A/N: Originally Chapter 8 was called "The Shadows in the Walls" and was one giant chapter that was around 20 pages. However, since I figured it was going to be on FF.net, I cut the chapter into two, edited them and renamed Chapter 8. Which gives me two Ravenclaw point of views in a row, but I figured Ravenclaw has been a little neglected anyway. Jerrad Tagety takes on the narration whenever the Ravenclaw Point of View is used. Notice, he is the only guy. It was supposed to be all girl's, but none of my girl friends who have counterparts in this story ended up in Ravenclaw. Therefore, the Jerrad character got the honor. That's okay though, I like him. He's smart, but no one knows it, and he's a klutz, everyone loved a klutz.
Well, on with the story then.
______________________________________________________________________
Chapter 8:
The Strange Professor Albackle
(RAVENCLAW)
Jerrad felt like he had been hitting the Quaffle away from the goals all day, of course that could be because he had been. It was Sunday, usually a break from everything, and Vidar was making them practice again, they were lucky they even got to go to the dance last night. It took a lot of convincing on Tom's part that they didn't need to practice all the time just because they had lost to the Slytherin. It was the only break they had gotten all week actually. Vidar was preparing them for Hufflepuff, even though that game wasn't for another two weeks. The Hufflepuff team wasn't exactly known for being the best team, he didn't understand why they had to practice, even Slytherin could barely get passed him. Not that he was being cocky, he was just really quick, he always had been. When he was younger he was always beating other kids at broom racing. So this practice was really boring to him as he caught ball after ball, which kind of upset Vidar who abruptly ended the practice.
"I see none of you are taking this seriously, so we're going to stop." Vidar snapped at them, "When you get serious about winning, we'll begin practicing again."
"I'm never serious about winning," Willow Jenkins, a chaser, shrugged when Vidar was gone, "Ravenclaw hasn't won a tournament in 15 years."
"Willow you are such a downer." Analee Manger, another chaser, said as she picked at her nails, "I know Slytherin is good, but they are not that good."
"It's not Slytherin we have to worry about," Jerrad told them all, "They only won because they caught the snitch…Gryffindor on the other hand will be very hard to beat."
"What about Hufflepuff, or have we just forgetten about them?" Nick Talliwind, their seeker, asked them all.
Willow laughed hysterically, "Everybody forgets about them…I don't know how they could even be considered a house."
"Well, because Hogwarts says it's a house, duh Willow." Imogene Halliwell, a beater and resident ditz, scoffed. Willow just glared at her.
"That's not what I meant Imogene."
"Then what did you mean?" Imogene stared blankly at Willow, who groaned loudly.
"How can a beater as good as you be such a ditz!?" She exclaimed, Tom Alvary began to laugh.
"One to many hits with the Bludger will do that to you." He joked, "Well, I'm gonna go see Beth, I'll talk to do guys later."
"Conspiring with the enemy!" Analee yelled to him as a joke, he just waved to her, "Traitor!"
"I'm gonna go too, I'm hungry." Jerrad put his hand on his stomach.
"You're always hungry." Nick joked with him, "I'll go with you though, I'm hungry too."
Both boys ran off the field and toward the great hall where they hoped there would still be some food. If ont they could always go into the kitchen, the house elves were always happy to give them more and more food. Nick and Jerrad barely noticing anything as they skidded down the corridor though and -SMACK!- they ran right into a girl with dark brown hair.
"Hey!" She yelled as she and Jerrad went soaring to the ground. He scrambled to get up and the girl looked up to him.
"I am so sorry, I didn't even see you." He proclaimed, She began to get up and dust herself off.
"No harm, no foul I guess." She sighed and smiled at the two, "I hope my book wasn't ruined."
Jerrad quickly walked over and picked it up, "Wizard lore? Are you interested in this stuff?"
"Yeah I guess you could say that." The girl smiled a bright smile..
"I don't believe we've met," Nick extended his hand, "I'm Nick Talliwind."
"Jerrad." Jerrad said.
"I'm Rebeka," she looked at their dirty Quidditch uniforms, "You guys play Quidditch for Ravenclaw huh? Cool, I'm on the Gryffindor team you know."
"Yeah, you're that new chaser girl!" Nick exclaimed, proud to recognize her.
"Gryffindor eh?" Jerrad eyed her, "We better be careful, consorting with the enemy and everything."
"Yeah be careful." Rebeka laughed, "I may put a curse on you."
"So, why do you have you're nose stuck in a book anyway?" Nick asked her, trying to change the subject. Jerrad rolled his eyes.
"Research." Rebeka smiled.
"You're doing research in a Wizard lore book?" Nick laughed, "You do know those stories probably aren't true."
Rebeka gave him a slight glare, "You guys wouldn't happen to know if there are any flashlights around here, would you?
"Flashlights…?" Nick murmured confused, "What are flashlights?"
Jerrad let out a sigh, "Something that Muggle's use to light up dark rooms or whatever."
"Oh…Why would we have any Muggle stuff here?" Nick asked and his face contorted into a look of disgust.
"Why don't you just use your wand?" Jerrad asked her, "Too much of a muggle eh?"
"No!…well, kind of… but that's not the point, that's a long story." Rebeka snatched the book out of Jerrad's hand, "See, my wand stopped working, so I have to do things the Muggle way until I figure out what's wrong with it."
"Your wand stopped working?" Nick asked confused. Jerrad new that Nick was getting into detective mode. Nick was big on solving mysteries and thing since his dad was a cop for the Ministry of Magic. Of course, they didn't call themselves cops, but Jerrad was used to Muggle terminology. Even though his family was big on magic and thing of that sort, they lived amoung Muggles since his mom was half. They tried to live a normal life despit the magic, his dad held a regular job and his mom even worked as a seamstress. She loved her job and she even owned a business called "Magic Seams." Jerrad had always thought the name was too obvious, but his mom said Muggle's were unknowingly oblivious to most things around them. His dad always took that too offense, until Muggle's never questioned how she sewed a whole dress in one day.
"Yeah, it did, hence why I need a flashlight." Rebeka gave Jerrad a 'What is Nick on?' kind of look.
"Well, did you break it?" Nick asked her again, he started to sound like he was interrogating her.
"No, it just kind of stopped working…Poof! Just like that." Rebeka shrugged and held out her lifeless wand and mimicked an explosion with her hands, "Weird, huh?"
"Sounds like a spell to me. Probably a temporary curse as a joke or something. They aren't against the rules, the Temporary ones anyway. Probably wanted to make you venerable for a little while…" Nick began to run his chin with his hand, while Rebeka looked at him in wonder, "What? My dad does this for a living."
Rebeka sighed, "Oh, I see. I was afraid someone cast a spell on it, I was hoping it was just a fluke."
"Do you have any enemies? Any one who would want to harm you?" Nick walked around her slowly, questioning her like one of those old detectives from the movies.
"Harm me…" She gulped, "I don't know for sure…"
"Are you trying to scare her Nick?" Jerrad looked over to him with a glare, "I'm sure it's just a joke, we'll just get one of the teachers to lift it."
"Lift it?" Rebeka sighed in relief, "Is that all? I thought it was broken forever!"
"Don't be so sure it's not an enemy of some sort, that's how people get killed you know." Nick muttered, Rebeka's eyes got wide.
"Nah, it's just a joke, a very bad joke." Jerrad gave Rebeka a half hearted smile, "I'm sure you don't have any enemies."
"You would think that wouldn't you?" She smiled. It sounded like a joke, but Jerrad got the distinct impression that it might not be.
"Do you want us to help you?" Nick asked, "We could get Professor Albackle to do it for us, he is the new head of Ravenclaw."
"Don't you guys have classes? I mean I'm sure that Albackle would lift it if -" Nick put his hand up to cut Rebeka off, she stopped abruptly.
"Professor Albackle has a thing against Gryffindor…actually he has a thing against all the houses except for Ravenclaw." He told her, "It would just be easier if we were on your side."
"Besides, we don't have class for another hour." Jerrad shrugged, "And he is the potions teacher, he'll be able to whip up something pretty quickly."
"Shouldn't we ask Professor Snape?" Rebeka blinked at them, "I mean he is the Defense teacher…what am I saying?"
"I don't know, I was getting ready to ask you if you were mental!" Jerrad joked, making all three of them laugh.
"Albackle is our best bet." Nick told them, "I think he's still in his office. We should go before he disapears on us."
"Yeah, Let's go!!" Jerrad exclaimed excitedly, kind of happy to be apart of something like this.
"Are you sure you won't trip over anyone?" Rebeka joked and looked over to him.
"That's not a guarantee, Jerrad is a bit clumsy, you get used to it after the fifth or sixth crash." Nick gave Rebeka a wink and Jerrad began walking away, leering at him - only to crash into the big stone wall in front of him. He let out a groan and rubbed his now bruised nose, noticing Rebeka was trying really hard not to laugh.
"Ha,ha. I'm just one big joke!" He rolled his eyes and made a strange face, making Rebeka and Nick burst out laughing. Jerrad in turn began laughing too, he always liked making people laugh. It was his thing.
"You are an interesting person." Rebeka smiled at him, "Did you say your name is Jerrad?"
"Yup, that's me!"
"I DO know you! Do you know Hollie Skyelar?" She asked as they all walked toward the stairs that led to Albackle's office.
"Yup, she's friends with my bud Jack…why?" Jerrad looked around him like he was trying to avoid running into anything. He wasn't going to bruise his nose, or his ego for that matter, again. He ran his hand along the wall, hoping that neither of the two would notice that he was trying to protect himself.
"Okay, she's talked about you…"
"You know Hollie Skyelar?" Jerrad eyed her, "And What did she say about me?"
"That you were a little weird." Rebeka gave him a sly smile and he started to laugh.
"That figures." Jerrad shrugged, "I guess she said that because I am a little weird. When did you talk to her?"
"I talk to her all the time. She's my little sister." She answered, "I guess I should have told you I'm Rebeka Skyelar."
"You're Hollie's sister!I should have realized with your American accent and all." Jerrad exclaimed, "Wow, you too are so…different."
"Umm…should I take that as an insult?" Rebeka glared at him, making Nick smack him in the back. Jerrad realized what he said and blushed furiously. He always had a problem with putting his foot in his mouth. He didn't mean it as it sounded, it's just they looked so different. Hollie had golden blonde hair and green eyes and a much more innocent look about her, Rebeka had dark, dark brown hair and dark blue eyes and looked almost stern. Also, Hollie would never be caught dead with her nose in a book... unless it was a comic book.
"We have to turn left up here." Nick said, trying to change the subject.
"How much longer until we get there? Rebeka asked, kind of whining.
"Shouldn't be too long, just around this next corner," Nick proclaimed, "Unless the room moved of course."
Jerrad saw Rebeka sigh in confusion, "I'm afraid I'll never get used to this place."
"Aw, Muggle born are you?" Nick questioned her, "That's okay, Jerrad over here is half."
"Sort of Muggle born, in the technical sense though." Rebeka corrected, making them both looked over to her with confused expressions, "Long Story."
They turned the corner and sure enough there was a big wooden door with the words 'Woodrow Albackle' emblazoned on it in fancy letters.
"Looks like it didn't move." Jerrad joked, making Rebeka chuckle.
"Okay, well let's see if he's home, shall we?" Nick walked over and knocked on the door, "Professor Albackle?"
They stood there awkwardly for a minute or so, but there was no answer on the otherside of the door.
"Do you think he's there?" Rebeka walked over a little timidly.
"Well, let's see." Nick grabbed the doorknob and opened it slowly. Jerrad had to wonder why the door wasn't locked, although it probably meant that he was in the office. So why wasn't he answering the door? Jerrad shrugged and walked over to where the other two were and peered in right along with them. Standing there with his back toward them. He was busy putting in ingredients into a medium sized cauldron. The brew was bubbling wildly and was a nasty greenish color.
"What is he doing?" Rebeka whispered to Nick.
"I don't know…" Nick whispered. The three of them leaned in a little more, noticing the concoction was now turning a blackish color.
"What is that?" Jerrad asked, leaning above the other two. Unfortunately, Jerrad's clumsiness decided to kick in and he leaned in a little too far. He fell into the room with a loud smash, making Professor Albackle turn around quickly. He looked at Jerrad from behind his small glasses with a mixture of anger and shock.
"What are you doing?" He asked them all as Jerrad scrambled to get up. He could not believe he had done that, what a fine time for him to fall!
"We're very sorry sir, but we needed your help and we weren't sure you were here, so we looked and…" Nick began talking really fast out of nervousness and looked toward Jerrad, "Then he fell…sir."
Albackle gave him a sharp glance then quickly covered up his bubbling pot of blackish goo. Jerrad looked over to Rebeka, who was busy staring at the cauldron.
"What is it?" Albackle looked over to Jerrad now, taking care not to look at the brown haired girl. Jerrad couldn't help but notice through his calm faÇade, Albackle eyes showed anger and nervousness. Whatever was in the pot he probably wasn't supposed to be making.
"Well, sir, my wand has suddenly stopped working." Rebeka said quickly, showing him her wand, "And,um, this guy said it was some kind of trickery spell so we -"
"It's a disenchanting spell." Albackle snapped, making Rebeka jump, "Notice how the wand is lying there like a loose twig? A simple trickery spell couldn't do that."
"A WHAT?" Nick sputtered out, "A disenchanting spell is grounds for a fine! Who in Hogwarts would know how to do that? When my father finds out about this he'll…"
"No one in Hogwarts should know how to do that spell." Albackle grabbed Rebeka's wand out of her hand and looked at it, "And I really don't think it's necessary for your father to get involved young Mr. Talliwind. Hmmm…interesting."
"Yeah, thanks for asking…" Jerrad heard Rebeka murmur. He couldn't help but let out a slight chuckle.
"You're from Gryffindor aren't you Miss Skyelar?" He asked her, she nodded, "I would suggest taking a different tone with me then."
Man this guys almost as bad as Professor Snape, Jerrad thought to himself and rolled his eyes.
"Yes, sir." She muttered, but she didn't sound like she was too happy with Albackle's sudden backlash, but she looked down at her feet - probably trying to disguise her anger. Jerrad stared at Professor Albackle with quizzical eyes, noticing that he was growing a sideways smile upon his rugged face. That was odd, it was like he was impressed with the person who did this. Something told Jerrad this guy wasn't all that he seemed.
"We'll have this fixed up for you in a second." He muttered, "Disrami Enchantra."
The wand began to glow a bright red color, then it quickly faded back to it's normal color.
"Wow, Cool. Never seen a wand glow red before." Nick murmured in awe.
"It's a Skyelar trait, the power from their wand makes a reddish color," Albackle handed the wand back to Rebeka, "Dead giveaway to who they are if you ask me."
"W-what?" Rebeka stammered out.
"I'm shocked the Ministry of Magic even found you, thought the lot of you were gone by now."
Rebeka looked as though Peeves had pulled down Albackle's pants, "You know about the Skyelars?"
"Not too much, but yes." Albackle sighed, "I was there when Radcliffe was trying to get you in, he even got the aide of that Dumbledore. Kept going on and on about how you were really a British witch who needed to go to a British school. So I did some research, didn't find very much though."
"What do they know about the Skyelars?" Nick pipped up even though Jerrad knew that he had no idea what they were talking about. It was Nick going into Detective mode again, everything to him was a mystery to solve.
"Nothing, Nobody knows very much. Only that they ran off 200 years ago and disapeared." Albackle glared at him, "Palonius Chance swore it was because of a rival family, but it sounds like rubbish to me. They probably just couldn't handle the power."
"Hey! That's not true!" Rebeka yelled quickly, Albackle turned to look at her once again.
"Do you know that for certain my dear?" He asked her with a hiss.
"I…" she looked down at her feet, it was clear she had no idea.
"I think we should go now." Jerrad mumbled, making Albackle smile.
"Yes, that is the best thing I've heard you say." He agreed and the door flung open, the three slowly began to make their leave.
"So the disenchantment spell is Disrami Enchantra?" Jerrad asked him, "Sounds pretty easy."
"It is easy to an elder wizard such as myself." Albackle rolled his eyes, "But to a child like you it is very hard. Try it and nothing would happen."
"Ohh…by the way, what's in the cauldron?" He asked him again, knowing that this question would catch him off guard.
"Nothing more than a Serendipity Spell…they relax me. Now leave." He whisked them out the door and shut it behind them. Nick turned to Jerrad.
"Why did you ask what was in the cauldron?" he yelled, "You could have gotten us killed!"
"Because he knew we noticed it, it would seem suspicious if someone didn't ask." Jerrad began beaming with pride, "I proved he was lying though."
"How?" Rebeka asked.
"Easy… Serendipity Spell's are purple…"
*******
There was one major detail Jerrad always kept hidden about himself, he was genius when came to magic. Math he couldn't do, English was too hard, but Magic was something he got very quickly. In fact he was already at a sixth year level when he entered Hogwarts, and he knew more about brewing potions than most graduates. He knew it all pretty well, but he kept it hidden from all of his other classmates. Radcliffe knew though, he even asked Jerrad if he would be willing to skip a level, he said no of course. Jerrad wanted to be at Hogwarts just as long as the other kids his age to learn all he could, there had to be something he didn't know yet. He had also asked Radcliffe not to say anything to the other teachers for fear it may leak out, he agreed reluctantly, just as long as Jerrad didn't do too good of a job on his homework no one would know. Now this little skill of his was coming in very handy as he watched Professor Albackle teach his potions class that day. Albackle still had no idea that Jerrad knew most potions and there colors. It was hard to tell what potion he was doing though, there were a lot of black colored potions out there, from the harmless night spell to the very harmful Squeezer spell (Which squeezed a person tightly like their whole body had eaten a lemon if it was drunk). He would figure it out eventually though, it was just a matter of time.
"Jerrad, something up?" Jack murmured to him, making him jump a bit, "I've never seen you pay this much attention in class before."
"No, nothing." Jerrad grumbled out and looked behind him. Sitting there with a glazed over expression was Hollie Skyelar, a friend of his and sister to the girl he had met just the other day. He was watching Hollie very closely now, after her sister's wand had stopped working he figured that Hollie was probably next. She yawned and looked over to Jerrad with a drowsy smile. He quickly gave her a small wave and turned around.
"Now that I have discussed the fundamentals of a basic potion, I think your homework should be an essay on what I discussed today." Albackle told them all, making them all groan.
"Man, this sucks." Hollie said that a little too loudly and Albackle whipped around to look at her.
"Two points from Slytherin for Miss Skyelar's sudden outburst."
"Oh give me a break!" Hollie yelled again. The whole class grew silent and watched as Hollie bravely stared down the skinny teacher.
"Okay, two more points!" He yelled, she slammed her book on the table hard and stood up. Everyone flinched.
"What is your deal anyway?" She asked him, "Do you get a kick out of torturing ten year olds?"
"Miss Skyelar you are going in the right direction for detention."
"Oh am I?" she glared at him with her sky blue eyes, "It's not my fault you got some dead end job as a teacher PROFESSOR, so don't take it out on me."
Jerrad wanted to reach over to her and push she into her seat, making her stop. She knew about the way he treated her sister, what was she doing?
"That is it Miss Skyelar! Meet Jingry on Friday at midnight, you have detention!" He told her with a smug look, probably expecting her to start crying or something. He looked disappointed when she just sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, whatever." And with that she sat back down and began grumbling to Marigold, who looked a lot paler than usual.
"Brave girl Hollie is." Jack mumbled to Jerrad, "Everyone knows Albackle
has a thing agianst other houses. Now he has a thing agianst Hollie."
"You have no idea…" Jerrad mumbled back, remembering yet again how he had treated her sister. Class was soon dismissed and people walked out of the class quickly, buzzing about Hollie's sudden outburst. It would probably be all over school by the end of the day. Hollie didn't even flinch as she gathered her books and Albackle stared her down, she just stuck her tongue out at him when he wasn't looking. Jerrad laughed and put his stuff away, she really was fearless.
"You have such a big temper for such a small girl." A dank grumbling voice said to Hollie. Jerrad quickly looked up, standing in front of Hollie was Lee, "I'm amazed you've lasted this long."
"The only way I'm going anywhere is if I happen to hurt you," She smiled at him, "Then it would be sooo worth it."
"Such big words, do you think you can back them up?" He asked her, "I don't think you're as strong as you think you are."
"Leave me alone Prior." She hissed and walked around him. He reached over quickly and grabbed her arm. This wasn't good.
"I'll leave you alone when I'm good and ready," He said in a hushed voice, "I don't know what your deal is but messing with Albackle is a very stupid idea, Espescially for you. You don't want to get hurt now do you?"
Jerrad looked over at them both with a shocked expression, was he threatening her? Did Lee and Albackle have some sort of alliance against the Skyelars or something?
"What is that? A threat?" She tore her arm away from him, "I don't take threats too well…"
"You're not strong enough to do anything."
"I'm not scared of you, Prior."
"You will be if you get Albackle angry, Skyelar." He hissed, "I'm not going to let you do it."
That did it, Jerrad had to stop this before it got out of hand. He grabbed his book and took off toward the two, trying to swerve in and out of the chairs and remaining students. Again though, clumsiness got the best of him and he tripped over one of the chairs, falling to the ground with a loud crash. Both Lee and Hollie stopped to look at him with puzzled expressions.
"Jerrad, you okay?" Hollie asked him as he quickly began to get up.
"Too big for your own good, eh Tagety?" Lee said through his laughter. Jerrad got up and walked over to the shorter boy, leering at him from above. Lee looked up and the cocky smile that he had quickly faded from his skinny face.
"Big enough to hurt you pretty good, Prior." Jerrad snarled, which made Professor Albackle turn toward them.
"Is there a problem over there?" He asked, but none of the students responded, "Hmm, seems we're having a bit of a disagreement yes? Why don't we solve that right now… Lee, since you feel the need to start problems, why don't you join Miss Skyelar in detention and see if you can solve one for once?"
Lee didn't say another word, he just gave Hollie one last glare and took off down the hallway. Hollie smiled to Jerrad, then to Marigold - who was standing in the background frozen with fear.
"I thought he was going to kill you!" Marigold yelled from the corner, still afraid to move, "I really do not like that guy, he creeps me out."
"Yeah, well, I was taking care of it." Hollie told her, but still gave Jerrad a look of thanks. Hollie was trying to be brave, but she was pretty scared herself. Lee seems to get worse and worse, it wouldn't be long before his threats turned into something more.
"What's his deal anyway? You two have a fight or something?" Jerrad asked her as the three walked out of the classroom and in the opposite direction as Lee had.
"No," She shrugged, "He just has had a vendetta against me ever since we laid eyes on each other."
"I don't like him… don't trust him either." Jerrad mumbled to himself.
"Do you think he's going to kill her?" Marigold stuttered out.
"Marigold!" Hollie yelled, "He isn't going to kill me! Well, as long as Jerrad's around anyway."
Marigold groaned, "Well still, that guy has some nerve."
"Some nerve?" Hollie asked, "That guy is all nerve."
"Well, I'm walking you back to your tower, I didn't like that look in his eye." They hurried down the hallway and hustled to the Slytherin Dungeons, talking about everything from homework to the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor match on Saturday. When they finally got to the Slytherin hallway, Jerrad couldn't help but notice that it seemed extremely eerie. Marigold and Hollie must have noticed too, because they began to slow their pace almost instantly. A small chill ran down his spine, he could feel it - something wasn't right.
"Is this hallway always this eerie?" Marigold murmured, confirming to Jerrad that he was just hallucinating. Holly, Marigold, and Jerrad slowly and quietly made their way to the large Gargoyle at the end. All of them were peering around each other, like they were expecting something to jump out at them. When they got to the big statue Gargoyle, they were all very pleased to see that nothing jumped out at them.
"Um, Guardian?" Hollie said to the stone statue, "Have you noticed this hallway feels a little off?"
"Aye," Said the Gargoyle in a strange Irish accent, "Strange creature's be walking the walls at night. Good thing Slytherin children are in bed when they decide to wake."
"When what decides to wake?" Marigold asked, rather scared of the answer.
"Don' know. Don' care me self, as long as they don' hurt no one." The Gargoyle then sighed, "Stay out of the 'allway at night children, they won't hurt ye then."
"That doesn't sound very good." Jerrad sighed, making the Gargoyle look at him and sniff the air around him.
"I smell Ravenclaw on ye, wouldn' be tryin' to sneak into these quarters, eh child?" It leered at the tall boy, making him back off a little.
"I guess that's my cue to leave…" Jerrad sighed, and hesitantly took off down the hallway.
"I'm alright," Smiled Hollie, "See, nothing to worry about."
But Jerrad wasn't convinced at all.
_________________________________________________________
A/N: Nothing here to say, just thanks for reading! Read the next Chapter, that's where things get fun ^_^