Yo!
Welcome everyone to another chapter of "Road to Power". It took a bit more time than usual to get this update out, but those who read my Ans and visit my profile should know to I was fucking busy with IRL shit.
Now that I got some room to breathe I plan to write a bit more and if everything goes alright, then I should be able to release 2 chapters for my every story this month. Will be hard but doable.
Anyway, I saw that a few of you didn't like how the last chapter went and so I left a bit of explanation in chapter 15 ending AN. I also edited the whole chapter a bit so it would show a bit better why Logan made his decision. I know that it felt a bit rushed, but well I can't change it now. Not that I want to. This part of the plot was always in my plans and so it happened. Deal with it.
Also, this chapter with the aftermath so don't complain that Logan didn't get his screen time.
Okay, I think that's all I wanted to say before we jump straight into the chapter. Enjoy and remember to join my discord server if you have any questions or just want to talk. The link will be at the end of the chapter.
Chapter 16. Those who hide in the dark
23rd of December, 2007, The night of the attack, London
Not for the first time in his life Albus Dumbledore wanted to curse himself for being right once again. Every time it happened he felt like screaming at the world for the unfairness of it all. After all, was it Dumbledore's destiny to witness every bad thing happening in the wizarding world?
Oh, Albus knew that he could interfere more and maybe save more people, but he just couldn't.
He lived for far too long to know that almost every time he tried to help, it ended in catastrophe either for himself or others. And so when young Logan decided to go back to London even after Albus' warnings, the Headmaster just hoped against hope that the twisting in his gut would go away and nothing would happen to the boy.
Of course like always Albus now had to deal with the outcome of his inaction.
He sighed as he inspected the area around him. Streets dimly illuminated by the muggle electronic lamps and houses of every size surrounding him from almost every direction. It always took Dumbledore's breath away when he saw the wonders muggles managed to created without even a once of magic.
Shaking his head he glanced at the group of people standing just before the home of Logan Hunt.
Most he didn't recognize, but the clothing indicated their affiliation with the Ministry of Magic. Thankfully one face among the crowd, the Headmaster instantly noticed.
Scars all over his face, part of his nose missing due to a nasty curse the man took during one of his numerous fights, and a wooden leg that offered the familiar thunks that echoed through the mostly empty streets every time it impacted the ground.
Albus began to approach the group, but in the end, his action was unnecessary as his old friend's magical eye noticed him and the man limped in his direction.
"Albus," the growling voice of Alastor Moody, one of the best Aurors, greeted him, "Good, you are here already. Trust me this is one big mess. Here goes any hope of getting even a few hours of sleep for at least a few days."
"Alastor," Dumbledore greeted in return, "I came as soon as I received your message. Is young Logan really gone? Normally the Ministry finds out about a kidnapping after the normal check."
When his old friend offered him a small nod, Albus' heart sank, "Unfortunately the lad is gone. As to why we already know about it? Well, the boy definitely didn't go out quietly and for the first time in years we have something, Albus."
Dumbledore's eyes narrowed and his posture straightened, "Tell me everything Alastor."
The limping man nodded and motioned him to follow, "Aye, I will. Just come with me, there is something you need to see and I can tell you what I know as we walk."
"The muggles?" Albus inquired as they approached the entrance to the children's home.
"Asleep," Alastor waved him off, "They won't wake up until we are gone. This is an investigation site and we don't have time to deal with muggles running around like headless chickens."
Dumbledore nodded in agreement even if he disliked this particular ward. It always caused muggles to wake up with a nasty headache and would take a day or two to recover from it.
"About an hour ago the Office of Improper use of magic got a hit from this location. The lad must have fired at least twenty random spells in quick succession before it stopped. Unfortunately, the idiot who was on the shift during this time didn't recognize the address right away. And so he just sent a usual warning with an owl," the man almost growled out.
"I get that it didn't stop just at that if we are here," Albus said as they climbed to the last floor of the building.
Moody shook his head, "Of course not... Not even two minutes after the owl was sent, Mr. Hunt again cast a few spells. Up the ladder Albus, you will see for yourself what most likely happened."
Dumbledore eyed the ladder then his long robes and grimaced slightly. Ignoring his friend's snort, Albus followed his lead, grabbed the bars tightly, and began his first in many years climb using a ladder.
Albus' hands finally touched the snowy, cool floor and his eyes instantly snapped towards the two unfamiliar people and Moody standing before him, obscuring his vision.
Standing up he wiped his hands on his robes and addressed Alastor, "Why are we here?"
Moody frowned and motioned for the two unknown Aurors to move, "Take a look for yourself."
And so Dumbledore did. His eyes scanned the red-colored snow that the two men just uncovered. He observed the motionless body of a middle-aged man that laid in the now recognized blood-soaked ground. With every next thing Albus saw, he felt his eyes widening more and more.
"Young Logan did this?" he croaked out. Could a twelve-year-old really do this? Even if the boy was the son of Voldemort and probably acted in self-defense, Albus had a hard time believing that the boy was capable of such action.
"We aren't sure, but that's the most likely course of action," Alastor spun on his heel and addressed one of the Aurors standing next to them, "Williamson! What can you tell me?"
The tall, young man with blond hair snapped to attention, "We don't know who this person is yet. We will need to look through the records and see if we can find anything there. He definitely was killed in a surprise attack as you can see from his expression," the man said as he flipped his wand and moved the deadman's head so everyone could see it.
The frozen look of opened mouth and widened eyes proved Williamson's point, that he laid a few meters away from the hatch, face down in the snow gave another hint.
Albus frowned, young Logan must have prepared for this if the boy was ready to act so fast. Dumbledore didn't know a child who would even try to set a trap for his attacker. Maybe he really misjudged mister Hunt's character. The boy was smart, too smart, and now a killer.
Shaking his head to clear his mind of those thoughts, Albus addressed the young Auror, "Cause of death?"
Williamson crouched down near the corpse's head and again moved his wand to lift the body a bit, "There," he pointed at the neck, "A deep cut into the neck. The man never stood a chance."
Pretty sure of the answer Albus still asked, "He wasn't killed with magic?"
Both Alastor and Williamson nodded, "There is no magic residue on the wound, so it was created by normal means. Anything sharp enough to cut through skin, I would bet a knife," the young man responded.
Albus gave a nod of his own and glanced at the body one more time.
He didn't recognize the man, but that wasn't surprising. Albus might know a lot of people, but even the wizarding world had a large population. He had a few ideas about how they could find out this man's name, but first, he needed the full story.
"His wand?" he inquired.
Alastor reached into his coat and took out a short white wand, "Yew I take it?" Dumbledore asked again.
Moody shrugged, "Probably. I am not a wandmaker. We are hoping Olivander can shed some light on who made it and maybe point us in the right direction. A long shot, but we will take what we can."
Dumbledore doubted that the wandmaker would be any help, but there was always a chance. At this point, even the smallest lead could help them so the headmaster wouldn't dismiss it just yet.
Suddenly Alastor moved towards the edge of the roof and Dumbledore's eyebrow lifted as he wondered what his old friend was doing.
"See this Albus?" the grizzled man pointed over the edge, "Somehow the boy got from here to down there and again begun casting spells. At this point, the moron from the office finally called us, and we instantly apparated here. Or at least tried to as the new wards knocked us a few streets away from here. Should have expected that, but we were in a hurry."
Dumbledore perked up, his attention instantly moving towards his friend, "You didn't get here on time, but you saw something or you wouldn't waste our time telling me this."
"Aye," Moody replied, "We took the wards down as fast as we could and rushed just in time to see two cloaked people grabbing the boy and disapparating away. I had just enough time to peek under their hoods with my eye. So trust my if I see them again, I will know."
"Anything I should know about them?"
"It was a man and woman. The male was probably the same age as our deadman, while the lass couldn't be older than thirty. I can give you a memory later, you will see with your own eyes," Moody explained, his magical eye flicking widely in its socket.
Dumbledore sighed and gazed into the distance. This whole situation while definitely not as bad as usual was still hard to believe in. Logan Hunt somehow managed to kill one of the kidnappers - a fact Dumbledore didn't want to think of- and bought enough time to almost save himself.
A hand landed on his shoulder and Albus glanced at the old Auror, "Don't worry too much Albus. The lad gave us the first chance in years to finally do something about this shite. We can still save him and maybe even the others."
"I know we can," Albus replied, his voice tired and weary, "I just don't know if we will like what we find. Merlin knows what they are using the children for. I think that we might need to contact someone who can help us speed up the process."
"You mean him and his organization?" Alastor almost growled out, "You said it yourself, that they have no place in the problems of wizards. Besides you don't trust him do you?"
Albus chuckled, "I trust him as far as I can throw him without magic. As to them not having a place in our world... We both know that he has wizards on his payroll. I wouldn't be surprised if he already knew what happened here. They might be able to speed up this process and if it means saving the children then I can swallow my pride."
Moody remained silent for a moment before a sigh left his lips, "I don't like it. I might be a paranoid bastard, but even I have nothing on Fury. He took almost an entire army with him to our first meeting and I know that I saw a few wizards hiding there in the shadows... Besides Fudge won't be happy if you try to contact the man."
Dumbledore nodded, knowing it was the truth. Nick Fury of SHIELD knew more than he probably should and guarded his secrets very well. Albus sometimes feared that the organization might leak the existence of the wizarding world. Thankfully the Director instantly reassured him that for now, Fury could count the number of people that knew about wizards on his fingers without even using all of them.
Did he lie? Dumbledore didn't know as Fury somehow possessed barriers around his mind. This still boggled Dumbledore. How a muggle gained mental protection when even most magicals abandoned them.
Running a hand through his beard Albus finally spoke up, "Fudge doesn't need to know if it gives us a chance to save the kids. I will wait a bit before contacting Fury and first try to do some searching on my own, but if we come up with nothing in a week then I am not waiting any longer.
Alastor nodded visibly placated and the two men walked back to the other Aurors.
2nd of January, 2008, Location Unknown
Miles away from any normal civilization, a middle-aged man sat in a simple office room. Wooden desk stacked with all sorts of documents lying all over it and a computer that rarely saw any use. Bookshelves covered most of the walls and were willed with all sorts of items. From completely useless ones to artifacts that belonged to museums.
The gray-haired man sighed in his chair and corrected his glasses, "So many failures. Almost none of the subjects are even close to what we need," he whispered and placed another stack of papers into a shredder.
Years of kidnapping subjects all over the world and until now they gathered two magical that survived their tests. And of course, none of them were even remotely close to that woman. She gave him the opportunity to continue his life and the man would discover all of her secrets.
The discovery of the wizarding world proved surprising but unfortunately, their experiments proved that non-magicals had almost no use of different magical arts. Without magic, they just didn't cause any effect. Potions? Almost useless. Rituals? Take no effect. Runes? Require powering with magic and with only a few wizards in his ranks the man needed to acquire a more loyal subject.
And so he decided to do exactly that. Children always had the most potential. Their minds could still be brainwashed to follow his organization's order without any risk of betrayal.
Unfortunately, not everything proved to be so easy. Magic was unknown and dangerous energy. It protected the children for as long as it could. Lashing out during tests and experiments. In ninety percent of cases, the subjects died due to the overuse of magic and usually took a few of his underlings with them.
At this point, the man lost count of how many subjects and workers he lost over the past ten years. Of course, it didn't make him back down.
After all, Discovery requires experimentation.
The gray-haired man was thrown out of his thoughts as knocking reached his ears, "Enter," he exclaimed and went back to his documents.
"Sir," one of his scientists snapped a salute, "We finished all the tests on our newly acquired subject. His results are incredible."
The seated man slowly settled down his papers and turned his gaze to the scientist, "Oh? That's a new one. Show me what your team managed to find out."
"Here Dr. Whitehall," the scientist handed him a few documents, "In there is everything we recorded about the one know as Logan Hunt. We still have some tests to run, but what we have now is more than we usually get."
Whitehall took the offered papers and began to read the first page. The more he saw the higher his eyebrow rose, "Enhanced senses and healing factor?"
"To some degree, sir," the man responded, "We could discover only so much about the first one without the subject's cooperation, but with the healing factor we didn't have such problems. What takes normal people a few days to heal, the boy can recover from in one. Definitely not the strongest enhancement, but it is more than any other subject had."
The doctor nodded and returned to the report in his hands, his lips quirked into a very small, almost unnoticeable smile. Finally, they got something.
The next page recounted how the boy's body was a bit more durable, "Were you able to find out how the child acquired those abilities?"
The scientist shook his head, "No sir. Either the child used some rituals or was born this way. Without a specialist in magical medicine, we can't find out more."
Whitehall's hands clenched in a fist. They had their small team of wizards that also worked as spies, but none of them proved useful when it came to medicine. That was why he was tasked with creating the perfect magical agents for HYDRA. They needed them if they wanted to aim for control over every part of this world.
Suddenly the scientist spoke again and Whitehall's mind halted, "We also discovered one more thing doctor. The child possesses a very small part of an inactive and unknown part of DNA. DNA that in a few parts matches the DNA of that woman. We don't know why it is inactive, but it is there."
A smile stretched on Whitehall's face as finally, he had some lead towards his life's work.
"Throw the boy with subject zero. Those two are now our priority. We will discover how to use their power and make them the perfect Hydra assets. Also, order the wizards to find anything they can on the boy. I want to know what makes him special," Daniel Whitehall stated as he rose to his feet to meet the boy eye to eye.
"Hail Hydra!"
3rd of January, 2008, Knockturn Alley
"Finally," a tall, and handsome man stated as for the first time in decades this part of his soul finally breathed the air of the outside world.
"To think that this place didn't even change one bit," he scowled as his dark eyes scanned the dirty Alley. At least no one can find me and this filth here, he thought as his eyes finally settled on the corpse of a girl responsible for his rebirth.
The black-haired man crouched down next to his victim and took the diary and a wand from her hands, "You won't need it anymore fool. Everything that belonged to you is mine. Even your soul," he whispered with a smirk.
The youth stood up and waved his new wand over his form. The single black cloak that secured his modesty twisted and stretched as the magic took place. The cloak disappeared and now the boy stood in clothes that reminded him of his old Hogwarts outfit.
His dark eyes closed and the boy stretched his senses in every direction. Suddenly his magic touched something familiar and the boy smiled, "There you are. Let's see how the mighty have fallen."
With that, the boy turned on his heel and disappeared with an almost silent crack. His soul ready to recover its main part.
That's it, people. As you see no Logan in this chapter, but I had to deal with a few scenes that are very important to the story. Don't worry the next chapter Logan will be back enjoying the fair treatment of his kidnappers.
And bravo to everyone who knew it was HYDRA all along. They are here and even have a few wizards on their own. Not that many, but enough to cause some havoc.
Also for those that don't know who Daniel Whitehall is, I send you to the MCU wiki page. He was one of the main villains of Agents of Shield and had a very particular obsession with all that mysterious. It is only natural for him to be the one in charge of research towards the magical community. Of course, he is not the only one, but that's another story.
And to confirm something. Fury really can count people who know about the wizarding world on his fingers. The man realizes the risk of what would happen if too many people know and so he keeps it a secret. Did he succeed? Who knows.
I think that's about it. If you have any questions just leave them in reviews, PMs, or join my discord.
LINK: discord. gg/ b7JaQcpuc7 (Just delete the spaces.)
Have a good day/night.