Chp 40: Bewitching Hour

That Night ...

----

Passing through the entrance of the Grand library garbed in a bodysuit, invisibility suit and teacher's note, Adam was like a wraith completely undetectable to man and magic.

Almost, that is, as the wooden floorboards still bent slightly beneath his feet as he passed over them, but nonetheless unnoticeable in the dark.

Crossing to the left of the room he crept towards the restricted section, stopping in front of the red heavy rope psychologically sealing that potion of the library off to most of the student body.

Checking he was all clear he carefully unclipped the rope, and stepped through before clipping it behind him.

'Now what am I looking for' thought Adam looking around through the semi-transparent film of the invisibility cloak that was making seeing anything an even greater challenge in the dark.

'I told you I should have brought a lantern' said Adam to Calcifer.

'It would ruin our stealth'.

'And there's no one around'.

'Doesn't mean there aren't any more measures to identify intruders, think about it, we can't see any physical barriers protecting the restricted section and we know they give older students slips to access it to avoid setting off some kind of ward', there could very well be more systems in place to catch us out'.

'Sneaky buggers' laughed Adam mentally as he weaved between bookshelves,

'Damn, I can't see shit'.

Adam got his wand out.

'Probably not a good idea, wouldn't want to burn the library down' thought Adam feeling that his wand was being especially aggressive today.

'Warp it is'.

Adam followed through the process he had been taught drawing, anchoring and channelling the warp up to his irises, causing cat-like eyes to emblazon themselves beneath the mask he was wearing.

The gloom quickly receded, revealing the books in front of him light cast from a silvery glow.

'Now what do we have here, Famous Fire-Eaters, Moste Potente Potions, Secrets of the Darkest Art ... no history of the valley come on where are you?'

Araaaaaaghhhhhhh

A book suddenly screamed at him as he passed it.

'Nope'

Adam stepped quickly around the cursed book which looked like a person's face had been grafted onto the book, their angry visage screaming in equal measures of madness and pain mentally.

Adam continued briskly to the next section of the bookshelf, Fifteenth-Century Fiends.

'Hmmm'

Adam took down at the book, popping it open and leafing through a few pages rapidly, a shadowed illustration of a hooded figure drew his attention.

The dark wizard Ekrizdis, birth unknown (Circa -1400s) he read.

Much remains unknown about the dark wizard but what few survivor accounts remain suggest Ekrizdis was a homicidal dark wizard, he was probably an insane wizard. His activities were largely unknown until his death but it is suggested that he built his fortress on an island in the remote North Sea, sufficiently isolated to facilitate his malevolent and terrifying experiments without condemnation from the wizards of the period.

He hid the island away from both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds with Concealment charms. Ekrizdis was reputed to lure and capture Muggle sailors to his island lair where after he tortured, experimented on and killed them. When he died, the Concealment charms faded and the Ministry of Magic became aware of his atrocities. This fortress later became Azkaban , its wall eternally imbued with the evil of the fortress's erstwhile master.

Further, an infestation of Dementors was found inhabiting the island, which later became the prison guards for fear that they would escape if they lacked sufficient sustenance.

Though Scholars hotly contest the origin of Dementors and their cousin's Lethifolds, some suggest that the creation of Dementors can be traced to Raczidian a Dark wizard who, according to an ancient story, attacked a wizarding village, only to be foiled by the Patronus of Illyius. Nonetheless, due to the lack of hard evidence of their existence in the historical record before the discovery of Azkaban, except by reference to the legend it is highly probable that Ekrizdis created Dementors or at the very least reintroduced them back onto our planet.

Following its discovery, the Ministry was unsure how to cleanse or destroy the dreadful place for fear of releasing the Dementors on the mainland. Only one account remains of what was found by the ministry on that island, following the suicide of many of the investigators. 

The section on Azkaban ended with that paragraph in lieu of a missing page on the next.

'Azkaban, seems pr-et-tty dark' said Adam.

'I don't know, let's look into it some more, there's usually no smoke without a fire' said Calcifer'.

Adam backtracked through the aisles, searching for more information on Azkaban. Adam spent the next few hours crisscrossing back and forth around the restricted section but he was unable to find any reference to the ruin or any more mention of Azkaban. 

Eventually, as the sun crested the high mountain tops on either side of the valley, Adam was forced to call it a night less he meet Irma Prince starting her day. 

Skulking away down the corridors Adam eventually made it back into his room in Hufflepuff common rump, pulling his invisibility cloak off before flopping face first onto the pillow and passing out.

----

In Adams's dreams a thunderstorm roared ...

Adam found himself flying on a broom above the ocean, smashing waves towering into the sky around him, biting ice and sleet cutting into the tiny amounts of exposed skin on his wrists and neck as the winds threw him around narrowly missing the crest of a wave passing beneath him.

He flew on one hand held across his face to stop to deflect the stream of elements smashing into his face.

He felt cold a deathly chill setting in, unnatural in the sense that his body had already lost all feeling in its extremities.

Suddenly he was deep underground staring at a gateway, malevolent ruins shifting across its surface.

He was pulled away, free-falling past the spires of buildings that seemed to defy gravity falling into space from every which way.

His feet found firm purchase in the next moment the screams of thousands in torture cages around him, his view shifted again.

Finally, he found himself, in front of a cell with a person huddled in one dark corner blood and grime marring their face.