Entry tags:

!status: complete, ^date: october 30 2003

Who: Dmitri Zurlo
What: Opening Pandora's Box
Where: Ministry of Magic, Department of Mysteries
When: Just after midnight, October 30, 2003

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If anything could be said of Dmitri Zurlo, it was that he was a patient man.

He had spent the last nine months watching the Ministry of Magic, getting to know its inner workings through the eyes of its employees, and picking out just the perfect individual for his plans.

Before that, he had spent over a year researching the legend of a family heirloom that nobody but him was even certain existed.

Before that, he'd waited ten years in a jail cell.

Dmitri had waited a long time, but finally, the waiting would soon be over.

It had all started with a memory of his parents, long before they had been imprisoned for using Dark Magic. They had once been a happy family, living in Delphi, Greece, and had told him wonderful tales about his grandmother, Pandora. She had been a magnificent witch, nearly a goddess in her power, but she had disappeared long ago with the fall of her Master, Gellert Grindelwald. Dmitri had grown with the stories so dear that, when he was of age, he tried to release Grindelwald himself from Numengard prison - leading to his own jail sentence. But what had always captured his fancy had been his parents' insistence that Pandora had left a treasure behind, a family heirloom that deserved to rest in Zurlo hands.

The heirloom had disappeared with Pandora, it seemed. Dmitri had looked everywhere he could for information, until finally finding a trail of crumbs left by some British upstart named Voldemort who'd made a swathe through Europe, collecting dark artifacts and the like. More looking had led to the discovery that the heirloom had been collected by the British Ministry of Magic, and lay somewhere in their Department of Mysteries. None of them knew what they had, for nobody knew what to look for.

He did.

He popped the cork on the bottle in his hand and took a long swig. Polyjuice, of course.

He mentally began a one-hour countdown and made his way through the Ministry's entrance. He made a quick stop at the desk to let the guard know that 'he' - Department of Mysteries Manager Eyelop Thorntwaite - had forgotten some paperwork in the office, and that he would be back shortly. He presented the wand in his hand - Thorntwaite's, as the man was rather unconscious at the moment - and was shortly allowed through. Normally employees would not be forced to go through the process as visitors would, but Dmitri wanted to ensure all his bases were covered - particularly since security had been increased since some three brats had snuck into the Ministry five years ago.

A quick trip down the lift, a stroll down the hall to the right door, and... he could almost feel it close by.

There were various storage rooms for magical items that were still in the process of being examined and identified by Department of Mysteries employees, and Dmitri sought out the door to the seventh one. Opening it, he found a room crowded with various sized items on shelf after shelf, but it wasn't long until he found what he was looking for.

He took the box off the shelf with a veneration bordering on worship, his fingertips tingling where they touched it. He kicked over a nearby crate to use as a table and knelt before it, laying the box upon it as if it were a makeshift altar.

The box was unopened, as Dmitri had expected. After all there was one thing he had that nobody else did.

The Key.

He pulled it from around his neck, where it hung from a silver chain that he quickly unclasped. With trembling fingers, he slid the key into the keyhole at the front of the box - but did not turn it.

He breathed in and out deeply. This was a moment he wanted to cherish. Finally, the Zurlo family would have what it rightly deserved! So many years of waiting, of searching, of hopeless futility - over with the turn of a key.

*Click*

As if it had a mind of its own, the lid to the box flipped open, emitting a ghostly, yellow-green light. The room around him suddenly grew loud with the sounds of cries, pleas, and unholy screams that seemed to emanate from the box. He noticed whisps of blackness escaping, tendrils of the yellow-green light reaching out to try and catch them, but to no avail.

What was going on here? Where was the treasure he'd been promised? He reached for the box, accidentally dislodging the key from the lock and ignoring its tumbling to the floor in his effort to get his hands on the bloody thing. The moment his hands touched the wood...

His mind felt pain, such terrible pain. It was as if his every digit, every limb, every hair were being torn from him piece by piece. His mouth opened to scream, but nothing came out. His every nerve and synapse was overloading with sensation, his mind growing mad with pain, terror, and torturous screams.

Thankfully, it would not last long for Dmitri. His body collapsed, unable to handle it any longer, and his lungs exhaled their final breath.

His hands, however, remained fixed to the wooden box - the last heirloom in the last hands of the Zurlo family.