Snowflakes in a Storm - [Scorose]

Chapter 23: The Stone

Surprisingly, when your father is the leader of an evil wizard rebellion, when the only teacher you look up to is murdered before your very eyes, when you're forced to help the wrong side of a war and your girlfriend is kidnapped and tortured; all while in the midst of one of the most dangerous magical outbreaks in history, sleep isn't something that comes easy. I maybe slept for two or three hours before I woke up to see the sun rising outside my window. The owl had not returned, so I assumed that my father felt it safer to not respond to my letter.

Without really thinking, I immediately made my way to the library. Holding my wand in my hand, I held it out cautiously in front of me. There was no one in the halls except a couple of ghosts floating around. Most of the portraits were still sound asleep, so I assumed everyone in the castle was too. When I walked into the library, it was no different. There was no one there, not even the librarian. I made my way through the aisles. I slipped my wand into my back pocket and started grabbing books.

I ended up with a stack of books that might tell me, not only about the resurrection stone but hopefully any that might give me an idea of how to find it... if it even still exists. 'The Tale of Three Brothers', 'The Most Dangerous Potions', 'The Second Wizarding War: What Really Happened?' and 'Ghosts, Immortality and The After Life'.

I read through the Tale of Three Brothers, learning about the origins of the resurrection stone, then spent a little bit of time reading about the Immortality potion in The Most Dangerous Potions. Only one man, the creator, ever succeeded at making one. Turns out it's similar to the Elixir of Life... but far more deadly and dangerous. I read the recipe and it was horrific.

· Two drops of unicorn blood

· Dittany

· Two drops of the potion maker's blood

· One drop of an Elixir of Life

· Two horcruxes, created by potion maker

· Tarantula venom

· Lizard's tail

· Unicorn Heart

· One rose petal

· A chip of a resurrection stone.

· Lemongrass

· Two heaped spoons of salt

They only needed part of the resurrection stone... a chip from the corner or something... any essence of it. I read through the ingredients over and over and wondered who it was that's brewing this potion for the Death Eaters. If it was my father, it means that he's created two horcruxes, given his own blood and killed a unicorn. The rest of it seems pretty simple but the resurrection stone is the last ingredient that they need. Even after everything I'd seen my father do, after everything they'd all done, I couldn't actually believe my father was capable of doing this. The man who raised me isn't a monster, he's a good man he's just lost himself a few times. He's been corrupted by evil – he's spent his whole life trying to fight it and I know that he can.

I refused to believe that the man who's doing this is the same man who raised me. Sure, he wasn't always the best father, not always there for me and maybe his morals aren't all that wholesome, but the man who made me take that vow isn't the man that I played Quidditch with every Christmas, or hid Easter Eggs around the manor for me with my mother every year. There's a good man in there somewhere, and I'm not giving up on him.

I read through the book on the war, trying to learn about what happened to the resurrection stone – Albus Dumbledore gave the resurrection stone to Harry Potter who was the last person to see it apparently. I didn't really want to have to, but I knew that the only way of finding the stone or any trace of it was to go to him directly, but that was a risk I couldn't take. If I spilled, who knows what I may end up saying, it could break my vow or worse it could mean me revealing my father as the leader of all this. I hated him and I'm not sure I can ever forgive him for this... but he's still my father and I don't want to see him rot in Azkaban.