A/N: I have given up on getting any e-mails from FF by now. Maybe I will get the app. People said they have no problem there with getting alerts. Anyway, here comes a new chapter. Enjoy!
A Potions Master, Former Headteachers, and a... what the...?
On Monday, Lucius and Severus sat in the headmaster's office and went through some of the tasks that were of immediate concern.
They got a little distracted by the portraits of the headmasters who were whispering rather intensely with each other.
Lucius soon lost his patience, but instead of ordering them to be quiet, as Severus had expected him to, he asked the portraits what the matter was.
After some shovelling and more whispering one of the headmistresses who must've been alive in the 14th century if one considered the style of her robes, stepped forward and said, "There's much agitation and distress within our kind because many of the students have started to cast a spell on us portraits that has changed some of us beyond recognition. We are unsure about what that means. Some do have an inkling, but they won't talk."
Lucius blinked and said, "I see. Hm. If I spelled a newspaper in front of one of your portraits would you be able to read it?"
"We certainly would."
"Very well," and with that, the new headmaster spelt the edition from December 29th to hover in front of the biggest picture frame in his office where the portraits could crowd inside.
When everyone had read it, they asked him to turn the page and gasped.
After they had also all read the article about dark magic they started whispering again, but much more quietly, thankfully.
Meanwhile, Lucius and Severus went on working.
Severus had brought up the issues with damaged, inherited, and otherwise incompatible wands and they were discussing the merits of bringing the students to Ollivanders versus bringing the wandmaker to Hogwarts.
Severus frowned, deep in thought.
"What are you thinking about, Severus?"
"What if there are wands in the Room of Requirement? Do you think people lost their wands within the school in the last millennium?"
"Interesting idea. Why don't you have a quick look so we can make a more informed decision on how to proceed."
"Good idea. I don't want to deprive Ollivanders of making a business, but it's a possible resource we should check."
Before Severus could leave for a quick visit to the Room of Requirement, the portrait of former Headmaster Phineas Nigellus Black spoke up and said, "Headmaster Malfoy, we request that you cast the counter-curse on us as well. We tried to do it ourselves, but that doesn't seem to be possible."
"Gladly," Lucius answered, and Severus nodded to him and left.
While Severus walked to the place where one could find the Room of Requirement, he watched the portraits more closely than normal.
There seemed to be much more excitement than usual happening.
'Interesting' he thought and started hitting the frames with the counter in his calm manner, as well.
He smirked internally at the hubbub he left in his wake.
After he arrived at the Room, he thought about finding a room with all the wands sorted by date of purchase and was rather successful. There were more wands here than he had expected. How that many students had managed to lose their wands was astounding. There were at least a thousand. That meant that on average at least one person lost their wand in Hogwarts each year.
On a whim, he closed his eyes, stretched out his hand, and called for the wand that would fit him and was surprised when one all but jumped into his hand, even with his eyes closed!
He blinked his eyes open and looked down to find a handsome mahogany wand. A little longer than his first one. He gave it a wave and felt his magic connect with its core strength and a spray of green and blue sparks left it in a rush.
He happily pushed the wand into the holster, which held his other one already, and stepped out into the corridor.
When he turned to leave, he had another idea that had festered for quite some time (well, since yesterday.)
He walked three times past the empty wall and a new door appeared. A steel door, much to his surprise.
He pressed his ear against it and listened but could hear nothing, so he pulled out his old and trusted wand and carefully opened the door, listening again as soon as it had opened a small crack.
Now he could hear crunching, grunting, and some shrieking noises. Like something was in terrible distress. So, he carefully opened the door a bit wider and looked inside.
As soon as he saw what was inside, he slammed the door shut again and leaned against it, heart racing.
It took a while until he had calmed down enough to go back to the headmaster's office, but he managed.
He went inside and found Lucius standing in front of his wall, which contained most of the portraits looking toward the door when he heard it opening.
"Severus, did you find… Severus? What is it?"
Severus walked to his chair and fell onto it.
He then looked up and said in a grave voice, "There's a bloody dragon in that room."
After he had told his story to a slightly disbelieving Lucius, they sat there quietly for a while.
It was just too crazy.
"How does it survive in there? Does time exist for it even when the Room is not active? Or another one is? We know it can hold things from the outside world, so what would happen if a witch or wizard was trapped inside even without the dragon?" burst out of Severus.
They heard a cough asking for their attention and when they looked up, they saw the portrait of the woman from the Renaissance time who had spoken up earlier.
She said, "I might be able to answer some of your questions."
The two men nodded gratefully and turned toward her fully.
"First of all, there's no way a person could get trapped inside. The Room of Requirement is warded against that. It only goes into stasis if no self-aware being is in it."
"That's a relief," Lucius sighed.
"It is indeed," the portrait of the former headmistress said and went on, "but it can hold non-aware magical creatures and animals which go into stasis when the room they are in isn't active. So, they'll not multiply over time. For example, that Dragon you found had, in its mind, just entered the Room of Requirement and then found many critters to feast on. Which it proceeded to do."
"Well, that answers the age-old question of whether dragons have any self-awareness," Severus said drolly.
"You're right! This is the ultimate test. Well, you asked how it got there."
The two nodded and so she went on, "The Room was Rowena Ravenclaw's crown jewel. She had devised and enchanted it for years. She kept it secret from her fellow founders at first. They had some contest going on about who could add the greatest room to the castle or grounds. The most famous one is the Chamber of Secrets. The most used one is the Great Hall and the kitchens underneath, built by Helga Hufflepuff."
"Well, then Hufflepuff wins by far as that's the room we all love and use daily when we are here," Lucius decided.
Severus nodded, "It pains me to agree, but you're right. It's the most practical approach to the challenge. What was Gryffindor's contribution?"
"No one knows. It became the Great Lake, also known as the Black Lake. It was a mighty and impressive thing that collapsed into itself, with its purpose being lost in time."
Severus and Lucius laughed outright.
"It is right that you laugh. You see, the founders worked best if they worked together. The grandness of Hogwarts was Godric's idea, but he needed the help of the others to make it happen. But the four Great Rooms of the Founders are a perfect example of their characters."
Lucius said, "And Slytherin built the common room for his students looking into that lake. So, this rivalry that's still talked about…"
"… was quite real," the chuckling woman answered. "Godric's answer was to import a Giant Squid.
Now everyone was laughing, men and portraits alike.
"You're very knowledgeable about this, Headmistress…"
"Gwendolyn Smith, at your service. I'm a direct descendant of Helga's lot. And I wrote a book about the Four Rooms and the character traits of the four founders. You probably will find it in the Room of Requirement if not in the library. I'm afraid the library has been purged a couple of times by victims of that stupid beauty spell that has just reared its ugly head again. Morgaine be damned."
The last was muttered, but Severus heard and put the smidge of information away to ask about later. "And do you also know how a dragon happened to get into the room? No, don't tell me. Let me guess. Godric Gryffindor was to blame."
Headmistress Smith laughed and nodded, "However did you guess? But the dragon is safely contained, and you found the perfect way to get rid of any pests that might've entered the Room of Requirement over the centuries."
"But what if a student finds exactly that Room?" Lucius asked and Severus noted, his friend seemed to take to being the headmaster like a duck took to water.
"Rowena had the same fear, but instead of getting the dragon out, she enchanted the Room to only let enemies of the school enter any room the dragon was in, as a safety measure. Similar to the Squid in the Great Lake and the Basilisk in the Chamber."
Lucius asked faintly, "Basilisk?"
"Yes, that's another topic we'll need to talk about sometime later, it's contained for now."
Severus's quick mind connected the petrifications and dead roosters with the basilisk and the heir of Slytherin, but as he believed the former headmistress, he kept quiet for now. The dragon was enough for one day! So, he said, "Thank you Headmistress Smith for telling us all of this invaluable information."
She smiled and nodded, "Anytime. That's what we are here for, after all."
Lucius muttered, "At least there's no monster in the Great Hall!"
"You're right. Helga found a hundred house-elves much more useful."
Severus remembered what Lucius had been doing earlier and looked at the inhabitants of the paintings with great interest. Some had changed mightily on the outside. It was much more palatable to look at the wall now. And he guessed the attitudes of many had changed as well.
"Oh, I just realised that we at least know that Dumbledore is still alive somewhere. There's no portrait of him and there would be one if he had died, right?"
"That is right, son," the man Severus thought must be the portrait of Armando Dippet, the headmaster before Albus, said. "My portrait just woke up this month, after my peaceful death last year. That's when it formed on this wall, I was told."
"Well, that's a relief," Lucius said and quickly added, "I mean that Dumbledore is still alive. Not that you died recently! My condolences," Lucius tried to backpedal. "I… I'll still contact No. 15 once more about Dumbledore's disappearance. I have to agree with Vector. The whole thing is just odd."
Severus as well as Lucius saw Dippet smile at the flustered new headmaster and felt at ease that Lucius hadn't managed to accidentally insult a non-removable portrait in the room he would spend most of his time in, for the next half of the year at least.
"So, tell me. Did you find any wands in the room, or did you try the idea about the pests first and found a dragon?
"I found at least a thousand wands. I had the room sort them as we did the books and files… oh! Headmistress Smith? What would happen if a student managed to call up a room with the books and the dragon in it? Will the books get destroyed?"
The woman laughed again and answered, "That was Rowena's first concern, too. So no, the dragon cannot destroy anything but critters and enemies of the school."
"That's a relief. Thank you!" He turned back to Lucius, "All right, back to the wands..." He proceeded to tell his friend of all the wands he had found, and the one that had chosen him.
They spend the next half hour discussing their next steps regarding them with some input from Headmistress Smith.
That was, they did so until the next emergency came up, and called them to the Entrance Hall.