Pre-Chapter A/N: More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio. Experimenting with two chapters a week, we'll see how long I can keep this up for.
XXXX - SIRIUS
Dumbledore was a strange man, everyone knew that. But even with that, it was still shocking for all of them when he went to the podium, reached down to the surrounding grass, and took a handful before popping it straight in his mouth.
"Albus!" McGonagall scolded.
"Not even trying to beat the goat allegations, eh, Albus, old boy?" Slughorn, sarcastic as ever, cut in. Of course, he did not get to say those words and go scot-free as McGonagall turned her patented furious gaze upon him.
"The sand is toasted," he said, before he went up on the podium. The Triwizard Cup was there, dashed against the floor, but intact. He reached it, picked it up, and then raised it towards his ear like he was listening for something. Even knowing that he was sensing and reading magical traces did not make his actions any less ridiculous from Sirius' perspective. Harry would laugh himself hoarse when he got to see the memory of this. He banished the part of his mind that tried to change the "when" to an "if." They would find him. Dumbledore was the greatest wizard in the world.
"How curious," Dumbledore said as he leaned down again, placing his ear against the floor of the podium.
"What? What have you found?" Sirius found himself asking with none of his usual composure.
"Harry was definitely taken, but now the question becomes by whom?" he said.
"How do you know the boy was taken, Dumbledore?" Maxime cut in.
Instead of speaking in words, Dumbledore took a hold of his wand and slashed it through the air. The ground around the podium wore itself away in a perfect circle, forcing Sirius and McGonagall who had both stepped closer to step back.
Dumbledore jumped into the deep crater he'd just created, slowing down as he reached the bottom. Sirius leaned over to look within and got the sight of Dumbledore dragging a coffin out of the ground. He felt his heart skip a beat.
"What?"
"This is the Sarcophagus of Ra."
"What?" he asked, and he was not the only one to come short at the name. McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, and Bagman looked curious, just as curious as he was—when had Bagman even joined them, he wondered.
"That's impossible!" The light-skinned one from the ICW poked in, jumping down to examine the coffin as well. It did indeed look Egyptian in origin. It was a gleaming gold and had one of those things that pharaohs used to wear engraved on it along with a face.
"By the gods, how did this get here?"
"A question I should be asking you, Miss Bellona. Last I checked, the ICW had custody of this and had it locked away in custody."
"It should be. Could someone have managed to make another? A replica?"
"Impossible," he refuted.
"What is this, Albus? What's going on?" McGonagall called down, trying to get the pair that were practically glaring at each other back on topic.
"This is the Sarcophagus of Ra. It's an Egyptian magical artifact. It creates a barrier capable of absorbing all magic both within and without it to power itself while allowing neither ingress nor egress without permission from its Master. It was used in the original pyramids until the Egyptians discovered its knock-on effects."
"What does that mean?" He found himself asking now. A barrier that could do that would be invaluable. He could just think of how many Death Eaters they could have captured. Even Voldemort would have fallen prey to something like that. Lure him somewhere and trap him with no air. Even that bastard needed to breathe, didn't he?
"It never stops draining magic. Even by just standing next to it, both Victoria and I are having our reserves drained at a steady pace. But if it were just that, then it would have been manageable. Somehow, when connected to the earth, which it must be to power itself, it has the power to drain even leylines completely dry. The Egyptians outlawed their use and destroyed the bulk of them when they discovered that the natural magic of their nation was dying." Sirius felt himself pale at the thought. Yeah, defeating Voldemort wasn't worth that. Not even close.
He could just imagine it. No more energy in the earth meant no more wards, most enchantments would fail instantly, and even more tragically, there would be no more magical births. Even purebloods could not produce magical children when they were cut off from the earth's magic. No one would be forgetting the example of Julius Periwinkle anytime soon.
"Shouldn't you get that out of the Hogwarts soil then?" McGonagall asked.
"There's no need. It's done its job. This was expertly planted. Probably at least a month or so ago. It was planted right at the intersection of the leylines to ensure it was fed full. This also answers the question of how so many assailants managed to make it in. The wards had been strategically weakened ahead of time. While the fact that there are four massive leylines here means Hogwarts will recover, it will take time." he explained, but that was not Sirius' worry.
"But Harry. What does this mean for Harry?"
"It means that whoever took him had the resources needed to either break into ICW containment or to subvert ICW procedure and release it. It's worrying because as the Supreme Mugwump, I should have been informed the second an artifact as precious and dangerous as this one was moved from storage so either they infiltrated so deeply into the organization that the report was successfully diverted from my desk, or they were so good with their theft that even now the ICW is yet to notice just what has transpired. Needless to say, this was not the job of an amateur group," he explained.
"So what do we do?" Sirius could feel himself beginning to panic. How would he ever explain it to James and Lily in the great beyond that he'd just lost their son like that?
"We track him, of course." Dumbledore said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a compass.
He shook it and the tool released a whirl that Sirius could hear even from so far away. Dumbledore floated out of the crater and began to walk east. Sirius stared at him as he just walked, until the old man turned around.
"Are you not going to come? He's not far from here, surprisingly enough," Dumbledore said, and Sirius rushed to follow him, heading the others' footsteps behind him.
They walked straight to the Castle's gates, the walk that would normally have taken a few minutes passing in what felt like hours as Sirius worried. If Harry was so close, why did he not just come in? Was he okay? Sirius wanted to run ahead—wanted to transform to Padfoot or summon a broom, but every time he wanted to hurry, Dumbledore turned his gaze to him, forcing him to reconsider.
And so he followed their pace—brisk, but not as hurried as he would have liked. Not when his Godson was in an unknown condition. He just had to trust that Dumbledore wanted Harry alive and well just as surely as Sirius did, so if he was not hurrying, then maybe that was because there was no need to hurry and Sirius should really just be calm and follow his lead because Dumbledore knew best—if not best, then surely better than Sirius did. He was the one who had a way to track Harry after all, even while Sirius had just stood there gaping like a confused fish with no idea what to do or say. They passed Hagrid's hut, and then Sirius knew they were heading to the main gate.
Were they going there so they could Apparate somewhere else? If that was the case, then they could have left the range of the wards through the Forbidden Forest instead. That would have cut this journey in half. He hoped Dumbledore knew what he was doing. He really did. Because from here, there was just confusion and little else to show for what Dumbledore had done so far.
When they reached the gate, Sirius could just about begin to spy a form huddled in on itself on the ground. This time, no admonishing look from Dumbledore or anyone else could get him to slow down. That had to be his godson. He ran, covering the ground with two feet before he transformed, running even faster until he could reach his godson. His godson that smelled of roasted flesh and fear and pain. He heard a voice say something from far away as he reached down to nuzzle Harry, but he could not care less what was being said. He placed his nose on Harry's barely breathing form, only for his jaw to yelp as it felt like he was struck by lightning before he flew backward.
He woke to a twitching sensation all about his body, a tingling that spread from his limbs up to his chest. "Can you hear me, Sirius?" He heard a voice, a familiar voice. He knew that voice. But who was it, he struggled to place where the voice had come from. Whose voice it was.
"Now we're going to need you to stay calm. Can you do that for us, Sirius?" Calm? He could be calm. He was calm. He couldn't feel anything other than calm at this second. Well, apart from the tingling feeling all about his body.
"So we won't be able to help you for a few minutes. We're going to need you to stay calm while we wait for the wards to be done running their interference. When they do so, we will be able to transport both you and Mister Potter off to the clinic." Harry. Harry was there as well, he wanted to see him. He gasped and groaned with pain as he tried to push himself upwards to get a view of his godson. Only for his hands to give out beneath him before he could even go more than a few inches up.
It took what felt like an eternity for him to gain control of his body enough to speak. "What in the hells was that?"
"The wards, Sirius. Once we were attacked, I used my powers as the Headmaster to bring the wards up at full power. When I took out the compass to look for young Harry, I felt someone bounce against the wards and since the compass said he was in this direction—more or less where the wards would deposit someone who ran afoul of them—I figured that he was there and would be fine. After bouncing off the wards, the wards impart a magical charge of sorts. No magic can affect him without serious backlash on the caster, and as you got to experience firsthand, it's much the same for physical contact," Dumbledore explained, looking mightily pleased with himself.
"You knew that would happen," Sirius accused.
"I did caution you to be patient," he defended poorly. Was the old man even trying?
"You could have explained things to me."
"It did not seem wise to divulge details about Hogwarts' protections in front of so many and with who knows who listening. Now, if my ears do not deceive me, you should be able to stand now." Sirius looked at him like he was insane, because the man just had to be. What did his ears have to do with Sirius being able to stand? But against all odds, when Sirius tried to move, he found his body fully compliant. He rose to his feet in no time, and looked over to see Harry still on the floor.
"How long is he going to be like that?" He asked pointing at his godson even as he felt worry begin to creep in. Harry would not have attempted to Apparate inside Hogwarts of all places if he had been thinking clearly and that could mean anything. He needed to examine him, to tell he was alright.
"Do you know anything about how he is?"
"Well, I can tell you he's in far from a good state," Dumbledore said, taking out the compass again. From this angle, Sirius could now see that while the device was shaped like a compass, it was everything but. There were so many charts on the small thing that he wondered how Dumbledore was managing to read them clearly.
"Details, please," he asked.
"Nerve damage from what has to be continuous Cruciatus exposure is the most worrying sign." The gasp Sirius let out was entirely involuntary but completely appropriate because what the actual fuck? Harry was just a kid. What kind of sick bastard would torture a kid? He had a name on his lips but he just hoped it could not be so. It could not be true.
"What else is there?"
"A badly healed cut on his arm, symptoms consistent with poisoning. From this, I suspect manticore venom, but it could be anything really. And then there is the matter of all his vitals being unusually low." Sirius felt his blood boil hotter and hotter with every word that the Headmaster spoke.
"Who did this?" He managed to ask through gritted teeth.
"The men in the attack were hired grunts, mercenaries and criminals with little to nothing in common between them other than the fact that they were wands for hire. Curious enough, most of them were from the continent rather than being from Britain so it says something about whoever hired them. What it says about them, I am yet to find out. But it says something."
"What leads do we have from them? Can we interrogate them?" he asked, eyes probably shining with the thought of what he would inflict to them to get the identity of their paymaster from them.
"I was able to use Legilimency to ascertain some of their intentions and I could tell that they seemed to have little to no knowledge of who had bought their contracts. All they knew was that they were being paid good money to attack Hogwarts. Of course, they had no idea that the attack was doomed to fail, or even that they were being used as a smokescreen for someone to abduct young Harry here. Regardless, we have handed them over to Ministry custody, and with the Minister himself having been in their line of fire, we can be sure that we'll get some answers sooner or later," he said. Sirius was far from pleased. But it was at least better than nothing.
"And the sarc— what's it? Shouldn't there be clues with that?"
"Thanks to its nature, it's absorbed any magical traces that could have been left behind or around it. The fact that it was left behind is a clue on its own though—for one, it means that whoever took Harry was not confident enough to dig it up and escape my notice while doing so. For another, it means that it was an organization that could afford to let go of such an artifact. The number of mercenary organizations with both that kind of pull and the means to steal from the ICW so brazenly can be counted on one hand. Trust me, Sirius, I will be leaning on all of them heavily to find the culprits. This attack will not go unanswered, I promise you that," he said, and maybe it was the conviction in his voice, or the magic that soaked the air, but Sirius found himself believing him completely.
"Okay then. Okay," he said.
Waking up in a bed that wasn't mine was not something I was unused to. I slept in the Room of Requirements more often than not, and switching beds night after night was one way to keep things fresh in a life with as little social connection as I was getting. But still, it was clear I was not there. The first sign was the smell. Even in the wizarding world, the hospital wing smelled sterile—not in a good way. The air just smelled of nothing in a way that made it a smell of its own—the absence of other smells.
Add that to the bright lights streaming in from every corner, and this was not a place that I wanted to be in for long. So I opened my eyes with little hesitation, and found them staring straight up at the white ceiling of the hospital wing. I'd been right then. Well, I'd been here before each of the tasks, so it wasn't like I was guessing with nothing to go off of. I looked to the side and found Sirius sitting with his head propped against the chair. He'd nodded off at some point. To my other side was a trophy—the Triwizard Cup, and even more surprisingly, a woman. A very familiar woman with blonde hair barely poking out from the cover of her book.
"Good read?" I asked, even as I felt my whole body protest from the simple action of speaking.
"'Arry!!" The French witch screamed, a sound that would have made me wince coming from anyone else, but as a Veela, even that screech came out musical and beautiful. She hurled herself at me even as I heard Sirius stir to wakefulness.
"I thought you'd never wake," she whispered in my ear.
"And I told you that Harry would never give up so easily," Sirius said.
"What happened?" I asked. Because I shouldn't even have been here. Yes, it was probably for the best that I'd been found and brought here, but how had they even managed to get access to the Chamber of Secrets?
"You bounced off the wards," Sirius said, and I drew short on that. That wasn't possible. The Chamber wasn't part of Hogwarts' wards. I'd checked so many times, and even if it was, then that still didn't make sense.
"Shouldn't that have just made the Apparition fail?" Apparating to a restricted place wasn't really all that dangerous. Because it was instantaneous, and arrival happened at the same time as departure, then trying to go somewhere you couldn't would just lead to the spell failing. That was basic theory.
"A surprise the Headmaster baked into the wards. The only issue was that you had a bad reaction to it." Sirius sounded hesitant now, even as I felt Fleur's grip on me tighten.
"What happened, Sirius?"
"You've been out for a week," he said.
A/N: And that's a chapter. Next four chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)(same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.