The Beast Unchained

It was as if a city made of garbage had been crammed inside Hogwarts Castle.

The enormous room was filled from end to end with all sorts of strange and unusual things.

There was, for instance, a Troll specimen over three metres tall and a cursed doll marked with blurry words in blood. But most of the room was taken up by prank items from all sorts of eras, things students hadn't been allowed to bring into Hogwarts to play with, along with objects that had once brought certain people a great deal of trouble. Ezio spotted a suit of armour like the ones commonly found in the corridors, but this one had been dismantled into pieces. Some audacious person had clearly been overcome by curiosity, but lacked the skill to put it back together.

The glowing orb from the Lumos charm floated from the tip of his wand, its soft white light illuminating one corner of the enormous garbage city. Ezio casually flicked his wand, sweeping away the thick, annoying dust and shifting the junk blocking his path to one side.

"The Diadem should be on top of some statue, right?" Ezio recalled what he knew. He remembered the main points of the story fairly well, but some details were hazy. As long as he had a general idea, he had somewhere to start looking.

His Eagle Vision gave him such keen perception that no clue could escape his notice. Within minutes, he spotted a freckled wizard figurine perched on top of a cabinet.

'To the great inventor of the Entrail-Expelling Curse, thank you for curing my years of constipation!'

A small copper plaque bore those words. The freckled wizard must have been the inventor of the curse.

He wore an old wig, and on top of it sat an antique but exquisitely made golden diadem.

The diadem was set with many jewels. The one at its centre was a clear sea blue. Ezio put on his Dragonhide Gloves and gently snapped off the figurine's head. He had no intention of touching the diadem with his bare hands.

Dumbledore had recklessly put on the Resurrection Stone Ring, which had been made into a Horcrux. Ezio had no desire to test Voldemort's skill at curse magic.

The diadem seemed to possess a subtle magic. As Ezio approached it, he thought he heard a voice urging him to put it on, as if doing so would grant him astonishing wisdom.

Ezio saw a line of small writing on the inside of the diadem:

'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.'

The same words were carved inside the Ravenclaw Common Room, where they had become a guiding principle for Ravenclaw's little eagles. What they didn't know was that Rowena Ravenclaw hadn't said them. They had been left by the Goblin who forged the diadem, in an attempt to curry favour with the Hogwarts Founders. During a chat with the Sorting Hat, he had told Ezio that Rowena Ravenclaw herself was, in fact, a prisoner of her own intelligence. Her brilliant mind placed too great a burden on her, and she needed other means to ease the immense strain it caused.

Perhaps it was the loss of the diadem that made her increasingly unable to bear the burden of her mind. After her daughter stole it, she fell gravely ill and soon passed away.

As the daughter of the brilliant Ravenclaw, the Grey Lady—Helena Ravenclaw—had not inherited her mother's wisdom. Perhaps she couldn't bear being compared to her mother by others, and did something foolish to satisfy her vanity.

"Perhaps I shouldn't use Fiendfyre. It'll destroy the object, and then the diadem won't survive."

After finding the diadem, Ezio hesitated. There weren't many things capable of destroying a Horcrux. A Horcrux's core was the fragment of soul stored within it, and most magic couldn't touch the soul.

As it happened, Ezio knew a few spells that might be able to affect the soul. But he'd had no way to catch a ghost or Peeves and test them before. He hadn't been able to try them out, and now the Horcrux had arrived just in time to solve that problem.

Even Dumbledore wouldn't stop Ezio from going after a Horcrux. Now that was what you called serving justice! If you were fighting Voldemort, you were serving justice.

The Headmaster's Office was also on the Seventh Floor. After leaving the Room of Requirement, Ezio headed towards the gargoyle.

"Raspberry jam."

Ezio gave the password, and the statue hopped aside, revealing the spiral staircase behind it, shaped like a griffin. Ezio knocked on the Headmaster's Office door.

"Come in," Dumbledore's gentle voice called from behind the door.

"Ah, Ezio." Dumbledore looked up slightly, but his gaze immediately fixed on the head of the inventor of the Entrail-Expelling Curse that Ezio was holding in his hands.

"Is that Ravenclaw's Diadem?"

Though he phrased it as a question, Dumbledore sounded certain. The diadem looked exactly like the one worn by the Ravenclaw statue in the Ravenclaw Common Room.

"To be precise, it's Ravenclaw's Diadem, made into a Horcrux."

"I happened to be planning to look for inspiration in the Room of Requirement today. Clearly, I found something more interesting than inspiration."

Ezio gently placed the head on the office desk and recited the words engraved inside the diadem: "Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure."

"So, my clever student, did you find it using that brilliant mind of yours?" Dumbledore sounded much more cheerful now that Ravenclaw's Diadem was sitting in front of him.

"I'm afraid I'll disappoint you, Professor. I did some psychological analysis of Voldemort, but there was too little information for me to find any particularly useful clues. The Slytherin students gave me quite a bit of information, but unfortunately, it was their parents who knew Voldemort well. Their parents obviously weren't going to tell them much about it."

"I just have a pair of eyes that notice the smallest details. I'd been to the Ravenclaw Common Room and seen what the diadem looked like. Then I happened to spot something similar and found it."

"At first, I thought it was a replica. That room was full of treasures students from every era of Hogwarts had hidden away, so it wouldn't have been surprising if someone had tried to make a copy. But I believe this one is real."

"Did you hear any whispers? It was tempting me to put it on, but diadems don't talk."

"So there must be some kind of magic, or something else, inside it. I could smell a conspiracy."

"Putting that together with my recent research into magical Runes, I concluded that the diadem wasn't made by a wizard. Since it was a Goblin creation, it was even more likely to be the genuine article. Besides, I know how to make a Horcrux, so it's only natural that I recognised one, right?"

Dumbledore looked at Ezio intently. He was a remarkably skilled Legilimens, and very few people could lie to him. But, like those who had mastered Occlumency, Ezio kept his thoughts hidden. His long-held Assassin's Focus shut out every distracting thought.

"Are you very interested in Voldemort?" Dumbledore asked softly after a moment's silence.

"He's an interesting target, and worth my time. I've spent so long honing my skills; I ought to put them to use somewhere, right? Otherwise, what was all that suffering for?"

Ezio smiled, looking perfectly at ease. "Of course, if someone's willing to pay for Voldemort's death, I'd be happy to take the job. Even if the fee is small, it's still a fee, isn't it?"

"An interesting way of looking at it." Dumbledore understood what Ezio meant. This was the second time Ezio had brought it up, but he didn't take offence.

"Still, I have to admit that your guess is entirely correct. This is indeed a Horcrux, and from what I know of Tom Riddle, he's exactly the sort of person who would make one. You may not know that Voldemort is Half-blood. His father was a Muggle, and his mother came from an ancient wizarding family, House of Gaunt. He hated the Muggle blood he inherited from his father and was obsessed with the glory of Pure-bloods."

"So Voldemort's other Horcruxes are likely to be magical objects left behind by the other three Founders of Hogwarts, right?"

"It's highly likely. I believe Tom would have done that. Seeing Ravenclaw's Diadem has made me even more certain."

Dumbledore nodded slowly. He found it easy to talk with Ezio. Ezio always followed his train of thought at once and reached the same conclusions from the clues he offered. It was as if they shared an understanding. It was a peculiar feeling.

Ezio was a Slytherin through and through: focused on his goals, quick to act, and willing to use any means necessary to succeed. Yet he was different from Voldemort. Ezio gave Dumbledore the impression that he wielded dark power rather than being consumed by it. Whether it was Dark Magic or something else, it was merely a tool in Ezio's hands. That made Dumbledore slightly less wary of him.

At the same time, though, Dumbledore worried that Ezio might become something a hundred times more terrifying than Voldemort—some kind of being beyond the Dark Lord. He didn't care about, and even despised, the things Voldemort sought. Perhaps that meant he had even greater ambitions, though there was no sign of them yet.

"So, shouldn't we destroy it now?"

Ezio watched the diadem with interest. "It's been trying to tempt me into putting it on all the way here, but now it's gone quiet. Perhaps you scared it, Headmaster Dumbledore."

"I don't think I'm quite that frightening," Dumbledore said with a chuckle. "But we do need to deal with it properly. It must be destroyed. As long as a Horcrux exists, Voldemort can't truly die. He'll live on in a grotesque state and grow ever more insane. Only after we destroy all the Horcruxes can we truly kill him."

A note of warning entered Dumbledore's voice. He had intended Ezio to hear it.

"Since you brought it to me, you must have thought about how to destroy it, right?"

"Yes, Headmaster. Horcruxes are very difficult containers to destroy, and ordinary spells have no effect on them. The person who makes a Horcrux leaves a piece of their soul inside it, which means the container is protected by the magic contained in that soul. Only a very small number of things can break through that magical protection and truly damage the container and the fragment of soul within."

"Of the magic I know, the only spell I'm certain can destroy it is Fiendfyre. But Fiendfyre would completely destroy the diadem, and I don't want that. Fiendfyre can destroy almost any material. It isn't simply fire; it's a force of destruction and devastation, given form through flames. Burning is only its outward appearance."

"I can see you've studied magical Runes very seriously," Dumbledore said with a nod. Ezio was right. Fiendfyre wasn't ordinary fire; burning was only its outward appearance.

"I've analysed the components of quite a few spells. It's helped me a great deal with my own spell research."

When Ezio decided to do something, he never slacked off. That would be a waste of time and a waste of his life.

"But I have a few theories I'd like to test using the Horcrux. Would you allow me to carry out these experiments, Professor Dumbledore?"

"What are you planning to do?" Dumbledore wasn't surprised. It was a perfectly reasonable thing for Ezio to ask.

"I want to test whether the Unforgivable Curses are, as people say, spells that target the soul."

"You should know why the use of the Unforgivable Curses is forbidden," Dumbledore said sternly.

"Dark Magic can make people lose themselves, but I'd say that's simply because those people aren't strong enough and lack the willpower. Whether it's Dark Magic or Light Magic, it should only ever be a tool for a wizard. It isn't your lover, so you shouldn't become infatuated with it or let it influence you."

"But who can guarantee that they won't be influenced by dark power? The corruption of darkness always happens without anyone noticing."

Dumbledore didn't trust that kind of argument. He'd seen people even more gifted than Ezio, and one of them had still met a terrible end.

"That's certainly difficult to prove," Ezio said with some frustration. There were things he knew for certain but couldn't explain to others.

"If all else fails, how about we have a duel, Professor Dumbledore?"

Dumbledore's eyes widened. He'd never expected Ezio to say something like that. For once, the usually composed old man was caught off guard.

"Be serious, Ezio." Dumbledore laughed helplessly. "I just don't want you to go down the wrong path."

"But who can say whether the path they believe is right is really right for everyone else?"

"I'm different from every other student at Hogwarts."

Ezio closed his eyes and released the chains binding a certain beast.

"I promise I won't harm a single student at Hogwarts. I'll keep my word. But I hope you'll understand me—the conviction that drives me to see something through."

Ezio opened his eyes. It was as if a Siberian cold front had swept into the Headmaster's Office. A blood-soaked beast, hidden in a pool of blood, opened its eyes. A bone-chilling killing intent smashed through the solid dam holding it back and crashed down with the force of a collapsing sky!

Dumbledore seemed to see a vision of himself dying on the spot the very next second. He finally understood the terrifying power in the eyes Severus Snape had seen. Snape had caught only a fleeting glimpse, but Dumbledore experienced the whole thing.

Fawkes, dozing on his golden perch, flapped about as if its feathers had been ruffled, then flew to the top of the tall cabinet where the Sorting Hat sat. The phoenix huddled with the old hat, trembling.

That brought Dumbledore back from his brief daze. For the first time, he realised what kind of monster the impeccably mannered person standing before him truly was.

Could spells affect him? Avada Kedavra itself would have to get down on its knees, kowtow a few times, and then leave. But Dumbledore hadn't lost his mind enough to believe that Ezio was truly a demon who'd killed countless people. He was only an eleven-year-old boy. It wasn't as though he'd been holding a dagger and cutting a path through a crowd since the day he was born. This display of power was so exaggerated it seemed unreal. Dumbledore could only conclude that it was something Ezio had been born with, something beyond his control. The wizarding world was full of strange things. Anything could exist.

"There's a rumour about Harry going around Hogwarts: that only something darker can devour the darkness. I think I was born with the ability to devour that darkness."

Ezio returned to his former calm and composure. He spoke softly, describing a simple fact.

"I hope you'll always hold on to your integrity," Dumbledore said, regaining his composure after his initial shock.

"I only go after my targets, unless someone deliberately starts trouble."

"That's reasonable."

Once he realised that Ezio was constantly restraining the beast within him and had no intention of letting it out, Dumbledore chose to go along with it. He knew all too well that Ezio's current state was his most stable one. If that fragile balance were broken, it could lead to the worst possible outcome—the one no one wanted to see.

'That naturally evil little Slytherin brat, I'll show him—' The thought suddenly flashed through Dumbledore's mind, but he kicked it into a corner at once.

He didn't think expelling Ezio from Hogwarts would be a good idea. It might lead to the worst possible outcome.

"I told you he had talent. It's a good thing he's not going on a killing spree. How merciful of him."

The Sorting Hat grumbled from atop the cabinet. Dumbledore glared at it.

"Be quiet!" he snapped, uncharacteristically, at an old hat.