Chapter Fourteen: Snakes in the Air and a Blooming Succubus.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material written by J. K. Rowling or her publishing company.
Cedric, Hermione and Hibiscus sat together in the Hogwarts library. At that moment their heads were pushed over a book. Then Hibiscus sat back with a flop and groaned. "I cannot do this anymore."
"If we haven't found it yet we never will…" Cedric agreed, flopping back as well. Hermione stood. "We just need to find a way to sneak into the restricted section you two." They looked at her as though she was bonkers to suggest any of them would ever get in there.
After the board meeting in which Dumbledore had to defend the incidents with Hibiscus, he had apparently told Madame Pince-face to bar them from the restricted section. If Nicholas Flamel was nowhere to be found by now, they would never find him.
"Hermione, I am a bit more concerned about my match with Slytherin." Hibiscus reminded in a quiet voice. "We all know you are going to do brilliantly, so stop working yourself into this tizzy." Hermione said with a cutting tone. "If neither of you are worried about Snape trying to steal something from Dumbledore then I will find out myself."
The two friends watched as the bushy haired witch slammed the book shut and strode away with it. Madame Pince looked at them with a baleful glance and waggling finger gesture. "If anyone is going to beat Lucifer away from that old woman's soul one day, it will be me." Cedric whispered.
Hibiscus was too stressed to laugh and she said her goodbyes before she fled to Quidditch practice, leaving Cedric to his research for charms. Stopping only at the locker room to snatch her broom and put on her robes, Hibiscus arrived just in time. "Today we are going to be honing our skills for the match tomorrow." Wood shouted. Hibiscus smiled, no conditioning. "Then we will do conditioning towards the end of practice." Wood added as an after thought. The entire team groaned.
Then for the rest of practice Hibiscus worked on dives until they had to do conditioning. When it was finally time for dinner she ran in and sat next to Cedric at the Hufflepuff table as usual. Cedric and his friends always put in a lot of funny jokes to the conversations. Then she walked with him until they separated to go to their common rooms. "Good night Hibiscus, off to bed." The Hufflepuff said. She gave him a response of affirmation.
Contrary to what she had told him however, Hibiscus was not going to her common room. Instead she was going to the cellar in the dungeons. When she opened the door she hastily shut and locked it magically using all of the magical enchantments for locks she knew.
A Permanent Light Charm hung on the ceiling. Her Unicorn and Runespoor slithered around her Nundu playfully. Hibiscus had moved them down here as well to avoid the issues with them living up in her old cramped living quarters.
Then she looked at the book shelf she had stolen from another unused room in the dungeons that now held her books on dark magic. Looking to the corner of the room she waved her wand and muttered the counter-charm to her enchantment that concealed her mother's trunk.
Walking over to it she reached in and looked around. Last Monday she had lost her courage to look inside. Since then she had come to terms with what she suspected she was and now needed answers.
There was no dust when she cracked it open or any sort of disorganization when she looked inside. All she could see were books all across the bottom. The only issue was that the titles were not exactly what she was looking for, How Find a Familiar Kitten, or My Herbology Guide. Then Hibiscus smiled, her mother had been clever.
Whipping her wand and then flicking it towards the books, Hibiscus muttered "Finite Incantatum." The titles changed rapidly showing Hibiscus her mother's more…dark reading material. Succubae Magic: Volume One. This book seemed to be part of a series with eight handwritten volumes.
Opening the cover to the table of contents Hibiscus looked at the chapters listed. They were all odd names. Allure, Dread, Focus, etc. The preface was even odder Hibiscus decided as she read it aloud to her Runespoor in snake language.
"Succubae magic is truly an ancient art, almost as ancient as witchcraft and wizardry. After the mother of succubae, Lilith was banished to hell she spread her teachings across the world. Many referred to it as black magic, others called it an art.
When Lilith was shunned by the witches and wizards she formed her own society and her own species. She slept with the devil king Beelzebub, then she birthed her children from him, the other demon queens helped her in her quest to create this new species as well. Men called them diabolic temptresses; women named them man eaters while children called them snake speakers. Unbeknownst to these people the succubae wielded power beyond any other.
When the first great Ministry arose from the ashes of the last wizarding empire of Rome, they extended their control as far as they could until they reached passed the Mediterranean to the territory of the succubae. The muggles of the area were in constant fear of the succubae and the wizards that had previously inhabited the land were long exterminated.
The ministry of Christendom had never faced anything like the succubae. Raw power and dark magic were combined by the creatures to ensure invincibility. The wizards were no match and not a single one returned home. The ministry sent even more wizards over until the succubae were overwhelmed.
When the powerful Merlin came into power he ended the siege by banishing the deity Lilith to another world in a vicious and extraordinary battle. The succubae were weakened, yet the loss of their ruler only encouraged them to reclaim their lands. Through the use of the succubae talent Corruption they corrupted Merlin's greatest pupil Morgana, a famous witch who was captured in a battle and bestowed upon her some of the secrets of their magic.
She raised a mutiny against the ministry, leading to a ferocious battle that lasted until her death in the late tenth century. This caused the threat of the succubae to be forgotten until four centuries later in the early thirteen hundreds. When Emeric the Evil opposed the newly established Ministry of Spain he recruited the succubae to his aid and waged a bloody battle against the weakly established ministry.
The Christendom ministry pushed across the army and launched a fatal blow to the succubae when they destroyed the demon Meridiana who was the leader in the stead of Lilith over the Succubae army at that era. The weakened species went into hiding along with their mates the incubuses and have not been seen by the wizarding world again. However it is greatly speculated that they are still out there due to their being one of many immortal species, simply biding their time to launch an attack on the wizarding world.
Succubae magic is divided into three different powerful classes, much like those of charms, jinxes, curses and hexes used by wizards. They fall under three main categories including mental, physical and spiritual. These represent all of the apparatus in which the succubae can utilize their magic on themselves and others."
The preface then ended and Hibiscus skipped forward to where the book spoke of how the first category that succubae taught themselves fell under self physical magic. This meant that they practiced magic on themselves.
Focus was the first ability recommended and Hibiscus began to try it. Apparently she was supposed to put her attention on one sense and all of the others would fade away until that one sense she focused on was predominant and strengthened.
Regulating her breathing Hibiscus sat cross legged and focused on her hearing. It was working she realized as her other senses went down in quality. Then that one thought ruined it all and the process stopped. Standing up and leaving each of her pets some jerky she locked the door and stomped to her dorm where she stayed the rest of the night.
The air was clear, as Hibiscus breathed deeply on the Quidditch pitch. Wood was shaking hands with Flint, which symbolized the beginning of the match. "One, two, three." Then the whistle blew sharply. Suddenly her broom twitched and the girl looked at it surprised.
When the girl kicked off the ground she noticed her broom wobbling uncharacteristically, almost as if it was a bull and it wanted to throw her off. Then it stopped and the girl flew up in the air until she stopped. Hibiscus stared at the match below her. Then she started listening to Lee Jordan's announcements.
"THE CHASERS GET TEN POINTS FOR GRYFFINDOR! THAT WAS ALL THANKS TO THE VRY FINE AND MAY I SAYATTRACTIVE CHASER ANGELINA J-OUCH!" Professor McGonagall had swatted him across the back of his head.
Hibiscus smirked and continued to look for the snitch when the quaffle flew right into her open arms. Not even hesitating Hibiscus rushed toward the Slytherin goal and scored, going through the post four times in a row before anyone could do anything. "TWENTY POINTS FOR GRYFFINDOR!" Hibiscus grinned then tossed it to Katie Bell.
Hibiscus went back up in the sky and swore she saw the glint of gold above Marcus Flint's head right when her broom began jerking. When she was swung off of it and she barely caught the handle she realized someone was jinxing her broom.
"Bloody 'ell. Her broom's actin' up…" Hagrid said. Hermione was surprised she had even shown up to the game after the spat. But Hibiscus was her best friend and she knew deep down she should support her. Now Hermione sat in the Gryffindor stands with Hagrid as she watched a broom try to kill her friend.
Then Hermione recognized what was happening. Someone was jinxing the broom, but who would do that? It would have to be someone who hated Hibiscus and wanted her gone. When her eyes drifted to Snape muttering and making unblinking eye contact she knew what she had to do.
Running through the stands Hermione made her way to the teachers stand and pulled herself behind the wooden bleachers to where Snape was sitting. Pointing her wand at Snape's cloak, Hermione muttered "Incendio." With a flourish of her wand Hermione caused his robes to jump into a full flame.
When the bushy haired girl made it back she looked at the other stand and saw Quirrell was shouting in fear while Snape was doing a funny dance. Then she noticed Hibiscus was back on her broom.
Hibiscus was amazed when her broom stopped dancing midair. However the girl was not one to stare a gift in the eye so she took it. Heaving herself up onto the broom she caused the crowd to cheer.
The snitch was long gone and the match was almost at time with the Slytherins in the lead. Hibiscus Potter was not going to allow those Slytherins to win. She did not understand how they could cheat, assault her (Draco Malfoy) and jinx an eleven year old girl's broom. Hibiscus did something in that moment that was very unsportsmanlike; she reached out and attempted Focus.
Her eyes narrowed in concentration and she felt her other senses lessen as she focused on increasing the power of her vision. Then finally it worked and she looked around the field. Immediately she spotted the gold snitch high in the air.
Cancelling her Focus Hibiscus pushed her self upwards on her broom like a corkscrew. The other seeker, Higgins, followed hot on her tail. He caught up to her just as she approached the snitch, knocking into her violently he reached for the snitch and caused it to fall in an immediate dive.
Hibiscus pulled herself down after it with Higgins reluctantly following. Then she watched as they grew closer to the ground until he violently pulled back. Smirking so widely it hurt her face Hibiscus resisted the temptation to pull it to her using telekinesis and pulled out of her dive.
She stood on her broom and reached for it until she crashed to the ground. Standing from where she was sprawled she extended her palm out dramatically and revealed the flash of gold. Instantly all four houses stood, the Slytherins hissed in defeat while the others roared in victory. "HIBISCUS POTTER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH!THREE HUNDRED POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR! NOW ANJELINA, WE HAVE A LOT TO DISCUSS, COME HE-OWWW." The professor had swiped the back of his neck rather viciously. "SORRY FOLKS, GRYFFINDOR WINS!"
The match was long over and Hibiscus was with Cedric and Hermione, who had right after the match asked for forgiveness for flipping out on them. The three were walking with Hagrid who was cheering about how well Hibiscus had done. "She would have done great if Snape hadn't jinxed her broom," Cedric muttered darkly. The girls had told him after the match.
"He 'id not!" Hagrid snapped. Then Hibiscus scowled and got angry. "Of course he did Hagrid. He wants me out of the way because I heard him muttering about stealing the sorcerer's stone and how the three headed dog bit him."
Hagrid stopped and said, "Fluffy wouldn 'urt a fly." The three stared at him shocked until Cedric spoke up, "Fluffy? That monster has a name." Hagrid looked down and turned towards his hut muttering that he shouldn't have said that. They chased him to his door until he turned around and growled, "What Fluffy is guardin is none 'o your threes business and only involves Nicholas Flamel an' Dumbledore." Then he slammed the door on them.
"Great," Hibiscus groaned as the trio walked back up the hill, "Now he hates us and we don't have any more clues about what this 'stone' is." Hermione sighed sarcastically, "Maybe if you were willing to break into the restricted section for me…"
"At this point, Hermione, I am willing to do anything to get rid of Snape." Cedric said.
Lord Voldemort stared at the letter in front of him with vehemence. First, he fails to murder that little Potter brat and now this. "Punish yourself," he hissed into the mind of Quirrell. The man screamed as he placed himself under the cruciatus curse once again. "Stop," the Dark Lord whispered, "Read the letter to me once more."
Quirrell stood shakily and recited the letter. "My Dark Lord, I am very displeased to admit that my trek through the Albanian forest as you advised has come to an end. Lily Potter is still alive and proves to be an even bigger problem than ever." The man paused for a shallow, hasty breath. "I should have listened to you more carefully my lord. I will gather more dark creatures and restore the army. Rest assured I have many contacts and can achieve this easily. We will then march through to the Hogwarts and position some of our followers at the Ministry in preparation for your return to power."
The man paused, "Lily Potter will be unable to follow us through populated territory where people will recognize her. The only drawbacks to this are that we draw more attention to ourselves from the ministry and public and we will arrive later than you expected of us, your ever suppliant servant, Lucretia Fleming."
"That foolish woman, the entire plan could fall apart now." The face on Quirrell's head snarled. "Punish yourself again." The night went by with the castle sleeping deeply, no one hearing the silenced screams and moans of Quirrius Quirrell.
Hello, faithful readers. I hope it has not been too long since I last updated. Tom Riddle is going to show up very soon, cross my heart and hope to die. I just don't want to say when because it would spoil the suspense.
Please review and tell me what you think! Or you can just keep reading and putting the story as a favorite and follow it.
Next Chapter: The Most Handsome Men Live in The Restricted Section and The Mirror of Erised.