A/N; It has been exactly two weeks since I last updated this... To be honest, I did not even notice it had been that long or I would have started working on it far earlier on.
Also, I made a Supernatural-HP crossover story. So far, I hate the title, so if anyone would like to suggest a new one, I'm all ears. The only reason I'm mentioning it is because it ties into this story, except it's ten years prior. All my stories connect, actually. I think I'm OCD in that respect. I don't mind a mess, I hate getting organized, but I seem to gave this odd pathological need to connect every single thing together... Weird, huh?
Story shout out!(random, yeah, but whatever). As I am kinda helping Winged Quill with plot details to a story of hers, I thought I might as well mention it. It's called Not the Same, Never Again. It's a HP/MR crossover in which Harry gets kidnapped and turned into one of the Flock before they manage to escape, all during the summer after GoF. Warning; torture.
On with the story.
Chapter 11
The Article
That night, they herded them all into the Great Hall.
"We must search the castle. Mr. Gale, round up the ghosts! Have them search every tiny crevice they can find!" Uncle Neville commanded.
Professor Verus waved his wand around in circles, conjuring several sleeping bags, ranging from burning blue to crimson red.
"Go to sleep!" Albus heard Victoire snap at someone. Sometimes, he personally thought that making her Head Girl was the worst possible thing to do. It multiplied her bossy side tenfold.
Albus' eyes closed, but he couldn't sleep. He seriously doubted anyone else could, after witnessing that. The words kept echoing inside his skull, over and over and over.
Her corpse will mark this place forever... He was scared. Really scared.
Of course, that was nothing compared to Rose. Because, unlike him, she couldn't remember where she was. She couldn't remember what happened, exactly. Worse of all, she couldn't remember that it was she, not the mysterious Bane-impersonating assassin, that had written that cryptic little note...
At this point, Albus began to waver. Somehow, he really was falling asleep. His eyes drooped and nearly shut when he heard a noise. Squinting his eyes, he made out the figure of Professor Hawthorn approaching Uncle Neville. His attention spiked, Albus lay still and listened.
"No sign anywhere in the castle?" Uncle Neville asked.
"No. We've searched everywhere. Its like they simply vanished.." Professor Hawthorn replied.
"They can't have! You can't dissaparate within Hogwarts grounds." Uncle Neville said.
Albus turned my body over ever so slightly, his eyes darting open ever so slightly to get a better view of the two Professors. Uncle Neville had his back to him, but Professor Hawthorn seemed agitated. Standing beside them was a pale looking Victoire.
"Do you think it has anything to do with-?" she began.
"No, Verus was here, at the staff table, eh couldn't have possible been involved." Uncle Neville told her.
Verus? Wait... What? What does Verus have to do with anything?
"I wouldn't be so sure.." Professor Hawthorn said darkly. "After all, the man in a mass murderer. As cunning as they come."
Albus paled. Mass.. Murderer? What the hell? The doors of the hall opened quickly before being shut once more. In came the figure of Uncle Bill, looking disheveled.
"Is he awake?" Uncle Neville asked.
"No.. He's been put under some type of dark curse. I've never seen the kind of it, and I've seen some nasty things down in Egypt with the ancient traps they set there." Uncle Bill said, sounding grave.
In the dim moonlight coming from above, Albus saw Professor Hawthorn pale.
"This is not good.."
Albus felt the savage urge to yell 'what gave you the idea!'
"I told you, I told you something was out there!" James hissed.
"I heard you the first five times, James." Albus snapped, doing his best to get away from the other. He needed time to think, time to get his head in order, to wrap his mind around everything that had just happened.
Minerva McGonagall.
War hero. Champion of Gryfindor. A damn legend. And now, she was gone. Whatever was impersonating Bane took her, and now, she was gone.
"Wait." James pulled on Albus' shoulder.
"Leave me alone!" Albus snarled as he turned to face his brother, glaring.
"Here." James slips a piece of paper from his robs, pressing it into Albus' hands. "A promise is a promise."
Albus stares down at the paper.
After all this time...
And he doesn't really give a damn. He doesn't give a damn, not anymore, but he takes it anyways. Ingrained manners take over, and, without even thinking about it, he mutters a quick thanks.
"Of course. Take care." James says before stalking off in the opposite direction, leaving Albus alone to his own musing.
Curiosity gets the best of him. He flips the folded up paper open, and begins to read. His eyes widen as he continues before, midway, he drops it, mouth hung slack open.
"Aunt Hermione, what have you done?" Albus whispered practically to himself.
This meant war. It undoubtedly meant war. And Aunt Hermione had caused it. She caused it, all of it, and now there would be hell to pay.
"Aunt Hermione, what have you done?" Albus repeated to himself.
Professor Bane did not wake. He did not wake for days. In fact, the man seemed to have fallen into a magically induced coma.
Albus didn't know it, but it was worse than that, much, much worse.
Professor Bane wasn't just unconscious. It was as if someone had taken his life force, and syphoned the majority out. Like someone had fed on him. On his magic, on his energy. Not just on his life force, but his soul as well.
It was still intact, but only just, and, no matter what the Healers tried, the condition only seemed to worsen.
The next day, Uncle Neville gravely took his post as Deputy Headmaster, addressing the school as a whole over the current situation.
"The school will be put under full protection. While we don't believe the kil- Kidnapper is still on grounds, extreme security measures must be taken. I simply ask you all to do your best to stay out of trouble. Any student caught after hours will, to my annoyance, believe me, serve no less than a week's detention-" Uncle Neville began.
He was interrupted with an uproar from the students and had to send several golden sparks into the air to restore order.
"Look, I don't like it anymore than any of you! But this is for your own safety. Please?"
There was general silence before a Slytherin girl who's name I didn't know perked up. "What about Professor Bane? Is he alright?" she asked.
Uncle Neville sighed before continuing on. "Professor Bane has been transferred to St. Mungos." the school gasped. "His condition isn't critical!" Uncle Neville assured, calming people down a bit. "But he seems to be locked in a paralysis. The Healers are doing their best to revive him, but at the current moment, his condition is static."
"What does that mean?" someone called out. Albus turned to look and saw it was Orion, or Theo. At this point, he wasn't sure what to call the other. He looked pale. Not just pale, but worried. Worried and scared.
"He's frozen. Not prettified, just asleep." Uncle Neville told them all, his expression grave and serious.
"Asleep?" someone from Hufflepuff sneered.
"Yes. He seems to be asleep." Uncle Nevile answered, ignoring the tone of the particular student before he went on. "The healers are simply baffled, and they can't break him out of it. On a different but related matter," Uncle Neville put an end to the discussion before more questions could be sent his way. "Half a dozen Aurors will be stationed at Hogwarts at all times. We can't risk something like this happening again. Now, excuse me, I have a meeting with the Minister to discuss some very important international issues..."
And, with that, Uncle Neville walked off the stage, making his path to two Aurors standing guard by the entrance to the Great Hall. He nodded at the pair of them before walking past them.
Albus then turned to Rose.
"There's something I have to tell you."
"What?" she asks.
Suddenly, a fist slams into the table, causing the pair to jump before looking up into the rageful and dangerous eyes of Tabitha Nott.
"This is all your fault, red head." she snarled at Rose.
Rose stared at her incredulously.
"My fault? How is it my fault?" Rose demands.
"Don't play stupid. You know what your mother did!" and, with that, Tabitha slaps Rose clear across the face.
And, instead of the Gryffindors rising in defense of one of their own, they cheer. Well, for the most part, they cheer. Molly over the Hufflepuff table sends a jinx that hits Tabitha square in the chest, causing her to reel backwards as it nearly knocks her off her feet.
Rose doesn't say a word. Instead, she stands up, tears in her eyes, and stomps out of the hall.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ALL OF YOU!" Albus thunders, causing every pair of eye to dart towards him. Great. Now, of all times, the teachers take notice of what's going on.
Stupid adults!
"Come here, young man." Uncle Bill marches towards him, motioning Albus to come with him.
"No!" Albus snarls, before glaring at everyone around him, especially at his own house. They were suppose to stick together, suppose to be united, not this! This was... This was... Damn it, he couldn't think of a word bad enough to describe it, even with the prolific training Uncle George gave him as a child purely to piss mom off.
"Albus-" Uncle Bill begins.
"No! What's wrong with all of you? She's freaking 11! She can't control what her parents do, none of us can! And, on top of that, she doesn't even have any idea what her mother did in the first place! You are all disgusting, annoying little- ugh!" Albus screamed his lungs out, displaying the famous Potter temper.
Most of the younger years cringed, but the older students looked confused. After all, they weren't in on it. They had absolutely no idea wha the hell was going on.
Albus glared at everyone one last time before he stomped after Rose.
He searched and searched, before, finally, he heard it. The distinct sound of someone sobbing. He looked up at the door before him, and internally cringed. The girl's bathroom. But, this was Rose... He had to.
Praying to Merlin no one saw him, Albus slipped inside, shutting the door behind him. Instantly, the sound of Rose crying ceased. Obviously, she didn't want to be heard.
"Rose?" Albus called out.
Instead of Rose, the pale spirit of a girl just a few years older than him shot forward from one of the stalls. She had thick lenses, a skinny and bony body, the dark hair in pigtails as she glared death at Albus, making him back away.
"This is a girl's bathroom! Out! Out! Leave her alone, out!" the ghost snarled at him viciously.
"I just-" Albus began.
"I said-" the ghost continued, before sticking a hand through Albus. He shuddered fiercely as cold swept him, filling him to the brim. "OUT!"
Albus distinctly heard the sound of one of the stalls opening up, then he heard the voice of Rose on the other side. "Myrtle, leave him alone!" she called.
The ghost, who was apparently named Myrtle, turned to look at the other, before nodding. Glaring one last time at Albus, she floated off, disappearing through a wall.
Albus panted slightly, before turning to look at Rose. Tear tracks were embedded like canyons down her cheeks. Her eyes were puffy and red. "Al, please, I just want to be left alone." Rose told him.
"You sure about that?" Albus asked as he pulled the lone piece of parchment from his robe. Her eyes widened.
"Is that... What I think..."
"James gave it to me this morning." Albus confirmed.
Quick as lightning, she was standing before him before snatching the article rather rudely from his grip. But, after waiting so long, she couldn't help it.
"Did you read it?" she demands.
"Just a little." Albus confesses.
Rose nods slowly before she moves towards the wall, sitting down against it, her eyes never leaving the article. She pats the ground next to her and Albus moves to sit before, at last, she begins to read the whole thing out loud.