The Nightmare Man

Chapter Five

Albus stood at Cornelius' desk that now was covered with four boxes, no more. Four boxes was all the information that was to be found on the Nightmare Lord.

This had been gathered after Albus contacted one the guards that were not on shift. The headmaster had an idea of who could have done it, but needed confirmation. Having seen what happened at the Ministry and knowing the minister had shown them the prisoner the free guard had taken them down to the Nightmare Lord's prison. Already when they came out of the elevator they knew something was wrong. The smell of blood was in the air. They rushed to the corridor, where the door to the Nightmare Lord's prison was open, the chair empty, and one guard dead.

The rest of the Order and the able Aurors had been informed by Albus of the man's existence, and the attack of the Ministry was most likely done during his escape.

Lily Potter came to a stop next to him. For the moment they were alone in the room.

"Why would they hide such a monster underneath the Ministry?" she whispered, clutching her hands together. She knew some of the people who had died earlier and had insisted on helping, leaving her precious son with the Weasley family at one of the Order's safe houses. They had brought Hermione and her parents from the Muggle world as well, to keep her safe.

They all knew someone who had died a horrible, painful death today. Albus sighed and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I do not know, Lily. Hopefully the information here will tell us why."

"It's not much," she said. "How long has he been prisoner there?"

"I don't know that either. I've only known about him for less than a day, my dear. I was only able to get these files due to the permission from the guard when it became apparent this Nightmare Lord is probably responsible for the attack of the Ministry."

"What a horrible man."

She still opened the boxes and took out some papers. A few looked ready to fall apart in her hands. Her eyes widened.

"Albus… these are dated… they're dated from centuries ago!"

"What?"

"Look. 1628… and here, 1544! They are… how can he be thisold?"

"Cornelius mentioned some things that made it known he was older than he looked. But I thought it was speculation, or that Cornelius wanted to… I don't know; make the man seem more terrifying."

"How old did he look like?" Lily said. "Was he really old-looking, please tell me he was…"

"No," Albus said. "In fact… he looked younger than James. His eyes were the only thing that told me there might have been some truth to Cornelius' words."

James, Sirius and Remus filed into the room.

"That's all they have on that thing?" James spat out. "How could he have done so much damage? They were trained to fight, all of them damnit!"

"Hence the reason why we will read all of this," Albus said, "and try to understand our enemy. He has had time to create his own history."