Tenebrarum

Chapter 2: Newt's Notebook

        Not one of the teens got anymore sleep that night.  Instead they sat silently in James's room all trying to make sure Taiga didn't fall back asleep.  Which was difficult considering she was sleep deprived and had taken a draught.  Everytime she started to nod off she or one of the other two would shake her awake.  Soon the scent of eggs, bacon, and toast greeted the three making their stomachs growl.  "Coffee." Taiga groaned as the three practically climbed over the top of each other to reach the kitchen first.  Pouring three glasses she looked back at the two, "How do you take it?"

Both of them shrugged, "Never had it.  You?"

"Me neither." Sirius said so Taiga just gave it to them black-which was how she liked hers.  She almost laughed as both of their faces puckered and they began adding copious amounts of cream and sugar into their cups.  James liked his sweet and Sirius only stopped adding cream when his coffee was nearly white.  Draining half her cup Taiga sighed in relief, she was still exhausted but she did get more sleep last night than she had in days.

"Well then I'm guessing you all didn't sleep very well?" Euphemia said her smile turning into a frown as the three clammed up.  She wondered if she had said something wrong until Taiga piped up.

"It was awful Sirius snores like a bear!" she lied forcing a smile. 

Sirius looked at her with betrayal, "What!?  I do not!"

"You kinda do Pads." James admitted sipping his coffee not meeting Sirius's eye. 

"Yeah well you have morning breath!"

     

        Once in Diagon Alley Taiga ducked behind Sirius and James in case any of her family members or friends.  So they split up setting out for different book stores.  James went to Flourish and Blott's, Taiga went to Newman's and Sirius went to a old bookstore that none of them recognized.  Taiga saw several books published by Newt Scamander however most were just about misunderstood creatures.  None of them described the sort of beast she was looking for.  In fact the magical beast section in Newman's was barely twenty books.  Most of the books there were romance and usually consisted of some poor fragile girl who fell in love with a bad boy wizard.  She groaned and started out for Flourish and Blott's when Sirius ran straight into her.  Her head throbbed as she winced up at him.  "Hey did you find something?"

He nodded, "Yeah but if it's what this says it is....it's not good."

Taiga hesitated, "Let's get back to the Potter's first." she said in an attempt to delay finding out.  She wanted to help the boy but another part of her wanted to hide away and ignore it all.  She wanted to go back to when none of this mattered.  To the the structure of her father's rules.  She always knew what to do back them because her father's rules dictated it.  She wished she could go back to when she saw her father's rules a house built for her to keep her from failing, but now she saw them as a carefully constructed cage. 

           Back at the Potter's the three sat quietly in James's room.  Sirius and James both looked at her waiting for her to be ready.  She inspected it, it had no title and the leather was cracked and faded.  It looked more like a journal than a book meant to be sold.  She was shocked to see that the inside cover stated that it was the property of Newt Scamander.    "Alright I'm ready."  She flipped through to the page Sirius had indicated and read aloud.  "The Obscurus.  A creature so innately evil it's power is almost unmatched.  The Obscurus is a dark parasitic creature that hosts upon magical children who are forced-by some means whether it be by an internal or external force-to repress their magic.  It is almost completely extinct as the authorities have developed more advanced methods of detecting children with magic.  However some still 'slip through the cracks' as they say.  The repression weakens both mind and body making them susceptible to Obscurus possession.  The child(or host) is called an Obscurial and almost never survives past the age of ten-" Taiga stopped staring down at the scrawling words in terror.

Sirius frowned and took a deep breath before continuing, "though I have met an obscurial who survive past the ten year milestone.  An American boy by the name of Credence Barebone who was beaten and abused by his magic hating adoptive mother Mary Lou Barebone.  Credence himself was unaware of his magic but subconsciously concealed it due to his (adoptive) mother trying to start a second witch hunt.  The Obscurus is almost impossible to detect until the host loses composure-due to pressure, terror or rage.  When it is visible it is seen as curling black smoke-like thing that burned my skin when I got close." Sirius said frowning.  He looked up at Taiga, she still didn't know it but this Obscurus thing sounded exactly like what he had seen.  "I personally tried to extract the Obscurus from a young girl (eight years of age) named Sundari who was persecuted by her village.  However while I was able to contain the Obscurus Sundari's heart failed as she was unable to survive the extraction.  While she would not have lived much longer her death is on my hands.  I have yet to find a cure to rid the victims of the parasite.  I had hoped to with Credence but he has disappeared." James and Sirius fell silent terrified by the revelation.  This sounded very much like what they had seen surrounding Taiga.  But that should have been impossible, Taiga wasn't repressing her magic. 

Taiga looked at them grimly, "Black smoke-like thing-it sounds exactly like what I saw in my dreams."  As she stared down at the pages James and Sirius exchanged looks. 

"Taiga-" Sirius started however he stopped unable to go on. 

James swallowed, "When you were sleepwalking we saw the Obscurus surrounding you." he whispered watching Taiga's muscles stiffen.  For a moment she didn't say anything only nodded.  "Wh-What should we do?  Should we tell my mum and dad?"

"No!" Taiga shouted suddenly.  "No, w-we can't.  We should......" she trailed off them looked down at the book.  "We need to write to him.  He'll help us."

"Who?" the boys asked together.

"Newt Scamander."