Research
Avi shivered beneath the thin sheets of the hospital cot. He must have kicked the thermal quilt off in his sleep. Although, the chill he felt might be from the dream that had just woken him. He had been drifting in a deep, dark sea. He had no way of knowing which way was up or down, so he had just kept kicking his legs in the hope that he would reach the surface as more and more bubbles of precious air leaked from between his lips.
He woke gasping for air and shivering with cold, to see that the sun was just beginning to rise outside the large ornate windows of the hospital wing. He bundled up with the quilt to try to get warm again as he watched the colorful sunrise over the forbidden forest. He admired the small intricate panes of glass that were arraigned to make a gothic pattern of repeating arches in the far wall. The clear glass reflecting the pink and orange hues of the sky to color the normally bland hospital space.
He must have zoned out for a bit because when he was finally startled by Madam Pomfrey coming out of her quarters breakfast time was almost over and the older matron ushered him out of the wing quickly to get to the great hall in time. As he came in, he hurried over to Terry Boot sitting at the Ravenclaw table.
As he was not technically sorted into any house, he was not required to sit at any particular table. Normally, he would have sat with his father at the head table, but since he was still in the hospital wing, Avi sat next to the first friendly face he spotted. Terry greeted the younger boy sleepily, making room for him on the crowded bench. Avi happily dug into a stack of blueberry pancakes, loading up the side of his plate with a pile of maple-glazed sausages to.
Eventually, Terry woke up enough to have a conversation with Avyaan. “How are you, Avi? Are you sure Madam Pomfrey got you all patched up?”
“Yeah, ‘m fine,” Avi said, swallowing a big mouthful of blueberry goodness. “How are you doing? I know the recent attack probably brought up some bad memories.”
Terry looked down at his scrambled eggs with a frown and pushed the plate away. “I just don’t understand it. Hogwarts’ wards should have kept a monster such as that out. How did it get inside? Did it have help? And for that matter, why does it keep coming back into the castle? Everything it needs to survive should be in the forest. None of the other beasts have come into the castle before. Not without someone commanding them to, at least.” The older boy shook his head. “I have a hundred questions and not a single answer.”
They both jumped as a freckled hand landed on each of their shoulders. Avi looked up to see two pairs of warm hazel eyes framed by red hair smiling down on them.
“Well you're the Ravenclaw,” said the one next to Terry.
“Shouldn’t the solution be obvious?” said the one above Avi.
“The only place-”
“-to find those kinds of answers-”
“Is the Library!” they said in unison.
Terry looked bemused as he and Avi were dragged away to the creature section of the library. The twins sat them down at a table with playful bows of servitude and began to pile books in front of each of them. As it was the weekend, they both had nothing better to do (besides homework). So they both picked up a book and got to work.
They worked together rather well for a group of people that had only met recently. Avi suspected the twins were to thank for that. Fred organized the group, passing out paper for notes and compiling their collected findings into a slim red journal. George on the other hand asked questions and started friendly debates on which creatures fit what they knew of the tacks. Together they determined what the top suspects were. “Kobolds would be more muscular than the description and fought primarily with weapons, not claws. Plus Hogwarts was too far from their native habitats in Germany,” Fred explained.
“And Chupacabra are out because none of the victims were drained of blood,” said George.
Terry shook his head, “Not necessarily. Professor Sinestra mentioned that the monster tried to lap up Cassandra’s blood. However, that still doesn’t fit because a Chupacabra would have used its fangs to consume her blood and magic.”
“What about a Rake?” asked Avi. “They fit the description, and are known for ripping their prey apart with their razor-tipped fingers.”
George shook his head, picking up the book and reading the title. “This book must have been shelved wrong. That’s not a monster. It’s a familial curse for infidelity, usually cast as revenge by the spouse of the victim. It hasn’t been seen since divorce was legalized by the wixen world.”
Terry grabbed the book, looking it over. “Yeah, in order for this to work the spell would have had to be cast inside Hogwarts itself, but we don’t have anyone missing-” GROWL!
Avi blushed to the tips of his ears as his stomach interrupted the discussion. Fred smiled and ruffled the younger boy’s hair. “I think it's time for lunch.”
The group of boys made their way down to the great hall, this time sitting at the Gryffindor table. Terry looked uncomfortable as the lions eyed them angrily at their approach, but George wrapped an arm around the Ravenclaw’s shoulders and pulled him down to the table glaring at his housemates in return. Fred did the same with Avi, sandwiching the two other boys between the twins. The surrounding lions backed off immediately. The twins may only be second years, but everyone already knew better than to mess with them or those they cared about.
Avi gave a shiver as he sat on the hardwood bench. The Great Hall was freezing today! Fred, as the twin sitting next to him, took notice and frowned. “Are you ok?”
Avi nodded, “Yeah, just cold.”
“Are you sure? The room feels pretty warm to me,” Fred asked.
Avi frowned. If that was the case, then his magical core may not be fully recovered from the accident with the ritual. The goblins had said that his core should be recovered in a week or two, and he hadn’t felt as chilled in the past few days, but he had also spent quite some time in cold water yesterday. He would probably need to get his charmed blanket from the dungeons to help bring his temperature back up. How was he supposed to explain that to the others? He didn’t want them to think he was a baby in need of his blanky, even if he had slept with it curled under his nose every night since Severus had gifted it to him.
Avi picked at the food on his plate as he thought about what he could say to explain his condition. Severus would normally handle the cover stories. Another shiver racked his body, traveling from the tips of his toes all the way to the crown of his head. “Avi… you don’t look well. Maybe we should take you back to the Hospital Wing after this. You’ve barely touched your food,” Fred pointed out.
“That won’t be necessary!” Avi said, panicked. If the medi-witch knew what was going on, he would never get free. “I know what the problem is, I just need to get some things from my father’s quarters to help me keep warm.”
“What is it then?” asked Terry with concern.
Crap! He hadn’t thought of an explanation yet! Avi looked down and fidgeted with his hands trying to buy time. Best to stick with a story as close to the truth as possible. “Well… I-its kind of personal. You see… Before I was taken in by Professor Snape, I lived with my Uncle and his wife. They were not very happy to have me 'foisted upon' them when my mother died and were often quite harsh with their punishments…” Avi swallowed thickly, not liking how close the story truly was to his past life. “Not long before they were able to track my father down and inform him of my existence, my uncle got drunk one night and went too far with one of his punishments.” Memories of Uncle Vernon and his belt flashed in his mind. It had always been worse when Vernon had a hard day of work and was deep into a bottle of scotch. He shivered again, this time not from the cold.
He shook his head, trying to shake off the memories. “Th-they didn’t want to waste their hard-earned money to take me to the healer, so I had to rely on my magic to heal the injuries. The strain caused my magical core to be injured.”
“What!” the others gasped.
Fred grabbed him by his shoulders and pulled him to face him. “Avi! We need to get you to Pomfrey right now! You could lose your magic or even die from injuring your magical core!” He immediately gathered up the smaller boy and hurried their group out of the hall.
Avi struggled until he could push the others off of him. “I’m fine! Severus already had me taken to a healer. They said I would be fine. I just have to keep warm until my magic recovers enough to maintain my body temperature again. I was doing better honestly until yesterday.”
“That idiot Markheart,” George growled. “I would still rather you get checked out again…”
Avi shook his head adamantly, “I will be fine. I just need to get the blanket my dad charmed for me from my room before we go back to the library.”
The others begrudgingly followed him to get the blanket. Once in the Potion Master’s rooms, the twins spread out to explore out of years of curiosity. “It’s much more normal than I was expecting,” George said.
“Not enough jars of mystery organs for your liking, George?” Avi laughed.
Fred perked up from where he was examining a shelf of books. “Avi, that’s Fred. I’m George!”
Avyaan smirked, “That won’t work on me Fred. You’ll have to try harder than that.”
“Wait, you can tell these two apart?” Terry sounded awed.
The twins looked at each other in shock, “Our own mother can’t even tell us apart.”
“How do you do it?” Terry asked, excited to find out the secret.
“I don’t know. I just can,” Avi shrugged. “I could always tell who was coming to the door of my cupboard by the sound of their footsteps too. My uncle, aunt, and cousin always had a distinct sound. It might be something like that?”
“Your cupboard?” George asked, sounding like he wasn’t sure if he wanted that question answered.
Avi flinched and gave the group a shaky smile as he realized his slip. “M-my cousin needed more room than me, so I slept in the cupboard under the stairs.” Rather than face their looks of disgust, he quickly left the room and headed for the library.
Once there, the others avoided bringing up the topic of Avi’s former family, but Fred moved them closer to the large fireplace in the back of the library and pulled out a sandwich he had wrapped in a napkin. He handed it to Avi as he sat bundled up by the fire with his stack of books. Avi handed back half of the sandwich, knowing he wouldn’t be able to finish it. He hated wasting food.
Avi nibbled on the half-sandwich until he found a passage about Inferi. The description was quite vivid and he had to set the food aside or lose what little he had managed to consume. The next article about Wendigos and how they are created when a desperate wizard resorts to cannibalism to avoid starving to death did not help either. He was startled out of his thoughts when Terry stumbled upon a lead.
“Listen to this!”
Skinwalkers
These horrifying beasts are known wizard hunters, categorized as XXXX beasts. They are known for dwelling in dense forests and mountains, coming out at night to stalk their prey. Their favorite prey consists of wixen and other magical beasts, but are known to stalk squibs and muggleborns for easier prey. Their twisted and naked forms are vaguely humanoid and they use their claws to gut their victims and drink the magic from their blood. Once their prey is drained of their magic they use their claws to skin them alive. The Skinwalker then takes their flesh and wears it to give it the power to take on that animal or wizard's form.
Avi looked at the remainder of his sandwich and handed it to George. “Vanish this for me, would you? There is no way I am eating after hearing that.” The older boy nodded in understanding and did as asked.
Not long after their discovery, the others decided to go to dinner, but Avi opted to skip and visit his father in the Hospital Wing instead. Severus was sitting up in bed when he came in although he was wearing an eye patch that made him look even more intimidating than usual. Avi chucked a little at the sight, earning himself a one-eyed glare. Avi shrank under the stern gaze. Normally he would remember that Severus was nothing like his former relatives and would never hurt him, but the day had brought up too many old memories for him. “How are you feeling?” he whispered hesitantly.
Severus lost his glare and lifted a brow in concern at his response. With a flick of his wrist, he dismissed the boy’s concern and focused on the bigger issue. “How was your day? Did something happen?”
Avi perked up and told his father about the new friends he made and the research they had been doing. Conveniently avoiding the events of the day before. Technically he had only asked about today, right? Eventually, Poppy came to kick him out so that her patient could get some rest, much to Snape’s protests about having slept enough already.
The dungeons' halls were already starting to get dark by the time Avyaan reached them. The natural chill of the lower levels of the castle caused him to shiver uncontrollably. He dug through his bag and pulled out his velvety blanket to wrap the blue fabric around his shoulders like an extra cloak. He sighed in relief as the warming charms took effect.
Their quarters were empty without his father’s presence to bring him comfort. Avi got ready for bed quickly but could not fall asleep without the soft sound of his father’s snores from the next room. The silence was too much. He couldn’t even blow out the candle that lit his room because the darkness was too familiar. It took hours for him to finally fall asleep, only to be plagued with nightmares about being left alone in the cupboard without any human contact for days, with only the aches of his wounds to distract him.