CHAPTER TEN
SILVER SMOKE
O
"Welcome back to reality," growled Auchland, as the Gryffindors and Slytherins settled into their last class of the first day back from the Christmas holidays. "I've decided to change up the curriculum a bit. We'll be moving all of our O.W.L. resources to our Monday and Wednesday sections, and our double period every Friday will be devoted to something that I think is necessary for as many people as possible to learn in today's world."
He cast a spell into the air, and a large black cloak was conjured into the air. It was tattered around the edges and floated eerily above them. With another spell from Auchland, it wrapped itself around in the air and folded into a floating figure that greatly resembled the former guards of Azkaban.
"Everyone knows what this is, yes?" said Auchland. "There have been increased sightings, and attacks, of Dementors all around the world. That usually happens when people start feeling greater levels of fear and despair. The looming war can do that. Therefore, I think it's best that we all start trying to practice the Patronus Charm."
The class would have gone into an uproar if Auchland hadn't been looking ready to take a thousand points off of the House that complained first.
"While we usually will be doing this material on Fridays, we will begin the theory today," said Auchland. "This entire week will be devoted to learning the theory, and every subsequent week, we will practice the charm on Fridays. I expect that everyone will be able to produce at least a vague incorporeal Patronus by Easter."
"Professor?" said Abby, raising her hand into the air assertively.
"Yes, Quinn?" prodded Auchland, looking smug.
"The Patronus is extremely advanced magic," said Abby. "You can't seriously expect a group of fifth-years to complete a task far beyond N.E.W.T.-level."
"Modern wandlore has made advanced magic a much more reasonable goal," said Auchland.
"This isn't just advanced magic," said Abby, clearly pressing her luck far beyond what was advisable. "This is absurdly advanced magic. And to boot, you're having us do this right before our O.W.L. examinations, taking out a large chunk of time that we could be using to prepare for the second most important moment of our schooling."
"Education isn't just about passing tests," said Auchland. "I aim to have you depart with all the necessary knowledge to survive in today's world. That's why I'm being so kind as to take class time out for the study of the Patronus. If you must spend so much time on O.W.L. material, I don't see why you can't practice outside of class."
"We need guided practice," said Abby, her eyes narrowing.
"You'll have it on Mondays and Wednesdays," said Auchland, his eyes narrowing further in response.
"We need more guided practice," stated Abby calmly. "And we don't need it on this spell. I would be outraged but quiet about it if we were doing this in our sixth year, but it's practically abusive to do this to us now. We're not practicing the Patronus Charm in this class."
The whole class was watching her now. She wasn't backing down. As much of a bitch as Abby was normally, Albus couldn't help but be awed by her performance.
"You're certainly welcome to not practice the Patronus and receive a failing grade," said Auchland. "That choice is obviously yours."
"No one is practicing the Patronus Charm," said Abby. "It's bollocks for us at this age. What are you even expecting of us? Even an incorporeal Patronus is ludicrous to have as the base expectation. Very few people are going to be able to do even that 'small' feat, and what are you going to do—mark them all down for not being able to surpass the expectations of graduate-level students?"
"Would you rather I give them grades that do not accurately represent where they stand with the rest of their year?" asked Auchland. "If you're such an expert on Defense Against the Dark Arts, then I'd be glad to let you teach the class yourself. Less work for me, and it'll be the easiest way for you to realize that you haven't the foggiest idea of what you're saying."
"I'd be glad to take over the class," said Abby, standing up. "Thank you for suggesting."
Albus wasn't Abby's number-one fan, but he was silently praying that Auchland would let this happen. Anyone would be better than him.
"It was a joke," said Auchland, extracting his wand from his sleeve. "Sit down, Quinn. You'll do as I say you'll do or you'll sit detentions and lose even more of your oh-so-precious O.W.L. studying time."
"Duel me, if you're such a master of Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Abby, stepping away from her chair and into the open aisle. She raised her own wand.
"Excuse me?" said Auchland, tensing.
"I saw you extract your wand," said Abby, holding up hers. "I'll make my wager on a duel, certainly. If you are definitely a better Defense teacher than I could be, then you'll easily be able to defeat me in a duel. So why don't you just prove yourself?"
"I don't have to prove myself to you," said Auchland.
"You don't have to prove yourself to yourself," challenged Abby. "But to prove yourself to everyone else, why not? Put me in my place if you're such a master."
A second wand shot down from Auchland's other sleeve, and he grabbed it. Albus gasped inwardly; he hadn't known Auchland was a Diwand duelist. A second wand appeared in Abby's hand as well, and she smirked.
"Sit down, Quinn."
"You'll have to duel me down."
"SIT DOWN, QUINN."
"What, are you afraid of me?" teased Abby, giving Auchland her favorite half-sneer. "Afraid you'll lose and no one will respect your authority anymore? Is that why you won't duel me?"
"Quinn, this is your last warning to sit down before I give you six-hour detentions every Saturday until the end of term," said Auchland. "I used to be the head of the Auror Office. I can out-duel a child. But I'm not going to duel you because I'd probably be fired for it. As much as I would like to teach you your lesson that way, I'm going to have to restrain myself."
Albus smirked; it appeared that Abby had been trying to tempt Auchland into losing his temper with her and dueling her. It was no secret that every single student wanted Auchland fired; that was probably her goal.
Abby sat down begrudgingly, but retained her sneer. Auchland rolled his eyes and finally began his lesson, but at least they'd had a bit of entertainment first.
Rose, Exo, and Lucas were all keeping a close watch on Auchland throughout the class to make sure he didn't cast any more spells on Albus. He appreciated this, but wished it wasn't necessary; if only Wilcox could have found anyone else on the planet for the job. Hell, he'd have taken Dismiusa in their classroom over Auchland. Albus's "inattentive eyes" and "lazy posture" lost him twenty more points in this class, and Auchland was breathing down his neck any time he wasn't taking points away.
Mercifully, the class went by quickly. Auchland had everybody try the spell before they left, though. Albus smiled at the chance at last to show Auchland up; he could already cast a corporeal Patronus.
Only a few people were able to produce even a slight vapor in their first class. Eftan and Scorpius were the only Slytherins who managed it, and only Exo procured a faint wisp for the Gryffindors until Lucas stepped forward and cast his silver raccoon into the air. Auchland failed to appear impressed at this feat, and instead turned his glance to Albus. He didn't appear to be looking forward to seeing Albus succeed in anything, but he stood and watched carefully as Albus lifted his wand.
"Expecto Patronum!" bellowed Albus.
Nothing but silver smoke.
His friends all stared at him, puzzled, and Auchland began chuckling. Albus pulled his wand down from the air and stared at it.
What had just happened? This had better not be another temper tantrum from his wands… but it hadn't affected anything else since…
He didn't dare try again, lest Auchland find some reason to take more points off. But even as he stepped back, Auchland spoke up.
"I've heard you've cast a corporeal Patronus before, Potter," teased Auchland. "What's the matter? Don't want to show us? Ten points from Gryffindor."
A few more Slytherins took their turns without any results, and then they dispersed. There was a lot of gossiping amongst both Houses as they exited.
"Abby finally went toe-to-toe with Auchland!"
"I heard she's been meaning to do that for a while…"
"I thought Albus could cast a Patronus?"
"Yeah, what's up with that? Why'd he choke?"
"Man, Abby nearly got Auchland finally fired back there!"
"Abby really pushed Auchland's buttons…"
"If only he'd actually cast a spell on her…"
Lucas chuckled. "Wow, that was fun for a Defense Against the Dark Arts class," he said. "Abby and Auchland were butting heads like nobody's business when we started. You reckon they'll do it again sometime, or was that a one-time thing?"
Albus pointed at Lucas and laughed.
"What?" asked Lucas, blushing.
"Wow, you said 'reckon,'" said Albus. "I don't think you've done that before. You're turning British."
"Am I?" said Lucas, tugging at his collar. "Well, I don't want to be overtaken by the British… I might just have to throw some tea into a harbor."
Albus laughed again, but quickly stifled himself when Holly passed him and Lucas. She saw the pair of them talking, and her eyes went ablaze; she twitched and turned away, striding by them swiftly.
"Holly looked happy to see me," sighed Lucas.
Albus shrugged, unsure if he should say anything.
Lucas shook off the encounter. "Hey," he said. "After dinner and Diwandology, you want to head down to our usual practice room?"
"Sure," said Albus, knowing that Lucas was referring to Animagus training. They didn't want to say the actual term out loud anywhere, in case anyone was eavesdropping.
"How's it going, Albus?" said James, passing the pair.
"Er—Bonjour," said Albus. "Forgetting your ABCs, James?"
James smacked a palm against his forehead. "Crap," he said. "Sorry about that, you're right. Pick up at the beginning, then."
"All right," said Albus, grinning. "Don't forget again."
"Bet you I will," said James.
"Could you try not to?"
"Awfully difficult."
"Be a man and try."
"Can do."
"About time. Thanks."
"Bye, Albus."
"Ciao."
"Forgetting his ABCs?" asked Lucas curiously as James left.
"Our own little code," said Albus. "To make sure we're each other."
"Right-o," said Lucas. "I won't ask, then."
SLAP.
The sound was loud enough that Albus reached for his wand, before he recognized it as the contact between a human hand and a human face. He turned around just as Lucy stormed by him; her current boyfriend, Saxon Wake of Slytherin, was rubbing his cheek.
"There goes that one," said Albus to himself.
"Knew that wasn't going to last long, Luce," called James as Lucy stomped past him.
"Lucy!" blurted Marco after her. "I'm available!"
"No he's not, he's with Gavin!" yelled Barry. "I'm available!"
"No, I am, don't listen to them!" shouted Gavin.
"Guys, stop trying to pick my cousin up off the rebound," growled James.
"She only slapped him," said Lucas, turning to Albus. "That doesn't mean they're over…"
"It does with Lucy," said Albus. "She's a little bit… fast-moving. Kind of fickle. Erratic, I guess. I wonder what her Animagus form would be, because her Patronus is all over the place."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Usually it's a dolphin. Two years ago she was dating Kat Sinclair and it was a hawk. Then she dumped him and it was back to a dolphin. Then she dated Rohan Otica and it was a lioness, and then she broke up with him and it was a dolphin again. Then she started dating Chase Leigh earlier this year and it was a heron, then she broke up with him and it was back to a dolphin. Now she's dating Saxon Wake and it was a komodo dragon, but it might be going back to a dolphin soon."
"Maybe she'd be a dolphin like her base Patronus," said Lucas. "I haven't heard of any aquatic Animagi, actually. But just imagine transforming for the first time and you're a fish? That would suck if you weren't close to some water."
"Have Aguamenti ready if that happens to me," whispered Albus.
"Right-o."
Albus shuffled into the Great Hall, but first he stopped over by Alec to ask how his Christmas holiday had gone, since he had only seen Alec today during Care of Magical Creatures. Alec had been catching up with Mia during that class and he hadn't wanted to interrupt them. They were the longest-running couple currently at Hogwarts, as Alec liked to point out every twenty seconds.
"Great," said Alec, looking thrilled. "You remember my little spat with Gideon Fracas, who stole my research?"
"Yes," said Albus, eager to hear a new development in this story. "What happened? Did he contact you or something?"
"Yep," said Alec. "Twelve hundred Galleons to drop the lawsuit and just leave everything be."
"Twelve hundred Galleons?" choked Albus.
"Yeah, he's filthy rich."
"I didn't even know there was a lawsuit," said Albus.
"Professor Desulgon contacted my parents and walked them through how they should organize one," said Alec.
Albus smiled. Professor Desulgon certainly had been getting on their good sides lately. Or was that more suspicious? Then again, if being on their side made him more suspicious, then there would be no way for him to redeem himself.
"So your family is twelve hundred Galleons richer now?" said Albus. "Man, happy Christmas to you guys!"
"I didn't accept it," said Alec.
"What?!" choked Albus. "You turned down that much gold?! Why?!"
"I want to do my research," said Alec. "He stole my research and he can't pay me for it. That information I found is priceless. I want to be known around the world for having done something amazing with my life. I can't pay the world twelve hundred Galleons to remember me, so money's kind of useless there."
"Well, best of luck to you in the lawsuit," said Albus, scratching his neck.
"Thanks. How was your vacation? I heard you got eaten by an inanimate object?"
"Oh, well, yeah, that happened," said Albus, blushing. "I'll tell you more about that later. For now, also in bad news, someone's Polyjuicing themselves to look like me and James, and maybe other people. We don't know if it's happened more than twice. So we've got to get a secret code going so that we know we're each other."
"Oh, cool, like our own little club!" said Alec. "The… uh… Potter Pals!"
"Sure," said Albus, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, we'll devise a code sometime in the future. We'll have to get together first, alone with no one else in the room who can listen, and ask each other questions only the other would know, so that we know we're making the code with the actual person and not with the imposter. That's how James and Rose and Lucas and Exo and I did it so far. I gotta tell Mia and Aidan this, too."
"Right, then," said Alec. "See you in a little bit for our first club meeting."
"We're not having a Potter club," laughed Albus.
He explained the situation to Aidan and Mia at the Hufflepuff table; they agreed, but were both very worried about the fact that someone in the castle had malevolent intentions.
"Red Pierce?" suggested Mia. "He hates you guys. He still thinks it's your fault that his brother Asher was killed last year."
"But what use would he have for those specific items?" countered Aidan. "He could try making Albus's life a living hell without specifically using Polyjuice Potion to steal two things he didn't know were important. Besides, Pierce went home for break."
"He could have stayed in the castle under Polyjuice and no one knew," said Mia.
"I saw him on the train, though."
"He might have had someone else Polyjuice into him."
"That seems really complicated for such an idiotic cause," said Aidan, shrugging.
"Maybe he's just insane," said Mia.
"That's not a maybe," said Aidan.
"Well, he's—Albus, what's wrong?"
Albus shook away the thought. "No. That's stupid."
"What's stupid?"
"I was just thinking about how Asher snapped and tried to kill Gil," said Albus. "It was really random and weird of him… He was trapped in a castle full of people. He couldn't flee the scene of the crime afterwards because we were all locked in the castle. The only exit was out of the castle, which he took and got himself killed. It doesn't make any sense at all. Maybe he really was insane."
"Yeah, we've already settled that one," said Aidan. "He definitely is. Next question?"
"But not even someone as moronic as Asher Pierce would have been stupid enough to do that," protested Albus. "So the next question is, what made him go off the deep end completely? Don't we know of something that makes people go crazy with power?"
Mia and Aidan glanced at each other.
"You think the Pierces might know something about the Devoctrices?" whispered Aidan. "And that Asher went crazy because he used them? What would he have used?"
"I don't know," said Albus. "But it might connect his insanity to my disappearing belongings, the first of which might be and the second of which definitely is connected to the Devoctrices…"
"The word 'Devoctrices' is such a mouthful," said Mia, yawning. "Can we just call them the Devs?"
"I'm glad you're so interested in my theories," said Albus.
"It's kind of a long shot, Albus," said Aidan. "I mean, the Pierces may be evil and out of control, but what are the chances they know anything about the Devs?"
"Their uncle worked for Gallen Ingot," said Albus, recalling something that Wilcox had said at the end of last year.
"Ingot killed him, and he never let his secrets out anyway," said Aidan.
"Maybe Ingot killed him because he knew too much?"
"This is one too many 'maybes,'" said Mia, frowning. "There should be a limit of how many 'maybes' we accept in any conjecture we put forth."
"She's right, Albus," said Aidan. "We'll consider it, but I wouldn't put so much stock into it. You're not going to have much time for dinner if you stand here trying to incriminate the Pierces with nothing remotely resembling evidence of anything. We'll keep an eye on Red just in case, but I don't think it'll get us anywhere."
"Probably not," admitted Albus. "See you some time soon to choose our codes."
"Yeah—see you."
Albus walked back to the Gryffindor table and settled down in between Exo and Lucas. "Wow, that looks delicious," he said, looking over at Lucas's plate.
"Wow is right," said Lucas, chewing on some sort of spice-covered pork dish. "Try some yourself."
"Don't mind if I do," said Albus, pulling a piece onto his own plate.
"So," said Lucas. "What exactly should we do if we happen to notice that one of us doesn't use the code we laid out? Should we just try to Stun and wait until the Polyjuice wears off to see who it is?"
"I was thinking more along the lines of… something else," said Albus.
He was thinking more along the lines of using the Marauder's Map to investigate the identity of the imposter, since the Marauder's Map could see through even the Polyjuice Potion. But he still wasn't sure whether he and Lucas were close enough friends for him to let Lucas in on that little trade secret.
"More along the lines of what?"
"I'll explain to you later," said Albus. "During practice."
"Will you?" asked Rose, looking at Albus with a smile. "Are you going to show him the you-know-what, then?"
Lucas smirked at Albus with a querying look on his face.
"Why not?" asked Albus.
"You and Lucas are really getting along now, huh?" asked Rose.
"Are we?"
"You are," said Rose. "No one thought that was ever going to be possible when you guys first met."
"I guess we are," said Albus, shrugging.
There were some things you couldn't share without ending up liking each other, and confronting a predatory mirror and fighting off clones were a few of them.
"Hey, Rose," said Albus, remembering Rose's dramatic pause in front of the mirror during their daring rescue. "What did you see in the Mirror of Erised, anyway?"
Rose's face turned excruciatingly red and she buried herself in the potatoes.
"Er… never mind," said Albus.
Dinner's end brought their first A.R.M. class after winter break, a section of Diwand Spells. Professor Evranote gave out a quick quiz to make sure they'd retained all the information they'd learned first term over break, but it was only three exceedingly straight-forward questions on simple terminology.
Define Metronoming, Telescoping, and Concurrence, and give the blanket spell for Metronoming.
What is the most common class of spell seen in Diwand Spells (as in Charms, Transfigurations, Curses)?
Which of our Diwand Spells so far would be most effective if you found yourself in a lake full of Kappas charging you? (Give the name, incantation, and brief description of what it does and why it's useful.)
Albus scribbled down the answers with ease.
Metronoming is the practice of firing the same spell in a sequence, one right after the other, and causing each subsequent strike to increase in power. Telescoping is the practice of firing the jets of two different spells into each other, causing them to entwine in a double helix and intensify with length, but which also causes them to careen unpredictably. Concurrence is using multiple wands in a single hand to fire a spell, which greatly increases the power of the spell but is exponentially more difficult with each added wand. The blanket spell for Metronoming is "Augero."
The best Diwand Spell for that situation would be the Flashboil Charm. Its incantation is "Vapido Sublimo" and it causes instant evaporation all around the user without the side effect of burns from boiling water.
"Time is up," said Professor Evranote. "Hand in your quizzes!"
Professor Evranote ran a very good class. Her quizzes all required a very reasonable level of knowledge and her essays didn't ask for too much redundant nonsense. At the same time, the expectations for learning were high. As a result, she was well-liked and her students performed vastly better to when Professor Dixon was running the class. "Running" the class even seemed like too active of a word for Professor Dixon; he probably hadn't run in about a hundred years.
Professor Evranote had them begin practicing with Metronoming, which was very fun. After a whole term of learning the theory behind Metronoming, Telescoping, and Concurrence, they were finally going to start putting them to practice. Albus felt the massive power of Metronoming on a seventh consecutive Disarming Charm, which nearly dislodged every brick from the wall. He was fastest in the class to be able to control his Metronomed spells, because the feeling was very similar to the extreme magical power he'd exercised while using Swait's knife the previous year.
When they were dismissed, Albus headed off with Lucas to the new fourth floor corridor they had been using to practice. Although Wilcox had assured Albus that the Mirror of Erised was moved to a different location, and that tons of research was being explored on new precautions to try and keep it away from unsuspecting prey, it still felt ominous to be anywhere near that corridor after what had almost happened there. The memory floated back to him, even though he tried to fight it away… the mirror showed him a tantalizing copy of the unknown Pseudocipher letter—
Albus froze.
"Wait," he said, breathing quickly.
"What?" asked Lucas, suddenly alert, assuming something had gone wrong.
"I think I might have left something in the room that the Mirror of Erised was in," said Albus. "Something important—really important. The coded letter."
"The coded letter?" said Lucas, relaxing a bit. "I thought that was stolen."
"I recopied it," said Albus. "From what the mirror showed me. I sort of… forgot about it in all the commotion. But it might still be there. I don't know if whoever stole the list of Devoctrices knew that it was lying on the floor beside the mirror when I popped out."
"Do you want to go look for it?"
"Yeah, come on," said Albus, waving him forward.
"By the way," said Lucas, "I really hate our security code."
"Yeah, I was thinking that too," said Albus. "It's really awkward to say 'Wow' as the first word every single time we run into each other, isn't it?"
It was really hard to come up with discreet codes to use with each other, and even harder to remember what his code was for everyone. With Lucas, they had decided that, any time they weren't in each other's sight, the first word both of them would say to each other in their first sentences was "Wow" in order to clarify that they weren't imposters. He didn't realize how awkward it was until they started doing it. The others were also awkward, but not quite to the same level. Whenever he and Rose ran into each other, their first five combined sentences all had to be questions. He and Exo had to include two different colors in each first sentence, and Albus's little game with James was that the first sentence they said to each other had to start with A, the next with B, the next with C, the next with A again, and so on. In fact, they'd had so much fun with that one that they decided to do it for every sentence they said to each other, and not just the first few.
They approached the hall where he and Lucas had previously practiced; Albus went to unlock the door one more time, but it was already unlocked. They slipped into the hallway. Cautiously, Albus peeked in the room with all the old books, where the Mirror of Erised had been, but it was definitely gone. He walked in, and looked around, lighting up the room with Lumos.
"So, what should our new code be?" asked Albus, looking around.
"How about something more simple and inconspicuous," said Lucas. "Like, tapping our foot every time we use a proper noun, or something."
"That's a fair plan," said Albus. "Let's see if we can come up with anything better than that. We don't want anyone guessing our code."
He searched around the room, looking for a page ripped from a book, but there was nothing else there.
"I don't think it's here," said Albus, his shoulders slumping.
"That's a bummer," said Lucas. "You sure you're done looking?"
"It would have just been lying on the floor. I think someone must have come back and gotten it."
"Whoever moved the mirror might have seen it," said Lucas.
Albus slapped a hand to his face. "Shoot!" he said. "That would be awful. Well—I guess they'd have no way to know who it was from, so they'd have no way to guess the code word… And there are over two hundred billion ways to choose ten random letters, so if they tried going through every possible combination of ten letters, that would take an extremely long time, even with magic."
"Whatever it was," said Lucas, "if it was a Pseudocipher, I'm going to bet it didn't have any absolutely crucial information in it. Those are less well-protected than other forms of coded communication. It was probably just giving you a way to further contact whoever sent the note to you."
"Maybe they'll send another note if I just never answer this one," said Albus. "Maybe they'll think I couldn't decode it."
"If you get another one of those letters," said Lucas, "you'd better keep it close."
They both suddenly whirled around towards the door with their wands out, seeing Rose pop into the room clutching a few newspapers to her chest.
"What are you doing here?" asked Rose and Albus at the same time.
"Are you the one who unlocked the door in front of me?" asked Albus, keeping his wand out and steady in front of him.
"Er—no—it was unlocked—is it usually locked?" asked Rose. "Albus, why are you still wandering into locked corridors after all the things that have happened to you?"
"Why do you have to nag so much?" retorted Albus.
Rose backed up and her eyes filled with tears.
"No—Rose, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that!" cried Albus, running forward and hugging her. "Sorry… I just couldn't think of anything else to say. What are you doing down here, seriously, though?"
"I found the room with all the newspapers when we were looking for you during the mirror incident," said Rose quietly. "I've been down here a few times since… all these articles are really fascinating, and I've been saving anything that might have something to do with the Devs. I heard you guys in here and I decided to wait to come in until I knew it was definitely you. What were you two doing in here?"
"Looking for something I suddenly remembered I dropped in here," said Albus. He told the truth, but he didn't mention the fact that he and Lucas had been about to start Animagus training—that was for absolutely no one to know except when completely necessary, for now. "I recopied the Pseudocipher letter."
Rose bit down on her lower lip. "Oh, shoot," she said. "I saw the James faker picking something up off the ground near you but I didn't ask what it was… I was too concerned with you at the time."
"Again," grumbled Albus, clenching his fists. "One step ahead of me—again."
"It might be time to start actually worrying about this as a serious threat," said Lucas, shivering. "What if our imposter is just getting all the information he can off of you, until he has no need for you anymore?"
"And how long has this been going on?" wondered Rose. "We don't even know if it just started with the letter, or if there's been other infiltrations before that."
"If there are, I haven't seen them on the map," said Albus.
"What map?" asked Lucas.
Albus smiled. "I'll tell you about that in a minute," he said. "First, though, Rose—have you found anything really interesting on the Devs in the newspapers yet?"
It was such a relief to finally be able to actually talk about the Devoctrices out loud. As long as he never hinted at knowing any of the information he'd learned from Professor Desulgon—which now, in fact, paled in comparison to everything else he'd learned on the topic—he could talk about it with friends.
"Just some basic stuff that may or may not be related to the Devs, and may or may not even be true," said Rose, unfolding one of the papers. "Like Werora. Ever heard of Werora?"
"The name rings a bell for some reason," said Albus, scratching his head.
"Self-proclaimed 'Sovereign of the Seas,' who wanted all Muggle sailors off of the water," said Lucas. "She tried to tame the powers of nature to fall under her command, especially the ocean."
"Powers of nature is what caught my attention," said Rose. "This one was just sitting on top. 'Elspeth Pettigrew alleges discovery of ancient sea monster,' from 1803."
"Oh," said Lucas, taking the paper for a moment. "That one was sitting on top because I read it, too. If I had known that it would be important…"
"She gave herself the name 'Werora' and hunted sea monsters," said Rose. "She gathered together a bunch of people from the Trinity Church and they went off to try and find a way to control the ocean. There are stories that surfaced later saying she succeeded for some time before getting herself killed by her own might, but those are the same kinds of stories that pop up everywhere around this kind of stuff. The problem is, some of these stories have been true. Dismiusa. The Deathly Hallows."
"The Hourglass Empire," said Albus.
"The what?"
"I'll tell you later. Anything else about Werora?"
He took the paper from Lucas and scanned it. One thing jumped out at him from the page: the Trinity Church.
"The Darkriver Trinity Church was founded on exterminating Muggles, too," said Albus. "And they tried to do it using a spell of unnatural power that they called the Darkriver Devoctrix, I believe! Are you familiar with the Darkriver Trinities?"
"There was an article on them, too," said Rose, pulling a different newspaper out of her bag. "I have that one here…" She flipped through a few pages. "Here it is! The Darkriver Trinities, searching for a powerful spell, such and such, they're morons who are after the extermination of Muggles… et cetera."
"That'll be an interesting one," said Albus. "We may learn a lot from studying the Darkriver Trinities. We should visit the library and—"
Through the door that Rose had left open, a soft breeze caused a floating piece of paper to flutter in. It wavered through the air, carried on the stiff wind until it plastered itself against Albus's chest.
Albus tentatively reached and peeled the paper off of his chest, and read the large words printed on the front.
Place every newspaper back where you found it. Leave this corridor and you may be allowed to live. Don't meddle any further. And don't press your luck again. Lest you go the same way as your former Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. ~IMW
"Oh shit," breathed Albus.
"What? What is it?" asked Rose. She ran over to Albus's side and began reading the paper, and her eyes bulged with fear. Lucas darted to Albus's other side, and cringed when he read the message.
"We need to return these, now," said Rose, carrying the newspapers to the door.
"Wait!" yelped Lucas. "You don't know if anyone's waiting out there for us!"
"But we do," whispered Albus. He set his bag on the ground; working quickly, he reached in and felt around for the Marauder's Map. He patted around his bag, and he felt his heart beating furiously the more he fruitlessly searched.
"Shit," said Albus. "Shit shit shit shit shit. It's not here."
"Did you leave it in the common room?" asked Rose, tensing.
"No," said Albus. "I always carry it with me now, just in case there's an imposter somewhere. Somebody stole the map."
"I'm returning these," said Rose. "Wands out, everyone."
"Why would we walk right into their trap?" hissed Lucas.
"If someone's trapped us in here, we're going to have to fight them eventually," said Rose breathily. "I don't think they're trying to corner us… if they wanted to corner us, they'd have us cornered already in here. Right now, I think we'd better listen, and hope there's absolutely no confrontation."
"If you say so," said Albus, taking out both of his wands. Lucas walked in front of Rose, both of his wands out as well; Rose stuffed all of the newspapers into her bag and shouldered it, then crossed her wands in a defensive stance. She looked nervously from side to side as they moved from the classroom with the books to the classroom with the newspapers.
Nothing happened while they were in transit. Rose threw all of the newspapers back onto random piles, made sure she had none of them left in her bag, and then nodded to the others; they shuffled out of the room and voyaged back to the end of the hallway. Lucas looked out of the hall, waved them out, and they practically sprinted back up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower.
"Oh, hello, Albus Potter!" said the Fat Lady. "Your sister left a little gift for you just a few seconds ago! It's right under my portrait."
Albus peered cautiously under the Fat Lady; there was a small parcel, very thin and almost square. He looked at Lucas and Rose, who grimaced.
He moved cautiously towards the parcel, waving his hand over it in the way that Professor Moe had taught in his guest lecture on cursed objects. He didn't feel any strange energy coming from the object; in fact, he thought he knew what it was anyway.
He unwrapped the parcel. Inside were the completely intact Marauder's Map and another note.
Good boy. Maybe you'll get that letter back, too, if you continue to behave. ~IMW
"Equus," said Rose to the Fat Lady, eager to get back to safety.
"Not going to tell me what's going on?" said the Fat Lady. "Oh… all right."
The portrait swung open; they all jumped inside and slammed it behind them, to a shout of "Ouch!" from the Fat Lady.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," whispered Albus as softly as he could to the Marauder's Map, just in case someone was listening on. As the map sprung to life, and as Lucas stammered his way through a long period of disbelief in what he was seeing, Albus checked over Gryffindor Tower; he found that no one suspicious was there. Exo was on his bed in the fifth year dormitory.
Albus waved Lucas and Rose into the fifth year boys' dormitory. They walked in to see Exo reading one of the books he'd received for Christmas. He glanced over and raised an eyebrow.
"You're… looking white as a ghost, Albus," said Exo. "A little green around the gills, if I might say… what's eating you?"
"You'd be turning white too, if you saw what Rose and Lucas and I just saw," replied Albus.
Exo furrowed his brow.
'Rose' is a color, mouthed Albus.
Exo shrugged. "All right… what happened, guys?"
Albus thrust both of the notes into Exo's chest; Exo picked them up and read them, and he paled instantly.
"Exactly," said Albus. "The longer one, we found while looking through old newspapers in the room where the mirror used to be. The second one we found in front of Gryffindor Tower after we did what the first note told us to do. Exo, do you have a way of contacting your dad from this room?"
"Yes," said Exo, burying his hand in his bag instantly. "I'll call him. This isn't something we can just ignore."
He pulled out a little toy top, and spun it on the floor. The lights around the top were flashing red.
"It's how I let my dad know that I need him," said Exo. "I haven't used it since I was pretty young, though, so I don't know how often he checks… hey!"
The lights around the top switched from red to flashing yellow.
"That means he's seen my message," said Exo. "It'll turn green when he's on his way."
But the top stayed yellow for quite some time; they sat on Exo's bed watching the flashing top as the other Gryffindor boys of their year streamed in, giving them strange looks. Riley was aiming a kick at the spinning top at one point, and was about to deliver it, but Rose cursed a beaver tail to grow out of his chin which then began slapping him in the face, and he rushed down to the hospital wing. She high-fived the others and went back to watching the top.
"It usually doesn't take him this long to head over," said Exo. "Maybe he figures that since I'm older, I can take care of myself more, and he doesn't have to come right away… but still…"
A few more minutes went by, and then the top began flashing green instead of yellow. Exo sighed with relief and walked back out into the common room; Albus, Rose, and Lucas followed.
Only about thirty seconds passed before the portrait hole opened up and Wilcox climbed in; he had a lot of shortcuts through the castle.
"Sorry it took me so long to get here," said Wilcox, brushing what appeared to be soot off of his robes. "I had to deal with a severe situation—some total idiot set a fire in one of the unused classrooms. Incinerated the school's entire stock of old newspapers. What a waste. What did you need me for?"
He looked with concern at the four Gryffindors, who were all petrified at the news they'd just received.
"Someone burned all the newspapers?" mumbled Rose numbly.
"Professor Plinky noticed a whole bunch of smoke coming out of one of the hallways," said Wilcox.
"Did you save any?" asked Lucas hesitantly.
"We tried," said Wilcox. "It was an enchanted fire; it couldn't be stopped until it finished its job."
"We have a situation of our own," said Exo, handing Wilcox the notes. "Somebody gave these to Albus. We don't know who. Someone's in the castle. You already know about the impersonators, right? We think it's the same people. Someone disguised themselves as Lily to leave the second one."
"Yes," said Wilcox, his face becoming fierce. "Do you have any other information about this person?"
"Afraid not," said Exo.
"We can't have this person in the castle," said Wilcox, his brow lowering. "Destroying school property and threatening the students? We're going to do a full-castle sweep to make sure whoever this was leaves. And we'll enhance security to make sure they don't come back." He looked incredibly angry—far beyond his usually calm demeanor. "Albus, I swear to you, I will find out who's doing this and I will make them regret it for the next hundred years they spend in prison."
"Thank you, Professor," said Albus, feeling a great tension leave his body.
"I mean it," said Wilcox. "You will never be in danger as long as I'm—"
A yowl and a hiss interrupted Wilcox. Gimmick darted out of an armchair and galloped towards the portrait hole. His fur was standing on end, his teeth and claws were bared, and his ears were folded all the way back. He jumped into the air near the portrait hole, and there was some slight movement of a barely visible form.
Wilcox, instincts keen as Gimmick's, fired out a spell that shone brightly throughout the common room, bringing Lily Potter into view in the corner. The Disillusionment Charm had been completely broken, and the light stunned the impostor for a moment, but a moment was long enough for them to see something crucial: Even the Polyjuice disguise was flickering under the light. A male figure was replacing Lily as the image flickered more and more violently. Before the Polyjuice was completely eliminated, the intruder came to his senses and blasted the portrait hole open. He leapt into the hallway with Wilcox following in hot pursuit.
"Isolmswrthtmuptngood!" blurted Albus as he wrenched the Marauder's Map back out of his pocket; it burst to life in a tiny fraction of the time it usually took, sensing the urgency. Caring very little who else was in the common room at the time, he searched frantically for Wilcox, to see who was being chased.
They weren't on the seventh floor; the fugitive must have jumped down the stairwell. He flipped through the floors, and found Wilcox on the fifth, standing still except for an occasional duck and weave: He was dueling. Professor Valon emerged at the top of the stairs behind Wilcox, and ran forward, joining in the duel. But they seemed to be dueling air.
Wilcox and Valon were blasted backwards with such speed that Albus didn't even see their flight path; they were simply plastered against a wall in the time it took Albus to blink. He frantically scanned the Marauder's map, but found no trace of anyone unfamiliar, or even anyone familiar in the vicinity. Professors Desulgon and Plinky were patrolling on the first floor and Auchland on the second, but they all seemed to have heard the noise, and were headed to the stairwell. Meanwhile, the phony Lily was still nowhere to be seen.
"Why won't you show me who it is?!" roared Albus, shaking the map.
Suddenly, the map's ink vanished completely, leaving a blank sheet of parchment. Then, words began forming in place of the map:
Mr. Wormtail is befuddled by this lack of information.
Mr. Prongs cannot believe someone is escaping the eyes of the map.
Mr. Moony isn't sure what's causing the problem…
Mr. Padfoot blames Mr. Wormtail.
Albus ground his teeth together in frustration, but froze as a fifth statement appeared under the others.
Mr. IMW again advises you not to snoop around if you know what's good for you.
Another question for you guys. I've asked this one before, but it's relevant again: Which characters do you want to see more of in this story? I can write more interactions with the popular answers into future chapters if possible. Let me know in your review!