Blood-Soaked Succession chapter 29 (Patreon)

Chapter 29:

***

Harry followed Albus and Grindelwald down the mountain path towards Nurmengard with his Occlumency shields locked tightly in place.

The fortress dominated the cliff ahead of them, its narrow windows staring out over the valley like arrow slits. Most were sealed behind iron shutters and wards old enough to predate several governments. The main road wound through the gorge below and crossed three separate checkpoints before reaching the front gates. Grindelwald ignored all of them.

He led them along a shelf of rock barely wide enough for one person at a time, forcing Harry to keep one hand against the cliff as loose stones rolled beneath his boots and dropped into the valley. Albus followed Grindelwald with the ease of someone who already knew where the path ended. Harry kept several paces behind both men and watched every movement they made.

He stood alone with two of the greatest Legilimens in history.

Both the resurrection stone and imperius curese were under his command, but neither fact inspired enough confidence for him to relax his mind. He focused most of his attention on layering shields around every thought he considered valuable while false memories, useless observations and meaningless fragments occupied the surface of his mind.

Grindelwald reached a wall of stone and pressed his palm against it, whispering a password.

Faint lines appeared beneath his hand, forming a symbol Harry had never seen. The cliff groaned as a section of rock shifted inward and slid aside, revealing a narrow passage descending into darkness.

“The builders believed this was an emergency exit,” Grindelwald said.

Albus looked into the tunnel.

“You designed it as an entrance.”

“Of course.”

The three entered.

The passage smelled of wet stone, rust and the stale air of a place sealed for decades. Water dripped from the ceiling and gathered in channels cut along either wall. Broken lanterns hung from iron hooks while old bones and scraps of cloth rested in recesses where prisoners or guards had once slept during construction.

The tunnel ended behind a rusted maintenance door. Grindelwald touched the lock with his wand. The metal softened, folded inward and vanished into the wall.

Beyond it waited the ground floor of Nurmengard.

Rows of cells stretched along both sides of a broad central corridor. Most stood empty. A few contained broken furniture, discarded chains and old stains that had sunk deep into the stone. Modern Ministry lanterns hung beside older sconces, flooding the passage with white light that made the fortress more resemble a ministry waiting room.

Albus and Grindelwald stepped forward shoulder to shoulder. Harry followed several paces behind.

They reached the front hall before the first guards noticed them.

Two ICW Aurors stood near the main doors, garbed in the telltale blue, speaking over a desk covered in cards and half-eaten food. One looked up and his expression shifted from confusion to fear before he reached his wand.

Grindelwald's was already drawn and pointed at him.

A thin red line crossed the room and struck the man through the chest. His body jerked.

Every vein beneath his skin darkened at once. The Auror opened his mouth and blood erupted from it in a thick stream. More burst through his nose, eyes and ears before the skin along his arms split and released the rest in a violent red mist.

The second Auror raised a shield and Grindelwald swept his wand sideways.

The blood hanging in the air changed direction and drove itself into the man’s mouth and nostrils. He staggered backwards, choking as the liquid forced its way into his lungs.

The Auror thrust his wand towards his own chest.

“Depulso!” he gargled.

But nothing happened.The curse had kept the blood alive. Magic still recognized it as part of a living body. You cannot summon or banish living things, after all.

The man collapsed beside the desk and clawed at his throat until his movements slowed.

Harry and Albus followed Grindelwald towards the stairs up, none of them looking back. They hadn't even broken their stride through all of this.

They crossed the hall and entered the central stairwell. Iron steps spiralled around an open shaft climbing through the heart of the fortress. Old banners hung from the upper levels, their symbols removed and replaced with the seals of the International Confederation.

An alarm began ringing above them. Heavy bells sounded through the stone, followed by boots, shouted orders and the crack of Apparition wards activating around the fortress.

Grindelwald smiled and Albus raised his wand.

More than a dozen Aurors waited beyond the landing of the second floor. It was a wide administrative chamber filled with desks, filing cabinets and evidence crates. Several had overturned furniture to form barricades. Others stood behind conjured shields while officers farther back prepared curses over their shoulders.

Their first volley filled the room with a rainbow of lights. Red, blue, green and violet spells crossed the chamber completely out of sync with one another.

Albus moved his wand in a slow circle and a translucent barrier expanded before the three of them and curved around the landing. Spells struck it in rapid succession and spread across its surface in ripples, each one dispersing into sparks before reaching the men behind it.

Harry remained close to the rear.

A green curse cut between two stunners and curved towards Grindelwald’s exposed side. Harry flicked his wand and banished a filing cabinet into its path. The curse struck the steel and reduced it to burning fragments.

Another Auror launched a spell Harry failed to recognize. The colour and wand movement reminded him of a nasty one Ginny had used on him a couple of weeks ago that completely slipped through his shield chares. He tore an overturned desk from the floor and sent it spinning across the room. The curse struck the wood and turned it into a mass of snapping teeth.

Albus widened the shield and drove forward and Grindelwald continued to attack through it.

Gellert had much more luck with his spells.A cutting curse split one shield and the shoulder behind it. A purple flare struck another Auror and twisted his spine until his chest faced the wrong direction. A third spell transformed the floor beneath the barricades into grasping black hands that dragged three officers down and broke their legs against the stone.

Harry felt pressure brush against his mind. A thought that did not belong to him slid along the outer edge of his Occlumency shields and searched for a seam.

Harry tightened every layer of defence and kept both men within his sight. Albus continued sustaining the shield. Grindelwald continued killing. Neither had visibly reacted or even turned his way. But he was under no delusion that either needed eye contact or that they couldn't have pointed their wand at him while carving larger incantations into the air.

Then again, one of the Aurors could have attempted the intrusion. It would explain why it stopped so quickly as Grindelwald took the entire squad out with his next spell. His curse struck the Auror standing at the middle of the formation square in the chest. A second later, it looked like he was growing a hundred large spider legs from every point in his body.

The first bone pierced through his uniform and extended half a metre from his torso. More followed from his shoulders, arms, hips and face. Long white splinters burst in all directions, growing and dividing as quickly as branches through spring rain.

The Auror screamed once but the sound ended when spikes erupted through his jaw. And through it, from every part of his jaw bone and skull. And also through the skull itself.

The growth accelerated until the man resembled the centre of a vast white thicket. Every splinter branched again, producing more sharpened bone until the growth filled the chamber. The structure expanded through desks, shields and bodies with enough force to shove furniture aside and pin people against the walls.

This had all happened in a couple of seconds, and the entire squad was dead.

One Auror lost both legs as a branch of bone swept across the floor. Another disappeared inside the growing mass with only one hand remaining visible between the spikes. Three officers behind the barricade were lifted together and shredded as dozens of points passed through their bodies from different angles.

Albus lowered his shield and pointed his wand at the chamber which now resembled a forest of blood-covered bone stretching from wall to wall. Broken desks hung from the branches beside torn robes and pieces of the people who had stood there moments earlier.

He raised his wand and sent a broad sheet of fire through the room.

The flames moved like water, flowing between the branches and over every corpse without touching the stone. Bone blackened, cracked and collapsed into ash. Blood vanished in steam. Bodies broke apart until only grey dust remained across the floor when he ended the spell.

A draft moved through the shattered windows and carried much of the remaining ash away as they walked through the chamber. What remained rolled across the floor around their boots like white foam washing up along a beach.

They met little more resistance on the way up.

A handful of Aurors appeared at different landings, usually alone or in pairs, and died before they could slow the advance. The only serious interruption came when two officers rushed them from behind while Albus and Grindelwald were already halfway up the next flight. They had likely entered through the front doors after the alarm.

Harry heard their boots before either man could cast a spell.

He turned, raised his wand and cut them down with two quick slashes. The first lost his wand arm at the shoulder from a simple cutting charm and fell screaming against the railing. The second managed half a shield before Harry’s sectumcempra crossed his chest and opened him from collarbone to hip. Both tumbled down the stairs together, leaving blood across several steps before disappearing around the curve.

Harry resumed climbing before their bodies stopped moving.

The top floor differed from the levels beneath it. It possessed the same open construction as the administrative chamber, but somebody had converted nearly the entire space into a private laboratory. Long tables stood beneath hanging lamps and carried cauldrons, glass vessels, brass instruments and equipment Harry could not identify. Cabinets crowded the walls beside shelves of bottled organs and preserved creatures. One section held half-finished armour, jointed metal limbs and several masks in different stages of construction.

A large library occupied the far side of the room. Books filled shelves stretching from floor to ceiling, with rolling ladders mounted along their length. More volumes lay open across desks beside handwritten notes and diagrams pinned to the walls.

The laboratory had three occupants.

A woman in a grey cloak stood behind the largest workbench with two men beside her. Both were unarmed and wore little more than trousers. Their skin carried the smooth, unfinished appearance of bodies assembled from microscopic components.

Harry recognized one of them.

Its face had changed. So had its height, colouring and proportions. None of that mattered. He remembered the way it moved and the fluidity with which its bones and flesh had reshaped themselves while chasing him down a motorway the previous spring.

The creature watched him without blinking.

The woman looked between Harry, Albus and Grindelwald before resting her attention on him.

“Ah, Mr Potter,” she said. “I admit, had I known this would prove to be one of your targets, I would have asked Tom for somewhere else to establish my private laboratory.”

Her tone carried mild annoyance rather than fear.

She reached up and removed her hood. The face beneath it appeared impossibly young. Smooth skin, sharp features and pale eyes sat beneath long white hair. Freckles covered her nose and cheeks. Their colour, along with the shape of her face, told Harry the hair had once been red. And that she was very old.

Harry kept his wand trained on her while his free hand moved beneath his robes. He found the messaging Galleon hanging from the cord around his neck and turned it between his fingers without looking down.

He sent off a quick message to all of his followers.

***

Viktor flew alongside the Hogwarts Express high above the endless wilderness of northern Norway.

The mountains below rolled past beneath blankets of pine and snow, broken only by frozen lakes reflecting the afternoon sky. The train kept perfect pace beside him beneath the power of an, invisible save for the occasional distortion where sunlight bent strangely across its immense shape. Anybody looking up from the wilderness below would have seen nothing at all.

Heat suddenly spread across Viktor's chest. He reached beneath his robes and withdrew the enchanted Galleon Hermione had fashioned into a messaging device. The metal had become almost too warm to hold.

One word had appeared across its surface.

Unspeakables.

Viktor read it once before slipping the coin back beneath his robes. He did not need further explanation.

Everybody aboard the train would have received the same warning at the same moment. Potter had encountered Unspeakables somewhere. Or perhaps he thought they would be encountering them. The mission remained active or the message would have said otherwise. But it wasn't an order to retreat or alter course, merely a complication significant enough that everybody needed to know about it.

Durmstrang appeared ahead.

The fortress stood upon a rocky island rising from the cold northern sea, its towers still bearing the scars of Viktor's escape months earlier. Several sections remained little more than rubble while scaffolding climbed the surviving walls where reconstruction continued. Smoke drifted from temporary buildings erected within the outer courtyard, and fresh stone contrasted sharply against the older black masonry surrounding it.

Viktor raised his wand towards his throat.

“Sonorus.”

***

Dudley frowned down at the warm Galleon in his hand as he wheeled his motorcycle through the Hogwarts Express towards the rear of the train. The magic gold coin harry had given him carried a single word.

Unspeakables.

He stared at it for another second before slipping it back beneath his jacket. He had absolutely no idea what an Unspeakable was. Whatever it meant, Harry clearly considered it important enough to warn everybody at once. Dudley simply filed the information away. Somebody on the train would know what it meant and he could ask after the battle.

The rear cargo carriage had already become a hive of activity by the time he arrived. The larger compartment was packed tightly with enchanted motorcycles, several jeeps and the men and women assigned to them. Everybody carried out last-minute checks while engines idled loudly enough that conversation was conducted with raised voices.

Dudley guided his motorcycle into the final open position directly behind four others already lined abreast. Piers sat on a red motor bike, Malcolm a blue, Gordon an orange one and Dennis the green one.

The women arrived a few moments later.

Daphne walked straight towards Piers while Padma headed for Malcolm without exchanging so much as a glance. Lavender climbed onto the back of Gordon's motorcycle and Susan settled herself behind Dennis. Each mounted side-saddle with the posture of a proper lady despite the absurdity of what they were preparing to do. Dudley still found it difficult reconciling that image with the same women who had spent the last several months blowing up safe houses, assassinating Death Eaters and learning how to fight wars.

He felt the suspension sink beneath him.

Turning around, he found Seamus climbing into the sidecar while wrestling a helmet over his head. The Irishman settled the machine gun mounted before him into a more comfortable position before looking past Dudley towards the four couples - who weren't actually couples - waiting in front of them.

"Yeah," he said with an exaggerated sigh. "I'd rather have one of them birds riding with me too. But somebody has to keep an eye on your ugly mug."

Dudley snorted. Seamus had always been one of the more alright wizards. Apparently he grew up normal like his parents had tried to do with Harry. Minus the bad parts his parents did.

Seamus nodded towards the revolver-shotgun thing resting in its holster beneath Dudley's jacket.

"You planning to watch my back with that vampire killing toy of yours?"

Dudley rested one hand against the weapon before gesturing towards the other motorcycles.

"We all will." he said.

Piers glanced over his shoulder and heard the exchange well enough to answer with a grin.

Viktor's magically amplified voice suddenly echoed through every carriage of the train.

"Prepare to launch!"

Engines rose from an idle growl into a deafening roar while riders lowered goggles over their eyes and secured helmet straps beneath their chins. Somebody farther down the carriage whooped excitedly and several others answered. Dudley pulled his own helmet into place, adjusted the goggles until they sat comfortably and wrapped both hands around the handlebars as the entire carriage shuddered beneath him.

The rear wall split cleanly down the middle.

Locks disengaged one after another with heavy metallic clunks before the floor itself began lowering away from the carriage, transforming into a broad loading ramp suspended over empty sky. Cold air rushed inside, whipping through clothing and carrying with it the sharp scent of pine forests and the distant sea far below.

The jeeps dropped first. They rolled down the ramp from gravity alone and disappeared into open air. For several seconds they simply fell before enchantments hidden throughout their frames slowed the descent and allowed them to glide towards the island below. Once the last jeep cleared the opening, the first row of motorcycles released their brakes and followed.

Then the second. Then it was Dudley's gang and the Daughters.

Piers eased his motorcycle forward until the two rode almost side by side. He lifted one hand from the handlebars and Dudley reached across the gap to slap it with his own just as both motorcycles crossed the edge of the ramp.

For one exhilarating moment there was nothing beneath the wheels but empty sky. Wind screamed around Dudley's helmet as the enchanted motorcycle plummeted towards battle while Seamus laughed like a madman from the sidecar. Dudley threw his own head back and joined him, the sheer absurdity of skydiving on a motorcycle proving far too enjoyable not to.

Looking upward, he watched dozens more ramps opening along the invisible length of the Hogwarts Express, the only thing visible being the trains guts. Motorcycles, jeeps and other enchanted vehicles poured from the hidden train in wave after wave until the sky seemed alive with falling machines.