Imperium - t.r.

Chapter Six: Meeting Mister Scamander

Retreating back to her dorm, she quickly slipped out of her dress and into her uniform. She knocked on the second brick to the right of the northeast corner and watched as a hole formed out of it, ducking out of it, she made her way to Slughorn's office. Concealing her presence and her mind, she pressed her ear against the door, catching sight of the illumination of the fire that wasn't on before. (The following conversation is an excerpt from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and was not written by me. It has just been added in to further the plot.)

"...an object in which a person has concealed a part of their soul," she heard Slughorn explain.

"But I don't understand how that works, sir," Tom replied.

"One splits one soul and hides part of it in an object," he said. "By doing so, you are protected, should you be attacked and your body destroyed."

"Protected?"

"That part of your soul that is hidden lives on," Slughorn said. "In other words, you cannot die."

"And how does one split his soul, sir?"

"I think you already know the answer to that, Tom," Slughorn piped.

"Murder," Tom mused.

"Yes. Killing rips the soul apart," Slughorn replied. "It's a violation against nature."

"Can you only split the soul once?" asked Tom. Anastasia could clearly visualize him adjusting the ring on his finger. "For instance, isn't seven--"

"Seven?" Slughorn exclaimed incredulously. "Merlin's beard, Tom! Isn't it bad enough to consider killing one person? To rip the soul into seven pieces... Surely this is all hypothetical, isn't it Tom? All academic?"

"Of course, sir," Tom smiled. "It'll be our little secret..."

(End of conversation excerpt)

Anastasia stepped away from the door and ran to Dumbledore's office. To Slughorn, Tom's last words may have incited a slight feeling of unease, but to Anastasia, she knew that something bad was going to happen when he charmingly whispered those words. He said it to Dennis and Amy when he took them into the low-tide caves when they were eight and they never were the same again. He said it to Ophelia Vance when she heard him using the Cruciatus Curse on a cat, somehow convincing her that she was imagining things. And now, he had said it to the beloved Professor Slughorn. Would he kill his teacher to grant him a sliver of immortality or would he do something much worse?

She knocked on the Transfiguration professor's office door before it opened automatically. Without looking in, she rushed into the office.

"Professor!" she shouted. Finally looking up, she noticed Minister Spencer-Moon, Headmaster Dippet, and the famed Newt Scamander surrounding Dumbledore. "I now realize that this isn't the best time, so I will be leaving now... thank you."

"Is that a Hebridean Black?" Newt asked.

"What?"

"Behind you."

Anastasia looked back, Retyul chittered at her happily.

"Retyul, what are you doing here?" she hissed in Draconic under her breath.

"It's a baby too..." Newt mused before looking back to Dumbledore asking, "Where's its mother?"

"Don't get distracted, Scamander," the minister said sternly.

"Does it involve the special student?" inquired Dumbledore.

"I'm afraid it does, sir," Anastasia replied.