Quest of the Seekers: Animals Within
Year Two at Hogwarts
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Chapter 14: Letters and Blank Words
...
Times were starting to take a dull turn for the seekers inside Hogwarts and it was perfectly fine with them. Brad and Reggie were shocked to hear that Tyler and Jacke felt like quiet time is what they needed. Both felt that they've done the exciting for the whole year and they could use a vacation from it all now that they were animagi. However, they still blamed both Reggie and Brad for influencing their calm nature away from adventure just like Reggie had started blaming them for his mischievous behavior. Brad was as normal as always, calm but did like a spot of excitement here and there.
Spring had begun to approach as it turned to the month of April. Easter Holidays were here but everyone was using that time to study and finish up any left over work. Even the trio of slytherins, as the seekers called them, were seen in a dull light. Tyler already went into a trance to finish his stockpiling homework and started to go into deep studying. Matt joined in on the studying with Tyler and also like him, started to avoid Regulus lately. Regulus started to go into a stronger study trance than they were. He was getting himself ready for his O.W.L.'s or Ordinary Wizarding Level exams. When either of them tried to talk or ask him something then he would snap at them.
Quidditch was also starting to become ordinary routine for Tyler. Oakmire's behavior during practice wasn't improving at all though. He was getting more harder on the team because they wanted to get the cup but they only won one game and had tied with Ravenclaw so he became hostile. Tyler figured that complaining was only going to give Oakmire satisfaction that he was getting to him so he kept his mouth shut and accepted it.
Things were pretty normal around Hogwarts but if the seekers thought it was going to be this way for the rest of the year – then they were dead wrong. One day when Matt, Tyler and Morgan, who sort of became an unofficial member of their circle, walked out of potions class with the other slytherins and gryffindors to find the letters H and T burned into the walls. Reckler came out of the classroom to find out why the students weren't moving on and also saw the scorched wall.
"Everyone! Go to your next classes right now! The headmaster will deal with this!" Reckler shouted to the students.
Tyler saw that some of the slytherins were interested with the burned walls. The Gryffindors seemed nervous and Jacke looked as blank as a parchment. When the three slytherins went onward to Transfiguration, they went into conversation.
"What was all that about? Why would anyone burn an H and a T into the walls?" asked Matt.
"Burn...burn!"
"What's wrong Tyler?" asked Morgan.
"Oh nothing, just thinking out loud."
"Know anything about the wall?" asked Matt.
"No...my mind just wandered," he answered back before going into silent thinking. 'Could it possibly be...I mean, his face WAS expressionless like he was hiding something, kind of suspicious. Nah, I'm just thinking too much, besides why would he burn an H and a T on the walls?'
The slytherins got over to their next class, which was missing Professor McGonagall, which they deduced, was because she was dealing with the walls near the potion classroom. The ravenclaws started to file in and Tyler went to Reggie to tell him what happened. Reggie did look surprised but it wasn't for long before his face made it obvious he was thinking. It didn't last long because McGonagall finally came into the classroom looking a little flustered.
Professor McGonagall's lesson drove the incident out of everyone's mind. They had to transfigure their beetles into teacups, which was alerting because they had to make sure the beetles or legged teacups didn't crawl away.
The bell sounded and before Tyler could say bye to Reggie, there was a scream outside the doors. When Tyler and Reggie went outside they saw what was screamed about. Like what happened outside the potion classroom there were two letters burned to the wall. This time they were the letters U and O. Tyler saw McGonagall turn pale at the large scorch letters at the walls.
...
The next two weeks had nervous breakdowns and jumps all over Hogwarts. According to the teachers and prefects, the walls were hit with magical fire to burn the holes and letters in them. But they assured that Filch was going to paint over them and they'll be as good as new. They also assured them that they were sure that the damage to the walls were the result of a prank but in the student's minds those were just cover stories and rumors were made. There were stories of a new undercover gang in Hogwarts vandalizing the school and Tyler even heard that some people thought it was Voldemort and his Death Eaters that were responsible for the scorches.
What made the matter worse was that the attacks kept on going. Three days after the first day there were more letters burned on the walls. This time it was out on the grounds and they were the letters M and L. They were on burned upturned earth right on the grounds in a 15-foot length. Tyler saw these when he and his other classmates headed toward the greenhouses for Herbology and the students started openwide at the letters until one of them got Professor Sprout.
...
Two days later, after the Great Hall emptied from dinner, the students all became shocked to see the ceiling having burned in letters of an E and an S as well.
Tyler racked his head after that "incident" as they were being called. He couldn't understand, these letters didn't make sense. They seemed completely at random. With the burned messages, Tyler had one suspect but it couldn't be...him. It could've been an older student or students.
The new word going around was that the letters might've meant initials or a pair's first name or last names. Or it could be that they spelled the name of their group but all they had were HTUOMLES in order, which didn't spell anything. Tyler was completely lost, he wanted to let the teachers deal with this but he was too curious for his own good. He also couldn't talk to his friends about it because the students were either in tense classrooms or being rushed to their common rooms. All he had were the opinions of the slytherins, which weren't much to go on since the other houses didn't share anything with them. All he had were Matt, Regulus and Morgan to talk to which was good but he still needed his fellow seekers for a different view of things.
...
Another burn message was in the boy's bathroom this time, with an R and A burned into the wall opposite of the mirrors and sink. Tyler stumbled onto them when he went to wash up after Charms.
With these incident chains, it became impossible to meet with Brad, Reggie and Jacke. All quidditch practices started to have a teacher and the pitch was off-limits during a practice meaning that he couldn't catch his friends and vice versa after practice. Was Tyler in another house, he would've given up and accepted the hopeless. However, he was in slytherin, and the motto (or one of them) was that "you want it to happen, have the will so it will happen.)""
He sent Pandy with a message to each of the seekers telling them to all meet in the cave after the quidditch match of Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff which was in two weeks. When the seekers got Pandy to give them the letters on his leg, they gave Tyler nods telling him they'll be there.
The two weeks leading to that match were far from uneventful. Four days later, after the slytherins were on their way to their defense class, another incident became aware. A P was there burned right at the turn where they had to take to go to the classroom. Professor Arnold came up behind him, on his way to the classroom as well, and froze at the sight of the letter. He asked Matt to get Professor Dumbledore at the staff room while he told the other slytherins to go wait in the classroom. Morgan came to Tyler when they entered the classroom to talk.
"This is getting complicated. Who would burn these letters to the wall anyway? It's nonsense."
"I think they're trying to scare the school."
"With...letters? Please, if fear is what they want then this is far from that. Must be hufflepuffs that are doing this since it's pathetic like they all are."
"Enough stop," interrupted Tyler. "Please...don't tease the other houses when I'm around," he added with a tired voice.
"Why?...oh, your friends."
He nodded and Morgan stopped but looked at Tyler with a worried glance. "Don't worry, I'm not mad at you. Regulus and Matt understand this about me and they respect this. Just don't do it again okay? Also, I did say "around me"."
"Yeah well anyway, I'm starting to get tired of the teachers overreacting to these incidents. They're just letters and no one's even been hurt."
...
The day before the quidditch match and the group talk in the cave had come and everyone was trying to get through the day quickly. Tyler himself was anxious to get through the day and get into tomorrow. Soon, the day went by and the last class was in sight: Defense class with Arnold. Tyler and the other slytherins headed for the classroom with Arnold right behind him telling them to move on and when they finally got the classroom they all froze.
On the right side wall, there were burned letters again but this time was different. Instead of two or one letter(s), there was an entire word and arrow message.
BACK WORD ;
This message was also meet with broken desks and chairs, the damage missing the portrait on the front wall. Professor Arnold tried to get everyone's attention through the muttering.
"Students...students...STUDENTS!" which finally got everyone to look at him. "Everyone go to back to the common room. The class will be canceled for today."
They all turned and headed towards the common room but then all of them went in different directions to spend this free time anywhere but the common room. However, the only one who was heading for the common room was Tyler.
"Tyler! Are you going back to the common room? Let's spend this free time in another place," pleaded Matt.
"I'm heading back there, you don't have to come with me. Don't let me ruin your free time, have fun without me, okay mate?"
"Well...okay, but seriously, you'd rather go back to the common room? We've been there nonstop during all of our free time since these stupid incidents. You need to have a break from it all."
"Alright thanks."
Tyler hurried his pace and Matt shrugged his shoulders and headed down the opposite hall. Tyler got back to the common room and found to his pleasure that it was empty. He pulled out the parchment where he had written all the letter clues and put in the last message. All together it was HT, UO, ML, ES, RA, P, BACK WORD .
'Hm...Backwords and an arrow. Maybe it means flip everything around.'
So Tyler began turning the previous letters and when he was finished, he dropped his quill and opened his eyes in horror. On the parchment was P, AR, SE, LM, OU, TH. Put it together and you get PARSELMOUTH!!!!!
Tyler was finding it hard to breathe. Was this message about him?
"No, this can't be," he said quietly to himself. "No wait, everytime the incidents happened, they happened to happen right in my path. Also, they were all first discovered by my group every time. Some one's dangling my secret around. But...who? The only ones in this school, no world, that now about me is my family and my frie..."
He then got his answer and then got a malicious glare in his eyes.
...
Jacke got back to his common room and went to his bed so he could rest up for the game tomorrow against Hufflepuff. But, instead of falling asleep, he went into thinking.
'Hm...another incident and this time it was inside a classroom. This is getting crazy and I can't help but feel that maybe Tyler is a part of all this. The other gryffindors did bring up a good point. All of these incidents happen and the slytherin 2nd years just happen to be at the scene at every one of them. Tyler was there at every incident and I do know what he is. I honestly don't know if I can trust him anymore. My parents always told me stories on how parselmouths were killers and evil dark wizards.'
He started to turn responding to the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach that was obviously not from dinner.
'Well, I can't think about this now. I do have a match tomorrow and it's against Brad. He's tough and I can't let Gryffindor lose another match because we can't afford another loss if we want the cup.'
After about 2 hours of turning and thoughtless gaze, Jacke finally managed to get to sleep.
...
The match with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff was met with great cheerful energy that Hogwarts had started to be lacking for the past few weeks. The chasers on both teams were pulling all the stops since both teams had lost their first matches. So far, it was Gryffindor with 110 points and Hufflepuff with 50 points. Jacke was hovering in the air and so was Brad a couple of feet from him. The snitch nowhere in sight but the game had still just started.
Tyler was sitting in the usual location on the stands with his fellow slytherins, Matt, Regulus and now Morgan who really started to like hanging out with Tyler, Regulus and Matt.
Reggie was next to Tyler, on his left side but couldn't help noticing that Tyler hadn't said not one word to him.
'Why is Tyler trying to ignore me? It can't be because of Stellers can it? I'm sure, if they are friends that he would've told her about the three of us. And why is Tyler glaring at Jacke and Brad?...Maybe I'm just hallucinating. Yeah, he could just be concentrating on Brad's moves, after all, he is going to face him in his last match. I guess he's saving talking to us for the cave.'
Tyler couldn't help but glare at Brad and Jacke. He also wanted to glare at Reggie but since he was right there he didn't want to do something that he could regret doing especially in public.
Brad was scanning for the snitch. He hoped that he could find it before Jacke did. It needed to be caught fast because if the match dragged on longer then it wouldn't matter if he caught it or not because the chasers wouldn't be able to keep up with the Gryffindor ones.
After forty minutes the score was 340 to 220 with Gryffindor in the lead. Jacke was beating the urge to twirl on his broom but needed to keep focused. Sure they were in the lead now but if Brad caught the snitch then they would lose.
Jacke and Brad were now so close to each other that they could have a conversation if they wanted. There was no glittering anywhere on the pitch at all but they were soon joined by the sound of wing buzzing. They both looked at each other to find the snitch, slap dab in between them. They both looked at it and then to each other. It was at that moment that the snitch went zooming off and the gryffindor and hufflepuff seekers zoomed right for it. They were equal in distance from it and they both started to close in on it. They extended their hands out and picked up speed. Their hands side by side going for the snitch in the middle of their path. Then one of the hands snatched it and claimed their team's victory. The commentator Phil Villar, yelled out the final result.
"Jacke Walker has caught the snitch! The final score is 490 to 220, Gryffindor Wins!"
...
Jacke, Brad, and Reggie gathered in the cave after Jacke and Brad " Brad moved his hand out for Jacke to shake, which he did.
"Thanks, you weren't an easy win Brad. You're a great seeker yourself. Had I been maybe two inches behind then you would've won."
"You two were fantastic out there," shouted Reggie. "Er...wait, have any of you seen Tyler?"
"No."
"I haven't."
"That's weird. He writes for us to meet and he doesn't show."
"You think he's been caught?" asked Brad.
"I hope not," whispered Reggie.
...
Tyler talked to Regulus, Matt and to Morgan about the match and they said that by the way Hufflepuff played, their team would destroy them. Tyler was only paying half-attention because he wanted to get to the cave but didn't want them following.
"Yeah, definitely. Listen, I'm going to go to the changing rooms to see my friends. Don't wait up for me."
"Wait, maybe I'll go with you," said Regulus. "I haven't talked to your other friends either for a while. Maybe I'll join you guys."
"No," Tyler said a little too quickly getting raised eyebrows from his three slytherin comrades. "It's a little personal thing and it's something only the four of us have to discuss...alone but thanks anyway and I will tell them that you send your regards."
"Well...okay but don't be gone too long Tyler or you'll be skinned alive if a teacher finds you out in the halls too late."
They left leaving Tyler alone to sneak off into the cave. He saw that there were still adult figures moving on the grounds and it didn't seem likely he could get the other side of the lake without being seen.
'Wait, why am I worried about that. I'm an Animagus,' he thought with a little humor.
He went behind a tree and after checking to see if it was safe, transformed into the emerald green snake that was his animal form and slithered to the cave. When he got to the valley, he pulled out his wand and levitated the rock door out of the way and climbed in.
...
"Oh, here he is now," said Jacke.
Tyler came in and put on his most intimidating face. His friends looked nervous under his gaze as his black eyes gave off the feeling of anger that he was feeling. Tyler's eyes always had the effect to let people know who he was feeling and it filled the air with his feeling.
The air had tense anger around and soon the other seekers were feeling anger as to why he wasn't saying anything.
"Tyler, what's wrong," asked Brad who was a little annoyed with the silence.
"What's wrong...what's wrong, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha," Tyler laughed with a little craziness present. "I think that the three of you know perfectly well what's wrong!" he said getting a little red in the face.
"Tyler!" yelled Jacke. "What's your problem?!"
"THIS is my problem!" He then pulled out the folded parchment with his clues. "I've been putting all the letters and messages that were BURNED into the walls and couldn't help but realize what they point out to. But of course you would now. Playing with my secret, no, my LIFE like that!!"
"Tyler, what are you talking about?" asked Reggie.
"This," he said throwing the parchment at the three of them.
Reggie picked it up and the other two looked at it with him. When they saw the clues they stared hard at the parchment in disbelief.
"You mean, someone knows about your,"
"Oh cut out the dragon dung guys!" Tyler said interrupting Brad. "I know that it was you three doing all this."
The three of them looked at Tyler, each believing they hadn't heard right.
"Yeah, I put all the clues together. You three are the only ones that now about me so you are the only ones that it could only be. Magical fire, that points to you Jacke!" he said pointing his finger at his best friend. "How the messages always appear when I'm around. Every time it's before or after a class when I have it with you guys, you were either out of the room or not there yet.!"
"Wait Tyler," Jacke cutting him off. "If you're talking about the first incident, I was in the bathroom and the message wasn't there when I got back."
"You Liar!"
"Tyler!" shouted Reggie. "How could we have possibly done this? We haven't been in contact with each other. Also, how could we possible get to each of these locations without a teacher seeing us? Think about it."
"Don't lecture me, I'm not stupid! You think I didn't think that?! Hello, you're all animagi! You all can control how big or SMALL we can make our forms and you just had to become the size of rats to get to the locations unseen! Also, you could've sent messages to each other just like you did during the Christmas holidays!"
"Tyler!" Brad mimicking Reggie's yell. "We gave you our words that this secret wouldn't be told! We promised you this secret would always be kept secret. Come on, we're your friends!!"
"My friends?!" Tyler said choking back a few tears. "...Some friends who can't keep their words and use tricks in their promises. Telling my secret, you put it in code!! Some friends you are! It's because I'm in slytherin isn't it. Had I been in one of your houses with this secret then I bet this wouldn't have happened."
Before the others could respond Tyler ran out of the cave back to his common room miraculously not running into any teachers or prefects on the way there. He ignored Matt and Regulus who called out to him and went to the dormitory. He pulled the hangings to his bed closed and collapsed in his bed crying into his pillow.
The other seekers were in the cave shocked at Tyler's outburst. They couldn't believe Tyler accused them of playing around with his secret and his life like that. Reggie and Brad were just plain shocked at the accusation Tyler made. Jacke, however, felt a little more guilty then shocked.
End of chapter 14
Tigercub15: Hello, and thanks for your reviews for both of my stories. I also see you put me on your favorites lists. Thank you and you stories are brilliant.
I'm not the weakest link: Thanks for your reviews. I appreciate the picture...if I could just get to it so I could see it.
Author Notes:
Chapter 14 is now over and done with. Pretty emotional huh? Could this be the end of the seekers or...their friendship? Only time will tell but let me assure you that this story will be having a happy ending, sort of. Next up is Chapter 15 which is when Tyler tries to calm down with his slytherin friends and also has a little adventure with Chaos. "Tunnel Network of Hogwarts"
Also, I'm going on vacation tomorrow so I won't be updating or reviewing for at least a few days. I tried very hard to get this last chapter up so you could see it before I left. REVIEW!
Year Two at Hogwarts
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Chapter 14: Letters and Blank Words
...
Times were starting to take a dull turn for the seekers inside Hogwarts and it was perfectly fine with them. Brad and Reggie were shocked to hear that Tyler and Jacke felt like quiet time is what they needed. Both felt that they've done the exciting for the whole year and they could use a vacation from it all now that they were animagi. However, they still blamed both Reggie and Brad for influencing their calm nature away from adventure just like Reggie had started blaming them for his mischievous behavior. Brad was as normal as always, calm but did like a spot of excitement here and there.
Spring had begun to approach as it turned to the month of April. Easter Holidays were here but everyone was using that time to study and finish up any left over work. Even the trio of slytherins, as the seekers called them, were seen in a dull light. Tyler already went into a trance to finish his stockpiling homework and started to go into deep studying. Matt joined in on the studying with Tyler and also like him, started to avoid Regulus lately. Regulus started to go into a stronger study trance than they were. He was getting himself ready for his O.W.L.'s or Ordinary Wizarding Level exams. When either of them tried to talk or ask him something then he would snap at them.
Quidditch was also starting to become ordinary routine for Tyler. Oakmire's behavior during practice wasn't improving at all though. He was getting more harder on the team because they wanted to get the cup but they only won one game and had tied with Ravenclaw so he became hostile. Tyler figured that complaining was only going to give Oakmire satisfaction that he was getting to him so he kept his mouth shut and accepted it.
Things were pretty normal around Hogwarts but if the seekers thought it was going to be this way for the rest of the year – then they were dead wrong. One day when Matt, Tyler and Morgan, who sort of became an unofficial member of their circle, walked out of potions class with the other slytherins and gryffindors to find the letters H and T burned into the walls. Reckler came out of the classroom to find out why the students weren't moving on and also saw the scorched wall.
"Everyone! Go to your next classes right now! The headmaster will deal with this!" Reckler shouted to the students.
Tyler saw that some of the slytherins were interested with the burned walls. The Gryffindors seemed nervous and Jacke looked as blank as a parchment. When the three slytherins went onward to Transfiguration, they went into conversation.
"What was all that about? Why would anyone burn an H and a T into the walls?" asked Matt.
"Burn...burn!"
"What's wrong Tyler?" asked Morgan.
"Oh nothing, just thinking out loud."
"Know anything about the wall?" asked Matt.
"No...my mind just wandered," he answered back before going into silent thinking. 'Could it possibly be...I mean, his face WAS expressionless like he was hiding something, kind of suspicious. Nah, I'm just thinking too much, besides why would he burn an H and a T on the walls?'
The slytherins got over to their next class, which was missing Professor McGonagall, which they deduced, was because she was dealing with the walls near the potion classroom. The ravenclaws started to file in and Tyler went to Reggie to tell him what happened. Reggie did look surprised but it wasn't for long before his face made it obvious he was thinking. It didn't last long because McGonagall finally came into the classroom looking a little flustered.
Professor McGonagall's lesson drove the incident out of everyone's mind. They had to transfigure their beetles into teacups, which was alerting because they had to make sure the beetles or legged teacups didn't crawl away.
The bell sounded and before Tyler could say bye to Reggie, there was a scream outside the doors. When Tyler and Reggie went outside they saw what was screamed about. Like what happened outside the potion classroom there were two letters burned to the wall. This time they were the letters U and O. Tyler saw McGonagall turn pale at the large scorch letters at the walls.
...
The next two weeks had nervous breakdowns and jumps all over Hogwarts. According to the teachers and prefects, the walls were hit with magical fire to burn the holes and letters in them. But they assured that Filch was going to paint over them and they'll be as good as new. They also assured them that they were sure that the damage to the walls were the result of a prank but in the student's minds those were just cover stories and rumors were made. There were stories of a new undercover gang in Hogwarts vandalizing the school and Tyler even heard that some people thought it was Voldemort and his Death Eaters that were responsible for the scorches.
What made the matter worse was that the attacks kept on going. Three days after the first day there were more letters burned on the walls. This time it was out on the grounds and they were the letters M and L. They were on burned upturned earth right on the grounds in a 15-foot length. Tyler saw these when he and his other classmates headed toward the greenhouses for Herbology and the students started openwide at the letters until one of them got Professor Sprout.
...
Two days later, after the Great Hall emptied from dinner, the students all became shocked to see the ceiling having burned in letters of an E and an S as well.
Tyler racked his head after that "incident" as they were being called. He couldn't understand, these letters didn't make sense. They seemed completely at random. With the burned messages, Tyler had one suspect but it couldn't be...him. It could've been an older student or students.
The new word going around was that the letters might've meant initials or a pair's first name or last names. Or it could be that they spelled the name of their group but all they had were HTUOMLES in order, which didn't spell anything. Tyler was completely lost, he wanted to let the teachers deal with this but he was too curious for his own good. He also couldn't talk to his friends about it because the students were either in tense classrooms or being rushed to their common rooms. All he had were the opinions of the slytherins, which weren't much to go on since the other houses didn't share anything with them. All he had were Matt, Regulus and Morgan to talk to which was good but he still needed his fellow seekers for a different view of things.
...
Another burn message was in the boy's bathroom this time, with an R and A burned into the wall opposite of the mirrors and sink. Tyler stumbled onto them when he went to wash up after Charms.
With these incident chains, it became impossible to meet with Brad, Reggie and Jacke. All quidditch practices started to have a teacher and the pitch was off-limits during a practice meaning that he couldn't catch his friends and vice versa after practice. Was Tyler in another house, he would've given up and accepted the hopeless. However, he was in slytherin, and the motto (or one of them) was that "you want it to happen, have the will so it will happen.)""
He sent Pandy with a message to each of the seekers telling them to all meet in the cave after the quidditch match of Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff which was in two weeks. When the seekers got Pandy to give them the letters on his leg, they gave Tyler nods telling him they'll be there.
The two weeks leading to that match were far from uneventful. Four days later, after the slytherins were on their way to their defense class, another incident became aware. A P was there burned right at the turn where they had to take to go to the classroom. Professor Arnold came up behind him, on his way to the classroom as well, and froze at the sight of the letter. He asked Matt to get Professor Dumbledore at the staff room while he told the other slytherins to go wait in the classroom. Morgan came to Tyler when they entered the classroom to talk.
"This is getting complicated. Who would burn these letters to the wall anyway? It's nonsense."
"I think they're trying to scare the school."
"With...letters? Please, if fear is what they want then this is far from that. Must be hufflepuffs that are doing this since it's pathetic like they all are."
"Enough stop," interrupted Tyler. "Please...don't tease the other houses when I'm around," he added with a tired voice.
"Why?...oh, your friends."
He nodded and Morgan stopped but looked at Tyler with a worried glance. "Don't worry, I'm not mad at you. Regulus and Matt understand this about me and they respect this. Just don't do it again okay? Also, I did say "around me"."
"Yeah well anyway, I'm starting to get tired of the teachers overreacting to these incidents. They're just letters and no one's even been hurt."
...
The day before the quidditch match and the group talk in the cave had come and everyone was trying to get through the day quickly. Tyler himself was anxious to get through the day and get into tomorrow. Soon, the day went by and the last class was in sight: Defense class with Arnold. Tyler and the other slytherins headed for the classroom with Arnold right behind him telling them to move on and when they finally got the classroom they all froze.
On the right side wall, there were burned letters again but this time was different. Instead of two or one letter(s), there was an entire word and arrow message.
BACK WORD ;
This message was also meet with broken desks and chairs, the damage missing the portrait on the front wall. Professor Arnold tried to get everyone's attention through the muttering.
"Students...students...STUDENTS!" which finally got everyone to look at him. "Everyone go to back to the common room. The class will be canceled for today."
They all turned and headed towards the common room but then all of them went in different directions to spend this free time anywhere but the common room. However, the only one who was heading for the common room was Tyler.
"Tyler! Are you going back to the common room? Let's spend this free time in another place," pleaded Matt.
"I'm heading back there, you don't have to come with me. Don't let me ruin your free time, have fun without me, okay mate?"
"Well...okay, but seriously, you'd rather go back to the common room? We've been there nonstop during all of our free time since these stupid incidents. You need to have a break from it all."
"Alright thanks."
Tyler hurried his pace and Matt shrugged his shoulders and headed down the opposite hall. Tyler got back to the common room and found to his pleasure that it was empty. He pulled out the parchment where he had written all the letter clues and put in the last message. All together it was HT, UO, ML, ES, RA, P, BACK WORD .
'Hm...Backwords and an arrow. Maybe it means flip everything around.'
So Tyler began turning the previous letters and when he was finished, he dropped his quill and opened his eyes in horror. On the parchment was P, AR, SE, LM, OU, TH. Put it together and you get PARSELMOUTH!!!!!
Tyler was finding it hard to breathe. Was this message about him?
"No, this can't be," he said quietly to himself. "No wait, everytime the incidents happened, they happened to happen right in my path. Also, they were all first discovered by my group every time. Some one's dangling my secret around. But...who? The only ones in this school, no world, that now about me is my family and my frie..."
He then got his answer and then got a malicious glare in his eyes.
...
Jacke got back to his common room and went to his bed so he could rest up for the game tomorrow against Hufflepuff. But, instead of falling asleep, he went into thinking.
'Hm...another incident and this time it was inside a classroom. This is getting crazy and I can't help but feel that maybe Tyler is a part of all this. The other gryffindors did bring up a good point. All of these incidents happen and the slytherin 2nd years just happen to be at the scene at every one of them. Tyler was there at every incident and I do know what he is. I honestly don't know if I can trust him anymore. My parents always told me stories on how parselmouths were killers and evil dark wizards.'
He started to turn responding to the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach that was obviously not from dinner.
'Well, I can't think about this now. I do have a match tomorrow and it's against Brad. He's tough and I can't let Gryffindor lose another match because we can't afford another loss if we want the cup.'
After about 2 hours of turning and thoughtless gaze, Jacke finally managed to get to sleep.
...
The match with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff was met with great cheerful energy that Hogwarts had started to be lacking for the past few weeks. The chasers on both teams were pulling all the stops since both teams had lost their first matches. So far, it was Gryffindor with 110 points and Hufflepuff with 50 points. Jacke was hovering in the air and so was Brad a couple of feet from him. The snitch nowhere in sight but the game had still just started.
Tyler was sitting in the usual location on the stands with his fellow slytherins, Matt, Regulus and now Morgan who really started to like hanging out with Tyler, Regulus and Matt.
Reggie was next to Tyler, on his left side but couldn't help noticing that Tyler hadn't said not one word to him.
'Why is Tyler trying to ignore me? It can't be because of Stellers can it? I'm sure, if they are friends that he would've told her about the three of us. And why is Tyler glaring at Jacke and Brad?...Maybe I'm just hallucinating. Yeah, he could just be concentrating on Brad's moves, after all, he is going to face him in his last match. I guess he's saving talking to us for the cave.'
Tyler couldn't help but glare at Brad and Jacke. He also wanted to glare at Reggie but since he was right there he didn't want to do something that he could regret doing especially in public.
Brad was scanning for the snitch. He hoped that he could find it before Jacke did. It needed to be caught fast because if the match dragged on longer then it wouldn't matter if he caught it or not because the chasers wouldn't be able to keep up with the Gryffindor ones.
After forty minutes the score was 340 to 220 with Gryffindor in the lead. Jacke was beating the urge to twirl on his broom but needed to keep focused. Sure they were in the lead now but if Brad caught the snitch then they would lose.
Jacke and Brad were now so close to each other that they could have a conversation if they wanted. There was no glittering anywhere on the pitch at all but they were soon joined by the sound of wing buzzing. They both looked at each other to find the snitch, slap dab in between them. They both looked at it and then to each other. It was at that moment that the snitch went zooming off and the gryffindor and hufflepuff seekers zoomed right for it. They were equal in distance from it and they both started to close in on it. They extended their hands out and picked up speed. Their hands side by side going for the snitch in the middle of their path. Then one of the hands snatched it and claimed their team's victory. The commentator Phil Villar, yelled out the final result.
"Jacke Walker has caught the snitch! The final score is 490 to 220, Gryffindor Wins!"
...
Jacke, Brad, and Reggie gathered in the cave after Jacke and Brad " Brad moved his hand out for Jacke to shake, which he did.
"Thanks, you weren't an easy win Brad. You're a great seeker yourself. Had I been maybe two inches behind then you would've won."
"You two were fantastic out there," shouted Reggie. "Er...wait, have any of you seen Tyler?"
"No."
"I haven't."
"That's weird. He writes for us to meet and he doesn't show."
"You think he's been caught?" asked Brad.
"I hope not," whispered Reggie.
...
Tyler talked to Regulus, Matt and to Morgan about the match and they said that by the way Hufflepuff played, their team would destroy them. Tyler was only paying half-attention because he wanted to get to the cave but didn't want them following.
"Yeah, definitely. Listen, I'm going to go to the changing rooms to see my friends. Don't wait up for me."
"Wait, maybe I'll go with you," said Regulus. "I haven't talked to your other friends either for a while. Maybe I'll join you guys."
"No," Tyler said a little too quickly getting raised eyebrows from his three slytherin comrades. "It's a little personal thing and it's something only the four of us have to discuss...alone but thanks anyway and I will tell them that you send your regards."
"Well...okay but don't be gone too long Tyler or you'll be skinned alive if a teacher finds you out in the halls too late."
They left leaving Tyler alone to sneak off into the cave. He saw that there were still adult figures moving on the grounds and it didn't seem likely he could get the other side of the lake without being seen.
'Wait, why am I worried about that. I'm an Animagus,' he thought with a little humor.
He went behind a tree and after checking to see if it was safe, transformed into the emerald green snake that was his animal form and slithered to the cave. When he got to the valley, he pulled out his wand and levitated the rock door out of the way and climbed in.
...
"Oh, here he is now," said Jacke.
Tyler came in and put on his most intimidating face. His friends looked nervous under his gaze as his black eyes gave off the feeling of anger that he was feeling. Tyler's eyes always had the effect to let people know who he was feeling and it filled the air with his feeling.
The air had tense anger around and soon the other seekers were feeling anger as to why he wasn't saying anything.
"Tyler, what's wrong," asked Brad who was a little annoyed with the silence.
"What's wrong...what's wrong, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha," Tyler laughed with a little craziness present. "I think that the three of you know perfectly well what's wrong!" he said getting a little red in the face.
"Tyler!" yelled Jacke. "What's your problem?!"
"THIS is my problem!" He then pulled out the folded parchment with his clues. "I've been putting all the letters and messages that were BURNED into the walls and couldn't help but realize what they point out to. But of course you would now. Playing with my secret, no, my LIFE like that!!"
"Tyler, what are you talking about?" asked Reggie.
"This," he said throwing the parchment at the three of them.
Reggie picked it up and the other two looked at it with him. When they saw the clues they stared hard at the parchment in disbelief.
"You mean, someone knows about your,"
"Oh cut out the dragon dung guys!" Tyler said interrupting Brad. "I know that it was you three doing all this."
The three of them looked at Tyler, each believing they hadn't heard right.
"Yeah, I put all the clues together. You three are the only ones that now about me so you are the only ones that it could only be. Magical fire, that points to you Jacke!" he said pointing his finger at his best friend. "How the messages always appear when I'm around. Every time it's before or after a class when I have it with you guys, you were either out of the room or not there yet.!"
"Wait Tyler," Jacke cutting him off. "If you're talking about the first incident, I was in the bathroom and the message wasn't there when I got back."
"You Liar!"
"Tyler!" shouted Reggie. "How could we have possibly done this? We haven't been in contact with each other. Also, how could we possible get to each of these locations without a teacher seeing us? Think about it."
"Don't lecture me, I'm not stupid! You think I didn't think that?! Hello, you're all animagi! You all can control how big or SMALL we can make our forms and you just had to become the size of rats to get to the locations unseen! Also, you could've sent messages to each other just like you did during the Christmas holidays!"
"Tyler!" Brad mimicking Reggie's yell. "We gave you our words that this secret wouldn't be told! We promised you this secret would always be kept secret. Come on, we're your friends!!"
"My friends?!" Tyler said choking back a few tears. "...Some friends who can't keep their words and use tricks in their promises. Telling my secret, you put it in code!! Some friends you are! It's because I'm in slytherin isn't it. Had I been in one of your houses with this secret then I bet this wouldn't have happened."
Before the others could respond Tyler ran out of the cave back to his common room miraculously not running into any teachers or prefects on the way there. He ignored Matt and Regulus who called out to him and went to the dormitory. He pulled the hangings to his bed closed and collapsed in his bed crying into his pillow.
The other seekers were in the cave shocked at Tyler's outburst. They couldn't believe Tyler accused them of playing around with his secret and his life like that. Reggie and Brad were just plain shocked at the accusation Tyler made. Jacke, however, felt a little more guilty then shocked.
End of chapter 14
Tigercub15: Hello, and thanks for your reviews for both of my stories. I also see you put me on your favorites lists. Thank you and you stories are brilliant.
I'm not the weakest link: Thanks for your reviews. I appreciate the picture...if I could just get to it so I could see it.
Author Notes:
Chapter 14 is now over and done with. Pretty emotional huh? Could this be the end of the seekers or...their friendship? Only time will tell but let me assure you that this story will be having a happy ending, sort of. Next up is Chapter 15 which is when Tyler tries to calm down with his slytherin friends and also has a little adventure with Chaos. "Tunnel Network of Hogwarts"
Also, I'm going on vacation tomorrow so I won't be updating or reviewing for at least a few days. I tried very hard to get this last chapter up so you could see it before I left. REVIEW!