Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Once Lord Voldemort was far enough away, I slowly moved towards Bellatrix and the others. I took the drink from Bellatrix's hand and drank the alcohol down in a single gulp. She just raised an eyebrow before rolling her eyes and taking the empty glass from me, demanding more alcohol from a nearby elf with a piercing look; the elf nearly tripped as he moved.
"What did you notice?" I quickly asked Lucius as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it immediately.
"Not much, he's practically stone-faced, his Occlumency is really strong." Lucius said honestly, and I grimaced. "But, I could tell a few things. He was proud of you-" My eyebrows raised. "-but not in any familiar or friendly way, he… seemed proud, like he was looking at a piece of art he made himself." I visibly shuddered. I could see the other three grimace as well.
"That backstory is coming back to bite you in the arse." Bellatrix snorted, and I nodded absentmindedly. Honestly, first Dumbledore and then Voldemort both emphasize the backstory created by The Company Papers, details about Voldemort experimenting 'on me' while I was still in my mother's womb. I still didn't really know how or where Dumbledore had gotten that information from. Because from what I remembered of the story, Voldemort had wiped my mother's and Tobias' memories to make it seem like nothing had happened.
"Yes, that would do it." Lucius said, nodding with a frown. "He's… proud of his creation, he doesn't see you as a person, as a witch, but… as something that belongs to him, 'even if you don't know it yet'." Lucius said with a grimace of disgust.
"In their fucking nightmares," I snorted loudly.
"After that, the only other time I was able to read him was when you called his potion 'simple' and solved it almost immediately, hurting his ego horribly." Eh, it seemed like the group was listening to me from afar, senses heightened by the metals. I rolled my eyes mockingly.
"It's not my fault if he's having performance issues," I said mockingly. Lucius wrinkled his nose.
"He was angry, too angry, almost abnormal so, I would say." Lucius said while thinking.
"Ancient magic corrupted, Voldemort's magic sounds like that." Lucius and the girls' eyes widened.
"Are you sure?" Bellatrix asked more seriously, and I nodded.
"It was hard to hear, Voldemort's magic is so... so, abnormal, even his horcruxes sound better than Voldemort in person. Underneath it, I could hear the old magic, but... distorted, like corruption."
"Voldemort can handle ancient magic?" Narcissa asked solemnly, and I shook my head.
"No, the ancient magic doesn't permeate him like it did Dumbledore; it's… a second-hand noise, a background noise, loud, distorted, but the noise doesn't belong to him. He's using something else to use the ancient magic forcefully." I corrected him.
"The repositories." Lucius said, and I nodded.
"It was the only thing I could think of." I agreed.
"Yes... that would explain his abnormal anger; he keeps everything at bay with his Occlumency and magic. He can't control it on his own; the ancient magic doesn't belong to him, and he can't handle it easily like you or Dumbledore. He has to use brute force; he subdued the ancient magic from the repositories." Lucius stammered while staring at Voldemort almost without blinking.
"This just got more complicated than I'd like." I groaned in frustration. Ranrok was really strong for a goblin who could handle the corrupted ancient magic from the repositories, but Voldemort doing the same? That was on another level.
"I second the motion to leave and let Dumbledore deal with his mess. It was his job to keep the repositories safe," Narcissa huffed, annoyed. Bellatrix let out a laugh.
"You're right, Cissy, that old fool has screwed up again," Bellatrix said with a sadistic smile, "In fact, I could go over right now and tell him exactly what's going on. I want to see his face."
"Yeah, no, we're not doing that." I replied dryly, Bellatrix pouted at me, and I rolled my eyes. "I'll go tell him about the repository. I really don't want to get between either of you, and even though I'm confident in my chances now to outlast both of you and defeat him with your help, Bella, I really don't want to fight either of you." I added.
"Boring." Bellatrix rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms, "I was hoping to add some of them as my familiars."
"Old blood, Bella? I thought you had better standards," Lucius said dryly, Bellatrix glaring at him.
"Die, Malfoy," she growled.
"Stop fighting." Narcissa stepped between them looking exasperated.
"Besides, I have no idea if you can absorb Voldemort. His soul... or what's left of it, I don't know how he will interact with you." I added while looking at Voldemort out of the corner of his eye.
"Well, no draining either of the war leaders," Bellatrix huffed reluctantly.
"That's the best we're going to get." I snorted in amusement, the pair agreed with me, then we stood in silence for a few long seconds. "Are you ready, Lucius? " I asked more softly. Narcissa went on alert and practically hugged Lucius. Lucius looked at his father and fell silent. Only after a few seconds had passed did he nod.
"I'll go get ready," Bellatrix said, gulping down the remaining alcohol in her drink before discreetly leaving the party room.
We all turned and looked at places other than Abraxas. I mentally counted about 30 seconds before handling my phone.
Abraxas Malfoy(T5) from Harry Potter –SOLD [178]
Lord Malfoy's disappearance in the middle of a conversation was immediately noticed; the cacophony of screams arose suddenly when a person burst into the room, Bellatrix's victim noted.
"T-the mark! The dark mark is in the sky!!" screamed the victim of the Imperius. I immediately looked at Voldemort, and he had a disbelieving look for a few seconds before a look of extreme fury passed over his face.
"Aurors! Call the Aurors immediately! My father has disappeared!!" Lucius roared, playing his part as a worried son, his voice rising above the panicked screams of the others. I could see Voldemort click his tongue and disappear on the spot; he was the first before many others began to leave in the same manner.
Let the play begin.
----
We met Moody again. That said it all.
He was like a dog with a bone, and even though he believed we had something to do with the disappearance of all the people involved, he had no proof of it, which Lucius took advantage of to dismantle all of Moody's arguments, even though Moody was right.
Bellatrix and Narcissa had returned to Black Manor with Lord Black and the rest of the family. Meanwhile, I stayed with Lucius while the Aurors questioned us. We were finally free after hours, and there were fewer than half of the gala participants when the Aurors arrived.
So they finished the whole process faster than Moody would have liked.
Once we were released, with a warning from Moody threatening to keep an eye on us, we returned to Malfoy Manor. As soon as the doors closed, Lucius sighed tiredly.
"... it's done," he said heavily. I nodded before placing my hand on his shoulder to comfort him, then gently pushed him through the halls. Severus knew this house like the back of his hand, so we made it to the office with ease. I sat Lucius down in the chair and pulled out Firewhiskey from my inventory, transmuting two glasses and filling them.
Lucius didn't say anything; he just took the glass and swallowed a big gulp, letting the flame escape from his mouth. Meanwhile, I drank mine more slowly, feeling the burn in the back of my throat. To my surprise, Lucius drank another before slapping his cheeks hard.
"It's okay... I'm okay, I'm okay." Lucius said, more awake, more focused, calmer. I looked at him closely, I lightly probed his mind, and he wasn't using occlumency to hide anything. Lucius obviously noticed and rolled his eyes. "Seriously, I'm okay, I... I had already prepared myself for this; I already knew it would happen." Lucius said softly. I paused for a few seconds before nodding.
"He's still your father." I said softly, and Lucius nodded.
"I know." Lucius said, "That's exactly why I'm fine." He added before sighing, "What's our next move? " He asked, completely changing the subject. I hummed lightly.
"...you will go spend the night with Narcissa." I said simply, he looked at me, surprised, and I shook my head, "Go with Cissa, spend the night, I... will go see Dumbledore." I said with disgust. "I will tell him about the repository, and I will leave from there. Then... tomorrow we will talk about our departure to another world, it is almost time to settle down in another world." I said simply, Lucius stopped and nodded.
"Alright." Lucius agreed without a fight. He stood up a little unsteadily, having drunk the alcohol quickly, but he stood firm. He walked over to the wall. He created A portal to the apartment. Before he left, I put a hand on his shoulder and smiled softly at him. Lucius paused for a few seconds before giving me a small smile back. With that, I let him go. Once he disappeared, I sighed deeply. It was time to see Dumbledore again.
With that, create a portal to the principal's office.
"Miss Snape, please, don't you think... portals into my office." I heard Dumbledore's tired voice; he was standing fully dressed, looking tired, as he read some papers.
"Headmaster, you're awake, so it saves me the time of waking you." I said dryly, and Dumbledore gave me a flat look.
"With the disappearance of another… 'distinguished citizen', I have to be," Dumbledore said just as dryly, and I chuckled and shrugged.
"We need to talk," I said simply as I dropped into the empty seat the Headmaster had in front of his desk.
"I assume it's not about the whereabouts of Lord Malfoy and the others," Dumbledore said, unfazed as he sat back in his seat, huffing.
"Of course not, Headmaster, I didn't do it, so I wouldn't know where they are." I said mockingly, and Dumbledore stared at me, not saying a word. I rolled my eyes. "It's about Riddle." I said, which made Dumbledore frown.
"Did you find another one?" he asked, almost hopefully. I grimaced and shook my head.
"Of course not, something worse." I said simply, Dumbledore looked at me incredulously.
"Something worse than the Dark Lord's immortality?" The question dripped with disbelief, and I nodded.
"Voldemort has access to ancient magic." I said bluntly, and Dumbledore froze in place before standing up and staring at me with an intensity that made my hair stand on end. I could feel his magic dripping heavily, the noise of it growing louder.
"Explain yourself." The headmaster said simply and firmly. I wrinkled my nose at his command, but told him everything about the night, and about my suspicions about the repositories of ancient magic.
"Impossible." Dumbledore said once I finished, I frowned in his direction, waiting for an explanation. "There is no other repository other than the one below Hogwarts." he said without hesitation, and I snorted.
"So that's the one they stole," I said simply with a shrug.
"Impossible." he repeated forcefully. I rolled my eyes.
"How long has it been since you checked the caverns?" I asked seriously, and Dumbledore fell silent. His silence was revealing. "Well, we just need to go down there and see if the final repository is still there, just a simple trip." I said plainly.
"And show you the entrance to the caverns?" Dumbledore asked, raising one of his bushy eyebrows. I groaned loudly.
"This again, Headmaster? I already made your stupid vow. Besides, you think I don't know how to get into the caverns? I managed to get into the map chamber. If I wanted the stupid repository, I would have gotten in months ago." I snorted in his direction, Dumbledore grimaced before nodding.
"You are correct, my apologies, Miss Snape." Dumbledore apologized, and I nodded in his direction.
"Okay, now let's go to the caverns. I know what I felt, it was ancient magic coming out of Riddle's body; it had to have come from somewhere." I said simply, Dumbledore paused for a few seconds before sighing and nodding.
The ride down to the caverns beneath Hogwarts was one huge, awkward silence, and I wasn't going to break it; I had nothing else to talk to the headmaster about other than the repository.
Once we reached the chamber where the final repository should be, Dumbledore's face fell, and he paled significantly.
"It's not there," he said breathlessly, in total disbelief.
"I see that," I said dryly. "Or well, I don't see it." I shrugged. "But, with that settled, it's time for me to go. You're the Keeper; it's your job to sort this out. As always, this was definitely not a pleasure. Goodbye." I saluted Dumbledore and turned to leave.
"Wait!" Dumbledore exclaimed. I looked over my shoulder at him incredulously. "Voldemort has access to ancient magic, potent and very dangerous magic, and that's not even counting the horcruxes he has hidden in Merlin knows where, and you're just going to leave?" he asked incredulously. I snorted mockingly.
"You keep saying this stuff like it'll change my mind, again, Voldemort isn't my problem, good luck solving him." I shrugged.
"You-" Dumbledore tried to say. "Don't you at least have information about… how this happened?" I could see Dumbledore biting his tongue as he asked me. I wrinkled my nose.
"No, I just saw his horcruxes," I said simply. "I didn't look for anything else."
"...could you?" he asked almost hopefully. I stopped stiffly, seeing the past.
"Do you want... to see the past? Here?" I asked, and Dumbledore nodded slowly.
"You've... proven yourself to be a powerful seer. You saw a lot, and your search was intentional, you know how to control it... so could you?" Dumbledore asked with a frown. I wrinkled my nose. I'd never really tried, I was just lying about being a seer, but...
Malatium, the so-called eleventh metal, an alloy of atium and gold, when burned, allows one to see into another person's past. I wouldn't lose anything by trying.
"I could try," I said simply. Dumbledore let out a sigh.
"Thank you." He said honestly, humming lightly.
"Do you still have the diadem?" I asked, and Dumbledore nodded. "I need it, I need to see Voldemort in person… a Horcrux might work." I said simply, and Dumbledore nodded, standing still. To my surprise, Fawkes, his phoenix, appeared in a flare as he dropped the box with the Horcrux.
I wrinkled my nose as I heard the clatter of the contaminated Horcruxe. I gently tapped one of the pockets of my dress, waking Cia, who quickly complained but then placed herself inside my clothes. I got to work, crouching on the floor and taking out everything I needed.
I hadn't been able to figure out all of Atium's properties yet, so unfortunately, I couldn't just clap my hands and generate Malatium out of thin air. Even if I had the ingredients, I had to do it manually.
Ignore Dumbledore, who came over to watch as I began transmuting a small crucible. I grabbed the gold and atium beads needed to make the alloy and placed them inside.
Feeling Cia inside my clothes, I started generating fire from the palm of my hand. Alchemy was… more temporary, suitable for making things explode and lighting temporary things, but it was bad for maintaining it for a long time, so I had to do it another way.
I let my La Verità form come to light. My horns grew upwards as I added more magic and heat to the fire, enough to melt both metals. Luckily for me, my La Verità no longer had wings, so it was less uncomfortable.
Once I saw that both metals were melted entirely and fused into one, I turned off the heat and used my hand to manipulate the newly formed liquid malatium. With a movement of my hand, 10 beads were formed, each weighing 1 gram, using brass to absorb and dissipate the heat. I brought my hand close to the beads and began to cool them.
Once I was done, I had almost 10 grams of Malatium in my hand.
"That's... a metal?" Dumbledore asked over me, I ignored him and swallowed 5 of them. Malatium lasted 1 minute per gram. So I pulled out the Ravenclaw diadem and burned the malatium in my stomach.
Malatium, unlike atium, did not see shadows of the past but instead opened a connection to see the spiritual realm of the Cosmere, where the essence or soul of things is contained. In this realm, the interconnection between objects, people, and ideals becomes apparent, said to transcend form, thought, being, and self. All of which becomes apparent within the truest form of things.
That meant it also transcended time; in fact, space and time were irrelevant. It was timeless, and everything was there to be observed. The Malatium took advantage of that connection to examine the past of the target person, in this case, Voldemort's Horcrux.
I had 5 minutes before the metal in my stomach was spent, and I had to swallow more. It was not necessary; the horcrux was a part of Voldemort's soul, its connections were as strong as if I were in person in front of Voldemort, so I could travel, looking at each scene before my eyes.
Everything happened quickly; it was difficult to locate the exact date I was really looking for, but I had some clues—a riddle from his years as a student and later when he came to apply for a professorship.
Aaaand, bingo.
I found exactly what I was looking for, and I snapped out of the trance I was in, returning to physical reality. I blinked a few times to adjust to the dissonance I was feeling.
"Miss Snape, are you alright? You're bleeding." Dumbledore asked quickly. "You weren't responding." He added. I blinked a few more times before touching my lips, wet, bloody. I had bled from my nose; I had never stopped decanting gold, so I was healthy, but apparently expanding my mind with the god metal put a stress on my brain.
"I'm fine, everything's fine," I said simply as I stood up and put everything away. "Voldemort used the basilisk to find this place," I said plainly. Dumbledore stood still.
"…A basilisk?" he asked cautiously.
"In the Chamber of Secrets, it was Salazar's basilisk; now it's dead." I said simply, shrugging without explaining any further details. "Riddle awakened the basilisk during his student years, in fact, he was the one who killed Myrtle,-" Albus' eyebrows rose in surprise. "-who used that death for his first horcrux."
"But getting back to the subject... the basilisk found the tunnels created by the goblin Ranrok. It seems that you closed the entrances, but everything else inside, the paths that the goblins made, were still in place. The basilisk moved through the school's pipes. At some point, it found one of the tunnels and reached the repository."
"Riddle was alerted and arrived at the repository with the basilisk's guidance, but he had no idea what the repository was. He knew it was magically strong, and he became obsessed with it. He found nothing in the Hogwarts libraries, obviously, so he had to do a deeper search once he left the castle."
"And he met a person who happened to know exactly what he was talking about… Augustus Rookwood." I said simply, Dumbledore stopped stiffly before sighing.
"Victor Rookwood's descendant," said Dumbledore, snapping his fingers in his direction.
"Right on point, Victor had sticky fingers. He made a deal with Ranrok, but he definitely didn't trust goblins, so he stole and copied everything he could about ancient magic and repositories. Those notes eventually fell into the hands of Augustus Rookwood and were the reason he became an unspeakable." I explained simply, Dumbledore sighed.
"I assume he took the repository with him when he reapplied for the teaching job, when he hid the diadem in the Room of Requirement," Dumbledore said, already knowing the answer, and I nodded.
"Exactly, from Victor's notes, Ranrok's, he learned to control ancient magic forcibly, but since he can't really feel and manipulate true ancient magic, he only had the option of stealing the repository, and he succeeded." I said while dusting off my clothes "And, that would be all from me, I don't know where he took it, the connections between the horcruxes and Voldemort's main body are too fragmented to keep looking at where he took it or where he 's hiding the repository, but the only thing that is not in doubt, is that he has it."
We both fell silent before I looked at Dumbledore.
"My job is done, you're the Keeper, it's your job to sort this out, and I have a fiancée to get back into bed with, so good luck, Dumbledore, you're going to need it." This time, the headmaster made no effort to stop me.
"Thanks… Serena." I rolled my eyes and ignored the use of my name as I created a portal and stepped inside.
I really had to get out of this world before I got caught up in this whole mess; the longer I could put it off, the better.
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