Cassian stepped into the hidden chamber with Nagini gliding behind him. Bathsheda reached him before the door finished sealing, arms round his shoulders, breathing against his neck.
"I'm fine," he said, patting her back. "Mostly fine. Fine-adjacent."
She didn't let go until Nicolas cleared his throat.
"How did it go?"
Cassian's face pulled into a grimace. "Badly. And then worse."
Perenelle, Dumbledore, Master Ji, Coriolanus, Sabine, Goshawk and Bagshot drifted closer, forming a loose circle round him.
Master Ji asked what all of them wanted with a deep frown. "What happened?"
Cassian sat on the nearest bench. Bathsheda was already setting a cup of tea in his hands. He murmured thanks and turned back to the group.
"Remember Greece and Yucatan? Last summer I told you the two sites looked linked. Marauder confirmed it."
Master Ji's fingers curled on his sleeve. "It was him who unleashed it?"
Cassian gave a nod. "Seems so. He admitted he didn't realise the creature's body and soul were separated. When he cracked open the temple in Greece, his plan was to tame it somehow. Don't ask me how. He wouldn't explain or was happy me asking questions. And the Covenant... they already knew Keepers were sniffing round the sites. Even before I told them."
Nicolas's brow creased. "More traitors in our circle?"
Cassian let out a breath. "Looks that way."
Dumbledore tipped his chin toward Nagini, who had settled in a coil beside Cassian's boots. "You managed to get the snake. That's something."
Cassian's grip tightened round his cup. Bathsheda's hand slid to his arm.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"She's not just a snake," he said quietly. "She was a person. Blood malefication. Someone warped her so badly she's stuck like this. I'm not experimenting on her. Not with a conscience I'd like to keep."
Unease rippled through the circle. Coriolanus and Sabine shared a look, one that said they'd expected trouble, but not this particular flavour. Bagshot pressed a hand to her chest. Goshawk muttered something sharp under her breath.
Master Ji's smile had flattened. "Blood malefication that deep... it's not reversible at this point."
"No," Cassian said. "It isn't."
They all knew what this meant. Testing his method on a living Horcrux had been the cleanest path to making Harry safe. But not at the cost of another human life trapped in scales.
Bathsheda brushed her fingers lightly against Cassian's wrist. "We'll find another way."
Coriolanus nodded. "We've dealt with worse corners. We'll work round this one too."
Bathsheda leaned against Cassian's shoulder. "We'll do it properly. No shortcuts."
Cassian ran a thumb along the teacup's rim. "Good. Because we're running out of shortcuts anyway."
Nicolas steepled his fingers. "What else did Marauder reveal?"
Cassian let out a tired huff. "The locks on the sites are weakening. All of them. He's planning to force a reunion of body and soul. And he's certain he won't be interrupted this time."
Dumbledore's brows were drawn. "Then we must assume he's closer than we'd hoped."
"Much closer," Cassian said. "And if he's right, we're on a timer."
"And," Cassian tapped the rim of his cup to draw their attention. "I'll need to go back. I have to see what Marauder's building."
Bathsheda's head snapped round. "Absolutely not. You barely made it out of that damned place the first tim."
"I did more than 'barely,'" Cassian said. "And I don't get another chance like this. They trust the face I used. They let me stand in the room. If I pull out now, we lose the one window we've got."
Coriolanus stepped forward, folding his arms. "How did you even pass their initiation? Metamorphmagus tricks only get you halfway. Their screening is brutal."
Cassian sighed. He'd told them his shapeshifting came from the Black side of his family tree, some distant great-aunt with strange gifts, magic skipping generations, that sort of thing. It was a convenient lie. The truth was far more ridiculous. Years ago, when he taught Tonks how to stabilise her morphing, his interface had awakened basic ability in him too. Bare-bones stuff at first, mostly useless. But after learning Druid spells, the ability was complete... somehow.
Cassian hesitated a bit, but then said, "I took Kaed Thorn's immortality."
The reaction hit the room like a dropped cauldron.
Dumbledore's hand went into a tight fist. Others wore different shades of shock.
"How?" Ji asked. "Kaed Thorn's proper old. She walked the plague wars. She's older than the Flamels."
"She was," Cassian said. "Not anymore."
He set the empty cup aside.
"Two summers ago," he continued, "I inherited a set of Druidic spells. One of the spirits I met in the Highlands gave me a task as well... stop Kaed Thorn. She'd broken their oldest laws. Killed her own order. Twisted their rites. She stole life from earth, forest and beast, and hoarded every stolen year inside her body."
Coriolanus lowered himself into a seat. Sabine stared at Cassian as if she were seeing him for the first time.
"And you killed her?" Master Ji asked.
Cassian shook his head. "I broke the spell she'd wrapped herself in. Everything she'd stolen tore free. Her body didn't survive the drop. It collapsed into ash." He tapped his chest. "I pulled the excess into myself to make the Covenant think I'd earned it the same way she had. I'll release it into the forest when I go back."
The room stared at him in silence.
Dumbledore finally spoke. "Cassian... how could you?"
Cassian met his eyes, tired rather than defensive. "Grow up, Albus. She drained tens of thousands of lives over centuries. She committed murder in slow motion. I didn't cast dark magic on her. I undid her work. If she died when the spell snapped, that's on her choices, not mine."
Dumbledore looked as though he was in a room with a serial killer. Cassian lifted his palm and called light into it.
His Patronus flared to life clean and bright as usual.
"Look at it," he said. "I'm not drifting into the dark. I'm not tampering with anything foul. I'm doing the job your generation ignored."
Master Ji sighed slowly. "She really is gone, then."
"She is," Cassian said. "And the Covenant bought it. They saw me absorb her years and assumed I'd devoured them the way she did."
Coriolanus let out a whistle. "No wonder they accepted you. Kaed Thorn was old even for most of them. Killing her is like ripping up Stonehenge with your bare hands."
Cassian rubbed his forehead. "Brilliant. I've frightened a room full of warlords. That bodes well."
Sabine stepped closer. "Are you sure going back is a good idea? Kaed wasn't liked much, but she was still a strong Dark Witch. If you scare them too much, they might join forces against you."
Cassian nodded. "I have to. Marauder's nearly finished. If we don't know what he's planning, we can't stop him."
Bathsheda held his hand. "If you go back alone-"
"I won't be alone," Cassian said. "You'll know where I am. And I'll pull out the moment anything shifts."
She didn't answer. Her jaw clenched.
"You'd better. Because if you don't, I'm dragging you out myself and you're not going to like how."
Cassian gave her a small smile. "Of course you will. You're terrifying."
Master Ji cleared his throat. "Before you go infiltrating ancient cults again... we need a strategy."
Nicolas leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "If the locks are weakening, we must assume convergence before year's end."
Dumbledore glanced round the circle. "Then everything we do must move quickly."
Cassian stood.
"Right," he said. "I'll go back in. I'll listen. I'll learn exactly what Marauder's preparing. And when I return-"
Bathsheda nudged him sharply. "When," she stressed.
He squeezed her hand.
"-we'll end this before he ever gets the chance to wake whatever he thinks he can control."
Cassian glanced down at Nagini, the snake coiled neatly beside his boot, her tongue flicking out.
"But we need a way to pull the fragment out of her and anchor it to something else," he said. "Marauder spied on the whole exchange between Tom and me. If I actually manage to 'help' him, he'll trust me more. I can work closer to him without raising suspicion."
He rubbed a hand across his jaw. "I could say Nagini didn't survive the ritual, but I'd rather not lose this connection."
That earned a round of frowns.
"Transferring a Horcrux," Coriolanus murmured. "That's a tall order. You're talking about unhooking soul magic and encouraging it to latch onto a different vessel. That's not standard curse-breaking. That's... something else entirely."
Sabine folded her arms. "And there aren't many roads to that 'something else.' Most of them are dark, stupid, or both."
Master Ji stroked his beard, murmuring, "The theory isn't impossible. The concept exists, shifting a soul imprint, redirecting a binding, but Voldemort's work isn't a clean imprint. It's a carved, splintered fragment."
Nicolas hummed in agreement, thoughtful. "There might be a way. Not to rip it out, but to coax it free. A displacement ritual. Like guiding a parasite into a new host."
Coriolanus grimaced. "You're making it sound appetising."
Cassian snorted. "I'll take unappetising over impossible."
Goshawk spoke for the first time. "Horcrux magic binds through three things, fear, blood, and will. If we want the fragment to migrate, we have to break one of those at the root."
Sabine nodded. "Blood we can't touch. Fear we can..." she paused, considering, "...pressure. Will is the fragile one."
"Meaning?" Cassian asked.
Sabine looked at him. "Meaning we convince the fragment the snake isn't viable anymore. Not by harming her, by presenting a vessel that feels more stable."
Bathsheda lit up. "An object that mimics the original conditions. I might ease the migration by carving runes."
"Exactly," Sabine said. "Something that can hold soul magic without tearing."
Coriolanus snapped his fingers. "You still have the old Horcruxes, don't you?"
Cassian blinked. "Yeah, I keep them all except the diary."
"Good," Coriolanus said. "Those things are practically begging to house forbidden nonsense."
Master Ji tilted his head. "If we anchor the vessel, lay down a path, weaken the Horcrux's grip without stressing the host..."
"...then the fragment might slip," Nicolas finished.
Cassian looked between them. "So, in short, trick the dark soul-fragment into moving house because it thinks the snake's no longer fit for tenancy, and since Old Horcruxes are familiar, the soul might decide to migrate."
Coriolanus shrugged. "Pretty much."
"It's workable," Sabine said. "Risky, but cleaner than anything else we've got."
Dumbledore's gaze lingered on Nagini, then on Cassian. "If this succeeds, Voldemort will believe the ritual worked. He'll trust your methods."
Cassian spread his hands. "That's the idea."
Master Ji gave him a look. "Your talent for joining ridiculous situations never ceases to surprise me."
Cassian chuckled. "Yeah, me too."
Sabine snorted.
Coriolanus gave Nagini a thoughtful once-over. "We'll need to build quickly."
Bathsheda nodded. "I'll design the rune scheme."
Cassian reached down and tapped Nagini's head.
"We'll sort you out," he murmured. "You better behave after that."
Nagini hissed softly.
Cassian stood and looked round the circle.
"Alright," he said. "Let's make a soul-fragment think it's moving into a nicer flat."
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