The Fifth House

Disclaimer: Is this really necessary? Can't I just get on with the chapter? I've kept the reviewers waiting long enough- don't I owe it to them to skip a disclaimer just this once?

Fine!

I don't own Harry Potter.

Author's Note: I am so sorry! I have not written a chapter in so long! It's because I had this huge project for school- a 3-D, two posters, a ten-page paper, seventy note cards, and a speech.  Fun, eh?  Now I will have more time to write {and June 21 is my deadline}! 

Oh well, on with the chapter! And a major thanx to all the reviewers, you all rock!

Curtains Up!

Chapter Twelve

         "Did you feel it?"

         "No way, it couldn't have been every house!"

         "Every single house?"

         There was much discussion going on at Hogwarts School.  Most of it was very much similar to all the rest. 

         Every student in the school-Slytherins, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, Gryffindors, and Terces sodalises- felt it. The pain.  The scorch.  The ice. 

The Event that started it all.

         The truth was that no one was sure exactly what it was.  No one knew what caused it.  It was a frightening prospect, waking up to a pain somewhere in you that just hurt like it was torture.  It hadn't yet been realized at this point, but every student had felt it somewhere different.  Harry Potter had felt it is his scar.  Ron Weasley had felt it in his eyes.  Hermione Granger felt the pain through her spine.  Each student had awakened to this mysterious pain.  It was the most excruciating experience any of them had had.

 Or most of them, as there were always exceptions.    

         But the fact remained that every student had been awakened by it, and every teacher had not.

         Each house met in its common room.  The Terces sodalises discreetly traveled via the tunnels to the Atrium. 

         In the Gryffindor common room, there was a terrified conversation that was mostly yelling.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione, however, stood in a corner talking quietly.

         Harry knew it was only a matter of time before he was accused of starting it.  It was such an obvious explanation that even Harry had considered somehow hexing the student body in his sleep.  Hermione thought that there was a simple explanation.  Obviously, she said, there had to be an answer within reaching distance.  She did not, however, have any idea of what this explanation might be.  Nor did she know which books the answers could be located in, which, Ron commented, was a first.  She was certain that the answer would not be easy to find, and they probably could not find it in the Hogwarts library.  Ron asked, We?

Harry said that the only way to find an answer was to work together.  Ron shook his head in agony. 

         "And I was hoping this would be a laid-back year," Ron said.

         "How could you think that, Ron? You know we have O.W.L.s this year!" Hermione pointed out.

         "Oh yes," Ron said, trying to look as if he knew that and was planning on having some fun study sessions. 

         Harry remained pretty quiet and uninvolved throughout the conversation, with the exception of an occasional nod or shrug.  He was thinking a lot.  It was very strange that all of Gryffindor was woken by the same type of pain.  Harry wasn't sure yet if it had affected the other houses, but he had the idea that it had.  It did not seem strange to him that he felt a pain in his scar.  It was a different kind of pain, he'd only felt this kind once before, but it was still his scar burning all the same. 

*       *       *       *

         In the Hufflepuff common room, all of the students were sitting around the fire having a quiet talk. It was the best way to discuss the happening without arguing.  Some Hufflepuffs, however, seemed to have very strong opinions and wanted their voices to be heard.  Eleanor Branstone was one of these types. 

         "I'm almost certain that I can find out what it is that started all this," she said.

         "What makes you so sure about that?" asked Ernie MacMillan. 

         "I am one of the smartest students in the school, Ernie.  Even smarter than some Ravenclaws," she answered in a very conceited fashion. 

         "How exactly are you planning to do this? I mean, you can't just cruise down to the library, pull some book of the top shelf and look up the answer.  It can't be that easy, I know for a fact that every book in the Hogwarts library has been taken out at least once, someone would have read it and told us by now," Ernie defended.

         "What makes you so sure about that? Been having some quiet time with Madame Pince, have you?" Eleanor sneered.

         "I had to serve detention sorting books! I just asked her if she knew if there were any books that hadn't been taken out, but she said all of them had.  It was a detention!" he said to a bunch of skeptical Hufflepuffs, and he was blushing.

         "You've stained the Hufflepuff name!" shrieked a girl from the corner.

         "Exactly!" Eleanor said.  "And once I find the answer I can bring Hufflepuff some real glory! I can help Hufflepuff rise above the others!" Eleanor shouted into the crowd.  She may be conceited, but she was also charismatic.  A roar of approval swept the room.

*       *       *       *

         Things were going differently in the Ravenclaw common room.  Each member of the house was sitting somewhere; they were somehow organized in a way that everyone could see everyone else.  It was the most orderly way to do it, and Ravenclaws are all for order. 

         If you had walked in at that moment, you would have seen a group of about sixty or seventy students all looking very stern and ready for a debate.  It was a somewhat intimidating sight.

         "So, I call this official meeting of the Ravenclaw house to order," called out the prefect from the house.  His name was Raymond Cruz; he was in his seventh and final year at Hogwarts.  And he was scared.  Strange things had happened at the school before and innumerable times in the past, he knew, but nothing where the entire student body had been affected.  It just didn't make sense. 

But he knew something was coming, something big.  And he prayed that it had nothing to do with him.

Or his ancestry.

         "May I speak first, Cruz?" asked a third year boy.  The Ravenclaws called each other by their last names during these meetings, as it sounded more professional.

         "Yes.  Please state your name and year in case anyone would like to take down notes," Raymond said.

         "Thank you, Cruz.  My name is Jonathon Reed, and I'm in my third year here at Hogwarts.  I personally believe that what is happening has nothing to do with any powerful evil.  I think that some wizard or witch in the world may have accidentally hexed our school.  I think that that is all that happened, and that nothing more will follow."  Several hands rose throughout the room.

Terces frowned upon Jonathon Reed.

         "You there," Raymond said, pointing to a girl closest in seating arrangements to Jonathon.

         "My name is Orla Quirke, and I'm a first year.  I must add, with all due respect, Reed, that I strongly disagree.  If this isn't an evil, and is just some wizard or witch's mistake, how can we be certain of that?  If we decided that was the explanation we wanted to settle on, would that not make us idle? Is idleness not the one thing Ravenclaws despise? It would cause us to act against our house."

She paused here to flip her hair over her shoulder, and to let the others consider what she had said. " Also, I don't think we should do nothing about this.  It has always been known that Ravenclaw has the smartest students.  Wouldn't we be letting Hogwarts down to take no action? I say we start an investigation.  It would have to be a quiet one, we wouldn't want any of the other houses to get involved."

         The assembly of Ravenclaws looked thoughtfully at each other.  It was true that Rowena Ravenclaw had hated idleness with a passion.  It was also held to be true that Ravenclaw had produced many of the world's most brilliant wizards and witches, there was no doubt and that. 

         "Let's vote.  All in favor of lying idle, raise your hand," Cruz said into the crowd.  Jonathon Reed and one other student raised their hands.

         "Very well, that's two votes.  All in favor of starting up a silent investigation, raise your hands," Cruz said, fighting to suppress a smile.

         To be fair, Raymond Cruz had to count every vote.  If he said that it was just obvious, Jonathon could fight back and demand a recount.  It seemed hardly fair, however, to torture Reed with his loss at two votes to seventy-one.

         Even Raymond had raised his hand.  He didn't know why he did it.  It was not in his heritage to investigate something like this.  But, his conscience told him; he could guide the investigation in a specific direction, away from all that involved him.

Or his secret.

*       *       *       *

         The Slytherin common room was very quiet.  Everyone was listening to someone talk.  It was Kylie doing the talking.  She was going on {and on} about how they had to do something. 

         "Things like this don't happen for no reason.  I know that this Event had to be caused by someone, or several someones.  I don't know how I know, but I'm sure that it has to be controlled from somewhere on the school grounds.  You can't just hurt everyone with the same kind of pain from a random country across the world, it just wouldn't happen.  No one outside the school would do this, I think, because it's not like Voldemort isn't taking over people's minds with fear.  And even if they are his supporter's, they've still got to be pretty bust doing work for him, wouldn't you think?  No, this is completely our school's problem.  Dumbledore probably won't bring the ministry into it, they make us vacate the castle in a millisecond."

         "Then what are we going to do about it, Kylie?" asked a Slytherin sixth year.  Kylie was the only Slytherin called by her first name by everyone in the school, because most people had trouble pronouncing her last name.

         "I don't know, but I can't plan the whole thing by myself, you've all got to do some work on it too!" she said.

         "How about this: We completely ignore the people in the other houses, since it's got to be one of them that started this up, and see which house acts the most suspiciously," suggested Carolle Hendrix, a Slytherin seventh year.

         Kylie looked slightly frazzled by the cruelty involved.  There had to be another way, she knew it.  "Listen, Carolle, that's definitely not the way to go, because it will just make all of the houses think we're responsible for it.  As if Slytherin doesn't get enough attention for bad things already," Kylie said.  Carolle smirked.

         "That's not such a bad idea, Kylie.  If we act like we are responsible.  Then the other houses will fear us, they won't come within a marathon length of us.  Whenever someone messes with us, we just threaten to get their entire house killed," said Malcolm Baddock, a second year. 

         "Yeah!"

         "Way to go, Baddock!"

         "Speaking like a true Slytherin."

         Ouch.  That last remark hit Kylie like a very sharp, cold, blast of wind.  Not like she wanted to act like a Slytherin, but she at least wanted to be included somewhat.

         "Yeah, I can see it all now!" Malcolm said.  "Project We Are Responsible.  Project WAR!" he said, looking extremely proud of himself.

         Kylie sighed.  At this point there was nothing she could do. 

         She sighed again and looked around the room.  She didn't really have many Slytherin friends.  She got along fairly well with Pansy Parkinson, and also Millicent Bulstrode.  There really was no one else.  Unless she felt like attempting conversation with the first years, who generally would talk to anyone who would talk to them.

         She scanned the room still, noticing that someone was missing.  She couldn't quite place who wasn't there, but there was just something about the Slytherin crowd that wasn't there during this particular time. 

         "Hey, we should go down to the Great Hall and start our project right now! I bet the other houses will be down there, we can convince them that we are responsible!" suggested a first year who looked terribly excited at all the evil joy spreading throughout the room.

         Kylie found herself pulled out of the room with the moving mob. 

         Yes, she thought, the other houses probably would be down there.  Maybe then she could talk to Hermione or Harry or Ron.  Someone she could have an actual conversation with.

         Thinking about her suffering social life only messed up her true thought more.  She was truly concerned about this Event. She was the only one of the Slytherins who knew how bad this could be.  She had the history.  She had the knowledge.  She had Hogwarts, a History Edition Eight.

And she knew it was back.

*       *       *       *

         The Terces Atrium was full of tired looking students.  They'd only gone to their dormitories less than an hour ago.  Enna was fully awake.  Reelle and Brann were playing Chinese checkers.  Ren and Strella were talking quietly.  Sam and Plikttro were reading books.  Skully was looking around the room, very interested in everything about it.  Enna was just standing.

         "Okay, so we've started, now what?" Brann asked.

         "We don't really do anything.  By the way, who was contacted? I know I was, but I didn't do it," asked Enna.

         "Some weird voice was talking to be about You-Know-Who.  But nothing else out of the ordinary," Skully said sarcastically.

         "I know you were, Skully, we're in the same house.  WE control the power together.  Obviously it would contact both of us," Enna explained.  "What I mean is that it takes members from two different houses being contacted to actually cause something."

         "I was," Reelle said.  "Which means you were too, Strella."

         "Does words being spelled out in the water of a sink count as a contact?" Strella asked.  Reelle nodded. 

         "I think we can all go now, then,' Enna said.

         Enna again was the last to leave.  She actually went back to her room this time, because she was scared.  She couldn't tell the others.  IT wasn't supposed to happen like this.  Someone was messing with Terces.

The Fifth power had caused the pain. 

         When a Terces sodalis is contacted by their power, they have to perform a task that it asks of it immediately.  Reelle, Strella, and Skully had all completed their tasks.

Enna hadn't completed her task of researching Renee Skeeter's article. 

         Which means that the four powers of Terces could not have done anything.  The Event wasn't supposed to happen. 

Something had made the Fifth power act.

         It was being controlled, but not by Terces.

*       *       *       *

         Every student was in the Great Hall late that night.  Each was surprised to see that there were no members of authority there.  Even the headmaster wasn't present. 

         One final meeting went on that night.  Every house took part.  The members of Terces were mixed back in with their houses now. 

         The Head Boy and Head Girl were in charge.  Everyone cooperated.  When it came time for anyone with any information to step forward, half of the student body looked at Harry.

         "What?" he asked, trying to look as confused as all of them.

         "Come off it, guys,' spoke up a voice that often wasn't heard.  Neville Longbottom was speaking in public, in front of the entire student body, for the first time.  He blushed as everyone looked at him in disbelief.  'Honestly, it's so obvious it's Harry it's obviously not Harry."

         Murmurs of approval swept the hall.

         "What makes any of you so sure Potter could pull it off anyway?  It would take Slytherin strength to do that. Bet he'd get scared.  Bet he wouldn't want to lose his position as Dumbledore's favorite boy," drawled Draco Malfoy's voice.  He was smirking.

         "Speaking of Dumbledore, we probably shouldn't tell him about all of this.  He'll be obligated to tell the ministry, and then the school would almost definitely close," spoke up Raymond Cruz.

         Students started talking all at once.  Hermione Granger, of course, disliked the idea very much.  The Head Boy and Girl were discussing the matter quietly.  The Head Boy stepped towards the students.

         "That's true, but if it gets very bad, or if for any reason we think any student could be in danger, we have to tell.  We'll only allow it to stay a secret between all of us for now because if, at the end of the year, it's still being kept secret, it will prove that all of the houses can get along, without house rivalry," said the Head Boy, Marvin Schaffer, a seventh year Hufflepuff.  Belinda Grisdale, the Head Girl, nodded in approval. 

         "Then it's settled, then.  We won't tell the teachers or staff now.  This Event may become no more.  It is not harmful enough, yet, to get our school closed for,' said Belinda. 

         "Now, I think it's best we all return to our dormitories,' said Marvin.

         Students walked silently to their dormitories.  They all knew it would be hard to keep this clandestine.  But it was worth it if it meant a temporary break in house rivalry.  The inter-house relationships improved.

And the Fifth power grew stronger.

Curtains Close!

Author's Note: That chapter was somewhat difficult to write.

I hope you all liked it.  I'm trying to work on tying in all of the things prior to this point in the story [the letters, the cloud, the kids,}, so it's being slightly more difficult to write.

If for some reason this story isn't done by June 21, please keep reading it anyway. 

Words of Wisdom: Poking things brings limited satisfaction.  Fun as it may be, after a while, your finger hurts.

Remember to Review!

I love you all!

Ciao!

~Starry