Chapter Six: The Thot Plickens
Harry Potter hadn't been having a particularly good year at Hogwarts to begin with; the return of Draco Malfoy made it worse.
On top of being stalked by Sirius Black and run over by the Knight Bus, Harry had to contend with the new boy in the Gryffindor dorm, Kai DuLamort, who followed him like a shadow and kept getting him into trouble. Kai insisted that he meant no harm (though he did so with a coy smile on his lips and a malicious gleam in his eyes), and tried to make it up to him by doing him various 'favors', writing his reports for him and letting him know what others were saying about him when he wasn't around, but it only served to get Harry into even more trouble. After he was called into Professor McGonagall's office about a paper Kai had written for him entitled 'Drug Deals and Brothel Girls: The Nightlife at Hogsmeade', Harry decided enough was enough.
Harry pulled Kai aside as they were going to the library to study one blustery afternoon. The cold wind had put a rosy glow in Kai's cheeks, and his eyes sparkled with cunning. "Did you want to tell me something?" He asked. Harry sighed.
"Listen, Kai, I know you mean well, but I really can't have you hanging around me all the time," Harry told him. "It's—well, it's just not working out."
Kai put on a hurt expression that looked perfectly fake. "Oh, why, Harry? What have I done? Oh, I'm so useless, I can't do anything right."
"It's not that," Harry said quickly. "It's just that…" he did some quick thinking. "It's dangerous to be around me as much as you are. You-know-who is after me, you know."
"I do?" Kai asked innocently.
Harry was confused. "You do what?"
"Know who."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, you do."
Kai blinked. "Who is it?" He giggled. "Is it the tooth faerie?"
"VOLDEMORT, YOU TURKEY!!" Harry shouted. Everyone in the hall stopped to look, mouths agape. Harry cringed.
Kai smiled. "Oh. Yes, I do know him."
Harry grit his teeth. "I know you're not this stupid on purpose," he hissed. "Why are you doing this?"
"Doing what?"
Harry made a vague gesture. "This! Following me around, writing insane essays and turning them in in my name, playing like you've just been let out of Bedlam! What have I ever done to you?"
"Nothing," Kai shook his head. "Absolutely nothing. If you want me to leave you alone, I will. But I am warning you, Mister Potter—" he leaned very close, his eyes narrowed angrily, his breath smelling of blood and ash. "You will wish that I hadn't."
With that, he turned and walked away, shoving people out of the way. Harry stared after him, baffled. He went into the library, but found it hard to study with so many people whispering about the scene in the hallway. Shutting his book angrily, he stood and went back to the Gryffindor dorm.
**
Draco was having better luck with William and Kenneth. Despite their odd appearance, people seemed to ignore them completely, even in class. The teachers stared right through them as if they weren't there. It was odd at first, but soon Draco realized that they must have a dim spell, a spell to make them less noticeable.
He wished he could do the same; since he'd returned, people were always stopping him to ask where he'd been, what had happened to Kiyoshi. They seemed to have forgotten all about the events that had taken place the previous year. Draco didn't see fit to remind them.
Occasionally, Nuncio's magpie would arrive in the middle of the night with a letter from Nuncio, telling him to keep his nose clean; however he hadn't seen the man since that last night at his house. He missed him sorely. Kiyoshi was gone, Crabbe and Goyle had disappeared somewhere (Draco suspected it had something to do with William and Kenneth's presence), and Kenneth didn't have much in the way of conversation, nor could he provide the companionship that Kiyoshi had. Draco applied himself to his studies, trying to shut out the loneliness.
He'd been excused from the work from the first half of the term, but Draco was finding it difficult to catch up to the other students in his classes, among which was Professor Wolf's Occult Literature. Wolf was beating out Professor Lupin as a favorite teacher, and the two maintained a friendly rivalry. Draco didn't particularly like either of them, but he found himself hating Professor Wolf less. His classes were low-key and usually entertaining; he kept the students alert with a merry prattle of anecdotes and sexual innuendo. He also seemed to know a lot more about black magic than most of the other teachers, excluding Lupin. Once in a while he would surreptitiously slip a darker lesson in with the others, filling them in on things that other teachers edited out.
It was on one of those days when Draco was sitting in Professor Wolf's classroom, William and Kenneth on either side of him. Wolf had drawn a circle on the blackboard, with twelve triangles surrounding it like the numbers on a clock. Below it he wrote, Myths and Legends Chapter Eight: The Dark Circle.
"Has anyone ever heard of the Dark Circle?" Wolf asked the class. "Anyone? Come on, now, don't be shy. You there, yes." He gestured to a girl in the front row.
"You mean like… Solar eclipses?" The girl said uncertainly.
Wolf smiled and shook his head. "No, afraid not. I'm surprised none of you know about the Circle; it's a very well-known legend." He picked up an old-looking book from his desk and opened it to a bookmark near the middle. "The Dark Circle are, supposedly, a group of twelve immortal mages who maintain balance in the world. They travel under cover of night and stop under the new moon to discuss their plans. They are led by the Grey."
"How do they 'maintain balance'?" It was Hermione in the second row, taking extensive notes despite her obvious hatred of the class.
"Ah, Hermione, let me clarify. What I mean by balance is, they make sure that there are equal amounts of good and evil in the world. If there is an imbalance, say, when Lord Voldemort was terrorizing the countryside—" several of the students winced. "They fix things, make it so no side has the upper hand."
"You mean to say that it was this 'Circle,' and not Harry, that defeated He-who-must-not-be-named?" Hermione scoffed. "And if they're so balanced, why are they the Dark Circle?"
Wolf shut the book. "Legend has it that the members travel under a cloak of darkness cast by the Grey to keep themselves unknown to mortals," he said patiently. "And it is only a legend, Miss Hermione. I don't have any doubts about your friend Harry's achievements." He turned back to the board. "We're studying the Circle today because they are a popular subject in occult literature. Please turn your books to page two thirty-seven…"
Draco was staring out the window, paying little attention to Wolf's lesson. He was thinking about Kiyoshi, and what he might be doing now. Running? Hiding? Was he safe? He continued to worry until William nudged him and he looked up. "Class is over," he said lowly. "Let's go."
Draco was distracted and anxious about an upcoming Quidditch game against Gryffindor, so he didn't notice until that night how agitated Kenneth was. He'd lost his happy-go-lucky attitude, and seemed to be always glancing around, watching for something. "Kenneth," Draco murmured in the common room that night, "Is there something wrong?"
Kenneth shook himself out of a trance. "Wrong? Oh, no, nothing…" He looked away uneasily. "Okay, something. That lesson today in your Professor Wolf's class… Worries me. But I'm sure it's nothing."
"What about it?" Draco asked curiously. "He gives lessons like that all the time. It's just literature. None of it's true."
"The Dark Circle," Kenneth said in the same hushed tone other students used when talking about Voldemort. "They are no legend."
Draco froze. Usually he would pay no mind to the kind of ominous things people said around Hogwarts, but the way Kenneth had said 'They' sang a shrill note of alarm in his brain.
"They…?" Draco's voice was barely above a whisper. "You mean… Them?"
Kenneth nodded with a hunted expression. "They are the Dark Circle. I think it must be a sign that Wolf has chosen now to give a lesson about them… They are on the move once more."
Draco swallowed. The room had gone suddenly cold. "Maybe it's a coincidence. He did say They were a popular subject in literature… I mean, we're not in any danger, right?"
"Not as long as you're with William or me," Kenneth nodded. "Besides, it's my job to worry about these things. You worry about your game this weekend." He sat down in a chair beside the fire and leaned back, closing his eyes. Draco knew this was the only way Kenneth ever 'slept'; he was always awake, always on alert. It made him feel safe.
Outside in the night, eleven figures moved by torchlight.