Companions of the White Warlock

Smoke Year VII - Companions of the White Warlock Chapter XXIV Tuesday, December 9, 1997

Tonks and Russell walked through the corridors of the Ministry. They had copies of the reports from Percy Weasley's debriefing. The prison break, and Snape's murder, had caused an upswing in nervousness, both for the public and within the Ministry. Percy Weasley had never been very well-liked, but most of his co-workers had seen him as a strong-willed stubborn wizard. Voldemort's easy takeover of him had reminded them all that they could suffer a similar fate.

"Professor Russell?"

Russell and Tonks turned and saw a young witch. "Yes, Miss Williams?" Russell responded, recognizing her as a student who had left Hogwarts some six years before.

"Here," she said, tossing him a small coin very hard.

Russell did not try to grab the coin. Instead, he tried to knock it away. However, the knut was a very sensitive portkey and Russell instantly disappeared.

Tonks swiftly stunned the witch.

Had this kidnaping occurred over a year before, Russell would have been less prepared to deal with it. He had been in hard training, especially over the previous summer. By the time the portkey had landed him, Russell had his wand out and was ready. He stunned the two wizards waiting for him before they could respond.

"Oh, very well done," hissed a voice from behind him. Russell ducked, rolled, and shot off a hex, which was brushed aside.

"You are a powerful wizard," Voldemort said, stepping out of the shadows, "but you are nothing compared to me."

"From the scene, it looked like Hagrid beat you pretty badly before you managed to kill him," Russell retorted. "I figure I can do at least as well."

"You are not a half-giant," Voldemort stated.

"True," Russell agreed. "What do you want?"

"I mostly just want you dead," Voldemort said. "If you hadn't been there to coach him, Potter would have been close to helpless once the Old Man was gone."

"I wouldn't say that," Russell disagreed. "It would have taken Harry longer to get up to speed without me, but he would still be ahead of you, even if there were no such thing as a White Warlock."

"There is not such thing! There is no 'Higher Magic' or 'Higher Power' or any of that nonsense!"

"You say that just because you're terrified of death," Russell sneered back. "You can't admit there is anything higher than you, and so cannot believe."

"And you aren't afraid of death?"

"I am," Russell admitted as he looked for an opening to attack. "However, I at least believe in the possibilities."

"That is a weakness."

"Is it? You're the one who thinks he can become immortal in this life. That's just plain ignorance."

"Ignorance? Did you know there is a wizard who over five thousand years old!"

"Having met one who is a few thousand, I am not surprised to learn there is one that old," Russell acknowledged. "However, I am not stupid enough not to realize that five thousand years is nothing like being immortal."

Voldemort appeared puzzled.

"What is five thousand years to the two hundred thousand or so the human species has been around? Or the six million or so there have been up-right apes roaming the earth? Or the five hundred million there have been backbone creatures on this planet? Can you really imagine living in that body of yours for a million years?" Russell smirked at Voldemort's confused expression. "No, I thought not. You have a brilliant mind, probably even more so than I do, but you have a very limited imagination."

Voldemort flicked a curse, which Russell easily deflected.

"You have a nasty temper, too," Russell mocked. "It's faster than mine; I wonder if it's any match for mine."

"I saw your rage in Snape's memories," Voldemort declared. "You know mind magic I have not had the time to explore. You would be useful to me."

"Yes, but you are of no use to me. Another defect -- you only care about how things affect you, you have no concern for others."

"My. . . ." Voldemort started, but stopped.

"Yes, yes, you're a poor little bastard whose mother died and left you in an orphanage, boo hoo hoo," Russell spat with scorn. "Poor little Tommy Riddle. I can name two dozen wizards who had at least equally hard childhoods, starting with Harry, and the only other one who turned out miserable was Snape."

Voldemort dismissed that with a gesture.

"Yes, I know, no one could have suffered as much as you; no one could have your problems; no one else could overcome them like you did," Russell mocked. "You might be as book-smart as Hermione Granger, you might have nearly the natural affinity for magic as Harry, but you are just a deformed, depraved, selfish little bastard."

"CRUCIO!"

Russell ducked the spell and sent the same right back at Voldemort. It struck, but Russell was unable to hold it long. Still, Voldemort screamed for some six seconds under it.

Russell tried to apparate, but there were wards up against that. "Tsk tsk tsk, a so-called 'good wizard' who uses an Unforgivable?" Voldemort asked, now on his guard.

"You didn't even begin to taste my fury," Russell declared. "Tell me, o powerful Dark Lord, when was the last time you actually fought a wizard? Other than Harry, who was underage and beat you twice, and Hagrid who never quite got through his Third year?"

This time, Voldemort and Russell managed to curse each other with the Cruciatus, and so it only held for a brief second. Voldemort recovered first, however, and yelled, "Legilimens!"

His mind was instantly filled the Homer's 'Catalog of Ships', in the original Greek.

"First of all," Tonks said, "Gayle Williams was certainly under the Imperius, personally done by Voldemort himself. He came into her flat early this morning, killed her lover -- she was a shop assistant at Eelops named Christie -- and put the curse on Williams. Williams is therefore a washout so far as information is concerned."

"And the portkey?" Hermione asked.

"We've never seen one that powerful," Scrimgeour admitted. "While a portkey will take off with anything touching it, unless it was pure dumb luck, the forward momentum it had should have prevented it from dragging Russell with it. That's one reason why it's difficult to kidnap anyone with training by using a portkey."

"Because we're trained to bat it away instead of catching an object like that," Harry agreed. "So, it could have been dumb luck?"

"Put simply, no," Tonks answered. "Remember the prison break.

"The area where the kidnaping occurred at is under the usual anti-portkey wards," Scrimgeour explained. "Now granted, it's more difficult to hold someone portkeying out than it is preventing them from portkeying in. Still, Voldemort, or more likely these Knights, must have come up with a new, more powerful variation."

"Are we in danger of people portkeying in anywhere?" Hermione asked.

"We don't think so," Scrimgeour answered. "Both at the prison and here, the wards nearly held. We don't think anyone could use these new portkeys to get in anywhere, but they can obviously get people out."

"Let me guess," Harry said bitterly, "there's no way to trace these new portkeys."

"No good ways," Scrimgeour answered. "However, we do have a general direction the portkeys traveled in from the prison. Our boffins are trying to see if this one left enough of a trace to get any sort of direction from. If the lines intersect anywhere close, then we might have an outside chance of launching a rescue. However, if it's more than fifty miles away from here, well, the margin of error, which is already pretty high due to the distance from Baffin Island, simply grows too large for any immediate searches."

"A very crude defense, but a seemingly effective one," Voldemort admitted as the Catalog restarted.

"I'm a good boy, who does his Occlumency exercises every night before bed," Russell retorted through gritted teeth.

"Yes. I studied this memory. Snape was most impressed. However, I believe I found a little flaw . . . right about . . . here!" Voldemort forced his way deeper into Russell's mind.

"Here is the direction, sir!" an Unspeakable said, hurrying into the Minister's office. Scrimgeour took the direction and pulled down a map Britain and Ireland hanging on the side of his wall. The others noticed that there was a green line slashing across the map, obviously the direction the portkeys from Baffin Island had taken. He cued the new direction in. It disappeared to the east without touching the other line.

"Damn," Scrimgeour, Tonks, and Harry all exclaimed.

"We need a larger map," Hermione declared.

Scrimgeour tapped the map twice and it slowly enlarged into a map showing all of Europe and North Africa. It was clear where the lines intersected.

Transylvania.

With a sigh, Scrimgeour tapped the map where the lines intersected three times, which enlarged that section of the map.

"There's Charlie's dragon reserve," Harry said, pointing to an area about twenty-five miles from the actual intersection.

"It likely doesn't matter," Scrimgeour said. He pointed to an area just a bit west of the actual intersection. Two taps slowly made it an extreme close up. "They are all likely there."

Voldemort was wary. He had lost all his senses -- he was inside of John Russell's mind, and that was all he was aware of. This was dangerous.

"I've had over two years to prepare this trap," Russell's thoughts said. "Even if I somehow managed to beat you, I couldn't escape from here, could I?"

"No, you couldn't," Voldemort said. "We are in the heart of one of the Knights' territory."

"And which area is that?" Russell asked, mostly just out of curiosity. "It has to be one of the six large unplottable areas in Eastern Europe we aren't certain about. I'm guessing the one in Transylvania or the one in southern Bulgaria."

"The first, actually. Now, what do you intend to do with that information?"

"Nothing," Russell answered. "I've been a searcher of information my entire life. I just wanted one last fact. Now, let me ask you something. You have split your soul, and so even if I killed your current body, you wouldn't be dead as long as the last two Horcruxes exist."

Voldemort hissed. He had been fairly certain his enemies knew all this, but now it was confirmed. He was also shocked to learn he might be down to two Horcruxes

"I'll take that as a yes, then. But your mind is now mostly inside of me. What happens to you if you're inside someone else's body when they die?"

"It likely doesn't matter," Scrimgeour said. He pointed to an area just a bit west of the actual intersection. Two taps made it an extreme close up. "They are all likely there."

"And what is 'there'?" Harry demanded.

Scrimgeour turned to Hermione and asked, "Do you know the Muggle story of Dracula?"

"I've seen some of the films, but I haven't read the original novel," Hermione admitted.

"Bram Stoker invented most of the story out of whole cloth, but he did get some of his ideas from some old stories, and some facts a Muggle-born cousin of his let slip while Stoker was doing his research. Part of the myth and story of Dracula came about because a Romanian Prince named Vlad Dracul, Vlad the Dragon, also known as Vlad the Impaler, made a deal with a Transylvanian vampire, who had once been a wizard. He also went by the name of the Dragon, Dracul. The vampire Dracula was killed in the 1700s by a wizarding vampire hunter who, according to Russell's research, later joined the group which became the Knights of Walpurgis. Dracula's valley had been unplottable since the early eleventh century, and still is."

"So, you're saying it's impossible to rescue the Prof?" Harry demanded.

"If we made an all-out effort, we might, might mind you, be able to organize an assault by the end of the year. After all, unplottable means we cannot easily observe what is going on inside that valley or assault it easily."

"And if I and my people are there?" Harry demanded.

"It would still take until the end of the year. That would just mean any assault would be more likely to succeed."

"We go on the Twenty-seventh," Harry said. "There should be two separate Ministry groups working on this. . . ."

Scrimgeour nodded. "The people going in will be very separate from the people organizing the logistics. We'll all aim for a rendez-vous the evening of the Twenty-sixth, and then an assault the next day at whatever we decide it the optimal time."

Harry nodded and turned to Tonks. "You coordinate."

"Right."

Harry stood, his jaw set. "Let's go." The attack would almost certainly be too late to save John Russell, but it was time to strike against Voldemort and his allies.

"What happens to you if you're inside someone else's body when they die?" Russell asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean try and leave."

Voldemort tried to withdraw, and failed. "What are you doing?"

"I'm dying," Russell said simply. "You will get no satisfaction from my death other than the fact of the death itself. You will get no information from me. Maybe I'll take what little is left of your soul with me, leaving what's left in your two Horcruxes dormant, unless someone frees them rather than destroys them."

"NO!" Voldemort screamed, mentally thrashing and trying to escape.

"You know, when I was a First year, I was really impressed by you," Russell said. "You could have been great, and you tossed that away on trying to conquer the world."

"NO!"

Russell gathered all his anger and turned it on himself, dissolving his connections to his body, welcoming the darkness, while Voldemort fought against the tug trying to pull his soul from his body. It was a battle of will, not of magical power, and it was an even fight.

That evening, Harry met with McGonagall, Remus, Tonks, George, Neville, Luna, Hermione, and Ginny. Tonks had just finished explaining what had happened and now Harry picked up the story.

"So, now we have to hope that the Ministry can convince the Romanians to join in an attack without it leaking," Harry said. "From what little we were able to determine, however, the Romanians have been itching for an excuse to get into this area, and we'll go through that multi-ministry security taskforce that Scrimgeour is helping to set up. They aren't active yet, but we might be able to scare up some aurors from elsewhere. The North Americans have indicated that they would be interesting helping out in any real assault, just not in the more boring policing aspects or providing security."

Harry looked at his friends and took a deep breath.

"Don't be stupid," Ginny said. "We're coming."

"Or you're not going," Neville agreed.

"Fine," Harry said. "George, can you find some Quidditch players we can trust to provide some air support?"

"I can, and I can arm them," George said.

"Ginny, can you train them in two weeks?"

"Absolutely."

"Good. Train them until the morning of Christmas Eve, then have them meet the afternoon on Boxing Day. That's when we'll ask them to join the attack."

"Right," the two Weasleys said.

"Professor, Remus? Could you canvass the Order for Volunteers?" The two agreed.

"Finally, Hermione and I will be gone this weekend, and no, we're not going to talk about it." Hermione was obviously as surprised as the others at what Harry had just announced. "Since the next full moon isn't until just after midnight Monday morning, Remus will be in charge while I'm gone. Tonks, each evening starting tomorrow report whatever you learned from the Ministry to Remus and Luna. Any questions that I'm likely to answer?"

Since there were no questions, Harry dismissed everyone except for Luna and Hermione.

"Where are we going, Harry?" Hermione asked mildly.

"The Prof was arranging a meeting with Theseus. His contact will be here soon. I sent Hedwig with a message for him to meet me at the hut."

"And you're presuming permission was granted," Hermione stated.

"We're going no matter what," Harry growled.

"would that be wise?" Luna asked.

Harry sighed. "I don't know. We'll wait and see what the vampire has to say." He stood. "Shall we go wait for him?"

The knock came a few minutes before midnight. The door swung open and to Harry's surprise a very beautiful vampire came into the room. She was certainly shorter than average height, but she was stunning, with auburn hair and a body any veela would envy, although her skin was like the purest marble (and not much more animated). "I am Marcia," she said simply. "Where is John, Lord Harry?"

"Professor Russell was captured by Voldemort this morning," Harry said bluntly.

Marcia's mask-like face showed a slight expression of pain, but she only said, "That is sad to hear. Do you intend to still take up the invitation?"

"I do," Harry said. "Myself and Miss Granger."

A slight look that might have been hunger passed over Marcia, but she merely nodded. "If there is nothing else?"

"Actually," Harry said, "there is."

"And that is?"

"It appears that Voldemort has allied himself with some groups calling themselves the Knights and the Companions of Walpurgis," Harry stated. Marcia gave him a distasteful look, but said nothing. "It appears as if they are using Dracul's Valley in Transylvania as their base."

"That was lost to us a few centuries ago," Marcia said. "We magical vampires have mostly divorced ourselves from the magical communities in Europe because of this."

"Do you think any vampires might be interested in helping us assault it?" Harry asked.

"I shall pass your idea on to some elders," Marcia replied. "If there is any interest, they shall send a representative to Theseus' Saturday evening, or at least send word to basileus Theseus."

"Thank you," Harry said.

Marcia bowed. "I at least hope I may fight on your side, Harry Potter."