Chapter 18
Slipping through the halls Alyssa found herself comfortably sneaking through the shadows. They hadn’t bothered to concern themselves with the happenings of the house cup for some time, and at the moment they were stalking after Quirrel who was making his way out of the building. Slipping out silently they clambered onto the side of the building, grappling up to one of the gargoyles, watching the man as he headed towards the forbidden forest.
“Professor McGonagall, these three students were found coming back from the Owlery.” Pressing their lips together they pressed their back against the wall of the building, making sure as little of themselves could be seen.
“Very well Mr. Filch, you may go.” McGonigal responded, clearly somewhat annoyed. Silence fell as Filch walked off, Alyssa’s heart racing slightly as they tried to remember the angles of not only where they were, but of the already audibly upset Professor’s classroom.
“I would never have thought, the three of you.” McGonagall’s voice was stern, Alyssa’s heart pounding as they listened in. “It is one in the morning, what on earth was so important to send that it couldn’t wait until morning?”
No response came for a solid minute before Ron’s voice responded. “I told you Professor. They were helping Hagrid smuggle a dragon.”
“That’s enough out of you Mr. Weasley.” She hissed, voice a cold growl. “Now I think it’s easy to say what you were doing. You decided that it would be funny to feed Ronald Weasley some coca do story about a dragon to get him caught out of bed after hours and in trouble.”
“Professor.”
“I am disgusted. Miss. Granger, I expected you to have more sense than to go along with something so foolish. Mr. Malfoy, after all you’ve been through, I thought that you would see through such blatant bullying of another student.” McGonigal’s voice was cold. “And Mr. Queen. Of all your talk about being different than your father. I suppose in a way you are. Not only would James never be so foolish as to manage to get so cockily caught without his invisibility cloak, but he would at least have the charisma to come up with a story to cover his friends. Though have taken to bullying the same way he had.”
“That’s not what happened.”
“Oh, do tell then Mr. Queen.”
“It wasn’t a lie. The reason we didn’t tell you was because we didn’t want to get Hagrid into trouble. Not did we want to get Charlie and his friends.” Harry responded, and McGonigal fell silent.
“You absolute… Walk me through this your informed Ronald-“
“No. We never told Ron about the Dragon; he must have been spying.” Draco shook his head. “We haven’t been bothering Weasley at all.”
“You are all so foolish. You are all still in so much trouble. I’m going to have to take thirty points from each of you. I expect you to make your-“ McGonigal fell silent, footsteps quickly approaching the window, quickly it was pushed open, McGonigal glancing out at Alyssa. It was clear that she wanted to be angry, but it was mixed with heavy confusion and concern. “Mx. Wayne! Inside! Now!”
Nodding Alyssa slipped inside, rocking slightly on the balls of their feet. McGonigal reached up, removing her glasses to massage the bridge of her nose. “Mx. Wayne. What are you doing outside of the castle’s walls, at one in the morning? This cannot have anything to do with the-“ McGonigal’s eye was twitching. “You, in my office now! That is fifty points from you for such foolish and reckless behavior. The rest of you, get back to bed. I don’t care if it’s in your dormitory or the little base you’ve been using. You will all be serving detention which will be assigned at further notice.”
“Yes Professor.”
As the four headed off McGonigal practically dragged Alyssa into her office, locking the door behind her. “I do not know what you think you have been doing, but this is foolish.”
“All do respect, how do you think that Draco was saved?”
“You are such a foolish child! Do you have no care for you own safety?”
“I’m used to these things. I’ve been doing this for a couple of years. I have training, I was following a lead. And quite frankly, technology dose work.” They crossed their arms. “I also should let you know that I have night vision. More dark vision, its a bit complicated.
“What are you getting at?”
“Quirrel was –“
“Oh, for fucks sakes! Why are you following Quirrel?”
“Because he’s going after the Philosopher’s Stone!” Alyssa hissed, freezing as the Professor shot them an ice-cold glare. Quickly they sank back into the chair. “I’ve… We… But…”
“I have never. In all my years of teaching.” It was clear that McGonigal was struggling to think as she began pacing. “Have I ever heard of a student being so blatantly paranoid about the professors teaching them. Of all the professors to be suspicious of, you chose-“
“Pour stuttering Professor Quirrel, it’s the best cover. I knew from the beginning, and I can prove it.”
“Mx. Wayne-“
“I have proof. This is why we didn’t go to anyone about it! I can prove this!” Alyssa hissed, putting the binder in front of her.
“Mx. Wayne I understand that you are suffering a mental illness, but this is the behavior of someone with Paranoid Schizophrenia!”
“I’m not being paranoid!” Alyssa could feel their hair floating a bit, tears rolling down their cheeks. “I’m being vigilant!”
Something about that one word caused the professor to falter. Her face was a flurry of emotions before she flipped open the binder and started going through it. She had fallen completely silent as she looked and eventually, she let out a heavy sigh.
“Calm down Alyssa, I don’t doubt that you might be onto something. I won’t pretend to know what Professor Dumbledor is planning, but at this point you should be much more careful with what you are doing. You are still very much in trouble, but I must apologize for insinuating that you didn’t know what you were doing.” she whispered, handing Alyssa a handkerchief as they broke to sobbing. “The blood and ink thing definitely are pushing me towards thinking it’s true, I’m very happy the bleeding gone at least.”
Alyssa chuckled weekly; emotions eased up slightly as they did. Their tears ran clear, and slowly they managed to fully relax.
“You need to get some sleep. I will retrieve the invisibility cloak, and I will be holding onto it for the time being.” She said, leading Alyssa into their personal quarters.
“You will be spending the night here, but I do need to know. Why were you following Quirrel tonight?”
“I wanted to see what he was up to. He has bits of being very weak, and then getting better. We know what he is after, and I want to know if there is something.”
“I understand. I’m supposing that Mr. Queen, Miss. Granger, and Mr. Malfoy know about this?”
“The list of people that know my suspicions are Sally-Anne, Lily, Daphne, Draco, Fred, George, Hermione, Nevil, and Harry. But to be clear our adventuring party only consists of myself, Hermione, Nevil, Draco, and Harry.”
“Adventuring party. So, you really are like the Marauders.”
“I mean… They were mostly just a friend group; we are a full adventuring party.” Alyssa gave a small nod. “Professor. Before I go to bed… May I have some warm milk and honey?”
“Of course.” She nodded. “Now, lets get you settled and I’ll being you your drink.”
Word spread quickly of the trouble Alyssa and her friends had gotten into; of the one hundred and thirty points that they had lost, and no one was all too happy.
Overnight Gryffindor had turned against the trio that had dropped them into last place. Many had taken to calling them trouble, dangers, bad kids.
Alyssa didn’t really understand the issue. The twins, who had remained some of the very few people who had remained cordial to them, had lost many more points in their years at Hogwarts. Not only that but they were just entering march. While easter break was coming; and they only had about three months left in the semester, there was a chance that they could get the points back.
And yet the house seemed to hate them. Like they had completely doomed them from ever winning. They had three Quidditch matches yet, and not only that if they could track down what Quirrel was doing before he had a chance to get past Fluffy, then they could prove they were right. That they knew what they were doing.
But the dirty looks and cold whispers rubbed Alyssa the wrong way. How easily they had been turned on after all the good they had done. The whispers and the jabs, hardly hidden by the courtesy of whispering. They acted like they wanted to be heard and yet, when confronted they just jeered and walked away.
“Alyssa, I’m surprised you would dare show your face in the common room after everything you’ve done.” Ron jeered, watching as Alyssa grabbed a few things out of a drawer, kicking her trunk. “Did McGonigall finally see sense and decide to expel you for everything you’ve done?”
“I’m not playing games with you Ronald.” They growled, tossing the books into the trunk. “But there is a reason I’m gathering my things. I no longer wish to ever be associated with Gryffindor after how quickly you all turned and stabbed me and my friends in the back.”
“Transferring to Slytherin where you belong? You already have Snape’s bias working for you.”
“Acting like you aren’t using Pansy and her goons to spread what you’ve been claiming. But no, I’m not. I’m not transferring I doubt I would even be granted the time to humor the idea.” Alyssa slammed their trunk shut, frustration causing one of the top latches to break. Before Ron could even begin to sneer a taunt Alyssa let out a frustrated scream. The ground quickly broke to sobbing and they collapsed to their knees, sobbing, and tearing at their hair.
“Dramatic-“
“Enough.”
“Percy they-“ Lavender started, falling silent as Percy stepped past Alyssa; the enby just hardly able to see then in their peripherals as a blur due to their tears.
“I said enough. All of you!” He snapped. “What has gotten into you lot. All of you are acting like a bunch of simpletons. I do not want to tank our chances of winning any further than has already been done but at this point I wouldn’t say that I have much of a choice. You have bullied them to the point-“ As Percy spoke he faltered, truing to Alyssa as they hit their head repeatedly on the chest in front of them. “-I shouldn’t be shouting, it’s not helping. I do not care if this cost us this year’s house cup, theoretically a good enough win could bring us back. Fifty points from Gryffindor from both Ms. Brown and Mr. Weasley for incessantly bullying a fellow student.”
“Percy what the hell are you do-“ The man fell silent then let out a groan. “They’re Autistic Percy.”
“Yeah, and those two have done nothing but openly spread rumors about Mx. Wayne to the point of wishing House Abandonment. You know what happens then.”
“That’s only-“
“I don’t think it is, or we wouldn’t learn about it. It would immediately lose us the house cup because we would be banned from running this year.” Percy was keeping their voice level, though Alyssa soon lost the words.
They had stopped hitting their banging but were in a cold daze. They could hardly feel the world around them as they struggled to retain the ringing to just their ears. They hated what had been done to them, the treatment running all too familiar as laughter filled the air.
“Mx. Wayne, I’m so very sorry.” Before Alyssa could respond something cold entered their neck, completely knocking them out, allowing the ringing to die entirely.
Gryffindor’s behavior towards Alyssa and their friends had become rocky at best, the threat of expulsion towards Ron and Lavender had rested heavy on everyone. The true meaning of it was very clear. No more making fun of Alyssa, or there would be grave consequences.
That didn’t mean that things had fully recovered. Harry arguably had it the worst at that point. There was such an immense pressure on him to earn back not only the points that him, and Hermione had lost. That Alyssa had lost. But that Ron and Lavender had lost as well.
Many people had disregarded anything that Ron had said about the trio, which had thankfully eased the tensions a bit. But they were still by far in last place. The Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students that had also taken to shunning them had also backed off, but Alyssa had it bad in their own way.
Gryffindor still didn’t know what to make of their outcast student. While they had turned away from Ron and Lavender as well, and they knew better than to mock and bully. There were some that were still afraid, many regarding Alyssa with judgmental pity, like a homeless person that they didn’t know what to do with. They knew Alyssa was mentally ill, but they were almost treating it like it was something contagious.
What maid their connections to things even worse was the fact that Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students’ as well as a genuinely decent amount of Slytherin, had all been treating them fairly normal. Sure there was a certain level of overly cautious, but it wasn’t the same uncomfortable egg shell walking that Gryffindor seemed to have cursed itself with. It was simply a bunch of students dealing with issues way above their pay grade. The way people would just check in on them when they were perceived to be in a bad place.
“Alyssa, are you-“
“Okay fuck. I need you lot to start coming to my training session.” Alyssa hissed, practically jumping out of their skin as a small, slightly plump, dark skinned Hufflepuff boy practically appeared net to them. “I- Not to fall into the bias thing. But… No and that. You are all rogues, at least you are some stealthy mother fuckers.”
“I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s okay. You’re Wayne McMillan right?”
“Of course. It’s good to properly meet you. You seemed somewhat spaced out, and I wanted to make sure that you were, okay?”
“I know there is a very evil person here and there hasn’t been that much that we could do about it.” Alyssa let out a small sigh. “I just feel like we’ve put things off too much. Now I’m just worried that we are going to let them get away with it.”
“Oh, I doubt that’s the case.”
“A lot of people are still on top of things, and while we can’t all stop things like you can it’s clear that whatever is going on can’t happen any time soon.” Wayne smiled softly, leaning against the window with them. “You guys will manage to stop this.”
“Thank you, Wayne. Thankfully detention is tonight so we can at least look into things.” They nodded, giving a soft smile. “But I have to admit, it’s good to be cared for.”
“I would bet.”
“And the situation with Gryffindor. I’m not feeling like I want to fuck them over and change now, but I still don’t feel comfortable going back to being Gryffindor.”
“They’re still being bad?”
“It’s more that everyone else has at least tried, but they are only putting up with me because they have to. I think it’s worse that it’s the older students as well. I mean there are some that do care, but it’s not enough.”
“I get it. Do you have somewhere else you can go?”
“I fully stalled, I’m fairly sure I could go anywhere if I wanted to. And part of me doesn’t doubt that I won’t be the only one transferring. But that’s not important for the time being, and nothing is certain.”
“Well, only time will tell.” He gave a small nod. “So, what do you think is going on?”
“We already know what Quirrel is after, we just need to figure out what is going on in the forbidden forest.”
“Maybe I can help a bit?”
“Well, whatever he is after, will need to give them life in some way, shape, or form.”
“So, this is probably the last bit of investigation that you need.”
“It’s almost more like a side quest. Maybe stall things ever so slightly.” They nodded, smiling at the young Hufflepuff. “Thanks for this by the way.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s good to take some time to recover after all.”
“Your right. Now why don’t we get some studying in?”
“Alright, let’s get going.” Nodding Alyssa followed the boy off towards the library.