Chapter 30: Who is the Lamb?

Disclaimer: Alas, I own neither Bioshock or Harry Potter. I also lack the ideas to keep coming up with Original disclaimer ideas. I'm a bit rusty on it.

'Oh, this isn't good...' Was the first thought that crossed through Elizabeth's mind. They had been found, there was a new power in charge of Rapture, and it looked like they were just as inclined to avoid newcomers as Ryan. "Relic of the Past?" Elizabeth questioned slowly, deciding to see how it would play out. If they could prove that they're not there to cause any problems, perhaps they could find some way to be amicable with these people.

"Subject Delta, the Big Daddy that you were following. What business did you have that needed you to follow him?"

"We're not here to cause any harm, we just came to try and find some information about past residents of the city. We'll leave after it's done; the City is yours and we don't want to disrupt anything."

"But searching through our city like plunderers looking for salvage does disrupt the Family, everything in this City belongs to its people." The woman was watching them carefully, no doubt if they made any moves there would be Splicers or something that was designed to attack them. "But what do you seek?" She questioned and Elizabeth looked towards Bathsheda, the debate about how much to tell in her face and although they could make up something, without being on the same page with it could easily catch them out further down the line.

"We're investigating an old resident. Evidence has shown that they may have organised the death of a family that we knew. I wanted confirmation and the security footage of these people would have been all I needed. Not even footage, just a couple of photos', No one has to know about Rapture or you and the others." Elizabeth said almost pleadingly, she didn't want to fight with this group, she didn't know anything about them, what their goals were and she didn't know just how many splicers and Big Daddies and whatever the other thing that had been fighting the Big Daddy before was.

"Then tell me how you arrived in this city if not through normal means, there are no bathysphere terminals where you arrived.

Elizabeth hesitated, they wouldn't be able to replicate it, at least not without a lot of time and energy, she was almost tempted to tell them, just to see what they did but almost as soon as it came into her mind she threw it out again, Too many people knew what she and Harry could do. It wasn't worth the risk. She opened her mouth to speak but static cut across the monitor.

"Do not... she's not to..." A heavily accented voice cut through the monitor as the door suddenly swung open and the monitor went dead.

"Looks like we have someone watching out for us." Elizabeth muttered as the two made their way down the corridor. "No doubt she is going to want to send her people down after us, if they're not already on the way."

"Should we not just leave and come back in a different place or time?" Bathsheda asked and Elizabeth shook her head stubbornly.

"No, we're here now and we're under observation. It would be best for us to stay and only escape if there's no other choice."

"What kind of logic is that?" Bathsheda asked incredulously. "If they know we're here then every step we make is going to be one with danger and a lot of risk!" She argued but Elizabeth was stubborn.

"If we leave with nothing then it'll have been a wasted effort and potentially tipping off another possible threat about different worlds." She said though a little voice whispered in the back of her mind that there were flaws in that argument before she even completed it. She pushed the whisper away, back into the deeper part of her mind and locked it away, there was no time to second guess herself at this point. "She's creating an army of Splicers; she may speak of peace, but the words were clear." Elizabeth said angrily, "another person with a whiff of power wanting to play God."

"And what about you?" Bathsheda asked and Elizabeth stopped in her tracks, turning to look at her with hurt and betrayal. "I trust you're doing everything for the right reasons because I know you, I've spoken to you, I've seen you at your best and I'm hoping your worst because to be honest, I'd hate to see you go over that edge, how thin do you have to stretch yourself? how many places do you need to be the one to save?" She asked softly and Elizabeth frowned. "You have all this power but even you can't stop every trouble, every conflict. You're not a God yourself." She spoke and Elizabeth felt like she had been slapped.

"What are you saying?" She asked and Bathsheda gestured around her.

"Look at the situation we're in, an unknown hostile, an unknown number of enemies. Heaven knows how many pitfalls and unsafe locations there are between our goals and you want to march in with no plan other than 'I'll open a door and we'll just walk out with no care in the world."

"We can do this! We can get the information and get back safely. We can leave this place and never return." Elizabeth tried to argue and then Elizabeth stopped, paling dramatically, staggering back as if struck, leaning against the wall of the corridor to support herself.

"Elizabeth?" Bathsheda spoke softly, stepping towards the struggling woman who held her hand up to stop the Professor from helping her.

"We need to go." She said quietly, almost robotically as she opened a tear, barely any hesitance in her body language as she turned back to Bathsheda, letting the professor go through first before following after her. They reappeared in the formerly forbidden Third Floor Corridor and Bathsheda turned back to look at Elizabeth again who didn't look her in the eyes. "Go, speak to Dumbledore and tell him we failed at what we were going to do..." She turned away from her, her shoulders slumping as she spoke quietly. "I need to be alone to think for a bit." She said and made no effort to move out of the dead-end corridor.

Bathsheda stood there for several moments, trying to decide whether or not to say something, she reached a hand up, words catching in her mouth before she let it drop and turned away, leaving the room. She closed the door behind her, leaving Elizabeth alone in the room. Elizabeth looked around the room, glad at the isolation and pulled through a chair to sit in, she dropped onto it lifelessly her eyes closing as her mind raced with thoughts that she couldn't focus on properly. She slumped forwards, head resting in her hands as she struggled to get herself back under control

HPCVHPCVHPCV

Winter holiday was here so no classes for Harry to be distracted by. The castle was almost deserted again, this time with a lot more trepidation and fear among the students. Homework had been piled up just before the end and he had been in the library attempting to fill it out, but he found himself rambling in his writing more than he usually did and progress was going nowhere.

So, he was taking up a vigil outside Dumbledore's office, on the off chance that Elizabeth and Bathsheda returned and made their way to Dumbledore's office he wanted to make sure he was there to talk to them as soon as he could. Of course, the possibility was already there that they had just returned inside, and he could be waiting a long time, or they may not even return today. It was a waiting game combined with a lucky dice roll.

And with Harry's luck in the past surely, he was owed some good luck by this point? He didn't know exactly what else to do, with the coming of the ball at the Malfoy residence which they had both said they'd attend, he wasn't sure if he would still go if Elizabeth wasn't back. It wasn't that he didn't trust Draco and he anticipated that his family would honour all the rules as hosts, and he'd be perfectly safe. He just didn't trust the rest of the gathering that would be largely comprised of former (if there were such a thing) Death Eaters and maybe a few actually decent people. He also knew that there were several there that would definitely be only interested in using him for his name as well.

The Gargoyle shifted and Harry looked up hoping to see the two who had left but after a moment Dumbledore stepped out from the stairway. The aged wizard looked at Harry and nodded in greeting. "Back again Mr Potter?" He asked and Harry smiled weakly.

"I'm that predictable?" He asked and Dumbledore gently waved it off.

"It's understandable to be concerned for a friend knowing that they have entered a dangerous situation. If I was in your position, I would find myself in a similar position as you, worried and wondering what I could do to help." He said and Harry looked at the Headmaster and realised that he had just admitted to the younger wizard exactly how he was feeling. Bathsheda and Elizabeth were his staff, he had a duty of care to them and currently they were in a place that he had no capabilities to assist them with this adventure that they were on. "Now, one of the portraits reported that one of these tears has turned up on the fifth floor in one of the unused staff rooms, I was wondering as you're here, if you'd be willing to join me. I find myself curious as to what it has to show." He asked Harry who quickly nodded. "Fascinating things these tears." He commented as the two started walking, "It's a bit early in your studies but do you know about prophecies?"

"One of the older Ravenclaws mentioned it in passing when he was studying in the common room last year. It's related to Divination isn't it?"

"Correct, a prophecy is normally spoken by a seer, one who can see the future. Much of the contents are up for debate and never truly clear." He explained and looked at Harry as they climbed the stairs. "There's a department of the Ministry that has an entire wing dedicated to studying prophecies, trying to understand and decipher both what allows a prophecy to be made and the contents of said prophecies." He continued watching Harry piece his own thoughts about it. "But these rifts... they've opened an entirely different analysis of it."

"Because they show that there are an infinite number of options?" He asked getting a nod in return.

"Correct, when researching prophecies, they all looked at it as events that should and do come to pass, even if it is so distant down the road that it isn't going to be confirmed in their lifetime."

"But there isn't just one option. There's an unimaginable number of opportunities and each one can branch off in its own differences."

"And there in you see the new avenue of study. These tears give us the chance to see what could be and learn bits and pieces that we never could have known." He finished as they reached the fifth floor, heading towards one of the classrooms. "It has been a long time since this classroom was used." He spoke quietly as they entered, the dust and the cobwebs evident that no one used it. "I remember it used to hold duelling lessons back in the day. At other times it was a charms class before Professor Flitwick joined the staff."

"What happened to all these classes? I've seen the classrooms for Alchemy, this one was duelling and there are others that just don't get used." Harry asked Dumbledore, a look of sadness on the older wizards face as he thought about all those empty rooms.

"The majority of them have been empty for a long time, as time has gone by, families have gotten smaller outside of notable exceptions." Harry didn't need to read between the lines to know that he was specifically referring to the Weasleys in this instance who were well known for their larger than average family. "And of course, there are always the budget cuts and classes changed depending on the popularity at the time. Duelling just fell to the side outside of a few extra periods like with Professor Lockhart." He finished as he pushed open the door to the office. "This was the room that the portrait said the tear had opened up in." Dumbledore said with a look at Harry who studied the room.

"It's over by the desk." He said walking closer towards it, he walked around it, making sure not to activate it. "There's someone sitting at the desk." Harry paused as he tried to see what was happening. "And a student as well..." He trailed off thoughtfully, "it's looking like a detention." He couldn't see the colours of the room, but he could see the cat plates hanging and the woman in question had such a fake smile as she spoke to the teen.

"Can you tell who the professor is?" Dumbledore asked and Harry shook his head.

"It's a woman, I don't know who she is, she's wearing a cardigan has plates with cats all over the wall. And well..." Harry trailed off, looking at Dumbledore, trying to judge whether he should say it or not. "Will I get in trouble with this?" He asked and Dumbledore shook his head.

"What you say will remain between the two of us."

"She kind of looks like a toad." He said and Dumbledore looked surprised by that description.

"I believe I know who you're referring to." He said and Harry turned to look at him again with a look of surprise. "Though the school must have been in dire straits if they've recruited her." He admitted trying to make light of the situation though his eyes gave away the troubled thoughts in his mind. "What else is happening?" He asked, urging Harry to continue.

"The student's getting parchment and his quill and ink, it looks like they're going to be writing lines." He said and then frowned, "I can't hear what is being said but she's making him put the Quill and ink away. How does she expect him to write without ink?" He asked as she handed him another Quill. Dumbledore didn't say anything, waiting for Harry to continue, a cold chill running down his spine. "She's handing him another quill and telling him to write."

They stood in silence, Harry watching carefully as the student started to write, only to stop and clutch his hand, a look of surprise on his features. Relaying that information to Dumbledore, he described as the teen wrote onto the paper, marks appearing on his hand. "Enough." Dumbledore said, turning away from the barely formed tear as Harry tore himself away from it, letting it close away and vanish. "To think there is the potential to allow torture in the school." Dumbledore said sadly and Harry frowned.

"But it hasn't happened here." Harry said weakly but already knowing that anything that could happen was its own little branch and possible to occur made it fall apart almost as soon as it left his lips.

"Perhaps, but it's apparently a possibility that could, maybe not along this path, but a possible path that can occur." Dumbledore said sadly and Harry nodded, remaining quiet. "The item in question is a heavily restricted Magical Object. Its primary role is to sign magical contracts." He pushed open the door to the office, "it's outdated but certain Magical Contracts required they be signed with blood. The quill is meant to take the blood without harm to the person using it, but it sounds like she altered it." He said darkly and Harry begun to see part of what made him a person that Voldemort feared during the last war. "Thank you, Mr Potter, today has shown me more than I thought it would have." He said as they started making their way down towards his office again.

The trip was largely in silence as they both thought about what they witnessed. For Harry it was a surprised that it could even happen in the school, that one of the teachers would torture their student like that. For Dumbledore it was grief at the fact that it could actually come to pass even if it didn't happen in this time. Just knowing it happened or could happen was a burden and he begun to understand more of what Elizabeth and now Harry had to go through. The weight of an infinite number of possibilities and the temptation to meddle with them or not. It took a lot of willpower to see the problem and not dive in headfirst.

He wasn't entirely sure if he could do it if he was to be perfectly honest with himself. As they reached the corridor that would lead to his office, Dumbledore turned to look at Harry. "Now Harry, I understand you've been invited to spend time at the Malfoys for their Yule Ball?" He questioned and Harry nodded, part of him guessing where Dumbledore was going with this. "I realise that the Malfoys have been showing signs of change for the better but the rest of the guests that will be there have not shown as much of an inclination to change." He said and stopped, a raised voice coming from the corridor where the gargoyle statue protected the entrance to his office.

"What do you mean he's not there!?" The very familiar voice of Bathsheda was nearly shouting, "Then where the hell has he gone?"

"The Headmaster did not leave any directions, he just left with the Potter Boy about thirty minutes ago."

"All this time the statue could talk?" Harry said looking at Dumbledore the conversation slipping from his mind.

"Yes, he can be quite talkative in fact, just no one ever seems to stop and try." Dumbledore mused as they walked around the corner to see Bathsheda looking angry, one arm crossed across her body, the other resting on it as she scratched at the bridge of her nose. "Professor Babbling." Dumbledore greeted causing the woman to jump, spinning around with her wand in her hand. Instinctively Dumbledore edged to the side, Harry noticed his hand twitching to where his wand was secured and was concerned that they were about to start hurling magic at each other. Bathsheda seemed to realise everything that was happening and quickly stashed her wand away again.

"Professor Dumbledore, Harry!" She said, surprised to see the teen there with Harry even though the statue had literally just spoken and told her that the two had gone off somewhere. "Sorry, just got back and part of me is expecting everyone that I hear to jump out at us. And we weren't even attacked." She said apologetically and Dumbledore waved it off as he said the password to the statue (snickers) and motioning for them to enter his office.

"You're back alone?" Dumbledore asked in concern as they took seats in the room.

Bathsheda tried to speak, the words failed her momentarily and she sighed. "Can I be blunt?" She asked and Dumbledore nodded. "It was a disaster. We're both fine but I'm using that in the loosest of terms." She said with a small gesture. "Not a scratch on us physically, though I understand why she had concerns about the Splicers... and the Big Daddies... and well there was something new that she knew nothing about that made them look friendly." She stopped and shuddered. "Going to haunt my nightmares for months." She muttered more to herself than the other two.

"And Elizabeth?" Harry asked, noticing that she wasn't here and was being evasive in answering.

"She's back as well. She needed some time to gather her thoughts." She replied softly and Harry looked to go find her, so she placed her hand on his arm. "No, not just yet, give her some time to think." Bathsheda said and Harry frowned but agreed.

Dumbledore looked at her sadly, wondering what the two had gone through for it to be so tense. "What happened?" He asked softly.

"We were only there for about an hour at most. We arrived in an out of the way section of the city. She chose it for the precise reason that it was out of the way and they'd less likely notice us or have higher security set up there." She stopped as several drinks appeared in the room, gratefully she took the cup that was in front of her and took a sip, closing her eyes and letting out a sigh of relief. "It was fine at first, the area we appeared in was pretty, coral and other plant life had started to overtake that part of the city and it was an amazing sight to see. I know Pomona would have loved to see and study it. But it wasn't too long until we realised that there was something going on. We stumbled across a Big Daddy and a new type, female, lighter variation of the Big Daddy attire." She closed her eyes, the moves that thing made as it jumped across the pool and darted out of the room. "Then we saw the splicers." She shuddered again. "I thought I had braced myself for what I was going to see but they... They were nothing like I thought. Whatever this ADAM stuff she mentioned is, it twists the body, they were not a pleasant sight to look at." She said diplomatically glancing at Harry.

"And this was when you left?" Dumbledore asked getting a shake of the head in response.

"No, that was when I saw how dangerous a Big Daddy could be. It stomped out the corridor, the three splicers that had arrived tried to attack it, but it barely seemed to be phased. If I didn't know roughly what it was, I would have said it could use wandless magic, electricity shooting from its hand as it impaled one on a drill..." She trailed off again, colour draining slightly from her features as she reached for the cup of tea again.

"Take your time." Dumbledore said politely, while concerned he wasn't going to push her.

She placed the tea back down, "I'm okay, but as you can probably guess it was not a pretty sight to see." She said trying to keep the tone light. "We followed the Big Daddy using him to keep us safe even if he was doing it unintentionally. Kept far enough back that he didn't notice us but close enough that if any Splicers came along then we'd be less interesting of a target." She stopped again, closing her eyes as she pictured the city, falling apart through neglect and the conflict that had happened long before they had arrived. "It was a wonderful city at one time." She said softly, easily able to see what it could have been.

"It had the potential to be." Harry agreed readily, remembering his Christmas trip with Elizabeth.

"We were stopped, shortly after, the door locked in place and a woman who had to be in charge confronted us over the security system. Wanted to know what we were doing with the Big Daddy and how we arrived in the city."

"So, secrecy was no longer an option. That was when you decided to leave?" Dumbledore asked and Bathsheda shook her head.

"Elizabeth tried to negotiate but someone interrupted the conversation, opened the door for us. She wanted to push on, the alarm had been raised and she wanted to go on. We argued. I pointed out we should leave and go at it from some other Rapture, but she refused. She was target fixed."

"And what did you do?"

"I called her out on it, but it wasn't getting through and then she just stopped." Bathsheda said, her voice dropping. "It felt like something just twigged and she just gave up, opening the door back to Hogwarts."

"Where is she?" Harry asked and Bathsheda looked at him.

"The third-floor corridor." She said finally, "at least that's where she was when she told me to find Dumbledore and tell him we failed." Again, Harry made a motion to move but Bathsheda stopped him. "Hold on before you rush off, there was something else. something that she tried to mask but I saw it slip." She said and Harry stopped, looking at her impatiently and with confusion. "When we were there, we noticed something, there had been a distinct imagery put up almost everywhere. A recurring theme of butterflies and a message that appeared. 'The Lamb will save us.' and 'The Lamb will set us free.' She said it was most probably a power play by a new group, but she was very quick to say it."

"The Lamb will set us free?" Harry asked slowly and Bathsheda nodded her head. "It has to be a coincidence. There has to be someone there with the surname of Lamb or something, or they've picked a person that they see as an innocent lamb in this." He tried to justify the writing. "Hell, it could be the writing of a madman, the splicers aren't sane." Harry tried to argue drawing both Bathsheda's and Dumbledore's full attention.

"You know something."

"Back when she was raised, you both know the details right?" He asked and they nodded. Dumbledore having been told over time when he had confronted her about them leaving without telling him back in their first year and Bathsheda had finally gotten the details over the last summer, at least as much as she had been willing to tell. "To the people of Columbia, she had two titles, she was either known as the Seed of the Prophet." He paused letting that title sink in before adding in the second, "the other was The Lamb, because the imagery they used was that a 'False Shepherd' was coming to lead her astray." He explained and just like that everything seemed to click into place with Bathsheda and Dumbledore. "I need to go." He said and quickly shot out the room.

But he didn't even hit the bottom of the stairs before he was already trying to rip open a tear to enter Rapture. He stood in the stairway, his wand in hand. A spell that Flitwick had taught him during one of their little side lessons. "Point Me Elizabeth DeWitt." He said and waited as the wand spun around, a light on the end as it tried to find the target of the spell before going still, the light dimming out. "Not here... or not recognising the name. Point me Elizabeth Comstock." He tried again and the same effect happened. "So even though she calls herself Elizabeth, the spells don't recognise it as her name or she's not here. Last attempt. Point Me, Anna DeWitt." He cast and the spell looked promising, pointing him in the direction that he knew the forbidden corridor was and then it faded away. He cursed, knowing what that meant.

She had returned to Rapture. to learn just what was going on in that specific place. Needless to say, she wasn't thinking straight, and she was going to probably do something stupid.

So, Harry throwing caution to the wind did what any not completely rational person would do in this situation and stepped through the tear.

Idly he wondered if he would live long enough to regret this decision.

TBC

This chapter almost feels partly filler. Bathsheda just retelling what had literally just happened but I don't completely dislike it. The Point Me spell is as many of you know only meant to help you find north at all times, I just needed a spell to help lead him towards the person but with the restriction that it had to be specific, pseudonyms and other nicknames would not work for the spell. In this case with Elizabeth it wouldn't acknowledge her Comstock name or her name as Elizabeth because in truth although she distances herself from it, her name is Anna DeWitt. I doubt Comstock went through the legal paperwork to get her name changed.

Magic can be pretty specific at times.

Still, this chapter is done. Onto the next I go…

Chapter 31: The Lamb, the Saviours and the Scientist.