Yeah, I lost my last copy. I need to go get it again.
Once I do that, and find the time to write it, it should be back online soon.
So I should go look, or just check the used bookshops for a new copy, something.
Stay tuned for more on this as it develops... or doesn't develop. Something.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
Next Chapter Delayed As Reviewing Work Takes Priority
Lots of reviews need to be written so I'm going to set aside fanfic writing until all my obligations to all my Editors are satisfied. Sorry, I'll work hard to get all my reviews done quickly so I can get back to fanfic writing ASAP.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Week off For The Fanfic
Well let's spend a little time this weekend with a new chapter to put out next week. Hopefully I have it done in a week... that'd be nice.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Azkaban 11
Azkaban Episode 11
“Hermione. Cho. Hermione. Cho…” Alicia muttered to herself, eyes glancing about the surroundings of the almost too quaint Dickens-like village stuck in time. “So many choices, so little time… what the…”
Suddenly a notice posted to one side on a message board.
BY ORDER OF
THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC
Citizens and visitors are reminded that until further notice, Dementors will be patrolling the streets of Hogsmeade every night after sundown. The measure has been put in place for the safety of Hogsmeade residents in light of the recent Halloween incident at Hogwarts concerning Sirius Black and an underaged female witch. These precautions will be lifted only upon the recapture of the fugitive Black, whose charges has been raised to a level that may warrant the death penalty. It is therefore advisable that you complete your shopping or business in the town of Hogsmeade before nightfall.
Merry Christmas.
“And a happy facist year.” Alicia muttered, feeling suddenly an all too needed presence hovering behind her, looking over her shoulder. “I take it you didn’t want what happened to you to become public knowledge.”
“You said it, Cho, I didn’t (and at what point was I “underaged“ again?).” Alicia confirmed, sighing irritably as she turned away from the board as Cho fell into step at her side. “Still, Cho, you have no idea how welcome your presence is.”
“I have a good idea.” she remarked with a slight smirk, “I’d say that Black had no chance to get past this much precautions, but in light of Halloween and what he did…”
“I’m beginning to wonder if it was really him.”
“Really?” Cho chimed in, abit confused, “Why?”
“There’s something all so wrong about the set-up.” Alicia elaborated, motioning with her hands as she spoke, “drawing” out her explanation as she did. “When he skewered me by accident he looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown, practically freaking out. I find it hard to imagine that, even if he was locked up as long as he was, his hormones overrode his near panicked state to compel him to thump me after he saved my life.” (waves off Cho’s next words) “Nobody else was in that corridor that I knew of. Nobody was in the Gryffindor common room most certainly, and the magic used on my back (according to the infirmary staff) was too complex for even a 7th year student. It had to have been him.”
“Then why save you and then rape y--” (clamps her teeth down tight) “…sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it, I‘m not allergic to the “R“ word. Far from it” (shakes head) “That’s why I don’t think he had anything to do with it. Somebody else got to me after he healed me, I’m sure of it.”
Silence ruled briefly, as much silence as possible in the middle of a large crowd of Christmas shoppers milling about looking for bargains or the rare treasure. “By the way, Cho, you aren’t thinking of turning me in after we get back to Hogwarts, are you?”
“No, no, of course not.” she repiled honestly, “Still I’m surprised at your rebellious nature.”
Alicia - “Since when have I not been rebellious?”
Cho Chang - “Touche’.”
“I’m thirsty.” Alicia spoke up, “Where’s this place that serves these “butterbeers” I keep hearing people talk about back in school?”
* * * * * *
The place was extremely crowded, noisy, warm (but not in the bad way associated with some drinking pubs Alicia has seen in her past) and smoky (but again not in a bad way). “Glad this place believes in Anti-Tobacco Spells to keep smoking/non-smoking patrons separate.” Alicia sighed as she tapped the “No Tobacco Smoke” spell runes on one of the beams surrounding the non-smoking area of the establishment. “That’s so 21st Century of them.”
‘Guess I should be glad I’m not here trying to get my lovelife out of the gutter.’ Alicia thought as she sat down at a table with Cho, ‘This is the kind of place where it’s all too easy to get your messages mixed up in the loud roar of the maddening crowds.’
A curvy woman with a beautiful face walked up and took their orders, leaving Alicia with a wide smile as she walked off. “She’s nice, and I don’t mean in the sexual way though…” (blinks) “She makes the full bodied look work for her.”
“That’s Madam Rosmerta, Alicia.” said Cho. “She’s a nice person, a real gentle soul.”
Five minutes later she sauntered back to them, butterbeers in hand. With a slight wave and an extra generous tip for her on her tray, she vanished into the crowd with a smile and a bit of a bow (which had a very unexpected effect on Alicia as she swallowed her first sip hard).
“Looked down her top, did you?”
“You know it…” Alicia nearly choked, wiping the excess from her lips. “Bad me.” (raises butterbeer up to Cho with a slowly recovering smirk on her face) “Cheers.” she gurgled, still recovering from her “incident”. “God I’m glad I have a strong bladder.” she muttered.
“Somehow I think I should be glad too.” Cho agreed.
Suddenly a breeze ruffled Alicia’s senses, and her eyes narrowed sharply at the faint thoughts that suddenly brushed across her mind. Normally she didn’t have the thoughts of others intrude into her mind without her seeking them, but like a person submerged into the middle of a swimming pool, it was impossible not to at least “feel” the water all about her even if she wasn’t actively “observing” it. So to feel all too familiar thoughts brush the edge of her mind brought her senses toward it suddenly, locking onto it as she sensed their intent about her. “The door.” Alicia motions, “McGonagall…” (enters) “…Flitwick…” (enters) “…Hagrid…” (seconds pass) “…Hagrid…” (seconds pass) “…Hag…” (suddenly her comes in deep in conversation with a portly man) “…there he is, and there’s Fudge.”
Swallowing another shot of her drink, she watched them intently, her mind focusing on their “words” as they thought them (and they came forth in spoken tongue). Quickly remembering she wasn’t alone, she grasped Cho’s hand and opened her to what she was experiencing.
As Rosmerta handed out drinks, Alicia felt something stirring just above the thoughts of the party set on the table. They were all thinking of the same thing, and whatever it was it had them all on edge for some reason. That reason, she felt, was about to come.
“So, what brings you to this neck of the woods, Minister?” Rosmerta asked, asking the obvious question that was even on Alicia’s mind as she watched.
He lowered his voice, but that was about as useful as trying to hide a PS3 in your jacket as his mind (and his words) were open to examination. “What else, m’dear, but Sirius Black? I daresay you heard what happened up at the school at Halloween to Miss Spinnet?”
Rosmerta gritted her teeth, and glanced towards Alicia only to turn back without noting her (a slight nudge to her mind to “ignore” Alicia and Cho). “I heard.” she hissed in pain.
McGonagall looked pissed off, turning towards Hagrid angrily. “Did you tell the whole pub, Hagrid!?” she grumbled in aggrivation. Hagrid lowered his head, and said nothing.
“Do you think Black’s still in the area, Minister?” Rosmerta chirped in, drawing the heat off of Hagrid in the process. To that, Fudge replied plainly “I’m sure of it.”
“You know that the Dementors have searched the whole village twice?” Rosmerta said with a slight edge in her voice, (‘Is that all?’ Alicia thought to herself) “Scared all my customers away… it’s very bad for business, Minister.”
“It’d be worst for business if another Halloween incident happened a stone’s throw from your establishment’s front door, Rosmerta.” Fudge answered grimly. “I don’t like the Dementors presence here anymore than you do, but in the end a little lost business is better than a grand scandal that’ll scar all and make Hogsmeade a near ghost town.”
“Listen…” Fudge leans closer, eyes narrowing as he regarded each at the table in turn. “They’re in a fury against Dumbledore, he won’t let them inside the school grounds…”
“I should think not.” Professor McGonagall sharply replied, “How are we supposed to teach with those horrors floating around!”
“Hear, hear!” Flitwick chimed in, only for Fudge to slam his hands down silencing the table. “They’re beginning to see that Spinnet girl as some sort of “queen” to them!” Fudge hissed, looking rather nervous as he spoke. “When I spoke to them they kept on going on between themselves in whispers about “Mistress” this, and “Mistress” that. “Mistress did not give orders about revealing things to others.”, and “Mistress said to follow instructions given”…” (a look of near disturbed panic reached his features), “She’s become an --”
Alicia focused on Fudge, and against her better judgement she “fudged” his mind a little.
“-- oh what am I worried about.” he suddenly smiled, his mood lightening. “She’s helping us keep them behaved so where’s the down side to that! But as for that other problem…”
Alicia sighed inwardly, wondering if Cho (sitting next to her) noticed. She didn’t seem to notice as she continued to stare focused at the conversation between the “adults”.
“We all know what Black’s capable of…” Fudge continued, “…or at least we thought we did, until Halloween when everything changed.”
“No, no, I can’t believe he raped her. I had enough problem believing what happened before, but this… it’s too much.” Rosmerta spoke up. “Of all the people to go over to the “Dark Side” like that, Black, I never would have thought he was capable of it. I mean, I remember him when he was just a student over at Hogwarts. If you’d told me then he would become a murderer, now worst a rapist, I’d have said you were downing too many meads.”
“You don’t know the half of his ills, Rosmerta.” Fudge gruffly said, retaking the lead in the conversation before his “captive” audience. “The worst he did is still not yet widely known. Worst than murder, worst than even rape.”
This caught Alicia’s attention, and held it tight as McGonagall picked up the conversation, “You say you remember Black from his days at Hogwarts, Rosmerta. Do you remember who his best friend was?”
“Naturally,” Rosmerta said with a slight laugh, “Never saw one without the other, did you? The number of times I had them in here -- ooh, they used to make me laugh. Quite the double act, Sirius Black and James Potter!”
Suddenly everything seemed to lock into place quickly for Alicia.
She slugged down a large hit of the butterbeer, and silently motioned for one of the waitresses to come and get her a refill without breaking eye contact with the other table for a single second.
“Precisely,” McGonagall said. “Black and Potter. Ringleaders of their little gang…”
“Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.” Alicia muttered under her breath.
Now it was all falling into place.
Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. The bane of Snape’s existence.
Moony… Moony… that had to have been Lupin.
Wormtail she was blanking out on. Didn’t seem like any of the three so maybe it was a fourth member she didn’t know about yet.
Padfoot and Prongs… must be Black and Potter… but which was which?
As she sat and listened silently to the rest, she began to formulate an opinion.
An opinion which grew quickly into factual truth in her mind’s eye.
A truth she knew she needed to share.
* * * * * *
Getting Snape to meet her in the Chamber of Secrets wasn’t too hard.
As he walked up to her she put her fingers together in front of her, taking on an almost wizened look as she turned towards him. “Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. Ring any bells? They were the four who tormented you during your school days in Hogwarts, or am I mistaken…”
Snape’s face did not flinch, but she knew she had his apt attention.
“The gang was lead by Black, who is now free from Azkaban by his own hand.
The gang was also lead by Potter, who you have formed a most venomous hatred of his offspring, Harry… haven’t you.”
Silence. No denial, no refusal, all was as it should be… for him at least.
“Black and Potter were so close Potter trusted Black with a secret that cost him his life. The secret that came into the hands of Voldemort, and ultimately led to his downfall. Black was blamed, even when he came to Hagrid to help him spirit Potter away he was blamed… of course it was all irontight including the deaths of so many innocent Muggles and an irrational Black professing his innocence.”
Snape’s face did not change.
“And your point is.”
“Fill in the blanks for me then.” she motioned for him to join her, as he sat down in the chair next to her’s. “I take it Moony is Lupin.”
Snape nods his head in the affirmative, only after a few seconds of prodding and silence.
“I haven’t figured out yet who Black/Potter was, but I narrowed it to Padfoot & Prongs.”
“In that order.” Snape volunteered.
“Then I take it Wormtail was…”
“Peter Pettigrew. One of those killed by Black…” Snape answered, only to notice Alicia beginning to smile. “What…”
“Complete disintergration. He was grieving over the Potter’s death, pulled for his wand and was promptly turned into the content of a cup of hot chocolate, minus the liquids and whip cream add on.” Alicia laid out, her smile growing as she spoke. “Complete disintergration. Strange, “Muggles” point blank range of Black were splayed all over the place in a red bloody mess, vital organs everywhere and yet… and yet somehow he still managed to completely dust a target twice as far as his human victims, and in one shot no less.”
Snape’s attention grew as he began to piece together what Alicia already figured out.
“Reports indicated the humans were dismantled by anywhere between one to three shots depending on where they stood during the attack… yet somehow he still killed off Pettigrew with one shot.”
“Which would have been impossible even for Black considering the “mess” he left earlier, unless…”
“Pettigrew wasn’t killed by Black.” Alicia finished.
Snape - “If Pettigrew wasn’t killed by Black… who killed him.”
“Maybe nobody.” Alicia answered, “After all what was found of Pettigrew’s “remains”…? His finger? That’s it? I don’t know about you but such an obvious “remain” seems more left so he could go underground than anything else.” (motions with her hand and finger as if “detaching” it) “The thought came when I observed Ron’s rat, Scabbers. He’s missing a finger you know, probably left it behind escaping from a cat or dog… seems to me if he was smart enough to do that to elude death (perhaps leave a small bit of his “scent“ to elude a cat perhaps), a human being like Pettigrew (even if he wasn’t the brightest magic wand in Hogwarts) should know enough to do that to elude DeathEaters… but tell me…”
Snape waves off Alicia’s further questions. “Just because I WAS a DeathEater once doesn’t mean I am privvy to the list of all those marked for death by Voldemort. Still… maybe it has merits. Pettigrew went into hiding because he thought Black was the traitor, and has been waiting for all this time for him to “surface” and become available again…”
Alicia : “You don’t think he had a hand in helping Black escape, do you?”
“You started this.” Snape retorted, “Years have passed. By now I’m sure even a worm like Pettigrew would have grown some sort of spinal column, being haunted by the death of those you claimed to be your best friends would seem to do that in people.”
Alicia leans back in her chair, staring at the ceiling as she lets his thoughts brew in her.
“Years pass, Pettigrew grows some balls, and decides he can’t wait anymore for Black to get himself out. The perfect opportunity comes when he somehow comes into contact with Blitzkrieg who is looking for me, and he heard I was spotted once in Azkaban. Perfect. He tricks Blitzkrieg to sneak in hoping to catch me when I go there again, only I don’t go there again… he wises up, and breaks out, which gives Black the chance to escape and…”
“Become “available” once again for a vengeance minded former coward to “settle” a years old “debt” with.” Snape concludes.
“That means, if that is indeed the case…” (Alicia closes her eyes) “…all we have to do is sit back and wait for him to reappear, then we can act.”
“Why would we do that.” Snape asked.
“Because.”
* * * * * *
When Alicia went to dinner she noticed something was visibly wrong with Harry.
Everyone else either didn’t notice, or in the case of Hermione and Ron didn’t want to seem as if they were noticing. Obviously she wasn’t the only one who sneaked into Hogmeades, and she obviously wasn’t the only one to hear what she did about Black/Potter.
When she finally got upstairs to the Gryffindor Common Room, she had found the room in chaos as it seems Fred & George has set off half a dozen Dungbombs in a disturbing fit of “end-of-the-term “spirits””. “This is why you’re not as well loved amongst the authority of this school as you should be.” Alicia muttered as she walked pass, waving her hand in a vain attempt to dispell the stench. Instead of going up to the female quarters, however, she went straight to the boy’s dorm to speak to Harry. Sure enough she found him in there, looking over the leather bound album left to Harry by his parents.
Harry, however, wasn’t in the talking mood. He just sat there, staring at the book silently.
Alicia moved close to him, looking over his shoulder as he flipped through the pages slowly.
Obviously he heard what Alicia heard, meaning he was in the same place as she (but she didn’t notice him in the crowd). Figures why he was pulling the silent treatment, she mused. After all he was pondering why nobody would tell him the truth about what happened… as if anyone could bring themselves to tell him that Potter’s own godfather may have been responsible for killing his parents. Dumbledore, the Weasleys, even the sometimes inable to hide the simpliest secret Hagrid couldn’t bring themselves to say such a thing, it was too much to even think of let alone repeat.
Ron and Hermione seemed to hover near Harry nervously throughout dinner that night, too timid to even attempt to talk to him about it, especially with the weirdo Percy hovering just as close to Harry as Ron/Hermione (though for his own weird reasons). Harry, rightly, avoided contact with the troublesome duo of Fred & George to avoid any pointed questions they haven’t gotten around to asking, a pity Alicia couldn’t manage to do likewise. (“Oh by the abyss you two losers…” she growled, pushing her way past the smelly duo who had apparently been too close to the dungbombs they set off (again) “Drown yourselves in the lake or something to wash that off!”)
As Alicia crawled into bed, closing her eyes, a brief tingle at the back of her mind caused her to shiver.
* * * * * *
As they sat listening to the talk about Black and Pettigrew, Hagrid’s eyes turned towards them seconds from noticing their presence. Quickly Alicia yanked Cho into her, kissing her with such force it made the asian beauty melt into her grip, held tight and close as they kissed with great passion. After half a minute Alicia glanced up, noticing they went back to talking without taking the slightest notice from Hagrid (either that or he blushed at their affectionate kissing and went back to focusing on the discussion about him). As they seperated the two went back to focusing on the talk, blushing abit from the forward kiss.
* * * * * *
Alicia briefly touched her lips, and sighed. “Hermione should kiss so well.”
“…did you say something…” Hermione grumbled from her bed.
“Nothing, nothing, nothing at all.” Alicia quickly whispered, settling in for sleep. “Nothing.”
* * * * * *
“Alicia, you look like something Fluffy chewed on.”
Alicia, half awake and half irritated, stared at Hermione from beneath her sheets. “Give me a break.” (yawns loudly, stretching out to work out the kinks in her body) “What time is it.”
“Morning.” she noted, picking up her bag of books. “Come on, I’m going to get some studying in while Ron sits around and eats.”
Silence reigns as she walks out, the room far emptier than usual.
“Don’t you ever stop studying.”
The Gryffindor area was very quiet, meaning most of the students have already went to the Hogwarts Express and went home. That meant for x amount of days during the holidays the school would be a rather quiet place to be for the time being. “Just as well…” Alicia muttered as she stumbled down the stairs, her robes half on as she pulled him on while walking, “…I’ve been denying myself a little extracirricular for a bit too long now.”
Easier said than done. Once Hermione laid out her homework (upon three whole tables, chasing Ron away from each and every spot on each and every table every 5 minutes until he finally resigned himself to one of the lounging chairs where he stood put) she became deathly focused… which might as well have been like death itself since no attempts to spark any “life” into her seemed to work at all.
Kissing the back of her neck, cuddling close, perching her head on Hermione’s shoulder, short of groping her and masturbating her it seemed maybe only that would get her emotions cooking… and even then she doubt she’d get more than shrieks and complaints of rape attempts. So resigned to her fate she retreated to the couch, but not before belting Ron in the stomach once for his endless barrages of “Whatcha’ doing?” between attempts to get Hermione in “the mood”.
After what seemed like a long silence Harry showed up, awake at last.
“Where is everyone?” he asked. Alicia beat Ron to the punch. “First day of vacation, so nearly the entire school went home who had homes to go home to…” (sighs) “…must be nice.”
Ron cleared his throat, if only to break into the conversation, “It’s nearly lunchtime, Harry! I was going to come and wake you up in a minute.” he exclaimed, bouncing back and forth between chewing on another peppermint toad (half wiggling in his mouth) and rubbing the spot where Alicia belted him. Harry, barely nodding his head, took a spot on one of the other chairs near Alicia as she rolled over to stare at him. He looked a helluva lot worst than she did that morning, and that’s saying something about how he looked. His eyes focused on the fire, barely wandering as she regarded him.
What a lovely “vacation” to end up stuck in, she mused silently.
Such lovely “companions”. A bitter irritated target of assassination, an irritating redhead and a cold fish love interest…too bad Cho had to go home and actually spend the holidays with an actual family.
‘Maybe I can sneak a Hogsmeade prostitute into the castle for “entertainment”.’ Alicia thought to herself. ‘Yeah, as if.’
“You two really don’t look too well, you know that don’t you.” Hermione said pointedly, peering anxiously back and forth at the two (which wasn’t much of an effort since they were sitting as close as they were).
“I’m fine.” said Harry.
“I’m not.” said Alicia, “Hold me.” (silence) “…or not.”
“Harry, listen.” Hermione began, turning her focus entirely on him as she briefly glanced at Ron before speaking again, “You must be really upset about what we heard yesterday. But the thing is, you mustn’t go doing anything stupid.”
‘Gee.’ Alicia thought as she focused her attention back on Harry, ‘Wonder where these three were yesterday.’
“Like what?” Harry shot back, knowing fully well what she meant. So did Alicia so she beat Ron to the punch (again). “Like going after Black, Harry. That’s what they’re fudging on about. Sirius Black.”
Harry glanced over at Alicia, looking nervously at her, which seemed to throw her until she realized that Hermione and Ron probably spent a ton of time rehearsing their words, and she was throwing them off their pace (Harry figured it out right away). “So I’m evil. Whatever.”
“You won’t, will you Harry?” Hermione pressed the issue, bringing their attention onto her, “You won’t try to get Black, will you?”
“Because Black is not worth dying for!” Ron spat out, which brought a shocked expression from Harry… mostly because Ron spat it out rapid fire to keep Alicia from breaking in and cutting him off mid sentence again. Eventually a more curious (not quite grasping the situation face) settled over Harry’s features. “Do you know what I see and hear every time a Dementor gets too near me?”
Ron and Hermione shook their heads, Alicia spoke.
“Your mother. Dying. At Voldemort’s hands.”
All eyes turned back onto her, only for her to shake it off with a wave of her hand. “Sorry. I couldn’t help it. You were going to say it anyway, right?”
Harry nodded his head, a grim visage coming over him. “I can hear her screaming and pleading, over and over again, and it tears me apart. It. Tears. Me. Apart.” (silence, briefly before Harry speaks again) “If any of you could hear that, hear your own mum screaming like that before she’s murdered, you wouldn’t… couldn’t… forget in a hurry…”
‘Don’t go there, don’t go there, don’t go there…” Alicia thought to herself as Harry spoke, knowing where he was about to go with this line of logic.
“And if you found out someone who was supposed to be a friend of hers betrayed her and sent Voldemort after her --”
“There’s nothing you can do!” said Hermione, looking stricken.
“THERE IS!” Alicia snapped in suddenly, locking her gaze on Harry. “You can live, and not throw away the sacrifice your mother made to keep you alive.”
Silence overtook the room again, the situation turning rather awkward after Alicia’s words bit down hard on Harry, harder than she thought it would. She rolled onto her back staring back at the ceiling again, sighing. “He can’t escape. The Tormented --”
“Huh?”
“I mean the Dementors…” (‘Slip of the tongue.’) “…they’ll catch Black, or the person who broke him out to make him “accessible” will finish him, whoever gets to him first gets him.”
“What are you talking about?!” Harry spat, not quite in yet on Alicia’s theory that somebody freed Black in order to kill him. “Fudge said Black isn’t affected by Azkaban like normal people are. Even if he’s captured it wouldn’t be punishment for him like it is for others.”
“So Fudge says.” Alicia sighed, briefly reflecting on her one brief glimpse of Black. Somehow he didn’t look like his stay in Azkaban was a cakewalk for him, from her one good look at him.
“But that doesn’t matter, Harry. Do you want to kill Black or not?”
“Don’t be silly.” Hermione broke in, “Harry doesn’t want to kill any--”
“I don’t remember asking for your opinion!” Alicia snapped, getting up to stare Harry straight in the eye, focused intently on him to the poin the squirmed in his chair under her tight gaze. “Do you want to kill him or not.”
“Malfoy knows,” Harry countered sharply, “Remember what he said to me in Potions? ‘If it was me…’”
“DON’T MAKE EXCUSES!!” Alicia roared, causing everyone to jump as she got to her feet, quickly moving forward to slam her hands down on the armrests of Harry’s chair, causing him to jump. “Malfoy would kill his own father for the right reasons. I’m not the slightest bit concerned about the lack of a moral compass from a twit like Malfoy. I asked YOU, Harry Potter, will you kill him or not?! Answer me…”
Silence.
“ANSWER ME!!”
“Uhm…” (Ron squeaked, waiting for Alicia to turn on him, only to speak again after he was sure she wasn’t going to spin about on him) “You’re going to take Malfoy’s advice instead of ours? I mean… well… listen! You know what Pettigrew’s mother got back after Black had finished with him? Dad told me -- the Order of Merlin, First Class, and Pettigrew’s finger in a bo--”
“Hold that thought.” Alicia spoke, suddenly bringing Ron to a stop.
Silence once again reigned, Alicia stepping back as she thought about it for a second, clapping her hands together as her thoughts formed (accidentially shocking the trio watching her as she did so). Mumbling her apologies she sat back down in the couch, holding her hands out ready to gesture her words as she spoke.
“Uh… Alicia? What…”
“Did anyone of you see the moving photos of the death scene after Black’s alleged “rampage”? I did… fascinating stuff.”
And thus her theory was put forward to an apt (somewhat disturbed audience during the description of the bloody mess of the corpses of the “Muggles”) audience.
To Be Continued in Two Weeks
“Hermione. Cho. Hermione. Cho…” Alicia muttered to herself, eyes glancing about the surroundings of the almost too quaint Dickens-like village stuck in time. “So many choices, so little time… what the…”
Suddenly a notice posted to one side on a message board.
BY ORDER OF
THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC
Citizens and visitors are reminded that until further notice, Dementors will be patrolling the streets of Hogsmeade every night after sundown. The measure has been put in place for the safety of Hogsmeade residents in light of the recent Halloween incident at Hogwarts concerning Sirius Black and an underaged female witch. These precautions will be lifted only upon the recapture of the fugitive Black, whose charges has been raised to a level that may warrant the death penalty. It is therefore advisable that you complete your shopping or business in the town of Hogsmeade before nightfall.
Merry Christmas.
“And a happy facist year.” Alicia muttered, feeling suddenly an all too needed presence hovering behind her, looking over her shoulder. “I take it you didn’t want what happened to you to become public knowledge.”
“You said it, Cho, I didn’t (and at what point was I “underaged“ again?).” Alicia confirmed, sighing irritably as she turned away from the board as Cho fell into step at her side. “Still, Cho, you have no idea how welcome your presence is.”
“I have a good idea.” she remarked with a slight smirk, “I’d say that Black had no chance to get past this much precautions, but in light of Halloween and what he did…”
“I’m beginning to wonder if it was really him.”
“Really?” Cho chimed in, abit confused, “Why?”
“There’s something all so wrong about the set-up.” Alicia elaborated, motioning with her hands as she spoke, “drawing” out her explanation as she did. “When he skewered me by accident he looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown, practically freaking out. I find it hard to imagine that, even if he was locked up as long as he was, his hormones overrode his near panicked state to compel him to thump me after he saved my life.” (waves off Cho’s next words) “Nobody else was in that corridor that I knew of. Nobody was in the Gryffindor common room most certainly, and the magic used on my back (according to the infirmary staff) was too complex for even a 7th year student. It had to have been him.”
“Then why save you and then rape y--” (clamps her teeth down tight) “…sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it, I‘m not allergic to the “R“ word. Far from it” (shakes head) “That’s why I don’t think he had anything to do with it. Somebody else got to me after he healed me, I’m sure of it.”
Silence ruled briefly, as much silence as possible in the middle of a large crowd of Christmas shoppers milling about looking for bargains or the rare treasure. “By the way, Cho, you aren’t thinking of turning me in after we get back to Hogwarts, are you?”
“No, no, of course not.” she repiled honestly, “Still I’m surprised at your rebellious nature.”
Alicia - “Since when have I not been rebellious?”
Cho Chang - “Touche’.”
“I’m thirsty.” Alicia spoke up, “Where’s this place that serves these “butterbeers” I keep hearing people talk about back in school?”
* * * * * *
The place was extremely crowded, noisy, warm (but not in the bad way associated with some drinking pubs Alicia has seen in her past) and smoky (but again not in a bad way). “Glad this place believes in Anti-Tobacco Spells to keep smoking/non-smoking patrons separate.” Alicia sighed as she tapped the “No Tobacco Smoke” spell runes on one of the beams surrounding the non-smoking area of the establishment. “That’s so 21st Century of them.”
‘Guess I should be glad I’m not here trying to get my lovelife out of the gutter.’ Alicia thought as she sat down at a table with Cho, ‘This is the kind of place where it’s all too easy to get your messages mixed up in the loud roar of the maddening crowds.’
A curvy woman with a beautiful face walked up and took their orders, leaving Alicia with a wide smile as she walked off. “She’s nice, and I don’t mean in the sexual way though…” (blinks) “She makes the full bodied look work for her.”
“That’s Madam Rosmerta, Alicia.” said Cho. “She’s a nice person, a real gentle soul.”
Five minutes later she sauntered back to them, butterbeers in hand. With a slight wave and an extra generous tip for her on her tray, she vanished into the crowd with a smile and a bit of a bow (which had a very unexpected effect on Alicia as she swallowed her first sip hard).
“Looked down her top, did you?”
“You know it…” Alicia nearly choked, wiping the excess from her lips. “Bad me.” (raises butterbeer up to Cho with a slowly recovering smirk on her face) “Cheers.” she gurgled, still recovering from her “incident”. “God I’m glad I have a strong bladder.” she muttered.
“Somehow I think I should be glad too.” Cho agreed.
Suddenly a breeze ruffled Alicia’s senses, and her eyes narrowed sharply at the faint thoughts that suddenly brushed across her mind. Normally she didn’t have the thoughts of others intrude into her mind without her seeking them, but like a person submerged into the middle of a swimming pool, it was impossible not to at least “feel” the water all about her even if she wasn’t actively “observing” it. So to feel all too familiar thoughts brush the edge of her mind brought her senses toward it suddenly, locking onto it as she sensed their intent about her. “The door.” Alicia motions, “McGonagall…” (enters) “…Flitwick…” (enters) “…Hagrid…” (seconds pass) “…Hagrid…” (seconds pass) “…Hag…” (suddenly her comes in deep in conversation with a portly man) “…there he is, and there’s Fudge.”
Swallowing another shot of her drink, she watched them intently, her mind focusing on their “words” as they thought them (and they came forth in spoken tongue). Quickly remembering she wasn’t alone, she grasped Cho’s hand and opened her to what she was experiencing.
As Rosmerta handed out drinks, Alicia felt something stirring just above the thoughts of the party set on the table. They were all thinking of the same thing, and whatever it was it had them all on edge for some reason. That reason, she felt, was about to come.
“So, what brings you to this neck of the woods, Minister?” Rosmerta asked, asking the obvious question that was even on Alicia’s mind as she watched.
He lowered his voice, but that was about as useful as trying to hide a PS3 in your jacket as his mind (and his words) were open to examination. “What else, m’dear, but Sirius Black? I daresay you heard what happened up at the school at Halloween to Miss Spinnet?”
Rosmerta gritted her teeth, and glanced towards Alicia only to turn back without noting her (a slight nudge to her mind to “ignore” Alicia and Cho). “I heard.” she hissed in pain.
McGonagall looked pissed off, turning towards Hagrid angrily. “Did you tell the whole pub, Hagrid!?” she grumbled in aggrivation. Hagrid lowered his head, and said nothing.
“Do you think Black’s still in the area, Minister?” Rosmerta chirped in, drawing the heat off of Hagrid in the process. To that, Fudge replied plainly “I’m sure of it.”
“You know that the Dementors have searched the whole village twice?” Rosmerta said with a slight edge in her voice, (‘Is that all?’ Alicia thought to herself) “Scared all my customers away… it’s very bad for business, Minister.”
“It’d be worst for business if another Halloween incident happened a stone’s throw from your establishment’s front door, Rosmerta.” Fudge answered grimly. “I don’t like the Dementors presence here anymore than you do, but in the end a little lost business is better than a grand scandal that’ll scar all and make Hogsmeade a near ghost town.”
“Listen…” Fudge leans closer, eyes narrowing as he regarded each at the table in turn. “They’re in a fury against Dumbledore, he won’t let them inside the school grounds…”
“I should think not.” Professor McGonagall sharply replied, “How are we supposed to teach with those horrors floating around!”
“Hear, hear!” Flitwick chimed in, only for Fudge to slam his hands down silencing the table. “They’re beginning to see that Spinnet girl as some sort of “queen” to them!” Fudge hissed, looking rather nervous as he spoke. “When I spoke to them they kept on going on between themselves in whispers about “Mistress” this, and “Mistress” that. “Mistress did not give orders about revealing things to others.”, and “Mistress said to follow instructions given”…” (a look of near disturbed panic reached his features), “She’s become an --”
Alicia focused on Fudge, and against her better judgement she “fudged” his mind a little.
“-- oh what am I worried about.” he suddenly smiled, his mood lightening. “She’s helping us keep them behaved so where’s the down side to that! But as for that other problem…”
Alicia sighed inwardly, wondering if Cho (sitting next to her) noticed. She didn’t seem to notice as she continued to stare focused at the conversation between the “adults”.
“We all know what Black’s capable of…” Fudge continued, “…or at least we thought we did, until Halloween when everything changed.”
“No, no, I can’t believe he raped her. I had enough problem believing what happened before, but this… it’s too much.” Rosmerta spoke up. “Of all the people to go over to the “Dark Side” like that, Black, I never would have thought he was capable of it. I mean, I remember him when he was just a student over at Hogwarts. If you’d told me then he would become a murderer, now worst a rapist, I’d have said you were downing too many meads.”
“You don’t know the half of his ills, Rosmerta.” Fudge gruffly said, retaking the lead in the conversation before his “captive” audience. “The worst he did is still not yet widely known. Worst than murder, worst than even rape.”
This caught Alicia’s attention, and held it tight as McGonagall picked up the conversation, “You say you remember Black from his days at Hogwarts, Rosmerta. Do you remember who his best friend was?”
“Naturally,” Rosmerta said with a slight laugh, “Never saw one without the other, did you? The number of times I had them in here -- ooh, they used to make me laugh. Quite the double act, Sirius Black and James Potter!”
Suddenly everything seemed to lock into place quickly for Alicia.
She slugged down a large hit of the butterbeer, and silently motioned for one of the waitresses to come and get her a refill without breaking eye contact with the other table for a single second.
“Precisely,” McGonagall said. “Black and Potter. Ringleaders of their little gang…”
“Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.” Alicia muttered under her breath.
Now it was all falling into place.
Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. The bane of Snape’s existence.
Moony… Moony… that had to have been Lupin.
Wormtail she was blanking out on. Didn’t seem like any of the three so maybe it was a fourth member she didn’t know about yet.
Padfoot and Prongs… must be Black and Potter… but which was which?
As she sat and listened silently to the rest, she began to formulate an opinion.
An opinion which grew quickly into factual truth in her mind’s eye.
A truth she knew she needed to share.
* * * * * *
Getting Snape to meet her in the Chamber of Secrets wasn’t too hard.
As he walked up to her she put her fingers together in front of her, taking on an almost wizened look as she turned towards him. “Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. Ring any bells? They were the four who tormented you during your school days in Hogwarts, or am I mistaken…”
Snape’s face did not flinch, but she knew she had his apt attention.
“The gang was lead by Black, who is now free from Azkaban by his own hand.
The gang was also lead by Potter, who you have formed a most venomous hatred of his offspring, Harry… haven’t you.”
Silence. No denial, no refusal, all was as it should be… for him at least.
“Black and Potter were so close Potter trusted Black with a secret that cost him his life. The secret that came into the hands of Voldemort, and ultimately led to his downfall. Black was blamed, even when he came to Hagrid to help him spirit Potter away he was blamed… of course it was all irontight including the deaths of so many innocent Muggles and an irrational Black professing his innocence.”
Snape’s face did not change.
“And your point is.”
“Fill in the blanks for me then.” she motioned for him to join her, as he sat down in the chair next to her’s. “I take it Moony is Lupin.”
Snape nods his head in the affirmative, only after a few seconds of prodding and silence.
“I haven’t figured out yet who Black/Potter was, but I narrowed it to Padfoot & Prongs.”
“In that order.” Snape volunteered.
“Then I take it Wormtail was…”
“Peter Pettigrew. One of those killed by Black…” Snape answered, only to notice Alicia beginning to smile. “What…”
“Complete disintergration. He was grieving over the Potter’s death, pulled for his wand and was promptly turned into the content of a cup of hot chocolate, minus the liquids and whip cream add on.” Alicia laid out, her smile growing as she spoke. “Complete disintergration. Strange, “Muggles” point blank range of Black were splayed all over the place in a red bloody mess, vital organs everywhere and yet… and yet somehow he still managed to completely dust a target twice as far as his human victims, and in one shot no less.”
Snape’s attention grew as he began to piece together what Alicia already figured out.
“Reports indicated the humans were dismantled by anywhere between one to three shots depending on where they stood during the attack… yet somehow he still killed off Pettigrew with one shot.”
“Which would have been impossible even for Black considering the “mess” he left earlier, unless…”
“Pettigrew wasn’t killed by Black.” Alicia finished.
Snape - “If Pettigrew wasn’t killed by Black… who killed him.”
“Maybe nobody.” Alicia answered, “After all what was found of Pettigrew’s “remains”…? His finger? That’s it? I don’t know about you but such an obvious “remain” seems more left so he could go underground than anything else.” (motions with her hand and finger as if “detaching” it) “The thought came when I observed Ron’s rat, Scabbers. He’s missing a finger you know, probably left it behind escaping from a cat or dog… seems to me if he was smart enough to do that to elude death (perhaps leave a small bit of his “scent“ to elude a cat perhaps), a human being like Pettigrew (even if he wasn’t the brightest magic wand in Hogwarts) should know enough to do that to elude DeathEaters… but tell me…”
Snape waves off Alicia’s further questions. “Just because I WAS a DeathEater once doesn’t mean I am privvy to the list of all those marked for death by Voldemort. Still… maybe it has merits. Pettigrew went into hiding because he thought Black was the traitor, and has been waiting for all this time for him to “surface” and become available again…”
Alicia : “You don’t think he had a hand in helping Black escape, do you?”
“You started this.” Snape retorted, “Years have passed. By now I’m sure even a worm like Pettigrew would have grown some sort of spinal column, being haunted by the death of those you claimed to be your best friends would seem to do that in people.”
Alicia leans back in her chair, staring at the ceiling as she lets his thoughts brew in her.
“Years pass, Pettigrew grows some balls, and decides he can’t wait anymore for Black to get himself out. The perfect opportunity comes when he somehow comes into contact with Blitzkrieg who is looking for me, and he heard I was spotted once in Azkaban. Perfect. He tricks Blitzkrieg to sneak in hoping to catch me when I go there again, only I don’t go there again… he wises up, and breaks out, which gives Black the chance to escape and…”
“Become “available” once again for a vengeance minded former coward to “settle” a years old “debt” with.” Snape concludes.
“That means, if that is indeed the case…” (Alicia closes her eyes) “…all we have to do is sit back and wait for him to reappear, then we can act.”
“Why would we do that.” Snape asked.
“Because.”
* * * * * *
When Alicia went to dinner she noticed something was visibly wrong with Harry.
Everyone else either didn’t notice, or in the case of Hermione and Ron didn’t want to seem as if they were noticing. Obviously she wasn’t the only one who sneaked into Hogmeades, and she obviously wasn’t the only one to hear what she did about Black/Potter.
When she finally got upstairs to the Gryffindor Common Room, she had found the room in chaos as it seems Fred & George has set off half a dozen Dungbombs in a disturbing fit of “end-of-the-term “spirits””. “This is why you’re not as well loved amongst the authority of this school as you should be.” Alicia muttered as she walked pass, waving her hand in a vain attempt to dispell the stench. Instead of going up to the female quarters, however, she went straight to the boy’s dorm to speak to Harry. Sure enough she found him in there, looking over the leather bound album left to Harry by his parents.
Harry, however, wasn’t in the talking mood. He just sat there, staring at the book silently.
Alicia moved close to him, looking over his shoulder as he flipped through the pages slowly.
Obviously he heard what Alicia heard, meaning he was in the same place as she (but she didn’t notice him in the crowd). Figures why he was pulling the silent treatment, she mused. After all he was pondering why nobody would tell him the truth about what happened… as if anyone could bring themselves to tell him that Potter’s own godfather may have been responsible for killing his parents. Dumbledore, the Weasleys, even the sometimes inable to hide the simpliest secret Hagrid couldn’t bring themselves to say such a thing, it was too much to even think of let alone repeat.
Ron and Hermione seemed to hover near Harry nervously throughout dinner that night, too timid to even attempt to talk to him about it, especially with the weirdo Percy hovering just as close to Harry as Ron/Hermione (though for his own weird reasons). Harry, rightly, avoided contact with the troublesome duo of Fred & George to avoid any pointed questions they haven’t gotten around to asking, a pity Alicia couldn’t manage to do likewise. (“Oh by the abyss you two losers…” she growled, pushing her way past the smelly duo who had apparently been too close to the dungbombs they set off (again) “Drown yourselves in the lake or something to wash that off!”)
As Alicia crawled into bed, closing her eyes, a brief tingle at the back of her mind caused her to shiver.
* * * * * *
As they sat listening to the talk about Black and Pettigrew, Hagrid’s eyes turned towards them seconds from noticing their presence. Quickly Alicia yanked Cho into her, kissing her with such force it made the asian beauty melt into her grip, held tight and close as they kissed with great passion. After half a minute Alicia glanced up, noticing they went back to talking without taking the slightest notice from Hagrid (either that or he blushed at their affectionate kissing and went back to focusing on the discussion about him). As they seperated the two went back to focusing on the talk, blushing abit from the forward kiss.
* * * * * *
Alicia briefly touched her lips, and sighed. “Hermione should kiss so well.”
“…did you say something…” Hermione grumbled from her bed.
“Nothing, nothing, nothing at all.” Alicia quickly whispered, settling in for sleep. “Nothing.”
* * * * * *
“Alicia, you look like something Fluffy chewed on.”
Alicia, half awake and half irritated, stared at Hermione from beneath her sheets. “Give me a break.” (yawns loudly, stretching out to work out the kinks in her body) “What time is it.”
“Morning.” she noted, picking up her bag of books. “Come on, I’m going to get some studying in while Ron sits around and eats.”
Silence reigns as she walks out, the room far emptier than usual.
“Don’t you ever stop studying.”
The Gryffindor area was very quiet, meaning most of the students have already went to the Hogwarts Express and went home. That meant for x amount of days during the holidays the school would be a rather quiet place to be for the time being. “Just as well…” Alicia muttered as she stumbled down the stairs, her robes half on as she pulled him on while walking, “…I’ve been denying myself a little extracirricular for a bit too long now.”
Easier said than done. Once Hermione laid out her homework (upon three whole tables, chasing Ron away from each and every spot on each and every table every 5 minutes until he finally resigned himself to one of the lounging chairs where he stood put) she became deathly focused… which might as well have been like death itself since no attempts to spark any “life” into her seemed to work at all.
Kissing the back of her neck, cuddling close, perching her head on Hermione’s shoulder, short of groping her and masturbating her it seemed maybe only that would get her emotions cooking… and even then she doubt she’d get more than shrieks and complaints of rape attempts. So resigned to her fate she retreated to the couch, but not before belting Ron in the stomach once for his endless barrages of “Whatcha’ doing?” between attempts to get Hermione in “the mood”.
After what seemed like a long silence Harry showed up, awake at last.
“Where is everyone?” he asked. Alicia beat Ron to the punch. “First day of vacation, so nearly the entire school went home who had homes to go home to…” (sighs) “…must be nice.”
Ron cleared his throat, if only to break into the conversation, “It’s nearly lunchtime, Harry! I was going to come and wake you up in a minute.” he exclaimed, bouncing back and forth between chewing on another peppermint toad (half wiggling in his mouth) and rubbing the spot where Alicia belted him. Harry, barely nodding his head, took a spot on one of the other chairs near Alicia as she rolled over to stare at him. He looked a helluva lot worst than she did that morning, and that’s saying something about how he looked. His eyes focused on the fire, barely wandering as she regarded him.
What a lovely “vacation” to end up stuck in, she mused silently.
Such lovely “companions”. A bitter irritated target of assassination, an irritating redhead and a cold fish love interest…too bad Cho had to go home and actually spend the holidays with an actual family.
‘Maybe I can sneak a Hogsmeade prostitute into the castle for “entertainment”.’ Alicia thought to herself. ‘Yeah, as if.’
“You two really don’t look too well, you know that don’t you.” Hermione said pointedly, peering anxiously back and forth at the two (which wasn’t much of an effort since they were sitting as close as they were).
“I’m fine.” said Harry.
“I’m not.” said Alicia, “Hold me.” (silence) “…or not.”
“Harry, listen.” Hermione began, turning her focus entirely on him as she briefly glanced at Ron before speaking again, “You must be really upset about what we heard yesterday. But the thing is, you mustn’t go doing anything stupid.”
‘Gee.’ Alicia thought as she focused her attention back on Harry, ‘Wonder where these three were yesterday.’
“Like what?” Harry shot back, knowing fully well what she meant. So did Alicia so she beat Ron to the punch (again). “Like going after Black, Harry. That’s what they’re fudging on about. Sirius Black.”
Harry glanced over at Alicia, looking nervously at her, which seemed to throw her until she realized that Hermione and Ron probably spent a ton of time rehearsing their words, and she was throwing them off their pace (Harry figured it out right away). “So I’m evil. Whatever.”
“You won’t, will you Harry?” Hermione pressed the issue, bringing their attention onto her, “You won’t try to get Black, will you?”
“Because Black is not worth dying for!” Ron spat out, which brought a shocked expression from Harry… mostly because Ron spat it out rapid fire to keep Alicia from breaking in and cutting him off mid sentence again. Eventually a more curious (not quite grasping the situation face) settled over Harry’s features. “Do you know what I see and hear every time a Dementor gets too near me?”
Ron and Hermione shook their heads, Alicia spoke.
“Your mother. Dying. At Voldemort’s hands.”
All eyes turned back onto her, only for her to shake it off with a wave of her hand. “Sorry. I couldn’t help it. You were going to say it anyway, right?”
Harry nodded his head, a grim visage coming over him. “I can hear her screaming and pleading, over and over again, and it tears me apart. It. Tears. Me. Apart.” (silence, briefly before Harry speaks again) “If any of you could hear that, hear your own mum screaming like that before she’s murdered, you wouldn’t… couldn’t… forget in a hurry…”
‘Don’t go there, don’t go there, don’t go there…” Alicia thought to herself as Harry spoke, knowing where he was about to go with this line of logic.
“And if you found out someone who was supposed to be a friend of hers betrayed her and sent Voldemort after her --”
“There’s nothing you can do!” said Hermione, looking stricken.
“THERE IS!” Alicia snapped in suddenly, locking her gaze on Harry. “You can live, and not throw away the sacrifice your mother made to keep you alive.”
Silence overtook the room again, the situation turning rather awkward after Alicia’s words bit down hard on Harry, harder than she thought it would. She rolled onto her back staring back at the ceiling again, sighing. “He can’t escape. The Tormented --”
“Huh?”
“I mean the Dementors…” (‘Slip of the tongue.’) “…they’ll catch Black, or the person who broke him out to make him “accessible” will finish him, whoever gets to him first gets him.”
“What are you talking about?!” Harry spat, not quite in yet on Alicia’s theory that somebody freed Black in order to kill him. “Fudge said Black isn’t affected by Azkaban like normal people are. Even if he’s captured it wouldn’t be punishment for him like it is for others.”
“So Fudge says.” Alicia sighed, briefly reflecting on her one brief glimpse of Black. Somehow he didn’t look like his stay in Azkaban was a cakewalk for him, from her one good look at him.
“But that doesn’t matter, Harry. Do you want to kill Black or not?”
“Don’t be silly.” Hermione broke in, “Harry doesn’t want to kill any--”
“I don’t remember asking for your opinion!” Alicia snapped, getting up to stare Harry straight in the eye, focused intently on him to the poin the squirmed in his chair under her tight gaze. “Do you want to kill him or not.”
“Malfoy knows,” Harry countered sharply, “Remember what he said to me in Potions? ‘If it was me…’”
“DON’T MAKE EXCUSES!!” Alicia roared, causing everyone to jump as she got to her feet, quickly moving forward to slam her hands down on the armrests of Harry’s chair, causing him to jump. “Malfoy would kill his own father for the right reasons. I’m not the slightest bit concerned about the lack of a moral compass from a twit like Malfoy. I asked YOU, Harry Potter, will you kill him or not?! Answer me…”
Silence.
“ANSWER ME!!”
“Uhm…” (Ron squeaked, waiting for Alicia to turn on him, only to speak again after he was sure she wasn’t going to spin about on him) “You’re going to take Malfoy’s advice instead of ours? I mean… well… listen! You know what Pettigrew’s mother got back after Black had finished with him? Dad told me -- the Order of Merlin, First Class, and Pettigrew’s finger in a bo--”
“Hold that thought.” Alicia spoke, suddenly bringing Ron to a stop.
Silence once again reigned, Alicia stepping back as she thought about it for a second, clapping her hands together as her thoughts formed (accidentially shocking the trio watching her as she did so). Mumbling her apologies she sat back down in the couch, holding her hands out ready to gesture her words as she spoke.
“Uh… Alicia? What…”
“Did anyone of you see the moving photos of the death scene after Black’s alleged “rampage”? I did… fascinating stuff.”
And thus her theory was put forward to an apt (somewhat disturbed audience during the description of the bloody mess of the corpses of the “Muggles”) audience.
To Be Continued in Two Weeks
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Coming Up To The Last Time I Stopped Writing...
Guess this means it's back to writing fresh content again!
I'll just be a little slow doing it. So we'll begin a once every two week post from Azkaban 11 onwards (I'm not getting any feedback on this so I guess nobody will mind the change). If you do mind, however, do drop me a message or post or something and let me know you mind (and you'd like me to work harder). Thanks.
Otherwise after next week it's a chapter every two weeks then.
To speed up input I put a poll on the page just so I know where you stand (it's at the bottom of the page).
I'll just be a little slow doing it. So we'll begin a once every two week post from Azkaban 11 onwards (I'm not getting any feedback on this so I guess nobody will mind the change). If you do mind, however, do drop me a message or post or something and let me know you mind (and you'd like me to work harder). Thanks.
Otherwise after next week it's a chapter every two weeks then.
To speed up input I put a poll on the page just so I know where you stand (it's at the bottom of the page).
Azkaban 10
Azkaban Episode 10
It was coming to the point that Alicia was practically living out of the hospital ward. This time it would only be for the weekend, yes, but still it was another stay in a long string of stays she has already endured in the hospital wing. Snape, near nightfall, brought her a toolkit from the women’s dorm in Gryffindor (he did not elaborate as to how he came by it though). Inside was a set of old crafting and forging tools, something she taken from the body of an Assassin Guilder who tried to put a bullet through her skull last year (and failed). The bullet, forged from the broken remains of Oliver Wood’s broom (shattered during the rogue bludger incident) gave her an idea. At night, while Potter slept (with the “help” of a sleeping draught “accidentially” left by Snape in her care) she forged the remains of her old Nimbus 2001 into long range “SpellAirius” spell breaker ammo, loading them into the “bottomless” clip of an old Glock she had from the old times (the spell scrawling on it maintaining it’s indestrucible status glowing red in the magic rich environment of Hogwarts).
She knew she was being a tad paranoid, turning her old broom into ammo, but it kept her hands busy and idle hands were only going to get her into masturbating (and thinking about Hermione) if she wasn’t careful. She didn’t share the same sentiment about it as Harry did his broom, which did seem to bother him abit but not to the point of confronting her about the way she handled her broom’s remains. “Next he’d probably expect me to give it a proper burial and last rites.” she muttered as she turned over another handful of SpellAirius shells for the gun.
She could only work at night, though, since the daytime was occupied by a constant stream of visitors and a wide awake Harry. All of these visitors had two objectives in mind : one was to cheer Harry up, the other to cheer Alicia up (one way or another).
Hagrid sent both of them a bunch of earwiggy flowers that looked like yellow cabbages, (“Not yellow cabbages.” Alicia noted with disdain, half a flower sticking out of her mouth “Maybe I need to flour, panko and fry these to make them taste better… roll in a hotdog or some other meat while I‘m at it… use a beer batter… be half drunk when I eat the next flower… something.”).
Ginny Weasley, bright red from her excessive girlhood crush on Harry blushing, turned up with a get well card she had made herself which sang shrilly… but before Harry could stick it under a fruit bowl to silence it Alicia took it straight away and (for once) used her wand to change it. One tap and the words “Accentuate, deliverate, pronounciate, sing” made the card sing well. She put the card next to Harry and said “Young ladies grow up into beautiful women, and beautiful women sing the most lovely songs.”
(She then smacked Harry on the head and said “ingrate” before lying down again).
Gryffindor team visited on Sunday morning, this time bringing the now mostly recovered Oliver Wood with them (who did more than hide in the shadows of the doorway delivering product information on Nimbus brooms). Wood, speaking in a rather hollow dead voice, said he didn’t blame Harry in the slightest. “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence there.” Alicia muttered, catching a shellshocked sad look from Wood as he turned realizing she was listening. “Shake it off. I’m just kidding you.”
Ron and Hermione only left the duos bedsides at night, which again made it near impossible to forge the SpellAirius ammo in anything but nighttime conditions. Harry, for the most part, was walking wounded as nothing anyone could say could shake him out of his suckitude that he was in. Alicia gritted her teeth everytime she thought of him, and wondered just what happened to him with the Dementors to make him such a basketcase now all of a sudden. It didn’t matter to her, though, since she had her own troubles.
Blitzkrieg was upping his attacks. Once content to sit quietly for an opportunity it was now cranking out more and more drones at a steadily increasing pace. Soon attacks may become almost daily occurances as he becomes embolden by repeated progress in his attacks (this attack landing Alicia once again back in the infirmary). Then there was the matter of Black and his obsession with Potter, though she felt Black would most likely stick to that fascination and not include her in his plans… yet.
Finally there was the Dementors, who were steadily becoming harder and harder to control. After the incident on the field they had snapped back into full obedience mode, but once their “hunger” returned it would be only a matter of time before they became uncontrollable again. She had already contacted Azkaban about rotating the Dementors on a more frequent basis, pulling the most “weakened” back to replenish before sending full “controllable” ones out again, but according to them they were doing the best they could under the circumstance to rotate them as often as possible… not good enough, but there was a hint that there would be more attempts to keep the rotations going at a quicker pace to keep this from happening again.
All in all this was setting up to be one entirely lousy year.
Which could only get worst once she went back to schoollife and her first day back at Lupin’s class (with Lupin).
* * * * * *
Returning to the main hustle and bustle of schoolife was a relief to Potter, but not so for Alicia as she knew she’d have to face Lupin later that day after her “coup” of the class with Snape days earlier. Malfoy, however, was at least easier to handle than Lupin in her opinion. She got out early that morning and used that time to make an appearance to Malfoy in front of the painting to Slytherin (guarded by a rather nasty looking image of a “gentleman” who seemed as nasty as the students he was “guarding”). As he walked up to her, insult in mouth, she simply held up a little brown envelope and said “The most amazing things some can find in people’s heads when they’re at the controls.”
Malfoy, at first dumbstruck, turned red quickly as he snapped the envelope away and looked at it with first anger then resentment. “Keep those if you wish, I’ll just make more.” she said as she turned, walking away without another word.
After that Malfoy took off the bandages and contented himself with occasionally tormenting Potter, but steered clear of Alicia from that point forward.
“One less git in my life.” she muttered, working her potion with the usual flair as she tried not to make this one explode like one from five weeks earlier.
It didn’t take much to silence him, in fact it almost hurt her to do it.
Before she went to see Malfoy she stopped, and opened the envelope to glance at the photos. “Is there any real affection in this, or is it just the acts of disturbing individuals.”
“To attribute affection to one like Malfoy seemingly would take an act of the almighty, and yet I can assure you…” (tapping moving image of Malfoy and his mother making love) “…this is nothing but pure affection and love. I dare say if father snearest was out of the way she’d so bond with him as only a wife could… Oh, and don’t get that sick in the face look because she’s technically NOT his mother… kinda…”
“Say what…” Alicia muttered, “Is she mommy or not?”
Jack shrugged as he allowed his holoimage to fade away from behind her, “Kinda.”
She decided to leave it at that and not try to figure out the mating habits of evil people.
* * * * * *
“If Snape’s teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts again, I’m skiving off.” Ron said as they headed towards Lupin’s classroom after lunch. He motioned towards Alicia and said “You’re pals with him, why don’t you stick your head in since he won’t snap it off or anything.”
Alicia groaned, but did just that as she peeked into the classroom. “Oh bother.”
“What?!” Ron hissed, “Is it…”
“Lupin.” Alicia noted, opening the door wide to show it was indeed Lupin in the class. Ron cuffed Alicia as he passed, mumbling “Don’t do that!” as he did. Professor Lupin, as she knew it had to be, was back to work. It certainly did look, however, as though he had been ill. His old robes were hanging even more loosely on him than before, and there were dark shadows beneath his eyes. Nevertheless, he smiled that same disturbingly chipper smile as the class filed in and took their seats. This quiet was short lived as the class immediately set to voicing their objection to Snape’s class the moment they sat down.
“It’s not fair, he was only filling in, why should he give us homework?”
“We don’t know anything about werewolves…”
(‘Still?!?’ Alicia thought to herself, wondering why they even bothered talking about it if all that valuable information slipped right out of their brains over the weekend).
“…two rolls of parchment!”
Lupin, frowning slightly, asked the obvious question. “Did you tell Professor Snape we haven’t covered werewolves yet?”
The wave of babble broke over the “wall” once again, like a tsunami wave.
“Yes, but he said we were really behind…”
(‘And being a bunch of behinds.’ Alicia thought.)
“--- he wouldn’t listen ---”
“--- two rolls of parchment!”
Professor Lupin absorbed all the complaints even handedly, and smiled at the looks of indignation from all the complaining students. “Don’t worry. I’ll speak to Professor Snape. You don’t have to do the essay.”
“Oh, no!” Hermione choked out, “I already finished it!”
The rest of the class interested everyone except Alicia, who tried to block it out of her mind… especially at the point where the hinkypunk tried to balance it’s light while bouncing on a basketball that somehow ended up in it’s possession in front of Alicia.
“I hate my life.” she muttered absently as it fell over, the ball flying ghostly through the enclosed glass box and knocking Neville over.
* * * * * *
“How’s the “work” going?” Snape asked quietly, drawing Alicia into the quiet teacher’s staffroom.
“Done.” she noted, pulling the old Glock out of a hidden tesseract pouch in her robes (recently added in a previous “stay” in the infirmary). “Got enough ammo to last the rest of my stay here I dare say.” (clicks the gun once, checks her sights, then locks it back into safety mode and puts it away again) “The Dementors sway back and forth from obedient to out of control the longer they’re not fed. If only the Azkaban people would rotate them more this wouldn’t happen…” (sighs) “…how angry was Dumbledore that day?”
“I can’t ever say I saw Dumbledore as angry as he was that day.” Snape remarked coldly, “The Dementors apparently weren’t the only ones who were past due for an outburst.”
“So I see…” Alicia muttered, her hand involntarily reaching up to touch her arm that had been damaged time and time again recently, “…Dementors.”
Just then inspiration hit. She quickly dived into another pocket and fished out a few tesseract gems, going through each one (holding it up to the light to check it’s “content” before emptying one of a small pocket book, holding up said book to show Snape). “Let’s ask the Book of Knowledge about it.”
“The book of what?” Snape asked, expression changing from cold to curious as he followed Alicia to the chairs. Quickly she sat, plopped the book on the table, and said in a clear voice “I need a reference check on Dementors as they relate to this present reality that we are in.”
Silence. The book did not move. For the longest time it sat there, and Alicia (dumbfounded) muttered “Maybe it’s broken.” before the book snapped open, flipped page onto page until it came to an entry entitled “The Tormented, a Dimensional Crossreference” and began to “read” in Alicia’s own voice.
“Dementors are a misgiven slang to refer to halflife human souls known as The Tormented. The Tormented are humans who are neither alive nor dead fully, stuck between realities in a half life. Often humans of a low class status these tormented souls hide in the dark filthy places that they dwelled in life, craving only to absorb the happiness and love from the living they were denied in life. Normal humans (aka “Muggles” in realm talk) are not affected nor hunted by Tormented for they remember in shards being “Muggles” once themselves, they prefer to target the “mystical” community as they see them as an “elitist” species that caused their suffering in life (be this fact or dementia caused by transition into Tormented form is not yet clear at the time of this reading).
Though they will not affect “Muggles”, they can sense the presence of the Tormented, in essence still having an ethereal connection to their “fellow” man even if they did not share that “connection” with them in life. If a Tormented feeds on a humanoid long enough said being will be dragged into a living hellish state similar to the Tormented themselves, hollow of bright feeling yet craving said feeling from others to the point of becoming violent towards said individuals exhibiting traits they yearn for (happiness, love, etc).
Cross Refernce “Dementor’s Kiss” for more info.”
Snape made a sudden motion with his arm shutting the book as it wrapped up. “That is abit to absorb.”
“You don’t say.” she muttered, snapping the book up and putting it away. “I wonder if Dumbledore would feel the same about these so-called “Dementors” if he knew the truth?”
Snape - “Hard to say.”
Alicia reaches out to take the book, but stops. Instead she draws it closer to her and says “I need a reference check on a place called Azkaban, located in this present reality.”
Quicker, the book flipped open and fluttered for abit before settling down, on the page was the words “Azkaban the Water Prison”
“The Fortress Prison Azkaban is located on an artifically created island in an undisclosed location. The island is in a constant state of dimensional flux, dimensionally slipping from location to location at the rising of the sun. This keeps it’s present location a secret though a few entities have been able to locate the prison without the aid of the Ministry of Magic’s Shards of Suffering (mystical devices made solely for the purposes of tracking the last remaining Fortress Prison in exsistence).
Prisoners are locked away in this antiseptic environment and watched over by the Tormented (Dementors) who serve the dual purpose of keeping the populace docile while inflicting torturous conditions upon them metting out “justice” onto the wicked.
WARNING! Azkaban Prison is presently under a review by the Goddess Council for gross breeches of humanoid rights violations. The Prison’s case is presently being supervised by The Goddess of Sorrow, who is expected to turn in her report on the prison in two year cycles (as of this reading) once a complete 10 year cycle evaluation is done to insure all data and info have been processed and gathered.
Originally one of a quartet of prisons, it is the only one in active use.
Would you like to cross reference the fates of the other three prisons?”
The two exchanged glances warily, “I didn’t know there were three other prisons.” Snape said cautiously. “May I?”
Alicia motioned towards the book, “The book holds no restrictions on who accesses it’s information.”
In a clear tone, Snape says “Cross reference the three other prisons, their purpose and the reasons behind their closure.”
“Crossreferencing…”
The pages suddenly fluttered to life, shifting to another entry.
“Cross Reference to Schadazaar, the Fire Prison.”
“Originally erected as a prison for dark wizards of the Middle East and Asia, the prison became infamous for it’s mistreatment of women prisoners (magical and non) in both violent and sexual means. The prison was thus destroyed by the Winterian Alliance in 1350 in a multi-lateral magical community/non-magical community assault which brought forth prison time in the recently built Azkaban Prison for the warden and jailers of the Schadazaar Prison (those who were not killed outright by the Winterians or deported transdimensionally to Winterian PrisonStars. (See Winteria, Culture of Women for more information)).”
The pages flipped again, a new entry coming to light.
“Cross Reference to Drumstragg, the Dark Winds Prison”
“Originally erected as a prison for BloodWizards, the followers of a dark cult that worshipped the serpent god Set (crossreference Ancient God Deities, Set and the Blood Wizards of Set) the prison fell out of use when the cult of Set fell out of favor and became a dead religion. Presently used as a school for dark wizards, the school’s dark heritage is not completely known or understood by it’s staff though a few may still be carrying on the practices of the BloodWizards to this day (if only in symbolic mannerism).”
One more time the pages flipped again, a new entry coming to light.
“Cross Reference to Hades, the Underworld Prison”
Originally erected as a prison for Distruptors, wizards who openly broke the Seperation Act Between Muggles and Magicals, the prison was the setting of a prison riot called the Human Riot where the imprisoned fought to overthrow their wardens in an attempt to, in the words of the riot leader “win back their humanity” only to be killed in the uprising. Sickened by the sad brutal events of the horrible uprising the prison was exposed to the light of day, and the underground cavern flooded with water turning it into a lake. Presently it is a dwelling of merpeople and located near the present location of…”
“Hogwarts.“ Snape snapped the book closed. “That explains the more than usual excess of ghosts that surround the area. This used to be a prison area.”
“And if you think that’s something…” Alicia says as she retrieves the book, “Imagine what you’ll learn tomorrow. Speaking of which…” (motioning to Snape) “…I know why you called me in here. You want to check on the little “gift” we’re storing down below. So if you’ll follow me we’ll get to it.”
* * * * * *
November rolled on, and the first good news in terms of Quidditch began to roll in.
Ravenclaw annihilated Hufflepuff in their Quidditch match at the end of November, once again opening the door for Gryffindor to possibly take the Quidditch Cup for the year. Everyone’s mood lifted when they saw the gleam of chance to win the cup, and Wood quickly took that as a sign to work the team harder in practice to get their game just right for their eventual match against Ravenclaw. After all this was a chance, but it was also a last chance as failure this time would be a permament failure and no third chance would rise again. This maniac pace of training rolled out of November and right into December, this time Dementor free as they kept their distance after Dumbledore’s rage against them.
Two weeks before the end of term the sky began to lighten, and the weather started to turn around. Inside most of the castle there was an air of Christmas, most of the castle except the Chamber of Secrets which had been reopened and reconfigured for use. Compliments of Lazarus a huge complex of machines and magic synched technology was set into the Chamber, the remains of the Bassilisk removed from the water source and replaced with a water to energy conversion fusion generator to power the machines. The focus of attention in the room was the decapitated head of the Galerian assassin guilder, many wires and attachments sticking out of it as the machiens labored day and night to hack it’s internal core memory and dig out as much useable information from it as possible.
As expected this was slow going, especially since this was only a secondary lift since the prime core was in the guts of the Galerian drone (destroyed in the explosion). But still, any information no matter how small was better than nothing. Alicia would drop in a few days a week to check on progress, waiting for the download to finish… but it was slow, and days passed with no progress.
As if to further depress her, students began to happily discuss their plans for the holidays. Since she really had no home except for Hogwarts she had no plans for the holidays. She would only travel back to Diagon Alley on the first day of holiday to go christmas shopping, as well as to buy a replacement broom, and then return to spend the rest of her holiday at Hogwarts. One bright spot of this plan was Ron and Hermione, both of whom had said they were going to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays. They had their reasons, sure, but she knew they were only staying for herself and Harry (which she felt was sweet of them, especially since it looked like this would be her best chance to make a move on Hermione).
To everyone’s delight, except Harry’s and Alicia’s of course, talk of a new trip to Hogsmeade began to dominate conversations. “We can do all our Christmas shopping there!” Hermione said cheerfully, “Mum and Dad would really love those Toothflossing Stringmints from Honeydukes!”
“Giving sweet floss to a pair of dentists?” Alicia said from her corner of the common room, “Is that legal?”
Resigned this time to her fate, Alicia decided to busy herself reading over the catalog sent to her from the shoppe over in Diagon Alley where she was going to buy her new broom. They had several models that each caught her attention for one reason or another, and she was weighting the choices before the trip.
Quidditch Practice was not particularly harsh for her, as she had found an older broom put into her locker with a note that said “Loaner” on it, which was an old style HellFire broom that actually ran well. Sleek, dark, and well maintained for a broom that old, Alicia wondered if it was Snape’s considering it was meticulously maintained and he seemed the type. Still she couldn’t keep that broom for long, and wanted only to get her own broom again even if she was abit confused as to what broom she should be getting..
Taking her catalog with her, Alicia set off to the Chamber of Secrets after seeing Ron and Hermione off to Hogsmeade. (“I’ll get you alone soon enough.” she whispered to herself as she walked down the newly installed hidden stairs placed in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom). There she sat down at one of the command chairs to flip through the catalog, only for the computer to go off thirty seconds later.
“DOWNLOAD COMPLETE. FILES READY.”
“Oh NOW you’re ready.” she muttered, putting the catalog aside as she reaches for the keyboard, “This had better have been worth it.”
As she taps into the system she flips through file after file, each one a disappointing visual log of it’s short life and nothing else. One, logged 10/31, caught her eye. Nervously she waved the cursor over the entry as if she was afraid the system would self destruct if she clicked it, finally clicking the entry and leaning forward to watch. As the images came on she watched it carefully… scenes scrolling forward… until at last she saw something and stopped it. For the most part the visuals were unimpressive, mostly of the Galerian being outside or sneaking about, but then suddenly it pulled something out into it’s sight (a datapad) and tapped it… said something and watched as a complex mapping system (on virtual parchment) rolled out before it and showed it a path into the castle. It tapped the pad again with the stylus, said something else, and the images vanished. Quickly Alicia checked the rest of the footage, now more interested in knowing what it knew about her “situation” that night than what she just saw. However this only yielded one thing, which made no sense… an image of a hunched thing scurrying along the moving staircases away from the area where Gryffindor’s area was. “Is that it?” she muttered, looking at the image oddly. “Computer, can you figure out what this image is?” (taps the dark image) “Clear up the darkness and show me what this is?”
“IT’LL TAKE SEVERAL DAYS TO DO THIS. DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE?”
“Yeah, why not…” she muttered, “Not like I have anything else to do… but now…” (pulls out a datapad and then scans through the files until she finds… “Marauder’s Map File.”
It takes a few seconds but it loads down onto the pad. As the pad comes to life the image of a blank parchment page comes on, and then nothing. The only thing on the page other than the parchment was a “voice” icon, with the datapad’s vocal device flashing waiting for input. Perplexed, Alicia sat there and stared at this for several seconds until inspiration hit. She quickly replayed the scene with the pad and listened, playing it over and over again until she was sure she got it right, finally lifting the pad’s stylus and tapping it down on the icon as she repeated the words from the datafile. “I solemly swear that I am up to no good.”
At once virtual ink lines began to spread like a spider’s web on the screen, they joined and wove about crisscrossing until a message was formed.
Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.
Purveyors of Aide to Magical Mischief Makers of a New Generation
Are proud to present…
The Marauder’s Map Version 2.0
It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. Marking the location of every person in the castle, as well as every ghosts and entity within the walls.
“Dumbledore is pacing in his study, Mrs. Norris is on the second floor, Peeves is in the trophy room, Harry is here… what the…” (taps passages) “…this is how Blitzkrieg is getting in and out! These passages! But where…” (suddenly the map changes with the legend “To Hogsmeade” on each passage.) “…you gotta be kidding me.”
New icons, not the same as the one the map used, suddenly appeared. Alicia tapped one.
“ENTRANCE BLOCKED BY DEBRIS. UNUSABLE.”
‘This must be notes by Blitzkrieg.’ Alicia thought, tapping another noteicon.
“PASSAGE PATROLLED BY TOO MANY HUMANS. UNUSABLE.”
On the third tap the right message came up.
“OPEN PATH. ENTRANCE LOCATED IN BASEMENT OF HONEYDUKES.
Magical Entry required from Hogwarts side, use Whomping Willow path to Shrieking Shack for extraction. Magical means to enter as follows…”
Alicia’s facial expression changes as she reads on, a confused expression morphing into a devious grin. “Oh come on, you know I gotta use this.” she whispered to herself…”And I better hurry before I start talking to myself out of bore--” (sighs) “…damn.”
* * * * * *
‘Now what.’ Alicia thought to herself, finding herself standing in front of the statue in question only confused as to what she should do next. Pulling out the datapad she glanced at it looking for info., only to notice to her shock that a new image had appeared upon it, labeled with her true name. Quickly covering the screen, eyes glancing about madly, she began to worry about the “product” in her hands.
“Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can’t see where it keeps it’s brain.”
Words that were oh so clear now from the esteemed Mr. Weasley, and right now it made a whole lot of sense to Alicia at that moment. Carefully glancing back at the datapad she noticed herself standing where she was, tapping the witch with her little itsy bitsy wand with the words “Dissendium” appearing in a voice bubble next to little “Alicia”. Pulling out her own wand she tapped the wand and whispered “Dissendium”, at once the statue’s hump opened wide enough to admit a fairly thin person through. Alicia squeezed herself through, muttering “Must be the Super Model entrance to Hogsmeade…” as she did so. As she hit the ground glancing about the dark corridor (uselessly), she tucked the datapad out of sight into one of her robe pouches (sewn into the material) as she holds her wand up whispering “Lumos!”
She was in a very narrow, low ceiling, earthy passageway. It went on for awhile, which made sense since it was no doubt abit of a walk from Hogswart to Hogsmeade. Retrieving the datapad from her robe pouch she stares at it… and stares… only to realize she didn’t know how to shut it off. Suddenly a small notation appeared on the bottom of the screen, as if the map was reading her mind (which wasn’t making her feel any better about holding the thing).
“To Close, Tap Voice Icon and Say “Mischief Managed”.”
“Mischief Managed.” she said with authority, watching the map clear as she did so. Putting it back into her pouch once again she began to walk down the corridor, carefully observing the corridor for “Dead Man’s Hands” (packs of C4 left for the curious and unwary) as she walked. The passage twisted and turned, more like the burrow of a giant wyrmbeast than a manmade tunnel (no doubt done to avoid underground building support pillars and people’s stone basement slash storage areas). Alicia continued her pace, stumbling now and again on the uneven floor as she moved, her wand held out in front of her as she let her visor (pulled from a different tesseract pouch she was storing it) scanned for traps.
It seemingly took ages but finally she reached the basement, an hour seemingly passing as she finally reached the rising towards the entrance to the Honeydukes’ cellar. She sped up her pace, her nerves itching to get through out of the passage and into Hogsmeade. It took another 10 minutes before she came to the foot of some worn stone steps, which rose out of sight above her. Deciding to forego the stealth technique she quickly bent down, kicking off upwards and using a small amount of energy to levitate upwards (instead of risking drawing attention to herself with her footfalls on the stone steps), which made it quick for her to reach the top which was a solid trapdoor. Gently testing it to make sure it wasn’t blocked, she set herself down on the staircase and pushed the trapdoor open so she could peek.
As promised this was the cellar of Honeydukes, filled with wooden crates and boxes labeled with the contents of what a well stocked sweets shop should hold. Alicia rolled clear of the trapdoor, using her power to lightly bring it down soundlessly (noticing it blended perfectly with the floor so that you’d have to have had actually climbed out of it to even know it was there in the first place). She quickly moved to the door, using another boost of power to make her robes shift into something more civilian in appearance so that she didn’t stick out (suddenly she stopped, shrugged, then pulled a short red headed wig and glasses from yet another tesseract pouch putting it on) (’Didn‘t get to wear it for Halloween so now is as good a time as any.’), then she quietly slipped into the crowd outside the door and completely blended in.
The place was so busy you could have easily walked off with half the stock from the storage room without anyone noticing, the whole place buzzed with business as all the students of Hogwarts were seemingly attempting to jam themselves into this one shop at once from the endless amount of student surrounding her. Quietly slipping to the back of the crowd (which was more concerned with getting towards the wares than who was moving out of their way) she took a quick look about the room before exiting, noticing a few of her classmates but no Hermione or Ron. Oh well, she mused silently, they’ll be somewhere in town so it shouldn’t be too hard to find them. Deciding to come back later for a few purchases (on her way out) she left the store and began wandering the streets of Hogsmeade.
To Be Continued
It was coming to the point that Alicia was practically living out of the hospital ward. This time it would only be for the weekend, yes, but still it was another stay in a long string of stays she has already endured in the hospital wing. Snape, near nightfall, brought her a toolkit from the women’s dorm in Gryffindor (he did not elaborate as to how he came by it though). Inside was a set of old crafting and forging tools, something she taken from the body of an Assassin Guilder who tried to put a bullet through her skull last year (and failed). The bullet, forged from the broken remains of Oliver Wood’s broom (shattered during the rogue bludger incident) gave her an idea. At night, while Potter slept (with the “help” of a sleeping draught “accidentially” left by Snape in her care) she forged the remains of her old Nimbus 2001 into long range “SpellAirius” spell breaker ammo, loading them into the “bottomless” clip of an old Glock she had from the old times (the spell scrawling on it maintaining it’s indestrucible status glowing red in the magic rich environment of Hogwarts).
She knew she was being a tad paranoid, turning her old broom into ammo, but it kept her hands busy and idle hands were only going to get her into masturbating (and thinking about Hermione) if she wasn’t careful. She didn’t share the same sentiment about it as Harry did his broom, which did seem to bother him abit but not to the point of confronting her about the way she handled her broom’s remains. “Next he’d probably expect me to give it a proper burial and last rites.” she muttered as she turned over another handful of SpellAirius shells for the gun.
She could only work at night, though, since the daytime was occupied by a constant stream of visitors and a wide awake Harry. All of these visitors had two objectives in mind : one was to cheer Harry up, the other to cheer Alicia up (one way or another).
Hagrid sent both of them a bunch of earwiggy flowers that looked like yellow cabbages, (“Not yellow cabbages.” Alicia noted with disdain, half a flower sticking out of her mouth “Maybe I need to flour, panko and fry these to make them taste better… roll in a hotdog or some other meat while I‘m at it… use a beer batter… be half drunk when I eat the next flower… something.”).
Ginny Weasley, bright red from her excessive girlhood crush on Harry blushing, turned up with a get well card she had made herself which sang shrilly… but before Harry could stick it under a fruit bowl to silence it Alicia took it straight away and (for once) used her wand to change it. One tap and the words “Accentuate, deliverate, pronounciate, sing” made the card sing well. She put the card next to Harry and said “Young ladies grow up into beautiful women, and beautiful women sing the most lovely songs.”
(She then smacked Harry on the head and said “ingrate” before lying down again).
Gryffindor team visited on Sunday morning, this time bringing the now mostly recovered Oliver Wood with them (who did more than hide in the shadows of the doorway delivering product information on Nimbus brooms). Wood, speaking in a rather hollow dead voice, said he didn’t blame Harry in the slightest. “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence there.” Alicia muttered, catching a shellshocked sad look from Wood as he turned realizing she was listening. “Shake it off. I’m just kidding you.”
Ron and Hermione only left the duos bedsides at night, which again made it near impossible to forge the SpellAirius ammo in anything but nighttime conditions. Harry, for the most part, was walking wounded as nothing anyone could say could shake him out of his suckitude that he was in. Alicia gritted her teeth everytime she thought of him, and wondered just what happened to him with the Dementors to make him such a basketcase now all of a sudden. It didn’t matter to her, though, since she had her own troubles.
Blitzkrieg was upping his attacks. Once content to sit quietly for an opportunity it was now cranking out more and more drones at a steadily increasing pace. Soon attacks may become almost daily occurances as he becomes embolden by repeated progress in his attacks (this attack landing Alicia once again back in the infirmary). Then there was the matter of Black and his obsession with Potter, though she felt Black would most likely stick to that fascination and not include her in his plans… yet.
Finally there was the Dementors, who were steadily becoming harder and harder to control. After the incident on the field they had snapped back into full obedience mode, but once their “hunger” returned it would be only a matter of time before they became uncontrollable again. She had already contacted Azkaban about rotating the Dementors on a more frequent basis, pulling the most “weakened” back to replenish before sending full “controllable” ones out again, but according to them they were doing the best they could under the circumstance to rotate them as often as possible… not good enough, but there was a hint that there would be more attempts to keep the rotations going at a quicker pace to keep this from happening again.
All in all this was setting up to be one entirely lousy year.
Which could only get worst once she went back to schoollife and her first day back at Lupin’s class (with Lupin).
* * * * * *
Returning to the main hustle and bustle of schoolife was a relief to Potter, but not so for Alicia as she knew she’d have to face Lupin later that day after her “coup” of the class with Snape days earlier. Malfoy, however, was at least easier to handle than Lupin in her opinion. She got out early that morning and used that time to make an appearance to Malfoy in front of the painting to Slytherin (guarded by a rather nasty looking image of a “gentleman” who seemed as nasty as the students he was “guarding”). As he walked up to her, insult in mouth, she simply held up a little brown envelope and said “The most amazing things some can find in people’s heads when they’re at the controls.”
Malfoy, at first dumbstruck, turned red quickly as he snapped the envelope away and looked at it with first anger then resentment. “Keep those if you wish, I’ll just make more.” she said as she turned, walking away without another word.
After that Malfoy took off the bandages and contented himself with occasionally tormenting Potter, but steered clear of Alicia from that point forward.
“One less git in my life.” she muttered, working her potion with the usual flair as she tried not to make this one explode like one from five weeks earlier.
It didn’t take much to silence him, in fact it almost hurt her to do it.
Before she went to see Malfoy she stopped, and opened the envelope to glance at the photos. “Is there any real affection in this, or is it just the acts of disturbing individuals.”
“To attribute affection to one like Malfoy seemingly would take an act of the almighty, and yet I can assure you…” (tapping moving image of Malfoy and his mother making love) “…this is nothing but pure affection and love. I dare say if father snearest was out of the way she’d so bond with him as only a wife could… Oh, and don’t get that sick in the face look because she’s technically NOT his mother… kinda…”
“Say what…” Alicia muttered, “Is she mommy or not?”
Jack shrugged as he allowed his holoimage to fade away from behind her, “Kinda.”
She decided to leave it at that and not try to figure out the mating habits of evil people.
* * * * * *
“If Snape’s teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts again, I’m skiving off.” Ron said as they headed towards Lupin’s classroom after lunch. He motioned towards Alicia and said “You’re pals with him, why don’t you stick your head in since he won’t snap it off or anything.”
Alicia groaned, but did just that as she peeked into the classroom. “Oh bother.”
“What?!” Ron hissed, “Is it…”
“Lupin.” Alicia noted, opening the door wide to show it was indeed Lupin in the class. Ron cuffed Alicia as he passed, mumbling “Don’t do that!” as he did. Professor Lupin, as she knew it had to be, was back to work. It certainly did look, however, as though he had been ill. His old robes were hanging even more loosely on him than before, and there were dark shadows beneath his eyes. Nevertheless, he smiled that same disturbingly chipper smile as the class filed in and took their seats. This quiet was short lived as the class immediately set to voicing their objection to Snape’s class the moment they sat down.
“It’s not fair, he was only filling in, why should he give us homework?”
“We don’t know anything about werewolves…”
(‘Still?!?’ Alicia thought to herself, wondering why they even bothered talking about it if all that valuable information slipped right out of their brains over the weekend).
“…two rolls of parchment!”
Lupin, frowning slightly, asked the obvious question. “Did you tell Professor Snape we haven’t covered werewolves yet?”
The wave of babble broke over the “wall” once again, like a tsunami wave.
“Yes, but he said we were really behind…”
(‘And being a bunch of behinds.’ Alicia thought.)
“--- he wouldn’t listen ---”
“--- two rolls of parchment!”
Professor Lupin absorbed all the complaints even handedly, and smiled at the looks of indignation from all the complaining students. “Don’t worry. I’ll speak to Professor Snape. You don’t have to do the essay.”
“Oh, no!” Hermione choked out, “I already finished it!”
The rest of the class interested everyone except Alicia, who tried to block it out of her mind… especially at the point where the hinkypunk tried to balance it’s light while bouncing on a basketball that somehow ended up in it’s possession in front of Alicia.
“I hate my life.” she muttered absently as it fell over, the ball flying ghostly through the enclosed glass box and knocking Neville over.
* * * * * *
“How’s the “work” going?” Snape asked quietly, drawing Alicia into the quiet teacher’s staffroom.
“Done.” she noted, pulling the old Glock out of a hidden tesseract pouch in her robes (recently added in a previous “stay” in the infirmary). “Got enough ammo to last the rest of my stay here I dare say.” (clicks the gun once, checks her sights, then locks it back into safety mode and puts it away again) “The Dementors sway back and forth from obedient to out of control the longer they’re not fed. If only the Azkaban people would rotate them more this wouldn’t happen…” (sighs) “…how angry was Dumbledore that day?”
“I can’t ever say I saw Dumbledore as angry as he was that day.” Snape remarked coldly, “The Dementors apparently weren’t the only ones who were past due for an outburst.”
“So I see…” Alicia muttered, her hand involntarily reaching up to touch her arm that had been damaged time and time again recently, “…Dementors.”
Just then inspiration hit. She quickly dived into another pocket and fished out a few tesseract gems, going through each one (holding it up to the light to check it’s “content” before emptying one of a small pocket book, holding up said book to show Snape). “Let’s ask the Book of Knowledge about it.”
“The book of what?” Snape asked, expression changing from cold to curious as he followed Alicia to the chairs. Quickly she sat, plopped the book on the table, and said in a clear voice “I need a reference check on Dementors as they relate to this present reality that we are in.”
Silence. The book did not move. For the longest time it sat there, and Alicia (dumbfounded) muttered “Maybe it’s broken.” before the book snapped open, flipped page onto page until it came to an entry entitled “The Tormented, a Dimensional Crossreference” and began to “read” in Alicia’s own voice.
“Dementors are a misgiven slang to refer to halflife human souls known as The Tormented. The Tormented are humans who are neither alive nor dead fully, stuck between realities in a half life. Often humans of a low class status these tormented souls hide in the dark filthy places that they dwelled in life, craving only to absorb the happiness and love from the living they were denied in life. Normal humans (aka “Muggles” in realm talk) are not affected nor hunted by Tormented for they remember in shards being “Muggles” once themselves, they prefer to target the “mystical” community as they see them as an “elitist” species that caused their suffering in life (be this fact or dementia caused by transition into Tormented form is not yet clear at the time of this reading).
Though they will not affect “Muggles”, they can sense the presence of the Tormented, in essence still having an ethereal connection to their “fellow” man even if they did not share that “connection” with them in life. If a Tormented feeds on a humanoid long enough said being will be dragged into a living hellish state similar to the Tormented themselves, hollow of bright feeling yet craving said feeling from others to the point of becoming violent towards said individuals exhibiting traits they yearn for (happiness, love, etc).
Cross Refernce “Dementor’s Kiss” for more info.”
Snape made a sudden motion with his arm shutting the book as it wrapped up. “That is abit to absorb.”
“You don’t say.” she muttered, snapping the book up and putting it away. “I wonder if Dumbledore would feel the same about these so-called “Dementors” if he knew the truth?”
Snape - “Hard to say.”
Alicia reaches out to take the book, but stops. Instead she draws it closer to her and says “I need a reference check on a place called Azkaban, located in this present reality.”
Quicker, the book flipped open and fluttered for abit before settling down, on the page was the words “Azkaban the Water Prison”
“The Fortress Prison Azkaban is located on an artifically created island in an undisclosed location. The island is in a constant state of dimensional flux, dimensionally slipping from location to location at the rising of the sun. This keeps it’s present location a secret though a few entities have been able to locate the prison without the aid of the Ministry of Magic’s Shards of Suffering (mystical devices made solely for the purposes of tracking the last remaining Fortress Prison in exsistence).
Prisoners are locked away in this antiseptic environment and watched over by the Tormented (Dementors) who serve the dual purpose of keeping the populace docile while inflicting torturous conditions upon them metting out “justice” onto the wicked.
WARNING! Azkaban Prison is presently under a review by the Goddess Council for gross breeches of humanoid rights violations. The Prison’s case is presently being supervised by The Goddess of Sorrow, who is expected to turn in her report on the prison in two year cycles (as of this reading) once a complete 10 year cycle evaluation is done to insure all data and info have been processed and gathered.
Originally one of a quartet of prisons, it is the only one in active use.
Would you like to cross reference the fates of the other three prisons?”
The two exchanged glances warily, “I didn’t know there were three other prisons.” Snape said cautiously. “May I?”
Alicia motioned towards the book, “The book holds no restrictions on who accesses it’s information.”
In a clear tone, Snape says “Cross reference the three other prisons, their purpose and the reasons behind their closure.”
“Crossreferencing…”
The pages suddenly fluttered to life, shifting to another entry.
“Cross Reference to Schadazaar, the Fire Prison.”
“Originally erected as a prison for dark wizards of the Middle East and Asia, the prison became infamous for it’s mistreatment of women prisoners (magical and non) in both violent and sexual means. The prison was thus destroyed by the Winterian Alliance in 1350 in a multi-lateral magical community/non-magical community assault which brought forth prison time in the recently built Azkaban Prison for the warden and jailers of the Schadazaar Prison (those who were not killed outright by the Winterians or deported transdimensionally to Winterian PrisonStars. (See Winteria, Culture of Women for more information)).”
The pages flipped again, a new entry coming to light.
“Cross Reference to Drumstragg, the Dark Winds Prison”
“Originally erected as a prison for BloodWizards, the followers of a dark cult that worshipped the serpent god Set (crossreference Ancient God Deities, Set and the Blood Wizards of Set) the prison fell out of use when the cult of Set fell out of favor and became a dead religion. Presently used as a school for dark wizards, the school’s dark heritage is not completely known or understood by it’s staff though a few may still be carrying on the practices of the BloodWizards to this day (if only in symbolic mannerism).”
One more time the pages flipped again, a new entry coming to light.
“Cross Reference to Hades, the Underworld Prison”
Originally erected as a prison for Distruptors, wizards who openly broke the Seperation Act Between Muggles and Magicals, the prison was the setting of a prison riot called the Human Riot where the imprisoned fought to overthrow their wardens in an attempt to, in the words of the riot leader “win back their humanity” only to be killed in the uprising. Sickened by the sad brutal events of the horrible uprising the prison was exposed to the light of day, and the underground cavern flooded with water turning it into a lake. Presently it is a dwelling of merpeople and located near the present location of…”
“Hogwarts.“ Snape snapped the book closed. “That explains the more than usual excess of ghosts that surround the area. This used to be a prison area.”
“And if you think that’s something…” Alicia says as she retrieves the book, “Imagine what you’ll learn tomorrow. Speaking of which…” (motioning to Snape) “…I know why you called me in here. You want to check on the little “gift” we’re storing down below. So if you’ll follow me we’ll get to it.”
* * * * * *
November rolled on, and the first good news in terms of Quidditch began to roll in.
Ravenclaw annihilated Hufflepuff in their Quidditch match at the end of November, once again opening the door for Gryffindor to possibly take the Quidditch Cup for the year. Everyone’s mood lifted when they saw the gleam of chance to win the cup, and Wood quickly took that as a sign to work the team harder in practice to get their game just right for their eventual match against Ravenclaw. After all this was a chance, but it was also a last chance as failure this time would be a permament failure and no third chance would rise again. This maniac pace of training rolled out of November and right into December, this time Dementor free as they kept their distance after Dumbledore’s rage against them.
Two weeks before the end of term the sky began to lighten, and the weather started to turn around. Inside most of the castle there was an air of Christmas, most of the castle except the Chamber of Secrets which had been reopened and reconfigured for use. Compliments of Lazarus a huge complex of machines and magic synched technology was set into the Chamber, the remains of the Bassilisk removed from the water source and replaced with a water to energy conversion fusion generator to power the machines. The focus of attention in the room was the decapitated head of the Galerian assassin guilder, many wires and attachments sticking out of it as the machiens labored day and night to hack it’s internal core memory and dig out as much useable information from it as possible.
As expected this was slow going, especially since this was only a secondary lift since the prime core was in the guts of the Galerian drone (destroyed in the explosion). But still, any information no matter how small was better than nothing. Alicia would drop in a few days a week to check on progress, waiting for the download to finish… but it was slow, and days passed with no progress.
As if to further depress her, students began to happily discuss their plans for the holidays. Since she really had no home except for Hogwarts she had no plans for the holidays. She would only travel back to Diagon Alley on the first day of holiday to go christmas shopping, as well as to buy a replacement broom, and then return to spend the rest of her holiday at Hogwarts. One bright spot of this plan was Ron and Hermione, both of whom had said they were going to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays. They had their reasons, sure, but she knew they were only staying for herself and Harry (which she felt was sweet of them, especially since it looked like this would be her best chance to make a move on Hermione).
To everyone’s delight, except Harry’s and Alicia’s of course, talk of a new trip to Hogsmeade began to dominate conversations. “We can do all our Christmas shopping there!” Hermione said cheerfully, “Mum and Dad would really love those Toothflossing Stringmints from Honeydukes!”
“Giving sweet floss to a pair of dentists?” Alicia said from her corner of the common room, “Is that legal?”
Resigned this time to her fate, Alicia decided to busy herself reading over the catalog sent to her from the shoppe over in Diagon Alley where she was going to buy her new broom. They had several models that each caught her attention for one reason or another, and she was weighting the choices before the trip.
Quidditch Practice was not particularly harsh for her, as she had found an older broom put into her locker with a note that said “Loaner” on it, which was an old style HellFire broom that actually ran well. Sleek, dark, and well maintained for a broom that old, Alicia wondered if it was Snape’s considering it was meticulously maintained and he seemed the type. Still she couldn’t keep that broom for long, and wanted only to get her own broom again even if she was abit confused as to what broom she should be getting..
Taking her catalog with her, Alicia set off to the Chamber of Secrets after seeing Ron and Hermione off to Hogsmeade. (“I’ll get you alone soon enough.” she whispered to herself as she walked down the newly installed hidden stairs placed in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom). There she sat down at one of the command chairs to flip through the catalog, only for the computer to go off thirty seconds later.
“DOWNLOAD COMPLETE. FILES READY.”
“Oh NOW you’re ready.” she muttered, putting the catalog aside as she reaches for the keyboard, “This had better have been worth it.”
As she taps into the system she flips through file after file, each one a disappointing visual log of it’s short life and nothing else. One, logged 10/31, caught her eye. Nervously she waved the cursor over the entry as if she was afraid the system would self destruct if she clicked it, finally clicking the entry and leaning forward to watch. As the images came on she watched it carefully… scenes scrolling forward… until at last she saw something and stopped it. For the most part the visuals were unimpressive, mostly of the Galerian being outside or sneaking about, but then suddenly it pulled something out into it’s sight (a datapad) and tapped it… said something and watched as a complex mapping system (on virtual parchment) rolled out before it and showed it a path into the castle. It tapped the pad again with the stylus, said something else, and the images vanished. Quickly Alicia checked the rest of the footage, now more interested in knowing what it knew about her “situation” that night than what she just saw. However this only yielded one thing, which made no sense… an image of a hunched thing scurrying along the moving staircases away from the area where Gryffindor’s area was. “Is that it?” she muttered, looking at the image oddly. “Computer, can you figure out what this image is?” (taps the dark image) “Clear up the darkness and show me what this is?”
“IT’LL TAKE SEVERAL DAYS TO DO THIS. DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE?”
“Yeah, why not…” she muttered, “Not like I have anything else to do… but now…” (pulls out a datapad and then scans through the files until she finds… “Marauder’s Map File.”
It takes a few seconds but it loads down onto the pad. As the pad comes to life the image of a blank parchment page comes on, and then nothing. The only thing on the page other than the parchment was a “voice” icon, with the datapad’s vocal device flashing waiting for input. Perplexed, Alicia sat there and stared at this for several seconds until inspiration hit. She quickly replayed the scene with the pad and listened, playing it over and over again until she was sure she got it right, finally lifting the pad’s stylus and tapping it down on the icon as she repeated the words from the datafile. “I solemly swear that I am up to no good.”
At once virtual ink lines began to spread like a spider’s web on the screen, they joined and wove about crisscrossing until a message was formed.
Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.
Purveyors of Aide to Magical Mischief Makers of a New Generation
Are proud to present…
The Marauder’s Map Version 2.0
It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. Marking the location of every person in the castle, as well as every ghosts and entity within the walls.
“Dumbledore is pacing in his study, Mrs. Norris is on the second floor, Peeves is in the trophy room, Harry is here… what the…” (taps passages) “…this is how Blitzkrieg is getting in and out! These passages! But where…” (suddenly the map changes with the legend “To Hogsmeade” on each passage.) “…you gotta be kidding me.”
New icons, not the same as the one the map used, suddenly appeared. Alicia tapped one.
“ENTRANCE BLOCKED BY DEBRIS. UNUSABLE.”
‘This must be notes by Blitzkrieg.’ Alicia thought, tapping another noteicon.
“PASSAGE PATROLLED BY TOO MANY HUMANS. UNUSABLE.”
On the third tap the right message came up.
“OPEN PATH. ENTRANCE LOCATED IN BASEMENT OF HONEYDUKES.
Magical Entry required from Hogwarts side, use Whomping Willow path to Shrieking Shack for extraction. Magical means to enter as follows…”
Alicia’s facial expression changes as she reads on, a confused expression morphing into a devious grin. “Oh come on, you know I gotta use this.” she whispered to herself…”And I better hurry before I start talking to myself out of bore--” (sighs) “…damn.”
* * * * * *
‘Now what.’ Alicia thought to herself, finding herself standing in front of the statue in question only confused as to what she should do next. Pulling out the datapad she glanced at it looking for info., only to notice to her shock that a new image had appeared upon it, labeled with her true name. Quickly covering the screen, eyes glancing about madly, she began to worry about the “product” in her hands.
“Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can’t see where it keeps it’s brain.”
Words that were oh so clear now from the esteemed Mr. Weasley, and right now it made a whole lot of sense to Alicia at that moment. Carefully glancing back at the datapad she noticed herself standing where she was, tapping the witch with her little itsy bitsy wand with the words “Dissendium” appearing in a voice bubble next to little “Alicia”. Pulling out her own wand she tapped the wand and whispered “Dissendium”, at once the statue’s hump opened wide enough to admit a fairly thin person through. Alicia squeezed herself through, muttering “Must be the Super Model entrance to Hogsmeade…” as she did so. As she hit the ground glancing about the dark corridor (uselessly), she tucked the datapad out of sight into one of her robe pouches (sewn into the material) as she holds her wand up whispering “Lumos!”
She was in a very narrow, low ceiling, earthy passageway. It went on for awhile, which made sense since it was no doubt abit of a walk from Hogswart to Hogsmeade. Retrieving the datapad from her robe pouch she stares at it… and stares… only to realize she didn’t know how to shut it off. Suddenly a small notation appeared on the bottom of the screen, as if the map was reading her mind (which wasn’t making her feel any better about holding the thing).
“To Close, Tap Voice Icon and Say “Mischief Managed”.”
“Mischief Managed.” she said with authority, watching the map clear as she did so. Putting it back into her pouch once again she began to walk down the corridor, carefully observing the corridor for “Dead Man’s Hands” (packs of C4 left for the curious and unwary) as she walked. The passage twisted and turned, more like the burrow of a giant wyrmbeast than a manmade tunnel (no doubt done to avoid underground building support pillars and people’s stone basement slash storage areas). Alicia continued her pace, stumbling now and again on the uneven floor as she moved, her wand held out in front of her as she let her visor (pulled from a different tesseract pouch she was storing it) scanned for traps.
It seemingly took ages but finally she reached the basement, an hour seemingly passing as she finally reached the rising towards the entrance to the Honeydukes’ cellar. She sped up her pace, her nerves itching to get through out of the passage and into Hogsmeade. It took another 10 minutes before she came to the foot of some worn stone steps, which rose out of sight above her. Deciding to forego the stealth technique she quickly bent down, kicking off upwards and using a small amount of energy to levitate upwards (instead of risking drawing attention to herself with her footfalls on the stone steps), which made it quick for her to reach the top which was a solid trapdoor. Gently testing it to make sure it wasn’t blocked, she set herself down on the staircase and pushed the trapdoor open so she could peek.
As promised this was the cellar of Honeydukes, filled with wooden crates and boxes labeled with the contents of what a well stocked sweets shop should hold. Alicia rolled clear of the trapdoor, using her power to lightly bring it down soundlessly (noticing it blended perfectly with the floor so that you’d have to have had actually climbed out of it to even know it was there in the first place). She quickly moved to the door, using another boost of power to make her robes shift into something more civilian in appearance so that she didn’t stick out (suddenly she stopped, shrugged, then pulled a short red headed wig and glasses from yet another tesseract pouch putting it on) (’Didn‘t get to wear it for Halloween so now is as good a time as any.’), then she quietly slipped into the crowd outside the door and completely blended in.
The place was so busy you could have easily walked off with half the stock from the storage room without anyone noticing, the whole place buzzed with business as all the students of Hogwarts were seemingly attempting to jam themselves into this one shop at once from the endless amount of student surrounding her. Quietly slipping to the back of the crowd (which was more concerned with getting towards the wares than who was moving out of their way) she took a quick look about the room before exiting, noticing a few of her classmates but no Hermione or Ron. Oh well, she mused silently, they’ll be somewhere in town so it shouldn’t be too hard to find them. Deciding to come back later for a few purchases (on her way out) she left the store and began wandering the streets of Hogsmeade.
To Be Continued
Saturday, July 12, 2008
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