Chapter 95

A Plague of Questions

Note from J.M. Jackson: So the last week was rather a sad one. First, David McCallum, who played Ducky in N.C.I.S passed away. He was an amazing actor, and someone I liked a lot. His role of Ducky will never be forgot, neither will his role for the older fans of Man from U.N.C.L.E.

But just as tragic, if not more so, was the death of the brilliant Michael Gambon. He was an amazing actor and portrayed Dumbledore almost perfectly (Apart from Year 4 when he asked/demanded to know if Harry put his name in the goblet of fire). But he was also a good man. When he was on Top Gear once, he revealed that someone interviewing him asked if he found it hard to play a character who was homosexual, and he told the person: "Well, no, because I used to be one. I had to give it up because it made my eyes water."

Hearing him say that made me laugh. He will be missed by many. R.I.P Michael Gambon/Dumbledore.

Almost a month went by, and if there was one thing Lily and the others noticed, it was that Dumbledore wasn't often around. The headmaster's spot at the head table was absent more often than not during meals times, causing some rumours to fly around as to the potential reason. One of the more insane ones included how Dumbledore had been poisoned by the muggle sweets that he famously enjoyed.

Despite the headmaster's absence, the group of friends had seen members of the Order coming and going, usually at nighttime. These included Moody, Fleur (to Hermione's delight), Kingsley, and even Tonks.

Classes were going well, Draco Malfoy being openly more respectful to Lily, and Quidditch training was coming along perfectly. Yet Lily couldn't help but feel like this was the calm before the storm, something she confided to Ginny as they held hands during a walk around the lake during a free period. Her girlfriend hummed her agreement but the two found that their time together reduced many of the anxieties.

It was the Monday before the first Hogsmeade trip of the term that Lily received an Owl at breakfast. It was signed by Barty Crouch Junior, requesting that Lily and her friends be near the gate to Hogwarts at seven pm.

Later that evening, as the group made their way to the meeting point, they threw around ideas on what Junior could have wanted. "I wonder if he's going to teach us?" Lily pondered aloud.

"If he is, it's going to be interesting. He may have been pretending to be Moody, but he was decent at teaching," Ron commented. "I hope we don't have to go through the Imperius Curse again, though..."

"You never know," Lily teased, nudging Ron gently with her elbow.

Sure enough, by the gate was Barty. He was wearing a blue suit, and a dark red tie, with a white shirt.

"Professor," Lily greeted, smiling.

Crouch chuckled. "You caught on to how I felt when Dumbledore called me that then?" He grinned. "I won't lie, it's not a title I ever expected, but if it fits, why not."

"Indeed," Minerva said, as she reached the group. "Barty."

"Minerva," Crouch greeted. "Thank you for joining us."

"No offense, but I wouldn't have agreed to this if I wasn't coming along," Minerva replied. "I trust the others are waiting for us?"

"They are, and they've managed to prepare everything for us," Crouch said, as he stepped aside, revealing five wellington boots. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you what these are?"

"Portkeys," Hermione said instantly. Everyone chuckled as they looked at her.

"You don't even think when you get asked a question, do you? You just know, right?" Ron rolled his eyes fondly.

"Kinda my thing," Hermione agreed.

"Not a bad trait to have, Miss Granger," Crouch told her. "Be proud of that."

"Thank you, sir," Hermione said.

"Oh, don't call me sir," Crouch replied, laughing softly. "I'm not that old. Now come on, split into groups and we'll hold onto one another," he instructed. As Lily was grouped with Hermione, Ron, and Ginny, she waited for Crouch to magically tie them together, before grabbing the first portkey.

"I hate Portkeys," Lily muttered, moments, before being yanked into the air, and away from Hogwarts.

By the time the whole group had landed, Lily noticed they were in the middle of… well, it almost looked like nowhere. She frowned as she took a look around before it quickly turned into an excited grin when she saw two very familiar figures standing underneath some lights nearby.

"Uncle Sirius, I didn't know you were going to be here," Lily exclaimed, waiting as Crouch undid the rope before bounding over to give the two men a hug.

"We didn't want to advertise it. Thanks to some spell work from your Aunt Minnie, no one actually saw you take a portkey away from the school either," Sirius said, saluting the Transfiguration professor. Minerva raised an eyebrow.

"I guess this is going to be an important lesson," Ginny surmised.

"That it is," Crouch confirmed. He looked at everyone, seeing Lily, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Lavender, Parvati, Padma, Neville, Cho, and Katie. "What you're going to learn today isn't something you'll ever learn at Hogwarts, and hell, not one you should be learning, but I've got a suspicion you'll be needing it."

"Does Professor Dumbledore know you're teaching us this spell?" Hermione asked, curious and apprehensive at the same time.

"No. He knows that I'll be teaching you some powerful spells, and that we'll all be meeting once a week, every Sunday, to train to fight, but after our last session with him, I've got a few theories of my own," Crouch paused for a moment before his gaze turned to Lily. "Now, I don't know how accurate they are, but after discussing this with your uncles and your aunt, they agree this will likely be a spell you'll need. It's usually considered dark magic, but if there's a group I can trust to not abuse it, it's you lot. Even when I was teaching you, I was impressed by your skill and your unity. Now, today, we'll be showing you the spell, and telling you about it, but you won't be trying it." His face became seriously. "It's a dangerous spell, so you have to swear to not practise it, not for a while at the very least."

"I wasn't sure about you learning this spell, Lily, but Barty made an excellent point. We trust you, but we don't want to say why until we know for sure," Sirius added cryptically.

"So why are we learning? What if you're wrong?" Ginny demanded, standing close to Lily.

"Then you'll have a very powerful spell at your disposal, and in this war, you'll likely need it," Minerva spoke up, looking imposing in the dim light. "We will be trusting you to control it and use your judgement, should that time arrive."

"Miss Granger, if there's someone who knows what the spell is, it'll be you, so please, share with everyone what Fiendfyre is," Crouch said. Hermione gasped, which Lily knew meant that it wasn't a nice spell.

"Fiendfyre…" Hermione began, before taking a breath. "It's a powerful fire spell, able to destroy basically anything and everything in its path. Even most dark wizards can't control it," she explained, definitely more apprehensive than before. "It's also known as Plague Fire."

"The spell was created a long time ago and was even used to practically destroy London years ago," Crouch added, nodding in approval to Hermione's answer.

"Wait, do you mean the Great Fire of London?" Hermione asked, frowning.

"That was… in Sixteen Sixty Six," Katie said. "I remember that from when I was younger, the lessons in junior school."

"Same," Lily replied, unease curling in her stomach. "That was done by magic?"

"A dark wizard at the time wanted to take over and threatened to destroy London. When his demands were rejected, he started the fire. After he was destroyed, the Ministry of Magic covered it up, and the Muggles ended up blaming a bakery. It was wizards who put out the spell. It took a lot of power to put the flame out, given how much it spread, so when I say you need to have control and power, I mean it," Crouch reiterated. "It can very quickly overpower a weaker wizard and before you can blink, you'll have a raging inferno that will kill."

"It's also why I'm here, lass," Moody said.

"If anyone can control it, it's Mad Eye," Sirius smirked.

"If you'd like to begin, Alastor?" Crouch asked.

Moody looked at him for a moment and nodded. He turned around and faced the empty field.

"Pestis Incendium!" Moody called out. The group gasped, and jumped, when a massive spout of fire shot out, rapidly taking the form of a dragon. It flew above the group, the heat making sweat bead out on them all as Moody kept his wand trained at it.

"Fiendfyre is powerful, deadly, and damned near unstoppable," Moody growled. "Takes a lot of power to control it, takes less to put it out thankfully."

"Desine Pestis Incendio!" Crouch then shouted. Within seconds, the fire dragon was evaporating. "In Latin, that means Stop the Burning Plague."

"That… make sense," Ron commented, wiping at his forehead. "How powerful was that? I could feel the heat from here."

"That's how powerful it is. The standard fire spell is the Incendio spell, and that can be put out easily. Fiendfyre can only be quelled by Desine Pestis Incendio. A lot of people can create the fire, but not many have the power to put it out, let alone control it. It can die out, if there's nothing to feed it, so removing oxygen from the area can work, although that's difficult as well. You need a lot of power to do that. You could all aim your wands at us, and try to cast the spell, but you wouldn't be able to create it," Crouch said.

"We'll be going over a lot of the theory behind it, the intent, and the uses of it," Moody added.

"On top of that, we'll be discussing the Unforgivable curses as well, more so than when I was… teaching you two years ago," Crouch told them. "It's gonna be a long evening, so please, sit down, and we'll begin."

Hours later, as the group retired to their respective dormitories and rooms, Lily felt exhausted. Her friends had also been yawning at the late hour and intense mental concentration. Ron had made a light-hearted joke on how it was hard to slack off with 4 adults - three having been Professors - teaching them but they all agreed that it was a very interesting lesson.

Well, almost everybody seemed quick satisfied with the topic...

"Hermione, are you okay?" Lily asked as she returned to the dorm, her mouth tasting of fresh mint. Her friend was sitting on the edge of her bed, wringing her hands together.

"I don't know, everything feels… well, strange," Hermione admitted, looking troubled. "Why would we be learning about Fiendfyre?"

Lily thought for a few moments. "Maybe there's something we need to destroy, something powerful? I think that there's also a chance that Voldemort knows how to use Fiendfyre, so if he uses it, we'll be able to stop him before it gets too powerful."

"That makes sense, I guess, but there's got to be more to it than that," Hermione frowned. Lily could see her mind whirling with questions. "Why would Crouch not check with Dumbledore first?"

"That's… a good point," Lily replied slowly. "I don't think it's a lack of trust, because Professor Dumbledore kept him from Azkaban and helped him."

"I… I'm almost afraid to say this, but I don't think Professor Dumbledore is doing well. He's been away from the school a lot, and his hand looks… well, if I had to guess, I'd say that something killed his hand. He can't really use it, but if something did that to his hand, how long until it gets the rest of him?" Hermione whispered. Lily could tell she was close to tears as she spoke.

"He seemed normal to me when we spoke during the summer," Lily said, before recapping the conversation she'd had with Dumbledore. "It was… actually, it was nice. There were even a couple of passing muggles who thought he was my grandfather."

"I hope I'm wrong Lily, but…" Hermione began, but Lily took her hand, cutting her off.

"I get it. There have been a few times I've wanted you to be wrong before when it came to big things, and I hope this is one of them as well," Lily said. "But… if there is something bad happening…"

"We need to be prepared. Maybe we should try and get more Felix Felicis from Professor Slughorn?"

"I'll ask him, and tell him we have a bad feeling," Lily confirmed, agreeing to the idea. "We need to be prepared for anything and everything. If history is our guide, something bad is going to happen this year."

"Please don't jinx us," Hermione teased, with a sad smile grimacing over her face. "I can't even imagine what could hurt Professor Dumbledore. He's always been so… powerful. Even You-Know-Who is afraid of him."

"I could hear the fear in his voice at the Ministry," Lily recalled, mirroring the sad smile. "I still… I can't believe I fought alongside Professor Dumbledore." The two sat in silence for a few moments, hearing Lavender and Parvati finishing up in the bathroom. "We should get some sleep," Lily said, her eyes itching with fatigue.

Hermione nodded in approval, quickly giving her a hug.

"Thanks Lily, for everything," Hermione said, before entering the bathroom with her toiletries. Lily settled into her bed, bidding a goodnight to Parvati and Lavender before she closed her eyes. She hoped that she wouldn't have nightmares about what Hermione had brought up. She didn't want to think of a world without Albus Dumbledore, but something told her that sooner, rather than later, it would happen.

Crouch looked at Sirius, Remus, Minerva, Molly (who had arrived less than an hour earlier), and Moody as he held a glass of Fire Whiskey. "You know what I'm about to say isn't confirmed, it's just a suspicion. As for why Dumbledore hasn't told anyone of his thoughts, well, I can't answer any of that."

Moody, to Crouch's surprise, smirked. "Lad, if you knew Albus Dumbledore as well as the rest of us do, you'd know that it isn't a surprise at all. The man is famed for keeping his cards close to his chest."

"But why is he telling Potter? I know she's powerful, but she's still a kid, for Merlin's sake," Crouch sat heavily down on the sofa, looking around Remus and Sirius's house in Hogsmeade. It was comfortable, and it would be where he would live for the time, with Moody as well.

"Believe me, I'm not pleased with that either," Minerva spoke up, accepting a glass of fire whisky that Remus held out to her. "She's my niece, and I can't imagine any scenario where she wouldn't need help."

"Maybe, and I hope I'm wrong, but maybe this is something only Lily can do," Remus suggested as he set down the alcohol, perching on the armrest of the chair Sirius was on.

"Moony, I won't let Lily do anything without support," Sirius said sharply.

Remus took his hand and kissed it. "Please don't get me wrong, I won't let her do anything without us either, Padfoot, my love," he reassured him. "I'm thinking of the prophecy, which Lily relayed to us. Neither can live whilst the other survives… in the end, I fear it will be a fight between Voldemort and Lily."

"Because of some damned prophecy? To hell with that, if Lily has to fight Mouldy Shorts, I'll be by her side, ready to help end his life. Hell, I used a killing curse against his last body when I found Lily at Godric's Hollow," Sirius growled, his shoulders tense.

"We'll all be there, Sirius," Molly assured him. "But right now, we need to keep all of this from Dumbledore. There's something wrong, and we need to be careful. I trust him, but if Albus is playing his cards close to the chest, then we need to do the same."

"Agreed. So, lad, you said you had a theory?" Moody asked, looking back at Crouch.

Barty smiled softly, thankful for Moody who had been treating him more decently than perhaps he deserved. "Years ago, when I was a part of his army, he had me help locate a number of artefacts. He was looking for anything related to the Hogwarts Founders. I wasn't allowed to ask him why, none of us were under the threat of torture, but he was specifically looking for Slytherin's Locket, Ravenclaw's Diadem, and Gryffindor's Sword. I don't know why he didn't ask for anything of Hufflepuff's, but I looked anyway. He also wanted me to locate, well, Nagini," Crouch explained, resisting a shudder.

"The snake? Why?" Sirius asked, frowning.

"Because she isn't a snake. She's –"

"A Maledictus, I know," Moody cut in, the lines on his face deep. "Albus told me last year."

"I've been looking for a cure, to help if I can. I helped Voldemort find the poor woman, the least I can do is help cure her," Crouch sighed before taking a long swig of the whisky. "But I fear that it may not be possible, not anymore. You see, I know Voldemort got hold of the Diadem, and the locket, because I found them and told him where they were. I was a young, stupid kid, and wanted to help him. I never questioned it, but after the meeting I had with Dumbledore and Lily, I began to look into this closer."

"And you found something?" Molly asked, her voice thin with worry.

"I think so," Crouch agreed. "When I learnt about his diary from Lily, I began to suspect something, but again, at the time, I didn't think it mattered. But given everything, I suspect that Voldemort has created a number of Horcruxes." Remus let out a soft gasp, Moody's eyes narrowed, and Sirius growled softly. Minerva and Molly both paled dramatically. "I see you're familiar."

"Unfortunately," Moody confirmed, scowling. "How many?"

"I don't know," Crouch replied. "More than one, certainly. I don't think it would be a large number, because it'd put him at great risk if anyone learnt of it, but everything fits. I suspect his diary was a horcrux, which would explain how he almost took over Ginny."

"That perverted freak!" Molly exclaimed, eyes flashing with fury and fear. "He was going to… to take… to kill…"

"It's okay Molly, Lily stopped the bastard," Sirius reminded her gently. "I wish I could disagree with you, Crouch, but it makes perfect sense."

"Why hasn't Albus told us, though?" Remus directed the question at Crouch.

"I believe he wants to be completely certain of how many there are, and perhaps where they are, before he tells anyone. If the wrong person were to find out, Voldemort would move them, which would make it harder to track them." Crouch winced. "I suspect that Nagini has become a Horcrux, which is why I fear it's too late to save her."

"Aye, after this long, there'd barely be anything left of the poor lass. Killing her would be a mercy," Moody said. "You think that's why he wanted things of the Hogwarts founders?"

"I do. From what I know from his other followers, he loved Hogwarts, and wants it under his control to teach the future generations to worship him," Crouch replied.

"Over my dead body!" Minerva immediately protested, shaking her head. "I will never let anyone of his kind into the school."

"I hope that doesn't happen either, but we need to start making plans to evacuate should there ever be a battle at the school," Crouch said. "One thing I am good at is planning for all possibilities. I can see so many different paths, and as each week passes, more and more I can see there being a battle at the school."

"Why?" Molly asked, confused.

"Because I suspect that there's a Horcrux somewhere in the castle, but I don't have the faintest idea where to even begin searching," Crouch admitted. He looked at everyone and could see the concern on their faces. He felt the same way. If war was coming to Hogwarts – and at this point, he was certain that it would be – then they needed to make sure they had the advantage, because if Hogwarts fell to Voldemort, Crouch knew their chances of victory would be very slim.