The Beginning of a New Competition... Yes, Again – Part 6
The inner courtyard of the new castle was quite different from the old one. Not only was it far more spacious, but it now had several chess tables and other games where the younger students could spend their free time. A cool breeze constantly drifted through the courtyard despite it being enclosed by four walls.
At its centre stood a beautifully decorated fountain carved from grey marble. Unlike most fountains, this one had a magnificent stone tree rising from its middle, with streams of water flowing from its branches.
A strange design for a fountain, yet somehow it had turned out to be genuinely beautiful.
According to Sirius, however, this was not the feng shui fountain he had ordered. The goblins hadn't understood his instructions, and this was what he'd ended up with instead.
The courtyard was usually full of students taking a break between classes, but now everyone was watching as huge barrels were stacked in one corner while Tommy directed two house-elves, who kept disappearing and reappearing every few seconds with even more barrels.
The barrels were enormous, and there were enough of them to almost fill an entire warehouse. At the same time, a rich, sweet scent began spreading through the courtyard.
"This is the last one, Young Master," Griss announced as he set another barrel beside the others.
"Thanks, Griss. Sorry for the trouble," Tommy replied.
"Griss is always happy to help Young Master," the elf said before vanishing with a crack.
Tommy watched his family's house-elf disappear before turning towards Theo.
"Do you think this will be enough?" he asked.
Theo was standing there with his mouth hanging open. He'd expected maybe one or two barrels, but this was ridiculous. There were at least fifty of them, and every single one was huge. With this much syrup, they could open a sweet shop and wouldn't need to buy any more for at least a year or two.
"What are you doing?"
A familiar voice suddenly sounded behind Tommy, making him jump.
When he turned around, he found Billy standing there with one eyebrow raised, looking first at his brother and then at the enormous barrels, whose origin he recognised immediately.
"Starting my intelligence agency," Tommy declared proudly.
Billy stared at him for several seconds, feeling that sometimes he didn't fully understand his brother himself.
Then again, to be honest...
Sometimes he didn't fully understand either of his brothers.
"Whatever. I'll be sitting on the edge of the fountain in case you cause trouble," Billy said calmly.
Tommy merely shrugged, letting his brother do whatever he wanted while he turned back to the syrup barrels.
"Right. Now let's figure out how to make sweets," he said with complete seriousness.
"...Sure," Theo replied, simply going along with it by now, feeling that, for some reason, the supposed intelligence agency's goals were drifting slightly off course.
So the two of them grabbed one of the barrels and dragged it towards the kitchens.
Meanwhile, Billy watched his brother leave and lightly shook his head before pulling out a book.
This time it was a Transfiguration textbook, one of the subjects he excelled at most. Perhaps because, out of every branch of magic, it was the one that came closest to the way his own Chaos Magic worked.
They weren't exactly the same. Transfiguration temporarily altered the nature of objects, whereas Chaos Magic could alter reality itself. But they shared enough underlying principles that Billy understood the subject with surprising ease.
That was why Flitwick had even lent him a book from the Restricted Section. Billy was the top student in his year, and unlike his brothers, he preferred spending his free time reading, studying, or practising magic on his own.
Just like now.
Billy opened the book and began reading it with complete concentration, absorbing every bit of information. Several minutes later, he nodded to himself and drew his wand to test the spell.
His eyes settled on the tree in the centre of the fountain.
Billy raised his wand, pointing it at the tree that was still pouring water from its branches, and said,
"Animare."
The stone branches began to crack.
Little by little, the rock took on the colour of wood as hundreds of tiny leaves sprouted from the branches.
He smiled, satisfied.
"Good... now go back."
With another wave of his wand, the tree returned to its statue-like appearance.
"Oh, this is pretty easy. I'll show Mum later," he said with a small smile, pleased with his success.
Then he repeated the exercise again and again, wanting complete control over the spell.
"Animate," he said, mispronouncing the incantation ever so slightly.
He realised his mistake too late, just as a flash trembled at the tip of his wand.
At the same moment, as though his Chaos Magic had reacted to the mistake, it took control of the wand and cast the spell anyway towards the stone tree.
For a moment, he feared he might have triggered something different, but when he saw that the tree had simply come to life like it had the previous times, he let out a sigh of relief.
"Mr Maximoff, there you are," Flitwick's voice called as he approached.
Billy turned around with a hint of concern, worried that the professor was about to scold him for practising without supervision.
Instead, Professor Flitwick looked at the tree with interest.
"Oh, what a lovely Transfiguration spell. It seems the book you borrowed is being put to good use," the professor said proudly.
"Sorry, Professor. I'll change it back and won't use magic outside of class," Billy said quickly.
"Bah, it's fine. It's not as though nobody does it, especially your brothers. Don't worry about it. But since you're here, I need a little favour. Could you go and find Professor Alice? Now that the castle's so much bigger, my little legs are suffering quite a bit," the professor said gently, smiling at his own height.
"Yes, of course, Professor," Billy replied politely. "Should I undo the spell?" he asked, glancing towards the tree.
"Leave it. It's only temporary. Besides, lovely as this place is, it could use a bit more greenery," Flitwick said calmly as he admired the tree with a smile. After all, a student's Transfiguration shouldn't last more than a few minutes.
For a brief moment, he looked puzzled by the large number of barrels stacked off to one side, but he paid them no further attention.
"Then I'll go look for the professor," Billy said, gathering his things.
Following Flitwick's request, he quickly left to find the assistant professor.
Flitwick gave the tree one last look, proud that one of his students had become so skilled at magic, before walking away with his hands clasped behind his back.
Without noticing that the water in the fountain was rapidly disappearing while the tree continued to grow.
Even its roots were becoming thicker and thicker, and once the fountain had completely run out of water, they easily pierced through the stone base and began forcing their way down in search of underground water.
Just then, Harry and the others arrived. Daphne walked straight over Corpse Number Four, who complained when she stepped on one of his legs.
"Oh, sorry, Terry," Daphne said with a smile.
"Of course you should be sorry. You killed me," Terry complained, still annoyed that he had to keep playing a corpse.
"Don't be such a crybaby. That's life. You investigate something you shouldn't, and not long afterwards they find you like this," Daphne told him innocently.
"Of course not... Well, maybe. But not at a school," Terry protested.
"Blah, blah, blah. Corpses don't talk," Daphne interrupted, ignoring his complaints.
"Anyway. Let's begin our first discussion meeting. First, we'll decide how much of what Professor Ryan said is actually true. Every correct theory earns points," Harry said with a grin.
"And how do we confirm whether our theory is right?" Hermione asked.
"I've already sent someone to investigate Professor Ryan's village. That should let us verify which parts of his story are true," Draco replied.
"Good. I suppose we can start there. Investigating all four professors at the same time would be exhausting, especially without assistants," Daphne said with a weary gesture.
"And whose fault is that?" Harry shot back irritably.
"Wait... didn't you manage to get an assistant?" Hermione asked, suddenly realising Daphne hadn't mentioned having one at any point.
Hermione knew perfectly well how difficult it had been to find help after Luna and Astoria had turned her down, so it was suspicious that Daphne hadn't mentioned anyone.
"Right, let's start our discussion," Daphne said brightly, changing the subject immediately, making the other three stare at her.
But it was probably better not to ask.
Harry absent-mindedly placed a folder on top of one of the enormous syrup barrels as they began the meeting.
Hermione sat down on the edge of the fountain.
Draco folded his arms.
Daphne "accidentally" stepped on Terry again.
None of them paid any attention to the tree now towering in the centre of the fountain, nor to the enormous barrels of syrup stacked just a few metres away.
Two details that, for the moment, seemed to have absolutely nothing to do with each other.
Though that wouldn't last much longer.