Chapter 12
“Myrtle, I was hoping to ask you something.” Alyssa said, leaning against one of the stalls of the ghost’s bathroom.
“Oh, it’s you.” Myrtle smiled and gave a nod as she floated down. “I’ll do my best, but if it’s about my death I told you everything I know.”
“Kind of. I just thought of a question I didn’t even think to ask before. I get it if it’s weird and you don’t know how. But can you tell me about the language the boy was speaking?”
“About the language?”
“Yeah, what did it sound like. Repeating sounds, particular connotation… Like dose it have hard g’s, you know?”
Myrtle let out a hum and furrowed her brow. “I wasn’t paying much attention, I was-“
“I’m sorry, by the way. If this is getting a bit upsetting. But I don’t have much to go on because other than the blood message and knowing that Filch’s cat was petrified, I missed everything.” Alyssa sighed, and Myrtle tilted her head.
“It’s alright, you’re actually quite nice to me.”
“I’ve been told I’m not really good at lying.’ Alyssa admitted with a soft chuckle. “So nothing on the language?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Okay… Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?”
“The Chamber of Secrets. Hm… There was talk about it during my fourth year here.”
“Do you think it’s connected to your death in any way?”
“It’s possible, several students were petrified that year. I was the only one that died.” Myrtle gave a nod. “But I think they caught who did it, at least there was talk about someone being expelled.”
“You didn’t happen to catch a name did you?”
“Unfortunately not, and no one was very nice to pour moaning Myrtle. Everyone just moved on with their lives after I was killed.”
“That’s horrible.”
“I got some revenge, that’s why I cant leave.”
“Honestly fair. The revenge part. I do kind of get it.” Alyssa gave a nod. “I’m happy things are doing better at least. Issue is I don’t think a human did this, or a humanoid. I think it was a full monster.”
“I don’t think it was human either.”
“Just humor me and tell me again what happened. I want to to get this in order.”
“I was in here crying in this stall exactly when I heard someone come in. I thought it was one of the girls come to make fun of me again, but it wasn’t. It was a boy, speaking in a weird language.” Myrtle crossed her arms in thought. “I went to tell him off, but the last thing I remember seeing was this massive yellow eye.”
“A yellow eye?”
“Yes.”
“Be too far fetched to ask if you knew anything more?”
“Just that it was all yellow.”
“All yellow.” Alyssa gave a nod. “That should narrow things down quite a bit, thank you Myrtle!”
Rushing out of the bathroom Alyssa nearly crashed into Percy who was coming down a flight of stairs.
“Watch ‘er Alyssa.”
“Sorry, sorry.” Alyssa fumbled a bit. “I think I’ve got something.”
“Got something?” Percy arched an eyebrow. “I was hoping you lot would stay out of this. There a roomer already going around amongst some of the first years that it was Harry who did it.”
“Harry?” Alyssa tilted his head. “What?”
“Apparently some think he’s the secret heir of Slytherin.”
“Percy, what can you tell me about the Chamber of Secrets?”
“I’m not sure I should even be humoring you, besides I’ve got my Owls this year, and I’m trying to become Head Boy this year.”
“Alright, I don’t doubt that the others gathered some information.” Alyssa nodded, making his way to the Base of Operations.
“Alyssa, there you are.” Hermione said as Alyssa charged into the Library, I was just about to ‘sending’ you to see where you were.
“Myrtle. I got something.”
“Really, I thought she told you everything she knew about her death.” Draco tilted his head.
“Well I thought to ask about the language and she didn’t know, but she did add one; and I’m going to be fair and say- relatively small all things considered, detail.”
“Oh?” Nevil tilted his head.“The eye was yellow. Solid yellow. It was an animal.”
“That doesn’t give us much to go off of.” Hermione let out a heavy sigh. “Unfortunately I left my copy of Hogwarts: A History at home. All of the schools coys are taken out and while this library is showy… The Room’s not that good I’m afraid. And I can’t find mention of it anywhere in any other books.”
“Oh! Right!”Alyssa clapped loudly. “Myrtle said that there was talk about the chamber being opened her fourth year, that a bunch of students got petrified and apparently someone was expelled.”
“Hagrid was expelled that’s why he works here. And Wizards tend to age a lot slower than other people so it’s not unlikely that it was him.” Draco nodded.
“But do you think it was actually him?” Harry asked, leaning against a hand. “Because apparently there is some talk about it being me.”
“I doubt if it was he would still be working here.” Draco shook his head. “Besides he would have accidentally let something slip if it was an accident.”
“So we have more clues, but no idea what they point to quite yet.” Nevil sighed. “ This isn’t good, people could be in danger.”
“Let’s see even just looking at facts if we go over all the current like three suspects; none of us fit. Harry’s got no old Wizarding blood in him. His mum’s parents were muggles and his dad’s a muggle. It couldn’t have been Hagrid because he’s a half giant and; going with probable targets, he would be one. And I wasn’t even born, I was manifested. Thought I will say the cult goes way back, centuries as well…” Alyssa trailed off, eyes narrowing as he considered a sudden, possibly far fetched theory. After a few attempts they just blurted it out. “Is there any possibility a fragment of Riddle got back into the school?”
“I don’t think he could have reformed that-“
“Not the Voldemort thing. A shard of Riddle. Like… Like the Horcrux in Harry’s scar. Maybe; if were considering that thing, it found another Horcrux he made. I doubt that there was only Harry.” They noted. “And somehow that was brought back into the school.”
“What was it that Constantine said… On can someone ‘sending’ Constantine and see if we can get a run down on things?”
“I can try.” Hermione nodded. “But again it’s twenty-five words maximum.”
Nodding Alyssa scribbled down some things, humming as he worked to get the perfect message before nodding.
“Constantine, need some advice. Possible Horcrux in play. Filch’s cat petrified, but a student died in the past. Need more info on how they work.” Alyssa said counting on his fingers. “That’s twenty-five exactly.”
“Alright, I don’t know how well he’ll be able to help.” Hermione sighed. Slowly time ticked away, a few minuets passed before Hermione got a reply.
“Cant kill people, thought people they are possessing can. Only saw it once. Must have a deep emotional connection to the object in Question.” Hermione gave a small nod. “Huh, that’s actually really helpful.” Taking a moment she used another spell. “Thanks. Yellow eyes creature also involved. Unknown language, but probably rare. Intelligent creature as detect thoughts and Comprehend Languages worked. Harry only one who speaks.”
“Good call on seeing if he knows that the beast might be.”
“Or the language.”
“It couldn’t have been loud though, if only Harry caught it originally.” Nevil gave a small nod. “Maybe it didn’t sound like a language initially and it was just something he picked up on?”
“Maybe.” Hermione shrugged, quickly reading the response. “Only language I can think of is Parseltoung, or; simply, snake. Can’t help much past that I’m afraid.”
“It’s a start. Now we just need to find a snake that is capable of doing this.”
“Of petrification and… A basilisk.” Alyssa jolted suddenly. “It has to be. Issue is it clearly cant be exactly like D&D or other things. But I think the the situation is more or less the same in theory. If you look it in the eye you become petrified, on failed save you turn to stone. Clearly taking out saving throws that must be altered. What we do know is that Myrtle looked it in the eye directly and she’s the only one to-“
“We need to talk to a professor about this.” Hermione interjected.
“We need to find that Horcrux!” Draco countered. “And figure out how it even got here.”
“Break starts soon and I’m heading back home.”
“Dobby!” harry said suddenly. “He knew. This has to have something to do with your dad Draco.”
“That makes sense. But why wouldn’t he want you coming back then?”
“He seemed to want to protect me.” Harry admitted. “We have to find a way to question Cassiopeia, it’s our only hope of figuring out who the Horcrux is with, and what it even is, is by questioning her.”
“But she wont talk to any of us.” Nevil sighed and Alyssa shook his head. “Not to any of us, but to a fellow Slytherin perhaps.”
“Polyjuice Potion, Professor Snape mentioned it during class Wednesday. Maybe you could convince him to teach you how to make it.”
“That would be horribly obvious. He may like me and I may know how to make a tone of really crazy shit now, but he would know. Not that I’ve ever been good at lying. And really he have no reason to actually think that she would know anything.” Alyssa shook his head. “We know it’s not her.”
“If Lucius was the one who got it here, she might know how.” Nevil gave a small nod. “It’s a change.”
“Are you okay?” Harry asked turning to his ‘sibling’. “Feeling better?”
“A bit.” Alyssa nodded. “This is just going to smoothly, I’m telling you now that won’t lead anywhere, but I can look into it.”
“Polyjuice Potion?”
“I know Professor. I know the implications of it, what it can do. That’s kind of the point. While I don’t think that Malfoy knows anything, the other’s aren’t so convinced.” Alyssa gave a small nod. “To be clear though I did tell them that you would figure it out quickly and that I’m not great with lying.”
“This is true, but I’m afraid I can not teach you how to brew this potion.” Snape drawled heading to his desk. “However, since it is a good potion for your current skill set, it would be wrong of me not to allow you to research the effects in theory during your own time. As such I will write you a permission slip to sign out Most Potent Potions on two conditions. One; I want an eight inch essay on the potion by this time next week.”
“And two?”
“Don’t tell me if you brew it.” Snape drawled. “After all you have unrestricted access to my ingredients should you need it, and it is good to study the ingredients of a potion even if you don’t intend to brew it. You don’t do great with lying to people you care about, but-“ Snape held up a hand as Alyssa went to argue. “-But you do know how to keep a secret, how to come up with an alibi, when you need to. Sometimes you have to lie to the GCPD correct?”
“Yes sir.”
“And there are places where you can not go due to your connections to the League and as such, if you do you have to lie about things correct?”
“Yes sir.”
“Then consider this one of those times.” He gave a curt nod. “Alyssa, tell me this. When the Marauders learned to become Anamagus, who do you think taught them?”
“Professor McGonagall.”
“Correct. But she couldn’t directly teach them, it was too dangerous for how old they were. So she gave them more than ample information, and they were able to do it on their own, but they could never directly tell her that they did.” He explained. “She told me that one night not long after she gave them the instructions, a Stag, a Rat and a dog-“ Snape shook his head. “That’s a story she should tell, it’s rather funny really.”
“I wish I could have met them you know.” Alyssa gave a nod. “So what are we working on today?”
“A drought of dreamless sleeping. I understand that both your partners will not only be going home tomorrow, but can not truly comfort you throughout the night due to your strange predicament.” Snape drawled, leading Alyssa back to the cauldron. “While you appear to have regained your strength, and some of your control over the calling, it would be best to have some on hand just in case.
“Thank you Professor.” Alyssa smiled. “Professor, before we start. Have you had any dreams of the other world or was I just imagining the calling thing?”
“I believe that I have worked through most of my issues, but recent circumstance that I will not be disclosing, have made some of my own dreams a touch more… Nightmare-ish.”
“You can learn spells outside of your own class, but it’s extremely difficult without just taking the levels in the class.” Alyssa said absently, and Snape arched an eyebrow. “But we can talk about that later.”
“So long as your somewhat careful with the potion, I trust that you can multi task.” Snape gave a thoughtful nod, before starting the lesson. Despite the given consent, Alyssa opted to focus purely on the potion, finding he was unable to split their attention comfortably.
It thankfully wasn’t too hard of a potion to make, and by the time Alyssa was done their was ten minuets left in their lesson.
“Very good Mx. Wayne.” Snape gave a nod. “Now, what was it that you wished to talk about?”
“Classes. ANd not these classes, the ones I’ve kinda handed off to the older students and the others to work on learning.”
“Dungeons and Dragons classes.”
“Yes, and I really got looking into things. See from my understanding I am a Shadow Origin Sorcerer, which is part of the reason Pass without a trace came to me so easily. Really rouges can learn it to, they just typically don’t and Harry’s leaning towards magic and learning with me helped. Anyways my other class is what’s important here.”
“And that would be?”
“Artificer, Alchemy specialist. Which is what you are, innately, as a potions master. See many people don’t realize it, but lots of things give you levels so to speak in these things. You’ve basically trained your entire life to max out that particular ability.”
“Seems like natural learning.”
“More or less, Wizards are the one that get more complicated, because of technicalities. But… I was hopping we would be able to go together to silent hill, and I don’t know if thats even a possibility. Worst of all I know that your’s is so much less severe now that you probably wouldn’t have to go wither way.”
“Much like your would prefer to know I was safe, I would much appreciate if I knew your were safe as well.”
“Artificers can learn spells. Since your max level you would just have to, legitimately. Take the spells.” Alyssa handed him her crystal, which quickly adapted to what is sheet would be. “Not my magic, that’s on Psi. Sucks they cant be more involved, none of the forms I know come around very often any more anyways. Not that I blame them, they can go literally anywhere, and they sometimes do genuinely get a bit turned around.”
“A friend of yours?”
“They don’t like admitting it, there a higher being then I ever could pretend to be. They- Well I don’t get the technicalities behind it, and they said the great aspects don’t matter in the long run. Never bothered enplaning them to me, said it was too complicated for- Anyways, they are connected to what they have called the greater aspects. All I’ve gathered on them is that they are the very fabric not just of the universes, but of reality itself. Apparently people can be connected to many and they mix but- They are a doom player. They are death’s; biological, child.”
“Interesting. And they wont get involved?”
“They out right admitted it wouldn’t be fun. But to be clear they aren’t a sociopath or anything. I kind of learned that is partly their way of saying they know things will turn out fine, so it’s better they just watch if anything. Do little things like with Bins.” Alyssa smiled, following Snape into his office and sitting back on the couch. “I am closest with their… Sixth? Yeah sixth form, but I’ve met one through nine.”
“Forms?”
“Its an interesting biological trait of Time Lords. They can skive death by regenerating at a cellular level. Each form is considered a person. Apparently it’s normally given to them, but very few are born with it. They- were tortured for the power. They have infinite regenerations, and cant die.” Alyssa shook his head. “Theoretically I can’t either due to my own curse with the Order, but at least I don’t remember anything about the past lives typically.”
“Thank you for this information , and for the resistance with the spells. I will try to find a good way of learning these.” Snape gave a nod. “And do be careful with that potion. Make sure it is human hare that’s being used.”
“Of course Professor.” Alyssa nodded, before heading out of the Portions lab smiling.