Two weeks later they stood in the room of requirement.
"I'm frustrated", Emerick sighed. "I have searched, even in OWLs or NEWTS potions notebooks, and I can't find a single one that will do what we "want" it to. Other than Polyjuice."
"Nor any that could be applied on her clothes or something, and affect her by touch?" Claudia asked.
"None, nada, nix, nill…" Emerick shook his hand.
Dreogan stood close to the blackboard, looking at it intensely.
"It can't be either, too much risk", he declared.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Claudia turned her head to him.
"Potion, edible or wearable clothes. They increase the margins of error. If she doesn't consume or wear the thing for a few hours or day, days and so on she could slip from its control. She changes from her day clothes to her night gown and maybe it loses control. She drinks or eats anything different it loses control. We need something that she will not be able to dispose of, easily", Dreogan explained.
"Oh, I dunno", Claudia exasperated. "We're running out of ideas."
"What if Cillian is using that portal spell? Portal in, give potion, portal out?" Charles inquired.
"Azrail? Allow anyone else to use one of his spells, without direct permission? You're joking right? He'd…" Dreogan begun saying, when his pupils dilated, the chalk falling from his grip.
"You thought of something!" Charles said, standing up from the floor, cross-legged where he sat. "What? I know that look!"
"Eh…oh, nothing. Let's keep searching", Dreogan grabbed the chalk crossing out the potions and edible options.
"I'm trying to, but someone has borrowed out a book about ancient Greek magical and enchanted items. It's the only one left", Charles said.
"How do I know that book?" Dreogan mumbled to himself.
"Your detention in the library, last year?" Emerick asked, looking at the blackboard.
"Yeah, probably", Dreogan shrugged.
"We should go." Claudia stood up, dusting her skirt and robes. "We'll be late for Defense against the dark arts."
"I hope we learn some new spells, I'm tired of keeping notes about Gargoyles, imps and Ghouls", Charles whined.
"I hope we learn about Boggarts and other non-beings. It'll help having prior, theoretical knowledge come next year", Emerick said.
The door of the room of requirement had closed behind them, they turned the corner to the stairs when a female voice came from behind a suit of armour.
"What are you lot doing here? Defense against the dark arts classroom's in the third floor", they turned around to see Anneke coming out from behind it.
"Uhm, I don't see how it's any of your business", Dreogan replied, sharp and dismissive.
"I'm your friend and I want to be included", Anneke clenched her fists, her voice sickly sweet.
"Yeah nah", Claudia took a step forward, pointing at Anneke with her right-hand index finger. "I don't like you. I don't trust you or the things I hear about your family's dealings with Cillian. And I don't want anything to do with you."
"I'm surprised you think we're friends, you constantly behave badly towards me and my friends, constantly you are sarcastic and taunt and try to bully us and other first years and you still haven't tried to discuss with me what I did last year that so hurt you, you started to cry. You're not giving me a chance to either discuss or apologize and you haven't apologized for your bad behaviour", Dreogan said, annoyed.
"Nevermind, forget I said anything", Anneke said. "If you're doing anything you shouldn't be, you'll get in trouble", Anneke left, pushing Dreogan aside.
"She really doesn't like conflict, does she?" Claudia stated.
"I don't know, I think it's sad", Charles said.
"I wouldn't mind being friends with her, if she would…" Claudia interjected him.
"I don't trust her, and I don't like how she behaved. Towards you or me. I don't like it when people mess with my friends", she said, with a face of iron-will.
"That's probably the nicest thing anyone's told me. Ever", Dreogan smiled, giving her a quick hug.
"Hey!" Charles whined, making them burst laughing.
"You are too easy to tease, and Claudia thinks I am cute when I pout!"
"You are, Charles' cuter", Claudia grinned.
"Ha! Damn straight I am!" Charles pointed his hand up in the air, momentarily.
Emerick chortled.
Dreogan poked at his ribs, like his grandfather had done during Christmas.
"You arse! Grumps was a bad influence on you!" Charles declared, dodging Dreogan's fingers.
"Oh, you have no idea", He cracked a tight-lipped smile. "He gave me so much dirt on you. Baby stories are kinda fun, aren't they", Charles' eyes nearly fell out of their sockets.
"Whaaaa! Nononononononononooooo!" The boy exclaimed.
Dreogan laughed aloud.
"You two are cute as a couple, are you making out as well?" Harold's voice came from their left, in the fifth-floor landing.
"Would you like it, if I broke your jaw, again? twat?" Dreogan's face distorted in bile.
"Would you like it if I crucioed you, bitch?" Harold retrieved his wand.
Dreogan shrugged. "I'm sure it'll tickle me. How do you think your imperialist asshole of a father will like it when you get expelled? He seemed less than unafraid of the possibility of getting hit by the crucatius curse.
"I won't get expelled", Harold's lips formed an evil sneer.
"Right, your pathetic ass will be sent to Azkaban, for using one of the unforgivable", Claudia stated.
"And when your jerk of a father tries to break you out, you'll be where you belong", Emerick joined.
"I'm honoured you think someone like Dreogan would want to boyfriend me, but you should seriously look into your homophobia, man!" Charles spat at Harold.
"Who did you call a jerk, mudblo…" Harold started saying, when his voice vanished.
"Poor, poor guy, can't help yourself, can you? You just have to be a racist in front of me, don't you?" Professor Willows' voice came from the corridor behind them, climbing up the stairs. "Well, needless to say you are in detention and let us make it hurt a tad, yeah? Your criminal father paid for a bunch of stuff for the Slytherin team. Pity his son won't be enjoying any of it, at least for this year. Yes, you guessed it Mr. Nott! Year-long ban for you from any and all Quidditch-related activity. Leave. Now."
Dreogan gave a chortling sound, swallowing the laughter as Harold departed, unable to speak.
"Feels sort of bad, having to give you…" Professor started telling him.
"I didn't do anything, professor. Give the points to Emerick, he's the wronged party, sir", Dreogan commented.
"That's not a bad compromise, I guess. That's quite the display of self-sacrifice…for a Slytherin", Professor Willows raised an eye-brow.
"I never…"
"In any case. Emerick, twenty points for Ravenclaw", Professor Willows said and left.
"Thanks, mate!" Emerick gave him a pat on his back.
"Don't mention it. Come on, let's go", Dreogan descended the moving stairs to the third floor.
To Charles' groaning disappointment they covered Trolls, hags and banshees, filling parchment rolls with ink.
"What's eating you?" Charles whispered to Dreogan, his best of friends looking increasingly skeptical and lost in thought throughout the lesson.
"It's nothing, let's go eat lunch, I'm famished", Dreogan replied, after the lesson's end.
Even during lunch, Dreogan seemed preoccupied, and out of form.
"Okay, seriously, what's up?" Emerick asked, this time.
"Sorry, I have to go look something in the library, I'll catch up with you guys later", Dreogan stood up, picking up his backpack from the floor and left.
Charles looked Emerick who shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, "I dunno."
"Like I told your friend, Mr. Blake. That book has been given out to another student who has yet to return it", Mr. Thorson told Dreogan when he asked for "Ancient Greek Magical and Enchanted items".
"Who has it, sir?"
"A Ravenclaw girl", Mr. Thorson did not look as if he would elaborate any further.
He spent the rest of the afternoon doing his homework until dinner and sleep.
Waking up next morning he felt his left hand heavy. "Dammit, I must have slept on it again…wait…" Propping up on his shoulder he saw a large, brown leather-bound book placed on his left hand. There was a photograph between pages, a bookmark.
Picking up the heavy book on both hands, he opened it on his lap, bending his knees under the duvet to serve as a bookstand.
"Hey, that's the book Charles and I wanted to…" His trail of thought was interrupted as he opened it to the pages marked by the photograph. "I have you now, you son of a…" He shot up scrambling for his clothes.
"Have you seen Dreogan today? I haven't seen him since he left for the library yesterday", Claudia asked the other Emerick. They were in the Great Hall eating breakfast, pancakes disappearing at a lightning speed from their plates.
"I dunno, doesn't look like he's here, in the Great Hall", Emerick said, with a mouthful of pancakes and blueberries jam.
Not a minute later the heavy double oak, carved doors slammed open as Charles barged in, head-first.
"What? What is it?" Emerick stood up, placing his hands on the table, jam spilling off his mouth.
Charles held his upper torso with his left hand, panting heavily.
Taking a deep breath, he tapped his right hand on the table with some force, releasing a piece of paper.
Claudia picked it up, reading it aloud. "Found evidence. Going to Horsewood"
"Courtyard!" Charles managed to say between short, rugged breaths.
All three of them bolted for the doors.
Earlier.
"I have one final question, Mr.…Dreogan. Why me? I have not, exactly, been friendly to you since the day you arrived in the school", Professor Horsewood leaned on her elbows, behind her desk in her office. Her green eyes reflected the torch and candle light.
"Exactly", Dreogan held his hands on his lap, tapping them together. "You are the only one I can trust with this because you haven't been friendly, because you have displayed such animosity towards my family and never hid your dislike of m…y family name, you can't be Cillian's or Azrail's ally with such animosity."
"If you had come to me earlier…but after what happened with the Headmistress and Professor Willows…let's go. Time to find out if your, otherwise, circumstantial evidence holds any ground", she said standing up.
Dreogan followed her to the courtyard where the Headmistress was reprimanding a duo of Hufflepuff third years.
"Hello father", Dreogan voiced, oozing with hatred.
"I'm afraid you're mistaken, Dreogan", the Headmistress replied, pivoting around.
Dreogan opened the book. "The necklace of Hera, an object believed to be an Old Gods item, was used in Ancient Greece to control humans from a distance through the transference of emotions and phrases of power, now considered to be forgotten and lost", He read, his voice steady and calm. "You never used to wear necklaces, professor, not until two years past."
"It was a gift from my daughter", she replied, her hand slowly creeping lower, towards her waist.
"Your daughter died when she was a baby", Horsewood refuted her claim, the Hufflepuff boys started walking backwards, as if Horsewood's stare was any indication this was going to end badly, and fast. "You hate wearing accessories or anything that may be used against you in a duel. You told me this when you hired me, twenty years ago", Her wand was already out.
"Must be a gift from my husband, then."
"You divorced after Debora's death. I know, he was my best friend at the time. His son from his second marriage is on his fourth year in the school", Horsewood replied, now raising her wand-hand aiming at her.
"Remove it", Dreogan released his wand. "If it's not the Necklace of Hera, if it's a gift you can remove it, even for a moment. Remove it", the kids around the courtyard stood transfixed, a second year was ordering the Headmistress.
She did not reply, instead touched the green gem at the center.
"You can't, can you?" Dreogan aimed at her.
"You are expelled. And you, you are fired", she burst out, looking more aloof.
"No, I think not", Horsewood stood in front of Dreogan. "Let. Go. Of. My. Friend!" She emphasized every word, her gaze murderous.
She cracked a malicious smile. "Fiendfyre!"
Now.
Charles, Emerick and Claudia arrived in the courtyard amidst sounds of things breaking and clashing. Various students stood on the outside of the cloistered colonnade, not daring to go inside.
The Headmistress threw a rain of torn marble and granite shards at Dreogan and Horsewood.
"Aguamento murus!" Horsewood cried. A wall of water erected in front of them, causing most of the shards to bounce off.
Dreogan ducked, avoiding a larger piece of marble. "Alarte Ascendare!" He cast at a bunch nearby pieces of the cloister's roof tiles that had fallen down. They ejected high up in the air. "Oppugno!" he yelled, aiming at Mary Adams.
The rooftile pieces shot up her at bullet speeds.
She waved her wand in a diagonal shape causing them to transform into snowflakes.
Dreogan spotted Charles, Claudia and Emerick out of the corner of his eye. "Distract her! Distract her and get people out!"
They nodded. "Charles, help get them away!" Claudia told him and she and Emerick started casting spells.
Mary Adams growled, animating the four statues of the eagles holding the snakes in their beaks, around the fountain in the center of the courtyard. The eagles flew up, poising to strike.
"Reducto!" Professor Jordan yelled, entering the courtyard and the statues crumbled to dust.
Mary Adams continued to battle all of them, wreaking havoc. "Sectusempra!" she fired at Claudia, slashing her left arm, above the elbow.
"Episkey!" Emerick tried to heal her.
"Hey, dad!" Dreogan had sneaked behind her. "CONFRIGO!" He cried as she turned around. Before she could even react, the spell hit her dead center on the green emerald of Hera's necklace, causing it to explode in a bright green explosion, releasing a symbol of a pair of fiery peacock feathers and a horizontal eight between them before vanishing in a wisp of black smoke. The explosion forced Adams back on her back.
Horsewood used her moment of confusion to stun her. "Ives help me get her to the Hospital Wing. Dreogan, fetch the prefects, close off the courtyard."
Dreogan turned to his friends. "Make sure no one touches the fragments", Claudia nodded, holding her left arm in the right one.
Dreogan left to find the prefects, while Rawthorn, Professor of charms started repairing the courtyard.
If the school had been hit by a meteor, it'd have had less activity as students murmured and talked about the events in the courtyard, for hours and they would continue talking of it for days and weeks, each conversation giving birth to a different slightly altered version,.
That night the dinner delayed for two hours, as was the curfew.
There, usually, wasn't such a large concentration of students in the every day dinner, as people didn't always eat two meals a day or ate at different times, and teachers most days ate in their offices to avoid the ruckus of the Great Hall. This day, though, they all sat in their seats to the left and right of the Headmistress, in the Professors' table.
The students as well all sat there, without a single one missing, except for one. Dreogan.
Mary Adams, looking still battered up and weary, stood up, lingering for a moment with her hand clutching the arm of her Headmistress' chair.
The Great Hall fell silent.
"You have all, undoubtedly, heard the rumours and hushed whispers of how I was under Cillian Gaunt's direct control for two years now. I'm afraid unlike most rumours this one's true and it is because of the unwavering loyalty and monumental bravery of a group of second years that this is no more, and I am free of Cillian's control", Hushed gasps covered the large room before falling silent again.
"It is customary to award points like I am going to now, at the end of the year feast. But I think this is not a normal event we have experienced. Or, indeed, a normal year...or two. So, for making a friend in a person who everyone else in the school had discriminated and rejected because of their name, for having the courage to go against the flow. I award Charles Blake, Claudia Russo and Emerick Stalwart five hundred points. Each. For being able to conduct their investigation of how I was being controlled, without their grades suffering I award them and Dreogan Gaunt, another one hundred points, each", Every student in the Great Hall erupted in deafening cheers.
Mary Adams paused for the cheers to quiet down, smiling gently. "Finally. It takes courage to stand up to bullies, it takes more so to stand up to ones' friends and it takes even more so to stand against your own family, and to authority, risking everything for your principles, for what is right, to safekeep the ones you love and care about, or simply because no one else will. For his loyalty and service to Hogwarts I award Dreogan Gaunt two thousand points. Now, as I've been…informed by the board of Governors, his action in blasting the Necklace off my neck was deemed…too dangerous, I have been requested to remove half that. Which still leaves Dreogan and Slytherin with a nice one thousand points", she sat back down in her wooden, carved chair.
The Great Hall was silent no more.
An hour or two after the dinner was finished, Dreogan found his friends waiting for him, outside his common room, by the stairs.
"It's past curfew, what are you all doing here?" he asked surprised, and worried.
"We have a pass from the Headmistress, we are to feed you", Charles did not look happy. "And by god you are to tell us everything that happened!"
"There's food waiting for you in the Great Hall, come with us", Emerick said.
They walked to the Great Hall, sitting down in four chairs. The Great Hall was empty of anyone else, with the enchanted ceiling reflecting the clear night, starry sky from outside. The candles hovered above them, lightless. Grabbing hold of the plate with turkey breast fillets and mash potatoes that appeared in front of him, Dreogan begun to wolf it down.
"Why did you go on ahead without us?" Claudia looked even less happy, she looked hurt.
"Sorry, I just didn't want you getting into trouble or hurt if Horsewood didn't believe me, at least only I would have gotten expelled", Dreogan said.
"Bullshit! We are either in this together or I'm out", Claudia replied.
"Uh…you're being a tad too hard on him", Charles, although he himself unhappy at having been left out, run to Dreogan's defense.
"No, I'm not", Claudia shook her head. "He's not my father, nor my brother. We are the same age and if anything, I probably know more than either of you in terms of spells. Don't try to protect me, we are friends and I want to be in all the way or not all", she said in one breath.
"Okay, you're right. For school related matters, but as for my family…", she interrupted him again.
"If you are going to protect everyone, who's going to protect you?" she said with less anger in her voice.
"You? Charles? Emerick?"
"I just don't like it when people think they have to protect me because I can't handle shit", she growled.
"I didn't think you can't handle shit. I thought that if I wasn't believed and I was somehow expelled, you could lead the follow-up and prove me right, because I know that you can more than handle shit."
She didn't reply, blushing instead.
"What! You've got nothing to say? That's new!" He cracked a grin.
"Shut up!" She shoved his shoulder playfully.
"Can we, now, learn what happened?" Charles whined.
"I woke up with a book resting on my left hand, the page explaining Hera's necklace was bookmarked with a photograph of the Headmistress from three years ago, showing her neck without any necklace, or accessory. So, I went to Horsewood with everything we had, plus that…you know the rest", Dreogan said, midst chewing.
"Woah…who could have left it?" Charles asked.
"I don't know. Mr. Thorson wouldn't say anything more than that a Ravenclaw girl had taken the book. I'm guessing it's the same person who sent me that letter a few months ago."
"So, that's over, then?" Emerick asked.
"I'm not sure…I was in the Headmistress' office all day. She's been temporarily suspended until the Ministry can assess and make sure she's not still under my father's control. Horsewood will be acting Headmistress until then. And I got the distinct impression the board of governors aren't in a rush for the results or may even want her replaced permanently."
"Lovely, at least she is no longer controlled, is she?" Emerick asked.
"She's not, that's over", Dreogan confirmed.
"Soooo…what now?" Charles asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Now, I finish eating and I go to sleep. Being interrogated some six hours straight leaves one somewhat drained", Dreogan swallowed a large mouthful of mashed potatoes.
"I mean what next in regard to your family's plans to dominate the world!" Charles exclaimed.
As if on cue the fireplace came alive, the flames creating Azrail's face.
10