The Synthesis Trilogy Book One: Salvific Chapter Twelve- Sisyphean, a harry potter fanfic

A/N: Hello our darling readers. We would like to apologize for the long wait between chapters. From August to April is quite a long wait. Life just has that tendency of snatching you up at the most in opportune moments. Plus, collective cases of writer's block does not help matters. But now we are back, and writing again. We're not giving up on this story: we WILL complete it and it's sequels.

Also, just so that you are all aware. There are currently only four of us working on the story anymore. The Royal Scribe has now changed her penname to By the Goddess, Spiralling-Down, Blood and Moonshadows (who changed her penname to rosemarried), and I (Lady Phoenix Fire Rose) are all still working on it.

So we hope that you enjoy our latest installment of The Synthesis Trilogy Book One- Salvific! - The Seventh Horcrux, Scar!

Addendum: throw some reviews our way, and maybe it won't be almost a year until the next chapter. Kidding, kidding! (no, but siriusly, throw some reviews our way, beauties.) - The fairest and most beautiful horcrux of them all, Diadem. (She only wishes it was so, Scar)

Chapter Twelve- Sisyphean

- laborious, endless and futile -

Metric- The Lifestyle

(Never the lifestyle baby, for you and me)

I wish you were a song to play

I wish you had something to say

I wish you were a song to play

I wish you had something to say

(Never the lifestyle baby, for you and me)

(Never the lifestyle baby)

Lucius flicked his long hair back, smoothing it down with his left hand as he did so. It was a trait he had developed during his OWL's, and one that he had carried through into his adult life. It became almost like a nervous twitch- whenever Lucius found himself concentrating for a long period of time, he would comb a hand through the blonde mass to soothe his mind and block out distractions.

His right hand was consumed with small, repetitive, motions. He found himself turning far more pages than he cared to admit, and his fingers bore the marks of repeatedly gripping the small handles that allowed him access to every wizard and witch ever born in the last twenty years. Each wizard or witch had their own box and, much to Lucius' annoyance, their own brass handles that seemed determined to mark his pale, soft skin.

He had thought that it would be easy, finding information on the four aggressors that had attacked and defeated a team of Death Eaters weeks ago, but it was proving more difficult than he could have expected, and he was becoming frustrated. As he reached the end of each page he lost a little more hope of finding anything of use here, and with the flip of each page he found himself gaining it back just to have it ripped away again.

The motion of simply flipping pages became so repetitive he nearly skipped it - a photograph of a boy with messy black hair, round glasses, and a smile that was happy and mischievous. He thought - no he was sure this was him! The boy who had led the attack. He quickly skimmed the short blurb beneath his picture and found the name - James Potter. 17, so still a student at Hogwarts then. Lucius grinned, his heart pounding with something close to excitement, something he couldn't quite put his finger on - but he wasn't concerned with that right now. He jumped out of his seat, suddenly alight with energy when he had been nearly falling asleep only minutes ago. Not even bothering to replace the record book back on the shelf where he had found it, he bolted for the door, eager to tell the Dark Lord what he had just discovered.

James walked down the hall, keeping to himself for once in his life. At least 10 Slytherins had crossed his path and yelled jeers at him, expecting a duel or at least a response of some sort, but instead got no reaction whatsoever and earning him strange looks from the entire student body for his out of character behavior. He couldn't care less, though, as he was practically bursting with excitement on the inside. In mere minutes, he would be initiated into The Order of the Phoenix, a secret society created by Professor Dumbledore to fight Lord Voldemort's Death Eaters, many of which lay inside of Hogwart's itself, much to Dumbledore's dismay. He had been reluctant to allow any students to be inducted, but finally agreed that any student of age should be allowed to join if they so wished. And Merlin, did James wish.

As he rounded the corner, he walked straight into the rest of the Marauders - literally. He nearly fell backwards, but Remus caught and righted him while Sirius laughed.

"Walk much, Prongs?" he teased. James made a graphic gesture in his general direction, but laughed as he did so. Nothing could bring down his mood, not today.

"Finally, huh?" he said, not daring to say more but also knowing he didn't have to. Remus and Sirius nodded eagerly, and Peter smiled.

"Ironic though, what with my furry little problem." Remus said. They all chuckled. "Still exciting though. I never thought I would really be any use in this war."

"Do you really think it's going to become a war?" Peter asked. Remus hesitated.

"I don't know." he said truthfully. "I hope not." They all rounded another corner and came to the entrance to Dumbledore's study. For a moment, nobody moved or spoke. They all stared at the closed door almost unable to believe they were really there. Now that they were actually here it was almost scary. No, not almost, it was terrifying. Dumbledore hadn't wanted any young people in the Order because of the threat to their lives, and while all of them were willing to fight and to be brave, there was still a certain eeriness about willingly joining an organization that could very well be the death of you and your friends. James wasn't sure which was worse, and as he glanced at his best friends out of the corners of his eyes he knew similar things were on their minds as well.

"We could always turn back now." Sirius voiced what they were all thinking, but no one made a move to turn away, not even Peter. "Right then." he said. "Then it's settled." he took a half a step towards the stone gargoyles that guarded the entrance to the headmaster's study.

"Jelly slugs." The gargoyles jumped aside and allowed them to ascend the narrow staircase that lead to the large wooden door. Sirius knocked and the professor's voice called, "Come in."

They swung open the door to find quite a few adults as well as three other fellow students; Frank Longbottom and his girlfriend Alice, who had already graduated, as well as Lily Evans, whom James had known would be here, and yet it was somehow still a bit of a pleasant and comforting surprise. It calmed his nerves a little. Apparently able to sense his discomfort, she gave him a warm, reassuring smile as he stepped into the room.

"Ah, hello! Welcome. Please, take a seat wherever you'd like." Professor Dumbledore said, gesturing to the circle that had been created out of Dumbledore's desk and an assortment of mismatched chairs, only half of which were taken. Obviously, not the entire Order had been able to come. James was almost disappointed that he wasn't able to meet everyone tonight, but he knew most of them were probably out doing important work. "This is Remus Lupin, James Potter, Sirius Black-" Sirius's name caused only a slight amount of stir, but Sirius pretended not to notice and Dumbledore pushed on. "-Lily Evans, Frank Longbottom and his fiancee Alice, and Peter Pettigrew. They are our newest initiates." A few people mumbled a hello and Professor McGonagall gave them a look somewhere between disapproval and pride. "And this is Elphias Doge, Dorcas Meadows, Gideon Prewett, Alastor Moody and Emmeline Vance." Dumbledore beamed around at all of them, and his smile was almost out of place at a war meeting, but nobody else seemed to think it strange so James kept quiet.

The man Dumbledore had called Moody cleared his throat and everyone looked over at him. "If we could get down to business now?" he said in an irritated tone. Dumbledore nodded at him. "Good. I've been keeping tabs on Karkaroff-"

"Igor Karkaroff is a suspected Death Eater." Doge added for the benefit of the newer members, giving Moody a look. Moody looked annoyed at being interrupted but said nothing.

"-and he was tracked to the Albanian woods." He paused, and then with a glance at Doge, added, "There's a forest in Albania we think is one of a few possible bases for the Death Eaters."

"So you saw him entering the woods?" Prewett asked. Moody nodded. "And what about exiting?"

"He left about 24 hours later, around 20:00." He answered.

"That's only an hour before I saw Dolohov leave." Emmeline Vance said.

"Dolohov? As in Antonin Dolohov?" Sirius asked incredulously. He wasn't really that shocked; he didn't exactly think he was above it. It was still surprising to have in confirmed, though.

"No, his father." Vance clarified. "Although I wouldn't be surprised to see Antonin go the same way."

They continued to talk about troop movements, old battles, and potential recruits from Hogwarts. Despite wanting to listen, James found himself growing bored.

Where was the excitement, where was the danger?

He supposed that he should probably count himself lucky that neither he nor his friends would be thrust into battle anytime soon- after all, he wanted to keep them safe- but the meeting was nothing like he expected. He had thought that they'd be taking the offensive, striking at key locations, but Dumbledore seemed far more concerned with defence. Yes, it was important to keep people safe, but James had always subscribed to the theory that the best defence was the best offence.

He was confident that both Lily and Remus were at least paying attention, so, as he exchanged a bored glance with Sirius, he began to plan the greatest prank in Hogwarts history. And best of all, it would help scare off potential Death Eater recruits.

And the more he thought about it, the better it seemed. He couldn't wait to gather the Marauders together and discuss it!

Ginny smiled to herself as she woke, sleep still trying to lock her eyelids closed with a slightly uncomfortable tickle. The blankets that had been so neatly folded across her bed the night before lay in a tangled mass, indiscernible from the rest of her form. The fabric hugged her curves and splayed out over her body as if she was enveloped by a thin film of water. Her hair fanned out across her pillow, and the early morning light sprinkled the orange with specks of bright colour. Her teeth, tinted slightly yellow from a small layer of plaque that had formed during the night, shone out into the semi-darkness of the new day.

For the first time in a long while, Ginny had slept dreamlessly, and, as if to make the remarkable feat even more pleasing, had woken to blissful peace. Her room was silent; her only companions the singing birds outside. She felt well rested and content, an emotion that she had hardly felt since they had landed in the past. She had grown adept at blocking Riddle - she had finally succeeded in compartmentalising him completely, if only for a short time. She had also managed to fight off the lapping presence of her other half, and her attacks had been decreasing in frequency too. Perhaps she should have been worried, concerned about a potential retaliation against her barriers, but she could not truly bring herself to care if she was being lulled into a false sense of security or if she was very much protected. She had grown tired of the shadowy presences in her head, and one night without them was enough to cleanse her mind and revitalise her body.

Class ended and Lily emerged from the classroom alone and looked around at the growing throng of students in the hallway, eager for some company. She spotted Harry at the end of the hall and pushed her way over to him.

"Porter!" she called to him. "Hey, Porter!" Harry turned and smiled at her, moving to the wall so he wouldn't be swept away and she could catch up. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Harry said with a shrug. "You?"

"I'm alright." she said. Lily thought, trying to find a way to ask him about the Order. Harry seemed like an excellent candidate, but if he didn't know she didn't want to be the one to expose them and he hadn't been at their meeting last night. Dumbledore had said that not everyone came to every meeting. But then again, why would Harry miss his first ever meeting? "Been up to anything interesting lately?" she settled on.

Harry shrugged. "Nothing really. Just studying - and trying not to get lost. This school is huge." he told her, looking around. Something about his tone set off an alarm in her head. Was he lying to her? Or was he in the same boat that she was, unable to say anything for fear of giving the Order away?

"Was Parcelsus a small school then?" Harry nodded. "It must be pretty hard for you guys then, especially with the moving staircase." Lily said sympathetically.

"What about you? Have you been doing anything?"

"Just... being with friends." Lily said lamely, not sure if she should reveal anymore. Harry nodded.

"They seem nice." he said awkwardly. Lily nodded and there was a beat of silence. "Well, erm, I should be... getting to my next class." Harry said. Lily knew he had a free period, but was too polite to say anything. Besides, she didn't know where to take the conversation either.

"Alright, I'll see you around, then." she said and walked off in the direction of the common room. Lily was pretty sure that conversation had gotten her absolutely nowhere. She still didn't know if Harry was part of the Order - in fact, she was more confused than ever about him. She sighed, disappointed in herself. How was she ever going to be a useful member of the Order of the Phoenix if she couldn't even get information out of Porter?

Peter sat alone in the dorm, taking advantage of the one free period in his schedule that wasn't also a free period for one of the other three Marauders, which were almost always spent planning pranks and not doing the homework he used this period for. He had gotten more detentions for unfinished homework just this year than he could count on both hands and feet. He scratched his face with the end of his quill, frowning at his half-completed Potions essay.

"Oh, Wormy!" came James's voice in a sing-song tone from outside the dorm. "Are you here, Wormy?" Peter sighed and gingerly placed his essay in his trunk for safe-keeping before responding.

"I'm here," he called back. James bounded into the room.

"What are you doing holed up in here?" James asked him. Peter shrugged.

"Nothing really," he responded. He didn't want to say he had been doing homework; he wasn't the bookworm of the group, that was Remus, and he knew his place. "Just hanging out. Why?"

James shook his head. "Dear Wormy, when will you ever learn that a moment not spent thinking up or carrying out a prank is a moment wasted?" he chided. He seized Peter's arm and proceeded to attempt to drag him over to the door, but couldn't seem to pull him off the bed. It was times like these Peter was happy for his extra weight.

"A prank? Did you have one in mind?" he asked as James sat on his own bed, defeated.

"When do I not have a spectacular prank in mind?" said James. He paused. "Well, I don't have it quite worked out yet... See, the idea is that if I can use the pranks to do something good, then Evans can't be mad at me for them, can she?" Peter considered this.

"I guess not." he said slowly, although he was fairly certain she still could be mad at him regardless of good intentions.

"So my plan is to find a way to use a prank to scare off Slytherins who want to be Death Eaters. No way Evans could say that's a bad thing, right?" Peter only stared at him, frozen, no idea how to respond. He'd known this was going to come up. He'd known he would have to lie, that he couldn't avoid it forever, but he hated it. He was a horrible liar and knew that if he even tried, James would see right through him. He suddenly noticed he had been rubbing his forearm and immediately dropped his hand, praying James hadn't noticed. Luckily, he was still off in his own little world.

"-and so once she sees that I'm doing this to stop new recruits for the Death Eaters, she'll realize that I'm not actually an arrogant toerag- you okay, Pete?"

"Huh? What do you mean? I'm fine." His voice sounded a bit feeble, and it didn't do much for his case. James frowned.

"You sure? You sound a bit sick... Sure you don't want to go to Madam Pomfrey?" he asked. Peter shook his head vehemently.

"No. I'm fine." he said, a bit more firmly. James stared at him for a moment before shrugging. He jumped up off the bed, a spark of excitement in his eyes.

"C'mon, then, we've got to track down Pads and Moony so we can tell them about my brilliant plan!" And with that, he dashed out the door. Not wanting to seem suspicious, especially in light of what had just happened, Peter followed without a single grumble.

Tom sat within the barriers of Ginny's mind, splayed out across what he thought of as the floor, but was in reality, another barrier designed to stop any chance of escape.

But that wasn't her only defence.

One eye cracked open, surveying her mindscape, and one area in particular. A girl filled the space. It looked like Ginny, but wasn't her. No, her nose was a little too cute, her hair was too intricately styled, her body the archetypical hourglass, as opposed to her normal slightly too skinny form.

It was a common defence constructed by amateur occlumens. Similar to how a Patronus was constructed, the girl before him was a literal embodiment of every positive emotion Ginny had about herself. Unfortunately, the defence was far from perfect, and took in emotions such as pride, lust, and greed. Sure, it made her feel good- and was primarily the reason why the Ginny before him was so idealised: she had pride in her appearance, but lusted after features she didn't have- but they were weak links that a skilled legilimens could exploit against her own buried negativity.

And he wasn't just skilled. He was a master.

Getting to his feet, he strode towards the not-Ginny. He extended his finger. He touched her forehead. He laughed.

Then everything exploded.

In every single direction, thousands of bodies scattered out. Thousands of Ginny's. All an emotion: all the doubt, the fear, the rage. Each a snapshot, a single moment.

It was truly beautiful.

With a moment of concentration, they all started to group together, forming into separate entities, each a representation of a negative emotion.

Self-Doubt sat alone, off to the side, staring forlornly at the ground. Her face was marred with dozens of angry red spots, her hair was lank and greasy, her eyes red rimmed and her cheeks tear-stained. In her arms she clutched a plush doll of Harry Potter.

"I'm so ugly."

"He'll never love me!"

"What's Cho Chang got that I haven't?"

She would be very interesting to explore. Her insecurities were so...normal. Yet the object of her affections so extraordinary.

Next came Anger. Her face was flushed, matching her hair, which whirled around in the still air as if she was caught in a storm. Her wand shot sparks from her hand, and her mouth was curled into a snarl. Her breaths came in sharp gasps.

"Fuck you, Hermione. You just want him for yourself!"

"Leave me alone! I didn't open the chamber!"

"Piss off, Mum! You don't understand me!"

Again, more angles to exploit. But he wanted something more. He swept his eyes over the assembled aspects of Ginny, and then he saw her.

Insanity danced around, talking to herself, never shutting up. In her hand she held a knife. At her feet lay Hermione Granger. Underneath her lay Harry Potter, and further still was Ron Weasley. Beyond those three, the pile of bodies was far too numerous to count. Ginny certainly wasn't insane, but everybody had aspects of it in them, and his old diary had brought out Ginny's potential for insanity, buried underneath layers of psyche. He was sure Insanity wouldn't even have appeared to him if he wasn't a master legilimens.

This was where things got interesting. He was bored, and this gave him a challenge. Ginny's barriers were strong, but the insane element of her own psyche could slip in and speak to her. It would creep her out, after all, Insanity was truly a scary sight. It could influence her actions, and tire her out. Then he could break her defences.

Plus the idea of Ginny arguing with an version of herself that was quite the talker amused him to no end. She would never sleep again. It would be even better if both him and insanity could whittle her down, but that was quite a way off, yet. For now, Tom decided to focus on infiltrating her barriers with Insanity.

It would take some time, but it would be worth it upon completion.

Albus Dumbledore sat at his desk in his office deep in thought. He had a puzzle on his hands. He often enjoyed doing puzzles. He often found them to be very stimulating, the more challenging of a puzzle the more he enjoyed it. But in this, there was something about this puzzle that didn't sit quite right with him. Something strange and unnatural, as if the pieces didn't belong. He knew that wasn't because he didn't have all the pieces. He rarely did. In fact, one of the things he enjoyed most about puzzles was filling in the blanks. No, in this case it was much more than that. When he looked at everything he knew about what was going on he found it to be surprisingly lacking, and that was what worried him most.

He had spent many years paying attention to what other people barely noticed, learning things that had been all but forgotten. He had spent many years studying under the great Alchemist Nicholas Flamel. He had helped to discover the twelve use of dragon's blood. Even in his time, he had defeated a dark lord. Among a great many other accomplishments, though, most of them were rather trivial. And yet, with all of his vast stores of knowledge, everything that he had seen, learned and done his life (half which could equal or even surpass what most people accomplish in their lives), he had nothing that could help him solve this mystery. Nothing added up, and yet here it was playing out before his very eyes.