Chapter 9.

I slipped my fingers under the fabric of her silk panties and grasped her left cheek savagely. Her soft moan was followed by a passionate kiss as she pressed her flat chest against mine.

I massaged her flower delicately underneath the three layers of clothes, wetting my fingers with her sweet excitement, and licked her in the neck like she loved me to do. The game continued for some time, she rode my fingers, grinding on my arm and biting my lips as I held her by the hair with my other hand.

Loren and me didn't had sex yet, we weren't ready. Yeah, alright, she isn't.

But I had found that she was very much inclined to forget things when she was aroused, and so, I played with her. I toyed with her small body, and she was all for it.

We had been doing this for some time now, since the Pettigrew rampage. Aurors, probably out of options, admitted in the last development published in the Daily Prophet that Pettigrew was most likely linked to the attack.

She groaned in my ears and slid her hand down my stomach, reaching my own underpants. It was all good. It worked as a way to keep her in the dark and happy, and at the same time it felt really good.

I had positively fallen for Loren, she was so sweet and so pleasant to be with. And damn, she knows how to have fun. The downside was that it made me feel like an asshole to lie and cheat her, unlike any other housemate. At least I kept my promise of not obliviating her.

"You feel ... different." she mouthed hoarsely after a few moments of rubbing and kissing me, still panting and overheated. I questioned her with an interrogative glance, tingling her magic button a bit more.

She sighed delightfully and hardened her grasp on me. "I'm serious, you're... more... I don't know." she whispered. "Sturdier... darker." she concluded in a mutter, looking at me intently.

She feels the change in me? Not that surprising I guess, even my wand doesn't want my magic anymore. I couldn't see any difference when I had studied my body in a mirror after the last ritual I had undergone.

"It's natural to grow and change at our age..." I explained vaguely, slithering my coated fingers up her body and leaving a line of the glossy liquid on her smooth skin until I reached the top. She wasn't usually able to keep a conversation steady when I did things like that. I popped the buttons of her shirt with the back of my hand, revealing her flat chest and poking nipples, and placed my still dripping fingers on her lips. She tried to resist for a moment but it was a fool's attempt. I pushed my two fingers through her lip s and she bit them softly with a deep moan. Is that normal for a young witch? No way, I just found the wildest cat.

My successful dodge of the subject didn't last long, when we had stopped playing and cast the proper Evanesco at the right places, she laid onto me, her head on my shoulder and started again.

"Don't you think I forgot because of that." she scolded with a mild smile. "You've changed Harry, and that has nothing to do with puberty. What happened?"

"Nothing happened, it's just my magic... maturing, I guess."

She looked at me suspiciously, pouting.

"Don't want to say, eh? Well at the very least try to get better." she stood up and straightened her robes. "I liked the other Harry better, you feel... sort of dangerous, now." She shrugged and laid a kiss on my lips after I picked myself up. "I'll always be by your side, anyway." she took my hand and pulled me out of the unused classroom. I looked at her, wondering how it came to that.

She was always protective of me, since the very first week. She always sided with me, no matter how fucked up I acted. I think she really loves me.

And do I love her? I think I do. What is love, anyway?

She started bombarding me with questions on potions ingredients as we walked to the dungeons because, apparently, a big test had been scheduled for the next lesson.

The lessons went like all lessons with Snape went. He scolded everybody for being awful, ignoring the actual average level of the class, and tried to create eye contact with me, probably to confirm his doubts with a small probe of Legilimency. I expressly refused to look at him in the eye and spent the rest of the lesson ticking boxes on the test sheet and whispering correct answers to Loren, who was definitely terrible at remembering anything.

After Potions was the first quidditch match of the new year, Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. Our group of Huffies split up at the locker room, finally getting me rid of Louise and Rosaline who had been particularly annoying lately. Since I had officially started dating Loren, Louise had stopped annoying me for a while. That was good times...

But recently, she had came back in full force, openly flirting with me and putting her assets forward; she was prettier than Loren and she knew it. Sadly, she had taken my rejection badly and changed tactics. Instead of trying to seduce me with her pretty eyes, plump lips and bigger-than-the-concurrence bosom, she now tried to break my relationship with Loren, at any cost. Or at least it's what I guessed from the conspiratorial looks and occasional harassment from her group of friends. It was a true self-control exercise to not curse them all to hell.

The starting whistle echoed in the pitch and I took off, forcing myself to take better care of my broom than usually. The trustworthy Cleansweep Three was old and half broken. Cracks were visible across the whole body, it was chipped and splintered in many part, a third of the twigs were out of usage, broken, burnt or just unable to catalyze any magic anymore. I had been harsh on the broom, true, but I liked to think that a broom would prefer being used at its maximum capacity and die quickly than being underused and end up taking the dust in a closet.

Wind rushed in my ears as I flew forward, following the quaffle with my eyes. They're slow. They're so god damn slow.

I had always found them somewhat slow compared to me, but now it seemed worse. I was now used to my decreased reaction time and overall enhanced speed and strength. I had learned how to dissimulate it everyday. But once in the game, it was different. I could use it.

I dropped the leash. I let myself use my body fully. My vision widened critically, offering me a view of almost all the pitch, my heartbeat accelerated, my nerves sharpened. I flew around a bit, covering Howell and the quaffle. A bludger came from behind, I spotted it with the smallest move of my head and grabbed Howell by the robe, pulling him to me. The bludger tried to correct its course but only grazed Howell's robes.

Could have swatted it aside too, but now that wouldn't be very smart. I grinned, it was great to exploit my newly obtained abilities but I was sober enough to not overdo it. The match was progressing slowly, I scored a few points, spotted the snitch at two occasion and avoided falling stupidly. It was hard to maintain my body on the weak broom, my strength and speed were too much, I wanted to leap off my broom everytime the quaffle flew in my direction.

After fifty points for us and almost a hundred for Gryffindor, I got my hand on the quaffle in the Gryffindor side. My team mates were on the other side, I had no cover and three chasers behind me. I pushed my withered broom faster, luring them toward the wooden tower of the commentator, dodging a bludger at the last second with a nasty jolt that made the broom creak painfully. I ignored the protesting wood and continued accelerating. They were closing in, all with brooms more than twice as fast as mine. If they followed me in my loop, they'd be able to take the quaffle. If I want to let it go, that is. The rebel thought was baseless; I knew I'd let it go to preserve appearances.

Just a few yards from the wooden tower, they tried to take a shortcut and started a larger loop than the one I was going for. I smirked. Now they have a larger window to catch me, but I have a larger one to escape too.

I pulled on the broom as hard as I could to start my loop, but this time, the broom didn't creak. It was broken at the handle, its tip now in my hand. I had pulled on the wood too hard, too suddenly, and tore it in two pieces, despite the strengthening enchantments. As I processed this, staring dumbly at the useless stick in my hand, I was rapidly approaching the commentator's tower. I heard him yell madly in the microphone along with the crowd, but the wind in my ears mashed the words in a deafening whistling. I hit the wooden planks at full speed, protecting my head with my right arm, and smashed through it. My body was hurled against a massive wooden beam, it broke in half as I hit another, this time only cracking it. I dropped to the floor, my dazed mind awakening slowly from the impact, and hit another right in the stomach, cutting my breath short. I fell some more, taking more speed as the ground quickly grew closer, and finally smashed a last wooden beam before plummeting on the ground with a violent thump.

I difficultly inhaled a stifled lungful of air through my barred teeth. A rumbling noise started from above me, the whole tower creaked alarmingly, small pieces of wood raining around me as the planks shook precariously.

I stood up to evacuate the place, my head still dizzy and my lungs still gasping for air, when the tower collapsed. Tons of wood started to drop around me, I reached the facade and punched it.

Wood pieces and splinters exploded away from me, tearing a large hole in the thick planks, I stepped out and walked ten steps before sitting on the pitch, taking hiccups of air.

The tower crumbled loudly, staff members were running left and right, pushing students back as the commentator and the few people on the tower with him got rescued by broom riders.

I was alright, not a single cut or splinter under my skin, not a single broken bone, not a single dislocated articulation or torn muscle. After a few deep breath, I was as fresh as ten minutes ago, albeit a bit sore at some places.

My team mates spotted me and flew to me, dismounting rapidly once on the ground. I was standing on my feet, facing the terrible mess I had created.

"By Merlin's beard, Harry, lay down!" Diggory was panicked, he reached me with a terrified face and calmed down a bit when he saw I was unscathed.

"I got real lucky that time." I said to him, to immediately appease the possible suspicions. "How many yards did I fall down? Half a hundred?"

He nodded gravely. "How did you get here in one piece?"

"A lot of wood in there, felt like falling down stairs."

He watched me strangely and turned to the huge heap of wood in front of us as the rest of the team came to touch me and check if I was alright. Pamela hugged me brutally, to make sure I had a few broken bone in the end and Priscillia the beater gazed at me in awe, her eyes all watery. The rest of the team, being guys, was less expressive and simply patted me on the back, mouthing something about being happy that I was alright.

I was suddenly hit by a Loren rocket at full speed and stumbled a few steps back. She was hugging me tighter than Pamela the lusty seventh year, suffocating me with hair.

"It was so scary! I thought you were dead for sure!" she sobbed in my shoulder. I patted her on the back, not sure how to act.

"I'm okay, sweetheart. It takes more than that to hurt a Potter." I quipped in her hair, smelling her distinct perfume that I had learned to love. Something that I couldn't describe but made me feel better than a Pepper-Up potion, something I could only define as Loren.

She sobbed once or twice and released me to wipe her tears.

"Don't be sad, I'm sure you'll find a way to get rid of me one of these days." I grinned, kissing her as she rolled her eyes at the joke. I saw madam Pomfrey appear behind her, running to us with her wand out. Can't let her examine me, what if she finds something wrong with my body?

"Let's get out of there." I whispered in her ear and grabbed her by the hand, dragging her with me as I strode to the locker room. Zachary landed on my path and dismounted his broom, watching me worriedly.

"You okay, Harry?" He asked, surprised. I continued striding, still leading Loren and nodded quickly. "I'm alright, Zach, good game, by the way."

I let the astonished Boy-Who-Lived stand with his broom in hand and opened the locker room, seeing Pomfrey hurrying after me with my widened sight. Loren didn't ask any question, she let me lead her in the castle silently. Eventually, we were alone in the eighth floor's bathroom of the east tower. I liked this one because there were shower booths and it was always empty.

"So, why did you bring me there?" she broke the silence as I was taking a well earned rest on a conjured chair. "And since when are you so good at conjuration?"

"Conjuration isn't that hard, if you can do a rose it's pretty easy to do a chair." I smiled and conjured another chair for her.

"I still can't do a proper rose, though." she muttered, taking a seat. "So why here? Do you want to..." she lowered her tone and smirked impiously, "...play a bit?" she concluded, biting her index.

The only reason I had brought her here was because I needed to get away from Pomfrey and to take a shower. But now that we're here, it seems only natural to play a bit...

"Let me mend your injuries first, I'm sure you're cut all over the place." she took my robes off and I helped her unbuttoning my ripped shirt. I noticed only now how ripped my clothes were, my skin would have been shredded if I wasn't reinforced by the power instilled in my being by the numerous rituals.

She slid her hands across my naked torso and back, finding no recent cuts.

"Amazing..." she kissed me on the shoulder blade. "You have nothing... not a scratch..." her hand stopped on my breast scar. The scar dealt by the cursed blade had healed long ago, but left a thin line of whitened tissue to remind me of my first kill.

"A magical scar? How did you get that?" she muttered. It wasn't that unlikely to have magical scar at thirteen, was it? Hell, Zach have one!

"I was a kid, just an enchanted kitchen knife." I replied casually.

"You lie." she stated calmly, turning me to her, and touched my necklaces with the tip or her fingers.

"What are those? A girl necklace and an iron phial?" she inquired, narrowing her eyes dangerously. "Who gave you that?"

"If I tell you my sister, you're going to say I lie again. What's the point of asking if you don't believe the answers?"

She analyzed me for a moment and decided I wasn't lying. Is she some kind of incredible natural Legilimens or what?

We spent the rest of the evening in the bathroom, I depicted to her my fall within the tower and exaggerated the number of wooden beams that slowed me down to make it look like "a fall down the stairs" as I had lied to Cedric. She seemed to buy it but I wondered if she really did or if she pretended to. She reads me better than anybody else, and she felt the change in my flesh. She's not stupid.

I pushed the door and entered the dusty old shop. I walked to the counter and hit the small bell.

An old man appeared from behind a shelve, out of the shadow and laid his eyes on me.

"A wand, please." There was nothing else to buy but I felt necessary to break the silence. Ollivander looked at me gravely and nodded slowly.

"What happened to your old wand?"

"It doesn't... cooperate anymore."

"Follow me." He beckoned me and walked in a second room. The second room was as dark and dusty as the first, but there were no shelves. Wand boxes were stored in a huge mess of stacks and heaps.

He took a red box and made me try the wand from inside it, not doing the usual description like I remembered. Maybe he does that only to kids.

The long black wand didn't react badly, the yellow stars I produced with it were even quite good. Ollivander didn't agree, though, he snatched the wand out of my hand and put it back in the box as another box came flying to me.

The process wasn't as long and tedious as when I was eleven. After a few dozen unsuccessful tries, he finally handed me the Holy Grail.

The wand was white, no longer than my first, and produced a furious wave of pure magic as I wiggled it mindlessly. The wave took the form of a light blue halo around me and vanished in a deep buzz through my body.

I felt the wand answering to me. Ollivander nodded knowingly and spoke for the first time since we entered the mysterious room, his voice sugary but emotionless.

"Nine inches, elven silver birch and hydra heartstring. Very powerful. Probably as dark as you are."

I looked at him, waiting for him to exclaim "Hey, I was joking" at some point. It didn't come.

"Crafted in another country, in another time. Two hundred galleons." he concluded on the same monotonous tone.

Merlin's guts! Two hundred? I eyed him skeptically.

"You won't find better, the thing is a relic of the old times." he stated peacefully, walking back to the counter. I could curse the shit out of him and run with the wand, but is that worth it? I can afford two hundreds galleons.

"Indeed, Mr. Potter." I jumped back. He knew who I was even with the aging potion, and he had just read my mind.

"Your Occlumency is strong, but I am beyond Mastership in the subject, Mr. Potter. Do not fear, I know not of your secrets and I won't tell a soul about your presence here."

"Why did you feel it important to call me out then?" I was weary, this guy seemed like he was beyond Mastership in a lot of subjects.

"Because I'd hate to have to fight you, and possibly damage the precious wand you have in your grasp." he pointed to the birch wand I was aiming at him with.

He knows only of my name. What is the risk of that? I can't imagine starting a fight here and now, he could be way more powerful than I think.

I sheathed the wand and took my Wallet-On-Demand, whispering "two hundred galleons". The wallet vomited a piece of paper, I handed it to Ollivander, who slid it in his cash box. The box flared green and the number 200 hovered in a green smoke on top of it.

"Stay silent about me if you value your life, old man." I said softly, trying to sound confident and intimidating.

We bowed respectfully at each other and I left the shop, uneasy. I got a bad feeling about that.

Maybe the Dementors floating in Diagon Alley's streets were partially responsible for my uneasiness too. The Ministry had placed a few of them in all the big magical towns since Pettigrew's massacre. Well, my massacre, let's be honest here.

The Auror count had doubled, because they now had to watch the Dementors and make sure they wouldn't kiss anybody.

I walked carefully, if I got caught and questioned by Aurors, I hadn't much of a story to give them.

I was already walking on eggs at Hogwarts, the situation was tense. I didn't think Loren believed me. She trusted me but she didn't believe me. She knew I was lying, she felt my body being changed, she wondered about what the fuck I was doing when I disappeared like today. Any other girl would have trashed me long ago, but not Loren. Every doubt vanished when we could find a free hour and an empty classroom. It was so much more than mindless snogging between us. Love, perhaps. What do I know?

The rest of my housemates took the not-explanation of the crash mildly, some ignoring it immediately, arguing that I was Potter after all, and some watching me skeptically. My head of House professor Sprout insisted that I needed to see Pomfrey but I assured her I was fine and barely dodged it. The story wasn't forgotten yet, even two months after. I hoped Zachary would hurry up and get into some crazy shit again so it would definitely be tossed in the archives.

Thankfully, I wasn't doing anything illegal today, I only came for the wand and to take delivery of a letter that wouldn't pass through the wards of Hogwarts.

A portkey. I was being owled a portkey by an associate of Zephyros. The guy was apparently a French vampire lord, and I was invited to meet him in his mansion somewhere in France, to discuss my wish to join their crew. Sounds totally legit, let's just take a portkey to a vampire mansion!

I could joke as much as I wanted but the result was the same. I had already agreed to the meeting. I was confident I would survive it, vampires and wizards had signed a treaty long ago, which specified that vampires wouldn't feed on wizards, and wizards wouldn't hunt vampires. It was a fair deal, and had been mostly respected until now. There isn't much sense in inviting me in only to gut me, anyway.

I reached Jartle's Public Owlery and jabbed my wand to the stack of letter.

"Letter for Mr. Horus, password Jingle Jangle." I had stopped using Mr. Book after the Pettigrew incident.

The brown envelope extirpated itself from the first stack of letters and flew to me. I snatched it in midair and opened it. I wasn't especially eager to get there, but I didn't want to wander too long with the Dementors and Aurors in the area. I took the medallion out of the thick envelope and placed it around my neck.

"Activate."

I stumbled on the gravel floor, dazzled and disoriented. Where the fuck am I? I looked around me. The gravel I had landed on was spread on a long walkway, decorated with two lines of high cypresses on both side. Beyond the trees there was a huge and well-kept domain. Green grass, sculpted bushes and sandstone fountains. A pleasant breeze washed over me, the sky was grey and busy with white the end of the walkway stood a majestic renaissance castle. The vampire mansion. I remembered what I was doing here, shaking the remaining blurs of international portkeying off my brain.

A crack resounded on my right, I jumped slightly and spun to it in a reflex. A young girl stumbled on the gravel, steadying herself efficiently, and turned to me. She wasn't pale at all, she had a very living face, actually.

And she was younger than me under aging potion. Fifteen, no more.

"Mr. Horus, if you would follow me. I will lead you to Master Prince Victor." she said with a low bow and a cute French accent.

I smiled to her and followed her up the walkway.

"You stand in the daylight, you are human." I stated simply as we walked the extensive path.

"I am, Mr. Horus. I am but a mere servant in this mansion, you may do whatever pleases you with me." she answered politely. Damn! I was indeed thinking of all the things I'd do with her slender body.

"Why, though?" it was a mystery to me, why would a witch do that?

"I wish to join the kindred, Mr. Horus. I wish to become a permanent resident of Prince Victor's Harem." she explained in a shy but consistent voice.

My jaw dropped. Jesus Christ, when they said "archaic monarchic system" in that book, they weren't joking around!

"What's in, for you? Why would a witch do that?"

She raised her eyebrows in surprise, her first true expression until now.

"I am nothing but a mere human, Mr. Horus, I possess no such gift." she answered shamefully, looking down. I nodded. That explains a lot. A muggle wishing for immortality.

We walked a bit in silence before I inquired her some more.

"Tell me what you know about the hierarchy here, the prince, the king, all that jazz."

"The Prince Victor is the master of this land and manor; he is under the yoke of his father King Aimé Gábor Xavier, who possess all of southern France and a part of Spain. Prince Victor opens his manor to any paying kindred and regulates blood consumption in his father's kingdom."

She started giving me the name and title of every influential vampire in the manor and I cut her. I wasn't interested in having to remember French names.

"What did you mean by harem?"

"Qualifying for the Harem is the dream of every human in the manor, it means that you become Prince Victor's personal slave for ten years. After what you can claim freedom if you wish so, and in this case, Prince Victor will turn you himself, giving you the gift of immortality." she replied dreamily. I get it now, why they warn against vampire seduction. Designed to attract mortals and seduce them, heh.

"But until you are chosen, you have to serve in the mansion." she added without a hint of a sigh.

"The prince doesn't mind having sloppy seconds in his harem?" I had learned this expression very recently and found it to my tastes.

She shook her head.

"Only those who give up on Master Victor give up their virginity. It is the only thing we have to offer, after all. Those who really wish to reach the top find other ways to satisfy the kindred in the meantime."

I looked at her outfit, straight out of a muggle fiction, black latex and thin lacy clothing barely covered her curves. What am I putting myself in...

"You... you are wizard, right?" she asked hesitantly, losing her eeriness from before.

"I am."

"The kindred isn't much fond of wizards. Many talk of you like dogs." she was staring at me, as if all the secrets of wizardkind would pop out of my face. "They say you aren't worthy of the gift of magic."

I laughed heartily.

"Well that may be true, but as far as I know, they're the one overusing the tiny amount of control they have over magic to hunt muggles and drink their blood. Who do you think made this little trinket for you?" I pointed to the necklace she had used to travel to me.

"A vampire? Not a snowball's chance in a dragon's mouth, darling. They can't do shit except parlor tricks and a bit of mind control on weak creatures like you. Sure, they're strong, fast, and most importantly immortal, but that's nothing magic can't do."

"And what can wizards do, then?" she scowled.

"Us? We can do magic. We can raise mountains with our will alone, we can level cities with a flick of wand, we can summon the brightest fire and banish the darkest shadow. We are magic, we can kill anything with a jab and we can raise the dead with another, we own this world, gorgeous. It is ours, and we can do whatever the hell we want with it." I ended my raving with a throaty laugh.

"I could snap my fingers and burn this whole mansion to the ground, and nobody here could stop me."

She was in awe, my speech hit right on the spot.

"Can you really do that?" she muttered in admiration.

"First time meeting a wizard?" I grinned. She was so cute.

"I think it's the first time in centuries a wizard walked this pathway." she couldn't stop staring at me. I didn't know how to feel about it.

"Well, it takes time to master magic, but technically, we can do all of that. We can even do immortality, although I'll concede vampires are better at that."

She nodded.

"How does one become a wizard?"

I cringed. Now I felt like an ass. Of course, she'd ask.

"You can't. You're born wizard or you're not."

She lowered her head once more and stayed silent, walking straight in front of her. She opened the main door and we entered the manor.

The main hall was very vampire-ish, red carpet, red armchairs and red tapestry decorated the room, along with iron torch holders shaped like bats and small demons. A huge crystal chandelier hung from the high ceiling and illuminated the place. Many vampire were sitting around, drinking blood from vine glasses served by muggle girls in the same revealing outfit as the one leading me. Some of those were on their knees, servicing vampires in shadowed corners, and other were being feasted on, moaning faintly in pain. I guess some prefer drinking directly from the source.

While there were also whorishly outfitted females vampire in the lot, it was easy to spot the muggles, they were the one with colour in their skin and a awful look of acceptance on their pretty faces. On my left, against a bookshelf, three vampire women looking between thirty or forty years old were avidly gulping the crimson fluid flowing from the neck and arms of a fourteen years old girl who looked like she was about to pass out, her tiny body shaken by the voracious bites.

"Fucking hell, how many death do you get per day?" I muttered to my guide, as numerous vampires glared at me for trespassing. Obviously they had been warned of my presence, or I would already be a skinless piece of meat laying on the black wooden table.

"We are fed a strong blood replenishing potion, we regenerate our blood very quickly. The average death count is one per week, but most of the time it isn't an accident." she muttered as low as me.

"You must be one batshit insane muggle to volunteer for that jungle." I commented out loud, not bothering to mutter anymore. If those fuckers want some, I'd be glad to oblige them..

"Most of us didn't volunteer, we just know they'll kill us if we try to escape or fight back, and it isn't that bad in the end... the bites feel good."

"Did you volunteer?" We were now climbing the stairs to the first level. They were more... muggle than the great hall. The walls were painted a dark blue, and white muggle lights were encased in the ceiling and stairs. Only the thick dark red carpet reminded me I was in a vampire meeting center.

"Not at first. I was taken at thirteen. But now it's like I did, I wouldn't leave for anything." Sure, that's why you jumped on the first occasion to ask how to become a witch...

"Why do they take them so young?" I knew this would be my last question, she was standing beside a large double black steel door. The prince's office.

"The kindred has no use for old ones." she bowed and walked away. I rasped on the steel door. She stopped and turned to me. "If you do have the time, come meet me at the club, I would like to hear more about wizards." and with that she left, as the door opened in front of me.

I was facing a large office, a few seats and armchairs were pushed against the wall on my right and two girls servants were standing on my left, their eyes closed. In front of me was a wide desk, made of glass and steel. It looked like a very luxurious muggle office, it if wasn't for the dark colours and black parquet. The same embedded lamps I saw in the staircase illuminated the ceiling from the walls. There was a crystal chandelier above the center of the room, but it there were no candles on it. On the desk were placed a few items I had never seen, linked to each other with black strings. The chair was turned to the great window behind it, who gave a splendid view on the endless domain.

I eyed the two girls on my left and choose to ignore them. I walked to the desk, making my presence known by a small cough.

"I hear you, Mr. Horus, I smell you." said a refined voice from the seat.

"So, Here I am."

"Oui, Mr. Horus, here you are." the chair turned and revealed the famous prince. He was handsome, there was no doubt about that. In his thirties for Merlin knew how long, dressed in an elegant grey costume that fit him like a glove. His hair were combed perfectly and his pale skin didn't look quite as repulsing as some other vampires I saw in the hall.

"You were summoned in the present Manor to prove your value, to prove me you're worthy of following my dear friend and me in our little escapade outside this world." he started suddenly, with an obviously natural haughty voice. He was impressive, in a way.

"We have been exerting our mind for the past three decades to unravel the secrets of Horus and make his portal reality again, and you, you think you possess anything that could prove helpful?" he stood up from his chair and walked to me.

"You are younger than I expected, so much younger!" he realized suddenly, fascinated. You have no idea.

"What could such a weakling possibly detain that we need?"

"First thing, I already gave you an important detail about the ritual, no use playing this game with me, prince. Secondly, you don't know how to fully operate the portal. I can help you. All I want is to go in there." I talked strongly, not letting him think he could toy with me and get away with it. "We have similar purposes, we could cooperate and be sure to succeed, or you could refuse and make us both lose the unique opportunity."

He grinned widely and snapped his fingers. One of the two servants opened her eyes and walked to a cupboard. I watched her with interest. She opened it and brought a scroll to us, placing it on the desk.

After what she walked back to her spot next to her coworker and closed her eyes obediently.

"If it's just for show, don't bother to instruct your slaves beforehand next time."

He looked at me and smiled.

"They are not only for show, Mr. Horus, if you'd wish so, I'd lend you one for the night." He grabbed the scroll and sat down on his desk nonchalantly.

"On this rolled sheet is laid all the definitive information our people gathered on the portal opening ceremonial." he stared intently in my eyes and used the particular brand of mind magic his kin possessed to try to read me.

His honed skills made it almost unnoticeable but I spotted the probe. I purposely slammed the doors shut in his face, he crashed against my spiked door and snapped his eyes shut in pain, bringing his hand to his forehead immediately. I didn't quite understand how it worked, but Hellard said it simply made my magic react and transfer pain in the attacker's mind through the connection.

"Trying to get a glance at what I know, Mr. Victor?" I snarled, my hand around my new wand, ready to test it out.

"I merely wished to ordeal your resistance to psyche stressing, Mr. Horus. Such project couldn't afford to be jeopardized by a weak of the mind. I realize I misjudged you from your young age. Ironic, isn't it, coming from a kindred." he explained peacefully, visibly not ashamed at all. He's right, though.

"Should I test your resistance too?"

"Do not get too cocky, young one. Now, for our agreement." he whistled. The second servant opened her eyes and nodded, her face expressionless. She walked out of the room.

"You love to toy with them, don't you?" I asked, both amused and disgusted by his little show.

"Do you like what you witness in this mansion, Mr. Horus?" he seemed genuinely interested by my answer.

"You kidnap, rape and eat little girls. How does it sound?"

"You are blind, Mr. Horus. Blinded by the society, the corrupt civilization of wizardkind shaped you like you stand before me. You forgot who you are, where you come from. You forgot the wild beast that you are." he walked to the window and continued to talk, his voice echoing in the office. "Vampires, Veelas, Wizards, Werewolves. We may be dissimilar in the very core of our existence, but there is one common point that unites us. We are above humans. We are beyond humanity." he turned to me again.

"Tell me, Mr. Horus, is it inherently bad to use those inferior to serve us?"

I stayed silent. It's bad because it's wrong. It's bad because it ruin lives. And you don't want to ruin lives. I stayed silent because I knew it wasn't an answer he'd accept. It'd only reinforce his point.

"I think you get it now, Mr. Horus. It may be inherently bad, but we are beyond good or bad, those are human values. And we are greater than humans. It is your own choice to stay a sheep or to free yourself, young wizard, but the kindred has chosen."

"What happens to the girls in you harem, do you really offer them freedom after ten years?"

"I am not one to cheat, Mr. Horus, and I truthfully don't need nor want to keep them. Those who desire to leave shall leave, and those who desire to be turned shall be. We may not follow humans rules of good or bad, but we have our own laws to follow." he spat back, before switching to an evil grin, "Even if those are more like... guidelines."

The servant from before came back, followed by an old guy in blue robes. She took back her position and switched in gargoyle mode.

"I present to you Gregory. He is the man who worked on the ritual with Zephyros for me up until now." he waved an arm to indicate the man and sat back in his chair. "He will enlighten you on the details. Now leave me to think." he tossed me the scroll and clapped his hand. The two servants awoke and headed for the desk. Gregory went out of the office without a word, the door closed behind us before I could satisfy my curiosity. What command is the clap?

I followed Gregory in a few flights of stairs, and he opened a door for me. It was his workplace, obviously. Books were laying in heaps all over the place, scribbles and doodles covered huge sheets of paper glued to the walls. The room was large, very large. It was conceived around a small terrace in the middle; a circular platform of stony ground with a lump of earth and some vegetation in a corner.

"So you test rituals in there?" He didn't look like he was about to talk if I didn't start myself, probably bitter to have to deal with an just-out-of-the-school rookie.

"How did you get this information on the Sapphire of the Tomb? I would never have thought the distortion in the beams were caused by that, it changes the whole thing!" he barked at me. "It was all based on the human sacrifice as main anchor, do you have any idea of how pissed off Master Victor was when he heard that in the end we'd need to rethink the entire ritual? Let me fill you in, he hates bad news!" he threw his arms in the air madly, triggering a parchment avalanche with his feet.

"This ritual makes no sense! How many virgins did I sacrifice to test the anchoring?" he let out a long sigh and slumped on a chair.

I opened the scroll and read a few indications here and there.

"I lost the passion long ago, kid. I lost my enthusiasm about all of this story, I don't want to do it anymore but I know Victor would cave my skull in if I tried to quit." he reached for a bottle in the middle of heap of parchment, uncorked it and swallowed a large gulp.

"The good money and free slaves all day and night aren't worth it. I don't wash myself anymore, I'm drunk all the time, I just can't stand it any longer." he started to sob.

I wasn't looking at him, I was picking pieces of paper left and right, reading what I could.

"Master Victor doesn't really care about all of this, he wants it to work but will do fine if it doesn't. That's the only reason I'm still alive. My incompetence is tolerated. But I can't leave. If I leave, I die." he wiped his puffy eyes through his hair falling down his forehead. "I may look a hundred years old, but I'm only sixty. I want to live."

He let that sunk in a moment whilst I skimmed through his stuff, finding a bit of useful data and a lot of crap.

"Think you can help me figure that shit out?" he finally croaked after gulping another mouthful from the bottle.

I nodded.

"While I don't give half a fuck about you, we will work together. In the next few days you will go through all your papers and take only the valuable, useful data. Then you will give me all of that and we'll cross-analyze it with my own info. I take that scroll."

I finished just in time as a girl walked out of the shadow from behind a pillar.

"Master Gregory? Shall I please your guest?" suggested the teenage girl dutifully.

Gregory shot a pained glance at me.

"I can't stand it anymore. Such a proud pureblood I was when I got here, pounding as much muggle ass as I could possibly manage, and now look at me. I can't stand looking at that muggle anymore, it pains me deep in my heart. I've sacrificed half a dozen of these ones on this very ground... no wonder I can't look in a mirror." he waved her off. "Get out of there, and don't come back, kid." She nodded and walked out.

Of all the fucked up shit I've been through... I feel like I'm in another world. I thought, watching the pretty muggle girl leave the room.

"Why do they choose exclusively teenagers?" I looked at my watch. I still had time before nightfall, but I was getting hungry.

"Lots of reasons. Easier to manipulate with mind magic, fresh and untainted blood, they all are virgins, and you can keep them longer before they fade. They're just cattle to them, sexy little pieces of meat you can stuff you dick and your fangs in." he scrunched his nose and swallowed another gulp from the bottle. I stretched my hand too him. I needed a good gulp too.

I stayed an hour with Gregory to prepare our communication ways and gather a few of the interesting developments he had accumulated over the years. When I left his lab, I was torn. Head to the underground part of the manor to find the club and talk with the first servant I had encountered, or finally go back in Hogwarts?

What do I want from this girl? Certainly not that, even if it's totally natural for me to be attracted. Hell, she's actually older than me. To save her? Get her with me out of this place? What would be the point of that? To feel like I did what I could to help? Fucking stupid. I didn't come for that.

You're a bad guy, Harry, get real and deal with it.

I'm sick of this place, I need fresh air.

My decision taken, I grabbed the portkey on my necklace and vanished away.

"Hey Harry, didn't see you in the whole day! I thought you were with Loren but she's looking for you."

"Oh really? I was in the library." I tried, conscious that Loren probably looked in the library first, I had spent the day in the forest. Smith squinted and approached me.

"Harry, we talked about it with the others and we don't like what you're doing to Loren." he whispered threateningly in my ear. I raised an eyebrow and kept my face still.

Seeing that I was waiting for him to say more, he continued. "You obviously date someone else, and we know she's not a Hufflepuff. If you just keep Loren as a cover, you must stop it. We don't care if you're dating a Slytherin, Harry, but don't play with Loren's love like that!" he finished furiously, still whispering and spluttering in my left ear.

I forced myself to keep my calm, pinching my nose bridge and exhaled loudly.

"Smith, you're pulling facts out of your ass. I'm not dating anyone else that Loren, I just like to be alone. Don't you remember our first year? Was I already dating a Slytherin according to you? At eleven?" I shrugged and pushed him out of my way. "Don't interfere in my relationship with Loren."

"She's not going to trust you forever, Harry. Neither we will." I turned to him again.

"The fuck do you mean? What's your problem?" I spat angrily, he was really getting me worked up.

"Our problem, Harry, is that we're a team, and you're the weak element. We keep covering you from the professors and everybody else because you're part of us, but you keep disappearing and lying, even to Loren!" he sighed and placed his hand on my shoulder. "Like I said before, we're a team. You're not playing with the team, Harry, we can't just keep telling everybody you're alright when you're always somewhere doing something we don't know about." he stared in my eyes sadly.

I see. I guess I'm pushing my luck too much lately, ritual studies need a lot of time and reflection. I looked around, we were in the first floor corridor near the great hall. There were a few paintings on the walls and some students circulating. I'll obliviate him later.

"I'll think about it."

"Don't expect us to be friendly any longer if you keep playing with Loren's emotions." he crossed his arms. I nodded and walked away, not especially angry. It wasn't an issue after all, I just had to obliviate everybody. Not something I'm not used to.

Now, for Loren, it's a different story. I wouldn't obliviate Loren, that was definitive. I need to make sure she's not with them, or she'll notice their sudden memory loss.

I entered the hall and scanned the Hufflepuff table from the door. Loren wasn't here.I turned around and headed for the library. No use in sitting down there if they're all going to pester me like Smith.

The library was mildly busy, the best places near the windows had been taken. I walked to the rear end, beyond the last shelves and sat on my favorite spot, breaking the disgust ward I had set on it to keep it free. Nobody could possibly see what I was doing without me seeing them come before. I opened my three disguised books on various rituals and spread them around my parchment on the table, I unrolled the massive scroll on my lap and flipped the pages of my Horus notebook. I had carved runes on everything, a simple snap of my fingers and they would close immediately.

I had been doing a lot of work in the forest lately, hence Smith's concern about my absences. I was testing a few things, experimenting a few theories. My work with Gregory was a lot of cross-analyzing different documents. I had definitive information on my notebook and on the scroll, but nothing was really definitive in rituals. And we would have only one try.

Zephyros was less knowledgeable than I expected, I came to that conclusion after a few exchanges with the enchanted parchment Gregory had given to me that allowed the three of us to have written meetings in our respective country. He knew the basics, but didn't quite understand the flexibleness, the hint of creativity and madness you needed to create the logic. It was more and more easy for me, I understood it, I saw where I could tweak and change established rituals to improve them and was progressing neatly in the portal of Horus.

So in the end, it was mostly me and Gregory. Zephyros would be handling the funding and Victor would be managing the dark materials we'd need.

Because according to me, we'd need quite some nasty stuff. A virgin sacrifice was definitely needed, as Gregory had guessed, but not as the main anchor, just as a plus, an extra. I wasn't quite sure why, but virgin sacrifice greatly enhanced the flow of blood-powered rituals. Not that I had tested this, I trusted the books and Gregory's experience for that.

The other items we'd need were not as vicious. Fresh human organs, a lot of them. Twenty fresh hearts as secondary anchors and various others on the disruption spikes, to stabilize the power of the main geometrics.

Along with that, we needed a barrel or two of unicorn blood - funnily, it was considered so much worse than standard human blood - and two Legendary Salamander beating hearts. I was almost sure we'd have to terrorize the unicorn before bleeding it, so the blood would be tainted by fear. There was no technical requirement for that, but I figured it would reinforce whatever god's or demon's name we'd call in the chant, according to things I had read.

Victor assured he'd take care of all that.

Zephyros would order the gate itself, a huge frame of crystal that would catalyze and balance the energy flawlessly, opening the Entrance to Hell. He took in charge everything else too, the numerous potions we'd have to feed the virgin sacrifice, the sapphire, and the construction around the portal to hold the anchors and such, probably made of adamantine to isolate the ritual's ingredients from the ambient magic perfectly.

The rest was up to Gregory and me, and thankfully, we already had the chant. It was one of the most important aspects.

While we were rearranging Gregory's stuff in his lab and seeking interesting papers, he had given me his ring. A thin golden ring marked with a stylish V for Victor.

The thing was magically signed and impossible to counterfeit, it was a key to every imaginable place in France, and most particularly the black market. Like us British people, they had their "shady" street in the local magical marketplace, where kids weren't allowed to go because it was a place for dark wizards. Le Cercle Vicieux, the vicious circle. Not hidden at all but considered dangerous, like our sweet Knockturn Alley.

He had enlightened me on the balance between the Ministry, the Veelas, the Vampires and the mafias. They were clans, fighting and dealing with each other, signing peace treaties and breaking them since centuries. It was probably the same in England, but I wasn't aware of it. The Ministry is nothing more than a clan of wizards like another, it doesn't have any more rights to control the citizen than Vampires and Veelas have. It likes to think it does, but it really doesn't. That's why Aurors don't step into the Cercle Vicieux too much, it is Veela territory and they're not especially welcome.

Gregory had given me an invaluable secret, the access to the most extensive Dark Arts bookshop of the world, The Marianna Trench. He had explained me how obscure it was to most of the magical population, only a name on something that no one ever saw. But it was actually real, and accessible from the Cercle Vicieux. The building itself was apparently located in a secret place, nobody knew where, but it was accessible from a few places over the world by an ancient brand of magic. Ancient magic seemed to power it if I trusted Gregory, wards ensured that nobody with any other intent than reading, buying or selling books could enter. I was eager to visit it, even if Gregory told me he spent days looking for any information on the portal inside.

No, I wasn't looking for that, I was sure I would find something on body creation rituals in there.

The perfect body creation ritual. There have to be a way...

I walked around the corner of the old-looking house and peered at the empty street. No one in sight, I had no idea of where I was or where I was meant to go. I berated myself for not asking more direction to Gregory, the place was a damned maze. And not a single soul to help me find the way...

I walked some more, crossing empty streets in a sense and in another, and as I was starting to get pissed, I felt a soft tingling on my magic. I was entering a warded part of the small town. Finally, I'm getting close. Damn this stupid portkey shop for not being able to send me directly there, seriously...

I turned a corner and suddenly faced a scenery of liveliness and activity. Witches and wizards were moving in all direction around the huge fountain in the middle of the gigantic plaza. The fountain was a statue of a veela sitting on two men, her legs crossed and her face serene. She was naked, and water streamed out of her nipples. The two men were on their knees and elbows and were turning their head painfully to admire the lesser demon sitting on their back, water flowing out of their eyes. I remembered the words of Victor. Greater than humans.

I strolled for a while, exploring the interesting French magical marketplace, and spotted the entrance to the famed place a bit further. In the extremity of a large dead end stood the infamous building. Four stories high, made of old stone and wood, there was nothing special to it except for the impressive sign that indicated "Le Cercle Vicieux" in thick golden letters on the dark green wood and the fact that all the windows were shut with wooden planks. The place seemed abandoned and rotting from a distance, like one of these haunted houses in children books.

There were a few people in front of it, hanging around in the street, which acted more like a front yard to the building. I made my way through the crowd and entered the large entrance. The two big doors were kept open. Behind them was a lengthy stone corridor. I walked it down and eventually emerged into the Cercle Vicieux. It was a work of art and architecture like I had never seen before on such a large scale.

A wide boulevard started at my feet and looped on itself, curling around the higher level and so on, with various building hanging precariously at its edge, creating small alleys and side streets like thorns on a rosebush. Like a snake resting in a jug, the boulevard was coiled on many levels until it reached the top and center of the small town it really was.

A castle. A magnificent castle, easily Hogwarts level, dwarfed the whole town under it, shining like a thousand stars in the night and at the same time ominously shadowing the houses that sought its proximity from moonlight.

That was the famous Royal Castle I has been told about. The most luxurious and hyped place in France, despite being a house of dark magic and veela corruption. Queen Marjolaine's castle, where weekly masquerade balls were hosted the old fashioned way, with fancy dresses and veela waitresses.

Queen Marjolaine was the current veela queen, she had absolute authority in this part of the globe. It was ruled by the local mafias, just like Knockturn Alley, but if she did as much as to raise a finger, they'd all crawl to her feet. There was no logical reason for that as far as I knew, it was all political influence and connections I didn't know of.

I went up the boulevard, looking for the address Gregory had given me. Derrière le Masque was meant to be in one of the side alleys between buildings alongside the boulevard. The shop, while being an actual shop, was a passage to a smaller place of dark knowledge, one reserved to people who actually knew what they were coming for.

I checked a few alleys on what I'd call the second level as there was only one level of buildings under me, and was unsuccessful. I stopped a couple wizards walking by me.

"Would you happen to know where is Derrière le Masque?" I figured I'd ask instead of running around the whole night.

Not speaking English, they pointed me a red building discernible two levels above me. I walked some more and finally reached the alley that led to the red building, almost getting lost on the way, despite literally following a straight road. It was strangely disturbing and dizzying to walk the circular boulevard.

"Halte! Les mains en l'air, doucement!" shouted imperiously a male voice behind me. I didn't understand what he wanted, but "halt" and the domineering tone were clear enough.

I turned slightly to them, gearing up with my best naive face.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I got what you meant." I smiled and prepared myself to unleash hell on earth, two wizards were training their wands at me. They were dressed in no special uniforms, but there was something weird about them. They look out of place, they look like they try too hard to blend in.

The wizard who spoke whispered something to his colleague.

"Place your wand on the ground and raise your hands." he articulated slowly but clearly, obviously not a fluent English speaker. They were still pointing their wands at me. Can't risk anything, they'll be the first to send curses and they have the numerical superiority.

"I don't think I've done anything illegal, sir." I crouched and dropped my wand on the unequal cobblestone, wishing that I had kept my old cherry friend with me at least as a decoy.

"We bring you to Auror center for identification." The clumsy sentence froze my spine just as I was raising my hands in the air. I can't follow them, I have no identity. I didn't lose any thinking time wondering why they were after me, I was analyzing my immediate opportunities.

He's reaching my wand, his wand is pointing to the ground. I shot a quick glance to the Auror in the back. He's still aiming at me. Be patient.

The one closer to me grabbed my wand and pocketed it, he then turned to his buddy and nodded. He dropped his aim. Big mistake, frog-eater.

I grabbed the wand wrist of the guy before me, effectively broke it and made him drop his wand, and pushed him forward, palm against his back, with all my might. He was chucked toward the second Auror like a cannon ball hex, not even having the time to yelp before the impact. Having no direct visual on me, the standing Auror tried to avoid his flying mate and quickly sent a desperate cutting hex, but he was too slow. They collided, both were sent sprawling further down the alley. The cutting hex was botched but somehow still reached me and cut a slight gash on my cheek.

The improvised Auror cannon had taken only a second, his wand was only touching the ground now, I snatched it and jabbed it to them, hoping it would work.

"Un vampire! Putain!" yelled one, picking himself up rapidly.

"Crispum Incarcerous" A chain appeared around them and savagely bound them. I reached them in three overpowered steps and kicked in the right arm of the one who was trying to stick his wand out of the chain.

Bones cracked with a sick noise and the Auror wailed in the night, his wand clattering a couple feet on the left. I muted them both with a flick of the light brown wand, sealing their mouths and noses with a glowing band of light. Fairly efficient, even if I have to force my magic through it to get a result.

The dark chain coiled around them more and more, it wouldn't stop until I removed it. I summoned my wand from its thief and kept the other in my back pocket. Could come in handy if I purify it before leaving France.

"Why were you after me?" I asked calmly, forcibly breathing slowly to unnerve my startled senses. Behind them, nobody seemed to have seen or to care about us. They refused to talk, affronting my gaze with strong resolution.

The one on the left spat on my feet, I backhanded him with my free hand, sending a teeth flying in a spurt of blood and saliva. His head slumped down numbly, he was knocked out. Could have broken a rock with that slap...

"Legilimens!" I roared, effectively breaking through the mind of the only one still conscious.

"Viens voir ça, José."

The man beckoned my point of view to come. Apparently, I was José. José walked to him and watched the glowing rune on the marble block. The rune of concealment. Some guy passed the control wards with a heavy disguise on.

The second Auror asked something in French. José nodded and took his cloak, they were going out.

I swam a bit further in the sea of thoughts, the vision became blurred and focused again, on another memory.

José and his colleague had been following the man for quite a bit now. They were about to quit when he suddenly stopped a passerby and discussed with him a bit. Apparently, he was asking for directions. He thanked them and set off.

José whistled to said passerby and showed him his Auror badge.

"Aurors. Dites-nous ce qu'il voulait et on vous laisse tranquilles." said José in a professional tone that left no room for a negative answer.

"Il voulais trouver Derrière le Masque, la boutique de masques plus haut." José looked at his colleague who displayed a grave expression. He nodded knowingly and they hurried after the mysterious man without a word.

My eyes jerked open. No idea what they were saying, but they don't know anything about me at all, that's for sure.

Relieved, I obliviated the pair of Aurors and stunned them again, throwing them in a nook between two houses, tied in transfigured ropes. Good luck getting rid of those.

Hoping there wouldn't be any Aurors on the lookout for the red shop, I pushed the door and stepped inside.

The walls were covered with finely crafted masks, all more impressive than the others, coated in glitters and slithering magical paint or ornamented with unicorn hair and hippogriff feathers.

I made a beeline to the counter, where an old witch was patiently waiting and reading a magazine.

"I was invited in by Prince Victor." I spoke quietly, placing my right hand on the counter to clearly expose the ring. She raised an eyebrow and nodded to her left, where an entrance awaited.

I walked through the veiled doorframe and walked down the stairs, feeling a massive number of wards wash over me again and again, until I reached a door. I opened it and walked outside again, confused.

It was a vast courtyard, three shops encased it, making it impossible to see where I was exactly in the town. A group of people were discussing in a corner, giving a tiny amount of life to the tranquil place. The shop on my left was closed, windows and door were shut down with iron sheets, a discolored area above the main door was the only vestige left from the sign. On my right, behind the group of hooded wizards was a Mercenary Office. On its wall was pasted a multitude of poster and bills, and through the window I could see the caged counter bath in a yellow light, a fat man sitting behind. So that's where you find assassins.

You could find assassins anywhere, but Mercenary Offices were part of a network, the mercenaries they hired were the best, and had access to a lot of equipment and information all over the globe. It was a true organization.

In front of me was the notorious bookshop. Its deep blue windowless wall gleamed with titles of books carved into it in a lighter blue and moving horizontally, each line at a different speed. The Marianna Trench, I see now.

It looked like a sea, a constantly flowing ocean. A dark and deep ocean of knowledge.

I admired the exquisite paint for a moment, Gregory had said "the biggest collection of dark art books". I could believe he didn't lie only by the external part of the wall. If all the title rolling before my eyes were therein, it was impressive. A thousand titles were swimming to the edge of the building and not once I saw one appear two times in ten minutes.

I eventually grabbed the handle of the front door and pushed. I was not ready to witness what I witnessed behind that door, my jaw dropped. The shop was gigantic, enormous, way too big to fit in the building I had been admiring a second before.

I was standing on a stone platform that led to the unoccupied counter on my left, and in front of me were thousands of bookshelves, arranged in a cylindrical architecture, coating the walls with books and leaving the center of the room free like an oversized well.

The bookshelves were accessible by small stone bridges that looked like they dated from Merlin himself and didn't collapse only thanks to the magic sustaining them. The bridges were crisscrossed, going up and down, longing the shelves at some place and zigzagging against them at other places. They were leisurely moving in a circular manner and without a sound, so slowly that my eyes only detected it after a few seconds of staring.

The entrance wasn't at ground level, I could see the ceiling about twenty yards above me, but the floor was indiscernible, I could only see darkness behind the fog twenty yards under my feet. There were no torches, no windows, only a wide chandelier hanging in the middle and lighting the upper part. The shelves weren't all stacked with books, I saw piles of dusty parchments, heaps of scrolls and gleaming roman marble tablets laying around. It was incredible, I stood here entranced for a while, my mind trying aggressively to find answers. What was this place?

"Welcome to the Marianna Trench. I shall warn you, there is no magic here. Even the simplest Lumos cannot be cast in those walls." I turned to the counter, an old wizard had appeared from the door behind it.

"If you wish to visit the lower section, you can buy a lantern. Thank you." he spun around and headed for the door again.

"Wait a minute!" I shouted to the man just before he reached the handle. He sighed and turned to me again, probably raising an eyebrow. I couldn't tell with the amount of grey facial hair he possessed.

"How do I find what I'm looking for?" I asked the most important question first, in case he'd answer only one.

"The shelves are ordered by subjects, read the golden plates."

I turned to the room - no, cavern - in front of me an squinted to see the golden plates he mentioned. I could see a few people sitting on the landings or on the stairs themselves and reading tomes or strolling slowly around.

"I see... tell me, why can't I do magic?" I'm not wasting hours to find my book on body rituals, a simple Accio is all I need.

He sighed. "This place is older than you think, each stone is imbued with lost magic and act as a ward anchor. The wall around us is the most efficient ward ever. It nullify any magic outside of what we put on the stones themselves." he explained without any excitement.

"I honestly wonder how someone as young and ignorant as you find their way to this place." he added quietly as an afterthought.

"Wait, you must have some sort of storage enchantment in there, I saw the titles on the wall, you'd have to link the shelves to something for that!"

He grinned faintly and nodded.

"We do."

"Well then, you could at least give me a complete list of your tomes."

"Very well, since you insist, I shall help you finding what you seek. I usually prefer letting you folks spend hours in there." he placed his wand on something I couldn't see behind the counter. "Make them browse other books and buy more than they came for." he chuckled. "So, what will it be?"

I raised an eyebrow at his sudden lack of mysteriousness.

"Necromancy, Body Rituals."

His emotionless eyes darkened, he nodded and uttered a few mumbled words in his beard, pressing his wand on the surface behind the counter. He took a piece of paper and a quill and scribbled a few numbers on it.

"Those are the shelves concerned. First number is the column, second is the level according to the bridges, and third is the shelve." he handed me the paper with a wink. "Don't tell anybody I can do that, it would ruin the experience for a lot of them. Now, I have things I must attend to." and with that, he left.

Well... let's roll up our sleeves and find a damned ritual that works. There have to be a perfect body making ritual somewhere in there. I peered in the pit under me as I walked toward the first bookshelf. Column four, level number eight and shelve number twelve.

I looked at the bridges. The eighth series of landings was on the outskirt of the menacing fog.

I sighed and grabbed a lantern.

AN: This chapter was a bit fat, but I don't think that's a problem to anybody, is it?

Now to answer to those who think it might be getting a bit "too dark", I see what you mean and will think harder about it, but it was my intention in the first place to make it somewhat messed up and make Harry go full dark lord (even if its for a just cause). For the one review that told me of my horrible grammar, I'm sorry you hated it that much and will look into the issue, I didn't realize my grammar was this bad.

I've updated all the chapters with a little title and stuff to make them a bit easier on the eyes. There is nothing new in the content itself.

The story is about half done, for those who might be wondering.

Last but not least, thank you for reading and commenting.