Once again, many thanks to all those who review. It gives me great pleasure to rewrite this and have so many comment that they enjoy both the original and the new version, happily pointing out things for me to pay attention to or explain my reasoning behind. It continues to be an enjoyable project to work on alongside my other stories!
Leave a comment if you please, lets see, maybe naming a favorite character from either this point in the story or in the future chapters for those who read ahead, now or before, and what you liked about them, as well as a second character that you think needs more attention given to, in either detail or activity. I'd love to see what had been working and what needs more work for use in other projects. Great love and appreciation for those that do!
~F
Chapter Six
Slytherin Subtlety
Severus Snape stared down his hooked nose at the supposedly young boy he had set to scrubbing out cauldrons for his Saturday evening's detention. He had purposely set the time aside so he would be alone with 'Faykan Undol', so he could study him more closely and figure out the boy's full background.
If he could get the boy to just let slip one or two close secrets, Severus was sure he would be able to not only to settle his own discomfort with the boy, but finally settle the matter that whether this child was indeed the long lost heir of the Undol line, or merely an imposter. In either case, Severus hoped to gather the evidence that he needed to present his arguments to the Headmaster directly, and hopefully get Albus on his side, regardless of the action they needed to take, whether it was protection for the boy or an inquisition.
'Undol' looked up at Severus for about the seventh time since he'd arrived twenty minutes ago for his punishment, and grinned knowingly at the Potions Master, as if he was expressly aware of what Severus was thinking.
'Perhaps it is time to start pressing on the matter at hand.' Severus thought to himself.
Another look and grin from the boy; could he possibly know what he was thinking? Severus knew that it took great dedication and a fair amount of magical talent to become a legilimens, but he extremely doubted that this eleven year old could be that powerful in the mind arts to bypass his highly trained Occlumency shields without Severus even being aware of it.
Severus walked over casually to inspect the condition of the current cauldron that 'Undol' was cleaning while it rested, tipped on its side upon the floor while the boy scrubbed the outer rims. The remnants of a spilt potion some student had carelessly allowed to bubble over still marred a tiny spot under one of the pewter support rings, Severus smirked and commented: "You've missed a spot, Mr. Undol."
"I'm aware that I've missed the spot under the handle, Professor, I was making sure that you were keeping sharp your, reportedly, perfect observational prowess when it came to cauldron cleanliness." The boy replied with yet another grin at the Potions Master.
Somewhat miffed at the cheek the boy presented, Severus still raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. Had the boy actually known that he had been looking at that exact spot or was he just really good at guessing?
After several silent moments Severus spoke again. "So," he tried, with a quieter, silkier voice, "the other professors seem to think that you are something of a prodigy. However, I have yet to see anything to imply that you are anything better than an ordinary, simpleminded Gryffindor."
Severus hoped to prick the boy's ego, provoke him, making it all the easier to draw hidden knowledge from him. But the intelligent child, never taking his eyes off the cauldron he was still cleaning, coolly replied in a tone worthy of the Head of Slytherin's admiration, "Well, clearly you haven't been paying attention to Harry's progress in your class then, Sir, or even Ronald Weasley's for that matter, not that I'm going to take all the credit for either of them, but I did at least give them the initial push to study consistently before classes."
'Ah, so that's the reasoning behind why Potter knew the answers to my questions,' Severus realized. The truth was that high hoped for the group of boys that had surrounded Mr. Potter, even the Weasley boy. Severus had heard from his godson that Potter and he had decided to be partners throughout Potion classes, as they enjoyed working together on the in class work, and Severus couldn't in good conscience pull the two boys apart.
Draco had also mentioned that through 'Undol,' they all were planning to have scheduled time to study together and work on assignments for all their classes. Severus couldn't have been more pleased. Not only was Potter going to dramatically improve in his already above average skills, but Draco also seemed to be strongly drifting away from the atypical blood supremacist type Slytherin mould his father so painstakingly created for the young lad to fit into.
Seeing as this tactic of goading was not going to work with 'Undol' however, Severus shifted his approach to a more aggressive tact, stopping the boy's progress by grabbing his arm and spinning the boy to face him, Severus spoke in a cold icy tone, venom dripping with every word that typically sent fear coursing through even the most stubborn of students.
"You may think that you have the entire school wrapped around your finger, boy, but I can see right through you, so…" As he spoke, Severus pressed the boy's mind ever so softly with his own legilimency. Since he wasn't using his wand, the Potions Master couldn't probe as quickly or as deeply into the boy's psyche as he would have desired, but he presumed that surface thoughts would be sufficient when combined with fear of the threats he was implying to 'Undol'. He would explain his reasoning to Albus when the time was right, as Severus truly felt that it was necessary to know whether the boy was who he claimed or not.
"What is your real name?" Severus questioned.
"Faykan Undol, sir" came the nervous reply, the boy struggling faintly to remove Severus' hand from his arm.
"How did you force the Sorting Hat to put you in Gryffindor after it started to call out Slytherin?" Severus demanded.
"I told it I refused to be separated from my friends, sir." The boy's voice was shaking slightly as Severus clutched his arm tightly. He would have loosened it, not truly wanting to harm the lad, but he needed the child to truly fear for his safety to ensure that he learned the truth. The boy's thoughts were slippery, and Severus was having a difficult time trying to pin anything down that was of importance.
"Don't. Lie. To me," Severus stated coldly, pouring all the hate that he could into the sentence.
"I'm not lying, sir." 'Undol' replied softly, and Severus was surprised when he couldn't read anything definite from the surface thoughts of the boy. If anything, he mused, the boy's thoughts were shrouded to a degree, as if he was being actively screened from the child's private feelings. "Please let go, sir. You're hurting me…"
Scowling down at 'Undol', Severus finally let him go and walked back to his desk. He sat there, just watching the boy for the rest of his two hour detention, and could of swore that in addition to the relatively small traces of fear he could detect, the boy was actually humming to himself as he worked. Soon the boy starting singing softly, and Severus furrowed his brow at the deep sadness the song implied, as visions of a childhood so long forgotten returned, and the despair of friends long gone.
"i' nyelle lina ie' he gurtha, ar' amin wept nalla en' agar.
i' quel coia sai wanwa, ar' maranwe ikotane nwalka.
haba corm lanta e' a ear en' rista, ar' amin sinta amin ereb.
re risa ringwe e' he sapsa, ar' ilya haba alasse' menel."
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Draco was again perusing his nightly roving of the Hogwarts corridors, having not yet decided whether to limit his wanderings after the incident with Mrs. Norris, and certainly was not stopping altogether. He felt that the walks were needed to get away from Theodore Nott and the other Slytherins at times. The weedy nuisance was getting to be rather aggressive with his attempts to get information about Harry, and strangely, even more so about Faykan, which Draco found very odd, and rather irritating.
He was currently walking down the seventh floor; passing an very ugly tapestry depicting the unfortunate wizard Barnabas the Barmy as he was trying to teach trolls the ballet, when Draco was pounced upon by a grey-black… something. Falling to the floor with a gasp of surprise, he only registered the bushy tail sweeping into a room across the hall that Draco could have sworn hadn't been there before.
Getting to his feet with a grumble and only a slight wince of pain, he walked over to the door and pushed it open, mildly hoping beyond hope that he finally found something new and interesting about the castle again. Within the room was a simple closet space with no other windows or doors, and in the center of the room, staring at him with its bright blue eyes, was a downright massive fox, closer in size to a large jackel, with a black coat streaked with grey in clearly magical spiraling patterns down its spine. With a spike of realization, Draco came to the conclusion that the coloration of this animal match the unknown blur that had rescued him from Filch's cat a mere week ago. Kneeling down, Draco held his hand toward the animal, softly talking to it, hoping to calm it from its extremely unnerved look.
"Hey there little fellow, it's alright, I'm not going to hurt you," he said gently, only partially unsure whether the creature was completely wild or not.
At first the fox did nothing but study him with the large crystal-like eyes, but Draco persisted patiently, and ever so slowly, the animal finally crept toward Draco's hand, pausing and sniffing every few steps. The creature seemed even larger up close, and Draco could see that the thin grey streaks on its back began just past its head, and traveled down its spine to the very end of its tail, crossing over each other regularly the entire length of the animal's body, even spiraling down the fox's legs.
When the fox finally got close enough to him, Draco cautiously, not wanting to scare it away, reached over and slowly stroked the fox behind its large ears.
At that, the fox seemed to relax immensely, making a soft mewling noise as Draco touched it. It stepped forward until it was brushing against Draco's legs, prompting him to sit down fully and play with the fox's extremely soft fur. Finally, Draco summoned enough courage to try and pick the fox up off the ground, and was surprised when it didn't react. If anything the fox just squirmed into a more comfortable position against Draco's chest as he partially held the animal, as it was large enough to almost be touching the ground even with Draco supporting it. Draco felt very comfortable just sitting there with a new friend, and he rather lost track of time for while.
After what seemed like hours, but could only have been a few minutes when he later checked, Draco was forced to let go of the fox as it squirmed again in Draco's arms. Once the fox regained its feet upon the ground fully again, it didn't dash away, much to Draco's surprise, but lightly stepped to the door, and rearing back on its hind legs, managed to manipulate the handle and open the door. Exiting after the animal, his curiosity peaked, and watched as the fox walked to the end of the corridor, twitched its ears, before it looked back at Draco, as if saying 'all's clear, come on'.
Perplexed at the human-like behavior of the rather cunning creature, Draco followed the fox until it led him, once again, safely back to the Slytherin common room, at roughly one in the morning, again using several secret passages that Draco would have never known existed.
Before saying the password to get back inside, Draco kneeled down to pet the fox one more time in gratitude. "You think I might see you again soon, little friend?" he asked the fox, who just brushed him with its head in an affectionate way in response, which Draco took as a possible affirmative. Giving the small creature one final affectionate squeeze around the neck, Draco said the password and disappeared inside the common room and went straight to bed.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Harry never imagined that he could be more easily angered at anyone above the Dursleys, but Theodore Nott took the concept to a whole new level of irritation. Harry still recalled with great annoyance his first encounter with the weedy boy directly.
Harry and his friends, except for Draco, were enjoying their breakfast on the Monday of the second week of lessons, when Harry had sensed several people step up behind him. All conversation had stopped, and both Ron and Faykan, seated across from him, looked past him at the others. Turning slowly, Harry had eyed the scrawny-looking boy standing there boldly with Crabbe and Goyle lurking in his shadow, looking for the entire hall as the bodyguards that they were.
"Yes?" Harry asked, immediately on edge regarding this person, whose eyes seemed to shimmer as the boy glanced back and forth between Faykan and Harry.
"Well, well, Harry Potter..." he said slowly, almost as though he tasted the sound of the words in his own mouth as he spoke them. "I honestly can say i was expecting something a bit grander when I first saw you. Although, somehow I'm not terribly disappointed..." his eyes flicked over Faykan again, "You collect powerful friends... although with only Gryffindors you might find yourself surrounded by the wrong sort of people... I could help you far better in the social regard..." he added, offering his hand, and Harry presumed that it was some sort of offer of friendship.
However, the stuck up manner that he used simply oozed with the confidence that Harry would blindly accept, in favor of any other option, which already rubbed him the wrong way. "I think I'll be more than capable of telling the wrong sort for myself thanks..." Harry said, ignoring the offered hand and turning back to the Gryffindor table, "And I'm friends with Draco Malfoy already, so you presume wrongly that my friends are only in Gryffindor..."
Nott glowered at the rebuttal, withdrawing his hand as though it was burned. "I see you've made your choice then," he said, containing whatever anger he held to just his eye, which burned. "Just be sure that you are prepared to accept the consequences of the bridges that you burn, Potter..."
And, suddenly ignoring Harry completely, the boy had turned to Faykan, "And then there's you, Mr. Faykan Undol... what is it, the third now? Your family has a powerful knack for staying alive despite the attempts of powerful wizards, don't they?"
Faykan seemed to draw himself up taller where he sat, looking nobler than usual, or perhaps formal, Harry wasn't sure how to describe the strange difference.
"I pride myself on the accomplishments of my forebears, as it is more than many can say about their families... or their allegiances," Faykan retorted, "Nevertheless I have no interests in you offer of alliances, Mr. Theodore Nott. You know just as well as the rest of the Pureblood families the position we of House Undol have taken, and i will not be changing that allegiance."
"Tch..." Nott scoffed, "So be it... but you need not waste that unfathomable power on such fruitless endeavors you know... I can see it..."
"One ought to not brandy about regarding their gifts so lightly," said a new voice, and Harry turned to see Draco standing just behind Nott, "One would think that you wanted people to know your family secrets or something..."
The two Slytherins glared at each other for a few moments, before Nott simply stalked away, the two hulking bodyguards following stupidly behind him.
Draco appeared to want to say something, but the bell to signal the end of breakfast and to start heading to classes sounded, and he shook his head to indicate that he'd speak with them later, and walked away.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of Theodore's antagonizing of the three Gryffindor boys; only the beginning of the trouble that the weedy boy sought to place upon them.
Not only would the scraggly Slytherin snipe cruel and often demeaning comments at them in future lessons or across the hall during meals, but he had also taken to casually following them in the corridors from time to time, berating them all from their clothing to whomever they talked to, especially the latter to Faykan in specific. More than once one of them had to forcibly remind the prat that just because he didn't have any real friends, it didn't give him the right to attack anyone who did. But that only did so much to soothe the desire to physically make him leave their presence at times, or at least in the case of Ron.
Thankfully, they only had Potions with the Slytherin boy, so the Gryffindor boys didn't have to deal with Nott's snarky comments and overall rude behavior too terribly often in class. However, the upcoming flying lessons that Thursday with the Slytherins didn't sit well with Ron, Harry or Faykan. Harry felt as though something was just bound to happen there, and he was angry that he felt powerless to stop it.
"Typical," Harry said darkly when they first saw the notice for the lesson and whom they were paired with as a house, "Just when I get used to the level of sarcasm and lack of tact in my life, the universe strives to subject me to even more. Last thing I want is to make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Nott."
"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," Ron said reasonably. "Anyway, you know how Draco's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch; maybe we'll finally see some proof?"
Harry had no option but to agree, however Draco wasn't the only pureblood that liked to talk a lot about flying. Harry figured it must have been all that they had to do growing up, which while flying seemed great, it still felt as though it would get boring after a while. Whenever they were together with Draco, for instance, he complained at least once about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams or told long, painfully boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters.
Both Neville and Hermione seemed to be very nervous about the upcoming flying lessons, Neville because he was very accident prone, Hermione because it wasn't a skill you could learn by reading a book. At breakfast on Thursday she bored all within earshot stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out a library book. Neville was hanging on every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang onto his broomstick later, but everyone else was pleased when she was interrupted by the arrival of the mail. In fact the only one immune to the worries about the flying lessons seemed to be Faykan, and Harry felt that if he just stuck next to his best friend, he would at least not do too badly.
Harry had also noticed that since they'd arrived at Hogwarts, Faykan hadn't had a single letter other than Hagrid's note from the end of the week before, and apparently Nott was also keenly aware of this fact. Harry hadn't said anything personally; as he'd not gotten any mail either since arriving at Hogwarts. But for him it was expected, Harry thought at least Mrs. Figg would have written Faykan by now, what with him living with her for several years on end and all.
"Oh, no mail again today, Undol," Nott sneered with mock concern as he was unnecessarily passing the Gryffindor table on his way out of the Great Hall, "One would almost think that you weren't cared about..."
Nott always had his family's large screech owl bringing him packages of sweets and other things from home, which he liked to open gloatingly at the Slytherin table, projecting his voice for the whole Hall to hear. Harry found it frustrating that not even the teachers seemed to care about stopping the obvious bullying that was going on in front of them.
"Well, Nott, I don't need care packages from home to remind me that my family hasn't forgotten that I exist, unlike you." Faykan replied with a smirk.
Nott was about to retort, when another owl swooped down, dropping a package to Neville from his grandmother. Everyone stopped, even Nott, to watch as he opened the package, to reveal a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.
"Oh look," Neville said as he pulled it out to show everyone, "my Gran sent me a Rememberall."
"I've read about those," added Hermione, "When the smoke turns red, it means that you've forgotten something."
And indeed Hermione was correct, as the white smoke turned scarlet in Neville's hand. As Neville mentioned the difficulty of remembering what he had forgotten, Nott snatched the Rememberall out of his hand, and the smoke remained red.
Both Harry and Ron jumped to their feet. Harry at least had been half hoping for a reason to confront Nott directly, but Professor McGonagall, who had the gift of foreseeing imminent trouble as it was brewing, was there in a flash.
"What's going on?" she demanded.
"Nott's got my Rememberall, Professor." Neville whimpered.
Scowling at the small red clouded sphere, the Slytherin boy quickly dropped the glass ball back onto the table, where it landed with a dull thud.
"Just having a look," he said unapologetically, and he strutted away, with Crabbe and Goyle hot on his heels. Despite the hopeful muttering that they all had seen the last of Nott's antics for that day, Harry remained resigned to the fact that the annoying Slytherin was likely only getting warmed up.
Late in the afternoon, Harry and the rest of the Gryffindor first years walked down onto the grounds for their flying lesson. It was a pleasant day, with clear skies that seemed perfectly suited to flying. As they neared the area they were told to meet Madam Hooch, the flying instructor, they found the Slytherins already there, milling about twenty or so broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground.
Finally, after a few awkward seconds of each group of students staring each other down, Madam Hooch appeared. She had short grey hair and strange yellow eyes that resembled a hawk's.
"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked at them as she arrived, "Everyone needs to stand by a broomstick, on the right side if you're left handed and vice-versa. Come on, hurry up!"
Harry walked over to the left side of a broom, and Faykan and Ron took the brooms on either side of him, Faykan taking the right hand side of his broom. Harry momentarily glanced down at his broom. It looked very old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.
"Stick your wand hand over your broom," Madam Hooch called at the front, "and say 'Up!'"
"Up!" everyone shouted in response.
Harry's broom leaped into his hand at once, closely followed by Faykan's. Looking around, Harry noticed that theirs were the majority of the very few that had done so. Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't budged at all, probably responding to the quaver in Neville's voice, which clearly stated that he wanted to keep his feet firmly on the ground.
Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the ends, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Ron was delighted when she told Draco he'd been doing it wrong for years, while Faykan simply coughed, suppressing a snigger when she did the same for Ron moments later.
"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," Madam Hooch explained. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, then lean forward slightly, and touch back down again. On my whistle; three, two…"
But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of leaving the ground, pushed off far too hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.
"Come back down this instant, boy!" She shouted, but Neville was already shooting straight up and away from the rest of them like a rocket. He went further and further, until Harry saw him look back at the ground, terrified, and he slipped sideways off his broom, crashing to the ground with a nasty thud followed by a sick cracking sound.
The entire class raced over to where Neville had fallen, but Faykan reached him first. By the time Madam Hooch had arrived, Faykan had immobilized Neville's arm with a quickly muttered spell, and she bent over him.
"Nicely done Mr. Undol, what the other teachers said about you is definitely true, two points to Gryffindor," she said quickly to Faykan before as she studied Neville's hand, "Broken wrist," Harry heard her mutter. "Come on boy, it's going to be fine, up you get."
She then turned to the rest of the class, "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be removed out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch,'" she threatened, before turning back to Neville, "Come on, dear."
Neville allowed her to lead him back toward the castle, clutching his wrist and allowing Madam Hooch to support him slightly.
No sooner were they out of earshot than Nott burst into laughter. "Did you get a good look at his face Undol, when you were fixing the poor baby?" he shouted with a sneer. The other Slytherins, save Draco, joined in the derision.
"Look what we have here!" Nott added after a few minutes of laughter, and he darted forward to snatch something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's grandmother sent him." The Rememberall glittered in the sun as he held it up.
"Give that here, Nott," said Faykan quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch, while Nott smiled nastily.
"No," he gloated, "I think it'll be more fun if I leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find," he added coldly, mounting his broom, improperly, and kicking off, "How about on the roof?" he laughed as he soared upward and away from the other students.
Faykan was lining up his wand at Nott, but Harry darted in, grabbing up his broom, just as Hermione Granger tried to stop them both.
"Harry, Faykan… no way, you heard what Madam Hooch said, besides, you'd both get into so much…" but Harry ignored her. He mounted the broom and kicked off. The air rushed through his hair, and his robes whipped out behind him, and it suddenly occurred to Harry why the pureblooded children talked so much about flying. This was something he could do without being taught, this was easy, and it felt wonderful.
Harry soared up to Nott and turned his broomstick to face him. Nott had clearly not been expecting Harry to be the one to take up his unspoken challenge.
"Give it here, Nott," Harry called at him, "or I'll knock you off your broom!"
"Oh, really?" Nott replied, trying to look smug, but unease broke through his mask of indifference.
Instinctively, Harry knew exactly what he needed to do. Leaning forward, he shot toward Nott like an arrow. The Slytherin barley managed to maneuver out of the way in time; Harry made an abrupt turn and faced the now very white-faced Nott again. He heard gasps and screams from girls below and excited whoops from Ron and Faykan.
Nott looked extremely worried. He seemed to ponder his next course of action for a moment, then called out, more for the crowd below than for Harry, "If you want it so bad, Potter, catch it… if you can!" and threw the Rememberall as hard as he could and streaked back to the ground.
Harry saw the light glinting off the small glass ball as it flew through the air. Putting on a large boost of speed, he took off after it. Leaning forward, he dived after the ball. Moments before it hit the ground, Harry grabbed it and flipped backward with his broom, coming to a steady stop a few feet above the ground and landing with the Rememberall clutched safely in his fist. The Gryffindors surrounded him, Faykan and Ron pounding him on the back, their cheers and congratulations echoing in his ears. It was the best feeling Harry had ever felt in his life.
"HARRY POTTER!" yelled an adult voice from toward the castle
"Oh no," Harry moaned as he saw Professor McGonagall hurrying toward him, holding her hat so it wasn't blown off her head as she ran.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Draco saw the entire aerial confrontation from his position at the back of the Slytherin group. Harry was absolutely amazing on a broom; he made flying look like an art form. Draco admitted to himself that he could probably never learn to fly that well in his entire life, but if anyone asked him about it he would have vehemently denied it. At the sight of Professor McGonagall sternly calling Harry over to her however, Draco's heart sank for his friend. Harry was most assuredly in very deep trouble now.
Draco hurried over to Ron and Faykan, who had attempted to follow Professor McGonagall as Harry was led away by the Head of Gryffindor, much to the amusement of Nott and the other Slytherins. But Draco didn't care what the skinny ponce thought right now, real friends were far more important than looking good to a group of near strangers.
"Hey," Draco said to them as he arrived, "How bad is it gonna be you think?" he said hopefully.
"Probably pretty bad," Ron said dejectedly, "She wouldn't even let any of us explain why Harry was in the air, and everyone knows McGonagall is stricter on us than anyone else."
"Oh no," Draco murmured. "I hope he doesn't get expelled, if it means anything to you both." He added reassuringly.
"So do we, Draco, so do we…" Faykan commented with a faraway look as they returned slowly to the castle.
Later, at dinner, Draco found out that Harry was still in the castle despite the wild rumors that circulate through Slytherin, and he hurried over to the Gryffindor table to learn exactly what had happened after he had been led away by Professor McGonagall. He arrived just as Harry was finishing explaining to Ron and Faykan.
"I start training next week," he had just said to them both. "Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret."
"What's a secret Harry?" Draco asked, hopeful. "Please tell me you weren't expelled." He added holding his breath slightly.
"Harry isn't going to be expelled, Draco," Faykan assured, and then lowered his voice to a whisper so that only Draco, Harry and Ron could hear him "As to the secret, McGonagall was so impressed with Harry's flying, that she took him to see Oliver Wood, captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and Harry got made Seeker for Gryffindor."
"No way," Draco said in wonder, "but, first years never make their house teams," turning to Harry, who only smiled, he continued slightly breathless, "that would make you the youngest seeker in a…"
"… in a century, according to Wood," Harry finished for him, beaming at his fortune.
Just then, two red headed boys came into the Great Hall and came toward the three Gryffindors and one Slytherin; Draco knew they were Fred and George Weasley but he could never tell each twin apart. They glared suspiciously at Draco, until Faykan jabbed one of them hard in the stomach and sent them a look.
"Hey, well done Harry, Wood's just told us." One of the twins whispered to Harry. "We're on the team too, beaters." The twins then started rattling off about the Quidditch Cup with Harry and Ron, and while Draco was content to just watch his friends in their happiness, Faykan nudged his arm and inclined his head to the Entrance Hall.
Curious, Draco followed him out and down the stairs into the dungeons. As Faykan led him into an unused classroom, Draco wondered how it was the Gryffindor knew the layout of the dungeons so well. When Draco had closed the door to the room, he turned to find Faykan lounging on one of the stools, leaning it on two legs with his back to the unused teacher's desk.
"So, Draco," he began, "As you no doubt are wondering why I've led us down here, so I'll get straight to the point. I'd like to ask you a few questions about Theodore Nott."
Whatever Draco was thinking, that hadn't been it. "Um, ok." He replied slowly. Draco proceeded then to tell Faykan what little he knew about his fellow Slytherin, about how he was raised by his elderly father after his mother had tragically died trying to give birth to a daughter, who also hadn't survived the traumatic complications that came up sometimes when Pureblood women gave birth. It was the primary reason that many Pureblood families had few children, as each pregnancy was a risk of death from magical instability.
"Draco, is Nott's father a Death Eater?" Faykan asked bluntly after Draco had mentioned the amount of time Mr. Nott Sr. had spent around his father's manor.
"I really don't know… maybe?" Draco answered, truthfully. "I couldn't say for certain, I was never allowed to be in the room when my father entertained certain guests."
"And their family's heredity gift is magical sight…" Faykan pressed further. Draco could only nod. Knowledge of those sorts of gifts that pureblood families held were normally tightly held secrets, but Nott had once tried very hard to be friends with Draco, when they were very young, and accidentally let it slip. Clearly from his behavior the previous week that had not changed.
That seemed to answer Faykan's main concerns, and he turned to look out the small window in the classroom, seemingly deep in thought. Draco was about to turn and leave him to his pondering when Faykan suddenly spoke again. "Draco, how much do you know about your own ancestry?"
That caught Draco off guard, "Well… my father told me quite a bit about the Malfoy line…" Draco began, but Faykan interrupted him.
"No… no… I mean your mother's line, the Black family," he clarified.
"Um, not too much really, I mean my mother told me a few stories, but that was about it," Draco admitted. Faykan just nodded, knowingly.
"Hmm, that is indeed a pity as current knowledge of that particular bloodline only extends to the Middle Ages… I had wondered if the members of the Black family themselves had more comprehensive records, but clearly they either do not, or do not understand the importance, after all, five thousand years is a long time..." Faykan said, in part to himself more so than to Draco, before trailing off into his own thoughts once again, staring deeply into a blank wall with a very faraway look.
Draco desperately wanted to ask what Faykan was talking about, but by the time he mustered the courage to begin voicing the first of many question, Faykan had already turned and swept past him out of the door, moving back up the dungeon stairs back toward the Entrance Hall, his robes billowing behind him in his swift movement. It strongly reminded Draco of his godfather's mysterious ability to almost glide through the corridors as he stalked through the castle.
"Freaky…" he said to himself, almost dazed by the striking similarity that the two seemed to share in that regard.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
As Harry and Ron made their way out of the Great Hall after dinner, their conversation with Fred and George having gone on far longer than they had anticipated it would, they found Faykan walking across the Entrance Hall toward them, seeming as though he had just come up from the dungeons.
"Hey, where have you been?" Ron called out to Faykan as he joined them and they continued up the marble staircase.
"Oh, Draco wanted to have a word, so we went down into the dungeons for a brief, private chat." Faykan replied, dismissing their concern with a wave of his hand. Ron however, didn't notice the implication of what Faykan had meant, in conjunction of what had previously transpired. "Oh, well, we were just wondering where you had gone was all."
Harry however, more certainly did, having had more experience with the other black haired boy's nature of keeping the important things to himself. "And what did you talk about with Draco?" he asked pointedly, even catching Ron off guard with the abruptness of his question.
Faykan paused, looking at Harry like it was the first time he had seen him in a long time, before responding slowly, "I asked him some things about Nott, and he wanted to know if you really weren't expelled. He was very worried about you Harry…" he added, making Harry flush when he realized how incredibly bad it looked to be prying into Faykan's private conversation with Draco. "Oh," he managed, before Faykan smiled and they started walking again. Even still, Harry had a feeling that something had been left out of Faykan's explanation, but there was little that he could do to try and find out without looking like a prat, so he simply let it go.
They were just starting to ascend the Grand Staircase to head back to Gryffindor Tower, when the three boys stopped as someone called Harry's name. Turning back, they saw Hermione Granger hurrying to catch up. "Oh, no, what does she want now?" Ron groaned, the sound changing to a gasp of surprise as Faykan stepped hard on his foot, silencing him as the girl came within earshot.
They started walking again before she caught them however; half hoping she'd give up, but to no avail. "Harry," she called as she joined them, "I just heard the strangest rumor about you; something about being put on the Gryffindor Quidditch team after that bout of rule breaking during the flying lesson."
"Who'd you think spilt the secret?" Ron said angrily "Bet ya it was Malfoy."
"Couldn't have been, he was with me and I saw him head toward his common room when I left him in the dungeons." Faykan replied casually, "More likely it was either Wood or your twin brothers showing off to anyone who'd listen." Harry grinned to himself at the thought of the rebuttal, but was confused at how Faykan knew where the Slytherin common room was, again linking it back to the secrecy that his best friend had regarding the conversation he had had with Draco.
"So it is true!" said Hermione. "You know Harry, you really are quite lucky to have not been punished. I mean, normally McGonagall is really strict about rule breaking and…" but whatever else she was going to say was cut off when the staircase they were all on shuddered, and shifted sideways suddenly, throwing them all off balance. They all caught the railing hard, knocking the wind from them as the staircase realigned itself to another landing completely from where they had been heading.
"What's happening?" Harry said in shock.
"The staircases change, remember." Hermione replied matter-of-factly.
As it settled into its new position, Faykan hurried up to the next landing, but the staircase ahead shifted away, stranding them on the landing. "Blast!" He said angrily, and then turned to the nearby door, "Let's go through here, and try to find another way around. There's no telling how long it'll take for the stairs to return to this side."
Hermione hesitated, but had no working argument against Fay's logic, and followed after the three boys. As they entered the deserted corridor, the four Gryffindors noticed at once that something was out of place.
"Does anyone get the feeling," Harry said, "That we shouldn't be here?"
"We're not supposed to be here, this is the third floor. It's forbidden!" Hermione hissed at him, tugging Faykan's arm back toward the staircase.
Turning to leave they stopped at the sight of Mrs. Norris entering behind them. "It's Filch's cat!" said Ron.
"Run!" yelled Harry, panicking. It must have been infectous, as together they all tore down the corridor until they slammed into the door at the very end. Unfortunately it was locked. They could hear footsteps approaching and Ron was starting to hyperventilate as he yanked on the handle desperatly.
"Oh move over," Hermione snarled, shoving both Ron and Faykan aside before, whipping out her wand, she muttered 'Alohomora' while pointing it at the door. The lock clicked and they wrenched the door open. They all scrambled through the door and slammed it behind them.
"Anyone here, my sweet?" Harry could hear Filch mutter to his cat from the other side of the door moments later. But, as the crotchety old man could see no one, he finally moved away, calling Mrs. Norris after him.
"Lucky for us he thinks this door is locked," Ron said finally after they were sure Filch had gone.
"It was locked." Hermione retorted hotly.
"And for good reason…" Faykan said nervously, facing down the corridor they were standing in. They all whipped around, and found standing before them the reason that this corridor was expressly forbidden.
A monstrous dog creature with three massive heads stood in the center of the corridor, blocking all passage in that direction. All six of its eyes were watching them and it was growling menacingly, drool dripping from its massive fangs. Harry clawed for the doorknob as the dog started bounding toward them in the small enclosed space. Just as he got the door open it was nearly upon them.
"Onna kaima!" Faykan cried, whipping out his own wand as they fell backward through the now open doorway, and the dog slumped to the floor, whether unconscious or dead, Harry did not know. Not in a mood to stop to check however, the four students slammed and relocked the door and bolted back to the stairs, practically flew up them and didn't stop running until they were in front of the fat lady all the way on the seventh floor. Ignoring her remarks about the lateness of the hour, they supplied the password, sprinted inside, and immediately fell into armchairs around the fire of the common room, which was almost completely burnt out.
"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron said finally, still gasping for air slightly.
Hermione had got both her breath and her bad temper back again. "You don't use your eyes, do you?" she snapped at him. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"
"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet; I was too busy with its heads."
"No, not the floor, it was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something." She responded, not quite as hotly as before, but still clearly upset with the three boys for getting into that mess to begin with.
Faykan got a very faraway look at her words, and started muttering to himself, "Out of bounds to anyone who… hmm… interesting…"
Harry was about to ask what Faykan was muttering about, when Hermione stood up, still glaring at them. "I hope you're very much pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed, or worse, expelled! Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."
Ron stared after her, his mouth open. "That girl needs to sort out her priorities…"
As the three boys climbed into bed minutes later, Harry mused as to what the dog could possibly be guarding. Didn't Hagrid mention that he'd taken something out of Gringotts, right before the very same vault had been robbed? Then there was still the handful of things that surrounded Faykan that had not been properly addressed. Harry was feeling rather put out that he was being left in the dark about so many things.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Albus felt the wards he had placed over the door leading to the forbidden third floor corridor trigger, and stood from his desk in a flash. It was foolish of Tom to have gone for the stone so quickly, but Albus wasn't about to allow the man forgiveness for his impatience and hurry to intercept and apprehend the man, along with whatever accomplice was working with him.
Unfortunately, even as he departed his office, the ward pinged again in his mind, telling him that whoever had entered just left by the same door. At this rate, even at a full sprint and making use of every secret passage that he knew of that would cut any time between his office and the third floor, Albus knew that he would not be able to catch whomever it was that had entered before they fled the scene, but there might be traces left behind that could possibly have a few clues as to the identity of the accomplice.
Once he arrived at the third floor, Albus lulled the hulking Cerberus to sleep with a simple charm, empowered by a jaunty tune that he learned from a muggle program several years ago, and Albus began his search.
A series of quick charms revealed that not just one, but four individuals had been in the room briefly, and no farther than just within the door. What was more, three of the four signatures were underage, which led Albus to suspect that a group of students had been investigating places they ought not have gone, and were caught and led away by one of the staff. The problem with that presumption however, was that he was well aware of the magical signature of every teacher in the school, and the fourth aura here was not one of them.
Nevertheless, Albus felt that it was a magical signature that he had encountered before, and not the stale reek that was always coupled with Tom or his followers. If anything, the magical aura left here felt dusty, as though long with age, as well as a deep refreshing sensation. Albus was no diviner when it came to magical auras, but along with most aspects of magic he had dabbled enough to have a basic understanding that whoever had cast a spell here had been extremely old and powerful.
This at last led to the most disturbing of his conclusions. Someone was impersonating a student, and in the guise of leading others to this room, was trying to test the strengths of the defenses. The question remaining was whether this person was a servant of Tom's, or some other entity altogether that had learned of the existence of Flamel's stone and that the old Alchemist had hid it away with Albus at the school.
He would have to keep extra vigilant of anything out of the ordinary from here on, and perhaps it would be best to request that if anything suspicious was to happen that Severus would come here and try to stave off anymore attempts to probe the defenses of the Stone.
i' nyelle lina ie' he gurtha, ar' amin wept nalla en' agar : The bells tolled at her passing, and I wept tears of blood.
i' quel coia sai wanwa, ar' maranwe ikotane nwalka : The good life is so fleeting, and destiny is so cruel.
haba corm lanta e' a ear en' rista, ar' amin sinta amin ereb : My heart is tossed in a sea of pain, and I know that I am alone.
re risa ringwe e' he sapsa, ar' ilya haba alasse' menel : She lies cold in her coffin, and all my joy has flown.
Potential Spoilers Ahead, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Oh my sweet goodness, so much to cover in changes. Firstly, another title change, as I was falling into a rather bland pattern of naming, and had since them revised what I was up to, in order to have the chapter titles reflect a better, albeit vague, sense of what was entailed within.
Length, oh yes, the chapter after this one had SO much overhaul that it more than exceeded its bounds, and to limit how massive it grew to I had to let some spill backward into this one, which compounded with the changes I added to extensively grow the size of the chapter. I hope that in future ones, probably Year 3-4 and on will relatively even out, as that was where I got into the pattern of 13 MS word pages per chapter, on average.
New items, aside from grammer changes and some syntax that I improved upon, I had to rework the Severus scene to bett comply with the new direction that I was taking the character, as he needed to be less rude and angry at Faykan, which in the new context as a friend of his father made no sense, while at the same time be concerned as he was not aware whether the Undols had any more children after Voldemort killed them.
I kept the song in its place, as it marks a good entrance book end to what happens in the end book, where the final verse is sung, and portray's Severus character almost perfectly in my opinion.
Much larger introduction for Theodore, rather than having be a standard carbon copy of Canon Draco, and emphasizing his fascination with Faykan early on, rather than it being Harry centric, as there was little reason for him to pay more attention to Harry than anyone else. Standard flying scene, as it was something important to Harry's character growth, so I had to allow it.
Also, new Dumbledore scene added in, as it was highly unlikely that the wasn't monitoring the corridor actively, otherwise why did Quirrell-mort wait until he had the Headmaster out of the castle before acting? felt appropriate to try and boost how active he was in the story.
So fun, and even more changes yet to come in the next chapter!
Wonderful day to all!
~F