Though he'd learned a lot of cleaning and maintenance charms over his time at the new Marauders guild hall, Harry's actual spellcasting scores hadn't gone up, due to already being very high. He had grabbed a point of Creature Handling, a few points of Home Repair, and, best of all, two points of the Instance skill. His radius of instancing was notably, if not hugely, larger than it had started.

Remus had arrived back from his meeting with Dumbledore with a bag full of potions ingredients that he'd picked up for them and a brand new Hogwarts Staff guild tag floating over his head. Thus, most of their cleaning for the rest of the holiday had been with an eye toward trying to make the place stable in its filth enough that Kreacher (with strict orders) could at least maintain the level of cleaning they'd already accomplished. They weren't really expecting the miracle of him making more progress while they were all at Hogwarts for the spring term.

They traveled down to the Grangers' for New Years Eve. Harry was barely getting over the sucked-through-a-straw feeling of side-along apparition (he just needed to travel by Phoenix and Knight Bus to finish off his quest!) as Hermione charged out into her back garden to announce, "Come on! You need to read this!" When he'd messaged ahead, she'd replied that she'd finally found useful information about Ekrizdis in Sagittarius Black's autobiography. "Where's Sirius?" she belatedly realized.

Remus blinked, admitting, "Hopefully he hasn't splinched himself. I've been handling apparition for him lately, but I had to take Harry. He said he still had the trick of it…"

Just in time, there was another pop of displaced air as Sirius appeared in the yard near them. He had a long nightgown that seemed to be still damp, clothespins attached, draped over him. "Er," he said with some chagrin, "All of these homes look alike. I guess I didn't have my destination fully in mind the first time… I wonder whose yard I was in."

"Were you seen?" Remus asked, slightly acerbically.

"I suppose if there are reports of a…" he checked what he'd flailed into off of the clothesline, "...nightgown thief in the neighborhood, maybe."

"At least we didn't let you take Harry," the werewolf rolled his eyes.

"Definitely more apparition practice," Sirius agreed.

"Okay. Come on!" Hermione insisted, trusting them to follow her inside. "Mum, Dad, they're here! We'll be in the den!"

As they all bemusedly traipsed after her through the house, they found that she'd commandeered most of the nicely-appointed, bookshelf-laden sitting room for her research. The autobiography had pride of place in the middle of a table with a notepad and several removed sheets of paper covered in her handwriting sprawled around it.

"I had to read the whole thing, and that's why it took so long," she prefaced. "There were several passages that I didn't realize were references to Ekrizdis until later. Then I had to work my way back to find them again. And this was before anyone much thought to standardize spelling, and Sagittarius seemed to take that as a personal challenge to spell things differently every single time, and–"

"But you found something?" Harry interrupted the disclaimers.

She nodded and flipped to a densely-filled page in her notebook, "And transcribed the relevant portions, with approximate dates. I may have cleaned up the language a little, too, but you can read the original if you're curious what it actually said." Standing out of the way, she allowed them to read her work. Glancing at the open biography and its chicken-scratch handwriting and early-modern grammar, Harry was happy to get Hermione's version.

1488

My eldest daughter, Polaris, remains missing after the conclusion of the long political upheaval that has plagued even the world of the wise. I spoke harshly to her, at our last encounter, concerning her unnecessary support for the Yorks: it is no longer fitting for us to throw our magic behind mundane politics, especially with the rising superstition in Scotland and word of a new manual for hunting witches on the Continent. I hope she did not perish in some foolish participation in the war.

1490

I have finally received word of Polaris. She has spent the last several years apprenticed to a wizard not known to me nor with my permission. While I am relieved to finally have word that she survived, this behavior cannot be tolerated. Given the liberties often taken by masters during an apprenticeship, I cannot but wonder if this is a plot to encroach upon Black stock. Why else would he not confirm her father's permission for the education, nor seek payment? Discovering the truth is complicated by the vague description of where this wizard's home may be located. The closest I have found is somewhere in or near the North Sea.

1491

Attending court to congratulate the king for his spare heir, I came across a term: Azkaban. Some of the nobility were bemoaning the loss of sailing ships in the North Sea, and the tales of sailors referenced some dark island that they had begun to avoid lest they be lured to their destruction. I rather expect that the term is a misunderstanding of Jewish sailors referencing their Bible's place of destruction, but it appears to be sticking. I intend to ask my fellows what word they've had of whether such a place might be the dwelling place of wizards.

1492

My Polaris was not the only missing young witch or wizard. As I began to ask peers about Azkaban and the North Sea, more and more admitted that their own children had disappeared in similar circumstances. We seem to have all been in a conspiracy of silence, not wanting to lose face. Perhaps two dozen such are missing, that I can account for among my peers. My inquiries have begun a mission to get to the bottom of what appeared to be isolated incidents of children bucking tradition. Perhaps now something will be done.

1493

A man arrived to the court of the wise for the midsummer rites, middle aged and unknown to me. Unassuming, even ugly, he nonetheless had a strange charisma: he seemed to know everyone's name and their allegiances before they could introduce themselves. "You must be Polaris's father," he told me with only a glance, "she is well." I pressed him and he waved away my concerns, but eventually admitted that he was gathering pupils and friends to pass along his unique knowledge.

"If you have been abducting our children, you must meet us on the dueling pitch," I insisted, explaining the affront he had been doing to the great houses of magic. As others whose children he had also taken realized what was happening, they joined in.

"You do not see why they would leave you? Very well, if I must duel you for their disposition, I will do so. Be sure that is what you want." His wand appeared in his hand from nowhere, and he did not seem at all threatened by the lords of several houses.

And it turned out that he should not be. He handily defeated each of us, one after another. Leaving wounds that would scar just enough to remind us of the defeat. He used curses with ease that I have been unable to master, and many that I have never seen before. Is he some new rising dark lord, I must have wondered aloud.

"I have no interest in ruling your country, merely pushing the boundaries of magic," he sneered, before taking his leave. We never even got his name, for all that he already knew all of ours.

1495

Polaris arrived suddenly at my home, half-mad, missing for nearly a decade. Her eyes flicked about, seeing things that weren't there. Or perhaps these things were there, and her new master had taught her to see them. "I am sorry, father," she told me. "We made a mistake. It is too much. I cannot take it. He was sure he had perfected it! We agreed to finally gain the power. We did not know what had become of the sailors. The ones he'd tested the ritual on! Do not let me become one of them."

We have gotten little else of sense from her, since she has been at home. She traveled here somehow, seemingly in secret, from that island in the sea. I finally have a name: Ekrizdis. What dark magic has he done to my daughter?

And why does she know names of strangers and prove herself able to summon and vanish items from nowhere, without a wand, much as her mentor had done?

1497

Ekrizdis has hidden his island away, unplottable and unseen. Were it on land, we might eventually find it and break his wards, but there is far too much sea to search for this villain. If he did to the other scions what was done to my daughter… what is he up to upon that foul rock?

1498

After three long years of wasting, Polaris passed this morning.

When she died, something rose up from her body. A foul shade cloaked in black, it came after us and resisted all magics. It fell upon the healer, and placed its horrifying face upon his mouth, as if to suck out his very life or soul. We were barely able to summon him free, and trap the wraith in Polaris' sick room. Fortunately, it appears to be blocked by walls and doors rather than truly spectral. A fierce cold emanated from the room, and those that came near felt a deep sorrow inflicted upon us by the creature.

After hours of research, we could think of no other way to access Polaris's body than to fight the beast. My second-eldest son, Perseus, is skilled in the Protector Charm, and thought it might work against such a dark entity. He proved to be correct, though his silver bear could only herd the creature out of the manor and keep it away from us, not destroy it. As soon as it saw open sky, it flew away into the night. East. As if to return to its master.

If only we had thought to follow it to destroy its home. Now, with this curse on my family finally consummated, I can only hope to never hear of any of this again. May the wizard that destroyed my daughter be destroyed in kind by the foulness he has unleashed.

Hermione waited for the three of them to finish reading, each looking up pensively as they finished.

Harry worked out, "He had the game system! Knowing people's names. Drawing objects out of nowhere. Maybe he could do everything I can."

Remus caught on to what she was really worried about. "He tried to give it to his students. The sailors that went missing on Azkaban were experiment subjects. And it worked. And when Polaris Black died… she became a dementor!"

Hermione shook her head and explained, "I don't know if that was her. I think… I think the broken game system that he gave her came free when she died. Maybe they're not trying to eat souls. Maybe they're just trying to find a new player for the game, but they're too… glitched… to make it work right." She saw that nobody was going to disagree with her. "Harry, I don't think I want the game system anymore."

THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (MAIN QUEST)

A secret from your past has escaped.
* Get to Hogwarts
* Learn about the crimes of Sirius Black
* Learn about Dementors
* Learn more about Ekrizdis
O Investigate Azkaban for what Ekrizdis left behind

Blanching at the seemingly-impossible next task the quest had set for him, Harry said, "You know… I'm not sure I do either."