Chapter 33

Bringing Neville back from the brink of death was an environment Daphne was much more comfortable in. When she had arrived at Potter Manor Hannah, and Hermione stopped what they were doing immediately and deferred to her expertise. Four hours of intensive work and care, before she was certain the man would survive. He was a long way from regaining consciousness when she sat down in her chair, but he would live. Her only fear at that point was the mental damage the dark magic may have caused, and if there would be any fall out from Harry's blood magic ritual.

She could still hardly believe it. Harry Potter used blood magic. Of course it was only in the attempt to save his best friend's life, but still she could hardly believe it. Of course coming from a more traditional family it hardly bothered her, but nonetheless she knew that the public would crucify Harry for what he had done if they ever found it.

The young healer wasn't sure if it was a testament of trust, strength, or defiance that Harry had done what he had in front of his team. If any of them ever came forward about what they had seen they could likely see the head of magical law enforcement in Azkaban. Yet he trusted all of them. He arrived in the brink of time, turned the tides with the Elder Wand, and then invoked ancient blood magic Daphne never even could have dreamed of. The strength he had displayed with the Elder Wand was something she would likely never forget either. She could feel magic in the air as if it was palpable. He had made dozens retreat in fear while moments before they were supremely confident in victory. If she hadn't witnessed the events of the evening she would never have believed a retelling of the tale. She knew he was powerful. She had seen the aftermath at the Quidditch World Cup, but witnessing it first hand was something entirely different, humbling even.

They had all waited for Harry to return to Potter Manor, but he had yet to do so when the sun had begun to rise. Hermione and Hannah had informed the remaining aurors of what they had faced in Godrics' Hollow, and needless to say they had all been stunned. Two displays of dark magic unlike they had ever seen was something near historical considering what they had faced against Voldemort. In fact if it weren't for Neville's condition Daphne had little doubt everyone would be back at the Ministry right now trying to gain more information on what had happened.

The only thing that had unanimously been agreed upon was that the Notts were deeply entrenched in whatever was going on. The ambush that had been laid down by Camilla and Pierre Nott was so perfectly executed they had to have somebody on the inside leaking them information. Someone that had to have known that the Aurors had been close enough to stick charges to them. This might have given them an opportunity to make them sing with the right amount of veritaserum, but now it would have to go to warrant. They would have to track the two wayward members of the Nott family down, and capture them. This seemed like a monumental task at this point as Daphne had little doubt the family had fled and returned back to France or somewhere else on the continent.

Harry had arrived via the floo network somewhere around 9am. The group that had been dozing off in their chairs were all now wide awake as the grim-faced man came into the room that Neville rested in with a clear sigh of relief escaping his throat. He turned to Daphne first offering her a soft smile, "I knew you girls would save him."

Daphne stood from her chair and immediately moved to embrace him. Both arms wrapped around her giving the first feeling of safety since she had left his office nearly twelve hours before. He squeezed her tightly for a moment before releasing her, and offering her a sad smile.

Hannah shot into his arms next, kissing him on the cheek, "You saved him too Harry. We would've lost without you. Thank you."

"Well you see I was really looking forward to being the best man at your wedding, and couldn't let the bastard run out on you like that." Harry said, trying to sound cheeky.

Hannah immediately had to wipe at her eyes offering the man a grateful look, "That death eater failed. He said he was going to send you your friends' deaths one at a time."

Frowning Harry sighed, "Had he known the extent of my knowledge in forbidden magics he very well would have succeeded. All these years and my enemies still underestimate me. We won't be so lucky again. I suppose he has been out the whole time?"

Daphne took her chance to answer that question with a question of her own, "He has, and I meant to ask you about that. What kind of mental damage should we expect?"

"Aside from remembering the pain I doubt there will be any. He wasn't under the spell's influence for more than 10 minutes, and it wasn't an attack on his mind magicks. I would expect since he survived there will be a full recovery. I can't say for sure though I had never seen magic like that before, and I consulted with some…let's call them experts on dark magic, and they had never heard of anything like it either. This was definitely family magic of some sort. A magic I believe I will be able to trace back to its origin."

Ron, who had been silent to this point, stood up from his chair, "You think you can find out who did this?"

Taking a moment to look contemplative Harry nodded once, "Yes I think so. Not alone, but with Hermione's help, and some more consulting from my…experts, I think we might be able to create a trace of some sort that will lead us back to the source of the magic. Dark magic like that always leaves a stain, and I think if we are careful we have a lot of possibilities to track our attacker."

Silence followed his words, so Harry took the time to catch them all up on what he had been up to. The sights at Godric's Hollow, and Essex had been cleaned up. It took a lot of work from Mclaggens department, and the obliviators but the job was done. A warrant for the arrest of Pierre and Camilla Nott was already being passed around the Ministry, as well as being forwarded to the ICW in case they attempted to flee overseas. The international portkey stops around south Britain had been Harry's first trip in an attempt to head them off, but he was unsuccessful there. Following that he had apparently gone to Shell Cottage. The home of Fleur and Bill Weasley. He confided in the group that his hope was that one of the Weasley's would recognize the necromantic magic from their time as curse breakers, but was disappointed to learn neither could pinpoint its origin. What he did learn however from Fleur was that she believed the goo to be a parasite of some sort that would possess a magic user, and turn them into something feral, and powerful with time. The dark look on Harry's face told the room that he knew more than he was saying.

Hermione was the first to try and coax the next words out of him, "Harry, you said you saw the face of our attacker in Godric's Hollow. Did you recognize the man?"

Daphne was surprised that his eyes went to her. They were full of concern, and apparent worry. After a moment he turned back to Hermione, "I did. I…I'm not sure if…I don't know how to…"

It was clear when the man stopped talking he was really struggling to say the truth. His eyes kept glancing back to Daphne, and she knew whatever he had seen it wasn't good. She stepped to his side one of his hands that were folded tightly into his arms, "Just tell us Harry. We have to know what we are facing."

The two locked eyes for a long moment before he released a big sigh, "I know you are right… I just don't know how to tell you what I saw." Taking another moment he shook his head, "There's a reason I knew that the magic that was infecting Neville was necromantic. From the time we left Godric's Hollow I feared we would face unknown magic of this variety."

Harry took another breath as he walked towards Neville's bed no longer wishing to meet the eyes of anyone else in the room, "I was already in my head going through the Peverell family magic trying to think of ways to counter Necromancy. There aren't many ways, and none of the ways I know of would be considered light magic by our Ministry, or the people of our country. Regardless I knew I was capable of giving Neville a chance so I took it."

Another tense minute of silence passed when Harry finally sighed, "When I was fighting the body in Godric's Hollow I removed its mask, and burned its cloak. It disappeared as soon as I removed the mask, so I had no chance to capture the body, and figure out a way to give it a chance to rest. My own shock in seeing the face of our old classmate made me freeze, and for that I'm sorry."

Fear clenched Daphne's stomach, and she took a breath while stepping closer to Harry once again, "Harry, who did you see?"

Silence, and then the answer, "Blaise Zabini. Our attacker in Godric's Hollow was the body of Blaise Zabini."

Daphne felt weak in the knees at the names of her ex-boyfriend. The young man that had captured her in heart by defying the Death Eaters, and saving her sister. She couldn't believe his body had been desecrated by such dark magic. The very thought made her feel incredibly sick, and she was suddenly thankful that she had not followed Harry, Hermione, and Hannah to Godric's Hollow. Thankful she did not have to face the man she once knew.

Tears were falling from her eyes before she could stop them, and she found herself falling into the chair she had been asleep in minutes before completely unable to move. Her mind could hardly process anyone else's reaction in the room as she merely stared blankly forward.

As emotions began to catch up with her, so did the million questions she had. How could this have happened? How could they have gotten her friend's body? A horrible realization dawned on her in that moment, and the truth reared its head like the ugly snake it was.

Harry, who had been watching the young woman carefully, asked gently, "Daphne what is it?"

The thoughts swirled through her mind as the all pieces began to fall together. Every piece of the puzzle had been there, and it had only been too obvious. The distraught thoughts of her mind retreated as righteous fury took hold, "Hermione, what has happened to the Nott's vote in the time that the seat the Wizengamot has been unoccupied?"

The woman frowned at the question clearly not understanding its purpose, "Nothing. It has remained vacant since there are so many eligible heirs."

"Is it possible a proxy was assigned upon the death of the former Lord Nott?" Daphne asked carefully.

Hermione stared at the woman clearly still not understanding the random line of questioning, "I don't know. It would be easy to find out though. Families don't have to declare proxies if the proxy owns a seat on the Wizengamot."

Hannah stared at Daphne for a long moment while she pondered her thoughts in silence, and then she offered, "There hasn't been a vote that close in months where it could've been noticed if anyone was carrying an additional vote. The Ministry is not without its corruption even now, something like that would easily slip through the cracks depending on who had their fingers in the paperwork."

Putting her hand on her head she tried to slow the thoughts down to make sense of what her brain was trying to tell her, and finally she said, "When Blaise died I never knew what happened to the body. We didn't get a chance to bury him, and when I came around the next day he was gone. Blaise didn't have a ton of friends in the house, and he mostly kept to himself. He did have one friend however. Theodore Nott."

Everyone's head whipped towards her at the revelation, but no one said anything as she began pacing, "I asked Theo if he would want to do a funeral for Blaise, and he just shrugged saying there was no point, and that the Death Eaters would get angry over it. I had assumed at the time Mr. Filch, or one of the other 7th years removed the body when it was over, but obviously someone took it, and preserved it for whatever dark magic they placed on it.

Harry frowned, "That would leave a pretty short list of suspects, and more than half of them would be in this room."

"Survivors of the seventh year Slytherin Class." Ron thoughtfully said looking at Daphne with a brief look of suspicion. The witch wanted to roll her eyes thinking that some things never would change, but kept her mind focused forward.

"He's right." Daphne admitted, "That being me, Tracey, and Draco. Draco had no love for Blaise nor was he at Hogwarts during this time, so we can rule him out. Tracey and Blaise were friends, but never had an opportunity to do it, because she was at my side for literally weeks straight. That leaves us with only one possibility."

Harry caught on before everyone else did, "Nott."

"The signs have been there from the beginning, but the rumor that Harry killed him during the battle distracted all of us from the real play." Daphne said while understanding dawned on Harry's face with Hermione not being far behind.

Dean was the first to question it, "I don't understand. If Nott is dead then how could he have done this?"

"Because he isn't." Hannah said suddenly.

Harry nodded with a look of comprehension, "Hannah and I delved deeper into my mind than Voldemort ever did in all our years fighting each other. We watched the Battle of Hogwarts on fast forward several times, and never saw a moment where I killed an unknown Death Eater. I could make out every single one of them. I honestly chalked it up to Ron or Hermione killing Nott, and I was just near them when it happened so I was blamed, but now…"

As Harry trailed off in thought Daphne chimed back in, "Remember how surprised Draco was when you claimed that you didn't kill Nott? He didn't believe it. Someone loudly has to be claiming this, and if I was a gambler I would put my money on Tiberius Nott." Daphne said confidently, "He has the connections, and the family money to put the word in enough ears that people regarded it as fact that Harry had killed Theodore."

Cho sighed saying, "The family has already proven to be adept at slipping the borders without anyone noticing. I would say it's a likely scenario."

As she voiced this thought Harry had reached into his jeans pocket, and pulled out a stone Daphne had only ever seen one time before. She watched as Harry closed his eyes in concentration, and turned the stone over in his hands several times. A long moment passed before he opened his eyes, and they seemed to glow a disturbingly familiar shade of green, "He is alive. If he wasn't I would be able to reach him. I don't like to disturb the dead, but this would've been a case worth investigating."

"Nott was a very capable wizard when we were in school. He was supposed to be a dueling prodigy, and when he took the mark he went from a quiet boy to a fanatic seemingly overnight." Daphne explained quietly looking at Neville.

"Dark magic corrupted him." Harry explained, "He went from a duelist with a good mind for fighting with magic to studying his family's magic or the Dark Lord's personal spells which warped him into what he is today. Even with all that being said I never saw Voldemort create a parasitic monster that was resistant to magic."

Hermione bit her lip, and seemed to want to say something, but seemingly thought better of it. Daphne caught it however and asked, "What are you thinking Hermione?"

The girl put her face in her hands for a moment before sighing, "We've been set up from the beginning. The games with Seamus, Tracey, and Susan. The mercenaries at the World Cup had to have cost a fortune, and we let a rumor distract us from the obvious truth. We knew there were so few families that could have afforded that operation. Not to mention the insider knowledge of all of our lives had to have come from people close to us. We have been blind sided at every step of the way. Regardless of all that he had to have had help. Someone had to have told him about tonight. Someone had to have told him that Harry and Susan were alone. Nott may be our mastermind or not, but there is a puppet somewhere."

Daphne felt like a ball of lead was building in her stomach, "Gretchen Bullstrode."

Harry's eyes shot to her with a look of understanding, and his magic seemed to pulsate slightly when he just mumbled something explicit under his breath, "She tried to warn you. She knew what was coming. She didn't want you anywhere near the ambush site."

"She was against us even being friends from the beginning, but even after we were a couple she tried to protect me." Daphne said quietly.

Hannah whispered quietly, "We have to end this. Before someone else gets killed."

Harry waved his hand and levitated the glass that held the parasite from earlier in front of everyone, "This will give us the answers we need. We use this to track it back to whoever we fought in Essex, and we take them down. We can't let what's happened go unanswered. Or the next psycho will think we are vulnerable. We have to put this down hard, and publicly."

At the man's declaration a black shadow shot into the room. It instantly took the form of a snake, and everyone went for their wands when the creature began speaking, "Master of Death, it is time. I want to play a game."

The occupants of the room all stared in surprise at the creature. It seemed to radiate a type of biting cold. The familiar feeling of sorrow, pain, and loss seemed to pour off the creature, and Daphne only truly began to fathom what was happening when Hermione whispered under her breath, "A dark patronus."

The effects were eerily similar to that of a dementor, but no one pushed to summon a patronus as Harry stared at the snake with a look of absolute disgust, "You have been gallivanting with a woman whose ancestry and blood is far superior to your own. You plan to defile the pure blood coursing through her veins, and I will not allow you to disgrace the ancient lines of this country any longer. I invite you to take part in a game where you must choose who lives and who dies. I am afraid for your darling Daphne there will be no winner however. On one hand you have the best friend. A little half blood who has already once survived her own game by her own will. On the other hand…you have the sick…dying little sister."

Daphne stared in horror as realization suddenly hit her. Harry however just stared at the snake as it paused for a long moment, "There is a right answer Mr. Potter. You must only be bold enough to choose it. Live or die, the choice is yours. Let the games begin."

(A/N) I admit this is not my best work, but I have been stuck on this for so long I just had to get something on paper so we can move on. This was THE big reveal, and I can't help, but feel it didn't live up to my own expectations which is why I think I was stuck for so long. I don't intend to keep you all waiting long for the final few chapters, so stay tuned!

If you would like to join me on Discord, and read my upcoming blog to be released on Friday you can click the link below. If you are reading my other stories there is a chance you can catch some advanced content by joining as well. We have built a great community, and I would love to hear from all of you. Cheers!

Discord.

gg/

Ecckr3ysx8