Disclaimer: All non-OC characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
Happy 35th Birthday Harry Potter! And Happy Blue Moon, readers, thanks for all the reviews and reads! A special thanks to my friend Hannah and beta Lady Mayflower for being such a huge help with this story!
Update: Edited some minor mistakes. New chapter soon!
Louis Weasley and the Blue Moon
Chapter Ten
Chicken
In a school of magic, where students spent their days learning how to turn dogs into chairs and chairs into mice, it could be hard to impress. However the Room of Requirement managed to do just that. Once a guarded secret, it had been outed in several unauthorized Harry Potter biographies after the Second Wizarding War. Now it was a popular spot for the students to fight over. A room that could change instantly to the user's desire was exceptionally convenient, while its history as a base for rebels during the war made it wildly cool. Today, it was the site of the first meeting for the Pure Blood Circle.
The room now was rows of cushions leading up to a frantic Callie. From Louis's seat in the front row, he watched Callie pull textbook after textbook from her handbag and pile them next to her.
"Louis," Megaera said softly, her head resting on his lap.
"Yeah?" Louis answered. His body was still tingling in all the right places from an hour ago when they had had the room to themselves, dimly lit with nothing more than a mattress and blood-red sheets to decorate it.
"I think that it's time for us to take this to the next level."
"I thought we just did," he replied, smirking. Megaera sat up and he turned his head to grin stupidly at her.
"Not that, you prat!" she said, smacking him on the arm. It wasn't a light slap, but at that moment, any touch from her just tingled in the best way.
"Well then what?"
"Where are your mates?"
"My mates?"
"Yes Louis, your mates. Your friends. Where are they? Do you even have any anymore?"
"Of course I have mates!" I have two. And now I have Slytherins too.
"Well then why haven't I spent time with any? I've certainly integrated you into my group of friends. And Lord knows I've been ogled by every bloody redhead at this school. Your sister in particular spent our entire free period last week glaring at me. But I don't ever see you with your mates anymore. Has something happened?"
Louis wasn't sure how to answer. He still spoke to Lysander and Aleks, after all they were still in most of his classes and in his dormitory. But never about Megaera. And he definitely hadn't told them that he was coming to the Pureblood Circle with her tonight.
"Erm, no. Things are just- weird, I suppose. Neither of them has ever had a girlfriend before you know- at Hogwarts I mean- and I guess- maybe they're just jealous."
"Jealous? Louis, they just don't know me! You should've brought them here!"
"Right- but Lysander's got his gay alliance thing meeting tonight- you know that club with Dumbledore as its mascot- and Aleks- Aleks um-" Aleks is a muggle-born! The tingling was gone now, replaced with a burning.
"Aleks?"
"Aleks- he's- he's not- this isn't really his sort of club, you know-"
"Not his sort of club?"
"Yeah. Right. Just not- he's not really the target audience I guess- I mean he-"
"Louis, what did you say Aleks's last name was?"
"Alright everybody, the first meeting of the Pureblood Circle is beginning!" Callie announced. Louis had never been happier for her big mouth. He quickly turned and stared at Callie with an intensity his professors had never and would never get from him. Megaera reluctantly followed his example, as did the two dozen others behind him.
"First, I would just like to clear the air on a few matters. I know the recent attack at Hogsmeade has rattled many of you but I'd just like to assure you that the Pureblood Circle has absolutely no connection to the Erus Renatus. We don't agree with them or the way they do things. They are a hate group. The Pureblood Circle isn't about pureblood supremacy, we're about pureblood equality.
For our entire lives, good people of pure magical heritage have been looked down upon. The Ministry of Magic is now more concerned with being politically correct than it is of the welfare of the populace that's been loyal to it since the beginning. There are affirmative action quotas for Muggle-borns; meanwhile, purebloods are shunned for their alleged ties to the Second Wizarding War. Our ancestors built Wizarding society and now they are trying to exclude us from it! Our legacies span centuries and our traditions deserve to be respected and preserved!"
Gabe grunted loudly in ascent. Next to him, Megaera began clapping and the rest of the room quickly joined in. Callie grinned.
"I thought for our first meeting we could make family trees. One of the perks of being purebloods after all is knowing where we come from. I checked out some genealogy books from the library," Callie said, motioning at the miniature mountain of textbooks she had assembled next to her. "Try and share notes! I mean for all of us to really get to know each other!"
Louis wasn't completely sure that was necessary. He was pretty sure everyone in the room was Slytherin, save for maybe one or two Ravenclaws, and already knew each other.
"Come on then, let's find out how closely related we are," Megaera said, winking at Louis. Louis groaned but pulled out a textbook.
He flipped through the book to "Weasley" and immediately slammed it shut. Scrawled in big red letters over his family tree were the words "BLOOD TRAITORS".
"Everything alright, Louis?" Roman asked from behind him.
"Yeah, fine, great- it's just that my mum's side of the family, the Delacours- they're from France and I can't find them- in this book I mean-"
"That's because that's a book on British wizarding families," Callie explained. "I brought a few on prominent European houses too," she said. The mountain had been demolished now and only a few blood books remained for Callie to search through. She pulled out a particularly ancient looking one and handed it to him.
"Right, thanks Callie."
The rest of the meeting went well enough. Louis managed to find a book that didn't have any expletives inscribed on his family's page (it took a few tries) and as it turned out, while the Weasleys had been historically hated for being Muggle-lovers, none of Louis's ancestors had actually married one. The Delacours too, save for that one tryst with a Veela, were also clean. Most importantly, Louis had to go back six generations before he found a Carrow.
After the meeting had ended, Louis stood up and turned to follow the rest to the door.
"Hey, let's help Callie tidy up," Megaera said quietly.
"Right, yeah," Louis answered, nodding. He scanned the room, unsure of how exactly he was supposed to tidy up a room that would vanish as soon as they left it. Callie had already packed all the books. He awkwardly began straightening the cushions out.
A few minutes later, there were only a few other Slytherins left in the room chatting with one another in low voices.
"And now for the real first meeting of the Pureblood Circle," Callie announced. Louis swung quickly around to see that Callie had pulled out a small cauldron from her bag. Nobody seemed as surprised as Louis.
Roman jerked his wand and all the cushions Louis had been arranging flew to the corners of the room. Callie strode forward and placed the cauldron in the center of the room. The others followed her, gathering in a circle around the cauldron while Louis remained standing off to the side.
"Incendio," Callie said, pointing her wand at the cauldron. It began glowing red and a cloudy mixture inside immediately started bubbling.
"Louis, come here," Megaera called to him. "I promise I'll explain everything."
Everyone was staring at Louis now but he didn't move. He watched the liquid in the cauldron bubble and remembered the last time he had brewed a potion outside the classroom.
"Oy! We've got curfew in an hour!" Roman grunted. Louis slowly shuffled to the circle, unsure what else he could do. All the while his eyes never left the potion.
"Right well, most of us already know but obviously not all," Callie said, watching Louis watch the cauldron. "This is blood magic. It's an old pureblood tradition. It kind of went out of style a long time ago because of the influx of Muggle-borns. It was actually your Uncle Harry who brought it back, Louis. Indirectly I mean. He used it to defeat- well you know. And we all know how that turned out. And now we're- we- I mean this goes back to what I said before. About bringing back our old practices. This is one of those things that we want to bring back."
"Durmstrang teaches it!" piped in one Slytherin from across the Circle.
"Right, they do. Hogwarts of course would never officially sanction this though. I mean people of impure heritage can't practice blood magic so of course they've banned it because they're so obsessed with being inclusionary or whatever. So you can't mention it, Louis, you really can't."
"Louis?" Megaera said. She reached over and squeezed his hand. Louis broke off his staring contest with the potion and looked at her. He could see the reflection of the potion bubbling in her dark eyes. Around her, he realized all the Slytherins were staring at him, waiting for him to say something.
"Right," he said softly.
"Great! There're lots of advantages to the circle. Blood magic doesn't always require a wand for one. And it'll bond us together- which is especially important because of all the discrimination we're facing nowadays."
"It'll help us explore who we are as Purebloods, Louis," Megaera said.
"Right, yeah- but- bond us together? I don't even know some of- and I'm not a pureblood. I mean, my great-grandmum was a Veela and I- I mean you all saw what happened with Nott."
"Yes Louis, it's pretty hard to miss you swallowing another wizard's finger," Roman said.
"But Veela blood is strong. You're obviously still- whatever even after all these generations. Most importantly, it's strong magical blood and it should only make the Circle even stronger," Callie explained.
"Or so, that's what Megaera says," Roman said.
"Louis, I want you to be a part of this with me. I didn't want to keep something like from you. Please think about this," Megeara said.
"Quickly, think about this quickly," Roman interjected.
"I wanted to tell you before but Roman-"
"-Roman didn't want you panicking in proper Hufflepuff fashion and ruining it for the rest of us," Roman snapped. "At least this way, you see who you're dealing with first," he said, gesturing at the other Slytherins in the circle. Once, Louis had found Slytherins to be menacing. Just recently, he had begun to see them as people- alas, people with very different ideas than he had been raised with but it had been exciting. Now he wasn't sure how he felt.
"And you have all the facts," Callie finished. "Louis, we're not doing something evil here. This is an ancient, beautiful form of witchcraft that's been demonized by the Muggle-obsessed Ministry because they don't understand it. I know this may be hard to-"
"Yes."
"What?"
"Yes, I'll be a Pureblood Cir-or a member of- this, I want to do this," Louis said. He had made the decision a half second before his lips had announced it to the world. He realized that the Circle felt as right to him as Megaera's hand in his own and that was enough for him.
Around him, the mood immediately lightened up. Megaera squeezed his hand again and grinned at him.
"Great!" Callie exclaimed. "Absolutely bloody fantastic! That makes seven of us- the perfect magical number! Right, well let's get on with it then! I've already brewed the potion- obviously- and all that's left now is the actual ritual. First, we need to all add a few drops of our blood into the potion. Then it'll burn gold and we should be able to continue."
Callie pulled out a tiny knife, no longer than a quill, and slashed her arm right below the elbow. She held it above the potion and drops of blood splashed into the cauldron. The potion began swirling more, darkening. She passed the knife along the circle and they all added their blood into the potion.
"Erm- why is it blue?"
"It's sort of yellowish, I suppose."
"I definitely see some golden specks."
"But it's supposed to be gold. Pure gold."
"I- I don't know," Callie admitted, staring aghast at the potion. She dug into her bag once more and began flipping through a tiny golden book. "Maybe I translated the Latin wrong?"
"Someone here's not pure," Roman declared. Gabe grunted and the entire Circle's gaze traveled in unison from the potion to Louis.
"I-I-"
"We've already established that Loui's Veela blood would only help us," Megaera snapped.
"Fine- everyone, pull out your family trees," Roman said. Nobody moved.
"None of us have Muggles in our family," a Slytherin next to him snarled.
"It's fine," Megaera said, taking the book out of Callie's hands. "Really, it's fine. To continue the ritual, the potion needs to be golden. Well, part of it is gold. Continue the ritual, Callie."
"Okay- erm- alright the next part is the sacrifice."
Louis immediately took a step back away from the Circle. Bloody hell! This why they invited me! This is why Megaera-
"Not you, Louis," Megaera said, rolling her eyes. She nodded at Callie and Callie pointed her wand at her bag.
"Wingardium Leviosa."
At first, all Louis could discern from the bright orange blob that came floating out of her bag was the feathers. Then he saw thin golden legs sticking out at the bottom, paralyzed. And a beak, unable to move or scream. And last, he saw the eyes. The chicken's eyes were darting frantically back and forth between members of its killing squad. He had never seen so much emotion in an animal's eyes. So much panic.
"I snatched it from the groundskeeper," Callie explained, as she levitated the chicken above their heads and directly over the potion. Louis step back into the circle.
It was weird to see a chicken flying like that. Or rather, he supposed, it wasn't flying as much as it was being flown. Against its will. To its death.
"C'mon Louis, don't be chicken," Roman said, grinning. It was a comfort to Louis, even in a moment like this that while Roman might have the looks and the muscles and the brains, he had a shit humor.
"Right, so for the next part, we all need to lacerate the chicken at the same time," Callie explained.
"You alright, Louis?" Megaera asked him softly. One of her hands was still with his but the other was aiming her weapon at the chicken.
"Wands up!"
Louis nodded his head silently and pointed his own wand at the chicken. Around him, the rest of the firing squad took position as well.
"3!-"
It's alright, he told himself, you eat chicken every bloody day. Chicken Divan, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Chicken Fricassee, Coq Au Vin.
"-2!-"
Megaera was holding on so tight to him. It was like she was trying to squeeze courage into him.
"-1!-"
Someone had lifted the charm from the chicken and it began clucking. Loudly. Madly. It was trying to move but its feathers just shook uselessly in the air.
"Diffindo!"
Blood and feathers splattered all over Louis.