Chapter 15

Vör sits in a cosy sitting room, sipping a beverage called tea as Dottie demonstrates the runes that she embroiders into her clothing. Her attention is drawn to one of the fake windows in the wall as a car goes past. Midguard has changed so much since she was last here.

"Your hagalaz is too narrow, and it needs two bridges. I also cannot feel your thread, do they not have metal woven in them?"

Dottie looks up, even while her fingers continue to flick through the pattern she's embroidering, "No, metal doesn't sew well. Oh, I use gold and silver thread when I'm doing party clothes for the crusties, but not for everyday clothing. This is plain cotton bought from the muggle world, as it's cheaper. This particular dress is a commission for a muggle, so I'm not using any magically conductive thread, as unicorn hair is quite expensive, as is acromantula silk."

Vör nods, "The thinnest strand of copper or steel spun into your thread would allow your runic sentences to draw in magic from the environment. Do you have charcoal and a slate and I'll show you."

"No, I have quill and parchment, or pencil and paper from the muggle world if they'd help."

"I do not know, can they draw even lines?"

Dottie nods, "You'll want the pencil and paper, it's in the desk in the front room of the house."

Vör carefully makes her way through the house, pausing to examine the interface between the non-magical part of the house and the expanded house once more. She can feel the runes there, but they feel wrong, as though they're not aligned properly or something. Shrugging she makes her way over to the desk and tries to remember how to use the infernal thing called a key. It is nothing like the keys that the Romans brought with them, it's tiny to start with. After a few moments of wiggling, she's able to turn the key in the lock and pull the desk open. Returning to the sitting room, she quickly sketches out a space for her runes.

"Dottie, there are 3 basic formations for starting off a magical sentence depending on how you want to power the formation. This one here needs to be started once, and then it will continuously draw magic from the world tree and the void. This one takes a magical input to start drawing from the world tree, and will stop the draw as soon as the magic is no longer provided. This final one runs the entire set on the magic of the user. If you are using blood, then you don't need any of these starting formations. The lines running above and below the runes are there to direct the flow of magic from one runic word to the next, forming sentences and then arrays…"

ೋღ ღೋ

Padma's surprised when Parvati pulls her aside before they go into History of Magic, "Paddi, have you been having problems with your… you know?"

"Um, not really, at least nothing uncontrollable. Why?"

"Oh, um Ron, the red head, Dean, and Seamus, were telling us that someone's killed all of Hagrid's chickens."

Padma shakes her head, and smiles, "No, not me. I did kill a man last week, I've got his head here if you want to see it."

Parvati blanches and gulps, "No, no, it's fine."

"He's soul was so dark the light couldn't be seen anymore, if that helps."

Parvati holds her mouth as she hurries away into the classroom. Looking a little disappointed, Padma turns to walk into the classroom before Harry catches her arm, "Are you ok?"

Padma sighs, "I guess so, she just wanted to know if I'd killed all the chickens. And then got disgusted when I offered to let her see the head of the man I killed last week."

Harry nods, "I can see that, it's a little old fashioned. I can look later if you'd like, or you can try Mari, Daphne, and maybe Susan. Millicent will probably be ok with it too. Was there any reason you killed him?"

Padma nods, "His soul was so dark I couldn't help it. He was dead before I even realised I'd moved."

Harry pulls Padma into a hug, "I've got to get to Charms, do you think you'll be ok for the moment?"

"Harry, what are you even doing here then?"

"You've been out of sorts all week, so we've been taking turns making sure you get to your classes ok. It just happened to be my turn."

"Sorry, it's just there's something or someone dark in the school, and I keep having to leave if I don't want to lose control. Then there's the fact that I don't feel bad about killing that man."

"Do you want to talk about it later? As I'm going to be cutting it close anyway."

Padma gives him a sad smile, "Sure."

ೋღ ღೋ

Daphne looks up from her work as Padma hesitantly walks into the Hufflepuff common room, "Hey Padma, are you alright?"

"I am, Harry said he'd be able to talk about something with me."

Daphne nods, "He's currently teaching Kate how to control her magic and navigate the mist on her own. I can take you to him if you'd like."

"No, I don't want to bother anyone."

"Padma, you're not a bother. Is it something that you'd be happy talking to me about?"

"Maybe, but not here?"

"Come on then, there's a lovely spot in the Everglades that I sometimes go to in the evenings here. It's about as private as you can get on earth." Daphne holds her hand out, a few seconds later Padma takes it, and they disappear into the mist.

Once they arrive Padma takes in the small section of raised land in surprise. There's a small fire pit with a nicely made log bench beside it, standing behind it, on 4 sturdy stilts, is a small wooden hut with shutters.

"Huh?"

Daphne nervously asks, "Do you like it?"

"Um, oh, yes it's nice, I just wasn't expecting it."

Daphne grimaces slightly, "Yeah, well it's just the severing charm to shape the logs, then the levitation charm to position them. Problem is, I've been picking up the finer details of how to build things faster than I probably should. It's the same with tearing them down, I can now almost see where I need to destroy first to bring things down safely. Or where to start with clearing rubble to prevent it from collapsing in on itself."

Startled by this confession, Padma asks, "Any idea why?"

"Prayers, they pray to me for advice, help, or even direct assistance. There's also one old man who reads old Victorian novels to me. Professor McGonagall was most upset with me when I accidentally wrote out what he was reading for last weeks transfiguration homework. I really must take him a fruit basket one of these days."

"Isn't that one of the things that's specifically banned in the Statute of Secrecy?"

"No, my dad looked it up, what's against the statute, is setting ourselves up as gods. My problem is that I can't stop myself from responding when people pray in the right way. If there's a blood sacrifice then it's even worse for me, as I literally get pulled right there. The statute then expects me to call for the Auror's and ignore the pleas for help from the people that called me. The first time I was called in the USA, they sacrificed a rabbit because their son was trapped in a flooded basement. I'd barely finished rescuing the kid before another prayer pulled me away. As things were starting to calm down from that, there was a Tsunami that hit central America. That's why I missed so much time during the first couple of weeks of school. Quite frankly, it sucks, but I can't not help. Does that make sense?"

Padma pulls her into a hug, "I'm sorry you're going through that, and here's me worrying about killing a man just because his soul was so dark I couldn't see his light."

Daphne levitates a log out of the hut while she's talking, and starts to section it neatly into planks, and then into a bench, "I think that it would be difficult for other people to understand what we're going through. How you can see your knowledge and desires changing, but being unable to change it because it's still you. When I was learning joints at the Sanctuary, I couldn't get them right even with coaching from the old men who decided to teach me. It was supposed to take me a few years to get them right, but now look. The joints in your bench are purely wood, with no nails, screws, or glue. Harry and Marianne both have their own perspectives on this, but their problems are different to ours."

Padma examines her bench, and runs her hand over the design carved into the seat, "This is amazing, and you just learnt how to do it?"

"Pretty much, I've also got a building knowledge on how to carve stone for building, making I-beams for skyscrapers, and how to draw out blueprints. I sometimes come out here just to try and make sense of what's changing, and what I'm learning. Marie and Airmed have been very understanding when I rant to them, but you know how that goes. They're busy with their own things, same as most adults. Mum, she just doesn't get it at all. Her advice was to just ignore it."

Padma nods and sends a fire making charm into the firepit, "I… I can always hear the music. Kali's song of destruction. And now that I've seen the darkness, I can't help seeing it all the time. You've got traces of darkness, leaving your soul looking a misty grey like most people's. Harry's is sometimes blindingly white when he comes back from whatever he's doing, but most of the time it's the same sort of grey as yours. Marianne, I can only see hers occasionally, and it's confusing when I see it. There's also a 1st year Ravenclaw, Lovegood I think, she's so innocent it hurts to sit near her."

"Can you always see everyone's souls?"

"Sort of. When we were at Diagon Alley, it was almost impossible for me to make out any details. As there was a general haze over the area. At Hogwarts that haze only really builds up during meal times. But the school itself seems to have its own colour. It's also easier to see when the song is at its quietest, which involves lots and lots of blood, or apparently violence. Though I've never tried that method, as I don't want to hurt anyone. It's why Kali is so destructive, as the song gets louder, it gets harder to see the grey, so only those who have the lightest souls get spared." Padma pulls the head out of the mist, causing Daphne to recoil slightly, "This man had such a dark soul that I moved before I was even aware he was there. And then I sat there stroking his hair as petitioners kept sacrificing animals to me. Does it make me a bad person that I don't feel bad for killing him?"

Daphne licks her lips a couple of times before she replies, "I don't think so. I think it makes you someone who is touched by a god. Is it macabre and morbid that you still have the head with you. Morgana, yes. But that doesn't make you bad. Did you enjoy it? The killing I mean."

Padma shakes her head, "No, I didn't think anything about it."

"Are you going to go out looking for people to kill?"

"Eww, no. It's just something that has to happen sometimes. Like the tiger takes the weakest antelope, thus making the herd stronger. Taking those who have succumbed to darkness makes society stronger."

"Were those your words?"

Padma stops to think for a moment, "Um, I don't know where they came from."

"Probably your connection to Kali. What else is Kali known for?"

Padma thinks for a moment, "She's the primal mother, the essence of nature, she creates, nurtures, and devours all, but not uncaring. She pushes because she loves us, not because she's an Asura."

Daphne nods along, "What's an asura?"

Padma raises her hands, "I don't know how to explain it in English. Our culture doesn't hold to good and evil the same way that they do here. The best I can say is that there is no light in an Asura, while in all of the Deva there is at least some light, even if it is obscured by darkness."

The two of them continue to talk until Harry comes to tell them that it's after curfew.

ೋღ ღೋ

Albus startles as an ICW missive appears on his desk, as he's reading it, his jaw drops as the MacUSA are requesting help with containing a massive, and ongoing breach of the Statute of Secrecy. As he's starting to stand up, his Floo goes off, and Minister Fudge appears in the fire, "Chief Warlock, we need you for an emergency meeting of the Wizengamot, the East India Company claims that Kali has travelled to the UK."

"Now Minister, while that is dire news…"

The door to his office slams open, "Headmaster, you need to do something about Lockhart, I have received 40 letters of complaint about the lack of content in his lessons over the last week. Pomona, Filius, and Severus have each received their own share of letters too. I told you that you should have…"

Albus flares his magic and roars, "Enough! I've just got a missive from the ICW about a breach of the Statute of Secrecy. You both know that take precedence over everything else."

There's a faint clatter as another ICW missive lands on his desk.