Entry for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Season 5, Finals Round 1 - Wigtown Wanderers vs Wimbourne Wasps
Position: Keeper
Prompt: Write about the Whispering Wizard. (Appeared in the HBP movie, is seen whispering into a hole in a wall in Knockturn Alley)
Word Count: 2,355
Betas: Aya Diefair; DinoDina
Whispers Of Fate
The knowledge of the future
A gift
And yet a curse
Pushing the mind into chaos
Too unbearable the lore
Knockturn Alley was a place that was frowned upon by most of Great Britain's wizarding population; the shady, narrow street whose entrance everyone seemed to walk by as fast as possible, trying to ignore its mere existence, seemed to be the symbol of crime and other questionable business for them. And they were not wrong, of course – the majority of the shops in Knockturn Alley sold equipment for the Dark Arts, in the bars, nobody would have asked a wizard or a witch ordering alcohol for their age, and witches and wizards sold their bodies in the most hidden corners. The figures roaming the dark, dirty street fit in just perfectly, with faces hidden under large hoods as they hushed past the ragged, bony beggars who'd been banned from Diagon Alley. Even in the wizarding world, the 'normal' tried to keep up a picture perfect, and the hollow faces of the poor and the confused wandering and whispering of those who'd been less fortunate in their life just didn't fit in.
Thus, the average wizard or witch never learned about the wonders of Knockturn Alley, which brought some kind of light into the darkness of the place, albeit it being not much and obviously easily overlooked. Knockturn Alley undoubtedly offered a broad palette of illegal measures to those who were desperate enough, but there were also places for those who sought help without breaking laws. From all the secrets of the street, those were probably the best kept ones, only shared in hushed whispers with those who offered enough gold in exchange.
As the son of a wealthy pureblood family and rising Quidditch star, those sources were easily accessible to Marcus Flint, and so the only thing he had to worry about was hiding his face as he slipped out of a shady bar in Knockturn Alley. He was feeling unnaturally nervous, and he was glad that he was able to escape the hot, thick air of the bar, the stink of alcohol and sweat and the overall atmosphere of bloody secrets, greed and lust. The cool, fresh evening air seemed to rinse his lungs free of the smell as he inhaled it deeply, and he shook off the memory of the dark figures pulling drunk, barely clothed witches into their laps, laughing louder the more they tried to wriggle free.
Nasty tongues would assume that it was the kind of place he would feel comfortable at, as everyone seemed to think that he didn't have a heart or conscience, but they couldn't be more wrong. While Marcus' moral compass didn't always point in the right direction – especially on the Quidditch pitch – he didn't approve of the shady businesses and crime at all, though damned to keep his opposition silent. His father saw Knockturn Alley as the place from where the purebloods would rise to power again, and Marcus felt sick to his stomach whenever his old man said that the world was like it was supposed to be there. Mudblood girls were treated as objects to be sold and used and then thrown away, information and objects of power sold to the highest bidder…
No, Marcus was glad that he could get away from the filth. And the reason why he was here wasn't of a shady nature either. He was seeking information, one of personal nature; the answers he wanted would hopefully soothe the worry burning inside of him and help him choose the right path. He was standing at a crossway, confronted with a hard decision, and he felt like his situation was too complex to examine on his own. He needed someone who knew more, who had a different kind of perspective of the situation, and there was only one place where he would get reliable information. No price was too high for him, and so he'd just spent a month's salary to be introduced to one of Knockturn Alley's secrets.
Adrenaline was pumping through his veins as he pulled his hood deeper into his face. If he was caught, he would be in big trouble, facing cruel punishment by his father, but for the first time in his life, this wasn't holding him back. There was someone who was worth the danger, someone he couldn't watch over anymore just when darkness was returning to their world, and he couldn't do nothing.
Driven by worry and determination, he walked down the street, his gaze fixed on the dirty and uneven cobblestones until he reached a part of the street that lay along a wall, separating the alley from whichever property was lying behind. A man was standing in front of the wall, which was covered by weather worn pieces of parchments, advertisements, posters of criminals currently on the run – Bellatrix Lestrange's crazy laugh made him shudder. At first sight, the man didn't seem any different from the figures lurking around here; his greasy and dirt-caked hair was hanging into his face like a curtain, his clothes had holes and patches and were covered with something that appeared to be a mixture of straw and animal dung.
But if someone took the time to pay attention to him for longer than the fleeting second it took to hush by, it became obvious that he wasn't quite like the usual mob. His face, though mostly hidden by his long hair, showed no sign of the maliciousness that one could spot under many hoods in Knockturn Alley, and his features were rather soft, once one managed to see past the sharp cheekbones and hollow eyes caused by malnutrition. However, the most remarkable about the man was that he seemed completely unaware of the people walking past – his whole attention was directed towards the brick wall, and he kept whispering towards it. Hence his name – the Whispering Wizard.
Nobody knew who he was, where he'd come from or what he was whispering. In Knockturn Alley, nobody cared about such details, and to the average, uninformed passerby he was just another of those lost souls, another one who'd lost his mind and was now talking to a brick wall.
Marcus, however, wasn't uninformed anymore. And in these times, the Whispering Wizard was his biggest hope, his only hope.
He was begging inwardly that he wasn't putting his trust into the wrong measures, and that this wizard really wasn't as crazy as he seemed.
His heart was beating hard against his ribs as he walked past the Whispering Wizard and shot a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure that nobody was in sight, then he stepped towards the tiny gap between the brick wall and the next shop. When the gap widened magically, Marcus released a breath of relief he didn't know he'd been holding, and recalled the instructions he'd been given. It wasn't easy to fit through the passage with his bulky body, and he got quiete some dirt and cobwebs onto his cloak when he finally managed to slip into the alcove hidden in the magically enlarged wall, glad that he didn't have a problem with small spaces. The silence hanging in the tiny, dark chamber was heavy with secrets that had been shared over the decades, and he could almost feel the burden of fate.
The atmosphere in the space didn't improve his nerves at all, and the darkness made everything a little more spooky. Only a tiny hole in the wall, one he'd walked past so often without knowing its true purpose, allowed a tiny ray of sunlight to filter into the chamber, guiding Marcus forwards. His feet shuffled over the ground that he couldn't see, and even though there was no space for him to fall over, he clumsily spread his arms for balance, fingertips grazing the cool bricks. Despite not being watched, he felt ridiculous when he crouched down to the hole, now able to hear the faint breathing of a person mixing with the sound of his own, though he was convinced that the harsh beating of his heart had to drown both sounds out.
"H-hello?" he asked quietly, not sure how loud he had to speak for his words to reach the other side. "I want to –"
"I know."
The voice interrupting him was calm and barely more than a whisper, but the tiny space seemed to strengthen it so every word was clearly audible. There was something distant about it, as if the wizard's mind was far away, filled with too many things to focus, and yet he knew exactly who was seeking his knowledge.
"You're here less for yourself but for someone else."
Marcus gulped hard, Katie's smile coming to his mind and making his heart heavy. "Yes, she's –"
"She's everything to you. I know everything. I've awaited you."
How right he was. Katie Bell meant the world to him, and Marcus was in the middle of throwing his life upside down for her. For being here alone, he could be punished by his father, who was a proud Death Eater, and what he'd considered to do could lead to his death. But it was worth it. Katie was worth it all.
Having to repeat his Seventh Year at Hogwarts had been the best that could have happened to him, his hidden crush on her showing accidentally. Instead of running, she'd surprised him by taking a look under the surface, behind the facade to see the Marcus hidden underneath. Without her help, he would never have passed his N.E.W.T.s – though obviously her influence hadn't made him a genius by a miracle, even though he'd spent more time in the library that year than in the seven ones before – and he'd found himself enjoying being at school for the first time.
He knew he was still an arsehole most of the time, but yet being with her had changed his views on some things, leading to him sitting in this darkness. Times were changing, he knew something was brewing, and now that he'd graduated, he wouldn't be able to make sure that she wouldn't be in danger.
"I just want to know how to protect her. A war is coming, I know it, and I just want to keep her safe. I don't know what –"
"Finding the right path is never easy. It is wise of you to seek help and not let your young, impulsive mind make decisions whose importance it cannot see yet."
Marcus almost snorted at that – he'd been called a lot, but wise had never been among the words. It was ridiculous, seriously, even though he found himself thinking that the man on the other side of the brick wall didn't sound as insane as he'd thought he would.
"I've seen what will happen," the wizard breathed, his voice getting heavier with sadness and horror, and Marcus felt his stomach clench at the tone alone. He didn't want to imagine what this poor soul had seen – the plans he'd heard about had been enough to scare him deeply, and being scared was something that he'd managed to avoid most of his life. "Horrible things… orphans. Death ripping families apart. Cruelty taking over the reign. Darkness is coming."
Gulping hard, he needed a moment to gather himself, and yet his voice was shaking when he asked dreadfully: "And Katie?"
The silence that filled the chamber for a seemingly endless amount of time made fear crawl even deeper under his skin, and his fingernails dug into his palms in an attempt to get himself to concentrate.
"Evil intentions. As dangerous as it is beautiful upon touch. Pain."
"What… what can I do?"
The words tumbled over Marcus' lips the second he'd managed to process what the man had said, desperation and worry wallowing inside him. He didn't want to imagine what they were implying, didn't want to think about Katie being in danger. All he wanted to know was what he could do to prevent this, to keep her safe from any harm.
Thus the answer that came through the tiny hole was like a punch straight in the face.
"Nothing."
His mouth opened and closed, but no tone left it; it was as if someone had sucked the air out of the alcove, making it impossible for him to breathe. Sinking against the cool brick with one shoulder, his head spinning, he tried to keep himself from being consumed by the feeling of helplessness that was hitting him like a wave of a stormy ocean hitting the coast.
"Fate can't be influenced once the universe made a choice. Foolish human minds think they can change destiny…"
The voice of the wizard slowly faded into the background as Marcus closed his eyes, the thumping of his heart and the rush of his blood in his ears getting louder, and he desperately tried to hold on to hope, even though it was being washed away. He hadn't wanted to become a hero, he'd just hoped to be able to do something, anything. Not for himself, but for the girl that had brought tiny rays of light into his life.
Everything had been in vain.
He'd never been good at Divination, but he knew that it wasn't complete bogus, and he didn't know if trying to meddle with what he'd heard, attempting to change what would come anyway, would make things worse.
"If hope fades, darkness will win."
Raising his head slowly, Marcus glanced at the hole, his mind slowly tossing and turning the words around. It took him some time to realise what they meant, and he was almost embarrassed with himself.
Giving up was not an option, and yet he'd been so close to throwing the towel just because there was no action for him to take. It wasn't over yet. Whatever would come, he couldn't prevent it, but he would be there in the aftermath.