The Necromancer Amulet

Author's Notes: Thanks so much to Lady Revenant and DarkLadyofSlytherin for their excellent beta-work!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Twelve - Friends From the Past

She Apparated with a pop and immediately was drenched in a storm of snow that rushed over her. Staggering as the gale-force hit her; she tried to steady herself and closed her eyes for focus. It was very, very cold, but as she took on her fox-shape the bite of the frost lessened. She quickly started moving; the snow was close to burying her.

Scent confirmed her approximate surroundings - out of the forest, and close to the caves that reeked of damp - but also of her prey. She discerned a weak, flickering scent of someone she recognised coming from the same direction as the caves, and she was pleased to know that she had made an accurate guess.

Although she could not see much, Secessa knew she had Apparated on a ledge behind the mountain cave she was looking for, and she could feel the ground become steadier as she trotted closer to it. Soon, she arrived by the entrance and hidden behind a rock, she peered down onto the valley below. Under her, dark figures were moving to and fro, but their movements were hard to make out through the snowy blur. They were too far away to give off any scent, and so remained unrecognisable.

It was getting cold now, even for her, and she readily entered the cave, following her nose. Darkness reigned, but her eyes quickly adjusted. She saw that the snow covered large parts of the entrance, but had not reached far inside. Damp, black stone towered over her as she went, and shielded from the wind, she felt much warmer.

She found him halfway inside the cave, but she would not have discovered him had it not been for his scent. He was sitting near one wall, dark, silent and still, and a part of the rock itself. Small blue flames lit the cave where he sat; their eerie light danced on the walls. When he saw her, he bared his stony teeth in something reminiscent of a human smile, and suddenly the contours of the rock flickered and he was there, rising to his feet - a man with dusky skin, light hair, and dark-blue eyes, wearing soft fur leggings, and a worn fur-lined brown leather jacket. He was holding a wand leisurely in his right-hand. "Well, hello Secessa," he welcomed her, in a voice lined with mist and cobwebs of long disuse.

Secessa transformed and looked at her friend gratefully. The Durmstrang librarian was a Manabilant; due to a genetic anomaly (which was fairly widely spread in the old, inbred Russian wizarding community), the magic within him was erratic and violent. Before he had learnt how to control it as a child, it had wreaked havoc to his body. He had been restored from his injuries, but his skin pigment remained a stubborn grey, and his recurrent headaches and violent dreams bore evidence of a mind under constant stress. He was lucky; most Manabilants were either killed by their parents at birth or succumbed to a life of crime at a young age. Vladimir had been narrowly accepted at Durmstrang because of the influence of his pure-blooded mother, a very unusual woman of strong faith. She had been adamant that he would receive proper schooling, as she thought a quiet, scholarly career might be his only option in life. People generally avoided him because of his 'tainted blood' and his strange, cold eyes, but Secessa befriended him one day in the library in her seventh year, and earned a loyal friend for life. He had been the first Manabilant ever to have a respectable job, and now he had lost it because of her. Not that he seemed to mind very much.

"You took your time," he said, looking at her Muggle clothing with interest.

"I came when I could," she replied apologetically. "It is good to see you, Volodya."

"Surely you did not expect it to be otherwise?" he said amusedly. His dark eyes gleamed, a hint of warmth, a hint of cold. "Your charming masked enemies walked straight past me in my hideout in that old hunting cabin of yours. So, I Apparated here. Your old house-elf is celebrating my leave-taking as we speak." The corner of his mouth twitched, but his expression quickly changed back to its default: calm and collected.

"It is a pity you prefer not to curse. You could have made the numbers searching the valley somewhat fewer. How long have they been here?"

"They came soon after I arrived," he said, nodding towards the cave entrance, "and they have been searching the valley since, going into every cave they find. The cold hampers them, however, and they cannot work very quickly. I cast some illusions to confuse them on the night before last, and this delayed their work. Unfortunately, now they guard the valley at night as well. They seem to know a great deal; otherwise they wouldn't be searching these caves." His brow furrowed. "I wonder how they came by that information."

She was silent for a short while, thinking.

"They must have captured Elena." It seemed unreal to her, but it had to be true.

"Then why are they not here, in this cave?"

"Elena has a terrible sense of direction. Besides, the storm probably makes it very hard for them to see anything."

He nodded. "It is only a matter of time, then," he said quietly.

She put her fingers to her forehead, where a headache was lurking, probably from the effort of Apparating over such a distance. There was a quiet pause as she thought; then, she looked back up at him. "I must go to the nunnery, to see if perhaps the Death Eaters haven't moved her yet. If she isn't there, I might at least be able to find some trace of where they have taken her."

He shook his head. "It is not safe. Maybe if you could call some more wizards here, then we could break the sealing spell in a joint effort."

Biting her lip, she shook her head. "They do not know where to Apparate; they might end up miles from here, and in this weather, that is a death-sentence." She paused. "I must go," she repeated.

"She might be dead."

Secessa shook her head. "Not until they have found the cave."

Vladimir sighed and fastidiously brushed some dirt of his jacket with the flick of his wand. "Very well then, I'll come with you."

Secessa put a hand on his arm. "I wish you could. But if I don't come back here before the Death Eaters arrive, then you must go to Hogwarts and warn the people there. Contact Dumbledore: you can trust him, and he will treat you well. We cannot risk the Death Eaters getting hold of all three wands."

He looked at her doubtfully, his face dark and foreign in the bluish light.

"I do not like this at all," he said curtly, and she recognised that he cared. "You will have to be extremely careful."

"I will, as must you." She stood up, determined now.

"And get back here as soon as you can."

"I will, Volodya."

She gazed at her old friend for a short time with warmth in her eyes. Then she reached up with a hand to touch his cold cheek, brought her mind into focus, and Disapparated.

*

The Apparition spot she chose was on a small Moscow side street covered in snow and lined with dustbins filled to the brim. Swaying a little from the effort of two complex Apparitions in quick succession, she leaned on the wall of a building for a little while, wrapping her cloak around herself for warmth. Once her sight was clear and her footing steady, she started walking down the street.

It was not long before she reached a small iron gate leading to a park; it creaked when she opened it and she tensed before silencing it with a charm. After a few seconds of consideration, she pulled her hood over her face, hoping that if by chance a Death Eater saw her in the dark, they might mistake her for one of their own.

The park was one of Moscow's smaller ones, and a nunnery, situated in the middle next to a small forest, owned the grounds. The Brigittine sisters living there were kindly disposed to all seekers of peace and quiet, and hence they welcomed visitors and housed them in the guesthouse. Secessa had used the nunnery as a place of contemplation and peace many times, and the nuns always gave her the same room (the sisters had plenty of space, and did not mind that she stayed there often). This was, of course, where she had sent Elena after her escape.

Secessa was thorough in whatever she did, and hence she had put anti-apparition wards on the floor and the staircases leading to the little room. If she ever had to run from her enemies, she had wanted a properly protected hideout. She never realised that she might be the one trying to gain entry.

The North Wing of this 19th century dark brick house had an old servant's staircase leading from the kitchens up to one end of the North Wing. It ended outside Secessa's room. As it was unused and covered by dust, Secessa had hid the staircase behind an illusion when she had found it, knowing that secret entrances could be very useful. And so, the nuns, who cared little for such matters anyway, forgot the little flight or stairs.

Secessa chose to walk through the forested part of the park to avoid curious onlookers. Having arrived at the kitchen entrance, she quietly unlocked the door using the Alohomora spell. It was late, dinner was finished hours ago, and as she had expected, she found the kitchens deserted. Pots and pans hung on hooks along the walls, and the large worktable in the middle of the kitchen area was clean. She moved across the room, swift as a shadow.

At the far end of the kitchen, she found the servant's staircase door, still hidden and almost invisible - a white door with no handle in a white wall. She gently tapped it with her wand and it swung open, revealing a narrow stair smelling of rotten wood.

Cobwebs lined the flight as she climbed upwards, carefully avoiding the more dangerous-looking steps. Halfway up the stairs she met a pungent, sickly smell that increased as she came closer to the door to the North Wing. The fox inside her recognised the smell of blood immediately. Something was very wrong.

Having reached her floor, she peered out into the hallway. It was empty. The door to her chambers was ajar, and a flicker of light from the inside showed that the room was in use. Secessa closed the servant's entrance quietly and crept up beside the door.

On a chair inside the room sat a man partly turned away from her, casually twirling a wand - Elena's wand - using his left hand fingers with surprising agility. She would have recognised the dark-haired, dull-skinned brute of a man anywhere; after all, they had both begun their teaching careers at the same time. With his background in criminal circles, Ursus had been part of Karkaroff's attempt to instil new blood into the Durmstrang staff; in Secessa's opinion, Karkaroff had thereby deprived East Germany of a potential crime-lord. Ursus had taught the children how to enjoy inflicting pain; Secessa had hated him for his meanness and supercilious manner.

Without hesitation, Secessa flung the door open, and flicked her wand harshly. Elena's wand wrenched itself out of Ursus' hand and flew to hers. He turned around to face her in the blink of a second. She just had time to dive out of the way as a nasty black flame erupted from his wand and she desperately cried, "Reducto!" pointing at a marble head of St. Brigitte that she knew stood on a pillar next to the door. Luckily, she made a direct hit and the heavy ornament blasted into dust and fragments, obstructing his view. He paused, briefly disoriented, giving her enough time to get up and refocus before he shot another jet at her. Ducking to avoid it, she flicked her wand at the remnants of poor St. Brigitte, and focused her aim on Ursus, her mind cold and clear. The marble fragments flew straight at him with jet-speed. With the impact, he crashed into the wall behind him with a thump, and there was a nasty sound of breaking bones. Furiously, Secessa walked up to him, wand ready, but he did not move; hitting the wall had probably rendered him unconscious. A shard, she noticed, aptly pinned his arm to the wall, but she still kicked away his wand. Then she turned around to have closer a look at the room, and the horrid scene that she, until now, had chosen to ignore.

The sight that met her was worse than her darkest nightmares. Elena was hanging by her wrists, chained in manacles to the wall above her, wearing only a torn nightdress, her body severely maimed and carrying signs of rape. Thrust through her chest, pinning her to the wall, was a Viper's Blade. Her black, unkempt hair covered her face, which was slumped to one side.

Secessa fell down to her knees and threw up her dinner. Tears started rolling down her face as she huddled on the floor, shaking, and unable to look up. Time seemed to stand still, and her world dropped out of focus. For a long while, she was unable to think at all.

"She asked for it in the end." Ursus suddenly croaked hoarsely from behind her, having woken up eventually. "To die, I mean. But like this, she is more useful."

She turned around. Through the blur of her tears, she could see that he was smiling, a twisted smile full of pain and satisfaction. "And they will come for you too, oh yes," he added in a whispering voice.

Anger blazed through her as she rose unsteadily, pointing her wand at him with a shaky hand. "Don't you dare talking about her! You bastard! I HATE YOU!" she said shrilly, almost tearing apart with grief. "You did this to her!"

His breast heaved with laughter. "Only parts of it, I am sorry to say. There are so many of us, and we all wanted a part of the fun. It was Bella's idea to use the Blade. Very suitable, since your dear friend asked to die."

A Viper's Blade only killed when it was withdrawn, sending out a deadly poison in the blood that killed its victim within seconds. You could live with the blade inside you, dying slowly of blood loss, or choose death by pulling it out. There was no antidote, and no way out, once the blade was in you.

Secessa's tears flowed freely, and all her anger and sorrow seemed to concentrate in one painful point in her chest. She tried to focus her emotions and aim between his eyes. "You will pay for this," she snarled, but before she had time to think about what to do to him, her hand went cold, and all the anger she had inside erupted into a jet of green light.

Whatever it was she had created hit Ursus with a soft thump and he screamed. His scream was cut short very quickly, however, as a greenish-grey mass of something devoured him. Within seconds, it reduced him to ash.

Secessa fell to her knees and vomited a second time, but only fluids and bile came up. Minutes passed before she could make herself stand up.

Finally, on shaky legs, she slowly moved towards her friend.

Elena was unconscious, thank Merlin. Secessa was not sure she would have been able to look her friend in the face, considering everything that had happened to her. Judging by her skin colour, she would not live much longer, and her spirit had probably already gone ahead. Trying to get away from the pain. Sobbing, Secessa took hold of the Viper's Blade and drew it out. Elena drew one last shallow breath and then she was still.

And all because of me.

She did not know how she managed to get out of there, but she did, clutching her friend's wand tightly in her left hand. Inhaling the park air deeply in search for calm, she Disapparated, hoping fervently that she would not splinch herself with the effort.

*

She landed on the cave floor with a thud, unable to stand upright. Vladimir was beside her at once.

"Thank Merlin you're back! They're almost here!"

She just stared at him, unable for a few seconds to comprehend what he had said. Then she let out a sob that sounded like a howl. She could hear voices outside the cave opening, but they meant nothing to her. Pain ate at her like a wound where she lay on the cold floor. Vladimir lifted her upright, struggling slightly with her lax body, and gently wrung Elena's wand out of her hand. "Come on. You can tell me later. We must do this!"

Half supporting, half dragging her, he took her deep inside the cave. They could hear echoes of muffled voices. Secessa was shaking as she put her wand to the stone, but Vladimir was calm and determined as he muttered the incantations, one wand in each hand. The stone sprung aside and revealed the amulet, hidden in a crack in the wall.

Vladimir reached out for the amulet, but Secessa stopped him. Swiftly, she took out a protective cloth from her pack, wrapped up the medallion and put it with her other belongings. "I will head for Hogwart's," she told him, her voice shaking. "Go to Moscow. Tell the ministry there is a...situation at the Brigittine nunnery. But do not go there, whatever you do!"

There were footsteps now, determined ones, coming around the corner behind them. Secessa instinctively cast up a Shield around them. "Go!" she said and watched him Disapparate with a pop, worry for her, in his face. She could hardly stand, but managed to focus somehow.

As she Disapparated a dozen curses hit her in the back and she fell downwards...

...and landed on the snowy grounds of the Forbidden Forest, the world blackening around her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author notes: Volodya is a nickname for Vladimir. Hope you liked the insight into my idea of wizard inbreeding taken to its extreme. And remember, I really like reviews, so follow the link and tell me what you think!