Chapter 12
AN: Thank you to everyone who favourited, followed, or reviewed π
Black Dragoniss: Questions are always welcome; they give me new ideas for parts of the story. The answer to your question begins this chapter
Ghostisreading: Ivy has already told Sirius about why she is in hospital β see chapter 9
Elfin69: Bel is currently fifteen β his birthday is in December. Pairings are a secret π
Hermione Granger was not a happy witch. The reason for her unhappiness was short, fat, toad-shaped, and wore horrible pink cardigans. Professor Umbridge was a truly terrible teacher and completely undeserving of the title. They had learned absolutely nothing in their Defence classes so far this year and that didn't look set to change any time soon. The set text could basically be boiled down to 'run away and tell the nearest authority figure'. At this rate the whole year would fail their Defence OWL.
Life in general was going downhill at Hogwarts. The Slytherins swaggered about doing whatever they wanted, confident in their power while sucking up to the Ministry stooge posing as a teacher. Educational Decrees were being passed with increasing frequency, curbing the freedoms of the students. And don't get her started on Umbridge's detentions. The marks on the hands of the muggleborns and half-bloods that had served detention with the toad made Hermione's blood boil. She had read Orwell's 1984 β she could see exactly what was happening here. She was profoundly grateful that Wizarding Britain didn't have much of a market for muggle literature; things were getting bad enough without dystopian novels giving the Purebloods or the Ministry ideas. Hermione desperately needed an outlet for her frustrations and a practical Defence study group would do quite nicely.
Neville had noticed the mutinous look on the bushy-haired girl's face. "Hermione? Are you alright?"
"No Neville, I'm not alright. The way things are going, we're going to fail our Defence OWL. Even worse, we won't be able to defend ourselves if we ever get in trouble. If Umbridge won't teach us then we'll have to teach ourselves," Hermione replied quietly, still looking mutinous.
"If you're setting up a defence club, I want in," Luna whispered from Neville's other side. The little blonde Ravenclaw had picked up the habit of eating at the Gryffindor table when she first befriended Ivy, preferring to sit with her friends rather than her housemates. There had been a few minor complaints at first - mostly from a certain red-haired troglodyte - but nobody really mentioned it anymore.
"Who's going to teach it?" Neville asked as the three of them left the Great Hall in search of somewhere quieter to plot. If Umbridge overheard what they were planning, you could bet the next Educational Decree would be one banning clubs and student groups.
"If Ivy were still here I would have asked her to teach us," Hermione admitted. Ivy was the best in their year at Defence and would have been perfect for this job.
"She still can," Luna said. Hermione and Neville turned to her, curious looks on her faces. "Charmed mirrors can communicate anywhere, any time. They're much quicker than owls too."
"That could work," Hermione said thoughtfully. Ivy would be able to demonstrate the spells like the regular teachers did and answer questions for those who were struggling. She would need assistants to provide more practical support for struggling students, but it was doable.
"You'll still need to ask her first," Neville pointed out.
"Good point. I'll ask her in my next letter," Hermione decided. If Ivy said no then it wouldn't be the end of the world. There were other students in their year who were good at Defence; they just weren't as good as Ivy. If Ivy did say yes then they needed a way to communicate meeting times that didn't involve sending multiple letters back and forth. They would need a secrecy contract too, to ensure Umbridge didn't find out, and somewhere to hold the class. There were plenty of unused rooms in the castle, so it would simply be a matter of picking one in a suitably discreet location and making sure anyone trying to find it who wasn't part of the club would have a very hard time doing so. She could bounce some ideas off Luna and Neville and see what they came up with.
Ivy read through the letter in her hand, the other sharing a plate of bacon between Hedwig and Jellicle. Hedwig had initially been a bit miffed that Ivy had gotten another familiar, but she had soon warmed up to the kitten when she realised a cute kitten nearby meant more bacon for both of them.
Things must be getting bad at Hogwarts if Hermione was considering setting up an underground defence club. The older witch was the most rule abiding of their little quartet β though her authority worship was nowhere near as bad as it used to be β so for her to go against authority was serious. Hermione's proposal that Ivy teach the club and Luna's suggestion of using enlarged Charmed mirrors were interesting ones. Ivy would have to ask Sirius to buy a couple of sets of communication mirrors to experiment with and ask if he would help her test Luna's idea when she saw him on Saturday for her Potions and Heir lessons.
Sirius had agreed to help to arrange Potions tuition at his villa β since that was one subject she couldn't safely study by herself β and he had started giving her lessons on her family history and position after she had asked what he knew about her family history. Finding out that the Potters were considered an Ancient House due to their long history and had a seat on the Wizengamot had come as a bit of a shock; nobody had ever mentioned it before Sirius told her.
Ivy tended to spend most of the weekend with her godfather, having lessons on Saturday and spending Sunday doing whatever took their fancy. Most Varia who had relatives living nearby and were actually on speaking terms with them tended to visit those relatives at weekends when not working, so her absence was not seen as unusual. As she was an Officer she needed to be contactable in case of emergencies, which caused a bit of an issue when the Wards around Villa Nera messed with her phone, but she was working on finding ways around that. For now, they would just have to keep their excursions to the mundane world; that still gave them plenty of scope though, since it was possible to apparate across to the mainland from Messina.
She set the Hogwarts issue aside for the moment β she couldn't really do anything about it until she had spoken to Sirius and had tested the mirrors. Moving the now empty plate to one side and setting Jellicle on the floor while Hedwig flew off for a nap, she picked up the top report in her in-tray and frowned at the barely legible scrawl.
Ivy had thought she had bad handwriting until she joined the Varia. Having to decipher terrible handwriting in one language was bad enough, but with a minimum of seven languages per writer β some of whom had a bad habit of switching languages mid-sentence β figuring out what that odd squiggle was became rather more difficult. That was provided she could actually read the language the report was written in; she now had magical language kits in Russian and Hindi on her bookshelf in her quarters as a result of that. The kits might take longer than paying a Mist to implant the language into her mind, but they also wouldn't leave her feeling like a group of trolls were having a party inside her skull. She had done that once to learn Greek and refused to do it again. Even if she could read the language, she also had to consider the Varia's own unique ever-changing multi-lingual dialect, which could change the meaning of a whole sentence with a single word.
Ivy looked at the Name at the top of the report and then went to grab the nearest mook to send the assassin in question up to her office. She wasn't going to give herself a headache when she could simply get the author to explain.
It turned out that the charms on the communication mirrors were actually quite durable. Ivy and Sirius had managed to get them to the size of dance studio mirrors without any decrease in communication quality, and repeated shrinking and enlargement over a short period had no discernible effect on the runes the charms were anchored to or the mirrors themselves. The only issue occurred when Sirius had enlarged his mirror to a truly monstrous size and the thing had nearly flattened him. At least she had had the foresight to ask Sirius to get two sets of mirrors. First the cats and now this; Ivy was beginning to wonder if her godfather had left his sense of self-preservation back in Britain.
As far as the communication mirrors were concerned, as long as the mirror itself was undamaged they would work. While a broken mirror would still function β as Sirius proved with his little misadventure β the quality was severely diminished and using a Reparo caused the charms to break entirely.
Ivy sent one of the surviving mirrors off to Hogwarts, safe in Hedwig's talons, with a note explaining how to work the mirror and get it safely up to the right size. The other mirror she enlarged to the size of a dance studio mirror and stuck to the wall of her workroom with a Permanent Sticking Charm. The room was locked and trapped with runes and Flames as well as a solid physical lock, so she felt safe enough leaving it there.
Now all she could do was wait for Hermione to call her and explain what the plan was from her end. This Defence club looked like it could be a lot of fun.
Saul Croaker led his small team of Unspeakables into Gringotts London, heading straight for the first free teller. They had arrived late in the evening, when there would be fewer witnesses to spread gossip about why the Unspeakables were in Gringotts. The fewer who knew of their business here, the better.
"Good evening," Saul greeted the teller formally. Few magically raised witches and wizards seemed to realise that politeness got you further with goblins.
"Unspeakable," the goblin said by way of greeting, "What business does your Department have in Gringotts?"
"We require Gringotts' aid in a matter of great urgency and secrecy. We believe there is an artefact concealed within the bank that contains such foul magics, neither of our nations can permit its continued existence," Saul replied, careful with his wording. Goblin law was different from Wizarding law; certain items forbidden to wizards were permitted to goblins, and vice versa.
The goblin had initially sneered when the wizard had asked for the Nation's help but had become more thoughtful on hearing why. There were few items that both goblins and wizards forbade, and all were of the darkest and foulest magics. The goblin closed his post and beckoned to the assembled Unspeakables. "Follow me."
The Unspeakables followed the goblin deep into hallways of Gringotts, eventually stopping outside an unremarkable door with a name plate declaring the office belonged to Senior Overseer Silvershard. It seemed they would be speaking to someone rather high up the chain of command. The goblin knocked on the door. There was a sharp reply in the goblin tongue, likely either a command to enter or a demand to know why they were there, Saul wasn't sure. He spoke many languages, but Goblin wasn't one of them. The goblin they had followed opened the door, gesturing for the Unspeakables to remain where they were for now. There was a short conversation and their guide returned.
"Senior Overseer Silvershard will speak with you," their guide said, gesturing for them to enter the office before leaving.
The office was plain and utilitarian, just like all the other Gringotts offices Saul had ever seen. The sole decoration was a truly enormous battle axe hanging on the wall behind the desk, flanked by an equally large sword and a spear. For all that they were bankers now, the goblins were warriors at heart.
"Greetings, Senior Overseer Silvershard. I am Saul Croaker, chief liaison of the Department of Mysteries," Saul introduced himself, stepping forward. As the only one who did not have the standard Unspeakable secrecy charm obscuring his identity, he would be the one speaking with the goblin.
"Unspeakable Croaker. What is so terrible about this artefact you seek that you would have the goblins of Gringotts break their word and give you that which is not yours?" Silvershard asked, getting straight down to business.
"What do you know of Horcruxes?" Saul asked, pulling out the file the Italian and British Unspeakables had complied on the ones they had already found, bar the one in Miss Potter's scar; that was not for sharing with the goblins.
"You mean to say someone has made one of those Abominations and placed it within the bank?!" Silvershard demanded, pulling the file over and opening it.
Saul nodded, "They have. A Horcrux belonging to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was discovered by chance. The amount of soul in it was barely enough to act as an anchor, leading us to believe he made more of the things. We used the piece we had to trace the others and found five additional Horcruxes, as well as the remainder of the original soul. So far, we have only managed to retrieve and destroy one of these five; the others are in locations we do not yet have access to or cannot access ourselves. One of the pieces is here in Gringotts. We would like Gringotts to assist us in removing and destroying this foul artefact. It's very existence is an act of blasphemy against Magic herself."
Silvershard snapped the file shut, glaring murderously at it, "I must take this information to Director Ragnok; only he can decide if we can set aside our oaths for this matter. However, given the information within this file, I do not believe he will refuse." The goblin stood and marched out of the room, taking the file with him.
Bill Weasley didn't know why he and two other Curse-breakers had been assigned to accompany a team of Unspeakables and goblin warriors down to the vaults, but he knew it must be something serious. There was no other reason why the goblins would co-operate with humans outside of their employ. They were down in the deepest vaults, following the lead of an Unspeakable holding a crystal glowing with a sinister purple light.
"This one," the Unspeakable said, pointing to one of the vault doors.
"The Lestrange Vault. Of course, he would hide it with one his most trusted servants," Silvershard muttered as he stepped forward to unseal the vault. A goblin allowing wizards into a vault that wasn't theirs and they didn't have written permission from the owner to enter? This was much more serious than Bill had thought. The Unspeakable with the crystal entered the vault with two goblins and another Unspeakable. They emerged a minute later, levitating a small golden cup.
Now, Bill had pretty decent magical sensitivity. It was something all Curse-breakers picked up β well, the ones who survived anyway. Being able to sense the darker Dark magics reduced the chances of stepping into a particularly nasty Curse and getting killed while clearing out a tomb. Coming from the cup was some of the darkest magic he had ever felt. It felt vileβ¦ and he had felt it somewhere before. He didn't get time to dwell on it though.
"I need a containment field here please," the Unspeakable levitating the cup requested. Bill and his colleagues moved to set up the spell used to contain more powerful dark items while the Curses on them were broken. The Unspeakable placed the cup inside and began to draw a set of runes on the floor within the containment field. Once they were done the other Unspeakables simultaneously cast several incredibly Dark and highly destructive Curses at the cup, damaging it severely. There was a terrible scream and pulse of dark magic, and then it was over.
"Thank you for your assistance in this matter," one of the Unspeakables said to Senior Overseer Silvershard.
"The Nation could not allow such a thing to continue to exist," Silvershard replied.
It was as they were returning to ground level that Bill remembered where he had last felt something like the dark magic he had witnessed in the vaults; Grimmauld Place. He hurried to catch up with the Unspeakables.
"Excuse me," he called. The lead Unspeakable β the one who had spoken to Silvershard and the only one who had his face uncovered β stopped and turned.
"Yes?"
"How dangerous was that thing you just destroyed?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because I think I know where there might be another one, or at least where it last was."
The Unspeakable's eyes widened. He quickly produced a quill, a scrap of parchment, and a dragonhide bag from his robes. "Go back to where you last found the thing and use this spell. When you find it again, place the item in this pouch and owl it directly to the Department of Mysteries. Do not, under any circumstances, touch it; these items are extremely dangerous and must be destroyed in the proper manner." The man scribbled down a spell and handed the parchment and bag to Bill.
"I will," Bill replied. He would be going to Grimmauld Place to start the search as soon as his shift ended. There was no way he was letting something so dangerous remain anywhere near his family any longer than it absolutely had to.
