The-World-Moves-On (I) [Chapter 163]

~~Longbottom Hall~~

Amelia stepped through the fireplace before removing the soot from her robes with a flick of her Wand. “Madam Bonsey, please follow Norg. Mistress be waiting for you in the drawing hall” The Longbottom house elf, Norg arrived with a soft pop before declaring with a respectful bow. This wasn’t the first time Amelia was visiting the Longbottom Hall, but she still decided to follow Norg’s lead.

“Show me the way” Amelia urged the house elf to start moving. The Longbottoms were originally Vikings and their Viking Ancestry was clearly visible thanks to the decorations on the walls. After all, the Longbottoms were quite proud of their Ancestry. Amelia finally arrived in the drawing room with Norg leading her and found Augusta was already waiting for her. “Thank you, Norg” Amelia thanked the house elf before she started to make her way to where Augusta was sitting.

“Good evening, Amelia. Have a seat” Augusta offered and Amelia gave her a grateful smile before taking the offered seat. “Tea?” Augusta offered.

“Yes, two sugars please” Amelia requested and Augusta offered her a teacup after dropping two sugar cubes in the cup.

“So, what brings you to my Hall at this time, Amelia? Your messenger wasn’t forthcoming” Augusta asked curiously as she picked up her own teacup and took a small sip.

Amelia pondered how to approach the topic for the next few seconds while gently stirring her teacup before she finally decided to rip off the bandaid without any fanfare. “Voldemort is alive” Amelia revealed as she intently stared at Augusta. The older woman choked at the revelation before she settled on glaring at Amelia.

“If that was a joke, I am not laughing” Augusta growled coldly while glaring at Amelia.

“That’s good because I am not joking” Amelia retorted firmly.

Augusta didn’t say anything and simply kept staring at Amelia for the next few moments. “Do you have any proof?” Augusta asked, looking somewhat apprehensive. To be honest, she still wanted the revelation to be a cruel joke, after all, the War was still horrible that they were still trying to forget the nightmare.

“Yes, I do…” With that, Amelia started to reveal everything they have discovered regarding Voldemort’s survival. Amelia wasn’t worried that Augusta might betray them, after all, the woman has lost almost everything to the madman, though Amelia was planning to get a Secrecy Oath from the old battle ax so that nobody could forcefully extract the information from her.

After Amelia finally finished her explanation, Augusta didn’t say anything for the next couple of minutes and simply kept tapping her fingers on the table before the contemplative look on her face was finally replaced by a determined look. “Okay, how can I help?” Augusta asked with determination clear in her voice, making Amelia smile winningly…

<Line Break> (The Next Day)

~~Headmaster’s Office, Hogwarts~~

Albus slumped down in his chair with an extremely tired look on his face. He wanted to revisit the memory of the duel, but he was so busy dealing with the aftermath that he was only able to return to his office a few minutes ago…

Last night before he could finish fixing the hall, the other Professors arrived at the scene, so he was forced to come up with a story to appease them, but before revealing anything to Filius Flitwick and Aurora Sinistra, who were the first to arrive at the scene, he decided to summon the rest of the staff as he didn’t want to repeat the story more than once.

Though for whatever reason, Argus Filch failed to answer his summons and Albus also failed to reach the man, so a search was commenced, but they still failed to find the man. So, Albus was forced to use the map to locate Argus and Albus was surprised to find the man in a room he didn’t even know existed in the first place.

After arriving in the room, Albus was surprised to find that someone had been using the room as a secret Potions lab and from the ingredients he found inside the room, he was able to deduce the Potion that was being brewed in this room… After looking around for nearly half an hour, Albus finally found Argus stuffed inside a trunk.

Even though Albus wanted answers from the man, he was in no condition to answer his questions, as he was not in good shape, so Albus ended up using Legilimency on the man as Albus was desperate for answers. Albus easily recognized Bart Crouch Jr. from the memories and after that, it was pretty easy to connect the dots, which led Albus to realize that Harry didn’t kidnap Barty Crouch Sr., but he kidnapped Barty Crouch Jr., who was posing as Argus Filch for the past couple of months…

Though Albus couldn’t help but wonder how Harry was able to discover the plot when he failed to discover the conspiracy within his domain, especially with the map in his possession…

Albus was broken out of his musings when Fawkes trilled loudly, in an attempt to motivate him. Albus smiled at his familiar… “Thank you, Fawkes, I needed that” Albus said softly as he decided to revisit the memories of the duel instead of taking a nap. He knew that dark times were ahead and if he wanted to beat both Tom and Hadrian, then he couldn’t rest.

It was clear that both Tom and Hadrian were already making their moves and he would be damned if he found himself on the back foot for the second time. For the Greater Good of Wizarding Britain, he had to win… There was no other option…

‘Gellert is also somewhere out there’ Albus remembered sombrely as he wondered what his old friend was up to. He decided to add another name to the list of his enemies even though he didn’t want to… ‘For the Greater Good, the Light must win’ Albus vowed internally as the fire of determination burned clear in his eyes.

He had told his staff that someone broke into Hogwarts and when the Wards informed him about the intruder, he confronted the intruder, so a fight broke out between them when the intruder refused to surrender and since the face of the intruder was covered, he wasn’t able to recognize them. It was a hard sell, but for the time being, his staff was appeased.

Albus leaned on the table with a thoughtful look on his face… He wondered if he could use this incident to get rid of Nymphadora Tonks. He didn’t like anyone interfering in his matters, especially when he believed Hogwarts to be his domain. Maybe, this will teach Amelia a lesson and he could always reach out to Nymphadora after she was arrested. If he could get her into the Order, it would be a huge boon.

With his mind made up, he decided to contact Cornelius…

~~Riddle Manor, Little Hangleton~~

Voldemort was certain that something was amiss… Barty had failed to send him a report last night and he was yet to send his report this morning… “Wormtail!” Voldemort hissed loudly, and after a couple of seconds, the cowardly man stumbled through the door before finally kneeling down in front of him. He wasn’t pleased by the display of the cowardly man in the slightest, but Pettigrew was the only servant he had in his service at this moment.

To be honest, it was downright humiliating for him, but what other choice did he have?

“My Lord” The cowardly man stuttered out a greeting.

“Start collecting the Potion ingredients” Voldemort ordered, making Peter blink in confusion before he started to sputter.

“But what about the plan, My Lord?” Peter asked fearfully and Voldemort had to hold himself back from Cursing the man.

“Are you questioning me, Wormtail?” Voldemort asked with a dangerous edge in his voice and Peter immediately paled at the subtle threat.

“Of course not, My Lord!” Peter blurted out hurriedly. “I will start right away” He added fearfully before he scampered out of the room. Voldemort stared at the retreating back of his servant with distaste. A part of him wanted to send Peter to Hogwarts to check on Barty, but a part of him didn’t want to risk it as Peter was his only available servant.

Nagini was amazing, but no matter how amazing of a creature she was, she couldn’t brew a Potion even with his directions…

~~Harry’s Room, Malfoy Manor~~

Harry stared at the Resurrection Stone in front of him with a bit of trepidation… Last night, he had a long and detailed discussion with his mother about if he should accept Hela’s offer or not, which ended up in a long session of snogging, but they ultimately decided that Harry should accept the offer to learn from her.

So, after waking up today, the first thing Harry did was to fix the Wards and take control of them from Lucius and after he was done with that, he forced Lucius to free both Alef and Dobby. Both Lucius and Narcissa were surprised to find Dobby in his possession. After both Alef and Dobby were released, Harry bound both of them to himself before ordering Alef to work for Narcissa. He wasn’t worried about getting betrayed as the Mark would inform him of such treachery.

Then Harry returned to his room so that he could contact Hela… He picked up the Resurrection Stone and started to think about Hela. Moments later, he found himself in the familiar wasteland of Hel… Harry looked around and found Hela sitting crossed-legged on the ground and her eyes snapped open when his gaze found her.

“I have decided to become your student” Harry revealed without wasting any time and Hela simply grinned at his words…