The room was filled with silence, and the air was tense as all of its occupants waited for their signal. The silence was broken by a loud metal clattering, and the room's occupants sprang into action.
"Trin!" Harry shouted as three identical cries echoed through the room. Harry watched as the four pale-grey spell bolts collided with the target dummy over the course of a second.
"That's our best result so far." Daphne observed. "The closest we've come before that is over the course of three seconds. I think this is the first time we can actually claim to have hit it 'simultaneously'."
"That's because we're using the tripping jinx this time, as opposed to the sleeping charm that we were earlier." Hermione remarked. "The sleeping charm is three syllables and a twist of the wand, while the tripping charm is only one syllable and a simple flick. It's easier for us to stay in synch with the tripping jinx, since it's simpler to cast."
Harry considered Hermione's point for a moment. "Does it really matter that much, though? I mean, sure, we need to make sure we can coordinate with each spell, but obviously some are going to be easier than others. We should keep practicing regardless."
Hermione let out a small huff. "Obviously. I'm just saying that we shouldn't take this one success as an example of global improvement."
"Sounds like someone has an attitude problem." Tracey teased from where she was sipping a glass of water.
Harry sighed. "Tracey does have a point, Hermione. This is going to take practice. You didn't expect this to be effortless, did you?"
Hermione looked dismayed and didn't answer, which Harry took as a yes.
Harry bit back a second sigh. He supposed that Hermione was so used to learning things quickly that she was feeling discouraged by the amount of practise that went into being able to coordinate as a team. Then again, even he was starting to feel a bit discouraged by their lack of visible progress. The fact that this was the first reasonable success they'd had at coordinating their casts in all the time they'd been practising was… well, it was a bit depressing.
As they lined up for their next attempt, Harry kept an eye on his friends to see what was causing their desync.
"Let's try the sleeping charm again." He said as he levitated the metal basin into the air before cancelling the charm and waiting.
Once the noise echoed through the room, Harry lashed out with his sleeping spell as he watched the others. Harry's charm was completed first, and was thus the first to hit the dummy with the faint sizzle that signalled a collision with a nonliving target. Hermione was close behind him, focusing more on precision that Harry usually did when casting. Tracey was adding some extra flourish to her wand movements that slightly slowed down her casting. Daphne was the slowest, taking an additional second to aim her wand after completing the wand movement.
Harry wasn't keeping track, but he was pretty sure that this was among their better attempts. His attention was too divided to say for sure.
"Right, Tracey, you're adding unnecessary motions to your wand movement and it's slowing you down." He said. "And Daphne, you need to work on aiming faster."
"Easy for you to say." Daphne replied. "Wand movements aren't usually made with left-handers in mind."
Harry paused and looked at Daphne. Just as she had said, she held her wand in her left hand. How had he never noticed that before? He supposed it just wasn't something he was used to paying attention to. It did explain why she was always extra careful not to smudge her writing, though.
"Is there a way we could compensate for that?" Hermione asked. "I mean, surely you're not the first left-handed magical to exist."
"It's possible to invert the wand movements on spells that require swishes and such, but movements that require wand twists can't be inverted and require me to bend my arm at awkward angles." Daphne clarified. "It makes it hard to aim them. The sleeping spell takes an additional second for me to aim it because of that."
"…Huh." Hermione said after pausing to take in the information. "That does complicate things. The only solutions I can think of offhand are to either have everyone else hold off on casting for a moment to let Daphne aim, or to exclude her from the sleeping charm practices."
"I'd rather not be neglected when the rest of you practice." Daphne griped.
"That leaves coordinating the rest of our casts around Daphne's slower aim." Hermione continued.
"Too much effort!" Tracey shouted as she slammed her glass of water back onto the table. "I say we just stick with the tripping jinx and anything else that doesn't involve wand twisting."
"That's everything except the sleeping charm, then." Hermione said with a small sigh. "Fine, let's work on other spells. Never mind that they won't be much use unless we can get past the cerberus in the first place…"
"Details, details." Tracey said dismissively. "We can worry about that later."
Hermione appeared disgruntled at Tracey's attitude, but let it slide. "Fine, we'll work on the other spells."
They continued practicing for a while yet, though they were never as coordinated with the other spells as they were with the tripping one, lending credence to Hermione's theory that fewer syllables made it easier for them to stay coordinated. After a particularly bad attempt at coordinating the flame conjuring charm, Harry addressed Daphne.
"You're still the slowest of us." He said. "Are you having any other issues?"
"No, my reflexes just aren't as good." She replied.
Harry stared at her in disbelief for a moment. "Daphne? That's bullshit."
"Language, Harry!" Hermione shouted from halfway across the room.
"But it is bullshit!" Harry said, louder this time. "Daphne, you are one of the best fliers in our year, and the only one besides me and Malfoy who ever attempts to do stunts on the school brooms."
Hermione began muttering about the shoddy quality of the school brooms, which caused Tracey to start giggling.
Daphne pondered Harry's remark for a moment before she responded. "Aiming is hard."
He figured that was as good a response as any. "Sure. Aiming is hard. Just keep practicing and I'm sure you'll improve. C'mon guys, let's keep at it for a while longer."
"Are you kidding me? You still want to practice?" Tracey griped. "We've been at this for five hours! That's more than enough for one day! I say we call it quits and get some much needed food."
"I am pretty hungry, now that you mention it." Hermione said. "Let's get some dinner."
"Five hours isn't that long to go without food." Harry explained. "I've gone much longer plenty of times before…" He muttered under his breath. He regretted doing so upon seeing the glare Hermione fixed him with as he realised that he wasn't as quiet as he intended to be. "Um… I mean…"
"Oh no you don't!" She said, viciously cutting him off when he hastily attempted to change the subject. "I have been letting you set your own pace every time you bring up some sort of red flag, and I have had it, mister! You are going to explain yourself right now or so help me, I will track down a magical truth serum and force it down your throat!"
"Veritaserum is a restricted substance-" Daphne began explaining before being cut off by Tracey.
"My mom has some. I can ask her for a dose."
Harry's internal panic was briefly quashed by wondering — once again — just what Tracey's mother did for a living. The panic returned when he got a better look at Hermione's glare.
He let out a sigh. He didn't think he'd be getting out of this one.
Albus watched with amusement as Rubeus played with the small dragon hatchling that Silvanus was currently trying to use to teach his class. Silvanus absolutely refused to teach a class involving a baby dragon without the attendance of someone as durable as Rubeus and someone as skilled as Albus, as Silvanus had no desire to lose any further limbs while dealing with dangerous creatures.
Albus would rather have spent his time elsewhere, but he was sure he could make productive use of the time to slip in a few harmless pranks here and there. The students were awfully focused on the lecture, allowing him to sneak in a few things here and there. He was currently adding the finishing touches to a complicated charm on one of the student's ink bottles that would cause it to change to a random colour every time a new word was written. His attention only wavered from that task when a commotion from Silvanus's direction caught his attention.
Hagrid, in his excitement to feed the dragon — whom he had named Norbert, ignoring Silvanus's insitence that the dragon was female — had spilled some of the blood and brandy mixture used to nurse dragons on Silvanus's fake leg. The dragon had evidently smelled the food, if her current gnawing on said leg was any indication.
"Oh, look at him!" Hagrid cooed. "He's teething!"
"Albus, help me get this blasted thing off of me before it realises that my real leg will probably taste better." Silvanus croaked.
Albus abandoned the ink bottle he was pranking and made kissy noises at the dragon, which promptly abandoned Silvanus's false leg and crawled up Albus's robes to sit comfortably in his arms.
"Why aren't you the one teaching this damned class with skills like that?" Silvanus asked in a subdued tone after hobbling over to him.
"Ah, well, I'm afraid that at my current age, I'm too old and frail to engage in such endeavours." Albus began to scratch the dragon's chin, which made it start emitting purring noises. "Besides which, I'm afraid I have absolutely no talent when it comes to dealing with animals."
Silvanus stared at him in disbelief. "Albus, you have a Merlin-be-damned Phoenix as a pet."
"As I said, no talent."
Silvanus glared at Albus in disbelief before grabbing the dragon and making his way to the front of the lecture.
Albus took that as his cue to begin pranking the students' belongings again, now that their backs were turned.
Harry was looking out the window, trying to avoid making eye contact with his friends. They may have been able to force him to talk about his home life (as reluctant as he was to use the word "home" in relation to anything involving the Dursleys), but they could not force him to look them in the eye.
"Harry…" Hermione said, breaking the silence.
"Look," he began, cutting her off, "I talked to you about all the things you've been wanting me to talk to you about. Can we please not talk about it anymore?"
"I'm just wondering if they were ever… physical with you." She said hesitantly.
"My uncle really didn't like accidental magic. I'll leave it at that."
"Harry…"
Harry turned around to face her. "Yes! Yes, it was awful! And no, I am not going back there no matter what anyone says, so it doesn't matter anymore! While I don't have enough money in my vault to live off of for the rest of my life, I have more than enough to live comfortably on my own for the rest of my schooling."
Even without looking at her, he could hear Hermione holding back all of her objections to having Harry live on his own at such a young age. As such, he wasn't expecting the next word out of her mouth to be "Alright".
Harry turned around, shock evident on his face. "Alright?" He asked, seeking confirmation that he had indeed heard her correctly.
"Yes, alright. I don't think that living on your own in the best idea, but it's better than sending you back there. Let us know if you need any help."
Hermione's face was set in determination, Daphne looked as stoic as usual, though he could see a glint in her eyes, and Tracey looked like she had no idea how to handle a serious conversation and was trying — and failing — not to look awkward.
"Yeah, sure, you can ask us for help and stuff…" Tracey mumbled, clearly unsure of what else to say.
"Just… promise me that you'll go to an adult about this, first." Hermione requested. "If they give you problems about it, then we'll ignore them, but you need to speak to one of them first."
Harry was less than enthused about the prospect of speaking about his "childhood" a second time, though Hermione was right that asking an adult for help determining a legal route to get away from his relatives was probably a better plan than essentially running away from home.
"Fine, I'll do it. Just… not anytime soon." He said with a sigh. "Any suggestions for which adult I should ask for help?"
"The headmaster." Daphne said without hesitation. "While he's eccentric and has his faults, he takes his position very seriously. Helping a child get away from a bad home life is exactly the sort of thing his job would require. I'm sure that he'll do the responsible thing."
"Albus Dumbledore, get back here this instant!" Minerva shrieked as she chased after her surprisingly spry boss. Albus paid her no mind, and turned down a hallway that she knew led to the grand staircase. She chased after him, finding him leaning against the rail of the landing. None of the staircases were currently connected to the landing, meaning that she had finally cornered him, after nearly twenty minutes of giving chase.
"Now you listen here, Albus." She began in a low tone. "I have tolerated a lot from you over the years. I have dealt with the increased workload of being deputy headmistress. I have helped you plan protections to put on the Philosopher's Stone, in the hopes that you could use it to trap Voldemort. I have even tried to foster a friendly relationship with Severus, one of the most dour people I have ever met, at your insistence. But the one thing I will not tolerate is you literally running away from your responsibilities!" She pulled some parchmentwork out of her robes and thrust it at him. "Do. Your. Work!"
Albus simply smiled genially at her. "You know, I remember seeing a scene much like this in in muggle cinema, and I believe that the quote from that film applies quite well here. You'll never take me alive, Minerva." He said as he tipped himself over the railing.
Minerva ran up to the railing and looked down to see Albus gripping the edge of a passing staircase several floors down. She wasn't about to let him get away. Not now, not this far into the chase. She turned into her animagus form and leapt down towards him, even as he swung himself onto the stairs and made his way towards another one of the castle's corridors. Minerva changed back as soon as she landed and bolted after him, trying desperately not to lose his trail. It was only the occasional sight of his obnoxiously coloured robes that she could see as she turned the corner that let her know that she hadn't lost him yet. Her lungs were stinging and she was gasping for breath by the time she had chased him back towards his office. She stood outside the gargoyle for a moment to recover before she confronted him. When the last of the spots had cleared from her vision, she stood up as straight as she could and marched past the gargoyle and into his office.
Her rant was curtailed by the sight that greeted her when she slammed the door open.
Albus was sitting at his desk, his quill gently scratching away at a pile of forms. Nothing about his appearance seemed to imply that he had just been involved in a chase around half of the school. It didn't take long for Albus to look up from what he was doing.
"Is there something I can help you with, Minerva?" He asked gently. "You seem quite flushed."
"No thanks to you!" She huffed. "Why you felt the need to lead me on this wild goose chase around the whole school, I have no idea! She pulled out the stack of parchmentwork from her robes and smacked it on the desk. "Do your work!"
Albus gestured at the piles of parchment sitting on his desk. "I already am, Minerva. If you have something else for me to do, then just add it to the pile. There's no need to make a fuss about it."
"Then why is it, might I ask, that when I approached you with this same stack of forms not an hour ago, you told me that 'responsibility is for chumps' and ran away?"
Albus's brow furrowed. "Minerva, are you feeling quite alright? Do you need a moment to lay down?"
She did, but she wasn't about to tell him that. "I'm perfectly fine, Albus." She replied, feeling her eye twitch.
"Well, I must confess that I have no memory of what you've described. I've been here in my office for the past few hours. Isn't that right, Fawkes?"
The phoenix trilled in response to Dumbledore's question. Minerva assumed that was supposed to be a "yes". She couldn't understand Phoenix, after all.
"Fawkes agrees with my version of events. Perhaps the me that you saw out there was the work of some pranksters. I know Filius has been teaching some of his sixth years some complicated illusion charms for extra credit. Perhaps one of them decided to have some fun."
Minerva would have to disagree about what constituted "fun". She'd deal with that later, though. Right now, she really did need to sit down for a bit. "Very well then Albus. I'll see you later."
Albus watched as Minerva left the room. "Well that was a prank well executed, wouldn't you say?"
Fawkes cooed in reply.
"Yes, I know you don't like lying, but there's nothing wrong with having some good fun once in a while."
Fawkes let out a questioning squeak.
"Oh no, the sixth years in question have a study group in a populated area of the library, so they'll all have alibis. I wouldn't wish Minerva's wrath on anyone, let alone one who didn't deserve it. A prank is no good if it harms someone, after all."
Fawkes trilled appreciatively.
"Of course." Dumbledore said before going back to his work. There really was quite a lot of it, enough that he arguably shouldn't have led Minerva on a chase around the whole school, but it was always good to pursue diversions to keep his stress levels down.
Carmichael was surprised by how… benign being tapped into the Hogwarts wards felt. Granted, he was only allowed the minimum level of clearance above students, so it's not like his access gave him much in the way of information. He assumed that the headmaster had access to a lot more information, and may have even been constantly aware of what was going on in the school. Maybe. No one was really entirely sure how the Hogwarts wards worked, and the headmaster wasn't telling.
So far, the only truly major change was that the portraits were required to tell him the truth. The portraits were everywhere, of course, and were very gossipy, so he was basically aware of everything that was happening inside Hogwarts, just indirectly. He also had a limited ability to give orders to the portraits, though so far he only told them not to let anyone know they were obeying him. He didn't want to push his luck. Not yet.
The problem was that most of the information was about other portraits, and it was an absolute pain to have to sort through all of the information about what the other paintings did to get to the sort of information that they could actually sell. Parvati… The Dark Mistress was finding the process painstaking and possibly an even bigger waste of time than having Gatherers… gather the information manually.
Carmichael was currently watching a dictaquill scribble down all of the interesting information gathered by the portrait they'd relocated to their headquarters. Granted, the information in question was interesting by the portrait's standards, not his standards. The portrait was currently rambling about the fact that one painting named "Elisabeth" was having an affair, which raised frankly raised far too many questions about the nature of personal lives held by portraits for Carmichael's liking.
He had been a wizard for years, but sometimes, magic was just a bit too unnerving for his taste. Usually, it was fine, but then there were things like this, things which rested at the very bottom of the uncanny valley.
Carmichael picked up the sheet and filed it under "Useful, unnerving, and not gossip". He regretted that such a drawer was necessary, but there was a lot of frankly weird stuff that happened in the school that fell under that category.
Deciding that he'd had enough for the evening, Carmichael packed up the loose items in the room, locked the drawers they used to store information, and began making his way back to Ravenclaw Tower.
He did his best not to pay attention to the route he was taking. That was the other weird thing about being tapped into the wards. He was able to navigate the castle perfectly so long as he knew the destination he wanted to get to, but only if he wasn't paying attention. It even led him to the entrances to various secret passages, though it didn't give him knowledge of how to access said passages. Andrew had said that the map supposedly did provide the methods of access for secret passages, though he wasn't sure how much he believed Andrew about the map at this point. The dude was practically convinced that the map was out to get him at the end.
A faint scuffling noise snapped Carmichael out of his reverie. It was then that he realised he had no idea where he was, and no idea how to get back to Ravenclaw Tower.
As it turned out, not paying attention to where one was going was harder than he had initially anticipated. If his inattention ever lapsed, then he would frequently find himself lost in the labyrinthine and logicless layout of the school.
Carmichael tried to lose his bearings again, though hopefully the fact that the four-way intersection he found himself in was completely lacking in identifying characteristics would help him.
Picking a hallway at random, he began walking down it up until he turned a corner and promptly tripped. He looked down at his feet, only to see the old and scruffy Mrs. Norris sitting right where's he'd tripped. He'd better get out of here. Wherever Mrs. Norris was around, there was sure to be…
"Well well well, looks like we have a student out after curfew!" Filch's voice rang out. "Detention!"
Dammit.
Hermione sat in the bleachers of the quidditch pitch, alternating her attention between the book in her lap and her friends in the air.
Despite neither Harry nor Daphne enjoying quidditch, the two of them loved flying and insisted on coming out here on the occasions that Madam Hooch would let the first years use the school brooms. Hermione hated flying with a passion. The concept of flight was alright, but she didn't trust a broom to do the job for her, let alone brooms as rickety as the ones the school had. Those things should have been replaced ages ago.
So Hermione stayed grounded while Harry and Daphne tried to see who could pull off the most death-defying stunt as Tracey lazily drifted through the air. Every time Harry and Daphne entered a dive, Hermione was torn between averting her eyes from the sight and not wanting to look away just so she could assure herself they were still okay.
Hermione was really looking forward to their second year, when the students could own on their own brooms. It would still be harrowing to watch them pull the stunts they were wont to do, but at least she wouldn't have to worry about the brooms just… giving out.
Hermione really hated the school brooms. Had she mentioned that yet? Because she really did.
At that moment, Harry and Daphne began entering some sort of… inverted… corkscrew…something. Hermione wasn't sure what to call what they were doing — she knew neither quidditch nor flight terminology — but it was clearly dangerous. Then again, everything they seemed to do was dangerous.
A quick Tempus charm showed that only fifteen minutes had passed. Harry and Daphne were never satisfied until they'd been in the air for at least an hour, much to Hermione's chagrin. At least the weather was warming up now. Even with warming charms, she found the winter air to be uncomfortable.
Hermione sighed. She understood that they couldn't spend all of their time studying or practicing, but she wished there were other ways for them to unwind than flying. Tracey even tried to justify it as further practice for the third floor corridor, as if there would be readily available brooms to accompany some sort of aerial challenge guarding the Philosopher's Stone.
Come to think of it, what little she knew about the defences made her sincerely doubt that the Philosopher's Stone was even down there. The traps they knew about seemed comically easy for even people of their age to get past — except perhaps the troll that Hagrid had referenced — and they were only first years. Then again, Professors Snape and Quirrell were obviously under the impression that it was down there, and as teachers, she was sure they were well-informed. As for the traps, there were probably some trickier ones past the ones they knew about; the early traps were likely only there to get would-be intruders to let their guard down.
Hermione suddenly felt a lot less optimistic about their odds of success.
"Oi! You gonna sit down there all day?" Tracey asked, pulling up to float a foot above Hermione's head.
"Yes, I am, thank you very much."
Tracey leaned forward, resting her chin on the handle of her broom. "C'mon, Granger. Get your ass off the ground!"
"My arse is perfectly happy content on the ground, Tracey." Hermione said as she adjusted her position.
A whoosh of air turned a few of the pages of her book as Daphne and Harry shot by at high speeds.
"Those two sure are speed demons, aren't they?" Tracey mused.
"I'm glad you have the good sense not to be as reckless as they are." Hermione replied.
Tracey started cackling at Hermione's remark. "You know, you're the first person who ever said that I had more sense than Daphne!"
"You're… welcome?" Hermione wasn't sure what the appropriate reply would be.
Tracey scooted forward on her broom and patted the pole behind her. "C'mon, Hermione. Get on and let's go for a spin."
Hermione let out a deep breath. "No thank you."
"C'mon. Pleeeeease?"
"No."
"Just one lap around the pitch."
Hermione huffed. "You're not going to give up until I say yes, are you?"
Tracey grinned. "Nope!"
"Fine, but if you go above a sensible speed or invert us at any point during said flight, I will never forgive you."
"Deal, now hop on."
Hermione gingerly shifted herself onto the broom behind Tracey and gripped the other girl around the waist as if her life depended on it — because it probably did. Hermione didn't trust these brooms. It took her almost a full minute to open her eyes and see that they were already moving.
"See? This isn't so bad, is it?" Tracey said from ahead of her.
"No. No, I guess it isn't." Hermione replied, letting herself relax a bit and enjoy the ride.
Carmichael trudged behind Filch as he was led out onto the castle grounds for his detention. He wondered why a nighttime detention was necessary for being caught after curfew. "You stayed up late, so now you get to stay up later"? He wasn't sure what the reasoning was, but it was probably stupid. If he had a sickle for every time something in the wizarding world had a stupid reasoning behind it, then Carmichael would be be able to afford a whole wardrobe at Twilfitt & Tatting's.
Come to think of it, why hadn't he made such a bet? Maybe he should mention the idea of bet-taking to Parvati and see if she couldn't work her magic on it to make it into a profitable enterprise.
"Got another one here for you, Hagrid." Filch's harsh voice cut through Carmichael's reverie. "See that he works hard for it."
Hagrid nodded at Filch and waved him off. "Right then, I suppose the five of us ought to do it, then." Carmichael looked around at the other three students. Both of the Weasley twins were here, likely as punishment for some sort of prank they played.
The last face was a surprise, though. What in the world did Cedric Diggory do to earn detention?
Carmichael filed that information away for later as Hagrid began his explanation of what they were going to be doing tonight. Said explanation just raised further questions. What in the world would be attacking unicorns? Moreover, why was this the first he was hearing of it? He'd been sorting through all of the useless drivel that the portraits were telling him, and this was the first he'd heard of attacked unicorns.
He'd have to see if he could find a way to force the portraits to focus on the relevant information.
Hagrid began leading them into the forest, everyone lighting their wands as they did so to maintain some level of visibility.
Carmichael stared down at the blotches of unicorn blood soaking into the soil. Its silvery colouring combined with its liquid form made it almost resemble mercury. He wondered if mercury was an actual component of unicorn blood. From what little he knew about the creatures from Professor Kettleburn's class, unicorn blood was supposed to cause one to cause one to live "a cursed life" if one were to drink it it. Mercury poisoning would certainly constitute a cursed life, after all.
"Hey, Stephens, are you there?" Diggory asked, snapping his fingers in front of his face.
Carmichael blinked a few times. "Right, sorry. I tend to space out when I'm walking." Which was mostly just a side effect of not wanting to get lost. He really hated it when he started paying attention to where he was going and suddenly found himself hopelessly lost. He'd started practicing spacing out while walking when he wound up getting lost for eight hours after he got lost a few weeks ago. At this point, he just stopped paying attention whenever he was going somewhere as a matter of instinct.
…This habit was probably going to be very inconvenient when he next left Hogwarts and didn't have any ward access to subconsciously guide him.
"Stephens!" Diggory shouted. "You spaced out again."
"Right, sorry." He really did need to work on that.
Hagrid looked back over his shoulder. "Are you lot okay back there?"
"Fine, Mister Hagrid." The twins chimed in chorus.
"Why do the twins keep giving you the stink eye?" Diggory whispered.
Carmichael glanced ahead to see that one of the twins was indeed glaring at him, though the twin looked away once he was noticed. They were probably mistrustful of him after Parvati got the map from them. Sure, Carmichael wasn't involved in that particular meeting, but he was essentially Parvati's front man; any mistrust of her was likely to be projected onto him as well.
Granted, he couldn't tell Diggory all of that, so he just replied "Business."
Diggory gave him an odd look but let the issue drop. Meanwhile, Hagrid stopped walking and leaned down to examine the trail of blood they were following.
"Looks like the path branches here." He explained. "It must have doubled back through here at some point. We'll have to split up if we want to have a chance of finding the unicorn before it dies. Weasleys, you're with me. You two are only third years and will be better protected with me around in case something goes wrong. Stephens, Diggory, you head down the trail to the right, and take Fang with you. He should be enough to scare off any creatures that might think about attacking you. Send up sparks if there's an emergency or if you find the unicorn."
Diggory started following the blood trail as Carmichael gestured for Fang to follow them, keeping an eye on the ground he was treading. He wondered if he would be able to find the unicorn on his own? Sure, he wasn't capable of accessing the part of the ward scheme that tracked people, but a unicorn wasn't a person. Was that enough of a distinction that he would be able to navigate to it using his newfound subconscious intuition? He really had no idea, which meant he obviously needed to perform some experiments. Come to think of it, did he even know how to navigate the forbidden forest now? It was in the area affected by the wards, but it wasn't a proper part of the castle. He'd have to test that too.
"You sure space out a lot, huh?" Diggory said from ahead of him.
"Yeah, I guess I do."
Carmichael tried very hard not to space out after that, which proved more challenging than he anticipated.
"So what got you in detention, anyways?" He asked Diggory. "From what I hear, you're something of a 'Quintessential Hufflepuff'. I can't imagine you getting yourself in trouble."
Diggory gave a somewhat pained grin. "Well, it's something of a funny story, actually. You see, I was-"
Fang stopped in his tracks and growled into the darkness ahead of them.
Diggory stared down at the unnerved dog before holding up his wand and pumping some additional power into his lumos, though it wasn't enough to see into the clearing ahead of them.
Carmichael stepped ahead, pushing additional power into his spell as he did so. As he entered the clearing, the light spilled into the various corners of the area, revealing a dead unicorn with a… thing on top of it.
It was humanoid, but… dark. Shadows oozed out of its body like fog, obscuring any details of its form completely. It couldn't be a lethifold because lethifolds didn't exude darkness like this thing did. It couldn't be a dementor because those were supposed to cause illusions of coldness, but Carmichael was perfectly aware of the heat of the early summer evening and could feel the hot sweat in the palm holding his wand.
That meant that this thing was — or used to be — human, and was hiding its form in some way or another.
At this point, Carmichael said the only complete thought he could form.
"Oh, what the fuck."
Either the shadow thing hated to be disturbed, or it objected to his choice of language, because it pulled itself up from the unicorn's cooling corpse and began moving towards him. Diggory was clearly better at thinking on his feet, because he quickly let off several spells, though it just moved effortlessly out of their path. Carmichael finally felt the shock wear off and let loose several spells of his own, only to be met with an equal lack of success. It was only when the thing was getting alarmingly close that he had the sense to shoot sparks up into the air. Even the threat of imminent backup didn't scare this thing off, and Carmichael was convinced he was moments away from dying when an enormous figure leapt out of the brush and smacked the thing away with a single sweep of an enormous quarterstaff.
"Foul beast. Once more into the abyss with you!" The newcomer, who Carmichael could now identify as a centaur, shouted at the thing.
The shadow thing did not care for the centaur's interruption and leapt at it, only for the centaur's staff to connect once again, sending it off into the shadows of the forest.
Carmichael stood, frozen, as the centaur held a defensive pose for a moment before deciding that enough time had passed and they were now safe. The now-calm centaur moved over to the unicorn's body and murmured a few words to it before approaching the two of them.
"What brings wizards into our domain?" The centaur, who Carmichael could now see was female, spoke to them. He tried to stop the blush from spreading across his cheeks once he got a good look at her.
"…We were trying to find the unicorn?" Cedric replied, clearly intimidated.
The centaur twisted her torso to face the unicorn — and holy crap did she have some nice abs — before speaking. "Such a horrid thing, to prey upon the innocent like that. Would that I could vanquish such a creature for good. Alas, the Fates have not ruled in my favour, and the shade continues its pitiful existence for another day."
"Huh." Carmichael replied, still transfixed by her muscles. He knew that centaurs probably got a lot of exercise, but still. He'd never seen a feminine form this shredded!
"It is not safe for ones as young as yourself to be out in the forest at this time, not when there are shades lurking about." She continued. "I will escort you back to the grounds of your castle."
"I'm not that young!" Carmichael protested. "I'm seventeen!"
The centaur glanced at him. "All men are young before the stars."
He had no idea what that meant. Was she trying to say he was too young for her? Then again, he had no idea what the logistics of a human/centaur relationship would even encompass, nor did he necessarily think he wanted to know. She was still hot, though, and he was content to spend the remainder of the walk gazing at her, even as she continued to speak.
"The stars tell an interesting story, you know. The Fates weave a bizarre pattern. Sometimes, a pebble may fall into a pond, spreading ripples across the surface when it does. The water's surface may eventually calm, but the effects of those ripples remain, even if it may not appear that way. While the lake where the pebble fell may appear identical to the lake where it didn't, eventually, the effects of those ripples will resurface."
"Hm." Carmichael hummed, his attention fixated on her sculpted back.
"For countless years, ripples have been spreading across the fabric of our reality, yet each time, the universe settles back into what it would have been. It appears that now, the effects of all those ripples are catching up to us."
It was really a shame that Diggory was walking ahead of the centaur. He was missing some great views.
"Strange times lie ahead of us, human. I wonder what your kind will make of them."
"I couldn't imagine." He replied, lost in watching the ripples of her muscles as she stretched her arms.
"Ah, there's Hagrid." She waved her left arm in the air to get the groundskeeper's attention. "I appear to have found some of your charges. Try not to lose them again."
"Eh, right. Thank you, Brianna."
"Thank me by keeping them safe. Not all men are as durable as you, Hagrid."
Hagrid looked suitably embarrassed, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I'll keep that in mind. Say hello to Firenze for me, would you?"
"I'll pass on your message." She replied as she left, giving Carmichael one last, glorious look at her backside.
"Well that was an adventure, eh, Stephens?"
"Sure." Carmichael replied noncommittally. He had other things on his mind after that.
A/N: I wish I had a good excuse for why this took so long. I don't. Most of this is just filler before the climax starts next chapter.
The scene with McGonagall chasing down Dumbledore so he'll do his job was heavily inspired by similar scenes in The Amplitude, Frequency, and Resistance of a Soul Bond. Said fic was actually the single biggest inspiration for how I chose to write Dumbledore in this story. I highly recommend it.
Carmichael is such a weirdo. I love writing him. I'm rather sad that he won't be making too many appearances in year 2.
This chapter marks the second time I have borrowed a line from Path of Exile for one of my fics. The Shaper just has too many good lines to not quote him once in a while.
E/N (Xgenje): Good lord I read this while exhausted after work. I am wide awake now.
But on more serious matters; I have to say that I look forward to beta reading these Fics more than some of my absolute favorite authors anymore. That and I accidentally stumbled upon Departure from the Diary on accident looking for a new fic to read. That's when I finally realise my childhood friend is finally making it big.