Have You Ever Seen the Rain?

Chapter Twenty-Six: We Gotta Get Out of This Place

I.

The boat plunged out of the icy waters, emerging in the catacombs that protected Durmstrang. Shivering cold was cancelled out only by a warming charm as Harry stood on the deck of The Dauntless, wrapped in a winter jacket. "Wow," he couldn't help but exclaim. Ice walls dominated the horizon, thick and impossible, no doubt kept hidden by something to do with magic, because surely any normal ice walls this thick would be no doubt noticed by the more adventurous muggles. "That's amazing. And you guys travel through this maze to get to Durmstrang?"

"Normally we just take the floo," Krum clarified, still using the translation spell to help with his speech. "But on occasions where we travel, yes. We use the ice maze. It is the only way to get to the portal."

"Ice maze. Is that a technical term?"

"You would not understand what it is called in your language, even with a translator spell," clarified Krum. "It is impossible to pronounce."

"Oh-kay," Harry said, awkwardly. "You didn't have to come, you know."

"And miss out on finding out why my best friend is not acting like himself?" Krum said. "And also, get a chance to see the fabled Man in the Suit in action knowing that you're actually the Man in the Suit?"

"I can't believe you kept a secret hidden for so long," said Fleur, standing beside him. "With the Aurors here. Under the guise of four Headmasters. Such a task… impossible, no?"

"Not with training," said Harry. "So, we should expect people to be waiting for us, right? The school has to have some advanced detection spell as soon as a ship breaches the portal."

"That's what I'm worried about," Krum said. "Normally Herr Götze and his ship is waiting for us by now. But I haven't seen him, and from my experience, if there is one thing he is not, it is late."

"Well in that case, should we expect trouble?"

"Absolutely," said Krum.

"Oh good," Harry said, clapping his hands together. "I'll go and alert the others."

II.

"I think it's better if I remain on the boat," Lupin said as Harry made his way below deck. "You four look more than capable of handling whatever Durmstrang can throw at you on your own, and it would be better if I co-ordinated your adventures from here. I have a map, after all. Wouldn't want any of you to get lost if you get separated."

"Sure," said Harry, as Lupin produced the earpieces. "Wait, Viktor, will muggle technology work in Durmstrang?"

"I had honestly never considered this," said Krum. "The school's large population is made out of purebloods, so I would have presumed that they simply have not bothered."

"Well, we can test when we're on the ground," said Harry. "Okay. Take a pair and place it in your ear."

The group followed his command, taking the earplugs that Lupin had duplicated. One they were all embedded, Lupin spoke into a microphone, "Testing, testing, can you hear me?"

"Well, we can hear you because we're in the same room as you," said Tonks. "But yeah. I can hear you through the earpiece, if that's what you mean."

"That's what I mean," said Lupin with a smile. "Okay then. Let's get going."

III.

The gateway opened as they arrived. There was no passcode entry, no person waiting for them, the door just opened. Krum lead the way into the empty hallways of the building supported entirely by ice, and it was deserted. No candle lights were there to illuminate the room, forcing the group to respectively cast Lumos spells that established the room. "How many of your classmates came to Hogwarts this year, Viktor?" Fleur couldn't help but ask. "There should still be at least some here, shouldn't there."

"There should," said Krum, and then he coughed suddenly, heavily almost. Fleur, Harry and Tonks looked at him in surprise.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked.

"I should be fine," he said. "It's nothing."

"That didn't look like nothing," said Tonks. "Do you want to go back to the ship?"

"You won't know your way around the castle without me," said Krum. "Even with me guiding over an earpiece. Come on. A good place to start investigating would be Andrei's room. He may have left something behind."

"As long as we don't run into the White Witch," commented Harry, earning a few confused looks from everyone else. "I guess I'm the only one that's read C.S. Lewis around here. Go figure."

They walked through the ice castle, their footsteps echoing loudly around the building. Largely undisturbed, the group found their way up to the third floor which contained the dormitories, according to Krum, which were not separated by house, but by skill level and age. Andrei Rosicky was Krum's friend so naturally, he was in the higher category, which was rewarded more lavish dormitories and rooms. "What are the rooms for the less qualified students like?" Tonks asked.

"Bunk beds," confirmed Krum. "Little space. It is an unfair system, admittedly, but it rewards hard work. You do not come to Durmstrang expecting it to be easy. There are admittedly, a high record of dropouts here. We can normally tell who's going to make it and who isn't."

"I'm getting worried that I haven't seen a single student yet," said Harry. "But why do I get the feeling that we're not alone here?"

"Maybe the Cult left some brainwashed students here," said Fleur. "This feels like a trap."

"Well, hopefully we'll be quick," said Harry, pointing his wand forward into the darkness, still illuminated by the Lumos spell. Krum coughed again, but quickly cleared his throat and brushed it off.

"Through here," he said, doing his best to pretend that nothing was amiss. He led them into the dormitory offshoot that played host to Krum's quarters. Tonks had to restrain herself from taking a peek at the bedroom of one of her favourite Quidditch stars, and Harry knew that Krum was starting to get fed up about her near constant questions on the voyage over. Krum led them into Rosicky's room, a small building in a mostly icy wall. It was warmer than anticipated inside, no doubt heated by some form of magic. "This is it."

"Looks like he left most of his stuff here," said Harry, glancing around the room. He could see that it hadn't been tidied and was mostly a mess, with storage boxes left with clothes falling out onto the floor. The study desk was a mess of papers and several chests of drawers were largely unkempt. "Okay, so we're looking for notes, anything that might give us information. Key words, Mordred, anything to do with Arthurian Legend."

"Well, I came all this way to find his porn collection," deadpanned Tonks, "But I guess Arthurian Legend will have to do."

After about twenty minutes of searching the room, they found nothing. No sign of any connectivity with Arthurian legend, no sign of Mordred's name being mentioned in notepads, nothing. A frustrated Krum threw some of Rosicky's work off the desk, coughing as he did so. "We came all this way for nothing. We should have checked his private room on the ship."

"We had no way of getting in, you told me that. Place was too heavily guarded, even for me," said Harry. "It was only because of you that we were lucky enough to get the boat in the first place. I think the guard is going to cherish that autograph for the rest of his life."

"Or sell it on the black market for a profit," said Krum. "I don't normally do autographs."

"I get why you don't," commented Harry. "But unless there's anything else that Rosicky might have stored his stuff, we're at a dead end?"

"What about secret messages?" said Lupin over the earpiece. "Have you tried the walls? There might be hidden messages on them. Invisible ink. It's a tactic I've seen used before, particularly by criminals to convey messages. Remember the Ramsey Twins?"

"I remember," said Harry, his eyes widening.

"Wait, the Ramsey Twins? Was that you?" said Tonks, glancing at Harry, who nodded. "We were trying to get them for months. How'd you get them?"

"Like this," Harry said, and then uttered to the room, "Revelio scripturam."

Instantly, the room descended into further darkness and the walls illuminated around. The writing instantly lit up and was revealed to itself in the walls. Written in code, the spell unscrambled the writing in the room to form a more coherent understanding of the language. "Okay, that is actually pretty cool," said Tonks. "Wait, I can't believe any of us tried it. I feel stupid."

"You didn't know that the twins were using hidden messages to contact each other," explained Harry. "We did."

"How?"

"Well, let's just say our methods are a bit different to yours," Harry said, glancing around the room. He took in the messages, which seemed to get more and more desperate as they went around the room. "Look. He was trying to fight the brainwashing too."

"I don't understand. How can he fight the brainwashing if he was the first one to submit? He must have joined willingly, right?" Tonks said.

"Maybe," Harry pondered. "What was Rosicky like before? Did you know him much? Were there any tell-tale signs that he was going to you know, do this?"

"He was bullied," said Krum. "Not by me. Once some of the more overzealous purebloods found out he was a muggleborn, things got ugly. I don't like jumping to conclusions but it looks like he was able to tap into a source of power somehow, turn to it out of desperation looking to increase his strength and got more than he bargained for."

"Okay…" Harry said. "So what's this about a vault that he's writing about? Is it like the door at Hogwarts?"

"It's a place of mythical power," Krum said. "Every school has their legends. I'd imagine Beauxbatons does too, no?"

"It does," confirmed Fleur. "There are rumours of a room with immense power behind it."

"That's odd," Harry said. "Three rooms, three different schools, all with great power sources behind them. What's the connection?"

"They're the premiere magical schools in Europe," added Fleur. "Hold on. Do you have a map on you?"

"I do," said Harry, reaching into his pockets and producing one. He handed her a pen that he kept with him upon her request, and she drew dots on the location of the three respective schools. Beauxbatons was located in the South of France, somewhere near the German border in the Alsace-Lorraine region, whilst Scandinavia played host to Durmstrang, south of Oslo and Stockholm but north of Copenhagen. It was a location that was indicated by Krum discreetly so that he didn't break the code, giving Fleur enough information to work out where it was without telling her. She showed Harry directly.

"It's almost perfect triangle," said Fleur. "Look. Beauxbatons, Hogwarts, Durmstrang. All at exactly the same point away from each other. Follow the line across, Durmstrang, Hogwarts. Now, if I remember correctly from my readings, several years ago, there were attempts at creating different schools around the same time as Hogwarts and Durmstrang. I know we're not supposed to talk about the Cursed Founding, but it was an experiment to create three more schools. Their names are lost to history, but if you add them in, you get another triangle, and the symbol becomes…"

"A pentagram," realised Harry, noticing the indents that Fleur had drawn. "But hold on, isn't that one over water?"

"Well, the legends of Atlantis had to come into play somewhere, didn't they?" Fleur said with a shrug. "I just never imagined that it would be so close to Britain, I always felt it would be further south."

"So there was an underwater colony a few miles off the coast of the UK, Norway, and a school in Poland that we never knew about?" Tonks said. "Seems a bit convenient."

"It does," said Fleur. "But I'm willing to bet that if you went there, you'd find ruins very much like the schools, and at its heart, secret rooms with legends of immense power. Or wreckages of what was once rooms anyway."

"So you reckon they were created for a purpose? You think Mordred isn't just in the room at Hogwarts?"

"It would make sense," said Fleur. "Magical culture, the pentagram, everything links together."

"Careful, you're getting into conspiracy territory here," said Harry. "But if the schools were created to the purpose of protecting Mordred, why go to great lengths? And why bury Mordred beneath thousands of children?"

"Because who would expect the greatest villain who ever lived to be imprisoned beneath a school?" Tonks said. "And beneath multiple schools? It sounds farfetched, crazy, but I've seen how crazy magic can be in the past. I wouldn't rule it out."

"So are we going to Poland next? Or Atlantis?"

"There's no need," said Harry. "The schools have already fallen, centuries ago. There's a reason why they're known as the Cursed Foundings. Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons survived because they haven't been breached yet."

"And if the vault has already been opened in Durmstrang," realised Krum. "Then Durmstrang has fallen too. That would explain the lack of students. They're not here… because Mordred's army has defeated them already."

"And students from Beauxbatons have already been converted," realised Fleur, putting the pieces together. "We normally hear back from Beauxbatons at least once every three weeks. We have not heard anything back since the first task. My Headmistress, she was worried… but had more pressing matters at hand with the Tournament so never followed it up. Oh, Merlin's Beard. Hogwarts is the last one left."

"What happens once the pentagram is complete?" Lupin said, and nobody really wanted to answer, a deathly silence overtaking the room.

Loud noises could be heard from above. Footsteps increasing by the dozen, and dark, twisted, inhuman sounds that followed them through the room, echoing above. "Hmmm. That's odd. The people upstairs are rather noisy."

"This is the highest floor. There aren't any people upstairs," said Krum, following Harry's gaze to the floor above them. "There shouldn't even be an upstairs floor."

"I was afraid you were going to say that," said Harry. "Notice me not charms can be projected onto an entire building if the caster is powerful enough. There were people upstairs the entire time… we just didn't hear them because of the charms. I hate to break it to you, Viktor… but there has always been an upstairs floor at Durmstrang."

Krum's eyes widened in growing realisation and horror at the implication as to what he had just heard. "Get out of there," Lupin instructed through the earpiece. "It's a trap! Get out of there now!"

Fleur and Krum were standing the closest to the door and rushed out, quickly able to escape the bedroom. However, before Harry and Tonks could escape the door slammed shut in front of them, blocking them and preventing them from escaping. "No, no, no, no, no," Harry grimaced in frustration. "Not again."

They tried blasting the door and apparating, but neither tactic worked. Instantly a section of the ceiling began to open and from above, concrete mix began pouring down on the room, covering them. "This is not good," Tonks said. "Remus, we need to get out of here!"

"I can try disabling the anti-apparition wards, but it might take a while," said Lupin. "Alternatively… try breaking the ice."

Realization dawned on Harry's face as he began casting a spell at the concrete. The ice was thick, but if enough pressure was applied in one pace, in theory, it would collapse, no matter how much magic was keeping it in place, especially if there was something less than concrete below him. Tonks started following his manoeuvre, and soon, with the pressure applied by the concrete, the ice began to break under the weight. It wasn't long before it collapsed completely, sending Harry and Tonks crashing down onto the floor below. Tonks instantly pulled Harry away from the concrete and they pulled themselves to their feet. "Well, what now?" Tonks said, glancing down the hallway.

"We find Fleur and Viktor and get the hell out of here," said Harry. "We've been here too long."

"You're right. I'm starting to hate this place," said Tonks. "And I'm getting the horrible, sinking feeling that we should never have come here."

IV.

"Harry!" Fleur couldn't help but shout in frustration at the door. She tried to apparate inside, but couldn't, and merely found herself reappearing in the hallway. "Merde, Merde, Merde. What do we do now?"

"Without Harry we should head back to the ship and assume that that is where he is heading as well," Krum said, leading the way forward down the darkened corridor. "I don't want to spend a second longer in this place than necessary."

"Are you sure he's even alive? That was concrete in there," insisted Fleur. "And if they couldn't apparate?"

"Then he's dead," Viktor said bluntly. "But he's Harry Potter. If the rumours about The Man in the Suit are true, then he's survived ten times worse fates than being trapped in a room full of concrete. He'll be fine. You really care about him, don't you?"

"I do," admitted Fleur. "Well, yes. He's probably going to be fine. Let's get out of here."

"Wait!" a voice suddenly called towards them, initially in Swedish, but Krum instantly understood it from the translation spell that was still working. A panicked expression could be heard from a Durmstrang student, who, with a look of pure terror in his eyes, ran towards Krum and Fleur. Krum did his best to hide another cough as the student did so. "You've got to help me. Please, please, please help me Viktor."

"You know him?" Fleur said, glancing at the Durmstrang student. "Who is he?"

"Kasper Ziyech," confirmed Viktor. "It's been a while."

"What are you doing here, I thought you were at Hogwarts?" said the blonde-haired student introduced as Kasper Ziyech. "But that doesn't matter, I'm running out of time, you've got to help me, please!"

"What is it?" Krum said, as the student got down on his knees, and virtually begged for help. Krum had never seen Ziyech more terrified in his life, he came from a rich, proud family of Purebloods and would never kneel to anyone, ever. "What's wrong?"

"It's a Dullahan," said Ziyech. "I don't know how or why it's here, but it's taking out students one by one, those that haven't you know… already been taken by the door. It's fast. Invincible. Do you know what a Dullahan is?"

"Irish Mythology," said Fleur. "I covered it as one of my modules last year. I know what it is."

"Well then you know there's only one way to stop it," said Ziyech. "We need to get some gold or else it's going to kill us all. I think it was left as a trap by I don't know, someone who left. I've been hiding out for months in abandoned rooms with food from the kitchens, too scared to leave. I'm lucky, the others put up more of a resistance, bide me some time."

"So you hid like a coward? And all this time, you couldn't find any gold?"

"No, no, no, I couldn't. I had no choice," Ziyech said, and glanced behind him, his blood running cold. "Oh no, it's here! I can see it! When it stops riding, I'm dead!"

The horseman turned around the corner and began to head towards him. It was a horrifying sight to see, something that would haunt both Fleur and Viktor for the rest of their days. The sinister, gruesome face with the cruel smile and despite the ghostly aura it maintained, it resembled a look unlike any other ghost that they had ever seen before. "We need to go, now."

Ziyech ran at full pace. Fleur and Viktor turned and followed suit, the horseback rider chasing after them. "It won't come for you until I'm dead. It has a list that it follows, and an order," said Ziyech, running, almost out of breath. "I need to get out of here now."

"We're not getting out of here," said Krum, suddenly, realization dawning on his face. "I remember something. The top floor, above the dormitories."

"But there's no top floor above the dormitories," said Ziyech, panicking. "Are you mad, Viktor?"

"No, there's always been a top floor on top of the dormitories," said Krum. "Come with me. Professor, do you copy?"

"I do, Mr. Krum," said Lupin over the instruction. "I am letting Harry and Nymphadora know immediately."

Krum and Fleur proceeded up the stairs, thankful that the Dullahan was moving at a slow pace than normal. They slammed all the doors that they could behind them as they ran in an attempt to slow down the creature, but there was only two and the locks seemed to open regardless of what happened. They ran up the spiral staircase, breaking through the notice me not spells. "Aren't we running towards the brainwashed students? Isn't this a bad idea?" Fleur couldn't help but ask.

"Not if we stick to the plan," said Krum.

"There's a plan?" Ziyech couldn't help but look alarmed at this. "I'm still not convinced there's another floor, you know. It's weird. Despite the fact I know I'm running up these steps."

"Notice me not charm," Fleur said. "Where are Harry and Tonks anyway? They should be here by now."

"Maybe there are two different entrances," Krum said, trying to comfort her as they reached the top of the door, the Dullahan close behind. Reaching the top of the stairs, he pushed the heavy door open and ushered the two through, closing it behind. Instantly they found themselves face to face with a room full of brainwashed students waiting for them, their eyes blank and emotionless. "Ah. Oh… this is the secret room? I was actually looking for the uh, billiard room. I'll be… right out here."

Krum went for his wand almost instantly, and brought the large chandelier crushing down on the students directly beneath it with a well-paced blasting curse. They collapsed to the floor, caught underneath it, and the three began kicking the wands away from them. Instantly, around the room, Krum could see stasis pods containing students from Durmstrang, some of whom he recognised, all of whom were currently kept contained. "You will not defeat us," their leader spoke. "We are many, and you are few."

"Actually, you can wait," Krum said. "We're kind of busy right now. Fleur, keep the chandelier in place. Make sure he can't move."

Krum began to cough, violently, earning a small, rewarding smile from the student who tried to move. "I recognise that cough, Mr. Krum. You've been ill for a while now, haven't you?"

"I've had enough from you people," Krum instructed, kicking the student in the face and looking around the room. "I don't want to hear anything more. Now. We're looking for some gold. Tell me where to find some. I won't ask again."

Impressively, the chandelier did not contain any gold items at all. "Um, Viktor?" Fleur asked, glancing across at a table behind them. She could see the school trophy up ahead, with Krum's name marked on it. And to their delight, it was covered entirely in gold.

"Excellent!" Krum couldn't help but exclaim triumphantly, dashing towards the glass container and instantly breaking it with a spell. The glass smashed, sending shards everywhere, but instantly, Krum withdrew the trophy and turned around, calling Ziyech's name. However, the Dullahan had already done so at the same time, and when a name was called by the Dullahan, that instantly meant death. Ziyech disintegrated in front of Krum's face, vanishing from existence altogether, leaving the monster's face visible from behind. "No. No!"

The Dullahan small, wicked smile told Krum everything he needed to know. However, mercifully for Krum and Fleur, the smile didn't last long, with the gold trophy being something that the Dullahan was quickly terrified by as soon as it saw it. It turned around on its horse, kicking it into life, and rode away into the distance, leaving Fleur and Krum alone, next to the students, most of whom were knocked unconscious by Fleur at this point. "What do we do now?" Fleur said, after a moment of silence. "Has it gone for good?"

"I don't know," said Krum. "But as long as we have the trophy, it's not coming back."

"Good, then let's get out of here," said Fleur, and then, looked at Krum, noticing how green his face was. "Viktor… are you okay?"

He coughed, violently, and this time, spat out blood. The Champion's face became twisted, as he yelled in pain, his back arching up as he slowly became more and more aggressive in his stance. "I'm sorry," said the voice that clearly did not belong to Viktor Krum. "Viktor Krum is not here right now."

TO BE CONTINUED…

So, let's get a few things out of the way here, the geography with the whole pentagram thing is probably a bit far-fetched and not entirely accurate. But hey, if Dan Brown can get away with manipulating facts to tell a story, so can I. Plus this is an AU anyway, so I can just change the geography to suit the story. I did initially intend to keep the Durmstrang chapter all in one but it soon became apparent that it wasn't going to be possible, so this is going to be another two parter chapter. I had always intended the side effects of Krum's imprisonment in the wall to be more than just 'oh, he was imprisoned in the wall', so this is where some of that comes into play and more will be explained in the next chapter. But it should become clear that it's a bit different from your standard brainwashed student.

Film recommendation of the chapter: 20th Century Women. It came out towards the end of last year and is so damn good. Looks at three women at different ages in the 20th Century.

Fanfic recommendation of the chapter: That Which Holds the Image is a scary crossover with Doctor Who that can be read without knowledge of Doctor Who. It has a very creepy use of The Weeping Angels and uses it really well.

Next chapter: Fleur vs. Krum. Harry and Tonks vs… well, you'll have to wait and see.