Chapter 14 [Awake]
The older duo had collected all of the ingredients they needed to brew a Polyjuice potion, all they needed now was time to brew it and a proper plan. If anything, Samuel had been dying to come up with mischief, something he had to avoid doing after being appointed as one of Slytherin's two prefects.
It wasn't too hard to snatch ingredients from the greenhouses and Professor Ancum's personal stash, seeing how the school was practically empty and Graham himself having a suspiciously high level of thieving skill.
They were now back in the infirmary, pretending as if things hadn't happened, which wasn't too hard due to how quickly they were distracted by Professor Ancum and Ajax's deteriorating state, both of them soon thought of joining in the life-link, seeing how much Jamieson was draining from the two. The link, while taking quite a lot from the professors, was visibly effective since Jamieson's vitals were stable– though still dropping– giving them time to quickly brainstorm more cures and potions for him.
"Coming," Graham called out gently upon hearing a set of soft knocks from the infirmary door, he let go of Samuel's hand and made his way down the room, praying that the duo was still alive considering he'd send them both on a high-risk mission.
"Look who we found," Leonidas grinned widely, both of them stepping to the side and revealing a rather large, silver-scaled snake with glowing red eyes, with height only a few centimeters lower than Graham himself.
"Are you crazy?!" Graham hissed, quickly covering his eyes and looking away, fearing the glowing red eyes of the otherwise friendly basilisk. "You know what the basilisk can you, right?! How'd you get it up here anyways?" Graham fearfully whispered, remembering he tasked them with getting the creature's blood, not the whole thing!
"It's fine, Graham. Look, he's harmless," Frona gently pried the older boy's hands away from his eyes, his own eyes locked with the basilisk's, he thought he'd been petrified only to realize he'd frozen himself in fear.
He soon found his hand moving on its own, gently patting the basilisk's head, a bit surprised and amused at the snake seemingly enjoying his pats. "Wait here," He sighed, realizing he was completely unharmed by the gaze of the creature, he retreated back into the room, excited to deliver the weird news to them.
"Professor Ancum, we have a basilisk! We could get its blood and work on a cure for Jamieson," Graham excitedly whispers, shocking everyone in the room except Samuel. "Tell me this is you youngster's way of pranks," Professor Ancum hissed, his voice weak as his brain tried to process what he had just heard.
"You... Did you overhear what we were discussing about?" Ajax wondered, remembering his suggestion of utilizing the basilisk's blood, he didn't think they'd actually find one. Sure the entire wizarding world knew of Harry Potter-Diggory's achievement of finding the chamber of secrets during his years, but it was very well known he had slayed the creature.
"I did," Graham admitted, feeling rather guilty. "Well bring it in then, we haven't got much time," Professor Sprout muttered, realizing Jamieson's vitals were dropping faster than it did just a few hours ago, they knew they didn't have time for debates. Graham sprinted towards the doors and guided the insanely-dirty and rather stinky young students, who looked as if they had gone around the world in 1 day with absolutely no breaks in-between.
Professor Sprout and Madam Abbott immediately whipped out their wands upon seeing the giant silver snake behind the duo, slithering behind like a loyal pet, they hadn't expected it to be alive. "Professor, wait! Its friendly," Leonidas squeaked out, his voice rather hoarse with fatigue as he demonstrated how friendly the basilisk was, none of them could process how these two young students tamed a creature depicted as violent and deadly in hundreds of magical creature books.
"Wait, Professor Sprout," Ajax called out, his consciousness slipping, he soon realized he'd reach his limit, which was quite obvious to everyone around. The life link was draining far faster than he had anticipated. "I-It's a risky potion to brew... W-What if it doesn't work?" He muttered, realizing if the potion failed, he'd be responsible for someone's life loss.
"Ajax, we need to cut this life link now. I need you to stay with us for as long as possible, alright? We can't brew the potion without your guide," Professor Ancum had noticed the sudden change in his demeanor, he knew they didn't have time to waste. Not letting him protest, the two professors and Madam Abbott had immediately cut off the life link, trying their best to ignore the dangerous wailing from the Life and Mind orb attached to Jamieson as soon as they had cut off the life link spell.
"R-Right... Professor Sprout I need you to extract blood from the basilisk..." Ajax whispered, climbing off the bed and almost toppling over, a bit flustered to be held by Professor Ancum, he began giving out instructions to every adult in the room. Soon, the infirmary was hustling, with Professor Sprout exiting to fetch the required herbs, Madam Abbott had to scour the infirmary shelf and cabinets for the potions required for such a cure and Professor Ancum began brewing with what they already have. Leonidas and Frona finally got the rest they needed once the snake had coiled up, forming a sort of beanbag-like chair for them to sink into once they had the basilisk blood. Graham and Samuel made sure Jamieson's stats dropped as slow as it could, chanting streams and streams of all the healing spells they'd learn throughout their years in Hogwarts. It wasn't much, but it did slow the deterioration by a visible amount.
"I... T-that's..." Before Ajax could announce that the potion had finished, he collapsed as the life links spell had finally hit him, falling straight into Professor Ancum's arms who carried him princess-style towards a nearby vacant bed. "Rest well. You've been great," He gently whispered, a small smile crept upon his face as he placed a gentle kiss on the younger man's forehead before returning to his cauldron. "Ancum, this is a huge risk we're taking," Professor Sprout worriedly whispered, the four students now eyeing the professors, even the snake was interested in their conversation.
"Don't worry, Sprout," Professor Ancum smiled gently, reaching into his robe-pockets, he pulled out a small vial of golden liquid, which glittered a light pink and purple colour. "Is that..."
Professor Sprout gasped, seeing the legendary potion for the first time in her life. She knew Professor Ancum had been the one to invent it, even published how to properly brew it, but because of how insanely complicated and expensive it was, nobody had bothered to try it.
"Enchanted Felix Felicis," Professor Ancum whispered, walking over to the unconscious Jamieson, he poured a tiny amount, barely visible into his mouth, a gentle breeze suddenly blew through the room as soon as it entered his mouth, which was rather impossible considering how all the windows were sealed, they knew the powerful potion had did its job. "I'm betting my entire life's work on this one moment," Professor Ancum smirked, realizing he hadn't taken such a huge risk in a long time, he knew if Jamieson still lost his life to the basilisk-blood potion, it would prove that his potion was a big flop since his claims were that the potion could negate every single bad outcome a person could possibly face in any situation for 10 minutes after ingesting it instead of simply raising one's luck.
Plus it was his emergency vial, something he'd keep on him at all times.
"Here goes nothing," Madam Abbott gulped, pouring just the right amount into Jamieson's mouth. Leonidas, Frona, Graham, Samuel and the rest of the professors– excluding the unconscious Ajax– watched in anticipation and hope as the black liquid flowed down into his mouth and presumably the rest of his body, nothing happened for a few seconds...
Until it kicked in.
Jamieson's body began to violently shake, mimicking a seizure as liquids of various colour began flowing out of his mouth and nose, even though the small pores of his skin. The professors had to stop the students who had lurched forth in an attempt to hold Jamieson's body down, knowing if they made contact with the maggot sludge which was now being forcefully expelled from Jamieson's body, they'd add more problems to the situation.
Everyone in the room, including the snake, had watched in anxiousness as Jamieson's body continued to violently shake, the Life and Mind orb was wailing like there was tomorrow signalling he was extremely at risk of his body giving out and simply dying... Until it stopped.
The various, dark-coloured liquids had suddenly had dissipated into thin air as Jamieson's body stopped shaking quite abruptly , the orbs had slowly stabled as his skin slowly regain its proper colours, the various swells all over his body were shrinking as he slowly regained his original features, the entire room burst into loud cries of victory upon realizing their efforts were not wasted, especially Leonidas and Frona, who had obviously gone to hell and back for the basilisk, Professor Ancum couldn't help but beam at the sleeping Ajax next to Jamieson's bed, his newfound adoration for the man seemingly growing every moment.
The room soon died down, Leonidas and Frona fast asleep on the basilisk's coiled body as it rested its head on Leonidas' legs, fatigue finally taking over the two. "Graham, you do know you sent these two to on an extremely high risk mission, right? Had they not gotten lucky with a tamed basilisk,we'd have lost three lives tonight," Professor Ancum approached the older student, Samuel couldn't help but watch from a distance as Graham had gotten a proper scolding from the professor.
Technically they did do the right thing, but in a completely wrong way. They couldn't, however, risk asking the two to steal ingredients for their polyjuice potion, since getting caught would put them into more trouble compared to this. Professor Ancum was generally a chill person, but touching his personal stash without permission was basically a death sentence.
The rest of the day had passed quietly, the harsh wintry snow was picking up once again though the rest of the castle residents were enjoying the castle's protection.
"Mmh..." A gentle hum had startled Ajax awake. The basilisk-blood concoction, aided by the insane effects of the Enchanted Felix Felicis, had seemingly sped up his recovery far beyond anyone's expectation.
"J-Jamieson?" Ajax gasped, realizing the boy had completely recovered, regaining all of his original features, the only difference was an odd streak of white across his hair. Ajax knew what the streak meant, but he didn't want the boy to worry about anything else. Ajax was beyond ecstatic, seeing how his potion had worked and cured the boy.
"What... W-What happened?" Jamieson breathed out, his voice hoarse. Though he had fully recovered, his head still felt somewhat light and his body still felt weird, in a sense. "I... I-I feel like it'd been dragged out of my grave," He blinked a few times, scanning the room, he was confused as to why Frona and Leonidas looked so disheveled and laying on a giant living silver snake and why he was attached to two glowing orbs. The last time he remembered was his body being overwhelmed by a thousand sensations, he also remembered watching his skin turned various different colours.
"I know you're very confused, I'm asking you to go back to sleep, alright? Frona and Leonidas will explain everything when you wake up. You need more rest, the potion's probably still working in you," Ajax explained, laying back down on his bed with a million thoughts swimming in his head, the loudest one being 'It worked!' repeating endlessly.
The night quickly went by quietly, the majority of the students who had stayed behind wasn't even aware of the events going on in the infirmary, most of them excitedly awaiting the return of their friends, which was only a few days away.
As the sun rose, slowly did the students awake. "Jamieson?" Leonidas had been first to wake up that morning, gently shaking him awake, the blond boy was beyond ecstatic to see his best friend finally returning to normal. Seeing his state the first thing after coming back to the school was traumatizing for him, he'd never seen nor imagined someone to be in such a state.
"Mm," Jamieson stirred, his eyes fluttering open, prompting Leonidas to embrace him as hard as he could. "You're gonna suffocate me," Jamieson squeaked, feeling his ribs being crushed by how hard Leonidas was hugging him. He still didn't understand how someone so thin could be so strong. Or at least Jamieson thought he was thin, he'd never seen Leonidas without clothes.
"I thought you were gonna die," Leonidas squeaked, looking into Jamieson's bicoloured eyes, tears streaming out of his own. The blond boy's stank finally hit Jamieson once the hug broke, neither he nor Frona had enough energy to take a bath, both of them crashed on top of the basilisk after the whole ordeal was done the night before.
"Grawp, what're you doing here?" Asked Frona, who had just awakened from her slumber, the frizzy, ginger-haired girl got off the silver-scaled snake who was also woken up from the noise. "I was informed by Professor McDuffel about er'... A basilisk?" He answered rather hesitantly, still trying to process the headmaster's own words about a friendly basilisk.
"What... Are you going to do with him?" Leonidas worriedly asked, eyeing the snake who uncoiled itself, curiously and slowly slithering towards the half-giant afterwards. "Don't yer' worry, Snakey here ain't the firs' dangerous thing Professor McDuffel had me take care of before," Grawp grinned widely, petting the silver-scaled snake with his large hands.
"Alright then, take care little guy. We'll come visit soon," Leonidas smiled warmly at the young basilisk, both he and Frona gave their last hugs before Grawp led the creature out of the room, Jamieson eyeing the both of them with confusion. He'd heard of the creature from somewhere before, remembering how it was a dangerous creature, so seeing the two treat it like a pet was concerning to him.
"So... Care to explain what happened while I was out, cold?" Jamieson asked as the two approached him again, knowing full well they had gone on an entire adventure seeing how disheveled and rather stinky they were. Leonidas opened his mouth to explain, only to be silenced by Madam Abbott approaching him. "All in due time. I'm sure you two want to explain everything, but Jamieson needs more rest and you might wake up Professor Sage. You two go back to your common rooms and take a long bath, Jamieson will return soon and then you can explain everything. Hurry along now," She ushered the two out, "Bye Jamieson! We'll tell you everything later," Leonidas grinned as he waved back at the boy on the bed, silence soon returning to the room.
Meanwhile, in the prefect's lounge, a new room magically constructed a few decades back, which is located just across the prefect's bathroom...
"Are you two sure you wanna do this?" Samantha Harkins, a dark-skinned, blue-eyed prefect from Ravenclaw, entered the room, the male Hufflepuff prefect trailing behind her. "Well, yeah. They've almost killed Jamieson this time, Samantha, a first year student!" Samuel cried in anger, remembering how near-death the aforementioned student was.
"Okay, okay. Chill. I'll begin brewing the potion soon, we just need the lacewings to stew for 21 days," She explained as Orlando, the fourth member of their small friend group, whipped out 5 small vials. "I have the fluxweed and the hair samples you asked for," He handed the three vials to the one person who had managed to ace all of her potions classes.
"Right, here's the plan..." Graham huddled them together, explaining the plan for the last time, reminding them everything would fall into place once the potion was done. Each of them knew what they had to do, even though what they were doing was quite illegal, they knew something had to be done to put the two crazed fangirls of Graham in their place.