Chapter 14
“Must you do this?” Hermione sighed as Alyssa zipped up her puffer vest, gently checking the attached cape. While it was the middle of the day, they had taken to their costume, as they admittedly should have the first night they had gone exploring.
It was a fairly simple costume as well. The base was dark navy; practically black, consisting of pants, and a long-sleeved shirt that had a mouth mask built in. In a matching color was her domino mask, which had lavender obscuring their eyes. Over this was a dark purple puffer vest, strengthened by poly-kevlar, with a small black bat on the chest, and a partly attached navy-gray cape, the bottom cut jagged like their fathers.
“You said it yourself. Someone was trying to curse Harry’s broom. I at the moment trust Snape wouldn’t be that stupid, and that the curse was actually quite a bit worse than what was happening. You, Harry, and Ron got me a name to go off of. Nicholas Flamel, now it’s my turn to get looking. Daphnee didn’t find his name in any books about gemstones, but I got thinking. There are other things that are weird and red.” They shook their head as they pulled on a pair of black, fingerless gloves. “I have an idea. We can reconvene in a few weeks. I want you three to keep up your end alright?”
“This is ridiculous. You’re going to get caught.”
“Of course not. I’m not just looking for information on the man.”
“You’re going to properly look for the mirror.”
“Of course, assuming that it hasn’t been moved to the third floor, which… You would think it would be already, but who knows.” Alyssa shrugged. “I can probably sneak you into the library if you wanted.”
“I’m good thanks.” Hermione shook her head with a heavy sigh. “Look, do you really think finding the mirror with help you sleep?”
“Definitely.”
“Then I’m not going to be the one to stop you. Just be careful and be smart alright?”
“Of course, Hermione.”
“And don’t get yourself expelled three days before Christmas.” She smirked, and Alyssa chuckled softly. Giving a nod they headed out of the portrait, easily starting through the maze of hallways.
It felt good to be out in full costume, stalking around the hallways of an ancient castle. To have Hermione fully in on things, Harry growing into his own. Even the bits that Ron was doing were interesting. It felt like a friend group, and while Harry seemed fairly desperate to get Draco in on things, they really weren’t so certain on the details.
And it really wasn’t that she didn’t think the boy could change. No they knew for a fact that he could, but she also knew that it would take something big to pull him from his position.
As Alyssa weaved their way through the hall in brilliant, silver moonlight, a haunting howl caught their ear, followed by an ear-piercing scream. Heading to the nearest window, Alyssa easily found the source, not even thinking as they raised a hand to the glass. Quickly it exploded, a few of the nearby paintings rousing to scold them as they ran and jumped.
Feeling the cold wind on their face they allowed themselves to plummet several feet before spreading their arms, allowing their cape to extend gliding on the air as they crossed the gap towards the large field, eyes trained of the off looking wolf.
They were only seconds to late to stop the inevitable, the grey tinted brown wolfs jaw closed on the albino boy’s arm. However it thankfully didn’t remain there long, the whistling of wind causing it to glance over just in tine for both of Alyssa’s feet to make contact with it’s head, sending it skidding a bit as they landed.
“W-what are you doing?” Draco’s voice was weak and slurred as the wolf recovered, letting out a loud howl before charging for Alyssa. “Run… Just-“
“Nah, that’s not the heroic thing to do.” They shook their head, summoning their trusty base ball bat. Easily they rolled away from the wolf, dropping two smoke pellets before slamming the bat into the back of the wolf’s head, sending it to the ground before dashing out of the cloud.
Quickly they helped Draco to his feet, helping stabilize him as they headed back towards the castle.
As they reached the stone a howling sounded behind them and Alyssa nodded, grabbing Draco tightly by the waist before pulling out their grappling hook.
“Who knows if this is going to work.”
“What?”
Taking aim Alyssa pressed the trigger, letting out a relived sigh as it shot up, easily taking hold of something before reeling in, dragging them both into the sky, moments before a leaping wolf could find perch again. As they reached the gargoyle, Alyssa smashed another window in, returning the grappling hook to it’s place before hopping in, finding herself facet to face with professor Snape.
The normally calm man only needed to glance between the two to look horrified, the howling at the base of the castle clearly not helping his fears.
“Give me Mr. Malfoy, then head directly back to bed. We will discuss this during our lessons tomorrow evening.” He hissed, accepting the now unconscious boy from Alyssa. “You did a good thing tonight Mx. Wayne.”
“Of course. I’ll see you tomorrow then Professor.”
“What were you thinking?”
Alyssa had only just finished recounting the night’s escapades to their friends, and Hermione was pacing the small lounge room that had been conjured into the Room of Requirements for them. The initial shock of the ever-changing room was long since forgotten, replaced with fear and slight anger.
“Hermione, I’m fine. And Draco’s not dead so, I call that a win.”
“You could have been bitten!”
“I bleed fire, The likelihood of anything infecting me is incredibly low based on that alone. Not to mention the fact that I already have a transformation, which; from what Sirius and the Marauders discovered, negates lycanthropy.” Alyssa countered, offering the girl a soft smile. “And I’ve done stupider, let’s be very clear on that.”
“Like what? You attacked a violent werewolf. That was incredibly reckless of you.”
“I actually have to fully agree with Hermione on this one, werewolves are incredibly dangerous-“
“And highly misunderstood.” Alyssa interjected. “It’s more complicated than just losing your mind. Remus is considered technically tame.”
“Greyback is incredibly dangerous and violent, and that’s who they figure attacked Malfoy last night. Why would you go and put your neck out for a prick like Malfoy?”
“Would you have rather I let him potently die?” Alyssa crossed their arms. “Because honestly Ronnald, I don’t think that’s entirely fair either. I drop kicked him from one of the higher stories. Sure, I glided and dropped down quite a bit, but you move fast when gliding. That kind of kick would scramble anything, then I hit him again, in the head. So yeah. I stunned him and got Malfoy out. Sue me.”
“That’s not what he meant.” Harry said stepping between the two and holding up his hands. “What you did was a good thing, but it was dangerous.”
“I know that. But I acted out of instinct. Look I already have to talk to Snape later today, I brought you here to discuss things. One main thing really. I want to officially add Draco to the adventuring party.”
“This isn’t a game.” Hermione sighed. “For you it is, your life is just a big game of Dungeons and Dragons, with some horror mixed in.”
“Wait, your really going to turn around and just trust Malfoy all of a sudden?”
“The kid got bit by Greyback; he’s going to face reality really fucking fast. I would like him to have a support system in place to help him with that. If you don’t like that, you’re free to leave. I know the mind whipping charm; you won’t remember any of what happened here today, and you can go back to living your happy naive little life playing constant victim.” Alyssa glared, standing suddenly. Their shadow loomed behind them, growing massive as Ron blanched. But the fear didn’t last long and Ron suddenly stood as well, drawing his wand.
“I’d like to see you try.”
“Enough! Ronald, we both agreed to come here knowing that there was a chance they would wipe our memory. They don’t need this getting around, but they trusted us for this.” Hermione put herself between the two. “I think you should leave; we don’t need someone like you coming around and messing everything up.”
“Fine. But by this time-“
“Obliviate.” Alyssa drawled, shoving him the rest of the way out of the door as he blinked in confusion, the wall sealing off behind him.
“Anyways.” Alyssa clapped. “Draco, and Nevil.”
“Nevil?” Harry tilted his head at his friend. “I get you’ve been helping him quite a bit, but I need you to explain that one to me.”
“Alright. Since you both know D&D I’ll put it this way, and very simply. This doesn’t take things in as technicalities; which everyone where would technically be sorcerers and not Wizards. It’s just training into- Not important. But you understand I’m partly going off Archetype?”
“Sure.” Hermione nodded, joining Harry on the couch as Alyssa claimed the chair. “Go for it.”
“Harry is our rouge. He does best with sneaking, surprise attacks, flanking, those types of things. Arcane Trickster Archetype.”
“Sure I can see that.” Harry said.
“I am a sorcerer, truly magic due to birthright. And that’s not a purist thing, I am literally born of some fucked up magic. Shadow Origin.”
“Again that makes sense.” Hermione nodded.
“You are our true Wizard, though that’s not to say your fragile. You get most of your knowledge from a book, its simple as that. I’m not entirely certain on the school quite yet, but if I had to guess at the moment Lore Master.”
“That seems about right, but where dose that put Nevil?”
“Ranger. He needs to be trained quite a bit, but he’s already shown that he’s extremely good with plants, he knows his way around the castle better than I do, and while he can be minorly forgetful, that can be a symptom of untreated anxiety. Lets be real, that boy should be medicated, and that’s not a problem.” Alyssa gave a quick stretch, and their friends nodded.
“Out of curiosity, where dose that put Draco?”
“I don’t know quite yet. A really mean part wants to say Druid due to… Actually, that works. Werewolves can be tame, and it’s not entirely unheard of for them to learn. There are classifications for a reason, and Draco is still rather young yet. Path is really simple, to Moon. And due to everything I know that he could be properly trained into things so long as he’s willing.” Alyssa clapped a bit. “It’s about learning to accept things to, Remus became calmer, and safer as his friends helped him embrace things.”
“You really want o see how far you can push the D&D thing.”
“Absolutely.” They nodded, “Why not right? It can help, and it may be able to help further some research along the way.”
“Okay. So, what are the day’s plans?”
“You need a costume and proper identity, as well as some proper training. So, we can do that until lunch. Then I suggest you, and Harry work on learning more about Flamel, take any lead we can get on that. I’m going to check on Draco and then head to meet Snape. I would appreciate it if you got Nevil in on things, maybe looking into possible plants that could be used in the traps. Apparently, there should be a room for each core class, and that’s his big one.”
“Alright. I feel like we should actually share what we know so far so that everyone in the group knows what’s going on.”
“This time next week I promise. By then we might all have a bit more information, and everyone can be informed.” Alyssa gave one final clap, the room behind where they were sitting shifting into a fairly nice gym. There were weights, exercise equipment, attack dummies, places for their equipment and costumes, and two Salmon ladders.
“This is really cooking up to be the perfect base of operations, eh?”
“You sure were just pulling in the two?”
“For the time being, you don’t want the main group to be too big. I would say six; maybe seven, max. Currently we have the three of us, adding in Draco and Nevil is five. That leaves room for two more. I am accepting names, but I wouldn’t suggest breaking existing groups. So Sally-Anne, Lily, and Daphne are all out.” They gave a nod.
“Fair enough, what about the twins?” Hermione asked.
“Alright, them and the three could be brought into the concept, but not the main team. Age group and seven max.”
“Alright, but they can definitely help.” Harry nodded. “Isn’t this changing the hole superhero thing? The hole Magical Secrecy laws?”
“First of all, the Statute of Secrecy hasn’t been a thing for years, even if the worlds are still mostly separate. As such, magical world- D&D parties. Muggle world- Superheros. Simple as that.”
“Actually, yeah… that’s not a bad point.” Hermione nodded. “Now lets get started, shall we?”
“Mx. Wayne, I’m going to save you the trouble of telling you that what you did last night was extremely reckless. While I would love to be able to tell you off for something, I not only know what kind of a person you are, but that Ms. Granger is as well.” Snape drawled, finishing placing the days requited ingredients on the desk. “I’ve also caught wind that you’re trying to change how Lycanthropy works on an innate level.”
“Not entirely, just to help the understanding of it grow. The game logic doesn’t just apply to me and I do not see why some can learn to control it and others cant.” Alyssa shook their head. “I do genuinely care about Draco; I want to make that much clear, but I want to be able to research it. To train him and to help him learn what he can do. That just because he’s sick, that doesn’t make him a monster. And by far he’s not the type to set off the radio.”
“Many of our world don’t.”
“Vampires do I think.” Alyssa hummed. “But it’s the transformation aspect. It’s also a good way to make some people feel a bit better about themselves. They aren’t monsters, they have an illness.”
“An illness that you think could be beneficial.”
“Yes and no. I think that the transformation could be useful in it’s own way as a wild shape thing, and that a wolfs senses could help with adventuring parties. I think that the lack of understanding towards other ways of magic is causing the magical world to implode on itself.”
“Very well, today we are going to be learning to make an advanced potion that may assist in your research. It is highly advanced, and the ingredients don’t come cheap. But I am entrusting you with this lesson, as you have shown; much like myself, an aptitude for potions and alchemy.”
“Wolfsbane.” Alyssa gave a small, nervous nod. “It’s not on the normal curriculum, even for the seventh years.”
“Do you think your not ready?”
“That’s not the issue. It’s just a lot of trust you are putting in me, and I want to help Draco come together with his wolf.”
“In due time, but your friends don’t have quite the resilience to… Oh how was it put in your file. Anything blood born.” Snape gave a nod. “Until they can safely transform, then I would suggest we use the effects of Wolfsbane. After all, Lupin uses it as well in part to introduce the wolf to new people.”
“I understand Professor. Where do we start.”