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It was only the second week when I determined that no, magical school or not, school still sucked.
The only redeeming factor, of what was basically high school again, was some of the classes were way more interesting. Plus, the entire curriculum was significantly more advanced and customizable.
In this particular universe the first years had the same classes as the books, namely Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Astronomy and Herbology.
However, they also started first year with Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, and Ancient runes. There was also a basic lectures on Muggles and Wizarding customs. Albeit, the Muggle lecture was still extremely out of date.
The big difference happened in third year. The students were allowed to drop any of the side classes as long as they had passed a basic competency exam. So Astronomy, Arithmancy, Divination, Herbology, History of Magic, Care of Magical Creatures, and Ancient Runes were only required for the first two years.
Basically the students, from third year and on, were expected to figure out what classes they had interests in and were allowed to drop classes unrelated to said interest. The only classes everyone was required to take were the ‘core’ four classes of Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. I found out from some upper years there were some students who did drop everything except those four classes, but they were considered idiots because, unless they had a job lined up in their family business, they would be unemployable after school.
Instead, from third year onward, the side classes continued and even branched out to allow students to take introduction courses on Rituals, Alchemy, Warding, Curse Breaking, Ancient Studies, Healing, Enchanting, and Relations with Magical Beings.
Those all culminated with the OWL or Ordinary Wizarding Level tests at the end of Fifth year. These tests mattered quite a bit more than the OWLs in the books, as about a third of students dropped out there and went directly into the workforce.
The students who stayed for the next two years then could take the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests or their NEWTs. The qualifications helped, but were not needed for every job. It was a lot more like having a Bachelor's Degree vs only an Associate Degree. Helpful or even mandatory in some jobs, but completely unnecessary in others.
The Master or PhD equivalents were called Spell Masteries and were done via one-on-one apprenticeships.
Still, that was way out in the future and we were still just getting started. Plus, I didn’t really know how long we would even stay in this world in the first place.
Really, while it was actually a little overwhelming, the course work made a lot more sense. While astronomy was useful to understand, and the phases of the moon and star alignments needed to be taken in account in some delicate rituals and potions, most students really didn’t need to study astronomy for all 5 years. Similarly, as interesting as it was, not everyone needed to study Herbology for all 5 years either.
Again, while it wasn’t exactly what I would have picked if I was designing a magical curriculum, it was, in my opinion, significantly better than what existed in the books.
The problem was still the professors. Snape was the most obvious place to start. He was still in charge of potions and was still an asshole to everyone that wasn’t Slytherin, regardless of if Holly was in the room or not.
I was a little amused that he apparently gave the same opening speech to each of his first year classes. At least he didn’t end it with an impromptu pop quiz.
Still, I couldn’t help be in awe of the sheer presence he exuded as he swept into the classroom and walked down the rows of benches. Something about the speech resonating deeply with me.
“There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making.” Turning he eyed each one of us, he sneered. “However, for those select few who possess the predisposition, I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses.” Then slowly turning, he smiled a condescending smile at the Gryffindors before being a slight bit more genuine with the Slytherin side of the room. “I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death.”
While, unlike the books, he did have the safety information written up on the blackboard. It was still absolutely a shit way, and arguably criminally negligent of him, to teach the absolutely crucial aspects of laboratory safety. Compounded by something inside bristling at the disregard. I mean, it was better than cannon, but still absolutely terrible.
It was only made worse when just like in cannon he proceeded to reveal the instructions for the boil-curing potions and tell us to get started. Again, absolutely terrible teaching. Potion savant he might be, he was a terrible teacher, even if his biting and insulting comments addressed most of the student’s mistakes.
Another similarly useless professor was Professor Binns. It should have been incredible, being taught by someone who remembered the events as they were happening. However the History of magic class was still taught by said ghost that basically repeated the book word for word and ignored student questions.
Now considering this world was about to go through a second wizarding civil war in just a few years. It would have been nice if this had been a universe where Lockhart was actually competent, but it absolutely was not.
He was so obviously a fraud and useless that it was hard to even attend his lectures. I had honestly attempted to fail a charm in our third class to see what he would do. The fire starting charm, incendio, was incredibly easy, but the stupid excuse for a man couldn’t even tell me what I was doing wrong, instead I was corrected by a random Hufflepuff. A Hufflepuff named Jemma who was eerily familiar, but I wasn’t quite sure where I remembered seeing her.
Really, why didn’t Dumbledore do something about this? If he couldn’t break the curse on the position, then why not just remove the class and break up the topics it covers into other classes? Heck the class was already basically dueling practice plus a little bit of everything else. Why not split it up that way and not risk a new professor each year?
Divination was actually a little amusing in that I was sitting next to perhaps one of the most powerful precogs in literature while being taught by a literal drunk. Heck, I was pretty sure Luna was a better seer than Trelawney and I didn’t understand half of what she was saying.
Then, past the bad teachers, there were the boring classes.
The Astronomy class was sorta interesting, but still seemed to be mostly useless until we got a lot further in other classes.
Herbology was vaguely interesting. Professor Sprout even helped the topic with her obvious passion for the subject and teaching in general. However, none of us except for Amy had any intention of attempting to grow anything long term.
Similarly, Taylor was the only one interested in care of magical creatures from Professor Kettleburn. That, however, might have had something to do with us starting with what were basically magical bugs.
It was a little bit of a surprise that I enjoyed Runes and Arithmancy as much as I did. However, from what I could gather, I wasn’t Hermione level good, just well above the norm. I hoped that would allow me to craft wards, enchantments, and rituals soon. Especially since in this universe the two subjects were critical to those disciplines as opposed to being just another language class and numerical analysis tool of dates and numbers.
In the end, it really wasn’t a surprise that our favorite classes were Charms and Transfiguration… even if McGonagall was a little overly strict.
We were all actually moderately quick to pick those spells up too. We even managed to get a few points for Gryffindor by being the first to transfigure a matchstick into a needle. However, perhaps because we were all 14-year-olds instead of 11, most of the class was able to do it by the end of the two-hour block.
What was a little concerning was our lack of power. Neither myself or any of my girls was particularly powerful. In fact, none of my girls held a candle to Luna. I was tempted to see if adjusting our souls would do something to change that, but something, maybe my long dormant Soul Mage instincts, were telling me to hold off.
The good news was that our homework, which was developed for 14-year-olds, was fairly easy and finished quickly. Really, we probably still wouldn’t have beaten Hermione, but that girl was still turning in essays twice the length of what was requested.
That left us time to practice additional magic and make our plans.
The bad news was we were kind of stuck. I didn’t know who had the diary nor how to get to it.
Dinah was still pulling a blank on who exactly had it, but suggested it was related to the Weasleys. We had done a complete search through Ron’s things in my dorm room and the Girls had done the same to Ginny’s stuff in hers but came up with nothing.
Worse, I didn’t know what to do with Ron’s bloody rat. I could actually see the magic on the collar that would probably raise some sort of alarm if he was taken or lost. The Animagus revealing charm was 3rd year, and the reversing spell to force Pettegrew into his human shape was at least 5th year. Then, even if we learned them, we would have to explain why we were trying it out on Ron’s rat in the first place.
We would also have to do this in public or after stunning the rat, as Pettegrew had access to at least two wands and was a fully trained wizard. I didn’t know where the clothes and items the wizards were wearing went when they transformed, but in the books, he was carrying Voldemort’s wand in addition to his own.
It was kind of sad, but without any bulletproof ways of exposing Peter without outing ourselves, we once again turned to Dinah once we all met up in what had become our corner of the Library. “Dinah, if we are forced to expose ourselves, when should we try to reveal Pettigrew if we want Sirius free and our family safe?”
Dinah actually began to wince as she thought about it. “I don’t know… I would say I am getting an ‘anytime’ answer, but it isn’t clear.” Gritting her teeth, she frowned. “The answer feels a little better next year.”
I sighed and looked at the other girls, who shook their heads back. They didn’t like the idea of leaving Sirius with the Dementors any more than I did since he seemed pretty awesome in the books and movies, but I nodded in agreement. “Ok, we leave Pettigrew for later, but I still kinda want to know why if we can puzzle it out.”
Sitting back, I tried to consider things for a few minutes. “If it is best to wait until next year, then the only things I can think of as to why are: 1, Something big changes like Minister Fudge getting sacked this year.” A pause and Dinah shook her head, nodding I said. “2, our status will be more secure next year and so won’t cause nearly as many problems.”
Dinah frowned but only tilted her head, so I continued. “3, Something in the Ministry of Magic won’t let Sirius go this year. Maybe something like the Ministry covering up their wrongful imprisonment if Pettigrew’s capture isn’t public enough with questions about Sirius Black on everyone’s mind.” Everyone looked confused, so I elaborated “Like how they quietly had Crouch Jr. kissed before anyone could question him further fourth year.”
Dinah frowned before she just shrugged, and I sighed before finishing my thought process. “Or 4, because Pettigrew needs to escape for some sort of prophecy that is controlling your predictions.”
Most of the girls looked concerned, but Dinah looked horrified, so I tried to soothe her worries. “It is probably nothing, just something I was considering, since we don’t know how prophecies work in this dimension.”
It was at that moment that all of us jumped as Luna came around the corner and nodded. “The Humdingers agree. It is best not to release the walloping snorgalsnouts and their mount too soon.”
I blinked in confusion at the apparently non-sequitor with my girls similarly confused before we all seemed to realize she was most likely just agreeing and so it was probably just more precog cheating again. Really, Luna hadn’t arrived until just now so shouldn’t know any what we had been talking about since we had been extremely quiet with a privacy charm up to block ease droppers, yet she obviously did. Taking a breath, I patted the chair next to me, which was empty because Amy had gotten up to look for books on Mandrakes.
It was that moment that Amy returned and plopped the open book down in front of me. Then, after eyeing Luna, she sighed and flopped into a chair on the other side of the table. “I know you were hoping we could help with the restorative drafts in case someone was petrified, but after skimming this book,” tapping the cover, “I suspect I can accelerate their growth only a little bit as they seem to gather magic as they grow. It is why they are such a powerful catalyst. Additionally, it would be nearly impossible to hide my involvement unless we do it each night via portal and I suspect the faculty would set up monitoring spells fairly quickly after we started.”
I sighed and rubbed my hand through my hair. “Then why can’t we just buy them. It seemed quite strange the faculty didn’t do that in the books.”
Amy frowned, but then shrugged. “Mandrakes are usually only grown for a short period of time which is sufficient for nearly everything except for what a full mandrake restorative draft requires. Said draft requires a mandrake nearly five years old. Most are harvested between one and two years old. Additionally, Mandrakes of that age really will kill a Witch or Wizard from just the sound of their cry alone, even if it isn’t remotely instant… more like 20 or 30 seconds.” Amy sighed. “Basically, I don’t see any way of helping out without being obvious with our involvement. As for other suppliers. Well, it would be easy for Malfoy to simply buy all the mature Mandrake stock before the professors realize what is going on, if he knows what is going to be happening.”
Nodding while scowling, I agreed. “Yes, well… Damn…” Running a hand through my hair I sighed. “Yeah, I really don’t want to gain too much attention too soon. Especially when that bastard Pettigrew can stand there and watch me sleep.”
I shuttered, followed by most of the girls. The girls hadn’t seen him in their dorms, but the rat did disappear some nights, and the idea of a balding, overweight man watching any of us sleep was nightmare inducing.
Shaking my head, I sighed. “Let's just keep studying. There is one time when we should be able to catch the perpetrator, guaranteed. We just need to learn the shield charm and stunning spells to take him down.” Everyone looked a little confused, so I smiled. “We will wait for the possessed student down the hall from the second floor girl’s bathroom on Halloween night. While the date of the first attack might have changed, I doubt it. Either fate or Tom seems to be obsessed with Halloween, so it is a pretty safe bet it will happen after the feast, and we can swoop in and capture him or her then.”
I frowned before I turned towards Dinah. “Will we be able to capture them?”
Dinah sighed and stared for a moment before she shrugged. “...Maybe”
I nodded to my girls. “We are just going to have to try. Best to hit them quiet and fast before anything can get out of hand.”
It was at that moment that I spotted Holly and Hermione in the corner of the library and I gestured towards them. “We should also probably start building connections with the golden trio as well. If we want to invite them along on our adventures then it is best to start as friends. Not everyone has a reason to leave their pasts behind like you all did.” Looking at their expressions, which had been turning a little depressed, I tried to keep my tone teasing as I continued. “On the other hand, it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me and I will do my best to make sure it becomes that way for you all as well.” The frowns that had begun to fall were quickly lifted into small smiles and I sighed inwardly in relief, having hopefully blunted any bad memories. “Now we just need to get to work.”
With my girls reluctantly nodding with grim, determined faces, we all turned our efforts into practicing the stunning spells and shield charms.
The best chance to talk to Holly and Hermione was two days later in the common room. Everyone else in our half of the common room had gone to bed so it was just Taylor, Amy and Me while Holly and Hermione were working on an essay for Runes. Apparently Ginny had decided to deal with it later and had gone to bed early.
As we approached, I waved a little to break the ice as I spoke up. “So, we really haven’t had a chance to talk since the platform.”
There was a blink where Holly looked confused before she smiled and nodded in greeting before turning to Hermione. “Ah, yeah. Hermione, this is… Max Alcott, right?” Turning to me, she saw my nod and then turned towards my girls and attempted to continue the introductions. “And that was… Amy Alcott… and.” Obviously struggling to remember Taylor’s name.
Hermione, rolling her eyes, nodded. “Yes, that is Taylor Hebert.”
I smiled as well. “I don’t think you have actually met Taylor yet” Looking back, Taylor smiled as she shook her head. “but I have to say I was impressed with your memory, since we only spoke once, and I am not sure whether or not we even introduced ourselves properly at the time.”
Nodding in relief, Holly smiled at us, but I turned to Hermione and raised an eyebrow. “That just makes it all the more impressive that you knew our names already.”
Hermione actually scoffed at that before getting embarrassed. “I am just good at remembering things.”
I smiled, “Yeah, you are. Even us first years have already heard how well you do in all your classes. They say that you know just about everything up through third year.”
There was a moment of quiet where we all waited for her to deny it before we realized she couldn’t, looking embarrassed. Glancing to Amy and Taylor, I saw their eyes had also widened, obviously impressed. It was Taylor that voiced the thought. “That is really impressive. We have been studying our butts off and we only managed to get a little ahead.”
Hermione actually blushed and squirmed a bit. Elbowing her Holly smiled and looked at me, probably wondering if we were trying to ask Hermione out or something. As I suspected, now that the attention wasn’t on her in particular, she was significantly more confident.
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Smiling, I turned back towards Holly before asking. “We came over to introduce ourselves, but also to ask a question, if you don’t mind.”
Both Holly and Hermione both looked a little nervous at that, so I smiled a little, apologetically. “We heard a lot of tall stories from last year and a lot of them seemed to revolve around you.”
The unease seemed to grow so I just paused and looked to Amy who spoke up. “We don’t like listening to rumors, gossip, or stuff ‘everyone just knows’ so we were wondering if we could ask you the story so we know the truth.”
There was a momentary pause where I wondered if we had pushed too hard too fast or something. Taylor and I had been sure asking for the truth was a good way to become friends since we both didn’t like assumptions, even if I personally couldn’t remember why. Amy had been a little more cautious but had tentatively agreed. Still, maybe the girls didn’t want to talk about it. Maybe they thought we were being pushy.
It was then that the two older girls looked at each other before smiling slightly, tentatively. “We could probably do that.”
What followed was a slow and sometimes vague explanation of their first year. How a troll had entered the school and how Hermione had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but Ginny and Holly had managed to distract it for them to run away. How it seemed like someone was trying to kill her all year. How Dumbledore had placed an important item in the school to guard it. How they wondered if it was Professor Snape. How it had turned out to be their possessed Defense Against the Dark Arts, or DADA, professor trying to kill her.
All throughout the explanation, the three of us ‘oohed and awed’ at the appropriate times. It wasn’t like we were acting either. The story was actually really impressive for anyone let alone 14 and 15 year olds.
There were however some major differences I noticed. Or at least things the girls weren’t revealing during the retelling. Some were expected, like not explaining why Hermione had been away from Ginny and Holly when the troll found them. I wasn’t sure it was Ginny that had insulted Hermione in this world, but someone probably had. Or anything to do with Hagrid getting and hatching a very illegal dragon egg in a wooden hut.
Others though made it clear either they didn’t trust us, which was… quite fair, or they weren't sure they would be believed. The biggest one was they never explained who or what had been possessing Quirrell. They also didn’t discuss what exactly the artifact was that the possessed Quirrell had been after.
As they finished up I smiled. “Wow, you three really did a lot. That was both really brave, crazy smart, and also extremely impressive spellwork.”
There were a few moments of embarrassed silence where Hermione started to deflect our praise when Holly interrupted, obviously a little incredulous. “You all believe us, just like that?”
I didn’t have to fake my confusion. I knew she was telling the truth, but even if I hadn’t, they had been too consistent in their storytelling and too earnest in their retelling for me not to believe them. Additionally, looking at their souls, really looking I could kinda tell they were being mostly honest. Still, as another thought crossed my mind I smiled. “I do. I like to think I am good at telling what kind of person someone is and you are both honest to a fault, but if you want to double prove it let Amy touch your hands. She has a magical gift that lets her know if you are knowingly lying.”
The two turned their now confused eyes to Amy who shrugged and held out her hands. Once they slowly, gingerly placed their hands in hers Amy smiled. “Were you telling the truth?”
Holly and Hermione both hesitated before turning back and answering, “Yes!”
Amy smiled and squeezed their hands for a moment before nodding. “They were telling the truth.”
The following half an hour was predictably spent having Hermione run through every different test she could think of to try to trick Amy’s sense, which she obviously couldn’t do. Then, every different way she could think of to try to understand how she could do it.
Finally, I had to cut off what was quickly turning into something in between an interrogation and a laboratory study so we could head to bed. Turning around, I stopped us before we left and said to the two sitting on the sofa, “Holly, Hermione. While we would prefer you keep Amy’s abilities a secret, if either of you, or Ginny for that matter, needs help. Please let us know. We would be happy to try to assist. You deserve it.” Watching I noticed as Holly became a little uncomfortable, and I realized she probably believed our offer was due to her girl-who-lived fame, so I continued. “Plus, I mean we can’t let you be the only one to stop a possessed professor in your first year, now can we?”
At their relaxing postures, we turned in and went to bed. Glancing over, I noticed that both Amy and Taylor were smiling just as widely as I was.
It turns out that Holly and Hermione were actually pretty fun to be around. Plus, they seemed to enjoy our company as well. Well, as long as the topic didn’t stray too close to Holly’s fame or Hermione’s bookishness.
In the end it was just more of a reason to help them if we could.
In the end I had to admit that the following weeks were tense and I think most other students noticed as we became even more isolated than before. Holly, Hermione, and later Ginny being the only exceptions. The three often stopping by our little corner of the library to ask us how we were doing along with a little meaningless small talk.
However, it seemed to be worth it, as in under two months we all managed to be able to cast a Stupify, a Protega, and a Petrificus Totalus which were a stunning spell, the basic shield charm, and a body binding spell respectively.
A few more questions to Dinah let us plan out what we needed to do on Halloween and saw us eating the first part of the feast. It was only as we saw Ginny, Hermione and Holly getting up to go to the death day party that we also started to get ready to leave. However, it was then that Luna stopped by our table and sat down in Amy’s lap. “Are you ready to catch the burrowing shadow snufflers?”
I blinked before turning to look at my other girls before shrugging. “I guess?” Then tentatively, “Are you going to be helping us, Luna?”
Luna smiled and this time her smile was a little predatory which made a shiver run up the back of my spine. “Yes, yes I am…”
Everyone blinked at her tone before smiling tentatively in agreement. However, before we could leave we were interrupted by Ginny. “Hey, Luna. It has been awhile.” Then seeming to notice the rest of us she frowned in what might have been suspicion. “So, what were you six talking about?”
Luna hummed and smiled. “How much better friends we will be once you join the collective and gain your own fluffy turtlesnort. We have pudding.”
There was a momentary pause when I realized she might really understand what was going on and did a double take before I facepalmed, followed shortly by Amy and Taylor while Sabah groaned softly and Dinah frowned. Worse yet, Luna seemed to have actually lost interest and had started making a pudding sandwich. Which was especially weird since pudding hadn’t even been served yet.
Ginny frowned for a moment before shaking her head. “Sometimes I really don’t understand how your brain works, Luna.” Then obviously looking over the rest of us “but I am glad you are having fun with your new friends.”
With one final shake of her head, and a wave goodbye, Ginny got up and walked over to Hermione and Holly before the trio headed out of the hall towards the dungeons and Nearly headless Nick’s 500 year death day party.
Turning to Luna I simply raised my eyebrow before she responded. “Max, you should understand more than just about anyone else that true information is sometimes the best deflection.”
Everyone froze before taking a breath. “We really should talk about this privately.” Luna nodded, looking serene.
Glancing around, I pulled her up and the six of us made our way to the corridor leading away from Moaning Myrtle's second floor bathroom. The one the books explained held the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. It was the only corridor left leaving the area and connected the bathroom corridor to the main staircase and the rest of the castle. Additionally, and probably crucially to Tom, it didn’t have any paintings to report who went down the hall or what happened.
It was at that point that we circled around Luna. “Luna,” I started, “I suppose what you said about deflecting questions with truth is true… heck I do it myself sometimes.” Then taking a breath I asked. “I am sorry, but I have to ask… what exactly do you see and how much do you know?”
Luna hummed with her eyes particularly glassy and then smiled. “I see a lot of things, Mr Soldier.” All of us jumped and I glanced at my girls who looked back startled. “But almost all of what I see is disjointed, for instance I do not know if that was your past, present or a possible future. There are even events or creatures that seem to change some futures even as I am watching.”
I swallowed and glanced at Dinah who was looking back at the girl, wide-eyed, but before anyone could ask Luna sighed and nodded. “So, no. I can see possible futures based on what is going on, but I can’t give straight predictions like Dinah. So far I know you will probably recruit me into whatever group you are forming and I will be happier with you than if I stayed away. We can talk about more at a later time.”
Swallowing, I nodded. “I understand. You are already keeping our secrets so we will obviously not talk about your abilities either.” A thankful nod back was all I needed to get us back on track.
It was then that I opened a portal and let Ahri, now in her original nine tails body through to join us. We had found that my portal making abilities were much more difficult in Hogwarts wards. Both to open and also to keep them open in order to transport things, but it was still possible, just slow and tiring.
Luna turned to Ahri and smiled. “Hello, Shadow.” Before taking a leap and landing in the middle of Ahri’s nine tails. The groan she got was almost indecent as she mumbled. “This was over half the reason I had joined.”
I sighed one again, rubbing my forehead. “Ok, ignoring the past tense you just used, we get it. You probably know all our secrets. You haven’t done anything with the information yet so we can probably trust you, but we are about to try to stop Tom before anyone can get hurt this year so we need to focus.”
Turning her head Luna pauses for a moment before she smiled. “Ah, yes, Tom… So that is who he was. And yes, I will help.”
Turning to my girls I threw up my hand before rolling my eyes and most of the others shrugged back so I simply pointed to the corners we had picked out to ambush the student from and we sat back to wait.
There were several minutes of silence where we heard nothing except the occasional echos down one of the halls. The sound traveling further than I would have liked, but not nearly as far as I would have thought in what was basically a stone tube. Maybe it was magic or maybe the tapestries were enough to dampen out the sound produced. I didn’t know, but it gave me something to think about as the time ticked onward.
It was then, as I wondered what a snake would sound like, that we heard the slow shifting down the hall like someone dragging a bag across the stone floor. Then we heard a soft clunk from the area around the corner. Glancing at the rest of my girls I swallowed as I felt my stomach settling around my knees. Bloody Hell! How did Harry fight something like a 60 foot Basilisk? Even the idea seemed ridiculous. Hell, just hearing the damn snake slither around with sounded like quiet hissing was terrifying.
It did make me wonder why Tom didn’t just lay low and take over the possessed student’s body completely before making his move. Why drive out Dumbledore before making the switch? Did he worry about being interrupted? That didn’t really explain things either since Dumbledore wouldn’t have known where the student had disappeared to if Tom hadn’t left any clues. Really, as sad as it was, the only answer that made any sense was Tom was a drama queen that needed everyone around him to fear and worship him. Doing things in secrete was an antithesis to that.
Shaking myself I tried to focus more on the hallway and after a few more minutes we heard a soft Yowl that must have been Miss Norris, Filch’s Cat, being petrified, something that might have been painting, another few hisses and a shifting wait, and then footsteps moving towards us. Nodding to the girls on the other side of the corridor, we all tensed ourselves to move and waited for the student to appear.
It was only as we saw a mop of red hair pass that I yelled, “Now” that we jumped out and started throwing every stunner and body bind we could at a young boy.
The shouting after so many minutes of silence left my ears ringing and my mind a little confused which didn’t help at what I had just seen.
To our utter horror, Ron Weasley turned to us with burning red eyes bringing up a silent protega shield before instantly returning fire with some sort of blood boiling hex.
Following my training in Runterra we all scattered and behind Ahri an crack sounded ringing down the halls as the stone of a doorframe exploded followed by the tinkling of stone bits bouncing down the hall.
Then there was a moment of calm while we all looked at each other before Ron’s face sneered.
It was at that moment that I knew we had screwed up, screwed up bad. Worse it was clear that Tom’s wraith knew it too. After one last moment of silence passed Ron’s wand began to dance as he started casting at us with a speed that forced all 7 of us to take cover while trying desperately to shield, each shield breaking after one or two hits from Tom’s curses.
I dove right back behind a suit of armor, with Dinah right behind me. Ahri used a dash to get around a corner further down the hall, while Amy and Taylor hid behind an alcove corner. Sabah and Luna ducked back around the corner of the alcove on the other side of the hall.
It took me a moment to realize how screwed we truly were. I knew we weren’t particularly powerful, but due to Amy’s modifications, we should have been faster to cast and dodge than anyone who wasn’t a professional duelist. Yet we were being demolished.
A chill passed down my spine. It was obvious that Ron couldn’t be doing this, ignoring the speed, he was terrible at theoretical or book work and no one would have taught him any of these spells.
Damn It. That meant we were dealing with not only Tom’s mind, but from the variety of spells coming from him along with the bangs from each of his spells hitting walls or floors and exploding a small bit of the stone, we were also up against at least some of his power.
We were barely holding on, only occasionally returning fire and Tom seemed to actually be enjoying it now as well. He had glanced down the hall behind him at the beginning, but after a moment of hesitation he actually started walking slowly towards us, his sneer only widening.
It was then that it happened. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Taylor shove Amy out of the way of a spell, taking a piercing hex through her chest.
It felt like time slowed down as I watched her top turn crimson nearly instantly before the look of shock finally crossed her face and she collapsed bonelessly to the floor in front of Amy.
I growled in fear, then an all encompassing rage before I decided to screw subtlety. Yelling out “Ahri, Distract! Amy, keep casting as you help Taylor. Luna…” I could feel a soft whimper leave my throat, “do whatever you can, but stay safe.”
Once again, I kicked myself. What the hell was I doing? Luna didn’t even have the damn Phylactery protection.
That seemed to snap everyone into action. The spell fire increased as Amy stopped looking where she was firing casting as many stunners as she could in the general area. Luna and Sabah did the same. I wasn’t entirely sure what Ahri was doing, but suddenly Tom started dodging spell fire I was pretty sure weren’t there a second before.
Yet, even with Ahri running illusions, we were just barely holding on.
Gritting my teeth I racked my brains before I heard Luna call out. “Roots can fall the tallest mountain.”
I blinked before hoping I understood, I opened two small portals next to Ron’s feet and cast a stunner through both of them. Insanely, Tom wearing Ron’s body managed to dodge the first one completely, and I only managed to clip him with the second.
However, my moderately weak stunner managed to slow Tom down enough that he took two more stunners from Luna and Sabah before a body bind from Ahri took him down.
Running up to the bound boy, I nearly ripped open his robes looking for the damn Horcrux. It didn’t take long to find. Ron had the stupid diary in his front left pocket over his heart.
Swallowing the bile at the dark magic I could feel from the journal, I ripped it away before throwing it into a pocket dimension and into a cast iron box next to Gray Boy’s soul vase. That was about as isolated and safe as I could make it for now.
Running over to Taylor and Amy with the rest of my girls close behind, I found Amy frozen over Taylor’s body. As she looked up at me with horror in her eyes, I felt my heart drop even before she said the words. “She’s dead.”
There was a moment of blind sorrow and loss before I grit my teeth. As tears starting to fill my eyes, I opened a portal directly into the safe with our necklace Phylactery. Reaching out with my hand I traced across her ruby and after a moment I sighed and relaxed, albeit slightly. “She is back inside her gem” Taking a shaky breath I continued. “We should need to just repair her body and stick her soul back in.”
Dinah sagged to the ground and Luna actually let out a little sob. I once again turned around and realized she was still with us. Shaking my head I pushed the thoughts of exactly how much she knew about us out of my head.
Focusing on slowing my breathing, I picked up Taylor’s mostly intact body up before opening a larger portal into our pocket home’s living room.
Behind me, I heard Ahri casting some cleaning spells, while Dinah attempted to summon Scabbers in case he had seen us while Luna started casting repairos at the chipped stone.
Somewhere in my mind, I was glad they were so reliable. Yet, said battle evidence was just another example of things I had failed to account for. Worse, after all the time we had spent avoiding the rat, we might have just given Pettigrew a demonstration of what we could do.
It was bad enough that I only relaxed slightly as Dinah mumbled something before shaking her head. “Pettigrew was never here.”
Sabah who had been quiet up until now spoke up next. “Just wake Ron up. If the books are to be believed, he won’t remember anything anyway, and we don’t have time to do anything else.”
Nodding, Ahri and Luna turned to him as they finished cleaning up. Gesturing quickly to the portal I pulled them through. The battle in the hall had only taken about 30 seconds or so, but it had felt like a lifetime and we could already hear confused voices getting closer, probably attracted by the sounds of the splintering stone.
Casting again, Ahri released Ron from his body bind while Luna revived him before I let the portal snap shut. At this point, it didn’t really matter if he remembered something if waiting caused us to be caught by the rest of the school.
Turning back to Taylor I once again felt my Stomach drop as my dread somehow managed to rise further. Amy had already closed the gaping hole, but Taylor was still laying there pale and lifeless and it was obvious that Amy still had a lot to do.
No one talked as we waited. Even Luna didn’t do anything but stare at Taylor’s face as Amy worked. The only sound that could be heard was the click, click, click from the wall clock next to the kitchen.
It felt like an eternity, but according to the clock, it had been only about 10 minutes later before Amy leaned back and I leaned forward.
Pushing away what felt like real physical pain at seeing my wife like this while feeling a tear roll down my cheek I reached forward and slowly started reconnecting her soul to her body.
Having done this so many times before it didn’t take long but the entire time I couldn’t help but wonder what I would do if it didn’t work.
As I finished, I could almost feel my heart stutter as there was a moment of stillness where nothing happened besides the slow rise and fall of her chest.
At that moment I let my fears overtake me. None of our group had actually died. What if the trauma of dying did something irreversible to her mind. Something that our revival method couldn’t fix.
But before I could actually start to spiral I watched as Taylor’s eyes slowly fluttered. I sat back up a little more and took a shaky breath, as behind me, I could feel literally every other girl doing the same thing.
When Taylor finally opened her eyes, there was a moment of pause before she was tackled by everyone, Amy beating us all there.
There were a lot of sniffles, but it was Amy who spoke up first in a shaky voice that I could tell she was trying to hide. So in a professional voice, which fooled no one as her voice cracked, she looked Taylor in the eye and explained. “You Moron! You were lucky that there weren’t any lingering magical effects or I would have had to start over building you a new body. You would have been stuck in your gem for hours, maybe days.”
There was a moment of silence before Amy paused and sniffled, then continued quieter, “Still, thank you.” Then at just above a whisper, “Please don’t do anything like that again…”
Reaching out, I moved my arm, so I was squeezing both Taylor and Amy before I spoke with the same hitch in my voice. “Yes, Please… I really don’t know what I would do without any of you.”
It was then that Taylor seemed to start to remember what had happened, she reached forward and hugged both Amy and me. Then, after a moment where she fully realized who else was here, she reached out and moved her arms to hug the entire hug pile.
We took a few minutes of cuddling where each of us reassured ourselves that Taylor was still with us. I even gave her a small peck on the lips despite our younger ages. Then after a moment of hesitation, so did Amy. Then Sabah, Dinah, and Ahri followed with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, other cheek, and forehead respectively. Finally, Luna, who I had once again forgotten was even there, gave her a hug and a kiss on the nose.
Looking over my girls, I smiled before I turned towards the clock. It had been nearly an hour since we had entered our home, and it was nearly certain that the castle was currently being searched for anyone out of bed along with the culprit of tonight’s attack.
Speaking up, I gestured to the clock before sighing out, “We are going to need to go to bed.” I looked sadly at Taylor before I turned to Amy. “Amy, I am going to have to ask you to take care of Taylor tonight. Can… can you make sure she is alright.”
With a firm nod, Amy turned to look at Taylor who had rolled her eyes in response. Still, I wasn’t about to back down, especially as I had noticed Taylor’s hand shaking occasionally over the last few minutes.
Turning towards the front door of our pocket home, I opened a small portal outside of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tower before, ensuring that no one was coming, I gestured for everyone to head back to their respective dorm room.
There were some questions on where we had been, but no one seemed surprised we had been together and had simply been coming back from the library. We were all only first years, after all.
Yet as I laid down in my bed, listening to an already snoring Ron across the room, I frowned.
I was a complete and utter moron. Worse, I was an egotistical moron that got one of my wives killed. I had tried to lead us into a direct confrontation with an unknown foe and had nearly gotten us slaughtered.
What kind of fool leads his family into danger while only half trained and holding back most of their trump cards?
There were so many better ways of doing this.
We could have spotted Ron then followed him back up to his room and stolen the Journal later. We could have told someone that they saw Ron acting weird with some nasty feeling magic book and let the adults handle it. Heck, just waiting a few more minutes for Tom to lose more of his influence before attempting the ambush would have been better.
Or best yet, ambushing from our invisible, probably undetectable, pocket dimension… LIKE WE DID EVERY TIME BEFORE.
Dragging my fingers down my face I groaned softly. I had started to believe we were big shots and I endangered my family with what was obviously the stupidest, worst way I could have approached it with.
Letting my chest pang painfully as I thought of Taylor laying on the table in front of me. Unable to wait to see her until tomorrow, I opened a tiny portal above Taylor’s bed like I had done when we had been talking into the night. However, this time I just looked in. I wasn’t too surprised that Amy and Taylor were lying together in bed. While they were just laying there holding each other Platonically, my heart once again seized in fear of what I had nearly lost.
It was then that I felt something metaphorically snap within me, and I blinked. The pressure I had been feeling for as long as I could remember, but hadn’t noticed, was suddenly gone.
At first, I couldn’t figure out what had changed, but as I looked up through the little peephole into the girl's room, I blushed and closed it.
I blinked. I was embarrassed on how I had been acting. How much focus I had been placing on them.
Basically, the soul deep drive to find and collect women at almost any cost was completely gone.
Well… no, that wasn’t fully accurate. I still liked the idea of finding various women to love me and joining my family. A desire to find them. A desire to help them. Then, if they wanted to, bring them along with me and my family on our many adventures.
However, the unstoppable itch, the unending compulsion, to find more girls that had been only slowly and gradually diminishing with the girls I already had was now gone.
Then, before I could analyze those thoughts, it felt like my emotions came roaring back. What the bloody hell was going on? It wasn’t like I was emotionless before, but I suddenly was forced to think about things differently.
As I felt my breath start to speed up I could tell I was starting to spiral. I couldn’t do this right now.
Grunting, I bit my lip and focused on the pain to try and ground me in the here and now. Trying to focus on the coppery taste to keep myself in the present. I knew pain was a bad coping mechanism, but I didn’t want to see where this spiral took me. Yet I could feel it starting as my mind began to wander.
What did this mean?
What had I been doing?
Why had I been doing it?
Then the questions I had been pushing away for months came roaring back.
Who was I?
What was I trying to do?
What was I doing to my girls?
What kind of monster was I?
Biting harder, I felt my lip fully split and the shock of the pain in my lib and in my arms from my nails digging into my arms got my to uncurl my body slightly.
Taking a shaky breath, I focused on the taste of the blood while tracing the ceiling with my eyes.
Ok, I didn’t know who I was, but a lot of people forgot things. What mattered was what I had done…
Ok, so I had taken girls away from their families and homes… yeah that was a pretty bad thing to do… ok… no, it was straight up monstrous.
I felt the pit of dread inside my stomach do a back flip and my entire body started to ache.
No, don’t just spiral. I hadn’t forced anyone to do anything. They chose to come with me… Well, no… I had definitely kidnapped Dinah. An 11-year-old was not old enough to make the decision to come with me… Hell, even Taylor had been kidnapping.
While Amy was an adult, I had given her emotionally disturbing information to get her out of her right state of mind before asking. Hell, I had basically blackmailed Sabah and kidnapped her as well.
Did Ahri even have a real choice with people after her?
The rational part of my brain was trying to tell me that they all knew their options, I hadn’t forced anyone to do anything, but I couldn’t listen.
The memory of Taylor’s cooling corpse in my arms nearly caused me to once again bite my slowly healing lip again before I caught myself.
Slowly forcing my body to relax despite my instincts, I stared into the ceiling thinking through all of my many, many mistakes…
After multiple hours of fretting, I finally fell asleep to my self-recriminations.