Everlasting
By LadysWords
Previously on Everlasting:
Quickly he made his way to the grounds. As he did he was met with the chill air. He listened around for the car. When he heard it again he looked up and saw it was descending...and headed straight for the Whomping Willow. His eyes widened when he realized they weren't going to be able to avoid it. 'Well that's not good.' he thought and winced when the car crash landed on the tree. There was a brief deadly silence, and then chaos erupted.
The tree went on a rampage whacking at the car with no mercy. It moved all of its branches and slamming at the hood, doors, windows, trunk, and finally the roof. He heard a loud crash and saw the car drop from the tree. To put it mildly the tree had decided to leave no part of the car unscathed after its tantrum.
He shook his head amusedly. 'Well... that was a first' he thought to himself. He saw the car fly backward in reverse as fast it could before the entire tree crushed it as it leaned toward the car. The car stopped at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and he saw it spit out luggage, owls, and even the two disheveled forms of Potter and Weasley. 'Well, that's where those two brats were. I should have known.' He thought to himself. 'To think I thought I saw everything, but after this, I can definitely say I saw that.' "Well that's going to leave a dent." He muttered as he saw the car drive itself to the Forbidden Forest, leaving Potter and Weasley looking positively flabbergasted.
He cleared his throat to grab the two students' attention, and as soon as they heard the noise behind them they turned around quickly and as they did they went quite understandably pale.
"Potter, Weasley follow me." He stated glaring at the two, who both looked they wished to be somewhere, anywhere, else. They walked to Snape's office to find out what the man had planned for their punishment for their unorthodox way of coming to Hogwarts. Well, once again a new year had begun and he already knew that this one would be as interesting as the last one.
Chapter 11: Misfortunes
"Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune."
–William James
As he entered professor Snape's office with the students, he noticed the man's demeanor. He immediately knew that this wasn't going to be pretty all because of that rigid look the man showed on his face. For some reason he knew he should have felt sympathetic towards the two, however, considering what they had done, he felt as though they had brought this on themselves.
"Here are the students that you requested, Snape." He announced and then went behind them to silently watch the outcome of the rage that was beginning to show. The professor immediately pulled out the evening's newspaper to reveal to the students. 'Ah that Newspaper' He thought to himself. He recalled seeing that the professor looked beyond happy. He must have figured out who had been flying the car beforehand. When, later, the car had finally arrived at the castle the man had just smirked. 'He's mostly likely going to try to get them expelled.' He thought idly. 'This is going to entertaining to say the least.'
Flying Ford Angelia Mystifies Muggles
"You were seen by no less than seven muggles. Do you have any idea the seriousness of this matter?"
Snape emphasized the point by holding the paper in their faces, and then slamming it down. He began, "You have just risked the exposure of our world!" Potter and Weasley nervously glanced at each other. The man before them disregarded their motion and continued, "-not to mention the damage you have inflicted on a Whomping Willow that's been on these grounds since before you were even born." The Professor attempted to continue, but was interrupted by Weasley.
"Honestly, professor Snape, I think it did more damage to us."
The boy stated. Ed did spoke up. "If I were you, I would listen closely and not delight Severus even more with your denial." He gritted his teeth, as Snape yelled at the same time the two began to imply their innocence.
"Silence!" Snape barked and the two students jumped in surprise and gulped as the stood up and went around his desk.
"I assure, that were you in Slythrin and your fate rested with me, the both of you would be on the train home tonight. As it is-"
"They are not." Dumbledore's voice suddenly was heard. Indeed it was him followed closely by professor McGonagall.
"Headmaster, professor McGonagall." Potter said surprised.
Ed quirked his eyebrow interested. "Good Evening, professor." He greeted the two.
The witch and wizard acknowledged him by saying, "Good evening, professor Elric."
"Headmaster, These boys -," Snape interrupted their greeting as he pointed at the two," have fluted the decree of underage wizardry as such-"
"I am well aware of our laws, having written a fair few of them myself." Dumbledore interrupted him and raised his hand to silence Snape. "However," Dumbledore continued while he looked at Snape and said, "as head of Gryffindor House it is for professor McGonagall to determine the appropriate action." He concluded.
"We'll go and get our stuff then." Weasley said sadly.
"What are you talking about, Mr. Weasley?" Professor McGonagall said with a frown.
"You're going to expel us aren't you?" The boy spoke to her.
"Not today Mr. Weasley. However, I must express the seriousness of the matter, you will both be receiving detentions, and I will be writing to both of your families."
Later as the two boys left, all he had to say to Severus was, "Favoritism much?" Referring to the fact that, for all the rule breaking that had just occurred the punishment was not nearly severe enough.
OoO
It was the following day that the mail came. Well, a single mailed letter more precisely. The lone barn owl had pathetically flown its way towards the Gryffindor table crashing in an ungraceful heap and making a mess of sorts, which had resulted in the students in the Great Hall bursting into laughter. "Bloody bird's a menace."
Ed heard Weasley say. Nervously the boy grabbed the letter that the poor owl came with, and immediately went pale.
"Oh, No."
He heard Weasly moan at the sight of the letter, which was oddly enough red. 'I wonder what it says. It's most likely from his parents, at any rate this should be interesting.' He thought to himself. The owl flapped away, already sensing the trouble that was about come forth.
"Look everyone Weasley's got himself a Howler!" Ed heard a boy shout that was near the boy who had said letter in his trembling hands. No wonder Weasley had gone pale at the sight of it.
"Go on Ron, I ignored one from granny once. It was horrible." He heard Longbottom saying. Delaying the inevitable wasn't a good idea, and the boy seemed to realize this as he reluctantly peeled the letter open. Immediately it began yell, rather loudly, in a stern woman's voice.
"Ronald Weasly! How dare you steal that car! Your father and I are absolutely disgusted! Your father is now facing an inquiry at work, and it is entirely your fault! If you put another toe out of line, we'll bring you straight home!" The scarlet letter roared at the shell shocked boy, but suddenly it gave it's attention to a first year with red hair. 'His youngest sister no doubt.'
"-Oh and Ginny dear, congratulations on making it into Gryffindor. Your father and I are so proud." Promptly the scarlet letter shredded itself up, and then silence reigned throughout the Great Hall. The red headed just looked liked he wished he didn't exist at that moment. Not that he could blame the boy after an experience of that level of public humility.
OoO
It was later the next day that Harry, Ron, and Hermoine had their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class of the year. The room was located down the hall from the Alchemy classroom. It was relatively small with a balcony attached to an office hanging overhead. Despite it being the first class of the year the new professor had yet to show up. After a few minutes of waiting, a tall man with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a rather fancy reddish coat, appeared on the balcony. Harry, in all honesty, did not want to face their new professor because of what had happened in Diagon Alley. Though, considering the man's new profession, he would have no say in the matter.
"Let me introduce to you to your new Defense Against the Darks Arts teacher. Me." A dramatic pause. "Gilderoy Lockhart; Order of Merlin, third class, honorary member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five times winner of Witch's Weekly's charming smile award." Their new DA teacher said with conceited pride and a smile. "But I don't want to talk about that. I didn't get rid of Banded Banshee by smiling at him."
He laughed at his own joke while the class just stared dumbly at him. Ron and Harry both looked at each other as the man continued to laugh. They both thought otherwise… most likely he did get rid of the Banded Banshee by smiling at him. It seemed to be the man's only talent.
"Now, be warned," He abruptly said, while grabbing his wand and walked around to the covered cage that placed there. "It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizard kind."
He then wacked the cage and it began to independently shake. The class gulped in response. "You may find yourself facing your worst fears in this very room." Lockhart said sounding a tad bit more dramatic than was necessary.
"Know only that no harm can befall you while I am here, but I must ask you," he grabbed the cover and pulled it off while saying, "not to scream, it might provoke them!" The cage the professor revealed held a handful of pixies that were electric blue and about eight inches high. They had pointed faces and voices so shrill it was like was like listening to a lot of budgies arguing.
"Cornish Pixies?" Seamus said laughing with rest of the class.
"Freshly caught Cornish Pixies," Lockheart confirmed, while Seamus snorted with laughter at the response.
"Laugh all you want Mr. Finnigan. Let's see you make of them!" To put it simply they class fled the room as if the pixies were actually the Banded Banshees Lockhart had mentioned earlier. The four unlucky souls that had ended up cleaning the room were Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom.
"What in the world happened in here?"
The four students whipped their heads around to see an alchemy professor that was looking quite positively dumbfounded at the disarray of the room.
Harry just looked at him and said, "It was the pixies, professor."
He pointed at the ceiling where the pixies continued drift in the air slowly. The professor looked at them, then at the pixies, and promptly swirled around towards the door while muttering something about Lockhart and idiocy and left.
"What was all that about?" Ron wondered, mostly likely the professor had heard all of the ruckus and was curious enough to see what had happened.
"I thought for moment he was going to help us." Neville said perplexed.
"I thought so to." Harry said agreed. "But I don't think he likes Lockhart that much." He added.
OoO
Food. The one thing that made Ed go to the Great Hall every evening. He couldn't help it, dealing with kids every day was tiring and the food… was too damned good. He ate as much as could. According to Snape he did not have a stomach but a black hole in its place he ate so much.
Snape was staring at him again as if to say, why is it that every time you eat I begin to think that rather than going to your stomach the food you eat simply reappears on your plate.
At that moment his plate had refilled magically once more. He grinned and began devouring the food ignoring Snape completely.
"What? I'm hungry." Was what he had said to the man after he ate his food. He let his eyes wander and saw that Granger and Weasley were leaving the Great Hall. No doubt they were looking for their friend Potter, seeing as the boy hadn't been there the whole evening.
OoO
Harry found himself once again sitting in the Lockhart's room; this time for a detention signing the professor's fan mail of all things. Instead of eating dinner like he was supposed to have been doing at the moment he was stuck there. It had to have been the easiest detention he had ever had, but perhaps one of the longest as of yet. After several hours the professor decided to make small talk and stated, "Harry, Harry, could you possibly imagine a better way to serve detention than by helping me answer my fan mail?"
He couldn't disagree with the man and said, "No, professor," While shaking his head.
"Fame is a fickle friend, Harry. Celebrity is, as celebrity does. Remember that."
The Professor grinned at him and man continued at his attempt to make small talk, while Harry just inwardly grimaced and ignored him instead continuing to sign the mail. It was a few minutes later that he heard a strange voice, "Come, Come to me… Come to me…"
"What?" Harry said out loud.
"What?" was all the professor said dumbly in response.
"That voice," Harry explained.
"Voice?" Lockhart repeated, he stared worriedly, wondering if poor boy had gone mad from signing so much fan mail.
"It's time, time for blood."
"What're you talking about, Harry?"The Professor wondered. Harry looked around the office trying to find the source of the voice. He could already tell that it was not student by the sound of demonic voice.
"I smell blood."
'What the-'
"Harry, are you feeling alright? I think you might be feeling a bit drowsy.." Lockhart interrupted his thoughts.
"Let me rip you…"
All Harry could manage to say intelligently at that given moment was, "Huh?" He saw Lockhart frown.
"Yes, definitely drowsy." He saw the Professor glance at the time and saw his eyes widen, "Great Scott, look at the time! No wonder, we've been here for nearly four hours! Spooky, how the time flies by when you're having fun."
"Yeah, Spooky." Harry managed to say.
"I think that's enough, Good night, Potter."
Harry nodded leaving, as he did so he said to the professor, "Good night, professor."
"Good night, Harry."
He was further down the halls when he heard that demonic voice again.
"Kill! Kill!" He tried following it when all of a sudden he stumbled into Ron and Hermione.
"Harry! We've been looking for you everywhere." Hermoine said, but in all honestly all Harry wanted to know at the moment was one thing.
"Did you here it?"
"Hear what?" Ron said confused.
"That voice" he began again.
"Voice, what voice?"
"I heard it first in Lockheart's office and then again, in the-"
'It's time…. ' He heard the voice begin to say eagerly in the distance.
Harry grimaced while looking at the two, "It's moving, and I think it's going to kill."
Ron and Hermione looked at each other surprised as they both said in unison, "Kill?" Not waiting for them Harry began to run down to hallway as he heard the voice become distant. He had a bad feeling. He heard Ron and Hermione shouting at him to wait for them. When they turned down the hall they found it had water pooling on the floors and an abundance of spiders all crawling out of the castle.
"Strange, I've never seen spiders act like that." He informed the two.
"I don't like spiders." Ron said nervously. They eyed the spider trail on the ground only to see something on the wall reflected in the water. Interested, they looked up to see…. The Chamber in Secrets has been opened enemies of the heir beware.
"Oh, No" Harry eyes widened in horror when he saw Mrs. Norris, the evil cat that followed Mr. Filch everywhere, pinned to the lamp post. "It's Filch's cat."
"Enemies of the heir beware? You'll be next mudbloods."Malfoy read out loud, insulting all those with muggles in their family. Most would have been angry at that moment, had it not been for the seriousness of the matter.
"What's going on here?" questioned Mr. Filch."Come on, make way, make way."
Mr. Filch said while shoving students away so he could see what was going on.
"Potter. What are you-" He started to say when he arrived.
"Mrs. Norris?"
OoO
After he left the Great Hall with Snape, and headed around a corridor they saw a crowd of students, and could hear Filch yelling, "I'll kill, ya. I'll kill, ya!"
"I'll go fetch Dumbledore." He said to Snape, who nodded.
"And I'll get professor McGonagall. Potter's sure to be involved."
They quickly left. 'Something must have happened.' Ed thought as he quickly returned to the Great Hall and found the headmaster still in his seat. "Headmaster, something's happened." He informed him, quickly describing what was happening in the corridor.
When they returned they found Filch holding Potter. "Argus!" shouted Dumbledore, to prevent something the latter would regret doing.
"Argus, I-" He heard Dumbledore continue, but then he suddenly fell short as he saw the blood stained message. He calmly said, "Everyone will proceed to their dormitories immediately. Everyone except, you three."
Obediently the students left, and once they did Dumbledore said, "She's not dead, Argus. She has been petrified."
"Ah, thought so!" Lockhart exclaimed. Ed groaned and thought, 'No, he didn't.'
"So unfortunate I wasn't there, I know exactly the counter-curse that could have saved her." The man boasted.
"I somehow doubt it would have changed a thing, Lockhart. Instead of the cat, it perhaps would have been you instead." Ed stated to the man. 'In all honestly, I genuinely hate that man for his idiocy, but someone has to look after his safety, since I doubt he could take care of himself.'
Ignoring him Dumbledore continued on saying "But how she has been petrified, I cannot say." Abruptly Mr. Filch pointed his finger at Potter. The delinquent that Mr. Filch, with all his being, believed had done it.
"Ask him, it's him that's done it. You saw what he wrote on the wall." The man pointed at the wall behind him, just in case someone hadn't noticed it in the first place.
"It's not true, sir. I swear I never touched Ms. Norris." Potter finally began to defend himself.
"Rubbish!" Filch cut Potter off.
"If I might, Headmaster." Dumbledore looked at Snape and nodded for him to continue. "Perhaps, Potter and his friends were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time." Snape seemingly defending the boy he normally insulted.
Ed blinked in surprise, 'Severus is defending Potter? The boy he hates the most?'
"However, considering the circumstances I, for one, do not recall seeing Potter at dinner." Ed took back what he thought. 'I should have known. The man hasn't gained any sympathy. In fact I doubt he even knows what the word means. He's definitely not showing any towards Potter, considering the way he treats him.'
"I am afraid that's my doing, Severus." Lockhart interrupted Snape, "You see, Harry was answering my fan mail."
"That's why Ron and I went looking for him, professor. We'd just found him when he said -" Granger began.
"Yes, Ms. Granger?" Snape implored her to continue, most likely to use anything that she was about to say against Potter.
"When I said I wasn't hungry. We were heading back to the common room when we found Ms. Norris." Potter suddenly continued speaking for her.
Ed frowned and narrowed his eyes 'He's just made that up, hasn't he?'
"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus." Dumbledore merely said to the man.
"The Headmaster is right. I highly doubt Potter, despite his past rule breaking, could commit a crime like this one Severus." Ed agreed.
"M-my cat has been petrified! I wanna see some punishment!" Flinch yelled desperately.
"We will be able to cure her, Argus. As I understand it, Madam Sprout has a very healthy growth of mandrakes, and I am sure she will be able to create a potion to cure Ms. Norris." Dumbledore informed the grieving man, for his benefit. "And in the mean time, I strongly recommend caution to all." Dumbledore said to everyone, while eyeing Potter and the other two.
Edward frowned, before Dumbledore could leave he quickly informed him. "Headmaster, whatever has been unleashed from the Chamber has free reign, and another attack his highly probable, I would suggest a dueling club for the students' protection incase something happens."
"If this continues, then yes." Was all Dumbledore had said in response. Somehow, he felt as if the cat was just the beginning. He was now was worried, and knew it was only a matter of time before something more drastic than the petrifying of a cat would take place. Like a human becoming a victim, for instance. He knew it would happen, it was only a matter of time. The only thing he could do for now was keep an eye on the students, for their safety. It was only when he returned to his office later that evening that he realized there was only one student he hadn't seen the whole day, Ginny Weasley.
Author notes: I changed my penname from 'Litai' to 'LadysWords'.
Disclaimer: Don't own Harry potter, or Fullmetal Alchemist.
TBC
Author notes: I changed my penname from 'Litai' to 'LadysWords'.
Disclaimer: Don't own Harry potter, or Fullmetal Alchemist.
TBC