Saying good bye to Lupin and the Emotion Doll
Hazel entered Dumbledore's chambers with Shyla on her shoulder. Once fully inside Shyla took flight and perched along side her friend Fawkes. They chirped, sang short notes, and chortled with each other. Hazel smiled and nodded, listening to their conversation.
Dumbledore stared at her for a moment. "You can understand Fawkes as well?"
She turned to him, not completely understanding at first. Then she nodded "Yes. I understand her quite clearly." She looked to the Phoenix as it called out. " She says you understand her as well."
"That's true but only because she is my magical pet.'
Shyla called shrilly and Dumbledore knew he made a mistake. Hazel laughed.
"Shyla says that they are not pets."
"Of course you're right Miss Shyla."
Hazel laughed again as Fawkes spoke in defense of Dumbledore and she saw Shyla silenced by someone other than herself for the first time.
Dumbledore cleared his throat and both Hazel and Shyla looked to him.
"There is much I need to explain to you Hazel and much I need to ask of you, Miss Shyla."
Hazel and Shyla settled in. They both sensed that this would take some time.
Hazel stood behind the rest as they rejoiced over their successes. Of course Hazel was not happy with just one success. She wanted to make sure it was not a fluke. "Can I ask all of you to work on the potion again but alone and see what results we get?" She watched Marcel administer the potion they just created to a creature called a dream salve.
They were amorphous beings that could change shape on a whim. They could also separate portions of themselves that become hazardous to the main body. They worked with potion masters voluntarily and reaped tremendous rewards.
This particular dream salve was one of Hazel's. Her dream salves had the run of Hazel's personal dreamscape and the scape connecting hers to the conscious collective dreamscape. It was like heaven for a dream salve because they were stronger and more solidified within dreams.
They were creatures born of nightmares and intense imagination. Given sentience when there was enough emotional expenditure during its creation. If not the dream salve would cease to exist almost as soon as it would have been created. But it was hard for them to return to the dreamworld. Actually it was almost impossible.
With Hazel all things were possible within the dreamscape and she brought the actual bodies of all four of her dream salves into the dream world as their first rewards for helping her test potions.
Professors Adder and Snape agreed immediately and almost instantly began going over the process in their heads. Marcel focused on the dream salve before him. He watched the potion circulate twice and then circle around the brain as if it were lost. Hazel had been watching as well. She now has a huge smile on her face.
She looked to the dream salve and spoke to it in its language. It responded with a wide smile of its own, scratched its head, and giggled. Hazel smiled. "The potion is waiting for the incantation to complete it." She brought her En Dimension wand out and said [Expergisco Somnum] while performing intricate hand motions. The potion lit up inside the dream salve's skull, then it did two more circulations leaving bits of light along nerve clusters and points within the meridians that caused a push in magic flow within the system.
The dream salve giggled again and Hazel smiled. "This was indeed successful."
The others looked on in awe. Their mouths agape.
Hazel looked to Marcel and he shook himself from his stupor.
"Of course I will work on the potion and try to create it on my own."
Hazel nodded and said nothing more.
Harry and Hazel entered Professor Lupin's classroom. Word had spread quickly. First about him being a werewolf and then about him quitting. Hazel barely stopped herself from stomping into the room. She was even taking calming breaths as she entered.
Lupin smiled at this. "You helped me a lot Hazel. Your parents would be proud."
"And still you are quitting and going into self-imposed exile."
He sighed and then smiled broadly. "We know that I am in full control but no one else does. I do not want to put Dumbledore through that."
"But he would gladly go through it for you. It would not be an issue for him. Is it not his duty to protect students and professors?"
Harry put his arm around his sister and pulled her to him. She quieted immediately and laid her head on his shoulder.
"We are just worried professor. Where will you go?"
"I will go find Sirius and I will help him and get use to my new normal."
Harry nodded and squeezed his sister to him some more. He felt her silently exhale. She lifted her head and lightly pushed away from him to pull Remus Lupin into a hug.
"I taught you how to call me. If you need anything I will be there for you."
Lupin hugged her tight. This young girl was probably their biggest and strongest ally next to Dumbledore. He and Sirius were quite lucky. As he thought this he became more determined to protect both of his friends' children.
"Don't worry you two. We will see each other again."
To say that Rosa Ambrose was annoyed and frustrated would be a major understatement. Three of her thralls laid dead on the floor. Each died quickly. They tried to awaken the doll and collapsed to the floor. It was rather frustrating because none were successful and because her family already warned her about her thralls continually dying. And one of these were actually from the main branch of an important family.
It wasn't her fault. If he was so special why did he fail?
She frowned as she heard soft footsteps and then her grandmother was within spitting distance of her. The old woman smiled at her frown.
You want to be the fatetress and an old woman like me can sneak up on you. She shook her head. You aim too high for yourself my dear. She looked down at the three bodies and then cocked her head back up to Rosa questioningly.
Rosa shrugged. "Is it my fault that they are weak?"
"Perhaps. Doesn't your ability drain both their stamina and their magic?"
Rosa merely frowned at this. Her grandmother closed her eyes and shook her head.
"I had such high hopes for you. Born with the blood of my ancestors and the abilities of our current lines. You should have been formidable.
"What are you trying to get these boys to do for you?"
"I need to awaken this doll."
She spoke without hesitation to the old woman and showed her the doll as well. Her grandmother's eyes widened.
"You call upon the darkness within fate? You know this can cause an imbalance."
"How grandmother? If we only call on the light and never the dark doesn't that also cause an imbalance."
"No foolish child. The darkness starts out stronger than the light. You call to the dark and you imbue it with more power. Calling on the light is what maintains the balance because we innately communicate with the dark with our fears, jealousies, hates, and deceit."
She shook her head. "Why is it that you understand nothing? Why do you need this."
Rosa raised her chin in pride. "I want to take all that Hazel is away from her, and I want to force Michael to be back with me."
Her grandmother shook her head. "The ancient one can not even read that girl and you can not force anyone to love you, especially not the dead. Give me this doll. We will figure out how to awaken it as diviners should."
Rosa's eyes went wide. Her grandmother pursed her lips. "Exactly. You do not even think like a diviner. You rely too heavily on your blood."
A purple waving glob surrounded the black doll and moved it to her grandmother. The old woman sat on the floor and the doll moved before her. A visible connection grew between her and the purple glob. She closed her eyes and regulated her breathing. She allowed her mind to wander. It brushed against the boundary between dream and reality and looked for a strand related to the doll.
She felt a ping pass through her body and moved toward it. The doll sat upon a gilded thrown diamonds set deep within moved from crystal clear, to blue, to black and back again. The doll had its head turned from her the stubs of his arms and legs writhed with bluish black filthy tentacles. They reached out for any that tried to disturb the doll.
The old woman watched person after person drop dead as they reached out to the doll and touched the tentacles instead. The blue black filth spread from the tentacles to the person and killed them instantly. The old woman looked on not understanding why the people failed time after time until a woman stepped forward and looked in the direction that the doll looked in. She bowed to this direction and whatever lay there in the distance. Then she sat upon her knees before the doll and placed her forehead to the floor. She stayed there unflinching until slowly the doll's head began to turn. The old woman looked away from the doll, not wanting to see its face, and focused on the woman with her forehead pressed to the ground.
She spoke. "I come to you for your help. I come to you so that I can take what I want. I come to you because with your strength I know that I will be successful. Wake up for me and do as I will and you will have all that you want."
"And do you know what I want?" the doll's voice was horror manifest and a chill rode up and down the old woman's spine long after the doll finished speaking. She saw that it took a long time for the woman to calm herself as well. Finally she spoke.
"You can have all the blood and flesh you desire."
"I was already given that. Why would I want more?"
The woman did not speak again. The old woman knew this girl did not know what to do next. Her offer had been refused and she had no back up plan.
"And what do you offer if I awake for another?"
The old woman ripped herself from the vision. It was a vision right. She breathed heavily and refused to look at the doll that floated before her here in reality. It had whispered that horror of a voice directly into her ear. Its breath felt as damp as its body looked.
She sent the thing back to her granddaughter and looked at the stupidly naïve girl.
"Come. I will explain what you need to do."