Star and Lightning
27th Chapter – The Second War Begins
Lucius Malfoy sat in his study biting his lower lip and furrowing his brows. He would never let anybody see him like that, but right now there was nobody who could see him. He was alone and he was worried. The Dark Lord had a trustworthy contact in Hogwarts who was neither the child of a Deatheater nor a Deatheater himself and no one seemed to know the mysterious person's identy. This person was a real threat to himself and his son, Draco. Until now, most of the information about what was happening at Hogwarts had come from him. Lucius had 'convinced' his fellow Deatheaters whose children attended Hogwarts to leave the business of informing their Lord to him. Not only was there a second source of information, but his Lord seemed to behold more trust in that guy than in his son. This person spoiled all his carefully planned plots.
Sighing, Lucius grabbed a sheet of parchment and began to write a letter addressed to his son, warning him of this new development and informing him of the soon-to-be war. He would have to be very careful not to anger the Dark Lord's new servant for he seemed to be quite fond of this person. Anger boiled up inside him. The Dark Lord entrusted this damn, mysterious person with an important mission taking place at Hogwarts, passing his son over. And worst of all, he didn't even know what exactly this mission was about.
Fuming, he stalked to the Malfoys' Owlery and grabbed the owl that was so unfortunate to be nearest to the entrance. He fastened the letter quickly and threw the owl outside. He watched with grim satisfactions as the owl fell for about two meters until it gained lift and flew off to Hogwarts.
Lord Voldemort sat on his throne smiling contendly. It was only a question of time now until he would finally get Harry Potter. The Serpent's Stone was with his Heiress and she would use it to fight a battle of nerves. Dumbledore wouldn't know what hit him. Once she had done her job, the attacks all over Great Brittain would start.
One day later, the Heiress stood at the edge of the Dark Forest facing Hogwarts, a black gem in the palm of her left hand and her snake wound up around her right arm. This would be her first action against the Light, her fist action in this war. It would make everybody in the castle wary, nervous and easily frightened. And this was only the first step planned to throw the wizarding world into chaos. Doubts kept nagging at the back of her mind but she pushed them aside violently. Hadn't Dumbledore denied her access to the restricted section of the library only few days ago? If she relied on him, she would never learn how to do real magic.
Slowly, she took some steps forward, groping her way with her feet, for it was a moonless night and the wordl around her was pitch black except for the shining castle Hogwarts. When she felt herself crossing the barrierr, she kneed down and dug a small hole in which she placed the Serpent's Stone. Then she took her wand out and began hissing ancient spells in parseltongue. Her transparent wand began glowing dimly green and a pale green mist emerged from the tip of her wand, crawled along her arm and surrounded her. Suddenly, she jerked up and cried the last incarnation aloud. The shining, green fog spread out and surrounded the wards, covered Hogwarts, then it crushed them and disappeared.
She stood in the dark, panting. Her own breath was the only audible sound. A weak smile spread across her face. A huge and damn difficult work of magic had been acomplished.
Harry Potter woke up screaming. He had had an odd nightmare about someone conjuring green mist around Hogwarts. His scar was throbbing.
Dark-hooded figures with white masks in front of their faces appeared in several villages, were muggle-born wizards lived.
Albus Dumbledore woke with a start. Hogwarts' wards were gone.
The Deatheaters' raids began.
Harry and Elisha broke down crying from pain. They both heard Voldemort's insane laughter.
The Dark Mark was conjured above all places where raids had taken place.
The Second War had begun.