Chương 112: Infiltration, Kidnapping, Shrieking Shack
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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
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Three men stood at a shady and hidden corner of Hogsmeade. The three men had arrived individually and converged at the position they had been given.
"Do you know what we're going to do today?" asked one of the three men.
Another man glanced at the one who had said that and asked back, "Are you new? Is this your first time?"
"I have been on one of the sweeps for muggles and muggleborns, but there were more people than this..." he looked at the other two and said, "... If you get what I mean."
The third man joined the discussion and shared his own experience. "This is different from the sweeps. If I am correct, this is going to be something different."
"... So you don't know what we are going to do today?" asked the first man.
The other two looked at each other before shrugging and shaking their heads.
"No, I was just asked to arrive at this place at a certain time," answered the second man.
"The same instructions for me as well," said the third man, but then he asked. "Were you guys asked to bring that?"
"The uniform, you mean?" asked the man and pulled out a matchstick bag from his robes.
"Yeah, the uniform. I mean, if that was asked... Do you think we have to?"
As the three men talked, an invisible Rivers Lock, under cover of a Disillusionment spell, was listening and observing the three men. These three men had been selected from the Accionites that had responded to his calls.
All three were chosen because they were easy to control and had something that would help him in what he was trying to accomplish.
But before he revealed himself, Rivers wanted to see how these three reacted to the other; how were they feeling today; what did they discuss, the information they exchanged, and other traits that would help him decide on the finer details of the plan.
Rivers never shared the complete plan with anyone. He always made sure that other than him, no one knew the entire picture. This way, he could limit the flow of information and isolate leaks if anyone decided to switch to the other side.
And today, these three knew nothing other than the fact they were asked to bring their Hogwarts uniforms with them.
'These three will work. Yes, these three will do just fine,' thought Rivers and decided that it was time to start.
He dropped the charm and revealed himself, startling them and caused them to take out their wands.
"It's good that all of you are here on time. It would've been unfortunate if you were late," said Rivers before glancing at the wands and then at their owners. "Drop the wands. I'm your leader today."
The three breathed a sigh of relief and withdrew their wands back into their robes.
"Do you have the orders," asked one of the men.
"Yes, I do. I received the orders from one of the higher-ups; they said that this is quite important," replied Rivers and began establishing his image among the three.
"Alright, who is A, B, and D," asked Rivers.
The three told Rivers about their assigned alphabets.
"I see; here you go. These are your potion vials," said Rivers as he handed them potion vials with the letters A, B, and D and kept the vial with the letter C.
Of course, he already knew about their letters, but he wanted to establish that he was just one of them and was assigned to be the leader. That is why he gave himself the alphabet C, as that would imply that he wasn't unique or separate from them.
"What are we going to do?"
Rivers took out a shrunk-down uniform from his robes and showed it to them.
"I think you have already guessed it, but we are going to Hogwarts," he lifted his vial and continued. "These are reverse-aging potions. They will return your outer appearance to your Hogwarts years. We're going to drink these, put on our uniforms, and go inside the castle."
"How are we going to get inside Hogwarts? Today isn't a Hogsmeade weekend," asked the second man.
Rivers put on a fake yet flawless grin as he answered. "Through the Shrieking Shack."
All three men shivered and looked at each other in worry. The building was famous for being haunted. None of them had ever approached the abandoned building in their school years.
"I have been briefed that there's a secret tunnel in there that opens up in the castle grounds. We are going to use that tunnel and get inside to complete the mission."
"... What are we going to do inside?" asked the third man.
The other two men also looked on with the same curiosity, wondering what they were about to do inside Hogwarts.
Rivers dropped the grin and revealed today's objective in simple words.
"We are going to kidnap the Boy-Who-Lived and kill him in front of everyone..." he paused and put on a proud expression. "... For the Dark Lord."
The three young, pureblood men, who had joined Novellus Accionites because they believed the Voldemort ideology, nodded and felt the fear of entering the Shrieking Shack lessen as they felt they were doing something revolutionary.
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- (Scene Break) -
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"Are you sure we aren't going to be recognized?" asked one of the Accionites, looking uncomfortable in the state he was.
He looked around the castle and, if the situation had been different, he would've felt nostalgia. Nonetheless, right now, all he felt was anxiety.
Rivers looked at the man, who looked uncomfortable, and nodded. "No one will be looking at your faces. You can hide behind your clothes, and people will turn blind. Within the school, if you have a uniform, no one will give you a second look."
All four people had entered the castle wearing Gryffindor-styled Hogwarts uniforms. Rivers was also wearing a Gryffindor-styles robe, but he had been Slytherin in his time at Hogwarts. The three men had been chosen because they had been from Gryffindor and knew some key areas of the castle like the Gryffindor Tower.
"Tell me, where would be the best place to grab and stun a Gryffindor student?" asked Rivers, his body relaxed.
Rivers had ordered one of the men to take him to the places where Gryffindors frequented so that he could scout the places where the nabbing could take place.
He had left the rest of the group to one of the places he had found in his school career that wasn't frequented by students.
"I would say that the base of Gryffindor Tower is a good place. Every lion will have to pass through there to get to the common room," replied the Accionite grunt.
Rivers hummed in thought before scratching the location out of the viable options. "No. If every Gryffindor goes through there, then the chances of being seen are high."
"How about the passages around the Quad, especially the ones near the suspension bridge? We can wait at the ones that lead to the Gryffindor Tower and get the brat there," offered the man-turned-into-child.
Rivers rolled his eyes in a way such that the grunt couldn't see it and internally sighed.
"Not there; students from all houses walk those passages. Too much risk and exposure," said Rivers, keeping his voice straight to hide the contempt towards the stupid plan.
As they passed the Great Hall, Rivers' eyes caught the notice wall, which had, understandingly, all kinds of notices on it. He stopped and walked towards the wall to get a good look.
The man-child grunt followed Rivers and gave the wall a cursory glance while Rivers read every notice, and it seemed it was the right move because he found something good.
"I found the perfect place," smiled Rivers, and a plan immediately formed in his mind.
"Huh, where?" asked the grunt in confusion.
"The Gryffindor team booked the pitch from after lunch till the closing time." Rivers pointed out the notice that mentioned the pitch's schedule.
"Harry Potter, the youngest seeker in Hogwarts' history," River's smile widened as he decided how he was going to pull his plan.
"This is going to work."
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- (Scene Break) -
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"Ugh, I'm so tired!" groaned Fred, wiping his body down with a towel.
"Oliver is going to kill us at this rate," continued George as he put a fresh shirt on his body.
The Quidditch practice had just ended, and in the boy's locker room were the Weasley twins, Fred and George, along with Harry Potter. They were changing out from their Quidditch gear. While the captain was out to lock the ball kit into the storage closet.
Harry sighed and stretched his hands above, trying to elevate the tension after keeping them at the broom for the entire practice. He was tired but not as much as Fred and George, who had to be on alert for the bludgers all the time and had to use extra energy and stamina in hitting the bludgers with their Beater bats.
"Hey, did you hear about the new Ravenclaw chaser? What's his name," asked Fred. He turned to George expecting an answer, but the other twin also couldn't recall. "I don't know, but they're saying that he is the real deal. The Ravenclaw Keeper can't stop him from scoring."
They both turned to Harry and asked in unison,
" "Harry, do you know??" "
Harry shut his locker and spat out the name of the newly added Chaser of the Ravenclaw team. "Eddie Carmichael."
Harry didn't like Eddie since their previous meeting. He hadn't talked to Eddie after that, but whenever their eyes would meet, Eddie would raise up his chin and look at him as if he was looking down at him.
"I mean, let the bloke play a game before putting him over the shoulders. Playing in practice and in a game is different," grumbled Harry.
He had been hearing the name too much. Even Oliver, who had been strict with his praises, had sung some after scouting a single Ravenclaw practice in secret.
Fred and George got dressed quickly and left the locker room with their stuff.
"Harry, we'll be waiting-" "- outside, so hurry up-" "-and come out."
Harry turned and said, "I'll wait for Oliver. You guys go and see if the girls are ready."
"Alright-" "-we will see-" "-see you-" "-two outside."
Harry heard the door close and started packing his thing into his bag.
Then he heard the door open up.
"Oliver, hurry up," said Harry thinking that Oliver had come back. "The rest are waiting outside."
He turned back to see two people dressed in Gryffindor robes standing at the door, and then his world went black.
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- (Scene Break) -
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"It has been a while since we have done this, hasn't it?" said James Potter looking at the decrypted walls of the two-store building.
"It's been a while. We haven't done this since the wolfsbane potion was discovered," answered Sirius Black as he whipped out his wand to clean the room they were standing in.
"You both didn't have to do this. With me on the potion, I usually just sleep after I transform," spoke Remus Lupin, looking at his two friends who were here to keep him company.
The three Marauders stood in a room, a very disordered, dusty room. Wallpaper was peeling from the walls. There were stains all over the floor. Every piece of furniture was broken as if somebody had smashed it. And the windows were all boarded up.
"To be honest, we aren't doing this for you," grinned Sirius as he took two bottles out from his coat. "We just wanted an excuse to get together so we can get plastered."
Sirius and James were quite busy with their jobs as Senior Aurors, and the load had been recently heavier, with them interrogating and preparing for trials of the people arrested from the raids.
Plus, both of them were also occupied with their seats in Wizengamot. James had been involved with politics since a long time ago. But Sirius was new to the scene and had only been handed the position after his grandfather, Arcturus Black III, had died. In his will he had reinstated Sirius into the family before his death.
Remus, too, had a busy schedule as a professor at Hogwarts. A professor at Hogwarts needed to handle seven years' worth of students and thus it was quite a hectic job.
With three friends busy with their lives, they decided to use Remus' Werewolf transformation as a short time to catch up with each other. It was also a nostalgic thing for them as they did it during their school life.
James squatted in front of a broken chair and pointed it as he looked at Remus. "Hey, do you remember this chair? I remember lifting it up with my antlers and throwing it at you."
"I don't think that it's that chair. I'm not even sure it was this room," remarked Remus. "Though I might be wrong. I don't remember much of those days. I didn't have the potion back then. All of it was kind of a blur."
Sirius lifted and shook the two booze bottles with a rascal-like grin. "That is what we are trying to do. Make things blurry, but you know, more fun."
"Are you sure you can drink?" asked James as he got up from the floor and turned to Remus. "Will the effects change when you transform? The last thing we need to look out for is a drunk Werewolf."
Remus chuckled and shook his head. "No, as long as I take the potion without any addition to it when I drink it. I'll be fine. As for any changes? I will just be more sleepy, more silent, and probably go to sleep more easily."
"Aww~, I wanted to wrestle like the old days," mock-whined Sirius, who had now sat down on a conjured sheet on the old floor with the booze bottles and glasses in front of him.
He smacked the floor and called out. "Come on, now. Let's hurry. I want to get that buzz going."
James and Remus chuckled before sitting down on the sheet as Sirius poured them drinks.
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- (Scene Break) -
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"What should we do with his stuff?" asked one of the Accionite grunt, holding up Harry's Quidditch.
Rivers, who was making sure that Harry Potter was tightly bound and secured, looked at the grunt.
"Drop it in here," replied Rivers.
They had slowly and stealthily made their way back into the Shrieking Shack-Whooping Willow secret tunnel. It had taken a while because Rivers wanted to make sure that they weren't seen.
The task to smuggle the unconscious Harry Potter to this point had been difficult because they had to travel outdoors with nothing to hide them. Rivers had to purposely make the entire group move slower so as to not distort the effects of the Disillusionment charm a lot.
The grunt dropped the kit on the floor and asked, "Why did you make me take this?"
"If someone saw that the Potter brat was missing, but his things were still there, it would create some suspicion. But if his things aren't in view, they would think that he left on his own. And it would take time for them to figure out that he is missing," explained Rivers as he sat down on the ground of the rough tunnel.
Unlike the grunts he had brought along, Rivers had thought about things and took steps that were beneficial to him and the success of this mission.
"Why have you sat down," asked another grunt.
Rivers glanced at him and pointed at himself. "We're still under the effect of the potions. We can't go out like this. This isn't over; we still have work to do." Internally he was sighing at the idiocy of everyone around him.
"What do we have to do more?"
"We are going to kill the Boy-Who-Lived and make him a showpiece in the middle of the Hogsmeade. I want the world to know that their savior is dead. That will start the revolution," said Rivers, but he didn't have a smile on his face as things were going in his mind. "But we have to do it, and we have to do it quickly."
"... Why?"
"Someone will know that the Boy-Who-Lived is missing and when they do, the entire Auror's office will move to find him out. The general public, too, will start looking for him. The entire community will be looking for him. And I mean everyone, even Death Eaters," he stared at the three grunts and said very severely. "And finally, Albus Dumbledore will look for him, and that is the worst threat. If Dumbledore starts looking, he'll find the boy quickly. That man is dangerous."
Unlike almost everyone who looked at Dumbledore as he was the greatest thing under the sun, Rivers knew how much power Dumbledore held. He knew that Dumbledore had both political and magical power, and he had both of them in excess.
To Rivers, Dumbledore was a person who was capable of controlling everything. He even thought that he was probably doing it already.
"We need to complete this quickly and then separate from this boy. The longer we stay with him, the greater the chance of us getting caught. As I said, people will be looking for him, and when they do find him, we will be there."
He stared at them and ordered.
"We will move as soon as possible."
And when they nodded, Rivers thought,
'Though you guys won't be coming out of it alive.'
They had seen his face, and that connected him to Novellus Accionites.
He couldn't have that, so they needed to die.
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- (Scene Break) -
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"Yeah, this is about it, I guess," smiled Quinn as he sat in front of Gary while approving some designs.
"Good, you will get them by next week," nodded Gary and collected all the design papers.
Quinn had arrived at Hogsmeade quite early and had been inside the Scrivenshaft's, deciding upon the designs on the new A.I.D. cards and ordering more copies of his notes.
He had arrived quite early, but Gary had showed him some new stuff, and that got Quinn interested, and he ended up going into research mode.
And because Gary was free, Gary and Quinn bounce ideas off each other. Then came lunch, tea, and what was planned to be a single-hour ordeal turned into a multiple-hour affair.
"I'm getting late. I need to get back to the castle," said Quinn as he looked at his pocket watch. He looked up and smiled. "Today was fun, Gary. Let's do it again sometime."
After saying goodbye to Gary, Quinn looked in different directions and wondered.
"Which passage should I take?"
Seven passages connected Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, and Quinn liked to not repeat the passages.
"Let's go through Shrieking Shack today," decided Quinn and started to walk towards the so-called haunted building. Without looking at all at the rising full moon that shone in the evening sky.
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Quinn West - MC - That wasn't enough screen-time.
Rivers Lock - Leader - Can't let his identity get out.
James Potter - Senior Auror - Reminiscing about things he broke.
Sirius Black - Senior Auror - Let's get shit-faced~!
Remus Lupin - Werewolf - Ugh, Wolfsbane tastes nasty.
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