The Diary
Newt led Harry and Lyra out of the dormitory while Tina remained behind to take care of the remaining students. There were several professors around the Great Hall entrance as they passed by and noticed Madam Pomfrey running her wand over a student next to the plaque set up by the Unspeakables. As they got closer, they could see it was Gabriel Truman, leaning over to look at the message, however, he wasn't moving or blinking as he stared at the writing. The Hufflepuff prefect had been petrified.
Lockhart was there as well, looking around nervously with his wand drawn, as well as Professor Burbage and Sprout. The Hufflepuff Head looked in their direction and asked, "What are Mr. Potter and Miss Black doing out here?"
"They have information on the attack," Newt responded. "I am taking them to see the Headmaster."
The four other adults turned to look at Harry and Lyra as they passed by, with suspicion, interest, and a bit of fear. Newt led them upstairs towards the room that had been the common room for the first years before Scamander house had been established. Instead of entering there, Newt took them across the hall to the staff meeting room. Inside, they found the Headmaster, Professor McGonagall, Snape, and Flitwick. They were in the middle of a discussion that stopped as soon as they entered.
Flitwick repeated Professor Sprout's question, "What are the children doing here?"
"Mr. Potter was alerted to the attack before I reached the common room," Newt informed them. "He had all of the students there sequestered in the upper-year dormitories."
"Cedric did that," Harry corrected them. "I couldn't get out of the common room, so I went to him for help."
"How were you alerted to the situation, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked.
Harry wasn't sure how much to tell the headmaster, but he never expected that the monster would be set loose before he could find it either. He quickly made up his mind, and said, "There's a monster in the school. Our tutor gave us an animal that would alert us if we found it, but it found us. It shouldn't be petrifying people though." He held up the quivering snakeskin sack.
"What is in there?" Flitwick asked.
Harry opened the bag and let the horseshoe crab skitter out on the floor and move around a bit.
"A crab?" the Ravenclaw head asked in confusion.
"We were told it would be afraid of the monster," Lyra explained. "Our tutor put it to sleep and told us it would wake up if the monster was nearby."
"What kind of monster is it?" Newt asked suspiciously.
"A King," Harry told them, without explanation.
"A King what?" Severus asked suspiciously.
Harry and Lyra exchanged a look between each other and shrugged. "That's all we know, a King."
"The Giver told you this?" Minerva asked. Flitwick looked confused.
"No," Harry said, looking towards Flitwick. "He just put the crab to sleep, someone else told us about the King."
"Who?" Flitwick pressed.
Knowing he might be able to figure out what he meant, Harry looked straight at Professor Snape and pushed an image to the front of his mind of the Usurper. He felt a puff of air on his face, and the dark-haired man nodded, and then shared a glance with Dumbledore.
The Headmaster seemed to think for a moment before turning to the only one in the room not 'in the know' and said, "Filius, please go tend to your house. The nature of young Harry's upbringing and some of the individuals involved in it needs to be kept private."
The Charms professor seemed to growl at the headmaster and show his slightly jagged teeth. Then with a frown, he exited the room.
"I think this conversation needs to be moved to my office," Dumbledore said as he walked towards a door at the back of the room, opening it to reveal a set of stairs.
The others all followed him, with Newt casting a Patronus spell quickly and saying, "Tell Tina we are in the Headmaster's office."
After collecting the crab that had scuttled into a corner and placing it back in the snakeskin bag, they traveled up one flight of stairs and arrived at the headmaster's office. Both Harry and Lyra look around, very confused.
"We're on the seventh floor?" Lyra asked.
"Yes," the Headmaster said with a smile, "and 'Magic' is the answer to your next question." He waved his wand and five more chairs were conjured as he sat down at his desk. "Now, from what I understand is going on, you have been informed by the large snake on your island that there is a monster called a King in this school. How is he aware of this?"
That was information Harry wasn't willing to share with anyone, so he just responded, "It just does. That's why we have the crab to alert us."
"Why does a crab alert you?" Minerva asked.
"We asked the same thing," Lyra responded. "The Giver just told us that it would."
"The Duwende?" Dumbledore asked and got a nod from the other adults. Just then, the headmaster looked past the group towards the door, and said, "Please come in, Porpentina." The door opened to reveal Newt's wife, along with Whispers who bounded into the room and jumped on Lyra's lap, nearly causing the chair to fall over. Newt conjured a beanbag for the demiguise to sit in.
Newt turned to his wife, "Quick catchup. The Giver gave the kids a horseshoe crab that somehow alerts them to a monster called a King, which the Usurper told them is somewhere in the castle and is responsible for the petrifications."
"Ok…" Tina said slowly. "I have a question for the Headmaster," looking him in the eyes. "The Unspeakable said that these petrifications have happened before, at Hogwarts. I think we need more information than that."
The Headmaster's face tightened like he didn't want to say something, "That was a long time ago, and the person responsible cannot be involved now, as they are dead."
"Who was it?" Tina pressed.
"No one you need to be concerned with," he responded.
"That makes me want to know even more. Are you protecting them?" she challenged him.
All eyes were on the headmaster now as he looked around for respite, which he thought he found when a trilling call was heard and a burst of flame drew everyone's attention as a phoenix appeared in the room, landing on the perch next to the Headmaster's desk.
"Did you come to join us, Fawkes?" Dumbledore asked the bird.
It gave a quick chirp back and stared at Lyra, unblinking.
"Nice distraction, I would like an answer to my question," Tina told him.
"I am protecting someone, just not the one responsible, I will not answer any other questions about this."
"It was Hagrid," McGonagall said, shocking everyone with the statement. "Wasn't it? You're talking about the incident from just before I started school, correct?"
"Hagrid?" Newt said curiously. "I knew he had been expelled, but not for what."
Dumbledore slumped down into his chair, a weary look crossing his eyes. "Hagrid was framed," he said glumly. "He's not even covering for someone else, like you Newton."
"I think you need to start telling us what is going on," Severus said darkly.
Dumbledore sighed and looked towards the phoenix, still staring at Lyra Black, "What do you think, old friend?" The bird broke its gaze and started to whistle a tune that Harry thought inspired a feeling of courage as he listened to it. "I was only there for small parts of it. Armando will need to tell you the story."
Dumbledore raised his wand and cast a spell on a portrait behind him. Among dozens of others, one frame containing an ancient-looking wizard floated out to Fawkes's perch and hung itself just under where the orange bird sat. He looked very old, but also very powerful. He gazed around the room until his eyes stopped on Professor McGonagall.
"Miss McGonagall, it is good to see you again. You should make time to visit me more often."
"As a student or professor, I try to avoid spending too much time in the Headmaster's office," she replied politely. "Maybe you can get another frame on a lower floor?"
"I have frames in every institution in Britain, I expect you to knock the next time you're at one of them." He continued to look around until his eyes landed on Newt, who was doing his best to look away. "Newton Scamander, how you managed to return to this institution, is beyond me. Your expulsion should have been permanent, and to hear you have joined the founders of this school is an insult to the originals themselves."
Newt just ducked his head in shame as his wife came to his defense, "Now you listen here, old man. Newt showed Hufflepuff loyalty to a friend, taking the fall for her in his expulsion. Your hand was too heavy, and you didn't even bother to investigate the situation. Just handed down the punishment and called it a day. You should have died one hundred and fifty years earlier instead of whatever dark magic you used to continue living."
"Dark magic? Ha!" He laughed. "I lived for three hundred and fifty-five years due to the power of my blood. Maybe if I had lived longer, we could have met, and then I would have taught you some respect for your elders."
"Enough!" Dumbledore said loudly and firmly. "Armando, I need you to recount the events of the 1942-43 school year."
"Very well," he smiled towards Newt, who was still bowing his head. "That was one of the years you were distracted with Grindelwald, wasn't it? Always running off to try and save the world. There were enough problems at Hogwarts, and you thought it would be better to deal with the problems in Europe. If you weren't the best professor at the school, I would have fired you years before."
Everyone was a bit shocked by the attitude of the last headmaster but stayed silent to listen to his tale.
"There's not much to tell. Some students turned up petrified throughout the year, there were rumors that a monster was stalking the halls. Then we found him, right after that girl was killed. Your pet giant, Rubeus Hagrid, let an Acromantula loose in my school. It's good that Tom turned him in and kept him from making a mess of things. As soon as he was expelled, there were no more attacks, and the problem was solved."
Newt's head perked up, "Wait, you're saying an Acromantula did this? They can't petrify people."
"That's what Albus here said, kept the man out of Azkaban. He kept the largest and most dangerous spider in the world in a school filled with children. That's deserving of expulsion for sure. It doesn't matter that he didn't open the Chamber of Secrets, that spider could have killed much more and done more damage to this institution than anything some petrifying monster in there could have done."
"The Chamber of Secrets is a myth," Snape said to the portrait.
"What's the Chamber of Secrets?" Harry asked.
"Why are there first-year students here?" the portrait of the old Headmaster asked.
"What he's talking about is a myth," Snape said, ignoring the portrait. "Salazar Slytherin allegedly built a secret chamber in the school which was supposed to contain a monster that would purge the school of all those unworthy of learning here. Purportedly it could be opened by Slytherin's true heir."
"Severus is correct," Dumbledore affirmed. "It is a myth. The school has been searched many times over the last nine hundred years; no chamber has ever been found."
Harry and Lyra had a hushed conversation where they whispered "Secret Chamber" and "Chamber of Secrets" numerous times.
"It has to be real," Harry said. "I don't think there's a giant spider in the school now. And the monster that woke up the crab is somewhere nearby, and it's petrifying again." He reached into the bag and held up the crab with its quivering legs to show off its fear.
"I don't see how this crab has anything to do with this," Dumbledore said, with the portrait of Armando Dippet nodding in agreement.
"Albus," Newt interrupted with a hauntingly thoughtful look on his face. "I think I might know what's going on, and if I'm right, we are in a lot of trouble."
Dumbledore waited for an explanation, but Newt just looked around and said, "I need an elf," with one popping in next to him. "Please bring me a book from the library on horseshoe crabs."
The elf looked confused, but nodded its head and popped away.
"I need to confirm something," he informed the group.
Nearly two minutes later, the elf popped back in and passed a book to Newt who started flipping through it as the elf disappeared. He stopped on a page and scanned through it, then holding his finger in the spot, walked to a shelf behind the Headmaster's desk and pulled out a book from there, opened directly to a page inside, then placed both books in front of the headmaster while pointing to a spot in each book. The headmaster looked up at him with fear written on his face.
Newt said one word, "Roosters."
"No, it can't be." Dumbledore's face was pale as a ghost.
"Would you mind filling the rest of us in?" McGonagall stood up and asked.
Newt turned to her as Dumbledore collapsed into his chair. "The horseshoe crab isn't actually a crab. It is more closely related to a spider. Right now it's in fear for its life because the monster roaming our halls is a Basilisk, the King of the Snakes."
McGonagall also collapsed into her chair, the blood draining from her face. Snape looked frightened as well, but also contemplative.
"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" Harry exclaimed, "There's a King in the school."
"Oh, is that all?" the portrait of Armando Dippet said nonchalantly. "Just get a rooster so we can kill it."
"Someone killed all the roosters at the school," Dumbledore told him.
"Did you forget that you're a wizard?" the portrait chastised him. "Elf!" an elf appeared in the room. "Go get us a rooster. If you need to steal one from a muggle, do it." The elf vanished.
"Why are we getting a rooster?" Lyra asked.
"Again…" Dippet started, "Why are there first-years here?"
Snape answered her. "The crow of a rooster is fatal to a Basilisk, the 'King' you were talking about."
Harry and Lyra stared at each other in disbelief, and Lyra said, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
"Watch your mouth, child," the portrait of Dippet chastised him.
Newt spoke to him, "Harry, it's a well-known fact that the cry of a rooster will kill a basilisk. I put it in my own book that you have a copy of."
"So you've seen it happen?" Harry said with a confused look.
"Well, no, I haven't. It's something that's part of their biology stemming from how they were created," Newt told them.
"So, someone else has used a rooster to kill one?" Harry asked.
Newt paused for a moment to think, then said, "I can't seem to remember when the last one was killed with a rooster's crow. There was that one ten years ago in India, but it was deaf and they had to kill it with conjured spikes from above. Then there was the one in Venezuela in the '30s, but there wasn't a rooster there in time so they managed to kill it by knocking it into a tar pit." He looked to Dumbledore and said, "Help me out here Albus."
Dumbledore seemed to be thinking hard on the matter, as Lyra asked, "How did they know the one in India was deaf?"
Newt paused to recall, and said slowly, "Because… it didn't hear the rooster crow."
"Or because roosters can't kill it," Harry added. "How could a non-magical bird kill a magical snake? The King of Serpents?"
"Because that's what killed the very first basilisk," Dumbledore said flatly, drawing everyone's attention to him. Then said with a deadly serious tone, "I am going to share with you something that cannot leave this room. If any of you do, I will find you and erase your memories of it along with whoever you tell it to." He looked at the portrait of Headmaster Dippet, "I am classifying this as a secret of Hogwarts, that even you cannot share with others." The portrait seemed to freeze for a moment before he nodded.
Reaching up over his head, Dumbledore's hand vanished as if it were passing into some invisible pocket, and pulled out a very old book, then placed it on his desk. He stared at it for several moments before announcing, "This is the diary of a man named Telys, apprentice to the Dark Lord Herpetus, known to the world as Herpo the Foul."
There was a series of gasps from around the room that didn't include Harry and Lyra, who had no idea who it was.
Whispers started snacking on some popcorn he got from places unknown as Dumbledore explained, "Harry, Lyra - Herpo the Foul was a dark wizard, known for many terrible things, though one of the worst was the creation of the Basilisk." He continued to explain, "Telys was his apprentice and wrote something akin to a biography of his master in this journal. A part of this journal is how we know that the Rooster's crow is fatal to the Basilisk."
"Then, read it to us," Lyra said as she took some of the popcorn that Whispers had gathered and ate a piece.
"I would like to hear it as well," the portrait of the last headmaster said. "It is not often that someone as old as I was can hear something new."
"You didn't take the book out to just keep it on your desk," McGonagall added.
The others nodded as well, and Tina called an elf to bring more popcorn.
Albus sighed, and opened the book, turning towards a page near the end, "I will do my best to translate as it was written in Ancient Greek:
It was not a war fought like any other. I have seen wars where the sea ran red with blood, where the vultures waited patiently to feed on the corpses of soldiers slain in battle, and where the thieves and vagrants looted the bodies of the dead or preyed on the dying to do the same. This battle did not have a single drop of blood, though, there are still thousands of bodies.
They stood throughout the valley, alive, but unmoving. Some look to be fleeing in terror, while the brave are poised to strike, but all of them are as motionless as statues. I assumed that they would remain that way until my Lord saw fit to release them from the prison of their own bodies. The plan was to release them when they would serve him and only him. The army of Asclepius had been completely defeated and I assumed it would stay that way.
I was wrong
From the top of the hill, their General, the Great Healer Asclepius strolled down the valley, looking some of the frozen soldiers in the eyes, offering them words and platitudes they could not hear, heading straight for the stage that had been constructed for his surrender. My Lord awaited him there, sitting on a throne made of a coiled serpent, the King of Serpents, the Basilisk.
"Asclepius!" he called out, "Kneel before me and die with honor. My champion will not show you any mercy the way he has done for your soldiers." He stroked the head of the Basilisk as he spoke.
"I would thank you for your mercy towards my soldiers, Herpo," he replied. "However, I will not be dying today, as I have brought my own champion to this battle."
A mighty crow was heard from the peak of the valley where Asclepius had descended from and the Basilisk began to quake, throwing my master to the ground, and writhing in pain.
"What manner of beast causes my champion such pain?" My Lord asked Asclepius in bewilderment.
"There is always the one who wishes to usurp the crown of a tyrant," he responded.
The crow was heard again, and the Basilisk tried to flee in the opposite direction, but as the sound of the crow continued, it convulsed until it fell to the ground, dead.
"NO!" My Lord called towards his champion, the greatest of all magical creatures. He continued to call out on the tongue of the serpent, with words that I could not understand. Though they were understood by Asclepius, who spoke with words in the language of snakes himself, calling out towards where the crowing had come from.
I looked up towards the peak of the valley, just as the sun started to shine over the hill. There was Asclepius's champion; with a crest of red, and lips of gold. It stood there, perched at the peak of the hill, surveying the battlefield below. It threw back its head and called out again, a mighty crow to signify its victory, and the defeat of my master."
Dumbledore placed the book back down and looked at his audience. Just as he finished, an elf popped into the room, struggling to hold a rooster by the neck. The headmaster cast a binding spell at the bird, freezing it in place, so the elf could release it.
Picking up the unmoving bird, he pointed to its head, "Red crest, golden beak, crows at sunrise. Kills basilisks."
"That's why you think it kills basilisks?" Harry asked, looking at the Headmaster in disbelief. He rifled through his pouch and pulled out his photo album, flipping through the pages until he got to one of The Usurper.
Pointed to the photo, "Red crest, golden mouth, its name is the Usurper… it kills the King of Serpents."
There was silence across the room until Newt broke it, "It does make a surprising amount of sense, Albus."
"Then why has someone been killing all the chickens here at the school?" Dumbledore asked. "Someone was clearly paving the way for the release of the monster."
"Or they suffered from the same delusions that you have about the Rooster," Snape interjected. "Outside of this room, hardly a soul knows that the Usurper exists. The diary of Telys is over two thousand years old. Knowledge does get lost or distorted over such long periods."
"We don't need to believe Mr. Potter or not," McGonagall added. "Whoever has released the basilisk believes that a rooster's crow is fatal to it. Harry can bring the creature here and we can bring in more roosters to protect the school."
"I must object," the portrait of Headmaster Dippet broke in. "You are proposing the killing of a basilisk and replacing it with an even more deadly creature. There are possibly two or three more deadly creatures on the planet than the basilisk, and you're saying you want to bring a different one that no one has heard of to Hogwarts?"
"It wouldn't hurt anyone!" Harry exclaimed.
"We grew up with the Usurper," Lyra added. "It only ever killed people that tried to hurt us."
"So he's a wizard killer," Dippet said. "I will be informing the proper authorities that you intend to bring such a creature to Hogwarts." The man vanished from his frame.
"That is going to be a problem," Snape stated the obvious.
"So what do we do now?" McGonagall asked.
"You need to do exactly what you were already planning," Tina said. "Bring more roosters to the school, and keep them closely guarded. Whoever is aiding the basilisk needs to know that we have more of the birds, and by that extension, we know that the creature is a basilisk. As the only actual member of law enforcement currently at this school, I will be arranging the nighttime patrols with everyone being issued a rooster in a cage with a sunlight charm attached to get it to crow, even at night. All of that will just be a smokescreen so we can get the Usurper here."
"And how are you planning on doing that?" Dumbledore asked.
Harry was about to say something, but Newt interrupted, "Harry has a way to communicate with The Giver on the island. We will also send a Patronus to Nestor Balindong informing him of the situation. We will get the serpent to take a portkey here as soon as possible."
"Does anyone have anything else to add?" Albus asked.
"We also need to keep all the students in the dormitories until we have the roosters to give the illusion of protection," Snape told them. "I will need to organize a lockdown with the other heads of houses."
Looking for anything else and seeing no response, Dumbledore said, "Let's get going before Dippet does anything to keep us from accomplishing this task."
Whispers had fallen asleep in his beanbag during the story, so Harry hoisted his furry little brother over his shoulder and Newt led Harry and Lyra out of the office and down the steps they came from, as they saw Tina casting her Patronus, though they moved too quickly to see the form. Back down on the second floor, the two were led across the hall to Newt's office and down the back stairs into the maze of the Scamander common room. They followed the maze until it led to Harry's project room where he kept the blood bowls.
Harry set down Whispers on the ground and spoke into this month's bowl,
§Is anyone there?§
Nothing but silence came back. He tried a few more times but got only silence in return.
Newt called an elf, and told him, "You are to stand watch here, if any noise comes from this bowl, inform me immediately. Any other responsibilities you have need to be handled by another until then. If you need to eat, call another elf to bring it to you. This is your only responsibility for now."
The elf sat on the floor and stared at the bowl of blood intently.
Lyra told the elf, "You can relax, all you need to do is listen."
Newt conjured a beanbag for the elf, and they headed back to the common room. When they entered, both Patricia and Cedric peeked out of their rooms at the top of the dorms on each side.
Cedric asked, "Can we come out now?"
"Yes," Newt told him, "But we are on lockdown until further notice. No one is to leave the common room until further notice. Meals will be delivered here and you can go to the project rooms, but no one is to go back into the castle hallways until the Headmaster says it's safe to do so. Right now, everyone should return to their dormitories and go back to sleep."
Despite being told to sleep, no one could. They would normally be up in a few hours anyway, so Harry tried to read his history assignment, but was bombarded by questions from his roommates. Thinking it would be best to do with Lyra, he exited his dorm to find go to her room but found that everyone in the house was on their way to find the two of them and everyone gathered around the fire pit as Lyra placed a hoohoo feather in the center and lit it up.
"So, what can you tell us?" Lee asked the two of them.
Before they could answer, Patricia added, "I'm guessing there are things you can't tell us, but if there's something dangerous, we need to know about it."
Harry and Lyra looked at each other trying to figure out what to say, with Arthur pushing them a bit more, "Look, Harry, you said there was some kind of monster. How about you start there?"
Harry sighed, and began, "Before we came to school here, we were told that there was a monster in the school, but it wouldn't bother us. Regardless, our tutor gave us the means to detect it."
"That's what that bag you had was?" Meli interrupted.
"Yes," Harry responded. "The teachers know what is going on and are working to stop it. We can't tell you anymore about what is going on without the headmaster's permission."
"What was in the bag?" Colin asked.
"A horseshoe crab," Lyra told him, though that just got everyone else even more confused.
Everyone except for Luna, who said seriously, "Oh, that is pretty bad." Then she pulled a large ribbon out of her hair, wrapped it around her eyes, and just continued to sit in her spot, with a smile on her face.
"What?" Millicent said in confusion while everyone else's face looked just as perplexed.
"I suggest blindfolds for everyone," Luna said. "There is a Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal roaming the castle. If you can't see it, it will assume that it can't see you."
Colin, Daria, and Megan started to laugh. Megan even said, "I'll go get my towel," but stayed sitting.
Greg looked even more confused and said, "That sounds stupid."
"That's exactly what the Bugblatter Beast is," Colin said in the middle of his giggles. "The most mind-boggling stupid creature in the universe."
Daria explained as she stopped laughing, "It's from a muggle book, it's not real."
Everyone sighed but looked a little bit annoyed at Luna, who was still just sitting there with a yellow ribbon over her eyes and smiling. Suddenly there was the sound of movement near the door, and everyone turned to see Astray carrying a large table that looked like it had come from The Great Hall. The Urisk was sweating a bit as he balanced the enormous solid wooden table above his head.
Colin jumped up and cast a weak levitation charm on the table which didn't lift it, but did lessen the load on the caretaker of their room. A few other students got up as well to cast the spell on the table, with Cedric casting his last.
"Where do you want me to put this?" he asked. Astray gave him a nod of thanks and pointed near the firepit, along one side.
With others supporting it with their spells, Cedric was able to easily direct the table with his magic where it needed to go. Once it had been put down, Astray went to each spot along the table, pulled out a golden plate and a rolled set of silverware from behind his back, placing it on the table. A few students tried to circle behind him to see how he was doing it, but he just changed the position of his hands, so no one could see where he was reaching to pull out the next set.
When he was finished, he ducked under the table and vanished, with all the children looking back toward Harry and Lyra. Just as someone was about to ask another question, there was movement at the table and Astray had reappeared with a large bench for one side of the table, then vanished again.
"I wish I could do that," Lee remarked. "It's not apparation, or whatever the popping thing is that house elves do. It's like a Hidebehind, but he's not hiding."
"What's a Hidebehind?" William asked.
"It's really cool, even if it was a result of some dark magic and who knows what else." Lee smiled, "Harry, Lyra, you might be interested in this too. Some blokes in America managed to breed a demiguise with a ghoul. No idea how you can do that, but it resulted in something that looks like a sasquatch and can hide behind any object no matter the shape or the thickness, it will just walk behind it and match the shape perfectly."
"That's not what happened," Lily said. "They wanted to try to import demiguises into America to make invisibility cloaks, but they bred with a ghoul on the ship ride over. It was an accident."
Cedric weighed in, "Pretty sure Lee is right, even if the history books say it was an accident. You can't just put a ghoul and a demiguise in a room together and play smooth jazz to get them to mate. Cross-species breeding requires very difficult intentional magic to happen, with the ministries and the ICW regulating it heavily. Hidebehinds are also very aggressive towards wizards, but less so towards muggles, so it was probably dark magic that created them."
Harry and Lyra looked a bit furious, and Lyra even reached out to the space next to her and grabbed an invisible Whispers to hold him close to her.
"If I ever find someone treating one of the Hidden like that, they will regret it," Harry said with a serious glare that was felt by all those looking at him.
That kind of deadened the conversation, and everyone went off to either try to get another hour of sleep or to work on homework.
Breakfast later that morning was just the seventeen students, two heads of house, and two demiguises. It was a bit of a standard meal, no-frills, still no eggs, and since the Scamanders didn't make any announcements, they assumed the lockdown hadn't been lifted yet. Luna was still wearing a blindfold over her eyes, which at first made Newt and Tina think that she had discovered the situation, but it was explained to them about the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, and both of them got a good chuckle out of it.
When Lyra finished, she asked Harry to borrow Hermes to update Brandt on the situation. Harry slapped himself on the forehead for forgetting and summoned the bird with his thoughts while Lyra started writing the letter.
After everyone in the house had eaten their fill, Newt left the room while Tina addressed the group of students, "Since regular classes have been canceled today, I will be leading you on some practical spellcasting."
Cedric and the few other older students perked up, as they were the longest without a regular or proper DADA instructor. Having an American Auror teach them something would certainly be interesting.
As everyone gathered around, she continued, "While Miss Lovegood's approach towards the Bugblatter Beast would certainly be effective, a more effective tactic would be to just blind the beast itself. Blinding will work on nearly every creature with eyes, including wizards, so that is what I'll be teaching you today. First though, can any of you tell me a good blinding spell?"
Cedric raised his hand, and said, "Lumos Totalis."
Colin went next, "The strobe light charm."
Lyra called out, "Fumos!"
Lee went next, "It's not a spell, but what about Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder?"
"All of those will work," Tina told them. "Two points to each of you. The darkness powder is a double-edged sword though as it will blind you too. With all of these spells, if you are facing off against a wizard stronger than you, these are great to use as a distraction, and a means to escape. All of you should remember that you are still children, and you will not and should not be engaging in serious duels or fighting dangerous monsters. So today's lesson will just be about blinding and escaping."
Su raised her hand, and asked, "I'm fine with playing along with the lesson, but this is about the monster that Harry warned us about, right?" All the other students put on serious faces and nodded along with her as Tina let out a large sigh.
"I guess there's no fooling any of you," she said without humor. "We can't go into the details of it until things are confirmed, but for now you will just be learning how to blind and run away. Is everyone ok with that?"
There were nods around the room, and they all turned towards the exit door as they heard a knock. Newt poked his head into the room, "Are they ready to start?"
"Yes dear," Tina replied. "They also figured out the goal for the lessons, so we can lighten up on the cryptic messages."
Newt opened the door all the way and walked back into the room. He was followed by a heavy stomping noise and a large golem, nearly ten feet tall, made of stone, marched in behind him. Each limb and joint was made of gray rocks, somehow all working together to march like an ordinary human. It had no recognizable features, except for two blue eyes the size of teacups on the stone that was used as its head. He marched it around the group of students and towards the firepit.
"This golem is going to be your target. I have enchanted it to attack the person that the eyes on its head can see. Your job is going to be to blind it and then escape," Newt informed them.
Tina started to wave her wand and conjured or transfigured trees, rocks, tipped-over tables, and other objects between the firepit and the door. Newt tapped the golem on its 'eyes,' causing them to glow and project blue-tinted spotlights.
"You'll each take turns starting from behind an object near the golem and trying to get to the door, and out into the hallway. The golem will come after you if it can see you. The blue light from its eyes will change the color of your clothes. We will repeat this exercise until every one of you makes it out of the room safely and without being seen directly."
Tina led by example showing them how the lesson worked. The class stood to the side of the room with Newt while she hid behind a rock close to the golem. "This golem can't hear you, but you should stay as quiet as you can during the exercise regardless. With other wizards and monsters, you will not be able to see where their eyes are looking like this one, but for this exercise, we can see on the ground where the golem is looking, even while behind a rock."
She pointed to where the blue eyes were tracking, and when they had moved away from the rock she was hiding behind, she snuck out from behind the spot and cast a blinding spell at the golem's face. The eyes closed and the blue light went away. Quickly she ran back behind another obstacle and waited a moment until the golem opened its eyes again. It started scanning again, and when she had the opportunity, she repeated the blinding and ran to the next obstacle. It took her two more rounds to reach the door and ducked outside, then reentered. Newt cast a spell at the golem and it marched back to the firepit.
From there they took turns running through the course. No one made it through on their first attempt. Some students missed the eyes of the golem, others tried to get too far too fast, some used spells that weren't strong enough, along with many more issues. Harry tried to use his staff to levitate a rock and just use it as a shield while walking away, but the golem just grabbed it and looked him in the face, turning him blue. Lyra used a smokescreen, but it took too long for the smoke to reach the golem, and she got blued as well.
In the second round, the first person to finish the challenge was, surprisingly, Luna. She managed to land a blinding jinx on the golem, but then she didn't run, and instead cast two colloportus charms on the eyes, locking them in place. From there, she just smiled and walked out of the room.
The room all applauded her, everyone except for Newt and Tina, who were whispering to each other.
Tina stepped forward, "Miss Lovegood, I am taking away five points from you for what you just did." She looked shocked, everyone else did as well. "While your unconventional method was successful, you did not take the exercise seriously. You didn't take the time to make sure your spell had worked, nor did you escape as quickly as you could. You just assumed the locking spell couldn't be broken and turned your back on the golem, just walking away slowly." Luna looked sad at being chastised like that, as Tina continued. "For Miss Lovegood and everyone else - I will allow that tactic to be used again. However, I will cancel the spell at a random time, to force you to pay attention to the situation."
Newt reinforced his wife's message, "We need you to take this lesson seriously. I know some of you have had DADA lessons which weren't the best in the past, but you should do your best even if you need to do it on your own, even if you aren't at Hogwarts."
They all continued to practice, with even Whispers taking a turn, being successful for every manner of reasons related to being a demiguise. Once they started being successful with the blinding spell and just running around, that was when everyone started to become creative. Cedric transfigured one of his shoes into a large box and levitated it over the head of the golem, dropping it in place. Meliandra turned out to be very good at throwing cards and cast sticking charms on them before she threw as many as she needed to completely cover the golem's face before trying to get away. Lee shot paintballs at the eyes until they were coated. The exercise and experimentation went on all morning until they were all thoroughly exhausted.
Everyone was having a good time as they ate lunch. While they had been housemates for over half a year, this seemed like the first time they had really had a good time together. It reminded Harry of playing with all of the Hidden back on the island. It was like a real family.
Halfway through the meal, an elf popped in next to Newt, saying, "There is speakings comings froms the bowl."
Newt and Tina jumped up as he said, "Harry, Lyra, come with us." With confusion from the other students, Harry and Lyra followed Newt and Tina out through the maze to Harry's project room.
The bowl was sitting there, bubbling as they could hear Nestor's voice coming from it, "Hello? Is that elf still there? Hello?"
Newt kneeled next to it and replied, "This is Newton Scamander, is The Giver there too?"
"And the Usurper, being this close to it as it hisses is quite terrifying."
Tina had conjured four chairs for them to sit in, and Harry leaned down to the bowl, hissing,
§The King is in the school, it has come out of the secret chamber!§
There was a tremendous amount of hissing that came back as yelled back,
§It was supposed to be sleeping!§
The Usurper also speaking at the same time,
§I shall leave at once… where are you?§
Harry translated, "The Usurper needs to know where Hogwarts is."
"Why does he need to know?" Nestor asked. "You just said there was an emergency."
Tina replied, "We think there is a basilisk at Hogwarts."
Nestor stumbled through a series of curses, not in English, then said, "So why do you need this snake? I think finding a rooster would be a better option than having a Kaiju fight at a school."
Newt told him, "We have very strong evidence that roosters were never something that could kill a basilisk. Do you know of any cases where one was used successfully?"
"There was that one in India, but the serpent was deaf," he replied immediately.
"Or it never worked, to begin with," Harry replied.
More curses were heard from Nestor, "So then why The Usurper… wait… you're talking about Usurping the King of Serpents?"
"Exactly," Newt told him. "We discovered the original reference to a rooster and might have been talking about him anyway. A red crest, a golden beak, and crows at sunrise."
"Crows at sunrise?" Nestor asked curiously.
Harry hissed into the bowl,
§They want to hear the voice of the kingsbane.§
Without questioning why, the Usurper let out a noise that somewhat resembled a crow, though it was much louder, and was more akin to a scream. That it rolled in pitch and repeated quickly, was the only thing that made it sound like a rooster.
"Woah," Nestor's voice came from the bowl. "I hadn't heard that before. You might be onto something. I'll head to my ministry now to arrange an international portkey."
Harry updated the two parselmouths,
§Nestor is arranging a way for you to get here instantly.§
The voice of the Usurper came through,
§He needs to hurry, my prey awaits.§
"Is there anything else you need the two of us for?" Tina asked, and Harry shook his head. Tina added, "I am going to head back to the other students. Come back to the room immediately when you're done."
Harry leaned back to the bowl and asked,
§I have a question for you about the place you saw in the memories.§
The Giver responded,
§Yes?§
Harry said with a bit of annoyance,
§Did the place have a name? Was it called the Chamber of Secrets?§
The Giver replied,
§Yes, a secret chamber in Hogwarts, why?§
Harry let out an aggravated cry, then yelled at the bowl,
§The place was called The Chamber of Secrets. We've been looking for all sorts of secret chambers, not one specific one!§
Harry could feel The Giver shrugging as he said,
§Well, that doesn't matter now, does it?§
Harry interrogated his tutor a bit more,
§Can you remember anything else from the memories?§
He responded a bit annoyed,
§I haven't remembered anything else. The same things as before.§
§The King inside a large statue.§
§Water everywhere.§
§And a crying girl being killed.§
Lyra butted in, "What's going on? I can't understand right now."
Newt stayed silent, but raised an eyebrow at her saying, "right now."
"It was like I told you earlier, with the name of the chamber," he used air quotes around the name.
Lyra grumbled, "Well at least he can't understand me when I call him stupid."
The afternoon was a bit boring, even though it had been less than a day, people were feeling cooped up. Most people were trying to do their homework or study in general. Lyra and Luna were taking turns having staring contests with Whispers. Harry, Neville, and Greg were taking turns having small fights with the boxing gloves. Greg wasn't fighting back, just practicing casting spells at random targets while Harry and/or Neville slugged away at his torso. The exercise was tiring for everyone involved and they were exhausted quickly. Which led back to being bored with being stuck in their room.
When dinner rolled around, most people were silent. Cedric tried to cheer everyone up by announcing that if they were out next week they would have quidditch tryouts on Wednesday. It did brighten the mood a bit, but also gave them the idea that they might not be out for days. After the meal, Newt reported to them that they would have an announcement in the morning regarding the situation.
Everyone settled in for the evening with more studying and practicing magic. The golem and obstacles were still in the room, so occasionally someone tried to run the course or test out a new way to blind the golem. Cedric started to experiment with more dangerous spells, starting with the Conjunctivitis Curse. Somehow, Newt had gotten the golem's eyes to behave like organic eyes and they did swell up and shut. Though they did reopen when he was halfway to the door. He also tried stinging, piercing, and punching hex, both with similar success. From there, he recruited Patricia to help teach the three spells to anyone who didn't already know them. Everyone second year and below wasn't able to perform the piercing hex, but the other spells were learned eventually.
Harry ended the night by having a few staring contests with Whispers. He was trying to incorporate more defenses into his shield other than the spikes and was trying gusts of wind, based on the feeling he got when someone tried to enter his mind. As always with his little brother, the Hidden was surprised the first few times then adapted and started to avoid his attacks until eventually succeeding. As Harry was lasting longer against Whispers, Whispers was also benefiting from the training against Harry, learning to deal with more than just the defenses that one of his family members would employ.
Author's Note: I am aware that it was a mistake in the movie production that made it so Armando Dippet had been alive for over 350 years, and that small newspaper article is the only reference to his long life. While wizards live longer than muggles, 350 is way over the top and I might add something in the future to explain his long life if it becomes relevant. Arcturus has a way to extend his life, which I plan on fully explaining sometime in the tournament year, so maybe Dippet has another way as well. I just wanted to leave it open as another mystery of magic to potentially figure out.