Witch Way part 5
* Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft & Wizardry*
* Hufflepuff Common Room *
Taylor looked over the notes, which had apparently been taken from scrolls over three thousand years old. It was all from Nepal, from an ancient set of buildings of a magical society that had hidden from not only "muggles" but from other non-magicals and still maintained a fair amount of distance.
In these pages it dealt with menaces that had attacked, monsters that could only be withstood and never defeated.
She felt a certain vindication that in a world with things like a nundu and dragons and had legendary creatures being offered for sale by mail order. Or Owl Post. Whatever. In such a world had they faced anything like an Endbringer? That had been the question she'd put to some of the more learned individuals and eventually to Professor Miyazaki himself. She had described the three in terms that the wizarding world found acceptable, mentioned that they were not a current danger and came up with the idea that her mysterious family was charged with holding their prison.
To her considerable surprise she found out there actually WERE such prisons. That such prisons were usually maintained by specific families related to the ones who had been the original jailors. The ancient Greek Titans were apparently real. So were other primordial beings.
Nepal had one of the biggest such prisons. It was an underground pocket. Underneath the Himalayas. All the way under the Himalayas.
Apparently if you went far enough back, wizards and non-wizards fought those things together. They lived and died together. When the fight was against these things - it was mainly died together. So, yeah, this world had their Endbringers.
Most of whom had themselves been killed with only the very worst or least horrible being imprisoned.
They had killed Endbringers.
Yes, there was a reason Taylor was quite interested in these notes.
She smiled.
Many of the other Hufflepuffs saw that smile and edged their way out of their room. They were Hufflepuffs, it was the Gryffindors who recklessly charged into danger.
* Earth-Bet *
"Armsmaster here. Yes. Yes. Size 13 Wide. No. I fail to see the point of asking me such questions."
Dragon's on-screen avatar blinked, the emulation routines and predictive software all coming up blank with appropriate reactions to what that sounded like.
"How did you even get this number?" asked Armsmaster. "Well, don't call here again."
"What?" asked Dragon.
"L33t," said Armsmaster. "I'd worry about him finding a direct hotline access number except in his case I would expect it to be entirely random and a prank call."
Dragon admitted that sounded in-character for the "joke villains" except for the lack of a video game where it would be appropriate.
* Hogwarts, Main Hall, Breakfast *
Hermione Granger was outraged. This was not all that unusual. Also not unusual would be that she would explain in great detail why she was outraged and ready to go political activist or otherwise spread her outrage about. "This... this... this... is UNACCEPTABLE!"
Most of the table would normally ignore her. Let Hurricane Hermione go roaring about and get it out of her system.
Ron Weasley stopped eating and agreed with her. This was much more unusual. "You're right."
Harry was much more likely to chime in with agreement, it was just that at the moment he was holding his head in his hands and imagining how bad this all could end up being.
Daphne Greengrass stalked over, a copy of the Daily Prophet in one hand. "Granger. Potter. Weasley times four."
"We don't get seperate billing?" asked George, acting a bit hurt.
"Okay," allowed Daphne. "Glutton Weasley, Ginny, Annoying Weasley One and Annoying Weasley Two."
"Much better, Miss Greengrass," said George, inclining his head.
"I thought Azkaban was supposed to be this wizard supermax prison nobody has ever escaped from," complained Hermione.
"Well, that's what it is SUPPOSED to be like," admitted George. "Still, has anyone ever accused the Fudge administration as being too competent?"
"Neville, put your sword away," Harry advised Neville Longbottom.
"That's right, she's not here," said Ron, stabbing in Neville's direction with a piece of sausage. "Don't go pulling it. You don't want it confiscated and you know it took Taylor weeks to get the runes right on that."
"I just had my hand resting on it," said Neville, taking his hand out of his pocket.
"I expect I'll be getting an outraged dogfather letting me know more details," said Harry. "I'll pass them on when I can."
"So the article says they're going to put Dementors around the school to keep us safe from the escaped prisoners," said Daphne. "Who is keeping us safe from the Dementors?"
Taylor had been approaching them and nodded a greeting. "More than that. The Dementors are what guarded the damn prison. If they couldn't keep the prisoners in the prison, why are they going to be more effective at guarding a school?"
There were a few thoughts at that judging from the expressions.
Harry facepalmed. "It's going to be up to us, isn't it?"
"Most likely," said Taylor. "I suggest Seamus Finnigan be consulted. He's rather good with things that go 'boom' and we could use that."
* "Ten Hourzzz Later" *
Albus Dumbledore took his seat. "Well. This tells us two things."
"That Voldemort is still around and that someone has grabbed one of his soul-anchors," said Severus Snape, contemplating the amber fluid in his glass.
"That Fudge is an idiot," said Minerva McGonagall, pouring herself a shot as well.
"Four things. This tells us four things," corrected Albus Dumbledore.
"That we need to be ready for a fight," said Remus Lupin. "No, a war."
"Five things, this tells us five things," corrected Albus Dumbledore.
Filius sighed and went ahead and asked. "What two things are we missing?"
Albus smiled. "As Miss Hebert pointed out earlier in the day - the Dementors are not terribly useful as guards, so we will have to be the first line of defense for our students."
"Of course the paranoid Hufflepuff foresaw this," said Snape. He swirled his glass once. "She has a better track record than our Divination professor."
There were a few mutters about that pretty much being on target around the table.
"The last point is that Tom cannot be at full strength," said Albus Dumbledore. "He lost four Death Eaters in the attack. He gained twelve, but those are not going to be in the best shape at present."
"Do we have any leads on where they went? Any at all?" asked McGonagall.
"None," said Dumbledore. "They could literally be anywhere right now."
* Sahara Desert, the previous day *
"Dolohov. Exactly where did you get that group portkey?"
"My Lord, this isn't my fault!"
"Dolohov. You did not answer the question."
"I tortured and killed a tour office employee in Diagon Alley to make this!"
"Did you torture him before or after he made the group portkey?"
"Uhm. Before. He needed to be convinced."
"I see. I see. And did this tour office employee know that you planned to kill him at the end of it?"
"Yes, Lord. It was the choice between a clean and easy death or a long and painful one that convinced him to cooperate."
"Yes. Yes. It's all becoming quite clear to me now."
"Yes, Lord. I'm quite sure."
"Does anyone want to hazard a guess to our location? Hmmm? Come on, speak up. Where exactly are we?"
"In a desert wasteland. It could be Sussex."
"Sussex? Oh. Now there's a bit of geographical knowledge. Are there deserts of sand in Sussex? Do I have sand getting into my robes from this wind because I stand in Sussex?"
"Uhm, no?"
"Good good. Now we're making some progress. I have to wonder if some of you have been hit with a particularly powerful Confundus or were playing quidditch and managed to get bludgered in the head a few times - but we'll check into that later. Does anyone else have any ideas? Put down your hand, Yaxley. We are not in school."
"I've been here before, Master. This is the breeding ground of the Deathshead Scarab. They are fond of eating fleshy bits like fingers and toes and noses and ears. Very aggressive."
"I see. You know, if we're in a place where there are things like that around - feel free to just go ahead and mention it without waiting for a turn."
"Well, Master, they hunt by vibration, and since we're all just standing here."
"Oh. Important safety tip. By the way, Delores. I do think that beetle crawling around on your head might be..."
"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Voldemort sighed as the chubby little toad started running and trying to brush the round black beetle out of her hair. "You know, I just wanted to break my followers out of Azkaban. Kill a few Aurors. Maybe have a nice spinach salad in the afternoon."
"Look at the bright side, Master," said Corban Yaxley. "All the beetles are going after her, especially after she tripped. Fell down that dune. And now she's thrashing around."
"Whereas all of you at least had the sense to remain still after you heard the whole 'hunts by vibration' thing." Voldemort shook his head. "Yaxley. Nearest safe point?"
"About twelve miles that way," said Yaxley.
"Excellent. Gentlemen and Bellatrix, if you would. Apparate on three."
* Sahara Desert, an hour after apparating *
"Where is everyone?" asked Lord Voldemort, making a gesture to indicate he was down to six Death Eaters at this point.
"I said 'twelve miles' - this is twelve miles," said Yaxley.
"What would happen if they overshot?" asked Voldemort.
"That would be bad," said Yaxley. "They study nundu over in that enclosure."
Lord Voldemort rubbed his forehead briefly. "So we're down to six. Six Death Eaters to conquer the world."
"Shall I try to acquire transportation?" asked Yaxley.
Lord Voldemort glared at his subordinate.
"Getting on that right now," declared Yaxley.
* Grimmauld Place, a week later *
"Death Eaters have been spotted in Saudi Arabia, Romania, Poland, France, and the Grand Duchy of Fenwick."
Albus Dumbledore considered the news. "He must be recruiting an army."
Moody nodded. "That seems the most likely reason. They're showing up and disappearing again. On the other hand, we've seen where he's lost a few. So we're not entirely certain how many he's got at this point."
"Lovely," said Severus Snape.
"Yes, quite," said Filius Flitwick. "On the other hand, I had a chance to speak with Miss Hebert and apparently some of her foreign associates have an interest in her developments. We may be able to get some backup ourselves."
"That would be quite welcome," admitted Dumbledore.
* Hogwarts *
The Weasley Twins (one currently being an Irish Setter dog and the other being a fox) stared quite openly at what had just embarked from a submersible that had emerged from the Black Lake.
The thing that immediately captured their attention was a pair of twins. Who had been a pair of two-tailed foxes a moment ago. Who were now staring back at the dog and fox that had been waiting for them.
"Animagi?" asked one twin.
The other replied rapidly in Japanese.
Fred and George looked at each other, nodded, and turned back to their human forms.
"Animagi, yes, but don't tell anyone," said Fred.
"Bit of a prank we're playing," explained George.
"Oh?" asked one of the foreign twins. "I like pranks."
"We're kitsune," said the other foreign twin. "I'm Ayako, and my sister is Ayame."
Another girl got out, her long silvery hair shimmering in the moonlight. "Oyuki."
Finally came a very old man with a moustache that dangled a good three inches below his chin. "Professor Miyazaki. You were expecting us?"
"Yes," said George, finally tearing his eyes away from the "kitsune" to focus on the old guy. "Taylor's waiting with Dumbledore in their office. This way please."
* Brockton Bay *
"Weird," commented L33t in his workshop.
"Weird bad, weird good, or weird 'WTF'?" asked Uber as he played Virgin Skies.
L33t was silent for a few seconds before answering. "The last one, I think."
"Well if we aren't in mortal danger or something, let me know when you figure it out," stated Uber, but he saved his game progress anyway because with his friend - it could very easily start with weird-strange and quickly become weird-run-like-crazy.
L33t was silent for awhile longer, just making a noise every so often to indicate being puzzled. "It's not even here. Off to West-Northwest."
"Not something you did?" asked Uber.
"No. Gravity disturbance. Small but noticeable if you're running something that uses anti-grav. Zero point zero zero one increase." L33t made a couple of checks. "I was field-testing a camera drone and it kept having a dip in performance."
"Huh," said Uber, resuming his game as apparently he didn't need to be ready to run.
"Yeah," said L33t. "Checking my map. Winslow? What the heck could be going on there?"
"New parahuman maybe? I can't remember a gravity-manipulator," said Uber. "Not around here at least."
"I think the Yangban have one," absently responded L33t.
"Well, hopefully it's not them," said Uber. "Being pressganged into some collective doesn't appeal much to me."
"Yeah," agreed L33t. "I'll check the news and see if there's anything on it."
Uber saved again and then exited the game. Then he switched over to the TV. It didn't take long.
"A ghost?" asked L33t.
"Who you gonna call?" asked Uber.
"Huh, there was a Ghostbusters game wasn't there?" asked L33t.
* Gaunt Manor House *
"We had to spend several days to get back, another few days to get this place fixed up, and another month before we could acquire the resources to make further recruitment possible," said Voldemort. "Yet we are here. What candidates do we have to join our ranks?"
"Unfortunately, Master, our numbers have depleted as of late," noted Yaxley.
"Yes, hence the recruitment drive," said Voldemort. "Any results?"
"It's been six hours since we put out the feelers, Lord. It could take most of a week before we get results at present."
Voldemort let out a breath and calmed himself. He had to. The number of his troops was entirely too low to go killing off minions at this point. Yaxley, Dolohov, and even sweet Bella were all acting a bit oddly. Some sort of curse that affected judgement perhaps? Maybe on that group portkey? Fortunately he was entirely too powerful for such measures to work on him.
Lord Voldemort stared out the window at the grounds surrounding his manor. The muggle groundskeeper was coming up the path. Well, a Confundus or an Imperio would work fine there and if not - Nagini would get fed. If it did, Nagini would be fed after this muggle acquired some actual British food instead of the foreign crap he'd been forced to eat lately.
Though that little chain of Scottish restaurants seemed to be mostly okay and they were everywhere. He was a bit peckish at the moment and those 'chicken mcnuggets' seemed relatively easy on one's stomach.
Or fish n' chips. He could really go for that right now.
He really did need some competent minions though.
The idea jelled a bit. Muggles. Their purpose, if they had any, was to serve wizardkind, right? Right. So why not get a bunch of them, Imperio them, then they could do the scutwork. If they didn't perform adequately, feed them to Nagini or just kill them and drop them off in the backyard. Yes.
Nah, that would never work. He could restrain himself, but Bella? No, there'd be blood everywhere and nobody around to clean it.
* Brockton Bay *
"Hey Guido."
"Hey Nunzio."
"Heard about the Boss' girl?"
"Taylor? What about her?"
"Brockton General. Bullying apparently got out of hand. Scandal hit DNN earlier."
"Huh. Should we have a 'talk' with someone's parents?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. Some of the Old Ways are best."
"Always liked the way you could say something and you just kinda hear the capitalization, Nunzio."
"It's a gift, Guido."
"In this case the 'old ways' mean?"
"We put the word out. Lots of union guys in places where orders and services can kinda get misplaced or missed. Badda bing."
"Badda boom. We got names?"
"Yeah. Remember Emma Barnes?"
"That redhead that used to hang with Taylor? You're kidding."
"Nope. Hooked up with two other gals and apparently the staff were all okay with everything. Sacrifice Taylor for those three. Not sure why - they're pretty tight-lipped about this 'Sophia Hess' so I'm guessing it's her."
"The more they tell you not to look at someone, the more you want to look behind that curtain."
* Coil *
"What the hell is this?" asked Thomas Calvert. Normal operations. Come to a binary decision, split the timeline, see how the two worked out, choose the less-sucky one.
"Okay, boys and girls," sang the purple dinosaur who couldn't possibly be there. "What did we learn today?"
All the little children who should NOT have been there got up from where they had been sitting and turned towards him. They pulled out little knives and scissors and glue and glitter.
"Bad guys need punished if they cause problems," said one of the little boys who did NOT have a face.
Just a mouth. Which was way too big. And had too many teeth. Teeth that would make a shark jealous.
"Hurt bad man. Hurt bad man," chanted the others as they advanced.
"FUCK THIS!" declared Thomas Calvert, aka Coil, as he collapsed that timeline.
Silence, broken only by him plopping down in his chair and then checking the room. "What the hell was that?"
Split the timelines again. In TL1 he sat at his desk and began going over budget reports, that would be the "safe" timeline. In TL2 he went out into his Underground Base and explored the possibility of a shark tank which would have a drawbridge going over it leading to his private quarters. Price and figures, maintenance costs, but it was mainly because he thought it would look nifty and be entertaining to drop intruders into the tank.
(Drip!)(Drip!) (Drip!)
Coil blinked as TL2 felt something dripping from the ceiling onto his head. This was slightly concerning in an underground base, so he looked up. Reddish fluid seeping from the air vent, which was roughly a foot high and two feet across.
He checked. Blood. Had a rat died in the ventilation system? That could be a pain to deal with.
The lights flickered and in the moment between absolute dark and light, there was a shape.
Coil ended TL2. There had been something WRONG in that barely-glimpsed shape.
Then he put his hand up, checked his head, and pulled his hand back down to check. Blood.
Okay THAT was very worrisome.
* Ministry of Magic *
"Better stand down, Potty! Or your itty baby friend here takes a Cutting Charm to the -"
(Vshhh-Thmmmmmmmm)
Bellatrix screamed as a glowing rod emerged from the pocket Neville Longbottom had put his hand into, going through her wand hand's wrist and removing it from her arm in an instant. The scream ended when Neville drew the blade out and made a single slash in the same move as stepping away.
Bellatrix LeStrange had an excellent view of her headless body toppling at the same time her head began the fall to the floor.
"What?" managed Dolohov before the Sirius Black near the Veil of Death flickered and then felt the agony of something sharp and pointy jammed home into his dominant shoulder. A glance back showed the real Sirius Black looking incredibly smug.
"It's called a trap," said Harry, his scared look dropping away into a cruel smile. "We figured out that you were laying a trap for us, so we took steps."
"Do not move," said Oyuki, the pale Japanese maiden laying a hand on another masked Death Eater's cowl.
"Surprised you didn't say 'freeze'," said a fox as it ran across the room.
"Obvious and overdone," replied Oyuki.
Darkness roared into the chamber, hit the ground, and then Lord Voldemort strode out.
(hckkk-SPIT!)
"ARGH!" growled Lord Voldemort as a blurred shape spat acid in his face. Without warning. Again! He hissed out a command to stop in parseltongue.
Something replied in parseltongue that he should shove his wand up his nether regions.
"Avada Kedavra!"
The hissing sounded amused and was coming from a different direction.
"Avada Kedavra!"
There was the sound of a body hitting the ground.
The snake informed him he'd just shot one of his own followers.
A muttered cleaning charm got the stuff off his face but his face still itched and his eyesight was severely impaired. "You shall die a thousand deaths for-"
Lord Voldemort had to break off his threat as Harry Potter used a muggle hand cannon to fire six shots into his center of mass while he was distracted by batting away a Bombarda Maxima cast by Sirius Black.
"This cannot kill-" began Lord Voldemort.
Albus Dumbledore stepped out of the shadows, his wand jabbing forward.
Three others in the chamber also cast the same spell at the same target.
"Akuryo... TAISAN!"
As Lord Voldemort writhed under the pile of paper anti-evil charms (ofuda), Neville Longbottom handed his turned-off runesaber to Harry who calmly switched it on before he sliced off Lord Voldemort's head. Voldemort's view faded as he saw Hermione Granger standing near the thrashing body of Nagini.
In a nearby chamber, a crystalline orb went dark.
* Brockton Bay *
Danny Hebert sat up straighter. He didn't know how, he didn't know what, but something had changed.
* Alcott House *
Dinah smiled. "87% chance of not getting kidnapped, drugged, and forced to work for a Bond villain wannabe."
"I'm not sure where that came from," said Dinah's mother. "But... good?"
"Very good," said Dinah Alcott firmly. She put on her wrap-around sunglasses. "The future's so bright I gotta wear shades."
"You've been listening to your father's musical tastes," concluded her mother. "Now I'm worried again."
* Hogwarts *
"I think this is it," said Taylor, holding up a hand and looking at it.
"Perhaps I could assign some last minute school project for extra credit?" asked Albus Dumbledore.
"You knew?" Taylor asked.
"I suspected," said Dumbledore. "Good luck, Miss Hebert."
Taylor looked around at her friends, odd as that thought would have been seven years ago. Her rivals. Even a couple of people she wouldn't regard as friends by the loosest definition were wandering over.
"The nargles are especially busy today," commented Luna.
"Take care, all of y-" Taylor vanished.
Hermione huffed a bit and picked up Taylor's grade sheet. "Hmph. She got an Acceptable on her NEWT for Potions."
"Well, not up to your standards, obviously." Harry sighed and sat back on the bench.