An in-depth look at the founders of Hogwarts, brought to you by Dia and me, the author
of this chapter, Aladastrius. This particular chapter does not focus on Salazar, but the
"badger", Helga Hufflepuff.
Le Chemin de Malfoi
Chapter 2: Forgotten Catacombs
By: Dia&Aladastrius
The city's air is intoxicated with the smoke of hundreds of homes. The riverbanks are
filled with the dead bodies of the criminals and the living bodies of the homeless. The
streets filled with human and animal waste. Yet I still call this home. This is Paris, Normandy,
in the year of our Savior 1061.
A city filled with the terror of magick and Gypsies trapped into the sanctuaries of the lord.
Burnings are seemed to be held every eve as if they were a rite given unto the people. This
is how I got myself into this mess in the first place.
All I did was steel a piece of bread. Yet the damned society thinks I have committed
witchcraft. The cell I have been thrown into is as lurid as the streets above my head. It
reeks of death and decay. The stones are mossy and cold to the touch. They bring a sense
of fore brooding. I have been sentenced to burn an hour after sundown.
The light of the sun slowly slips down into the horizon. The last of its sneaky tendrils
brushing against my skin, giving me its last warmth I ever hope to see. The guard in front
of my cage stirs. He is a bulky man, and wears a helmet of iron. He looks like the classic
guard I had seen in the picture books my mother used to show to me before she had died.
I slowly slip down into the corner where a small trickle of a liquid from the streets seep
into my cell. Carriages and people pass my window, not even looking down. They are all
to busy to notice a 'witch' in a cell, waiting for her life to end. My hair is matted and dirty,
extremely dirty. My cloak is a tattered garb and barely hangs to my frame of a body. How
could the daughter of a Marquise go so badly astray?
My mind races, I have come up with a plan, a plan to go back to my father and family,
even if it kills me I will try. I crouch even farther, getting ready to run at any open chance.
Yelling wafts down the corridor closely followed by the agonized scream of a tortured
body and soul. I can barely hear the laughter of the drunken guards in their barracks, float
into my cell. The guard gets up from his post and leaves. The sun is now gone from this
small world of mine. A time passes before the guard resumes his post. Only this time he
doesn't go to sit down, he stands by the door with a key. I can hear the key being placed
into the lock and the small 'click' it makes as it unlocks itself. The guard opens the door; it
makes an annoying screeching noise. I look out into the hall; the only thing I can see is the
silhouette of the guard.
This guard seems to be more muscle then brain. He has forgotten a lantern, yet there is
still enough ample light to see around for a prisoner. I try to quietly sneak along the door,
but my luck has run out, I trip. A shackle chain has got caught around my foot. I growl
out myself, but too late. The guard has heard my efforts and whirls around looking wildly
around. He hasn't looked at the ground and least expected my foot to pull his leg out from
him. It does and he falls to the ground in a loud 'thump'. He doesn't seem to think to yell,
for help, thinking a girl would be no match, and he still doesn't. I quickly jump to my feet
and try and jump out the door, yet this time the guard has caught me. He has caught my
foot and I fall the ground, cutting my arm on the corner of the door. It starts to bleed
profusely. I turn around angered and start to pummel him with my fists. It does nothing
for his head yet I hit him over the chest and neck. He grunts and I jump up, this time
without the guard grabbing at me. I start to kick him. I finally lay him unconscious with a
blow to the nose. I can feel the cartilage breaking under my toes. I stop, hoping no one
has heard the commotion, yet someone has. I start to run away, looking for an escape.
Angry voices start coming in the direction of the torture chamber so I run the other
direction.
Angered voices in French follow my escape. I can see the other guards' shadows on the
walls behind me and I run faster. Their heavy breathing is easily distinguished. I see a
sliver of moonlight up ahead and I sprint for the light. My escape is the only thing on my
mind. Where the moonlight is coming from is a door, a door to my freedom! I keep on
racing, the door ever nearing. My exodus is the only thing on my mind that I never notice
the man on my right. He is heavily cloaked in dark colors and jumps up to grab me. I try
to yell as the man grabs my rigid body and places a hand over my mouth. He quietly
pushes me into the corner, a finger over his mouth indicating silence. I keep quiet and he
removes his hand. Then before I know what I am doing I take a swing at the man with my
fist; He dodges it easily and hits me over the head with a rock. I quickly slip into the icy
world of unconsciousness.
~*~*~*~
The man as quickly as he had chosen one out, which he would explain later, since the girl
seemed to be very hostile, brave, but still hostile. He quickly replaced the chosen one with
the body of the peasant girl. The guards wouldn't care. As soon as he had replaced the
body, he let his magick fields down. For his age and practice, the shields were very
complicated and still very tiring.
The girl was very dirty, naive, and stupid. He had asked his partner, Julian to seduce the
girl, for he was the better looking of the two of them, and younger for that matter. The
girl took little time to get to the dungeons, and with the help of his magick he had gotten
the Third of the Four chosen ones. He had gotten the badger, yet this was the best time to
teach her. The girl had a trickle of scarlet blood running down her chin and looked to be
dazed. Yet he knew very well that she wasn't.
Finally, after the man had dropped into the shadows and rolled the chosen one under some
straw, did the guards come. The found the peasant and took her away. He waited until the
guards were what seemed to be far away, until he stirred. He had chocolate brown hair the
reached down to his shoulder blades, and he was never caught without it in a braid down
his back. His face was clouded in his robe, and he knelt by the chosen one and picked her
up. He mutters a few choice words and the badger quickly was as light as a feather. He
pushed back the hidden stone entranceway and entered the dark tunnel. After he closed
the entranceway, he took out a piece of wood, that looked like a makeshift wand and
muttered under his breath, "lumos," there was quickly a dull light in the tunnel.
He started to walk down the hall; it was like he had walked hundreds of times before. The
stone inside the passageway was a chalky white and had a luminescent value to it. He
walked for what seemed like 2 kilometers before he stopped. He then pointed his wand
and the third stone below the ceiling and started to mutter Latin under his breath. The wall
disappeared and in its place was the river, Seine.
The river was dark, even darker now that it was night, and wood could be seen here or
there floating quickly downstream. He set down the girl and removed the spell, after that
he put a charm on her that would lead her body to the catacombs, one of the many
entranceways that led to many places neither wholly of earth nor wholly of heaven. Yet he
knew she would find her way. He then quickly threw her body into the Seine's and
watched it float away in the darkness. Saying a pray to one of his many God's, he turned
around making sure to close the tunnel behind him. He then left to find Julian, because
they would need to start her training as soon as possible.
~*~*~*~
It seemed days had passed before I had awoke from my unconscious rest. I had ended up
in an entranceway of some kind, Then before my mind had even an inkling to where I was,
a fear in myself popped up and the name struck me, the Catacombs. The evil place where
pagans had preformed their rituals, then the druids, and now they lay disbanded, cursed
forever. I shuddered, but the weird thing was that I was deep inside the catacombs. The
passageways were dark, and I could barely see; yet I kept going, not knowing where, I
kept going.
Once again, days passed and I was scared and starved, going out of my mind, I crawled
on. I didn't know I was going deeper into the Catacombs, mind always going back to the
last sunset I saw, how ironic how that came true. Finally, to tired and weak to go on, I
passed out. My body stumbled over bones, and then my body was neither under bones,
nor solid ground anymore, I was sailing through the empty space, my body occasionally
hitting the roughly carved sides.
I had fallen through a vertical passageway into a lighted chamber. My body finally hit
strangely soft ground with a sickening crunch. I felt as if I was on fire. My limp body
rolled over, and a shadow stood above me. Blood was leaking from the back of my head
where I had fallen. When I had awoken a small man, that looked like a lost monk was
attending me, strangely, I felt healed and regenerated. He wore a brown robe and had a
piece of rope for a belt. His hair was cut like a monk's, a ring of hair around the head
without any hair in the middle of the circle and he had a small pair of glasses on his
bulbous nose. He was pretty chubby and looked like the spitting image of Friar Tuck. I
had heard of Friar Tuck before from my mother. A tear rolled down my check at the
thought of my mother.
"What about my trial?" I asked one day while he put herbs over my forehead. The small
man nearly died of heart attack from shock, but quickly overcame it and wiped sweat from
his brow.
"Well," He started sounding croaky, "you will not be burned, Martamaius, saved you," he
went back to a table in the corner of the room. It seemed that there were hundred's of
exit's out of this chamber. I sat back as the man came back and wiped my brow.
"You had quiet a nasty fall m'lady." he said. I laughed. The man smiled meekly in return.
"I've had worse," I replied. He shook his head. "Who is the Martamaius?" I asked totally
forgetting our conservation.
"Well, m'lady..." he stopped thinking, "Well... I really don't know. I just know he is good.
He is supposed to bring the four together. And you m'lady are one of the four, the
badger." I looked puzzled.
"So I asked, this Martamaius, wasn't and isn't going to hurt me?" I asked looking
skeptical.
"Oh yes m'lady, he will just bring you to the isle, and give you your training." He stopped
looking at me. "Oh my!" He exclaimed, " You look like you are about to die of fever!" He
hurried over to me. I tried to push him away, but soon stopped, I was feeling hot and laid
back down.
"So what is this isle?" I tried asking. He just cut me off with a look. I stopped and tried
another question, "So, good sir, and what should I call you?" He smiled and looked at one
of the entranceway's thinking.
"Well, m'lady, that is a difficult question..." he trailed off thinking. "Hmm." he started.
"You can call me Father Tuthill. I am an Abbot m'dear if you must know," he smiled
knowingly and patted my shoulder. "And what can I call you m'dear?"
I didn't have to take as much time as the old monk and answered as soon as the final word
had left his tongue. "Helga, Helga Hufflepuff." I smiled and closed my eyes. He seemed to
be a nice person, but before he had placed the rag on my forehead I was asleep.
What seemed like hours later, I finally woke up. And once again Father Tuthill was above
me, sweat was drenching his brow and he looked very worried. A look of relief shook
through his features as my eyes fluttered open.
"Oh Miss Hufflepuff, m'dear!" he looked in disbelief, "I thought you were almost dead!
You were in a terrible fever and have gone terribly pale!" I sat up, a painful headache
following me.
"I'm all right Father!" he didn't look any more relieved. He crossed his arms and looked
sternly at me.
"Oh okay, if you say so..." he finally gave in. "Well, I guess now that you are already
healed, I guess I will call Julian or Martamaius to come for you. Your training waits," he
left the room and before her feet had touched the ground had she noticed that she was in a
clean robe, and magickally the pain and fever seemed to be gone. 'What kind of training
do they want of me?' I asked myself, but before I could think of anything the Abbot was
back and there was a young, blonde man following him.
"This is Julian," Father Tuthill said, "he will take you to the portal way." Julian smiled at
me and I could feel my stomach flutter. I walked toward the Abbot and gave him a hug.
He looked so surprised that he blushed and went around packing things, not noticing that
he kept missing the bag and hitting the floor.
He finally managed to get everything packed into a grain sack and gave me a rosewood
staff. I thanked him profusely for the gift, and said I should have it that it was his wife's
and that he wouldn't need it. So I took the sack and staff and followed Julian, into the
nearest entranceway. I looked back and could still see the Father he had a handkerchief up
to his eyes and was waving. I waved back and started to follow Julian into the darkness of
the heart of the Catacombs.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
*
Notes:
1. Helga Hufflepuff, and some spells belong to Author J.K. Rowling. Everything donned
'fictitious' belongs to me.
2. Don't panic but you will see more Julian and the Martamaius in later chapters
3. If you didn't know, the Catacombs are a place, right under the city of Paris France
(Take that Rembridge Scholars! he he)
4. Ten Points to anyone who knows what the Place that is "neither wholly of Earth, nor
wholly of heaven" is!
5. Normandy is our present France
Dia's note: This chapter was written before Chapter 1. Also, I would like to give a big, humongous thank you
to those that have reviewed. The thanks go to:
Whitebears, I appreciatte the fact that you continue to review every chapter so far and hopefully this one. I also
enjoy talking to you almost daily ^_^ It's nice to have author friends!
Mina, I am grateful to your kindly comments, and I know that I (we) need a beta-reader badly. Are you interested in
the job?
Arianne, I am extremely happy that you find this worth your while and please, read more!
Last but not least, Dylan S. Thompson. Your review has given me much pride in this project. I do not know about
Aladastrius, but I am eternally greatful, and I wish that you would've left (sp?) your email address so I could talk to
you.
of this chapter, Aladastrius. This particular chapter does not focus on Salazar, but the
"badger", Helga Hufflepuff.
Le Chemin de Malfoi
Chapter 2: Forgotten Catacombs
By: Dia&Aladastrius
The city's air is intoxicated with the smoke of hundreds of homes. The riverbanks are
filled with the dead bodies of the criminals and the living bodies of the homeless. The
streets filled with human and animal waste. Yet I still call this home. This is Paris, Normandy,
in the year of our Savior 1061.
A city filled with the terror of magick and Gypsies trapped into the sanctuaries of the lord.
Burnings are seemed to be held every eve as if they were a rite given unto the people. This
is how I got myself into this mess in the first place.
All I did was steel a piece of bread. Yet the damned society thinks I have committed
witchcraft. The cell I have been thrown into is as lurid as the streets above my head. It
reeks of death and decay. The stones are mossy and cold to the touch. They bring a sense
of fore brooding. I have been sentenced to burn an hour after sundown.
The light of the sun slowly slips down into the horizon. The last of its sneaky tendrils
brushing against my skin, giving me its last warmth I ever hope to see. The guard in front
of my cage stirs. He is a bulky man, and wears a helmet of iron. He looks like the classic
guard I had seen in the picture books my mother used to show to me before she had died.
I slowly slip down into the corner where a small trickle of a liquid from the streets seep
into my cell. Carriages and people pass my window, not even looking down. They are all
to busy to notice a 'witch' in a cell, waiting for her life to end. My hair is matted and dirty,
extremely dirty. My cloak is a tattered garb and barely hangs to my frame of a body. How
could the daughter of a Marquise go so badly astray?
My mind races, I have come up with a plan, a plan to go back to my father and family,
even if it kills me I will try. I crouch even farther, getting ready to run at any open chance.
Yelling wafts down the corridor closely followed by the agonized scream of a tortured
body and soul. I can barely hear the laughter of the drunken guards in their barracks, float
into my cell. The guard gets up from his post and leaves. The sun is now gone from this
small world of mine. A time passes before the guard resumes his post. Only this time he
doesn't go to sit down, he stands by the door with a key. I can hear the key being placed
into the lock and the small 'click' it makes as it unlocks itself. The guard opens the door; it
makes an annoying screeching noise. I look out into the hall; the only thing I can see is the
silhouette of the guard.
This guard seems to be more muscle then brain. He has forgotten a lantern, yet there is
still enough ample light to see around for a prisoner. I try to quietly sneak along the door,
but my luck has run out, I trip. A shackle chain has got caught around my foot. I growl
out myself, but too late. The guard has heard my efforts and whirls around looking wildly
around. He hasn't looked at the ground and least expected my foot to pull his leg out from
him. It does and he falls to the ground in a loud 'thump'. He doesn't seem to think to yell,
for help, thinking a girl would be no match, and he still doesn't. I quickly jump to my feet
and try and jump out the door, yet this time the guard has caught me. He has caught my
foot and I fall the ground, cutting my arm on the corner of the door. It starts to bleed
profusely. I turn around angered and start to pummel him with my fists. It does nothing
for his head yet I hit him over the chest and neck. He grunts and I jump up, this time
without the guard grabbing at me. I start to kick him. I finally lay him unconscious with a
blow to the nose. I can feel the cartilage breaking under my toes. I stop, hoping no one
has heard the commotion, yet someone has. I start to run away, looking for an escape.
Angry voices start coming in the direction of the torture chamber so I run the other
direction.
Angered voices in French follow my escape. I can see the other guards' shadows on the
walls behind me and I run faster. Their heavy breathing is easily distinguished. I see a
sliver of moonlight up ahead and I sprint for the light. My escape is the only thing on my
mind. Where the moonlight is coming from is a door, a door to my freedom! I keep on
racing, the door ever nearing. My exodus is the only thing on my mind that I never notice
the man on my right. He is heavily cloaked in dark colors and jumps up to grab me. I try
to yell as the man grabs my rigid body and places a hand over my mouth. He quietly
pushes me into the corner, a finger over his mouth indicating silence. I keep quiet and he
removes his hand. Then before I know what I am doing I take a swing at the man with my
fist; He dodges it easily and hits me over the head with a rock. I quickly slip into the icy
world of unconsciousness.
~*~*~*~
The man as quickly as he had chosen one out, which he would explain later, since the girl
seemed to be very hostile, brave, but still hostile. He quickly replaced the chosen one with
the body of the peasant girl. The guards wouldn't care. As soon as he had replaced the
body, he let his magick fields down. For his age and practice, the shields were very
complicated and still very tiring.
The girl was very dirty, naive, and stupid. He had asked his partner, Julian to seduce the
girl, for he was the better looking of the two of them, and younger for that matter. The
girl took little time to get to the dungeons, and with the help of his magick he had gotten
the Third of the Four chosen ones. He had gotten the badger, yet this was the best time to
teach her. The girl had a trickle of scarlet blood running down her chin and looked to be
dazed. Yet he knew very well that she wasn't.
Finally, after the man had dropped into the shadows and rolled the chosen one under some
straw, did the guards come. The found the peasant and took her away. He waited until the
guards were what seemed to be far away, until he stirred. He had chocolate brown hair the
reached down to his shoulder blades, and he was never caught without it in a braid down
his back. His face was clouded in his robe, and he knelt by the chosen one and picked her
up. He mutters a few choice words and the badger quickly was as light as a feather. He
pushed back the hidden stone entranceway and entered the dark tunnel. After he closed
the entranceway, he took out a piece of wood, that looked like a makeshift wand and
muttered under his breath, "lumos," there was quickly a dull light in the tunnel.
He started to walk down the hall; it was like he had walked hundreds of times before. The
stone inside the passageway was a chalky white and had a luminescent value to it. He
walked for what seemed like 2 kilometers before he stopped. He then pointed his wand
and the third stone below the ceiling and started to mutter Latin under his breath. The wall
disappeared and in its place was the river, Seine.
The river was dark, even darker now that it was night, and wood could be seen here or
there floating quickly downstream. He set down the girl and removed the spell, after that
he put a charm on her that would lead her body to the catacombs, one of the many
entranceways that led to many places neither wholly of earth nor wholly of heaven. Yet he
knew she would find her way. He then quickly threw her body into the Seine's and
watched it float away in the darkness. Saying a pray to one of his many God's, he turned
around making sure to close the tunnel behind him. He then left to find Julian, because
they would need to start her training as soon as possible.
~*~*~*~
It seemed days had passed before I had awoke from my unconscious rest. I had ended up
in an entranceway of some kind, Then before my mind had even an inkling to where I was,
a fear in myself popped up and the name struck me, the Catacombs. The evil place where
pagans had preformed their rituals, then the druids, and now they lay disbanded, cursed
forever. I shuddered, but the weird thing was that I was deep inside the catacombs. The
passageways were dark, and I could barely see; yet I kept going, not knowing where, I
kept going.
Once again, days passed and I was scared and starved, going out of my mind, I crawled
on. I didn't know I was going deeper into the Catacombs, mind always going back to the
last sunset I saw, how ironic how that came true. Finally, to tired and weak to go on, I
passed out. My body stumbled over bones, and then my body was neither under bones,
nor solid ground anymore, I was sailing through the empty space, my body occasionally
hitting the roughly carved sides.
I had fallen through a vertical passageway into a lighted chamber. My body finally hit
strangely soft ground with a sickening crunch. I felt as if I was on fire. My limp body
rolled over, and a shadow stood above me. Blood was leaking from the back of my head
where I had fallen. When I had awoken a small man, that looked like a lost monk was
attending me, strangely, I felt healed and regenerated. He wore a brown robe and had a
piece of rope for a belt. His hair was cut like a monk's, a ring of hair around the head
without any hair in the middle of the circle and he had a small pair of glasses on his
bulbous nose. He was pretty chubby and looked like the spitting image of Friar Tuck. I
had heard of Friar Tuck before from my mother. A tear rolled down my check at the
thought of my mother.
"What about my trial?" I asked one day while he put herbs over my forehead. The small
man nearly died of heart attack from shock, but quickly overcame it and wiped sweat from
his brow.
"Well," He started sounding croaky, "you will not be burned, Martamaius, saved you," he
went back to a table in the corner of the room. It seemed that there were hundred's of
exit's out of this chamber. I sat back as the man came back and wiped my brow.
"You had quiet a nasty fall m'lady." he said. I laughed. The man smiled meekly in return.
"I've had worse," I replied. He shook his head. "Who is the Martamaius?" I asked totally
forgetting our conservation.
"Well, m'lady..." he stopped thinking, "Well... I really don't know. I just know he is good.
He is supposed to bring the four together. And you m'lady are one of the four, the
badger." I looked puzzled.
"So I asked, this Martamaius, wasn't and isn't going to hurt me?" I asked looking
skeptical.
"Oh yes m'lady, he will just bring you to the isle, and give you your training." He stopped
looking at me. "Oh my!" He exclaimed, " You look like you are about to die of fever!" He
hurried over to me. I tried to push him away, but soon stopped, I was feeling hot and laid
back down.
"So what is this isle?" I tried asking. He just cut me off with a look. I stopped and tried
another question, "So, good sir, and what should I call you?" He smiled and looked at one
of the entranceway's thinking.
"Well, m'lady, that is a difficult question..." he trailed off thinking. "Hmm." he started.
"You can call me Father Tuthill. I am an Abbot m'dear if you must know," he smiled
knowingly and patted my shoulder. "And what can I call you m'dear?"
I didn't have to take as much time as the old monk and answered as soon as the final word
had left his tongue. "Helga, Helga Hufflepuff." I smiled and closed my eyes. He seemed to
be a nice person, but before he had placed the rag on my forehead I was asleep.
What seemed like hours later, I finally woke up. And once again Father Tuthill was above
me, sweat was drenching his brow and he looked very worried. A look of relief shook
through his features as my eyes fluttered open.
"Oh Miss Hufflepuff, m'dear!" he looked in disbelief, "I thought you were almost dead!
You were in a terrible fever and have gone terribly pale!" I sat up, a painful headache
following me.
"I'm all right Father!" he didn't look any more relieved. He crossed his arms and looked
sternly at me.
"Oh okay, if you say so..." he finally gave in. "Well, I guess now that you are already
healed, I guess I will call Julian or Martamaius to come for you. Your training waits," he
left the room and before her feet had touched the ground had she noticed that she was in a
clean robe, and magickally the pain and fever seemed to be gone. 'What kind of training
do they want of me?' I asked myself, but before I could think of anything the Abbot was
back and there was a young, blonde man following him.
"This is Julian," Father Tuthill said, "he will take you to the portal way." Julian smiled at
me and I could feel my stomach flutter. I walked toward the Abbot and gave him a hug.
He looked so surprised that he blushed and went around packing things, not noticing that
he kept missing the bag and hitting the floor.
He finally managed to get everything packed into a grain sack and gave me a rosewood
staff. I thanked him profusely for the gift, and said I should have it that it was his wife's
and that he wouldn't need it. So I took the sack and staff and followed Julian, into the
nearest entranceway. I looked back and could still see the Father he had a handkerchief up
to his eyes and was waving. I waved back and started to follow Julian into the darkness of
the heart of the Catacombs.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
*
Notes:
1. Helga Hufflepuff, and some spells belong to Author J.K. Rowling. Everything donned
'fictitious' belongs to me.
2. Don't panic but you will see more Julian and the Martamaius in later chapters
3. If you didn't know, the Catacombs are a place, right under the city of Paris France
(Take that Rembridge Scholars! he he)
4. Ten Points to anyone who knows what the Place that is "neither wholly of Earth, nor
wholly of heaven" is!
5. Normandy is our present France
Dia's note: This chapter was written before Chapter 1. Also, I would like to give a big, humongous thank you
to those that have reviewed. The thanks go to:
Whitebears, I appreciatte the fact that you continue to review every chapter so far and hopefully this one. I also
enjoy talking to you almost daily ^_^ It's nice to have author friends!
Mina, I am grateful to your kindly comments, and I know that I (we) need a beta-reader badly. Are you interested in
the job?
Arianne, I am extremely happy that you find this worth your while and please, read more!
Last but not least, Dylan S. Thompson. Your review has given me much pride in this project. I do not know about
Aladastrius, but I am eternally greatful, and I wish that you would've left (sp?) your email address so I could talk to
you.