Professor Dumbledore held fury in his blue-black eyes as he pursued the intruder.
High on his heels were Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, and Madam Villanelle, with Draco and Ron deliberately falling behind the four adults in fear of getting shooed away.
They had been chasing the intruder's shadow for a long time now.
From winding corridors to shifting stairs, they all had been following the Headmaster's lead, cold seeping into their wintry robes.
Professor Dumbledore kept firing spells after spells, sometimes even apparating dozens of feet into the distance.
However, he still failed to catch the actual appearance of this intruder.
Just who was it?
Just who would dare to infiltrate the Castle when it was so heavily guarded?
Just who was foolish enough to come to the School's grounds during holidays and then get caught at the very first attempt?
Foolish or not, this intruder could truly outrun and outmaneuver the best wizards and witches this world had to offer for sure.
It was like… the intruder was deliberately letting the teachers pursue it.
Buying time? Professor Dumbledore's eyes narrowed finally. No. This can't go anymore.
The Headmaster shared a glance with Snape and nodded.
In the next moment, Dumbledore disapparated.
Professor McGonagall and Madam Villanelle got the hint without asking where the Headmaster had gone. As Snape picked up his pace, they followed suit, blinding all portraits with their spells.
Suddenly, they again saw the hint of the intruder's shadow.
They pounced at it, their minds thinking alike.
The intruder rushed toward a dark corridor.
Ever since they had begun chasing it, the intruder always took a sudden turn and kept melting away in shadows. This time, though, someone had already claimed the nightly shadows for himself.
Professor Dumbledore walked out from the other end of the corridor, dark flames blazing in his eyes.
A massive, blue-black bolt of Mana left the Elder Wand like lightning and hit the intruder square on its chest.
Crack-ckle!
The intruder fell with a gasp.
The Professors rushed to the spot from both directions, pinning the fallen enemy.
But what they found when they neared the fallen being left them rooted to their spot, their eyes widening with shock.
Professor McGonagall let out a gasp of her own.
Between the four Professors lay a brown robe. Nothing else.
There was no sign of any person ever even being there. Much less needed to be said about the identity of the intruder.
"What Magic is this?" Snape drawled.
Apparition was impossible within the School grounds, they knew. And even though they had been only chasing the intruder so far, at least they could say with surety that it had been a person running away from them, not a ghost.
So, finding nothing but clothes, especially when they heard the intruder when the Headmaster's spell hit it, left them all perplexed at the sight of this chilling mystery.
Flattening his old mouth into a thin line, Professor Dumbledore crouched and lifted the brown robes.
Under their already shocked eyes, something fell out of it.
Professor Snape also crouched, bringing the light at the tip of his wand over the fallen object.
It was a… doll; a paper doll.
And then it happened.
…
Booooooooooommmmmmmmm!
A loud explosion rocked the entire Hogwarts.
The Professors struggled to keep their footing, the ground shaking furiously beneath their feet.
It was like the giant castle had come out of its deep slumber, waking up after hundreds of years. And now, anytime, it was going to get up and start moving over legs of stones.
It was a scary feeling; a scarier thought, still.
"Albus!" Professor McGonagall shouted. "What's…"
The Head of Gryffindor House couldn't finish her words.
Hissssssssssssssss!
A hiss resounded throughout the castle, deafening ears.
From one end of the corridor, a giant serpent of blue-white mist came slithering toward them. It was so fast that by the time the Professors lifted their wands, it had already slithered past them.
Not only past them, but right through them.
It was a ghost?!
But before they could contemplate this strange, eerie discovery, the chill found their bones.
Professor Dumbledore's old bones shuddered. Professor Snape's teeth chattered. McGonagall fell to her knees, wrapping her arms around her. Madam Villanelle's wand created a circle of fire before she could fall.
The fire shot toward the two boys following them.
It circled Draco and Ron, whose faces had already gained a frosty, white color.
As if this chill wasn't enough, a thin layer of ice began crawling toward them from the same end of the corridor from where the mist serpent had arrived.
Small, but sharp crystals of ice began protruding out from the corners where two walls met.
However, it was the color of this ice that caught their attention the most — Bluer than blue, yet containing a dark, filthy magical aura within them.
"The Cursed Ice!" Madam Villanelle gasped, her face paling realizing the significance.
For the first time, a queer emotion fluctuated in Professor Dumbledore's eyes hearing the name.
He had always wondered about the existence of the Cursed Vaults and their significance. His teacher, Merlin, had shared their existence with him, but nothing else. It seemed the significance he had been trying to unearth was greater than he had thought it to be.
"It's the Cursed Ice!" Madam Villanelle warned. "If it touches you, it will freeze you to death."
"How to stop it?" Snape asked, firing pillars of fire at the ice with McGonagall.
The reincarnated Witch of Endor gritted her teeth. She looked up and found the Headmaster looking back at her.
Professor Dumbledore picked up the paper doll and nodded at her. "With me, Madam," he said.
To Snape and McGonagall, he said, "Don't waste your time on containing the ice. Make sure the students are safe. Call out all the staff and Aurors. We will be back in a minute."
The two Head of the Houses shared a glance, not understanding the obvious need to hide the secret of Cursed Ice.
Still, the matter at hand was too pressing. And, as the Headmaster said, the students remaining at the School came first.
So, sharing a final nod, the Professor rushed away, two towards the Cursed Ice's origins and two away from it.
…
Deep into the Hogwarts,
With a bang, Kai struck the wall in front of the Mirror of Erised.
His entire figure was shaking like a leaf. Not because of the Cursed Ice, but because, for the first time, he had felt HER gaze scanning him.
Kai had met the Timeline before.
Hell, he even had seen DEATH the Artificer.
But this was something else, he knew. It felt much more real.
That power… Kai gulped, remember those hands ripping Black Ghost. That power…
To avoid being a collateral casualty, he had rushed out from Cursed Vault of Ice, immediately using Shadow Space to come to his hall as he had already marked the shadows here.
It was then he saw the layer of ice crawling on the floor, icy crystals claiming the corners.
As Kai moved his gaze up, his eyes landed on the Mirror of Erised.
The Timeline, still taking Darcie's appearance, was already looking at him.
"Where is it?" SHE demanded, planting HER green eyes on him. "The Horcrux."
**************
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