Retirement Plan
Part 20
Twycross House. The Wizarding World.
While originally the plan for this time of the year had been for us all to spend the Xmas holidays at Hogwarts because Dawn wanted to experience a Christmas at the castle, both Raven and I had been against the idea since neither of us wanted to celebrate the season.
Plus, there were things I wanted to do during the next couple of weeks that would be a lot easier to deal with and keep people ignorant about if we didn't have to sneak out of the castle or let people know when we would be leaving.
So I'd made a deal with Dawn, she got to have a small Christmas party here, she could invite some friends over, and I would take her to Slughorn's Xmas party as my date. She'd get to wear a fancy dress and do some dancing. For some reason, she happily accepted this compromise.
Apparently, this small party was taking a lot of arranging and since neither Rachel nor I were allowed to be involved in the planning we were both hanging out in the study, smartly staying out of the way as Dawn made her plans.
The study was a small room at the back of the house that I'd not been in for a while and might have stayed out for longer if Rooby the House Elf had not mentioned to me that the bank had some paperwork I needed to review.
Rapidly the study had become my favourite room as not only was it warm, due to the large and ornate fireplace, it had another collection of books in it, as well as some interesting knickknacks, records of the family's expenses going back centuries, and one of those half couch things that seemed to exist only for women to lounge around on. Raven was making good use of it as she read a book.
I sat behind my desk, going over some records that contained information about the family fortune, some odds and ends, as well as a human skull, the existence of which should freak me out, but oddly I found that it suited the room.
"You know what, finances are weird," I said.
Raven looked over at me as she closed the book she'd been reading.
"I've never had much interest in finances," she told me "Robin always handled the budget, all I ever knew was that The Titans were sponsored by a few companies, including Queens Consolidated and Wayne Enterprises, I just can't tell you why".
That didn't matter since I already knew. Raven seemed to forget sometimes how much I understood about her world.
"Well, I'm no accountant or an expert on magical law," I was now saying "But if I'm right then once I've done my O.W.L. exams I should be able to open up a second-hand store and start selling off all the junk in the Room of Requirement".
That room could provide me with decades worth of inventory.
"I'll need to find someone to actually run it for me since I'll want to focus on other things and I'll have to keep quiet about where the store gets its inventory," I said.
That could be a problem if I opened a junk shop and start selling too cheaply because I didn't pay for the stuff I want to sell. Someone, say a jealous competitor, might investigate and try to find out where my stock was coming from.
There was still loads of stuff in the Room of Requirement even if Raven, Dawn and I had taken the stuff that looked to be worth something to the goblins for them to check out. Gringotts Curse Breakers were the best and anything of value could be stored in the vault my whole group had access to. One separate from the vault containing the Seed Money granted to me by the CYOA.
Some of the stuff in the room, such as the empty sherry bottles and broken school desks were worthless. However, there was still plenty in there that could be sold, including old copies of school textbooks that I already owned and equipment that students must have used in classes over the last thousand or so years. Poorer families might like to be able to buy that stuff cheaply.
"Of course, there isn't much demand for junk, and we risk flooding the market" I went on to say "Maybe some of the stuff can be sold in the Muggle world".
Those were concerns for the future.
"You need to focus more on learning spells and magical theory" Raven advised, "You have to pass your O.W.L.s and go on to master a few types of magic, you do that and obtaining money will never be an issue".
They would be more interesting ways to add to my riches. I had the Resurrection Stone as such I could summon up the spirits of those who should know the locations of buried treasures. It could be fun to travel around the world after attending Hogwarts and recovering lost wealth.
I might never need the money, yet I still felt the desire to obtain more. If nothing else the need would keep me motivated.
"What are you reading?" I asked.
I'd noticed her making notes while reading a very big book.
"The project I'm working on is about ghosts" she informed "I've been hoping to find some way of banishing Professor Binns so that we can get a proper lecturer for History of Magic. I know we can study the subject ourselves with a tutor, it's just that I think the students would do better off with a proper teacher since they can't all afford to hire someone".
Banishing a ghost seemed simple enough for someone like Raven, and as for why this mattered, Remus Lupin had taken a teaching job at Hogwarts so either I had to find us another tutor in that subject or we'd need to actually attend that class. I had no intention of boring myself to tears as Binns droned about goblin rebellions.
"So what's the problem?" I asked.
She sighed, possibly in annoyance at me for interrupting her research or the problem she was having.
"In this world, a ghost is the imprint of the soul of a once-living wizard or witch, not a disembodied soul like Voldemort was so it's not just a matter of sending them to the afterlife since the soul has already left this world," Raven said "People who become ghosts are either afraid of death or have some extraordinarily strong connection to the locations they haunt that stopped them from moving on. If Binns is tied to the school, which is possible because teaching seemed to be his whole life then I'd have to destroy the school to get rid of him. Unless I find another solution".
Well if anyone could it would be her.
"He might just fade away if he lost his teaching position," Raven told me "But since they don't have to pay him there's no way the people running Hogwarts would allow that. I thought about tricking him into thinking he's been sacked, but I don't want to risk getting caught. I like going to Hogwarts, so I'm trying to find some spell that I can cast to get rid of him without damaging the school or drawing a lot of attention to myself. I'm not having much luck so I might need to create one".
Given my lack of experience with such things, I didn't think that I could help her with that. At least not a first. After giving the matter some thought, I took out the magical map of the school and located Cuthbert Binns who was hanging around in his office.
"Let me try something," I said.
To summon a spirit you had to turn the stone three times clockwise so I tried it the other way while saying the name of the ghost teacher who then vanished from the map.
"And he's gone," I told Rachel.
Raven stared at the map for a while as if the ghost would somehow reappear.
"That challenges all accepted wisdom on ghosts" she stated "And made all my research pointless".
I could tell that I'd frustrated her by dealing with the issue so easily. I was just pleased that the stone had proven useful. The slightly smug look on my face only made her frown.
"At least with all the staff changes we won't have to put up with Snape," I said, trying to cheer her up.
He'd quit his job and so Slughorn had decided to return to his old position. No one minded, not even me as I could attend his classes rather than employ him as a tutor. The same with Remus Lupin.
"I wonder what will happen to him now that he doesn't have to protect Potter?" I mused.
In the books/movies, he dies before the Dark Lord is defeated so we never find out what he would have done afterwards.
"He might become the next Dark Lord" stated Rachel.
I knew Snape was a jerk, but that seemed unlikely to me, yet I knew better than to dismiss anything the former Teen Titan had to say.
"What makes you think that?" I inquired.
Raven returned to her couch before answering.
"Snape only worked with Dumbledore to protect Lily Potter and then her son" explained the witch "He didn't set out with any plan to redeem himself and now that he's free of his obligations he might go back to trying to obtain power for himself via the dark arts".
I'd thought he would slink off and maybe work on his potions, but if Raven was right then Snape could become a threat to us.
"Maybe we should do something about him" I mused.
I had no sympathy for Snape, all he did was make other people miserable, he was a terrorist, murderer and child abuser, he is the reason that Voldemort went after the Potters and why the Longbottoms were targetted as well.
"Snape's House, it's in a place called Spinners Lane if my memory of the books is correct," I was now saying, "If we can corner him at home maybe we can try out those books you've been making to hold Death Eaters".
Raven soon agreed to this.
"It would be more humane than finding some way to have him sent to Azkaban and letting him suffer there, and unlike Malfoy, he's not high profile so few people will care if he vanishes," she said.
Dumbledore would care so I would need to do something to confuse the Headmaster to make sure he didn't suspect students to be behind what we planned.
"I think we've worked enough for one evening. How about an early night?" Raven asked.
That wasn't an offer I would refuse, but before I could go to bed I had another letter to go over. When I'd finished reading I found myself both insulted and amused.
Gilderoy Lockhart had invited himself over for afternoon tea tomorrow, and while this was very rude of him it was also something that made me happy because I'd been meaning to do something about him, and now he was going to deliver himself to me.
According to his letter, he was just stopping by to trade stories of our adventures, he seemed to be under the impression that I'd done things worthy of an Order of Merlin other than what the Ministry was rewarding me for.
I saw through him. Lockhart wanted to find out if I'd done anything worthy of turning into his one of stories and if I gave him anything he'd try to wipe it from my mind. Not that I would allow this to happen.
In my view, Lockhart's actions were no different than assaulting someone physically and perhaps it was worse because while many injuries heal, a person is the sum of their experiences to take that away from them is to kill a tiny piece of that person.
Profiting from the suffering of others is wrong, not that I was really fit to judge as I would profit from others and mess with their minds if needs be, but at least I didn't go around acting like a total git, and trying to get everyone to worship me.
Killing Lockhart would be a little extreme. He was not nearly as bad as say Umbridge, but he couldn't be allowed to go around messing with people's minds, nor could I allow him to try wiping my memories.
I deemed him worthy of my wrath because he was willing to destroy the minds of children to cover up the fact that he was a fraud.
"Raven, do you have more than one book ready?" I asked.
She quickly agreed to help me deal with Lockhart. Apparently, she wasn't a fan of his either.
"He might have told someone he's going to meet with you" warned Raven "But if he's planning to memory wipe you then he wouldn't want anyone knowing he was here. I'll have to examine his mind before sealing him in a spellbook".
With that decided we headed for bed.
Cokesworth. Muggle Britain.
"Here we are, Spinner's End," I said to Raven and Dawn, "The childhood home of one Severus Snape".
The Spinner part of the street name made me wonder if in times past the people living had been heavily involved in cotton or wool spinning in the past. The houses here looked as if they could have been built as homes for workers who spent their time labouring away in a textile factory back when this country was a centre of industry.
It was raining heavily and it was still very dark due to being four in the morning. We'd all gone to bed early so that we get up and complete this little raid. I was looking forward to going back to bed once our business here was done so I could get some more sleep before Lockhart came over.
"I wonder if we are near the childhood home of the Evans family, where Petunia Dursley and Lily Potter grew up" I further mused, talking due to my nerves "Lily Potter must have been like a flower growing out of a pot of weeds if she grew up around here".
As Raven got to work on the defensive enchantments, I wondered if Snape bothered with muggle-repelling wards since he wasn't likely to welcome visitors and his house looked very normal from the outside so there was no need to hide it from the non-magical folk.
"You two need to stay focused" warned Rachel "Snape is not to be underestimated".
This should be simple. Dawn and I just had to disable the wizard long enough for Raven to trap him in the book. Then before anyone noticed he was gone we'd ransack the place.
"I can do this," I told myself.
While even a powerful wizard could be taken out of action for a while by a single stunner, I had no idea if Dumbledore had set up any kind of alarms to alert him if Snape suddenly vanished or if the dark wizard had anyone else he trusted to come to check on him, so I knew that we have to move quickly.
"He'll come running when we get inside" warned an invisible Raven "There's an alarm charm on inside of the house".
Dawn and I took out our wands, and as predicted when Rachel brought down the defensive enchantments and let us inside, she triggered some alarm that I couldn't hear, but it did bring Snape dashing into his living room. Since we were prepared he was hit by two red stunners before he could cast a curse at either of the two people he could see.
Raven used Rorek's curse to entrap Snape in the spellbook she'd prepared. The prototype book had performed without any issues.
"Works as promised" declared the former Teen Titan as she became visible.
I was pleased.
"Well done" I praised "Now we can deal with the Death Eaters without having to kill anyone".
I was more concerned about the corrupt Ministry labelling us all as murderers and sending dementors after us than I was about the morality of killing Death Eaters.
When we began to look around, I found myself in a tiny sitting room, which felt smaller than it actually was, and there was a sense of darkness here, well more of a gloominess really. The walls were completely covered in books, most of them bound in black or brown leather. Other than that there was a threadbare sofa, an old armchair and a rickety table.
Snape clearly hadn't seen this place as a good home. He'd not cared about this place if I was any judge, nor spent much time here.
"Hard to imagine a kid growing up in this house," I heard Dawn say.
Snape was from this town and given his lack of care for the property it seemed fair to assume that he'd inherited this place from his bastard of a father rather than him having purchased it.
"We're going to loot this place as planned," I said.
Since I had a bottomless bag I took advantage of that and as I moved around the small house I began to use magic to take everything that look worthwhile without actually touching anything. I wasn't just planning on killing the Death Eaters I was going to rob them as well if possible.
The bag I was using would be stashed in our extra-dimensional storage space, which didn't seem to mind us filling it with containers that were bigger on the inside and we could sort through our loot when we found the time.
As for not touching anything, I wouldn't put it past Snape to place nasty curses on his property to punish any thieves.
Before long I found a partly hidden door that lead to a storeroom where a lot of elf-made wine was kept. I took all of that rather than let it go to waste. It was an odd thing to find since Snape didn't seem like the type to have guests over.
After some more looking around Raven found a safe which contained some wizarding coins and stacks of muggle bank notes. I wondered if Snape had been doing some potion brewing on the side that made him some profit or if he'd robbed people during his Death Eater days. Not that it mattered as it was all ours now.
I ignored the bedroom and bathrooms since Snape's clothes and personal effects were of no interest to me. Instead, with some help, I cleared out the potion's lab before I began spreading some flammable liquids around the building. I wanted the fire that burned this house down to be started by mundane means so as to throw off any magical investigation.
"Morsmordre!"
To further confuse matters and to befuddle Dumbledore, who by now might have discovered that Voldemort was truly gone, I fired off a spell and created the dark mark in the sky using Snape's wand that I stored away.
My hope was that either Dumbledore would think that Riddle wasn't really gone, meaning he'd divert time and effort into looking for Voldemort, or he'd think that Snape had gotten himself killed by another Death Eater who had decided to strike once Snape was no longer under his protection.
"Raven get us out of there" I ordered.
Darkness swallowed us up and soon we vanished.
Twycross Manor. Wizarding World.
A few days into the holiday Wilkie Twycross my cousin, or at least the man who thought he was my cousin, finally made an appearance, having come over to give myself, Raven and Dawn a few private lessons in the art of apparition. I had hoped to include Hermione as well, but she was on holiday with her parents.
Normally we'd have to wait at least until after the Easter holidays to start learning this while at school, but I wanted to start now just in case I had any trouble mastering this advanced magical art and needed some extra lessons.
I didn't want to depend on Rachel to serve as a taxi service for me and methods of travel such as the Knight Bus weren't secure.
As for Hermione, I didn't know if she was going to agree to sign the binding contract that would allow me to share some of my perks with her. She'd needed some time to think about it and she would have that while on holiday.
Putting those thoughts aside, for now, I followed my fake cousin as he led the three of us out into the gardens and into the fields at the edge of the property as the house and the grounds around it all had anti-Apparition wards on them.
"When you turn eighteen you become eligible for a twelve-week course of Apparition Lessons from a Ministry of Magic Apparition instructor" Wilkie Twycross began by saying.
Legal rights in the wizarding world were complex. You were an adult at seventeen but you couldn't do much in the way of adult things unless you'd passed your O.W.L exams. The apparition test was different, you need to be eighteen to get a license to have some magical education. This made sense since you would have to be somewhat familiar with using magic to have any hope of learning to teleport.
"I will be teaching you every Saturday afternoon for the next 12 weeks," said my not-cousin "I've already written to inform Hogwarts. As such you will be able to leave the college for these lessons".
At least that was one thing I didn't need to handle myself.
"Normally The Ministry will charge a small sum for this course" we were told, "And I charge for private lessons, but we'll waive that fee".
No doubt Wilkie felt a bit guilty for leaving an unknown cousin in a muggle orphanage when he should have raised that child, and while it wasn't his fault since I hadn't actually existed for him to adopt if I could make use of his guilt for free lessons then that was fine with me.
"Apparition is a magical form of transportation" Mr Tywcross explained "By which the user travels instantly from one location to another, without traversing the space in between. This is accomplished by having the user focus on the desired location in their mind and then purposely disappearing from where they were, to reappear at the desired location".
So far this sounded simple enough.
"Apparition is by far the fastest way to get to the desired destination, assuming it was a reasonable distance away" Wilkie went on to say "However it can be tricky to pull off correctly and disastrous if botched".
The ability to Apparate was a relatively advanced skill for wizards, yet other magical creatures were capable of disappearing and reappearing with ease. House-elves for example.
I knew that Apparition had a range limit and that it can become increasingly difficult to perform when a great distance needs to be travelled. Trying to teleport too far could result in splinching yourself, meaning that you leave part of yourself behind when you teleport.
This can result in severe injury and death. Also, Apparition required great knowledge of the place the wizard wanted to visit, as they needed to be able to visualise it clearly.
"When in use Apparition can cause quite a bit of noise" we were told "Ranging from a small faint pop to a loud crack that may sound to Muggles like a car backfiring. Those wizards who have mastered this skill can perform Apparition without making any kind of noise".
Twycross began teaching by telling us about the "Three D's of Apparition": Destination, Determination, and Deliberation which wasn't much in the way of theory, but Apparating is more an art than anything else, some people were just very good at it while others struggled and no amount of theory would help.
As for the practical side of these lessons, we needed to apparate into a hoop that our teacher conjured up by focusing our mind on the inside of the hoop and then spinning around with the intention of appearing within the hoop.
Raven, who could already magically teleport herself using her powers, took to Apparation like a fish to water, were as Dawn and I got no results during the first lesson. Not that this surprised Wilkie Twycross one bit because Apparation was an art, not a science and someone people never learned to do it and a few people got it right away.
Before leaving he gave us all a pamphlet on the subject and told Raven how to go get her license at the Ministry. She'd have to Apparate again during the actual exam, but he didn't think she'd have any problems with that.
I hoped that my late afternoon tea with Lockhart enjoyed more success.
Part 21
Cokesworth. Muggle Britain.
Professor Albus Dumbledore looked at the charred remains of Severus Snape's family home and sighed. He'd been worried about something like this happening and he'd tried to keep the Potion's Master at Hogwarts in order to keep him safe. Among other reasons.
While there had been the dark mark cast into the sky the muggles, who now didn't remember the mark thanks to the hard work of certain members of the Ministry, thought there had been some sort of accident, but the Headmaster knew otherwise.
This was the work of witches and wizards, perhaps even one of the Death Eaters who had escaped justice when Tom Riddle was vanquished, although the Headmaster doubted that Death Eaters were behind this attack.
Still, it was known to many followers of the Dark Lord that Snape had turned his cloak and become a spy towards the end of the war, so they would be blamed by others.
Snape had been well protected at Hogwarts and had spent as little time out of the castle as possible. It helped that with their master gone none of the Death Eaters who had escaped Azkaban would dare to move against Snape while he was at the castle for fear of drawing Dumbledore's ire against them.
That all changed when Snape quit his job and left the Headmaster's service. As soon as he'd left Serverus had made himself vulnerable and now he'd paid the price for his foolishness.
Dumbledore had a very long list of suspects who would be willing to go after the Potion's Master and he was already taking mentally taking quite a few people off that list due to muggle methods being involved.
As clever as it was to make it harder to track any magic used by setting the place on fire with muggle-made chemicals, this was something Voldemort or his followers would not lower themselves to do. It was doubtful that any of them would know which chemicals to even use.
Add to this the lack of any traces of dark magic and it seemed unlikely that Snape had been targeted by Lord Voldemort or any of his followers. They would have thrown curses around.
If anything this was likely the work of a muggle-born witch or wizards, and while they weren't normally the kind of people who committed crimes of this kind, they were far more likely to use muggle methods to try to clear their tracks.
Aside from that, muggle-borns and half-bloods with close ties to the muggle world have a much easier time acquiring the needed materials and would better understand how to use them. They would also know about the Muggle firefighters who had stopped the fire from spreading
Acknowledging the idea that either a muggleborn or a half-blood with experience with the muggle world was behind this didn't exactly narrow down the list of suspects. What the Headmaster wondered was if many of them could know to conjure the dark mark since the spell wasn't common knowledge.
Dumbledore started up a whole new list, which included a lot of former Hogwarts students who had graduated from the school in the last decade as well as victims of the Death Eater's raids who could have learned about the mark. Given that this happened during the holidays it could even be a current student.
The Headmaster ruled out the first-year students. None of them had been in the presence of the Potion's Master enough to become this disgruntled and many were hiring tutors these days. Snape rarely interacted with non-Slytherin students outside of the classroom and Slytherins didn't use muggle methods.
Snape had never been a well-liked man. His abrasive attitude hadn't made him any friends and he was a poor teacher even Albus would admit that. If not for the need to keep Snape close by the Headmaster never would have employed the man.
Alas, he'd needed a strong ally to be in charge of Slytherin house in order to keep some sort of control over the students, and Snape had been a useful follower. If a few students failed or never took N.E.W.T. level potions class then that was the price the wizarding world had to pay.
While outside of the house the Headmaster had questioned a few of the more active members of the community about what they thought had happened and had even skimmed the surface of a few people's minds.
They were under the impression that Severus Snape worked as a chemistry teacher at a remote boarding school in Scotland. Which wasn't that far from the truth.
Because of the use of chemicals to start the fire as well as a lack of anything odd found inside the remains of the house, the police had a theory that Serverus Snape had cleared out and then burned his own home down for insurance money, using chemicals taken from his place of work.
Severus had loathed his father and this was his father's house, a home he barely spent any time in, and the local people knew that, so it wasn't a big surprise that the police had come to this conclusion.
The fact that the house had been cleared out of anything connected to the magical world, at least as far as Albus could see, convinced Dumbledore more than anything else that no dark Pureblood was behind this.
They weren't above looting and there had been things worth taking, but none of the Death Eaters would bother to go to such effort to hide the existence of magic as they were foolish enough not to care if the statute was put in peril.
Most of the muggle-borns and half-bloods knew better as they didn't underestimate the danger that non-magical people could pose to witches or wizards.
Snape really hadn't done himself any favours by being so abrasive to everyone. There were years worth of students and parents who wouldn't mind getting back at the teacher not to mention the victims of Death Eater raids who might have been biding their time before striking at a vulnerable target.
If only he'd been agreeable to staying at the castle then the poor boy would still be safe as Severus spent his holidays at Hogwarts.
He was going to have to request that Mad-Eye come and look into this. The lack of magic involved would make finding a trace of Snape almost impossible, but if anyone could find the Potion's Master then it would be Moody.
Dumbledore could normally call upon other allies, it was just that no one else would really care enough to put any real effort into searching for Snape, and besides he didn't want to ring any alarms.
The DMLE suspected that the former professor had been targetted by some disgruntled students, but none of them really wanted to look into the disappearance of a Death Eater who had escaped Azkaban only because Dumbledore had vouched for the man.
He'd heard one Auror say that he believed that Snape had cast the dark mark himself and faked his own death to avoid long overdue justice.
Severus Snape might not be dead. He might have escaped during the attack and gone into hiding. Electing not to return to Hogwarts despite the danger.
That was the only hope Dumbledore had for his friend's safety and he knew that it was a small one. Most likely the poor man was being held captive somewhere before he was killed, and this meant that Albus might have lost one of his strongest allies.
The Headmaster moved away from the house and while he had been invisible he made sure that he was some distance away from anyone else before he turned on the spot and vanished.
Cave. Coastline.
Before coming here I'd put on what I now thought of as my Magnus outfit. I'd chosen the name Magnus because I felt it was a good name for a wizard and I had an awesome magical staff like that Staff of Magnus in the Skyrim game.
As part of my outfit, I wore dragon-hide boots, a belt with a silver skull buckle, black trousers and a plain black top under my thestral hide coat as well as gloves. I also had on a rather cool-looking mask, but there was no sense in wearing that since there was no one around to see me other than Raven.
On my person, I carried not just my wand, which was secure in a holster that only I could take my wand from, well worth paying extra for, I also carried a dagger since it's always a good idea to carry a backup weapon and my wandless magic was still rather basic.
Rachel had also dressed up for this outing. She wore the invisibility cloak over her new outfit which made her seem more mature.
As we appeared on the rock that was outside of the cave, the dark energy that Raven had surrounded us with for the trip vanished and I was exposed to the elements around me.
While the sea was calm the water looked very cold so I was glad that I wouldn't be doing any swimming.
"Hard to imagine anyone bringing kids here" commented Raven.
Decades ago the children of Wool's Orphanage had been packed up into some sort of transport and brought out here to enjoy the seaside. The trip hadn't been enjoyable for a couple of the orphans thanks to a young Tom Riddle.
"There must be a village or something nearby" I mused.
That wasn't important to us as we weren't here to enjoy the sea air we were here for the not-Horcrux locket hidden in the cave.
It might seem pointless for me to acquire the locket since I knew it to be fake, but I couldn't be certain it was fake in this world even if the timeline seemed to have been the same as the books/movies until we arrived. Aside from a few small changes caused by students going to Hogwarts when they were 17 rather than 11.
Besides, it would be much easier to get the real one if I could use the fake to prove to Kreacher that I intended to finish what his beloved master started. I would trade the fake for the real deal if the true locket wasn't still in the cave and let Kreacher think the locket would be destroyed when it didn't need to be.
Raven needed to fully purify the Horcrux as it could still harm people, and I wanted to collect all the Founder's Relics in case they had any special powers. Even if they didn't grant useful abilities they were still very valuable and should be part of my treasure horde.
If Kreacher didn't make the trade for some reason then the fake might at least be worth some money since it was a real locket as far as I knew and most likely an heirloom of the Black Family since Regulus Black would have access to such things.
In addition to the natural barriers such as choppy waters and jagged rocks, Voldemort hid the locket in this cave with several magical enchantments to guard it. Luckily for us, we already knew how to get past them and between us we should be able to handle any defences not shown in the book. If needs be I would summon up the spirit of Regulus Black.
I knew that the cave could not be Apparated into or Disapparated from, and Raven hadn't teleported us directly into the cave using her magic due to us not being sure if the defences were the same as in the book/movies.
"You need to turn into a dragon and fly us across" instructed Raven "If Voldemort put up any spells to prevent people from flying into the cave on a broom they don't seem to affect natural flight".
That was proven by the fact that were a few seagulls around and they had no trouble flying about. Although they did seem to be avoiding the entrance to the cave.
Rather suddenly Raven jumped onto my back.
"Giddy up horsie" she encouraged.
It always amused me when she went from serious to childish like this.
"What was the point of making yourself a new outfit that makes you look all grown up if you're going to act like such a big kid?" I question.
She slapped me on the shoulder.
"Horses don't talk" she insisted.
The normally controlled witch squealed as I turned into a dragon large enough to carry here, but not so large that I couldn't launch myself off this rock.
Moments later we landed in the mouth of the cave and I transformed back into my human form. Raven got off me a moment later and grinned at me.
"You're changing my opinions on dragons" she commented before getting serious "Summon Regulas Black I need to consult him".
I took the stone out of the storage space, turned it three times and called for him. Only I couldn't summon him. He didn't appear before me in spirit and I wondered if he was somehow still alive or if a spirit could resist being called upon.
Not that it really mattered right now as it just made going after the locket a bit more dangerous and if Mr Black was still alive it might mean he never found out about the Horcrux.
"We'll just have to do our best," said Raven "I didn't teleport us directly into the cave in case of any surprises, but I'm sure we can handle what's inside".
Getting into the main part of the cave was simple enough. Buying the blood of a human wasn't that hard in Knockturn Alley, vampires need it after all, and the spells cast on the bottle meant that the blood was still fresh.
One of us could have bled a little to get into this cave, but I didn't see the point of us risking our health in some way if we could just buy a solution to this problem.
"Magnus we need some light" requested my companion.
Since we were out on a mission it was wise to use our cape names as Raven called them.
I took my Staff of Magnus out of the storage space and with hardly an effort the tip of the magical tool lit up enough to give us some idea of what was around us.
Thanks to our memories of reading The Half-Blood Prince more than once we knew how to find the otherwise invisible rowboat that would transport only one wizard at a time safely across the lake.
"You take the boat and I'll fly across in my animal form," said the former Teen Titan.
She turned into an actual raven and flew over to the pedestal that was on the little island. I considered doing the same in my dragon form and dismissed it since there must be a good reason why she wanted to use the boat.
As I crossed the lake I noticed the bodies in the water. I wondered which of them was Regulus Black. I tried not to dwell on that.
"You're an animagus?" I asked when I got to the other side, "How come you didn't tell me?"
Raven shrugged.
"I don't use the form very often, there was no need when Beast Boy could become any animal we needed, and we never discussed becoming animagus" she answered "Dawn is the only one of us who can. You're a dragon and I already have an animal form".
My human form was my animagus form in a sense.
"That doesn't look like proper water to me," Raven commented as we examined the area "Seems polluted somehow".
Well, it was full of corpses and yet there was something about the water, for some reason, the blackness of it seemed familiar to me.
"Regulus Black's body is somewhere in there," I said "Poor bastard".
I tried not to think about the lake of zombies and focused on the potion. I was now looking at a stone basin that was partly filled with a green potion that could not be parted, vanished, transfigured, or otherwise made to change its properties at least according to Dumbledore.
Thinking about it, I wondered if it was possible to get rid of it without magic using a muggle method that a wizard wouldn't think of employing.
Taking out a fancy goblet from the storage space, that I'd originally gotten from the Room of Requirement I filled the container and then tipped it onto the ground and watched as the basin didn't refill.
I'd considered just putting my hand in and taking the locket but seemed risky as the potion could boil or the basin might somehow trap my arm.
"Wizards really do make things too hard on themselves" Raven commented "The magic is on the basin itself. It can only detect that you've removed the potion without using magic it doesn't know if you drank it or not".
In the movie, there's a fancy goblet along with the basin which must have been enchanted in some way so that only drinking from the goblet would remove the potion. But Voldemort seemed to have forgotten that in this universe.
That I could just pour the potion out really shouldn't really come as a surprise. As Hermione Granger mentions in the first book most Wizards haven't an ounce of logic. Although to be fair, logic doesn't always mean much when you're dealing with magic.
This doesn't make magic users stupid and plenty of No-Maj have the same problem it just means that they tend to overlook simple solutions to their problems. Like Starfleet officers in Star Trek who come up with silly technobabble answers when they'd be better off just shooting something.
Maybe Tom Riddle had just just insane and this meant trying to see the sense in his actions was pointless. Besides, his needlessly complex plans have been foiled by a schoolboy many times, so it seems silly to worry so much about his ability to think clearly.
Getting back to the potion I pondered about how Dumbledore had thought that the only way to remove the potion from the basin, thereby exposing the locket at the bottom, was to drink it. Then I pondered about how trying to do so would make the drinker act as if they were being affected by a dementor thus greatly weakening them.
If the drinker had any strength left, then in their desperate thirst they would be forced to drink water from the lake, as any water magicked on the island would disappear, (I'd brought some water bottles with me in my pouch of holding just in case) and how this was done intentionally by Lord Voldemort.
The drinker would therefore be unable to imbibe anything other than the lake's water, which would awaken the army of Inferi. Awakening the Inferi would most likely lead to the death of the drinker.
Albus Dumbledore noted that the potion's effect might not be fatal, as Voldemort would not want to immediately kill anyone who discovered the cave and the Horcrux within it. Not until he had the time and opportunity to learn how they had discovered its existence in the first place.
If that was true then why have the Inferi kill anyone? Wouldn't it make more sense for them to disable the weakened intruder until Voldemort arrived? I was the only person who could question the dead. At least as far as I knew.
"Regulus Black is alive" I realised.
The cave wasn't meant to kill it was all one big trap meant to hold someone. The entrance was hard to get into unless you risked drowning in very cold water and if you didn't drown you ran the risk of getting hypothermia. It was meant to weaken you.
Then there was the door that demanded blood in payment. That would also weaken a person and the potion wasn't fatal either, so maybe the zombies were meant to disable you when they dragged you into the lake. So going into the lake might not be fatal.
"I was wondering when you'd figure that out," said Raven as she examined the fake locket "I did mention that the lake is polluted".
There was more thinking involved.
"It's one big draught of living death" I realised while looking at the lake "Well it's lake water mixed with the potion. That's why it looks so wrong".
You can dilute magical poisons with water it just makes them less effective. That was why Ron didn't die right away when he drank that poisoned mead in the Half-Blood Prince book, its effects had been lessened.
Also in that book, Harry creates the potion during class and the two other potions seen in that class are both important to the plot. Harry winning the luck potion allows him to get the memory he needs from Slughorn, and Ron falls victim to an attempt by Romilida Vane to slip Harry a love potion which is basically a magical date-rape drug.
All those potions in that class are a foreshadowing of a kind so why not have the Draught of Death play a role?
"If it was diluted enough then you'd need to practically swim in it for it to work" Raven let me know.
If I recalled my readings the draught puts you into a death-like state and there's no limit to how long you can stay in stasis as far as I knew. So Voldemort could deal with the intruder at his leisure.
"Or be drowned in it," I said, "That's what the zombies are for".
I refused to keep calling them Inferni since they were just zombies animated by magic rather than some disease.
"Why didn't he use the Draught of Living Death in the basin?" asked Raven "It was strong enough then the drinker would be trapped in magical stasis like Sleeping Beauty".
The answer came easily to me and I got the impression that Rachel was testing me rather than actually seeking an answer.
"Voldemort is a sadist," I said "He'd enjoy the idea of someone being dragged to their doom after getting tortured".
If Tom Riddle had been born a squib he'd have spent his life in a padded cell after becoming a famous serial killer, or he'd have gone into politics with him being able to act sane due to not having made any Horcruxes. I couldn't imagine even him being worse than Boris Jonson.
"So Regulus Black is alive in that lake" stated my companion.
I couldn't summon him with the stone because he was still alive even if his body was close to death. His soul had not moved on.
"He could be useful in obtaining the real locket" I mused.
I thought about how to get him out and how to deal with the zombies. The plan I came up with was relatively simple.
"Let's just grab him and you can teleport out" I decided "I'll stay here and incinerate the zombies in my dragon form. Met me at the entrance in like a quarter of an hour".
She agreed to this and I was pleased by the idea of burning the zombies as they were dangerous and no one should have their mortal remains used for such evil. Plus I was a dragon so it was about time I got to use my fire.
After securing the locket in our shared storage space, Raven summoned Black to her and vanished before the zombies could start to appear, and when they did I transformed before I unleashed dragon's fire.
Retirement Plan.
Part 22.
The Leaky Cauldron. London.
At first, I thought this an odd place for Horace Slughorn to hold his Yuletide Gala, he didn't use the word Christmas on his invites, but as it turned out the backroom of the pub was done up quite stylishly and the room was far too large to actually fit inside the pub, so some space expanding charms were clearly in effect.
A Wizarding World Christmas party was somewhat similar to a non-magical one in the sense that there were plenty of decorations about, lots of food on offer, far too much drink and the whole scene was rather colourful without becoming an eye sore.
The differences between a magical and muggle Xmas were that there were no images of Santa about, nor were there any religious symbols on display. Which was to be expected since Christians were in the habit of burning witches. The Wizarding World celebrated the more pagan aspects of this time of year.
As I entered the well-decorated room, having shown my invite to some poor sod who looked as if he should be welcoming people to the Queen's Xmas party rather than Slughorn's gathering, I began to look around.
Before long, I spotted the current Minister of Magic who was talking to a group of people who he would deem to be important citizens. I noticed that Frank and Alice Longbottom were here with their son.
The older woman with them who had an entire stuffed vulture on her hat must be Madam Longbottom, a fearsome witch from what I'd heard despite her rather poor taste in fashion.
"No Death Eaters that I can see," remarked Dawn "Isn't Lucius Malfoy always at these big parties?".
Given that I never read the society pages of the Daily Prophet I had no idea. Neither Raven nor I were much into socialising, at least not when compared to Dawn.
"I have no idea," I said.
Lockhart was in attendance. For a while, he'd been publishing his popular fictional series that was based on real events that he stole from other people's lives, and I might have been one of his targets if he hadn't cancelled our appointment. Not that he would have taken me by surprise.
I should do something about him too if only to ensure I had a better DADA teacher in what would be my second year at Hogwarts. Although given that the curse of that post could be tied to Ravenclaw's diadem it might be possible that Remus Lupin would teach for more than one year in a row.
Unlike the Dark Witch Umbridge and the Death Eaters, who deserved to be murdered, I had no desire to kill Lockhart as he didn't exactly enjoy hurting people, he was simply extremely self-absorbed rather truly evil.
It would be more fun to find a way to discredit him. It wouldn't even be much work since I could just slip him some truth potion if he was ever at Hogwarts and then ask him the right questions.
I placed those plans on the back burner for a time as I needed to make sure that there was no one here who would cause me problems and I didn't have any truth potion on me.
There was no sign of Dumbledore, who was very hard to miss given his dress sense, although I did almost stare at someone who I thought for a moment was Bellatrix Lestrange.
Thankfully my first impression was wrong given the bored-looking younger woman standing beside the Bellatrix lookalike. The girl was changing her hair colour rather rapidly.
Also, there was a man in a smart muggle suit next to them, so they must be the Tonks family. Nymphadora Tonks a former Hufflepuff at Hogwarts, was impossible to miss. I figured that she must be undergoing her training as an Auror these days.
"Slughorn might be well known for favouritism as a teacher and as a man who likes to make important connections, but he's no fan of dark wizards," I said to Dawn "I think Tom Riddle saw to that".
It was as if he'd been able to hear me because he came over to us as soon as I spoke his name.
"Ah, James, Dawn" the potion's master greeted as he moved through the crowd of witches and wizards "I'm glad that you both made it my little gathering".
Dawn hadn't been invited she was my plus one. Slughorn seemed to have lost some interest in the young Miss Summers since she wasn't putting as much effort into proving her skill in magic these days.
Not that I blamed her as her role here was to be my companion and to enjoy her new life. Besides, she was still above average in our classes, and she could perform what she thought of as proper witchcraft.
"Your parties have a good reputation so I made time to attend," I said.
Even going so far as to get some fancy dress robes for the event. Mine at least didn't look as if they belong in a woman's wardrobe back in the 1890s.
"I have a little something for you," I said.
Carefully I reached inside my cloak and produced a box that I brought out of the storage dimension. I didn't know where exactly Raven had gotten the contents, but I assumed she'd been into the Forbidden Forest more than once.
The price was 100 gallons for a pint of the venom, and that wasn't as high as it could be given the rarity and the danger faced when acquiring the substance so it seemed safe to assume that the demand wasn't as high as it could be. I only knew of one potion that required the venom.
"You have a supplier?" Slughorn asked.
While the venom was dangerous and there were laws that restricted trade in such substances Acromantula venom wasn't on the list of restricted substances due to its rarity and limited uses.
"I know someone who can acquire a bit more," I said.
The potion's master was very pleased to hear that.
"I can use this for academic purposes and I do know a few fellow brewers who might be interested in obtaining some venom for their own research," said Slughorn "But this isn't the place to talk about such matters. We can talk about it when classes start next term".
There was no chance of him kicking me out of his club now and while it might seem odd that someone with little interest in social activities wanted to stay in the club the chance to make contact with important people was too good to pass up.
"I promised the Minister that I'd bring you to him as soon as you got here" mentioned Slughorn "He wants to give you your Order of Merlin tonight".
Hearing this surprised me.
"I thought I had to go to the Ministry for that," I said.
That had been the plan.
"Fudge is going to be rather busy over the holidays and since he saw that you were on the guestlist he decided to hand over your award now" Slughorn let me know.
I assumed that there was some political reason for this, something to do with why Madam Bones wasn't here, and the award was soon presented to me, the whole thing felt rather rushed.
Minister Fudge didn't even mention why I was getting the medal. Just that I'd gone above and beyond what was expected of a member of the magical community. Which was more or less what was written on the medal.
"I thought it would be prettier" commented Dawn when I showed her the award "I don't think I'll bother getting one of my own".
The whole thing was rather underwhelming and before long Slughorn decided to introduce me to some of his other guests.
"James, Dawn I want you to meet Wednesday Addams," said the once and future head of Slytherin house "She's coming to Hogwarts from America".
Both Dawn and I knew that name. Poor Dawn choked on her drink and I went rigid due to my surprise.
"I didn't know that you could transfer to Hogwarts" I found myself able to say as the shock began to wear off "How did that happen?".
What kind of strange crossover universe was I in? Ah well, at least it seemed unlikely that I'd get bored while here.
"I was attending Nevermore Academy," said Miss Addams in a voice so free of any feeling that it made Raven's most dull explanations sound passionate in comparison "There was an incident".
Slughorn took over the conversation at this point.
"The Addams family is based in the colonies, but before then they were one of Europe's oldest and wealthiest magical families, sadly the gift of magic seemed to have mostly left that line," he told us.
To be expected given all the inbreeding.
"I'm something of a late bloomer" Wednesday informed us "Grandmother was very pleased when she discovered I shared her magical talent and I decided to attend a magical school".
Having seen the Netflix series I had an idea of what could have awoken the magical power in his bloodline.
"Why aren't you going to Ilvermorny" questioned Dawn.
The creepy goth girl made eye contact with the Key in human form and she twitched. I wondered if she'd picked up on the fact that my companion wasn't originally human.
"They have magical enchantments that keep out members of my family" she answered.
That sounded like an interesting story that I might one day here.
"So Hogwarts it is" stated Slughorn.
I wondered if she'd go into Slytherin and how many casualties there would be in the next term.
"Now excuse us we do have other people to meet" insisted the teacher.
I was suddenly dragged over to Lockhart for what would no doubt be an even more horrific experience. After that, I felt as if I needed to go home and have a very hot shower so as to cleanse myself.
Twycross House. The Wizarding World.
Regulus Black woke up and screamed. Not an unexpected thing to happen given that the last thing he remembered was being pulled into a lake full of corpses by the dead. Yet he was safe and dry, he'd even been put into clean clothing by someone.
This wasn't St Mungos, this was someone's home, a wizard's home, he could tell that right away, and for a moment the young Black couldn't help panicking as he imagined that the Dark Lord would be here soon to question him.
Thankfully it wasn't Voldemort who came to check up on him it was Kreacher who was very happy to see his favourite wizard and the feeling was mutual since the House Elf was the only member of Regulus's family that the young wizard cared much for.
"Kreacher where are we?" he wished to know.
The House Elf attempted to get his beloved master to lie back down.
"We are in the home of a wizard called James Twycross" explained the small magical creature "Mr Twycross and his lady friend have saved master from the Dark Lord's cave".
Regulus couldn't remember that happening. He just remembered the cold water and the corpses dragging him down in the dark. It seemed almost like a dream now that he was warm and with his loyal House Elf.
"Twycross," said Mr Black "I remember meeting a Wiklie Twycross".
Kreacher had gone out to collect some newspapers for his master to read so as to help him accept how much time had passed and to get him somewhat up to date with the world.
The House Elf could read well enough and they were overlooked so they could overhear many conversations. James Twycross was being spoken about due to his brave actions. He'd done a lot for such a young man.
"Worry not Master" assured Kreacher "The Twycross wizard and his lady friend are carrying on your important work".
Regulus was confused by this.
"My work?" he asked.
This was when someone entered the room. Black saw that she was a witch and as he got used to the darkness he saw that he was in what he guessed to be a guest bedroom. There was a lit fire that was filling the room with warmth, only he still felt cold.
"Defeating the dark lord," said the witch "My name is Rachel. My boyfriend and I recovered you from the lake this afternoon. He's out right now, or he'd been here to explain what happened. We didn't think you'd wake up this quickly".
While grateful for the save that didn't mean that Regulus was foolish enough to simply trust this strange woman who had never seen before.
This could all be a trick by Lord Voldemort to find out what Regulus knew about the Horcruxes, although that wizard had no real reason to be this crafty given that he'd have been able to torture the information out of him.
Black figured that Rachel or this Twycross wizard must have called upon Kreacher and that was not something that a wizard would do if they wanted to keep Regulus a captive. Few would even think to summon a House Elf at all. Had he called out for Kreacher as he slept?
"Thank you," said the young wizard.
Somehow Regulus didn't think that these people had saved him purely out of the goodness of their hearts and soon he was proven correct.
"We found you in the cave by accident," said Rachel "We've finished disposing of Voldemort's Horcruxes and we wanted to make sure that we'd finished the job by checking that the locket had been purged".
Regulus flinched upon hearing the name yet he still picked up on what mattered.
"He made more than one?" the Black wizard "I didn't know".
The witch sat down on a nearby chair before talking further.
"I've removed the dark magic from the objects so the locket you took from the cave should be free of the fragment of his soul" she explained "But I need the locket to be sure. It seems like a fair trade for your life, and we can help you leave the country, to start over somewhere else if that is what you want".
Regulus had been shocked enough to find out that the Dark Lord had even made one of those horrid things, but that wasn't what he focused on.
"What do you mean?" he asked "Why do I have to leave?".
Rachel explained what had happened since he'd been drowned in that lake. She told him about Voldemort's downfall at the hands of a child, which was almost too silly to believe, and how many Death Eaters were imprisoned while some escaped justice.
He wouldn't have believed it if not for papers that didn't mention any Death Eaters attacks over the holidays. The country seemed to be at peace and Kreacher only confirmed what he read.
"It's known that you were a Death Eater and you're thought to have been killed by Voldemort" explained the witch"If you appear in public the Ministry will just throw you into Azkaban as they did with your brother and a lot of the Death Eaters after Voldemort fell".
There was more to say on that topic.
"That's why I need you to get me the locket that you had your elf hide" Rachel was now saying "I need to make sure it's no longer a Horcrux and it needs to be purged of any lingering dark magic to make totally sure that Voldemort can never return".
Regulus didn't see that he had a choice in this. He didn't know where he was and if he was spotted then someone would come after him. Maybe the Death Eaters, maybe the Ministry, or even Dumbledore's minions.
"Kreacher bring me the locket" he ordered.
The elf popped away and would soon return.
"You mentioned that Siruis was locked up," said Regulus "What happened to him? He was never a Death Eater".
Anyone who really knew Siruis would find the idea to be laughable.
"The Ministry is hopelessly corrupt. It took them more than a decade to bother giving him a trial and that's only because he managed to escape before finding the wizard who betrayed him" explained Rachel "They actually thought your brother betrayed the Potter family to the Dark Lord".
That was ridiculous.
"Siruis and James Potter were as thick as thieves" stated the former Death Eater "Siruis would never have betrayed them".
"It was Pettigrew who actually sold them out" stated Rachel.
Well, that made much more sense. That poor excuse for a wizard would have sold out anyone to save his own hide. Regulus had never understood why his brother or Potter even bothered to hang out with Pettigrew.
Regulus was having trouble processing all of this so he was grateful that he had a chance to think. The witch who saved him from the lake gave him time to gather his thoughts before they talked more.
"I don't know what to do" he admitted "I didn't think I'd survive this long".
Could he clear his name? Would the Ministry accept that he'd turned away from Voldemort? Or would they just lock him up and throw away the key?
"If you want to flee the country we'll help you" promised the young witch "You're dead officially so no one is looking for you, but you might be recognised if you stay in the country so it seems smart to leave".
That wasn't his only option.
"Or perhaps you can hide out at your family home and try to convince your brother that you switched sides, but he's one of Dumbledore's followers" warned Rachel "So don't mention the Horcruxes as Dumbledore doesn't want anyone else to know about them".
If Voldemort was gone then Regulus was free to start over.
"I need some time to think about all of this," he told his saviour.
There was one more matter to discuss because Regulus could get some more rest. The House Elf returned with the locket that his master had trusted him to destroy.
"Kreacher, why didn't you get rid of this thing?" he asked his House Elf.
The magical creature broke down and it took some time for him to be convinced that Regulus wasn't angry that the House Elf had failed to carry out his master's order.
Black decided that since he didn't really have anyone else he was going to have to trust his hosts. At least until he could get out of the country.
"Just do what you need to do," he said while handing over the locket.
He needed to rest and think about what to do next.
Twycross House. The Wizarding World.
While Hermione had informed me that she was going away with her parents over the holidays she had promised to come to visit me at home before we headed back to school as such finding Miss Granger stepping out of my fireplace wasn't such a surprise.
Once inside the house, Miss Hermoine Granger passed me the gift she was carrying, and I opened it with care.
"Quidditch Through the Ages" I read out loud.
Not my first choice of reading material.
"Well, you are a boy," Granger said.
I was glad she'd noticed that.
"That would explain my penis" I joked.
She had to laugh upon hearing that despite it not really being funny.
"I've been getting a lot of reading done myself," the young witch told me as I took her coat "I've been trying to find out about a man called Nicolas Flamel, but he's not in any of my books".
Oh, so she was on the right track. Maybe she was working alone or Potter and his sidekick had reached out to her as a source of information rather than have to do their own reading.
I'd not seen them hanging out in the library, but that might just mean they getting information from her without forming any sort of real friendship.
"Nicolas Flamel the alchemist?" I asked.
The way she stood up even straight and stared right at me was a little scary and I'd met Wednesday Addams recently so I knew about intense staring done by goth girls.
"You know about him," she said, "Tell me everything!".
"Flitwick mentioned me when we were discussing our options in classes".
That she'd forgotten about Flamel teaching the alchemy class wasn't surprising. He never appeared at mealtimes and I'd never seen him moving around the castle. Not many people took his class either.
"He's a French wizard, a well-known alchemist and the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone, which is a legendary object with incredible powers, such as the ability to create gold, and that is something you normally can't do with magic".
And Raven was still trying to figure out how to do that despite having had access to the stone for months. She complained to be about it a few times, and it had something to do with certain rules that seemed to limit what magic could do.
"He worked with Albus Dumbledore to find the 12 uses of dragon's blood if I remember correctly," I told the witch "He's pretty much immortal due to the so-called the Elixir of Life. He and his wife Perenelle created this Elixir using the Stone, it prevents them from dying of old age".
We weren't bothering to make the elixer since we had thousands of years of life ahead of us.
Flamel was briefly mentioned on Albus Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog Card, but since I didn't collect those I didn't mention that as I didn't want her running off to go chase down a frog card when I was trying to get her to bind herself to me.
"There's a book on alchemy in the library that mentions him," I told my guest "But it may take some time to find as there are a lot of books in the library".
Which was an understatement really.
"Oh, you mentioned the library," Miss Granger said, "Can I see it".
I didn't wish to show her too much yet.
"We need to discuss the contract" I reminded.
Hermione was already walking off.
"Library first!" she called out.
Well if that was what it took then I would show her my library.
This was a strange house because it changed to suit the needs of the group while maintaining its rather classic theme. The sheer amount of books we'd moved here from the Room of Requirement had caused the library to grow in size.
"If you join the group then you'll have full access to the library and this isn't even all of the books" I mentioned "And you can have a bedroom here even if you don't want to leave your parents' place".
She gave me a scary look.
"Give me the contract" insisted Hermione.
So this is what it took to convince her to become one of my companions.
"Here you go," I said as I pulled out a binding contract from the storage space "It's all rather straightforward...".
I never got the chance to explain fully.
"And you just signed it without reading it" I commented.
That was very silly of her.
"Yes, now I have some research to do" she insisted.
Somehow I got thrown out of my own library, much to the amusement of Dawn.
"What is it with you and scary goth girls?" she wondered "First it's Raven, then emo-Hermione catches your eye, and I know that Addams girl was giving you an interested look".
I'd not seen any hint of that in Wednesday Addam's gaze, and I suspected Dawn had simply misunderstood the situation.
"Something to do with them having Daddy issues," I said "I seem drawn to that type".
Dawn waved that off.
"I don't even remember Hank Summers" she stated "I don't have issues with him because he might as well never have existed".
Since I needed to go and talk to Regulus Black I ended the conversation rather than accuse Dawn of swimming in a river in Egypt, and headed to the guest bedroom. I didn't know what we were going to do with the former Death Eater. I hoped he'd leave the country and never again be my problem to deal with.
Alas, things were rarely that simple in the magical world. Yet I remained hopeful that I could smuggle Black out of the country without the Ministry becoming involved.
"So what are we going to do with you," I asked Black after I'd entered the guest room.
The young wizard, who didn't look as if he'd aged at all while in the lake, had handed over Slytherin Locket which had been added to my collection of magical treasures.
He'd also recovered very quickly thanks to the healing power that all members of my group had, and that I would have to teach Hermione about if we ever managed to drag her out of the library.
"I don't know, to be honest," said Regulus "I can't go home. I don't even know who the Secret Keeper is and I can't be seen in public".
Ironically he'd been safe in the lake, surrounded by those corpses.
"I'd suggest changing your name and moving to another country" I offered "I'm willing to give you the funds to get started".
Black looked surprised to hear that.
"Kreacher can get me money from my Gringotts vault, I still have my key," said the wizard "But I wouldn't know where to go".
He couldn't live in the muggle world or even take a plane somewhere because he didn't exist in the normal world. Perhaps Raven could teleport him to some magical community on the other side of the planet.
"Get your stuff together," I said "Kreacher should be able to do that for you. I'll find a way to get you out of the country".
I needed to talk to Raven and see how far she could teleport someone.
