Disclaimer: One Piece and Harry Potter does not belong to me, each belongs to their respective author.
Challenge by TheBlackSeaReaper.
-.- The Mobydick
The taste of victory did not last long, the next morning brought the bad news of another attack, this time it had been a person, a student, Coline Creeves.
"This is why we must start now," said Hermione to Ace after Professor McGonagall left the tower.
"Do it, nobody stops you," said the boy as he stroked Mecha's plumage and in response the girl stomp her feet on the floor and left, backpack in hand.
Hours later, Mecha still watched the boy who refused to look at the bird, or anyone who looked at him in something close to worry.
For him, the whole issue of pirates was delicate, even precious and if they were not going to take it seriously, it would be best if they did nothing.
Second, under the premise that they were pirates, they must then understand that they were not heroes, and being pirates this thing with the chamber was not their business and they must not get involved, there was no reason to do so and if they found him Ace would still stay distance.
Anything to end this phase.
The noise of metal crashing down to the ground caught the attention of both human and bird, causing them to direct attention to the child and armor that were in the same classroom as them.
After several attempts to define a weapon, that would be adequate for Neville, in which they passed through all the ones in the castle, they had finally opted for the classical sword, and Ser Jozan had agreed to instruct him.
"Concentrate, boy, once again" and of course they had started with the most basic thing, which was to hold the sword. It was a basic exercise, with which they tried to accustom the child to keep the sword raised, it sounded simple and useless to train, but a sword weighed more than it seems.
"I will never be able to hold it well" the boy lamented two hours later as they advanced
"You need to be able to control it, if you are going to maneuver it correctly, if you don't get used to its weight, you will never achieve it, that's what he try to teach you"
"It will take years to achieve it"
"The best swordsmen have spent years training before even having their first official battle"
That did not encourage Neville much, he had managed to keep the sword firm in his hand for a full minute before his arms, which had long since claimed rest began to drop although Neville was still struggling to keep them high. Ser Jozan had congratulated him, but the boy knew that he had only achieved what he had achieved thanks to his training last year, however on his own he was not sure that he would improve further.
They were walking back to the tower, where Neville would rest. Hermione had taken Ron with her to help her with the potion, he knew well where they had gone, in the logic of the girl the only place they wouldn't look for them would be Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, he would not go looking for them.
Instead, once he left Neville, he would wander the castle with Mecha, he had not done that for a long time.
Summer for both of them, for pirate and hawk had been a time where they had been inseparable, the bird slept a lot at night, and liked the good life, but that didn't mean he wasted a moment with Ace.
Mecha, was a bird that liked the good life, when he lived in the pet shop in Diagon Alley, he loved how the sun passed through the small window and warmed his wings throughout the morning. After being bought, he still loved to let his wings be touched by the sun, the nights he sleep on the backs of the sofas by the fire, and to be able to fly with complete freedom, the brat that had bought him, loved freedom, that was always good .
"Ace, Neville!" Exclaimed familiar voices, the twins, greeted them from an empty hallway.
Still exhausted, Neville walked towards them and Ace followed him, as he went along he noticed something behind the twins, that something turned to be someone, and that someone turned into two people. One of them knew Ace, it was Ginny Weasley, Ron and the twins' little sister, however the other person who was with them, Ace didn't know her.
"What brings you here, Ace?" George interrupted the pirate's thoughts.
"Returning to the tower"
"How was the training?"
"Heavy," Neville replied. "You?"
"AH! There you are," another voice exclaimed approaching the hall, this time it was Hermione, followed by Ron.
"Hi, how's the potion going?" Fred said.
If looks could kill, the twins would possibly already be in Hermione's eyes. It was clear that it was not a good idea to talk about the subject, Hermione was still angry with Ace, and Ace didn't want anything related with that, also Ginny was there. Seeing the danger Ron rushed to change the subject.
"Ginny, what are you doing here?"
The girl simply got red and it didn't seem to be out of shame this time.
"RON" Hermione repressed, forgetting about her attempted murder of the twins.
"Excellent little brother"
"You should know that your little sister found out a few hours ago about what happened with Colin," added George.
"And here we were trying to cheer her up"
"And tell her not to worry, the monster is asleep in his chamber"
"Maybe it will go out and jump to scare her"
"Oh! Please, you are not helping at all." Hermione exclaimed.
"The monster can only go out a couple of minutes, he has to protect the treasure he keeps"
Silence
All surprised by the sleepy voice that had spoken, with what seemed to be a very calm and confident tone. Ace leaned a little to better observe in the middle of the crowd that had formed, to the small figure he had not studied when he arrived.
She was of the first year, if the stature when being next to Ginny could say something, the first thing that stood out of her was her pale dirty-blond hair, very pale eyebrows, and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look. Something in her screamed "weird" but of course, the kind of weird Ace might like, and actually half of the Grand Line too.
"Wh ... what?" Asked Hermione recovering.
"The Slytherin Treasure, that's what the Slytherin monster keeps in the Chamber."
For some reason Ginny watched the ground completely flushed.
"The legend mentions nothing of a treasure" debated Hermione.
"Oh, of course not," said the girl, as a matter of fact "They left that out of the books so no one would look for it."
"That makes sense," Fred said sarcastically, amid the silence that the group plunged into.
"I know, it's the same thing I was telling Ginny, in fact I was telling her to go find the chamber, the monster is asleep right now."
Something in Ace's instinct told him that the monster would not be asleep.
"There are no records of a Slytherin treasure," said Hermione. "Neither in the legend of the chamber, nor in any other record"
"Well, it was a complicated time," said the girl. "The witch and wizard hunt was in full swing, that's why he created the camera, as a defense mechanism."
"Wait, like a panic room?"
"Yes, and there he hid his treasure," said the girl. "But we have no idea where to start looking, so we were going to look for a map in the library."
"There is no map of Hogwarts in the library," said Hermione, in a scandalous tone, "there are hundreds of stairs and secret passageways, no one has ever been able to draw one."
"Except for Ace" Ron muttered "Even if it's just the basics and it's in his head"
"There it is safe" Away from these girls. "And I'm bad at mapping, so I couldn't draw it"
"That is a shame" said the blond girl.
"Yes, a real shame" said Fred.
"Who could make a map would be ..." continue George.
"Our heroes"
"Noble men"
"Masters of…"
"You two know something," Ron muttered.
If the situation was already strange, now it was more ... how they had come to this, Mecha wondered from Ace's shoulder.
"We don't know what you're talk about"
"I have lived twelve years of my life with you, I know well when you are up to something and the only person who surpasses me is surely mom."
"You have a map of the school, could you lend it to me?" Said little blond.
"You two have a map and didn't tell us, it would have been very useful a year ago" protested Hermione.
"Didn't you know about that map?" Asked the blond girl innocently. "But I thought you were a crew, and a crew doesn't hide anything"
The twins sighed in defeat. Only Hermione and Neville looked nervously at Ace, who had uncrossed his arms, while Mecha flew to the nearest foothold, this was going to get good.
"Listen ... eh" there he realized that he didn't know her name.
"Luna, Luna Lovegood," said the girl in help ("That explains many things," Ron muttered).
"Portgas D. Ace" the pirate introduced himself "Listen Luna, we are not a pirate crew"
"Oh, I thought you were, I even gave them a couple of name ideas for the crew," she said, looking at the twins. "Personally, I liked The Merlinian Pirates but I also like Rogue Pirates"
"Well, you are right, a pirate crew trust each other, because they are like a family. A crew is Family. "Ace said solemnly, all clinging to every word of him, something in his voice was warm as a sunny summer day. Before he became… airy "But we are not…"
"Ok, ok, we have a map," the twins confessed
"But," Fred added, "we used it last year."
"How do you think we navigate the halls without getting caught?"
"Wait," said Ron. "It means you have a way to find the camera and we ..."
"Nope," interrupted George. "That we have a map does not mean that the secret chamber comes in it."
"We look for it first thing after Halloween, there is nothing"
"Nothing?" insisted Ron
"Nothing, we have a theory, but we don't know how it works"
And with a new sigh of defeat Fred took out a piece of old parchment and spread it. Everyone surrounded the parchment with some expectation, before finding it completely blank.
Ron opened his mouth to say something, only to receive a stomp of Hermione and a more discreet one of Ginny.
George took out his wand, and pointing to the parchment with it he said: "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
And at once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider's web from the point that George's wand had touched. They joined each other, they crisscrossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment; then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly green words, that proclaimed:
Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP
It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. But the truly remarkable thing were the tiny ink dots moving around it, each labeled with a name in minuscule writing. Astounded, they all bent over it. A labeled dot in the top left corner showed that Professor Dumbledore was pacing his study; and Peeves the Poltergeist was currently bouncing around the trophy room.
"And right here," Fred said, maneuvering the parchment, to reach a point on the seventh floor, "this is where a gap appears."
Hermione leaned in. "It could be a load wall." Ron looked at her questioningly. "A wall that support the upper floors the upstairs, support point."
"I could have a secret door"
"Well, if it is, we have no idea how to open it," said George,
"nor the map," Fred added.
"Well, here we won't know if it is or not."
Everyone paused in surprise, she had said nothing in the last pages and here was Ginny Weasley speaking loudly and clearly, that when she noticed it she became the color of his hair again.
"Okay, come on," Ace said before he realized what he was saying.
They almost run, reaching the seventh-floor hallway, at an unusual speed, in addition to the use of the map to get through a couple of passageways.
"In theory it should be ..." Fred said turning the map a little, before Hermione took it.
"Right in front of that tapestry"
"What is that? Is he teaching ballet to trolls? "
"So it seems," replied the girl, her full attention on the opposite wall.
The Twins, Hermione and Ron examined the wall carefully, feeling it with their hands and wands for some reaction. While Ace watched them.
"I liked what you said," Luna's sleepy voice said, and Ace almost jumped like a cat when he heard the voice next to him. "That a crew is family."
For some reason those big eyes made him nervous, and he chose to move aside, he didn't feel he would be able to keep still.
"It's your family, maybe pirates?" she asked, approaching him.
An image of a cheerful crew formed in his mind, and he moved aside.
"Your voice sounded melancholic when you said it"
Moby Dick floated in the waters, while Ojaji laughed at his children playing on deck.
"Yes, they were ..."
"Ace, look, a door formed."
Looking up he found a door, curiously something in it looked familiar, although it was not what he expected for a door to a secret chamber, it was rather, simple, wooden but in a terribly known style.
Tentatively the twins pushed the door, only to find a big space and a night sky after a sunset.
"It doesn't seem to be a secret camera," said Ron, once inside the place.
In front of them, there was a staircase that descended into a space with larger steps that simulated bleachers, and the group with curiosity descended the stairs and advanced through the space, feeling small in such a large space, and at the bottom of that great space stood a huge chair, which seemed to be of a giant.
"I think I remember that we used this room sometime," Fred said.
"Yes, but this time it was a broom closet"
"We were just looking for one to hide from Filch"
Hermione looked again at the room, and the high ceiling that simulated the sky like one on the Great Hall. "It can be a room that changes according to what is required"
"But it shouldn't be a gloomy and sinister camera, this isn't scary," said Neville.
"Ace, are you alright?" Ginny said
The boy stood at the top of the stairs, looking uncertainly, sadly, and even remorsefully at the great chair that remained in the middle of the deck. Not knowing what to do, he turned and ran out of the room, back to the hall where once he felt the cold of winter air and found himself surrounded by the medieval atmosphere that gave the castle he stopped to calm down.
How had the room taken the shape of Moby Dick's deck? Had it taken from his mind? Was it because he had been thinking of his family, and the place he had called home for several months before he was executed? Why was nobody there? Why was Ojaji's chair empty? He felt frozen, and he only wished that all the images that crossed his head ceased to be, why he had to remember that war?, and all his brothers and Ojaji, and Luffy with his scream that tore the air?
"Ace," Hermione murmured just behind him. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," he said, surprised at how broken up his voice sounded, "I'm fine."
"Ah! Look, Portgas and his group, wandering the halls. "Draco's voice undoubtedly, and he really had no intention of dealing with him at the time.
"Are you also Ace's friend?" Luna asked, curious.
No one said anything, they just looked at each other before Ron reacted and exclaimed "No way, he is not our friend"
And automatically Malfoy responded by addressing his minions, Crabbe and Goyle, "Let's go, we're just listening to nonsense"
As they walked away, and Ron held Luna by the shoulders to make her understand that Malfoy was the enemy, Ginny watched Ace; his expression completely illegible but she was sure he didn't look upset at the comment. And Malfoy, she didn't want to think about his expression, it made her think she was crazier than Luna, in no way would the boy be discouraged by Ron's comment.