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Magic Knows No Boundaries Chapter 33:
🕑 Added 2023-09-27 21:34:11 +0000 UTCChapter 33:
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Bellatrix dropped onto her stomach to dodge beneath a white crescent shape that the dummy had just flung at her.
When she had invited Harry to join her for her duelist training he had expected to be taking part in it, but instead the entire ordeal was her simply showing off her world to him. She started off with dodging drills. The exercises required her to do them without a wand, with her goal being to charge all the way to the dummy enchanted to send illusory beams of light to indicate different types of spells, such as the large bludgeoning curse she just sidestepped.
He was pleasantly surprised to discover she did, in fact, train in classic gym clothes in place of dueling robes. The twenties style shorts and tank top were less form fitting than what a modern woman could get away with, but she wasn't a modern woman, and he wouldn't have her any other way.
She finished her training with a flourish, somehow wiggling through a spray of firework sparks as if she were trying to squeeze through a pair of prison bars to then slap the dummy on the top of its head. It slouched like a robot being shut down and the practice was over.
Harry applauded and she curtsied before coming up to where he sat in the bleachers next to fresh towels and a water bottle.
She toweled herself off while catching her breath before taking a drink.
"Next is deflecting practice." She told him between gulps. "The dummy's fake spells are enchanted to be dispelled by the same counter curses as the real deal and be caught or batted away with the same movements. It's a little finnicky and requires more precision than the real thing, but that actually helps."
Harry nodded.
"A mistake in the manufacturing leading to making it superior in the end? Gotta love happy little accidents like that." He pointed out.
She giggled at his humor, but if she did so because she recognized the reference or because quoting Bob Ross is a slam dunk even to the uninitiated, he couldn't quite tell.
She walked back out to the pit and stood in front of her dummy, this time with wand in hand. Said dummy stood back up and began firing the imitation spells at her, and this time she blocked, deflected or caught each spell as they came. It was like a dance, or moreso like the baton twirler at the front of marching band with a smidgeon of ribbon dancing thrown in.
There was a knock at the door and Bellatrix stopped.
"Aspidochelone." She said.
The dummy also stopped throwing the harmless spells at her. Interesting choice of safe word. Way too many syllables and way too easy to mispronounce.
It also appeared to be the word to unlock the door into the training room based on the loud click it made.
"You may come in." Bellatrix called.
In walked Victor Krum and his werewolf friend, Poliakoff.
"Well, you two sure react to correspondence quickly." Harry said. "But how did you know to find me here?"
"Ve vent to your sanctuary but you vere not there. Your red-haired friend said I could find you here, Professor Morrigan." Victor explained by way of greeting.
"Bellatrix, meet Victor Krum and Halasz Poliakoff. Both were guests during the last full moon." Harry introduced.
Bella curtsied again and both gentleman bowed.
"I wrote to them, and others, yesterday when Albus brought to my attention that the school was short staffed. We need part timers to handle the sudden burst in new clubs. I wrote to everybody I could asking if they knew anybody." Harry explained. "And I can't imagine they made the trip all the way out here just to refuse."
"You vould be correct, professor. If you will have me I vould be delighted to take over the responsibilities for both the wrestling and boxing clubs." Viktor said.
"And I am a chess master." Poliakoff told him. "I can handle that and most other game clubs."
Harry turned to Bella.
"Well, that relieves madame hooch of a lot of her responsibilities. Three or four more applicants and we should be copacetic." He told her.
The door opened again, and Harry didn't even have to turn around to see who it was. The look of unadulterated and unreasonable hatred on Bellatrix's face told him all to well. It was the natural reaction women, even gorgeous ones like Bella, had to Veela entering their presence. Down girl, you need not be jealous of this one.
"Deed zomebody request a fencing and dance instructor?" The thick French accent of Fleur Delacour greeted the room.
Oh right, he forgot that that some of the girls organized for a dancing club too. They were still scrambling to find any boys willing to join and had resorted to bullying the shy ones, like little Xeno and Creevey, into signing up. With Fleur at the helm, he imagined they'd suddenly find it less difficult to find volunteers.
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Voldemort woke up in chains.
This was not, despite what some people may think, a novel experience for him. You don't spend decades freedom fighting with small groups around the world without being captured from time to time. Now, being chained up by a longtime friend and ally? Very novel. At least when it lacked the kinkiness that this situation deserved. But for the life of him he couldn't guess what he'd done to enrage this Lady of House Black, but he was fast realizing he just had that effect on them.
"Good morning Tom. All recovered from your portkey?" Walburga asked sweetly.
Yup. She was pissed. Was she on team Morrigan too? How the hell would that have happened?
"You must know how your recent actions look." She went on. "Killing the only other remaining Knights and leaving such a message for the media to find."
She picked up a newspaper and threw it at his feet. He couldn't quite read the title from his chained position but he assumed it detailed the nice eulogy he had given Fenrir. Yada yada disease destroyed is mind, yada yada werewolves would not be utilized in the war any longer, yada yada werewolves need help not war, yada yada the Morrigan werewolf sanctuary does good work. He wondered if Hadrian had gotten word of it yet. He sure would like to see/hear his reaction.
"And now here you are, destroying your anchors to immortality." Walburga said. "Have you abandoned your mission, or have you simply forgotten it and given up?"
Tom sighed, allowing himself to show his tiredness.
"I have done neither, Walburga." He said. "I have merely failed it, as have we all."
She punched him then. It was an impressive jab, just as impressive as Bella's and Narcissa's. Now all he had to do was cross paths with an irate Andromeda and he'd have earned a shiner from each woman of house Black yet living... then again, there was little Nymphadora who wasn't so little anymore. Hmmm. And Sirius was courting that duelist. Perchance he had three more black eyes waiting for him in the future.
"You failed? How can you fail when you have all of eternity to accomplish your mission." Walburga the Chatty continued. "You who conquered death, and yet are now set on unconquering it."
"Your eternal guardian, I know." Tom said. "Like Salazar's basilisk at Hogwarts, ready to be unleashed on any army foolish enough to siege Hogwarts, I was to protect the sacred bloodlines and be your most powerful defender, when needed."
"So you DO remember." She said. "You achieved half of it, to find the secrets of immortality and lead us to a world without death. So why are you undoing that success?"
"Because it was my success in that that led me to failing my other task." Tom declared. "I have failed to protect them. They are all dead."
She sighed exasperatedly.
"Yes Tom, people die." She said in amocking tone. "But they all lived long lives in pursuit of worthy goals. Did they not?"
Tom laughed, his normal mirthless laugh.
"Long lives? Fenrir was the longest lasting after me and he was in his seventies!" Tom roared. "Remind me again, what's the average wizard lifespan?"
She shrinked away at his tone, and blinked at his question.
"That's right, one hundred and sixty, with a quarter of us living longer than that. None of them made it halfway, and you think this a mere coincidence?" He demanded.
"Don't give me that tripe! You're undoing your immortality because you are tired of living, tired of fighting." She demanded. "Don't take me for a fool, I've seen it before. Men who make war lose themselves in it and cannot go on living. You sit there serenading me with your woes and regrets of our friends and lovers passing on before their time and yet opt to follow in their footsteps like a coward! They died fighting! They died in service to something they believed in, which I know, is a foreign concept to a wretch like you who thinks the length of ones life determines its value."
Ouch! Now that one stung. Leave it to Walburga to plunge the knife exactly where it hurt the most. He must have shown how much he felt it, because she sighed and switched tactics.
"You are hurting, Tom. I get that." She said. "But what I don't get is why you didn't come to one of us with that hurt? We are your friends. That's what we are for. They all love you. I still love you. Hell, Orion still loves you. You have all the time in the world, why throw it away?"
That last name was a sore topic, and Tom knew she hadn't meant it as a barb, but it still felt like one. He let it go. She must have realized the faux pas, because she knelt down and placed a hand on his cheek.
"Do you truly believe our tactics had nothing to do with their early deaths?" Tom asked, looking up but still leaning into her touch. "We have been going about things the wrong way, our tactics have been reprehensible. And my Horcruxes were the wrong path to immortality. Like you said, I have all the time in the world. Even with a mortal life I have another century to find a better way to extend human life, to conquer death. But the Horcruxes must go."
She removed her hand from his cheek and backed away from him.
"I don't believe you Tom, your handsome good looks alone aren't enough to make me believe your words alone. I'm not a little girl anymore." She said. "I want your word. You've never broken that, and I know you won't start now. I want your word that if I help you regain your mortality, you won't seek death. I want your word that you won't die before me, at the very least. And I remind you, us witches live longer than you dumb, irresponsible wizards."
He snorted at the boast. He knew he couldn't lie to her; he knew that if he gave that promise he would have to keep it, and it was a painful promise to make. On a fundamental level she was right, he was tired. He was very nearly ready to go on. Could duty and his word keep him going? Yes. Would it be orders of magnitude more torturous than his life thus far? Also, yes.
And yet, his mission must be carried out.
"You have my word, Walburga. I will live to sit on your bedside as you're withered and ugly and your great grandchildren mourn you." He promised.
She swiped him over the back of his head for the lip there, but his shackles fell as she did so.
"Very well, Tom. Let us go visit the Rainbow Serpent, shall we?" Walburga said.
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"I somehow always forget that the seasons are flipped down here." Voldemort complained as he shivered from the frigid breeze.
"Are you a wizard, or aren't you?" Walburga teased.
"Well, I would cast a warming charm on myself, but warming charms always feel better when a lady casts it on you for some reason." He said. "Kinda like how food cooked by somebody else tastes better."
"That or maybe you're pants at cooking?" Walburga suggested. "And also, the whole not able to cast spells around here thing?"
That was a distinct possibility. Fortunately, the black, rocky ground they were half climbing along was already beginning to warm up from the afternoon sunlight. So, its preventing him from casting said warming charms was a moot point. As they crested the last hill of black granite their goal came into view.
A great Olga, surrounded by black boulders on all sides, sat in the middle of the draw formed by the rocky hills on either side. It wasn't as large as Uluru, or as decorative as Kata Tjuta but much like Uluru and Kata Tsuja it had been created by a rainbow serpent as a marking stone above the cave and water system it had dug itself in the rock below. Unlike Uluru and Kata Tsuja, it was still inhabited and was surrounded on all sides by the mysterious cursed stone of Kalkajaka. This made it a perfect place to hide something from wizards and Muggles alike.
As an active Olga still inhabited by a wild rainbow serpent, the wizarding government of Australia and aboriginal mages protected the entire area from Muggles. As a Kalkajaka it kept all but the most suicidal wizards away.
Nobody knew for certain where the black stones came from, but all enchanters and alchemists knew for sure wizards created them. The leading theory was that it was some kind of equal and opposite enchanting method. By binding two such slabs of granite, they could strengthen a positive enchantment on one by simultaneous casting a dark curse on the other.
It held up in theory and had been proven through experimentation. Problem was, none of the positive counterparts had ever been found and there was no evidence of a wizarding society large enough ever having existed in Australia. Who could have produced so many billions of these wretched stones in such piles all over the continent? These stones that made all wizards, witches and even squibs feel as if the magic in their veins had turned to wriggling worms and wanted to burst out through their chest. Merely using magic around these things could kill a wizard or witch. It also completely incapacitated any sensory abilities.
And that wasn't even the greatest of the defenses he had placed around his Horcrux.
They neared a freshwater stream and he spoke in parseltongue.
"I have returned, great mother." He spoke to the water.
They stood there and waited patiently. And waited. And waited some more. He was about to speak again when the water's surface finally exploded upwards in a deluge of water. Always the melodrama with these larger snakes.
She was even larger than he recalled, and he once again hoped he'd have the chance to introduce her to Salazar's equally large basilisk. Sure, experimental breeding was illegal, but since when did he care about illegality?
Rainbow serpents were effectively giant, white-lipped pythons. That was it. Their dark scales were iridescent, reflecting a rainbow sheen. There was also the small matter that their scales were elongated, halfway towards being feathers. They were still very much magical creatures, as their gigantism, like giants, was born of magic and their scales made for excellent wand cores. The core of his spare wand came specifically from her, actually.
There was also the small ability they have to eat stone and regurgitate it into solid masses. Hence how they carve out these tunnels and used the material to form Olga's.
"It has been too long, speaker." She said.
"Indeed, it has." Tom said.
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"Wait, me?!" Mr Tonks asked.
"Yup. You." Harry confirmed.
"Um. Okay, I'm honored, but why me?" Ted asked, still confused.
"Yeah, why him?" Andromeda asked. "I honestly think I would make a better choice, seeing as I have more free time that my employed husband."
"Because you are the only person I know who is meets all of my requirements to stand in my place at the board of Governors." Harry said.
"And these requirements are?" Andromeda asked with a glare.
Harry listed them off on his fingers.
"Has attended and graduated from Hogwarts. Has raised a child who also attended and graduated from Hogwarts. Is knowledgeable on and invested in Muggle culture. Is knowledgeable and invested in pureblood culture. I like and trust him." Harry ticked off until he ran out of fingers. "With all of these traits, I believe you have all of the virtues necessary to make proper decisions regarding Hogwarts that is fair and beneficial to all students and teachers. In fact the only way you would make a better substitute is if you were also a former teacher at Hogwarts, but we can't have it all now can we?"
The Tonkses leaned back as they considered these points.
"So you chose me for my balanced views and experience in all sides of the Hogwarts experience?" Tonks clarified.
"All save one, correct." Harry said. "Although that can be remedied, we do have an open position for a part timer of your skills. That is, if you are open to passing on your skills as a horseback rider and college rower?"
Ted was all ears after that. God, but were people ever easy to lead into doing what you want them to do when you understand them.
"Oh, and I like the idea of all three of the men married to the Black sisters having something all our own. Kinda like their wine-fueled get-togethers." Harry added.
"Married?!" Andromeda sad with a mocking gasp as his slip up. "My goodness you work fast! And here I was under the impression that my sister was displeased with how slow you were taking things. When is the ceremony? I'll have to write mother and get her back over here from Aus."
Harry rolled his eyes.
"Okay, I misspoke. I meant men who date or are married to a black sister." Harry tried to clarify, but the woman had already left her dinner table and was walking to the study.
"Too late! Writing mother and Cissy." Andromeda hollered back.
Harry shrugged and turned to Tonks.
"I'm more than sold. When is the first board meeting?" He asked.
"I'm calling an emergency one right now. Go make yourself presentable, we leave in ten."
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NonsensicalRants
Oops! Mistakenly titled it chapter 31. This is chapter 32. Scratch that. Apparently it's chapter 33
