Blindness

Chapter 10: Black Stone in a Golden Ring

Harry had never thought he was the kind of person who would hide from the world until the days after what was dubbed by the press 'The Tournament Tragedy'. The pressure of an entire society's expectations were stressful enough; having the awestruck gazes of the students on him was simply too much to handle.

He spent the first day in his rooms at Hogwarts, comforted by Hermione's soothing light and words, recovering from both the magical strain of transfiguring so much stone, and the headache that had plagued him since he heard the last words of Lord Voldemort before the monster was taken into Ministry custody at the hands of Headmaster Dumbledore.

What he saw in the graveyard with the snake and its portion of broken soul he shared only with Hermione; and his new thoughts on soul patterns and the ramifications they might have she wrote carefully in with his previous notes.

On the second day, news came in the form of a visit from the Headmaster, and the story the older man told was only overshadowed by the plans the Ministry had made.

Alastor Moody had been held captive by Crouch, who had stolen the ex-Aurors hair for Polyjuice Potion, a magical concoction that copied one genetic pattern onto another person for a short time. It had worn off during the duel with Harry; and Alastor had been found locked in an expanded trunk.

Harry made a mental note to look into space-expanding charms and the concept of something being bigger on the inside. Interior dimensions? Worlds inside of worlds? Wormholes?

Meanwhile, interrogating Voldemort had proved useless; the man only spouted out answers in angry, sibilant hisses, a language none knew but the serpents the wizard liked to surround himself with. But Pettigrew had revealed under Veritaserum that Crouch had been part of a plot to restore the Dark Lord's normal human body, as the wizard's soul had somehow managed to survive while his original body had not the night Harry's parents died.

A broken soul, Harry thought, identical to the one inside the snake as well. Everything he had learned so far had led him to the conclusion that broken patterns would become spirits, if they died in a place with sufficient magic to act as fuel for the incorporeality. And while some spirits were capable of possession, none fit the description of what the two slivers of Voldemort were.

But he wouldn't get a chance to study the phenomenon closer; the Ministry had made its pronouncement in the morning paper.

There would be no waiting; the Wizengamot had met in an emergency session, the trials had already taken place for both Pettigrew and Voldemort, though Dumbledore implied there was no one willing to represent either of them in court.

Those that might have had already been exposed in a Ministry-wide sweep for those bearing the renewed Dark Mark, as new regulations for mandatory showing of the right forearm had also been implemented the very day after the Tournament. No arrests had been made yet; but several dozen workers were missing, never showing up for work. The aurors were working day and night to track them down for questioning.

The Minister would no longer tolerate terrorists in his country. And to show his, and his Ministry's, willingness to do whatever must be done to find and punish those who sought to overthrow the government, Peter Pettigrew and Voldemort, also known as Tom Riddle, were both to be Kissed and executed in succession inside the very Atrium of the Ministry, to be viewed by all who wished to see the infamous Dark Lord put down like the dog he was.

Hermione told him that Dumbledore had looked grave when telling them the news; Harry couldn't understand why. It seemed a triumph to him, to finally kill what was left of Voldemort once and for all. And with Pettigrew's statements, Sirius Black was now fully exonerated, if posthumously. Every loose end had been wound up, except for Crouch and the Death Eaters who had fled. But without Voldemort as a figurehead, Harry was uncertain how they could raise another force to truly challenge the irate Ministry.