Disclaimer: I own nothing of Harry Potter, and it's purely coincidence that it takes me longer to put out new material than J. K. Rowling.
Author Note: D-Scythe has returned after an extremely, extremely lengthy hiatus. Here's hoping there's still someone interested in this story. My muse has thankfully returned and I'm hopeful it will not be nearly so long until I update again. Enjoy!
13. Lucius on the Run
Breakfast that morning was a rather strange affair. Wild rumors about the nature of the attack, who was involved, who was the target, and how it ended flew thick through the air. Professor Argano appeared very stiff when he took his seat at the staff table that morning. A crew of house elves was working diligently and efficiently to magically repair the floor. The library was cordoned off and no students were allowed near it.
Harry received several odd looks from students as he sat down next to Ron. "Heard anything yet?" He asked.
Ron shrugged and shook his head. "Nothing more than rumors. What I want to know is what Argano was doing last night. From what I heard he was floating around blasting everything."
Harry nodded and pulled a flagon of pumpkin juice towards him. "Once the Death Eaters left, he started shooting at me. But what I want to know is how they got onto Hogwarts grounds in the first place."
"Well," said Hermione as she looked up from the book propped open in front of her, "I think I've found the answer to that."
Harry groaned as he glanced at the thick leather bound tome. "Please tell me that isn't…" He trailed off.
"Hogwarts: a History," Hermione finished with a smile.
"Of course, that couldn't have burned with the rest of the library," Ron muttered.
Hermione ignored him and began to read. "During the sixteenth century, several thefts were committed through the use of underage apparation. This string of crimes eventually led to the death of two students. The perpetrators were expelled and school security became a highly debated issue. Finally, the Ministry of Magic directed that an artifact be installed in the castle that would prevent wizards and witches from apparating within the grounds. The artifact is known as the Staff Draconis and was hidden somewhere in the castle with a powerful spell placed on it to protect it."
"So something's gone wrong with this Staff Draco thing." Ron shrugged. "So we need to find it and, I don't know, fix it."
"Draconis." Hermione corrected.
"Whatever."
Harry shook his head, "Well, the teachers have got to know what's wrong. They must know how to fix it."
Hermione closed her book. "Yes, that's true, but how did the Death Eaters know it would be broken?"
Ron's eyes widened, "I bet Malfoy sabotaged it. He's a professor, he's got to know about the Staff."
"But wouldn't that be a bit obvious?" Harry furrowed his brow. "He'd be Sideson's first suspect."
Hermione pushed her plate aside. "I think we're going to have to put our questions aside for the time being. We've got that History of Magic essay due on Monday and I know neither of you have started yet."
Ron's jaw dropped. "We've had a Death Eater attack on school grounds in the very first week. Don't you think that's just a little more important than a History of Magic essay?"
Hermione shook her head. "We can't do anything about the Staff Draconis now. We don't know where it is, what it is, how its protected, or how to fix it if we find it. So for now we should just try and get on with our work."
Harry raised an eyebrow.
Hermione flushed a bit, "Sorry, but if our house lags off in academics it will reflect badly on me."
Harry shook his head, "Right. sorry."
* * *
The weeks that followed were uneventful and under the increasing strain of their academic workload, none of them had time to consider the mystery of the Staff Draconis. Harry found what time wasn't already taken up by homework was mostly spent out on the Quidditch in the increasingly brutal autumn weather trying to get the team ready for the first game on the fifth of October.
Then, on the Monday of the last week of September, rumors once more swept through the halls of the castle.
Luscious Malfoy was gone.
Harry first heard the news on his way back from Herbology. A group of third year Hufflepuffs were hurrying down to the greenhouses, presumably late for a class when Harry overheard one of them say, "Well so what if we're late for Herbology? Professor Sprout won't mind."
His friend smiled and piped up, "Yeah, Professor Malfoy is the meanest in school and he wasn't even there for Potions this morning."
Harry stumbled a bit in surprise and almost followed them back down to ask them what was going on. Then he checked his watch and hurried up to Defense Against Dark Arts.
* * *
Argano was perched on his desk in his accustomed fashion and waited a few minutes for the class to sit down and swap rumors back and forth before clearing his throat. "All right, quiet down, I can see we won't be able to start today's lesson before we clear up a few things." He sat silently for a moment while the class settled into an expectant silence. "Well then, you have all heard by now, I'm sure, that our interim Potions master has apparently cut loose the coil and disappeared. Now, I'm sure this is going to be something of an icy disappointment to those of you inclined to seeing conspiracies and shadowy deeds, there's been an emergency of some sort at the Malfoy residence and the professor was needed there immediately. the only reason that his class was deserted this morning was the unfortunate fact that the news arrived to suddenly for a substitute to be notified in time. So again, let me please assure you that this is not some sort of evil scheme as I have heard rumored all morning, and lets have that be the end of it." He glared at the class daring for someone to disagree, apparently no one wished to.
A smile roamed across his scarred face and he smiled. "Right then, did you all read your assignment?" there was the usual half-assenting mumble from the class and Harry picked through his memory trying to remember the difference between basic weapons magic and kibetic sword making.
"Potter." Harry looked up to see Ryan's intent gaze land on him.
"Yes sir?"
"Most bladed magic weapons are ordinary swords or knives with spells cast on them. How is a kibetic sword different and why is it an advantage?"
Harry cursed to himself and scrunched a bit further down in his sea. "Er- a kibetic is made enchanted metal and…" He trailed off as his memory failed him completely.
Argano arched an eyebrow. "And?" He closed his eyes briefly as Harry shrugged and wore the exasperated expression that any student would recognize. Then he surveyed the rest of the class, ignoring Hermione's hand which stood above the otherwise immobile room.
"Weasley."
Ron swallowed hard. "Yes?"
"Answer the question."
"Well, a kibetic sword is made from metal that's already been-"
"I believe we've covered that," Ryan interrupted sharply.
"Ah, right, well… It's an advantage because a kibetic sword will stay enchanted forever, instead of needing to have more spells cast on it."
"Exactly," Professor Argano smiled and then turned his eyes to Neville, "Longbottom, if I were to shoot an arrow at you and you did not know if it was enchanted or not, what spell would you cast to counter both the physical and possible magical blow?"
Neville stammered out an answer and so it went from there. For another ten minutes they were drilled on the various complicated techniques involved in enchanting and disenchanting weapons, then Ryan pulled a simple looking bow from one of the heavy wardrobes behind his desk and they trooped out to the lawn for another weapon demonstration. When they had all assembled outside by the lake, they saw a plain archery target set up about ten meters away.
Ryan drew an arrow from his quiver and whispered a spell at it while tapping it three times with his wand. Then, before anyone could react he spun on his heel and released the arrow when it was aimed between Harry's eyes.
There was the whisk of an arrow departing string and a flash of wood and steel. Harry gasped with no time to blink or even flinch, the arrow had leapt the two or three feet between himself and Argano in an instant and in that instant Harry was sure he was dead.
Another instant passed and Harry was quite surprised to find himself still among the living. The rest of the class also seemed surprised by this. Harry blinked and turned his attention to Argano who was calmly watching the arrow curve up in a high arc until it was pointed at the target, it sped up and slammed into the center of the target. Ryan smiled, "I always did have fun with that demonstration."
Harry stared at the arrow quivering in the target and tried not to imagine it quivering in his head. Ryan clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Cheer up, you're handling this much better than Slytherin's boy did." With that he turned to the rest of the class and asked, "What spell?"
Hermione raised her hand and he nodded to her, "Granger?"
"It's a seeker spell, and it doesn't need to be applied to arrows or weapons, you can use it to send people things, but you have to be careful what strength you give it, too little and it won't get there or it will get lost, too much and you might kill them."
"Exactly, the incantation is locaticus followed by what you want it to find. For example," he held up a pebble and said, "Locaticus Longbottom," and tapped it with his wand just once. It trembled in his fingers and when he let it go it hopped from his palm into the air where it whistled sharply over to tap Neville's forehead before dropping to the ground. "The more times you tap the object with your wand, the more power the spell has." He turned back to Neville, "Go ahead Longbottom, give it a shot."
Neville picked up a stone uncertainly and recited the spell, "Locaticus Target!" Then he tapped the stone three times with his wand, except he didn't actually touched the stone.
Professor Argano's eyes widened and he opened his mouth to give warning, but it was too late. The wand leapt from Neville's fingers and sped towards the target. Neville turned quite pale and had time to whisper, "Oh no," before his wand smacked into the target with a withering thud!
"My wand!" He cried before bolting across the shore to where it had fallen.
Ron winced, "I hope for all our sakes it's not broken." They all had a few moments to reflect on the miserable time Ron had had their second year when his wand had been broken.
Argano sighed and rolled his eyes, "Well there's an object lesson in this, though I had hoped we might avoid a demonstration. You must actually, touch your wand to the object, otherwise, well…" He trailed off and cast a meaningful eye towards Neville who was trudging back up the beach with a wand that appeared, mercifully, to be intact.
"All right then, we're all going to spend the rest of the class getting a little practice with this, and for homework, I want you to write a paper describing how best to defend against such a spell." He then turned to Paravati Patil and Lavender Brown who had been having a whispered conversation punctuated by giggles for a few minutes. "Also, all of you would do well to note, ladies, that should you use this spell to pass notes in my class you will receive a detention." Paravati and Lavender each gave a little gasp and quieted suddenly. The professor turned away, "Well? What are you waiting for?"
Harry spent the next ten minutes bouncing pebbles off the back of Hermione's head when she wasn't looking until, when he had turned around to laugh at Ron's misadventure with his robe, a rather large rock smacked into his head. He turned around rubbing the bump that it had made and saw Hermione smiling sweetly at him. Harry made an exaggerated show of rubbing the sore spot and she laughed.
Ron had managed to send his robe flying across the shore and it was now draped artfully over the target. Harry laughed as Hermione called after him, "Honestly Ron! Couldn't you be a bit more careful with that thing?"
Ryan Argano wandered between groups of students checking and critiquing. When he got to where Harry was sitting he glanced down, "Got it Potter?" Harry demonstrated that he did indeed have the skill mastered by bouncing another pebble of Neville's head. The tall Auror pulled Harry to his feet an handed him the bow, "Give it a try." He turned to bellow to the students who had spread across the shore, "Clear away from the target!" Then he nodded to Harry who cast the spell and tapped the arrow twice, then he knocked it and fired it in a high arc.
Argano watched it traverse upwards and said, "You might have wanted to tap that one more time."
Harry could see why, the arrow, now high above the shore, seemed to be getting confused, it wavered to the left, then the right, then veered of and plunged into the lake.
"And there it goes." Argano muttered mostly to himself.
And indeed, it went, It skipped above and below the surface like a playful dolphin and then, halfway out, seemed to regain its bearings. It plunged on with sureness to the great bulk of the giant squid which had chosen to sun itself in the center of the lake. Harry was taking a few moments to dread having a giant squid mad at him but he needn't have worried, the squid lazily raised a tentacle and caught the arrow, then, just as lazily, snapped it in half.
Professor Argano shrugged, "You might want to work on that one a bit. One other thing," Harry looked up to see that Argano was surveying to make sure they were not heard, "Sideson asked me to tell you that the story about Malfoy having family trouble is a lie, he really has disappeared. Watch yourself. Oh, and tell Weasley and Granger if you must, but try not to let the whole house know."
With that he was gone, and Harry suddenly found a whole new batch of things to worry about. Every now and then, he wished that the professors didn't feel the need to be nice to him.
Author Note: Well there you have it, I wonder what will happen next! Seriously… does anybody know? No? Ah… darn… this will be interesting…
Questions, Comments, and information on any and all Artifacts that will help me conquer the Spirit Realm are to be sent to Sechsmarquise@hotmail.com
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