Chapter 23.4- Doom Days

Croaker’s office was dark. Dark like everything else in this damn floor. I had been placed in front of the famous spinning Dias and the Unspeakable had taken one seemingly at random after the doors spun like they were ought to. The door took us to a hallway that I was certain hadn’t been in the books, so it was definitely protected by more than just the spinning door. We walked down a hallway where each step I took seemed to echo over and over again until the sound of my steps began to make me grit my teeth. The unspeakable thought he was being discreet with their amusement but I could tell they were laughing at me.

The door at the end of the hallway was white, and it clashed terribly with the darkness within the office. It was like the office absorbed all the light within.

“Harry James Potter” The man who was definitely Craoker greeted from the desk.

“Croaker” I replied.

“I assume you’re not the one that passed by Mr. Weasley’s tent at the World Cup”

“Of course not. I rarely leave these hallowed walls you see. Makes quite a few people very testy when I dare. Croaker isn’t even my real name, it might shock you to find out” He said with a chuckle. His voice was clear, there was an accent there I struggled to place, indicating that he either isn’t a native English speaker, or he had learned so many other languages that they bled into his tongue either way. It could also be neither and just a red herring.

“Ahhh. Yes. Would have been a bit on the nose for your parents to name you that. Croaker, huh? A person who predicts death or evil. Or just a grumbler” I said.

“Well, one must commend your understanding of the English language.”

“It was my favourite subject in muggle school” I said with a shrug.

“Strange. Your highest marks were always in mathematics” He said, making me freeze for a second, but no further.

“I got beaten whenever I outperformed Sweet Ol Dudders, you see. So I had to hold back on everything.” I said.

“Yes, those despicable relatives of yours”

“I find it strange that you know about them”

“A one-year-old boy survived the killing curse. You think that we who delve into things that must remain unspoken would not be curious? You might not remember it, but this is not your first time within our walls” He said. My wand dropped into my hand almost instantly. This had been a mistake. A very dangerous mistake, I realised.

“Worry not. We’ve gotten all we needed out of you. I would want to know further about your accelerated magical development recently, but your development still remains within the parameters we created for you before we revised them at the end of your Second year. We had feared that a childhood steeped in abuse of the sort you endured might have left you forever broken”

“And yet you did nothing.”

“Albus almost tore this place apart when we took you. We learned to keep our hands clean. In my case, he literally forced it” He said, raising his hands. They were silver. The both of them.

“He took your hands?”

“Your headmaster is a scary old man, from another self-proclaimed scary old man. He cut them off with a curse so dark that these prosthethics never last longer than a week. Even now the dark magic he used reeks from the wound. ‘If you can not keep your hands away from what does not concern you, then I will take them from you’, I remember him saying” He said.

“Bold of you to invite me here then” I replied glibly.

“Word is that he doesn’t regard you with near the same level of care or regard anymore. From someone who knows what it is like to once hold Albus’ attention and then have that attention taken away, I know how it can hurt, Harry Potter” He said.