Quest of the Seekers: Animals Within

Year Two at Hogwarts

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Chapter 15: Tunnel Network of Hogwarts

Slanted dialogue means parseltongue.

...

Tyler cried into his pillow for what seemed like hours. He put a silence spell, which he remembered Regulus and Reggie both using, around his bed hangings so no one would hear him. The feelings of pain and hurt burned into Tyler like someone with a Fire Whip curse just struck his chest. No one bothered him, not even Matt, which was fine with him since he just wanted to be alone. He would've even told Chaos to get lost and no one listened to him more than Chaos did. Tyler just wanted to be alone for the rest of the night. He had tears in his eyes like he did during the Christmas break and like he did back then, he cried himself to sleep.

...

At the same time that this was happening...

Jacke, Reggie and Brad got out of their stupor from Tyler's yells and accusations of betrayal and started to head back to the castle hoping for credibility on Reggie having waited for both Brad and Jacke to have come out of the changing rooms.

"I can't believe Tyler yelled at us like that." Brad was stiff as a rock. "He completely lost it there on us."

"Well...I can't really blame him. The proof that he gave on thinking we were exposing his secret all over the school. Oh no!"

"What Reggie?!" yelled Brad and Jacke at the same time.

"The school...if Tyler was able to piece those clues that easy then you could bet that the entire school gets the message by tomorrow!"

"Oh, that's just perfect!" Jacke was really ticked off. "This will only make Tyler even MORE mad at us and we didn't even do anything!"

"Wait guys," said Brad suddenly. "Let's keep calm, after all, other than the one or ones responsible for this, we are the only ones in school who even know what Tyler is," he started saying quieter since they were back in the building where you never know who is overhearing. "Even if people did solve the puzzle nobody could possibly guess it's about Tyler. Besides, if you've been hearing some of these rumors, you'd laugh at how stupid they sound."

Jacke and Reggie let out a short snort at the thought but then went back to their depression, which Brad joined in.

"I just wish I know who is doing this."

"Me too Jacke, Me too. But we have no way of knowing who is doing this to Tyler."

"That's the other thing," said Reggie. "Whoever's doing this must also know about Tyler. Like Tyler pointed out, all the incidents happen when he's around so it must be someone with full knowledge of Tyler's weekly schedule."

"And," added Jacke. "It has to be someone who actually knows his secret."

"But who? Unless Tyler told a few of his slytherin comrades then it could be anyone."

"No, I don't think it is."

"Why not Reggie?" asked Brad.

"Well, remember what Tyler told us on the train? He said that we were the only ones who've been told about this. Also, he couldn't have told other people because he suspected us first. So, it has to be someone who either figured out his secret alone."

"But if they overheard," said Jacke a little worried.

"No, don't you remember Jacke?" asked Brad turning to him moving his hand in a wave. "We were always careful when we mentioned anything even closely related to it and when we did we still didn't give off anything that would've linked to this."

"Well, I'm going to find out who is doing this." Jacke had said this with a hint of promise and anger.

"Jacke...no offense but you don't even know where to start. Don't get me wrong, I want to jinx the blowhard who's responsible too but how are we supposed to look for this guy?"

"Well, I'm going to keep a close eye on Tyler and watch for anyone suspicious. After all, I owe Tyler that much."

"What do you mean by that Tyler?" asked Reggie.

"...It's private." Jacke said simply.

"Jacke, we know that you are closer to Tyler then either of us but you don't have to find out and try to help him on your own. We're his best friends too and we're not going to let going to let whoever this wise guy is get away with this," said Brad with formality while Reggie nodded hard in agreement with the sense of justice in his eyes.

"Thanks guys," Jacke said quietly. 'But...that's not what I meant at all,' he thought to himself.

Then they went off to there common rooms, carefully dodging the prefects and teachers along the way.

...

The next day, Tyler woke up very drained like a vampire sucked out all of his blood and he was walking on an empty body. It was Sunday and Tyler just wanted to not have to be reminded in any way about the incidents or the way things back in the cave went yesterday. However, like the past weeks had proved, things kept getting pulled over to those memories.

On the announcement board in the common room, the following notice was slapped on:

Attention Students!

Due to the daily complaints of the entire student population and the defending reasoning of the prefects and Head boy and girl, Professor Dumbledore has announced that the students will be again allowed to venture throughout the castle freely just as before. However, there will be a curfew in which no student may be out of the common room by 30 minutes after dinner every evening. Also, it is advised to be in groups whenever possible. Lastly, we ask that anyone with knowledge of these incidents to please come forth so this madness may end.

Professor M. McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

Tyler stood there reading the sign and breathed in annoyance. 'Every where I go, Merlin!, Can't they put all this aside for one minute?!'

Regulus walked up to him and tapped his shoulder. "Tyler, hey, I see you've read the sign too."

"Yeah, I wonder what was said to change all the teachers' minds?"

"If you come to the sofa where Matt and Morgan are then I'll tell you all."

"You know?"

"Know, remember Tyler, I know Theodore Nott well and he is the 5th year prefect."

"Oh right."

They went over to Matt and Morgan who seemed to have been having a disagreement.

"Matt, this is all senseless. I can't believe your taking pranks seriously."

"Pranks, please. It's as clear that...he is involved."

"What's going on between you two?" asked Tyler as he and Regulus sat down between on their opposite sides on the long couch.

"Matt here is being stupid and is actually taking the pranking incidents seriously."

"Oh please...these aren't pranking incidents. You'd think after all the stupid limitations they set that whoever was making all of these "pranks" would've stopped long ago. This has to be a message from You Know Who."

"Now that's really ridiculous. You Know Who breaking into the school to put stupid spelling messages on the walls when he could hunt down Dumbledore and the muggleborns."

"Messages?" Tyler got worried at his outburst as he said it too quickly.

"Yeah Tyler mate." Tyler internally breathed out a sigh of relief since it seemed to his friend that he just seemed curious. "I got from some of the older slytherins this piece of parchment."

Matt took out a crumpled looking piece of parchment. Tyler immediately recognized it as the parchment where he worded the clues together on. When Tyler came bursting in the common room, he must've dropped it from his hand without noticing because he was so upset.

"They let you have it?" asked Regulus.

"They said no word against it seeing as how I swiped it from the table where it was when they weren't looking. Look," he said fixing it up so they could see the clues pointing to the word Parselmouth that Tyler pieced together. "I really think that you know who set this up."

"So, you think it's serious," Tyler said trying his very best to be deeply interested and not spooked out.

"Could be," said Matt shrugging his shoulders and refolding the paper. "So, what's going on with you guys?"

"Well, we're allowed to be out of the common room whenever we want again."

"Yes." Both Matt and Morgan cheered that word at the same time.

"Nott, from my year," adding to the looks that the three young ones were moving toward the younger Alex Nott. "He told me that the prefects were getting tired of everyone complaining on how everyone has been locked up and no one's even been hurt so they took this with the staff and argued for letting everyone be out again and they finally agreed."

"Well, I plan on relaxing myself on the grounds. Bye," waved Morgan leaving the common room with a number of other slytherin girls.

"Thank Merlin! I thought she would never leave," said Matt with a tired longing.

"Matt!" said Tyler crossly.

"Don't get me wrong," he said putting his hands up in moral defense. "She's great, better improvement over your other friends but when she is arguing then she gets annoying...and a little...scary."

Tyler, Matt and Regulus chuckled a little as Matt and Tyler both muttered under their breaths "Girls."

"Well, now I'm going off to the library."

"Regulus," started Matt. "We have our freedom back and you're going to waste it in the library?"

"Matt, did you forget that I have O.W.L.'s coming up. I have to study if I want to pass them. Wait until your fifth year and you'll see what I have to go through and you'll regret that you hounded me for my studying."

"Yeah right," he said as Regulus left for the library.

"So, what about you? I'm hanging out with Nott and Moore today. Want to join us?"

"Sorry, I feel very tired and I just want to rest up."

"Rest? You were in your bed ever since you got back from the quidditch game."

"Yeah...but I was up until about 4:00 thinking about random things and I'm feeling very tired now." He faked a yawn to make his story be convincing which seemed to have had the desired effect.

"All right. Snooze away while we have the first decent free Sunday for weeks."

Matt went toward their other dormmates while Tyler went back to his bed. The truth really was that Tyler was as fresh as a dragon but he didn't want to risk seeing the other seekers today because he might explode. Tyler laid to his back on the bed and just stared off at nothing.

"You seem bored," said a new voice in parseltongue.

"What? Whose there?"

"Tyler, are you okay? It's me Chaos."

"Oh, hi Chaos."

"Well, what's wrong? You're usually out with one of your many human friends."

"Well it dropped to four yesterday Chaos."

"Why?"

"I don't want to talk about it now. You want to do something?"

"Well, what?"

"I don't know."

"What do you want to do?"

"Ah," said Tyler. "We're getting nowhere like this."

"Well then, I'm going off to my little space. Bye."

"Wait...why don't you take me out for a tour of the wall's tunnels that you found last year."

"Yeah okay master."

"For the last time, don't call me master."

Tyler changed into his snake form and made himself the same size of Chaos so that there would be the guarantee that he would fit everywhere if Chaos did. They slithered over to where a tiny peg switch is in the wall close to Tyler's bed. Chaos pressed it with his tail and a part of the wall vanished leaving a square like tunnel about 18 inches long and wide.

When Tyler and Chaos got in, Chaos went to the side of the wall and hit another button with his tail sealing the tunnel again. While Chaos did that, Tyler was looking around the tunnel. When they slithered in a faint glow of light escaped the walls so they could see. Also, the inside of the tunnel was bigger than it looked from the outside.

'A whole basilisk could make it in these tunnels.' "So Chaos, where do we head first?" he hissed to his animal friend.

"Let's go to my place first. Just follow me mas...Tyler," he added from the look in Tyler's eyes.

They went down the ahead path and Tyler noticed that with every slither they took the walls went into a glow to show the path ahead but fainted when they went far enough. They came to a fork in the path in which Chaos took the left path and they slithered on through forks and paths for what seemed like an hour until they reached a big space that looked as big as a cabinet.

"Welcome to my little place Tyler."

"Chaos...this looks...homey."

"It doesn't look like much but it suits me fine."

"So...where to now?"

"Anywhere, These tunnels give access to almost everywhere."

"Wow, I wonder how this got system of tunnels got here anyway."

"Well, I haven't complained. I've used these tunnels to keep an eye on you."

"Chaos...Have you seen what any of my fellow seekers have been doing for the past weeks by any chance?"

"Why yes I have. They've just been studying or doing other ordinary human things, why?"

"Oh no reason, just wondering."

"We could see them if you want."

"Really?"

"Yes, I did say you could go almost anywhere. All the common rooms are accessible this way."

"All of them?"

"Yeah, I'll lead the way. Which one do you want to see first?"

His first choice would've been Jacke in the Gryffindor common room but he wanted to hold off on that now. "Let's go see Reggie and the Ravenclaw common room."

"As you wish. I know the path perfectly. Come and follow me."

Tyler went with Chaos and together went off to the Ravenclaw common room. There were so many twists and turns that he started to wonder if Chaos was lost. He even asked Chaos if he really knew where they were going.

"Don't worry Tyler. With a year of using these tunnels you learn where everything leads pretty quickly. Like you know where corridors lead after one year of going to this school."

He was about to say that he didn't know where ALL of the corridors would lead you but Chaos stopped him by announcing that they've arrived. Chaos moved to a lever and pushed it with his tail and a crawlspace opened leading out to daylight. Chaos told Tyler that they should be quiet and he listened to his pet's advice.

He slithered out and saw a large room about the size of his house's own common room. This one however had a good hint of blue and clouds painted on the ceiling. These designs gave off the impression that they were in the sky. Also, the furniture in this place had copper coloring to it and there were a few statues of famous wizards and witches along with a large wall engraved copper statue of an Eagle that reminded Tyler of Reggie's animagus form.

There were a few Ravenclaws in the room and Tyler spotted Reggie easily since he was the only blonde haired kid in the room. Reggie was in a corner of the room by himself. He had his face in a book like Tyler would expect him to but there was something different about the way he was reading. Reggie's eyes seemed to not be reading anything on the page at all. He looked as if he was just staring at the same spot on the page. Reggie's expression was that of someone who was in a depression mood.

'I wonder what why he's not out doing other stuff.'

Tyler decided to go on because he seen enough. So Chaos lead him on through the tunnels and lead him to the Hufflepuff common room. There, the room was much different then both the slytherin and ravenclaw common rooms in decoration. There was a hint of bright yellow, which made the room look warm and comforting from the outside. There were black stripes and dots on the walls with some animal tapestries. The couches were of yellow and black cloth and the floor had a fine carpet. Together with Chaos, Tyler managed to find Brad in the 2nd year dorms and he seemed to be writing a paper. Brad was ticking his quill and looked like he was trying to concentrate but still was blank on what he was doing.

Tyler said that he didn't want to stay any longer and when Chaos suggested that they go to the Gryffindor common room next Tyler flat out refused.

"Let's hold off on that for another time Chaos. How about we go to random places."

Chaos showed him to passages to corridors that he recognized and was overwhelmed at the access that these tunnels gave to the school. They visited a few corridors to classrooms, a few passages to the grounds and even found a few passages to some bathrooms but said no to the ones leading to girl's bathrooms and turned a faint red on his snake cheeks from blush. This was such a distracting tour that Tyler completely forgot about his troubles over the messages and the seekers.

...

Jacke was in the gryffindor common room and he was the only soul there since everyone wanted to make the most of their first day where they could be free of the common room. Not Jacke, he was hard at work putting all the clues and incident factors together.

'Okay, I may not be as smart as Reggie but I can do this.' He let out an irritated breath then went back to his thoughts. 'Whoever's behind this must first have something against parselmouths. That would leave about...just about most of the wizarding race,' he thought in annoyance. 'All right, calm down Jacke. First let's start with the actual facts. Whoever's done this must be after Tyler because he is the only parselmouth here and they've must've found out the secret recently like me, Reggie and Brad because this didn't happen last year. Maybe someone did overhear us this year with all those talks we had because Reggie and Brad both said that they didn't tell anyone and I haven't told anyone. Frankly, I've been trying to get it into my head that I never found out about this.'

When he thought that he then hit his head. 'I can't let my feelings get in the way now. I gotta focus on this. Now...Tyler suspects just us so like Reggie said Tyler couldn't have told anyone else so it does only leave us as the suspects. But doesn't he know we would never do that. Come to think about that, Tyler doesn't really know too much about us since we've been prying into his life as a parselmouth. Maybe we should be more open with him like...he did with us. I feel dirty and I don't think it's because I need a shower. Ugh' he let out angrily. 'I'm leaving behind my concentration again.'

'Okay, let me see...judging that these attacks are supposed to look threatening to Tyler it must be someone that despises him personally and by what he is. That narrows it down to the three other houses and a number of members in Tyler's own house. Maybe I shouldn't think on this and just look out for Tyler but he won't speak to us let alone let me be at his side. I guess I'll have to do it without him knowing. Well...now that that's thought of maybe I should focus on the defense stuff more since Tyler's not here to give us his expertise on it.'

...

Reggie was reading his potions book trying to get ingredients for a Swelling solution down but he couldn't concentrate.

'I just wish I knew whose doing this to Tyler. Sure he's a parselmouth but he isn't a bad guy at all. He even saved Jacke from that poisonous snake risking his safety and secret doing so. Whoever's behind this is the real evil git and deserves to be in Azkaban for this. I'm going to help find him/her and stop this before this gets out of control. I just hope we can make up with Tyler soon, before it's too late.

...

Brad was sitting in the hufflepuff common room on one of the couches. He was near a few of his classmates but he paid them no mind. Ever since Tyler yelled at them for accusing them of betraying his secret and playing around with his life, Brad has been depressed.

'Tyler...I can't believe he would think that I would do those things. Just because I know he's a parselmouth and everything. I've only heard of a few faint things of parselmouths and snake language a few times before I even found out his secret. Tyler's the first parselmouth I've ever met and he one of my best friends. I can't imagine what other people are so afraid of. Tyler's one of the nicest people around and even helped me get used to this new world I'm in. For someone to do this while they say parselmouths are evil lunatics is so hypocritical!'

Brad just ruffled his brown hair in frustration after that trail of thought.

'I have to help Tyler. I'm going to be with Reggie and Jacke and together we will surely find out whose doing this and stop this nonsense. I'm not going to let some idiot cause me to lose one of my bestest friends that I've had since I found out that I'm a wizard.'

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End of Chapter 15

Well to those who are older reviewers and readers. I added a lot to the third chapter in my first story on the sorting of Jacke, Brad and Reggie and even a little more for Tyler. It would be great if your next reviews told me your opinion of the changes.

Nightlit: Great that you reviewed. Your input on the ravenclaws finding out the message also made me put in that stuff in the beginning of the chapter. Thanks for your inadvertent help. Also, about your comment in your latest chapter about delaying, I do hope you'll change your mind because after every chapter I always want to get to read the next one fast.

Tigercub15: Great that you're still keeping up.

Author Notes:

Chapter 15 is over and done with. To answer a potential question, the tunnels that Chaos and Tyler went in are indeed the network of tunnels that the Basilisk went through in COS at least in my story anyway. The next chapter will be uploaded in time. The seekers have a new challenge ahead of them minus Tyler: To find out whom is doing this to Tyler. The suspect is tracked down and Tyler is in the most dangerous situation that he's ever been. Title under construction.

Also, notice at the beginning of the chapter where I put that "at the same time..." Do you guys think that was good or should I forget about putting those kinds of things in. Just experimenting.

Review.