The Dark Heir
Chapter 14: Rivals
Spring had arrived, and that meant the second Quidditch match was now underway.
Gryffindor would be playing Hufflepuff, meaning Slytherin would be facing Ravenclaw.
Ravenclaw was a tough team and was known for their teamwork. Flint was trying to encourage his chasers to gauge the Ravenclaw chasers' eyes but make it look like they were going for the Quaffle.
Flint was clearly a dirty player who had no talent for Quidditch.
Harry wonders how he was eligible to be Quidditch Captain.
Gryffindor barely won against Hufflepuff.
James Potter failed to catch the Golden Snitch from the Hufflepuff Seeker. Gryffindor had maintained a hundred eighty-point lead over the Badger's, but he couldn't close the game.
Harry puts on his Slytherin quidditch robes ignoring Flint, who talked about how he would throw Roger Davis, the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain, off his broom.
Flint turns to Derrick and Boyle and tells them to hit the Ravenclaw chasers in the head with their beater bats.
Harry ignores Flint. This style of play was beneath Harry as he found no merits within playing so dirty.
Harry mounts his Nimbus 2000 and takes off, and flies around the pitch.
"I want to a nice clean game, from all of you," said Madam Hooch.
Flint said nothing as he looks like he had a lockjaw.
Flint and Davis shook hands, though Flint looks like he was trying to break Roger's fingers.
Madam Hooch kicks open the trunk as the two bludgers were release, followed by the Golden Snitch.
The game was dirty, exactly as Harry feared.
Flint was committing flagrant foul after another.
As such, Slytherin couldn't build any momentum as the Slytherin team kept getting called for fouls every minute.
The score was eventually two hundred twenty to forty in Ravenclaw's favor after thirty minutes of play.
Harry had enough as Flint was getting more frustrated at the fact Slytherin was losing.
Flint grabs the beater bat from Boyle and hits a Ravenclaw chaser in the head, earning another foul.
Frustrated and angry at Flint's tactic and knowing they weren't going to win, Harry leads a bludger, and it hits Flint in the face sending him flying off his broom.
With Flint out of the game, the game began to move more smoothly.
Slytherin scored three more goals as Ravenclaw scored two more.
The game ended as Ravenclaw's seeker caught the Golden Snitch that was lurking near the Ravenclaw Goalposts.
The blowout loss resulted in Slytherin losing their spot in the Interhouse Final.
Flint shoves Harry in the locker, pissed as usual.
"Think you look good, Black!" snarls Flint.
"I trust all is well," said a voice behind Flint.
"Stay out of this," snarls Flint, turning to face the witch standing behind him.
Bellatrix Black stands there.
Flint stood taller than Bellatrix, but he knew of her reputation.
Flint's arrogance disappeared quickly. He actually began sweating and pale upon seeing Bellatrix Black. He looks like he's been forced to swallow a toad.
"I trust you're offering my nephew advice," said Bellatrix.
Her eyes flash dangerously.
Marcus Flint easily towered over Bellatrix, but he still backs off fearfully.
"If you're giving my nephew any trouble, I'll be speaking to you father, Flint," Bellatrix said softly.
Flint visibly began to shake.
Bellatrix said nothing as Flint turns and walks out of the changing room.
"You know I could have taken care of myself," Harry said to his aunt.
"I'm aware. That wouldn't have changed the issue. He didn't respect you because you're a first-year. So I reminded him of my position and power. You would do well to remember, you are young, so people like Marcus Flint will attempt to lord over you while they have the chance," said Bellatrix.
"Is my mother here?" asks Harry.
He had some questions he was hoping his mother could provide.
"She is not. She's currently in a meeting with the Minister of Magic. I suspect they are asking her for a large portion of potions of some kind," said Bellatrix.
Bellatrix looks at her nephew with a raised eyebrow.
"Why?" said Bellatrix.
"I need some information," Harry said softly.
Bellatrix looks at her nephew as she listens to his request.
"Books and information regarding Grindelwald and the Dark Lord," Bellatrix repeats softly.
"I trust this has to do with your dream."
"Partly," said Harry.
Bellatrix wanted to press further for more details but knew this wasn't the time or place as Dumbledore could be lurking nearby. Even eavesdropping in on their conversation.
Harry wanted to know what caused these Dark Lords to fall and why so many opposed them.
"I'll see what I can do," said Bellatrix.
The Slytherin's weren't pleased with the result that had them kicked out of the Interhouse Tournament. Everyone in Slytherin blamed Flint and his antics that cost them a chance to win the Interhouse Cup.
Flint wisely locked himself in his dorm as he couldn't face his peers.
Others in Slytherin were trying to make a push for Harry Black to become the new Quidditch Captain as he showed the most promise within Slytherin to win the Interhouse Cup.
Merula Snyde tried to act like she was the best Slytherin and, therefore, demanded respect from everyone within her peers the same year.
None of the Blacks children listened to Merula.
As they pointed out, the Snyde family wasn't even a prestigious wizarding family. They weren't the Black's, the Malfoy's, the Nott's, or the Greengrass's.
As such, Merula began to become hated within her own house and by most of her peers.
Harry spent most of his time reading Grindelwald, Dark Savior?
Apparently, a former follower of Grindelwald wrote in great detail about Grindelwald. From his dreams and ambitions to his regrets.
The book claim during the height of the muggle's Great War, Grindelwald witnessed firsthand the brutality of the muggles and feared the muggles' weapons of destruction would soon turn on wizardkind and destroy their culture and way of life.
Grindelwald went on many times to say he was no savior or saint. He never pretended to be one. He became the evil to save the wizarding world.
As muggles have suppressed and hunted witches and wizards and all sorts of magical creatures for centuries. Grindelwald feared the wizarding world would soon die out because of muggles and the countless muggles integrating into wizarding society without regard for magical culture or traditions.
Harry paused as he thought about Grindelwald's reasons for waging war.
It was true his actions were heinous, but his ideas were honorable.
Voldemort, on the other hand, was even more mysterious. It was as if no one knew anything about him or where he came from.
Voldemort's goals were also mysterious.
He was known to kill countless wizarding families with no clear directives on his objective.
His downfall was also mysterious in nature.
Neville Longbottom survived with a deep lightning bolt scar upon his forehead.
His grandmother Augusta Longbottom had perished that night.
The question everyone had, was why and how.
Answers the Longbottoms didn't have.
Neville was praised as the Boy-Who-Lived and became an instant celebrity overnight.
As such, Neville began to embrace the Pure Ways of Wizarding World. Believing Purebloods were the correct path to a wizard's path.
Harry pauses as he begins to wonder about his own path.
Harry needed more answers, as he didn't have any at the moment.
Harry closes his book and decides to call it a night.
Thankfully, he was already finished with his homework. Most of his peers were trying to finish it at the very last second.
Professor McGonagall was going to give them a T as a result of their pathetic excuse.
Then again, there was the homework smuggling ring.
Younger students who didn't wish to do the research themselves would buy a copy of the older student's homework.
Delphi and Dora already caught Merula trying to swindle some of the older students over the price of all the homework copies. As a result, they cost nearly ten sickles per assignment.
Merula tried to protest it was robbery, and she was the best witch in the entire school and deserved the homework for free.
The older students weren't buying it, and her little temper tantrum wasn't winning her any favors.
"That little bitch needs to learn her place," said Dora.
Merula was a problem within the House of Slytherin.
Apparently, she locked Granger in a broom closet with a Devil Snare.
Granger nearly was killed if Professor Flitwick hadn't been nearby when he heard her cries.
Even though no one could prove that Merula had planted the Devil Snare and locked Granger in the Broom Closet, Merula could feel some pressure as the threat of expulsion was already lingering in the air.
Merula did walk away, but already she could sense she was in way deeper trouble than she wanted.
"I may have an idea," said Harry.
"What is it?" Delphi asks greedily.
Harry bends into his sister's ear and hisses in parseltongue so no one would understand a word they were saying.
"Hire the Weasley Twins to harass the little hag," hisses Harry.
Delphi grins darkly.
"I hate it when you two do that," said Dora.
"Don't worry, you'll be very important for our plans," said Delphi.
Dora did not look happy at the thought.
Dora knew that her cousins wanted her to use her metamorphmagus abilities to do something.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" said Dora, who appears like a third-year Gryffindor student.
She had her Gryffindor robes, and her hair was long and dark. They've seen this girl before, but they didn't know her name.
Regardless, they knew this would be the best chance they had to approach the Weasley Twins without getting cursed.
"Don't fret. Just remember your part. Pay those Weasley twins to hound Snyde until she's too afraid to even step outside her room," said Delphia.
Dora takes a deep breath and walks towards the Weasley twins, where they were outside, looking over some parchments.
"Think it will work?" said Delphi.
"If it doesn't, we'll never hear the end of this," said Harry.
Harry and Delphi watch with interest while pretending to read their notes.
Lily was going through her notes, feeling slightly disturbed over something that was bothering her.
The door opens as Andromeda walks inside.
"You will never believe whom I saw at Gringotts," said Andromeda.
"Who?" said Lily.
"Patricia Rakepick."
Lily paused as she heard the name. A name she hasn't heard in a long time.
Lily and Andromeda were in the same year, but they never interacted during their time at Hogwarts.
Patricia Rakepick, on the other hand, was a witch four years their senior. She was currently a Curse-Breaker. She's also dangerous.
It was Patricia Rakepick, as the Gryffindor Prefect, who led Lily to the Gryffindor dorms for the first time.
Patricia Rakepick was loved by the factory staff but hated by her peers.
Lily would never forget the first time she met Patricia Rakepick.
Lily's skin literally crawled as she felt something like a snake coil around her body and neck, squeezing the life out of her.
Behind that friendly and charming smile was the heart of a cruel witch.
Patricia also mentored the Marauders. Teaching them new levels of cruelty within their jokes.
Lily hated Patricia and hated the fact that James Potter was embracing her ideas into his jokes.
Lily has never been so fearful of another witch before in her life.
"Tell me she's not coming here," Lily said in a whisper.
"The Wards around this manor are some of the best. She can't get inside," said Andromeda.
"She is a Curse-Breaker," breathed Lily.
Andromeda pauses upon hearing Lily's words.
Curse-Breakers were known for breaking Wards and magical protections.
Patricia Rakepick was one of the best Curse-Breakers in the world.
"I don't think she even knows where we are located," said Andromeda.
"I don't like the idea of her lurking around," said Lily.
"Neither do I," said Andromeda.
Andromeda didn't like Patricia Rakepick any more than Lily.
"I'll see about increasing the Wards defensives around this manor," said Andromeda.
"For what purpose?" asks Bellatrix, who hangs her cloak.
"Patricia Rakepick," said Andromeda.
Bellatrix stops in her tracks and looks somewhat calm.
"What is that hag doing?" hissed Bellatrix.
Bellatrix had been in the same year as Patricia Rakepick and hated her with a passion. It was an understatement to say the two witches were rivals.
"I'll flay that filthy witch," hisses Bellatrix.
"Does she know about this house?" asks Lily.
"She shouldn't," said Bellatrix.
"She wouldn't be here without reason," said Lily.
"The Potter boy," said Andromeda.
"Wouldn't she be interested in Longbottom?" said Bellatrix.
"She did mentor Potter during her time at Hogwarts. She could be after both boys," said Lily.
"She doesn't know about the children, does she?" Andromeda said fearfully.
The three witches were silent and silently afraid that if Patricia Rakepick knew about the children, she would use them for her own means.