Chapter 25


MiB


Tuesday 1 July 1986

Amanda had come by the Black Estate to meet up with Westley and discuss when they would plan on heading to Hogwarts. Westley indicated that they should do it that afternoon, just to be sure to obtain the last remaining horcrux before they had to deal with young Harry and his scar.

Amanda summoned her family owl, and sent him off to let McGonagall that she and Westley would be heading to Hogwarts for her to show him around that afternoon, around 2 pm.

Westley summoned Kreacher to him. "I need you to help me out. Can you come to Hogwarts, to a hidden room, if I summon you? And do you know if it would set off any alarms or wards at the castle if you did that?"

Kreacher seemed to ponder the questions for a minute before adding, "House elves routinely go to and from the school to bring things to young masters or mistresses when the school is in session. It should not be a problem."

There was a slight pop when a second house elf appeared. "Oh, master Westley, Dobby would be happy to help good master friend of mistress Narcissa."

Westley looked back and forth between the two house elves, and recalled that when he was a third years student, Dobby frequently arrived at the school, much to Westley's frustration, and it never seemed to be a problem or affect any of the wards at the castle.

"Very well," said Westley. "I have some special crystal boxes in a room in the basement, Kreacher should remember these boxes. I will need one brought to me when I summon you. I'd rather not risk damaging its magic protective properties if I have to shrink it and sneak it past any of the staff at the school."

"Dobby would be happy to do this for kind master Westley," said the excited house elf as he bounced up and down.

"Kreacher needs to be working on meals, but will help if he must," muttered the old and cranky house elf.

"That's fine Kreacher, Dobby is able to help out," said Westley. "Please just show him where the crystal boxes are kept in the secure room."

"It will be done, master Westley," stated Kreacher who then disappeared with a pop.

Dobby looked around the room and then to Westley and Amanda, and then quickly followed Kreacher away.

"Now that is a strange little elf," commented Amanda.

"Dobby is a Malfoy family house elf. Honestly, I had some unusual run-ins with the little guy when I was a student. He means well, and is excitable, and really just wants to help. Although his idea of what helping is can be quite unusual."

Amanda and Westley made their way out to the back garden to see what the children were up to under the supposedly watchful eye of Sirius. The usual group of eight youngsters who would all be classmates at Hogwarts had arrived and they were all playing in the pool.

Sirius was having fun jumping into the pool and splashing the kids who were getting a splash war themselves.

"They do seem to having a lot of fun," commented Amanda.

Westley smiled, "That they do, that they do."

The two turned to leave, and as they were entering the manor house, Narcissa was making her way out to the pool area. Westley couldn't help but to note she was wearing a muggle style bathing suit which was quite snug on her curves, and she had a see-through robe draped over herself as she walked by. Narcissa avoided looking at the two, but Westley couldn't help but stare. Amanda quickly slapped his arm slightly to get his attention.

"What was that?" questioned Amanda as they walked towards the floo.

"Uh, that, well, that was Narcissa heading out to the pool," said a surprised Westley.

Amanda rolled her eyes at him, "That much was quite obvious, as was her state of dress, or undress."

"She's just enjoying herself, and relaxing," said Westley.

"Keep telling yourself that," said Amanda.

"Whatever," said Westley. "Let's head to Hogsmeade for some lunch before heading up to the castle for the 'tour.' I can show you around the village, or we can at least pretend we are both exploring the village."


MiB


Hogsmeade Village

Westley and Amanda were making their way around the village, which was much quieter than Diagon Alley. They had a light lunch at the Three Broomsticks Pub before making their way up and down the streets of the village. Westley was actually surprised that he had seen so little of the village when he was a student, mostly only going to a few shops in addition to the Three Broomsticks and the occasional visit to The Hogshead Inn.

They explored a couple of different book shops, found a magical green grocer store as well as the main office for the Wizarding Wireless Network radio station. Westley pointed out Zonko's joke shop. "You do want to familiarise yourself with what they sell there, as you will most likely encounter the items being used by students as they prank each other or even may try to prank a professor."

"Is that so?" asked Amanda. "And you have personal knowledge of students pranking professors, do you?"

Wesley smiled slightly, "Most professors were not safe for us to prank. Although, there was one year, there was a particularly nasty professor, mean and spiteful and all that, who everyone wanted to prank, but there were only a few students who would even dare to prank her."

Amanda smiled again as she stepped one arm into Westley's, "I think I would like to hear more about that at some point, but probably best not to speak of it while we are walk-in around the village."

"Quite right," agreed Westley.

Westley examined some of the latest brooms for sale at Spintwitches Sporting Needs. Amanda had get his attention to remind him that they were nearing the time they were to meet with Professor McGonagall.


MiB


Hogwarts Castle

After the walk up to the gates of the castle they were greeted there by Professor McGonagall. Westley was happy that he had been working on his occlumency with Arcturus so he was able to hide any sort of emotional reaction to seeing his former head of house while he was a student.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, Mister Black," said Minerva. She then turned to Amanda, "And welcome back Miss Lester, or should I say, Professor Lester."

"Thank you, Professor McGonagall," answered Amanda and Westley.

"Enough with the formalities; please, call me Minerva," said the transfiguration professor.

"Well, then, Minerva, it is Amanda," replied to newest faculty member.

"And you can call me Westley, please. Mister Black is my grandfather," added Westley with a smile.

"Shall we head up to the castle then? Do you need me to show you around?" asked Minerva.

"Oh, no, I'd like to show Westley around and see how well I remember things on my own," said Amanda. "You won't be able to show me around once the students arrive, so its best that I sort this out on my own before they arrive in a couple of months."

"Quite so," agreed Minerva. "But perhaps I can at least start by showing you where your quarters will be, near the Defense classroom."

"That would be wonderful," said Amanda.

"It is quite a magnificent site," said Westley as they walked up the steps to the main entrance by the Great Hall.

"Thank you," said Minerva. "It can have quite a dramatic affect on the first years when they arrive, particularly as they are taken across the lake in boats and their first view of the castle makes it appear even larger and more magnificent."

"Overwhelm them right from the start then," commented Westley.

"Its all part of showing them just how impressive magic can be when they arrive at the school," said Minerva.

"Well, I would gather that it is quite successful in meeting that goal," added Westley with a smile.

Once they entered the castle they made their way to the DADA classroom on the third floor, classroom 3C, which Westley recognised as the room that was used during his 3rd through 6th years at Hogwarts.

"We are currently in the Turris Magnus, the Defense tower," said Minerva. "Your office is just down the stairs from here on the second floor. Most of the classes for Defense Against the Dark Arts are taught in this room. Many professors have chosen to use the classroom on the first floor, room 31, for teaching the first years. It is a smaller room and there is much less need for casting of spells during that year based on the typical curriculum used by professors."

Westley and Amanda nodded, appreciating the information she had shared. "Now, we shall make our way down to what will be your office, Amanda," said Minerva as she led them back down the staircase in the centre of the tower.

When they were shown into the office, Westley initially hesitated, as his last memories of this office were when it was a horrid shade of pink and covered with magical plates with cat portraits and prior to that it was used by Bartemius Crouch Jr as he was impersonating famed Auror Mad-eye Moody. He quickly stilled himself from having any visible reaction in front of professor McGonagall.

Minerva pointed out the main room for the office where there was a desk and an area large enough for a professor to meet with a small group of students. There was also a private study located behind the main office.

"Now, usually the new professors are assigned a room to live in the teacher's tower. There are a few rooms available. Probably the nicest room is the one on the fourth floor, but you can check them out later with one of the school's house elves. I will inform the head house elf for faculty members to come to you when you request it."

"Thank you very much, Professor McGonagall," replied Amanda.

Minerva frowned at her, "Now, what did I say? You can and should call me Minerva, but in front of the students using the more formal title would be appropriate."

Amanda bowed her head slightly in a conciliatory manor, "Understood, Minerva."

"Well, if you think you can find your way around the castle and not get lost, I will leave you to it then," said Minerva.

Then she turned and made her way as she left Amanda and Westley in front of the DADA office.

The two waited in silence until Professor McGonagall's footsteps had definitely faded in the distance.

"Now where to?" asked Amanda.

"We will make our way over towards the seventh floor in the main part of the castle, there I will show you the Room of Requirement. Few people, including faculty and staff, even know of it's existence," said Westley. "And I can point out along the way some of the secret passageways that others had previously found."

"That information could prove to be useful," said Amanda.

Westley laughed, "Actually, it is mostly useful to students trying to avoid being caught out after hours, but not many know about it."

A couple of minutes later they found themselves alone not he seventh floor corridor, next to a portrait of dancing trolls.

"That's an odd picture," commented Amanda.

"But it is most important, as it marks the location where one would pace back and forth several times while thinking about what they want most in a room," said Westley as he started to walk back and forth.

Amanda was startled by the sudden appearance of a door on the other side of the corridor. She gasped slightly at suddenly see the door appear.

"Now, Miss Lester, you're a witch, you've seen magic throughout your life," said Westley with a laugh. "You shouldn't be so startled by the magical appearance of a magical door."

He then walked over to the door and opened it slowly, and waved her into the room in front of him.

Amanda looked at the piles of junk, rows of bookshelves overflowing with books and all sorts of lost 'treasures' or just plain junk. "What in Merlin's name is this?"

Westley chuckled slightly. "This, is the Room or Requirement. Currently it is what is referred to as the Room of Lost Things, also known to the house elves as the Come and Go Room, because it appears differently at different times, and it is not always found."

"You had mentioned it could appear as different things, different rooms," said Amanda as she stared at the vast amount of stuff in front of them. She couldn't even begin to guess how large the room was.

"Yes, very different things," said Westley. "I used as a training room one year when the DADA professor was incompetent and trying to make sure no one learned anything related to defensive magic. The year before I had to fight Tom Riddle, students who were being abused by the Death Eaters, dark teachers and their crazy students who followed them, well they made this into a safe house, a dormitory to hide away from those who would practice torture curses on them."

"Perhaps we can try out some other rooms at another time," said Amanda softly.

"Perhaps," agreed Westley. "But we should best get on with what we were planning in the first place, so as not to spend too much time in any one place and raise suspicion from any faculty who may be around this summer."

Amanda nodded in response to his comment.

Westley called out to Dobby, and in a moment the excitable house elf appeared, and he had the crystal box with him that Westley had explained he would need.

"Thank you Dobby," said Westley with a smile.

"Master Westley thanks Dobby for Dobby doing is job as a good elf," exclaimed the small house elf as he bounced on his toes. "Master Westley is a great master, he is."

Westley rolled his eyes when he looked over at Amanda who shook her head slightly at the elf's reaction.

"All right then, here goes," and he pulled out the Elder Wand, and concentrated very hard and called out "Accio Horcrux!"

A moment later there were sounds of several items falling and crashing to the floor. A couple of more crashes occurred when Westley and Amanda noticed four objects flying through the air towards them.

Amanda screamed out an expletive at the same time as Westley.

Westley was preparing a spell to try and capture the objects but just ten feet from hitting them Dobby waved his hand and all four of the objects just stopped frozen in space.

Amanda turned to Westley, "You said you were looking for one item. That Riddle had only one more horcrux."

"Tom Riddle had only made the ones we already destroyed, the diary, the cup, the ring and the locket, in addition to corrupting Ravenclaw's diadem and making the accidental one in young Harry," said a startled Westley as he stared at the four objects.

Dobby spoke up, "Master Westley summoned bad objects. There is very bad magic in those objects, or in three of the objects."

Amanda tentatively reached out towards the object floating and spinning in front of her, something that looked like a metal triangle.

Westley snapped at her, "Stop! Don't touch it. Don't touch any of them."

Amanda pulled her hand back and looked at Westley. "Sorry, I wasn't sure if I heard it calling out to me."

Westley turned to Dobby. "Can you get us three more of the crystal boxes for these items?"

Without answering the house elf disappeared without a sound. The four floating objects fell and clattered on the floor. Westley and Amanda looked at the items more closely but they did not approach them. There was the diadem, which is the one object that Westley had expected to retrieve. There was the triangle shaped object which Westley immediately recognised as a replica of the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. There as a ring which seemed to have had whatever was on the surface removed by some sort of magical spell, and finally there was a yellow ceramic jar. Westley narrowed his eyes and thought it looked like it might have been a candy jar.

Dobby appeared a moment later with three more crystal boxes. The house elf apologised for taking so long to find additional boxes, as there was only one more at the Black Estate.

Westley then carefully moved each of the four objects into a separate crystal box. First he levitated the diadem, then the triangle, then the jar and finally the ring. As he let the ring fall into its own box Dobby shook his head. "That one, the ring, Master Westley," it doesn't seem dark like the other objects."

"So, maybe something happened to that ring so that whatever or whoever turned it onto a dark object or horcrux, it many longer be containing a piece of someone's soul."

Amanda stared at the boxes. "Three more horcruxes? How to we figure out who made them, if it wasn't this Tom Riddle? And what do we do about them?"

Westley ran a hand through his hair. "I have no idea. But we need to get these all back to the special room at the Black Estate."

Dobby interrupted Westley and announced that he could do that. There were four successive pops as Dobby took each box, one at a time and delivered them to the special room that Arcturus and Westley had used previously.

When Dobby reappeared after delivering the fourth box he was bouncing on his toes again. "Dobby has placed all of the boxes in the working room at the Black Estate. Dobby made sure they were as far away from each other as possible. They all have bad objects in them."

"Thank you, Dobby," said Westley. "That was very thoughtful and helpful."

Dobby smiled broadly at being thanked by one of his masters for what he had done. "If master and mistress not be needing Dobby anymore, Dobby will return to the Black Estate and help Kreacher with chores."

The elf then disappeared with a silent pop.

Amanda turned to look at Westley. "Now what in Merlin's name are you going to do?"


AN: another short but timely update.

I have tried to make corrections that various readers have pointed out in reviews, and I appreciate the feedback.