The Search
CHAPTER 16: The Search
Hermione walked through the empty hallways, her shoes clicking on the stone floor. She was wearing casual clothes and was preparing to go to the Library to return a tome she borrowed before. The sun shone bright as a new day came, uniting her House could take a lot of work but she believed that she could do it.
Suddenly, she stopped from her walk to look up at the ceiling of the hallway, only to see a familiar vampire seemingly taking a nap. Theodore Nott sat in one of the beams, his foot crossed with each other and his one hand hanging and the other was placed on his stomach as a book was rested on his face, balanced.
“Don’t you have anywhere better to sleep in, Nott?” Hermione voiced out, knowing that the vampire heard her loud and clear. The hand that was hanging suddenly picked up the book from his face as drowsy eyes awoke. Soon, they found Hermione’s brown eyes and the vampire gave a small lazy smile. Hermione’s eyebrow rose at this, not knowing what made the vampire so amused.
Theo looked down at Hermione as he answered. “I like it here.” He then sat up properly before jumping down, his robes billowing after him as he fell right in front of the witch. Hermione did not flinch at this, which made Theo grin even more.
“Apologies, if I ever did woke you up,” Hermione began.
Theo merely yawned as he stretched. He shook his head. “It’s perfect actually. I was supposed to meet Marius and the others at Hufflepuff…” He then took out his pocket watch only to have his eyes widening and he replied. “…10 minutes ago.” He released a sigh as he tucked the book under his arm. He was about to run to Hufflepuff dorm when Hermione’s question stopped him from his tracks.
“What do you want from me?”
Theo’s head easily snapped to Hermione’s direction. His eyes were sharp and he looked as if his mind was ignited as he watched Hermione. She did not back down and waited for the vampire to speak.
“Well, I suppose I should let you in now since we do need your help. Follow me, Granger.”
Hermione was confused at this but followed the vampire anyway. They arrived at the Hufflepuff Common Room and as soon as Hermione went inside, her eyes widened at the scene she saw. Harry was there, sitting on the couch, clearly glaring at the one who sat in front of him. Next to him, sat an annoyed looking Ron. When Hermione looked at who was across the two, she saw that Lestrange was there. Beside him was the human enigma.
Zabini sat at one of the love seats along with Neville Longbottom who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there. Meanwhile, Parkinson leaned on one of the passages that seem to lead to the quarters, boring holes at the back of Ron’s head which the werewolf seemed to ignore.
“You have got to be kidding me. Granger?” Orion began as he seemed to have smelt her scent as soon as she entered the room, making everyone look at them at the doorway.
“She owes me. Besides, having the Leader of the Ravens by our side makes the plan attainable, don’t you think?”
Marius’ eyes glazed over at Hermione and she knew she was being assessed. Then, a small smile appeared on the human’s face. He then stood up and offered Hermione a seat.
Hermione decided to seat herself beside Ron which made Parkinson’s eye twitched a bit. The female vampire then began to move. She sat right next to Marius, crossing her legs along with her hands as she leaned on the back of the couch.
“Nott, care to explain?” Hermione began as the vampire took a seat at one of the chairs, making himself comfortable.
“This concerns the matter that you owe me.”
The vampire then began to talk about their plan along with Marius telling them about the Potion, the Chamber, and the Grimoire. Harry did not seem fazed by this. He had heard everything from Marius already, so he just sat there, arms crossed and holding a staring competition with Lestrange. It was soon broken when Ron’s voice brought him back.
“You agreed to this Harry?” the werewolf asked and Harry nodded.
“Yes.”
Of course Ron was shocked. His eyes darted back and forth from Marius to his alpha. He sighed. He could understand why they had to do it; they could gain a lot from this plan and lose nothing at all.
“Then you have my support, Harry.”
Harry looked a bit taken aback, expecting Ron to protest. Ron seemed to have understood this and so he began to explain. “Look, I can understand him a bit. His mate, his life, and the Headmaster's life are on the line. Besides if he were to try to kill the Headmaster for real, we have the highest possibility that we can stop him before he could execute it. So, it’s like killing two birds with one stone because whether we agree or not, we still gained something from it.”
Almost all eyes widened except for Marius’ as they heard how Ron explained it.
Pansy began to release a cackle and she teased. “Ha! Never expected that.” She grinned at Ron whose eyes widened before he looked away, a tinge of red gracing his ears.
“Oh, Pans. I think you just made him blush!” Blaise began to tease as well.
Ron began to retort at him with no malice at all. “Shut it Zabini!”
A smile graced Marius’ lips as he watched, eyes filled with something that Harry could not understand the longer he stared at the blonde. But then his eyes darted at Lestrange when he realized the vampire was full on glaring at him at the moment. He glared back.
“What about you Granger?” Theo asked and now all eyes were on her. Her hands were folded on her lap as she was looking down, clearly in deep thought.
“I will take the risk as well. I would rather we succeed in this plan than to have the Headmaster dying because if he does…" She looked at Harry.
His expression was solemn. “Gryffindor Lands would be a war zone.”
Hermione nodded and Ron’s fists tightened. They knew what would happen. The war would fall upon Gryffindor Lands once again, but this time they would hunt down two heads—James and Lily Potter’s heads.
“Draco Black will prevent that from happening.”
Harry’s words froze the whole room and immediately Orion’s head snapped towards Marius. His eyes met his cousin’s and a small smile was given to him. An assurance. Orion looked away, hiding his panic as he heard those words.
“You found him, Harry?” Ron said, hope igniting his very veins and a smile was plastered on his face as Harry then regarded Marius.
“He and Marius knew each other.”
With that, Ron’s eyes widened. His eyes darted to the human who just gave him a sheepish smile. “Bollocks! We have been searching for quite some time and the only way to find him was right in front of us?” Ron stood up and as he did, he felt faint at the bundle of information suddenly flowing to his brain that he fell to the couch dramatically.
"Though you can't share that information with anyone else outside this room,” Marius said.
Ron sat up again and answered. “Why? We have to inform our Pack about this. They have the right to know.”
Pansy butted in before Marius or Orion could even speak. “And let the whole world know that Marius is the key to finding Draco?” Pansy said as she was staring at her fingernails. Her eyes then darted to Ron who seemed to look at her with narrowed eyes.
“You have to understand. If your pack stops in the search for Draco, the Dark Lord’s followers would be suspicious.” Theo began and Blaise finished what he was about to say.
“He would be tortured for information.”
At that. Harry's blood ran cold. He looked towards Marius who stared down as if in deep thought.
Hermione closed her eyes before nodding in understanding. “We cannot allow them to find Draco before we do. Because if they do, Draco Black will be instantly killed and the Blood Ward of Gryffindor Lands will fall.”
They all knew the danger and they all remained silent as if processing the knowledge they had just learned. Harry’s eyes kept on looking at Marius, but the human kept on staring down at his lap, watching his knotted hands.
“How do we find the Chamber anyway?” Harry said some time after that.
Ron nodded his head as if saying he wondered about the same thing.
All eyes looked to Marius and the human replied. “You know Narcissa’s scent, right?”
With that, the two Werewolves understood and Hermione put up her own suggestion. “I will do my own research as well and try to track it through magic. However, the problem is how do we open it?” Gray eyes met hers and an assurance in those eyes made Hermione think that they could do it.
“Only those of Black blood and those that the Chamber deems worthy.”
Hermione gasped at this.
“A trial for those not of Black blood.”
Marius nodded. Hermione was then scouring her thoughts for any information about the Chamber.
Theo came from behind them to place a huge map of the Castle on the coffee table and it showed some red x marks on it, showing where they have tried to search for the Chamber.
“And that is how far we have been into.”
Everyone began talking about possibilities. On the side, seeing them all getting along even for a moment brought a small smile to Marius’ lips. Meanwhile, Harry could not keep his eyes off Marius. It was a good thing Lestrange’s glare had gone when he talked to the others about his own search.
Suddenly, Marius looked up, a smile on his face. He caught Harry's gaze. There were sparks in his gray eyes that Harry could not seem to decipher. The longer they stared at each other, Harry found his heart began to beat erratically.
With great force, he tore his eyes away. “Then shall we begin the search?” he said in an attempt at keeping his mind off Marius. Everyone in the room seemed to brighten up as they all shouted their chorused ‘Yes’.
Hermione watched the human who seemed happy. His eyes had that glints in the light and Hermione now understood why the vampires around him were all very closely attached to him. The way that he could tackle any kind of obstacles in his way, not choosing any of the given choices but instead making his own answer to the problem—Hermione found that she respected the human.
“Wait. Before we begin all this search thingy, I have to ask.”
All eyes then were directed to Ron as he stood up, his features looking serious.
“Go on. Ron,” Hermione said and they all waited with baited breath on what the red-head was about to say.
“Why is Neville so touchy-touchy with Zabini?”
The vampires were all groaned, thinking that it was something overly important. Blaise grinned though as he placed his arms around Neville’s shoulders, making the werewolf blush hard.
“Now you get it?” said Hermione, rolling her eyes. She had already known as soon as she noticed the vampire and the werewolf were close in a different way that one would notice to be mates.
“Seriously, mate. I thought there was another huge problem, that was all?” Harry huffed but then Neville’s voice made Harry’s eyes snap to him.
“You’re not mad at me for being mates with a Vampire?” His eyes were wide and unbelieving but all Harry did be gave a small smile as he shook his head.
“Mates are the life-blood of our lives itself. It is what we search for in our whole lives,” Harry said this sincerely not knowing unconsciously that a certain human suddenly stiffened at this. The word rang in his head as he stared at the werewolf wide-eyed before he masked it away with indifference.
Neville smiled at the acceptance and Blaise side-hugged him with all the affection he could give out at that moment.
“You’re right, Potter. Don’t you think so, Weasley?” Pansy said as she smirked. She wallowed in a win as Ron swallowed and looked away, blushing yet again. Then Marius saw the way Harry looked at Blaise and Neville and he could see the longing he had—he longs for his mate.
Marius felt as if he does not belong in that room suddenly. It was becoming cramped for him and he wanted to go to the Astronomy Tower once again to breathe. He felt like this was the world telling him that, there are just some things in this world that one could want but never have. His fists clenched as he looked away from Harry. The only ones who seemed to have noticed this was Hermione and Orion who were observant. Hermione met Orion’s eyes for a second and Hermione nodded as she then began to stand up.
“Well, shall we begin the search, then? I will have to go to the Library to scour for more information,” she addressed them all and Marius wanting to get out, stood up as well.
“I’ll go with.”
Hearing that, Harry wanted to join them to spend more time with Marius. Before he could say anything, Orion’s voice stopped him in his tracks.
“Then Potter and I will begin our search too. Theo, you go with Marius.” Harry’s eyes went wide as he looked at Orion and the other just stared back with a glare. Orion continued talking, not taking off his glare at the werewolf. “Blaise and Weasley. Pansy and Longbottom.”
There were a few grunts of disapproval but as soon as Hermione spoke, everything became final. “Well, now that is settled, let’s go Marius, Nott.”
Theo, Hermione, and Marius walked away, not sparing any glance. Harry’s eyes followed Marius back until the door was now closed.
Blaise whistled. “Wow, since when?” he said to no one but himself and Harry’s head snapped to his direction. The vampire just gave him a grin before he spoke again. “Careful there, Potter. That is our Marius.”
Harry was about to protest that Marius did not belong to anyone but Pansy did not even allow him. “We leave you to Orion’s hands. Or claws.” She laughed as she walked out, followed by a nervous looking Neville. They were followed by Blaise and Ron who gave him a pat on the shoulder as if bidding him good luck. Harry looked back to see the glaring face of Orion.
“Let’s go, Potter.”
…..
Inside the Library of Hogwarts, in a certain table, a bizarre sigh met all those who went there. Sitting there were a human, a witch, and a vampire, who all seemed to be so taken in reading books that most of their table was filled with it.
“What a bunch of nerds.” A nearby vampire muttered under his breath as he picked up a book and left the Library. But his comment was left ignored as the three concentrated in their reading. A few moments later, Hermione stood up abruptly in her seat and pushed the book towards her two companions.
“I found one.”
Marius and Theo read the short passage on it.
Theo’s eyebrows scrunched up at that. “But this doesn’t mean anything,” he said.
Hermione pointed out an empty space in the book’s leaves, releasing a bit of magic and then an ink suddenly appeared on it, showing a beautifully written script.
The Raven’s Nest = the Owlery
Her two companions’ eyes widened. As soon as Hermione removed her finger, the ink was then gone once again.
“How?” Theo asked.
Marius was the one who answered. “Magic script. I saw Narcissa use this in one of her letters. It can only be seen when embedded with a sufficient amount of magic.”
Hermione nodded and Theo grinned. “It seems that you are right, Marius. The Chamber does exist and we were not the first ones who tried to seek it.”
Marius smiled. His fingers unconsciously tracing the blank space. “We have to tell this to the others.”
Hermione nodded and Theo stood up, ready to leave, only to see the number of books they had to return.
“Go. I will handle this.” Marius said, but Hermione shook her head.
“There are a lot of books, Marius. I will help you. We’ll all meet up at Hufflepuff. I’m sure Theo could easily handle the rest.”
Theo gave a grin and nodded before he left the room. This made Marius curious as to why the witch would want to spend time with him, but he waited until the witch would ask as he began to carry books back to their original bookshelves.
“Why are you really doing this Marius?” Hermione began as they were in a set of bookshelves and alone.
“Doing what?” he asked, acting like he didn’t already know what she meant.
The witch huffed a sigh in annoyance. “Don’t play stupid with me, Marius. You’re too clever for that.”
Marius gave her a small smile. “Well, I don’t really know why, but when I was thinking about what would happen, I felt the need to do something, anything to stop what is to come,” he reasoned out as he placed a book on the shelf.
“But you’re human,” Hermione said with no malice or anything at all. She was just merely curious and Marius understood that. He knew it would be utterly weird for a mere human to go to such lengths to save people who were not part of his race, who he did not even know—to help or save strangers.
“I know.” In Marius thoughts, it screamed, ‘I am so much more involved in all of this than you think. I know that someway somehow my existence is somewhat the reason for all of this.’ Then he continued. “But I just can’t help it. Even if it’s just a small help, I would do it to save just even one life.”
Hermione’s eyes widened as she stared at the human, full of respect. Most people would just turn their eyes away and yet, this human had already done so much.
She watched Marius who was plunged into their world, facing it alone, but she shook her head. ‘You are no longer alone, Marius. I will assure of that.’
……
“Smell anything yet, Weasley?” Ron grunted and glared at the smirking vampire as he looked back.
“I am not your goddamn blood hound.”
Blaise’s grin only widened more as he retorted. “Oh, yeah. You’re Pansy’s blood hound.” He laughed out loud when Ron’s face burst red, his freckles no longer to be seen.
“Will you stop, you bloody vampire!”
Blaise just placed his arms on Ron's shoulders as if they were best mates. “You know, you should just yield to her.”
“The hell are you talking about?” Ron growled out as he pushed Blaise away but the vampire just remained giddy.
Then, Blaise began to sing. “Ron and Pansy, sitting on a tree. K-I—“
He never got to finish because the wolf began to run after him. Blaise just jumped at the wall and walked on the ceiling, his robes were the only ones flailing as he laughed at Ron who was red as a tomato.
In another part of the castle, Pansy was walking with Neville who was following her ten steps behind. She was picking on her nails before she grew frustrated at the silence.
“Neville, darling. Walk beside me, will you?”
Neville just looked down shyly and did as he was told. But as soon as he was beside the vampire, she began to sniff at his neck, making him topple to the ground.
“Wha-wha-wa—” Neville said as he cradled his neck away from Pansy.
“That Blaise is taking things slow, huh?” she said, bored now as she pouted.
Neville then saw a flash of jealousy in the vampire’s eyes, probably because of his and Neville’s bond and her lack thereof with Ron. So, he decided to try to speak to her.
“Uhm… he wanted to do it after the war.”
Pansy’s eyes were now directed to the wolf and studied him. “You wanted otherwise.”
Neville blushed as he slowly nodded his head. Pansy then sat in front of him. Good thing the Hall was empty because most of the students were in Hogsmeade.
“I never pegged you as that kind of person, Neville.” The smug face of Pansy made Neville wanted to crawl into a hole and never go out. After that, though, her voice became serious and endearing. “I think I understand Blaise for doing that.”
“Huh?” Neville said as he then looked up to see a faint smile on Pansy’s face.
“He wants you to survive.” Neville was confused at that so he allowed Pansy to continue. “If he dies, you will have high chances of surviving and maybe finding another mate.”
The wolf’s eyes widened. The denial of her words was making him retort but before he could, Pansy continued. “I am jealous. He loves you so much that he is willing to let you go if it is for your happiness. War will soon fall upon us and no one knows what will happen, so he is trying to keep you safe in his own way.”
Neville bit his lip. “I would do anything for him too. He is mine and I could have never been happier.”
Pansy smiled, knowing that the werewolf understood. She ruffled his hair before standing up, offering her hand for the werewolf to take.
“Come on. If Theo were to find out that we are slacking, we will never hear the end of it.” She smiled and Neville took her hand as he stood up and seeing Pansy in a new light. He found a friend in her.
….
“Potter.”
Harry stopped in his tracks as soon as Lestrange called out to him. He was focusing on his senses while trying his best to remove the horrible scent of Lestrange. He tried to concentrate on the scent of Narcissa, but the git would not allow him to do so.
"What?" he said calmly and chanting ‘this is for Marius’ in his head.
“I want you to stay away from Marius.” Harry’s eyes found the Vampire’s right after the words came out of Lestrange’s mouth. He saw nothing but concern written in there so he arched his eyebrow at the vampire, only to have him huff out.
“He does not belong to you. He can be with who he ever damn wants,” Harry retorted.
Orion gritted his teeth. “You are right. He does not belong to anyone, especially you.”
Harry’s blood boiled and in that moment he just wanted to punch Lestrange where he stood. The only thing stopping him was the disappointed eyes of Marius when he knew. He opted to just growl and began walking away.
He was stopped again, though. This time by different words. “You have a mate Potter,” Lestrange’s blue eyes were full of warning, "and I'm sure as hell that if ever they appear, you will throw away Marius.”
“I won’t do that to him!” Harry replied with rage.
“Will you not, really?” Harry’s green eyes widened, anger fading away as the realization began to sink in him. “Would you be able to give up your mate for Marius?”
Harry froze, unable to come up with anything.
Lestrange waited for a beat before he moved and passed by him, whispering, “Just as I thought.”
As he began to walk away, Harry looked back at the retreating figure of Lestrange and shouted.
“I only wanted to be his friend. I don’t like him that way!”
‘Lies,’ his thoughts shouted back at him as he felt a squeeze within him.
Lestrange looked back at Harry then he said at a volume that he was sure the Werewolf would hear. “Good, then. Don’t even think of hurting him in any way because Potter, I will destroy you.”