Harry Potter: The Ring Maker

Chapter 123: Dark undercurrents

The book made it clear right at the start that this was not a guide to alchemy which made Nick chuckle. The book's contents weren't about the art of alchemy either but rather a list of the best known alchemical items and what they did. It was an interesting and light topic to read as it wasn't teaching anything but rather was just a picture of the item and a description of it. Not all the entries had a picture to go along with them for obvious reasons like the philosophers stone but the descriptions were very informative.-

Nick took his sweet time reading the book until lunch time and headed to the great hall to fuel up and maybe hang out with his friends a bit. Things were going fairly normally for the meal before a glowing leopard entered the great hall and bounded up to Dumbledore before dissipating and leaving the man with a concerned expression. Nick recognized the leopard as a Patronus and could guess that it's owner had used it to deliver an urgent message to the headmaster. Whatever the message was seemed to have the man very concerned as he left the great hall in a hurry.-

Flash back to earlier today in a small town on the outskirts of France that was enjoying a normal winters day when a tall man with a thin build neatly combed white hair and cleanshaven face walked into the town in a dark green suit. The man had eyes with two different colors and a peaceful smile on his face. This was Grindelwald but unlike the aged and feeble appearance he once had he now appeared youthful and full of strength. "POP! POP! POP!" Three loud popping sounds appeared near Grindelwald and in the now occupied space around the dark lord three people with eager expressions appeared out of thin air.-

"Sir!" the three wizards said and saluted Grindelwald respectfully. "Today we take the first step on righting the wrong that has been done to wizard kind , prepare the barrier!" the dark lord said and the three wizards eagerly ran in separate directions to surround the town from different locations. "Some sacrifices are necessary for the greater good and I thank you for your contribution to the cause!" Grindelwald said sincerely and bowed to the town before pulling out a wand from the right side of his suit and erecting his side of the barrier.-

Back to the present Dumbledore could only feel horror at the information that his confidant in the ministry Kingsley Shacklebolt had told him. An entire town in France had been sacrificed in a massive ritual whose purpose was entirely unknown and it bore Gellerts magical signature. Unfortunately the ritual circle had long been destroyed when the aurors had arrived on the scene and the residual magic was scattered and distorted making it impossible to find out what the ritual was meant to accomplish.-

Dumbledore had hoped in his heart that his old friend had mellowed out after fifty years of imprisonment but it would seem Gellert was the same as before if not worse. Dumbledore didn't know what it was that his old friend had planned but what he did know was that it meant nothing good for the world. "Fawkes I need you to take me to the French ministry of magic , it's Gellert." Dumbledore said seriously when he entered his office and the bird didn't hesitate to land on his shoulders and they both burst into gold and red flames and vanished from the office instantly.-

No one in the school knew what had happened until the next day at breakfast when the daily prophet had the incident on the headlines. While everyone could tell that this was a horrible event only the professors and Nick seemed to really understand the significance of sacrificing an entire town for a ritual. Rituals very much were like alchemy in that the biggest rule of all of them was equivalent exchange so the question needed to be asked , what was worth an entire town? Nick didn't know but he was sure that it probably wasn't anything good considering the information on Grindelwald he knew or was able to dig up.-

'I need to improve my power as fast as possible.' Nick thought seriously as he left the great hall and turn many short cuts straight to the seventh floor. Walking to the tapestry of Barnabus the barmy he paced back and forth in front of a blank wall all while thinking 'I need a place to safely create poison smoke.' over and over. Soon a wooden door appeared on the previously empty wall and Nick wasted no time at all entering the room with a serious expression.

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