Chapter 55: Run
24th June 1995, Hogwarts
(Dumbledore POV)
Dumbledore was watching the third task of the tri wizard tournament, surveying his target. The Potter girl had eluded him ever since that conversation in his office. She had disappeared and never seen until today. This was his only chance to get back his allegiance of the elder wand. He already gotten the cloak from the Potter boy and the resurrection stone, at the cost of Gellert.
There was a slight issue he had to resolve then. While the stone had accepted him as a its owner, the cloak rejected him. When he wore it, he was as detectable as he would be under any normal invisibility cloak. It had none of the famed abilities that James once boasted about. It should be able hide the owner from any form of detection, even allow his to go through wards as if they weren’t here.
He theorized that Ignotus Peverell, or some Potter ancestor had bound the artifact to his bloodline. It took some research and some tinkering, but he was able to use a blood ritual, found in a journal of a line thief six centuries back that was caught and executed for stealing his cousin’s birthright using blood magic. He used young Nathan’s blood and altered his blood to mimic the fact that he had a Potter ancestor. It was enough to fool the cloak and he became the owner of the third hallow.
With the stone and the cloak in his possession and mastered, only the elder wand remained and the way to get it was to kill the girl he was seeing on the screen. It was the only way for him to get a chance to survive what was hunting him. The mark on his chest felt colder the closer his time ran out and he was nervous at the last line left on it. This was his last chance; he would not waste it. The girl was going to die either way, having broken his memory charm. She knew too much.
He successfully managed to turn her family against her, but he didn’t expect her was to just accept it and vanish. He thought that her attachment with the younger Potter girl would get her to fight back, escalating the situation. And like any other magical, she would have drawn her wand in anger, and he would have disarmed her to prevent a fight from breaking out and gotten back the elder wand’s allegiance. Then if she chose to leave, he would let her be but if she had chosen to stay, she would have suffered an unfortunate accident during the task.
Unfortunately, now he needed to adapt. He watched the task on the admittedly nice enchantment. He analyzed it and determined how to disable it. It was a nice try from the girl to protect herself by making sure that there would be no interference or attempts on her life. Too bad, she has underestimated him. The enchantment was also anchored in the maze, meaning that the spectators can only watch the champions if they’re in a certain location, in this case it being the maze. So, no one should be able to watch Voldemort’s resurrection.
Albus looked at his doubleganger in the stands giving him an alibi before he discretely put on the invisibility cloak and entered the maze. He had a tracking charm on the girl and followed it. Additionally, he copied the signal from the enchantment from the stands into a small mirror in his pocket to further observe the girl. He watched as she massacred four Acromantula that were attacking her with a flame whip, a very powerful and versatile spell. The giant spiders ended up in pieces and Dumbledore’s doubt in killing the girl disappeared. This girl was going to end up like Tom Riddle and he will not allow a second Voldemort to rise.
He walked around the maze, he needed to find her as soon as possible; he could not risk her winning the tournament. This was his window of opportunities. He was now thankful for the invisibility cloak, more helpful than he ever thought it would be. He could walk past any creature, and they would not sense him. Traps would not activate when he came closer, the wards never noticed him, and he could just walk through them as if they didn’t exist. He could not believe that he and Gellert dismissed the cloak so easily. No invisibility spell could compare to this masterpiece. He could understand why they called it Death’s cloak.
He felt the tracking charm getting warmer and he knew that the girl was nearby. From the mirror in his hand, she was busy fighting two of Hagrid’s Skrewts at the same time. She really was a talented girl; too bad she has fallen to the darkness.
When he reached her, she had dispatched of the two Skrewts relatively easily. First, Albus needed to remove that pesky enchantment from her. He cast the cancellation spell at her. It was invisible and unless she could sense magic, a skill that took him three decades to master, the girl shouldn’t feel a single thing.
He took a look at the mirror in his hand, and it was showing him his reflection, meaning the feed was cut. The spectators would probably think that the spell malfunctioned somehow. After all, this was a newly developed spell.
With the confirmation of anonymity gone, he put away the mirror and pointed his wand at the girl and fired a stunner which was surprisingly blocked with a wordless shield. With his surprise attack failing, there was no use for hiding. He removed the cloak, returning to the realm of visibility, once more.
“Dumbledore,” she snarled at him.
“Hello, my girl. How is your task going so far?” He asked like they were in a normal conversation.
The girl didn’t respond and just asked, “What are you doing here?”
“You took something of mine, my girl. I just need it back.” Albus responded.
“And what the hell did I take from you?” She snarked back at him.
“My wand,” He calmly answered her.
“Your wand is in your hand, you delusional old man.” She growled.
“No, it might be in my hand, but you own it. You see, my girl, this is no ordinary wand. This is the elder wand of legends. I won it of Gellert when I defeated him fifty years ago.”
“The elder wand,” she murmured. She took another look at him, and her eyes lingered at the ring in his hand and the silver cloak he was wearing. “You have the other two. I don’t know where you got the stone, but I recognize the cloak. Do the Potters know you stole from them?”
“I did not take it by force, if that is what you’re asking. I just mislead them on the reason I asked to borrow it, of course. I have to say, I have grown quite fond of it, I think I’m going to keep it.”
“They might have something to say about that,” she answered.
“Nothing, a few memory charms couldn’t fix.” Albus answered back.
Her answer was a barrage of powerful dark curses that bounced harmlessly on his shield. Youth these days, they have no respect. With a simple wave of his wand, he sent a banishing charm her way, sending her flying back, hitting a thorny hedge. That had to hurt.
Jasmine looked at him, eyes full of hatred, “You’re a monster.”
Dumbledore chuckled, “I rather think of myself a visionary. I do not expect a young girl like you to understand. What I want is to create a world without hatred. Something a dark witch like you will never appreciate.”
The young girl answered him with a wall of fire, that almost caught him off guard. He was barely able to cast a flame freezing charm to neutralize the flames. The girl was now up, in front of him, wand drawn, in a dueling stance.
She screamed, “Fulmen!!” at him. A bolt of lightning came out of her wand, and he admittedly had to use a mage shield to protect himself against this spell. Even then, there was a crack in the middle of his shield. This was his strongest shield spell, and she nearly broke it. The girl was more dangerous that he thought.
“You can’t kill me; the whole world is watching.” She taunted at him.
“No, my dear. Marvelous idea, by the way but I disactivated the enchantment before attacking you.” The headmaster smirked at her.
She paled visibly; the enchantment was her shield from him. “Then people will notice that you’re not in the stands.”
This time he did chuckle, “in my young life, I have been owed a few favors. I just asked a colleague of mine to take my place using Polyjuice potion because I was too ill to attend myself.”
This time, it was he who went on the offensive. She tried to dodge his spells and when she shielded, they broke instantly. Finally, he was able to clip her with a disarming charm, sending her back and depriving her of her wand. He was finally going to kill the brat. He wasn’t going to lie and say that he won’t feel good doing it, she had been such an annoyance for months.
He pretended to look apologetic, “I’m sorry, my dear. I truly am. I need the elder wand to fight the coming darkness and you are too wild to keep under control.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jasmine questioned, sneering at him.
“Tonight, Lord Voldemort will return.”
“You’re mad. He died fifteen years ago.” She said gaping at him.
“I don’t expect you to understand but he will return, and the magical world will be at war once more.”
“And you’re not doing anything to stop it?” She questioned, “You don’t want to stop it, do you? You want the dark lord back,” she realized out loud.
“I need the threat of Voldemort to unite the Wizarding world under my leadership. I have plans for our world, miss Potter. I’m sorry about this, I truly am. But know that your life will not end in vain. It’s for the greater good of the magical world.” Dumbledore said with a solemn tone.
“What about Nathan?” she asked.
“He’ll make a good martyr. Once the Dark Lord kills him, I will use his tragic death to further unite the magical world against Voldemort. Now, enough stalling, goodbye miss Potter.”
“So, you’re going to kill me, just like that. I’m not surprised; I’m not the first girl that you killed. After all, a man that killed his own sister could kill anyone.” She smirked at him. How dare she taunt him of Ariana, of the sister he failed.
“Do not speak of what you don’t understand” he snarled back at her.
“That’s why you really want to kill me. Don’t kid yourself, you don’t have to, you want to. Because I know too much, I know the truth, about the nature of your real relationship with Grindelwald, about how you planned your conquest together. The greater good, isn’t that what you called it?”
“Silence, child.” He growled at her.
“You can never run away from it; the Sayre family knows the truth. If something happens to me, they’ll reveal it.” She had the gall to smirk at him.
“Then the Sayre Family’s days are numbered.”
He cast a disintegration curse at her, and it went through her. This was an illusion. Suddenly, Albus felt pain in his wand arm. The brat had cut off his wand arm. He turned and looked at her and sent a pulse of magic, sending her flying back, once again. He was done playing with the girl. His hand grew back in almost three seconds and he wandlessly summoned his wand. He had developed a talent in wandless magic after the ritual with Fawkes. The girl got up limping. It seems that she broke her leg.
“How?” She asked.
“A ritual, I don’t expect you to recognize such a delicate arc. It took some time for me to learn but I am the closest thing there is to a master of ritual magic in the world.”
Dumbledore animated the roots underground to rise and attack the girl. She set them on fire, but they were enchanted to be fire resistant. She then used the Shadow Consumer curse. The spell, similar to fiendfire, consumes everything it touches. It disintegrated the attacking roots and flew towards him. He conjured his Patronus, beating back the darkness, causing a battle of wills. Darkness against Light, young against old. They seemed to be almost equals, something that baffled Dumbledore. How is the girl as magically powerful as him? Using his wandless magic, he animated the roots behind her, stabbing her in the chest. The girl fell like a puppet with her strings cut.
Albus slowly walked towards his fallen opponent and summoned her wand to him. It will make for a good trophy and now he had officially disarmed her. He didn’t feel anything different from the elder wand. It seems like he needs to kill her.
“You put up a valiant effort, my girl. And you are powerful, I’ll grant you that. But experience always beats raw power. I’m afraid I have won, my dear.”
She crawled at him and looked up and coughed up blood. Her magic was trying to save her somehow and failing miserably. “You… Lose…”
She was laughing and coughing at the same time. He saw her pointing at the ground and found the mirror he used to locate her. It didn’t show his reflection, but a view from above of himself and a dying Jasmine. He looked up and found a bird looking at him. Somehow, the girl had transferred her enchantment to the bird. He paled, people from all over the world watched him say his plan like an idiot. Angry, he shot the girl from the sky.
“When?” He asked the dying girl.
“You… talk… too much….” She said grinning.
This was bad, the girl must have done it when he talked to her before fighting. People would have been able to see the entire fight and the conversation. He needed some damage control. But he had more pressing concerns, like the Morrigan.
He pointed his wand at the girl, who was still grinning at him, “Run…”
Those were the last words that were uttered by Jasmine Potter. She was then hit with Dumbledore’s disintegration curse and turned into dust.
Albus then felt the power coursing through his veins and the elder wand was vibrating in his hand, like it did when he first acquired it from Gellert. He had mastered all the three hallows. He was now the master of death.
Suddenly, Dumbledore felt the castle wards fall from his control. The girl had somehow removed his control over the castle. Or perhaps the spectators did, somehow. He needed to get away and he can’t apparate anymore without his control over the castle wards. Thankfully, he would be able to sneak out of the castle with the cloak.
If people saw the feed, then he will be hunted. He had no time for this, he needed to prepare with his confrontation against the goddess of death itself. But now, he was as ready as he would ever be. He was ready for the Morrigan.
Chapter 55: Run
24th June 1995, Hogwarts
(Dumbledore POV)
Dumbledore was watching the third task of the tri wizard tournament, surveying his target. The Potter girl had eluded him ever since that conversation in his office. She had disappeared and never seen until today. This was his only chance to get back his allegiance of the elder wand. He already gotten the cloak from the Potter boy and the resurrection stone, at the cost of Gellert.
There was a slight issue he had to resolve then. While the stone had accepted him as a its owner, the cloak rejected him. When he wore it, he was as detectable as he would be under any normal invisibility cloak. It had none of the famed abilities that James once boasted about. It should be able hide the owner from any form of detection, even allow his to go through wards as if they weren’t here.
He theorized that Ignotus Peverell, or some Potter ancestor had bound the artifact to his bloodline. It took some research and some tinkering, but he was able to use a blood ritual, found in a journal of a line thief six centuries back that was caught and executed for stealing his cousin’s birthright using blood magic. He used young Nathan’s blood and altered his blood to mimic the fact that he had a Potter ancestor. It was enough to fool the cloak and he became the owner of the third hallow.
With the stone and the cloak in his possession and mastered, only the elder wand remained and the way to get it was to kill the girl he was seeing on the screen. It was the only way for him to get a chance to survive what was hunting him. The mark on his chest felt colder the closer his time ran out and he was nervous at the last line left on it. This was his last chance; he would not waste it. The girl was going to die either way, having broken his memory charm. She knew too much.
He successfully managed to turn her family against her, but he didn’t expect her was to just accept it and vanish. He thought that her attachment with the younger Potter girl would get her to fight back, escalating the situation. And like any other magical, she would have drawn her wand in anger, and he would have disarmed her to prevent a fight from breaking out and gotten back the elder wand’s allegiance. Then if she chose to leave, he would let her be but if she had chosen to stay, she would have suffered an unfortunate accident during the task.
Unfortunately, now he needed to adapt. He watched the task on the admittedly nice enchantment. He analyzed it and determined how to disable it. It was a nice try from the girl to protect herself by making sure that there would be no interference or attempts on her life. Too bad, she has underestimated him. The enchantment was also anchored in the maze, meaning that the spectators can only watch the champions if they’re in a certain location, in this case it being the maze. So, no one should be able to watch Voldemort’s resurrection.
Albus looked at his doubleganger in the stands giving him an alibi before he discretely put on the invisibility cloak and entered the maze. He had a tracking charm on the girl and followed it. Additionally, he copied the signal from the enchantment from the stands into a small mirror in his pocket to further observe the girl. He watched as she massacred four Acromantula that were attacking her with a flame whip, a very powerful and versatile spell. The giant spiders ended up in pieces and Dumbledore’s doubt in killing the girl disappeared. This girl was going to end up like Tom Riddle and he will not allow a second Voldemort to rise.
He walked around the maze, he needed to find her as soon as possible; he could not risk her winning the tournament. This was his window of opportunities. He was now thankful for the invisibility cloak, more helpful than he ever thought it would be. He could walk past any creature, and they would not sense him. Traps would not activate when he came closer, the wards never noticed him, and he could just walk through them as if they didn’t exist. He could not believe that he and Gellert dismissed the cloak so easily. No invisibility spell could compare to this masterpiece. He could understand why they called it Death’s cloak.
He felt the tracking charm getting warmer and he knew that the girl was nearby. From the mirror in his hand, she was busy fighting two of Hagrid’s Skrewts at the same time. She really was a talented girl; too bad she has fallen to the darkness.
When he reached her, she had dispatched of the two Skrewts relatively easily. First, Albus needed to remove that pesky enchantment from her. He cast the cancellation spell at her. It was invisible and unless she could sense magic, a skill that took him three decades to master, the girl shouldn’t feel a single thing.
He took a look at the mirror in his hand, and it was showing him his reflection, meaning the feed was cut. The spectators would probably think that the spell malfunctioned somehow. After all, this was a newly developed spell.
With the confirmation of anonymity gone, he put away the mirror and pointed his wand at the girl and fired a stunner which was surprisingly blocked with a wordless shield. With his surprise attack failing, there was no use for hiding. He removed the cloak, returning to the realm of visibility, once more.
“Dumbledore,” she snarled at him.
“Hello, my girl. How is your task going so far?” He asked like they were in a normal conversation.
The girl didn’t respond and just asked, “What are you doing here?”
“You took something of mine, my girl. I just need it back.” Albus responded.
“And what the hell did I take from you?” She snarked back at him.
“My wand,” He calmly answered her.
“Your wand is in your hand, you delusional old man.” She growled.
“No, it might be in my hand, but you own it. You see, my girl, this is no ordinary wand. This is the elder wand of legends. I won it of Gellert when I defeated him fifty years ago.”
“The elder wand,” she murmured. She took another look at him, and her eyes lingered at the ring in his hand and the silver cloak he was wearing. “You have the other two. I don’t know where you got the stone, but I recognize the cloak. Do the Potters know you stole from them?”
“I did not take it by force, if that is what you’re asking. I just mislead them on the reason I asked to borrow it, of course. I have to say, I have grown quite fond of it, I think I’m going to keep it.”
“They might have something to say about that,” she answered.
“Nothing, a few memory charms couldn’t fix.” Albus answered back.
Her answer was a barrage of powerful dark curses that bounced harmlessly on his shield. Youth these days, they have no respect. With a simple wave of his wand, he sent a banishing charm her way, sending her flying back, hitting a thorny hedge. That had to hurt.
Jasmine looked at him, eyes full of hatred, “You’re a monster.”
Dumbledore chuckled, “I rather think of myself a visionary. I do not expect a young girl like you to understand. What I want is to create a world without hatred. Something a dark witch like you will never appreciate.”
The young girl answered him with a wall of fire, that almost caught him off guard. He was barely able to cast a flame freezing charm to neutralize the flames. The girl was now up, in front of him, wand drawn, in a dueling stance.
She screamed, “Fulmen!!” at him. A bolt of lightning came out of her wand, and he admittedly had to use a mage shield to protect himself against this spell. Even then, there was a crack in the middle of his shield. This was his strongest shield spell, and she nearly broke it. The girl was more dangerous that he thought.
“You can’t kill me; the whole world is watching.” She taunted at him.
“No, my dear. Marvelous idea, by the way but I disactivated the enchantment before attacking you.” The headmaster smirked at her.
She paled visibly; the enchantment was her shield from him. “Then people will notice that you’re not in the stands.”
This time he did chuckle, “in my young life, I have been owed a few favors. I just asked a colleague of mine to take my place using Polyjuice potion because I was too ill to attend myself.”
This time, it was he who went on the offensive. She tried to dodge his spells and when she shielded, they broke instantly. Finally, he was able to clip her with a disarming charm, sending her back and depriving her of her wand. He was finally going to kill the brat. He wasn’t going to lie and say that he won’t feel good doing it, she had been such an annoyance for months.
He pretended to look apologetic, “I’m sorry, my dear. I truly am. I need the elder wand to fight the coming darkness and you are too wild to keep under control.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jasmine questioned, sneering at him.
“Tonight, Lord Voldemort will return.”
“You’re mad. He died fifteen years ago.” She said gaping at him.
“I don’t expect you to understand but he will return, and the magical world will be at war once more.”
“And you’re not doing anything to stop it?” She questioned, “You don’t want to stop it, do you? You want the dark lord back,” she realized out loud.
“I need the threat of Voldemort to unite the Wizarding world under my leadership. I have plans for our world, miss Potter. I’m sorry about this, I truly am. But know that your life will not end in vain. It’s for the greater good of the magical world.” Dumbledore said with a solemn tone.
“What about Nathan?” she asked.
“He’ll make a good martyr. Once the Dark Lord kills him, I will use his tragic death to further unite the magical world against Voldemort. Now, enough stalling, goodbye miss Potter.”
“So, you’re going to kill me, just like that. I’m not surprised; I’m not the first girl that you killed. After all, a man that killed his own sister could kill anyone.” She smirked at him. How dare she taunt him of Ariana, of the sister he failed.
“Do not speak of what you don’t understand” he snarled back at her.
“That’s why you really want to kill me. Don’t kid yourself, you don’t have to, you want to. Because I know too much, I know the truth, about the nature of your real relationship with Grindelwald, about how you planned your conquest together. The greater good, isn’t that what you called it?”
“Silence, child.” He growled at her.
“You can never run away from it; the Sayre family knows the truth. If something happens to me, they’ll reveal it.” She had the gall to smirk at him.
“Then the Sayre Family’s days are numbered.”
He cast a disintegration curse at her, and it went through her. This was an illusion. Suddenly, Albus felt pain in his wand arm. The brat had cut off his wand arm. He turned and looked at her and sent a pulse of magic, sending her flying back, once again. He was done playing with the girl. His hand grew back in almost three seconds and he wandlessly summoned his wand. He had developed a talent in wandless magic after the ritual with Fawkes. The girl got up limping. It seems that she broke her leg.
“How?” She asked.
“A ritual, I don’t expect you to recognize such a delicate arc. It took some time for me to learn but I am the closest thing there is to a master of ritual magic in the world.”
Dumbledore animated the roots underground to rise and attack the girl. She set them on fire, but they were enchanted to be fire resistant. She then used the Shadow Consumer curse. The spell, similar to fiendfire, consumes everything it touches. It disintegrated the attacking roots and flew towards him. He conjured his Patronus, beating back the darkness, causing a battle of wills. Darkness against Light, young against old. They seemed to be almost equals, something that baffled Dumbledore. How is the girl as magically powerful as him? Using his wandless magic, he animated the roots behind her, stabbing her in the chest. The girl fell like a puppet with her strings cut.
Albus slowly walked towards his fallen opponent and summoned her wand to him. It will make for a good trophy and now he had officially disarmed her. He didn’t feel anything different from the elder wand. It seems like he needs to kill her.
“You put up a valiant effort, my girl. And you are powerful, I’ll grant you that. But experience always beats raw power. I’m afraid I have won, my dear.”
She crawled at him and looked up and coughed up blood. Her magic was trying to save her somehow and failing miserably. “You… Lose…”
She was laughing and coughing at the same time. He saw her pointing at the ground and found the mirror he used to locate her. It didn’t show his reflection, but a view from above of himself and a dying Jasmine. He looked up and found a bird looking at him. Somehow, the girl had transferred her enchantment to the bird. He paled, people from all over the world watched him say his plan like an idiot. Angry, he shot the girl from the sky.
“When?” He asked the dying girl.
“You… talk… too much….” She said grinning.
This was bad, the girl must have done it when he talked to her before fighting. People would have been able to see the entire fight and the conversation. He needed some damage control. But he had more pressing concerns, like the Morrigan.
He pointed his wand at the girl, who was still grinning at him, “Run…”
Those were the last words that were uttered by Jasmine Potter. She was then hit with Dumbledore’s disintegration curse and turned into dust.
Albus then felt the power coursing through his veins and the elder wand was vibrating in his hand, like it did when he first acquired it from Gellert. He had mastered all the three hallows. He was now the master of death.
Suddenly, Dumbledore felt the castle wards fall from his control. The girl had somehow removed his control over the castle. Or perhaps the spectators did, somehow. He needed to get away and he can’t apparate anymore without his control over the castle wards. Thankfully, he would be able to sneak out of the castle with the cloak.
If people saw the feed, then he will be hunted. He had no time for this, he needed to prepare with his confrontation against the goddess of death itself. But now, he was as ready as he would ever be. He was ready for the Morrigan.
