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The golden thread stretched and trilled softly. Harry walked along the wall, following the thread. It led somewhere beyond an inconspicuous door. There was no one there. But there was an abundance of incomprehensible plants, vivid and most likely poisonous. Neville was in his element, having set up a mini-greenhouse in his apartment.

Potter circled the beds and inspected the pots. After casting a few spells, Harry couldn't find anything that would cause Longbottom to react that way either. But he didn't let up. Back in the room, Potter stepped out into the corridor. The thread cut off abruptly about ten feet from the door. The trail was lost. What to do next? Harry thought hard. Who needs Hogwarts to cease to exist as a school? If you count Voldemort, there's an absolute benefit. But old Dumbledore was no stranger to it either. Yet he's done nothing to stop the exodus of magic from the walls of the ancient castle. All they did was whine that Potter could do anything.

Harry shivered. If it wasn't for Neville and Luna, he'd just drop everything and go back to his beloved dragons. How much longer could he wash himself of all the filth they'd plunged him into so many years ago... To Mordred the school, to Mordred everyone from that Order of the Phoenix, and everyone else who decided to have a power struggle there! All right. Let's sort this out and get to the lagoon...

Suddenly Potter felt a light mental touch. The wand slipped familiarly into his palm:

- Gomenum Revelio!

A beam burst from the wand and struck the corner of the corridor. Potter rushed there, but saw only the tip of a dark grey coloured robe. The man was definitely skilled and fast enough. Run after him! Harry scrambled up and sprinted after the stranger.

A few seconds later they were both in the corridor of the One-Eyed Witch. The stranger clearly knew the local passageways, for he dived briskly into the passageway leading to the Sweet Kingdom.

- Stupefy! - Potter kept pace, but he couldn't see him, not even with his cloak and hood on. He fought back a spell and sped off even faster.

Once out in Hogsmeade, Harry looked around and cursed. The stranger had disappeared. There was nothing to be done, he would have to go back. Potter exhaled and decided to take the long way back. It was getting dusky. Birds were hopping in the branches of the trees, trying to find more comfortable places to sleep. It was getting a little colder. On the way he saw the Squealing Hut, Harry decided to go in, have a look around, remember his third year... As he approached he heard harsh voices. Both belonged to men, and they were swearing.

- I did as you said! Who knew the great Potter had gone where he shouldn't have!

- You're an impenetrable dullard, Selwyn! You can't even be given a simple job to do!

Potter cast a spell of silence and disillusionment over himself. Peeking cautiously into the hut, he saw Snape scolding the very stranger in the gray outfit. As if sensing an intruder, Snape looked back at the door. Then, after waving his wand at the man he called Selwyn, he walked out abruptly. Harry barely had time to look away. Snape turned his nose warily, then felt the air an inch from Potter's face, thankfully it was not so bright and the disilluminating spell was holding well. In the meantime Selwyn had gone somewhere again.

What's going on in this Mordred Hogwarts? I wonder what they were talking about here? And mentioning his name at the same time... He'll figure it out. Merlin knows he will!

Potter walked toward Hogwarts without casting a spell. No one else he encountered on the way. The sand crunched beneath his feet, and bats were already circling in the sky as they flew out to hunt. At the entrance to the castle, Harry came to his senses and, having removed all spells, went inside. The evening promised to be a bad one. The sky was covered in thunderclouds, and so was the ceiling in the Great Hall. It smelled damp and musty. Mages... Couldn't even deal with that little thing... Anger receded, giving way to cold calculation. Harry was frankly quick to fall for the enticement, and now wished he'd never made the decision to return to the castle to deal with this 'leak' of Magic in the first place. After all, magic never just disappeared. So someone was involved in what was going on in the castle after all. And Potter would get to the bottom of it!

Down by the lake, Harry drew the rune circle again. The ritual yielded no results, except that really, what was going on in the castle was the work of a wizard, a human. Potter returned to Neville and Luna's apartments. The golden thread hung there, tattered, gradually dissolving into the humid air of the corridor. Harry wrapped it around his finger and began to pull it into a tangle. The thread lengthened and led Potter inside. He followed. Coiling the fading thread, he walked through several rooms, and came out the other side, into a completely uninhabited corridor. In the dust, however, indistinct medium-sized shoe marks were visible. It was obvious that they hadn't even been tried to mop them up, hoping that no one would come out here. After walking down the main corridor, Potter had to take the stairs several times and cross to the other floors. After about fifteen minutes, he found himself in the teachers' living quarters. There were the rooms of Septima Vector, Filius Flitwick and a couple of other teachers who didn't want to live in offices. The thread had gone completely transparent and had already thinned to the point where it was barely visible. Harry had to pull it up carefully so as not to tear or lose the trail. Another door. The thread disappeared behind it and finally melted into thin air, as did the ghostly tangle that Harry had managed to reel in.

Knocking on the door, Potter waited. No one answered. Alohomora didn't help either. After casting a few more spells, Potter decided to act the Muggle way: he simply pulled the doorknob towards himself. The flap gave way, but not hard. Then Harry jerked sharper. The door flew open, slamming violently against the stone wall. Standing in front of Harry was a blond, black-eyed, middle-aged stranger. He was alert and with wand in hand, apparently weaving a protective spell, but before he knew it, Potter was ahead of him, Incarcero and Petrificus Totalus. Then rudely dragged him into the room.

- Who are you? What are you doing here? - As soon as Harry had removed Petrificus from the man's head, the man, who had missed the questions, was now silent, his lips pressed into a thin band and waiting for an answer.

- You know perfectly well who I am. But who are you?

Potter wasn't going to tell what was going on, taking a good look at the faint thread that had entangled half the school and led him straight here, but the man still didn't answer. The anger returned, clouding his mind for a moment. And Harry, without thinking long, gave the blond man a good slap. His nose bled.

- Would you like me to say it again? Who are you? - Harry's patience was running out. There was no telling what was going to happen to Neville, and this one just lay there silently, not even trying to get free.

The man blinked and stared hatefully at Potter. Then he squinted:

- I'm Amadeus Selwyn, Professor of Artifact Science.

- What have you been doing here for the last half hour or so?

- I'm not telling you that.

That's it. Harry's patience had burst like an inflated nadget:

- Then I'll find out for myself. Crucio!

Selwyn twisted and screamed in pain. Petrificus dissipated, and Selwyn curled up in a ball and moaned loudly.

- Will you tell me now? - Potter asked after a moment. - Or shall we do it again?

Selwyn crouched, shaking, and even his wand fell out of his hands. But the anticipation of new pain forced him to speak:

- N-can't! They took the Vow from me!

- I'm sorry, it's definitely myself now. Petrificus Totalus! Legilimens! - Harry easily cracked all the blocks and took a cursory look through the teacher's mind. After a few minutes he released the man. The man went limp and rolled his eyes. A thin trickle of saliva flowed from his relaxed mouth, and he smelled of urine. A fractured mind left Selwyn.

- What am I supposed to do with you? - Harry sighed. The picture he saw in the blond's mind did not please him.

Selwyn turned out to be the Dark Lord's right-hand man, and was one of the first to receive the mark. Severus was his accomplice. They were spreading dark magical artefacts all over the castle, but they weren't forgetting the professors' chambers. That's why they began to weaken.

Artifacts were small stones with colorful veins, dampening all positive emotions as well as Dementors, with the only difference that their effect was almost imperceptible. They sucked the magic out of any wizard in the castle's radius. And the discs Harry had placed in the faculty lounges didn't have the desired effect, because they couldn't handle the double flow of negative energy.

Harry exposed Selwyn's left forearm. It was, the mark blackening in all its glory. The scar, which hadn't hurt in years, suddenly ached faintly.

"What's to be done? There are two traitors in the castle who will utterly ruin Hogwarts, its reputation and its power... Selwyn can no longer be let go. The Lord will have to send a surprise. Snape, on the other hand, will have to be spoken to. Hypocritical bastard! It'll be all right!"

- Avada Kedavra! - Harry saw no other way out. Then shrunk the body and wrapped it tightly in the carpet. Shrunk it down again, put it in his pocket and quickly walked away, sealing Selwyn's rooms with a spell.

****

Potter paced briskly towards the owlery. There, after scribbling a few lines, he tied a small parcel to the paw of the first owl he saw and told it to fly to the Dark Lord. The owl's eyes widened, but it barked and flew away.

Now it was time to deal with the "beloved" Potions Professor. Harry made his way easily into Snape's lab. Strict order reigned there as usual. All the potions and ingredients were sorted with a conscience that their owner did not have. Searching for the right vial with his eyes, Potter cast a summoning spell:

- Accio vial of Veritaserum!

There was the sound of shattered glass, the doors of an overhead locker flew open, and the right vial flew into his hands. Harry saw the clear liquid and calmed down a little. Now Snape wouldn't be able to get away with it. Potter was so deep in thought that he didn't notice the black shadow in the lab doorway.

- Potter! What are you doing in my personal laboratory? Stealing ingredients again?

Harry managed to slip the vial into his pocket and straightened up:

- What a meeting, Professor! Just the man I want to see! Anything you want to tell me? Like how your colleagues were poisoned? Why is everyone in the Hospital Wing and you're walking around? Why don't you make the right potions for the sick? Or does that work for you? Incarcero!

As Potter flooded Snape with a stream of information, the latter realized that he was exposed, and began to weave with his wand the intricate spell that deprived his opponent of his senses for a long time, but not in time. Potter, thanks to his long training, was incredibly fast. He had to put Protego in. But Snape didn't give up for nothing:

- Sektusempra!

Potter fought off the spell.

Their peculiar duel had already gone beyond the confines of the lab, and flashes of curses now lit up the corridor.

After a few minutes Snape realised he couldn't overpower his former pupil, turned into a raven and flew out of the dungeons. Harry fell just short of catching him, plucking a few feathers from his tail. The raven, dodging it, pecked him in the finger and was off.