Chapter Thirteen.
Silently he crept through the Halls of the School, his cloak was wrapped tightly about him helping him to blend into the shadows far better than he would have thought possible. He had realised that if he moved slowly he could avoid the rippling light that would normally give him away, something that he knew would come in very handy in the near future. Ahead he could just make out the slightest distortion of air as Harry passed through a narrow strip of moonlight, his friend's own invisibility Cloak seemed vastly superior to his own but offered no way near as much protection.
That had been a surprise for them when they had returned from the Christmas holidays, the Headmaster and Professor Flitwick had found the two of them during their first-morning practice where the two of them had watched their sparring without saying a word. He had seen a few approving nods as the two elderly wizards spoke quietly to each other before Flitwick had called out to him, asking him to demonstrate several of the Weaves he had been showing Harry. While he had been somewhat reluctant, he had relented and been pleasantly surprised when the charms professor had demonstrated a fair degree of skill with his own Spellweaving and deftly plucked the spell apart.
However, the biggest surprise had been the Headmaster's gift to Harry. Apparently, James Potter had let the Headmaster study the ancient Potter heirloom and as such it had been in the Headmasters' keeping when the Dark Lord had attacked.
Since he had been given something that had belonged to his father, Harry had been adamant on using it and so their weekly raids on the restricted section of the Library had become a nightly thing. Hermione had been outraged at first but had soon been giving them the names of texts that she desired for her own studies, Adria however had just shaken her head and asked to tag along in the future.
He watched as Harry poked a hand out of his cloak and waved for him to stop, following his friend's lead Callian stepped to the side of the corridor where the gloom lay thickest and waited.
Soft steps could be heard as he watched the glow of spell light fill the corridor, he had to wince as the bright light stung his eyes and he could make out the familiar figure of Penny as she made her way towards them.
He waited with bated breath as she continued her route, he did not even dare to breathe until her footsteps had faded away. Once Harry signalled the all-clear, the two of them resumed their midnight trek through the school. They had a meeting to get to and their potential allies had decided to meet in the forbidden corridor on the third floor for reasons that Callian still found himself questioning.
He suspected that this was where the Headmaster had been hiding the Philosopher's Stone. Or at the very least some powerful artefact that his Grandfather had tasked him with discovering.
Quickly they descended the thrice-damned stairs, often using a few featherlight spells to avoid the wait for stairs that had decided to move just as they were about to step onto it.
Whoever had designed the enchantments upon those accursed moving staircases deserved a one to one meeting with a raging Dragon, he had seen no end of students nearly fall from higher floors when the stairs had suddenly decided to shift. He was somewhat mollified by the thick layers of Magic that he had been able to sense hovering at several intervals that were there to catch any who had fallen, but why the Headmaster or the board of Governors allowed the risk to remain he could not fathom.
Making their way along the Third Floor corridor, they found the tapestry across from an ugly statue depicting a one-eyed witch, whom Callian suspected was more Hag than Human judging by her grotesque and hunched form.
A quick look along the corridor revealed that they were alone and following the instructions they had been given ducked under the tapestry, Callian summoned a small orb of light to see by while Harry ran his hands along the wall counting the wooden panels as he did so.
Reaching the correct one he pressed his hand against it and they heard the faintest grinding of gears as a section of the panel opened up to reveal a hidden entrance, looking down into the tunnel that had been revealed they spotted a lone light flickering in the distance.
Removing their cloaks they shared a look of apprehension before stepping into the unknown.
Callian noted that there were several tracks cutting through the layer of dust that covered the floor at their feet, they both turned in alarm as they heard the panel slide closed behind them.
They could not see a release on this side as they both searched the wall for a way out, and Callian felt a momentary flicker of panic until Harry accidentally stood upon a portion of the floor that sunk under his feet. They both sighed in relief now that they knew they were no longer stuck in some hidden corridor of the School, Harry took his foot off the depressed stone he had stumbled upon as they watched as the entrance closed once more.
"They found the way in."
"They found the way out."
Callian spun, balls of pure force forming in his hands as Harry pulled his wand, its tip glowing an angry red. His heart racing in his chest he found himself staring at the grinning faces of two of the most infamous students to have ever set foot within the school in years.
"They are a mite jumpy, O' brother mine." The leftmost one turned a cloaked head to grin at its identical counterpart. "Indeed they are, perhaps they called us here for something other than arranging a few particularly preposterous pranks. Maybe they are here for some other service we can provide."
Twin grins that showed far too many teeth stared down at them. Despite their laid back manner Callian had yet to dismiss the Weaves, standing straighter he shared a brief look with Harry.
The twins seemed to realise that they were making them nervous and if anything their already wide grins grew wider still.
Callian looked at Harry as he indicated the Weasley twins, it was the raven-haired boy that had devised this plan and as such Callian was content to let him act as their spokesman.
"We have come to ask for your help and we are willing to pay." With that, he held up his coin purse as he gave it a little shake, the clink of coins easily audible in the quiet of the night.
The eyes of the twins seemed to shine brighter in the gloom of the tunnel, the one on the right almost seemed to reach for it before stopping himself.
Callian knew from the general gossip of the school that the Weasley family were poor, often not even having enough to purchase new wands for the children attending Hogwarts for the first time. The twins were known to be the savviest with their money and had even purchased new wands for themselves only recently. Something that had earned a howler from their mother, their mother had the gall to accuse them of stealing when she had been informed of the fact by professor McGonagall. According to Hermione, her Head of House had written to their Weasley parents to praise their children's sudden upswing in skill, only for Mrs Weasley to see the worst instead of praising her children.
It had caused quite a stir among the Gryffindor students according to Hermione, rumour had it that the stern Scottish witch had even paid a visit to the Weasley household and had firmly put the family matriarch in her place.
"If we are to talk to business gentlemen."
"Then we suggest we do so somewhere a little more comfortable."
With that the twins turned and led them deeper into the secret passage, Callian noted that there were many branching passageways leading off of the one they were currently walking along. His curiosity got the better of him as he stopped to stare down one when he caught sight of a wooden plaque on the wall.
It was darkened with age and had a thick layer of dust covering it, but it pointed down the passageway and labelled it as the 'Exterior wall, East wing.'
The soft tread of footsteps behind him had him turning to look up into the face of one of the twins, the older boy followed where his gaze had been and nodded his head. "That way leads to a covered stairway that circles the astronomy tower. We haven't been there since our second year when George nearly fell, there's no railing to hold onto and he got a little too close to the edge and the wind nearly pulled him off."
Callian turned back to stare down the passageway, these passages were ancient and he wondered just how far they spread throughout the castle. As if in answer to his thoughts the twin whom he now knew to be Fred spoke up.
"Come on, this place is like a maze. We have been using them since our first year and we haven't explored all of them yet. Harry and George are waiting up ahead, from there it's only a short walk to our sanctum sanctorum."
Callian however could not help but ask the questions that were burning within him, falling into step with the red-haired teen he asked. "What is this place, from what you said I can only assume they lead all over the third floor."
A snort was his answer as the older boy turned a grin towards him. "They go a bit further than the third floor. From what we have been able to figure out, these are the old servants' passages, they seem to go throughout the entire castle." Fred grinned widely as they turned into another passage, this one lit by a multitude of torches. "We found storerooms that haven't been touched since the founding of Hogwarts, it appears that one of the last servants to serve Hogwarts was not too happy that Helga Hufflepuff gave all their jobs away to the House-elves and carved a few choice words into one of the doors."
Callian raised a brow at that, he could well imagine the outrage that some who depended upon the safety of the castle and small wage they received, only for it all to be snatched away in an instant.
He did not have long to dwell upon it however as they stepped out into a large space, cluttered with appropriated desks and battered-looking cauldrons that bubbled away over what looked like enchanted stones that glowed to his mind's eye. Despite the dust and grime that had cluttered the servants' passages, the room they now found themselves in seemed almost homely. Lit by the warm orange of torchlight, it had been split into work, study and living quarters. He thought he spied some hammocks hanging behind a thick red curtain; it seemed that the twins had not been joking when they had named it their sanctum sanctorum.
"Welcome gentlemen, to our home away from home. The birthplace of much mischief and mayhem." Fred gestured towards several comfortable looking chairs that looked rather similar in style and colour to those in the Ravenclaw common room. "Have a seat, I need to check on a few of our potions but George will be with you shortly."
Callian looked around in alarm as he realised that the other Weasley had disappeared somewhere without them seeing.
He shared a brief look with Harry as they took a seat on a leather sofa in such a dark shade of blue as to appear almost black, there were several candies in a bowl and he made to reach for one when Harry grabbed his hand.
With a shake of his head, he explained they were they looked the same as those he had tried for the twins before, as if to emphasise his point he rubbed at his jaw and Callian remembered his far too graphic retelling of that tale. Looking at their surroundings he wondered if they had made the right decision in getting involved with the Weasley twins, while the two could easily meet their needs you were never quite sure where you stood with them. More than that, you never knew what they would demand in payment for services rendered.
Harry seemed to read his thoughts as his friend gave his boot a nudge with his own. "Relax Cal, things are going to be alright. Between us, we have more than enough galleons to meet whatever price they ask."
Giving a minute nod of his head, he barely listened to Harry as he felt a presence slowly making its way towards him from behind.
"Ahh Potter, but what if we want something more than a few gold coins?" George's sudden voice caused Harry to yelp in fright as he spun to see the grinning face staring down at them.
Callian however, slowly turned and merely raised a single brow in silent question.
His apparent lack of fright seemed to impress the redhead slightly and George gave him a silent nod in return.
"Relax gentlemen, the cost always reflects the task involved. The riskier the task the more it will cost you, so just what is it that we can help you with."
Harry took a deep breath as he began to explain the reason for their coming, he detailed the assault on Draco that morning and the fact that it had been one of the Older Slytherins that had orchestrated it all. To their fears for the safety of their friends and how they needed the twins' help in keeping an eye on them.
Fred had rejoined them during Harry's rendition of events; he did not say a word to his brother but merely looked between the two of them.
"To be clear, what you want from us is to watch over your friends and report any suspicious characters that appear to be following them?"
Harry nodded at that while the two teens shared a brief look, it lasted only a second but they seemed to communicate a wealth of information before turning back to them.
Callian suspected that the two had a unique talent for the mind arts, and carefully sent out a delicate mental probe once he caught the eye of one of them.
Almost at once, he was aware of the strange duality of the mind he was in. It was like he was standing in two places at the same time. He knew instinctively of the intimate mental connection the two of them shared, their minds were so interwoven that he doubted they even needed eye contact to share their thoughts.
He caught snatches of rapid-fire memories and thoughts but tried to avoid looking too closely, but some images caught his eye.
He saw what looked like a younger Ron Weasley being attacked by a spider the twins had transfigured from one of the chubby toddler's teddy bears, the memory was quickly replaced by another, this of the two much older than the previous memories.
This time he saw the twins playing as children slightly older than before having stolen their mother's wand and chasing the family chickens about the garden shooting sparks with wild abandon, as quickly as it came it was gone only to be replaced with another.
They appeared to be serving detention with Filch the school's caretaker, only for them to end up rifling through the man's contraband store when he had left them alone. An image of a map floated before his mind, but how it connected he could not fathom.
Unlike his own mental defences which he had been taught to wrap about his mind like a seamless blanket of an endless void, he found the twins' minds bearing down on his own.
In the material world, he found two sets of identical eyes turning to glare at him, yet he knew despite their combined strength they could not match him for long.
Silently he retreated with an apologetic nod, but it did little to appease the two.
Callian ignored their dark looks as he added his own contribution to what they wanted.
"Should it come to it, we would ask that you step in to help our friends. Either fight or flight we do not care, but we ask that you help where you can."
The two shared another brief look before they seemed to come to a conclusion.
"Two galleons a week, for keeping tabs on your friend." George was the first to speak this time.
"Double on top of that for pulling them out of the fire if the need arises."
Amused, Callian thought the price quite reasonable, he had been expecting them to charge through the teeth especially given his foray into their minds.
"We also want something else for you, Blackwood."
Callian watched as the twins leaned forward trying to use their height to intimidate him, he had to give them credit for the attempt. These two however were no match to the likes of his Grandfather, Dagün, Ironmane or even Jastor, and he was able to stand before them unbowed. What did raise his estimation of the twins was their attempt to push down upon him with their own presence, he even saw Harry's eyes widen when he sensed what they were doing.
"It is rumoured that your family store in Diagon alley had come into the possession of several enchanted items that are able to turn the wearer invisible, we want two."
Callian said nothing as he carefully studied the two before him as he considered the request.
"Is your watch of our friends dependent upon this?" He asked calmly, inwardly he was seething. He knew how expensive those enchanted items were, the twins may not know it but they were asking for the equivalent of fifty to a hundred galleons each.
It was also the reason that he had not requested them for his friends and Draco, there was no way that his mother or grandfather would allow it.
The twins were silent for a time before they shook their head, "No, it's not"
"But we were hoping to get our hands on a pair to make things a little easier for us."
"It's easier to follow folks if they can't see you."
The constant back and forth between the two was going to get annoying very quickly. Callian mused silently.
"I doubt I will be able to get you anything such as that but what if I can get you some texts on the invisibility spell?"
He left unsaid that he was already looking into it, so copying the texts would cost him nothing.
Nobody spoke as the twins seemed to process everything before they eventually held out their hands for them to shake.
Before long they were once more walking along the servants' passages when Harry let out a long sigh, he shared a relieved look with his friend and knew they both felt lighter knowing that others were also watching over their friends.
With their task for the night completed the two of them headed back to the Ravenclaw Tower in search of their beds, although Callian made it a point to explore the vast maze of tunnels that seemed to run throughout the school.
Albus sat alone within his quarters, even his faithful familiar absent. Yet he found himself welcoming the solitude as it allowed him the time and space he seldom seemed to find these days.
He idly rolled his wand between his fingers, his fingers playing over the surface tracing every bump and groove of it. How had things gone so far astray that he no longer knew right from left.
His thoughts dwelt upon the nightmare that he had stumbled onto only a few short hours ago and the eyes of a monster he had seen staring out of a young man's face.
He, alongside his old master and Severus, had gone in search of Marcus Flint after the evening feast. It had taken far longer than any of them had thought and in the end, they had to resort to using one of the House-elves to aid them. They had found him in the depths of the dungeons in what had once been the lowest cells used to hold prisoners. Cells that he had thought not been used since before Hogwarts became a school for children, but the recently dried blood crusting the manacles corrected him of that notion.
He felt his gorge rise as he thought of the dark taint that lingered in those cells, it had clung to walls almost like a living thing.
It had reached out to him, filling his mind with foul seductions as it whispered promises of power and dominance over his lessers.
He and Denevan had easily been able to ignore the tainted seductions but he had seen Severus stumble more than once. His young potions professor had always been drawn to the pull of power. It had been what had caused him to join with Voldemort all those years ago and had taken the threat of death to Lily Potter to get him to change his ways. However, he realised that Severus' craving for power may not be as gone as he had originally thought. Denevan had not taken the chance of Severus giving in to the foul Magic that swirled about them and stunned the man without hesitation. Albus had only put up a token of protest but was somewhat glad that he would not have to fight his colleague if he had succumbed to the temptations.
Venturing further into the depths of the Castle they had found Marcus Flint standing over the still and bound form of another student, surrounded by at least a dozen others. Each had been hooded and cloaked but he recognised many as Slytherins from the sixth and seventh years, while a few others had come from the other Houses.
He remembered the creeping dread he had felt as he had sensed their corrupted presences, but that was nothing to the glowing scarlet eyes that stared out of the face of a young boy as he recited words of power that bound the still form on the floor to his will.
It was ancient magic that Albus himself had stumbled across in his own youth, a time when he had little regard for those he deemed lesser than himself.
The body upon the floor began to writhe, jerking as if he was being electrocuted. Albus vaguely recalled that the boy's name was William Pucey, the oldest child of the current Lord Pucey.
He knew it was too late to save the child, the only way to end the enchantment that now ensnared his mind was for the holder of the magic to die.
He felt a cold shiver run down his spine as he recalled the cold, sibilant hiss that escaped young Flint's mouth. A voice that he had hoped never to hear again, its soft hissing whisper seemed to blend with the Magic that filled the room.
"Welcome Headmaster. I see you have brought a guest with you, allow me to introduce my own."
He could detect no trace of Marcus' voice in those words, no matter how many times he replayed them in his mind he found only the cruel voice of the Dark Lord.
Under the possessed boy's wand, the jerking form of William Pucey had stilled suddenly before climbing to his feet with wooden, uncoordinated movements as he joined the ranks of cloaked students.
What had followed next was a blur as the shade of Voldemort possessing a child had proceeded to direct the thirteen other students in the room to attack.
He had been somewhat surprised by the tactic the ensnared students had chosen as they quickly linked their Magic together and attacked as one, he had just managed to cast a powerful shield as a ribbon of sickly green flame had rent the air.
such complex joinings of Magic were nearly unheard of, the last time he had faced such was during the last war when he had personally dealt with several of Voldemort's inner circle. He had never even thought that these children would have been capable of the feat, and a dark thought had begun to take root in him. Yet he did not get the chance to pursue his thoughts as he had been forced to focus on the fight at hand.
The combined might of thirteen young but powerful Magi had nearly broken through his hasty defences, by luck or lack of knowledge as to just who Denevan was the thirteen had targeted Albus first which had allowed his former master almost free reign to wreak havoc among them.
In an instant six of the thirteen were down, with their wands and arms broken. Each had been on the receiving end of several thigh thick bands of force that had whipped across the room and tossed them aside like leaves in a wind.
He remembered the horror of watching his students bounce off the walls of the cells, only to have to fend off several more spells designed to rip him limb from limb.
With Denevan's aid, he had quickly begun to push the remaining students back only for the Shade of Voldemort to laugh in delight, the sound oddly rich and full before he had begun a chant in a strange tongue that seemed to pull the very shadows of the room to him.
The shadows had pooled into a solid mass before they had swept through the room, snuffing out the few torches in the cells with its passing. Denevan seemed to have known what the strange darkness was, as he hastily created a luminescent dome of golden light that separated the shadows like water around rock.
Once the shadows had reached the thirteen, it had seemed to roll over them clinging to them like a second skin before they had seemed to dissolve into the pool of darkness at their feet. Denevan had hissed out a curse in the Dwarven tongue as they watched the shadows retreat from the cells, fleeing from them as Denevan reinforced his Weave flooding the room with light.
Looking around the only sign that there had been anyone there were the few shattered splinters of some of the students' wands and a large furrow in the wall where he had deflected the foul cursed flame. It had burned so hot that the damp stone had turned to dark glass as it had dribbled like wax, long spindly tendrils of molten stone now hung like macabre waterfalls.
Try as he might he could not fathom how he had been blind to the goings-on within his school, the ministry had been notified and there were currently several Aurors combing over every inch of the dungeons. Under Denevans council he had only claimed that the students had been practising Dark Magic, he had doubted the ministry would have been keen to acknowledge that the Dark Lord had seemingly risen from the dead.
He knew that soon the Wizengamot would call for him to step down as Chief Warlock, the Pureblood Elitists had been trying for years to oust him from the position and he knew he was not going to fight them this time.
In the months since Halloween he had taken over the majority of responsibility for covering the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, he had found the peace he had been lacking of late as he taught the younger generations.
He had felt the once familiar pride and joy at seeing his students perform spells for the first time. He had smiled with them as they had fought back Boggarts and Kappas and pushed past their fears. Offered them the encouragement and simple words they often needed to hear to get over the stumbling blocks they faced. It had filled him with a sense of rightness every time he had seen a smile or contented look upon the faces of his students and now he found himself wanting that more and more.
While he would always prefer the delicate art of transfiguration, he had taught and fought his fair share of the Dark Arts. He knew also that if today was a portrayal of the future to come then he would need to ensure his students were the ablest they could possibly be to defend themselves and their loved ones.
With that thought in mind, he found himself drifting off to sleep, his path for the future firmly laid out at his feet.
