A Moth to the Flame
'I can't just leave Sirius's body here.' I started to pick up his body but I instinctively grab him in my shroud of fog instead. When the fog clears his body is gone, I know I was somehow carrying him in my shroud... 'Not that strange in a world of magic I guess.'
Now that my head is clear I take a better look around, the cells are honestly horrible. Inside each cell is one or two cots and a bucket, that's it. In the cell catty-corner from me I can see Rodolphus Lestrange kneeling over Bellatrix's body caressing her face with a sad look in his eyes. Not that I care, such people do not deserve sympathy, for all the people they have killed and the ones they have tortured.
'Perhaps my time in the darkness has warped my thoughts?' I think to myself before shaking off such scary thoughts.
I look down observing all the lights of the now presumed souls, and I notice something strange. I didn't notice earlier with Sirius's soul distracting me and clouding my judgment. But underneath the tower, like very far underneath, a few hundred meters, there was a light that looked completely different from every light I have seen up until this point.
There was a light that had a defined shape, not just a circular blob, it was like a small fire and it was pure white, unlike every other soul around it had no darkness to it. It was just a white flame with a slight flicker to it every so often, it honestly didn't look like it tastes any good... I don't know why I thought that...
Right now I need to get off this island and figure out how to end my hunger once and for all, I don't want to kill another innocent... ever. But something hidden beneath a magical prison could be helpful, no?
I decide it won't take that much time so I decided to take a look, it takes a while to get there since it is an odd feeling trying to get used to moving in 360° in all directions rather than just flat ground. I did it so naturally when I didn't have control but trying it without being driven by instinct was pretty disorientating.
When I get below the tower I am greeted by a giant room with no entrance or exits, I suppose they wanted it to be a secret. But the odd thing is that the room is completely devoid of life, not even an insect... I guess that's not true, there are plants.
The room is probably around half the length and width of the island nearly 100 meters by 50ish meters. Only about a 15-meter by 10-meter section was like an actual room with a desk, beakers, what looked to be a restrainment table, an actual bed, medical tools, plants, and a training dummy.
The rest of the room is just rows upon rows upon rows of bookshelves lined with books, parchments, and rolled-up scrolls. The weirdest part of all of this is the plants that should very much be dead, are still alive and green as ever, as well as the bookshelves are completely dust-free.
I notice that the flame-like soul is coming from an object on the desk, it looked like a locket, I didn't notice before but there are actually quite a few flame-like souls, 4 to be exact. The locket was by far the biggest, there was also a book, a ring, and a set of robes, all of which had a bright white flame each smaller than the next.
I decide it's best not to do anything to them at the moment, but I do pick up the book to read since the front cover is labeled
'The Diary of Sid Zirke'.
'Year. 1422 Day. September the 2nd
Today I will begin to write a diary as suggested by a professor, yesterday was the day I joined Hogwarts, I was sorted into Ravenclaw. I was told Ravenclaw is for those who enjoy studying, I can hold this true to say I very well believe I am suited to be here. I, however, hold some reservations as I wished to be sorted into Slytherin since I feel like I am too noble to be in a house with muggle-born and the sort. Honestly, I regret having Muggles as parents it makes me rech every time I think of the filthy muggles.... '
...
'Year. 1425 Day. January the 23rd
.... Although the morning classes were not that great I had the most wondrous thing happen in my Defense Against The Dark Arts class today. The professor brought in a creature he called a dementor, it was beautiful, it nearly sucked out my desk-mates soul in the short time it was free.
I wish it would have, it would have been a magnificent sight to see how the soul leaves a body and enters the dementor. The professor said that they can not be killed, not even really injured, they can only be suppressed with the power of a Patronus, it is just absolutely fascinating.
Apparently, the information on these creatures is heavily classified however we were given special permission from the ministry. This was due to one being found in the forbidden forest. So the teachers began to teach us all Patronus charms to fend them off... Why must we fear them?
...
'Year. 1502 Day. December the 2nd
.... Even though my experiments have yielded great success I am forced to stop for the time being as the ministry is starting to notice the missing people. The dementors are showing a slight bit of growth especially the early two, my mother and father, is it because they are the only muggles? Or merely because they are older? They have been showing signs that they may be able to form full sentences soon... although they do not remember anything from their past lives I believe with time I can make them gain clarity....
...
'Year. 1512 Day. August the 3rd
... Maybe this is for the best? I have found a small island in the north sea, I plan to make this my home until I finally gain immortality. I am merely 93, the prime of my life, I can rest easy... with how close I am to finding the path to true immortality I have nothing to fear....'
...
'Year. 1547 Day. Unknown
Today I caught the 800th sailor to pass by these waters, the creation of the dementors is near 100% success rate and the tower is nearly full. Slowly torturing someone to death over the course of a year while draining their vitality has shown a 98% success rate since implementation 10 years ago. Breaking the mind, body, and spirit of the subject is absolutely crucial.
My mother and father's dementors have stopped gaining intelligence, no matter how much I try and teach them they never retain any of the critical information merely the baseline simple things. They can take nothing more than simple conversations and words.
I have already developed a way that I think will work, for dementors to turn human again I just need more time..... I hypothesize that to convert a dementor into a human you need to use the soul of a mandrake. I have found the properties that turn a man into a magical beast can be found in the soul of a mandrake.
Since the mandrake transforms a man into the shape of their soul's inner beast with only the power of one leaf, it is very well possible that the soul can turn a beast into a man. I would call them Anti-Animagus... I need to think of a better name. In the meantime, I have created 7 Horcrux using the lives of the sailors to stretch myself into my beloved items. I will succeed in getting true immortality not the beastly form the Horcrux will leave me in. Although after creating the Horcrux I seem more temperamental, getting easily angered at my work... I never used to get angry. '
...
'Year. 1550 Day. Unknown
I DID IT! I CREATED AN ANTI-ANIMAGUS! They refused to devour the soul of anything other than a human so I decided to force the matter. I left one of the sailors' dementors in a small room with enchanted walls, so it wouldn't be able to phase through. The only thing I left with it was a single mandrake that would be taken care of by an enchanted spout. It took three years of starving the cursed dementor but it finally gave in and ate the mandrake, I was right all along.
The Anti-Animagnus has no soul, however, and it just stands there never tiring, it took the shape of the sailor that I killed to make the dementor. It is currently unstable and will transform in and out of its dementor state seemingly randomly.... However, I believe that they can create any human form they want, the dementor only chose his old form because that is what the latent consciousness in the dementor remembered.
...I believe it is time I try some self-experiments... I can already feel my power is starting to grow a bit rugged and less refined than it used to be, a show of age I suppose. '
...
'Year.1552?
The first trial of creating a dementor of myself was a complete failure, I used an old blood ritual to create a second body for myself and place one of the Horcrux pieces inside. This turned out to be a colossal failure even though it is separate from my main soul and only used the smallest piece of my soul, it still left a scar on all pieces of my soul and crushed the piece I used.
This left me unconscious for what seemed like a lifetime, but it couldn't have been that long considering only my skin paled to a ghastly degree and my tongue died out. My further attempts will be using the already created dementors as a baseline rather than trying to convert myself.'
...
'Year. Unknown
It took two attempts but I successfully implanted a piece of my soul into a dementor. I even successfully got it to turn into an anti-animagus, it was like looking into a mirror. Despite the success, I was not able the make the soul retain the concussions while being in the anti-animagus state. Recently my magic has waned enough that the enchantments around the island broke, they were extremely powerful hex's and enchantments so it is understandable that I couldn't hold them anymore. I will start preparing to make more tests.'
...
'Two days after the last entry
The ministry has shown up on the island, I can't do anything about it, I am too weak now. I know they cannot find this secret room so this is where I will stay. Listening in on their conversations it seems like they have linked me with the wizards disappearing from back in my younger days, they call me Ekrizdis. It's funny a name I made up on a whim to throw off the ministry is now known as one of the most infamous muggle murder and wizard killers.
Since I have to speed up plans I will try using my main soul... If this doesn't work I hope my Horcruxes somehow manage to keep my conscience. '
...
'I Do Not Know
I did it I managed to turn myself into an anti-animagus... but something is wrong, I think I messed up when forming my body, I was so obsessed with creating my ideal body that I forgot to create a proper magic core. In my old age, my mind was not sharp enough to keep up the rapid creation of my body and I got caught up in the small details.
My soul is too powerful for this body, all the magical energy that has flowed through my body all these years has made my soul quite powerful. This body is unable to contain it with its barely better than a normal muggle's magic core, it.... burns. It feels like the place my magical core is supposed to be is on fire..... my Horcruxes... I can't feel the soul's connection to them anymore... I messed up.
It hurts... Is this how they felt?'
....
That's where the diary ends, I... don't know how I feel about this. It seems like a path to freedom of this form was dropped into my hands but, am I even able to form a body properly? I don't really know much about magic except the thoughts of Sirius and the death eater Bellatrix.
Sirius knew little to nothing about the dark arts, save for what was available in his parents' library, and Bellatrix didn't even bother learning anything other than hexes and curses, with the majority of her time on offensive magics.
I turn to face the hundreds of bookshelves behind me. 'I guess it's time to get to reading'.