Chapter Seven: The Plot, the Plan, and the Diegesis
BOOM! The door exploded and in walked a bald man in black robes. On his bald head was a pretty tiara, and on his hand was an oversized ring bulging on his knuckle.
He raised his hand and said something that was muffled. Another explosion.
A black-haired man with ugly glasses rushed at the bald intruder, who shot a green light at him.
The black-haired man pulled an odd golden cup with a skunk or something on it out of his pocket and smacked the light away.
The bald man shook his fist, a pretty necklace bouncing against his chest, and he shot fifteen more green lights at the black-haired man.
He fell, and Nathaniel knew he was dead.
The bald man stepped over the body and slithered up the stairs his arms and legs moving side to side with his body. It was unnatural.
When he reached the top, he blasted another door down and pointed his wand at a pretty lady and her baby.
"NEEEERRRRD!" She screamed at him as he took out a faded, black diary and began to write in it. Looking over his shoulder, Nathaniel could make out the words, Mom Rarvalo Tiddle.
The bald man put up his diary, and blasted the pretty lady out the window where she vaporized in the morning mist. He faced the baby, who stood up, wielding a sword.
When Nathaniel turned back to the bald man, he noticed that instead of his wand from earlier he held a bunch of action figures in his hands and yelled at them. One of the action figures had very long, blond, almost white hair, another was clearly a witch with cool, black, curling locks and a frenzied expression.
The bald man slapped the child and exploded, breaking the sword. One of the blade shards turned into a lightning bolt and slapped onto the boy's forehead.
Nathaniel woke up in a sweat.
"VOLDEMORT!" Nathaniel yelled, lashing out with his right foot.
Screams echoed in the room, as two other boys flung themselves against the wall in terror.
"Wuh? What happened?" Nathaniel asked groggily, stepping out of bed.
Feeling something squishy under his foot he looked down.
A crying boy lay on the floor, clutching his nards and trying to pull his ankle out from under Nathaniel's foot.
"Oh sorry, did I do that?" He asked the injured student.
The boy squeaked like a balloon losing air.
"Okay then," Nathaniel said, "I'll go down to breakfast then."
After getting dressed in robes, Nathaniel went to the great hall.
The two coherent Hufflepuffs in the room started muttering about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and the dark Hufflepuff.
Cedric Diggory barreled into the room, "Who's hurt? Who's crying?" He asked.
One of them pointed out Brad Shoehorn on the floor.
"He kicked 'im balls he did!" The boy shouted.
"He's a right menace!" The other declared.
The boy on the floor, Brad, so he was named, finally managed to find his voice, "H-He said You-Know-Who's name!"
Cedric shook his head; he had a bad feeling about this.
As Cedric went about taking the injured first year to Madame Pomfrey, the twins, both pairs, met up at breakfast.
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"Here, I snatched a pair of robes from some other guy for you to use when we sneak in." Michael whispered to his brother.
"Don't you own multiple pairs of robes yourself?" Tessa asked from behind the group.
"Only because mom said I should have extra." Michael said.
Nathaniel tried not to laugh as he watched a disgruntled Anthony sitting at Slytherin table wearing oversized robes that were clearly borrowed.
"Bloody good job." George said clapping Michael on the back as Fred guffawed loudly.
Tessa rolled her eyes, but the smile never left her face.
Alex raced over to the huddled students from the entrance, "Hey guys!" He shouted.
Nathaniel shoved the Slytherin robes into his large pocket underneath the robes and decided that not only was he going to be keeping them, but he was also going to get a pair of robes from each house. To complete the collection.
Michael noticed Nathaniel smiling and berated him, "Dude, mom said to stop smiling like that, people find it creepy."
Nathaniel scowled as he stopped baring his teeth.
"But that's my normal smile." He pouted.
Tessa opened her mouth to say something but hesitated before shaking her head and closing it back up. Apparently, whatever she was thinking wasn't worth wasting on someone who wouldn't heed it anyway.
"So, I have transfiguration, potions, and defense today, what about you?" Alex interrupted, pulling out a sheet of parchment.
They shared schedules and found that the chances of meeting each other before noon were poor.
"See you guys at lunch." Michael said.
"Bye." Nathaniel added.
The group broke up and left to their respective tables to eat and go to classes.
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Most of the classes passed by similarly to the day previous, reiterating and improving on the first lesson the students were learning.
The only real difference was that Professor Snape had to clean a much larger mess this time.
Unfortunately, the boy with the syndrome started punching his chin while holding some ingredients and crushed them when they should have been sliced. Then the stupid child accidentally knocked the pot clean over when he thrust out his hand to punch his stomach. The half-finished liquid that poured out of the cauldron engulfed the ingredients on the table all at once and began to smoke before exploding brilliantly.
Only a silent shield charm had saved his students from grievous injury. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for a few tables and at least five cauldrons.
Hufflepuff house understood completely why fifty points were removed instantly.
Michael was doing marginally better, he finally succeeded on his transfiguration along with half of the class, but not before he jerked unexpectedly, knocking over his table and several others in a domino effect.
Needles went flying, students went cursing, and tables turned to silver.
"Fifteen points from Slytherin." McGonagall said calmly, "Now take these two to the Hospital wing and get all of these needles removed."
She then set about casting Reparifarge on a massive needle that was once a table.
Alex found himself having a very successful day, enjoying much of his lessons and earning Gryffindor eight points.
Tessa had fun, she joined a study group that helped first year students get through classes easier and did well in all of her lessons.
Her Lumos was a little overpowered and blinded three other children, but Flitwick was very understanding and hadn't taken any points away, the Hufflepuffs had lost enough points today.
Fred and George skivved a few classes and pranked Flint with a dungbomb.
Nathaniel's first transfiguration class went well, he managed to complete the task before the end of class. Maybe he was the fifth one to do it, but that didn't make it any less of a win to him.
As they were leaving, he had a tic attack from hearing something similar to his trigger word and rushed past his fellow Hufflepuffs before he accidentally hit one of them. Again.
As Michael walked to dinner, he reflected on the flying lesson he just came from. Pride clashed with reality when he finally got the hang of broom riding. Moderate speed and excellent control were his at last. If only that tree hadn't gotten in the way. He had no idea where it came from because as he told the other Slytherin, that tree had not been there a second previously. And yes, tightly shutting his eyes was a tic.
He entered the Great Hall and smirked as he saw fantastic turkey dinners sprawled across every table.
Nathaniel came up behind him and grabbed him roughly by the shoulders yelling in his ear, "Boo!"
Michael turned to him and shook his head, a disappointed look on his face. While outside he looked unsurprised and stoic, he had been very startled indeed. Not that anyone was going to know that. Ever.
They sat at either side of Tessa at Hufflepuff table and messed around, taking turns eating from her plate whenever she turned away from one of them.
The Weasley twins came up and whispered, "Twenty minutes and then we're going to start."
Michael nodded as Nathaniel stole another chunk of meat from their friend's plate.
Eventually, Dumbledore called the end of the feast and the students headed back to their beds.
Little did he know what was to come.
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"Step one." Michael whispered, as he snuck through the dark halls.
"You don't have to say that, I'm right here Michael." Nathaniel whispered back.
Michael gave his twin a withering gaze.
"We sneak Nathaniel into the Slytherin common room where he will identify the victim's beds and wands." He continued.
"Have you thought of an excuse to meet with the headmaster yet?" Nathaniel interrupted his narration.
"I'll come up with something, don't worry." He reassured.
Nathaniel spoke up, "Step two, Michael alerts Fred and George while I get the wands and meet up with him outside of Professor Dumbledore's office."
"Next, Fred escorts us to the Headmasters's office while George and Alex run interference." Michael said.
"After that, Fred will meet up with George and Alex and sneak back to their Gryffindor house." Nathaniel added.
"And well take care of the rest!" The other finished.
"Got it." George nodded, "Are you ready Alex and Freddy?"
"You know it!" Fred grinned.
Alex nodded, taking it all very seriously.
"Break!" Alex said loudly.
The two pairs of twins looked at him in confusion.
"Nevermind." He muttered.
The pack broke off, George and Fred to set the distraction, Alex to reconnaissance, and the Henderson twins to enter Slytherin house.
It was almost curfew when they reached the blank wall, Nathaniel wearing Slytherin robes and keeping his head down. If he didn't want people recognizing him, he would have to keep his face at least partially hidden.
"Slytherin." Michael whispered.
Nathaniel looked at him in bafflement as the secret door opened, "That's your password? That's so stupid."
"From what I gather, our passwords are restricted to Slytherin, Snake, Pureblood, Superior, and Superiority. It changes every twenty days."
"Slytherins are idiots."
Michael smacked Nathaniel on the back of the head.
"Only most." Michael corrected him, "Get it right!"
They entered the common room finding it mostly barren.
Nathaniel kept his head lowered and entered behind Michael.
The few people sitting around the common room looked up from their respective books and game of what appeared to be cards that exploded randomly.
Nathaniel shoved Michael to the side and stalked into the room, strutting like a peacock and using his hands to billow his robes around him in a dramatic manner. The heads quickly lowered finding nothing out of the ordinary.
Michael glowered at Nathaniel's back and left, expecting his twin to do his part.
The other Slytherins were slightly confused as to why Michael entered and then left immediately but he was a muggleborn so none of them really cared.
Nathaniel continued strutting up the stairs, looking for which rooms held his targets.
Meanwhile, Michael sprinted through the dark halls to the meeting point they had arranged.
Screeching around a corner he saw Fred and George milling about, and yelled, "SIGNAL!"
They jumped up and got to work.
Michael watched the Weasley twins set off the trap with undisguised glee.
A moment later Fred grabbed his arm and they took off towards the dungeons, thunderous banging sounds going off behind them, loud enough to wake students from every common room in the castle.
Alex ran past them to George, for their part of the plan.
Nathaniel gulped and kept his breathing steady as he hid under the bed of a very awake Marcus Flint.
"Did you hear that?" One of the other boys in the dormitory asked.
Marcus hushed him, he hadn't been awoken by the bangs, but rather by the sounds of someone rifling through his trunk.
Eventually finding nothing, he told the others to shut up so he could get some sleep.
Nathaniel waited an extra few minutes before he got out from his hiding place.
Searching more quietly this time, he gathered up his twelfth wand, this was his last room he had looted, and Marcus had been the last victim he was searching when he had almost been caught.
"Go big or go home." He muttered as he set fire to Marcus's trunk with a whispered Incendio.
He got on all fours and ran, robes billowing behind him, before the soft crackling and dim light could wake up the older boys that he had sworn vengeance on.
Dashing through the halls, Nathaniel headed to where he knew Dumbledore's office would be.
About halfway there he stumbled into Fred and Michael.
"Howdy, howdy." He winked, pulling out one of the pilfered wands as they moved.
Michael grinned and Fred looked positively mad with delight.
They reached the office shortly and Nathaniel, out of breath, spoke the password.
"Sugar Lice."
Nothing happened. The gargoyles remained blocking any entry.
Michael rolled his eyes, elbowed his twin out of the way and said, "Sugar Mice."
The gargoyles leaped to each side, allowing them entry.
Michael gave his brother a smug look and they left Fred, stepping onto the stairs, he would keep watch.
They ran up and entered through an archway into Professor Dumbledore's office where they found him bent over a stack of papers, with opened envelopes scattered off to the side, a few having toppled onto the floor.
He didn't look up as he said their names, "Misters Michael and Nathaniel Henderson, welcome."
The twins nodded and took in the rest of the office.
Despite it being night, the room was brightly lit, but from where, the twins couldn't tell.
Surrounding the table in the center, walls of shelves contained mysterious gadgets and gizmos that they assumed were magic, except for the Telephone in the shape of a boot, they weren't exactly positive about that one.
Most of the objects appeared silver although they did show in a rainbow of metallic sheens.
Michael stepped forward to talk to the headmaster while Nathaniel needed no nudging to excitedly examine the fancy stuff.
"Headmaster Dumbledore," Michael began.
"Please just Professor." The elderly wizard said, raising his head from his probably important work.
"I must admit I did not expect you here this late, however my offer still stands."
Michael looked around the room, desperate for anything he could use, having totally forgotten to come up with a reason.
Nathaniel hooted and punched his stomach as he slid another wand into a fun hiding place.
This one was dropped inside what looked like a marble bowl filled with silvery water on top of a little pedestal.
If Michael were in a cartoon, a lightbulb would have flashed over this head.
"You see, we have Tourette's Syndrome, which means Nathaniel can't do a LOT of stuff properly."
"Shut up." Nathaniel interjected, stuffing a wand into the pot of an unknown plant.
Dumbledore nodded for him to continue.
"He already lost over a hundred points for his house from Professor Snape because of his tics! It's not fair." Michael said.
He was being sincere, this was a problem they had discussed many times before coming to Hogwarts, but they didn't realize it would be this frustrating.
Dumbledore nodded slowly, trying to hold Michael's ADHD infected eyes for more than half a second.
Failing this, he sighed and said, "I will see what I can have Professor Snape do to alleviate these symptoms."
Michael nodded, thanking him as Nathaniel hid another wand inside a pair of dress robes hanging on a suit of armor.
Nathaniel passed Marcus's wand discreetly to his brother and hid the second to last one in a crazy array of thin silver sticks where it stood out like a sore thumb.
Nathaniel ran forward to Dumbledore as Michael took his cue to hide the final wand.
"Is there anything you know that could help me?" Nathaniel asked as Michael went to admire a portrait of a fancy looking fellow who was asleep.
Dumbledore apologized gently to Nathaniel as the wand found a new home behind the portrait.
Bidding him goodbye, Nathaniel dragged Michael down the steps and out of Professor Dumbledore's office.
Or as they liked to call it, lair.
Fred grinned and they went their separate ways, it was past curfew and they had individual houses to reach before they got caught.
Along the way, Nathaniel met a cat and pet the hell out of it before running at the sound of footsteps and heavy, old man breathing.
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The next morning was full of anticipation. Michael hadn't gotten much sleep between the panic over the flaming beds, and excitement for tomorrow.
The fire only destroyed every bed and trunk in the room, leaving the students, who managed to escape in time, untouched.
Michael had to listen to their whining.
"My wand got BURNT!" One cried.
"I can't believe I forgot it in the fire." Marcus spat.
Having only a slight theory on how the fire started, Michael didn't have too much trouble keeping quiet.
I bet Nathaniel accidentally set it off. He's always practicing that spell. It's gotta be him.
The trip to breakfast was spent with Michael, once again, pestering the Bloody Baron with questions about how he died and how ghosts work.
Which, as last time, resulted in him floating through the ceiling.
The ghost, not the child. As the child couldn't fly under his own power. Yet.
And couldn't phase through solid objects. Yet.
Michael and Nathaniel had that on their list of magic to master. Along with many other possible powers that they desired.
Marcus and the three other Slytherin in his dormitory got leave to go to Hogsmeade and bought new supplies, and wands the very next day, but a week later, Dumbledore somehow found their wands. Along with the mysteriously missing eight other wands from random Slytherin students in the same year. Which was fortunate for them, since most of them weren't able to get new wands for some time.
This prompted a conversation for the Hendersons, Weasleys, and Alex.
"Our revenge was good, but it could be better." Michael started.
Fred and George nodded.
"They just replaced everything they lost." Fred mused.
"How did that fire start anyways?" Alex asked.
Everybody turned to Nathaniel, the only one of their group who had been in the Slytherin dorms at the time of the fire.
He shrugged.
Fred, George, and Alex started theorizing about their suspicions.
Discreetly, Nathaniel caught Michael's eye and gave a small thumbs up, confirming his deed.
Michael nodded, pretending to be deep in thought.
"We need to learn more magic," The Henderson twin interrupted, "If we want better revenge, and to keep him off us permanently, we'll need to master more magic."
The others started nodding, Fred and George giving knowing looks to the other and Alex pretending he hadn't seen all of the secret twin signals.
They ended with an agreement to help each other learn, study, and share information.
It was a good day, not one for the students in Michael's transfiguration class though. It did not end well.
Needles were, as always, prevalent.
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Authors' Notes:
Hope you enjoyed! Please review, and tell us what you think! We will have more chapters up sooner rather than later!
Do you think we should have separate stories for each year of Hogwarts or keep the entire series in this one story? Thoughts?