Chapter 37 - Exploding noema
As part of their brand-new alliance against the heir, the first goal of Iris' investigations was to revisit the place of the first attack. Not that there was probably much to find, but both of the other attack sites had already been investigated up and down, and had turned up nothing, according to Lockhart. Maybe, since it was only a cat that got attacked, they hadn't been as thorough with this one?
As she turned the corner into the second floor corridor, Iris frowned. The first thing she saw was that... well, obviously, there was nothing to see. They wouldn't just leave the writing up, she guessed. She approached the place where it had approximately been, and took a closer look.
Nothing. The wall was spotless. She guessed the caretaker was still doing his job, even with what happened to his cat. That thought caused her to frown. After his episode right after the attack, she hadn't seen the man at all. She wondered what he had been up to.
Frowning, Iris turned, and headed down the corridor she had originally come from, then turned back. From this direction, the wall was very visible, and there were two torches right across from it. She supposed it was possible that she had been really spaced out, and just hadn't noticed it, but it seemed really unlikely to miss something like this, when it was so clearly visible in her path.
So, most likely, someone had snuck into the corridor after she had passed through it, and had put up the writing and the cat before she had returned. But that couldn't have been more than a few minutes. And if they had come from behind her, they would need to have run to catch up and leave again before she saw them, and she didn't remember hearing anyone either. Well, unless they hid somewhere nearby?
Iris' eyes fell onto the archway next to the torch that had borne the cat leading into the second-floor bathroom. Of course. But if they had also hidden in there after... No, they would have been caught, right? But maybe they had hid in there before, then? And left the other way before she had returned...
Curious now, Iris stepped inside the small hall leading to the bathrooms, until she approached the fork between the girls' and boys' toilets. Yeah, no, she wasn't going in there. If she could avoid it. So she turned left and headed into the girls' first.
"Why hello there! What brings a girl like you to a place like this?"
Iris blinked at the sudden voice, then did a double-take as she found the source. There was a girl in Ravenclaw robes, sporting long brown twin-tails and large rounded glasses. Also, she was floating. And translucent.
"Uhm... this is a girls bathroom?" Iris replied with a raised eyebrow.
The ghost of the school girl looked around in wonder for a bit, until she replied with a grin and a nod, "Yes, it is. Oh! Are you here to use it then?" She floated a bit closer to her and her grin widened even further. "Am I... intruding?" she asked with a giggle.
Iris tried to keep the blush off her face as she replied, "No, I'm actually here to investigate."
"Oh... Well, I'm afraid, right now, there isn't anyone in here for you to... investigate..." the girl replied and waggled her eyebrows.
Iris felt a strong urge to just turn around and leave. "I'm looking into the attack that happened right outside the entrance on Halloween."
"Ooooohhhh... I love mysteries! So, do you have any leads?" the girl asked excitedly, cupping her hands to her mouth.
Iris frowned. "Not... really? That's kind of why I'm here... You wouldn't happen to have seen anything unusual here?"
The floating girl actually pouted. "No... Nothing interesting ever happens here." The floating girl rubbed her chin, and then perked up. "What kind of attack was it?"
Iris shrugged. She guessed it couldn't hurt to tell the ghost what was pretty much public knowledge anyway. "Well, the one right outside here was the caretakers cat. It was dead, tied up on the torch next to the door."
"You mean there were others? Is it... a serial killer?" the nerdy ghost gushed, unable to contain her excitement.
"Uhm... not exactly. There've been two more attacks, two students got petrified. And just like the cat, no signs of injury, or spell residue," Iris explained reluctantly.
"Intriguing! No residue and no marks? What about potions?"
Iris raised an eyebrow. "That was a theory, but the latest attack affected not just a student, but a ghost as well."
The girl's eyes widened in awe. "No way! I've never heard of anything that could petrify a ghost!"
Somehow, this girl seemed to be more interested in how something like this was even possible rather than the fact that ghosts seem to be getting attacked as well.
"The question is... Did they attack both the ghost and the student separately, or was it whatever they used that somehow got them both at once?" the girl mused. "If they used some sort of spell, it would have to be something that both wouldn't leave any residue, as well as something that was able to affect ghosts. I don't even think that's arithmantically possible, to be honest... And there should be no way to use potions to affect a ghost... Maybe it was a creature? Or even a ritual? Oooh, this is so exciting! I have to know more! Please please PLEASE take me with you! It's sooo boring in here!"
Iris held her instinctual reply of 'Hell, no!' and thought for a moment. As much as she felt an aversion to the simple thought of spending any more time than necessary around the excitable annoying ghost, she had to admit, the girl at least seemed to know her stuff. That's Ravenclaws for you, she guessed. And if the ghost really could prove helpful in solving the mystery... She'd be a fool to turn her down.
Iris closed her eyes, and sighed. "...Fine."
~V~
"Iris, wait up!"
The girl came to a stop and turned around, allowing Harry to catch up with her.
"Hey, Harry. What's up?"
"Christmas! You already have your presents sorted, right? I mean, there's only a few day's remaining," Harry asked innocently, causing her eyes to widen.
Predictably, she had apparently completely forgotten, with both the investigation, as well as dueling practice. "Uhm... of course!" she replied a little too quickly.
Harry just grinned back. "You know, I thought we should maybe take a little shopping trip... Just... on a completely unrelated note," he added with a smirk.
"Oh... Yeah, that sounds like a great idea... Just for fun, of course!" she replied while blushing slightly. "But... you know we aren't allowed to go alone, right? Should I go and get Uncle Vernon?"
Harry shook his head energetically. "No way. I've got a better idea! Think you can help me badger Lupin into taking us to Hogsmeade?"
He'd have gone and done it himself, but he thought they'd have better odds if it was the two of them. While Lupin seemed to like talking to and spending time with him, he also seemed to somehow feel indebted to Iris, so that might help, maybe.
"I guess... But you'd probably have better success with that..." she admitted.
Harry smiled back. "Oh, I wouldn't say that. Come on, he's probably in his office."
Iris nodded, and they both made their way down the familiar path towards their favorite professor's classroom.
Harry marveled at the decorations, even all the way out here, somehow the torches seemed to be burning in a greenish hue. They were really going all out on the Christmas spirit. And there were even songs, somehow. Although they didn't sound like any Christmas songs he remembered. But the very audible crackling of torches really did fit the spirit in turn.
Suddenly, his sister spoke up next to him. "Uhm... have you checked if it is a full moon?"
Harry froze. That's right, what if it was a full moon? They couldn't go with him if he was a werewolf at the moment... Harry stepped closer to one of the giant glass windows, in order to check. The entire window was filled up with a gigantic full moon that had just risen from the horizon. Damn it.
"Well, so much for that... What do you think we should do?"
"Hold on, I've got this!" she declared with a gleam in her eyes. Oh dear, that couldn't mean anything good.
Harry watched warily as she reached out a hand towards the window, iridescent colors enveloping her entire arm, until they suddenly turned to shadows in an instant. The shadows grew bigger and bigger, until they started to swallow up the moon. Harry watched with wide eyed worry as his sister grinned back at him while the eldritch horrors she so casually wielded devoured the right half of a goddamn celestial body.
"What... what are you!"
"Hmm..." Iris grinned and giggled a bit, as she snapped her hand shut, and all the shadows evaporated in a second, leaving behind a sickle shape, the rest of the moon had been completely eaten away by the unsettling darkness.
"There. Fixed it," she said with a grin.
Harry kept staring for a while, unsure how to respond to this. He wondered what Professor Sinistra would say if she saw this. Finally he replied. "Well, I guess... Let's check on Lupin, just to be sure, then."
And with that, they took off down the corridor, until they finally reached his classroom. There, he opened the door and gasped.
"Are you okay?" asked his sister in concern.
Harry frowned, and removed his hand from his forehead. "It's nothing."
He'd have expected Malfoy to complain by now, with what he was about to do to him, but... he was still being completely silent for some reason. Which was just fine with him. Why was it so dark in here? He threw another look at Iris and noticed her amulet around her neck glinting in a soft orange glow. Carefully, he ascended the steps towards the office, but somehow he found it difficult to trust his own feet. As he reached the top, and placed his hand on the handle, he felt another jab of pain from his scar. This probably wasn't good, but he wasn't going to worry his sister over nothing. Shaking his head, he pushed down the handle, and pulled open the door. Stepping through, he suddenly found himself in a different place entirely.
It was pitch black outside, he could only make out the faint shimmer of the moon and the stars coating the landscape, and that made him realize that he was, in fact, outdoors. He spotted several gravestones, an altar, and more importantly, the pentagram that he was in the middle of drawing.
Lifting his hand, he checked the edges to see if they would align, then placed the stone bowl in the center, the livid green Fiendfyre still blazing within. Animalistic shapes, bones, skulls, claws and fangs; all of them emerging and melting as one within the flames, clawing at the edges of the bowl, reaching for their escape, yet held back by his iron will. The dancing flames illuminated the assorted symbols, drawing eerie shadows across the graveyard. He had collected everything from a crucifix, a Fleur-de-lis and an Egyptian key of life, to the egg of a snake. And at the center rested a single phoenix feather. All of them fine symbols, but they were all insignificant compared to the main ingredient. The sacrifice.
With what he wanted to achieve, one sacrifice would not be enough. This was a ritual of two parts. He needed a sacrifice of value to himself, the necessary price to allow him to regain a body, and a second sacrifice that would provide said body. And in order to create a truly immortal body for him to inhabit, what better sacrifice than the stone that created the elixir of life?
Clutching the stone in his hand, he marveled at its orange glow one more time. He hadn't needed to use it for weeks now, but he had still decided to wait until the winter solstice for maximum effect. And today, the stone would serve its final purpose. Harry looked down at the altar again, then bent down to withdraw the final ingredient.
In order to achieve immortality, he would need to sacrifice something he valued just as much. And of those things there were precious few. Five of them to be exact.
Resting the diadem on the stone right in front of the flames, he marveled at what he was about to do. Even if the thought of willingly destroying one of the very things that made him immortal was in opposition to his very existence, the possible gains... The promise of true immortality...
He had been content knowing that death was beyond him for the past fifty years, but once he found himself far too close to it for comfort despite all his preparations, he had found himself reevaluating that decision. Even though he still lived, he never wanted to be that helpless again. So to achieve true immortality, he would not just need an immortal soul, but an immortal body to go along with it. A body that could withstand anything short of a Killing Curse. And as long as the remainder of his anchors remained intact, that curse also wasn't of much concern to him.
Harry took a breath, and paused to make sure his control over Quirrell was as solid as it could be, until he moved to pick up the diadem. Somehow, Malfoy was still staying silent throughout all this. Perhaps he found some solace at the idea.
"Let this be the toll I pay on the path to eternity," Harry whispered, as he stared down at the glimmering piece of jewelry, before he did the one thing he never thought he'd ever do, and sent it tumbling into the flames.
A scream and a cloud of black mist, that was quickly drowned out by the roar of the fire as the flames grew hungry, blazed to life and bathed the cemetery in a glorious glow of green. At last. There was no turning back now.
He lifted up the small stone, resting innocently in his palm. It seemed that all the stars were reflecting in it, and they appeared green in the light of the flames.
"Let this guide me down the center of the never-ending road of life." Harry took a final breath, and dropped the stone into the flames.
Fire blazed in an ethereal green, until the flames seemingly shattered into all the colors of the rainbow, collapsing in and taking liquid form, as they spilled out of the stone bowl, across the altar and towards him. He felt his body engulfed by icy cold and searing hot magic. Harry faintly noticed that the ground had started shaking violently. The licking fingers of destiny were peeling at his skin, tearing apart his flesh, and rending him from his temporary vessel, into something forged anew.
The colorful glow took shape, and it was humanoid.
~V~
He had never thought this day would come. Yet, he had dreaded this very day for years, for deep down, he had always known. And of course, the timing couldn't have been worse. If he found out what he did, that he had violated his trust, the highest order he had ever given him...
But he had no choice. He had a wife, he had a child. He could not simply ignore him. Ignoring him was forsaking their lives. So despite every fiber of his being protesting the motion, when he had felt the mark's call, he had answered without a second's hesitation. Even after what he had done to his father.
What stood before him was both far more beautiful and terrible than he could have imagined. Somehow the power of the curse seemed to have grown, for it now encompassed not just his name, but his appearance as well. Both terrifyingly beautiful, and yet not a single noteworthy feature about him. Nothing out of the ordinary, just the pale imitation of a perfect human being. Uncanny didn't even begin to describe it.
He stood tall, atop the shattered and molten remains of an altar, and the rapidly appearing shadow-clad figures quickly took their place at his feet. Whatever this place was, why they were here, he had no idea. All he could do was bow his head and await his master's command. The silence stretched and stretched, and he wasn't even sure if he was still breathing. Not that he would be for long, anyway.
"Eleven years," said a voice that defied description. A perfect imitation of a human, as if something couldn't be bothered to put in more than the barest effort, yet succeeded a little too perfectly at pretending to be a person.
"I wonder..." he began, his voice dipping an octave too deep.
"What... you have accomplished... in my absence?" the question was served with a tilt of his head.
His voice turned into a deep purr, words as sweet as honey. "It almost seems like you didn't put faith into my words... when I told you I was immortal."
He heard a whimper from somewhere to his side, but he refused to raise his head.
"There is no point evaluating which of you has disappointed me the least..." he stated in a dry tone, the words feeling like the dirt of his own grave in his mouth.
"But there is one among you, who has disappointed me... the most."
That was it. He was a dead man.
A whisper so silent it shouldn't have been audible standing right next to him, much less across half the graveyard, yet the sound was almost deafening in his ear.
"Lucius."
He looked up and found himself suddenly standing right before him, in the center of the graveyard, even though he definitely hadn't moved. The moment his eyes met his, he knew it was over.
Any excuses he had froze on his lips, they were all worthless. Even if the diary had been him, or a part of him, and even if it had commanded him to do it, the truth was he had eagerly jumped at the chance to be rid of the accursed thing. He hadn't expected to get away with it, but he hadn't been able to bear the thing's presence in his house any longer, and of course it had backfired in the worst way possible.
Lucius steeled himself, bracing for the inevitable Cruciatus. But even after several seconds, it never came. Somehow, the silence was even worse.
He hadn't asked anything, he hadn't needed to. Lucius flinched as he suddenly felt a hand resting on his chin, even though he had never moved.
"You will go and retrieve it. And you will hand it to me, before the night is done." There was such simplicity to his words. There wasn't a hint of any or else. There was no need.
Lucius' mind was racing. Was he giving him a chance? Was he planning to use him one final time before disposing of him? Was this another trap?
He had no idea. But he knew he had no choice either way. With a simple nod and a bow, he agreed. "Of course, my Lord."
Lucius didn't waste another second and disapparated towards the ministry. Hopefully, there were some of his Aurors on duty, or at least someone that would accept his word as evidence without having to outright arrest him.
~V~
Harry was jolted awake by a scream, and immediately sat upright. Only after several seconds he realized that said scream had come from his own mouth.
"Harry! Mate! What's wrong? Are you alright?"
Harry blinked only to realize that Ron's face was right in front of him, an expression of worry and panic plastered all across it.
"Ron? What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"Am I okay?" he repeated incredulously. "You've been screaming your lungs out for the past minute! What happened?"
What happened? He had been just... well, he-
Oh. Harry remembered. Oh no. Had that been real? No. It had been too real not to have been real. There was no doubt.
"He... he's back, Ron," Harry whispered hoarsely.
Ron raised his eyebrows. "Who?"
"You know who."
That effectively shut the conversation down.
Ron, Seamus, Dean and Neville were just staring at him open mouthed.
Finally, Ron managed to respond. "Are you... sure?"
"Yeah. You know I told you he has the stone. It was only a matter of time. And now he's back. He has a body."
Harry looked up and the fear and worry was palpable in the air. "I saw it all. You know, in my dreams."
"I thought your dreams were done, mate?" Ron asked worriedly.
"Yeah, so did I. Sorry for waking you all up," Harry muttered.
Ron shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Also, you didn't, old McGonagall did."
"What? She was here?" Harry exclaimed.
Seamus shrugged and cut in. "No. Just magically yelled all across Gryffindor house like it was a Merlin-damned Quidditch stadium. Apparently, Aurors are coming to search the castle for a dark artifact or something."
"If you ask me, it's about the Heir of Slytherin," added Dean.
"Then why are they searching Gryffindor tower? Shouldn't they be searching... oh I don't know... Slytherin?" replied Ron.
"They should be searching everything anyway..." added Neville. "Hell, they probably are."
"Yeah, I don't care about that right now. I need to go. I need to tell Dumbledore. Or... someone. I don't know. But I know I'm losing time!" Harry said with determination.
"But, well, McGonagall said we aren't allowed to leave our dorms until the search is complete."
"Screw this. It's You-Know-Who. I'll worry about detention later." Harry declared, got up, grabbed his wand from his nightstand, and stepped towards the door.
Said door busted open right in his face, almost knocking him to the ground.
"Everyone please sit down. This is Auror Dawlish, I'm Auror Shacklebolt. As you've heard, we're here to search the castle for any illegal dark and dangerous artifacts. This will only take a minute."
Harry looked up to see the tall black man who had just spoken in long flowery robes, next to another man in a trench coat with a haircut that reminded him of his old primary-school P.E. teacher.
Both of them stepped into the room, squared off with their backs towards each other, and with a nod, swiped their wands through the air and incanted "Revelio."
Harry gulped. There was a second of pause, until the Auror in the trench coat finally spoke up, "And nothing again. Joy. Let's go."
"Wait," said the first man, and held up his wand. He had his eyes closed, and was just standing there, unmoving.
Finally, he said one word. "Cover."
The man in the trench coat whirled around, his wand brandished as he stepped in front of the large Auror, who was bringing down his wand, eyes still closed, as it started to light up in a bright purple glow, that slowly covered his whole body. He stood there like a statue, frozen, his eyes still closed, until the purple light reached a peak, and he whispered "Homenum Revelio."
A rush of purple light that felt like goosebumps on Harry's skin, that made him feel strangely exposed, and suddenly the black man's eyes snapped open and his wand blurred forwards.
"Stupefy!"
A bright bolt of blinding red exploded from the Auror's wand, towards Harry, and missed him by a foot, only to continue towards Ron's bed. As if in slow motion, Harry turned towards his bed, but instead of Ron, he saw it impact right at its foot, squarely hitting his sleeping pet rat Scabbers.