I apologize if this is a little late, it's been flooding hear in the Northeastern US and I've been rather busy dealing with that.
-wow! 71 reviews for the last chapter! THANK YOU everyone.
-Thanks to The Apprentice for the thoughtful reviews.
-zhera: yep you found it.
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Chapter 24
Rahkesh put aside the knife and rolled his head around, hearing his neck crack as he stretched stiffened muscles. Eight hours of cutting exact lines and runes into his skin. His whole body ached horribly. The circulation slowly returning to his legs and hands brought tears to his eyes.
There was blood pooled around him, some of the runes for this set had to be cut deep into the skin, while others were usually shallower. The mild pain relieving potion had helped, but not a lot. And he couldn't take anything stronger without affecting his blood chemistry.
This newest set of runes was designed to stop his muscles from atrophying while unused. Since it was likely that at some point he would sustain and injury bad enough to keep him from exercising for several weeks Rahkesh had thought that this set of blood magic runes would be practical. Even if he was in a coma for a year or more, once this set of rituals was completed he would be just as strong and coordinated when he awakened as he was before. The entire thing would likely take sixteen or more rituals to get to the point where it would last for more than a few months. He had just completed the second set. The first one had been done two weeks before.
Rahkesh undid the blood runes on the floor, surrounding him in an eight pointed star pattern. The entire floor of the massive chamber was covered in runes and hieroglyphs drawn in his blood. His skin itched from the potion he had had to bathe in before beginning and all he wanted was a hot shower and a lot of sleep. Picking up the three knives (this ritual had required three different knives) he went out into the waiting room and pressed his hand to the handprint on the wall, cleaning the room of his blood. Her had left a minor blood replenishing potion on the bench and he drank it, for once envying the vampires who could just drink blood and be fine in seconds. He wrapped himself in his rob and went outside, Namach was sitting outside another of the chambers, watching as one of the more advanced students worked on a ritual.
"How did I do?" Rahkesh asked, knowing Namach would have watched. The ancient always seemed to be around whenever he was doing bloodmagic, even if he didn't tell him about it in advance. Either Namach was worried he'd destroy the school accidentally (always a possibility given Rahkesh's' power) or, as Daray claimed, Namach was stalking him.
"You pushed it a little, it would be better to take more time between rituals." The ancient vampire advised, rising to walk beside him.
"I sensed that it could be done safely."
"Just because you can doesn't always mean that you should. You have four years here, take your time."
Rahkesh grimaced; time was what he was rather short on. He still didn't know how the assassins had found him, but if they had others could too. After the attack he had moved a lot of the plants he was growing, and the animals he had brought back, from the Potter vault to his new one, just in case. He had also begun work on preparing a second trunk, to be kept in a second earring. If he had to leave Akren then he wanted to be ready. It would not be out of the question for Voldemort to send suicide attackers who would kill him in the valley itself, where they would also die. The past few weeks had been quiet, but that didn't mean he was safe.
"Would it be possible to put two rituals together into one, if they were for different sets of bloodmagic?" Rahkesh asked.
"No, there had been a lot of experimentation on that, with disastrous results. Take it one at a time, and slow down a little." Namach told him. "Besides, the rituals are long enough without combining them to make them longer. Your next one for that set may well end up taking ten hours to complete." Rahkesh winced, eight hours was bad enough. Small wonder so many bloodmagic users went insane in the middle of a ritual. Cutting runes into himself for eight hours made him want to scream, or jump off a cliff, but he'd settle for a shower and sleep.
"Professor Lowul is ready to being those tests to see what invisible changes the dragons' blood has caused. She wants samples of your blood, skin, hair, tears, intestinal fluids, saliva, and bone marrow. And she might want to do a spinal tap at some point. Healer Amii will take the samples whenever you can find the time." Namach said. Rahkesh groaned, he'd had some small hope left that they'd forget. As much as he wanted to find out how the dragons blood had affected him he wasn't looking forward to this. The procedures for getting bone marrow and intestinal fluid samples were not pleasant. And he didn't like anyone having access to his blood just on principle, never mind the stuff that could be done to a person through their blood.
"I'm not going to get a choice about this am I?"
"Nope."
"And Daray?"
"We're keeping his transformation a bit more of a secret. Everyone knows something happened but no one has the slightest clue what. They'll never come up with a physical and magical vampire-demon combination through partial animagus transformation. We were going to keep you a secret as well but ever since you threw off that curse Haedil used…"
"Huh?"
"The Amadan, that fae you got into a fight with? His name is Haedil. And you shouldn't have been able to throw that off. You might have been better off, Rahkesh, had you not fought it. There's never been a case of a mortal breaking an Amadan's curse before. Never. The fae haven't written home about it yet, but once all the fae find out there's going to be a lot of high level interest in you. What are you doing?" Namach asked, Rahkesh had started pounding his head on the wall. He didn't need this, he really didn't. Fuck it; he did not need the fae taking an active interest in his magical abilities. Why couldn't he just be anonymous? Why did he always end up doing things that were shockingly unique?
"Kill me."
"I'm sure you don't mean that literally." Namach said calmly, pulling Rahkesh away from the wall, "and no matter how hard you try pounding your head into a wall will not solve anything." Rahkesh whimpered and shook his head, there had to be a way to keep the fae from finding him or testing his magics once they heard about what he'd done. Now he had to deal with the fae as well as his old friends, Voldemort, Regulus Black, and assassins, and the damn dragons blood.
"When is Mariah coming back?"
"A week, maybe two. Her new slave is proving troublesome."
"I didn't need to hear that." Rahkesh still hadn't asked any of his friends about the slave owning practices of vampires, he wasn't sure he wanted to know about it. Namach ignored his comment.
"And that mad dark wizard from Europe just sent the Russian vampires a letter asking to speak with them." Rahkesh managed not to jump at the information. Voldemort had contacted the Russian vampires? Did that mean he already had the support of the ones closer to home? Determined not to show too much interest he calmly cleaned off his knives in a sink, and dried them.
"What sort of nutcase would try that?"
"Apparently this chap thinks he's something special and everyone ought to listen to him."
"Probably never met a vampire before."
"Probably. I know the vampire who is currently the vampiric ruler of Russia, he's an Akren alumni. And I bet he's laughing his ass off right now at the idea of wizard thinking he can demand an audience." Rahkesh nodded, and didn't ask anything more. He wanted to know what was happening but he didn't want anyone to notice his interest in Voldemort's doings. Namach left to find the other students and Rahkesh conjured up several really fluffy towels and found a shower stall. Great, Voldemort wanted the vampires to help him.
And the vampires would like the idea. Rahkesh's blood went cold when realized that the vampires, not happy with the way mortals treated them, would actually take Voldemort's proposal seriously. To a point, Voldemort was a wizard after all. The weak younger vampires, seeking safety from their elders, who were just now starting to cut down on the numbers of vampires, would join Voldemort for protection. Then there would be a war, between the elder vampires and Voldemort and his younger vampires.
Back in his rooms Rahkesh, suddenly more worried than weary, picked through his books on vampire history. It had been a long time since there was a war amongst the vampires, or between vampires and mortal magic users. A thousand years since the last vampire war. That time the numbers of young vampires had gotten completely out of control. The elders had attacked, the young had attacked back. The elders had one in the end. But it had been a cruel and vicious fight. The desperate younger vampires, rather than asking for mercy or trying to impress their elders so they might be permitted to live, had instead turned hundreds of adult mortals into vampires, and sent them into battle. The vampire ruler of London had entombed, alive, six hundred young vampires. He had left them in enchanted iron caskets beneath the city for a hundred years. After that he had gone through them, one by one, drinking their blood and killing them. All but five, whom he'd deemed acceptable, those he had taken on as apprentices.
The book was full of horror stories from that last war. Small wonder the young vampires were so scared of their elders. But every few centuries the young still over populated, and vampires had no real predators to keep them in line. So it fell to the older vampires to kill off the unacceptable younger vampires, and keep the best.
The last time the mortal and vampires had gone to war, that had been more than a thousand years before. Again the books provided enough horror stories to give him nightmares for weeks. That war had been religiously motivated, mortal witches and wizards seeking to destroy the vampires. The vampires had won. But they had decided to let the mortal live. Interesting. When they won that war the vampires could easily have enslaved all the worlds' mortals, since the non-magic ones didn't have any defenses against vampires. But they hadn't. The book did say why.
And now Voldemort was about to bring about another war. The old vampires would surely refuse any allegiance. The frightened younger ones would not.
Wondering when the world had decided to flip and go completely to hell Rahkesh put the books aside. There wasn't a thing he could do about this. Voldemort had no idea what he was doing.
"You look depressed." Rahkesh shrugged at Silas, who had just walked in. Nuri bounded across the room to say hello, then went and lay down before the fireplace Rahkesh had built into the wall of his room.
"Tell me, if the vampires and the mortals, the magical ones, go to war, what do you think the outcome will be?" Rahkesh asked.
"The end of mortal civilization, a return to the dark ages. Or you all become our slaves." Daray had appeared, from nowhere, on his couch, again. He laughed when Rahkesh glared. Rahkesh wandlessly flipped the switch.
AAAAAARRRGGHH!
Daray roared in pain and leaped off the couch as ten thousand volts of electricity passed through his back. Ignoring the shrieking vampire Rahkesh turned back to Silas and raised an eyebrow.
"I have to agree with what he said. Only this time there's a chance that the elders won't tolerate letting the mortals off that easy." Silas said, grinning as he ignored the cursing come from his cousin's direction.
"Bastard, what the hell was that for?" Daray snarled.
"I felt like electrocuting someone, you offered." Rahkesh answered. Daray sneered, and boldly flopped down on the couch again, this time on his stomach since the scorch marks across his back appeared to be healing rather slowly.
"What on earth was the screaming about?" Ally asked from the doorway.
"Nothing, just a silly vampire getting roasted." Rahkesh replied.
"Jackass." Daray growled, "He fucking electrocuted me."
"Language." Ally warned, "And you knew he was gong to do that some day. This is Tyler." She added, nodding to the mortal woman who had followed her in.
Tyler had the darkest skin Rahkesh had ever seen on a human being. Shiny black, he hadn't known human skin could naturally get that dark.
"Hey. How much electricity?" Tyler asked. Looking over the crisscrossing stripes burned into Daray's back by the electricity.
"Ten thousand volts."
"Nice. Battery powered?"
"Magically rechargeable." Rahkesh said with a nod.
"Any chance you could install one in my room? On the doormat? My neighbor is a vampire, keeps trying to drink my blood." Tylar said, Rahkesh decided that he liked her instantly. A chance to electrocute another vampire.
"Rahkesh, if this turns into a general trend, you are going to die." Daray warned him.
"Can't stand the thought of your prey kicking your ass?" Tyler asked sweetly.
"Rahkesh you are in deep shit." Daray warned him.
"Of course." Rahkesh told Tyler, grinning at the fuming vampire. "I've also been working on traps involving radioactive slime, for silly little vampires who don't knock." Tyler snickered and both vampires turned to glare at Rahkesh. "What? Until I caught Silas in the electrical fishing net you used to use the window to surprise me, are you expecting to catch me summoning demons or conversing with the devil?"
"They have this species wide inferiority complex that drives them to do things like that, to prove to themselves that they aren't inferior, when everyone knows they are and just humors them." Tyler explained, "they can't help it."
"Perhaps group visits to a psychologist?" Ally suggested.
"Or a support group, Vampires with Inferiority Issues." Tyler said.
"What is this? Beat up on the vampire day?" Daray asked, his back had nearly completely healed.
"Daray dearest, I hate to burst your bubble but - " Ally began.
"Every day is beat up on the vampire day." Tyler finished.
XXXX
"Why are the fae glaring at us?" Rahkesh asked Tyler as they worked on their vertisarum potions.
"I'm not sure, but it's rather disturbing." Tyler replied, glancing around nervously.
"Some humans attacked and captured several fae a few days ago." Rianae said from the other side of Tyler. And the fae's bodies were found yesterday. Someone attempted to remove their magic and use it to summon up some new type of Inferi."
"Damn, okay I'd be pissed too." Tyler said.
"It gets worse, the manner of death was apparently particularly horrible and several of them were children." Rianae continued.
Rahkesh tilted a glass beaker so he could watch the fae students behind him in its surface. They were definitely angry. Voldemort was really serious about causing a war.
"Who do you think did it?" Rianae asked.
"That freakish dark wizard who's terrorizing Europe." Tyler replied, "has to be, no one else crazy enough."
Rahkesh bottled his potion, some to turn in and the rest for his own use. Voldemort seemed hell-bent on ending the world. Perhaps he thought he could benefit from total chaos. Once the muggle realized that magic, and all they held as mere fantasy, existed, total chaos would be exactly what happened. He could just see the reaction, anti-magic laws, hunting and killing of anyone suspected of having magic. The muggle reaction would not be good. They were only human, and most humans were mob like and hated what was different.
And once the muggles attacked everyone Voldemort would have a perfect case for attacking back and taking control of all muggles. Which fit his plans perfectly.
But where did the other magical beings come in? Exterminate them? Surely Voldemort would not be likely to accept them as equals. What did he want with them? Voldemort would settle for nothing less than complete control, but did he really think he could stand up to the best the fae, vampires, elves, and werewolves could show? Surely not. And if he thought that then he was delusional.
And that delusion could cost humanity its existence. Rahkesh had followed up on what Rianae had said about the elves and extermination, and she had a point. During the time of Atlantis they had killed off some ten million humans in twenty-four hours, all because someone had said they couldn't. If Voldemort got the magical beings other than humans involved he and his army wouldn't last long, and nor would anyone else.
Dinner that night was a quiet affair, besides the upset fae the vampires had all gotten word that a dark wizard was trying to get them to ally with him. The news that he offered protection and a place amongst his people once they ruled the muggles was of great interest to the young vampires. Except for Daray and Silas, who shrugged it all off and ignored the entire thing. And Rianae who refused to even consider allying herself with a mortal wizard who wanted to rule the world and enslave all muggles, and get rid of muggleborns simply because of blood.
"I tell you, the next few years are going to be one real pain in the ass." Daray complained as they walked back to their rooms, passing groups of chattering students. "Especially if anyone joins that dark wizard."
"Wouldn't that be a decision that all the vampire alumni made together?" Rahkesh asked. The Akren alumni were pretty well organized.
"Maybe. Most of the alumni are very high ranking vampires. And many of them keep muggles as slaves. And I expect that the existence of vampires will be revealed to the world sometime within the decade, and don't tell anyone I told you that." Daray said.
"They're really going to do that?" Rahkesh asked.
"Yes. It has already been decided. They've been planning for years. Once they let it be known we exist they'll already have laws ready so that the muggles can't try to outlaw or exterminate us." Daray explained.
"How?"
"Several thousand vampires donated the last fifty years of their lives to becoming "muggle" politicians and social/religious leaders. In disguise. It'll be a nasty wake-up for the muggles."
"That is really going to shake up the muggle world."
"Yep. Once we're part of muggle society it won't be long before the werewolves, fae, and magical people make their presence known."
"I can't say I'm looking forward to the turmoil." Rahkesh said honestly, really, he had enough to deal with.
XXXX
"We're going to be late for the duel." Silas complained as he and Rahkesh hurried down the hallway.
"I know, I know, not my fault Sygra was being fussy about not coming." Rahkesh said. A vampire had challenged Ally to a duel, and he was looking forward to seeing him get ripped to shreds.
"You could have just left the snake." Silas complained. "If she wants to freeze on the balcony that's her problem."
Rahkesh rounded a corner in the hallway, and stopped as he nearly ran into someone standing in front of him. There was a large crowd gathering around. Levitating himself Rahkesh saw that Ally was fighting with a vampire, the two casting hexes and curses at each other. The students closest had shield up to stop the spells from harming anyone else.
"I thought the duel was in the gym." Silas said, levitating himself beside Rahkesh to see.
"That's not the one she was supposed to be fighting." Rahkesh said.
The vampire jumped in close and tried to bite Ally. Ally dodged aside and nearly took his eye out with a throwing star; it got stuck in the wall instead.
"Oh come on, I'm sure you can do better than that!" Ally taunted as she parried a few attacks and forced the vampire to duck low to avoid a ripping curse.
"Pathetic human." The vampire snapped back and attacked again. Ally laughed and redirected his spells right back at him.
"That's it Geri! Show the little upstart!" A vampire who appeared to be the brother of the one Ally was fighting shouted. Ally cast a castration hex at him, which was absorbed by the shield.
"That's the guy she had the duel with." Rahkesh said, nodding to the watching vampire.
"Then what's his brother doing?" Silas wondered.
The brother who she was fighting, attacked, hurling curses. Ally conjured a shield to absorb them.
Unfortunately the vampire had expected that, and sent out a lumos spell, which, when got caught in the shield and doubled in brightness. With the light of the spell temporarily blinding Ally the vampire knocked her into the wall and clamped a hand over her throat. The watching brother started laughing. Ally spat at him.
"Can't fight me yourself? Gotta ask you brother to do it for you?" Ally gasped out at the second vampire. Beside Rahkesh Silas tried to move forward, Rahkesh pulled him away.
"Just watch, she knows what she's doing." The vampire Ally had been speaking to turned red and started pushing through the crowd. Clearly he didn't take insults well. Rianae moved in front of him, glaring him down. He dodged around her and tried to attack. Rianae grabbed him and pulled him back.
"Oh, Drew darling, can't stand up for yourself at all eh? And embarrassment to the vampire species you are!" Ally taunted.
"You mortals, the only thing your good for is your blood, or fucking, you're all just whores." He sneered back at her. The vampire holding Ally tried to bite her neck.
Then they vanished.
The entire crowd gasped in shock as both of them vanished into thin air. Rahkesh started to laugh, drawing shocked looks from everyone. That had been done on purpose. No one else had noticed, but he had seen the syringe Ally had had pressed to the vampire's neck. And he had seen her touch the portkey in her bracelet.
"The portkey?" Silas asked from beside him, Rahkesh stopped laughing long enough to answer.
"Yeah, hers. And she had that syringe of acid on him." Silas began to laugh too.
"That last comment must have pissed her off. He's probably dead already." Rianae said, throwing a blasting hex and Drew, sending him rolling down a staircase. "Stupid brat, he is an embarrassment."
"What portkey?" Tyler asked.
"Ally's got this portkey, it takes her to the entrance to the valley." Rahkesh explained.
"Ahh." Tyler said, "he is dead then." From the entrance to the valley it was only a few steps to get outside the wards, where killing was possible.
Ally got back during dinner. Everyone had been eating, and discussing the fight, when the door banged open. Silence swept through the dining room as she walked in, carrying the vampire's head by the hair. His blood was splashed all over her, and dripping from the head as she walked.
Students farther away stood up to get a better view as she walked across the dining room, and dropped Geri's head onto his brother plate.
"Got anything else to say?" Ally barked in his face. The vampire just sat, staring in horror at his brother's head, which had been ripped from its body. "I didn't think so!" Ally roared, and walked out of the room.
There was a long silence, and then Rahkesh and Tyler began to clap.
XXXX
Rahkesh watched the customers out of the corner of his eyes while Mr. Dowchin inspected the Yeck fur. The Yecks did not like high winds, so he had gone during a storm to collect some of the fur. It had all been washed in the reactive potions he'd found, and Rahkesh was exerting all the telepathic pressure he could to make Mr. Dowhcin not check too thoroughly. The gloomy until little shop was filled with strange pickled creatures and things Rahkesh would never feel comfortable throwing into a cauldron – human fetus brains and a virgin's eye, who came up with these ideas? And he really didn't want to know the sources.
Mr. Dowchin was a balding grey haired man with a nasty scowl, a missing front tooth and a truly ugly scar down his face. And the customers didn't look much better. Rahkesh watched as the man at the desk handed a banshee a bag, at least the place was clean, the man wiped down the countertop after she left…the counter top had her finger prints on it!
Suddenly it clicked - how the assassins had found him; his fingerprints. He obviously wasn't the only wizard to think of using them. And he hadn't worn gloves on his previous visits. Anyone could get his fingerprints, they were everywhere in his dorm room. And then they'd just have to grab up fingerprints from every surface in Diagon and Knockturn Alleys. Eventually he would show up. An excellent strategy. And that cloth the man was using, it was magical, it collected things. Rahkesh reached further mentally, but realized that if anyone in the room was telepathically sensitive they would feel him checking the magic on the cloth. He couldn't know for sure but he would bet that it collected fingerprints. And if they hadn't found him here he had gone to the Diagon Alley potions shop and the pet shop three times on previous visits, anyone could have tracked him.
Glad he was wearing gloves Rahkesh wandlessly summoned all hair from his robes that might fall to the floor, and blurred the prints of his boots. He'd made one mistake, it wasn't happening again. The assassins wouldn't have told anyone – they wouldn't want competition for him, and they wouldn't want to tell the person offering the money unless they had him, least that person(s) get him themselves and not have to pay. So long as he didn't make anymore mistakes he was safe.
"Very well, same price as last time." Mr. Dowchin growled. Rahkesh accepted the bag with the money in it, checking with wandless magic if it was the right amount, while showing the store keeper respect by not visibly counting it. The man was so magically weak that he wouldn't sense the wandless magic.
Rahkesh left the shop, glanced over the shadow that was following him, and picked out the pub The Dancing Hag that Shacklebolt had recommended as a meeting point.
Kingsley Shacklebolt was waiting in the pub when Rahkesh, disguised as a tall man with graying blond hair in a faded trench coat, found him. Rahkesh slid into the seat across from him and with a wave of his wand sent out a silent spell to extend the shadows around him.
"Nice trick." The auror muttered as the shadows curled over Rahkesh and began to move a little with the torchlight, making him appear amorphous.
"I don't think I'm being tracked by anyone right now, but it never hurts."
"Someone was tracking you before?"
"They were, until they attacked, now they're dead." Rahkesh stated unconcernedly. Shacklebolt raised an eyebrow.
"Dead?"
"Of course. If someone tries to kill me, I kill them. None that silly nonsense about not killing people who are trying to kill you." Rahkesh said, making his position on the issue very clear. There might have been a time when he would have disapproved, there had been – after all he had kept Sirius and Remus from killing Wormtail. But that Harry Potter was long dead. Rahkesh Asmodaeus was not so soft. Even before Akren he'd changed, though he would prefer not to have to kill anyone he wasn't squeamish about killing when he felt it was necessary. Fortunately Shacklebolt slowly nodded, agreeing with him.
"Moody said you'd changed."
"For the better."
"Agreed. Albus would disapprove though."
"Albus is dead. Therefore we don't know what he would have said, but I had my disagreements with Albus before he died anyway. How is the Order?" Rahkesh asked, changing the subject.Shacklebolt shook his head.
"Not well. Voldemort has been attacking too frequently. The Minister of Magic was killed two days ago, and of course Fudge is long dead." Rahkesh nodded, he hadn't known about the Minister's death, but he knew about Fudge of course, though why exactly he had been killed was a good question.
"Voldemort wants to muggle world."
"Yes, it seems so. He won't announce our existence until he has the wizarding world, well, Europe anyway. He's gaining supporters fast, people think he's the best chance they have."
"Hogwarts?"
"There're less than twenty students left at Hogwarts, the school will close next year." Shacklebolt said sadly. Mad Eye Moody, under a hooded cloak, sat down next to him.
"At this point I really don't know what to do." The old auror said grimly, "there's little chance of rallying against him, no one's really acting against him, just talk. Too tired, too confused."
Rahkesh nodded slowly, wondering, not for the first time, if there even was a chance. He had a choice now. Rally the Order and Ministry against Voldemort, or let Voldemort have Europe. He didn't want either, and he was no longer prepared to do what he didn't want to on principle alone. There had been a time when he would have attacked back, but that time was long gone. There had to be another way. But right now he had information for the Ministry.
"Voldemort is trying to get allies among the vampires." He said, both men choked on their drinks.
"Is he bloody mad?" Shacklebolt asked.
"No. And it's a workable tactic. The young vampires are being killed off by the older ones. They want protection, and power over muggles."
"Great. We are doomed." Shacklebolt muttered.
"Not likely, just because the young and foolish join, does not mean they will win." Moody said.
"No," Rahkesh agreed, "it doesn't. And I have it from a good source that certain…powerful elements…in the vampiric community, will not allow them to survive for long." Moody raised one eyebrow, Rahkesh flicked his eyes in acknowledgment; Namach had mentioned a thoroughly terrifying extermination to Rahkesh not two days before.
"So what do I tell them?" Shacklebolt asked, meaning his employers.
"That there are vampires ready to remove any vampires that join Voldemort. They will control their own, and should the Ministry start or support, in any way, any anti-vampire propaganda or laws they can expect the entire wizarding world to receive a similar fate as the unfortunates who are joining Voldemort." Rahkesh said firmly. Shacklebolt stared at him, eyes wide as the implications – that Harry Potter was becoming a spokesperson of sorts for the vampires – sunk in. he let out a long breath and nodded.
"Okay. I'll pass it on."
"I'm trying to help Kingsley, I really am, but Voldemort isn't the only problem the Ministry has. Maybe if they'd done things differently, if society had been different. There's a general exodus of werewolves happening, to other places. But the vampires are too angry at being considered "evil" and "dark", they're sticking it out, and they're very angry." Rahkesh said.
"They won't ever bow to a human." Moody growled.
"Never. But they've been ticked off for decades, and there's a lot of resentment building up, and from what I'm hearing there's enough vampires willing to fight it out." Rahkesh said. Asking Namach for help in tracking down alumni had been a genius idea. While the vampires weren't entirely willing to speak with someone who was still a student and human they hadn't been so put off by being contacted by Rianae and Silas (asking Daray had seemed too much of a risk). Neither of them had been given enough information to know why he was asking. He had simply requested their aid in figuring out what the vampires of North America and Europe thought. Only the European ones were of real interest, but by asking about the general anti-mortal movements afoot in both places he had kept them from being suspicious. Less chance of them making a connection.
"But I thought you said the other vampires wouldn't allow it."
"Won't allow them to aid Voldemort, well, they can't stop all of them, but they'll happily kill any they find. No the general resentment is now centered around the higher-ups who are close to the city masters. Much more dangerous than angry and frightened young vampires." Rahkesh explained. It was a long shot, hoping that the Ministry would try to find something to do that would get the vampires to back off, at least until Voldemort was gone. And there was little the Ministry could do, but he had no other way to help at present. The best he could hope for right now was that the damaged Yeck fur might cause enough of an explosion to kill Snape or a few death eaters.
"I don't know what we can do about the vampires, but assuming that we can get rid of Voldemort the vampires will be on us next?" Shacklebolt asked. Rahkesh nodded, watching as Remus walked into the pub, and found them by scent.
"Afternoon Remus." Moody muttered as the werewolf sat down with them.
"Hi. Everything going alright with you?" Remus asked Rahkesh.
"Just fine. Anything?" Rahkesh asked. He had requested that Remus go to Grimmauld Place, if the werewolf could catch Regulus's scent and match it with Sirius then he had more evidence that Regulus was alive.
"Yes. It is definitely Regulus, whoever was there was male and closely related to Sirius. And you were right about the fox." Remus told them. "I found a surface he'd touched and got the fingerprints." He handed Rahkesh the strip of tape, Rahkesh put it in a bag ith the fingerprints he'd lifted from the rubber duck.
"When I was there I thought that he might have searched the house."
"He did," Remus agreed, "his scent was everywhere, but he was careful to put everything back just right."
"How do you know that?" Moody asked.
Remus smirked, "Because I asked him."
"WHAT?" Shacklebolt yelped.
"Hush. I ran into him, literally. He's been using an invisibility potion." Remus said, Rahkesh immediately began searching around them mentally. He sensed someone trying to hide their mind as he started looking.
"Sit down." He said, speaking to the empty air behind their chairs. Remus moved the chair out and seconds later the paper napkin fluttered as the air moved. "How long does the potion last?"
"Long enough." Regulus whispered. His voice was like Sirius's, only softer and bit lower. "You are the one my brother gave the house to?"
"Yes." Rahkesh agreed. "And if you want it back you're welcome to have it, quite frankly I don't particularly want to have to deal with that place."
"Neither do I. You keep it." Regulus said. Remus snorted softly. Rahkehs pulled out his silver identity authenticator and handed it to Remus. Remus pricked his finger on the pin and pressed his blood to it.
"Remus Lupin." He out it on the table and Regulus repeated what he'd done. The misshapen lump of silver glowed both times.
"Any idea what happened to it?" Moody asked, not bothering to explain what "it" was. Rahkesh and Moody sent up more concealment and silencing charms. Then Rahkesh used a voice mangling charm to project random undecipherable voices, and blurring charm so no one could read their lips.
"No. It vanished from the house." Regulus replied.
"Mundungus Fletcher is out of town still. Has been since last summer." Shacklebolt told them.
"Sounds like he's dead." Moody said.
"What did he do?" Regulus asked.
"Stole things from the house and sold them." Rahkesh said, "he probably found it and sold it to, not knowing what it was."
"If he's dead, it could be anywhere." Regulus muttered, "I was planning on getting a few of the others and destroying them at once."
"Why didn't you get the others?" Remus asked.
"I couldn't. Dumbledore got one, the ring, I got the locket, it's gone, and Nagini I've never been able to get near – I tried – that was how I left the death eaters." Regulus explained.
"Do you know the identities of the others?" Rahkesh asked.
"Yes. A cup owned by Helga Hufflepuff. Voldemort always used to keep that with him in his rooms. I don't know where it would be now. Voldemort of course is one. And it's a possibility that Godric Gryffindor's sword is one, but no one knows where that is."
"It's safe at Hogwarts, and we checked, it isn't one." Rahkesh said. He'd been hoping Regulus would know more, but apparently not.
"Rowena Ravenclaw also owned a black unicorn, after its death she kept the horn, but I have not been able to locate any information about what happened to it." Regulus finished. Rahkesh blinked, a unicorn horn?
"How exactly would we go about finding these?" Shacklebolt asked.
"We don't." Rahkesh said, "you and Alastor need to find out if Mundungus is alive. Remus, those werewolf senses may be useful again. The remains of the ring still exist, if you can locate an odd scent to them, it might help." Remus nodded, "perhaps Nagini should be the next target."
"I still have the mark," Regulus said, "I could go to a meeting and attack her."
"There'd be no guarantee she'd be there." Moody pointed out. "And how do you resist the call anyway?"
"I have a house elf, she locks me in a cell whenever he calls." Regulus said softly. The others winced.
"Where have you been since your "death"?" Moody asked.
"Australia. Hiding. When I escaped I transfigured the body of the one sent to kill me into me, and modified the memory of the other one so that he'd go back and say I was dead. Then I hid. I came back as soon as the Prophet arrived saying that Dumbledore said Voldemort was back. I already knew the location of the locket; I saw him hiding it. I got it as quickly as possible, put the fake there for laughs. Then I went after the ring, but Dumbledore got there first."
"About finding the others?" Shacklebolt asked, brining the conversation back on track.
"It will be a few years before I get enough into soul magic to help with that. But my Necromancy training could start sometime next year, if I really push it." Rahkesh said.
"Necromancy? Soul magic?" Regulus asked, "where are you learning that?"
"Nowhere you need to know about." Moody growled, at all three of the others.
"But-" Shacklebolt began.
"No." Rahkesh said. "I know a few who are very well versed in both arts, but no one I'd trust enough to tell this too. Maybe that will change." It wasn't that he didn't trust Namach. It was just that he knew the vampire would use it to push the human governments into agreements that, while they looked good for the vampire species, would later be discarded when the Minsitry decided that they had been forced into agreeing. Then the vampires would be angry at the humans going back on their word, and there would be war. That was coming anyway, but he wasn't going to help. Professor Xanthius, and Headmistress Aelfly, could help, but he didn't trust Xanthius father than he could throw him, and he didn't know Aelfly.
"Some alumni?" Rahkesh asked Moody.
"You know the survival rate for humans who attempt soul magic, the survival rate for Necromancy is better, but not a whole lot. Creating Inferi is low level necromancy, nothing too difficult. Creating Horcruxes is low level necromancy, again, nothing special. Learning to scan large sections of the world for necromancy of the sort that creates horcruxes? That is much more difficult." Moody growled.
"What if we asked them though?" Rahkesh persisted.
"We could, we could. My concern is that Voldemort may have hired some of them in the past to hide his horcruxes from just the sort of scan you'd want to do. And the ones that know necromancy and soul magic don't do that sort of thing; they bring back murder victims to help find the killers."
"But we could."
"Yes, I guess," Moody said grudgingly. "But as the number of horcruxes goes down the power used to protect the remainder will increase. Because he won't have to put so much effort into protecting all of them the less horcruxes there are the more soul magic and necromancy goes into each one. And, Rahkesh, the alumni would all use their ability to help to further a political agenda." Rahkesh sighed and nodded, okay they'd have to leave the almuni out, but it was always an option. Maybe he could find alumni with political goals that matched his.
"Kingsley and I will work on Fletcher, Remus I'm sure you have thing to do trying to keep the werewolves out of this. Regulus you've got to be careful, if Voldemort has any idea you're alive…" Moody left it at that.
"I'll let Tonks know about Fletcher. I've got some other I trust too, I'll tell them he's part of a possible burglary investigation." Shacklebolt said.
"What would be nice would be to start taking out his death eaters." Rahkesh mused. "I won't have the chance for a few months, but if I knew who to go after then. I know some people who would not be against the idea of tracking them down."
"Vampires, always looking for blood. I know a few who own mortal slaves, perhaps they would be interested in nabbing a few death eaters." Moody mused. Rahkesh laughed at the way Remus and Shacklebolt winced. Yes, and next time he saw Mariah he'd bring it up. He could just imagine the "superior" pureblood death eaters reaction to being dragged off as slaves to the vampires.
Shacklebolt and Moody left together, followed in a few minutes by Remus and Regulus (who was still invisible). Rahkesh sighed and leaned back in his chair. He waited until a gust of wind blew out the nearest candles, and then raised his glass towards the shadow that had been following him since he left the potions shop.
The vampire nodded his head slightly in return. Having followed Rahkesh and listened in on the conversation. Rahkesh summoned another draft to come through the partly open door. The vampire, an Akren alumnus who belonged to the master of London, took the opportunity to leave unnoticed.
Daray had recommended him when Rahkesh had mentioned wanting to contact some alumni back home, just to see what the vampiric world in Europe was like. He was friend of the Ateres family and supposedly trustworthy.
Rahkesh let out a long breath and stared at his reflecting in his drink. Brining the vampires into this was dangerous. But he had to get in contact with them at some point. Andrew Farov was a master at mind magics, one of the best. And he reported directly the master of London, who was also a former student of Akren. Rahkesh was taking a chance by trusting both of them, but the chance of having…acquaintances, if not allies…was enough to make him do it. He would channel information from them tot he Ministry for now, it was a way to keep involved. He could expect to be contacted soon about the idea of getting some alumni to help find the horcruxes soon. And a list of those who would be taken with the idea of getting human slaves while bringing down Voldemort at the same time. And perhaps about Fletcher as well.
XXXX
"Next year is going to be horrible. I can't imagine being home schooled. Gran is great and all, but I'm not sure I'd want to spend the whole year with her, thought that ended when I went to Hogwarts." Neville said dejectedly.
Rahkesh wondered if perhaps Neville would do well at Akren. He might. He was tolerant and curious, and a genuinely nice nonambitious person. And while the violence might have troubled him at one point Neville had changed. Rahkesh could sense that just by talking to him.
"You're still really into herbology." Rahkesh observed as Neville knelt to remove weeds from around the base of a plant that appeared to be growing orange feathers. They were in the greenhouses at Longbottom Manor. Neville had hundreds of plants all over the grounds and greenhouses.
"Yeah. And as good as professor Sprout is, she just doesn't know enough. I'd like to get a mastery at herbology, or maybe healing, but for that I'd have to find a master to apprentice to.
Rahkesh hummed softly. Watching with great interest, the plants seemed to respond to Neville's presence. He would do very well at Akren. But for the competitiveness. And the fact that he'd have to really get good at self defense, if only to keep the vampires form drinking his blood.
"You learned that list of spells I gave you?"
"Yes. And I've been working on stuff outside of class too." Neville said.
Rahkesh nodded, and decided to have a talk with the herbology teachers. Perhaps Neville would do okay. Herbology wasn't nearly as rough as things like bloodmagic and dueling.
"How are the others doing?"
"Upset with you. But I think Ginny's coming around. She didn't seem angry last time they talked about your disappearance. Ron and Hermione are still ticked, and still trying to find you." Neville told him. Rahkesh nodded, he had dropped off his letter to Fluer in person, leaving it on the doorstep, she would be able to tell him more about the Weasleys. And he was hoping that he might be able to count on her family as allies.
"The DA?"
"Home schooled mostly. A few went abroad. And some are still at Hogwarts. All the Slytherins are gone though, except for the neutral ones. They're being home schooled with special tutors. Getting ready to join Voldemort." Neville sounded depressed.
"Yeah, I don't know what we're going to do about him."
"Using the press to get people to stand up to him might help." Neville suggested. Rahkesh thought about that. Perhaps it was time he wrote to the Daily Prophet, or the Quibbler.
"Unfortunately he isn't our only problem." Rahkesh said.
"What?" Neville asked.
"The other magical beings are getting involved, and they're not happy with the way they've been treated. Vampires, werewolves."
"I think I'd be angry too. Werewolves are automatically criminals and vampires are inherently evil. If I were them I would have gotten pissed off long ago." Neville said. "Any chance they'd help us fight Voldemort?"
"Not likely. But there's always a chance." Rahkesh said. "Have you tried to find someone to help you get the herbology mastery and to teach you healing?"
"Madam Pomfrey offered to help teach me healing, and Sprout can help with the herbology, but she doesn't have a mastery at it." Neville said. Rahkesh nodded, wondering again. If he talked Neville into coming to Akren Neville would either have to graduate or die. And Rahkesh didn't want to lose his friend. But if Neville adapted well to Akren, he'd be one of the world's best herbologists and healers. And Rahkesh didn't forget that fighting can only go so far. Good healers would be needed.
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Please review. Yes I am going somewhere with all the war ideas.
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