Seven Years Chapter 34.

Merula kept an eye out for A.J. for much of the next month, but she saw little. Her roommate was simply too good at disappearing into thin air. Even her attempt to get A.J. to talk to her in the early days of March, using the Galleons failed, because A.J.'s response was to simply hold up another large bag and shake it, no doubt Draco's bribe to the unfortunate Higgs that A.J. had somehow fished out of the Great Lake.

The day after that, of course, the coin bag disappeared, and Merula never saw it again. She assumed that it, like Rakepick, would never be seen again. That much was a safe bet, given that her roommate and friend did not do things by halves.

It took time for her to summon the courage, but by the time Spring Break came around, Merula decided to check up on the potion. She had promised Joseph Trent that she would never enter the Vault after his demonstration, but she also doubted that A.J. would tell him about their broken "agreement".

"Revlio," Merula called out when she reached the same patch of wall at the east end of the fifth floor, noting with some satisfaction that the section of wall disappeared and was replaced with a set of stone stairs that led up into a frigid and winding hallway up above, now far colder than her last trip in February, given the contrast between the ascendant Scottish spring and the late winter.

"A.J.?" Merula called up, wincing when she caught a distant echo of her voice returning to her. The place seemed deserted, at the very least, given that there was no response.

Merula ventured a step forward, careful to avoid the small patches of ice on the stairs and the probable slip and embarrassing fall that it would come with. Still, there was no response from above, and Merula climbed the rest of the stairs with far less restraint once she reached a spot where the ice had disappeared.

The staircase ended far closer than Merula expected, ending in a second corridor, one that was neatly divided in two, half of it a black, glassy floor and only a few flickering candles for light, the other half icy blue with steps made from pure ice, ending in a gigantic set of double doors that seemed to be decorated with a giant glittering snowflake that was larger than Joseph Trent and Professor Snape combined were tall.

Merula took a slow, hesitant step forward before a large, cold hand landed on her shoulder, and her heart jumped out of her throat.

"You're not supposed to be here," A.J. sounded exceptionally annoyed, while Merula tried her best to blubber out an excuse with her heart still lodged in her throat. "How did you even get past the wall downstairs anyways?"

"I-" Merula stammered, not sure if she could ever recover her wits, and resolving to throw the irritating Auror under the proverbial carriage. "Joseph."

"Ah," A.J. removed her hand and stepped in front of Merula, the tip of her wand bright, illuminating the way forward. "Well, if you're already here, I suppose I could let you watch. Just don't get in my way."

"I'll try," Merula said, her voice surprisingly strong given that she was trying to force her heart out of her throat and back into her chest.

"Good," A.J. said, pointing her wand straight up, at the ceiling above. "I don't want to have to shove you some place out of the way."

Merula looked up, and she almost fainted when she saw a suit of armour hanging from the ceiling, a headless suit of armour, to be exact.

"The Ice Knight is fine," A.J. sighed as she rubbed a hand through Merula's hair, a minor inconvenience, given that Merula didn't take much effort into brushing it. "I just keep it in several pieces so it doesn't reform and attack me when I check on the potion."

"Reform?" Merula asked.

"Mmm hmm," A.J. said, launching a stream of fire at the snowflake, melting it in what seemed to be one flick of her wrist. "Bill Weasley and… Rowan had been frozen solid during an ill-advised attempt at sealing the vault the year before I came here. Izzy wound up stuck in ice too, but she got clear before becoming an ice lolly."

"Rowan?"

"Rowan Khanna," Her roommate's voice dropped, and she wet her lips before she responded. "It's not a good memory to dwell on, so let's get this over with."

Merula knew better than to delve into the grief of her friends, so she responded by jogging over to the now-defrosted doors and cracking them open.

The inside of the vault was cold too, enough so that Merula could see her breath, but there was no ice within, just a covered cauldron, a small potion making set, and the bucket A.J. had used to store the potion on the ground, the latter having toppled over, lying on its side, abandoned and without any dangerous potion left inside. But all of that seemed insignificant compared to the large, glowing orange spire at the centre of the room.

"You didn't bring a cloak here, so wear mine," A.J. ordered, shrugging off her cloak and draping it over Merula's shoulders. "Just give me a moment to cast a heating charm or two, then we can start with the potion."

Merula shivered, even with her roommate's cloak on, but she stepped aside and walked over to the half-empty bucket, trying to find something interesting about it, but honestly finding little. She knew what the vile substance was, and the name of the potion A.J. was brewing. That was enough for her.

"Ready?" A.J. called from behind Merula. "There's only a few steps left."

Merula nodded, hoping she didn't seem too over-eager. "What do you want me to do?"

A.J. replied by pulling a large silver ladle from one of the cloak pockets, a small smirk on her face. "Merula, stop being so surprised around me. Practically everything I own is charmed in some way. Especially Muggle made things."

Merula, for her part, managed to pick her jaw off the ground remarkably fast, at least by her standards. "What are you going to do with that?"

Her roommate said nothing, but she gestured for Merula to come forward, close to the little cauldron on the ground.

When Merula took the chance to peek down at the cauldron, she gasped, for while she could still see a thin, patchy layer of dark slime on top of the potion, the majority of the contents of the cauldron were a clear, colourless liquid.

"I've already done the hard work of replacing the… detritus with something more palatable." A.J. explained. "The official formula calls for pure water, infused with magic, but I've discovered that the magical ice in this vault works just fine, even if it is cursed with Dark Magic, so long as I negate some of it first through melting."

"Wait," Merula turned back to the vault door. "Magical ice? As in-"

"Yep," A.J. replied, nodding with a smile. "The stuff outside. I found a notebook in the Room of Requirement on the topic."

Merula raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

"I stole it, of course," A.J. added. "Really quite an excellent book. No name attached, but it dates back to the thirties, so they're long gone."

Merula still said nothing. First, it wasn't any of her business, and second, A.J.'s middle name might as well have been torture. It was unwise at the best of times to cross her.

So instead, Merula turned back to the potion at hand. "What's changed the colour so much?"

"Over the last month, the potion disposed of the majority of its impurities." A.J. explained. "During the process I removed the resulting… byproduct from the cauldron. Hence the ladle."

Merula looked back down to the potion, then at the silver ladle, something that looked like it had been stolen from the kitchen elves. "Using that?"

A.J. grunted in confirmation, and she reached down into the cauldron and scraped, the spoon returning into sight with a thin layer of black gunk that had parted with the potion underneath. "I replaced the lost water with melted magical ice. Dangerous at the best of times, but I know what I'm doing."

Merula grunted, and took a step back. Perhaps she would just… watch from a safe distance, like from her bed in the dungeons, or maybe from Malfoy Manor. It never hurts to be safe.

"Now, Merula, would you be so kind as to get the next ingredient for the potion? It's in the left pocket in my cloak." A.J. asked, and when Merula reached into the cloak to check, she found a small, well hidden brown paper envelope in the enchanted pocket. "Careful with those. We don't want Poppy seed to end up all over the floor."

"Poppy seed?" Merula tilted her head, remembering the odd bagels she had many times in Paris. "The ones on… bagels?"

"Correct," A.J. said, nodding. "Those weren't particularly hard to get. The House Elves were rather helpful, but the rest of the ingredients are far more expensive to buy, especially on the black market."

Merula raised an eyebrow. "How do you even know people from-"

"I just do," A.J. replied with a little smile. "Let's leave it at that, for your health."

"For my health," Merula muttered, chuckling to herself. "I'm brewing a dangerous potion with poisonous ingredients in an icy, hidden hallway with a headless knight and it's for my health."

A.J. joined Merula in laughing before she suddenly stopped, her tone suddenly sombre. "The other potion should be ready. That means Tiff gets…."

"Back," Merula finished, even though the word sounded hollow. "But her memories are gone."

"Yeah," A.J. said, her voice icy. "And that means this potion is the only thing we can use to get the truth out of Lockhart."

"Right," Merula muttered, turning back to the little cauldron. "Let's finish this then."

A.J. nodded. "Right then. Start with the Poppy seed. Grind them into a fine powder and stir into the cauldron, then add the dried tobacco."

Merula did what she was told, being careful to grind the seeds into an extra fine powder, though she paused for a moment before dropping the leaves into the potion to inhale their smoky, delicate scent.

"I tricked Barnaby into buying me those," A.J. added as Merula found that she rather liked the smell of the stuff. "He knows people in the Americas that grow the best tobacco in the world, at least as far as potions go. I told him I was going to give the stuff to a friend I have at Durmstrang as a gift."

"You know people from Durmstrang?" Merula asked.

"I do," A.J. replied, tossing a long wooden spoon over to Merula. "But that's not important for the moment. Maybe I'll invite a few to witness Lockhart being exposed as a fraud, but that's still at least a month away. Now, please, stir until I tell you to stop. Then let me cast the spell."

"What spell is that?" Merula asked.

"Veritas, Omni Veritas, et Nihil Nisi Verum." A.J. smirked, drawing her wand in an airy dance as she did so, ending the twirl with a violent slash, as if her wand had become a gleaming sword. "It's truth serum, for crying out loud. What did you expect the spell to be?"

"Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth." Merula translated the phrase, vaguely remembering it from a book she had read, a long time ago.

"Good," A.J. said. "Stir three times clockwise, then another counterclockwise. Go for-"

A loud thud, somewhere distant, followed by a low hiss, like a dangerously pressured kettle, broke the silence, and A.J. stopped, her eyes narrow. "What the hell?"

The thud came again, and Merula stood, her wand drawn. "What-"

A third thud landed, only this one was different, far closer than the first two.

"Someone is at the doorway," A.J. muttered, rising to her feet. "Merula, you have your instructions. I will deal with this… intruder."

"What if its-"

"It won't be Trent," A.J. growled, shaking her head. "He knows how to open the entrance. And he's not due to come to Hogwarts until the evening at the earliest."

Another thud, this one more forceful than the first three, silenced A.J. too.

"Lockhart?" Merula asked.

"He would know to cast the revealing spell." A.J. muttered, almost as if she was talking to herself. "He wouldn't need to use brute force to smash down the wall."

A fifth thud, this one followed by a crack and the sound of something shattering, sent a shiver down Merula's spine.

"Our hand is forced," A.J. muttered under her breath. "Merula, stay here and finish the potion. I'll deal with Lockhart. Stir exactly seven times as I instructed, then with one more turn counter-clockwise, for exactly twenty-nine turns."

Merula opened her mouth to protest, but her roommate was already gone, the doors to the vault slamming shut behind her, leaving her alone with the potion.

Merula stirred the pot, certainly, counting out loud for each time her trembling hands turned counterclockwise, but she also wondered where her roommate was.

At twenty-eight turns, Merula thought she heard something scratching at the door, and something came over her, her trembling hands gripping the ladle harder for the final set.

For a moment, there was silence as the potion was finished, simply waiting on the spell that A.J. would cast, but then Merula heard a crack, followed by the sound of something like glass falling and shattering.

But it wasn't glass. That Merula realized a moment later, when the door cracked open, with a wand pointed at her heart.

Merula raised her wand, but she was too slow, for before she could fire any spell that came to mind, a lunging figure had tackled her, and her arms were pinned by her sides.

And… Tiffany was crying into her ear?

Out of the corner of her eye, Merula saw Joseph Trent burst into the room, followed by a grim-faced Clarice Murk and an equally grim Bill Weasley, each with their wands raised, ready for combat, not that there was anything left to fight.

"Clear," Bill Weasley muttered, a moment before Joseph pulled Tiffany off Merula.

"Where is-"

"A.J..." Joseph started. "Has become another victim to the-"

"Not the Heir," Tiffany cut in, her voice hoarse and dry. "It wasn't a wizard who did… that."

"I concur," Clarice added before Joseph could respond. "From the looks of it, whatever it was that petrified A.J. didn't even make their way out of the staircase."

"No," Tiffany was shaking her head now. "I- I remember something, from the attack, I mean."

"Lockhart didn't wipe your memories?" Merula asked.

"Professor Lockhart?" Tiffany sounded confused. "No- I remember looking into a vanity mirror I had and…"

"What did you see?" Joseph asked.

"I saw something yellow," Tiffany said. "I thought it was a floating jewel at the time but… I couldn't move after seeing it."

"You were petrified," Bill Weasley said. "One of… several victims this year."

"I know," Tiffany said, her lips tight. "Is A-"

"She'll be fine once Hogwarts brews their own batch of Mandrake Restorative Draught." Clarice said, nodding her head. "Still… that will take time, and I hope none of us are going to sit idly by until then."

"No," Joseph and Bill said at the same time, and for a moment both men looked at each other and exchanged weak smiles, with Joseph continuing. "Whatever it is that has been attacking students, I think we can rule out a wizard being behind it."

Merula frowned. "I… I don't understand."

Joseph, Bill, and Clarice seemed to share a three way glance, all of their faces pale and grim. "She deserves to know." Clarice said. "And we can't get her down the stairs without passing A.J."

Merula swallowed slowly, remembering how her roommate had stormed off, ready to fight off Lockhart, or whatever it had been behind it all. "How bad is it?"

"She did damage." Joseph shook his head. "The last spell we could find from her wand was Sectumsempra. She went down fighting to kill."

"Whatever took her down is badly hurt." Clarice added. "It left blood over half the staircase. Highly corrosive blood at that."

"That's a clue we need to be careful about." Joseph said. "It has corrosive blood and it seems to disappear into thin air."

"Perhaps Barnaby can be of assistance?" Bill suggested. "He knew his animals better than any of us. It would keep it between the Circle as well."

"A fair point," Clarice nodded her assent. "Joseph, what else should I tell him?"

Joseph paused, then looked over to Bill. "We'll have a look around. Come down when you're ready. I'll tell you then."

Clarice nodded, waiting silently as the two men left the room. "Tiffany, do you mind stepping out for a minute?"

"Huh?" Tiffany jerked up. "I- why?"

"The potion," Clarice pointed down to the cauldron of half-finished Veritaserum. "I would like to know what A.J. was brewing up here."

Tiffany blinked, then she looked over to Merula. "I-"

"I'd like your help in bringing A.J. away." Clarice added. "There is no reason for Merula to see that."

Tiffany nodded, then she glanced over to Merula. "Alright then, please don't be too long."

A moment after Tiffany left, Clarice shut the door behind her, remaining silent for a long time before she finally broke the silence. "So, Veritaserum."

Merula flinched. "You know?"

"Nightshade residue," Clarice pointed to the bucket, still fallen on its side. "Frigid temperatures, extreme secrecy, not to mention the colour of the potion."

"Oh," Merula cast her eyes down. "She wanted it for Lockhart."

"A brutal tactic, certainly." Clarice nodded. "But barring torture, there would be no other method to extract a confession."

Merula swallowed. "I- she had me stir the potion for-"

"29 times," Merula nodded at the number. "It's the largest prime number under thirty. Do you know why that's important?"

Merula shook her head.

Clarice didn't respond, but she pulled her wand out and began to draw, sparkles of light holding firm in the air as she drew a trio of moons, two of them sharp crescents, the third a cohesive whole, dividing the half-moons.

"On average," Clarice spoke. "The moon changes phases every twenty nine and a half days. It was the shortest period possible for the poisons present in Nightshade to be nullified and for the resulting potion to be drunk."

"I see," Merula said, her eyes watching the little light show. "And the resulting mixture makes people incapable of… lying?"

"Technically true," Clarice paused for a moment. "But I trust you remember the incantation to finish the potion?"

"Veritas, Omni Veritas, et Nihil Nisi Verum," Merula recalled from memory. "Truth, the Whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth."

"Correct," Clarice said. "But your understanding is backwards."

"I'm sorry?" Merula stared up at the older woman, not sure what she meant.

"Since the time of Merlin, the moon has always been a symbol of knowledge and wisdom." Clarice explained, her wand raised, slowly and gently circling the three moons she had drawn. "Veritaserum, on the other hand, does the exact opposite. Instead of imparting wisdom, it seizes it through violence and cruelty."

Then, in a single flick of her wrist, Clarice split the light show in half, slicing all three moons with a single line, shattering the show in one violent cut.

Merula swallowed, and she looked down at the potion below. "And A.J. wanted it for Lockhart."

"And others as well, given how much of it she was making." Clarice said, nodding down at the cauldron. "I could think of no small numbers of questions I could ask your father, for one."

Merula froze. "My father?"

"In regards to your hidden vault." Clarice shook her head. "The fire that burned your father? It shouldn't have hurt him."

Merula's jaw dropped, but she still didn't understand. "But it's… fire. I hear Dobby screaming enough to know it's supposed to hurt. I still remember Neville from that time he set himself on fire in Potions."

Clarice raised an eyebrow, then shook her head. "The defensive system of the vault cast the spell Protecto Diabolica. It's a curse, similar to Fiendfyre, but it does not harm those who are loyal to the caster. If someone had your permission to enter the vault on your behalf and depart with something inside, then they would be able to emerge untouched, so long as they kept their end of the bargain."

"But then why did-"

"That is a question for you to answer on your own time." Clarice said, before turning to the cauldron. "We have spent enough time here as it is, and we must depart soon… once the Veritaserum is secure, of course."

"What would you have me do?" Merula asked, looking down at the cauldron, the clear potion within just a single, brutal spell away from completion.

"Would you like to cast it yourself?" Clarice asked. "A.J. would have let you."

Merula nodded. "If that's alright with you, then yes I would."

Clarice shrugged and stepped back from the cauldron, allowing Merula to bend over and point her wand over the clear potion. "Then be quick with it."

Merula took a deep breath before she began the cast, remembering the way Clarice, and even A.J.'s wands danced through the air as they practiced the spell that completed the potion.

"Veritas, Omni Veritas, et Nihil Nisi Verum!" Merula shouted as she drew her wand across the midpoint of the three moons, imagining a razor-sharp blade slicing through them in a single clean stroke.

For a moment, there was silence, but then Clarice crouched down and pulled a small glass vial from the folds of her cloak, carefully dipping it into the potion within the cauldron. "Merula, catch."

Merula, with her Quidditch skills rusty at best, barely managed to catch the vial of Veritaserum before it landed, and she stuffed the vial into the safety of one of A.J.'s cloak pockets, just seconds before Clarice stood up and walked away from an empty cauldron.

"We should go," Clarice said, pushing open the door to the vault with a flick of her wrists. "I trust you will be responsible with the potion."

Merula took a moment to squeeze the potion inside the hidden pocket, feeling the hard glass of the vial through the soft, warm material of her friend's cloak.

She didn't see A.J. on the way down, but she wasn't sure she wanted to. Perhaps another day.

But she did see Joseph Trent at the end of the steps at the edge of the stairs leading to the fifth floor, standing in the middle of a storm of shattered stone, and once again, he looked grim, as if he was about to ask her for something unpleasant.

"Merula," he called out. "I have a favour to ask of you. It has something to do with your vault."

Merula said nothing, but she pushed her way past him, right until his arm shot out and stopped her mid step.

"Clarice, if I hex him will you say anything?" Merula asked through gritted teeth.

"Please don't." Joseph dropped his arm, but he still remained in the way. "C, Merula, just hear me out, alright? I think there's something inside one of your vaults that could help us with this case."

Merula looked up to Clarice, trying to read her face, but she revealed nothing. "And tell me, Trent, what is it you want?"

Joseph grimaced. "We… cross referenced some documents in relation to the… secret vault that we seized from a certain dark witch."

"Buckthorn?" Clarice asked, without elaborating on what the name meant.

"Yes," Joseph said, nodding. "One of the documents we took from the Snyde house allowed us to… decipher some of her writings, amongst them a table of contents, allegedly of the secret vault."

"And what is in the vault that makes you so interested?" Merula shot back.

"A rare copy of a book on dangerous creatures." Joseph said. "One allegedly annotated by Magnus Snyde himself during his travels. Given that there's some sort of monster running around Hogwarts, I'd like to know what it is before I have to fight it."

"Merula," Bill Weasley's voice caused her to spin around to face him. She didn't trust him one bit to have her back turned to him, not even with other witnesses. "We wouldn't be asking this of you if we had any other choice."

Merula read the room for a moment, gritted her teeth, and nodded.

Bill and Joseph exchanged a glance with each other before the Weasley cleared his throat. "Alright then. Who do you want to come with you?"

AN: So uhh work is pain and I'm in the middle of a fairly large dose of writer's block.

I also had to invent a potion recipe from scratch, involving copious amounts of narcotics, poisons, and dead stuff.

So anyhow, sorry for the late chapter.

Next time: The Vault of Cursed Fire.