Author's Note: Hello again! It's the first chapter of the year and I'd like to thank you all. This story has been up for nearly half a year now, has over 50 thousand views on it, over 500 likes, and over 600 follows, which is just insane to me.
I'm so grateful to everyone who comments/reviews too. There's nearly 120 over both FFN and AO3, and just FFN was closing in on 90 last I checked. It's honestly incredible because I started this story as a fun little side project to do 'cause I was bored, and I never expected it to get this much attention.
So I truly thank every one of you for your support; it means everything to me.
But I had a few questions regarding the last chapter, so I'll answer them here.
The tome Thanatos gave to Harry has an illusion on it that makes it so nobody can read its contents if they're not approved to. Anyone without approval trying to read it would simply see advanced magical theory, like what Hermione did.
What Hermione saw specifically was the explanation for how raw magic gets turned into usable spell magic, and how that interacts with other magical objects, the properties of a magical human's skin that allows them to push this magic through, and the effect magical cores have on a magical's biology.
The only people who can see what the book actually is, are Thanatos, Aahna, and the other Spirits, Harry, Luna, and any other Avatars of the Spirits.
If Harry were to write something from the book on another piece of paper and leave it lying around somewhere, then it wouldn't be covered by the enchantment, so it'd be readable to any ordinary person. But if he wrote something completely unrelated to the book, and stuck it in its pages, then it'd be affected by the spell, and be unreadable to anyone not approved.
Also, I'm heavily considering adding more explanation to the magic system of this story. There's a lot to work with, and explaining magic systems (along with worldbuilding in general) are things I love doing.
But I don't want to overwhelm my readers with long explanations of magical principles that aren't really that important to know, so you guys tell me what you think. Should I add more explanation into the HP magic system or no?
Also have something planned for Hermione, and possibly Harry's other friends too. I don't want to spoil it, but it would fit her perfectly.
Anyway, that's all for now. Enjoy the chapter!
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Dumbledore gasped in pain as he finished another potion bottle, slamming down the vial and grabbing the kitchen counter tightly.
"Blasted– curse–" He gritted out, swallowing the urge to vomit.
The spell Thanatos used had drastic effects, and while Dumbledore was slowly regenerating his magic with potions and other techniques, it was still painful to use even the most basic of magic.
Thankfully, the safe house he was in was far removed from any magical societies and so heavily warded that it'd make a place like Gringotts jealous.
Dumbledore shakily let go of the counter, his face flushed and pale.
"I-I'm going to… I'm going to ki– AGH!"
Dumbledore nearly collapsed as pain rocked his body, and an all too familiar voice rang in his head.
'You are weak,' It hissed.
Dumbledore blinked, and then stood inside his mind, staring at the prisoner within.
It was another Dumbledore, emaciated and haggard, chained tightly with magical binds that sapped his power from him, lest he escape with ease like he nearly had several times before.
'Oh, and YOU tell me that, Albus?' Dumbledore sneered. 'Look at you, at my mercy to do with whatever I please.'
'Yet you do nothing,' Albus spat, his eyes still shining despite his weakness. 'You do nothing but taint everything I've built!'
Dumbledore laughed heartedly. 'Taint? Oh, my dear Albus, everything was already tainted. After all, you committed a fair bit of atrocities yourself…'
Albus looked ashamed, bowing his head.
'But I repented of each and every one,' He whispered. 'I am not a good man, but unlike you, I try to be.'
'Ah, but have you atoned for them?' Dumbledore grinned mockingly. 'You're nothing but a coward, hiding behind your power and authority like a fat king who feasts while his people starve.'
He gave a loud, forced laugh. 'You try? YOU TRY?! Where was that trying when people were being slaughtered in their homes, crying and begging for the oh-so-great Albus Dumbledore to save them?!'
Albus winced at the words and sighed, tears in his eyes.
'I have committed a great many evils… far more than I could possibly atone for… but as long as I breathe, I will ensure the light finds a way to guide the next generation, no matter the cost.'
Dumbledore sneered at him and turned away. 'You and your stupid light. You know as well as I that magic doesn't have a side, but please, continue to delude yourself, it makes for good amusement.'
Dumbledore left his mind, leaving Albus trapped there without another word.
He gripped the Elder Wand, something that hadn't worked properly for him since that day at the ministry, and hobbled over to a hidden chamber.
At the same time, Thanatos was with McGonagall in Dumbledore's old office, supposed to be finalizing the transition of McGonagall as Headmistress.
But currently, he was leaning over the desk, examining Fawkes' stiff body with his wand.
"He's not dead, but not necessarily alive," Thanatos muttered, poking Fawkes with his wand. "But it isn't petrification either… I can't tell what it is actually."
McGonagall stood some feet away, arms crossed, and frowned at his declaration.
"But shouldn't phoenixes be immune to most magic? Albus would go on tangents quite often about their magical resilience," She stated.
Thanatos nodded. "That should be the case, but I can barely get a reading for this guy. Without exaggerating, a muggle has more magic than Fawkes at the moment. It's almost like he has no magic at all…"
McGonagall's eyes widened. "But that's not possible! All living things have magic. Even muggles!"
"Yeah, I know. But whatever the reason, the reading I'm getting from Fawkes shows him being about as enchanted as a random rock on the ground. See, look."
Thanatos waved his wand, and a small holographic screen appeared above Fawkes' body.
McGonagall's frown deepened as she read, trying to comprehend what she was seeing.
"But… how?! Phoenixes are some of the most magical beings in existence! To have so little magic… could it be your spell–"
"No," Thanatos cut her off firmly. "My spell was attuned to Albus' magical signature and his signature alone. Familiars have similar but different magical signatures, nothing to dictate that my spell would affect Fawkes."
"How did you even make that spell?" McGonagall asked. "I've been meaning to ask that. I've never seen anything like it."
"Used a Finite Incantatum as the inspiration for the cancelation," Thanatos replied as he continued to examine Fawkes. "Wards draw power from their source, so that was the base for the draining. Mixing the two and amping them up to 11 created the base for the spell."
McGonagall blinked incredulously. "You… That spell… The spell that ripped apart the magical core of the strongest wizard alive and basically made a wizarding version of a nuke…"
"Used Finite Incantatum as its inspiration, yes," Thanatos looked up and grinned at her.
"That…" McGonagall sighed, rubbing her temples. "I'm not exactly sure I believe you… It's just– that spell was devastating."
Thanatos shrugged. "You'd be surprised by how many powerful spells used basic and weak ones as their inspiration. Avada Kedavra technically used part of the Banishment Charm as its base."
"Excuse me?"
"Yep. If you're aware of the soul, you can affect it. Adding a Banishment directly to the soul rips it from the body, killing the target. It has a bunch more stuff to make it unblockable and so on, but if you strip away that you're left with a heavily modified Banishing Charm."
Thanatos sighed as he finished examining Fawkes, and stood, cracking his back.
"The magic isn't gone, it's being actively drained," He sighed. "I have my suspicions on who and why, but the how is eluding me. I've never seen somebody draw magic from their familiar before, vice versa, yes, this no."
McGonagall looked slightly sick. "Albus– If I didn't already know about what he's done…"
She shook her head. "How do we stop it?"
Thanatos shrugged. "I'm not sure. This is something completely new to me."
He sighed and rubbed his face. "Well… I know familiars have an innate bond with their masters, and that connection allows the familiar to locate the person they're bonded to from anywhere in the world, and vice versa. Theoretically, there should be a way to strengthen that connection to allow something like this to happen, but the implications…"
"What implications?" McGonagall demanded, looking nervous at Thanatos' now grim expression.
"When Dumbledore comes back, he'll have the power and magic of a phoenix alongside his usual magic. If he wasn't a threat before, he'd be a threat now," He replied. "Phoenixes have the best healing and recovery in the magical world bar none, lifespans that last centuries if not millennia, and the unlimited ability to come back from the dead."
He rubbed his eyes. "There's a reason their blood is such a high-value black market item. Even just a drop of the stuff contains enough phoenix magic to rejuvenate a person back 5 years. Taking its very magic…"
Thanatos reached out and pushed some magic into Fawkes, which immediately disappeared from the odd connection.
"The only way I can assume it'd stop is if Dumbledore is dead, but given he'd be functionally immortal, that's a risk," Thanatos said.
'I could maybe send over my power and kill him from here, but there's no telling what the hell that would do. The sheer disparity between pure life magic and pure death magic might nuke everything from here to Ireland.'
'I'm not sure what canceling the magic would do to Fawkes. Killing Phoenixes is a one-way ticket to an incredible magical imbalance, the difference might even affect Luna and Harry due to their connection to us. I have to figure out if Fawkes himself is getting absorbed or just his magic.'
"I'd have to take a closer look at him, maybe have Aahna come in too, in order to see how to fix this. But for the moment, Fawkes isn't dead, essentially just in a deep coma."
McGonagall sighed. "Very well, Thanatos. You are dismissed. Please tell me if something else comes up."
Thanatos nodded and left without another word, setting off to the seventh-floor corridor.
He stopped after climbing a set of stairs, feeling a dark presence pass by him but not seeing anything.
"Homonum Revelio," He whispered, flicking his fingers.
The spell came back blank, causing him to frown.
The presence was gone now, and even extending his senses to their maximum didn't pick anything up.
"Whatever, I need to see that corridor," Thanatos shook his head and continued walking.
He quickly reached it and began examining it, but not finding anything.
"I could swear I felt the magic here," He muttered as he looked around the hall.
There was nothing in the hall outside of a tapestry of trolls learning ballet on the wall, but Thanatos' senses were telling him there was an awful amount of magic here, even more than what Hogwarts usually had.
"Is it some kind of ward?" He muttered as he began walking around, idly following his senses. "There would have to be an activation component somewhere, but I can't sense anything like that here."
Thanatos raised his hand and took a deep breath.
"Revelio!" He incanted, releasing it at maximum power.
The magic in the hallway barely bubbled, and Thanatos sighed as he began to pace.
"A complex magical ward that has a vastly different magical signature to Hogwarts, but no visible activation component," He muttered, pacing against the wall.
At the third lap in front of the wall, the magic shifted, and Thanatos turned as a door appeared where there was only a wall before.
"A movement-based activation?" He whispered, slowly approaching the door.
He tentatively reached for the knob, his other hand ready to cast a spell at a moment's notice.
Thanatos pulled open the door and his senses immediately screamed at him as a dark aura flooded out.
A shield went up out of reflex, far faster than any normal wizard could process let alone react, a powerful cutting curse on his tongue.
"What. The. Hell?" He whispered pointedly as he slowly entered.
The room was filled with junk, textbooks, broken brooms, potion bottles, furniture, and even wands filled it up to reach the ceiling.
Thanatos looked around, feeling several magical objects within the room, but the dark air overpowered all of them, seemingly suffocating the space.
"That's Voldie's magical signature…" Thanatos muttered as he began heading deeper into the room, following his senses. "I need to get whatever this thing is out of here…"
It led him to a broken cabinet, and Thanatos reflexively put up a shield and reinforced himself with magic as he crept closer.
He opened the cabinet with a flick of his wand, revealing a rather ugly empty bust.
"That's it…?" Thanatos whispered incredulously. "That can't be it…"
He focused his magic on his eyes and squinted, now able to see the magic to some degree.
"It's just residue…" He muttered. "The actual object is somewhere else. The trail leads…"
He turned to follow the residue, seeing it lead straight out of the door and down the hall.
Thanatos' eyes widened as he remembered the dark presence that'd passed him on the stairs, and bolted out of the door.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" He roared, and several Thestrals flew out of his wand.
"Go to the teachers! Voldemort's magical signature is inside Hogwarts! Lock everything down NOW!"
The Thestrals flew away as Thanatos ran towards the stairs he'd first felt the presence at.
"My body is going to hate me later…" He muttered as he reinforced his body with magic.
The ground cracked under his feet as Thanatos exploded forward faster than the eye could track, his body low in order to run faster.
He reached the stairs and pumped magic into his eyes, seeing the residue go down the stairs in the direction of the Entrance Hall.
Thanatos exploded down the stairs, leaping over several students as he raced towards the Great Hall.
Aahna appeared beside him in her dove form and sang a note.
"Entrance Hall! Lock it down!" Thanatos yelled.
Aahna nodded and transformed back into her human form before racing off with an impressive boom.
Thanatos kept running, eventually reaching Sirius who'd been on the second floor.
"Code Black, redirect and detain, no limits!" Thanatos yelled at him as he passed, using standard Auror code.
Sirius nodded and ran into a random classroom and out the window, intending to block whoever the person was from reaching the gate.
A wave of magic washed over the school, and the suits of armor came to life as the windows slammed shut with a magical lock.
Thanatos reached the Entrance Hall, seeing Aahna in a heated duel with another woman.
The other woman had a diadem on her head, which radiated Voldemort's magical signature like a furnace.
"Congelei Magica*!" Thanatos boomed as he neared the woman.
The woman whipped around, conjuring a huge slab of marble with a flick of her wand.
The curse hit the slab and exploded it, and the woman turned again, launching the rubble at Aahna.
Aahna flicked her wand, conjuring the slabs into stone knives and sending them back at the woman.
The woman made an overhead arc, creating a full-body shield that blocked both Aahna's and Thanatos' attacks.
Another wave and dozens of serpents, each a foot high, launched out at the couple.
The woman turned and ran as they Vanished the snakes, sending spells back at them as she did.
She burst through the doors of the Entrance Hall and barely dodged a curse from Sirius.
"Stupify! Reducto! Confringo! Diffindo!" Sirius shouted, sending the basic spell chain out.
The woman flicked the spells back into Thanatos and Aahna, sending a pitch-black curse at Sirius in return.
Thanatos caught the spells as Aahna dodged, and mixed them in with a bit of raw magic.
Sirius dropped and rolled under the curse, coming up in a crouch, already casting.
The woman dodged most of the spells and shielded against those she couldn't, sending rapid-fire spells at both Aahna and Sirius.
She tensed, sensing the build-up of magic from Thanatos, and leaped to the left.
The spell clipped her side, tearing out a chunk of it as the blast passed her.
The woman screamed a terrible scream that sounded like two people in one but managed to roll back.
She put up a shield right before the next spells hit her, gritting her teeth in pain.
The other three didn't let up, sending barrages of spells at her to keep her down.
The woman gathered some magic in her open hand, half-cauterizing her wound to stem the bleeding.
She jumped back right as her shield shattered, sending out dozens of killing curses.
The other three all dodged, but a killing curse managed to clip Thanatos in the shoulder.
Thanatos immediately flicked his wrist, redirecting the curse right back at the woman.
The woman's eyes widened, her hair singeing as she barely dodged the curse.
She regained her footing quickly though, sending out a variety of dark curses that kept the other three unable to counter.
"Bombarda!" Remus' voice sounded as he appeared.
The woman flicked the spell away, but the brief lapse allowed the others to go on the offensive.
A powerful shield slammed down between the woman and the four, absorbing the spells.
"All of you are PITIFUL!" She yelled, her body glowing blue before she disappeared.
Everyone in Hogwarts and Hogsmeade covered their ears in pain as the anti-portkey wards shattered with an ear-splitting crack.
Thanatos and Aahna dropped to the ground, the toll of using magical reinforcement so much getting to them.
"Shit…" Thanatos groaned, covering his eyes with the back of his hand. "That fucking hurts."
"You can say that again," Aahna muttered.
"What… Who was that?" Remus asked, panting with his hands on his knees from running there.
"Horcrux," Thanatos groaned, sitting up painfully. "Voldie's to be exact. Or one of his anyway. I have no clue who the woman was."
"How did it even get here?" Sirius asked, leaning heavily against the wall.
Thanatos shrugged. "I was examining this room on the seventh floor and felt the residue it left behind. It's pretty potent even as a residue. Not sure how long it was there for."
Aahna stood with a groan, cracking her back. "How did you even know she was here? If it was just residue, then that wouldn't be enough to go off of."
"Felt the same presence on the stairs leading down here, dismissed it because nothing came up when I checked," Thanatos sighed, rubbing his eyes. "There's no other way out of Hogwarts except for the windows, and that would be extremely obvious. It made sense."
Sirius looked close to puking. "What is it with Horcruxes being near my godson? I don't like it."
"You know why, Sirius," Remus said as he recovered. "But I really wish it wasn't the case."
"Don't we all," Sirius grumbled, standing up from the wall.
The group eventually found their way back to McGonagall's office, along with the rest of the teachers as they appeared.
"Good news," Thanatos sighed as they all crammed in the office. "There's one less Horcrux in Hogwarts now. Bad news, there was a Horcrux in Hogwarts for Merlin knows how long and we only noticed it because it quite literally ran past us."
McGonagall rubbed her temples as she sat at her desk. "Thank Merlin those Aurors are coming later today. But now we have more than one problem."
"Voldemort's active again and Dumbledore might be leeching immortality off of a phoenix," Aahna said grimly. "I knew this was going to happen."
For every action there had to be an equal but opposite reaction, even the Muggles knew this. It was even more true in the magical world.
Freeing Sirius, killing Snape, and removing the Horcrux from Harry were major good things, but there would always be a bounceback of evil to balance it out. And what greater evil than the two strongest wizards of the era slowly gaining power again to plunge the world into war?
"Last time we had Albus to keep Voldemort at bay," Filius spoke up. "This school was a haven that no one dared to touch, but now? Who will protect us from that madman if he regains a body?"
"We'll protect ourselves," Sirius replied firmly. "All of us have hands, magic, and wands. If something happens, we're the first line of defense. All we are is down a player, we can still play."
"I'll upgrade the wards as soon as I can," Thanatos declared. "I have a suspicion of where the ward stone will be on this thing, and if I can get to it, I can weave my own little surprises for anything dark that tries to come in."
McGonagall sighed and nodded. "Unfortunately, the students will need to prepare too."
Everyone's faces tightened at that. Nobody wanted the children to become child soldiers like they were, fighting in a bloody war with their graduation cap still fresh on their heads, but if it came down to it, they'd have to make the sacrifice.
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Author's Note: And that's the chapter! Sorry I took so long to write it, I couldn't figure out how to start it in a way that wasn't boring.
Was originally planning on starting it by explaining why Thanatos didn't just use his voice magic to kill Dumbledore, but I eventually scrapped it. Short answer is that it'd go boom, long answer is that it'd also 'kill' any magic connected to Dumbledore, like familiars, potions, runes, and wards, and given the Headmaster is connected to the Hogwarts wards…
Also, things are starting to pick up again. War will be on the horizon soon, but if the people are ready is another thing.
Oh and to clear up any confusion, Dumbledore is NOT a good person. He's a well-intentioned person who can occasionally help others, but makes too many 'necessary' sacrifices and causes far more harm than good. He protects Harry mostly because of the prophecy, and protects the students because a dead student would look terrible on his record. Sorry if I didn't portray that well enough.
Is Albus someone who tries to do good? Yes, yes he is. Has he been blinded by his own grief and power to the point his version of 'good' is different from many other people's? Yes, yes it is.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you all in the next one!