A Lesson Of Fear.

It was late in the night and Loki was sitting in an empty office while fiddling with his ballpoint pen, trying to spin it on his fingers as he waited patiently.

A door inside the office suddenly opened, and Loki found himself in the company of Professor McGonagall.

"Good evening professor."

"Indeed, it is a fine evening Mr. Loki."

"What are we going to study today Professor?"

"Do you remember what I told you last time?" McGonagall asked sitting in her comfortable chair whose legs had several scratches, but no one could see them since they were hidden by the shadow of the large table in front of it.

"Erm…you told me about how the children of the Noble families have a great advantage over me because their parents perform certain rituals to increase the Sequence of their children upon birth without affecting their sanity or causing loss of control."

Of course, Loki knew that the 'rituals' Professor McGonagall so 'cleverly' hid were just a coverup for the parents separating excess Beyonder Characteristics from themselves to give to their children, one of the only few ways a Sequence 5 Beyodner could be created directly without loss of control, but he didn't say anything because-

-a Sequence 9 Mystery Pryer shouldn't even have a hint of knowledge about Beyonder Characteristics.

"Good. Then today we will learn about the various pathways the Noble families control and some other details about them like which ones among them have a good personality and which ones among them are mostly just an annoyance."

Loki's eyes sharpened and he focused immediately.

"What pathway names do you already know?" McGonagall asked Loki.

"I know three pathway names that I've been taught about, Mystery Pryer, Savant and Sleepless."

McGonagall's brows shot up and she looked at Loki for an explanation so he elaborated since there was no point in keeping something a secret that McGonagall could herself divine easily. It was also why Loki was trying to speak nothing but the truth.

"I know about the Mystery Pryer pathway from the Hidden Sage, but I learnt about the Savant and the Sleepless pathway from Mr. Fawley when I apprenticed under him last summer."

"Do pray tell why you were talking about the Sleepless pathway?" McGonagall asked softly.

"Sirius Black." Loki just said the name and McGonagall understood what he meant.

"I understand. I hope you also know not to seek out a fugitive to do anything stupid."

"Don't worry professor, I'm not one to do things that would get me killed."

Loki almost mumbled I'm not a Gryffindor but managed to hold himself back just in time.

McGonagall looked into Loki's eyes for a second before nodding, "Alright then. Let's move onto the pathways."

"As you know the Fawleys control the Savant pathway, the Black family controls the Darkness pathway, the Greengrass family controls the Monster pathway, the Longbottom family controls the Planter pathway, and the Crouch family controls the Arbiter pathway."

"That's all? I thought there were twenty-eight sacred families…?"

"Yes, but for now these are enough for you to learn about since they have further added complexity in them because of intermarriages between families.-"

"-For example, you should already know, but the Fawleys don't perform rituals for their children to directly get to Sequence Five. They choose an apprentice and train them from the first sequence. While the Longbottom family has had a daughter who has married into the Lovegood family which now also controls the Planter pathway, but they are a little…unique, but they are good."

Loki frowned a little, pretending to have a slightly hard time understanding things.

"So what is this planter pathway exactly? And the monster pathway of the Greengrass? I mean I've spoken to Daphne and Astoria, and neither of them seem to be…monsters?"

"Yes, I was coming to that. The planter pathway is closely tied to nature and life in its essence while the Monster pathway of the Greengrass is closely tied to luck and fate.-

"-It is called the monster pathway because of how one tends to act because of the burdens of fate. Though I think it is more so because they are the easiest to see things and hear things that they should not, which leads them to actual monsters quite easily."

"...I think I get it. But what about the Malfoys? Do they not control a pathway? I mean, I'm pretty sure Draco wouldn't have held back if he had a pathway…?"

McGonagall looked at Loki for a few seconds in silence before she spoke calmly.

"Do you know what happened in the wizarding world just a decade ago?"

Loki's eyes sharpened, "You-know-who?"

"Precisely. There's a reason why he's the most feared Dark Lord and the reason ties closely to his ideology."

"That purebloods are above everyone else?"

McGonagall closed her eyes as a few memories flashed in her mind, she leaned back into her chair and then spoke calmly after opening her eyes.

"Although that was what it seemed like to the public, that was just a facade."

"A facade? Why?"

"Firstly, you-know-who himself wasn't a pureblood. He was a halfblood so those who knew of this never took him seriously. But that wasn't why he was feared. What everyone feared was being branded by his cursed mark."

"Hmm…?"

"Each death eater has a curse mark that has three functions. First, it is a means of communication that alerts them when and where they have been summoned to, but that is just a tame use compared to what it actually does."

"What does it do?"

"Only two possible outcomes await those who have been branded by the curse mark. Either they fight against the mark but die because they are corrupted by it. Or they accept it and allow their pathways to be changed."

"What?" Loki's face scrunched up with a frown.

"At this moment it isn't suitable for you to learn more about what causes the corruption in people, but to answer your question, most Beyonders among the Noble families that were targeted by you-know-who and given the cursed mark had to forgo their original pathway and become followers of the criminal pathway."

Loki hadn't understood much about what was going on but as his mind dug through the various thoughts he figured out things and put the pieces together.

'So 'She' caused corruption in the Beyonder Characteristics?'

'But then why would they have to follow the criminal pathway?'

'Hmm…did the curse mark work like a high Sequence Beyonder of the Sun pathway and separate their Beyonder Characteristics and then induce the Beyonder characteristics of the criminal pathway?'

'How strange…'

"But shouldn't the knowledge about those pathways have been retained by the noble families?"

McGonagall *sighed* again.

"Logically it should've. But like an arrow that is bent cannot fly straight, a fool that is in fear cannot think straight. The Nobles ended up giving away all their historical knowledge about the pathways they possess to you-know-who."

Loki's mouth fell loose, and while McGonagall just thought he was shocked because of the loss of so many pathways, his mind was thinking something else.

'They gave away all their Cards of Blasphemy to you-know-who!?'

'The hell!!!!!!?????????'

'Alright…I understand why everyone's so afraid of him now…'

'Anyone in their right mind would be afraid of a person that has multiple cards of blasphemy in their grasp.'

Finally, McGonagall spoke after a few seconds, "That will be all for today. In our next class, we will discuss more about the other pathways controlled by various families and also about the various epochs that have controlled the times in Beyonder history."

Loki nodded and left to go to his dorms with a soft *sigh* filled with worry, his worries clouding his mind but he tried his best to glide over them instead of being buried under them.

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A/N : Extra chapter for crossing a hundred powerstones!!! Let's goo!!!!

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