December 19th, 2011, 12 Grimmauld Place, London, England 6:00 AM BST

I slept unusually well in my room at Grimmauld place. Or rather, in my dad's old room. My girls were all with me, which helped, and we just kind of passed out in a pile. Groaning, I pulled myself free of the tangle, wincing as I caught a stray knee to the nuts as I wriggled out. I floated off the bed, my wings popping out to stop me from thumping to the floor, and righted myself in the air.

"Mmn?" Groaned Suzie, who had been wrapped around me like a lemur. "S'at?" She mumbled.

I chuckled at her cute sleepy babbling. "It's me. Just go back to bed." She pouted without opening her eyes, then latched onto the next closest person, Seras, and buried her face in my vampire's prodigious tits.

The whole thing made me smile. On the rare occasions we all slept together, Suzie insisted Seras was an exceptional cuddle, because she always felt like the cool side of the pillow. It seemed to be an odd point of pride for my vampire too. Daphne preferred cuddling Suzie, who was soft and sweet and smelled good, and I was happy to snuggle up to any of them.

I stepped out into the hall to find Val heading to her room, dressed in a pair of short silk shorts and a tank top. She froze when she saw me. "Oh…hey boss." I raised an eyebrow at her. "I was just…getting some water."

Looking past her I saw the closed door to Sirius's room, and rolled my eyes. "In my uncle's room?"

To my surprise, her cheeks darkened. Val was no blushing violet, and seeing her so off balance was a bit disconcerting. She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "Not like anything happened." She muttered. "We just talked for a few hours. He's really sweet."

"Val." I said, cutting her off. "We're devils. We're going to live for ten thousand years. If you want to bang my uncle that's between you guys. As long as I never hear the details I'm good. So is it cool if we never talk about this again?" I grinned to let her know I was half teasing, but I really had no interest in delving into their sex life.

She sputtered. "I'm not BANGING him." Her cheeks puffed out in an almost adorable way, she glared for a second, then blew out a breath. "Never again. Sounds good."

Nodding at each other, we each went on our way, and I gave Sirius's room a nod of respect before heading downstairs. I found my mom in the kitchen sipping coffee and reading the paper across from a tired looking Andi. "Hey ma." I said as I walked past, opening the fridge to look for something to eat. I was so glad this place HAD a fridge, I'd been half worried they'd use an ice box or something.

"Morning sweetie." My mother said without looking from the Daily Prophet. "Sleep well?"

I shrugged. "Usual dreams. Pack of hyenas, Reeboks, day at the Circus." I grinned at her. "The workings of a depraved mind chugging away as I sleep."

She rolled her eyes at my reference to a rather eventful dream that had terrified me as a child, after which I refused to sleep without my light on. "I have some errands in Diagon this afternoon. Would you be interested in coming along?"

I'd been hoping to shop around at Diagon at some point soon actually. With the Chamber search I hadn't been comfortable leaving the girls at Hogwarts, so I hadn't had a chance to visit. I wanted to pick up some enchanting books and maybe some materials to practice on. I turned to my aunt. "How about you, auntie, you coming with us to Diagon? We could use a bad ass barista to tell us what coffee to buy." Then I glanced at my mom. "And if it could wait till tomorrow that would be great though. Have a bit of business of my own to take care of."

She snorted a small laugh. "Of course, I was going to say no, but how could I force you to buy sup par coffee beans. I'm clearly necessary." At my moms confused look she explained my mix-up at our first meeting.

"Honestly Ryan." My mother huffed. "We live in England, it wouldn't kill you to explore your heritage a bit. And yes, I can postpone."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "There are literally so many jokes I could make that I'm locked up in choice paralysis. Anyway, Andi could definitely help us out around the alley. She's way more in touch with prices than we are. I've been a wizard for a year, and without access to the black vault I need to pinch my pennies."

Andi nodded solemnly and my mother rolled her eyes. I was distracted by the entry of another figure, and I waved at Harry as he stepped into the kitchen. "Hey man, you look rested. What's got you up so early?"

He shrugged. "I've always been an early riser. I smelled some food so I thought I'd come see what was for breakfast if that's all right."

"Well we didn't cook it so you could stare at it longingly." I said with a laugh, then I paused. "Actually I didn't cook at all. Did Sirius finally get that crazy old elf to come do some work?" I saw empty plates pushed off to the side in front of mom and Andi that I hadn't noticed before.

My mother shook her head. "Hardly. Kreacher is around, but he despises Sirius. He's actually reasonably polite to me, Reggie introduced us when the two of us were dating and Kreacher ADORED his master." She paused. "Actually…given the resemblance…why don't you call him? See if he'll come."

I shrugged. "Ok. I guess so. What did you say his name was? Kreacher?" I knew house elves were linked to families, so if he was a Black elf a Black saying his name would- my thought was cut off with a pop as a small wrinkled old elf in a pillow case popped into existence right in front of me, glaring around the kitchen nastily.

"Disgusting mudbloods and blood traitors, befouling the house of Kreacher's mistress." He glanced around the kitchen as if searching. "Which of the half-breeds is calling Kreacher?"

I cleared my throat. "That would be me." He whirled, his big floppy ears flapping around the forest of ear hair that made me surprised he could even hear. He looked ready to rave at me like the others, but when he saw me, he froze.

Now, I looked like a lot of my family members. Pale, sexy, dark hair. My eyes were more like my moms than dads, but in terms of features I had the Black countenance. More than that, I looked A LOT like my old man, to the point that I'd been pretty thrown when I met his portrait because it could have been a mirror. There were differences, albeit small ones, but there was a distinct resemblance.

Kreacher, apparently, noticed as well, because the little elf collapsed to his knees, staring up at me desolately as tears filled his oversized eyes. "M-master Regulus?" He whispered. "Master Regulus is coming back to Kreacher?" He stared for a moment before bursting into wailing sobs and slamming his head into the floor over and over in a kowtow motion. "Master Regulus is coming back. Kreacher is so sorry, Kreacher has failed you. Master is not even being able to rest in peace because Kreacher is being such a bad elf!"

I stared at my mom in shock and a little panic. I didn't do anything to bring this on. A few of the others heard the noise and rushed in, but I held up my hand as I knelt down in front of the weird little thing. "Kreacher." I said firmly. He didn't listen. I caught him, holding him in place effortlessly with one hand. "Kreacher." I repeated. "I'm speaking to you."

He froze. "Master Regulus's voice has changed." He said in a harsh whisper. "Master sounds like a disgusting yank now."

"I'm not your master." I said, choosing to ignore that last comment. "I'm his son. My name is Orion. Orion Black. I think my dad would be happy to know you still think so highly of him. I have a portrait of him around if you'd like to see it sometime."

Kreacher snuffled, shaking his head. "Kreacher can't be seeing the Master." He said in a hushed tone. "Kreacher is failing him. Can't bring himself to show his wretched face before good, kind Master Regulus."

"I'm sure that's not true." I said with a smile. "Why do you think you failed him? What did you do that was so bad?"

Kreacher broke down again, sobs rising in volume as he started to slam his head again. I glanced up at Sirius, chucking my chin at the door, and he nodded, knowing what I wanted. He didn't look happy, but he respected that Kreacher was someone who had been important to my dad apparently, and that this might be a chance for me to learn about him.

He gathered the others up and led them out of the kitchen, while I picked Kreacher up and set him up on the table. "Kreacher." I said, interrupting him again. "What exactly happened to make you so upset. My dad's been dead for a long time. When did he give you this task that you failed exactly?"

"It was before he was leaving!" Wailed the ancient elf. "Before he was going off to die! He gave Kreacher-" He slapped his hands over his mouth, bug eyes widening even more. "No." He whispered. "Kreacher is not supposed to be telling."

That was interesting. "Kreacher, it's alright." I said soothingly. "I'm Master Regulus's son. He would want you to listen to me. You know my mother, right? Sylvie? My dad introduced you."

He nodded slowly. "Master is saying she is being good mudblood." He clamped his mouth shut, shaking his head. "No, Master is saying the Sylvie Miss is not to be called such. Mistress is screaming this at Kreacher all the time, but Master says the Sylvie Miss deserves respect. He says she is special." He looked at me almost shyly. "You is the son of Master and the Sylvie Miss?"

His voice had changed somewhat. Like talking to me had returned some of his youth. He was still raspy and croaking, but now there was an energy, almost an innocence to him that I hadn't heard from that nasty snarling elf who appeared a few minutes ago.

"I am." I said bluntly. "And I need to know more about this task. My dad said not to tell anyone, but he's gone. Can't you make an exception for his son?"

He shook his head furiously. "The Master would be wanting me to keep it even more secret. It's dangerous! The Master got it and then he died, he gave it to Kreacher to destroy but Kreach couldn't be doing it!"

"Gave you what?" I asked sharply, and his face crumpled. "Kreacher it's ok. I'm very powerful, I can protect myself, but I need to know more about this thing."

He shivered, but eventually nodded fearfully. "It is being a locket. A locket Kreacher was sent to fetch from a bad cave. Master Regulus came with me, and Kreacher had to drink a bad potion. But bad things were being in the cave, and the Master made Kreacher return home. He is making Kreacher promise to destroy the locket. Promise to get rid of it before He could reclaim it."

"He?" I asked in slowly dawning horror. Because I knew who killed my father, or at least who I was pretty sure had done it. Dad had escaped his little cult and gone in search of help for me, but after he'd acquired the evil pieces he'd gone back. Voldemort was too dangerous, and despite the bad blood my dad still loved his family.

Kreacher shuddered, covering his eyes, and he whispered the next words, the ones I'd been really hoping not to hear. "The Dark Lord." Stuttered the terrified elf. "The Master is sending Kreacher away with a locket belonging to the Dark Lord."

December 19th, 2011, 12 Grimmauld Place, London, England 7:00 AM BST

Sometimes I hated being right. Those times were few and far between, but this was definitely one of them. I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Oh, what fresh hell is this?" What the hell had my dad been doing? Why was he stealing shit from an angry lich? It explained why he'd died, at least, but I could already tell this was going to be a mess.

Kreacher wailed in sorrow. "Kreacher is being sorry young master! I is doing my best to break the bad locket, but I is failing!"

I realized he thought I'd been pissed at him and waved it off. "It's fine, Kreacher. I know you tried. Can you bring me the locket? Is it here? I need to destroy it like my dad wanted. You want that don't you?"

"Yes!" Squealed the creature. "Young master is handsome, brave and wise! Young master will surely succeed where Kreacher has failed!" There was a pop, and he vanished.

I turned to the door. "Sirius!" I called, and my uncle came hurrying back into the room.

"What is it?" He asked wildly. "Did he do something? Where is that little rat? I'll kill him!" He drew his wand in a flash and spun in circles, trying to find any trace of the house elf, and I rolled my eyes.

"He's not here." I said with a sigh. "And I didn't call you for that. He didn't do anything, at least nothing recent. Call my mom in here, and maybe Andi, I'll get some of the others down here. We need to have a family meeting." Another pop sounded in the room, and Kreacher appeared, grasping onto a silver locket with a snakelike S engraved on the front. He flinched when he saw Sirius but I just held out my hand. "It's fine Kreacher, he's just here to help me brainstorm ways to destroy it. You can give it to me and go."

Kreacher seemed a bit worried, but eventually he relented, passing me the locket and shooting me a grateful look before glaring at Sirius and vanishing with another pop. "What in the hell is THAT?" He said, pointing at the shiny silver necklace.

I didn't respond, because I was busy getting my bell rung (albeit not too hard) by something in the locket. Whatever it was smashed into my head like a freight train, but I barely caught any of the damage as it bounced off the protection offered by my evil piece. Snarling, I opened a portal and dropped it through into a locked drawer back at my room in the manor.

"That." I snarled with distaste as I wiped off my hand on my robes. "Is a problem." Specifically, it was a FAMILIAR problem. I recognized that grimy soul signature, though it was somehow less mutilated than the original despite being a small piece of a greater whole. That locket was a phylactery.

Or rather, I realized as I thought back to the book Garment had pointed me at, I was pretty sure it was a Horcrux. Had this been what he meant when he aimed me in that direction? How much did that asshole know about my life?

When everyone had gathered in the kitchen (at least when my mom, Andi, and my peerage had gathered) I filled them in on what had happened, being sure to throw in my interaction with Garment and his creepy moving book shop.

Everyone was gaping at me by the time I was done. Val held up a hand. "Sorry, just to rehash, he split off part of his SOUL and put it in a necklace?"

I glanced meaningfully at Skulduggery, sitting at the table holding a cup of hot tea he'd pulled from somewhere. "Yes, because who ever heard of such a thing? Also why do you have that, you don't have a throat?"

He shrugged. "It makes me feel all warm and toasty. But to refocus on your delightful story, I've heard tales of such creatures."

"Liches." I said with a nod. "But I don't think this is a normal lich situation, as much as you can claim there is such a thing. When I fought Voldemort his soul was…fucked up. I came into contact with it with my necromancy, and it was shredded and Frankensteined back together afterwards. Pieces as in more than one. I don't think this is his only Phylactery" I didn't say Horcrux, it was a stupid fucking word and I wanted no part of it.

Sirius gaped at me. "I'm sorry, when you WHATed WHO?" He glanced at my mom in horror. "He FOUGHT You-Know-WHo? And survived?"

I paused, frowning at him. "Shit. I thought you knew about that. There's so much going on, I'm losing track of who knows what." I glanced around to make sure none of the other current residents besides my peerage, my mom, Sirius, and Andi were here.

"Fuck it." I sighed. "Fine, the long version then." Sirius owed me his life, and my dad had died partly because of the evil pieces, so he wouldn't turn on me, and Andi…I liked her. Telling her didn't seem like too big of a mistake, given all the secret shit I'd just divulged, so I explained everything back to when I first got my evil pieces.

By the time I was done, they were staring at me in stunned disbelief, and I just shrugged. "I know, kind of wild, but that's what happened." I gestured around us. "Most of the people here are my peerage members. All except mom, she turned me down."

Val cleared her throat. "Which means, by the way, that if you rat him out you'll be ratting all of us out, and one of us will probably kill you." At my scolding glance she shrugged. "What? A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend. I think we're getting off topic here, what are we going to do with the locket?"
"We're going to fucking destroy it." I said sharply. "My dad was going to do it before Voldemort killed him, and there's no way I'm leaving his dying wish unfinished. Plus I hate that slithery fuck, and I absolutely want to crush a fragment of his gross frankenstein soul."

Daphne cut in, looking worried. "But…what if he feels it? Won't he come after you?"

"First off." I said with a chuckle. "He already hates me for foiling his plans with the stone, what is he going to do? Kill me twice? Second of all, that asshole killed my dad, and I WILL find a way to make him suffer for it, and third of all, I doubt he'll feel it anyway, his soul is a patchwork mess, I'd be shocked if he has any connection to the pieces."

Tracey raised a hand. "Yeah, about that. How MANY pieces, exactly? Because I don't know much about liches, but last I heard, you have to destroy the phylactery to kill them. If he has more than one, how will we know if he's actually dead?"

"She's right." Said Tanith with a frown. "There's something to be said for not drawing blood if you can't finish the job."

I glared furiously around the room, but a soft hand landed on my shoulder. I turned to see Suzie smiling softly at me, her eyes sad. "Ryan…I know this means a lot to you. No one is saying we shouldn't do it. Remember, You-Know-Who killed my parents too. If we can get rid of him once and for all, we should, but we don't know if we might be able to use the locket to figure out where the rest of the pieces are."

"We ARE doing this, though?" Asked Blaise. "Planning to kill the second most powerful dark wizard in the last century?" At all of our glances, he held up his hands defensively. "I'm not backing out, I just want to make sure we're on the same page."

I wanted to be angry but…he was right. This wasn't his business. Wasn't any of their businesses except maybe Suzie. "I…I won't make you." I said quietly. "I know I'm your boss, but I won't make you do this. It's too much to ask. There's a difference between hunting down some weird chamber monster and committing to a shadow war with an insane lich nazi."

"Nah." Said Tracey bluntly. "Fuck that noise. I'm in. You don't get to hog all the glory for yourself."

Theo, who had been quiet as a church mouse, nodded. "I'm with you. If that arsehole comes back Hannah is going to be on the chopping block. I'm no hero, but nobody goes after my woman and lives to tell about it."

The others, to my complete shock, echoed the sentiment. Even Shaggy and Scooby were firmly onboard with my plan.

Which was…kind of not a plan. "Well, I don't think we're going to manage much at this point. If we're keeping the Phylactery, I'm going to put it somewhere safe. Like…on the moon or something. I can get it back when we need it, and no one else will be able to fuck with it. Researching is fine, but nobody comes in contact with that thing but me. My evil piece is the strongest past maybe Val, and that thing took a heavy shot at me."

As for Val, I didn't say it, but I was worried about exposing her to a necklace that could possess people, evil piece or not. We still didn't know much about her whole conquering the world deal.

"We should have Kreacher take us to that cave." Said Daphne after a moment. "Whatever is there might give us some kind of clue to where the others are, or how many there are. I don't suppose you conveniently counted the missing chunks of soul?"

I shook my head. "Nah, I don't even think it works that way. I just know there was too much damage for one of those things to be it."

"I can reach out to some of my contacts." Said Skulduggery pensively. "This isn't exactly our type of magic, but it's adjacent to necromancy. They might be able to tell me more about it. Or something like it at least."

Sirius cleared his throat. "Should we…should we tell Dumbledore?"

"No!" Said Andi immediately. At our confused looks, she just sighed. "Albus Dumbledore is many things, but above all he's a pragmatist. He's talented and skilled, but he plays games. Leaving the stone with Ryan is one such example. Dumbledore can't be trusted to do anything but what Dumbledore thinks is right."

Sirius looked aghast. "Andi, I know you aren't the man's biggest fan but-"

"It's not that." She said, holding up a hand. "I hear things. As a lawyer I often work with the Wizengamot and my daughter tells me about her work. I've spoken to Alastor Moody at length, and cultivated quite a few sources in various ministry departments. It's the only way to get things done."

I nodded slowly. "I think she's right. Like, I like the old man, and he's a fucking MONSTER in terms of magic, but he can't be trusted. Not with everything. I'm not against consulting him on a case by case basis, but I don't want him having all the information about any of us. If it comes down to us or his own plans, I don't think we win."

Sirius looked ready to object, but he kept quiet. I suspected he was remembering the years he spent in Azkaban for a crime he didn't commit. If Dumbledore was more careful that might not have happened.

My mother sighed, looking around the table. "We should get the others down here for breakfast, I think Harry went to go fill them in on the Kreacher mess. I'm just glad we got a few minutes of privacy, let's not push it. She was right, and I got up to go call Harry and Co. Later on we would worry about starting our search. Oddly, having a plan helped, and I felt a knot that was so omnipresent in my gut I didn't even notice it unclench. I was gonna make that fucker pay.

December 19th, 2011, Seaside Cave, London, England 6:00 PM BST

"So this is the place?" I asked Kreacher. Skulduggery and Val were with me, given their familiarity with necromancy they were the most qualified to try to sniff out what was going on here. Sirius had wanted to come, but I'd put my foot down. Val was my Queen and Skulduggery was a walking Skeleton, both of whom were hardened warriors, but I wouldn't risk my family.

The big floppy ears of the old elf bounced as he nodded quickly. "Kreacher is being sure. I is never forgetting this terrible place." He pointed at a blank spot in the stone wall under an outcropping. "Master Regulus is being cutting his hand and wiping it on the stone. Then it opened on a dark cave."

Shrugging, I held up a hand, getting ready to cut myself, but Val held up one of hers. "No way boss. My body is way sturdier than yours, I'll heal quicker."

"Fine." I said with a sigh. "But don't do that stupid thing like in the movies where you cut yourself across your palm. It makes your hand all slick and there are a ton of nerves there. Try the forearm, you can just wipe it on the stone."

Rolling her eyes, she muttered 'Yes, DAD' and let a tendril of shadow flow from her ring and form a dagger, which she quickly slid across her forearm. It must have been damned sharp, because she barely flinched as the blood welled up. Letting the dagger fade she wiped the blood off her arm and then smeared it on the stone where Kreacher had indicated.

Sure enough, there was a grinding sound and the stone shifted apart to reveal the entrance to what would probably be an incredibly dark cave to anyone else.

"That would be so cool if it wasn't going to hurt us." Observed Val calmly. "Well, or try at least."

I just shrugged. "I give it a three. Diagon has a much fancier entrance. Aesthetically that one is kind of shitty. Keep your eyes open. Or…well their sockets I guess, sorry Skullduggery."

"Sorry for what?" He said blithely. "Is there something wrong with my eyes?" He felt around at his grinning skull. "Oh god, my face, what happened to my face! I'm a monster!" He delivered the entire speech in a cheerful deadpan, and I just rolled my eyes.

"You know." I said loftily. "Nobody likes a smart ass."

He snickered. "If that were true, neither of us would have any friends. Now, you said to be careful here and it's necromancy, so I suggest we arm ourselves with the only true weakness of the undead."

"A light jog?" Said Val with a straight face. "Doors? Childproof medicine bottles?"

Skulduggery gave me an apologetic nod. "I see what you mean now. You were right. No one likes a smart arse." He clicked his fingers, and a globe of flame sprang to life in each hand. "No, my dear apprentice. I speak, of course, of fire."

"Uncharacteristically rational of you." I said with an arched eyebrow as we stepped into the cave. "I'm kind of impressed, I expected you to crack jokes." Before we entered I shot Kreacher a comforting smile and waved him off. The last thing I saw was the elf bowing as he vanished with a pop.

The Skeleton detective chuckled. "Oh I'm sure I will. But I know how to be serious when the occasion calls for it."

"I hope not." Val said with a smirk. "That idea creeps me out."

I groaned. "Oh gods, not you too. Please don't start making that same stupid joke. Also, do either of you see any…stuff? Because I'll be honest, this just looks like an empt- wait, nope I see it now." We'd turned a corner and I could suddenly see a lake with a small island in the middle. On the island was a dark stone pedestal with a basin on it.

"I feel necromancy." Val said suddenly. "Or…not? It's like a halfway point between necromancy and wanded magic." She walked up to the edge of the lake, staring down into the water. "Oh, lake full of dead people. Fantastic."

Wincing, I walked over to stand next to her. "Ok." I said with a sigh. "That's not great. They're not waking up though. I assume we need to touch the water to set them off?" She squinted for a minute, then nodded. "Cool. I'm going to go ahead and not do that."

I reached out and grabbed her arm, and in a flash the two of us vanished into a circle, Skullduggery follow behind us. As we emerged, we all turned and stared suspiciously at the lake, waiting for something to attack. When nothing did, Val grinned at me. "Nice one boss, now how do we handle THAT?" She pointed to the basin.

"I'm so glad you asked." I said with a smile. Raising a hand to my ear, I opened a small communication circle. "You ready ma?" When I got the affirmative, I opened another circle in the basin just above the locket. The potion, which Kreacher's story had made clear was dangerous and unpleasant, began to drain out. From the communication circle I heard gagging and choking followed by muffled screams.

Val raised an eyebrow at me. "Where's it going? I don't think you need a go ahead to dump it in a river or something."

"Nah." I said cheerfully. "Magic on the basin. Someone needs to drink it. Otherwise it refills. We COULD have broken the spell, but Voldemort might notice, and even if he didn't it would have taken a bunch of time and effort. Instead we just decided to dump it down the throat of someone we didn't care about. Mom still has Lucius Malfoy lying around. She's been using him to test new potion recipes, we decided to just force feed it all to him. Two birds, y'know?"

Skulduggery laughed darkly. "I have to say, I respect the willingness to torment your enemies. Now, Valkyrie, I've been working on regaining my necromancy proficiency now that I have access to my demonic energy. I'll need your help for this technique though. I've been imbuing my hat with necromantic energy, but it's still a long way from what my armor could hold."

He tipped his (now that I was looking) suspiciously dark hat and Val nodded. I considered drawing my wand, but whatever they were doing could set off the cave defenses, and then we'd need someone to ward off the zombie army or whatever else was around here, so I just let them do their thing.

As I watched, shadows rose from the ground, collecting towards the basin as they raised their hands. Even as I watched, darkness poured from Val's ring and Skulduggery's hat tomix with the gathering dark, and the shadows rose up into a solid, stable image. An image of…me.

Or rather, someone who looked just like I used to. I still resembled him greatly, but a year and more as a devil had altered me. All those little imperfections I'd seen in myself had been smoothed out over time subconsciously, and I hadn't realized quite how much it added up until I saw him.

The shadows condensed, forming a solid construct around the basin. My dad stood next to Kreacher, tipping the basin back into the elf's mouth. I could see his grief shining in his eyes, even as a construct of dark. "Come on now Kreacher." He said, his voice just as I'd heard it from the portrait. "I know it hurts, but I need to study this object. It might hold the key."

"Kreacher is trying Master." Sobbed the elf. "I is being so thirsty. THere is being so much pain. Please let Kreacher stop. Just for a moment."

My dad shook his head, and unlike the version of him in the portrait, there was no haughtiness or arrogance, only pain. "I'm sorry my friend." He said quietly, putting a hand on Kreachers shoulder. "Just a few more sips." He froze, head snapping up. "The wards on the west cheltenham property just went down. Bollocks."

Reaching up he tipped the basin back further, then grabbed the locket and shoved it at Kreacher. "Take this back to Grimmauld place and destroy it. Don't come after me, no matter what you do." To my surprise, he pulled the elf into a hug. "Thank you Kreacher. For everything."

"This isn't what we need." I said roughly, my voice more hoarse than I'd been expecting. I felt my face and noticed tears on my cheeks. I wiped them away. This had been the night my dad died. I was sure of it. Kreacher had mentioned being ordered to destroy the locket and my dad never coming back. "We need to go further. Can you find the right night?"

I didn't even know how this was working, but Skulduggery nodded. "Yes. The darkness in here was exposed to necromancy. We're just reexposing it and letting it recreate what happened here. The removal of the locket was the last big spike of necromantic power. We can go back to the one before."

They refocused, and the dark began to pour off them even faster. The frozen scene of my dad hugging Kreacher goodbye vanished and in its place, I saw a man. He was tall and lean, handsome I'd say, though his eyes had a certain reptilian menace to them. I'd never seen Voldemort before, but I knew him. He approached the basin, then stopped, looking up.

He stared at the place where I was watching, and I cleared my throat. "Ok…what's going on? Is this the earlier necromantic event?"

"Ah." Said the construct with a nod. "Intruders." My eyes snapped over to Skulduggery and Val, the latter of whom was staring in horror at the construct as it turned to study them.

I spun to look at her. "Please tell me that's a coincidence."

"It's not." She whispered. "He's hijacked the working somehow. Like the residual necromancy has taken control of our construct." She looked at Skulduggery. "How is he doing this? Should this be possible?"

He shook his head. "Not for someone like him. I might have been able to do it, back when I was Lord Vile."

The construct's head whipped around, his eyes locking on my bishop. "Lord Vile? One of Grindelwald's fellow generals? How fascinating. Time seems to have worn on you. I suppose if someone like you has come I need to make a real effort. A horde of inferi would be fodder to one such as yourself. Very well, let's try something more…interesting."

Throwing back his head, the construct screamed, exploding into a cloud of darkness, pulling a shitload of the magic Skulduggery and Val had imbued into the working with it as it funneled into the lake. The water began to hiss and boil, and hands erupted from the surface, flesh sloughing off them.

Bone limbs grabbed at each other, the skeletons climbing atop each other into a pile, the darkness coating them as the bones rearranged themselves. The pile grew, twisting and reshaping itself, shadow covering the bones like flesh as it reconstituted itself into an entirely new and sadly somewhat familiar shape. Not one I'd seen before, but one I knew all the same.

When the changes were finished, a pair of hellish purple flames flickered in the thing's sockets as it glared down at us, baring obsidian teeth as its long neck reared back for a serpentine roar, wings spreading behind it.

"Huh." I said, staring up at the monster. "Dragon zombie. Don't see those every day." And then, with a roar, the beast was on us, and there was no time for banter. In retrospect, apparently bringing necromancers to this cave had NOT been a smart idea. Something to remember for next time. Assuming we GOT a next time.

December 19th, 2011, Seaside Cave, London, England 7:00 PM BST

Despite my nonchalant reaction, my teeth were gritted in annoyance as the weird shadow bone dragon thing roared and lunged at us. Jerking my hand up, I conjured Asclepius, and the monster's momentum cut off as the fifteen foot snake erupted from the water, smashing into the throat of the thing and wrapping around it like a collar.

Another jerk of my hand sent it crashing past us, missing the island and slamming into the water with a strangled roar. Smoke rose from its neck, but whatever that shit was made of wasn't melting like a normal material. Magical bullshit.

Val cursed, clicking her fingers and shoving hard against the air as a wave of flame slammed into the beast, most of it boiling off the freezing water and filling the cavern with steam. Grabbing both of them, I opened a circle, teleporting us off the island and to the mouth of the cave outside.

"Ok." I snarled. "That thing is going to notice we're gone as soon as that steam clears, good thinking there by the way Val. I never would have thought to blind it."

She shrugged. "Neither did I, I just tried to set the bastard on fire." Her head snapped to Skulduggery. "How did he do that? I didn't think it was possible to hijack a working like that? I mean, that construct was from decades ago, how did he see us?"

"He didn't." Said my skeleton bishop calmly. "He had a phylactery there for thirty plus years. It bled into the darkness nearby. When we animated those shadows, we used barely any of our wills, because we wanted them to show us their past. HIS will, however, was heavily saturating the shadows we were pouring power into. It hijacked the working and then used the sea of necromantic power in the water to twist itself into something combat capable."

I groaned. "I'm getting sick of this asshole and his refusal to just fucking die. How are we supposed to put it down. I overpowered the necromancy in the White Cleaver, but this thing seems MUCH bigger."

"It wouldn't work anyway." Said Skulduggery flatly. "The White Cleaver was a fully reanimated undead. Serpine took a body and stuffed it full of necromancy, but the body was the base. That thing is a construct created by using the bones of the necromantically prepared bodies as foci. It's MADE of necromancy, and none of us have enough strength to overpower that much energy."

I cursed. He was right. Necromancy was annoying at time in that you had to permanently sever some of your power and imbue it into a vessel. It actually BECAME necromantic power rather than demonic energy (even if the conversion rate was pretty good). Because of this I hadn't powered up my necromancy nearly as much as I could have because it permanently decreased my demonic energy as a whole.
"What about your armor?" I asked him cautiously. Way back during the war, Skulduggery had a psychotic break when his wife and kids were killed. He somehow switched disciplines post surge (sorcerers weren't supposed to be able to do that) and became a powerful necromancer. His alter ego 'Lord Vile' had worked for Mevolent, the guy Grindelwald had worked for, and had been considered about as dangerous. All that power was still locked up in Lord Vile's suit of black plate.

He hesitated for a bit, but Val cut in. "It's not an option, and that doesn't matter anyway." She pointed at the cave. "It's coming."

It was, I could feel it. Asclepius was still wrapped around its neck, squeezing tightly trying to boil or melt or burn away the shadows so the thing would die. Not that it seemed to actually HELP, but hell if it didn't make me feel better.

With a roar, the monster erupted from the cave, eyes blazing as its head swung in circles, trying to spot us. We, of course, had taken flight and were floating above the waves off the steep cliff ledge as it spotted us. Screeching like a fucking velociraptor (at least the ones in the movies) it hurled itself forward, wings spreading and ripping the air as it shot forward.

Val me it with a devastating right hook, and I whooped with joy as she sent it shooting backward with the force, its dark hide smashing on the rocks with a scream.

Taking advantage of the opening, I willed Ascelpius free and then drove it down the things throat, letting the extremely acidic water burrow deep into the dragons insides. I grinned nastily…until the thing stood up completely unaffected.

"Forgot it didn't have organs?" Asked Skulduggery from where he floated next to me. I shrugged in embarrassment, and he just chuckled. "Melting the bones will help. I can hold it for you." Raising both hands, he flexed his fingers, palms pressing against the air as a giant pressure shift warped the rainstorm around us.

That perpetual storm around us sort of…twisted and flexed, and then the pressure smashed the dragon flat to the cliff. Its back was bent nearly double against the stone, but it wasn't enough to do real damage.

Watching the squirm of the water snake under its flesh, I closed my eyes and FOCUSED. Using a pair of circles against my eyelids, I manifested the ability to see through my snake's eyes, and from inside the dragon, I started driving it towards all the bones I could find, and there were plenty of them.

I rampaged inside the monster, Asclepius melting the bones as fast as it could find them. Unfortunately, it wasn't as easy as I expected. The necromancy that made the flesh so durable was reinforcing the bones too.

I had to wrap the snake around each bone and condense it before I could dissolve any reasonably sized bones. "Hold it still!" I gritted out. "I'm working on it but it's hard to focus, and I can't fight it when I'm doing this."

There was a sonic boom and I felt the body cave in around Asclepius before repairing itself, as Val called. "You won't have to. You have all the time you need."

I chuckled under my breath as I doubled down, pushing and condensing the water, trying to dissolve the bones. It wasn't working fast enough. Asclepius also wasn't nearly powerful enough to take that thing out in any other ways.

Considering my options, I thought back to all the science classes I remembered much better now as a devil. I didn't have a perfect memory, but it was easier to reach for information I knew was there. I dug around as I slowly eroded the bones, and finally I tripped over a useless little bit of knowledge I'd read in a science book.

Heavy Water. Water whose hydrogen atoms are deuterium, also known as heavy hydrogen. Heavy Water wasn't natively radioactive despite often showing up around radiation, but it WAS eleven percent denser than normal water. It also had stronger bonds between hydrogen and oxygen atoms, which could cause differences in certain biochemical reactions. Reactions, I hoped, like the dissolution of bones.

Splitting my focus so my spell kept eroding the bones, I focused hard on the area inside the dragon. Focusing on the process I used to make my acidic water, I pushed my intent towards the new information. I didn't want a melting water snake. I wanted a HEAVY melting water snake.

Another version of my spell roared into existence, and I threw it against the bones inside with a roar of triumph. Eleven percent might not seem like a big difference, but a fifteen foot snake made of condensed water is pretty fucking dense to begin with.

The dragon's body shifted as the snake smashed into its side. I wrapped the new and improved spell around one of the bones and clamped down. It was…moderately successful. I knew that the bigger I managed to get the damned snake the more of a boost I'd get from the Heavy Water, but for the moment it was only moderately successful.

I wasn't actually sure that Heavy Water would even help with this really, but my intent was that it would make the acidic nature of the water denser as the water became denser, and magic was bullshit.

It took about ten minutes of all out attacks from all three of us to rip that damned dragon apart. As the bones melted, the dragon itself started to lose cohesion, like it was bleeding power, and Val was able to invade and overpower it.

As it got close to dissolving though, the thing went berserk. There was an explosion of magic and I lost contact with the snakes. Snarling in annoyance, I blurred forward, wand coming out and nearly vanishing as I started weaving a tapestry of cutting curses, raining down the slashes at the monster.

It roared, breaking free of the air pressure with a concussive blast of some kind, and hurled itself at me. Its jaws opened wide, but before it could try to bite down, it stopped short. I looked over its shoulder to see my Queen with her arms locked around the thing's tail, using a lash of shadow to hold it in place.

My wand flashed out, the majority of my intent pouring into the slash as I laid into the bend of its jaws, cutting the bottom half of its muzzle clean off.

It normally wouldn't have mattered, but my intent had been to cut, and for it to STAY cut. After such a long fight the density of the necromantic energy had lowered drastically, and my cutting curse was able to part it properly.

Another slash took the top of its mussel, and it glared at me, purple eye flames blazing with hatred…and then it froze.

Looking up, I saw Skulduggery floating above us, hat in his hands, and he poured darkness from inside the brim like a waterfall, right into the creature's eyes. The dark liquid magic doused the flames and the creature plummeted, Val's grip keeping it from falling into the sea as it thrashed and struggled.

Even as I watched, the thing shrunk down, pulling in on itself until Val let go and the sphere of pitch black flew up and vanished into Skulduggery's hat. He plopped it back on his head and then tipped it at us.

"Ok…" I said breathlessly. Exhausted from the massive amount of power I'd just burned. "That was nuts. Please tell me you can read what happened from that ball of magic, because otherwise we came here for nothing."

He shook his head. "The bastard burned his consciousness when he made the dracolich. But it's not a problem. He left a decent chunk of darkness tainted with his soul signature in it. I can't do much with that, but China should be able to put together a tracking circle to find other resonant energy signatures with the same frequency."

Val scoffed. " You could have just said China could do a tracking spell. You don't have to be such a know it all."

"But I do know it all." He said innocently. "And as such, I am always being a know it all no matter what I do. I realize as someone who knows very little that is a hard concept to grasp, si I'll be patient with you."

"Are you calling me stupid?" Val growled in outrage. I grinned as we floated back down to the cliff, getting ready to head home. That hadn't gone as well as I'd hoped, but it could have been much worse. I'd put up a much better fight than I would have a few months ago at least. As we touched down and I opened the circle, I chuckled to myself. This fight had made me so much more confident about trying to find the chamber. Whatever was down there didn't stand a chance against me and my peerage.

December 20th, 2011, Diagon Alley, London, England 10:00 AM BST

I took a deep breath as we stepped through the wall into Diagon Alley. I could smell a thousand things, food, Butterbeer, ice cream, leather, and so many more. I hadn't really allowed myself to soak it in last time, since we'd been here for wands. I made a note not to do that if I could help it. Magic was amazing, and I should savor it where I could.

The others looked just as thrilled to be back. "I love this place." Groaned Val. "Sorcerer gatherings are all subtle and hidden. I know I've said it before but Roarhaven just doesn't measure up."

"Yes, yes, it's very impressive." Said my mother with a chuckle. "But don't forget we're here for a reason."

I rolled my eyes. "So what are these illusive errands that need running anyway?" I glanced around the alley. "And why is it so dead here? Like I see people, but it's the middle of winter break, shouldn't the street be crawling with wizards and witches?"

"The war." Grimaced my mother. "We avoided all out hostilities but people are squirrely. The cult of the faceless hit the ministry right in the teeth, and it's got everyone substantially more concerned with security. The people you see here are the brave or foolish, or occasionally the very desperate." She grinned wolfishly. "This has ALSO resulted in lower prices."

I just chuckled. "Well, in that case, I'm going to hit an enchantment emporium." I glanced at Val. "You coming with me? Or are you going to stick with the moms?"

"Excuse me." protested Andi in an offended voice. "I refuse to be referred to as one of 'the mums'. I mean, yes I AM a mum, but I'm a sexy mum. Like the kind you Americans call a MILF. I'll have you know Dora's friends were always drooling over me whenever I came over. Ted had to chase them off with a stick when I would sunbathe."

My mother rolled her eyes. "Yes Andi, you drive all the young men crazy. Can we go? You're going to traumatize my poor boy."

"She's right." I said apologetically. "Regardless of appearance, relatives go in the non-MILF box. Inbreeding is just one of the many pureblood traditions that I find to be weird and off putting. Considering you bailed on your family and married a muggleborn I assume I'm not alone in that distaste."

She wrinkled her nose. "Not at all. My mum went through a brief period where she entertained the idea of marrying me off to Sirius. Aunt Walburga wouldn't hear of it of course. She wanted to use his marriage to cement a political alliance. Only time I've ever been grateful to the old bat."

"You didn't think Sirius was as dreamy as all the other girls?" I asked in faux confusion.
She shrugged. "I can see the aesthetic appear, but the family thing turned me off. I can admit he has a very nice bum though."

"God yes." Said Val fervently. "You bounce a one pound coin off that thing." My mother nodded begrudgingly, and I grimaced and turned to start walking away. "Awww, you love to talk about all the fit girls at Hogwarts Ryan, what's the matter?"

I flipped her off. "You're all gross, and I'm leaving." She started shouting something else about my uncle's anatomy and I covered my ears and hummed like a five year old. I could still hear her break off and burst out laughing as I fled. Damned devil hearing. It was a curse as much as a blessing.

Of course, I dropped my hands as soon as I rounded a corner. I wasn't actually that immature. I just thought it would be a nice bonding experience, especially for Andi. Hearing her laughing along convinced me I'd done a good thing. Looking around, I observed my surroundings, taking in the various shops in the familiar alley.

I'd been here a few times, and been here to buy enchantment anchors recently, so I knew where to go. A few quick turns and I found myself entering Madam Magrarians Mystical Materials. As I entered, the pleasantly plump middle aged woman smiled at me happily. "Mr. Black!" She said warmly. "Welcome back. How did those anchors work out for you?"

"Fantastic." I replied with a smile. "I expanded all my friends rooms at Hogwarts. Bought me lots of good will."

Madam Magrarian (Maggie to her friends, and yes it was her real name, I'd asked) was a curvy smiling dark haired matron who looked like a spunky forty year old renfaire cosplayer. She wore a green velvet gown and an honest to god circlet, and her whole vibe made her look like a suburban housewife at an SCA event.

She was ALSO a freakishly talented enchanter. I'd done some digging into her when I'd left here the first time (or rather, I'd had Daphne do it) and apparently Maggie was an Enchanting Master, one who had studied under Flitwick himself and was known for patenting at least ten major enchantments in the last decade.

Walking up to the counter, I leaned over, looking through the glass surface to try to find something I could use. "So…I'm looking for more quantity than quality this time. I mean, there needs to be SOME quality, I need to enchant them, but I want some relatively cheap material I can stock up on to do some grinding. Practice makes perfect and all that. Do you have anything that might work?"

Maggie grinned, gesturing for me to follow her into the back of the shop. "I might have something that'll interest you." To my surprise, we didn't stop there, descending a set of steps in the back of a closet and coming out in some kind of underground chamber. "I considered not bringing it up." She said as we walked past several people I didn't know. "But if you're willing to take a bit of a risk, I might have an answer to your problem."

She led me through the chamber to a large table, covered with stones of varying sizes. The various stones all looked about the same, but when I tried to test the tolerance with any of the spells I knew, nothing happened.

"This chamber blocks scanning spells of any kind." Maggie said proudly. "I designed this little game of mine based on some stone gambling halls I found during my travels. The concept is simple. You pay a flat rate based on the size of the stones. Some of the small ones are incredibly expensive and powerful materials, and some of the huge ones are worthless scrap. There's no way to know if you're going to make a fortune or waste your money on trash."

I raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that a little risky?"

"Risk vs. reward." She said with a shrug. "You could potentially get rare and powerful materials for dirt cheap. I can also take you back upstairs and let you flip through a catalog, but you'd be paying full price. It's ultimately your decision."

I considered her offer. "I take it you don't know what any of these materials are either?" I asked archly. "Because otherwise the game kind of loses its luster."

"Nope." She said with a shrug. "The gambling stones are a collection of materials people have brought in over the years I haven't been able to identify. I'll do a battery of tests for you after you purchase, and give you a dossier on the results. I've seen people get some truly impressive things from this process."

It would probably be a good idea not to take the risk. I should just go skim a catalog and pay full price. But…I didn't want to. The risk appealed to me as a devil. My pride insisted I'd come out ahead, my greed pushed me to want more powerful materials, and my gluttony wanted me to take it all.

Being a devil was a study in compromise though. My sins could push me further along in life, making me more effective and giving me drive and motivation, but they could also push me into making stupid decisions.

That was why I had Suzie vet a lot of my calls, at least until I learned to balance my devilish nature better myself. I had made strides in that department though, so I was able to see the reasons not to do this as well as the benefits. I'd split the difference. Five hundred galleons. I could make that back easily enough, and it left me still well over a hundred thousand.

"How much is the flat cost?" I asked with a sigh. "Because I'm going to set a limit for myself, and if it's not going to be enough to get anything decent I won't bother."

She squinted at me cautiously, as if measuring me with her eyes. "Normally it's ten galleons per kilogram. I'd be willing to stick with five, because you strike me as someone who could become a repeat customer. That acceptable?"

It was. A hundred kilograms, which was about two hundred and twenty pounds of rock. That should be enough to work with for now, even if I got really basic shit. "Alright, is the weight listed near the stones?"

She grinned, handing me a sheet with a series of numbers on it. Each stone had a listed digit, and next to it was a short blurb, including weight and the general area of the world it came from. "If I might offer some advice." Maggie cut in. "Don't just pick interesting looking stones. An impressive coloration or strange physical changes don't necessarily mean high tolerance."

She gestured to the table, and I nodded. Some of the rocks were different colors, some glowed with an odd light, some let off energy of one form or another. The table was large and the stones on offer were varied, I had to admit I was impressed by the showing.

I wondered how much she made off this little game, or if it was a loss. I suspected about half of these were worthless, and about half of the remaining were worth less than I'd be paying.

But oddly, I didn't care. I was excited. I loved games like this. Gachas and random roll. I didn't even look at the table, I just flicked my eyes down the list and circled five different stones equalling two hundred and twenty kilos, circling them with a pen I pulled out of my pocket (actually my desk drawer at home, but my pocket was a convenient cover for the circle I used).

Handing it back, she grinned excitedly. "Seven, four, twenty six, thirteen, and forty. Not bad. Couldn't resist going for one of the big ones huh? Forty is twenty kilos all on its own."

"Just picked what felt right." I said with a shrug. "If I don't get anything I can always just buy from your regular stock. But I figure I might get something interesting that will produce interesting results when I enchant it."

She nodded. "It's a good idea. Complimentary attributes can alter the end result of an enchantment, sometimes in ways that teach you more about the spell itself. I've invented new enchantments based on the alterations from a synergistic material. More than once even."

I'd hoped she would say that. It had been half my reason for agreeing. Either way, it was time to see what I'd gotten. Walking over to the table I grabbed all the rocks easily enough. Two hundred twenty pounds was nothing to me, and a full hundred of it was from one specific rock which made it even easier.

One of the stones was a metallic bronze color, one was black with green veins, one had some strange crystalline pockets that glowed blue, one was just a normal looking rock, and the big one was crackling with purple electricity. I grinned at Maggie as she led me upstairs to catalog everything. I couldn't wait to see what I'd gotten.

As usual pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent hope everyone enjoys.