The Black Locket – Part I: Shadows and Storms
After a burst of green light, Runa, Cedric, and Tonks emerged one after the other from the fireplace. Around them, the shadow-drenched mansion seemed to be holding its breath. Dust floated in the air, and only the crunch of their boots disturbed the heavy silence.
Tonks raised her wand and, with a flick, the candles lit up one by one, revealing a wide hall decorated with moldy tapestries and furniture covered in sheets.
"Is it normal for there to be no protections?" Cedric asked, wand at the ready, his eyes scanning every corner with suspicion.
"Technically, the goblins are the owners now," Tonks replied. "They probably disabled the barriers to try and sell the place quickly."
They began exploring the mansion, each taking a different direction without straying too far. They passed through silent rooms, dusty hallways, and creaking stairs. Finally, after opening door after door, they found one that stood out—a heavy black door, covered in scratch marks and with the name "Bellatrix" carved by hand in fury.
Runa pushed the door open slowly. The room seemed to swallow the light. The walls, the ceiling, the immense bed… everything was painted black. Even the air felt denser. At the far end, inside a display cabinet alongside old Hogwarts trophies, rested a simple but striking object: a golden locket, gleaming as if untouched by time.
"Well. That was way too easy to be real," said Cedric with a half-smile, stepping forward and reaching out his hand.
"If you don't want to die, you'd better not touch it," Runa warned immediately. Her dry tone made Cedric freeze mid-step.
"Do you really think Bellatrix would leave something this important unguarded? Maybe this is all just a setup so some overconfident fool grabs it and dies for being naïve."
Cedric scoffed, but drew his wand and cast a few detection spells. The locket didn't move. Didn't react.
"Alright… point for you," he admitted, turning to Tonks. "Do you know how to break curses?"
"I'm an Auror, not a curse-breaker," she replied, crossing her arms. "I chase criminals, not cursed trinkets."
Cedric looked at Runa with a raised brow.
"You really expect me to know how to undo the magic of your world? I barely understand how this house works," she said, clearly sarcastic.
"Then we'll have to wait for the others," Cedric muttered with resignation.
"Wait… how long have we been here?" Tonks suddenly asked, frowning.
"About ten minutes since we entered," Cedric estimated.
"And we got here instantly using the Floo Network," Runa added, her expression growing darker. "The others, even if farther away, could've Apparated. They should be here by now."
They rushed back to the main hall. Tonks knelt in front of the fireplace, but the embers were completely extinguished.
"The Floo Network was disconnected," she murmured.
She tried to Apparate—but nothing happened. Shaking her head, she confirmed what they were all beginning to suspect.
"We've walked into a trap," Runa said, drawing two black daggers from her belt.
At that moment, Tonks's communication orb warmed in her pocket. She pulled it out, and Moody's face appeared within the swirling glow.
"Tonks. Defensive mode. Apparition is blocked—likely due to wards. We'll meet in the neighboring village and fly from there. Be careful."
Tonks nodded seriously and pocketed the orb.
Without hesitation, Cedric ran to the windows and began levitating heavy furniture to block possible entry points.
"This place is too big to defend entirely. Let's find a tactical point to hold," Runa instructed.
The three of them rushed back upstairs. They sealed the windows and Cedric blasted the staircase apart with a precise spell. Then they reinforced every entrance with more furniture and protective charms.
Runa fell silent for a moment, standing still in the middle of the hallway, eyes fixed on the ceiling.
"They're here," she whispered.
An explosion rocked the mansion and part of the wall collapsed. Cedric reacted instantly, conjuring a wall of ice to block the breach.
More explosions echoed throughout the house.
"I wasn't supposed to interfere in your missions," Runa said as she pulled up her hood. "But I suppose I'll stay a little longer."
She hurled one of her daggers toward the staircase just as an enemy appeared to repair it. The blade pierced his chest cleanly before he could cast a single spell.
Another explosion tore through an outer wall. Tonks peeked through the opening, and her eyes widened in shock.
"Dozens of them… coming from the forest… and they're all zombies. Robed ones."
"I hope Moody and the others hurry," she muttered, beginning to reconstruct the wall with her wand.
Each time a barricade was breached, Tonks and Cedric quickly rebuilt it. Meanwhile, Runa held the front lines, throwing daggers with deadly accuracy and stopping any attempt to climb up.
A guttural roar shattered the moment. The ground shook violently. Runa turned just in time to shove Tonks out of the way as a massive wooden club crashed through a side wall, splintering stone and plaster alike.
A troll had arrived.
Runa didn't hesitate. She sprinted toward it and leapt into the air. Mid-flight, she drove both daggers into its eyes, sending the beast crashing backward with a shriek of pain.
The move didn't go unnoticed. All nearby zombies turned their wands toward her.
She vanished in a blink—reappearing behind them as a blur of shadow. Heads began to roll.
Tonks and Cedric covered her from the broken wall, firing rapid, precise spells. Cedric summoned the Aura of Stendarr, forcing the undead to recoil temporarily under its sacred light.
"Fire Atronach!" he shouted.
A flaming figure erupted at his side, immediately unleashing waves of fire across the battlefield. The stench of burning, rotting flesh filled the air.
"You know…" said Tonks between spells, "I once escaped to the Muggle world and watched a film called Night of the Living Dead..."
Cedric gave her a look.
"This is starting to feel just like it."
Cedric barely had time to raise a chunk of stone with magic before a Killing Curse streaked toward Tonks. The spell slammed into the makeshift shield, shattering it into a thousand fragments. Tonks instinctively staggered back, brushing the dust from her face.
"You know this isn't the time for storytelling," said Cedric, his face streaked with soot, his expression one of pure focus.
"Then you lot better start training me like one of yours… if we make it out alive," Tonks replied, her eyes fixed on the relentless tide of black-robed zombies. From the forest, a second decaying troll emerged, tearing through trees with every step.
"Sure… I'll even invite you to watch that movie again," said Cedric, raising his wand toward the sky.
An icy storm erupted instantly, freezing branches, slowing the undead, and coating the field in a slippery layer that sent zombies tumbling over one another.
"Better make it any other movie," Tonks quipped with a slight grin, just before the two of them split up to cover more ground.
Cedric holstered his wand and drew an enchanted sword. With a war cry barely audible over the wind and chaos, he leapt from the balcony and landed on the battlefield.
He moved like a whirlwind among the walking corpses, cleaving through them with surgical precision. Every swing was a fluid, lethal dance.
Above, Tonks held her ground, firing support spells to cover her companions. Spotting a group of zombies attempting to flank from the east, she conjured a wall of fire to block their path.
Several curses flew toward Cedric. He rolled across the ground, dodging two of them, then launched into the air and hurled enchanted daggers that buried themselves in his attackers' skulls. Before landing, he cast a defensive charm on himself, wrapping his body in a golden glow that absorbed the force of the incoming spells. His robes were left in tatters, but he remained standing.
He hit the ground hard and surged forward without missing a beat—his sword in one hand, and his spinning daggers floating in the air, controlled by fine threads of telekinesis. They carved through limbs, disrupting the horde with ruthless precision.
"Hey, try not to get bitten!" Tonks shouted from the second floor while repairing part of the shattered wall. "We don't even know if you'd turn!"
"Not the time," Cedric growled through clenched teeth, slicing off the arm of a zombie that had lunged at him.
"You might not turn… but you'll probably end up with a really nasty infection," Runa added, appearing beside him out of nowhere. Her arrival was marked by a trail of decayed heads sent flying into the air behind her.
Cedric didn't answer. His focus was absolute, his movements driven by instinct and grit.
Then, something new emerged on the far side of the battlefield: a spell of fire shaped itself into a dragon, gliding low across the ground and incinerating zombies in its path. Cedric spotted it instantly. This wasn't ordinary magic.
His eyes traced the spell's source—a chubby man with a partially metal-covered face and a clearly alchemic arm. Unlike their other enemies, he was alive. And powerful.
The closer the dragon came, the hotter it burned. The air shimmered with heat, and the ground beneath it charred with deep black scars.
Cedric clenched his jaw. He released his sword and daggers, letting them hover in place, and raised his hands. Blue energy surged from his palms as he began preparing a powerful counterspell.
But he never had to cast it.
A torrent of water crashed down from the sky like a tidal wave, dousing the fiery beast in a hiss of steam and ash. Simultaneously, explosive spells rained down across the field, blasting zombies to pieces and shaking the earth.
Cedric blinked and recognized the silhouettes descending on brooms and appearing through flashes of Apparition.
The Order of the Phoenix had arrived.
Kingsley descended with his wand crackling with electric energy. Hestia Jones conjured barriers in every direction. Alastor Moody stormed in at the front line, launching curses with military precision, his magical eye spinning wildly.
And Alice Longbottom—barely visible at first—immediately began casting healing spells on Cedric, Runa, and Tonks as soon as she landed.
Several other members remained airborne, launching attacks from their brooms—but more Death Eaters were starting to appear in the skies as well.
Cedric retrieved his sword with a heavy exhale.
"Right on time," he muttered, bracing himself for the next phase of the battle.