"You may ask your question, although I do not think it'll be one alone", the Headmistress told him. Outside dark grey clouds were gathering for another autumn shower.
"The Minister of Magic, Mr. Fairbanks, do you think he knows of the Old Gods and their items? Would he believe in their existence and power if he knew, ma'am?"
"Knows? He should by now. Believes in them to exist or possess the power we know them to possess? No", Professor Horsewood replied shaking her head lightly for emphasis.
"Thank you, ma'am."
"And why was that important?" She asked him in return.
"No reason, just trying to understand when something will need to happen" Felix gave a light shrug of his shoulders.
"I see my lessons on vagueness did not go to waste", Professor Jordan mused with just the right hint of pride in his voice.
"I'm having this sudden and rather intense feeling this is going to end badly and that you know more than you are letting on, which is profoundly unsettling for me to be having this feeling from a teenager", Professor Horsewood said in a dry voice bereft of humour.
Felix said nothing at first, he knew what she meant but he was not going to tell her anything of his experience in the Crossroads. Fully enjoying the sensation of being the one keeping two very wise, very intelligent adults on edge with anticipation over what they wanted him to tell them and having reversed the tables on them for once he took his time looking out the window at the fast -moving clouds pretending to be contemplating his reply.
"I said my goodbye to father today, earlier", he said finally much to their disappointment.
"And how, pray tell, did you do that, Mr. Burton?" The sarcasm in Professor Horsewood's voice could have drowned a small city.
"Oh, you know…by casting fiendfyre at the Manor I grew up and watching it all burn down to a crisp."
"And what of the servants within?" Professor Jordan asked, not sure if he should be worried.
Felix restrained himself from rolling his eyes. "I gave them all clothes prior."
"And how did you ensure they won't go to Azrail?" Professor Jordan asked next, placing one knee over the other with his hands above them as he leaned back against the chair's back.
Outside the showers had gathered and raindrops touched the closed windows. "Only Averill knew much of anything and I showed him my memory of the vision I had of Azrail and Ernaline torturing and killing Cillian. Averill worshipped the man he won't be helping his murderer anytime soon."
"Clever", Professor Horsewood told him in the same dry voice, albeit with a slight increase in humour.
"I have a faint belief somehow this wasn't meant as a compliment."
"Perceptive as well", Professor Jordan said nodding his head slightly.
"What did I do wrong?" The two Professors had turned the tables on him with expert mastery, excessive talent, and years of practice, and now he could not understand if they were really angry or were yanking his chain to teach him a life lesson.
"Inquisitive as well", Professor Jordan said with Professor Horsewood taking over after him.
"Where shall I begin? Want it alphabetically or in list from worst to calamitous?"
"I'm getting this…intuition there's an imminent expulsion coming my way, so Imma shut up now."
"Wise:, Professor Horsewood cracked the faintest of smiles, unable to check herself no more.
For the next ten minutes until Mr. McCormack and the Minister's arrival they remained silent. Felix gazed outside the windows of the large telescope behind the Headmistress' desk, Professor Jordan was in his own mind and thoughts and Headmistress Horsewood read and signed parchments of various shapes and sizes.
There was a knock on the arched entryway and Olivia the groundskeeper entered with Mr. McCormack followed by the Minister of Magic and ten of his Aurors. Felix guessed from previous experience that there would be another two outside the gargoyle.
"Mr. McCormack", Felix stood up shaking his lawyer's hand.
"Felix", Ian McCormack nodded back. Headmistress Horsewood stood up taking them to the other end of the room with the sofa and the armchairs around it. Although other than Professor Jordan everyone else seemed to prefer to stand.
"Overkill much?" Felix muttered under his breath on Minister Fairbanks' protection detail, just not that low so that he wasn't heard. The Minister elected to ignore the impudent young boy.
"We're all here, let's start, I have a wizarding community to administer and run."
"Bureaucracy, the community runs itself just fine thank you very much", Professor Horsewood looked at him with a quizzical stare while Professor Jordan sat far more relaxed and seemingly uncaring of Felix's attempts to taunt the Minister.
Fairbanks ignored him but with a very annoyed glare. The ten Aurors all had emotionless faces.
"Azrail is increasingly more cornered up and with decreasing resources, his troops are deserting him even if we can't seem to find them after, and you have your Professor back, what is the problem?" Fairbanks unbuttoned his black maroon robes to reveal a fine silk black suit with vest and a red tie. His brown loafers had a glossy look about them under the office's lights.
"The problem is he wants to kill his half-brother, the problem is he is after an incredibly powerful artefact and he already has others and we don't even know why he wants them all to begin with, the problem is you are behaving like an unruly toddler who is afraid of losing his lollipop and not like the responsible adult in a position of great influence and power of Britain's Wizarding community", Felix's jaw slacked at the scolding the Headmistress ripped at the Minister of Magic as if he was nothing more than one of her least disciplined students.
"His brother's safe in here and we'll have Azrail by the time he graduates, it is only a matter of time…"
Felix cut in, this time speaking in full volume. "I've heard that fairy tale before, the last time I heard it from your predecessor Azrail went on to blow up the world's wizarding governments"
Fairbanks pulled every fibre of his will force to ignore him. "As to these so called "powerful artefacts", you speak of, I doubt they even exist despite the reports I've read."
Felix made to reply but closed his mouth shut on a shake from Professor Jordan's head.
"Arcturus, I am not trying to steal your job, nor do I care for it. I am not trying to be a thorn in your backside. I am only trying to help. We must gather international support and fight Azrail before it is too late, it is already too close to the eleventh hour as it is, please", Professor Horsewood's tone changed from angry to desperate in a blink.
"You are transgressing into jurisdictions which are not yours. You are to govern a school, I am to govern the Wizarding community", Minister Fairbanks dismissed her with a wave of his hand.
"Then act like it, Azrail must be stopped and all you seem to care about is not having your precious authority diminished", Felix raised his voice, feeling the injustice and frustration reach boiling point within him.
"The Ministry will handle Azrail", Fairbanks dismissed Felix in the same manner, yet his heightened state of anger was visible in his hazel eyes.
"Is that why you have ten Aurors with you instead of them being out there hunting Azrail? You couldn't even keep one eyed and single-hand Bloodfang and Lilith locked up and you think you can handle their Master?"
"I will NOT be spoken to like this by a boy", Fairbanks snapped at him, finally having had enough.
"This boy has you on the run, Arcturus. I am not trespassing jurisdictions and I am not trying to subvert your authority. I am only trying to create a cohesive force against the most dangerous wizard of the last two hundred years….if not all time. You can spearhead it, take credit for everything, just let us help"
"I want no help from "crocodile tears", this will be handled by the Ministry and as to Mr. Burton, we will do our best to safeguard his life, but a child will not participate in a Ministerial plan to capture a dangerous criminal. Nor will school Professors, further endangering students' lives."
Felix released an audible deep breath, a long sigh of realization. "You are correct about one thing, Minister Fairbanks. This is my life", he retrieved a clear, crystal vial from his backpack containing a black-orange and cyan liquid inside and the Shadeglass and with one swift upwards motion of hand and head he swallowed it in one go. "Bottoms up!"
"FELIX! N….oh bugger…" Professor Horsewood yelled, trying to reach him with her outstretched hand and stop him, in vain.
The moment the liquid travelled down Felix's throat the very environment around them changed, and while they remained in the Headmistress' office in Hogwarts, at the same time they were not entirely there anymore. Mist covered the floor and they could feel a fine gravel beneath their feet as endless fields covered with infinitely thin white flowers spread well over and beyond the room's walls and horizon. The ceiling replaced by a dark black sky void of stars or constellations.
"Trust in him, his brother he is not" Professor Jordan stood up from the dark brown leather sofa placing an assuring hand on Professor Horsewood's shoulder. "He is wiser than his years, than he displays. Trust him."
Felix moved without moving making the mist ahead of him clear out just enough for them to see a limestone-colour cobblestone junction amongst the fields with various orbs flicking silver and black appearing all around them. The Aurors learned in fight or flight response were quick to draw their wands.
"Back in the Crossroads….Limbo again. It did say there are more than the Veil and non-existence. Let us see…." Felix whispered, his eyes turned quicksilver in colour and his prophesy-tattooed arms and neck glowing more intensely.
"By Merlin's beard…this is Limbo?" Professor Horsewood let out a stunned whisper, looking around the otherworldly scene before her.
Mr. Fairbanks appeared to be far less convinced of what he was truly witnessing. "Nice illusion spell, your charms Professor must be very proud of Mr. Burton's abilities."
Wherever Felix was he was no longer aware of them, Professor Jordan tried to legilimens him without any success, Felix's mind shut tighter than a Gringotts's vault as his pupil was concentrating on something.
A few seconds later three portals in the shape of floating Veil Gates opened up, tears through the very fabric of existence.
"Yesterday, tomorrow and present-day…I need present", Felix went through the middle one.
Their surroundings vanished to be replaced by a similar endless field of silver flowers, the mist gone and an infinity of Veil Gates, each displaying different fragments of events, peoples' lives, decisions. Constantly vanishing and appearing as each present moment became past and future became present.
"All of present? Such magic exists?" Professor Jordan whispered in almost teary awe.
Felix walked without moving amongst the Veil Gates looking for something as the present-past ones disappeared, and future-present ones appeared endlessly until he came before one displaying Azrail talking to Bloodfang.
He touched it and all others vanished. "Hello brother. I see you've found a new house to squat in", the room Azrail and Bloodfang were in was dark, with shutters preventing most of daylight from reaching them, and void of any furniture, the floor planks were dusty and worn and the wall paint fading.
Azrail and Bloodfang both turned around, Azrail retrieving his wand ready to cast the killing curse, yet Felix was unconcerned.
"Kill me now, and you will never find the Shadeglass", he told his brother with emphasis.
Azrail's breath came out interrupted and inconsistent, rugged. "What do you know of it! You search for it as well. You know not where it is any more than I do! Father hid it away and since I no longer have Lethargos I'll use the seer potion to go back in time and find where father stashed it!" Azrail wailed in a high-pitched, unhinged voice.
"The more you try to run away from Achronia's Prophesy the more you try to have it not come to pass the more you ensure it will", Professor Jordan walked slowly around Felix, observing his posture and facial expressions with great concentration. He saw someone fully at peace with who he was, and what had to be done as Felix goaded his brother, slowly pulling on the bait and hook.
"What do you know of my Prophesy! You know nothing!", Azrail replied, frenzied and increasingly panicked.
"Is that fear I see, Azrail? Doubt? "You know much omen of Charontas, what you seek you will find and lose again. Your sire's creation will offer you a choice in your third battle; your decision will reveal your deepest desire and mark him as the child that wonders"", Felix continued to give Azrail rope while tightening the noose.
"You don't have it. I'll find it and then the Prophesy will not come to pass", Azrail responded with all certainty removed, a man wanting for something to be true, while unwilling to come to terms with the opposite facts.
"What was it father told you? "I've hid it with the only person you will never consider your equal or better. They'll take it where you'll never find it, the Shadeglass you so covet."
"I have no equal! No better! I will find where he's hidden it!
"And yet…" Felix pressed his right index finger against his right temple before pulling it out along with a silvery-blueish memory strand hanging from his fingers like a spiderweb against the breeze. "When in the Crossroads…enjoy the memory, Azrail!" He threw the memory at Azrail impacting him square in his face just below his forehead.
Azrail fell to his knees, wailing. "NOOOOO! It cannot be! No!"
A savage smile appeared in Felix's face. "You want the Shadeglass, Azy?" He retrieved it from within his robes' pocket showing it to his half-brother "you want it?! Come and get it!"
Felix ended the enchanted potion's effects just as Bloodfang's killing curse passed over his head striking the ceiling behind him and the environment around them changed back to the Headmistress' office.