NOVEL WEB The First Attack
Every day was different. The wizard world is full of things that enrapture me. The problem is the lack of innovation that I consistently see.
Wizarding traditions from hundreds of years ago, banning of things that they don’t understand and the over protectiveness that’s perverse throughout the more recent laws.
“I still can’t believe they mark the wands,” I grimaced to Luna who (I think) shared my frustrations.
She simply nodded, while looking at her wand.
“And how do they even do it?” I grimaced again.
There was no real documentation of ‘how’ your wand gets tracked for ‘illegal usage’. All the books I found referenced either old magic or the government.
Another thing that annoys me is how everything that’s not understood is chalked up to “Old Magic” with no attempts to preserve or understand.
“I mean seriously, anyone with half a brain would think to at least save a copy!” I exclaimed again. “What if I just established a club for preserving books?”
“You wont be tracked at my house.” Luna said.
“Really? How?” I was shocked and immediately distracted.
“Our house is registered,” she offered an explanation that didn’t really make sense to me.
She didn’t continue either. I guess just registering with the government is enough for them.
“Don’t you have any other friends, Zane?” Luna suddenly asked.
I was instantly reminded of all the times I had approached people, and them promptly escaping over the past few weeks. Even my own roommates I haven’t seen since we first met.
Hell, even Meowser is still missing. The only group I could consider myself remotely related is Harry’s trio. So, I just shook my head.
“Too hard,” I said bitterly. It doesn’t help I feel older than I really am most of the time. Even the Ravenclaw’s that I have observed act way too childish for the house of wisdom.
She nodded, as if understanding.
“Lets go to dinner.” She said, walking off.
“Dinner?” I looked outside and sure enough, the moon was displaying its uniqueness.
“Tempus”
[18:54]
“Time seems to fly when I am with you, Luna.” I briefly remarked before following.
---
Dinner was extravagant, food as far as you could reasonably see. Luna had already set out a plate for both of us.
“The house elf’s are amazing,” I remarked and heard a distant squeal in response.
It seems they can hear me complimenting the food.
This dinner was also unusual, as the headmaster had stepped out for a moment. From what I could tell about him, he loved parties.
It also seemed to be a ghosts Hallowe'en party, or “Death Day”. I wasn’t too interested in finding out why a Ghost would celebrate himself being killed. His death was well documented in the library anyways.
Luna had filled up the plates again, avoiding certain dishes.
“That’s not fair!” I heard two people shout at the same time. Turning to look at them revealed to be the Nargle infested duo.
“How do you always know!” They cried out, completely aggrieved. “We even toned down the dosage to test how sensitive you are, but this is ridiculous!”
“What did you do?” I asked. Tampering with food was worth my time thinking of a prank for them.
“The plate of lamb makes breathe fire,” One said. “Spicy,” I responded.
“The brownies glue your mouth shut for 10 minutes,” The second one said.
Relatively speaking, these are harmless and just inconvenient to deal with.
“The brownies stop you from eating, but they are a desert, so it doesn’t matter much.” I said out loud.
They seemed shocked.
“Charred lamb is also quite good as well,” I continued. “I appreciate your intentions.”
They went silent, and promptly left the hall in a hurry. Luna had put a hand on my shoulder, and when I turned to look, her mouth was glued shut.
“Hahaha!” I laughed. She seemed flushed. “Don’t worry, I am committed to getting them back.”
Dinner passed by relatively uneventful, and we left to go towards the Library for some brief reading.
It’s a wonderful habit that I have shared with Luna, one I cultivated from my time in the Nest. Thinking of this made me a bit absentminded.
---
“I don’t like spiders…” I heard someone say from around the corner, it seemed to be Ron.
I turned the corner and immediately stopped, Luna bumping into me.
The trio had been looking out the window, tracing some spiders and were now looking at us. The scene was violent, blood on the walls and a dead cat hanging from one of the light posts. I opened my mouth to say something but shut it again as it seemed they hadn’t noticed the blood on the wall.
This was apparent due to their reaction to my reaction.
“Zane?” Harry seemed concerned. I just pointed towards the bloody wall, prompting the trio to turn their heads towards where I had pointed.
“The chamber of secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir beware… It’s written in blood…” Hermione read out the text.
“Look, its Filches cat,” Harry said.
The surroundings went silent as we heard more footsteps walk towards us. A mass of people had turned the corridor and started gathering around us, shock evident on their faces. From behind us some Slytherins came as well.
There were murmurs all around, most of it relating to the blood and Harry. A Gryffindor student tried to take a photo but was quickly stopped by a Prefect that looked like Ron. [1]
The murmurs immediately died down when Filches voice was heard. “What’s the ruckus, move along you lot.” He then looked towards his cat, who was hanging from a torch holder. His face went mad with anger as he grabbed Harry.
“I’ll kill you!” The face of a man who lost the only person that understood him, was twisted with rage.
“Argus!” Dumbledore appeared behind me, scaring me forwards toward Harry. His presence got the attention of all the students.
“Everyone will proceed to their dormitories immediately.” He stated. People immediately started to disperse, the authority clear. Argus immediately let Harry go.
“Everyone except, you 5.” He pointed to the Trio, Luna, and me. The surroundings continued to disperse leaving just us and all the teachers.
“She isn’t dead Argus,” Dumbledore stated. “She is simply petrified.”
“So unlucky!” The DADA teacher exclaimed, gathering everyone’s attention on him. “I knew the exact counter curse that could have saved her.”
The looks he got from the rest of the teaching staff proved it isn’t all harmonious on the backend, especially Dumbledore.
This whole scene was giving me major déjà vu, as if I had seen this whole thing before. I started to zone out, why its so familiar. Images of the future came and went, and I understood nothing. There is a 0 percent chance I’m doing Divination as an elective later on. I found myself in a trance, watching the scene but unable to interact. Snape vouched for Harry, but still questioned him. Harry explained he was at the ghosts death day, and Hermione almost revealed Harry’s hissing problem.
Luna was squeezing my arm tightly, perhaps she had been doing it the whole time. Her arms were pulling me down, as if to keep me grounded. The oddity of the situation drew the attention of the others. There was silence as I knew they were all staring at me.
“An unfair tale, betrayed by a rat. Fate made interesting arrangements, speaking the language off those with tails.” I spoke in an ethereal tone. “Fate is always fair.”
The feeling died down, and I just stared at Harry. There was a lingering silence, before everything went pitch black.
…
“We meet again,” The glowing voice in my mind started.
“Sigh” I just sighed and sat down. “What now?”
The glowing voice also sat down. “Well, nothing really. You just had your second ‘Prophecy’.”
There was a silence as I tried to process what it said.
“I can see the future?” I asked.
“Not quite,” it smiled and stood up. “It’s a story for another time, and not something you can know right now. While we are here, how is your occlumency?”
“…” I offered silence.
“Well, that is to be expected, the normal methods wont really work on you.” It seemed bitter towards the end.
“Is it because of you?” I asked, and it didn’t speak, just nodded.
“I’m bound by oath not to tell you anything until certain conditions are met.” It said.
“Is occlumency one?” I asked again, getting zero response from him.
Sometimes, silence is the answer. [2]
“Anyways,” it said, “you’ll get there eventually. Are you looking forwards to Christmas with your new friend?”
Bewildered by the sudden question, I turned to look at the figure, who was seemingly grinning ear to ear.
“Some word of advice, try to learn a spell that will keep you warm.” It said.
“Why?” I asked, but it offered no response.
The world started to brighten up again, a sign I was regaining consciousness.
“Oh, before you go. Have you named your Orb yet?”
“No,”
“Call it Florb,” It said while grinning.
“What-“ Everything brightened, and I found myself sitting up in the infirmary, there was no one around.
“Florb?” I said aloud, and my floating orb came out from my robes.
What even is the figures name? Has it ever told me? Why is it bound by oaths?
So many things to research.
The door to the infirmary opened shortly after, and Dumbledore came in with Harry.
“Zane, you are awake, how are you feeling?” He asked.
“I just woke,” I replied flatly.
I just woke up, is he monitoring me?
“All good I presume?” He continued.
“I guess,” nothing felt out of the ordinary. I turned my gaze to Harry who seemed to be hiding behind Harry. I got minor flashbacks to what I had seen.
“This will be a year that tests friendships.” I said directly.
They both froze, seemingly anxious.
“What do you mean?” Dumbledore asked hurriedly.
I shrugged.
“No matter,” Dumbledore let it drop way to easily.
Is he afraid I’ll make another prophecy? I thought the figure said they weren’t.
“Ill get going now, Headmaster.” I said.
It doesn’t take a genius to know this year will be tough, many people saw him next to the bloody text and rumors spread like wildfire. I hoped to warn Dumbledore to take precautions against such things.
“Alright Zane,” He nodded.
I waved and made my way out, towards the dorm.
You know, this whole time I didn’t even see the school nurse…
I arrived in the common room and made my way towards the dorm.
As usual, none of my roommates were in the room. It also seemed like some students were avoiding me more than usual.
A problem for tomorrow, I belly flopped on the bed and groaned in paid as I landed on Florb.
Feels like a literal gut punch.
-----
Author Corner:
I moved the first attack to Halowe’en.
Zane started his normal-ish school life in between chapters, not much goes on except reading at the library and classes. I can only make those so interesting while keeping the story fast enough.
I also initially had the idea to make Meowser the first victim but changed my mind. Meowser is currently out on its own adventure and I'll probably use it as an intermission soon. I think Age of Aeon does intermissions well, if not mildly annoying when you've caught up...
[1] This is the scene from the movie, if you wanna check it out stop at around 50:40. Percy stops Colin from taking a photo of the wall. I think this saved him later on when the second attack occurs since his camera is still fresh.
[2] Throwback to the door knocker’s answer. Completely coincidental but tied in nicely.