Disclaimer: Usually I write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but I find myself not really interested in doing so this time as it is very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am not making any money off of this story or any of the other stories I have written.
AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter 60: Identifying Demons
It wasn't until the end of January that Taliesin was able to set aside the time to finish going through the last of the memories that Dumbledore had listed as pertaining to Voldemort's immortality. While he waited for his brothers to arrive, he flipped through the notes he'd taken months earlier so he could refresh his memory. He'd just reached the end of his notes and found that he'd not written anything down while viewing Slughorn's unaltered memory that first time when the door to his office opened and his brothers strode into the room.
The mage glanced up at them briefly before he reached into the box of memories to pull out the last memory they'd viewed back during the summer and set it alongside the last four of Dumbledore's memories that they'd not yet viewed. He then pulled out several empty vials and raised his wand to his temple as he drew out several memories; starting with the conversation he'd had in second year where Dumbledore had told him that Voldemort had transferred some of his powers to Taliesin the night his parents died and the visions he'd had during his fourth year.
That done, he took a moment to label each vial before he tucked away his wand and pulled out two of Dumbledore's handwritten journals; one labeled as T.M. Riddle and the other as S.T. Snape. He passed one journal to Quatre and the other to Duo (both of whom would once again be watching over the office while the rest of them were viewing the memories). He then poured Slughorn's unaltered memory into the pensive before addressing the five teens.
"I'm going to start with the last memory we viewed as I hadn't taken any notes the first time we watched it and I want to be certain that I didn't miss anything important due to my internal panic at the time. The memories I pulled out are the ones of the visions I had of Voldemort during my fourth year along with the conversation I had with Dumbledore at the end of my Second year. I also added the riot caused by Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup game that I attended prior to my fourth year since that was actually a key event leading up to Voldemort's rebirth at the end of that year. The journals I passed the two of you are the two that I think are most likely to make mention of the horcruxes."
"Ya aren't gonna Zero-out on us again are ya?" Duo asked suspiciously as he eyed the swirling memory inside of the pensieve with mistrust.
"No. I was given irrefutable proof that the horcrux that once resided in my scar had died the day I was dumped on my private island in Japan. I'm guessing the only reason the remains of the soul fragment finally slipped free of my scar when they did was because I'd just had contact with another soul fragment and Trowa put just enough pressure to break it free of the weak shield that had held it in place since that day. If I'd still had a living soul piece in my head, I would not have survived the soul weighing ceremony I took part in on the morning of my coronation. So, no, I won't Zero-out again… though if you want to play with Zero all you have to do it let me know and I will let him out to play; he misses chewing on your braid."
"Ah-ha… no; that's alright, I'm good."
The other four pilots snickered at Duo's discomfort and quick refusal as the shinigami tugged on said braid as if to assure himself it was still there and still safe. Taliesin merely smirked as he gathered up his parchment notebook and a never-out quill and prepared to enter the memory that had led to him fracturing his own mind over the horror of realizing that he had been one of Riddle's horcruxes. Taking a deep breath, Taliesin waited for Heero, Trowa, and Wufei to grab hold of him before he reached out and stuck his hand in the pensieve.
An hour and fifteen minutes later, the four of them returned to the office and Taliesin had a pensieve look on his face as he returned that memory to its vial and placed his memory of the conversation with Dumbledore at the end of his second year in next. After they viewed that memory, Taliesin stood staring off into space for a moment as he thought about the three horcruxes he had faced. He then shook himself out of his thoughts and switched out the memories so that they could view the first of numerous visions he'd experienced before and during his fourth year along with the Death Eater attack.
The first one they viewed was the vision in which Frank Bryce was killed by Voldemort which was followed by the riot and the casting of the Dark Mark into the sky. After that there was a strange vision where Taliesin had been looking out of Nagini's eyes as she hunted rabbits and foxes in the graveyard (a memory that had been Obliviated before he'd written about it to Sirius) and a vision of Snape meeting with Voldemort to discuss a potion. As they came out of that fourth memory, Taliesin scowled as he considered it proof positive that Snape had been an evil git through and through (as if his other memories of the man hadn't been enough).
There were three more meetings between Snape and Voldemort as well as two meetings with Crouch Jr. and another of Nagini's hunting trips; only this time the snake had attacked a small child. The moment Taliesin saw the child die, he blanched as he finally realized exactly what kind of snake Nagini had been; something he'd not really paid that close attention to previously since he'd been focused on other things.
"Merlin's half rotting and flea infested underwear; his familiar was a fucking immature basilisk!" Taliesin ranted as they were thrown out of the pensive. "That low-down, good-for-nothing, rotten-little arse-wipe went and hatched his own fucking basilisk and who the fucking hell knows where the Merlin cursed Spawn of the Damned went to ground when that bloody bugbear buggering bastard kicked the proverbial bucket." Taliesin paused a moment before he spun on his heel and called out a sharp, "Dobby!"
It was a timid and nervous elf that popped into the room, the diminutive being sensing his master's ire through their bond. Taliesin visibly calmed at the sight of the cowering elf as he crouched down and opened his arms to hug the little creature close as he murmured, "I'm sorry I frightened you, Dobby; I'm not angry at you. I called for you because I need for you to fetch Seth for me; you remember him right? The big black cobra that hangs out with me most of the time? It is very important I speak to him right away. Once you bring him to me, I'm certain I saw some dust bunnies breeding under my bed this morning and would be grateful if you rounded them up and delivered them to Dr. Watanabe so he can run a few tests on them to see if they can be cloned since they are the puffskeins' favorite food after dead spiders."
The elf vanished in a heartbeat and returned with the requested serpent two seconds later before he vanished to round up the previously mentioned dust bunnies (bunny wrestling and rustling a favorite sport of house elves). Sending the elf to round up the dust bunnies was like sending a person on a week long, all expenses paid cruise to one of the more popular tropical island chains.
'Where'd that rude little serpent snack go! I was sunning myself on a particularly warm patch of sand and quite content to roast myself for another hour rather than freeze my tail scales off out here!' Seth complained irritably as he rose up and flared his hood threateningly.
'Enough,' Taliesin heatedly snapped back in parseltongue to the shock of the cobra; Seth used to the wizard being far more respectful and circumspect (and occasionally playful) when interacting with him. 'I would not have asked Dobby to fetch you for me if it wasn't important that I speak to you immediately.'
'I am listening, Speaker,' Seth stated as he instantly calmed down and gave Taliesin his full attention.
'How do I find a five hundred year old basilisk? Where would it go if it had no home? Could it cross the ocean if it had been hatched on an island?'
'Why do you seek another Spawn of the Damned, Speaker?'
'To destroy it before it kills again.'
'The Spawn of the Damned swim better than the larger swimmers on the bottom floor of the false lands you created for us in this ice stone house,' Seth answered after he rose back up and studied Taliesin closely as he swayed from side to side in and effort to look at the wizard out of both eyes at the same time. 'Extreme cold is deadly to them though and they avoid deep waters where the heat of the sun does not reach. They will live most anywhere that they can find warmth and food to eat. I can not tell you how to find the Damned; I heard no rumors of a living demon upon the sands of my home.'
'Thank you, Seth. I apologize for disturbing your sunbathing and will make it up to you by fetching some sand shrews for your next meal. Will you please ask the other snakes if any of them have heard of a basilisk living near their former homes? It is important that I find the foul creature quickly.'
'I shall ask them as soon as I return to the false desert.'
'Thank you, I will come find you this evening with your promised meal and to hear what you have learned,' Taliesin replied as some of the tension left his frame and he focused on his brothers as he called for Dobby's sister. "Winky?" The little female popped up a moment later and the wizard could see the pout her on face and Taliesin knew that she'd been hoping she could rustle up the dust bunnies beneath his bed herself. "Please return Seth to the desert room for me, he has an important task to carry out. When you finish with that, you can see if Dobby has finished catching all of the dust bunnies and if he has, please tell him to let them go so you both can catch them a second time before you take them to the clinic."
"Winky go now!"
And just like that both snake and elf were gone and Taliesin chuckled and shook his head fondly before he ran his hand over his face and sighed. He then glanced up at his brothers who were patiently waiting for him to explain what had just happened; noting the thinly disguised worry and open amusement on their faces.
"Sorry; the mere idea of facing another basilisk was a little upsetting; especially considering the fact that I don't know how long it takes for them to get as big as the one I killed down in the Chamber. There is a chance it died but I don't want to bet on it and be caught out later after it starts killing or petrifying a bunch of people. I was just asking Seth for information on how to find it if it still lives and he didn't know. He's going to ask the rest of the snakes for me though and I'll check back with him later tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. If you want to hear exactly what he told me I can pull out that memory later."
"Understandable," Wufei murmured as he gave Taliesin a hand up off the floor where he'd been kneeling to deal with Seth and Dobby. "When we are finished here, I will begin searching the internet for frequent unexplained deaths, high numbers of missing persons, or sudden unexplained decreases in animal populations during the warmer months as far back as the records go. I'll start with the former British Isles and then move onto mainland Europe."
"I'll have Wolfstar help you. We can also ask the prankster prats hanging on the wall in my sitting room if they recall what happened to Voldemort's familiar. There're only two more visions left to view as well as the memory of what happened the night my scar split open and spilled out the remains of Riddle's dead horcrux. After that we have the last four of Dumbledore's memories regarding his encounters with Voldemort."
"I'll go talk ta da wisecrackin' wallflowers," Duo offered as he dropped Dumbledore's journal on his manipulations and interactions with Snape so fast that one might have expected it to be a bomb instead of a book (not surprising since the journals were not the most pleasant of reads).
"I guess that's our cue to go see Wormtail's mistake," Taliesin mused as he switched out the memories and waited for the others before diving into the memory in question.
By the time they returned to Taliesin's office, Duo had already returned. Taliesin took a moment to finish writing down a couple of notes and switch out the memories before he turned to the shortest pilot and waited for him to reveal what he'd learned.
"They didn't know anything about any snake belongin' ta Voldemort."
"It was worth a shot and there still might be something in one of those two diaries. I can also ask the portraits of the former Headmasters and Headmistresses if Dumbledore ever spoke of Nagini in their presence when I see them about the horcruxes after we finish viewing the memories."
The last vision memory was of Snape delivering the partially completed potion to Voldemort along with the giant cauldron, the only parts missing being Voldemort himself, Riddle Sr.'s bones, Wormtail's hand, and the enemy's blood. In the memory, Snape had bragged about how he'd been breaking Taliesin's younger self over and over again on Dumbledore's orders and how he (Taliesin) was growing weaker all the time thanks to the special potions Snape had been slipping him. Taliesin had to stomp down ruthlessly on the spike of pure pleasure he got out of watching Snape get punished by Voldemort over that little tidbit; apparently, any potions running through his blood at the time of the ritual would have affected Voldemort the same way they had affected him.
That memory also let him know why Snape had suddenly stopped assigning him detentions in the two weeks leading up to the third and final task of the tournament; he'd been under orders 'to keep his filthy hands and diseased flesh wand to himself' (Voldemort's exact words) least he lose both to feed Nagini. The hideous dark lord homunculus then ordered Snape to purge Taliesin's body of all foreign substances prior to the final task so that he was properly purified for the ritual. Taliesin knew that Snape had not followed that particular order though because he'd not been given a purger until after the ritual and it had been given to him by Sirius; not Snape.
The four of them then dove into Taliesin's memory of the night his scar bled black tar, starting with the nightmare that had set him off; so they could understand the full sequence of events. Heero and Wufei had both been disturbed by all of the blood on the heels of the nightmare as well as by the foul crud leaking out of Taliesin's scar. At the same time, they could also better understand why he'd flipped out the way he had the day they first learned about the horcruxes. Weary after experiencing that night from a third person perspective, Taliesin mechanically tucked his memories into the box with the rest of the memories they'd already viewed before he turned his attention to Dumbledore's final four memories.
The first one was from two days after Taliesin had been thrown through time by his godfather; when Voldemort had sent back what was left of Snape in a matchbox. Taliesin was caught between wanting to vomit or celebrate once he realized exactly what was left of the man that had used and abused him for four horrible years. The note Voldemort had sent with the remains accused Dumbledore of training Snape in his own image and hinting that Snape's relationship with Taliesin had been parallel to the one that Dumbledore had had with Voldemort during Voldemort's Hogwarts' years. That had been a disturbing thought. As had the implication that the only reason Dumbledore hadn't been the one breaking Taliesin was because Voldemort had permanently damaged the older man's ability to perform sexually.
Taliesin was torn between feeling true pity for Riddle for the first time in his life, feeling grateful for what he'd done to both Snape and Dumbledore, being angry at Dumbledore for encouraging Snape's behavior, and feeling dirty from having seen a part of Snape he'd never wanted to see again and reading through the thinly veiled accusations that Voldemort had leveled at Dumbledore. He was tossed out of that memory wild eyed, shaking like a leaf, and trying to smother the insane giggles that bubbled up between hysterical sobs. They took a short break at that point; Taliesin in no condition to continue and Quatre needing time to mute the emotions he was feeling from the wizard. Duo and Heero remained to keep an eye on Taliesin, Trowa went with Quatre to watch over the empath, and Wufei went hunting for a calming draught in order to help Taliesin regain some control.
Spero and Spera flashed into his office when, after ten minutes, Taliesin still hadn't calmed down. The two phoenixes then began singing a soft, soothing song as they crowded onto the troubled and tormented mage's lap seeking his attention. The calming draught Wufei soon returned with in combination with the phoenixes' efforts knocked Taliesin out the moment he drank it and the three pilots shifted him shifted him to one of the couches in the sitting room with the two birds for company. The teens then returned to Taliesin's office to skim through Taliesin's notes and through the two journals while they waited for the other two to return and Taliesin to wake up.
When the others checked on the young king a couple of hours later, they found him surrounded by the three young centaur fillies. Caleo was kneeling on the floor beside the couch and resting her head against the arm of the couch as she gently combed her fingers through Taliesin's hair, Stella was leaning against the other arm and cooing softly as she held little James in her arms and tickled his belly, and Luna was leaning over the back of the couch watching Taliesin's sleeping face as she piped a soft tune on a pan flute. Both phoenixes were still perched on the wizard and twittering along to Luna's song in short bursts while Dobby and Winky watched the entire scene from their seat on the coffee table.
They didn't have the heart to disturb the peaceful scene and quietly slipped back into the office; leaving Taliesin to wake up on his own several hours later.
The not-quite-short nap did wonder's for Taliesin's emotions and he woke up feeling in control once more. He stretched languidly and chuckled quietly at the musical protests from the two phoenixes that had been sleeping on top of him. When he opened his eyes and found himself surrounded by far more warm bodies then expected, he sighed softly at the reminder that his emotions affected those around him. It took him a few minutes to slip free without waking anyone. He then conjured blankets for each of the napping beings and cast weak warming spells on them (more for comfort than for heat since the room wasn't that cold). Taliesin then headed back to his office where he found his brothers discussing his notes and a few things they learned from Dumbledore's journals.
"Feeling better?" Trowa asked as all five of them fell silent and glanced over at him the moment they heard the door open.
"Much. Did you want to view the last three memories now or leave them until tomorrow?"
"Are you feeling up to viewing any more today? That last one affected you pretty badly," Heero pointed out as he eyed Taliesin critically.
"I should be fine, that last memory just had far too much information in it that I really didn't need or want to know and I hadn't expected any of it. I'm a bit better prepared to face any more unpleasantness now, I think."
"Alright, but if ya go bat shit insane again I'm gonna hang ya from da ceilin' by your feet," Duo drawled.
Taliesin snorted and shook his head as he walked over to the pensieve to remove the earlier memory and return it to its vial before he poured in the next one. Two minutes later, he was watching Dumbledore collect and destroy one of Voldemort's horcruxes (using a goblin made dagger imbued with basilisk venom Dumbledore had had an elf collect from the Chamber of Secrets) and stupidly injure himself in the process. Taliesin recognized the ring used to create the horcrux as the same ring that Marvolo Gaunt, Morfin Gaunt, and Tom Riddle had each worn in earlier memories.
It also didn't escape his attention that Dumbledore had been exceedingly interested in the Peverell family ring (which is what the ring was) and Taliesin wondered if it was a curse that Voldemort had put on the ring or a Peverell family curse that had attacked Dumbledore's hand the moment he placed the ring on his finger.
Quatre and Duo both tensed when the group returned to the office after that viewing only to relax when it was apparent that Taliesin was merely contemplative and not borderline hysterical. The wizard flashed them a small half smile to let them know he knew what they had been fearing and that he wasn't offended by their reaction. He then switched out the memory they'd just viewed with the next one before he dove right back in with Heero, Trowa, and Wufei.
The new memory was of an encounter that Dumbledore had with Nagini in a cliff-side cave at some point after Snape's death and after his arm had been damaged by the cursed ring while attempting to retrieve what looked like Slytherin's locket out of an enchanted basin. Two of the three men with Dumbledore had been killed by the basilisk's gaze before it had grown too weak to use its eyes again and fled into the water to escape Dumbledore and his remaining companion. The bearded wizard had then killed the final companion by forcing him to drink whatever potion was in the basin holding the locket and allowing the inferi in the lake to take him when they attacked the man as he tried to drink from the water.
Taliesin replayed that memory twice more and noted that the basilisk had two sets of clear eyelids that he hadn't seen on the mature basilisk he'd fought down in the Chamber; one set would prevent its deadly gaze from killing (or petrifying) those it looked upon and another protected the serpent's eyes from the salt water as it dove into the cavern lake.
The wizard king came out of that memory with the knowledge that basilisks were limited in the number of individuals they could kill with their gaze (though he had no idea if those numbers would be affected by things like age, weight, or how much magic an individual had), that they controlled who and what they killed by manipulating their eyelids (unless that was an automatic and uncontrolled reaction due to exhaustion), and it had been guarding the horcrux in that cave. The thing that bothered Taliesin was that Slytherin's locket had been found in his godfather's ancestral home and as far as he knew, Dumbledore had never set foot in the Black Manor; unless Sirius had stolen the locket from the perverted manipulator.
The final memory actually answered that question as it showed Dumbledore returning to his office where he discovered the locket had been a fake. The note inside the locket had seemed to upset the wizard greatly as he ranted about the Blacks interfering with his plans far too many times. Apparently, Dumbledore had recognized the initials signed to the letter. In fact, Dumbledore had yelled at Phineas's portrait for a good twenty minutes about both of his grandsons being rotten to the core before the unpleasant Slytherin simply walked out of his frame without a word.
"I need to speak with the portraits before we sit down to discuss what we've learned from the memories," Taliesin stated the moment they exited the last memory. "There are too many questions still unanswered and Everard hinted that they knew more about the horcruxes the day he taught me what I needed to know to reverse my transformation. Do the five of you wish to come with me or are you going to stay here and continue skimming through the journals?"
"I'll go with ya," Duo quickly stated, the long haired pilot feeling antsy after sitting for so long.
"I will stay and search the journals for information in Duo's stead," Wufei offered as he collected the journal Duo had tossed aside once more.
"I will stay as well," Quatre added after sharing a glance with Trowa and Heero.
"We'll go with you, Taliesin," Heero finished as he gestured between himself and Trowa; the result of the short, silent conversation the three pilots had held in that brief glance. The teen then activated the portable headset radio all of the pilots wore as he turned to the side and stated, "Command Center, this is Red Leader speaking, Royal One is vacating the Wizard's Roost and heading towards the Restricted Library in the company of myself, Green Leader, and City Leader; please send Squad Seventeen to meet us at the Library entrance."
"Roger that, Red Leader; requested escort has been notified and they are in route to the Restricted Library now," Captain Shelby's voice replied back a moment later.
"Understood, Red Leader out."
"I never should have let you pick the code names," Taliesin groused as the four of them exited the office.
"Would you have preferred that Duo pick the code names?" Heero countered with a smirk while Duo snickered.
"No, I would have ended up being referred to as cheeky brat, kiddo, or worse. I should have just picked the names myself. I mean really, Royal One? Can you be any more obvious? Why not just use The King? I thought the whole point of code names was to keep our identities secret; not blurt them out for the entire world."
"We have several code names lined up for specific circumstances," Trowa explained with a soft laugh over Taliesin's obvious discomfort in being reminded of his position as King of New Avalon. "Royal One is pretty much for casual every day use, The King we're saving for when you have official events taking place within the castle or when you leave Hogwarts and we need to be a bit more formal. During a crisis, we'll refer to you as The Mage when there is a magical problem you need to handle, K-Nine Leader when you lead your knights into battle with Wolfstar, or The Star if you are injured or otherwise unable to defend yourself. In the event of an assassination attempt or if we uncover a traitor, we will refer to you as either The Singer or The Wolf depending on who the assassin was targeting or what level of threat the traitor poses."
"You seriously came up with seven different code names just for me?" Taliesin asked in disbelief as he led them into a secret passage that would drop them down to the fourth floor and save them ten minutes. "What was wrong with just picking one and sticking to it?"
"Mostly the different names are a way to let your bodyguards know the level of protection they will need to provide for you in any given situation," Heero explained without an ounce of shame. "You told me to make certain that your guards knew to never interfere with your spell casting; so when they hear you being referred to as The Mage or The Wolf, they know to get the hell out of your way and let you do your thing. As K-Nine Leader they know that your safety will be in the hands of your squad and the Star Suits. The moment you are called The Star or The Singer they know it will be their job to protect you with their lives and either get you the hell out or get you to someone who can help you."
"I take it you've made up a list of similar names for yourselves and everyone else?" Taliesin asked softly, far more accepting of the different code names after hearing the reasons behind them.
"Not exactly… most everyone just has only one or two names that are based upon their duties or the level of protection they require. Iria is The Doctor, Princess Relena is Royal Ambassador, Dr. Watanabe is Dr. W, and Zechs is The Mask. On the other hand, Heero is both Red Leader and Commander Gryffindor, Duo is Green Leader and Commander Slytherin, and I am both City Leader and Commander Hogsmeade. Wufei and Quatre both have two names following the same pattern as well. Dorothy, on the other hand, has almost as many as you do (Royal Two, The Queen, Lady Mother, The Thorn, and The Rose) and you can expect your children to have at least three or four code names."
"I'd a thought ya would have already known that since we gave ya da list with all da names on it earlier this month," Duo added on the heels of Trowa's short list of examples.
"It's probably in the stack of paperwork still on my desk or it got mixed up in the rest of the stuff I've gone through over the past few weeks. I really need a better filing system to keep track of all my paperwork or a secretary to help me sort it all out and keep it organized least I eventually find myself buried beneath endless piles of paperwork for the rest of my life. I swear... paperwork is the root of all evil or at minimum the leading cause of insanity in positions of power."
His three brothers laughed over that remark as they reached the second floor where the entrance to the Restricted Library was located. Waiting for them outside of the door leading up to the former Headmaster's Office were the five members of Squad Seventeen. Heero broke away from the group in order to check in with the squad and given them their orders (three of them to remain posted outside of the entrance and two to follow them up to the inner entrance – where they would be close at hand if needed but unable to hear the discussion Taliesin would be holding with the portraits).
The young king barely repressed a sigh when all five members of the squad placed their right fists over their hearts and bowed to him and merely tipped his head in acknowledgment of their salute. Taliesin still hadn't figured out who he needed to hex for convincing all of his guards to greet him in that fashion though he suspected it had been Duo in retaliation for the most recent hexing of Duo's hair the day following his coronation. If not, the long haired pilot had at least helped since Taliesin had caught him smirking over his discomfort on more than one occasion.
Only the knowledge that it could have been worse (his mind automatically supplying memories of seeing Death Eaters grovel on the floor at Voldemort's feet as they kissed the hem of his robes flashing through his mind) prevented him from demanding they stop. Well that and he knew he needed to allow his subjects (a word that he still felt uncomfortable using at times) a way to show their respect even if he wished there wasn't a need. So long as no one prostrated themselves at his feet or started groveling like Voldemort's minions, he thought maybe he could handle the discomfort; he still didn't like it though.
Taliesin pushed his uneasiness over his title and having people bow to him to the back of his mind as he stepped passed the guards and climbed up the short flight of stairs to the unfinished library above (the charms on the rotating staircase still disabled). He couldn't help but roll his eyes when Heero and Duo insisted they enter the room first (an unnecessary gesture since only a small handful of individuals could pass through the wards that Taliesin had put in place at the main entrance and again at the inner entrance to protect the books that had been transferred into the future library so far (all of his guards having been keyed into the lower ward but not the upper ward). His brothers were trying to break his habit of entering rooms before his guards though; since not all rooms within the castle were similarly protected with wards and rooms outside of the castle would be completely unprotected against potential assassins.
When he was finally allowed to enter the room, Taliesin was greeted with a chorus of, 'Good afternoons, your majesty," that he just knew had been instigated by Duo bar the one 'What do you need now brat?' that Phineas barked out. After shooting a glare at the grinning teen for his mild prank, Taliesin studied the portraits with his mismatched eyes until they began squirming under his intense gaze.
Satisfied that they'd not cooperate with another such stunt on the orders of his most troublesome brother, Taliesin grew serious as he crisply stated, "I came to see you in order to find out what you might have learned about Voldemort's horcruxes, Voldemort's basilisk familiar; Nagini, and an individual with the initials R.A.B."
As he rattled off the initials in question, Taliesin flicked his eyes to Phineas to see his reaction and he actually saw the portrait flinch before bowing his head. Low mutters and murmurs were heard as the various witches and wizards that once claimed headship over the school prior to the magical genocide that occurred four centuries earlier shifted uneasily in their portraits.
"What do you need to know about my grandson?" Phineas demanded in the most neutral voice Taliesin had ever heard the caustic wizard use.
"He stole one of Voldemort's horcruxes from the seaside cave where Dumbledore fought Nagini before finding the fake that R.A.B. had left behind when he stole Slytherin's locket from the cave. That locket was found amongst the magical items I had retrieved from Black Manor towards the end of last winter. I destroyed it this past summer using Gryffindor's sword after it had possessed a non-magical that had managed to get his hands on the locket. That locket also marks the fourth of Voldemort's horcruxes to be destroyed to date and leaves three potential horcruxes out there waiting for an unsuspecting innocent to foolishly stumble across them in addition to a five hundred year old basilisk."
"Which four horcruxes are you referring to; aside from the locket, that is?" Everard asked after he shushed the other portraits when they'd started muttering to each other in discomfort over Taliesin's short explanation.
"The diary that I destroyed in my second year, the locket this past summer, the Peverell Ring according to Dumbledore's memory that I just watched moments ago, and the accidental one that made its home in my scar for fourteen years after it was stripped of its magic when my godfather threw me through time."
"You still didn't say what you wanted to know about my youngest grandson," Phineas pointed out in an almost petulant tone as he crossed his arms and studiously avoided glancing in Taliesin's direction.
"Calm yourself, Phineas," Everard admonished lightly before he turned to address the young king once more. "If you viewed Dumbledore's memories regarding Riddle's life, you should have witnessed the memory of the house elf Hokey in which Hepzibah Smith gloatingly presented both Slytherin's Locket and Hufflepuff's Cup to Riddle. You should know that Hepzibah died shortly after that meeting and both the cup and the locket went missing and Dumbledore believed that Riddle was responsible for both the woman's death and the theft. Dumbledore also believed both items had been turned into horcruxes by Riddle."
"Riddle's obsession with the Founder's Treasures led Dumbledore to believe that the Dark Lord would have sought out the artifacts from both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw as well as those from Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Gryffindor's sword was safely held in trust by the Sorting Hat as you well know since you are the one to have pulled the sword from the Hat and Ravenclaw's Diadem was lost…"
"Actually, the diadem was found," the Sorting Hat interjected unexpectedly from his perch behind the desk. "Just over three hundred years ago, after the castle's ghosts began fading due to the dwindling magic, Helena Ravenclaw (you would have known her as the Gray Lady, your majesty) approached me and confessed that she'd told Riddle where to find her diadem. She wanted someone to know that she'd made a mistake that allowed Riddle to bring one of his horcruxes into the castle before she was forced into the afterlife with the rest of the ghosts. She knew where Riddle had hidden the diadem after he corrupted it but was unable to tell me exactly where in the castle it can be found."
All of the portraits began yelling at the hat at once about the enchanted headgear having withheld that information from them previously. Taliesin ignored them for the moment as he digested the implications of yet another horcrux sitting somewhere in the castle where it could potentially be picked up by anyone. His mind then went through a list of potential places it could have been hidden and the chances of the diadem having been pilfered during the sacking of Hogwarts only to discard that line of thinking as he realized that the Hat had been certain it was still in the castle and that the Gray Lady hadn't even spoken of the diadem until long after the castle had been ransacked.
"Be silent!" Taliesin ordered once he returned his attention to the portraits. "What good would it have been for the Sorting Hat to tell you about the horcrux when you would not have been able to do anything about it? Instead of attacking the Hat, you should be thinking of where Voldemort would have hidden the diadem and what protections he might have placed on it or the room it is being kept in. I have hundreds of people working in the castle and any one of them might have stumbled upon the horcrux or could yet stumble upon it and I don't relish facing a fourth possession as the first three were difficult enough to end."
"I also still need to know what the last potential horcrux could have been and if Dumbledore knew where to find the final three as well as what you know about what happened to Nagini. And Phineas; I need to know if your grandson could have potentially stolen any more of Voldemort's horcruxes aside from Slytherin's Locket. I transferred everything from Black Manor here to the castle and if he took more than one horcrux, then that would mean there is yet another one in the castle aside from the diadem. The sooner I can find and destroy those, the sooner I can rest easy in the knowledge that there will be no way for Voldemort to rise again to put our world at risk when it is still recovering from the idiocy that Voldemort, Dumbledore, and Grindelwald rained down on the magical world."
"There are still six horcruxes you need to find, young mage," Dexter Fortescue quietly corrected into the stillness that followed in the wake of Taliesin's authoritative chastisement. "Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Snape each created one and the only reason no one brought any of those three back was because there was no one left alive that knew of their horcruxes aside from a small handful of the portraits in this room. Dumbledore allowed Riddle to learn how to make a horcrux and encouraged him to make more than one as an experiment to determine if it was safe to make more than one because Grindelwald nearly destroyed Dumbledore's horcrux shortly before Dumbledore defeated him in the late forties. Riddle's decent into insanity was all the deterrent Dumbledore needed and he moved both his and Grindelwald's horcruxes into a more secure location."
"And Snivellus's horcrux?" Taliesin demanded in a strained voice that had his three brothers eyeing him with open concern.
"It was locked in Snape's office, in the bottom drawer of his desk behind the false back under several deadly wards," Dexter replied. "It should still be there unless you cleared out his office."
"I have not set foot in Snape's office or in the Potions Lab since the end of my fourth year," Taliesin stated in a dead voice as he locked all of his emotions away in an effort to control himself.
"There is one more thing you need know about Snape's horcrux," Everard solemnly added with some hesitation as he too eyed the young mage with concern. "It is different from the other horcruxes that you have encountered and far more insidious. He used your mother's wedding ring as a vessel and he initially tore his soul by desecrating your parent's bodies after Dumbledore had them brought to the castle in order to prepare them for burial. The man further shaved off bits of his soul each time he broke you and added those bits to the horcrux; meaning that his horcrux actually contains dozens of soul fragments that will attack you all at once. Because the fragments are small, they will be weak but because there are so many it will be difficult to fight them all at once and it will only take one of them breaking through your defenses to bring enough of the man back to allow him to bind the remaining bits to your soul in order to take it over."
"Does that mean the man went insane over the course of the four years that Taliesin attended Hogwarts?" Heero asked as he kept his eyes locked on Taliesin; the wizard trembling slightly as he stiffly stood with his head bowed and his fists clenched tightly at his side.
"No. Unlike Riddle, who halved his soul with each horcrux he made, Snape tore only the smallest fraction of his soul each time he added to his horcrux bar the first time when he ripped away around one seventh of his soul by defiling the dead. If he had not died just days after the child disappeared at the end of his fourth year, he would have eventually gone insane if he continued to shave away at his soul."
"Are Dumbledore and Grindelwald's horcruxes still in the castle as well?" Taliesin asked in a voice that was still devoid of all emotion; the wizard somehow managing to maintain the tenuous control he had on his emotions.
"No. There are three potential locations for those two horcruxes as they will undoubtedly have been kept together considering that the two of them were lovers before they had a falling out over the death of Dumbledore's little sister," Dexter replied after he cleared his throat. "They will be found in the Dumbledore Vault at Gringotts, in the remains of the Hogshead Pub (which was owned by Dumbledore's younger brother), or they are in Godric's Hollow where the Dumbledore family once lived until little Ariana died. Originally, both horcruxes had been in Germany locked away in a safe in Nurmengard Prison. Grindelwald had stolen Dumbledore's after their falling out, though Dumbledore didn't discover the theft until several years later."
"Nagini and Voldemort's final horcrux?"
"One and the same; the two times you came to him about the visions you had of hunting as the beast during your fourth year hinted that the Dark Lord had unnatural control over the snake since all of your other visions that year were through the eyes of the Dark Lord himself," Phineas answered in a more normal tone of voice now that he knew why Taliesin had been looking for information about his youngest grandson (not counting Taliesin himself). "And as far as I am aware Regulus only ever stole the one horcrux from the Dark Lord."
"Does the Spawn of the Damned still live?"
"Spawn of the Damned?" Everard parroted back in confusion.
"Sorry, that is how the snakes refer to the basilisk."
"Truly? I would have thought the legless creatures would have worshipped the King of all Serpents," Phineas commented with some surprise.
"King of Serpents? Oh Seth would bite you, repeatedly and with deadly intent, if he heard you calling the basilisk that to his face. Any of the snakes would; basilisks are unnatural creatures that require vile magic to produce. I mean, think about it; what part of a rooster hatching an egg that was laid by a snake and fertilized by a toad is natural? Snakes hate them with a passion that puts the animosity Sniv…Snivellus held for my father to shame."
"Well, when you put in that way," Phineas muttered with what almost sounded like regret.
"Do any of you know if it still lives? Or where I might find it?"
"Unfortunately, no; the last known location of the creature was the seaside cave where Dumbledore found the fake horcrux and with the theft it probably returned to Riddle's side or it was sent to protect one of the other two remaining horcruxes."
"Joy," Taliesin sarcastically muttered as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Headmaster Fortescue, you mentioned that Dumbledore and Grindelwald's horcruxes might have been hidden away in Gringotts, The Hogshead, or Godric's Hollow; I know where to find the ruins of the pub and I have access to all of Gringotts but where in Merlin's cracked cauldron is Godric's Hollow? Aside from being somewhere in the middle of the Dartmoor National Park in what used to be Devon, England? And do you know what they used to hold the horcruxes?"
"The village lies on the northwestern edge of the marshes and will be centered over the second largest ley line nexus in southern England; the largest one in the south being the one below Gringotts," Everard answered. "The vessels of the two horcruxes are a set of identical gold rings set with large octagonal rubies surrounded by diamonds and their names carved on the inside of the rings. You'll recognize the design carved into the rubies as the same one on the Peverell Family Ring; though those two rings have nothing to do with the Peverells."
"What is so special about the Peverell Family?" Taliesin asked with a frown as he briefly glanced down at the recreated Peverell ring on his right hand. "It seems like every time I turn around that particular family keeps cropping up."
"Ask me again once the last of the horcruxes have been destroyed and I will tell you our family's history as it was told to me upon my majority by my great-grandfather," Everard replied as he studied Taliesin for several minutes. "You have more than enough to worry about right now without having that burden placed upon your shoulders when you have yet to reach your own majority."
The three teens in the room with Taliesin glanced sharply at Everard's portrait as the man rose from his chair and disappeared from his frame in order to avoid being peppered with more questions. They then swung their eyes over to check on Taliesin to judge his reaction and found the wizard frowning down at the desk.
Taliesin felt their eyes on him and he glanced up to meet their concerned gaze for a brief moment before he turned his eyes back to the ancient paintings hanging on the wall as he wearily asked, "Anything else I need to know about the three… correction four most vile wizards in the history?"
"Helena spoke of a room of secrets and hidden things when she spoke of the diadem's final resting place; that was the only clue she could give me. She also said the vast array of knowledge it once housed is long dead," the Sorting Hat offered before it settled back and ceased to move.
"It is possible that the Dark Lord entrusted Hufflepuff's Cup to one of his loyal followers prior to the night he attacked your family in Godric's Hollow," Phineas drawled before pursing his lips in contemplation. "One of my granddaughters was fanatically devoted to the madman and he prized her rather highly developed skills in magical torture. It is possible that he would have entrusted the Cup to her."
"Name?"
"Bellatrix. You should remember her from the day you slipped into Dumbledore's memory filled pensieve after the fiasco with Barty Crouch Sr. being found on the grounds during your fourth year."
"I vaguely recall a Bellatrix but her last name was not Black… it started with an 'L', Le something strange."
"Lestrange. My granddaughter married Rodolphus Lestrange but she was a Black by birth."
"The group that tortured Neville's parents into insanity," Taliesin recalled as he closed his eyes due to a brief flash of grief he felt over the loss of a wizard that could have been a close friend of his if he'd only made more of an effort to get to know the other boy. "I'd forgotten all about that day when I was pulling memories. That day was the day Dumbledore made another reference to the horcrux in my scar when he told me that Voldemort and I shared a connection because of the failed Killing Curse. I suppose I will have to check the property registry for the location of the Lestrange Manor in order to search their house for the Cup."
"It might not be there; their property was confiscated by the Ministry when Bella, her husband, and her husband's brother were arrested, convicted, and thrown into Azkaban for life. If the Cup had been in their home, then it would have been taken to the Ministry or pocketed by a corrupt Auror. It is also possible that she deposited the Cup in her vault as she would have seen anything of the Dark Lord's as extremely valuable."
"So, potentially one or three horcruxes beneath Gringotts but because I've transferred close to one fifth of the vault contents here, those may have been transported here with all of the other valuables I collected. Or one could have ended up in some random wizard's house as a trophy or I might have yet packed it up when I cleared out the Ministry which means it would still be here somewhere in storage. I'm getting a migraine."
"You did not empty either the Dumbledore or the Lestrange vaults while you were at Gringotts," Ragnok's voice declared as the goblin stepped into Everard's frame – Taliesin's ancestor having gone to fetch the goblin. "Their vaults are both deep within the bowls of the tunnels; as is the Black vault. You have the vault inventories amongst the files you retrieved from my office; descriptions of any artifacts secured in those vaults will be listed alongside the protections that were placed on the vaults."
"Thank you, that makes the daunting task of searching the bank far easier since I would have overlooked those inventories completely. If there is nothing else, it would appear that I have a lot of work to do."
AN: Ah, I bet some of you thought I'd make a final post for this year. I nearly didn't but I've been trying to get this chapter up for a few days and something always seems to come up - like on the 25th when the sight was updating and I couldn't log in at all for the entire day (that was annoying). Then there was the fact that I found a huge error in this story which I've commented on below. Anyway, here's the chapter (finally) and I will try to post another in a couple of hours.
Some of you might recall that I previously stated that a basilisk was hatched from a rooster's egg that was incubated by a toad back in chap fifteen and again in chap forty-eight. Well, while doing some research, I discovered that I goofed and got the creation of a cockatrice and a basilisk mixed up. I've already gone back and corrected the issue in the two previous chapters where it came up to fix that mistake. There is no need to go back and reread those chapters though, since the change was very, very small.
The following two paragraphs have been copied and pasted from author's notes from both of those chapters for your reference:
Spawn of the Damned – this is how I wanted the snakes to see the basilisk instead of as the king of serpents or the king of snakes as so many FanFictions do. The reason for this is that the basilisk is not a natural born snake as it is born from a snake or toad's egg that was incubated by a rooster; something that isn't going to happen without intervention and therefore not natural which I think normal snakes and serpents would or maybe should feel disgusted over.
For this story, I am twisting the legends a bit and using the idea that it is a snake's egg fertilized by a toad and incubated by a rooster to create the basilisk in order to make it a little harder to create a basilisk (instead of just using any old snake or toad's egg and sticking a rooster over it until it hatches). A toad's egg fertilized by a snake that has been incubated by a rooster will in turn hatch out an amphibious monster that I've not yet researched or named while a rooster's egg incubated by a toad or a snake will give birth to a cockatrice (which is how legend portrays the cockatrice being born).
Anyway, sorry for the confusion and I hope my earlier mistake doesn't confuse anyone too terribly. ~ Jenn