Bab 67: Chapter 67
So the Japanese had given him some information and he was being told solely because the two were such good friends. The last sentence was a plea. Whatever it had had the blond man scared. He was afraid for his family, himself and his friend. He couldn't fathom why though. And then he recalled the other troll incident. Eastern wizards were here, that was what he gathered from Dumbledore's vague clues and cryptic statements. Something to do with them perhaps, but affecting the country as a whole. An invasion perhaps?
"If I accept this, I may not have to teach those dunderheads any longer, but there are a few who are...adequate."
I have my obligations here. Is it so serious that I must abandon them?
Lucius took a second to carefully compose his words.
"Nonsense."
Yes.
"Your talents are wasting away in this miserable dungeon of yours."
Staying may get you killed.
"You simply must accept this, for my sake."
There is no other way.
"It is a rare opportunity and the pay is good."
There may not be a next time.
Snape sighed, an action that not many have seen from the fanatically self controlled man.
"I will think upon this"
Lucius nodded.
"Do not take too long. I will need your answer soon."
They parted ways.
XXX
In the dragon boat Spirit Shadow that floated now above the ministry of magic, new people were arriving.
Seven people, including two women were arriving today. All were highly trained sorcerers with over a decades experience. They were some of the best that Hakumei could offer in their chosen fields. Six of them were barrier experts. The seventh, a woman was an onmyouji. They were not front line magic users. They were the auxiliary support forces.
They were all coming here for one purpose. To eliminate the demon they were ordered to by any means necessary, up to and including sacrificing themselves.
At midnight, a 12 foot tall Torii (Japanese shrine gate) shaped portal appeared out of thin air on the deck and seven people walked out. The captain of the vessel exchanged pleasantries with the new arrivals and then they went below decks. For now, they had a new mission.
In a deck below, at the rear of the ship, a crew man began to fiddle with levers and gauges. At the same time, in a huge room covered in arcane symbols and odd looking devices began to hum and glow as the arcane energies that were required for it began to flow from what might have been called the ships engine room.
A minute later, a group of people moved in and began to operate the rather complicated magical apparatus.
The ship itself rose up to a higher altitude and began to begin to sail in a lazy spiral pattern, still invisible to any and all British monitoring capability.
The hunt for the SS class 'World Eater' type demonic entity had commenced. Nobody was about to let an entire country vanish. Especially not if the brave and dutiful soldiers of Hakumei had anything to do with it.
XXX
Christmas was upon them all. It was a grand time, and with holidays coming right around the corner, it was a generally upbeat mood that surrounded Hogwarts.
Of course, most of the very important peoples in the castle had important things to worry about.
Dumbledore was worried about overpowered foreign powers. Alastor had not given anything new, so he was stressed simply due to the fact that he did not know what was going on. Without control over the situation, he was quite worried.
Snape had forgotten about Potter entirely in view of his friends distress. He was also wondering what he should tell Dumbledore about all of this. If whatever unmentionable danger lurked around was of a priority that necessitated Lucius to nearly beg him to leave for a while or possibly permanently might be of interest to Dumbledore. On the other hand if it was something that specifically targeted just a select number of people, whether it was former light supporters out for their long overdue revenge, or dark wizards bent on cleansing their legacy of his betrayal (and Lucius as well, by virtue of faithful association) was debatable. This year was significant for a number of reasons, including the reappearance of Potter and the emergence of a concrete fixed location for a priceless alchemical artifact. The tenth anniversary of the end of a war that was slowly being forgotten was also a possible reason for the current timing. He trusted Lucius completely, ideological leanings aside. Worrying Dumbledore with something that was most likely a private threat was likely to just bring in the headmasters ire, considering that the old man had done nothing but brood and ponder ever since Halloween, relatively speaking of course.
Tetsuya was wondering why he had been informed to watch out for allied sorcerers. It was a vague and worrying message. Not to mention that there was no real reason why such a force would be required for any aid in his mission. And the idea that something required the presence of a full sorcerer or more in this country was disturbing at the very least. He would have to get more information out of Takeda.
Harry was wondering where he could get a new sword. It would be annoying to get a fake or poorly constructed one and finding a smith capable of the battle worthy blades he would require as a base for fuinjutsu modification would be difficult. Things like welded pieces, display only pieces or even worse, imitations would be extremely annoying. He would have to see if he could find a real old style sword smith, no mean feat in this day and age. Then again, price was no issue. His current blades, were steel, factory made and unfortunately all he could find at short notice when he brought them. This time, he could be devoted to his quest without magical preparations to occupy him. At least his current arsenal had taught him the intricacies of holding together and reinforcing a sword as much as possible. He would miss the beaten down (especially after that stint with Tetsuya) kodachi, a little.
Most of the professors were wondering how to motivate their students in the face of most unstoppable leisure.
Quirrel/Voldemort was hatching and discarding various strategies to get a certain stone without having to discard the host body entirely. He had to find a way past that annoying Cerberus without actually doing much. Unicorn blood was being consumed in minor quantities to strengthen the body. And it was still failing bit by bit. At its current rate of progress, Quirrel wouldn't be able to survive to the end of the year. And using magic only hastened its deterioration. Thus Voldemort was reduced to biding his time to find a perfect opportunity, one where it would no longer be necessary to withhold his use of magic, so that he could finally take possession of the stone and its fruits. But until that final time when he could be without restrain, he had to pace himself, especially to find a way past the Cerberus using more subtle methods than what he wished he could use. And he was not stupid enough to ask anyone point blank how he could get past an overgrown three headed dog.
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