Author Notes
My thanks to RedtheBattler for your tarot card reading idea. Hopefully I made it work. This chapter is dedicated to you
Reviews
Selias
No not really that chapter was more about giving Damien a push towards his destiny. And to give Luna some trauma.
RedtheBattler
Interesting idea. Soul Trapping could work but what concerns me is that the point of a Horcrux is to anchor one's self to world of the living so your soul doesn't pass on. The Soul Cairn is a sort of afterlife. So Riddle might end up being set free in the Soul Gem is used.
However Damien could just keep what's left of Riddle Soul in a Black Soul Gem as I think the souls don't go to the Soul Cairn until the Soul Gem is used to enchant something.
In the Skyrim game a Wizard cheats death by sticking his soul in Asura's Star so there is evidence to suggest that just sticking what's left of Riddle's damaged soul into Soul Gem and leaving it there might work.
That might be a way to deal with the bit of soul in Harry as well. There is a Wizard in that quest that pulls the Dragonborn's soul out of his body. If Damien can learn how to do that then he should be able to trap the bit of soul that is Voldemort's inside a Soul Gem as well and then destroy the Soul Gem or leave it somewhere people won't find it.
As for the other parts of Riddle's soul becoming active that's unlikely as the journal required Ginny to pour her heart out in it. The locket gets somewhat active but I already figured out a way to deal with the locket. The cup is locked in a vault so no one is interacting with it so it should be okay to leave it there. As for the Snake a quick blast of fiendfyre will deal with that serpent.
Winter Feline
Yes this version of Dumbledore does need to die. But do remember that the Headmaster is the lesser of the two evils. Voldemort is worse a lot worse in fact, as at least Dumbledore isn't working towards goals that involve the genocide of anyone who isn't an inbred Pureblood with a skull tattoo.
As for Fawkes. Well we don't know how the Phoenix came to be bounded with Dumbledore. I suppose that its possible that Dumbledore was a genuine good guy to start but after years of politics, power and war he's became corrupted.
Fawkes does seem to care for Dumbledore so perhaps the bird is staying with the Headmaster to try and stop him from going to far. Or it could be a bound that can't be broken as you suggest.
Also consider this. Fawkes is a powerful creature that's not remotely human he could have an agenda of his own that we can't see because its not something a human could understand. Fawkes is immortal so he might have a very, very different view of things.
Glad your enjoying it.
Lord Edric
I corrected the six legged freak remark.
I'm not having Damien kill Granger remember he's not the next Voldemort he's more like Grindlewald who locked people up rather than just murder everyone he didn't like. Besides Granger has a role to play in this story.
Worsfold15
Harry brining down Dumbledore would be cool but it might not be possible. However I will give it some thought to see if I can make it work.
nim istar
I haven't written a Star Wars story as of yet. I might do one day as I do have a plot in mind. As for the symbol I just happen to like it that's all.
douchiesnacks
Death to the spiders!
The First Gothic. Book One. A Wizard In Training. Part 18.
The Divination Classroom. Hogwarts School. The Wizarding School.
I just couldn't wait for this school year to be over. The last few weeks had been hell for me. Ever since that detention I'd been without my girlfriend/Seer and things weren't going so well for me.
Until now I'd not I'd not realised how handy Luna was to have around. Never before when sneaking around after hours had I been caught by the school's caretaker nor had I been late for a lesson or made a mistake in potions class.
At least I wasn't getting punished for my misfortunes. The staff just thought I was distracted due my girlfriend being in the Hospital Wing. Which was a good assumption because that was partly the reason I was so distracted.
Luna's life was no longer in danger but she was taking a long time to heal because while Fawkes' tears had healed her and neutralised the venom it didn't help with the psychological problems she was having. The poor girl was drinking up the school's supply of Dreamless Sleep potion but because she'd been trying to stay awake to avoid the nightmares despite having drank she kept having fits when the potion wore off and she got to tired to stay awake.
She was slowly getting better but given that she hadn't been all that stable to start with Luna was a lot more out of it than normal. She hardly seemed there at all when I visited.
When she had in there in mind I'd asked her why she hadn't been able to foresee the spider attack and her answer had worried me.
The Seers of this world were not allowed to know the time of their own death. It was the one thing they never saw and this meant that Luna should of died that night.
Getting that piece of news had spent me right back into the Forbidden Forest. I'd encountered the spiders again only I'd been the one hunting them and I'd had far more success than they had.
I had indeed made the forest burn.
It turned out that the webbing the spider's used was quite flammable so I hadn't needed to use fiendfyre instead blasting curses and other fire based spells had set the forest alight.
Like most creatures the acromantula greatly fear fire so once I had started burning everything in sight the eight legged freaks had begun to panic and that was what allowed to beat them. Had they been able to organise they could of used their superior numbers to easily defeat me. However due to the flames they couldn't and so I had been able to pick them off one by one.
I used the Dark Arts to kill I called upon my knowledge of curses to bring ugly death to the spiders. I even used the Torture Curse a few times which I didn't regret one bit and was only legal to use on human beings anyway.
Attacking the acromantula (perhaps even wiping them out) was an action that was impossible to hide but if anyone had put two and two together and figured that I was behind the pest control then they weren't saying anything
Not even Neville had said anything and he should know given that he'd wanted to help me but I'd foolishly decided to deal with the acromantula myself.
Perhaps that was why he was strangely quite during today's Divination lesson. Maybe he'd wanted to get in on the action as well or perhaps he was angry at me for putting myself in danger. Its hard to tell with teenagers they get emotional over everything and it rarely makes sense
Thankfully he wasn't letting his feelings get in the way of the practical exam we were currently taking which was good as my grade for the year would have been badly effected if he'd decided to kick up a fuss.
Trelawney had supplied Tarot cards to the class and we were using them to give readings to the other students as they asked questions about their love lives, future success and so on.
Rather oddly Trelawney had drawn the Death Card for Harry Potter three times which was odd because there was only suppose to be one of that type of card in the pack.
Had it been any one but Potter I would have worried but the 'Seer' who taught this class was always predicting his death. As for the three death cards well someone must of put to many cards in one pack.
The school bell rang and I smiled. I'd been able to avoid being given a reading and to pass the exam I just needed to show that I could interpret the cards and I'd done that more than once today so I was in the clear.
Or so I thought
I'd made it all the way to the ladder before the teacher called me over.
"Damien you haven't had your reading yet" reminded the Professor
Trelawney had me sit down with her and told me that I was going to get a full reading form her.
In her mind this was some sort of treat but to me it was something to be avoided I was just about to make some excuse when suddenly everything started to get darker and the normally very warm classroom chilled quite a bit.
"Stay sitting. Shuffle the cards and then cut the deck".
Trelawney's voice didn't sound quite right, it was as if someone or something else was speaking through her.
Obeying the voice I very carefully shuffled the deck ensuring that the cards were neatly arranged and then I divided the pile of cards as I was told to. They felt heavy in my hands as if weighed down by some force that I couldn't see.
Once I laid the pack down I found myself frozen the spot. I'd lost the ability to move my body and despite how worrying this was I couldn't even panic. All my attention was on the cards.
The first card drawn was the Fool reversed. I knew that if the card was reversed that its meaning changed.
"The Chosen One has come with great fanfare to save the wretched above all others" said the voice that didn't belong to Trelawney.
Chosen One. Wasn't that Potter's future title? And who were the wretched? The Muggleborns perhaps they would certainly feel wretched if things kept going the way they were now. Or did she (or the thing using her voice box) mean people who are wretched because they were bad people rather people who had wretched lives due to those bad people?
The second card drawn was the Emperor in reverse
"Lead by the Blinding Lord who sits upon a throne of ignorance."
Blinding Lord well that could be Dumbledore or Fudge if the ignorance part mattered most. As for the blinding part well Dumbledore's reputation did blind a lot of people.
The third card drawn was the Devil and it was the right way up.
"Against the Dark Master and his slaves they will clash."
Order of The Phoenix verses Death Eaters and their master was my guess.
The fourth card drawn was the Justice in reverse. Odd that all these reverse cards should be showing up as I had carefully shuffled the deck.
"While the Watchmen look away, the Judges are bought with gold, and the Scribes author deceptions."
That sounded right the Death Eaters controlled most of the money in this world and a lot of them could bribe their way out of trouble. As for the author deceptions well that could be the Daily Prophet. That paper was less truthful with people that I was.
I noticed that The Emperor, The Devil, and The Justice cards had formed a triangle around the upside down Fool. I assumed that this meant that everything revolved around the reverse fool which could be representing Dumbledore. That made sense as he always seemed to be involved with things.
The fifth card drawn was then drawn it was Tower
"Unknown to them a Traveller has come and placed a Mason to demolish the monolith they stand upon."
Wait hold on the Traveller had told me that he wasn't pushing me into any course of action that would result in me becoming a regime changing Dark Lord.
Then again maybe he'd been lying or perhaps whatever force it was speaking through Trelawney now was trying to make me think that. There could be other beings like the Traveller who wished to mess with mortal affairs.
The sixth card was then drawn and it was the Chariot the right way up
"He who has experience beside youth, emotion beside control, domination beside compassion, and power beside mercy. He will charge ahead and the discarded will follow in his wake."
It all made sense to me I had far more experience than someone who looked my age should do and I had far better emotional control than my peers (well nearly always) I wondered how much mercy and compassion I actually had but its often hard to see your own better qualities.
As for the last part well the Outcast group I'd gathered around me were the discarded ones. They were the ones mostly ignored and often forgotten about. Or at least Neville, Ginny and Luna were.
Susan and Hannah were somewhat popular but they more like informants than real members.
The seventh and final card was drawn and it was Judgement
"He will stand before the Fallen Lord, The Dark Master, The Watchmen, The Judges, The Scribes, and all the others that stood by and took no action. He will deliver to them all Judgement."
Then everything spooky stopped and I breathed out heavily. Trelawney seemed to come out of the trance and she took a look at the cards.
"I'm sorry Damien the inner eye can sometimes cause one to miss the present".
Luna was living proof of that but in Trelawney's case it was an excuse to cover up that she was often passing out and therefore missing the present.
"Was your reading successful?" she asked.
I could only nod in reply.
The 'Seer' looked at the odd pattern the cards had made.
"Well I think we can safely say that you have mastered the cards. I've never seen a reading so... artfully arranged".
A bit of an understatement really.
"I foresee that your grade for this year will be a good one" 'predicated' Trelawney.
Given that she was the one who gave us the grades that wasn't much of a predication but still it was nice to know that my grades wouldn't suffer.
Not that my grades were a big concern of mine right now. I was far more worried about the 'exam' I'd just taken rather than what mark I'd get for them.
I took finally look at the way the Tarot cards were positioned in the hopes that I could commit them to memory, or at least recall them clearly enough to viewed in a Pensive, before the teacher started put them away.
After that I started to wander the castle in a bit of daze. I had intended to go to the Hospital Wing in the hopes that Luna could offer me her opinion on the Tarot card reading but my feet had other ideas I ended up in the Astronomy Tower.
Looking out at the landscape I noticed that sun had set and that the moon was up. The reading hadn't taken that long but it looked as if hours had passed. I must have been walking for a while.
I also noticed that the moon was full so when I heard a faint howl I knew that this time it might not be the normal kind of wolf that was making them.
A memory of something said a while ago came to the surface. I remember that Luna had told me that at the end of this year I would have to do something. I was starting to get a good idea about what the thing I do was.
I'd bet my entire fortune (which was a lot of gold) that Potter had somehow ended up outside and that Lupin was out there too. I also bet quite a bit of gold that he hadn't his Wolfbane potion either.
But why was the Boy-Who-Lived out there? Was he alone?
I berated myself. This was not a time for questions, this was a time for action.
Calling upon magic not of this world I teleported myself down to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
The School Grounds. Hogwarts. The Wizarding World.
Once I arrived I had to avoid a falling tree that my magic had caused to collapse as the form of teleporting I'd used required an exchange of matter equal to my mass to appear at the location.
I imagined that the school caretaker would later be wondering how part of tree had found its way up to Astronomy Tower but that didn't concern me right now as I had other things to deal with.
Following the howls I entered the forest proper and I stumbled across a strange scene. I was nearly spotted but I found a place to hide were I could still see what was going on.
A group of three black robed Wizards (Death Eaters I assumed) had captured the Golden Trio and also dealt with Lupin in his werewolf form. The Defence teacher wasn't moving I worried that he might be dead.
"I'm sure I heard something" said one robed figure with a male voice "sounded like a tree falling over".
"Then go check it out" said another Death Eater "but be careful there's more than werewolves in these woods".
A posher sounding voice then said "and be quick about it, the Master will not thank you for the delay".
There was only one creature that Death Eaters called Master and that was Lord Voldemort.
My insight was confirmed when a forth Death Eater appeared carrying a bundle of cloth like it contained something very valuable.
"We have the boy" said the forth Wizard in a trembling tone of voice "there's no time to check we must start now!".
This was worse than I had thought. This wasn't a case of Harry being in danger due to Lupin not taking his potion. Potter and his friends had been kidnapped by Death Eaters.
I guessed that Lupin must of seen the Death Eaters on the Marauders and gone to rescue Potter but the full moon had come. It also seemed that none of the other staff knew what was going on otherwise these woods would not be suitable for the Death Eaters to use.
Why they hadn't gone to the Graveyard in order to bring back their Dark Lord I didn't know. Perhaps they didn't want to risk moving Potter on the off chance he was able to escape. That made sense to me as bringing Tom Riddle Senior's bones here would be far simpler than moving a prisoner. But since when did any Wizard Dark or otherwise do things the sensible way?
I pushed aside my musings and focused on what was going on right now I had to come up with a plan not try to figure out the motives of insane inbred magical terrorists.
"Bones of the Father you will restore your son" one Death Eater was saying.
Knowing that I had to do something now I leapt into action hoping that surprise would be enough to counter the numbers I had to face.
Bombarda Maxima!
Using a spell capable of bringing down walls. I sent Death Eaters flying as I blasted the cauldron that had been set up for the ritual sending bits of metal flying and burning liquid into the air.
Only the Death Eaters had been close to the cauldron so there was no risk to the Golden Trio.
Avada Kedavra!
A Killing Curse was sent my way but I was in motion so it missed. I ducked down and saw that only one of Mort Munchers was still standing. He'd been closer to the prisoners so the blast hadn't done him as much harm.
Knowing that I had keep attacking, or I'd be dead before I reached the captives, I used another curse not caring that it was a Dark Arts curse.
Sectumsempra!
The Dark Arts spell hit one of the Death Eaters he wasn't fast enough to bring up a shield, perhaps he had been too hurt by the short lived explosion. The Dark Wizard went down screaming, badly hurt but still alive.
For a few seconds I just stood there marvelling at what I had done. I'd just prevented the return of Voldemort and defeated four Death Eaters. By myself and in a matter of seconds.
Granted surprise had been on my side and that cauldron had contained something flammable but still I'd done something very impressive.
As I stood there surrounded by fire and bodies (which was becoming a habit for me since this was the second time in a fortnight I'd spilled blood in this forest) My mind suddenly went back to the Tarot card reading.
It seemed that some tool of fate had decided that I would be the one to destroy this corrupt and evil civilization. That I was to be the one that would led those without power to knew heights the proof of that was all around me.
That was when it hit me. I'd just killed three people, maybe four if the one bleeding on the ground didn't make it, and worse the Golden Trio had seen me do it.
Knowing the Wizarding World as I did this meant I'd either be getting another Order of Merlin First Class or I'd get a special kiss. It really depended on who got here first.
If it was the Ministry then even I might not have enough money to bribe my way to freedom. However if it was Dumbledore then I'd likely end up being rewarded but I'd also become more under his thumb as he could easily get me into trouble for these deaths.
For a few seconds I wondered if I should just cover up the scene as best I could and wipe the memories of Potter but there was no need as the three teens had been knocked out the entire time.
I checked out the rest of the scene and discovered that Lupin was indeed dead.
There was so sign of Voldemort. If his physical body had been destroyed then he would of returned to his spirit form. If so he must of fled very fast while the curses were being thrown about otherwise I would of seen him or he might be inhabiting the body of some animal. Either way there was nothing I could do about Riddle right now (or at least nothing that I could think to do) and I had other concerns.
The still living Death Eater was the only witness to the scene (aside from Riddle) and if I didn't want anyone in the castle or the Ministry to know that it was me who had saved the day then that witness had be dealt with. I walked over to the bleeding Death Eater and aimed my wand but I couldn't make myself kill the man. Killing to stop Voldemort coming back to life was one thing but killing a defenceless person was another.
It was stupid of me not to end this man's life he wasn't likely to survive much longer anyway but I didn't have time to convince myself as I knew that someone must of noticed the fight as it had taken place near the boundary.
I wiped the man's recent memory and then freed the Golden Trio from their bindings. I also used the Death Eater's wand to make the Dark Mark appear as that would ensure that the woods were searched and that the students would be found.
Potter was already waking up and I could hear voices in the distance so I ventured deeper into the forest intending to call on Tizzy so she could give me a lift back to the school once I was out of sight.
I could only hope that I could away from the scene undetected. If all went well no one would ever know that I had even been there perhaps not even Voldemort as it was unlikely that he had been in any state to get a good look at my face while losing his body.
Then I wondered if I had simply delayed the Dark Lord's return.
There were more Death Eaters out there I was sure of that and Riddle only needed one to aid him in returning to physical form. He could have made other plans to return to power.
Realising that I was heading very deep into the forest I called upon Tizzy to take me to one of the empty rooms near Ravenclaw Tower. I needed to get to the Tower quickly as tt was important for me to be seen by my House mates tonight, as that way I'd have an alibi.
With a short, sharp crack my Elf got me out of the woods and back home. Only rather than go to the Tower I headed for the Hospital Wing as it was vitally important that I speak to Luna at once. I needed answers, mostly about that Tarot card reading as my own interpretation could be wrong. I was sure that Luna would know as she could see things far more clearly than I could. And if she couldn't well I still had one more resource to call upon.
I knew that the Traveller couldn't be the power I'd felt during the reading as it just wasn't his style he had no need to be cryptic but hopefully he had some answers.