Chapter 9: Thoughts of the Future

As the group went their separate ways back to their Common Rooms, they each had their own thoughts on what the Deathly Hallows are and if Phoenix was hiding anything else from them. But most of them knew he had a reason, mainly so they wouldn't go looking for trouble.

"So, what class are you looking forward to the most?" Akko asked her two fellow Gryffindors,

"Transfiguration and History of Magic seem to grab my interest the most, though I think DADA is one that may be the most needed for us." Diana responded,

"Transfiguration and Charms may be pretty useful, though I agree DADA is definitely a class we'll require." Chariot said.

Akko gave them a smile, "I'm looking forward to all our classes, everything's so different, so much more...magical."

Diana and Chariot smiled at Akko's burst of enthusiasm.

"Though I am curious as to how Phoenix will do as a Professor, he seemed confident when talking to other Professors and giving orders to students, though I wonder how his classes will go. I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

As Lotte, Constanze, and Ross entered the Ravenclaw Common Room, they heard a banging coming from the boy's dorm,

"What's that sound?" Lotte asked concerned,

"Rose, no doubt trying to get into the box where I locked her manga away." Ross said with a hint of dread in his voice, it was clear he was already done with Rose's antics.

"Well, I'm going to go deal with my gremlin of a sister, you better get some rest, especially before-"

"Hey, you three!"

Right before Ross finished speaking, a loud screech came from behind, making them jump.

"Silver, don't tell me you're putting first-years in danger because of your sister."

"No, ma'am, I'm just bringing them back to the common room." Ross said sounding clearly annoyed.

The person behind them was a female Prefect, looking very angry, mainly at Ross.

"I'm guessing you two have a history? One that isn't good?" Constanze asked,

"You could say that; girls this is one of the Ravenclaw Prefects, Edith Yoller, or as I call her, E Yeller."

"I told you, call me that again and I will hang you by your feet over a cauldron of scalding ectoplasm."

Ross just rolled his eyes and made his way to the boys dorm.

"Don't walk away from me Silver, I'm not done with you!" Edith yelled,

"Uh...I'd be careful what you say, ma'am…"

Edith turned to Lotte with a look of pure anger on her face,

"What did you say first-year, don't underestimate me, I can make you bow to me."

"And how do you plan to do that Ms. Yoller?" Edith stiffened when she heard the familiar voice of the Head of Ravenclaw,

"Prof. Flitwick, I didn't think you'd be back so soon. How was your meeting with-"

"Hand it over."

"Huh?"

"Hand over your badge, I am relinquishing your status as a Prefect, the complaints I've been getting make perfect sense now."

Edith was shocked, then again, thinking back, she shouldn't be surprised, she did abuse her power quite often. She handed her badge to the professor, without saying a word.

"Now, you'll make your way to my office once the Headmistress lifts the temporary restriction on traversing the castle. We will discuss your punishment then." Flitwick said with a disappointed tone.

"Yes, sir." Edith said, walking to the girl's dorm.

Flitwick then turned his attention to the two girls,

"And you must be two of the girls from Luna Nova, good to see you've already made a few friends."

"Oh, yeah that's us, we mainly met them while exploring the castle. This place is so amazing, I look forward to learning." Lotte said with a smile on her face.

Constanze nodded in agreement.

"Good to hear. As you might know, I am Professor Flitwick, Charms Professor and Head of Ravenclaw House. And I apologize for any disrespect Ms. Yoller directed towards you."

Lotte waved it off, "Oh, there's no need, we know she was just a bit fumed because of Ross. Speaking of which, what can you say about him?"

"Well, I know he works hard, but his time is always taken by his trouble of a sister, I personally would have let him continue instead of holding him back, but he insisted on earning his way up."

This actually surprised Lotte and Constanze, when he said he was held back, they thought it was because he was lazy, but that was far from the truth.

"I thought he wasn't that studious." Constanze said confused,

"Well, he's not really studious, but he still likes helping people, he does a bit more than the minimum school-work wise."

That cleared everything up, but there was still one question left,

"And what about Rose, what do you think about her?"

Flitwick had to take a second to think, "Well...from what I've seen, she really loves her brother, I sometimes think someone gave her a love potion. But I'm aware of the trouble she's caused, almost fatally harming your friend Ms. Akko Kagari, and even more during her first year. The Headmistress was considering expelling her, but Ross made a deal with her."

Flitwick pulled out a pocket watch to check the time and continued talking.

"That deal was that she would let her stay, but any damage or harm she caused would be his responsibility."

Lotte could only imagine what Rose had done as a first-year, but she honestly didn't want to know.

"Now, you should head to your dorm, I think you may need some rest."

"Understood Prof."

Lotte and Constanze said simultaneously, making their way to the girls' dorm, as Flitwick exited the common room.

Jasminka and Amanda entered the Hufflepuff Common Room, trying their best not to make any sudden sounds, until the sound of cracking caught their attention. It was an old looking hand, gray and dead, in a pretty creepy pose and twitching.

Amanda gave off a light chuckle, "What even is this thing?" Amanda asked with a smirk on her face.

"I don't think you should touch that, it still looks alive." Jasminka said, looking slightly frightened by it.

"Come on, what could a little hand possibly-" before she finished speaking the hand came down on hers, trapping it.

She began to freak out, almost losing her balance. She grabbed the hand and tried to force it off, failing as the hand's grip grew tighter. Jasminka ran to help her friend but an invisible force pushed her away, lifting her off her feet. Amanda wanted to scream, but she couldn't make a sound, all she could do was panic.

"What's going on down there?" someone yelled from the boys dorm, "Some of us are trying to relax, no everyone can handle almost being attacked."

As Jasminka was recovering from being launched backwards, she realized someone was coming down the stairs. As the person came into view, she recognized their face.

"Henry?"

As she guessed, it was Henry Franks, who was in a purple, fuzzy onesie.

"Why are you two making so much noise? Everyone else is trying to calm their nerves."

"You're trying to calm your nerves, the rest of us are chatting, Franks!" Another student in the boys dorm said, sounding quite annoyed. "Also, can you please wear something else, you look ridiculous!"

"This is the only thing I've got, the PJ's they gave me, didn't fit." Henry said, grabbing his onesie.

Amanda was already in pain from the hand crushing her hand and screamed: "Can you guys just shut up and get this thing to let go of me?!"

Henry then noticed why the two were making noise and ran over to help Amanda. He grabbed the hand by its pressure points on its palm and back and squeezed, forcing it to release Amanda. A wave of relief flowed through both Amanda and Jasminka,

"What the Hell is that thing? It almost broke my hand." Amanda angrily said, gesturing to the dark red marks on her hand.

"It's called a Hand of Glory, usually it doesn't move, but wizards can charm them to use them for security. The more you move the tighter the grip, and it can only be released with special pressure points."

Jasminka was pretty intrigued by it, Amanda was just weirded out by it,

"So...basically it's a charmed, dead hand?" Amanda said, a bit fearful,

"Basically, yeah, though it does have hidden powers, yet it doesn't seem to use them." Henry said, slightly disappointed.

Jasminka looked at it remembering, when she went to help Amanda, it pushed her away with some sort of invisible force. She thought about saying something but decided not to, purely so Henry doesn't ask for more information.

"Anyway, you should get to bed, or at the very least keep it down. Oh, and if you have a problem with the hand, take it up with Prof. Sprout."

The two looked at him confused, they hadn't met her yet, so they were kinda wondering what she's like outside of class.

So they chose to just relax in front of the fire, Amanda tending to her wounds and Jasminka munching on a doughnut. After a good 25 minutes, they heard the portrait to the common room open.

"Ah, well at least my greenhouses were left untouched, but with the students on edge, thanks to this recent event, classes are going to be that much harder to teach."

Amanda recognized her from the Opening Ceremony, but she just thought she was the school's gardener. The person who entered then noticed the two girls in front of the fire and gave them a confused look.

"What are you doing out of bed, I thought everyone was...what's wrong with your hand?" The women pointed to Amanda's hand, sounding pretty concerned,

"I kinda got caught by that...hand...thing, it almost crashed my hand. Whose idea was it to have that there?"

"It's mine, but I must have forgotten that I put it there. I really should get rid of it. Here, let me help you with that."

The woman gently grabbed Amanda's hand and applied a grayish oil to the red marks, bring down the swelling and making the red much less intense almost instantly.

"Wow, that's pretty sweet, I barely feel any pain." Amanda looked at the woman and asked, "Uh, sorry, but who are you?"

"I am Professor Sprout, Herbology teacher and Head of Hufflepuff house. And no need to introduce yourselves, I know who you two are, and to answer the question you probably have, Herbology is the study of plant life and usage of said plants. You'll have my class for the first five years as it's mandatory."

Amanda thought it sounded interesting, but she was more interested in something else.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to bring this to my office for the safety of your students."

Down in the Slytherin Common Room, Sucy was reading up on poison making, she still had the interest in poisons, though she promised herself to keep her habit to a minimum, just for the first year or two.

"Well, even though I promised to keep the poison making to a minimum, there are still a lot of potions I'd love to test, maybe even...mix, hehehe."

As she let out a light cackle, she heard someone coming through the door to the girls' dorm.

"Arg, why did it have to be my good arm, classes are going to be a bit more difficult."

It was Summer, still bandaged up from her encounter. Sucy was definitely happy to see Summer up and about.

"Evening Summer, how are you feeling?"

Summer changed her attention from her wound to Sucy, smiling.

"I'm doing great, I recently got a message saying that I can visit my parents."

Sucy was happy for her, but something seemed strange.

"Really, that's great, but are you sure it's from the place your parents are being cared for?"

Summer stopped to think, turns out, she only read the first part of the letter. "I'll...get the letter."

She went to grab a book from her bed, pulling out a folded parchment, she handed it to Sucy and she read it aloud.

Dear Ms. Snow,

I'd like to inform you that the person in charge of your parents has given the OK for visitors.

However, all visits will be limited to 10-15 minutes and only 2 times a week. Any visits will be supervised to keep maximum safety for visitors. All visits will also only take place if the supervising physician allows the patients to leave their rooms. Lastly, all visits must be arranged in-advance and accepted by the head of the Asylum.

If you have any questions regarding these details, please don't hesitate to ask. We look forward to hearing or seeing you soon.

Head of North Haring Way Mental Hospital

Walter Quin

After she finished reading the letter, Summer needed to process what was read to her.

"So...I'll have limited, supervised visitation...and my request might not even be accepted? What kind of shite is that?"

Even Sucy was surprised, her suspicions were right, it seemed too good to be true...or at least that easy.

"I'm sorry Summer...I know you must be taking this pretty hard."

"No. It's not your fault. I'll...just have to live with the fact that I'll probably never get to spend a day alone with my parents."

Sucy felt really bad for Summer, she wanted to comfort her but knew she wasn't the one that should.

"You still have your brother, he's still here for you."

Summer, perked up a bit, "You're right, Marcus is here for me, but I need to stop relying on him, he's gotten hurt because of me."

Summer thought for a minute, pacing back and forth, until, "I got it, I'll show him that he won't have to worry about me anymore, I'll show him I've had a change of heart. But how?"

"Maybe you can make him something, show that you care about him too." Sucy said almost immediately.

"Yeah, that'll work. Thanks, Sucy."

And with that, Summer went to plan out what to make. Sucy felt...happy, almost as happy as when she works on her experiments. Then she got an idea, a horrible yet wonderful idea.

"I think I know what I'm going to try and make first."

And a large, creepy grin crawled across her face.

Outside in the Courtyard, a figure ran inside to avoid the incoming rain. She removed her hood and revealed her face. She was a very pretty 4th year Ravenclaw, with cherry red hair and brown eyes.

"Ah jeez, it just had to start raining, right as I was going to visit the Greenhouses to check on the plant I planted last year." She said sounding very disappointed, "I guess I'll have to wait till tomorrow."

But just as she was about to enter the castle halls, she was stopped by someone,

"Wait, I...I need to talk to you."

She turned to find another student, but she had her hood up, hiding her face.

"Yes, what can I do for you?"

"Do you know, where I can find out more about...the Claiomh Solais?" She asked,

"The...what? I don't know what that is?"

The student looked up and said in a very serious tone,

"Then you're not of any use to me or my mistress. Crucio!"

And out of nowhere, the hooded figure wiped out their wand and casted the Cruciatus Curse.

After a whole minute of torture, they stopped casting.

"Wh...why?"

"Don't worry, you won't remember any of this...Obliviate."

After erasing her memory of the encounter, the person in the hood fled, leaving behind a strange message on her arm.

Wli ampp kix xli qekmg xs fvmrk fego xli sri xvyi psvh

Up in the Head's office, McGonagall was going through past documents, researching other methods of keeping the school secure, but she couldn't find anything that would keep the whole school safe, there were always places out of reach.

"There has to be something, I can't just awaken the stone knights again, they're for serious emergencies only, if I try multiple protective charms, no one would be allowed to leave...and Phoenix made it perfectly clear, we can't let them know, but I still want the students to be safe."

It was clear that she was just about out of options.

"I only have one option...but I'm not sure if I feel comfortable doing it."

That one option is to have Prefects patrol more the just the castle halls. They would also have to patrol the grounds, greenhouses and the rest of the area within the castle boundaries. They would also have to pair up to watch each other and increase the number of people patrolling. But that would take time to separate the observant from the oblivious, she would have to have the other professors help find more students to patrol.

"I may need to have more professors patrol at night if it comes to that...well...let's hope no one is murdered again or worse."

END OF CHAPTER