AN: Very short, but moves things along.
Oh, and I didn't realize it at the last update, but it was this fic's anniversary on April 25th, so... whooo!
A shadow slunk between the hallways devoid of students. The windows and sconces occasionally illuminated their figure, but outside of that it was as fleeting as a blink.
The figure gripped their prize tightly. The excursion was dangerous, but he couldn't afford to wait any longer. And with the students in class and teachers occupied, he decided it was the best time to do so.
His refuge was close at hand. With one last rush, he ran for his escape-
"You!"
The figure felt invisible ropes freeze him in place, slowly dragging him back.
"No! Nonononono, NO!"
Toby wailed, a bundle of food he discretely took from the Great Hall as his lunch scattering to the floor just in front of the portrait to their quarters. He looked back at the fierce and resolute face of Madame Pomfrey, one of the very people he'd been trying to avoid since yesterday, slowly dragging him back.
"Noooooo!"
Slender sighed as he followed the matron into the Hospital Wing, "I apologize, he's rather... petulant about doctors."
"Oh, it's no bother," Madame Pomfrey smiled serenely. Behind her, Toby was wiggling uselessly in a cocoon of magicked blankets. "He really wasn't the worst patient I've ever had."
Slender's glamour disguised his incredulous glance at his ward, wrapped up like an inmate in a straightjacket, and didn't say anything.
"But I contacted you regarding some eyewitness accounts concerning Mr. Richards," The nurse continued. "He was involved in an altercation with some students and hit with errant spellfire. The rest was... less believable, but still concerning if true. I still figured it would be prudent to examine him for any spell effects."
"I appreciate you contacting me to be present," Slender genuinely appraised. "However, I feel I must... protest this examination. I'm not sure I'm comfortable having my ward-"
"Mr. Lindermann," The medi-witch scolded, leaving Slender taken aback. "I know you may not be the most comfortable with magic, but that is no excuse for neglecting proper medical thoroughness."
The entity neatly composed himself, straightening his tie, "Of course, I didn't mean it in any way like that. I'm just... apprehensive."
"Don't be, it's quick and noninvasive," The nurse replied promptly, turning to Toby and beginning the diagnostic spells like an aurora borealis floating above his bed.
Slenderman frowned behind his glamour, miffed at parental consent being ignored (perhaps it was less of a practice in the Wizarding world), but still kept a measured watch of the witch's reactions to the squiggles and lights rolling off her wand's tip.
After a moment, she stood up and smiled. "Well, I can conclude there is no residual spell effects. He's completely fine."
He sighed, "Thank you, if that's all-"
"No, it's not, I'm afraid."
He turned grim as he saw the woman turn to him with an unreadable expression. "You see, the staff are not as ignorant to the Hogwarts rumor mill as you may think. Students talk, ghosts talk, portraits talk, and prefects talk. And the most recent... and concerning rumor as of late, is that your ward was hit by an errant Finite Incantatem. A spell that negates other spells' effects."
She continued as his glamoured appearance gave nothing away, "By three separate eyewitness accounts, your ward was hit by this spell, causing a large amount of flesh to vanish from his left cheek. The poor boy who cast the spell needed three calming draughts before he was able to tell the whole story.
"Now, normally, the spell would do nothing of the sort. Even botched, the most a spell like that would cause is a rather painful impact. That alone would cause most to come see me, first thing, but evidently your ward... reformed the flesh before their eyes. One boy said, he called it a 'magic trick'."
Slender cast a glamoured glare at his ward, who shrunk into his cocoon.
"That said, I performed one more spell out of concern... or, perhaps, curiosity on my part," Madame Pomfrey concluded. "A spell to detect scars."
The room held its breath.
"And the spell showed scar tissue at varied points along his body, but mainly a large mass... centered on his left cheek." She solemnly challenged, staring him in the eyes as much as a three foot height difference could manage.
"As a medi-witch, I am obligated to voice my concerns of a patient's health and well-being. Be it neglect... or abuse."
...
Slender opened his glamoured mouth to speak-
"It wasn't him!" Toby exclaimed, breaking his mouth free from the cocoon. The witch looked to him, intent, while Slender sighed. "I was in an accident as a kid. A bad car accident, so that's where all the scars came from! And I do yardwork in our hometown, so I've got a lot of scars from the equipment." It was his go-to explanation if his less-visible scars come into light from his 'jobs'.
The medi-witch cast a glare to the entity, before pressing, "Be that as it may, it still does not account for why I detect significant scar damage where I can visibly see none."
...
"Would you accept plastic surgery?" Toby offered weakly
Slender pinched his nose as Madame Pomfrey sighed, "Mr. Richards, I am more aware than most medi-witches of muggle medicine. I have personally performed medical examinations on muggleborn children who were unfortunate enough to require those muggle methods and I can say with certainty that plastic surgery leaves far different scar traces than what I am reading."
"Umm..." He tried.
"Toby," Slender interrupted.
The Proxy looked to him apprehensively, receiving a small nod.
...
He gulped nervously... and let his glamour fade away.
Madame Pomfrey gasped, bustling over to examine his gash. She held out her wand and examined more of the complicated medical diagnostics floating off of the tip.
"Madame Pomfrey? I received your owl regardi- Oh, Merlin!"
The three turned to see a very pale Professor McGonagall clutching her heart and staring at Toby's gash. Out of instinct, he activated his glamour.
The transfiguration professor gaped, before firmly squaring her jaw, "Poppy, I am trusting you will tell me that that was not just my imagination?"
"Yes, Professor," The nurse sighed, sending a reprimanding glare to the teen, who shied away but let the glamour reveal the ghastly sight once more.
"Oh... Merlin... please tell me a student did not do this..." The elderly professor murmured, eyes tracing over the marred flesh and exposed teeth.
"Well... actually it's rather 'yes' and 'no'," Pomfrey explained. "From what I've observed, the scar was always there, but a magical concealment simply gave the illusion of health. A student's accidental finite incantatem dispelled the illusion, revealing his 'true face', as it were."
"Can't you do something for him?" The professor exclaimed.
She shook her head, "This scar tissue is many years old. I'm afraid magic cannot help at this point."
"B-but, he- I mean- the mask, it's just- I-" McGonagall sputtered, staring at the gash.
"If I may continue?" The nurse prompted, silencing her colleague. She sent a stern look at Slender. "Am I right to suspect that Mr. Richards is knowingly utilizing something we call a 'glamour charm' to conceal his injury?"
"... yes." Slender admitted, stone-faced.
"So you've known about this?" Pomfrey pressed further, McGonagall looked bewildered between them.
"Yes."
McGonagall blinked, "What? But how? I mean- he's muggle, isn't he?" The professor stammered, turning to look at the boy who was shuffling back into his cocoon, disquieted by the attention.
"As far as I've ever known, he is," Slender replied truthfully. "Aside from the glamour, he's never demonstrated any level of magical ability to the extent of Harry."
The medi-witch pursed her lips in thought, gazing thoughtfully at the bundle.
"Mr. Richards," She prompted, causing his head to peek out the top of his cocoon. "I'd like to ask you some questions."
He glanced at Slender who gave an imperceptible nod, "S-sure."
"Now then, may I ask who your parents are? Do you have any aunts or uncles? Siblings who may have demonstrated magical ability?" Madame Pomfrey began.
"Uh, n-no. None of them h-had a-anything like that."
"Had?" She asked, eyebrows furrowed.
Toby shifted, his neck cracking loudly, "W-well... it's w-why I'm with M-Mr. Lindermann. My m-m-mom's still a-alive, but sh-she... she d-doesn't want to s-see me a-a-anymore." He paused, emotionally looking away, and also garnering sympathy with the two witches. "My s-s-sister was in c-college when... sh-she d-died in the accident that gave me... th-this." He gestured to his cheek. "She never had any magic. I'm sure of that."
"I see... and your father?" the nurse enquired.
Toby's mouth quirked in an off-kilter smile, "Hehe, h-he's dead too."
The medi-witch turned a concerned glance to Slender who leaned down and lowly explained, "His father was a violent man. Abusive to the whole family. He died rather unpleasantly shortly after his daughter, and Toby feels no lost love to him. Believes his manner of death is rather... karmic punishment."
Technically, he did not lie.
"I see," She murmured, still more than a little concerned, but she turned to the teen resolutely, "Now, I'd like to ask if you could demonstrate your... illusion again for me?"
Toby nodded, his gash vanishing in a flicker. Madame Pomfrey examined it professionally, with Professor McGonagall still staring at the cheek in question.
He turned it on and off, as often as the medi-witch requested. She tried asking him to change the color of the glamour to something else or to another part of the body, but it only seemed to apply to his left-face and only to reconstruct his appearance.
Unlike Jeff's glamour, the Proxy couldn't adjust his entire body's appearance nor adjust his height/age-appearance at will.
Finally, the witch sighed frustratedly, "Well, I ran every scan I could think of and all of them say the same thing. You are not a full Wizard in any respect, but you are still able to somehow generate a NEWT level glamour charm on yourself without any previous instruction."
She deftly waved her wand and the cocoon whipped off of Toby, plopping him on the bed with complete mobility, "Still, 'nothing beats the classics', as they say."
She twirled her wand-
-and held it handle-side out towards Toby.
The Proxy's eyes blew wide as he stared at the handle presented, "I- I can't just, I mean-"
"Mr. Richards, you will take the wand or I will put you back in the cocoon," She presented her ultimatum, still with her arm outstretched. The Transfiguration professor looked like she wanted to say something, but kept herself quiet.
Slender watched a little apprehensively as his ward took the offered magical instrument and stared at it with hands shaking in anticipation or twitchy excitement. Professor McGonagall watched keenly beside him.
'Is it too late to kill either of the two witches?' Slender mentally contemplated, dread and worry constricting in his chest.
"Now, picture the wand tip lit as a lantern, and simply say 'Lumos'," the nurse instructed.
Toby stared at the wand in his hand, a real freaking magic wand.
And he said loudly;
"L-Lumos!"
...
...
Nothing. The wandtip remained dark and decidedly "un-magical". Slender released a mental sigh he didn't know he was holding. The Professors both seemed, likewise, let down but confused, clearly expecting a different reaction.
Toby frowned, "Lumos. L-lumos." He tried waving it around a bit.
"That's enough, dear," Madame Pomfrey sighed. "It's a simple charm meant to turn magic to light. No wand movements or anything. If you had a functioning core, it would immediately pick it up, even for an inexperienced child."
Toby sulked disappointedly and handed back what (to him) may as well have been a fancy twig. The nurse smiled kindly, "Chin up, boy. That glamour of yours is nothing to scoff at."
The boy nodded, reapplying the illusion to his face before getting off the bed and returning to his Guardian's side. Slender 'coughed', "I take it, that will be all?"
"Yes, Mr. Lindermann. That will be all," Pomfrey responded, curiosity eating at her, but technically unable to stop them.
The man and his ward quickly left the Medical Wing with swift strides. As soon as the doors shut behind them, Minerva turned to her, "Poppy, what on Earth-"
"I do not know, Minerva." She replied, thumb and forefinger twiddling with her wand in thought. "This 'family' seems more curious by the day. First with Mr. Lindermann's own apparating abilities, then Mr. Downing's lightning. And now Ms. William's outburst and Mr. Richard's glamour."
"And yet none of them have active cores?" McGonagall cried, incredulously.
"I never said that," The nurse-witch said slowly and cautiously. "All living beings have something like a magical core. The exact science is still being investigated in the Department of Mysteries, but it is known that in muggles, the core is almost nonexistent. In squibs, it's weak or dormant."
"And Lindermann's children?"
Madame Pomfrey sighed, defeatedly, "I do not know for certain. Frankly, this man has more secrets than I'd like, particularly if Dumbledore is insistent they be welcomed on to the school grounds. Among other questions I find myself asking; Why hide it in the school? Why when Potter is finally found does he finalize this? Why are we letting Potter's entire family doddle around the school while all of this is going on?"
The medi-witch looked thoughtfully at her wand, the same wand a boy with no magic couldn't wield, but perform a charm second-nature even she had difficulty with. "Something is winding itself together under our noses, Minerva. And I feel that this is just one more piece to a puzzle I'm not sure I want to see the picture of."
"Are you quite sure?" Dumbledore urged, a calculating gleam in his eye.
"There can be no doubt," McGonagall said, fretfully. "A glamour charm, for Merlin's sake. That kind of spell isn't something any magically-inclined squib could just conjure up on a whim. And yet Poppy insists they have no magical core! It feels like very other day is some new mystery being overturned, then scattering all over like beetles beneath a rock." She paced anxiously in his office.
The headmaster eased back into his chair, a small, triumphant twitch to his lips. More pieces to a puzzle all seemed to fit together. And if he was right, then Mr. Lindermann nor his wards may be quite as mysterious as he they all may seem.
"Excuse me, Minerva," He stood up, "I believe I should floo-call for Severus. This discussion may be of benefit to you both."
Toby sat fidgeting in the living room of the Mansion. Slender sat in his armchair, hand to his 'chin' in thought. The spell that disabled Toby's glamour was worrisome, if the effect was universal, then performed on himself, Jeff, or anyone else with more worrisome changes and he'd doubt they'd get off as easily as with Toby.
However, the incident did spark curiosity. BEN's outburst and Sally's telekinesis were all rather plain and inherent. They were 'ghosts' in a sense. Bizarre powers tied to strong emotions were hardly uncommon. The glamour, however, was meant to be unique to the UnderRealm and its associates. So, how did that student's spell successfully cancel it out?
What was the nature of 'magic'? Was it innate, and was it incorporated into the UnderRealm society in the same sense as this Wizarding society?
This was definitely a question to ask Eyeless Jack, once he got back from his sabbatical-
*SLAM*
The front door flung open and, speak of the devil (he should know), EJ stood in the opening. His face clearly showed exhaustion; an unshaven beard peppering his chin, dark eyebags around his sockets, but the grin he had was clearly excitement.
"Slender!" He shouted, eyesockets gleaming. "Call everyone in, I've got a lot to tell you!"
*grrrrrblblbll*
"... but first, Lunch!" He announced, drowsily stumbling into the kitchen.
Slender shared an eyeless glance with Toby as they heard the excitable, eyeless doctor crashing pots and pans as the familiar smell of cooking kidneys wafted through the house.
AN: Like I said, short but important.
-Crow