Chapter 23: Memories - part 1

Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands

November 23rd, 1992, 10:40 AM

After hearing Auror Moody report, Director Bones groaned and raised a hand to her head, starting to massage her temples. The headache was coming back. Blood magic was something that was heavily prohibited a long time ago because of the sheer number of deaths and disasters that some of the more dark families were causing upon the community. Every minor conflict with them was a reason to curse the blood of the family. Because of that, the families that were using it freely were hunted down by the affected one and their allies resulting in family wars and the total annihilation of said families. Not wanting to have something like that happening again, the voters in the Wizengamot banded together and banned the practice of blood magic from the British Isles. From that moment, the knowledge (books), if found, would be confiscated by the Unspeakables and the possessor would be heavily fined, and the user of said magic would receive a one way trip through the veil of death. The last known case of use of blood magic against a family was almost a hundred years old; the Greengrass family had their blood cursed with an animal curse. They had managed to weaken the curse to the point where the curse would jump generations, but it was still present in their blood.

"Any Idea of the targets?"

"There's two different targets for the trackers, health and life ones. One is very close, in the castle, I suppose, the other is far from here. There is a third target too, but this one seems to be a location one. A blood ward monitor to be more specific."

Director Bones asked Auror Moody, who reported what he managed to discover.

"And the desk?"

"A hidden drawer with labelled bottled memories and a wand."

Director Bones asked and Moody reported again. She waited in silence for him to continue.

"The labels only have dates written. The oldest one dated from 'Summer, 1899', and the newest one dated 'June, 1992'. The wand is black, ebony wood probably. Not used recently enough to work with the reversal spell."

Auror Moody finished reporting, and Director Bones noded.

"You can use the school's pensieve if you wish to look at some of the memories."

Erik interrupted, offering a pensieve for them to use. He had ordered three of the items from its original creator. One for personal use, it was inside his office at his house; one for safe keeping, it was inside his vault in Gringotts; and one for use in Hogwarts, kept inside a cabinet in the Headmaster's Office. It was a very useful tool to review incidents where you had only one person's word against the other's. The memories retrieved by the means developed by the Pensieve's creator were very difficult to temper with, and any attempts would be clearly shown by the artifact.

"I will accept your offer, Erik. The DMLE's pensieve is shared with the Unspeakables and it is tiring to get hands on it."

Amelia said, accepting Erik's offer.

"It is in the cabinet beside the desk. Opposite side from Fawkes."

Erik said to them, indicating the cabinet.

"Hmm… What is Dumbledore's phoenix still doing here?"

Auror Tonks asked.

"Dumbledore's phoenix?"

"Yes, Fawkes."

Erik asked and Auror Tonks replied, pointing to said bird. Erik then chuckled and said.

"Fawkes is its own bird. He belongs to no one."

"But he is always seen with Dumbledore."

"That could be true, but there is a reason for it. Fawkes likes Hogwarts' atmosphere too much and decided a long time ago to make it its home. So he made a pact with me that allowed it to live in the school grounds, where it will receive food and protection from the wards, and in exchange he would help the acting Headmaster and the students when needed."

*chirp*

Erik explained and Fawkes gave its own chirp in confirmation.

"But I know that he really wants to stay because the house-elves pamper it too much."

*CHIRP*

Erik said with a smirk on his face, and Fawkes gave an indignated chirp and disappeared in a flash of fire. That reaction made Erik start to laugh at the immortal bird.

Director Bones chuckled at the trade between bird and man, and walked to the pointed cabinet that contained the school's Pensieve. She opened the cabinet and found inside it the artifact. The Pensieve was made from a material that resembled stone, in a basin like format and filled with runes and other strange symbols carved into all of its surface with some precious stones encrusted to its outside too. Inside the basin was a silvery cloud of gas, or maybe it was liquid, it was difficult to define, that held the memories that one wished to dive into.

"Give me the oldest one first, Auror Moody."

Director Bones asked Auror Moody, and he gave her a little flask closed with a cork that had a label that read 'Summer, 1899' and a wisp of silver gas/liquid inside. Taking the flask, she opened it with a tap of her wand and poured that content inside the pensieve. Director Bones then prepared to dive into memory.

"You two are coming with me."

She ordered, and Aurors Moody and Tonks stood by each of her side and together they touched the silver surface and their minds dived into the memory. While they were viewing the memory, Erik was continuing to read the staff's files.

Three minutes had passed when the trio returned from their 'joy ride' in the memory lane. They stumbled a little, but quickly recovered, and Director Bones started to spill a string of curses. Some of them were very creative, in Erik's opinion.

"Welcome back, did you guys have fun?"

Joked Erik. Not really wanting an answer.

"No fun at all."

Replied a serious Director Bones.

"We just witnessed a three way duel that ended with the death of a fourth, innocent, party by the means of killing curse."

Director Bones said while taking the memory back to the flask and sealing it with a tap from her wand. She then passed it back to Auror Moody, and asked for the next one.

"Give me the newest one."

Auror Moody then secured the given flask, and took the one labeled 'June, 1992' and passed it to Director Bones. She, again, opened the flask with a tap of her wand and dumped the flask's content. This time, two wisps of silver 'dropped' from it and joined the pool in the Pensieve.

"Two memories. You two are coming with me again."

Director Bones and Aurors Moody and Tonks then repeated the process of diving into the memories by touching the silver surface of the Pensieve. Erik continued to read the staff's files. It didn't take much time and about seven minutes later, the group was 'back'. Still recovering from the 'travel down memory lane', Director Bones said.

"Erik, you will want to see this one."

Erik looked at her with one of his eyebrows lifting up. He closed the file that he was reading and put it together with the other.

"Okay then."

He said and got up from his armchair. Erik then walked to the Pensieve and prepared to touch the silver surface.

"You coming?"

Erik asked the trio. Director Bones nodded and prepared to dive into the memory. Aurors Moody and Tonks prepared themselves too. And together they touched the silver surface, diving into the memory. Erik felt his minding diving into the memory, head first. It was a quick dive, and soon he was on his feet again, in a corridor with Director Bones and her Aurors, looking at a trio of students running to a door at the end of it. He recognized the corridor as being one at the third floor of the castle. All three of them were wearing Gryffindor's colors and were huddled together under a silvery cape. He didn't recognize them, but he recognized the cape, an invisibility cape. Director Bones filled him in on what she knew of their identity.

"The black haired one is Harry Potter, the ginger haired one is Ronald Weasley and the girl is called Hermione Granger."

Erik nodded while he watched Ms. Granger opens the door with an unlocking charm. As the door opened, the trio entered the room and Mr. Potter took a wooden flute and started to play some very poor notes with it. Then he heard the growling and entered the room after the trio and saw what was growling. A cerberus. A genuine three headed effing cerberus! As the three headed infernal dog raised its heads, Erik made a gesture of raising his hand in the universal sign 'stop', and the memory froze. Director Bones and the Aurors looked around. A memory freezing had never happened to them. Auror Moody then saw Erik's hand gesture.

"Lord Ravenclaw, you stopped the memory?"

Erik took a deep breath, and answered the Auror with some ice in his voice.

"Yes, Auror Moody. Basic control command of every Pensieve. It allows you to pause the memory. There are commands to rewind and forward five seconds, and to force end the 'dive' and eject the viewers. It's all in the artifact user's manual."

"Good to know."

Director Bones was the one to say after hearing Erik answer. She looked at Erik's face and saw that he was livid.

"A effing cerberus! Who, in his right mind, would put an effing cerberus inside a school! And worse, behind a door that a first year student can open!"

Erik made another gesture with his hand, one of like he was slapping something from the air from his left to his right, and the memory went back 'in time' at a fast speed, rewinding five seconds. Now, the group was standing inside the room with the cerberus inside, the door was closed again and the students were outside. Erik made another 'stop' sign and the memory resumed. They heard Ms. Granger cast the unlocking charm again, the door opening, and Mr. Potter taking out the wooden flute. He watched the cerberus raise its heads and heard the boy 'murdering' a song with the flute. Erik continued to watch as the cerberus got sleepy hearing the 'murder notes', dropped its heads and start to snore. Then Erik stopped the memory again.

"Did you see the kids' faces when they opened the door? They already knew what they would find behind the door, and knew how to calm the cerberus."

"Yes, viewing it using this last angle we can clearly see it."

Erik commented and Director Bones agreed. She had noticed the kids' faces of determination too. She was, after all, an experienced investigator. Erik made the 'stop' signal and the memory resumed.

They watched the kids talk about the golden harp already present in the room and how snape was there first. They then moved the cerberus paw aside while doing commentaries about it, and apparently the cerberus had a name, Fluffy. The kids opened a trapdoor on the floor and discussed who was going first. Mr. Potter passed the flute to Ms. Granger jumped in after some discussion. Immediately the vision around the group faded a little, and Erik paused again.

"Let's go, the memory must be from Mr. Potter because it faded a little as he jumped in."

Erik then jumped after the kid without looking back and landed at the kid's side. The DMLE trio soon followed and landed by his side, in time to hear Erik groaning.

*groan*

"Devil's Snare."

The floor they landed on was covered in the thing. As the group took positions, Erik unpaused. They watched as Mr. Potter said that it was 'ok' to jump, and he soon was joined by his peers. They watched as the Devil's Snare started to 'hug' them and started to panic. Ms. Granger then talked about the plant's habits and got a reply to start a fire. She replied that she didn't have any wood, just to Mr. Weasley reminds her that she was a witch. Erik chuckled at that. The girl then cast a blue flame spell and the 'hugger' plant receded to hide from the light and warmth, freeing the kid in the process. They quickly continued and entered a room with hundreds of keys with wings flying near the ceiling. The kids saw that they needed to catch the right key to open the door, as their unlocking spell didn't work here. And look, they had brooms conveniently waiting for them! The kids took the brooms and managed to identify the key that they needed, and with some basic teamwork, Mr. Potter managed to catch the key, just to be violently assaulted by the rest of the key. The group saw as he flew away while being chased and warned his friends to wait by the door. After some dangerous maneuvers that got him hurt, he managed to open the door and the kids advanced to the next room. The group of adults followed after.

"He is a good broom flyer."

Erik murmured while walking behind the kids. They soon arrived at the next 'obstacle'. A giant chess set, and behind the set, the next door. The adults watched as the kids had to play a live chess game that had them as pieces. They watched as Mr. Weasley 'sacrificed' his piece, and himself, so that they could win 'the game', resulting in his unconsciousness. They won, and after being sure that he was okay as he could get, the now pair of kids advanced to the next room. A horrible smell attacked their noses as they entered the room. In the middle of it, an enormous mountain troll was knocked out with an ugly and bloody bruise on its head. The kids quickly walked around the fetid creature and advanced again with the adults right behind them. In the next room, there was a table in the center, with different flasks and bottles on it, arranged in a single row, and with a piece of parchment near them. As they neared the table, the past and next door lit with fire of different colors. The kids talked about which professor this 'defense' was and concluded that it was Snape's. After reading the logic puzzle in the parchment, Ms. Granger took a moment to solve it and , of course, rightly pointed out that wizards can't seem to know how to use logic. She then points to the 'right' answers. The duo them separated, with Ms. Granger going back to get help and Mr. Potter going ahead. The adults followed him through the fire, and saw as he arrived in the next room, with a pang of headache. They watched as Mr. Potter confronted Professor Quirrell in front of a mirror, and Erik paused the memory. He sighed.

*sigh*

And raised a hand to massage his temples.

"A class 4 dark artifact…"

He mumbled, and Director Bones asked about it.

"What is it?"

"The Mirror of Erised. Is an artifact that shows in its reflection the deepest desire that the person looking at has. Until here there would be no problems, but the mirror entrances the user and viewer to continue looking at its reflection and do nothing more. This mirror killed a lot of people by starvation simply by showing them their deepest desire being realised."

The Aurors and Director Bones were silent after the explanation. Erik took a deep breath and he made a gesture to continue the memory. They then watched as Mr. Potter kept asking questions to the Professor.

"Smart boy, he is delaying what he can by keeping him talking. Bad guys love their monologues."

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