3. The Calm
As we walked back to the Dursley's, I was lost in thought about what Harry had told me about Slytherin's
necklace. Suddenly, I stopped, and hit my forehead. I was standing in the driveway of Privet Drive number four,
and Harry was already at the door.
"Of course! R.A.B! Rudy A. Blackthorn! I had the fifth Horcrux with me all the time!" I yelled, scaring Harry,
and causing a rather large, mustachioed face to look out of the window at me. Whoever it was, his eyes
widened at the sight of me, and hastily disappeared. I ignored the face, and fished about inside my pouch. As I
retrieved the locket, the door opened to reveal a huge, corpulent man that reminded me of an obese walrus.
"Hello, uncle Vernon. This is Taylor Ross. He's my bodyguard."
"So, you kill…them…for a living, then?" Vernon said, leaning towards me with an evil glint in his eye.
"I help hunt down Dark Wizards, and bring them to justice. And, no, Harry is not one such criminal. He actually
just helped me to defeat a very powerful witch, and is currently helping to fight an even more powerful lich." I
said, leaning back with a flask of my own malt scotch.
"What's a lich?" asked Harry and Dudley, Vernon's portly son, asked at the same time. They immediately
glared at each other. I smiled and told them.
"A lich is a powerful undead creature. They refuse to die, and so they are forced to create phylacteries, or
Horcruxes. These items of power contain their soul, and without them, the lich can be killed. However, liches
usually have incredible power, and have lots of time on their hands, and are therefore incredibly difficult to
defeat. Fortunately for us, Voldemort has not been a lich for very long, so he couldn't have found more
powerful ways of hurting people. He's stuck at his current level, for the time being. Now, Dursley, I'm going to
say this once and only once. You try to mistreat Harry while I'm here, and you will wish YOU were a lich.
Harry, if I could speak to you?"
I pulled Harry off to one side, and said, "Now, Harry, I know about the Galleon. What is it?"
He pulled it out, and told me about his fifth year, when he had been forced to teach himself and other students
spells to defend themselves against the Dark Arts. I nodded, and told him to set the next meeting for tomorrow,
in the Leaky Cauldron. He nodded his head, and did so. Then, I gave him Slytherin's Locket.
"Harry, when I left the states, a wizard by the name of Rudy A. Blackthorn gave me this necklace, and told me
it would help in the fight against Voldemort. I've forgotten all about it for the past several years. After this is
destroyed, all we have to worry about is the snake!" I said in an excited tone. "Now, I just have to take care of
some business, so you have to go to Diagon Alley and then the Burrowon your own. Ok?"
He nodded, and after making sure the ring was securely on his finger, I left to visit some old friends of mine.
When I arrivedback at the Burrow, I was greeted by the entire Weasley family, several members of the Order,
Hermione Granger, and Harry. After exchanging knowing looks with Moody, Tonks, Lupin, and Bill, I
accompanied the group to the Hogwarts Express. We got on, we being the children, myself, and Bill. Ron and
Ginny were confused as too why Bill was accompanying us, but they were glad that their eldest brother was
coming.
The only event on the trip was when a seventh year Slytherin student, an ugly female by the name of Pansy
Parkinson, came by the compartment with two equally, if not worse looking males by the names of Crabbe and
Goyle. They burst in, and began shouting that we had killed the Malfoys, and that we were going to get our
dues. I snarled at them, and they ran, screaming. I sat back down with Bill, who had also gotten up, and started
laughing with everyone else. Finally, we arrived.
When we arrived, Bill departed from our group, and we made our way to the carriages. The threstals were
there waiting, and I gave one of them a friendly pat before entering the coach. We arrived at the school with no
problem, and I walked up to the staff table to see who was there. The Headmaster's chair was occupied by a
pinch-faced witch with glasses that was named Minerva McGonagall. Bill sat next to a fat man by the name of
Slughorn, who sat next to a small teacher named Flitwick. Hagrid was there as well, and we waved at each
other. There was one person I recognized immediately. His name was Rudy A. Blackthorn jr. We stared at
each other for a moment, then exchanged greetings and stories for the rest of dinner.
After dinner, the Headmistress stood up and introduced both Bill and Rudy. She explained that Slughorn would
become the new Head of Slytherin, and Bill would become the Gryffindor Head. She also explained that Bill
would be teaching Defense Against the Dark arts, and Rudy would be the new Transfiguration teacher. When
this was said, Ginny and Ron stood up and yelled with excitement. When they settled down, though, the
students left for their dormitories. I stayed back and swapped more stories with Rudy and Bill, each of us trying
to get the best of each other. Just as I was getting into a particularly gruesome part of my story, Professor
McGonagall asked to see me in her office. I obliged.
"Mr. Ross, I hope you know why I have called you here?" the woman in front of me asked. She had decorated
the room withobjects I could only assume were former classroom things.
"No ma'am, I'm not sure. Could you please tell me?" I asked, sincerely. Obviously, she thought me, a thirty
year old man, was being snide, and let me hear it in her voice.
"Sir, I am giving you a room that will be your bedchambers. I hope that-"
I cut her off and told her, "I'll be sleeping in the Great Hall, and I'm going to place a fewrunes on the door,
and around it. There will be extra wards on the Gryffindor portrait, and I'm afraid there's nothing you can do to
stop me."
Instead of being angry, or afraid, she smiled and asked if I could give her some of my protection. I sat still for a
moment, and then told her that I would be honored.
When I told Harry all of this, he began to laugh. Ron piped up with the idea that McGonagall had the hots for
me, and I drew back with a face of such fear that caused all the students I was sitting with to laugh even harder.
I shook myself free of them, and began my patrol of the school.
The first thing that I ran into was Peeves, the poltergeist. He came after me with a sack of chalk and a very thick
book. I stopped, and stared at him. I drew my sword, and he stopped looking at me as if I were a dangerous
obstacle. Then, he dropped the chalk and the book, and drew a sword from a wall hanging. We both placed the
hand we were not using behind our backs. I assumed a fencing stance, and I'm sure that if Peeves had feet, he
would have done the same.
We fought for what seemed like days, but in reality it was only a few seconds. Not long into the fight, students
gathered to watch, and this brought even the teachers to watch. Finally, after giving them all a good show, I
decided to end it. With a flourish, I disarmed the ghost, and thrust my sword into his ethereal neck. He dropped,
clutching the sword in false agony, and proceeded to have a long and dramatic death. The crowd cheered and
clapped while Peeves and I bowed. Then, the teachers sent their students scurrying off to class, while I shook
hands with the poltergeist, and retrieved my sword.
The next thing I ran afoul was the janitor, Filch. He seemed to be in a very foul mood, so I gave him right of
way. He snarled at me while I sneezed at his cat, which I'm deathly allergic to. This gave a few passing students
something to laugh at, until Filch chased them off. I walked off, and continued my search for nothing.
After several weeks of guarding a very depressed school, I got to accompany some students to Hogsmeade, the
small town nearby. I visited everywhere, and was given the grand tour of the place by Harry and his friends.
Then, Hermione whispered into Harry's ear and Harry immediately straightened up. The told me to put my
bracelet on, and to follow them. I did so, and followed them to the Three Broomsticks, a pub.
We were met by Ginny, who had been waiting. We all went into a room, and then they began to talk about what
they had learned over the summer. When the two Weasleys and Hermione found out that Harry had destroyed
several more horcruxes, they brightened up. I didn't unveil myself, because from the ring I still wore on my
finger, I could feel anticipation coming from Harry. When they all wrapped it up, Ron and Hermione left, while
Harry and Ginny stayed behind. They began to kiss as I stood there, and then they began to get very involved.
They got so involved, that I had to leave the room before anything started flying off.
I went down to the bar, and met the barmaid and landlady, Rosmerta. We talked for a while, until I began to
feel something coming through the ring. I realized what it was, and I was shocked that I could feel it. I tore the
ring off my hand with a gasp before I could feel anymore, and was relieved when it was off. Rosmerta asked me
about it, and I simply told her that she was going to be very angry when she went into room six. She simply
sighed, and we began talking again. When Harry and Ginny came downstairs, they both looked disheveled, and
I gave Rosemerta a sidelong glance before leaving with the two lovers. She called out to tell me I was welcome
anytime to come back and I told her that when I did, she had better be ready. She simply blushed and went
upstairs with a bundle of fresh sheets and a mop.
After the pub incident, I told Harry that the bond of our rings was growing stronger. I then told him that if there
was a particularly powerful emotion in him, I would feel it. For awhile, he simply nodded, and then he realized
what it meant. He stared at me with such horror; you would have though I had burst in on them caught in the act.
He began to stammer out that he had tried to break up with her to protect her, until I stopped him. I simply
smiled and told him that black-mail was a powerful tool.
The rest of the semester was very uneventful, unless you mentioned my visits to the Three Broomsticks, which
got more and more exciting with each visit. I did make sure to take my ring off if something very exciting or
embarrassing was about to happen. Other than that, nothing extraordinary happened. Until one fateful day.
