Harry Potter: The Ring Maker - Chapter 557: It begins

“What do you mean?” the old goat asked confused but worried. “I received a prophesy of sorts a few years ago that spoke of Grindelwalds plan and what will come of it. In that foretelling three ancient and powerful beings will be revived as a result of the ritual , one of them will more likely than not be my enemy and thus seek my life. I am unsure if I will have the strength to survive the battle with this body. But even after this body dies I will not so I ask that you not judge me harshly when I return.” Nick spoke softly and Dumbledore listened silently.-

“Why have you not spoken of this sooner?” the old goat asked sternly. “Because before now I lacked the power to stand on my own against you. I could not risk it to reveal this before my safety was ensured , selfish I know.” Nick said with more than a little shame. He knew that sharing this knowledge would likely allow others to prepare better for Zeus’s return but at the same time he was afraid of Dumbledore attacking him in hopes of staving off the future.-

The old man had done bad things in the name of prophesy before so it was a valid concern. “I understand , While I may wish that your fears lacked substance I know better. I must ask however , would removing you have changed anything at all?” the old man asked gently. Nick shook his head “No , by the time I learned of this prophesy Grindelwald was already enacting his plan. All removing me would have accomplished was to leave the world defenseless against the being I will clash with.” he said honestly , It was a harsh but fair assessment as far as Nick could tell of the situation.-

“Then there is nothing for me to be concerned about. I have made many mistakes so I dare not say I wouldn’t make another should you have revealed this sooner. You did what you believed best and no one can fault you for that given the situation. Did you know that for the longest time I wondered what it was that drove you to seek power so fervently? I couldn’t understand it , you were already well on your way to my level yet you never slowed down.” Dumbledore spoke calmly.-

The old wizard spoke of what he saw and felt when watching Nicks progress until they both felt the mana levels start to rise. Moments later the world lit up like a lightbulb as Grindelwald began his ritual. Nick immediately identified the route he took as the mana levels started to grow denser and denser with no sign of stopping even after the time of the Beltane surge came to an end. With that in mind Nick started calculating exactly how long Grindelwalds ritual could extend the surging of mana. The answer he got was was just short of a single year.-

Three days short in fact which meant that the mana levels around the world would soon stabilize at a certain point. It did too as the light faded and Nick felt the mana stop growing even if it was chaotic at the moment. ‘Sweet Merlin! It’s almost ten times denser than my island before the ritual.’ Nick thought in shock. “Call an emergency meeting with the school , bring the other schools as well. Everyone is probably panicking right now and you are respected enough to calm them down.” he said seriously and Dumbledore nodded in agreement “What of yourself?” he asked seriously.-

“I’m going to go strengthen the barrier keeping the stuff in the forest away from the school. It might be calm at the moment but after everything grows more powerful from this amount of mana things will get dicey as they try to leave the forest.” Nick said seriously and the old man nodded before grabbing a metal badge from his desk. “This is a key to those wards , it will allow you easy access to the core of the barrier.” he said as he handed it to Nick. “I’m off then.” Nick said before transforming into his Animagus form and teleporting to the forbidden forests edge.-

After turning back the badge hummed a bit and had a sort of pull towards a certain spot that Nick found was the keystone to the barrier. Immediately he used his access to start strengthening the repulsion aspect of the barrier to the point it started to become visible from the energy it was consuming to empower itself. It was like a heat distortion in the air but otherwise still transparent like normal. ‘That should hold against anything tier four and bellow.’ he thought seriously hoping that was good enough for now.