Chapter 12: Warning Signs

Author's Note: This was supposed to be posted a few days prior. My little sister (The Sister) graduated high school on that day so this chapter got put on hold. I promise you'll see more plot soon.

Another Author's Note: I was going to post this yesterday, but I thought I'd slap it up today (06-04-04) so you guys would have something to read while counting down the minutes to see Harry Potter 3. I've seen it already, was pretty good. Didn't suck like I thought it would with the new director. Go see it!

   Madam Pomfrey upon seeing Gene's arrival gave a sigh of relief and motioned him over. Gene walked over to the bedside of the boy with the missing arm and his injury was quite apparent, although the stump was not it. The boy had a small bruise on his left side, but was otherwise unharmed.

   "Oh my, what happened to his arm?" Gene asked.

   "Nothing to be concerned about, it was removed when he was a small child. That's why I need you, what ever bit him bit his prosthetic arm and mangled it badly," Pomfrey said, "I don't know anything about muggle devices, and you're the only one at the school with any idea about how to repair them."

   "Couldn't you just grow him a new arm?" McGonagall asked.

   "I could, but the limb growth serum takes months to concoct, and even a magic arm would take several weeks at best," Pomfrey replied, "It's not something one can keep around unfortunately. He needs his prosthetic until a more suitable arrangement can be made."

   "It would seem a bit strange if his arm magically grew back when he arrives home this summer," Gene said, "I'm pretty sure modern medicine hasn't figured that out yet."

   "I see," Madam Pomfrey said, "Such a shame. Can you repair the prosthetic?"

   "I can take a look at it," Gene replied.

   Madam Pomfrey brought Gene to the table where the boy's prosthetic arm was laying. It was a mechanical hook, although it was barely recognizable as such. The leather harness that held the arm in place was ripped to shreds, and the wires and bars that made the bulk of the device were bent and mangled badly.

   "What did this?" Minerva asked.

   "I don't know," Madam Pomfrey replied, "Mr. Green seems to think a spider from the forest somehow found its way into the crypts. I don't think any spider could have done this, and certainly not cause the wounds the other two children received. Although the poisoning cleared up with the administration of the spider antivenom."

   "It was strong whatever it was. These are pretty solid devices," Gene said examining the arm, "I think I can have it repaired by next week fairly easy. I don't have any idea how it attaches to the boy though."

   "I'm sure he knows just fine. I'm going to order a magic prosthesis for him though," Pomfrey said.

   "What about the spider?" McGonagall asked.

   "Mr. and Professor Green, Professor Lupin, and Hagrid have gone down into the crypts where the boys were exploring to find whatever did this," Pomfrey said.

   The crypts under the old part of the castle were an uninviting place. They were built several stories below the dungeons which were already a few stories below ground. Hundreds of wizards had been buried here, many of them former professors of the school. Few wizards had permanent burial chambers here, there were exceptions, and the most notable were the former headmasters of the school.

   Dozens of body sized slots were chiseled into the walls, most were empty but many were not. A few had been plastered over and the names of their occupants engraved on them.

   One would expect the smell of decay to be prevalent in such a place. It was not so here, the crypts had not been used in nearly two centuries. A great many wizards in the past two centuries preferred to either be cremated, or buried on family property outside the school.

   Remus Lupin's wand cast a white light that made the general eeriness of the place even greater as the shadows seemed to warp and twist as four men moved down the halls.

   "Fine bloody way to spend my first night here," Elanus grumbled as he brushed a cobweb out of in front of his face, "Down in the crypt trying to find a giant spider. What were those boys doing down here anyway. Isn't that against school rules?"

   "You're a fine one to talk about breaking school rules, Green," Lupin laughed as he looked around a corner and down a long corridor, "Nothing."

   "I never came down here when I was a student," Elanus said.

   "Afraid of deep dark places are we?" Samuel asked jokingly.

   Elanus snorted, "I've just never had an interest in breaking that particular rule."

   "Uh huh," Samuel said in disbelief.

   "You don't believe me? Well I hope it's a giant wasp down here then," Elanus muttered.

   "That's just low," Samuel said.

   "Nonsense, there are no giant wasps in these parts," Hagrid said, "Giant bees, yes, no giant wasps."

   "Bees, right, that's much better," Samuel said sarcastically as he peered down a tunnel to his left, "Stop, I saw something."

   "Remember, if it's a spider, try not to hurt it, it might be one of Aragog's children," Hagrid said.

   "We'll try to be careful, Hagrid. Someone better go down there and see what it Samuel saw," Elanus said, noticing everyone's eyes were on him, "Why are you looking at me?"

   "Go on cousin, put those all those wonderful rule breaking stealth skills to use," Samuel said with a grin. Elanus muttered something and then slowly crept down the corridor. As he moved further down the passage he could hear faint scuffling sounds, and grunts that didn't sound much like any spider he knew of. The smell of dead rotting human bodies filled the air the further down the hall he moved. He looked around a corner and saw nothing but darkness.

   Undeterred he took out his wand and uttered a spell. Suddenly everything around him turned green and he could see quite clearly down the halls. Four humanoid shapes lurched about down the corridor. Elanus grimaced and quietly made his way back to his companions.

   "Find anything?" Lupin asked.

   "Yeah, and they aren't spiders," Elanus replied.

   "What then?" Samuel asked.

   "I think some of the crypt's inhabitants have decided to get up and walk," Elanus said.

   "Zombies?" Samuel asked.

   "Don't be ridiculous, wizards can't be turned to zombies," Lupin said.

   "We better go check it out," Hagrid said, feeling the tension on his crossbow.

   Samuel tightened his hands around his sword and walked quietly down the hall, followed closely by Hagrid, and the two wizards in the rear. "You ever had to deal with undead Hagrid?" Samuel asked.

   "Can't say that I have," Hagrid replied, "You?"

   "Once," Samuel whispered, stopping at the same corner where Elanus had stopped earlier. He looked around carefully and shook his head. Elanus waved his wand at Samuel and Hagrid and their eyes began glowing with a faint green light. Samuel looked around the corner again and winced, "Four," he said. He held up one hand and started ticking his fingers down. When the last finger dropped he ran out into the hall and hacked at the creatures. In a few short seconds there were four rotting heads on the ground and one somewhat disappointed Samuel.

   "Well that was easy," Samuel said, wiping his sword off.

   "Uh, Samuel, I think we have a problem," Elanus said, looking at the corpses. The heads rolled back to their former bodies and reattached. Whole again, the corpses stood up and started clawing at Samuel before he could react. Unable to free himself from their grasp Samuel was quickly drug to the ground. Hagrid shot one of the creatures with his crossbow, but the bolt just stuck in and the creature didn't seem to notice.

   Elanus and Remus pointed their wands at the creatures and streams of fire shot from the tips of their wands. The creatures caught fire instantly and large chunks of flesh started burning off and dropping to the ground.

   Samuel thrashed around for a few moments trying to free one arm. He managed to work one hand free and put it on one of the creature's heads and tried very hard to concentrate. The creatures had ripped off a fair bit of his clothing and pain from their biting shot up his leg, not to mention the heat from the fire. He screamed and the creature's head exploded with a sickening crack. The creature fell to the ground limp.

   "Expellioramus!" the two wizards shouted and two of the creatures flew from Samuel. Hagrid charged the fourth and hit it in the head with the butt of his crossbow, knocking the head clean off. Samuel dropped to the ground, bleeding from most of his body. Hagrid crushed the skull of the creature with his foot, and knelt down beside Samuel. The two wizards advanced on the fallen creatures and crushed their skulls as well.

   Elanus rushed to Samuel's side and examined his wounds, "I think he'll be alright, but we need to get him to the hospital wing fast," he said. Hagrid nodded, picked Samuel up and slung him over his shoulders. They quickly made their way to the main part of the castle and took the quickest route to the hospital wing they could.

   Gene cringed visibly as Hagrid laid Samuel on one of the beds. Madam Pomfrey rushed over and dressed Samuel's wounds carefully.

   "What happened?" Gene asked.

   "Some kind of undead," Elanus replied, "Never really encountered anything like it. Samuel thought they were just zombies of some sort, rushed them and paid for the mistake."

   "You can't blame him, Elanus. They did look like normal walking corpses," Remus commented, "I probably would have done the same thing if I were him."

   "There are 'normal' walking corpses?" Gene asked skeptically.

   "Sometimes areas exposed to dark magic will spawn all sorts of strange things," Elanus said, "Cemetaries are the worst, because the dead bodies there will sometimes come back to 'life'. Generally the Unspeakables and the Obliviators take care of the mess. Occasionally the wizard slayers are called in."

   "So has my son ever had to deal with this sort of thing?" Gene asked.

   Elanus sighed, "Yes, unfortunately he did once. It was his second year of training. I'm surprised he never told you."

   Gene shook his head, "He never mentioned anything like walking corpses."

   "He may not like talking about it. Uncle, you'd be proud of him, that was when we knew," Elanus said.

   "Knew what?"

   "Your boy is utterly fearless, he has the heart of a lion," Elanus replied, "No," he laughed, "The heart of an Evans."

   Madam Pomfrey approached Gene and laid her hand on his shoulder to get his attention, "I thought you should know that he'll be fine. The injuries, though extensive, are minor," she said.

   "He lost a lot of blood, did you check for grave rot?" Elanus asked.

   "I did, once Professor Lupin informed me of what attacked him. Neither he nor any of the children show any signs of the malady. I've given them each a tonic just to be safe though," Madam Pomfrey snapped, "They should be fine by Monday morning."

   "I'll tell Maria," Gene said, "When will she be able to visit?'

   "I don't really want anyone in here for the next day or two," Pomfrey said, "Just in case."

   Madam Pomfrey dismissed everyone in the hospital wing who wasn't a patient and went about her work. Gene, Remus, Elanus and Hagrid walked silently out of the hospital wing and towards the Great Hall. Once they arrived Remus convinced several house elves to fix a few plates of food.

   "You just ate," Gene said.

   "Fighting the living dead makes one hungry," Elanus said.

   "I assume you're going to be here a while now?" Remus asked as the house elves served the food.

   "Apparently so," Elanus replied, "I was planning on leaving for work next week, but I think I'll stick around a while longer now."

   "Why don't you help teach some of my advanced classes then?" Remus asked, "There's nothing like someone with actual field experience, and let's face it, the current head of the Department of Mysteries has an impressive resume."

   "I guess I really should pull my own weight around here," Elanus said, "I was really looking forward to helping Uncle Gene here in his metal shop class though."

   Gene chuckled, "Go ahead and help Professor Lupin here. If you want you can help me out when you aren't doing anything with him."

   "I'll get Dumbledore's permission tomorrow," Lupin said, "This is really going to agitate Severus."

   "I think the Potions Master has enough on his hands to be upset about anyway. Hermione figured out his bronze potion a few hours ago," Gene said.

   "Is he still on about that cold sculpting potion?" Elanus asked, "He came up with the idea years ago. Has he ever made a decent bronze with it? The copper ratio was always too high to be really attractive I thought. It was barely a bronze at all."

   "The snake he gave Hermione looked like a fairly good artistic bronze, I think it could use a touch less tin though," Gene said with a shrug, "Hermione made a pretty low grade bronze with way to much tin. I'm going to see if I can get her to make a similar potion later only with zinc instead of tin."

   "What will that make?" Remus asked.

   "Brass," Elanus replied.

   "For what purpose?"

   "Rivets, decorations, ornaments, doorknobs, and all sorts of other things," Gene replied, "I'm going to make a gift to the school this year and a potion that can make simple alloys like that quickly is just what I need."

   "I think perhaps I'll retire to the guest quarters," Elanus said, "It's been a long day and between examining dead things and possibly teaching an advanced Defense Against The Dark Arts class tomorrow, I'm going to need all the sleep I can get."

   "Good night," Gene said.

   Elanus waved to the men sitting at the table and found his way to the guest quarters he'd slept in the year prior. Hogwarts living arrangements had always been comfortable but the guest always got the best deal at least as far as bedding was concerned. Size of living space was another issue, but most of the larger rooms in the castle were understandably devoted to classrooms. The Unspeakable slept well that night but the slumber of some of the other occupants was disturbing.

   In the Ravenclaw dormitories Padme Patil tossed and turned in her bed, throwing her blanket off several times in the process. Her dreams were dark and frightening. Visions of horrible monstrous beings feasting on rotting human corpses filled her mind. Screams from a thousand dying men haunted her ears. She tried to look away but as she did one of the foul carrion creatures raked her face with its filthy claws. Just before she felt the flesh of her cheek being ripped away she screamed. No one heard the scream being muffled through her pillow.

   Though Madam Pomfrey had given Samuel something to help him sleep his dreams were no less frightening. He could still feel the corpses from below the castle clawing into him, but that didn't make him afraid. A voice in the distance called to him. It whispered promises of power. He wanted to fight against it. Rage welled up inside him. A seething anger focused on driving the voice from his mind if not destroying it entirely. Just as soon as it had came the rage subsided and he was interested in what power the voice could offer.

   In the Gryffindor wing Harry Potter walked groggily into one of the boys washrooms. He had woken suddenly as if from a nightmare. Just as he was about to go back to sleep he felt a burning sensation around his scar. The sensation grew until it felt as if his entire head were on fire. Then it stopped as quickly as it had started and he wasn't even sure he had felt it to begin with. He washed his face, and then went back to the room. He stared out the window a few moments before going back to his bed. Movement down on the castle grounds caught his eye for a moment but he dismissed it as a forest animal scurrying back to its home.