Chapter 238 - History of the Houses! Part-1

For a long breath after the rope snapped the world away, I stared at the space it had occupied and watched the color of Portkey mana fade like the afterimage of a camera flash. Relief uncoiled in me—not the loud kind, but the quieter certainty of a sword finally slid back into its scabbard. Another blade took its place above my head, of course, but this one, at least, had a sheath: the contract's clauses lay between it and my neck.

The lull didn't last. Nalini and Mr. Patil were already moving, a brief instruction tossed over a shoulder—"Stay in this room"—and then soft-soled steps fading down the corridor. A timer had started the moment the rope tugged London into their laps. I'd asked Sirius to wait six hours, but that request had to pass through grief, anger, and guilt before it would become action. If he didn't wait—if Dumbledore knew about my absence quickly— I can't predict what he would do, but considering leaving me here alone would set a bad example for Harry, I'm pretty sure this building would become the subject of someone else's plan very quickly.

I sat in the chair Sirius had just vacated, palms flat on the worn arms, and let myself consider it. Dumbledore, with Sirius aware of our destination being at a confluence of three rivers, followed the leads of the group and the man's own senses… a patient search from a powerful man can alter the weather. If he showed up here before we were done, the Patils' carefully planned arrangements would unravel, and I would be a thread involved in everything due to the contract.

'Then again, since the contract involves my magic as well, it gives us enough bargaining power to make sure it doesn't go wrong.'

The door opened, breaking the thought. Nalini crossed the threshold in three purposeful strides, her hand found my shoulder—surprisingly firm, entirely steady. I stood without resisting, knowing what was going to happen. "We are Apparating," she said. "The wards have been open, and most of the preparations are done. We need to move now."

Her words were still falling to the floor when the world went narrow. An apparition, as always, was uncomfortable as I was squeezed through the layers of reality; my discomfort usually settled like a belt tightening and then loosened around my navel, along with the ridiculous brief sensation of lightness.

...

Cold air hit my face. Sound arrived before I focused on where I was: the hush-loud of water working itself against stone. I took a step to find my weight again and let my eyes make take in the place.

We stood in a cave made honest by age rather than grandeur. Torches burned in iron brackets, their flames steady, and a draft of clean air came down from somewhere above. The rock was slick with a sheen that was not exactly moisture; the air held a mineral bite. At the far end, two massive wooden gates leaned into the stone like sleeping oxen. One stood bare. The other was cradled in a curved pane of light that wasn't light, at least to the naked eye; they were similar—a shield of mana so dense it was glowing to my other senses. My mana sense slid outward on reflex and struck a second skin: a ward-field laid over the chamber like a bell jar. It didn't budge as I tried to feel around it.

'Hopefully it doesn't stop a porkey going through it.'

Above us, beyond the roof and the rock and the ward, from the sounds I could guess that the three roars of the river were speaking to one another. Even though it was muffled, it was there. We were under the Triveni Sangam at this moment. Two steps away from a myth, if you believe the people who tell it.

'And something so obvious that would scream at Dumbdledore that here we are, come bash through the ward'

"So you broke one," I said, nodding toward the unguarded gate. "The cave's general warding. Why are the mana wards around the cave so much worse?"

Nalini moved to stand beside me, her gaze fixed on the curving pane. "Because the first is a wall built to keep this place hidden, not to keep people out," she said. "It stretched over a large area as well, so it reduced effectiveness. We bled mana into it for a decade to find the softer edges. This—" she lifted her chin at the smaller barrier, "—is a lock built around a room the size of a small room. Likely one-tenth of this chamber, perhaps even less. Its focus is set; it is meant to keep everything out. There is no weak point to take advantage of, and attacking it and eroding this ward with mana would take several centuries."

I watched the ward as it glowed and vibrated to an unknown frequency. The shield didn't shimmer or flex at all. It gave the impression of finality and obsolescence.

"Your house is an old one as well, right?" I said, getting an odd look from her. "Slytherin got through the other ward once—if you're right about how the first trial worked. That was… what, a dozen centuries? More? If brute force were a path, you'd be through already."

Silence fell in a careful sheet for a few seconds. Nalini's jaw worked once, then stilled. When she spoke, the words were very plain. "Five thousand years of pushing at the wrong door," she said, "that one," and pointed at the now unremarkable door. "The barrier broke like an old tooth, and there was nothing behind it but expensive air. The family then decided that they would not spend another five thousand years' worth of efforts on a myth."

I glanced at the unguarded gate again. "You emptied five millennia into that one," I said, "and it yielded access to… Nothing?"

"Nothing," she replied, and her mouth made the shape of a smile without arriving there. "Whatever was in there, Slytherin took it with him. The other room could be empty as well, though I have a hunch it is not."

"And you decided that kidnapping a handful of young scions of the Noble houses was the cheaper way to get into it?" I asked. I didn't add and stupider. She was clever enough to hear it anyway.

"Yes," she said, with no apology, yet her tone shifted to something darker. "You ask that because you don't understand your own inheritance, the history of your so-called Noble houses. Nor the way the world you stepped into is older than your country. You are still thinking about yourself. The knowledge we are dealing with transcends time itself."

A flicker of temper ran under her words and then settled like a fish in deep water. She turned her head. "Padma," she called, not loudly. The name moved through the cave as if the stone knew to carry it. "Come here."

I turned with the word and saw her—a familiar shape in unfamiliar clothes. Padma's ritual robes were the exact opposite of the curtain of sheer black silk that I'm used to. The symbol of her family was etched onto her chest, hiding her nipples away, and that was the only modesty she got as her trimmed pubes were slightly visible through the sheer white robe. Her hair was bound back. The expression on her face was a hinge between reluctance and nervousness, as was her mana, singing along those lines.

"Explain to Mr. Black why we are stupid enough to take this gamble," Nalini said. There was dry humor in it, but the iron was real. "And why everything here matters."

Without waiting for a reply, she strode toward the far left of the chamber where a ritual circle had been chalked into the stone—a geometry of arcs and triangles crisp enough to cut, one that I'm familiar with. Two figures I did not know were placing small bowls at the runic points. 

Padma stood where Nalini had stood a moment ago and did not meet my eyes. Her attention slid to the cave around us and then down, to the hairline scratches in the floor where the footfall had undoubtedly been dragged through a hundred times through the centuries. She drew a breath as if the cave might take some of the weight from her.

"Status," she said at last, still not looking at me. It wasn't a question laden with rank. It was a word raised like a small shield—task before talk, function before feeling.

"Everything and the world revolves around status..." She began, telling me the story and history of Indian Wizarding heritage.

'At least this is mildly interesting.'

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AN: A bit late, but yeah, I'm missing one chapter from last week that I'll probably post later today to cover up. Normally, I was going to take Saturdays and Sundays off, but some work came in on Thursday, so I'm being as flexible as I can.