Dauntless

by Lwa

"One last chance. Beware to the gods. In seventeen years time the race shall begin. The child of Death becomes the one who is two, and calls forth three, of venom, bark, and bone." The prophecy begins as the child snaps, destroying a mental facility where they were subjected to torturous procedures. Now the one who is two must drink the elixir of life, or be split forever.

44. Chapter 44

Another day, another chapter.

Happy holidays everyone. Happy Christmas and a merry new year to all.

There have been many moments this year that are special to us all. There are points that we cherish, even if our year wasn't the greatest. For me, I got to watch my son grow and learn. I saw his first steps, heard his first words, watched his first teeth come in… parenting has been an adventure, and it's about to double in difficulty.

My partner and I are excited to announce that we are expecting a baby girl, due mid June of 2024. We are both excited about this, especially because it might be our last biological baby.

Near the end of October, I had my first appointment for gender wellness. My incredible doctor went through every step with me, listing over anatomy, physiology, psychology…

At the end of this very long appointment I was prescribed HRT, and began my journey through transitioning. It's a very long process, and while it eventually reaches a plateau, it doesn't really end. Treatment and medication will always be in my life, but I am happy to finally be who I know I am.

I know that there are many who read this work who understand what that means. HRT has a number of side effects, one of them being that I might not be able to have children after a long period of treatment. Anything is possible of course, but that chance makes our current child, and the child that we are expecting all the more special.

My family agrees with and supports me, and even though there were many tears between me and my partner when thinking about our future family, we are still strong and moving forward.

Other than that, this year has been really tame for me. Lots of learning, lots of growth. I hope that this continues through the years to come.

So with that recap out of the way, let's dove into another chapter, shall we?

—0—

Hermione let her disillusionment fall as she and Neville entered the forbidden corridor on the third floor.

Before them lay a massive three headed dog with black fur, which growled lowly as they stood in the doorframe.

"That's a big dog…" Hermione spoke worriedly. Neville nodded.

"I dunno Hermione, maybe we can save the diadem for another day?"

The young Ravenclaw Witch steeled herself and drew her wand. "No. We're going to find that diadem. Immobulus!"

The dog yipped in surprise as magic washed over the room, causing it to freeze in midair.

"Come on, let's go." Hermione walked forward to the trapdoor that sat in front of the immobilized Cerberus, keeping her wand steadily trained on the beast as she hefted the wooden panel open.

Neville and Hermione peered down into the dark depths of the next room. It was pitch black, but smelled earthy. Neville drew his wand and pointed shakily.

"Lumos."

The room below was illuminated by the light from Neville's wand. A layer of dark vines twitched and lazily slithered out of the way.

"Devils snare. Know any fire spells?" Neville mumbled.

"Light seems to work well. Lumos!" Hermione lit the tip of her wand and jumped down, landing softly within the vines, which reacted to the light and slithered away. She fell gently onto the floor below, right in front of a heavy wooden door.

"Come on Neville!"

The boy rolled his eyes. 'The things I do for this witch.' "Coming!"

—0—

"Oh dear magic, Mr. Hagrid!"

Ron remained hunched over Draco Malfoy, checking the boy over for any injuries that could exist. Minerva herself went for the patient with the most need.

Hagrid lay panting, his hand still over his destroyed eye. He was unconscious, yet still whimpered pitifully, shuddering every so often as pain coursed through his large frame.

"Mr. Weasley, I require your assistance. MR. WEASLEY!"

The redhead looked up from his fallen friend, seeing the state that Hagrid was in for the first time. "Hagrid… Just a moment professor, I must make sure that Draco is okay."

Minerva drew her wand and waved it at the young Slytherin's limp form. "Vulnum Revelio. He is fine, but he has dangerously low amounts of magic in his body. Terra murus!"

The earth around the area crawled together. Ron watched in wonder as everything from large stones, to small particles of dust rolled around and joined into a large wall, protecting them from the rest of the forest.

It was this incredibly powerful display of magic that made Ron Weasley realize just how much he had to learn as a wizard. Professor McGonagall had cast the spell without a huge amount of flair, or even a dozen movements of her wand. She simply waved and spoke, and she hardly broke a sweat.

Ron made sure to lay Draco down comfortably down upon the ground, before joining McGonagall at Hagrids side.

It was horrible.

The arrow was embedded up to a third of its length within Hagrid's face. The barbs on the tip poked out through the man's eye and shredded eyelid as blood seeped steadily from the wound.

"How in the hell-"

"Language, Mr Weasley." McGonagall spoke curtly. He could hear the faint tremble on her voice. She was worried.

"What do you need me to do?"

Minerva drew her wand. "I am going to vanish the arrow. I need you to staunch the bleeding."

"With a spell? Or-"

Minerva gripped her wand between two fingers before taking the hem of her robes and tearing off a length of fabric. "This will do."

Ron nodded as Minerva stooped over and pointed her wand at the man. "Evanesco…"

Nothing happened. Minerva grit her teeth. "Stupid stupid… Evanesco!"

The arrow remained lodged in Hagrid's face. Ron watched as the professor continued to try the spell, over and over, to no avail.

"EVANESCO!"

"Professor!"

Minerva slumped. "I cannot do it Mr. Weasley… Hagrid must have done something to the arrow…"

Ron shook his head. "There has to be something we can do."

"I am not well versed in Healing. I do not know what we could do." Minerva shook her head. "What am I thinking… showing weakness to a student…"

Ron looked at the arrow. The wound was still bleeding, and was now oozing a yellow pus.

"It's cursed."

"What?"

"The arrow. It's cursed. Look, the wound is already infected."

McGonagall looked at the wound. "You're right. But then…"

"A wizard. The thing out here, it's a wizard."

Minerva shook her head. "As wonderful as it is to finally know that… Mr. Hagrid may have died to give us this information."

"I'm going to try to pull it out. Maybe we can-" Ron grabbed the arrow, before a dozen voices wormed their way into his mind, causing him to cut himself short.

'Use us use us use us…'

Ron grimaced, the slithery, scrabbly voices that always terrified him clawed at his mind. They begged, urged him to use them.

"Mr. Weasley, are you alright?"

'Use us use us use us…'

Ron covered his ears, attempting to keep the voices from his mind, but to no avail.

'Use us use us use us…'

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

"Mr. Weasley!"

Ron growled and pulled at his hair, hoping that at the very least the pain would dull the steady throb in his mind.

"Mr. Weasley! Please! Calm yourself!"

'Use us use us use us'

"FINE! HELP HIM! HELP HIM PLEASE!"

Ron groaned and went back to tugging at his hair as Minerva knelt down beside him. "My word… what magic was laid upon that arrow?"

The sound of legs scuttling caught her attention. Minerva turned to see the stone wall she had created was now a roiling black mass.

Spiders.

Hundreds upon thousands of little spiders. They came from around the forest, from their small dens, their webs high in the trees. They heeded the call of the youngest Weasley child.

Minerva watched as five by five, the spiders came and began crawling up to Hagrid's face. Minerva watched in horror as they bit into the skin of the man's cheek. SHe tried to move, but found that she was unable to. She was paralyzed by the presence of these thousands of tiny creatures.

The spiders continued in turn, each taking nibbles from Hagrids wound, until the skin had been devoured enough to reveal the arrow and its shaft. Minerva watched as ten spiders now detached from the mass, walking up to Hagrid and grabbing onto the arrow, before wrenching it from the man's head.

The spiders all fell away, taking the arrow with them, back into the forest. Ron continued to whimper on the ground, pulling at his hair. Minerva found that she could finally move, and could now see what the spiders had done.

The skin of Hagrid's face was gone, along with patches of muscle. The bone around Hagrids left eye hole was picked clean, and sewn over with spider silk.

Minerva looked upon the wound in wonder. There was no more blood. The wound was clean, and the arrow was gone.

Hagrid had been saved.

—0—

Neville and Hermione gazed in wonder at what was before them. The room outside of Ravenclaws old office had been filled with flying keys. At the center was an old broom.

"Keys?"

"I believe this is another test to go further. Luckily for us, the office is through this unlocked door."

Neville pointed to a door that Hermione had not seen before. It was rather plain, made of polished oak. A carving of a raven was emblazoned upon the front.

"That's more plain than I was expecting…" Hermione blinked. "Are you sure this is it?"

"The four founders weren't kings or queens. Yes, they were powerful, and yes, they were wealthy. They didn't put it on display for all to see."

Neville opened the door and the two entered Ravenclaws old classroom.

It was like looking back one thousand years. The desks were all made of carved wood, the shelves all containing books sorted in an unknown alphabet.

"Runes…" Hermione ran her hand over the spines. "They wrote in runes…"

Neville nodded. "Have you been learning?"

"Bit by bit… Learning a new language is hard. It's sort of miraculous how far Scortwit has developed in her study of them…"

Neville nodded. "She is gifted… but so are you. Come on, let's see if we can find anything."

The two students began looking around the room, checking the old school desks, looking in drawers and cupboards. "There's potion ingredients in here…"

"Ravenclaw was a potions mistress. Although, most purebloods will tell you that Slytherin was better at potions than she was." Neville rooted through a cupboard. "Most of this stuff is expired…"

Hermione nodded. "You know a lot about the founders, Neville."

The boy's face went white, unseen by Hermione. 'Shit… I've been running my mouth way too much.'

"I've just read a lot about them. Being born to a pureblooded family… you learn a lot, not that it's always practical."

Hermione nodded. "I get it. Not all of the stuff I've read is practical either. Did you know that mooncalves can whistle in eighty one different tones?"

"Really?"

"Yeah. What can I do with that information? Hm?" Hermione giggled.

"Right. You could probably make a pretty cool instrument. I bet it would sound pretty cool." Neville shrugged.

"Celestial." Hermione smiled. "Mooncalf whistles are suppose to sound like an angels song."

"Maybe you should make an instrument then. I bet you could make a lot of money with it."

"Maybe I could…" Hermione nodded.

Neville watched Hermione walk around the room, looking over shelves and desks. She was rather gifted, he had to admit. Gullible, but maybe that was just his mastery of deception. And she always stuck with him. She was truly a friend. In some ways, it made him feel bad for how much he was playing to her sympathies.

"Do you know why mooncalves whistle?"

"Hm?" Hermione hummed, leaning over an open trunk.

"Even though they have big eyes, they are in fact, blind." Neville spoke, watching as she took out books and dusty trinkets. "They use the whistles to echolocate."

"That's rather interesting…" Hermione nodded, looking at a musty leather bound book. "I wonder why they whistle in different tones then…"

"Not to communicate, they do that through chitters." Neville pointed out.

"They do… Hey, look at this."

Hermione held up a picture frame from the chest, which contained an unmoving photograph of a woman and a little girl.

"Woah, unmoving photographs. That's some old magic."

"The wizarding world had photographs a thousand years ago?"

"Longer than that. Pictures that don't move are pretty rare nowadays…"

"We don't have moving photographs in the muggle world…" Hermione nodded. "This is normal for me."

Neville looked at the picture. "That's definitely Rowena Ravenclaw."

"The girl looks familiar." Hermione blinked, looking over the image. The two stood hand in hand atop one of the castle towers. The little girl was pointing at the sky.

"The astronomy tower…"

"That's Helena." Neville spoke suddenly. "Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter."

"Daughter?" Hermione's eyes drifted back to the girl. "I swear I've seen her somewhere before…"

"Maybe in a book?"

"No. Then I would have known who she was…" Hermione continued to study the photo. "I'm going to keep a hold of this. I think it's a clue into the diadem's whereabouts."

"You don't want to stay any longer? Look for anything else?" Neville blinked.

"The diadem isn't here Neville. If Ravenclaw had a daughter, she would have left it to her. Others have searched for the diadem, wherever Rowena had hid it. We're already ahead of them, because she didn't hide the diadem."

Neville inhaled as he looked at the picture.

"Helena did…"

—0—

And there we have it. Sorry for the short chapter. A bit on Hermione and Neville, one step towards finding the diadem.

Along with that, we have a bit from Ron. I went back and forth on revealing his gift this early, but in the end, I decided that it would be perfect. So, Ron has the unique magical ability to speak to spiders. I know I know, in the books and movies, he's afraid of spiders.

The reasoning behind this was simple. I wanted to give Ron an ability that separated him from the normal abilities of the Weasleys. I also had more of a character profile to play around with in his case. For someone like Charlie, you only have one hint, which is dragons. For Bill Weasley, you have cursebreaking. I can come up with some very simple and incredibly useful magical talents based off of those minimalist characters, especially because I am developing them in this story.

Ron is different, because we see a lot of him in the books. Sure, he might be the comedic relief. I think there is still a lot to expand on. However, I wanted his magical talent to have a link to his entire starting character. His fear of spiders comes from always hearing them, knowing what they are saying. Between that, and his mothers hatred for dark magic, you can understand why Ron would not like his gift, and therefor hide it away.

The full story of that will come later. Perhaps in this book, or perhaps in Venom. After all, Ron does have quite a role to play in that book.

Until then, leave a review. I am always happy to read the opinions and constructive criticism of all of you. You keep me writing, and for that I am grateful.

Special thanks to MidnightSavvy, I am glad that you are enjoying reading through this. Thank you for enjoying the writing and I hope the coming chapters will continue to garnish your attention.

Until next time, Adios.