Death and Detention
Two days before Halloween, Harry and Lyra received a letter back from Nestor filled with hand stamps from their family filling up three whole scrolls of the post. They were able to identify all of the full-sized ones but had trouble with the smaller ones as they were growing at different rates. Nestor mentioned that the Filipino Ministry was interested in some of the other species on the island, like the hoohoos, and would like to speak with them over winter break regarding the collection of any other samples.
The day before Halloween, Neville was able to get to the top of the easy tree without falling. He celebrated by cheering… and then falling. Harry remembered bits of the Halloweens from when he was living with the Dursleys but at Hogwarts it was different. There was still candy and pumpkins but no costumes. Harry heard a number of the muggleborns lamenting this fact and Colin had even brought along a gorilla mask that he wore the whole day, scaring quite a few people, including Professor McGonagall, who thought he was experimenting with human transfiguration as a first-year.
Ron Weasley approached Harry on the morning of Halloween and wished him a happy Harry Potter Day. The boy was confused when he had to explain to Harry that this was the anniversary of when Harry had killed You-Know-Who. Harry didn't remember his parents, so he couldn't exactly mourn them, but this boy had to be pretty thick to wish him a happy holiday on the anniversary of their deaths.
So he just enjoyed Halloween with everyone else and stuffed himself with candy. Harry celebrated with the boys in their house, while Lyra spent most of her time with Whispers, Luna, Meli, and Daria. Luna was a lot more sociable than she usually was and explained to Harry that she could be less confusing than usual because all the other children on sugar highs drove off the nargles that usually were so drawn to being around her.
Colin was involved in an all-out war with Peeves throughout the day. They had been engaging in skirmishes throughout the castle. Colin had modified his Lumos spell to create a strong flashbulb in different colors, and Peeves attacked with dung bombs, water balloons, and jump scares. At the end of the day, Peeves had stolen Colin's gorilla mask and was using it to terrify other students.
The day after Halloween was a Sunday and Brandt showed up later in the morning than usual but still got to see them in the aftermath of their sugar binge. He found most of the Scamanders laying around the common room after crashing for their sugar highs. He looked like he had just come from a costume party himself, as he was adorned with a large handlebar mustache and thick sideburns.
Whispers managed to get up first and drank an entire cup of water before running off to Harry's project room to relieve himself. The process repeated itself with Harry and Lyra as they both got up to use the bathroom in their respective dorms. While he was waiting for the children to get ready, he picked a ripe mango off one of the trees and used a spell to squeeze all the juice out into a pitcher and clean out the pulp.
When everyone got ready, he passed glasses of mango juice to them and drank one himself, lifting his giant mustache with one finger as he drank. Brandt hadn't expected himself to be a fan of fruit juice before. After his time at Durmstrang and inheriting Lord Black's coffee addiction, fruit juice seemed to be a nice change of pace. The end of Arcturus's life was turning out to be busier than all the years he had been with him before. So to spend each Sunday at the premiere British magic school teaching basic etiquette and history to children while drinking fruit juice felt a lot like a day off to him.
"Our schedule today will be short," he pointed to a notice on their message board displaying a house meeting at 2 p.m. "We're going to spend a couple of hours before lunch in the Ravenclaw tower. We need to spend some time checking how your spellwork has progressed, and I need to speak with Miss Granger about her arm again. Please go and retrieve the homework I gave you and I will send you back any corrections by owl."
The children ran off to get their work and then they proceeded with Whispers hitching a ride on Harry's back up to Ravenclaw Tower. Halfway there, Harry had Whispers switch off with Lyra. He had been getting bigger and faster while at Hogwarts and now was up to Lyra's waist crouched over, and just above Harry's standing up straight. Though he still liked being carried, regardless of his developments.
When they arrived at Ravenclaw tower, the door had just been opened by another student so they didn't need to solve a riddle to enter.
When they arrived at the dueling room, they found it was already occupied by Hermione and a boy named Anthony. They were throwing disarming charms back and forth at each other and trying to learn to shield as well. Harry wondered how a disarming charm would affect his staff and if learning the actual shield spell would somehow make the one he performed stronger.
Once Hermione and Anthony had exhausted each other they stepped down to sit and watch Harry and Lyra's practice. This time, they started with offensive spells. Brandt conjured a large stone pillar for Lyra. She was able to shoot off small fireballs every six seconds from her staff that made tiny scorch marks on the stone, though about half of them missed the target. With a wave of her wand, a spout of flame splashed against the stone, blackening it but not causing other damage.
Harry took over and used his staff to make impact marks the size of cricket balls in the stone every two seconds for a total of fourteen times. With his wand, he was able to get a few small bursts of fire that couldn't reach the pillar. When he focused with his staff for nearly thirty seconds he was able to release a pulse that cracked the pillar, sending the top half to the floor in pieces. Hermione and Anthony watched while their jaws dropped to the floor.
Brandt shook the two of them out of their surprise, "Would the two of you like to help test their defenses?" They were hesitant but stepped up on the platform against Lyra to start. "Don't worry, she won't be using fire, just defending herself. Only disarming, tickling, and knockback from you." Turning back to Lyra, "Start it up."
She held her staff diagonally across her body like before and the black hair on the staff started to sway back and forth.
"Go ahead and start," he told the two Ravens.
They didn't see a shield so they hesitated for a moment before Anthony let off a tickling charm. It sailed way off target. Confused by the amount he missed, he fired off a knockback charm which also went off target. Hermione fired off a few spells of her own that missed the girl standing perfectly still. They both continued to shoot off spells until Anthony changed tactics and fired a disarming spell at her feet. It landed right between Lyra's toes. He then aimed for the same spot and closed his eyes, moving his hand up just a bit and recast the disarming charm. This time it hit right into her chest and nearly yanked the staff away.
"Excellent!" Brandt exclaimed. "I think we found the weakness in that spell, though I doubt you would let two people cast nearly thirty spells at you in the future without returning fire. I trust that you won't share the details of this with anyone." Brandt cast an intimidating glare at Anthony who looked around in a panic to find the same glower on Hermione's face. He nodded very quickly.
"Let's try the same thing with Mr. Potter." Harry got up on the platform and erected his shield. Hermione and Anthony didn't spend any time hesitating before they started to fire off spells. Each spell that hit the shield dissipated like they were being turned into colored smoke. Nothing they were doing was having any effect and Harry didn't seem to be getting tired. This time, Hermione decided to innovate, she cast a wide area of the freezing charm on the floor around Harry. She poured magic into it until he started shivering and his feet were anchored to the ground. It was too much magic for her and Hermione needed to stop casting for a bit. Anthony switched as well and cast a flame charm on Harry's shield. The ice buildup around his feet melted and as soon as his feet were free, he slipped and fell with his shield falling at the same time.
"Good, now you both know some of your limitations. Work on ways to counter those problems and we'll try again at the end of November." He turned to Anthony, "Thank you for your assistance but I need to speak with Miss Granger now in private."
Anthony hesitated a moment until Hermione gave him a nod and he headed back out of the room.
"Miss Granger, have you had time to speak with your parents regarding the offer of House Black?" she nodded to Brandt. "I would like to speak with them directly. Lord Arcturus Black is hesitant to have any sort of interaction with muggles, it just isn't done in our family. Most likely, he will want to do a full ancestral investigation on your family to see if you have any magical roots."
"So he won't help if Hermione's family isn't magical?" Lyra asked with resentment in her voice.
"Most likely not," Brandt told them. "However it is highly likely that at some point one of her ancestors was magical, and I will find what we are looking for even if I have to search back to the time of the Wizard Councils."
Both Harry and Lyra were getting angry at their uncle's attitude, but Hermione had a more calculating look on her face. "I understand, I wish you good luck in your research. Please contact my parents as soon as you can."
"I will take my leave now. Harry, Lyra, keep working on your staff skills. You should learn some spells for fighting soon, even if it is just levitation." Brandt left the dueling arena leaving the three children to themselves.
"How are you not angrier at my uncle!" Lyra seethed at Hermione after Brandt had left.
"Because he's helping. Even if he can't help, he has already helped a little. Furthermore, it sounded like Brandt was sure he would find something, and if he has to look back to the time of the Wizard Councils, I'm sure the records from that time aren't the best."
Lyra didn't get it, but Harry understood. "So he'd just create something for public justification to speak with them?"
Finally, Lyra understood, "I don't like politics."
"Only the politicians do," Hermione said grimly.
Sometime after lunch, Harry and Lyra made it back to the common room for the meeting to find all of their house members waiting in the hallway.
"It's locked," Lee told them.
A few more students arrived, and Milicent still tried the knob to confirm what Lee said.
A couple of minutes after 2 p.m., the door opened and Newt, Tina, and Parti Flâneur came out to meet them. Harry made the connection immediately - they had been doing construction. He whispered to Lyra who also started to get giddy.
Over the last month, Nevile had started to enjoy climbing and had requested a project room to help him do more than just trees. Colin hadn't finished mastering the animated developing potion yet for his photos but still had requested the darkroom. Harry's room had been one of the first ones completed because all he needed was just a large dumpster filled with soil and flobberworms. The experiment of drying out the squashed worms had also been a success. The dried worms became similar, but not exactly the same, to dried meat. When Professor Snape tested them, he found that they would restore a bit of magic and would be helpful to treat minor magical exhaustion. The taste was still an issue for most students that weren't used to it as Harry and Lyra were, or Luna because she was Luna.
"I know you've all been patient with the improvements to the common room, so let's just get right into it. First, the dueling arena, from the front entrance or the common room, the path is Left, Straight." Newt turned back around and entered the maze.
After going left and straight, a door made with metal bars appeared in front of them. You could hear the sounds of people cheering and spellfire faintly behind it. Next to the door was a large message board with dates and times along it.
"If you would like to use the room, sign up here and I will find someone to supervise your time slot. Let's go inside," he opened the door and they heard the cheers of a crowd as the heavy door opened.
The students emerged into a room that seemed to be at the top row of a small coliseum that could fit approximately a hundred people. In the center was a square platform with a trench around it about six feet deep. The stage looked like a chessboard but each corner had a different colored tile: red, blue, green, and yellow. On the far side of the room at the top of the seats was an obelisk about five feet tall with a red gem in the center. They all marched down to the first row which was at the same height as the stage and Newt hopped over onto the stage along with Tina.
"Now you see what took so long," Tina began and shot a white spell at the obelisk. When it hit, there was a 'Ding!' and a barrier rose around the stage. "Until you can hit that obelisk from the stage, no fighting inside it, it will react to almost all low-level spells without any damage. That will protect any spectators around the dueling area. To disable the barrier, you need someone outside the stage to strike it with a spell."
She walked over to the red corner, casting the same white spell at the corner tile. The tile vanished and a mannequin popped out of it, collapsing in a heap on the ground. "If you know animation charms, you'll be able to make this move for target practice. You can create up to five of them." She kicked it off the edge into the pit. "The pit will consume any of the practice dummies or conjured objects. Anything not conjured will be undamaged if it falls in."
"Can they cast spells?" Colin blurted out.
Cedric answered, "There is no such thing as a self-casting wand or we would use them for law enforcement. Though it should be possible to use runes to make them perform elemental magics or projectile attacks, right?"
Tina nodded, "Theoretically that's correct, but I haven't heard of that being done before. Some ancient tombs employ such methods as traps, but I haven't heard of it being done with mannequins before. Many of the old manors employ the use of gargoyles to defend themselves, but they rely primarily on physical attacks with extreme magical resistance. If anyone third-year and up would like to attempt it as a project, we can set up a room for it."
Tina then proceeded to the green corner to show that they had small spheres that were already animated to fly around at random and change color when hit with a spell. They were spelled with a modified golden snitch spell, the modification being that they moved much slower. The yellow corner had a large stone pillar rising from it which floated and could be pushed around until tapped with a wand and it would settle on the ground. The blue corner flooded the arena with water a few inches deep.
When she was done explaining everything Megan asked, "Can you duel with Mr. Scamander?"
Newt just laughed, "No, that would not be a fair fight."
"That's mean!" Su accused Newt.
Tina was smiling as Newt responded, "No, you misunderstand. Tina is the one who would win. My specialty is in magical animals, and while I might be able to ride a dragon into battle, my wife was a full-fledged American auror. They are much more serious than the British Auror Corps. There is a reason why the Americans haven't had a Dark Lord problem like Europe regularly has. They get identified early and put down hard."
Everyone turned to Tina and looked at her a lot differently. Harry started to notice some similarities with Alastor as well. She almost always had her wand in hand and was always standing in a way that she could pivot to another position instantly. There was something about the way she stood that felt militaristic as well. Though just the fame of her husband kept her from standing out too much or from being noticed for what she truly was capable of.
Tina just shrugged and asked Cedric to take down the barrier before they headed out.
"To get to the common room from here, you need to follow the same path as from the front door; Left, Left, Straight, Back. To exit back to the hallway, just proceed straight," Newt informed them. They walked back to the main entrance. "Now, to get to the study room, the pathway is; Right, Straight."
They entered again and followed the maze to a polished wooden door. Inside the room was paneled with dark wood and bookcases were covering the walls, but most floor areas had tables surrounded by chairs. On the sides of the space were tables with couches. Towards the middle on each side were small outcroppings, with walls made of cement, and open to the center of the room. At the far end of the room was a large table hanging from the ceiling by ropes on a pulley system. There were a few chairs around it and bookcases lining the wall behind it.
Newt took over this explanation, "This can be an extra study room. The lamps on the tables are enchanted to absorb your Lumos spell, observe - Lumos!" He cast the wand lighting charm and brought the tip of it to a lamp on the desk. The ball of light on his wand adhered to the underside of the lamp casting its light only on the table. "Nox!" he incanted again, and the light went out. "Cast your Lumos however bright you want your lamp to be. It will also work with colored light as well. On the sides of the room are these cement bunkers. They are enchanted to be very resistant to magic, so most all spells you would need to cast for homework can be done safely inside here."
This time he conjured a small metal spike that flew into one of the bunkers and embedded itself in the back wall. After that, he waved his wand in an intricate pattern and lighting erupted from his wand, immediately striking the metal spike and branching out in many directions, trying to find another point to anchor itself, but finding none. He canceled the spell after a few seconds, vanished the spike, and the wall repaired itself.
"That was just to illustrate to you that you don't need to worry about damaging them, I don't expect to see you casting something that powerful until at least your sixth year. Now down at the end of the room is the space for the Explorer's Club. The table is elevated and despite the rope system, it will remain stable and not shift around. We put it on ropes because sometimes you might want to be standing next to it instead of sitting. The books on the shelves are all currently empty, fill them up with anything you find in the castle. Colin, you are the founder, so you can figure out how things need to be run. Also," he pulled a tiny scroll of paper out of his pocket, "this is the path to your darkroom, though if anyone else would like to use it, please give them the directions as well. Neville, this is your climbing room." Newt passed another paper to Neville.
Neville looked at it and asked sheepishly, "Can I just put this up on the message board for everyone?" He received a nod back from Newt.
As they got back to the common room, Neville went to put up the directions to the climbing room on the board when he suddenly blurted out, "It's finally happening, Hagrid's doing it!"
Everyone gathered around to see a large poster with the following written:
Thestral Feeding Times:
Wednesday 7:45 p.m. & Saturday 8:00 p.m.
Meet by the Groundskeeper Hut outside the forest.
Unicorn Visits with Professor Kettleburn
Every Saturday Evening
Sign up below and you will be notified a week ahead of your slot.
Be aware! Unicorns are often hostile to men, and women less often.
If one of the herd does not like you, you will be taken back to the castle.
No exceptions.
There was a rush for quills as everyone wanted to sign up for the unicorns.
William asked, "What's a thestral?"
Luna responded happily, "They are a type of winged magical horse. They have a very select form of invisibility that makes it only possible to see them if you've seen someone die and understand what happened. They are often treated as a death omen, but in reality, it is just a defense mechanism. Other animals cannot comprehend death on the same level that wizards do, so it makes any potential predators have trouble pursuing them."
"Excellent Miss Lovegood, five points for you," Newt responded. "Pay attention, they are not evil, their association with death is nothing to be afraid of. They are used by the school to pull the carriages and can also be used for carrying larger loads as they have a sense of direction that rivals a post owl. I hope none of you will ever see them but the feeding time will still be fun to witness, as you will just see food disappearing into thin air."
After dinner on Wednesday evening, Harry and Lyra went out to see the thestrals. They were joined by all the others from their year, as well as Greg, Su, Lee, and Patricia. Cedric still believed they were a death omen and warned as many as would listen not to go.
When they reached Hagrid's hut they were the largest house represented among the others who showed. To Harry's delight, Tracey showed up, but Daphne and Hannah did not. Tracey told Harry that they were too afraid to come out. Once it seemed like no one else was coming, Hagrid addressed the group.
"We are going to go into the Permitted Forest now," he chuckled at the new name Dumbledore had debuted at the welcome feast. "I want all of the fifth-years and up walking at the back. Lower years upfront with me."
His dog, Fang, was sticking his head in a large bucket near Hagrid. Hagrid picked up that bucket and another nearby, causing Fang to pull a slab of raw meat from inside and chew on it as they walked into the forest. This was Harry and Lyra's first trip into the forest. They didn't see what the big deal was. It was dark, sure, but they were just trees. Harry spotted a few plants they had spoken about in potions and herbology and he picked up as many as he could to shove in his pouch as they walked. Lyra was gazing up at the trees above them, there weren't any trees on the island as tall as the ones here. They would make for some fun climbing if they could come back.
A stick snapped somewhere and Fang let out a scared yelp which caused many of the students to jump or scream as well. Tracy jumped towards Harry and latched onto his arm. Neville grabbed onto Lyra but released her quickly when he saw what he had done. Harry saw that Tracey needed comfort, so he moved his arm so he could hold her hand as they kept moving. After another minute, Harry heard some whispering from the older students behind him and Tracey pulled back her hand at that time. Harry thought she must be feeling better now.
The group eventually arrived at a medium-sized clearing, bathed in moonlight. Lyra was jumping up to try to see over all the gathered students and ended up just climbing a tree at the edge of the clearing so she was just above the other students. Hagrid walked out into the middle and laid down all of the meat in a big pile, then walked back to the group. Minutes later, the thestrals came out of the woods on the far side of the clearing. To the few who could see them, they looked incredible.
The largest was slightly bigger than a large horse, and the foals were about as big as deer. They looked almost malnourished, with their rib cages visible, and nearly no stomach area before their back legs. The bone structure on their backs appeared to be either an exposed spine or some kind of ridges for protection. The spinal projections ran from the backs of their heads down to a whip-like tail at the end of their body. Their heads and feet were both almost a cross between a horse and a bird of prey. The hooves had claws on the front and the head was as if a horse had a curved beak for tearing at flesh and meat. All of their skin was tight against their bodies and a deep charcoal black. The only color difference was the smokey white of their eyes. The only loose skin that could be seen was along their sides which Harry assumed were their folded wings.
"How many of you can see them?" Hagrid whispered. Quite a number of hands rose including Harry, Lyra, Luna, Neville, Greg, Patricia, and a few from the other houses. The Scamanders had the most who could. "Well, sorry for your losses," Hagrid told all of them.
Harry and Lyra didn't care about the people they saw die. They were the men that had taken them on the boat and the poachers that had come to take the Hidden, all of those men deserved their fates.
When the thestrals had almost reached the pile of meat, the largest one in front unfurled his huge bat-like wings and spread them out to block some of the ones to the sides and let out a harsh cry.
"Everyone back up now! They're getting defensive, I don't know why." Hagrid said.
The group backed up into the trees and the one with his wings out slowly tucked them back in. After a few moments, all of them started eating the meat. A few of the students who couldn't see them started to gasp. They were seeing meat getting torn apart by nothing and disappearing.
Hagrid began to take students one at a time out to take a closer look. Lyra got to be very close and Hagrid let her feed some of their flobberworm jerkies to one of the foals. When it was Harry's turn, as soon as he started to get close, the larger thestral charged at them. Hagrid jumped in front of Harry as the creature reared up on its back legs. The giant man grabbed the thestral by the neck and bellowed, "Harry, get back to the treeline!"
Harry sprinted back as quickly as he could while Hagrid got the thestral under control. When it had calmed down, it looked at Harry again and made scratching motions in the dirt with its hooves. It obviously didn't like Harry, but why?
Tracey grabbed Harry as he crossed into the trees, "What's going on?" She couldn't see what had just happened.
"The big one charged me and reared up like it was going to kick me. Why doesn't it like me?"
Lyra had also come down to try to figure out what happened, she had her staff out ready to retaliate. After Hagrid forcefully dragged the large thestral back amongst the herd, he gathered all the students to go back. Many of them were disappointed as not everyone had been allowed to get closer, and he just told them they could come back twice a week to try again. Though many of the students seemed to also be too scared to make another trip back.
When they got back to the common room, everyone was talking about what happened. Newt came in to inquire about the situation and admitted that he had never heard of a thestral disliking someone in particular, let alone a child. He told Harry that he would get someone to look into it.
The next day, the entire school had all heard of the incident. What could be so terrifying about Harry Potter that he could scare away an omen of death itself? Most people stayed far away from him, however, Lee and the Weasley Twins decided to go with the opposite approach and announced his arrival in every room they happened to find him in.
"Step back everyone!" cried Lee.
"You have been warned," Abbott yelled to everyone.
"The conqueror of the Dork Lord!" called out Costello.
"The bane of thestrals everywhere!" Lee cried again.
"Harry Potter is here!" they all called together.
While it was a bit annoying, it didn't seem like they were being mean, so Harry just let it slide. They kept doing it on Thursday and Friday. After lunch, Harry was speaking with Daphne about a transfiguration assignment and just as she left, he was approached by Draco with Vincent tailing behind him.
Walking straight up to him, Draco said, "I don't like what's being said about you. Someone as dark as you should not be hanging around my sister."
Harry saw a bit of a tremor in Draco's hands, so he pulled his wand off his wrist to be ready for anything.
"Not here, I'm challenging you to a wizard's duel. When you lose you will give me your permission to have a meeting with Lyra. It will be in the trophy room, tomorrow at midnight. Vincent is my second, bring yours along too." He said all of that as quickly as possible before turning around and walking off even faster.
Harry needed to go find Lyra. She had met up with Seamus to talk about the fire charms. He gave Seamus a quick nod and he walked off. Turning to Lyra he informed her of what just happened and added, "I figured this would happen again, I just didn't know how soon. He's going to need to be put back in his place, though this time he's learning from his mistakes. He's picking the place, and bringing backup."
"If you want, you can bring the amulet," Lyra offered.
"No, and even if I lose, it doesn't mean anything. Just because I permit him doesn't mean that you or Arcturus do. He's still an idiot. Would you be able to make someone invisible to go with me?"
"Why can't I go?
Harry thought about it for a moment, "Do you want to be in the same room as Draco?"
Lyra considered it, then frowned, "No, not really."
"I'll ask Colin, he can take a picture of Draco losing," Harry smiled at Lyra.
The next night, Harry and Colin stayed up late until everyone else was asleep. Colin was full of energy because he was going to get to see a real wizard duel. He had taken tape and placed it over the flash on one of his cameras so it didn't create too big of a light in the dark castle. They had calculated the time it would take to get to the trophy room earlier in the day and at 11:30, they met Lyra in the common room. Using her staff, she concentrated and the demiguise hair on the shaft brightened a bit before she tapped Colin on the head. The boy giggled a bit as he felt the invisibility wash over him.
Lyra repeated the action for Harry, but just for show and he just turned himself invisible. Harry reminded Colin to keep quiet, and if he needed to make his presence known to just tap his foot. The two of them took off through the halls of Hogwarts. Some fires still burned in the sconces along the walls, though Harry and Colin both used the night vision charm they had used in Astronomy class. They both arrived at the trophy room with five minutes to spare.
A few minutes after midnight, they heard someone coming and Harry backed the disillusioned Colin into a wall. When the door opened, it wasn't Draco or Vincent, it was Filch. Harry knew the man's job was a custodian but with all the house elves, he was just the most hated choice for detention. Students who went to him to serve a punishment always had to do some kind of manual labor.
After he looked around, he muttered out loud, "They'll be around here somewhere, all we have to do is wait." A soft meow from the cat that always followed him around before he closed the door.
Harry whispered very quietly to Colin, "We need to stick it out here until he leaves."
They waited nearly thirty minutes before Filch came back, looked around, and left, muttering about stupid kids this and that. Before they left, Harry took off his invisibility and had Colin take a picture of him with the trophies. Then he made a show of waving his wand and tapping himself on the head before turning invisible and sneaking back to the common room.
Lyra was waiting for them and took the spell off Colin. Harry 'removed' his own. They told her what happened, and she seethed, "He set you up. No other way Filch knew you were going to be there."
"Shouldn't there be something you could do about it?" asked Colin. "I know if it was a muggle duel, you could call out his honor for welching."
"I don't know," said Harry. "We've got our meeting with Brandt in the morning, we can ask him then."
The next morning, when Brandt arrived they told him what had happened.
"I can find only one thing you did wrong in the situation," Brandt told them. "You did not inform me or your uncle beforehand. If such a thing ever happens again, you will inform one of us, and most likely I will act as your second."
"Is there anything we can do to Draco for welching and setting me up?" asked Harry.
"Yes, but you would need to do it publicly, and that would mean…"
"And that would mean I would get punished for breaking curfew," Harry finished Brandt's sentence. He thought about it for a few moments before saying, "Fine, let's do it, we'll go to Newt and I'll admit everything, though I don't want to turn in Colin too."
"For now, that should be fine, but make sure you inform him of what you are going to do first," Brandt instructed him.
When Harry and Lyra told Colin that they were going to turn themselves in, he insisted on going with them.
"Your willingness to stand with your friends is commendable," Brandt said with praise, "but it would be better to stay out of it from here. It may be necessary for you to reveal yourself later but for now, you should avoid this internal House conflict altogether."
"Just let me know if you need me," Colin told them.
"I may need your camera to have the picture of Harry in the trophy room developed but I will let you know if I do."
As they were walking to Newt's office, Brandt brought up another issue, "You will need a way to prove that Draco issued you a challenge. I didn't bring any veritaserum with me today, and as Draco's godfather, your Professor Snape won't provide us with any."
Harry thought for a second before his face brightened, "I have a batch of Pinocchio's Tincture!"
"Why would you possibly have any of that useless potion?" Brandt asked.
"It was part of my studies before school started on potion ingredients. Asphodel is near the beginning of the book, and it sounded funny, so I made a batch last month for the Potions Club. Even if Draco won't take it, I can."
"That will work," Brandt nodded as they arrived at Newt's office. He took a large step back so this would be Harry taking the lead.
Harry knocked on the door, and Tina answered.
"Is Newt here?" Harry felt a sting on his back and looked back at Brandt who mouthed a few words to him. Looking back at Tina, he looked ashamed but said, "Excuse me, I need to speak with Mr. Scamander if he's available."
Tina gave him a serious look, "He can be out in a minute, please come in."
Harry went inside to sit, but Brandt stopped him and just stood up straight with his arms clasped behind his back so that Harry could mimic him, then stepped back.
A minute later, Newt came out, "Yes, Mr. Potter? How can I help you?"
Harry took a big swallow before starting, "I'm sorry Sir, I need to make a confession. On Friday, I was challenged to a duel by Draco Malfoy, and last night, I broke curfew to meet him but he never showed up. No duel took place and no one was injured."
Newt's face had a range of emotions on it as Harry spoke, luckily it ended in relief when he heard that Draco never showed up. Though it slowly moved back to one of umbrage and displeasure.
"We already discussed this, and I assume you're here for a reason more than just admitting your guilt. I am taking twenty-five points from our house for your actions, and I am assigning you two weekends of detention cleaning the owlery. The detention starts today, after lunch, and whatever else you have planned will have to wait. I will inform Mr. Filch to expect you at his office before 2 p.m." Newt frowned and went back into the bedroom where he had come from.
As Tina was walking them out, she whispered to Harry, "Three points to you for leaving your second out of this." Then she closed the door behind them.
As they walked back, they encountered the usual number of students roaming the hallways on a Sunday, so Brandt coached him the whole way on how he would need to call out Draco for failing to show up for the duel. They also discussed a penalty for Draco to pay for welching.
When they got back to the common room, Harry apologized to as many people as he could find about the loss of house points. Surprisingly enough, everyone was more or less OK with it. They realized that they had less than half as many students as the rest of the houses so they had no chance of winning the house cup this year, so any point loss wasn't a big deal. However, Cedric told him that as long as he made up for it before winter break, with interest, he was also fine with it.
Harry and Lyra had missed breakfast, so they moved over to the tea corner for some of the cakes left by Astray for the students. Colin had been very diligent about keeping the Urisk happy with dairy products after he brought him s'mores ingredients during the opening party. As a result, they saw a lot of special cakes and treats show up in their tea corner regularly. Colin said he planned on bringing a lot more fancy cheeses from home when he came back after winter break.
"When you take the Pinocchio tincture, you will need to take it with alcohol, have you ever drunk any before?" Harry shook his head no. Brandt looked up and asked, "May I speak with an elf?"
A little elf with stringy hair down to her waist popped in, "How may I's be of helpings you, Sir?" she asked. Harry was starting to understand why Blaise's mother got annoyed with why elves spoke and wondered if it was possible to correct their speaking, and why everyone didn't do it.
"Is there some kind of light alcoholic beverage you can bring me in a flask, possibly a cider or an ale?" The elf looked conflicted, so he added, "It does not need to be a full flask, just enough for two sips, it is needed for a potion tincture."
"I's cans be getting it, but no funny business. This be a school," the elf popped away and came back 10 seconds later with a glass vial with an amber liquid in it, then popped away after giving it to Brandt.
"Add five drops of the tincture to this vial before you drink it," he told Harry. "I'm warning you now, it will taste horrible. That's why no one uses it anymore. It should last around five minutes. I am going to go to see if I can get a spot at the staff table for lunch."
After he left, Harry went over with Lyra how he was going to call out Draco and what he was going to ask for as the penalty. Lyra liked his idea a lot.
As they were arriving for lunch, they ran into Daphne.
"Where have you two been? You weren't at breakfast," she asked with concern.
"It's Sunday, we can miss a meal. There's tea and cakes in our common room," Lyra told her.
"You've never missed a meal before... Wait, you get tea service in your common room? Never mind, Draco has been telling everyone you were both kicked out of school for something."
Harry snorted, "No, that didn't happen, but I suggest getting good seats for what's going to happen at lunch today." Harry gave her a sneaky smile.
She gave him a curious look back but just nodded her head and ran ahead into the great hall.
When Harry and Lyra entered the great hall, all whispering at the Slytherin table stopped as they watched them. The two of them sat down at their table with the rest of their house and started eating. Harry could see Draco staring at him the whole time, though he couldn't discern the look on the blonde boy's face.
Halfway through the meal, Harry stood up and approached the staff table, he whispered to Dumbledore, "I need to make an announcement, business related to House Potter and House Black."
Dumbledore was a bit concerned but he needed to allow for house business to go unhindered, especially if he wanted to have good relations with Arcturus before he died, whenever that ended up being, so he simply gave Harry a nod of his head.
Harry didn't need to do it, as all eyes in the hall were already on him, but he pulled out his staff from his pouch and slammed the butt of it into the ground in front of the lectern, creating a small pulse of magic that ruffled the hair on everyone sitting.
"I am calling out Draco Malfoy for failing to show up to a duel that he called for. Stand and respond to my accusation!"
Everyone in the hall was silent, Draco hesitantly stood up and yelled back, "I don't know what you're talking about, Potter! Let me finish my lunch." A few of the Slytherins around him laughed.
"Do you deny that on Friday, you challenged me to a duel alleging that I am not a suitable guardian for MY sister Lyra because the thestrals don't like me? Do you deny that you chose Vincent Crabbe as your second? Do you deny that you chose the trophy room last night at midnight as the place and time for the duel? Do you deny that you failed to show? Do you deny that you arranged for Mr. Filch to be in the trophy room at that time to catch me?"
Draco was sweating now, it was obvious to everyone present that he had done all of those things but there was no way to prove any of it.
"Of course I deny it! Are you saying you broke curfew to engage in an illegal duel at Hogwarts?" Now Draco had a shit-eating grin on his face.
"I've already confessed to my role in these events, and received punishment." The smile vanished from Draco's face. Harry pulled out the two vials from his pocket. He pulled out the dropper from the tincture and added five drops to the other. Turning back to the staff table, "This is a batch of Pinocchio's Tincture that I made three weeks ago. Professor Snape, will you verify the quality of the potion?" He passed it to Snape.
Snape raised it to the light and swirled it around, then opened the bottle and took a sniff. He immediately shut his eyes and squinched up his face. "Yes, I can confirm this is a perfectly prepared batch of the tincture."
Draco called out, "I am not drinking that."
"You don't have to," Harry said, and with a look of determination, he downed the flask with the tincture in apple cider.
If anything, Brandt did not warn him enough. It was revolting, with a hint of apples. His face contorted to look like the unholy lovechild of Snape and Filch, and he also opened his mouth and made gagging noises as he shook his head back and forth. He heard a few people laughing among the students.
Finally, he got control of himself and stood back up. Looking out to the room he said, "My name is Gilderoy Lockhart!" He felt his nose stretching like someone was pinching his nose for several seconds, and looking down he could see his nose growing outwards. Everyone in the hall was laughing. Everyone except Draco Malfoy.
When it quieted back down, Harry continued, "My name is Harry James Potter. This past Friday, Draco Malfoy challenged me to a duel with Vincent Crabbe as his second. He designated the trophy room at midnight Saturday night, last night, as the place and time for the duel. When I showed up, he was not there. Mr. Filch showed up instead, looking for someone, he came back later to check again. I have no proof of it, but I suspect he was tipped off that someone would be there. I suspect that person was Draco or someone acting on his behalf."
The hall was silent, but it was broken by Draco yelling, "Lies, it's all lies!"
Someone from the Gryffindor table spoke up, "Like father, like son."
There was yelling back and forth for a minute before Harry stamped his staff, letting another pulse silence the room.
"Draco, for your failure to show up at a duel that you initiated, I demand satisfaction. You will meet with me and the Black Steward now in the antechamber."
Brandt, who had been sitting at the staff table, stood up and walked out the back door behind the table. Harry waited for a few moments before Draco too stood up and walked past him through the door, Harry followed him and closed the door. He could hear just before the door was closed an eruption of chatter from the hall.
The room had just a small table, which Harry suspected had just been conjured with three chairs around it. There was a door on the far side that led somewhere else. Brandt stood patiently for the boys to enter the room before saying, "Sit down, both of you."
Draco looked like he wanted to argue, but sat. Harry sat across from him. Draco stared at Harry with intense hatred. Brandt pulled out a scroll of paper but did not unroll it, just nodding to Harry.
"Draco, we are alone now, no audience. I demand satisfaction for your insult to me, and my sister."
"Fine!" snarled Draco, "We can have the duel, right now if you want."
"Not anymore, you had your chance," Harry told the snarling blonde. "I am setting the terms, Brandt has drafted a contract, one that you will sign." Brandt unrolled the scroll, which was bordered by glittering runes, and set it in front of Draco.
He read through the paper looking angrier and angrier as he read it. "Never! You wait till…"
Harry interrupted him, "Wait till what? Till what?"
Other than their meeting in Snape's office, Harry had heard Draco use the expression 'wait till my father hears of this' a few times. Tracey and Daphne told him that he said it about five times a day the previous year. It seemed even more ridiculous now that his father was in prison.
Brandt took charge of the room, "You will sign it, or your place in the Black line of succession will be removed. You will not be disinherited but you will be moved to the end of the line, and even I will have a higher position than you. You threatened your own place when you attacked Mr. Potter at a meeting you had requested, even if it wasn't with him that you requested."
"HE STABBED ME!" Draco tugged at the neck of his robes to expose his shoulder. There was a scar in the shape of a ring underneath the collarbone on his left shoulder. The flesh inside the ring was paler than the skin outside of it. Harry had seen the pig he had stabbed back on the island, Draco's shoulder looked excellent compared to the wound he gave that animal.
"After you attacked him. If you can't deal with the problems you create, you should stop creating them." Brandt pulled a short black quill from his pouch. "Sign it, or don't, either is fine for me."
Draco pulled up his robes to cover his shoulder and snatched the quill from Brandt. He flinched as he signed his name at the bottom, then shoved his hand into his pocket and stormed out of the room. Harry looked at the signed contract, Draco's name was written in red ink, shiny and still wet, at the bottom. Brandt blew on the signature to dry it and then rolled it up and placed it in his coat.
"Go finish your lunch and make sure you're on time for your detention."
Harry smiled and left the room, many people tried to get him to talk about what happened and what his satisfaction was, but he said nothing. Apparently, Draco hadn't finished his lunch and just stormed out, so he didn't reveal anything either.
This was his first time in Filch's office, even though it was right down the hall from the entrance to his common room. He knocked on the door.
"Enter!" came a voice from inside.
Harry opened the door and walked in. The room was small and dark, there was a small desk in the center surrounded by filing cabinets. Filch was sitting behind the desk writing something. His cat, Mrs. Norris, was curled up in the corner on a fluffy pink bed that didn't match the room at all. There was a single light in the room over the desk that seemed to swing slightly. Harry wondered how anyone could get work done like that.
Filch looked him up and down and said, "So you were there, in the trophy room. I don't know how you hid from me, but it won't happen again. Dumbledore might not allow it, but if I catch you again, I'll bring out the old punishments." He gestured to the walls of the room and Harry saw chains on the wall, with manacles on the ends of them. "I'll chain you up for a good whipping." He smiled sinisterly.
The flashback hit Harry like a bludger. The light in the middle of the room started to swing more and he could see children hanging from the chains. He looked around at the chains on all the walls, wherever there was a spare space. He started to hyperventilate praying he didn't see Lyra chained up in the room.
He was snapped out of the memory by Mr. Filch, "Ya don't like the chains, do ya? I hope to see you again sometime soon and I'll get you well accustomed to them. I keep them nice and oiled for the time I get to slap them on another student." He gave his sinister smile again, "Grab the bucket, the sack, and the toolbelt by the door, then follow me."
Harry placed everything in the bucket and followed Filch out of the room. He wiped the cold sweat that had appeared on his forehead and followed him out of the room, still calming down from the flashback of the shipping container. As they got closer to the owlery they ran into Ron and Ginny Weasley. Ginny smiled at him, while Ron tried to give him a high five, but Filch stared him down and the two of them ran off.
They got to the owlery and Filch instructed him on how to scrape all the owl droppings from the floor and wall. There was a large metal bin in the corner that he needed to dump his bucket in when it got full. He was instructed to collect any undamaged feathers and put them in the sack he brought with him. Harry thought briefly about the bucket everyone used on the ship but then shook the thought away. This was nothing like that.
Filch laughed at him and walked off. Harry got to the scraping, though in the first minute, he found treasure- owl pellets, they were everywhere. Harry and Lyra had invented a potion back home that they used as a protective coating, one of the things they used it for was their staves. Owl pellets were the base ingredient. On the island, there was no specific place to find them, so they had to search around the base of trees they had seen owls in and hope they found some. As all the bits in the pellet were indigestible by the owl, that infused them with a protective property that they used in many different potions.
Harry took two plastic bags from his pouch. One of them he filled with owl pellets and the other with interesting feathers as he worked. He had been working for an hour when he heard a group of people coming up the stairs. Not knowing who it was, he pulled out his staff and waited. Around the corner came Colin leading Hannah, Tracey, Daphne, and Blaise. Harry relaxed and put away his staff.
"They were worried about you," Colin said.
Blaise chuckled, "Well, not really, we just really wanted to know what had happened with Draco."
"Spill it," commanded Daphne with a playful smile.
Harry dumped the bucket of owl droppings and sat down on it. "I don't think I'll get my satisfaction for a few more weeks, but it's in motion. I had Draco sign a magical contract."
"What were the terms?" Blaise asked, his eyes full of greedy curiosity.
"For the next year, Draco will receive the pain of a stinging hex at a random place on his body which will also leave a purple mark every time he says either 'squib' or 'mudblood.'"
There was silence among all of his visitors until Tracy started laughing. Hannah joined her soon after, grasping onto her friend as they fell to the floor in hysterics. Daphne and Blase continued the laughter, but clearly, they were trying to suppress it to seem more dignified.
Colin looked a bit confused, "I know what a squib is, but what's a mudblood? I've heard some people say it, and it doesn't sound nice."
Tracy got serious, "It's a slur for muggleborns, for people like you. Draco uses it at least ten times a day. You're going to see him covered with purple dots, and each one is going to have felt like someone poked him with a really big needle. Squib isn't bad, but a lot of people use it to insult others all the same."
Colin frowned, "That's pretty mean, though he sounds like he deserves it, and probably more."
The group went off to spread the news, Harry went back to scraping owl droppings and collecting potion ingredients.