Previously, on the Caretaker...

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

You stop in an instant after hearing his voice, you didn't imagine it, that came straight from the pillar of light.

“Brandon! Into the light! Now!”

“But. Sir…”

You try communicating with him, but unlike when he was inside of your head, it doesn't feel like a 2 way road, you can hear him, and you can certainly try to talk to him, but you are almost positive he can't hear you.

“Quick! Brandon! We don't have much time!”

You look at the light, then back at the castle, then back at the light.

“...Fucking hell”

You look back at the castle and make up your mind.

“I'm sorry. Sir.”

You run through the gardens, around the enchanted hedges and into the castle just as the ground begins shaking again.

*KA-CRRRRRAK. CRUUUMMMMMM*

You hear something big splitting and rocks falling, you are not entirely sure what it was, but you are not staying put to find out.
Without stopping, you venture deeper into the castle, shouting her name with each turn you take inside the corridors.

“WILLOW! WILLOW WHERE ARE YOU?! WILLOW!”

Another powerful shake of the ground makes you tumble. You steady yourself next to a wall and wait for the tremor to end, but not only does it NOT stop, the wall cracks and splits.
Lucky for you, nothing collapses, yet.

“I need to get out of here fast, WILLOW!”

You remember the last time you saw her, it was when you just stepped out of your room, she was heading to-

“The Great Hall!”

You turn to make your way directly to The Great Hall, praying with each passing moment that she is indeed in there.

With each step you take, you see parts of the castle cracking. They make a thunderous and worrisome *CRACK* every time that you see a new fissure forming on the walls.

At the same time, you see the many pets of Hogwarts that were left behind in their hurry, each creature, regular or magical that students had as their familiars or companions, running, flying or slithering away from the chaos, heading straight to any of the many exit doors of the castle.
You continue running in the opposite direction, quickly looking inside empty classrooms in case Willow is inside any of them.

“WILLOW!...WILLOW!...WILLOW!”

You find nothing, each room that you pass making you more sure that you’ll find her in The Great Hall.

Soon enough, after taking one last turn and avoiding a falling piece of ceiling, you reach The Great Hall.

“WILLOW!”

“BRANDON!”

There she was, trapped in The Great Hall, balancing herself on top of the staff´s table at the end of the room, half of the floor gone and replaced with a drop so deep you can't see the bottom of it.

“BRANDON! VHAT IS GOING ON?!”

“That's not important right now! We have to get you out of there now! Can you make your way out of there?!”

That was a stupid question, there was no way to cross the chasm that went through the hall and there were no other paths to take out of the hall.
Yet, she looks around, searching for a way to get out of there.

“I-i zhink i can do a small wall run and hang from the pillars of the walls! but it's too far to make it all the vay across! Can you do any magic to catch me?!”

“I don't think that's such a good idea right now! The magic is acting weird!

“Vhat!?”

There is another shake of the ground and the chasm grows in size, the hole only widens and widens as chunks of the floor tear themselves from the ground and fall into the depths, followed by the Gryffindor table.
You see the heavy table fall and slam against the wall a couple of times before splitting in half when it takes a particularly strong hit. It then disappears.
The red tablecloth with the Gryffindor crest follows.

File: wallrun.jpg (41 KB, 1280x720)

41 KB JPG

You see the long tablecloth falling and swaying in the air as it does.

“...That can work…Willow! I need you to do the wall run and then JUMP towards me!”

“VHAT?! I just said it's too far! I'll never make it!”

“Listen! When you jump I´ll throw you one side of this!”

You go to the Ravenclaw table and take the tablecloth from it, just as long as the Gryffindor one but in its distinctive blue color.

“You´ll have to catch it and i then i´ll pull you back up!”

“ARE YOU CRAZY!? ZHAT VILL NEVER VORK!”

“We don't have the time to plan something else!”

“IM NOT GONNA MAKE IT!”

A big crack appears on the ceiling, both of you look up and see it split the entire thing in half.
Pieces of it begin to fall, crushing the Slytherin and Hufflepuff tables under huge boulders.

“JUMP!”

Against her better judgment, Willow jumps off of the staff table and runs as fast as she can towards the wall.
With her running start, she jumps into the wall, her feet twist in an almost unnatural way as she begins the ascending part of the wall run, her hand drags behind her while keeping it as close to the wall as possible.

When she reaches the highest point, she kicks away from the wall and jumps into the chasm, stretching her hands as you throw the tablecloth in her direction…

“CATCH!”

>Roll 1D2, 1=she grabs it, 2= she doesnt. need 2 out of 3 rolls to succeed.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
And now, we continue.

“CATCH!” you shout.

And she does.

She grabs the blue tablecloth, clutching at it for dear life.

Immediately you feel the pull of her weight on your arms as the tablecloth tenses and pulls you closer to the chasm, but you plant your feet solidly on the ground and begin pulling back.

The building continues collapsing around you but that doesn't stop you from using all of your might to get Willow out of the hole.
The both of you might end up with some rope burn in your hands, but you simply ignore the pain until you see Willow´s head peeking out, and as soon as she can hold herself from the edge, you grab her hand and pull her out, both falling back on the ground behind you and lying down for an instant.

“Zhank you!”

“Dont thank me yet, we still have to-”

A huge brick falls next to you, missing you by a few centimeters, it explodes when it crashes into the ground, sending debris everywhere.

“SHIT! OUT! NOW!”

You both turn and make a run for the big doors, there are a few boulders blocking the way but at this point you know that looking for another path is out of the question and magic is not an option, so instead you climb.

Willow cups her hands to use as a step and push you upwards, when you get on top of the blockade you detach your prosthetic foot, letting the hook where your real leg and the prosthetic foot connect exposed and lower your leg so she can hang from it and pull her up.

“Ugh zhat vas veird…” She says as you reattach your foot.

“Hey, it worked, i might to have to add some attachments to it later, looks useful”

You both jump down the boulders and finally exit the collapsing building.

>Perfect escape, Willow earns a +10 to her physical bonus and Brandon reduces his negative one by 5.

As you step outside into the gardens, you turn to look back and witness the emblematic building that houses the Great Hall, split and crumble, its great windows and century old arches, all twist, bend and finally break and fall.

It all collapses onto the ground with a thundering and deafening sound.

But just as you think that everything is finally over and you can focus on the next problem…
…The ground begins to rumble.

There is a weird sound unlike all the previous ones, it sounds like thunder but it's muffled, as if it were underwater.

The ground then shakes once, twice and then something finally gives.

There is splashing in the lake, you see the tentacles of its giant resident, the giant squid, flail frantically as if trying to get away from something, then simply go back underwater and disappear from view.
Then the Selkies followed, they could be seen swimming away from Hogwarts main island, splashing and dashing away from something, they jumped out of the water as they swam away, but one by one they all disappeared and never came back to the surface.

There was a moment of silence before you could figure out what was happening.

You see the water starting to move all in one direction, slowly sinking into a specific point before quickly turning into a whirlpool.

It's the point from where that pillar of light was coming from, the whirlpool surrounding it as whatever that was down there sucked and drained the water from the lake.

You hear his voice again.

“BRANDON! WHERE ARE YOU?!”

“I'M COMING, MERLIN!”

“Merlin?!” Willow asks.

*CRRRUUMMMMB*

The cliff where the Great Hall used to be, breaks away from the main island and piece by piece descends into the lake, from where it splits you could see the dungeons, the kitchens, the Hufflepuff and Slytherin rooms and some classrooms, all hanging from the face of the new cliff that was formed as the previous one gets devoured by the whirlpool and disappears into the light.

“Dont you even ZHINK about it! Ve JUST made it back from zhere and now “zhere” it's GONE! Are you CRAZY?!”

“Merlin is down there! we have to get him out!”

She holds your hand and doesn't let go.

“Brandon! Zhis is too much! Ve dont know vhat is happening and ve dont know vhat is down zhere! Please dont go!”

You look into her eyes and you see worry, genuine worry along with some tears of fear forming at the corners of her eyes.

For a moment, your world freezes and the entire weight of…everything falls on your shoulders.
It is now when you finally realize the scale and magnitude of everything you are currently involved with.

Without letting go of her hand, you turn to see the purple pillar of light coming out of the whirlpool.

You see a chunk of Hogwarts missing along with a piece of the island where that chunk used to be.

Far in the distance away from the castle, you see all the students and professors, all bundled together and getting away from Hogwarts territory.

During all this time, you knew and kept saying that everything you did for Merlin was to help avoid the end of the world, to help prevent some sort of beast being unleashed into existence.
You kept saying that, you kept hearing that from Merlin, but you never really understood the magnitude of it, not until now.

You think back on everything you have done so far, you learned some ancient spell, you stopped an evil wizard twice, thrice even! you lost part of your leg…but despite all that, it never felt like you were doing much, it never felt like your actions were making a big impact, never felt like you were in real danger.

But now, seeing one of the most recognizable fortresses of the magical world, crumble and fall into the lake that surrounds it…something clicks inside your head.

Hell! The most impressive thing you have done so far was to banish an annoying poltergeist! You are WAY out of your league here!.

How is it that you managed to survive until now?! you are just the caretaker, you are the guy that picks up trash and cleans up children's messes.

How did you get involved in all of this!?

“BRANDON!”

You hear him once again, Merlin calling your name.
The most powerful wizard of all time, and he is calling for you with fear and despair in his voice.

“BRANDON! WHERE ARE YOU!?”

You turn back to look at Willow once again.

One of the tears that formed in her eyes finally rolled down her cheek.
She is terrified.

“BRANDOOOONN!!”

Merlin keeps calling for you.
He is terrified.

You look at your hand, still holding Willow´s hand and you see them trembling.
You are terrified…

…

“No…”

Willow looks at you, puzzled.
“Vhat?”

“No, I have to do it, Merlin needs me”

“But zhis is too much! i vont let you go zhere!”
She hugs you tightly and shoves her head on your chest.
“Nein!”

You hug her back.

“Listen, I need you to go with the rest of the students and professors, if it becomes too dangerous then you can just-”

“NO!”

“Willow-”

“NO!”

“...”

“no…i vont let you go…not alone…not by yourself”

“...huh? no, no! you are not coming with me! It's too dangerous!”

“It's also dangerous for you! don't zhink im going to let my boyfriend go into who knows vhat all by himself, i either go vith you or you don't go at all, I don't care if it brings zhe end of the world, im not leaving your side!”

You want to be mad at her, but instead you smile.

“You are crazy…”

“Not more zhan you, so you can't talk”

You gently hold her head in your hands and look at her straight in the eyes.

“Are you sure of this?”

“Ve still have a long road ahead of us, but i vant to travel ALL OF IT vith you”

You kiss her.

“It will be dangerous, hell, im terrified right now”

“Im afraid too, but i vould be more afraid if im not vith you”

You touch her forehead with yours and give her a small kiss on her nose.

“You are incredible”

“VE are incredible”

She returns the kiss on your nose and separates from you.
“Lets go” she says

“Lets go”

You both run towards the edge of the lake, you have to slide down some steep slopes and jump over the broken stone staircase that takes you down to the boat house, but eventually you make it.

Near the shore, you see the whirlpool and the pillar of light coming out of it, inside the light you see a human figure, it has no distinguishable features, but you already know it's him.

“Merlin! Sir! we are here! what do we do!?”

Immediately, you feel the figure looking at you despite not having any eyes…or a face.

“Brandon! it's too late! The Beast! it won't let itself be conquered! It now wants to escape its prison and reform itself! I'm the only thing stopping it from escaping into reality!”

“H-How do ve stop it?!” Willow asks and you now realize that she can also hear him.

“It's looking to complete itself, we must not let it! I can no longer focus on obtaining the remaining pieces, not while stopping it from coming into reality! Now you must do it, Brandon”

“What!? Me?! but, i dont-”

“Brandon, it HAS to be you, only you have some form of experience with ancient magic, you have used it before, you can do it again, find the last pieces and put an end to this!”

“But how many pieces are there? we know where some of them are, but we don't know if those will be enough”

“They will, I saw it”

“Vhat do you mean?” Asks Willow.

“This place, it allows me to see…everything” Merlin begins, there is something in his voice that you can't really identify, but he sounds…in awe, start struck, at the edge of…madness?

“Its not perfect, i see…endless possibilities, i've seen places that shouldn't be, things that never happened, things that WILL happen, but its all too much, i cannot choose what to see, i just do, but in one of those things i saw, i saw us, you, in a perfect world, where everything is fixed, the dead come back to life, unbothered and perfect, injustice is over, evil never was, it was all i ever wanted…it was…paradise.”

“Umm…Merlin?” You interrupt him.

He remains quiet for just a moment too long before coming back to his senses.

“There are millions of pieces out there, but they are all scattered across the branches, each branch only has a few pieces, so you can only obtain a certain amount from an entire branch”

“By branch…you mean…”

“Time, the Beast became so powerful, so everpresent, so omnipotent that when it was shattered it dispersed across every different timeline it had access to”

“...So we are locked out…”

“Not exactly, there are ways to access other timelines, but not even i with all the magic in the world would be capable of jumping to another branch, there are some secrets not even i know”

“So, how many pieces are in this one?”

“There are 4 pieces in total, we already have 1, we know where the 2nd one is, we suspect where the 3rd one is, and the last one we still don't know”

“But, I need your help to get those pieces, only you can contain them”

“That is not true, you can contain them too, all I've ever done was to help you with the transfer process, you will just have to do it without my help this time”

“But, what about the magic? magic is gone now, Hogwarts itself is falling to pieces!”

“Its not gone, just relocated, its being absorbed back into its point of origin, the source of all magic”

“Hogwarts is the source of all magic?” You say, pointing at the whirlpool from where the pillar of light is coming out.

“No, not Hogwarts, this is just a point of access, an entrance to the true source of magic, there are many across the world, but it seems the beast managed to open this one as a way to escape, it created a wound on reality”

“Vait! so zhe beast's true prison is in the one place vhere all of zhe magic comes from?! Vhy is it in zhere!? Zhat's like locking down a guy in a cell along with a nuke!”

“I do not know why it was trapped in here, nor is it important, we just need to stop it from escaping and destroy it once and for all, and for that we need all the pieces we can get! Now stop wasting time and go! I can only hold it for so long!”

“Dont worry Merlin, we´ll get those pieces for you!

“Thank you, Brandon, now make haste!”

“Hang in there, Merlin, we´ll be back soon!”

You step away from the shore, Willow following close.

“So…vhere are the pieces again?”

“Well, we know Lockheart has one, that's how he became some sort of “seer” or whatever he is. The other one should be close or under St.Mungos if what we felt before was correct, the last one though, i have no idea”

“So, St.Mungos it is then?”

“St.Mungos, yeah”

“Just one problem…how do ve get zhere? magic is gone, that means the floo network vill not vork and ve cant apparate, its like a 10 hour trip by Thestral and I haven't seen any magical creature since the castle began crumbling down”

“...Wait…you are the Muggle studies professor”

“Umm…yeah, vhy? i dont zhink zhere is much i can do vith zhat right now”

“Dont you teach about cars in later years?”

“Vell, yes, but i dont-” She stops mid-sentence then bursts into a sprint towards the castle…the one side that hasn't been destroyed yet.

“Please be intact, please be intact, please be intact!” She repeats again and again the entire time she runs back to the castle. You follow closely behind her.

“Is it a fast car?” You ask.

“Its not going to vin any races soon, but it should be fast enough to get us to London before it gets dark”

“Can i drive?”

“Do you know how to drive?”

“...Fine, you drive”

You reach the training grounds where the flying classes are held and head straight for one of the castle's outer walls, in there you find a set of wooden double doors locked with chain and lock.

But the walls surrounding the door appear to have collapsed with all the shaking of the land.
There are some pieces of the wall near the doors, you also notice how the doors are splintered, as if they were slammed by some of the falling boulders or cracked under the pressure of the wall.

“...Please be intact” Willow says one last time before opening the lock and removing the chain.

>Roll 2D100
>1st roll to see if the car has any damages
>2nd roll to see which car she got for her class

Thanks to everyone who has stuck around for my shitty quest!
with this thread, i think we have officially entered the homestretch for this quest...i think, we might still have another thread for later, but we´ll get there when we get there

Rolled 69, 19 = 88 (2d100)

>>6317390
inb4 it's her parents' old Trabant

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6317380

>>6317405
you did the wrong roll, anon.
that was the recap of the last update from the previous thread

Rolled 91, 76 = 167 (2d100)

>>6317390

Rolled 51, 52 = 103 (2d100)

>>6317390
"not going to win any races" my ass.

File: opel blitz.png (391 KB, 640x430)

391 KB PNG

She struggles to open one of the doors due to the damage it took from the falling rocks, but eventually, between the both of you, you manage to open up the doors all the way.

Inside you find an olive green, bulky looking…car

“Is…is that a good car? i-i dont know much about cars to be honest”

“You are looking at peak German engineering, it vas from my grandpa, me and my dad restored it vhen i was younger but never ended up using it, used most of the class's budget to get it here all the vay from home”

“Your grandpa used it? so it's an old german car then?”

“Ja! its called an “Opel Blitz”, strong, reliable, apparently it vas VERY popular in its time, but dad never explained to me vhy, i just know it good”

“Somehow looks…familiar, i think i've seen one of these in some muggle history lessons before…but i can't remember in what lesson it was…ehh, probably not that important”

She steps inside the improvised garage and gets into the truck. She seems to fumble around the cabin looking for something, a few moments later, the large truck roars back to life and rolls out of the garage.
The passenger door opens.

“Hop in!”

You have to climb in order to enter the cabin but you eventually sit next to Willow and close the door.
“Are there any damages?”

“Just a bump from one of those rocks falling on the hood, but other than that, it's in perfect shape, you can help me buffer zhat out after ve are done vith all zhis”

“Sounds good, now lets go, we don't want to waste too much time”

“Aye aye!”

She shifts the gear stick, steps on the gas and before you know it you are leaving Hogwarts and traveling across the dirt roads of the Scottish highlands.

The first thing you notice after passing Hogsmeade is how there is absolutely NOTHING even remotely close to Hogwarts besides a couple of tiny hamlets here and there, after that, it's all forest and small rocky plains which the dirt road snakes around.
An hour passes, the only changes in scenery are the mountains becoming smaller behind you and the purple hue of the sky slowly going back to normal the further you get from Hogwarts.

Another half hour passes, you see the bridge that holds the railway of the Hogwarts Express over a river and into a mountain. It disappears behind you as you both keep driving.

Right after you cross that 2nd mountain, you notice a shift in the sky, the purple light finally disappears behind the mountains, but you feel like it's only a matter of time before something more noticeable happens.

“Any idea how much longer until we reach civilization?” You ask, bored while letting your arm hang out the window.

“Ve are doing good time so far, i zhink ve vill reach Dundee in half an hour, so ve should be seeing signs of civilization soon, after that ve can take the A90 road and it should be smooth ride all the vay to london”

“And how long from Dundee to London?”

“6 to 7 hours, i could make it in 5 though”

“Please dont kill us…”

“Hah! relax, ve´ll be fine”

“Yeah you say that now, but im just waiting for the moment you take a weird curve and then we both will-SHIT!”

Willow slams on the breaks and you are thrown into the dashboard, you manage to put your arms in front of you to absorb most of the damage, but you already know you will be getting a purple bump later.

The truck skids for quite a bit before coming to a stop, the cloud of dust catches up with you and covers your entire field of view outside the car.

“HNNNNNGH!!!” You grunt while holding your forehead.
“Son of a bitch! that hurt! why did you stop!?”

“Look!” Willow points outside to the road in front of you.

You follow where she is pointing.

“Uh oh…”

Lying on the ground, a few dozen meters ahead of the truck, is a group of unmoving people, there appear to be around 6 in total, all of them wearing heavy dark coats.

“Stay here, i´ll go check it out, be ready to drive in case anything happens”

You open the door and step outside into the road.

Slowly, you make your way towards the group of apparently unconscious people.

“Hello? Do you need help?”

You instinctively reach for your wand even though you know it wont be of much help since magic is gone.

“Are you ok?”

The closer you get, the more things you start to notice.

The first and most important thing, they are all twisted into swirls, their limbs all bend in a spiral form around their bodies, stretched beyond what should be humanly possible even with magic, their clothes appear to have melted in that twisting motions and into their bodies, all converging in a singular central point of their respective bodies.

Then you notice their faces, also twisted and frozen in place after death, some have their eyes separated across their cheeks, others have them under their chin while their noses are where the forehead should be, the skin looks broken or about to be.

Finally, you notice that the bodies are all perfectly aligned in a row across the road, their heads aiming towards Hogwarts, like this happened the moment they crossed an invisible line.

“By Merlin´s wand…” You turn to look away from them since there was a pit forming in your stomach the longer you kept looking.

The truck honks

“Vhats going on?” Asks Willow from behind the wheel while peeking from outside the window.

You just wave at her, signaling to come and see for herself.

“HEILIGE SCHEISSE!! VHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED HERE?!”

“I dont know, but uugh…i think…”

You turn once more and walk back to them to investigate.

In the few pockets that you can access, you found wands, some notebooks, a chocolate frog and some miscellaneous items along with some ID´s and an envelope with its seal broken.

You check the ID´s first.

“...Aurors from the ministry, at least 4 of them since the pockets of the other 2 are fused into their flesh, but I'm willing to bet they were also aurors.”

“But how?” Asks Willow while putting a hand over her mouth, trying and failing to cover a gag from the gruesome sight.

“No idea, they are professionals, so splinching from apparating shouldn't even be a problem for them, something must have done this to them while they were traveling…” You notice the direction their heads are headed.
“...To Hogwarts…”

“Vhat could possibly cause zhis?”

“I don't know, but I don't want to stay here and find out, we should go.”

“Vait, vhat about zhem?” She points to the lifeless bodies.

“I don't know about you, but I really don't want to risk touching them”

“So vhat? are ve supposed to just leave zhem here?”

You look at them one more time.

>Investigate more, maybe there is something you are missing
>Leave them there and go on your way, you can't afford to waste time
>Other (Write in:)

>>6319054
>>Investigate more, maybe there is something you are missing

>>6319054
>Leave them there and go on your way, you can't afford to waste time
We're on a major time crunch.

>>6319054
>Leave them there and go on your way, you can't afford to waste time

You walk away from the bodies and back to the car, Willow simply looks at you, then at the bodies, then back at you.

“Are ve really…?”

“We don't have much time, we have to go. Now.”

She looks conflicted, looks at the bodies, grimaces one last time then walks back.

She hops back into the truck and turns it back on, drives around the bodies, getting out of the dirt path for just a second before getting back into it and driving away.

The plains and occasional boulders quickly transform into a dense forest that surrounds the path you are currently driving, creating a long alley of tall tree trunks and long branches.

“Vhat…vhat caused zhat?”

“I-i dont know, that was definitely splinching though…perhaps…”

She gives you a glance.

“Vhat is it?”

You pull out your wand and give it a little flick.

“Lumos”

And to your surprise, the tip of your wand flickers for an instant with the dimmest of lights.

“Vait, how did you do zhat?! i thought zhat magic vas gone”

She slows down the truck while looking for her own wand. She eventually finds it and also tries to cast some magic.

“Lumos”

Same as yours, the tip of her wand barely flickers to life, but there are signs of magic.
Nothing powerful, nothing complex, but enough to cast the most basic spells and barely make them work.
But hers flickers out and the light disappears completely.

“Oof, you really need to concentrate to make it vork”

She puts her wand away and goes back to driving at full speed.

“At least ve now know zhat it isnt entirely gone, right?”

“Yeah, that's great news, at least we won't be completely defenseless now”

You exhale a bit, feeling a small weight has been lifted from your shoulders, you have magic back again, it's very weak but at least its something.

The drive continues.

The walls of trees that surround you are imposing but they still feel peaceful, completely unbothered by the potential end of the world and magic.

That is of course, until you notice a few shadows suddenly appearing on the hood of the car.

You lower the window from your side just a bit more to poke your head out.

“Hey…Willow?”

“Ja?”

“Is it migration time?”

“Vhat?”

“Migration, you know, when the birds fly away to look for warmer places and stuff”

“I-i dont know, im not an expert on creatures, but…i zhink zhere is still some time left before zhat, vhy?”

“Stop the car”

She obeys and goes to the side of the road before completely stopping and looking out the window.

“...Oohh…”

Clouds of birds of all kinds are flying away from the mountains near Hogwarts, hundreds if not thousands of birds, all flying as if escaping from a predator you can't see at the moment.
They aren't even flying in formation, it's just clouds and flapping shapes all around.

Their shadows start catching up with you as they cover the sky above you.

Then you see a cloud of dust approaching you from where you were coming from.
Wolves, Bears, you see a few packs of wild horses and even beavers running away.
You aren't in any danger at the moment, they are far enough that they won't trample you or risk getting attacked by any of them, still, they appear to be running away from…something.

“I think we better start driving again, Willow. This is getting weirder”

“Ve might have to vait on zhat for a bit”

“Why do you think that?”

“Somezhing is coming, look”

She points ahead of the road and you can see another cloud of dust being kicked off by something.
It's big and it's approaching fast, faster than the animals running away from the mountains.

“Is zhat…a black car? vhats a car doing here? Muggles dont know of zhese roads”

“...i dont think those are muggles, Willow.”

“...zhen who?”

You look back at the road where you came from, there are only 2 kinds of people who would take a road like this.

Wizard families who missed their train to Hogwarts and are scrambling to make it on time…

…Or the Ministry of magic.

You then think of the dead aurors you found on the road. It's definitely the Ministry.

“Vhat do ve do?”

The cloud of dust is still a bit far away and thanks to the hundreds of escaping animals, you are sure your own cloud of dust created by the truck could still be confused for a bunch of panicking creatures.

>Hide and wait to see who is coming.
>Hide and continue driving through the forest.
>Wait and warn whoever is coming.
>Other (Write in:)

>>6321573
>>Wait and warn whoever is coming.

>>6321573
>Leave a message of warning for whoever is coming, then keep driving. Time is precious.

>>6321573
>Wait and warn whoever is coming.
Hol' up chaps. Go no further.

You stare at the cloud of dust coming your way for a few seconds then think back on the group of aurors that you left lying on the ground.

That was a particularly cold thing for you to do, you could have at least moved them out of the road to protect their bodies from the direct sunlight or predators, you could have done SOMETHING, but you didn't.

No, it doesn't matter if the end of the world is coming or if magic is in danger, you need to warn people to minimize any kind of casualties, if you can save people along the way then that is something you should do every chance you get.

“Lets wait until they get close and warn them, we shouldn't let people get close to Hogwarts, at least not without a warning, if they are really from the Ministry then they would appreciate all the info they can get.”

“Sounds good to me, lets vait zhen”

Willow parks the truck on the side of the road, leaving it perfectly visible but out of the way so that the people can resume their path after your warning.

“Vhat are you going to tell zhem, Brandon?”

Hmm, you think for a moment, no matter who they are, there is only so much you can say without ignoring all the warnings you have been told until now: “Dont let Potter know”, “Dont involve any more people than necessary” and “Hurry up”

You are sure you have been told more than that by this point, but everything basically boils down to that.

“I guess i´ll just have to warn them to be careful about the magic getting weird the closer you get to Hogwarts and how it gets unpredictable”

“Guess zhats enough of a varning as you can give”

“Yeah, not much else we can do…what are they doing?”

You look back at the black car in the distance and notice that it has stopped. Still far away for you to see who it is.

“Why did they stop?”

“Maybe zhey are having car troubles?”

“I dont think so…here, let me just…”

You walk to the middle of the road and wave your arms above your head, calling for their attention.

The car appears to start moving again.

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“I think they saw us, they are coming”

You wait a bit longer and you can start noticing details on the black car.
It is long, wide and flat, almost entirely black with the exception of a silver stripe going across the sides until the middle of the first door.
The windows are tinted, so even as it rolls down to a stop a few meters in front of you, you can't see who is inside.

For a moment, the car stays there, no signs of movement from the inside.

“Hello” You begin. “We just wanted to let you know, you should be careful going forward, there is some strange things going on the further you go”

The car gives no signs of movement for another minute before the driver's door finally opens.

From it, out comes Ronald Weasley and from the opposite door, Hermione Granger.

Shit…

Hermione is the first to speak.

“Thanks for the warning, Sir, Ma'am. Now, do you mind telling me what exactly are you doing all the way out here? these roads aren't exactly open to public”

“Right, they don't know who I am!” You think. “They still don't know that I saw them with Harry that night at the lake, i better keep this short”

But just as you are about to explain your excuse, another door in the back of the car opens.

“I don't remember giving anyone the order or permission to leave Hogwarts, Brandon”

Its Harry.

“S-sir! you finally show up, we were all wondering where you were”

“I was just out, figuring out how to solve this, what should we call it…Merlin sized problem we both know about”

How does he know?! How does he know that you know?!

“How-”

“How do I know? Lets just say a…mutual…friend of ours caught me up to speed, rubbish boy”

That stupid nickname again.

“Son of a bitch…how? he was-”

“And he still is, you must think im stupid if you think i would ever team up with him of all people, but we did reach a temporal agreement for now, worry not about the details, all you must do now, is to come with me back to Hogwarts, cooperate and I promise you that everything will be fine.”

“Sir. I don't know what he said, but you must know that he is full of shit”

“He is the founder of the shittiest house, of course i know that, now, be a good employe and come with us back to Hogwarts, we have things to take care of”

“Im sorry sir, but im afraid i cannot do that”

You slowly take a step back to Willow´s truck.
Harry pulls out his wand the moment he notices your movement.

“Dont take another step” He says and both Ron and Hermione pull out their wands and aim them at you.
You freeze.

“Last chance to cooperate, Brandon…”

You slowly turn your head to look at Willow, she is standing very still, hand ready to pull out her wand if necessary.
You weigh your options.

On one hand, this is going to be a 2v3 against the best wizards in the field and the Minister of Magic herself.
On the other hand, they might not know yet that magic is acting funky all the way here, but you also don't know if their magic is already affected by it or not…But if you…”take them all out” now then they will be out of your way for good.
On the other OTHER hand, you are already under very limited time, who knows how long a battle with them and barely working magic is going to last, so trying to escape is also an option, but if you do so, they will probably ignore you and go straight to Hogwarts and Merlin!
…Or perhaps they would chase you all the way to St.Mungos and steal The Beast from you, if what Harry says is true and he already knows about that.

What will you do?
>Fight Harry and his team (Start the battle with the first out of 3 rounds, roll a 2D100, best final result out of 3 rolls will go against Harry's and Co. opposing rolls (3D100, one roll for each member) (your best final result will go against each individual member)
>Surrender, cooperate and go back to Hogwarts.
>Try to escape (roll 2D100 against Harry's and Co. opposing rolls (3 rolls, one for each member) (Your best final result will have to beat 2 out of 3 of their rolls to escape)
>Other: (Write in)

Rolled 95, 59 = 154 (2d100)

>>6324188
>>Try to escape (roll 2D100 against Harry's and Co. opposing rolls (3 rolls, one for each member) (Your best final result will have to beat 2 out of 3 of their rolls to escape)

Rolled 81, 12 = 93 (2d100)

>>6324188
>Try to win them over. "It's very important that you listen to me right now. Lives are at stake here. Our very way of life may be at stake. I know that the three of you know what it's like to have to put your lives at risk for the sake of others, and what it means to have to keep secrets from others for the sake of your mission to save those very lives. I'm asking you to trust me here - I must not be delayed here and now, and Salazar must be as far away from here as possible and suppressed until all of this is resolved. I promise you, I only ask this for the sake of good."
>If that fails...fight. Fight for the lives that are on the line!

Rolled 79, 2 = 81 (2d100)

>>6324809
+1

Rolled 67, 84 = 151 (2d100)

>>6324809
+1, Not a chance in hell we beat them, might as well try to talk them down.

Rolled 96, 30, 30 = 156 (3d100)

ok, looks like the write in won, i'm interpreting this as "calming them down and convince them to join us or at the very least let us go"

i´ll take the rolls in order, so:
>>6324809
>93
>>6325065
>81
and
>>6325095
>151

now, lets see what Ron (+10), Hermione (+20) and Harry (+30) have to say about it.

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>>6325113
>ron doesnt fall for it
>Both Hermione and Harry completely eat it
nicely rolled you lucky bastards, update soon

“Last chance to cooperate, Brandon…”

You lift your hands agonizingly slow, letting them know that you are not armed and plan on doing nothing.

"Now, listen to me, Sir. It's very important that you hear what I have to say right now.”

“Why should we?” Says Ron while taking a step forward, wand always aimed at you.

“Because, lives are at stake here. No, forget that. Our very way of life could be at stake. Existence itself could be in dire danger”

“Yeah right” Continues Ron. “Surely you are just trying to weasel your way out of here, that is not going to work with us.”

“Ron, could you stop?” Interrupts Hermione. “You are acting crazy.”

“After everything Salazar told Harry, you want me to calm down?! This guy here is responsible for bringing the end of the world and you are just not going to do anything?! And I'm the one acting crazy?!”

“Look…” You continue. “I know that the three of you know what it's like to have to put your lives at risk for the sake of others, what it means to have to keep secrets from others for the sake of your mission to save those very lives. You have done that before when Voldemort was alive, you have probably done so many other times with similar scenarios after that.”

They all look at each other with knowing looks, as if they are retelling old stories that only they know with just their eyes.

“What are you saying, Brandon?” Harry lowers his wand just a bit.

“What I'm trying to say here is that you are not the only ones…Surely you don't think that the entire magical world has been protected all this time just by you guys and The Ministry of Magic?”

“Obviously not, no organization is capable of protecting the entire magical world on their own” Hermione says as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“The Ministry teams up with countless other organizations across the globe, some smaller and some bigger than our own”

“Exactly my point, we need to team up, do the one thing nobody else did for you when you first encountered Voldemort, when everyone was in denial and called you crazy for even suggesting such a thing…I'm asking you to trust me here…”

At that, Harry lowers his stance even more.

“How can we be sure you are to be trusted?”

“I don't have a way to make you trust me, but you don't have to trust me if you don't want to, all you have to do is ask yourself: Am I really going to trust Salazar Slytherin?”

For a brief moment, you see the metaphorical bag of bricks hit Harry in the face.

“You said it yourself before when we were in your office, you don't trust the snakes. You haven't said anything to me about whatever it was that he said to you, but I think we both know the truth, don't we? What was it that he said? something about him wanting to stop the end of the world? Maybe something about prophecies and stars or whatever? …Maybe it was something about…Lily? what's making you work along the biggest snake that has ever slithered across this world?”

When you mentioned Lily, both Hermione and Ron flinched and turned to look at Harry, who is now staring into nothingness, as if questioning everything he has done so far.

“Did he offer to bring her back, despite all of us knowing that's impossible?”

“...I know it is not, but…i have to take the chance, i'll do anything i can do to bring her back”

“Sir…There is nothing you can do to bring her back…She is gone and you know who took her away.”

“You-…The horcrux…in the infirmary…”

You nod and immediately you can see him connect the dots inside his head.

“So you have known everything all this time…and you didn't say anything?”

“It's not like that, Sir. We actually did a couple of times, but each of those times something made you forget, we don't know if it's a spell, a curse or whatever, but something magical does not want you involved in all this.”

“There are…flashes…of memories I have of you…headaches, but besides paperwork and school topics…there is nothing before that.”

“Wait just a second” Hermione interrupts “If he is supposed to forget anything you tell him, how does he still remember this new information?”

“I think it's because I haven't said anything directly, all I've said have been “guesses and speculations” that he managed to “overhear”…he “figured it out” all by himself”

“That's a bunch of bollocks!” Says Ron. “We are not seriously believing this guy, are we?”

Harry and Hermione look at each other.

“Its your call” She says.

Harry completely lowers his wand and walks all the way from the black car to where you are standing. He stares directly at you.

“You might not be able to bring her back…but you may still be able to avenge her”

He taps the side of his hip with his fingers multiple times, a small distraction to keep him grounded while he processes all his options.

“If you try to do anything that we find suspicious, I will not hesitate to end you where you stand, got it?”

“Got it, Sir.”

“...What do you need?”

“Anybody got the time?” You ask while walking back to the truck.

Hermione checks her watch.
“It's…11:13 AM, why?”

“Hnnngh. We have already wasted too much time. I must not be delayed any longer, Salazar must stay as far away from here as possible and stopped at all costs if he comes close to Hogwarts…Do you guys know where he is? Where did you see him for the last time"

“He should be under custody and protection in a Ministry safehouse near St.Mungos.”

“Oh you didn't leave him unsupervised?”

“Of course not! We found the possible reincarnation of Salazar Slytherin! we are not letting him out of our sight for even a second” Hermione says, almost offended at the idea of the Ministry committing such a dumb mistake.

“Good, we will need all hands on deck if we want to stop him for good”

“We´ll take you to him, we need to interrogate him so we can avoid any of this happening again in the future” Harry says.
“Ron, head back to the-”

“Forget it! im not going all the way back to London just to assist in the end of the world, im going to Hogwarts and stopping whatever is happening there”
He says while getting back in the car.

“Ronald Weasley! Get down from that car this instant!”
Hermione commands but is ignored by Ron as he ignites the car and drives away before anyone could stop him.

“RON! UUGH! YOU STUPID, DAFT, INSUBORDINATE CARROT! I'LL HAVE YOU FIRED FOR THIS!”

“We need to stop him before he does something stupid! quick! after him!” Harry commands as he climbs into the truck.

“Forget about him, we don't have time, St.Mungos is more important right now”
You say as you push Harry away from the drivers seat.

“You guys go, I'll make sure he doesn't do anything stupid” Hermione commands.

Willow pushes you away before climbing into the driver's seat herself.

“Hey! My ride! I drive, now let's go!”

She steps into the gas and the truck burns rubber as it speeds away.
Hermione becomes smaller and smaller until she disappears from view.

It doesn't take long before the jitters from your “encounter” to disappear, now you are sandwiched in between your girlfriend and your boss while you ride through the woods.

“So…how is it that you find Salazar? we had him trapped with no way for him to escape” You ask.

“Oh yeah, zhere vas no vay for him to escape, how did you find him?”

“Well, it wasn't that hard to be honest, The Ministry received a few calls from St.Mungos, saying that they had a blond kid claiming that he was Salazar, as you can imagine, they got there pretty quickly, though they do claim to have had some problems getting there, the Flu Network is down for some reason and some of the Ministry aurors had trouble apparating”

“Wait, that doesn't sound like something Salazar would do, he has spent all this time undercover, I don't see any reason for him to blow his cover like that…”

“He must be planning somezhing”

“Figured as much, that's why they took him to a safehouse instead of the Ministry, in case he was the real Salazar.”

“Good thinking, at least it must have been easy to get him under control, with him being trapped inside Arty it shouldn't cause much problem, her body is too weak to do much of anything”

“...Hold on” Harry says.
“”Her” body? He wasn't in a female body”

“What?”

“Reports claim that the suspect is a tall, blond, male, Hogwarts student.”

“...”

You look at Willow and she immediately stomps on the gas, flooring it.

“How did he get out?! it's impossible!”

“why? where did you lock him up?”

Your internal debate lasts but a moment before deciding to change the subject, you are not telling him that you trapped an evil wizard supremacist inside the frail mind of a little Hogwarts girl.

“Nevermind that, we'll just have to get there as soon as possible, Willow, how long will it take?”

“I can get us zhere in 6 hours, 5 If I ignore all transit rules and roads”

“You have 4”

…

After half an hour of driving, you reach the main roads and take the fastest route to London. At the same time, you also feel your magic slowly return to you the further you go.

2 hours later, you are halfway there…you also heard on the radio some police reports of a truck matching the description of the one you are currently riding on.

By the 3rd hour, you have evaded a police chase and had to take a small detour to hide while Harry casted a spell to change the look of the truck so you can go undercover.

After 4 and a half hours of travel, you make it to London, it takes 20 more minutes to reach St.Mungos…

…Or what's left of it.

“Oh no…”

Several roads around St.Mungos are closed, cars are blocking most exits, creating an impassable traffic jam.
Several buildings have pieces of St.Mungos sticking out of them, exposed rooms and destroyed walls being held precariously by singular steel beams or straight up gone from the other buildings.
You count at least 23 flipped cars just on the first road, several people unconscious and trapped inside some of the cars…
at least you hope they are unconscious…

Half of the building where St.Mungos is hidden is now gone, it looks like a big explosion took half of the block with it.

Willow parks the truck a couple of blocks away before you all run to the entrance of St.Mungo.
There are several police officers redirecting people and firemen fighting the flames in some buildings.
Thanks to the chaos, it's not too hard for all 3 of you to slip through the cracks and enter the ruins of St.Mungo.

As soon as you cross the window that functions as the entrance to St.Mungo´s, you see a grim scenario.

Every witch, wizard and staff member of the hospital is trying their best to evacuate all the patients.
Some are hurt and limping, others are in better conditions and are physically carrying people away from the building.

It takes all of your will not to jump into action and help them carry people away to safety, instead you need to focus, there are bigger things happening right now.

“Vhat-vhat happened here?!”

“You know what happened, cmon, we have to find the pieces!”

“What are we looking for, Brandon?” Harry asks, ready to jump into action.

Right, Harry doesn't know what exactly you are looking for…and despite him figuring out stuff before, you think these are some of the things that you can't tell him or he gets his mind wiped…better to play it safe, you don't want to get all your progress wiped either.

“We need to find 2 things, Gilderoy Lockheart and…something under the basement”

“...What? don't tell me you are not even sure of what you are looking for down there…”

“I-its a long story, i´ll explain later, you just need to focus on…:”

>”...Finding Gilderoy Lockheart and his paintings, Me and Willow will go to the basement and look for…whatever is down there”
>”...Looking for something weird in the basement, Me and Willow will focus on finding Gilderoy Lockheart and his paintings”

sorry for the long wait, i struggled a bit to incorporate the write in into my plans, but i think i made it work.

>>6327222
>”...Finding Gilderoy Lockheart and his paintings, Me and Willow will go to the basement and look for…whatever is down there”

>>6327222
>>”...Finding Gilderoy Lockheart and his paintings, Me and Willow will go to the basement and look for…whatever is down there”

>>6327225
we're lucky we managed to bring Harry back to rational thought without a fight

>>6327334
you have no idea how incredibly lucky you guys are, the rolls you got vs what Harry got...Elliot wishes he had those rolls against Salazar in the main story

>>6327567
still can't believe the insane luck of Elliot geting multiple very high rolls against Salazar

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>>6319051
>it vas from my grandpa

Don't ask what he was doing in 1940


>>”...Looking for something weird in the basement, Me and Willow will focus on finding Gilderoy Lockheart and his paintings”

Damn. SHTF way quicker than I was counting on when I started reading.

>>6327898
>Don't ask what he was doing in 1940
heh, i knew you would get the small hint
>SHTF way quicker than I was counting on when I started reading.
yeah, i wanted to finally move the story along after the entire story being nothing but set up or teasing. its all finally happening.

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>>6327921

>heh, i knew you would get the small hint

Kek.