A/N: Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition - Round 10 - Kenmare Kesterls - Keeper
Prompt: Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington (character)
Four
Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington wasn't at all sure why he should be the one to have to do the job that no other ghost wanted. He wasn't the best speaker, and he wasn't the friendliest. Although, he supposed he was the oldest ghost on Hogwarts grounds that hadn't become a bloody recluse over the centuries like the house ghosts of Slytherin and Ravenclaw.
Well, almost the oldest, anyway.
"The Friar ought to be doing this," Nick muttered to himself as he looked dubiously at the four figures in front of him.
One of the newest Hogwarts ghosts was a child, which Nick always found the saddest of all. It was ordinarily less likely for a child to become a ghost than an adult. Children had a natural curiosity about them, and they didn't fear death in the same way that adults grew to. A fear of death was something that was learned over time, and not something with which one is born. When a child became a ghost, it was more often an accident. It meant the child had died confused and frightened; he had turned away from the light of the hereafter because he hadn't understood that he was dead.
This lad was a nervous-looking sort who appeared to be even younger than Myrtle had been when she'd become an imprint of her former self. Nick had had to track him down, in fact, since he'd wound up in his family home rather than at Hogwarts where he had died. Young Colin's parents had been Muggles, of course, and so hadn't even been able to see him. It had distressed them a great deal, especially when their youngest son began to see visions of his brother wandering about the house.
Dennis had understood that his brother was a ghost, but understanding and being able to emotionally reconcile the fact were two separate things. Colin had not taken much convincing to return to Hogwarts with Nick, and Nick believed that he would be able to adapt well to non-life. He'd shown maturity beyond his young years by leaving his family to mourn in peace.
No, it wasn't Colin whom concerned Nick; it was the other three.
All four of the new ghosts had attended Hogwarts in their lives, but only three of them had actually died there. The fourth had returned after his death, and had found his own back, with no help from Nick. Indeed, Nick wouldn't have helped him return even if Dumbledore himself came back from the dead and asked it of him.
It was, however, quite clear to Nick why Peter Pettigrew had returned to Hogwarts after his death. While he'd been in school, Peter had never had it any better. After he'd graduated of course, it had all been downhill from there, but Peter associated Hogwarts with the better days of his whole, wretched life. It was only natural that he had chosen to spend his afterlife in the castle that had been his truest home.
Proven by Peter's presence at Hogwarts, not all ghosts are tethered to the place in which they died. Many haunt numerous places; they visit other ghosts and have quite lovely and sociable parties, in fact.
Vincent Crabbe, on the other hand, had died in exactly the right place to never be able to float an ectoplasm outside Hogwarts. The Room of Requirement was a truly masterful work of forgotten magic, but its rules did bend the natural order upon occasion. If you die in a room, for instance, and that room happens to be a place where things go for the express purpose of being lost and forgotten, then you can't really expect your ghost to travel well beyond its walls.
As dim at Vincent Crabbe was, and as despicable as Peter Pettigrew had grown to be, however, it was the fourth newest Hogwarts ghost that concerned Nick the most.
Ghosts cannot be unmade once they come into being. They cannot be dismissed or exorcised. They do not pass on. They do not get a second chance to "go into the light." A ghost is an entity that has made a choice. An eternal choice.
In order for witch or wizard to become a ghost after death, they must fully and totally turn away from death. It's fear that turns them—a desperate fear of death itself.
Nick remembered telling this to Harry Potter after the death of Sirius Black. He'd told Harry that Sirius had likely gone on to the next life, because he hadn't been afraid of death. Upon his own execution, Nick had been so fearful of dying that he had wrenched himself away from that calming light at the end of the tunnel and become a pale representation of life. It was Sir Nicholas' greatest shame. In the moment of his death, Nick had been a coward, and that cowardice had condemned him to look upon life and never be a part of it. It was enough to drive a spirit mad.
Nick's greatest concern was that Bellatrix Lestrange had already been mad before she'd died. She'd been evil to her very core, and if there ever had been any goodness in her, the choices she'd made in life had torn it from her.
It was Bellatrix whom Nick watched the most closely. She would never be able to harm another, certainly. Ghosts had no physical presence in the world.
But Bellatrix, for all her insanity, was deadly clever.
Nick was not worried that Peter or Vincent would cause much trouble. They had been servants in life without much motivation of their own. They had been Death Eaters out of fear or misplaced loyalty, but no one could threaten them with death now because... well, obviously.
Bellatrix, however, drank darkness like wine. She pursued it—sought it out—and Nick had no reservation in thinking that she would try to pass her madness to others. She need not touch a student to harm him, but merely whisper in his ear the dark knowledge of a lifetime serving evil. She was dangerous even in death, and she would need constant observation.
"You are Hogwarts ghosts now," Nick said to them, adding weight to his voice. "A level of decorum is expected of you."
All four listened in silence, though all for their different reasons. Young Colin was lost and looking guidance, Peter and Vincent didn't know how to not be led, and Bellatrix... Well, he was certain she thought she could wring some secret of ghostly power from him.
She would be sorely disappointed in the path she had chosen.
"You're to behave in a way fitting of Hogwarts' reputation. If you can't be civil while interacting with the students, you're to confine yourself to whatever unoccupied corner of Hogwarts suits you best and stay there," he said with authority. "If you cause trouble of any kind, do not think that ghosts do not or cannot police their own."
His eyes glinted specifically at Bellatrix, who rolled her eyes and grinned wickedly.
"If anyone should need help adjusting to their new un-life, there are a number of societies among ghosts that serve to break up the monotony of being deceased," he told them. "If you have any questions about being deceased, you can ask any of the Hogwarts ghosts. Er, probably any of them," he quickly amended. "Should you require emotional support in dealing with your recent death, you have only to ask. Hogwarts ghosts have access to several renowned ghost psychologists. There is no shame in admitting post-mortem depression, only in not seeking help."
Nick looked at them firmly. Colin was watching him with rapt attention, Bellatrix was smirking, and the other two were trying very hard to look as though they were more interested in the cobblestone floor.
Nick frowned at the lack of response to his speech, but decided there was nothing to be done for it. Ordinarily—though it was difficult to call the creation of a ghost ordinary—only one ghost would be introduced to Hogwarts in an era. Fewer and fewer, in fact, over the centuries. Myrtle had been the first new ghost in nearly a hundred years. Now, to have four all at once was unprecedented. Only battlefields and mass tragedies produced such numbers simultaneously.
Although, Nick supposed, Hogwarts was a battlefield now.
Though he didn't breathe as such, Nick made a noise reminiscent of a sigh.
"I supposed you're dismissed, then," he said. "The remodeling of the castle is nearly complete, so remember that school will be back in session at the start of next September. I expect all of you on your best behavior while the students are about."
Nick tried not to flinch at Bellatrix's cackle as she dropped suddenly through the floor upon being dismissed. She really shouldn't be so good at floating through solid objects yet, Nick thought to himself. One had to overcome the human inclination to not bump into things, which was surprisingly more difficult than it seemed.
Peter and Vincent sulkily drifted away, leaving Nick and Colin alone.
Nick looked down on the boy as kindly as he could.
"Go on, lad," he encouraged. "It's better to learn by doing, I always say. Why don't you give the castle a once-over, eh?"
"All right, Nick," Colin said drearily. "I'll give it a go."
Colin's shape moved away from Nick rather awkwardly. Colin was still trying to walk, it seemed, though his small feet no longer connected with any solid surface.
Colin paused at the door and tried for a moment to open it, but his hand passed through. Nick watched with sympathy.
"Through the door, Colin," Nick reminded him gently.
"Right," Colin confirmed, then stepped sideways through the door as though moving sideways were easier than walking straight through.
Once he was alone, Nick shook his head sadly.
"Four," he said aloud to himself. His sorrowful voice echoed in the empty classroom. "Four is such a very large number."