Lemniscate

Sixteen

*Warning! This chapter contains graphic-ish scenes.  Read at your own risk!*

There is a deathly silence as the body of Albus Dumbledore falls to the ground. A trickle of blood falls from his mouth onto the floor. In death, he seems almost... fragile. The man had been so powerful that his physical disabilities stayed unnoticed by many until that moment. 

I watch silently as a ball of light that only I can see drifts up into the waiting hands of Death. His sinister smile is the only thing that breaks me out of my thoughts. For a moment, I had felt guilty... almost.

In a trance-like manner, I walk towards the body. Lightly, I run my fingers over soft flesh, still warm, and wonder how such a sweet old man could have done such harm. 

My eyes shoot open. There, just beneath the skin, is an unfamiliar magic. One that most definitely does not belong to the old man. No, this magic is more dark, more sinister. It pulses, as if trying to break to the surface. I am drawn to it. 

Shaking, not fully in control of my actions, I scrape my nails across the dead man's face, tendrils of weak flesh curling beneath them. My mind is consumed with only the thought of freeing whatever is trapped withing this already decaying body, but I have no way to truly break the skin. 

The power grows more restless under my touch, basking itself in my attention. I need it. I need it. Ineedit. Ineeditineeditineediti-

I flinch. What is wrong with me? Why am I suddenly so obsessed with whatever the power is? My thoughts... are not my own. And yet, I cannot bear to tear myself away from the corpse. I must get this power, I must free it, or else it will be lost. I do not know exactly how I know this. It is merely instinct. 

My mind, drawn so far away from reality, doesn't register the worried murmurs coming from those around me. I do not even notice when a familiar hand touches my shoulder. Instead, I do the one thing that comes to mind. Shakily, I hover my hands over the corpse's face... and jam my thumbs into its eyes.

And all hell breaks loose.