AN: Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans!
Struggle 01
Daphne collected Tracey after the evening meal and they both followed along behind me as I led the way towards the hidden room I had found earlier. I was mildly surprised that my awareness of the castle hadn't constricted back to the pre-Defense Class levels yet…I grunted, suppressing a sigh. Maybe my hitchhiker was enjoying seeing more of the area through my 'eyes'. And yet, if that was true, why had it only expanded my range when I got upset enough to shut down? Or had it just used that justify expanding and simply gotten distracted and forgot that it normally brought things back to the standard level?
"Taylor, is everything alright?" Daphne asked, her hand finding my arm.
I bit back my first response, then shook my head. "I'm trying not to second guess everything. I have a, let's say, better understanding of my magic. The problem is that it's not perfect and the holes in my knowledge are leading me down rabbit holes that don't have bottoms."
"Well then, the answer to that is simple," Tracey said. "You either send an aguamenti or incendio down the rabbit hole. Drown or smoke the little bastard out until he comes up for air." Daphne and I both stared at her. "Or, you know, you could be boring and just leave it alone. That works too, but it doesn't get you answers."
Daphne let go of my arm and frowned at her friend. "Sometimes I forget why you were placed in Slytherin, then you go and say things like that and suddenly I remember."
"Just because I'm a fun-loving, snarky witch with a cute little arse, it doesn't mean I'm not also a ruthless fun-loving, snarky witch, with a cute little arse!" Tracey's smile was both familiar and infectious. I found myself laughing along with her as we turned the last corner.
"Tracey, if we ever go to my home, remind me to introduce you to my friends. I think that you and Alec would get along very well."
"I'm going to take you up on that. Even his name sounds…foreign…uh, Taylor, why are we going to Myrtle's bathroom?"
"Oh bugger, I thought I had miscounted the floors," Daphne muttered. "I withdraw my consent towards this location. Taylor, we're waiting until Hogsmeade."
The bugs that I was using to scout ahead of us suddenly ran into something along the wall coming to an immediate halt. I pushed them forward again, testing the hidden thing. There was no scent from the invisible object, no heat, nothing I could see or sense at all with any of my questing critters. It wasn't firm or rigid, the obstruction had some clear give when the bugs flew against it. It felt like…cloth maybe? Maybe silk? Hmm…interesting.
"What's so bad about here? And who's Myrtle?" I pushed around the edges of the invisible cloth, testing the outlines. It was, oh, that was person shaped. Two - no three - persons.
One of my bugs flew near the top portion of the cloth. One second it was there, and the next, it was just…gone. I knew it hadn't died, but any awareness I had of it had vanished as if it had never existed.
Curiouser and curiouser…
I sent more flies towards where the last one vanished. They vanished as well. The ones I had resting on the top of the cloth shifted, pulling back closer to the wall. One of my flies came spiraling back out of the nothingness, immediately falling under my control again. I sent several flies up to the top of the fabric. One…two…three…Three bumps; three heads? Three heads.
It was a cloak! An invisibility cloak, and it stopped my control! Oh that was awesome!
A bit of a bother sure, but I needed one of those. If I had one of those…Oh but if my control ended where the cloak's influence started, would I be able to exert myself past its confines? Maybe it was one directional? Hmm, something to experiment with later.
"Myrtle is a ghost. This bathroom is hers. She haunts this bathroom. I should've taken you up here before and I didn't and for that I'm sorry, but we're leaving, Taylor. It's time to go, we'll reconvene later and apologize for wasting the Gryffindors' time."
I just smirked, as my other two flies came tumbling back out of the cloak as well. "You two girls go on ahead. Say hello to Myrtle. I'll be right there."
"Oh man, Daphne, can't you like, dock her pay or something? I really don't want to have to air out my loafers. I like these ones," Tracey grumbled.
"Just go on ahead, I'll be right behind you."
Daphne glared at my back. "This 'secret room' had better be worth it, Taylor."
"You're going to love it. Go! Go!" I shooed them both ahead and the two roommates shuffled through the door just ahead looking for all intents and purposes like they were about to go and fight Lung. Oh well, too bad for them. I'd go and rescue them in a moment. But first…
"Harry? Hermione? Are you guys eavesdropping again?"
The cloak shuddered, my bugs were nearly thrown off as the people under it backed all the way away from me. A few moments later, the hood was thrown back. As it dropped, the final fly that hadn't flown back out yet zapped back into my awareness.
"Bugger. How the bloody hell did you do that?" the redhead asked, his eyes wide as he stared at me. That must be Ron Weasley.
"I told you her senses were amazing. She's as good as Dumbledore. Hi, Taylor," Harry said. He pulled the fabric off the trio, the whole thing shimmering like stars. That was…wow that was pretty. I didn't even like pretty things and that was downright mesmerizing. "We weren't intentionally spying, we just have a track record for…being in places that we shouldn't."
Hermione was glaring at my flies with narrowed eyes as I flew them away from the cloak, then her gaze flitted to the rest of the group that I had just swept away from the folded shimmering piece of fabric, following them as they all moved back to the ceiling. The girl's eyes snapped open as wide as saucers, her mouth gaping. Her eyes locked onto mine and she sucked in a breath, taking a half step back. Darn, another Lisa, I'd need to be more careful with my insects in the future. Well, at least she was going to be an ally, I could deal with her tonight before we split up and figure out just how much she suspected. Sending multiple flies directly into their faces and then immediately asking them to reveal themselves probably hadn't been the most subtle move, so this one really was on me.
"I understand. So how much of what Tracey and Daphne were saying is true? Is Myrtle really that bad?" I held Hermione's gaze, lifting my eyebrows.
"She's a menace," Ron sighed. "Not all the time though. Moaning Myrtle's actually really nice; until you say the wrong thing and set her off. Then she floods the bathroom and it's all just awful. The problem is that almost everything is the wrong thing. Nick only ever cares if you mention how he's nearly headless instead of fully headless; Myrtle gets upset about everything!"
"Don't talk bad about Myrtle," Harry snapped. "She's very nice and she helped me a lot last year. She's just sensitive."
"That's just because she had a crush on you," Ron muttered.
"She did not!"
"'Harry! You can share my toilet!'" Ron mimicked a girl in love a little too well - the falsetto was pretty horrible however.
"…She still helped me alot."
"Alright lover boy, you go ahead and help Daphne and Tracey deal with your dead girlfriend. I'll pull up the rear with Hermione to make sure we're not followed."
Harry groaned. "I hate you. Come on, Ron. And don't upset Myrtle again!"
"That last time wasn't me!"
"You said that she could haunt the lake, Ron! You know she hates the lake. The merfolk pick on her."
The two of them walked a few paces ahead and I stepped next to Hermione, finally breaking our little staring contest as I held out my hand waiting for her to shake it again. Hermione swallowed hard, looking at the extended digits warily.
"Hi, I'm Taylor, promise not to tell anyone about my tricks and I'll explain them a bit better to you later on?" I murmured, soft enough so that the boys couldn't hear as they slipped into the bathroom.
Hermione slowly, carefully, reached out and took my hand. "One question, how many?"
"Let's just say, if you call for me and you're anywhere in the castle, I'll find you in a few minutes."
Her grip tightened around my fingers. "That's…"
"Like you said earlier today, Hermione: I have very good senses."
"Yes," she whispered, "yes, apparently you do. We should get in there before they wonder where we were."
I waved her onward, and she walked past me, her back stiff as a board. Well, that was one issue temporarily solved. Now, to see about this secret room!
I'd need it if I wanted to hide a body…
"I never minded you coming to visit me, Harry. I'm not sure about these other girls though. Why are they going to be here more?"
It took more effort than I would ever admit not to slam my head into the wall as I heard the whines coming from one of the mirrors in front of us. Harry's negotiations with the resident ghost were, apparently, going poorly. Such a fact was totally understandable as the ghost obviously felt like acting like a jealous pre-teen.
God, people were exhausting to deal with. Living, dead, it didn't matter.
"Hey, Myrtle, right?" I said, striding forward. Daphne frantically crossed her arms in an X to the side, just past the view of the mirror. The ghost girl was peering out of it, with just her head poking through the surface. That was a neat trick.
"Yes, and I've heard about you, Hebert. The other ghosts are talking. They say you're creepy." Myrtle twisted to glare at me. The effect was disconcerting since it was just her head that was actually visible.
"Well I certainly don't intentionally try to be creepy. But if you stop making a fuss about us being in your bathroom, I could play it up a little, keep people from wanting to come in here. You like your privacy don't you?"
Daphne jumped in, already seeing the lure. "Yes, a little bit of intimidation goes a long way. She could easily keep people away from this room."
"Or," Tracey commented, dismissively flipping her hand in the air, "convince a few more to use the bathroom instead. Whatever floats your ghostly boat right?"
Myrtle eyed our group, frowning. "Why would you do that?"
"I want to go explore a secret room and I'd rather not get yelled at or have to change my clothes every time I come back," I said shrugging.
"It really would help us out a lot Myrtle," Harry said, flashing her a smile.
"And you'd help with frustrating Umbridge; even if just indirectly," Hermione chimed in.
Myrtle's entire demeanor cracked and she rose out of the mirror snarling, her fists clenched, her hair floating behind her as if it had been splayed out on the ground and forgot she was standing upright. "Umbridge?! That harlot threatened to exorcise me! Exorcise! Oh if I could just! AHH!" She flew past us and into one of the stalls. The door slammed behind her, the toilet burped, and a small fount of water shot up at her passing.
"Well goodbye to you too, Myrtle," Ron grunted. "You'd think we warrant a bit of courtesy by now."
"Leave it be, Ronald," Hermione sighed.
I slapped my hands together and smiled wide. I had left a few doxies in the tunnel under the floor and they were busy exploring. It was huge down there. I couldn't wait to see it myself!
"Okay, now that that's done, secret tunnel time!"
Harry looked at me, his lips quirked into a half frown. "You're really looking forward to this."
"It's a giant secret room in a giant castle built under a bathroom! Fuck yes, I'm looking forward to this. Whoever built this wanted a full-on villain lair and I want to see what goodies they left behind."
"Wait, how do you know it's a villain lair?" Ron asked, his eyes narrowed to slits.
"I'm curious about that as well," Daphne said.
I just laughed. "Guys, come on. You don't build a giant secret room under a bathroom without wanting to keep it hidden. And if you want to keep something hidden like that in a magic castle? Doesn't that just scream 'Evil Overlord's Villain Lair' to you?"
Hermione stared. "We had very different upbringings, you and I."
I chose to ignore her and instead started looking around under the sinks. "So the entrance should be somewhere around here. Everyone start looking for a button or a lever or…wait this is a magic school, the door probably opens through a spell or something…Hmm, that might be a problem."
"Greengrass, your bodyguard is bloody terrifying," Ron murmured.
"I know. It's wonderful isn't it!"
"No, really, she's bloody terrifying. The Chamber of Secrets is under that sink."
For a second I was worried that Daphne and Tracey both broke their necks with how quickly they snapped their heads to the side to focus on Ron, their jaws hanging wide open. For my part, I just groaned and glanced over my shoulder. "Aww, you guys already knew about this place? You could've told me when I suggested it earlier."
"Well, it was a perfect idea for a meeting location," Hermione said, shrugging. "And to be fair, I've never been there. Just these two."
"…What?!" Tracey hissed. "You prats actually found Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets and you didn't tell anyone?! What the bloody fucking hell is wrong with you idiots?!"
"We told, um, Dumbledore," Harry muttered, shuffling his feet. "Looking back, yeah, we probably should've asked someone to go down and explore it a bit more."
"Ya think! Oh my god! The history down there! The spells in his secret library! The treasure!"
"The giant bloody basilisk," Ron said. "Look, we have bad memories of that place; Voldemort kidnapped my sister and tried to kill her down there, okay?! And Harry nearly died. Twice! That's not even counting when Lockhart tried to turn us both into slobbering morons and leave us to die. Lay off."
Daphne swallowed hard, licking her lips. "As the voice of reason. I say we go and explore the Chamber for the moment and discuss foolishness later. Do either of the boys know how to open the door?"
"Parseltongue," Harry sighed. He leaned over the sink above me, nudging me out of the way. As I hurriedly stood, I caught sight of a small carving of a snake on the handle of the faucet. "Hiss." Harry hissed.
The others jumped back as the water fixture started to fold down into the floor, exposing a large hole, easily wide enough for several people to jump down. I was tracking it with my doxies, but I was more focused on Harry at the moment. The way his tongue had moved while uttering that password…I shook myself. Bad, Taylor. Stay focused Taylor, don't let your mind wander.
"We have to jump down? Really?" Hermione grunted. "You would think Slytherin would have built stairs into his hidden retreat."
"You could always ask?" I commented, deliberately looking away from Harry and sidling next to Daphne instead. She stepped between the two of us and leaned over the lip of the hole to peer down, reaching out to grab my hand as she did so. I obliged her and held on tight to make sure she didn't fall.
"I can try. We didn't really experiment the last time. Hiss."
Lo and behold: stairs.
"I don't believe you killed that monster at twelve. That's just not possible." I was really growing to like Tracey. The girl was blunt as all hell and she reminded me of how Emma used to be before high school when things went bad.
It was probably a good thing that Tracey didn't have red hair…
"The snake did pretty much kill me too," Harry said, shrugging.
"I'm sorry, what?" Tracey hissed.
"I got better."
That did not surprise me. It should, it did not. I was going to have to get that story at some point though. "I've seen twelve-year-olds go up against much scarier things," I said, walking away from the giant snake carcass to stare up at the enormous statue along the back wall. Vista had faced off against Bitch's dogs and those were a heck of a lot scarier than just a large snake. The Wards regularly fought the Empire too and so she had to have gone up against monsters like Hookwolf and Kaiser. Hell, the Wards back home were basically just shorter Protectorate members.
"Taylor," Hermione said, slowly and deliberately, "basilisks can kill you if you meet their gaze. They are incredibly fast, and they are only truly vulnerable to the crow of a rooster."
"Oh, so they're really, really easy to kill then. Just grab a chicken and scare the thing when you're a room away so it crows."
All of the others stared at my back like I had grown a third eye. I looked over my shoulder at them, frowning. "What? What did I say? Wasn't that how you killed it, Harry?"
"Um…I stabbed it. With a…sword…of Gryffindor."
"Boys," Hermione groaned.
"I didn't have anything else! Voldemort'd forced Ginny to kill all of the roosters earlier in the year, remember?! And it's not like I can conjure the bloody things."
Hermione turned her glare to Ron. He held his hands up and shook his head. "Don't look at me. I was babysitting Lockhart after the corridor collapsed."
"Okay, enough with the giant, monster snake," Daphne stated. "There's got to be something else useful down here right?"
I pointed to an alcove to the left of the statue. "Few jewelry pieces that way. Small library that way. Don't touch the jewelry with your bare hands - it kills things that touch it. Books were safe though. Also, this path through the mouth has a way out into the forest, but it's covered by a stone slab at the back. Probably another of those magic parsel doors."
Harry nodded. "That would make sense. The basilisk could use it to get out and eat that way."
Tracey had started towards the jewelry, but stopped when I said my doxy had died trying to poke it. She instead came to stand next to me and crossed her arms as she craned her neck to stare up at Salazar Slytherin's face with me. "You know, Taylor, I think I'm starting to get used to how brilliant you are. If Daphne doesn't claim you, I might just jump on that train."
"I'm not that smart, Tracey."
"Huh?" She eyed me, frowning. Oh, she wasn't talking about…man, I needed to find a dictionary with British slang.
A throat cleared behind us and we turned. Hermione nodded once everyone was focused on her. "So, not to cut into the exploration of this fascinating location, but I do believe we had an agenda. Taylor and Harry have rather strong issues with Madam Umbridge. I also have mixed feelings towards her. I would like to take a quick stock of the rest of us."
"Seriously, Hermione?" Ron asked, his eyebrows raised. At her further nod, he just snorted. "Alright fine. I hate the bint. She can go get lost in a Floo for all I care about her."
Harry's slump straightened in an instant, his eyes wide. "Wait, that can happen?"
"Yeah, mate, if you miss the grills and go just spinning off into the flames you're lost forever. Bad way to go; you either die from the spinning or from dehydration. Dad talked to some of the blokes who investigated a malfunctioning grate about a year or two back and the stories he brought home…They can sometimes find the people, but whenever they pull them out, it's way too late."
I joined Harry in paling to a rather extreme shade of white. "Daphne, I vote that your dad Apparates us from now on."
"I think I have to agree," even Daphne looked shocked by that image.
"Moving on!" Hermione shouted. Though even she wasn't entirely unaffected as her skin had lost several shades. "Tracey? Daphne? Where do you stand on our new teacher?"
"The curse'll get her," Tracey shrugged. "Hopefully really, really early. I'd like to pass my O.W.L.s and considering I am one of those half-bloods she despises it's super annoying having to listen to the bint harp on."
Daphne nodded. "While I'm not necessarily an object of her direct ire, I prefer my teachers to be capable and less…directly racist. If she keeps on as she is, she's liable to have an 'accident' before the end of term and no one would shed a tear, not even in my House. On a more personal note, I'd rather not have someone in the school that deliberately tried to ignore the fact that one of our best students was murdered by a madman last year. It's offensive and disgusting, not to mention completely disgraceful."
"Wait, what? This is the first I'm hearing of this," I said.
Daphne grimaced, but it was Harry who responded. He held my gaze, his fists clenched. "At the end of the Triwizard Tournament last year, Cedric and I were both kidnapped by Voldemort and his Death Eaters. It was just supposed to be me, but I was a bloody idiot and I convinced Cedric to try to take the Cup with me. Voldemort had Wormtail kill him. I got his body here, but most of the country thinks I'm a lying shite who probably killed him myself to steal the winnings. The Ministry doesn't want to accept that Voldemort is back, so they made up their own story."
Spin doctors and bad PR. That I understood. Hell, Armsmaster had been convinced I was a villain at first, just because I had an edgy costume. "I get it. I'm sorry that happened to you. I'm going to be honest here though, it sounds like you need a good publicist. You're never going to get the idiots on your side, but you can probably get a good chunk of the masses if you have a publicist who can get the story out the right way. I guarantee you that people will be more likely to believe that a crazy old guy murdered a teenager than a fellow teenager doing it. Even where I come from, that's the default assumption."
"Hmm," Hermione cupped her chin. "Actually, that's not necessarily a bad idea. I'll do a bit of research and see what I can find. It would even help our situation here; If we can weaken the Ministry's support, we can weaken Umbridge's power base."
Harry shuffled from side-to-side, eventually nodding.
"What else are we going to do?" Tracey asked. "Taylor, can you keep messing with her in class? That was wicked today! And she can't even punish you because you aren't technically a student."
I scowled, crossing my arms. "No. I can't go back to her classroom again."
"What? Why? You're the perfect agent!"
"Tracey, drop it," Daphne hissed.
"Umbridge reminds me of someone who hurt me before I came here. She's…" I floundered for the right word. "There was this trio of girls where I'm from. I have no idea why they hated me in particular, but they tried to do everything they could to destroy me for almost two years. And absolutely nothing was ever done about it. They…they…"
Daphne stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me as I trailed off. I didn't push her away, but I did manage to continue talking in a quieter, barely audible voice. "The principal helped them cover everything up and gloated about it to my face. Umbridge is…that principal."
"Blimey," Ron muttered. "I see why you hate her."
"Blackwell let the Trio get away with everything. Even when I brought up evidence she just…" I trailed off, grabbing a hold of the doxies and pulling them back out of the insane circles they had been flying while I was distracted. "Yeah, I can't go back. I'm not putting up with that stuff again and it would be bad for me to be in the same room as her."
"Well, damn," Tracey murmured.
"I can still distract her though and keep her attention away from people - within limits."
"Okay, let's go with that then," Hermione said. "In addition, I think we should try to get a study group or something together. We're obviously not going to learn anything in that class and we do need to pass our exams."
"Really, Hermione? More work?" Ron whined. "Who would even teach it?"
"I was thinking Harry would."
The boy in question backpedaled, holding up his hands to ward his friend off, while the rest of us paused to think it over.
"Oh. Okay, I'd be cool with that. Harry's good at Defense," Ron said.
"Wait! I can't seriously do -"
"Actually, I think you would be a good choice," Daphne commented. "You always get top marks in Defense, even when we have a bad teacher. Your other marks don't stand out, but you are easily top of the year in Defense." Harry stared at her, mouth hanging open. "What? Just because I am in Slytherin I can't pay attention to people's marks?"
"Look at this way, Harry," Tracey said, smirking. "You simply can't be worse at teaching than Umbridge, you also have a great arse." She licked her lips and winked at him. "Mmm, your voice is really deep and sexy, your eyes are deep enough to get lost in, and you're the perfect height to catch a damsel falling from a badly blocked spell…so really, it's all upside to anyone coming to your class!"
"We're going to need to find a new room though," Hermione said, completely ignoring Tracey's comments even while Harry turned beet red next to her. "If we're going to invite others, the Chamber simply isn't convenient. Harry would have to open and close the entrance too often and people don't just disappear into Myrtle's bathroom."
"We could ask the elves, they would likely know a decent room we can use that's out of the way." I was about to ask Daphne if she meant real elves or house elves when my attention was pulled back towards the main castle.
Shifting more bugs towards whoever had just murmured my name, I scowled as I recognized it was Umbridge's classroom.
"…What do you mean there are House Elves at Hogwarts!?"
"Well of course there are. Hogwarts takes in the orphans or the released ones to make sure they have a steady magic source. What are the Headmasters supposed to do? Leave the poor things to die?"
I didn't have enough bugs in that area to get a good picture of what was happening. We were too deep for me to call on a lot of the swarm that I had put in the higher, unused classrooms for safe keeping.
"House Elves aren't like goblins or centaurs. They need magic to live, Hermione. They're symbiotic with their families."
"That's - what?!"
I did however, still have the doxies…Their new nest was close enough. Grabbing a hefty number of the drone population from their nest, I started moving them up through the castle towards the classroom.
"…Hermione, I told you that House Elves need to work!"
"Ron, you never explained that it was because they would literally die without being bound to a family!"
"Well, I mean, I'd heard that, Mum says it's not quite like that; but you're the one who reads all the books, surely you'd found that out on your own…"
Doxies could see in color, even if the range of light I could see through them was strange, and their eyes were close enough to human eyes that I could understand the images. That was nice, a very useful feature. It also made things more complicated. Because as soon as I slipped one doxy into the room, I saw Luna inside, sitting at a desk next to two older redheads. They were clearly twins and looked enough like Ron that they were probably brothers. All three were wincing as they wrote on their parchment, Umbridge just smiling away at the front of the room, her grin wider than anything I had seen before.
"…Well, yes, you can abuse the trust that a House Elf has in you, but nobody does."
"But at least some have to want to be free! Don't they?"
"Hermione, have you ever actually talked to a House Elf?"
I got my doxy close enough to Luna that I could see what she was writing: I must act my age.
As she wrote, the words appeared on the back of her hand for a few moments. And my doxy could smell the fresh blood.
My fingers twitched.
"Taylor? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
I shifted the doxy over to the twins. I must not disrupt class.
Their papers were also covered in blood, though the words were leaving a slightly longer lasting impression on the backs of their hands.
"Taylor, is there something we need to be worried about?"
Luna wrote another line, wincing as she lifted the quill. As soon as she did, she whispered, "Taylor, if you can hear me, this is starting to hurt."
"No," I growled.
I called the rest of the doxies from their nests all around the school.
"Taylor?" Daphne grabbed my hand, squeezing hard enough to make my joints pop. I didn't care.
The doxies surged forward, throwing the door to the classroom open under their weight. Luna and the twins looked up, shouted something and dived to the floor. Umbridge's eyes widened. She tried to run to her inner office before the wave of little biting bodies reached her.
She didn't make it.