Let's Do It Right This Time, Chapter 28

Author's Note: I am, in fact, aware that I've left this story for far too long, as I lost both my outline and my enthusiasm. I've been psyching myself up for months to continue, and I've finally recreated my story plans. Merry Christmas and Happy Yule, and I hope you enjoy!

"Lord Gaunt!"

Aurelius wheeled, wand already up to fire and Draco ducking behind him. He didn't know what he'd expected, but the Grey Lady was not it.

"Ah, yes?"

"I must speak with you. In private, if possible," she said softly, mist-grey veil shading over her face as she bowed her head. "As Hogwarts' heir, there are things that you should know."

Aurelius blinked. "All right," he said, still recovering from the fact that the illusive Ravenclaw ghost had actually voluntarily addressed him. If anything, he would have expected the Bloody Baron, but he supposed news had gone around that he was heir of Hogwarts by this time, at least among the ghosts. "Look, uh, Draco, I'll meet you at breakfast, ok?" He didn't leave the other Slytherin any time to respond, already casting a muffliato and withdrawing into the shadows of an empty classroom, closing the door behind him. The Grey Lady slid through it after him.

"So what's going on?"

"You wish to claim your heirship and your power?"

"I thought that was what I was doing?"

"You have taken the first steps," she began, "but you may still step down if you wish. You are very young to take full command, even if Hugh believes you are not quite as young as you seem. Once you accept your place, there will be no going back, and you will be bound to Hogwarts for as long as you live. You can continue as you are, adjusting the wards and keeping an eye on trouble in the castle...or you can become something more."

"And what does that entail?" Aurelius asked.

She turned in a swirl of vapor. "Full command of Hogwarts and her grounds, full power over the castle and its teachers, and the power to override the Headmaster himself, should you wish it. The secrets of Hogwarts will be as an open book to you, and the armors, portraits and ghosts will ultimately be yours to command. Your own power will also be bolstered by that of Hogwarts herself, which will likely make you stronger than any of your peers."

Ok, that was kind of intimidating, but Aurelius didn't hate it. He liked the idea of knowing more about Hogwarts, especially if that meant that he could use her secret passages to get around more quickly or escape detection, and there had to be more places like the Chamber of Secrets just waiting to be discovered. The idea of being able to override Dumbledore was practically like catnip to him, too. It honestly sounded too good to be true.

"And the catch?"

"The catch?" she asked, fathomless eyes shimmering with confusion, and he realized she'd probably never heard that expression before. "What do you mean?"

"What are my responsibilities?"

"Being Guardian of Hogwarts means more than casting the occasional parselward. You will be bound to Hogwarts in the deepest, most visceral way, down to your very soul. You will be able to feel her, and great damage will be like a dagger to you. It would be your ultimate responsibility to keep her safe and punish any breaking of her rules. Any death and dark magic perpetrated by her students, for as long as they are living in Hogwarts, will be on your head. You will be Hogwarts' ultimate guardian, which means that, in the end, it will be your responsibility to protect her more than any other. It will also be difficult for you to leave the country, with her magic heavy upon you, and should the bond ever be forcibly severed, it would rip your core and possibly your mind in two."

Ouch, ok, he could see why the Grey Lady had just offered him an out. "Can I think about it?"

"Of course, we would not suggest that you make an impulsive decision of this magnitude. But keep in mind that the war is creeping up on you. It would be best to make your decision sooner rather than later."

"I think I'll be ready to make my decision by tonight. Can- would it be ok to meet in the same place?"

"Of course, Lord Gaunt."

Aurelius passed through the rest of the day in a daze. He went down to breakfast, where he sat with Draco and Greengrass and watched the mail come in, accepting Murdock's letter by way of Majestic, but he only tucked it away for later, too distracted to read it, and went back to nibbling on a piece of toast. Majestic had to nip him twice before he remembered to give her her usual peeled grapes, and Greengrass stopped talking to him after the third time that he spaced out in the middle of her conversation.

Charms, the first class he had after that, was also a disaster, since Aurelius wasn't paying much attention at all to poor Flitwick. Not that he couldn't have done the spell, given a refresher, but he hadn't had to use a color-changing charm in over twenty years, from his perspective, and he ended up changing the candle he was supposed to turn purple a smoky grey, like the Grey Lady's veil, in his inattentiveness. It took him at least ten tries to get the proper shade of purple after that, but luckily, since he was ordinarily a good student, Flitwick seemed to cut him a little bit of slack.

Lunch was, for once, relatively uneventful (beyond Nott's sneering in the background and Dumbledore's constant watching) and Aurelius couldn't help feeling like something was about to go terribly wrong. After lunch was DADA, which was awful as always (how on earth had the Board of Directors allowed Quirrell to teach, with his incompetence?! He was worse than Lockhart!) and then a free period, which Aurelius spent in the owlry avoiding Nott's goons, thinking about the Grey Lady's words.

In the evening, after History of Magic, where Binns spent the entire time droning about Queen Irene (the story was actually quite fascinating, but Binns could dumb everything down; really, that was another reason why they needed a history club at Hogwarts) Harry turned to head down and meet with the Grey Lady.

And then, when Aurelius was almost to the meeting place, he heard the shuffling of footsteps and wizarding robes in the corridor behind him, and turned to see Dumbledore waiting for him. Nearby, the portrait of Ethelred the Unready set in the wall opposite shot him an apologetic glance, and mouthed something that looked almost like 'gis'.

"My boy, I'm afraid that I must have a talk with you."

Seriously? What was it this time? Why the hell had Dumbledore waited until literally two seconds before his meeting to accost him; had he somehow figured out what was going on?

"Excuse me, Headmaster?" he said, hoping that he sounded rather more polite that he felt. It wouldn't do to make Dumbledore angry, even if he wanted to.

"It is against Hogwarts rules to be out of bed after curfew, especially since you were out of range of the protective warding, and it was not appropriate to convince other students to break the rules as well."

Aurelius stiffened. Ok, first of all, since when had Dumbledore been so very stringent about rules, especially the ones regarding curfew? Aurelius knew for a fact that he'd let James, Remus, Sirius and Pettigrew wander all over the damn place after hours, and Aurelius himself, when he'd been Harry, hadn't been reprimanded for that either, unless Snape or Filch caught him. Second of all, how had Dumbledore known? Aurelius knew for a fact that there were no special curfew wards extant; Ravenclaw's warding had been taken down several years back, probably by Dumbledore himself. Did the old man have spies in the student body? Were the ghosts working for him? Had the portraits been reporting to him this entire damn time?

If so, how much did he know? Oh dear Merlin…

"Malfoy gave me reason to suspect that I would not be safe in my dorm had I stayed," Aurelius said carefully, knowing that explanations would do no good but that he would be required (and expected) to give them. "He also mentioned that he'd probably get caught up in the infighting too, for warning me, so we found an abandoned classroom to sleep in and I warded it a bit. I'm sorry for causing you trouble, Headmaster."

Dumbledore's lips pursed up. "Twenty points from Slytherin, Mr. Gaunt," he said, and Aurelius carefully swallowed the choice comment he would have liked to make to that. "I understand that Slytherins may often be paranoid, but you mustn't break the rules simply because you are worried about nonexistent infighting. Remember that your house is your family, here at Hogwarts; you needn't worry about backstabbing."

Aurelius was suddenly seized by a coughing fit, through which could be heard occasional words: "Riddle…Snape…death munchers in training…" before he managed to control himself. "Yes Headmaster, I apologize; it will not happen again." Probably. Unless he had to go corral a troll. Or assist with a dragon-napping. Or fight Death Munchers. Or go talk down a basilisk in the pipes. Or…you know what, Aurelius wasn't going to be making any promises, though Dumbledore didn't need to know that.

"See that it doesn't," Dumbledore returned, sweeping away. Aurelius reminded himself that it would be petty for an heir of multiple Ancient and Noble houses to flip off the headmaster behind his back.

After Dumbledore had disappeared down the hallway, Aurelius once again entered the old abandoned classroom in which he had first met with the Grey Lady, and sat down to wait.

This time, many more Hogwarts ghosts drifted into the room. First was, of course, the Grey Lady, but she was followed by the Fat Friar, and the Bloody Baron, and Nearly-Headless Nick, along with Moaning Myrtle and Binns and several more ghosts that Aurelius didn't recognize at all, and even Peeves, who surprisingly did not seem like he was up to no good, although Aurelius never could tell with him.

And the Grey Lady drifted towards him. "Well, Lord Gaunt? The time has come to make a decision," she murmured. Nearby, the Fat Friar said something about "Give the kid a minute to think," and Nick idly popped his head on and off again in the background, like someone else might pick at his fingernails. Aurelius hurriedly looked away from the Gryffindor ghost, glancing back at the Grey Lady.

"I…I'll do it. What do I have to do?"

The ghosts of Hogwarts smiled.

"Well, to start with, the ritual may be done almost anywhere if there is an emergency, but the ideal place is the Heart of Hogwarts."

"The Heart of Hogwarts?"

The Grey Lady smiled at him, but it was the Fat Friar who ended up answering his question.

"The Founders built Hogwarts on top of a vast cavern, which for many years before that had been used by magic users to escape persecutions from the illiterate villagers who wished to execute them for witchcraft. They were essentially catacombs, and their ambient magic and history was such that the Founders, after consulting with some of the ghosts which inhabited them, decided to build Hogwarts on top of them, and provide a true haven for magic users everywhere. The catacombs included one room which was Hogwarts' first wardroom, a place aptly called "The Heart of Hogwarts", for it was the nexus of all the magic that is and is in Hogwarts proper. It was Hufflepuff's heir, however, one Lady Matilda Hufflepuff, who argued that the catacombs were not safe, as they were falling down in places and inhabited by ghouls and hostile poltergeists, as well as being the site for several unsavory rituals in their time, and so the wards which were originally set on the wardstone in the Heart of Hogwarts were transferred to a wardroom above ground, and the catacombs and the Heart were boarded up. Occasionally an Heir would be led down there to be initiated, but as writings and rumors about it began to dwindle, many didn't realize that that was the place to go. Often an Heir would be called to be initiated by his or her own family, and so there would be no need for us to interfere, and so we would not have the chance to tell the heir apparent to seek the Heart."

"There has not been an heir in almost a thousand years," the Grey Lady broke in. "It is high time that we have one now."

"So you can take me to the entrance?"

"Indeed," Nearly-Headless Nick told Aurelius, thankfully with his head on straight this time. "Follow us, and take care to avoid the portraits."

"Avoid the portraits? So they are spying for Dumbledore?"

"Unfortunately. I fear not all of them are willing, but I cannot say as ghosts no longer feel magic," the Bloody Baron told him. "In any case it would be best to steer clear. That is why it is a good thing that you chose the old wandmaking classroom to meet in, as the last professor was far too paranoid to allow portraits."

"Hogwarts used to have wandmaking?" Aurelius asked in surprise.

"Indeed." Aurelius was still more surprised when Professor Binns himself joined the conversation, ghostly eyes more alert than any of the times that Aurelius had seen him in class. "There were a number of classes at Hogwarts which were removed over the years, and unfortunately very few were replaced with anything. Latin was once a core class, as a matter of fact, but it was removed due to young Ravenclaws trying to make new spells and harming themselves and the castle. Hogwarts also used to have Wizarding Customs, Arcane Studies, Alchemy, Magi-anthropology, or study of sentient races, Dark Arts, and Eastern Magics. And now wizards wonder why Hogwarts graduates are so pitiful at Old Magics! Even Durmstrang still teaches Alchemy and Dark Arts, and that school is too unsavory and poor quality for any half-way decent young wizard to go to!"

So that was another thing that Aurelius should think about changing, the young wizard thought, carefully putting that idea aside for future consideration. "So…how is this ritual going to work?"

"You will need a special potion, but there should still be some in the catacombs, and its ambient magic is such that it will never spoil, so it is doubtful that you will need to brew your own. You will also need black, white, and golden candles, and there are a few instruments that will be needed, but they, too, should be in the Heart."

"And you must be resolved," the Fat Friar told Aurelius, his face serious for the first time in both living and dead memory. "There is no going back from this, and no stopping halfway through the ritual, at least unless you are trying to suffer interdimensional consequences."

And so it was that Lord Aurelius Gaunt, first Heir of Hogwarts in almost a thousand years, followed the ghosts of Hogwarts down to the boarded-up (and heavily warded) entrance to the Hogwarts Catacombs.