thefictionvixens Chapter 81 The Curse of the Darkness
Chapter 81 The Curse of the Darkness
Dementors are extremely dangerous and repulsive beings. With their ability to suck away joy and souls, they quickly became "sewer" creatures hated by both wizards and sorcerers alike after their discovery. Furthermore, what makes them even more abhorrent is the scarcity of methods to deal with them; even the most "simple and effective" Patronus Charm is far beyond the level of the Higher Wizarding Exams—NEWTs. (Summoning a complete Patronus can earn a large number of extra points in the Defense Against the Dark Arts practical exam.)
Fortunately, as the world's top magic school, Hogwarts boasts a large number of exceptionally talented professors. While a hundred or so Dementors going berserk simultaneously might bring Azkaban to a standstill, it certainly wouldn't cause the ancient castle, standing for over a thousand years, to fall. In just ten minutes, those black-robed monsters, enough to leave Muggles with a lifetime of psychological trauma, were herded into the skies above the Forbidden Forest like sardines.
"No need to pursue them too far! Just drive them all out of the castle! We can decide on the rest when Headmaster Dumbledore returns."
Harry shouted, standing among the professors.
Having distinguished himself in the major events for the third consecutive year, he had by this time completely detached himself from the student ranks. Even McGonagall and Snape, known for their strictness, acknowledged that he was an elite wizard capable of standing guard outside the castle alongside them. However, just as the professors were all about to do as Harry suggested, RJ Lupin, who was always most biased towards Gryffindor, offered the opposite opinion.
"Harry! This won't do! The Forbidden Forest is too close to the castle! So many students are like cake to a ravenous, hungry Dementors! We have to get them away!"
Rumble!
Ow!Ow!Ow!
The eagle's cry, accompanied by lightning, made Lupin's voice sound even more resolute and solemn. Sprout, Flitwick, and the others, who agreed with his point, turned around at that moment. These professors weren't particularly proficient in Defense Against the Dark Arts, so to better protect their students, they preferred to consult the professional advice of adult wizards.
The next second, before Harry could explain anything, a black mist that everyone had mistaken for a strange dark cloud suddenly spread out like a spider web. The sharp spikes, which seemed capable of splitting mountains and shattering rocks, seemed to have eyes and accurately struck the Dementors that had been "isolated".
Professor McGonagall's mind went on high alert! How could she have ignored the strange black cloud she had clearly seen earlier?
“Flagrate”
Snapped!
Along with Professor McGonagall's incantation, the distinctive sounds of house-elves using Apparition rang out, but apart from Harry, most people present subconsciously mistook the noise for thunder.
A flash of black light, and the world became clear.
Having endured a long and arduous struggle, Mrs. Foster, with her exceptional eyesight, was the first to notice the change in the sky.
"Huh? Where are the Dementors? They've all disappeared?"
......
At the same time, hundreds of miles away, a black fog deeper than dark clouds appeared on the sea, carrying hundreds of Dementors.
Sensing the familiar Azkaban prison below, all the Dementors that Mo Ran had forcibly brought were stunned for a moment. Then, before they could run far, a dark magical aura, as if emanating from an ancient abyss, bound them tightly.
“Obscuror devoural......” (Misty Soul Devourer)
The black "spider web" was like strong glue that firmly stuck the mice, binding the Dementors who wanted to scatter and escape tightly. Then, accompanied by Mo Ran's faint chanting, all the prey were mercilessly dragged into the ever-spinning vortex.
Strange celestial phenomena foretell a major event.
The sudden aura of despair that permeated the air above Azkaban not only alarmed the wizards guarding the place, but also made the Dementors stationed there hold their breath and stare intently.
"My God, what the hell is that?"
"Stop standing there! Go contact the Ministry of Magic!"
"Oh no! The Dementors are all in chaos!"
"Someone's coming to break us out of prison!"
The chaotic shouts drew the prisoners in Azkaban to their bars to watch the spectacle. Most of them suffered greatly at the hands of the Dementors, so even though they didn't know what was happening in the skies above Azkaban, seeing the black-robed monsters in pain still brought them a sense of satisfaction.
"Kill those cursed bastards!"
"Hahahaha! I never thought I'd live to see someone send them to hell!"
Hovering high in the sky, Mo Ran could not hear the voices of the guards and prisoners behind the prison walls. However, having inherited Grindelwald's legacy, he was able to sense the emotions of the Dementors through his self-created "Misty Spell".
Dementors have always been perceived as emotionless, like corpses. Even Professor Newt Scamander was unaware of the unique characteristics of these dark magical creatures. They are attracted to human happiness, can communicate with wizards, their origins are a mystery, and there are no known cases of their extermination.
Mo Ran prided himself on not having spent too much time on magical creatures, but after tonight, he was confident he would become the world's most knowledgeable magical creature biologist.
Panic, astonishment, doubt...
As these emotions, which shouldn't have been in the Dementors' minds, began to surface one after another, the black-robed monsters gradually revealed their true forms from their pampered state.
Having no natural predators and accustomed to bullying dark wizards who couldn't use their Patronus Charms, they weren't simply driven by primal feeding urges devoid of complex thoughts. Sensing their lives were threatened, they all behaved just like the new students at Hogwarts Castle before them, completely losing their reason.
In an instant, an eerie atmosphere composed of negative emotions spread from the sky above Azkaban.
"None of you are getting away!"
The tight black spider web expanded again at Mo Ran's roar. Before the Dementors who stayed behind with Azkaban could receive their companions' escape signal, they were also lifted into the air by Mo Ran in the same way he snatched a chick from an eagle.
"Hahahaha! You bunch of scum, did you see that?! My master has come to save me! He's not dead! He's not dead!"
Bellatrix Lestrange shook the iron bars and shouted like a madwoman. Having witnessed Voldemort's power in his prime, she instinctively mistook Mo Ran for the Dark Lord who had returned.
"Get back here and take your hands off the fence! Otherwise, don't blame me for torturing you!"
"Try it? You filthy scum! The one who torments the master's followers will suffer a fate worse than death! Soon, all the torment we have endured will be repaid to you tenfold!"
"Stupefy!" (Faints and collapses)
Bellatrix's body slammed heavily against the stone wall behind her, falling silent, but the commotion she had caused was not easily quelled. Gazing at the black and red "veins" in the sky that resembled a giant heart extending from it, both Death Eaters and prisoners held in jail for other crimes wore expressions of utter fanaticism.
"Long live Lord Voldemort!"
"Long live Lord Voldemort!"
Amidst wave after wave of cheers, Mo Ran had already entered the crucial stage of casting the Dark Magic Spell. Unlike the principle of using happy and joyful memories as positive emotions, the Dark Magic Spell, created using knowledge of dark magic, is a magic that extracts painful emotions and transforms them into its own power.
Without any warning, a sadistic impulse, reminiscent of characters like Hannibal Lecter, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers, filled Mo Ran's heart. In his eyes, sucking dry one Dementor after another bound to the Obscurus's tentacles was far more satisfying and stress-relieving than popping bubble wrap.
Buzz... Buzz...
The sound of massive magical energy gathering was like a heavy blood-sucking pump. Every time a Dementor whose magical energy was drained turned to ashes and disappeared, the black aura in the center of the sky would visibly shrink.
After an unknown amount of time, when the sky above Azkaban returned to calm, the once enormous black cloud had shrunk to the size of a person.
"That thing...is that really the Dark Lord? I think that crazy bitch is just spouting nonsense."
"Shh! Keep your voice down, you brat, if you want to get yourself killed, don't drag others down with you!"
A chorus of questions rose and fell from the prisoners' cells.
Unlike the fanatical Death Eaters, most dark wizards had only heard of Voldemort's reputation and had never witnessed the Dark Lord's methods. Therefore, even though they hoped to escape with Bella and the others, they all retained a degree of rationality.
"If you ask me, let's save our energy."
An old man with white hair and beard, who had never once leaned against the iron bars to warm himself, spoke up at this moment. His throat seemed to have been worn down by something rough, and even his voice was unpleasant to hear.
"Old man? What do you mean by that?"
Hearing the question from the young mortal next door, the old man chuckled and then threw out a question that shocked everyone.
"Heh...Young man, do you think you could just leave without swearing allegiance to him if the mysterious person really came in person?"
The old man's voice wasn't loud, but for some reason, all the prisoners in the prison could hear him clearly. After he spoke, the noisy shouts in Azkaban gradually subsided.
"Damn it! That old man is right. I only smuggled a few Runebo snake eggs. I'll be out of prison in a few months. I'm not getting involved in this mess!"
"Well... no matter what, the mysterious man... the mysterious man is still too extreme."
"I don't have any great abilities, so that person shouldn't make things difficult for me, right? Oh my god... I'd better just stay put."
......
As he watched the young men walk back to their iron beds from the bars, a faint smile seemed to appear on the old man's lips. He slowly stood up, walked into the shadows against the moonlight streaming into the cell, and then fell completely silent.
Antonin Dolokhov, also a Death Eater, was taken aback.
Compared to Bellatrix, he was more meticulous and had noticed something was wrong with the old man a long time ago. But strangely, even after being imprisoned in Azkaban for ten years, he still couldn't recognize the man's face.
"Damn it, who is that person?"
Dolokhov's pale face began to contort.
Having once joined Voldemort's side in order to learn advanced dark magic, he initially thought the strange phenomena in the sky were caused by his master. However, as the Dementors disappeared one by one, a strange sense of crisis began to grow in his heart.
Just as Dolokhov was wondering, a strange sound came from the sky again. With a "whoosh," gasps of astonishment echoed through the Azkaban prison once more.
A magical aurora borealis suddenly filled the sky, its dazzling light illuminating every cloud and redefining the understanding of power held by everyone in Azkaban prison.
Mo Ran remained suspended in the air, seemingly guided by something familiar through the thick black fog. Gradually, the surging, chaotic magic began to calm down.
Strictly speaking, the skill of controlling magic is not a complex or difficult subject for most wizards. In the world of Harry Potter, magic can almost only increase with age, and the frequency of geniuses in the wizarding world is extremely low. Mastering one's own magic is usually considered commonplace, even a skill not worth discussing.
Mo Ran had always thought he had a good grasp of Mo Ran's magic, but only now did he realize that the main reason for this misconception was that he had chosen the wrong comparison.
"No matter how turbulent the waves are, they are only on the surface. If I want to reach the level of Dumbledore and his companions, I must go deep into the trenches tens of thousands of meters deep."
The opportunity to break free from the cocoon and transform into a butterfly often happens in an instant, and once the seed of enlightenment is planted, a person will be reborn at an astonishing speed.
The restless black fog dissipated under the soothing touch of the white aurora.
Without a violent explosion or a deafening roar, Moran, who had already thrown the Ministry of Magic into chaos, revealed his true form in mid-air. Then, before the guys in Azkaban could react, he was already on a reef several miles away.
"Snapped!"
The sound of Apparition brought a pleased smile to Dumbledore's face as he waited on the rocks. Everything was just like in the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts, where the great Headmaster never hesitated to shower his praises on his son.
"amazing."
He said softly:
"To this day, you have completely surpassed my achievements in the field of magic."
Upon hearing this, Mo Ran, who was always unassuming and cautious in his words and actions, quickly shook his head and replied:
"That's too much of an exaggeration, Professor. I've only just taken a step towards your level; how could I possibly have surpassed it?"
Dumbledore raised his hand and waved it, then patiently explained:
“Achievement refers to what goals a person has accomplished and what kind of career they have achieved. It does not need to be measured by magical power or realm. Since you have done something that I could never do, you have already surpassed me. Moreover, even just considering that the magic you just used could completely kill the Dementors, it is already worthy of a third-class Merlin Medal... cough cough, although I do not want you to obtain the Merlin Medal in this way.”
As Dumbledore spoke, he slowly walked to the edge of the reef.
Under the cover of dark clouds, the dark waves could not reflect any starlight at all. Looking at the surging waves crashing at his feet, Mo Ran realized the extra purpose for the principal's previous decision to bring Potter here to practice the Patronus Charm.
"Do you want me to go with you to retrieve the Slytherin pendant?"
Faced with Mo Ran's question, Dumbledore no longer pretended to be confused as usual. He looked into the distance and explained:
"Tom is a self-important child. Although he uses elegance and good grades to cover up his arrogance at school, he has never truly regarded anyone as his friend. Apart from those who have status or can help him in some way, the other Hogwarts classmates are nothing more than worthless chickens and dogs to him. This has actually done us a great favor."
"So, Voldemort deliberately chose those precious relics when he was making Horcruxes?"
Intelligent people can always save a lot of trouble when they talk to each other. Realizing that Mo Ran had caught up with his pace, Dumbledore said again:
"Yes, to some extent, if he hadn't insisted on using historically valuable and commemorative trophies as Horcruxes, we would have spent countless years just searching and collecting them. Tom felt that only magical artifacts of the founder's level were worthy of carrying his soul, so after he used the Basilisk to kill Myrtle and successfully experimented with the diary, he stopped using ordinary objects to make Horcruxes. In that case, when he returned to Hogwarts and said he wanted to become a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, besides being a clever idea to hide the tiara in the Room of Requirement, it's also very likely that he wanted to obtain Gryffindor's sword."
Even before his transmigration, Mo Ran had imagined throwing a Horcrux stone into the deep sea. Then, after hearing Dumbledore's precise control over Voldemort's psychology, he couldn't help but marvel at the destiny that was arranged in the dark.
"Let's go."
Dumbledore stretched out an arm and said:
"You may have seen what the seaside cave looks like, but you don't know exactly where it is. Oh, by the way, although your strength has improved a lot, I still have to remind you that when we get there, you absolutely, positively must do as I say. Underestimating Voldemort's power is a mistake no one should make, even if it means abandoning me to save my own life..."
“I assure you, Professor.”
As Mo Ran spoke, he placed his hand on Dumbledore's sleeve and said confidently:
"But I don't think we'll end up in that situation."