Aftermath
"Harry!"
"Harry, wake up!"
"Dumbledore is back, there's been another attack!"
Harry didn't want to wake up, he was sleeping just fine, but William chose not to give him a choice in the matter. The boy reached over and gave him a shock of electricity from his fingertips, causing him to jump out of bed.
"What do you want, William?" Harry demanded.
"I said there's been another attack! The headmaster is out in the common room, waiting for everyone."
Harry had practiced his reaction to the news when it broke, so he feigned shock as best he could and said, "Another? Is Hermione ok?"
"I don't know, just get out there," he told Harry and rushed out of the room.
Harry followed out quickly to find Dumbledore waiting as other students came out of their dormitories.
Harry approached the headmaster and said, "William said there was another attack, is Hermione ok?"
"Calm yourself, my boy," Dumbledore said gently, as he placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Miss Granger is still recovering in the infirmary. Please wait with your classmates for me to make the announcement." Harry walked away slowly, but he felt the Headmaster relax greatly while his hand was on Harry's shoulder.
When everyone had gathered, Dumbledore started his announcement:
"Last night we had another attack. It is unknown now if the one the night before on Miss Hermione Granger is related or not. Since not revealing yesterday's victim did nothing to keep everyone from finding out, I am telling you that it was Vincent Crabbe of Slytherin who was injured. He is currently comatose in the infirmary. It is unknown if or when he will wake up."
Well, that wasn't Harry's intention, though he couldn't find it in himself to care. He did hope that Vincent would live, just so he could feel at least some of the torment that Hermione had.
"Due to the escalation of the attack," Dumbledore continued, "and the possibility that young Mr. Crabbe might not survive, the Aurors have been called in to take over the investigation. They will be arriving after breakfast."
This was starting to get worse…
"I am requesting that you all cooperate fully with the investigation, however, if you feel uncomfortable, you may have your parents, guardians, or head of house present, if the aurors wish to question you. For each of you, since Newt Scamander is still out of the country, I will sit in on his behalf, should you require it."
There was quite a bit of whispering at breakfast as everyone seemed to be discussing the attack on Vincent. There was of course much speculation that he was behind the attack on Hermione, and that someone had been out for revenge on her behalf. Harry even heard a crazy theory that this was the result of a love triangle gone wrong and there was one perpetrator for both attacks who felt jilted by the affair between Hermione and Vincent.
Penny seemed to be fine with the situation and even tried to catch Harry's eyes numerous times during the meal to smile at him. Harry tried to keep his gaze forward and his expressions neutral, as it wasn't just Penny that was giving Harry nods of approval. Nearly every Ravenclaw that had been in the infirmary the other day, plus Fred and George seemed to think he had done it. Harry just kept his head down and went ahead to his Potions class.
Professor Snape swept into the room in his usual fashion, and stared everyone down, then began, "By now you know about Mr. Crabbe. What you don't know yet, is that he was poisoned." There were sharp gasps from all the students in the room with Harry trying to feign surprise as well.
"Due to the nature of the toxin, even a bezoar would not have helped him, so we are going to start early on our section on general antidotes to naturally occurring poisons." Looking over to a group of Hufflepuffs, he focused on one, "Mr. Hickories, you own a Natterjack toad. Go fetch it and return to class."
Lloyd jumped to his feet and ran out of the room.
Snape continued, "The Natterjack's habitat is Great Britain, but not Ireland. It contains poison sacks on its back that keep predators from eating it. This poison can also be extracted and used to coat weapons or be used to poison someone directly through imbibing or injecting. Before Mr. Hickories returns, go ahead and collect your ingredients for today."
Snape flipped the board at the front of the classroom to show what they needed for the day.
Mortar and Pestle
1 Standard pewter caldron
1 Bezoar
2 pinches of unicorn horn powder
1 pouch of standard herbs
2 mistletoe berries
All of the students got up and scrambled towards the cabinet to get what they needed. When they returned, Lloyd had also come back, holding his toad carefully with dragonhide gloves. While holding him tight, Snape applied some kind of glass object on the toad's back which seemed to suck up some of the yellow poison glands on its back. Once he had a small vial of the substance, he further separated it into two dozen small eye droppers and passed them out to all of the students.
The potion wasn't very difficult and Harry started on it as soon as was told they could begin. First, he needed to prepare the ingredients by mashing up the bezoar, and mixing it up with the standard herbs, mashing the full mixture until it was a grainy powder. Fill the cauldron and add three drops of the toad's poison, heating it until it boiled while stirring counterclockwise five times every minute. This was done to break down the poison into its base ingredients.
At that point, the directions said to wave your wand over the potion, twice, but Harry knew that meant he just needed to infuse his magic into it until he observed the necessary reaction. In this case, that turned out to be a large yellow bubble forming in the middle of the pot, but not popping. Once the bubble had grown, he needed to add four pinches of the bezoar/herb powder on top and let the bubble collapse. This step effectively neutralized the poison's base components by absorbing them into the bezoar and herbal powder.
Checking his notes, he just needed to add two pinches of the unicorn powder and stir twice clockwise, then the whole berries and two times counterclockwise. From there, he just infused his magic into the potion until it changed to a minty green color and he was finished. The powder of the unicorn horn added a boost of healing magic and the mistletoe berries symbolized forgiveness and reconciliation, perfect for an antidote.
As usual, he finished before anyone else, with Lyra coming in soon after. Just to add a bit of flashiness to his results, Harry cast a preservation charm over it before delivering it to Snape. His professor just gave him a nod and let him return to his seat. When Lyra brought hers up, Snape whispered something to her and she left her potion and came over to Harry.
"Severus says we can leave. Can we go see Hermione?"
Harry nodded and they left the dungeons to visit the infirmary. Upon entering the room, Hermione was no longer in her bed, but there were four aurors in the room along with Vincent Crabbe's father, all standing around the bed of the unconscious boy.
One of the aurors turned around and Harry recognized him as Dawlish from the Harpies match, he recognized Harry as well, and called out, "Mr. Potter, please come over here for a moment."
Harry started to walk over as Spencer Crabbe turned around and locked eyes with him as well. "You!" he sneered. "You did this, didn't you?" He started to march forward, only for one of the other Aurors to block his path. He struggled a bit to push forward, but Dawlish also stepped in his way.
"Mr. Crabbe," he began. "Do you suspect Harry Potter to be the one who attacked your son?"
The tall, skinny man stopped pushing against the auror in front of him and stood up straight, "I do, my son has told me how the golden child here is friends with that mudblood who was in here earlier. He must have done this."
"And why would that have anything to do with your son's attack?" asked the Auror who had been restraining him.
"He obviously, and mistakenly, must have assumed my boy to have attacked that uppity little cripple. Like he would ever have soiled his hands on such filth."
Dawlish turned to Harry, "Do you have anything to say in your defense?"
"Do I have to say anything?" Harry raised his eyebrows as he asked.
"No, you do not," he responded. "You are on our list of people to interview though and will be asked to answer questions at that time."
"Can I have Professor Snape join me?" Harry asked again.
"Your assigned representative is Headmaster Dumbledore," Dawlish informed him.
"I would prefer Snape," Harry said firmly.
"We will inform him of your request," the auror told him.
"No!" Spencer Crabbe yelled, "I want both of them questioned now!"
Harry felt a heavy presence enter the room, and turned around to see Dumbledore walking in, "Mr. Crabbe, do not forget that you need to be cordial while inside these walls. You are also not to make demands of my students."
"He did it! I know he did!"
"It seems there is great speculation that the attack on your son was done as an act of revenge on behalf of Miss Granger. Due to his exclusion at the beginning of the year for his attack on her, he is now the prime suspect in that investigation and will be questioned when he wakes up. If this was an act of revenge, Miss Granger has many other friends in the castle that may have perpetrated the attack. We will be investigating all of them. However, now you are accusing, without evidence, a student under my care."
The air seemed to get even heavier as Dumbledore spoke. To everyone in the room, Dumbledore seemed to grow in size, as the rest shrunk around him, and he continued to speak.
"I'm sure you have read the initial reports that the attack happened inside your son's room, the door was locked from the inside and no one was seen entering or exiting the Slytherin common room. It is more likely the perpetrator was from your son's own house." Then the pressure vanished, and everyone stood up straight. Dumbledore added in a lighter tone, "However, I should not be speculating either, and hope you will not engage in similar behavior. Let the Aurors run their investigation."
Dumbledore turned back to Harry and Lyra, "I apologize for having to deal with that. Miss Granger has returned to the Ravenclaw dormitories, you may find her there." The two children walked out of the room, with Dumbledore following them out. Once outside, he asked, "May I inquire as to why you would prefer Professor Snape to attend your questioning rather than myself?"
Harry and Lyra shared a look before she responded, "Severus is scarier than you."
"I can be scary too when I want to be," the headmaster said with a smile as the pressure in the room started to build.
"I'm learning to do that too," Harry commented and started to look at his feet and focus on how he felt towards Vincent as he planned the attack pouring his magic into the room like it was a potion. Dumbledore's pressure lightened up as he gave a bit of a shiver and nodded.
"That's a very useful skill to have and one I've only seen a few times in someone as young as you, Mr. Potter." While his tone was pleasant, there was a suspicious look in the headmaster's eyes.
"I wish I could do that," Lyra frowned, breaking the focus the headmaster had on Harry. "It gives me the shivers when anyone but Harry does it."
"Stay out of trouble, both of you," the headmaster cautioned, then headed for the Great Hall.
As Harry and Lyra approached the Ravenclaw common room, the eagle knocker just nodded its head, said, "Welcome to Ravenclaw," and the door opened.
The two children just stared at each other for a moment, then carefully walked into the room. Everything was normal around the room, with students studying, reading, or just relaxing on one of the couches on the higher floors. Many people acknowledged their presence, but no one came to greet them, as they usually did.
After knocking on Hermione's door, it was opened by a girl they didn't recognize. Hermione was sitting on her bed, wearing her regular school uniform, but no glove that left her prosthetic hand visible. There were a total of four girls in the room, though the only one they recognized was Parvati's sister, Padma.
"Can we come in?" Lyra asked, and when Hermione nodded, the two of them walked into her room.
The girl with wavy brown hair exclaimed, "How'd you do that? You're a boy!"
The last time that Harry had been in her room, Penny had to put her badge on his shoulder to get in, and even then he felt the wards as he passed through, this time he felt nothing. Just to be sure, Harry turned around and walked out, then back in… no, he didn't feel anything.
"Penny let me in last time, would the effect still be active?"
"No…" Hermione said slowly, "That was just a one-time pass. You should have just bounced right off."
"I'm getting Flitwick," the brunette said and ran off.
"Whatever," Padma said sarcastically, "So what? There's a boy in the room. It's Harry Potter, destroyer of dark lords and savior of bookworms everywhere."
"How are you doing?" Harry asked Hermione.
"Better…" she said slowly. "My feet still sting a bit. Madam Pomfrey had to vanish all of my toenails and then regrow them from the roots. She killed all the nerves in my feet for the entire day yesterday and told me that if she hadn't, I would have felt like they were on fire."
Everyone in the room grimaced.
"I saw Vincent as they brought him in," Hermione continued. "His arm was covered in blood and pale. I ended up asking Madam Pomfrey for a dreamless sleep potion so I wouldn't have nightmares from it. Then in the morning, they got me out of there just as his father came in. He accused me of attacking Vincent before Flitwick got me out of there."
"He accused Harry just now," Lyra said. "He probably just wants to find someone to blame."
"Did you do it?" the other girl Harry didn't know asked. She was a bit pale with dirty blonde hair.
Harry just glared at the girl as he thought up a good answer. He could just say 'no' but he doubted that would stop any rumors of his involvement to die. So he decided to build his legend a bit.
"No one knows if he's even the one who attacked Hermione, so it's not like I had a reason to do it. If he did, I certainly would have considered doing something about it. He attacked me earlier this year, and he threatened Lyra in front of Padma on the train home for the break. Though he got what he deserved in both of those incidents. From what I heard while I was in the infirmary, Vincent got attacked in his room, with the door locked from the inside, and no one was seen entering or exiting the common room. So if I were to have done it, I would have needed to have gotten into the impenetrable Slytherin common room, when I don't even know where the entrance is; then entered a locked room, attacked him without anyone hearing, then left without leaving any trace of me behind, and done all of that without being seen…"
He stared at the shocked faces of all the girls in the room, including his sister…
"Or he just pissed off someone in his own house and they did it. The last time he attacked me, I took him down while he was standing in front of me. Attacking someone in their bed seems more of a Slytherin thing to do."
Padma and the blonde girl nodded and thought this was a much more plausible situation. Except for Hermione, who was just staring at him with the realization of what and how much he had done, as she knew that he knew Vincent was her assailant.
It was at that moment that the girl who ran off returned with Professor Flitwick. The small man just stared at Harry inside the room, then drew his wand and waved it at the door frame. A shimmering violet barrier appeared, then faded away.
"Mr. Potter," he said in a serious tone. "Please stand outside the room, I need to determine how you managed to enter Miss Granger's room."
Harry slowly walked outside and the professor performed the same charm on the doorway, looking perplexed by the results.
He looked back into the room and said, "Miss Turpin, your room is next door, is that correct? I want to see if Mr. Potter can enter that one."
The girl with the wavy hair that had brought the professor exclaimed, "I don't want a boy to look in my room."
Flitwick sighed, "Miss Patil, would you mind using your room for a test?"
She just shrugged and walked them across the hallway, swinging her door open unceremoniously. Her room was very neat with about half as many books on the shelves as Hermione, but still more than anyone in Scamander that Harry had seen so far. Hesitantly, he took a step forward, but nothing happened. So he left the room, then entered again, with the same results.
Walking back out, he said, "I didn't feel a thing. The knocker at the entrance didn't give me a riddle either, it just nodded to me and opened."
"That is peculiar," he began to wave his wand all up and down Harry, muttering incantations as he went. "This is most interesting… my diagnostic spells are reading like you are a prefect of Ravenclaw. No… that's not it, they're reading the same as the badges we give to the prefects."
"Is it because Harry helped me?" Hermione asked.
Flitwick looked at Harry with a dark expression, "What did you do, Mr. Potter?"
Lyra came to the rescue, "When he carried Hermione to the infirmary."
"Maybe…" Flitwick seemed thoughtful. "The position was originally a reward for services to the house. I would have to look through the charter to find out."
"You can owl Brandt," Lyra supplied. "He's got the charter memorized."
"The Steward? That would save me some time. I'll write to him this evening." He looked at his watch, "Your next class is starting soon, here is a pass, if you end up being late." He pulled out two small brass plates from his pocket and passed them to Harry and Lyra.
Herbology was fun, they finally got to work with the Devil's Snare plant, closely supervised by Professor Sprout. However, what was fun about it was that every plant seemed terrified of both of them. Repotting the plant required one to cast a sunlight spell over it while someone else pulled it out of its pot, while it was shriveled up. Neither of them needed the sunlight spell as the plant shrunk to be as small as possible when they were close and felt almost petrified when they touched it.
Professor Sprout was very interested in the plant's reaction and had the two of them take turns scaring one of the larger plants she had sequestered in the back of the greenhouse. She was also a bit irritated that her experiment was cut short by two aurors coming into the room to request Harry join them for questioning.
Harry went along with them, reentering the castle and going down to the second subfloor. They ended at a room that Harry had been in before that didn't contain anything noteworthy, though maybe it did if they were having his questioning here. That thought was proven to be incorrect as he entered and found it to be exactly as it had been before, all stone and no windows, except now it was dimly lit with a small table and four chairs. Professor Snape was sitting in one of them.
Harry walked over and sat next to his professor while the two aurors took the other side. They all just sat there in silence for a while as the two aurors glared at Harry. After a full minute of silence, Harry reached down to his pouch and took out his history book, opening it to the reading assignment for the week.
"What are you doing, Mr. Potter?" one auror asked him.
"My homework, I figured that I could get through the chapter while I was waiting for you to start."
"Put the book away," he told Harry.
Harry shrugged and put the book back into his pouch. He could almost feel Snape's smile next to him but didn't dare to look up. The second auror reached into her robes and pulled out a small blue orb and a silver spinning top, placing them on the table. She tapped each one with her wand which caused the orb to glow and the top to start spinning.
The first auror began to speak, "Today is January 26th, 1993, time is 12:04 p.m. Auror Frederick Reginald Lamb and Heather Morrow are questioning Harry James Potter with temporary guardian Severus Tobias Snape concerning the attack on Vincent Crabbe last night. First question - Did you attack Mr. Crabbe?"
"No, I did not," Harry responded, but as he spoke, the spinning top started to whistle.
"Do you know what this is?" Auror Morrow asked him, pointing to the whistling top. "It is a sneak-o-scope. Normally it detects lies and deceptions, however, in a school filled with children, it would be going off non-stop. This one just alerts us when someone says something false… So, let's try this again. Did you attack Mr. Crabbe?"
Harry gave a worried glance at Severus, and suddenly he felt a puff of air in his eyes and saw a brief flash in his head of Vincent having his shoulder bandaged. He was a bit confused, he had seen Vincent with his shoulder bandaged in Newt Scamander's office, but not when it was being bandaged. The only possible explanation for him seeing that was that his professor had somehow just shown it to him. He could ask how later, but it was unmistakably a message.
Looking back at the aurors, "Yes, I attacked Vincent last term. He and some other students drew their wands on me and I threw a scraping tool at him that I was using to clean the owlery, which got stuck in his shoulder."
Snape turned to him with an angry look on his face, "So you lied the last time we spoke of this? We will speak of this after the Aurors are done with you."
The Aurors just looked back and forth between the two of them, however, the sneak-o-scope wasn't making any noise. Auror Lamb flicked it with his finger, causing it to wobble a bit, but it straightened itself out and continued to spin.
"Where were you last night?" he asked.
"I was in bed, sleeping," Harry responded, but there was another small whistle from the spinning top. Adding another level to the story, "I took a dreamless sleep potion so I wouldn't wake up." The top didn't find any deception in that statement. Harry was starting to figure out how that thing worked.
"Why did you take a dreamless sleep potion?" Morrow asked.
"The previous night, I carried one of my oldest magical friends down five flights of stairs while she was crying and bleeding. I am positive that Vincent was the one who hurt her and I didn't want to have dreams of me hurting him."
Auror Lamb pulled out a small needle, "I would like to test your blood for traces of the potion."
Harry looked to his professor to see if it was alright. Snape pulled out a long silver needle of his own and a small glass plate, then held out his hand to take Harry's. Holding Harry's index finger, he gave it a sharp prick and let a few drops of blood fall onto the glass plate, then pushed it to the middle of the table.
Speaking towards the glowing orb, Auror Lamb said, "I am now performing a diagnostic spell on Mr. Potter's blood sample, drawn by Professor Snape."
He spun his wand around the blood sample while muttering an incantation. Three concentric orange circles formed in the air, then the middle one glowed blue and the rest disappeared, leaving a thick blue ring in the air before it too faded away. Snape reached out with his wand and vanished the blood.
"Trace amounts of a sleeping potion are in Mr. Potter's system," the auror said aloud for the recording orb.
The two aurors tried to stare down Harry again, but when he started to reach for his pouch again to take out his book, Lamb said, "We're not done yet."
Harry groaned, and said, "I'm not going to get back before the end of Herbology, am I? I was having fun playing with the Devil's Snare."
"You were what?" Morrow asked, shocked.
"Playing with Devil's Snare," Harry repeated. "It's afraid of me… and my sister. Professor Sprout was having the two of us scare it over and over as an experiment." Both aurors looked a bit intimidated, so Harry pressed a bit more while trying to channel his rage a bit, by focusing on how he felt when Hermione revealed Vincent as her assailant. "We didn't even have to use sunlight or fire, we just approached it and it shriveled up. We were both repotting it with our bare hands." He watched as both aurors gave a bit of a shiver.
He stopped flexing his magic, and asked, "Are we done now?"
Morrow shook herself and said, "One more question, do you have any idea who could have attacked Mr. Crabbe?"
Harry thought about how to phrase his question to trick their little toy, and after a minute, one of the aurors gave a small cough.
"Sorry, I was just trying to think of how to tell you my suspicions. You were both there when Dumbledore said that everything was locked and no one came in or out of the Slytherin common room. I'd say, without a doubt, it was just some snake that did it."
Both aurors looked toward the spinning top, but there was no reaction.
"Well, that's it," Lamb told him, sounding a bit disappointed. "Thank you for coming in." He tapped the orb and the top with his wand and they stopped functioning.
Snape turned to face Harry, "You have detention on Sunday after breakfast so we can discuss the attack on Mr. Crabbe last term."
Later that night, Dumbledore, Snape, Pomfrey, and the Auror contingent sat down around a table to go over their findings for the day.
Poppy started the discussion, "The good news is that Mr. Crabbe is going to live, though it may take him a week to regain consciousness. The bad news is that there is a lot of nerve damage in his arm from the toxin and the healing process will last two or three years for him to fully recover. The wounds on his arm appear to be from some kind of snake, but that's where things get strange. Severus can explain."
The man pulled out his notes, "I was unable to identify the type of snake that attacked Mr. Crabbe, however, the toxin in his system was not snake venom. It appears that someone may have used a snake or snake fangs to make punctures and then administer the toxin afterward. The toxin was not from a potion and was entirely organic, but again, I couldn't determine the origin. I did manage to synthesize an antidote in case we need to deal with it again. I have filed the patent as Antidote #4893-7 with free use in an active medical situation."
Dawlish provided the next report, "We have not completed all the interviews with the students and will need another two days to do so. However, from what we have determined so far, is that nearly the entire student body believes that he was the one to attack Miss Granger, based on comments he has made in the past, his assault on her at the sorting, and a large number of people who just don't like him. No one would come out and say it, but most people think Harry Potter is the attacker as an act of revenge on the girl's behalf. However, his testimony and the evidence that he was under the influence of a sleeping potion last night discludes his involvement."
"Do you have any other leads?" Dumbledore asked.
"Just one," Dawlish said. "A student in Slytherin reported that there had been an altercation in the previous term between Mr. Crabbe's friend Draco Malfoy and another student, Blaise Zabini - son of the Black Widow, where he seemingly controlled a group of venomous snakes and commanded them to bite Mr. Malfoy. There is no evidence that he is parselmouth, but the same snakes that attacked Mr. Malfoy refused to attack the other boy, even when he handled them roughly."
"What student gave this testimony?" Severus asked, it would be hard for him to determine that on his own as many students in his house had asked to speak to the aurors alone or with their parents instead of him. Additionally, Dawlish had said the student 'reported' the altercation, not that it was told during questioning. So, it was possible that it came from outside their interviews, or even more probable for a Slytherin, it was an anonymous report.
"Sorry, we cannot disclose that to you," Dawlish replied. "Due to the appearance of fang marks on Mr. Crabbe's arm and this testimony, we will be questioning Mr. Zabini and his friends tomorrow."
With nothing else to add, Dawlish and the aurors took the floo back to the ministry. As Dumbledore and Severus were leaving, Madam Pomfrey stopped them.
"I have another thing to say about Mr. Potter, unrelated to all of this." Both men sat back down. "When he arrived at the infirmary, carrying Miss Granger, one of the school owls arrived shortly after when he expressed the desire to send a letter. This morning, I went to look for the owl in question and determined that it has imprinted on him, so he will not be of much use to other students in the future."
"He will need to purchase the owl, in that case," Dumbledore said.
"One last thing, about the owl," Poppy said. "When checking over the owl, I discovered something very unsettling." She reached into her pocket and pulled out many small papers, placing them on the table. Each one had a scantily clad or partially nude woman on them, as well as the information for a brothel in Knockturn Alley.
"I don't know if Mr. Potter or another student used this owl last, but it had returned to school with these flyers. This is way outside my job description, so I leave the handling of this to the two of you." With that said, she got up and left the room.
The whole school seemed to be on edge the following day. People whispered in the hallways and mealtimes were nearly silent as all of the students just ate and left. The Slytherins seemed to be all staring daggers of mistrust at any Ravenclaws they encountered and students of both houses were traveling everywhere in groups.
Potions class was a very long lecture on the nature of antidotes, and how to create them. The most effective way was to use the poison, venom, or toxin itself as they did in the previous class and create a potion to neutralize the effects. However, when it couldn't be obtained, they needed to use something that had a similar effect and hope for the best. By using another toxin that was too weak, the effects of an active poison wouldn't be fully countered. By using one that was too strong, it might damage the body of the person it was used on instead of just working on countering the infection.
They needed to copy a large table of known toxins and were quizzed for the second half of the class on which antidotes would be appropriate to use in place of another. Professor Snape deducted a lot of points from students that didn't take the lesson seriously enough or just guessed answers instead of doing a proper analysis of the table they had copied. He assigned them homework to research twenty toxins that were not on the list and find three antidotes for each that would work in place of the actual one.
At lunch, Harry received a note from Professor Kettleburn to meet in his classroom before dinner. After a long history class listening to Professor Binns's lecture on the injustice of Goblin weapon sales to wizards, Harry retrieved Whispers from his favorite tree and went to see the professor, while Lyra went to go study with Seamus. The two of them no longer were working on Lyra's transfiguration, but they seemed to enjoy each other's company when practicing their fire magic.
The Care of Magical Creatures classroom was on the first floor at the end of a long hallway, situated just above the greenhouses outside. When he was let into the room, he marveled at the setup. The professor had a small desk at the front of the room, and the rest of that side of the classroom was filled with cages, terrariums, and pictures. The cages and terrariums all held different creatures that were definitely magical. Professor Kettleburn motioned for Harry to look around, while Whispers snuck into the room, invisible.
Many of the sealed terrariums contained small insects, some blue, some green, and some that seemed to sparkle. One of the larger terrariums contained a spiny lizard that, when he looked at it, shrunk down to the size of a grain of sand and ran under a rock. In the cages that hung from the ceiling were several birds that looked like common blue jays, but were much too large to be. They made no noise, and just looked around at each other and the other occupants of the room.
In another corner, there were many terrariums with creatures that looked like the pixies they had seen in the woods, though each one was slightly different. Some had wings that grew from their heads, others from their feet. Some were dark browns and blacks and others were greens and blues. There was just one that looked like the ones from the woods and it was asleep in its pen. The animal that drew Harry's attention the most however looked like a small eagle with the long tail of a lizard.
Kettleburn took that opportunity to approach him, "Like that one, do ya?" he asked. "That there is a Snallygaster. They've been around for quite some time, mostly in the Americas. It's most likely someone's attempt to make an artificial cockatrice, but it turned into its own thing. Very dangerous to the untrained wizard or muggle and grow as large as I am. I use it as a good example against experimental breeding."
Harry stared at the creature as it paced back and forth in its enclosure, swishing its long tail back and forth as it walked.
When he felt it wasn't going to do anything interesting, he asked, "What did you want to see me about, sir?"
"It has come to my attention that one of the owls at school has imprinted on you, one by the name of Hermes."
"Imprinted?" Harry asked without understanding.
"It is similar to a familiar bond, but not the same. It happens more often in animals with small amounts of magic that are used for service jobs, most commonly owls. In a familiar bond, both animal and wizard will be able to sense strong emotions from the other and have a general sense of the other's location. Imprinting, on the other hand, is a one-way bond where only the animal will feel the wizard's feelings and location, typically as a function of the service they perform."
"That's why Hermes seems to know when I want to send a letter?" Harry queried in understanding.
"Exactly. However, it presents a problem. As Hermes belongs to the school, if he is imprinted on you, he will not deliver messages for other students or professors. This does happen from time to time, and when it does, we ask the student to purchase the owl from the school for personal use."
"I don't have any money on me right now," Harry said sheepishly.
"That's alright, it doesn't need to be now. I just wanted to confirm that the imprinting had taken place. Do you have anyone you want to send a letter to?"
Harry didn't have anyone he could think of that he needed to contact, though thinking of Hermes reminded him of what happened when the bird tried nibbling on the Lamassu tooth. So thought of sending mail to Erayden about that particular effect, and a little over a minute later, Hermes swooped in through an open window and landed in front of him.
"Excellent," Kettleburn told him, and put on a heavy leather glove, reaching out to the owl to climb onto his arm. "You should purchase such a glove as well for handling him in the future." He also pulled out his wand and used it to remove the Hogwarts crest on the vest that Hermes wore. "Hermes is our fastest owl and it will cost fifteen galleons to replace him. You can bring the money to me, the Headmaster, or Professor McGonagall."
"Is there anything else I need?"
"You should probably get a perch and water dish for him, and treats to use as rewards. A good owl, like Hermes, will find food on his own, so don't give him too much food from the Great Hall. He won't get complete nutrition from what is served there, plus he will come to rely on it and get lazy."
Harry filed all that away for a later time, he might be able to get that after his meeting with the minister next weekend.
"Mr. Potter," the professor said delicately, "Is it possible to meet with your sister's demiguise before I bring him in for classes?"
Harry scanned the room, squinting until he spotted Whispers by the bug terrariums, "He's over there, staring at your bugs." He snapped his fingers and called, "Whispers, don't eat those, come over and say hello."
Kettleburn turned around quickly as Whispers carefully walked across the room towards them, turning visible as he walked. He silently hopped up on a desk next to the professor and extended a yeti glove towards the teacher, saying, "Whiisspers."
Eyes full of interest, Kettleburn extended his real hand and said, "Silvanus Kettleburn, it's a pleasure to meet you."
They shook hands as Whispers repeated back, "Sulvanus. Good tooo meeet yooo."
"Astounding, the speech is amazing, though what is going on with his hands? They normally don't have fur."
Harry was about to respond, but Whispers did it for him, "Yeti, I weeev hair."
Harry picked up one of Whispers's hands and looked closely at the glove. Sure enough, there were tiny bits of his hair woven in with the yeti hair. He told the professor, "We got him yeti gloves so he didn't have to walk on the cold floors of the castle. It looks like he wove his own hair into the yeti hair so they also turn invisible with him."
"That shows a level of intelligence that I wouldn't have imagined being possible with them. How well can he predict the future?"
"I can occasionally surprise him," Harry explained. "Do you know how to play Hot Hands?"
"I can do one hand," he waved his real hand and snapped the pincer on his mechanical one. "Does he know Rock Paper Scissors?" Harry nodded.
Kettleburn looked delighted and they spent the next twenty minutes playing. Whispers won every single game, and in the ones where the three of them participated together, he would always beat the Professor when it wasn't possible to beat both of them or tie with Harry. Just as Whispers had won his 24th game, there was a knock on the door and Luna entered.
"Ahh Miss Lovegood, come in. The pixie you brought to me is fully healed. You can release him back into the forest now."
Whispers saw his favorite playmate and jumped across the desks to have a staring contest with her. After the first thirty seconds, Harry explained what was going on, to which the professor couldn't think of something to reply with. Nearly two minutes later, Luna broke eye contact and hugged Whispers, then went over to the terrarium enclosure with the pixie Harry had seen earlier.
"I'm actually going to keep him," Luna told the professor. "We're going to become friends."
"How are you going to keep a pixie as a pet?" he asked the spacey blonde girl.
"My daddy sent me one of the collars we use for the pixies at our home. It keeps them nearby until they learn they live with us." She pulled a small leathery ring out of her pocket and showed it to him. "It's charmed to keep him near my earrings," then tapped one of the glass radishes hanging from her ear.
Professor Kettleburn seemed to be overloaded with strange surprises for the day, so he just said, "Keep him out of trouble, they are notorious for causing it."
"Thank you!" she reached into the enclosure and picked up the sleeping pixie, attaching the collar around his tiny neck as he woke up.
Seeing all the people around he tried to fly away but when he got about ten feet away, he stopped like he had a leash around his neck, then tried another direction with the same results. After another few tries to escape, he turned around, and with a scream dove at Luna who just held out a hand with a few dead bees in it.
The cornish pixie looked at the strange offering then took one and ate it fast, then took another and ate it slowly. Luna reached up and took the pixie out of the air, placing it on her shoulder as it enjoyed the meal, and started heading for the exit. Harry also said his goodbyes and followed her out.
Dinner that night was quiet as well, though there was quite a bit of whispering back and forth between the Slytherin students at their table. Quite a few were giving glares toward the Ravenclaws. Harry looked to the end of the table to find Draco, but he was just looking… thoughtful. All of the other members of his house were plotting something, but he didn't seem to be worried about his friend in the infirmary. He was just staring into space like he had other things on his mind.
An owl did arrive for Harry during dinner, with another letter from Liz:
Hey Harry,
I got your letter, though it arrived in my post box without any stamps. Does your school not use the postal system? On Saturday, my mom was planning on taking me to the funfair, if it doesn't rain. Can your guardian or 'escort' give my parents a call so we can work something out?
-Liz
+44 20 7946 0155
As he thought about forwarding the message to Brandt, Hermes arrived and waited patiently for him to write something out and include Liz's letter with it before taking them both away.
When he got back to the common room, Lyra pulled him aside, "I heard some of the Slytherins talking about having a full house meeting tonight. I'm going to go listen in through the well in Slytherin's office. Want to come?"
That sounded like a good plan, so the two of them grabbed Whispers and headed for the second subfloor. When they had gotten away from the staircase, Harry pulled out his father's cloak, explaining that when he had been here before, the gargoyle didn't notice him at all while he was under the cloak. The two of them and Whispers holding onto Harry's back barely fit together underneath and taking little steps.
Once they were past the gargoyle and activated the passageway, they saw that the Baron was awake, and sharpening a sword in his frame, whistling a tune. They watched him for a bit before Harry took the cloak off them, startling Malcolm Constantine.
"Ahh! I didn't see you there!" he exclaimed. "How did you do that?"
Harry showed the man his cloak, "It's an…"
Malcolm interrupted him, "It's the invisibility cloak!" he said with awe.
"The invisibility cloak?" Lyra asked. "Lots of people have them."
"They do?" The man looked perplexed, "I knew of only one in my day, though I guess that was 900 years ago. Do you know how they are made?"
Lyra beckoned to Whispers who was peeking out from behind her, "This is Whispers, wizards call him a demiguise. Lots of people have cloaks made from the hair of his kind." She looked at their little brother and signed [Vanish], which he did.
Malcolm's portrait stared at the spot where Whispers had been, "Incredible! I had never heard of such a creature. They did not live anywhere in Europe, as far as I'm aware, but the Peverells were great explorers. They never did let geography stand in their way, they must have made their cloak from this fine beast and brought it back to England."
That sounded reasonable, but they were going to be late for spying on the meeting, so Lyra asked to enter and the three of them said goodnight, then moved on, into Slytherin's office.
Once they were inside, Harry started to tell Lyra about what he had done to Vincent. The plan wasn't as complicated as he made it out to be in his head, so by the time they walked across the room to the well, he had already told her everything.
"What did you do with the rest of the apple's toxin?" Lyra asked.
"Oops," Harry said sheepishly. "I still have it in my pouch. I don't know how to vanish it. Brandt just taught me how to do it with my conjurations."
"We'll need to get someone else to do it," Lyra told him. "Daphne and the others owe us favors, we can get one of them to cast the spell."
Harry nodded. They were standing next to the well, while Whispers ran around the large room, looking at all the nothing that was there. Uncovering the top of the well, the two of them looked down into the Slytherin common room. Many students were gathering towards the windows into the lake, so they pushed the well across the floor until they were by the desk and windows on their floor. Blaise was sitting in his chair, with Daphne and Tracey on the couch to the side. All of the other couches and chairs near the window seemed to be occupied by older students.
Since the meeting hadn't started yet, they pushed the well around and looked at the other students assembled. They found Draco and Pansy sitting on a couch in the back corner, effectively ostracized from the rest of the house. The Carrow twins were sitting on a pair of large couches near the back with the other first years. Harry found Cho Chang and a few other girls her age hidden in a darkened enclave against a wall to the side of the room.
A voice got their attention, and they pulled the well towards the front of the room by the window to the lake, "Let's get this started," Marcus Flint was saying. "We have a lot to cover. Everyone, take your seats, and don't move until we are done."
The seventh-year prefect for the girls, Veronica Ward, stood with him and said, "Rule number one, the house always stands together in public. Rule number ten, what happens in Slytherin stays in Slytherin. Someone has broken these two rules." There was a gasp that echoed around the room. "The auror report on Mr. Crabbe's attack had a redacted section of someone who spoke of the challenge during the last term between Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Zabini. Does anyone want to step forward now and admit to this?"
There was silence, and after ten seconds, Marcus drew his wand, and said, "If we find out who you are later, there will be more trouble for you than if you admit it now." He looked around as he was met with more silence, "Fine, that's the way it's going to be."
"Next item," Veronica started. "Does anyone have any information regarding the attack on Vincent Crabbe?" More silence. "No one? Vincent's father is offering a reward of 500 galleons for information that leads to the assailant, and an extra 1,000 if it can be done without the aurors getting the same information first." Now the room was filled with muttering and whispers.
"I bet it was Potter," someone said. Harry tried to move the well in that direction to find the person who spoke, but couldn't identify them.
"It was not," Veronica said flatly. "The report says that he was under the influence of a sleeping potion the night of the attack. This brings us to the next item on the agenda - Hermione Granger." More muttering from the students. "If anyone wants to admit to attacking the mudblood, I have twenty galleons here for you." She pulled out a small pouch that clicked as she shook it, then put it on the table.
"I did it!" said a boy who approached the front to take the money.
"Sure you did, Mr. Shepard," Flint said, dripping with sarcasm. "What spells did she cast to defend herself?"
"Umm… a shield and jelly legs. I think that's it," the boy said with very little confidence.
"Sit back down," Marcus told him. "We have the auror report with the correct answer." The boy turned around and went back to his spot as a few people laughed at him. "Does anyone have any proof that Vincent attacked her? I'll put up ten galleons for anyone who can tell me if he did for certain."
No one responded.
"Next, we have an informational mission for the house. In Potter's questioning, he mentioned that Granger is one of his oldest magical friends. That gives us some clue as to where Dumbledore had him in training and possibly what he was trained in. If someone under fifth-year brings us this information they will have guaranteed themselves a spot as a prefect. Anyone fifth year and up who brings it to us will get prefect privileges for a full term."
Lyra looked towards Harry, who was sweating a bit at the possibility that some of his private life would get leaked out. She whispered to him, "We can start some fish tales."
Harry tried to smile, "We'll need to tell Hermione to start spreading rumors. I'm also going to write to Alastor and tell him that one of the aurors gave them the report."
Down below, Veronica continued to speak, "We've got one more thing before we open the floor for new business. All open hostility towards Gryffindor needs to stop until the situation with Mr. Crabbe is resolved. Focus all your energy on potential attacks and subterfuge from Ravenclaw against Slytherin. Most Slytherins that end up in other houses end up with the Eagles. Their house is the most likely to be filled with the cunning and ambitious, so keep your guard up around them."
Harry and Lyra looked around the room at all the heads nodding in agreement.
Back at the front, Marcus asked, "Does anyone have new public information requests or want to announce new business?"
A fourth or fifth-year girl approached the front, "I have an information request on Lucy Ramsey, I am paying with a silver-rated enchantment of your choice."
"Put it on the board," Veronica said with a sigh.
Harry started to close up the well, "Let's get out of here and go see Hermione."
"And send that owl to Alastor," Lyra added.
The two of them collected Whispers who was staring at fish in the window to the lake and made their way out.
The door to Ravenclaw opened for them without a riddle again, and they found Hermione sitting on one of the balconies above the main floor, reading an arithmancy book.
"They're doing what?" she exclaimed when they told her about the plot to find out more about Harry's past.
"The best way to hide it is to get people to tell fish stories," Lyra told her.
"Fish stories?" Hermione asked.
"Make things up," Harry told her. "Except they have to be believable."
Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment before turning to Harry, "Is that what you're doing with all the stories about how to get into your common room?" Both of them smiled, even though they had been caught.
"Exactly," Harry said as he continued to smile. "The best part is that even if the correct way gets out, people will think it's just one of the other fake stories that keep getting circulated."
"Try to think of one now," Lyra told her.
"Umm…" Hermione tried to think. "How about… I was on vacation with my parents, when I was seven… in Peru… and you saved my mother from a lethifold!"
"Or you saved me!" Harry said.
"Or both!" Lyra added. "I'm sure you'll get to tell a lot of stories, with so many people asking."
"Don't give away stories too easily," Harry told her, "or they will think you're lying. It's supposed to be a secret. Try to get them to buy you books or something in exchange for a story… Just never say that it's anything more than a story. Never say it's the truth."
Hermione brightened up at that idea, "How about… The year before Hogwarts, I found you meditating in the middle of Stonehenge and you taught me my first spell."
"I saw you getting attacked by doxies inside a London warehouse, and had to pull them all out of your hair."
"Can I be in some?" Lyra asked. "People know I got mysterious training with Harry, somewhere."
They continued to postulate ideas for how Harry and Hermione met, with Lyra in a few of them as well, and even told her to eventually say the two of them met at a Christmas party where Hermione defended Harry from a muggle who hated wizards. It would just get put in with all the other ridiculous stories by that point and dismissed just as quickly.
Author's Note: I got Liz's phone number from a website that provides fake numbers for use in movies and tv shows. It shouldn't connect to anyone.