Necromancer, Haunt Me
She's a Necromancer dressed in black from head to toe
Does she have the answer for my lost soul
She's a Necromancer and she's dancing with the dead
She sings dear misery cause it's her only friend
Let's necromance
With the dead we will dance
Let's necromance
And with the dead we will dance
That night, Tom convinced him to go to DADA. He was itching to fight, was sure they had a grasp on it, and wouldn't do undue damage with the curse. He wanted to try defence with it, shields, and wards. So, he'd left Ginny in the Room of Requirement and made his way to the Defence classroom. As soon as Cassiopeia saw him, she shooed him back out and followed him into the hallway.
"What are you doing here? Widrich is running a class. Right now? Where's your Weasley?" she asked in rapid succession.
"Uhh, she decided not to go… I think she needs more time…"
"Oh, no, where is she? Last I heard, she accepted?" Though Harry hadn't told her anything, she was already walking toward the room.
"What if she- hey, what if she doesn't want to go?"
"She can tell me that," she moved fast, making Harry jog to keep up.
"You just left a class full of students…" He tried.
"So? They can read."
She waited for him to appear the doors, then opened them herself, making Ginny shriek with alarm until Harry entered.
"Hey, sorry, gin, I was-"
"Cedrum is running a class; why aren't you in attendance?" Cassiopeia asked her.
Ginny looked between them, slowly putting down the book she'd been reading—which he realised was the necromancy tome from the Malfoy Manor—and standing up.
"…You'll come with me?" She asked, and he nodded.
Ginny followed them; Harry could hear her shaky breathing as Cassiopeia took them through the castle at high speed. She stopped outside the transfiguration classroom and waited for the door to swing open. She motioned for them to stay and peeked inside, then shut the door and returned to them.
"How do you feel about Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini?" She asked, and Tom rolled their eyes.
"What? I thought it was going to be… Secret?" Ginny was already backing away.
"They are both adequate at silence. Zabini is a problem for me, Cassiopeia," Tom said.
"I don't… Know," Ginny said.
"You do not need to tell anyone anything about Ron. They will not reveal you, but there is every chance they will not be pleasant about it. Why are they here?" He directed the last part at the vampire, who shrugged innocently and shook her head.
"I'll sweeten the deal for you, darling, and threaten their lives and loved ones right now," Cassiopeia swung back into the room before they could say anything, startling Blaise and Draco into standing, "Alright, Slitherlings, tonight a new student is going to be joining you. She's a little shy, so if I hear that either of you trouble magnets has said you've ever even heard of her, I'll rip the tongues from you, your sons, and your fathers," her tone was bright. She'd come close to Zabini's face, towering over him while the Slytherins nodded furiously.
"I think you'll be alright. In you come, then," she gestured them inside, and Harry went first.
"Wow, she's so pretty!" Avalon said when she saw him.
"Thanks, Avalon," Harry said.
Draco choked on air when he saw Ginny, who avoided all the eyes on her to sit down sharply at a desk in the back corner. Harry sat beside her without another word.
"Excellent, play nice, children," Cassiopeia said, about to sweep out of the room before Harry stopped her.
"I- I need to talk to you. Tonight? Are you busy?" He asked in a nearly silent whisper, sure she would hear him.
"Sure, find me," she looked him up and down and resumed leaving.
"…Welcome, Ginny, Harry. As I said, I'll start you two off with birds and other assorted handfuls." Cedrum was talking to Malfoy and Zabini, but they were too busy looking at Ginny, who stared straight ahead with wide eyes and flaming checks. Avalon and Eris watched her, too. The former was smiling; the latter's face was blank.
"It's a good thing you showed up when you did because, as you can see, nothing is dead in this classroom," Cedrum continued.
"Wait, we've got to collect our own dead birds?" Zabini asked, incredulous.
"You could kill an animal if you insist on it," Widrich made a who-cares gesture and motioned for them to get out of their seats.
Ginny waited for everyone else to leave the classroom before she stood from her chair. Harry let her out, noticing she was pale and not looking at him. They walked at the back of the group, Harry trying to watch Ginny and Tom trying to watch the necromancers.
Avalon was talking to Eris but looking at Draco while she smirked. She spoke French quietly, too far away for Tom to pick it up. Harry didn't let him drag them closer.
"Are you okay?" He asked Ginny, who nodded rapidly.
"I wasn't planning on being here. I'm lucky I was still half-dressed in my uniform. I didn't expect… Them," she waved her hand at the Slytherin's backs.
"I imagine telling Cedrum you wanted to wait and the Dark Lord's desire to have necromancy on the roster combined," Tom told her.
"He- he wants it as a stand-alone class?"
"Sooner than later, it seems. It does not appear as though it is… Open to everyone, yet," he watched her closely as it dawned on her that it wouldn't remain secret forever if she continued.
"…And Malfoy's such a git," she hesitated, almost stopped walking, then kept on.
"Zabini is worse," Tom complained.
"Do you think he told them? His apprentices? About what I did in the Ministry?"
Tom watched Avalon; the way she didn't seem inclined to look at them, though she was walking backwards to make eye contact with the blonde in front as she spouted French with a song-like cadence.
'She would be far more interested in Ginny if she knew,' Tom thought.
"No, I don't think he did," Harry told her.
By then, the Slytherins had gotten a fair distance away from them, Zabini shooting looks over his shoulder at the redhead. Draco was apparently distracted enough to forget about the youngest Weasley. They were out the front doors by then, lit by a half-moon as they crossed the cold lawn to the Forbidden Forest.
"Why is Zabini worse?"
"He's hell-bent on getting a rise out of us. He was in the hall that morning," Harry told her. "Draco isn't half bad, actually, when he's not trying to be a git."
"You called him Draco," Ginny said.
"Yeah, I- did earlier…"
"That wasn't you, though, Harry, that was…" She waved her hand at him as they reached the trees.
"Oh. Yeah. I guess I do now."
"Does he... Know?"
"Know…? Oh, No. Just you. And… Them. Cassiopeia, Nagini and…" He trailed off; she knew the Dark Lord was aware of the Horcrux, "They're all desperate to work it out, though. Pansy especially."
"…Pansy?"
"They were… All there. At the manor. Pansy, Zabini, Crabbe, Goyle, the Greengrass sisters. Being trained by Cassiopeia."
"The Greengrass sisters? But the Greengrass family is…"
"I know. Not anymore, apparently." He stepped over a high tree root and held a branch out of Ginny's face as they caught up to the group that had stopped by a cluster of old growth.
"That's it! Move so slowly that you couldn't possibly wake the dead!" Cedrum said as they approached, "Now, you two. Nothing bigger than a shrew, or you'll be spewing up your guts for weeks. I mean it! Avalon, Eris, split up, yes?" The professor gestured for them to move, but they looked at each other instead.
"Je veux le garçon qui vivait et la tête rouge," Avalon said.
Eris immediately shook his head, "What? What? I thought-" the blonde stopped to look at Cedrum, incredulous.
'What did she say?' Harry wondered.
'She wants us to go with her, Eris, with the Slytherins.'
"Celui-là est un trou du cul," Eris said, his pronunciation clunky. He pointed at Zabini with his thumb and frowned, making Blaise scoff, though he didn't appear to know what was being said.
'He called him an asshole.'
"Mais il est joli," She laughed and gestured for Harry and Ginny to follow her deeper into the forest, already leaving.
'She said it's a pretty asshole,' Tom kept translating.
"Like I care," Eris shouted after her.
Throughout the exchange, Ginny, Draco, Zabini, and Cedrum stood in silence, Ginny trying to disappear behind a tree.
"…Very good; we will meet back here when we've found something to work with. Be a team player and collect any little things you find for your fellow students, yes?"
"Yes, Sir!" Avalon sang, and Eris snapped. The blonde was already shooting off into the trees, followed by Zabini and Draco.
Cedrum summoned a glowing ball of light and let it hover near the top of the tree line, then he took his pipe from his pocket and shooed the rest of them off.
Harry followed her first, Ginny behind him, summoning a Lumos.
"I am Avalon," she said, spinning to reach for Ginny's hand once they were far enough from Cedrum not to be caught slacking.
"Ginny," she said, gingerly taking her hand.
"Cedrum told us you were coming, then you didn't. Then you did! He did not say 'birds and shrews' to you, did he? I'm curious," she said, not asking any further questions as she turned to scan the leaf litter.
"Avalon… Tell me, what is your favourite part of your craft?" Tom asked.
"Oh!" She stopped to sit on a log immediately; Tom followed her and motioned for Ginny to do the same. "It is absolutely fresh work. When their mind is still there, and you can…" She mimed a puppet with her hands, "I have one right now. You saw him, Harry. His name is Albert. His wife is cheating on him, une honte, tellement triste, terrible. It takes up space, though," she tapped her temple.
Ginny's eyes widened while Avalon spoke, and she looked rapidly from her to Harry: "You... You're holding someone up? Right now? Where? And you… Saw him, Harry?"
Tom nodded, letting Avalon speak.
"He's in his home! He's cooking dinner for his unfaithful wife. I have been making her feel guilty," she checked her fingernails.
"…So, you have runework? For the distance? Does he cast? Do you find that really hard?"
"Eris is better at the runework, and I am better at reanimation, so we share the job. I don't have Albert cast often; it is difficult, non? I am lucky he is a Ministry official and does not need to Apparate. Portkeys and Floo's for our hardworking man, bien sûr."
"Ministry official?" Ginny asked, and Avalon tapped her nose.
"All these questions for me; let me give one to you. I get the sense you do not work with small vertebrates. What is your favourite necromancy, Ginny?"
Harry watched her hesitate, and then she said:
"I... like to work with—with the new ones too," she said in a rush and avoided his eyes, her cheeks bright red.
"Oh! Yes!" Avalon clapped, her face lit up, "Eris peut manger de la merde."
'She said 'Eris can eat shit.''
'…Thanks, Tom.'
"You must be a true necromancer, too, then? Gifted? How else would you know what a fresh one is like without…?"
"I- yeah, I guess so," Ginny said.
"Incredibly talented," Tom said, and the redhead's shoulders relaxed.
"…We are supposed to be looking for dead things," Avalon sighed, looking around their immediate area as though something would appear.
Tom summoned the curse without prompting or Harry's agreement and sent a dozen tendrils out into the trees, searching, which made Ginny sit up straight and gasp.
"What is that?" Avalon asked, part curious, part alarmed.
"Do not touch it," was all Tom said.
"Yeah, really, don't," Ginny agreed, tucking herself smaller, though he didn't bring it anywhere near them.
After a few minutes, he brought them back, holding three dozen assorted small dead animals.
"…I didn't kill any," Harry said after they'd stared in silence at him for a few seconds, "I just found them."
"Great! Je l'adore, it's like we've done work. Would you bring them back, Ginny? I don't want to spend the energy," Avalon said casually, sighing as she spoke and looking at the redhead from the corner of her eye.
Ginny was focusing on the pile already, frowning, her palms open and twitching on her lap. The birds on the top of the pile rolled off and then sprang onto their feet; the ones with feathers remaining took flight, the skeletal birds hopping in the litter. Shrews, mice, voles, and small rabbits in varying states of decay shuffled and fought free from the stack. When Ginny stood, they followed her, and so did Harry and Avalon. She led them back to Cedrum with a demented escort of over thirty dead forest creatures.
"Non-verbally, étonnant, that's beautiful; Eris will faire des briques de merde," she slapped Harry on the shoulder as they walked behind the youngest Weasley and her tiny macabre army.
'She said Eris will… 'Make bricks of shit.''
'Okay…' Harry thought in return.
When they reached Cedrum, led by the light, the three other Slytherins had already returned, each with a tiny creature in the dirt before them.
"Well, now I see where we went wrong. You misheard me and thought I said find every dead thing in the forest, reanimate them prematurely and bring them back to me. I can see how you were confused," Cedrum said as Ginny approached.
"En fait, nous avons parlé la plupart du temps, puis il a invoqué d'effrayantes vrilles sombres pour trouver toutes les choses mortes, puis elle les a réanimées. Pas verbalement, Eris!"
"Tsk, Avalon, I tell you it's rude to talk about others like they are not here, and it seems you have done it more often since," Cedrum told her.
'She told them we were mostly talking, that I used the curse to find the creatures, and Ginny reanimated them non-verbally.'
Harry had watched Eris' eyes widen, flicking between Avalon and Ginny, who had set the animals —returned to death— back into a pile at the centre of them, apologising.
"No, no, don't be silly. This is child's play for you. Nevertheless, we persevere and introduce," Cedrum said to her, then to Draco and Zabini, "You have your books?"
The blonde held his up and shook it, looking paler than usual.
"Why is she reanimating thirty animals at once, and we're doing one?" Zabini asked.
"Because you aren't as skilled as she is," Eris said, not looking at him. He sat down in the dirt beside Cedrum's legs and appeared bored again.
Avalon took the space beside him and grinned at Ginny, gesturing her closer to sit beside her. When she did, Avalon said: "I'm so thrilled you're here. So thrilled," she repeated, practically vibrating as she shook the redhead's shoulders.
Harry sat down to watch on the other side of Cedrum as the two inexperienced Slytherins began to chant. Avalon and Ginny were already whispering and giggling to each other, and he couldn't help but smile.
"And him? He's here because he's also suddenly a skilled necromancer?" Zabini spat, interrupting himself, and Draco elbowed him, not gently, in the ribs.
"Will you give it a rest," the blonde hissed.
"Oho," Avalon said, "Are they going to fight about it?" She directed the question at Ginny, who shrugged and shook her head, watching Harry.
"Not today," Tom said, smiling slowly at Zabini, who returned his eyes to his book.
By the end, the Slytherins weren't yet successful at reanimating an animal, though Tom said it seemed primarily due to a lack of proper attempt.
"Wait, wait, nobody leaves," Avalon said, holding up her arms. Except you, Cedrum. Goodnight, Je t'aime, go to bed." She shooed him off, he sighed and removed himself from the trunk he was leaning on.
"Goodnight, dear, Je t'aime," he touched her on the top of the head, nodded sharply at Eris, and wandered into the trees toward the castle.
"We aren't going to bed, alright? We're going to my house; we're going to drink. I want to get to know you, Ginny. Draco, Blaise," she looked at the Slytherins with hooded eyes. They stood up rapidly from the dirt, jamming their books in their bags.
"Er," Ginny said, looking at Harry, chewing her lip.
"It's up to you. I'll stay with you," he told her.
"I have a Portkey," Avalon said, her eyes bright. She produced a small box from her pocket.
"…Okay," Ginny said.
The necromancer grinned and opened the box, revealing a silver egg cup. She wrapped a finger around the box to touch the surface of the Portkey, her wand in her free hand. She held it out to them, and they did the same. Then she tapped it with her wand, shooting the five of them through space and time to appear in front of a large, dark manor, swallowed by vines and overgrowth, with only patches of the facade visible through the green of the foliage.
"Château Delacroix! Or one of them. Come on, watch the sinkholes that I really ought to take care of," she skipped across the lawn, avoiding seemingly random sections of grass. Her dreadlocks bounced, and she hitched her skirt up as she lit the house with a wand wave and blasted the front doors open.