A/N: so I know that it had taken long, but after a while I needed to give up regards repeating the fact that I have to many ideas and need to get rid of some before they get tangled and believe me, when that happens is it scary. I can still keep it till now at planning length, but the notes are already ready for a fifteen fandom crossover. Also guess what I have a slight disgraphia.

P.S.: as I have mentioned in my older one-shot 'Stollen kiss' it will be tied in here, if you are curious about the things mentioned here you know for what to look.

XV. Touch of terror, sleep in silence

While the hidden spy of the Dark Lord was informing his master about the new standing of things and hoping for some guidance like a sinner thirsts for his God's words were others also moving around secretly under the guise of the night, one Exorcist and the two Noah continued their search for the innocence they were seeking.

"I really don't see why this place is called the Forbidden Forest, I had seen more dangerous ones while travelling with Gramps." Lavi said while Debitto still glared at Tyki, the two had almost gotten lost with their hunt for each other; well with the Pleasure being horribly with directions was it no surprise.

"Well, most wizards are quiet paranoid and suspicious by nature, they even have somewhat of a superiority complex." Tyki said in a knowing tone as he remembered a little incident some years ago when Mana was in his last year of school and chuckled.

"You had talked with Neah and General Cross about them?" Lavi asked intrigued, his studies would touch this world in full complexity only in like five years.

"Not exactly, I looked at some of my memories, you see my former host tended to visit his little brother in school." Tyki replied amusedly.

"You visited Neah?" both Lavi and Debitto asked before the later looked thoughtful.

"Though looking back at Bondomu's memories, yes you have visited here on occasions and whenever Neah come to the Ark was Wisely on the task to figure out the core of our brother's wand, once or twice we had been also dragged into this." the blackhead said while Lavi felt a small tinge of jealousy, it would be great if their clan could somehow inherit their memories to a new generation, it would make passing on their knowledge much faster.

"Yes, once I had been visiting shortly before the exams and talked with Neah and Cross." Tyki continued while his brother scowled again at the reminder about the redheaded General who had not only humiliated them, but also dumped his bills on the pair while Lavi shook his head at the news, nothing new there. "After Cross departed to have a 'chat' with Sirius Black who was again flirting with Maria who had been in the same house as the young lady Jasdero had gone to the Yule Ball with, one of the Tease informed me that we were being watched. So seeing that also Neah had departed to keep the damage at a minimum" both nodded in agreement at that, it was a sensible plan "have I decided to call the young man forth, no worries I did not hurt him in any way…well maybe his pride with that kiss, but nothing other."

"You did what?" exclaimed both Debitto and Lavi, the later feeling a bit strange seeing that Tyki had for a short time tried to get together with him.

"Yes, I'm still surprised that he did not put things together after the rumours about the Tease started spreading because he had seen them and of course I know that this body looks different well really close to how Neah looked as an adult, but I doubt that they had met after Hogwarts." Tyki said thoughtfully, it had been interesting seeing that boy from back then sitting at the staff table.

"Wait, that person is here?" Lavi asked, they needed to hope that the other will not figure out their secret.

"Why of course, he is the Head of Slytherin and teaches Potions." the Pleasure replied while slightly spreading his hands as the other two gaped.

"So nice to know." Lavi mumbled, nothing better then… ah yes, he was talking with a Noah who just like the smaller part of them was sexually perverse, ok no need to go there. "Now let's continue, we will look through this part of the forest, one mile from this spot onwards after that we head back to the Ark and continue tomorrow."

"Ok." the two Noah replied while Tyki called forth three Tease to go with them, for safety measures in the case of danger.

Neither knew that said professor was currently also remembering that day many years ago. He had pushed it away for so long, not even Lily nor Lucius had known that it had happened, but then why did the memories break forth from the prison he had banished them? It could not have been because Mana's adoptive son was here, but the things he heard about those black butterflies and the relatives of Mana's adopted son. He remembered when he had eavesdropped on Nicholas, Cross and that stranger, they had mentioned other siblings, but only at that one time. His face grew dark at the memory of that bastard and he could not shake the feeling off that he was missing something he should have noticed. This was all frustrating and it also worried him that Karkaroff seemed to have disappeared, did he take his suggestion to heart and fled? No, a strange, sickening feeling told him that this was not the case, Karkaroff may have been a coward at heart, but he still remembered that mad look in his eyes on the night of the Yule Ball. It had sent dread down his spine, the last time he had seen such a look was by Bellatrix which explains everything to a person who at least had heard about her. He had become obsessed with entering the strange thing with which the Rose Cross students had come with, 'Noah's Ark' he had called it, but that could not be possible. Most scripts which talk about the Ark talked about a large ship which was built to save Noah's family and a pair from each animal on the planet, glowing diamonds with a water like surface between them hardly counted as a ship, leave alone something man made. He didn't even know about any type of magic which could create such a thing, it was just not normal in his option.

A sudden knock on his door brought him out of his thoughts and musings.

"Enter." he called, wondering if was one of his Slytherin, would not have been the first time and he did tell them that whenever they had any troubles, no matter how little or not even school related, they could come to him anytime.

Dark eyes watched the mahogany door open, but anstead of one of his students entering were it his fellow Heads of Houses who come inside, their faces showing nervousness and worry.

"Severus, we are sorry for disturbing you, but we need to talk." Minerva was the first one to speak after all three of them had entered the office, the door falling shut behind them.

"About what?" Severus heard himself ask, his stomach feeling cold.

"It is because of Karkaroff's disappearance, something just doesn't feel right about it something just feels off." Pomona said nervously, she thought that living through the first regain of You-Know-Who and then three years with Potter getting constantly into maddening and dangerous situations would have hardened her, but this was not the case.

"That still doesn't explain why you three are here." sometimes he rally needed to wonder about his old professors if they had been always like this, hard to understand outside of a classroom.

"We want to find out what happened and were curious if you may know something more about what could have happened to him." Fillius said in his most kind tone, he didn't wish to give the younger wizard the feeling that they are asking him because of his dark past as a Death Eater. It had taken almost two years to get the man to spend time with them in the Teacher's Room and another four months that he joins in on the conversations and he would go freely wandless against Dementors before pushing the young man back into his isolation.

"I don't know much more then what most of you could see, he was nervous because of the mark getting noticeable again" Severus told them after a few minutes of staring intently at them, the news made the three professors even more nervous "and then there was his obsession with getting into the Ark of Rose Cross…he seemed to be obsessed with the idea that it was the legendary 'Noah's Ark'."

"But that is not possible, it can't be that." Minerva said while shaking her head, she had read about the Ark and this just didn't make any sense to her.

"I agree with Minerva on this, though it also kind of makes me wonder. Do you remember the things the Walker siblings and their closest associates were talking about, they talking about another war happening?" Sprout said as she looked over at Fillius, Maria, Twi and Edgar had been in his House.

"Yes, I remember mostly after Maria had fainted one day after a Hosgmeade weekend, but Poppy could not find anything wrong with her, only that her throat was a little bit sore, but that got better after three days." Fillius said, he remembered how strangely pale Maria's brother had looked when she lost her voice for those days and now that he remembered it after Maria's voice had returned it sounded much clearer then before.

"Let us first try finding out where Karkaroff could have disappeared to, after that we can put together memories and our knowledge about Rose Cross." Minerva spoke up suddenly.

"I remember that he often seemed to sneak around the sixth floor, there aren't many places one can go so we might find something." Severus spoke up as he remembered meeting the man two nights ago on that floor, the encounter had disturbed him, but similarly to so many things happening as of late he had no answer for the ground of his feelings.

"Then let's head out." Sprout said nervously, she was not a fan from walking around in the night in the darkened halls like she had been in the past, the Basilisk and Sirius's return from Azkaban had destroyed that for her.

Moody had finally finished relying the last days events to his Lord whom had looked intrigued about the news about the Ark and ordered him to find a way inside. This of course was easier said then done, but he needed to give his best failure was not tolleratable in any form or way. He was also warned to keep his eyes open for a large, shaggy black dog because that will be no one other then Sirius Black whom had still been not caught. Does one actually wonder? The ministry was filled with incompetent idiots who only go for money or power like his father who was now an obedient little puppet hanging from the ropes he had bound around him with Imperious. The wizard looked up once at the small patch of the night sky and full moon which could be seen through the small clear spot between the emerald leaves of the tall trees above him. It was getting late and it would be better if he gets back inside the school, if he should meet someone he could still say that he was making a safety patrol, thank Merlin that the original man was a batty old fool who saw dark wizards at every corner. He was just about to walk back into the castle's direction when suddenly the sound of soft scuffling hit his ears, keeping still he drew his wand and waited, but he did not except what happened next.

There on the shallow path leading up to the clearing he stood a child appeared, she could only been about six or seven years old so to young to be one of the students and the clothes were definitely muggle. How had that child gotten here? The next muggle infested seedling was more then a two days long trip away if one goes by broom so he had no clue how the child got there. He was ready to step forth and take care about the problem or just ignore it and let the monsters in the forest deal with it when something happened which made his blood turn cold. The child suddenly stooped, her face splitting into a grotesque grin, almost similar to that of those shadows.

"Found you." she sand in an eerie voice as suddenly something appeared in front of the child.

It was professor Camelot!

"I wonder whom you tried to bring back and got tricked little one, but soon whoever that person was will be set free." he said in a strange voice, the inhuman grin spreading over his lips, but what was even more frightening was what had happened after that.

"You will be brought back by me!" the child screamed, her face splitting in half, the skin and clothes ripping apart and a grotesque monster with unnaturally long arms, white face which was upside down, three eyes and two mouths on the palms of its head.

What was that horrible monstrosity?! Though then he saw something from the corner of his eyes which made him turn into the professor's direction, his skin slowly turned an ashen gray colour as if one would have doused him with it, eyes become cold and golden, but what scarred him the most were the seven crosses appearing on his forehead before both sides clashed with each other, the black butterfly flying away in a hurry and disappearing into the darkness. Though then Camelot held out his palm and it seemed as if there would be a small hole in his palm out of which even more of those creatures appeared, he took them between his ands and revealed a much larger kind. He had moulded them into a large one, striped purple and white with large black wings with small holes at the top and bottom which had the form you see on poker cards, on the torso only a large bonny mouth could be seen with a silver crown on top, both the butterfly and the monster let out inhuman shrieks as the battle continued. "The Devil exists and he is now amongst us, we all should beware form the bleeding cross." he heard the words of the message Karkaroff had written before committing suicide in his head… now he slowly started to see that the other may have not been as mad in the end as he had thought and now he had been confirmed that the Walkers and their siblings were not human, but monsters.

At the same time had the four Heads of Houses reached the correct corridor, after jumping in the right time from the staircase when it was about to move away when they were about to step down from it. As they remembered correctly that particular corridor had only five rooms, three broom closets and a storage room on it so the search went rather well, the rooms and two broom closets did not yield much of an information which they could use, but in the last one they had found a small wooden box filled with small flasks filled with a silverly substance…

…memories.

The find made them even more suspicious, why would Karkaroff take out some of his memories and hide them here, they were not even sure if those belonged to the disappeared man, but with the usage of Dumbledore's pensive they could easily check. Maybe it would even explain to them where the other had disappeared to, but before that they needed to still check the storage room. The door opened with an unsettling squeak which made both Minerva and Pomona grab a hold on Severus's arms who flinched as Fillius gave him a sympathetic look. Inside the darkened room which was only lighted by their glowing wands, they did not see anything out of the ordinary, beside that Flinch needs to clean the room out, but then they noticed something.

A feint metallic scent coming from one of the walls, the dust seemed to have been somewhat been whipped away in front of it, as was a trail leading from the door, they only noticed that when looking at that spot by the wall.

"I really don't like this." Pomona said in a nervous tone, she wished that they would have decided to search the corridor in the morning instead of so close to midnight.

"Neither of us does." Severus said while stepping closer to the wall, the smell had gotten stronger, there had been something there which someone tried to hide, it now all depended on how good that person was in charms.

"What are you doing Severus?" Minerva asked the other.

"I want to make something sure, it seems that someone may have used a concealment charm on this part of the wall, but he forgot to take care about the smell also which only started to appear later on. I think you all know what this smell is." he replied while holding his wand close to the wall.

"Blood…" Fillius said sadly, things were not reassuring regards the missing headmaster of Durmstrang.

"True, now I want to see if it is possible to bring that what was hidden back, if I fail then Fillius as our Charms Professor should try." Severus said, his wand still held out "Aparecium." he whispered at which the wand glowed, for a few seconds there happened nothing, but then slowly a message started to appear on the dark stones in brownish letters.

"The Devil exists and he is now amongst us, we all should beware form the bleeding cross." Minerva read carefully before exchanging dark looks with her colleagues. "We need to view these memories as fast as we can."

To be continued…