Ch. 16: Answers
Ciel wished that it had stopped snowing already. Yes, the castle looked pretty, yes, Hogsmeade looked like a Christmas village, but running in snow was a pain. Standing under the shower of hot water, Ciel felt too tired to move. Besides, at least now he had the feeling back in his fingers and toes and the burning in his lungs faded. This morning was worse than ever before, this winter, he thought. He closed his eyes and ignored the mocking comment Nezumi threw at him from outside the shower cabin.
Only when he heard his brother leave, did he stop the water and went about trying himself and putting on clothes, wondering if he would survive the teasing. It didn't help that Shion seemed to be better than him and the only excuse Ciel had was the asthma that he had been suspected to have when he was younger. It never got serious, but breathing in loads of icy cold air didn't help the matters and that day was particularly cold.
It was a statement of how bad his coughing must have been, when they were running, that Nezumi was waiting for him in the common room with a cup of steaming hot chocolate, rather than a mocking comment on his lips. He accepted the drink with a small smile and muttered thanks and they drank in silence for a while.
'I wish father didn't agree with you on the matter of physical exercise,' he said finally, watching Nezumi's lips twist in a mocking smirk. I should have stayed quiet, he thought. 'Can you spare me today?' he asked before his brother had time to say anything. Nezumi's smirk faded and he looked at him carefully, with some worry. 'And don't give me that look, I'm-' A cough prevented him from continuing.
'You're fine?' Nezumi asked mockingly. Ciel glared at him, but didn't say anything more. 'I didn't think you'd be so bad, sorry,' his brother added, but he waved the apology away. There was nothing to apologise for, if only Nezumi didn't mock him today. 'It was fine before Christmas.'
'It's quite cold today,' Ciel pointed out grudgingly. He finished the hot chocolate and put the cup on the table. 'I'm going to the library, I wanted to read about the charms Flitwick mentioned last time,' he informed Nezumi, glad to have an excuse to change the topic. He didn't like to discuss his health.
'I honestly don't see what is so interesting in charms,' Nezumi grumbled before taking the final sip of his hot chocolate. Ciel rolled his eyes.
'I honestly don't see what is so interesting in potions,' he countered and got up. 'See you later,' he added and left the Slytherin common room. At least charms don't get my hands dirty, he thought as he quickly crossed the semi-deserted corridors of the castle. He waved at some Slytherins that he met on the way and smiled at Elizabeth, who was heading towards the Great Hall with a couple of her Hufflepuff friends.
If only Nezumi didn't insist on running every weekend, he thought, I could also only be going to have breakfast. Instead, he was entering the library, ready to dive between the shelves laden with charms' books, when he noticed that somebody has been sitting at their usual table. Not that it was booked, or anything, but Ciel recognised Hermione's bag hanging on the chair and curiosity overcame him.
The Gryffindor know-it-all was spending more time in the library than he and Nezumi combined, even with the extra workload this year. He wondered often what she was researching when she was alone and this was his chance to find out. Looking around to make sure that she wasn't just around the bookshelf, he walked up to the table and flipped open the notebook on the last filled page.
What he saw was not exactly what he expected, although it didn't surprise him that much after Hermione got the permission for the Restricted Section from Kruspe. The words "entrance curses" were written in the middle, circled a couple of times. From them, various arrows pointed all over the page. He read through the notes at the ends of the arrows quickly, forgetting to be careful about being noticed.
Hermione found the main types of the curses. There were plenty of notes around each type as to the typical occurrence and the difficulty in casting, the type of death it resulted in. She also made a note that only one type was not lethal, but it resulted in brain damage. She crossed that out, with a small "impossible" next to it. Ciel smirked slightly when he noticed that, but his smirk faded when he read the "side effects" corner of the page.
Pressing his lips into a thin line, he slammed the notebook shut and went to pick up the book he wanted to read before coming back to the table and sitting down. He wanted to read while he was waiting for Hermione to come back, but he couldn't quite focus. Of course, with the lecture from Kruspe, somebody was bound to figure it out. It was lucky that Hermione was on their side, but what about the Ravenclaw students?
Shion had told him and Nezumi, when they have been running that morning, that Kruspe had offered him to skip that lesson, which was very nice from him. However, Shion had thought, and he was right, that it would have been too obvious, so he had declined the offer. He had also told them that none of the Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff students had requested to go to the Restricted Section after the lesson, so maybe they didn't think about that. Maybe not yet, Ciel thought grimly.
'Oh, hey,' Hermione's surprised voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he looked up at the girl. 'I didn't think you would be here so early,' she added, sitting down and looking at her notebook with some relief. Ciel wondered if he imagined the worried tone of her voice or if it was there.
'No, I suppose you didn't,' he said after a moment of silence and Hermione looked at him weirdly. Before she could ask him what was wrong, he spoke again. 'The entrance curses?' he asked, not even bothering to keep his tone casual. A moment of shock registered on her face, before she frowned.
'It's not polite to look through one's notebook,' she pointed out, but Ciel only snorted. If she was trying to bully him into abandoning the topic then she should try harder. Not that he was going to let the matter slide. He could not, considering how close she was to finding the answers.
'It's not polite to sniffle around,' he countered and she looked down. If he even had doubts to start with, he was sure now about the reason for which she made all those notes. He kept his eyes on her steadily, waiting for her to finally look up and speak, curious to see what her response would be.
'Gathering information about curses is not sniffing around,' she said although, when she looked up at him, her eyes well so full of guilt that he wondered who she was trying to fool.
'Side effects: pigment depletion,' he quoted her notes in a cold tone, watching her blush. 'Then with a smaller letters: what about the eyes?' he added for the better effect and she looked away. 'Why?' he asked simply. He could see her swallow. He could see her twist her fingers. He allowed himself a mental sigh of relief because she was not going to use the information she got against Shion, or against him and Nezumi, for that matter.
'I was curious, alright?' she said, looking up at him again. 'I've been told a couple of times that I'm too curious for my own good, although I like to think that I know where to draw the line. I wouldn't ever use that information to hurt Shion, I swear,' she added. When Ciel's glare didn't disappear, she repeated the last sentence and Ciel decided to not be mean with her. He softened his glare.
'Why didn't you try to ask?' he asked, shocking her with the idea.
'He wouldn't tell me, would he?' she asked back. Ciel shrugged. He had no idea what Shion would have done if Hermione asked him outright what had happened. He was a horrible liar and he didn't like to lie, that Ciel knew. He was quite adept at evading the truth but, when asked outright, he would often reply truthfully. It was something he and Nezumi frequently used against Shion, once they figured out the right question to ask.
'Well then, is it that? Was it an entrance curse?' Hermione asked. Ciel looked at her for a long moment, wondering what he was supposed to say. She pretty much figured everything out, although the question of the eye colour remained unanswered even for them so it would probably stall her indefinitely.
'You know it's not my secret to share, don't you?' he asked back and she nodded before the tiniest of smiles crossed her face for the briefest moment.
'But you did go exploring in some abandoned building this summer, right? This is a secret you can share,' she said and it took all of Ciel's willpower to not laugh. She was smart and she thought fast. Why the hell wasn't she in Ravenclaw?
'Possibly,' he said, fighting the smirk that threatened to give away the true answer. The west wing of the Phantomhive manor was as good as abandoned really. Hermione nodded, putting away her notebook. Apparently she had more than one, Ciel realised, when she pulled out another one.
'A place that possibly hadn't been used since Victorian times?' she pressed on. He was about to agree, even though it was a lie, but she spoke again. 'You know, I know that the Phantomhive family dates back way further than that,' she said. Fighting to keep a neutral expression, Ciel wondered if that was a hint or if she was merely showing off with her knowledge.
'Do you?' he asked, letting his voice sound mocking. The images from the manor came back to his head unbidden. After it has been established that Shion suffered from an entrance curse, the Healers in St. Mungo's raised an alarm. Ciel and Nezumi have been questioned by the Aurors and obliged to lead them back to the place where the incident had happened. Thankfully they had found the way, so Shion, who surely remembered the way, wasn't forced to go there again. This time, they had plenty of light, so Ciel could see the unimpressive insides of the room even from afar.
Upon the expressed wish of father and Mr Allen, who both had argued that making a show out of something that was probably the fault of a known Deatheater would only hurt the victim of the curse further, the matter never reached public knowledge. Amazingly, the Aurors had agreed. Ciel knew that they were rather unforgiving about things like that. However, all the objects and notes found in the protected room conformed to the story Mrs Phantomhive has given to the judges before, so they were forced to concede that there was nothing to worry about.
They had, of course, searched the rest of the house thoroughly, not stopping before they went through the personal belongings of father, Ciel and Nezumi. They hadn't found anything, they hadn't apologised and they have left. Shion, on the other hand, had spent a week apologising, as though it had been his fault.
'Yeah, I read that,' Hermione answered, unaware of the thoughts that rushed through Ciel's head just then. He was about to reply to her with some smart-assed comment, but Shion's voice cut it.
'What did you read?' he asked, sitting down next to Ciel, who took great pleasure in Hermione's alarmed expression. She looked at him for help, but he only raised an eyebrow, as though not understanding what she wanted.
'That the Phantomhive family dates back very far,' she said finally. Ciel had to give her some credit for managing to sound casual. 'I found it out when I was looking into the earring mystery,' she added. Was that true? Lucky girl, he thought with a smirk.
'It does,' Shion agreed. 'They have this room with a tapestry with all the family members and once we took a whole day to figure everything out,' he added. Ciel wondered if he was trying to distract himself or Hermione from the "earring mystery". Hermione said that she saw something like that in the Black's house and was subsequently forced to say how she even was in the Black's house. By the time she was finished, the other three arrived and settled around the table.
'Shall we do the Potions homework?' Safu asked. They had agreed, after the class, that the homework was plain cruel and they would share the load of research required on Sunday, rather than waste time.
'About Potions,' Hermione said suddenly. 'I noticed that Harry didn't spill the content of his cauldron onto Snape this week,' she added, with a fake-casual tone. Ciel bit his lip to not smirk, while Shion looked down. Hermione seemed to almost regret starting the topic, but it was too late.
'Didn't he? Maybe he practiced not being clumsy during the Christmas break,' Nezumi suggested, looking like a picture of innocence. Safu and Elizabeth looked ready to burst and even Hermione seemed to be on the verge of smirking.
'And I noticed that there was not a single case of Ron screaming because of a spider for the whole week,' she continued. Nezumi smirked at her.
'Yeah, so maybe somebody figured out what was happening and made us stop,' Ciel told her, knowing that she knew why those things were happening to her friends. Shion had found out over the Christmas break and insisted that it was enough of punishment and that he didn't want Ciel and Nezumi to risk being caught. Hermione looked at Ciel and then turned to Shion, who was still looking down. She seemed surprised.
'Can we laugh now?' Elizabeth asked pleadingly. 'I so wish we had lessons with the Gryffindors for once,' she added as Safu snorted. She was going to say something more, but suddenly, Nezumi sat up straight in his chair, glaring murderously at somebody. Ciel followed his gaze and saw Potter and Weasley standing next to the table, almost seeming to hide behind Hermione.
Nezumi moved but, before he could do anything, Ciel send him a warning glare. Not even his own brother dared to go against him when he glared like that. Satisfied that Nezumi would not do anything stupid, he looked back at the two Gryffindors glaring at them in turn, content when they flinched. They should know they were not welcomed. With the corner of his eye, he saw Shion look up in the sudden silence and shrink back in his chair upon noticing the intruders. They were bound to bring back bad memories for him.
'So are you going to stand here all day?' Nezumi asked venomously. Potter and Weasley exchanged insecure glances. They looked ready to run when Nezumi moved just a moment ago and now, when he spoke, they actually twitched. Ciel thought he could see satisfaction gleam in Shion's eyes for just the briefest of moments.
'No, we came here to apologise to Shion,' Potter, obviously the braver of the two, said, when it became apparent that Nezumi was not going to attack them, and turned to Shion. 'I'm sorry, we were stupid,' he said, which Weasley echoed although with slightly less conviction in his voice. When Shion didn't answer immediately, they looked worried.
'That's an understatement of the year,' Safu informed them coldly, her voice ringing clear in the heavy silence, surprising Potter and Weasley so much that they jumped. There was the glint of satisfaction again in Shion's violet eyes before he looked away, dismissing the Gryffindors.
'That's ok Safu, I just want to forget about that mess,' he said very quietly.