HOGWARTIAN HELL
Chapter 10
Jacob sat on the cliff, looking out over the vast sea surrounding the island. Shell cottage was peaceful that morning. The sun had barely risen over the horizon and most of the residents were still sleeping soundly in their beds. Jacob closed his eyes as he felt the cool air blow calmly around him. He tried to imagine that he was sitting near the lake back at Hogwarts. He pictured everyone there, happy. Chad rough housing with Martin, Harry and Ron discussing the latest Quidditch match, Hermione with her nose in a book. He thought of what he wished could have happened over the years. Harry and the others had proved Sirius innocent, Wormtail rotting in a cell in Azkaban. Sirius was the guardian of Harry, living in a nice house in the country.
Katie Bell, the girl Jacob felt he was in true love with, resting her head on his shoulder. Dumbledore alive and well, joking and "off his rocker" as Ron would say. This was the life Jacob imagined and wished for. He did not ever expect things to turn out the way they really had….but they did.
"Hey, mate," Harry said, taking a seat next to Jacob, his legs over the cliff as well.
"'Morning," Jacob yawned.
"So, what are you thinking about?" Harry asked.
Jacob sat there for a moment, breathing in the fresh air he loved so dearly and then answered with
"Do you miss it?"
"Hogwarts? Of course," Harry replied.
"Not just Hogwarts," Jacob interrupted. "The old days."
There was another pause until Harry said
"Yeah, I do. I miss first year the most, I think. Things were so simple back then. We still had our share of dangerous adventures, but….we knew how to solve it."
"We were adorable back then," Jacob snickered. "Tiny."
"Yeah, we were," Harry agreed, laughing.
"Your hair used to look too big for your head, you know," Jacob mentioned.
"Yeah, I remember."
After a few more moments, Jacob said
"Sixth year was hardest for me. Along with all of the dark stuff happening….I got Mary Sue pregnant. And now she's stuck here with our son."
"You love Bill," Harry pointed out. "Do you wish he hadn't been born?"
Jacob laughed without humor in his tone.
"He doesn't deserve to live in a world like this. He's barely one and a half. And Mary Sue and I aren't even together. How is he gonna feel about that when he's older? Terrible, I'd expect. I'm just glad we named him after such a great wizard like Bill Weasley. He's provided us hospitality, helped me through the time when I found out I had gotten Mary Sue pregnant, and ever since I met him the summer before fourth year, he's treated me like a brother. Bill Kragoff should consider himself honored to have such a name."
"He's not Kragoff, remember?" Harry solemnly reminded him.
"Right," Jacob muttered. "He's not legally mine, he's Mary Sue's. Hey, I'm glad Chad never ratted me out to Mum and Dad."
"Jacob-," Harry started. "Your parents….they aren't in hiding like Hermione's are, are they?"
Tears showed in Jacob's eyes as he said
"They're dead. Over the summer, after Chad and I went to the burrow…they were getting ready to leave for Canada. A Death Eater, I'll never know who, came and killed them both…for fun!"
He showed menace in his face now, a dark look Harry had never seen on his friend before.
"I swear to God, I will find who did it. I will torture them. Then, I will fucking murder them!"
Harry nodded.
"We'll find who did it," he guaranteed.
"Harry, is this how you feel when you think of him? He killed your parents and you're destined to destroy him because of that. I've always been a Christian, but I want revenge. Are you doing this for revenge or to save the Wizarding World?"
Harry thought.
"Both," he finished. "But mostly to save everyone else. Jacob, if you ever face who did it…remember who you are. You were the saint of Hogwarts for the way you lifted up everyone's spirits. You may have sinned plenty enough, but always know that you are the one who kept saner than the rest of us in the most mental world. Got it?"
Jacob nodded as Harry stood.
"I'll go get breakfast ready," he said, leaving Jacob with his thoughts.
…
Martin sat in the less crowded room of requirement. Many of the others had gone through the tunnel to get to the Hog's Head, wanting more food. Ginny had said that Aberforth wasn't going to be very pleased.
Why Chad? Martin thought as he held the golden object in his hand, Chad's time turner.
Why had Chad never used it? Weren't there enough terrible things going on over the past year that Chad could have changed by just simply going back through time with his older brother's time turner? And then, Martin realized how stupid he had been.
He knew exactly how to save Chad! It may cause the newly instated calmness in Hogwarts to never happen, but that would only mean that the D.A could fight even more! Martin knew just what to do.
He looked around at the other students, some resting, others talking.
He looked again at the time turner and spun it various times so that the hour glass turned over and over, sending Chad back through the hours it had been since Chad's disappearance.
Martin looked up and blinked at the sudden darkness. He quickly stood off of his bed where his other self was lying, his eyes closed.
"Good night," Martin whispered, very shocked and overwhelmed.
He snuck a peek over at Chad's bed and, seeing that it was empty, quietly sped to the small doorway leading into the tunnel where Chad had gone through.
He crawled through for nearly ten minutes, grasping his lit wand and pointing it in front of him, before he finally reached the end.
"I hope this works," he murmured to himself.
He doused the light of his wand, opened the door, and stepped out, looking around and finding himself in the office of Severus Snape.
…
Neville came back through the portrait hole to see Martin spinning the time turner in his hand. Before Neville could make a sound of warning to the boy, he had vanished.
"Shit," Ginny said, looking around from her bed to see him disappear.
"He's going to try and save Chad," Collin exclaimed.
"But, when someone goes back, they usually come right back through the door," Lavender said, confused. "It's supposed to be like it took no time at all."
"Maybe he got captured too!" Dennis alleged, looking frightened.
"Can't have, we'd remember it happening that way," Seamus corrected.
"No, what if they were keeping him in a different area than Chad?" said Zacharias. "Then Neville wouldn't have found him there and we'd still have the present Martin accounted for and we wouldn't know the damn difference."
"He's right," Eric, Terry, Michael, and Anthony all said at once, being Ravenclaws.
Neville placed the food bags down.
"Then, where is he?" he said.
…
Martin looked around the office, at the snoozing portraits, and almost screamed at the figure of Severus Snape sitting at his desk.
Thank God, however, that Snape happened to be asleep at the moment.
Martin pointed his wand at him, thinking of the chance he had at the moment.
"A….A," he stuttered. "A…Avada Kadavra."
Nothing happened.
"Shit!" he muttered.
He could not pull of such a curse, he was not powerful enough.
Martin instead looked around the office for a weapon he could use to kill Snape.
Before he could do anything, he heard Snape begin to stir.
Not even turning to look back, Martin opened the office door and charged down the spiral stairs, which were beginning to move like a Muggle escalator.
Once he had reached the bottom, he began charging, as fast as he could, down the Grand Staircase and all the way to the entrance hall.
Becoming luckier by the minute, he discovered that the large double doors were unlocked.
As he stepped into the night air, he began to make his way to the other entrance, the one he knew was closer to the dungeon where Chad was being kept.
Martin stopped and ducked behind a pillar as he heard two voices.
He recognized them as the Carrows, laughing about a D.A "shit" Theodore Nott had captured.
"It was the Kragoff kid," Alecto sneered. "Apparently, he's getting that 'special treatment' from Nott now!"
They both laughed as Martin shook with fury.
As he heard them begin to walk away, Martin stood and looked around at them. They were both walking towards the other entrance.
"No," Martin whispered.
The Carrows did not enter but instead stood guard outside, making sure that no one would enter or exit.
Martin swore under his breath and began to move towards the main entrance again, trying to open the doors.
His eyes widened in shock as he found that someone had just locked them after he had left. It seemed they had remembered what they'd forgotten to do earlier in the evening.
Martin looked around again, frantically trying to figure out what he could do.
He saw Alecto begin to walk back towards where he was hiding, probably to make sure that the doors were locked.
Thinking radically, Martin began to silently make his way down the large tower of stairs that led down to the boathouse. He figured he could hide there until he caught back up with his own time, which would only be a couple of days from now.
When he reached the boathouse, however, he heard Alecto yell back to Amycus
"I'm gonna go check on the boathouse! 'Make sure everything's alright down there!"
Martin turned and saw he ugly, small figure walking down the stairs as well.
Martin darted inside the boathouse and looked down into the water below him. He knew what he had to do. He would be able to hide out in the nearest mountain he could swim to and then return to save Chad.
Martin lowered himself into the water and hid in the darkness as Alecto entered. He would wait for her to leave.
The old hag looked around and raised her wand in the air.
She mumbled a spell Martin could not quite make out. As she did so, her wand made a soft humming noise and a yellow light appeared on the end, disappearing after two seconds. She laughed.
"I know someone's in here!" she cried in a cackling sing-song voice. "Come out, come out wherever you are!"
She began to giggle as she climbed the latter up to the second level.
"Are you hiding in these here levitated boats?"
Martin began to swim out of the boat house, jumping in fear as she yelled
"Descendio!"
Four Hogwarts boats landed in the water, barely missing the swimming Martin. If he had been a few inches closer into the boathouse, he could have been killed.
"Did I get you, fucker?" she screeched, tittering again.
Missed, bitch! Martin wished he could scream at her.
He went under the water, thanking God that he was so good at holding his breath for a total of three minutes at the most.
Martin swam towards the mountain on the other side of the lake, moving gracefully with each stroke. He had always been a tremendous swimmer.
After two and a half minutes, Martin was beginning to become uncomfortable. In about thirty seconds, he was going to go back up for air, but was it safe by now?
He forgot about this worry when the image of a muscular teenager, a boy with long black hair, sparkling blue eyes, a broad bare chest with perfect abs, appeared in front of him. However, he had a fish like face with hands that looked more like fins with fingers in the middle.
When Martin looked down he saw that the boy had a long eel like tail. He was a Merman. Despite the fish characteristics in his appearance, he still looked very human.
Martin stared at his beauty, transfixed.
The Merman smiled and held out his hand, showing a squishy looking green plant in it that looked like chewable candy.
"Eat this," the Merman insisted, using a dreamy and unimaginable voice.
Martin did so, not even struggling as he began to completely lose breath.
He opened his mouth, allowing the water to rush in, and placed the plant in his mouth. He chewed, almost retching at the disgusting taste. He swallowed and began to scream in agony, feeling as if parts of his skin were tearing themselves open.
The Merman wrapped his arms around the tormented boy, holding him still.
"Calm yourself, child," he said in his strange and yet pleasant voice, running his right hand through Martin's hair to calm him. "You shall be fine."
Martin felt the pain cease and realized that he could breathe again, though he was still under water. He looked at his hands and saw they were exactly the same as the Merman's. He looked down to see that he had gills and webbed feet. He felt more relaxed and the water suddenly tasted like wondrous, salty air.
He turned to the Merman, who released him.
"Better?" he asked.
"Loads," Martin answered.
The Merman laughed and took Martin's left hand.
"Let me take you to our village."
Seeming to forget everything else, Martin allowed himself to be pulled through the water for nearly twenty minutes, farther and farther away from the castle.
He could not take his eyes off of the torso of the Merman and of his long, dark hair.
"What's your name?" Martin asked him.
"We have no names, Merpeople," he told him. "We get the attention of each other by touching. We merely tap one's shoulder to address them. My people have no need for names."
As they continued swimming, the Merman said
"I will ask, though, what is your name?"
"Martin."
"Ah, well, you are from the school, yes?" the Merman guessed.
"Yes," Martin said.
He suddenly discovered how uncomfortable his clothes were at the moment.
"May I take these off?" Martin asked. "They're very heavy under water."
"It would be wise," the Merman thought out loud. "It would make you look less strange to my people."
They stopped so that Martin could remove his shirt, pants, and even underwear. He allowed the clothes to float away, not feeling abashed about his nakedness for some reason. He knew that Merpeople were technically naked, though the only private parts that would ever be visible to humans would be the breasts of women.
The Merman continued onward, pulling Martin with him as he went.
"How did you know I was in danger?" Martin asked.
"I saw you swimming quite quickly," he responded. "We also know of the dangers at Hogwarts. We know of the one your kind refuses to name. We have been threatened before by him, but we pray to our God, Poseidon, to protect us as he and the other Olympians are much more powerful than all of the Wizards in the world combined."
Martin did not believe in Greek Gods but he felt now was not the time to argue over religious beliefs.
After another ten minutes, Martin saw small buildings that looked like they were made of wood salvaged from wrecked ships.
The Merpeople looked strangely at Martin, puzzled, some more amused.
The women looked much fiercer than the men, with hardened expressions and silvery hair. All of the Merpeople carried weapons such as large metal tridents, which was the most common, and several nasty looking knives.
They had eye colors like Martin had never seen before. Silver, sparkling blue, and glittering green.
Martin looked up at the Merman leading him and asked
"How long will the gillyweed last?"
"The kind I gave you is very rare to wizards," he replied. "It could last for almost a month. The only way to return to your normal form would be to flop up onto land. Now, quiet. The Chief looks as though he may speak."
They had reached the center of the village, where a huge Merman sat on a throne, his tail nearly seven feet long, his beard looking like Dumbledore's except that it was not neatly tied but instead wildly billowing around his head, making it look as though his pale green face was looking through a bush of white seaweed.
He began to angrily address Martin's guide in their language. The guide spoke calmly back. After the Chief spoke more, the guide began to argue something that made the other Merpeople watching nod in understanding.
Some still stared at Martin, looking at genitals as if they had no idea what they were. Others laughed at his ass, seeming to think it was a peculiar body part.
Martin decided to cover his penis with his hands.
As he did so, the Chief spoke to him in what sounded like Transylvanian.
"Sorry?" Martin said.
"Forgive me," the Chief said in English. "Humans have many languages just like Merpeople, except that we sometimes forget what language is spoken here. Dumbledore spoke to us through a man who could speak our tongue."
He almost laughed at the sight of the embarrassed human boy covering his small private human parts.
"So, you have escaped the school from your dark masters?" the Chief confirmed.
"Severus Snape is not my master!" Martin snapped back.
He then quivered at the raised eyebrow the Chief gave him.
"Sorry," said Martin.
The Merpeople angrily began to mutter things to each other as the Chief said
"So, it is true. The murderer of the great Wizard Dumbledore is in control of Hogwarts. How infuriating."
Martin nodded.
"The students are being tortured by other Death Eaters, servants of He-who-must-not-be-named, and my best friend has been getting the worst of it down in our dungeons."
The Merpeople seemed to understand as they muttered some more.
"Are you part of the group which calls themselves "Dumbledore's Army?" the Chief inquired.
"I am," Martin stated proudly.
"Then you are welcome here as a warier!" The Chief shouted as the Merpeople cheered.
"My friend was as well," Martin added. "I mean, 'is'."
"Then we will pray to Poseidon that he be saved from his torment," The Chief finished with. "You are allowed to remain as a guest. Now, we must eat!"
The Merpeople cheered again as they swam to what looked like old, wrecked versions of the Great Hall's tables.
Making sure that Chad's time turned was still hung over his neck, Martin went to join them.