Bab 17: Steal The Puppy
By the time Ymir and Anthony arrived at the Great Hall, all of the members of the News club were already seated on the Ravenclaw table, waiting for them.
"What took you two so long? The feast is about to begin!" Daphne complained, looking at the two Ravenclaws in scrutiny.
"Blame Ymir. He's the one who insisted to have his experiment be completed before moonrise." Anthony dumped all responsibility to his roommate, despite the fact that he could've gone ahead by himself but decided to stay because he was undoubtedly curious.
"Time is an important factor to the experiment, especially since today happens to be Samhain." Ymir explained himself as he sat down beside Ayato, causing several eyebrows to raise in surprise.
"Samhain? Isn't it Halloween?" Anthony asked in confusion. "And what does the day have to do with an experiment?"
In response, the pureblood children just looked at him blankly.
"Sometimes I forget that some of us here are not taught the wizarding culture." Pansy admitted.
The rest nodded.
"Anthony, Halloween is a muggle celebration." Ayato explained with a wry smile. "Do you really think wizards and witches would create a celebration designed to keep away their own kin and other magical beings?"
Ymir tapped the table and a bowl of creamy mushroom soup appeared before him.
"Uh... No?" Anthony blushed in embarrassment. "Now that you say it like that, it really does sound stupid."
Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones blushed as well, making it clear that they also thought that way.
"So, what's Samhain, then?" Anthony asked curiously, wanting to know more about the culture that for some reason, wasn't being taught in Hogwarts.
"It's an old festival wizards and witches used to celebrate, marking the end of Harvest season, and welcoming the longer nights and the darker half of the year." Daphne helpfully explained. "It is during this period that calling out the souls of departed loved ones or performing rituals related to the soul becomes many times more effective than other days."
"Isn't that... Dark Magic?" Susan Bones, who usually stayed silent, asked.
The purebloods snorted.
"That's only what the Ministry wants you to believe." Draco said with a sneer.
Ayato secretly passed his share of custard pudding to Ymir.
"If us wizards already have a festival of our own, why are we celebrating Halloween?" This was the issue Anthony wanted to be answered most.
"Go ask Dumbledore and maybe he'd tell you the answer." Blaise said with a roll of his eyes.
"Apparently, he wants the muggleborns to feel at home in Hogwarts." Ymir recalled as he finished his soup and went straight for the pudding.
"But, Hogwarts is a school that teaches students about the wizard world." Anthony frowned. "How can muggleborns familiarize themselves with the wizarding world if even the wizard traditions aren't shown to them?"
Ymir discretely added more caramel to his custard pudding.
"Exactly!" Daphne exclaimed. "There's a reason why the saying is, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do' and not, 'When in Rome, make the Romans do as you do'."
"Having our traditions be pushed down in favor of the muggle ones... After they have burned and massacred our ancestors-" Pansy took a deep breath. "I can't explain this feeling, but it makes it difficult for me to breathe."
"And then they act surprised when purebloods don't accept the muggleborns." Theodore said quietly.
Ymir passed the plate of eyeballs to Ayato.
"I heard Dumbledore was the one who started the campaign about protecting muggles or such." Daphne added, sneering. "Stupid, isn't it?"
"Protecting muggles? From what? Wizards?" Ayato asked sarcastically as he speared an Eyeball with his fork. "It's wizards who should be protected from muggles."
Ymir nodded in agreement. Ayato, being a wizard whose roots laid in Japan should have known just how dangerous muggles really are, especially since the last muggle war only ended less than 50 years ago. He probably even lost many relatives because of them.
"The Hiroshima and Nagasaki incident. I've heard about it from my uncle." Padma nodded in understanding. "It was terrible."
"What are they talking about?" Draco whispered to Ymir in confusion.
"The muggle World War 2. You should try reading about it." Ymir said somberly as the rest finally noticed their food. "It might enlighten you."
While everyone else began serving food for themselves, Ayato discretely scribbling something on his notebook, catching Anthony's attention.
"Merlin! It's contagious?!" Anthony suddenly exclaimed, making the rest focus their attention on him.
"What is contagious?" Pansy asked, leaning away so she won't catch whatever it was.
"Ymir's addiction to writing. It's contagious!" Anthony clarified, pointing towards Ayato who just blankly held his notebook.
"Huh?" Ayato looked at them in confusion, locking eyes with Ymir who also had no idea what was going on.
"Stop that." Padma slapped Anthony's back. "You're attracting too much attention."
"Ow..." Anthony rubbed his back, trying to soothe the pain. Padma sure has a heavy hand. "I just want to know what they're writing about all the time... acting so mysterious about it."
Ymir narrowed his eyes. He wrote too many things about everything. Most of them being things that he cannot discuss with others.
"Oh, if you wanted to know what's in my notebook, you could've just asked." Ayato laughed humorously. "It's not some secret anyways."
"Really? Then, what's in it?" Anthony immediately perked up at that.
"Just a list of all my friends and acquaintances and my personal grading of them based on their basic attributes." Ayato readily answered.
Immediately, that got everyone else's attention.
"Grading?" Pansy said curiously. "In what way exactly are they graded?"
"It's mostly by Appearance, IQ, EQ, Likeability, and Overall Skills in Magic and/or Quidditch." Ayato explained to them. "Like, for example, in the News club, the one with the best appearance currently is Draco, the one with the highest IQ is Ymir, the one with the highest EQ is tied between Pansy and Blaise, the one with the most Likeability is Padma, and the one with the highest Overall Skills is Ymir."
"Hmm... It sounds really comprehensive, but I'd like to argue with one point." Daphne said thoughtfully. "I personally believe that Ymir is better looking than Draco."
"Ymir is literally a walking sheet of paper." Pansy argued. "Draco has color on him atleast."
"But, Ymir has more charm than Draco, he has that rigid seriousness unique to Germans." Daphne stated her views. "What charm does Draco have? Daddy's boy charm?"
"It's about appearances, not charm!" Pansy huffed.
Ymir and Draco shared a wry look towards each other, not knowing how to react towards them being discussed about in such a way right in front of their faces.
"The highest grades have been discussed, but I'm sort of curious about who got the lowest." Anthony said frankly, unaware of the hesitance of the other people, and not realizing that he might have put Ayato in a tough spot with his sentence.
Fortunately, Ayato was quick to fix the situation with a humorous statement. "Ah, well, although I'm sure no one is surprised by this, but the one who got the lowest EQ is Anthony."
"Huh?!" Anthony spluttered in disbelief, while the rest of the club laughed.
While everyone was enjoying each other's company, suddenly the door to the Great Hall burst open and Professor Quirrell ran in with a panicked expression.
"Trolls! Trolls in the Dungeons!" He shouted, eyes discretely meeting Ymir's for a split second. "Thought you ought to know-"
Then, he promptly proceeded to faint.
It was then that Ymir finally realized what he meant earlier in the day.
"Well, I guess that settles our next News article." Anthony muttered.
Immediately, the Hall was filled with commotion as students jumped up in panic or excitement. In the end, it took the Headmaster emitting fireworks from his wand to attract the attention of the students.
"Prefects-" The headmaster called out, his voice amplified so everyone can hear him. "I ask you to lead your houses back to your dormitories immediately."
Draco snorted. "Just shows how much the headmaster thinks about Slytherin."
"Huh?" Anthony was confused.
Blaise winced. "The Slytherin dormitory is in the Dungeons."
"But, that's where-" Hannah Abbott muttered in horrified realization.
"That's where the troll is, yes." Pansy finished the sentence for her.
"Hey, Penelope!" Ayato suddenly called out to the Ravenclaw prefect. "Do you think you can talk to the Slytherin prefects and have them follow us to the tower temporarily?"
"What?" The prefect turned towards them, confused. "Why?"
"Their dormitory's in the dungeons. Might be dangerous for them to go there." Ayato calmly explained.
"Oh! That's fine. I'll go look for Flint." Penelope Clearwater nodded in understanding and headed off to the Slytherin table.
"Well, now that that's settled, how about we-" Ayato turned towards the younger students, but then stiffened when he noticed something. "Where's Ymir?"
"Huh? He was right here a moment ago..." Anthony looked around him hesitantly.
The rest of the students shook their heads, only now realizing that one of them had gone missing.
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"Alohamora." Ymir pointed his wand at the locked door.
After he deciphered Professor Quirrell's cryptic message from earlier, he immediately took advantage of the commotion in the Hall, and while the professors were distracted by the troll and keeping an eye on the fainted Professor Quirrell, he hid within the crowd of students exiting the Hall and went straight for the forbidden corridor when no one was paying attention to him, making sure to avoid the eyes of the portraits as well.
"Good evening, gents." Ymir smiled towards the three headed creature in the room, wand ready in case it decided to attack him. "I don't suppose you'd mind a change in scenery?"
"Bombarda." He fired a spell to the chain which held the beast captive, and it immediately broke apart, freeing the Cerberus, which immediately lunged towards him.
Unsurprised, Ymir calmly took a step back and entered the portal behind him. "Follow."
Then, both boy and beast disappeared into the portal, leaving the room with no evidence of what happened aside from the broken chain.
Moments later, a hurried set of footsteps rushed into the corridor and the door burst open, revealing Professor Snape, looking around hastily.
Upon seeing the broken chain on the floor, his eyes narrowed and he spat out venomously. "Too late."
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This was probably a bad idea, but it wasn't like he had any other options.
Professor Quirrell gave him too little time to prepare, so the only thing he could do was to drag it into the portal.
A Cerberus.
He has a Cerberus in Terra.
Granted that it had a high chance of mutating since it was a creature brought from the outside, Ymir decided that it would be best to keep it in Terra for the meantime instead of possibly destroying the stability he worked hard to create in Gaia.
For now, his number one issue with this is how to limit any mutations that might occur to it, and how to ensure it survives in a place where giant ants and worms have basically taken over.
Maybe, if he slowed down time to the utmost, it would atleast, limit the progression of the mutation while he was away.
Yes, he'd do that.
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The halls leading to the Ravenclaw tower was empty, and no one was searching for him in the corridors, which meant, even if anyone noticed his disappearance, they didn't make an issue of it and trusted him to be able to take care of himself.
Good.
But, as he discretely entered the Ravenclaw common room, he was surprised to find Slytherins wandering about with the Ravenclaws, curiously looking through the books amongst the shelves.
"Where were you?!" Someone hissed at him. Turning around, he came face to face with Pansy, giving him a disapproving look.
"I stole a puppy." Ymir replied honestly, causing Pansy's face to twitch.
"I'm not going to ask for an explanation. Honestly, I can't deal with any more headaches right now." He heard her mutter. "Just be glad that Ayato convinced everyone to keep quiet."
"I see. I will be sure to thank him." Ymir nodded, searching the room for the older boy.
"Students! Please settle down! Oh! The Slytherins are here as well?" Suddenly, they heard the voice of Professor Flitwick coming from somewhere in the room, while the sight of the professor himself seemed to be blocked by the taller students.
"We heard that the troll was in the Dungeons, professor, and deemed it too dangerous for the Slytherins to go to their dormitories that way, so we invited them here temporarily." Penelope explained to the Ravenclaw Dean and helpfully set down a stool for him to stand upon..
"A wonderful display of camaraderie!" Professor Flitwick gratefully stood on the stool and proudly gave praise. "Thirty points to both Ravenclaw and Slytherin! I'll be sure to inform Professor Snape of this at once!"
Both houses cheered at the sudden addition of points.
"And, also, you may be pleased to know, that the Troll has successfully been subdued." Professor Flitwick added. "Slytherins are now free to go back to their own dormitories, but, just for tonight-"
"I'm making a small exception." The students listened attentively as the Dean gave the Slytherins a welcoming smile. "Slytherin students are free to stay in the Ravenclaw dormitory until tomorrow morning!"
Several more Slytherins cheered, already eyeing the bookshelves.
Seeing how many of the Slytherins actually planned to stay, Ymir only had one thought in mind.
Did they have enough extra rooms to accommodate them?
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Later that evening, underneath the room where the Cerberus previously guarded, a red eyed man stood in the middle of an empty chamber, clutching a red stone in his hand.
But, even though his plan succeeded, he still knew that he had failed. Because the reward which he worked hard to obtain was-
"It's fake."
With a single pulse of his magic, the shimmering red stone immediately turned to dust in his hand.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone