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oOoOoOo
Chapter 25 - July - August 1995
"Bellatrix Lestrange and Bartemius Crouch Jr. still on the run"
"Deadly attack in the suburbs of London targeting Muggles!"
"Official denial from the Ministry of Magic: You-Know-Who is not back"
"Various escaped Death Eaters apprehended by the Aurors, except the most dangerous ones…"
"Are we still safe in the magical United Kingdom?"
"Bellatrix Lestrange and Bartemius Crouch Jr., the new You-Know-Who?"
Hermione dropped the newspapers she was holding on the table.
"How could Fudge be so stupid after all that…" Hermione said angrily. "How could he believe denying Voldemort's return would work?"
The whole Ministry of Magic was in internal chaos, between those who swore they had seen Voldemort's reptilian face on the battlefield, those who spoke of a new Dark Lord, and those who believed Fudge and were ready to fight with anyone of a different opinion.
There were pictures though, pictures of Voldemort's clad-in-dark figure in front of his Death Eaters, and even a picture of the four of them fighting him. None of them was identifiable though, which led to even more speculations. Hermione hoped that at least there would be less attacks now that most of the Death Eaters were in the Ministry's custody.
oOoOoOo
"What do you know about the situation Severus?" Albus asked.
Severus' face was a blank mask, but Albus knew that the role he needed to play as a spy weighed on him. But Severus was the only one who could provide him with first-hand information about Voldemort.
"Which situation Albus?" Severus answered bitterly. "The Death Eater's hideout? Bella and Barty? The Dark Lord next moves? The four mysterious wizards? Although you don't really need to answer, there is no need: I do not have much information for any of those situations anyway."
"Tell me what you know, even if it is not much," Albus asked calmly.
Severus' mask crackled slightly and he let out a sigh.
"According to Lucius, no one knew anything about the hideout except for the Dark Lord," he said. "Not even Narcissa, who had asked if she could visit her sister. The Dark Lord refused. I have no idea where Bella and Barty are for sure, but there are rumours saying they are currently staying at Slytherin Castle with the Dark Lord and a healer."
"A healer?"
"No one knows who. I only know about the existence of a healer because Bella said to Narcissa a healer was helping her to get back on track when the two sisters met two days ago. I don't know anything about the Dark Lord's future plans, but I expect him to release his Death Eaters from Azkaban as soon as they would be sent back there. As for the four wizards… the Dark Lord did not even mention them, and neither Lucius, nor Nott, nor Yaxley, nor Avery know anything."
Severus was now leaning on the back of one chair, but had not sat down.
"Do you think he doesn't trust you anymore Severus?" Albus asked.
"He told me himself he doesn't trust me anymore, Albus," Severus reminded him. "But does he trust me less than the others? I don't know. He doesn't seem to trust anyone. No big meetings with all the Death Eaters together. He summons only the Death Eaters he needs, and only when he needs them. Sometimes he hides his face in shadows, sometimes he uses his decoy thirty years old face. And that's all Albus. That's all I know."
Albus slumped a little deeper in his armchair. A cautious Dark Lord was a dangerous one, and Voldemort was proving to be meticulously careful since he came back. Meetings with a reduced number of Death Eaters. A false face – had the ritual he used to come back disfigured him so much that he felt the need to pretend he still looked like his old, younger self? –. Severus had told him Voldemort pretended it was his true face, but Albus did not think it was possible for him to look human anymore. Not after all the dark magic rituals Tom had done. Not after the reptilian face he had before he fell.
oOoOoOo
Hermione had just come out of her parents' house when her bracelet heated suddenly. She rushed to turn around the corner, and hurriedly pulled out her communication notebook connected to Harry, Ron and Ginny.
"Hermione?" Harry had written.
"Hermione, are you available?" Ginny had asked.
"Hermione, we need you! Quickly," was written in Ron's handwriting.
"Hermione, are you all right?" Harry had then asked worriedly.
The messages were only a few seconds apart, and Hermione had the feeling that it had nothing to do with Harry's birthday, which was currently on the verge of starting.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"He just sent Bellatrix and Barty to steal the Crown of Queen Elizabeth," Harry said.
"What? Now?"
Hermione swore loudly. Since the capture of his Death Eaters the week before Voldemort had been strangely passive, and they had finally managed to find some time to start working on Harry's political persona, leaving the Ministry of Magic and the Order deal with the chaos created by the Fudge's stubbornness and Dumbledore's more and more pronounced political decline.
It would have been a lot better if Voldemort had waited a little more, so they could have finalized the introduction of Harry's persona to the Wizengamot. And it would have been even better if Voldemort had chosen any other day to act. Or any other time. Because Harry, Ron, and Ginny were presently at Grimmauld Place waiting for some friends to arrive for Harry's birthday, along with Sirius, Remus and the entire Weasley family. They had no way to disappear easily.
Fortunately, Hermione was not there yet, and could invent some Muggle issue to justify her delay…
"Fine, I'll take care of that," she wrote.
"You'll be alone against Bellatrix and Barty," Harry reminded worriedly.
"I'll be fine," Hermione assured.
"Alert us if anything is amiss," Ginny said. "We'll find a way to help."
"Of course," Hermione confirmed.
The jewellery they were using as a warning that someone had written in the communication notebooks could also be used to send an SOS in case of emergency, and Hermione had even embedded inside each of them a localization charm and an emergency Portkey that could break almost all anti-Portkey wards.
After several reminders to remain cautious from her friends, Hermione closed her communication notebook and put it back in her beaded bag. She quickly moved to the mostly empty lane she usually used to Apparate when she was staying at her parents' house, and after checking that is was indeed empty, she Apparated to Dean's forest in a loud crack.
She took a few seconds to check that she was the only human being for miles around, before taking out a small vial of aging potion from which she took two sips, giving her the appearance of a 35-years-old witch. Then she applied a few glamours making her hair red, her face longer and her skin darker.
She disillusioned herself by using some intricate Chinese charms, before Apparating again, this time at the foot of the Tower of London. A Hominum Revelio told her that she was the first one to arrive there, and a few minutes later she was in the room containing the crown. As the visiting time was already over, it had been quite easy to infiltrate the Tower by putting the Muggle guards to sleep.
Hermione then approached the crown, the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond shining brightly. It was undoubtedly for the diamond that Voldemort wanted to recover the crown, the jewel having been used in some alchemy rituals by Indian wizards thousands of years ago. Voldemort had probably wanted to move away from Hogwarts founders as a precaution, while remaining in his habit of collecting invaluable artefacts to make his Horcruxes. Because she did not really see what else Voldemort was going to do with the crown of the royal family. Even he was not stupid enough to steal it simply to exacerbate the tensions between the wizards and the Muggles.
oOoOoOo
Harry was undeniably the least happy person at his own birthday party. With Voldemort wreaking havoc, he had not wanted to celebrate it at all this year. But Sirius and Remus had insisted that he needed to do something for his fifteenth birthday, and had organized everything, so he was now stuck celebrating his birthday with Sirius, Remus, Tonks, the Weasleys, Neville, and Luna, while Hermione was dealing with Bellatrix and Barty on her own.
"She'll manage, you know that," Ginny whispered to him. "It's Hermione after all."
"And I fully trust her to master incomprehensible magical theories," Harry answered. "But to confront Bellatrix and Barty on her own? She's not really fond of duelling."
"True, but she's terrifying when she's aggravated," Ginny said.
"Aggravated? That's harsh," Harry pointed out.
She was sometimes annoying, but Hermione was mostly the calm, rational person always thinking about house-elves rights and how to improve everyone's lives.
"Really?" Ginny said. "Are we talking about the same Hermione? You know, the witch who locked Rita in a jar for a whole week? The one was created a curse specifically for the D.A.'s list, a cruse that took healers months to undo? The witch who led Umbridge to centaurs knowing very well what will happen?"
Ginny was right, although Harry did not really feel sorry for Rita, Marietta or Umbridge.
"And Hermione's not a fan of Bellatrix," Ginny continued. "The bitch did carve Mudblood in her skin after all. Hermione's going to destroy her."
"Hum," Harry reluctantly agreed.
Ginny rolled her eyes and went to discuss with Percy, who was standing in a corner, clearly uncomfortable. This time he was aligned with his family about Voldemort's return, perhaps because he was close enough to Ron and Ginny, or perhaps because even within the Ministry the situation was not clear. Perhaps also thanks to the influence of Amelia Bones who had overseen him all the past year, and who was not one to make hasty conclusions like Fudge. Yaxley's influence, however, was probably negative, and Harry hoped Percy would not let himself be blinded by the Death Eater.
Harry was pulled from his thoughts by Sirius who materialized right in front of him with a jeering smile.
"Tell me Harry..." he began. "You are celebrating your fifteenth birthday today, and Moony and I noticed that you were quite close to the lovely Ginny..."
"Sirius..." Harry began with an alarmed tone.
"No, no no," Sirius cut him off. "No protests! It's more than time for me to teach you how not to disappoint girls!"
Harry shot him a look somewhere between disbelief and despair. He really did not want to know how Sirius the womanizer was going to go about explaining sexuality.
oOoOoOo
When the northern window exploded, Hermione strengthened her grip on her wand and held a disdainful sniff. To shatter a window was such a barbarian method to enter somewhere. A few seconds later, Bellatrix Lestrange and Barty Crouch jumped into the room. They noticed Hermione in a split second and immediately cast several spells at her.
Several spells that bounced a few meters from Hermione on the runic wards she had set up while she waited for them.
"Shit," Barty swore, while avoiding one of his own spells.
"Ulcer Sanguine," Bellatrix cast.
Bellatrix's dark spell passed through her runic protections, and Hermione avoided it with a sidestep, having no desire to feel her blood boil in her veins. It was not a pleasant spell, far from it, and it confirmed that Bellatrix was as vicious as in her memories. Good.
A smile stretched Hermione's lips. In her first life she had still been very young when she had had the opportunity to battle Bellatrix with Ginny and Luna during the Battle of Hogwarts, but now she finally could get her revenge for everything Bellatrix had ever done to her.
"Surrender immediately if you want to live," Barty said.
Hermione managed not to burst out laughing. Believing that they would not kill her if she surrendered was laughable. And even if she was not as good a dueller as Harry, she knew a lot of pretty effective spells. And she had had the time to prepare.
"σχοινίον ὄμβρος," Hermione cast.
Hundreds of ropes seemed to fall from the ceiling, wrapping themselves around Barty and Bellatrix.
"Diffindo," Barty shouted.
But his spell had no effect and the ropes began to tighten around the two Death Eaters.
"Ignis Daemoniorum," Bellatrix had the time to cast just before being totally immobilized.
Her Fiendfyre rose around her, burning the ropes, and almost burning the witch with them.
"Caeli Siccum," Hermione said, adapting her strategy.
The Fiendfyre died instantly, the air around the two Death Eaters no longer containing any oxygen.
"Avada Kedavra," Bellatrix cast as she began to run out of air.
Hermione conjured a wall in front of her that absorbed the deadly ray, while watching Barty and Bellatrix trying to get out of the scope of her spell, but being blocked by another circle of runes that Hermione had drawn around the room, excluding only the area containing herself and the crown.
"Dives... Caeli...," Barty croaked.
Hermione scowled. She did not think they would be able to know the counter spell to the charm she had used.
"Crucio," Bellatrix cast as soon as she was able to breathe again.
Barty expertly destroyed the runes circle and added a dark magic curse meant to paralyze her legs. They were good, Hermione had to admit it. But not good enough to compete with her. With a movement of her wand Hermione activated a third series of runes aiming to slow down the Death Eater's movements. Then she Apparated to the other side of the room and cast a final spell.
"Dingir Ù."
The two Death Eaters collapsed under this ancient Sumerian sleeping spell, not managing to defend themselves in time.
Silence fell on the room for a few seconds, before someone started to slowly clap his hands. Hermione turned sharply to her left, and immediately spotted the aristocratic figure of Voldemort, casually leaning on the frame of one of the doors leading to the room.
She pointed her wand at him, her left hand ready to send at any moment a slight stream of magic in her bracelet to call the others here.
"Red hair doesn't really fit you," was Voldemort's first comment.
Hermione froze, bemused. Seriously? Her hair colour was what he had chosen to open the conversation with?
"I'll try green next time then, heard you Slytherins like it," she deadpanned.
"How could you know I would send my Death Eaters here?" Voldemort asked.
Hermione just shrugged, and watched Voldemort closely. He seemed to take this failure much more calmly than when they had orchestrated the capture of his Death Eaters. They knew about the crown, so he would not be able to use it to make an Horcrux discreetly, and that should have triggered his rage at least a little. But at the same time, it was true that he could use thousands of other objects to make a new Horcrux... It was not a big loss either.
"We're omniscient," Hermione answered, smirking.
"No you're not," Voldemort answered with a far more alarming smirk
Hermione narrowed her eyes. Was he bluffing? Or were there really important things going on they were not aware of?
"Nice use of Caeli Siccum," Voldemort commented. "It is not easy to contain it properly in a delimited space."
"You've been there for so long? Why haven't you stepped in?"
She could never have fought against Bellatrix, Barty, and Voldemort at the same time. Voldemort simply shrugged, before getting closer to the display case containing the crown of the British royal family. Hermione followed him cautiously.
"The Koh-i-Noor has little value for me if you know I have it."
"Hum, of course," Hermione commented. "Though I have wondered for a moment if you were not… foolish enough just to start a war with the Muggles."
She had wanted to say stupid instead foolish, but had finally refrained. Better not to enrage Voldemort just on a whim. The dark wizard rolled his eyes.
"I have no interest in losing my precious time for Muggles," he said with obvious contempt.
Hermione briefly wondered what she was still doing here, talking to him when she should be going, but convinced herself that she needed to make sure he would not do anything to the crown.
"And still you wanted to steal a Muggle crown," Hermione pointed out.
"I was only looking for the Koh-i-Noor," Voldemort said. "The diamond is said to grant its wearer the ability to see the magical flows surrounding him after all."
Hermione nodded once.
"True, but it's never been proven," she said.
"Wouldn't you like to recover the diamond and test it then?" Voldemort asked.
"It's forbidden," Hermione replied simply, albeit with a hint of envy.
Voldemort looked at her with visible exasperation.
"So many ridiculous limitations..."
"Why are you still here?" Hermione asked, slightly annoyed. "Don't you have anything better to do?"
"Don't you?"
They stared at each other for a moment in silence, both of them perfectly aware of the fact that once again they were standing too close to each other, and Hermione found herself thinking that his musky perfume definitely had no equals in terms of elegance. It was so unfair.
"How is it that none of your Death Eaters currently on trial at the Ministry have talked about your return?" Hermione asked to ease the strange tension between them.
Voldemort moved away very slightly, and his gaze settled on the diamond again.
"A binding spell of course," he answered. "They are all too unstable at the moment for me to trust them to follow my instructions to the letter."
"Unstable," Hermione repeated with irony as she looked at Bellatrix and Barty.
Voldemort did not comment.
"I won't say I'm surprised by it, but the Minister's idiocy is an embarrassment," Voldemort finally said after a few seconds of silence.
It sounded strangely like an admission of the unfairness of the fight on this front. Hermione let out a joyless laugh.
"Yes, yes it is," she agreed.
Voldemort chose this moment to cast a spell at point blank range. Hermione immediately activated her emergency Portkey, and had just enough time to identify a Stupefy before disappearing out of there. She landed in the middle of a forest, and sighed with exasperation. Then she finally decided to join Harry's birthday party.
oOoOoOo
Dumbledore scanned the list in front of his eyes again. The very long list before his eyes. Zeus' Sceptre. Ravenclaw's Diadem. Merlin's Wand. Seth's Amulet. Slytherin's Locket. Barbarossa's Anchor. Shakespeare's Quill. Paracelsus' endless Phial. The Resurrection Stone. Ravenclaw's Book of Knowledge. Morgana le Fay's Crown. Hufflepuff's Cup. Isis' Ankh…
All these artefacts were legendary, and could have caught Lord Voldemort's eye. But most of them were considered utterly lost, some for several centuries. And which ones should he start to look for? It would take too much time to try to track all of them… Or perhaps he should change his approach. Perhaps looking for the object was not the best way to progress, perhaps he should look for the places where Voldemort would have concealed these objects instead…
Dumbledore sighed. The only silver lining of his dismissal form the position of Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot was that at least he now had more time to look for Tom's Horcruxes.
oOoOoOo
"Are you sure it's a good idea to perform the ritual to summon Death inside Grimmauld Place?" Harry asked for the umpteenth time. "This house is already full enough of dark magic."
"That's exactly why it's better to do that here," Hermione answered. "This is the only way to counter this problem that you yourself raised with the weakness of the second circle runes."
Hermione had helped Harry a lot this summer. Her friend had found a ritual to summon Death, but one that they could not execute as-is. It was also calibrated to work during Samain's night, but they had not wanted to wait until then. Hence they were going to try a patched up version of said ritual. Hermione estimated that there were fifty percent of chances for it to work. And fifty percent of chances that they would thoroughly carbonize Grimmauld Place's attic.
"Well, are we doing this ritual, or do we just spend the rest of the night arguing?" Ginny asked.
"I'm not so sure it's a good idea..." Harry began.
"Harry!" Hermione cut in reproachfully.
She had sacrificed part of her nights to take care of this ritual instead of working on the founders' relics. For which they really needed to find a solution, and were currently in a quandary: she had not managed to circumvent the need to have founders' blood, and Ron and Ginny had not found any other known descendant.
"Harry," Ron said calmly, "This ritual is probably the best way forward. As long as we don't know how to get rid of your Horcrux, we cannot attack Voldemort head-on. You were even the one to suggest this ritual. So why are you so unsure now?"
Harry ran a hand through his hair before answering.
"I'm not sure Death will be thrilled to see us," he said.
"Seriously? You're afraid of Death now? You?" Ginny exclaimed.
Harry ignored her, and they ended up starting the ritual. They were still far from the end of it when a thick black smoke began to emerge from the centre of the runic circles. An indistinct silhouette appeared amid strange noises, which Hermione finally identified as a fit of laughter.
"Have you seriously replaced Death's hair by Acromantula silk?" the silhouette asked, still laughing.
"It's not like we could have get some hair before summoning Death!" Hermione answered, slightly offended by the tone.
The figure suddenly turned towards her and Hermione could finally see that it was a young woman with long black hair and decidedly non-human eyes. Hermione could not suppress a shiver.
"It worked anyway, didn't it?" Ginny said, backing up Hermione.
"It did not work. I only came because I was wondering who could try something so ridiculous. Strangely, I'm not really surprised," she concluded, now starring at Harry.
Harry looked quite displeased.
"So tell me, my little master of the hollows, what do you want from me?" she asked. "You do know I grant wishes only once."
She had an irritating tone strangely similar to the one of Bellatrix Lestrange. As if she was doing it on purpose, to annoy Harry.
"I wanted to know if, if I killed myself, I would come back without Voldemort's Horcrux," Harry said.
"Ah, good question. But why should I answer you?" Death asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
Hermione now understood why Harry was not particularly enthusiastic with the idea of summoning Death.
"I thought you didn't like those who cheated you?" Harry said. "And Voldemort is clearly trying to avoid death."
"Perhaps," Death said non-committedly. "But he is particularly distracting to observe. More than you."
"Hey, haven't you been distracted by our failed ritual?" Ron intervened.
"This one seems more amusing than you at least," Death said, pointing at Ron.
Ron's face clearly reflected that he did not really know if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
"That deserves a small clue then, doesn't it?" he tried.
Hermione shook her head as Death burst out laughing. There was no chance in hell for it to work.
"All right, I'll give you a clue," Death finally answered.
Hermione stared at her in surprise as Death turned back towards Harry, a disturbing smile on her lips.
"If you come back, the Horcrux will come back too," Death said.
Then she disappeared in a whirlwind of smoke.
"Lovely," Ginny grumbled.
"And pretty unhelpful," Hermione added. "If you come back... she hasn't even confirmed whether Harry was immortal or not, just that in case he was, it would not allow him to get rid of the Horcrux..."
"So we have no way to remove my Horcrux without killing me completely," Harry said.
"It's even worse than that," Ginny whispered. "If you're still immortal, even killing you will not change anything."
"Hermione, tell me you have another idea for the Horcrux," Ron said.
"I… perhaps," Hermione confessed. "But it's really hypothetical..."
"Please tell us," Harry said with a hint of hope in his voice.
"When we used the resurrection ritual, the founders' relics have not been destroyed, because they were protected by Njörd's ritual," Hermione explained. "So if we could manage to adapt Njörd's ritual to a human being, and adapt the resurrection ritual to work without a receptacle, we may be able to remove the Horcrux without killing Harry."
"Thanks Merlin," Ginny said.
And even Harry looked relieved. Hermione did not add anything, not wanting to destroy their hope by signaling that this task was near impossible, as Njörd's ritual currently worked on untainted objects, and both it and the resurrection ritual would probably damage too much something as fragile as a human body.
oOoOoOo
"Another mass breakout from Azkaban. Is the Ministry really protecting us?"
"Bellatrix Lestrange and Bartemius Crouch Jr. free again the freshly imprisoned Death Eaters"
"Dementors have left Azkaban, panic at the Ministry"
Hermione dropped the newspapers on the table. It had been barely a day since the trials of the Death Eaters had ended, and they were all out again...
oOoOoOo
"We won't be able to continue like that when Hogwarts restarts," Ron said.
Once again Hermione had come to Grimmauld Place in the middle of the night, to be able to chat more easily with her friends.
They were overwhelmed right now. Voldemort was sending his Death Eaters to create panic in the main public places as a diversion, while trying to assassinate some carefully chosen people. He had even tried to have his Death Eaters kidnap Aberforth Dumbledore – probably to get his brother out of Hogwarts and attempt to kill him –, but this attempt had fortunately been countered.
The attacks were becoming more violent however, and were increasingly harder to thwart in time. And when they would be stuck at Hogwarts in less than a week, they would never be able to react quickly enough… And on top of that, Hermione would not be able anymore to protect her parents as closely as now.
"We need to tell him the truth," Harry said. "The situation is getting out of control."
"It will be even more out of control if we tell him the truth," Ginny replied.
"We won't be able to manage everything if he continues to wreak havoc," Hermione pointed out. "We cannot deal with a Dark Lord on a rampage and the magical sources at the same time. And we wanted to avoid the second wizarding war."
"He will never help us," Ron argued.
"I'm not so sure," Hermione said. "He won't do anything for us, of course, but he won't want the world destroyed either. There is no satisfaction in ruling an empty world. But he will of course not stop his attacks without something in exchange…"
Ron nodded as Ginny scowled.
"I hate the fact that we have to work with him," Ginny said. "First because he escaped us, then because of Harry's Horcrux, and now because we potentially need an heir to repair the magical source, and we can't just kill the only one we have on hand. Tom Riddle is luckier than what this bastard deserves."
"Technically, his parents were married when he was conceived," Ron pointed out.
Ginny glared at him and Ron ignored her with all the mastery of dozens of years of practice.
"All right, you've all convinced me that we need to tell him about the sources, and we'll do that," Ginny sighed. "But if this ends up with him managing to somehow find a way to use the power of the sources for himself, I deny all responsibility."
oOoOoOo
Lord Voldemort hesitated for a moment to simply burn the letter he had in his hands, and never answer it. He did not need to talk to them. He had the advantage over them. And if for now they had managed to counter his actions, they would have an important handicap when they would go back to Hogwarts. He would have free reign over the wizarding United Kingdom.
There was the Order of the Phoenix, of course, and he could not say that they were not a thorn in his foot, but they were far from the level of annoyance provided by his four main enemies.
Still, he had to admit that he was curious. Curious to know what they were going to propose to him in exchange for the diminution of the attacks. They always had interesting bargaining chips. The contents of the prophecy. "Zheng's Charms" book by Ji You. The Philosopher's Stone.
It could also be a trap though. Even today, he could not figure out who would win a duel between them.
Fetching a quill, Lord Voldemort wrote a few dry words on a parchment before giving it to the white owl, who looked at him with evident disdain before flying away. Obviously Potter's bird liked him as little as his owner.
oOoOoOo
"Potter,
I will meet the Mudblood at the Nox Club tomorrow at 8pm.
My terms or nothing.
LV"
"No. No way!" Harry immediately reacted.
Hermione, Ginny, and Ron all looked at him with exasperation, while Ginny muttered something that sounded like "The Nox Club? That bastard…".
"No," Harry repeated. "You won't go there alone Hermione."
"She won't go alone Harry," Ron said. "It's a club; we just have to get there discreetly to be able to help if needed."
"And it's not like we have a choice anyway," Hermione concluded.
oOoOoOo
AN: Next chapter in two weeks.