Chapter 19- Plain Sight
'Up! Up! Up!' It was the only thought in his head as he hurried up the stairs on all fours, repeatedly tumbling and scraping his hands, the incision in his right palm opening even more, making the stone below much more slippery. The wand was forgotten behind, submerged under water.
But Albus didn't care, it was as if an invisible force threw him backward, having no other thought in mind other than getting out of this cursed place. It seemed like hours, but eventually he reached the top of the stairs without even noticing, banging his head hard against the secret entrance.
"Merlin! Merlin!", he wept in pain and confusion, feeling as if his head has been split in two, and watched as the hatch opened, but way too slowly. He pushed, trying to speed up the process, leaving a bloody handprint on it. It seemed to him that the voices were getting stronger- were they able to climb up?
Albus crawled out in terror, scraping his whole body, finally coughing and choking on the corridor's dirty floor. He was about to get up and run as far away as possible when his heart jumped once more. There was a pair of legs in front, but this time, before he could even raise his head, a spell was heard. "Stupefy", there was red and then…
He sank to the bottom like a rock, unable to breathe, all black except the terrifying man in front. The knight raised his sword, and he saw himself through the dead eyes, small and cowardly. But then he was the one above, wand in hand, aiming a green beam towards Brennen, who didn't disappear, his body dangling in place like a wireless marionette. He raised his hand again and his brother got struck. Again, and his sister was next.
His wand struck without stoppage, ruthlessly. His parents joined his siblings, and then his grandparents, his uncles- one after another... He was unable to inhale, now because of his uncontrollable laughter. He enjoyed the exhilaration, the thrill, the power that only came from snuffing out life… That was the answer he looked for…
Then, as his victims fell, they also begun getting up, on by one, grabbing him with their wet, yet strong hands, anchoring him to his place. Nothing he did mattered, his power meaningless now. He watched as others around drifted away, continuing forward as he stayed stuck in the middle, drowning, forever suffering, barely a man… Barely even a thing… Existing only as pain- nothing more, nothing less… He just wanted it to end, but knew it will last forever…
Albus woke up and wildly tossed around, trying to shed the pliers like hands from himself. He surely drowned, his whole body was damp, after all. Yet he somehow managed to breathe. "Al?", he didn't know whether to attack or escape so he settled for falling backwards in a big mass, right onto the hard floor, knocking his nightstand aside in a big commotion.
He looked around confused, he was in his dormitory. " I'm getting in, Al!", Scorpius busted in, carrying with him a blinding lamp, Umbra at his side, accompanying him like a guide dog. "I was down the hatch", he panted, "Where's the dead knight?", he straggled to get up on an unstable knee, looking around in panic. "What are you talking about?", Scorpius voice quivered, his face white as chalk.
A shiver ran down Albus' spine as he remembered what happened, was it all a nightmare? Murmurs began behind the curtains and more lamps begun lighting up. "You were here all this time, you screamed…", Albus barely listened to him, his clothes, which he hadn't changed since this morning, were soaked, but he sweated so much that he couldn't tell what the source of it was.
He franticly looked for his wand, if he wouldn't find it it will surely mean… But there it was! Thrown on the floor next to the other things spilled from the cupboard. He carefully gathered it in his hands, checking its authenticity. He started questioning himself- did he imagine it all or was it just a bad dream? A very tangible, horrifying and realistic one at that.
"Bring the light over here!", he ordered, and Scorpius rushed to do so, almost falling on the objects scattered at his feet. Albus carefully surveyed his hands, feeling the cuts, and thought the skin was more sensitive where they were supposed to be, but he couldn't certainly decide whether he had marks there or not. He clenched his right hand several times, was it just a phantom pain he sensed?
"Are you okay?", the pale boy raised the lamp to review his face, "You look awful. Like the time you collapsed in defence against the dark arts". Albus started to unwind a bit, maybe it was really just a bad dream. He sat down on his bed in relief and felt his head spinning. His clothes may have been soggy, but his own body was dehydrated- this reminded him of something!
He felt his clothes and took out the magic bottle, discovering a large crack alongside it. With shallow breath, Albus pulled the small dictionary out of his other pocket, Scorpius' words not heard in his ears, finding that it was wrinkled, as if dried in the not-too-distant past. He flipped through with bated breath and reached the last page, where instead of the dedication was one large, smeared stain.
"I need to find Brennan!", he exclaimed, jumping to his feet with renewed energy. "Do you know where he is?", he asked as he hurried to the entrance, ignoring the rest of his classmates' confused faces. "He's not here!", Scorpius hurried after him, Umbra close by, "He told me he would be on patrol tonight".
Of course he would, Albus thought, hesitating for a second, but then continued up to the common room, he wasn't going to wait anymore! "Wait, you can't go out!", Scorpius yelled, "You'll be punished! Mr. Pechman will never forgive you for it!", the cat mewed aloud, as if agreeing with him.
"Who cares about punishment?", Albus bellowed, turning in anger, "I need answers! Now!". He heard the door opening behind, and, still shouting, turned around, expecting to see the prefect, "And Pechman can...", he found the Professor himself standing at the entrance.
Despite the pressure he was under, Albus couldn't hold back his surprise. How did he not realise he had been their head house all this time? But it was meaningless, "Move, sir!", he ordered, "I need to find Brennan!". He expected the bald man to lose his temper over his impudence, however, he just kept staring ahead, his eyes unfocused.
It took him a while to notice Albus, and even more for his words to seep into his head, "Brennan?", he choked. "Yes, now move!", Albus continued in the same aggressive tone, hearing Scorpius gasping behind, "Unless you know where he is. It will help me a lot".
"He's...", the Professor began mumbling, confused, "He is...". He paused and sorted out his thoughts, "Why are you even up right now?", he tried, unsuccessfully, to switch to a matter-of-fact tone. "Albus isn't feeling well, sir! He needs to go to the hospital wing!", Scorpius quickly interjected, "He had a nightmare about a dead knight and then he fell…".
Albus lost his already thin patience and tried to pass through Pechman. But the Professor's hand closed on his shoulder like an iron plier, for once anger crossing his eyes. But soon it turned into something else that he couldn't identify, "Come with me to the headmistress' office, she will explain everything", he uneasily said.
"Is Brennan there?", that was the only thing on Albus' mind. The Professor gave an inapprehensible nod, "I will accompany you there", he said, "You should come as well, Scorpius", he added. The secret door closed behind the three of them, sealing back the black cat's loud howling.
Albus realised what would happen, knowing the Professor would try to take him to the matron. But he wouldn't let it happen! He will escape from him at the first opportunity he could. He was so busy in his planning it took him time to register that Pechman began talking, spilling what he had in mind without restraints.
"Your father made my life here a living hell", he told the pale kid, speaking as if in a trance, "That's why I hated you so much at first". Albus sent a confused look at the bald man, and met his gaze, "And your father… I always envied him… So popular and brave... A true born hero...", he turned his head and kept murmuring to himself.
They reached the main corridor that led downstairs, "I hated this place!", he again broke the silence, this time louder than before, "But Tris was always there for me…". the wheels in Albus' brain started to turn, the big picture starting to paint in his head now that he calmed down a bit.
They went over the place where Albus was once caught and begun to ascend the magnificent marble stairs, the statue shadows of Altum Mites menacingly dancing across the walls in the dim torches light. Scorpius noticed they passed the turn that led to the hospital wing and sent Albus a questioning look, but he was too busy with his thoughts.
"He always laughed, no matter how hard things were", they absentmindedly skipped the vanishing step as Pechman persisted, unable to stop his flow. "And he never asked for anything in return. He was just that good of a person!". His voice echoed in the void, "Until the day of the Battle of Hogwarts! Our whole house was evacuated away, like the traitors and cowards we are!", he spat the last words.
"Tris stopped me from doing so as well. The first and only thing he ever asked me to do was help him defend the other students in here!". Albus heart begun to drag, an obvious understanding beginning to down on him, remembering how the dead man worked in the joke shop.
"But soon as the fighting started, I ran to hide in the dungeons, leaving him behind, all alone...", it explained where Peeves got all his fireworks supply from. "I hid there, like the traitorous coward I was...", but Brennan didn't do it randomly- he used the colourful troublemaker as a cover.
"Tris was hurt… He said it was fine...", they passed the first floor and headed to the second, "...But dark curses… Those only get stronger with time...". They really did seem to head to the headmistress' office, which meant only one thing... "And his son, he was a spitting image of him, such a good kid…".
"Sir?", Scorpius voice shook, "Where's Bren?", the realisation hit him as well. Pechman returned to his silence, trying to prolong the moment. They reached the second floor and passed the grey knight, "He's...", he eventually sighed, but stopped when he saw who was in front. Albus' heart skipped a beat, feeling his whole-body freezing in an absolute horror.
"Where are you going, boy?", he recognized his brother's tattered parchment in the thin hands of the wax-faced Professor, his eyes digging into him. Albus turned his gaze towards Pechman, "To the headmistress, he had a nightmare…", his confusion returned, "What was that?", he absentmindedly mumbled, "Something about a dead knight?...".
"So, you managed to pass the barrier?", the Professor asked with fervor, his voice whistling with uncontained excitement, painfully ringing in the hallway. "What?", Pechman asked, his confusion deepen as Albus continued to stare at him. He saw how the insight to what took place slowly dawn on him, "What barrier?...", his eyes suddenly widened.
"You did it!", his face was pure fury as he scrambled for his wand. "Stupefy!", he shrieked, sending red beam directly into the other Professor's chest. The old parchment was torn to shreds by the force of the spell, but was simply reflected away from the body itself, without him even batting an eyelid.
He raised his hand, and two shimmering energy balls came out, rushing towards Pechman and Scorpius. Before Albus could even blink, the two flew backwards and crashed into the opposite wall with a sickening sound of bone cracking. He himself sent his hand into his pocket, not to his wand, but rather to his…
The smooth face expression didn't change as the Professor pulled his wand and in one swift motion caused Albus to freeze in place. He struggled to no avail, scattering like a fish out of water, not able to stretch his hand to its needed place. "I'm still waiting for an answer, boy!", he advanced, his arm extended, his face still, but his eyes fired up. The S sound borrowed into Albus' head, and he just barely stopped himself from shouting in panic.
"Stupefy", a faint voice came up and a weak red ray, barely visible in the darkness, again hit the Professor, and again slipped right away. Despite not causing any damage, it did distract the thin man, making the spell that held Albus in place to reduce for a brief moment.
"Always making trouble, no matter how useless it is…", he turned towards Pechman, who laid next to the unconscious Scorpius, his unbroken hand barely raised, blood dripping from the sides of his mouth. "Avada…", This was the opportunity Albus had been waiting for.
"...Kedavra!", the bright green ray hit the grey knight above, shattering it into countless pieces of scorched metal. The storm that came out of the smashed magic bottle exploded with the force of a small bomb, sending fierce winds in every direction, creating tangled clouds that hid the surroundings with their heavy fog.
Albus was now completely free, and without a moment of hesitation jumped, headfirst, into the secret opening behind where the grey knight stood until just a few seconds ago. Hopefully, he thought as he stumbled down the slide-like passage, the Professor will chase after him and leave the other two alone.
He didn't have much time to ponder which way to escape as he reached the ground floor, however, feeling none of his multiple bruises as the thin man was hot on his trail, loudly cursing as his foot got stuck in the vanishing step above. Albus almost laughed from that stupid mistake as he sprung forward, his body moving by its own.
Hagrid's hut? The Slytherin's common room? The moldy space that contained Merlin's portrait? No! In a moment notice he decided there will be only one location in which the dark man couldn't reach into. He would've done it by himself if he could, after all…
He run as fast as possible, wondering if the adrenaline pumping in his body had just caused him to make a terrible mistake. But it was past the point of no return as he puffed out the password and bypassed the secret barricade Brennan had created. This was crazy, he thought, hearing the echo of chasing footsteps radiating between the narrow corridor walls.
He stopped before the secret entrance, hoping with all his heart it wasn't all just one huge miscalculation. "Merlin!", he gasped, but the hatch remained firmly closed. "Merlin!", he shouted again and again in disbelief, it couldn't be happening! Why wouldn't it open right now? His blood froze, did Brennen changed it?
"Albus, here you are!", his heart skipped a bit as nearly headless Nick appeared from the opposite wall. "James told me to look after this place. Listen! Professor Doyle is actually...", a black beam cut through the air, absorbing the already dim torchlights around, hitting the ghost, who only managed to contort his face in surprise before instantly evaporating into nothingness.
The Professor stood at the end of the hallway, "I should have known", he advanced forward in measured steps, his face demonstrating rage for a change. Yet, Albus noticed that while being distracted the hatch opened up and he immediately jumped inside, right as it begun to close again.
He once more cut his hand trying to not slip on the smooth stone, hearing the Professor mockery. "Do you think it will help you? You just where I wanted you!", the end of his sentence was muffled as the hatch sealed itself. "Foolish boy! I've known the password since I got here!", he yelled.
Albus stayed frozen in place, hunched in the partial darkness as the Professor stopped before the entrance, "Merlin!", he said aloud.
