Chapter 13.

I looked around myself and breathed intensely, preparing myself for the chaos I was about to unleash. The trees and bushes were covered in snow and a thin layer of frost, everything was of either pure white or morose grey, the colours of the forest seemed to have been taken away for the winter.

But I would bring them back to life, I would melt all the snow and ice around me, in a few moments. Not right now. I thought, taking a few more deep breaths. I needed my spirit to be calm, in contrast with my magic. I was about to summon Fiendfyre once more, and this time it would bow before me. I had tried a lot of times now and I knew it would work this time.

A cold gust of air blew my cloak and robes, making them billow behind me like a dark omen.

Now. I was ready.

I raised my wand before me and started gathering my magic in my heart, I sorted it, processed it until I clearly had the infernal beast roaring within me.

I uttered the forbidden words under my breath, the tension building up as I felt my skin gain in temperature.

"...Ego mutuum Fiendfyre!" I finished in a shout. I knew the sensation quite well now, the tingling and fury of the fire sprouting from every inch of my skin, licking my clothes without burning them, swirling around me like a furious tornado before exploding in an enormous wolf of flames and anger. The living fire slammed its paws against the floor, melting the snow and consuming the grass instantly, digging trenches in the earth from its weight, a monster of heavy fire and incandescent magic. It roared, like it always did. A thunderous roar that led a few hundred birds to take off in fright and probably chased away a lot of the fauna around us. A roar that conveyed so much heat that the frozen trees in front of it were instantly dried, smoking with steam.

I knew it quite well, but I didn't dare give it a name. It would tell me its name when it would bow. The book didn't mention anything about such a thing, but I felt it. It was my magic, and it had a name.

"Bow." I commanded, not losing time admiring its golden fur.

It turned to me and growled, its barred teeth of magma looking murderous, his flaming muscles tensing as if it was about to leap on me. Being dozens of yards wide and ten times bigger than me, it definitely wouldn't need to leap to reach me.

It leaned forward to lock its bottomless pits on my eyes, but something attracted its attention. It slammed its paw against the earth on my left, shaking the ground heavily. My eyes caught what was the source of this sudden excitement, a spell fizzled in the fire and vanished, burned to nothing. Fiendfyre could burn everything.

I frantically looked around, seeking the provenance of the spell.

'Set me free. Let me reap those souls.' it growled in my head. I was unprepared for the blow and took its power at full force. I dropped on a knee and winced. Good try.

Not trusting myself to resist another of its commands, I gathered my magic and vanished it away. "Furor est complevit."

I didn't lose any time looking at the magnificent fire disperse in the wind, I went back to searching the source of that spell, my heart beating madly. Did they already get away?

I swore loudly. Someone had seen me, if they got away, it was all over. Fat chances, I know this place better than anyone.

I started to run to the castle, widening my vision and leaping like a crazed deer over tree trunks and rivers. I was fast, agile and I knew my way better than the person I was chasing. I found them after five minutes of insane racing. Zachary, Hermione and Ron. Should have known they were plotting something when I heard they stayed for the winter break.

They were running as fast as their limbs could propel them, I heard them panting loudly and trying to communicate without losing speed.

"...don't fear him, Hermione! If they don't believe us we'll have no proof!" yelled Zach, tripping over a hidden twig under the snow and stabilizing himself with difficulty, not breaking his run for a second.

"Fiendfyre! Freaking Fiendfyre, Zachary! Are you nuts? That's level one dark magic! He's way beyond any of us, we need to tell Dumbledore, right now!"

Hermione was definitely the most shaken by what they had seen. Probably the only one who understand how close they were from death. Were? Are.

Their red-haired buddy didn't say anything, he was panting heavily and barely followed them, his face more red than his hair.

I whipped my wand and shot a stunner to Hermione, jumping over a lump of snow probably hiding a bush. She screamed and dove in the snow, her momentum too great for her to stop. My stunner went over her and smashed a tree as she slid in the white material and crashed in a bush.

"Fuck! He's already here!" shouted Zach, trying to stop himself to assist Hermione. She was aware of her precarious situation and sprang on her legs, her wand pointed at me, a terrified look on her face.

"Potter! Drop your wand!" she yelled, definitely shitting in her pants. I snickered and doused her with a chain of banishers and cutters. She stopped them with a unexpectedly good battle level shield, behind her Zachary jumped over a rock and sent a few stunners and incarceration curse to me. I swatted half of them aside and dived under the other half, cursing my lack of protection. The simplest stunner could take me down.

"Surrender, Harry! You can't win against three of us!" he tried, sending another stunner to my prone form. I conjured a wooden shield and summoned a dead tree from behind them. Hermione spun around and banished the tree away. I took advantage of her change of focus and sent a ball of conjured water on Zach before firing a series of Kroz Sve to her calf and thigh. Zach vanished the water and transfigured a bush into a crude dog as the perforation curses tore into Hermione's calf and thigh. She screamed to death and fell to the ground, three two inches wide clean tunnel were now going through her flesh, blood spraying on the snow around her. She quickly went into shock, her mouth started to foam as she was having heavy spasms, throwing bits of bloody snow around.

Zach turned his head to her but didn't lose his cool. I cut the transfigured dog in half with a silent Secaferox in the mouth, it felt on the ground in two pieces and transformed back in the bush it once was.

"Ron! Take care of her, I'll take care of Harry!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, in spite of having Ron just beside him while he blocked the cutting curse with a battle level shield. The ginger boy decided it was his time to shine and shouted madly, jabbing his wand to me with all the anger he felt.

"Son of a bitch!" he bellowed instead of an incantation, ignoring Zach's orders and sending a messed up spell which was probably more dangerous than any curse he knew, I sidestepped the malformed curse and aimed for my twin, a step behind the charging Ron, who was unprepared for this turn of event.

"Lamina Confluunt." Two dozen silver blades appeared around him in the sky, no bigger than kitchen knives, gleaming in the shy winter sun. I took a step and punched Ron in the stomach, sending him flying back to Zach, his breath cut and ribcage destroyed. The blades nose-dived toward my twin, whistling threateningly as they swiftly approached their target. He cast a thick shield on his front, allowing Ron to slid under it and managed to conjure a large wooden plate just in time to protect his back. The blades stabbed the wood and bounced on the shield, shattering it. Three blades hit their target, on in Ron's arm and two in Zach's thigh and waist.

I was standing and ready to send my next spell, immersed in my very own pool of madness and exquisite perverse bliss, shuddering slightly at each hiccup of dark magic feedback.

"Aleraeno Vultimacum." I muttered tenderly, aiming for Zach. He was exhausted, out of breath and a wincing painfully as he clutched his heavily bleeding side, I had hit a kidney. He tried to shield it but the curse broke through the weak protection, not even slowing down. He took it in the guts and fell back. His skin started to shred slowly, forcefully leaving his flesh as he thrashed and howled agonizingly in the snow, his inhuman screams echoing in the silent forest.

Ron stood up painfully, his ribcage caved in from my punch and a blade stuck in his left arm, whiter than the few patches of untainted snow around us, and raised his wand to me in a desperate attempt.

"Confringo!' he shouted, spluttering blood from his punctured lungs. I dove to the side as the snow a few feet from me exploded in a hail of burning-hot pebbles and earth lumps. Motherfucker almost got me!

I sprang on my feet and jabbed my wand viciously at his slowly fainting shape.

"Want to see a real explosion curse, Weasley? Zahladit!" I bellowed madly, still in my battle trance. The curse connected on the ground just beside Ron. The following explosion sent the corpses of Zach and his girlfriend rolling in purer snow, the blast caught me too but I kept my ground, watching the burning Weasley boy fly and crash on a rock. Fate may had had other plans than mine for him because he fell in a river of freezing water, killing the fire eating his crippled body.

I shivered slightly as the last bits of the revolting ecstasy left my bloodstream and opened my eyes. The dark explosion curse had positively melted the snow where it had hit and had left a smoking crater in the earth beneath it.

I trotted to the two bleeding corpses buried in snow and checked their pulse. Hermione's magical body had stopped the hemorrhage on its own and was still alive, for the moment. Zach had no skin left and was unconscious. The skin shredding curse had done its work completely, his red flesh was exposed and in direct contact with the snow, he was soon to plunge in hypothermia. The knife wounds weren't lethal, blood had clotted around the blades, closing most of the cuts. His pulse was as weak as Hermione's.

I stood up and sighed. If I didn't do anything, they'd just die here.

I walked to the river and levitated Ron out of it, he was the most fucked up, obviously. His left arm and leg had been blown out, literally torn away from his body and probably in numerous pieces somewhere in the surroundings. His whole left side had been heavily burned and ripped by the explosions, a few white strips were visible in the charred flesh, his bones. I checked his pulse just to be sure.

"Jesus Christ, you're still alive." I muttered to the crippled kid. I levitated him next to the two others. His pulse was very faint, a lot weaker than any of them. He would die within the half hour, wizard or not, if I didn't do anything to help him.

I guess I could anonymously tell Pomfrey about them, that would cause a shitstorm but at least they'd survive... I thought, wondering at the same time why I wanted them to survive. If Zach dies, I'm in for a whole lot of trouble, that's for sure. James and Dumbledore will go to the bottom of it and I won't like what they'll find, not to mention the spotlight that would put me under as the brother of the Martyr of Light or some shit. No, Zach is an efficient diversion, I need him alive.

I nodded, there was really only one solution. If you guys survive the Ennervate, you live.

I ennervated Hermione first, she slowly opened her eyes, numb and unable to move. She would blackout in a few seconds.

"Obliviate." I entered her mind and erased it. I erased the last six month of her life, to be sure. I didn't bother doing it properly, I plainly erased everything. It was one of the way to make a memory totally irretrievable. A total blank space, if she'd ever wake up after that, she'll have no memory of the last six months at all. I don't know for how long you've been following and plotting against me, six months seem like a safe shot.

Zach tried to scream in pain as soon as his nerves awakened, I silenced him with the same obliviation curse and stunned him behind it.

Ron took two tries to crawl back out of unconsciousness and gibbered a few nonsensical words, his lungs pumping gurgling blood in his throat, before I flattened his memory. He fell back into coma as soon as I had finished.

I straightened my clothes and looked around. My cave was on the other side of the forest, it was safe to lure the Aurors here, even with a few traces of Fiendfyre at twenty minutes from here, they wouldn't know it was Fiendfyre anyway, they could only guess. Who are they going to blame? I thought about all the things going on this year and smiled faintly, they wouldn't look at me first.

I headed out of the forest, running rapidly. There was the possibility that they told someone they were going after me, but I was almost certain they didn't. Zach wasn't this type of guy, that's why those three were always together in all their adventures and never with other people.

I got out of the forest disillusioned and enchanted a letter to fly to Pomfrey while walking to Library. Potter and his friends are dying. Forbidden Forest, 15km in from south east, near water stream. Be quick.

The message was written in standard font and conjured ink, untraceable. It flew away as I dropped my disillusionment.

I spotted the lone girl I was looking for in a secluded corner the library, reading an herbology book.

"Hey Isabel! How is it hanging?" I asked, flashing her a bright smile while I sat down. Isabel Neilina was one of those reserved Ravenclaws, a year older than me. I had a quick discussion with her on a Potion essay when she was helping Rosaline in the great hall. I had butted in and corrected her on a few things, she disagreed with me and that had led to a heated debate. Since this day I greeted her from time to times and talked with her when I had the time.

"Harry. Fancy seeing you there." she smiled. She was kind of cute, with her brown hair and freckles on her cheeks.

"Tell me, you've been here for the whole afternoon?" I knew she often spent hours here, without anyone to disturb her. It was her favorite corner, between two bookshelves.

"Affirmative, what about it?"

"Saw anyone?"

"Nah, nobody comes to these shelves, you know it." she answered in a bored tone. The books in this section were fiction and kid tales. I shrugged. Perfect, I can Imperius her to say she was with me the whole afternoon, just in case. She had been my B plan for a while, I knew she was here most of the time.

"Cool, just asking. Imperio." I said casually, barely moving my wand. She blinked twice and smiled, returning to her book. The perfect crime.

I sat in front of her and summoned a random book from the shelves.

A good fiction is just what I need. I peered at the cover, Starwolves. A muggle science fiction book... let's give it a shot.

After a couple hours of peaceful reading and occasional smiles exchanges with Isabel, we headed to the great hall, making sure to be noticed by Madam Pince on the way out and discussing what we've been reading. Isabel was very curious about the strange story of intergalactic battles I was telling to her and decided to try muggle books too. We reached the Hufflepuff table and I offered her a seat next to me to continue our discussion. It wasn't too unusual for students to eat at other tables, there just wasn't much people who had reasons to.

She accepted and sat down as I shook the hand of a few housemates.

"Hey Smith. Nice to see you Sullivan." I looked at the main table. Dumbledore wasn't here, that wasn't unusual. However, Snape, McGonagall, the giant Hagrid, Sprout, Flitwick and a few others were missing too, and that was highly unusual.

"What's up with the professor table? Why are there so few tonight?" I asked to Lynn in front of me.

"We still don't know, but it has to do with the Forbidden Forest again. I think there has been a new killing." he muttered darkly.

"What? What the hell happened?" I feigned surprise, I was meant to have spent the whole afternoon with Isabel, after all.

"Oh, right, Harry wasn't with us. Where were you anyway?" said Priscillia, butting in the discussion and eyeing my escort suspiciously. I pointed a thumb to Isabel, inviting her to elaborate for me.

"He was with me the whole afternoon." she answered, taking a chicken wing from the plate.

"So, how did you find him? Was it your first time?" spat Priscillia with a fake smile that was obviously drenched in disgust.

"We read books. Promise I didn't touch your boyfriend." replied Isabel with a blush. And here it goes again.

"Ladies, please chill out and explain me what the hell happened."

Louise arrived behind me and took it on herself to enlighten me as she sat down next to me, pushing Smith aside ruthlessly.

"A ton of Aurors arrived on broom and landed next to the Death Forest, Dumbledore and all the head of house are here too, we don't know yet why but they made the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang students enter the castle and locked us all inside." she shrugged.

"We can't get out, I think someone else got killed."

"I thought Montague got kissed and it was over." I pretended to look for links that weren't here.

"Might be totally unrelated, but wait -" she stood up. I turned around to look where she was looking. There was a small commotion at the Gryffindor table, students were talking loudly and standing up to reach each other.

"What's going on?" asked Lynn.

Priscillia got up and went to the agitated Gryffindors, soon coming back with a grave look on her eyes, looking worriedly at me.

"Zachary Potter and his friends aren't here." she stated without stopping staring at me. "The whole castle is here, but not them."

"Merlin! Do you think they're..." started Louise, slapping her hand on her mouth and turning to me.

At this moment, the door creaked loudly and a grim Dumbledore in marine blue robes strode to the center of the professor platform, gathering every pair of eyes on him without making a move. He stopped in the middle of the platform and turned to the student body.

"As many of you already know, there has been an incident in the Forbidden Forest." he began, scanning the room with harsh eyes.

"And as most of you have noticed, Zachary Potter, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley won't attend to the feast tonight." the crowd started to murmur loudly, sharing theories and frightened gasps.

"The details are not to be publicly announced yet, but the family members of Mr. Weasley and Mr. Potter are invited to follow me for a thorough explanation." he finished before turning away and heading for the door he just came thought.

I looked at my housemates, who were staring at me.

"I should go."

They nodded and wished me good luck. In the corridor behind Dumbledore, I joined the Weasley twins and a red-headed witch I had yet to meet. Dumbledore was striding quickly, not bothering with the grandfatherly attitude anymore. He was pissed, I could tell. I know what Trix tells him on me, I don't have to fear his wrath, he doesn't think of me like a soon to be dark wizard. Might want to avoid using too much Occlumency, though.

"Long time no see, guys." I greeted the twins. They nodded absently and continued to follow the old man silently.

"Hey, I'm Ginny." claimed the witch. Oh right, the basilisk girl. I quickly scanned her from head to toes, natural red-hair, petite body and cute face, obviously the energetic style, even in this worrying moment. Fourteen maximum, probably under. I couldn't remember ever seeing or hearing about her except for that basilisk story back in second year. Thirteen, surely.

"Harry, pleased to meet you." I answered with a quick smile, making sure to not speak too loud. The others seemed quite nervous about the situation.

"Never seen your cute face around here, Gryffindor?" I asked, ignoring her badge. It was always a way to strike conversation, only Ravenclaws responded by "oh really? so I did put the right badge!" and walked away muttering things about the moron you were.

She giggled nervously and nodded.

"Yep, like the whole family. I'm a Weasley, just in case you didn't get it."

"Weasleys usually aren't pretty witches, it's confusing." I quipped and took advantage of a quick eye contact to read her. She was really concerned, more that I had thought at first.

"Sorry, it isn't really the time to flirt." I admitted and turned back to the racing Dumbledore, he was taking us to his office.

"Yeah, I hope they're alright." she blushed lightly at my open declaration of wanting to flirt with her and stayed silent.

"Don't worry, they always put themselves in incredible predicaments and come back unscathed." I assured her, this time talking a bit louder so Dumbledore would hear me. Hear that old man? I currently have no idea of how badly wounded is her brother. I snickered internally and recalled the burnt and crippled corpse of Ron. Shit, he may even be dead, there's no telling Pomfrey got here in time...

The headmaster stopped in front of the statues and whispered a word in their ear, beckoning us to follow him. We entered the office and sat on the four armchair he summoned for us. The twins had lost their usual silliness and were waiting for the news to come, my new soon-to-be-seduced witch was nervously shifting in her seat, unstable. I kept an unreadable face on, not looking too distanced but not too panicked either.

Dumbledore sat on his desk, facing us. His face was tired and serious, he started to speak with a solemn voice.

"There had been an attack on Zachary and his friends. The three of them were brutally assaulted in the forest by an unknown -"

"What were they doing in the forest in the first place? Isn't this forest forbidden?" I cut him, pretending to be anxious for my brother.

"We don't know yet, Harry. The three of them are alive, but there are... complications."

"What do you mean?" queried the twins at the same time. I almost let out a laugh. Oops, that is funny only when nobody's between life and death, Harry.

"The attack was very vicious and violent, dark magic have been used and Ronald... Ronald lost an arm and a leg." he finished in a sigh.

"Oh my god!" squeaked Ginny. The twin just turned to each other and swallowed with difficulty.

"Molly and Arthur are with him at St Mungo's, I will floo you there in a minute."

"What about Zachary and the girl?" I asked, to keep appearances.

"Can't they grow back his arm and leg?" blurted out Ginny in a scared voice.

"Zachary and Hermione are in a better condition, they are being treated in the Hospital wing right now. And I'm sorry, miss Weasley, but dark magic make wounds that cannot be healed like any wound, I'm afraid we cannot be sure of anything at this point."

"What about the attacker? Who did it?" I pressed him.

"We are investigating, Harry, they are still in a coma but we think Miss Granger will soon be awake. Your parents are in the infirmary, if you wish to see them and your brother."

I nodded.

"I only ask you not to spread the story yet, we must find out what happened first." he turned to the twins, "I will floo you to St Mungo's, you may leave, Harry." he walked to the fireplace and grabbed a purse.

I stood out of the armchair and placed my hand on Ginny's shoulder when I passed past her, to make her feel a bit of my aura. Once they taste it, they always came back, in one way or another.

"I'm sorry, Ginny." She mouthed an automatic thank you and I left the office.

That went well, I acted my surprised role to the perfection and got a new witch to seduce. She's a bit young but there aren't many red-hair around, and she has that little something of innocent and forbidden that drive the dark Harry nuts.

I was in the Hospital wing in no time, Pomfrey opened the door to me and led me to the end of the room, where James and Lily were having a heated discussion with McGonagall, Snape and a few Aurors. There seemed to be two specialist healers in the group. They only shot me a glance before going back to the debate as I walked to my brother. He was naked, save for a boxer, and floating in a round shaped transparent jelly lump, placed on a bed. His skin was in the process of re-growing and was still very thin and pale, I could see the veins and muscles clearly underneath it.

"What the hell..." I muttered, just in case someone actually paid attention to my reaction. One of the two white-dressed doctors left the group and walked in front of me, on the other side of the bed. He prodded the jelly ball with his fingers and took a teated pipette out of a phial. He dipped a few drops over the construction and discarded the tool.

"He's been hit by heavy dark magic, a skin-shredding curse. We couldn't undo the curse because he was too weak to cooperate when we found him, so his body has absorbed the curse and will keep it active until we can counter it. The bubble he's in negate the effects of the curse and heal his skin, this way he can recover enough until we can definitely cancel the curse." he explained helpfully.

I had to admit I had no idea this curse could be such a pain in the arse to heal if you didn't counter it before fainting. I displayed the most horrified face I could do and conjured a stool to sit on.

"Yes, it has been a brutal encounter, your brother can consider himself lucky to be alive." he concluded.

"Lucky to be alive? More like happy to be alive, this has nothing to do with luck. The attacker willingly left him breathing and went out of their way to warn Madam Pomfrey!" yelled James, looking at McGonagall, apparently it was one of the arguments in the debate.

"What was the point of letting him live? Why would anyone hurt him so badly and let him live to tell the tale? I'm telling you, there is someone disturbed lurking in that forest! We need to patrol this place, to examine every square meter of it and find out just what the hell is killing people!"

"The first series of attacks has already been explained, one of our student tried to steal a Dementor and was kissed by the thing, this has nothing to do with the Forest!" countered McGonagall, her tidy hair loosening as she shook her head in frustration.

"Such amounts of dark magic are not even in the restricted section of Hogwarts' library, however, we can't say the same about Durmstrang."

"Durmstrang would know better than to openly attack Potter, Minerva." retorted Snape.

"That wasn't in the open, Severus. I think they wanted to threaten Potter and scare him out of the Tournament, and it got out of hand."

"You're ignoring the fact that the Serbian dark perforation curse cast on miss Granger is something very obscure that even Durmstrang doesn't teach, Minerva. Do I need to remind you that we had a student hurt by the exact same curse a few years ago? That is no coincidence." he muttered angrily.

"It could be ,Severus, or are you implying one of your Slytherin is responsible for that?" she hissed back.

"My Slytherins would know better than to do something that stupid, as opposed to a jealous Gryffindor! But we digress, it is always the same question: to whom benefits the crime? A Durmstrang student would have killed them at this point, letting them live makes the attack pointless."

"They could have let them live simply out of sympathy, not everyone is able of cold blooded murder, Snape." suggested James. They all stopped talking after that, thinking about it silently.

After a moment, one of the Auror spoke, a skeptical smirk on his lips.

"To cast a level three dark curse, the man's probably killed already. I've seen few rookies wannabe dark wizards able of pulling off that level of magic."

"I know for a fact that they do teach the Hail of Blades curse in the last year of Durmstrang." added Snape, still in contemplation.

"We don't know yet what spell they used to blow the Weasley up, but let me tell you it wasn't anything short of level three dark magic either. Did you see that boy?" muttered the second Auror. They all winced at that and let silence invade the room. I had been listening mutely all this time, looking at Zach in his jelly bubble.

Suddenly, there was a small gasp. A sharp intake of air from the bed behind Zachary. Hermione had awaken.

The adults all rushed to her, the white-dressed wizards first, with Pomfrey at the head.

"Whe-Where am I?" she moaned faintly, squinting her eyes. I walked around the floating Zach and found an opening to get a look at her. She was quite well, her skin was pale but she looked healthy. I only bore a few holes in her leg after all, she's the least hurt one. I'm a real gentleman.

"Slowly, Ms. Granger, don't rush things. Breathe deeply."

"What h-happened?" she looked at the Aurors around her worriedly.

"Miss Granger, what is the last thing you remember?"

She took a long time to answer, mining her mind and walking down the path of six months worth of void.

"I was... I was reading a book and was called for dinner by my mother... and after that..." she trailed off, staring at the nothingness in front of her.

"That's it, after that I woke up here."

I congratulated myself for the clean deleting of the massive chunk of memory as the Auror glanced at each other and shook their heads.

"What date, Ms. Granger? What is the last date you remember?"

"Well we're the... I mean we were the 18th of July if I recall right, what happened?" she answered before her eyes widened comically.

"My parents! Oh god are my parents alright?" she panicked and tried to get out of the bed, only to wince and be pushed back in the bed by one of the white wizards.

"They are alright, please do not leave the bed, your leg is still rebuilding itself."

While Pomfrey briefed Hermione on the situation, Dumbledore arrived and got informed about the news.

"All champions refused Veritaserum, only Mr. Diggory volunteered, as expected." he declared disappointingly.

"We can't force it on them until we have real evidence."

"Fat chance of finding anything else, with those erased minds." laughed the fat Auror without humor.

"I will open my doors and let the Auror interview as much students or staff member as they need, Lord Karkaroff and Madam Maxime both agreed to have their students thoroughly questioned on the matter too. We will find out what happened, James."

"How's Ronald Weasley?"

At that, Dumbledore shook his head, a sinister look on his features.

"Dark explosion curse, his limbs are nowhere to be found and his flesh is tainted forever... he'll be disfigured and amputee for life with the care they can afford, the Weasley family is going to need more financial help than ever, James."

James nodded darkly.

"To do that to children... If I ever find this son of a bitch..." he muttered furiously.

For the moment, nobody had paid attention to me, and I intended to keep it like that. I left the Hospital room in silence, when it looked like all the useful information had been shared already, at the same time as the Aurors and Ministry healers, leaving Pomfrey, James, Dumbledore and the head of houses to brood on their own. They were going to investigate inside the castle itself, that meant they were going to interview everyone, sniff all over the dormitories and explore every inch of the castle to find tracks.

All of my dark stuff is in a hidden compartment in my trunk or in my endless satchel, they don't have the rights to look in there but I might want to move it to the cave. I knew the cave was safe, even if James decided to take a hike and explore the forest, it was too dense, huge and magical for him to find my cave, which was especially well hidden.

When they'll ask they'll find about me being in the library, Madam Pince, Isabel and even my Housemates will confirm. I was unreachable, my tracks were covered perfectly.

I sighed a relieving breath as I walked to my dormitory. The next few weeks will be complicated... Might want to drop the researches for a while and focus on the girls. I still had almost a year before the meeting with Zephyros and Victor to open the portal, I could let it go for a while, especially with all of what was happening.

As I entered my dormitory and got assaulted by everyone for answers, I chuckled at one thought.

What would it have been if I had simply let them die.

The Aurors had now been sniffing around for four months.

Their inspection had several phases. On one hand, they tested everybody with a detection spell that assured of one's purity. Lose your virginity or touch dark magic and you fail the test, that seemed to be useful only to discard the kids. On another hand, they questioned everyone as they pleased, to find who was alone and had no alibi for the night of the attack. They also rummaged through the personal stuff of everyone, causing quite a commotion in the pureblood world and the Ministry.

They were still discussing the Auror's rights to do that, but while no decision was taken, they took advantage of having no restrictions. Purebloods and most of Slytherin were really pissed by all of that, but Aurors didn't give a crap, they went in like a troll in a maiden.

Zach had awakened a week after Hermione and was now perfectly fine. I hadn't planned it but he had no memories of our confrontation in Godric's Hollow. James had used a pensive to give him what he could on the time that had flowed, all his training for the tournament, all the experience of the two firsts tasks, he had lost all of it and was a fresh new still-thirteen-and-untrained Zachary, except for his magic muscle who had been worked on.

Of course, they had found nothing on me. They started at the seventh years and went gradually down the age line, but when Zach gained back a few of his memories from James, he insisted for me to be checked twice and at the instant. They had forced my trunk open, under my protestations, and found nothing. They had questioned everyone around me and checked my alibi for mind alteration with a detection spell, fruitless since I had used the Imperius, something way too subtle to be noticed by it when applied correctly. This spell was made for Confusion Charms and other Compulsion Curses. Thanks Merlin I had the good idea of moving all my things to the forge.

Over half a thousand students analyzed and sorted either "innocent" or "suspicious" later, they were going through the third years. The school staff was also being investigated, as were the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons delegations, but I had no information on how that was advancing.

"Did you notice any unusual behavior in one of your friends? Could have been something very faint." asked the blond Auror, his tone gentle and understanding.

"No I didn't." answered Ginny. I was sitting beside her and holding her hand. I had nothing else to do anyway, all my books and researches were unreachable, so I spent my new free time doing the only thing that came close to the pleasure of dark magic - sex. And trying to taint a young and pure one like the little Weasley was exciting in so many ways. She wanted to act grown up and to flirt like a fifth year would, but she was still a ignorant third year, she blushed and stuttered everytime I looked in her eyes and squirmed madly when I was too close. I didn't kiss her yet, I wanted it to come all at once, when she'd expect it the least.

On the meantime, I had enough witches on my hands to not be bored. Slytherin, Gryffindor and even Ravenclaw and of course Hufflepuff were my hunting fields. I had slept with a couple French witches too, and it had been grand. They had that little thing of natural savoir-faire underneath their naive exterior that no experienced English witch could hope to imitate. Durmstrang, on the other hand, was impenetrable. I had spotted a few foxes in their delegation but I couldn't hook any of them. I guess they're used to that touch of dark magic and are more resistant to it. I had thought at first, but judging by the hungry looks some had shot me, I changed my opinion and decided that they just wouldn't speak to me by respect for their Durmstrang rules or maybe fear of what would the blood purists around them think. Oh well.

The lack of dark magic use made me constantly uneasy, not having quite the headache I had from Hellard, but a troubled fog always in my mind, a cold haze frostbiting my brain. My body itself felt sore, drained of its vital fluid, numb and painful at times. I could thankfully forget most of it when I wallowed in food and sex, living an hedonist life to ease my addicted body. I knew it wasn't a rehab, there was no such thing as a rehab for a dark magic practitioner, the closest thing to it was called Azkaban.

"I know this has been asked numerous times, but are you absolutely certain there is nothing your brother could have said that could help us?"

She shook her head and tightened her grasp on my hand. Ronald Weasley was utterly and completely destroyed. His skin on all the left side of his body was a mix of meaty red and revolting grey-beige, his face hadn't been spared either, half his scalp was missing, his left eye unusable and the left part of his mouth literally welded shut. His limbs had been obliterated by the explosion, they found a few pieces here and there but it was impossible to put them back anyway, like it was impossible for him to grow them back even with the most complex mix of skele-grow and other body regeneration potions. Zahladit was quite the dark spell, not used often because of its weak power for an explosion curse but the flesh it touched was badly and irreversibly tainted. A ritual could probably do the job, though. A Phoenix Tears concoction with King's Herb and Sea Dragon Scales, a few lizards to sacrifice and an incantation on something about the Nordic Gods and the salvation of an innocent victim, a few octagons drawn in fairy powder, maybe quartz for anchors...

"Alright, I'm going to ask you to-" started the Auror, only to be interrupted by a yellow glow on his forearm. He looked at it and pressed his thumb against the small golden framed mirror on his wrist. The strange bracelet stopped glowing and displayed a head, where there had been a mirror, like a moving picture.

"Auror Ramsey, listening."

"To all the units in Hogwarts Castle, abort all operations and gather on second floor; I repeat, abort operations and gather on second floor." commended the head in a firm voice before disappearing. The blond Auror looked at us with a serious face.

"We found something." he stood up and greeted us before leaving hurriedly. What the hell could they find? Second floor? Not even my pepper-up stash is up there...

"Let's go, Harry!" pressed Ginny, trying to pull me out of my chair. "Second floor is just here!"

"They won't let us get a look, Ginny."

"Let's at least try, c'mon!" she insisted with a whiny voice.

I sighed.

"Alright."

We walked to the second floor stairway, Ginny dragging me excitedly, and were stopped by a bunch of Aurors who apparently stayed on the stairs just to block curious students. I wanted to know what they had found, but at the same time I was afraid to know it. With so many Aurors around I had no chances to make a run for it, I'd step directly on the "go to jail" square.

"Let us see! We're family members of the victims!" yelled Ginny frantically, stomping on the ground. The Aurors seemed unsure of what to do, I leaped in the mind of the closest one. They didn't have any specific order about family members.

"Listen, my dad's in here, if he doesn't want me around he'll just kick me back here, alright?"

"You're the Potter son? Well I guess I can let you two go but don't mess with them, it's heavy stuff up there from what I heard." he stepped aside and let us climb the stairs. We got on the second floor and zigzagged between the Aurors standing in the corridor, nobody seemed to have much to do, they just stood there and talked to each other excitedly, most of them sporting worried or shocked faces. We reached the center of the commotion, where a few items were being analyzed by Aurors and specialists in the corridor.

"I can't believe we're placing MadEye as prime suspect, I mean, really? MadEye?"

"He's acting really weird, I think he lost it - for real this time."

We learned on the trip by hearing various Aurors that professor Moody was under heavy examination, the big trunk being prodded by four wand was his, as were all the other items on the floor. Suddenly, a loud sound resounded in the corridor, followed by manly roars and battle sounds. A distinctive noise of glass exploding followed by two spells breaking against Hogwarts' stone echoed in our ears as every Aurors hurried, wands in hand. I dragged Ginny with me, pushed by the crowd of Aurors and got a glance in professor Moody's office, where the sounds came from.

We were just in time to see James and a black skinned Auror send Moody crashing against the wall, his wand clattering at their feet. James was bleeding and holding his ribs, and the second Auror quickly countered a dark strangulation curse, a big black snake made of what looked like smoke coiling around his neck. The snake vanished and he turned to the Aurors beside me.

"A healer, quick! James took a heavy cutter in the ribs!" he barked, turning to Moody who was getting back on his feet. He produced a secondary wand from his boot and snarled madly, rising his wand in a slashing motion. James didn't let him the chance to cast anything, he sent a mage-level bludgeoner to his thorax. The man took it and slammed against the wall, his bones cracking violently - blood spurted from his mouth and he slumped to the floor like a wet sock.

The black Auror turned to the crowd again.

"He's under Polyjuice, get the antidote and a healer, we must not lose him!" he barked again, summoning the wand from the slowly dying fake professor. He was drawing long stifled and gurgling breaths, trying to grasp the floor with his hands as he choked on his blood. He was probably protected from disarming and stunning, or James wouldn't have attacked him that brutally. I thought, before I looked at James. He looked murderous, on the threshold of insanity, his eyes wide open and his teeth barred. Maybe I overestimated James' ability to stay calm in any situation, interesting.

"Who are you? Why did you do that?" he growled, advancing threateningly to the prone form of the dying unknown wizard.

"Why did you attack my son?" he barked, sputtering on the face of the grinning man. He was grinning. He slowly opened his mouth and spoke with malice through his collapsed throat.

"My... master will soon... be back... and your Savior... will perish." he coughed a laugh and caught a punch in the nose from James.

"Step back, James!" bellowed Kingsley - I remembered him now, I had already seen him somewhere. He grabbed the rabid James by the shoulders and forcefully dragged him back. The healers helped him and started to work on the wound, James was still ominously staring at the laughing wizard on the floor.

Kingsley forced the antidote down the fake Moody's throat unceremoniously and stepped back. The transformation occurred slowly, bones cracking painfully as the destroyed skeleton of the man tried to make sense out of itself. He screamed in pain for a while and puked a good gallon of blood and bile, now returned to his original but still dying body.

"Barty Crouch Junior..." whispered Kingsley in disbelief. "How? Why?" he muttered slowly.

Crouch laughed again, a psychotic laughter, the insane mirth that I knew so well, the creeping madness of dark magic. His breath stopped after a while and he started to close his eyes, his body numbing suddenly.

"Legilimens!" roared James, his wand pointed at the dead man, just before he finished to exhale his last breath. It was highly illegal to use Legilimency like that, even for Aurors, but nobody in the room would stop him or complain about the procedure violation.

He lowered his wand and blinked after a second of staring at the corpse.

"What did you see, James?" queried Kingsley, eyeing Ginny and me curiously and frowning. He had only noticed there were kids in the room now.

"He... he is the one who put the name in the cup... I'm not sure but it looked like a complex plot, there was more to it than what I saw." he muttered, stroking his forehead. The healers had almost finished healing his gash.

"And the attack in the forest?"

He shook his head.

"Definitely him, but I didn't see anything about it, he died too soon."

He stayed silent after that, Kingsley took a seat and sighed, he gave a few orders to other Aurors and turned his head to me and Ginny.

"What are you two doing here?"

"We... w-wanted to see w-what was going on." muttered Ginny, shivering and hugging my left side like it was her only way to stay on her feet. She was pale and looked about to be sick all over the bloodied floor.

"Get out, this isn't a place for children. Prinston!" he beckoned the man to come.

"Get them out of there and give them some hot chocolate. Call Arthur and Molly Weasley too, along with Dumbledore and - hell, just call everybody you can reach. And warn the Minister too, there is a breach in Azkaban."

Prinston pushed us out of the room and ran away without giving any hot chocolate. I frowned at his back.

"No hot chocolate? That was the most promising thing of the day." I joked. Not really, some guy taking all the blame for my crimes is very promising too.

Ginny didn't laugh, she was positively ill, to see a man being killed sometimes did that to thirteen years old witches. I looked at her faintly shaking body. I wanted to break her, destroy her pureness, her innocence. I wanted to conquer that frail body, to forcefully take her virginity and her hopes. Jesus fuck, calm down, Harry. The sight of blood and death had awoken my senses, my hunger, my thirst.

I breathed deeply, refraining my urge to lead the naive redhead in a closet and abuse her with a barely relieving throaty groan. I'm a fucking monster, but it feels so good. Been a week since I cursed anything... I need it.

It was so great to lead girls to give themselves to me, most of them were interested in a possible more or less serious relationship but ended up naked and on all fours, dizzy and horny, desiring the rape it actually was with lust and passion. It felt like controlling and tainting them, it felt like being a vampire in a girl school. And in a way, I was. We are beyond good or bad, those are human values. And we are greater than humans.

I chuckled at Victor's words. Easy to say for a vampire, but I wasn't playing with muggles like they did. No, those are witches, they are of my kind. Does that change anything to the lesson? Good or bad?

I shook my head, the debate wasn't one I could resolve by myself.

"Come on, let's go." I grabbed Ginny and dragged her to the third floor.

Soon, the Aurors would be away and freedom back home. I would finish my Mage Knight armor and control that damn Fiendfyre, it was all going to go well.

In the meantime, I'll just do whatever I want. Fuck rules, fuck good and bad altogether and fuck Ginny. I thought as I headed for the dark cave behind the statue, Ginny holding my hand and following me, oblivious of what was about to happen to her still somewhat uncorrupted self.

I'm Harry fucking Potter, I'm beyond all that shit.

An: Sorry for the huge ass delay between update, but some crap came up in my otherwise quiet life. It might go smoother from now on. Enjoy.