A/N: so this will be probably the last filler chapter before we go over to the final task after that there might be one or two chapters more and it will be finished.

XVI. Diary of Nightmares

Whatever the four Heads of House had anticipicated or dreaded when on the next day they asked the Headmaster to borrow his pensive out to them had all been shattered the moment the first silverly memory string had been released into the swirling misty water of the pensive. Looking now back on it, neither of them even knew what had given them the strength, or perversely forced them to watch each one of them till the last one:

The four teachers found themselves in Karkaroff's private chambers inside the large ship the school had come with. Said man was pacing angrily through the middle of the richly decorated room, a nearly empty bottle of firewhiskey on his desk. From the scenery they saw outside of his window they could easily guess that the first memory was from shortly after the schools had arrived for the Tournament.

"I had been so close, all those records I had fond in the back section of the library in Durmstrang all point to this. I have finally found Noah's legendary Ark, the one built so long ago and filled with ancient magic long since forgotten. All those fools who believe that the Ark is actually a normal ship were blinded by the false records which were put out to hide the truth from the mind of the simple people, then how could a man build a ship large enough in only a few days with certain instructions what to use and how it should look plus gathering a pair of all animals around the world? The answer is they can't!" Karkaroff said in a triumphant and hungry tone which made the four professor's exchange nervous glances, if all the accounts about the Ark were false then…

The Headmaster continued his pacing, only stopping by his desk to swing down a new glass of alcohol, his whole posture seemed stiff and agitated.

"Of course I should have thought that getting inside the Ark would not be easy, but I would have never thought that my greatest obstacle would come from two brats, but still there is something not normal about them, but why do I even feel surprised?" he asked himself.

"What is he talking about?" Sprout felt confused and all of her instincts yelled at her to get out of the memory, but she did her best to stay firm.

"I think we will soon know." Flitwick told her as they watched Karkaroff slump into the leather cushioned chair behind his desk, face pale as if remembering a terrible event.

"The scripts had been clear that the Ark posses maximal three 'Players' who could control it with their will, whatever they wanted the Ark would obey even the smallest thought, even creating new life or bringing it back from the dead as if nothing would have ever happened to them.

"Thi…this can't be ture…" Minerva said faintly, her hands shaking.

"Though if it is, then we are all doomed should the Dark Lord ever get his hands on it." Severus said gravely, but he had also thought about all of them, if the Ark with which Rose Cross had come with can give you anything you desire it could twist ones heart and fill it with greed. Even he felt now tempted to try getting inside and ask for Lily's return, but he banished that thought, it would not be right to do she was gone and it should stay like that.

"Unfortunately had the books not many descriptions about the 'Players', only that it gets inherited from generation to generation under the descendants of Noah himself, it seems that in this generation are that little girl and her cousin the ones. Thos golden eyes, booring into ones mind, that sickeningly sweet voice telling me that she will rip my heart and soul apart with my own sins." Karkaroff said with a shudder.

"Noah's descendants?" was the only thing the four Heads asked in shock before mist swirled around them and they found themselves in a new memory, this one seemed to be shortly after the first task.

Karkaroff was this time again in his private chambers, but the two witches needed to wrinkle their nose at the sight of the four empty bottles in front of him. Really the never of that man, he was the Headmaster and the only adult who had come with his students and he is sitting there getting drunk.

"My new attempts to get inside the Ark had failed and to my horror my Dark Mark is also getting noticeable again, so this proves it the Dark Lord is not gone and if I fail getting the Ark's powers I'm dead. That bastard Moody seems to also be bumping into me whenever I'm alone, so either I schussed or die, maybe I should try getting Severus to help me? He had also become a traitor in our Lord's eyes and I can't see how Malfoy could manage to talk him out of the trouble." Karkaroff said with an ironical laugh as the Heads of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw looked worriedly over at the younger wizard, they had almost forgotten that if You-Know-Who really manages to raise again that he will punish all those of his men who had escaped Azkaban and didn't search for him. They didn't even hear the comment regards Lucius Malfoy. "Those three teachers bother me, mostly that man who is related to the two Players of the Ark, something just doesn't feel quiet human about them, in this even that old bastard of an auror seems to agree with me, for I see the way he flinches whenever he looks at them with his magical eye." Those who knew Moody and liked him bristled at this, but the news that something about the members of the Walker siblings family made his shudder bothered them. "Also, there is this rumour that Malfoy's brat had angered that strange family and is suffered for a short time strange delusions, but were they really just that?" Again the teachers looked nervous and worried. "We all saw the strange white clown like form the Walker boy had taken up, that was not a magic known to wizarding kind and also those black butterflies, they fly around in the grounds at night, followed by eerie green light inside the Forbidden Forest." Severus needed to shudder as he remembered the stranger with the black butterflies from so many years ago, this really sounded more like a twisted coincidence.

The mist whirled again and the four found themselves inside the rose maze they had set up during the Yule Ball. Severus knew this scene, he remembered it pretty well and it didn't even surprise him that he still felt disturbed by the way the other wizard had behaved on that night, but then something happened he had not been aware of and would have felt happier if he would not have.

They saw Karkaroff leave the ball again, making his way briskly in the direction of the ship when there was suddenly an eerie music in the air, somehow a mix between a lullaby music and the strange sound one hears in a muggle circus shortly before the clowns arrive. The four professors just like the palling Karkaroff in the memory listened with tightening stomachs as slowly two singing voices joined in with the music, like a foreboding lullaby.

There was once a cradle.
There was another cradle within the cradle.
One become a twin.
And the other cradle disappeared within the mist.
A star that is shining brightly in the graveyard~
Disappears~

They all jumped when there was suddenly a large banging sound, Severus knew that it was the sound of muggle pistol's being fired, something Draco told him the twins of Rose Cross had. His insides turned cold when the shoot was shortly followed by a female scream and cold dual-laughter, this was the only way they could describe it, it sounded nothing like when two people laugh together, it was only one person with two voices. They followed Karkaroff as he creept closer to the source and much to their fright found Rita Skeeter sitting under a bush, rocking back and forth while mumbling something about gray skin, inhuman grins, golden eyes and crosses. The four teachers had not clue what that meant, but the way Karkaroff backed away from the woman, his whole body shaking, eyes wild with madness and they looked around like a cornered animal told them that he knew what she meant.

"No…no…leave me alone you creatures of hell." he said before running into the ship's direction.

Then come a new memory, this one made the four in the audience feel sick to their stomachs for now they were inside the room they had found the message, but that what frightened them the most was the way the man looked.

He was more dead then alive, his mind shattered.

"I…I can't take it anymore, the mark on my arm is now almost fully visible, since the ball have also even more from that cursed family appeared, there is no way out. That little monster is now constantly in my head, I can't get into the Ark. It is too late." Karkaroff said in a broken tone, his eyes glinting in a mad light, wand in hand his thin hands, the faint light it gave of made the sunken faced look like that of a Dementor's. "I did my best and failed, the Dark Lord can't scare me anymore, he is a joke a small little insect which one can ignore or just swat away."

"He had gone raving mad." Sprout noted in horror, how could they have not noticed that someone like him was walking around the students, he could have so easily hurt them!

"Each night when I go to sleep I stand in a sea of coffins filled with all of whom I have killed in the past, when the music plays they raise from their beds of rotten flowers and drag me under the sea which slowly turns into blood, ripping me apart while that damned girl laughs her cruel laugh. Why should she not, I know the secret of the Fallen Angels, damned by their own kin there is no place on this earth where I can flee from them, even if one is killed, they will return for they are part of everyone. There is only one way for me to rid myself from them, from the stain in my own body." Karkaroff laughed madly as he pulled out a knife and sliced over his palm, writing down the familiar sentence. "They will not get me, beware of you foolish Lord for you are an insignificant insect against the terror hidden out there." the maddened man laughed as much to the horror of his audience he placed his wand to his temple, mad laughter filling and resonating from the walls, mixing with an eerie music sounding familiar to them at which Karkaroff stopped laughing his grin making their insides turn cold. "You can't have me now, Avada Kedavra."

The flash of a green light and the body slumped to the floor as the two witches screamed in horror.

Neither of the three had spoken about what they had seen and gathered from those memories or how their worry increased regards Miss Parkinson's safety as well for that of Miss Lovegood who had also given voice to her desire for a transfer. Just what were the Walker siblings and their closest acquaintances involved with outside of the magical world? They did not know, but from that day on had they all a close eye on the students and staff who had come from Rose Cross, it also worried them when they noticed that the Golden Trio was again sticking their nosed into a situation they really should not for this time the threat sounded even more dangerous then those before.

Meanwhile also other, bothersome happenings had also not stayed still. While the Exorcists and Noah continued their vigorous search for the Innocence, not easy looking for strange happenings in a magical school, and finishing off Akuma whose numbers seemed to grow, but luckily no sign of Level Fours. Their other troubles arouse when both Allen and Road noted distastefully that now the strange teacher, whose soul according to Allen didn't match to his body, was also trying to get inside the Ark. There was also a hidden room which unfortunately only yielded a diadem with a dark soul tied to it, similar to what Allen noticed on Harry's scar, they got rid of the former one because the wailing was driving both Allen and Neah mad. Time was running short and not only for the arrival of the last task, but because of the suspicion that there were also the others on the task to find out who they truly are.

The Golden Trio was at the end of where they should look to get more information, the library was useless and both Ron and Harry refused, strange that the later still could hold out, to talk with Parkinson if she knew something even thought Hermione informed them that it seemed that Malfoy and his close group seemed to be doing the same as them. It also made their task harder that Sirius had done the incredibly foolish thing and set up a hiding place in one of the caves just outside Hogsmeade! Both Harry and Hermione were frustrated with his reckless actions, but there was nothing they could do to change the stubborn man's mind, somehow Hermione could see how he was the best friend of Harry's dad and said boy's godfather. So happened that they were the ones to secretly provide the man with food, though the task got a bit harder after Hermione in her moment of elf rights kind of insulted the house elves of Hogwarts about which she was later informed by Snuffless a.k.a. Sirius that she was the first one in the history of Hogwarts to ever manage that, she spent the day after that glaring at a smug looking Ron, he unlike Harry seemed to fail to notice the dangerous line on which he was threading till it was to late.

Things also started to turn slightly worrisome when the last task got revelled, a maze filled with things provided by Hagrid, Harry was sure that in that case would running thorough an empty maze would have been more preferable for all of them. He was also still worried about Sirius and thus did not notice the more guarded look Allen had on his face, not long ago had his eye activated when fighting an Akuma and seen the flash of the Killing Curse, felt a soul vanish and with the fact that one of the judges Barty Crouch Sr. seemed to be suffering from a strange illness was he bothered that he knew who had passed away, things were starting to turn bad and he had the strange feeling that the hardest part was still in front of them.

To be continued…