Dark Lord Dumbledore - Volume 1 Chapter 76

The thought of an immortal Dumbledore had significantly changed his attitude on how easy it would be to take out the Dark Lord. The fact that the old goat had also disappeared with Barty Crouch Jnr also worried him.

Before Chad had just thought he could send waves of ninja elves at the powerful old coot until he was overwhelmed if he needed to kill him off. He supposed the plan was still viable, but now he needed the old man alive to track down his redundancy plans, something much harder to achieve.

As much as Chad ragged on Dumbledore, he still respected the man’s power and abilities, even if he did make some massive c.o.c.k-ups. But that was the advantage of hindsight or looking at someone else’s decisions after the fact, who knows what influenced their choices at the time.

It is much easier for outsiders to pick and choose what they would do when they had all of the facts and seen the consequences of the decisions the person they disparaged made. Which was why being inserted into the Potterverse gave Chad such a considerable advantage.

That’s not to say Chad still didn’t think Dumbledore was an arrogant fool, too used to getting his own way and becoming blind to his faults. Then again, he was probably affected by the ambient magic of Hogwarts in his youth, stunting his critical thinking.

That the old man still retained the ability to make Magical Britain dance to his whims bespoke his intellect. If Chad had not been inserted into his domain, Dumbledore would have had no problems completing whatever plan he had in the works.

If Dumbledore didn’t die in canon and had access to Phoenix Tears and Horcrux knowledge, did he plan to revive as a descendant of his to take up the mantle of Leader of the Light? Or worse, take over Harry Potter’s body when Voldemort AK’ed him and become the new wizarding hero?

That thought honestly chilled Chad’s enthusiasm to continue playing around, he needed to stop treating this like a game. Sure, he had probably make some stupid mistakes out of arrogance, negligence or entertainment, Australia was one such example, but overall he had set up a strong foundation to support himself.

R.O.B had denied him wishes for a reason, future knowledge was already a massive cheat. That, coupled with an outsiders perspective on will based magic made it easy to carve out a future that suited Chad’s desires.

If Tom Riddle could harness accidental magic by the age of eleven without assistance, an a.d.u.l.t mind in a child’s body without prejudices on its applications would have a massive head start. Not to mention all the other instances of accidental magic fulfiling children’s desires.

Occlumency had only amplified the control over Chad’s wandless magic, and he thought it ridiculous when some of the fanfiction he read waited until age eleven out of some misguided belief that magic needed the body to mature or a wand to use.

If Neville Longbottom could do wandless magic as a baby, Chad sure as hell was going to achieve it as an a.d.u.l.t!

‘Why was I ranting again? Oh right, Dumbledore might be smarter than the books made him out to be. I need to stop thinking all wizards are completely stupid just because J.K. Rowling continually portrayed them as such. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.’

Chad thought to himself, he had a terrible habit of raging in the confines of his mind every time something annoyed or worried him.

‘But enough about that, there is nothing I can do until he makes a move against me. Sending the elves to find him would probably only make the Dark Lord more neurotic and may prompt him to do something drastic. For now, I should concentrate on neutralising Slytherin’s Basilisk.’

“Boppy, take me to Godric’s Hollow prison, please.”

“Yes, Master.” The dutiful elf replied before teleporting them to the base.

The twenty muggles confined in the silenced holding cells would be vital to his plan to initiate contact with the Basilisk. They would be used to figure out if the snake would be hostile or not. Chad just needed to test if the helmets he had designed would work as intended.

Stunning the man in the cell closest to him, Chad then opened its door and levitated the incapacitated muggle to the room next door where his lab was set up. After strapping the test subject down on a table, a fully enclosed helmet covered in runes was then equipped.

Runes had become one of Chad’s newest interests after he needed a method to contain a magical teleporting bird made from fire. And although Voldemort’s memories didn’t include a mastery over the subject, Tom had still researched ancient runes quite thoroughly in his quest for immortality and power.

With the Room of Requirement’s abilities stoking his enthusiasm in the subject, Tom had absorbed every bit of information on runes he could find. Unfortunately, when he figured out the limitations of runes and their inability to achieve his end-goals, Riddle had given up on the subject.

While ancient runes could be utilised to achieve marvellous creations to enhance the standards of living and technology of the magical world, it was a lot of hard work. There was also the problem that it was only capable of creating tools and artifacts that could mostly be reproduced by spells without years of study or effort.

With these factors combined, there had been a lot less interest in ancient runes, and the advancements in the field diminished. Nowadays, it was seen as more of a hobby than a career, much like potions. It was also much easier to buy finished products in the store than create them yourself.

Things like racing broomsticks had become a luxury for Quidditch, instead of a means for travel. Communication mirrors were rare because the effort involved in their creation made them expensive, much cheaper to send a message by owl or use a pinch of Floo powder to visit in person.

Just like magic, runes needed imagination and intent to drive their creation, but thanks to the introduction of wands, there had been a steady decline in those for the last thousand years. With everything they desired available at the wave of a wand, what need was there to improve?

Runes took time, effort and patience, something most wizards lacked, but they also weren’t the ultimate solution to gaining strength through powerful artifacts. They merely allowed an object to obtain a more permanent application of a spell and a way of focusing on the desired effects of specific abilities, much like potions.

It was also a way of letting less talented wizards and witches overcome their limitations. Voldemort could fly without a broom, but could others? A Pensieve could let someone review a memory, but an Occlumens or Legilmens could do so easily without one.

With the lack of imagination or drive infecting wizards and witches around the globe, there was simply no advancement in their magical technology. Making a racing broom go faster was seen as a massive breakthrough in technology, instead of creating a flying vehicle. Sirius and Mr Weasley were pioneers ahead of their time in that regard.

All in all, like potions, ancient runes were remarkably effective when used in specific instances. But the time, effort and materials involved made them a specialised solution to a problem instead of the panacea to any difficulty. However, when used in conjuncture with spells, it opened up a world of possibilities!

Since Chad could not rely on muggle technology at Hogwarts to remotely view the Chamber of Secrets, he needed to utilise runes to accomplish the same result. When he had taken over Grimmauld Place, the entire house had been catalogued and then sanitised to keep Sirius happy.

All ‘Dark’ artifacts or books had been moved to Godric’s Hollow for safekeeping and to stop Sirius from doing something stupid like destroying them out of hand.

The misguided fool had even complimented Chad for removing ‘dangerous dark magic’ when he told Sirius the elves had destroyed them for safety.

The two-way communication mirrors had intrigued Chad at the time, but he had no immediate use for them or a reason to recreate them. Much like the typical wizard mentality, it was easier for him to send a message by elf. Now, however, it would hopefully solve the issue of the Basilisk’s death gaze.

Chad pulled out Voldemort’s wand ready to apply incentive to answer questions about the helmet’s functionality if the test-muggle decided to be uncooperative. There was no point using his own and leaving evidence of casting an ‘Unforgivable’.

Re-enervating the man, he was understandably confused about his situation.

“I can’t see! Wait, what’s on my head?!” The disoriented man shouted.

“Calm down, you are helping me test some new technology.” Chad coolly replied to the man’s panic.

“F*ck you, how dare you hold me against my will! I know my rights, and you can’t do thi… AHHHH!”

Pre-empting a drawn-out rant about how the muggle was free to march onto Chad’s land to commit crimes without consequence, Chad put Voldemort’s wand to good use and hit him with a Crucio Curse.

A couple more times and the man was almost eager to comply to anything Chad wanted, let alone feedback on a helmet capable of magically transmitting an image. Unfortunately, human testing came with certain risks.

Four test-muggles were blinded, one of them also suffering severe burns to his face, and the first poor bastard to test the helmet died. It was like his head had been microwaved, the filters designed to limit harmful light accidentally amplifying them.

But five enemy muggles was a small price to pay for the end result. The headgear was now capable of remotely viewing through a solid faceplate, much like a blaster shield on a helmet from Star Wars. The image would also be sent to a remote device so Chad could watch what happens in the safety of his room in Hogwarts.

Add a microphone and speaker to each helmet and Chad could now see and speak to the Basilisk free from danger. Of course, just in case there was a chance of magic shenanigans petrifying him through the remote viewing set up, Chad had Snape make multiple Mandrake Restorative Draughts.

With a finished product that could auto filter harmful levels of light as well as other spectrums like ultraviolet and gamma-rays, Chad was reasonably confident it should negate whatever caused the Basilisk’s gaze to kill. There was no direct line of sight, after all.

But that was also what test subjects were for!

When these men marched on Chadtopia to cause damage or harm, they would never have guessed it would lead to them facing down an extremely deadly magical snake.