The Darkness of the Soul

The Halloween Ball at Durmstrang was much more formal than at Hogwarts, and less entertaining, unless you counted the part where Viktor stormed off during a particularly slow dance. Kirsten and Harry both had to control their giggles at his reaction, although Harry also felt annoyed. If Viktor felt like he had a relationship with Hermione, he didn't have much place acting jealous over Kirsten.

What made the night for him, though, was what happened after the ball. After leaving Kirsten at her door with an uncomfortable handshake, he returned to his room. His door was locked as it usually was, but it didn't take him long to notice that something was different.

There was a single rose on the table, next to a letter. He recognized the handwriting on it - Hermione's. Hedwig was still in her cage, but the other owl was gone, and so was the scroll on Hedwig's ankle. He assumed that the other owl had delivered the letter, but wondered how it could possibly have gotten to England by now, let alone brought a response. What was the air speed of a laden post owl, anyway?

The letter was short, but to the point. She didn't rise to the occasion to tell him off, she just told him that she cared for him, too. It wasn't explicitly romantic, but the rose said it without words, he thought. The letter also told him that she didn't know what was happening to Ginny, but that she would try to get word to someone who could help. It closed by telling him that Viktor was reading too much into her letters, and that she'd asked him to pass a number of messages on to Harry, which he obviously hadn't.

Harry felt like he was walking on air, and even the sudden knock on the door couldn't snap him out of it. He went to the door, with a blissful look on his face.

One of the Healers stood there, Master Martens. He seemed fairly happy, as well, and his message was one that Harry had almost forgotten that he was expecting. "He's awake."

Harry almost ran up to the Hospital Ward, and found Lupin was just barely conscious. He rasped out a request for food and drink, which was quickly provided, and then listened as Harry told him of the last few months. They were in a corner of the room, enclosed by curtains, and the Healer had let them be.

Apparently Lupin had been captured during the last full moon, when he was physically tough, but not magically able to defend himself. They had questioned him about many things, but seemed to already know where to find Harry. The werewolf was alarmed by this, but felt that it was not, in itself, a disaster. The semester was halfway over already, and students would be returning home in little over a month, at which point the news of Harry's whereabouts would probably be spread publicly anyway.

Remus was tight-lipped about his own activities, but said that he'd found a prophecy that had him concerned. Harry was interested to hear more, and Remus agreed to tell him what he knew. He seemed to have heard of Harry's dispute with Dumbledore in fair detail, and he promised not to hold anything back from Harry that wasn't entirely personal in nature.

Harry wasn't sure what that covered, but he trusted Lupin. The man had saved his life more than once, at risk of his own, and had shown a trust for him that few others had ever considered. He wouldn't shrink from asking questions if he felt something was being left out, but he felt that he would be betraying Lupin if he acted like he expected to be disappointed.

Lupin quickly outlined the prophecy. He didn't have the text of it, and couldn't repeat it from memory, but it involved something called the Ninth and the rise of the next major Dark Wizard.

The prophecy indicated that the Dark Wizard's rise could be prevented by preventing any of a number of events from happening. One of them was to happen at Durmstrang, and involved the Ninth. Remus had been talking with someone who hinted that he knew what it was, but he had disappeared without explanation.

.~.~.

It wasn't until after the Ball that Harry really noticed the change in atmosphere after the attacks. There was, if possible, even more paranoia in the air. Haakon had assigned all of his sixth and seventh year students to patrol the Castle, so that there were always people on duty.

Girard seemed to be avoiding him, which suited Harry just fine. He had used Cruciatus, so Girard couldn't complain that he was soft, even if he hadn't used the Killing Curse. He didn't think that would stop the Headmaster from complaining, however.

Remus didn't have much else to say about the prophecy, and he really couldn't stay at Durmstrang. There wasn't anywhere safe for him to spend the next full moon, and he didn't trust anyone at Durmstrang but Harry to keep him safe during those hours anyway. He stayed only a few days, and then left, promising to keep in touch better. Harry was sad to see him go, but he again had a mission, and it tied nicely in with what he had already decided to do.

Harry decided to take the time to complete his map. There were only a few places that he hadn't been yet, and he hoped to finish them off. He didn't know who or what the Ninth was, and he hadn't found anything helpful yet in the Library, even with the help of nightly break-ins into the Restricted Section.

It took Harry almost a week of dedicated searching to find a way to the kitchens other than the dumbwaiter, which he'd decided not to use, at least for purposes of the map. He didn't think he needed to provide future students with a way into the Dark Arts professor's quarters, and couldn't see trying out the rest of the floor's dumbwaiters either. While he could see the humor in suddenly appearing in Kirsten's room, he didn't think she would. Any of the other professors would be likely to just shove him back in and send him back to the kitchens.

The kitchens were large, and crewed with enslaved house-elves. They didn't seem as happy to see him as the ones at Hogwarts always did; they just cringed. Harry beat a hasty retreat, just taking the time to thank them for doing so well with the food. He didn't want to scare them, after all. Harry thought about Hermione - while he hadn't thought S.P.E.W. was that useful back at Hogwarts, he wouldn't have minded it here.

There were only two places left that he wondered about. The first was the Highly Restricted Section, which he couldn't worry about too much until after he'd finished the spells, and the second was the pair of portals that led to the sorting ritual, which he didn't think he could enter safely. Harry decided to continue with the enchantment process without worrying about the portals, since he wasn't planning on giving the map to anyone who hadn't already started at Durmstrang.

With that done, it was time to start the actual enchantment, and that meant that he was starting to spend more time in his room. Some parts of the enchantment were potions that had to be left brewing, while others were spells that took time to take full effect, so Harry found himself bored for long portions of the day.

The weeks started to go by, and Harry was enjoying them more than he had since leaving Hogwarts. He was busy, with his duties as a Professor eating most of his days, and his other work taking his nights. He also saved back a little time for some guilty fun at Viktor's expense, meeting with Kirsten to walk through the Gardens in the moonlight or to work in the Library together.

Kirsten had been much nicer to Harry, but he couldn't think of her as a friend. It may have been that Harry's circle of friends was historically quite dangerous to get into - you almost had to be able to start a conversation with "Well, Harry and I would have died then, but..." There was a certain amount of trust and openness that was built up between people who had almost been killed by an evil wizard together, especially when they'd faced the danger intentionally.

He didn't have that openness with Kirsten, and he couldn't think of what they had as a friendship. It was better than nothing, though, and at least it gave him someone to exchange stories about students, or to ask about current events in the world at large.

Kirsten seemed grateful for the attention. Harry was sure she didn't think of him as anything more than an acquaintance either, but she also seemed to be nearly friendless in the castle. Viktor mostly avoided her, and he didn't see any of the other Professors openly talking with her.

When it came time for the Yule break, he was sad to see that she was going to be taking a holiday. He was, of course, staying at the school. He couldn't interrupt the enchantments that he had going -- as it was, it looked like it might stretch into February before they were complete.

He had just said his goodbyes to her at the gate, when Girard came up to him. He didn't look happy. "Professor Potter. There's something I'd like to talk to you about." He turned, and stalked away.

Harry followed, wondering what was wrong this time.

A few minutes later, he was in the Headmaster's office.

"It has come to my attention that someone has been rifling through books in the Restricted Section of the Library. Would you know anything about this?"

Harry started. "What kinds of books?"

"We only know about one, which we had left enchanted with an Alarm spell, although there may be others."

Harry hadn't really thought he'd need to explain his forays into the Restricted Section, and hadn't prepared much of an alibi. He chose his words carefully. "I did go into the Restricted Section, and reviewed a book called the Necronomicon, with Kirsten's approval. I said the words she told me to, though, so that should be all right. Was that the book?"

"No, that wasn't it. The book was one of the Histories of Durmstrang, a slightly more complete version than the one I have in my office. That's why I thought we should ask you about it."

"Well, I can't think of anyone who would have needed it, but I can certainly see if anything surfaces. Was there any harm done?"

"No, I don't believe so. The edition in the Library has little that would be important, at any rate."

"Are there other editions, Headmaster? I mean, other than the one in your office? I'd be interested in learning any more that I could."

"Be careful, Professor. There is knowledge in these books that is not meant for your eyes yet. While there might be some things that would profit you, I must forbid you at all costs from pursuing this endeavor. If I were to find that you were going against my expressed wishes, I would have Viktor return you to the ruin in which he found you, and I would personally write Minister Weasley to tell him where you were."

The vehemence of the Headmaster's statement, coupled with the fact that it was essentially a death threat, was enough to impress on Harry the importance of saying nothing more. He merely nodded, and left the office, muttered pleasantries exchanging as he went.

Strangely enough, he had seen the book that the Headmaster was talking about, but he hadn't touched it. He had figured that the Ninth was probably something more secret than just a history lesson. Something else was going on here, and he wasn't sure what.