Chapter 5:
"So you all eat lunch in the library all the time?" Ted asked as the four sat down at the table in the back corner of the library. The new librarian, Mr. Pollock, didn't mind them continuing their habit-he was just glad to see some students using the space.
"Yeah, it sorta became a tradition after last year." Danny remarked as he shrugged, taking a spoonful of soup from the bowl on his tray.
"We'd always come here to research during lunch, but this year it'll probably just be us studying." Alicia noted as she took a bite of her sandwich, "It's nice and quiet here, and besides, it's a break from all those morons in Leichenberg constantly trying to provoke a fight to prove they're the strongest house."
"I'd imagine you'd probably want a break from everyone as well, being a new student and with all your brothers-" Danny spoke, "-Chase and I are only children, but I'd imagine having all those older brothers would be grating after a while. Some time apart is probably nice."
"Yeah." Ted nodded, "Paul's a total arse-follows the rules to a T and wants everyone as perfect as him. Will and James are better, but after being the victim of enough of their practical jokes I wouldn't mind not being together for a little."
"Well, you won't be apart too much. Since you're all in the same house you're together in the same dorms. And if I remember right only the RAs have different quarters, everyone else is in the same common dormitory." Alicia spoke as she started on a cup of yogurt.
"After what happened in the dorms last year I'm surprised they're letting anyone live at the school now." Chase rolled his eyes as he bit into a brownie.
"What happened last year?" Ted asked.
"Um…" Chase coughed, looking at the other two. What should we tell him? He seemed to ask with his glance.
"Last year some… unpleasantness happened." Alicia started.
"There were some kidnappings of students and death eaters on campus and our old janitor was killed." Danny added.
"But everyone's alright now. We figured out what they were planning and along with Danny's dads we got all the other students to safety." Chase concluded.
"Wait, did you say kidnappings?" Ted blinked as if to check that he had indeed heard correctly.
"Uh, yeah… All the no-maj born students who lived on campus were kidnapped by three death eaters. They'd wanted to siphon their magical power so they could resurrect Voldemort. But we stopped them, so everything's okay now." Danny coughed slightly.
"'Siphon their magical power'? How on earth could they do that?" Ted nearly yelled before whispering loudly given their current location.
"There was this whole thing with a necklace we looked into-hence the research-but don't worry, it's destroyed now and the Magical Congress took care of everything." Chase replied as he fiddled with the straw in his soda.
Ted inhaled deeply as he tried to process what he'd just learned, "So, just to make sure I understand: last year there was a mass kidnapping and the three of you along with his two dads found out what obscure magical artifact the death eaters were planning on using and what they were using it for, then successfully stopped it."
"Actually we started researching before the kidnapping, we started that after the custodian was killed by Quetzalcoatl and the jewel went missing from our old headmistress' office. The kidnapping happened later, after we already had mostly figured out what they were planning." Alicia stated.
"And it didn't occur to you to ask the police to help?" Ted was gawping at this point.
"We did, but literally the day after we figured out everything they were all busy dealing with the kidnapped students so we had to take care of it on our own." Danny finished, "Did this not make the papers in England? It was pretty big here."
"Huh, and I though only Hogwarts had this kind of craziness happen. I guess all magic schools have weird shit happen every year." Ted commented as he took a swig from his milk.
"What happened at Hogwarts?" Chase asked.
"Honestly I'm surprised you all don't know. I guess the papers don't tend to share news very well across the ocean." He muttered, "Do you know about the Philosopher's Stone?"
"Yes, it can extend the life of the person who posses it as well as transmute any metal into gold." Alicia answered as the other two Americans raised eyebrows at her, "It's in our history of magic textbooks. Don't blame me for neither of you reading ahead."
"Fair enough." Danny shrugged as Chase nodded in agreement, "So what about this stone?"
"Last year my friends Hermione and Neville and I had to keep it safe. Somehow our headmaster thought it was a good idea to store it in the chambers under our school to keep it safe after the bank it normally would've been in was robbed. We thought our potions instructor was planning on stealing it, but it turns out it was actually our defense against the dark arts professor. Anyway, after going through a bunch of nonsense to get to it we ended up keeping it safe from Voldemort-who was growing on the back of our teacher's head-bloke's in Azkaban now-and they ended up destroying the thing to make sure no one could use it to try and resurrect him." Ted summarized, occasionally waving his hand to indicate omitted details.
"Hmm… now that you mention it I think I did hear about somewhere, but there was some other kid involved too… Weasley maybe?" Alicia tilted her head as she tried to recall the finer points of the quarter-page report in the foreign section of a paper from multiple months prior. She honestly only remembered the name because of the somewhat strange nature of it, mainly that it sounded like weasel.
Ted immediately blanched at the mentioning of this name, causing the other three to feel an immediate suspicion. "Uh, yeah, Ron was there too. How could I forget about him?" Ted staggered over his words as he spoke.
Alicia looked sidelong at the other two boys, "Hey Ted, we're going to quick talk about something, not about you, but it's private, so we'll be back in a minute, okay?" She nodded as the other two got up and walked over out of earshot but still able to see the red headed boy nervously twiddling his thumbs.
Alicia cast a glance at the boy before he whispered to the others, "Something's up with Ted. When I mentioned that Weasley kid he got as pale as a sheet. Do you think he did something to him?"
"No, but I think I might have an idea…" Danny muttered.
"Well?" Chase asked.
"Oh, right." Danny reddened slightly, forgetting he hadn't elaborated, "Um, where to start… Okay, so my dad and pop showed me this picture from when they were younger, it was some sort of group they were a part of called the Order of the Phoenix. They wanted to show me my biological parents and it was one of the few pictures they had of them…" Danny paused as he tried to not think too much about the unfortunate fate that had befallen his parents, "Anyway, this Order had a bunch of people in it, but aside from my dads and my parents the only other names I really remember were for two people standing between them-I'm guessing they were husband and wife, but maybe they were brother and sister. They both had bright red hair and their names were Arthur and Molly Weasley."
"So what?" Chase responded.
"So, I think maybe he is Ron Weasley." Danny responded.
"If he is he must be in hiding-that would explain transferring halfway across the world to stay safe…" Alicia said as wheels started clicking into place. "If he is, then he's someone we can trust-given how his parents were close friends of your dads, right?"
"It would make sense." Danny shrugged.
"So what should we do, tell him we know who he really is?" Chase asked.
"No, I'm going to tell him who I am." Danny replied.
"Uh, Danny, maybe we should wait just to make sure?" Alicia cautioned.
Before she could interject more the dark-haired boy was back next to Ted, who'd calmed somewhat since their departure. "Sorry about that, I want to introduce myself properly." Danny stated as he sat back down across from the boy, "My name is Harry Potter."