Outsider Chronicles: Dark Eclipse
The First Year is over and Leo is already working to right wrongs. However, darkness is beginning to stir, and not just at Hogwarts. As Leo gets more powerful, his nature as an Outsider begins to take effect and worlds are drawn together. Add in some family drama and reveals and Leos migraines are only going to get worse. Sequel to Black Zodiac
And we are back with more of this story of love, war and massive lasers! Enjoy this latest look into my screwed up psyche.
Chapter 8
The next few days were spent doing our best to evade Lockhart and Colin as both seemed to be determined to corner Holly, although after the complete cockup of a lesson Hermione seemed to have realized that he was a complete fraud and spent a lot of time ranting as she found hundreds of points in his books that made no sense.
"Doesn't he have lessons to screw up?" grumbled Holly as we ducked into a secret passage to avoid Lockhart on our way to History of Magic.
"Probably, but I think he considered 'taking you under his wing' to be more important," I said.
It had been amusing to see Holly get more and more irritated with the ponce as time went by, but now I was just as annoyed with Lockhart. Finally, we reached the History of Magic classroom and entered, only to pause when we saw that, rather than just the class waiting for Binns to arrive, a strange man sat behind the teachers desk. Well, strange to everyone else that is. He looked middle aged, with thinning brown hair, a full beard bushy eyebrows and intense brown eye. He was also sat in a wheelchair to hide what I knew to be velvety white hindquarters. Yep, Chiron was apparently now my history teacher. Lovely.
"Ah, just in time," said the Centaur as the bell rang, "Please take your seats."
We did as we were told as Chiron wheeled himself to the front of the class.
"Hello everyone, my name is Professor Brunner," he said, "It appears that at some point over the summer, Professor Binns discovered that he had died and moved on. As such, I shall be taking your classes for the foreseeable future."
As expected, the class let out groans as they realized that having an actual teacher meant that this class would no longer be naptime. I was interested however, mainly because I knew that having a teacher who had actually lived the events would make learning about them that more more interesting. Chiron started the class with the Register, pausing for a moment at my name and Hollys, as if to memorize who we were, before putting away the folder and looking over the class.
"I have heard some extremely worrying things about this class," he began, "Your dearly departed teacher only taught you about the Goblin Rebellions, correct?"
Their was a murmur of agreement.
"I see. That is very worrying. Their is a famous saying in the Muggle World that says, 'Those Who Do Not Learn History Are Doomed To Repeat It.' If you only learn about the same issues, you won't learn about other important events that could help you to make the world a much better place. I don't know for sure how long I will be with you as this is a temporary post, but I will do my best to help fill the holes in your education. Now, turn to page 10 of the books on your desks and we will begin."
Chiron turned out to be every bit as good a teacher as you'd expect a millennia old Centaur to be and, as the class left the classroom, everyone was discussing how the lesson had gone and what they thought of the new teacher, most of which was good.
The next few weeks passed with little to nothing of interest happening, although I was pretty tense, waiting to see if Holly would hear the Basilisk. I didn't think that Ginny had got the Diary since she spent a lot of time around Holly and Hermione during our time off and didn't seem to acting strange.
The next big event happened on a Saturday while Holly and I were making our way back to the Ravenclaw Common room. We were just passing a broom cupboard near the entrance to the tower when a muffled thump came from inside.
"What was that?" asked Holly.
I frowned and stepped up to the cupboard door, pressing my ear to it. I didn't really want to stumble on some upper years going at it so I didn't immediately open the door. For a moment there was silence, before I heard a quiet sob. My eyes widened and I tried to open the door, only to find that it was locked.
"Alohomora," I said, pointing my wand at the lock.
The door clicked and I wrenched it open to find Luna, naked, tied up and gagged.
"Holly, go and get Professor Flitwick!" I said as I untied Luna and draped my cloak over her.
Holly, who had frozen at the sight of our friend in such a state, nodded and hurried away.
"Are you OK Luna?" I asked.
"Naturally, I knew you'd come," she said calmly, tugging my robe tighter around her.
"Of course you did," I sighed, "Is there any point in asking who did this?"
"Cho Chang and Marietta Edgecombe," said Luna, "They seemed to take offence to the idea of Nargles, Wrackspurts and Crumpled Horned Snorkacks existing."
"And they locked you in here naked for that?" I asked, more than a little incredulous.
We hadn't even been back in school for two months and they were already going that far?
"I think they felt threatened that I was able to tell them that Marietta's boyfriend was cheating," said Luna, "I thought it was obvious."
I was about to ask how it was obvious when Holly and Flitwick came hurrying up.
"Miss Lovegood, what is going on?" asked Flitwick, looking shocked, "Who did this?"
Luna repeated what she had told me and Flitwick puffed up in anger.
"Right, I'm putting a stop to this before it gets out of hand," he said, "I will not tolerate bullying in my house. Miss Potter, Mr Black, thank you for bringing this to my attention."
He helped Luna to her feet and guided her to the Ravenclaw Common Room door, leaving me and Holly alone. I glanced at my friend and was surprised to see that she looked more shaken than I was expecting.
"Whats wrong?" I asked.
"Its nothing," said Holly, "Come on, lets go."
Hmm, that doesn't look good. Still, I wasn't about to force my friend to talk about something she wasn't comfortable with, so I followed her to the Common Room where Flitwick was chewing out Chang and Edgecomb.
October quickly rolled around and more and more people were turning up to classes with steam spewing from their ears from Pomfrey's Pepper up potions. Classes were going well for us all, with Lockharts being as useless as ever and Chiron continuing to capture the imaginations of his classes with his excellent storytelling skills and his habit of making learning extremely fun. I did get the impression that he was watching Holly and I and I could probably guess why. I mean, I'm pretty sure that I was a Demigod by this point and chances are that Holly was one too if the ancient Centaurs attention was any indication. In addition, it was pretty obvious that one or both of us were the offspring of someone important or Chiron wouldn't be here in the first place. I just hoped that neither of us were Children of the Big Three or we were at least younger than Percy. One prophecy to worry about was quite enough thanks.
Speaking of Holly, she had been disappearing with Ginny and Hermione quite often lately and wouldn't tell me what it was about, only grinning and telling me to keep my eyes open when I asked. I did as I was told, even though the curiosity was burning me up.
Eventually, Halloween rolled around and, after the final class of the day, Hermione and Holly vanished off the face of the Earth leaving me to make my way to the Great Hall alone. I entered the Hall and paused at the sight of the stage that had been set up on one side, getting the distinct impression that I wasn't going to like whatever was about to happen. The feast started off fairly normally, at least until after we had finished eating and Mcgonagall stood.
"Attention everyone, a few students want to put a show on for you to celebrate Halloween. Girls?"
The candles went out with a puff, before the stage was lit from above by magical spotlights, revealing Holly, Hermione and Ginny in rather convincing cosplay.
"Ah, right, I think I see where this is going," I muttered.
Sure enough, the show they put on was Hare Hare Yukai, with Holly as Yuki, Hermione as Haruhi and Ginny as Mikuru. So that was what they had been doing for the past few weeks and, I have to admit, it was pretty good, much better than a troll at any rate, and the students seemed to like it.
Once the song was over, the three girls took their bows and hopped of the stage. Holly came running over to me, her eyes shining and her face red with exertion as she practically leaped at me, grabbing me around the neck and only just barely avoiding knocking our heads together.
"Whoa, calm down Holly!" I said as I took a step back to avoid being knocked over.
"Sorry Leo, but I can't help it!" gushed Holly, "Man what a rush! What did you think?"
She was talking extremely quickly and was clearly eager to hear what I thought.
"I thought it was great, although you're not very good at staying in character," I said with a grin.
Holly glared playfully at me.
"Prat."
I just grinned.
Since the evenings entertainment was now over, the hall began to empty as the students headed back to their common rooms. Holly and I met up with Hermione and Ginny, who both looked as flushed and happy as Holly. Apparently all three enjoyed putting on their little show. We followed the crowd out of the hall, only to run into a huge mass of people on the first floor corridor.
"Whats going on?" asked Hermione.
Oh oh, this doesn't look good. I quickly began to push my way through the mass of people, noting that the floor was wet. It didn't take me long and I stifled a sigh when I saw the stiff form of Mrs Norris hanging from a lamp out side of Myrtle's bathroom. Painted on the wall next to it was the warning I was expecting, but something was a little off.
THE CAMBER OF SICRETS HAS BIN OPANED.
ENERMYS OF THE HAIR BIWARE!
Apparently the Heir couldn't spell. I glanced at Ginny, who had just emerged from the crush beside me. I think I could safely remove her from the list of suspects.
"It was him!"
I sighed as the idiot known as Ronald pointed a shaking finger at me.
"Really?" I asked, "You're going to pin this on me when most of Ravenclaw can confirm I was at the feast all night?"
"Shut up you damned Snake!" shouted Ron.
I sighed and glanced at Ginny, who was glaring at her brother, an expression that looked extremely odd on the face who was supposed to be Mikuru.
"Ginny, could you beat some sense into your brother?" I asked.
"With pleasure," growled Ginny.
"What's going on here? What's going on?" growled Filch as he shoved his way through the crowd.
When he saw Mrs. Norris he staggered back a step, clutching his face in horror.
"My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" he shrieked.
Then his gaze landed on me for some reason.
"You!" he screeched. "You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll —"
"What is going on here?"
The crowd once again split, this time revealing an angry looking Madam Bones. At the sight of the message and the petrified cat she immediately turned to one of the Aurors accompanying her.
"Shacklebolt, seal of the area."
"Yes ma'am," said the Auror as he moved to shepherd the students away.
"Mr Black, please remain," said Madam Bones before I could leave.
I paused and turned to the head of the DMLE.
"Madam Bones?"
"You clearly have some idea as to what happened here, don't you?" she asked.
I hesitated, before nodding.
"I do."
"In that case, I would appreciate your insight."
I nodded and turned to my friends.
"Go on, I'll catch up with you later," I said.
They looked hesitant, but nodded and followed the rest of our classmates away from the crime scene. As the crowd fully dissipated, Dumbledore appeared from around the corner accompanied by my cousin. I nodded a greeting to Tonks, who hesitantly returned it. Truth is we, even though Sirius had reinstated both Mum and my aunt and her family to the Family and Mum had spent time reconnecting with my Aunt, Tonk's training as an Auror had meant that I hadnt really ever had a conversation with her so I don't think she quite knew how to act around me.
"Ah, Amelia, may I ask what this is about?" asked the Headmaster, "Miss Tonks here told me that you wished to speak with me."
"I'm afraid that that will have to wait a while Albus," said Madam Bones, "Something much more serious has popped up."
She gestured to the petrified cat.
"Ah, I see," said the Headmaster, "May I ask what Mr Malfoy is doing here?"
"Thats Black, Headmaster," I said, just barely managing to keep the contempt I had for the man out of my voice, "And I'm here because Madam Bones thinks I can help with the investigation."
"Mr Black has shown that he is very good at spotting things that others miss," said Amelia, "He was the one to spot that Pettigrew wasn't what he seemed."
"Is that so?" asked Dumbledore, eyeing my thoughtfully.
I made a point to avoid his eyes.
"So tell me Mr Black, what do you see?" asked Madam Bones.
I sighed, before desiding to play along.
"Well, theres a lot of water on the floor," I began before Filch interrupted me.
"What does that have to do with anything?" he demanded.
"Everything is important in an investigation like this," I said, not looking at the Squib, "Now, their aren't many things that can petrify something like this."
I pointed at Mrs Norris.
"The only things I can think of off the top of my head are Cockatrices, Basalisks and Gorgons, but since their aren't any wounds on her we can rule out a Cockatrice. I think we can rule out Gorgons to because if it was one in school we'd likely know about it."
"So, your saying its a Basilisk?" asked Madam Bones, looking worried.
"I said maybe," I said, "I could be totally wrong about this and it could be a spell or an artifact or even some kind of creature I'm not thinking of. Now, from the message, I think we can safely assume that whoever is responsible for this is related in some way to the Gaunts as they were the last family to have any connection to the Slytherin line, despite what rumors may float around. That means that the options here are either an unknown descendant of Slytherin or Voldemort is somehow behind this."
As expected, everyone started shouting at once until Madam Bones shut everyone up with a loud bang from her wand.
"What do you mean?" she asked, "You-Know-Who is dead."
"Well, the fact Holly and I fought him last year says otherwise," I said, ignoring the look Dumbledore was giving me, "I was under the impression you knew."
"I did not," growled Madam Bones, glaring at Dumbledore, "So, what do we do now?"
"Theres nothing we can do," I said with a sigh, "Unless we can find out who the Heir is we can't stop them from opening the Chamber, if that's what they're even doing. Don't forget, we don't know for sure how this was done."
I gestured to Mrs. Norris.
"Very good Mr Black," said Madam Bones, "I must say that I'm very impressed. There could be a great future for you in the Auror Corps. You are correct on all levels."
She sighed.
"Alright, I will assign some Aurors to keep an eye on the school, just in case. I trust that you will keep this quiet?"
I nodded.
"Very well, you may go."
I nodded again and left, deep in thought. Some might wonder why I didn't just tell Madam Bones about the Basilisk and leave it at that, but I have a very good reason for doing so. While it could potentially put the school in danger, I didn't want to make a move that could cause the 'heir' to step up their game. I knew that if I let things continue as they are then people would get Petrified, but not killed. If I moved too quickly then he or she could panic and that could get someone killed. Imagine what would happen if the Heir decided to have the Basilisk show up in the Great Hall during dinner to avoid being caught? Not a pleasant thought, right?
Anyway, I wouldn't be making a move until I knew who the Heir was this time since it obviously wasn't Ginny. It was with a full mind I went to bed that night and it took me a very long time to fall asleep.
And thats that. I hope you get my reasoning for why Leo didn't just tell Madam Bones about the Basilisk.
Chiron is here because both Holly (Whos a Halfblood too for those not paying attention) and Leo are powerful Demigods. Neither of them are Big Three kids though because, as Leo said, one prophecy is quite enough! Also, since Chiron didn't show up at Percys school until later in the year, right now hes hanging out at Hogwarts.
Maybe I was a bit quick to have the Bullys jump straight into stripping and locking Luna in a cupboard, but I really don't care.
The girls performing Hare Hare Yukai was done on a whim and to take up page space. Their, I said it. Still a funny idea though. Truthfully, I'm kinda regretting having Haruhi exist as a Light Novel/Anime in this world cus it could be fun to have her show up in the future. Still, with her powers, its not entirely off the table.
Now I'm done so I'm going to sign off...Urg, I really don't want to have to go to class tomorrow...Meh, leave me reviews to cheer me up!