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Chapter 78- Wildsmith.
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"Fiendfyre." I intone, clear and deep, but not loud or angry. I am not trying to burn everything down with rageful flames but trying to control them to eviscerate my enemy and only my enemy. Screaming and showing anger would only be counterproductive; I can not let my emotions rule me, and I also can't rely too much on Occlumency as I made that mistake once before, and I don't like how things had ended up. So, calm, in control and serene but commanding. I was trying to be all of that as hateful acidic flames spewed out of the end of my wand, taking the form of various wrathful creatures.
The flames were intense, and it was nothing to me but blinding; my entire vision was clouded by swirling angry flames of yellow, orange and red, numerous animalistic faces in the depths, snarling and biting out, wanting to eat all within sight. The heat was unbearable, and I felt like my skin was melting off of my bones, the temperature enough to burn everything to dust. The wand was scalding in my palm, my fingers roasting, and my nails chattering continuously as the heat simmered them to a boiling point. And yet, through all of this, my face was calm, my heart was still, and I didn't bat an eyelid, staring straight into the unforgiving flames.
I wasn't burning, my skin was not melting, my palm was not being scorched, and my nails were not turning black and chipping off. It just felt like that, the flames so intense that they affected the mind in such a way. If I were to give in to them and allow myself to believe it, then the flames would truly turn on me and devour me whole, burning me to a crisp. But I couldn't allow that; I needed to stay in control. I am the master of the flames; they will not burn me, and they will not hurt me, for they belong to me... I am the flames.
Well, maybe that's going a bit too far, but still, they are my flames. With the fire going around me, closing in on me at the same time they spread out to the surroundings, I don't panic. I don't scream or panic as the flames get close enough to lick at my skin, embers getting ever so close but never actually touching. They are pulling at the leash, trying to cut loose and get free so they can burn to their heart's satisfaction. I am in control. The Fiendfyre is only Fiendfyre for others. To me... it is Friendfyre.
"Go." And at my command, the flames recede, condensing and lessening so as to not allow it any chance to spread through the rest of the room and destroy anything and will enable me to see more of the room which was hidden behind the flames for me before. "Not so fast." The Diadragoncrux had taken the opportunity of the flames lessening to jump forward, trying to claw at me, so I quickly expanded on the flames, making it give up and retreat from the flames. Hm, ordinarily, the big guy wouldn't have been able to stop itself so fast given its size, but it did so very easily.
From that, I can assume that the Diadragon didn't fully commit to the attack, and that must be because it was afraid of the Fiendfyre. Hehe, this won't even be a fight anymore. This is basically rock, paper, scissors. I was paper, and the Dragoncrux was scissors, but now I am paper and rock, and scissors is fucked. "Burn." The Fiendfyre obeys, going forth faster than the Horcrux construct can react, encircling it and trapping it within a sphere of fire, and I can see it whimpering away from the flames, fearing them.
With my wand still pointing forth at it, I reach out with the other, my palm outstretched, and then I begin to close it, the spere reacting to my will and starting to shrink, closing in on the Diadragoncrux. Now, I was able to make that happen entirely through my will and my connection to my wand, the gesture was complete nonsense and didn't have any real effect on anything, but it sure made me feel cool as shit. I grin with happiness, infusing every part of my body as the dragon is caged. It begins to curl up on itself as the cage gets closed and closer, screaming out a harsh screeching noise that hurts the ears, but I am still smiling.
I'm not gonna lie; I am enjoying this. I could have made this thing close a lot faster and ended this; hell, I could have done it almost instantaneously and been done with it. But this fucking thing chased me for who knows how long, unrelentingly, never giving me a chance to rest, and I am a bit irked, so yeah, I'm enjoying this. But not to the point of being vengeful or hateful or anything because that would let the flames go out of control, which would be bad. I'm just taking a little pleasure in taking my time.
Finally, the flames touch the Horcrux body made up of odds and ends, and it begins to scream, black smoke erupting from its body as it cries in horrific anguish. The screams hurt, but I still take it slow, and not just because I am being pissy, but because there is a purpose behind it. I would not risk being vengeful and angry when controlling Fiendfyre. I am doing this for a reason, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it.
The sphere gets smaller and smaller, burning away the dragon's body and reducing it to nothing. A shame, as there were probably a few useful things in there, but what can you do? Sometimes, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette. And daddy wants to raid the chicken coop. Surprisingly, the dragon stays animated and roaring as it loses parts of itself. Its arms and legs are the first to go, but even without its limbs to keep it standing, it stays floating, avoiding the flames as much as possible.
Then, its body goes, leaving only its head behind, the eerie blue glow shining out from within the dark abyss that is the dragon's eye sockets. Naturally, I assume that the blue light is not just there for dramatic effect, and it is actually the Diadem which is resting within the dragon's skull since I know it was somewhere within the body acting as a nucleus for the Dragoncrux. Of course, I was not one hundred percent sure about that, and I didn't know how hollow the dragon actually was, so it could even be in its chest.
That is why I took the slow approach, slowly burning its body away and forcing the nucleus, the Diadem, to retreat to one point. Of course, it could have just been in the skull the entire time, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious. And now, even that skull is slowly being consumed, ever so slowly, so as to not burn the Diadem to nothing and destroy the Horcrux, as I still need it for my plan to work. I am kind of concerned about the amount of black smoke with an evil aura being let out by what I am burning and the anguished screaming, but what can you do.
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I know I am damaging the thing, but it will be destroyed at some point anyway. All I need is a part of Voldemort's soul; it doesn't matter how much and or how damaged the connection will still be there, and I can still follow it to the diary and catch the son of a bitch once and for all. Finally, with a last piercing scream, everything except the Diadem was gone, and I quickly had to dispel the flames as the Diadem dropped out of the sky, no longer able to sustain its own flight. If I had been one second late in getting rid of the Fiendfyre, then the Horcrux would have been destroyed. Thankfully, I was on time.
Walking forward to retrieve the Diadem, I pause, thinking better of it after what happened last time. Taking an empty pouch of holding from my waist because I keep a few on me just in case, I float it over on the floor with the top wide open, and then I levitate the Diadem up and into it before walking over and closing the thing off, grateful nothing had happened. I guess the Diadem used up a lot of juice or something for going dragon mode, or maybe it's because I really damaged it. Either way, this is good for me.
With everything taken care of, I look around at the destruction. Well, that's not my problem. Also, how do I get out of here? I don't know what is in which direction because I was just running all over the place and got turned around. I wonder if I can call a house elf here and have them just take me out. "I need the assistance of a House Elf," I say into the open air and then look around, waiting for something to happen, but nothing does.
"...Please?" I try, really hoping one of the little blighters would show up, but nothing happens. "Well, shit." I guess this room is somehow separated or something from the rest of the world because usually when you ask for a House Elf or say their name, they would come to no matter how far away they are, but it seems Rowena Ravenclaw somehow isolates the room and no Hogwarts Elf can hear me. So I guess I'm going to have to just try to find my way out of this place.
It can't be that hard, can it?
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I fucking hate this room.
I have been wandering around for who knows how long, trying to find an exit or something familiar for me to get my bearings, but nothing. Me and the big soul catcher really did a number on the place as we ran around, smashing and throwing things around all over the place. And with that, any obvious landmarks I could have remembered are no longer in the same position they were before and are all over the place, so I can't use my memory to help me get out of here.
Oh, but you could totally just get on your broom and fly over everything to look for the exit. Worst come to worst, just fly until you hit a wall and then follow the wall along until you inevitably find the door so you can leave this place. Yeah, well, I thought about doing that as well, but I couldn't. It turns out that while I did avoid all of those spikes shooting out of the Diadragoncrux's back, my broom did not. While it didn't pierce my broom, it did scratch and scrape the thing, cutting quite deep into the wood. Something that should not be possible since my girl is enchanted to the max, but I guess Horcruxes can bypass all that.
The thing still flies somewhat, but it is sparking and very unstable, so I have applied a stasis charm to it and put it away. As much as I want to get out of here as soon as possible, I'm not going to risk riding on an experimental broom and blowing myself to kingdom come. The only time when I will risk blowing myself to kingdom come is when I have no other option, and some fucker is about to pop my head open, or I am going to explode from sexual overload when I am blowing my entire lifespan in one release. Whichever comes first.
Anyway, I've just been wandering. Every so often, I would float myself upwards to get a look around from on high, but I don't want to waste my magic and potentially be stuck here without it, so I have been walking mainly. "Welcome, this looks intriguing." When I suddenly hear that spoken by a nice-sounding, bubbly female voice, I stall and then look around in every which way for whoever the hell just spoke.
"Where are you?" I ask, very confused. I don't think anybody else is in here, so it must be something magical. And all of the portraits I have seen around the place have been here for so long that they kind of just cut themselves off, not wanting to endure infinite boredom. Either that, or they have a connected portrait somewhere, and they spend most of their time in that one, only coming here occasionally as a place to get some privacy.
"Over here, my young friend. It's been so long since I've seen someone." I hear coming from behind me, and I notice an archway hidden behind a bunch of stuff that I hadn't seen before. Walking toward it cautiously, I inch around the furniture and walk in, surprised to see the inside is illuminated already and that this is basically a room here. Looking around, I still couldn't identify who or what exactly was making the noise, so I asked another question. "Who are you?" I ask, waiting for a response so I can pinpoint their location.
"I am Ignatia Wildsmith." I hear and look over to where the sound came from to see a statue of a woman. Well, it is not a statue as it is embedded into a wall, but it is what is called a relief. It is like a portrait, except it only shows the woman from the shoulder up, and only her face is sticking out of it. I can't tell skin or eye colour as she is a concrete grey all over, but she is a good-looking woman, around her thirties, I would say, and she has her hair braided, but I can't tell if it is a ponytail or something else as I can't see the back of her head. Other than that, she looks pretty beautiful for what is essentially a sculpture. I also spot her name embossed just below her face.
"Ah, well. Nice to meet you." I say, being polite. She probably can't help me, but that's no reason to be a dick. Still, I am sure I have heard that name somewhere before. But where? Must not be that important if I can't remember it. Another odd thing I notice when I get a close look is what seems to be a sort of tray coming out below her, on top of which sits a green flame. Reminds me of floo flames, actually, but I've seen so many coloured flames all over the place, and there is actually a charm for doing just that, so I don't pay much attention to it, thinking it to just be decorative in purpose.
"You as well, my young friend. Now, what brings you here? It's been so long since I've seen a person." She says, and I get fascinated by how lifelike her face is as she talks, her mouth moving perfectly. I reach forward and start to touch her face, feeling the stone that feels just like human skin. She doesn't seem to care, as she just ignores it. "Well, I'm lost, and I can't find my way out of here. Don't suppose you can help, can you." I shoot my shot, hoping she might give me some directions to get out of here.
"Ah, well, you have come to the right place. I invented floo flames for a reason, you know." My mind finally clicks, and I realise why I thought her name was familiar. She is Ignatia Wildsmith, the inventor of the most convenient way to travel, which is floo powder. What she's doing here as an animated half-bust is anyone's guess, but it is her. "You can get me out of here?" I ask, excited to finally get out of this forsaken place.
"Of course, it's my job. Now, where would you like to go?" She questions, and I pause to think it over, wondering how exactly she could do that. "Um, where can you take me, and also how?" I inquire, not wanting to jump too fast into something that might just end up sending me through a blender and coming out the other side all mangled.
"You can go anywhere on the floo network, dear. You know, I used to be in charge of the whole thing. I would transport everyone wherever they needed to go. Still, once I caught sight of one too many things, the Wizengamot passed a bill to get rid of me and use the floo powder manually. Still, they didn't know about me being here as a Pureblood had me installed for some ease when he used this room, and I was forgotten about. I still have access to the entire network, so you can go wherever your heart desires. Even those silly passwords and restrictions they've set up can't stop me." Wait, so I could technically use her to go to wherever I want with a floo connection. Like Malfoy Manor? This could be useful later.
"Please take me to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom office," I ask, still wondering if she is actually capable of what she says.
"Okay, have a fun trip, sweetie." And then, in a swirl of green flames, I find myself standing in my own office.
I definitely have to go back there and see Ignatia again because this gives me so many possibilities.