Blood Stones (Snarry)

The Minister of Magic

Meeting at the Ministry was arranged only a few days later. As the two of them walked in, they found Hermione, Ron and Minerva waiting for them as they stepped out of the floo. They stepped into a large room, something that was likely the wizards equivalent of the white house. Though it had the same sturdy, stone walls that held up most wizard buildings, the walls were decorated with endless draperies and muggle paintings. The room had in the center, a round table, with eight comfortable armchairs around it, above which was a large model of the solar system, complete with a sun in the center that lit most of the room. The ceiling was enchanted of course to look like the night sky; a piece of Hogwarts that Hermione brought with her everywhere.

Severus took note of one particular corner of the room, which was filled with rather large, enchanted books with the highest level of protection. Several rare herbs grew in floating glass containers, and several rarer potions stood on a shelf nearby that Hermione had brewed herself, evident by the half-hidden cauldron.

"Impressive office minister." Severus tried to smile as he finally met her gaze.

"Thank you Severus, each of us has brought something different to this office." She moved over to the table and gestured them to sit down, but not before sneaking in a hug from Harry.

After Severus explained the situation to the lot of them again, they sat silent for a moment, assessing each a different reaction. Hermione looked to be deep in thought while Ron looked slightly confused. Minerva had hardly any reaction of course and Harry's lip seemed to tremble still though he had heard it before.

"I should not need to remind you all that the information that is exchanged in this room is confidential and cannot reach the public. Although I have known all of you for most of my life and trust you deeply, this type of sensitive information could cause war amongst wizards. The potion that you described is known by very few as 'tormentum' which means to torture. It was a potion that was developed during the first wizarding war thousands of years ago by the Gaunt family. It was initially meant to bring the drinker immense power which would have won the war for either side, but magical law prevents the creation of raw power, in fact, the only known case of inherited power in wizarding history was granted by Death himself." Harry and Ron exchanged a glance as they remembered the elder wand.

"Naturally, the ingredients were exceedingly rare and the process difficult. When the dark wizards finally drank the potion, they found that instead of power, they felt how they ordinarily had. Confident still that they would win, they headed into battle, and as each one died, their ghost remained, unable to leave. Coincidentally, the war took place not far from here, not long before Hogwarts was built, and after the efforts to free each wizard from their fate, a graveyard was created near a house with a keeper who was meant to watch for wandering ghosts and help them to find their pieces."

"The Shrieking Shack." Severus interrupted.

"Precisely. Named as such as many of the ghosts who resided there, did so for more than a hundred years and were often heard shrieking in agony, insanity. Unknown to the ministry, a young wizard who had refused to take the potion had survived and written down the process to make such a potion and how to survive it. He split the page into three pages and hid them throughout England, leaving subtle clues behind that only the darkest of wizards could decipher, with the hope that another would find it, and find with it a way to use it to find immortal life."

"How is it that you know all of this?" Ron questioned.

"It's my job to understand our history at great lengths, along with any threats it might hold. If Voldemort knew about this potion then others are aware of it as well, but only time will tell whether the information will be lost or used again. The three pages were recovered, but I'm afraid they hold no more information than what you already know."