AN: I do not own Harry Potter, the only characters I own are those of my own creation. I would like to apologize for the very long wait, my muse decided it wanted to take a vacation. And, I would like to apologize ahead of time for the cliffhanger.
Chapter Twelve
AJ sighed as she took a seat in one of the chairs in the Room of Requirement, putting her feet up on the coffee table and taking a sip of the coffee she'd gone down to the kitchen for. Staring up at the two eggs they'd dubbed 'Screamers,' she tried to figure out how the hell an egg full of banshee wails was supposed to be a clue for the next task. The Banshee thought had her pause in lifting her cup to her mouth and she stood up. Setting her coffee on the table as she undid the sticking charm that was keeping one of the eggs attached to the light and floated it down into her hand. AJ opened it, flinching at the first grating screech and quickly closed it when she realized that it was definitely not a Banshee, there wouldn't be any fluctuations in the scream.
Now that she knew that Harry was definitely not going to have to fight a Banshee, she set the egg in the center of the coffee table and sat back down, picking up her coffee. 'It almost sounds like talking,' she thinks as she slid deeper into her chair, propping her feet back up on the table. "It still has you all stumped, I see," Nigellus says as he appeared in the empty portrait on the other side of the room and she would've glared at him if she hadn't been in the middle of drinking her coffee. "Don't worry, though, none of the other competitors have gotten it, either."
"That's good news," she breathes as she set her coffee on the table and leant her head back so she was staring up at the ceiling. "How goes the loss of Dumbledore's sanity?"
"It's definitely going," he snickers as he took a seat in the over-fluffed arm chair inside the portrait with a grimace. "He spends most of the days now muttering to himself or cursing your name, sometimes both at the same time and sometimes cursing other people."
AJ snickered as she straightened up to grab her coffee and slid back into her seat, taking a sip. "I'm sure that's got to be entertaining," she chuckles and Nigellus smirked before giving her a nod.
"I actually came to tell you that Bloodshield will be sending you an up-to-date folder of the evidence against Dumbledore," he says and AJ nods, slipping deeper into her chair. "Lucan, Corvus and Valerius are doing very well with their tutors, as are Petunia and Dudley. Petunia wanted you to know that the twins are doing wonderfully. Percy wanted me to remind you that his appointment with the Gringott's Healer is at three in the afternoon in three days, he wants Marcus, you, Lucan and Bill there...or else."
Downing the rest of her coffee, AJ nodded and sat up once she realized that coming to the Room of Requirement to relax was the worst idea possible. "Dobby I need another coffee, please?" she groans and the excitable elf appeared to bounce next to her chair before she handed him her cup. "Thank you," she murmurs when he reappeared only seconds later with a fresh cup of coffee for her. Dobby gave her a bright, happy smile before popping back down to the kitchens and a plate of fresh gingerbread scones appeared in the center of the coffee table. "That elf is a godsend." Nigellus chuckled as she picked up a scone and dunked it into her coffee.
AJ let out a groan as she took a bite when the door began to manifest and she hoped that it wasn't Ron, Ginny or Dumbledore because she was not in the mood to deal with them. It was Harry and he gave her a small smile as he took a seat on the couch to her left and began pulling out the last of his homework before break officially began so he didn't have to worry about it later. Cassimira unwound herself from his neck before making her way over to AJ, coiling up in her lap with a contented hiss. "How you feeling about finding out if you're going to be a mommy in a couple of days?" he asks barely glancing up at her from his work and AJ gave a soft smile as he took a scone off the plate in the center of the coffee table.
"I think Percy has threatened all of us with many things if we do not attend his appointment," she breathes and Harry let out a snicker as he began scratching out the last bit of his Potions essay. "Being a mommy actually sounds really good as long as we can make it through Percy's pregnancy without him trying to kill anyone."
A window appeared just in time for a disguised Fawkes to enter the room, carrying a rather large parcel that I was pretty sure were the dresses for the Yule Ball, as well as Adrian and Hughe's dress robes. "Most likely Dumbledore so that he doesn't have to worry about the codger stealing your children," Harry grumbles as he rolled up his Potions essay and AJ let out a deep growl at just the thought. "Although, I think you and the others would probably do exactly that if you thought he was going to."
POV=Change=
Muggle Psychiatric Hospital; London
A dark-haired male sat huddled in the corner of a large, white, padded room, rocking back and forth, muttering to himself. Outside the room, Dumbledore, dressed as a Muggle businessman, stared through the small window in the door, checking in on Patient 204, as he was known in the Muggle world. In the Wizarding World, the man inside the room was known as Regulus Black and thought to be deceased, although how long that would last Dumbledore didn't know. As he stared into the room at Regulus, he felt the tiniest bit of loathing when the man lifted his head up to stare at him with amused, grey eyes.
"You were so smug when you brought me here, Albus," he sneers and the older Wizard stepped back from the glass. "Left me with my memories but took away my magic, knowing that every Muggle I met would think I was crazy and they'd keep me here." A chuckle left Regulus' lips as he straightened one of his legs out, using the knee of his other one to prop his head up. "But I can feel it, your hold on us waning. How long do you think it will take before Lily and James remember? Before Remus remembers? Or Evan to get free, hmm?" Albus' face twisted at the mention of Remus and Regulus smirked, grey eyes practically glowing with malice. "And when my magic returns, you can bet you'll be the first person I rip to pieces." Turning away from the room Regulus was in, Dumbledore stalked down the hall, followed by the man's laughter and planning what to do before Regulus' words became true.
POV=Change=
Detective Charles Aimes leant against the wall of the elevator up to his flat, face in his hands as he tried to understand what had just happened outside. He'd just pulled up in his car and was about to get out when he'd gotten another flash of what he almost thought was a memory. This time it had centered around him, except his name had been James, a woman named Lily and another man named Regulus. There had also been a child named Harry who looked like an almost perfect mix of the three of them, which wasn't possible.
The elevator stopped and he glanced up to see that it was his floor before slowly stepping out, pulling his keys from the pocket of his jacket. "What is going on with me?" he breathes as he unlocked his door and stepped inside, pulling his coat off to set on the rack hung on the back of the front door. "Could I be regaining memories from before the accident?" Taking a seat at his kitchen table, he glanced around his small flat and flinched as the ghost of a woman's laughter filled his ears, a child's delighted babble accompanying it.
The image of a large, black dog bounding through an unfamiliar kitchen, being chased by a toddling boy with auburn hair appeared before his eyes. "Be careful, Sirius, I'll hit you with a Stinging Hex if you cause my son to hurt himself," a male voice says from off to his left and he turned to see the man he now knew as Regulus sitting at the table beside him. The dog made a huffing noise before rolling large, intelligent grey eyes and his brows furrowed. Had the dog understood?
Only a moment later, the dog transformed into a slightly older version of Regulus but with a playful smile on his lips. "Oh come on, little brother, I'm only playing with my godson," he chuckles and Lily, appeared behind him, smacking him on the back of the head with a wooden spoon.
"Listen to your brother," she laughs when he made a wounded noise and rubbed the back of his head. "When are Sev and AJ going to arrive, do you know?"
Sirius gave a smile before picking up Harry and making faces, causing the boy to start laughing. "My husband and daughter should be here in thirty minutes," he answers giving a frown when Lily stole Harry from his grasp, setting him into one of the two high chairs at the table.
Charles frowned as the memory faded and shook his head, not knowing what to think as he stood from his seat, heading into his bedroom. "I think I need to go see the doctors again, they might know if my memories are coming back or not," he breathes before starting the shower, hoping the water would help relax him so it would be easier to sleep.
POV=Change=
In a darkened manor in Southern Ireland, a crystallized prison began to crack as the man inside woke for the first time in fourteen years. Unable to move, or call his magic, Evan Rosier stared at a spot on the wall nearest him as he cursed Molly Prewett and Albus Dumbledore to the deepest pits of hell for a few moments. His thoughts eventually drifted away from the two perpetrators of his condition at the moment and on to Petunia Evans, the woman he'd been in love with and engaged to before this happened. He wondered what she was doing now, if she'd moved on with her life and forgotten all about him or if she was still waiting for him. At the moment, he couldn't decide which thought was more painful, that she'd moved on, or that she was still waiting for him without any sign that he would come back. There was a resounding crack in the prison around him and Evan tried to move, just a bit, to see if he could get free, stopping when pain flared all over his body. 'I won't be able to move until the spell is completely gone,' he thinks as he completely stilled his movements, not wanting to cause himself any lasting damage, 'or worse, summon Dumbledore.'
POV=Change=
Rose tossed in her bed as she tried to ignore what was going on inside her thoughts and everything that was beginning to happen around her. Finally tired of trying to sleep when she knew it wasn't going to happen, she sat up in bed and stared down at her abdomen that was revealed by her pushed up sleep shirt. Glaring at the very faint stretch marks that seemed to have appeared overnight, Rose pressed a hand to her stomach and felt an unexplainable feeling of sadness as the 'memory' of a small, auburn-haired boy moved through her mind.
The feeling that something was wrong had been following her around for days and she'd taken a few days off work, feigning sick, as she'd tried to figure out what was going on. Over the last three weeks, she'd been getting flashes of memory that couldn't possibly be her's, too fantastical and amazing to be real. But it was the memories of being in love and having a child that were the most unbelievable, Rose was ever the workaholic, nothing personal ever mattered. Hell, her last relationship had ended because the man felt that he'd been competing with her job when it came down to whether or not she cared enough and she'd decided to just not try again.
"What is going on?" she breathes staring up at her ceiling as she lay back down, hand still absentmindedly rubbing at the marks on her stomach. "Am I going crazy?"
POV=Change=
Harry, Hermione, Luna and Isadora were sitting in the courtyard during lunch, awaiting news from AJ and the others on whether or not Percy was pregnant. While waiting, they were helping each other finish up what little bit of their assignments were left and wondering where the double set of twins had gone off to. It was Isadora who noticed her brothers sneaking up on a green-skinned, silver-haired Ron as he argued about something with Ginny and she informed the others. They took turns with watching what was going on, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible while doing so and noticed that the Greyback twins were listening in on the argument.
Knowing that they'd tell them what they'd heard if it was important, Harry and the others turned their attention back to their work. A loud screech had their attention back on Ginny and Ron about seven minutes later, laughter breaking out all around the courtyard as they began to turn all sorts of colors. Fred and George appeared on either side of Hermione a couple of minutes later, smirking to themselves as George handed her a letter. "Fawkes brought that to the Room of Requirement a few minutes ago," Fred says and Hermione looked over the front of the envelope before her eyes went wide as saucers.
"Aunt Narcissa doesn't normally mail me personally, she uses Draco," she murmurs as she slides the letter into the book she'd been reading. "Can't read it out here where they'll see it." She was glaring at Ron and Ginny when she said this, making the others nod in agreement as they began packing away their things.
"We'll go up to the room, then," Harry breathes as he finished up his last assignment and began putting up all of his materials, as well. "It'll be the first place AJ goes to find us, anyway."
POV=Change=
Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, muttering quietly to himself as he stared at the figurines on the shelf a little away from him. They were beginning to get more active, Regulus' had practically vibrated earlier that morning and Lily's was beginning to glow, as was James'. 'This is bad,' he thinks as he glances at the empty perch where his once-loyal familiar had sat and knocked the record book he kept off his desk. He didn't even notice as it disappeared, having forgotten about the enchantment that sent everything that was pushed off his desk to Minerva's office.
As the book disappeared, many of the portraits shook their heads before walking out of their frames and Nigellus smirked. The portrait had managed to talk the Deputy Headmistress into sharing her responsibilities with Severus so that she wasn't worked to the bone, doing her work and Albus'. Minerva had reworked Albus' enchantment so that anything he threw off his desk appeared in Severus' rooms. He'd go through it, giving her the things that were extremely important while he took care of the less important things. Minerva was basically acting Headmistress and it was starting to reflect in Hogwarts, the castle was getting ready to evict Dumbledore.
Leaving his frame in the Headmaster's office, Nigellus made his way down into the dungeons towards Snape's rooms and sighed when he saw it empty. "Severus," he calls knowing that the grump had returned to his rooms for lunch with Sirius. "Something extremely important just fell into your lap from Albus' office." The record book was sitting atop a rather small stack of paperwork that was probably also from the Headmaster's office and he heard Severus making his way towards the living room. "I see the two of you are busy trying to give AJ siblings."
Severus gave him a look that probably would've gotten a reaction from him if he'd still been alive but as a portrait, he just stared back. The Potions Master sighed before glancing at the newest thing from Albus' office and picking it up off the stack, taking a seat in his chair. Opening it, he began scanning the contents of the pages and Nigellus watched as his eyes widened in shock before he closed it, turning to stare at the portrait. "The old bastard kept a record of who he stole magic from, the children he stole from their parents and the families he destroyed," he breathes causing Nigellus to nod and Severus stood from his seat. "Sirius, I'm going to Gringott's, please stay out of trouble while I'm gone."
"I'll make sure he does," Nigellus murmurs as his many-times great-grandson walks into the room and Severus disappears into the floo.
POV=Change=
Bloodshield was sitting at his desk, all of the information that he'd been able to collect so far for the case he was making against Dumbledore when Brokenaxe came into his office. "The Lestrange Heiress has requested that we file a formal complaint with the British Ministry of Magic on the mistrial of her parents and uncle," he informed the smaller Goblin sitting at the desk, hurriedly scratching away on a piece of parchment. "I need the forms to do so."
Pausing in what he was doing, Bloodshield laid down his quill and stood from his seat, heading over to the large filing cabinets on the left side of the room and opening the third one down. "Actually, she just sent me proof that neither her parents or uncle recieved a trial in the first place," he murmurs glancing back at the goblin standing by his desk. "So you actually need three copies of this form and, yes, you need to fill all three of them out, one for each wrongly-accused and sentenced person."
Brokenaxe stared at Bloodshield a moment before raising an eyebrow as he held the forms out to him and he moved over to where the smaller goblin was standing. "Thank you," he breathes taking the forms from him and patting the smaller goblin on the head. "You should sleep, you look tired."
"I'll sleep when this is over," Bloodshield mutters before heading back to his chair, picking up his quill to begin writing again. "Knowing the evil, old bastard, he'll figure out what we're doing and begin covering his tracks." Brokenaxe couldn't help but agree with that statement before taking a seat in the chair opposite the smaller Goblin and began to fill out the paperwork he'd just been handed. The sound of the office's floo caught their attention and had Bloodshield out of his chair and moving towards the hearth, an annoyed string of curses leaving his lips. "Lord Prince-Black, I didn't know we had an appointment today."
"We don't," Severus breathes as he steps out of the hearth, shaking the soot from his robes and taking the empty seat next to Brokenaxe. "I have a...surprise for you." Reaching into his robes, he pulled out what seemed to be an odd-looking record book and set it on the desk for Bloodshield to look through.
Brokenaxe looked away from his own paperwork for a moment to lean forward and give the ledgers inside a cursory glance. The smaller goblin sitting in the chair behind the desk let out a surprised noise before quickly flipping through the pages. "I never pegged Dumbledore for an idiot," he breathes looking over the list of names, mentally crossing out the ones he'd already checked while summoning a sheaf of parchment to write down those he hadn't. "And keeping a log of the people you've robbed of magic, children and sanity is a very stupid move."
POV=Change=
In the Forbidden Forest there was a place none of the other creatures ventured, it was a circle of magic, about thirty feet in diameter, that attacked any that came near it and hid the two figures floating inside it. Two, identical, men were held suspended in magical comas floated at the center of the circle and their magic being siphoned away from them by a cuff on each of their wrists. The stones that laid out the dimensions of the circle, held there by the magic of the man who held them began to slip from place and small creatures were able to cross into the boundary. Firenze, one of the Centaurs that had been patrolling near the circle noticed the difference when a large, silver-scaled snake, chasing a small rabbit was stopped by the boundary but the rabbit continued running. "Dumbledore's magic is weakening, it seems," he murmurs as the snake hissed angrily before making it's way back to the castle.
POV=Change=
Harry was sitting in the Room of Requirement, listening to the others as they talked about the upcoming ball while he was trying to figure out what to do with the clue for the upcoming task. Cedric and he had even gone so far as opening both their eggs at the same time to see if the clue was different in any way but it matched up, as well as making everyone else upset with them. "Don't concentrate so hard on it, we'll figure it out eventually," Cedric says glancing at him over the top of the book he was reading, giving a small smile when Luna took the seat beside him, cuddling into his side as Neville sat on her other side.
"I have a feeling the Black Lake holds the answer," Luna breathes as she began doodling on the sketchpad Hermione had given her for her birthday.
Draco, who'd been staring at the clock for the last hour and a half since classes ended, glanced away to glare at his mates as the two of them began bickering at each other. "AJ and Marcus should be back soon," George says as he and Fred continue weedling Hermione about who was taking her to the ball, annoyed that she hadn't waited for them to ask before telling someone else 'yes.'
"Anyone want to make any bets on whether Perce is pregnant or not?" Fred snickers getting a smack on the back of the head with the book Hermione was currently reading. "Ow."
Harry chuckled as he set the egg he'd been twirling in his hand on the coffeetable next to Cedric's. "You know that he'll beat the crap out of you, or have one of the others do it, if you start something," he says and they gave him twin annoyed expressions as the Greyback twins each placed a bet, against each other. Harry shook his head, running his fingers down the line of silver scales down the center of Cassimira's head and listened in on the conversation that Luna and Hermione were having. The Sinclair heir ring on the necklace around his neck heated up a moment and he wrapped his fingers around it, trying to catch the feeling behind the ring's actions. Rage, red-hot and boiling, swamped his thoughts as he saw through AJ's eyes. A blinding blue-grey spell collided with a multi-colored shield that popped up around Percy's midsection and she immediately focused on the Witch who'd cast it. Black ropes wound tightly around her, successfully binding the woman as AJ's gaze moved to where Bill and Marcus were having to hold back a transformed Lucan as he looked ready to rip the woman, who was dressed as a St. Mungo's Medi-Witch, to pieces. He pulled away from his cousin's thoughts, unable to handle the overload the connection was feeling due to her current state of mind.
Once he was finally free of the connection, Harry stood from his seat and walked towards the spot where the wall was forming a fireplace. "Where are you going, Harry?" Hermione asks and he turned back to see all of them staring at him.
"I'm going to see what's taking AJ and the rest of them so long, they should've been back already," he says taking a handful of floo powder out of the container that appeared on the mantel. "Be back soon." He tossed the floor powder into the fire and stepped through, using his magic and thoughts to make it to St. Mungo's, stepping out of the hearth as he dusted off his clothes. Making his way towards the front desk, Harry coughed to get the harried-looking Witch's attention and she glanced away from what she was working on. "I'm here to see Lady Sinclair, do you know where she is?"