A/N - Sorry for the delay in updates. As it turns out, driving 800km in two days(200 of which was through terrible metro traffic), after sleeping on a hard mattress for three days, was not good for the body. Who knew?
Disclaimer - I don't own anything. As the corporations say these days, you will own nothing & be happy. I don't, and have never claimed to, own Marvel or Disney or any of its characters. With that out of the way, let's goooo!
Hogwarts
–Damian Hawthorne–
He carefully closed the door behind him and then just leaned on it, exhaling as he did something he never thought he would do. Looking at the sleeping form of his roommate, he snorted and climbed back into his own bed, utterly unwilling to confront his inner thoughts about what he had done.
It just felt…right at the time, to make sure that he hadn't exposed Tommy or the other House Elves to people who might abuse them, if given the chance. The revulsion at his decision to break the trust of Tommy was so heavy in him that he barely winked at the surge of pressure he felt when he obliviated all seven of them in a quick line.
The spell itself wasn't even that hard to cast, especially since he was not doing the most advanced part of replacing some memory with something else. He was also not wiping out specific memories from a long time ago or forcing the victim's mind to search for something specific and delete all of that.
No, he had just erased the memories of the half an hour or so of time that had passed between them seeing him coming down from his dorm and them coming back to the dorm after getting the food from Tommy. The food was obviously gone, and they were all seated in their seats, their memories gone and currently knocked out.
He had done everything in the way it was written and explained in the books that were available in the Black Market. They were basically the curriculum of the training given to any wizard who was assigned to the Obliviator Headquarters division of the Ministry of Magic, a division that was surprising well run and had well thought manuals depicting every possible scenario, even some disturbing observations, such as what could happen if you use the spell on mental patients, on people with strong will, on people who had already undergone the obliviating process recently and so on and so forth.
During his tests performed on the death row inmates, he managed to secure for his tests with very heinous crimes, he was able to replicate the results with pinpoint accuracy, so he felt confident predicting what they will feel tomorrow morning.
They will wake up tomorrow morning, exhausted and sore, but believing that all of them fell asleep studying and nothing else. They will not remember ever meeting him, or him taking them to the House Elf kitchen.
He, on the other hand, could never forget the feeling of impending doom that assaulted him when he had raised his wand and cast the spell on all seven of them. It was as if the very air around him was going to crush him into a paste, for daring to raise his wand against the students here. It was as if he were going to commit sacrilege, and Hogwarts itself was going to punish him for that crime. For a split second, it made him feel so helpless, almost on par with what he felt back in Wakanda, but he went through the spell anyway.
And even after that, Hogwards didn't really do anything, like punishing him directly, though it was still yet to clear himself, as some teacher could just confront him the next day, in which case, he might have to burn his entire future plan and escape in a manner in a way that would not draw attention to his alter ego of the Giant Killer.
He tossed and turned in his bed, feeling the mental exhaustion creeping in, and yet, the stress and overthinking kept him awake in a very exhausted state. He had come here, to Hogwarts, with a plan in mind and very concrete ways on how he would go about doing that.
Now, he had done something, a single action, that could result in all his preparations going to waste.
As he sighed and sat upright, looking out the window at the still dark sky, he came to a conclusion.
Something was wrong with him.
Yes, he could accept that much. Something was very much wrong with him. His body might be exceptionally strong with no clear marker of illness or disease or any problem, his mind might be strong, fast and clear headed enough that it allowed him to take good enough decisions, and his magic very strong and versatile, to the point that he could trounce all but the most powerful wizards in a straight forward fight, the less said about using underhanded mentions, the better, but something was wrong with him that just negated the clear haded part of his mind.
His mind flashed back to the Baby Unicorn incident back in the Siberian Taiga. How his body had seemingly moved on its own, how his mind had been overwhelmed by a sudden torrent of rage that just blinded him, and how his magic had responded so easily to his will when it came to attacking them with everything he had.
He had thought then that he'd managed to control himself, by not jumping into the fray immediately and using some tactics, crude as they might be, to fight a foe whose capabilities he had no idea of, but apparently, if today was any action, he might not have been in control of his actions as much as he thought.
Then it had been the Baby Unicorn, a rarity even among magical creatures, and today had been Tommy, seemingly the only House Elf who had somehow risen above his fellow House Elves at least partially when it came to their slave mentality.
The common denominator was magical creatures and important magical creatures at that. Somehow, they were able to bypass all his defenses and make him think and act irrationally, to the point that he was willing to sabotage the plan he had made and followed for years at this point, and for what? In the hopes that he could mend the broken trust of some House Elf he hadn't even known of months ago?
This stank to the High Heavens, and worst of all, he didn't even know how it was happening. He would like to think that even if he and his enchanted clothing, his Ward Matrix in his Lair, had missed any curse or magical tampering on his person, at least the Ancient One and the wards at one of the Sanctums must have caught it. There was no other reason why he acted the way he did.
Sure, two was not an appropriate sample size for anything, basically, but it was a pattern and a very deviating pattern that he had to investigate now. The urge to just run back to his lair and run every test under the sun on himself was strong, but he managed to squash that because if nothing had been caught by now, there were high chances that nothing will change even now. It was not like he had stumbled upon some new scanning techniques.
Sighing, he got up, stretched, and decided to go for his run, in the vain hope that it might help clear up his mind and show him some way forward, because as he was now? He didn't even feel like going to class and listening to Potions for the day. The urge to just hide in the Room of Requirement and isolate himself for the day was strong, but then again, he had to maintain a relatively cloud of NPC aura around himself.
Sticking to the plan for now, he put on his running clothes and got out, expressly ignoring the seven unconscious kids knocked out on the sofa. No one would blame him if he slammed the door behind him a little harder than necessary, just in case they were studying something important. No need for them to lose important study time.
___xx___
–Albus Dumbledore–
Yawning, he resisted the urge to call for some coffee, and retrieved yet another letter that had been addressed to him, freezing slightly as he saw the symbol on the letter. Sighing as he had an idea as to what this was related to, he opened the letter. It would seem that Kato received the brief he sent to the ICW about the threat ratings for the Giant Killer.
It did not take a genius to know that the information could have only come from directly seeing the person in action, and Kato had been out for blood ever since that particular day that resulted in tragic deaths. Deaths were always tragic, but their impact was much higher when kids died.
Being a fellow headmaster, he could comprehend the sheer rage and anger Kato might have regarding the children that died upon his watch. That did not mean he could not read between the lines and realise that they were chasing the Giant Killer, simply because they had no other intel on the people who actually attacked the school's children.
Wakanda might have tried to hide its existence from most of the world, but they still had to maintain some relationship with the magical world, simply to stop some of the more adventurous wizards who would stop at nothing to explore the entire world. He would never understand the thoughts of the Australians and their seemingly innate hunger to travel, to see the world, magical or otherwise.
What are you saying, Professor? The entire world is magical, mate! Just because there aren't spells or Ancient Relics in the waterfalls, forests, canyons, rivers, deserts, and the icy poles, does not mean it isn't magical. Get out of your stuffy castle, and you might understand one day.
His mind helpfully supplied him with the last words he ever heard from the only Australian Exchange student who had graduated under his watch. The one who'd gone missing during a mission in one of the more dangerous Ancient Ruins.
Dying doing what he loved. Cavil would have smiled upon hearing that.
Shaking his head to push memories that just made him sad, he opened the letter, and yes, as expected, the vitriol was not written in words but could be felt through the letter itself.
He was to expect a visit from Headmaster Kato in the coming days, and was also expected to hand over any and all information, along with cooperating with the renewed search efforts. This time, Kato was bringing in a team specialising in tracking down people, magical or otherwise.
His brows furrowed as he thought of the legality of that situation. Kato might be an influential figure internationally, but even he would be beholden to the laws of the Ministry of Magic. Kato might be asking him to do something illegal just to—
His thoughts paused as he looked at the next letter in the pile that was still left to be addressed by him specifically. Sighing, he opened the letter from the Ministry and nodded.
As expected, Kato had done his work and prepared the right conditions to force him to cooperate.
The British Ministry had created a specialised task force to apprehend the dangerous criminal known as the Giant Killer and had enlisted the help of international allies, no doubt an idea that was enthusiastically supported by everyone in Wizengamot. A bounty had been placed, and specific exemptions had been carved out for foreign Hit Wizards.
Shaking his head, he just wrote a single sentence reply, undecided about his extent of involvement in it.
I look forward to meeting you.
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