Quest of the Seekers: A New Haven

Year Three at Hogwarts

(---)

Chapter 21: The Perfect Site

To say that the Seekers had no differences with their friendly housemates would be a downright, boldfaced lie. Not that it was bad, on the contrary, things seemed a little better.

Brad and Hawkster were more free in their conversations with one another. Brad would share some good spell tips that he picked up from the other Seekers and Hawkster would give Brad some good Transfiguration spells that he thought were good for dueling. They started to have sparing matches out on the grounds but that soon ended since it was still cold so they moved over to unused classrooms.

Reggie and Laura were also more free in their conversations but other than that, they were pretty much the same way. However, many girls thought that Laura had become Reggie's new girlfriend or to be more blunt, accuse it, and Reggie would correct them in saying that she wasn't and asked if they were jealous because they wanted to be dating him which caused many of them to blush or bait him to ask them out. Laura would always roll her eyes in amusement then go back to reading a bookon Muggle Folklore on magical places and realms. When Reggie asked why she was reading that since there were some things in there that were far from real, she said that it was nice to go back to what she thought of magic before she found out it was real when she got her Hogwarts letter. Reggie felt intrigued and asked to read it too when she was done.

Jacke, Jennifer and Max were the group that changed the least. They did everything they would do normally. Max would occasionally ask for some help in heating the room while they were studying but otherwise things were normal between the three of them. Jacke however, felt both good and bad. He felt good that he wasn't holding this big secret from them anymore and that nothing changed. He also felt bad because nothing changed. The thing that he did want to change was that he would have more of a backbone to make a move with Jennifer but he was still as spineless as ever. He thought that if he felt that he told her that secret then it would inspire him to have the courage to at least ask her for a day in Hogsmeade but alas no.

'I wish I had Reggie's confidence in asking out girls,' he thought jealous of his Ravenclaw friend.

Tyler's slytherin pals were the biggest change out of the four groups. Lutz and Sam seemed to think of him as a sort of proud symbol since he told them who he really was. He did feel flattered but it was getting to the point where he had to tell the two of them to stop oggling him or he would feed them to Chaos. Matt seemed a little distant with him probably due to the fact that he toldfellow seekers about him before himbut he corrected him by saying that he didn't tell them, they found out and he was part of the first people he told so he made it technical that Matt should be happy and amazingly, it worked. Morgan didn't treat him any different but she did stare at him at times when she thought he wasn't looking. It wasn't of any feeling either, just regular staring like someone would do when they were in space. Regulus' relations with Tyler seemed to take a huge rise. Regulus would talk more with Tyler on stuff that Tyler would imagine older siblings talk about with younger ones. Tyler would tell Regulus about some of the things that happened in his childhood and Regulus would do the same. Tyler noticed that Regulus seemed more chipper than he'd ever been for some reason. He actually asked Regulus why he seemed happier and boy, did he understand why,

"You remember my arranged marriage agreement that my parents set up?"

"Of course." Regulus had told him on the day when they first came back to Hogwarts at the beginning of the term.

"Well, it seems that she had been sick two weeks before the holidays and she had passed on almost a week ago. I know I must sound horrible for being happy that someone died but I can't help it."

"I get it. Now you could date and...whatever without having to worry about your parents."

"I wish Tyler. You know that my parents want to keep the bloodline pure. The only way I'll be happy is if the girl that I absolutely like is also a pureblooded witch. Tojours Pur, remember?"

"Oh right."

"But, now that my arranged fiancee is gone, I can be free to keep looking myself so it's better than nothing. At least that's better than no chance but it's still going to be hard."

"Don't you fancy anyone in this school? It sounds like you're having a hell of a time looking."

" I just don't fancy any of the girls here. I may think some are pretty but fancy? Tyler, one day, you'll understand. Maybe you won't have to look as hard as you think."

"What are you talking about?"

"Tyler, really, you are hopelesswhen it comes to relationships," Regulus said shaking his head and laughing to himself. What did he know that Tyler didn't?

(---)

The Seekers were looking over more of the journal of Salazar Slytherin privately in the Slytherin Chamber about a week and a half from the day they had gathered all their friends to let them know who exactly was in on their secrets. The journal itself didn't seem like a journal but more like a log. It showed the steps that the founders took in preparing the building plans for Hogwarts and what they discussed in seperate meetings before they actually got the potion. It was mindboggling of how much time the founders put into actually drawing up the plans for how they wanted the school to be built and the surrounding grounds shaped to all four of their satisfactions. They learned that Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw had liked the idea of a surrounding mountain barrier around their school while Salazar Slytherin and Helga Hufflepuff desired plains and patches of forest to be the surrounding area.

"Well," Reggie said after finishing the entry of how the founders decided on having four towers built, "We have a lot to do. The very first step is what exactly do we make with the potion?"

"Why don't we use it to make a new fortified place where we had our training cave?" Jacke suggested.

"No, I don't think that's a good idea. Too many bad memories on that spot," Tyler said shaking his head remembering the fight with the late Professor Arnold. "Besides, I think that's a little too much in the open. Arnold found it so any of the teachers could if they watch long enough."

"Well, if it's being out in the open that scares ya, how about we take a page out of the Creation temple's book and create a portal?" Brad said shrugging his shoulders looking at Tyler.

Tyler just looked dumbfounded at Brad at his idea. "I...that's bloody BRILLIANT BRAD!!!"

"Whoa, take it easy mate. He's right there, not a mile away," Jacke said putting his hand on Tyler's shoulder like he wasexpected him to start standing up and leaping in joy.

"Sorry, but it is. We could create a portal and hide it in the school."

"Pretty sneaky Tyler. There's only one problem. Where are we going to hide the portal? We'll need to find an excluded spot in the school so no one would find it and accidentally walk through it," Reggie pointed out.

"No, but if we make it so that only we could get through then that won't be a problem. Remember how the temple's portal was? It needed to be tapped three times. What if we made a portal that would only listen to the four of us? And I think I know," he said snapping his fingers remembering something from first year.

"The four of us, how?" Reggie asked sounding very intrigued.

"Well, we could it enchanted to recognize our outlines. I got the idea from a prank the Marauders played on Severus. They had the portraits enchanted to insult him when he passed by by giving them his outline. So we could enchant the portal for our outlines."

"Tyler, that's crazy. How are we going to pull that off?" Jacke asked like his friend just went mental.

Tyler gave Jacke the same kind of look. "Jacke, we have the potion. It can create anything that we set our minds too remember?"

Jacke mentally slapped himself for being so absentminded. He felt embarrassed that he asked a question with such an obvious question. It was like asking how they could light a torch among a group of fire elementals.

"What should we hide it like?" Brad asked making them all tap into their imaginations until Jacke actually came up with an idea that completely countered his stupid question earlier.

"Let's make it a portrait. Just another portrait in Hogwarts and no one will give it a second thought."

"Jacke, you may have something there," Brad said sounding interested.

"Guys, sure we may fool the students but I'm sure the teachers will notice a portrait that wasn't there before," Reggie said, again being the voice of reason, and as usual was right.

"Well, we could just have it in a hidden spot where not even the teachers will not even give it a second thought." Tyler said trying to solve that problem.

"It'll have to be a real good spot then," Reggie said countering back.

"We'll just take the time to look for one. We'll come back to this a week. I've got quidditch practice," Tyler said looking at his watch and seeing the time.

"Yeah, you'll need all the time you could get to beat me," Brad said fisting his chest like a tough guy.

"Don't talk so big Brad. Remember, you're not undefeated in catching the snitch anymore," Jacke said on the verge of laughing.

"AND," Reggie said cutting in. "We all know who did that." He said using his hands and pointing to himself rather smugly.

"Shame it will be you against Brad then me. If only that Ravenclaw Nick Perry didn't get sick then it would be Slytherin vs. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor would be facing Hufflepuff next. But at least I'll get to outseek Reggie sooner again." Jacke said shrugging and looking at the bright side.

"You could dream," Reggie said still in the same smugish tone.

(---)

The quidditch match between Hufflepuff and Slytherin went by with a devastating amount of bad weather. The snow had started to dissapear on the ground but it was still cold enough for some parts of the lake to have plates of ice. There was a chill in the air but luckily there was no strong wind to make it worse. Tyler's fellow teammates were bashing any Hufflepuff that got close to them. Even Sam was being a little rough but only towards Hawkster Jones and it seemed that Hawkster was more than willing to return it to him. Obviously there was still some heat between them and Max Longhorn from their gathering.

Tyler and Brad tried not to let the actions of their friends deter them from outseeking one another. Brad wanted to get his good name back and catch the snitch while Tyler wanted to beat Brad and change his record with him from their last game together. The game ended when Brad had caught the snitch next to the Hufflepuff goal posts in a close shave race with Tyler. However, the game still ended with Slytherin leading 200 to 170. Tyler knew that he wouldn't hear the end of it from Tanner when he got to the changing rooms but as long as Slytherin still won, it wouldn't be as bad if they had lost and that was able to sustain him to actually go to the changing rooms after Sam was forced to push him to it.

It became clear that since Slytherin had won the first two games, they had a real easy shotin taking the quidditch cup from Gryffindor. However, should Gryffindor beat Ravenclaw then it would be hard again.

Along with the excitement of the quidditch match, Defense Against the Dark Arts had gone up in excitement. Professor Squall started to teach them about Grindolows and actually brought a few to show them how to overcome them. Morgan had actually spun the Grindolow by the hands and when she let it go, it actually backed into the corner farthest away whimpering. After Morgan's turn, the ones who still didn't have a turn had to be denied since the other Grindolows would back away too from fear when Squall took them away from their tanks.

"Morgan, didn't anyone tell you that you are too scary for your own good sometimes," Tyler said as they left the classroom.

"Well, I try," Morgan said putting her face up in dignity.

"Those grindolows look like they wished you hadn't," Matt said between chuckles.

"Well yeah, that's true Matt," Tyler said joining him in the chuckling.

Morgan started breathing a little hard at them and that caused Tyler to go into a mock of a whimpering puppy. "Very funny you too."

"You know," Tyler said actually starting to be a little scared. "You're very cute when you're angry."

He didn't expect that to calm her down too much but surprisingly she looked flattered. "Thanks," she said in a small voice before she ran off toher nextclass leaving them behind.

"Wow, you really know how calm beasts down. Must be your snake's intuition." Matt said narrowing his eyebrows for the inside joke.

"What's with her? One minute, she's raving mad and now she's running away. Are girls always this wierd?"

"Sorry mate, I'm the wrong guy to ask. Anyway, I've got homework to do and I think you've got to get to Arithmancy and join Walker. See ya."

"Yeah, bye." He said walking toward Arithmancy while Matt went for the common room.

He headed off in the direction of Professor Vector's classroom when he fellfrom tripping on something. When he looked up, he saw Chaos.

"Chaos, what the bloody hell are you doing here?" he said very annoyed after looking to see that the coast was clear.

"Sorry Tyler, but this couldn't wait. Follow me."

"Now? But I have Arithmancy, this can't wait? Surely, this could be done after class," then Tyler realized that this would mean no class and he would be on a quest with Chaos instead. "Lead the way," he said following that thought.

Tyler followed his spiny friend and was leading him up on the fourth floor, to a partthat had barely anything of adventurous importance. Then they were on the east side staircases where he slithered to a corner right in between the fourth and fifth floors. Tyler saw nothing except a regular metal torch next to the corner of the wall. He looked around and saw that this part of the staircase didn't look anything out of the ordinary. There were regular portraits on the wall of animals behaving normally in their surrounding environments. This part of the school looked no different than anything else he'd seen.

"Well?" Tyler was starting to get annoyed at his familiar. He led him to a regular wall ona staircase!

"Tyler, look right where I am," Chaos hissed and pointed his head to the spot in front of him.

Right there, there was a hole about the size of a rathole. Chaos slithered into it and after Tyler checked to make sure there was nothing to see him, he transformed into a snake and went in also. Inside there was a pitch black corridor. With his snake eyes, he could see a little bit of the corridor but he hadn't been a snake long enough to use one's full senses. He transformed back to his human shape and lit his wand.

His light revealed a corridor full of cobwebs and dust all over it. The corridor itself looked like it didn't have a human visitor for about a few centuries. The torches were all rusted and looked like they hadn't been used forever. There were about 7 scattered portraits of different things. The corridor went about 20 feet deep and was about as wide as the corridors throughout the castle. It ended with a dead end wall. Tyler used the Cleaning Charm that Jacke showed him to wipe away the cobwebs and dust in his walking path. The portraits had things like a grassy plain, a underwater one with fish swimming around, one with swirling colors, one with snow falling on a tree, a forest, one with a portrait of a golden chalice and one that happened to be blank like the picture was taken out of the frame. The corridor itself seemed just like a secluded corner that had no significance.

"Chaos, how did you find this place?" he asked to his familiar.

"I was just slithering aroundand felt a soft breeze coming from the hole that even a most sensitive snake would barely feel unless they were absolutely close to the wall and went to investigate. I discovered this place and remembered that you said that the Seekers needed to find a secluded place to put a portal and I just had to tell you as soon as I could."

"Chaos, you are a treasure among snakes. Remind you to give you the most creamy milk that I could find. You've done well. The only thing is," he hissed as he looked toward the wall where the hole is, "how do we make it that we could actually get anything in here. Sure we could transform and make ourselves just small enough to get in but what about the chalice?"

"Again, I already thought of that. I knew you would want it to be able to be acessible to humans so I checked up the wall since it is natural that if there is this corridor then there has to be a way for people to get into it. I went into the wall and saw that there is a lever from the devices I found inside the wall. It seems to be concentrated on that torch on the opposite side."

"The torch?" He transformed and went back to the opposite side. He pulled on the torch but nothing happened. He had a hunch and tapped it different consecutive times and pulled until he discovered that four taps and a pull would make the panel of the wall slide. It was hard for the wall to slide all the way since it was obviously unused for quite a time obviously from the state of the corridor. But Tyler fired a Cleaning Charm to where the wall was dissappearing to make the dust and rust disappear.

"Perfect, this is the perfect site to use the potion to make a portal," Tyler said to himself. "Chaos, you are too bloody brilliant to be my familiar."

"Thank you." Chaos said bowing his head. "I try."

Tyler then broke into a run smiling at his snake's modesty (sarcasm) and went for the common room since it was too late for Arithmancy and went to drop his stuff off and head for dinner.

(---)

End of Chapter 21

Dark672: I don't want to spoil the surprise so I won't say anything beyond this.

Tigercub15: I can tell you're an animal person. But still, it looked like you did like the zombie touch.

Author Notes:

There's heat going on between the friends to the seekers. Hawkster, Sam, and Max want to tear each other apart and the others are starting to feel a little awkward. Let's pray the Seekers will make it work on top of them making their secret spot, their haven. You'll get where this is going as time goes. All great things start somewhere.

Sorry for the long wait. I got limited access to a computer now. Until I get a new computer server then it will probably be this long for a while.

High Serpent King