Chapter 27: Homecoming
Regrettably, Alicia's words turned out to be prophetic, Gryffindor's team flattened Ravenclaw in the match. Later in the evening, while relaxing in the Ravenclaw common room, my roommates were lambasting the loss to Gryffindor.
A loud thud rang out as Roger Davis slammed his hand down on the table and complained, "410 points to 60 points, how they hell did that even happen."
A low rumble of agreement came from those who were in earshot. Perhaps the most disheartened was Ryan O'Connor, even though he was a muggleborn and new to the world of wizardry, he quickly fell in love with quidditch. In the muggle world, he had been a huge fan of football, and he had been skeptical of a sport played on broomsticks. But, after being exposed to the wonders of quidditch, quidditch had become his new favorite sport.
Adding his thoughts to the matter, Ryan gloomily said, in his thick Irish accent, "I think that were going to come in last place this year, considering that we've already lost our first two games and only one more game to go."
William Moore, perhaps the most level headed person in our four-man dorm, spoke up cautiously, "Luckily, we play Hufflepuff last, and we stand a good chance of beating them, considering that they're worse than us."
Ryan melodramatically sighed and replied, "Knowing our luck, I doubt it." Ryan looked around to see if any members of the Ravenclaw team where nearby, before he quietly added, "What we need is some new blood on the team."
Deciding to weigh in on the subject I said, "It's too late, their not going to switch member this late in the season. The best thing to hope for is for better members to try out next year. Right now, three of the players including the captain, are in their final year. That means there will be several spots open next year."
Roger perked up and said, "I've been thinking, we've gotten pretty good during our private quidditch games. So, next year, I am trying out for the team, and you guys should try out as well."
Ryan's face alternated between excitement and worry, concerned he asked,"I don't know guys, I haven't played the game a lot outside of the small pick-up games we've played."
Not to be discouraged, Roger eagerly responded, "That's no problem; we just have to spend the rest of the year practicing and playing quidditch by ourselves."
Hopping on board with the idea, William excitedly added, "Plus, during the summer, we can get together and continue getting better. By next year's time, we should be good enough for the team."
They all looked eagerly at me, not wanting to burst their bubble. I turned my attention back to The Standard Book of Spells Grade 2. When out of the corner of my ear, I heard Ryan plead, "Come on Alex, you"re a great keeper, wouldn't it be amazing if we all got on the team and won the house cup."
Knowing that I couldn't give them any hope or I'd never hear the end of it. I ruthlessly replied, "Not interested."
Seeing my roommate's hopeful expressions fall, made me feel bad, but I was not changing my position, I loved quidditch, but not enough to waste hundreds of hours practicing. Not when my time was better spent mastering magic.
Turning back to my book, I completely missed the mischievous look Roger gave the others.
The following two weeks quickly passed by, and after many stern warnings not to use magic over the holidays, it was time to go home. The day we all got on the Hogwarts Express and headed home for the holidays was chaotic, everyone was excited, if not from the two weeks free of homework, then being excited to see their families.
I couldn't wait to see my family; being separated from them had only made me more grateful for the family that I had been born into. As I watched the landscape blur by, I couldn't help but wonder what mischief the twins had gotten into and how they had been dealing with being educated by grandmother. I had found out first hand that while she may look sweet as roses, beneath her innocent smile lies a cunning old wolf.
We finally arrived, and there was a mad rush of students trying to get off the train. Cedric, Alicia, Anna and I started slowly moving through the walkways when I heard Jessica call out, "Hey Alex, wait up."
Turning, I saw Jessica slowly slipping through the crowd, and when she caught up, she handed me two journals. One really old, and the other brand new. Her face was slightly flushed from trying to catch up, and she whispered, "Here are your journals, I finished earlier today, but I got sidetracked on the train."
She went quiet for a moment, before continuing, "I don't understand why you needed this translated, from what I could tell, whoever's wrote this was crazy and probably died a terrible death."
In a quieter voice, she said, "I hope your not doing anything stupid. Some of the ideas in the journal would be dangerous and crazy."
Not wanting her to be worried or suspicious, I told her the excuse I had prepared, I said, "It's just a project, I found the journal rotting in an old trunk I found in my Grandmother's basement. supposedly were related to whoever wrote the journal, and I wanted to show it off to her."
Relieved by my explanation, Jessica relaxed, and we continued on. When we got off the train Jessica immediately saw her parents, waved goodbye, and took off.
Cedric, Alicia, Anna and I decided to stick together until we found our parents. As the crowd thinned, I started hearing students snicker, and some of my fellow first years shot me looks of pity. A sinking feeling appeared in my gut as I started having a flashback to my mother's singing birthday letter.
Muttering hopefully under my breath, "She wouldn't dare."
Somehow Cedric, who was in front of me heard what I said, he turned, pointed his finger, and said, "I pretty sure she would."
My eyes darted to direction where he was pointing. I groaned loudly, and I found my parents and my little sisters in the center of a small crowd. My little sisters were proudly waving a banner with my face on it, and with moving words that said, Welcome Home Alex! We Missed you! It was so ridiculously colorful that I was stunned into silence.
After recovering from the assault on my eyes and dignity, I glared at my dad, who gave me a sheepish expression. Knowing that he wasn't to blame, I turned my glare to the one responsible, Mom. Unfortunately my glare seemed to bounce right off, and she pulled me into a hug.
Trying to extract myself from her hug was like trying to escape from a very determined octopus. Finally, able to free myself, I found Anna grinning wickedly at me. "Ah, it's so nice to see a family reunite."
Seeing the mirth in her lavender eyes, made a plan hatch within my mind, and I decided that I would have my revenge on her before the school year was over. She would never see it coming.
In an effort to escape the embarrassing attention, I waved goodbye to my friends and quickly left with my parents. Once we had left the crowd behind, I ruffled Sasha's and Rebecca's dark hair, and I asked fondly, "Did you miss me?"
Sasha, always playing the part of the good little sister gave me an adorable smile and immediately said, "Yes."
Rebecca, on the other hand, pretended to think about it before snarkily replying, "Nope."
Not missing a beat I shot back, "Well, I guess it's good that I decided to give Sasha your present as well."
Unsure if whether I was messing with her, and not willing to chance it. Rebecca immediately backtracked, and latched onto me, saying pitifully, "Big brother, I missed you so much."
She spent the rest of our trip home sucking up and trying to gauge whether she was getting her present or not.
Dinner was served shortly after we got home, Lola, our house elf clearly delighted I was back served my favorite meal. However, during the meal, my mother began ruthlessly interrogating me about my classes. I came to the conclusion that it was highly likely that my mother had been a professional interegator in her past life.
Eventually, my dad threw me a lifeline and asked, "How is life in Ravenclaw treating you."
Thankful for the save, I answered, "I'm happy that I got sorted into in Ravenclaw, I guess the sorting hat really knows it's business."
Dad smiled fondly and said "Well, after a thousand years of practice, I should hope so. So, tell me the truth where is your name on the board."
Smirking, I bragged, "Number 1, of course."
Dad gave me a high five, and I asked him a question that had been bugging me. "Dad, when you were in Ravenclaw, did you ever see any magic formulas hidden within the patterns of the wall and ceiling. I swear sometime when I'm not paying attention, I'll see something, but whenever I look closer, it's gone. It's been been bugging the crap out of me."
Dad went still for a moment before he widely grinned and cheerfully said, "Can't say that I did, but you should follow your instincts. More often than not, they wont lead you astray."
I shot him a curious look, the way he had worded that, along with his cheerful tone was strange. He didn't say he didn't know about it, but rather that he couldn't say that he did. His cheerfull tone and choice of words indicated that he knew what it was, but that he couldn't say what it was. The rest of the dinner passed quickly, and mom sent the girls to bed soon after. Deciding to call it a night, I headed up to my room to wait for the house to fall asleep.
Several hours later when I was sure everyone was sleeping, I grabbed the translated journal and snuck out my window after casting the silencing charm on it. Apparently, Athena was feeling too lazy to fly because she hitched a ride on my broom, and she showed no indication of getting off. Tracking down the back entrance in the dark took longer than I anticipated; I hadn't been through this entrance in years.
After paying the price in blood, the portal opened and sent me to the tower. Like last time, as soon as I made it to the tower, Anton began shouting, "INTRUDER, HOW DARE YOU BREACH THE INNER SANCTUM OF THE FAWLEY FAMILY. BEGONE, FROM THIS PLACE, OTHERWISE I SHALL DESTROY YOU."
Hearing Anton scream the exact same threat as the last time that I came through the back entrance. I felt a moment of deja vu, knowing that the screaming and threats would only continue I called out while heading to the top floor, "Anton, It's me."
Anton's voice went silent for a moment, before he questioned, "Alex is that you? Why didn't you use the main entrance?"
After hopping on the platform that would take me to the top floor, I replied, "I'll explain when I get up there."
I found the top floor just how I left it, with Anton's painting next to the giant hawk throne. As soon as I came into view, Anton's wolfish gaze bore into me, feeling his gaze, I couldn't help but feel like I had let him down. He had spent his last remaining years building and fortifying our land only to have his descendant lose the key to the place.
Feeling guilty, I decided to stop beating around the bush. Looking Anton in the eyes I said, "I don't have the ring."
A look of bewilderment appeared on his face, and he yelled, "What do you mean you don't have it? How can you not have it?"
Too embarrassed to meet his gaze, I told him how I was ambushed by Micheal. When I got to the part about how Micheal pulled the ring off my frozen finger, Anton looked ready to explode, knowing that how the ring was removed wasn't the worst part. I went on and explained how it had been shot into the Forbidden Forest.
It seemed as that was the final straw for Anton, he exclaimed, "Why didn't you attach a sticking charm to the ring. Everyone knows to do that that."
Although I was somewhat annoyed at myself for not using such a basic solution, I grumbled, "Clearly not everyone know that because I didn't know. Why didn't you put a spell on the ring that would attack someone from taking it?"
Snorting in derision, Anton replied sarcastically, "And what would happen if you had a child tug on the ring with curiosity."
Wincing at the thought, I began to understand why their weren't passive attack spell preventing the ring from being taken off. Kids like to play with shiny things, and it would be all to easy for a kid to go after a ring if you were holding him and not being careful.
Seeing that I understood Anton sighed and said, "It's a pity this Micheal didn't put it on, he would have been in a world of pain. But only an idiot would put on an enemy's ring."
Curious at what would have happened, I asked, "What would have happened to him?"
An evil grin appeared on Anton's face, and he gleefully replied, "Nothing to bad, just a little skin flaying curse I put on it. It moves really fast, it starts with the ring finger, and within a minute it would have traveled up the arm. After 5 minutes, he would have no skin left on his body."
My stomach churned a bit at the description, and I asked, "Wouldn't I have gotten in trouble for that."
If anything, Anton's smile grew larger, and he replied, "Nope, it has long been established that wizards have the right to defend their property, and should any wizards seize another's property, they are solely responsible for any and all curses that may affect them."
Wagging his eyebrows mischievously, he continued, "When I was younger, I used to try to bait my enemies into stealing from me, they made such an interesting test subjects. Mahahaha."
Seeing how his mood had lifted, I decided to break the rest of the news. I informed Anton, "Well, the good new is I know where the ring is located. The bad news is that it's guarded by a monster."
Raising an eyebrow, Anton questioned, "Why don't you just summon the ring."
With a frustrated sigh, I replied, " That's the first thing I tried, it's being prevented from responding to a summons. I found an underground wizard bunker of some sorts, while I was down there searching I found an ancient vampire trapped behind some circle wards. He said the year he was captured, was in 709, he's been stuck down there for over 1200 years. According to him, he was captured by a wizard who was experimenting with ways to extend his life, and that the wizard ended up turning himself into a beast."
Whatever Anton had been expecting me to say, clearly me finding a cave with a beast and a vampire wasn't it. A solemn look appeared on Anton's face as he considered what I had said, after gathering his thoughts, he said. "Forget about the ring, it's to dangerous, and it's not worth it. Maybe when your a little older, you can retake the ring from the beast."
Smiling at Anton's concern, I replied, "Don't worry, I not going to foolishly charge in and face the beast unprepared. That is how idiots get killed."
Anton raised an eyebrow and said, "What is your plan?"
Shaking my head, I replied, "I don't have a full plan yet, there is still so much I don't know about the beast. Once I learn more about the creature, I can plan accordingly, I even got my hands on the wizard's journal. Hopefully, between that and information I get from the vampire will be enough."
Pulling out the translated journal, I sat down on the throne and started reading.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Jmwells2003
Jmwells2003 So I want to mention the loss of the ring a bit, many people argued that Micheal stole the ring and that it was a crime, but he was very careful in not actually stealing it. He essentially threw it away. Similar to what Malfoy did to Neville. I hope I explained logically why Micheal was able to remove the ring without anything bad happening to him. Anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter. Comment below with your thoughts and if you have time, consider giving my fanfic a review.
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