Chapter 55: How to break a Dark Lord

Qafshtama National Park, Albania

December 2nd, 1992, 03:47 PM (English time)

"And that would be number four."

Selena said sweetly to the snake.

"Now, the last two pieces would be the tracking artifact, and I suppose that it will be the last one to be destroyed before you, and another orb with another piece of you inside, just like the two that I had already destroyed."

Selena said and turned to look at the Unspeakables, more precisely, at Croaker.

"Do you want me to destroy the orb for you, Mr. Croaker?"

Selena asked the man. She would very much like to do it, but if he refused her, it would not be a problem either. She had felt refreshed after the second orb, any extra now would just that, an extra.

"If it is not a bother, Lady Ravenclaw."

Croaker said while giving the tracking artifact to one of the other Unspeakables. He then retrieved from a pocket in his robes his own mokeskin pouch and from inside it, took a orb of crystal glass identical to the ones that Selena had destroyed earlier. Croaker then offered the orb of crystal to Selena.

"Oh, it will be no problem at all, Mr. Croaker."

She said to the cloaked man while extending her gloved hand and grabbing the orb of crystal. Selena then turned back to the snake and smiled at it.

"Now watch with attention while I destroy another piece of you, Tom Riddle."

Selena said to a snake that was angrily hissing at her while wildly moving in the air. She then did the same that she had done two other times. Selena slowly plunged her dagger in the ball of crystal. And the same happened again. The ball immediately blackened in its interior, and then, it shattered in thousands of small pieces. From it came a wail together with a small cloud of black smoke. It stood there wailing for a few seconds and then it disappeared into oblivion. The snake had been frozen in its place in the air. It was looking to the place where another piece of its soul left its final wail before disappearing forever.

"And that would be number five."

It heard again in the voice of the woman that it came to hate in the last ten minutes.

Selena was smiling at the snake, and let go of her dagger, which disappeared way before dropping in the ground.

"Leona, if you could."

Selena spoke while slowly removing the glove from her hand and putting it back inside a pocket in her robes. Leona, who was still holding the spell back, let it go, aiming it at the snake. A blue bolt of light launched from the blue magic circle in front of her hand and impacted the snake. Blue light shone over its body and the ghost of chains formed in the air around the snake and started to wrap around its body. Seconds later, the ghost chains faded completely, and Selena started to talk to the snake again.

"What my sister-wife just hit you with is a soul trap spell. It is a magecraft spell designed to shackle a possessing spirit to its current body. In your case, the snake."

Selena said. The snake was not hissing anymore, and it had ceased to move too. It could be said that it had given up.

"The difference from this one to the one that I had hit you earlier with, is that the magecraft one is more permanent. So, the snake that you are possessing will be your last body."

Selena turned to Erik again, and saw that he was holding a transparent carrier box that had very small holes on it. Erik opened the lid of the carrier box to Selena and she moved the snake inside it with a wave of her hand. As it was inside, Erik closed the lid of the carrying box and locked it in place.

"Thank you, darling."

Selena said to Erik, giving the man a beautiful smile. Erik smiled back to Selena and then turned to Croaker.

"I believe that we are done here, Mr. Croaker."

Erik said to the Unspeakable, who was absentminded looking at the snake inside the carrier box. The cloaked men then looked a little up to Erik's face.

"Yes. I believe we are, Lord Ravenclaw."

Croaker said to Erik.

"Everyone to me. I'll transport us out of this cave."

Erik said and the group approached him as a blue magic circle appeared under them with Erik at its center. When everyone was close, he activated the transportation magic circle, making the group disappear in the middle of motes of blue light.

When the group opened their eyes again, they were back to the entrance of the cave. The Unspeakables looked at Erik, who just walked to where the entrance of the cave was and started to wave his free hand.

"I'm hiding the cave's entrance again. I don't want anyone finding it by accident."

Erik said to the group while the dirt and rocks around the cave entrance were going back to how they were before. After the cave's entrance was back to normal, Erik put some snow around it again with another wave of his hand, leaving the cave's entrance as naturally hidden as possible.

"And… Done."

Erik said and walked back to the group. He approached then and without saying anything more, casted and activated his blue transportation magic circle, making the group disappear again in motes of blue light.

Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands

December 2nd, 1992, 04:13 PM - Wednesday

This time, when everyone opened their eyes again, they were back in Hogwarts, inside the meeting room that they were before. As the blue motes of light faded, Erik walked to the round table where the map of Europe was and put the transparent carrier box that was holding Tom, the snake, on top of it. He turned back to the group, more specifically the Unspeakables, and talked to them.

"So, Mr. Croaker, how do you want to continue from here on?"

The cloaked wizard walked to the table and looked at the snake in the carrier box while thinking.

"The safest method is to complete the prophecy. My colleagues in the department agree with me on that."

Croaker said to Erik, turning to face him now.

"I agree with you on that. The prophecy has already started, and trying to escape from it now would have some unseen consequences."

Erik said. He had read some stuff about it about six hundred years ago in Olympus' Library. It was some records of people trying to escape or subvert prophecies.

"But how do you want to do it?"

Erik asks the Unspeakable again. Croaker stays quiet, thinking of how to complete this job and at the same time fulfill the prophecy.

"I suggest you signing a contract with Mr. Potter. Basically have him pay the Department of Mysteries a symbolic sum to get rid of Tom definitely. It's better than having a twelve years old kid throwing Tom, the snake, through the veil of death."

Erik says to Croaker, after the man didn't answer him.

"That is a good way. We will have to talk with Mr. Potter's new guardian, but I believe that he will be eager to agree to a simple contract rather than have his ward killing a Dark Lord that is, for all means, already dead."

Croaker said to Erik. The Unspeakable turned to look at the boxed snake again.

"You can have it."

Erik said to the Unspeakable, making him look at Erik again.

"The carrier box is something that I had in my storage, and I enchanted it a little while waiting for Selena to finish with Tom."

Erik added to the man. Croaker looked back to the snake.

"I don't think that would be a good idea, Lord Ravenclaw. We have had, in the past, members of our personnel who betrayed their vows."

Croaker said and looked back to Erik.

"Can I ask you to keep Tom, the snake, until we arrange the contract or something like it with the involved parts? I think it would be safe for everyone."

Croaker asked Erik, who was looking at the Unspeakable. He then looked at his wives, asking them a silent question. Selena, Joan and Leona just shrugged at his silent question, making him let out a sigh.

*sigh*

"I don't like the idea of keeping him inside the school…"

Erik said while turning back to the snake.

"So if I'm going to keep him until you guys arrange things, I'm not telling you where he will be for that time."

Erik said to Croaker, who nodded his head in agreement.

"That's ok for me."

Croaker said to Erik.

"That's decided then. Is there anything more that you would like to discuss, Mr. Croaker?"

Erik asked.

"Not at the moment, Lord Ravenclaw. If I find anything I will be sure to send you a letter."

Croaker replied to Erik. He then went back to where the two other Unspeakables were waiting for him, and turned back to Erik.

"We will be going now then, Lord Ravenclaw. I have some people to discuss with so we can arrange the end of the prophecy as soon as possible."

Croaker said to Erik.

"Have a nice day then, Mr. Croaker. And be sure to keep Director Bones on par with the happenings."

Erik said to Croaker, who nodded his head at him under his hood.

"She is one of the people that I have to talk with, Lord Ravenclaw."

Croaker replied to Erik, and then turned to the door of the room.

"Have a nice day too."

Croaker said before he started walking out of the room with his colleagues following after him.

Erik waited until the three Unspeakables had exited the castle, which he knew by monitoring the wards, and when they did, he turned to Tom, the snake.

"So, Tom. Anything you want to say for probably the only person who can understand you in this form inside this castle?"

Erik spoke to the snake, who raised its head and looked at him and hissed. Erik waited for it to finish and then talked back.

"Yes, I can understand you, and no, I'm not a parselmouth. My ability is, in my opinion, at the same time more advanced and less advanced than parselmouth."

The snake then hissed at him again, and Erik replied to it after it finished hissing.

"Is more advanced in a way that I can talk to and understand any animal. Less advanced in a way that while the animals can understand me, I'm not talking their language. It is more like the meaning of my words being understood by them through my magic. So I can't use their languages to cast different magic."

Erik said to the snake, who started hissing again. When it finished its hissing, Erik replied to it again.

"And you really think that I would have translated all that colored language that you were hissing back at the cave to my wife? You must have really gone crazy after making all those Horcruxes."

Tom, the snake, started hissing again at him. When it stopped, Erik chuckled at it and replied.

"How did we discover your Horcruxes? Really simple. Someone thought that it was a good idea to send one of them, the black diary, into the school. It managed to possess a student, who then opened the secret chamber of Slytherin. It then ordered the basilisk to attack the students, in which it failed, by the way. When the first student was petrified and the Headmaster was doing nothing to stop further attacks, the council that we keep inside the school summoned us back to Hogwarts. And in less than four hours after we arrived, we found the diary and the Unspeakables had it in their hands. After that we found the diadem inside the Room of Lost Things, and that kicked my wife's little revenge that you saw inside the cave earlier."

The snake started hissing again. Erik waited for it to finish, and then replied to it.

"Well, we really have not introduced ourselves to you, have we? My name is Erik Ravenclaw, and I am the Lord of Ravenclaw and Hogwarts' castle."

Erik said and then extended an arm to Selena, who walked to him and let herself be hugged by Erik, hugging him by the waist too.

"And this beautiful lady here is my wife, Selena Ravenclaw, Lady of Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hogwarts' castle. So if you didn't understand yet, we are the owners of Hogwarts."

After Erik finished their introductions, Tom, the snake, started hissing furiously back at him. After it stopped, Erik started to laugh at it.

"What did it say?"

Selena asked her laughing husband. After calming himself, Erik replied to her and the snake.

"Tom here said that he is the heir of Slytherin because he is the only living member of the Gaunt family. Care to enlighten him, Selena?"

"Of course, Erik."

Selena replied to Erik. She then looked at the snake and started to talk.

"Tell me, Tom, have you ever managed to claim your said heirship to Slytherin magically?"

She asked the snake, but didn't let it answer the question.

"I already know your answer, so don't waste your breath on it. Let me tell you why you couldn't do it. The answer is simple, really, because you are not the heir to Slytherin. I am Salazar's true heir, and after his death, I have become the Lady of Slytherin."

She said to the snake, and, just for her answer to be more impactful, she summoned to her hand the sword of Slytherin. Selena then showed the blade to the snake, who was looking at it with its red eyes.

"Your claim as being Slytherin's heir because of house Gaunt is not possible because the ancestor of that house, the one who was the biological son of Salazar, got disowned by him magically for being a 'power hungry biggoted bastard'. That's why no Gaunt ever could magically claim to be the heir of Slytherin. When Salazar died, he named me, his goddaughter, his heir and next Lady of house Slytherin."

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