Capítulo 1547: 9
Chapter 9: HalloweenNotes:
Good Morning everyone, here you go, the Halloween chapter.
Have fun
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The only memorable incident in the weeks between the "Fluffy-incident" and Halloween was the fact that for the first time in many years not only colleagues and old friends, but also students had gifted Minerva McGonagall something on her birthday.
On the morning of October 4th, when the owl post arrived, a handful of birds brought her gifts and cards, others she would usually get per Floo post. But when Hedwig flew up to her instead of Harry, she was surprised. By now probably half the school knew that owl, she was unmistakable and right now carried a package for her with a card attached.
Upon opening the letter she realised it had been written by Miss Granger, stating that the book in the package was a birthday present and a "thank you" for all that she had done for them. The book came from the Potter library, but they both chose it together, after having looked at the inventory list for hours. Now Minnie was curious, put the letter aside and started opening the package.
Severus, sitting next to her, started to cast glances at the package, having recognised Hedwig as well. Luckily, Dumbledore was rarely in the hall during breakfasts. That would have certainly made him suspicious, especially now that he saw what the boy's present for his head of house was.
Minnie's hands were shaking once she removed the gift wrap, because she was now holding an ancient looking book. After turning it in her hands and looking at the back of the book she nearly dropped it. Only the fact that she knew its value and rarity made her hold it tightly. She couldn't believe it.
It was after nearly a minute of staring that Severus Snape quietly asked her, what book it was. His question made her nearly jump up, and then she turned to him and whispered:
"It is the Grimoire de Transfiguratione , originally written by Morgana Le Fay. That copy is probably around eight- to nine hundred years old. The last time one of those publically surfaced was even before Albus was born."
After saying that she just got up and left, heading straight for her office to secure that book, but Snape hurried after her.
"Wait a second! Just give me a chance to hand you my present. Here, you'll probably need that if I don't misjudge the whole situation."
A bit surprised she took the present, thanked Severus and continued to hurry away.
It was then in her office that she opened that package and started laughing, because Snape had given her a bottle of her favourite Scotch with a note saying " you'll probably need it" .
Halloween 1991 - Charms Classroom
On Halloween Flitwick had them again in pairs to work on the levitation charm, combining the worst with the best students, hoping that it might help them. That meant that Mione had to work with Ronald again, Harry with Dean and Neville with Seamus. Yes, this time Hermione was more patient, but she still corrected Ron's pronunciation of Wingardium Leviosa since it was terrible. Following the redhead's angry outburst, Mione just glared at him, demonstrated the charm and asked Flitwick if he could change the partners for Ronald was too ignorant to listen to her. Harry sacrificed himself for his best friend, walking over to Ron before the professor was even able to reply.
"Come on, Weasley. You know you're butchering the pronunciation, Hermione is absolutely right, you're just ignorant and too stubborn to listen to the probably brightest witch of our age."
"What the hell do you see in that girl? She's bossy, reads much more than even the claws and is absolutely annoying. I should get you checked for loyalty and trust potions."
That statement was kind of funny, because what Ronald was implying was something that his family had done to him for years - or would be doing. Time travel was very confusing from time to time. Anyway, the statement both amused and angered him. Harry glared at Ron, but decided to not respond.
After the end of the lesson, Ronald Weasley had still not managed to levitate his feather and was absolutely angry. Upon leaving the charms classroom he started ranting about Hermione and why no one could stand her and why she didn't have any real friends. Instead of making her cry and run into a bathroom, she just shook her head and continued talking to her friends. That itself made Ronald and his rant look even more pathetic and didn't really make him more popular with most of his co-students. Well, aside from some of those who didn't like Hermione either and loved to gossip about and badmouth other students, like Lavender Brown.
After said day's classes were over and all of the school started to gather in the great hall for the Halloween feast, Harry decided to approach the headmaster for the first time. He walked up to the staff table, Minerva and Severus already watching him with a questioning look, and stood in front of Dumbledore, who was just as surprised.
"Headmaster, I'd like to get permission to not participate in the feast but instead eat in the common room with Hermione together. I'm not in the mood for celebrations, it's my parents' tenth death day. Please, I can't stand all that happiness today."
Dumbledore was surprised, both about Harry's approach and the question. After a minute of thinking he finally responded with a yes, accepting that any other answer wouldn't satisfy the rest of the staff, who were awaiting an answer from him too. The thought of letting the Weasley boy accompany him did cross his mind, but angering Potter today…not a good idea.
Harry smiled briefly at him and left again, thanking the headmaster wordlessly. He nodded at Hermione, who was watching him attentively, telling her that they had received a yes, and then walking out of the great hall together. That caught the attention of Draco Malfoy, who jumped up and yelled at Harry.
"Potter! Getting special treatment I see. You think it's beneath you to spend the Halloween feast with us normal people?"
Harry turned around, glaring at Draco Malfoy. Yes, he had many years of experience in dealing with that idiot, but despite that Harry nearly snapped. Mione saw his hand twitch, but before the wizard could grab his wand, she put a hand on his shoulder and calmed him down.
"He's not worth it, Harry. If you attack him now, all our plans become obsolete. And he's just a little stupid boy."
Yes, she didn't like defending Malfoy, but she couldn't risk Harry starting to duel Draco. Especially not with his skillset thanks to the war. And Harry understood, took a breath and then replied to the blonde Slytherin.
"Well Malfoy, for that you've got to thank your good old dad and his buddies. Today's my parents' death day and I'm obviously not in the mood to celebrate. So if you have a problem with that, not my bad, you…"
Draco got angry at being scolded by Harry and by him implicating his dad in the Potter murders and jumped up, but even in his anger he saw that the majority of the students supported Potter and now continuing to speak up would ruin his standing, so he gave in.
After having a brief dinner in the common rooms they were still alone, since the feast tended to take quite some time. It was long before curfew so they both thought about what they could do now. From going to the library or hanging out on the astronomy tower to sneaking down to the lake, nothing sounded really good to them, but then Harry had an idea.
"Mione, I think we haven't been to the room since we've been here, haven't we?"
That was true, they had simply forgotten to visit the room of requirement and now that did sound ideal. Harry was actually in a bad mood, thanks to Halloween. Bad things tended to happen on that date. And since the room could create whatever one desired, it could and would calm Harry down.
It took them some time to get up to the seventh floor, but as soon as they were there and Harry started to walk up and down in front of the correct wall section, they heard paintings screaming. Something was happening in the castle and it obviously upset the paintings.
"What the hell is going on? Hello, could one of you stop panicking and tell me what's happening?"
Hermione herself was basically screaming towards the end of the sentence, simply because it was so loud. It was then when a victorian-era clothed woman stopped briefly and told them about the troll on the fourth floor.
"Fourth floor? Pretty sure last time it was somewhere different, remember Quirrell saying it was in the dungeons?"
"Not that the troll really was there, but yes. I think that's what happened. You know I wasn't in the hall at that time."
Up until then Hermione had been hiding and crying in a bathroom, when the troll suddenly entered. But that must have been the second floor, something was certainly different than last time.
It is debatable if the two of them were quite lucky or unlucky, because on their way down they ran into the troll in a secluded corridor. He was once again rampaging with his giant club, hitting everything in his path. Nothing they could let happen so both drew their wands.
The two of them divided the tasks at hand, Mione pulled everything out of the troll's way to reduce the damages while Harry threw stunners at it. Not that it worked, they just bounced off the troll's skin. At least it didn't get closer to them.
"We both know that stunners don't work on trolls, what do you want me to do? I can take it out but that's gonna make a mess."
Hermione was sure that they'd be able to cover up anything they would do, so she nodded and told him to go for it. Little did she know that they weren't alone anymore, because then she would have told him to either hold back or wait.
Once Quirrell had stumbled into the great hall, panic broke out. The prefects all tried to contain the outbreak of panic, but it was not an easy task to bring the students back into the common rooms. It was then when Minerva and Severus realised that they didn't know if Harry and Hermione really were in the common rooms. Yes, Minnie knew that they would be aware of the troll and could defend themselves, but Severus insisted on hunting the troll himself to make sure they were not in its close proximity. He murmured something about a promise to keep Lily's son safe and hurried away while silently casting detection spells for dark creatures.
While he wondered how the beast both got in and into the fourth floor, he ran, using every secret passage and shortcut he knew. That thing was a danger to the students.
Once he was close to it he slowed down and disillusioned himself. Severus heard a loud noise, but to his surprise it wasn't only the troll, but the sounds of a battle. And really, both Potter and Granger were duelling the troll in a way no first-year, especially the muggle raised ones, could do. He already had his suspicions about the two, but it was still unbelievable. Little did he know that in a few seconds he would have proof for his theory.
Well, not exactly, but it would be undeniable.
Severus saw Harry raise his wand once again, but what came afterwards was totally unexpected.
"Sectumsempra!"
With that the troll was decapitated and his body collapsed, but Snape couldn't believe what he had just seen: little Harry Potter using a dark spell on a troll, a spell he could know through one of his parents' notebooks, probably Lily's, but never pulled off. Not as a first year. And it was now that Severus had a quote in mind, from books he had loved as a child. Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. It was something that Arthur Conan Doyle had written for his Sherlock Holmes. A character Snape loved to read about, even now. And in this case here he could easily say that Harry and Hermione duelling that way and Harry casting sectumsempra was impossible if they were first-years. Add that to the knowledge that they had and you get the conclusion that they couldn't be eleven years old (yes, Granger was twelve now but that didn't change anything). No matter how improbable it sounded, they had to be some sort of time-travellers. Now it all made sense. They were outplaying Dumbledore and his manipulations before some even happened.
"You're not really from now, are you?"
It was only a whisper, but they heard him. At that moment they didn't look their age, but mature. The look in their eyes - they must have seen death and destruction, if not war. He recognised it from himself and many others from his generation.
Harry and Mione both turned around rapidly once they heard Snape's whisper and just looked at him, with all the seriousness and maturity displayed on their faces. Neither of them did deny anything, but they also didn't confirm it. The three just stared at each other in silence. It was clear to the potions professor that they wouldn't verify his assumption, but he was okay with that. But now there was another issue at hand.
"Well, you two. It was quite unfortunate that you ran into the troll on the way to the library. The next time I'll probably won't be there to kill the monster for you."
Both students nodded. They were relieved that Snape had just created a cover story for them, which actually seemed plausible. He knew Sectumsempra, it was even his spell. It was something that Dumbledore would believe.
Speaking about Dumbledore, just moments after that he arrived and stared at the bloody mess in the corridor.
"Severus! I take it that's your work? Surely that was unnecessary. Oh, Harry, Miss Granger. What are you doing here?"
Thankfully Severus took the lead here and fell back into the role of the mean potions professor.
"Well, headmaster. Those two had the incredibly smart idea to go into the library at that time of day and ran into the troll. They should be glad I took it out."
And with that he just walked away, while Dumbledore looked at the troll's body. It did not seem like he would want to talk to Harry or Hermione, the two took that opportunity and walked away, back to the common room.
Albus Dumbledore thought about stopping them and talking to Harry, but first of all not in the presence of that stupid little muggleborn girl and second of all he wanted to make the boy like him, look up to him. Another traumatising Halloween was certainly not the ideal day for that.
Now he would have to clean up that mess. Vanishing the body of the troll wouldn't be an issue, but removing the residual dark magic from Severus' sectumsempra curse would be more difficult. It was a nasty spell and had brought much pain to his order back in the day. Luckily Tom had never learned it, that would have been disastrous.
The whole troll-incident was kept more or less secret, no one knew that Harry and Hermione were anywhere near that thing, the only bit the students knew was that the situation had been resolved. Yes, the two told Nev and Daphne about it, but even they thought Snape took it out. The only person knowing the whole truth was Minnie.
Severus had told her what he had seen and had said that he believed they weren't from now, but he was not looking for confirmation. The less people who knew all the facts, the better.
The next major event was the opening game of the quidditch cup, Gryffindor against Slytherin, Harry's debut game. A game he had trained for a lot, despite his years of experience. He knew he would outfly Higgs easily, but this time he wouldn't catch the Snitch with his mouth but deliver one hell of a show.
Game day was a cold November day, not the best weather to play. Since it was a bit foggy, it would be difficult for the seekers to spot the Snitch. Thank god Harry had a talent for that, for him the weather wouldn't really be an issue.
As soon as the captains - Oli Wood and Marcus Flint - had shaken hands, Hooch started the game. After a few minutes, Angelina scored first with a magnificent throw of the Quaffle, giving Bletchley no chance of catching that one. Not that he was a bad keeper, much the opposite, but the Gryffindor chaser line was quite strong. Nevertheless, the Slytherins played strong, not with elaborate game plans but rather with brute force.
After a while, the score was 30 - 20 for Gryffindor, Higgs spotted the Snitch for the first time. Harry had seen it too, following its path for minutes now. Once the opposing seeker started racing towards the small golden ball, Harry followed. He braced himself for an impact since he knew that at least last time Flint blocked him, and indeed, he did the same this time around. Hooch instantly awarded the penalty, which Alicia used to extend their lead, but now the Snitch was no longer in sight.
It took Harry about ten more minutes until he found the little golden ball again and decided to end it quickly, racing towards the Snitch. Higgs tried to keep up with him, but he didn't stand a chance.
Showing an impressive set of skills Harry tried to catch the Snitch, but then his broom started to act out. Damn Quirrell was jinxing it again. He missed the ball by millimetres.
Severus Snape saw that the broom started to do strange things, someone was manipulating it, but who?
It took him less than twenty seconds to look at the crowd and see who was whispering jinxes. To his surprise it was the foolish DADA professor, Quirrell, whom he really couldn't stand. The reasons for that he'd find out later, but now he had to start countering him. But since he wasn't alone, he could deal with that way faster. While murmuring the counter-jinxes, he signalled Minerva, who sent a confundus at the other professor.
That, to Severus' surprise, didn't work, so Minnie casted a weak Expelliarmus to make Quirrell drop his wand while Snape countered all the jinxes. Luckily, that did work out and Harry's broom worked again just fine. Yes, his house would lose in quidditch, but Quirrell was manipulating the game and Potter was so much better.
Less than half a minute after his broom was back to normal Harry ended the match with a spectacular dive while catching the Snitch with his left hand and then landing elegantly. The final score was 200 - 50, so they won by one hell of a margin, better than last time. As soon as the other players reached the ground, they started celebrating. The party following that game in the common room was enormous, even for the first years. Most of the students from higher years apparently partied longer, looking at their faces the next morning in the great hall.
It was not until the next Friday that Snape found the right time to talk to both Harry and Hermione about Quirrell's attack, but then, during potions class he clearly signalled them to stay afterwards.
"So, Mr Potter, Miss Granger, I think you owe me an explanation of what that was, the whole incident with Quirrell. Can you tell me why a professor would want to kill you?"
When Snape said that, Harry had to suppress a laugh. So many teachers had tried to or even succeeded to harm him. Quirrell was just one of them.
"Well, professor. Would you believe me when I tell you that our DADA professor has the leech of the Dark Lord sticking to the back of his head?"
Severus nearly dropped the glass filled with mistletoe berries he was putting away, when Harry mentioned the Dark Lord. That shouldn't be possible. Yes, he knew that Riddle wasn't dead, but here in the castle? As the headmaster Dumbledore had control over the school's wards and they should have told him about possessions right away, just like with polyjuice usage or portkeys. Why didn't Dumbledore do anything or what was his plan?
"I sincerely hope you are joking, because the headmaster should know about possessions thanks to the wards. Just like with portkeys or polyjuice. I think it was under headmaster Black that this was installed."
That was a surprise to Harry and Hermione, something that was not written in Hogwarts - A history. And it also meant something very terrifying.
"He knew about Crouch Jr all along. He wanted the resurrection to happen. And this man calls himself the "leader of the light". What a joke."
Harry was nearly yelling at that point, he just began to realise that so many things had been manipulated. Yes, the whole love potioning itself was horrible, but to participate in the resurrection of the Dark Lord - willingly - was something very different. Dumbledore was anything but light, rather a dark lord himself, working under the pretence of fulfilling a prophecy for the greater good. He would probably wait for Harry to die and take Voldemort out himself, because then the prophecy would have been fulfilled. That meant the whole stone-incident was either a test for him and his powers or the first attempt to get Riddle back to life.
Severus had to admit, he didn't understand what the boy was talking about. Crouch Jr was supposed to be dead but once he had said "polyjuice potion" Harry had lost it. And the resurrection? That surely had to mean that Riddle had come from the dead. What game was Albus playing?
"Alright, Mr Potter. I can very much relate to your anger at the headmaster, but I'm not really able to follow your rambles here. Whatever future knowledge that is, I'd prefer if you don't speak it out loud. Still, I'm lacking an explanation for Qurinius' behaviour, or shall I say the Dark Lord's? Why is he here at Hogwarts?"
"I thought that was obvious, he's here for the philosopher's stone to get a new body. Quirrell is going to steal it - or at least try to."
Now Severus felt a little bit stupid, that would have been the obvious answer. But why…
"Son of a bitch, he's baiting the Dark Lord with the stone. That was the break-in at Gringotts and now it's here. Hogwarts is a school! Not that I like the children but putting them in harm's way. That's just pure negligence."
The following minutes they had to listen to Severus' rambles about Dumbledore, before they finally decided to depart. That conversation had worked better than expected and even though they did tell some future knowledge, they didn't say too much. And, don't forget, they had learned something. The full extent of the headmaster's manipulations was shocking.
The person who had no idea that people were plotting against him, Albus Dumbledore, was sitting in his office, looking at the legendary invisibility cloak of the Potter family. Another deathly hallow in his hands, decades after he had stopped looking for them. Maybe he should continue his quest and oppose Tom with the hallows after the Potter boy had died. That would be spectacular and all of magical Britain, if not the world, would look up to him, the strongest wizard in the history of magic.
But no, he had to return the cloak, so Harry could sneak out and find the stone. He had already found Fluffy thanks to that compulsion charm he had placed on the youngest Weasley boy. And once he'd have the cloak, he would certainly snoop around the castle even more. With luck and some compulsion charms he'd be able to get the boy into the corridor. And then he would lure Quirrell down there to create a confrontation between the two of them.
Before that he would have to enchant the cloak though so he would be able to track it and look through it. Thank god he had the elder wand, without it that would be impossible. He had tried for years to manipulate the cloak without the deathstick or replicate its effects, but not even he could do that. But still, he would do anything in his power to fulfil his plans and if that meant returning the cloak, then he had to do that. For the greater good.
Notes:
So, hope you liked it. As always, I'm looking forward to your comments.
See ya all next week
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