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Arctic[2000]
–Albus "Too many titles" Dumbledore–
He sighed as the sound of yet another body hitting the ground reached his ears, muted as it was due to the snow around them. Turning around, he regrettably had to activate the spell, turning one of the Unspeakables into a human flying broom as it went flying through the air, out of the influence of the, dare he say, biblical storm that was around the Ancient Ruins.
It made casting magic incredibly difficult, as if the very act of using magic was punishable by the full force of the storm around them. And to think that they were at the periphery of the storm.
"Don't worry about him." He turned to the Unspeakable, who had approached him two years ago, with an intent to stop him from using his authority to reduce the frequency of Ancient Ruins exploration.
Look at him. Two years ago, he had a plan to completely phase out any visits within a decade or two, depending on the world's appetite for change, and now? Two years later, not only had he expedited the procedure to get the permissions to explore and barter the findings in the Ancient Ruins, but he himself was partaking in perhaps the most important exploration to date.
"I know he will be fine. The magic inside the locket will keep him alive but to think that even after all our preparations, The Frozen Citadel will thin our members so much before we even laid eyes on it is nothing short of astounding," he found himself speaking far more than often, when in company of this man, who was apparently his assigned contact for the Unspeakables, as they trudged through hostile territory.
John, who was most certainly a fake name, shrugged and continued walking. The Frozen Citadel was one of the biggest finds for the Unspeakables in the past decade, with the highest ever recorded magic bleedout, and while that alone cannot accurately determine what lay inside, it was a pretty good indicator as to the strength of the magic.
Now, that magic could just be the defensive magic around the Ruins but more often than not, it led to some interesting finds. One of those spells found was keeping dozens of Unspeakables alive by whisking them away from here before their portkeys activated and transported them to medics.
He looked up, at the white sky, streaks of white flashing through the blue, creating a beautiful sight, as he followed John and the others. Whatever it was, it was going to be revolutionary, according to John, anyway.
For him to personally request his presence and help meant this was significant enough for the Unspeakables to ask for outside help, and that alone was more than enough to rouse his curiosity.
So, despite the unease he felt about the whole situation, he kept a close lid on his magic and walked behind John, ready to respond to anything. It was a rather unique situation, trying to keep his magic under a tight lid whilst also being ready to unleash it all within a split second.
New experiences. Never thought he would have them at his age.
He was always too curious for his own good.
___xx___
Flashback No Jutsu[Two Years Ago, Ministry of Magic]
–Albus Dumbledore–
With a flash of Phoenix fire, he appeared in an exact replica of the hallways in the ministry that were always so busy during the day but absolutely silent and empty at night. Apparently, the Ministry housed multiple such isolated areas, and this was one of them, unknown to most of the people working in the Ministry. He wondered if there had ever been a mapping effort to accurately map the entire Ministry, because he knew that most of it was just empty space.
Their ancestors built the area with the hope of expanding the working space for the Ministry when the population, and the Ministry required to govern them, increased over time. Alas, the Magical population had hit something of a plateau when it came to growth rates, and some of the conservative estimates had the wizarding population dropping off as soon as 5 decades, which was a worrying trend.
Fawkes left a moment later, as he began walking towards the department that even he had no access to. It was clear that the door exuding so much more magic than the rest of the space was his destination.
His hand on the handle, he hesitated a moment, remembering all the mysterious phenomena around the politically powerful people that had once set their sights on the Unspeakables and their independence but his curiosity won over as he pushed open the door, revealing yet another office space, adorned with desks, chairs, and massive illusory screens.
Yet, it was all empty, with only a single person waiting for him.
His eyebrows shot up as he found the person in typical Unspeakable garb but without the hood, revealing their face to him. He immediately began going through his memory to see if he could remember ever meeting this person–
"Don't bother, this is an illusion. A combination of dozens of random muggles I have seen in my life. This is just so you have something to identify me by. Also, my name is John."
"I assume that is a fake, too?" he recovered and began walking towards the man, his eyes roving over the entire space, trying to see if he could get any clues as to what this massive operation was, because judging by the amount of chairs and tables, they had just about the same number of people as the Department of Law Enforcement, and that was the biggest wing of the Ministry of Magical Britain.
John, as he told him, did not reply to his question but gestured to yet another door behind him, "Come. We have much to talk about. I am sure I can change your mind about Ancient Ruins. I assume you had enough time to go over the artifact I gave you yesterday? "
He found himself nodding. His lack of sleep was evidence of the absolutely marvelous and frankly, half alien, magic, being woven into that small thing. Capable of exerting pressure on the soul, when any research into magic involving the souls was forbidden for a good reason, meant that the artifact would go uncontested for years before any solution against it could be found.
Once again, he found himself wondering why John here just handed something like that to him. And also found himself resenting the man for it because if they had something like this back when Tom was active, they could have apprehended most of his followers with ease.
Without Casualty, his mind whispered to him.
Tom himself certainly would have been able to block it, he was a genius like that when it came to forbidden magics, but the rest of his followers? They would have been quite easy to round up.
"Since you gave it to me, I assume you already have a countermeasure ready for it?" He asked John, who just smiled calmly at him, giving him the answer, as the door opened up, revealing an entirely dark room, made up of stone, holding multiple doors on each side.
Most of them closed, some of them open, some of them completely black, some rippling as if made of liquid.
He had been here before, but not through this way. This area was open to the Minster for inspection. Supposedly, the Unspeakables worked on abstract magic in this place, which he did not believe for one second.
He turned around and memorised the spot of the door being closed, so the next time he was here, he could poke and prod at the magic here.
"Come, one more door before we reach the true reason we are here," John said before another door appeared, but this time, it was on the floor as a large stone tile began descending.
Then, out of nowhere, John spoke with a calm, light voice, as if it was nothing important and they were just discussing the weather, "I know of the prophecy."
His calm threatened to shatter as he exhaled, knowing that there was a risk with the Unspeakables and their bizarre magic being capable of bypassing most things, but he had expected prophecies, instruments of Fate herself, to be immune to their powers.
Apparently, he thought wrong.
"I see." He replied, calmly, curious as to where this conversation was leading.
"You believe he is not dead. Since Harry is alive, he must be too."
"The prophecy seems pretty clear on that." It had to be, because there was no body, and he had been in the company of far too many Dark Magic users to know what that entailed.
"He is alive." His neck snapped towards John, as his emotions threatened to slip out. He had believed that to be the case, but to get a confirmation was…
It was alarming. He was not relieved, just resigned to the fact that his fight with Tom, another brilliant wizard he failed to guide away from the darkness, was not yet over and was just going to spill over to yet another generation.
A generation he had hoped would not grow up to see the darkness that Tom had unleashed over the wizarding world.
Just then, a Ting! Sound reverbed through the area, as the stone in front of them slid up, revealing a completely white space, "Come. We have arrived."
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