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Hogwarts
–Damian Hawthorne–
As they descended the stairs, he looked at the backs of the children whose faces were relaxed, and discarded the thought of memory wiping the whole staircase thing. He did not feel the strange need to please Tommy the House Elf when he revealed that secret, so he noted that thought to be an impulsive one and ignored it.
If push came to shove, he could just push all the blame onto William. It was nice, having a go to excuse or a patsy to push all blame onto.
Who gave you the knife that can be considered a low tier Ancient Relic? William did.
Who told you about the secret stairwells, hidden in a mostly abandoned part of the castle? William did.
Who told you to roam around the castle instead of attending the Halloween feast? Willia— He was kidding. Not everything could be blamed on William.
Thankfully, that particular question was not hard or important enough to answer. He could just say that he was not interested in the feast since he was not hungry, and it would be enforced by his already lonesome behavior in all the classes, and was just roaming around the castle.
Enjoying the castle by himself was one of his favourite pastimes, and he wouldn't even have to lie in that scenario. Excuse crafted, and the Golden Trio relaxing from the adrenaline high of almost being killed, they reached the end of the staircase, with a wall in front of them, with no discernible way out.
Almost synchronised, all three of them slowly turned around to look at him with varying levels of accusing expressions, with Ron's finger already lifting in his direction. He snorted and barrelled past them, and if Ron was shoved particularly hard, no one could say it was done on purpose, before touching various points around the wall, as if checking or looking for something.
Where, in truth, he already knew what to do but had to put on a show. After a few seconds of perceived trial, his finger pushed in a piece of rock, with the door shining briefly, before the entire stone door was pushed to the side, with nary a mechanical mechanism inside. Truly, the entire castle was just one giant magical construct. Nothing more, nothing less. If the Genus Loci sustaining the whole castle died or was injured, he could say with some degree of confidence that the entire castle might come down with it.
The door slid open, revealing the hallway that led to the Great Hall, which was completely silent right now, unlike the constant hubbub throughout the day as students continued to move in and out of the Great Hall based on their classes and if they wished to mingle in the Great Hall with food available all the time or around the castle.
Officially, students were not supposed to do that, but no one really bothered to enforce all the rules written for Hogwarts students, except for Filch, who suddenly became active as the sun went down, like a nocturnal Vampire. Enforcing rules left, right, and centre, and making sure that his glee for catching any student and having their house points taken was clear for every student to see and feel, Filch had carved out a nice little scary reputation for himself.
The reason Filch was relevant right now, was because he could feel the old Squib's energy signature, moving about nearby. It was early for him to roam his hunting grounds, but it was curfew right now, as Dumbledore must have undoubtedly sent all the students back to the dorms.
Fortunately, there were no faculty members here, so they were probably in the Hospital Wing or clearing the entire castle floor by floor, manually, just in case Hogwarts' auto cleanse function was not working, hopefully. He would be rather cross with Dumbledore if the old man decided that Hogwarts' innate defenses would be good enough and was the reason why no teacher reached them in time.
It was improbable, since the Old Man took his student's safety very seriously, but Hogwarts was just that dependable that Dumbledore might have grown a bit complacent in the meantime. It made sense, though. Something powered by Unicorn essence could supercharge most spells, not to mention any esoteric spell that Tommy boy knew that could already be top notch when it came to stealth, the less said about the enchantments keeping the conjuration alive and kicking, the better.
His last attack should have eviscerated any troll with ease, creating a bloody mess in that bathroom, but that conjuration took that to the face with ease. Thankfully, despite the conjuration being strong, he knew that Dumbledore should have no problem dispatching it with ease. The other teachers would be safe enough as well, with the hope that they did not take it lightly, otherwise the thing will surprise them.
Before he could even tell them to run in that direction, they did, into the Great Hall, opening the doors with a bang sound that definitely alerted Filch to their location, provided the old man was not deaf.
Making the right decision, all three of them ran to their dorms, with him waving them off when Harry looked like he was about to ask about his plans. There was no hesitation on Harry's part as he all but dragged Ron away with him, to their dorms, where they should be safe, especially since the Troll was so far away.
With the Golden Trio secured and hopefully, the other teachers on the task of getting that troll out, he ran to his dorm as well, taking the scolding and the promise of lost house points with causal indifference before heading to his dorm. Apparently, they have extended the curfew to tomorrow, so no going out of the dorms for now.
The situation was too hot for him to go out to talk to Sirius, and give him a nice timeline when he could meet Harry. He also had to figure out what the best possible way was, to get Sirius' name cleared and get the man back on the seat of the House of Black, a significant thing as that name alone came with a lot of power.
___xx___
The Lair [The Day after Halloween]
–Sirius Black–
"Hello?" he said for the tenth time today, reading the newspaper, while shouting out randomly, in hopes that this warden will finally appear before him. He did not expect that to work, at all, but it was a fun little exercise in…something. He really had gone wonky in the head for him to think that shouting randomly while reading all the time was a good break from whatever his mind constantly subjected him to.
Hell, in the hopes that the enchantment here recognised him as a wizard but would fail to do so as an Animagus, he had turned into his doggo form and tried the same activities he tried as a wizard but as is turned out, the Warden had taken that into account as well, as the now added fur made the previous temperature not optimal, hence the slight decrease in temperature.
The only way he knew about the minute changes in the temperature was because there was a small panel in the corner of the quite large room, which flashed blue whenever the temperature was reduced and red when it was increased. The brightness of the flashing colour was proportional to the change in temperature, which is how he knew that turning into his animagus form made the room compensate for the added insulation.
He really wanted to know who this madman was, to account for such a niche case in his enchantment. In his Hogwarts years, he remembered looking briefly into enchanting, but this same technical nature of the subject pushed him away from it.
Yes, he could remember that, but no happy memories. Thanks Dement– He shivered in his dog form, as the panel flashed red, the temperature increasing in response to his discomfort.
Sighing, he set the paper down, really finding the flashing nightmares annoying. Their frequency had reduced quite a bit. Even so, he knew that he would not be able to face Harry in such a state. He will most likely need extensive mind healer appointments, and he was NOT looking forward to that. Still, he was looking forward to meeting Harry, even for a small period of time. That alone will be enough for him to fuel his recovery.
Slumping back into the very comfortable sofa, he looked at the ceiling, which was a white ceiling with the very soft, warm glow lighting up the rest of the room, and thought about what to do next. Food was not scheduled to come for another two hours, with snacks coming in two hours after that.
Apparently, after years of being starved, one could not just start eating like a normal person, a medical fact he never thought he would have to learn, let alone experience in person. So, the Warden, being the complete opposite of a Warden that he was, had kept that in mind and was only supplying him with good food, but in very small quantities. Quantities that had him licking the plates clean.
Plates that disappeared as soon as he set them down. Before he could go back into flashback mode, his gaze fell on the last newspaper of the day.
He was hoping to save that for the end of the day, before sleeping, but he could feel himself slipping back into the memories, which is why he picked it up hastily and began reading, only to freeze at the front page article.
This one was the Daily Prophet, and he'd hoped to keep it for last, but apparently, that was a big mistake as he read the headline, ice blooming in his veins as he threw the newspaper aside and began banging on the walls in desperation, knowing that it was futile.
"Let me out! Let me out! I need to see him!"
…..
…
The headline read : [Troll loose in Hogwarts. One Faculty member deceased, multiple injured. Two students in critical condition]
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