None of them moved, frozen in place by the casual nature of Riddle's greeting. His smile was pleasant and the look on his face was one of amusement, as if he'd heard the punchline to a joke the rest of the room wasn't privy to. Yet Harry looked into his eyes and saw another story. Behind those dark brown eyes there was a storm raging.
Harry tightened the grip on his wand and his body tensed. There was danger in those eyes.
"Come now," Riddle said with a wave of his hand, breaking the tense silence that had followed his greeting. "Surely you can't be that surprised?"
"How is it you knew we were searching for you?" Harry asked.
Riddle shrugged, though even that gesture was one of a trained aristocrat.
"There are rats and loose lips in every corner, Mr. Potter," he replied with another smirk. "It just takes the right motivation, the right incentive, and you can get someone to tell you what you need to know."
Riddle gestured towards Fleur and Luc.
"I've known these two were searching for me for ages. It's been quite amusing, watching them feel around in the dark."
Harry raised an eyebrow.
"You've got contacts within my department?"
"I've got contacts everywhere, Mr. Potter," Tom said. He turned back around and gestured to the city skyline. "Out there you'll find people from all walks of life, from varying backgrounds, all willing to exchange information for coins. Or status. Or trinkets. It's simply a matter of finding what that something is."
He turned back around and smiled another charming smile, wagging his finger in Harry's direction.
"You, Harry, may I call you Harry?" He didn't wait for a reply. "You have been absolutely fascinating to watch. Your performance at the Nott manor was impressive, though I was, I'll admit, a bit heartbroken that a certain hooded thief interrupted the festivities."
He looked at Fleur with a smile and winked before returning his attention to Harry.
"But to my great joy, another opportunity presented itself when Regulus Black thought he could take a path that was never truly in front of him." He shook his head and looked down, frowning. "Regulus was always too quick to trust. Such a shame what happened to him. That he died for a lie."
"What?" Harry asked, unable to contain his curiosity. Everything in him was screaming that they were in danger, but he felt compelled to ask.
"Oh, did you not know?" Riddle asked, a surprised look settling on his face. "Rabastan was going to bring Regulus to me once he showed his true allegiances."
He leaned forward conspiratorially.
"Just between us, I wasn't going to let either of them live, so your little raid did me a favor."
He stood back to his full height quickly and his eyes lit with excitement. He looked at Harry for a long moment, studying him. His eyes made Harry squirm and his skin crawl.
"That performance you gave in the greenhouse? That was as close to perfection as I've ever seen. You were an agent of chaos, a God of destruction, and for a brief, fleeting moment, you reached your true potential." He nodded his head as if agreeing with himself. "At first I was furious at the loss of Bellatrix. She was incredibly useful, you see, and replacing her will be a long task, but then I met with Rudolphus. He explained about your little message, also brilliant by the way, and seeing what you did brought more joy than the last Lestrange's screams as I pulled the memory from his head."
His smile fell and he frowned.
"But then you broke out of it. She broke you out of it," he spat, glaring at Fleur, "and you were yourself again. No longer the height of power, just normal. Mundane. Boring."
Harry glanced at Luc and saw the man's knuckles were white from gripping his wand so tightly. He shook slightly in barely-contained rage, and Harry knew it wouldn't be long before his friend burst. It would be fast and violent. It would be the greenhouse all over again, except Luc would be at the center of the storm. He cast his eye at Fleur and saw…nothing. She held her wand as she normally did, but her face was a stony mask. There was nothing in her expression or her eyes, all emotions had been locked away. She caught his eye and made no indication of how she felt, simply turning back to Riddle.
Both of his companions were teetering on the edge.
"How is it you're able to have everyone here under the Imperius curse?" asked Harry.
"It's quite easy if the mind is weak, Mr. Potter. I dare say, these muggles are ter-"
"Why?" Fleur interrupted, her voice low and methodic.
Tom raised an eyebrow.
"Why what, Ms. Delacour?" he asked.
"Why did you do it?" she clarified.
"You'll need to be more specific, Ms. Delacour," he replied. His voice was still pleasant, but Harry detected a dangerous undertone to it. "I've done quite a bit in my time. What, specifically, are you referring to?"
"Why did you kill my sister?" she growled.
"Ah, right. That unfortunate business," Riddle said with a sigh. "You had stolen something I needed and refused to give it back. I thought you would have been smart enough to realize what you'd taken and return it. Sadly, I turned out to be wrong. I briefly contemplated giving the French Ministry information on you, but that may have invited unneeded eyes looking in my direction. Even giving them the information anonymously seemed…unnecessary. You weren't a threat, not really. Instead, to remove you from my path, I took from you."
He looked at Luc.
"And you as well, I suppose."
"Why was what she took so important?" asked Harry.
His words had stopped Luc's forward movement. He almost hadn't caught it, but he saw the shift in posture and knew the taller man was about to strike. Harry wanted to take Riddle down, though not nearly as much as the two beside him. Regardless, he needed to get a confession for everything. Riddle clearly thought a lot about himself, and perhaps he could back it up, but Harry wasn't going to take any chances. He'd been doing this for years, and his experience knew what to do.
Bad guys loved to hear themselves talk, especially when they thought they could escape. They were, at the end of the day, the heroes of their own stories. Harry just needed to keep him talking. Keep Riddle talking long enough that he laid out everything for them. The best way to make that happen was to push the man into a classic move.
Time for a monologue.
Riddle tapped his chin in contemplation at Harry's words, giving a long pause as lost himself in thought.
"I suppose there's no harm in telling you," he said after several moments, giving a gleeful smile. "None of you will be leaving the room alive, after all."
He walked over to the bookshelves and reached for one of the smaller tombs, cracking it open and smiling down at the pages. He ran his hand down the yellowed page with fond care.
"Grindelwald was brilliant," he stated, looking up at Harry with a look that was almost daring him to disagree. "Do you know what he lacked?"
"A sense of style?" Harry guessed.
"Subtlety," Riddle corrected with a scowl. He snapped the book shut. "He was a blunt instrument with no finesse. He had the right idea, despite being far less grand than they should have been, but the way he went about things? Bah, such an inelegant solution to a most complex problem."
"And what problem is that?" asked Harry.
Riddle rolled his eyes as he placed the book down on the desk and returned to the window, gesturing out into the city.
"You're smarter than that my dear Harry, but I'll indulge you. Mudbloods are the problem, of course. They taint our world with their mere presence, infesting it with their dirty blood. Muggles are weak and mudbloods are a byproduct of that weakness. Grindelwald lacked the vision to see that."
Harry frowned at the hypocrisy of the statement. Tom Riddle was the result of the union between a muggle man and a witch. Despite his belief that muggles were weak, he wouldn't be alive today if it hadn't been for a muggle. That had always been the true problem with the idea of blood supremacy, at least in Harry's opinion. People like Hermione and his mother both showed what muggleborns were capable of, and both were far more talented than the vast majority of purebloods he knew.
"So, what are you going to do? Kill them all one at a time?" asked Harry. "Started with your muggle family years ago and have been going down the list ever since?"
For just the briefest of moments, less than a heartbeat, Harry thought he saw surprise flash through the other man's face before it faded. He smiled again and waved his hand.
"Nothing quite so crude, I assure you." Riddle sighed as he turned away and began looking out the window again. The fact that he left his back exposed truly showed how little he considered them a threat. "Though I am impressed that you worked out the family connection. I removed any information regarding those events from our world, but it seems I didn't pay enough attention to the muggle world. I didn't think enough had been reported to connect the dots, but it seems I was mistaken."
He gave a low chuckle.
"My father and his parents were merely a test run, a trial for a much larger goal. Their deaths sated my anger for a time, however. Their screams were…delectable." The pleasure in his voice was evident as he thought about the act. "Once I had confirmation of my idea it was time to begin preparing. Finding research materials, speaking with people who knew the magic that could create what I wanted. Decades of preparation to finally realize my goals. To do what Grindelwald couldn't."
"And what goal is that?" Harry questioned.
Riddle turned around and sent him a bored look, as if it were obvious.
"Why the complete eradication of mudbloods, of course."
"And these items you've been smuggling have something to do with that?" Harry asked, trying to hide his unease at the other man's proclamation. The tension in his body was amplified by the casual decision to murder innocents.
"Smuggling is such a harsh term, don't you think?" Riddle responded. "I like to think of it as a reallocation of items into the possession of someone who can make full use of their nature across international borders."
He began to pace back and forth.
"It took me so long to find something that could accomplish what I needed on such a scale. Grindelwald tolerated mudbloods, his hatred of muggles was far greater, but he didn't have the knowledge or willpower to do what was necessary and simply wipe them out. So I studied. Learned. Twisted ancient magics in ways they were not intended to be used, all in service of my purpose. The items I procured, and continue to procure, are necessary to enact the plan."
He stopped pacing and gave Harry a smile.
"Soon, soon it will be ready. I've prepared nearly everything, and once it's done? Once I'm ready? It will be beautiful."
He was crazy. That was the only explanation Harry could think to explain the madness of what he was hearing. A spell or form of magic that could kill muggleborns? He'd never heard of such a thing, and he'd seen some of the darkest arts known to man. Torture, sacrifice, blood magic. He'd seen it all in his time as an Auror. What Tom Riddle was proposing simply didn't exist.
"Is that why you killed her?" Fleur asked, her face still blank, devoid of emotion. "Did I steal something you needed for your little ritual?"
Riddle smiled.
"Yes, or rather, I thought so at the time."
"What?" Fleur said, eyes widening.
"At the time I believed what you took from me to be the centerpiece of my little ritual, as you put it," he replied casually. "After I found where you stashed it and retrieved it from that person I realized that it was not, in fact, the piece I needed."
"You mean to say," Fleur gasped. Her chest rose and fell rapidly. "That my sister's life meant nothing? That her murder meant nothing?"
"Oh, my dear half-breed," Riddle said with a chiding note in his voice, "your sister's life never meant anything."
Luc roared and lunged forward, raising his wand and firing spells rapidly. Riddle moved faster than Harry had seen anyone move, drawing his wand as if from nowhere and casually knocking aside everything that he'd been assaulted with. He jabbed his wand in Luc's direction and caught the man in the shoulder, stopping his forward momentum and forcing him back.
Harry reacted and pivoted, sending a series of his own spells towards Riddle. With the skill of a trained duelist Riddle spun and ducked out of the way, avoiding every jet that had been sent. He made a zig zag motion with his wand and several large books flew from the bookshelves. They enlarged and grew wide, sharp mouths from their pages. They turned towards Harry and began sending purple light at him.
He blocked the first light and stepped away from the second, noticing the acidic burn that it left in the wall as he continued to dodge. With a quick twirl of his wand he sent a burst of charged air spinning at the books. Two of them went high, avoiding the whirlwind of air, but the remaining were caught in its gail. He arched his wand in a circular motion before stabbing it downward and the tornado caught on fire. An unearthly scream erupted from the books as they were engulfed in flame.
Fleur's wail of despair caught his attention as she lifted her wand and began dueling Riddle alongside Luc. The momentary distraction cost Harry as he felt an impact on his shoulder before it burned hot. He tore off his robe and threw it to the ground, thankful that the acidic light had only touched his skin briefly. He rolled under the barrage from the remaining two books as he heard Fleur cry out in pain, but had no time to check.
He popped up and sent a stunner at one book. The unexpected nature of the spell caught it and sent it to the ground. A quick fireball burned it. He shielded against the remaining book before a jet of water shot from his wand, soaking the paper. It sputtered as its pages stuck together, unable to form the proper shape to continue its assault. Harry put extra force behind a blasting hex and the book was thrown against the shelf, exploding into several pieces.
He turned towards the battle and noticed that Luc and Fleur were doing more dodging and shielding than anything. They needed help, but more importantly, they needed to retreat or they'd soon go down. He stepped forward and began drawing several runes on the floor with his wand, muttering the words to the spell as he did.
"Oh no you don't," Riddle snarled before slamming his wand tip into the ground.
A bright light shined and the last thing Harry saw before covering his face was the sight of Luc being thrown through the divider on the left side of the room.
.
.
Ringing.
That was the first thing Luc noticed as he came to. The ringing in his ears was deafening, muting all other sounds as his vision spun. He sat up slowly, wincing as he felt a sharp pain in his back and leg. He reached down and felt his thigh, coming away with blood. The ringing was overwhelming as he tried to get his bearings. He could vaguely hear the muffled sounds of shouting, but everything was still spinning slightly.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, attempting to call on the training he'd left behind so long ago. He'd gladly given up the life of an Auror for Gabby, unwilling to see her worry for his safety every time he left for work. She never asked him to give it up, she would never have forced him to do such a thing, but the offer to play quidditch had lit up her eyes in a way that made him soar.
Now, faced with her killer and his calm, aloof thoughts on murdering an innocent, Luc cursed himself for ever giving up the training.
He took several more breaths and opened his eyes. The room was no longer spinning but he had a pounding headache. He saw Fleur and Harry still fighting, though he could tell Fleur had been injured by the way she moved. They needed to escape. If they stayed then they would die. He began to get up but paused as he looked to his right. There was a column, a support beam for the floor with its metal exposed. Carved into the floor and extending up to the bottom of the column was a hexagon.
At the point of each hexagon was a series of runes enclosed in a circle. Outside of each circle was another set of runes running all around it. In the middle of the hexagon were two items, one a bronze statue of a horse and the other what appeared to be an effigy made of twigs.
Luc has never seen the runes before, but he'd never been particularly strong at ancient runes. He studied them for several moments, trying to commit them to memory. They weren't just drawn, but rather etched into the floor and column. A cry from Harry broke his concentration and he turned back.
Fleur had dropped to her knees and Harry was struggling to maintain his own footing. Luc clenched his jaw. They needed to get out of here. The three of them were clearly not enough, and they had badly underestimated Tom Riddle. He reached into his robes and pulled out a small vial, its green liquid sloshed as he shook it. He tapped his wand to the glass twice and it glowed. He shook it again, and the liquid sloshed once more, this time glowing brighter.
He stood, his knees buckling before he steadied himself. He turned towards Riddle and tossed the vial directly at him. The man turned towards him and, with a slash of his wand, the vial exploded. A heavy mist covered the room.
"Arg!" shouted Riddle.
Luc apparated to Harry and Fleur, gripping both of them tightly. They looked exhausted, and Harry had a wound on the side of his neck. He nodded numbly at Luc. Just as the mist cleared they popped away with a loud crack.
They fell into his flat with another loud sound and he let go of his companions. Harry collapsed instantly as Luc scrambled into the corner. He reached the runestone and tapped his wand to it twice. His anti-portkey and anti-apparition wards slammed into place as the stone began to pulse a faint orange.
With great effort he sighed and fell against the wall, the solid surface catching his back. He took a deep breath. His heart ached. He'd confronted Gabby's killer and been utterly unprepared. Luck had been on their side and the only reason they were alive.
Luc looked at Fleur and his heart broke. She was defeated, utterly and completely. It hurt to see her so devoid of life, and he knew Riddle's words had hit her even harder than they had enraged him. He stood up, walked the short distance to her, and dropped to his knees.
He wrapped his arms around her and she froze at the contact. After just an instant the tension broke and a cry escaped her lips.
.
.
She felt Luc's arms wrap around her and the breath caught in her throat. She knew what he was telling her. He was saying that it was okay. That she didn't have to be strong. That she could let out everything she'd bottled up upon opening the doors and seeing Tom Riddle's face.
A cry escaped her lips as the grief overwhelmed her. She clung to him with desperation, afraid that if she let go her emotions would carry her away. She cried, for the first time since that day in Paris, she let her control slip completely and cried. She cried for the loss of her sister. She cried for Luc, the love of his life having been taken from him. She cried for the pain that she'd inflicted upon Harry in her quest for justice.
Mostly, however, she cried because she was afraid. Tom Riddle's depth and breadth of knowledge was matched only by his skills with a wand. What he'd displayed had shaken her to her very core, upsetting the balance within her that she'd carefully maintained her entire life. For years she had expected to confront the person who had caused her so much hurt and would require nothing more than a wave of her wand to dispatch them. She had been a fool.
She'd looked into the face of the evil that had killed her sister and it looked back at her, not with the twisted ugliness of a demon, but with a casual smile.
Fear gripped her as her sobs echoed in the room. She wasn't afraid of Tom Riddle, not in the same way that others no doubt were. She wasn't afraid that he'd end her life. She'd been prepared to give her life for this quest for a long time. What scared her was the thought that she would fail, meet her sister on the other side, and be met with nothing but a disgusted look.
She felt another hand fall upon her shoulder and looked up to see Harry's tired eyes looking down at her. He smiled a sad smile, not one of pity, but one of understanding.
"We haven't lost yet," he said softly.
Fleur nodded and released Luc, wiping at her face in an attempt to gain some control over herself. The tears kept falling and both of the men understood her sorrow. She let go of her anchor and allowed herself to swim in her grief, wiping her face several times as the tears began to slow. Her head stayed above the water of the feelings and her breath returned to her. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she wiped her face and no tears were left.
She sat back against the sofa and sighed. She looked at Luc and saw him running his wand along his leg, muttering the words to a basic healing spell.
"We were unprepared," she said, though her throat was dry and hoarse. A glass of water appeared in front of her. Fleur looked up and took the glass from Harry's outstretched hand, giving him a weak smile before placing it against her lips. The cool liquid felt nice against her throat.
"We were," Harry agreed as he sat back down, back resting against the fireplace. He closed his eyes briefly, and Fleur noticed that the cut on his neck had been sealed. "I don't think any of us expected Tom Riddle to be…that."
"The way he spoke, as if we were friends, it was chilling," Luc voiced from his spot on the floor. "The way he talked about taking lives, with such a…casual disregard was sickening."
"He treats people's lives as if they're nothing more than toys," Harry said. "He's crazy, a sociopath even, but he's far more dangerous than we thought. Dumbledore was right about one thing, Tom Riddle is brilliant. You can see it in his eyes. His skills were far beyond just the three of us."
"We'll need more help," Fleur said, putting to words Harry's unspoken thoughts. "We can't handle this on our own anymore. At the very least, we've got him confessing to the murder of his muggle family. We need to bring in your father."
Harry nodded.
"Yeah, but it's the other things that bother me. The bit about killing all the muggleborns. Putting aside that he's a halfblood, he spoke with such conviction. Such certainty. I've heard the rantings of crazy witches and wizards before; ones that thought they could perform the impossible. I don't get that sense from Riddle. Either he's incredibly blinded by his plan, or what he's doing is real."
Luc stood and went to the desk on the other side of the room, grabbing parchment and a muggle pen. He began writing furiously on the sheet, stopping and starting several times before crumpling up the sheet and grabbing a new one. He did this several times, attempting to write something before getting frustrated and starting again. Finally, he lifted the pen from his latest page and studied it carefully before nodding.
"We need to involve your father and go back," Fleur said, turning to Harry.
Harry shook his head.
"We do need to tell him, but Riddle is going to move his operation after this. He didn't expect us to leave the building. There's very little chance he doesn't change locations."
"I think you're wrong on that one," said Luc. He turned back to them and handed the page to Fleur.
"Have you ever seen anything like this?" he asked.
Fleur looked down at the page, studying the crude drawing of what appeared to be a rune circle. She'd never seen one quite like it, though she would hardly be able to get a sense of what it is based on a hastily-drawn sketch. She shook her head.
"No, nothing quite like this. Looks like a very odd rune circle," she replied before pointing to the circles. "These circles here at the points are likely linking runes, though without seeing what's drawn around them I can't know for certain."
"What's a linking rune?" Luc asked.
"Oh, that's right, linking runes isn't something you learn in school," she said, stopping herself from chastising the man. "Linking runes are runes used to link two circles together. It's odd though, you usually only have one per circle. Never this many."
"Why don't you think he's going to move?" asked Harry. "Rather standard procedure if your base is compromised. Relocate and continue on somewhere else."
Luc took the page from Fleur and pointed at his drawing.
"I think this is the key to his plan. These runes weren't drawn, they were etched into the floor and the building column. I think he's using the building as a focal point. Think about it. Why etch the runes into the building itself if you could just draw them? There's something about that building specifically that's special."
"Any guesses?" Harry asked.
Luc shook his head.
"No, but I have an idea." He rolled up the parchment and stuck it into his robes before looking down at Harry and Fleur. "You two get some rest. I'll be back in a few hours. I think we're all going to need to be at our best soon, but I doubt anything else will happen tonight. You two saw Riddle, he doesn't consider us an actual threat, so try to get some sleep."
Before they could protest he walked to the door of the flat and exited, a click signaling he'd locked it behind him. Fleur frowned as she leaned back against the sofa and closed her eyes. Exhaustion was beginning to settle in her, the night's events finally catching up with her. She was worried about Luc, but he could handle himself, and he was never one to do anything stupid. She felt a weight settle next to her as an arm draped across her shoulder.
"He'll be fine," Harry said next to her as she laid her head on him. "He's got good instincts."
"I know, but I still worry."
Silence filled the air, though it wasn't uncomfortable. They'd all been through a lot tonight and she suspected Harry was beginning to crash from the excitement, just as she was. Not long before they wouldn't be able to keep their eyes open.
"Fleur, I…" he started before stopping. Another beat passed before he spoke again. "I'm sorry. Your sister's life did mean something."
"I know, Harry."
"I don't think you do," he whispered. "I think you're doubting yourself right now, but you need to know that she did matter. Will always matter."
She smiled and closed her eyes. He pressed a kiss into her hair and began to rub her shoulder gently. There would be time for talking later, but she'd done enough of that tonight. For now, the closeness was enough. To know that there was someone who wanted to hold her in their arms was enough for her to be certain that all wasn't lost. That even though justice was her main goal, perhaps there was something else worth fighting evil for. She inhaled lightly and smiled at his scent.
Birchwood and broom polish, just like always.
A small smile played across her lips as they drifted off to sleep.
.
.
Sleep had been fitful and lasted only a couple hours, neither able to relax enough to rest. They didn't speak it out loud, but they were both worried about Luc. He was capable of taking care of himself, but they understood the dangers they were facing. How could they sleep while he was still out there? Instead, they'd gotten up and, as if on some sort of automatic routine, made breakfast.
Fleur grabbed the eggs and bacon, Harry grabbed the tea. He wasn't familiar with Luc's flat, but the monotony of finding things and preparing food kept his mind active. Kept him from wondering how much longer they should wait until they went after him. The sun was just beginning to come up when they sat down on the sofa, a small plate of food in front of each of them. They still hadn't spoken, but she'd sent him a look that made him understand she was thinking the same things.
Neither ate.
The door burst open and Harry darted up, wand in hand as he swung around. He exhaled in relief as Luc's form shuffled in and closed the door behind him. Fleur was beside him, just a hair slower and relief flooded through her features as well.
"Oh Luc, thank Merlin you're safe," Fleur said, rushing over to the other man and wrapping him in a hug. He returned the gesture briefly before pulling back.
"You're going to want to see this," he said, leading them both to the table.
He pulled out a map of the London business district and unrolled it, flicking his wand to make it stick to the table. Harry looked down and saw that it appeared to be some sort of architectural map of the city, simple squares for buildings. Bigger buildings appeared larger than smaller buildings. Overlaid on the map were a complicated series of lines. He read the bottom of the map and realized that it was a sewer map.
"Where did you get this?" Harry asked.
"Broke into the government office and stole it," Luc explained as he pulled a marker from his robes and circled a building in the middle of the map.
"This is where we were yesterday," he explained. He nodded at Fleur. "You said before I left that there were more of those linking runes than usual, right?"
She nodded.
"Yes. Normally, if you're trying to link two rune circles together you use one on each."
"What if you were trying to link seven?"
Fleur's eyes went wide.
"That's impossible," she said in disbelief. "Two is the perfect number because each circle gets its power from the other. Three is possible, but it requires a substantial amount of power to maintain. I've never even heard of four, let alone seven."
She raised an eyebrow at him.
"What did you find?"
"The runes in the building were etched into the floor and structure. I couldn't stop asking why? Why do that? Even if we take into account that Riddle never believed he'd be caught, why take the risk? He's spent decades working on his plan from the shadows, why take a risk that you might get found out and have to start this somewhere else?"
"And what did you come up with?" asked Harry.
Luc pulled another page from his robes and handed it to them. Harry unrolled the sheet. It was the list of buildings owned by Salazar Family Brokerage that they'd been working from.
"It's the real estate," Luc explained. "The amount of it strikes me as odd. He basically owns every building in a two kilometer radius from where we were last night. That had to have cost a fortune, and it serves no purpose if this is the only building he needs. So I went to all the buildings around the one we were in last night."
"Luc!" exclaimed Fleur, putting her hands on her hips. "You went back there? What if you had been caught?"
"I wasn't," he said, though the look in his eyes told Harry that he understood the risk he'd taken. "I was careful, and I didn't go anywhere near Riddle."
"Risky, but you must have found something," concluded Harry.
Luc nodded and returned to the map. He circled six buildings that surrounded the one they'd gone to last night.
"In the basement of each of these buildings I found an identical rune circle. Etched, at least partially, directly into the foundation of the building itself. This one," he pointed to the building south of the main one, "was pulsing faintly. I tried to disrupt the circle but there was some sort of barrier. I didn't stick around to investigate."
"So Riddle does have some safeguards in place," mused Harry. "I wonder if the one primary one is the same."
Luc shook his head.
"I'd lean more towards Riddle is the safeguard for the primary one. He's certainly not lacking for confidence to make that a strong possibility."
Harry looked at the circles on the map and tilted his head to the side, examining their positions closely. He grabbed the marker from Luc and began to draw lines between each of the six buildings that surrounded the main one. When he was finished they all stepped back. Fleur's eyes went wide.
It was a perfect hexagon.
"Merlin's balls," whispered Harry. "Am I the only one thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Are you thinking that he's using these six buildings to feed power back into the main circle and that's how he's going to kill a bunch of muggleborns?" asked Luc.
"Yeah."
"Then no, you're not the only one who's thinking it."
"This-this is impossible," whispered Fleur from behind her hand. "How? It's not enough to draw the runes and activate them. You have to have enough power to sustain them. What's he using to sustain them?"
"I thought about that too," Luc said as he sat down at the table. Harry could see the bags under his eyes and the exhaustion he felt. "It's the objects he's been smuggling. What if they've been siphoning energy from the people who work in these buildings for decades and storing it in the objects? Every muggle has magic in them, we all know that, they just don't have enough to do anything with it."
He pulled another sheet out of his robes and handed it to Fleur. She unrolled it to find a new drawing above the one from the previous night. Far more detailed and incredibly well recreated. More than enough to decipher. Luc pointed at the paper.
"What if Riddle found a way to tap into that magic and store it into his objects? They'd have to be specific objects, perhaps designed for something else but able to be used for this purpose, but maybe it'll give him enough power to accomplish what he needs." He tapped the middle building. "This is the centerpiece. He's not going to move because he'd have to recreate it elsewhere, and something tells me this isn't exactly something that can be picked up and transported."
He sighed wearily and rubbed his eyes.
"We need to bring your dad in on this, Harry, and we need to do it fast. None of the other runes were pulsing, but that last one has me concerned that this is going to happen soon. My gut says we've got a week or two, tops."
"There's one thing I don't get," Fleur said, "Riddle himself is half-blood. So are the majority of the magical community. Is his ritual going to be able to distinguish half bloods from muggleborn?"
Luc shrugged.
"I would assume so. Grindelwald's hatred was specifically against muggles. He was very welcoming to half-bloods, even calling them the foundation upon which our world sits. Though some argue he meant that in a servant kind of way. Perhaps Riddle found a way to separate the two." He rubbed his eyes again. "Or his building is protected so he'll be fine while everyone else gets roasted."
Harry nodded.
"We don't know if his plan will actually do what he says it will, or the exact details, but better to be safe than sorry." Harry rubbed his chin. "We still need to figure out a way to deal with the rune circle. If we go back with a squad of Aurors and he's already started it then we need to know how to disrupt it."
"Leave that to me," Fleur said, looking up from the page. "You bring your father in on this and I'll contact your mother."
"My mum?" Harry asked.
Fleur nodded.
"She's the closest thing I know to an ancient runes expert and if she can't help then I know Dumbledore can."
He ran a hand through his hair. She was right. Though there were runes masters in Europe, none were as easily accessible as a Hogwarts professor and, despite not teaching the subject, his mother could have just as well gotten her mastery in the subject if she wanted. And Dumbledore would help if Lily Potter asked him.
"Sounds like a plan." He looked over at Luc. "Get some sleep."
Luc nodded.
Harry clapped the other man on the shoulder and squeezed.
"Good work on this, Luc. I'm sure she would be incredibly proud of you."
"What are you going to tell your father?" Fleur asked as they turned towards the fire. The wards were still in place and Luc looked ready to pass out, so the fire was the only exit.
Harry shrugged.
"Probably going to tell him I've been investigating the case he explicitly told me not to. That I dueled a powerful, crazy sociopath and lost. Oh, and that, without his help, a lot of people may be about to die."
"So you're going to let him yell at you then play on his sympathy, ego, and sense of duty?" she asked with a smile.
He winked at Fleur.
"When you put it like that it sounds bad. I like to think of it as doing my civic duty in an unorthodox way."
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AN: Thanks for reading!