Disclaimer: *Sigh* I do not own Harry Potter. I am not making any money out of this.
A/N: So, about a month has passed since I last updated. I would say I have adjusted quite well and I have to say that apart from the smog I am enjoying China. I can even speak it, sort of. Well, not really, but I am learning.
"Speech"
'Thought'
Salazar's Mind speech
"Parseltongue"
Chapter 9 – Detention
Harry looked at his professor, trying to look innocent and harmless (and failing greatly). McGonagall was regarding him expectantly, her thin lips pressed tightly together.
"Well then, Mr Potter, please explain."
Harry bit his lips and looked at Ron and Hermione. Ron shrugged his shoulders, and Hermione stared at him, half with disapproval (for whatever reason) half as if she was trying through the intensity of her stare to tell him something.
Harry didn't receive the message though, so he feebly tried to excuse the mutilated ground with 'Death Eaters?'
McGonagall looked unimpressed. "I will not have this nonsense. It is very clear what has happened."
Is it? Harry thought.
"You ran into Mr Malfoy and got into an argument. Of course you provoked each other and started a duel. And look at you." The professor had turned towards the Salazar and Godric, "Only just arrived and you've already been pulled into a conflict. Detention. For all of you."
All of you, meaning Harr, Ron, Hermione, Salazar, Godric, Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and some unknown fourth year Slytherin.
They weren't allowed to go to Hogsmead after all, being sent back to the castle. 'If you behave like little children you will have to be watched like little children.'
On their way to the castle, following professor McGonagall, they came across Umbridge. As usual, the teacher was dressed in pink and frills and of course she had to come over and ask what we were doing. With a resigned sigh, McGonagall explained the situation.
Gleefully Umbridge's gaze swept over the group. Seeing Harry her eyes gained a rather sadistic gleam.
"I will handle the detention, Minerva." Umbridge said in a sugary sweet voice, making Harry grimace and Ron even gagged.
"I am perfectly capable of handling detention, Dolores. There is absolutely no need for you…"
She was interrupted by Umbridge. "Apparently your methods of punishment aren't good enough if you still have to give them detention."
She would probably have followed through and given them detention, if at that moment Godric hadn't spoken up.
"What kind of punishment did you have in mind?" He asked innocently enough, "Your methods don't seem too harsh. From what I remember the last detention I had with you lasted, what, five minutes? Or are your methods of superior thinking, so complex that I cannot understand them?"
Umbridge gulped, paling slightly. "You! You… I will not do anything to do with you, you!"
The insult was swallowed by McGonagall's shocked scolding. "You do not treat students like that, nor do you insult them. They are here to learn and you are teaching them wrong things. I think Hagrid said he needed some help in the Forbidden Forest this afternoon."
"Isn't it forbidden?" Salazar asked.
"What, scared?" Malfoy sneered, the dual from a few minutes ago apparently completely forgotten, his usual arrogance surfacing.
"I call it curiosity." Salazar answered lightly.
"You will be under adult supervision, Mr Nighthay, there is no need to worry."
Apparently she hadn't heard the conversation between Malfoy and Salazar. Teachers, always so oblivious.
Professor McGonagall sent them off, after telling them to be at Hagrid's hut at 7pm sharp.
After the Slytherins and Gryffindors had split, Ron kicked the dirt at his feet moodily. "Great, now we can't go to Hogsmead because of them."
Harry grinned as he had an idea. "We can still go. We just can't be caught."
Ron, sensing Harry's direction of thought grinned as well. "Way to go. But how do we not get caught in Hogsmead?"
"We can't just go! It's against the rules!" Hermione exclaimed.
Ron and Harry looked at her, "Now you're complaining against the rules?" Ron said.
"Not when you suggested we start an illegal defence group, not when we started lying to the teachers, but now?" Harry finished for him.
"Fine," Hermione conceded, "We can use glamours and notice-me-not charms." She suggested.
"Great idea" Harry gave her a thumbs up, before leading his friends to the statue of the hunchbacked witch, aka the entrance to a secret passageway out of Hogwarts.
The five teens entered and as quickly as possible made their way through the tunnel. Harry was in the lead, closely followed by Godric and Salazar. Behind them came Ron and Hermione was last. After ten minutes of silent walking, Godric had gotten bored and started singing.
This was met by Hermione's sarcastic remark about his great singing. Godric bowed, eyes twinkling, and bestowed a dazzling smile upon Hermione.
"I thank you, fair lady, for the lovely compliment." He said, making Both Hermione and Salazar snort.
Merrily, Godric continued, just making things up as he went, not in the slightest embarrassed about his incapability to sing. After another five minutes of walking, Hermione started humming to Godric's tune and then she started singing, the melody and words were completely different than Godric's but going from the giggles and chuckles it was fun anyway.
Once they arrived at the end of the tunnel, they cast spells on themselves. Hermione straightened her curly hair and made them dark blonde. She didn't need to do anything else, as most people only ever recognized her due to her hair.
Ron turned his hair brown and hid his freckles. He also charmed his face to be unrecognizable, meaning that if someone looked at him they would be unable to recall his features.
Harry, for no reason but boredom had changed his hair to blue and let it grow longer. His lightning bolt scar was hidden by a fringe and his once clear green eyes had slit pupils and were of a sickly yellow colour.
Godric was now sporting thick blonde curls and a slight moustache, gaining him a shake of the head from Salazar, who had decided, much like Harry to be more exotic.
His hair had adopted Harry's unmanageable quality and was silver with dark green highlights and his eyes turned crimson. He even went so far as to charm them to glow in the dark.
Harry always knew, that underneath his cold demeanour Salazar was an even greater drama queen than Godric.
"That is so unlike you." Godric said.
"Exactly, which is why I did it." And Salazar had more excuses up his sleeve than a muggle magician has tissues.
The trip to Hogsmead went well. They weren't recognized by anyone, though Harry and Salazar did get weird looks. They visited the bookstore, Honeydukes, The Three Broomsticks and Zonko's.
They stayed until it was late and remembered they still had to serve detention. Hurrying back through the tunnel and into the castle, they hastily undid the spells changing their features. The five Gryffindors raced through the castle and across the school grounds. They were still ten minutes late though.
They arrived out of breath and saw the Slytherins had already arrived.
"Hey Hagrid." Harry, Ron and Hermione wheezed in greeting. The friendly half-giant beamed down at them.
"Yer jus' on time." Hagrid said, completely ignoring the fact that they were supposed to have been there ten minutes ago and the Slytherins murmurs of discontent. But that was Hagrid; friendly, big and cuddly. If you were friends with him, it seemed he was likely to let you off slightly.
The detention group walked towards the forest and the golden trio struck up a conversation with Hagrid.
"What are we going to do, Hagrid?" Hermione wanted to know.
"There 'ave been some disturbances in the forest makin' the inhabitants go wild. Say there's a giant monster killing them off one by one, but I aint seen any corpses or evidence. It's why yer here. We can split up and look for more clues and delve deeper into the forest."
With the most important question out of the way, the three and Hagrid caught up on what was new. Harry didn't reveal what had happened regarding his time-travel, but Hagrid let Harry know that he didn't believe his story about the Death Eaters, seeing as he had been in the forest himself that day, tending to a sick unicorn.
Luckily Hagrid didn't press, for which Harry was thankful.
At the same time Salazar joined the Slytherins and was talking to them.
"Malfoy." Salazar greeted the blonde Slytherin.
"Nighthay." Malfoy returned the greeting
"How did you enjoy the dual?"
Malfoy took his time answering, slowly trailing behind the others. "It was impressive. You showed very much skill and knowledge. Ye you lost."
"So I did. There is nothing wrong with that. It is the man who only seeks to win and cannot admit defeat who will never win. It was a dual to show skill, between friends. It was not a life or death situation."
The blonde was silent again. "Where did you learn?" He wanted to know.
"I taught myself for the most part. Though the books and 'Ric's family were great help." Salazar admitted.
Malfoy raised an eyebrow, "And no one knew of you practicing the Dark Arts? Wouldn't the trace pick up on it and report it to the Ministry of Magic?"
"No. First of all, the trace is incapable of picking up magic in magical or magic infused environment and secondly, I don't have the trace."
"Why not!?" The blonde wanted to know.
"I' m not about to give away all my secrets." Salazar admonished, before striding away and joining Godric, who had been enjoying the dog's presence.
"Sally! This is Fang. Isn't he adorable?"
Salazar inspected the enormous, slobbering dog and turned to his friend. "I think we need to work on your definition of adorable."
Upon the arrival somewhere in the Forbidden Forest Hagrid split the teens into three groups.
The first contained Ron, Hermione and Crabbe, joined by Hagrid. The second one was made up of Harry, Malfoy and Goyle. The last group had Godric, Salazar and the unknown fourth year. Due to Godric's they had Fang with them.
Hagrid sent them off with instructions similar to first year. Green sparks if you found something and red sparks if you found yourself in danger.
Hermione was scowling at Ron. Not even five minutes had passed and she was ready to slap him. Somehow they had started talking about SPEW and Ron was making fun of her, insisting that Elves didn't need rights and that her efforts were stupid and unwanted.
Hermione had retaliated by calling him as bad as Malfoy and things would have escalated had Hagrid not been there to keep them apart. Hermione walked behind the rest of them, silently fuming. She was balling her fists and mouthing toneless insults at Ron's back.
The guys in front were being noisy, so it wasn't unexpected, that she was the only one to hear rustling and see a dark shadow.
Harry had been walking at the front, a couple of paces in front of the Slytherins, yet he still heard their talk. For whatever reason they enjoyed talking about blood-purity and insulting Harry and his friends, even though Harry was in close proximity.
After fifteen minutes of it, he had enough and turned around, glaring daggers at Malfoy. "Would it be so terribly difficult to stop insulting me and my friends, at least when I am around? Just this morning you came to my friend, asking him to show you Dark Magic, and from what I believe you wish for him to teach you, so stop it please. I know your insults are stupid and ridiculous, you know your insults are stupid and ridiculous."
Even though the blonde opened his mouth to retort, the words never left his mouth. His expression morphed into one of shock, before he toppled forward and thudded to the ground.
Salazar was cautiously treading through the forest, his eyes flitting through the trees. He could feel the residue of negative energy, but he couldn't find the source, nor could he identify the type of magic. It was as if he was looking at an ant through glasses with the wrong prescription and it was giving him a headache.
Godric was happily talking at the dog, no matter that it didn't reply, but Salazar could tell he was just as tense he himself.
Twenty minutes into their search, Salazar felt the negative energy thickening.
Twenty-five minutes into the search, Godric saw a dark shadow.
Thirty minutes into the search, the fourth year Slytherin disappeared.
A/N: What will happen next? Please review!
