Chapter 48: The Gaunt Shack

Name：Magical Marvel (HP X MCU) Author：
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Chapter 48: The Gaunt Shack

I would like to thank my beta, AvidReader2425, for his help in this chapter.

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20th March 1995, Little Hangleton

(Dumbledore POV)

Albus knew he was being impulsive. He should have spent more time planning and scouting the area and look out for the likely traps Tom set up to protect one of the safeguards of his immortality. But this was a deathly hallow, the only deathly hallow he didn't know the location of. Albus will admit that while he had moved on from his past with Gellert, he was still a tinge fascinated with the hallows and the resurrection stone was the hallow he desired the most. And according to Nicholas, he was a dead man walking anyway. He had already researched extensively the village of little Hangleton and while it looked like any normal muggle village, it was anything but that. It was a place with a rich history full of mysteries and ancient magic.

The village of Little Hangleton has been inhabited since antiquity. In the earliest days, Celtic tribesmen built a fort on the hill overlooking the river and the rich lands below. These folk raised livestock and farmed, wove cloth, and made leather goods. During Roman times, farms were built in the valley and the fort fell out of use. Yet some people continued to visit the old fort on the hill with offerings of food and flowers in the belief that helpful spirits inhabited the place.

With the arrival of the Normans, the village began to prosper. A noble knight received property as a gift from the King and built a manor on the hill. Hunting one summer day and caught in a sudden storm, he sought shelter in the old fort. The next day he brought home a wild and beautiful woman to be his bride. Their marriage flourished, as did Little Hangleton. Tradesmen were attracted to the estate and village to provide the many services needed by the large medieval household. The old forest was set aside as the private hunting preserve of the nobility and because the livestock were still allowed to roam free within its precincts, relations between the lord and the farmers were harmonious.

The family and the village continued to burgeon. Plague and famine struck other towns, not Little Hangleton. The herds were always fat, the harvests always abundant. Many wondered why this village was spared from the horrors outside of it. There were rumors about pact with ancient gods, of fairies that protect the village and its inhabitants. It was all nonsense of course, just children's stories.

Albus analyzed the ward around the manor and found a number of hidden wards that would have surprised most if not all other intruders. There was a very nasty mental ward that invades the mind of any intruder and shows them their deepest nightmares. There was a marking ward that would mark the magic of whoever was able to enter the ward and escape somehow. It was something he had never seen before. It's probably one of Tom's own creations. What a shame, he truly is a brilliant wizard.

It took a while to calculate the exact spell needed to break the wards. He wished he still had the allegiance of the elder wand; it would have been easier to just overpower the ward. After a couple of hours, Albus sent a beam of light towards what seemed like an empty place and ended up absorbed by an invisible wall. Suddenly, the wall started to crack, and it collapsed on itself. The ward scheme was down.

Suddenly, a house was visible. It was nestled in the darkness, with trunks and vines wrapped around it. Calling it a house would be generous, a shack would be more appropriate. Even Hagrid's shack was better built and Albus was incredulous that someone had at some point lived here. As soon as Albus stepped past the ward, he felt a surge of magic and dozens of inferi climbed from the ground and raced towards him. With a flick of his wand, a massive flame appeared and burned the undead into crisps. When he was done, all that remained of them was ash.

Albus sighed, this was classic Voldemort. He never like subtle, sometimes, that boy disappoints him. With that done, he cast a few revealing charms and found nothing outside the shack. He slowly walked towards the shack and entered. The interior was in as much disrepair as the exterior. The settlement appears too not be inhabitable at all. Within the mossy walls lay items from past inhabitants of the shack; broken chairs, stacks upon stacks of the Daily Prophet, portraits of family members coated in a thick film of dirt and cobwebs. Although those who once lived here were long gone, Albus still felt their presence, their madness, their darkness in this house.

Albus followed the feeling of Tom's magic into a room. It was very difficult, the shack practically radiated dark magic, he had to focus just to distinguish Tom's signature. He was so focused that he didn't sense the activation of another trap until it was too late. A giant undead snake, almost ten feet tall suddenly appeared out of nowhere and was able to sink its teeth in Albus' side.

Albus let out a grunt of pain and set the snake on fire. Other snakes came out of the wall trying to attack him and they were also set aflame. After the snakes were gone, he almost collapsed in pain. He felt nauseous and disoriented. The snake must have poisoned him somehow. He was almost tempted to turn back and try again another time, but he felt the phoenix essence trying to heal him. He felt a little better but not enough. The bite was healing very slowly; it must be cursed somehow. He steeled himself and focused on the task at hand. He couldn't give up now.

A couple of minutes later, he followed Tom's signature, making sure there weren't any traps. He found himself in front of a small room at the back. The magic here felt different; Tom's signature was unmistakable but there was also another. It was distinctly female. It was full of fear and suffering. Long, long ago was this the room of Merope Gaunt. Albus frowned, he would not have expected Voldemort to bury a part of himself within his mother's room, or perhaps he had not known.

It didn't matter now; he pointed his wand at the floor and suddenly and box came from the ground levitating before him. It was open. Inside was a ring, a Horcrux. But he didn't care about that. What he did care about was the stone on top of the ring. He had finally found it; he could feel it in his heart. This was the resurrection stone. Oh, what he would do with the treasure in front of him. He could talk to his father, he never got to say goodbye. He wanted to talk to his mother, to thank her for everything she did for him and his siblings. And, most of all, he wanted to talk to Arianna. To plead for her forgiveness. For not being a good brother, for being resentful of her, for killing her. He didn't know if he cast the spell that took his sister's life, but it was his ambitions with Gellert that resulted in the duel. It was all possible now, he knew the stories. All he had to do was to put on the ring.

As he touched the ring, he felt pain like he never felt before. He had never experienced such agony. The ring must be cursed, and he fell right into it. He only had the presence of mind to cast a spell containing the curse to his arm and he felt his phoenix essence combat the curse. But it was too spent saving him from the snake's poison. As he passed out, he unconsciously apparated back into the castle, in his office and then everything went black.