Concurrent Existences
Chapter 23: The Turning Point
Magic, magic, please give me more.
Slow down, alright, just not from the core.
Magic, magic, why is there none left?
Forever empty, from your core you should not have theft.
Memory charms can be broken through severe torture.
Hermione could tell that it was fatal, the Death Eater spell was on the powerful side and her mother, just a simple muggle, would have no innate magical defenses against it.
"Her...mione..." The warm caress on her cheek slipped away.
Oh, this would not do at all. Even with prior preparations and heavy warnings, the Death Eaters really did not take the girl seriously. How was this supposed to be interesting?
Purebloods, useless lot.
All of this would end on too light of a note if things proceeded as it was.
One Death Eater knocked out from a Stupefy, head smashed straight into a vase. Another Death Eater with a broken neck after smashing through a window.
It looks like the girl has had her first blood after all.
Giving the Death Eater an Illuminator was the right choice after all after a Dementor was detected far, far away from where they were supposed to reside. Procuring an Illuminator wasn't too easy anymore with the Wizarding World starting to rely too heavily on magic rather than trying to upgrade their technology. A controlled Dementor would be too much for the ragtag group of Death Eaters.
Volana, hm? Interesting.
The figure continued to watch with mild amusement as Rodolphus tossed an ally towards Bellatrix. The dark witch wouldn't be fazed by that... unless...
Augmentum Ponderis. The figure smiled as the dark witch used her magic to try and smack away the incoming body, but failed since the body now weighed ten times its original weight.
Still, things weren't as interesting. It had become relatively dull with the girl on full defensive.
The Illuminator was spent and the dark witch almost recovered, this was going to be a one sided match soon. Well, the outcome was obvious from the start. These three anomalies would prove to be good entertainment.
The brunette seemed to take things way too lightly though, as if everything was always going to go her way. If the two witches weren't such in a rush, they might have sensed a presence on the far edge of the area, but one was too busy worrying about her parents and the other worried about a Dementor feasting on her innards.
How to make things more interesting... Ah!
Rennervate. The reviving spell was cast towards the knocked out Death Eater that smashed into a vase.
That's more like it. It finally started to get more interesting as the girl's parents died.
Oh, so tragic.
Would this break her or make her stronger?
"Sir? Are you all right?" A distant male voice chimed in.
Well, it seemed as if the climax would be missed for now. Another time then.
"How was your first assignment?" There were more important things to do than wasting time on entertainment.
All the plans were coming to fruition. It was only a matter of time... and maybe a little bit of choice?
Yes, quite a bit of choices lined up.
Luna knew she should have went when she felt a pain through the link with Volana.
Something is wrong.
Luna could feel the general area where Volana was located, but nothing truly specific. She knew that if Hermione and Isabella along with Volana were having trouble, then she needed to bring more.
Should she call the Ministry? Ask for help? From the Headmistress? Ginny?
Oh bother. She couldn't ask help from any of them! The Ministry for obvious reasons. The Headmistress might ask assistance from the Ministry and want to know the whole story. Ginny? She didn't know where Ginny was!
"Ah, Luna, I was just about to-"
"Professor!" Perfect! Luna quickly tried to grab Helena, but in her rush she forgot that the target was a ghost and began to fall over. No! If she got knocked out, there would be no reinforcements!
The ghostly professor swished her hand in the air, casting a spell to prevent Luna from impacting the floor. Helena just titled her head as both girls were now levitating.
"Luna? It's not like you to be in a rush, what's wrong?" The new Defense against the Dark Arts professor just wanted to chat a little about Luna's new input on their research, but apparently her student had trouble brewing.
"Hermione is in trouble!"
"My, I suppose that is grave indeed. Miss Granger has probably gotten stuck in some conundrum again. Lead the way, I suppose there's no time to dawdle if one of the Golden Trio has gotten into trouble." Helena knew the drill on the Golden Trio, when something was amiss, it was probably big.
Luna was quickly turned upright and both began to get outside the Hogwarts apparating barriers. Luna just hoped they would be in time.
Luna, however, missed the tiny goblin professor surveying one of the ancient statues while they ran by.
It could sense distress...
It wanted to help...
... it was stuck in this lake.
It has seen other humans transform into animals... Maybe it could reverse it?
One day, the gigantic cephalopod vowed to be able to help its friend.
The Death Eater that woke up and fired the Avada Kedavra along with Rodolphus were still up. Not for long, that would be rectified right now.
Tenebrae Lanceam. A dark lance of energy shot forth like a beam piercing Rodolphus and the last conscious Death Eater behind Hermione since Bellatrix finally had a clear shot. Both Death Eaters fell to the ground, immobile, but it was way too late, the damage was already done.
"Shite." Bellatrix slowly walked over to Hermione while using Petrificus Totalus on the rest of the immobile Death Eaters as well as the two inflicted with Tenebrae Lanceam. She had no damned idea how the Death Eater from behind Hermione even woke up, Hermione's Stupefy hit hard. Both Stupefy spells were also cast at point blank range.
Volana slowly floated over as well with her dark cloak-like body fluttered. The shade had been able to take down the Death Eater beside Rodolphus, but felt like she could have done more. It started to feel... regret. Regret at not being able to do much more than be blinded and stalled by the Patronus energy. It could also feel the sadness, anger and rage pouring off from Hermione. It was nice that Volana had started to learn more about emotion, but the price to feel all of these emotions wasn't worth it.
It wasn't worth it at all.
Just before Bellatrix got over to Hermione, she gave a swift kick to Rodolphus' head for complicating everything. Everything was going fine so far, but the idiot decided to add into the complications of their life. Bellatrix was pretty sure Rodolphus and his cohorts weren't getting out of this alive, and it would probably not be her doing it.
"Mudblood! How does it feel to lose?!" The swift kick to Rodolphus' head might have disrupted the Petrificus Totalus, but the infesting energy of the Dark Lance kept him immobile and in a significant amount of pain.
Bellatrix gave another swift kick that broke Rodolphus' nose. Hermione still hadn't moved from where she was slumped on the floor, holding her mother's body. Bellatrix tried to nudge her mentally, but all her mental walls were slammed shut.
This is absolutely the worst fucking outcome! I can't believe I was on their side before!
"Listen to me, you slimy piece of useless trash. Why did you even do this? What was all this shite for?" Torture and death could come later, she needed answers. Hermione was usually the rational one trying to keep her from destroying everything in sight, but Bellatrix knew that they needed answers right now. As much as she would like to slowly burn Rodolphus, she would first break his mind to find out answers.
"Shite? You slut! I've heard how you've been fucking the mudblood! This! This was to take everything back! This was to kill the rotten trio and regain all the glory! I'm going to be the Dark Lord! And, whether you like it or not, you'll be the mother of all my children! The mother of the next generation!" Rodolphus' tone turned slightly maniacal, almost close to how Bellatrix had acted when she was deemed insane.
"You deluded fuck. How would killing Potter, the weasel and the mudblood make you the Dark Lord? Even as hostages, you think the garbage dump of a Ministry would actually negotiate? What would you even negotiate for? Running away and gathering another army would have been smarter than kidnapping the mudbloods parents!" Several months of being on the run and decades in Azkaban must have rotted all of these Death Eaters brains. Bellatrix was glad she had Hermione, or, this might have been how she would have ended up.
Have the Death Eaters really been reduced to this? Deluded? Lost? And bloody fucking retarded?
The Death Eater went silent, as if trying to process everything Bellatrix said rationally. It was true after all, gaining the Golden Trio would yield nothing aside from bringing the full might of the Ministry and what was left of the Order on top of the remaining Death Eaters.
"It would have all worked out! I have the power! I would have taken you! I just need... more information! I was not prepared! This isn't fair! I didn't know you and the mudblood were this powerf-" Rodolphus coughed and hacked up a good amount of blood.
Bellatrix saw that the dark energy continued to slowly spread throughout Rodolphus' body, he had maybe an hour at most. Only she knew the counter-spell to take of the curse, anyone hit by it would suffer and die a slow death.
"Where did you get this information?" Bellatrix asked as Rodolphus coughed. Bellatrix had also been subtlety using Legilimency, but the idiot had tougher walls than she thought. His walls were like paper before!
"Answer!" Bellatrix gave a jolt through her finger, trying to shock the piece of stupid coughing up blood.
"I WILL RI-"
"Stupefy." The spell came directly behind Bellatrix and impacted Rodolphus, launching him a few meters away through what was left of the broken furniture.
Bellatrix quickly turned around to see Hermione gathering up her parents. She had absolutely no idea what to say in this situation. "Shouldn't we have gotten more answers from him?" Bellatrix decided to try and stay logical, she knew Hermione was keeping a strong front right now.
Hermione shook her head while mending her mother's clothes and closing the wounds inflicted by Sectum Sempra. "Rodolphus doesn't know anything. I can sense it. During the time limbo, you know that I spent quite some time studying and theorizing about the Obliviate spell to remove it from my parents."
Bellatrix nodded. She knew about all that Obliviate research since she was one of the guinea pigs for it. Over all, it had been a success that helped lock away certain memories, but Bellatrix knew that the reason the brunette knew so much about it was because she was doing it all for her parents.
"Because of all the research and theory I've done, I can recognize anomalies in their memories. All these Death Eaters have had their memories recently tampered with. It feels like the same kind of tampering that Voldemort placed on you and the same type of tampering that Dumbledore used on most of the Order and students." Hermione levitated all bodies of the Death Eaters towards the center of the room.
One of the Death Eaters, the one that smashed through the window had his neck broken. He was dead, but Hermione didn't really care.
"So, all this shite... Was just a set up from Dumbledore? None of this makes any bloody sense!" Bellatrix's anger started to flare as she tried to rationalize the occurrences. "Dumbledore is alive, killed Nymph and now tried to set you up with Death Eaters? For what? This is some bloody fucking bullshite!" Bellatrix had known all along that Voldemort like his bloody teacher were all manipulating fuckers, but Dumbledore? The old man took the fucking cake! "Just brilliant. Fucking brilliant! We don't even know his damned objective."
"I don't know either, Bella..." For a second, Bellatrix could hear how tired Hermione was all over again. Life really wasn't giving the brunette a break. "He involved my parents. I don't know what new games he's trying to play or even what his objective is, but I won't let him live, Bella." Hermione's eyes began to droop down, but shot up after a second with even more anger than before.
"Volana."
The shade floated towards Hermione, wondering what the girl needed.
"You can easily absorb magical energy right?" Hermione asked for clarification. Bellatrix remembered when she shot an Avada at the shade and all it did was raise a hand.
"Yes, I actually just tasted a bit of energy from this one that was using Patronus energy against me." Bellatrix shivered from the cold voice of Volana, she wasn't afraid. A bit traumatized, but definitely not afraid. The dark witch wouldn't want to be at the end of any energy or soul absorbing though.
Fuck that.
"Although, the energy I have obtained from this one is around twenty times less potent in comparison to Luna's energy." A weird type of connection was probably between Volana and Luna if the shade could only truly replenish itself from Luna, that or absorb twenty other peoples energy.
"If absorbing their energy is akin to absorbing happy memories, what would the Dementor's Kiss equivalent be?" Hermione began to theorize as Bellatrix just mentally gaped at her girlfriend. It seemed as if Hermione was beginning to harden herself. Bellatrix was sure that the time limbo was enough to harden her enough, but the death of her parents and her first kill would finish the job. It looks like her intervention wasn't even needed.
Bellatrix knew that this would be the turning point. The dark witch grinned, her love would lose a bit more naivety, but gain so much more. Inwardly, Bellatrix wanted to slightly thank whoever the fuck orchestrated this because it would help Hermione in the long run. Bellatrix wished that it happened another way though. She would help Hermione have her revenge.
Finally some action.
"I have not yet tested it. My assumption would be that instead of partially absorbing the magical energy, I would absorb the magical energy entirely from the core." The magical energy core of witches and wizards are usually untouched, their magic stems from the excess magic that bleeds off their magical cores. Absorbing magic directly from the magical core could have devastating consequences.
"Bella, could you use the counter-curse, please?." Hermione pointed over
Huh?
"Counter-curse? You want the shite bag to live? You're going to let all of them go? Well, except Dolohov, that trip through the window did a number on him." No way would Bellatrix let these idiots go. These type of people needed to be put in their graves, she was one of them before, she knew the risk of letting them survive.
"Yes, I'll let them all go. There are fates worse than death after all." Hermione smiled towards her lover. Bellatrix sighed and quickly muttered the counter-curse on both the Death Eaters afflicted by Tenebrae Lanceam, the dark energy that infected the Death Eaters began to slowly retreat back into Bellatrix.
"Volana, test it on him." The brunette pointed towards Rodolphus whose nose was still bleeding while unconscious. Bellatrix smiled, it looked like these idiots wouldn't be leaving intact after all.
First row seats to Miss Crazy's experimentation class.
The shade nodded. The shade's arm was enveloped in darkness and instantly elongated directly towards Rodolphus' chest as if to grab his heart, but it was more towards the center of his chest. A quick second was all it took and the arm as well as the darkness retracted back into Volana.
Both witches slightly cringed at the image. Seeing a Luna look-a-like with elongating arms stabbing into people's chests was a bit weird.
"It is done." Volana looked curiously at the two witches before floating to the side. The meager amount of magical energy she had absorbed could barely power anything. The amount was trifle, but to the affected victim, it was everything.
Bellatrix activated her own diagnostic spells to check over Rodolphus the bloody idiot. She at least wanted to know what happened herself. After a bit of prodding, the dark witch could still feel his presence, but...
"His magical core was drained." Bella relayed the fact.
"Yes, a drained magical core cannot ever be reactivated or rejuvenated." Bellatrix could finally see what Hermione was planning to do, it was a punishment that even she wouldn't give her worst enemies.
"Bloody hell... You turned him into a Squib." Once again Bellatrix was surprised at Hermione's decision. She wouldn't go against it, all these pieces of filth deserved what they got, but for her little muggleborn to be this harsh?
Bellatrix wasn't sure what she was more afraid of now from the shade, a Dementor's Kiss or Magical Core Destruction.
One of the worst possible fates that a wizard or witch could get is being a Squib. A magic user that used magic all their lives, suddenly cut from the source.
"I'm not done. Volana, destroy all of their magical cores." Hermione held a determined look and Bellatrix knew then and there that she was going to be alright. Hermione would continue to evolve and adapt from this. She would be fine, albeit a bit distraught.
She is so hot right now. Bellatrix couldn't wait to get back to their room. She knew just how to console her muggleborn.
Rennervate - Reviving spell for knocked out people
Tenebrae Lanceam - Dark Lance, straight shot spell that pierces through multiple targets. Targets affected are infected with corrupting dark energy that immobilizes and slowly destroys targets body. Pierces through flesh, but effectiveness weakens if passing through inanimate objects. Range depends on casters magical input.
Augmentum Ponderis - Weight Increase
Magical Core Destruction (MCD) - Volana's magical draining ability that can completely empty out a person's magical core rendering the victim a Squib.
AN: Well, this Death Eater thing was supposed to be one chapter, but now it's going to end up being three chapters. The details, extra character perspectives and some explanations keep extending it. Hopefully anyone isn't getting bored of it yet. I posted a bit early since I actually finished it early and I might not be here tomorrow to post it.
A lot of things may be still confusing, but it'll all make sense soon-ish! A more Hermione focused chapter next? Idk, I still have nothing written down.
To the guest that asked a lot of questions! Half of them are answered! The other half will be next chapter!
Thank you for all the comments, pms, reviews and the feedback! Please notify me if there are any errors or inconsistencies!
R&R please?