Chapter 10: Nicolai Wanbosi

As it turned out, the magical trail of the beast disappeared after a few hours but they were able to get a fix on the location after they portkeyed away. The wizards and vampires had some sort of whistle that controlled the beasts and they disappeared just before dawn leaving a slew of dismembered bodies behind. Harry and Lillian had stayed awake after that, carefully watching the blue dot on their magical map until it disappeared. Their earlier hypothesis turned out to be correct. The trail had disappeared near Drumard, the very place the intended to search next.

Three days had passed since and the two elementals had spent all that time combing the entire area in and around Drumard. Harry could sense there was something there but they had been unable to find any sort of magical wards. The likely hood that Wanbosi was hiding under the fidelius was becoming more likely but they continued their search anyway. Lillian was of the firm belief that a man who believed himself to be victorious already would not take such extreme measures to hide himself. They just had to find the ward stone to understand what kind of wards they were supposed to be looking for and then they would find his hideout. Harry was inclined to agree with her but he still had his doubts.

Unlike Dublin, which still had survivors and corpses, Drumard and the country side were devoid of any signs of life. Apart from a few bird sightings, there was no trace of any other species for miles. Long stretches of empty greenery would usually be described as beautiful or breath-taking or scenic but in this case, even the trees were beginning to yellow and die; the sun shone bright but its light could not penetrate the gloom that had settled almost all over the world. Harry and Lillian were cruising through the town on flying brooms once again and they were talking in whispers even though there was no one to hear them. Raising their voices a bit made it echo around the dead town which only amplified the suffocating presence of gloom.

"Clothes," said Lillian.

"I understand," Harry replied. "Witches have surprisingly poor taste in clothing."

Harry and Lillian were discussing what they would miss most about the muggle world and why Voldemort was an idiot for not being more aware of their great achievements; like cheese burgers. Wizards didn't even know what a burger was.

"They just have the same robes with different patterns and colours," Lillian grumbled. "It's so depressing!"

"It doesn't bother me at all, but it is weird that the men are almost always dressed in black, boring robes."

Lillian scoffed. "You were those all the time."

"It matches my personality."

"And now you're in blue jeans and a grey shirt. What does that tell you?"

"I'm evolving," Harry smirked. "So robes are the only thing that bothers you?"

"Underwear," Lillian added disgustedly. "They sell only these granny type underwear and let me tell you, every muggle born girl can't stand to enter a panty shop in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade. We feel like burning our eyes out."

Harry laughed. "That's interesting," he said. His glanced at her and smiled mischievously. "So which one are you wearing right now?"

Lillian rolled her eyes. "The racy-est thongs you'll ever lay your eyes upon," she mocked seductively. She couldn't keep the act up and burst out laughing at Harry's face. He was definitely affected by that! "I'm sure you know what panties look like Harry," she said.

"Yea, well," Harry muttered. "It's not exactly a mystery."

"You want to see mine?" she asked, winking at him.

Harry reigned in his hormones and raised his eyebrows in apparent disinterest. "I'm sure they're the same as any other girls. If you fancy a flash then who am I to complain."

"Is that so? Well, I suppose the ice forming on your broom handle indicates nothing I guess."

"What else do you miss," Harry breathed, wanting to change the topic.

"It's your turn," Lillian smirked.

"Hmm, pizzas and movies I'd say. I've seen a few on the telly during the Dursley days and they're a hundred times better than looking at moving photographs. The pizza I had…. Oh!"

"What?"

"I have seen you in your panties," he smirked. "That was the same day I gorged on pizzas and burgers too."

"Those were decent ones and why did you remind me of pizzas," sighed Lillian. "That Riddle is such an arsehole!" she cursed. "Attempting to destroy the world because of his damn superiority complex!"

They finished their round of the town and guided the brooms towards the bogs. Maybe they would chance upon something there, although the last three trips had been a bust. They were talking in relaxed tones and joking about the war but it was the way they had chosen to deal with all the depression. It was Lillian's idea to laugh about it and it had helped keep their spirits high.

"Well he actually wants to rebuild it in his image," Harry corrected.

"Death to fashion is his motto," Lillian grumbled.

"You seem really sore about this whole fashion thing."

"I like opening my wardrobe and finding a multicoloured paradise in there. And now I don't fit into any of my old clothes. There's only so much magic can do."

"You have filled out that's for sure," Harry agreed. "Not fat, just grown," he added quickly. "It's appreciation!" he said wincing at her sharp expression. "I never expected you to have a clothes obsession too."

"It's not an obsession. It's called having good taste."

"How does an overflowing wardrobe qualify as good taste?"

"You're a man, you wouldn't understand. And the fact that you've been wearing the same shirt for the last three days has been bugging the hell out of me."

"It's clean, it doesn't smell and it looks good. What more is there to it? No one is even there to judge and you know how much I care about that!" he said sarcastically.

"Urgh, you're just incapable of understanding!"

"What do you mean incapable. You're just obsessed and unwilling to admit it. They're just clothes Freckles."

"And you are unwilling to admit that you have no idea what you're talking about. You think you're the highest authority on all things! Yeah, you're a bloody genius and all but can't you admit you know nothing about why women like clothes?!"

"Explain it then," Harry demanded.

They had stopped flying and were hovering in the middle of the forest.

"I won't. Not unless you admit that you are wrong."

Harry scoffed.

"Well then, let's continue our search for this manic," Lillian said angrily.

"Whatever," Harry said through clenched teeth.

They continued their journey and four hours later, they were still maintaining a stubborn silence even though both of them had come to realize that their argument was silly but neither of them wanted to say it first. Both were waiting for the other to admit it first.

Their flight took them over the marsh lands over which they to fly through thick mist which sent shivers down their backs which wasn't because of the sudden chill. Their argument was quickly forgotten as soon as they entered this spooky part of the forest.

"Why did we never come across this before?" Lillian whispered, moving herself closer to Harry. Her body had unconsciously increased her body temperature, keeping it at a constant temperature which she enjoyed.

"We decided to expand our search grid remember? This is five miles further out."

"Perfect place for a hideout don't you think?"

"Keep a look out. There could be detection wards here," Harry cautioned.

"Do you feel anything with your magic?"

Harry had his magic spread all around him looking for the faintest signs of foreign magic. "Nothing," he murmured. His face was a mask of concentration.

The sunlight was blocked out in the mist and the sound of birds, insects and wind had vanished from their surroundings. Underneath them was a dark outline of grass in the midst of a vast expanse of boulders and marsh.

Lillian didn't and couldn't cast a spell around her, which would help her detect wards, because of the worry of magic being detected. The magic Harry was using was too ambient to be detected by wards.

Suddenly Harry jerked his broom to a halt, his eyes widening in surprise and then realization.

"Quick, get back!" he hissed urgently. Lillian mentally got into a combative mode and turned her broom sharply and zooming after Harry.

They stopped a couple of minutes later and Harry pulled his bag and began to rummage in it.

"What wrong!" Lillian asked worriedly. "What did you detect?!"

"The grass," Harry said quickly. He finally pulled out his invisibility cloak and threw it towards Lillian. "We crossed a point a little ahead, where the grass was brighter and longer around the marsh. That is a clear sign of magic and that means we crossed some sort of ward and it has been expertly hidden."

"What!"

"Put the cloak on!" Harry said.

"And you're not coming under it?!"

"Just put it on, I'll explain!"

He watched her disappear from sight and he cast a powerful disillusionment charm on her wand. "Follow me and listen," he said to the invisible girl. "The fact that I didn't even detect the ward means that the magic required to power it is tremendously low. Almost like my ambient magic. It is also ridiculously easy to disable which means it is a detection ward tied to an object and not a person. This object is basically an alarm and the ward we just crossed has probably collapsed. Someone is going to come to investigate and I'm going to give myself up."

"Are you out of your darn mind?!" Lillian hissed furiously right into his ear.

Harry winced at the, loud to his ear, voice. "You will follow me and stay hidden unless you absolutely have to show yourself. This is our ticket to finding this hideout."

"And what if the people who come want to kill you, not capture you?" Lillian asked sarcastically. This was a terrible plan and she was a little angry he didn't even discuss it. "Obviously they won't succeed but our presence will be exposed and our mission will be blown to hell!"

Harry gaped at her. He really hadn't accounted for that but he was quick to come up with a solution. "They capture muggles and use them as bait for those creatures. It stands to reason that if they think I am a muggle who wandered into a bog, they will capture and not kill me."

With that thought Harry quickly landed on a patch of solid ground and handed his bag and broom to Lillian. Or rather he held them up and waited until the invisible Lillian stretched out her hand from under the cloak and waved her now visible limb at Harry asking him to hand them over. They disappeared into her extendable bag under the cloak and Harry quickly schooled his expression into one of a lost, frightened muggle. It was easy with his growing command over occlumency.

But with the thick mist all around him, he had to be careful to keep his feet on solid ground. He even stopped using his magic to detect other magic and focused on keeping up his act and stumble along the narrow path.

The invisible Lillian was breathing slowly and carefully, her entire body was tense with anticipation and tension. If Harry was right and they had actually crossed a detection ward and that the difference in grass colour and length was more than just a natural phenomenon, then a fight was going to happen no matter what. A battle was going to take place and it was either going to be now or sometime in the next couple of hours. The end of the mission was already in sight and the only question that remained was what kind of an end was it going to be?

She watched Harry stumble through the mist and she hovered silently behind him. Suddenly a thought struck her. Was this cloak enough to hide her from magical detection? A homenum revelio would be enough to ruin her cover. She voiced the thought to Harry quietly.

"The cloak is special," Harry whispered back. "Its magic is too powerful and it essentially wipes you from this existence making you completely undetectable. They won't find you unless you want to be found. Now don't make a sound."

Fifteen minutes later a sound of something cutting through air whizzed towards them and immediately Harry found himself surrounded by five vampires. Lillian flew higher but close enough to keep things visible.

Harry's eyes widened in fear at the sudden appearance of the vampires. "Please, please help me," he whimpered. "I've been lost in the bog for a whole day. Please help me sirs."

Lillian gaped at the acting.

"Look at this Angelo," laughed one of the vampires. "A pitiful human has found his path into our den."

Harry whimpered and backed away. His retreat came to a halt when he bumped into a six and a half feet tall vampire, flashing its gleaming fangs at its prey.

"You have terrible luck boy," hissed the vampire. "When the entire muggle species is hiding from us, you decide to give up your delicious blood on a silver platter!" The vampires roared with laughter.

Harry gazed into the predatory vampires eyes with dread.

"Let's take him back."

"Or we could drain him and eat him," drawled another.

"The master will want to know," the vampire called Angelo said.

The six and a half feet tall vampire clamped his slimy fingers around Harry's neck and lifted him up.

Harry choked on the grip and suddenly the vampires sped away. Lillian was alert and she followed them at high-speed. She was terribly anxious for Harry and never once let her focus go astray. She kept a small distance between them until the mist began to thin out and a large building came into her line of vision. It was a seven floor and very wide building. It was almost like a fifty floor apartment building fallen on its side.

The vampires threw Harry on the ground near the main entrance door and Lillian lowered herself to the ground and slid of the broom as carefully as possible. With her feet on the ground, she pushed the disillusioned broom into her bag. The door was opened by a wizard. Lillian knew it was a wizard because he wasn't painfully pale like the vampires. They dragged Harry inside and Lillian followed, her rubber soled shoes which was always silenced when they left the confines of their tent, didn't make a sound.

The hurried through a large hall with dusty chair haphazardly strewn all over, into a corridor with dilapidated walls, thorough a door which had stairs leading to the basement.

Harry had to suppress his disgust and fury at the sight in the basement. The wide and long room was lined up on both sides with steel cages and their insides were crowded with miserable looking men and women. Their eyes were filled with anguish and their torn clothes hung loosely over their thin and frail bodies.

"Victims of the experiments of Nicolai Wanbosi," Lillian raged in her mind. She was not going to leave this place unless Wanbosi was burned to ash and his remains thrown into an active volcano.

The vampires shoved him into a cage with space enough to let him fit and shut the cage door with a loud clang. "The master will be seeing you soon human," the vampire chuckled.

Harry waited until they disappeared up the stairs. "Stay hidden," Harry whispered. Lillian didn't reply.

"Prayer is pointless in this hell son," a middle-aged man said to Harry.

Startled Harry looked at this man. He wore a shirt that was crumpled and ripped in several places, and pants that were tied with a thin rope to hold them on his thin hips. His bones were visible and scars could seen under his shirt, on his back and torso. His hair was unkempt and long with more grey than black. Harry doubted this man was beyond forty but now he looked like he was sixty.

His eyes adjusted to the dim light and he looked at the dozen or so prisoners in the cage with him. There were children among the men and women too.

"I wasn't praying," Harry said, dropping his scared muggle act.

"W-why aren't you frightened?" a young women asked him. Her eyes were rolling in their sockets rapidly and Harry frowned.

"She's been in the experiment room," the man explained sadly. "God only knows what potions they shoved down her throat this time." He shuddered, remembering the horrifying effects of the potions he too had been forced to drink.

"What do these potions do?"

"They are horrible most of the times," a teenage boy said dully from the back of the cage. "And sometimes they do nothing."

"Horrible?"

A couple of girls burst into tears. The trauma was too fresh and too raw in their minds.

Harry tried not to gag at the horrible smell that permeated the entire basement. Human excretion mixed with vomit, body odour and death. He used magic to dull the smell entering his nose and fell silent. There was not much use in talking to these people. They were too traumatized to give him any vital information. The only one who was relatively sober and sane was the middle-aged man. He was probably one of the newer prisoners.

"Tell me more about the master," Harry asked. He doubted any of them knew his name was Nicolai Wanbosi.

He had to ignore the shudder of fear that ran through everyone around him and tune out to the increasingly loud sobbing.

"He's…" the man trembled. "He's a monster," he whispered and turned away from Harry. He was having a panic attack and Harry stepped away. Staying in this depressing cage was pointless. He had a choice; he could either escape and find Nicolai and kill him or wait for the vampires to bring him to the Wanbosi. Still it wasn't guaranteed that he would be brought to Wanbosi just yet or ever. If his cover as a muggle was believed then he could just as well be tossed to the vampire-werewolf hybrids or experimented upon by Wanbosi's underlings. On the other hand, if he escaped then Wanbosi might get suspicious and escape before they could capture or kill him.

Harry closed his eyes and weighed the favourable outcomes and decisions in his mind. A couple of minutes later he came to a decision and snapped his eyes open. "Start a fire," he whispered through the bars, moving closer to the cage door. He was sure Lillian was still there. "A small one at the entrance of the dungeon and unlock the cages before you do."

"Are you insane?" Lillian hissed.

Harry turned around in alarm, hoping no one heard her. "Keep your voice down! And unlock mine and a few more, that's all. Not all of them. Do it now and then I'll explain."

"You better have a good reason for this or else I'm burning your balls off."

Harry winced at the mental image and waited. Sure enough, a sudden fire broke out at the entrance and as soon as the prisoners took notice, a panic began to fester.

"Fire!" Harry shouted in panic. "There's a fire, we got to escape!" he shouted. The others in the cage immediately got up and rushed at the cage door which was conveniently unlocked and it crashed open as soon as the prisoners pushed it. Several other cages slammed open and the screaming and shouting grew louder as the other prisoners begged for help.

Harry ran towards the fire while the others ran away from it. He was completely invisible to the panic-stricken prisoners and some of them were even running with the hope of escape from this nightmare that they were caught in.

"Over here!" Lillian's voice came from ahead. Her hand was sticking out from under the cloak and he grabbed it and joined her under it.

"Good to see you," Harry said grinning. "Let the fire be and take us upstairs," he said. "Someone's going to be here to put of the fire."

Lillian's fingers curled around his wrist tightly and they disappeared in a flash of fire to the upper level where they appeared a mere second before a couple of vampires and wizards came around the corner of the corridor and dashed down to the basement. They let them pass and quickly went in the direction their enemies came from.

Their feet were easily visible as they ran through the endless corridors of this enormous building. There were no doors in the corridor they were running on and the staircase leading above and below was lying at the end of the corridor. It was the same on the next floor which they went on but this one was longer and at the other end, instead of stairs, there was a door. There had been no sign of any other occupants in their seven minute run in the building so they had to assume that the fire had been dealt with and his absence not detected. They stopped before opening the door and looked at each other, their faces tense and in anticipation of a battle.

"Do you hear anything?" Lillian asked Harry, while pressing her ear against the door.

"Nothing," Harry replied. "Let's go in, quietly."

Lillian turned the door knob slowly and the door clicked open with a sharp but soft click and Lillian carefully pushed it open to half and slipped in with Harry right behind her.

There was no one inside but a larger corridor, almost double in size, with several other doors embedded in the walls on both sides. They were like entrances to important places in the building and suddenly Harry remembered that they were dealing with a mad scientist. They had to be more cautious and not cause any incidents like the fire in the basement. If the vampires that brought him didn't realize he was missing, this could now be considered a successful infiltration of Nicolai Wanbosi's hideout.

"Disillusion and silent charms," Harry whispered, keeping his voice as low as possible.

Under the cloak two arms, wrists and hands moved uniformly to cast the spells on each other. Then they moved closer to each other and walked to the first door on their right. Harry reached first and he turned the knob of the door and pushed it open.

It was a storage room. There were rows of tables and they were stacked with sacks labelled in what seemed to be Russian, along with thousands of metal equipment that looked like something you expect to find in a green aliens flying saucer. But there was no one inside the dimly lit storage room. Harry and Lillian took a quick look inside before going back to the corridor and shutting the door. They moved to the adjacent door and Harry once again opened it and this time they were in a room which housed four vampires and two wizards around a table with several cards in their hands. The room was lit up by tube lights and had dull yellow painted walls. All six heads turned to the door when it opened and waited for someone to come in but no one did.

"Hello?" said the wizard frowning.

"Get your arse inside Stems," shouted one vampire in irritation. "Stopping messing about and tell us what happened in that shit hole already!"

But no one answered and the irritated vampire got up from his place, grumbling under his breath and walked to the door. It looked outside but saw nothing and frowned. "There's no one there."

"Then shut the door and come back," said a wizard. "Must have been the wind or else that doggie nose of yours would definitely smell something."

"Don't dare insult me human!" the vampire hissed and slammed the door in Harry and Lillian's face. There was no way the Wanbosi was one of these creatures and they moved on. The other three rooms were storage and were filled neatly with more odd equipment. One of the storage rooms had racks of organs and other biological items in glass jars that drew a disgusted grunt from both of them. Another staircase was present at the end of the corridor and this time they went all the way, six floors above, to the top floor.

This was a lavishly laid out floor with a ceiling almost thirty feet high and a corridor twenty feet wide covered with blood-red carpet all over. There were suits of armour and portraits of gruesome nature hanging on the walls on both sides. The ceiling had spaces made of glass through which the moon light was shining through, illuminating the otherwise dark corridor. There were a couple of doors opposite each other fifty feet apart and the corridor itself seemingly had no end.

They could not see the other end because of the darkness and they cautiously proceeded while keeping their ears alert for any traces of sound. It was not a leap to assume that Wanbosi was going to be in the room whose entrance screamed royalty and prestige going by the way the few floors they had seen were laid out. This was by far the one which radiated importance and sure enough, five minutes later, instead of staircases at the end, there was a massive oak double door entrance with two gold knockers in the shape of a serpents head.

Heated voices could be heard from the other side and Harry and Lillian exchanged significant looks. This was it, they said to each other silently. The only question was how to get inside.

Wanbosi was a tall man, touching six and half feet, with a thin body structure. He had medium length brown hair that was pushed back with a lustrous gel and his skin was almost as pale and white as a vampire as a result of staying indoors the most of his life. His cheeks were sunken in, highlighting his cheek bones and giving him a gaunt and hollow look which enhanced his cruel sickly pale grey eyes. He was currently arguing with the king of vampires because of the fire that had broken out in his basement and he was convinced it was the result of an external force and not an accident. He made his point clear by baring his teeth which were horrifyingly sharpened into fangs. Every single one of his tooth was shaped into a razor sharp canine. He told his prisoners that it was easier to bite into the flesh of a new-born and he wasn't lying.

Wanbosi was an inhumane beast of monstrous proportions and he deserved to die a painful death.

"My vampires have checked the basement and found nothing out of the ordinary, Nicolai," the vampire king said calmly. "If you're sure that it's impossible for a fire to break out in this building then, we'll send a squad of wizards to check it out. You, however, are going to stay here until the threat against your life is a distant memory."

"How did you find out about that anyway," Nicolai hissed. His voice was high-pitched and nasally.

The vampire king just gave the mad scientist a look that conveyed his annoyance with the man. It was just after that he heard a whoosh and the burst of powerful magic behind him. He barely dodged the spike of ice that sped past him but Nicolai was not so lucky.

'Elemental!' the vampire king thought in shock and amazement. 'How did he get past the wards on the door?' His questions changed to horror when he saw the spike of ice, dripping with blood, embed itself on the opposite wall, after piercing through Wanbosi's heart. Wanbosi just had an expression of surprise written on his face before the ice retracted and from within his torn heart, burst into more shards that burst out of various parts of his body sending a spray of blood all over the room and effectively ending any hopes of his survival.

Wanbosi was dead. Brutally murdered by Harry Potter.

The vampire king turned his red eyes towards the man standing near the door, who seemingly came out of nowhere, and was grinning with a wand held in his right hand and crackling ice extending out of his outstretched left arm.

Their eyes met. Sinister red met chilling green eyes glowing silver and the vampire king felt excitement well up inside him.

"You must be the silver eyed demon," he said softly getting into a battle stance.

Harry replied by raising his wand blindingly fast and let loose an exploding curse that blew apart an entire section of the room.