Chapter Eighteen – Montgomery's Office

'H – How?' Was all Albus appeared to be able to say as he looked at the two girls.

'You can thank your brother,' replied Molly, still pointing her wand at the large man. 'James, you can come out now. I reckon it's safe.'

Something in the air shifted at the seemingly empty entrance to the office. James pulled his invisibility cloak off himself. He was holding the large old-looking piece of parchment Riya had seen with him on the train several months prior. She was recently made aware that this piece of parchment was actually an incredibly detailed map of Hogwarts. A map which showed not only the layout of the castle and grounds themselves, but also the exact location of each and every person within. It was an impressive magical artefact which James had surely nicked from either a member of staff or his own father.

'I was looking at the map and saw you two running towards Montgomery's office. I saw that he was there with – er – Gregory Goyle, right?' He turned to the large man.

'You have no idea what you're up against boy!' Yelled the large man.

'Oh, shut up already! Stupefy!' Called Molly.

A jet of red light shot out of the end of her wand and hit Goyle in his chest. He flew backwards and fell hard on the floor unconscious.

'Anyway,' kept James as if Molly had just shushed Goyle after his interruption, 'I ran into Mol and Riya here and I told them what you told me. Figured you were trying to confront him or do something stupid like that so – '

'We wrote to Rasmi, but he didn't write back until now,' replied Albus. 'We didn't realise Montgomery was here, so we thought we'd snoop around. Where did you get that map, James?'

'Never mind that now,' said Molly. 'Why were you going after Montgomery?'

'Hagrid said he knew Montgomery's dad wasn't his real dad. And that he went looking for him in nineteen ninety-seven…'

Riya and Molly exchanged dark looks. This pretty much confirmed their suspicions. Montgomery surely was the Lost Child of Voldemort. It was too perfect. There was no possible way for that to be a coincidence.

'But then if he is the Child,' started Riya, 'who was the man in the hood that night before the holidays? I thought they said the Child wasn't cooperating. Seems like he's cooperating to me…'

'Wait, what?' Called Albus and James in unison.

'I don't know…' said Molly, ignoring the boys. 'Something doesn't add up. You're right…'

'Do you know something about this you're not telling us? Do you know about the Lost Child?' Inquired Albus.

'Yeah, and also why were you sneaking around here when I met you?' Asked James.

'Do you wanna tell them?' Molly turned to Riya.

Riya took a deep breath and began filling the boys in about Tom's weird behaviour, their infamous day in Hogsmeade, Montgomery following them everywhere, her inexplainable nightmares, and McGarth's potion.

'…everything was fine after that. I was taking McGarth's potion, which gave me the best sleep of my bloody life. Then last night during the party, Jacob Nowak cornered me in the common room and asked me if I was having any weird nightmares about snakes and hooded figures – '

'Which – you know – holy balls that's curious!' Interjected Molly.

'He was the one I was patrolling with the night before we all went home for the holidays. The night my nightmares started,' explained Riya. 'I figured – '

'Ahem.'

'We figured that something was up. So we decided I should sleep that night – last night – without taking McGarth's potion and try to remember every little detail.'

'Somebody must've done a poor job of modifying Riya and Jacob's memories.'

'All of it came back and stronger than ever. The nightmares about the hooded figure and the skeletal snakes were more vivid than ever before, and I was certain I was hearing Montgomery's voice shouting "Obliviate", though now I'm not so sure…'

'You also said you heard Montgomery and two other people say the Child wasn't responding to their messages, right?' Added Molly.

'Yes, which confuses me now, cause if Montgomery is the Child, how come I heard him in my dreams?'

'Wait, so you were looking for him? Is that why you were here?' Asked Albus.

'Yes,' answered Molly. 'We looked all around the castle for him today, but we couldn't find him. We were about to look around his office again when James showed up.'

'He was down in the dungeons. We followed him to a dead-end somewhere where he disappeared,' explained Albus.

Molly's eyes lit. She turned to Riya again. 'Ri, do you think that's where he took you? Into some dungeon?'

'It definitely felt like it was underground. But why would he risk being seen carrying us all the way down to the dungeons when we weren't patrolling there? And I'm pretty sure that in my dream he was taking us from somewhere above ground down through a large tunnel or some sort of – '

'Pipe?' Squeaked Scorpius. It was the first time he spoke since they'd entered Montgomery's office. 'Could he have taken you into the Chamber of Secrets?'

'Skeletal snakes!' Exclaimed Molly, smacking her forehead with her hand. 'The Basilisk! Don't you see?' She added when she noticed the dumfounded faces surrounding her. 'I bet they never took its skeleton out of the Chamber. That's where Mr oaf here and his mates have been hiding all along. It's brilliant – I've got to hand it to them – nobody would ever think of looking there!'

'Wait, so where is the entrance exactly?' Queried James.

'Moaning Myrtle's bathroom on the second floor,' replied Albus, who had heard the story about his dad saving his mum in his second year about a thousand times.

'They may have even added some sort of passage through the dungeons too so that it wouldn't be as suspicious for Montgomery to go in and out of there,' thought Riya out loud. 'It is the girl's bathroom after-all. If somebody caught him around there, he would have a lot of explaining to do.'

'Well then what are we waiting for?' James goaded. 'Let's go down there and kick their a – '

'You will do no such thing,' said a voice from behind Riya.

She turned to see a whole parade of important people. The man who spoke was Albus and James' father, Harry Potter, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Alongside him, Riya recognised Hermione Granger, the Minister for Magic, and her husband. Professor Longbottom, Madam Longbottom, Professor McGonagall, and a thin light haired Auror were close behind. At the very end, Riya saw the familiar face of the auburn-haired man Molly and she had encountered in the castle several months ago, Erasmus van Helmont. He had an odd expression on his face, a sort of curious smile mixed with a twinge of guilt.

'Dad? What – ' Blurted James, quickly shoving the map into his robes and out of sight.

'Albus, I'm disappointed in you. Putting yourself and your friends in such a dangerous – '

'But dad we found out – '

'I know what you found out, and trust me I'll be having a serious chat with Mr van Helmont here about involving my children in his schemes,' Mr Potter turned and looked at Erasmus pointedly. 'Get back to your dormitory. Both of you,' he told the boys.

Albus and Scorpius walked reluctantly out of the office with their heads held low. Madam Longbottom patted Albus on the back gently and led the boys away and back to their dormitory.

'James, thank you for keeping an eye on your brother,' added Mr Potter. 'You should have gone straight to Professor Longbottom, but nevertheless, good job. I need you to go back to your common room too now.'

'But – '

'No buts. Go. Now.'

James let out a groan before storming off.

'As for you two,' he finally turned to Riya and Molly. 'I'm going to need you to answer a few questions.'

And Riya, for the second time that hour, found herself reliving the mysterious events that occurred that year. When she was done, Mr Potter remained silent for a while, thinking intensely.

'Alright,' he said finally, 'thanks you two, for saving my son. We need to investigate this matter now, if you could kindly return to your dormitory as well I – '

'We're both of age now!' Blurted Molly. 'You can't just "send us to our dorms", we are perfectly within our rights to stay here and help!'

Riya noticed a quick twitch in Professor McGonagall's mouth. Was she smiling?

'I – Mol – look…'

'I think what Harry wants to say, Molly, is that we really don't want you getting hurt,' clarified the Minister. 'This could be really dangerous. We don't know what we're facing – '

'I know that aunty,' said Molly.

Riya found the Minister of Magic being referred to as "aunty" very weird.

'But we're grown up now. And besides, you've done way more dangerous sh – '

'It seems to me,' interrupted Erasmus as everyone went silent, 'that since both Miss Weasley and Miss Singh here are of age, none of us can make any decisions for them – '

'Yeah – '

'With the exception of the Headmistress. Being Hogwarts students, they are still under the authority of the school's chief administrator. What say you, Minerva?'

'Well,' started Professor McGonagall, Molly and Riya staring at her hopefully. 'I think that since you've displayed a clear capacity of handling defensive magic in combative situations, we can allow you to take a small part in the investigation.'

'Yes!' Called the girls. Professor McGonagall smiled at them fondly.

'I suppose we need someone to stay here and watch Leviticus and Mr Goyle while we're out looking for the other culprits.'

'Wait what – '

'You heard her,' said Mr Potter with a satisfied smirk. 'Now about Montgomery…'

Riya turned to notice – for the first time since they'd entered his office – her Transfiguration teacher lying unconscious at the foot of his desk, his head bleeding slightly. The group paced over to his lifeless body.

'Well, he's still alive,' said Erasmus as he walked over and gently lifted one of Montgomery's eyelids. 'Just knocked out. Blimey, two first-years did that?'

'I can't believe it,' muttered McGonagall looking down at her staff member. 'After all these years of teaching here, being a perfectly capable Transfiguration instructor… I really thought he was one of our rising stars. I even gave him my old office! I guess you never truly know someone…'

'Don't be so harsh on yourself Minerva,' said the Minister. 'Even Dumbledore couldn't – '

'Well considering his current situation, I wouldn't be critical of myself at all,' stated Erasmus.

'What do you mean?' Inquired Mr Potter.

'He is clearly Imperiused.'

'What?'

'Yeah, look at the discolouration towards the back of his eyes. It seems he was resisting it for a while,' Erasmus explained casually while pointing at Montgomery's eyes with his wand – as if it were a routine Defence Against the Dark Arts class. 'And the fact that he's still breathing at a regular pace despite being knocked out cold…'

'So…' said the skinny light-haired Auror. 'You're saying he was being controlled by this guy?' He gestured at the big gorilla armed man named Goyle.

'Possibly. It could've also been one of the other conspirators. But regardless, this has a pretty easy fix. I reckon you should try and take him to St Mungo's. They'll patch him up and get rid of the curse. Then we'll have a cooperative witness on our hands, don't you think, Harry?'

'Yes… I guess so,' responded Mr Potter. 'Teddy,' he turned to the light-haired Auror, 'Get Montgomery to St Mungo's and then call a couple of Auror squads over here. I want a thorough, all-encompassing search of the premises once you get back here. We have to find – '

'You might want to put that on ice, mate…' said Molly's Uncle Ron as he looked out through the window behind Riya.

Riya turned to see what could only be described as the most horrifying sight anybody could ever witness. A shadowy black wave of a thousand grotesque beings was approaching the castle high up over the lake. A horde of darkness.

'Dementors…'


Short one for you this time.
As things get closer to the end of the book I'm changing pov's more rapidly which leads to shorter chapters.
Lots of reveals this time around too, any idea what's going on yet? (clue: you probably won't find out until the next book - f*ck yeah there's another book coming).
Next chapter's gonna be all about big action and final showdowns (Harry's perspective). I'm excited about this one.
Hope you all enjoyed this one!
Paul

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