The Crimson Augury

Brandt's progress with the Usurper was much slower than he wanted it to be. As they needed to avoid all air and shipping routes, their path was moving near negative sixty degrees latitude; right off the coast of Antarctica. The carpet was moving barely forty miles per hour, and it needed to stop for six to eight hours every two days.

The Usurper wasn't being much help either. The cold water made it lethargic and would only go in to hunt for food before returning to the warmth of the carpet. Its huge girth weighed down the carpet and made their progress even slower when it was aboard. It was very good that the rug had been enchanted with an extra-strong imperturbable charm that kept anything from interfering with the magic of the fabric that made it fly. Such damage would have been coming from the Usurper bringing seawater and its various meals back to the rug to eat when it didn't finish them in the water. The end of some days had Brandt vanishing or washing the guts of some large fish and penguins from the carpet.

The journey, however, was amazing, he already had two nights where he was able to witness the Aurora Australis, the southern lights. Waves and ripples of red and purple lights streamed through the night sky. Even the Usurper was perplexed by the sights above, craning its neck to look towards the heavens. It was a bit lonely and Brandt found himself having conversations with the magical serpent receiving hissing in return though he was pretty sure it couldn't understand him either.

His camera was always hanging around his neck to take pictures of the sights he saw along the way. There were plenty of birds in the sky and some would direct him to small rocks that would allow him to rest and recharge the carpet, not knowing when they would get another opportunity. There were also other birds, like the albatrosses that would just ride the wind currents endlessly, without needing rest.

Halfway through the journey to the Atlantic Ocean, they stopped at a wizard settlement on Île Kerguélen, off the coast of Antarctica, almost directly south of Madagascar. This was one of the locations where wizards raised aurora sheep. While the Usurper went to find food, Brandt made landfall to pick up provisions and speak directly to human beings for the first time in nearly two weeks. Today was also Lyra's birthday and despite being told she couldn't have a new broom, she had asked for one. So now he needed to find an alternative gift for her.

He had come prepared for the cold weather with a coat he had made at Durmstrang after the successful hunt of a Nordic Moon Fox. It was one of his most difficult hunts as part of his survival class, not only due to the danger from the animal but the elements as well. The moon fox was an all-white magical canine, the size of a bear, that would lead those that hunted it into traps. It was incredibly wiley and enjoyed tricking those who would come after it to their demise. Its fur allowed the fox to blend in perfectly with the snow and only could be seen clearly on a night with a full moon. Not just that, it also lived across the Barents Sea on the island of Svalbard, and that far from the school, any kind of injury he couldn't treat would mean certain death.

To catch it, Brandt had trapped forty-seven Arctic hares and rigged them with runic tracking bracelets. He monitored them on the tundra and went after every one of them that ended up dying until he found the fox. When he finally laid eyes on it, he was barely able to tag it with a tracking charm before it smiled at him and vanished. From there, it took him on a chase through the cold and unforgiving landscape for another two whole weeks. He was missing all his other classes that month, but to be the first student to catch one in the last six years would be worth it. During the hunt, he almost died twice; once nearly falling through the ice into freezing water from a trap set by the fox, and a second time when it hid near a sleeping polar bear which Brandt didn't notice until he was right on top of it… and it woke up.

Finally, on the night of the full moon, when it was unable to hide, Brandt was able to take it down with a killing curse. There was no way he was going to use any other spell and ruin the pristine pelt of the creature. When he finally made it back to the mainland and the Durmstrang hunting lodge, there was a celebration for his killing of the fox. Along with the pelt of the polar bear that almost killed him, he paid another student he knew to help him craft a wonderful hooded jacket with the bear fur on the inside and the fox on the outside that would keep him warm and near invisible in the snowy landscape.

The jacket also helped him to be recognized as a professional hunter and survivalist as he approached the wizard settlement on the island, and waved down the nearest shepherd.

The man, who was even more bundled up than he was, spoke in French, "Not many come down here, you're not with one of our regular wool buyers, are you?"

Brandt's French wasn't great, but replied as best he could, "I'm just stopping briefly to let my carpet rest, maybe pick up some wool and a present for my cousin."

"Your French is horrible," the man replied in the same language but didn't offer to speak anything else.

Brandt just shrugged and started to follow the man back to a larger building on the edge of a pasture. From his travels, he found that the French were a lot like Americans, always defaulting to their own language out of pride and demanding others to speak it too, even while abroad, though it was always more likely that an American didn't know another language anyways. To each their own, but he made a mental note to undergo a language-learning ritual for French and other languages, especially with Hogwarts hosting that international tournament coming up in a few years.

Once inside the building, there were large amounts of aurora wool ready for use on one side of the room. They were all separated by colors, some in large baskets and others already on spools. Typically dry wool would be hard to color, but these already had color as part of the magic. The other side of the room contained a large selection of garments ready to wear. Wandering around the room, he picked out large spools of wool in red, purple, pink, yellow, blue, and green. Then from the other side of the room tried to estimate sizes for Lyra and took a wool poncho in pink and a sweater in purple. He wanted to make sure it was a bit larger so she could wear it for longer.

"Do you have a way to process the wool?" the man asked him, still in French, and with a slightly condescending voice.

"One of my charges has a contract with a clothier in London," Brandt replied without elaborating. "Do you also have any living sheep for sale? Any raw meat too?"

He looked a bit strangely at Brandt, then said, "Only mundane ones, none of the aurora sheep."

Brandt paid for his purchases and packed the meat and wool into a trunk, then shrunk it to fit in his pocket. The shepherd led him out to the pasture and pointed out the three sheep he would be able to sell to Brandt. He had no experience being able to tell whether sheep were good or bad, but they looked healthy, so that's what mattered.

He drew his wand and pointed at each of them in turn, casting, "Imperio!"

Taking over the mind of a non-magical herbivore was a piece of cake. It was part of the instruction in his sixth-year Dark Arts class. Carnivores and muggles were taught at the beginning of the seventh year and were much more difficult, but needed to pass the class, so it wasn't impossible for a student. The instructor had informed them that Goblins and some other half-breeds were even easier than muggles, but he didn't want to test that theory and fail. They were also by the instructor warned to never try the curse on any kind of were-animal as their curse was highly resistant to others.

While commanding the sheep to follow, he led them back to the carpet outside the settlement and left the Frenchman to his flock. The sheep were quickly sheared with a modified scalping hex, that wouldn't remove their skin, and forced to stay in a hastily transfigured pen while waiting for the carpet to get back to full power. In the meantime, Brandt unpacked his purchases and froze the meat in an icebox.

After he was done, he heard the Usurper hissing outside the house on the carpet and could feel instinctual fear through the Imperius connection with the sheep. He found the great serpent staring at the purchased sheep, tongue hanging out and tasting the air around them. It looked towards him and hissed a question. Brandt sent a mental command to one of the three sheep and it hopped over the pen and to the side where he released his hold on it.

"It's all yours," he told the giant snake with a head tilted towards it as the sheep started to run off.

It felt like the Usurper hissed a 'Thanks' before chasing after the fleeing mutton and seconds later ate it whole. It slowly slithered back to the rug with a bulge in its length and climbed on the warm carpet to start digesting the animal. When they were ready to go again, Brandt moved the remaining two sheep into the villa on the rug and stunned them.

Three days later, they stopped again at Bouvet Island, a muggle and wizard nature reserve on a volcanic island, nearly completely covered by a glacier. The muggle naturalists working there had a special exemption on the Statute of Secrecy, though they were still shocked at the arrival of Brandt on the giant flying carpet with a house. They went into panic mode when the Usurper reared its head up to take a look at the four muggles and their two wizard colleagues.

The Usurper hissed towards Brandt then looked towards the people on the shore, to which he interpreted and replied with a shake of his head, "No, you can't eat them." He pointed to the one remaining sheep, "That one is for you." The Usurper hissed something back and Brandt hoped it was an acknowledgment.

As they landed, a woman with long bright orange hair waved to him, speaking in Norwegian, "Brandt?! What the hell are you doing here? And what the hell is that thing?"

Norwegian was one of the languages spoken at Durmstrang and many spells taught there also originated in an old dialect of the region. Brandt squinted at the woman in front of him and smiled, "Kaja? What are you doing here?"

"You first, also that thing can't come here. There are too many protected species here."

"Sorry, I'm on a secret mission. Anything else will require a promise from you and your friend not to reveal anything. I'm also going to memory charm the muggles regardless."

"Hey! Wait just a second!" one of the muggles told him and the others looked a bit nervous.

Brandt just rolled his eyes and turned back to Kaja. She looked over to the dark-skinned wizard with her, and said in English, "What do you think Busar?"

The man looked warily at the giant snake, and said, "I guess if I can learn about whatever that is, I'll take it. It's not like we don't modify the memories of these four now and then anyways."

"What? You do?" the one who had spoken up before said.

Busar turned to all four of them, and pointed a two-foot scepter, incanting, "Futakili!"

The four muggles seemed to space out for a moment then started to wander off.

"So what do we need to swear in the oath?" Kaja asked.

Brandt jumped down from the carpet onto the ground, "Just not to reveal anything about my visit until I permit you to, I guess," he said with a shrug. "I was planning on being here for just a few hours, but I figure I can stay for the day to catch up."

Kaja and Busar swore simple oaths, then Kaja introduced Brandt, "Busar, this is Brandt. We went to school together at Durmstrang. Last I heard, you had kicked your last name and were working for that old Lord in Britain, right?"

"That I did, he's technically my uncle and I'm going to be Regent for the family in a few years. He's also helping me get my mastery in the Dark Arts."

"Oooh," Kaja whistled, "nothing like a true master of the Dark. This is Busar," she motioned towards the wizard. "We're both getting our masteries in Antarctic magizoology. Our professor checks in once a month on our studies."

"I'm working quite a bit right now with Newton Scamander and his wife," Brant smiled, watching their faces light up. "Maybe I could see if they want to check in on what you're doing over the summer?"

"You could do that?" Busar jumped on the bait. "You have that much pull with him?" Brandt nodded. "Is that why you have whatever that thing is on your rug?" he asked pointing to the snake that was just staring down at them.

"Sort of," Brandt told them. "It's kind of an experiment. We have some circumstantial evidence that roosters can't kill a basilisk. The original texts that pointed to the bird only specified that the creature that could kill the King of Serpents had a red crest, a golden mouth, and crows."

"Crows?" Kaja asked.

Brandt looked up at the Usurper monitoring their conversation and raised his hands over his head and made a trilling scream at the snake. It looked as confused as a snake could look, twisting its head back and forth. Brandt put his hand on his head like a big crest and screamed again.

The Usurper twisted its head again, but then raised its red crest and let loose its chilling cry into the sky.

The two magizoologists had the same reaction as Nestor… "Whoaah," they said simultaneously.

"This thing eats faster than I thought it would and we only have one sheep left for our trip," Brandt told them. "It's fine with eating out of the water but seems happier when I feed it. Anything on this island that isn't endangered?"

"You could probably take a few mundane seals," Busar shrugged.

"You should take a look at the other stuff we've got here too," Kaja told him. "We've got bicorn seals, one of the only habitats in the world. Then there's a colony of tyrant penguins and a nest of vulkatroz."

"What is that last one?" Brandt asked curiously. The name sounded a bit Norwegian and related to a volcano, which meant firebird.

Kaja confirmed his suspicions, "It's our local flame-avian. Looks like an albatross, but much larger and has feathers of dark red on its wings. We're never able to get a good look at them except at a distance. That's what both of us are here to study for the main focus of our mastery. We want to write the first book on them exclusively."

"Something else I might be able to help you out with," Brandt smiled. "I have a cousin who flies with hoohoos and likes to cuddle with them." It looked like they didn't believe him, so he retrieved a photo album from the office on the rug and opened it to the pages that contained the animated photos of Lyra's flight with the birds.

Both of them were entranced by the pictures, though Busar asked, "I can understand the hoohoos being on fire, but why is the girl burning?"

"She'd have to tell you," Brandt told them. "When I get back to England, I'll try to see if she can make it out here over the summer."

The three of them continued to speak for an hour before with the Usurper just coiled up near the edge of the rug, with its head hanging over the side, appearing to try to follow the conversation.

Suddenly the Usurper jerked upward and started hissing, looking towards the villa on the carpet and back towards Brandt. At the same moment, Arcturus's piranha Patronus appeared next to him saying, "Brandt, get to the bowl, now!"

Brandt ran across the carpet towards the house as Kaja exclaimed, "A piranha Patronus? How cool is that?"

Brandt entered the office and took out the blood bowl as he heard Harry, presumably, hissing from the other side while he heard Arcturus call out, "Are you there?"

The Usurper pushed through the window behind him, breaking the glass, and started hissing loudly back towards the bowl.

Newt's voice was heard, as well, "Mr. Potter, one conversation at a time, please."

"We have a problem," Arcturus spoke up. "I'm at Hogwarts now. Severus, Harry, Lyra, and the Scamanders are here."

"And Whispers!" Lyra called out.

Arcturus seemed to just ignore her. "He's fine now, but last night Harry was attacked by someone who claimed to be the Heir of Slytherin and he escaped just before the person, who was disguised but appeared to be a child, brought the basilisk to kill him."

Brandt could still hear small hisses from the bowl and assumed Harry was carrying on a private conversation with the Usurper.

Snape spoke up, "The last person to claim to be the Heir was the Dark Lord."

"Shit," Brandt cursed.

"Where are you now?" Arcturus asked.

"I'm on Bouvet Island. I ran into a friend from school and was going to get a couple of seals to feed the Usurper before I left. I need to wait another four hours for the carpet to refill its magical reserves."

"That's about a day and a half from the Inaccessible Island," Arcturus stated. "I'm going to pick you up with something faster and less conspicuous than that pleasure carpet you're on."

"I'll leave as soon as I can," Brandt spoke into the bowl.

"He's already gone," Snape said. "He looked almost happy when he left."

"Weird."

Brandt was speaking to Arcturus, but Harry just ignored them and told the Usurper,
§I was abducted by the Emissary of the King.§
§They can speak like I can and know I can too.§

The Usurper hissed back,
§Then we will kill them along with the King.§

Harry replied with venom in his voice,
§The emissary beat me.§
§They burned me and said they would kill me.§
§They are mine to deal with.§
The kingsbane hissed in understanding. Harry continued,
§Though there was something strange about them.§
§They showed no reverence for the King.§
§Would you ever call me master?§
§What would you do if I called you a pet?§

The Usurper spoke viciously,
§I would kill you and hope your sister didn't make the same mistake.§

Harry replied,
§That's what I thought.§
§This child called the basilisk his pet.§
§The King called the child 'Master.'§

There was confusion in the Usurper's voice,
§No serpent; Lord or King, would bow to a child.§

"Harry!" Brandt called out, interrupting them. "Tell me what happened to you."

Harry quickly finished the story in parseltongue before switching back to English to tell Brandt. While he told it to the Steward, the kingsbane said many things that would be hard to translate without making up more curses in English.

When he was done, Brandt told him, "I'm impressed. I don't think I could break two restraints, let alone four."

"I had a lot of motivation," Harry replied.

"Not dying is very good motivation," Tina chimed in.

"You said you're on Bouvet Island now, right?" Newt spoke up. After acknowledgment from Brandt, he asked hopefully, "Have you got a look at the vulkatroz?"

"I was speaking to the magizoologists about them just now, I haven't gotten to see them myself. Would you like to talk with them? One is an old classmate of mine, they are doing their mastery on the birds."

"What are they?" Lyra spoke up.

"They are one of the largest firebirds on the planet," Newt told her.

"You didn't get me a broom for my birthday," Lyra called out. "Can I go see them instead?"

"Maybe," Brandt said, knowing that would eventually change to a yes. "I'll go get the keepers now."

Brandt went to bring in Kaja and Busar as Harry continued his conversation with the Usurper. The two of them carefully entered the villa staring at the Usurper with its head pushed through the broken window hissing into the bowl of blood.

"You know a Parselmouth?" Busar blurted out.

Brandt sighed, "Yes, I do, but I won't reveal their identity, and you both are under oath not to reveal anything about my visit anyways."

"Oh, I went to school with two at Uagadou. Though one was a teacher," Busar remarked.

"You know others?" Harry said excitedly. "I haven't met any… well except The Giver and… that person I just met."

"Ok… Cryptic much?" Kaja asked.

"This is Newton Scamander," he spoke up, "you are the mastery students for the vulkatroz?"

"Mr. Scamander?" Kaja asked. "Yes, we are studying it. It's an honor to speak to you. My name is Kaja Olsen and my colleague is Busar Hodari. I graduated with Brandt at Durmstrang. We've been here for four months and are having trouble approaching the birds. Brandt said he could connect us and… maybe… schedule a visit to take advantage of your expertise on the matter?"

"It's a possibility, though this summer we're already arranging an expedition to find a lost world serpent, so it would be secondary to that," he told the magizoologists.

"This is Porpentina Scamander," she introduced herself, "Maybe Brandt can bring Lyra? She might be able to do a better job of approaching them."

"Really? Could I?" Lyra exclaimed.

Brand sighed again, knowing that this was the birthday present becoming a reality for her. "Kaja, Busar; that was Lyra Black, my cousin and the one you saw in the pictures flying with the hoohoos."

"The pictures were incredible, Miss Black," Busar told her.

"I'll try to start putting together your summer schedule," Brandt replied in a tired voice. "That is assuming we all live through the current predicament. Let's focus on that for now."

"Don't forget the dragons!" Harry called out as if dealing with the basilisk was a predetermined outcome.

Reminding everyone he was still there, Snape spoke up, "I need to head back to my House to enforce our new curfew. Mrs. Scamander, please take the children back to theirs as well."

Tina spoke up, "Come along, kids. Brandt, update us when you meet up with Arcturus."

There was an exchange of hisses between Harry and the Usurper and it retreated from the broken window. Brandt swished his wand to repair it.

Newt signed off as well, "If I'm able to pay a visit, I will send a portkey post to the island, have a good night."

Back to just the three of them, Busar asked, "That bowl, that's blood magic, right?"

Brandt nodded, "Ritual blood magic, not mine."

"Interesting life you lead now," she commented. "It would have been good for your parents to see what you've done with yourself."

Brandt nodded noncommittally, and said, "Do you mind if I round up a few seals and start heading out? I can send you a Patronus if I'm able to find time this summer to come with Lyra."

"You can cast a Patronus?" Kaja asked incredulously. "I thought you were mastering the Dark Arts."

"They aren't exclusive," Brandt shrugged. "I'm pretty sure I could get one to you too."

Kaja blushed a little and winked, "What would your happy thoughts be?"

"I'm betrothed now," he said with a fond smile, "I have a few newer memories to draw from."

He stood up and whipped his wand in a grand motion, incanting firmly, "Expecto Patronum!"

The light of the spell coalesced into a shining silver fox, "Hey there," he told it. "Go tell Kaja that she used to look good with short hair."

The fox blinked out of existence and right back two feet away, "You used to look good with short hair."

Kaja played with her long hair before saying, "Your Patronus is the fox you killed? That doesn't make any sense."

"It does to me," Brandt shrugged and smiled.

"Let's go get some seals," Busar told them. "I hope to see you back here for your summer holidays. Pack warm, it will be dark and cold."

It took nearly two days to reach the Inaccessible Island. Despite the strange name, it was a real place, a peculiar island that had one small beach with rocks instead of sand but was essentially a giant wedding cake with walls rising straight out of the ocean so that it was impossible to access without climbing or flying. No one had bothered settling there, and the only interesting thing about the island was a small, non-magical, flightless bird that lived nowhere else in the world. Wizards hadn't bothered with the island either, and despite the volcano on the island, there was no sign of firebirds making their nest there.

Brandt had brought along four seals to feed the Usurper, and it seemed to enjoy the taste but it was clear it liked the mutton more. Newt had warned him before they left not to attack any of the tiny birds on the island as they lived only in that location and had no natural predators, so he shouldn't introduce them to any. He landed the magic carpet on the north side of the plateau and waited. It took a day before Arcturus sent a Patronus to tell him he would arrive a day later.

The water where they were was warmer than when they had been circling Antarctica, so while they were waiting, he took the carpet down to the ocean and let the Usurper have a taste of the local marine life. Just before the sun started to set, Brandt received another Patronus telling him to prepare for Arcturus's arrival, and look to the north.

He managed to round up the giant serpent playing in the water and climb to a higher altitude to watch for Lord Black. As the sun dipped close to the horizon, Brandt saw a ship approaching. Not a modern ship, an old 15th-century galleon with red sails. He started getting giddy and telling the Usurper all about the approaching ship. There was a replica of it in Lord Black's office, and his suspicions were confirmed when he was able to make out the buzzard with large feathers on its head printed on the sail.

This was the regional flagship of the Black Pirates fleet, berthed on their hidden island somewhere off the West Coast of Africa. When Lord Black had instructed him to take all the portkeys to the secret islands, this was the one he took the hook-hand to.

The Usurper seemed to be paying attention to Brandt as he explained all the exploits and adventures he had heard about this ship. As it got closer, they could see a giant bird made of gold, with large rubies for eyes as the figurehead on the bow and numerous figures running around, manning the lines of the ship. Brandt guided the carpet to the stern of the ship where it collapsed itself many times until it was just a spire, twenty feet tall, with the rug beneath it, anchored to the ship. The Usurper slithered onto the boat and hissed angrily at the rotting corpses that were being used as crewmen.

Arcturus approached the Usurper, wearing a black buccaneer jacket with golden buttons and a red ruffled shirt, clearly having fun playing the pirate captain. The serpent seemed to retreat slightly in front of Arcturus Black, then advanced to taste the air around him. Lord Black let out a bit of his power causing the air around him to tremble, despite the enormous snake that could bite him in half before him.

"Welcome aboard the Crimson Augury. So, you are the mighty kingsbane?" he said while staring it dead in the eyes.

The Usurper picked up on his challenging tone and its crest raised fully, letting out a trilling cry into the air.

"I am not a basilisk, I have no fear of you." he held the stare defiantly. Slowly he started to open his own mouth, with his teeth shifting into dozens of long needle-like fangs.

The Usurper let out a loud hiss and a short crow with its jaws wide, fangs growing as its jaws widened more, large enough to easily eat Lord Black whole. The two titans just continued their dominance battle, the power radiating from Arcturus growing stronger by the second. Finally, the air started to crackle around the older man as little bits of black electricity started to arc around them which caused the kingsbane to recoil quickly from the magical energy, dropping to the deck so fast that it shook the deck under their feet.

"That's better," he said with a smile, his teeth returning to normal. "Let's head home."

Brandt was stunned at the display of power. Why did they need the Usurper if they had Lord Black? While he was pondering the depths of his Lord's power, The Augery's crew of inferi started to adjust the sails of the massive ship to turn them around and head north to England.