Hogwarts Again - A New Generation
Chapter 14 - The End of Year One
DISCLAIMER: Me no own.
The next morning, the four of them went to the Parseltongue headquarters again. They had to wake up very early, but Daisy couldn't say she minded. Rebecca opened the snake-controlled door again with a hiss and they all stepped in. Rebecca said they could go in without her today, now that they were members. Daisy didn't know how they'd get out again without the snake-speak, but she supposed there were plenty of people to ask for help inside.
Gray was there again. He gave Daisy a bad feeling. Like, a really bad feeling. Usually, her instincts were on spot, so she always listened to them, but she wasn't sure what to do with this feeling. She'd been suspicious ever since she'd seen the Tom Riddle portrait. Sure, the explanation was reasonable. All Parselmouths would be respected, and it was a portrait of Tom Riddle, not Voldemort. But she wasn't sure she trusted Gray. She didn't mention any of this to Ivy, though. She knew her twin would say she was bonkers.
Ivy tapped her shoulder, jolting her back to the present. She blinked into focus and saw that Gray was leading them further in this time. They went through one of the many doors set in the walls and came into a room. It was decorated in Hufflepuff colors: yellow and black. There were some people there that Daisy recognized, but many she didn't. She guessed they were in their fourth or sixth year.
One of them turned as Gray led them inside, and grinned. "Hey, Gray. New members?"
"Yeah. These are Robert, Ivy, and Daisy."
"Right." The girl turned her twinkling eyes to them and smiled warmly. Daisy immediately liked her. "I'm Jasmine Creed. You can call me Jas. Everyone does. I'll take them from here, Gray."
Gray nodded and walked out of the room. Jas led them further inside, stopped in the middle of the room, and clapped her hands to get the others' attention. Everyone turned to look at her. "These are our new friends. Robert, Ivy, and Daisy." She gestured to each of them in turn. Then turned to them. "This is the Hufflepuff quarters for the Garden Group. All Hufflepuffs learn their basics here and then we all mingle with the other houses. Now, I want you to go around this room and talk to different people. They'll each tell you what they're currently learning, and you'll learn that, too. Nothing is too hard, it just takes a little practice."
The three of them did as they were told. Daisy stopped by a girl about her age. She looked extremely nervous and fidgety. She started by making small talk and eventually the girl calmed down enough to teach her the first thing everyone learned here - open in Parseltongue. It sounded like ss-sh-sssss to Daisy. She copied the sound as best as she could and she had it perfect in about ten minutes. Now she could get out of here without asking anyone for help.
The three first years went about learning small words in Parseltingue, like hello and bye. By the time an hour was over, Daisy could say open, hello, bye, and later. She was quite proud of herself. Robert had learned one extra word from a third year student - magic.
Soon, it was time for them to leave and get ready for classes. As soon as they entered the dorm, Daisy took out a parchment and noted down the sounds and their meanings as she remembered them. Ivy raised an eyebrow but contributed nonetheless, and when they went back to the common room, Robert described what magic sounded like, and Daisy noted that down too.
They had Herbology first and they learned about Devil's Snare. The plant looked harmless enough - a mass of soft, springy tendrils and vines. But Professor Sprout explained that it possessed a keen sense of touch, and would throttle you if you touch it.
"This plant uses its creepers and tendrils to ensnare anyone who touched it, binding their arms and legs and eventually choking them," Professor Sprout explained. "The harder a person struggles against Devil's Snare, the faster and more tightly it binds them. If the victim is able to maintain their presence of mind and relaxes, the Snare would relax its grip on them. Struggling or resistance to Devil's Snare will cause the plant to exert a greater force of constriction. Devil's Snare prefers a dark, damp environment. It will stop its movement in the environment in front of bright light and will recoil away from the heat of fire, so a well-placed fire or light-based spells such as the Bluebell Flames, Fire-Making Spell, Wand-Lighting Charm, or the Lumos Solem spell will effectively drive it away from its victims."
They practiced their Bluebell Flames on the vicious plant, and then the Lumos Solem spell. None of them got murdered by a plant, which was a first. Not everyone managed to drive their Snare away, but many did. Daisy was loving Herbology more and more as the days passed.
The days went by as usual and the three of them kept visiting the Group, exciting new hiding places discovered as headquarters, and continued living their pretty much normal lives.
The twins spent Christmas and Easter at home with Violet and Dudley, and Robert stayed at Hogwarts because his family was away. He didn't really mind, saying he'd have his sister with him, but asked them to come back soon.
It was only after all the exams were over and they'd decided to take a break from the common room, that something happened. They'd just finished their last exam - Astronomy, and the day was nice enough that the trio decided to take a walk in the evening after classes. They walked around the Forbidden Forest, taking care not to step into the thick woods, and were just turning back when they heard a female voice speaking from the direction of the forest. "What do you think I should do now, then?"
The three of them froze, surprised. No student was allowed to go into the Forbidden Forest, yet this sounded like a student. The three looked at each other and came to a silent decision. They inched closer to the voice, not daring to enter the forest, but approaching it as close as they could, straining their ears for any sound.
Sure enough, a voice - a deep, raspy voice, male - replied, "I don't know what you do, I want them all ready and captured by a month if I'm to have time for brewing the potion."
A third voice said, "We can only do it after we come back next year, then. Give us three weeks from the start of the seventh year." Daisy's stomach dropped. It was Gray. She was sure of it. She heard Ivy catch her breath and knew that the other two recognized him, too. Robert's eyes were as wide as galleons, but he raised a finger to his lips.
The second voice replied, "Three weeks! You expect me to wait for your next year and then another three weeks? I'm in a hurry. The maximum I can wait is one week after your holidays are over. And I need time to prepare the potion, too, you fool. Were you listening? You'd better hurry up and capture them soon, is all I say."
There was a slight pause. The voice seemed to be waiting for a response and finally, Gray said, "Fine. Meet us here one week after term starts next month. No sooner."
Daisy heard a sharp hiss, as if someone had released some hydrogen gas, and then there was silence. She also felt the presence of the owner of the mysterious voice slip away and knew by pure instinct that he wasn't there anymore. Finally, the girl who was with Gray said, "One week. We get one week to capture them, and if he's to brew a potion, we need to contain them, too. You sure we can do all that in a week?"
"Of course I'm not sure," Gray replied. "But we might as well try. Not like we have a choice."
The voices were steadily getting louder and nearer. Ivy motioned for them to run and they ran back to the castle. They stopped by the greenhouse, panting for breath.
"What do you that was about?" Robert asked in a whisper.
Ivy shook her head. "What was Gray doing there?"
"And who were they going to capture?" Daisy put in in a small voice.
They were silent for a minute before Robert spoke again. "We don't have any answers, but we sure have a lot of questions. I'm not sure..." he hesitated. "I'm not sure if we should do anything about it or tell the teachers, or what-"
"We've got to confront them," Ivy interrupted. "They're right there, look."
Daisy looked and saw that her twin was right. Gray was walking towards the castle deep in conversation with a girl of his age. They looked like they were arguing.
"No," Daisy said. "We don't want them to know we heard them, do we? Besides, they could've been talking about capturing some rouges from Care of Magical Creatures, or something. We can't just assume they're evil."
Ivy snorted. "Right. They'd go all the way to the Forbidden Forest to talk about that. And who was the third person? I don't know about you, but to me, he sounded pretty evil."
Daisy remembered the raspy voice and shuddered. She did not want to find out who it was. She had a feeling it won't be nice.
She dreaded leaving the next day. She so badly wanted to stay and find out who Grey and the Girl were going to capture, who Mr. Voice was, and mainly, she wanted to stomp up to Grey and demand answers. But Ivy talked her out of it - it was not like her at all, to talk Daisy out of something exciting and dangerous - and reluctantly, Daisy agreed to wait till the start of next year to do their investigations.
"We can be the Thrilling Threesome," Robert said enthusiastically. "TheThrilling Adventures of the Thrilling Threesome."
Ivy rolled her eyes. "That's a stupid name. Think of something a little more fitting in the holidays. That's your homework."
Daisy sighed. They were all sitting in the Hogwarts Express, and the train was just starting to move. She would miss Hogwarts. But they'd be back for next year, with a very bloody investigation to do that not even the Ministry knew about.
Year One was over.
She couldn't wait for Year Two.
Author's Note: Yep. Sorry for the huge time skip, but yeah. Next chapter will be the holidays and boarding the train on September 1 again.