Disclaimer - All JKR's, nothing mine! Except for a few characters I added.
Disclaimer 2 - Draco drawing dragons belongs to PikaCheeka. Sorry I forgot to mention that in the first chapter of MNS. I sort of adopted the idea subconsciously.
Disclaimer 3 - Severus' raven belongs to J. L. Matthews. I just borrowed him because he's such a perfect pet for Sevi and promise to return him unharmed.
The catar however are all mine and I love them so please don't use without asking me first.
-
-
A/N - Sorry, job's been keeping me busy again. (Why does one have to have a job? . . . Oh right, it keeps me and my horse fed, that's why.) . . . Those of you who speak German, my translator Ricky (Ricky1 on ff.net) just posted a new fic. Go check it out. It's worth it. . . . And while I'm at it, I've got something for the Spanish speaking among you as well: Check out my friend Iremione. What little she has translated for me was great and left me wishing I knew Spanish so I could read the rest. By the way, Iremione also went and found out what Agamatris means. Harry named Hermione's Augmentis potion the Mother's Swamp Potion! (Aga means swamp in an old form of Latin.) 100 points to Gryffindor for finding that out. . . . Are you sure you aren't part Ravenclaw and part Slytherin, Iremione?
-
-
Chapter 10: Boom
-
-
The last lesson on Friday was DADA for the Slytherin and Hufflepuff sixth years. A good way to end the week in Severus' opinion. Remus and he had prepared a little demonstration of defensive charms for this weeks lesson, which seriously impressed the Hufflepuffs, though Pansy, Blaise and Theodore looked half asleep in their chairs.
Even Gregory commented that some of the charms were quite elemental, but that didn't bother Remus in the slightest.
"Precisely, Gregory." he smiled at the boy. "They are essential charms that every witch and wizard should know to be able to protect themselves from dark curses. As DADA teacher it is my duty to make sure that all of you are familiar with all of them. Of course most wizard born students already know at least some of them, but I can't be sure you've mastered them until I see you perform them and the Muggle born among you will most likely not have had a chance to learn them before now. Therefore I ..."
BOOMMM!!!
The ground shook beneath them and a puff of smoke came out of the ventilation shaft.
Remus blinked. "What was that?"
BOOMMM!!!
"That shaft connects to the Potions classroom." Severus declared looking slightly worried.
BOOMMM!!!
"Sounds like Professor Malfoy has a mistake in his recipe." Estella suggested. "If it were a student's mistake only one cauldron would have exploded."
BOOMMM!!!
"Oh, I hope nobody gets hurt." Susan Abbott said staring at the ventilation shaft.
"Sniff?" commented Greenie wondering whether he should roll up or not.
BOOMMM!!!
"Maybe it isn't the Potions classroom at all." Theodore mused. "It might be another trap for Potter."
BOOMMM!!!
"In that case it sure misses a lot." Nicodemus Hanson joked.
"No, that's definitely the Potions classroom." Severus announced. "Potter should be in Charms now while the explosions are coming from the dungeons."
Remus opened a drawer in his desk and shuffled quickly through the parchments in there. "Do any of you know which class has Potions right now?"
Silence. Even Severus didn't know this year's Potions schedules by heart.
"Well, it's not a Slytherin class." Remus decided and closed the drawer again. "Since the explosions seem to have stopped now, lets return to our demonstration."
-
-
Minerva McGonagall's teaching week finished with the Slytherin and Gryffindor first years, which meant she had a lot less of a good time than Severus. First years were always more demanding of her attention, because they still lacked the most basic knowledge and consequently were very accident prone.
The combination of Slytherin and Gryffindor was an additional complication. This year's bunch made even the Potter/Malfoy feud look tame. Minerva was almost reminded of the days of the Marauders the way the houses kept picking on each other.
The six new Gryffindor boys formed one tight pack that usually singled out one victim, while two of the four Slytherin boys were tall, strong loners that liked to beat up Gryffindors. The Slytherin girls seemed to have an inexhaustible reservoir of little mean hexes, while the Gryffindor girls were sharp-tongued little teasing monsters.
Of course it was the Slytherins' fault for being such 'mean spirited little death eaters', as Darla Johnson, a third cousin of Angelina Johnson, had put it, but Minerva still didn't see why six Gryffindors had had to gang up on the smallest Slytherin girl and rip her homework into shreds.
Sandy had dutifully handed in as many small strips of parchment as she had been able to save but most of them had been flushed down a toilet by the Gryffindor gang. How was Minerva ever supposed to grade that essay?
"Ms Johnson, a wand is not a drumstick! Please stop hitting it against your desk!" Minerva ordered sternly. "Mr. Antonelli, you're holding the wrong end of your wand. This way you might turn yourself into a matchstick, but not your goose feather."
"Huh?" Salvatore Antonelli stared at his wand in confusion. "Oh!"
"Mr Haley!!!" Minerva managed to grab the young Gryffindor's wand just in time before he could make a huge wart sprout from little Sandy Mortimer's nose.
She had no time to scold him though, because a fistfight was about to break out at the other end of class. She quickly assigned Charles Bowler a different seat saving the situation at least for the moment. Despite her quite successful early interventions she'd already taken 30 points off Slytherin, 19 off Gryffindor and given five detentions and still the class wouldn't calm down. The anticipation of the weekend was driving them wild.
"Get away from me you damn death eater bitch!" Kevin Mallister yelled at a Slytherin girl who was searching for her matchstick, which she had apparently dropped.
"Language Mr. Mallister!" Minerva scolded. "I'm sure . . ."
BOOMMM!!!
"What the?" Minerva quickly suppressed a curse of her own, but nobody would have heard it anyway.
Her students were scramming in terror.
BOOMMM!!!
That came from downstairs. Far downstairs.
"Sonorus!" Minerva cast on herself. "Please, calm down. There's been some mishap in Potions. Probably just sound enhancing potion blowing up. That's happened before." Though not in the last thirty years or so. "I know it sounds terrifying, but it's completely harmless."
BOOMMM!!!
The Gryffindors sat down pale faced, but quiet, but the Slyherins were still shrieking. Two of them had crawled under their desks, another was standing in the middle of the classroom screaming at the top of her lungs and the rest huddled into a corner in the back clinging to each other.
BOOMMM!!!
"It's him!" one of the girls screamed. "He's going to kill us all!"
"AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!"
"Nonsense." Minerva declared calmingly. "It's just a little Potions accident."
'I'll kill Lucius, if this doesn't stop.' she thought to herself. 'What the hell is he doing down there?'
BOOMMM!!!
"AAAAHHHHHH!!!!"
"We're all going to die!"
The Gryffindors were beginning to get nervous, too. Kevin slipped under his desk as well.
BOOMMM!!!
"It's all right." Minerva assured them. "It will be over any moment now."
Sandy burst into tears of fear. "It's You - . . . You-Know-Who!" she sobbed. "He's come to blow up the school."
"We'll die!!!"
Now the Gryffindors were once again panicking, too. It took Minerva five minutes to calm her own house, but the Slytherins didn't even hear her. They'd all crawled into the corner now and were whimpering crying or screaming.
Whatever could she do? Her own house accepted her explanations well enough, but the Slytherins just didn't trust her. They kept insisting that Voldemort was going to blow up the whole school to kill them all.
The Gryffindors listened to it all wide-eyed and uncomprehending. After all Slytherins were death eaters, weren't they? Weren't they supposed to be the ones blowing up the school for Voldemort?
Minerva finally gave in. She was clearly unable to handle a horde of terrified Slytherins. Snotty ones, snobby ones and impertinent ones, no problem, but frightened was quite a different matter. She needed the help of somebody who understood what was going on inside their heads. An adult Slytherin. Severus preferably. Nobody knew better how to handle Slytherins than their head of house. That was why he'd gotten the job in the first place.
Severus' cover as a student would be blown, if he was seen in his adult form, though, so she had to find somebody else. She immediately dismissed the idea to make Lucius clean up his own mess. Lucius clearly was no Severus, or else this would have stopped with the first explosion.
Minerva hastily transfigured her first grade Transfigurations book into an owl and sent it off with a short note. Hopefully help would arrive soon.
-
-
Lucius had found out that he hated Potions, especially seventh year Potions classes. He had always known that he hated Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, of course, so it was no surprise that double Potions with the seventh year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs was one of the low points of his week.
Accordingly he'd written the recipe for a time delayed poison out on he blackboard, taken attendance, told the students to get to work and retreated into his office where he was just penning the first draft of his next report to Lord Voldemort when the first explosion boomed through the classroom. Blinding light flashed through the open door along with the deafening sound and the ground shook. Then thick smoke followed and he could hear his students coughing.
He considered getting up and checking on the class despite the fact that he could hardly see anything even in here, but before he could come to a decision another explosion hit and he could hear screams of fear and hasty shouts of "Extinquo!"
He wondered whether any of the furniture had caught fire, or the students were extinguishing the fires under their cauldrons out of fear of further explosions.
He decided to get up after all, but was thrown off his feet again by the next explosion. This one seemed bigger than the one before. Maybe two cauldrons had gone up at the same time?
Lucius jumped to his feet and was in the classroom in two fast strides. A wall of soot, smoke and ashes greeted him. He could make out some vague shapes behind it, but could only guess at which ones were students and which ones cauldrons.
Another explosion hit before he could announce his presence. A pillar of fire smoke and boiling hot potion rose from a cauldron in the third row and several of the dark shapes jumped away from it shrieking, some in fear, others in pain as they were hit by the potion or flames. These were apparently students, then. All of them seemed to have escaped the shards of the cauldron itself as far as Lucius could tell.
He opened his mouth to give some command, though he wasn't quite sure what he meant to say, but that didn't matter anyway. He got a mouthful of smoke and ashes and could only cough helplessly along with his students.
Luckily Twinky and Tilly were already on the job extinguishing fires by snapping their fingers at them. House elves didn't need words for their spells, so the smoke didn't give them such bad problems. Tilly also had put flame protection spells on all the pieces of furniture she'd repaired recently.
The next explosion almost knocked Twinky out, though and the students were suddenly gone. Lucius could only assume that they'd somehow reached the door. Or was there a hole in the wall? There was some debris on the floor that looked suspiciously like chunks of wall or ceiling.
Seeing that the elves were the only ones able to use magic in the classroom, Lucius retreated back into the office and from there to his private quarters to take a shower and change his clothes. Soot stains didn't go well with his hair colour, he thought. He'd just clean himself up and check the damage after the smoke had settled.
-
-
Only a few minutes after Remus and Severus had restarted their DADA demonstration they were interrupted once again. A brown barn owl fluttered into the classroom, hooted demandingly and landed on Remus' shoulder.
When Remus didn't reach for the half rolled up scrap of parchment tied to her leg right away, she bit his ear drawing blood and hooted again.
Remus shooed her off his shoulder to protect his ear then snatched the parchment away before she could think to go for his fingers.
He straightened the scrap, stared at it, blinked, then read it out loud: "Remus. Slytherin first years afraid of explosions. Need help fast. Minerva."
He blinked again. Minerva McGonagall asking for help with a harmless little group of first years? He'd believe this of Lucius, but Minerva? The message sounded desperate, though.
"Class, you can go." he decided. "We'll continue our demonstration in our next lesson. Severus, could you please lock up the class for me? I have to check up on Minerva."
It was the first time Remus left the classroom before his students. He hurried up to the Transfigurations classroom still wondering what might have happened. Minerva McGonagall was one of the most experienced teachers in the school, known for her strictness and ability to keep any class under control. She was almost as feared as Severus by the students.
But now he could hear screams all the way down the corridor. Remus ran the last bit and burst into the classroom which at first resulted in even more screams.
"It's him!" little Sandy shrilled. "Voldemort!"
Remus froze in the door. "Now, I may be a dark creature, but I was hoping I wasn't quite as bad as him." he tried to make it sound like a joke, despite the little stab of hurt he felt at the accusation.
It worked. At least partially. The children huddled in the corner looked up. Some managed a weak smile, some dashed towards him, two threw their arms around his legs and clung to him.
"What's wrong?" he asked as gently as possible. "What did I do to make you think I was the dark lord?"
Sandy was still sobbing slightly. "He's blowing up the school. Just like Severus said. Real explosions this time, not just a little plate. We'll all die."
Remus blinked. "And how would he get into the school? There are wards. The dark lord can't just walk in here."
"The same way he did it when he blew up Potter's plate and cut his broom to tiny pieces." a muffled voice came up from his right leg.
"Ah, but that was just a traitorous student, who doesn't have the power to blow up the entire castle." Remus tried to sound reassuring while he wondered from about what age level a student might be powerful enough to bring at least one whole tower to fall. "The dark lord himself can't get in here, I assure you, and his agent won't be so stupid to cause an explosion that could kill him himself."
"Severus said he might." Sandy insisted.
"Someone who works for You-Know-Who must be very stupid." one of the Gryffindors commented from behind him. "And he even failed twice. How stupid must somebody be to be unable to kill an unsuspecting student?"
"Mr. Mallister, you are not helping." Minerva took over the boy. "Gryffindors, please clean up and return to your common room. The lesson is almost over and I doubt we'll get anything done today anymore anyway."
The familiar sounds of students packing up came from behind him. Remus gently detached one of the children from his leg and picked her up. A hug should help comfort her, he hoped. Unless she was an abused child, but then she probably wouldn't have clung to his leg in the first place.
"Didn't you notice the explosions stopped a while ago?" he asked while he rocked her gently. "It came from the Potions classroom and it's over. It was most likely just an experiment gone wrong. Harry Potter has Charms right now. If it had been another attack, it would have happened near the Charms classroom, not down in the dungeons."
"It's over?"
"Yes, it's over." Remus confirmed. "Now it's time to pack up and then I'll go back down to the dungeons with you to check whether there's been any damage. Maybe I can help with the repairs."
The children still moved hesitantly and looked terribly pale and frightened. Some of them did pack away their books and quills, but others just gathered close around him and refused to get their bags. He had to ask the brave ones to do it for them. Minerva even helped as well and finally they were on their way back to the common room, Remus still with one little girl on his arm and her backpack slung over his shoulder. The rest at least were carrying their bags themselves.
The dungeons smelled of fire and smoke was drifting down the corridor. Nervous students were hovering near the stairs unsure whether it was safe to return to the common room.
They attached themselves to Remus' group as they continued down the corridor. Remus had originally planned to take the first years to the common room and visit the Potions class alone, but what if the smoke was harmful? Maybe he'd do better to evacuate the common room than to take the students there.
They found even more of the older students outside the Potions classroom staring at the debris that littered the corridor. Severus and Draco were standing in the door, Draco with one arm lying comfortingly over Severus' shoulders. Remus peered into the class through the hole in the wall next to the door. Luisa Hunter-Moor was already using it, but Remus had no problem looking over the second year's head.
There were holes not only in the walls, but also in the floor and ceiling. Argus Filch was standing in the middle of the room staring at soot stained pieces of shattered furniture in horror. The two coughing house elves beside him were so dirty from digging through the ashes Remus couldn't even identify them.
"Tilly is very sorry Mr. Filch, Sir." one of them announced after regaining her breath. "Tilly and Twinky is tries to stops it, but pieces is flies everywhere and explosions is blowing Tilly and Twinky around the room every time."
"And students is coughing so much they isn't ables to helps Tilly and Twinky." the other one added.
"Are you sure the ceiling won't cave in?" Filch demanded.
Tilly nodded. "As long as nobody's enters the room upstairs and putting weight on it."
"Then go lock that room with your strongest locking spells and hang a warning to the door." the caretaker ordered.
Tilly popped away immediately.
"Twinky, we'd better close this room off as well. Go get the tape and my toolbox." Filch continued. "And where the hell is Professor Malfoy?"
Nobody had an answer to that.
Filch cursed for a bit.
"It will take weeks to repair this." he sighed finally picking one of the larger pieces out of the pile of debris before him and beginning to rub the soot off it. "Well, looks like the grinning chair just needs a new leg. I sure hope it isn't able to feel pain."
"Is the Slytherin common room safe, Argus?" Remus called out to the caretaker.
Filch looked up from the damaged chair in surprise. He hadn't even noticed Remus was there. "Yes, yes, just get them out of here before they do any worse damage."
Some of the students protested that they hadn't been the cause of the destruction, but Remus managed to herd them back to the common room without any serious problems. Still, being head of house was turning out to be a lot harder than he'd thought it would be. He wondered for a moment why Severus did it. The little extra money it earned him wasn't that much of an incentive.
-
-
Something was moving on his pillow beside him.
For a moment Draco wondered whether Pansy had snuck into his bed, then his brain began to work again. Pansy was happy with Baise and Ginny hadn't gone further than kissing yet. And she definitely had no way to get into his dorm. She didn't even know the password or where exactly the secret entrance into the common room was.
Still something was on his pillow and now there even was a feather light touch on his cheek.
"Sniff!" it sounded loud and clear right next to his ear.
Draco's eyes flew open and he sat up straight in bed. "Greenie!"
There were some sleepy complaints from four other beds, but Severus was already getting dressed.
"I sent him to wake you." he explained while he slipped into his robes. "Hurry up, we've got something important to do."
Draco yawned and glared, but complied.
Theodore grumbled something incomprehensible and fumbled for his wand on his nightstand.
SNAP!
Theodore's scream and curses served to fully wake Draco.
The bathroom seemed strangely empty and quiet this early in the morning, but there was no time to think about it. Severus was already waiting in the common room.
Ten minutes later they set out to find Lucius' office. This normally easy task turned out to be rather complicated.
The usual Potions office had been closed off along with the classroom. For a moment the boys just stood outside dumbfounded and Greenie sniffed in the direction of the door, probably wondering why they'd stopped moving and were staring at the piece of wood.
"Now what?" Draco asked Severus after a moment.
"We could try looking near the classroom Albus used last year." Severus decided. "If they're using that one again, they'll probably have given Lucius an office near it."
Unfortunately that didn't seem to be the case.
"Either he hasn't moved in yet, or Albus doesn't want him this close to his office." Severus decided after they'd checked every door on that corridor.
"Can you blame him?" Draco asked with a smirk. "The dungeons have much thicker walls than the rest of the castle. If yesterdays explosions had occurred anywhere else, several rooms might have collapsed."
Severus nodded seriously even though Draco had meant it more in jest. "You're right. This part of the castle is much too used. It's almost a miracle that there were only minor injuries yesterday. Next time we might not be so lucky and a more out of the way location reduces the number of people at risk. If the ceiling of this class were to cave in, the headmaster's office would be at risk. If the floor collapsed, it'd fall right into Binns' classroom and behind that wall that's McGonagall's bedroom. The fastest way from the Ravenclaw common room to the library leads right past the classroom as well."
"Do we give up then?" Draco asked a little disappointed.
"For now." Severus confirmed. "If we can't find Lucius' office, most of our suspects most likely won't either, so watching it will be useless anyway. We'll wait until Albus announces the new location of the Potions classroom."
Draco nodded obediently. "So what do we do now? I'm sick of trudging after Stephan. He never goes anyplace new anymore. I'm even beginning to miss searching trunks. Isn't there some way we could get into one of the other houses and search our suspects there?"
"Not unless somebody there lets us in." Severus answered while tickling one of Greenie's paws.
The hedgehog didn't seem to be ticklish. He just curled his nose inward to sniff at Severus' finger curiously.
"Neville would, if we explained." Draco pushed.
"No, I don't want to drag him into this and it's Ravenclaw we'd need most, not Gryffindor." Severus insisted. "We barely have any suspects in Gryffindor."
"Neville might be able to suggest some more." Draco attempted.
"No, just you and me. Too many teachers know already. We don't have to include more students as well."
"Neville's trustworthy." Draco reminded Severus, though he knew he'd lost the argument again. "Hey, aren't we going back to the common room?"
They'd reached the staircase they'd come up, but Severus was walking on past it.
"Right after we've paid a little visit to the library." Severus promised. "I have to start a little series of explosions of my own."
"In the library?" Draco asked confused. "Wouldn't a potions storeroom be a more promising starting point for that?"
"Not for the kind of explosions I have in mind." Severus smiled angelically as he opened the door to the Library and walked straight to Professor Pince's desk.
They were lucky this time. Madame Pince was in, though the dark circles under her eyes clearly showed the strain of being both Latin teacher and librarian at the same time.
She looked up at them tiredly. "Can I help you?"
"Well," Severus started pretending to be a little nervous about it. "It's none of my business actually, since I'm not a prefect, but . . ."
Madame Pince sighed. "But what?"
"But I saw some third year girls with a book that looked like it belonged in the restricted section and I was wondering whether you and Remus would really hand something like that out to them, if it really was a restricted book." Severus hesitated.
"Third years with a restricted book?" Pince had no doubt that Severus knew exactly what book he had seen. "Where did you see them and when?"
"Oh, two or three days ago, I think. In the common room."
More vagueness. Maybe Severus knew there wasn't a restricted book, but needed her to check for some other purpose?
"I see." she told him. "I don't remember handing any restricted books out to third years, but I'll have to check my lists to make sure. Thank you, Severus, you were right to inform me, even if it turns out to be a false alarm. Those books can be very dangerous and we don't want the girls to be harmed."
Severus smiled, thanked Pince for her time and walked out again Draco following right behind wondering what that had been all about.
-
-
Albus made no announcement about the new location of Potions class during lunch, but on their way back in after a stroll around the lake Draco and Ginny almost collided with Tilly, the house elf, who was dragging a huge box up the stairs.
"Oh dear!" Ginny exclaimed at the sight of the tiny elf struggling with the heavy box. "Why don't you levitate it?"
"Professor Malfoy Sir say Tilly is not allowed, Miss." Tilly responded panting with exhaustion. "He not want his books levitated or apparated. Tilly is even tells him Tilly is teleport them, but Professor Malfoy Sir is insists Tilly carry."
Ginny frowned trying to puzzle out the bad grammar, but Draco, who was more used to house elves, understood it right away. This could clearly work to his advantage.
"Oh, he's just doing that to make your job harder." he told Tilly. "But this is much too heavy for you alone. Just tell us where you need it and we'll carry it for you."
"Sir is too kind!" Tilly squeaked. "This Tilly's work. Sir is not bother with house elf job."
"No, really Tilly!" Ginny exclaimed. "Let us help. Together the three of us will have it up there in no time."
They grabbed the box despite Tilly's protests and carried it up the first stairway with the elf, who didn't want to let go of her work, but was too small to carry the box a this height, dangling from the bottom of the box.
"Okay, Tilly." Draco announced. "We've reached the first floor. Do we need to go further up?"
"No, no!" Tilly shook her head as she climbed onto the top of the box. "Tilly is needs takes box down left corridor."
They followed the corridor to its very end until Tilly announced. " Now Tilly is needs takes third door on the left of right corridor."
Said door turned out to lead onto the servants' stairs.
"Now down." Tilly announced.
"Back into the dungeons?" Draco asked surprised.
"Not dungeons." Tilly corrected. "Is old kitchens. Professor Dumbledore Sir is says make second Potions classroom in old kitchen and office for Professor Malfoy Sir in larder. Now Tilly is takes all Professor Malfoy Sir's things in larder and Dobby is makes new classroom with Mr. Filch Sir."
"So who's repairing the old classroom?" Ginny asked with a slight frown. The news of the devastation had already spread through the school and Ginny had been one of many students who'd crept into the dungeons this morning to take a look at the ruins.
"Twinky and Winky, Miss. They is best at reparo spells, but even they is having very hard repair this bad damage."
It took almost two hours to drag everything Lucius wanted in his office into the old larder, but Ginny kissed Draco for being so kind and helpful and now he could tell Severus exactly where to find Lucius' new office.
When they arrived with the last box Mr. Filch was already standing in the larder directing Twinky where to teleport the furniture.
"I don't remember giving you two detention." he grumbled at them in greeting.
"You didn't." Draco confirmed. "But these boxes were much too heavy for one house elf to carry on her own, so we decided to help."
Filch almost smiled. "I'll remember this next time you are to serve a detention with me." he promised.
At least Draco supposed this was to be taken as a promise, not a threat.
"Is there anything else we can do?" Ginny offered kindly.
The caretaker shook his head. "No, thank you. Malfoy can bloody well unpack his trash himself with all the extra work he's causing me."
So Draco returned triumphantly to the common room with the information he'd gained.
When he arrived Severus was sitting by the fire listening to strange noises that were drifting down from the girls' stairs.
"What's happening?" Draco asked almost forgetting his news over all the excitement in the common room.
Almost every boy in the house seemed to be hanging around either inconspicuously pretending to do homework or eagerly crowding around the bottom of the girls' stairs. No girls were in evidence.
"They are searching the third year girls' dorm." Severus announced smugly.
"They? Who's they?"
"Well, officially it's Professor Lupin of course." Theodore commented from his perch on the arm of Blaise's chair. "But Pince arrived with him. It appears the girls are suspected of stealing books from the library."
"Maybe one of them just forgot to hand a book back in on time." Vincent commented.
"No way." Blaise grinned. "People hand books in late all the time and they've never been searched before. This is something big. Maybe the thief will even get expelled."
Loud shouting arose upstairs. Apparently something had been found.
"See." Theodore said. "Now they've caught her. They'll bring her down any moment now."
"Who do you think it is?" Vincent asked excitedly.
"Gaia Ushton." Blaise suggested. "She's always up to no good."
"Gaia didn't do anything wrong!" Curtis Marston protested his voice trembling.
He was Gaia's best friend, which didn't give him much credibility in the matter.
"Mathilda Harris looked pretty scared when they arrived, though." Theodore reported. "She had guilty written all over her face, if you ask me."
"Masha Alton." Severus declared with certainty. "She's the worst of the bunch."
The shouting had died down however and the teachers still hadn't appeared.
"False alarm." Theodore decided.
"I found out where the new Potions classroom will be." Draco remarked into the disappointed silence.
"Really? Where?" Draco hadn't even noticed Stephan was close enough to hear them.
"They've adapted the old kitchen. The Potions teacher's office will be in the former larder next to it." Draco smirked.
"That's a good place for explosions." Severus commented. "It's so out of the way there isn't even a door to connect it with the rest of the dungeons."
"What old kitchen?" Stephan demanded. "I only know one kitchen and that's right under the great hall."
"In the days of the founders Hogwarts had very few house elves." Severus explained smugly. "Most of the work was done by Muggle servants who lived in a servants' tract separate from the teachers and students' quarters. The original kitchen was right under the servants' tract, on a level with our dungeons, but separate from them. When Muggle labour started getting too expensive however more house elves were brought in to replace the servants. Due to their smaller size the servants' tract didn't suit the elves' needs and a different part of the castle was adapted for them. Among other things a new kitchen was built, bigger, but lower so everything would be in comfortable reach for the elves. The servants' tract has been mostly empty since then."
"So they've pushed Professor Malfoy out of the way?" Gregory frowned.
"They had to find a new classroom for him, since the old one will take months to repair properly." Theodore explained. "I overheard Filch complaining about it to his cat."
"And they probably didn't want an upstairs classroom, because another explosion might blast a hole through the floor, which could be very dangerous." Severus added. "The dungeons are the most strongly built part of the castle, so they're the most likely to withstand a Potions accident and the servants' tract isn't as close to our dorms as the bigger rooms on this side of the dungeons are. If the dorms were damaged in an accident they'd have to adapt classrooms into temporary dorms and that would be rather difficult."
"We used an upstairs classroom last year, though." Vincent reminded them.
"But we had only theoretical lessons there." Severus argued. "This time the repairs will take longer, so we need a room where we can have practical lessons as well."
"I still don't like it." Gregory insisted. "Potions should be here, close to our house."
Draco was just about to remind him that the Potions teacher wasn't their head of house this year, but at that moment Professor Pince appeared at the top of the stairs and the common room fell silent.
The librarian was carrying a pile of six or seven books and looked almost shocked. Draco didn't quite understand why. Okay, so there had apparently been more stolen books than they'd originally expected, but surely that wasn't that terrible, was it?
Behind Pince the third years followed in a tight frightened looking group and at the end of the group Professor Lupin, who was carrying a bag in one hand and holding Marsha Alton's arm in the other. He looked more serious than Draco had ever seen him before.
Behind them the rest of the girls swarmed down the stairs and into the common room wide eyed and very excited.
Just what had happened up there?
They didn't get an answer to that question, though. The procession just walked past them and out the secret door leaving the assembled students to discuss the events and create all sorts of rumours.
"Didn't I tell you it would be Marsha?" Severus asked triumphantly.
"They brought down all of them." Theodore insisted. "There's no way to tell which one is guilty."
"But Lupin was dragging Marsha." Curtis informed him. "The rest were walking along freely. Gaia is innocent."
About half an hour later Remus returned to ask Severus to accompany him to the headmaster's office. Severus almost smiled. It appeared he wouldn't have had to take those potion samples from the third year girls after all.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Pseudonym Sylphmuse - Yes, Sevi's still afraid of Minerva, but Flitwick never scared him.
JerseyPike - I suppose Albus had an important meeting at the ministry. (Or maybe just a Sherbert Lemon to eat, or some new socks to buy?)
Elsa - Well, soup is a difficult science. . . . I guarantee you that Ron is not Percy. Percy is at St Mungos. . . . Well, I just like Neville and I'm not trying to write cannon.
Iremione - Severus is trying to get the students to show what side they're really on. Their opinion on Potter is a good clue so he was trying to feed the argument. . . . Mathilda? Oh, she just thinks school isn't important for girls, she'll only be married off to some rich wizard anyway. . . . What can I say? He's Lockhart. (He probably ran into the ward backwards while busy telling Sevi what an excellent brewer he is.) . . . Muggle alarms don't work at Hogwarts and the more advanced wards would hurt the one trying to break in. Sevi isn't allowed top use anything that might seriously harm a foolish student. . . . Oh, just reacting to a RHPS quote in a review. . . . I know, I usually answer in English, but when I'm specifically addressed in German . . . Vestalia Flemming. (Don't want to say too much about the plot, yet and you know me too well, so you keep guessing about that one.)
Koganei-Tokiya - I'm afraid HPHC is finished as it is. It's deliberately open ended on a hopeful note. Harry will have to fight his way back to happiness, but he's finally opened up again to his friends, though they are slightly different people than they used to be. Some, like Sirius are likely to come around in time, some like Hermione will need to get to know him again slowly, others like Cho he will just have to write off. It won't be easy, but he'll get there in time.
Thistle - No, Luci doesn't suspect Draco, but he doesn't really talk to him either and he keeps berating him about his grades. Draco just doesn't like being around him, if he can help it. . . . Luci just doesn't know how to teach. He's never done it before and isn't particularly good with children or at understanding other people's viewpoint. He feels pretty helpless in all the chaos Potions class causes and just can't think straight under those circumstances. He's much better at political intrigue, manipulation of adults or on a battlefield. . . . If you watch it closely you'll notice that it's mostly the Hogwarts staff that use the term traitor. Lucius thinks of the traitor as the assassin or the agent. To Dumbledore the students are part of the Hogwarts community and therefore should be on Hogwarts' side. That would then make the assassin a traitor.
GreenEyes7 - Hey, I always knew I'd continue this. I just need to concentrate on one fic at a time and sometimes I just don't get the time to write.
Semmel - Blos dass Blaise und Theo beim letzten Angriff beide brav im Unterricht gesessen sind und nichtmal auf's Quidditchfeld schauen konnten. Susan, ja, die hat Sevi wirklich nicht auf seiner Liste. Aber vielleicht ist der Verräter ja doch auf der Liste? Ich weis, ich bin gemein. . . . Wenn du zwischendurch mal mehr zu lesen brauchst und auch was Deutsches nehmen würdest, sieh dir doch mal an was meine Freundin Ricky (Ricky1 laut ff.net) so schreibt. Ist echt lesenswert.
Black Angel - You still suspect Pince? Oh well, if you think so. . . . Sorry, Minerva and Sevi keep misunderstanding each other. Communication between Slytherins and Gryffindors is always a little problematic and prone to misunderstandings. They'd both like to be friends. They just keep messing up their chances. . . . You bet Albus has a collection, but the grinning chair will remain in Potions class until the end of the year. Sevi might replace him after that, though and I'm sure he'll think of Albus when he does.
Phoenix Flight - Glad to have made you happy!
EriEka127 - Harry already knows about the ban. Unfortunately none of the Slytherins were there to see when he found out. (Minerva called him to her office and told him privately.)
Bobbie - Thanks. I try to be original, but with so many fics out there, I always have my doubts.
Weasleylover 1 - To be honest I feel sorry for Luci, too. He's totally out of his depth and I'm getting more and more fond of him. . . . Not telling about the traitor. Maybe Seamus is, or maybe I'm just throwing red herrings around. . . .
oldbean - Actually I don't like Soccer, but I needed a hobby for the Rakers and Soccer fit perfectly into the scenery. . . . Stop writing? How does one do that?
black sayain - Thanks!
Feronia - Thanks! I don't always hear good things about that epilogue, but I still like it myself. . . . Not humorous, if I remember correctly was in reference to Harry Potter Hogwarts Caretaker, which was the next thing I wrote after MNS, but not the sequel. (This here's the sequel.) And HPHC is far from humorous, in case you intend to read it. It's my depression fic. A style I don't usually write down so it comes as natural as the humour parts. I've had people tell me hat they were unable to finish HPHC and it's probably not the best thing to read right after MNS.
Laughing Cat - Hm . . . SRATSS fic is probably not the best list for you, if you've never seen the show. It's all fanfic authors that write about that one show and my fic isn't even in the files, just in the messages. I don't think either are open for non-members, I'm afraid, but most likely the ff.net fic will soon catch up to the list version.
-
-
-
-
A/N: Will the separation of Lucius living quarters and office make it more difficult to observe him? What did Remus and Madame Pince find in the third years' dorm? And how will the girls be punished? (Guesses about the identity of the traitor as always will be read with great interest, but not answered, yet.) Please R/R.
-
-
Next: Sevi thinks about redecorating, Draco draws Potions class and Lucius attends another emergency meeting.
Disclaimer 2 - Draco drawing dragons belongs to PikaCheeka. Sorry I forgot to mention that in the first chapter of MNS. I sort of adopted the idea subconsciously.
Disclaimer 3 - Severus' raven belongs to J. L. Matthews. I just borrowed him because he's such a perfect pet for Sevi and promise to return him unharmed.
The catar however are all mine and I love them so please don't use without asking me first.
-
-
A/N - Sorry, job's been keeping me busy again. (Why does one have to have a job? . . . Oh right, it keeps me and my horse fed, that's why.) . . . Those of you who speak German, my translator Ricky (Ricky1 on ff.net) just posted a new fic. Go check it out. It's worth it. . . . And while I'm at it, I've got something for the Spanish speaking among you as well: Check out my friend Iremione. What little she has translated for me was great and left me wishing I knew Spanish so I could read the rest. By the way, Iremione also went and found out what Agamatris means. Harry named Hermione's Augmentis potion the Mother's Swamp Potion! (Aga means swamp in an old form of Latin.) 100 points to Gryffindor for finding that out. . . . Are you sure you aren't part Ravenclaw and part Slytherin, Iremione?
-
-
Chapter 10: Boom
-
-
The last lesson on Friday was DADA for the Slytherin and Hufflepuff sixth years. A good way to end the week in Severus' opinion. Remus and he had prepared a little demonstration of defensive charms for this weeks lesson, which seriously impressed the Hufflepuffs, though Pansy, Blaise and Theodore looked half asleep in their chairs.
Even Gregory commented that some of the charms were quite elemental, but that didn't bother Remus in the slightest.
"Precisely, Gregory." he smiled at the boy. "They are essential charms that every witch and wizard should know to be able to protect themselves from dark curses. As DADA teacher it is my duty to make sure that all of you are familiar with all of them. Of course most wizard born students already know at least some of them, but I can't be sure you've mastered them until I see you perform them and the Muggle born among you will most likely not have had a chance to learn them before now. Therefore I ..."
BOOMMM!!!
The ground shook beneath them and a puff of smoke came out of the ventilation shaft.
Remus blinked. "What was that?"
BOOMMM!!!
"That shaft connects to the Potions classroom." Severus declared looking slightly worried.
BOOMMM!!!
"Sounds like Professor Malfoy has a mistake in his recipe." Estella suggested. "If it were a student's mistake only one cauldron would have exploded."
BOOMMM!!!
"Oh, I hope nobody gets hurt." Susan Abbott said staring at the ventilation shaft.
"Sniff?" commented Greenie wondering whether he should roll up or not.
BOOMMM!!!
"Maybe it isn't the Potions classroom at all." Theodore mused. "It might be another trap for Potter."
BOOMMM!!!
"In that case it sure misses a lot." Nicodemus Hanson joked.
"No, that's definitely the Potions classroom." Severus announced. "Potter should be in Charms now while the explosions are coming from the dungeons."
Remus opened a drawer in his desk and shuffled quickly through the parchments in there. "Do any of you know which class has Potions right now?"
Silence. Even Severus didn't know this year's Potions schedules by heart.
"Well, it's not a Slytherin class." Remus decided and closed the drawer again. "Since the explosions seem to have stopped now, lets return to our demonstration."
-
-
Minerva McGonagall's teaching week finished with the Slytherin and Gryffindor first years, which meant she had a lot less of a good time than Severus. First years were always more demanding of her attention, because they still lacked the most basic knowledge and consequently were very accident prone.
The combination of Slytherin and Gryffindor was an additional complication. This year's bunch made even the Potter/Malfoy feud look tame. Minerva was almost reminded of the days of the Marauders the way the houses kept picking on each other.
The six new Gryffindor boys formed one tight pack that usually singled out one victim, while two of the four Slytherin boys were tall, strong loners that liked to beat up Gryffindors. The Slytherin girls seemed to have an inexhaustible reservoir of little mean hexes, while the Gryffindor girls were sharp-tongued little teasing monsters.
Of course it was the Slytherins' fault for being such 'mean spirited little death eaters', as Darla Johnson, a third cousin of Angelina Johnson, had put it, but Minerva still didn't see why six Gryffindors had had to gang up on the smallest Slytherin girl and rip her homework into shreds.
Sandy had dutifully handed in as many small strips of parchment as she had been able to save but most of them had been flushed down a toilet by the Gryffindor gang. How was Minerva ever supposed to grade that essay?
"Ms Johnson, a wand is not a drumstick! Please stop hitting it against your desk!" Minerva ordered sternly. "Mr. Antonelli, you're holding the wrong end of your wand. This way you might turn yourself into a matchstick, but not your goose feather."
"Huh?" Salvatore Antonelli stared at his wand in confusion. "Oh!"
"Mr Haley!!!" Minerva managed to grab the young Gryffindor's wand just in time before he could make a huge wart sprout from little Sandy Mortimer's nose.
She had no time to scold him though, because a fistfight was about to break out at the other end of class. She quickly assigned Charles Bowler a different seat saving the situation at least for the moment. Despite her quite successful early interventions she'd already taken 30 points off Slytherin, 19 off Gryffindor and given five detentions and still the class wouldn't calm down. The anticipation of the weekend was driving them wild.
"Get away from me you damn death eater bitch!" Kevin Mallister yelled at a Slytherin girl who was searching for her matchstick, which she had apparently dropped.
"Language Mr. Mallister!" Minerva scolded. "I'm sure . . ."
BOOMMM!!!
"What the?" Minerva quickly suppressed a curse of her own, but nobody would have heard it anyway.
Her students were scramming in terror.
BOOMMM!!!
That came from downstairs. Far downstairs.
"Sonorus!" Minerva cast on herself. "Please, calm down. There's been some mishap in Potions. Probably just sound enhancing potion blowing up. That's happened before." Though not in the last thirty years or so. "I know it sounds terrifying, but it's completely harmless."
BOOMMM!!!
The Gryffindors sat down pale faced, but quiet, but the Slyherins were still shrieking. Two of them had crawled under their desks, another was standing in the middle of the classroom screaming at the top of her lungs and the rest huddled into a corner in the back clinging to each other.
BOOMMM!!!
"It's him!" one of the girls screamed. "He's going to kill us all!"
"AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!"
"Nonsense." Minerva declared calmingly. "It's just a little Potions accident."
'I'll kill Lucius, if this doesn't stop.' she thought to herself. 'What the hell is he doing down there?'
BOOMMM!!!
"AAAAHHHHHH!!!!"
"We're all going to die!"
The Gryffindors were beginning to get nervous, too. Kevin slipped under his desk as well.
BOOMMM!!!
"It's all right." Minerva assured them. "It will be over any moment now."
Sandy burst into tears of fear. "It's You - . . . You-Know-Who!" she sobbed. "He's come to blow up the school."
"We'll die!!!"
Now the Gryffindors were once again panicking, too. It took Minerva five minutes to calm her own house, but the Slytherins didn't even hear her. They'd all crawled into the corner now and were whimpering crying or screaming.
Whatever could she do? Her own house accepted her explanations well enough, but the Slytherins just didn't trust her. They kept insisting that Voldemort was going to blow up the whole school to kill them all.
The Gryffindors listened to it all wide-eyed and uncomprehending. After all Slytherins were death eaters, weren't they? Weren't they supposed to be the ones blowing up the school for Voldemort?
Minerva finally gave in. She was clearly unable to handle a horde of terrified Slytherins. Snotty ones, snobby ones and impertinent ones, no problem, but frightened was quite a different matter. She needed the help of somebody who understood what was going on inside their heads. An adult Slytherin. Severus preferably. Nobody knew better how to handle Slytherins than their head of house. That was why he'd gotten the job in the first place.
Severus' cover as a student would be blown, if he was seen in his adult form, though, so she had to find somebody else. She immediately dismissed the idea to make Lucius clean up his own mess. Lucius clearly was no Severus, or else this would have stopped with the first explosion.
Minerva hastily transfigured her first grade Transfigurations book into an owl and sent it off with a short note. Hopefully help would arrive soon.
-
-
Lucius had found out that he hated Potions, especially seventh year Potions classes. He had always known that he hated Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, of course, so it was no surprise that double Potions with the seventh year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs was one of the low points of his week.
Accordingly he'd written the recipe for a time delayed poison out on he blackboard, taken attendance, told the students to get to work and retreated into his office where he was just penning the first draft of his next report to Lord Voldemort when the first explosion boomed through the classroom. Blinding light flashed through the open door along with the deafening sound and the ground shook. Then thick smoke followed and he could hear his students coughing.
He considered getting up and checking on the class despite the fact that he could hardly see anything even in here, but before he could come to a decision another explosion hit and he could hear screams of fear and hasty shouts of "Extinquo!"
He wondered whether any of the furniture had caught fire, or the students were extinguishing the fires under their cauldrons out of fear of further explosions.
He decided to get up after all, but was thrown off his feet again by the next explosion. This one seemed bigger than the one before. Maybe two cauldrons had gone up at the same time?
Lucius jumped to his feet and was in the classroom in two fast strides. A wall of soot, smoke and ashes greeted him. He could make out some vague shapes behind it, but could only guess at which ones were students and which ones cauldrons.
Another explosion hit before he could announce his presence. A pillar of fire smoke and boiling hot potion rose from a cauldron in the third row and several of the dark shapes jumped away from it shrieking, some in fear, others in pain as they were hit by the potion or flames. These were apparently students, then. All of them seemed to have escaped the shards of the cauldron itself as far as Lucius could tell.
He opened his mouth to give some command, though he wasn't quite sure what he meant to say, but that didn't matter anyway. He got a mouthful of smoke and ashes and could only cough helplessly along with his students.
Luckily Twinky and Tilly were already on the job extinguishing fires by snapping their fingers at them. House elves didn't need words for their spells, so the smoke didn't give them such bad problems. Tilly also had put flame protection spells on all the pieces of furniture she'd repaired recently.
The next explosion almost knocked Twinky out, though and the students were suddenly gone. Lucius could only assume that they'd somehow reached the door. Or was there a hole in the wall? There was some debris on the floor that looked suspiciously like chunks of wall or ceiling.
Seeing that the elves were the only ones able to use magic in the classroom, Lucius retreated back into the office and from there to his private quarters to take a shower and change his clothes. Soot stains didn't go well with his hair colour, he thought. He'd just clean himself up and check the damage after the smoke had settled.
-
-
Only a few minutes after Remus and Severus had restarted their DADA demonstration they were interrupted once again. A brown barn owl fluttered into the classroom, hooted demandingly and landed on Remus' shoulder.
When Remus didn't reach for the half rolled up scrap of parchment tied to her leg right away, she bit his ear drawing blood and hooted again.
Remus shooed her off his shoulder to protect his ear then snatched the parchment away before she could think to go for his fingers.
He straightened the scrap, stared at it, blinked, then read it out loud: "Remus. Slytherin first years afraid of explosions. Need help fast. Minerva."
He blinked again. Minerva McGonagall asking for help with a harmless little group of first years? He'd believe this of Lucius, but Minerva? The message sounded desperate, though.
"Class, you can go." he decided. "We'll continue our demonstration in our next lesson. Severus, could you please lock up the class for me? I have to check up on Minerva."
It was the first time Remus left the classroom before his students. He hurried up to the Transfigurations classroom still wondering what might have happened. Minerva McGonagall was one of the most experienced teachers in the school, known for her strictness and ability to keep any class under control. She was almost as feared as Severus by the students.
But now he could hear screams all the way down the corridor. Remus ran the last bit and burst into the classroom which at first resulted in even more screams.
"It's him!" little Sandy shrilled. "Voldemort!"
Remus froze in the door. "Now, I may be a dark creature, but I was hoping I wasn't quite as bad as him." he tried to make it sound like a joke, despite the little stab of hurt he felt at the accusation.
It worked. At least partially. The children huddled in the corner looked up. Some managed a weak smile, some dashed towards him, two threw their arms around his legs and clung to him.
"What's wrong?" he asked as gently as possible. "What did I do to make you think I was the dark lord?"
Sandy was still sobbing slightly. "He's blowing up the school. Just like Severus said. Real explosions this time, not just a little plate. We'll all die."
Remus blinked. "And how would he get into the school? There are wards. The dark lord can't just walk in here."
"The same way he did it when he blew up Potter's plate and cut his broom to tiny pieces." a muffled voice came up from his right leg.
"Ah, but that was just a traitorous student, who doesn't have the power to blow up the entire castle." Remus tried to sound reassuring while he wondered from about what age level a student might be powerful enough to bring at least one whole tower to fall. "The dark lord himself can't get in here, I assure you, and his agent won't be so stupid to cause an explosion that could kill him himself."
"Severus said he might." Sandy insisted.
"Someone who works for You-Know-Who must be very stupid." one of the Gryffindors commented from behind him. "And he even failed twice. How stupid must somebody be to be unable to kill an unsuspecting student?"
"Mr. Mallister, you are not helping." Minerva took over the boy. "Gryffindors, please clean up and return to your common room. The lesson is almost over and I doubt we'll get anything done today anymore anyway."
The familiar sounds of students packing up came from behind him. Remus gently detached one of the children from his leg and picked her up. A hug should help comfort her, he hoped. Unless she was an abused child, but then she probably wouldn't have clung to his leg in the first place.
"Didn't you notice the explosions stopped a while ago?" he asked while he rocked her gently. "It came from the Potions classroom and it's over. It was most likely just an experiment gone wrong. Harry Potter has Charms right now. If it had been another attack, it would have happened near the Charms classroom, not down in the dungeons."
"It's over?"
"Yes, it's over." Remus confirmed. "Now it's time to pack up and then I'll go back down to the dungeons with you to check whether there's been any damage. Maybe I can help with the repairs."
The children still moved hesitantly and looked terribly pale and frightened. Some of them did pack away their books and quills, but others just gathered close around him and refused to get their bags. He had to ask the brave ones to do it for them. Minerva even helped as well and finally they were on their way back to the common room, Remus still with one little girl on his arm and her backpack slung over his shoulder. The rest at least were carrying their bags themselves.
The dungeons smelled of fire and smoke was drifting down the corridor. Nervous students were hovering near the stairs unsure whether it was safe to return to the common room.
They attached themselves to Remus' group as they continued down the corridor. Remus had originally planned to take the first years to the common room and visit the Potions class alone, but what if the smoke was harmful? Maybe he'd do better to evacuate the common room than to take the students there.
They found even more of the older students outside the Potions classroom staring at the debris that littered the corridor. Severus and Draco were standing in the door, Draco with one arm lying comfortingly over Severus' shoulders. Remus peered into the class through the hole in the wall next to the door. Luisa Hunter-Moor was already using it, but Remus had no problem looking over the second year's head.
There were holes not only in the walls, but also in the floor and ceiling. Argus Filch was standing in the middle of the room staring at soot stained pieces of shattered furniture in horror. The two coughing house elves beside him were so dirty from digging through the ashes Remus couldn't even identify them.
"Tilly is very sorry Mr. Filch, Sir." one of them announced after regaining her breath. "Tilly and Twinky is tries to stops it, but pieces is flies everywhere and explosions is blowing Tilly and Twinky around the room every time."
"And students is coughing so much they isn't ables to helps Tilly and Twinky." the other one added.
"Are you sure the ceiling won't cave in?" Filch demanded.
Tilly nodded. "As long as nobody's enters the room upstairs and putting weight on it."
"Then go lock that room with your strongest locking spells and hang a warning to the door." the caretaker ordered.
Tilly popped away immediately.
"Twinky, we'd better close this room off as well. Go get the tape and my toolbox." Filch continued. "And where the hell is Professor Malfoy?"
Nobody had an answer to that.
Filch cursed for a bit.
"It will take weeks to repair this." he sighed finally picking one of the larger pieces out of the pile of debris before him and beginning to rub the soot off it. "Well, looks like the grinning chair just needs a new leg. I sure hope it isn't able to feel pain."
"Is the Slytherin common room safe, Argus?" Remus called out to the caretaker.
Filch looked up from the damaged chair in surprise. He hadn't even noticed Remus was there. "Yes, yes, just get them out of here before they do any worse damage."
Some of the students protested that they hadn't been the cause of the destruction, but Remus managed to herd them back to the common room without any serious problems. Still, being head of house was turning out to be a lot harder than he'd thought it would be. He wondered for a moment why Severus did it. The little extra money it earned him wasn't that much of an incentive.
-
-
Something was moving on his pillow beside him.
For a moment Draco wondered whether Pansy had snuck into his bed, then his brain began to work again. Pansy was happy with Baise and Ginny hadn't gone further than kissing yet. And she definitely had no way to get into his dorm. She didn't even know the password or where exactly the secret entrance into the common room was.
Still something was on his pillow and now there even was a feather light touch on his cheek.
"Sniff!" it sounded loud and clear right next to his ear.
Draco's eyes flew open and he sat up straight in bed. "Greenie!"
There were some sleepy complaints from four other beds, but Severus was already getting dressed.
"I sent him to wake you." he explained while he slipped into his robes. "Hurry up, we've got something important to do."
Draco yawned and glared, but complied.
Theodore grumbled something incomprehensible and fumbled for his wand on his nightstand.
SNAP!
Theodore's scream and curses served to fully wake Draco.
The bathroom seemed strangely empty and quiet this early in the morning, but there was no time to think about it. Severus was already waiting in the common room.
Ten minutes later they set out to find Lucius' office. This normally easy task turned out to be rather complicated.
The usual Potions office had been closed off along with the classroom. For a moment the boys just stood outside dumbfounded and Greenie sniffed in the direction of the door, probably wondering why they'd stopped moving and were staring at the piece of wood.
"Now what?" Draco asked Severus after a moment.
"We could try looking near the classroom Albus used last year." Severus decided. "If they're using that one again, they'll probably have given Lucius an office near it."
Unfortunately that didn't seem to be the case.
"Either he hasn't moved in yet, or Albus doesn't want him this close to his office." Severus decided after they'd checked every door on that corridor.
"Can you blame him?" Draco asked with a smirk. "The dungeons have much thicker walls than the rest of the castle. If yesterdays explosions had occurred anywhere else, several rooms might have collapsed."
Severus nodded seriously even though Draco had meant it more in jest. "You're right. This part of the castle is much too used. It's almost a miracle that there were only minor injuries yesterday. Next time we might not be so lucky and a more out of the way location reduces the number of people at risk. If the ceiling of this class were to cave in, the headmaster's office would be at risk. If the floor collapsed, it'd fall right into Binns' classroom and behind that wall that's McGonagall's bedroom. The fastest way from the Ravenclaw common room to the library leads right past the classroom as well."
"Do we give up then?" Draco asked a little disappointed.
"For now." Severus confirmed. "If we can't find Lucius' office, most of our suspects most likely won't either, so watching it will be useless anyway. We'll wait until Albus announces the new location of the Potions classroom."
Draco nodded obediently. "So what do we do now? I'm sick of trudging after Stephan. He never goes anyplace new anymore. I'm even beginning to miss searching trunks. Isn't there some way we could get into one of the other houses and search our suspects there?"
"Not unless somebody there lets us in." Severus answered while tickling one of Greenie's paws.
The hedgehog didn't seem to be ticklish. He just curled his nose inward to sniff at Severus' finger curiously.
"Neville would, if we explained." Draco pushed.
"No, I don't want to drag him into this and it's Ravenclaw we'd need most, not Gryffindor." Severus insisted. "We barely have any suspects in Gryffindor."
"Neville might be able to suggest some more." Draco attempted.
"No, just you and me. Too many teachers know already. We don't have to include more students as well."
"Neville's trustworthy." Draco reminded Severus, though he knew he'd lost the argument again. "Hey, aren't we going back to the common room?"
They'd reached the staircase they'd come up, but Severus was walking on past it.
"Right after we've paid a little visit to the library." Severus promised. "I have to start a little series of explosions of my own."
"In the library?" Draco asked confused. "Wouldn't a potions storeroom be a more promising starting point for that?"
"Not for the kind of explosions I have in mind." Severus smiled angelically as he opened the door to the Library and walked straight to Professor Pince's desk.
They were lucky this time. Madame Pince was in, though the dark circles under her eyes clearly showed the strain of being both Latin teacher and librarian at the same time.
She looked up at them tiredly. "Can I help you?"
"Well," Severus started pretending to be a little nervous about it. "It's none of my business actually, since I'm not a prefect, but . . ."
Madame Pince sighed. "But what?"
"But I saw some third year girls with a book that looked like it belonged in the restricted section and I was wondering whether you and Remus would really hand something like that out to them, if it really was a restricted book." Severus hesitated.
"Third years with a restricted book?" Pince had no doubt that Severus knew exactly what book he had seen. "Where did you see them and when?"
"Oh, two or three days ago, I think. In the common room."
More vagueness. Maybe Severus knew there wasn't a restricted book, but needed her to check for some other purpose?
"I see." she told him. "I don't remember handing any restricted books out to third years, but I'll have to check my lists to make sure. Thank you, Severus, you were right to inform me, even if it turns out to be a false alarm. Those books can be very dangerous and we don't want the girls to be harmed."
Severus smiled, thanked Pince for her time and walked out again Draco following right behind wondering what that had been all about.
-
-
Albus made no announcement about the new location of Potions class during lunch, but on their way back in after a stroll around the lake Draco and Ginny almost collided with Tilly, the house elf, who was dragging a huge box up the stairs.
"Oh dear!" Ginny exclaimed at the sight of the tiny elf struggling with the heavy box. "Why don't you levitate it?"
"Professor Malfoy Sir say Tilly is not allowed, Miss." Tilly responded panting with exhaustion. "He not want his books levitated or apparated. Tilly is even tells him Tilly is teleport them, but Professor Malfoy Sir is insists Tilly carry."
Ginny frowned trying to puzzle out the bad grammar, but Draco, who was more used to house elves, understood it right away. This could clearly work to his advantage.
"Oh, he's just doing that to make your job harder." he told Tilly. "But this is much too heavy for you alone. Just tell us where you need it and we'll carry it for you."
"Sir is too kind!" Tilly squeaked. "This Tilly's work. Sir is not bother with house elf job."
"No, really Tilly!" Ginny exclaimed. "Let us help. Together the three of us will have it up there in no time."
They grabbed the box despite Tilly's protests and carried it up the first stairway with the elf, who didn't want to let go of her work, but was too small to carry the box a this height, dangling from the bottom of the box.
"Okay, Tilly." Draco announced. "We've reached the first floor. Do we need to go further up?"
"No, no!" Tilly shook her head as she climbed onto the top of the box. "Tilly is needs takes box down left corridor."
They followed the corridor to its very end until Tilly announced. " Now Tilly is needs takes third door on the left of right corridor."
Said door turned out to lead onto the servants' stairs.
"Now down." Tilly announced.
"Back into the dungeons?" Draco asked surprised.
"Not dungeons." Tilly corrected. "Is old kitchens. Professor Dumbledore Sir is says make second Potions classroom in old kitchen and office for Professor Malfoy Sir in larder. Now Tilly is takes all Professor Malfoy Sir's things in larder and Dobby is makes new classroom with Mr. Filch Sir."
"So who's repairing the old classroom?" Ginny asked with a slight frown. The news of the devastation had already spread through the school and Ginny had been one of many students who'd crept into the dungeons this morning to take a look at the ruins.
"Twinky and Winky, Miss. They is best at reparo spells, but even they is having very hard repair this bad damage."
It took almost two hours to drag everything Lucius wanted in his office into the old larder, but Ginny kissed Draco for being so kind and helpful and now he could tell Severus exactly where to find Lucius' new office.
When they arrived with the last box Mr. Filch was already standing in the larder directing Twinky where to teleport the furniture.
"I don't remember giving you two detention." he grumbled at them in greeting.
"You didn't." Draco confirmed. "But these boxes were much too heavy for one house elf to carry on her own, so we decided to help."
Filch almost smiled. "I'll remember this next time you are to serve a detention with me." he promised.
At least Draco supposed this was to be taken as a promise, not a threat.
"Is there anything else we can do?" Ginny offered kindly.
The caretaker shook his head. "No, thank you. Malfoy can bloody well unpack his trash himself with all the extra work he's causing me."
So Draco returned triumphantly to the common room with the information he'd gained.
When he arrived Severus was sitting by the fire listening to strange noises that were drifting down from the girls' stairs.
"What's happening?" Draco asked almost forgetting his news over all the excitement in the common room.
Almost every boy in the house seemed to be hanging around either inconspicuously pretending to do homework or eagerly crowding around the bottom of the girls' stairs. No girls were in evidence.
"They are searching the third year girls' dorm." Severus announced smugly.
"They? Who's they?"
"Well, officially it's Professor Lupin of course." Theodore commented from his perch on the arm of Blaise's chair. "But Pince arrived with him. It appears the girls are suspected of stealing books from the library."
"Maybe one of them just forgot to hand a book back in on time." Vincent commented.
"No way." Blaise grinned. "People hand books in late all the time and they've never been searched before. This is something big. Maybe the thief will even get expelled."
Loud shouting arose upstairs. Apparently something had been found.
"See." Theodore said. "Now they've caught her. They'll bring her down any moment now."
"Who do you think it is?" Vincent asked excitedly.
"Gaia Ushton." Blaise suggested. "She's always up to no good."
"Gaia didn't do anything wrong!" Curtis Marston protested his voice trembling.
He was Gaia's best friend, which didn't give him much credibility in the matter.
"Mathilda Harris looked pretty scared when they arrived, though." Theodore reported. "She had guilty written all over her face, if you ask me."
"Masha Alton." Severus declared with certainty. "She's the worst of the bunch."
The shouting had died down however and the teachers still hadn't appeared.
"False alarm." Theodore decided.
"I found out where the new Potions classroom will be." Draco remarked into the disappointed silence.
"Really? Where?" Draco hadn't even noticed Stephan was close enough to hear them.
"They've adapted the old kitchen. The Potions teacher's office will be in the former larder next to it." Draco smirked.
"That's a good place for explosions." Severus commented. "It's so out of the way there isn't even a door to connect it with the rest of the dungeons."
"What old kitchen?" Stephan demanded. "I only know one kitchen and that's right under the great hall."
"In the days of the founders Hogwarts had very few house elves." Severus explained smugly. "Most of the work was done by Muggle servants who lived in a servants' tract separate from the teachers and students' quarters. The original kitchen was right under the servants' tract, on a level with our dungeons, but separate from them. When Muggle labour started getting too expensive however more house elves were brought in to replace the servants. Due to their smaller size the servants' tract didn't suit the elves' needs and a different part of the castle was adapted for them. Among other things a new kitchen was built, bigger, but lower so everything would be in comfortable reach for the elves. The servants' tract has been mostly empty since then."
"So they've pushed Professor Malfoy out of the way?" Gregory frowned.
"They had to find a new classroom for him, since the old one will take months to repair properly." Theodore explained. "I overheard Filch complaining about it to his cat."
"And they probably didn't want an upstairs classroom, because another explosion might blast a hole through the floor, which could be very dangerous." Severus added. "The dungeons are the most strongly built part of the castle, so they're the most likely to withstand a Potions accident and the servants' tract isn't as close to our dorms as the bigger rooms on this side of the dungeons are. If the dorms were damaged in an accident they'd have to adapt classrooms into temporary dorms and that would be rather difficult."
"We used an upstairs classroom last year, though." Vincent reminded them.
"But we had only theoretical lessons there." Severus argued. "This time the repairs will take longer, so we need a room where we can have practical lessons as well."
"I still don't like it." Gregory insisted. "Potions should be here, close to our house."
Draco was just about to remind him that the Potions teacher wasn't their head of house this year, but at that moment Professor Pince appeared at the top of the stairs and the common room fell silent.
The librarian was carrying a pile of six or seven books and looked almost shocked. Draco didn't quite understand why. Okay, so there had apparently been more stolen books than they'd originally expected, but surely that wasn't that terrible, was it?
Behind Pince the third years followed in a tight frightened looking group and at the end of the group Professor Lupin, who was carrying a bag in one hand and holding Marsha Alton's arm in the other. He looked more serious than Draco had ever seen him before.
Behind them the rest of the girls swarmed down the stairs and into the common room wide eyed and very excited.
Just what had happened up there?
They didn't get an answer to that question, though. The procession just walked past them and out the secret door leaving the assembled students to discuss the events and create all sorts of rumours.
"Didn't I tell you it would be Marsha?" Severus asked triumphantly.
"They brought down all of them." Theodore insisted. "There's no way to tell which one is guilty."
"But Lupin was dragging Marsha." Curtis informed him. "The rest were walking along freely. Gaia is innocent."
About half an hour later Remus returned to ask Severus to accompany him to the headmaster's office. Severus almost smiled. It appeared he wouldn't have had to take those potion samples from the third year girls after all.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Pseudonym Sylphmuse - Yes, Sevi's still afraid of Minerva, but Flitwick never scared him.
JerseyPike - I suppose Albus had an important meeting at the ministry. (Or maybe just a Sherbert Lemon to eat, or some new socks to buy?)
Elsa - Well, soup is a difficult science. . . . I guarantee you that Ron is not Percy. Percy is at St Mungos. . . . Well, I just like Neville and I'm not trying to write cannon.
Iremione - Severus is trying to get the students to show what side they're really on. Their opinion on Potter is a good clue so he was trying to feed the argument. . . . Mathilda? Oh, she just thinks school isn't important for girls, she'll only be married off to some rich wizard anyway. . . . What can I say? He's Lockhart. (He probably ran into the ward backwards while busy telling Sevi what an excellent brewer he is.) . . . Muggle alarms don't work at Hogwarts and the more advanced wards would hurt the one trying to break in. Sevi isn't allowed top use anything that might seriously harm a foolish student. . . . Oh, just reacting to a RHPS quote in a review. . . . I know, I usually answer in English, but when I'm specifically addressed in German . . . Vestalia Flemming. (Don't want to say too much about the plot, yet and you know me too well, so you keep guessing about that one.)
Koganei-Tokiya - I'm afraid HPHC is finished as it is. It's deliberately open ended on a hopeful note. Harry will have to fight his way back to happiness, but he's finally opened up again to his friends, though they are slightly different people than they used to be. Some, like Sirius are likely to come around in time, some like Hermione will need to get to know him again slowly, others like Cho he will just have to write off. It won't be easy, but he'll get there in time.
Thistle - No, Luci doesn't suspect Draco, but he doesn't really talk to him either and he keeps berating him about his grades. Draco just doesn't like being around him, if he can help it. . . . Luci just doesn't know how to teach. He's never done it before and isn't particularly good with children or at understanding other people's viewpoint. He feels pretty helpless in all the chaos Potions class causes and just can't think straight under those circumstances. He's much better at political intrigue, manipulation of adults or on a battlefield. . . . If you watch it closely you'll notice that it's mostly the Hogwarts staff that use the term traitor. Lucius thinks of the traitor as the assassin or the agent. To Dumbledore the students are part of the Hogwarts community and therefore should be on Hogwarts' side. That would then make the assassin a traitor.
GreenEyes7 - Hey, I always knew I'd continue this. I just need to concentrate on one fic at a time and sometimes I just don't get the time to write.
Semmel - Blos dass Blaise und Theo beim letzten Angriff beide brav im Unterricht gesessen sind und nichtmal auf's Quidditchfeld schauen konnten. Susan, ja, die hat Sevi wirklich nicht auf seiner Liste. Aber vielleicht ist der Verräter ja doch auf der Liste? Ich weis, ich bin gemein. . . . Wenn du zwischendurch mal mehr zu lesen brauchst und auch was Deutsches nehmen würdest, sieh dir doch mal an was meine Freundin Ricky (Ricky1 laut ff.net) so schreibt. Ist echt lesenswert.
Black Angel - You still suspect Pince? Oh well, if you think so. . . . Sorry, Minerva and Sevi keep misunderstanding each other. Communication between Slytherins and Gryffindors is always a little problematic and prone to misunderstandings. They'd both like to be friends. They just keep messing up their chances. . . . You bet Albus has a collection, but the grinning chair will remain in Potions class until the end of the year. Sevi might replace him after that, though and I'm sure he'll think of Albus when he does.
Phoenix Flight - Glad to have made you happy!
EriEka127 - Harry already knows about the ban. Unfortunately none of the Slytherins were there to see when he found out. (Minerva called him to her office and told him privately.)
Bobbie - Thanks. I try to be original, but with so many fics out there, I always have my doubts.
Weasleylover 1 - To be honest I feel sorry for Luci, too. He's totally out of his depth and I'm getting more and more fond of him. . . . Not telling about the traitor. Maybe Seamus is, or maybe I'm just throwing red herrings around. . . .
oldbean - Actually I don't like Soccer, but I needed a hobby for the Rakers and Soccer fit perfectly into the scenery. . . . Stop writing? How does one do that?
black sayain - Thanks!
Feronia - Thanks! I don't always hear good things about that epilogue, but I still like it myself. . . . Not humorous, if I remember correctly was in reference to Harry Potter Hogwarts Caretaker, which was the next thing I wrote after MNS, but not the sequel. (This here's the sequel.) And HPHC is far from humorous, in case you intend to read it. It's my depression fic. A style I don't usually write down so it comes as natural as the humour parts. I've had people tell me hat they were unable to finish HPHC and it's probably not the best thing to read right after MNS.
Laughing Cat - Hm . . . SRATSS fic is probably not the best list for you, if you've never seen the show. It's all fanfic authors that write about that one show and my fic isn't even in the files, just in the messages. I don't think either are open for non-members, I'm afraid, but most likely the ff.net fic will soon catch up to the list version.
-
-
-
-
A/N: Will the separation of Lucius living quarters and office make it more difficult to observe him? What did Remus and Madame Pince find in the third years' dorm? And how will the girls be punished? (Guesses about the identity of the traitor as always will be read with great interest, but not answered, yet.) Please R/R.
-
-
Next: Sevi thinks about redecorating, Draco draws Potions class and Lucius attends another emergency meeting.