So, awesome chapter ahead, but somewhat more importantly, there is now a poll on my profile as, as some of you may know, my other story ANP is nearing completion, and I need to start thinking of what story to work on next. So the poll has several of the best options for what story for me to start writing after I finish with ANP year 7. So please, read and review, but also vote on the poll for your favorite!
Chapter Thirty Seven
A Parting of the Ways
Veneficus glared at the three men, knowing that all his illusions and glamours were down, allowing them to glimpse his true countenance. At this point it mattered little, he only wanted to keep them alive long enough to satisfy his knowledge of his parent's true betrayer. Even with this plan, he itched to just draw his saber and slay them all without mercy.
"Harry," Lupin said, trying and failing to keep his own voice calm as the werewolf started to step toward Veneficus. A twitch of his hand was all that was required to throw Lupin back, and he collapsed into a shattered chair. Momentarily, Veneficus relished the quickness and power that came with such closeness to the Dark Side because of his burning rage.
Black gaped at the display of telekinesis, while Pettigrew merely whimpered.
"Harry," Black finally voiced, sounding croaky from disuse, "We want nothing more than what you do, justice for your parents murder."
"Y-yes!" Pettigrew clamored instantly, pointing a stubby finger at Sirius, "It was Black, it was always Sirius, he betrayed your parents Har… Ahh!"
The pitiful man screamed as Veneficus lashed out with lightning, just as Black roared at the man for daring to speak to him. One didn't need the Force to tell that Pettigrew was lying. The pudgy man writhed on the floor as bolts of the blue white torment washed over him. "Harry! Stop this!" Black yelled, trying to reach forward, but Veneficus' wand aimed directly at him, halting his progress.
"Don't you dare deny that you enjoy watching this vermin squirm, Black. I can sense the hatred in your heart," Veneficus crooned, watching neutrally as Pettigrew shrieked and struggled to escape the painful bolts. He was not going to kill just yet; he still wanted to know the full truth first.
"I can't deny that I want him to suffer, Harry," Black said, deflating somewhat, "But I am terrified at what you're becoming, to so willingly be able to torture."
With a snarl, Veneficus threw Pettigrew back against the wall, making the boarded and sealed windows shudder at the impact, small cracks appearing in the wood where it began to splinter, allowing tiny beams of light through. "What would you care what I've become," he raged at Black, "you, who were supposed to be my Godfather, who should have taken me in immediately upon my parents death. Instead I'm sent to that vile hellhole where I rotted for four years, only to be…" Veneficus trailed off angrily, not willing to divulge his personal feelings about Millennial to those who would never understand.
"Oh Harry," Lupin said as he shakily got to his feet, "you can't mean what I think you mean."
Silence was the werewolf's only answer, as Veneficus sneered at the trio of them, all traitors to his wellbeing in some way or form.
Black looked confused, glancing between Veneficus and Lupin. "He was sent to Petunia's family, Sirius," Lupin said flatly, sorrow etched into the words. Black's eyes widened and he gaped at the Sith Lord," No," he said weakly, sinking to his knees, "tell me it isn't true, Pup, not them. What did they do to you?" The man reached out to touch Veneficus' face, but the Sith jerked back a step, raising his wand again. He hadn't even noticed it lowering on its own, what was wrong with him?
"Stay away from me," he growled, "I want the truth, right now, so I know who of you three must be the first to die."
"Harry, please don't say that," Black said, pain filling his shaky voice. "Please don't tell me you are willing to become a killer just to avenge your parents."
"Isn't that why you came in the first place!" Veneficus shot back angrily. "Don't try to play me Black; I will have revenge, upon all those who destroyed my life; who made me what I am today."
He sneered as tears started to form in both Lupin's and Black's eyes, "You godson died when he was only four years old," Veneficus taunted, "I am reborn from the ashes of that boy's weakness. And in part, you are all guilty of abandoning me to that fate. And yet, you are also the cause for my discovering the path to true power. Therefore, I will be somewhat merciful. Your deaths will at least be swift and painless. The longer you talk, the longer you all live, so I suggest you explain all that needs explaining."
"Ok, Harry, we will explain," Lupin said solemnly, "I just hope you will find more than mercy from the answers we have to give."
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Septin burned with unbridled fury as he charged at Zhar's defenses again and again. The power of the Tomb of Ragnos flooded through him, thundering in his ears as he launched into sequences to forms he had never realized that he knew. An overhead, two-handed Djem-So cleave, followed by an upward Juyo stab to the throat, twisting into an Ataru slash to the body.
Inch by inch he was gaining ground on Zhar, his anger carrying him to new heights of power. 'This is what they meant,' Septin realized with sadistic glee, 'this rush of overwhelming strength and fluidity. The great and tremendous power of the Dark Side. This is what the Jedi fear above all else, we each becoming powerful without their control or guidance!'
Consciousness soared ahead of Septin, allowing him to notice and pick out patterns in Zhar technique, see where he was most likely to move, or counterattack from. The Dark Jedi was trying desperately to sidestep the oncoming offensive, his weakness in defense betraying his skill.
Septin leapt at this flaw, slashing and stabbing, able to willingly expend energy to keep up the onslaught with the Tomb's power flowing through him. To his credit, Zhar was managing to escape and deflect the more lethal of Septins' attacks, even if he was showered with light burns and grazes where he had been too slow to deflect completely.
The man attempted to outmaneuver Septin by leaping with the assistance of the Force, but Septin took a leaf from Anguis' book and lashed out with the Force, dragging Zhar like a stone back down to the tomb's unforgiving floor.
Somehow, the man fared better than Septin had against that particular maneuver, and managed to roll back to his feet instead of striking the ground flatly. Zhar bounced back to his feet, and immediately took to the attack, descending on Septin with the full weight of Djem-So.
Septin lacked the physical strength to contend with Zhar's vicious blows, and all the precious ground and momentum he had gained was gone in an instant. Fury mounting, Septin utilized his speed advantage over the larger man, ducking and dodging more than blocking or parrying. He couldn't keep it up indefinitely, and the urge to attack back was gnawing at him desperately.
A vicious kick from Zhar sent Septin flying, but he managed to flip in the air and land, skidding across the stone floor several feet as he slowed himself. Zhar charged him, preparing to leap and come crashing down on top of him. Septin twisted and made to flip out of the way again, but Zhar expected the dodge, responding with a powerful blast of telekinesis.
Septin went flying yet again, colliding with one of the stone braziers in the tomb room. Stars exploded behind his eyes as his head struck violently. But there was no time for a concussion, as Zhar was upon him again. Rolling and springing to his feet, Septin charged, meeting the next attack head on, actively slapping Zhar's saber away and he tried to push his way through the offensive and end this contest before he tired too much more.
"You've fought hard, my pupil!" Zhar said during a moment while their sabers were interlocked, "But you still have much to learn!"
Septin's eye widened as Zhar tapped into energy that the younger man hadn't realized was there, and the orange saber twisted sharply, snapping his weapon to the side, and slashed upward, severing Septin's sword arm at the shoulder.
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Sirius only partially listened as Remus explained the parts of the story he knew, calmly and slowly as to not arouse more of Harry's anger. "From what I can gather, Harry, is that you've figured out quite a bit on your own, so ill only try to fill in the spaces. Is there a place that would be best to begin at?"
Harry scowled, but answered, "Who was the Potter's Secret Keeper." Sirius could hear the hatred seething between every word, and his heart, already broken so many times this night, fractured once more. What monster had done this to the little baby that he had bounced on his knee at Godric's Hollow; the little boy that had squealed with delight as he rode about on a toy broom meant for children several years older.
Peter groaned from where he had been thrown, and Sirius turned ever so slowly to him. He had started all of this, little Peter Pettigrew, and his turning to Voldemort over his own friends. "He was," Sirius found himself stating, interrupting Lupin's longwinded explanation of the surrounding details. "James and Lily wanted me to do it, but I convinced them to use Peter as the Secret Keeper, and that I would play decoy for the servants of Voldemort, who would no doubt attack us to reach them, to reach you."
The stinking rat was completely ignored by Harry as the boy kept his fiery eyes fixated on Remus and Sirius, but Padfoot knew better than to let little Peter out of his sight. His hand itched for a wand so he could kill the traitor himself, and this fixation did not go unnoticed by Harry.
"You wish to kill him yourself, Black. Tell me, did you care for my parents, did you love them?" The sound of the word from Harry's lips sounded so twisted and cruel that Sirius shuddered. Across the room Sirius saw Remus also flinch, both from the words and other stresses.
The Marauder in Sirius knew that Moony was getting agitated because of the moon, and that he would be transforming very soon, and that the man's mind was spinning for ways to defuse the situation as fast as possible before he became dangerous. Sirius widened his eyes as he pondered whether Lupin had taken any wolfsbane potion today, but there was little time to ask.
"What did you do, I wonder, when you found their home destroyed, their bodies laying there, and your all important Godson abandoned in his crib?" Harry taunted further, bringing more fresh tears to Sirius as he remembered.
"I… went after the traitor, and he slipped away from me…" he replied mutely, ashamed.
If anything, the admittance only seemed to confirm what Harry had already known. "Then you are not only a fool, but also by your own confession, primarily responsible for my life as it is, Pettigrew being a close second."
There was no denying it, Sirius blamed himself alone for trusting the rat and passing the safety of his best friends quite literally into Voldemort's hands. "Yes, I as good as killed them."
"Then you, of the three, will be the first to die, followed quickly by the traitor you sought so valiantly to destroy, and lastly your friend who protected you…" Harry said coldly, raising his wand to point between Sirius' eyes.
Pettigrew crawled to Harry's feet at that moment, pleading, "Harry… Harry… James wouldn't have wanted me killed… James would have understood, Harry… he would have shown me mercy…"
Sirius growled low in his throat at the rat sniveling, and as Harry kicked him away, the boy also sneered, "Mercy is a weakness, like love, that grants nothing in the way of true power. It was mercy that preserved you for so long, but the time for vengeance has come."
The wand twitched, and in the moment, Remus struck. Calling at Sirius, he tossed his wand to him, and leapt at Harry. Sirius caught the wand in time to throw a hasty shield against the curse that came his way, but he was unprepared for the massive unseen blast the slammed himself, Remus, and Pettigrew through the walls of the Shrieking Shack and out onto the grounds between Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.
Lying there, in pain, Sirius recognized only one fact: the moon was full and uncovered. The unnatural snarling and snapping started as Remus' body reacted to the disease coursing through him. Sirius didn't need to watch to know what was happening. Quickly shifting into the form of Padfoot, for his own protection, Sirius watched as Harry appeared in the massive hole that was blow in the side of the shack. The boy leaped, and Sirius though for an instant that Harry was planning on breaking his neck, but somehow the boy launched himself like a projectile into the air, flipping once and landing in a crouch not twenty feet from him.
Sirius dodged as a curse launched from his godson's wand and impacted the ground near him. As he maneuvered around the spells, Sirius saw that Pettigrew was already long gone, most likely also shifted into his animagus form and fleeing for his pathetic life.
Moony howled in rage, and staggered to his hind paws, readying to charge in and attack Harry. Sirius was quite powerless to prevent it, Moony was barely manageable when he had James with him, alone he stood no chance in keeping the werewolf from tearing Harry apart.
But the boy shocked Sirius to the core as he charged the pale form of Moony head on, flipping over the werewolf as Remus tried to bite. It was clear that Remus hadn't taken his potion, and was a fully fledged monster, unsafe and wild.
The chill that shot down Sirius spine only pointed out the worst part of the issue at hand. The Dementors were coming.
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Zhar watched as Septin fell to the ground, screaming in fury and pain. The boy's plan, however richly thought up and executed, had been flawed in Septin thinking himself more competent against Zhar than he truly was. Zhar still remembered the sensation, when he had first embraced the Dark Side on this same world so long ago; he had felt very much the same way.
The orange blade of his weapon was directed downward, but away from Septin. There was still much use that they boy could provide to the Sith, despite his raw anger and malice toward Zhar specifically. There would be time enough to direct the boy's wrath and temper his fire into a fine blade to thrust into the Republic.
Septin tried to stand, to keep fighting, his drive and hatred fueling him, but the pain from a severed limb was too much, and he slipped into unconsciousness. Relaxing somewhat, Zhar felt the clamor in the Force die down, and gingerly he hefted the boy that was once his apprentice over his shoulder. He paused before leaving the tomb, glancing back at the amputated arm, still clutching Septin's Jedi lightsaber.
The medical advances that were generated through the last several Jedi and Sith wars had made marvelous strides in repairing lightsaber inflicted injuries, and the boy's arm could technically be reattached with little to no lasting effect, but… at the same time, Zhar wanted this to be a lesson for the boy, and if all was repaired as it once was, there would be no reminder of the cost of mistakes.
Calling the fallen saber hilt to his free hand, Zhar turned and left the severed appendage behind. The boy would have to make due with a prosthetic limb, and the inherent advantages and disadvantages that came with the mechanical replacement.
Sheltering Septin's wound from the sands of Korriban, Zhar hurried across to their transport, piloting the speeder along the fastest route back to the Academy ruins. Septin would survive, Zhar knew this, and the added pain and humiliation would only allow him to grow stronger.
However, there was the matter of his attempted murder of his master. While the practice was subtly encouraged by all the leaders of the fledgling Sith Empire, failure to commit the act properly held a harsh penalty. At the least, Septin would be shipped back to Dromund Kaas, and his training taken over by the masters there. Zhar would have to find someone trustworthy enough to transport the young man back to the jungle world, and see to it that Septin received the medical attention that he inevitably needed to return to full capacity.
After depositing the boy in the medical wing, and while brooding on who he could spare from his team for the mission, Zhar spotted the black haired youth that had somewhat befriended Septin out in the Valley of the Dark Lords, Feyd.
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Veneficus twisted away from another vicious swipe from the werewolf. Magic was next to useless against the beast, and the Sith wanted more to see the full potential of the monster before driving it away unharmed, mostly. So he danced away from the slashing claws and lunging fangs, using the Force to keep just one step ahead of the werewolf, toying with it until the beast went into a full frenzy.
The large black dog that Black had transformed into leapt at Veneficus, probably in some attempt to protect the man's precious godson from the werewolf. Veneficus dodged the dog's lunge, doing a full back-kick over and slamming a foot into the werewolf's neck, preventing the beast from attacking while Veneficus was exposed.
The cold chill intensified as the spectral wounds in the Force drew nearer, and Veneficus smirked. Lupin howled, enraged at the blow, and swung low, attempting to bite and claw at the Sith's legs. Back flipping, Veneficus arced over the low swings, then twisted and stepped back as he dodged a follow up claw. The beast was fast, incredibly so, but thus far he was not nearly fast enough to contend with a Force user of Veneficus' caliber.
Black and the werewolf charged, creating a pincer movement, which Veneficus dove between, corkscrewing in the air once and landing into a roll to resume his stance. The creatures clashed into each other, and Black barked desperately, whether trying to protect the werewolf or Veneficus, he truly did not care.
The lumbering beast charged again, swinging high, and Veneficus ducked, only to realize the wolf still had some cunning. The pale animal barreled straight into the Sith Lord, jaws snapping and claws scrambling. Dodging the fangs that carried the infectious curse, Veneficus kicked off from the werewolf and flipped back several yards, but now sporting several long gashes from the razor claws.
He was satisfied. If Lupin, as weak as he was could mark him, then a strong specimen could potentially contend with a Jedi, especially if in possession of its own mind. As the werewolf charged a third time, Veneficus responded with lightning. Interestingly, despite the amount of effort he had poured into intensifying his prowess with this particular ability, the beast seemed to be partially protected from the dangerous bolts.
Nevertheless, the creature was still startled, and knocked back several steps from the blue white barrage. The beast roared, but shuddered as dark shapes finally appeared from the nearby trees: the Dementors had arrived. A few more bursts of lightning at the werewolf, and it turned tail and ran for the forest, leaving Black all alone with Veneficus and the approaching wraiths.
The dog whimpered, cowering until Black was forced to shift back into human form. "Nooo," the man moaned pitifully as he tried to rise from all fours. "Nooo…please…"
Veneficus stood impassively as the creatures circled overhead like birds over their prey. Black tried to raise the wand he had acquired from the werewolf, but Veneficus wrenched it from his hand with the Force, relishing the smack of wood against his palm as he took custody of Lupin's wand.
Black turned, and looked mournfully at Veneficus, but before he could say or do any more, the Dementors swooped upon him. There were dozens, possibly close to one hundred present, and the amount of power their fear commanded was vast, and it took much of Veneficus' concentration to keep cycling their ice cold despair into rage and anger, keeping him warm from the innermost parts of himself, and conscious to view his vengeance on at least one of the three met out.
Two of the creatures seized Black with their hands, holding him still while a third approached, raised both hands, and lowered its hood. Where eyes would have been for a normal human, there was nothing but thin grey skin stretched taught over the empty sockets. It momentarily reminded Veneficus of a Miraluka, but that was where the similarities ended. The only feature on the decayed head was its mouth, a gaping, shapeless hole that rasped and rattled as it drew air into it.
Veneficus remembered reading that wizards nearly always found witnessing the Dementor's Kiss to be a sight too unbearable, but he was determined to see it done. The rasping grew quiet as the Dementor lowered its face to Blacks. The man had fallen unconscious a short moment ago, which Veneficus felt was a small injustice in the matter, but also one that could not be helped. The Dementor swelled, and light poured forth from its mouth momentarily, then dimmed until it was completely extinguished.
Black's body remained, still and alive, but no longer in connection with his consciousness, forever gone to the universe. The Sith Lord found this end somewhat, unsatisfying. His anger and hatred had not ebbed in the slightest at the man's justified demise, the damage was still done, and Veneficus was poised for greatness.
The Dementors studied the Lord of the Sith for a few moments, before departing back into the sky, clearly leaving the castle now that their duty was discharged. Veneficus knew that he and these creatures would meet again however. He was going to make certain of it.
Leaving Black's body for the beasts of the forest, Veneficus made his way back to the castle via the underground tunnel. When at last he returned to the side room of the Entrance Hall, and travel back the three hours he had taken to confront Black, he smirked as he sensed his past-self departing for the same said engagement. The Wild Force was indeed a delightful and wonderfully useful thing.
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Lord Millennial was uncertain as to why the Force willed him to be here, wandering the outskirts of the Forest that lay between Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, but as he saw the drifting forms of the Dementors of Azkaban departing the castle grounds, he had a good enough clue as to where he needed to go.
Walking carefully through the trees, Millennial came upon the scene the creatures were fleeing. The body of one Sirius Black lay in the mud, cold and empty, yet still very much alive. 'So, the Dementors caught him at last.' Millennial thought as he loomed over the empty vessel of a body.
Interestingly enough, the body of Black might have some use for the Sith. Millennial remembered the blackened skull back at Blackmoore Manor, currently sitting in a darkened inner chamber, possessing the remnants of an ancient Orken sorcerer, who could potentially be a very useful asset if persuaded properly.
Nodding to himself, Millennial made to levitate the body, when he heard a deep growl from the trees he had exited. Half turning, Millennial saw what appeared to be a wolf, but elongated and thin. The creature looked more like a cross between wolf and man, which rang as something of partial importance to Millennial, but he had dismissed the information as less relevant before now. The animal howled savagely, and charged the Sith Lord.
Shaking his head at such wasted brutality, Millennial overpowered the creature's muscles with the Force, and dominating the bestial mind with ease, "Down, beast," he commanded coolly, and the creature sank to all fours, almost appearing to be groveling before a master. Probing further, Millennial was intrigued to find that the animal had the mind of a man as well as that of a cruel and bloodthirsty creature within it. The animal was in control, but soon enough the man would return. All the better for Millennial then, to have a test subject with interesting abilities to hold in addition to a host body to gift the fallen Ork.
Binding the beast with sheer willpower, Millennial pulled from an inner pocket the small devise he had had created for him, called a portkey, to transport him and whomever he desired from anywhere back to Great Hangleton. The world swam with color as it activated, pulling the Dark Lord of the Sith and his guests onto the grounds of the manor, just outside the concealed landing pad for arriving and departing starships.
A pair of holding areas, with doors sealed and magnetized seemed more than sufficient to hold the animal and soulless body apart from each other until Millennial was ready to deal with them.
More pressing however, was the matter of the aftermath of the hippogriff's execution to deal with, as well as a confrontation between Crouch Sr. and Lucius to manipulate. Casually tossing a pinch of the Force derived powder into the sitting room fireplace opened the gateway to Malfoy Manor, and Millennial sent for Lucius to step through and discuss the beast's demise.
"It went smoothly then, I take it," Lucius began without preamble as he gracefully stepped out of the fireplace moments later.
"As well as expected," Millennial said casually, dipping into his short summary of the events at Hogwarts from the time he arrived to the execution. He was just starting to pose questions about what value Madam Zabini's favor meant to Lucius when the fireplace flared emerald. Crouch Sr. emerged, a smug expression on his face as he spotted Lucius. "Ah, Mr. Malfoy, I had thought I may find you here." He said curtly.
"Bartemius, what is the meaning of this?" Lucius said, coldly glaring at the man as a pair of red robed aurors entered behind Crouch.
"This," Crouch replied calmly, pulling a roll of parchment from his robe sleeve, "is a warrant for your arrest over some dubious circumstances that we've discovered regarding the Chamber of Secrets fiasco that plagued Hogwarts last year, as well as several other crimes, all of which you will be privy to at your hearing."
Lucius sputtered in fury, much of his dignity lost as he tried to make sense of how well his plans had been discovered, "How dare you," he managed at last, "to make such blatant accusations, Fudge will be hearing of this, you mark my words."
"He already has," Crouch countered, "and thanks to testimony from Lord Blackmoore here, you won't have much wiggle room to squirm out of the charges this time. Take him away!"
Lucius turned to Millennial as the Aurors stripped him of his wand and the cane it was housed in, "You?!" he said, both hatred and confusion reigning. Millennial just watch impassively as Lucius struggled to resist the aurors dragging him toward the Floo.
"You have just made a grave mistake Blackmoore, mark my words…"
Millennial smirked when the man vanished in a bout of emerald fire, closely followed by Crouch, who gave the Sith Lord a brisk nod before vanishing himself. Lucius' fall would come soon, but not by Crouch or any political enemy, Blackmoore knew. However, through this action, Lucius would make a fatal error and cause his own destruction.
Departing before the flames even died down, Millennial returned to the underground complex. The room with the beast shook and rang loudly as the animal thrashed about inside madly, and Millennial paid it no mind for the moment, but strode directly to the trove of Sith and other Dark Side artifacts. The blackened skull of Gor-lak still sat therein, as harmless seeming as it had been when the Dark Lord of the Side first took notice of it. Levitating the cruel object lazily, Millennial carried it back with him to the other room he had recently visited, which now contained the still living body of Sirius Black.
As the skull entered the room, the empty sockets lit up with a crimson light, and the voice of the ancient Ork started to sound in the near empty chamber.
"So you've found a body for my spirit to inhabit at last." The Orken spirit crooned, "Place me upon it so that I may inspect how compatible it may be."
The Wild Force energy started to build as Millennial laid the blackened skull atop the prone form of Sirius Black. The dark power hummed mutely for several moments, and Millennial waited until the voice returned again, "This vessel will do perfectly, I merely need time to pass my consciousness into it and take full control. You may leave me here for the time being, and I will begin the ritual as soon as the moon is darkened in the sky."
Millennial took this to mean the next new moon, which was somewhere within the next month, and he would be perfectly be able to walk away and ignore the skull and its existence until that time.
"I shall leave you to your preparations then," Millennial said after a moment's pause, before departing.
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Anguis could feel something amiss throughout the final few weeks of Hogwarts. Professor Lupin had disappeared, which somehow the majority of the students found in no way curious or bothersome. It seemed from the previous years that the Defense Professor having some sort of accident or disappearing before the end of the year was accepted as a tradition. Whenever it was brought up, anyone would just shrug and say something about the position being jinxed, but Anguis could tell that there was something more to the man's disappearance then that, especially when the teachers would grow deathly quiet at any mention of Lupin.
A second mystery was the overnight departure of the Dementors around the school. Nothing confirmed or denied that Black had been caught, or had been sighted elsewhere, but the guards seemed to be more than content to simply float off away from the school, either in pursuit of wherever Black had run to or so that the wraiths could return to their island prison in the North Sea. No one seemed to have any indication or clue regarding that matter either.
And finally, Veneficus seemed particularly moody all of a sudden, ranging from bouts of near horrific giddiness to steaming vents of burning rage cropping up almost at random through the day. That one was something Anguis felt was better left alone, as he was not certain that he wanted to be on the receiving end of the black haired Sith's wrath any more than he was already. During the pair of Darksiders' copious amounts of free time with the end of exams, Veneficus had them more and more often down in the Chamber of Secrets, cramming as much study and training as they could before they were separated for the summer, Anguis to return to Malfoy manor and Veneficus to go off Force-knew-where.
He wasn't completely certain why Narcissa had contacted him to inform Anguis that he needed to return to the manor for that summer, and more so as to why Lucius hadn't written him in some time. It was disconcerting to say the least that his parents were acting distinctly out of character, but with him at Hogwarts there was little Anguis could do to find out what the problem was.
What was worse, when he mentioned the unusualness to Veneficus casually, the Sith had simply smirked and offered nothing by way of comment or advice.
Outside of growing suspicions that something big was being planned without him, Anguis felt that the end of term went a quietly as possible. Shortly before the day of the leaving feast, Anguis and Veneficus were stopped by Professor McGonagall, who said she had some important business to discuss with the Sith Lord in private. Anguis agreed immediately, but as soon as the pair as entered the Head of Gryffindor's office, Anguis simply amplified his hearing to be perfectly able to listen in on their discussion.
"…you see Mr. Potter, we were able to persuade the Ministry to allow two students the right to use a Time-turner because of their exceedingly high marks, and the great responsibility that you and Miss Granger have shown over term are testament to that.
However, Miss Granger has felt overworked by her attempts to take every class, and has decided to forfeit her Turner and reduce the number of classes she will be taking.
As it stands, we know that you've expressed the desire to continue taking all you subjects, but the Ministry has changed its mind in allowing students that option, so I'm afraid I'll have to ask for your Time-Turner back immediately, and you will unfortunately need to choose two subjects to drop."
There was silence for a moment, and Anguis could easily guess that his Master's mind was spinning to fins a simply way to overcome the woman's will.
"I am sorry Potter," McGonagall said, "I do wish I didn't have to ask this of you, but the Ministry demanded it, and my hands are tied."
"I understand Professor," Veneficus replied cheerfully, "here it is, and I think I know what subjects I have no further desire to attend; Divination and Muggle Studies no longer interest me, so I'll gladly give them both up."
Moments later, Veneficus returned, and Anguis returned his hearing to normal levels. From the grin on his Master's face however, the Force adept could tell that he had indeed not given up his advantageous time travel device.
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Albus watched the lines of children departing the castle with a heavy heart. Normally, this would be because of the end of another year of magical learning and the loss of all the high and happy emotions that filled the castle, but this year it was far different.
As it always seemed to in his more private moments, Albus' thoughts were inevitable drawn to Harry and the ever increasing suspicion Albus had of the boy's growing darkness.
Remus had never reappeared after the day of Buckbeak's execution, and Albus had no proof to the cause, but he still felt very certain that Harry had something to do with it. The boy was beginning to truly frighten him. With his ability to disappear for hours on end, and move about the school unseen via his father's invisibility cloak tracking the boy would not be near impossible. Not for the first time Albus regretted actually following through with James wish to deliver the cloak to his son if the worst happened.
Albus was also painfully aware of the small collection of friends that Harry had surrounded himself with, and their secret meetings all over the school. What occurred in these he did not know, but he couldn't trust that they were completely innocent on the part of Harry.
There simply was too much going on with the boy, and even more with Blackmoore. Albus had learned through the Ministry grapevine was that Lucius Malfoy had been arrested for charges of bribery and conspiracy, not that they would hold for long against the man's money and contacts within the judicial system of wizarding in Britain. What was the curious part was that it was information from Lord Blackmoore that prompted the arrest in the first place.
Albus was completely unsure why Blackmoore would so willingly throw away an alliance between himself and a powerful family like the Malfoys, but he was willing to bet that it had nothing to do with a reformation toward the light. Thick fog-like darkness surrounded the man and his actions, and while Albus was at a loss for how best to proceed with the man, he was more than certain now that he was up to no good, and was systematically poisoning Harry toward a dark path, probably from the boy's early years.
"Headmaster…"
Albus turned to find Severus mounting the final steps to the Astronomy tower. "Yes Severus?" Albus asked, watching the concerned look on the Potions Master's face.
"I believe I have at last recovered the memory that I lost the first day I met Harry Potter and 'Lord' Blackmoore."