And now the cool down. We have some explanations, some apologies, forgiveness, acceptance. The great feast, and then finally, the trip home.
So let's go.
—0—
"So nice to see you again."
Merlot blinked as she found herself sitting with the Skeleton from years ago. He was a bit different now, the dark cloak on his back swished about as if it were fluid, twinkling every so often.
"I wasn't expecting to be back so soon…"
"Fate has a funny way with you, little one."
Merlot looked around. The world that had been both had changed. Merlot couldn't place her finger on how it had changed, just that it had changed.
"What happened to this place?" Merlot blinked.
The large skeleton chuckled. "Nothing has changed here, little one. Only you have changed. You have grown."
"Does that mean that I have to go with you now?" Merlot blinked up at the figure.
"Do you want to?"
The girl was silent for a while. Finally, the skeleton spoke once more.
"What comedy. Seems only moments ago that you were begging me to take you."
The girl frowned as the skeleton laughed, with a sigh, she sat down before him.
"I found what you told me to find, and I kept my promise… I don't want to go, but I did what was asked of me."
"Not everything." The skeleton nodded. "But you wouldn't remember that promise so easily… tell me, was magic fun? Did you make friends? Do you have a family?"
Merlot smiled, the images of Scortwit, Charlie, and her friends flashing through her mind.
"I have a wonderful family… amazing friends who I have no doubt will change the world one day. And magic… magic is-"
"No longer a curse."
"It's more of a blessing." Merlot smiled. "I continued work on my sealing stone project, even after headmaster Dumbledore told me to put my energies elsewhere… I think he was right."
"Is that so?"
"It would be a waste if I tore a part of myself away… I like who I've become. People got hurt to protect me, and I can't let their efforts go to waste."
"Quirrinus Quirrell died for the chance that you hold. Would you live on, knowing that it was because he died?"
Merlot smiled and looked down. "I think that in the end… Professor Quirrell surprised himself a bit. I hope that he is taken care of in the next world."
"You have done well to learn, little one. Keep learning. I hope our paths will cross under better circumstances in the future."
Merlot nodded and stood up. "I will try my best to make that happen."
"You are waking now, little one. Go on, there are answers that you require."
Merlot nodded and closed her eyes to the in-between world, waking up on a soft cushion.
—0—
"I should have turned Cornelius down-"
"It wouldn't have made a difference Albus. He may have even been desperate enough to take more students if you were here."
"I could have stopped him…"
"Before he killed one of the students? No… there is no telling what could have happened."
"But nevertheless-"
"Albus, she wakes."
Merlot's eyes fluttered open and stared at the ceiling. Albus hurried over and knelt down. "Can you hear us, my dear?"
"Headmaster?" Merlot turned her head to look at the man. Her eyes were still a bit unfocused, as if she was in a dream.
"Yes. Yes. It's me. You're safe now."
Merlot's eyes focused a bit, their color hardening and gazing over Albus's features. Severus strode up behind the old man, a stoic look upon his face. They were joined by Minerva, and then Pomona Sprout, and finally, Professor Flitwick.
Everything rushed back as tears began to brim in Merlot's eyes. The girl released a wail and weakly embraced the headmaster, who gave a grunt of surprise. Merlot stayed like that for a while, crying into the elderly wizard's beard as the heads of house bowed their heads.
Eventually, everything was quiet again. The heads of house had left, and it was only Albus and Merlot in the office.
"So my leg…" Merlot spoke hoarsely, staring up at the ceiling.
"It will never fully recover, I am afraid…" Albus sighed. "You will find that a cane would be most helpful when walking about."
"A cane? Will it affect me in quidditch?"
Albus smiled at the girl's menial worry. "I am sure that any disadvantage it gives you will be easily overcome. I would mainly worry about moving about and casting spells simultaneously.
Merlot nodded. "My hands?"
"The tremors from the cruciatus can last anywhere from weeks, to years, to an entire lifetime…" Albus bowed his head. "It is a terrible spell…"
"And it means that my wand movements could be disrupted…"
Albus nodded. "There are some who have been exposed to the cruciatus, who never found themselves able to hold a wand again."
Merlot nodded. "I will be able to use magic, it will just take time."
"I do have an old student who is completing his last year of duty as an Auror, and changing over to the life of a hit wizard." Albus nodded. "He himself has captured many a dark wizard, and been exposed to the cruciatus dozens of times."
"And he still pursues them?"
Albus smiled. "He is an interesting man… The closest to fearless I have ever seen… He's one of those old enough to remember Grindelwalds war, although it still seems like a lifetime ago… But that's a story for another time."
Merlot nodded. "He sounds like an interesting man."
"Perhaps you may meet him in the future." Albus took off his glasses and began polishing them. "In fact, he might be able to help you with moving and casting spells at the same time… would you mind if I contacted him?"
Merlot's eyes flicked over to the elderly wizard, before flicking back up at the ceiling. "As long as you are there, to make sure that it is safe. I don't think I could watch myself lose another friend just yet."
"A friend?"
"Professor Quirrell-"
"Is gone… he was defeated, Miss Scortwit. It was he who harmed you."
"No…" Merlot sighed. "He saved me…"
Albus looked at the girl with a pondering eye, before standing up and placing a tea kettle in Fawkes' perch.
"What do you know of Quirrinus, Miss Scortwit?"
Merlot pondered for a moment. "He knew a lot about dark magic… especially blood magic. He taught me how to defend myself against dark magics… and he was possessed by an evil spirit…"
"Quirrinus Quirrell attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry more than twenty years ago." Albus began, summoning two mugs from his cupboard. "That was back when blood magic was a subject… he had a particular skill in that field. He graduated Hogwarts with a mastery in the blood arts, with a minor in the mental arts."
"Mental Arts?"
"We will cover those later." Albus nodded. "He ended up traveling the world, a dark beast hunter. After a few years, he met the love of his life, a young woman named Layla Grimes. She held a mastery in defense against the dark arts, and a minor in ancient runes. A few years later, they had a child."
"Quirrell had said a name… Quexis…"
Albus waited for the tea kettle to whistle, before preparing the two mugs of tea to steep. "Up until now, we had no knowledge of the child's name… We knew he had a son, or at least, I did. I had kept in contact with Quirinus for quite some time, all the way up to the point he joined the staff here, this year."
"But his wife and son never came…" Merlot frowned.
"I received word from the group's last surviving member."
"The group?"
"Quirrell and his family hunted with a company of others. Around a year ago, they were called into a forest in Albania to deal with an unknown darkness. The townspeople nearby suspected a banshee."
Merlot slowly and painfully sat herself upright. "It was Voldemort…"
Albus nodded. "The wraith killed many, including his wife. The only survivors were Quirrell, his son, although we do not know where he is, and an old student of mine from my days as a professor here."
"The same one you spoke of earlier?"
"No, a different student. He was the one who sent me a warning of Quirrell."
"You knew he was possessed this entire time?" Merlot raised an eyebrow, accepting the mug of tea that Albus passed her way.
"Regretfully, yes. I had held out a hope that Quirinus may have still been within him, fighting the spirit of the dark lord… But his actions have shown me that he was not…"
Merlot shook her head. "He was… but Voldemort twisted him. The wraith tried to take over my body when his began to fail, and even through all of that, he jumped in after it and saved my life."
"Then in the end… he prevailed." Albus smiled, taking a sip of his tea. "I am happy that his mind was his own in his final moments."
Merlot nodded. "He was a good man…"
They sat there in silence for a few moments. Merlot staring at the ceiling, and Albus sitting, looking over her protectively. Eventually, Albus spoke up again, breaking the silence.
"It may not help the current situation, but while I was in London I managed to deliver your final manuscript to Flourish and Blotts."
Merlot blinked and turned her head to look at him. "My book?"
"I had ample time to read over it on my way to the ministry." Albus smiled. "I am impressed. You shortened the amount of chapters and decided to focus on simple runic algorithms. Instead of being a book on practical runeology, you turned it into a book on theory."
Merlot sighed. "After this year, I realized that some of my creations could be useful to replicate, but that the raw knowledge of arranging the runes was what would help others."
"Allowing magicals the unbarred knowledge to an experimental realm of study was quite ambitious." Albus nodded, setting his tea down and taking out his wand. "Regardless, Mr. Blott was able to give me the first copy. It is yours to take."
Merlot struggled to sit up, but ended up doing so after a few painful movements. Albus set the new book down upon his coffee table.
It was more incredible than she imagined. The one hundred and thirty two pages that detailed her experiments on runic diagrams. From lines to closed circuits to three dimensional arrays. It was all contained within this cover.
Beautiful chocolate brown leather was bound around a thin panel of hardwood, keeping the cover rigid. The watermark edge, roughly a centimeter away from the edge of the cover, was bordered with a design of stars, each pressed into the leather. The center of the cover was filled with the rune array that she had included just as a little demonstration, but she hadn't revealed that to Dumbledore at all.
"A Study in Arrangement." Merlot nodded. "I was worried about the name, but it works well, especially with the cover."
"I had been wondering if that display on the front was functional." The headmaster's eyes twinkled. "What does it do?"
"A simple bit of light is all." Merlot nodded, pressing her hand to the array. The lines traced between each rune hummed and began to glow as magic was supplied to the network. "But still, it does well to illustrate the purpose, doesn't it?"
Albus nodded. "There is, as of yet, no dedication. However, Mr Blott did have something to remedy that. You see, this is the first copy. Mr Blott also made a second copy, and bound the two together with a certain type of ink."
Merlot watched as the man walked over to his desk and pulled out a small crystal vial of black ink, along with a beautiful white quill.
"It's beautiful… what is this quill made of?"
"That information was not privy to me, I'm afraid." Albus sighed. "A bit of a frustrating conundrum… I am still rather curious about it."
Merlot nodded and looked at the page, rolling the quill between two fingers, before nodding and unstopping the ink. Even though her hands were shaky, she clenched her muscles in order to steady her arm. It was painful, incredibly painful… But as Merlot scrawled out the dedication, she decided that it was worth it.
Albus looked at the dedication and nodded. "Very well… I am sure you will see copies being sold in your next visit to the alley."
Merlot nodded. "Thank you."
Albus finished his tea and stood up. "I recommend getting rest. The great feast is tomorrow, and then Charles will arrive to take you."
"I'm not going on the Hogwarts express?"
Albus walked over to his door. "Rest, miss Scortwit. The train can wait. Do remember to call Blinky if you need anything… and about that rather fine stone in your pocket."
Merlot's eyes widened as she remembered the philosopher's stone.
"It is quite alright." Albus chuckled. "Charles wished to return it to Gringotts, so Nicholas could collect it himself. He is better with goblins than I, so I thought it would be well warranted."
And with that, Albus waved adieu, and walked out of the headmasters office, leaving Merlot on the couch, clutching her book, and processing what had just happened.
With a sigh, Merlot shook her head and set her book down, before taking out the philosopher's stone and turning it in her hand. Now that she got a better look at it, she could see that it was, without a doubt, the most intricate artifact she had ever come across.
Weighing roughly two kilograms, the stone was small enough to sit in Merlot's tiny palm. The blood red surface was covered with golden lines of runes, each criss crossing over one another and spiraling up the stones surface.
Beyond the surface, the stone was riddled with black intrusions, which Merlot realized were more lines of runes, each completing a circle and forming the stone's magic into a bundle of linked and tied two dimensional arrays.
She would remember what they looked like, she swore it.
Something grew hot in Merlot's pocket. She returned the stone to her side and drew out her wand, it's form quivering as it let off a small buzz.
The girl blinked at the instrument, before thinking of the skeleton she had seen, yet again. Olivander had said that Dementors blood matches with those who had met death…
Leaning her head close to her wand, Merlot whispered.
"What do you want of me?"
The buzzing stopped. Merlot slowly leaned back, observing the instrument with a bit of unease. She was waiting for something to happen.
And something did happen.
The wand let out a series of beautiful tones, its voice splitting in two and harmonizing with itself, as a line of gold shot from its tip and spiraled around the room, before zipping away, through the walls.
"Well… that was odd…"
"Blinky heard your call, miss."
Merlot jumped in surprise, before clutching at her head. "Oh… oh that did not feel good…"
"Miss is hurt?"
"Blinky… Hello, I am in good hands. What do you mean you heard my call?"
The house elf nodded, his eyes looking around the room as he noticed spaces that needed some cleaning. That could wait for now. The elf stepped forward and brought up his right hand, which held Merlot's cauldron.
"A golden light came and wrapped around Blinky, Miss. Just like when we's be called, but much much stronger. It was your voice miss, asking for your potion pot."
Merlot blinked and took the cauldron, feeling the odd weight within it, she remembered what she had done before visiting quirrell.
"Thank you… thank you blinky. You can go now."
The elf disappeared with a pop as Merlot reached into the cauldron. Her hand instantly came into contact with the ethereal surface of the invisibility cloak, and with a tug, it easily spilled out into her hands.
Left in the cauldron was Merlot's crystal ball, the runes near completed, along with the copy of her notes on the sealing array.
"I understand…" The girl nodded, picking up the glass sphere and holding it up to the light. It was the culmination of so many days work… the pinnacle of what she imagined runes were capable of… a way to take away magic.
"Do with it what you will."
The girl raised her wand, black flames flew out from its tip, striking the orb and instantly turning it to ash. The scrolls of Merlot's notes flew up and were struck similarly, before all was done.
Merlot Scortwit was free.
—0—
Almost done!
Sorry for the wait everyone. I've been working super hard on some other projects and there was a lot of family drama. I'm not talking about the type of drama that one can walk away from either. This was some downright important stuff.
Mainly bills and scrambling. Paychecks got delayed, and some personal stuff happened. Nevertheless, I am okay, my family is okay, and I will try to finish this book soon.
Venom may be a bit delayed in starting, as I do have another project to finish before then. I should be able to get chapters up by the end of February, or the beginning of March. If everything goes well, You may see the fruits of this project on your tabletop.
So all that aside, I hope you enjoyed. Leave a review, and as always
Adios
