Bloody Baron
Claudia was dragging herself up the stairs to the fourth floor. It had been nearly a week since the trip to Hogsmeade and she was still in a sour mood. Two hours of listening to Slughorn about the properties of the Beautification Potion did nothing to improve it.
"Well done on getting the potions curriculum switched up." She said to Sirius when she saw him, waiting in the corridor. There was definitely more than just a hint of sarcasm in her voice. She now wished there was another way of getting the Boomslang skin. Sirius smirked.
"It really wasn't that hard… And neither was taking this from under Slughorn's nose." He said, reaching to his bag and taking out a jar with a small piece of green snakeskin. "Got the leeches and knotgrass too…" He added and handed everything over to Claudia.
"Great… Just the fluxweed to go then." She replied.
"Are you going to be ok?" Sirius asked. If she didn't know better, she would have thought he was worried. Claudia nodded.
"Yeah. I've got a plan." She replied.
"Are you sure? I could ask James to go with you." He said. Claudia could feel her temper rising.
"I'm going to be ok… I can do things by myself too, you know." Claudia said, definitely more sharply than she was intending to. She continued. "Anyway, I found somewhere to brew it. There is an old storage cupboard in the dungeons. By the painting of Dracula's castle. No one ever goes there. Meet me there on Sunday morning?" She did not give Sirius a chance to respond, before she began to walk off.
"And bring the hair, or whatever body part you are planning to use…" She added over her shoulder.
The following day, Claudia left her last lesson full of nerves. It was finally full moon and with it, the time to sneak into the greenhouse to pick the fluxweed. Her plan was solid, fail-proof even. She was going to hide near the greenhouse before the doors to the castle were locked and then wait for the moon to come out. She had a good look around the greenhouse during her Herbology lessons and knew where to go. Then, there would be about an hour to wait before the gamekeeper went back to his hut after dinner. She was going to slip back to the castle when he opened the door. She watched him for a week and every day – without fail – he left the castle by eight o'clock.
It was time to put the plan into action. She waited for the full moon to rise and picked the fluxweed without any issues.
Claudia made her way back towards the castle door, hid behind a bush and waited. The brick that she left by the door was still there. Claudia planned to move the brick and jam the door after the gamekeeper opened it.
It was eight o'clock. The dinner would have finished by now, but the gamekeeper was nowhere to be seen.
Then it was nine. Still nothing. Claudia's was getting really cold. Her fingers, wrapped around her wand, were nearly frozen. She was also getting angrier and angrier. Why could not she let James do this? He had the cloak and clearly a lot of practice using it. What was she trying to prove?
Then, the clock struck ten. The lights in the windows of the castle were disappearing one by one.
Claudia was on a verge of tears and seriously thinking about giving up. She was going to knock on the door and make some excuse. Say that she was doing some extra Quidditch practice and fell asleep in the changing rooms. It was stupid excuse, but no one would suspect what she was really up to. How could they? She run through her story about dozen times, summoning the courage to go and bang on the castle door.
But before she stood up, the door finally creaked open. It was the gamekeeper. He was whistling to himself and looked very unsteady on his feet.
"Wingardium Leviosa". Whispered Claudia, pointing her wand at the brick and moving it slightly to keep the door open. "Unreliable idiot." She muttered to herself as she waited for the gamekeeper to disappear from view so that she can slip back to the castle.
It was nearly midnight when she finally made it to bed. She had never been this cold before in her life.
On Saturday morning, she made her way to the abandoned storage cupboard. Her little adventure did absolutely nothing to improve her mood. She threw the fluxweed and knotgrass into the cauldron, stirred it according to instructions and waited.
Then came the leeches and stewed lacewing flies.
Lastly, she added the Boomslang skin and the Bicorn horn. Now, she could do nothing else but wait. The potion needed to brew for twenty-four hours. Claudia spent the rest of the day in the cupboard doing her homework. She did not mind. She was in no mood to see people anyway. Not even the promise of lunch pried her away. When it was time for dinner, Claudia moved the cauldron to the corner of the cupboard and hid it behind some old boxes. She then packed up the rest of the ingredients, climbed on a chair and hid them on the top of the closet.
The next morning, Claudia grabbed some toast from the Great Hall and went back to the cupboard. Sirius was already there. He was sitting on the floor, scribbling something on a piece of parchment, which he promptly hid when Claudia came through the door.
"Hi." She said mindlessly, pulled up a chair, and tried to reach for the ingredients on the top of the closet. It was certainly easier to get them up there than back down.
"Do you want some help?" Asked Sirius, almost sounding amused.
"I'm fine." Claudia replied, stubbornly. At that exact moment though, she lost her footing and slipped. She managed to grab hold of the top of the closet and keep herself from falling from the chair. But only just. Sirius jumped up on his feet.
"Will you let me help?" He said, sounding somewhat annoyed.
"I said I was fine." Replied Claudia, more determined than ever, and stretched herself some more. Finally, her fingers closed around the bag with the ingredients. She climbed down from the chair. Sirius was shaking his head.
"What now?" He asked.
"I think I just need to add some more lacewing flies. In about half an hour." Claudia replied, moving the cauldron back to the centre of the room. "Get the precise instructions from my bag." She added. Sirius looked for a moment like he was going to object to being bossed around like this, but clearly thought better of it. He took out the copy of the Moste Potente Potions and began flicking through it.
"Have you brewed anything else from this? It's all useful, but bloody complicated." He asked. Claudia shook her head.
"I thought about brewing Felix Felicis to help us find the artefact. I even bought most of the stuff. But couple of the ingredients are too expensive. And it takes way too long." She replied.
Sirius looked through the book until he found the instruction for Felix Felicis.
"What are you missing?" He asked, his eyes running across the page.
"Occamy eggshell and Ashwinder eggs." Claudia replied, before adding. "We can't pinch these from Slughorn… I don't even know of a potion that uses Occamy eggshell."
Sirius smirked. "And as far as Ashwinder eggs are concerned, I don't think Slughorn will be teaching us love potions any time soon." He replied. Claudia was impressed.
"How do you even know that's what they are used for?" She asked. Sirius laughed.
"Surprised? Need to know the enemy. Do you have any idea how many of these I have to dodge?!" He said.
"Of course." Claudia mumbled, rolling her eyes.
"You're literally the only girl in this whole bloody school that I would trust around an Ashwinder egg." Sirius added. He tried very hard to look upset, but Claudia could tell he was fairly pleased with himself.
She frowned. Only girl he would trust around an Ashwinder egg… What on earth did he mean by that?! She thought to herself, but did not say anything. Instead, she looked at her watch to see how much time was left before she had to add the lacewing flies. From the corner of her eye, she saw Sirius looking at her as if he was expecting a witty comeback. He looked fairly disappointed when none came.
She looked at her watch again. It was now time to add the lacewing flies. Claudia then waved her wand and the potion was done. She split it into four phials.
"Now just add something from the person you want to transform into." She said. Sirius reached into his bag, took out some hair wrapped in individual pieces of paper, and did just that. The four phials lit up in different colours: rich purple, indescribable mixture of grey and beige, emerald and black.
"Wow. Didn't know it did that." Whispered Claudia, genuinely amazed. Sirius labelled the different coloured phials with an R, a P, a J and an S, before turning to Claudia again.
"How long is it going to last? The book is not very specific…" He asked.
"Depends on how well it's been brewed and how much you drink. These phials should last you few of hours, I think." Replied Claudia, before adding. "If you get caught. You didn't get this from me."
Sirius winked. "No one would believe that anyway…" He replied, laughing. "Anything else I should know?" He asked, fully focused again. Claudia through for a moment.
"It's only designed for human transformation. So, no animals, no vampires, giants or werewolves…" Claudia said. Sirius' eyes narrowed. He began to wrap up the jars in pieces of parchment and placing them carefully in his bag. He looked like he was deep in thought.
"Thanks for this." He mumbled. Something was clearly bothering him. He stood up and reached for the door.
"Are you coming too?" He asked. Claudia shook her head. She had grown to like the solitude of the cupboard.
"See you around." She said to Sirius, leaned against the wall and opened up her Transfiguration textbook.
Claudia continued to be in a foul mood for the next two weeks. She went from wanting to avoid Anthony at all cost to dying to spend time with him, just at the precise moment he had disappeared from her life. The Quidditch practices were rare and they kept missing each other in the common room.
She made no progress on the artefact. She has now read all the books on the history of Hogwarts, some of them twice. She searched the whole dungeon from top to bottom several times. Yet, she found absolutely nothing. She had no appetite and could barely sleep. People were beginning to notice that something was not quite right.
"What's up with you?" Asked Alice at breakfast one day, when Claudia kept stirring her porridge with a spoon until it got cold. She was looking in Marcus' direction, wondering when he might figure that the artefact was not hidden in the Astronomy Tower.
"Nothing. I'm fine." She whispered back at Alice, annoyed that her train of thought had been interrupted.
"Come off it." Said Alice, annoyed. "You barely speak. You barely eat. You look like you haven't slept in days..." She added.
"Stop mothering me." Claudia mumbled. Alice looked hurt for a fraction of a second, but soon became her usual determined self.
"I'm just worried about you. You look like a ghost..." She said, but Claudia interrupted her. She was quite angry now.
"I said stop mother..." She began to say but stopped suddenly.
"Ghosts!" She whispered and jumped up from her chair and began making her way out of the Great Hall.
"Come back! You can't just leave like that." Claudia could hear Alice shouting after her. She did not turn back and run straight to the dungeons.
Why did she not think of this before? The Bloody Baron - ghost of the Slytherin House - was the founders' contemporary. He must know where the apartments were.
The closer she got to the corridor where the Bloody Baron usually resided, the more doubts she had about her plan. It was risky. What if he was to tell someone? All the work they did to put Marcus off the scent would have been wasted. Filch might connect her to the collapse in the dungeons.
But she had no choice. Marcus was not going to spend the rest of his life searching the Astronomy Tower. This was her only chance to make progress.
Claudia skidded to a halt when she saw the Bloody Baron floating in the middle of the corridor.
"Good afternoon, Your Lordship." She said and gave a small curtsy. She did not know much about the Bloody Baron, but she knew he liked good manners. He measured her carefully.
"Good afternoon… Avery, is that correct?" He asked. Claudia nodded. When she did not move, the Bloody Baron frowned.
"What do you want?" He asked. Claudia did not have much time to come up with a plan, so she had to improvise.
"I'm doing an essay on Salazar Slytherin for the History of Magic. And I was wondering if you would be kind enough to answer couple of questions about him." The Bloody Baron did not look convinced, so Claudia added quickly. "There are just a couple of things I need. And I've heard Sir Nicholas is helping the Gryffindors…"
"That's quite unacceptable. I will have a word with him." Said the Bloody Baron. Then he paused and added. "What do you need to know?" She played on his competitive nature and it paid off. He was a Slytherin after all.
Claudia took out a piece of parchment and pretended to read her questions from it. Before she got to the question that she really wanted answered, she learnt that he made his own wand and was a skilled Legilimens. Claudia squinted really hard at the blank piece of parchment.
"And did he used to live in Professor Slughorn's rooms, or did he reside somewhere else?" She asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible. The Bloody Baron's eyes narrowed.
"You are not the first one to ask me this." He replied slowly. "Project for the History of Magic, you say?" He added, now sounding quite angry. He knew she was lying. And Claudia knew that. She had to think fast.
"Sorry." Whispered Claudia. "I heard that there was a treasure in his rooms. I thought that if I found it, I would really have the best History of Magic project." She added. The Bloody Baron gave her a twisted smile.
"Slytherin through and through... What do I get in return?" He asked. Claudia never felt such relief in her life. The Bloody Baron could be very scary.
"If I find it, I will give you the most valuable thing that the treasure holds?" She said, hopefully. The Baron looked sceptical. "I know that earthly possessions are no use to you. But think of the prestige it would bring. To have part of Slytherin's own treasure in your vault." She added quickly. The Bloody Baron looked like he was thinking about it. After a while, he gave a brief nod.
"We have an agreement. He had his own rooms. But they are long forgotten about. There is a secret passage just past the potions classroom. Behind a painting of the Great Lake." He said.
Claudia could not believe her luck. She thanked the Bloody Baron and began to walk away, but then she remembered something else he had said. She turned back.
"Your Lordship... You mentioned that I'm not the first person to look for Slytherin's rooms... Did you mean my father?" She asked. She was pretty sure her father was not the answer, but it seemed safer than to ask about Marcus or You-Know-Who. Bloody Baron did not look like he wanted to answer that particular question, at all.
"I remember your father." He said. It took a while before he spoke again. "Tom Riddle's muscle. He would do anything that boy had asked. Torture mudbloods for him. Take the blame in front of Professor Slughorn..." The Bloody Baron gave a nasty laugh. "Slughorn always hated Avery for corrupting young Tom. Of course, that was before his precious Tom showed his true colours." He added.
Claudia opened her mouth again, she was dying to know more, but the Baron cut her off.
"I've said enough." He said, put his hand on his puffed-up chest and floated away through the wall.
Claudia stood in the corridor for a good while mulling over the Bloody Baron's words. This would certainly explain Professor Slughorn's behaviour towards her. She always assumed he ignored her because she was not as popular or showy as the students that he usually surrounded himself with. But then again, he never particularly liked Marcus either. And he was both extremely popular and showy.
Claudia continued to think about Slughorn, as she walked back to the common room. She would need to wait a little longer before she went to look for the secret passage. The castle was still too full. It was time to get on with the homework.
She walked into the common room and was surprised to find a large group of her fellow Slytherins huddled in front of one of the walls. There was a lot of angry murmuring and pointing.
Claudia squeezed herself through the crowd to see what all the hassle was about. The wall was covered with an enormous Gryffindor banner and the words 'Slytherin sucks!' were written in large red letters underneath it.
Claudia knew in an instant who did this. She remembered the trouble she went through to brew that Polyjuice Potion for Sirius and felt like she could punch him right now. She could not believe he would waste it on something this stupid.
At that exact moment, the room began to smell.
"Dungbombs!" Screamed a first-year. The assembled students just began to run away, when about a dozen dungbombs exploded all around the common room. One of them caught Claudia straight in the face.
Sirius was going to pay for this.