Chapter 307: Tested Patience
If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.
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4 January 1995, Durmstrang
The jagged peaks of the Durmstrang mountains jutted against the grey sky, their snowy tops looking like stern guards over the rough terrain. These mountains were wild and untouched, with rocky slopes diving into steep valleys covered in thick layers of snow. The dark pine forests were weighed down with fresh snow, the branches heavy with the pristine white powder. The air was cold and sharp, with a clean winter smell and a faint hint of pine.
In the middle of this rugged range, one mountain looked pretty much like all the others. Its base was covered in snow, softening the rough edges of the rocks and trees. Hardy plants peeked through the snow here and there, and small frozen streams glistened like silver ribbons down their sides. There was nothing special about this mountain; it just blended in with the rest of the imposing landscape.
Other than the portal that opened suddenly, of course… Two figures emerged from it, a boy and a girl, specifically, Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass.
Harry looked around the cave they arrived in and immediately waved his wand, turning them both invisible. Seconds later, a vampire thrall ran out and sniffed the air… It shook its head before turning and returning. Thank fuck those creatures weren't very intelligent. He fully expected one of them to sound an alarm and warn Dumbledore.
The blonde gave him an irritated look, "Harry, this is getting ridiculous… You haven't slept in days and the task is about to start. We're not going to find Gram in just a few days. You knew that it was a slim chance anyway. Even if you did find it, then what? You'll fight off an army while sleep-deprived… And don't say that those stupid potions would help you. You've already taken a lot more than you should and I don't need to give you a list of the dangers right…"
Harry winced at that. He had bought a few potions that stopped him from needing to sleep. Sure, using it more than two days in a row wasn't recommended and he was going to crash pretty badly after it's done, but he needed to find that sword. He didn't even know why he was so obsessed about it… It was some kind of instinct in the back of his mind, probably his fledgling seer powers giving him hints about what to do… Or maybe it was his obsession to find the answer to the puzzle, to figure out what Dumbledore wanted to achieve.
He was about to protest only for Daphne to interrupt him once more, "Harry, you almost got us found out in seconds. We've searched dozens of mountains, maybe even hundreds… We found nothing so far. And don't pretend that a vampire being here means anything. The others were full of them as well…"
Yeah, Dumbledore had outsmarted him in that regard, even if Harry didn't want to admit it out loud. He had stationed an army of vampires at each cave in every single mountain around Durmstrang. The former headmaster was far more prepared than he expected… It was funny just how critical of an advantage having more time could bring in a fight…
The man had expected that Harry would, at some time, figure out that the sword Gram was critical to his plans, and hadn't wanted him to follow Dumbledore's forces to discover where it would be… Harry had been so glad when he saw the vampires in the first cave he explored, only for it to be a dead end. He thanked all the possible gods that he had decided to sneak in and not fight his way in… Alarming Dumbledore was the last thing he needed…
This whole thing was a frustrating nightmare. Every single mountain was unremarkable… Each had a small army of vampires and didn't have any particular sort of magic, according to his Arcane Hearing that is… Not that he expected any obvious traces of magic… People would have found the sword centuries before if they did… Still, the vampires' presence meant that their guess was probably right, that it was the prophecy of Sigurd's heir that Dumbledore wanted to destroy… If only they could just find that fucking sword…
The lack of sleep was making him very irritable and forgetting the privacy charms was a mistake he shouldn't have made… Deciding that Daphne had a point, he released a deep sigh, "Alright, this is the last one. If we don't leave this place with a lead, we'll go back to Durmstrang, and I'll go to sleep. We'll try to figure out if there are any relevant prophecies near Nebelheim and make do…"
"Fine," Daphne replied while rolling her eyes, "This is the last one we're visiting today…"
Harry nodded, and they slowly entered the cave. For the first time since they arrived, he took the time to observe his surroundings. The path inside was uneven, with loose rocks and patches of ice making each step a bit tricky. Stalactites hung from the ceiling like the teeth of some ancient creature, while stalagmites rose from the ground, forming natural columns that cast long, eerie shadows. The walls were rough and jagged, with patches of moss and lichen clinging to the damp stone.
All in all, it was exactly like the others that he had visited… He easily walked past the thralls walking around mindlessly and more than a few Vampire Lords… While he did so, he subtly tagged them with a special runic matrix that he created. He had created them in a whim, to make fighting Vampires even easier.
The rune absorbed magic and stored it, only to transform it into a conceptual form of sunlight. It wasn't anywhere as effective as actual sunlight, but after storing a lot of magic, the inefficiency was made up by the sheer amount of it… It wasn't perfect, but it was a great way to deal with a lot of vampires at once. Once tagged, Harry could activate the rune at any time, and they were dead vampires walking… Well, deader than they were… Did vampires count as undead? He didn't know for sure…
They searched for any signs of the sword, but Harry couldn't find any… There was no ritual and to be honest, there was nowhere near the same number of vampires as there was back in Italy… He had almost given up until he noticed the leader of this pack of vampires… It was an Elder Vampire, a female one, which was a first for him. He supposed that it did make sense that there would be female Elder Vampires… Still, This was an inconsistency since all of the other caves were led by groups of Vampire Lords…
He motioned to Daphne to freeze all the entrances and exit to the section of the cave… Before she could even do anything, the Vampire Elder ran towards her, with her claws raised. Harry summoned Daphne towards him, and she finished her spell trapping them all inside…
The Vampire Elder froze with a smile on her face and loudly chuckled, "Dearie me… What do I have here? Your magic is quite exquisite, but there is nothing that is hiding your souls from me… I'd recognize them in a heartbeat… Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass… What a pleasant surprise…"
"For some reason, I don't think you mean it…" he replied with a sarcastic tone.
"Now, now… There's no reason to be more sensitive… When Albus Dumbledore said that there was a chance you'd search the caves around Durmstrang, I couldn't help but be curious. I volunteered, of course… After all, you have probably killed more Vampire Elders than anyone in history... They do fear you, not enough to refuse to fight you, but enough not to actively seek out a fight… I suppose you should be proud to have such a fearsome reputation… I can't help but wonder how you killed us… We're supposed to be able to regenerate from just a drop of blood… And yet you killed your fair share of our kind…"
"Yeah, I'm not telling you how I'm killing your kind… That sounds like a bad idea on my part…"
The vampire pouted and it looked so wrong on her face, "That's too bad… I can't help but ask why you're going so much out of your way to go after Dumbledore… Sure, at the start, he was the instigator, but he hasn't really made any moves against you in a while… It's like you're aching for his attention despite saying that you hate it."
Harry rolled his eyes, "What are you getting at?"
"I'm trying to understand you… You see, you're one of the most fascinating humans I've ever met. Oh, I've seen countless Light Lords and Dark Lords fighting. It's always been just the two of them going at it, creating armies, wreaking havoc, then the winner undoing the loser's life's work, and the circle goes on again and again… It was stable, it was predictable until it wasn't… That fool Drakul and his friend Flamel tried to make it so the Light and Dark Champions would work together, and Europe burned for it… The whole thing would have been a lot tamer if there weren't actual feelings involved, but whatever…"
"Aren't Dumbledore and Grindelwald working together now?"
The vampire's grin became even wider, "Oh, what a clever boy, you are… They are but it's obviously against their nature…"
"And why is that? Why are they working together? What ritual are they powering?" he asked very quickly…
"Now, now, I can't tell you that… It would be far too easy…"
Harry growled, "I could make you…"
She snorted, "You'll do what exactly? Kill me? I'm old, Potter… I've experienced everything there is to experience, seen everything there is to see… You're a curiosity, something new, which is why I'm here… And if you kill me, then you do kill me… I'm not really bothered. After all, it's just one new thing for me to experience…"
"You're insane," Daphne exclaimed.
"No, my dear… You're thinking of life as a mortal would… Vampires, especially elders, have a different view. Your first thousand years of life are, by far, the most exquisite one… You could travel the world, see new things, but that's the problem… The world is not infinite and eventually, you run out of new things to experience and after that, you just… exist. Some find meaning in isolation, some just go to sleep, hoping to wake up centuries later and experience new things, some try to find meaning in servitude and it is fun, seeing the schemes and plans you humans come up with, but it gets boring quickly too…"
Harry turned and gave the vampire a curious look, "So, let me get this straight… You're here because talking to me is curious and new… You want to figure me out…"
She snorted, "Of course I do… It's not every day you see someone challenge a Champion of Light and be actually effective against them. They often just die, quickly if they're lucky… You see, I have seen two kinds of challengers… They're either idiots with delusions of heroism, and you're not that, or they're just suicidal, which you're not either… I was so curious to see what made you tick, and I think I figured it out…"
Harry froze and she continued, "It's not about Dumbledore at all, is it? If Dumbledore was waging war, you wouldn't have cared as long as no one you know would have been hurt… Sure, Dumbledore being involved is what made you curious, but you're obsessed with the answer, the puzzle. You can't stand the idea of not knowing something… Tell me, how right am I?"
The last Potter growled, "Alright, I haven't slept in days. I'm tired, I'm frustrated, and I'm just one little snap away from doing something very drastic. So, I'm not going to get into an argument with you… Instead, I'm going to ask you one last time and you won't like the consequences if I answer you. Where is the ritual taking place?"
"I told you, child, you have no leverage here…"
Harry gave her a blank look and sighed, "Well, don't say I didn't warn you…"
The vampire didn't even have the time to react before she was petrified in time. Harry walked towards her casually and touched her stomach. A large rune matrix appeared and started glowing. Then he waved his hand, and four large ice pillars appeared, each one covering the vampire's limbs. He enchanted each of the pillars to freeze whatever it held through time as well… It was almost impossible for someone to even get out of this place… He created a portal underneath Daphne, taking her back to her room in the Hogwarts Express. He did not want her to see this…
With that done, he removed the temporal petrification and tried not to wince when the Vampire Elder started to thrash around and scream. He deactivated the rune slightly and she shuddered, looking afraid for the first time since this confrontation, "What did you do?"
"Just a rune I came up with, or a variation of it, really… It uses ambient magic to channel conceptual light in your body and as resistant as you are, it won't kill you, it'll just feel like you have fire in your veins," Harry neglected to say that he also channelled a bit of the resurrection stone to make it so that the light wouldn't be overpowered by her nature. Whoever made vampires had used some form of soul magic to make them, and it was what made them stronger the more thralls they had.
The woman thrashed even more, "I'm going to kill you…"
Harry waved his hand and silenced her, "Let's just stop the threats right now… You see, you caught me in a bad mood… So, I'm giving you a choice… I could keep you here, reactivate the rune, keep you bound in this cave, silenced and alone. You would be in the dark, feeling nothing but pain, for aeons. Your mind would fracture from the constant pain while you yearn for the sweet release of death even more with every passing moment. However, since I am a nice person, I'll spare you this pain… As long as you tell me where the ritual is taking place, that is…"
The vampire was trembling in fear. However, after a few seconds without an answer he shook his head, "Alright then, I guess you made your choice…"
As Harry began to turn away, she thrashed harder, her voice growing desperate. "I'm not afraid of pain! You think this will break me?"
Harry paused, his back still to her. "Maybe not now, but give it time. You have eternity, after all."
The vampire's defiance wavered. "I've endured centuries of torment. Your tricks won't work."
Harry turned back, his eyes cold. "You've endured physical pain, but this is different. This isn't just pain; it's isolation, it's helplessness, it's an endless void of suffering. And the worst part? No one will come for you. Not even death."
She looked into his eyes, searching for a sign of weakness, a hint that he might be bluffing. But she found none. Harry's expression was as unyielding as stone.
Harry took a step closer, his voice low and menacing. "I know exactly what I'm dealing with. And I know exactly how to make you talk."
He activated the rune briefly, and the vampire screamed, her body convulsing in agony. Harry deactivated it just as quickly, her cries echoing off the stone walls.
"Ready to talk now?" he asked calmly.
She panted heavily, her eyes filled with a mix of fury and fear. "Fuck… you!"
Harry activated the rune again, this time for a longer duration. The vampire's screams were ear-piercing, her body writhing in pain. When he finally deactivated it, she lay there, gasping for breath, but she still wasn't talking…
"You know what," Harry mused, "I think you're right. I'll never be able to make you talk… Unfortunately, that means that you wasted my time, which is something I have very little of. Maybe it's better to just leave you here alone. Don't worry, I might be back… probably… sometime in the next decade possibly… I guess this is goodbye…"
He activated the rune once more and was motioning to walk away until she loudly yelled out, "Please don't… Please I'll talk, just don't leave me here…"
He motioned her to continue, "The sword. Grindelwald found it when he was a student here. Dumbledore somehow moved the thing in the cave underneath Durmstrang for better access to the crowd's magic… You'll find it there."
"There aren't any caves underneath Durmstrang. I checked myself…"
She was rasping now, "It's a secret one. Grindelwald used it as his personal laboratory back then… There's an entrance in the school, near the symbol of the Deathly Hallows is carved… Please… I told you what you wanted…"
Harry nodded and released the woman from her chains. She snarled at him, "You're a fucking monster. You, Dumbledore, and Grindelwald deserve each other…"
She leapt at him and Harry conjured a blade of ice and channelled the resurrection stone through it. He activated the cloak making her go through him and stabbed her in the heart with the ice sword. In all this time, his expression did not change for one second.
He then activated all of the runes that he put on the Vampires he encountered in every cave.
With a wave of his wand, he created a portal to Daphne's bedroom, only to see her glaring at him, "I got a location… Dumbledore moved the sword from the mountain. He put it in a cave underneath Durmstrang."
"What happened to the vampire?"
"She's dead," he simply stated, "So, the cave underneath Durmstrang… Are you in or out?"
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AN: This chapter was pretty hard to write and I kinda did it in a hurry. I don't think it came up exactly like I wanted to, but I hope you like it anyway. I might end up rewriting it based on your feedback (don't worry, I won't make any serious edits without telling you), so please tell me what you think of it and if you have any suggestions.
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.