Seven Years Chapter 24

AN: No beta reader for the time being (oh well).


It was five minutes to seven thirty when Merula headed up to the Prefect's Lavatory on the fifth floor, her arms full with the carefully bundled broom and a little candle of hope in her heart, even if it was flickering with every step she took into the darkness. A.J. had dictated she would go alone, to maximize their chances against a paranoid Ravenclaw.

"Stop," a cold voice snapping from a shadowy corner ordered her, and Merula froze in place as a wand extended from the shadows, followed by a pale, slender hand. "Hand over your wand or I'll blast it from you."

Merula glanced around the coffidor, but finding nothing she could run to, she set down the broom and rolled her wand over to the figure still largely in shadow.

"Right," the voice grumbled. "What is it that you have in the sack?"

"It's a broom," Merula muttered, looking down at the expensive broom wrapped in a cheap bedsheet. "For Cho-"

"She's not coming," the girl in shadow replied, though she stepped forward, into the dim light of the corridor. "You deal with me."

Merula grimaced as she saw the pale, freckled features of the knock-off Weasley, though she was dressed in Ravenclaw blue, in a robe that seemed far too large for her.

"Who are you?" Merula asked.

"Friend," the knock-off Weasley replied. "Now, last chance to back out."

Merula blinked, her mind trying to figure out what the older girl was talking about. "I… don't understand?"

"Did you think me so stupid as to fall for one of A.J. Mason's pranks?" the girl scoffed, rolling her brown eyes. "The girl who humiliated one of her enemies into quitting school? Merlin, you Slytherins are stupid. Do I look like a gullible lemming to you?

Merula suddenly understood. "You think this is a prank?"

"Yes," the girl said. "Cho gets a gift from the most infamous Slytherin at Hogwarts the same day Gryffindor's Seeker is sent to the hospital wing while playing against Slytherin. Do you really think we're that blind? Clearly they don't sort for cunning anymore."

"It's not a prank!" Merula protested, though she wasn't able to defend herself further.

"We'll see," the answer came. "Now, unwrap the broom. Nice and slow, unless you want me to hex you."

Merula swallowed, closed her eyes, and did as the Ravenclaw ordered, stepping back with the broom unwrapped.

"Lumos Maxima!" the Ravenclaw girl called out, a second before Merula was blinded by a shower of light that sent her sprawling to the floor, clawing at her eyes as her vision swam.

"No ambush," the girl muttered when Merula recovered enough to see again, though she fought against dark spots in her vision, no doubt caused by the effects of eating the light spell head on. "Maybe this is an honest offer after all."

Merula grimaced, but she remained seated as the older girl poked at her broom, small charms coming and going with disturbing regularity.

"Marietta?" a voice called from a distant hallway. "Is something wrong?"

Merula tried to stand, to try to find who the newcomer was, but she stopped when the Ravenclaw girl raised her wand at her again. "This isn't for you."

"Marietta?" The distant voice was followed by the sound of running, and Merula caught a glimpse of the girl A.J. had said was Cho Chang. "What are you doing here?"

The girl named Marietta said nothing, but she rose from the broom and pulled her fellow Ravenclaw out of earshot, whispering something that Merula couldn't catch.

"A Nimbus 2001?" Cho asked out loud. "And you're certain?"

Merula risked standing up again, glancing over to the two Ravenclaw girls, feeling anxious as she tried to read Cho's face and Marietta's body language, the former open and surprised, the latter defensive and guarded.

"Marietta," Cho was saying, her voice gentle but firm. "I understand your concern, but I can make my own choices."

Merula took a small step back as Cho stepped past Marietta, slowly falling to one knee as she picked up Merula's broom and rolled it around in her hands. "It's… real."

"It's probably cursed," Marietta protested. "You saw what they did to Potter."

"Potter has always had bad luck on the Quidditch pitch." Cho said, rising back up to her feet. "And that was a Bludger that went after him, not his broom. And last year it was Quirrel who cursed him."

Merula wet her lips nervously, trying to figure out if Cho was going to accept the broom or not. It was so much work, and getting blinded by a fake Weasley had made the trip significantly less worthwhile.

"Merula, was it?" Cho asked suddenly, and Merula felt surprised she was even being talked to. "You were the one who hexed that Gryffindor boy last year, no?"

"Uhm," Merula hesitated for a moment before she answered. "No, that was… someone using Polyjuice Potion."

Cho raised an eyebrow and Marietta tilted her head, but neither of them said anything.

"I… had a falling out with someone else," Merula explained. "He was… unhappy with that choice and decided to use my face to attack another student. The person he sent wasn't particularly… careful."

Cho turned to Marietta, and she spoke in another language that Merula didn't understand, and Marietta merely shook her head and shrugged in response, looking more annoyed and defeated than angry.

"We'll need to have this broom tested," Cho said finally, giving Merula a small nod. "And assuming it's not been hexed, we'll return it to you at the end of Quidditch season."

"If it is," Marietta added. "Then be prepared for retaliation."

Merula was about to make another protest, but a loud scream echoed from the walls, and Merula jumped in surprise, as did both of the Ravenclaw girls.

"What is it?" Marietta whispered, her wand drawn and her eyes darting from Cho's face to the source of the sound, the corridor next to them. "Cho! Where are you going?"

Cho, in contrast to Merula and Marietta, began to run toward the source of the scream, broom and all.

"Cho!" Marietta shouted after her friend, but Cho didn't seem to notice the protest, and she disappeared down the corridor, though her shadow lingered on the opposite wall for a second more.

"Should we…call for help?" Merula asked the fake Weasley after an awkward moment of silence.

"We should," Marietta grumbled, but she tossed Merula's wand back into her hands regardless. "But I'm not going to let Cho go alone. Why are you the only sane person I've met today?"

Merula hesitated for a second as the red-haired Ravenclaw began to run, but she followed her regardless.

It was easy to find Cho, for her shadow projected far against the wall to Merula's right, and the unmistakable stench of something awful burning made Merula gag as she approached Cho, Marietta, and a sobbing Hufflepuff boy, given the bright yellow of his uniform.

"Cho," Marietta whispered, falling to her knees next to her friend, the sobbing Hufflepuff boy, and the stiff, unmoving body on the ground. "What happened?"

Merula turned her eyes away from the scene, her stomach turning at the thought of seeing a dead body, and she took another step, grimacing when she heard something hard crunch under her shoe, though she was relieved when she only saw a green grape crushed under her shoe, not something gruesome.

"Merula," Marietta barked, her voice firm, enough for Merula to look back at the two Ravenclaw girls around the sobbing boy and the unmoving body next to them. "Get Madam Pomfrey. He's alive, but it's the Heir of Slytherin again."

Merula froze as the words A.J. had painted across the walls of Moaning Myrtle's lavatory flashed through her head. It had been a joke, but suddenly it wasn't so funny anymore.

"Merula!" Marietta snapped, irritation creeping back into her voice. "Cho and I will vouch for you. Now go get Madam Pomfrey."

Merula didn't understand what the Ravenclaw girl meant, but the words were enough to spring her into action, and she took off down the corridor, running furiously until she reached the Hospital Wing, her lungs and legs burning with pain as she stopped just by Madam Pomfrey's office, knocking frantically at the door until it finally cracked open.

"Madam Pomfrey," Merula gasped, raising a shaking hand to stop Madam Pomfrey's inevitable retort. "There's been an attack by the Heir."

"The Heir of Slytherin?" Madam Pomfrey asked after a moment of stunned silence, her face turning from angry to grim. "Are you certain?"

"Madam Pomfrey!" Dumbledore's voice came from behind Merula. "There has been another attack, ah, I see you've been informed."

"Stay here," Merula heard Madam Pomfrey order, her voice leaving no room for dissent. "You're too young to see such a terrible scene for yourself."

Merula let out a shaky breath as she watched Madam Pomfrey leave, and she stood alone in the Hospital Wing for a time, gathering her breath in the quiet evening.

And then something she didn't expect happened.

There was a loud pop that caused Merula to turn her gaze to one of the few occupied beds in the room, one where she could only see a silhouette in comical shadow standing on the bed.

It was a House Elf, and Merula stood to attention when she heard Potter cry out in obvious pain. "Get off! Dobby!"

Merula's mind went blank for a moment, slowly reforming around a question she could never imagine asking herself, not in a thousand years. What was Dobby doing at Hogwarts?

Merula hesitated for a moment, watching the shade of the House Elf talk, though she was far away enough that she couldn't hear his voice, only see his jaw move like a shadowy puppet. As much as she tried from her distance, she couldn't confirm if the House Elf was indeed Dobby or not, and she took a few careful steps forward as a result.

"What are you doing here?" Potter hissed, his voice filled with equal parts anger and confusion. "And how did you know I missed the train?"

Merula stepped closer to the bed, still quiet, doing her best to keep listening.

"It was you!" Potter exclaimed, even before Merula could reach the next bed. "You stopped the barrier from letting us through!"

Merula kept walking, though she slipped off her shoes in the process. Information was the key here, and she risked alerting the House Elf if she was caught.

Merula took longer strides until she reached the other side of the long cloth that separates her from Potter and the House Elf, and to her disgust, she recognized Dobby's nasally voice.

"And never did Dobby dream that Harry Potter would get to school another way!"

Merula frowned at the information. Dobby wanted Potter away from Hogwarts? That was… odd, to say the least.

Merula remained silent on her end of the curtain, still a safe distance away from the sobbing ball that was Dobby, babbling about burning Lucius' dinner and the deserved flogging he had received as far too light punishment.

"You nearly got Ron and me expelled," Potter shot back, his voice clear that he had little sympathy for the House Elf. "You'd better get lost before my bones come back, Dobby, or I might strangle you."

Merula smiled at the threat. Perhaps she would convey it to Lucius as a suggestion. Clearly Dobby had stepped out of line, and she felt no shortage of second-hand embarrassment as a member of the House of Malfoy listening in on what Dobby was doing behind their backs.

"Harry Potter must go home!" Dobby exclaimed suddenly, right after a spiel of socks something about House Elves that Merula had no patience for. "Dobby thought his Bludger would be enough to make-"

Merula froze at the words. Marietta had mentioned it. Potter had been attacked by a Bludger. She had been sure it had been A.J. or another Slytherin behind it, but the culprit was… Dobby? Their idiot House Elf Dobby had attacked Harry Potter?

"Your Bludger?" Potter sounded as furious as Merula felt. "What d'you mean, your Bludger? You made that Bludger try and kill me?"

"Not kill you, sir, never kill you!" Dobby was pleading now. "Dobby wants to save Harry Potter's life! Better sent home, grievously injured, than remain here, sir! Dobby only wanted Harry Potter hurt enough to be sent home!"

Merula had heard enough, and whatever interest she had in Dobby's motive was replaced with a black tide of rage, and Merula reached through the curtain with a hiss of rage, seizing Dobby by his throat with a single, calculated move.

"Hello Dobby," Merula hissed, even as she tossed him away from Potter, watching with some grim satisfaction as the House Elf slammed headfirst into the cold floor, his watery eyes bulging in fear. "And what exactly are you doing where you don't belong?"

Dobby whimpered, and Merula pointed her wand down at him. "Dobby, as a member of the House of Malfoy, I demand answers from you. Stay and answer every question me and Potter have, or wait until I have Lucius interrogate you personally."

Dobby shrieked at that, and he ran from his position into the nearest wall, banging his head furiously and wailing.

Merula grimaced at the sight, and she looked back over to Potter, noting grimly he had rolled over onto his right arm, an arm that looked disturbingly flabby.

"Potter," Merula grimaced as she left her wand by his good hand and she raised her own hands in mock surrender. "I assure you that I'm as angry as you are for what Dobby has done, and I want answers just as you do, so if you have any questions, work with me."

Potter swallowed, his breathing heavy and laboured. "How long were you listening?"

"I was here before Dobby arrived," Merula said, trying to concentrate her jumbled thoughts with Dobby's head smashing against the wall behind her. "Dobby, punish yourself by being silent, and don't do anything unless I order you to."

To Merula's surprise, Dobby complied, though he still whimpered and sniffled, mumbling to himself about Potter.

"There's been another attack by the Heir of Slytherin," Merula admitted after a minute. "Fifth floor by the Prefect's Lavatory."

Potter's eyes widened and his jaw tightened. "Who?"

Merula shook her head. "I didn't find out who it was, but-"

"Dobby cannot let Harry Potter stay here now that history is about to repeat itself," Dobby whimpered, cutting Merula off mid-sentence, and she glared down at him, irritated he had defied her order to be silent. "The Chamber of Secrets-"

For a moment, Dobby froze in place, then he looked up at Merula, horror dawning in his watery eyes.

"So there is a Chamber of Secrets," Potter cut in from behind Merula, with disbelief in his voice. "Tell us more, Dobby."

"You heard him, Dobby," Merula snapped. "Tell him- tell us more."

Dobby opened his mouth again, clearly unable to disobey a direct order, but before he could say anything, Merula heard something that made her hold a hand out, silencing Dobby.

There were footsteps, and heavy ones, coming up the stairs. Even if Dobby's babbling was brief, Merula knew the newcomers would hear him, and so she made a split second decision to dismiss Dobby.

"This isn't over," Merula barked, angry at the timing and angry at Dobby for his defiance and his luck, though her mind raced for words that would end his reign of terror against Potter. "Dobby, leave Potter alone and never return. What I'll do to you if you do-"

Dobby needed no more warning, and he disappeared with another loud crack, leaving Merula alone with Potter.

"Potter," Merula grimaced at the word as she picked up her wand again, the sign of goodwill no longer needed as Merula collected her shoes again, lest she was questioned about running around the Hospital ward in her socks. "We will deal with Dobby on our own terms."

There was no response from Potter, who was doing a passable imitation of sleep, and Merula watched silently as a boy was carried in, his uniform identifying him as a Gryffindor and his hands clutching a camera that reeked of burning plastic, though she was unfamiliar with the boy's name.

"Mr. Creevy is still alive, Miss Snyde," Dumbledore said as he stepped into the room, his posture firm as he gave Merula a weak smile. "And Miss Edgecombe has already confirmed your commendable actions for tonight. Ten points to Slytherin, but I must ask you to return to your dorms, and not cause needless panic amongst the student body."

Merula let out a long breath, and she gave Potter one last look before she left, heading back down to the Slytherin quarters, her mind racing with questions, the answers she would need to tear from Dobby once she could corner him in Malfoy Manor.

But first, Merula needed to consult A.J. on what to do next, especially with their handiwork on Moaning Myrtle's wall looking more damning by the minute.

All three of her roommates were laughing when Merula burst in, though one by one their smiles died, horror and understanding replacing them, none worse than A.J., who had lost all colour and whose hands were shaking like a leaf.

"A.J.," Merula said, as she gestured for her roommates to come close, giving one little glance at the door behind her before she spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. "The Chamber of Secrets is real, and there's been an attack from the Heir of Slytherin."


AN: For any Dobby fans reading, he'll be (relatively) fine. Lucius is going to... have a bad Christmas, in more than one way.

Three chapters published in as many minutes. Enjoy!