Chapter Fourteen: Bang, Bang From the Closet Walls, the Schoolhouse Walls, the Shotgun's Loaded
Hufflepuff second year Fiona Liore was found half dead in a hallway. Her friends Rachel Thomas and Undine Yttria were found cowering behind a suit of armor, Rachel holding an unconscious Undine.
The school was in lockdown while the teachers were furiously looking for the troll.
Harry, meanwhile, woke in a better mood than he had in a couple weeks- until Fiona, Rachel, and Undine were brought into the hospital wing. Rachel was guided to a chair, while Fiona and Undine were placed in beds.
Harry tentatively waved at Rachel. Rachel tentatively waved back.
"Hey," Harry said.
"Hey," Rachel replied.
"I'm Harry," he said.
"I'm Rachel," she said.
"What happened?" He asked, leaning over towards her. She paled.
"Troll," she replied. Harry sighed.
"Too bad blasting it through two walls wasn't enough to keep it from hurting anyone else," he replied.
"You blasted it through two walls," she stated, face screaming disbelief. Harry shrugged.
"I was just meaning to overpower the deturbo enough to knock it over, but I blasted it through two walls, shattered a lot of windows, and blew up my wand," he replied.
"That sucks," she said. "About your wand."
"I can get another one. It wasn't really working right since I had my magic unblocked, anyway," he replied.
Hermione started stirring in the bed next to his. He turned his focus to her immediately. When her eyes opened, he climbed right out of bed to stand next to her.
"How are you?" he asked, smiling.
"A little okay," she replied, tentatively smiling back. "You look better."
"It doesn't hurt as much," Harry replied, then reached down with his good hand to brush some of her hair out of her face.
"Is your head fine, too?" she asked, and he nodded with a grin. She grinned back, and then noticed Rachel. "Why are you in here?" she asked.
"Troll," Rachel replied.
"I thought it was dead," Hermione said, looking at Harry curiously.
"Nope. Only knocked out, apparently," he replied, shrugging. "There were a couple other girls brought in with her in less-than-stellar condition."
"Fiona and Undine," Rachel supplied. Harry nodded.
Quirrell and Snape entered the hospital wing, and this time they were levitating Tracey and Theo and leading the rest of the Slytherin first years in. Madame Pomfrey bustled back in, ignoring Harry, and started tending to Tracey and Theo as the teachers left again.
Harry's arms fell slack against his sides.
Theo was pale, very pale, the color of that cream-colored construction paper they used in school, but lighter still.
His knees almost gave out on him, almost betrayed him, but then Blaise and Draco were at his side and grabbed his arms.
"Oh Merlin," he muttered. The rest of the Slytherins just looked down, or away.
"We came across it on the way to breakfast," Daphne muttered, taking a seat by Rachel. The Hufflepuff girl leaned her head on Daphne's shoulder. Crabbe and Goyle pulled up seats on the floor, and Draco and Blaise lead Harry back to his hospital bed and sat him down on it and then joined him sitting on it. Millicent leaned against the wall.
Madame Pomfrey finished tending to Tracey and Theo, and then passed out potions to the Slytherins.
The hospital wing was quiet until Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape brought up a couple more Hufflepuffs.
Harry recognized them. They were Sally-Anne Perks and Zachariah Smith. Sally-Anne was in slightly better condition than Zachariah… Just barely.
McGonagall and Snape rounded up the conscious students in the hospital wing, leading them to an abandoned classroom just down the hall where a mildly battered Lily Moon was waiting with Professor Sprout tending to her scrapes.
"Classes are canceled for today, but no one is being allowed out of their common room until after the troll is taken care of," Professor Sprout said, standing up. "If you lot stay here, you should be fine. If the troll makes it up here before it's taken care of…"
"Run," Draco finished, swallowing. Professor Sprout nodded before bustling off to help hunt it down. Rachel drifted over to Lily and sat down next to her.
"The troll must still be on the lower floors," Hermione muttered. Everyone stared at her.
"You can't be thinking of going after it," Millicent said, staring wide-eyed at the Gryffindor girl.
"No, I'm just putting the pieces together. Since the only students brought in this morning are Hufflepuff and Slytherin, it must still be on the lower floors where your common rooms are," Hermione replied.
"How do you know where our common rooms are?" Rachel asked, looking up.
"Honestly, just because I'm in Gryffindor doesn't mean I'm stupid," Hermione replied, "although, they are most commonly synonymous." Some of the Slytherins smiled tight, faint smiles for a moment that slipped off their faces fairly soon after.
The classroom fell back into a stifling silence.
"You know, they might close the school because of this," Draco eventually muttered.
"Wait, like close it permanently?" Hermione asked, panic written all over her wide eyes.
"No, not permanently," Daphne replied. "Most likely long enough to figure out where the troll came from. And they would most likely investigate the third floor corridor, while they were at it. When they fix it then we'd come back."
"How long might that take?" Harry asked, worry etched on his face.
"At the shortest? A week. At the longest? Months," Draco replied grimly, clenching his jaw. Silence fell.
"I'm not going back to the muggles for that time," Harry growled.
"There are a number of families that would be happy to take you in for however long the school is closed," Blaise replied. "You could even come meet my mom… And all my step-siblings."
Harry smiled. "I thought most of them didn't live with you."
"They don't, but they would be horrified with what happened," Blaise replied.
"My little sisters would like you," Millicent added. "Morgan is ten, and Mariana is seven."
"I have one little sister- her name is Astoria," Daphne said.
"I know mother wanted more children, but she could barely have me," Draco said.
"I'm an only child. I have a cousin who's a first-year Gryffindor, though," Rachel said.
"Oh, Dean?" Hermione replied. Rachel nodded. "He's a good artist."
"He is, but he doesn't have any pencils here- not anymore," she replied.
"What happened?" Lily asked.
"One of his dorm mates stole them all and destroyed them," Rachel replied.
"Ron Weasley?" Draco asked, and Rachel nodded.
"He's a git," Crabbe said in an off-hand manner, resting his chin in his hand.
"He is a git," Goyle agreed.
"We should take care of him," Crabbe said.
"As soon as we get out of this room," Goyle replied.
"You can give us the Gryffindor password, can't you, Hermione?" Crabbe asked.
"I can't! My Housemates would hate me," she replied, her eyes widening and slapping her hands over her mouth.
"Well we can hide while she says the password and 'overhear' her," Goyle suggested.
"Or just tell Fred and George what he did," Crabbe replied.
"That is not a fate I would wish on anyone," Harry interjected.
"Not even the Dark Lord?" Draco asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Not even the Dark Lord," Harry replied. The classroom fell silent again.
Eventually Lily spoke.
"Do you think they're going to be okay?" she asked.
"They have to be- Madame Pomfrey's the best," Rachel replied. Everyone looked down at the floor.
When a house elf brought sandwiches for lunch, it found Daphne asleep next to Millicent and Rachel in the corner, Pansy and Draco playing tic-tac-toe in the dust on the floor, Blaise and Harry passed out on a couple desks, Crabbe and Goyle guarding the door, and Lily and Hermione conversing quietly. It placed the platter on a table, and the six conscious teens ate, saving some for their sleeping companions.
Eventually Harry stirred, and woke up, pulling Blaise back into the land of the awake and conscious. He could smell the sandwiches. Crabbe and Goyle were back by the door, standing guard.
"We have sandwiches," Lily said, making the 'give the audience a sandwich' gesture with a sandwich in her hand.
"Food of the gods," Harry said, grabbing one of the turkey breast sandwiches off the platter. He bit into it, savoring the taste of the heavenly superb sandwich. Millicent, Daphne, and Rachel were woken by the quiet murmur of conversation, and they picked out sandwiches.
The sun was sinking below the horizon when Professor Sprout, Professor Snape, and Professor McGonagall came to get them.
"What happened?" Hermione demanded, standing up.
"The troll is taken care of," Professor McGonagall replied, and Hermione glared.
"That's not what I meant," she replied. "Who else got injured?"
"That is none of your concern, Miss Granger," Snape replied. "First year Snakes, follow me." He turned and billowed out of the room, and the Slytherins followed him. He led them down to the common room, where they were swarmed by their Housemates. Anna swept as many of them into a hug as she could, and Draco, Blaise, and Pansy didn't seem to mind the physical contact. Aleksander and Lissabetta walked over.
"Davis and Nott are still in the hospital wing?" Aleksander asked. When Snape nodded, he and Lissabetta turned to face the rest of the House, calling them to order. The Snakes backed away from the first years, taking their seats. The first years picked theirs, and they noticed the absence of their fellows sorely as Daphne sat by herself, and Theo wasn't lounging across a couch like normal.
"House of Snakes," Lissabetta began, "we don't know what will happen now. We know that two of our own first years were injured this morning, and we were confined to the common room all day while the professors sought out the troll and our missing students. Five of our own are still unaccounted for- Terrence Higgs, Athelstan Hart, Richard Morris, and Mason and Madeline Laurel. Two of our first years are still in the hospital wing."
"But we cannot allow these absences to weaken our House. When they are found and are healed, we must become even more united to stand tall against all threats. We are-" Aleksander stopped speaking as the entrance opened, and Mason and Maddy ran into the room. They were breathing hard, bleeding from scratches, and their robes were disheveled.
"Where have you been?" Lissabetta asked.
"Hiding from the troll," Mason replied, sitting in the chair Snape conjured for her and shooting him a thankful look. "In the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side."
"According to Gryffindor there's a Cerberus there," Daphne replied.
"There is," Maddy said, nodding. "A Cerberus, standing on a trap door."
"Who in their right mind would put a Cerberus in a school? And speaking of- what's so valuable that they'd need a Cerberus to guard it?" Anna asked, very upset (and slightly terrified).
"We should report this," Serena said. "The child of a Board member was injured by a troll, and now there's a Cerberus guarding something on the third-floor corridor that promises a painful death."
The teens in the room clamored, and Harry watched as the prefects whispered to each other, then Aleksander leaned over to Snape. He nodded, and stood up and faced the House.
The common room fell silent.
"The meeting will continue under the leadership of Desdemona Allaraian. My prefects have requested an emergency prefect meeting, and we shall go call it."
Snape swept out of the common room, followed by all six prefects as a stunningly beautiful blonde stood at the front.
"The attack on our first years today was a horrible travesty. We need to make sure our first years are never in danger from now on, or if they are, they have older students with them. Any suggestions?" She nodded for Killian Anderson to speak.
"Shasta, Matt, Jonah, and my schedules are all the same, and all our classes are close to where the first years' are at the times they are having them," Killian said.
"Yeah, but with you four studying for your NEWTs you won't always have time to be with the firsties," Orchid Parkinson replied. "Besides- one of them is my sister. I want to be able to protect her."
"Who better to protect our firsties than experienced seventh years?" Helena asked.
"The seventh years will be too busy studying," Ezekiel replied. "No, better that they continue sticking together. We can all go up to breakfast and back from dinner together again."
"No one's asking us what we want," Millicent muttered as the discussion continued.
"From what happened this morning, we don't have the power or experience to defend ourselves from everything," Daphne replied.
"Harry took knocked out the troll," Blaise replied.
"That was pure dumb luck and a seriously overpowered spell," Harry replied. "From what I was told, I was lucky I didn't blow up anything but my wand."
"Wait- you don't have a wand?" Draco asked. Harry nodded sheepishly.
"Damn," Millicent swore.
"Professor Snape will be able to take you to get a new wand if they don't send us home," Pansy replied. "And if we do get sent home, you can still stop by Diagon Alley- or better yet, Horizont Alley. Ollivander only uses phoenix feather, dragon heartstring, and unicorn hair. He never really dabbles in anything else, which is a shame."
"There's one problem- I live with muggles that hate magic," Harry replied.
"You can stay at my house if it comes down to it," Daphne said. "And Desdemona comes from a family of wand makers that sell out of Knockturn- we can support our own House if we buy from them."
"Thanks," Harry replied.
"But that still leaves the question as to if we will be sent home or not," Pansy continued. "Orchid's told me that her first year, there was a Griffin that had been let loose in the castle and hurt several people. Nothing was said about that. Her second year, some kid in Hufflepuff brought a super Light artifact into school that made people go crazy and the Houses and teachers went to literal war with each other. Nothing was said about that."
"You're right," Blaise agreed. "There have been stories filtering down for years about the stuff that goes down here, but nothing ever gets out."
"It all gets swept under the rug, then," Harry muttered, frowning.
"Well, I don't see how," Draco said. "How would someone keep all the students at Hogwarts from telling their parents?"
"The mail," Daphne muttered, and their eyes all lit up as Harry threw his hand in the air. The discussion the older years were having around them drew to a shocked halt, and Desdemona nodded at him.
"Are some of the stories I've heard about what's happened at Hogwarts been true? Like the Griffin or the inter-House war?" he asked. The older years all looked startled, and slowly the room filled with nods.
"Well, then how come we never heard in the news about them?" Millicent asked.
"I… Don't know," Desdemona replied, raising her hand to cup her chin as her eyes darkened.
"I've always thought that it was just the way that Hogwarts works," Adrian replied with a shrug.
"But how does it all get swept under the rug? Surely there would be a lot of kids owling their parents…" Draco trailed off as the entirety of the House came to almost the same conclusion as one.
"Oh, Merlin, when something happens they start screening the mail…" Ezekiel breathed, his brown eyes wide.
"And when it's mentioned at breaks, they wouldn't have proof…" Helena continued.
"Or they just dismiss us," Orchid finished.
"Oh, Morgana's wand," Desdemona said. "We need to let the ministry know somehow. There's a Cerberus here and we were attacked by a troll! This has to stop."
"I have an idea, but it's probably not the best," Miles said.
"It's more than we have now," Desdemona replied.
"We sneak a group of people down to the Three Broomsticks, and then Floo someone with influence," he replied.
"My father," Draco said. "We Floo my father."
"Your father does have influence at the Ministry and on the Board, but I wouldn't feel comfortable sending a first year to sneak off grounds and then Floo off," Desdemona replied.
"Justina and I can go with him," Shasta suggested.
"As long as Jonah and Matt go with you for back up," Desdemona replied.
"Deal," Jonah said, and Justina and Matt nodded.
"Okay, you five go change out of your robes then come back up," Desdemona ordered, and the five of them ran off.
"What are we going to do in the meantime?" Adrian asked.
"Figure out how to stay safe," Ezekiel replied.
"Well, how the bloody hell do we do that?" Crabbe asked.
"We brush up on our running away," Desdemona muttered. There was a stretch of silence, and then Draco, Jonah, Matt, Shasta, and Justina returned.
"Head straight to the Three Broomsticks then Floo straight to Malfoy Manor," Desdemona ordered. "Stay Disillusioned the entire time."
Justina nodded, and the four seventh years murmured spells (celaverimus) on themselves and Draco before they snuck out of the common room.
It wasn't long before Snape and the prefects returned.
"Well?" Desdemona asked. "What happened?"
Lissabetta inhaled sharply, and then sighed. Aleksander answered for her.
"Lots."
So then that happened. No one dies... Yet. I still have yet to decide if anyone other than Quirrell is going to die this year or not. Also, life interferes with me. I'm catching back up on schoolwork, working on a project with a friend, and I had been planning on waiting until I finished a pic I'm doing for this to post... But then I say to myself, 'Kitte, it's been a month. Update the damn story'. And here we are.
Question: Serialized or stand-alone?
Next Time: The prefect meeting.
