Harry listened with great interest as Dumbledore described what he was doing. For the reasons of safety they had decided to use 'his' little corner at the edge of the forest to take a look at the cursed shards. The old wizard had started off with placing magical barriers in case something would trigger the shards to act on their own.
He then started to unload the bags through magic. Teasing each cursed piece out of the bag and analysing it before destroying with a metal destroying curse. The dust collected into another bag for disposal later. Hermione noted down what curses were on it while Harry attempted the same spells to analyse the cursed metal.
After a dozen pieces Dumbledore closed the first bag. "Considering the overall lethality put into those weapons it is safe to say that Voldemort is involved. I do not believe the clash would change the strength of the cursus so I suspect he directed his death eaters to help him." "The curses applied through the weapons must have worked." Cressida noted "That means it is an effective method against Campione as well."
"I doubt there will be a prodigy in the dark arts like Voldemort in the coming hundred years. Only Grindelwald dived into the dark arts like this. And we must remember that it did not work. And these curses will cut down the caster or wielder just as eagerly as their intended target." The headmaster explained. He then hummed thoughtfully. "I would suggest that the local authorities seek for thefts in private collections or storages. All these weapons are muggle made."
"I shall make the required inquiries if they have not done so themselves already." Cressida agreed as she noted it down. The headmaster gave the woman a small smile and a nod "Thank you young lady." He took down the protective wards. "Although I am afraid it will only allow them to pin a name on the person responsible. Not where he currently is."
"Could they be tracked if any of his death eaters still carry any of the weapons?" Mia asked curiously. Dumbledore shook his head to her disappointment. "Even if he would entrust such dangerous tools to his own inner circle. They would be only detected by localised dark magic detection methods. I think it is best if you merely inform the egyptian magical authorities and worry about it no further." The headmaster explained.
"It feels wrong to just go on like Voldemort never existed or just assume he is a done deal." Harry complained with crossed arms. The inability to do anything was nagging him. "I know it must sound hard to your young ears. But rushing back and forth with no destination in mind only wears you down." Dumbledore advised gently. "It is best to conserve your energy until a clear target presents itself."
"I'll take it under advisement." Harry grumbled. His annoyance increased as Dumbledore gave him the mysterious tiny smile he still hadn't figured out if it was patronising or genuinely pleased. With the sunlight overhead it was hard to say if the old wizard's eyes were twinkling which tended to give Harry a better hint of Dumbledore's feelings. "Thank you for your lesson Headmaster." Hermione thanked politely.
"It is always a joy to teach miss Granger. I did enjoy the two lessons I could give on the subject of Campione. I hope to repeat it next year." Harry kept a neutral face even as he both wanted to look dour at the fame he was slowly getting comfortable with and somewhat amused at the thought of the firsties gaping at his authorities. And he had to admit they did not look at him like he was about to go off the moment he showed a hint of annoyance.
Dumbledore gave the younger members of the group a final look before turning around and leaving. "Do you wish for the Witenagemot to investigate deeper?" Cressida asked once she was sure Dumbledore was out of earshot. "Do you think they got any chance of finding anything? I don't want to send them on a niffler hunt only to step on the toes of whoever runs the show there." Harry asked in reply.
Cressida frowned for a moment before bowing her head "I cannot say Harry." "Well.. then send the Witenagemot a message and let them make the judgement if they can help." Harry suggested. Feeling clever for letting that decision in the hands of the people who had to do something with it.
"That is a very frustrating command my lord." Mia commented dryly as she could imagine the head scratching that would occur when a Campione said 'You make a judgement on this' without knowing for sure if you did not do it, you'd get an angry Campione on your case.
Harry shot a glare at Mia for the title she had given him. "Well they can thank you for me giving it to them." he snapped annoyed. "Oh Harry." Hermione complained with an exasperated sigh. "Stop being so sensitive." Harry grumbled but let his annoyance go. He could see what Mia meant after thinking it over.
"They found something?" Harry exclaimed in pleased surprise. "Yes Harry. They found what they suspect is the base of operations they used. Both local authorities and the Witenagemot agree that it was hastily abandoned. Sadly they could not trace the portkeys used to escape. According to the agents the Witenagemot sent there has been a hasty collection of prepared potion ingredients before leaving." Cressida explained factually.
She gave Dumbledore a list who took it with the mental note to pass it on to Severus. "This is the information they managed to retrieve on potion ingredients or their traces they could find." She did not say she had already given Hermione her own copy without being prompted to. "There is also a large library filled with books on Campione and Heretic Gods. On the latter subject there are more books, including on descending them."
"So it is as we feared miss Layla." Dumbledore noted gravely. "Yes Headmaster. The only 'positive' thing I can say is that it has become clear from the few logs or notebooks that the Dark Lord stumbled upon the Wosret summoning cult and made use of their work. One specifically mentioned that it was Pettigrew who stumbled upon the group by pure luck instead of it being the work of an intelligence network." Cressida noted.
"The death eaters wrote that down in diaries?" Harry asked puzzled that they would leave such obvious hints for anyone to find. "Three did." Cressida confirmed easily. "It appears they did so after Voldemort forbade them from contacting their spouses at home but wanted to organise their thoughts somehow. Furthermore it appeared that the expected wraith of the dark lord never appeared as he predicted. So they are using an unnamed fallback ritual."
"That is a bounty of information. Could I get copies of the original files?" Dumbledore asked and he immediately received a stack of papers. "You are thoroughly efficient, Miss Layla." Cressida did not flush under the praise although Harry shot her an appreciative nod. "I do hope you share any conclusions you reach yourself, Headmaster."
Dumbledore's beard wiggled for a moment. "I will miss Layla. That is what the Witenagemot is all about is it not?" "It is a place for highly knowledgeable individuals to exchange information and knowledge." Cressida replied in the tone of a saleswoman making a pitch. "Quite." Dumbledore concurred with obvious amusement.
Narcissa Malfoy kept herself from hurling curses left and right like a child throwing a tantrum. It was the undignified behaviour the Malfoy men indulged in from time to time. The letter once delivered by the snowy white owl, the bearer of bad news, she had sincerely hoped would never be seen again by her had visited once more to deliver more of it. Never before she was tempted to hex the messenger.
'Damnation. Since Lucius stopped contacting me I am not even aware WHAT happened. That damned young woman is making it clear I am now officially into the Campione's disfavor. It is clear she is acting on her own however, can I use this? Or is the Potter boy hardening his attitude with those affiliated with the Dark Lord?' Narcissa thought angrily. She hated being blind like this.
Narcissa paced a hole into the ground as she mulled it over as she tried to predict the boy's actions with what little information she had. Her thoughts were disrupted when her wards alerted her she had three visitors. She was not expecting anyone so with her wand hidden, but at the ready she made her way towards the hall to greet them. She trusted the house elves to let the guests into the house if they did not have directly harmful intent.
'As if my day could not become any worse.' Narcissa complained in her mind as she saw Amelia Bones with her two most trusted flunkies. "Welcome to the Malfoy Manor, Miss Bones." Narcissa greeted, trying to sound if their visit was a pleasant surprise, while actually verbally stabbing at the woman by not using her title. Her actual feelings were more in the direction of her wishing that the woman dropped dead right now. "Good day madam Malfoy." Amelia replied in the same pleasant tone.
"I am afraid that I am not here for a cup of tea and a bit of gossip." Amelia noted with regret. The Malfoy lady was more than aware that Amelia did not do gossiping. The two men with her did a poor job hiding their amusement. "Is that so?" Narcissa said with feigned sadness. "Then you must be here on business. How can house Malfoy help you?"
"I am here to find Lucius Malfoy for an investigative interview. For some absurd reason mister Fudge has claimed that Lucius Malfoy has bribed him." Amelia did a good show of looking outraged but Narcissa was not fooled. Amelia was rightfully convinced that Lucius was responsible for the majority deaths in her family and would do anything within the laws to get Lucius sent to Azkaban for a date with a dementor.
Narcissa mentally checked that Lucius's macabre hobby of collecting the wands of the pureblood wizards he had murdered was safely stored in a hidden room. "I am afraid Lucius is on business abroad. Should I forward a letter?" she offered. Amelia made a show to look disappointed. "Due to the accusations made by mister Fudge I have a warrant. These two fine gentlemen will make sure Lucius Malfoy is not here."
Amelia made a show to look sorry. "Not that I accuse you of hiding mister Malfoy. That would imply that he is guilty." 'Damn right you know he is guilty.' Narcissa snapped in her mind as her opponent finally threw back the verbal dagger. "Then please come in further. Is there anything else I can do?" Narcissa offered genially even as she fervently hoped that the elves had picked up to hide all the more dubious items from plain view.
To her relief the creatures had. Her husband might loathe them but Narcissa appreciated the loyal servants they made. She considered making an objection to the spells used as the men clearly tried to find something while looking for Lucius. In the end she decided against it before Bones could twist the statement into an admittance of guilt. Amelia would follow the rules, but she would bend them for every inch she could get if she believed she would follow the 'soul' of the rules through them.
As she expected, but still to her relief nothing incriminating or warranting further investigation could be found. Narcissa was unaware that while she was keeping an eye on the two gentlemen. Amelia had time to see and read the letter from Cressida. The head of the DMLE had opted not to drop the potential 'I got a Campione backing' spell. She did plan however to ensure she would have it.
"Well I am afraid I must leave madam Malfoy. Please let your husband know to visit the ministry at the first opportunity he has. If he remains absent for more than a week I must assume he is avoiding the law. If you could let me know which country he currently resides in, I can inform the relevant ministry to let him know of this." Bones said formally, sounding like a helpful bureaucrat.
"He is currently in Egypt conducting business according to the last letter I received from him." Narcissa answered with a fake smile. "Unfortunately I was not informed who he was meeting or in what part of the country he would do so."
"Oh my. I hope he wasn't caught up in that dreadful business that happened there." Amelia exclaimed worriedly. So much so that Narcissa for a moment genuinely wondered if she was being sincere. Amelia meanwhile expertly hid that she knew of nothing until she had read the letter. Personally she wouldn't care if Lucius was stomped on like a bug by a heretic god. Her hopes from a reaction from Narcissa were for naught as the woman played the 'worried wife' to a T.
"Yes. A most dreadful business." Narcissa agreed even as she had no idea what the woman opposite to her was talking about. "I am worried I have not heard anything from him yet."
"If I do I shall let you know." Amelia promised. The two women exchanged a few more pleasantries before Amelia left. 'This is becoming an uncontrollable mess. How could Fudge be stupid enough to speak of what happend? The goblins would delay releasing the financial records for every second they could.' Narcissa worried as things seemed to fall apart around her.
She paused and stopped herself from banging her head into the wall. 'That was until the Potter Campione enacted a forceful change of management. Could this new leadership bend more easily to the demands of ministry? Or are they afraid that the ministry could get Potter to come down their warrens for a second round?'
"Maybe I should chastise Lucius the same way I corrected Draco. The era is changing and we are in the wrong position." she muttered to herself as she tried to find a solution to get out of the quagmire her family had landed into.
"Robe me" Lord Voldemort commanded the purebloods standing in a tight circle around him in the large cave. Two immediately did as bid while Voldemort amused himself wondering if his next resurrection would involve cutting off Pettigrew's feet. "My wand?" he demanded politely. There was some nervous shuffling in the thin ranks as Pettigrew continued whimpering and cradling his bloody stump.
"We tried to search the battlefield once the heretic goddess was gone." Lucius lied smoothly. They actually spent most of it hiding their tracks the best they could before legging it as fast as they could when it became clear the authorities were closing in. "So my wand is in the hands of the authorities?" Voldemort demanded.
He was busy hiding the fact that he had noticed that his familiar had expired and that unlike his expectations he could only remember to the moment he transferred his current memories to the horcrux inside the snake. "We are still searching which of the involved parties holds your wand my lord." Lucius assured him. "See to it." he commanded in return. "What happened to the heretic goddess? And why did you enact the ritual…" he gave the area a distasteful look. "...here?"
"A campione was brought over and defeated the heretic goddess." another spoke up as Lucius was already halfway outside the cafe. "He brought along those organisations who tracked down our base. So we were forced to…" he was cut off with a cry of pain and the other death eaters stepped back in surprise to see the dark lord fling a wandless pain curse.
"You ran like cowards, only taking what was directly to be used to you did you not?" he asked dangerously. "I thought I had the very best of the british nobility serving me. Did none of you consider talking or bribing your way out of trouble? Offer the uncivilized tribes a handful of gold to walk away? Or just deal with them with force if they refuse to understand?"
He relished for a moment how the supposedly finest of magical Great Britain shuffled and glanced at eachother like a pack of cowards. "Make preparations to leave. This cave is below our stature. I will deal with this disappointment later" he barked and the men scrambled out. This gave him the opportunity to fetch Peter's wand, knock its owner out and analyse the remains of his familiar. It was as he suspected, his Horcrux was consumed into his current body, which meant that the part of his soul that fought the heretic goddess was lost to him somehow.
'I shall need to fetch one of the others.' Voldemort mused. Well aware that his master plan of having a seven part soul was well beyond him now. Shattering one's soul when it was incomplete was an act of stupidity. To his own surprise however he could not bring up the anger he expected to feel at this defeat. Instead his mind whirled at his next move. A single defeat would make his next victory just so much sweeter.
Severus Snape was spending the night, the full moon shining overhead, working on a potion Dumbledore had requested. It was a powerful potion that made the user very hard to influence through magic. It was also spectacularly unhealthy to drink even when brewed by a master like himself. Severus had no idea why the Headmaster wanted the potion although he suspected it had to do with the Dark Lord's artifacts.
The potion master had just completed the set of rotations required when he winced and dropped the ladle to the ground as his Dark Mark burned. With some dismay he checked the mark and found it had returned to full power. 'Blast it.' Severus cursed in his mind. 'Instead years he brought the time to revive down to a mere week.'
He briefly considered heading to the headmaster's office and let the old wizard know that Voldemort was once more in corporeal form. He decided against it for two reasons, the first was that the Dark Lord was unlikely to act just after his revival and the second was that the potion would go bad as it would need another set of clockwise stirs in three minutes.
With a sigh he picked up the ladle he had dropped and tossed it into a bin to be cleaned by the first student to get a detention. After a moment he picked another and mentally went over the next step after this one. Just that the Dark Lord picked this night to return did not mean he could let the three days' work he has done so far go to ruin. He had his pride in his skill as a potion master.
For a moment he wondered if the Dark Lord's revival required a potion. And which of the pureblood dunderheads was chosen to work required to make it. A grin that would have students void his classroom in record time he imagined the persons picked for the duty grumbling on doing the 'menial' work.