A/N - Hello again everyone. Here's the next chapter. With the website being down these last few days I was afraid I wouldn't get to post it for you but thankfully the problem was fixed.
Disclaimer: The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belong to Marvel Comics. Harry Potter was created by and belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this and the only thing that's mine are the original parts of the story.
17) THE INVASION OF MAGIC (PART 2)
Although Hogwarts, Ilvermorny, and the Salem Academy had managed to protect their students and staff from the Sentinels, at least for now, many other places were not so fortunate. Most major magical places in Britain barring individual houses (for the moment) were seized by the Sentinels. Hogsmeade was taken the same day as Hogwarts and Diagon Alley, St. Mungos and the Ministry were seized shortly afterwards. The Department of Mysteries was the only part of the ministry to keep the Sentinels out although the effort required many of the Unspeakables to stay within the department and actively use their power on more obscure spells to do so. All in all the Sentinels were soon in control of the country.
However, there were some magicals that the Sentinels didn't attack. Magical creatures were, for the most part, left alone. Unicorns, dragons, hippogriffs, gryphons, sphinxes, and most other nonhuman creatures weren't bothered by the Sentinels as they were clearly not threats in the way that witches and wizards were. Many of the more human-like beings were left alone too like the merfolk who lived underwater anyway, and even the centaurs as they tended to keep to themselves.
There were exceptions of course. The acromantulas of the Forbidden Forest were ruthlessly hunted down and killed when the Sentinels ran across them but that only happened because the giant spiders made the mistake of attacking the Sentinels first. No mercy was shown to them after that and none of them survived. The same thing happened with many of the giants that the Sentinels found and for the same reason.
Then there were the goblins. As the Sentinels marched through Diagon Alley they saw the guards outside the front doors of Gringotts waving for them to come over. Three of the Sentinels broke off from the main group and approached the bronze doors of the bank.
"Are you Sentinels?" asked one of the guards.
"We are" said the lead Sentinel looking closely at the guards, "you are magical but you are not human."
"We are goblins" said the guard.
"You are not witches or wizards" stated the Sentinel in its monotone voice.
"Please don't insult us" said the guard, "we don't like most witches and wizards and are proud not to be them." The three Sentinels considered this for a moment.
"You are not part of our mission" said the lead Sentinel, "what do you wish of us?"
"Our leader wants to speak with you" said the guard, "would the three of you please come inside our bank? You'll find it's quite large enough to fit you as some of our clients are almost as tall as you are." As it happened this was true. Both the outer bronze doors and the inner silver doors for the bank were big enough that the Sentinels were able to enter Gringotts. Once they were inside the main hall they stopped and looked around. The human customers who were there had all turned to stare at them in apprehension. It was clear that if they could they would pull out their wands. The goblins, on the other hand, glanced over to the Sentinels and then simply continued with their work.
"This is a very efficient operation" said one of the other Sentinels as it watched the goblins working.
"It is" agreed the lead Sentinel.
"Thank you" said a new goblin who had just walked up to the Sentinels, "my name is Griphook. May your enemies flee before your might." If the Sentinels had been alive they might have been surprised by what the goblin said but they were robots who had logical minds. Those minds told them that the manner in which the goblin had greeted them was probably normal for their kind and they should reply in a similar manner.
"And may you stand upon the conquered bodies of your foes" said the lead Sentinel. Griphook looked at it in surprise before laughing.
"Oh that's a good one. I'll have to remember to use it myself some time" he said before motioning for the Sentinels to follow him, "if you'll come with me I'll take you to meet with Lord Ragnok, the director of our bank."
Griphook led the Sentinels down a large corridor off of the main hall. This corridor was also high enough for the Sentinels to walk in without any problems. As they went down the corridor they passed many doors that had names on them. None of the Sentinels asked about these doors and Griphook didn't volunteer any information either. Eventually they came to a pair of large, ornately decorated doors that were guarded by two more armor clad goblins. Griphook motioned for the Sentinels to wait where they were while he knocked on one of the doors and was called inside the office. After about a minute Griphook stepped back out of the office and gestured for the Sentinels to enter.
"Lord Ragnok will see you now" he said to the Sentinels as he led them into the office. Ragnok's office was large and opulent in a warlike and practical sort of way. There were many weapons decorating the walls and it was quite obvious that many of them had been used quite a bit. The furniture in the room was plain for the most part but made of good quality. The only obvious mark of wealth was the desk which was made of Ebony, had intricate carvings on the legs and sides of it, and was edged with gold.
Ragnok himself was a powerfully built goblin warrior. He was a little larger than the other goblins the Sentinels had seen since arriving at Gringotts but not overwhelmingly so. He was an older goblin as was readily apparent but it was clear that he would still be a formidable warrior if anyone dared to challenge him to a fight. He didn't get where he was by being lazy. Even after many years of running the bank he still worked out and practiced with his weapons almost every day. Now he stood up from his desk and greeted the Sentinels with a look that might have made any living sentient being nervous but which had no effect on the Sentinels except to tell them that this goblin meant business. They waited calmly for him to speak.
"Welcome to Gringotts" Ragnok said, "I am Ragnok, Director of the Bank and Lord of the British Goblins. May I know your names?"
"We have no names" said the lead Sentinel, "only numbers which are assigned to us in the order of our creation. I am Sentinel 105."
"I am Sentinel 326" said the second one.
"I am Sentinel 208" said the third one.
"I see" said Ragnok, "so the lower your number the older you are and the more important you are?"
"Yes and no" said Sentinel 105, "I am the oldest of the three of us but all Sentinels are equal to each other. One or another may take command of a specific mission but only for that length of time. We have only two masters: Dr. Bolivar Trask who created us, and the Master Mold which oversees us and has connections with all of us."
"Do you mean that the Master Mold can communicate with any of you at any time?" asked Ragnok.
"Yes" said Sentinel 326, "it can pass information to all of us instantly when we need it."
"I see" said Ragnok, "that sounds quite efficient. I wish I could do something like that."
Ragnok sat at his desk again.
"I would ask you to sit down" said Ragnok, "but I suspect that your physical position would make no difference to our conversation. We have larger chairs that you can use if you wish but that is up to you."
"We will stand" said Sentinel 105, "why did you wish to speak with us?"
"I'm trying to figure out how your emergence into our world and your taking control of it will affect our bank" said Ragnok, "from what we have learned about the Sentinels you are moving to take control of the world in order to protect normal people from magicals and mutants. What exactly does that mean?"
"Our purpose" said Sentinel 208, "is to keep humanity safe from mutants and magicals so that they cannot be attacked, subjugated, or killed by them. To that end we will do what is necessary to fulfill our mission."
"But until now magicals have lived separately from mundanes and in secret" said Ragnok, "would it not be better to have maintained the Statute of Secrecy and keep magic a secret from the mundane world?"
"Perhaps it would be" said Sentinel 105, "but that decision was not ours to make. Our creator exposed the magicals and we do as we are programmed to do."
"And what do you intend for magicals and mutants once you have full control?" asked Ragnok, "and what should we at Gringotts expect from you?"
"We intend to make it so that magicals and mutants cannot attack normal humans" said Sentinel 105, "if they abide by our laws they can live in peace as they wish. As for you we have no instructions regarding the goblins or Gringotts. As long as you do not oppose us we will leave you alone."
Ragnok nodded his head.
"Very good" he said, "if I'm understanding you correctly we will be able to continue running Gringotts as we always have. Witches and Wizards can still do their banking with us as long as they don't cause trouble. That's normal around here anyway as we don't allow them to use their wands in the bank without explicit permission. Drawing a wand in Gringotts without that permission is a crime that can easily result in the witch or wizard losing their head. Our nonhuman customers (of whom we have many) don't have this issue.
"Thank you for speaking with me today. I'm satisfied by what you've said that we can go on as we have. As you know we work closely with witches and wizards and if necessary we will try to stop them from making unwise decisions. However, we may not always be successful as many wizards and witches look down on us and other nonhuman magical beings."
"That is foolish" said Sentinel 326, "it is not logical to be hostile to others because of differences in species type. Neither is it wise to antagonize those who look after your money."
"You're right" said Ragnok with a nod, "but British wizards and witches have rarely been logical, nor have they often had common sense."
"Understood" said Sentinel 105, "thank you for your time. We must return to the others now."
"I'll have someone take you back to the lobby" said Ragnok.
"That won't be necessary" said Sentinel 208, "having traveled from the lobby to your office we remember the way back with perfect detail."
"Considering what you are that doesn't surprise me" said Ragnok, "nevertheless I asked Griphook to wait until you were ready to leave and he will go back to the lobby with you. May your gold always flow (though I don't know what you would need it for) and may you capture your enemies before they even know you're attacking them."
"And may your wealth ever increase" replied Sentinel 105, "while the heads of your foes adorn your walls." The bloodthirstiness of the farewell made Ragnok chuckle.
"I think we're going to get on rather well" he said to the Sentinels as he summoned Griphook back into the office to take them back to the bank lobby.
Ragnok was satisfied that the goblins would be able to co-exist with the Sentinels, at least for the most part. He didn't tell the Sentinels everything he knew since a goblin never divulges all of his secrets. For instance, he knew that the Hogwarts population had moved to the Underground Realm but he kept that information to himself. While the Sentinels would leave the goblins alone as long as they weren't visibly opposing them Ragnok knew that anything could happen at any time. If things did get bad he wanted the Underground Realm to be available for his people too.
While the meeting at Gringotts between the Sentinels and the goblins had been relatively amicable a very different scenario was playing out at Azkaban Prison. There weren't dementors there anymore since their defection to Voldemort earlier that year had made them unreliable. But even if they had still been at the prison they wouldn't have been able to stop the Sentinels when they came there. As the Sentinels weren't alive they had no souls and no emotions. There wouldn't have been any way for the dementors to attack the Sentinels and the latter would probably have just ignored them.
When the Sentinels arrived at the prison the aurors assigned to guard the place now that the dementors were gone tried to stop them but their spells had little effect.
"Peace" said the lead Sentinel holding up a hand to stop the aurors from continuing to attack them, "we mean you guards no harm provided you stop attacking us. If you persist in your current course of action we will be forced to strike back at you."
"Why should we listen to you?" one of the guards sneered, "you're just muggle devices. You're not even alive."
"You would do well to moderate your tone" said the Sentinel, "even as you face us we are already in control of your ministry along with Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade Village, and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy."
"What do you want with us?" asked another auror.
"We are here to speak to your warden regarding the future of this prison" said the Sentinel, "you will conduct us to him now."
"Don't listen to them" said the first guard again, "they're nothing to us."
"I'm not so sure about that" said a third guard, "I think it would be a good idea to take them to the warden."
"Don't be ridiculous" said the first auror again, "I'm a proud British wizard. I won't bow to any muggle piece of junk. Now either help me or get out of my way." Many of the other aurors shouted their agreement with the first auror and they were soon firing spells at the Sentinels again. The few aurors who didn't agree with the majority stepped away from their fellow guards and kept their wands holstered. For their own sakes it was a good thing that they did.
"So be it" said the first Sentinel, "those who oppose us will be neutralized." With that the Sentinels unleashed several of their lesser weapons on the attacking aurors. They might have been "lesser" weapons by their own standards but the aurors who were on the receiving end of those weapons didn't survive the onslaught. Their shields were quickly overwhelmed and soon a large number of dead aurors were strewn around the area in front of Azkaban Prison, all of them killed either by the deadly rays the Sentinels had or bullets from their more mechanical weapons.
The few aurors who hadn't taken part in the battle stood in shock at what they'd just seen the Sentinels do to their colleagues. They weren't allowed to dwell on this though as the lead Sentinel (Sentinel 407 if you want to know) was addressing them again.
"You were wise not to attack us" said Sentinel 407, "you live because of that. Now, take us to the warden of this prison."
"There's no need for that" said a new voice from the entrance gate of the prison as an elderly man with gray hair stepped through the doors, "I'm the one you want. Warden Peter Chumleigh, newly assigned to run this prison as of a few months ago. I heard your demands from my office and I came here as quickly as I could. Unfortunately it wasn't quickly enough" he finished as he looked at the dead aurors in a rueful manner for a few moments before turning back to his guests.
"What do you want to speak to me about?" he asked them as he motioned for the remaining aurors to step back and stand by for the moment.
"We are here to destroy this prison" said the Sentinel 407, "we know who it has been used to house and who the guards have been although our latest information says the dementors are no longer here."
"They're not" said the warden, "and that's something that we're all very thankful for. If you're here to destroy this prison are you going to kill all of us?"
"No" was the answer, "unless you oppose us we will not do so. The prisoners are to be removed. We will take them to our headquarters and keep them there. Most of them will be detained until they can be safely released without posing a threat to the world. The very worst will probably be terminated as unredeemable."
"That probably won't be necessary" said the warden, "we don't have prisoners like that anymore. The worst of the worst were the Death Eaters and my predecessor helped them all to escape. They were mostly either killed at the Battle of Hogwarts in June or, if they were recaptured, were executed by being sent through the Veil. They weren't sent back here. What we have here right now are the lower level Death Eaters and people who committed lesser crimes."
"Bring them out" said Sentinel 407, "we will take charge of them. Are you sure that there are no other top level security prisoners here?"
The warden hesitated for a moment as if thinking the question over before he shook his head.
"No" he said, "there are none."
"Good" was the reply, "bring the prisoners out now."
The remaining aurors were ordered to bring out the prisoners. It took longer than it would have due to the reduced number of available aurors following the battle but eventually the job was done. As the prisoners were brought out of Azkaban they were placed inside a large boat that the Sentinels had brought with them. Once they were all onboard the Sentinels ordered the warden and guards to board the boat too.
"Is there anyone else still inside the prison?" Sentinel 407 asked the warden
"No" answered the warden, "you have everyone."
"Good" said the Sentinel, "Sentinels prepare the prison for demolition." Several of the other Sentinels went around the base of the prison setting it up for destruction both inside and outside. Once this was done they all boarded the boat which soon departed from the island and headed out into the North Sea. Once they were several miles away from the prison, but while it could still be seen in the distance, the Sentinels stopped the boat.
"Activate demolition devices" ordered Sentinel 407. This was done and within seconds the entire Azkaban Prison collapsed in on itself leaving nothing but a pile of rubble behind.
"It is done" said Sentinel 407 who gave the order for the boat to resume sailing. As it did so neither any of the Sentinels, the surviving guards, or the prisoners, saw the small smirk of satisfaction on the warden's face.
In the lowest dungeon of Azkaban a single prisoner had been left behind. This wasn't a mistake on the warden's part. Oh no, he knew exactly what he was doing when he said that there were no top level prisoners left at the prison and only the lesser criminals needed to be evacuated. He remembered that one prisoner. That last prisoner had killed several members of the warden's family during the first war. Now the warden would see him punished at last, even if almost no one would ever know it.
The prisoner was no ordinary prisoner. He was THE prisoner. The be all and end all of the Death Eaters and the trouble they had caused over the years. Lord Voldemort sat in the lowest, most secure of all cells in Azkaban.
Almost no one knew he was there. When all of the Death Eater trials had finished a decision still hadn't been made over what to do with Voldemort. Honestly, hardly anyone wanted to think about him if possible. But something had to be done with him so it was decided that until a decision could be made he would be taken to Azkaban and held in the most secure cell they had. More importantly he would be moved there in secret. This was done because too many people knew where he currently was and the ministry didn't want to take a chance that either some unmarked supporter would be able to free him or someone who had lost family members during the war would try to get revenge on him.
In the dead of night some weeks ago Voldemort had been moved from a ministry holding cell to Azkaban. The only people who knew where he was now were Minister Fudge, Director Bones, and the prison warden. No one else did. Even the aurors who moved him to Azkaban didn't know whom they had transported as the whole time he was being moved his head had been fully covered and his voice was silenced. All the aurors knew was that a prisoner of great importance had been moved.
Both Minister Fudge and Director Bones would eventually learn about Voldemort's final fate but neither of them would care very much. Under normal circumstances Bones would have been upset with the warden's decision to leave Voldemort behind to die when the Azkaban came down but at the time she had too many other things to think about what with the Sentinels taking over everywhere. Later on she would let it go as she knew just how badly the warden's family had suffered at Voldemort's hands. For his part, once Fudge found out what happened to Voldemort he wouldn't care very much. He was just relieved the evil wizard was finally gone for good.
As for Voldemort himself...
He sat or lay down in the cell ever since he had been brought here. There were no windows down here so the only light was from an illumination spell that gave a faint light for about two thirds of the day. The rest of the time the cell was in complete darkness and Voldemort assumed these periods of "light on" and "light off" corresponded with when he was expected to be awake and asleep respectively.
In the weeks since he'd been brought here he'd seen no one at all except for the warden who delivered food to him once a day but never spoke to him, or even looked at him if he could help it. Other than the warden he'd had no other visitors at all. He had no idea what was happening in the outside world.
Since he had nothing else to do and he couldn't access his magic due to the suppression cuffs on his wrists and ankles he spent most of his time thinking and trying to come up with plans to escape this place and gather up his followers again. He hadn't been able to come up with anything so far.
When he wasn't trying to make plans he went over the battle at Hogwarts again and again in his mind to try and figure out where he went wrong. Obviously he and his forces hadn't been prepared for the appearances of the X-Men, the Avengers, and Dr. Strange and the Ancient One. Even the improved fighting techniques the aurors were using had been a surprise.
None of that answered the most important question, however. How did they know to be at Hogwarts that day? The castle should still have been mostly asleep with no one outside to intercept him but clearly that wasn't the case. No, they knew he was coming and had prepared for his attack. That meant his plans had been leaked to his enemies beforehand but who would've dared to betray him like that? Before the battle he would have said "no one" yet obviously someone had. If he ever got free from Azkaban and found out who the traitor was his revenge on that person would be terrible. He or she would suffer in excruciating pain for a long, long time. They would beg for death many times before they finally got it.
He thought about his encounter with the X-Men. It was true that he hadn't really been prepared to face them but that was an error that could be corrected with knowledge and experience. If he'd known them, their powers and fighting style better than he had he might have been able to do better against them. They were worthy adversaries and he would be a lot more careful how he handled them in the future, especially Lightning.
He went over his battle with Lightning. He thought about what he knew of the youngest X-Man. There was no doubt that, like all of his teammates, he was a powerful, formidable, and experienced fighter since he had gone head to head with Voldemort himself and had, with help from his teammates, ultimately beaten him. He was a mutant who could control electricity and was telekinetic. Everyone knew that. But he was a wizard too. Even though he hadn't used a wand Lightning had clearly cast an Expelliarmus at him although Voldemort had shielded against it. Beyond that Voldemort guessed from his visible physique and the sound of his voice that Lightning was in his mid-teens. After hearing him talk Voldemort knew he was British as was Mage although the other X-Men were all American. Finally, although he hadn't seen Lightning's full face because of the mask he wore, he had been able to see his eyes. When they looked directly at each other, especially at the end of the fight when they'd been face to face with very little space between them, Voldemort had seen Lightning's eyes quite clearly.
Green eyes.
Very familiar green eyes.
"It can't be" said Voldemort out loud in shock as he finally put the pieces together, "Lightning is Harry Potter!"
Unfortunately for Voldemort he wouldn't get any time to fully absorb his discovery as that was the moment the Sentinels chose to demolish Azkaban Prison. The first thing he heard was a loud rumbling noise and the next thing he knew the entire cell was collapsing on top of him as stone and dust rained down on him and pinned him to the floor.
Somehow when the collapse of the prison ended and the dust cleared away Voldemort found that he was still alive although completely helpless. By sheer luck the stones had fallen in such a way that he wasn't crushed completely flat. Instead he was pinned down on the ground with his arms and leg crushed under tons of stone while his upper body and head were in an air pocket created by the way the stones fell. He was alive but only barely, and he knew that he wouldn't stay alive with the way he was stuck. He was unable to move at all and he couldn't access his magic. It was clear that no help was going to come for him as he lay dying and in excruciating pain on the floor of what had once been his cell.
He didn't know how long he lay there as his life slowly ebbed away. It could have been minutes, hours, days, maybe even longer. The pain lingered on the whole time slowly driving him even madder than he already was until he longed for the pain to just end.
Tom Marvolo Riddle, alias Lord Voldemort, the worst dark wizard of his time, died alone and unmourned beneath the rubble of Azkaban Prison. His passing would be noted only by the goblins of Gringotts (who already considered him to be dead since Halloween 1981 although not fully passed over) and the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries when they saw that a certain prophecy orb had gone dark. As his life slipped away Voldemort finally learned what Dumbledore had always maintained. There really were worse things in the world than death.
(To Be Continued)
A/N - So Voldemort dies for good. I said at the end of Part 2 that I was thinking of a role for him in Part 3 but if I couldn't make it work I'd just kill him off and have done with it. Well, I couldn't make what I originally had in mind work. I won't go into detail on what my idea was except that it would have eventually had him fighting the Sentinels alongside the X-Men too and, well, sorry but I think he's just too far gone and has done way too much evil (especially to Harry / Lightning) to make such a scenario plausible. Besides, someone like Voldemort doesn't deserve to go out in a blaze of glory.
And that's it for this week. Next week's chapter is called "Resistance" so I'm sure I don't have to spell it out. I hope you come back for it. Meanwhile please take a moment to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please. Stay safe and well everyone.