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PATH to DARKNESS by Tyde
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Chapter Twenty – Bubble Bubble
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James
As I've told Cornelius time and time again I simply don't wish to join the Ministry. I feel the best way to spend my time is with the future of the wizarding world here at Hogwarts. I have never been one to follow all the rules (no doubt the students would be appalled to find this out) and the Ministry would simply stifle me.
I know you have great faith in the Ministry but I really think your time could be better spent with the Order of the Phoenix – we don't mean to put ourselves above the law but it always seems to happen that way. If the Ministry can ever hope to eradicate Voldemort and his supporters they must pull out their finger. I know you'll forgive my crassness James, I believe too much time spent with you has brought it out of me!
Do think about leaving the Ministry and getting out into the field, do you and Lily really want Harry to have to grow up in a world like this. Where you are constantly looking behind you, dreading coming home from work with the Dark Mark glittering above your house? The Ministry is rife with spies; I don't think it well that you stay around too much longer, your lives could be in danger. Please consider this seriously James as I think of you and Lily as the children I sadly could never have.
Yours in Merlin
Albus
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'How is it coming along?' Voldemort's eyes narrowed over the bubbling liquid of the cauldron. His impatience was apparent.
'Better than expected master, although transferring a curse into liquid form is by far one of the hardest things to do in magic.'
'I have faith in you Snape – you're the most skilled apothecary I have ever had the fortune to meet. If you need anything Green will be happy to assist.' Severus's gaze fell on a boy that looked to be no older than sixteen sitting in a corner of the room. He had the dazed look of one under the Imperius curse and every now and then would mutter unintelligible things at his knees. Snape returned to his concoctions, picking up the pestle containing the crushed snake fangs and shook it into the cauldron. The liquid emitted a few sparks, turned a sick shade of green and then settled down again. He opened the canister labelled Lethe's Bramble and discovered to his chagrin it was empty.
'Blast. GREEN! Can you Apparate?' The boy's head bobbed up and down slowly as if underwater.
'Good, go to the Apothecary in Diagon Alley and get me a bushel of Lethe's Bramble. Gringotts vault 484 is where you'll get the money' The boy's movements were slow and irked Severus. 'HURRY!' he snapped. Green disappeared slowly, as if molecule by molecule and Snape sighed to himself. The first dose of the new and improved potion was highly effective, too much so. He'd put too much of the mind altering herb in the mix and it caused the test subject to become painstakingly slow. Just one bud from the stalk ought to do it he murmured to himself Not two whole stalks like I added the first time.
Voldemort had started to run out of volunteering supporters for his world domination plans. Many were entranced by the idea but too afraid of Azkaban to make a full commitment. He therefore had two full time Imperious Curse specialists (Mulciber and Brinch) bending them to his will day and night but this was beginning to prove tiresome. There were far more important people to be killing and torturing in his opinion, plus many of them were strong willed and would start to fight the curse. He wanted a better way, so he told Snape to start developing a liquid form of the curse that could be slipping into someone's drink without them knowing it. It had to be tasteless and odourless of course which was why it was proving so difficult to get the right combinations. It had taken Severus the good part of nine months (in which the Potters and the Malfoys had both had a son) to get anything remotely close to the curse. The first lot had blown up a series of toads. The second had caused the lab rats to run around psychotically biting one another (Voldemort told Snape to record the ingredients and file it away for future use) and countless others had severed limbs and shrunken heads. He'd almost cheered out aloud in a very Gryffindor way when the first dosage tested on the boy had worked, albeit too strongly. The tweaking process of the last week had proven promising and he thought by the end of the month he'd be able to bottle it for the Dark Lord and keep a storehouse.
If only his parents could see where his potion prowess had led him. He told them he worked for the Department of Mysteries and that was an Unspeakable. Perfect cover really as Unspeakables weren't allowed to discuss anything they did, or the people they worked with.
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There was something odd about Harry James Potter. Lily couldn't quite put her finger on it. He was a good baby, didn't tend to cry very often and seemed to have a wisdom beyond his years shining in his eyes. Narcissa's son Draco (silly name really, why would you lump your child with such a name?) cried a lot of the time and was constantly sticking things in his mouth that didn't belong, for instance his father's wand. Lucius was at his wits end with the child and berated him from birth. James however was delighted with Harry, even when Harry took a liking to pulling James's nose whenever he came near. Several other of their school mates had had children around the same time and Lily cut back her Auror duties to two days a week when she would leave Harry with Neville Longbottom and Dean Thomas at Arabella Figg's place. Bella loved looking after the boys and thought of them as her own.
Lily shuffled through the case files on her desk as Harry cooed in a crib nearby. Arthur Weasley from the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts division had made an interesting discovery. As he was always intrigued with Muggles and Muggle practises he'd fallen upon an interesting way of investigation that the Muggle 'pleasemen' undertook. It seems fingerprints were unique and nobody had any alike. This of course would not be appropriate in the wizarding world where one could change something like that as easy as they change their underwear but he was proposing the idea that it could spill over into something else. For instance the Dark Marks that shone in the sky after Voldemort or his followers made a kill were all basically the same shape and size but Arthur had noticed tiny differences, like a wider snake or slightly larger nostril cavities from mark to mark. It was quite possible that each Death Eater's Dark Mark was as individual to them as their fingerprints and could not be altered. Just like the casing of a bullet when fired is marked a certain way by the gun that isn't the same as any other gun. Arthur found these 'metal wands' as he called them quite terrifying and had ceased his study on Muggle murder weapons. Lily wondered if it was true as she spread out the photographic evidence all over the desk top. There were certainly a few marked differences that was for sure. Some shined darker than others and some had vague eyeballs appearing in the seemingly empty sockets. She noticed the first recorded Dark Mark (the killing of Hortense Hamilton) had a more sinister look than the others. There seemed to be a sneer on the face of the skull which would seem impossible but there it was. The snake hissed lazily from side to side as she studied the photo under a microscope.
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Author's note: I don't actually have anything to say here (cause, well, nobody has reviewed or anything) but I always put an author's note at the end. Oh and as always I'll plug the notify list – go here - http://tyd.diaryland.com/notifylist.html. I give this maybe 6 more chapters before it's finished. Originally I didn't even think it would make it past 13 chapters!