SamuZai
theBlackStaffAndNightMarE

theBlackStaffAndNightMarE

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ACT5CH27 - Remorse

Studies in sensory magics mention that places that were exposed to extreme emotions for an extended period of time developed preternaturally produced sound waves. In many cases, these sounds caused an auditory illusion where the sound appeared to be constantly increasing or decreasing in pitch, but never actually got higher or lower. This illusion frequency resulted in extreme reactions to vict...

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ACT5CH26 - Stances

Apologies. Was caught up in what started off as an emergency and then turned into a living nightmare. Pun not intended about my co-author. Anyway, we're back. Expect the next chapter soon, since it's already half-done. And now, on with the chapter.

For Daphne, the next two weeks were like being in the center of a storm. 

As a future Lady of a Nob...

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ACT5CH25 - New Beginnings

The gravestone was smaller than he'd imagined. Simple. White marble, worn soft around the edges by rain and time. Two names carved into it with quiet reverence. 

James Potter (1960 – 1981) 

Lily Potter (1960 – 1981) 

Harry stood in the soft soil, cloak still fluttering faintly in the wind. Behind him, Daphne stood, a respect...

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ACT5CH24 - The Biscuit Paradox

The nursery had gone ominously quiet as the witches and wizards there processed Harry’s reply.

“....Say that again?” murmured Daphne.

“I said if he’s correct, then it might be possible to actually revert time back to 1981,” said Harry, his voice tight. “Maybe I can recreate the moment and see what transpired on that night.”

“That’s impossible,” said Ameli...

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ACT5CH23 - TIME

There were times when Harry’s natural inclination towards cynicism served some larger, more enduring toxicity — a vast, chronic paranoia. Any rare glimpses of optimism were swiftly dealt with, a virus his mind and body leapt to attack, and thus, were ultimately beaten into submission. Feelings of hope? Cancerous. There was a constant sensation for Harry that if things seemed to be going wel...

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ACT5CH22 - THE BINDING OF THE ECHO

The moment the rift closed behind them, and the light of the Dumbledore house faded, Harry stood at the edge of the nursery with Dumbledore beside him. The old man said nothing at first, eyes slowly scanning the splintered mobile, the half-burnt walls, the toys cracked open like the bones of a long-dead animal. But Harry could feel the subtle shift in his breath, the weight of memory that even ...

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At Godric's Hollow....

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Azkaban Gate

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ACT5CH21 - HEIR OF ECHOES

“Name’s Bathilda, dearie. Bathilda Bagshot.” Harry blinked, stuck with facing too many competing responses. He wanted to express his surpris

“Name’s Bathilda, dearie. Bathilda Bagshot.”

Harry blinked, stuck with facing too many competing responses. He wanted to express his surprise at meeting the author that wrote the History Of Magic textbooks. He wanted to mention how ...

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Fleur Delacour

Which version do you prefer?

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Hecate's wrath (from The Shape Of Fear Part 2)

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ACT5CH20 - GODRIC'S HOLLOW

“Daddy! She’s awake!” “Wait. Give her time.” The world returned slowly, like fog burning away under a rising sun. Her first sensation was on

“Daddy! She’s awake!”

“Wait. Give her time.”

The world returned slowly, like fog burning away under a rising sun.

Her first sensation was one of discomfort, which grew to aching when she became more alert.  ...

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Daphne Greengrass

Do you like it? Who's picture do you want to see next?

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ACT5CH19 - WHERE POISON DWELLS PART 2

It was time. Daphne stood alone in the preparation alcove — a narrow, rune-etched corridor branching from the ritual chamber. The stone bene

It was time.

Daphne stood alone in the preparation alcove — a narrow, rune-etched corridor branching from the ritual chamber. The stone beneath her feet pulsed faintly, as if attuned to her heartbeat, or perhaps to the ancient blood running...

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ACT5CH18 - WHERE POISON DWELLS

The scent of paper and heatstones lingered in the air. It had been a long and tiring day for Babajide Akingbade, but his work was far from d

The scent of paper and heatstones lingered in the air.

It had been a long and tiring day for Babajide Akingbade, but his work was far from done. He had been working for an entire day straight, and yet the piles kept rising on his desk. Stacked ...

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ACT5CH17 - THE IRON VOW OF BONES

The War Room beneath Bones Manor had no windows. Or portraits. The Bones of old believed that windows were too closely tied to the symbology

The War Room beneath Bones Manor had no windows. Or portraits.

The Bones of old believed that windows were too closely tied to the symbology of flow and escape — open paths through which skilled sorcerers could twist meaning...

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ACT5CH16 - SANCTIFIED BY SIN

The door to the Lord’s Study opened with a sound like uncoiling chains. It wasn’t a door, not really. It was a seal. Binding magic etched in

The door to the Lord’s Study opened with a sound like uncoiling chains.

It wasn’t a door, not really. It was a seal. Binding magic etched into the very grain of the wood, woven into the threshold like a final challenge left behind by de...

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ACT5CH15 - BENEATH THE FOLD

The sky above Grimmauld Place was heavy with clouds, the kind that smothered sound and made the world feel smaller. A solemn hush draped the grounds behind the house, where a small, overgrown Family Shrine lay hidden behind tall hedgerows and layers of enchantment. The Black family’s final resting place. It wasn’t large—barely a clearing—its perimeter traced by wrought iron, runes ruste...

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ACT5CH14 - A KINDNESS LONG DENIED

They say the Old Ways demanded perfection.

They would choose a scion. A son. A daughter — it mattered not, so long as the blood flowing through them was blackened. 

Toujours Pur.

Always pure. 

For three years, he would be pampered. Four wives. Endless pleasure. Dark arts forbidden to all but the favored. And when his bl...

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ACT5CH13 - BETRAYED BY SHADOWS

Their next stop was a muggle housing complex.

“Harry,” said Daphne archly. “I thought you said something about home.”

“We are home.”

For a second, Daphne considered berating her fiance or fearing that he had lost his mind. But knowing the kind of shenanigans he had just pulled, she gave him a second chance and looked around.

Rows of half-built apartm...

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ACT5CH12 - RUSH HOUR

They landed hard.

The moment solid ground formed beneath his boots, Harry let go of Daphne. Her fingers slipped from his arm as he took a single step forward — then another — before his knees buckled.

His stomach clenched like it had been hexed.

He dropped, one hand bracing against the warped floorboards, and vomited.

The sound was wet and ugly in the stillness. Acid...

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ACT5CH11 - BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

“You sought to break this girl,” Freyja’s voice rang, soft and fierce, “but you forgot — Summer does not die. The seasons turn and turn.”

Daphne’s eyes blazed gold. She stepped forward, her ruined hand whole again, golden fire licking her fingertips.

“Harry,” she whispered, her own voice threadin...

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ACT5CH10 - THE JAGUAR AND THE THORN

To the Heir who dares bear the weight of our name — know this.

We were not born of Albion’s soil. We are not children of these damp, green lands. We are the mortal bearers of Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror, the Jaguar of Midnight, the Trial by Shadow, from lands where blood once fed the gods. 

When Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, cast down our g...

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UPDATE NOTICE #2

All chapters posted, save for the last 2 (for Purebloods). I'll be posting them tomorrow. A little work is left.

I CANNOT tell you how time-consuming and absolutely thrilling it has been to write this arc. I am hoping you enjoyed reading it just as I did writing it.

do comment.

P.S. The name of ACT 5 is THE FRACTURE BENEATH.

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ACT5CH9 - THE THEFT OF NAMES

Whispers echoed across the courtroom, as Nott made his accusations.

It was to be expected, given the gravity of the supposed crime, on several levels.

Harry was surprised. He didn’t think that Nott would dig things to this degree, just to defeat him. 

Still, there was something about an enemy that didn’t do things halfway. Just like Theodore Nott had decided to drop h...

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ACT5CH8 - PRECEDENT OF RUIN

It took three hours before the trial could be restarted, and for once, it wasn’t Harry’s fault. 

Well, not completely, anyway.

Shortly after Albus Dumbledore had declared the need for a half-hour recess, the doors to the courtroom had sprung open — 

— only to realize the peripheral area was quite literally stuck in Time.

It turned out the Department of ...

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ACT5CH7 - THE GATHERING OF KNIVES

Albus Dumbledore watched — and for the first time in decades, he wondered if the calculations he had built his life upon had finally slipped beyond his reach.

Harry Potter stood before the Wizengamot, the blackened bone of the Elder Wand cradled at his side, the Cloak — no longer merely the Invisibility Cloak but something far older, far darker — trailing behind him like a spill of ...

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ACT5CH6 - THE CHAMBER OF FRACTURED MEMORY

Albus Dumbledore sat perfectly still.

His eyes, pale and sharp behind the half-moon spectacles, were fixed upon the murmuring assembly, but his thoughts… 

…his thoughts were elsewhere.

The surface of his mind — the conscious level — watched the swirling debate, the rising suspicion, the brittle air that hung in the chamber like a storm waiting to break. He noted e...

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ACT5CH5 - THE SHAPE OF FEAR PART 3

The heat was unbearable.

Malloran barely stood, knees locking, his wand slipping from his sweat-slick grip. Lin coughed wetly beside him, blood leaking down her side, eyes wide and unfocused. Narex, trembling, muttered something half-prayer, half-spell under his breath, but even Malloran knew it wouldn’t matter.

The beast towered above them — the monstrous runespoor, all three h...

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ACT5CH4 - THE SHAPE OF FEAR PART 2

Before you can name your enemy, before you can face it, you must first feel its outline in the dark. It is the shape that rises in your blind spot. It is the silhouette that breaks your map. It is the shape of fear.

....

The Lochness unit skimmed silently across the waves, a masterpiece of magical engineering — black-metal hull layered with enchantments, ...

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