The Horcrux chamber

A forbidding and foreboding chamber in which the darkest magic is performed. Even the walls themselves seem to ooze despair.

In the centre of the room is a cold, black-marble altar with four short chains and fetters. The face of the altar is inscribed with complex runic spells which amplify the magical power of things placed on them. The stone gives off an aura that would sicken most people, too afraid of its magical potency. The altar has a raised rim, as though it were designed to contain something that might otherwise run off the edge.

To one side are wooden chairs in the Queen Anne fashion, while there is a large black-marble throne intricately carved with ornate serpents and dragons The eyes of the dragons are set with emeralds. To the side is a slightly smaller throne. Whether the smaller size denotes that the intended inhabitant is of a junior status to the inhabitant of the larger throne, or whether it is intended to be a more feminine parallel is not immediately obvious, but it has a new look which suggests it was created (or conjured) recently. In any case, it matches the pattern of the former in having patterns of emerald-eyed serpents and dragons.

Along the walls of the horcrux chamber, there are sconces in the form of dragons holding large bowls in which to burn bright and magical fires.

The elves had already brought two muggles, and Apollonius had the elves secure one of them in the Horcrux Chamber, shackling it to the black marble altar. They had placed the two large marble thrones on one side and the two wooden Queen-Anne chairs on the other side.

He sat Aimee down in the more feminine of the two marble thrones and then himself sat down in the other throne. He indicated to Elad and Sareph that they, too, were to sit down around the altar.

The muggle that was shackled onto the altar made no sound and was comatose. Apollonius decided that, for the moment, he would let it rest—not out of any sense of mercy, but because it was quieter to let it do so than sit through endless pleading.

Sareph sat down in a chair, nodding at Apollonius.

'Years ago, the world witnessed the power of a vexed Slytherin kinsman' Began Apollonius, as though he were reading a speech. 'In these hallowed halls where the most sacred has been defiled did my kinsman—did Aimee's kinsman—go further in the field of magic than had any other before him.'

'Of course, some of his endeavours in the field of magic were accidental or borne of necessity, but we shall go freely where chance alone took him. The history of that kinsman is well known, but what is not known is where he created his powerful, magical artefacts. It was in this very chamber! This very chamber has witnessed such magic, that it is only fitting to choose this place for yet more magic.'

'This,' he indicated the muggle with a nod of the head, 'is a tool for the creation of great magic, which you may witness.'

Elad walked in and sat by Sareph. The room was oddly chilling but invigorating with it. "I am ready for whatever comes." Said Elad.

''I'm probably not, but let's have at it anyways.'' He clapped once in his hands and settled in the air.

Apollonius knew that he only had to wait for Aimee to arrive now. He took out his wand and pointed it at the muggle.

'Crucio!' He said, and watched as the muggle, woken from its stupor, screamed and fought against the shackles that bound it. He indicated to Elad that he might want to use the curse as well. He realised he hadn't yet taught Sareph how to do it.

'Don't worry, I will teach you very soon.'

He nodded, looking forward to it.

"Perhaps if Aimee is busy we should proceed with her." Said Elad, but more as a question than a statement. "Unless she wants to be here. I don't know."

Apollonius redoubled his cruciatus curse on the muggle. It struggled to free itself, writhing within the shackles with such tension that its wrists and ankles became bloody and raw. The muggle's back arched in pain as it tried in vain to escape the curse

Apollonius took a silver knife from his pocket and a chalice from another pocket. He sliced the muggles wrist until the chalice was filled, and all of this with his left hand, for his wand hand still plied the cruciatus curse on the muggle. Once the tension in the room had reached fever pitch, Apollonius tried the curse he'd almost been dying to try: 'Avada kedavra! and the muggle slumped back onto the altar, motionless.

Almost immediately, without a heart to pump it, the blood ceased to floor from the wound.

Apollonius was almost shaking with excitement as he began the first part of the spell. He held his wand in the air as though calling down an infernal power and intoned the first incantation: 'Ego quî interfêcî necâvîque mê sîcarius homicîdaque fêcî; in alacritâtem furôremque mortis animus mêus pannôsus bacchâtur!'

Then, with a sharp intake of breath, he turned his wand on himself, intoning the second part of the spell: 'Ita vêrô, cum caedis aviditâte in sacrâmentum diabolî juxtâmortâle hoc virgam mêam in animô pannôsô meô vertô: eum cruciô!'

As he finished the spell, the curse burst from his wand. Apollonius had felt the cruciatus curse before—it was hard to grow up in a family such as his and avoid it, but this was difficult beyond all imagining: not only did he have to endure the cruciatus curse, he had to retain enough wherewithal to continue to cast the curse.

In a moment, it was over, and he took the chalice, stridently bellowing the third part of the spell: 'Hûc nunc ad viscerâtiônem hanc hostiae cruciâtae sanguine pôtô huius ignem occultum imbibô aninmum pannôsum cruciâtumque mêum cruentiâre!'

He drank from the chalice, emptying it in one continuous quaffing. The blood still around his mouth, he began the final phase of the spell: 'Ego quî peccâtum maximum contrâ nâtûram commîsî quî cum sanguine frigidô entem vîvum interfêcî necâvîque nunc in hâc hôrâ tenebrôsâ peccâtum maximum contrâ animum committô: animum pannôsum cruciâtum cruentumque mêum scindô lacerô perdîlaniôque et prôvocantî animulâ mêâ eam, fragmentum înfêlîx flêbileque cêlô abdôque et, pônentî receptâcûlô hôc vâse hôc nunc concêdô!

As he did so, he turned his wand on Elad. The pain of the cruciatus curse was nothing compared to the pain he now felt. As his soul was torn and tattered, he felt as though his mind would collapse beneath the weight of the pain. From the tip of his wand shot a bolt of sickly, black energy more akin to smoke than to light. As the bolt hit Elad, he felt the same pain and Apollonius knew it: Elad's pain was his pain, and his pain was Elad's.

Apollonius collapsed to the floor, gasping and sweating a cold and deathly sweat, but he felt powerful. He raised himself from the ground and resumed his place in his throne.

''What just happened?!'' Sareph looked a bit shocked to see Apollonius collapsing on the floor, and intruiged to see the worst of the three unforgivable curses up close.

'This is the horcrux chamber,' laughed Apollonius. 'What do you think happened?'

''Uhh... You made a horcrux?'' Sareph looked a bit embarrased for failing to see the obvious.

'Yes.' He responded. There was a flash in his eyes. 'Elad is my horcrux, and soon I shall be his. It is about more than a simple path to immortality!'

"Yes." Said Elad. "It will be glorious."

He seemed different. Something within him had changed.

''Huh. Well, I always saw you to become something great. But immortality? If you can pull that of... Wow.'' Sareph looked awed at Apollonius, thinking of his small arsenal of spells, that being nothing. And here, before his very eyes, stood a man long into the path of immortality.

'Come, Sareph, and I shall teach you the unforgivable curses' Said Apollonius. Perhaps it was his own imagination, but had his tongued lingered over long on the 'S' of 'Sareph'?

'We shall return to this room'

''Yes, my lord.'' He stood up and bowed to Apollonius.

'First, you will need to cruciate the sacrifice.' said Apollo, waiting for Sareph to use the cruciatus curse on the muggle. The muggle was awake and frantic, so Apollonius silenced it magically. He found his silver knife and chalice (which the elves had cleaned) and readied them to take the blood as Sareph used the curse.

Sareph thought about the muggle, how ugly it looked there, squirming around in his chains on the altar. He sneered in disgust and shouted ''Crucio!'' and the muggle started screaming wordlessly and becoming frantic in its squirming.

As Sareph tortured it, Apollonius drained a chalice of its blood and indicated that he could kill it at any moment, since he had the blood. 'The killing curse is a lot easier to perform than the cruciatus curse. Just know that this muggle has no use to you now and intend to kill it.'

Sareph stopped the cruciatus curse and looked at the muggle, now with a cut at it's wrist, looking haggard and tired. He thought with distaste 'Such a weak creature has no place here,' then he shouted ''Avada Kedavra!!'' The muggle slumped and the blood stopped flowing immediatly. Sareph felt a thrill at killing, ending a life so easily!

Apollonius began the spell. He had in now claw-like hands a black book encrusted with centuries of dried blood.

'Tû quî interfêcîstî necâvîstîque tû sîcarius homicîdaque fêcîstî; in alacritâtem furôremque mortis animus tûus pannôsus bacchâtur!' He said, pointing his wand in the air and then, pointing it at Sareph cruciated him with for the second part: 'Ita vêrô, cum caedis aviditâte in sacrâmentum diabolî juxtâmortâle hoc virgam mêam in animô pannôsô tûô vertô: eum cruciô!'

Sareph writhed and shook on the floor, in desperate agony. Apollonius's eyes shone a vibrant red and he seemed lost in the joy of it all.

In a moment, Apollonius stopped the curse. He leaned over Sareph's body as he gasped for breath and shuddered with relief. He took out from his pocket the pendant he had promised to Sareph: it was a lead-crystal phial held by two silver bats. He sliced Sareph's flesh with his knife and filled the phial with his blood. This would be a good horcrux.

'Up, up!' Insisted Apollonius. 'We are not yet done.'

He handed the chalice of the sacrificed muggle's blood to him and bade him drink.

Sareph staggered up and took the chalice. He muttered a short ''Bonski!'' and drank until it was empty.