Hey, Everyone! This chapter is in three parts that are all happening at the same time; one in Knockturn Alley, and two in Hogwarts. Enjoy!

Chapter 10: Darkness Rises and Spreads.

(Knockturn Alley)

Deacon Frost was in a foul mood. The same foul mood he's been in for months. Ever since the day-walker Blade prevented him from becoming the Vampire Blood-God in New York. Blade killed all his followers and Deacon himself had been lucky to escape!

He'd fled to San Francisco, hooking up with a reasonably large vampire coven there ruled by a minor queen in the hope of starting over. An uncommonly powerful trio of sister witches, the so-called 'Charmed Ones', had screwed that up, forcing him to flee once again.

He knew there was a Slayer guarding the Hellmouth near L.A. but he'd learned of a ritual that if performed on the Hellmouth could make him more powerful, so it was worth the risk. He would've succeeded, too, if it weren't for the Slayer's little friends, and that fucking traitor Angelus! WTF?! Slayers were supposed to work alone with their watcher! And since when can a vampire have a soul?!

Again, Deacon Frost had managed to escape…..barely. Then she found him….. half-dead and starving. The Vampire Queen Elizabeth Bathory. Second in power only to Lord Dracula himself. In his weakened state, Deacon Frost hadn't had any other choice but to bind himself to her service.

So now he was in London, in the magical commerce center known as Diagon Alley. More specifically, the less reputable corner of it; Knockturn Alley. His 'mistress' had heard an "interesting rumor" recently, and sent him to investigate and make contact if possible.

He'd been 'exploring' the area for a few hours now, dropping hints and clues in reference to seeking a certain Dark Lord and his minions. Any of his mistress' other servants would have been searching frantically, fearing failure and punishment. Deacon was taking a more relaxed approach. He was sucking on a blood-flavored lollipop he'd bought earlier from some place called Honeyduke's. Why waste time making fruitless inquiries, when he was certain that eventually…

"What business have you here, vampire?"

Bingo. Frost turned to face the voice dripping with disdain. The wizard was wearing black hooded robes and cloak, as well as a rather feral looking face with dark grey eyes. He also bore the unmistakable scent of a mangy wolf. He also had his wand pointed at the vampire.

"Now is that any way to greet a potential ally?", Frost snickered, extending his fangs and sharp nails. "Fenrir Greyback, am I right? I do believe my mistress has a proposition for your master…the Dark Lord Voldemort."

"How dare you speak his name, leech!", Greyback snarled. What is it with these Americans and their disrespect? "Who is your so-called 'mistress' and what could a mere blood-sucker possibly have that would be of interest to my master?"

"What business she has to discuss with him is not our concern now, is it?", Deacon smiled a bit wider as Fenrir's right eye twitched with barely contained rage. "As to her identity; she is the Vampire Queen: Elizabeth Bathory."

Deacon nearly laughed when he saw Greyback blanche. Clearly he knew of Bathory.

"Come with me", the most notorious werewolf in Britain said grudgingly.

xxXXxx

Having set up and timed the 'distraction' perfectly, the hooded figure entered the bathroom haunted by 'Moaning Myrtle'. The ghost poked her head out of her toilet stall.

"You're a boy!", she hissed. "You shouldn't be in here! Get out!"

"Petrificus Totalus!", the figure barked. Struck by the red bolt from the boy's wand, the former Ravenclaw went stiff and silent. He pointed his wand again….

"Spiritus Incarcerus!", conjured ghostly ropes around her. He then stepped over to the column of sinks, finding the one marked with a serpent. He lowered his hood to reveal the sneering face of Draco Malfoy. He pulled up his left sleeve, touched the tip of his wand to the Dark Mark on his arm.

"I am at the entrance in the bathroom, My Lord", he whispered. "And I have silenced the mudblood ghost for a while. And the distraction I've arranged will deal with that bloody American with any luck."

"Well done, young Malfoy", Voldemort's voice hissed approvingly in his mind. "Now, simply open your mind completely, and my words will be your words."

"As you wish, My Lord", the blonde replied. He then relaxed and lowered his defenses totally. He felt the Dark Lord looking out through his eyes, flexing his jaw and throat, preparing to speak through his mouth like a puppet.

[-"I command you to open."-]

The column opened, and Draco took a breath before stepping into the opening. Relief suffused his being as the fall turned into a gentle slide, although he was disgusted to find he'd landed on an enormous pile of animal bones.

He stood and dusted himself off, and followed the tunnel until he found the heavy iron door with the multi-serpent lock.

[-"I command you to open."-]

He watched in eager anticipation as the locks opened in-sequence and the door swung open. As he entered and walked down the wide corridor flanked by all the serpent-head statues, he felt an overwhelming sense of awe. When the chamber opened up, he looked up at the huge, stone likeness of the greatest of the four founders.

"Yes, I know how you feel, young Draco. Even as the rightful heir to the great Salazar Slytherin, standing in the Chamber of Secrets for the first time many years ago filled me with as much awe as it did pride. I do find it curious that the body of Slytherin's basilisk is not still here where it fell when the Potter brat killed it."

"So Potter actually did it", Draco grunted. "I always thought it was just a lie that Dumbledore told after he did it himself."

"Yes, let that be a warning to you not to underestimate the half-blood brat. But never mind that for now. You have a task to complete."

"Yes of course, My Lord", Draco said contritely, and let his master take control.

[-"Speak to me, Salazar."-]

Across the pool, the 'mouth' of Salazar Slytherin opened with the sound of stone on stone.

"Make your way to the opening",Voldemort commanded. "Inside you will find the private quarters of the Founder. In the farthest, deepest point was the nest of the basilisk. There you will find the egg."

xxXXxx

Duncan sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose as he placed the last essay he had to grade on top of the 'done' pile. The penmenship of his students ranged from good to just-legible to atrocious chicken-scratch. He'd heard of spell that could help with that, for all the good it does to a non-wizard like him.

He reached for his goblet of Baja Blast Mountain Dew after taking another bite of his hot&spicy chili-cheese fries. He was impressed at how quickly the school house elves had learned how to cook his special dishes, although he knew that Dobby had a hand in that; especially warning them of the dangers of some of his ingredients. Early on one of the kitchen elves failed to wash his hands before relieving himself after mincing a few ghost-peppers. The poor thing had to jump into a vat of chocolate-chip mint ice cream to get relief from the burning! For weeks afterward, the Slytherin students couldn't figure out what the 'weird aftertaste' of their ice cream was.

Then he heard a disturbance in the classroom outside his office; crashing about and some grunts and groans.

"If that's Peeves, I'll do a lot more than bloody his nose this time!", he growled as he stood and went to the door. When he entered his classroom, he was greeted by two full-grown mountain trolls. Desks scattered, two of the computers trashed, and a magazine rack demolished. Each troll was carrying a large, knobby club. They looked at him stupidly and grunted with ignorant aggression. They stepped back in surprise when he growled back with his eyes flashing like emerald fire!

"I hope you two are smart enough to understand me", Duncan snarled. "Get out. Leave this castle and don't touch the children or you're dead!"

His hope was in vain, they didn't understand him, but they knew a challenge when they heard one, and it enraged them that this tiny thing dared to threaten them.

They charged toward him with clubs raised. They both missed as Duncan leapt off the landing just outside his office door, cracking the stone bannister. Duncan twisted in the air as he landed behind them. They looked about for a moment, confused as the where he'd gone.

"Hey, Dumb and Dumber!", Duncan snarked, and they turned toward him. "You looked."

Duncan grabbed a desk and hurled it like a missile at the head of the troll on his left. As it staggered back from the desk breaking apart on impact, the other troll roared angrily as he swung his club. The look of confusion on his face was priceless as Duncan blocked with nothing more than his forearm! With another roar of rage, the troll raised his club to bring it down on Duncan's head like a sledgehammer. Duncan caught it with his bare hands and yanked it from his grip!

"Huh?!", the troll grunted in confusion, just before Duncan clobbered him with his own club, making him spin around cartoonishly!

"Timber", Duncan smirked as the troll fell like a tree.

The other troll had just gotten to his feet in time to see his brother fall. Completely enraged, the troll swung his club at Duncan wildly.

"Strike one! Strike two! Strike three! You'rrrrrrrrre Out!", Duncan chided as he dodged every blow. "And no wonder, you stance is all wrong!"

Duncan slid between the trolls legs on his back, and punched it right in the nuts. The troll went cross-eyed, dropping his club, and screaming agony in a pitch that seemed far too high to come from such a creature as he doubled over, cupping his tortured sack. Duncan kicked him from behind, sending him crashing through a whole row of desks.

The first troll was recovering and stood up, reclaiming his club as he did. Seeing the human with his back turned, he charged with his club, oblivious to the fact that he was about as silent as lumbering ox in a library. Duncan whirled and blasted the club with and intense blast of fire! Feeling a loss of weight in his hand, the troll stared stupidly to find his club had been burned down to a smoking stump in his hand. He was so mystified by it that he missed Duncan charging at him. Duncan slammed a thunderous upper-cut to the brute's jaw that sent him flying into the wall with enough force to crack even his thick skull. He slumped dead to the floor, crushing a few desks.

The other troll grunted and groaned as it started to come to, pushing itself up to its knees. He felt a sudden weight on his back, but before he could react he felt one hand grip the top of his head and the other his chin.

*SNAP!*

The troll dropped like a bag of hammers. Duncan stood, dusted himself off, and straightened his shirt just before Dumbledore and the other teachers came running through the door. He discreetly drew his fake wand, as most of the teachers were not aware of his true nature.

"Merlin's Beard!", Minerva gasped upon seeing the trashed classroom and the two dead trolls. "Professor, are you all right?"

"I'm fine, thank you, Professor", he replied. "I'm more irritated that I'm gonna be up really late now making sure all the tech in the computers is working right after Dobby and the house elves help me repair the room. But how did these moronic brutes even get into the school? And why did they come to my classroom?"

"Ms. Parkinson alerted us in the Great Hall to their presence in the dungeons", Dumbledore told him. "We sent all the students with the exception of Slytherin House to the safety of their common rooms. The Slytherins are secured in the Great Hall protected by wards."

"Alas, the trolls had left the dungeons before we arrived to search for them", Snape said with a snide edge. "However, this time we discovered the opening in the lower-dungeons that they must have used to enter the castle, likely the same opening the first one used five years ago. How, exactly, were you able to kill these disgusting brutes?"

"Bone-breakers, aimed at the skull and neck."

"Thank Merlin no one was hurt", Umbridge gushed with phony relief, her left eye twitching. Two fully grown mountain trolls and not only did Rosenblatt kill them on his own, but there wasn't a scratch on him! He was supposed to be badly beaten, or better yet dead by the time help arrived! "The Minister will want to know of this potentially tragic breach of Hogwarts security and the safety of the students immediately!"

"Professor Umbridge!", McGonagal admonished. "These brutes could not have entered the castle without help from someone on the inside of these walls!"

"All the more reason something must be done!", the pink toad squawked, while inwardly she was already planning on how to turn this to her advantage.

"What I'm curious about", Duncan said with an edge in his voice, "is why, with how big the castle is, did they come to my door? I highly doubt it's a coincidence."

"Wait", Flickwick said near the doorway, then sniffed several times, turning toward the door itself. "I smell something—ugh!—on the door, and *sniff-sniff* a faint trail of the same stink on the floor of the corridor leading up to it, but the smell is fading fast."

"Let me see", Snape said, setting his nose almost against the wood of the door to smell. "Ugh! The musk of a female troll in heat. It fades quickly, and is easily masked by the stench of the males."

"Sounds to me like a prank gone wrong", Duncan said quickly, before anyone else could say anything, getting questioning looks from Dumbledore, Minerva, and Flickwick and an annoyed look briefly crossed Umbridge's face. Duncan looked intently at the headmaster, who nodded.

"Professors Snape, Flickwick, and Umbridge", Dumbledore said, "if you would remove the bodies, Professor McGonagal and myself will assist Professor Rosenblatt in restoring order here."

"Me?", Umbridge scoffed as she turned on her heel to leave. "I'll have nothing to do with this filth! He can take out his own rubbish!"

"Duncan, why….?", Minerva began to ask once the three of them were alone.

"To prevent that pink toad from using this failed attempt to kill me as an excuse to try getting rid of me", he replied. "By framing it as a prank, I've stopped her from claiming that my presence is a danger to the students."

"Very clever, Duncan", Dumbledore smiled.

"But we still don't know who did this", Minerva said.

"I have my suspicions", Duncan growled. "But I doubt I can prove it. I've been a thorn in Umbridge's side ever since Harry's hearing, but she couldn't have done it alone. And the only ones in this school who hate me as much as she does, are Malfoy and his buddies."

Draco Malfoy entered the empty Slytherin common room. He prepped the beachball-sized egg for transport by shrinking and packaging it. He hid it in his trunk, intending to owl it to Malfoy manor as soon as he could, hopefully with news of the American's demise. It was easy enough lay the scent trail for the trolls; first from the classroom door to the dungeons, then from the secret exit to meet the first trail before ducking into the Slytherin common room until the trolls passed by. Even simpler to send Pansy to 'sound the alarm' afterward. Now he just needed to remain unseen until all his housemates returned.

xxXXxx

Author's notes: I know I referenced several characters from other sources, but with the exception of Deacon Frost, none of them will actually appear in this story.

Next chapter, a trip to Hogsmeade add new complications, as does a meeting of the Order and the yearly Halloween disaster!

Long reviews, questions and suggestions are always welcome! Flames will be returned to the troll as a hot-foot!

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