On Monday afternoon they appeared at Lake Lethe. Their old camp was gone but they appeared in the same place this time. Hermione side appariated Astoria and Luna separately. Tom then did Nott and Draco, Pansy and Daphne, then Blaise. They were all there within a few minutes. The crew cast their bubblehead charms over themselves.
"I've begun a powerful tornado storm," said Tom, "it shall suck all the water from Lake Lethe within it in moments. I've also set up the rune stones underneath the buildings in the foundations of the basements, to contain the water from Lethe Lake and keep it anchored to the village. When I bring you to the Lake I want each of you to levitate a block, and then Hermione and I will appariate you back. No one is doing this more than once. It is too dangerous to mess about with the water from Lake Lethe much."
The group then split up into 2. Tom, Nott, Draco, Blaise, Pansy and Daphne. Hermione, Astoria and Luna.
"Let's get it over and done with," said Hermione, smiling at the younger girl.
Astoria smiled back at her in return before following the girl to where the trees thinned and an irregular beach separated the water's edge from the safety of the forests. Mist blurred the features of the lake, the very air seemed to shimmer as if it forgot what form it was supposed to take, and the dancing light of the sunset in the water looked like a spiral of foggy memories from the past. Astoria ran towards the lake.
"What are you doing? Get back," said Hermione, fleeing the cover of the forest to chase after her, her trainers sinking softly into the dampness of the sand as they neared the shining silver's edge of the lake. Hermione felt dizzy and a bit foggy in her brain, like a heatwave or something else had just come over her. She could tell the Lake had an unusual smell to it that if she didn't have the strongest bubblehead charm she could muster, would likely be doing something to her right this very moment.
"I'm not as magically powerful as you and the others remember? I need to be closer to the water's edge to levitate it..." Astoria's voice felt faint and murky as she crept right up to the water's edge. Thin reeds and water lillies dotted some stretches of it's perimeter. The waves were gentle in their lapping towards the shore and Astoria had to lean forwards a little, kneeling close to the ground and with her wand almost touching the surface of the water as she muttered the incantation and repeated what she'd spent many days of the past week practicing. At first it didn't work - a great deal of water arose from the lake, the sun shining through it in a fractured golden mass, then it all fell apart and dropped towards the lake's surface again, creating a big splash that thankfully missed both Astoria and Hermione, who had caught up right behind her and was looking ever the more worried, a look of sheer terror and fright on her features. Hermione's heart was jackhammering inside her chest.
Astoria tried again and on the second attempt a large, swimming pool sized body of water rose from the lake. It was a lot but it didn't do much to change the appearance of the lake. This lake was an irregularly shaped one and had many small pools as it curved and twisted for miles into the distance. One could take a boat on the surface of this lake and get lost exploring all the nooks and twists.
Hermione hooked her arm firmly through Astoria's and before Astoria could lose her concentration; she closed her eyes and visualised the ruddy grey skies of East Lothian again, thunderous in light of the weather charm's Tom must've casted, the thick winds spiralling all around them, the taste of late summer sun and dust on the breeze, the grass swishing beneath her feet, the cobblestone winding paths in the distance, the...
Hermione tripped upon the soft grass as she appeared leaned forward a bit and lost her balance, her hands broke the soft grassy tussocks of the hilly countryside and her eyes opened to the sunset skies of East Lothian, as the gigantic pool of water Astoria had been levitating suddenly broke apart and fell.
Hermione quickly said her incantation and rescued it before it hit the ground, the swimming pool sized block of water melded back together again and Hermione quickly levitated it towards East Lothian. There was a small two-layered brick wall around the entirety of it so it was easy to see where it started and finished. She could spy the sleeping bodies of recently deceased people in the distance. Although she couldn't see it, she could hear the roar of a tornado in the distance, and leaves blowing about fast on the ground.
Once the swimming pool sized block of water passed through an invisible dome that seemed to stretch around it beginning from the stone walls, it took on a life of it's own and Hermione felt the strain on her wand and magic decrease as it churned through the sky and soon all water disappeared from her sight - speeding closer and closer towards the middle.
Hermione rose to her feet. She felt unsteady; she was shaking a little. Astoria was stirring, but she looked very faint and sleepy, as she lay on the grass beside her.
"You alright?" asked Hermione. She felt her strength coming back a little. She had taken the maximum dose of potions to prepare for appariation before this and could feel it's affects taking ahold of her now. Without it she wouldn't be able to recover as fast as she felt now.
"Yes, go," encouraged Astoria, "I don't want to slow you down."
"Alright. I'll try and get Luna here fast," said Hermione, "so you'll have some company."
She appariated away from East Lothian and found herself tumbling into the clearing at Lake Lethe again. Luckily the bubblehead charm stayed on with appariation. Just like disillusionment and many other charms did.
"You alright?" asked Luna, reaching out to catch her. Tom had likely took a different location to appariate the others to, thought Hermione. She hadn't seen him anywhere near her. It had probably been better - the two couldn't distract each other afterall.
"Yes, I'm fine, I've just lost my polished flair," said Hermione, before holding out her arm to Luna and leading her to the lake, "Astoria's fine but she's a bit tired so she's just lying down for a bit," said Hermione.
"Oh dear, I see what you mean. I suppose it'll be easier for her to recover with me," said Luna, getting the sense she was probably going to have to comfort the younger girl after.
They stepped a few metres past the edge of the trees and Luna brought up her pond-sized chunk of water. It was an unusually shaped pond, it looked like the tip of an ice-berg, with an incredibly deep centre, the total torrent of water stretched for easily seven or so metres into the air, the tallest out of all of them, and it was only due to the sunlight dazzling of it in silvery flashes that Hermione didn't have to be more distracted by the contents within the water. A part of Hermione wondered which part of the lake Luna had got her water from. If she was right there seemed to be different contents within the water as well, like Luna had siphoned it of interesting parts of the lake. Tom had never exactly specified the water had to come from the lake's surface, that had only been an assumption Hermione could make of where the others got it from. Astoria's had mostly come from the surface she thought, but Luna it seemed had a natural propensity to gather it from a different part of the lake.
The sunlight glinting of the lake was almost blinding to look at. Hermione felt as if knives were searing into her eyeballs. She hooked her arm through Luna and side-appariated her to East Lothian in about seven seconds. It felt like it took them a longer journey through time and space. When they arrived Luna also lost her concentration on the water a little, Hermione rushed to help but Luna managed to gather it together in time and zoomed the water towards East Lothian, keeping it in it's irregular shape somehow. It sailed out of sight past a few buildings and then Luna put down her wand hand and shook her head a little.
"Well that's that," she said, "you go on and get your water. Then you'll be all done with this. I'll take care of Astoria for a bit."
Astoria was sitting up now, "I'm mostly fine," she said.
"A pepperup potion wouldn't hurt," said Luna, and then she reached into her backpack and took out what appeared to be a magically shrunken firstaid kit.
Hermione left the scene within a few moments, focusing on Lake Lethe.
She appeared with the shadows stretching on for a very long time. The wind was whistling through the deserted forest and seemed to almost call out to her like an eerie siren's song. New gloom filled the air and she felt an odd sense of nostalgia, sorrow, and a transportation back into earlier points in her life as she wondered through the trees. She was in a very nostalgic and reminiscent mood for some reason. It hadn't been as strong as when she had been here with the others.
She stopped by the tree edge, not even trusting herself to break the line of the trees. It wasn't that she was afraid she'd run to the lake and bathe herself in it or something, that sounded like a page from a children's fairytale, but she merely felt emotionally sad she didn't want to get any closer.
She pointed her wand at the Lake and up arose a swimming pool sized block of water, it was a little grey, and shimmered softly with the sun's rays passing through. The greyness dulled the reflection of the sunlight a little and Hermione felt like she could stand to look at this block of water without getting blinded as much.
The water's edge seemed to make out shapes, settings, that looked like scenes from her memories. A sad pang of nostalgia rumbled through her.
Sending another wave of concentration at the block of water to maintain her hold on it there, Hermione closed her eyes and appariated away.
She lost her concentration on the block of water the moment she tripped in the countryside again - the fact that she appeared on the edge of a hill where the ground began sloping down didn't help her whatsoever, and to her surprise Astoria caught the block for her and quickly zoomed it to East Lothian. Now, there were many thunderclouds there and a light pattering of rain could be heard from the centre.
"Where's Luna?" asked Hermione.
"Of to get the ghosts from the yew forest," said Astoria, "she reasoned it's what Tom would've wanted. He just didn't forget to order anyone of to do it yet and she offered to go to get the job done faster."
"Yes, Tom did plan for the ghosts to come to East Lothian to possess people," said Hermione with a frown, "how is Luna not afraid to go into the forest alone? I mean, even I wouldn't be half as brave as her to go around to all these places without Tom by my side. A lot of these places are quite creepy and Tom is the only person out of the entire group who seems to take to it with some comfort. I can imagine him being quite happy to roam about these places alone, truthfully not even Draco or Theo wholly seem to like these creepy places."
"Luna's special," said Astoria, "she thinks a bit differently to others and she'll always be useful on a mission such as this. She mentioned that the thicket between the two places has been somewhere she's travelled through before, so it's not so bad. And that she wouldn't really be going in the forest, just near the edge where the ghosts are. Plus, isn't there a ghost that's practically waiting by the edge ready to serve us that's been hovering there this entire week. I didn't go near the forest much so I didn't see them as much, but it's not like it's as awful as you might think it is."
"I suppose," said Hermione.
"Did you have to go deep in the forest the first time to talk to the ghosts?" asked Astoria.
"Yes, to talk to the ghost at the heart of it all," nodded Hermione. She felt herself slipping into those memories again.
Dark woods all around her. Chill that matched autumn or winter better. No sound. No light. No living person in sight. Just the ghosts and their retribution and thirst for vengeance. Burning through their veins.
"What was it like?" asked Astoria.
"Unpleasant but I had Tom right beside me so it wasn't bad," was all Hermione could say at last.
She prised herself out of the memories. "Let's wait here for Tom to find us. I don't want to leave the spot in case Luna comes back when we're gone. The others will come find us eventually if they don't see us walking to them by the time they've finished."
"They're getting a lot done," murmured Astoria, "the rain is getting heavier now."
Hermione looked up and indeed saw there were very thick thunderclouds that were brewing right at the rooftops and church spires of East Lothian. It looked like someone had scooped clouds from a higher atmosphere and simply plopped them into a much lower one and by some magical power they stayed. The clouds were churning and twisting; rain was falling from them in thick sleets, they glistened in the light of the setting sun. She could see the rain also rising up from the ground again; misty and churning their way up to make the clouds again. It was a never ending cycle. The clatter of rain echoed even louder as it grew in volume.
There was indeed more water from Lake Lethe added there.
In what was perhaps thirty minutes, perhaps an hour, the sky fully darkened and after some more time Hermione became aware of six faces stumbling through the pale moonlight towards them. Tom, Draco, Theo, Blaise, Daphne and Pansy.
Theo and Draco carried with them a lantern each that illuminated the scene powerfully.
The eight met up together.
"Where's Luna," asked Tom instantly.
"Gone to fetch the ghosts from the yew forests," said Hermione.
"Ingenius, the sooner they come the better," said Tom, "now. No one step one foot past the barrier now. The real magic has begun. I still need to turn the bodies into inferi. It won't take more than a few days and bodies can be made into inferi up to several months, even a year, after they are killed, so I have plenty of time. The process is a little difficult to explain so I won't trouble you lot with it yet. But in the meantime, I want you to dig a moat around the village and fill it with a liquid no one in their right mind would want to risk swimming in. But for now, let's have dinner and a quick night. We need it after all of this."
They did exactly that and didn't wake until Tuesday noon. They'd all slept for quite a long time. Luna had returned by the ghosts then.
"Sorry, I'm so undignified," said Tom, getting up from where he had been sleeping.
"We do not care about the petty things of the living such as sleeping anymore, not when we're so close..." said the male ghost who was the leader of it all. There was such a huge army of pale white figures behind him one couldn't even see the end of it from here. The line stretched onwards and onwards, it seemed like there was almost an entire field of ghostly people who had been executed under the witch hunts somehow.
These were the people who felt enough of an emotional tie to leave an imprint of themselves at this death and life.
The people who wanted revenge and retribution had returned as ghosts.
Hermione felt like she could taste or smell the anger and bloodthirstiness here.
"Righteo, this way," said Tom, and then he lead the ghosts to the brick wall and began explaining how they could begin possessing people, or how the rest of it was going to work. It was a long conversation, close to several hours and Hermione saw the ghosts ask him questions several times, where he began to clarify. Then all of a sudden, the ghosts seemed to seek no more information and they all took to East Lothian, soaring through the air and plunging in loop de loops as they sailed towards the centre. Their voices raising high into the sky. They sounded like peeves but intensified. Some of the ghosts turned to their invisible forms as they sailed through. Ghosts could choose to be both invisible and visible, though most of the Hogwarts ghosts resumed their visible form most of the time. It was the most comfortable form to be in.
Tom found Hermione again. The group had decided that they would dig the moat by magic and had spread out around the perimeter to do so. They couldn't see each other at all. Hermione happened to be the one nearest to where Tom had been and after he'd finished talking with the ghosts he'd chanced to have a chat with her.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
Hermione bit her lip.
During the long stretch of time she'd slept from yesterday til noon she had been nothing but plagued with nightmares about the past week.
First she was drowning again, then she was in the forest, then she was shooting of curses left and right. Then she was on trial for her many crimes, preparing to go to Azkaban. Then she saw herself lying down in her bed at home, from a third eye outside of her body almost, thrashing and tossing about in the bedsheets. Then she saw herself getting up, feeling ill, then she dreamed herself throwing up from her own body, in a mix of frenzied fever and madness. Then she was in the forest again, the lake, East Lothian and all the bodies were reanimating themselves of the floor, their hands outstretched and grabbing at her, coming for her. Then she dreamed through all her childhood memories again, the moments where she dreamed of achieving greater glory or happiness, and then all the scenes from the recent events again, and the dark feelings crashing over her.
The fear, the disgust, the horror, the revulsion.
She ought to be successful. The brightest witch of her age. She was going to do something important after she'd said yes to Tom. Instead she was feeling horrified, disgusted, fearful, even when she tried to lie to herself and say that she was enjoying all of this.
"You know, I think I lied to myself and tricked myself into enjoying all of these adventures more than I really did," said Hermione softly, looking at Tom, "I was blindsided by how great it was. But I think I just felt horror, fear, revulsion, disgust."
"I get it, you don't like creepy places and getting your hands dirty with the work," said Tom, "I get it. You hate it. Like everyone else-"
"No," Hermione tried to be honest, "I don't hate it. I just don't enjoy it as much as I try to. It's not all happy for me. There's sadness and misery mixed in with a summer adventure like this and I..."
She felt the sorrow bubble up deep within her, "It's how I really feel about this. It's not some paradise I was swept away from. It's an adventure of grey I guess...neither black or white..."
"Right," said Tom, seemingly calming down once he realised Hermione didn't do a complete three sixty on this, "well that's what it's always like. You'll encounter lots of things in the Dark Arts you don't fully like. I don't even like all the spells, enchantments, potions, rituals, or things I've had to endure. The Dark Arts isn't pleasurable all of the way, you have to swallow some shit to reap the rewards. Expect to be miserable," he told her, "for anything else we do in the future. Tell that to the others as well. But as long as your justification is strong enough, you can get through anything...never forget your reasons Hermione. Your reasons for doing all of this."
Hermione looked up into his eyes. She could hear and feel all her reasons for signing up in the first place spiralling around inside of her all over again.
I shan't enjoy it. Not all of it. I most likely never will. But the reason has to be strong enough. Otherwise I really am nothing amongst the sea of all of this madness that comes with dark arts and dark art adventures.
She gulped, then nodded. "The reasoning..." she said as if in a trance, "it triumphs all. I...I do have enough reason to be here. Do all of this. This cause makes logical sense to me. Even if...I'm miserable half the time."
"That's the spirit," said Tom, "and you will be rewarded for it. When the day comes. I promise you. And there will be happier moments, when we're not...doing this all the time..."
Then, Hermione turned and resumed digging the ditch all the way around.
"What did you decide to fill it with?" Tom asked her.
"Acid actually," said Hermione, "turns out the purebloods know about acids and bases, all of that. And they thought a simple acid was best. They're going to use some magic on it to make more quantities of it, and make it unscoopable, uncharmable, whatever they can attempt to do with it. They said you'll probably fix up what they couldn't charm-"
"That I will," confirmed Tom.
"And I think Luna is actually beginning to brew the base. So we can make use of the time now," said Hermione.
"I'll get to the inferi then," said Tom, "set up camp at the edge of the thicket near here. Don't worry about me, I'll sleep outside of camp somewhere. I know the spells to protect myself."
"Of course you do," said Hermione, who never doubted him on it.
Tom then left to brew some potions for inferi, there needed to be some as part of the ritual, and Hermione heaved dirt and earth for the moat in the ever growing darkness.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday slipped away with the moat. They used purely spells they had learned from Hogwarts and took turns brewing and storing the acid. At some point they stopped because they ran out of storage space. Nearly all of them except for Luna and Hermione received some letters from their parents at different points in time and they scribbled an airbrushed response back. It was too risky to put any important details in the post.
On Saturday morning Tom informed them he was done creating the inferi, who were now reenacting the roles whilst being possessed by the ghosts. There was eternal thunderclouds all over Lake Lethe, rain was constantly sloshing down, and misting and disappearing back into the clouds at the same time. It was like an entire water cycle trapped all within one village. From the distance one could see clouds that looked a little too low, mist that was constantly rising, and a flurry of activity in the middle, but the sunlight hung of it in weird angles that one couldn't fully make out the village anymore, nor the buildings. It all looked enshrouded in a bit of mist and mystery. Hermione felt like she had been one of the last living people to get a proper glance at it before it became what it was now.
Tom said that they really shouldn't step one foot within the place unless they wanted to risk dying from the hands of the inferi possessed by thousands of angry ghosts retributions, intensified even more by the liquid in a pensieve sloshed about the place in eternal water cycles, and the ancient rune stones that were beneath the foundations of all the buildings, keeping it there.
Indeed no one wanted to step foot within it. There were moans, murmurs, cries and shrieks radiating all throughout it; the pensieve water was very real at recreating memories, the air seemed to drop a thousand degrees, possibly due to the ghosts, and the entire place reeked of vileness and the stench of evil.
It wasn't the ghosts per say, they were merely angry spirits and had always existed long before this. But rather the inferi that were being actively possessed to do the bidding and could tangibly kill someone that was making the place evil.
The people of course, looked polished and like ordinary people because they had been killed recently by the killing curse which left no marks.
Tom said the potion also left at the edge of the yew forest had been finished, the others didn't inquire too much what it was about; they could guess that nothing related to any of this was appetising to hear about, it was all the same darkness, and then they began practicing how to make boats for the moat from normal wood. They had logged down three trees by magical means all throughout the Saturday, and were trying to figure out some designs on spare sheets of parchments weighed down by stones so they wouldn't float away in the breeze.
"We need a design that clearly screams: ride on me to exit from the moat. But it has to be something that only people escaping or trying to escape from the area would ride on, and not those entering in would use," said Pansy, "how do we do that."
"If people take the boat to enter there's a chance the boat would kill them before they reach the end and then they'll die before getting to experience the inferi," said Tom.
"How about stepping stones?" said Daphne, "there's only one main entrance to the village anyway. A few smaller side gates in the brick wall. The boats could be docked on the inside of the wall, by the gate. But the only way in past the wall is by the stepping stones."
"Sounds good," said Draco.
"We need to brew more potions that allow us to duplicate this one en masse, as well as brew more acid potions," said Tom, "that shall be our goal for the next week."
Author's Note: Please review as always if you enjoyed and want to read more.