Yo!
I bet you didn't expect a new chapter that soon. Well, me neither, but I'm on a roll lately, and "Road to Power" is the only fanfiction I want to write currently.
Enjoy.
Chapter 22. The spiral
The 6th of March, 2008, Location: Hogwarts
"Professor Dumbledore is missing again," Hermione whispered, leaning closer to Harry.
Said boy looked up from his plate and directed his gaze towards the top of the Great Hall, his eyes scanning the teacher's table. Most of the seats were occupied by their respective teachers, but just like Hermione mentioned, the large wooden seat at the center was empty.
"It is what? Fourteenth time in the last two months?" Harry replied, his head tilting to the side.
Hermione quickly pushed her hands under the table, digging into her backpack. She took out a small notepad — Muggle one if Harry wasn't wrong — and flew through its pages, searching for the result of their current investigation.
"There," she said, pointing at the page, "Since the end of the winter break, the Headmaster was gone from at least seventeen meals. Sometimes for all of them during one day. It could be more, I only began writing this down since the middle of January."
Harry nodded, sighing as he dig into his bacon. After the fiasco with the Philosopher's stone, the trio tried to be more aware of what was happening within the walls of Hogwarts. The first semester couldn't be better. No surprises, no Voldemort and Harry finally could embrace the magical world as he wanted in his first year. He had friends now, was the youngest seeker in the century and the Dursleys couldn't bother him here. All in all, a few months of absolute perfection.
And then the end of the winter break came and things again seemed wrong in the castle.
Their classmate, and someone who Harry liked to call a friend, didn't come back to Hogwarts and Professor McGonagall refused to tell them what happened to Logan. Then not even two weeks later, Hermione noticed that unlike in the last semester, Dumbledore was missing more and more meals every week. As such the trio naturally decided to investigate.
Not that their investigation helped.
Harry shook his head lightly, "Maybe it really isn't anything that could affect Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore holds a lot of important positions in the wizarding world, so maybe that's where the problem lies."
Harry didn't know what the Supreme Mugwump and Chief Warlock meant in Dumbledores titles, but they seemed important.
"Fred and Gorge told me that Dumbledore rarely missed a meal during the last few years," Ron suddenly spoke up, pumpkin juice smudged on his face, "They always pay attention to him hoping to find a good occasion to prepare a prank for the whole Great Hall," He shuddered.
Hermione shut her notepad, eyes narrowing, "And you didn't think to ask them why the Professors wouldn't tell us why Logan is missing?"
"I did," Ron frowned, stopping mid-bite, "They just told me to not worry about it, that sometimes people just resign from Hogwarts," His eyebrows scrunched suddenly, "Though they were oddly serious. Not even trying to annoy me."
Harry looked down at his plate. Did Logan really resign? It could be possible. They might be friends in Harry's eyes, but to be honest, the trio didn't know much about Logan. He was an orphan, like Harry. Lived in a Children's Home and was a bit of a loner, though he didn't have any problems with walking up to someone and striking up a conversation.
That was pretty much all they knew about the boy. But now that Harry thought about it, he realized that his talks with Logan mostly centered around magic and the boy seemed as curious as him about the mysterious art. The fact that Logan was at the top of their year along with Hermione only confirmed that.
Harry massaged his scar, "I don't believe it. Logan was too good at magic to just leave it. Something is wrong here, just like last year."
They sat in silence for a moment, eating their breakfast before Hermione spoke again, "Maybe he didn't have a choice," Harry turned to the girl eyebrow raised, "You remember how he often came to classes and feast, tired or ill?" Both Harry and Ron nodded, "Maybe he caught some dangerous illness and couldn't come back."
Harry stilled. That could be it. But then again, anytime he got ill during Hogwarts, a quick trip to madam Pomfrey fixed him up in a matter of hours. What type of illness did Logan catch that even magic couldn't fix it?
He voiced the question to his friends and groaned when he noticed Hermione's intensive gaze.
"Maybe the library has a book on dangerous diseases. Get up you two, we still have two hours before potions," With that, the girl stood up and marched towards the exit of the Hall.
Harry and Ron shared a look and sighed in defeat. It seemed that getting a full breakfast was never an option.
Already an hour passed since they came to the library and each of them was sitting before the same book about magical healing. There were plenty of diseases described inside and a lot of them possessed symptoms similar to what Logan experienced. Even then most of those could be easily treated with magic and didn't take more than a week or two to cure. And those that couldn't be treated usually led to death.
Harry gulped. He already regretted ever opening this book. Still, he kept on searching, not really sure how this information would help them.
Then when he was about to turn the page, a loud clearing of a throat reached his ears. He, along with Ron and Hermione turned to the offender. A much older girl, who was watching them with a raised eyebrow.
"Sorry for interrupting kiddos, but Ms. Pince told me that you three took all the book on magical alignments," She explained, her eyes darting to the books stacked on their table, "Do you mind if I take one of the copies?"
Coloring slightly, Harry was glad that Hermione recovered quickly enough to answer for them, "Of course. We shouldn't have taken all of the books. Sorry."
The blond-haired witch waved them off, smiling "Don't worry. Though as an apology you can tell me what a bunch of pre-OWL students is searching in advanced medical books?"
Finally finding his voice, Harry took this occasion, "Our classmate who seemed sick quite often, didn't come back after the winter break. We asked Professor McGonagall if she knew what happened, but she just turned us away. So now we are here, trying to see if maybe his illness might be the reason that he couldn't come back."
Hermione shot him a look, but Harry didn't care. Maybe this girl didn't know Logan, but if this entire thing was more complicated than the trio thought, then she might know something.
The girl's smile fell, "Was he a muggle-born?" Harry nodded, and she grimaced, "I don't know why Professor McGonagall didn't explain this to you like always, but, and I'm really sorry to tell you that, you probably won't see your friend again."
Harry's eyes widened, heartbeat quickening, "W-what? Why?"
The girl sighed, moving a bit closer to their table, "About a decade ago, out of nowhere families of muggle-borns began to disappear during summer and winter breaks. Usually, the students are no older than the second or third year, but exceptions happen. No one knows what happens to them, but not from the lack of trying. My dad works as an Auror and every year he spends days away from the house trying to discover what happened."
Harry's blood froze and his eyes darted to Hermione, who was as white as a sheet.
"B-but, I'm Muggle-born and I was never informed about this," she stuttered.
The older girl sighed again, "Your parents must have known and just decided to save you the worry. The professors must inform the guardians of this situation before the muggle-born student finishes their first year. Then a few days before the term ends, Aurors offer to set up protections around the muggle houses."
Even though Harry wanted to finish this conversation as fast as possible and console his friend, he still wanted to know one more thing.
"Why do the professors inform the parents only after their children go to Hogwarts?" It just didn't seem right.
"I don't know kiddo."
The 6th of March, 2008, Location: Somewhere in Alaska
His vision came back, the world around him swirling into color as Dumbledore once again felt the ground beneath his feet. He staggered a step forward, gasping for breath. His magic came alive as Dumbledore channeled it through his body, trying to lessen the strain from his most disliked method of transportation.
"Supreme Mugwump Dumbledore, I'm glad you could make it," A female voice sounded behind him.
Albus closed his eyes momentarily and turned around, trying to not lose his balance. The woman before him was almost as tall as him. Her fiery locks styled in a bun. The expression on her face reminded Dumbledore a lot of Minerva and if it wasn't for the different eye color and slightly softer facial features, the two women could act as twins. Though Albus couldn't imagine Minerva wearing a black trench coat, she just like him preferred the good old robes.
Clearing his throat, Dumbledore offered the woman a small bow, "Madam Volpe, I take. I hope you won't mind if I take a minute to catch my breath. At my age portkeys are not the best for my health."
She shook her head, "Not a problem."
Dumbledore nodded, taking this moment to take a look around the small square room. Parts of the blackened walls were missing, eaten away by the magic that consumed this room.
Fiendfyre, Albus grimaced, his magic still working on relaxing his muscles. Hydra base and the remains of one of the darkest magic possible. Dumbledore just knew that this would take days to clean up and that wasn't even counting the message in Volpe's letter.
As almost a minute passed, Albus took a deep breath and relaxed his magic. The aches were still there, but he couldn't waste any more time. Moving towards the exit of the room where Madam Volpe was waiting, Albus spoke, "The letter mentioned Hydra's base, but I would like to know more about this situation."
The woman nodded and gestured him to follow her out of the room.
They entered a long hallway that, just like the previous room, had seen better days. Holes in the walls, created by the same cursed flame. The blackened walls continued in every direction, creating a pitch-black labyrinth. If it wasn't for the people walking around and the magical light hanging above them, Albus would have compared this place to one of the tombs he had the displeasure to visit.
"We are currently in Alaska, quite near the Crosswind Lake," Volpe began, tearing Albus from his observation, "About a day ago, the outside of this place was seemingly normal, never coming up in the magical scans. Then in a matter of minutes a discharge of magic, felt hundreds of miles from here, alerted one of my teams stationed in this state. After informing the rest of DMLE, they followed the trail here and found the remnants of illusion and weather wards."
Powerful magic, not one to be taken lightly. Requires a lot of power and even more experience to maintain for a longer period of time. For an organization that was supposed to die with Hitler to possess it, was disconcerting to say lightly.
"They found the entrance to this base and a raging inferno already spreading through its lower levels," she said, pointing to the blackened walls.
"Fiendfyre," Albus said just to be sure.
The woman nodded, "Indeed, the cursed flames consumed almost half of this building before our teams managed to get the fires under control and secure the base. A lot was lost, but thanks to the fast intervention, we saved just as much," she finished as they entered a staircase where the blackened walls gave way to the natural color of concrete.
They ascended at least two floors before they entered another hallway. This one while missing the treatment of Fiendfyre, looked like a tornado came through it. Chunks of concrete piled at their feet, while electrical wires running along the ceiling were torn apart.
"What happened here?" Albus questioned when they neared a giant hole in the wall leading to another small, square room, full of rubble and some type of black stone Dumbledore couldn't recognize.
"The outcome of Hydra's stupidity," Volpe sighed, "From here to the exit of the base, almost everything is destroyed. Walls are painted in blood, corpses of people lay around every corner and any electricity that once worked here is fried by the overflow of magic."
Dumbledore stroked his beard, "This is indeed troubling, but not the reason I was called here."
Volpe sighed again, "Ignoring the resurface of Hydra, an organization that should be dead, we discovered some troubling documents that pertain to the disappearance of children in both our countries. Also, we found two bodies of wizards that were wanted by MACUSA along with Grant Hatcher. The same wizard found in the place of the kidnapping of Logan Hunt."
Of course, they didn't tell us that children were going missing in the US, Dumbledore wanted to sigh, but as much as this fact annoyed him, it was pushed away by the possibility of finding out what happened to all of the children.
"The documents?" Albus questioned, for now ignoring the two dead wizards.
She reached into her coat and took out a bound stack of papers, "Here," Volpe handed him the documents, "It isn't much, but the rest was either destroyed or never there to begin with."
Albus accepted the papers and readjusted his glasses.
Page after page he read. Pictures of some of the children that walked the halls of Hogwarts, specific information about them, the experiments they endured, and their current status.
Dead, A lone tear fell from Albus' eye as he continued browsing, hoping to find a different outcome.
There was none. All of the children were dead. Taken away before their lives even properly began. So young and yet lost because a muggle organization wanted to cross boundaries that should never be crossed.
"Truly, there is no more?" Albus asked, wiping the tears. Even though he found a few Hogwarts students inside, there was still a lot missing. Like Logan Hunt for example.
Volpe shook her head, "No. We fear that with the electronics destroyed, most of the information we need is gone. We found nothing about other hidden bases, but we are not dismissing that option."
Dumbledore closed his eyes, forcing the burning anger into the deepest pits of his mind. The time for mourning would come soon.
Eyes opening, Albus gave the woman a bow, "Thank you for reaching out to me with this information. I will offer whatever assistance is necessary to catch those responsible for these horrendous deeds."
The woman gave him a small smile, "Thank you Supreme Mugwump. Our President hopes that by working together with ICW and British DMLE we might even save the children that were unaccounted in those files," the smile quickly turned into a grimace, "We are also hoping you could help us with this," She said handing him a single paper.
Dumbledore placed it over the rest and scanned the file from top to bottom.
Subject Zero. Age eleven. Used for many experiments. Status, alive. A dark entity called Obscurus formed within her after a few weeks of kidnapping. Dumbledore paled, his eyes darting to the destroyed room and hallway.
"Obscurial that survived whatever Hydra did to her," He whispered.
Volpe nodded, "She most likely is responsible for the deaths of the two wizards and the collapse of wards around here. We have mad Obscurus roaming the world and I don't need to remind you what happened in New York over eighty years ago. We need to find the girl as fast as we can."
There was nothing to argue about here. Dumbledore remembered well the power of Obscurus. The thought of an entity of so much power being free after escaping literal torture sent chills through Dumbledore's body. Hydra truly didn't know what they were messing with.
"Please, lead me outside. I will see what I can do," Albus finally stated. He just hoped the entity left some signs where it went. If not then Dumbledore would need to contact a few people.
"Thank you."
the 7th of March, 2008, Location: Glennallen, Alaska
"Finally," I murmured pointing to the blessed asphalt down the hill.
After two days of trudging through endless snow and barely eating anything, the sight of any civilization pulled a smile so large on my face, that I almost worried my mouth would break. I couldn't care less though. Finally, there was a chance to get away from those cursed forests.
No matter how much I and Laura enjoyed our newfound freedom, nature got boring very quickly when you just wanted to eat something that didn't taste like shit and rest.
"What now?" Laura said as she also stopped gazing at the road.
My smile widened, "Now we will wait for someone to stop and help two poor children. Then with some magic, we will be back to civilization by the end of today. I can't wait to get a proper meal to eat and sleep on something that isn't half wood."
Laura grinned, "Come on then. We still need to get to the road!"
I chuckled and ran after the girl.
We are coming home.
A bit shorter than usual, but well I got all I wanted in this chapter. Besides none of you expected a chapter so soon anyway.
Have a good day/night.