The Next Adventure

The pack comes first

Deatheaters and werewolves, once again working for the same cause, were travelling along the dark road that stretched both ahead and behind them.

After many turns and many minutes of walking they reached another door. Thin streaks of light were peeking from the keyhole and the sides. It was a strange light, colored in some shade of blue. It was enchanting. Greyback, who was leeding the crowd, pulled up his sleeve revealing his strange tattoo. He took out his wand and pointed it at the drawing of the snakes and the flame on his arm. He whispered something in an ancient language and suddenly the tattoo became three dimensional. It wasn't just a drawing anymore. It had become a real key. He put away his wand and took the key in his hand. With it, he unlocked the mysterious door.

The strange blue light was explained at once. The roof of the place that lied ahead was not concrete, neither it was sky. It was water. They were under the sea. Some people behind Greyback gasped and turned to walk away, but without looking behind he said in his low threatening voice:

"Do not fear. Nothing out there can hurt you."

After that he walked through the door and many others followed behind him. Those who stayed, didn't do so very long. The path ahead seemed dangerous, yes, but nothing would be more deadly then to cross those who were devoted, heart and soul, to the cause.

The path ahead was in the form of a tunnel. A tunnel made of clear, transparent sea water. All around there were colorful fish swimming elegantly in the deep water of the ocean. The sea floor was covered in sand colored in a stunning shade of beige, rocks with algae and corals growing on their rough surface, and shipwrecks, lots and lots of shipwrecks, old and new, all turned into shelters for all the creatures of the sea.

The tube of air the were walking along led to one specific shipwreck, one of the oldest around. Passing through a hole in the wooden deck, the tunnel continued inside the ship until it led out of it, continuing towards the unknown.

Greyback stopped once he reached the center of the ship. He turned to the Deatheaters and said:

"Faithful servants of the Dark Lord. We are here to collect the first ingredient for a very special curse. A curse that once enacted, will rid our world of those pesky muggles!"

Cheers of celebration came from the crowd, along with doubtful murmurs. At the end of the room one Deatheaters looked especially troubled. Milthranzir, the old.

"And how did you, a mere werewolf without any special education or skills in magic came to be the owner or, I seriously doubt, the creator of such curse?" He spoke

Hector looked at Milthranzir warningly. He had crossed a line. Greyback turned his sight to the end of the crowd, where the old Deatheater was standing, and grinned snootily.

"Milthranzir, always underestimating the people..." he said and a few werewolves from his pack that were standing in the front line started laughing mockingly. "The Dark Lord himself gave it to me." He continued.

"I hardly believe that the Dark Lord trusted something this important to someone so unimportant to him like you" Milthranzir continued.

"What can I say? It was a shock." Fenryr said, this time coldly, trying to shut the old man up. "We are looking for an old bottle, a jar to be exact. On it are engraved two snakes. Go on then! " Greyback cried.

High and low they searched while the minutes turned into hours. Greyback was losing his patience. There wasn't anymore an inch of the ship that remained unsearched. Something was wrong. Greyback started looking his followers suspectfully. Someone was hiding something. And that something was the first step to his plan. The first key.

Suddenly Greyback noticed Milthranzir. He was searching the ship like everyone else. Or he acted to. He didn't pay attention to where he was searching. Instead he kept glancing at the exit, moving closer and closer towards it every minute. Greyback's forehead wrinkled out of anger. He looked around at the other Deatheaters and then back at Milthranzir. He was a few feet away from the tunnel that led back to the city, but he had just past the entrance to an other room of the ship. Swiftly, Greyback walked to the old man, put his one hand on his mouth, preventing him to shout and with his other hand he grabbed his left arm before the man was able to reach out for his wand. Greyback dragged the old man through the door next to them, closed the door behind with his leg, freed his right arm from the old man's mouth and grabbed the man's wand before throwing him into the room. The old man made a few steps clumsily before managing to stand still and turn to Greyback.

"Sir" he said. "How can I help you?"

"I know" Greyback said

"I beg your pardon?"

"I know" Greyback said again.

The old man looked at him with confusement to make his reaction believable.

"Perhaps your honor could give me a little more detail on what they know?"

"I know you took it. The first key"

Milthranzir swallowed anxiously.

"Give it to me." Greyback said showing off his teeth.

"Or what?" Milthranzir said gathering all the courage that was left in his heart. "Even without my own wand you're still no match for my magic" The old man revealed his right hand from the folding of his robe and what it was holding. Greyback's wand.

"Avada kedavra" the old man cried but no spell was fired towards the werewolf in front of him. Instead, a great force threw Milthranzir across the room. He dropped the wand and crashed on the wall. He barely retained consciousness. He looked at Greyback and laughed. He knew he was going to die. He had made peace with it.

"You think you'll succeed where the Dark Lord himself didn't?" He said mockingly.

"Yes" Greyback replied calmly picking up his wand from the floor.

"What are you waiting then? Finish it." Milthranzir said filled with anger and hatred.

Greyback looked at his wand.

"No. That would be too easy." He hid his wand away and took out a knife from his boot.

Outside of the room, Hector was standing alone, breathing heavily looking at the door behind which Greyback and Milthranzir had disappeared. When he heard the door unlocking he turned his back on it. With the corner of his eye he saw Greyback hiding a bloody knife in his boot and closing the door behind him. In his hand, he was holding a copper hey with the crest of Herpo the Foul on it.

After a small speech to his followers they made their way back to the tunnel, leaving Hector last in the room. He reached in his pocket and took out an other copper key, same with the one Greyback had taken from Milthranzir. Only this one, was real.