Chapter 13

Into the Corner.

02:14 am 9th January, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Of all the things that they could have been doing right now, so soon after the New Years, fighting a group of idiots in the sewers was not exactly on the top of Poseidon's list, in fact it was so down below that she couldn't even be bothered to read all the way down there, that would be if she had created the said list, not a point of matter, but here she was alongside Hades, Shadow, and Magenta fighting a gang of idiots who thought it was a good idea to try and create a few chimeras, of course appropriate backup was waiting for them outside, but taking a big team in a sewer like this was a bad idea, really bad.

Thankfully for them and everyone involved, at least on their side, not only had they found out quite early about this experiment of theirs, but also the creation of a Chimera was not an easy task, not only was it magically taxing, it was also wasteful as a Chimera was never tameable, and their first kill was almost always their Creator, as Herpo their pioneer found when he was lucky enough to get away with simply losing his right hand and leg.

It had cost 9 of these wizards their lives to create the one Chimera they did have, it had been created moments before they had entered, they probably didn't count on someone on killing it as soon as they had created it, though frankly speaking it was unexpected for everyone, as soon as they spotted it Shadow, and Poseidon both started to launch killing curses at the abomination with Magenta trying to nail it in the eyes with her automatic rifle, magically enhanced of course, an effort that the idiots sought to exploit by running away when they realized that they had messed up big time, thankfully the usual wards were up so they couldn't simply escape without consequences, unfortunately for them Hades who had apparently had taken stock of the whole situation wasn't inclined to let them escape, he simply touched his wand to the ground and flicked it hard, the ground where those idiots were trying to run turned into a quick sand like pit and as soon as they had been buried up to the neck the ground hardened to keep them there.

With the idiots trapped Hades flicked his wand towards the beat and once again let loose Fiendfyre, the saber tooth that they had now familiarize themselves with pounced on the creature made by idiots, but unlike the said creature the sabre tooth had the distinct advantage of being sentient fire so while it could hurt it's opponent the same couldn't be said for the other side.

For a second Poseidon pitied the creature, it wasn't it's fault, it didn't ask to be created but now that it had been they had to eradicate it because the alternative wasn't a viable option, the flaming feline slowly started to disappear, and it took the three of them a few seconds to realize what had happened, the said feline had used its flaming body too full advantage and had sent small doses into the creature it was fighting and had started to burn it inside out, the whole battle between the two beings had lasted barely a minute and when it was over the only evidence of it was a small pile of still smoldering ash and a few spider web designed cracks from where the chimera had struck, it came to them all of a sudden that there should have been far more destruction than what was there, even a minute is more than enough for a Fiendfyre to utterly destroy a space of the size of the sewer they were standing in, yet there was not even a single inch that had been destroyed because of the flaming feline, and that spoke of control, ridiculous amount of control, and when she turned to look at the wizard responsible for it she was greeted by a sight that troubled her greatly.

It was nowhere near as gory as it easily could have been, neither was it something that wouldn't be out of expectations when dealing with criminals who didn't care for others' lives, the men and women who had earlier been buried under the ground were no longer so, instead they were lying on the surface shackled by bounds made of the same ground that held them captive not long ago, and they were bound far tighter than necessary, to the point that it wouldn't be surprising if they had broken bones, that too would have not been beyond expectations if it had been someone else that had captured them, but it was Hades, who never swerved from protocol, as much as it caused them trouble he never went beyond what was required of him to do, he never antagonised anyone unnecessarily, and here he was from what she could make out of the situation taking out his frustrations on them - as she could think of no other motivation for his actions, they had fought scum worse than these people, far far worse than these people, oh and she had seen him experiment with spells like the infectious Inferi spell of his but that was different somehow, in part because she too joined the SHW initiative because she wanted to improve her skills, and they were there to eliminate those people as it were methods were not a bar, he simply chose the most efficient one - it scared her.

He didn't have an ounce of common sense, though through no fault of his, but from everything they had seen he didn't have emotions either and he always was dictated by logic, but now he was starting to exhibit, and to begin with frustration was not exactly a good sign, and yet Scarlet Witch's vision makes things all that much complicated, well all she could do was pray, maybe it was time to visit the pope once and ask him for a blessing.

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12:23 am 25th January, 2nd Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, Hogwarts.

Neville was awake right now, which was quite unusual for him, he always went to bed early and woke up early to tend to the plants, but here he was awake and a third worried, a third depressed, and another third self recriminating, oh and lets not forget totally seething, of course not, just two days ago the Heir had attacked again and this time the target was Tracey, their friend, till now it hadn't been personal, oh they had wanted to help solve the issue but all the victims thus far were acquaintances in the passing and not actual friends but this was different, when they heard about Tracey getting attacked they rushed to the infirmary, and he was still sure that Daphne hadn't realized just how fast she had been running, nor had she realized that her Ice Queen facade had broken when she started weeping for her best friend.

He had taken her to the greenhouse today morning, and had her help tend to the mandrakes as a way of helping Tracey, it wasn't much but if the way her face was set in steel when she started watering the plants - a sight he would have definitely laughed at had the situation not been so dire - it helped her in some way at least, and there was one thing he was sure of, while he wanted a piece of the Heir, she wanted to tear him to pieces.

They had come to know from Lord Greengrass about how Voldemort had claimed about being the Heir of Slytherin and then there was the whole Hagrid issue, they knew he had been accused of opening the chamber previously, but they also knew there was no way he could have done something like that, at least not on purpose, so their best lead was Voldemort but how he was involved was something they didn't have even the faintest of ideas.

Feeling a little restless he went down to the common room and sat in front of the comforting fire, someone must have forgotten to douse it, well good for him, it must have been some time since he was down here when he heard a noise like the common room portrait opening, and when he turned to check what it was the next thing he knew was darkness.

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11:25 am 26th January, Room of Requirements, Hogwarts.

Harry was in his laboratory pocket dimension of the Room and at the moment he was telekinetically directing a golden ladle to stir a silver liquid in a huge pool made out of black wood, all the big tanks containing the red liquid had disappeared, only to be replaced by the wooden pools that were around as high as 3 to 4 feet, and all of them were being stirred with a similar ladle at the same time, the liquid within had a gleam about it that wasn't normal, very likely that it was magical by nature, the liquid was bubbling and if someone were to touch it they would find it to be flaming despite no visible fire heating it up.

When he was done stirring he brought out a big flask containing a pink liquid, he rotated his wand over head in a clockwise direction once and then flicked his wand over the flask tapping the entrance of it, all the silver liquid rose out of the pools and rushed into the flask, after which the newly made concoction started to shake violently, almost as if it were ready to erupt like a volcano then suddenly he took out a small container out of nowhere, opening it he pinched a bit of navy blue powder from it and sprinkled it in the flask, almost immediately the concoction settled down.

Placing the flask on a table which had just been conjured, he started to move towards another table that was located at the end of the room, but not before he vanished the now empty pools with a long arching flick of his wand. The table in question was quite humongous, by any standards, it covered an area of nearly 3,852 sq feet and on top of it was a paper that covered the whole surface, printed on the paper was what only few would properly recognize as a ritual formula, it was written in numerous languages from the modern english to the ancient enochian, and given that the size of the ritual formula for the Philosopher's Stone was barely a 10th of this, anyone who knew the basics would be able to say confidently that this unknown ritual was either a big fuck up, or something drastic, or a total waste of time.

He was reviewing it, the conclusion that he had reached was not wrong, simply not the one he wanted, so he was going over the equation again and again, contemplating what he could change to reach the conclusion her needed. All of a sudden one of the alarms he had placed on the girl alerted him that she is distressed, leaving the Lab dimension he went to the dimension she was in and he saw that she was seated on her bed crying, he went up to her and following Professor Mcgonagall's advice he hugged her tightly who in turn grabbed his hand as tightly as she could, and then started rubbing on her back in a clockwise motion, and as expected, she started to calm down and slowly she drifted to sleep, while she had fallen asleep she hadn't let his hand go, so rather than leaving her to continue his work, he sat there because it was always possible that she would wake up and get distressed if he left.

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02:14 pm 02 February, Golden Apartments, Brazil.

It was rare for the alchemist couple to receive guests now a days, especially after they went through the whole cloak and dagger of destroying the Stone, few knew that they were still alive, and fewer still about their whereabouts, and no one except their Apprentice and their current guest knew of their house which was hidden under fidelius whose secret keeper was the aforementioned apprentice, but now given the current circumstances the witch in front of them had requested - through Albus - that they grant her an audience, and despite their introvertive and antisocial tendencies they made it a point to be aware of the ongoings of the larger world, hence they knew very well about her, more importantly who she was.

"I know who you are, but I prefer to call people by the names they prefer, so what would it be?" began Perenelle as her husband set tea for all three of them.

Picking up the cup set in front of her she took a whiff of it, smirked, and then began, "I'll have to admit Nick i didn't expect you to have such skills, but perhaps I should have, after all it is said alchemy began in the kitchens, as for your question Nell, you can call me whatever you want, though usually I go by either Scarlet, Darling, or my most preferable one in bed, Honey." by the time she was done saying she her grin had gained a salacious tinge to it, which was without a doubt directed towards the older woman.

Others would have probably been flustered or annoyed by Scarlet's actions, but the alchemist couple was simply old and experienced enough that they merely found it amusing, with a small smile Nicholas began, "you are not the only one to assume that i cannot cook for my life till they remember that alchemy, as you stated originated in the kitchens, the process actually began in ancient Greece when..."

Perenelle sighed as she covered her husband's mouth to stop his lecture, she loved him dearly, loved him for the past 5 centuries but his single track mind when it comes to alchemy was still annoying, "I apologize for my husband's….. eccentricities, he tends to forget that not everyone shares his enthusiasm for alchemy."

Scarlet simply tittered at the by play.

"Now I believe that you do have a good reason for being here today, don't you Scarlet?" said Nicholas, gone was the jovial old man, whipped husband, replaced by the sharp man he always has been, and Scarlet knew play time was over, Nicholas Flamel didn't hide due to fear but because if he fought he could cause as much damage as his apprentice if not more, sure he didn't have the same montorous power that he did but his sheer repertoire of spells and more importantly ability to make the most of them was more than enough.

Inclining her head in acknowledgement she began, "today I'm simply here to introduce myself, and if possible flirt a little with Nell."

The couple's eyebrows rose but before they could say anything she continued, "oh and I believe we have a mutual acquaintance of sorts, who would soon, really soon, need our help."

That statement stopped the couple cold in their tracks, the amount of mutual acquaintances they had could be counted on one hand and still have 3 fingers left, and neither Albus, nor Lisa Delacour, their only other confidant and good friend who knew this woman, were in any trouble that they knew about, though given her abilities it was probable that even they didn't knew that they were going to be in the kind of trouble for which they might need help.

Before either could say anything they were again stopped by her, and she began, "No, it's neither of them, the mutual acquaintance i am talking about is the one who sent you that anonymous letter this past summer."

Nicholas frowned for a few moments and then staring in her eyes he began, "you know who it is, yet you're talking in circles and aren't telling us because you either won't or can't."

She simply inclined her head in acknowledgement.

And then it was perenelle's turn to frown after which she said, "whoever it is is going to be in huge trouble and you expect us to be able to help them."

It was a statement.

Inclining her head in acknowledgement Scarlet said, "I just need you to be ready for when it happens, I don't know the specifics of what will happen hence why i need you to be ready."

The couple looked a t each other for a few moments and then turning to her they gave her a slight nod at which she smiled, gave a small nod and promptly left.

Though not before she said, "so what do you say Nell, now that we have that bit of unpleasantness out of the way, how about a small bedding?" and waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

And made for a hasty exit when the older woman went for her wand, though the said woman's husband who was busy giggling like an idiot wasn't so lucky.

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09:58 am 08 March, Ahmedabad, India.

Hades was wandering the streets searching for a wizard who had tried to kill Poseidon recently, he along with his cohorts planned to capture her and use torment her for her role in taking down their friend who was a known serial murderer and rapist, while Poseidon had more than managed to keep herself safe, two of them had managed to escape, thankfully they had overestimated themselves and underestimated her and didn't bother doing anything to hide their identities, one had been caught when he was trying to escape the american continent, unfortunately the other had already been beyond their grasp, one of their informants informed him that the man had been seen hiding in India, visiting famous tourist spots to try and blend in with the other tourists posing as an enthusiast.

Since today was Dhulendi the celebration of the 2nd day of holi by playing with colours, their usual gear was being camouflaged and worn under a standard white Kurta Pyjama worn by the locals, and they had smeared enough colour on themselves to blend in perfectly, while keeping their identities a secret.

When he was wandering around one of the alleys nearby had a gaggle of women, old and young, who were playing and singing noticed him, and thinking he was a lost child pulled him in with them and by the time he left the alley he was thoroughly soaked and buried under colour, if he would have had normal ears they would have probably still been ringing.

It was after roaming for nearly 3 hours that he found his target, like them the man had been apparently playing holi with civilians, though for wholly different reasons, here in a secluded spot he was leading two women who were probably under his control if their glassy eyed look was anything to go by, and before it could go any further he stunned the man with a strong stunner, he took the women and after a brief scan of their memories left them near their home, which was coincidentally the same alley where he had been dragged earlier.

And then with the man in tow he left.

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01:42 am 09 March, Headmaster's Quarters, Hogwarts.

If he were truthful to himself Albus would say it out aloud that there was no way he was going to sleep today, unfortunately, he had mastered the art of lying to himself, so here he was lying on his bed with his eyes screwed shut lying to himself about the probability of sleep tonight, and the faces of all the students that had been petrified flashed in his mind, trying to ignore that resulted in those faces being replaced by that of poor Myrtle and her distraught parents.

And trying to get rid of those thoughts resulted in a revisit of every horror Tom had forced on them, and that forced his eyes to pry themselves open and his eyes, had anyone seen them at that moment they would have found themselves wondering whether if they did actually belong to Dumbledore, they looked all foreign, all wrong, where they usually twinkled like water of the rivers did at the time of dawn, soft, comforting, and welcoming, now they were cold icicles, and equally sharp, all dangerous and frightening waiting to fall on its unfortunate victim and skewer them, and above all they were frightening more than anyone, or almost anyone except those who had seen him duel Grindelwald.

'No more, a miracle is called a miracle because it happens once, and I refuse to depend on them, I am a teacher because I teach, but perhaps in my years of teaching I had forgotten that it doesn't matter how old you get, how many ever students you have guided you are never too old to learn, and perhaps I had also forgotten something crucial from my years as an alchemist, that if a procedure does not work you must, grudgingly perhaps, but you must adjust it for without change you won't find the success you desire, and attempting the same thing again and again expecting different results was a fool's errand, so I refuse to be the fool anymore' thought Dumbledore.

Recently, unknowingly so, young Ronald had pointed out the flaw in his philosophy of giving second chances to everyone, it was while he was playing chess with Filius, something he still found funny as the charms professor lost against the youngest Weasley boy much to his consternation.

And with the whole Heir of slytherin business, oh he knew that Tom was behind the whole disaster but the problem was that they didn't know how he was doing it, and should they find out a confrontation would be inevitable, a violent confrontation, so yes should it take place he won't pull his punches, no more giving mercy to those who would choose to turn it into a weapon and harm the innocent.

Oh he won't stop giving second chances altogether, but he'll give them to those who actually want them, the reason he hadn't actually killed Gellert all those years ago was that when he had lost perhaps something in him snapped, and the delusion of righteousness he had about his crusade crumbled to dust.

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02:51 pm 9 February, Room of Requirements, Hogwarts.

Harry with his back facing her was sitting down by the girl while she ate some snacks, he had provided her a bowl full of fruits for her to munch on, in the meanwhile he was running equations in his mind, it had been a whole two weeks of trial and error but the equation he had been trying to create hadn't borne any results and he was running out of variable combinations to try.

All of a sudden he felt a pyrokinetic feeling travel through his body, and it hurt! It hurt worse than anything had thus far, worse than Uncle Vernon's sessions, worse than Fiendfyre, unimaginable pain, 'maybe my body has reached its end point, the girl, need to get her to safety.'

And as he was about to turn to teleport the girl to Lone Wolf along a letter explaining that since he passed away the girl's responsibility would fall unto his next of kin but due to the lack thereof, he, Lone Wolf, as his immediate superior was selected because the girl had been retrieved on a SHW mission.

Before he could do anything the alarms he had set on the girl to inform him should she be distressed aperted him that she was suddenly disturbed, all of his other thoughts discarded like trash, he turned to her and saw that she was crying silently and flailing her arms in his direction, he went to her and unable to discern what was wrong with her he simply picked her up and propped her against his shoulder and started to rub her back in a clockwise direction, soon like always she calmed down and went to sleep.

Though he didn't realize for the first time in a good while Harry had been backed into a corner.

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03:33 am 09 March, Chamber of Secrets, Hogwarts.

As the Headmaster was contemplating his philosophy on forgiveness and his general attitude on fighting, on of the primary reasons he was forced to do that was in the process of putting a young girl's body through a life changing process, a ritual he too had gone under in his own body, albeit when he was much older, it required the blood of Unicorn foals along with that of many squibs along with some other ingredients like Felix Felicius and a whole slew of body restoration potions, and arranging for all of that without any servants and a body that wasn't his own, not to mention immature, had been quite a hard task, but finally he had all the ingredients required for the Peak Magic Resonance ritual, one of his own creations, and his proudest achievement, bar his Horcrux of course.

So in the center of the hall, there was a tub filled with a pink concoction, and around the tub there were several runes in different languages, slowly he stripped down the clothes the young girl was wearing and went into the tub and crouched into the potion, and then as the whole body was immersed into the potion it lit itself like flames from hell, heat so scorching that it would have reduced people to ashes simply for being near it, and then when the flames died down, the girl's body started to rise from the crouched position and placing the right foot on the edge of the tub, her facial expression contorted into a smile, albeit one utterly sinister and unsettling on such a young face, and then now in the darkened chamber the eyelids that had been covering her eyes opened to reveal a pair of blood red eyes.

A/n : That's it for today folks! Sorry for being late my computer broke down, so I'm kind of dependent on other resources for now for the foreseeable future, so the updates might be slow.

And when I say servants for young Tom, i mean his house mates who followed him, because he would have never considered the, friends.

Till later and thanks for reading.