A/N I don't have anything to say, finally, I just think the chapter would be too detached if I didn't force myself in here.
Enjoy.
Hermione was more ecstatic than Lycus at her inability to detect him while he was wearing the officially coined Evanescent Cloak. She was so ecstatic that she didn't remember opening the door the Room of Requirements, much less leaving it open. She went to close it, and found herself outside the room, with the door no longer existing.
She sighed exasperatedly and put her hands on her hips, "Lycus, I know that's you. Just because I don't perceive you doesn't mean that I don't recognize when you've done something after you've left the range of obscurity."
The door didn't appear, but she did yelp from the fright of a hand appearing on her shoulder behind her. She glared at the laughing Ravenclaw, hoping that he would die on his laughter.
"Ha, ha. Very funny." She said dryly. Her ire didn't hold up for long, replaced by enthusiasm once again.
It had been a week and a half since they met in the library for the first time, and they had met up much more frequently than Lycus thought they would. Apparently, Hermione had found a new calling in the form of ancient runes. Even if they didn't work on the cloak, she had so many questions about what you could do with runes, and he was the only person she could go to to talk about them on the level she wanted.
The cloak had, of course, needed a few changes. Once Hermione had read through the two books Lycus gave her, she had quickly deduced that the template would be better if they gave it a set range of obscurity, and she made sure it knew when to distinguish against living things and nonliving things. Now, ghosts would be able to pass through Lycus, but they would have no idea they did so. Having a set range of obscurity also meant that he would know exactly how much leniency he had in interacting with his environment. Lycus himself had added a couple of runes that would make it sustainable underwater, though he didn't tell Hermione about those. That had the chance of her asking questions. Questions that he couldn't answer truthfully, and she was beginning to become pretty good at knowing when he was lying or omitting things.
Lycus wasn't sure if Hermione was going to want one, and he had kind of handed her the materials needed to make one if he didn't do it for her. He needed to get a handle on that. This was only cloak trial five, so he still had five cloaks left to make into Evanescent Cloaks.
Her excitement was infectious, but he didn't let it be apparent on himself. Now that he had the means to get around undetected, he could go into the Forbidden Forest and Black Lake. Or just the Forbidden Forest. The Black Lake may take a bit more time since it also had the challenge of breathing underwater. Gillyweed was both rare and a pain, and he would need far more than one hour to talk to the selkies.
Hermione's voice brought him out of his internal musings, "What's it like to wear it? Is it any different than a normal cloak?"
She was practically bouncing on her feet to know, making Lycus laugh softly. He knew he would regret this, but... "Why don't you find out?" He handed her the cloak anyway.
Her eyes widened at the offer and she was quick to put on the cloak. His eyes didn't move from the spot he was looking at, which had been Hermione's face, but he now found that he was looking down the seventh floor corridor. It made him a bit uncomfortable to think that she was around somewhere, he just had no way of knowing where.
As an experiment, he walked towards where Hermione had once been, but stopped abruptly as he realized he was standing eight meters from where he was before even though he had only walked three. Disturbing? Yes. Fucking awesome? Definitely.
"Alright, Hermione. Come on out. Let's not take it upon ourselves to abuse this power." He said to the empty space behind him, even though he was pretty sure it wasn't empty. Pretty sure. Hermione very well may have left, which is why he almost didn't give it to her.
He was beginning to notice a distinct issue with the cloak's design now that he wasn't the one wearing it. Even if you couldn't perceive that there was someone there, simply knowing that someone was around let you notice the unmistakable signs of them being there. Hermione knew he had left the door open by it being perceivable once he went far enough for it to be out of his range. He had done that on purpose to mess with her, but thinking back, that's a flaw in the system. Now that he was the one unable to perceive Hermione, he was still finding that he noticed he was being messed with. The lapse in memory of walking five meters was because he was walking through the range of obscurity. Noticing this lapse was a problem.
He wouldn't be mentioning this to Hermione. He'd edit the template again to ensure that people didn't remember these lapses in memory and make a new cloak. In a crowd, nobody would notice, but if he didn't have to have that risk, he wouldn't.
Hermione appeared abruptly in front of him in her version of a jump scare. Needless to say, it didn't work.
"Ha, ha. Very funny." He said, partly to mock her for saying it earlier.
She sighed with a quiet "Damn" and handed the cloak back to him. "It's no fun when the person you're trying to scare doesn't react."
"Maybe you should pick better targets." He stuck his tongue out at her like a true adult.
"Who? The twins? If I did that, they'd want to know how, and somehow I don't think you want this cloak to become common knowledge."
Her logical and very on the nose reply had Lycus somewhat cowed. "No, I don't. But you don't have to reveal all of your secrets to your friends. In fact, not telling them how you did it would just be a bigger prank on them. They'd never know when you're going to play one, or how to avoid it." And he brought himself right back up. He was proud of this accomplishment and no amount of comeback would stop him from feeling so.
Hermione gave up while she was somewhat ahead. "Alright, fine."
In an unsaid agreement, the two began heading towards the Great Hall for the upcoming dinner. Lycus wanted to test out the cloak on the rest of the students, but decided that it would be better not to do that just yet. He would wait until he had the finalized version to try out, and when he was satisfied with it, he would take a trip to the Forbidden Forest.
He wasn't worried about there being anything that could get around the cloak. It was the first of its kind, and only he and Hermione knew about it. Professor Babbling was the only one he could imagine finding a way to subdue the cloak's power, other than Hermione, but Professor Babbling didn't even know it existed. That's how it was going to be, too. If he even suspected that Hermione was going to let people know about the cloak, he would obliviate her. And then hope she wouldn't notice and find a way to undo the obliviation, of which he was uncertain she couldn't do.
He was glad that he walked with Hermione to the Great Hall because it meant that she had the chance to tell him of a possible way to detect someone under the cloak.
"Harry has this map that shows the name of everyone in the castle in the exact spot they reside. I'm not sure how it was accomplished, and I also don't know if the Evanescent Cloak will be able to make you undetectable to that."
If there were ever information to give someone that verified the amount of trust you have in them, that was it. He didn't know if it was blindly placed trust, or if she just wasn't thinking when she said that, but that map sounded like the only thing that would let him be detected while under the cloak.
Lycus could think of only one way, currently, that something like that could be made. The Homonculous Charm would make everyone within a mapped area appear on that map. He'd have to do some tests with that map to make sure it counted as a magical detection device like Moody's eye and wouldn't be able to see through the cloak. If it did see through, he had some more thinking to do.
As a Ravenclaw, Hermione was expecting Lycus to want to do tests with the map, and she would willingly oblige, as long as Harry gave her the map to use. Even Gryffindor's could have a manipulative streak, and this was her way of getting Lycus interested in the map so they could make one themselves, possibly better. Hermione loved her friends, but they just didn't have the same intellectual prowess that she did. She had wanted to play with the Marauder's Map ever since she learned of it, but knew her friends would be interested in what she was doing, and that interest would ultimately be the end of her actually being able to learn anything about the map. The sheer amount of questions they would ask would annoy her until she couldn't focus.
She was right about Lycus's intrigue, "Curious. And I presume you mention this because you want me to look at it, and maybe I'll be able to replicate the same thing?"
But he was one step ahead of her. "Er, I mean... yes. But I also mention it because it is something that could render the cloak useless against people who can tell where you are, even within the obscurity range."
He laughed genially, not bothered in the slightest by her attempted manipulations. She was just a hair's breadth away from being a Ravenclaw. If only she would learn to control her haste. She could be near his level no problem, though she would never quite get there, in the manipulative sense. He was raised to be like this, after all. It was as much a part of him as breathing.
"I think it'd be a good idea to look over this map. I already know how it was done, unless the creator used something other than charms. But it might surprise me. It has the entirety of Hogwarts mapped, you say?"
Hermione nodded her head, happy that he held no grudge against her. She imagined that he had used manipulations on her to get her to help, so it would be hypocritical of him to be mad. She would have helped anyways. She did offer it from the beginning. But even she would admit that she had jumped into an unknown project with unknown motives far more quickly than she usually would. She would blame the promise of knowledge on that. And maybe accuse him of having a Charm Charm on at all times.
For once, she was the one who knew what she was talking about between them, and it showed in her confident tone, "Every nook and cranny is mapped. Including the secret passageways that even Filch doesn't know about."
Whoever made this map had a lot of time on their hands, assuming they only used a Homonculous Charm on it. That charm had to be placed on an already existing map, it didn't create maps for you. The creator had to go through Hogwarts and map it themselves if that was the case. With this thought in mind, Lycus could see two flaws in the maps creation.
"If it was made the way I think it was, then it probably doesn't have the Room of Requirements on it, does it?" The Homonculous Charm would only work on something that was part of the environmental structure. Since the Room of Requirement had no set structure itself, the charm wouldn't be able to work on it, even if the creator knew the room was there. If the answer was no, then he could be mostly certain that it was the Homonculous Charm.
She took a second to realize that she hadn't thought of that herself, cursing in her mind for being consistently taught things when she was supposed to be the teacher, "No, it doesn't. It also doesn't have the, uh..."
Internally, Lycus smirked. She had finally caught herself from saying something that could be considered "giving it away." Maybe she was learning from him. This made her both a better asset, and a bigger risk. He'd have to ensure her trust soon enough, otherwise he'd have to tone down their new friendship. He didn't know if Marvolo would be okay with her being in the "in" yet.
Innocently, he asked, "It also doesn't have what?"
She bit her lip, weighing the options of tell or don't tell. In the end, it was the former that she chose, "The Chamber of Secrets. The map doesn't have the Chamber of Secrets on it."
She half expected him to be shocked that the chamber was real, but couldn't tell if he was. She also half expected him to already know it existed. He always seemed to just kind of know those things.
He hadn't known, he was just very good at controlling his expressions. He had also suspected the existence of the chamber, so the confirmation was simply that. But now that he knew the chamber was real, and that a map with a Homonculous Charm didn't include it, he had many more questions pop up in his head.
"Do you know if the creator of the map knew that the chamber existed?" But he was capable of holding his tongue, and only asked he one question. He knew first hand how irritating being asked multiple questions at once could be.
"I don't think they did. Does that matter?" Her own question was more to see if she couldn't glean information on just how much Lycus knew about the map without even seeing it. She wanted to know how deductive the Ravenclaw was. Maybe then she could make her own deductions as to how much she had inadvertently told him while working on the Evanescent Cloak's runic template.
"This was the final block I needed to make sure it wasn't anything more than what I already knew it was. The map can only show places that have been added to it, which means that no extra charm or rune work was done on it past the initial creation. Granted, casting the charm needed to make the map, and then mapping out the entirety of Hogwarts, is a feat in and of itself that shouldn't be looked down on. But I won't say that I couldn't do better."
Hermione didn't even try to hide her sigh. Of course he could do better. Remus may have been a very smart student with a lot of power and study, but he wouldn't be able to stand against Lycus's vault of knowledge. That was the boon of being born and raised pureblood, she resolved. The two books he gave her on ancient runes had been from his family library. If he had those, who knows what else was there? She wouldn't be surprised if he knew how to become an animagus in less time than the Marauders did.
They were approaching the Great Hall just a few minutes before most students came down to eat. Hermione was content to leave with her thoughts, but Lycus had something to say before they left for their house tables.
"You could do better, too, you know. I have no doubt that you can recreate the map, but what's the point in just recreating something when you can improve upon the original design? You just need to learn to let your brain go sometimes."
They stopped briefly at the entrance to the Great Hall. Lycus nodded his head at her with an intense look in his eyes that made her really consider his words. She nodded back at him and made her way to Gryffindor table to wait for her friends, lips pursed in thought.
Lycus thought about his own words and how he sounded a bit like a certain blonde fourth year Ravenclaw. He wondered if she would be able to give him some ideas on how to use runes for various things. Her less-than-conventional perspective on the world could be just the thing that he needed to invent something that called for more than runes.
She was also the daughter of a journalist, and may have some thoughts to add when it came to developing a new way to communicate. Add in that Hermione was a muggle born, both of the girls were in ancient runes themselves, and he was certain that invention could become a simple pass time between the three of them.
It had only been two and a half weeks since he came back from winter break. He had a little over two months before spring break came along, and since he needed to consult with Marvolo about student allies before gaining any, he was hoping the days would go by fast. Unless he invented a way to communicate with him before then, but since the horcrux was his most likely bet, that didn't seem like it'd be happening anytime soon.
Lycus followed the belief of Professor Babbling that idle hands were for the foolish. Maybe he couldn't proceed with his second mission, but he could perfect a cloak that would allow him to proceed with the first one. The first one was more important anyways.
It had become enough of a habit that Lycus didn't even realize that he and Hermione were walking to the Room of Requirement until they got there. They had been meeting there after the fourth class on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays to work on the Evanescent Cloak and runs tests with it. When dinner was closing in, they'd go to the Great Hall.
Lycus had wondered why Potter and Weasley were okay with this, and he asked her about it one of the times they went to the room after ancient runes. According to her, they saw it as being given freedom to put off homework since she wasn't around to force them to do it, and had no qualms with the arrangement whatsoever. She wasn't upset by this notion, as she was filling her time with something she enjoyed doing rather than having to deal with the two. Win win for the three best friends, apparently.
The only thing that made Lycus apprehensive about having Hermione around was that he had reconfigured the template for the cloak again, and would have to make one with this hopefully finalized version when in Ravenclaw tower rather than the workshop the room had provided.
That grievance was quick to become a small nuisance as she pulled out a map, distracting him from those thoughts. Lycus was pretty sure he knew what the map was. And he was pretty sure he'd have to reconfigure the template again after testing the cloak against the map.
She held it out for him to take, "This is the Marauder's Map. Tap it with your wand and say I solemnly swear that I am up to no good1."
He took the map from her and complied with her directions, though still asked, "What happens if I don't?"
He watched as ink bloomed on the pages in front of him, displaying the text Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers, are proud to present THE MARAUDER'S MAP, while Hermione described the witty lines that would appear if someone tried to access the map without knowing how.
Figures that it was a previous generation of pranksters that made something like this. If he had learned one thing from the Weasley twins, it was that pranksters were determined and resourceful.
Lycus opened it up, impressed at the amount of work that went into crafting the map. Hermione wasn't kidding when she said "every nook and cranny" of Hogwarts. It was more than he expected.
"Well, I can tell you that the only piece of magic on this map is the Homonculous Charm. It was very craftily used, but it was still only the one charm. It's not an easy one to use, either. Whoever these messrs were, they must have been quite been the dedicated mischief makers." He kept it open and gave her the cloak.
She didn't need to be told what to do and left the room with it on. He wasn't able to see her name on the map until after she was in the corridor, but he was able to see her name. The cloak didn't work on the map. Damn.
She came back in and could tell just from the disappointed look on his face that he could see her name. They exchanged objects.
Hermione took a look around the workshop, "Looks like we'll need to continue meeting here."
Lycus nodded his head solemnly, "Such a shame. I was looking forward to being able to be alone again."
The Gryffindor wasn't fazed, able to tell when he was being sarcastic by now.
Or so she thought, until his next comment, "I'm thinking about bringing Luna in to help." She wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic about that or not.
"Luna? As in, the Luna that believes in things like wrackspurts and crumple horned snorkacks?" Also known as the Luna that was just a little dotty. Or a lot dotty. Hermione wasn't sure that someone like her would be very good with what they were working on. She was a Ravenclaw, sure, but she was just so eccentric and always on cloud nine and had the weirdest ideas...
Before Lycus got to reply, Hermione amended herself, "Actually, I think she'd be great. Even if her ideas are a little impossible or out of the ordinary, they'd still be a great source of creativity. Creativity that I don't think either of us truly have."
Lycus smiled at her amendment and nodded in agreement, "Exactly. We can't be everything, can we?"
She smirked, "Not just the two of us. With Luna, and maybe some others, maybe we could be."
"Some others?"
Hermione shrugged, "I'm not saying I have anyone in mind, I'm just saying that I think it's possible for us to gather a group who could actually cover enough areas to be 'everything'."
Lycus returned her smirk with a playful one, "Following that logic, we just need to gather the whole school. With so many people, what could go wrong?"
She closed her eyes and images began flashing behind her eyelids displaying just how many ways that could go wrong. Merlin forbid.
But Lycus wasn't asking the whole school, just Luna, who agreed to join them in their adventures of invention that night, and joined them the next day. She had a love of runes herself, and had many an idea beforehand that she just couldn't make work with her current repository. Maybe the two fifth years had the knowledge she needed for a telescope that could zoom in on tiny things that were nearby, or a book that could call information from every other book in the world.
In the meantime, her friend and could-be-friend wanted help with a cloak and a map. For "sneaking" and the like, though they put it differently.
Until she read the two books Lycus gave her, all she could do was give suggestions.
Her first one had been simple: link the map to the cloak so that the cloak could specifically target against the map. While simple, neither Hermione nor Lycus thought that it would be worth it if other maps could see through it. It had to work against all maps, then. That would have been nice to know before she had to think of suggestions.
They had already covered the notion of making you disappear entirely, so she couldn't bring that up. But what they hadn't covered was temporarily making the person under the cloak have no identity.
Two blank stares greeted her at the mention of this, "What?"
She sighed and stared right back at them, "This map knows who you are no matter what disguise you use, because you are always you, magically and mentally. But if you made it so you weren't you, the map would be unable to recognize who you are."
"And so the map wouldn't show your name, even if was still able to show you're there?" Hermione asked, to which Luna nodded. Hermione looked over to Lycus, "Do you think that's possible?"
Of the three of them, he had the most knowledge about runes, as well as the most experience. Even so, "I can't say it's impossible, but I also can't think of how to accomplish that. It's worth looking into, and Luna wouldn't have mentioned it if she thought it couldn't be done. And this is without her reading the books."
He wasn't feeling super about not being able to completely hide yourself from the map, but this was better than nothing. Especially since they had spent the entire time talking about how to hide from the map. This idea was the only promising one to come about.
With something to go on for tomorrow, and dinner on its way, the three packed up and began making their way to the Great Hall.
If Lycus had been there, Marvolo was sure he would be happy to know that he was not idle. He was not limited to a school. Granted, as things were currently going, Lycus was probably having more success in his endeavours than Marvolo was.
Marvolo was trying to come up with a list of magical creatures he could ally with. There were the obvious ones who had the intelligence and existing relations in governments: vampires, werewolves, merpeople, centaurs, and goblins. Then there were the ones that were intelligent, but maybe wouldn't care enough to align with him: sphinxes, griffins, giants, leprechauns, manticores, kelpies, runespoor, and a few others. And then there were those that weren't so intelligent, but could still provide assistance: pixies, fairies, sea serpents, gnomes, erklings, occamies, lethifolds, demiguises, even hippocampuses, and a whole other load of creatures.
It didn't help that there wasn't much information on the creatures beyond their abilities and how dangerous they were, unless they were already working for or with their governments. He really had no way of knowing if manticores would like to have rights unless he walked up to one and asked. And that was called suicide.
He sighed and put down his quill, massaging his right hand with the left to try and relieve the cramping. He didn't understand how Lycus was able to write for hours on end. He was able to do it when he was in school himself, of course, but still. Maybe Lycus had potions or spells that helped him. He'd have to ask the next they saw each other.
Empress stirred slightly, taking notice that he had finally stopped taking notes. She lifted her head and stared down at the list of names and their details, §That's a lot of other creatures. You're not trying to replace me, are you?§ She moved more onto his shoulder so she could rear up properly and look at him condescendingly, swishing the tip of her tail to show her amusement.
He scoffed, looking very offended that she would even imply such a treacherous thing, §Of course not, lovely. I am simply looking for minions fit to serve the future crown of the world. Only the best for you.§ He pet her head and scratched under her chin where he knew she liked it most.
She hissed appreciatively, but was not distracted from the conversation, §Am I to be the ruler of the world after you conquer it? That seems like too much work. If you don't want it, then why not the boy?§ She flicked her tongue out to show that she was only teasing. That she was mostly teasing.
§Lycus? He is but a pawn, lovely. Unfit to rule.§
She gave the snake equivalent of a snort, §Right. And I am only a snake. Unfit to rule.§
Marvolo pouted at her, displeased that she made the number of people who could see through him two. Three, if he counted the goblins. Speaking of, he needed to make a visit to them again soon. If only he had Lycus to have make an appointment again. Having only one person he could entrust with his plans and partake in them directly was a mistake. Especially when that person was gone for ten months out of the year.
Empress was correct, though Marvolo had come to expect that. Lycus was a fair candidate for the future ruler of the world. He knew that while Lycus would be the one to actually do work and give orders if that were the case, he would still be listening to Marvolo. Putting Lycus up there meant only that he wouldn't have to do any of the work himself, just delegate it all. But the idea of not actually being the ruler was against him. No. Once they had taken over the world, Marvolo would be the one they called King. Paperwork be damned. He could still give all of that to Lycus. Or some other servant.
Empress sensed the end of the chat and gave his chin a little nudge before circling back around his neck as much as she could. She still had a few inches left to grow before she could fully circle around it. Not that that would do her much good, but it was an easy way of checking her own growth without having to be told.
Back in the school which kept Lycus for ten months out of the year, the three rune enthused students had begun the sixth trial cloak, which, while capable of hiding your name from the map, was a bit terrifying and also a failure in the useability department. The now dubbed "Cipher Cloak" worked the way it was supposed to - it got rid of your identity to the point of tricking the map into not knowing who you were, and therefore not displaying a name for you. The downside was that it got rid of your identity, and as it turns out, your identity is pretty important to your existence.
Long story short, if Lycus had kept the cloak on for too long, he would have become a body with a soul that had no mind or magic. Mentally and magically dead while his heart still beat. Undetectable and would never be found. So it was decided between the three to disregard that idea completely, and go back to the drawing board.
But without the ability to take away what let the map know who you are, they were left without much to go on. Lycus was persistent in discovering how to get around the map. He didn't even need to be undetected by the map as it didn't work outside of the castle itself, but he couldn't get over the fact that something might be impossible. "Nothing's impossible." was what he told the girls before returning to glower at a book.
And after two more weeks of all three of them researching when they could and thinking, nobody could think of anything new. Lycus, externally sullen and internally bitter, settled on working on that aspect of the Evanescent Cloak himself when he had nothing to do until he figured it out, and working with the girls on their new project.
A map. More specifically, a map that automatically mapped the area you were in to a certain radius, and could detect hidden passageways and magical rooms.
Luna, ever the visionary, had a lot of ideas to add to this particular discussion, "Could we make it able to detect people like the Marauder's Map? And label them as ghosts, poltergeists, animagi, trolls, furgles, and other various creatures?"
The two fifth years nodded at her first sentence, and then promptly stopped at her second. Labeling ghosts was one thing, but doing that for every creature would be less than easy. Having to come up with all of those labels too. Not a pleasant thought.
And of course, despite her better instinct, Hermione had to ask, "What's a furgle?"
"They're cousins of nargles. Instead of being pests that infest mistletoe and steal things, though, they make you lucky." Luna nodded her head as though she were talking to children.
Lycus coughed to hide his almost laugh and made a few notes on his parchment, "I'll write that down so we can look into it in the future. Any other ideas?"
Luna smirked. Oh yeah, she had some ideas. "It should be able to adjust itself to a new area and automatically map out each place it visits, along with remembering each map it makes so it can cross reference any changes that were made to that place. I think it should also be able to zoom and enhance so you can have more detail about a specific area, and be able to zoom out to substitute detail for coverage. There should be different modes for it as well. For instance, one of the modes, let's call it aerial mode, would give you a flat bird's eye view of the area. Another mode, say structure mode, would show you the structure of the environment and its stability. If possible, we could have a magical vision mode, that shows any and all curses or wards set. Things like that." Her "if possible" part was meant to incentivize Lycus to agree with the ideas. The Marauder's Map problem had shown them he was unreasonably tenacious over the notion of things being unobtainable.
Whether or not he caught on to this was unknown to her. Lycus dutifully took note of every suggestion she made, even if thinking of how to bring them to life gave him a slight headache. The thought of combining all of that filled him with dread. Not that those were the only ideas she would have. She'd come up with more, no doubt, and make this map overly complicated to the point of being unusable. That was the beauty of Luna.
Luna decided that that was enough messing with her friends for the day and didn't continue when asked if she had anymore ideas. So Lycus turned to Hermione for her opinion.
"I was thinking less on features, and more on, er, practicality. You know, stuff like a password and thief prevention."
Lycus nodded and added those to the parchment before looking back up at the girls and giving his thoughts on the situation with a grin, "And this is why I wanted both of you to help."
"You say that as if you planned on making a map before you knew about the Marauder's Map - which I showed you, by the way." Hermione huffed, crossing her arms and sticking her nose up in an awfully good impression of Zacharias Smith.
"I never said I meant that in regards to the map." he retorted, imitating her position. She rolled her eyes as had become habit around Lycus and dropped her arms, to which Lycus replied by doing the same.
"We should focus on making a map that can map itself and track people without using the Homonculous Charm before we look into these other things." was Lycus's input on the map creation after concluding that doing all of it at once would be a sure fire way to lose sleep. Or his mind.
Luna seemed a bit put out, but nodded anyways, "We could each work on different aspects and then check over each other's work. More efficient, as you two like to say."
Lycus and Hermione agreed on that point and divided up the work: Lycus would work on the self-mapping template, Hermione would work on the entity detection template, and Luna would work on the thief prevention template.
The following Sunday afternoon saw Lycus donning the Evanescent Cloak to finally head into the Forbidden Forest and see if he couldn't run into some centaurs. Although, they would probably be the ones doing the running. Well, he might end up running, too, in the sense of running away.
Sunday meant that most students were out and about, and therefore dispersed. Less chance to run into them, and less chance to be questioned if they saw him. Not that that was likely, both because of the cloak, and because of his recent outdoor expeditions known as reading in nature that made him somewhat of a regular to the outside.
But that didn't matter so much. There would be no other students in the Forbidden Forest, and Hagrid stayed well away from the centaurs out of respect. That and maybe because they had been expressing their distaste for anything related to the Ministry, including Hogwarts and its professors, in the recent years.
He made it to the edge of the Forbidden Forest with none the wiser. Really, the Forbidden Forest wasn't scary. It was a forest. The only thing scary about it was the untimely death that you may face if you piss off some of its inhabitants.
Lycus stepped into the dense underbrush, wary of any plants that may want to grab him. He wasn't sure if plants counted in the list of stuff the cloak could confound, even if they were alive. Many people tended to view the life of a creature as vastly different from the life of a plant, to the point of not considering plants alive at all. So it was really a bit subjective and he would need to test it out at a later moment in time. Stupid cloak with its stupid need for constant stupid adjustments.
He was no ranger and couldn't track animals for shit. That being said, Firenze heavily implied that the centaurs may just come out and meet him of their own accord. Which would be nice and save him from a lot of trouble.
As it turned out, the centaurs did not appear just because he wanted them to, and he was stuck with having to talk a walk through the Forbidden Forest to find them. All the better for him to avoid possible interactions with students and Hagrid, he supposed.
He spent a decent amount of time walking into the Forbidden Forest, enough to be considered an exercise. It could only have been three or four in the afternoon, and a quick Tempus showed him it was, but the closely knit trees caused a near-solid canopy to block most of the light from above. It was dusky, and he could see many of the particles that were floating in the air. It made it just a tad difficult to see where he was putting his feet. He would have used Lumos to brighten the area up, but the cloak would only prevent that light from being seen for five meters around him, and Lumos would extend quite a bit past that.
There was a rustle from his left. His eyes snapped to where it came from, shoulders tensed and hand on his wand. It was too low to the ground to be a centaur. How many normal creatures existed in this forest again? None? So what could have disturbed the brush near the base of a tree.
A fox. A normal fox. Lycus relaxed and continued on - almost bumping right into a deer, who of course didn't notice him. So that makes at least two non magical creatures that resided in the Forbidden Forest. Good to know.
Now that he was much more alert to his surroundings, he could hear a not-so-faint thumping noise that sounded a lot like horses galloping. He knew that horses didn't live in the Forbidden Forest. Thestrals and unicorns did, but thestrals weren't the kind of creature to gallop, and unicorns weren't the kind of creature to gallop in herds. Which left centaurs.
Lycus briefly wondered if perhaps they were hunting the deer that was now stuck in his range of obscurity, unable to find its way out because of how confused it was. Lycus sighed and stepped away from the deer so that it could move on. The centaurs wouldn't appreciate his help in catching a deer. Quite the opposite. They also wouldn't appreciate him interrupting their hunt. Again, quite the opposite.
The deer continued on its path of escaping certain doom as Lycus contemplated revealing himself. The thumping was indeed approaching. He only had so long until they were upon him. To reveal or not to reveal.
He cast a glamour on himself to become the character known as Arnou and took off his cloak, leaning against one of the surrounding trees to wait for them. Centaurs weren't known to be able to see through wizard magic, though they may surprise him. Regardless, it was Arnou and Dacarus who were advocating for magical creature rights. They were the ones who were going to lead the... what was an appropriate term for what they were doing? Revolution? Yeah. Revolution. They were planning to overthrow the government in order to end oppression, weren't they? Whether or not only one ruling figure will be established afterwards, and that that ruling figure was once known as Voldemort is irrelevant.
So it was Arnou who was leaning against a tree, ready to befriend some irate and aggressive centaurs.
A group of five of the human-horse hybrids, since they were not halfbreeds, came by. Three of them kept going to follow the deer while two stayed behind, arrows trained on the figure leaning against a tree.
Arnou was an adult, and would not be spared if the centaurs decided he wasn't worth talking to. Maybe if he were still Lycus, they would second guess killing him, but not anymore. He needed to make sure not to stress them.
"What are you doing in our forest?" one of the centaurs said, his voice as harsh as the brush beneath his feet. He had a cremello coat, with ivory hair and blue eyes.
The other centaur, a female with what Lycus was pretty sure was a spotted coat of bronze and beige, looked Arnou up and down intently, glaring all the while. He was hoping that perhaps she recognized him from whatever was said within the stars.
He stayed leaning against the tree, posture relaxed and hands visible so they knew he meant no harm, "I only seek to speak with you." He used the work seek rather than want, because centaurs did not enjoy being used by wizards, and that included doing things that wizards wanted.
The centaur who asked the question stomped a hoof on the ground and growled some more. It was odd to think of a horse growling, but these were centaurs who had human vocal chords, or something similar to them.
The female of the two spoke up next with a voice that was simultaneously smooth and imposing, ecru eyes boring into him, "Who are you?"
"My name is Arnou." He replied, cool and collected. Both sets of glaring eyes shone at his name. So they did recognize him. Or his name. One or the other.
The rather large and physically imposing centaur narrowed his icey eyes and put more tension on his bowstring while the smaller but equally imposing feminine centaur released some of the tension on hers.
"You will bring us misery, eagle-wolf. Get out." Naturally, this was said by the centaur who looked more ready to pierce him with an arrow. In spite of this threat, Lycus was wondering why they called him eagle-wolf. Maybe that's what the stars called him. But why?
Arnou didn't get the chance to speak, the spotted centaur beating him to it, "Calm, Solsun. He may bring us freedom instead. Do not ignore the stars just because of your enmity towards humans."
The icey gaze turned towards his companion, being met with ecru eyes that returned the same amount of steel. Lycus sincerely wished that the female centaur didn't end up being another Firenze, because Firenze wasn't doing so great in the centaur department, and that would make her virtually useless in befriending the centaurs.
"You ignore what the humans have done to us, Pikrin."
She turned the human portion of her body towards the centaur that Lycus could safely and correctly assume was named Solsun, bringing her shoulders up just a bit in defiance, "No. I look at what the humans could do for us."
Lycus wisely chose not to take a turn in the conversation, even if his next line would have confirmed her words.
"You begin to sound like Firenze." Solsun spat out the centaur's name in disgust.
Pikrin was not intimidated in the slightest, "Firenze wanted to help the humans. We are looking at a human who could help us." They weren't really looking at him in this moment, but both males understood her point. Her tail swished in unspoken challenge between the two centaurs.
Solsun took a deep breath and blew it out sharply, turning his eyes back to Arnou with antipathy, though continuing to speak to his companion, "You will be the one to tell Magorian of this. I want no part in this fraternization." He said the last word with so much loathing that Arnou could almost feel the hatred coming off of him in physical waves.
The cremello centaur took off in the direction the other centaurs had gone, leaving a relieved Arnou and an irritated centaur behind.
Ecru eyes turned on him, still glaring though not nearly as much as Solsun was. "My friend spoke truth, eagle-wolf. You may bring us misery beyond repair if we accept you."
Arnou took the following pause to mean that he was allowed to speak, and took a gander at a question, "Why have you not killed me yet, then?"
"Because there is an equal chance that you will instead give us the freedom we deserve." Lycus could tell that she was holding something back, but didn't press it.
Instead, he aimed to ease her trepidation, "I do not pursue your continued misery. I aspire only to end your maltreatment." Carefully avoiding anything that could be easily translated as 'I want'. Pikrin may spot this, since pursue and aspire are somewhat odd words to use in this context, but even if she does, she will know that it is because Arnou doesn't want anything from her. That's what he's hoping on.
She regarded him with piercing eyes, searching for any deception within his words. He met her eyes with his own. He had nothing to hide. He spoke only the truth, and she was able to see this.
"I will speak with Magorian. Feel lucky, human. You leave with your life." She turned away and trotted in the opposite direction of the other four centaurs, presumably to speak with Magorian. When she was far enough away that Lycus felt safe, he put the cloak back on and took off the glamours, breathing a heavy sigh of relief.
On that same Sunday afternoon, Dacarus took a trip to Gringotts. This trip was considerably less tense than Arnou's experience with the centaurs and he didn't have any weapons aimed at him at any moment.
This marked the third visit to the goblins, the last one happening just the week prior at Dacarus's request to express a bit more of his plans to Gnarlob, setting the foundation for a trusting relationship.
This meeting was set at the request of Gnarlob, which could be just as good of a sign as it could be bad.
Marvolo took the offered seat, "Good afternoon, Gnarlob. I hope the day is finding you in good fortune." He had taken a look into some pureblood etiquette before the second meeting, and decided to mix it up with what he knew goblins appreciated. So far, Gnarlob had been pleased with his wishings of full pockets and prosperity.
"Well met, Dacarus. Have you ever heard of the sword once owned by Godric Gryffindor?"
Marvolo took a second to enjoy the subtlety of getting right down to business. He had always loved that about goblins. "Yes, I have."
In fact, Godric Gryffindor's sword was the only Founder's Relic he couldn't find. It was as elusive in nature as it was in practice.
"As you well know, goblins consider buying something as renting it. As such, the sword of Godric Gryffindor is rightfully ours, but nobody has seen fit to return it to us. I believe that if you can restore the sword to us, my superiors may be willing to speak with you." Gnarlob looked at him expectantly.
Marvolo blinked. Find and return the sword of Gryffindor? Well, shit.
He cleared his throat quietly, not wanting his uncertainty to show, "I see. Arnou happens to be going to Hogwarts, however I cannot contact him until spring break. I don't know how long it will take, but I assure you we will find it and restore it to its rightful owners." It was all he could do, really. If he refused, Gnarlob may very well never speak to him again, which was detrimental to his plans.
Gnarlob slowly nodded, "I expected as much. Until you retrieve the sword, I am as far as you can go with Gringotts."
"I understand, Gnarlob. Is that all?" Gnarlob nodded his head. Got the business out of the way, and they were done. Marvolo stood and bowed his head in departure, receiving one in return. And with that, he left.
Joshua the Arcanis: Hey, no worries about a long review - that just means you'll get a long reply. I think some of Marvolo's motive has been displayed in this chapter, but whether he's taking over the world for the hell of it or because he truly does feel it's the only way to right some wrongs is going to be left up to interpretation. I don't know if his thoughts towards muggles and muggle-borns will actually come up in the future, but in case it does, I won't tell you what they are right now. However, to keep with the intelligent characters thing, his reasons, while possibly fueled by emotion, will be logical and not just because muggles and muggle-borns are lesser. In regards to Harry... you know, I hadn't even considered putting Hermione in the story, but she just fit so well with her perspective on house elves and their plans to help magical creatures, so I honestly have no idea if Harry is going to be a part of this story besides being around. We'll just have to see. As for Lycus, he was raised from birth to be the perfect servant. Flaws aren't allowed in his resume. They are inevitable, of course, but they aren't supposed to be glaringly obvious. If you ever feel that he doesn't have enough, or that they aren't big enough, let me know and I'll see what shenanigans I can get him into.