Chapter 266: Victorious
9th February 2013, Malfoy Manor
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
I continued my little speech, “You’re courting Death because that’s who I am, what I am. I’m not some regular witch with delusions of power, I am power, and I was running out of patience. I warned you when I first came in. I told you not to make me go too far. You wanted me to take you seriously, well, congratulations, I am. And now, you’ll suffer the consequences.”
They were all unable to breathe properly because of the pressure that I was exuding, “What about your sister,” Malfoy gasped out.
I snorted, “What sister?”
Suddenly, in front of their eyes, my sister’s form suddenly turned into an entire murder of crows that flew around the room and burst into shadows.
Elphias Doge yelled out while panting, his eyes wide, “How is that possible?”
I chuckled, “Darling, you have no idea what’s possible,” I never get tired of saying that line, “with my sister gone, and with it any illusion of control you thought you had, there’s only one question left on my mind. What should I do with all of you?”
Elphias Doge growled at me, “How did you get her out, witch?”
Of course, I wasn’t going to tell them. But the truth was quite simple. I just caught the entire Court in an illusion and dispelled the enchantments that bound my sister. I then sent her home through a portal and watched as the rest of the Court smugly pretended to have any leverage over me. The wards barely even stopped me from making a portal. The whole thing took twenty seconds to arrange. It was so simple, so laughable, and these idiots fell for my trap.
I let out a deep chuckle that slowly morphed into laughter. The members of the Court were probably scared out of their minds, confused by my amusement, “You have no idea, do you? Who I am. What I’m capable off. It’s so sad, so pathetic. I’ve always had to be pragmatic, to repress the urge to hurt everyone the way they hurt me, to burn the world for my pain. I could do that, you know? It would be so easy. I live in a world of cardboard, where everything is dictated by a delicate balance. There’s always rules for practically everything. I guess that’s the price you pay for power and knowledge. I don’t even know why I’m telling you people; you probably don’t even understand what I'm talking about. But I always did my best to be portrayed as the history books did, to say that I was compelled to do all these things, that I didn’t have a choice. But I did, I see that now. I always had it in me, to do all these things. This cruelty, this deviousness, was always in the back of my mind, being repressed by the little illusion of my humanity.”
I was practically yelling by the end of my little speech. The members of the Court shuffled around, in both confusion and fear. They probably have no idea what I’m talking about. They didn’t know about the Morrigan, and it was good that I had the foresight to add mental compulsions on Nathan and Granger to stop them from revealing any of my secrets, should they find out anything or if Rose let something slip. I always knew that the two of them weren’t trustworthy, but to betray their kin, just like that, is so reprehensible, so bad that I had no more mercy to grant them. Oh, I knew that Granger must have had a hand in Rose’s capture. Nathan would have asked her for advice if he was given an ultimatum and she steered him towards submitting to the Court of Shadows instead of coming to us for help, probably hoping that she would have access to Rose’s magical knowledge.
I just sighed in disappointment and continued, “I tried to be merciful, I really did. I tried to talk to you, to set things straight, to find a peaceful resolution. The years have made me a very pragmatic person. It’s why I let you continue doing your little thing, no matter how disgraceful I found it. You bring order to the magical world, you are pillars that support magical Britain, and I found no reason to rock the boat. But you had to be your stupid human selves and get involved, to go against someone so much more powerful than you, just in the miniscule hope of having more influence, more power. I don’t know what I expected, to be honest. You have always been a disappointment ever since I decided to stop involving myself in your matters. I’m so old now, I used to have so much mercy...”
The wizards and witches in the room stood up and pointed their wands at me. I was unconcerned with their little sticks. They barely even knew how to use magic. It was funny, even Nathan was pointing his wand at me, trembling in fear. I raised an eyebrow, “I thought you were here under duress, Nathan. I thought you were only doing this because you had no choice, and because they have your family.”
He shook his head, “I can’t let you kill them. It’s wrong, just wrong.”
“So was betraying your own sister. It’s funny, isn’t it? She always defended you. She always had faith in you, while I saw you for what you truly are, a pathetic lost little man who can’t even think for himself. Besides, I’m not going to kill them. I have something else in mind.”
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Malfoy spoke up, “You’re surrounded, Potter, and as you can see, you’re outnumbered.”
I snorted, “And yet, you’re severely outmatched.”
That seemed to be the signal for them to attack. An entire wave of stunners and various curses came towards me. I just redirected all of them around me. Again, I gave them an unimpressed look, “Oh, dear. You were scared shitless of Riddle and Dumbledore. You couldn’t even scratch them. So what did you think you could do to me?”
They sent spell after another, and I kept redirecting them. Until Malfoy decided to bring it up a notch, “Avada Kedavra!”
A green light appeared from his wand and flew towards me. I just raised my hand, and the bolt stopped moving, stuck in time. I could feel the members of the Court stop casting in shock. I could understand it; the Killing Curse was supposed to be unstoppable, a spell that couldn’t be blocked or shielded against. And yet, I stopped it in its tracks.
With another wave of my hand the spell returned towards its castor and hit them in the chest. The Malfoy Lord was hit with his own killing curse and it killed him instantaneously.
The horrified looks on my opponents’ faces were priceless. Nathan actually growled at me, “How could you?”
I snorted, “It was his spell, after all. So, it was alright for him to use killing curses but not for me to redirect it?”
Before he could say anything, I exclaimed, “Alright, I’m done with this.”
I waved my hand and released a telekinetic pulse sending everyone flying towards the walls. I telekinetically grabbed them and froze them in the air.
I slowly walked towards my trembling opponents, “I don’t understand why you even tried to fight me. I can understand greed, I really can. It’s such a human emotion. And yet, you’re trying to justify your cause as righteous. You claim that your selfish delusions are for the greater good, not to satisfy you meager greed and lust for power. That’s what’s really disgusting. I’ve seen horrible things over the years, but nothing enrages me more than a hypocrite.”
Elphias Doge looked at me begging, “Mercy…”
“I told you, I’m all out of mercy. You know, Doge, Dumbledore had a nice little saying, ‘there are worse fates than Death’. For the first time, I agree with the man. Because I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to break you, imprison you in your own minds and create a secondary persona that would run your bodies, while you suffer in hells of your own making, of your own memories and demons. I’m going to flay your entire consciousness; reveal to yourselves the monsters you truly are and let you suffer for the rest of your miserable lives. You will be screaming, but no one will know, you will be begging for help, for the release of death and yet no one will grant it to you. I tried to be hands off, so now, you will be my little puppets, dancing to my tune, playing the roles I planned for you. I will make you ruin yourselves, your families legacies, and your ambitions, while you watch. I will destroy you, and the power you cherish so much. And when people come to ask if trying to get to me THROUGH THE PEOPLE THAT I LOVE, is in any way a good idea, you won’t even have to tell them anything, just a peek of your broken little minds is enough.”
Roxanne Greengrass muttered, “Monster!!!”
I burst out in laughter, “Yes, I am. But unlike you all, I admit it. I am a monster. I have killed so many people that I don’t even remember how many. I have massacred entire species, killed off civilizations without even batting an eyelash. I used to think that I was the survivor, the last Daughter of Atlantis. But I’m not, am I? I realize now, in the first time for thousands of years, I’m not the survivor, I’m the winner, the Atlantean victor. I am done playing by the rules if people like you keep testing me. If a show of might and terror is what you wish for, then that’s what the world will get.”
Nathan sneered at me, “Someone will stop you…”
I snorted, “Who could? For that matter, who would save you? No one cares about any of you, they care about your power, and when you lose it, no one will give a shit about some washed up politicians who think that they rule the world. But I’m done talking to any of you, after all, you have your own demons to deal with.”
For the first time in a very long time, I let my telepathy go. I enter the minds of every single member of the Court and break through their little Occlumency shields and into their minds. They say that the human mind is complex and in a way that’s true, but human beings are such simple creatures. They all have a core, an ambition, a collection of fears and insecurities that they keep hidden deep in their minds. They all deal with it the same way, by suppressing them. To create a hell of their own design, all I have to do is connect their main consciousness into that part of their subconscious and break the connection between their senses and the living world.
Immediately, they all started to beg for mercy, not out of physical pain but from their own memories. I could see it all, from wives leaving them and cheating on them, to their children dying, to losing their gold, and their power, I have to admit that they had a large range of fears and insecurities. I left Nathan alone, and he looked at me defiantly, “Are you going to torture me as well, your own twin?”
“You’re no kin of mine, Potter. But I will leave your punishment in the hands of your sister. Believe me, when she’s done with you, I’ll find an appropriate penance for you as well.”
I prepared myself to create a secondary temporary consciousness that I would have programmed for them to ruin themselves before dissolving, but I noticed that Nathan started screaming. It was odd, I wasn’t even doing anything to him. He then started to burn, and melt into something. I noticed that the rest of the members of the Court were doing the same.
Oh shit, I felt that their life forces weren’t being dissipated but absorbed into a ritualistic array underneath the carpet. I hadn’t even noticed that. I couldn’t move. I was frozen completely, and I felt ethereal chains coming from the ground binding me as well.
This whole thing was a trap, and whoever was responsible used the entire Court of Shadows as a sacrifice to get to me. What a shit show.
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