After making sure Harry would stay asleep, I left an auditory monitoring charm on him and a few ghosts to look after him, plus a note in case he woke up that the ghost would hand to him, then headed out for the night. I had a few things to take care of.
Taking a trip to St. Mungos, I invisibly checked in on Sirius, finding the man asleep. Casting a healing bolt at him as I would need him sooner rather than later, I was satisfied seeing him fill out and look far healthier than he had before.
I did the same to the Longbottoms for curiosity's sake before heading off, leaving an auditory listening charm on both Black and the Longbottoms just in case.
After that came Azkaban.
Having the deed to the place, I thankfully knew where it was despite it being unplottable, so it was no trouble warping, my own variation of apparition, to the place and appearing over it in midair.
Laying eyes upon it, I paused in surprise. I had expected the icy winds and frigid waters breaking upon the black bleak rocky cliffs of the island. I had expected a feeling of dark despair and malaise hanging about the area. I had expected a bleak dark and forbidding castle or citadel or fortress of some kind.
What I got was a smooth black triangular monolith that encompassed nearly the whole island and towered into the sky. Something that looked shockingly modern, almost like a skyscraper, considering this place used to belong to a dark wizard from the 15th century named Ekrizdis.
Looking closer I found plenty of slits in the walls for windows, far too small for anything but a rat to squeeze out of, and set into the walls at an angle, identifying them as arrow slits commonly found in medieval castles. Or would these be magic slits, considering spell fire would be more likely to come from these?
Circling the place, I found an entrance in the base of the tower connected to a staircase cut into the rocks that lead down to a dock. Coming in for a landing, I fed my magic into a thin invisible field of patronus energy to block the Dementor's effects and give them something to feed on, thus preventing them from feeding off of me.
Walking inside, I found the warden who I presented the deed to. He confirmed that he'd already heard word of the new owner of the island and asked if I wished for him and the few other aurors still here to stay on.
I considered it for a few moments then shook my head. After saying farewell and at least confirming that I could use the patronus for myself, he and the few others who monitored the prison left.
It's kind of messed up, but what being owner of Azkaban isle and the prison on it boils down to is that the prisoners on the island more or less belong to me. Any more prisoners delivered to the prison would literally be my property, along with the Dementors. It's completely bollocks, but then these are papers, laws, and rules from a much darker time. And with the Wizarding World still effectively stuck in the Victorian era it hasn't gotten much better yet.
Ultimately what this means though is that once the prisoners are here, they're mine to do with as I see fit. I can literally do anything to them and no one can say anything otherwise. Did I mention that the Wizarding World is seriously messed up? Because it is, if a prison full of insanity inducing fear demons that can suck out your immortal soul wasn't enough of a clue.
First thing's first. The Dementors. The prison wardens didn't so much work with them as around them. Azkaban is their home and until Voldemort, hadn't really seen fit to go anywhere. As for how Voldemort would communicate with them, unless parseltongue is involved, I'm guessing he came across a method in his studies of various esoteric dark arts.
That Grindlewald didn't make use of them… Then again, Voldemort's supposed to be somehow worse than he was. Not necessarily more powerful, but worse. Plus it makes sense for a Lich to be able to control beings like this. As far as I'm aware Grindlewald was just a dark wizard. He didn't go full on lich like Voldemort did.
Not that it really matters I suppose. I may not be a lich or steeped in the dark arts or in possession of whatever Voldemort used to communicate with them, but I do have a shortcut.
Finding a Dementor wasn't hard. Once I did, I blasted it, and by extension its fellows, with the full power of More Love. To them, rather than just be more charismatic and likeable like I was to the mages I'd used it on, I was now practically their lord and master. Having full power over this perk is kind of scary. Much more powerful than just what it could do to the Hiisi when it was just a stacked pile of 'I am your friend' times however many of the perks I'd picked up.
Now, I have full access to the power which is practically the equivalent of infinity of the things, plus whatever I can think of for its use that falls under its purview. Basically all of my perks, or boons as HE called them, are like that. Overpowered? Yes. Very much so. Do I care? Not really no. I'm not about to use it all willy nilly though. Much smarter to make an enemy like me just enough to treat me like a normal person, or a good friend instead of overdoing it and having a cult bowing and scraping at my feet for no reason. That kind of thing sounds… troublesome. On multiple levels.
Dementors on the other hand have no place on this world, beyond a few very very minor ultra specific uses. Like aiding in the removal of a lich's soul anchors. Or the lich itself, once I find the bastard.
Actually, that gives me an idea…
Deciding to put said idea to use, I quickly determined whether or not I could communicate with the Dementors. Turns out they understand English and can reply with various gestures like nods and shakes of the head. So much for Riddle's vaunted secret control ability. He probably just promised the Dementors an all you can eat buffet of souls. Well I'd love to see him try to co-opt the Dementors now that I'm their leader. Bet they'd follow me over old Elkridiz now too.
I ordered them to form up into rows and columns over the prison. Speaking of which… Hm… Might have to put the previous idea on hold for a moment actually. Don't want the prisoners apparating out… Unless there's a ward for that? I felt for it and did indeed find an anti-apparation ward, or at least a ward that blocked the micro tunnel part of it. Probably a good thing I appeared so high up outside the wards earlier, though given some effort… Yes, I could probably push through them. Around them? Maybe. I'd have to learn more about how they work, and I don't dare risk it in case it brings it down and I end up accidently releasing all the prisoners upon the world. Would be much easier if they were all put in anti magic cuffs or a collar or something.
Leaving the island with orders to the Dementors to stop anyone from entering or leaving except for me, or those of the Ministry authorized for transfer of prisoners, I quickly popped over to the Ministry, asking about anti-magic cuffs of those few aurors on the nightshift.
To my surprise, they didn't have any. It turns out they just trusted the whole containment system of Azkaban and the capture of criminals to simple disarming, anti-apparition wards, and the Dementors. No wonder Sirius would've escaped, ignoring the use of wandless magics entirely is a huge blindspot!
In that case, I'm going to have to do it myself. That means I need to learn how to make wards. I've seen enough of them to sustain a few of them myself as active effects, but the moment I stop concentrating on them, they peter out. I need something more permanent. Like spells or runes with wardstones or whatever else is used.
Thanking the harried auror for their time, I warped out and off to Gringotts. To their credit, the Goblins didn't actually close the bank so getting in wasn't an issue. I then stood in line and asked to hire the services of one of their curse breakers or warders so that I could observe and be taught the process and that I'd pay a premium to get whoever they had currently available right now.
I still ended up having to wait half an hour, and despite what I paid it didn't even come close to a fraction of a percent of my total account holdings, and a rather disgruntled wizard who introduced himself as Mr. Abernathy showed up, looking to have been woken up and didn't appreciate that fact at all. Oddly enough shooting him with a healing bolt didn't help his attitude, but at least he was more lively after that.
Finally, I got to observe the man carving runes into a great honking stone full of magic in a reservoir that was shockingly similar to my wand's own reservoirs. Well, in the same way a vacuum tube non color TV is to a 70 inch plasma screen TV, but still.
The carving was fascinating, and I paid rapt attention as he explained which part he was carving at any given time. The entire time he was carving, he explained that he could do the same with his wand but would get less imprecise results with it which varied from mage to mage and I could take a guess why. The entire time he carved, his magic reacted and seemed to channel into the rock and shifted and changed with each part he carved, causing the magic within the stone to shift and change as well.
Watching him as he described what he called a runic siphon, I watched as the magic within the stone began to draw in minute bits more from the air surrounding it, allowing it to recharge passively which caused me to smile a bit giddily.
He then went on to carve a basic runic shield attached to it, which I watched with interest as the magic carved into the rock, stirring its insides into a specific shape that, when he finished carving, activated with a pulse and created a shield barrier in a sphere around the stone, though further stones that were activated at the same time would cause the ward to expand and shift depending on where they were placed in relation to each other, centering on the equidistant point between each of the stones, and depending on what that distance was would strengthen or weaken the ward entirely.
It was very fascinating, and I asked him if he could carve another for me, this time with anti-apparation ward. Abernathy nodded and, taking another stone, this one with a much weaker reservoir, carved the runic siphon which began to slowly fill the stone, but at a different rate than the other and thanks to the minute differences showed me why, which is exactly what I was looking for.
The carving of the rune itself, while important, wasn't quite as important as the shape of the energy within the stone. Seeing the differences made between the two showed me how the two could change, giving me ideas for expanding it further in either direction, and since I could manipulate the magic directly, I could probably do it without carving at all, not that I would forgo it entirely, at least at first. I will eventually, just for the sake of seeing what would happen.
The best part though, came when he carved anti-apparition into the stone, since I already had familiarity with the feel of the ward from Azkaban and the Ministry. Watching closely, I saw as the pieces of magic from the ward were carved into the stone to shape the energy within, and I couldn't help but a grin from showing on my face. This… I could reverse engineer this. I wouldn't know the exact pattern to carve but it didn't matter as I could direct the magic of the ward I already knew into the stone in a dissimilar manner from what Abernathy was doing and get effectively the same, or at least similar results.
I promptly tested this by taking another stone with a magic reservoir into my hand and channeling my magic to stir the shape within the stone into the correct one for a runic siphon followed by an anti-apparition. As the ward stone activated, cracks appeared in the stone in the same general shape of the carving the other mage had done, much to his astonishment as he examined the stone.
Nodding to myself, I took another stone from the table. This one had too small a reservoir for me to do much with it except put in a runic siphon. The stone began to take on more magic at a slower rate and I experimented a little with the shape to increase and decrease the recharge rate, but with the reservoir's small size it didn't amount to much.
I then asked how you make these stones. Abernathy shook his head and said rune stones like these weren't created but mined from the ground and sold for a profit, primarily by the goblins, but others had smaller operations that did the same elsewhere.
Frowning, I hummed consideringly at that, comparing a number of the unmarked stones sitting on the table. They were like wands in the barest sense, just without the recharge channels or spell slots. That wasn't hard to mimic with my own ability to craft a wand and did just that, causing a small unadorned blue rod to appear in my hand. A recharge rate of zero, no spell slots, no spell cast… It was the most utterly useless wand I've had ever made.
But, it might be perfect for this purpose. Maybe. Channeling my magic the same way I had with the stone, I attempted to stir the magical reservoir into the specific shape for a runic siphon. It was surprisingly difficult to do. The magic already had a shape that had been optimized for casting magic and stirring it up was difficult as the wand itself was maintaining that pattern. It did successfully take the shape, but as soon as I stopped reinforcing it, it began to shift back to the pattern the wand was enforcing.
In layman's terms, the wand was an already carved runic stone and much better done at that. Just to see, I took another runic stone and shifted the shape of the runic siphon into it and it activated, forming the rune on the outer surface in cracks. I then stirred it up again, this time trying to put it back the way it was. It was infinitely easier, but as soon as I did, it slowly tried to reform back, but much much slower than the wand had. Interesting…
Bringing my fist down upon one of the rocks, I observed closely as much of the energy within was released, though some of the smaller pieces still had some mana left in them, but far less than a fraction of the whole that their size would indicate. Also interesting. I took one of those shards and did my best to put a runic siphon inside. The shard shook and powdered, being much to structurally unstable to take the cracks forming, and the mana within released entirely into the air.
By this point, Abernathy was more watching what I was doing than anything else. Probably intrigued by wandless rune carving than anything else. Tapping my chin, I considered what to try next. Maybe if I…
Taking two more of the blank stones in my hands, I considered them. One had less mana inside than the other, though were roughly the same shape and size. I idly noted Abernathy picking up and examining the discarded wand, running his own wand over it even as he occasionally flicked glances at me as I shifted my gaze between the two rocks. I doubted he'd get much from it, the wand siphoning his magic from whatever spell he was casting before it could take and feeding it into the wand before releasing the excess as it was already full and, interestingly, speeding up the process of returning the wand's magic shape within the reservoir to what it was before I'd messed with it.
Returning my attention back to the two stones, I inspected them with my magic, attempting to discern the difference between the two. Carefully, I fed magic into the two of them, attempting to substitute the mechanism that is the runic siphon by manually pushing in my own.
Slowly the stones took in my mana, and I hit a point inside them that I think was their normal limit for mana absorption, and then slowly went past that. The rocks slowly began to glow, and Abernathy gave a small shout of "STOP!"
I could see why. It didn't take much beyond that to make the magic inside destabilize the physical form, and rather violently.
In layman's terms, it exploded.
To his credit, Abernathy had thrown up a shield remarkably quickly, which I analyzed with interest and ideas started percolating in my brain when I noted just how similar it was to the shielding ward still being emitted from the first stone on the table.
The man then rushed over, berating me and began casting diagnostics on my hands and arms first, which then slowed down and he fell quiet as he started casting more as he realized I was completely unharmed. It's hard to be when you have magical armor that drops damage from any source by 99.99% repeating, plus a naturally generating field that not only slows but flings projectiles away from yourself. I kept those defenses running as a matter of course, though I adjusted the other two projectile suppression fields as needed.
"How?" he asked, completely floored.
"I have access to a different type of magic in the form of perks, or boons, from my patron," I explained. "Divine magic, if you will, but the effects of which HE seceded control of to me as a gift when I left. It's my magic now and it's all completely internal, and several of which are defensive in nature. I'm honestly not sure if this world has anything that can actually harm me enough for me to feel it. My old one certainly hasn't for a long time now."
Understatement. I didn't bother to mention the effect of the amulet I wore as a mark of what I am now. Telling him I'm something akin to a new born Deity and that literally anything they threw at me wouldn't take would likely stop his mind from processing and put him firmly in denial. I could already feel his skepticism towards the idea of divinely gifted magic already as it was. I wasn't lying when I told Harry I don't think I qualify as an Angel. By definition I'm more akin to what some consider to be an Angel's boss.
Not that I would ever, ever, take the title and say to people that I'm a God. People view the word differently from what I do. Deity is fine, but God is a name as much as it is a title. Much like Noita. God is not my title or my name. Noita is.
But I digress. Having observed both the effects of oversaturating the rune stone with mana, explosively destabilizing it, seeing the mana leave its pieces, and what was left of its inert form, I came to a bit of surprising and rather underwhelming discovery.
It's just a rock.
No seriously, wherever they mined it from, the only thing that makes it unique is that it's soaked up and subsequently stored enough mana in it overtime to be useable. Beyond that… it's just a normal rock. I'm pretty sure once you took it away from wherever it was grabbed from and just left it there for long enough, the stored mana would just flow out of it eventually and leave behind a plain old rock.
Conjuring up another rock, but this time inert, I simply fed it my mana until it held the same amount of mana as the others. I then stopped feeding it, and watched closely and noted the trace miniscule amounts of mana wisping off of it, just like the others. It'd take a thousand years or more, but it would empty on its own. I set it down and began to laugh.
"What's so funny?" Abernathy asked, slightly irritated.
"Nothing, nothing, I just… thought there'd be more to this than there actually is," I answered back to which Abernathy huffed.
"Was that all then?" the man asked even more irritated.
I shook my head. "No, now I'm more than a little curious. Can you tell me about where these rocks came from? Why they are all full of mana?"
Mr. Abernathy's face grew pensive. "I'm not sure if that's allowed… most of the mining groups, particularly the goblins, guard their quarries jealously. I don't think anyone's seen them. I can at least tell you that they at least intersect with the planet's leylines, which is why they're full of magic. Beyond that, I couldn't say. I'm an expert on runecraft and wards, not old mystical stuff like that."
"Any chance the Goblins do have an expert on it?" I asked.
"Possibly," Abernathy replied, "Does that mean we're done then? Or did you still need to retain my services?"
I hummed thoughtfully, glancing over everything. As far as wards go… "I think I'm good. For the most part. The only thing I have left to ask is if you would cast a short list of spells for me to observe."
"What are they?" Mr. Abernathy asked, internally sighing.
"Stupefy, finite, expelliarmus, reducto, lumos, alohamora, episkey, accio, obliviate, petrificus totalis, um… rictusempra…" I listed.
"Hold," Abernathy said, "I can cast those, but any more and I'll likely forget. That's a rather eclectic list. Any particular reason?"
I shrugged. "I learn best by observation."
The man hummed at me before casting the spells for me. Fascinating doesn't begin to cover it. He then offered to just cast all the spells he could think of from what he remembered of his school days and I took him up on it. The next hour was very informative. And fascinating.