I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters.

Extended Family

Chapter 39 – A Bit of Mystery

Takes place during Harry's seventh year

"Have you heard the rumors?" Padma asked.

"What rumors," Harry replied, looking up at her.

"Something about a new ghost at Hogwarts, scaring people and haunting about in the middle of the night."

"No, I haven't," Harry said. "That's weird. Has any of the school ghosts confirmed this?"

"Not that any of them have seen. But some students say they suddenly feel intense cold and dread and hear strange noises."

"Hmm, in the same places every time?"

"Not that we know. It's mostly the younger students and a lot of them are accidentally finding the secret passages and unused ones too. A few got spooked pretty bad though and came to me today. I asked them to tell me where and they marked it off for me."

"Mind if I come along? I'm interested now," Harry said.

Padma smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that." She led them from the prefect offices to a more distant part of the castle.

"What were your students doing here?" Harry asked.

"Something amorous I think, which," she looked around with distaste, "I would think there are a lot better places for that elsewhere."

"Yeah, it's spooky now during the daytime." They walked around a bit, poking behind tapestries. No paintings hung in this part of the hallway and while it was clean enough, dust and things lined the walls and corners. "Do you feel anything odd?"

"No, I don't," Padma frowned.

Harry rubbed his chin. "Maybe we have to come at night."

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that," Padma sighed. "But you might be right."

"I'm on patrol for the third shift tonight," Harry said. "I'll come by and take a peek."

"I'll come with you. I can't just dump this on you," Padma said. "I'll trade with whoever you were supposed to patrol with tonight."

"Sounds good to me." Harry looked around some more. "We're really on the outskirts of the castle right? What's even on this side?"

"Lots of old classrooms that aren't even openable by students," Padma said. "Otherwise, it's really annoying to get to. It doesn't connect two highly traveled places either."

"Well, guess we'll find out later."

-0-

Harry met Padma late that night at the offices. "Ready?" Harry asked.

"Not really but let's go." Padma shivered slightly as they walked down the darkened hall. "I don't know if you know this, but I don't love the dark and spooky things. Parvati does but she likes to scream and stuff."

"I'm sort of used to the dark," Harry said. "Oh but here's a cool spell I learned not too long ago." He made a small circle with his wand pointing straight up and flicked the tip as if drawing a long, curled tail. "Ignis fatuus."

Padma exclaimed with delight as a tiny orb of light came into being and it floated over Harry's head. "Oh! That's so nice, what is it?"

"It's a Wisp spell. Have you heard of will-o'-the-wisps?"

"I've heard of them. They're ghost lights right?"

"Yeah, usually seen in bogs or swamps. Some people say that they misled people into dangers like a hinkypunk and some people say that they were around before hinkypunks, or that they share common ancestry. But someone made a spell to mimic them sort of and this is it."

After a few tries, Padma summoned her own little ball of light. "It's so cute. I wonder why most people don't use them."

"They are less bright and harder to cast than a light spell but I like them for patrols because it's less bright and you can cast other spells while having it around. Also Auntie Andi, who taught me the spell, said that there was a period of time where people thought it was bad luck to have wisps about. Something superstitious." He looked at her weakly. "Sorry, do you care about that sort of thing?"

"Nope, there's a reason why I'm not in Divination," Padma sniffed.

"I won't tell Parvati that," Harry grinned.

"I tell her that every day," Padma laughed.

They made their way deeper into the castle and the atmosphere was very different at night. The darkness felt cloying and oppressive, the sounds of their footsteps much louder and magnified. The wisp light threw long shadows that turned into sinister shapes that reached and grabbed for them.

Padma walked closer to him, her wand out and ready. "Okay, I have serious regrets," she murmured.

"Yeah, it's really creepy at night," Harry said, eyes looking around. He felt his skin crawl and he stopped, holding one arm out in front of Padma. She squeaked and grabbed it with her free hand. "Do you feel that?"

"My beating heart or me sweating out of fear," she quipped feebly. "The answer is yes."

"That and my skin is freezing, or it feels like I walked into something cold."

"I do." She breathed out. "I can see my breath a little. It's not as cold as walking through an actual ghost though."

"No, but it's really close." Harry murmured a spell. "No ghosts in the area."

"I'm not getting a result on the person revealing spell either, aside from you and I of course." Padma shivered. "I hate this." She squeaked as the sound of rattling chains could be faintly heard, of a low dirge-like moan that slowly grew in volume. "What's that?!"

"This is the Head Boy and a Senior Prefect," Harry shouted out, trying to ignore his mounting nerves. "It'll go easier on you if you stop this right now!" The sounds grew louder. "Cover your eyes," he murmured to Padma as he held a hand in front of his. "Lumos Maxima!" His light spell drove the darkness away, burning bright like a miniature sun in the night.

The moans and rattling chains continued unabated.

Harry moved backwards without turning and Padma kept step with him. They both looked down the hall but nothing could be seen, only the feeling of oppressive cold and the odd creepy sounds. However, the coldness and the sounds ended abruptly once they walked back far enough.

"Did you see anything?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No, and everything's quiet again and not freezing anymore."

He nodded and took a few steps forward again. Then a few more. "I don't hear or feel anything and we definitely felt something when we were pass this point a moment ago."

Padma cast her own light spell, turning the light into a focused beam. She swept her wand back and forth and nothing happened. "Okay, this is really odd."

They walked the length of the hallway and did not feel the cold or hear the sounds again. "Hmm, if something was here, it must have left," Harry said.

"Isn't this a dead end?" Padma asked. "Where could it have gone?"

"If it was a kind of ghost, then it wouldn't be stopped by walls," Harry mused. "But the spell didn't find any kind of ghosts."

"I guess some magical creatures can go about like that," Padma said.

"It could be using the plumbing," Harry said softly.

"Oh I wouldn't have thought of that."

"Let's call it a night and do some research," Harry said. "And come back tomorrow night."

"I was afraid you'd say that," Padma grumbled,

-0-

Padma put a roll of parchment on the table. "I researched in the library and this is a list of magical creatures that can camouflage or slip through tiny spaces that bring coldness with them and make noises. It's not a big list and there really shouldn't be any of them here in Britain."

"Acromantulas aren't naturally found in Britain either but there is a big colony in the Dark Forest," Harry said. "There's a chance that someone brought something." He looked at the list. "Good job. Let's go see what Hagrid has to say about these. I asked one of the ghosts to fly around that part of the corridor and they didn't find anything lurking in the pipes and did you know ghosts can sort of track each other?"

"No I didn't, that's fascinating."

"But Sir Nicholas didn't find a trace of any ghosts in that area."

"Hmm. This is getting weirder and weirder."

-0-

That night they walked around the corridor. This time, there were no sounds nor any sign of the odd coldness and chill they experienced the night before. Hagrid had agreed with the list Padma wrote, and had vehemently denied knowing of any of the creatures in the area. He also taught them a spell that would reveal a sign of the creatures in the area and even with Harry and Padma both casting the spell, they found no evidence.

"We are in the right spot…right?" Harry asked, deeply confused.

"Yeah, we are," Padma said, equally confused. "But there's nothing here!"

Harry frowned. "What's going on?" He tilted his head and spun, flicking his wand up.

"What?!" Padma exclaimed, jumping beside him.

"I hear something," Harry said. A glowing ball came flying towards him but before he cast anything, he saw that it was a paper airplane that shone with light. He caught it and unwrapped it. "It's from Elizabeth and Demelza. They said they found something cold and making weird noises."

"We're going, aren't we?" Padma sighed as she ran after Harry. They ran down the hall and down a flight of stairs, coming to a more traveled part of the castle. They skidded to a halt as they rounded the corner and saw Elizabeth stomping on a smoldering tapestry and Demelza spraying water on another one that burned.

"What happened?!" Harry asked as he sprayed more water onto the burning tapestry.

"My fault," Elizabeth confessed with red cheeks. "We were backing off when the sound came right beside me and I panicked and shot a bunch of sparks and uh, the tapestries are kinda flammable."

"Are you two okay?" Padma asked.

"Yeah, aside from freaked out," Demelza said. "We were just patrolling when all of a sudden, things got cold and we heard some weird sounds. We sent the note to you and then it literally sounded right next to us and we cast and accidentally started a fire."

"As long as you two are okay," Harry said once they got the fire doused. He cast the ghost spell and the creature spell and frowned when he found nothing. "This is really weird. Nothing is showing up."

"Was this your first time patrolling this area?" Padma asked the other two girls.

"Uh…actually, no. We walked through it earlier tonight with no problems," Elizabeth said thoughtfully.

"We didn't notice anything tonight," Demelza said. "It's been quiet."

"Same thing that happened to us but a fair distance away," Harry mused. "Where were you walking to?" He looked to where the girls pointed. "Hmm. How about you two finish your patrol of the other part of your path, I'll go take a look."

"Thanks Cap!" Demelza said and she and Elizabeth beat a hasty retreat the other way.

"What are you thinking?" Padma asked.

"I think we can rule out an actual ghost or creature," Harry said as he walked slowly down the corridor. "And I was thinking about last night, why did the presence or whatever didn't follow us when we left the area, and why didn't it come back when we walked back in?"

"A warning," Padma said, following his line of thought. "An alarm of sorts."

"To keep people away from somewhere," Harry agreed. He stopped suddenly. "Wait, this place is familiar to me for some reason. Like, more than walking through it."

Padma looked around. "There are some nice alcoves here for some…dubious pursuits."

Harry smiled. "You're right but not that kind of dubiousness." He led her to a still painting and pushed it aside, revealing a tunnel.

"How'd you know this was here?" she asked, following him into it.

"Fred and George had a drop site here. They had places around the castle where they put things for their pranks or to hide from Filch or others," Harry said. "I helped them clean them out when they left and this was one of them. Ah ha." He pulled on something that looked like a heavy bookcase but it slid aside effortlessly.

Padma peered into the small room. "Well hello," she said. "I see some things that shouldn't be here. That's firewhiskey and those look like cigarettes. We found something illicit!"

Harry whistled. "So someone or someones are hiding things they shouldn't have."

Padma frowned. "It's one thing if they are hiding things for personal use. It's another if they are selling or trading things."

"They have to be pretty decent at charms too. It's not easy casting an area charm that is environmental and auditory as a trip."

"And fast. If the girls walked through earlier and it wasn't there, then it was later, either the cast it afterwards and were confident to do it fast enough or it was dormant until activated." Padma tapped her chin. "I don't think anyone in my House in our year is capable of doing that honestly, much less wanting to sell illicit things."

"Same for my House," Harry said. "The Slytherins are the obvious suspects but I don't think any of them would. It's too hard for some and too much effort for others."

"Smith in Hufflepuff is a prick and I know he's been busted with alcohol before but he also fits in the 'this would be a lot of effort' category. I can't think of any of the other Hufflepuffs doing this," Padma mused. "So sixth years and under."

"We might have to try and be subtle about this too. They're pretty sneaky," Harry said.

"So why are you smiling?" Padma asked.

"Because I learned from the best about this sort of thing and it'll be interesting to see what we can do," Harry said confidentially.

-0-

A few days later, Harry no longer felt as confident. He and Padma could not quite figure out the spells that the person or persons were using and they were no closer in figuring out a pattern. A few others prefects on patrol experienced the same sounds and coldness but that did not help them in finding out the culprits.

Harry had asked Daphne for help to try and figure out who could be the culprits through rumors and while she provided a list, there was no real evidence for them to work on.

He even tried to use the Marauder's Map to look for people moving around the back paths and secret tunnels but there were too many that used them at odd hours and the names again, were not enough to go off of.

"Unless we try to patrol everywhere or set spells down first, the castle is just too big and there are not enough of us," Daphne said.

"And if we do that, we warn them anyways so it'll be for nothing," Padma said dispiritedly.

Harry sucked on a sugar quill as he thought for a solution. "I might have jinxed us."

"How so?" Daphne asked.

"He said he learned from the best at being sneaky and he was pretty confident," Padma said with a smile.

"He is not wrong," Daphne smiled. "The Twins are terrors of course and he was their confidant. Have you tried writing them for ideas?"

"Not yet, not desperate enough," Harry chuckled. "They either wouldn't help me out of prankster principle or they would never let it go that I needed a rulebreaker to catch a rulebreaker."

"Perhaps you should think like they would," Daphne suggested.

"I've been trying to do that," Harry said as he chewed on the sugar quill. "Problem is, the twins are geniuses at this sort of thing. Like on a different level."

"Still, might be worth sending them a letter. Don't want to let pride be a factor," Padma said.

"No you're right. At least they're easier to get a hold of." He looked up. "Wait a second. I think I have an idea."

"Pray tell," Daphne said eagerly.

"There's more than one way to track someone," Harry said. He got up. "I'm going to do a quick experiment." He took an ink bottle and cast a few simple charms on it. "Here, hold this," he said, giving it to Daphne. "Then go hide somewhere for a little bit."

"You didn't cast a tracking charm though," Padma observed.

"No 'cause tracking charms are rather obvious and if this person is as talented as I think they are, they'd figure that out fast. I'm going to test something." He watched Daphne go one way and he moved off another with Padma following.

"The owlery?" Padma asked as they stepped out onto the roof.

"Yup. Owls find people based on their magical signatures and I think if there is enough magic on an object, an owl just might be able to find it."

"I don't think most owls can find charmed objects though," Padma said.

"Most owls might not, but if they're very smart and very familiar, I bet one could," Harry said. He clicked his tongue and Hedwig flew to him, landing on his head and leaning down to rub her head against his. "Hi Hedwig, care to help me with something?" He held up a quill and cast the same charms on it as he did the ink bottle. "Can you try to find the same magic I cast here but on a different object?"

Hedwig looked thoughtful, clicking her beak. She picked the quill up in her beak and launched herself into the air. Flying about for a few moments, she dove down the stairwell into the castle and Harry and Padma followed after. They followed her as she flew and she eventually led them to a small alcove beside the Infirmary.

"Hello Hedwig," Daphne said as Hedwig landed on her lap. Hedwig hooted hello before turning to Harry, looking immensely proud and dancing on Daphne's lap.

"Wow, I never would've believed it," Padma said admiringly.

"You did not tell her to find me, but the same set of spells?" Daphne smiled and rubbed the owl's belly. "You are very talented."

"So you slip something into one of the boxes we left at the drop site," Padma grinned.

"And Hedwig will lead us to them," Harry finished, wearing a smile that reminded the witches of the twins. "And, for all the nonsense they put us through, how about a bit of revenge?"

"That would be very unbecoming for a Head Boy and I highly approve," Daphne said with a savage smile. "What do you have in mind?"

-0-

"I told you," a boy hissed as they pushed the false bookcase aside. "See? Everything is here and they didn't mess with it."

"Wait." The other boy waved his wand. "Okay, no tracking charms or anything like that. We're good to move things." They put things into their bags and left the small room, pushing the bookcase back. They began walking down the hall.

"Wait, what's that?" one said.

"Not funny," the other said.

"No seriously. What's that?" They both stopped and they heard something coming closer. A low cry could just be heard, growing steadily louder. Something seemed to woosh, a displacement of air, the sound of wind whistling between something sharp.

"I don't know but I don't want to find out!" They started to run. They did not take paths that seemed to lead them to the sound but no matter where they ran and hid, the sound seemed to get closer and closer, always hunting, always chasing. They tried to duck into an alcove and the sound of clicking, something sharp and pointed running on the stones broke their nerves and they continued to run.

"What's that?!" one yelled, pointing behind them.

The other turned and screamed. Something brilliantly white was chasing them. It was swathed in long pearly fabric that fluttered and billowed. A hoarse barking sound echoed around them, turning into a hunting keen. Two large amber orbs burned from the swathes of white fabric and the spectral figure flew after them with the unerring energy of a predator.

They tried to cast behind them and bumped into each other, falling over and sliding over the stones. Their bags exploded, sending bottles of alcohol and other things all over the hallways and they groaned in pain, stunned.

"That looks painful," Daphne said without sympathy.

"And all that looks very illegal," Padma said with grim delight.

The two students looked up and blanched when they saw Daphne, Padma, Harry, and Professor McGonagall standing there, looking down at them.

"Wait!" one of them shouted.

"Please don't tell us you don't know where this came from," Harry said condescendingly.

"No! I mean yes! But there's something chasing us! It's white and sounds terrifying!" the boy said loudly.

Raising an eyebrow, Harry looked behind them and even walked down the hallway, looking left and right down either path. "I don't see anything. I think you two might have dipped into whatever you're selling and saw things that wasn't there."

"We don't have anything like that," the other boy protested before audibly groaning once more realizing what he said.

"No, you are in trouble enough," McGonagall said severely. "On your feet you two. We are going to the Headmaster and your Heads of House and you are in considerable trouble." She took their wands from them and made them gather their illicit materials. Harry very carefully summoned the slim wooden disc that had been stuck to a box of cigarettes, pocketing it without the two boys or McGonagall noticing.

"Twenty points to Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin for excellent work," she said proudly to the Head Boy and the two Senior Prefects. After nodding at them, she pushed the two students ahead of her and they left for the Headmaster's office.

Harry smiled broadly and he looked up at the rafters. "That's my girl," he said proudly and Hedwig fluttered down, trailing the white sheets they charmed to follow her. She landed on Harry's head and hooted proudly, puffing her chest out with pride. "Someone earned a very big platter of bacon tomorrow."

"We really should make her a badge of her own," Daphne said.

"You really are incredibly smart," Padma praised as she petted Hedwig. "That was really satisfying," she said happily.

"Yup, a job well done," Harry said. "And I'm not taking third shift patrols for a long time." He looked at a giggling Daphne and Padma. "What's so funny?"

"With Hedwig sitting on your head and the white sheets, you look like you are wearing a bridal veil," Daphne giggled.

"You make a beautiful bashful blushing bride," Padma laughed.

Harry gave them a look that made them laugh harder. Harry looked up at Hedwig. "Hey, would you like some sausages with your bacon?"

Daphne immediately stopped laughing. She blanched at Hedwig's eager nods. "Wait, hold on."

"Uh…I don't like this," Padma started to say.

"Go get them!" Harry said and Hedwig launched herself into the air and at the two witches, starting her hunting cry again.

Padma and Daphne shrieked as they ran, chased by a hungry vengeful Hedwig and Harry's laughter echoing after.

-0-0-0-

Mattyb4678 - Please stop. I have already asked for people to stop throwing ideas out in the reviews. I find it demeaning when you persist even after I have asked you to stop. Thank you.

DOOOOOOM Lord of Waffles - I'm glad you liked it. I wanted it to feel real and a legitimate concern for them and have it end on a positive note.

Urgwaew - Hello there. I don't know how I came up with the idea but it felt right to me considering the kind of relationship that Harry and Angelina have. That makes sense. It does seem like something Alicia would do on her own even if it wasn't a Society thing. Glad you like Katie being involved at the end. She would have been a little worried too of course and had to participate. Hope you are doing well. My best to you.