Just before midnight of October 16
"Rin..." A voice says.
"Rin." I hear the voice beside me, a slight jostling as I begin to stur.
"Rin. You need to get up. We have Astrology to get to." The voice continues, the jostling getting harder and more urgent. My eyes finally flickering open as I awake with a groan.
"Wh-what?" I question, letting out a yawn and groan, my body incredibly sore as I sit up and stretch.
Looking around I see Daphne gathering her Astrology notes and books over by her bed, with Tracey right next to me, having been the one that was shaking and trying to wake me up.
Tracey looks me up and down for a moment before commenting, "Wow Rin. Didja get into a fight yesterday?" Her words confusing me for a moment before yesterdays events come back to me. The finding the Room of Requirement, to running from the Horcrux controlling a giant pile of junk, narrowly escaping with mg life.
"Uhh... kinda?" I respond with, making both Tracey and Daphnes eyes widen, shrugging slightly and wincing from the motion. Looks like I hit my shoulder harder then I thought yesterday.
Tracey and Daphne notice my wince and Daphne asks urgently, "Really Rin?! Who was it? And do you need to go see Madam Pomfrey?" She bombards me with questions, to my delight.
I also see Tracey lightly chuckle and give me a thumbs up. "Good job Rin." She says, Daphne looking back at her with a glare.
"Its fine really." I tell them, slowly managing to get out of bed, with some difficulty. "Though I do need to talk to Professor Sinistra about it. Possibly the Headmaster as well with how dangerous it probably is." I say, making my way to my trunk and grabbing my stuff from it, making sure I have everything necessary.
Daphne and Tracey looking at me concerned before they each grab ahold of me by the arms, keeping their arms looped through mine and forcibly dragging me off to class, not letting me have to use much effort myself. "Even so Rin. You shouldn't be overexerting yourself." Daphne tells me forcefully.
"Ya, like, let us help out for a bit." Tracey jumps in telling me.
I click my tongue at their actions but am too weak and sore to do anything about, so I instead poke fun at them.
"You know Tracey, if you wanted to hold me all you had to do was ask." I teasingly say to Tracey, making her sputter and deny my words.
"N-no! That'd be, like, weird Rin!" She chastises me, her face now red in embarrassment instead, causing Daphne to giggle lightly on my other side.
[10 Affection with Tracey Davis]
Woah. Thats the largest Affection I've gained with Tracey ever. I wonder why my words had that kinda effect. Will have to think on that later.
"And Daph, I never woulda taken you to be so forceful. Its a rousing experience I must say." My words directed towards Daphne this time, her face impassively looking forwards but with a slight smirk on her face as she digests my words.
"Dad always tells me I have ways of getting what I want." She says in response, apparently agreeing with me instead of any sort of embarrassment. Touché this time.
The two of them continue dragging / leading me along the corridors until we finally reach the Astrology classroom. Daphne and Tracey helping me into my seat which everyone else can see, some of them muttering to themselves on why that is, causing my face to erupt red in embarrassment at the situation.
"Everything ok Miss Fraener?" Professor Sinistra asks, coming over after seeing me. "If you're not feeling well I can excuse you for today and have your friends deliver any notes they have to you." She says as well, ready to help her favorite student as much as she can.
"N-no I'm ok Professor. I do need to speak to you after class though if thats ok?" Asking in response, hoping that we can get class going and deal with this afterwards. Thankfully Professor Sinistra seems to understand and nods at me before moving towards the center of class.
"Alright class! I want everyone to open their textbooks to the chapter on Saturn." She instructs everyone, the bustling of everyone following the instruction filling the room. "We're going to begin going over other planets in the solar system now that we've mostly covered Jupiter. Saturn by extension is a simpler and overall easier subject to detail and I expect everyone to pick this up quicker." She remarks, leaving no room for argument.
Professor Sinistra then waves her wand towards the ceiling, causing a large diorama of Saturn to lower down. The planet spinning quickly with the rings following suit, the detail of the diorama clearly showing the rings made entirely of ice chunks.
"You'll notice, I hope, that instead of Saturns rings being solid masses, they instead consist of ice chunks sitting within its gravitational forces being spun alongside it. Saturn also has a much faster spin to it then our Earth does, meaning that one day on there is roughly 10-11 hours here on Earth." She explains onwards, waving her wand to make different parts of the diorama to light up when describing them.
Seems like ever since I started showing interest in Astrology she's become a bit more animated in her classes. Should make it even easier to get those last bits of her Affection maxed and find out what I'll get for that.
"It is similar to Jupiter and the other outer planets in being entirely made up of various gases, most of which are theorized to be poisonous if breathed in." She continues, her lecture getting more and more passionate as each of us focus on her words and writes down our notes for future reviews.
Eventually Professor Sinistra's class ends and students begin filing out. Me, Daphne and Tracey staying behind afterwards so I can speak to her about what happened to me.
"Now Miss Fraener," Professor Sinistra says upon us being the only ones still here. "What happened that left you obviously not feeling well and needing to speak to me about?" She asks, a concerned look on her face.
Shuffling my feet for a moment I then answer, "Well Professor... I was... kind of attacked yesterday. By a giant pile of junk." I say, to all of theirs incredulous shock. Ya thats kinda what I expected to be honest.
"A... pile of junk?" Professor Sinistra asks in response, very much not understanding what I mean.
"Y-ya... I found a room yesterday after our discussion in the Headmasters office." I begin explaining. "Its filled with lots of different things like books, brooms, clothes, furniture, that kinda stuff. And as I was looking through all of it I felt something dark off in the distance coming towards me," I keep explaining, "It was a tiara, or something similar to that, and it was controlling the junk pile to move towards me very quickly. I almost wasn't able to make it out of there but I managed to hit the tiara with a Diffindo spell and make my escape." I stop as I notice all of their eyes widen in surprise at the information.
Professor Sinistra suddenly stops me, saying, "That'll be enough Miss Fraener. I think it'd be better if we take this to the Headmaster." She begins hurriedly collecting herself, gesturing towards Daphne and Tracey as she tells them. "You two go ahead and leave while I take care of this."
"B-but Professor-!" Both of them try and interrupt but are quickly shut down by Professor Sinistra. "No. This is to be handled by me and the Headmaster. If Rin is able to tell the two of you afterwards will be decided later. Now you two head off while this is taken care of." She books no argument with either of them and shoos them both out of the classroom, turning to me afterwards and gesturing towards the fireplace connected to the far wall.
"I don't believe you've travelled by Floo before have you Miss Fraener?" Professor Sinistra asks rhetorically, walking me towards the fireplace and handing me a sack of what I now realize is Floo powder. "Normally this doesn't work in Hogwarts but the Headmaster recently connected each of the professors offices to his in case of an emergency. All you need to do is step into the fireplace and say where you wish to go, in this case you'll say Headmasters Office, then toss the Floo powder down and you'll be transported to said place." She finishes explaining, gesturing for me to go ahead and do so.
Grabbing a handful of the powder I step into the fireplace, then saying louldy, "Headmaster's Office." And throwing the Floo powder down beneath my feet, erupting into emerald green fire and the feeling of being pulled down a drain pipe taking hold. The sensation traveling throughout my entire body as I see what appear to be multiple other fireplaces zoom by at extreme speeds before I suddenly tumble out of another fireplace.
"Hello there Miss Fraener, I didn't realize we had another meeting today." I shake myself as I climb back up onto my feet, seeing Headmaster Dumbledore sitting at his desk with a book in his hands. Apparently I've interrupted his reading in the early early morning.
"Y-ya, we don't." I admit to him, before explaining why I'm here. "I was just telling Professor Sinistra about getting attacked yesterday and she ushered me through the fireplace so we can speak to you." As I'm explaining things to Dumbledore I then hear and feel the rush of heat as Professor Sinistra steps out of the fireplace herself.
"Headmaster we may have an issue." She says, stepping up in front of his desk. "Miss Fraener here says she was attacked by a pile of junk being controlled by a tiara in some secret room yesterday, after she talked to us about her heritage." She finishes saying, gesturing for me to take over explaining.
Stepping forward to the front of the desk as well I then begin telling Dumbledore about it in better detail. "After leaving here Headmaster, I came across a room on the seventh floor that I had overheard a couple of older years talking about before. They had talked about how the room could turn into anything you wanted and so I figured I could try it myself." I stop for a moment to look at their faces and they gesture to continue.
"Well I had wondered if there was a lost and found type of room there that it could turn into and there actually was. Once I got inside I found a massive space with giant piles of junk dotting the place, as if people had been throwing stuff in here for decades at least." I gesture my hands up as if to show the size of these piles. "I found some books, brooms, different kinds of clothes, even some money, and as I was looking at all of it I could feel something dark wash over me and when I turned to look there was a junk pile rumbling towards me. I turned and ran, using one of the brooms to get away and noticed that the junk pile was being controlled by a tiara of some kind on top. I barely got away by hitting the tiara with a Diffindo spell at the last minute before it could touch me." My voice quivering just at the end of explanation. Looks like the thought of being controlled by Voldemort is still able to rankle me.
Dumbledore and Professor Sinistra sit there for a moment watching me and giving each other glances before he then speaks up. "Miss Fraener, are you absolutely sure it was a... tiara of some sort?" He asks, his voice uncertain.
"Absolutely." I answer back, keeping eye contact with him.
Dumbledore sighs and stands from his chair, me and Professor Sinistra doing so as well.
"Can you take us there Miss Fraener? I would like to dispose of this dark object as quickly as possible so that no other students are attacked as well." He asks me, making his way to the staircase out his office, me and Professor Sinistra following after.
Following along after the Headmaster I answer his question. "I can, but..." My voice trailing off as I wonder if I should ask about keeping the stuff inside.
"Is there an issue Miss Fraener?" He asks, seeing my hesitation after answering.
"W-well um... Headmaster, would it be ok if I could have the non-dark stuff in the room?" Managing to force the question out at his urging. The Headmaster humming in thought at my question as we continue to make our way towards the seventh floor.
"That depends Miss Fraener." Headmaster Dumbledore begins, "If this object is truly dangerous then everything inside will need to be checked to make sure there are no others like it. But I am willing to let you go through the safe items afterwards and keep a few things if you so desire." He finishes saying just as we round the corner to the corridor where the room is, and am surprised to see Professor Snape there waiting as well.
"Dumbledore. What is so urgent that you needed me to come here so early?" Professor Snape asks in a quite irritated voice, his foot tapping repeatedly after addressing the Headmaster.
"Ah Severus, thank you for joining us. Miss Fraener here encountered a dark object in a hidden room and after explaining herself to myself and Professor Sinistra we decided to come take care of this quickly. I figured your expertise may be needed as well so I decided to have you join us as well." Dumbledore explains, a knowing glint in his eye as he turns away and looks at me. "Now Miss Fraener, if you could show us the room you found." He says, gesturing for me to take over.
I audibly gulp and nod, making my way in front of them and turning back. "If uh... you all could step away for a moment. The room only appears with one person doing the motions." Sinistra, and Dumbledore give a nod and smile before stepping off to the side, while Snape just scowls but follows along.
Seeing them do so I begin walking back and forth in front of the rooms location, making sure to imagine the lost and found room appearing, and as always, the room then appears. An ornate doorway having formed on the wall and the Professors come back over at seeing it appear.
"My, I'm always astounded to see new things in this castle." Dumbledore mutters, to himself I imagine, and he proceeds to open the door, the rest of us following inside.
We are greeted by the multitudes of towering piles of junk, each one looking almost identical to how I left them yesterday. The Professors and Headmaster looking around in amazement at some of the items lying around. "Remarkable. Some of these could definitely be useful around the school." Dumbledore remarks, grabbing a book of a nearby bookcase.
"There even seem to be some potions left in here that you can look over Severus." Professor Sinistra says, looking over a crate of potions I hadn't grabbed before leaving.
Professor Snape makes his way over and inspects the potions as well, giving his thoughts on them. "Hmm, if these are what they seem to be then it certainly explains some of the complaints I've heard from students about the potions they were brewing over holidays going missing. I'd guess another student put it in here as a prank or a house elf did so thinking it was left behind."
As we're going over the different objects in here, with me swiping what smaller things I can into my inventory, I faintly pick up that same dark presence off in the distance with my Mana Sensing. I spin to face its direction catching the attention of Professors Sinistra and Snape, Dumbledore having already sensed it as well and was watching it come towards us from afar.
"Aurora, stay close to Miss Fraener. Severus, with me. We'll be containing this thing and work to destroy it afterwards." Dumbledore hastily commands both Professors, both of whom obey quickly. Professor Sinistra guiding me back towards the doorway in case we need to leave while Dumbledore and Snape are setting up defensive spells in preparation.
The junk surging forwards towards us finally makes it, crashing down into the defenses set up, causing the barrier to light up. Dumbledore and Snape brandishing their wands as they begin to combat it.
"Severus! Is it just me or does this thing feel similar to Voldemort?" I hear the Headmaster asking, his wand releasing a blast of energy to disperse the junk in a variety of directions.
Professor Snape, blasting the objects away as well, responds, "I agree, it has his disgustingly dark signature about it. You wouldn't happen to know what its doing here do you?" He asks in return.
Dumbledore hums for a moment in thought as he bats away another much smaller junk pile trying to come closer. "I can't say for sure. I'll have to look more into it after we're through here." Dumbledore then sends out a monumental blast of magic out towards the tiara atop the largest of the junk piles.
The tiara is blown off backwards briefly as the two of them begin casting restraining spells over and around it. Shields made of energy, ropes, chains, and other forms of restraints pile on until finally, the tiara is bound to the floor. Clattering loudly to the floor still shaking within its restraints as it tries to escape.
Me and Professor Sinistra make our way closer alongside Snape and Dumbledore, watching as it constantly tries to force its way past its bindings. As we come closer Dumbledore speaks up.
"My, this seems to be the lost diadem of Ravenclaw. I never would have thought something like this would've been hiding in here." He says, reaching down and picking up the bound diadem. Its struggling becoming more erratic and desperate in response.
"Come everyone. We'll go back to my office to address this. And Severus, if you could grab Professors McGonagall and Flitwick as well. I may need their expertise alongside yours to destroy the dark taint covering the diadem." Dumbledore tells Professor Snape.
Professor Snape nods to Dumbledore as we exit the Lost and Found Room. His face stern and passive as he turns and leaves down the halls.
The rest of us make our way back to his office and sit at his desk, the diadem placed off to the side, shaking slightly occasionally, as Dumbledore addresses me.
"Now then Miss Fraener, I must sincerely thank you for bringing this to my attention. Who knows what kind of evil things this tainted diadem could have caused had it managed to grab a student." He sighs for a moment, apparently unsure of something. "And speaking of allowing you to have the items in there I must reiterate that once the Professors and I have had time to go through all of it then I'll allow you to take a few things yourself. Believe me we do need to make sure there aren't any other dark objects lying around in there." He finishes by then telling me, "And in regards to your friends, assuming they'll be asking about this, then just tell them there was a rogue bludger in there and that it had been cursed to attack anyone who went in, I don't wish to cause a panic with other students alright?"
I nod to the Headmaster and stand up from the chair, ready to be dismissed back to my room. "I will Headmaster. And um... if its not too much to ask, when you all go through and check everything in there, could I at the very least keep any money found inside? That way I can pay for stuff outside of school if I need to." I ask, trying not to look either the Headmaster or Professor Sinistra in the eyes.
I hear Dumbledore chuckling before he answers, "I don't see a problem with that Miss Fraener. I understand that life outside of Hogwarts can be difficult without money." He say, waving me off and out the door just as a knock is heard, Professors Snape, Flitwick, and McGonagall all stepping inside.
"Ah thank you for coming Professors." Dumbledore says as I step past each of them and out the door, making my down the stairs and back into the corridor.
"Ok Rin," I say to myself now that I'm alone, running down the hall back towards the Room. "Lets hurry Rin, and grab as much as possible before they get back again!" I slam the door into the Lost and Found room open and clamber inside, and start throwing a lot more of the random items inside my Inventory.
The books are my first priority, grabbing each and every one and tossing them into my Inventory for later research. Surprisingly, I hear a ding from one of the books, a familiar screen appearing in front of me as I hold the book.
[Skill Book Acquired]
[Skill Book: Rune Magic]
[Rune Magic: The practice of utilizing Ancient Runes to achieve effects in the world]
[Runes given through this Skill Book]
[Fehu: Compels to perform an action]
[Ansuz: Allows for viewing through an object]
[Wunjoy: Generates happiness]
[Isaz: Freezes an object]
[Arhain: Hides an object from the senses]
[Would Player like to learn this skill?]
[Yes/No]
I immediately click Yes and am greeted by the same sensation of pain through my head as the Skill Book disappears. Great, now I can practice using Runes when I have the time. Not sure how useful each will be with how limited their abilities seem to be.
After dealing with that I continue putting stuff into my Inventory for the next 2 hours. A multitude of other forms of clothing, and potions being the next priority for me. Finally only stopping once another screen pops up in front of me.
[Hidden Quest Cleared]
[Hidden Quest: Remove and destroy the Horcrux in Ravenclaw's Diadem hidden in the Room of Requirement]
[Secret Objective: Achieve this by yourself]
[Reward: Increased EXP] [Failed]
[Secret Objective: Do so without taking damage]
[Reward: 1 Gacha Coin] [Cleared]
[Rewards: 1,000,000 EXP, Player can choose 1 Perk from the Perk Shop, 5 Gacha Coins]
The suddenness of the Quest completion catching me off guard before I then feel the constant EXP hitting me all at once. An uneasy sensation beginning to hit me as I see the screens pop up.
[Level Up! x 125]
[625 Stat Points gained]
[6 Gacha Coins obtained]
[Please choose 1 Perk from the Perk Shop]
[Perk gained for reaching Level 50: Experience Booster: Increased Experience gain from defeated foes]
[Perk gained for reaching Level 100: Natural Growth: Player chooses 1 Stat. Every week that Stat will gain 1 Stat Point]
[Please choose Stat for Natural Growth]
[For reaching Level 100, Player now gets 3 Level Points every Level Up]
I lurch forwards as the sudden growths happening to me. The extreme experience gain feeling both incredibly pleasurable but also excruciatingly painful throughout my body, causing me to vomit onto the floor in front of me.
"Huuurrghe!" The nauseas bile erupting from my mouth as I heave onto the floor. My body wracked with good and bad sensations as I try and calm down, breathing deeply as I slowly climb back up to my feet, wobbling quite a bit as I do so.
"Fuck. That sucked a lot." I mutter to myself, wiping my mouth off with my sleeve. Looking at each of the new screens that popped up I try to decide what to do next.
"Well for Natural Growth, I guess since Luck is the only one I can't put Stat Points into I guess I choose that." I tell the Game, figuring that'll be the best choice for the moment.
[Natural Growth: Luck]
[Luck will gain 1 Stat Point every week]
Happy at that I then look at my other reward. To pick any Perk from the Perk Shop. An absolute unit of a reward and I can't even fathom which one I should pick.
"Level." I say aloud, bringing up my Level screen fullyto choose something worthwhile.
[Player Level: 143]
[Level Points: 318]
[Perk Shop]
Holy shit. I've got a lot of Level Points now.
"Ok Rin, one thing at a time. Just pick the free one first and get outta here before anyone else gets here." I quickly open the Perk Shop and start scrolling through, looking for the most expensive but useful one I can find.
[Pioneer of the Stars]
[Savant]
[Greater Immunity]
[Magic Lord]
[Void Touched]
[Myth]
[Superhuman]
[Umbral Star]
These are the best ones I can find available to me right now. Now which to pick is the question.
Pioneer of the Stars sounds good in theory but doesn't really explain what it does.
Savant is just plain good no matter the situation. Can't go wrong with triple exp gain for all skills.
Greater Immunity is good if I was going to be dealing with elements a lot but otherwise is kinda meh.
Magic Lord is great for this world. But I could also just buy it with how much cheaper it is.
Void Touched is cool sounding but I don't think I'd be able to get away with the killing others for their Skills part of it.
Myth is great but doesn't provide much in the way of immediate usefulness like the others. Is more of a very long term benefit.
Superhuman is broken good but this is Harry Potter, so who in their right mind is going to use physical abilities all the time?
And Umbral Star is great but its best abilities come from waging war against civilizations. Not gonna be happening.
Well it seems like I already know what the best one to grab is.
"Game, give me the Savant Perk." I tell the Game, figuring that triple exp gain on skills is going to always be useful.
[Savant Perk Acquired]
[Triples EXP gain for all Skills]
There we go, now to get on outta here before any of the Professors find me here when I shouldn't be.
I quickly but sneakily make my way out of the Lost and Found Room, grabbing a little more money along the way.
"Now lets use those Gacha Coins I got." Pulling up the Gacha wheel. "Use 6 Gach Coins." I tell the Game, watching as all 6 coins disappear and the wheel begins spinning.
[Basilisk Hide Gloves Acquired]
[Gloves made of Basilisk Hide. Provides extreme resistance to all magic]
[Plastic Zombie Halloween Mask]
[A Halloween Mask depicting a zombie face]
[Noble Phantasm: Coat of Oaths]
[The Noble Phantasm of Okita Souji of the Shinsengumi. Improves all Stats by 10% when worn]
[Unicorn Hair Socks]
[A pair of socks made of Unicorn Hair. Incredibly soft and always clean]
[Skill Book: Barbatos' Vision]
[Barbatos' Vision: Rank MAX: Active Skill: The Great Demon Barbatos' eye. It has a field of view that can extend up to 10 kilometers away]
[Requirements: 100 Intelligence, 100 Wisdom, Demonic Attribute Perk]
[Rainbow Potato]
[A potato consisting of 7 different flavors]
A smattering of useful and odd items it seems. I decide to leave everything in my Inventory until later as I'm getting close to where I need to be.
Finally heading back towards the Slytherin Common Room and then my dorm, seeing Daphne and Tracey in there once I arrive.
"Daph, Tracey. You're not gonna believe what happened~."
Hello everyone~ sorry for the late update! Updated my phone and apparently most of this chapter hadn't been saved so wound up having to rewrite a majority of it once again after I finished getting over that clusterfuck.
Was quite the exciting chapter wasn't it? Got to see a massive increase in Level for Rin but just to assuage your alls concerns about that. Remember, that was a piece of Voldemort and should absolutely give stupid amounts of experience. As well as the fact that with how much it gave, imagine how strong the actual Voldemort is? Should give you guys an idea with how strong each of the Professors, Death Eaters, Dumbledore and Voldemort are and what we'll see once they all begin to become more important to the plot then they are now. We're also going to be jumping through time a bit more often from here on out, really want to get through these early years so we can get to the bigger more important parts of the story.
Anyways~ how you all enjoying things so far? Any questions, comments, concerns about things so far? Ideas you might want to see implemented? Feel free to leave a review or send a pm!
Enjoy your pokemon you broken armpits~ Caenis out~!