26 End and Beginning
The locket was still missing. No matter what method the goblin team tried to find it, everything failed. One of the methods was able to give a rough location, though. The locket was probably somewhere in the southern part of London, but that wasn't good enough. It was probably kept behind some massive wards. That was the only explanation they could find for the vague information. Yet many old families had warded possessions in and near London and quite a few abandoned places still sported massive wards. There were just too many such places to check and not enough information to justify breaking into such places, even if abandoned. The risk was way too high.
And then everything changed almost at once. Sirius Black was finally put on trial and found not guilty. As the last living male Black, he also inherited the Black Lordship and all the Black assets. One of the first places he visited was Gringotts.
"My ancestral home in London is full of dark magic. I want to hire a team of curse breakers to remove all the curses and other problems from all the items in the house. You may also take any goblin-made artefact you find in there."
Since the soul-shards team was free, it was assigned this temporary task.
It proved to take much longer than expected. Lord Black didn't exaggerate when he said the house was full of dark magic. Every room and every piece of furniture seemed to glow evilly. While decontaminating most houses this size was normally done in a day or two, this house took more than a fortnight to cleanse, and it was still very good business.
The finds, that more than paid for the whole job, were a multitude of daggers, swords, necklaces and other jewels of goblin origin. Most were heavily tainted, but that was merely a minor challenge for the expert team.
Yet the greatest find was Slytherin's locket. Kreacher, the old house-elf, tried to hide it and almost lost its head in the process, but was eventually persuaded that the goblins would only destroy the bad magic in it and give it back.
\/\/\/
In Albania, a dark wraith was cursing. Since it had faced that brat at Hogwarts, it was in a constant state of fear – something that none of Lord Voldemort's followers could even consider possible. While Quirrell's flesh burned from the touch of the brat, Voldemort's soul didn't escape unscathed. It also felt the burning, as if its end came much nearer. Voldemort knew this to be impossible – with so many Horcruxes, his soul was safe, no doubt of it. Still, the doubts kept nagging. What if one or more of those anchors was found and destroyed? Most had very good protection, but a skilled curse-breaker could still overcome them. Should he have made one more? As long as he stayed in wraith-form, he couldn't possibly make any more. He needed a body for that, but he was currently too weak to even possess anything bigger than a rabbit.
His thoughts wandered, eventually reaching the Dark Mark. He had designed it so he could syphon some of the powers of his followers for his own use. It was easy enough to do while he owned a body and with one marked follower nearby. Alone and bodiless, it was practically impossible. Well, he could use a certain body. Nagini wasn't human, of course, and if he possessed her he would still be unable to use a wand, but he had a certain idea of how to overcome this obstacle. Besides, as his familiar, Nagini would not fight his possession, she would welcome it. He only needed to not stay there too long, or she would die as soon as he left her.
He tried it that night. He managed to suck quite a bit of magic and life force from his followers. Since they were all asleep at the time, they wouldn't even be aware of this. Five minutes later, he felt strong enough to try and possess some other animal.
Since this proved useful, he started doing it more often. Nobody noticed it when he did it once a month. He was monitoring the British WWN to make sure that nothing was reported. He then tried twice a month and then every ten days. That was probably the limit. Since he started hearing about some unexplainable fatigue cases among his followers. Regrettably, he reverted to only twice a month.
For about a year, that proved good enough. It allowed him to possess some medium-sized animals and keep himself well fed, at least. Having to switch animals every few weeks was an unavoidable nuisance. No animal was strong enough to sustain his soul for long. Still, it was better than staying in wraith form.
Then, in the middle of the day, he suddenly felt extremely weak and getting weaker. He knew that his current body – a wolf pup – was not strong enough to allow him to suck some powers from his marked followers. His soul was barely strong enough to leave the pup and move to Nagini, where he started to immediately soak some power from his followers. In his haste, he didn't even think of rationing it, to last longer and not be detectable. His own powers were diminishing at an alarming rate and he couldn't care less about his minions. He took all that he could, as fast as he could, yet that didn't seem to be enough. The more he was taking from his minions, the faster it was leaking out of him.
With no time-piece nearby, he didn't know how long it took. Subjectively, it took many hours, but judging by the sun and the shadows, it was quite a short time. He sucked his followers for as much as they had, to no avail. One by one they disappeared from his net, probably sucked dry. This only made him try to suck even faster. By the time he lost the connection to the last minion, he knew he was finished. He was weaker than when he started and his powers were diminishing much faster than he thought possible. The only soul he could still sense was Nagini's. Well, she didn't need her soul if he lost his. He took her life force for himself, only gaining about half a second longer on this plane of existence.
\/\/\/
In Britain, panic started spreading in certain social circles. People fell screaming and died within seconds at the Wizengamot, in Diagon Alley, at restaurants and Pubs, and some in the solitude of their homes. These would be found out much later.
Severus Snape was eating his lunch in his private quarters when his Dark Mark flared. Seconds later, he was dead. Since he had no afternoon lessons to teach, his body would only be found the next day.
It took almost a full day for the news to reach Hogwarts, although the headmaster was informed much quicker.
During the morning mail, many Slytherin students received black envelopes, along with a few from other houses. Quite a few of them started weeping. Others only paled but managed to keep their feelings bottled inside. Draco Malfoy was one of them. Harry didn't pay it much attention, at first, and wasn't sure if Draco got one or two black envelopes. Despite how he felt about Draco in general, he still pitied him. The black envelopes, although he wasn't sure what they meant, were surely not bearing any good news for the recipients.
Dumbledore stood up to address the school as soon as the owls left. "It is my unpleasant duty to inform you that quite a few families suffered grave losses yesterday, when all at once, many wizards and witches suddenly fell dead in the middle of the day. When checked, all they had in common was the Dark Mark tattooed on their left arms. It looks like some plague targeted the Dark Marks and killed their bearers. Unfortunately, this plague also killed our beloved potions professor."
This was interrupted by quite a bit of cheering from three house tables and some even from the Slytherin table. Dumbledore frowned. He knew that Severus had not been popular, but it looked like he was hated by the majority of the students. Why hadn't he noticed that earlier? For not even a fraction of a second did he think that his habit to dismiss any complaint or any idea he didn't agree with could cause this.
\/\/\/
By the end of that day, all those who lost some close family member were escorted home, except for a few who had lost both parents and had no other close family.
The three Potters were not affected, of course, but Harry still felt sad. "I know that all those who died were marked death eaters, which means they were some of the worst criminals, but for their children, they were their parents. Maybe they even managed to show love to these children. It's very sad to lose a parent and I couldn't wish it on anybody. Not even Draco."
Both Hermione and Elsa tried to comfort him. "Had the Ministry acted as it should, these people should have been imprisoned or even executed long ago," Hermione told him.
"Then their children would have become orphans shortly after me. It could have been even worse for them," Harry replied.
Elsa shook her head disapprovingly. "It's the parents who have to make sure their children are safe and well. Once they joined the Dark Lord, they chose to obey a madman over protecting their family, unlike your parents, who tried all they could to protect you. As much as some don't deserve this, it was and is their parents' responsibility."
Harry sighed. "You're both right, but I still feel bad for all those children."
Both girls hugged him. "It only shows that you're a good man, Harry, unlike too many of them," Hermione told him.
Still, the best way they found to bring Harry out of this mood was to drag him to bed and start some fun activities there. They helped much better than any talking.
\/\/\/
Despite the traumatic demise of the Death Eaters, the school returned to normal within a few days. Dumbledore even managed to bring Professor Slughorn back from retirement. The rotund professor took over both the role of Potions teacher and head of Slytherin, proving to be tremendously better in both roles. Potions was suddenly a normal class, not something to dread, and the professor was fair in assigning or taking away points. He was also much stricter about imposing the rules on his house, stopping all bullying and badmouthing as much as he could.
"If only he wasn't so interested in me for my supposed fame, I would have liked him much better," Harry told his wives.
"It's more than your fame, really. You're also a very powerful wizard, both magically and politically, and once you finish school and start using your influence, you'll find you have a lot of that, even without considering your financial position. That's simply too much for Slughorn to ignore," Elsa told him.
Harry sighed. "I'm too young for all that!"
Elsa chuckled. "You're also too young to be married, to have a Veela mate or to be emancipated, yet you don't complain about these, do you? Well, enduring an enthusiastic 'celebrity collector' is not too big a price to pay for that."
Harry pouted, making both girls laugh. "Have I ever told you how cute you are when you pout?" Hermione asked him teasingly.
Harry tried to keep his pout but failed. Instead, he started tickling both his wives and they fled to the bedroom. He followed willingly.
\/\/\/
As the school year was approaching its end, the three Potters were discussing their options for the summer.
"I know that my parents would like us to stay with them for at least a week, and I really miss them," Hermione said.
"We should also join my family for the summer vacation. You wouldn't want to miss those nude beaches, would you?" Elsa said, making the others laugh.
"We should also check some of our own lodging options," Harry added, turning serious. "According to Gringotts, we have quite a few. I'd also like to spend some time with Sirius, if possible."
"We can invite him to join us in France. I'm sure he would like the views," Elsa noted with a glint of mischief.
Harry caught up to her. "I'm not sure he's recuperated enough. It may break him, otherwise."
Hermione waved his concerns away. "According to his own stories, he's seen enough already. It won't break him unless he also tries to touch."
They all burst laughing. Harry turned serious again a moment later. "I think we should try to reopen Potter Manor, at least. Neville has already hinted at the importance of inviting guests, and even throwing at least one ball per year. I think Sirius would love to help organize it."
It took them some time to decide, but they finally agreed to spend a few days with the Grangers and then visit the Potter Manor as well as some more Potter residences before visiting France, along with Sirius and the Grangers. Assuming they found a suitable place, they would host an introduction Ball at the end of summer, just before going back to school.