Chapter 44-Legacy!
Chapter 44
CASSIUS BLACK
Until now, Cassius had never been to the Headmaster's Office. And the place was as magical and intriguing as he had hoped it to be. It was small, but the walls were littered with magical artifacts and other little knick-knacks.
He could not recognise most of them, except for one. A small, lighter-shaped object. The Deluminator. As his gaze lingered on the object a little longer, the Headmaster smiled, cutting in.
"It seems like one of the inventions has caught your eye," he whispered, breaking him out of his trance.
"Sorry," and he was quick to stop him.
"One never needs to apologise for their curiosity. Not in this school," and with that, he raised his hand and the little lighter-shaped object whipped into his hand, and there was a childish smile in his eyes as he held it out to him.
"Ahh, one of my most prized inventions. Even though most of my colleagues think it to be useless," he said, pushing it towards him. As soon as he held it, his focus turned to the intricate Runic arrays and enchantments woven into it. Cassius would be the first to admit that he was a deft hand at Runes and enchantments, but this intricacy was something else.
It surpassed anything he had ever attempted.
And without any instructions from the man, he pointed it towards one of the lights and pressed the button, and in an instant, the light vanished and was sunken into the little device.
"You seem familiar with its use," and Cassius shrugged.
"I have seen it before," and he saw those golden eyes narrowed as he clicked it again, and a blob of light rushed out of the device and illuminated the room once more.
"While I would be very interested in knowing when you witnessed such a thing, I believe we have more pressing matters to discuss?" and Cassius nodded, and put it back on the table.
"Given that you made quite an effort to keep your identity a secret when you ousted the real identity of Mr. Ronald Weasley's pet rat, I believe something quite serious must have happened to force you to reveal yourself like this," and indeed, for he had hoped to steer the fate of this world into a more secure and safe direction, yet he had an inkling that his plans may have back-fired.
"I left you clues," Cassius answered, and the Old Headmaster chuckled.
"And once again, you somehow knew that I possessed a Pensieve," and he looked him in the eye, and Cassius could feel just a slight touch on his Occlumency defences.
"I do wonder how you know so much about me?" and though he was smiling, the power and authority emanating out of him was not that of the grandfatherly Headmaster, but that of the Warlock and the Supreme Mugwump of the IWC.
"Because I have seen you use it," he answered truthfully, and there was silence for some time as he nodded.
"Seen it? Are you a Seer?" and Cassius nodded.
"Maybe," he answered.
"I do not give prophecies, but as I was growing up, visions plagued my sleep, visions which only began to make sense some years later, for those visions were not simple dreams. No, they were showing me a future," and he was quiet at his explanation.
"Future?" he guessed.
"Yes," he said, and he leaned back in his chair, his bright blue eyes fixed on him as he rubbed his white, lengthy beard.
"And what exactly did you see in this vision?" he asked.
"I saw him. I saw Voldemort being revived," he answered, and in an instant, his eyes widened, and the Headmaster stilled.
"You cannot mean," and he nodded.
"Yes, he is alive, or at least he was. All my actions, everything that I have done, have been to stop that very fate," but he had made a mistake, for he had underestimated the threads of fate, and now he was forced to rely on the man in front of him.
"It makes sense now," and he had given the man the bare minimum of information, yet Albus Dumbledore had made sense of it all.
"Tell me, Mr. Black, were you present in those dreams of yours?" he asked, making Cassius still, and his surprise must have been answer enough.
"I see," he whispered.
"No," he answered, and the man sighed.
"I had thought as much. But regardless, something dire must have happened that you are here in my office, and I believe that this concerns Harry," and he nodded.
"Yes," and with that, Cassius reached into his pocket and took out his wand as he put it above the magical pouch.
"Accio," he whispered, and in an instant, the diadem of Ravenclaw flew into his hands.
"This," and Dumbledore gasped in surprise as he placed the relic on the table.
"Yes, this is the real diadem of Ravenclaw," he said, and the Headmaster's gaze remained fixed on the ornament, as if he were eyeing it as the most precious thing in the world.
"And just a few weeks ago, it also housed a piece of Tom Riddle's soul..." and his excitement dimmed at once as those eyes turned towards him.
"What do you mean?" he asked, and by then, he had also taken out the diary and Slyhterin's locket and placed them beside the diadem.
"This was the secret of his immortality, as you may already suspect," he answered.
"Horcruxes?" he whispered, and the sheer mention of that magic shook the air in the room, and Cassius nodded.
"Yes, he made six of them willingly, but there was a seventh. One that broke the rules of magic itself —a seventh horcrux created on the day he killed Lily and James Potter," and the Headmaster closed his eyes as he understood.
"So, it truly was as I feared," and indeed.
"Harry Potter had a horcrux in his scar," and the old man closed his eyes and took off his glasses. His grief and weariness began to show for the first time as the old man rubbed his eyes.
"Merlin! I had feared as much for years, yet I lacked the proof for this," and he then gazed at the table, and reached for the diary.
"Tom's Diary," he whispered.
"I believe this was our culprit for the events of your second year," and he was smart.
"Yes," Cassius nodded.
"The remnants remained awake and could wield quite an influence if handled without care," and he nodded.
"Yes, and you seem to have built quite a robust defence," and it was twice now that he had tested his Occlumency barriers.
"Your occlumency shields are better than what most adult wizards can muster, but still keeping these artefacts with you was quite risky," he chastised him, his frustration obvious in his tone.
"I know, but there was no one I could trust," Cassius refused to back down, and the Headmaster was silenced.
"And yet now you sit in my office, showing me all of this," he asked, and he bit his lip before he answered.
"Because, as much as I mistrust you, I know that you are the only wizard with the means and the knowledge to make sense of what I am about to tell you. These things, these Horcruxes, I only found them because I saw you and Harry search for them, that was until you di..." and he stopped himself, but he had already said enough as the Headmaster finished his sentence.
"Died?" and he said it with such nonchalance that it surprised him.
"Yes," Cassius whispered.
"You entrusted the task to Harry and his friends, but because of your secrecy and actions, too many people suffered. Too many people died because of your inaction," Cassius retorted, and the man had withered now and had a forlorn look on his face.
"But that is all in the past now. I made contact because something very serious happened a few weeks ago after the attack on the World Cup," he began, getting a bit tired of veering off topic.
"The Horcruxes, they..."
"...became empty," whispered the Headmaster, and Cassius nodded.
"I would not have been so concerned if not for the changes in Harry," and at this, the old man perked up.
"So, you have noticed them as well," he whispered, putting back his glasses.
"Yes. The changes are too profound, as if he is a completely different person, as if he has become..."
"Tom," Dumbledore finished.
"I have noticed it as well, and having taught the young Tom Riddle, the resemblance in their behavior is quite uncanny," and so he was right. Harry had changed, and for some reason, a part of him had hoped that he had been overthinking this, that he had been wrong.
"That is why I made contact, because if it really is Tom Riddle masquerading as Harry Potter, then we need to do something," and Albus Dumbledore was quiet as he examined the three objects in front of him.
"You said that you intended to destroy these objects," he asked and Cassius nodded.
"Yes," and he looked him in the eye.
"How?" he asked.
"Well, I had a few ideas about that. There is a spell that can destroy them, the Fiendfire spell I have been trying to learn it for some time, and then there was Basilisk venom if that did not work out," and he stopped, and blinked a few times.
"Basilisk venom?" and Cassius nodded.
"And how did you plan on getting this venom?" Cassius was nervous, but he answered truthfully.
"Here from Hogwarts," and it took him a few seconds to figure it out.
"The Chamber of Secrets," and Cassius nodded.
"Yes," and the man leaned forward.
"You know of its entrance," and again, Cassius nodded.
"I do, but the knowledge is useless for it can only be opened by a parselmouth," and that seemed to lessen in his excitement and alarm.
"For a Ravenclaw, you have a Gryffindor's heart," he whispered as Cassius shrugged.
"But are you a parselmouth?" he asked, and Cassius shook his head.
"No, but I was trying to learn it," and the old man smiled.
"I believe that endeavor is far more dangerous than you think. However, you won't need to learn it now," and he raised the Slytherin's locket.
"Do you know what this is?" and Cassius nodded.
"Slytherin's locket," he answered and the older wizard agreed.
"Indeed, yes. And though it is not known to many but Salazar Slytherin made this locket for a very special person in his life, a woman he had fallen in love with and he wished to share his gift with her," and Cassius's eyes widened as he realised what he was trying to say.
"You mean?" and the Headmaster nodded.
"Yes, the locket much like all the other Founders Treasures has a special ability. It can grant its wearer the ability to read and speak Parseltongue," and he had not known that, though he had done very little research on the topic.
The man eyed the locket.
"There are oth..."
"I believe I have heard enough secrets for a day," Cassius said, and the old man sighed, his age showing as he smiled at him.
"I know that you had your reasons for mistrusting me. However, I shall endeavor to earn that trust," and Cassius truly hoped that he had not made a mistake in sharing it all with the man.
"The Diadem of Ravenclaw is a great treasure for this school, and you deserve a reward for bringing it to me. The locket and the diary, I shall return to you as soon as I finish examining them for any malicious magic," and that seemed fair.
"There is hardly an apt reward for bringing back this treasure. However, I believe this shall suffice for now," and he had pushed forward his deluminator.
"Perhaps you will find the enchantments on it useful, and they could help you in the modification of the next generation Walkman," and his head snapped towards the man.
"How do you know about that?" he asked.
"I have our caretaker to thank for that. He confiscated the device from the young Miss Greengrass, who was quite energetic and forceful in trying to get it back. Most of the staff did not understand it, and so it landed in my office," and neither Daphne nor Astoria had told him anything of the sort.
"I was quite intrigued by the design and ingenuity and found myself inquiring about the creator of the device," and he was pretty proud of his work.
"Thank you," Cassius said.
Now I believe it's late enough. Let us leave the rest of your secrets to be uncovered on a later day," and Cassius rose from his chair, pocketing the Deluminator. He was about to walk out of his office when the old wizard called out for him once more.
"Mr. Black," and Cassius stopped and turned to face him again.
"I apologise for forcing you to carry this burden all by yourself. No child, no matter how blessed, should feel as if they are carrying the fate of the world on their shoulders," and Cassius nodded.
"I might have failed you in your visions, but I shall not fail you now. I promise," and Cassius nodded.
"I hope so as well..." and with that he left the office, a bit more hopeful than he had entered it.
.
.
.
Behind him, the old wizard sighed as he gazed at the empty seat and the three objects in front of him.
"To think that there would be another one like her," he whispered, before raising his hand, and a piece of paper appeared in front of him.
"I believe I am in need of your help once more..." and his hand moved with practised ease as he wrote a single line, before writing the name of an old friend on the envelope.
"...Nicholas!"
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