Ch. 33. Another Boring Lecture
Too soon for Harry’s taste, Professor Lockhart, resplendent as always in his perfectly turquoise robes, stood-up at the Head Table. He gave a very toothy smile to the students as he glanced around the Great Hall. Harry thought that with the right angle, and a very bright torch to reflect off those teeth, he probably could manage to blind most of the people in the hall. The professor began tapping his crystal goblet, as if no one had noticed the peacock abruptly standing. Quickly, the room quieted.
“Thank you, thank you,” the wizard said proudly, enjoying the attention of the entire school. He grinned widely, again, as he swept the hall with his gaze. “As I mentioned on Thursday, this morning I will be presenting a special class for the second-year students in the Great Hall after breakfast today.”
He chuckled, self-satisfied, at everyone’s attention. “After the house-elves clear the tables, Professor Flitwick, my assistant today,” he turned and smiled at the wizard as he swept his arm to point at him, “will move the tables aside and arrange seating at the front of the hall.”
Professor Flitwick raised his eyebrows. Apparently, he hadn’t been consulted about this beforehand.
The gadfly nodded and smiled as if the other professor had said something. “If it’s not too difficult, that is?” Lockhart added as if it would be remarkable that he couldn’t. Flitwick only narrowed his eyes.
“So, everyone, please move to the back of the hall while we arrange things for you. Anyone not in second-year who wishes to watch this most extraordinary class, seating for you will be provided.” He chuckled lightly. “I promise you; it will be a show you won’t want to miss!” he confidently added. He chuckled, again. “And you needn’t worry any about the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff match later this morning! I promise the class will be over well in time for you all to find the best seats!”
Harry wished he could miss this class; he had a really bad feeling about it. He exchanged glances with his herd. He would have to keep a close eye on them — all five. At least he knew Hermione and Ginny weren’t quite the trouble magnets the three fillies were.
The food on the tables vanished as soon as Lockhart finished speaking.
There was a great deal of noise as the students shuffled around.
After giving Lockhart another hard look, Flitwick pulled out his wand and began waving it. The tables and benches in the hall all floated to the hall’s sides, stacking themselves neatly to take up the least amount of space. As soon as the floor was cleared, classroom-desks began appearing at the front of the hall, enough to seat the entire second-year class. No doubt the house-elves were bringing them in from empty classrooms. Gilderoy stood at the front of the hall with his hands on his hips, supervising and smiling as if he were the one doing all the work.
Still, in a remarkably short amount of time, all the second-year students were seated at the desks at the front of the Hall. Naturally, they were grouped into the different Houses. Harry noticed that Elly had taken a seat right beside him and the fillies. The Gryffindor students, of course, took the desks at the far left while the Slytherins took those on the opposite side of the hall.
Elly kept giving the Dark Trio a series of rather intense glances.
Harry felt his back tense up.
Two yards behind the desks for the second-years, chairs began appearing for the rest of the audience. The front rows were quickly filled with eager and ardent Lockhart fans — mostly witches — and the entirety of the first-years. The back rows slowly filled with wizards and witches who were not so enthralled with the DADA Professor. More chairs kept appearing until everyone had a seat.
Most of the school seemed to have decided to stay. The sixth- and seventh-year students seemed largely absent — only a few witches remained. The rest were probably preparing for their NEWTs, Harry thought. They properly assumed that anything the professor deemed appropriate for second-year students was far below their interest.
“Your attention, please,” Lockhart said pompously, as if he didn’t have it already. He was standing in the centre of the raised platform that normally held the Head Table — it, too, had been moved against the wall behind it, and the chairs moved to the sides of the hall. It made for an excellent stage.
“Can everyone see me?” he asked, “Can you all clearly hear me?”
His voice carried easily to the back of the hall, without an echo. He had apparently cast a low-volume sonorous on himself so he didn’t have to yell.
“Excellent!” he said, with a self-satisfied toothy smile. “Now then, as you all may recall, we were speaking about vampires, last class. Specifically, we were discussing Renfields.”
Flitwick, McGonagall, and Madam Bones, who were seated to one side of the stage gave him interested looks. Bon Bon and Lyra were midway through the Hall, at the sides, where they could keep an easy eye on all the first-year ponies in attendance. So were many of the pony assistants to the professors. Most of the professors, on the other hoof, had used the excuse of grading assignments to escape what they expected to be a most boring lecture.
“As I said before, renfields are muggles, wizards, and witches who, for whatever silly or nefarious reason, have decided to help vampires.” He shook his head and chuckled. “This means they act as beasts of burden, scouts, servants, or whatever else their master may require of them — including giving blood!” He concluded ominously.
Many of the students in the Hall shuddered at that thought.
Lockhart gave the hall another sweeping glance.
“Their most common duty, however, is guarding their master during the day, keeping him safe from intruders, and other calamities that might befall the place in which they are residing.” He paused and took a breath.
“On the other hand,” he continued in the same menacing tone, striding across the stage, “those aren’t the only things they provide to their master that a wizard must be wary of. Skilled vampires, those vampires with a few centuries under their belts, can also form a link with their renfields! A minor possession at a distance, if you will.” He paused dramatically, sweeping the hall with another long glance.
Harry saw Elly turn and stare at the Slytherins.
“Not only can a distant vampire, through such a link, be able to determine where their renfield is, they can even hear what he hears and see what he sees!” Lockhart said dramatically, with a sweeping gesture.
“Yes, my dear students,” he said theatrically, “You could be having a conversation with a muggle, wizard, or witch, and their master could hear every word, see every expression you make. He can easily flit from one renfield to another, laying out a plot to trap you in his web, if you aren’t careful.”
The witches in his audience gasped, especially the first-year ponies.
“Fortunately,” he said is slightly reassuring tone, “There is a distance limit to that ability. Most cannot hear and see through their renfields further than the insides of a typical small house.” He shook his head. “However, if he were in here, beside me, he would accurately know where his renfields were in most of Hogwarts, with just a thought.
“The more ancient a vampire is, however, the greater those ranges become. A truly ancient vampire, for example, would be able to tell if his renfield was in the Forbidden Forrest or Hogsmeade, and communicate with them in all of Hogwarts and most of its lawns.” He started pacing.
“The problem that presents, of course, is that as long as he can feel the presence of his renfield, he can summon him closer until the renfield is close enough for direct, mind-to-mind, orders.” He stopped to give another long glance across the hall, narrowing his eyes and posing dramatically.
“Even finding a vampire asleep during the day, apparently with no one to protect him nearby, doesn’t mean the vampire is unaware of you.” He struck a melodramatic pose. “The appearance of helplessness is a ploy to trick you into lowering your guard. He has already called for his renfields to deal with you.”
He gave the hall a grim look. “If he couldn’t call for help, you would never have been able to get so close in the first place. Unless, of course, like me, you have already rendered his renfields helpless.”
He sighed heavily. “However, how do you determine if someone is a renfield?”
He spent the next quarter-hour going over the various traits shared by many renfields. It took someone of a certain personality to want to be a renfield, and that personality was decidedly unusual. They were, almost to a person, twitchy and easily distracted. They weren’t that particular about their personal appearance, either. Personal hygiene seemed to be the first to go, and they seemed to forget to take care of their clothes and other belonging. Unless it was something their master had given them to have or guard. Then they took scrupulous care of it.
Because of Elly’s warning, Harry, and the girls, tried to keep an eye on Draco, Goyle, and Crabbe.
Just as they did in Potion’s class, the two goons were seated on either side of Malfoy. Unfortunately, he couldn’t really see the Slytherins, there were too many other students in the way. However, Harry could easily imagine that they were spending most of the time joking and whispering asides to each other. Just as they did in Potions class.
“Unfortunately, these particular mannerisms and oddities are not proof of a renfield,” Lockhart said as he shook his head wryly. “There are some rather slovenly wizards, witches, and muggles out there, with equally unusual habits, after all!”
He sighed, still shaking his head. “The only way to confirm with any accuracy, if you suspect a renfield, is to use a charm.”
He turned and looked over at the Hufflepuff desks. “Miss Bones, Mr. Hopkins,” he said. Then he turned towards the Gryffindors, “Miss Granger, Mr. Potter,” he said. Then he called for Li and Cornfoot from Ravenclaw, and Parkinson and Goyle from Slytherin. “Please join me up here,” he concluded.
Harry sighed heavily when his name was called. Of course, he was going to be a part of the lesson. He almost always was. Well, at least this time he wasn’t the only one at the front of the class. Unfortunately, it was in front of most of the school. And it separated him and Hermione from the herd.
The eight of them made their ways forward and joined Lockhart on the stage. The last to stand was Goyle, amidst much whispering. He was quite reluctant.
Harry thought he saw the boy stuff his wand into his pocket, and wondered why he had had it out. He tried to note which pocket it went into. He fretfully ejected his wand from its holster and slid it back in. He kept his hand close to his robes to help conceal his nervous reaction. He could see Hermione whispering to herself, repeating some of the shielding spells they had taught themselves over the last two weeks.
The fillies and Ginny watched on anxiously.
Goyle was frowning darkly. That wasn’t an unusual expression for him, however. He was also staring at the professor suspiciously.
There was a bit of shuffling as Harry and Hermione tried to make sure that that Goyle was as far from them as possible. They ended up in a line facing the hall, the professor beside them.
“There’s nothing to fear,” Lockhart grinned broadly at them, “you can trust me to keep you safe, and nothing I will cast can harm you.” He turned back to the rest of the Hall. “Now, the problem is, if you want to check if the person you suspect is a renfield, how do you do that without him seeing or sensing you?” He turned slightly, “Professor Flitwick, would you be so kind as to darken the room so that the students can see a soft light? A full-moon night should be sufficient on this half of the platform.” He swept his arm to indicate the area he meant.
Flitwick nodded and waved his wand lightly at the ceiling that was invisible to the sky outside. Slowly, clouds began to grow from the wall. In a few seconds, the entire hall was much darker than before, with the area indicated even darker. Lockhart looked up, took several steps away from the students, then cast a spell up at the clouds, letting a beam of brighter light hit him. He looked as if he were in a spotlight while everyone else were grey shades against a darker background.
“This particular spell,” he said flamboyantly, with a sweeping gesture, “is fairly simple in concept. You can cast it easily,” he twirled his wand. “If it detects a connection between a vampire and another person, your wand tip will glow red, otherwise it will be yellow. Unfortunately, it is very dim so-as not to alert the suspected Renfield. That does limit its usefulness to night time, or dim locations.” He sighed. “The other problem is that you will probably find the renfield in a public place, like a pub or store, and not wandering by himself. So, if I were to cast this spell at these fine young wizards and witches, it would tell me one of them is in contact with his or her master, but not which one.” He turned to the group of students. “Miss Bones, please take four steps straight back.”
Harry watched her take four rather short steps.
“A bit farther, please . . .,” Lockhart prompted. “Yes, that will do,” he said when he apparently thought she was far enough back, about three yards.
The wizard cancelled the beam of light from above, and pointed his wand at Susan. He waited a few moments for everyone’s eyes to adjust to the now darker Hall. Everything was in shades of grey and Harry could see his fillies and their expressions.
After a bit, Harry could see that Lockhart’s wand-tip had a very faint yellow glow.
“If the conditions are such that you can’t chance the suspect seeing the glow,” the professor said, “turn slideways to better hide your wand, or position yourself so that your wand is partially hidden from sight behind a table, chair, or counter. There is a tiny delay between casting and your wand’s response, so you can take advantage of that to conceal the tip.” He made a show of lifting his left arm and recasting the charm with his wand barely past the edge of his hanging sleeve.
He cancelled the spell.
“If you are outside in the daylight, or a room where it’s bright enough to make it impossible or difficult to see the response, there is another charm.” He waved his wand at the clouds over his head, and the stage brightened, still leaving the rest of the Hall mostly dark. “This charm makes your wand vibrate if the suspect has a link with a vampire or is being possessed.” He pointed his wand at the students, not Susan, and cast the spell. He paused a second, and slowly shook his head. “Unfortunately, with this charm, if your wand doesn’t vibrate, you don’t know if the lack of a response means you cast the spell wrong, missed your target, or they aren’t connected to a vampire.” He turned and grinned at the Hall. “Unless you’re me. Being the talented and versatile adventurer I am, I never miss or miscast. Just refer to my books for a small portion of my adventures.”
He turned back to the students on stage and grinned again. “Spread apart a bit, would you please?” he said.
Harry glanced at Hermione. She nodded, and they moved towards the back of the impromptu stage, away from the others and a bit closer to Lockhart. They were all about a yard from each other when Lockhart cheerfully said, “That’s good enough.” He looked back and forth across the students on the stage, then pointed his wand at Hermione. Harry couldn’t help but reach for his wand, as did Hermione.
“The next charm,” he said quietly, “is not subtle. It is best used only when you are a safe distance from your suspected renfield. It gives away your suspicion of him or her, and the target might attack you or run. In fact, you should only use it when you have the suspect surrounded by your allies.”
Lockhart said something quickly, and a yellow light glowed around Hermione. “You see?” he said stepping closer to the other students and in front of Harry and Hermione.
What happened next took everyone by surprise.
Lockhart flicked his wand to the end of the row of students, towards either Goyle or Parkinson, Harry couldn’t tell from where he stood.
“Stupefy,” he said.
Time seemed to move in slow motion, yet too fast for anypony to react.
Parkinson and the others gaped at the professor.
Goyle, shockingly, didn’t. He agilely jumped to the side, yelling “flipendo,” at the top of his lungs before the knock-back jinx had crossed half the stage.
That was when Harry realized that Goyle had apparently had his wand in hand the entire time, partially concealed up his robe’s sleeve. Fortunately, so had he and Hermione. Their shields popped up almost before they could say the incantation. They had been practicing surprising each other all week.
Goyle’s curse threw Lockhart across the stage.
Malfoy and Crabbe instantly stood and shouted “Bombarda maxima,” at the top of their lungs. The bright-red light-pulses were clearly visible in the darkened Hall. They shot up to the ceiling, and violently exploded.
Lockhart crashed into Flitwick, McGonagall, and Bones. He knocked them off their chairs, entangling them.
A bright-red flash of light splashed against Harry’s shield.
Smoke started billowing from Goyle’s wand as hundreds began to scream and yell.
Harry grabbed Hermione’s hand and teleported in front of his herdmates, expanding his shield to cover them.
Chunks of the ceiling began to fall. Bon Bon and Lyra cast spells, along with several of the quicker older students at the back of the hall.
Shields popped up around the rest of Harry’s friends in second-year. Harry swung his arm, and yelled, “To the wall!” at the fillies and Ginny. He body-bumped into Hermione to get her moving in the same direction.
Spells from a few of the Prefects shot into the cloud of smoke covering the stage area where the Slytherins and Ravenclaws had stood. Malfoy and Crabbe, meanwhile, had turned their wands on those seated beside them, casting cutting curses. The smoke from the stage spread quickly, covering everything in a haze, making it incredibly difficult to see in the already darkened hall. The screaming and yelling made it impossible for anypony to be heard.
Harry curved his shield to cover his herd from those on the stage and the audience. They huddled under that stacked tables for protection from the pieces of falling debris. Hermione had switched to trying to slow the larger pieces’ descent. The others quickly followed her lead.
Hundreds of students were trying to escape, colliding with each other, knocking each other down, and trampling over each other in panic. Ron and Neville were casting the strongest shields they knew over the students, and trying to rally as many others as possible.
Flitwick, Bones, and McGonagall, were trying to regain their feet, but were tripping over Lockhart and each other. Flitwick gave up and cast some sort of shield charm from his position on the floor.
Instead of crushing whomever was unlucky enough to be under it, a beam of wood as thick around as Dudley crashed into the shield. It was barely two yards from the floor, and much less than that over the stage. Bones rolled sideways, away from the others, and cast a stupefy towards the two, now-isolated, Slytherin students who were still casting curses. It took her three tries to get them, the smoke, darkeness, and chaos not helping.
The two made no attempt to dodge or shield against her attacks. They collapsed to the floor. Dust and smoke billowed everywhere.
Bones then lunged to her feet and sent a great wind from her wand across the stage. Someone dispelled the clouds overhead, putting everything into bright view. The stage was empty except for three bodies on the lying on it. From their long hair, two were Parkinson and Li. The third was too small to be Goyle, so it had to be Cornfoot, Harry guessed. Whether they were dead or alive was impossible to tell.
Susan, and Wayne were crouched at the wall at the back of the stage. Their shield charms were outlined in the dust swirling around them. McGonagall was trying to restore calm, but she was running against a definite headwind — Harry knew the ponies were quite good at panicking and staying that way for a time.
The Hall was sheer pandemonium. The students were still rushing around — especially the many transformed and colourful ponies, Harry could see. Many were coughing and choking in the dust clouds drifting around. There was too much noise for anypony to hear anypony else. McGonagall’s cannon-blasts from her wand to get attention merely added to the confusion.
Apple Bloom had paused shielding to cast bubble-head charms on the herd, Ron and Neville.
Flitwick looked strained as more and more debris accumulated against his shield.
“Sweetie Belle!” Harry yelled. She happened to be looking at him, so that helped. He pointed at the stuff falling from the ceiling, and then re-cast his shield to cover as much of the hall as possible. They quickly caught on and added their efforts to Flitwick’s. Other students saw them and started to help, too. It wasn’t much, they were only second-years, but every little bit helped.
The DMLE director had moved to stand over the two Slytherin students. A silvery animal shot out of her wand. A moment later, it vanished through one of the walls. She swept her wand and cleared a wide swath of the air of both smoke and the dust that had fallen from above and hadn’t settled to the floor. Harry could clearly see her now standing in a wide circle of blood-stained stone among the scattered and knocked-over second-year desks.
McGonagall repeated the Director’s action, and sent a white cat charging out of the Hall in another direction, not towards the Hospital Wing. House-elves started popping in and began transporting injured students to safety. There were a lot of them.
There was no sign of Goyle.
Lockhart was out cold, a wide swath of blood covering his face. He was crumpled on his side on the floor, the professors’ knocked-over chairs on either side of him.
The next ten minutes were continuing bedlam. Flitwick and the uninjured second-years were trying to prevent anypony from being killed as the Great Hall slowly collapsed around them. The other professors, even Trelawney, had to fight their way inside the Hall against the tide of panicked students trying to flood out. Heightening the chaos were the occasional crashes as something heavy managed to crash to the floor at the areas where the shields didn’t reach, or failed.
Between them all, however, they managed to shore-up the ceiling with temporary sticking charms.
The Hall was nearly empty when the running Aurors finally arrived. They stopped, stunned, at the damage they could see. Several tripped and fell when Flitwick ordered some of the older students to cut their shields. That allowed some of the heavier roof-debris to crash safely to the Hall’s unoccupied floor areas.
With the help of the Aurors, the rest of the debris was lifted from the shield Flitwick had held, and moved to the walls.
Director Bones, dirty and grimy, as they all were, stood over the two Slytherin boys. They were coated in a layer dust, now.
Harry just collapsed by the wall, too tired to move on, once Flitwick told them to drop the shields they had been holding. There were about twenty others, mostly second-year, on both sides of the Hall. There was another group of older students at the back of the Hall. They had been too far away to be of anything but minimal help to those at head of the Hall. Still, they had been of tremendous assistance in preventing the Great Hall roof from completely caving in and crushing the students until help arrived.
Whatever Elly had been trying to warn them about, clearly this was not it! Otherwise, she would have said something more definite — and been better prepared, herself! He could see her and her cousins a bit down the wall from him, huddled together. When she saw him looking, she gave him a sad smile.
It had involved the Dark Trio, however, as well as Lockhart. Without her warning, they would never have practiced those shield spells. Without her warning, he never would have expected something to go wrong when it did. Without her warning, he never would have had a shield up to stop whatever that red spell had been that had hit it.
He owed her another debt.
Harry could only agree as Hermione, beside him, muttered, “Thank Merlin we practiced those shield spells!”
But, as Elly had said, the connection between Lockhart and the trio had been slight, at best. It seemed like the professor had suspected one of the Dark Trio, too. Today’s class had been his fumbling attempt to corner whomever was responsible.
It was no mystery why he hadn’t confided in anypony else, Harry thought. If he had done that, he would have had to share the glory when he unmasked Goyle’s possession.
It didn’t take long for a group of the higher-ranked Aurors to reach their Director. Harry quickly cast a directional hearing charm on his ear to listen in.
He rapidly realized she knew even less than he did.
Susan’s aunt was an unknown. Would she even listen to him? He wondered if he should tell her what he knew? He had a feeling she would brush him off, like all the adult wizards here did. If his mum had been here, he would have told her.
“Professor Lockhart was teaching a special class on vampire renfields,” Bones said to the Aurors. “He had just finished casting a possession-detection charm when he suddenly shot a stupefy at Mr. Goyle’s son. The boy apparently suspected the professor might attack him, and dodged his charm. He returned a filpendo that knocked the man across the stage and into me and the two professors watching the class.”
She shook her head. “These two Slytherins, for whatever reason, decided to throw bombardo maximas at the ceiling at the same time that their friend cast a flipendo at Lockhart.” She shook her head. “After that, while he cast a fumos, and they started to lay about with cutting spells at their classmates.” She sighed heavily. “They didn’t even try to dodge or shield.” She shook her head. “Take them to St. Mungo’s under guard, and have them checked for possession, compulsion, and obliviation, and any other spells you can think of.” She rubbed her face. “They are to be restrained at all times, and their magic blocked.”
She looked around at the wreckage. “We’ll be lucky if no one died.” She paused a moment, then gloomily added, “Or dies.”
She sighed. “Mr. Goyles son, Gregory, I think his name is, was no-where in sight when we cleared the smoke, so I think he has fled. Send a detail through the school, searching for him. Alert all Aurors that he is to be stunned on sight. He is to be considered extremely dangerous, and might be in the company of a vampire of undetermined age or sex. Search the premises for a coffin or burial urn.”
She turned to another Auror. “Dispatch a team to the Goyle House for a picture of the boy, give a copy to the Daily Prophet. Give them a brief explanation that there was a terrible accident at Hogwarts. The boy is under the impression he is in trouble, and is running away. He is not to be confronted because he might react violently, and hurt someone.”
She took a deep breath. “I’ll stay here and we’ll start interviewing the witnesses.” She gave them a piercing look. “Go!” They quickly left the Hall, floating the two boys behind them, as she rubbed her face with one hand.
She turned and climbed back onto the stage. She walked over to her niece and the others collapsed to the stage floor.
Elly would be in the same position of not being taken seriously because of her age, Harry knew. As a foreigner, too, her opinion would be ignored. Just as things Sue Li and the Patils said were ignored by the half- and pure-bloods. Those three might be pure-bloods, but they weren’t English.
That attitude was slowly changing with the massive influx of ponies into Hogwarts. Unfortunately, the outside witching world would still regard them as unreliable foreigners for many years.
However, before he could think further on the situation, Lyra Heartstrings came hurrying into the Hall. She immediately got a relieved expression at seeing the group of students huddled together not far from stage. She swiftly crossed the debris-strewn floor to them. “Are you all alright,” she addressed them all searchingly. However, her eyes were primarily on Harry and the fillies.
“We’re fine,” Harry said tiredly. “Maybe a few bruises, a bit tired, but nothing more, right,” he said glancing at the others. The gave mute nods for the most part, with one or two mumbled, “yeahs.”
She nodded. “Good, I’ll tell Bon Bon the second-years are okay, and we’ll double-check the firsties.” Suiting action to words, she turned and ran out of the room.
Almost immediately, an Auror loomed over them. “Come on,” he said gruffly, “You need to leave before anything else falls off the ceiling. It should be stable for now, but you never know.” He made shooing motions with his hands. “Oh, and don’t discuss anything you saw in here until we’ve had a chance to interview you properly, okay?” He studied their faces, then nodded.
Reluctantly, they climbed to their feet and tiredly left the ruined Great Hall, staying close to the walls for safety and dodging the debris that had fallen. Harry knew, however, that by tomorrow most of the damage would be repaired. In fact, Harry could already see several of the Aurors shifting the debris back up into the ceiling area and casting repair charms.
He didn’t see any sign of Elly or her cousins, anymore. Except for that one brief glimpse at the beginning, he hadn’t paid much attention to anypony except his herd-mates.
For all that had happened, Harry thought he and his friends had gotten out of it unscathed, except for maybe bruises. Especially lucky, he couldn’t help but think as he noticed the splotches of blood on the floor as they exited into the entry way. An Auror stationed there directed them, “If you are uninjured, return to your common room. Do not discuss what you’ve seen until you talk with an Auror.” He waved them onward.
^-~-^
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Things just got exciting.
Hoo boy...
Seems Lockhart had a glimpse of what was going on with the Dark Trio, but he guessed wrong about who was possessed and what was possessing them. We know Oldy Voldy was in Goyle; and now it seems he also had control over Malfoy and Crabbe as well. Nice, Lockhart; kudos for coming to that conclusion, but minus several hundred points for not bringing all the teachers there in on things.
Be interesting to see where this leads now...
Nice
Well, that's one for VoldeGoyle! Very nicely handled on his end.
Hmmm... I couldn't tell whether this incident will improve or decrease Lockhart's reputation.
nice work.
Lockhart is a vain glory hungry idiot, his ego is responsible for any deaths and all the injuries his fame seeking caused! Heck, I think McGongall will strangle him herself… and be cussing him out the whole time. Hopefully this kills his reputation.
10869178
On the one hand, it is clear to everyone present that he suspected that one of students is possessed and tried to deal with it. On the other hand, it is clear that he was, just like always, irresponsible glory hound, who instead of asking for presence of informed Fliwick and Dumbledore, and maybe Snape and McGonagall for good measure, just used uniformed Flitwick.
so is Goyle running? some how i think not he is hiding in ambush some were.
this is a amazing chapter.
10869162
I've been wondering how Elly 'helped' him figure it out.
Well looks like I was wrong. I thought it was Draco, still I don’t think this will go well for Malfoy or for Crabbe. Now let’s see how far Voldemort gets and how the fall out for Lockheart goes because I bet several parties are going to be gunning for him.
10869306
She's been playing up being kind of like a seer/having 'vibes' and tipped him and the herd off about Lockhart and the Dark Trio being bad news after Lockhart tried to obliviate her (which she was only protected from by being part of/the head of a changeling hive)
10869350
I knew that she was onto Lockhart, and how, but I was curious as how she maneuvered him into being the patsy to expose the evil three. I guess the exact means are not that important. As you stated we have been given a basic idea of how she might have done it.
10869372
She didn't maneuver him, she told him as the defense professor, hoping that he'd deal with it and keep her contribution secret because she can sense him as a glory hound. She didn't realize he'd try to go alone and mess everything up, just that he'd claim credit for himself when he would reveal it to others to get the ball rolling.
She then hedged bets by also telling Harry, because she noticed he was a target, but unlike with Lockhart she couldn't admit to more information to avoid suspicion so she could only be vague about it.
Well, this is not what I was expecting... But a very interesting development!
Curious if Harry will try telling them about the Dark Trio? Time will tell.
To be honest I expected something a bit more sneaky. Still great chapter
10869372 10869386 Not hard to maneuver a glory hound into attempting to try and take all the credit from themselves. Just give them something that hints of glory the bigger the better and step back. The problem comes from Lockhart needing an audience and this group was prefect doubting his stories
Strange, I thought Hogwarts GreatHall was supposed to be the strongest part in a siege, and the spell work also helps against internal attacks and sabotage? So, how were the structural spells integral to the building overcome by a couple of second year, especially if they shouldnt have known those spell variations?
VoldyGoyle has shown himself to be fast, so that means Area Of Effect methods need to be considered, far greater in extent than the speed seen at any time?
Hmm this hit more violent than i expected. Though the later potter books did go dark
Extra word here.
Beyond that, an interesting chapter. Definitely curious to see where this is going.
10869868
The defense spells are to protect from outside attack. A turtle has a thick shell, but the insides are nowhere near as resilient..
10870050
thanks
I honestly didn’t see that coming. Had Lockhart at least shared his suspicions with the faculty, the man would’ve finally been the hero he claimed to be. Instead he started a firefight in a lunchroom surrounded by children. If this doesn’t get him tossed out on his ass, nothing will. Excellent chapter!
10870275 He is likely to try and use the excuse he had no idea who else was a Renfield among the staff. Also after all this time and getting away with it for so long I wouldn't be surprised if some part of Lockhart believes his own stories
Remember he is the GREAT Gilderoy Lockhart whiles been out there adventuring and defeating evil. The teachers at Hogwart's have been doing just that teaching why would he need their inexperienced help
Harry should not have been able to teleport.
Wards update by the ponies included a teleport, equestrian version, block ward.
10870882 Well did Dumbledore take down some of the wards just in case or did McGonagall during the event with Dumbledore gone control would've fallen to her
That lecture was anything but boring but at least VoldyGoyle lost his anonymity. Also Elle really really needs to work up the courage to come clean to the Equestrians because this is the second time she has tried saving the school in general and equestrians in particular. Nice chapter however. At least she tried to set up a reasonable trap for diary voldemort.
10870275
Yes, it's almost as bad as hiding a very valuable item in a secret location in a school of children when you KNEW the Evil Overlord wannabe was searching for it.
10870882
And who says she Twily didn't stick in an exception for him, just in case?
10871823
She did not because she was not the one doing the update, the ones doing it were ponies from Celestia's school if my memory is not wrong.
That is not the first time you had Harry talking like he could teleport but it is the first time he actually try to do it which would make sense as it could be that he didn't know about the new wards, even though it was in the story that he knew.
To me it looks like an oversight of yours but whatever.
10871305
I really don't think so, especially after having Twilight go twice to Hogwarts because of a security breach in the school.
But you could be right, who knows.
10872031 Well then who is in control of the wards? Most stories tend to say its the headmaster with it defaulting their deputy if they are unavailable
10872070
In the first book (of this fic) was said the wards (and all of Hogwarts) answer to the headmaster but no one is "in control" of the wards because they are so old that no one even tried to mess with them before, it is the reason the basilisk and the chamber of secrets were not visible to the headmaster before the update.
10872128 I guess it comes down to potentially what you think "answers to" and "in control" means. Neither has to imply total control or a total lack of control such as temporarily disabling or changing some functions
10872931
I thought the reason they thought there's no alien life is they did a quick magical scan of the stars, nothing conclusive came up, so they just went "guess no life but us exists, how foolish of those muggles for imagining otherwise". I kind of doubt there are any wizards in NASA. Same with dimensional travel, the first few attempts didn't work for them, so obviously it's impossible.
I always try to save up a few chapters of this at a time so that I can read a bunch all at once but I keep ending up back here. Really excited to see where this goes next
10872030
She didn't do them all herself. That was, as you said, by the Canterlot group. However, all she would have to do is muse that it might be useful for Harry to have an exception, for emergencies, and I can see the other unicorns falling all over themselves making it happen.
10873762
That is counter to Twilight's character as established in the fic but again she allowed Harry and the fillies to take the apartment trunk with floo network to Hogwarts knowing it was against the rules and would jeopardize what little security there was in the castle so I can also see she doing that....
Fair enough I guess, still not what was written in the fic beforehand.
10870882
I thought that was for teleporting out of the school, maybe Tkepner can clarify, but did they fix the wards to prevent teleporting between locations in the school? Like from the Owlry to the Third-Floor Landing? Or something.
Honestly it's been so long I can't recall, but I would have assumed it was only made to keep ponies and wizards from teleporting off of Hogwarts grounds, not bouncing from class to class to save on walking time. Since Unicorns that can teleport tend to do that rather than walk most places.
That escalated quickly and damn that was one bloody mess. Lockhart will get flak for that one...
If not for Changeling intervention AGAIN Harry would be off pretty badly. Yet everyone is still after them
10873264
It's all the blood on the walls? Probably the Medical wing or a Graveyard...
10869158
Voldemort on the run will end with lots of fun...
10869162
Not giving any warning sure will screw himself over. Lockhart put his glory over the safety and possibly the life of everyone around him.
10869169
The chapter, the event, the bloodshed or the drama?
10869170
Lockhart: "Sidestepping my magic is cheating!"
Voldemort: " Get good, scrub!"
May I put to notice that Twilight don't trust Changelings and want them all gone, but Changelings saved her son twice?
Just putting it out there... the Changelings changed a lot of lifes, mostly for the better!
So right & yet so wrong.
Boy did they blow that one.