Catching the Scent
Walden MacNair was not usually a happy man. Even as a child, he didn't find joy in the things others did. Gobstones? What a joke of a game. Exploding snap? He liked his eyebrows where they were, thank you very much. Even quidditch lost its appeal after the first few times he played. You were just doing the same thing over and over. Maybe if the bludgers had spikes or there were no rules against clubbing the keeper in the head… then things would have been interesting.
It wasn't until his third year at Hogwarts that he met that irritable little ponce, Lucius Malfoy. Of course, he knew of the Malfoys; rich, arrogant, and influential above all. The sorting hat barely even touched his head before sending him to Slytherin, the boy didn't even flinch as he was being sorted. He then wasted no time laying the charm on everyone around Slytherin House. A kind word here, a favor there, and those who rebuffed him found themselves ostracized slowly to the far reaches of the common room or back to their dorms.
MacNair wasn't approached until the end of Malfoy's first year. Along with a few others, they both had gotten detention at the same time and were tasked to harvest potion ingredients in the Forbidden Forest on a night with no moon. Some of the more potent and dangerous plants and animals thrived in the pure darkness.
When the detention was half over, Lucius made his move, starting with an introduction, not that he needed one. Walden was put immediately on the offense and he remembered putting a knife to the boy's throat and telling him to get back to his duties. Lucius just smiled as a drop of blood rolled down the knife. He didn't seem the least bit afraid and instead commented on the killer instinct he showed with his knives when something needed to be cut. He had space to back away from the blade, but he just stood there, waiting for a response as a few more drops of blood came from the small cut on his neck.
Eventually, Walden realized that he would either need to kill the boy or back off. He didn't think he was ready to kill a wizard yet. The small critters in the forest had been fun before to snare and kill, but that was as far as he would go for now. As soon as he withdrew his blade, Lucius told him exactly what he had been thinking, that he needed a bigger target to hunt and that he was invited on a hunting trip with Abraxas Malfoy over the summer.
That began MacNair's career as a hunter. The first summer, they only went for birds. Ducks, geese, and pheasants. It was exhilarating to kill an animal right in front of him instead of trapping them first, then eating the meat, stuffing, and mounting the carcass. The following Christmas he and Lucius killed a pair of stags together. As the years went on, they graduated into hunting magical creatures, and the summer after Walden graduated, Abraxas kidnaped five muggles and set them loose in the forest outside Malfoy Manor to be preyed on by them.
That was more like it. Prey that could think, that would fight back creatively. It made things more interesting when they were told they had a chance of living. It wasn't long after that when The Dark Lord made his formal debut and gathered followers openly. Abraxas told him that he would get the chance to hunt even greater prey; even other wizards and werewolves that refused to join The Dark Lord. That was all he needed to hear to dedicate himself to getting marked.
During his service to the Dark Lord, he killed many many wizards. He even became bored with the killing curse and branched out into muggle weaponry; heavy swords, axes, scythes, and anything else that was difficult to wield or just looked frightening to his prey.
And then, just as things were getting interesting? The Dark Lord had to get killed. Killed by a baby. The world came crashing down around him, and he was arrested for his support of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. The people didn't know, but he was primarily responsible for The Dark Lord gaining monikers like that and You-Know-Who. When The Dark Lord put a Taboo Curse on his name, it was he that got to hunt down the people that used it. He'd gather up his crew and play the most dangerous game with those that broke the taboo. Slowly, but surely, people stopped using his real name and started on the hyphenated ones.
Just as Lucius had given him his way in, he also unwittingly gave him a way out. The Imperius curse. It was laughable that they could use such an explanation for their actions, but that didn't stop him from doing it. It even was true, in a manner of speaking. The Dark Lord would use all three Unforgivable Curses as punishments. His favorite was the torture curse, but he would also use the Imperius Curse to make his followers torture themselves or their loved ones. Walden didn't have loved ones, so when he failed an assignment, he would end up being forced to hurt himself. He was very good at hurting other people, so he did his best not to end up at his own mercy as well.
Once exonerated for his crimes, he found that no one required a professional killer such as he was. The real assassins that you could hire didn't hunt people, they just killed them. So he was looked at as an amateur. He went abroad for a few years and even applied to be a professor at Durmstrang for their outdoor survival class, though it was the extreme cold that took him out of the running. When he returned to England, it was Lucius Bloody Malfoy once again who came to his aid, finding him a job in the Ministry, killing off dangerous creatures for government bureaucrats.
It was a shit job, and he knew it. There was no hunt, it was just killing creatures that the ministry determined to be unsafe. He killed crups, and hippogriffs, occasionally a security troll that refused to follow orders. They just had a room where he would go in, kill the creature, then leave. He didn't even get to put down werewolves; their crimes got handled by the Aurors, through the Werewolf Registry, as if they were actual wizards committing crimes.
Of course, he still participated in the occasional muggle hunt, but Lucius never wanted to join him. Even Yaxley, who had been with him on quite a few assignments as a Death Eater, was too afraid to partake for fear of his job. So reluctantly he took the Carrows along with him. Some company was better than none. Though they were no help with the hunting, they had no skill in anything other than torture and sadism.
So when alarm bells started going off at the Ministry that Harry Potter was trying to bring an unregistered Wizard Killer to Hogwarts his mood brightened quite a bit. Finally, a real hunt to satiate his appetite. When he heard that the boy was trying to bring it in to kill a basilisk of all things, that made his mouth water at the potential conquest. But then the Ministry decided to block Potter's attempts to bring this new creature and denied the possibility that a basilisk even existed, to begin with. Even Yaxley jumped on the Ministry line that no creature existed, putting an end to his fun.
Finally, he got word that a basilisk did exist at Hogwarts, and Fudge himself called for a team to be assembled to find and kill it. He may even need to find the legendary Chamber of Secrets to kill Salazar Slytherin's pet, hidden somewhere under Hogwarts for nearly a millennium. This was truly the peak of what he dreamed of accomplishing in his life. Stupid Yaxley told him to abandon his mission as it would disgrace any Slytherin to kill the founder's monster and pet, but he disagreed. The stupid beast hadn't been of any use since it the time of the founders. Better to just put it out of its misery in its old age. He hoped that someone would do the same for him one day before he became just as useless.
For a whole week, he put together his team. He gathered up some of the contacts he used as a Death Eater, unmarked criminals of course, but good at tracking prey. He contracted a trio of security trolls for assistance and sharpened all of his blades so they would be ready when the time was right. Just as he was getting ready to leave, he got an emergency Howler letter telling him to leave for Hogwarts, at once.
When the portkey dumped him in Hogsmeade, he marched with his team through the gates and up to the main doors of the castle. Students playing on the grounds fled from the security trolls, as they should. The dark green beasts all carried a large metal club, one adorned with spikes, that they dragged through the dirt behind them. As they were just about to pass into the courtyard, Dumbledore came out to greet them.
"The trolls will not enter the castle," Dumbledore ordered them.
MacNair knew when to argue and when to shut up. This was the time for shutting up.
He turned to the man on his right, "Set the trolls up by the lake." The man nodded and guided the beasts back down the hill. "We got a Howler to report for an emergency. Where is it?" he asked Dumbledore.
"The Basilisk was spotted in the Forest. It ate a few dozen acromantulas, petrified a herd of centaurs, put our groundskeeper in the infirmary, and escaped into the lake. Hagrid managed to get a piece of it, do you have a tracker with your group?" Dumbledore asked.
"We've got something better," Walden said with a sinister smile. Turning to another member of his team, "Go get Boovie." The man's face lit up even more, with the joy of a child, and rushed off back towards the main gates of Hogwarts. "Where's the piece?"
Dumbledore reached his hand into a pocket of air next to him and pulled out what looked like a slab of meat, covered in dark green scales. MacNair took the chunk of flesh, still fresh, and examined it. It was certainly from a snake and the meat smelled like one as well…
"A bloody basilisk!" he thought to himself. This would be an exceptional hunt. He grinned more as he ran his hands over the ripped chunk of flesh, then drew his wand to cast a preservation charm on it before placing it in his satchel.
"We will need to trace its path through the forest and lake," he told Dumbledore. "I will also need to speak with your pet giant while we wait for our tracker."
"First, some rules." Dumbledore frowned as the sky grew darker and the air thick. The magical tension caused the remaining eight hunters to take several steps back. "You will treat everyone in my castle with respect. You will not engage or involve the students during your pursuit of the basilisk. If you enter the lake, you will not use dark magic. Dark magic drives the giant squid into a frenzy. Do not attack the giant squid, the kelpies, or the merfolk. Attacking them will drive me into a frenzy. You do not want that."
MacNair knew who to piss off and who was too strong for him. He would need another three dozen men before he would even consider making Albus Dumbledore angry. So he just nodded in agreement and entered the castle to interrogate that oaf of a groundskeeper. Oh, how he would love to have that half-breed's strength. The Dark Lord had promised him such strength when he finally took over England. He never knew how his Lord would deliver to him this kind of brawn, but knew it was in his dark magic to grant.
The giant man was incredibly hostile at first, loyal to Dumbledore, and knowledgeable about his time as a Death Eater. However, after a few… buckets… of cheap liquor he told the whole tale without stopping. When he was done, Healer Pomfrey kicked him out for bringing drinking alcohol into her ward, and he took to the forest to find the sight of the battle. He could feel more acromantulas watching them from the trees, but he knew not to start a battle here when he couldn't just burn down everything around him.
The scene of the battle was incredible and found the line of downed trees where the oaf had been thrown through. When they left the forest and followed the path down to the lake, his body naturally started to shake with fear. The path of the serpent king let him know that it was likely to be the largest basilisk ever recorded. While shaking with fear and eager anxiety, he called forward one of his team and drafted a letter for his hawk to deliver. He would bring in another dozen men.
In the meantime, they joined the wizard with the security trolls and started to put up a tent and a cage for the trolls. The tracker might not be back for a while if Boovie was not in a good mood and needed to be fed first. While the others set up camp, he cast a bubblehead charm on himself and set out to explore the lake. Dumbledore had told them which creatures to stay away from but had left out the grindylows. No one liked those little devils, so if he could thin their population a bit, that could whet his appetite for the main event later.
At some point on Sunday, a student must have spoken to the new arrivals at the school and found out exactly what they were here to do. Many Ravenclaws were disappointed that there was an actual basilisk at the school and not some kind of gorgon-basilisk hybrid. More were excited when it was confirmed that it was Slytherin's monster from the Chamber of Secrets that was being hunted.
Some were interested because it was an important part of Hogwarts lore that had been discovered to be true. Others because they were Slytherins and this was their founder's pet monster. A few were interested in harvesting it for potion ingredients, and others wanted to protect it as it was an endangered magical creature. A few fame-seekers even announced that they would be the first ones to kill it. None of the staff's urging students to avoid contact with it seemed to be having a positive effect. Quite a few students started to carry blindfolds, scarves, and towels around their shoulders to shield their eyes in case of an emergency.
The topic did cause a full house meeting to be called in Slytherin to decide the stance of the ministry sending people to kill the mascot that represented their house. There wasn't the usual decorum that happened in Slytherin as everyone was yelling for control of the room before the meeting officially started.
Veronica Ward finally put an end to it by amplifying her voice and yelling, "I need you all to shut up!" When the noise halted, "You will speak in turn or not at all. Marcus will start the arguments."
The Quidditch Captain stepped up, and addressed them, "None of you should be in favor of Slytherin's Monster being killed. It would be like a Raven wanting to destroy the diadem or a Puff wanting to poison a friend. It shouldn't happen."
Another jumped into the conversation, "It's not doing its damn job! It petrified two purebloods, one from Slytherin while he begged on his knees."
"They must have pissed it off," Marcus replied. "Vincent should have just gotten out of the way."
There was a bit of silence, but the silence allowed everyone to hear Blaise mutter, "You're assuming it's not just a senile old snake."
"And you know better?" someone challenged him.
"None of us know!" another student raised her voice.
"Someone go get Professor Snape," Veronica ordered the room. "We need his advice."
It took nearly ten minutes to bring back their Head of House. He did not look like he wanted to be there.
After hearing their arguments, he replied, "I do not like telling you what to do." Someone snorted, and he snapped, "Unless it is to tell you not to be dunderheads and to make sensible decisions. Though you will find out that your opinions on what should and shouldn't happen with the basilisk mean next to nothing when it comes to the decision of the ministry to put it down. However, I do enjoy watching your little minds work and would like to see the rest of the debate. Is there anything I can do to help you reach a consensus?"
The last girl to speak before Snape was summoned spoke with a bit of annoyance, "We wanted you to tell us a solution. You're the oldest Slytherin here!"
"I am not. Professor Sinestra is. Though even that is not true," he smiled. "The Bloody Baron is the oldest Slytherin here."
"Not like he ever says anything to us," Marcus groaned.
"He listens to my plans and plots," Hayden Colton addressed the room. "He gives me nods of approval on some things and looks disappointed in others."
There were some similar sounds of agreement from others.
"Professor Snape?" Veronica asked, "Can you please summon the Baron so we may see what he thinks?"
The professor sighed and pulled out his wand. With a series of movements, a circle with various geometric shapes was etched into the ground. He reached into his uniform and pulled out a few dried herbs and a silver knife. The herbs were shredded quickly and dropped onto the circle. With the knife in one hand, Snape pricked one finger and let three drops of blood fall into the circle, then silently cast a spell of green fire into the circle, igniting the herbs and blood as the fire spread into every line etched into the floor and burned the herbs.
When there was nothing left but smoke, several ghosts passed through the walls towards the circle and floated through the smoke before Snape spoke.
"We just need the Baron. The rest of you can leave."
"Well, fine!" Nearly-Headless Nick moaned as he waved for another ghost to leave with him. "It's not like you ever have something fun to do here. Always plotting… always brooding… no action."
The Baron just floated near Snape looking out towards the students, and raised his eyebrows while he made a small gesture with his hands as if saying, 'So? What do you want?'
The students all clamored to make the report and didn't take turns until the ghost just shrugged and started to leave. Snape gave the same look of disappointment and threw a small ball of green fire toward the burnt remains of the circle, causing a puff of smoke and the baron to turn back around and look annoyed at Snape. Then Veronica was able to get everyone to speak more slowly and in order. This time, when they were done, the ghost still just looked disappointed and started to float away.
"No! Wait!"
Everyone and the ghost turned to where Tracey Davis had stood up and called out.
"Malcolm Constantine!" she called again. "I use your true name, I implore you to speak with me!"
Everyone was looking at her now even more shocked. The ghost sped towards her like a gust of wind, his form distorted as he traveled, then stopped less than an inch from her nose. Tracey didn't move, holding her breath, as she waited for the ghost to do something.
Finally, after nearly a minute, the ghost replied in a silky and aristocratic tone, "I have not heard my own name in a very long time. Ask your questions, young maiden."
Tracey was a bit on the spot, but she wasn't going to waste this kind of opportunity. "Um, we wanted to know what you think of Salazar Slytherin's Basilisk being killed."
The ghost took a moment to reply, "The Basilisk was put in Hogwarts to protect the school. Is it doing its job?"
"It petrified two purebloods and a cat! One was a Slytherin!" someone called out.
"Was it the cat?" Malcolm the ghost asked.
Tracey giggled while it seemed like most people were just wondering if he was being serious. The ghost rolled his eyes and sighed.
Hayden added, "It also attacked the centaurs and the acromantulas in the forest."
"The Basilisk is attacking the guardians of the forest. It is attacking the students of the school. Is it doing its job to protect the school?"
"I don't think so," Hayden replied.
"If you think it is doing its job, then you should fight against the Ministry, if you think it has failed in its duties, then you should assist them. I will not tell you what to do, and neither should your Head of House. Slytherins make up their own minds. We don't follow the strongest like a Gryffindor; nor the one with the most knowledge, like a Ravenclaw; we do not follow a group like a Hufflepuff. We lead ourselves and follow no one. Our ambitions make our decisions for us."
"What would a Scamander do?" Tracey asked Malcolm.
"You will need to find that out for yourselves," he replied. With that said, the spectral man spun around and started to float away. As he reached the wall, he turned around and said gravely, "Just make sure that your decisions are ones that you can live with and also die with, or you may end up like me." Then he exited the room through the wall.
After more silence, the house descended on Tracey asking her how she had found out their house ghost's name and been the first one to get him to speak in living memory. Seeing the looks on Blaise and Daphne's faces, urging her to shut up about their discovery, she quickly thought up a lie to cover them.
"I found an old book in the library. I was going to write it up to add to the catalog for house points, but when I found his name, I kept it to myself instead of getting it indexed."
"Good move, Miss Davis," Cho Chang complimented her. "Maybe you can share some other revelations about him?"
Many of her housemates seemed to be hanging on her every word. She could talk to the portrait and find some old amazing story or juicy gossip to bring back to them. But for now, she would just leave them hanging. The transfer, Chang, had been getting herself into the gears of the gossip network of Hogwarts since joining Slytherin and she had just given a big push to Tracey out of being 'just that half-blood.' Tracey made a silent vow to pass the first information on to Cho before working with Blaise and Daphne to make themselves into Slytherin historians.
"Not today. Maybe tomorrow or next week. There were quite a few interesting bits to the book."
Quite a few people grumbled their displeasure, but Tracey was the only source for the information unless they wanted to go digging through the library's unsummarized sections in their free time… which they didn't.
From there, everyone seemed to start to disperse to make up their own minds. Tracey started heading over to Blaise and Daphne, but she gave a thankful nod and smile toward Cho on the way. The Asian girl returned the nod, acknowledging that Tracey understood that she had a small debt to repay.
Walden MacNair had found nothing in the lake. After confirming that the basilisk hadn't attacked the merfolk village he kept his distance from them. He also only briefly saw the giant squid but he wanted to avoid that monster anyways. There was no sign that the basilisk had exited the lake, so he determined it must have a way to enter the castle from the water. It would be a waste of time for him to try to find it, so he tasked three of his team to do it instead, not expecting any results. He did get to have his fun with the grindylows, they were stupid, vicious little beasts which made them easy to kill. They had almost no magical use, so there was no profit in collecting their corpses, so he just let them sink.
It was afternoon on Tuesday when his tracker, Morris, returned with his 'partner.' He entered the grounds driving a horse with a flatbed carriage. There was a large steel cage on the back with curtains obscuring what was inside that the man pulled into MacNair's campsite by the lake. The security trolls immediately approached the carriage and started to poke at the shrouded cage with their clubs. From inside the cage, there was an animalistic roar that caused the trolls to back off and their handler guided them back to where they had been sitting.
"How's Boovie doing?" Walden asked Morris.
"He's rearing to go. Get the restraints ready," he smiled.
Of course he had the chains ready, and they pulled off the shroud in the cage to reveal the monster that was inside. Standing nearly eight feet tall, with a muscular human body, only adorned with a loincloth but the head of a horned bull, stood a minotaur. One of the greatest trackers, especially in enclosed areas, the creature would be an incredible asset in finding the basilisk using the scent from its flesh that had been ripped away by the giant.
MacNair used his wand to guide an iron shackle into the cage and seal it around the creature's neck. Then a chain was attached the same way onto the back of the shackle. Once it was connected, he cast a locking charm on the entire thing to keep it in place. Without a wand, the creature would have no way of removing it. Once it was in place, Morris took the end of the chain and led the minotaur out of the cage, tugging at the chain and casting a stinging hex to its side to assert dominance.
MacNair retrieved the chunk of basilisk and held it up to the creature's nose. "Find it," he ordered it.
The creature's human hands had manacles around the wrists with chains dangling half a foot from them. The last link on each side of the chain was split, but if needed, they would attract each wrist and bind them together. Now separated, it reached out and snatched the meat from MacNair's hands then took a deep sniff. It then turned to the sides and sniffed the air, then took another whiff of the target and began sniffing around again. With a small roar, it started to pull Morris toward the forest. Walden gave a signal to his team and they began to follow the beast.
They ended up retracing all of their steps from before, going through the forest and following the trail there around the scene of the battle with the centaurs. They continued back down the path of the basilisk to the lake where the minotaur roared at the open water before sniffing the air and marching around the lake and back to the castle. As they entered the courtyard, students screamed and fled back inside, though a few stayed far against the walls and watched as the procession headed inside.
The bull-headed tracker stopped at the tapestry for the Scamander common room and sniffed and grunted repeatedly before heading further down the hallway, towards the Great Hall. There was no study hall at the time and the room was empty so the minotaur just looked around in bits before returning to the hallways. The minotaur picked up its pace as it appeared to find a scent and headed down a long hallway on the first floor, startling many of the caged roosters that it passed by. Eventually, it stopped by a doorway, and right before reaching out to the handle, there was a strange screeching noise from inside.
Erring on the side of caution, MacNair went first, opening the door and bursting in, with his wand drawn. On the far side of the room was a mass of older students, with a small stage in front of them. On the stage was a demiguise, eyes glowing blue and teeth bared at the intruders. Next to it were Silvanus Kettleburn, Harry Potter, and Lyra Black, all with their wands drawn and pointing right at him.
The standoff was interrupted by the minotaur ducking through the doorway and heading straight for the students. Morris managed to hold onto the chain around its neck and yanked it back before it could cross the room.
"I can't believe my eyes… A minotaur!" Kettleburn exclaimed with wonder. Reeling himself in, he demanded, "What are you doing with that in my classroom?"
MacNair pulled out his papers from the Ministry, "I have orders to track and kill the basilisk that has been petrifying students at Hogwarts. We tracked the creature here. One of your students knows something about it."
"We all know about it!" Kettleburn declared. "Mr. Potter and Miss Black were also in the forest when it attacked the centaurs."
"And Whispers!" Harry pointed at the demiguise.
MacNair stared at the demiguise. Oh, how he would love to test himself against hunting one of them. It probably wouldn't be hard to fight or kill it, but to track a creature that could predict his movements… would be a great challenge. He looked back up to the minotaur and waved a bit of the basilisk flesh in its nose and it roared and pulled on the chain towards Harry and Lyra.
"Something isn't right," Morris told MacNair. "Boovie here is following a live scent, not an old trail."
Harry and Lyra shared a look, drawing Walden's suspicion. His thoughts were interrupted when the professor approached him and said firmly, "It doesn't matter what you think, Mr. Potter and Miss Black will be left alone."
After a brief exchange between the two, MacNair just looked around the teacher and said, "I will be keeping my eyes on the two of you," then began to guide the minotaur back out of the room.
"Wait," Kettleburn ordered, then reached up with his large prosthetic arm and grabbed the chain of the minotaur, yanked it free of Morris, and pulled it into the center of the room, while keeping his wand trained on MacNair. "Since you have brought such a great specimen into my classroom, it would be a shame not to use it in a lesson."
"My minotaur is not for show-and-tell!" the tracker yelled as he tried to grab the chain back from Professor Kettleburn.
"Your minotaur? I'm sure you'll be able to answer some questions for the children about your minotaur." Kettleburn pulled on the chain leading the beast to the center of the room.
It plodded along obediently after the person holding its leash. Morris looked toward MacNair for help, but the hunter shook his head and motioned for him to stand down.
Kettleburn stopped and addressed the students, "Who here knows the Greek legend about how the minotaur of the labyrinth came to be?" Most of the students looked confused, but one of the older girls looked embarrassed and raised her hand slightly.
The professor chuckled, "Don't worry, the story is only half true. Who knows what a Re'em is?"
All the students except for Harry and Lyra raised their hands. "Imagine a bull, buffalo, or similar creature, but the size of a small house and with the strength to destroy a non-magical castle as big as Hogwarts. They have many uses for potions, wand crafting, and more; but in ancient times, muggle royalty used to keep them as status symbols.
"The Greek story says that a muggle prince was competing with his brothers for the crown of his people and asked a god for a white bull as a token of his power to display to his people and his brothers he had the favor of the gods. He was supposed to sacrifice the bull, but he decided to keep it and sacrifice another one instead. Of course, the god in this story knew the difference and decided to punish the prince severely. Like any Greek myth, it gets a bit graphic and involves many things that I would not bring up around school children, but their version isn't the truth."
"Was the god actually a wizard?" one of the students asked.
"Well of course it was," Kettleburn smiled. "Muggles will attribute feats of magic to forces they can't explain, like gods. So, the true story starts the same, the muggle prince asked a wizard for a re'em to show that he was powerful enough to rule. Some of the histories have been lost in regards to what the wizard would have received for payment but the prince was also supposed to return the re'em once he had become king. However, he was foolish and didn't return it or pay the wizard for the loan."
"So what did the wizard do?" another student asked.
"I'll get there," the professor smiled at the students entrapped with his tale. "Despite being a wizard in the times before the statute of secrecy, crossing a muggle king would have made the wizard's life difficult, so instead of attacking him directly, he went after the man's family. First, he made the king's wife fall in love with him. He told the man that the queen would stay with him until he returned the magical bull and paid him his fee for the loan. The king refused the blackmail. From there, the wizard decided to strike at the man's son, cursing him into having the face of the bull that he stole for the rest of his life."
"That sounds like the Sunday school version," Morris said with an evil grin.
"Something you want to add?" Professor Kettleburn prompted. "Keep the graphic details to a minimum."
"Sure," he gave a nod to MacNair who was working his way around the room. "See, the curse was unstable, as most are. When the wizard cursed the child, it gave him immense strength and a desire for violence. The king imprisoned the beast in a maze below his castle and sent men to die there to satiate his son's hunger. The curse makes the recipient lose most of their humanity and will be just a beast, great for hunting and guarding indoor locations. One thing that was found out later in subsequent applications of the curse is that the minotaur also has an amazing sense of smell, as most cows do, and it can be used for tracking prey, which is what led us here to your classroom.
"Furthermore, the curse can only be applied to an enemy who has failed to honor an agreement with the wizard. There are similar curses around the world, the minotaur isn't the only one. One day I'd love to see the curse of the Babi Ngepet or a maledictus, but for now, I'll have to settle with just Boovie here. He was just a poor muggle sap that tried to welch on an agreement with me and ended up like this."
All of the students were shocked that this creature used to be a man, and was now doomed to spend the rest of his life being used as a bloodhound. During the lesson and speeches, MacNair had been slowly working his way around the room, trying to get behind the demiguise lounging on the platform, eating from a bowl of blueberries. Just as Morris got done with his part of the lecture, the demiguise turned to Walden and smiled.
It was creepy, and he hadn't even seen the creature's eyes glow, a sign that it was using its precognition. A second later, he felt the sharp tip of a knife poke him in the lower back, right next to his kidney.
"Stay away from Whispers," a voice behind him said.
He turned his head to see Harry Potter standing there with a knife drawn on his back. At the same moment, he felt another blade in his stomach and looked down to see Lyra Black with her blade there. He hadn't noticed either of them sneaking up on him while he focused on the demiguise.
"Stay away from our brother," she said in a deadly serious tone as her hair began to glow.
Professor Kettleburn and the other students noticed what was going on and the teacher pulled his wand to point at MacNair, "What do you think you're doing?"
Drawing his wand, he dropped the chain holding the minotaur and Morris grabbed for it, pulling the beast back as it roared in protest.
MacNair held up his hands in surrender, "No need to go crazy, I was just inspecting the demiguise, same as your students. I also enjoy learning about new creatures."
"I think our aims for learning come from different motivations," Kettleburn scowled.
"I think so as well, but for now, I also think we should get back to our hunt for the Serpent King in your school." He turned to the children still holding knives on him, "It warms my heart to see children learning how to use the knives but If you will lower your blades, I will take leave."
After a moment, and simultaneously, Harry and Lyra lowered their knives and stepped back. With his hands still raised, Walden stepped sideways until he was clear of them, but now he was standing face to face with the demiguise.
It growled slightly and its eyes glowed blue before opening its mouth and telling him, "Leeeve."
MacNair exited the room with a new challenge on his mind to catch that creature. It would be nice to get himself an invisibility cloak and mount the head on his wall. He had an old friend on the continent that had one and bragged about the hunt for it constantly, he even enchanted the eyes on the stuffed head to glow blue when anyone passed by it. He would one-up his friend and enchant this creature's head to talk as well.
When the hunting team had left, Professor Kettleburn turned back to his NEWT students, plus Harry and Lyra, "Well that was an interesting extra lesson today. Extra credit assignment for my students, look up those other curses that man mentioned and write me a report on curses that turn humans into creatures or part creatures. Due whenever you want before the end of the term."
He turned back to Whispers, "We had just gotten through with the basic instruction of demiguises; habitat, diet, physiology, social structure, and abilities. Whispers is, of course, the only known demiguise that can speak and read basic English, though Harry and Lyra say his whole tribe can communicate in sign language which shows that demiguises from other regions may have the same aptitude. Do you children want to tell us anything else about him?"
"He likes to play hot hands," Lyra told them, "also rock-paper-scissors."
"That should be something we can do for the rest of the lesson. Everyone line up, you can get three attempts to beat Whispers before letting someone else have a turn."
While the N.E.W.T. students lined up to try to play children's games against the magical monkey who could see the future, Professor Kettleburn took Harry and Lyra to the side of the room to speak with them.
"Look, I know you are both receiving training with knives and you are 'allowed' to carry them at school. However, do not point them towards someone like that again."
"He was hunting Whispers!" Lyra said determinedly.
"Not seriously, and even if he was, you could have defused the situation by just stepping in front of him or if you really wanted to take it up a notch from that, by jumping on his foot or throwing a book at him. Knives show that you will use deadly force, he might not hesitate to use the same against you in the future now."
Harry nodded in understanding, looking to Lyra, "He doesn't see us as children anymore. He knows we have teeth."
"Oh…" she replied in realization.
"Yes. Oh." Kettleburn told them. "Don't show your teeth unless you need to. Now, onto other matters. You both managed to lose one hundred points each for your actions in the forest. I'm giving you back twenty, each, for your help with the lesson. If I can see you again with Whispers in two weeks, I'll give you the same reward. Now, do either of you know which day of detention don't want to serve?"
"I want to go to the quidditch game this weekend," Harry told him. "It's the finals, Slytherin against Hufflepuff."
"I also want Saturday off," Lyra told the professor. "To work on… something."
She was going to go work on the mandrake draught with her Ravenclaw group. Harry needed to do the same with his group, but the twins hadn't managed to work out the ritual circle yet, and Lee would be announcing the game. He would just discuss things with Fred and George at the match.
"Very well, you both have Saturday off," Kettleburn told them. "Though you still need to report to Professor Snape on Sunday to serve that day with him."
The quidditch game was incredible, lasting for nearly two hours as Slytherin pounded away at Hufflepuff. It was a battle of sword vs shield. Slytherin was made of pure offensive plays while Hufflepuff had a nearly impenetrable defense. However, without the power to attack back, the Puffs were slowly worn down until their formations and defensive plays crumbled and let the Slytherins run all over them for the remainder of the game when their seeker caught the golden snitch.
During the game, Harry sat with Fred and George and discussed the ritual when they weren't cheering. The twins had come up with an idea for the circle that wasn't in the book. They would place the pot to stew the mandrake in a spell bunker and carve the circles on two of the sides. That way the magical effects would be contained on two sides and possibly cause the sound to reverberate and grow even stronger within.
Harry asked, "If we can do two sides, why not three or six?"
"Well, we can't do six because we wouldn't be able to get to the cauldron," Beaker told him.
"We can't do less, because we would need to balance it in ways that don't work to catch all the sound," Bunson added.
Harry thought about it and nodded, "Two might be good for symbolism as well. We want others to be unpetrified. That's two states of being: Petrified and Unpetrified. Two circles could have that idea behind it."
"I'm not sure it works that way," possibly Fred said.
"But let's try that," probably George added.
When the game ended, Harry returned to the common room and took his history book, and sat at the base of one of the trees to read the assignment they missed while in Kettleburn's class with Whispers. The demiguise in question trotted over to him with a pomegranate and split it open for the two of them to eat at the seeds inside.
As the two of them ate, Whispers suddenly stopped and he looked around, though his eyes didn't shift into precognition mode. Suddenly, Harry felt a small gust of wind against his face and immediately raised his occlumency shields to full strength, dropping his book and looking around. However, he felt another small gust of wind and realized it was real wind, not something perceived by his mind.
But they were in the common room, there was no wind in there. Sure, there was the sun, stars, clouds, trees, grass, and dirt… but not the wind. That was impossible. He looked down at the grass and saw air travel towards him, then move back towards the exit of the common room. It wasn't blowing on his face anymore, now it was just repeatedly blowing through the grass toward the door. Harry raised an eyebrow towards Whispers, who started to cautiously walk towards the door.
Harry followed his little brother out through the maze and back into the corridor of the castle. They both stood there, just looking around before Harry heard a girl yelling from the main staircase.
"Get your hands off me! Let me go!"
He was just about to start moving as he saw Walden MacNair come down the steps, followed by a man on his team pulling along Penelope Clearwater, tied up in ropes, but with her feet free to walk. She was cursing him as much as she could while trying to keep from falling over as he pulled on the ropes attached to her. Behind them came the minotaur and the rest of his team, though they were facing up the stairs and walking backward, wands drawn. They were followed by a mob of angry students yelling and screaming at them to release the girls.
As the minotaur came closer, Harry could see that half of the beast's body was burnt, and it was carrying Hermione under its arm on the uninjured side. She had magic restraining cuffs on and a gag in her mouth to keep her from making noise.
Harry pulled his staff out and stood in the middle of the hall, and called out, "STOP!"
MacNair stared at the boy in front of him, "Get out of the way, Potter. She's going to Azkaban for releasing the basilisk. We found skin, venom, and information on the beast in her possession."
Lyra was with them before but she wasn't there now. Harry looked toward Penny and asked, "Where's Lyra?"
"She attacked the minotaur, so they locked in a closet and left her upstairs," Penny responded quickly before the man holding the rope hit her with a silencing charm.
Harry looked back towards MacNair and tapped his staff into the ground, a wall of light forming wall to wall, blocking his exit. "Let them go, now."
MacNair drew his wand and threw a bright red spell at Harry. The sudden attack made him flinch, but the spell splashed harmlessly into the shield, dissolving into nothingness as it was absorbed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bronze knut and threw it at the shield, this time it just passed through and landed on the floor, though Whispers picked it up and stashed it in his glove.
"We're going to pass now," MacNair told Harry and pulled out a very large knife. "Don't get in our way."
Suddenly a funny thought came to Harry's mind, despite the seriousness of the situation. He looked at Hermione and gave her a smirk before raising his staff and yelling out, "YOU CANNOT PASS!"
This time when he slammed his staff into the ground, the shield looked thicker and even had a silvery sheen to it as it spread across the hallway. Erring on the side of caution, MacNair took out another knut and threw it towards the shield, watching it pass through and Whispers steal it away again.
He shrugged and walked towards Harry, who was holding his ground, both hands on the staff to maintain the shield that he planned to walk straight through. However, as soon as he was halfway through, his arm began to burn. Reacting quickly, he jumped back and looked down to see his left arm beginning to char and flakes of skin starting to come off and catch fire. He screamed at the sight and turned his wand towards Harry just as a red spell hit him in the side of the head and he collapsed on the floor. Standing at the entrance to the Scamander common room was Cedric, with his wand drawn, having just stunned Walden MacNair.
"Oh… shit," he exclaimed, looking at the fallen man.
A few seconds later, Percy Weasley exited the Great Hall to the side of the group and saw what was happening. He rushed towards the man holding Penny, who turned and pointed his wand at him.
"What are you doing with her?" he demanded.
"She's under arrest for assaulting an officer of the Ministry," the man replied.
Percy seemed to deflate a bit upon hearing that, so the man lowered his wand. Percy then looked like he had an idea and asked the man, "Are you an officer of the Ministry?"
"No, I work for Mr. MacNair," he replied half a second before Percy punched him in the face, and caught Penny as she fell to the floor.
Tina Scamander and Albus Dumbledore took that moment to arrive, and upon seeing the situation decided to stun everyone on MacNair's team and the minotaur, which took less than three seconds. While they were questioning Penny and Percy about what had transpired, Harry ran over to Hermione and tried to untie her.
Using the newly learned severing jinx, Harry used all his willpower to cut just the ropes, and not Hermione or her clothes underneath, then took the gag out of her mouth. The moment she was free, she jammed the fingers of her prosthetic arm into the minotaur's neck to deliver a substantial electric shock as the unconscious beast twitched on the floor.
When she finished enacting her small vengeance, she squealed as she hugged Harry, "You did Gandalf! That was incredible! We need to go get Lyra," she grabbed his hand and pulled him through the throng of students up the stairs to Ravenclaw, with Whispers scampering alongside them.
The door opened to him without a password and she pulled him into the common room. In the middle of the room, surrounded by students was a raging fire.
Robert Hillard looked towards the two of them and saw Harry, "It's Lyra! She looks fine, but when we got her out of the room they put her in, she burst into flames and hasn't woken up."
Harry approached the large fire where he saw Lyra laying in the flames. Her hair was scattered everywhere and creating large flames from each strand. Another student started to help Hermione remove the magic resisting cuffs as Harry assessed the situation. She was probably having a bad reaction to being put in confinement. He held his hand up to the fire, and it was hot. Whispers was running around the outside of the fire, testing to see if there was any way he could get closer. Harry knew he couldn't just step in and hug her to calm her down. He had to think of something else.
"Lyra? Can you hear me?" He called to her unconscious form. She didn't respond, but he did notice something else. "Lyra! Are you ok?" he yelled again.
The fire flickered more when he was talking.
He tried to think about what to do, then pulled a few mangos and hoohoo feathers from his pouch, "Everyone, get back!" he instructed those who were watching. Whispers backed up but stared at Lyra anxiously.
He planted nine feathers around her in a circle, igniting each one. When they were all glowing, Harry spoke to her, "That is some beautiful magic. I want to give you something sweet. I don't have candy, but I have a mango."
He remembered that was exactly what he said to her when she danced with the hoohoo feather when they visited the nest for the first time. If anything would get to her, it would be that. Her flames flickered at his voice, and he kneeled to roll two mangoes in her direction. One of them caught on fire, but the flames started to die down to allow the other to reach her. Eventually, the fire went out and she started to sit up, looking at the mangoes next to her, one burnt and charred. Whispers knocked her back over with a big hug.
She was clearly confused but slowly started putting the pieces back together. Her head turned sharply to a broom closet behind her and started to hyperventilate, but then spun back to look at Harry and Hermione and calmed back down. The whole time she was absentmindedly petting her little brother's head as he clung to her. Then she was confused again as she looked at the large burnt rug she had been laying on.
Harry filled in that gap, "You caught on fire. Not just your hair, all of you."
Her face darkened and she jumped up, "Where's MacNair?"
Hermione excitedly replied, "Harry took care of him. You should have seen it! He quoted Gandalf and yelled out in a deep voice, 'You cannot pass!' while slamming his staff into the ground. Then when that man tried to walk by him, his arm caught fire. Headmaster Dumbledore and Mrs. Scamander showed up right after that and stunned everyone!"
Lyra looked amazed at her brother, and Harry knew that he would be showing her the memory in Arcturus's pensieve the next time they got the chance. Before anyone could say anything else, Penny and Professor Flitwick entered the room and ran over to them. Hermione jumped up and gave her mentor a big hug.
Flitwick informed them all, seriously, "You all need to come with me to the Headmaster's office."
Hermione let out a squeak and hid behind Penny. The older girl just took her by the shoulder and started leading her out of the room while Harry and Lyra, still carrying Whispers, followed. They climbed the two flights to the seventh floor and ended up at the Gargoyle at the entrance to the Headmaster's office.
"Password?" the stone guardian prompted.
"Jujubes," Flitwick replied, and the guard stepped aside and peeled back the opening, like before.
From inside the office, Dumbledore called for them to enter before anyone could reach for the handle. When the door was opened, they saw the Headmaster sitting at his desk. As they got further in, they saw Newt and Tina to one side while the minotaur handler, Morris, and MacNair were on the other. Madam Pomfrey had a glowing blue spell from her wand covering his entire left arm.
Upon seeing him there, Harry drew his wand, but Lyra was faster. Somehow her staff was out of her pouch and in her hands where she screamed in his direction and slammed it into the ground. A thick tendril of darkness erupted from the tip of the sigbin fang at the top of her staff and rushed towards MacNair. Everyone in the room was stunned and didn't know what to do.
"STOP!" Dumbledore bellowed.
The single word seemed to wash over everyone in the room and even Lyra's magic froze in mid-air to obey the command, inches from MacNair's face. Everyone was frozen in place for a few seconds before Dumbledore snapped his fingers and Lyra's magic dissipated, while the assembled people all regained the ability to move.
"You will all conduct yourselves properly in my office," the headmaster said firmly.
Lyra continued to stare daggers at MacNair who looked at her fearfully. Harry also stared at the man but kept one hand on his actual dagger while his wand was pointed to the ground halfway between the two of them.
"Mr. MacNair," Dumbledore prompted, "explain your actions this evening."
He grimaced at the healing that was taking place on his arm before staring at Hermione and Penny, "We were doing our job. That little mudblood released the basilisk."
While Penny and Hermione gasped, no one else did. Harry and Lyra weren't used to the slur yet, despite knowing it was bad, and the others were just numb to its use.
"And how did you come to that conclusion?" Newt asked. "Are you also insinuating that a muggleborn is the Heir of Salazar Slytherin?" he asked with a bit of a smirk.
"She has magical roots," MacNair sneered. "I read that article in The Prophet. Doesn't mean her blood is any less pure than the other trash at this school." He was clearly in a lot of pain from his arm and was lashing out with less decorum than he might usually employ.
Tina addressed Morris, "Mr. Whoever-You-Are, maybe you can get to the point."
"Morris, ma'am. Walden here hires me for tracking as I have my very own minotaur. Boovie was following the scent that we got from that chunk of meat that the groundskeeper obtained. While all the kids were at the quidditch game, we tried to get through the castle as quickly as we could to find any possible locations for the Chamber of Secrets. Boovie led us up to the dormitories on the fifth floor and straight for the shelf where that young lady over there kept all her books."
All eyes turned towards Hermione as he continued, "We found four bookmarks in her belongings made from basilisk hide, and one book was hallowed out in the middle to contain three vials of basilisk venom."
Hermione shrieked and started to breathe quickly before she asked fearfully, "Which book was hallowed out?"
"Some muggle book, I thought it fitting for someone trying to release a basilisk. I think it was called Endgame," Morris told everyone.
"Ender's Game? Someone destroyed my Ender's Game?" Hermione looked furious and sparks of electricity were jumping in her clenched fist on her prosthetic hand.
"It does not appear like Miss Granger is aware of the venom capsules, but we will address that later," Dumbledore mused out loud. "Mr… Morris… Please continue with your story."
He nodded professionally, "After finding the evidence, and as the shelf was labeled with the girl's name, we asked another student where to find her, and were directed to a project room. Upon arriving, Walden attempted to arrest her, and we were met with resistance. The prefect attempted to stun Walden and while he placed her under arrest, I sent Boovie to collect our perpetrator, that's when Miss Black attacked my minotaur."
"I was defending Hermione!" Lyra interrupted.
"You set Boovie on fire!" Morris yelled back. "You're lucky I was able to restrain both of you or he would have killed you." Many concerned looks were given to the man, who clarified, "She attacked a highly violent magical creature. I put her in a body bind and reigned in the minotaur before he went on a rampage. From there we collected the girl and the prefect to be taken to the ministry, which Walden had been authorized to do by your ministry."
Dumbledore's voice seemed to have a settling effect on everyone, "I was expecting your team to notify me before any arrests were made. Mr. MacNair is tasked with the hunt and killing of the basilisk. He is not an Auror and cannot make arrests, particularly of school children, which I told him specifically not to involve in his pursuit."
MacNair gritted his teeth, "Then I'll get an auror to arrest the girl. She's obviously connected to the beast. I'll also have Potter arrested for his attack on me."
Harry was about to respond, but Flitwick beat him to it, "From what I heard, you did what could be compared with walking into a wall after a warning from Mr. Potter. Strange that you received a remarkably similar injury as what befell Lucius Malfoy."
MacNair looked down at his arm which was still being healed by Madam Pomfrey. The burn wasn't going away and there were still flakes of charred flesh on the verge of falling off his arm. He looked toward Harry with an indecipherable expression.
While he was figuring out what had happened to him, Tina took control of the situation, addressing Hermione, "Miss Granger, we need to know how you obtained the bookmarks that Mr. MacNair found."
Hermione appeared embarrassed as she blushed scarlet, "Someone gave them to me."
"Who?" quite a few people asked.
Hermione continued to blush, "I'm not sure… see, I found this book in the library. It was called Becoming the Perfect Prefect."
"How does a book give you bookmarks?" Harry asked her.
"It had my name in it," Hermione replied with a smile. "Someone was using it to leave messages for me. He said he was a secret admirer, that he left the book there for me. I always left it in the library and sometimes when I went to check it, it had those bookmarks for me as presents. I wrote questions in it for my homework and he'd reply with the most amazing answers that explained things better than any of my professors."
"Is that the prefect you've been gushing about?" Penny asked.
"I think he's a prefect," Hermione replied. "He could have written the book he left me and he's an amazing teacher."
"This is all highly convenient," MacNair interrupted. "Any chance you can tell us where to find the book?"
"Look it up in the catalog if you don't believe me!" she challenged him.
Dumbledore called for an elf and asked her to retrieve the book. The various antagonists stared each other down for five minutes before the elf returned and reported that no such book could be found.
"That settles it," MacNair stood up and brushed Madam Pomfrey aside. The glow around his arm vanished and he winced in pain as a cluster of charred skin fell from his arm onto the floor. "I will be back with the Aurors to have Potter and both of these girls arrested."
Dumbledore got up from his desk, "Everyone is dismissed. I will accompany Mr. MacNair to the Ministry."
He threw a pinch of floo powder into his fireplace, and nearly pushed the other man through the flames in front of him, leaving the others to disperse on their own.