Chapter 21
“Can I tell you a secret?” Penny asked conspiratorially, peering over her arithmancy book.
Koty grinned up at her, glad to be held in confidence. They really were best friends and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Well,” she whispered, putting the book on the table. “I’ve decided to learn something a bit above OWL levels, and I was wondering if you might like to do it with me.”
His brows rose as he did his best to contain his excitement. They were in the library after all. They didn’t need to be kicked out again.
“I’m going to learn how to become an animagus!” She declared happily. “Olive will too, but Amelia doesn’t want to. Do you want to join in?”
“Yeah!” He whispered back. That would be amazing! “Wait, why doesn’t ‘Melia want to try?”
At that, Penny looked a bit uncomfortable. “Well, her uncle, Alphonse, ran into a bit of trouble with it… He didn’t die or anything, but well... Long story short, he messed something up, and is now half human, half raccoon.”
“Is he okay?” Koty asked, concerned.
“Yeah,” she said with a bit of a nod. “Technically, he’s perfectly healthy. He just refuses to go out in public anymore.”
Koty wasn’t so sure he wanted to try it now, not knowing that such a thing could happen. He didn’t want to accidentally wind up like poor Alphonse. “What exactly are the odds of something like that happening to one of us?”
“Like a billion to one,” Penny said immediately. “Like I said, he made a mistake somewhere along the way. If we all do it together, there’s no way we can mess up! Besides, he was only like the third person in history to have that happen. Honestly, Amelia’s more concerned about hurting her uncle’s feelings than fear.”
“Ohhh,” he said softly, understanding the need for solidarity.
“So, will you do it?” She asked, sounding decidedly expectant. “We probably won’t make much progress till next term, what with OWL’s coming up, but won’t it be thrilling?”
Koty agreed, much to Penny’s excitement, and went back to his homework. Their OWL’s were coming up pretty quickly. There was only a little over six weeks left. Thankfully his friends hadn’t begun to crack up like some. Sure, they would probably get a bit frantic the last week or two, but some of the students were already going way overboard. Two of the boys in Ravenclaw had already started skipping meals over the weekends so that they could study, which, in Koty’s mind at least, was dumb. How were they going to get anything done when they were half starving themselves like that? He was afraid of what they’d be like the week before.
Koty was sipping his blood smoothie in the Great Hall when a letter was dropped on his plate. He smiled upon seeing his dad’s familiar, elegant handwriting. Making sure not to tear the expensive envelope, he pulled out the parchment and beamed. Scooting off the bench, he happily made his way up the long aisle toward the staff table and handed Professor Snape the parchment.
“Very well,” the man said with a sharp nod. “You may retake your seat.”
“What was that about?” Olive asked, leaning toward the Slytherin table.
“Dad sent a permission slip so I can go to Hogsmeade with you guys!” Koty was smiling so broadly that his cheeks were beginning to hurt.
“Oh! Well, in that case,” Olive started rummaging around in her bag and let out a triumphant ‘aha!’ upon taking something out. “You can have your gift certificate back!”
Before Koty could get back up to get the certificate, Bear had leapt up from his spot and gently took it out of her hands and returned it to him.
Checking the balance, which would magically change every time it was used, he was thrilled to note that there were still six galleons, eleven sickles and four knuts on it.
“Mr. Malfoy,”
Koty turned, surprised to see Professor Snape behind him. He loved being able to answer to a name that finally felt like it was his! “Yes, sir?”
“I was only in need of the permission slip, not the entirety of your correspondence.” The professor handed over a page and a half.
“Sorry, sir,” he replied sheepishly, taking the pages. “I guess I was a bit excited.”
The full page was a letter. Koty read through it happily, but was confused when the PS at the bottom said ‘remember your brother’. Brows furrowed in confusion, he flipped the letter over, but it was blank. Then he looked at the half sheet, which turned out to be another Hogsmeade gift certificate. He nearly choked on his smoothie when he saw the balance. If his six galleons was a lot, then this was a veritable fortune! There was a hundred galleons on it!
“Draco!” Koty said excitedly, waving his brother close.
When Draco looked over the certificate, he merely nodded.
“Do you want anything from Hogsmeade?” Koty asked. “I couldn’t possibly spend all this myself.”
The blond grinned. “Far be it for me to decline such a generous offer. I could use a few quills and sweets.”
For the next few minutes, the brothers went over the catalogues that Koty had been using to shop through his friends.
When breakfast was finally over, Koty all but dragged his friends out the door.
Koty fell in love with the little village immediately. He went into nearly every shop, but wound up window shopping more than actually shopping.
Well, until he found himself surrounded by color. Honeydukes. Koty had bought himself a small supply of chocolates (both ‘normal’ and blood filled, as the blood jellies were his favorite) and some things called Bertie Botts and Jelly Slugs! When he gathered up a bunch of sweets his brother might like, his total came to one galleon and nineteen knuts. To be perfectly honest, he didn’t know what most of the sweets were, but they looked fun!
He took Bear into the pet shop to see if any of the doggy supplies were needed. In the end, Bear sniffed out something called Dragon’s Breath Biscuits, which were supposedly as spicy as dragon’s fire was hot. Koty was a little worried that it would hurt Bear, but after demolishing one of the biscuits, Bear woofed happily as rings of smoke billowed out of his nose with every exhale and wagged his barbed tail. He was also able to find a doggy bed, though it was actually made for fully grown jungle cats that people occasionally had as familiars, and it was almost as large as his own new bed.
Koty tried to buy them all a round of cocoa at a quaint little pub, but his friends refused. In fact, they paid for his, saying they were just happy that he was finally allowed to join them!
At the end of their shopping excursion, Koty headed back toward the Slytherin common room and opened the portrait right between that and Professor Snape’s rooms. Exhausted, Koty fell into the pillow soft mattress and was out like a light.
For the next few weeks, Koty and his friends were studying for their OWL’s, but making sure to be smart about it. Koty had come up with a study schedule to keep them from overwhelming themselves. On weekdays, they studied from three to six (when dinner was served) and from seven to nine. On the weekends, they studied from ten am to lunch, did fun things until four, then were back to the books until dinner. There was no more studying after that. They also made sure to go to bed at around ten.
The Headmaster announced that they were going to have a party to ease up on the stress of exams in a few weeks. Most of the professors were on board, but Professor Snape simply sneered at the excited student body.
It wasn’t until the week before exams began that Koty had an interaction with his- with Jamie. For weeks now, he’d seen a lot of the Gryffindors trying to hex him in the halls, but Jamie almost never seemed to be around for it. Today though, Jamie and his friends, whose names Koty hadn’t learned beyond Ron, were having a not-so-silent ‘whispered’ discussion in the back corner of the library.
“It has to be tonight!” Jamie was saying. He sounded angry about something.
Koty stayed perfectly still, not wanting their attention in any way.
“But we can’t,” said a boy with an Irish accent. “We’ve all got to go to that stupid party tonight! Everyone will be there.”
“Exactly,” a voice that Koty didn’t recognize added calmly. “And while everyone’s busy with that, who’s going to notice if a few students don’t show up? Or if a certain professor doesn’t show up?”
“Yeah!” came Ron’s obnoxiously loud voice. He was immediately shushed. “Okay, okay. Calm down. No one will be surprised when that Death Eater doesn’t show, ‘cause everyone in the world knows how much he hates kids! They’ll be glad he’s not there, so that’s when Ol’ Snape’ll make his move! It’s perfect!”
“So, it’s agreed?” Jamie demanded. “We get Flamel’s thing and save everyone from Voldemort-” There was a yelp and a thud “-coming back, right?”
“We’ll be heroes!” Ron said, awed. “They’ll probably give us awards!”
“Order of Merlin’s!” The Irish boy said happily.
“First class all the way!” Jamie said triumphantly. “Now, we won’t all fit under my cloak, but we can use it to make sure no one will see us. We’ll go to the party, but leave after a little while, to make sure that they’re all in the Great Hall.”
“And sneak up to the third floor while they’re occupied.” The unfamiliar voice said determinedly.
“Alright,” Jamie said. “Someone gimme a quill. We need to make a list of stuff that we might need.”
What in Merlin’s name were they going to do? Were they talking about Snape? And who was Flam- Koty gasped quietly. The only Flamel’s that Koty knew of were Nicholas and Pernelle, who never had children. He’d read about the man a long time ago, but couldn’t remember all the details. Whatever the man had studied was not too interesting to Koty.
He would ask his friends. Surely one of them would know something.
Whatever the Gryffindors were planning, it didn’t sound like they wanted to be caught. What if their plans got them into real trouble?
For a split second, Koty mentally cheered at the idea, but was worried that they might get hurt. Just because they were horrid to him, and anyone not in their house, didn’t mean that he wanted them to be hurt.
As soon as the group was wrapped up in their discussion of what was needed for their Hero’s Quest, Koty cast a disillusionment charm over himself and left the library. He had to go find his favorite prefect.
Half an hour later, Koty found himself in their abandoned classroom with Penny, Amelia and Olive. He’d had to disappoint about a dozen people who wanted their hair done for the party. Besides, the Great Hall was already being set up, so he wouldn’t have had time anyway. Still, he did feel a little bad about it.
“So, what could Jamie possibly be helping Flamel with?” Koty asked them, irritated that nothing was clicking.
Penny hummed for a minute. “Tell me exactly what was said.”
So he did. Twice.
“Okay,” Amelia said, tapping her toe against the flagstones. “So, we know that Flamel was in on finding uses for dragon’s blood and alchemy, but how would that help You-Know-Who come back to life?”
Koty was relieved that they believed him. Even he knew it sounded crazy. How could someone come back to life ten whole years after they’d been defeated? It was completely mad! “I haven’t got a clue. D’you think someone tricked them into thinking that he is coming back?”
“Either way, they’re gonna get into some serious trouble.” Penny said, smirking. “Oh, the points that will be taken away from those little toerags for going to the Forbidden third floor corridor! Those four snots will personally put Gryffindor in the negatives!”
Olive cracked up. “They’ll be serving detentions until Yule!”
“Wait!” Koty cried, horrified. “I just remembered what Flamel was most famous for!”
His friends startled at his outburst, but looked at him expectantly.
“The elixir of life,” he breathed.
“But that can only be made with the Philosopher’s... Stone… which he invented…” Olive said, trailing off as her eyes widened.
“Oh, crap,” Penny and Amelia said in unison.
“But wouldn’t Flitwick be a better idea?” Olive asked skeptically.
“You’re just afraid of Snape, Livvy,” Amelia said, smirking.
Koty’s racing mind stopped. “Are you really?” After five years of classes? “But you’re not a Gryffindor…?”
Rolling her eyes, Olive huffed. “I’m not afraid of him, but since three of us are Ravenclaws, it just seemed like a logical choice. Pick whoever.”
The party that was supposed to help everyone unwind a bit before exams had started about twenty minutes earlier and they needed to get moving.
Koty was still trying to figure out why in Merin’s name the school would be considered a good place to hide the Philosopher’s Stone as they made their way up to the third floor.
They decided to have one of their group go get a professor. Penny was a prefect, Olive was crazily brave and they unanimously decided that Koty was ridiculously powerful and would be necessary. Amelia was far from a coward or a squib, but she decided that it would be more useful for her to be the one to fetch a professor. Koty had asked Bear to do it, but Bear had essentially attached himself to Koty’s side at the mention of bravery.
While it was common knowledge that the first year boys of Gryffindor were not exactly ‘top-of-the-class’ material, Koty could easily admit that gathering supplies was a good idea. In the end, it was decided that the trio-woof! quartet- would bring a quickly assembled medi-kit. Anything else could be summoned, transfigured or conjured.
As they reached the third floor, Koty’s mind was occupied with all of the things that could possibly go wrong. Everything short of natural disasters had to be accounted for, but, as Penny reminded him, magic was on their side. They could do this. They had to do this.
Koty stopped at the door that led to the ‘forbidden corridor’ and listened, his brow furrowed in confusion. There was a deep, rhythmic rumbling coming from inside. When Penny reached for the door, Koty gently grabbed her arm. “Wait. I remember something… I was here before and there was something… What was it?” Wracking his brains, Koty did his best to recall the day he had been here. “The day I made the house team… I heard what sounded like… barking, I think. I remember that, because I thought someone was going to get into trouble for having an unauthorized pet. I think there’s some kind of a dog in there.”
Olive clapped. “Let me go in first!”
Koty’s eyes widened at her excitement. He knew she absolutely loved Bear, but who didn’t? Then again, when she found out that he was part Wyvern, she went from love to astonished adoration.
He moved back so she could get through.
She opened the door slowly, gasped and closed it again, her eyes dazzling in delight. “It’s a cerberus!” She did a little happy dance before setting down and pushing the door open.
To Koty and Penny’s confusion, Olive started to sing. Their confusion was soon replaced with jaw-slackened wonder. She was incredible!
Her voice never wavering, she pushed the door the rest of the way open, letting her friends in. They stepped in hesitantly, waiting for the massive beast to attack. To their shock, the cerberus was bobbing all three of its heads along to the slow, lilting melody.
Penny spoke in time with the song that she apparently knew. “There’s a trap-” there was a gap in the lyrics. “Doooooor over heeeeeeere.”
Had the situation not been dangerous, Koty would have laughed at the less than pleasant ‘singing’ by his best friend. He followed her gaze, after scanning the room quickly. There was no other door.
Bear whimpered and began licking the semi-dozing beast.
Koty gasped and went to pull him back, but froze upon seeing exactly what he was doing. There were heavy metal collars on each of the three necks and his heart broke. The areas surrounding the collars were completely bald and bleeding in some spots. It was then that he noticed the flagstone floor and walls were gouged with a myriad of claw marks. This poor thing was locked in here for months and ignored!
Tears flowing freely, Koty was mentally transported back to his attic. That was no life for anything, human, beast or hybrid thing. He would figure out how to free the poor thing.
Shaking his head sadly, Koty brought himself back to the present and pulled open the trapdoor. It was completely dark inside, so he cast a high powered lumos. At the horrid screeching noise, Koty winced and immediately dimmed the light. “It’s Devil’s Snare,” he whispered to his friends, hoping he hadn’t scarred the plant. It was similar to a sunburn… but times a thousand. “About ten feet down. When we land, move very, very slowly and try to find the root. It’ll wrap you up, but don’t thrash. When one of us finds the root, just pet it. No fingernails, or it’ll think you’re trying to attack.”
Olive was scratching one of the cerberus’ heads, but nodded, still singing.
Taking a deep breath, Koty slipped through the trapdoor and was startled when his wings shot out of their own volition and lowered him gently onto the thick vines. With one hand, he petted the vines and felt around for the root. He almost lost his footing when the plant lurched, letting him know that Penny had jumped down. They were quickly joined by Olive.
“Okay, it’s got me,” Olive said shakily, clearly trying not to panic. “What do I do?”
“Just hold still,” Koty said calmly.
“It’s got my legs, but I’m still looking for the root.” Penny added.
Koty cast cushioning charms on his shoes, not wanting to hurt the plant. He knew how much Professor Sprout cared for her plants.
“Got it!” He said triumphantly, petting the strange roots. To his surprise, the vines shuddered, as if in delight, and cradled all three to the floor below. “Thank you,” he said, not feeling silly at all for talking to a plant. Maybe not spell-casting, but the Devil’s Snare was magical all the same.
He smiled when one of the vines gave his hand a squeeze and let go, returning to the mass in the air.
“Bye!” He said, knowing it couldn’t reply.
“Why didn’t we just cast a lumos or something?” Olive asked, her voice returning to normal.
“Would you have appreciated having your clothes caught on fire?” Koty asked his friend. “Because it’s basically the same thing.”
Olive let out a hiss. “Okay, sorry.”
“It’s fine, just feel around for the door.” Koty ran his hands along the cool stone.
“Got it!” Penny called out. “Follow the light.” She opened the door a crack so they could find their way over to her.
“Okay, Olive,” Koty instructed. “Go through as quickly as possible and I’ll shut the door the second I’m through.”
When he pulled the door shut, Koty looked around. There were several massive piles of destroyed chess pieces and the floor was checkered black and white.
“Oh, no!” Penny cried out, pointing to a pile of rubble. “Look!”
The group rushed over to what looked like a lump of dusty cloth. Koty was shocked to find a mop of flaming red hair, half covered in dust and rubble. There was a small pool of blood around an aggressive looking cut by the boy’s temple.
“They just left him here?!” Koty snarled, letting go of the hope for reconciliation with his ex-brother. What kind of glory seeking monster would leave their so-called best friend alone with a bleeding head wound? “That bastard!”
Not commenting on his language, Penny carefully pulled the excess fabric out of the way to get a better look.
“Wait!” Olive said quickly. “Don’t move him! We don’t know what the damage is. If we move him and there’s spinal damage or anything, we could paralyze him.”
Penny’s hands jerked back, despite not having actually touched him.
“Okay, okay,” Koty said more to himself than them. “We need to conjure a stretcher and totally immobilize him.” Biting his lip, he held both hands over the unconscious form of one Ronald Weasley. Having read about a children’s game called ‘freeze tag’, where the tagged person has to stand still as a statue, Koty focused on turning the redhead into a living statue. When nothing seemed to have happened, he tested it by trying to slowly bend one of Ron’s seemingly uninjured fingers. It didn’t budge.
“Kitten, we have to hurry up!” Penny said nervously. “The pieces are starting to reassemble themselves!”
Not noticing that Olive had transfigured her robe into a stretcher, Koty looked around to see several of the larger pieces of stone rolling back to their original places on the board. With newfound urgency, he levitated Ron’s prone form onto the floating stretcher. Hastily casting the strongest stasis charm he knew, Koty instructed Olive to move the stretcher to the entrance of the room where there was no debris.
Wanting to get him medical attention as soon as possible, Koty mentally scrambled for a way to get him proper help. A glint of silver caught his eye. Grabbing Penny’s wrist, he looked at the charm bracelet curiously. The Valentine’s Day gift just might work! Pouring his magic into the charm, it began to glow.
“Amelia!” He called into the tiny silver kitten.
In the semi-silence, they could hear a muffled “What the hell?”
“‘Melia, it’s the bracelet! Talk to the bracelet!” Koty said, tugging Penny and Olive toward the other end of the room.
“Uh,” came the static-y voice of Amelia. “Kitten? I didn’t know these things were communicators.”
“They’re not. They weren’t. Whatever. I need you and Professor Snape to hurry up. Ron’s been hurt and those bastards left him here to bleed out!”
“What?!” The kitten screeched in his absent friends’ voice. “...Detention until graduation…” it said in Professor Snape’s drawl.
“We’ve got him under the best stasis charm I could cast, but hurry up all the same.” Koty said quickly. “We’ve got to keep going before one of these morons gets themselves killed!”
“Do nothing!” The kitten said angrily. “We will be there shortly.”
“I’m sorry, Professor,” Koty said, pushing the next door open, gagging at the smell. “Oh, shit.” His heart pounded violently as he remembered that distinct scent. Troll.
“Koty!” Came the voices of Amelia and Severus. “What is it? What do you see?” “We’re on the third floor now!”
“Penny, talk to them!” Koty demanded, seeing the troll lumber toward them.
Olive retched in the corner as Koty dropped his walking stick and held up both hands.
Letting the magic gather in his now faintly glowing hands, and sent wave after wave of pure magic at it. The first wave made it stagger backwards. He winced as the troll stepped down on something that crunched loudly. The second wave knocked him off his feet. The third had the troll rolling toward the wall. The fourth lifted it off the floor.
Koty concentrated on keeping it in the air, which was no easy feat, as it had to weigh as much as a half grown elephant. Bead after bead of sweat trickled down his face. “Bind him!” He shouted at his friends, unsure of how long he could maintain the immense amount of magic.
Penny and Olive each shot an ‘incarcerous’ at it.
“Again!” Koty yelled, knowing that it would be able to break the ropes.
The troll gave a loud roar that made them all cringe.
They each cast it twice more.
Despite its’ violent thrashing, the troll could barely move.
Koty let his magic fall and the troll crashed heavily onto the flagstones. Upon releasing the magic, Koty staggered breathlessly into Olive’s waiting arms.
“Are you alright?” She asked frantically, lowering them both to the floor.
“Yeah,” he managed to wheeze. “Just… dizzy… Need a… minute.”
Bear approached the troll and snarled in its face when it roared again. The troll went silent.
“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Penny screamed, jogging past them.
Both Koty and Olive looked up to see her crouching next to yet another unconscious lump of robes.
“Who is it?” Olive asked, stroking Koty’s hair.
“I can’t remember his name,” Penny said absently, casting the same spells as they used on Ron. “The little Irish one.”
“Seamus,” Koty replied. “I’m alright now, Olive. Can you help me up?”
When they were standing, Koty summoned his walking stick and began floating the stretcher toward the door. He wanted to keep the injured students together so they could be picked up at the same time and no one would have to go looking around.
“Can you guys still hear me?” Penny asked the charm on her wrist.
“We can,” Severus’ voice snarled. “What the devil just happened?”
Koty let Penny explain as he stood in the doorway to avoid activating the chessboard and made the stretcher float several meters above the board. He settled the Irish boy next to Ron slowly.
“Penny, tell them the-” he stopped, seeing the opposite door open. “Nevermind.”
“Koty!” “Kitten!” Came the simultaneous cries from Severus and Amelia respectively.
“Stop!” He called. “We got through before the pieces reassembled! You have to play your way across.”
He saw the man’s shoulders slump. “Very well. Continue on, but I swear to Merlin and Morgana, if any of you are injured, I will see to it that you are all in detention with these idiotic Gryffindors! Keep the charm bracelet activated every step of the way!”
“Yes, sir!” They called out together.
“Bear,” Koty called. “Can you keep the troll under control until we come back through?”
Bear woofed happily and let his tongue loll out the side of his mouth.
“Good doggy!” Olive said happily.
Penny led them through the next door. The room was nearly empty, save for the table of randomly sized beakers, flasks and goblets.
“GO!” Jamie shouted, seeing Koty, Penny and Olive.
They both chugged down the potions and shuddered. Dean collapsed and Jamie called him an idiot and ran through the wall of flames.
Gaping after Jamie’s callousness, Koty was startled out of his shock when Dean began convulsing on the floor.
“Olive! Get a bezoar out of the medi-kit, now!”
But she couldn’t get him to swallow the small stone. “What do I do?” She asked, surprisingly calm.
Koty summoned his elemental magic to collect the water from the air. He held a small orb of water and had her drop the bezoar into it and hold the boy’s mouth open. “Alright, now try to keep him still.”
Olive grunted as his head slammed back, right into her stomach. She adjusted her grip and pried his lower jaw open.
Koty maneuvered the little orb of water to shoot directly down Dean’s throat.
After a second, Dean coughed and blinked hazily at them. “Where’s Jamie?” He asked weakly.
“Are you honestly surprised that little toerag abandoned you too?” Penny snapped. “You shouldn’t be. After all, you did the exact same thing to Ron and Seamus.”
“I…” Dean began, sounding exhausted. His eyes slipped closed.
“Do we need another bezoar?” Olive asked, panicked.
“No,” Koty replied, shaking his head. “He’s in a deep sleep. Side effect of bezoars. He’ll be fine.”
“Now we just have to get your stupid brother,” Penny scoffed.
“Ex,” Koty snapped back without realizing it. “Sorry. Let’s go.”
“Queen to H3,” the charm said softly.
Olive cast a flame-freezing charm at the wall of flames and they all stepped through unscathed.
Jamie was on a broom, in the middle of a swarm of… tiny birds? He dipped and weaved through support beams, trying to catch one of the birds.
Why was the idiot trying to catch a bird?
Koty spotted the door, ignoring Jamie completely, only to find it locked. A few simple unlocking charms later, the door swung open. He turned around in time to watch Jamie lose control of the broom and smash into the wall. Bits of splintered wood went flying and Jamie began to fall.