ATOMIX; Ch:07 The Blood Room

Hello my dear Patron family, here's Chapter Seven of ATOMIX. I hope you like it!

Hearty thanks and congratulations to our first six members of the Guildmaster Tier: Camo, I am Lord Dems, StormFox, RyanMK666, Lyrical and Tyler. 🥰🤩

Check out the new Tiers and their Benefits on my patreon's membership page!!

Author out!

“I am Talking.” 

‘I am Thinking’ 

Spells

ATOMIX 

-Dev Sagittarius Black 

~~Chapter 07: The Blood Room~~

.

Dried grass and dull gray skies welcomed me. All around myself, I could only see a huge expanse of land. There were no houses, no trees, not a single living creature or anything that was  colorful. 

The only thing that stood out of the ordinary was the house in front of me. 

Rickety and old, with mosses growing on its walls. A broken roof with dangling tiles and a wooden broken fence that looked like the last time its most recent repair was four centuries ago. Quite a charming scenery I had come upon, hadn’t I? 

There was also a broken wooden lawn chair beside me and a small coffee table that had fallen over. How? I had no idea as I had yet to feel even a small gale of air pass through me much less a gust of wind strong enough to knock back that table. 

“Anyone here?” I called loudly, “Anyone live here? Can someone hear me at least?!” 

No response, of course. Why would someone live in such a weird place? Was this place even real? Wasn’t I near that thick pillar made of ropes just a moment ago? Where did this place come from? 

‘Ah yes… that red rope…’ But then, that means the rope was some sort of teleportation devi–

The door in front of me rattled all of a sudden, making me jump a bit. 

“Wh - Who’s there?” I called out again and saw that damn thing shake once more. Its metallic hinges clanged against each other, making me shudder. I took a step towards the house and the door opened on its own with a loud bang. 

“Uh… Who’s there?” I flicked my arm and then I realized that I didn't have my trusty wand with me. Wow, imagine having your wand with you when you are in such a happy place. Not me, obviously. 

I stopped for some time, the door had stopped shaking and I still had to meet another living being except me. I chanced a look around me once more, the place was absolutely barren. Like someone built a house in the absolute heart of nowhere. Hell, I couldn't sense the wind either. 

Therefore, summoning my courage once more, I decided to take a step forward. 

The door remained silent and the dark inside of the door didn’t glare at me with the red eyes of a bloodthirsty monster that was hell-bent on hiding in the shadows, waiting patiently — whoa… wait there, stop.

Thank you, my sweet brain, for conjuring up images I would rather not think about right now. Could you please, like… not do it anymore? Much appreciated. With Love, the guy whose brain you are.

I crossed the barren garden and looked inside the house. It was pitch black and nothing was discernible from the outside. For a moment, I thought I saw some light blue thing growing behind me but when I turned to inspect, the land was as barren as ever. 

Who was I even kidding? Maybe my mind was just making colors so that I could feel more at home. 

“Anyone inside?” I tried once more, hoping against my courageous heart that the person who opened the door would reply. Alas, nothing happened. 

I stepped in the house, and immediately froze. 

Voices… hushed and a bit dim… but yes, I could hear voices again! Was that a reason to celebrate? Hell yeah, it was. 

As always, I looked around my new surroundings and involuntarily scrunched my nose.

Rotten floorboards, broken tables and empty photo frames surrounded me. Wallpaper had peeled off the wall in places and there were spots where dried moss sprouted from it. The metal hinges of the window had broken and I could see one of the broken glass panes dangling outside. 

Talk about being rotten from the inside because the inside of the house was definitely not looking any better than the outside. It was absolutely filthy.

“Somehow this house makes Grimmauld Place look like a habitable place...” I sighed and then went towards the photo frames and awards that hung on the wall in front of me. 

They were either cracked or dangled from a single nail on the wall. There were some certificates but none of them had names in it. The photo frames were all empty and the awards were nothing more than rusted metal.

Nothing told me who this house belonged to or where I was. 

I touched one of the frames that dangled. It had a golden edge and for some reason I thought that I had seen this frame somewhere, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember where. 

That was when something else happened. 

A drop of red fell on my hand that was touching the photo frame. I touched it with my finger and took a closer look. 

Blood. It was blood. 

But where did this…? I looked up and was shocked. Did I forget to notice the ceiling when I entered? Was it always like this or was this another thing that I should’ve been wary of? 

The entire ceiling was red as if someone had painted it. Also, the paint was moving as if waves were going through it. 

Another drop fell on my face. Then one more… another… another…

I tried to run away, into the room beside me, or rush out of the door once more. That barren land was way better than the bloody ceiling. But I couldn’t move from my place at all. Not even an inch.

All I could see was red.

I took a quick glance through the broken window and was surprised to see a lush garden outside it. Yes, the absolutely broken and barren garden that I had crossed a few minutes ago was lush green with different flowers. 

The white painted fences were repaired, the broken lawn chair and the overturned coffee table stood proudly and looked quite comfortable. There was even a small patch of flowers growing in front of the chair. Larkspur, if the bright light blue flowers on the unbranched stem were any indication.

When did this happen? HOW did this happen?! 

Neither I knew nor I had another moment to think about it as I lost my consciousness immediately after that. 

⁂

The next time I opened my eyes, it hurt like hell. 

My eyes burned as if they were on fire so I quickly shut them again and enjoyed the peaceful cooling sensation. 

“Try to open them as slowly as you can, Harry,” Said a really familiar voice. “Sometimes patience is all we need to get what we want.” 

I followed the advice and slowly opened my eyes to look at the man sitting on the chair beside my bed. Long white hair and beard, a bright purple robe, half moon spectacles and twinkling blue eyes. 

“Profes–” I stopped. Why the hell did everything hurt?!

Dumbledore picked up a glass of water from the bedside table. He flicked his wand and after some time, offered the glass to me with a smile on his face. 

“I believe you are familiar with the process as it was Madam Pomfrey who left this for you,” He said and smiled, “She also said to give you a stern talking when you return back to us. Though I am quite sure she’d like to do that herself when you join us at Hogwarts soon.” 

I drank the lukewarm honey-water that Madam Pomfrey used to give me as he chuckled at his own joke. Yeah, it's never a good idea to work hard when you’ve lived a century. I made a mental note to retire at sixty years of age. If I am successful enough to live that long anyway. 

“Professor, how long did you – I mean, how long was I out?”

He smiled at me, “I believe it’s been three days, my boy. Your friend, Ronald found you unconscious in your room, him along with Miss Granger, Miss Weasley and Sirius have been your regular visitors. In fact, it is to my good knowledge that, at some point, Poppy had to kick them out of the room so that they would leave her alone.” 

Ron was the one who found me? When did he find me? And… Why did he return to my room in the first place? As much as I didn’t know about my friend, I knew that he wasn’t the most level headed boy in the room. Therefore, it made no sense for him to return once he left the room in anger.

“If I may ask, Harry,” Dumbledore pulled my attention again. “What were you doing in your room?” 

It was at this moment that I realized that I was in a different room. ‘Brilliant job, Potter, shows  how aware you are, you dumbass’. For some reason, I heard Moody’s voice shout ‘CONSTANT VIGILANCE!’ in my ears. I quickly looked around myself to see red curtains and a fairly used room, more than the one I had been living in, and, thankfully, no Moody.

“Sirius gave his room to Poppy so that she could treat you,” The Headmaster supplied, “I believe there was no other room in the house safe enough for medical treatment. He also seemed to think you’d like the red color more than your previous green coloured room.” 

I smiled at his attempt at humor, but my mind was stopped at one line, ‘No other room was safe enough for medical treatment’? What the hell happened to MY room?

“Professor, why did Sirius have to give me his room for my treatment? What happened to my room?” 

The smile dropped from his face and he peered at me with something akin to pity and curiosity. The two emotions that I detested most when it came from others. For some reason, I especially hated it  when it came to Dumbledore. 

“Your room, my boy… I don’t think I can give you a definite answer at the moment,” He gave a deep sigh, “Tell me, Harry, did you have any bout of accidental magic lately? Like you had at the beginning of your third year? Anything at all?” 

Accidental magic? Like blowing up my ‘dearest’ aunt? I didn’t remember anything like that, then why would he — My eyes widened in shock when I suddenly remembered what I had been doing before I fell unconscious. 

I was in ‘The Zone’, which meant that I had accidentally done something that had changed the room, and that is what Dumbledore was assuming as my accidental magic? What did I do in the Zone that changed the entire room?! 

“I don’t think so, sir,” I told him as honestly as I could.

“What is the last thing that you remember?” 

I knew what I did, but that didn’t mean I wanted to tell him everything just yet. Absolutely not. I wasn’t sure what the Zone was yet myself, how would I be able to explain something to him that I myself didn’t know about? 

So I decided to lie about it instead. 

“I was a bit angry and upset, sir. Ron came to talk to me, and then, it escalated quickly. The twins, Hermione and Ginny joined us after that and then I sent them out. Then...” 

 “Then?” 

“I don’t know sir, I just wanted to be alone,” I shrugged my shoulders, “I don’t know what happened after that. The next thing I know is  waking up here.”

There was a pregnant pause and I was worried that, somehow, Dumbledore already knew that I was lying but that wasn’t possible, right? 

My eyes widened a bit when I remembered something about the books from Black Library that told me about Occlumency and the opposite art which was called Legillimency. It meant that a wizard could read anyone’s mind. Was the Headmaster reading my mind right now? 

“Sir?” 

“Hmm? Ah, I was just thinking a bit deeply.” He smiled once more but this time I could see that it was strained. “Tell me Harry, have you had any nightmares lately? Or has your scar ached?” His eyes went to check my almost diminished scar that was nothing more than a thin line nowadays, instead of its former bright red color. 

“No sir. My scar… I don’t think it has pained since that accident,” I frowned when I thought about it. Didn’t ‘The Zone’ and other related problems start occurring after that accident too? Was it all somehow related? Not only that, I didn’t get any Voldemort related nightmares either. Was the accident a blessing in disguise?

“And what about nightmares, Harry? Sirius says sometimes the house-elf, Kreacher, mutters about you screaming during night,” Dumbledore frowned, “Are you perhaps hiding something from me?” 

That little piece of old crap… I swore I would strangle him the next time I saw him. I knew he kept a close eye on me ever since that first night, but I didn’t know that the little shit was a creepy stalker as well. 

I looked at Dumbledore and sighed. He didn’t look like he would take no for an answer this time. No, I don’t mean it like that, you filthy minds!

“Yes, sir, I have had a few nightmares since I came here,” I admitted, “but it’s the same thing all the time, so I don’t think it’s important.”

“Sometimes, our dreams have messages more important than the ones we perceive through open eyes, my boy. Always remember that.” He ran his hand through that overgrown beard of his. 

“Now, can you tell me what these nightmares are about? Maybe I could help you more than you could help yourself?” 

“It’s always the same thing, sir.” I shrugged, there was no use of hiding it from him now anyway. “I find myself standing in a graveyard of sorts with just a house. Everything rots around me… and there is a weird voice. It repeats the same thing again and again. Unfortunately, before I can listen anymore, I wake up. 

“What does it say?” 

“Something about unfathomable power and combining my power in his own cells,”  I answered as I tried to remember what the voice said. “It wanted me to suffer pain. Some pain that his family gave him for a long time.” 

“Family?” Dumbledore asked me. 

“Yes, sir, that is usually the voice’s last line.” I nodded, “Oh, and the voice doesn’t come from a particular direction, it comes from all around me.” 

Dumbledore hummed at that and just kept on moving his hand through his beard. Made me wonder if the beard was actually smooth and Dumbledore spent an hour everyday to properly clean and groom it? 

I mean, wouldn’t a person with that long beard feel an itch even? For that matter, did Hagrid have itchy hair and beard too? After all, his beard is way more scruffy than the Headmaster’s. Or did magic help in that as well? Magic! The solution to all problems! 

I looked at the Headmaster’s beard again… ‘Nah… he has to be grooming it everyday…’ 

“Harry?” 

I blinked and pulled myself out of my extremely important thought process regarding beards of old men.

“Yes, sir?”

“There are a few tests that help us — or in our case — me, make an assessment about the problems one is suffering with. The last time I had checked you for it was after the third task, but at that time, I had presumed the results to be due to the traumatic experience you had suffered that night. I think the results would be different now.” 

“Will you...” I hesitated a bit, “Will you be able to read my mind, sir?” 

Dumbledore’s hand stopped for a minute before he resumed stroking his beard, “My boy, where did you even learn about such a thing?” 

“The books that Sirius gave me for reading from the library. I learned about Occlumency and the opposing art which is called Legillimency, right?” I asked him and the old guy nodded. “Well, since you said about checking things about my mind, I thought you might…” 

“I apologize if the wording of my request worried you, Harry.” Dumbledore tried to reassure me, “Regardless of that, no, I will not read your mind. I just wanted to check your rather infamous scar. It’s my belief that something has changed in that scar… something has happened during that accident which has changed it and I want to know what it is. So, may I?”

I gave him permission to do so, and suddenly, a long knotted wand was right in front of my eyes. When did he even bring the wand out?! The speed and smoothness definitely showcased his skill in wand handling. 

“I think it’d be easier if you fell asleep, my boy. Therefore, I will have to ask you to lie down and close your eyes.” 

I did as told. The last thing I saw was Dumbledore’s wand before my eyes, I felt the tip trace my scar and then everything fell silent. 

⁂

The next time I opened my eyes, I only saw the dirty ceiling of Grimmauld Place. The same moldy one that I had seen before I closed my eyes. I looked around and sighed in relief when I realized that I was still in the same room. 

No more room changing incidents needed. 

That gave me another thing to worry about. I wanted to check what my powers had done to my room, and why Dumbledore was hesitant to tell me about it. Also, now that I thought of it, couldn’t Dumbledore — the strongest wizard in a century — simply revert whatever change my magic had done? 

I am quite sure he is more powerful than me, last time I checked. 

‘Okay, no. Not a good time for sarcasm, Potter. Focus on the important… well, relatively important matters for now,’ I shook my head and got up from the bed. I checked my bedside table for my wand and glasses. I saw my glasses but there was no presence of my wand. 

That made me panic a bit before I came to the strong conclusion that it was probably still in my room. The same room that I had destroyed and now had a strong urge to visit. Therefore, without any further delay, I left my bed and stood up on the floor.

That was not the right thing to do because the moment I did, my head felt dizzy again and I stumbled back on the bed. 

“Fuck… what is wrong with me...? Can’t even stand on my own…” I grumbled and took a moment to reorient myself before I stood up again. 

This time, it worked. 

Now all I had to do was walk a flight of stairs and then walk down a corridor to reach my room. Easy peasy, yeah. 

It wasn’t. 

For some reason my mind and body felt as if they were made of lead. I was thankful that none of the people in the house had noticed that I had left Sirius’ room. For some reason, the house was really silent. Usually, I could always hear Mrs Weasley down in the kitchen or the Twins somewhere around the house.

A glance at the window on the far end in the gallery solved that problem. 

It was pitch black outside. I didn’t have my wand so I couldn’t check the exact time, but for some reason, I could feel that it was close to three in the morning.

The flight of stairs was the most difficult part. I crawled up the stairs on all fours like a toddler, thanking my stupid luck that there was no one to witness my excellent spider-walking skills. 

I didn’t know what was making me feel so weak. Usually, after I returned from my yearly bout of unconsciousness – which wasn’t a good thing, by the way – my limbs would hurt a bit and I would feel lethargic for some time.

Therefore, to feel this weak that even made walking tough for me… there was definitely something else going on behind the scene. 

Somehow, I managed to crawl the way to my room. I leaned against the wall and released a deep breath. Who knew crossing a flight of stairs would be this tedious for me?

“Alright…” I sighed, “Time to open the room and see what has happened inside it.” 

I placed my hand on the door knob and opened the door, but I wasn't even ready to see what I saw inside my former room. 

Floor, the walls, even the ceiling… the curtains, table and chairs, bed… the bed sheets on it…. entire room… Everything was painted red. 

Blood red. 

I slowly entered the room and was surprised when I felt my legs sink a bit in the red painted floorboards. The floorboard was a bit squishy, as if it was made of a layer of sponge or…

My mind flashed through the weird place I had visited when I was in ‘The Zone’ last time. That weird hut, the red ceiling, the shower of blood before I fell unconscious. 

‘Was this what happened at that time?’ I crouched down and pressed the squishy floorboard, it immediately painted my fingers in the same color. I looked at the walls, ceiling, the bed… everything had turned to that red ceiling from that weird dream?

Did I accidentally create a blood room?! 

“No. That sounds stupid. This is something else. It has to be!” I said to myself as I stood inside the room, “After all, how could I have done magic on this scale to turn everything in a room red and squishy? No, this has to be accidental magic somehow. It has to be.”

But try as I might, I couldn’t suppress the small nagging voice at the back of my head that said, ‘You are responsible for this, Potter.’ 

I checked the red bedside table for my wand and saw it kept neatly on it. Well, at least the wand was still looking the same. That gave me another thing to think about. 

If this accident was indeed my doing — which I really didn’t want to admit — why is my wand the only thing that isn’t red? Even my wooden trunk is red. Hell, everything in the room except for the light from the lamp and my wand were red. Then, why not my wand too? 

Did the magical core in my wand resist the change in color? 

I picked my wand and inspected it a bit; moved my fingers along the ridges and the curves like I had seen Ollivander do last year when he came for the wand weighing. ‘Yeah, not even a speck of red…’ I flicked it again, ‘Tempus’. 

It was half-past three in the morning, which meant that my rough assessment was almost correct. Anyhow, this room gave me a lot of potential and probabilities regarding the Zone.

The Zone itself was another matter that I didn’t want to think about as opening that door would mean a lot more mysteries than I wanted to solve. Maybe I should make a checklist of things that I have to solve. 

There was the Pillar of Ropes. 

Then, there was that broken house. Who was the person whose voice I heard when I was inside the house? I also remembered the garden that had somehow turned to a lush green one when I was inside the house. 

There was also that red ceiling which showered drops of blood. 

Alos,  the problem of how to reach that house again? Not that I wanted to go to that creepy place anytime soon. Still, somehow I knew that it was that house which held all the answers to all my problems including the Zone itself. 

I placed my hand on the wall beside me. My reason for what I was about to do sounded stupid on so many levels that I didn’t want to admit it, but it was a simple thing that I wanted to experiment on. 

If I could turn the wall squishy and red, shouldn’t I be able to turn it back hard and green? I should be, right? Of course, I should. 

I tried to search for that feeling again, it was a lot harder because of my weakened state but days of practice were good enough to help me tap into that way more easily.

Almost immediately, I was connected to everything again. The area around me rejuvenated me, as if I was sucking energy from it just because I connected myself to the wall. Then, I pictured the color red in my mind and started to turn it to green while slowly turning the wall solid. 

After a struggle of five minutes, I bent forward and took a deep breath followed by a few shallow ones. It was quite time and energy taking. I broke my connection with the Zone and checked the wall, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. 

In a small circle of two meters diameter, the entire wall area had been repaired. It was the same shade of green as well as solid and no longer squishy. Which meant that I had succeeded in my small experiment! 

Even though accidentally, I had discovered another perk of my special powers: The ability to change color and hardness of an object. This was a breakthrough in itself! 

Now all I needed to do was to wait to gain strength and then repeat in the entire room. Yes, then the room would be back again.

My eyes widened when all of a sudden the light coming from the lamps disappeared pushing the room into utter darkness. And before I could do another thing there was a shrill war cry and a small body crashed in my back with enough force to knock me down. 

“KREACHER WILL KILL THE FILTHY HALF-BLOOD!!” 

‘What the fuck?!’

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Ending Note: There you have it fellas, chapter Seven of 'ATOMIX', hope you liked it.

Liked it? Loved it? Needs some changes? Please, do tell.

I am waiting for all your comments. Constructive criticism is always appreciated.

Check out the new Patreon tiers and benefits if you still haven't. 

Those who have joined my discord server, please tell one of the mods or me about it in the server to get the patron tier role, I am most active in my server so you can freely ask anything there.
Link: https://discord.gg/Gcbcv4dxGx
Name: Dev Black's Empire

Thank you for reading and comments,

With regards,
Dev Black