Disclaimer - Do I look like J.K. Rowling? I didn't think so. Therefore, with that conjecture, it is best to assume that I do not own the original characters of Harry Potter that are portrayed within this story.
Wolf's Bane II: Return to Hogwarts
Chapter 16
Down the Road of Life…
"Bloody hell, Hermione! She wants an essay. Not a life history on each one of the Founders!" Ron said, taking a good look at the piles of parchment and books that were almost hiding the teenage girl on the table as he and Harry walked into the library. Hermione just glanced up at them, quirked an eyebrow, and neglected to say anything. Harry and Ron sat down in the two chairs that weren't piled head high with dusty, leather covered tomes. Ron snickered when Hermione let an exasperated sigh escape, and he looked over at Harry with a smirk. "How much you want to bet she over does this one?"
"I heard that, Ronald." Hermione muttered, glancing up at the gangly red-head for a split second before returning to work. "It would do you good to get started on this assignment so you're not rushing at the last minute."
"Professor Lee hasn't even assigned the paper yet." Ron reminded her. "We've got time."
"I've heard that one before." Ginny said, snickering. Harry silently agreed with Ginny's attitude. Knowing Ron, it would be the night before the essay was due, and he still wouldn't have it finished. The be-speckled boy glanced at the pile of books closest to Hermione, noting that they didn't have the same call numbers as the others surrounding them.
"These are the books Professor Lee lent you?" he asked, grabbing the nearest one and flipping it open to a random page.
"Yes. They have information that I haven't been able to find anywhere else." Hermione said absently. "I'm surprised she managed to get a copy of them, actually. A couple of them are first edition books that have not been reprinted in centuries." Harry nodded, not really paying all that much attention to the curly headed witch as she babbled on about the books.
The Founders of Hogwarts were the greatest and most powerful wizards and witches of their time. Each of them housed immense amounts of natural magic and talents. It is a well known fact that Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth. But a fact that is less well known is that Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw also possessed innate talents. Gryffindor was an Animagus, and took the form of a lion while under the influence of the spell. Helga Hufflepuff also had a talent that was based around Transfiguration. The Hufflepuff House founder was one of the first recorded Metamorphagus. Lastly, Ravenclaw was believed to have the blood of a true Seer running through her veins. However, there has been no concrete evidence to support this assumption.
Harry reread the passage again, a bit surprised to find out that all of the Founders had such rare gifts. Of course, it shouldn't have come as that much of a surprise. After all, the Founders were considered the most powerful wizards and witches of their time. And even to the current day, Harry had never heard of anyone actually being compared to any of them. Granted, Voldemort may have been a direct descendent of Slytherin, but Harry had never heard their names compared side by side.
'Something for him to strive for.' Harry thought glumly, flipping to another page in the book.
'One of the many legends surrounding Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and consequently the land it was built on, is the placement of four treasures hidden by the Founders before their deaths. Each treasure is said to reside in the rooms that one time belonged to the Founders. However, the only mention of a possible chamber hidden within the school is the fictitious Chamber of Secrets that Slytherin supposedly built before leaving the school.'
"Fictitious?" Harry said, a scowl on his face. "This thing needs to be updated."
"Saw that part, did you?" Ginny asked. Harry looked up at the red-head and tried to calm down. "I read it too."
"Read what?" Ron asked.
"About the fictitious Chamber of Secrets." Harry said, shutting the book and piling it next to Hermione, who was still furiously scribbling on her parchment.
"Oh."
"You must remember that no one could find the Chamber for centuries." Hermione said absently.
"We didn't have much of a problem finding it." Ginny chimed in, a dead look on her face.
"No, of course not." Ron muttered. "It was just the dirty great snake that was in it that caused the problems."
"You don't think the other Founders left something like the basilisk where their quarters used to be, do you?" Harry asked, fingering another large tome.
"Unlikely. If they had, there would be a record of it. Or at least another legend." Hermione said, shuffling her papers. Harry nodded, thinking much along the same lines as his friend. Across from him, Ginny was staring out the window, an unreadable expression on her face. He had no doubts that she was replaying what had happened her first year, and how she had been used by the diary of Tom Riddle to open the so called factitious Chamber of Secrets. He also had no doubts that she still had nightmares about what had happened, and how she had been dragged down into the Chamber.
He still had nightmares about it. Luckily though, Ginny had been fine since that night she had woken up screaming at Haven's Hallow the week before school started. Hermione hadn't said anything about Ginny suffering from nightmares again, so everything seemed well on that front.
It was bad enough Voldemort wanted to prance around his head at ungodly hours of the day and night. There was no need for Ginny to suffer as well.
Harry began to pull his own notes and books from his pack, knowing that it would be prudent to get at least a little homework done before dinner time. It was five weeks into term, and it seemed like McGonagall had loaded them down with enough homework to last until Christmas. And he still had to get with the remaining Quidditch team members to hash out a possible practice schedule. The young man was about halfway through one of McGonagall's monstrous essays when a familiar face entered into the library and disappeared behind the shelves, only to reappear a few minutes later, Latin dictionary in hand. The blonde man spotted them easily and walked over, a grin on his face.
"Hello, ladies and gents." Mr. Robbins said cheerfully, tipping an imaginary hat to them. "What are you fine people doing this lovely evening?"
"Homework." Ron mumbled while simultaneously trying to peek over at Hermione's Transfiguration assignment.
"I hope you've finished Professor Flitwick's work already. It's due tomorrow, you know." the blonde man said.
"That's the only assignment they've finished this week." Hermione mumbled beneath her breath. Mr. Robbins looked down at her and grinned, taking a quick peek at what she was working on.
"The Founders?" he asked, reaching for the top page of Hermione's essay. "Is this for Dr. Lee?"
"Yes, sir."
"She hasn't even assigned this yet." Mr. Robbins mumbled. Ron snickered and Hermione flushes at hearing a teacher repeat Ron's words.
"I just wanted to get started early." the curly headed witch said.
"Well, good work, Ms. Granger. And good luck with your research. I'm sure Dr. Lee will be pleased with the results." he said.
"So what are you doing in here, Professor?" Ginny asked. "I thought Professor Flitwick had a class at this hour?"
"Ahh, I'm working on something for Dr. Lee, and needed a dictionary since I'm about as fluent in Latin as I am in Troll." he said, scratching his head embarrassingly.
"What is it?" Harry asked. Mr. Robbins looked hesitant to tell them, and Harry wondered if he was going to refuse to say anything at all. But the blonde man snagged a chair from a nearby table and sat down, tossing a small stack of parchments onto the table. The four teens at the table each grabbed one and unrolled it.
"Some excerpts from those journals Tonks managed to lift from 12 Grimmauld Place." he said quietly, not wanting to draw attention from the few other students scattered around the library. "Most of them are so old that we can't make a lick of sense out of them. Then some of them are written like riddles that seem nonsensical. And the ones that are left have Latin phrases thrown in the mix." Mr. Robbins leaned back in his seat and frowned. "Seems like this Draven Black character was a right mess in the head, if you know what I mean."
"Looks like it." Harry said, glancing over the parchment in his hand. The transcribed words were littered with phrases that he didn't recognize. "How many of these are…."
"These are name riddles." Hermione said suddenly, causing Mr. Robbins to glance over at her in surprise.
"Come again, Ms. Granger?" he asked.
"Name riddles." she repeated. She placed the parchment down on the table and pointing to a line about halfway down the scribbled notes. "'She is the Sister of Fate, Doom, Sleep and Strife. With gnashing teeth and a thirst for blood, she watches over as men as they forfeit their life.' These are descriptions of people."
"Real people?" Ron asked.
"I doubt it. Unless whoever they are referring to was really ugly and hated their siblings." Mr. Robbins said.
"'He who is a craterous of Minos, and the giver of justice in the island. He, the brabeuta of the underworld, who shall not die, and will be the one we stand before in morte before we are admitted to the Elysium.'" Ginny read quietly. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Minos was supposedly a king of Crete before the Trojan War." Hermione mumbled absently. "He had two brothers, Sarpedon and…. I can't remember the other one."
"How does she know this stuff?" Mr. Robbins asked, looking over at Ron and Harry with a completely perplexed look on his face.
"We've been trying to figure it out for years." Ron said, shaking his head.
"Do you mind if I keep this, Mr. Robbins?" Hermione asked, looking up at the man. The assistant Charms professor shrugged and used his wand to duplicate the parchment before handing one back to the girl.
"Have at it, Hermione. Good luck." he said genially. "If you do happen to figure it out, bring it to Dr. Lee."
"Okay." she said, nodding absently before looking over at Harry as if she'd just remembered something important. "I almost forgot. Harry, didn't you want to ask about starting up the Dueling Club again this year?"
"Yeah, I did." Harry said. The black headed boy looked at Mr. Robbins. "Do you think you could talk to Professor Flitwick about starting it up again?"
"When was the last time you had a Dueling Club?" Mr. Robbins asked.
"My first year. And it didn't last past one meeting." Ginny pointed out. Mr. Robbins seemed thoughtful, but nodded.
"I'll see what I can do about it, kiddies." he said, rising from his spot and gathering the parchments and dictionary he'd taken from the shelf. "Professor Flitwick shouldn't mind. And I can oversee it if he doesn't have the time."
"Dr. Lee has been letting us practice the spells we learn in Defense Against the Dark Arts." Harry said. "Some of those could come in handy if the Headmaster allows you to head the Dueling Club."
"Yes, she always did believe in a hands on approach to something like dueling. That old lady taught me more defensive charms that you would think." Mr. Robbins said ruefully.
"She taught you?"
"A little." Mr. Robbins said, grinning. "She also taught me some important rules."
"Rules? Dueling has rules?" Ron asked.
"Yep." Ailric said, giving them a broad wink. "There are two major rules in dueling. The first is that incoming fire always has the right of way."
"And the second?" Ginny asked, giving the older man a cheeky grin.
"Some men are alive simply because it is against the law to kill them." Mr. Robbins replied, casting an evil look towards Madame Pince's desk, where Snape was dropping off two rather large books. The surly Potions professor's gaze landed squarely on them, and his usual scowl seemed to intensify ten fold before he turned and walked out the library.
"I'll agree with that." Ron muttered, seeing where his teacher's gaze had landed. "That old bat….."
"Anyhow, I'll be leaving you kiddies to your work. Gotta report back to Professor Flitwick for his next class." Mr. Robbins said, only to grimace. "Gotta teach the first years about levitation charms."
"Try not to blow anything up." Ron grinned.
"Duly noted, good sir." Mr. Robbins said cheerfully, waving them off as he walked towards Madame Pince's desk to check out the dictionary. Harry noticed that the beady eyed old librarian was giving the newest Hogwarts assistant professor her usual evil glare as she checked out the thick book.
"You think he'll be able to get Flitwick to okay the Dueling Club again?" Ginny asked, looking over at Harry.
"It couldn't hurt." Harry said, dragging his own books out of his bag to begin his homework. "Something tells me we're going to need all the practice we can get."
Sable had been sitting at her desk and pouring over the musty old journals lifted from 12 Grimmauld place for over an hour now, and with nothing to show for it. There were papers scattered all over her desktop. Most of them were half translated excerpts from the journals, and others were what seemed to be ancient incantations and potions lists that she was sure dated back to the time of the Founders. A translation dictionary was perched precariously on one corner of her desk, covered in crumbled balls of parchment that had somehow managed to congregate together in one general area.
"Damn pain in my….."
"You really shouldn't use language like that." came a chiding voice to her left. Sable started, then glanced over and found a familiar face floating around in he flames of the fireplace. "It's not very lady like."
"Remus? That you?" she asked, getting up from her seat. It had been a few days since she'd received a letter from him, and almost two weeks since she'd actually seen him.
"Yeah. It's me."
"Where are you? You're not back from your trip already, are you?" she asked, kneeling down in front of the fireplace so she was face to face with him.
"I just got back a few hours ago, actually." he said sheepishly.
"Everything go alright? You're not hurt or anything are you?"
"I'm okay. And the mission went ass well as can be expected." he said with a shrug. "Are you busy?"
"No, not really." she said with a sigh. "I'm about to go cross-eyed, but other than that, I'm fine." Remus gave her a quizzical look, and she quickly went over the myriad of ridiculous rhymes and puzzles that were littered throughout Draven Black's journals. "I swear this guy had too much free time on his hands. Half of this junk doesn't make a lick of sense."
"I'm going to be in Hogsmeade tomorrow evening. Meet me at the Three Broomsticks and I'll see if there's anything I can do to help." the werewolf suggested.
"Sounds like a plan."
"Great. How's Harry been doing since I left?" Remus asked.
"He's okay. Been busy with the usual start of term work while trying to organize Quidditch practices." she said. The boy had been busy, especially with the weekly Occulemency lessons she had scheduled in addition to everything else. Harry still had a long way to go before he learned everything about keeping his mind defended, but he was progressing nicely…if a bit slower than she had hoped. But a little progress was better than no progress, right?
"Hey, mom! Your experimental goo is hissing and popping all over the place." came Ailric's petulant voice right before he stuck his head in the door and frowned at her. "You might want to get in here and do something with it before the whole room is filled with some kinda mutated green slime. Oh. Hi, Mr. Lupin."
"Hello, Ailric." Remus said cordially.
"On my way." she said, looking over her shoulder at him. Ailric was gearing up to say something else when there was a thunk and Gabe appeared in the doorway.
"Mother?"
"Yes, Gabe?" she asked.
"Should I section out the potion and get it ready to be sent to the Ministry and Department of Magic?" the other boy asked calmly after shoving Ailric out of the doorway.
"Just shut the fire off and move the cauldron to a coldwater bath." she said. "I'll be out in a few minutes."
"Yes, mother." Gabe said, then giving a nod to the floating Remus head in the fireplace. "Mr. Lupin."
"Gabe." Remus said, acknowledging the young man's presence with a nod and a small wave before the door was shut and he was gone. "Sounds like I need to let you go." Remus commented "New potion?"
"A new version of a Restoration Draught that I've been working on for a while." she admitted.
'Mom! Sabine's trying to force this gunk down my throa….IIAAHHH!'
"And to think they're supposed to be acting like mature adults." Sable said, shaking her head as she rose to her feet.
"They will grow into it." Remus said, only to cringe when there was a breaking of glass heard.
'Will you two calm down!'
"I better get in there before they really get started." she said. "I'll see you tomorrow, Remus. Take care."
"You too. Goodbye." he said.
"Bye."
'MOOOM!'
'He started it!'
"Merlin help me. I'm changing my name." she muttered, leaving her bedroom and heading into the lab. She quickly separated Ailric from his sister, who looked ready to spit nails at the blonde. "I don't know what you two are arguing about, but drop it."
The two teenagers-turned-adults grumbled, but did as their mother instructed. Ailric took his seat back at one of the bench tops, flipping through a thick book while sporadically scribbling on a piece of paper off to the side. Sabine scowled at her brother and stood against the wall with her arms folded. Sable didn't know what had gotten into them, especially since it was rare that the three of them fought about anything. Of course, being the as close knit as they were, she figured it would be a few hours and they would be back on speaking terms. The older woman swept over to Gabe, who had been cooling the newest concoction in a tub of cold water.
"How's it looking?" she asked, stirring the mixture a few times.
"Everything proceeded as planned." Gabe said calmly.
"Good. Maybe we'll actually get this one passed through the chair of potions…"
'..none of your damned business what I'm doing, Ailric! You weren't even supposed to know!'
'How can I not know when it's going around the whole damned school, Sabine? He's a snake!'
'He's got the information we need to get for…'
"What is wrong with the two of you?" Sable demanded, turning on her two children. "What in Merlin's name are you arguing about?"
"Nothing." Ailric said simply, grabbing his books and leaving the laboratory in a huff. Sable turned to her daughter, an expectant look on her face. But the itinerant teenager refused to say a thing, although she did cringe slightly when Ailric slammed the door to that lab as he walked out.
"Gabe?" Sable asked, turning to the last of her children in an attempt to get some answers.
"I'm not getting in it." he said simply, doling out the potion into some stoppered tubes. Sable frowned, figuring she could get the boy to crack and tell her what was going on if they were alone. Gabe, despite his outward appearance, never did like it when there was a fight between any of them. And he had a tendency to let things slip to her about the source of the problems when they were working together in the lab. Sable took the tubes of potion and packed them into two small, separate boxes. After tying them up and addressing one to the Department of Magic and the other to the Ministry, she called Sabine to her side and sent her off to the owlery with instructions to send them off.
"And stop by the greenhouses and see if Professor Sprout has any dried fluxweed. My stores are running low and I need some for a potion." The young girl just nodded and took the parcels, leaving out of the laboratory in a swirl of auburn curls that Sable still had yet to get used to seeing her wear. Gabe glanced over as she left and shook his head slightly before turning to his mother.
"What have they done now?" Sable asked calmly.
"She's getting awful friendly with Zabini. He's worried about her." Gabe said succinctly, gathering the used potions supplies and zapping then with a cleaning spell before levitating them back into their proper places.
"What did she do?" Sable asked, busying herself with the clean up process while waiting for an explanation. Gabe seemed a bit hesitant, but relayed what had happened while Sabine had been helping him with the Care of Magical Creatures.
"Considering his close association with Malfoy, it's disconcerting to have Sabine trying to weasel her way into Zabini's good graces." Gabe finished a few minutes later.
"I'll talk to her just as soon as she gets back here."
"Please do. And Ailric as well." Gabe replied as he shouldered his own bag and headed towards the entrance of the lab. "Because if he sees Zabini trying to get friendly with Sabine, we're going to be hard pressed to explain why Flitwick's assistant Professor decided to attack a student in broad daylight."
Sabine was in possibly one of the worse moods she had ever experienced. She had been right about Ailric's reaction when he found out that she had been stringing Zabini along during Gabe's class. He had blown his top. Of course, it didn't matter that she had tried to calmly explain that their mother had asked her to get some information out of the dark-haired boy if at all possible. Ailric was still mad about it, and still mad at her.
'That boy needs to learn how to calm down before he gives himself a heart attack!' she grumbled as she watched the owls fly off with the packages attached to their talons. 'I'm not doing anything wrong! What's he got to be so angry about? Mom knows good and well what I'm doing, and she doesn't have any problems with it.' The irate young woman dusted her hands off and turned to leave the tower when she picked up the coldly aristocratic voice of Draco Malfoy, along with the sound of two sets of feet climbing the tower.
"..don't know why you're doing this. "You'll be lucky if she even writes you back."
"It is none of your concern, Draco, who I am writing to."
"But the Tartavu girl? You're good Zabini, but she's out of your league."
'Zabini? Tartavu girl?' Sabine thought, a bit surprised that they were talking about her. 'Well, well, wonder what's got blondie in such a pissed mood?' She scanned the area, looking for a place where she could hide and eavesdrop until the two boys had come and gone. Spotting a little alcove off to the side, she slipped quietly into place, her back against the cool stone of the tower.
"So she is the real thing?" Zabini asked. Sabine could hear the footsteps stop, and the scuffle as one of them tied a letter to one of the owl's legs.
"Yeah. I sent a letter to mother about her. She's clean, and so is that brother of hers." Malfoy groused. "In fact, mother was having tea with Kareema Tartavu when my letter arrived at the manor."
"Well there goes your theory about them being fakes."
"That's beside the point. You're not gonna get anywhere with her, Zabini. Not only is she older than us by about three years, but she'll hardly ever be around here." Malfoy said coldly. "You'll be lucky if she even writes you back to thank you."
"I'm just sending her the dates for the Hogsmeade visits, like she asked. I'm not expecting her to send anything back." Zabini hissed, finally losing his patience with the other boy. "Lay off, would you?" Sabine grinned evilly when she heard a swish of wings take off from the perch. Looks like she'd be getting a letter by the end of the day.
"You've got it bad, Zabini." Malfoy snickered.
"You've got problems, Malfoy." he retorted icily as they began to descend the steps from the owelry. Sabine waited for a few minutes before she slid out of her hiding place behind the outcropping.
'Well, at least something is going right.' she thought glumly. It seemed like her mother's and Shacklebolt's careful subterfuge with the Ministry's documents had been worth it since Malfoy's questioning hadn't turned up anything suspicious. 'She'll be glad to know all that paperwork we done wasn't a waste.'
Sabine headed down the stairs towards the greenhouses, intent on getting the dried fluxweed and then heading back to her mother's lab so she could tell her what she'd overheard the two Slytherins saying. She walked into greenhouse 4 after spotting the portly Hufflepuff head through the glass enclosure, along with a dark headed student who she couldn't see entirely.
"Ms. Meadows, what can I do for you, dear?" Professor Sprout asked kindly as she walked in.
"Dr. Lee wanted to know if you happened to have some dried fluxweed she might have." Sabine explained. "She was running low and asked if I'd come check since she couldn't leave the potion she's working on unattended."
"I have just the thing. Hold on a minute and I'll get it for you, dear." the cheerful lady said, disappearing quickly into the thick wall of leaves and vines that made of the furthest wall of the greenhouse. Sabine glanced down at the quite boy who was up to his elbows in potting soil and little green seedlings.
"Mr. Longbottom, having a good day, I hope?" she asked, causing the boy to jump a little.
"Yes, ma'am." he answered.
"What have you got there?" she asked, looking at the small dividers he was transplanting. "I've never seen something like that. Is it a variation of henbane?"
"No, ma'am." he said, fingering the tender leaves carefully. "It…it's a hybrid plant that…that Professor Sprout and I have been working on."
"A hybrid?" Sabine asked, looking a bit more closely at the container. "Of what?"
"Nightshade and hellebore." he said proudly, a bit more at ease now that he was talking about something he was familiar with. Sabine furrowed her eyebrows, running through her mental catalogue of plants and their properties. Both nightshade and hellebore were deadly poisonous plants on their own, and not all that useful for potions because of the side effects that they caused even with the smallest amounts used.
"Have you had time to work out the properties yet? I'd like to see what…." she started, only to be interrupted by Professor Sprout coming back into the small greenhouse, little satchel of dried fluxweed in her hand.
"Here you are." the cheerful woman said, passing the satchel off to the auburn haired woman. "I hope that amount will be enough?"
"More than enough, Professor Sprout." Sabine said genially. "Thank you very much. Dr. Lee sends you her regards."
"Anytime, anytime." the Hufflepuff head said easily.
"I'll be going then. Thank you again, Professor. And good luck with your work on the hybrid plant. Mr. Longbottom was kind enough to show me your work so far. It seems promising."
"Yes, well, we're hoping it will." she said. "Not all that sure about the results, mind you. But Neville has a perchance for making even the most useless of things good for something. Don't you, Longbottom?"
"Umm..yes, ma'am?" he said, although it was more of a question than an answer.
"Well, good luck." Sabine said, giving them a quick wave as she headed back towards the castle. She had things left to do that evening for Madame Pomfrey, but first on her list of things to do was drop off the fluxweed to her mother and tell her about what she'd heard from Malfoy and Zabini. With any luck, maybe Gabe had done his usual job and explained to her what had caused the argument in the first place. 'And maybe that hot-headed jerk of a brother of mine has calmed down long enough for me to try and talk to him again.' she thought glumly. 'But knowing him, probably not.'
A/N - Hey to everyone. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, but I'm afraid I've got some bad news. I am seriously thinking of discontinuing this story. I've pretty much lost all interest in it, to be truthful. And I hate turning out half-assed chapters that aren't worth the space to post them. I haven't made any final decisions about this story yet, but be aware that it might be taken down soon simply because of a lack of interest on my part.
Later,
A.A.
- Hey to everyone. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, but I'm afraid I've got some bad news. I am seriously thinking of discontinuing this story. I've pretty much lost all interest in it, to be truthful. And I hate turning out half-assed chapters that aren't worth the space to post them. I haven't made any final decisions about this story yet, but be aware that it might be taken down soon simply because of a lack of interest on my part.