"Fuck, I'm going to be late for potions…" His lips forming an evil grin of self-contentment he walked, slowly, deliberately to potions. "Oh, by the gods old or new, I'm going to enjoy smacking three birds with one very big, proverbial stone!" He laughed to himself.
He entered the potions classroom, like he owned the place.
"Oh, Ms. Adams, how good to see you. Let me guess, Professor Turney sick yet again?" He said.
"You're late, sit down", She said, irritated.
"I have two theories, I wanted to run by you, first. I'll sit down after", Charles, Emerick, Claudia and pretty much the whole class' jaws lay open, their eyes bulging out by what they were seeing and hearing.
"I got an interesting letter about a month ago", He proceeded to reading the letter, from memory. "But the thing is…none of it after "Undoing his life's work" even matters. So, here's my theory. My good-for-nothing-asshole of a father, got in business with the Notts, he made a fortune with it, but his only care of that whole transaction was to get them to give him their "true time turner", a piece of magical technology they had perfected a hundred plus years before, And of course had at the time gone to Azkaban for, since time-turner tech. is strictly regulated by the Ministry.
"Regular time-turners can only go back up to a few hours without damaging the timeline or the user. The real time turner allowed one to go back in time for as long as they so desired and anywhen in the timeline they wanted. So, my father got his hands on it, and used it to alter and influence people and events to unify the four founder's bloodlines to form…him and me. Gryffindor's greatest shame was that he did have children…and all of them were squibs, void of magic. His greatest shame was that for all his work in admitting and accepting muggle-born and half-blood kids in school, he hid his magicless kids from the world. My father found out and kept influencing things until he had the other three founding families bonded in the Gaunt family tree. Then, he tracked down my mother's bloodline and…raped her, couldn't very well attempt to marry her since she was a muggle, so he got what he wanted from her like the coward he is.
"The child that was never meant to be. I was never meant to be, and would not have been, if my father hadn't messed up the entire timeline from the eleventh century to today to get it done, to have the four oldest British wizarding families combined to make me."
There was such silence in the classroom one could hear the students' heartbeats.
The Headmistress' face darkened in seething rage. "It is so far-fetched one might make it…possible, believable even. What was your second theory? Something less…demented I hope", His lips curved in a self-pleased smirk, never breaking eye contact with her.
"It is…very convenient how Professor Turney is sick, always, during second year potions class, ma'am."
Claudia didn't think it possible, yet Adams' face darkened yet more, now almost deforming in anger. "He's a very old man. I'm sure within a month or more he'll be okay, again."
"Oh, sooner than that. I'm sure", Dreogan smirked, never breaking eye contact with her.
"We'll see", she stated.
"What is more interesting than that is what Azrail is going to do when he no longer needs the deception the Imperium Arcana gives him. Or our father. My brother is a psychopath so, I'm sure he is going to be very creative when he decides enough is enough, time to come out of his father's shadow", He sat down, smiling.
"Cillian Gaunt is a grown man and a powerful wizard. Azrail is little more than a child who likes killing people. A tool in your father's arsenal."
"If that is what my father believes…he is a dead man", Dreogan shrugged his shoulders in as much apathy as he could muster.
"Where was I, before I was so rudely interrupted?" She tried leaving her spectacles on the desk, but they fell out of the edge, smashing on the floor's granite tiles. "Oh, yes. Wiggenweld potion."
"Uhm, sorry ma'am", Claudia said. "We covered the revision of Wiggenweld potion last week. You were telling us about the Girding potion."
"Oh, right you are, Mrs Russo", Mary Adams carried out the rest of the lesson, in which Claudia's correction was by far not the last one.
Charles, Emerick and Claudia waited for Professor Adams to exit the class, acting all innocent like, then they grabbed Dreogan by his sleeves near his wrists and elbows and dragged him all the way to the seventh floor and the room of requirement.
"Uhm…I can walk, you know", he teased them.
"Okay, spill it!" Charles stood there, arms crossed in front of his chest, ankles flexing up and down. He was ready to jump and fly from all the tension. "How did you come to this conclusion?"
Dreogan told them what happened in the library and his thought process in the Slytherin common room. "Then I remembered a book I had seen last year, during detention. It was about wizarding families and someone, my father by the hand writing, had written "Lies!" next to a passage about Godric Gryffindor having left no heirs to anyone's knowledge. It all makes sense now."
"How? How does it make sense?" Charles flexed his ankles more, up and down, left and right.
"If that reporter had published that story last year, assuming this is what he was going to print, with evidence to boot, his father and the Notts would have been sent on a one-way trip to Azkaban. It is beyond illegal to mess with time or the timeline", Emerick said, beginning to understand.
"My brother knew Cillian would…could never allow it, which would give him the opportunity to rob the Ministry."
"But now, now if they "fix" the timeline…what happens to you?" Charles asked, worried.
"They can't, and they won't", Dreogan said.
"What? Why? I mean…oh, I don't know this is making my head hurt!" Charles sighed deeply, pouting.
"Cillian messed with the timeline on so many levels, in so many different years and eras and altering so many peoples' lives to merge the bloodlines of the Hogwarts' founders, to…create Dreogan, that "fixing" it will have irremediable and enforceable consequences across the whole of Humanity from the Eleventh century to "now". The timeline is as it is exactly because Cillian made the changes he made". Claudia tried to explain. "I mean, imagine the ministry sending back Aurors from the department of mysteries, altering something in the twelfth century and then Harry Potter, Dumbledore, you, me, the Ministry or the very Aurors sent back have never existed. Or Hitter or the renaissance never happened, or the discovery of the Americas by the Europeans as it did, when it did. We don't know, and we can't know every change Cillian committed and therefore we can't alter them without ruining everything. Cillian is a genius in how he did this, he has made sure no one can "undo" Dreogan."
"Why tell…him, though, that you know?" Emerick asked.
"War's not going well, not for the Coalition. So, hopefully now Cillian and Azrail start fighting each other, and maybe they end up killing each other", Dreogan explained.
"You know what your brother's doing, right? Why he's joining some battles and not all?" Claudia asked.
"Playing both sides against the middle?" Emerick asked.
"The Imperium Arcana, Cillian's war provides him with cover to do whatever he is doing in the shadows. I fear for when he no longer requires that cover."
"Yeah, that's what I think he's doing, making sure the war goes on forever, making sure neither Cillian nor the Ministry win, anytime soon."
"Christmas is coming, though. That's always nice", Charles changed the subject.
"I was thinking…" Dreogan begun to say.
"You can come stay with us, if you want", Charles told him.
"I was thinking, what if y'all come stay with me in the Manor, for Christmas?" Dreogan finished his sentence.
"Would it be safe? No offense or anything", Claudia asked, uncertain.
"Oh, yeah. The ministry has raided the place I grew up in so many times there's no traps or anything of danger in there. And there's enough Aurors patrolling the grounds surrounding the building to create an army. I don't think either father or siblings will come around knocking. It'd be nice to have some fun in that place for a change", Dreogan said.
"My parents will want to spend some time with fam…", Claudia said but Dreogan interrupted her.
"Uhm, I don't think you understand. It's a manor. It has over fifty bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, and house-elves as servants. When I said y'all can come visit, I meant with families included", Dreogan batted his eyelashes with a mischievous smirk.
"Oh, that'd be wicked!" Charles and Emerick exclaimed.
"Are you sure you have enough house-elves in there?" Claudia wondered.
"Twenty – thirty or so."
"Yeah, that's enough", Emerick laughed.
"I'll talk to dad, he can convince mum better than me. Because she'll want to visit family in Italy again", Claudia didn't seem to happy at the prospect.
"Are your eyes okay?" Dreogan asked Charles.
"Yeah, why not?"
"Oh, nooooothing. I just thought they might have popped out of their sockets earlier", Dreogan managed to maintain a serious look.
"Jerkwad! You come in the classroom and start talking that way to the Headmistress and you're teasing me! The gall I tell you!" They all laughed.
"How did you think about this strategy? You know, telling your father you know what's up, without telling him?" Claudia asked, astonished.
"Remember some three-four days ago, we were passing by Professor Jordan's fifth year Defense against the dark arts class?" Claudia nodded.
"Well he said something which stuck with me and inspired it."
"What? What?" Charles went back to his ankle-leg-shifting motion.
"Dueling is as much strategy as it is spell work. Show them one hand, strike with the other. Cast two spells, only show the one you want countered."
"I don't know, but I heard he used to teach all years' Defense against the dark arts until two years ago", Emerick said.
"I heard he came to work here, because Professor Horsewood asked him to."
"Which hand are you showing him?" Claudia asked him. "Azrail or that you know?"
"Whichever one gets him", Dreogan shrugged.
They made some notes in the blackboards containing their evidence of Cillian controlling Mary Adams before heading to the courtyard.
"It's gotten chilly", Claudia remarked, rubbing her hands around her shoulders.
"It's nigh winter, want the top of my robes?" Dreogan offered.
"Thanks", Claudia took the garment. "It would appear you are the only gentleman around here", she teased the other two.
"I'm a boy, I'll be a gentleman when I grow up!" Charles poked his tongue at her.
"Right, and Chimeras will fly", Claudia quipped.
"God, I hope not!" Dreogan said, making them laugh.
"I need to go finish up my Herbology and Defense against the dark arts homework, I'll see you all later", Emerick told them and left after exchanging fist-bumps.
The three of them continued to chat for a while, until afternoon classes. After eating dinner, Dreogan headed to his dorm. There he found a parcel on his bed, neatly wrapped up in fine wrapping paper.
Upon opening it he saw the book. Gryffindor's Greatest shame, and a piece of paper stuck inside it.
Read now! The article that brought us under attack!
The Boy that wasn't meant to be!
"Are you sure it was a good idea, sending the info on where to find the reporter to the Ministry?" Charles asked, holding the Daily Prophet's latest issue.
"I don't know who sent the parcel, or put that piece of paper in there, but yeah it was a good idea. He won't say anything I don't already know. Besides, I didn't send it to the Ministry. I just shared it to Professor Horsewood, Deputy Headmistress, what action she took after, is her business", Dreogan gave a sly smile.
"I read it, it says everything you already know. I particularly liked the "sources near Cillian Gaunt" bit", Claudia said.
"Yeah, aka my brother. Now, my father should be fuming. His move", Dreogan's sly smile widened.
"Did you read the book?" Emerick asked.
"It also said what I thought, except Gryffindor's greatest shame wasn't him having squib kids, it was him hiding the truth."
"That's good, I'd be devastated if it wasn't so", Claudia said.
"I don't think it undid his work. His shame propelled him to help even more people, students and wizardfolk and even muggles."
A week later, they were in the room of requirement, writing and discussing away.
"Who sends you these clues, though? And why are they doing it anonymously?" Claudia scratched her head.
"I don't know, I've made every scenario possible I could think of, in my mind and I just can't figure it out",
"I've been paying attention to the Headmistress, she doesn't seem to be drinking from only one cup or flask. I think we can rule out Polyjuice potion", Emerick sounded disappointed.
"And we can probably rule out the Imperius curse, your father would need to cast her with it frequently, from what I've been reading about it. Even with that portal spell of Azrail's", Claudia added.
"Lovely, we got squat…" Dreogan dropped himself on a chair.
"We'll find something, I know we will", Charles tried cheering him up.
"More important thing is…" Charles started saying.
"Quidditch trials tomorrow, and Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw day after, you have mentioned it once or twice…" Dreogan finished it for him.
"Or more, much more!" Emerick teased.
"I'm not sure, but I think even the stones and mortar of this room know, by now", Claudia joined in the fun.
They laughed.
Exiting the room of requirement and heading to the lower floors they saw commotion and people running about, laughing.
"What's happened?" Charles asked a fellow Hufflepuff boy, a fourth-year.
"Didn't you hear? Someone unleashed a crate-full of ever-bashing boomerangs and fanged frisbees on the Slytherin quidditch team during their training and trials. It's chaos out there!" He told them heading towards the training grounds, outside.
"That should be interesting!" Dreogan exclaimed, walking faster. "Let's go."
They arrived in the training grounds to see the Slytherin team players trying to avoid the objects either on their brooms or on foot, in vain, as the boomerangs and the frisbees kept smashing in on them, brooms lay splintered on the grass.
Right then Harold Nott flew inches above their heads, in a state of panic, trying to evade an ever-bashing boomerang, which had taken flight after him. It caught him on his shoulder, throwing him on the ground. His broom smashed up against the castle's walls.
"Expulso!" Professor Willows destroyed the boomerang, while Harold was pushed about a meter into the ground, in a fetus position.
The four of them were in stiches as were many other students gathered around, with Professors running around trying to immobilize or destroy the prank objects.
"Aresto momento!" Professor Adams screamed at the top of her voice, causing all of the flying objects, students on brooms included, to stop in place as if frozen.
"Everyone go inside the castle and those responsible better hope they're not caught, or I'll personally perform the crucatius curse on them for this insult to Slytherin!" she hissed besides herself.
"Professor, weren't you in Ravenclaw?" Dreogan smirked.
"INSIDE! NOW!" she screeched.
"Th-that sounds a bit extreme, ma'am", a brave second year Gryffindor girl told her, while some of the professors eyed her weird.
"Detention for a month!" she yelled, leaving.
"Let's go", Dreogan whispered to his friends.
"I just thought about it", Emerick told them, in the Great Hall. "Edible, and Wearable."
"Later", Dreogan motioned with his eyes at Ariana and Anneke approaching.
"Why would we want to eavesdrop? We're friends, no?" Anneke said.
"Sure", Dreogan replied, dryly. "See you later", He turned heading over to the Hufflepuff table.
"You should come sit with your house", Anneke told him, following him.
"The people I like, my friends are here", he said, stubbornly, chewing on a piece of apple pie.
"We're your house, your family."
"I'm an orphan, then. Why do you suddenly care what I do?" Think I don't know you're whispering behind my back?" He confronted her, tired of her attempts at mind games.
"The whispering would stop if you embraced your family. I'm only looking after you as Slytherin do."
"You have a very perverse notion of what a family or friendship is. Leave me be. I will never embrace Slytherin or my family", He turned his back at her.
"You will, when your super cool brother leaves no one else alive", She left.
"What's her fucking problem?" Claudia clenched her fists. "First, she wants to be my friend, then she ignores I even exist!"
"I'm not sure she knows what she wants", Dreogan shrugged.
"Fuck her, I'm done with her", Claudia said, in half Italian half English, returning to her rhubarb sponge cake.
"Since when is an abusive c…bad person "super cool"?" Dreogan made an expression as if he wanted to vomit.
"Probably since her father is one of them and her mother, that "strong-minded" person, is afraid of her own shadow and hides with stubbornness and venomous sarcasm pretending to be a "joke man"!
"Mother?" Dreogan chuckled.
Claudia grinned. "Of course, with a lil' bit of influence from you."
"You are a bad influence on her, you know", Charles laughed.
"I've never been accused of being a good influence on anyone", Dreogan barely got to finish his sentence.
Professor Adams stormed inside the Great Hall, pointing at him with her wand. "You! Heir to a glorious line. Who did this to my House's team!" she said.
"How would I know? I wasn't even outside when it happened", Dreogan replied calmly, over the stunned looks of the other students.
"Lies!" She came closer.
"I am many things, liar is not one of them", Dreogan remained calm.
"Professor, since when is Slytherin your team? Like Dreogan said earlier, you were Ravenclaw, are Ravenclaw", Claudia said.
"This isn't over! The culprits will be found and expelled", She left.
"War's not going well, I wager", Dreogan whispered. "Must be why he's losing it."
"I thought you said it wasn't going well for the Ministry?" Charles raised a brow.
"It wasn't, now it's not going well for him. The Coalition defeated him in Peru and California," Dreogan answered.
"It really is worldwide war…" Emerick noted, looking sad.
"It's Azrail, slowly proving who is in control, who can command an army and win battles. He fights with father, they win. He doesn't Cillian loses", Dreogan said.
"I bet more and more of Cillian's supporters are turning over to him", Claudia commented.
"Quicksand", Emerick commented. "The more Cillian struggles the faster he loses control."
"I'm not much hungry anymore, have you lot finished?" Claudia put down her spoon.
They nodded, leaving the Great Hall. Following the cold-stoned corridors they arrived back at what had become their headquarters, the room of requirement. Winter was upon them, casting gloomy shadows through cloudy weather and cool windows. Outside nature lay dormant and trees stood bare.
"As I was trying to say, what if the means of controlling her are either wearable or edible? Like robes or food or potion?" Emerick stood at the center of the room, as he had the idea. This being Dreogan's idea, inspired by Arthur and his round throne room. The person who had the idea stood at the center and the others around him, holding the conversation.
"Wouldn't a potion need to be re-given at regular intervals?" Charles asked, standing to the left.
"There are potions that can do that as far as I know, let you control someone", Claudia replied, standing on the left of Charles and at the right of Dreogan.
"Maybe father has spies that can do that, give her the potion every so often? Or a House-Elf in the kitchens?" Dreogan said.
"I think it's unlikely, sooner or later someone, a professor would notice", Claudia shook her head.
They continued conversing through the day, until dinner.
The few weeks left until Christmas saw the Headmistress' mood worsen, her reactions becoming more and more erratic. Yet evidence eluded them as time progressed and the Hogwarts express carried them back to London.
10