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31.91% HP: The Otherworlder / Chapter 29: CH29 - The Grey Lady

Chapter 29: CH29 - The Grey Lady

Edmund and the speaker spoke long into the night. It was a novel experience for her, who was unused to needing to ask for information. That fact alone excited her, something that made Edmund grin. She had spared nothing in her interrogation of him. His past, his arrival into the world, his actions so far, and his future plans were all discussed and scrutinized until she was satisfied.

Edmund's entanglement with Voldemort particularly tickled her. Her emotions and facial expressions had flip-flopped, unsure whether to be proud of him for his resourcefulness or to bash his head in for messing with fire.

Not that he had much of a choice in the matter.

"At the very least, Voldemort will make you a formidable foe," she admitted.

Edmund smiled dopily in agreement, thinking of the ritual once more. She clipped him on the back of the head.

"Battling an unaware enemy is easy, regardless of the challenge they would normally pose. Successfully ambushing someone like Dumbledore would not be a tenth of the accomplishment as forcing him into a standstill head-on," the speaker warned. "Overconfidence will get you killed."

Edmund rubbed his nape soothingly, giving her a half-hearted glare, but saying nothing more. The speaker was evidently not satisfied with his silence.

"Three werewolves is an impressive hunt for a youngling like you, but can you claim that you would have fared so well had they been aware of your presence? I am all in favour of fighting dirty, but you will have to expose yourself eventually, whether it is of your own will or not. Can you be certain that at that moment you will not stumble or freeze?" she asked him insistently.

"I don't know," Edmund replied after a pause.

"Good," the speaker commended with a nod. "Be aware of your limitations; test and push them constantly. You do not seem the type to hesitate to me, but I am not in the habit of making assumptions."

Edmund acknowledged her with a slight downward tilt of his head before the conversation began anew.

*-*-*-*

- (Scene Break) -

*-*-*-*

It was considerably long afterward that he finally actually began the journey back to the castle. Slinking through the halls, he was again grateful for the pervading sense of emptiness. Physically he might have been none worse for wear, but his brain had taken a battering throughout the night. He was in no state to avoid patrols and sneak around.

And so, Edmund was relieved when he made it to his bed without incident.

One second he fell onto the mattress after barely keeping awake enough to tug on his pyjamas...

...The next, he was being prodded awake.

With bleary, bloodshot eyes, Edmund could barely make out the form of a concerned Professor Sprout gazing down at him.

"Are you alright, dear?" she asked, not unkindly.

"Whazzat?" he mumbled, his voice raspy from sleep.

Professor Sprout silently cast a spell on him, before placing the backs of her fingers against his forehead.

"You turned in early last night, Mr. Cole, and you missed breakfast today as well. That much sleep is not a good sign. Perhaps I ought to floo Madam Pomfrey to come take a look at you, hmm?" she said softly as Edmund stretched.

"No. No need to bother her. I've got a killer head—" a yawn interrupted Edmund's sentence, "—ache. I didn't sleep much last night at all, actually. I've got some pepper-up stored away, though. A couple of sips, and I should be right as rain," he assured her.

"If you're certain," Sprout frowned. "Tidy up and come eat. An empty stomach only worsens a headache, believe me."

"I will, Professor," Edmund acquiesced.

It was a bit over halfway through his morning ritual when his mind began to ponder why Marvolo had not reached out to him yet.

"Oh, fuck!" he audibly cursed.

Pulling on his clothes haphazardly as he ran, Edmund dashed to the Room of Requirement.

Pacing back and forth, he quickly summoned the Room of Lost Things. Walking through the piles with a sense of familiarity, he dove into a small trunk buried under tons of old Quidditch jerseys. Removing the accumulated dust with a sharp thrust of his wand, he opened the compartment. An old wizarding camera lay within, clearly antique, but still functional.

Retrieving the communication cube from his expanded satchel, Edmund held it in his hand as far away from his body as possible. With his other arm, he snapped several photos, rotating the artifact all the while.

It was not ideal, but he had no other option at this point. Every second wasted increased the chance of Marvolo blowing up at him. He certainly did not have the hours he had desired to study the object. This would have to do.

He exited the room, before immediately conjuring the usual layout that he used for his training. Only a few minutes later, he was standing beside the tub he regularly healed himself in, holding the cube next to his abdomen. As soon as the device made contact with his stomach, the odd phenomenon occurred again. His skin became almost liquid, allowing the artifact to pass through with ease. Several stabs of pain later, the cube was secured back within him, out of sight once more.

Immediately, the mental link blared into being, Marvolo's snarling filling his brain.

"I truly did give myself too much credit. You are a fool, Edmund!" he spat angrily.

"Yes," Edmund took the scolding without complaint.

"An idiot," Marvolo continued.

"You're right," Edmund answered.

"But perhaps not completely hopeless," Marvolo said, a tinge of pride entering his voice. "You not being dead says it all I suppose. A success, then?"

"Completely," Edmund giddily affirmed.

"How do you feel?" Marvolo demanded.

"I feel... more," Edmund said, not sure how better to articulate it.

"Hmmm," Marvolo hummed with satisfaction. "This is only the beginning. The process will go faster from now on. Your next ritual's ingredients should be prepared by mid-January."

"That was quick," Edmund commented, anticipation running through him.

"I had faith in you. In myself," Marvolo smugly retorted. "I had begun planning for it long ago. All that remains to arrive are some imported magical ingredients from abroad. I will not have you wasting any time."

"I'm glad to hear it," Edmund smiled.

*-*-*-*

- (Scene Break) -

*-*-*-*

It was on the night of the third of January, five days before the arrival of the Hogwarts Express, that Edmund finally had a breakthrough.

Quite literally.

Hearing the door to the Restricted Section open with a click, Edmund's jaw dropped. The wards on the library were nothing difficult individually, but collectively formed an intricate matrix to navigate.

Wardbreaking on this level was less about power or knowledge, and more about simply gaining experience. Edmund needed to familiarize himself with the common tricks used by warders to interlink protections, and how various failsafes were connected and triggered. Following the web of wards and then evading them was an art.

Art that had finally yielded results for Edmund.

Admittedly, he had undertaken a rather difficult first challenge for himself.

Wardbreaking could be executed in a multitude of ways. Those powerful enough and uncaring about detection could brute force their way through wards. Others who worked more methodically, like the curse breakers of Gringotts, could methodically break down individual spells until the entire defence had been dismantled.

The few who wanted to bypass wards without alerting their caster, or leaving no signs of their presence, had it much harder. These people, usually thieves, had to discover methods to bend and manipulate wards, creating temporary gaps that could be passed through. Needless to say, a much more subtle and onerous task.

That was precisely what Edmund had just achieved.

With a silent fist bump into the air, Edmund jumped up from his kneeling position onto his two feet. Obviously, he had access to all the books in the Restricted Section and more in the Room of Requirement. However, now that he had made it in, he wanted to browse the collection for himself

Weaving through the bookshelves, he withdrew books and opened them at random. Most were highly specialized, advanced magical tomes. Some, notably, contained knowledge about darker practices.

Edmund would not have expected that Dumbledore would allow such books in the school. Especially after the path Voldemort had gone down after discovering the mention of horcruxes. But, apparently not.

He attributed the diverse selection more to the Board of Governors, a more traditional leaning body. Edmund would not be surprised if mentions of illegal magic decreased in the future as the light side gained prominence.

It was of no matter to him regardless.

Edmund was pulled from his musings by the distinctive sound of a page-turning.

'Odd,' Edmund contemplated. 'I've been camping outside the doors practically the entire night. How did someone get in without me noticing? More importantly, how talented must they be to achieve something like that.'

He hugged the walls as he silently approached the fellow intruder. He was shocked, however, when he saw who it was.

'Well... that makes more sense. She's definitely talented, but she didn't need to bypass my position at all,' he chuckled amusedly.

For hovering before him was the ghost of Ravenclaw, the Grey Lady. Helena Ravenclaw's story was a tragic one, and it seemed to haunt her every day. Edmund had only caught sight of her a few times, but whenever he did, she had looked absolutely morose.

But not now.

As she flipped through the pages, her lips were subconsciously tilted into a smile, her brow furrowed in concentration. Edmund watched, fascinated, as her hands briefly turned opaque when she physically interacted with the book before morphing back into their usual level of translucency.

Ghosts, unknown to most, were capable of small manipulations of the tangible world. Usually, this required strong emotion, similar to bursts of accidental magic. Moaning Myrtle's constant misery made her infamous because of this, as tales of her flooding bathrooms were known to all.

'Either she is feeling particularly affected because of what she's reading,' Edmund thought, 'or she's particularly powerful. I'd bet on the latter of the two. After all, she's the daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw herself. Even if she possessed merely a fraction of her mother's talents, she would be exceptional.'

He watched for several hours as Helena perused through one book after another, reading contentedly.

'Interesting. I don't think she's looking for anything in particular. She's just learning for the sake of learning. Textbook Ravenclaw,' he smirked.

Perhaps perusing the library had been worth it.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
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If you have any thoughts, or things you would like to see happen in the story, please share!

As you may have noticed, my diction is decent, while my syntax is awful. Please do not hesitate to point out any mistakes I make with a paragraph comment or a general chapter comment!

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next chapter

Chapter 30: CH30 - Humble Pie

The Hogwarts Express pulled into the station with a long hoot of its whistle. The train screeched to a halt, and smoke filled the platform, obscuring the view. Edmund heard, more than saw, the compartment doors opening as an onslaught of tired teenagers poured out.

The once-quiet area became ear-splittingly loud in an instant. Over the cacophonous thunder, Edmund could barely pick out the whining of hungry students eager for the welcoming feast to begin.

In the end, it was not he who found his friends, but they who found him. As Edmund twisted and turned in search, a heavy weight leapt onto his back.

*Oof,* Edmund grunted as he crouched to regain his balance. He leaned forward instinctively before craning his head around to see who it was. There was really no need, though.

"WHOOO! This is my man right here! Edmund Cole! Genius, good-looking, roguish heartthrob! Come get him, ladies! He's still single, and a virgin to boot! Somebody here must be willing to cure him of that, huh?!" Jeremy screamed into his ears, earning a smattering of chuckles from the watching crowd.

"Best! Christmas gift! EVER!" Jeremy proclaimed, before delving into a rant about the "unbeatable" Puddlemere United.

As Edmund listened amusedly to Jeremy with a small blush on his face, they were joined by Ben and Cecilia as well. The duo snorted at the situation before all four began making their way to the thestral carriages.

When Jeremy finally shut up to catch his breath, Ben took his place at Edmund's side. Silently, he hugged him from the side, patting him on the back repeatedly.

"It was a thoughtful gift, you know? Mum and dad are both descended from farmers' families, going back lord knows how many generations. Being told your son has magic and seeing it are two completely different things. We made a day of it, sneaking out to the lake early one morning to test out the Gillyweed. They were so happy they must have filled up half an album with pictures of me," he chuckled before scratching his head. "Probably should've kept better track of the supply you gave me, though. My sister got into it, and she swallowed one of the portions before I could stop her. We suspected she was magical 'cause of the outbursts during her tantrums, but her growing gills pretty much confirmed it."

Edmund grunted dismissively, waving off Ben's thanks.

"I'm glad you got some good use out of it. I thought you'd have wanted to strangle me. Now that your sister knows she's a witch, she's gonna be bugging you a lot more for things," he pointed out.

Ben grimaced in realization."Shit."

Jeremy began teasing Ben, and the two quickly got into a spirited argument.

Cecilia took the chance to walk with him, shoving him playfully when Edmund tried to put his arm around her shoulder. She harrumphed snootily, barely keeping a grin off her face.

"So unoriginal. You basically stole my idea for you and just gifted it back to me. Except, of course, it looked like some cheap knockoff of mine," she complained in a ridiculing tone.

"Not everyone has money to blow like you, rich bitch," Edmund mocked.

Her face became warmer, more genuine at that.

"It was nice," Cecilia admitted. "Though I'm beginning to suspect you've hired a stalker to follow me with the number of pictures you managed to come up with."

"Besides," she added before he could retort, "it still doesn't make you any less of a doofus. A photo frame? Really? You know I had to display that somewhere, right?"

"And?" Edmund asked, entertaining her.

"And, it means that when I displayed it, the house elves saw. And when they saw, they cooed over 'how cute' I looked. And when that happened, the rest of my family saw too," she grumbled.

"Well? What did they think?" Edmund queried lowly as he bit back his guffaws.

Cecilia blushed deeply, remaining silent.

"Well, maybe if you actually sent back pictures when they asked you to, they wouldn't pry so much. Ah, the shy anti-social Cecilia strikes again!" he ribbed.

Cecilia reached out to elbow him in the stomach, but Edmund deftly leaned out of the way. She overextended, not expecting her attack to meet air. As she toppled over, she looked at Edmund in betrayal, who didn't even attempt to reach out and catch her.

*SPLAT*

She fell into a muddy puddle, laying there unmoving as if hoping the earth would swallow her whole.

Only a minute later, the three guys hollered and whooped as they ran from Cecilia, who had begun chasing them indignantly upon hearing their laughter.

Ben and Jeremy split up from Edmund as they reached the carriages, and Cecilia decided to follow the majority.

Panting, Edmund leaned on the side of a tree as he caught his breath, cheering on his dorm mates all the while. His eyes caught sight of the approaching Luna, who was smiling gently. She hugged him tenderly, before standing on her tip toes to whisper in his right ear.

"Thank you. It was the most thoughtful gift anyone's gotten for me in a long time," she murmured before her tone became more mischievous. "But... maybe you should have asked what a cork necklace meant before you gifted me one. The one I usually wear belonged to my mother, given to her by my dad when he declared his intention to court her."

"So... my gift?" Edmund asked with a wince.

"That's right," Luna glared at him. "My daddy is under the impression that his baby girl has been asked on a date."

Edmund gulped as Luna smiled evilly.

"That's alright, though. I know you meant well. But I do need to get my anger out of my system somehow," she innocently added.

A sharp poking sensation stabbed Edmund's back, and he realized it was Luna's wand. He looked dead in her eyes as she muttered, "Petrificus Totalus."

Luna stepped back from him with a grin.

"Hey, Cecilia!" Luna waved over the girl who was still chasing Ben and Jeremy determinedly. "Over here!"

As Cecilia ran over to embrace the still-frozen Edmund, he had only one thought running through his mind.

'Well played, Luna.'

*-*-*-*

- (Scene Break) -

*-*-*-*

Edmund's first occlumency lesson with Elspeth after the new year began as they always did: with a transfer of the memories of all their past sessions. The process tended to make the ever-suspicious Elspeth less jumpy, but more bitter about her circumstances.

She withdrew from his mind with a sharp inhale, rapidly assimilating the knowledge she had gained.

"Well, I suppose that explains why I was so subconsciously eager to learn..." she trailed off. "Let's test it then."

Elspeth trained her wand in Edmund's face, signalling the beginning of her attempts to penetrate his mind.

"Legilimens," she barked.

Edmund's defences held better than they had ever done in the past. His new mental enhancements allowed him to focus better, responding to her adjustments more rapidly and precisely. And yet, his prowess did not seem to faze Elspeth in the slightest. In fact, her face only morphed from its usual blankness into a slight upturn as time went on.

With a start, Edmund realized that while he was still struggling with her attacks, she had already gotten inside. Turning his head aside forcefully, he broke the connection, sweat beading on his temple.

"How?" he questioned.

"You have gotten better at both subtle and forceful attempts of legilimency. But you have lost sight of what the original intention behind these lessons was. I do not want you to simply memorize my tactics and create counters to them. I want you to learn how to beat your opponent by judging what they might be capable of doing," Elspeth scolded him. "You have gotten so used to a single probe, that you have utterly discounted the possibility of attacks from multiple angles. I distracted you by spending the majority of my concentration on my central attack, while my ambush from the periphery crept in without any resistance."

"But that..." he recognized slowly, his pitch rising with disbelief. "Something like that requires splitting of the consciousness."

She blinked in his direction rapidly before clearing her throat.

"I am surprised you know of the term at all," she said. "I will admit it is advanced magic, but—"

"Advanced?" Edmund interrupted with a shout before lowering his voice. "Learning that kind of magic is practically suicidal!"

"But!" she reiterated irritatedly, "powerful legilimencers will be well versed in it. I am an amateur for now, but I will introduce you to it as best I can."

"Thank you," Edmund said while giving her a bow from his sitting position.

'If only I could properly thank her somehow,' he pondered before an invisible lightbulb went off in his head.

Giving Elspeth something physical to express his gratitude was difficult. When her memories were stripped at the end of the session, she would be left wondering where the item came from, increasing the chance of her realizing she had been obliviated.

'But this might work,' he excitedly thought.

Edmund retrieved the endless notebook he had dedicated to research from his satchel, flipping through it. After learning of conscious splitting from Marvolo, he had scoured the library in the Room of Requirement for any mention of it. He had discovered much, however, the magic was far too difficult for his current skill level.

But for Elspeth...

"Here," he declared, passing his notes over to the older Hufflepuff.

She looked at him suspiciously, before her eyes went up to her hairline as she read through what he had jotted down.

"I've turned the Restricted Section upside down in the past couple of months looking for this information, and you just happen to have it. How?" she demanded.

"I can't tell you," Edmund shrugged, before raising his hands to placate her.

"Listen. Write down what you want from this. When I obliviate you at the end, I'll throw in a Confundus, so you think you found the information in a book that got removed from the library after you read it," he offered.

She looked at him again, her eyes gaining newfound appreciation.

"You're not so bad," Elspeth admitted. "I'm entirely at your mercy, and you haven't done anything to abuse that power till now. If anything, you've helped me improve my own skills. It's impressive willpower you've got there."

"Oh, come on! I'm only eleven, you know," he huffed, understanding what she was implying.

"Exactly. You're eleven. At your age, boys spend their entire nights wanking away with their curtains closed," she scoffed condescendingly.

Edmund choked on his spit, spluttering out a laugh.

"Maybe," he smiled.

"Oh, are you telling me you don't?" Elspeth smirked.

Edmund only shook his head with a sigh and chuckled.

"The more time that goes on, the more inclined I feel just to sign a contract of secrecy with you and be done with it," she thought out loud.

"Really?" Edmund asked incredulously. "I wouldn't have guessed that, coming from you. What if the memories I just showed you were fakes, and I've just been lying to you all along?"

Elspeth snorted.

"Kid. Forging memories is more my forte than yours. I know all the hints and tricks to look out for in faked memories. You might be multitalented, and that's incredible. But the mind arts are practically my sole devotion. You're not going to be able to fool me," she bragged.

"Well then," Edmund said, "I'll just have to keep trying."

*Tchh*

"Ah, whatever. No point trying to convince you. A little slice of humble pie will do you good," Elspeth decided with a snigger.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
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If you have any thoughts, or things you would like to see happen in the story, please share!

As you may have noticed, my diction is decent, while my syntax is awful. Please do not hesitate to point out any mistakes I make with a paragraph comment or a general chapter comment!

Thank you for reading!

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