"I jinxed it," Harry admitted to Ron as he was stripping off his soaked quidditch robes the Saturday before Halloween.
"What happened?" Ron asked, staring out at the still-pouring sky that, until recently, Wood had been forcing the team to practice in.
"Got distracted by Nearly-Headless Nick on the way in from practice. Didn't see Mrs. Norris sneaking up on me, and only spotted Filch when it was too late to get into my cloak," Harry summed up. "He was proper upset that I'd tracked water and mud into the castle."
"You got detention?" Ron checked.
"Almost. He was writing me up when Peeves dropped a cabinet above his office and he ran out to check it out. Any idea what Kwikspell is? With a K-W instead of how you'd normally spell quick? When he got back he was so embarrassed that he thought I'd read his mail from them that he just let me go."
"I think it's some kind of mail course for people that are bad at magic," Ron remembered. "You didn't read it?"
"No," Harry grinned. "I spent the time he was out of the office stuffing everything I could into my inventory."
[Marauders: Active] Harry Potter: Fred and George, when you're cleaned up, come to our room. I grabbed a bunch of contraband from Filch's office.
"Wicked," Ron said. "So then what's the problem?"
Harry sighed, "Nick got Peeves to drop the cabinet, and he wants me to go to his deathday party instead of the feast to pay him back."
"Probably not a big deal," Ron figured. "We weren't going to fight the Heir at the feast, just figure out who it is. All we need is enough people to go to spot who turned green."
"Guess so," Harry nodded.
They spent the rest of the afternoon, once he and the twins had gotten cleaned up, going through what he'd managed to steal from Filch's office. There didn't appear to be any really good finds like the Marauder's Map, but Fred and George were extremely excited to make plans for most of the stuff he had grabbed. They were also very amused that he'd grabbed the contents of their delinquency file, reminiscing over some of the really good pranks that had landed them in his office.
Due to that missing material, Filch was certain that Fred and George had been the ones to clean out his office, but had no way to prove it. McGonagall refused to let him send them to detention on just the suspicion. His attempt to raid their room for proof later in the week failed when Harry spotted him coming and they managed to stuff all the contraband back into Harry's inventory, where no one seemed to be able to find it.
Hopefully the goblins didn't have anything to detect the prank items being sent to his vault as his inventory overflowed. The twins had a lot of contraband. He even now had a salamander they'd "rescued" from creatures class added to his personal menagerie.
The afternoon before Halloween, a new quest appeared in Harry's log.
Dead: a Head
Finish decapitating Sir Nicholas
"Well it must be possible, then, if you have a quest for it," Hermione assumed, once he relayed that. "But I imagine he must have tried everything in the last five centuries." Nearly-Headless Nick had been prevented from joining the Headless Hunt due to the small flap of neck skin that still held his head to his body. This was important for some reason that eluded the living.
"Then what can we try that he wouldn't have thought of?" Ron suggested. "Something to do with the game system?"
"Must be," Harry figured. "But it's not like I have anything else that has like, given me a ghost sword. And probably there are ghosts with swords that he's asked."
They spent the evening in the library as usual, but with Harry actually helping research rather than just looking for skill books. It didn't help that they didn't exactly know what they were looking for.
"Has he tried just putting his head in the beam a particle accelerator?" Hermione checked.
"Do you know where one of those is?" Harry asked, not totally sure what it was, but knowing it sounded sciency so Ron would have no clue. "Can he even get far from the castle?"
"What if he just put his head in the headmaster's fireplace and waited for the floo to activate?" Ron tried.
"How would he explain that to Professor Dumbledore?" Hermione asked.
Harry did his best Nearly-Headless Nick impression, "Oh. Lovely to see you headmaster. I don't suppose anyone's popping by through the floo this evening?" They laughed at it and he considered, "I don't suppose we can get him to possess a statue, break the head off, put both parts in my inventory, and send one piece to the vault?"
Hermione and Ron considered that for a moment before she opined, "That definitely uses the game system… but even if it let you put Sir Nicholas in your inventory when it wouldn't let you put Hedwig in, I don't think ghosts can possess objects."
"Voldemort possessed Quirrell," Harry argued.
"Well, now we're talking about decapitating a person, not a statue," Hermione explained. "And as far as I know, normal ghosts can't do that. Nothing I'm reading here about them indicates that what Voldemort did should be possible. He might not even technically be a ghost."
"Fair," he admitted.
Ron eventually asked, "Are we overthinking that it's game related?"
"What do you mean?" she asked.
He continued, "Is there anything else we have that Nick wouldn't have been able to get in the last 500 years?"
"Other than modern technology wizards wouldn't have thought of?" Harry asked.
"Some muggleborn would have thought of it?" Ron figured. "Unless it's brand new. But you said we don't know one of those partial incubators is."
"Particle accelerators," Hermione began, then cut herself off from tangenting into a lecture about how those worked as she realized, "A basilisk! Professor Snape says they're very rare. And their venom can basically destroy anything!"
Harry eyed the basilisk fang in his inventory and asked, "If it can hurt ghosts… could we accidentally kill him?"
"We'll do it under precise circumstances. And give him the choice," she nodded. "It will be very good information. If it can hurt him, maybe it can be used on Voldemort."
That was how all six active Marauders and one skeptical-but-optimistic ghost wound up in an abandoned classroom on Halloween morning. "While I am quite interested in this process, should we have a professor to oversee the attempt?" Nick asked.
"We… kind of don't want them to know we have a basilisk fang, in case they don't let us keep it. We figure we're going to need it," Harry explained.
"They do tend to confiscate that kind of thing," Nick agreed. "Why, I remember a fine saber my father had gifted me that was locked in the headmaster's office for 'safekeeping' when I went to school here. Depriving a nobleman from his weapon! Illegal in some places at the time, but not here, it seems." He plucked up his spectral Gryffindor courage and decided, "Very well. I shall keep your secret, no matter the outcome. And if that outcome is a violent end, at least I shall not suffer another five centuries with this loathsome… skin tag."
"That's the spirit," Fred told him.
"Literally!" George added.
"Let's have you lean over this glass beaker that's supposed to be rated for basilisk venom," Hermione suggested. "And hold your head forward. Yes, that's good. A little to your left. Stop there, I'll just adjust it." She pushed the beaker across the table so it was an inch under where Nick was stretching the bit of skin still holding his head to his body.
It was weird the things you started to consider normal, at Hogwarts.
"Here goes," Harry said, putting on his dragonhide gloves and withdrawing the fang from his inventory with his back turned so Nick wouldn't see it just appear in his hand. "Everyone else stand back."
The other five living individuals took a couple of steps away and, hoping that this wasn't a terrible idea, he brought the point of the fang down to lightly touch the ghostly flesh. For a moment, nothing happened, and Nick asked, "I say, are you… oh… oh it has been some time since I felt pain." The strip of skin began to blacken at the point of the fang, and Harry drew it away just in case. In a few more seconds, the head under tension away from the body, it began to smoke and then, with another, "Ouch," from Nick, it popped away.
The ghost straightened up, hands holding his head away from his body. The pain on his face turned into a grin as he moved the fully-decapitated appendage around with a freedom he'd never had. Chortling and tossing it up in the air, barely managing to catch it on the way down. "Hold still a moment, Sir Nicholas," Hermione warned, moving in to inspect the torn ends of the once-troublesome flesh bridge. Harry used the distraction to once again place the clearly ghost-harming basilisk fang back into his inventory. "The damage doesn't appear to be spreading," she confirmed after several seconds of study.
"And the pain is gone!" Nick exulted.
"Happy to help," Harry nodded. "Just don't mention the fang to anyone, or how we fixed you, and we'll call it even."
"I'm loathe to leave you so unrewarded. I know! Contraband for use of contraband! That sword my father gave me remains here still. It's castle-forged, and has been kept up. I have no use of it, and have had the elves maintain it for sentimentality. I'll have them bring it to you. And I hope to still see you tonight. This is finally the year I join the Headless Hunt!"
"Wouldn't miss it," Harry smiled.
QUEST COMPLETE
50 XP Earned
Quest Reward: The Blade of Headless Nick
Nick went sailing off through the walls tossing his head like he was auditioning for a sports team rather than whatever the Headless Hunt was, and, sure enough, before lunch Harry found a well-maintained but clearly centuries-old broadsword laying on his bed. It was carefully inlaid with gold and quite beautiful. More importantly, it had been made as a sword for a school-aged Nicholas, so wasn't so big that Harry would be incapable of wielding it.
THE BLADE OF HEADLESS NICK
This broadsword was commissioned by his father for
Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington when he was at
Hogwarts. It has numerous charms to maintain strength
and sharpness. When wielded by a mage, it can be used
to deflect spells similarly to a shield charm.
"Wicked," Ron exclaimed as Harry narrated the inspection results to the Marauders that had gathered in their room to see the quest reward.
Hermione had been chewing over something he'd said and mentioned, "He said the 'elves' were maintaining it? House elves, like Dobby?"
"Who do you think makes our meals and cleans everything?" Lee asked.
"I… castle staff… like Mr. Filch?" she struggled to answer, since she'd honestly just completely taken it for granted for more than a year.
"Nobody knows why Filch thinks he has to clean everything," George explained.
"I think he just does it so he can be angry," Fred shrugged.
"Is the school using slave labor?" she asked, resisting the tangent.
"I'm sure they're better-treated than Dobby," Ron tried to placate her.
"I'll see about that," she insisted. None of the boys liked the crusading look that sprung into her eyes, but they had lunch to get to and a sword to play with that afternoon, so they forgot all about it for the moment.
By Nick's deathday party, they'd had a fun afternoon confirming that the sword really could deflect spells, though it was a bit more difficult than hitting a bludger with a beater's bat. Harry was the best at it, owing to the random points of swordfighting that he'd picked up from skill books, but the twins obviously weren't far behind with their beater skills. It also drained a bit of Magical Stamina when it connected, as if the sword basically was helping them cast a shield charm. So far, they hadn't managed to knock a spell back at the caster, but they had high hopes they could figure out the trick of it.
While the older Marauders set up at the Halloween Feast to watch their prank go off and try to find the Heir, the younger three trooped down to the dungeons. While the ghostly party was impressive, the buffet of rotten food was not. Harry was happy that he'd managed to stock up on several meals worth of food in his inventory, and quietly passed some out to Hermione and Ron.
Nick was thrilled to finally be inducted into the Headless Hunt, and the confused congratulations from all the other ghosts about how he'd finally gotten his head all the way off. He managed to hold onto the secret, barely, but the kids could tell he was almost brought to tears by the service they'd done for him.
Happy Holi-ween
* Help Fred and George with their prank
O Find the Heir of Slytherin
About an hour into the celebration, green patches appeared across all of their hands and faces as the twins' prank kicked off.
[Marauders: Active] Harry Potter: Any luck?
Lee Jordan replies: No surprise green. But the audience seems impressed. We'll keep looking.
As they were leaving the celebration, Harry mused, "Guess we're not the only ones missing the feast. Dot moving around a couple of floors up." He zoomed in the map so he could see the dot's name and said, "Ginny's wandering again."
"That's weird," Ron said. "Let's go catch her. Maybe we'll finally figure out what she's sneaking around doing."
They met her coming down the stairs, "Guess Forge and Gred got you all too?" she grinned and waved, fading green evident on her hands and a bit on her face, underneath the brighter orange. She was still shyly unable to look at Harry directly, but at least wasn't completely mute around him anymore after two and a half months.
"I think they got everyone," Harry nodded.
She asked, "Is the feast still going? I didn't mean to miss it. I overslept on my nap."
[Marauders: Active] Harry Potter: Guess you tagged Ginny green?
Fred Weasley replies: No… we didn't. Why?