Felix picked up one of the black leather-bound books and opened it.
"Mr. Inklad, Peter buried Mrs. Burtletong's body in boat land cove for Alfred Nott. She possessed a diamonds and sapphires cussed tiara Mr. A. Nott required, he gave her a generous amount of gold to part with it, but she refused, so Mr. Inklad was instead given the sum to dispose of her and retrieve the tiara", Felix mumble-read some of it, his eyes increasingly bulging out and his jaw slacking the more he read.
Uriel picked up one of the other leather-bound books opening it. "Holy motherload…" he whistled a few minutes later browsing through the pages.
"What?" Emerick asked excited picking up a scroll of parchment unrolling it.
"This book contains every…not-so-legal…okay downright illegal transaction made by every Hogwarts Governor, Cillian's acquaintance, business partner in the last decade! At least!" Uriel exclaimed with a trembling voice due to the excitement.
"Holy cow!" Ethel gasped. "This book contains every murder ever committed by Cillian's associates…and not just the Governors, any, anywhere in the world…"
"Holy smokes", Claudia said aloud reading another parchment roll, "this scroll has some very…colourful dealings of Joymother's that I am sure he wouldn't want the Aurors to know…"
"I think perhaps this is the time to bring this to the Headmistress attention", Professor Jordan told them leaving a book inside the chest he had picked up.
"And Professor Hudson?" Claudia asked looking up.
"No!" Felix yelled hastily. "Y'all need to trust me to deal with this. If the Headmistress learns of this she has to show it to the Ministry, and it may end up costing her her job. If Professor Hudson finds out about this before time is right he may go after the Governors which may end up costing him his life like Professor Adams and either loses us our element of surprise and gives them Governors and anyone else who has cooperated with my family time to prepare and destroy evidence. My plan smacks three birds with one very large stone."
"Can the rest of you, please, give us the room? Oh, and perhaps needless to say but tell no one of this, not a soul", Professor Jordan made eye contact with each of them.
They nodded and left whispering excitedly.
Professor Jordan sat in one of the chairs. "Talk to me, Felix."
"Are you sure, sir? I mean you are a Professor and I may need to do something that…bends the rules."
Professor Jordan thought for a moment, then stood up and unbuttoning his outer navy-blue robes he let them fall on the floor, staying in his Professor's suit he sat back down on the chair. "Let us assume for a moment I'm not your Professor, then."
"I am going to send all of this to Irina, she writes about a massive international corruption scandal that includes god knows who else as well as the Governors and doesn't write about the "scandal" she is writing containing you and the Headmistress. It should get her some time to write it up which buys us some time and I'll send one of these scrolls to Joymother and blackmail him to not move against the people I care about instead of passing his offer to the Ministry and see him escape justice. I want to see them all burn for all that they have done", Felix replied to his Professor with a passionate face and clenched fists.
"Interesting…you have been ready to face Azrail for a while now…why are you postponing it? Professor Jordan stood up picking up the robes from the floor.
"Because win or lose, in order for the Prophesy to be fulfilled I must die, mustn't I?"
"Yes, but you are forgetting one very important thing both Professor Ixion and Achronia told you in different ways."
Felix did not reply, instead he changed the subject. "Sir, before you go…I've a personal question if I may? It's sort of an ask-your-father kind of question and while you are my Professor…I don't really have anyone else to ask this…"
"Well, I'm honoured you'd think of me in that light, and you can ask your question and if I can answer I will as best as I can", Professor Jordan replied, surprised.
"Okay, thank you. Well, I...there's this girl I…fancy…no, more than that, I think I'm head over heels absolutely madly in love with and while I don't usually have a problem with asking a girl out she…I mean she's a friend so…" he blushed profusely.
"So, you're worried that if you ask and regardless of yay or nay it may become awkward and inevitably end the friendship", Felix nodded, scratching his head for a moment.
"I'm afraid I don't have any grand advice, other than ask her or regret it for the rest of your lifetime. Ask as you would any other girl, state your feelings as eloquently as you can and come what may…or don't", he said before leaving the classroom.
"Yeah, I thought so…" Felix opened up the chest again and carefully read through all the documents that were in there, one by one taking no written notes but he did separate one of the parchments with some of Joymother's lesser crimes and tore a page from one of the books which he folded and pocketed.
He took the parchment detailing Joymother's less egregious crimes and folded it along with another piece of paper on which he wrote,
"No, I refuse your "offer" and back off my friends and their families or I have more where this came from and absolutely no inhibition to sending all of it to the Ministry.
F.B."
And placed both inside an envelope. On the envelope he wrote "Frederick Joymother, Joymother Manor."
He took a second envelope and closing the chest's lid he shrunk it and placed it inside a second envelope alone with a second letter.
"Irina, I am a man of my word, here's all the evidence you need for a -once-in-a-lifetime scoop of an international Wizarding and Muggle corruption scandal that should have your name spoken for a few generations down the line. I hope you keep up your end of the bargain.
Felix Burton."
He wrote her name, surname and her place of work on the envelope.
He walked to the owlery as the sun came out from behind the mountains to the distance and mailed the letter to Joymother using one of the school's grey-brown owls so as to not endanger Caladrius and him to mail Irina.
"Hopefully Joymother and the others don't call my bluff, although there's still Azrail out there", since Nate's family attack Azrail had attacked two more families of students in Hogwarts killing and maiming family members.
"Damn…I read all throughout the night…well nothing to do, I'll sleep tonight", he thought rubbing his eyes.
Ethel and the others were eating their breakfast when he walked in the Great Hall and sat in the Hufflepuff table. He was already feeling ready to collapse and he had a day ahead of him. His mind swirled with thoughts and adrenaline was kicking in to keep him awake. "Generals on a battlefield exchanging skirmishes….eventually skirmishes have to end and the battle to take place…", he mumbled under his breath.
"What? Did you say something?" Ethel asked with a mouth-full of pancakes.
"Hmm? No, just musing to myself."
"She may not reply immediately, you know", Ethel told him trying to ease the stress she saw in his visage and what she felt herself.
"Oh, I know. I'm not expecting her to reply for a few days, she has to read some of the stuff, have her editor-in-chief and publisher read them and come to the inevitable conclusion I've just served her the kind of scoop she was never likely to get. Ever. Then she is going to write. I'm not stressed about that", Felix tried to downplay what he really felt.
"You do look very tired, though", Ethel pressed him as the others sat with them in the Hufflepuff table.
"Yeah, I kinda didn't sleep throughout the night, reading everything before mailing it to Irina."
"You read everything?" Emerick asked his jaw slacking.
"Yeah…every single thing, although I skimmed a few things."
"Yeah, father's "notes" included dirt on far more than just Hogwarts' Governors, he had notes for crimes committed from Headmasters and Governors and Ministerial officials as well as more "common" rich and poor folk from almost every country in the world. She's going to acquire international fame for this article."
"Anything in my country?" Socrates asked somewhat concerned.
"Nothing close to the people we care about."
"Good."
"But I know Mirembe wants to fight Bloodfang so bad…."
"Yeah, she's told me, I felt sick to my stomach when I heard about what he did to her mother and younger sister, the sick fuck…"
"So much pain and suffering caused by one man's ambition for wealth and power…"
"No, it's not just my father, it's a whole system and until that changes there's going to be Dark Wizards and witches popping up from time to time."
"There have been dark wizards and witches since ever, though."
"We have had bad systems since ever."
"True…"
Claudia left for the Gryffindor common room and despite it being a Saturday Socrates and Emerick headed for the Library to revise and study while Ethel just waved them goodbye with an impish grin and no word on where she was going.
"Uriel…" Felix motioned Uriel to follow him with a sideways nod of his head and walked them outside in the middle of the grounds where he could see anyone coming from any direction. Getting his wand out he cast a spell of concealment and then an anti-eavesdropping bubble around them.
"It's snowing and I'm freezing, what…" Uriel begun to ask rubbing his hands against his shoulders to warm up when Felix cast another spell-bubble around them.
"And now I'm not freezing…"
"We can't be seen or heard from the outside…" Felix told him retrieving the torn book page from his backpack.
"What…?"
"It's the only thing my father had on your father from when he was a Governor of this school, what Joymother used to blackmail him out of his seat so he could take over. So, if you…and him handle it discreetly there's nothing preventing him from reacquiring his seat in the Board of Governors once the dust settles."
"Why not let Irina have it?" Uriel eyed him suspiciously.
"You are my friend and while what your father did will anger you, he didn't kill, torture, steal, endanger, embezzle, smuggle…and he could have refused Joymother's blackmail, but he preferred to resign himself from power than to hurt your mother and you. I thought about mailing him directly with it…but it wouldn't have the same impact as it will coming from you", Felix passed him the page. "Just remember that while your father undeniably erred big time, in the end he tried to do what he thought was best for his family. I'm sorry you have to learn of it like this and not from him."
Uriel took the page and read it before burning it up and scattering the ash. "Thank you, I won't forget this", Uriel felt an impulsive need to hug him for his kindness towards him, despite the hot rod of nigh-blinding white rage he felt pocking his guts reading of his father's indiscretion.
Felix broke the enchantments and they made haste to re-enter the castle's warmth.
The next week would test their nerves and stress levels, it would see their moods swing whenever an owl brought someone mail in the Great Hall to excited euphoria for the possibility of a reply from Irina to irrational bouts of anger when no reply came forth from her. And slowly doubt and fear begun to settle in as thoughts of Felix's mail to her having been intercepted and nightmares plagued their dreams turning them to nightmares of the Governors invading Hogwarts with all of Cillian and Azrail's army hunting after their heads.
On the eight day's evening dinner they were on the verge of accepting no reply would come from Irina when her white owl landed on Felix's left shoulder carrying a message tied to her right talon.
Felix picked it up and the others gathered around him ignoring looks and glances from other students.
Mr. Burton,
You have come through in a most spectacular fashion. I am lost for words and my editor-in-chief is speaking of "the scoop of a century", and he is not an easy man to please, not by a good long shot. I'm a woman of my word as well. So, I won't be publishing the other thing, you can tell your Professors they can rest easier at night. After my article "Massive corruption scandal engulfs the Wizarding world" is published I'll send the evidence you've provided me to the Ministry so they can begin to make arrests. Would you happen to have someone in mind that you would suggest me to send the chest to, my whistleblower?
"She sounds positively happy as all heck", Emerick chuckled.
Felix took out his wand and after incinerating Irina's letter he grabbed a piece of parchment and wrote two names on it. "Asmund Kiserian & Robert Fowler" folded it into a cylinder and tied it to Irina's owl's talon.
"Deliver this back to your mistress", he told the owl who with a pleased hoot took off from his shoulder.
"We have our first school-wide training to get to, we should go", Felix stood up feeling a lot more relaxed and the previous days' anxiety having lifted from his shoulders. The change in his friends was just as visibly similar.
They trekked across the snowed landscape to the first line of trees of the Forbidden forest where students had already begun to gather.
Felix and his friends worked their way around the training area placing enchantments and protective wards until everyone who was going to come had arrived.
Then they gathered around Felix waiting to hear what he had in mind, how he was going to train them to fight adults.
Felix climbed on top of a large grey boulder so he could be seen and heard by everyone the same.
"You are wondering why you are here. You are here because one day sooner or later be it a year or a decade from now we will have to fight Azrail and what remains of his army. While he is my responsibility and duty I do not think he will attack me alone, he will want to hurt everyone I love and care about…as he is trying to do now with his attacks on the families of my friends. You are here to learn how to fight and defend yourselves when that inevitable time comes. This group started small and with a different purpose in mind, but now we will learn to fight so that when he does strike we all have a fighting chance to survive it. What say you, Students of Hogwarts? Want to fight Azrail and all that he stands for?" He raised his voice at the end.
A chorus of cheers filled the silent forest as students raised their fists to match Felix's.
Felix jumped down from the boulder. "Good, spread out and get your wands out", when everyone had some distance between them and had their wands out Felix spoke again. "In these training sessions you are going to learn things you most probably would not and will not learn in a school class by a Professor. They are teaching you what you need to know to have a productive life after school and have a job and so on. Dada does give you the foundations to protect yourself from black magic but it's just that, foundations, I am going to teach you how to fight and depending on the situation even kill to protect your life. No, I won't be teaching you the killing curse, obviously, or any of the unforgivables, if you are here for that you can leave. But you don't need the killing curse to kill someone, all you need is imagination. Even a portkey can kill you if it transports you in the middle of a mountain or at the bottom of the sea. Now, having said that if I learn that any of you regardless of your House or year used what you've learned here against any other student for any reason, I will personally drag your sorry arse to the Headmistress' office and ask her to expel you."
No one said anything, none left and most of the students gathered nodded their heads in agreement.
"Good, pick a tree and make sure you have a direct, unobstructed line of sight to it", Felix told them next picking a tree of his own and waited until everyone was ready.
"There is an ancient curse, older than crucio by a few millennia called "Kiab". While the Cruciatus curse will cause the victim unbearable, excruciating physical pain and is one of the unforgivables, this one is less…evil. This curse causes the idea of pain, use it if you find yourselves in an uneven, unfair fight, but never for torture. It won't work for that as prolonged exposure to the curse won't drive a person insane like crucio, but their minds will adapt and understand the curse's folly. This will create some pain for some time allowing you to do something to win a duel to the death in a way which, hopefully, doesn't end up in anyone dying. To cast it you need the incantation "Kiab", pronounced "Khiabh" and a hand-wand motion of a "Kh" in one fluid singular stroke. If you are successful, the tree you cast it at should shiver. Don't worry unlike animals, creatures, beasts and humans trees do not feel pain the same way nor will they feel any kind of pain from this curse, nor will they be damaged by it in any way", Felix finished explaining them and aiming his wand at the tree in his unobstructed line of sight making it shiver.
"First lesson you learn, your last resort", Felix told them as they started practicing it on their trees. Felix went around to each and every single one of them correcting any mistakes in the incantation, posture, and wand-work until he was pleased with the overall result.
"for the next spell form a single file column behind me, please", he waited until they had formed the column then stepped over to the side. "Energia Mortis, you will all fire this one in one location, otherwise it could lead to severe injuries."
"What will happen if we get it right that could lead to severe injuries?" Asked a fourth year Slytherin boy with long straight brown hair that reached his behind and blue eyes.
Felix turned his back at them and took aim at a boulder a good fifty meters away from them. "Energia Mortis!" A black-orange-red beam of energy left his wand impacting the boulder. The next second a massive explosion rocked the forest floor as the boulder was shattered into infinitely smaller shards and bits of it near the impact zone melted in liquid magma as the very air around it combusted and nearby trees and shrubs were leveled off their roots. "That."
"Whoah!" The Slytherin boy exclaimed.
"Cool!" A Fifth year Gryffindor boy yelled followed by others with similar sentiments.
"No, it's not cool. It is deadly. You get caught by this and you'd be dead in an instant and in a lot more pain than if being hit by the killing curse. Or worse you are maimed for life or in a coma", Claudia admonished them.
"Right, sorry", the Gryffindor boy lowering his head.
Felix taught them the proper incantation, pronunciation, stance and wand movement, then one by one they tried their hand with it. Most produced mere sparks of various different colours and wisps of smoke with some few students managing minor explosions.
"Any one of you know why none of you can produce the full-fledged spell? It is not your incantation or wand work, those are great", Felix asked them, waiting for any replies.
"Intention?" Nate pondered aloud. "We need to mean and want to make the spell to work?"
"Almost there…anyone else?"
"Emotion?" A fifth year Ravenclaw girl asked next.
"Close enough, if there's one thing I've learned from being Felix's friend is that he doesn't do anything half-heartedly. He does something, he always goes all in and full passion and desire to excel at it. So, my guess is you need to funnel intent and passion in equal-insane-measure to get the desired result", Emerick told them hoping he was correct and hadn't just made a fool of himself.
"Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner. You are training, kids and teenagers as we are, to fight in a war and potentially be required to injure, kill or be killed. It's not a burden anyone regardless of age should undertake with half a mind and heart, because you might be protecting yourself or those you care about from mortal harm. And a burden it is trust me. So, either take it with full intent and passion or leave it to someone who can", Felix nodded his head for emphasis as his tone of voice matched his look.
No one left and some people nodded.
"Try again", Felix pointed at the site to the near distance where the bolder used to stand.
They went at it again one by one and a few managed to cast some more impressive explosions and one sixth year Gryffindor girl casting it as Felix had.
"Better, but let's see if I can't convince you to give it your all. Adlucinatio!" Azrail appeared out of thin air at the distance holding his scythe-shaped wand and looking menacing in his Dementor-like cloak.
"Use Energia Mortis or die trying", Felix said as if that was truly Azrail standing there and not an illusion he had just conjured up.
Chaos erupted as students shrieked and tried to duck for cover, hide behind trees or other students and some of the braver ones cast Energia Mortis at "him".
Felix terminated the illusion spell. "Panic and reactions of fear won't save you. When you are faced with certain death you can only do one thing and one thing alone. Rise to meet him. Now, split into pairs and I want you to practice defending and disarming. Try and mix years and learn from each other."
Felix paired up with a third year Slytherin girl and faced her with his wand pressed against his chest. She tried to use Expeliarmus on him, but he was faster and cast protergia bouncing the spell back at her, she thought quick on her feet and cast protego. Felix levitated a fairly sized boulder and sent it flying at her causing her to squeak and roll on the ground. "Agua erecto!" She threw at him deflecting the boulder in the process. Felix cast a white shield charm around him and "Fyra transformago!" turning the torrent of water into one of fire as the white shield caused it to return to its caster.
She terminated the spell as Felix used Flipendo to push her up against her back.
"Good thinking with agua, if you had used agua transformago and/or Oppugno you'd have broken past my shield charm", Felix told her helping her up.
"Cool, I'll try that, thanks!" She beamed.
"Change pairs!" Felix yelled. He paired up with a seventh year Gryffindor boy next.
Right off the bat the Gryffindor boy cast an asphyxiation jinx at him, he ignored it and cast the full body binding curse at him dropping him like a stiff log on the forest floor. He broke the jinx and curse and helped him up.
"Damn…that had worked last year in the Dueling Club's tournament", the Gryffindor boy said scratching his head.
"Could they nonverbally cast while holding their breaths?"
"No, I guess not….should have thought about it."
"It was a good effort, which would have been a lot more successful if you had first glued my lips shut, thought-casting takes a lot more time than nonverbal casting", Felix pointed out to his sparring partner.
"That's actually good advice, I hadn't thought about it like that!" The Gryffindor boy cried excited as Felix changed couples again.
A Ravenclaw seventh-year boy came after him, and in all his final year's cocky arrogance tried to legilimens him.
"Your mind's an open book to me. Tell me James son of Maria and Steven Arkwood, are you afraid of small, tight dark corners?" Felix whispered directly in Steven's mind, in complete control of the boy's entire brain.
Steven found himself trapped in infinite darkness with invisible walls closing in on him and no ability to escape.
"Never enter a person's mind uninvited when you know not their abilities in Occlumency and Legilimency and when that person has taught you both. I can shred your consciousness to so many pieces you'll remain a vegetable for the rest of your life, I can tear apart your motor functions and remove all knowledge of who you are. Instead be a chicken for ten seconds", Felix told him telepathically inside his mind as Steven begun to cluck like a chicken.
"Somnia", Steven dropped on the forest floor vast asleep.
"He won't wake up anytime soon", Socrates stated walking up to them.
"Nope, spells aren't really your thing, mind taking him to the Hospital Wing, please?"
"Of course", Socrates levitated Steven carrying him away.
"Thanks, change pairs!" And so the training session continued.