Disclaimer: If you recognise it, surprise, I don't own it.

Chapter 63- Discrepancies...

----------------------------------------

The following day I was sat in the Great Hall, eating my breakfast with some gusto since I did expend quite a bit of energy last night. Hearing a bunch of giggles coming from the other side of the teacher's table, I look up to see Rolanda Hooch with a happy smile, giggling and smiling while whispering towards Minerva McGonagall. The stern woman was giving me the side eye, clearly disapproving.

I just gave a shit-eating grin back, knowing the woman knew exactly what her friend and I got up to last nig, probably in explicit detail. Catching my shit-eating grin from even further down the table is Aurora Sinistra, who glares back, probably thinking that the grin was for her. I just ended up smiling wryly right back and going back to eating my breakfast. I also end up thinking up what happened that wasn't so hot and steamy last night.

Apparently, Hermione didn't revert to her normal state like the other two kids did or like she did in the movie. No, apparently, using Polyjuice with animal hair actually has consequences. It's a shame since I was cooking up some ideas in my mind regarding it after the effects I saw last night, but now those won't come to fruition because of the side effects. The two boys had to take her to the hospital wing to get help from Madam Pomfrey. Given the fact that the two boys aren't awkward or blushing or anything, I assumed Herione stopped her activities before the boys returned or, at the very least, managed to hide it from them.

Life continued after that pretty normally, with me having regular meet-ups with either Aurora or Rolanda. However, Hooch kept getting more and more daring with her hookups, and not in the being caught way but in the I might die during this way. Hermione remained in the hospital wing for several weeks, long enough for all the students to return from Christmas break. There was a flurry of rumours about her disappearance because, of course, everyone thought that she had been attacked. So many students filed past the hospital wing trying to catch a glimpse of her that Madam Pomfrey took out her curtains again and placed them around Hermione's bed to spare her the shame of being seen with a furry face.

Meanwhile, I... I sat down in my room and chose to review all of my actions since coming here to Hogwarts. This did not come unprompted. It was during one day when I was going to begin my practice and research for the day since I didn't have lessons and work on preparing myself for this snake. Except, once I sat down, I didn't do anything of the sort. I just sat there and thought about going to see Aurora or Rolanda. And then I began to think of other females in the school I could approach, and then finally, I wondered about a way to get Aurora and Rolanda together for some fun. That was the straw that broke the camel's back.

The thought itself wasn't worrying since it was the type of thing I would try to do and plan. No, what was worrying when I realised it was the amount of planning and time I was going to give to it to reach completion. The amount of time and planning that should instead be spent on the Basilisk and surviving this school year. Now, I know I am a horny piece of shit that thinks he's clever but probably does a lot of dumb shit, but I m not this stupid. With my life on the line, I wouldn't waste time playing around instead of preparing. I have the rest of my life to have fun, so why would I possibly jeopardise that by overindulging now and dying?

No, that doesn't make sense to me. My original plan before I came here was to do the bare minimum. Show up, teach my classes and keep my distance. Maybe have some fun with some legal Hogwarts girls and teachers and scout out some talent to pluck after their time here and once they enter the outside world. At the most, I would do the things requested of me or that I knew I did in the movies but in my own way, not the dumbass Gilderoy way. That was the extent of what I was planning to do before I got on the Hogwarts Express.

And yet, after arriving here, everything just went out the window. I forgot my plan entirely. I made decisions that I am not even sure why I did. I decided to play up the dumb Gilderoy persona for Harry. For some reason. It made sense to me at the time to try to keep things as close to canon as possible, which was my original goal, so I did it. Of course, I only knew the first lesson Gilderoy originally did, so I did that, and after that, I improvised. I decided on dodgeball and other athletic games for them.

I stuck to canon as closely as possible, a canon which would end up with me in Saint Mungo's missing my mind, though obviously I wasn't planning that or heading towards it. I did everything as close as possible. And then, when Filch was petrified along with his cat instead of it being just his cat, I was thrown for a loop. I knew then immediately that things were going, of course, and by all rights, I should have left the other teachers to examine the body and immediately headed for Ginny Weasly and taken the book from her before things got out of control.

And yet, I didn't. I still hung around and played around and then went to bed and then tried to find Ginny the day afterwards, but by that point, she had thrown the book, and somebody else had taken it. It was too late. That put a bit of urgency in me and gave me a kick up the bottom, and I started to research the potential cause of my death and started to do some magical research. I also began to go through the Hogwarts Library, including the restricted section and bolstered up my magic and spell repertoire, something I had initially planned on doing when I decided to come to the school, yet something that got put to the side and forgot about.

So the days continued like that until the day of the Quidditch match, where I decided to follow the original Gilderoy script again and sent Harry to the hospital wing and Colin Creevey was attacked whilst trying to meet him after curfew. Whoever now had the book now, or more accurately Tom Riddle, was a lot more sneakier and stealthy now. They didn't use the girl's bathroom entrance anymore, using a different way for the Basilisk to get out. At this point, things were very much out of my control, and anything could have happened, and at such a point is when you ask for help.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Dumbledore was literally within walking distance, and I could go to him and tell him that through a series of deductions, I had discovered the creature was a Basilisk and that there was an entrance in the girl's bathroom. I have no doubt Dumbledore could go down there and work through the chamber and, together with his Phoenix, Fawkes, and fuck that Basilisk up. So why didn't I? This would be the best and easiest thing to do. Foist the problem on someone else and go about my life, enjoy it. So why am I still worrying about this Basilisk and trying to deal with it myself?

And then, after the attack on Justin Finch Fletchley, which was probably to turn all attention to Harry, I changed my focus to women. First, I went to Aurora Sinistra and, after that, to Rolanda Hooch. Then, I went down a spiral and thought about all the other women in the castle, which prompted me to do some self-reflection.

I have made a lot of decisions that there was just no rhyme or reason to. In fact, in quite a lot of cases, I had done the opposite of rational. I had done things that just made life more difficult for myself and not done things that would have made life easier and simpler for me. So, I guess the question is, why? Why have I not done any of the things I initially set out to do? The simple answer is, I don't know. And I don't know why I don't know. So, when it comes to the matter of the mind, it is time for Occlumency. I must admit, I haven't quite been keeping up on it since I arrived, but it should be fine.

Sitting on my bed, I relax and take a deep breath before delving into my mind. Checking my defences first, I check on the shields and the traps, and all seems fine. Afterwards, I go further into the mindscape. Well, I call it a mindscape but its more a mindpalace, a way to organise my mind and keep things in order as well as hiding it from possible enemies. Honestly, it could have been as dull as a filing cabinet in an office, but my creative mind decided to make a little village and stuff.

Strolling through my village, I see the townspeople I made go about their day, doing their jobs. Well, that's what I thought people who had those jobs did. For instance, A Blacksmith is there hammering metal on an anvil, a baker is baking bread, a farmer is just tilling the ground and so on and so forth. Looking through my village, everything seemed to be in order. I greet a housewife who is doing her laundry, I pass a ball to a child who had kicked it, and I take an apple from a vendor who says I can have it for free. Taking a bite, it actually does taste sweet. Of course, it does; my mind knows what apples taste like, and that is why they taste sweet.

With everything seeming fine, I decided to go and check on the inside of the sun where all of my deepest, most secret memories are kept. Appearing inside the orange glass ball in the centre of the flames, I look around and examine what memories are being kept here. Nodding my head when each is where it should be, I move on to check on other things.

I check on the lake and the sealife and then on the library. I checked all the sections, and all seemed to be fine; nothing was wrong with my memories. Everything is where it should be, and yet I can't help the feeling that something is wrong. That my mind is not right even though I have checked every bit of it, and nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. Shaking my head off that notion, I go to leave, and yet, before I do, I feel like checking out the village again. It is quite peaceful and relaxing, a stark difference from the current situation at Hogwarts, so I decided to enjoy it.

Walking through the town once more, I delight in the nice breeze and the quiet murmurs of the villagers as they go about their business. Passing by the house of the housewife I had seen earlier, I noticed that she was no longer there, which must mean that she was in the house cooking a meal or doing one of her other chores. I was about to move past it when I noticed the laundry was still on the washing line, and only half of it had been taken off and folded into a basket.

...That isn't right. These people are basically like NPCs I made, and I gave them a variety of different things to do. Most of it was copy and paste, but all of them had defined jobs to do. From beginning to end, to completion. They had a defined script that they followed to the letter. The housewife should have finished taking all of her laundry off the line and put it away before moving on to another task. But that hasn't happened here. Concerned, I began to move around town and noticed other discrepancies in what should have been my orderly and uniform world.

The Blacksmith was gone, and yet his furnace was still boiling away, the fire roaring. The farmer had disappeared, but his tools were not put away in the shed; instead, they were strewn about on the land. The fisherman's boat at the lake was at the dock, but it wasn't tied to it by a rope, and the fishing rod was left in the boat, the hook in the water. The more I moved about, the more I found jobs that were left half-finished. The village was still populated, and if I wasn't looking for it, I wouldn't notice, but there were people missing.

Very much concerned now, I searched every inch and building of the village, barging past other villagers who were carrying on with their days. I searched the bakery, the houses, and the library. I searched everywhere until finally I came to a stop in the middle of the street, having noticed a sign being askew on a door. A door down a side alley that I don't remember being there. I remember the alley being there but not the door. The door is entirely new to me.

Heading down the alley cautiously, I keep an eye out for anything strange, but the rest is just fine; it is just this door with the sign above it, which is slightly askew. Row and Die to Them. That's what the sign says, and there is an image of a boat going off the side of a waterfall, people falling out of it on its way down. This is... really weird and ominous. I can feel it deep inside; this is the root cause of everything going wrong inside my mind. Heading towards the door, I reach forward and grasp the handle gently.

Taking a deep breath, I open the door, pushing it forward. It swings open to reveal a staircase going down into the darkness. Not liking how creepy this is looking, I move my hand towards it and command it to light up. This is my mind, and under my control, so everything is mine to decide. The light flickers on, and seeing the lit-up staircase leading to another door at the bottom, I feel safe and begin my trek down. A few steps in, and the door suddenly swings closed behind me with a thud, and the lights go off, leaving me in darkness.

Willing light to spring forth, it does, everything lights up, but a second later, it flickers away, leaving me in darkness once again. I try a few more times, and even though the lights come back on each time, they flicker away just moments later. Something is wrong and interfering with my mind. It is not stopping me from inflicting my own will, but soon after I do so, it changes it. Technically, it is not contesting me for power but letting me do as I please and then change what I changed back. From this, I can assume whatever changes I try to make will just be changed back soon after, and I won't have any control the further I head in.

Using my will, I conjure forth my wand into my waiting hand and grasp it tightly as my only means of defence. I stare at it for a few moments, breathing a sigh of relief when it doesn't disappear. This may very well be my only weapon down in the belly of the beast. Sure, I could just use my hand instead of a wand, but I have trained with and am familiar with my wand. No doubt my combat capabilities are much higher using it.

With a Lumos, I go down the rest of the stairs, keeping an eye out for traps or anything that could bring a guillotine down on my head, but there is nothing. And then, finally, I am at the bottom, the black ominous yet regal door standing in front of me, hiding secrets behind it. I find myself pausing here, contemplating my actions. What am I doing?

This is my mind, and everything is as it should be; I should just leave and... No, no, no. Hold on a minute. Something is clearly very wrong. Fuck, it's trying to mess with me and turn me away. Well, it's not going to work. I'm not willing to delay this any longer and risk this thing actually managing to make me forget about it and ignore its existence.

Reaching forward, I grab the knob of the door and push it forward, the door swinging open to reveal...

An orgy.