Fading Desire- Chp- 15 (Patreon)

December, 1975.

Tom riddle walked down the cobblestone path of Knockturn alley in long but slow strides, his purpose was to capture one of its bars.

He reached outside the chosen location and fished inside his robes to retrieve his wand, in hindsight it was probably a dangerous move. Although Knockturn alley was considered a dark place, filled with the filth and dark creature of the magical Britain it still came under Ministry's legislation.

DMLE could anytime raid the area to confiscated the illegal goods sold in the area, but they mostly didn't. Last time that happened at the peak of Second Great wizarding war, there were rumours about Grindelwald forces hiding in the alley to execute a surprise attack on Diagon Alley.

An investigation was launched and even the lack-lustre working of Wizengamot of that time has quickly seized the opportunity to raid the whole alley. Unsurprisingly, there're no wizards found in the alley with connection to Grindelwald instead several shops were closed due to their connection to smuggling rings of protected magicals creatures.

But, Tom was assured in his position. He was politically backed by not one but several lords of the Winzengamot. The risk factor was too low here for him to stop, he waved his wand and hissed in Parsletongue.

The wards around the bar creaked once before getting silent, they weren't too complex nor too strong. He wouldn't have much difficulty in dismantling them before erecting his own to stop the patrons from leaving. Now, he just has to confirm that there wasn't anyone important in this bar.

With another hissed, the information got to him. Fortunately, there wasn't anyone overly important here. Even the Barkeep was an old half-blood wizard, disposable.

"Protecrimus" He recited slowly moving his wand in a criss-cross pattern before pointing forward. The wards let out a whistle like sound before crashing on their own, but the wardstones were still intact and he could use them to erect his own set of wards.

The next words that left his lips weren't in english, it was parsletongue. He hissed flicking his wand upward, erecting his own privacy ward before anchoring it to the wardstones. Other wards soon followed one after another, he breathed out as he entered the bar through its front door.

The stench of alcohol and molding was too strong, all good for him. The Barkeep looked up to him to get his order, but a quick "Avada Kedrava" took care of him.

Then it was chaos, as soon as the Barman's head hit the wall behind several people started taking out their wand. Voldemort didn't gave them a chance, a cutting curse cleaved through the head of two of his victims.

He ducked under a red spell to transfigure the nearest table into wooden spikes and banished them toward his attacker. Three more down, eight to go. Two of those men were too drunk to keep hold of their wand, Tom hissed and two snakes pounced from under the floorboards to latch onto their necks. They were dead before they could even make a noise.

Four of the remaining men joined together to fire a series of spells at him, he gracefully brought forward a sheild reverting all of them back to their owners. His vast arsenal of spells made sure that he wasn't unready for any situation.

Last two of the men were trying their best to claw out from the bar like cornered animals, but they weren't fairing any better. Two quick Killing curses took care of them, Tom Riddle loved to play with his victims but today it was all business .

He had other plans for the night, then he could enjoy tormenting his victims as long as he want.

He levitated the bodies one after another separating them in two piles, one having fully intact body parts, those he would turn into inferius. Second with separated body parts, the human parts would be used in several potions and rituals.

In that regard, he needed a competent potioneer. He himself was an excellent potioneer, but he didn't want to sit behind a cauldron for long hours. No, he had much more important tasks to take care of.

He would have to talk to Sewlyn or Avery on that matter, a recently graduated or graduating student would do fine in that post. Manipulating them according to his plan wasn't that hard, a experienced potioneer would do a better job but they ask too many questions for his liking.

Now for this bar, it won't be used as a hideout. That was just unnecessary, his manor was ideal for that. This bar was to be used as an appointment point for most of his army from now on. The vampires, werewolves, hags and other magical creatures were regular wanderers on these streets.

He twisted his wand in a circular anti-clockwise manner to repair the damage done to the interior of the building. He would also have to order one or fews of lowly servants to clean up the mess in here, it wouldn't reflect good on him if the area was filthy and molding. Dark Lord or not.

With that thought in mind he disappeared from the place silently, the screams and dead bodies of his victim trailing behind him.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

Harry closed the book in his hand, at last he has completed his sets of book on Parslemagic. It wasn't an easy purchase, he had struggled to reach to orginal texts rather than some crude copies. Those were famous in this time, even Pureblood families to purchase a few, a trophy for their library.

Although the art was nearly extinct in Britain it stil prevailed in other parts of the world and old pureblood knew how actual parsle-script looked.

Harry had found a few legitimate Parslemagic books in the Black Library, even though none of them had the ability to speak the language of snakes for several centuries. Years of inbreeding had stole that ability from them, much like metamorphosis.

An irony it was, the steps that they had taken to save these abilities had confirmed that their successors couldn't use them at all.

The Last book of the series detailed him about use of Parslemagic in wards and enchantments, particular unfriendly enchantments. He could say that he would have never believed that a specific language could be so dynamic. He was already fluent in the language and can talk without a snake nearby, but even he didn't know he could cure certain disease and enchant objects with his talent.

He needed a companion for the first part as written into book, but the second part could be done without the need of a snake. That was a task on its own, finding a magical snake wasn't easy job on it own. Additionally, he'll have to make sure that his magic is compatible with the snake's, to not cause any more difficulty.

Harry envied Voldemort in that department, Nagini was as perfect of a companion that one could find. The large venomous snake was quick and agile for her size, she striked faster than one could move, and was possibly magical.

He'll have to look through legal and illegal means to acquire such snake, it'll take some time but the outcome would be worth it.

With those thoughts in mind he stood up from the armchair and climbed the stairs to his dormitory. Most of curtains were drawn as he entered the room, but he could see the light behind LeStrange's curtain.

The boy must upto no good, he was positive that Rudolphous wasn't one to keep quiet after their last confrontation. No, the boy was as thick as they came.

Whatever the issues the boy would bring next time will be dealt with equal force, he wasn't going to back down from a challenge, specially if it was from a school bully.

As he laid on the bed his mind drifted to the remaining horcruxes, he was sure that Tom only had three of them right now. Death or whatever that entity was had said clearly that he didn't want Tom to create more than three horcruxes.

One of them was in possession now, the Diadem of the Ravenclaw. Of the remaining two one must be the Diary, Harry was confirm of that as it was the first horcrux Voldemort had created. The second one could be either the Slytherin's locket or Hufflepuff'd cup, the locket he'd have to search for in the cave.

That brought forward another memory, he had returned to the cave for clues on the last horcrux.

*Flashback*

Harry appeared outside the cave with his mentor in tow; the cave still possessed the ominous aura that he had felt the first time. However, the stone pathway seemed wider than before, something wasn't quite right here. Harry could just feel it, and as soon as his companion spoke, it was confirmed.

"This area reeks of Dark magic, even darker than what I've encountered," his companion said, waving his wand with a frown marring his face. "Curious, it seems a magical signature has made its way through these paths recently. As recently as three months ago, that's indeed curious..."

Harry nodded with the man, although he couldn't feel magical signature as precisely as his teacher he was still able to pickoff a hint or two of it.

"Are you sure it was abandoned?" Harry nodded in response.

"Dumbledore and I had made sure to destroy all the Inferi in the cave, even the pond was drained of its cursed water to ensure no trace of Dark magic remained here," he added with conviction.

"It's clear then, some other magical creature has started calling this place their home. We must tread forward very carefully, be alert and keep your ears trained." The man said before taking the lead toward the entrance of the cave.

Eventually, they reached the sacrificial stone...one where they had to sacrifice a bit of blood for entry.

"Crude blood-magic. Hah! The man isn't as perfect as he pretends to be," Harry's companion scoffed.

"This is one of the most rudimentary rituals of Blood magic, this stone is coated with essence of elements that would absorb and weaken one's blood." He boosted with a smirk.

"I can do this without even removing my wand." He added with a shake of his head.

Harry listened with rapt attention as the man chanted in Latin, his voice barely more than a whisper in the air. He had a lot to learn from his companion in terms of knowledge; the man was a veritable treasure trove of it.

The man scowled fiercely as he moved his wand in consecutive sweeping motion, before a grin of victory appeared on his face.

The Blockade moved aside without any problem, with that the opening of cave loomed over them and Harry was sure that he felt an odd sense of tingling around him. Adjusting his glasses he walked at a steady pace...following his companion dutifully.

"The magic here is tainted. Something of rather sinister characteristics has called this cave home for decades. Dark magic leaves mark, Potter. Always remember that." Harry nodded politely drawing out his own wand for any possibility.

They reached the shore of the lake, the bodies of inferius floating above the water and strewn across the area was astoundingly absent. Instead a lull of sort hung in the air, drawing Harry to its magic.

His companion gasped as he lit the tip of his wand to examine the still water, assessing them from inside the water was fierece but intelligent gaze of a serpentine creature.

Dark blue eyes looked into Harry's as he found himself lost in them, the creature was enormous in size. Easily reaching a length of 40ft and width of 12ft, the diamond shaped head of the creature was black in colour and seemed spiky.

"Stay back, it's a horned serpent, not seen in these waters for centuries. I reckon it's the last one of them here in England, and a large one at that." His companion said, already readying his wand for defense.

'Flesssh and blood...ah...humansss. I want to gulp you down, dessspicable creaturesss. Comesss here to disssturb my ressst like othersss of your kind.' The snake hissed with rage evident in its voice, without any delay it rose out of the water breaking the surface.

Harry flicked his wand, conjuring three metal rods which he then banished towards the snake in quick succession, attempting to impale it. With a quick wave, his companion attached chains to the rods, causing them to constrict around the snake's body.

"Don't let it bite you, Harry. It's not as venomous as a Basilisk, but it can still be fatal and very painful," his companion commented, floating back out of the snake's reach.

'You dare attack me, put my life in peril. Dessspicable creature' The horned serpent hissed menacingly.

Harry erected a shield that collapsed as the snake lunged at them; the snake was too strong and experienced. Various scars adorned its naked body, making the hairs on the back of Harry's head stand up.

"Bombarda Maxima!" Harry yelled pointing his wand at the sand beneath the snake, raising a screen of dust and stones in the air.

"Hold him back, only for a moment. I know something to capture it," His companion stated conjuring a dagger in his hand, Harry knew what the man was going to do and although he was against using blood magic it was the best option right now.

"O! Sou díno to aíma mou ton megálo theó tou fidioú, Voíthisé me na syllávo aftón ton gio sou." The man chanted in Greek, cutting his palm with the dagger.

(O! I give you my blood the great snake god, Help me to capture this son of yours.)

"Sou thysiázo ti zoí mou enós étous." He yelled letting the drops of blood fall on the floor.

(I sacrifice you my life of one years.)

'No, not the damned blood ritual. Dessspicable human, I will devour your life .' The serpent hissed frantically.

Harry staggered and gasped as the sudden pressure of maintaining his shielding spell vanished; he looked up to see the snake vanish into the dagger as it glowed white.

His companion looked on impassively as he completed the blood ritual, putting the dagger in a mole-skin pouch.

"That's one of the most gruesome rituals to perform, it nearly drains out your magical reserve." The man said with a sigh.

"You know you're a very terrifying bastard, resourceful, but terrifying." Harry chuckled.

*Flashback ends*

Harry still has that dagger stashed in one of the compartments of his trunk, he had always carried that weapon on his person from where he came.

Blood rituals were gruesome and terrifying, one wrong move and your life will be forfeited. Harry had never thought that he would learn the art from one of men who knew it best, he was adept in blood rituals. It was normal magical rituals, a long forgotten subject and now considered a part of Dark arts, that he wanted to learn.

He had seen an enormous serpent being confined in a dagger, and a near dead man reborn by the use of blood ritual. Magical rituals can do more, as it wasn't restricted to sacrifice of just blood. With those thought Harry closed his eyes and fell into the worlds of dream.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

The next morning saw Harry arriving in Great hall at his own pace, as usual he took his seat on Gryffindor table and begun eating breakfast.

His first class of the morning was double runes followed by transfiguration and double potions. As it was the last week before Christmas week, it was probably going to be hectic for him.

He looked up from his food to notice Sirius and James giving signals to Remus who elbowed Peter lightly, the pudgy boy looked at Remus curiously before nodding with a smile.

Harry caught the sudden movement of Peter's hand as a dark-blue orb was rolled toward Hufflepuff's table. The Orb glowed slightly before making ticking noises, at the tenth tick it exploded in blue mist surrounding a part of the table.

Out of the mist rose a figure of Professor Binns, the badgers looked at the figure curiously for a second but it suddenly morphed into a grinning clown with sharp teeths that let out a manaical laugh.

The girls shrieked as the younger years scrambled away from the clown figure, climbing above eachother to get as far as they can.

James stifle his laugh with the back of his head but Sirius didn't had any reservations like that, he laughed openly joined by Peter. Remus looked at the scene amusedly, eyeing the orb warily.

Harry had to accept that the charms and tranfiguration work on the orb was surprisingly efficient, well it wasn't that surprising after he had seen the wand works of the Marauders.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

Bellatrix twirled her wands between fingers as she looked on at Harry Potter going through his routine, his wandwork was as efficient as always. He went through spell after spell, trying to harm the dummy in as many was as possible.

"Incarcerous", "Confringo", "Expluso", "Fulmeus".

Each spell was as devastating as other, meanwhile the Marauders, Frank, Alice, Regulus, Snape and Lily were focused on their practice to cast non-verbal spells.

The flying technique was abandoned for now, the ones able to do that were told to practice in their leisure periods.

Bellatrix looked in fascination as the boy slowly but eventually started casting darker spells, even some from her family library. That part was kept aside in her mind to be discussed with her grandfather.

Irrespective of Harry's wariness with Bellatrix's admission in his group, mostly due to insistence of his uncle, he had prescribed her a few books to read on. The books were simply about mind magic and way to protect your mind from them, he didn't hold back with the book as he knew Arcturus had set trust accounts for his grandchildren's Hogwarts years, and they were filled each year graciously.

Harry concentrated on his magic and willed it to come out without any verbal incantation, the dummy was tranfigures into a wooden table, then a glass orb and lastly a snake. Which was then promptly vanished by Harry, his non verbal casting was as fluid as it can be.

He looked up to observe the practice session of the group, he had divided them into different groups to work on non-verbal casting according to their best subject.

James, Frank, Alice and Jane were working on a transfiguration spell, while Snape, Sirius and Lupin were attempting a curse without uttering a single word. Lily, Peter and Regulus, the latter of them, finally joining them to work on combat magic, were trying to cast levitating charm without incantation.

Bellatrix was the only of the group that wasn't allowed to work on spells without direct supervision of Harry, and although she could claim that he was being biased toward her, Harry wouldn't trust her with a wand untill her mind was healed.

Harry had glanced into her mind with active legilimency after getting her consent, and what he found there was complete disarray. Although her mind wasn't in shambles, it was still a very bad picture. Several of her memories had been tampered with, some of her more instinctive reflexes were blocked.

However, he wasn't completely confident that he should help her. He had seen the insane woman she would become if left untreated, but in her last moment she had recovered some of her senses. He still remembered the broken woman who was happy for getting rid of Lestrange, and he wanted this Bellatrix to avoid that outcome.

Maybe, he will try to be civil with the girl and help her as much as he can. Her probability of joining Voldemort was pretty high, but the assurance of Arcturus that his family wouldn't side with Tom unless they wanted to sacrifice their name gave him some confidence.

He glanced toward the focus of his thoughts, the girl was seated on the chair provided by the room. Her mane of curly midnight hair cascading down her shoulder, her hooded pair of eyes reading the pages of book on her lap. It wasn't a bad sight, Harry had to admit that.

Bellatrix was beautiful at this age, the gauntness and insanity absent in her eyes. And although she would become one of the most feared Death-eaters, she wasn't one in present. No, the madness will come later when she married Lestrange and then they pledged themselves to Tom.

Even her annoying glares and suspension glances weren't that irritating, and Harry chuckled at that thought. If someone had said that he found her bearable, he would've hexed the git to the end of Earth. But now looking at her he could say that while she wasn't the most approachable company he sought out, she was still bearable to the insan woman she would become.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

"Focus on your memories, they shouldn't be unorganised." Harry said in firm voice, the end of his wand pointed at the forehead of Bellatrix Black.

"I can't, this not going to be easy. My memories are scattered." She retorted a bit dejectedly. It was truly surprising to see the brunette being so vulnerable, she was experiencing mood swings on constant basis, and that wasn't safe for her.

"Ok, calm down. We'll start with your first Christmas holiday after coming to this castle, your first few friends." Harry said carefully, he entered her mind as cautiously as he can.

He didn't want to cause agony to the girl, although he didn't like her much it was no excuse. The memory wasn't complete, a bit blur and separated into several parts.

"Focus on it, Miss Black." His said automatically, without any real thought. All his attention was on the memory, trying to sew it back. It was an old family magic lost to current time, he was sure that even Snape and Tom with all there knowledge of Mind arts didn't come across this skill.

"I am, it's not helping, Potter." She said dejectedly.

"Be assured it will, I am working on that." He said twinning the last of strands with his own magic, it was risky. His magic shouldn't be in her system, her magical core could react badly with that. And even if it did react finely it can still cause dependence, and dependence on the magic of other will lead to widhrawl symptoms.

Bellatrix gasped at the recovered memory, she looked on awed as her younger version walked through the corridors of Hogwarts with another girl with their elbows connected.

Olivia Prewitt, one of the daughters of lord Prewitt. The family was traditional light, while not in corner of Dumbledore they were staunchly allied with the likes of Weasleys, Crouchs and Fishers.

Their views on 'Dark' families wasn't very good, they wouldn't outright oppose the families like Black, Rowle and Parkinsons but they wouldn't either support an act proposed by them.

While her grandfather was uncaring to the friendship his children and grandchildren cultivated, except maybe Mudbloods. Her father on the other hand was livid with her choice, he wanted her to connect with the blood purist families like Malfoy, Rosier, Rookwood and Macnair, among others.

Harry caught on to that notion and led with that, he found the earliest probe in her mind. Signified by the subtle change in colour of memory, it wasn't faked but altered somewhat. Manipulated verbally not with magic.

A notion rose out from her mind, "Muggles and their despicable magical children were to be resented." "Mudblood, they should be called."

Harry pushed a little magic into it, just enough to revert it back to its original state. A light blue rather than near-white colour, he carefully extracted himself out from that part of her brain.

A lot of sudden change can harm her mind, even stagnating the development of brain to some extent. This was enough for one day, he would let her join her siblings now.

Bellatrix blinked confused a little before clutching her forehead in pain.

"Here, take this. It'll alleviate the pain." Harry said handing her a pain relieving potion. He had ordered a batch through owl just for their sessions, in the beginning it will be painful for her before the pain decreases.

The girl gulped it down without any struggle, glad to be rid of the sharp pain Bellatrix glanced toward the Potter. He was bringing down the privacy wards he had erected, It was necessary, even if slight whiff of her mental state reached any desperate individual it would be disastrous for her family honour.

The boy wasn't being too gentle with her, in truth she hadn't expected that. She was familiar with the ways of opposite gender, or atleast the few she had encountered. Apart from her cousins and grandfather, most considered female inferior.

Sirius didn't believe in that because of his numerous outings with the fairer gender, and Regulus was brought up by Walburga, although the women was a bigot when it came to blood purity she would never undermine witches.

"That'll be it for today, Miss Black. Next Friday, same time in this room." He said with a firm nod before exiting the room silently.

Bellatrix sighed, the boy was as upright as ever. Although she had been too curious around him, his attitude didn't make it any easier for her. She couldn't deny that there was a certain aura arround the boy that mystified his persona.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

Voldemort looked at his creations with glee, another batch of inferius. Much more stronger than the previous ones wrecking havoc around london, these inferius didn't simply attack anything that moved into its radius. No, they followed a set of command that led them to attack only magicals living around muggles.

The previous day at the pub had been fruitful, not only had he got a fresh batch of inferius out of that but also caught a beneficial location in the Knockturn alley.

The magic around these was more intricate than the previous one's, his magic was much more noticeable in these creations. He chuckled evilly at the prospect of letting these loose at the muggle-loving idiots.

Rosier chose that moment to enter the room, his robes as pristine as ever. His strides were slow but confident, the man knew he was needed. Albert Rosier was a tall and lean man, with familiar blond locks of Rosier men. His beard was set in french cut and his eye shone with brilliance that only a knowing man could possess.

The Rosier's were one of few members of Grindelwald acolytes that had survived the war with their honour intact, that was achieved by sacrificing Vinda Rosier as a scapegoat. Albert Rosier was never a part of Acolytes but if he had born in that time it was no argument that he would've been desired by the infamous dark lord.

As for present, He was equally favoured by the new dark lord, Voldemort. Tom riddle knew the man was as resourceful as himself, if he had this man beside him he wouldn't need to handle a ton of spy. No, this single man was capable of doing such without breaking a sweat.

"Welcome, Albert. What good news does you bring?" Tom asked with a smirk.

"My lord, although the Dracula council has rejected our offer of alliance a small vampire rebellious group has accepted it readily. They currently hold a minority number of 25." He beamed, the pride clear in his eyes regarding a job well done.

"That'll do for now, Albert. As a reward, those 25 vampires will be under your control." Tom ordered with a graceful smile.

"My lord," Albert said in appreciation, bowing slightly low.

"Any other interesting news from your sources, Albert." Tom prodded with knowing look.

"Ah! Yes, my lord. It seems a group of Grindelwald's acolytes were found dead in the infamous LeStrange mausoleum. The french main branch has been silent on the matter, the MACUSA is busy with the case for now." Albert reported dutifully.

"Good, that'll keep them busy enough to not interfere in my matters. As soon as LeStrange finds a perfect candidate for Minister we can advance our plan." He said to himself thoughtfully.

"Any other order, My lord?" Albert asked.

"Yes, Of course. I want you to reach the Zabini family on my behalf, their cunning reputation and overflowing wealth will suit with us." He concluded.

"As you wish, My lord." With his part said Albert exited the room with slow steps.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

Harry quickly cast a tempus as he exited the perimeter of wards surrounding the castle, he was late today and that wasn't normal.

It was all because of that idiot girl, although her query and theory were right. Harry still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that Bellatrix could think so rationally.

The girl has barred his way and demanded him to sit with them instead of his brother and his friends, which she didn't understand that they were his friends too now.

He had refused without any second thought and tried to move her out of the way, but she had stood her ground and explained him that it put wrong image in their peers mind.

According to her, the Slytherin house was different from other houses. There was a hierarchy in the house of snakes, the same hierarchy that Harry had defied from the first day. He had insulted the LeStrange brothers, Avery and Sewlyn who were at top of the food chain just beneath Blacks and Malfoys.

The Malfoy heir, Lucius held the position at the top of food chain due to lack of Black heir in the house. Regulus couldn't against again the boy, neither physically nor politically. Lucius had a strong hold on the house untill Harry had entered the house, he had single-handedly disposed the most supportive member of Lucius' faction without caring for the consequences.

This put Harry in a very unique situation, his friendship with Snape and Regulus, as that what most of the school saw it as, put him in front of the pedestal. And now he had the support of Bellatrix, who was considered as one of the brightest pureblood witch of their year. But his association with the house of gold was seen as a disrespect to most of the house, as he didn't deem them worthy enough to extend his friendship.

Even the Greengrass who had supported the boy at first had stop giving him any acknowledgement, and as Harry was uneducated in those customs he didn't understand the meaning of that.

Bellatrix had been stubborn and it showed, at last Harry accepted the offer to sit on the Slytherin table with Blacks. According to the girl that would lead to more people approaching him, as they were both angered by his actions and reluctant to get near him when he was with James and others.

He glanced behind him one last to confirm he was alone before changing his body's density, he vaulted into the air with little to no effort. Flying was like a second nature to him, it would take him quite some time to reach his planned destination.

Today was his first voyeur into the forest of Albania, the forest where Helena had claimed to hide her mother's Diadem. Harry swept under an extended tree branch before doubling his speed, in an hour or so he reached his destination.

Charlus Potter was already present there with a unsuspecting looking pen in his hand, Harry touched down slowly morfing his body back into solid state.

"You're early. You didn't face any type of hurdles in the way, Did you?" Charlus asked handing him the pen.

"Nope!" Harry chirped with a smile. "I thought it would be beneficial to look around the forest as early as possible, I can track the magical residue but not that easily." He admitted.

"Don't fret, tracking or sending even slightest of magical residue is one of the rarest skills." Charlus said patting on his shoulder fondly.

"The passcode is "Greenery", keep that pen safely hidden. It'll transport you back to the edge of Hogsmeade." Charlus instructed.

"Yeah, I must be costly to get a portkey to and back from Albanian forest." Harry said with a chuckle.

"It was, but not that hard to acquire. Now, move on. The faster you get that thing is better, I don't want you loitering around in a dangerous forest for hours." Charlus replied with a frown.

"I will be fine." Harry reassured him before vanishing with the muttered passcode.

The feeling of squeezing into a tube and walking out the other side was strong, but Harry was familiar with apparation even if portkey travels were worse.

He gasped for air before straightening himself quickly, a quick look around and he confirmed he was surrounded by green covers of trees.

"Lumos!" Harry said lighting the tip of his wand, he stored the pen into the mole-skin pouch attached to his waist.

The forest was filled to brim with magical creatures, Harry could hear them around him. Atleast Acromantulas were confined to the forest surrounding Hogwarts, their presence here would mean more trouble for Harry.

He looked around himself and found that distinguishing a tree from another was impossible, he grunted to himself before deciding to mark every tree he walked across. He would even mark the direction with an arrow make it easy on himself, deciding on the plan he moved forward marking the tree beside him in direction.

Walking forward nearly a kilometre from where he had portkeyed, he was now confused. It was easier for him to sense Horcruxes when one was inside of him, now, it was hard. Harder than he had thought.

"Anemaépar Gnavingo," Harry spelled slowly, the tip of his wand let out a blue star-shaped light orb that floated above him before dashing toward his right.

It was spell that he found in his mentor's book, although there wasn't any spell to locate Horcruxes, this one could track the remanant of soul magic.

He dashed behind the light as fast as he can, jumping over a fallen ledge he sidestepped as a herd of deers ran in front of him. They were likely startled by his sudden movement, he waited for them to pass and that took only a moment before he ran behind the still speeding blue star.

The star speed right and Harry was right behind him, as the marker floated up in the air Harry swore before transforming his body into white smoke with a quick, "Luxocaligo."

He flew behind the star as it suddenly dived into the forest, the spell was really annoying and getting on his nerves. He was cursing his mentor inside his mind, couldn't the man just modify the spell to be a bit more practical to work around.

He landed on his feet, his knee buckling under the sudden transformation; he swore and continued the mad dash behind the star-shaped orb.

The orb suddenly stopped hovering over a large tree, it's trunk was atleast 15ft. wide and the tree was above 40ft tall. It was one of the largest tree Harry has ever seen, a magical tree, recognised by the magical aura that surrounded it.

The orb vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, and Harry was feeling a presence trying to overcome his mental barriers. It must be the Horcrux, they had an eiry habit of entering into their victims mind and maddening them.

Harry re-enforced his barriers and moved toward the tree but something felt off, not just the magical aura of the Horcrux but something else was interfering with his magic.

He stopped his movement and closed his eyes to try and feel the magic around the tree, nothing. There was absolutely no magical signature of the tree, for regular trees it wasn't a problem but for magical tree it was unusual.

Bill had taught him to feel around the magic of living creatures, may it be a tree or animal. Magic left a trace no matter what, and dark magic leaves a much stronger presence behind it.

Harry revealed his untraceable wand and hovered it in front of him while muttering in Latin, suddenly a red translucent wall appeared between him and the horcrux.

This was ridiculous, he knew Tom was paranoid by nature. And honestly, with the type magic he performed he should be. But to erect a presence alerting and security ward was going too much.

He quickly disappeared from the location leaving behind no trace of himself, he jumped a few more times to completely hide his location.

As soon as he hid behind a tree, covering himself with the invisibility cloak that he had brought just in case, Tom appeared. He looked around frantically, and Harry got first look at the man of this time.

Tom was tall, taller that he had remembered and had hair. Much more hair than Harry remembered. The man was dressed into a dark green shirt and black pants under an emerald cloak.

He had his yew Wand and cast a few spells to locate him but the spells whizzed out, the invisibility cloak was hiding his presence effortlessly.

After confirming that his ward weren't disturbed by a human being, Tom stepped closer to the tree. He bent forward hissing in parsletongue, and the wards disappeared suddenly.

Harry did catch the odd word sequence, it was, "Observatory, Emeralds, Silk, Ambitious and Treasury." Maybe the words were somehow connected to Salazar Slytherin, Tom wouldn't leave a chance to boast about his ancestors.

Tom stepped awkwardly around the tree, then traced a sigil on the trunk with his wand that Harry hasn't noticed until now. A notice-me-not charm inscribed unto the wards, clever and resourceful as ever, the Voldemort of future was too damn batshit crazy and implusive to plan beforehand.

The lower part of tree trunk vanished as Tom bent down to pickup the Diadem, without saying any other word he vanished from the spot.

Damn it! He had to go and trigger the bloody ward around the tree in curiosity, now it would be near impossible to find the diadem.

He cursed to himself before vanishing himself, he appeared just outside the ward of Hogsmeade. He would send a letter with his raven to Charlus, informing him of the failure and his own mistakes.

Without any fanfare he entered the castle, dillusioned, and climbed down the stairs to dungeon. For now, he had a ritual to look into. The memories of his mentor has given him a new goal for the week, he knew the man had stolen the books who had taught him those rituals from someone. Someone who had created a those books by copying some ancient texts, Nicolas Flamel was a man on knowledge.

Centuries of information stored in the mind of that old coot wasn't going to benefit anyone, but if he remembers correctly Dumbledore was a pupil of the age-old alchemist. He would've to look into that, as he was sure that the copy of books has already been stolen from Flamels library.

He strode towards the stairs, and reached his dorms in no time. His trunk was stationed just at the foot of his bed, he simply clicked it open going through all of the securities as a routine.

His rituals notebook was in his hand, as he exited his dorms, then Slytherin common and finally reached his destination that was the library.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

A week later Bellatrix found him pouring down the books that he had found from the personal library of Albus Dumbledore. He was right into considering that the old man has gotten those books from Nicholas Flamel during his apprenticeship.

But by the neat white pages of the book, he was sure that the old man has never touched those books, or read the topic that he was so keen to get into. For he just wanted to get hold of those books, and find the rituals that his old mentor had used to capture the Giant serpent.

He read through the middle pages and came about allot of rituals he already knew about, or had some inkling to. But the more fascinating ones were the healing and magical improvement rituals, he could get hands on those ingredients and work with them. His forage into knockturn alley had introduced him to several shops, that sold legal and illegal magical animal's parts.

And with the current laxity of ministry toward the objects that were imported into the country, it was quite easy to buy them, that too at a much cheaper rate.

He will do just that, when he next exited the castle to join the meetings at wandhorn.

For now, he had a book to complete and mid-term exams to look out for.

(_-_-_X_-_-_)

Tom eyed the creatures assembled at the pub, it had only taken him a week to clean off the pub, refurbish it somewhat and turn it into a meeting place.

The money and labour, in form of house elves, was provided by his wealthy patrons. Honestly, if house elves weren't so righteous and bred into a mindset to serve households, he would have inducted them into his army. As the situation was at present, they were simply going to be a baggage on his army.

With their high morale and family serving mindset, they would see downfall of his own army.

Nonetheless, the creatures and men he had assembled together had a much interesting job today.

LeStrange was already looking into getting a puppet placed on the seat of minister, and today's attack would make that situation more dire. There was no doubt that allot of purebloods with flock towards him after today.

A man in maroon robes entered the pub, his eye widened as he took in the occupants of the room.

A group of atleast ten vampires, four lethifolds, six werewolves, twenty wizards, inferius and a tied quantipied.

Truly such assortment of creatures, only his lord could assemble. He had been given notification to be present, ready to lead a group to show muggles their place, but he had never imagined this. He should have.

The inferius were most surprising, they were said to be a dieing branch of dark magic. But he should have expected that there was nothing impossible for his lord.

"My lord," He said bowing.

"Ah, Avery. You're the one we're waiting for, right at time. Come join us." He replied with a charming smile.

The man stood straight, taking long strides to stand beside him.

"Now, we should move on to carry out what we have gathered to do. As we are, we will divide into four groups, led by Avery, Rosier, LeStrange and me." He instructed.

"Each of you will have a lethifolds, two vampires, two werewolves and five more of your colleagues. Rest of them will come with me. We will meet back here, make sure that no wizards lives nearby and return before Auror arrives." He ordered.

The group dispersed, taking the lead from their master.

Voldemort himself took a lethifold, remaining werewolf and vampires with his inferius to a muggle neighborhood in Kendal town.