It was at the beginning of December it was raining slightly. She and the rest of the students that had family members in Slytherin arrived by portkeys. Most of them were able to keep their balance, but some fell. River felt a bit smug as she easily held her balance as the other strode up from the muddy ground and stood in line as Slughorn helped remove the mud.
They waited a bit, and then a red double-decker bus arrived to take them closer to x. People were, as usual, making sure that they were as far as possible from River. She made it easy for them and took a seat in the back. The bus moved at a leisurely pace. It went thought gapes between cars, so it went in a rhythm that should have been impossible in London. The inside was keeping its dimension, but the outside seemed to warp. It nauseating for River to look outside. So she tried to keep watching forwards luckily hanging over the seat were a charm that prevented the worst nausea.
River decided to pay a visit to Weasley Wizard Weasleys if there was enough time after her visit. She wanted to give him an update as River thought that it might cheer him up. They stopped at a bus station close to the hospital and walked the rest of the way.
The atmosphere there was charged with nervous energy. The teachers had warned that the poison had taken a toll on the victims. No one spoke, and it was quite a grim procession that made its way to the hospital. Inside they were meet with another group, which consisted of the family members that did not attend Hogwarts. Most of the students went to meet with family members. She was surprised by the number that did not have any family members present, which meant that either they were not able to take time off or that they had passed away.
There were a lot of stares and a few pointed fingers by the children. They started to mutter, and the children began to hide behind the parents. Before anything could escalate, the student managed to calm them down. A nurse luckily arrived shortly after and led them away. River was avoided even by her fellow lone students, as was the norm.
They arrived in a section that housed the Slytherins. It was a large rectangular room that seemed to stretch out forever with beds on either side with sheaths as barriers between them. There was a red rose next to every bed table with a peculiar scent. That seemed to fill her with energy.
They walked through the room, and as they arrived at their family members, they broke off from the group. River briefly wondered what happened when there was more than one family member here. Her answer came quickly. A family of three removed a sheet allowing them to visit two siblings. The solution was so apparent that River felt ashamed that she had not immediately thought of it.
She finally arrived at her sister's bed, and she parted with the now much smaller group. Vivi was reading a book, and Rivers's heart sank a bit, seeing her. She still had the black lips, and there was the faintest discoloring of her skin. Her muscle that Vivi had worked so hard for had disappeared. She seemed so frail, which was never something River had associated before with her sister.
When she saw River, she beamed and put in a bookmark and closed the book. Vivi smiled, "there is my knight in shining armor." Her voice was week, sill she seemed to be better than River had feared. She almost cried it felt so good to hear her sisters voice again. She resisted the urge to run and hug her sister. Her sister had never been a hugging person. Instead she returned the smile and noticing that the book was her Defense against the dark arts book. Pointed at the book and said, "aren't you a bit to studious?" Vivi's smile turned even broader, and she answered, "Well I have plans on what I want to do after I graduate, and they cannot wait a year." River knew what her sister wanted her to ask, and she knew from that tone what her answer would and said: "What plans?" As predicted, her sister only smiled. Then she switched the subject with the question, "how is going with transfiguration?" River sighed and told her about the flamingo incident. Which made her sister laugh so hard that she started to cough and had to stop.
They talked about what had happened, avoiding anything about River's involvement in the investigation. When she told her about the arrests, she had to stop herself from saying how many there were left. That information could expose her. When she had finished, her sister got a somber look and asked: "how is your defense against the dark arts going?" River deflected the question with her learning the strength charm. It made her sister smile, but then she turned serious again and waited for River to continue. River confessed that she had a problem with Expelliarmus. Her sister nodded and said, "I think you should look into Petrificus Totalus."
They talked for about a half-hour more. After River told her about the praise for her cheer charm, she noticed that her sister started to look tired. Then there was an announcement that it was time to leave. They said goodbye, and River promised to visit again as soon as she was able.
There was still enough time before they would go back for her to do her planned visit too Weasley Wizard Weasleys. She noticed one of the students pointing at her and asking a question to the rest of the loners. They almost all of them shook their head and practically dragged the person away. River felt happy as she guessed that the girl had asked if they should invite her to whatever they had planned.
She arrived at Weasley Wizard Weasleys she still felt uncomfortable when she saw the advertisement for the Voldi shirt. She was a bit surprised that it was always front and center. She was in luck it seemed that the only person there was George. He gave her a tired smiled when he saw her and said. "Well if it is not my second favorite werewolf of all time. how Is the camera working for you?" She wondered how much to tell him. She decided to throw caution to the wind and decided to tell him almost everything. She told him about the recording and the meeting with Flitwick and McGonagall. That they used the same words in a completely different context when she had said them were, she had acquired the device seemed to be highly amusing to the George.
When River got to the part when the camera got confiscated, he said: "it was the reason I gave you two." River gave him a grin and said "well that would be well and good if I did not use the second monitor to record all the interrogations that McGonagall was conducting" a genuine laugh came from him, and when he could speak again he said, "we will make you a prankster yet."
She continued not wanting him to realize that he had said we "the investigation has come to a standstill there are four members left Dragon, Spider, Butterfly, and Phoenix. They are probably trying to find Phoenix as with him. They can easily capture the rest. I am unsure of what I can do now to not get in the way." George was salient for a second before asking, "what do you know about their leader" She told him everting that he or she was talented with charms that they were able to target a specific demographic easily. George said, "Well, that person might exist, but I think it is more likely that they probably are the ones that came up with the charm and outsourced the rest to someone with expertise. The thing that I am unsure of is how they planned to affect the Slytherins culture.
They talked about stuff for about ten minutes. Then River walked out of there with a bag full of free goodies. She checked the clock and realized that she had to hurry to get back to the rest of them in time. It was a heavy breathing River that joined the rest of the returning students.
She thought about what Gorge had said as she and the rest of the students made their way back. Could it be that someone other than Phoenixhat had recruited the rest of the members? River thought It needed to be someone leader knew had access to a lot of people. When she returned, she saw that there were new recordings with the captured members. She briefly wondered why it had taken so long to perform the investigation. To her slight disappointment, there were no new bombshells in the statements. It seemed like they did not use truth serum and let them talk normally.
The only thing they knew about Dragon was that he had stolen the poison and probably a dagger from the death eaters. It was hard to say anything about them, according to the others. He rarely spoke If it was not necessary. She decided to put all her efforts towards Spider and spent days going over the recordings with notes precisely what the rest had said about Spider. They were the voice of moderation. The person that seemed to be almost as much of a leader as Phoenix sometimes. They also were conserved with how things looked, and it was their responsibility to change the Slytherins. Which River thought would be impossible as he was not a member, or they would be at st mungo's. She toyed with the idea that it might be a teacher but decided it was unlikely when she looked at the schedule of the meetings. It was not impossible as not many things were with magic utilized by a skilled user, but it was improbable.
Then River hit a wall and could not proceed further. She had gotten a new monitor for the second camera but had no idea where she could use it. She also had the extendable ears to be able to overhear conservations but again had nowhere she could use them. In her desperation, she decided to do something stupid and did not take the Dreamless potion on purpose. She fell asleep after a long while as she drifted the familiar visage of the female scientist now, she could see the parts that resembled Madam Pomfrey. She smiled and said in her usual warm voice" you would willingly come to mee just to satisfy a curiosity. Nothing will change if you help them catch Spider or not. If they get Phoenix, they get Spider. Phoenix is too careful for Spider to know anything. At best, you will achieve nothing, and at worse, you will be in the way. The scientist smiled. Then River fell into a black hole that became red with blood and filled with the smell of burnt flesh. She heard laughter, and suddenly there were her old friends that threw rocks at her, and her sister strode in Infront of her, and River was unable to move and had to watch as they stoned her sister to death. She woke up screaming. When she had finally calmed down, she scolded herself for ever thinking that had been a good idea.
Then she admitted to herself that she had run out of ideas and had to stop until she got her head back into the game. She had even considered asking Rosie to invade people's minds but quickly disgraced the ideas impractical and immoral. She considered switching her focus to the other three but decided that for the time being, she would leave them to the professional.
She had to admit it to herself that the only reason that she was doing this was so that she did not feel helpless in catching her sisters and the entire Slytherins house would-be assassins. Charismas was approaching, and River was not close to a break in the Spider case. She said goodbye to Rosie. She was going to spend her Christmas with her parents, who made River feel lonely. There would be a lot more people than usual spending their holiday here as many had lost their parents to the death eater. She forced herself to do other things then going over the Spider case again. First, she completed the manga Rosie had borrowed her. She trained her for a while expelliarmus but decided to do something else instead and was able to add Petrificus Totalus to her repertoire. River found it more comfortable than expelliarmus. Still, she was not sure it was effective until she tried it on a living person.
After a couple of days, she finely allowed herself back on the Spider case. Fist, she considered what she had so far. What she knew for surety was that he probably was one of the fifty students effected by the puddle disaster as it fits right in with the timeline. She had gotten a copy of the issue of the School paper, which had interviewed several students. Then there had been one more incident where he could not show up. As well as a time, they had to reschedule again, after another suggested time did not work out for them.
Her mind came back to the sentence I had a plan to ... I know my role, but I cannot do it with this. There is no way this story can...". Spider seemed to be the one that had the best sense of what should be good publicity, and even if phoenix or dragons stunt had been regular poison, he was the one that except for the moral reasons pointed out that it would gain extreme negative backlash.
Rive felt like a bombshell had just exploded inside her head. Why not take a page from the ministry three years ago and how they turned Dumbledore and Harry Potter into a foolish old man and liar. She looked at the newest issue of the holiday's events. They printed it before the staff went on holiday. Three people worked there was the photographer Brodie Gordon the editor Eddie Green and their reporter Aden Hill.
Of the three people working here, she could already take out Brodie Gordon as he where on the Gryffindor quidditch team, which gave him an alibi for two meetings as they had trained during one of them and a match during another. The editor would not have been on the site. That left Aden Hill River felt ecstatic she might have solved the identity of Spider. Then her mood turned somber Spider was most likely Aden.
She should give her conclusions to McGonagall, but she liked Aden. He had been supportive of her, which made him unique from almost entirely of the other students. She reminded herself not to get ahead of herself. First, she needed to find a connection between Aden and the others. To do that, she headed to the library. There she found copies of the last year's newspaper that had been charmed to view the real massage. There were no names, but she was able to find enough commonality in their speech pattern and situation to be sure that he had interview four of the members. There was also a habit of using spider language, something that would no necessary be obvious if you did no have such a large sample size ha River had. There were "their web of lies. We need to spring our threads of resistance firm. It is the patient spider that". It gave her a strong enough case to turn into McGonagall. Then she would be incredibly smart or a fool. If he just would turn himself in, then he might receive a lighter sentence, and River realized that it might not be too late for Aden. She could confront him and try to make him see reason and turn himself in.
Rosie would return in a couple of days as her parents work as nurses did not allow them to spend that much time with their daughter. Christmas day she spent with her sister. It was a strange Christmas. It was full of people she did not know, and it felt awkward witnessing something so privet.
River and Vivi where discussing everting and nothing, and she looked much better. She would be able to leave next week. The decision was that until they were able to catch the rest of the members, the Slytherin would have their education on a secret site. They were unable to do their usual routine, and River gave her present today when instead of two weeks after which had been the norm in heir household. It was an economically sound alternative, something that her mother always liked. It had been awkward speaking about it to others, so most of the time, she had just lied when someone asked. Vivi had done the same, and they both reflected with shame on their past behavior.
River gave Vivi a daydreaming charm that she had gotten from Weasleys Wizarding Weasleys. Her sister playfully hit her on the arm and said, "and here I have nothing to give you" Rive smiled and said, "you recovering is all that I need." Her sister gave her a salute in response, and they started to reminisce on past Christmas. She wondered what her sister would say if she had given her the love potions, she had got
from Gorge. She was confident that her sister would have a similar reaction to herself, which would be amusing. Then she saw the only people that were not in a festive mood wandered past them. They were the family of the two people that were still was unconscious. They should recover almost entirely, but it would take time. She eventually had to say goodbye to her sister and return to the castle. There was no time to visit from Weasleys Wizarding Weasleys, and she knew that she would be far from alone at this time of the year. She had amused the thought of staying at the leaky cauldron, but it was impossible to get rooms on charismas.
She waited nervously to meet Rosie as the day she returned arrived. Rosie could immediately tell that she had discovered something. She looked at River calmly but expectantly, and River told her everting she had learned. Rosie gave her two thumbs up. Then she spoke about her wanting to confront and try to make Aden to turn himself in. Rosie was less inclined to give him a chance but conceded that it was Rivers sister that had gotten hurt and if she took some precautions she would have her support.
It was that the weak after classes had started that she finally confronted Aden outside charm classroom. He had just finest Charms and he would have an entire hour until his next class. He looked tired she walked up to him and asked "Aden might I speak to you about something?" he looked up and with a shadow of his usual smile said "sure what is it about?" she responded in a voice none but Aden would hear "I wanted to talk about Spider." His expression assured her that she had been right.
Before he had time to recover, she said "let go somewhere more private and talk" they headed to an abandoned classroom. She entered fist and gave the hidden camera two thumbs up. When he had closed the door, she said. "Before you say anything, I need to show you that I know the secrets of true Hogwarts or you will set off a curse" She then to his amazement stated everything she knew, and when she finished, he stared at her and said in a week voice. "How did you know it was me that where Spider?" She explained the interviews and his tendency to write spider analogies. He smiled. It was not a very friendly smile, but she could not see any malice, and he said in a desperate voice, "that does not seem to be enough for it to stick" "it is enough they use Veritaserum." She calmly retorted
His entire body sunk and he said in a week voice "but that is illegal to use against students. If I had known what the group would become I would have thought more about my code name" River nodded and said" yes it was until they changed the rules under he who should not be named rule and it has not been one of this administration top priorities to alter that back. "He looked resigned to his fate and said, "what will you do?" She looked at him straight in the eyes and said, "It depends on this conservation" he smiled, "shaking me down?" she did not look away and calmly said, "No, but I first need to know two things. Why did you join and why have you not turned yourself in" he was shaking seemingly close to tears "The answer to your first question is simple. I was so angry at the Slytherin only the greatest offenders got any form of punishment at all and I have to see the guy who hurt my sister on a dare every Thursday when we have potion. There where countless similar event perpetrated by Slytherins. Except a few were either too afraid to do anything or actively joining in. Your second question is that if I turn my self in, I will not have a future. The only way for me to get out of this is if I find the identity of Phoenix or Dragon." He grew salient. he did not know who Dragon that was a letdown River thought.
He continued stating to sound angry," you would not understand how it is to feel like you have no future," she busted out laughing. She could not help herself; he looked taken aback. When the laughing fit she surprised even herself with the anger in her voice "have you forgotten what I am? Do you think that I will have any future exempt maybe the ministry's pet werewolf? That they can point to and say look they can be good. I do not have a way out unless I jump from the astronomy tower." She shouted the last sentence. That was something that had been building inside her for quite some time.
Aden looked probably ashamed which calmed River down, "how much do you have?" Aden sighed in relief that her explosion was over "I just need a bit more time maybe two or three month "River smiled out of pity and said in a soft tone" you do not have that long. The only reason that they have not gotten you yet is that you do not fit their profile and that they have Phoenix and Dragon as their top priority. But that will either turn into arrest or a dead end. Then you will be next, and they will find you easily enough if they put their minds to it. Or do you really think you are smarter than the professors, ministry and Hemione Granger combined." At the mention of the last name, he looked terrified and stammered. "No but but but" he stopped and looked desperate at her. She gave what she hoped was an encouraging smile and said, "if you collaborate, you will get a lighter punishment. You have not killed anybody, and you were against the plan from the beginning. Turn yourself in for your own sake."
He looked up at the sky then seemed to make a decision and said, "Will you walk with me after I retrieved my notes to a teacher I fear that otherwise that my nerves will fail me." It would involve her exposing that she had broken her word, so she smiled and said: "sure if you exclude how much I know and that it was purely from your own conscious." River said a salient thanks to the Silver tongue potion Rosie had made for her.
They headed to the Gryffindor common room, and River waited outside. For a couple of minutes, then he emerged with a couple of papers in his hand. They walked towards where they would find the closets professor that they knew was free. It was again Professor Flitwick. When they found him, Aden took a deep breath and walked in, and River followed him. For a second, she got the image of him going towards the professor and saying, "here I brought
you Spider she is right here." But he just said, "I need to talk to you about spiders". Professor Flitwick looked confused for a second before looking River with an unnamed question. Professor Flitwick interrupted him from speaking more after he had confessed of being Spider. "let not have to do this twice again, and we continue this conservation in the headmistress office." When he said again, he looked at River, which court Aden's attention, but he did not say anything.
They headed to the headmistress office. Where McGonagall heard his entire confession without showing any emotions. When he mentioned that River only was there because he had asked her to be emotional support. The only response was a raised eyebrow. finally, McGonagall said to River, "you can leave now Blackwell. I have some more questions to Aden, but we will speak again shortly." That sent a lot of red alerts in her mind, but she nodded, said "head mistress," and with a final, what she hoped was an encouraging smile, she and professor Flitwick went down again.
They headed back, and River went straight to the dungeon, and River told Rosie what happened since they walked out of the classroom. When she finished, Rosie gestured "McGonagall scary" River had to agree she did not look forward to that meeting, and she would have to have some Silver tongue potion with her. Rosie gave her another bottle of x, and River hung it on her neck, where it was next to the shield charm. On impulse, she took out the shield charm and gave it to Rosie. River said, " late Marry chrismas" She had a party with Rosie as they celebrated that they had "captured" the Spider.