The Intelligent Potter

An: If you want the latest chapters of The Intelligent Potter just that little bit early, you can find it available on ! That said, I hope you enjoy this chapter! Also, Chapter 100 is coming up next, and I am planning on seeing whether I can do something special for it? Maybe it's gonna be something as lame as a long chapter (though I've been writing short chapters recently to make numbers kinda, so I guess it would be special, even if it's only a 2000 word chapter or a 3000 word chapter) but I'm also considering some other ideas, like maybe a special fight, or a oneshot or a really cool story.

*** Present

Operation Nagini.

That's what they were calling it. Tom preferred Operation Suicide, personally, but he guessed that that was a little too much of a downer for the rest of his team to palate.

"The Darkness will have moved Nagini to the dungeons, to be held in captivity," Tom said, "She would have been moved immediately once it was realised that I had escaped."

The other two men accompanying Tom nodded that they understood what he was saying.

"The wards still accept me as their master," Tom continued, "So sneaking in should be no issue, I'll enter and then give the two of you permission to enter. Then we just sneak into the dungeons with as little confrontation as possible and escape with Nagini."

The trio made their way through the thick forest which surrounded the Manor on all sides. The forest made sneaking up on the Manor a very easy task, something with Babajide, Arcturus, and Tom were all very glad for.

"This is the ward line," Tom said, once they had well, reached the ward line.

"I will enter first," he instructed before walking across.

That was when everything went wrong.

A loud klaxon-type sound went off. It was deafening.

Tom's eyes widened, "The Darkness must have changed the wards!" he realised, "Akingbade, Black, come, we need to get to a different part of the grounds, The Darkness will be here within a minute."

The trio sprinted as Tom led them through the less used pathways of the Manor, to try and find an empty spot where the three of them could hide.

Finally, they found the shed of the gardener, which was completely deserted, and right next to a very overgrown garden.

All three members of the team were breathing extremely heavily.

Arcturus cursed, "It was a f.u.c.k.i.n.g trap."

They heard a Death Eater approaching the cottage.

"He must have seen us through the window," Tom hissed, before opening the door ever so slightly and shooting the Death Eater with a spell.

He disappeared.

"What did you do to him?" Arcturus whispered to Tom as they all ducked out of the view of the window.

"You'll see," Tom said and then the Death Eater popped into existence right in front of them.

Arcturus stared, "What the hell kind of spell was that?!"

"One I made up myself," Tom said, wordlessly stunning the man in front of them who he had magically remotely apparated.

"Damn!" Baba whistled.

Tom let himself smile, "They'll start sweeping the rest of the grounds once they're done checking the perimeter. This is our chance to sneak in."

Arcturus and Babajide nodded.

They made their way out, under disillusionment charms, and Tom led them on a roundabout route back to the Manor, and snuck them in.

The Manor was deserted. It looked like all of The Darkness' men had gone out to search the perimeter and find the trespassers.

Babajide, the youngest and least experienced of the three, relaxed ever so slightly as they reached the dungeons.

"There will be guards here for sure," Tom whispered.

The three hid around the sides of the gate, and then as one unit, they slammed the door open and whipped up their wands, shooting our stunners before they even registered where they were.

The three heard hissing from the cell at the furthest end of the dungeon and quickly scurried across to where they heard the hissing.

Tom blasted open the gate to the cell.

The Darkness sat on a chair, playing with Nagini. It paused from its play to look up at the shocked wizards who were frozen at the door.

"Finally decided to return to me, Tom?" The Darkness casually said, "And you've brought two of our enemies as a sacrifice, good choice."

"I'm here to take my snake back," Tom said quietly, his voice trembling as he was in the presence of the being that had tortured him for close to a year.

The Darkness tightened his grip around Nagini's neck, and choked the snake to death, the black mist of the horcrux screeching as it was forcefully sent to the afterlife, "Oh no," it said in mock horror, "I think I killed it."

Arcturus and Babajide looked at each other and blinked.

Mission Accomplished?

Both of them turned tail and sprinted away, blasting open the doors of the dungeon in an attempt to get out, now that their goal had been accomplished, hearing Tom scream behind them.

Then they both tripped, looking down to their ankles to see that they had been grabbed by none other than The Darkness itself.

"You thought you could get away that easily?" The Darkness spoke.

Both wizards grunted and shot off spells at The Darkness, but were unable to hurt it at all.

Then The Darkness fell over, blood spewing from its mouth. Tom appeared from behind it, looking a little bit worse for wear, his wand held out.

"Let's go," he roared and they ran, even as The Darkness healed itself behind them.

"How did you hurt it?" Baba asked, as they ran, blasting Death Eaters out of their way.

"Alchemy," Tom replied, "It cannot resist alchemically created weaponry."

Tom pulled a knife out of his robes - presumably an alchemically created one - and directed it to fly at their assailant.

The Darkness dodged, but Tom directed it to stab it from behind. The primordial being held its hand out to prevent being impaled itself but gaining a cut on the hand.

The trio reached the perimeter of the Manor, but could not exit, as there were wards set up to prevent their exit at the perimeter, which The Darkness must have set up as a part of the trap it had set for them.

"Break the wards," Tom said grimly, pulling out more knives, "I'll hold him…"

*** End of Chapter