Agents of Discord

by KittyrinnAiko

Chapter 14: Aboard the Hogwarts express.

“How’s a person to read?” Hermione groused as the train plunged once more into the dark.

“I’m just enjoying the view,” Aerie offered.

“I understand they take a different route every time,” Lavender offered.

“Can I ask you a question?” Hermione asked.

“You mean an additional question,” Aerie teased.

“Well, you never say Voldemort’s name?”

Lavender and the Patil twins stiffened up.

“It’s a 'come find me' spell. A snitch spell if you like,” Aurora informed her. “I was curious as to why people were so reluctant to say it. Did some digging. It’s how the Death Eaters were able to find anyone who dared to speak the name.”

“Oh,” Hermione said quietly on realization.

“I’d, um, guessed as much,” Aerie replied. “It’s not even his real name. Scotland Yard has a file on him a mile long. OK, maybe not a mile… then again maybe it would stretch a mile. He did a lot of bad stuff. Thing is, he had a muggle father. His real name is Tom Riddle Junior. He’d started his career of terror when he was younger than we are now. I don’t know the exact timeline but he murdered a bunch of kids in a group home. It was Dumbledore who brought him out of that place to attend Hogwarts. And don’t ask me what he was thinking. When the Minister of Magic gave the Prime Minister a photo to distribute back during the wizard war, the people at Scotland Yard immediately knew who he was because they already had a file on him.”

“Wow. Wait, how’d you find out about this?” Lavender asked.

“One of my case workers told me about it. Let’s just say my getting switched back to my Aunt and Uncle through improper means has a lot of people looking into the case again.”

Outside the train, the landscape was mostly fields and woodlots by this point.

“They don’t think he’s still out there, do they?” Lavender asked. “All anyone seems to know is that he just sort of vanished after going after your family.”

“Crawled into a hole somewhere to lick his wounds I gather,” Aurora offered. “I heard his followers tangled with someone named Nova Silverwood. Whoever she is, I gather she is quite formidable.”

“We’ve met,” Aerie offered. “She was sort of a friend of the family. Related to the Black family by marriage, but kicked out because she wasn’t buying what Riddle was selling. She’s sort of related to my mom too. Kind of a second cousin. She’s also some kind of enforcer for the government along with being a Princess of a former British colony. My Godfather is a member of the Black family, but doesn’t dare set foot in England because people think he betrayed my parents.”

“And you don’t think he did it?” Lavender asked.

“What I know is that I was handed over to Hagrid shortly after my parents had been murdered by Sirius Black. Sirius is my God Father. Nova Silverwood had left the scene to track down Riddle’s followers who had fled,” Aerie offered. Sure it wasn’t really her, but that was the appropriate sequence of events. “If Sirius had wanted me dead, he had plenty of time to do it and run for it. And he didn’t go after Peter Pettigrew because Mrs Silverwood swung back around and stopped him. It was Nova Silverwood who told me. She also told me it had been Pettigrew who’d been the secret keeper. No idea what happened to Pettigrew after that.”

“Maybe it was a Death Eater who went after him then?” Hermione asked. “It would look a lot like he’d betrayed both sides.”

“I suppose that’s a possibility. Granted that it could have been anyone. Under the circumstances, it would make sense for him to fake his own death and just go into hiding.”

“I would imagine if he’s still alive, it would make sense to get as far away from England as possible,” Parvati mused just as the sound of a cart coming down the corridor could be heard. A moment later a smiling dimpled woman slid back their door and asked them if they’d like anything from the trolley.

“Something tells me this is going to be lunch,” Aerie offered and stood up to get a good look at what was available. She got Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, a couple of Butter beers, Treacle Tarts, and then she was absolutely delighted to find there was Sheperd’s pie of which she got a dozen because they were little mini tart-sized pies. She also bought two dozen chocolate frogs.

“You aren’t actually going to eat all that?” Hermione asked. All six girls had brought money for the food cart as well. No one was going without.

“You’ll see,” Aerie offered as she went back to her seat.

It was but a short time later that Aerie got up, opened the compartment door to the corridor, and looked about. She then retrieved a stack of Chocolate Frog boxes, and began opening them, and releasing the frogs into the corridor.

“Here, I got more than I need,” Aurora offered as she handed chocolate frog boxes to Aerie. When they set all their extra frogs loose, Aerie went back to her seat and went back to looking out the window.

“Oh, you are going to get into so much trouble,” Hermione promised just as someone knocked on the door. “There, see.”

“Nope, sorry. It’s Neville Longbottom if I’m not mistaken,” Aurora corrected.

“Let me guess. Neville has lost his toad,” Aerie stated as she turned to the door.

“Excuse me, have you seen a toad?” The boy asked from out in the corridor.

“Oh, for peat’s sake!” Hermione stated as she put her book down and got up. On seeing the hallway she was hesitant to open the door any further as there were now considerably more frogs than what they’d started with.

“I’ll help,” Aerie stated as she got up. “Come on Hermione, and try not to step on any.”

“Honestly…” Hermione grumbled as she opened the door and gently nudged frogs out of the way. Aerie followed after, and a moment later they were at the compartment where Ron and Justin were located.

“Has anyone seen a toad?” Hermione asked.

“Plenty of frogs in the hall,” Justin replied with a smirk.

“Which we had nothing to do with,” Ron added. He’d his wand in hand.

“Neville’s lost his toad, not a frog. Honestly.” Hermione seemed just a bit annoyed. After all, she could be reading, but there was that part of her that dictated that she help.

“We’ve already told him that we haven't seen it,” Justin offered.

“Oh, alright then. Are you doing magic? Let’s see it then,” Hermione pressed. Her tone indicated she wasn’t likely to see any magic out of this boy. She then sat in one of the available seats to watch.

Ron did not look like he wanted an audience. “Er – all right.”

He cleared his throat and recited, “Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow … Turn this stupid fat rat yellow.”

He waved his wand and nothing. Not even so much as a spark.

“Let me give that a shot,” Aerie offered.

“I don’t think it’s even a proper spell,” Hermione offered.

“In that case, perhaps a little Latin,” Aerie replied and quoted, “Sol Invictus, primula, butyrum mitia … transverto hoc fatuum pingue rat cloaca luteum!”

“Sol Invictus doesn’t mean sunshine,” Hermione quipped even as Aerie brought her wand down with a sharp rap on the head of the rat. The rat flinched but was otherwise fine.

“Hey!” Protested Ron even as a spark alighted and spread; as it went Scabbers the rat turned yellow.

“Ha, it worked,” Justin exclaimed. “Told you my new sis is a genius.”

Scabbers seemed unconcerned by the fact that he was now yellow.

“Wow… OK, turn him back.”

“Alright. What’s the counterspell?” Aerie asked.

“Counterspell?” Ron asked dumbly.

“Well, in order to reverse the effect there needs to be a counterspell,” Nova instructed.

“Let me guess, you don’t have a counterspell,” Hermione stated.

“Well, no. It was my brother’s spell,” Ron replied. He was nearly whining now.

“Tell you what, I’ll go look at my books and see if there’s anything there, and Hermione, what say you help Nevil.”

“I don’t think you're going to find anything in a first-year book,” Hermione quipped.

“I thought I’d check my copy of Curses and Counter Curses. There’s bound to be some trick for undoing a spell we don’t know.”

“Oh, alright. Come on Nevil,” Hermione consented and continued down the corridor.

Nova turned back just in time to see Draco and company coming in the other direction.

“Hi Draco,” Aerie offered in greeting.

“Hi Aerie, this is Crabbe and Goyle,” Draco offered. “So, where do you think all the chocolate frogs came from?”

“You know, I’ve no idea. Not like I bought a bunch and set them loose,” Aerie offered with a smile just as Goyle was picking one up. “Granted I hadn’t let quite this many loose. Oh, and Neville Longbottom’s toad is loose so I wouldn't eat any cream-filled ones.”

“But I like the cream-filled ones,” Goyle stated. Draco smiled, rolled his eyes, and made a sweeping motion with his hand like it was flying over his head.

“There’s a rumor that Harry Potter is on board,” Draco reported to Aerie.

“No doubt you told them you know him.”

“Of course. And then I tell them Harry is actually a girl,” Draco paused in contemplation. “Some people can get kind of defensive.”

“Your sister isn’t actually friends with a Malfoy is she?” Ron asked from the compartment he was in.

“Who’s that?”

“Ronald Weasley. Apparently, his mother never taught him the benefits of courtesy and basic good manners. I also turned his rat yellow, so he might be a bit miffed at me right now.”

“You did? Let me see?”

“Scabbers is not some sideshow for you to ogle at, Malfoy,” Ron protested.

“And how do you think I felt about the way you and your brothers treated me back at the station.”

Ron had done his fair share of ogling.

“Ya, well excuse me, but it’s a bit of a shock to find out that Harry Potter is a girl.”

“Don’t pay any attention to him. I think you’ll soon find that some wizarding families are just better than others.”

“You take that back, Malfoy!” Ron ordered.

“Draco, that was kind of uncalled for,” Aerie suggested.

“But look at him. Look at those shoddy clothes.”

“Ron, what’s your father do?” Aerie asked.

“Dad works for the Ministry, in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. And we aren’t poor.”

“Not poor, just exceedingly frugal for some odd reason,” Aerie pointed out.

“Wonder if that has anything to do with why Mr Ollivander tried to give us substandard wands?” Draco asked.

“You take that back!” Ron shouted.

“I’m sorry, but it’s true,” Aerie interjected. “It was on Professor Dumbledore’s orders. Mr Ollivander told me after the wand Professor Dumbledore had assigned me failed miserably.”

“Dumbledore is a good man, the greatest.” Ron didn’t seem so sure anymore.

“And I’m Harry Potter, the boy who lived.”

Draco had to suppress an unbidden laugh.

“Ron, make no mistake, there is something going on and we are all caught up in it whether we like it or not.”

“Do you…” Ron had to take a look at his wand. “Do you think it has anything to do with the break-in at Gringotts?”

“Oh, I’d say it has a lot to do with it,” Aerie offered. Yes, she knew about it. The break-in had been in all the wizard papers. “You see. The main reason Dumbledore sent Hagrid to fetch me was so he could use me as cover to retrieve a ‘special package’ from Gringotts. It’s entirely plausible that the only reason the individual who broke in didn’t take anything was due to the very thing they were after…”

“Had already been removed,” Draco finished.

“But, I don’t get it? Why stick us with crappy wands?” Ron asked.

“Hand me down, is it?” Draco asked.

“The core, is it unicorn hair?” Aerie asked.

Ron looked like he wasn’t too sure he wanted to answer.

“I only ask because Unicorn hair has a service life,” Aerie explained. “Ordinarily it wouldn't matter if a wand is a hand-me-down. If it will work for you, you are good to go.”

“It’s unicorn hair,” Ron admitted reluctantly.

“As to why, it’s entirely possible he doesn't want us interfering,” Aerie suggested. “I mean, there is that possibility, is there not? Keep us restrained by making sure our wands aren’t the best match. That or he expects us to overcome our handicaps and be better for it.”

“Why us though?” Ron asked.

“Ron, if you and Draco are anywhere near Aerie’s level, that’d make you and Draco geniuses,” Justin offered. “If the three of you were to join forces, I’d say there is nothing that you can’t do.”

“You mean… actually team up… with him?” Ron asked sounding incredulous.

“Our dads do work together from time to time,” Draco offered. “I mean if the circumstances warrant it.”

“If it warrants,” Aerie echoed. “Although, I think it’d be best to not get involved if we can help it.

“But for now, I’ve some reading to do. I’ve got a yellow rat to undue,” Aerie offered and went back to her compartment where she found a sleeping Moonie in her seat.

Aerie scooped up Moone, looked outside, gave her a snuggle, and put her back.

“I think it might be a good idea to get our robes on, I think we are crossing the River Forth,” Aerie announced. She went back out into the corridor. “Justin, you’d know, is this the Forth Bridge?”

“Forth? We’ve been over more than four bridges. I thought you said she was supposed to be some kind of genius?” Ron quipped.

“It’s the bridge over the River Forth alright,” Justin called. “We are in Scotland now.”

“Might be a good idea to get our robes on then,” Aerie called back. She then ducked back into her shared compartment and closed the curtains.

“So, do you want to change here, or in the basement?” Aerie asked. “We are in Scotland now.”

“Basement?” Aurora asked.

“Her luggage,” Lavender offered. “Yes, let’s use the basement.”

“The way this works,” Aerie began as she pulled down her trunk, and set it down between the seats. “Open it like a normal trunk and all you get is a trunk. But,” She undid a latch on the inside, pushed the inside of the trunk so that it just sort of vanished into the side like a drawer. “Stairs.” And indeed there were stairs going down into a smallish hallway with a bookshelf across from the base. Left of that was a bathroom complete with a bath and toilet. Right next to it was a door leading to a bedroom and beyond that a hallway that lead to a kitchen.

“Whatever you do, don’t touch the dial at the base of the stairs,” Aerie cautioned as she went down the stairs. “I’m not entirely sure what it does, and I don’t want to risk it while we are moving.” Aurora, Lavender, and the Patil twins got out what they needed from their trunks and followed her down the stairs.

“Oh, this is nice, a sitting room,” Aurora said as she crossed to the other side of the bedroom. There was a curtained window which she opened to discover the Scottish countryside going past. “Oh, this is nice.”

“Ya, these deluxe trunks don’t typically have windows,” Lavender offered as she put on her Hogwarts robe.

“Come on, we probably don’t want to spend too much time down here,” Aerie cautioned as she changed. Nor did she miss what looked like sun-shaped marks on Aurora’s hips. Her own cutie marks of a crescent moon and two stars showed, but like Aurora's, looked like birthmarks to the casual viewer. And perhaps there was a bit of magic hiding their cutie marks because no one seemed to notice.

“Question,” Parvati began. “You didn’t seem too worried about Nevil’s toad?”

“The toad will show up, and if it doesn’t…” Aerie offered, her voice trailing off at the end of what she had to say with a resigned shrug.

“Toads went out of fashion some time ago and they are kind of useless,” Lavender offered.

“It was really more of an excuse to get Hermione out of that book for a while,” Aerie admitted. “Let’s face it, she tends to be a little on the bossy side, and the only way to cure that is to get her interacting with others.”

“We going to tell her about your trunk?” Lavender asked. The two girls had yet to bring Hermione in on the secret. Her adoptive family knew about it, Lavender, Parvati, and Padma knew about it, but they’d decided to keep the secret from Hermione fearing she wouldn't be able to keep quiet about it.

“I suppose that all depends on when she gets back from her toad hunt,” Aerie offered with a mischievous smile.

“Hang on?” Aurora queried.

“Hermione can’t keep secrets,” Padma offered. “Any time she learns something new she just has to tell people. Without any regard to whether or not they might already know. Or if they are even allowed to know. So we decided not to tell her.”

“She can be downright annoying,” Parvati offered. “I swear she already has the first-year charms book memorized.”

“Don’t you?” Aurora asked. “It’s not exactly complicated.”

“I’ve read through it, but I won’t go so far as to say I’ve memorized it,” Aerie offered. “Wouldn't want to memorize something wrong. Some of the methods just seemed counterintuitive to me.”

“There is that, I suppose,” Aurora admitted.

The girls finished up and went back up into the train car. There was no sign of Hermione, so Aerie closed up her trunk and put it back up on the luggage rack.

“You’d better hurry up and put your robes on… oh,” Hermione said as she opened the door to the compartment. “I see everyone has already changed.”

Lights in the car began to come on as the sun began to set outside and Hermione had to change there in front of the others.

*“We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately,” announced a voice over an unseen intercom.

Aerie and the others weren’t able to see much of anything as the train slowed to a stop. The voice announced a moment later that they were now free to deboard.

“Moonie, would you like to come with us?” Aerie asked, and was rewarded with an affirmative meow.

“I’m not so sure, she should probably wait,” Hermione suggested as Nova picked up the loose cat and draped Moonie about her shoulders. Aurora opened the outer door, looked out, and hesitated.

Comments

[harts fire]

and plans are being put in to motion. i can see this is going to be so much fun to see play out.