Chapter 24 - The End of an Era Part 5

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Early Morning November 14 Potter Castle

Harry and Xiana woke up early. After they were done their morning routine, they went down for a hardy breakfast. Xiana was going to meet Remus and go over everything he had found about Horcruxes. Harry remembered how deep Lucius had buried that information in his mind. The information was buried so deep that it had to have some importance somehow. Maybe it was a secret vault or staging area for Death Eaters. Well, he would get a report soon enough, he thought. He needed to get going. He kissed Xiana and told her he would call her if he was running into any kind of trouble.

Harry walked back to the master bedroom to get his battle gear. He made sure he had everything and went to his study and used his computer to look up the valley's coordinates. It turns out that there were three valleys. One to the north, one to the east and the last one was to the south. Harry figured he should apparate a quarter of the way into the valley. He figured that over six thousand years, surface geology would have shifted things a bit. He calmed his mind and pictured the coordinates. Within seconds, Harry found himself on a completely different landscape. The first thing he noticed was the high valley walls, and the torrid heat.

Harry immediately cast a cooling charm, a disillusion, a notice me not, and brought forth his aura reading ability. The first thing he noticed was that he had already punched through a muggle repelling ward. Harry could see the magical energy in the air. He started heading north. He was careful to manipulate around the boulders. He cast several revealing charms for good measure but found nothing. After about an hour of walking, Harry decided to speed things up a bit and took his broom off his chain and enlarged it. He mounted the broom and scanned from the air. After about fifteen minutes of low speed flying, he noticed a bunch of interlaced wards underneath an overhang. He flew toward the ground stopping just in from of the first ward. During his escapade in the underworld, Tiamat had taught him two new wards. They were extremely dark, painful, and lethal. Harry could attest to the lethality of the wards since at least half a dozen skeletons were littered at the entrance to what he believed to be a portal like the one at platform 9 3/4.

He quickly analyzed each ward and cast the counter curse as he had been thought. Not wanting to take any chances, he transfigured a small cactus into a rabbit and threw it at the portal. The rabbit sailed right through the portal. Harry simply raised his eyebrows and slowly walked towards the portal. He slowly extended his right hand and saw it disappear behind the wall. He quickly withdrew his hand and with his wand at the ready cast Lumos and stepped through the portal. The moment he steeped through, green flame torches lit the cavern. Harry took his time examining everything. He noticed the magical energy of the torches, and found much of the cave to be in permanent stasis.

Harry walked towards the back of the cave. He must have walked at least one hundred feet when the back of the cave suddenly lit with a series of blue flame torch. The back of the cave had a really creepy feeling to it. There were stalactites and stalagmites covering the whole area. Harry could make out huge cobwebs, and could hear snakes talking in the background. The most bizarre thing however, was the three scorpion men frozen in stases, each holding a golden box? Harry was now convinced that Tiamat was real.

He needed to animate the scorpion men, pick the right box and conjure two large scorpions. He needed to prove that he was a disciple of Tiamat, and was worthy to take the box. Harry crossed a series of very shallow puddles and stopped at the scorpion statue. He bowed his head towards the statue and moved behind it. The moment he was behind the statue a large swirling wind erupted in the cavern. The storm quickly died, and Harry could see the stasis fields dissolving. Three scorpion men came out of their stupor, and looked around the cave until they spotted Harry. Using their eight legs, they quickly made their way towards him.

One of the scorpion man said, sss "Who dares brave the wrath of the great Tiamat? Prove your worth to us or die a painful death." sss

Harry took out his wand and right away conjured two large scorpions. He noticed a smirk on their face and Harry replied in high snake, sss "Great guardians, I've come to take the legendary dark stones so that Tiamat's mighty army can rise once again." sss

The middle scorpion man came forward and said, sss"You have proven that you are a disciple of the great Tiamat. Now you must prove that you are a great sorcerer and choose the correct box. If you fail you die." sss

Gees, these guys should really lighten up, he thought. Harry simply nodded and slowly made his way to them and looked at the top cover on each box. Each box had the exact same markings of dark magical creatures. The top of each box had dragons on it. The difference was that one of the boxes had a dragon, which resembled an earth dragon but was red and black in marking. This was the dimensional dragon, he was sure of it. Harry found the correct box, which was being held by the third scorpion man. Harry smiled and was prepared to apparate at a moments notice if he was wrong. He pointed his wand at the box and waited to see what would happen.

The third scorpion man bowed to him and released the box from its pincers. The scorpion man then said, sss "You have guessed right young sorcerer. May you bring back Tiamat's honor. There is another smaller blue box sitting in the little shrine on my left. The box contains gems. Take them as well. You will need them to build your weapons. Farewell sorcerer." sss

The scorpion men suddenly moved back to their positions and a blue like field suddenly swept over them and they were frozen in stasis once more. Harry took his wand and Accio the gem box. He then levitated both boxes and made his way back outside the cave. Once outside, he put back all of the original wards. Harry decided to open both boxes outside. Even in stasis there could have been some spores, mold or fungus, which made its way into the boxes. The last thing he needed was to release some dangerous contagion in his castle. Harry figured that everything responded to high snake with Tiamat and hissed, sss "Open." sss

Harry heard a click and levitated the lids off. He then cast several Scourgify on the boxes and slowly approached them. Harry first looked into the box containing the dark stone. The sight that met his eyes was unlike anything he had ever seen. Light seemed to bend and warp around the stones. Harry noticed that there were about twenty stones ranging in size from a large orange to a small cantaloupe. Harry took his hand and touched one of the stones and felt its brutal coldness.

The stone was so cold that it sent shivers down his back. Harry looked closer at the rock and noticed how incredibly smooth the surface was. The other thing that intrigued him was the cool plasma light shows occurring between his hand and the surface of the stone. He wondered if his raw magic was reacting to the stone. Harry looked at his watch and noticed that it was only noon. Not feeling particularly hungry, he decided to find out what the material was. He cast several specialized metallurgical spell to help him categorize its properties. However, the more spells he cast the more confused he became.

If the spells were right, then this material was defying the very nature of baryonic matter. Every stone he tested did the same thing. They all vibrated at the exact same frequency. It was as if every atom in the stone was behaving as one. There were always slight variances in translational and vibrational energy output of a specific element. With this stuff, it's as if every atoms physical property acted as one single atom.

Harry really needed to do some digging on this. He seemed to remember an article that might help him from one of his muggle physics books. He knew the books and would look it up the moment he went back home. He closed the lid on the stone box and opened the gem box. Inside that box he found a large quantity of ultra pure gems. There were emeralds, sapphires, rubies, and diamonds. They ranged from thumb to chicken egg size. This was a good find, he thought. The quality of the gems is what was important here. They were flawless. They would be perfect as focusing stones. Happy with his discoveries, Harry took hold of his broom and apparated himself with both boxes back to Potter castle.

Harry began moving the boxes to his private workshop, and ran into Xiana as she was coming out of library. He noticed the look of surprise on her face, and waited for her to make the connection. He didn't have to wait long when she whispered, "It's true isn't it? There really is some entity reaching out to help you? "

Harry replied, "I was starting to doubt my own sanity there for a while, but after finding the stones at the exact location Tiamat gave me I'm just happy that a greater power has vested interest in my success."

Xiana slowly nodded and looked at the other box. She frowned and said, "What's in the other box?"

"As an added bonus, I was given very high quality focusing stones. I dare say they'll be very useful when I build my staff. How was your meeting with Remus?"

Xiana replied, "It was a very informative session. We pooled our finding and came up with some very interesting revelations. I am still compiling the list of spells though. I should be ready to debrief you by supper time."

"That's all right I'll be locked in the lab all afternoon. I have some research to do." With that Harry kissed his wife and buried himself in his lab.

Lunch Time Hogwarts November 14

Albus Dumbledore was casually waiting for the students to enter the great hall. He had his teachers pass the message that all students were to attend lunch because of a special announcement. It didn't take long for all the students to be seated. He pulled out his wand and put a strong locking charm on the doors. He got up and addressed the students. He looked towards Miss Granger and gave her a slight nod. He then looked at the student body and said, "Dear friends, I have a special announcement for you today. I've arranged it so that our friends from Beauxbaton, and Durmstrang will be able to join us for this year's Christmas dance. I hope you are as pleased as I am."

Albus could hear a great cheer erupt throughout the great Hall. He waited for the ruckus to die down a bit and raised his hand to get their attention. Once the hall was quiet he said, "To celebrate this wonderful news, I have asked the kitchen elves to put a sumptuous fall feast together. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I. Let the feast begin."

Albus sat down, and nodded at the teachers. What the students didn't know was that all beverages had been spiked with Veritaserum coupled with a time delay charm. He just had to wait it out.

Unknown to Dumbledore many people had not taken any of the juice yet. Neville, who had been sitting at the end of the table close to the great hall doors, had felt a spell hit the doors earlier and knew something was wrong. He and Luna over time had taken the time to develop sign language and could communicate rather well with it. Neville kept looking at Luna hoping to get her attention. He finally managed to get her attention. Making sure no one was watching, he looked into her eyes and slowly drifted his gaze to his left hand.

He then began making signs hoping she could catch what he was saying. He looked back at her eyes and noticed her slowly nodding her head. Good, he thought, she got the message loud and clear. He had basically told her to cast revealing spells on the food, juices and all dinner ware to make sure they weren't tampered with. Neville wanted to scream to his compatriots that something was wrong, but couldn't take the chance of tipping his hand. He would have no choice but to tip his hand if it came down to a confrontation.

Neville was thinking furiously. He needed to take the offensive, but how? Suddenly the food and drinks appeared and he carefully took out his new wand from his right boot and started casting silent spells on his food and drink. Sure enough he saw slight blue glow on his goblet telling him that there was a foreign substance. He needed to find out what it was. He then cast a slew of revealing spell. On his last spell the goblet glowed neon green. He looked up to see that Hannah Abbott and Stewart Akerley had already drunk from their goblets. With a sense of urgency he looked towards the Slytherin table and noticed that Blaise, Brianna and Theo were about to have a toast. He knew that the older warriors were sufficiently accomplished Occlumens and could fight off the Veritaserum, but the younger initiates weren't accomplished enough in the mind arts and could compromise themselves with disastrous results.

With his mind made up, he suddenly stood up and picking his cup, he threw it at the main door and bellowed, "What is the meaning of this Dumbledore!"

Everyone immediately went quiet and stopped what they were doing. They were all looking at him. Noticing that his compatriots had put their goblet down, he continued, "So tell me professor, what is the meaning of spiking the drinks with Veritaserum! This is illegal under section twenty paragraph thirteen of the criminal code of ethics. Veritaserum shall never be administered to minors without written orders from the ministry. I'll tell you this, my Gran will hear of this I assure you! What kind of fucking school do you run here anyway? From where I stand it's starting to look more like a circus than a bloody school." He turned towards Chilli pepper and beaver and noticed they had their wands pointing at him. He could see the smirk on their faces.

Albus Dumbledore narrowed his eyes and was seething inside. This was not going the way he wanted it. He looked at the Longbottom heir and sneering replied, "The meaning of this Mr. Longbottom is that it has come to my attention that there are spies here at Hogwarts, who report directly to the new Dark Lord know as the Scorpion Sorcerer. He is directly responsible for the death of one of my teachers and I will see justice rendered."

Neville looked at the headmaster and suddenly burst out laughing. He could see Weasley and Granger sneering at him but he didn't care. He finally managed some control and sneering back at Dumbledore, he bellowed, "Talk about lies and deception headmaster. You wouldn't know justice if it bit you in the ass."

Minerva suddenly stood up and screeched, "That will be two hundred points for your insubordination Longbottom."

"Like I actually give a shit what you think you ancient sycophant," Neville sneered back.

Neville could see McGonagall turn a nasty shade of puce when she bellowed, "Well I never! That will be one month worth of detention and another one hundred points."

Neville took the time to look at each table and hoped that they could read the look in his eyes that said, get ready for a showdown. Neville heard the headmaster bellow and once again everyone's attention was drawn back to the headmaster.

Albus descended to the main floor and cast sonorous on his himself and bellowed, "Those of you who are working for the Scorpion Sorcerer will raise their left hand."

Ginny had drunk the Veritaserum and was now fighting tooth and nails to not reveal herself. Sweat was beginning to form on her head. She was pouring every one of magic in her shields to fight off the effect. She felt like she was gaining the upper hand. She looked around to see Hannah Abbott and Stewart Akerley raise their hands. Oh god, she thought, our new recruits.

Dumbledore saw two hands in the air and immediately cast Incarcerous on the spies. Finally getting somewhere, he thought. He approached them and with a smirk on his face said, "What is the identity of the Scorpion Sorcerer?"

Neville to his utter horror couldn't do anything to help them. He could see the sheer terror on their faces and the beads of sweat on their forehead. They were trying to fight the Veritaserum but they simply weren't strong enough in the mind arts. He knew what was about to happen. He looked at Luna and Ginny and noticed the sad look in their faces. With pure hate in his eyes, he promised himself that Dumbledore would pay for this day.

Hannah could see the stupid smirk on Dumbledore's face, but was not going to give him the satisfaction. Mustering the last of her courage, and unable to fight the Veritaserum she whispered so softly that no one could have heard her answer.

Dumbledore sneered and said, "You will repeat yourself Miss Abbott! This time much louder." To Dumbledore's dismay he noticed the light fading from her eyes and she slumped in her seat. He suddenly recognized what was happening and whirled towards the young Ravenclaw to stun him, but he was too late. The young Ravenclaw finished whispering and like Miss Abbott he too slumped dead in his seat. Dumbledore now realized his mistake. He never took into account that they would have magical binding contracts. The bastard thought of everything. Well, all is not lost he thought at least that's two less soldiers for him. Smiling to himself, he turned his gaze towards the Longbottom pest.

Neville couldn't believe how treacherous the headmaster was. He had just flaunted the law as if it were nothing to him and in the process killed two students. To top it off, the bastard had the audacity to smile. Feeling a righteous rage boiling to the surface Neville bellowed to the rest of the hall, "I wonder what the wizards and withes of England will think of the great Albus Dumbledore when they read the Daily Prophet tomorrow and learn that he killed two innocent students while, may I add, breaking the law in the process. Now, if you'll excuse me I have an interview to give."

"Stay right where you are Mr. Longbottom if you know what's good for you. You will come to my office for a little chat. I have a feeling you know what really happened to my potions master. I will find out the truth one way or another." Dumbledore sneered back.

Ron Weasley without thinking said, "Who are you to question the greatest wizard of the age. You're nothing Longbottom, do you hear me? The sooner you learn your place on the food chain, the higher your life expectancy will be."

Neville slowly turned his gaze towards Weasley, and with a venomous snarl said, "Why in the name of Merlin would I want to take advise from some prejudiced, idiotic, brainless, dickless, boot licking sycophant whose sole purpose in life is to take orders from a stuck up know it all. Thanks for the advice carrot head, but sit down before you overtax what little gray matter you have left, and let the grown ups talk."

Ron instantly whipped out his wand and cast, "Expelli…", but never finished his spell. Neville soundlessly brought his wand down and banished Weasley towards the head table. He went crashing into Dumbledore's plate. Neville saw Granger stab her wand and saw the tell tale light of a diffindo curse coming at him. He turned sideways but still caught part of the curse on his left shoulder where a deep medium size cut appeared. Blood spurted from the wound. Hissing from the pain, Neville was about to curse the beaver bitch when he heard Luna yell, "You bitch! Retroago-Figere-Scipio"

Neville saw Granger slash her wand but instead of a spell coming out, her wand exploded in her hand.

She screamed in sheer agony, and dropped to her knees while looking at her bloodied hand. Neville, immediately Accio Luna to him, and started drawing a powerful rune shield. Meanwhile the teachers along with other members of the Order of the Phoenix had overturned several of the large tables for protection and started casting a slew of Stupefy, Reducto, Diffindo, and several Crucio from Ronald Weasley and other DA members. Dumbledore out in the open cast a powerful golden shield on himself and with another spell made himself jump high in the air and land behind the overturned head table.

Blaise with Theo's help had managed to overturn the Slytherin table and Brianna, Susan, the Patil twins, and Cindy (aka Tonks), managed to reach Neville and Luna to provide cover. Blaise was crouched down with Theo and noticed Chris McGhee, John Hobbit, and Scott McGinnis had joined them. The new recruits were decent duellists, he thought. Blaise feeling the adrenaline and the need to jump into action took another quick look to get his bearings and saw a Crucio heading towards Neville's position.

He looked at the others and bellowed, "Fuck this. They want to play dirty, well then let's show them how the game is really played. Chris, John, and Scott take defence and provide shields. Use the dark shields, they are more powerful. Theo and I will be taking the offence. Everyone Ready? Go!"

Meanwhile the rest of the student population was in complete panic. Several of the teachers made their way to the younger years and cast several shield charms and guided them towards another room. The older students were busy transforming cups, plates, and other kitchenware into defensive and offensive weapons. Many started following their teacher and started casting spells at the people close to the great doors.

Ginny had moved into action, and started pouring a vast array of spells, both light and dark. She was sick of hiding anyway. Thank God, Neville had been alert. She was still fighting the last vestiges of the blasted Veritaserum. She felt such hatred for Dumbledore and what he had done to her friends. Two of her compatriots were dead, and for that Dumbledore and his merry band of boot lickers had to pay. She inwardly shuddered at the primal rage that Harry would go into once he found out the news. Well enough thinking and more fighting, she thought.

Ginny remembered reading a very obscure spell from Necron's last book and cast Dumosus-Oris-Pavimentum at the floor next to the overturned head table. She was rewarded when thick, prickly stone vines began wrapping around the table and started crushing it. She could hear Dumbledore fighting with the vines. She turned to see her fiancé making his way towards Neville. With no back up where she was, she realized she had to get away from her current position and join them. She cast a strong body shield and ran towards Neville. She was hit by a couple of Stupefy and a Diffindo but her shield failed when she was hit with a Crucio. Ginny dropped on the floor and began screaming.

Blaise saw Ginny get hit with Crucio. With a snarl on his face, he erected two more granite walls. The first wall sprang up in front of Ginny and cut the Crucio off. Ginny raised herself to her knees panting. She suddenly noticed a granite wall appear before her. Without any hesitation, she jumped over it and landed beside Blaise.

With a worried look on his face Blaise asked, "You alright babe?"

"Yeah, God I hate Crucio. We've to get out of here. It won't take long for the headmaster to smash through our defences."

Blaise gave Ginny a quick kiss and whispered, "By the way, good thinking with the vines. That bought us some time."

Blaise and Theo managed to transfigure more utensils into granite walls. They positioned them in a staggered formation. John, Chris, and Scott had taken forward positions and kept blanketing the area with shields. Blaise could tell they were starting to tire out. They hadn't received their new wands yet.

Both Neville's front and flanks were now sporting protective walls. They rushed over and took position. Blaise looked at Neville and Theo and counted to three. They all came up and cast a slew of spells, Penetrabilis-Matara/ Diffindo-Caruncula/ Stannum-Ancile/ Inferorum-Animas-Ursus / Caliginosus-Admoveo at that point poison dark lances, tridents, animated bears, dark cutting curses and a dark fog of war suddenly appeared racing across the great hall. It was complete pandemonium. People on the other side started falling due to friendly fire.

Neville looked at the great doors and bellowed, "Lacertosus- Rumpere." The powerful dark explosion curse broke through the locking ward, and shattered the door into dust. Neville bellowed, "Make a run for it. Meeting point Omega-1."

Neville took Luna's hand and they sprinted through the destroyed doors followed by the other scorpion soldiers. Once they were all out, Neville and Blaise cast a powerful rune ward across the doors. Blaise then said, "This should keep them occupied for a while. They all ran to Myrtle's bathroom. Once they were all present they portkeyed to the lair. They saw Moody and their tutors running over.

Moody was the first one to reach them and said, "We saw everything on the cameras. We were getting ready to come and get you people out. Good vigilance Longbottom. The body count would have been a lot higher had you not acted the way you did. The worst part is that we've been monitoring the cameras but no one picked up any news of Dumbledore's plan. The sneaky bastard is getting unpredictable. Someone has to tell Potter what happened."

"I'll go," Brianna replied.

Moody nodded, and turned towards the rest and said, "All right everyone get patched up and ready for debrief at 15:00 p.m. We need to piece together was exactly happened back there."

November 14, 2:30 p.m. Potter Castle

Harry had just finished comparing all of the various light bender stones. No matter what variation of the mining spells he was using, he was getting the same results. He wiped the sweat on his forehead and finished his last entry on his computer. Harry heard a soft pop and heard Dobby squeaking, "I is have master's book Dobby thinks."

Smiling at the hyperactive little elf, Harry took the books from him and said, "Thank you Dobby. You have been a real lifesaver this afternoon. I never thought we would make this much progress this early in the afternoon."

A beaming Dobby replied, "Would Master like some tea and scones?"

"That sounds fantastic Dobby, Thank you." With that, the little elf popped away.

Harry was looking at the index of his physics book for single atom behavior, and found an entry on page 127. According to this article, in June 1995 a research group at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (now called JILA) in Boulder, Colo., succeeded in creating a minuscule but marvellous droplet. By cooling 2,000 rubidium atoms to a temperature less than 100 billionths of a degree above absolute zero (100 billionths of a degree Kelvin), we caused the atoms to lose for a full 10 seconds their individual identities and behave as though they were a single super atom. The atom's physical properties, such as their motions, became identical to one another. This Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), the first observed in a gas, can be thought of as the matter counterpart of the laser-except that in the condensate it is atoms, rather than photons, that dance in perfect unison.

Harry was now positive that based on the light bending property the stone, the unique density distribution of the matter, and its atomic behavior that he was looking at what muggles called dark matter. Picking up another book, Harry looked in its index and found a modern day muggle postulate for the existence of dark matter. Harry went to page 215 and found the following article. In cosmology, dark matter refers to hypothetical matter particles of unknown composition that do not emit or reflect enough electromagnetic radiation to be detected directly, but whose presence can be inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter such as stars and galaxies.

The dark matter hypothesis aims to explain several anomalous astronomical observations, such as anomalies in the rotational speed of galaxies (the galaxy rotation problem). Estimates of the amount of matter present in galaxies, based on gravitational effects, consistently suggest that there is far more matter than is directly observable.

The existence of dark matter would also resolve a number of inconsistencies in the Big Bang theory, and is crucial for structure formation. If dark matter does exist, it has vastly more mass than the "visible" part of the universe 1. Only about 4% of the total mass in the universe (as inferred from gravitational effects) can be seen directly. About 22% is thought to be composed of dark matter. The remaining 74% is thought to consist of dark energy, an even stranger component, distributed diffusely in space, which probably cannot be thought of as ordinary particles. Determining the nature of this missing mass is one of the most important problems in modern cosmology and particle physics.

Harry now understood the dense gravitational wave that Tiamat spoke of, were in reality made up of dark energy triggered by magical energy. That is why only the staff could transmute a very specific set of energy signatures. In other words, only a powerful and specific magical energy signature would cause the light bender stone to convert the magical energy into dark energy. The dark energy in return opened the parallel gateways. All other magical energy would cause the staff to act as an overly large and powerful wand.

Now that Harry thought about it, Tiamat did day that they had found this stuff after a meteor shower. How ironic he thought that it took people with magical ability to see the light bender stones. On the other hand, muggles who probably would have a very hard time seeing the stones had nevertheless proven their existence through theoretical mathematics.

What a weird universe this was, he thought. Maybe after the war, he could send one of the rocks unanimously to one of the prestigious muggle Universities for research. This would get them that much closer to their goal of a unified theory. He knew that at some point, muggles would realize that they were missing an energy source in their equation. For their equations to be complete, they would have to discover magical energy in its raw form. He knew when that day came, the Wizarding world would once again be discovered by muggles.

Harry was brought out of his thoughts when he heard someone knock at his door. Harry looked at his watch and knew it was too early to be Xiana. She was still at their news office. Shrugging his shoulder, he yelled, "Enter."

Brianna opened the door and found Harry by his table with a bunch of books and stones. What in Merlin's name was he working on now, she thought? Shaking her head she sprinted to him and blabbered real fast "HarryweereambushedbyDumbldore..."

"Brianna please slow down, I can't make out a word you're saying." Brianna took some calming breaths and tried again, "Harry, we were ambushed by Dumbledore in the great hall during lunch. He tricked us by spiking all of the juices with Veritaserum. There were some casualties on our side. With Neville's help we were able to organize and fight our way out. Moody is having a debrief at 3:00 p.m." Brianna looked at her brother in law's eyes and could already see that he was pissed. She could see the veins tense up in his neck, and his jaw muscles were popping on and off. He took deep calming breaths and stood up. He then took her hand and apparated both of them to the lair.

Harry expected to find chaos, but instead he found everyone doing a specific job. His regular soldiers were practicing duelling. His tutors and Moody seemed busy reviewing the camera tapes. Harry spotted Neville and Luna and walked towards them. Neville turned around and found Harry coming towards them.

Harry approached Neville and said, "You don't know how glad I am to see the both of you o.k. Thanks for taking charge of the troops mate. I just found out we lost Hannah Abbott and Stewart Akerley. Your quick thinking saved many people today. It's my fault this happened, if I hadn't insisted on binding magical contracts then they would still be alive."

"No Harry, the magical binding contract IS the right thing to do. Don't ever do away with them. We can't afford traitors in our midst. The contract guarantees this. You know as well as I do that during the first war, all of the traitors would have been found out if they had taken loyalty-binding contracts. No one could have foreseen what the goat fucker was going to do." Neville replied.

Harry looked at Neville's face and saw the undeniable truth of his words reflected in his eyes. Luna put a hand on his shoulder. Harry shifted his gaze towards her and once again saw her unwavering faith in him and their cause. She gave him on of her dreamy smile that said everything is going to be o.k.

In a husky voice Harry said, "I want you guys to know that you are more than close friends to me. You're the brother and sister I never had. Having you at my side means more to me than all the gold in my vault. I think the muggle singer John Lennon said it best: "All I need is a little help from my friends" and he was right. Well enough of the mushy stuff, lets get that debrief over with. There are still some preparations to make for tomorrow's trial."

With that, they walked to the centre of the lair and sat around the table. Once they were seated, Moody began the analysis by showing the camera tape on the large screen. It took roughly two hours to go over everything. When they were done, the group voted unanimously to spend more time on learning muggle style sign language.

After supper, it was agreed that the students wouldn't be returning to class until Dumbledore was dealt with. First, they needed to curtail Dumbledore's powers and influence in the castle. Harry made sure that all of his troops were comfortable in the trunk manors. He told them their training would be stepped up considerably now that they were stuck in the scorpion lair for a wile. With his last minute instructions given, Harry, Xiana, and Remus floo'd back to Potter castle for one last strategy meeting.

November 14 Late in the Evening Riddle Manor

Voldemort with a huge grin on his snake like face was currently leaning over a very old book. The book itself had a thin granite cover. The pages were made of thin gold sheets. On the cover of the book, there was an engraved picture of a smoked mirror. Around the mirror were flying dragons. The book itself had been found in the ancient city of Tula in central Mexico.

His expedition team, who had now mostly perished, had initially begun this quest over twenty years ago. Through a stroke of luck, the expedition team had finally stumbled over the tomb of Tezcatlipoca, the Toltec warrior god. In reality, he had been a powerful magical shaman over thirteen hundred years ago. The knowledge contained in this book explained how to control all sorts of magical creatures. The book it turns out also contained ancient spells on runic shields and wards. This book was a rare find indeed. Long lost magical knowledge was next to impossible to find these days.

He had been busy translating the last of the ancient runes. He couldn't wait to see the look on the dragon trainer's faces, when Lord Voldemort commanded their dragons to do his bidding. To his utter shock, the book had spells and rituals that allowed him to communicate with Dementors directly. The book even showed him how to retrieve souls that had been kissed. Contrary to popular belief, when a wizard or witch was kissed the soul didn't die.

The Dementors fed off ambient magic, which in turn they fed to the trapped souls. The trapped souls fed off the ambient raw magic, which they converted to soul magic. Soul magic is what powered Dementors' dark powers. The more souls a Dementor had, the more powerful they were. When Dementors breed, they pick the darkest souls that they posses and through a ritual they convert that soul into a new Dementor.

Voldemort figured he was the most knowledgeable wizard on the planet regarding soul magic. After all had he not conquered death? In the pursuit of that knowledge, he had found a way to integrate a soul into anything. Now that he knew how to communicate with Dementors, he wanted a very important soul to be given back to him. He needed to get down into the caves and talk with them. Perhaps the Dementor he was looking for was there.

Very soon, he would have a powerful alliance and a slew of new wizards and witches enrolled in his army. Their choice was simple. They either joined him, or perished on the desolate rocks of Azkaban. He hoped to get at least sixty percent to come with him. As for the rest, the Dementors would feed very well indeed on the night of the attack.

Speaking of Azkaban, where was that shit for brains Mulciber. Without intelligence and floor plans, it would be impossible to breach Azkaban defences. He needed to take down the breach wards to get in and get out. The anti portkey and anti apparition wards were untouchable. They had far too many anchors and support stones to take them down. If Mulciber and Bella were successful, then he would have the list of wards, spells and their counter. Lord Voldemort knew that getting a hold of these secrets would cost him much money. In fact, it would almost deplete all of his reserve. If his plan worked, it wouldn't matter anyway. Soon, he would have plenty of new recruits to help refill the coffers.

One of his biggest hurdles was that he needed another way to get his troops off the Island. They would expect him to portkey, or fly them out. What if they swam instead? They would never expect them to go underwater to make their escape that's for sure. This time of year, the northern seawaters were brutally cold.

There were several ways to get around underwater. One was self-transfiguration. That was an iffy proposition at best. Contrary to popular belief most wizards and witches sucked at self-transfiguration. He kept thinking about his options when he heard the front doors leading to the throne open up. Voldemort could see Mulciber and Bella sauntering over with several books and some large parchments.

"Finally, what took you so long?"

Mulciber replied in a stuttering voice and said, "Me Lord, our contacts were late. The agents were busy in the Upper House. Apparently, Potter is bringing Dumbledore to justice. Supposedly, the Potter brat has found out that Dumbledore had manipulated him his whole life. We told our agents how to vote on Fudge's proposal. Our last agent to show up was detained in the hall of records. He had to Obliviate the records keeper."

Lord Voldemort roared with laughter. Bella and Mulciber laughed at seeing their Lord in such good humor. He finally managed to get a hold of himself and said, "What fools they are. Let the light side attack each other. This will make it that much easier for us to take over. You both have done well. Come, let us finalize our plans."

They both followed their master to the strategy room. Voldemort turned around and bellowed, "Rat! Front and center now." A very ugly and balding man with a silvery hand came through one of the doors and dropped at his master's feet.

Voldemort sneered and said, "Get up you pathetic excuse for a Death Eater. I want to know if you have a plan for getting us wands. Our prisoners are going to need wands Wormtail."

" Ya,ha,yeeess,yeesss my Lord. I have a window of opportunity tomorrow. Most of the security is going to be at the trial. Ollivander should be easy picking. I'll need some backup master."

"Very well, take Irvine and Mulciber with you. Do not fail me Wormtail."

"Never master, never."

"We'll see Wormtail. We'll see."