Disclaimer: Does not belong to me, only Legion and his roomies are mine, I am merely borrowing the rest for my own twisted pleasure. xD
A/N: I bet most of you are absolutely pissed that I haven't updated in so long and all I have to give you now in return for your long ass wait is a new chapter and some rubbish excuses. But you must forgive me, I have just started college and I'm really struggling to keep up. When I actually find time to write, I usually only have paper and a pencil so everything must be typed, and I have been working on other stories, so I am truly sorry…well enough of that, on with the story.
----Chapter 5: The Plan----
Saturday turned out to be very sunny but not to hot. And for the first time in almost a month, I had time to myself. Everyone in my dorms had gone to the quidditch pitch, even the girls.
Now was the perfect time to set up a plan. I unlocked the secret compartment in my trunk, setting aside my equipment to pull out my journal and the map of Hogwarts my father had given me.
Opening my journal, I looked over everything that I had already found out. I had managed to come up with a list of Potter's classes and when he had them, including an extra class that Snape, himself, was giving only to Potter. But I was surprised to overhear that it was a Legilmancy class.
Not many people can take the class because of the immense amount of mental stress it causes. I, myself, had only dabbled in it enough to pull small bits of unguarded information off the top of my victim's mind. I am however much more experienced in occulemeny because of my father. I always hated him searching through my mind, so I practiced the art until I could hide myself from him. He could do with me as he pleased, but my mind was my own.
I flipped the page and wrote, "First priority- kill Potter," in my tiny slanting cursive and sat back to look at it.
My first propriety was kill Potter, but I also needed information as per my father's instructions. Every antagonist has that downfall I believe, where they can't just go in and kill their enemies. My father's no different.
I can see you thinking right now that if I was going to kill him, I should just override my father and do it anyway (even though you don't want your precious Potter dead, but whatever), but you must all remember Potter is and always will be the only one who could withstand the Avada Kadvra. And Father had to know why the boy couldn't be killed by dark magic.
So priority two became get close to Potter. But how you say? Easy through his friends. Weasley was, at the time, to hotheaded and narrow minded to befriend. His Gryffindor loyalty blinded him from seeing anything but his friends and made him paranoid to anything outside his social norms.
So I would have to take my chances with the more levelheaded of the two, Granger. She was a cagey female, a little too much for my taste, and she was as Snape put it, a know-it-all. But underneath all those school robes, it wasn't hard to see she had a body on her.
And to tip the scales even farther to my advantage, I would alter the potion slightly to add me into their total trust. Each one would fall into my pocket with ease.
Last but not least was to extract the information. I don't think much more than an imagination is required for you to see where I am going with this one.
Pushing on, I began the particulars of my simple plan. The longest to come up with, but by far my most favorite part of any mission.
I worked for a little over an hour then put away most of the stuff to work on rewriting the potion for myself.
The original was not simple by any means, and could not just go adding myself into the equation where I wanted. Who knows where that could end up.
Using my hand, I opened my journal with the ancient rune I had placed there years ago. It was a mixture of the protection and incubus (Latin for evil spirit) runes. In other words a "protection from evil spirits", obviously to keep away prying eyes.
My journal was sacred to me. It was filled with all my own spells and plans for devices from protection to hexes to love potions. It was my life and it had taken my years to create it all. After working on billions of different things, I realized I could never get it all to fit into just one book, so I charmed the journal to hold everything and only show what I needed at the time. Every spare minute was devoted to my journal. It was my passion, my only love.
I flipped open the leather bond cover to the potion for Snape's class. It did not take long for me to realize that I was somehow going to have to slip my extra ingriedient into the original brew. With a two month brewing period and nowhere to make my own, I had to improvise.
Slip a hair in at just the right moment, say right before Potter was handed the glass, and I was in business.
"Hey Legion, you ready to go yet?"
I jumped, caught off guard for the first time in years. I had gotten so into what I was doing that I lost track of time.
"What are you working on?" Ivor asked, picking my journal up off the bed.
Shit!
"Nothing much." I said, trying not to sound anxious. I projected my need for a good hex at the journal.
"Whoa, where'd you get this?" He asked wide eyed.
"I made it." Well that was the truth.
"You made what?" Jadyn questioned as he walked into the room and set down his racing broom.
"This book," Ivor answered off handedly as he flipped through the pages. "It's full of stuff and every time I think of something else, it changes!"
Shit, Damn it, I should have known Ivor's mind was to random to hold one thought for long.
"Let me see it." Jadyn said taking it from the smaller boy.
"A fire and ice curse? Where did you get these?"
"I made those too."
"Oh really?" Jadyn's cynical smirk took on a mind of it's own. "And I wonder if he has any love spells in here…Oh well would you look at that, here they are…"
Both the other two looked at me with their evil little smirks, they had gotten just what they wanted.
"Give me that!" I made a jump for the book, but Jadyn quickly sidestepped.
"Throw it here," Ivor yelled to my roommate from the door. A quick toss and my journal was out the door.
The chase was on.
Our run through the hallways were quite loud and I quickly found out just how fast Ivor's little butt really was.
His small frame darted in and out of the crowds, and headed through the main doors to the lake with me hard on his heels.
When I hit the courtyard, the fresh breeze gave me a little refreshment from the crowdedness of the hallways. I burst into full speed, the lake coming into view and tackled the little bugger.
We both hit the ground like a sack of potatoes, but I rolled away with my journal in hand. Ivor was up a little slower than I was, but he was determined to not be outplayed.
Quickly I placed my wrist back on the cover, removing the charm. Just as I did I saw the fleeting movement of Ivor sneak behind me. Oh no not this time. I downed him with a low swift 360 kick, knocking his feet out from under him.
Behind me I heard laughter and turned to find Jadyn, Lyric, and our new guinea pigs laughing as Ivor hit the ground. Well all except for Granger. She didn't seem to find our rough housing amusing at all.
"Can we get on with this please?" She asked rolling her eyes.
"What's the matter, Granger. In a hurry?" Malfoy asked with a sneer.
"Oh shut up, ferret, nobody wants to hear your stupid crap!" Weasley shot at the Slytherin.
"Funny, Weasel Breath, you've never had any problem with listening to your own."
I watched as the trio of Gryffindors sparred with the Slytherin. It was actually quite funny, especially when Lyric put a silencing charm on them.
When they finally caught on that they couldn't speak anymore, the meeting really kicked in. The three Gryffindors red with anger and Malfoy pale with disgust.
"Now, now boys and girls let's not get carried away." Lyric said from his seat on the ground, "We have work to do, you can play later."
"Legion, do you have the potion with you?"
"Yeah, here." I handed the original copy to Jadyn.
"Ok, let's see, we're going to need a few things from you. First let's start with tears, and then we are going to need something that holds meaning to you..."
Granger was waving her hand wildly, pointing and trying to get Jadyn's attention.
Lyric smiled as he watched her and Ivor, less subtlety, burst into laughter.
"Take it off them," I said.
"Ok, Ok…Finite Incantatum."
All four of them sighed a breath of relief. Then Granger leapt into a series of questions about what we needed all these things for, her mouth going a hundred kilometers a minute.
"This is not going to work," Jadyn said low enough for only us to hear. "This is going to lead to another fight with Malfoy, and we'll just have to start all over again."
Sure enough as soon as the words left his mouth, Malfoy said something and then the fight started again.
"Look," I said," Let's each take one of them and get what we need that way."
"I get the girl," Ivor said automatically, with an appraising look at Granger.
"No," Jadyn said," You get Weasley, if you take the girl you won't stop flirting long enough to actually get the information. Legion gets Granger."
Perfect, I didn't even have to play that one out.
"That leaves Potter and Malfoy," He continued.
"Well I get Potter, I am not taking Malfoy. We would never get past my being a muggleborn if I did." Lyric said adamantly.
"Fine, I'll take the ferret."
"Good it's settled, Lyric shut them up again."
"I'd be happy to," he said and recast the charm.
With a look of utter disappointment, Jadyn gave the enemies a heavy sigh. "Ok we see that our original plan isn't working so now we are splitting you up…Malfoy you're with me, Weasley you're with Ivor, Potter with Lyric. And Granger with Legion." With a nod of his head he indicated who was paired with whom while he said this and then quite forcefully told them to separate.
The four looked a little stunned and slightly embarrassed; Malfoy plastered a look of indignation on his face to cover it.
Deciding that it would be better if the golden trio and the Slytherin couldn't see each other, I took Granger back inside, talking to her as I walked. Although just talking was hard to do with all her questions.
"Where are we going?"
"Just walking, now for the potion we are going to need some things from-,"
"We are not going to sit down?"
"No… Um, oh yeah we need to get some-"
"Well hold on a second then." Granger said stopping mid sentence. Pulling a quill from her bag, she cast a charm on it and a piece of parchment to write as we walked then with a smile she waved me on.
"Ok… we are going to need some things from you. The first is an object that has special meaning to you. And-,"
"Like what?"
I felt myself gritting my teeth so as not to snap at the girl, but really, she was starting to grate my nerves. "I don't know, a necklace someone gave you, or your first teddy bear. Just something you hold very dear to you."
Granger's eyebrows rose at my tone, then quickly sunk. "Anything else?" She sounded as if I had offended her, and I apologized.
"I also need a vial of your own tears, and I know this is going to sound weird, but I need you to actually have a deep emotional sadness when you cry them. Otherwise the potion will never work."
Granger said nothing, merely nodded. I guess it really isn't all that hard for a girl to cry over something…but then again I don't think I can really say anything can I?
"And the last thing we need for next time are a few of your memories. Just some of the smaller ones, so be thinking about which ones you won't mind sharing."
She was pretty silent, and it threw me for a loop. How could she be so loud and questioning one moment and silent and broody the next? What little experience I did have with girls made me hope that they weren't all that way.
I glanced at her and noticed she was looking at me and biting her lip in thought.
"What?"
She stopped walking and turned towards me. "Nothing… Are we finished, Um I mean, you know, do you need anything else from me this time?"
"No, we are pretty much done, so I guess I will –," I noticed she was staring at my eyes. "Ok what?"
Granger shook her head as if to shake away her thoughts, "I'm sorry… it is just that…where did you say you were from?"
"Durmstrang, why?"
Granger opened her mouth then snapped it shut and sighed. "Your just different is all."
"Different, different how?"
"From the other Durmstrang boys. Your accent, your attitude, everything. It's just odd I thought."
I didn't say anything for a minute because it was truthfully the first time anyone had ever had as much insight about me in such a short period of time. "Well I was born around here and grew up around here. My parents moved around a lot until I started school." Which was sort of true. I mean my mother and I moved from place to place when I was young, and then so did my father. Not that he ever took me with him, but then again I never said that he had.
Granger nodded, but she was still staring at me. "I'll see you later I'm sure," She said and then she was gone, walking hurriedly down the hall.
------
The next two weeks went by so slowly, I thought I would die. Lyric and I were nominated to go to Hogsmeade for the pensive, while Jadyn and Ivor stayed at Hogwarts to finish an essay they had both waited to long to start.
When Lyric and I returned we found Jadyn to be completely frustrated with himself, and Ivor listening to the stereo while he lay on the bed. He smiled when he saw us come in and asked if we had gotten the pensive for tonight's meeting with our guinea pigs.
"We found one," Lyric told him," but I had forgotten just how expensive these things really are."
I looked through the door and noticed Jadyn marking out whatever sentence he had just written, and asked, "Did you finish your essay?"
"I bet he hasn't even started." Lyric said sarcastically.
"Oh you know me so well." The other boy answered from the bed as he nodded to the sound of the music.
Knitting my eyebrows, I looked at the stream lined silver box covered in buttons. "Isn't that a muggle invention? I thought they didn't work in magical areas, especially Hogwarts."
"Well it is a muggle radio, but we fixed it to run off of the same magic as your wand."
"Sort of, more like we got Jadyn to make us an energy source from the same materials as a wand."
"Wands don't have magic in them. They are only conduits that pull the magic from the wizard in a safe form. That's why younger wizards aren't allowed to do wandless magic until they are older and know better how to control it."
"Like I said, it works the same with our energy source. Only it takes the magic from whoever turns it on, and runs the entire system that way. It took us years to figure it out."
"Smart."
Lyric pulled the pensive from his bag and laid it on the table between the two boy's beds. Ivor stared at it for a bit, "I wonder what they are going to put in there?"
"I don't know, probably the same thing, we put in there?"
We? What did he mean we?
"We have to put some in too?"
"Yeah Jadyn thought it would be better if we added ourselves into this whole potion thing."
"Actually," Jadyn entered the room," It was Malfoy who thought it would be a good idea. He says that he refuses to take anything until he knows it is safe, and when I told him he could just shove it, our dear old professor Dumbledore appeared from nowhere as usual. He said he had spoken with Snape and McGonagall and he wants us to take it as well. So how does everyone feel about becoming best friends with the slimy git and upping their social status with the golden trio?"
Audible sighs sounded around the room, and Lyric picked up the pensive. "Well here goes nothing." He took up his wand and pulled a long string of silvery memory from himself and tapped it into the pensive. When he was finished, he pushed the device closer to Ivor and said, "Your turn."
For a few moments, Ivor sat motionless, obviously thinking about what memory he was going to add, then quickly pulled a long silvery thread into the bowl as well.
As I watched I tried to come up with a memory that would suffice for the pensive, but what could I use? It couldn't have my father in it, or my mother's death. It couldn't be of when I stayed at Malfoy's, so what?
I watched as Jadyn tapped his memories into the pensive, and all heads turned towards me. I felt myself move forward, still unsure what to use, an d looked down into the silver liquid that sat tranquilly before me.
I bit a the inside of my cheek as I mulled what to use, flashing through memories of my training, of the first time I ever met my father, and of all the things he made me do. None of them could possibly work.
Farther back, I pushed for something that wouldn't give me away, but that was happy as well. And then I found it. My mother in the kitchen of our apartment in London. She was making breakfast, her white apron was spotted with bacon grease and egg yolk, and her hair glowed in the morning sunlight. I remembered that it was only a few hours before she died, and she looked beautiful.
I could feel tears welling in the back of my eyes and I held them long enough to tap the memory into the pensive.
It hurt to watch the others look at her, but there was nothing I could do. I walked away as soon as it was finished, into my room. I picked up one of the vials that was to be used for the potion and held it to my eye, letting the salty tears fall into it before the other boys followed me.
In the other room, I heard my roommates shuffling towards me and I quickly capped the vial. Checking my eyes and wiping them before anyone could enter.
They said nothing to me, even though I could tell they knew what I had been doing. They just picked up their things and walked out the door in silence, never pushing me for answers or acting like something had happened.
I think it was that day, I realized that for the first time in my life I had friends. Real friends.
-----------
A/N: ok I know this isn't what some of you meant by more Hermione action when you reviewed. But I am trying to do this slowly. Hermione is no whore, and Legion is on a mission. It can't happen instantaneously.
And Again I am extremely sorry about how long this update has taken me, but like I said college is kicking my butt. I am trying to do better, but I had to blow off Western Civ homework just to type this up.
So I hope I get at least a few reviews off this new chapter. Please guys