Ali Buz

Rise of Black / Chapter 92

Lucius stood beside his desk. The diary sat on the same wood where his father, Abraxas Malfoy, had worked. The leather drank the light and kept its own counsel.

Corvus did not hurry. He leaned back, one ankle on a knee, and watched the blond lord study the diary. A faint smile tugged at his mouth, more a private joke than a kindness. He glanced from Lucius to the book and back again as if weighing sums only he could see.

"Why should I interfere, Lord Malfoy?" He tipped his chin to...

Rise of Black / Chapter 91

Lucius led Corvus into the study and shut the door. No tour. No drink. He took the chair by the hearth and kept his hands still.

Corvus sat without waiting. Eyes on Lucius.

"About my request," Lucius began. "To remove the mark I took in a season my present self finds unwise. What will it take?"

"Tell me, Lucius Malfoy," Corvus said. "What do you know of that mark on your forearm? Do you know it leeches life, soul, and magic from you?"

Heat pressed at Lucius' shins. He ...

Rise of Black / Chapter 90

Arabella Figg stood last at the rail. Tears streaked the lines on her face. The chamber held no softness. Arcturus rose from the Minister's seat, voice cold.

"We will not tolerate any who abets harm to a magical child. Blood and station are irrelevant." He signed the warrant after the votes were counted. "Sentence: death by Veil. Take her to the Department of Mysteries for immediate execution."

Two Aurors took Figg by the elbows and guided her through the side door. Her pleading t...

Rise of Black / Chapter 89

The doors opened on iron hinges. Three Muggles shuffled through under Auror wands, wrists bound in charmed chains that tightened when they pulled. Vernon's neck flushed the colour of boiled ham as his small eyes swept the tiers. Robes and wood sticks. The man on the dais looked down with still grey eyes that did not blink. Vernon met that gaze and knew the ledger had come due.

Leviticus 20:27 beat in his skull like a drum. He clung to it. They were wrong and he was right. Unnatural men ...

Rise of Black / Chapter 88

Arcturus watched the Lords and Ladies take their seats after the recess.

"Chief Warlock Longbottom, Director Bones." His voice filled the bowl of the hall, even and cold. "Effective at once, every office, license, seal, and operation of the International Confederation of Wizards is suspended within the borders of Wizarding Britain."

Quills scratched. A few robes twitched. No one breathed loud.

Arcturus turned a fraction, taking in the tiers. "We will not host an organisation...

Rise of Black / Chapter 87

The chamber held its breath when the doors opened. Noon light spilled through the high windows, cutting bars across the stone floor. Dumbledore walked between two Aurors, slower than pride would prefer, robes pressed and wandless hands bound. The Skelegrow had done its work; the jaw no longer throbbed with every heartbeat. He could move it without feeling bone grind. Pain still sat in the hinge like a reminder.

He met no eyes as they passed the benches. The Progressives who had once lea...

Rise of Black / Chapter 86

Owl posts fell like winter ash across the wizarding world. Headlines bled ink. Seals broke. Quills scratched. In London the Prophet sold out by midmorning. In Paris, La Gazette pinned three moving frames on its front page, each one pausing a heartbeat too long on the moment a blue white bolt flung Albus Dumbledore into the air. Across the Atlantic, MACUSA's morning circular chose a cautious font and no photographs at all. Words only, a request for patience and an appeal to process. 2025-11-07 14:50:44 +0000 UTC View Post

Rise of Black / Chapter 85

Snow pressed at the mullioned panes and dulled the castle hum to a low breath. The faculty gathered in the long staff room, cloaks steaming, tea ghosting in the cold light. Seats scraped. The chair at the head of the table sat empty.

Snape prowled a slow line behind his chair, hands folded into his sleeves. A muscle worked in his jaw. He did not look at the tidily folded newspaper on the sideboard, the one that repeats Professor Black mid spell with lightning caught like a chain between...

Rise of Black / Chapter 84

Robes settled. Wands sheated. The orbs above the chamber steadied to a cold white. Frank Longbottom lifted a hand and the murmur died. The clerk touched his quill to the parchment strip and the tip began to move on its own.

Gawain Robards stepped to the rail with a folder under one arm. He did not look for comfort in the benches. He set the folder down, opened to the first page, and began.

"Entry to Privet Drive was made with warrant and under disguise," he recited from memory, ca...

Rise of Black / Chapter 83

Amelia watched the chamber breathe out and settle. Benches creaked, rings found rails again, and quills steadied. Corvus Black slid into his place with the small black box in one hand and his wand across one knee. The chick inside peeped once, a thin ember under ash. Her own Aurors stood ringed along the walls, faces tight, eyes on her. She could still feel the hole where her reaction should have been. Four benches were shielded in a blink, and not by her team. Training would change before th...

Rise of Black / Chapter 82

The chamber did not breathe so much as bristle. Robes dragged. Wands hissed back into sleeves. The Progressive benches burst first, voices up like kennel dogs. Neutrals leaned in with narrowed eyes. Traditionalists watched from stillness, the way wolves wait at the edge of a field.

Arcturus rested one hand on the arm of the Minister's chair. Not a flicker out of place. Curiosity lived at the corner of his eyes. His gaze moved to Corvus from time to time to measure his reactions.

C...

Rise of Black / Chapter 81

The chamber filled by degrees. Robes brushed stone. Rings ticked once against rails and fell still. The clerk squared his parchments and lifted his quill. On the high bench Frank Longbottom took the Warlock's seat for this case, jaw set, eyes watchful. Albus Dumbledore kept to the benches with the Progressives, hands folded with a smile that never warmed his gaze. Arcturus Black sat at the Minister's place, amusement tucked at the corner of his mouth. He looked like a butcher weighing where t...

Rise of Black / Chapter 80

Corvus' routine settled as as usual whenever he was in Hogwarts. He copied the Extreme Agility when his replication was ready. He tested the new edge after the absorbtion was complete. Extreme Agility settled into muscle and nerve like a key sliding home. Paired with Extreme Speed, it stopped the blur from becoming a stumble. He crossed the room, turned on a Knut, caught a chalk stick he threw before using the skill in midair, and drew a clean set of runes on the slate without any difficulty....

Rise of Black / Chapter 79

Arcturus let the outer office empty itself in slow, polite waves. Clerks withdrew. Aurors posted at the far end of the corridor. The door sealed with a soft click and a line of silver light settled in the jambs. The fire burned low in the grate. On the inner wall, the portrait screens were shuttered.

Ignatia Travers stood already within, hands folded, chin high. Neat robes. Law braid on her cuff. A faint scent of ink and lilac. Her wand rested on the blotter, tip turned toward herself.<...

Rise of Black / Chapter 78

Corvus kept to the shadowed spine of the corridor, breath quiet, steps lighter than dust. The high security ward hummed with the thin, hopeless chill that sinks under nails and into marrow. Iron doors slept behind layered wards. Beyond them, the worst remnants of a bygone war rotted at the state's leisure.

A gaunt figure surfaced in the nearest slit of light. Antonin Dolohov. Scar along the jaw, eyes still sharp behind the hollows. Corvus no uncertain enough, he decided to shelve his se...

Rise of Black / Chapter 77

Corvus woke to an open Friday and a clean ledger. No classes. No visitors. A perfect day to begin billing a toad who had reached above her station. Not only for what she had done in this life. Also for what she was in another.

He dressed with care. Dark grey robes. Silver and green thread along the cuffs. A small indulgence. He let the metamorph on his frame loosen, settled his height another inch, and felt the bones hum. In a month he would stop using the skill and enjoy his new height...

Rise of Black / Chapter 76

Potter opened his eyes and drew a slow breath. The parking lot of the zoo sat where Corvus had told him to build it, asphalt bright and empty inside his head. Lanes marked out. Lamps standing guard. A place to notice footsteps that did not belong.

Corvus watched the boy's focus settle. A small nod. He brushed at Potter's surface thoughts with a feather light touch. The boy stiffened, then shifted his attention to the far corner of the lot the way he had been taught. The mental air smoot...

Rise of Black / Chapter 75

Tornhook pinched the bridge of his nose and stared at the brass hands of the Ministry clock as if he could bend time with spite alone. The goblin had visited every morning for a week. Every morning the same clerk with the same pleasant lie. The Minister is in session. The Minister is reviewing papers. The Minister is unavailable. Tornhook bared his teeth in something that was not a smile. Unavailable meant busy squeezing someone else.

The message he carried up from the clans was simple....

Rise of Black / Chapter 74

Grigori Volkov sat in the old leather chair that had belonged to his father and his father before him. The study breathed winter even with the hearth lit. Snow pressed its face to the casement and slid down in slow sheets. Seven kinsmen stood in a half circle before the desk, boots damp, shoulders squared, eyes set. Volkovs did not slouch when they brought a report.

Grigori lifted a hand and the room stilled. Each in turn gave numbers and locations. Apartments in the river quarter ready...

Rise of Black / Chapter 73

Rodolphus wanted to die. By the Kiss of a Dementor, by the Veil, by a careless shove from the highest parapet. Anything to stop this. His mind had splintered seven times already. Each time the monster fed him a potion that braught him back to see the faintly smiling face. Always at the brink of madness, just enough for more. Each Crucio stretched five seconds longer than the last until the seconds lost their edges and became an ocean he drowned in.

Another scream tore up his throat. The...

Rise of Black / Chapter 72

Rufus Scrimgeour had visited Azkaban more in the last few weeks than in the previous five years. Salt clung to his beard. The oars dipped and lifted through the chop, regular as a metronome, and he wondered when his career had turned into a ferry schedule. The reason for this visit was no different from the others. Another matter about House of Black of course. This time the youngest. The Durmstrang prodigy who took the international U18 trophy without breaking stride while Hogwarts applauded...

Rise of Black / Chapter 71

Arcturus Black arrived at the ministry on an ordinary morning and expected it to stay that way. The early corridors of the Ministry were quiet, which suited work that required a steady hand. Today's list began with choosing a secretary; he would shortlist three and send them to Corvus for the final pass. That habit had crept in without fanfare. Power sat in his chair, yet the center of gravity had shifted to a young man with turquoise silver eyes.

He set his cane by the mantel and let t...

Rise of Black Chapter 70

Corvus traced a finger along the rim of his teacup. "In our world a godparent is not a ribbon on a cradle. It is a charge under vow. A godfather or a godmother swears to keep a magical child within magic, to defend the child's person and property, to sponsor first oaths, to see the child trained, and to stand as first petitioner before the courts if guardianship fails. If the parents die, the godparents may claim wardship ahead of distant kin. They may place wards on a nursery, steward a vaul...

Rise of Black / Chapter 69

Potter fetched the nameless parcel from his dorm and walked to the quiet corridor that held Heir Black's rooms. He knocked once and waited. A house elf in a neat butler's uniform opened the door and gestured for him to follow.

The first thing he saw inside was a glass terrarium set opposite the entry. A green snake lay along a branch like a ribbon placed by a careful hand. The leaves made its scales look as if they had grown there. Potter could not name the species, nor he knew if it wa...

Rise of Black / Chapter 68

Grimmauld Place had grown crowded in a way that felt almost normal and almost dangerous. Aunt Vinda's touch went through rooms like a winter bell, Uncle Grigori filled the corridors with the weight of a retired storm, Sirius drifted between healer visits and loud opinions and Elizaveta moved like a silver knife in velvet. Corvus told himself he could endure the noise because most of it would leave in a few days. He told himself a different thing when he looked at Elizaveta. She was intelligen...

Rise of Black / Chapter 67

The schism at Hogwarts did not end with Samhain. It settled into habit. At meals the house tables showed fault lines that did not match the banners. Blocks of students drifted to sit beside friends from other houses. Ravenclaws gained the most. Gryffindor lost more than pride.

Potter chose his ground. He sat mostly with Ravenclaws and a few Hufflepuffs who liked quiet and books. He kept his back straight and his elbows in. He stood when a professor addressed him and he used surnames unl...

Rise of Black / Chapter 66

Elizaveta Volkov stepped through the doorway with the quiet confidence of someone taught exactly how to enter a room. Pale hair was braided for winter, the plait lying neatly between her shoulder blades. Her beautiful eyes, larger than usual were a clear glacial blue, sharp and observant. High cheekbones, a straight small nose, and lips the color of blood. Her skin had the pallor of northern light. An hourglass figure with curves in all the right places. A dark wool cloak, a deep red travel s...

Rise of Black / Chapter 65

Daily Prophet, Morning Edition
By Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent

BLACK SUN RISES OVER WIZENGAMOT
Arcturus Black takes the chair and clears an innocent

Readers, adjust your spectacles and your expectations. The Wizengamot did not meander yesterday. It moved.

First, the chamber decided who would keep the keys. The Minister’s chair was empty, the murmurs were not. The Neutrals rose and...