Chapter 37. Secrets, The key and the lock.
"So that's why it's none of your business. Don't be so ignorant and see that we both have to…." Ivy was in the middle of her speech when the door opened, and Jakob stepped inside.
He had a tired, almost haunted expression on his face, not even glancing towards the girls. The two girls, who had just had a conversation, now glanced at each other in worry and stood up. As they approached, Jakob held up a finger towards them. He stopped for a second before putting his hand over his mouth and ran towards the window while waving his wand.
The window opened, and Jakob, who had held it in for quite some time, now leaned over the window sill and vomited.
Ivy looked worriedly at Pansy, who slowly approached the boy who had not finished hurling yet.
"Jakob? What happened?" the boy still held up his finger, shaking it vigorously towards her in annoyance as he just wanted to be left alone for a while.
"Umm, Pansy," whispered Ivy, pointing to the skin pouch on his back with what seemed like hair functioning as rope.
The two girls sat back down on the couch and waited for the Slytherin boy to finish up before they tried to communicate with him again.
When he hadn't anything else in his stomach, The Slytherin boy pointed his wand towards his mouth. He vanished the remains before turning back and glancing at the two worried girls.
"It's done. I have the ingredients. We only need a time-turner now." sighed Jakob, not entirely feeling up to being questioned by the two teenagers.
"What is in the bag?" questioned Ivy, giving the bag a glance.
"It's nothing. Just something we need for the return home."
"Why does the skin look so different? Sick?" asked Pansy, knowing the answer but feeling the need to ask anyways.
"It's human skin. The crazy idiot thought it be a good idea to…."
Jakob trailed off and suddenly looked at the skin satchel like he had now noticed it on his arm. He dropped it onto the couch and shook his body in disgust.
"Jakob, I've never seen you like this before. What the hell did you witness over there?"
Jakob gave Pansy a weak smile.
"It's enough that I need to remember that. But I can say that it's worse than the trip to Salem." Answered Jakob, then almost tasting the words. he frowned and continued.
"But So much worse. I should have killed him, but I couldn't. He scared the shit out of me."
Jakob lay down on the couch and closed his eyes, trying to sort out everything he had seen today.
"I really need to learn occlumency soon. These memories will make me go insane one day," whispered Jakob and opened his eyes, frowning at the two girls.
"Why are you two not fighting, and why are you sitting beside each other?" he then sat up and shook his head, trying to see if what he saw was true.
"Is this an illusion? Am I dead?" Pansy was about to roll her eyes but seeing a serious look from Jakob, she slowly shook her head.
"No. You are not dead." The Slytherin girl began worrying over what Jakob had seen in Azkaban. He seemed… strange.
"We have only agreed not to fight as long as we are trapped here." answered the redhead, also looking at Jakob like he was a particularly weird zoo animal.
The Slytherin boys looked surprised and gave them a thumbs up in response.
"It's nice to see you getting along. One less problem to deal with." smiled Jakob as he closed his eyes again.
The two girls watched as his breaths became heavier and looked stunned at the boy.
"Did he really just fall asleep?" asked Ivy and walked over to him.
"It sounds like he is," answered Pansy, also getting up and taking a seat on the floor next two the couch where his head lay.
She noticed something slimy on his chest and that his robes were soaked. She pulled out her wand and waved it, vanishing the different liquids and looked over at the pouch on the end of the sofa.
"I want to see what's in it," whispered Ivy, slowly reaching for the bag.
Pansy wanted to tell her not to touch it, but her own curiosity won over, and she followed the bag with her eyes.
Ivy slowly opened the skin bag and took out a black box.
"There are two of them here. Should I open it?"
The Slytherin girl knew this was something she would have never dared do herself and only gave a slight nod as she watched the Gryffindor girl slowly open the lid.
The redhead frowned as she stared at the object.
"It's a ball made of black smoke?" Pansy, who knew about black smoke, moved over to her and watched the dark sphere.
"Don't touch it. Are you crazy? Why do you think it's in a box?" hissed Pansy as she saw Ivy reaching her hand towards it.
She gave Pansy a smirk and hastily grabbed it, lifting it up a few centimetres. She unexpectedly dropped it, holding her hand in pain, trying her best not to scream or make any sound so as to not wake up Jakob.
"Pansy closed the lid, put the box back in the bag quickly, and then looked at the redhead's palm. A circle in the middle had ripped away the skin, and blood was starting to cover the exposed area. Around it, traces of frostbite had begun to appear, and it slowly expanded, blackening the girl's hand.
"Close your eyes now." hissed Pansy, and Ivy, in her scared, confused state, listened to the Slytherin, closing her eyes and looking like she was starting to pray.
The less impulsive of the two grabbed Jakob's hand and moved it over the wound. She hoped this would work and that he wasn't waking up.
The red light started to glow, and Ivy's pain and panicked expression switched to relief as the healing did its job.
Before the Gryffindor opened her eyes, Pansy moved away from the boy's hand, giving him a quick glance, assuring herself that he was still asleep.
"How did you do that?" questioned Ivy in surprise as she looked in awe at her restored palm.
Pansy shrugged.
"I know some healing magic but only basics."
The two girls looked over at the bag in weariness.
"What the hell was that?" asked Ivy, not breaking eye contact with the skin bag.
"No idea, but don't touch it again. Answered Pansy mimicking the stare.
That night the two girls decided to not wake him up. Pansy sat on the couch, reading a book, while Ivy sat on the armchair, writing her homework.
Both waited for the other to leave but seeing as the two girls were both stubborn, they instead fell asleep.
The morning after, Morgan decided this was a good time to pick Jakob up for his first lesson with her. The older woman was also curious if he had succeeded in his mission but pretended that the class was the only thing on her mind.
When she opened the door, she saw Jakob lying on the couch, still sleeping. Her eyebrow rose, however, when she saw the Slytherin girl lying on the sofa opposite him and the Gryffindor girl sleeping upright on the armchair with her homework in her lap.
The older woman noticed the bag on the floor beside Jakob and frowned. So he was successful. And judging by the bag, Ekrizdis must have liked the boy. That's unsettling. Thought the dark-haired woman as she cleared her throat, waking up only Jakob, who noticed that she stood just inside the entrance to their door.
"Your first lesson starts now. Follow me."
As Jakob rubbed his eyes, he looked over to the sleeping girls and smiled slightly before getting up and following Morgan to his first class.
Morgan and Jakob stood in a room that Jakob was familiar with.
It was classroom 6d, his classroom.
"I want to know how your knowledge of rituals. Tell me everything you know, and I will judge what you lack.
Jakob told the woman about the blood ritual he had done with Pansy in his first year and then looked at her.
"I made something wrong. The Ritual made both her and me… more connected than I intended to," said Jakob feeling a bit stupid about telling her about his mistake.
Morgan gave him an amused smile.
"I think I know what happened there, Jakob."
The Slytherin boy frowned.
"How? I have been searching for years in books that don't even exist yet. After three minutes of listening to a story, how can you know the answer?"
Morgan laughed warmly as she caressed his cheek.
"You are so like him in many ways. That frustration you have when I give the simple answer after you have looked through everything."
Jakob didn't say anything. He saw how he looked at him and guessed that she probably needed this.
"You have only searched for mistakes you have made. And you have come up with?"
"Nothing," answered Jakob, still confused.
"Exactly. Nothing. Tell me. What fuels a ritual more than sacrifices? What makes the magic understand?"
Jakob looked around the room for a moment.
"Intent. But I've-"
"You had your intent perfectly clear." interrupted Morgan.
"But you weren't alone, dear," she said, holding up two fingers.
"There were two of you. Two different intentions. What the girl hoped could have been as easy as she wished for you to be closer, and the magic would have welded it to make it so. As you grow older, the definition of close can switch meaning."
Jakob's eyes widen in shocked surprise.
"Oh my god, that's it!" he almost yelled as a grin formed.
"I've been searching for something that wasn't my fault!" he laughed as relief flooded him. But soon, the relief was taken over by a frown.
"Is there a way to turn it back?"
Morgan gave him a questionable amused expression.
"don't you enjoy the… closeness?"
The Slytherin boy sighed while dragging a hand threw his hair.
"It's not that it's just. As we have grown, being apart has become... harder, and one day Pansy will be betrothed as will I, and we know it's not to each other."
Morgan took a step toward him, wearing an apologetic smile.
"I'm sorry, the thing that makes blood rituals so risky is that they are non-refundable. Make one mistake, and you must live with it for the rest of your life."
Jakob sighed. He knew he had to tell Pansy the news and wondered what her reaction would be. Better to rip that bandaid off quickly, thought Jakob before his ancestor continued with the class. The rest of the day, Morgan showed Jakob different ways of how to best perform blood rituals and rituals as a whole so that he would be placed in such a situation again. Jakob listened to the older witch's words, asking questions and voicing ideas.
Jakob took a moment to formulate his question when they were done for the day.
" You told me that the thing you summoned was a demon and that hell existed. Why did you make the deal? And what did the demon tell you?"
Morgan knew this question would be asked and observed the boy for a few seconds before she sighed.
" I was young and desired power. I wanted to dive deeper into the dark arts but seeing Ekrizdis, you could understand why I hesitated. Then suddenly, I found a way." she took a few steps around Jakob, circling around him.
" I had found a way, and my mentor told me not to. What was I supposed to do? But I was young and didn't see what Merlin saw. Only now can I fully understand my mentor, and sometimes I wonder if killing him was the best choice. He was a light fool, but Merlin was great.
Jakob listened as Morgan continued on.
" All the demons are the same. Even if they are portrayed as gods or monsters, they are all from the same place and have the same thirst. Can you guess what that thirst is?"
"So when we sacrifice to the gods, we are actually giving demons what they want?" questioned Jakob in shock, thinking back to the day when he had met Syr and witnessed the Blót.
"Some demons are more... Aggressive than others, just like us or like the non-magical. A few have taken on a different role, using trickery to get what they want. The Vikings who land on our shores, killing our people at this very moment, are blind to the creatures they serve. Some have escaped the clutches of hell and have been adapting to the new world they live in. Some are waiting for someone to open the gate."
Jakob had to sit down. This was a lot to take in, and he was unprepared for all this knowledge.
"What did the demon tell you, Morgan?" He looked up at the witch, not really wanting an answer to his question.
"The demon gave me a key." started the woman and watched as something dawned in the boy.
"A key to unimaginable possibilities but a key that also opened a lock. A lock to release them into this world."
Jakob felt like a sledgehammer had just slammed into his head.
"Wait, a key?" He stood up and phased back and forth.
Tom had told him that he was the key. How could Voldemort, when he was just a student know about this?
"Jakob, is everything alright? You look a bit pale," asked Morgan as she witnessed the boy's reaction.
"It's fine." He halted and took a deep breath.
"What would happen if those demons were released?"
Morgan had not expected this and gave him a suspicious look.
"The world as you knew it would seize to exist. At first, it would all seem normal, but slowly the non-magical would fall into chaos and death. Then when they were wiped out, the magical world would be next."
"How much stronger are the demons to us magicals then?"
"It depends. There are numerous different demons. They come in all sizes. Some are faster and stronger than normal non-magical but miss the intellectual parts. Some, like the one I summoned, are someone even Merlin would run from."
Jakob understood the hint she gave him. If he sought to do something stupid, he would not succeed.
" How do you even know about these types of things?" asked Jakob.
" My dear boy, there is a book that tells a lot about them. This book will likely be available when you return to your time, as Christianity is winning every war right now." Morgan glanced, then ended the conversation.
"I'm sorry, but it seems like our time has run short, Jakob. I will meet you in the morning for our next training.
"Wait." The woman who was about to turn halted in her movement, waiting for the boy to continue his sentence.
"In my time, we had something called time turners. A type of necklace that contained some sort of sand, I think, that could turn back time. I know this might be a long shot, but you don't happen to have anything like that? That's the second thing I need. If I have that and we find out the rune scheme, we will be set for the return home."
The woman looked wide-eyed at Jakob and laughed loudly, which made the Slytherin boy frown.
"I'm not joking around." glared Jakob to his ancestor, who waved her hand, trying to calm herself down.
"Oh dear, what are the odds that you would need something exactly like that."
"What do you mean. Don't tell me you have it?" Asked a hopeful Jakob, feeling like this was the turning point for smooth sailing.
"No. No. I just heard whispering. There is a place in a far-off land that maybe has what you seek."
"Were?" asked the suspicious boy, not liking where this was going.
"This is only a story and has certainly been overreacted but seeing as this is the only thing I know of, there might be something there. It is said that sand with magical properties had been discovered in Persia and moved to the holy land. I can get you there but will not come with you this time. I would like to advise you to take your friends with you. The roads can be... hostile if one is sleeping alone."
Jakob walked into his common room and waited for his two-time travellers to return. He sat on the couch. Thinking of what he was going to tell them. He wanted to go by himself. Every time he had taken people with him, it had always ended in more trouble than it was worth. But if Morgan told him they should follow with him, and not knowing how long this little trip would take, Jakob sighed as he had concluded that he would be honest with them and let the two decide what they wanted.
After a while, the door opened, and Pansy stepped inside. She gave him a smile and was about to say something but changed when she noticed the expression he wore. She sat beside him, glancing around to ensure they were alone before taking his hand and asking.
"Is it still about what happened yesterday?"
Jakob shook his head, giving her a smile.
"No, this is other news. But I want to wait until Ivy gets here. She needs to hear this too."
Almost as if Ivy heard them, the door opened, and the redhead walked inside with a big smile.
"Gryffindor is amazing! He taught us… what's going on?"
Jakob gestured for the Gryffindor girl to sit down on the couch Infront of him and pansy and observed the two for a few seconds before taking a breath.
" I will need to go on another little trip. This one will be further away and might take longer."
" I will come with you. Ivy can stay here and continue with her studies with Gryffindor," declared Pansy quickly, not even glancing at the redhead who crossed her arms.
" I will also come with you, don't listen to her." snorted the Potter girl, sending Pansy a quick glare.
" If you are coming with me, there are some ground rules." sighed Jakob getting up.
" First. No fighting each other. We will have enough to deal with. Second. If I tell you to run, you run. If I tell you to stay, you what?"
" stay." said the girls in unison.
" Good. Now then," Jakob said while gesturing for the two to stand up, which they did, and he went over to the two black sealed boxes.
He opened them, and the girls gave each other a glance before turning their gaze back at the boy, who took a piece of cloth, covering his palm and grabbed the two black spheres.
" Hold out your hands." Said Jakob firmly and gave them a neutral look. Pansy and Ivy looked a bit worried and slowly reached out their hands, palms facing the roof.
He dropped the two spheres over their opened hands with the cloth pieces separating their skin from the cold shadow balls.
" I know that you grabbed one." He said while giving Ivy a hard stare.
" You should have stopped her." He said, giving Pansy the same hard stare.
Jakob then stretched out his own two hands.
" drop the spheres into my palms, and you can keep the clothes. Make them hurt me."
The two girls looked at him wide-eyed, and their hands didn't move.
" As I thought. You say that you will do what I say, but when the time comes, you will hesitate and die." sighed Jakob trying to take the sphere from Pansy, who moved her hand away.
" You can't ask me to hurt you. I would never-"
" You will do as I say, or you will stay here!" roared Jakob, making Both Pansy and Ivy jump in surprise and shock.
" This will not be some trip to Diagon alley or Hogsmeade. We won't have teachers or parents to protect us. Yesterday I saw what dark magic can do if left unchecked. The things that freak did to the muggles were something I would never wish upon my enemies."
"Jakob, what did-"
"He made them into pieces of furniture! He twisted their bodies and fed on their skin, flesh and blood as if it was the most normal thing in the world. He made them live longer, as they would have died after a few seconds otherwise. He used a woman as a chair. Her head was twisted so much that the skin on her neck and throat had torn apart!" Pansy, who had been interrupted, looked at Jakob in sympathy and a small hint of horror. And listened when he continued.
"He is not the only one. We live in an unknown world, and we have only each other to trust. You gave me a promise, and I will be damned if I let you get taken from me because of not listening to an order."
He glared at both girls, almost growling out the next sentence.
" This is the last time I will say this. Drop the fucking spheres."
Pansy had tears in her eyes, as did Ivy, and slowly they both dropped them down, closing their eyes and waiting for his scream to begin.
" You can't close your eyes forever, you two." smiled Jakob, and the two girls stared at his hands.
" You didn't get hurt by them?" asked a shocked Ivy.
" No, they only hurt the ones they don't belong to." lied Jakob and put them back into their boxes.
" You idiot, why did you make me do that?!" shouted Pansy, feeling her knees give out and sat down on the couch, feeling the adrenaline coursing threw her body.
Ivy sat beside the girl feeling the same as the Slytherin but instead only gave Jakob a sad, confused stare.
" Because when the time comes, I need you to do the right thing. Pansy, when we were in Salem, you saw what I had to do. Three people died because they weren't following orders. I will not have you two perish like them." The Slytherin girl nodded and dried her tears.
" Wait. What are you talking about? Who died?" asked Ivy, confused.
" no one special. But they didn't listen, thought they knew better than me, and died because of it. I tried to help them, but they wouldn't listen."
Jakob sat down again, circling back to where he had started.
" Tomorrow, we will travel to a place in a far-off land. There are whispers that the sand that we require is located there."
That evening Jakob knocked on Ivy's door. The redheaded girl, wearing a long white nightgown, opened her door and looked happily confused to see him.
"Ivy, I need to talk with you about something." was the only thing Jakob voiced before walking inside. The Gryffindor closed her door behind him, thinking something else entirely about the future of this situation.
The boy turned and raised his hand, stopping the advance from the redhead who had rushed over to him, ready for the thing she had missed so much.
" Ivy, this is serious. I need to tell you something that you might not like."
" What would that be?"
" I know that you are from a light faction family. Tell me, what would you do if we were attacked on the road?"
Ivy thought for a moment, biting her lip.
"I would probably stun them and then bind their hands?" she answered after a moment in the form of a question. The Quade heir sighed as he turned from her, looking out the window.
"Ivy, They won't be students in our year. This will be adults. If we aren't killed on the spot, they will probably sell us as slaves, and now I'm suggesting something positive here. So I will ask you again. If we are attacked, what will you do."
The potter girl frowned.
"I won't harm anyone if that is what you ask. I would only prove that I'm as bad as the ones attacking us."
" Ivy, I'm not asking you to harm anyone. I only ask that if the situation arises and I must choose between saving you or letting someone kill us all, you won't stand in my way."
" Why are you telling me this? Why aren't you talking with Pansy about this?" Jakob glanced towards the door.
"Pansy has already proven herself. She is willing to do what is necessary. You, however, are someone I would never bring if the circumstances were normal." Ivy looked offended by the statement, and a red tint started showing on her freckled face as her anger grew.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
" You are naive and think the best of people. You don't see what the world really looks like, and neither does your idiot brother." hissed Jakob towards the redhead, making her flinch back. Her anger grew, and she took a step forward, raising her voice.
"And you seem to see the worst in them! Maybe Harry was right about you. Maybe you are evil." The Quade smirked and then broke out in laughter. Ivy stood firm, glaring at him, hiding her confusion and a small fear about seeing his reaction.
" Do you even know what the word means? I have done what I need to for survival. It's time you wake up and see that the world isn't as black and white as your family and faction beliefs."
" My eyes are opened. My brother and I stopped Voldemort from taking the stone in first year, and we found and secured the chamber of secrets last year. We did that without harming anyone." Stated Ivy, crossing her arms.
Jakob gave her an amused, oh really look and then raised his hands in defeat.
"Alright, alright. You win. But all I ask is that if the time comes, you turn away while I do what I deem is right. If you have a problem with that, you can take it up with me late, alright? And remember, you will never tell anyone about this. You know what would happen between the factions if the Sister to the boy who lived accused the Heir of the ancient and noble house of Quade."
The redhead nodded, taking a step towards him and sighing.
" I'm sorry about saying that you were evil. I just got angry."
The boy saw the flirty look she was hiding under her fake pretence of sadness.
"Ivy, stop. When are you going to realise that we would never..."
He never reached the end of that sentence. The girl had slapped away his raised arm, jumped and clung to his body. At the same time, her strawberry lips began kissing his with a fierce passion, almost like the kisses wanted to tell him that she still was angry with him.
The force of the jump made Jakob Tripp backwards, falling into his bed with the redhead making a sound as she lay on top of him.
Jakob tried to push her away, but the attempt was half-hearted. His eyes began to close, and he felt her hand slowly go from his shoulder down towards his stomach. He knew that Pansy could walk in at any moment and was about to throw her off with renewed strength, but instead, he froze as he sensed her warm hand slipping into his pants and closing around his erection.
Jakobs made an unwilling sound as the hold tightened, and Ivy, loving the reaction he had delivered, slowly moved her hand up and down.
The Slytherin student knew this was a catastrophe waiting to happen. If Pansy had walked in right now, Jakob would have had no idea of the consequences.
He tried to move away her hand, but the girl refused to release him and with the grip she had, he dared not try using force. He did the only thing he knew had stopped girls before.
Jakob grabbed her long white nightgown and started pulling it up.
The redhead hesitated for half a second as Jakob's hand went inside and stroked her inner thigh. Her kissing stopped, and she opened her eyes, staring at him while feeling his hand move further up. As Jakob started to sense the warmth radiating from the blushing girl, she jerked away.
" You little hypocrite whispered Jakob wearing a smirk. "
Ivy, who was feeling a lot of different emotions, primarily arousal and embarrassment, Watched Jakob get up from her bed and stroll towards her door.
" You surprised me. Next time I will be prepared and finish what I started." Jake didn't respond to her low heavy-breathing voice and left her. The redhead lay in her bed, shocked for a moment about her impulsive decision. She bit her finger in worry for a second, but as the schene started to play up in her mind, a grin slowly spread across her face as she waved her legs from side to side.
"He really liked it and that sound he made." Whispered the girl, closing her eyes and grabbing a pillow. She covered her head and screamed in joy and frustration.
The next day Jakob stood ready with the two girls beside him. Helga had packed three bags for them that they now had over their shoulders. When Jakob had received it and tried to look inside, Lady Hufflepuff insisted that they open the bags when they arrived and not a moment sooner.
Rowena had given them new clothes that were made from a lighter material. When the three students had put on the dress, they had given the blue-dressed founder a funny look.
Rowena had told them that the clothes were fashionable and that they would fit in better. She had also charmed the three dresses to keep their body temperature stable during the hot days.
Gryffindor had gifted them three swords that he himself had charmed himself. The lion had proudly told them that the swords were lighter than their wand and could cut anything that wasn't magically protected. He demonstrated this by dropping the blade and making it cut right through a stone.
Slytherin had given Pansy a gift but nothing to Jakob or Ivy. He had put on a ring on her long finger and whispered something to the girl, making her look wide-eyed at Salazar. Bowing low and thanking him profusely. The Bald man had looked very smug as he returned to Gryffindor.
" you will use this to get there and this to get back," informed Morgan as she handed over the two amulets.
" Thank you." Said Jakob giving a slight bow. He put the amulet that would take them home in his bag while holding the other in his right hand.
" I will wait twenty days for your return, and if you aren't back by then, I will begin to search for you. Jakob chuckled at the time limit that Morgan had given him.
" I don't think it will take more than a few days at most, so if you need to wait that long, you can presume that we are dead."
" Well, I might skip the search then," said Morgan amused.
The two girls behind Jakob looked at the discussion in bewilderment as the two LeFays joked about their deaths.
Jakob shrugged and turned around to the two, gesturing for the two stunned girls to grab the amulet.
" Have a nice stay, and Don't get killed," said Morgan. The amulet activated and transported them to the Holy land of Jerusalem.
Authors note: There! The secrets and hints I have been putting out since the first year are finally revealed. The next chapter will see the three students visiting the holy city, learning some interesting information, and being put in a situation they have never been in before. Those swords will really come in handy.
Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I will see you in the next one!
Ps: the next chapter will take some extra time. There is a lot of time needed for research, so it might take one to two additional days before it's ready. Cheers!
