Capítulo 30: Chapter 44 & 45 - End of Fifth Year
"The three of you are in trouble," Professor McGonagall sat on the chair, behind the table, in her office. Her hands clasped together on the table as she spoke.
"Are we?" Aerith sweetly smiled, trying to charm her but to no avail.
"Do you think the Professors in Hogwarts are idiots, Miss Gainsborough?"
"No, never," Aerith hastily shook her head, looking down.
"Everyone has known that you three have been somehow sneaking out of Hogwarts since your first year. I'll tell you we haven't figured out how to leave through the Forbidden Forest, but you have been and come back safe."
Aerith and Tifa were bowing their heads as they sneakily exchanged a look. None of them had any idea that the teachers knew about this. No one gave an indication ever.
"But! This year! There is something on the loose, rumors, and students and teachers are all in danger! Not only that, you have been out and about, doing who knows what, without a single care in the world of your safety! Now you have started to miss classes?! Is it possible that the three of you think you have learned enough and want to get expelled?!"
"It was important."
"Excuse me," Professor McGonagall looked at Cloud, narrowing her eyes.
"What we were doing was important," Cloud repeated, "But that's over now. Also…you don't have to worry about attacks. We have an idea who was behind it. There won't be anymore."
"You…you know who has been behind these attacks? Do tell how you found out," Professor McGonagall narrowed her eyes.
She stood up, "No…if you knew, you would have either dealt with it or informed the authorities. You found out about it today…Ginny? Ginny Weasley? Is that why you were in her room… Why I hear these rumors about Cloud being in girl's dorms."
"It's not her," Cloud denied it, "It's Tom Riddle."
Professor McGonagall stood up, taking a deep breath, "I do not appreciate jokes. Mr. Strife. And I do not wish to be taken as a fool."
She walked around the table, "I am disappointed with you…I'll let Headmaster deal with you three."
Tifa and Aerith followed her, leaving the room, pressing their lips as Tifa said, "That…backfired."
Cloud sighed, taking out the diary from his robes and placing it on the table, "We can't seem to catch a break."
"You are going to use it, aren't you," Tifa hugged his arm, kissing his cheek, "Be careful in there."
"Yeah," Cloud placed his hand on the diary, and his eyes turned cat-like as he decided to use Jenova's Ability. Consciousness Scan allowed him to do a complete scan of a person's memories. The ones they knew about or didn't know they had. This book had a soul and memories of Tom Riddle, and he wanted to know all this guy was up to.
The moment he used the scan, he found himself in the orphanage, looking at the child injured in front of him.
"I have no interest in this," Cloud swiped his hands, and Tom Riddle's memories skipped past like a fast-forwarded movie. He watched them, keeping an eye on them when there was some interference.
"Stop!" An eleven-year-old Tom Riddle abruptly turned his head towards him, only to flow away in the current of memories.
Cloud ignored him and kept moving through the memories, for Tom Riddle, who had put on the Sorting Hat, to glare at him, "Who are you?"
And again, the following year, when he was reading a book in the library, "What are you?"
In the third year, "I told you to stop!!"
In the fourth year, "I will kill you!"
And then, the fifth year was the most interesting one in his memories, not that he hadn't been interesting yet. This year, he went into Myrtle's Bathroom and searched through the taps, reverently touching them, searching for something.
He gasped, finding something, and then spoke—hissed, the pipe began to turn, the sink sank, revealing a passage through the pipe, and a blissful look appeared on Tom Riddle's face.
He jumped down, and Cloud followed his memories; down in the chamber, the statue of the older man with a beard, the snakes moved, and a creature, a massive serpent, slithered out.
It hissed, raising its head, looking at Tom Riddle, who didn't dare meet its gaze. Tom hissed, and the Basilisk closed his eyes, putting his head down in front of Tom, who abruptly went quiet.
He hissed again, and the Basilisk opened its eyes, looking towards Cloud, but the memories flowed back before the Basilisk came out.
"You have misunderstood how this works," Cloud said, walking towards Tom Riddle, who didn't understand what happened, "You have zero control over this."
Professor McGonagall's Office,
Cloud opened his eyes; the first face in his eyes wasn't that of Professor McGonagall but Headmaster Dumbledore.
"Did you learn something, Mr. Strife?"
"A few," Cloud held the diary, "I understand why he wouldn't die and come back to life."
"By 'he'… I assume you mean Voldemort, right?"
"Yeah."
For the next few weeks, Cloud was quieter than ever, and the days returned to normal. Everyone was still scared, and the three couldn't believe they had missed all this. For the past few months, they didn't spend any time in Hogwarts eating or sleeping. They only attended classes, and after that? They were never there.
Now that they were, they heard rumors about Harry being the Heir and killing those with Muggle Blood about the accidents.
"I don't get it. Why was that Myrtle was killed, but others survived and were only petrified?" Aerith curiously asked, sitting in the common room with their friends and a few more from the First Year and Second Years.
"Because they didn't look directly into its eyes. Now that I know it was a Basilisk, it makes it simple to figure out," Hermione confidently replied, "They saw it through water or the camera. They didn't directly look into its eyes. If they had, then the result wouldn't be petrification."
"Hah, that's our Hermione," Fred grinned, "If she hadn't turned herself into a cat, then she might have figured it out."
"Right, so true."
Hermione looked down, curling her lips, "It's all because I know what it was."
Cloud leaned his head back, "Now that this is all over, we need to focus on Quidditch matches."
"You still want to focus on them? They are all but boring now," Angelina crossed her legs, "Even though Malfoy's father bought them Nimbus 2001…event they were beaten. There is no doubt we'd win this year too."
"Cloud wants to win seven years in a row," Aerith chuckled, "Sounds interesting."
"Sounds freaking awesome," Ron shouted before he shut his mouth and sat down.
"Shouldn't the two of you be teaching Ron? He wants to play, and if you teach him, he can. After all, a few years and we'd be gone. We need someone to play after us, right?" Tifa smiled at Ron, asking Fred and George.
"Eh, Ron sucks."
"Yup, he sucks."
"I don't suck! I am not…there yet."
Cloud turned away since he didn't want to smile on Ron's face, much like Harry, Hermione, Lee, and others were laughing.
Once they had the diary, Tom Riddle didn't have anyone else to control, and the Basilisk would stay there until they found a necessary use for it. Not like it was up to them, but then again, he didn't see Dumbledore making Harry open the chambers and pick a fight with Basilisk if it wasn't necessary.
Once that was done, a few announcements from Dumbledore and Aerith helped grow the plants to eliminate Petrification and a great Quidditch Match. It was all history.
Though by the end of the year, a strange thing happened when Gilderoy came to Cloud and asked him about his secrets, and Cloud shared and told him the story of how he found the Heir and cared for him. Albeit, he changed the Heir in the story.
Something that the voices said made him curious, and he decided to see it through if it was true, and it was. Gilderoy did try to use Obliviate on him, and he didn't stop; when the spell was about to hit him, it was reflected, and Gilderoy lost his memories.
Tifa could only watch Gilderoy down on the floor and wonder, "Are those rumors about the curse on his teaching position true?"
"I am starting to believe them," Aerith muttered.
Other than that, and the fact that the next year their DADA turned out to be a werewolf who had a beef with Snape, things went smoothly. On the other side of things, Muggle Side had already started its services. Mostly it was Cloud who went to do these jobs, and strangely they only did so on Saturday and Sunday.
After the first month of getting almost no jobs and the others given to connect with Pym Technologies, they decided to invest and make a New Security Company, Avalanche.
Avalanche had more than enough money to keep it running without getting the jobs, so they weren't taking any. They were now training these people, sorting them out, much like Cloud's training when he entered Shinra. From Sephiroth, Genesis, Angeal, and others who stayed a part of Shinra much, much longer.
The problem came when they had to leave someone to manage it, and only a few Skrulls were left to do it. Howard, Mar-Vell, and Maria were out in space; they didn't have any personal contacts in the Muggle World.
So they did what every ordinary person would do and teleported to the Skrulls spaceship to meet with Howard, Maria, and Pym, who were still against this and wanted to be taken back home.
Still, with their talk with them, they realized it was hard to find someone. Though, Howard managed to give them a name, someone that could help them through this and take the reign of Avalanche. Right now, they were busy with this Voldemort problem, or they would have left Hogwarts last year or this one.
Still, another year passed, and their fifth year in this world came to an end, and the sixth year was about to begin.
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End of Volume 1.
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