Hogwarts Story: Part 14

[unforth]

I can't seem to concentrate today. Bad side: Didn't get as much work done as hoped. Good side: Just wrote like 3 pages for Hogwarts story. :) This i mostly to make up for not posting yesterday.

And why didn't I post yesterday? Well, after the Hogwarts game, I had too much Hogwarts on the brain to be up for writing. The game was much fun. I actually instigated a bit of mischief, though not terribly mischeivious mischief, with the aid of Fred and Marcus...making Sir Nicholas happy was much fun. (and getting to have more cuteness with the headboy was of course great - of course we don't think of anyone naked! no one should be naked, ever! How could you, Nick?) :) Now if only we could have actually found Auror Weasley's ghost...(grumble grumble)...in short, though, much fun was had, and I was very pleased to be able to act the part of the death of everyones least favorite NPC (okay, people may dislike Palucid Nox more than Weasley...still...)...knocking Guillermo Patil unconscous was also a high point of my game. ;)

In other news, I had a pretty good day. I did an interview that I had been putting off, cause interviews are a pain, and once I finish some reading I'll be basically set to write my last paper for the semester. Then, hung out all day and ate yummy food and talked about all sorts of nifty stuff, from Hogwarts to Changeling to life history and such with feyangel, and generally had a nice time.

Anyway, enough of that nonsense. :) I wrote a LOT this time, more than at any other one time, which is good, it starts to make up for Thanksgiving Break when I didn't write, and last night.


“It’s nice to meet you, Zonks,” said the Lunari who was currently claiming to be Maya.

“The pleasure is all mine,” Zonks’ tone was roguish as he eyed the Lunari twins. “I was a Gryffindor too, always a pleasure. I’ve graduated now, though, some time ago now…I really must say I’m looking forward to leaving, though it’s a nice enough place for a dungeon I suppose. Anyway, as I was saying, if you want my help you’ll have to give me something to make it worth my while.” He eyed the twins suggestively.

The Lunari twins exchanged an extended glance, and then shrugged, and then they walked up to him and each kissed one side of his face. Zonks made the strangest sort of sighing sound, and was silent for a moment as the twins stepped back. “That…was good, but not quite good enough,” he gave a look to the other girls in the room, which they all seemed to be pointedly ignoring – certainly, I wasn’t interested in kissing him. He was cute in a roguish sort of way, but I had always seen relationships in a rather clinical and detached fashion. I’m fairly convinced this is due to the fact that, as the daughter of pure bloods, my future was never really in my own hands, and it was inevitable that my parents would select my match and that would be that. It was my sole hope that I could pick someone suitable and convince them it was a reasonable match before they tied me to someone truly awful. Of course, what suitable truly meant to me was “not Slytherin” and “pure-blood.” Unfortunately, this has never been the most common combination – I could only think of one qualified man at Hogwarts while I was a student, for the head boy Marcus was pure blood, older than me (another necessary requirement), and Hufflepuff - and I despaired of finding a match before they did.

Still, if it was love – or, at least, some physical manifestation of love, such as kisses – that Zonks wanted, I had something that could help. I had brought a stash of potions with me to the dungeon, certain that I would need some of them before the end of the night, and though I hadn’t really expected to need the particular potion I was reaching for now, I was most certainly glad I had heard it. Listening to Zonks talk to the girls, I had been reminded that a new store had opened, a “Zonko’s Joke Shop,” which I had high hopes of selling potions to. If this Zonks was in any way related to those who had opened the shop, giving him a potion would help to bring me to their attention, and I had a potion I was pretty sure he would like.

Ignoring the slightly startled looks of the others, I approached Zonks and whispered softly in his hear. “I’m not going to give you a kiss,” I said, my voice a little tight with my effort to keep it soft, “but I have a potion you might like.” Zonks looked at me, a question in his eyes, and I smiled. “It’s a love potion,” I glanced slightly at the Lunari twins. “Is that something would satisfy your demands?” I slipped the potion into the pocket of his jacket.

Nodding, Zonks grinned foolishly. “Done and done,” he said loudly enough for everyone to hear. “Right-o, there is a set of keys in my left shoe, feel free to take them.”

We all stared for a moment. I wish I knew how the boy Zonks, chained to the wall, had managed to get a set of keys to the dungeon into his left shoe. None of us asked however, and so we never did learn. We took the keys and left, the Lunari’s promising to visit again shortly.

Hurrying along quickly lest the groundskeeper be attracted by the conversation we had been happening, we all crept along the dark hallway. It was difficult to move silently, for many of the rocks were slick with water, making the footing treacherous, and others seemed to shift inexplicable under the foot. The walls too were slimy with some sort of growth – I told myself with shaky confidence that it was algae – and it was relief that we reached the door at the end of the long hallway, light glowing slightly from underneath it.

The key had been entrusted to my care, and I placed it in the lock nervously. The light coming from under the door spoke of a room more commonly used than the sporadically lit hallway, and some part of me was convinced that we would open the door and be face to face with…well, I wasn’t sure who we would be face to face with, but it wouldn’t be a good thing, of that I was certain. Yet still I turned the key, a shivering rasping sound coming from its ancient and rusted workings, and pushed the door open.

No one was there to great us. However, it was still a most strange room over all. A long dark wooden table sat in the middle of the room, covered in a white dust that swirled slightly at the slightest breeze. Plush, exotic carpets covered the floor, and magical devices of all sorts lined the bureaus around the edges of the room and covered the walls. In one corner, a the door of a bureau stood slightly ajar, revealing the slight glint of glass, and next to the bureau was a box with a frog on top of it. As we entered, all of us filtered through the room, moving towards the thing that interested us the most.

I was instantly caught by the suggestive hint of glass in the bureau, and moved over there slightly hurriedly. Opening the door, I gasped as I beheld the contents, suddenly oblivious to everything else in the room. Within were more bottles of potion ingredients then I had ever seen before. As I scanned the contents with wide eyes, I saw everything from the common pixie dust and doxie droppings, which I quickly dismissed, to the truly fantastic, dragons blood, and phoenix feathers, and other magnificent things. Never have I been more tempted by anything than I was by the contents of that wonderful bureau. Before I had fully realized what I was doing, I glanced hurriedly around to make sure the others were looking, and sneaked the tall bottle containing the phoenix feathers into my robes.

Several moments passed then in silent battle. I wanted the feathers so badly. I wanted the dragons blood, and the unicorn horn, and the little red pellets I couldn’t even identify, I wanted to take every bottle in the closet. However, the part of my mind that thought that ‘coming down to the dungeon is a bad idea’ and ‘following the rules is important’ was screaming at me. Potion ingredients like this are very expensive. Someone uses these. Someone will notice if they are gone. Someone will know spells that can identify the thief. Someone will find out that we were all down here, and then someone will certainly expel us. Within moments I had convinced myself that no matter how much I wanted them, I simply could not take the risk that stealing the ingredients entailed and so, marshalling all of my willpower, I heaved a great sigh and slipped the coveted phoenix feathers back into the spot where they lay. I forced myself to close the door to the bureau. I forced myself to turn to the others.

Much had happened in the room while I had been fighting my personal war. The Lunari’s each lay slumped in chairs by the long table, clearly asleep or unconscious, before a spot where the dust on the table had been wiped away. There was dust on both girls robes, and I realized that despite the recent introductions to Zonks, I had them hopelessly confused again. No one else seemed distressed by their inactivity, though. (Marc’s character) was watching me, a curious expression on his face, while Lycia examined an intricate mirror that stood on one wall. Dimitri was eyeing the Lunari twins, a mischievous look in his. Celestine stood next to me, intent on the frog.

“Delia,” she sounded distressed, “we must help this poor frog, look at its feet!” She gestured at its feet, and I looked and saw what she was looking at. Lycia came over and looked also. Sure enough, horribly, the feet of the frog had been nailed firmly to the top of the box.

Feeling slightly sickened, I shook my head. “It’s terrible,” I said, “but we must try not to interfere with the things that are here. The owner will surely notice if we make a ruckus or a mess.” In the background, Dimitri was tying the Lunari twins’ scarves together, grinning broadly. (Marc’s character) had opened the bureau door that I had so lovingly closed, and was looking intently at the contents.

“But this is terrible,” Celestine implored me, her voice tremulous through her accent “please, do you have a shrinking potion or some other means of freeing it? We cannot leave it here, it is in such terrible pain.” As I watched, what appeared to be moist tears streamed from the frog’s eyes.

I started to explain again why we must take any thing from the room when I looked over towards the bureau once more, and did a double take. Leaving Celestine to the problem of the frog – she was shaking her head, and saying to herself that a shrinking potion would only cause the nails through its feet to rip it apart – I walked over and, slightly violently, pulled (marc’s character) away from the open cabinet. “Did you take anything?”

Shocked by my approach, he shook his head. “No,” he stammered helplessly, “no, I didn’t take a thing.” I frowned, looking him up and down. He wasn’t wearing a robe and appeared to have no hiding place. He held his hands out for me to see, stepping back from the bureau. “See? Not a thing.”

Someone had taken something, though. In my entranced examination of the bureau contents, I had lovingly noted the location of everything, dreaming of someday have a collection of reagents that would equal this one. Now, one of the bottles, it had been standing alone near the front, and had contained pink pellets that I did not recognize, was gone. Perplexed, I looked around for a moment to make sure it had not simply been moved. I turned away for a moment, trying to think if anyone else had approached the cabinet. When I turned back, I gasped in shock. Another bottle was missing, this one the one that had contained the red pellets I had been intrigued by. “There’s some one else here!” I exclaimed. Only, I reasoned, someone invisible could have stood beside me and taken the bottle. I reached out quickly in front me, but there was nothing but air. I moved forward into the room, and (marc’s character) and Dimitri both came over, curious.

“What do you mean?” asked Dimitri.

“Someone has taken some of the ingredients,” I replied. I looked back at the cabinet, and the bottle of dragon’s blood was gone. With an annoyed grunt, I went back to the cabinet and closed it forcible. Inside, bottles rattled against each other.

“Do you think someone is invisible?” asked (marc’s character.)

“I don’t know,” I answered, my voice tight with annoyance. Then I did a slight double take. “Dimitri,” I asked calmly, “didn’t you tie the twins scarves together?”

“Yeah I did,” he said, a laugh in his voice. “I figured, they’re always playing pranks on people, it’s only fitting that someone play a prank on them, right?”

“I suggest you check your work,” I grumbled, for the twins scarves now hung loose, no longer tied. The two girls stirred slightly, and Dimitri hurried over to tie them together again, giving me a thumbs up.

Meanwhile, behind me, Celestine and Lycia spoke quietly together about the frog. I don’t know how they did it, but they managed to get the poor thing free, and now it was huddling in Celestine’s arms while her raccoon, tucked into the pouch that Celestine always wore on her shoulder, sniffed at it curiously. Lycia opened the box, which couldn’t be opened before due to the nails, and examined the contents. It appeared to be an iridescent round globe, sort of like those used for scrying, except it had a milky tone and did not appear to be of much use at all.

“Well then, we should about me moving on,” said one of the Lunari’s with a grin. Next to her, her sister was very carefully gathering the dust on the table into a little bag.

“We shouldn’t take anything,” I said in despair, but no one was paying any attention. Fine, I thought to myself, when the owner of this room comes back and casts a spell to determine who the intruders were, hopefully my abstinence will be rewarded. Comforted by the thought that refraining from theft would protect me from punishment, I led the way from the room, followed by Lycia, then Dimitri and (Marc’s character), and, lagging behind, Celestine and the Lunari twins.

It was only a few minutes after that we heard a horrible crashing sound from behind us. “What was that?”

The Lunari’s, bringing up the rear, called back, “not sure…” they sounded flustered. Then, a moment later, a giant lizard like head thrust itself into the hallway behind us. “Run!” screamed the twins, and we all started running as the horrible sound of scales on stone pursued us.

“What is that thing?” I shrieked.

“I think…” Celestine was gasping for breath, her accent thick, “…that it’s a Basilisk.”

“Stupefy!” shouted Dimitri, but the spell didn’t even phase the giant beast. All I could think was how I had known that this was a bad idea.

Comments

[caius-serence.livejournal.com]

My NPC was Lethe.

[unforth.livejournal.com]

right! you told me that...I'll have to fix it. :) Thanks much.

[nekomata.livejournal.com]

Does this story have a definitive end? I plan on reading it all when you're done. ^,^

[unforth.livejournal.com]

Well, I imagine it ultimately will. Since it's basically a transcript of the events of the Hogwarts game (current story events = first interlude) it'll have to end eventually...as far as I know, the next session of the game is the last session of that year at Hogwarts. So while I don't know exactly what's going to happen, I'm prepared to presume the story will have an end. :)

[buzzermccain.livejournal.com]

Did you ever figure out why the frog was nailed to the box with the egg in it? A basilisk hatches from a chicken egg that has incubated by a frog. The frog didn't want to cooperate.