she did was laid out before her by the two men and she parroted their views, pretending she had the same status of magic as them. Aye, and they entertained her delusions, supporting them. Never for a moment did she think that she was just an ordinary witch."
"I wouldn't say ordinary." Ginny shook her head, disgusted,
"It must have been pretty easy for Incubus to kill her, then." Harry said,
"Och, aye. She could nae defend herself properly against someone like Incubus. Nae, she didn't even get the chance to. He stabbed her right through the back, I was told. Dead before she knew it. Anyone would think that Nekros would nae have minded and simply got another woman. But some people can surprise you. Though she was only his underling, Nekros did nae like that one bit. He fought with Incubus in a great duel in Hogsmeade town centre where the mosaic is now. I was there when it happened: houses blown apart, people killed in the crossfire; the mayhem and madness around the village could nae be described. We were all helping people to get out safely and I patrolled the battle field, looking for trapped people. Aye, I saw it. I remember even the number of bodies on the ground."
Sabian ran a hand through his hair, as if to calm himself, "Incubus's staff was broken in his hands, a bolt was planted in his chest and a fire-whip strangling him was the last thing he felt. After the battle, Nekros seized and hung his pierced and strangled body from a noose around his neck on the sign of the Hog's Head pub."
"Wow," Harry said, after Sabian had finished, "that explains why he hates the place."
"Oh, aye." Sabian nodded, "I was one of the people who took his body down and gave it to his family. Even with all he'd done, I simply felt that he should go back to his kin in the end."
Ginny left the room at the end of the meeting, deeply troubled by these revelations for more than one reason, hardly listening to Zirconia's fussing.
A/N: So, how'd that go down with you?