Chapter 4

[Gregory Goyle]

'Okay, so… it is two lefts, one right, two more left after the moving stairs and then just straight from there? Or was it one left and then two rights…' Gregory tried to read through his hastily sketched map. Only to come up short by the amount of dead ends and intercrossed lines that littered the page. To be fair, it was hard to draw hallways that stretched with magic, stairs that moved and who knew what else.

"Yep," he said with a nod as he put his notebook-turned-map back into his pocket before looking left and right at the current intersection where he found himself. "I am lost."

There was not a single window in sight, so he guessed that he was deep into the castle. It tended to be Vincent's searching area, while he took care of the side wings and places near the center gardens of the school, but they decided to exchange for once, after a few days of no results. Magic castle or not, walking through random hallways and empty rooms could get pretty boring after a while. At the very least, this way they had a bit of a change in scenery to distract themselves.

With a sigh, Gregory decided to retrace his steps to return. It was already getting a bit late and he didn't want to be caught outside after curfew. He hadn't gone too far either way. He was still in the more inhabited parts of the castle than what they had started to refer to as the "abandoned" parts. Not that they were truly abandoned, be it that they were kept perfectly pristine and out of any dust, but the atmosphere seemed fitting for the word.

It didn't take long for Gregory to find his way back to the moving stairs. The whole place was filled with the sound of gossiping portraits – he had started to get used to those by that point – and moving rock.

Gregory spared a look upwards idly noting that he could barely see the ceiling from where he stood. He counted at least 20 different staircases there, and according to 'Hogwarts: A History' there were way more than a hundred across the whole school. Finding that room had proven to be more difficult than expected. Then again, how likely was one to find a random wall in a building as big as that one, with the only useful information being the number of the floor? It wasn't like they had a map that could guide them there directly.

Well, Vincent had mentioned there being one, but they couldn't get it anyway according to him.

The stairs on his level suddenly moved, calling for his attention. He noticed how the stone curved itself in the middle and formed an 'L' shape that hugged the wall, before connecting itself in front of him to the small balcony that just seconds before was a straight fall into the void.

'This is definitely not the way back,' he noted with pursed lips. The stairs weren't curved when he went up to the third floor. He was fairly sure he had climbed up a straight set of stairs the first time around. With a sigh, Gregory looked towards the new passage at the bottom end. It led into a hallway that was just right to the stone arch he was fairly sure he had come from before.

Were he a more optimistic man, he would assume that even if he went down now, the hallways would connect in some way later on, letting him return. But then again, this was Hogwarts, and logic was but a mere suggestion most of the time. Why couldn't they just make a stair that connected all places at the same time instead?

Indecision warred inside him. On one hand, he had no guarantee he could find his way back from that section of the second floor. On the other hand, he didn't know when the stairs would go to the correct form he needed again, and he was already getting close to curfew.

With a sigh, Gregory took the first step down and surrendered himself to his destiny. He only hoped that if he got lost, he wouldn't be found by that creepy Filch guy and his cat. He was fairly sure that the man had a problem with anyone for daring to make him aware of their existence. Even people from Slytherin seemed to unite for once to share rumors and snide remarks about the petty grumpy 'squib', whatever that meant.

The new hallway was nothing to really talk about, as it turned out. It looked just like all the others, which was a little concerning. Same stone walls and decorated roofs. Same pattern stone tiles and pillars. He had even found himself at yet another 'T' shaped intersection. It was business as usual, really.

That was until the sound of someone sobbing reached his ears, freezing him in place. It was almost muted given the distance, but he could still vaguely hear it thanks to the echo. Decision made with some apprehension, Gregory ignored every lesson he had learned from horror movies and moved in the direction of the crying sounds.

It wasn't long before he reached the origin. For once it wasn't an empty classroom that greeted him at the end of the hallway. Instead, it was a spacious bathroom with clean white walls and floor that presented itself in front of him. Both sides of the wall were covered with rows of stalls. At the end of these rows, the lavatory ended in a circular dome-like space.

Light filtered into the room through a round window in the wall at the top of the furthest wall, giving the whole place a natural feeling as the blue light of the moon entered through it giving the whole place an ethereal feeling. It also made him distinctly aware of the fact that he was very close to curfew already.

Its most characteristic feature, however, was the column of sinks that were arranged at the very center of the dome-like part. All of them seemed to be slightly dirty and run down by time. Even the exposed pipes that ran up the column and behind the set of tall mirrors attached to it looked slightly rusted.

"Hello?" he asked with some caution as he approached the middle of the room and got closer to the column with the sinks. Gregory made sure to check each and every stall one by one as he advanced, already regretting his damned curiosity.

A part of his mind noted that the crying and sobbing had stopped as soon as he entered the bathroom. The eerie silence was only broken by what he assumed was gunk and filth passing through the old rusted pipes of the sinks making a hiss-like sound accompanied by running water.

After he finished checking the stalls and finding nothing in them, Gregory directed his attention back to the column of sinks. It kept calling his attention for a reason he couldn't place. There was something odd about them, and a part of him found them familiar, which could only mean that it might have appeared in the movies, the few he had watched as a kid at least.

Then he heard a crack.

The sound slightly startled him as he noticed he had stepped over the shattered remains of what seemed to be some kind of glass cup. Multiple of them it seemed.

'Someone else was here recently? Perhaps the crying person from earlier?'

Gregory placed a hand on top of one of the mirrors on top of the dusty sinks and did his best to scrub it clean with the end of his sleeves. Sure enough, the slightly humid dirt gave way just enough for him to manage to see his own reflection albeit with some difficulty.

He found the fact particularly odd. Everything in the bathroom- No, everything in Hogwarts was perfectly pristine, at all times. Even in the "abandoned" parts of the castle, he could note that someone had been taking care of the whole cleaning and maintenance.

Yet, this single column looked like it had been in disuse for decades. Some weird green substance seemed to have clung the walls of the sink in front of him. And dust and rust seemed to have grown and taken over most of the metal around.

Moreover…

"Ugh, what is that smell?" Gregory exclaimed. He covered his nose with his sleeve – the one he hadn't used to clean the mirror – and looked down towards the sink. It was pungent and it reminded him of the rotten carcass of some animal. He grabbed the faucet and the border of the sink for stability. It reeked so bad that he almost wanted to throw up.

"Huh?" he said as he did his best to breathe through his mouth and sleeve. His eyes were slightly watery already and made him want to get away. Yet something else called his attention as he slid his hand across the faucet. He turned his head to the side to get a better look and slid his hand back and forth to notice the texture better.

"A snake?" he wondered, feeling the intricate design engraved at the side of the faucet. What an odd design choice. Was this an old Slytherin lavatory, then? But their dorms were pretty far away from there-

"Hehe."

His thoughts were interrupted, as he heard a voice giggle. It made the hairs on the back of his head stand up in alarm due to how close it was. It came from the same room he was in. It came from right behind him.

Gregory raised his head and looked through the mirror to see his reflection and someone else's. A short girl wearing her hair in two long twin tails laid her chin on his shoulder from behind him as a fox-like grin grew on her face while looking at their reflections in the mirror. Her face was full of pimples and a pair of thick round glasses framed her face, giving her a nerdy appearance.

Her most notable feature, however, was the fact that she was translucent. Wisps of spectral smoke washed out of her and disappeared like embers into the air. Her clothes and the few strands of hair that weren't tightly secured inside the twin tails waved slightly with an unseen wind making her look as if she was floating inside water.

"Well well well, would you look at that? A student out past curfew and inside the lady's lavatory," said what could only be a ghost. He had seen their… kind a few times at the Mess Hall. The girl proceeded to wrap an arm around him as she laid her head on top of his shoulder with a soft sigh of fake contentment. "Did you come here to have your way with poor. Little. Myrtle~? Such a bad boy~," she continued with a flirty voice as she touched his chin with a finger affectionately.

Gregory became very aware of how freezing cold that finger felt as it playfully descended down his neck before the ghost took her hand away to cover a small giggle of amusement.

"A-Ah, no. I am a bit lost and didn't see the sign before entering. My fault, Ms. Ghost-."

"Call me, Myrtle~," the ghost insisted as she giggled yet again. He was starting to believe she was enjoying the situation too much for his liking.

"Myrtle then. I am sorry if I disturbed you. It wasn't my intention."

"Are you sure you aren't a bad boy that came to have his way with poor little Myrtle, handsome?"

Gregory shuddered a bit. He was in the body of a twelve-year-old at the moment. Having a ghost flirting with him, even if she looked to have died young, was beyond creepy.

"No, Ms. G-Myrtle. I wasn't even aware you were here. I just heard someone crying in the lavatory at night and decided to chec-"

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say as Myrtle rose her head from his shoulder and frowned at him. Her expression transformed from a teasing one to one full of rage and hurt. She rose up into the air and flew with her fist clenched and baring her teeth. Going a full circle across the column of sinks before facing him directly, their noses almost touching as her ghostly blue glare, met his startled dark brown eyes.

"Oh so that is what is happening then?! You came all the way here to laugh and mock the dumb, ugly, lonely, dead Myrtle, huh?!"

Gregory backpedaled as he raised his hands to pacify the irate ghost.

"That's not what I-"

"Well, how do you like it then?! Are you having fun at my expense like everyone else?! Do you enjoy ruining my death too?!"

"I-" Gregory couldn't answer as Myrtle started trying to push him with her hands. While he could feel some weak cold touch, her body just mostly passed through him, which made the ghost girl even more angry and frustrated.

"Laugh, then! Laugh at the dumb Moaning Myrtle who died using the lavatory. A hundred points to the person that makes her cry the most!"

At this point, Gregory stopped trying to calm the ghost and started rushing in the direction of the exit. He felt the ghost was too hysterical at the moment to even listen to a single word he was saying. With a hasty turn, that almost made him trip as water started to flood the floor of the lavatory, the spooked kid rushed to the exit.

Behind him, Myrtle flew in circles screaming and bawling at the top of her lungs as she made water come out of the faucets and even the toilets inside the stalls.

Had Gregory or Myrtle been listening closely, they would have noticed the hissing sounds from the pipes slowly recede into the underground below.

[}-o-{]

[Vincent Crabbe]

'Gregory is late,' he mused, looking towards the entrance of the Slytherin Common Room from where he sat next to Malfoy. With any luck, he hadn't come across anything dangerous. The only thing on the loose at the moment was the basilisk, which sounded concerning but Vincent was sure there weren't supposed to be any more attacks for a while now.

'Maybe I shouldn't trust my knowledge this much,' he thought, gulping down as he glanced around a bit more. Hogwarts castle wasn't supposed to be a maze the size of a town, he was pretty sure. There were some clues that could give that impression, but… And there were certain things that pointed to this being some kind of AU too, like Arithmancy being the study of magic through math. Vincent was fairly sure that was fanon, not canon. Same with Runes being used for wards and enchanting.

'What else do I have to doubt?' he wondered, growing more nervous by the second. Maybe he could suggest exploring together next time? They'd cover a lot less land that way though and they needed the Room of Requirement… Or maybe not, he supposed. It'd help a lot though, and they needed all the help they could get if they wanted to catch up with their new peers and start getting ahead eventually.

Having a place where they could be perfectly safe would be great too.

"Where is Goyle?" Malfoy asked him, scowling. Vincent's only answer was to shrug, making the boy huff. "Of course, why do I bother?" he muttered, returning his attention to his game of chess against Nott. Apparently, this was the rematch from the last time and Vincent really wished Malfoy won, because he didn't fancy being made into a spectacle again.

Although to be fair, he'd learned quite a bit that night. It might have been frustrating as hell to be mocked that much, but it had allowed him to take a peek at the dynamics of the Slytherin second year and it had been… Interesting. Things were definitely more complex than he remembered them being at that age.

Then again, this was the magical world, so maybe that was the standard?

From what he'd gleaned, Malfoy was the top dog between them all. Parkinson was right behind him too, from a comment he'd caught. They weren't in a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship but closer than what he imagined best friends would be. Maybe there was some marriage agreement going on there like he used to read in fanfics? Nothing was out of the options, he supposed.

A close third was Greengrass, he learned, which had been interesting to learn since she wasn't even around. She seemed to clash a little with Malfoy, but not enough to warrant action on the blonde's part. Most of it seemed to stem from her best friend, Davis, who was a half-blood. He'd learned that pretty quickly since everyone loved to point that out. She never said anything in return but he imagined that they weren't usually quite so blatant. At least not when Greengrass was around.

Next in line was Zabini, but maybe it was better to say that he was practically removed from things than to say he was high or low on the totem pole. He was mostly left alone and he stayed out of everyone's business just as much except for some comments here and there. Vincent envied him that, quite honestly. He'd much rather be out of the spotlight entirely.

Then there was Nott, who sounded like he should be up there but nobody respected him. There seemed to be some kind of story there, but Vincent had no way of finding that out. Forgetting something important would probably be in character, but he didn't feel like dealing with the mess that would come with it. He had to put up with enough as it was. He'd cross that bridge if it ever became important.

At the very bottom of things were Gregory and him, Malfoy's dumb as rock lackeys. On the one hand, it sucked to be in their position, but it also allowed them some wiggle room to suck for a while. Something that they definitely would, since it'd take them a while to catch up with everyone else.

Surprisingly, however, Bulstrode was somehow lower in the rankings than them. Poor girl seemed to really be trying to climb out of some kind of hole, but she was having no luck whatsoever, from what he heard the other boys saying. If anything, it looked like any attempt just set her back further.

It was kind of sad.

It opened possibilities, however. If she had no friends and no positive relations in the House or out of it, then maybe Gregory and him could approach her once she came back to the castle from the break. Vincent would have liked to say that it was to get some allies and start networking and such… But he honestly felt bad for her and it'd also be nice to have someone other than his fellow transmigrator be friendly with them.

It'd barely been a few days and he was already sick of all the mocking and sneering.

'We are still nobodies though and we can't do anything,' he thought, holding back a grimace. They were barely learning how to do the most basic of magic still. Until they were at least somewhat caught up, they literally could do nothing. 'Then again, being friendly should be fine, right? Lie down some bridges for the future?'

He was so unsure of everything it wasn't even funny. Fanfics made it all seem so easy. Just read books, cast magic like it's as easy as breathing and manipulate everyone like they are puppets. Piece of cake.

Except that reality wasn't quite so simple, sadly.

He almost sighed in relief when he saw the door open and Goyle walked into the Common Room. Vincent really didn't know how he'd have dealt with it all if he'd been by himself. His fellow transmigrator might not be a Harry Potter connoisseur but at least he was a friendly face and someone he could count on to have his back. That was much more than he could say for the rest of the brats that were around.

Malfoy turned with a scowl directed at Gregory, who looked to be drenched for whatever reason. The game of chess was forgotten for the moment by him, but not by Nott who sneakily tried to change the position of some of the pieces without being noticed.

"Where were you?"

"I-"

"I don't care. Sit down and stop talking. I will decide what to do with you later," Draco continued without giving the man a chance to speak. The blond heir waved his hand to his fellow transmigrator to move over to his side. All the while, he slapped, Nott's hand away from his pieces.

"Well, your talk to him will have to wait," a Prefect, Vincent was pretty sure, said as she appeared right behind Gregory. The girl looked thoroughly unimpressed, which… Made some sense, he supposed. "He still needs to answer as to why he was walking the hallways way past curfew. Goyle, follow me. You and I are going to have a talk with Professor Snape."

Vincent flinched and some of the others even grimaced in shared pain. Malfoy just looked annoyed, however, and some others seemed more amused than anything. 'Well… At least he's unharmed?' he thought, deflating a little. If Gregory got in trouble, that'd suck, but at least it was better than him somehow getting attacked by the possessed Ginny and her pet basilisk.

Maybe they should stick together from then on, not that them being together would change much against a basilisk though. Vincent didn't think he wanted to deal with this bullshit by himself, however. He was sure he'd end up killing a bunch of brats by the end of the year if he was. 'Is this why Voldemort went dark? Because everything makes sense now. Children suck, and Slytherin children suck even more,' he thought to himself, holding back a sigh.

At least he was getting better at filtering through the mockery and insults already, mostly being able to tune out the comments that followed in his friend's wake. At that point, he paid less attention to what was said and more to how others reacted and how the words seemed to affect the people around. At least that way he learned more about the people instead of focusing on how annoying the little shits were.

As it was, he just sat there, as he had before, and watched Malfoy and Nott play their chess game. It seemed to be one of the preferred games in Slytherin, from how much they played it. They did play other things, he'd seen, but it always seemed to default to that at some point, while the others were played for variety. Maybe it was a status thing. If that was the case, then it would change the meaning of the game they'd forced on Gregory and him before a little, he supposed. Something to look into if he ever got his hands on a book with that kind of information.

Like usual whenever he thought about all the things they needed to catch up on, he found himself wishing they'd found the Room of Requirement already. The library was fine, but anyone who knew their previous selves and saw them there would know something was up, at least until they had time to change their "characters" enough. Some unused classroom or whatever worked a little better, but it still had a high chance of someone finding them.

No, they needed a hundred percent guaranteed privacy setting. The Room of Requirement could be that for them. It'd also provide a better training space for spells and even, probably, a good place for potions. Vincent might not be a fan of those, but they needed to learn anyway and Gregory seemed to have a knack for that, if only in theory so far.

Vincent took a deep breath in.

He had so many plans, so many ideas, about how to improve their situation… But they all needed time. Time to study. Time to practice. Time to change. He could only hope that they'd get far enough to do all those things.

[} Chapter End {]

Adrian: Our boys are having fun, aren't they?

Arc: Man, today is not Gregory's day, isn't it? Wonder what he would say if he knew how close he was to dying there? At the very least he didn't have to deal with Malfoy babysitting duty for a few hours. Vincent took care of that.

Adrian: Arguably a worse thing to go through, I'd say.

Arc: Some extra lore about our version of Hogwarts has been expanded here. I am sure it is fine. Makes things more interesting in a way. True, you will probably find some quotes in the books that debunks some of the stuff here. But the books has quotes that debunk other parts of the series itself as well. So…

Adrian: Canon Harry Potter is a mess, nothing new. With that said, hope you guys like our version of it, and the chapter of course. If you did, leave a review, it'd be very much appreciated.

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