Harry Potter: Arcane Instability

(Salazar POV)

 Running up the flight of stairs leading to the second floor of the castle, a pale Salazar moved faster than he had ever moved before. Only moments earlier in the Great Hall had he heard the voice of the basilisk echo around the castle, and based on its words it was not okay.

'Who is it trying to kill?!' He wondered frantically as he cleared the stairs and ran down the halls where he felt an ominous aura coming from. It didn't take long before he arrived at a girls bathroom, where upon entering the room he was met with a scene straight out of one of Godric's horror movies.

 On the floor near where he entered the room lay an unconscious little red haired girl, though whether that was her natural hair color, Salazar didn't know given how the floor was bathed in blood, which had the unfortunate effect of coating the girl's hair as well. The source of all the blood was no doubt the basilisk, which was scattered about the room in pieces, at least what was left of it.

Based on how big the creature should be after a thousand years, and given how the size of its head was much bigger than what was left of the remains, Salazar concluded that most of the creature had disappeared when Savrin had dealt with it. Speaking of Savrin, he was hovering over an opening in the floor holding what appeared to be a small black book, though Salazar wasn't certain if that was actually what it was.

 Before Salazar could ask what had happened, he felt something cold wrap around his throat and lift him off the ground and carry him towards the center of the room, where he soon found himself staring into Savrin's unforgiving eyes.

"You had a monster like this in the school with all of these children, and yet you didn't think to tell me about it? Tell me Salazar, what use is a pawn that hinders the king from winning the game?" Savrin asked plainly. Though he might have seemed calm, given how he was suffocating Salazar with his magic alone, it was a safe assumption that he wasn't pleased.

Try as he might to use his voice, sound did not come out of his mouth as Savrin's grip tightened even more, making it impossible for Salazar to answer his questions. Feeling himself on the verge of losing consciousness, Salazar thought this was his end when all of the sudden the room was engulfed in bright light.

 Salazar couldn't see him, but he could hear Godric shout from the doorway, "What the hell's going on?! Release Salazar!" It made him smile internally at the thought of Godric standing up to Savrin for him, even though they all knew it was a death sentence, but still, it was the thought that counted.

"Savrin, please!" Helga's voice echoed, letting Salazar know that Helga was also here, which meant Rowena probably was probably there too. Despite Helga pleading on his behalf, Savrin made no move to release him, at least not until someone else stepped in. "Please. Don't hurt my family." Elysia pleaded as she appeared in the air next to Savrin.

For a few seconds Salazar wondered what Savrin was going to do, and thankfully he didn't have to wait too long before he was unceremoniously dropped to the ground. As he struggled to inhale some air into his lungs, Salazar thought he heard Elysia say, "thankyou", but he wasn't sure, and when he looked up to where she had been, he didn't see her there. Instead he saw Savrin looking between him and the others, who had stepped to either side of him.

 "My goal is to restore the magic of this world and make it so witches and wizards keep it that way. You were the ones who wanted to do this peaceably. I cannot accomplish this if you ruin mine and the school's reputation, and make the world believe this place is not safe enough to leave their children. Going forward you will tell me any and everything you've done in the castle that might have some effect on those in it today. Tomorrow evening you will all meet me in my office, and we will go over this in great detail." Savrin told them, appearing somewhat less angry than before now, that he wasn't trying to suffocate them with his magic. Still struggling to steady his breathing, Salazar nodded his head in understanding, as did the other three.

 It was at that moment when another presence made itself known, one that not even Savrin had expected. The ghost of a young girl came through one of the toilet stalls and looked around at the room before letting out a high pitched wail. Scarcely had Salazar heard her before a blinding light forced him to close his eyes and turn away, but it was then a new noise greeted his ears. It sounded like a mixture between someone suffocating and someone screaming into a pillow.

When the light disappeared and he was finally able to see again, the ghost, which was already transparent, began to slowly fade into the nothingness. Salazar wasn't sure what was going on, but he suspected there would be one less ghost haunting the castle from now on. He wanted to feel bad for the poor girl, but seeing the calm look on her face as she disappeared, he supposed it wasn't too bad for her. At least he hoped that was the case.

 When the ghost was completely gone, Savrin turned to look at each of them before taking a deep breath to calm himself down. "If ghosts become too much of a problem in this castle, I might be forced to get rid of them all." Savrin said, finishing his words by looking pointedly at Rowena.

It was apparent that he knew about her midnight rendezvous with the ghost of her daughter for the last year, and he was letting Rowena know that he could end them in a moment if word of what happened tonight leaked out. Rowena understood immediately the no-so-subtle threat, and nodded her head quickly.

With that, Savrin floated down to where the little girl still lay unconscious, then waved his hand at her before she was enveloped in a bright white light that seemed to remove the blood sticking to her.

 Looking between the four of them and the remains of the basilisk, Savrin ordered, "Clean this mess up." Then he was gone, as was the little red-haired girl. Most likely he had taken her to the hospital wing, though Salazar wasn't sure.

He was just beginning to breathe normally when a hand appeared in front of him. Looking up, he saw Godric looming over him. "Thank-" Salazar started as Godric pulled him to his feet, but he was cut-off when a fist struck him in the nose and sent him sprawling back to the floor.

"You brought a fucking basilisk into the school?! Are you mad?! What in the hell were you thinking?!" Godric shouted angrily. Judging by how Helga and Rowena were looking at him, it was safe to say they were also pissed off at him.

 "You all knew I built a chamber, hell, we all built something!" Salazar stated defensively as he got to his feet and put some distance between himself and the others. "Godric built his private office where everyone could find it, but made so no one could enter without a fucking password!" Salazar growled, referring to the headmaster's office with the Griffin staircase and everything else with a griffin on it.

"Rowena made that stupid room no one can find unless they already know about it, which lets be honest, hasn't helped anyone in the school in a thousand years! A fat lot of good that did!" Salazar explained, referring this time to the Room of Requirement.

Turning on Helga, the anger at being questioned by his friends seemed to fizzle out as he realized that Helga's room was actually beneficial to the school. "The Great Hall welcomes everyone in the castle, no matter who they are, but it doesn't protect them." Salazar said quietly as he thought about Helga's room and his own.

"You all remember the witch hunts. We were hunted!" He began more loudly. "I wanted to protect the students if the muggles ever found the school, so yes, I brought a fucking basilisk into the school! But something happened! I commanded it to protect the students, not kill them!" Salazar finished, looking lost as he stared at the pieces of the giant serpent strown about the room.

 "This- you did this because of what Duke Dresik did to your family." Helga said in a hushed whisper as she remembered how Salazar had been back in the day. Before they had created the school, Salazar had used his family's nobility and status to help the children of witches and wizards escape the fates that befell their parents and ferry them away to safety.

However, Duke Dresik, one of the great Lords serving the king back in the day, caught on to the scheme and put an end to it in the only way he knew how. He killed Count Sarath Slytherin, his wife, and anyone who served their house. Salazar, who had been spiriting some witches and wizards away, had learned of his parent's executions long after they happened, and had been devastated.

He never trusted muggles after that, not that he was ever so trusting in the first place. With that in mind, it was understandable why Salazar would want to protect the place he helped build. One in which no muggle could ever harm. One that was guarded by a creature only someone with magic could hope to stop.

 Gritting his teeth at the memory of losing his father and mother, Salazar ignored his three friends and looked to the open hole in the room that most likely led down into his chamber. Drawing his wand, he waved it around the room for half a minute as he gathered the blood and body parts of the basilisk, then sent them down into the hole before following suit a second later. It was an uncomfortable slide, one in which he thought needed some improvement if he was going to keep using it to come down here again.

 With the blood and body parts still floating in the air beside him, Salazar continued onward through the tunnels until he eventually arrived at a solid-looking wall on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.

{Open} He hissed, at once causing the serpents to part ways and a crack to form where the doors to the room parted. Entering into the dimly lit chamber, Salazar cast a number of lighting charms around the room before he finally saw something familiar.

The giant snake statues that lined the room had been created with such detail, one would think they were alive. Seeing how the eyes of the statues were following him, they very well could be alive if it wasn't for the fact that it was obvious they were made of stone.

 "Ha. Wow, you did not age well." Godric spoke from behind him, most likely trying to make light of the situation to ease their tempers after what they had just spoken to one another. Godric was always like that.

Glancing over his shoulder, Salazar saw Godric staring upwards ahead of him. Turning to see what Godric was talking about, Salazar had to crane his neck up a bit to see the face of the giant statue. It was ancient and monkey-like, with a long thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizards sweeping stone robes where two enormous feet stood on the smooth chamber floor.

"That's not me!" Salazar growled angrily to Godric, who was now laughing. "Please tell me that's not you, Salazar." Rowena said from a few feet behind him, and Salazar only grumbled further as he turned to glare at her.

"For the last time, that is not me! You all know that looks nothing like how I used to be, so I don't want to hear anymore of it!" Salazar stated, wanting to put an end to the jokes now before Godric decided to go further down the path of thinking this guy was him.

 "If its not you, then who is it?" Helga asked, bringing the conversation back to something important. "I don't know. It could be a descendant of mine, but I can't be sure." Salazar said. It was true. Back in the day, he had every intention to pass along the information of the chamber to one of his descendants in the hope that they would continue his goal of protecting the school, but he didn't have memories of doing something like that.

Ignoring the ugly statue for the time being, Salazar looked around for the entrance to the Basilisk's chamber. Being constantly protected by the snake, it was by far the most guarded place in the whole castle, which is why he thought it a good idea to store some things there.

 'Where the hell is it? It should be right there.' Salazar wondered as he surveyed the room, trying to remember how it was back in the day. He could vividly remember making the opening to the Basilisk chamber being about chest height of the statue, but the statue kind of made that a less than likely spot for the opening. It was as he was looking around the room when he saw writing on the robes of the statue.

'My only saving grace is that this is written in Parseltongue.' Salazar said internally before he repeated the words aloud. {Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four.} As soon as he spoke the words, the mouth of the giant statue began to open, and once more Salazar could only shake his head in annoyance at how his descendants had ruined everything he thought to build in this world.

 "UGH! Oh my goodness! Close that door! It's breath stinks!" Rowena stated as she pinched her nose. For their part, both Godric and Helga were retching, sounding as though they were going to lose the contents of their stomachs at any moment. It did smell horrible, but Salazar didn't think it smelled as bad as they were making it out to be. Still, he wouldn't argue with them. Besides, he could come back on his own later and see what else his descendants had fucked up.

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 (Savrin POV)

 Appearing in the hospital wing after leaving the girl's bathroom on the second floor, Savrin deposited the little red-haired girl onto one of the empty beds. "Headmaster, what's happened?" Madam Pomfrey asked quickly as she hurried over to the unconscious girl.

"Someone tried to kill her." Savrin told her, earning a look of shock from the matron. "Kill her? How? Who? Why? Did you catch them?" She asked the questions so quickly, Savrin couldn't answer until she finally stopped to catch her breath.

"Yes, someone tried to kill her. They were using this cursed diary as the means, as for who did it, I am uncertain because I don't know who gave it to her. As for why, it's most definitely because they wanted to consume her soul to strengthen themselves. It would have taken the better part of a year before the diary could have done any permanent damage, but thankfully I was able to find out about it before that happened. Still, given her state, I believe she has been in possession of this cursed book for some time now, so I will need to consult her parents for more information. I will call them soon." Savrin explained her questions in the order they were asked, with each question making the matron's face go paler.

 For the next few minutes, Savrin watched the matron wave her wand around, but it was obvious from the beginning that she didn't know much about the soul or the mind. Still, the rejuvenation boost didn't hurt, so it's not like she was entirely useless.

Once she was done with whatever she was doing, Savrin signaled for the old woman to remain where she was and be silent as he began to pull a number of plants from thin air. He let her watch as he mixed them together, then heated them with a small blue flame from his fingertip.

Once the concoction began to boil, Savrin put a small glowing gemstone into the mixture, and at once the bubbling liquid began to transform into a thick white cloud, however before it could evaporate into the air, a glowing bubble trapped the thick clouds inside of it before it began to float over to the small girl's head. Savrin let her breathe in the white cloud of potion until all of the gas in the bubble looked to have disappeared, then he turned to look at Madam Pomfrey.

"The vapor from some potions can be much more effective in healing than the potions themselves. Also, the Numa-flower naturally absorbs magic, therefore anything made with the flower will also have magic replenishing effects. Curing the body might not be the only thing wrong with someone. You would do well to remember that." Savrin told her, getting a confused nod of agreement.

 Leaving the woman who looked to still be trying to wrap her head around what she had just seen, Savrin went to his office before he pulled out his A.C.D. and called Arthur Weasley. "Hello?" The confused voice of Arthur Weasley asked.

"Mr. Weasley, this is Headmaster Kincade. Something has happened at the school. I need both you and your wife to come to my office immediately. The Floo is already open." Savrin said, being careful not to reveal anything about who or what this was about over the A.C.D., after all things like this were better explained in person.

"Of course, Headmaster. We'll be there in a moment." Arthur said quickly. Savrin could hear the man shout "Molly!" so knowing the two were on their way, he disconnected the call.

 Sure enough, less than three minutes later and both the Weasleys he wanted to see appeared through his fireplace. "Did Fred and George do something? Please, Headmaster, allow me to talk to them. Whatever they did, I'm sure I can put an end to it." Molly said worriedly as she looked between Savrin and the door to his office.

Holding up a hand to silence the woman, Savrin waited for her to calm down. "This has nothing to do with your sons, Mrs. Weasley. It's your daughter." Savrin told her, causing both her and her husband to stiffen as they shared a worried look.

"G-Ginny? I don't understand. W-What's happened to Ginny?" Molly asked worriedly. Pulling the cursed diary he had taken from the girl, Savrin placed it on his desk for both of them to see. "Your daughter is fine and safe now, though she has been under a curse for some time and is recovering from its effects. Tell me, do either of you know where she got this book?" Savrin explained as he gestured to the book in question.

"I-I saw her writing in it over the summer, but I don't know where she got it." Molly said fearfully as she looked at her husband. "I've never seen it before." Arthur said, trying to remember if he had ever gotten Ginny a book like that.

 "There is a powerful curse laid upon this book. It will devour the soul of whoever writes in it, though the process is very slow, thankfully. Whoever gave it to her most definitely wanted her to die. Her being as young as she is, I don't think there is anyone who has any malice towards her, so now I turn that question to you. Do either of you have any enemies that would want to see you both suffer?" Savrin asked expectantly.

He wanted them to think more about this in greater detail, and hopefully come up with some names he could look into. The couple looked to one another as they tried to think of anyone who had something against them, but try as they might, they couldn't think of anyone who hated them enough to do something like this.

Reading their surface thoughts, Savrin kept seeing a name appear in Arthur's mind, a name he wanted to voice, but one he didn't dare to, not because he was scared of the man, but because he didn't know how Savrin would react to the name, nor did he know if revealing the name in question would help the situation or make matters worse for him and his family. 'Lucius Malfoy.' Savrin repeated internally.

 "I want to make something very clear to the both of you. I take the attack of a child very seriously, especially when they are under my protection here at Hogwarts. I don't care if the perpetrator is the Minister of Magic or Voldemort himself, I will make sure this doesn't happen again. You can be sure that I will look into this, and punishments will be meted out." Savrin told them, causing Arthur's eyes to widen slightly because he had just been thinking of Lucius Malfoy's connection with the Minister of Magic.

The room was silent for a minute, at which point Savrin figured he wasn't going to get anything more from the couple so he instructed them to go to the Hospital Wing where their daughter was currently resting. Molly didn't need to be told twice, and as soon as the door to the office opened she was through it and running down the stairs two at a time.

Arthur meanwhile remained in the room with Savrin as he stared at the door. Once he was sure his wife was out of hearing, he turned to Savrin before whispering, "Lucius Malfoy. He's the only one I can think of that hates me enough to do something like this. But I have no proof it was him, and he has friends in the Ministry. I'm not afraid of him, but am afraid of what he could do to my family if I accuse him without evidence."

 Smiling at the man, Savrin rose from his chair and moved around to the other side of his desk to stand next to Arthur. "Worry not, Mr. Weasley. I have it on good authority that the chairman of the Board of Governors despises Mr. Malfoy as well. I myself am not particularly fond of him. Regardless, I will look into the matter with the utmost discretion, and if it is found out he had something to do with what happened to your daughter, he will be dealt with harshly. You have my word." Savrin assured the man, earning a nod of respect and a firm handshake in return.

"Thank you, Headmaster." Arthur said, then departed the room to go and check up on his daughter.

 It was only a few minutes later before Savrin was standing back in the Hospital Wing where he saw Molly holding a sobbing Ginny close to her for comfort. Savrin let them have a little moment before he cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Miss Weasley, I have a few questions for you, but first I want to make something clear. You are not in trouble, and have nothing to fear. Understand?" Savrin said, hoping to calm the young girl. Nodding her head, Ginny held onto her mother's hand like a lifeline for comfort.

"Now, where did you get this diary?" Savrin asked as he held up the diary to her. "I d-don't know." She sobbed. "I found it inside one of the books Mum got me. I th-thought someone had just left it in there and forgotten about it…" It was obvious by her speech and mannerisms that she was still scared to admit this, but she was doing so regardless.

"Ginny!" Said Arthur, flabbergasted. "Haven't I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain. Why didn't you show the diary to me, or your mother? A suspicious object like that, it was clearly full of Dark Magic!"

 Despite raising his voice, Arthur wasn't mad at his daughter, he was simply worried for her as all good fathers would be in this situation. "I-I'm sorry." Ginny cried as she hugged her mother once more for comfort.

Ignoring her for the moment, Savrin looked to her mother. "Mrs. Weasley, where did you buy her books?" He asked expectantly. "Flourish and Blotts bookshop in Diagon Alley." Answered Mrs. Weasley. It was at that moment that Arthur's eyes widened, something which didn't go unnoticed by Savrin.

When Arthur subtly gestured for a moment of privacy, Savrin acquiesced. Moving out of earshot of his wife and daughter, Arthur whispered, "The day we went to Flourish and Blotts to buy Ginny's books, I had a… confrontation with Lucius Malfoy. I can't quite remember all of the details, but I think I remember him taking a book from Ginny's cauldron before putting it back a few moments later. He could have put the diary in the book at that moment."

It still wasn't sound evidence of Lucius Malfoy's involvement, but at least it was something. "Thank you for informing me, Mr. Weasley. You have my word, I will look into it with the utmost discretion." Savrin said, smiling at the man. He kept repeating his words in the hopes to put the man's mind more at ease. 

 'Give a man a direction, and he is sure to follow it to its end. Maybe these wizards aren't completely useless, they just need to be given the opportunity to think for themselves.' Savrin thought, genuinely happy at Arthur's line of thinking.

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 It wasn't until the following morning before Arthur and Molly returned home, though they made sure to inform Ginny that she would need to call them at least once a day to let them know how she was doing. They also spoke to Percy, Fred, George, and Ron to make sure the four of them kept a close eye on their sister, much to Ginny's dismay.

 Once the situation was resolved as best as it could be, Savrin decided to put enchantments in place to prevent something like this happening again. For the whole day he went around the castle, enchanting every window, door, crevice or opening that might allow any unknown object entry into the castle.

By the time he was done, it was impossible for a fly to enter the castle without permission, which was good. For supposedly being one of the safest places in Britain, it was laughable how easy the defenses of the castle could be breached.

 Later that evening after dinner, Godric and the others gathered in Savrin's office to discuss matters of what had happened the night before. They all revealed every dangerous thing they had ever brought into the castle, and to no one's surprise, Salazar's was the most dangerous. Thankfully he had only brought the one dangerous creature into the castle, so there wasn't the need to hunt more down.

As for the Chamber of Secrets, Salazar had been down there earlier today and cleaned out the gross remains of dead animals that the basilisk had been feasting on, thus removing the smells. He admitted that he had stored some books and items in the snake's den, but over the last millennia almost everything had disappeared, save for a few crumpled books that weren't properly taken care of.

 The chamber would no longer be used to house any monsters, but Savrin did give Salazar permission to frequent the room as much as he wished, though they would need to work out a different location for the entrance. They couldn't have him going into the girl's bathroom every time he wanted to go down there, which only seemed to amuse Godric.

 "Um, there might be more dark objects in the school." Rowena admitted as soon as they finished the discussion about the chamber of secrets. "Where?" Savrin asked, though he already knew the answer.

"It wasn't me, I didn't bring them in. It's just, the Room of Requirement has a number of uses, one of which is a storage room. I was in there the other day and I found a cursed bracelet. If there was one cursed object, there could very well be more of them." Rowena explained her reasoning.

"Very well. For now, make sure no one but you all can enter, and later I'll sort through it when I have the time." Savrin said, but Rowena stopped him before he could dismiss it.

"Last night, after we left the chamber of secrets, I talked with Helena." Rowena admitted somberly. "She told me Voldemort put something in there. Something he took from her." She was quiet as she whispered the final part, so quiet in fact that no one heard her. "What was that?" Godric asked. "My diadem." she repeated again, this time loud enough for all of them to hear.

Helga gasped at the news, hell, even Salazar looked surprised at the revelation. It was obvious by their reactions that none of them expected the item in question to be Rowena's legendary diadem, which many people believed to be the source of her intelligence.

 "So, you're saying Voldemort might have placed another horcrux in your secret room, which just so happens to be your tiara? Why did your daughter wait until now to tell you this?" Savrin asked, finding the whole situation to be annoying.

"She didn't tell me before because I never asked. The diadem was what broke us apart. I didn't want to lose her again, so I never brought it up. But after last night, I asked her if there was anything she knew of in the castle that might be cursed, and she told me." Rowena explained, hoping to save Helena Savrin's ire.

"Very well. Next Saturday we will all go through your room and remove anything that might pose a problem. For now, go back to your dormitories and get some sleep." Savrin said dismissively. His list of things to do was growing larger, and he wondered why he was putting up with all of this nonsense. 'Because the easy way isn't necessarily the right way.' He consoled himself, knowing that he would have to put up with people in general if he didn't want a repeat of Genesis.

 -------

 After Godric and the others left his office, Savrin decided to fulfill his promise to Arthur Weasley and look into the matter of Lucius Malfoy's involvement in the attack on his daughter. In no time at all he appeared at Malfoy manor, which was located in Wiltshire, England. The location of the manor was supposed to be private, but given how many times Savrin snuck into the Ministry, he had the locations to most witches and wizards in Britain.

Observing the place, Savrin was impressed at what he was seeing. Though the house itself wasn't anything special, the land around it was a choice piece of property that anyone would want. He could even feel the magic in the area, and though it didn't compare to Hogwarts, it was still teeming with magic. 'I might take this place for myself.' Savrin thought greedily.

 Sneaking past the wards that made up the protective enchantments was nothing to Savrin, and once more he could only shake his head in disappointment at the wizards of this world. How they thought that something so trivial could protect them was beyond him. As he stood at the bottom of a grand-staircase, Savrin pulsed his magic in a wide arc, showing him the number of life signatures present.

'Only three… I don't know why I expected more people.' Savrin thought to himself has made his way towards the room where he sensed two of the three life signatures sleeping. The third life signature was sleeping in a small room off to the side of the kitchen, most likely a house-elf given how small it appeared, which was why Savrin paid it no mind. He could always deal with it later.

 Entering into the master bedroom, Savrin saw the sleeping form of Lucius Malfoy and his wife, and he couldn't help but smile. Waving his hand towards them, the bed came alive. The blankets were the first to move, wrapping themselves tightly around both Lucius and Narcissa, not allowing for the slightest movement of their arms, which were now held tightly at their sides.

Next was the pillows, which were pulled out from beneath their heads by the headboard, which began to beat them on their heads with said pillows, waking them quickly from their slumber. Finally the four poster-bed formed two massive wooden arms that grabbed the husband and wife and held them in the air by their feet.

The entire time they were being attacked by their bed, they had been unable to cry out to one another as their mouths had been sealed shut, but after they were hanging upside down and the pillows stopped attacking them, they were given the chance to speak, though someone else beat them to it.

 "Good evening, Lucius. I'm sorry to have disturbed your sleep, but I had some questions that simply couldn't wait until morning." Savrin said, garnering both their attention. "What is the meaning of this?! Release me this instant!" Lucius spat angrily, but Savrin didn't seem to care about that as he held up a small black leather book.

"Tell me, Lucius. Have you seen this before?" Savrin asked, being sure to look closely at the man he held captive. It was for but an instant, however Savrin saw it plain as day. Lucius' eyes had widened in recognition at the sight of the diary, confirming what Savrin already suspected. Reading the man's surface thoughts yielded more answers as Lucius was repeating, 'The Dark Lord's diary!' over and over to the point Savrin wondered if the man was obsessed with it.

After more than a few seconds of just staring at the book, Lucius looked to Savrin before growling, "I've never seen that book before!" Right then, Narcissa, Lucius' wife shouted, "DOBBY!" and at once a small ugly little house elf appeared.

"Mistress called for Dobby?" The little house elf asked after appearing in the room, not appearing the least bit phased at seeing his master and mistress entangled in their bedding.

 "Dobby? As in the elf who visited Harry Potter a few weeks ago?" Savrin asked, finding the name all too familiar, seeing as how Arcturus had asked him to find the little creature so he could interrogate it more on what it had been doing in his house.

"You disgusting little pest! I'm going to hurt you!" Lucius shouted angrily after realizing that Dobby had tried to ruin his plans for the Boy-who-lived. Hearing the little house-elf's cry of worry, Savrin decided a change in location was in order. With a snap of his fingers he appeared in 12 Grimmauld Place with Lucius, Narcissa, and Dobby, the former two still confined.

"Wake up, Arcturus." Savrin said softly, though his voice carried to every corner of the building. In less than a minute a flustered Arcturus came running down the stairs, followed a minute later by Sirius. Seeing the scene before them, both Arcturus and Sirius could only stare dumbly at Savrin.

 Before Savrin could explain, Kreacher appeared behind Dobby and grabbed hold of him before growling, "You dare enter the noble house of Black without permission! Kreacher will not let you escape this time!" Dobby soon fell flat on his stomach with Kreacher sitting on his back, with the little elf bawling his eyes out.

"What in Merlin's beard is going on here?!" Arcturus finally bellowed, not being able to make sense of this situation.

"Lucius Malfoy tried to orchestrate an attack on the school, though he only managed to injure Arthur Weasley's daughter before I found out. It appears the elf who tried to warn Harry not to come to Hogwarts belongs to Lucius and tried to at least save Harry, something which Lucius didn't know about. Arthur Weasley asked me to look into the matter of who attacked his daughter, and I gave him my word I would discreetly look into it. After some questioning, I brought them here because you wanted me to find you the house elf that broke into your home, and here we are." Savrin explained much to the surprise of everyone present.

"You call this 'discreetly looking into it'?" Sirius asked humorously as he finally wrapped his head around what happened.

 "Hold on. You said he attacked the school. Are the children safe? Do I need to get more healers at the school?" Arcturus asked, prioritizing the school above all else.

"Of course the children are safe. I wouldn't be here if they weren't. No one was hurt besides Ginny Weasley, and I've already fixed her, so there will be no need to bring in more healers." Savrin explained before he held up the black diary.

"This was used to take control of the girl and unleash Slytherin's monster." Savrin said, earning a number of confused reactions, one from the last thing he was expecting.

"Not another one!" Kreacher hissed, drawing all eyes on him.