Disclaimer: All places and characters belong to JK Rowling and WB and various publishers. No money is being made off of this piece of fiction.
Chapter 2: The Stòr
They had gathered in one of the Ministry's underground hideouts, brought there by a carefully placed portkey and temporary Fidelius charm. The room was low-ceiled and unfurnished except for the cage on the far side and a bare table. If Draco had to guess he would say they were deep underground.
Ministry officials stood to one side of the room, Order of the Phoenix members on the other. Draco stood on the side with the Ministry, having been the one to set up the meeting. They were gathered to observe a demonstration of the supposed great weapon as evidence.
They had captured one of the Daemons under the Dark's control. A creature summoned and controlled by Voldemort's Dark magic and impervious to natural magics. The thing prowled across the cage, pacing, and staring with it's burning red eyes. Shadows skittered across it's fur, furling and unfurling menacingly. An Unspeakable removed the silencing spell on the cage, and the room filled instantly with the hissing threats of the possessed creature.
'We've been studying them, you see.' A pompous grey haired Unspeakable stepped forward, 'To understand how You-Know-Who controls them, how he creates them.'
The man spoke as if addressing how to brew a boil fever-reducing potion. He nodded to one of the Unspeakables who approached the cage. The Unspeakable lifted a baton of sorts and shot a flashing stream of bright green light at the creature, and unbelievingly the creature immediately began to howl in pain as it twitched on the floor, limbs contracting violently as the light continued to flash between creature and baton.
Was it magic? But that couldn't be…
And that was the crux of the entire war. The Daemons could not be stopped by magical means. No spell, curse, or charm could stop them, hold them, or kill them.
The only things to survive the killing curse? Harry fucking Potter and the Daemons created by the Dark Lord that now ruled their world.
The only successful means of fighting one was the use of physical force or barriers. A rock summoned to crush them, earth to bury them, physical weapons to pierce them. Nothing transfigured held for long, nothing created from thin air affected them. The magic behind these things had effectively rendered Wizarding Britain defenseless. It was the reason why they had began teaching sword fighting and physical combat at Hogwarts again after nearly 2 centuries. The whole thing was so barbaric, so pathetic, so muggle.
It had nearly been the undoing of the Auror corps. It seems like modern day wizards and witches had become soft. Forgetting the fundamentals of how to move and use the physical environment around them rather than relying on the ability to pull things out of the air. Swords, knives, and other mediaeval weapons were now common issue for all Aurors.
And now they were here to see what new weapon the Ministry had unearthed for their losing fight against the Dark. Apparently, the new weapon was a staff that shot green lightning?
The smell of burning fur filled the room. The creature continued to contort under the strange light. Everyone watched mesmerised. This was unbelievable. The thing they had all been hoping for. The creature continued contorting.
'Stop it! STOP IT!' Granger stepped forward, 'It's still a living thing!'
The Unspeakable lifted the baton, the flow of light stopped, and the creature slumped to the floor of the cage, panting.
The grey haired Unspeakable shook his head almost bemused and smiled, 'Now, now, it doesn't really feel. Not anymore, not in this possessed state.'
Rufus Scrimgemour, who had been leaning against the wall looking quite pleased with himself, stepped forward now, 'It doesn't matter!' his voice was tinged with irritation, 'These things,' He spat the word, 'Are the enemy, we need to learn how to destroy them, how to tear them apart.' He leaned in close to Granger, 'Not worry about their feelings.'
To Granger's credit she didn't back down, 'It's disgusting and amoral to torture a captured animal.'
Scrimegemour barked a mirthless laugh. 'Animal!' He shot a look at Albus, 'Your people are going soft Albus. You're going to lose this war.'
'We're fighting the same war Rufus.' Albus replied, his mouth a hard line.
'Bring in the other vassels.' Rufus barked.
Another two Unspeakables entered the room, pushing a table that appeared to be on wheels.
'Okay Mr. Gillingham. Show our kind allies what we have.' Rufus smirked.
The pompous Unspeakable stepped over to the table brought in and with unnecessary dramatics, lifted the white sheet covering it to unveil an array of weapons. Everyone in the room leaned forward to look. On the table lay an assortment of admittedly average looking weapons and a few Draco had never seen. They were black in colour and seemed to be made of a strange material. Even the blades of the knives.
Weasley boldly stepped forward and reached for a sword handle. The Unspeakable made a noise of protest in the back of his throat, but Rufus cut him off, 'Please take a closer look.' The man seemed hungry.
Weasley hefted the sword with the ease of someone who used one often. 'Is this a trainer?' He brandished the weapon, lifting it high into the air and gracefully slicing it downwards. He looked carefully at the blade and ran his thumb along the edge 'There's no edge, it's dull.' He let the sword clatter back to the table unceremoniously. The Unspeakable flinched at the sound and quickly re-adjusted the sword into its right position.
'Correct Mr. Weasley!' Rufus grinning, 'It is not a blade.' Picking up the sword Rufus turned and walked towards the caged Daemon. The blade was suddenly flashing with the green light that was emitted from the baton earlier. However, unlike the baton where the light was shot out of the end in a thick stream, the sword's "blade" was coated in the flashing light. The creature swiftly moved to the back of its cage putting distance between itself and the light. Rufus turned towards the empty table on the other side of the room and brought the sword down on the table. The table cleaved in two with apparently very little effort.
Rufus had a mad grin on his face, 'It's just as effective when applied to Daemons.'
'It's not a single weapon per say, but the weaponization of this…magic?' Granger prodded.
'Precisely!' Rufus brought the sword to the stone wall, gouging a deep scar in the rock and blackening the surrounding wall. 'And as demonstrated with the staff earlier, it's very effective against You Know Who's Dark magic!'
'But it is magic? It seems almost like muggle electricity…' Granger was looking closely at the table of weapons. 'Most of these look like muggle devices.' Without touching she was examining the items on the table, many of which Draco could not identify.
'Muggle inspired! Yes!' The Unspeakable Gillingham looked very pleased. He carefully picked up a small, flat round disc. 'But capable of releasing powerful, raw magic that is capable of penetrating the Dark.'
'What are these made of?' Weasley had again picked up a knife, now looking at the dull blade with great attention.
'Tungsten ore!' The Unspeakable.
'Excuse me, what?' Draco stepped forward. What in the world was tounge-stone? Weasley looked equally confused, but Granger seemed to understand.
The Unspeakable excitedly continued, 'A rare metal that had extraordinary powers to withhold great stress and heat. A perfect conduit for the Stòr.'
Draco stepped up to the table and lifted a small dagger. It was much heavier than he expected and was oddly warm to the touch.
'How does a muggle metal conduct this…magic?' Granger asked.
Draco tossed the dagger between his palms testing the weight. He noted out of the side of his eye, Weasley looking ridiculous posing an attack on an invisible assailant with the sword. Draco had always felt more comfortable with smaller knives, easier to conceal.
The Unspeakable was babbling on again about atoms and directional forces. Draco interrupted quickly, 'How do you make it work?'
He could not see an obvious way of making the thing work. The surface felt seamless.
'Allow me to demonstrate.' Rufus gruffly said, he was much too pleased with himself.
The minister walked up close to Draco, and he could feel Weasley approaching him from behind, could smell the worn dragon leather jacket he was wearing.
The Minister rolled up his sleeve, revealing a sheath holding his wand on his forearm, and motioned for the dagger. Draco handed it over, his eyes not leaving Rufus. The Minister took a firm grip of the dagger's handle and as Draco held on to the "blade" end he watched as Rufus' eyes dropped to Draco's left cheek before smirking and pulling the dagger out of Draco's hand.
'You see boys,' his voice dropped in condescension, 'A simple spell causes a subtle change in the dagger's property, releasing the…' The strange flickering light ran along the "blade", Rufus grinned '…stòr draoidheachd.' He said the words with relish.
'Stòr draoidheachd...stòr draoidheachd?' Granger whispered, 'A magic source? Gaelic?'
'Yes, Mrs. Weasley.' The pompous Unspeakable exclaimed, 'Magic from a source very powerful, a Light source.'
'Could I?', Draco motioned to the Minister. Rufus handed the still flickering blade to Draco, 'Careful there now, that stuff can do some real damage.'
Draco could feel the magic thrumming through the dagger. The light was captivating, jumping and flashing erratically along the surface of the blade. It felt wild, barely controlled. It felt familiar somehow.
'What is the source Rufus?', Albus' voice cut through Draco's thoughts.
'That I can not disclose Albus,' Rufus barked, 'a Ministry secret m'fraid.'
How it was possible this man wasn't part wolf; Draco did not understand.
Taking careful aim Draco threw the dagger at the whimpering animal in the cage. A high piercing sound emitted from the beast as light flickered over its body radiating out from the embedded dagger.
'Hey! We need that specimen for studies!' Gillingham yelled out.
The animal slumped over, the Dark in it's fur shifting, retreating, fading to reveal the body of a bear.
It's fur was lacerated and burned in many places, bones showing through skin.
Gillingham continued to rant, 'How dare you! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to capture these monsters?!'
Draco's lip curled at the Unspeakable. Rufus turned to Draco; eyes narrowed.
'Not a problem Mr. Gillingham. We have more Daemons.' He glanced back to the dead creatures before squaring off to Draco, 'and besides Mr. Malfoy's little demonstration has shown exactly how powerful our …weapons…are against the Dark.'
Rufus eyed Draco for another moment before swiftly turning back to Weasley, Albus, and Kingsley. 'We have all sorts of weapons available. As long as we can stabilize the source within, it can be made and deployed. We managed to make the standard swords and knives and even some muggle inspired weapons like the staff you saw earlier, much more powerful than the blades but only useful at very close range. We've even got discs that can be set to go off, bombs as muggles call them.'
As the minister droned on, Draco approached Granger who had moved to study the dead animal in the cage.
'They've been torturing the poor thing.' Granger said under her breath, disgust was clear in her voice.
Draco stood next to her, 'Yes. It's a mercy to be killed.'
She turned hard eyes on Draco, 'Is it?'
He stared right back, 'Yes, I've seen the testing facilities.' He looked back at the animal. The dagger had struck the animal in the gut. The wound itself would not have been enough to kill it.
The Unspeakable's voice carried over to them '…it's even effective against the Dark's shields and we've made some progress on generating shields of our own. The only issue is they expire.'
'Expire?' Kingsley inquired.
'Yes, unfortunately with the nature of the Stòr, it can only be held within the vassels for so long before it becomes too unstable. Each weapon needs to be used up, the Stòr expelled before it becomes too unpredictable, and then they can be re-loaded up to….'
'Something is not right here…' Granger had her eyes closed now. She looked tired, very tired.
Draco felt tired, 'How observant Granger.'
'And exactly how long do they stay…charged?' Wealsey's voice was always so loud.
'We need to make sure we get a sample…the magic in these weapons… it doesn't feel right.' Granger opened her eyes and like most people her eyes darted down to the left of his face. She atleast had the grace to look embarrassed afterwards.
'Agreed.' Draco said softly. Granger swiftly turned and headed back to the group.
'…varies with each item and the amount of stored Stòr, but a sword will hold for 2-3 days.' The Unspeakable was still prattling on.
Draco made his way around the cage, approaching the animal. He stared into its open, blank eyes. Had it been in there the whole time? Was it aware while it was possessed?
He reached in and wrenched the blade loose. It felt cold and dead in his hand. There wasn't any blood. It was as if the blade itself had cauterized the wound. He quickly pocketed the blade, stood and re-joined the conversation as Albus again asked the thousand galleon question, 'What is the source Rufus?'.
