In the Shadow of Secrets | Sebastian Sallow

The Thief's Tale

26 July 1893

I let out a frustrated sigh as I closed yet another unhelpful book with a muffled thump in the empty room. I'd been searching through the resources at the Ministry for days with no luck, but I had hoped to find a lead of some sort by now.

We were running out of time.

The thought was ever-present these days, I realised as I sat surrounded by stacks of Ministry records that even laterally referenced ancient magic of any kind. Of course, there were no records of the repository beneath Hogwarts. The Keepers had seen to ensure that secret would remain buried. They'd quite literally taken its existence to their graves, and until me, not a single living soul had found it.

Not for the first time, I wished this secret had remained buried. If Ranrok hadn't found those blasted journals, I wouldn't be here, trying to figure out a way to move something that had been in a perfectly safe place before.

The Department of Magical Law Enforcement had surprisingly shared a lot after Corvinus attacked us at Feldcroft. I supposed losing three of their finest Aurors had made them realise their best course was to trust me—though I could hardly say the feeling was mutual when it came to the Auror Office or the Department of Mysteries. They'd both required me to be placed under some sort of spell that would prevent me from speaking about it with anyone outside of a select few. I couldn't say the same for them, but it wasn't like I could ask. Aside from Lysander Pringle, Head Auror, I could only discuss my assignment with Gamp, Rosier, Hecat, Sharp, and Weasley.

Once they'd been assured that I physically could not betray them, Pringle shared what they had pieced together. Sebastian's choice to turn himself in had resulted in Corvinus finding the knowledge of ancient magic in his mind. Corvinus had then set out for the Highlands to experiment on the Beasts and even Beings near Hogwarts. Though his notes were not clear on why he had done or abducted Sebastian, one thing was clear. Somewhere along the line, he had concluded that I was the key to gaining the power he sought to rid the Ministry of all Muggle influence and end the breeding-out of pure-bloods.

Pringle had spared me the details of exactly how Corvinus planned to do that, but it all gave me quite the feeling of disgust. So many of my classmates were half-blood or less, and the idea that anyone could fault them for that was incomprehensible.

Turning a page, my eyes lighted on a symbol I'd seen many times before: a swirl, which twisted almost like fire. It was drawn in the margin of a yellowed piece of parchment. With a gasp, my eyes darted about the page, finding a date of 1852 and the name Apollonia Black. It was a letter addressed to her brother, Licorus Black, who appeared to be the Ministry official who had filed it. In it she detailed the existence of a secret cave somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, and that her "close associate," Richard Jackdaw, had once shown her a map to it.

Richard Jackdaw. Now, there was a name I recognised.

She had not thought much of it at the time, but the ensuing decades had left her regretful for not taking it seriously because she believed the map had led to a source of great power beyond imagination. The letter ended by imploring her brother to help her track down Richard Jackdaw for more information.

Well, she wasn't wrong, I thought. I turned the page to see if there was any more information and found myself disappointed.

It took me several hours to find further information on Apollonia Black. She was one of many witches born to the House of Black. I found her death record first, dated April 21, 1886, caused by accidental consumption of...belladonna.

I sat with that a bit longer than I perhaps should have before moving on, finding that she had been born right around the turn of the century, attending Hogwarts nearly a century before. There was only one additional record: a testimony given to convict a Muggle-born witch by the name of Anne Thisbe for the murder of one Richard Jackdaw.