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Darkness Within | ||||||
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Category: Pre-OotP, Alternate Universe Characters:Albus Dumbledore, Draco Malfoy, Dumbledore, Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Minerva McGonagall, Neville Longbottom, Other, Remus Lupin, Ron Weasley, Severus Snape, Sirius Black Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, General Warnings: Dark Fiction, Death, Disturbing Imagery, Intimate Sexual Situations, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Situations, Negative Alcohol Use, Rape, Sexual Situations, Violence Story is Complete Rating: R Reviews: 144 Summary: Tom Riddle opened the Chamber of Secrets while he was a student at Hogwarts. He committed another horrific act that same year. Now decades later, the students of Hogwarts continue to be impacted by his crimes. How will Ginny and her friends handle the darkness within? Hitcount: Story Total: 148985; Chapter Total: 6613 |
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Chapter 16 Back to Hogwarts The last days of summer ended. Soon, it was time to pack their trunks for the coming school year. “I wish Remus was going to be at Hogwarts with us,” Neville commented, as he loaded up his trunk with books and robes. Anna’s trunk was already packed, and she was sitting on his bed helping him fold his clothes neatly -- making sure he didn’t forget anything. “It will be strange at Hogwarts without him,” Anna agreed. “I wonder what the new Defense teacher will be like.” “Rubbish, probably,” Neville grimaced as he continued to add things to his already full trunk. “Our Defense teacher my first year taught us almost nothing and died at the end of the year. He’d been possessed, or something, by You-Know-Who.” He shrugged, clearly indicating that he didn’t know exactly what had happened. “Second year, we had Professor Lockhart. He’s kind of famous for writing a lot of books about fighting dangerous creatures like banshees, vampires, and trolls.” He shook his head. “I think it was all lies though. He couldn’t ever seem to do any spells correctly in class. Mostly, he just read to us from his books. Anyways, he suffered some serious spell damage at the end of the school year. You saw him the last time we went to St Mungo’s, remember?” Anna nodded and bit her lip. They didn’t talk about Neville’s parents much, but she and Remus had both accompanied the Longbottoms on their recent visits to Frank and Alice in the long term care ward of St Mungo’s. Augusta took Neville to see them every Christmas and a few times over the summer. Remus had quietly explained to her before they went the first time, that Neville’s parents had been tortured with the Cruciatus Curse by Death Eaters for such a prolonged period of time that their minds were permanently affected. Anna cleared her throat quietly. “Well, it’s great that Remus will be staying here with Aunt Augusta, and hopefully, the part time job at the bookstore will work out well for him.” “Yeah,” Neville nodded. “Gran really likes having him at the house. Less lonely and all, especially with us being away at school.” He lowered the lid and secured the clasp of his trunk. “I think that’s everything.” Both teens took one last look around their bedrooms and bathroom and then levitated their trunks carefully down the stairs. ******************************** **************************************** ************* Platform nine and three quarters at King’s Cross Station was as noisy and hectic as ever. Neville and Anna had just boarded the Hogwarts Express and were looking for a compartment when Ginny called out to them. “Come and join us,” she said holding the door open so they could put their trunks in the compartment. “Harry, Ron, and Hermione are going to be sitting in here as well. They just went back out to the platform to say goodbye to everyone. Speaking of which….” With a smile, Ginny quickly made her way down the corridor. After stowing their trunks, Anna and Neville hopped off the train to say goodbye to Remus and Aunt Augusta. They were standing with the Weasley family talking animatedly about some trouble earlier that morning with a wizard called Mad-Eye Moody. “I’m sure Arthur will be able to sort it all out,” Molly was assuring them. “He thinks very highly of Mad-Eye, and it’s not as though anyone was injured or anything.” “Well, he may be getting a bit paranoid, but he was a very fine Auror,” Aunt Augusta stated firmly. “Not to mention a decent and honorable man,” Remus said quietly. “Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help, Molly.” “Thank you, Remus.” Molly turned to the children. “Oh, let me hug you all goodbye!” A flurry of happy goodbyes and reminders to study hard and owl home often followed. Anna was hugged and passed from Aunt Augusta, to Remus, to Molly and then found herself standing somewhat awkwardly in front of Bill and Charlie. “Look, um,” Bill ran a hand through his hair. “I wanted to apologize if I was a bit abrupt, about what happened in the woods, when we last talked.” He lowered his voice and leaned a bit closer to her. “I am truly grateful you were there and that you helped protect everyone.” “Thank you, Bill,” Anna said sincerely. “I’m sorry too for being…well…a bit difficult, I guess.” “Not difficult, exactly, but definitely mysterious,” he softly responded. Anna blushed and bit her lip. “Have a good year at school, Anna,” Charlie added. She nodded and smiled. “Thanks, Charlie.” Ginny grabbed her hand as the train whistle blew, and everyone quickly climbed aboard the train. They hurried to their compartment so they could wave from the window as the train pulled out of the station. Sitting back in their seats, they relaxed for the long train ride. “What do you know about Mad-Eye Moody?” Neville asked. Ron shrugged. “Not much really. He was a great Auror, caught at least half of the current prisoners in Azkaban prison according to Charlie!” “Dad was called away to try to smooth over whatever happened at his house last night,” Ginny said. “Apparently, he thought he was being attacked and had dustbins enchanted to attack intruders or something. I’m not really sure of the details,” she admitted. “I think the muggle Auror type people were involved though, so Dad went to try to help. That’s why he wasn’t with us at the station.” “The muggle Aurors are called policemen or detectives,” Harry supplied. “I imagine if they were called in, muggles must have been involved, or at least heard the commotion.” Seamus and Dean wandered into their compartment, and they began a spirited discussion with Harry, Ron, and Neville about the Quidditch World Cup and the disturbance that had occurred that night. Seamus’s mum had been very upset, especially since some of their belongings had been damaged. Anna didn’t really want to think about it and was soon reading and discussing The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4 with Hermione. She even started trying to learn the Summoning Charm after reading and discussing the theory. Ginny was trying to listen to both conversations at once. The trip north was the stormiest they had ever experienced. Clouds rolled in, thickly blanketing the sky, as rain lashed against the windows, completely obscuring the view of the countryside. Darkness fell soon after the lunch trolley went through, causing the lanterns to be lit. Neville, Anna, and Ginny went for a walk and chatted for a while with Lavender and Parvati. They were very excited and curious about the requirement of dress robes for fourth years and above that year. Anna hadn’t really thought about it much since Aunt Augusta had quietly ordered everything they needed for school with help from Remus, but now she was curious as well. “Do you know what’s going on?” Neville asked the girls. “Gran didn’t seem to know much about it, but she mentioned we might not come home for Christmas this year.” Anna stared at Neville in surprise. “When did she say we wouldn’t be coming home for Christmas?” “A few days ago,” Neville said. “I think you were having an Astronomy lesson with Remus at the time. Anyway, she said we would probably want to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays this year. She didn’t explain why though.” “There must be a really fancy event being held at Hogwarts this year. Perhaps a ball to celebrate Christmas,” Lavender said excitedly. “But, why this year?” Parvati wondered. “There must be something special going on we don’t know about yet.” Nods and murmurs of agreement followed this observation, but since none of them knew what was going on, they soon said goodbye and went to visit other friends. By the time they returned to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Ron was fuming about Draco Malfoy having visited and insulted him, his dress robes, which looked as though they came from the previous century, and his father for not being well placed within the ministry. Anna had no idea what he was talking about, but quickly whispered to Neville that she would write to Aunt Augusta and let her know his dress robes did not fit properly and that he needed the next larger size. There was no way they could let Ron be seen in the ancient, lace trimmed dress robes which were now flung over his owl, Pigwidgeon’s, cage. *********************** **************************************** ********************** By the time they arrived in the Great Hall, the frustration level of most of the Hogwarts students was rather high. The pouring rain had not made their carriage ride to the castle pleasant, and they had been greeted with Peeves the Poltergeist throwing water balloons at them. The wet, cold students had filed into the hall and sat down with various degrees of resentment and irritation. Anna could see some students using drying and warming charms on their robes while others just sat miserably in their sodden garments. Pulling out her wand, she quickly and quietly cast the spells on her own robes, as well as Neville’s and Ginny’s since they were sitting on either side of her. “I really need you to teach me that sometime,” Neville murmured in her ear. Ginny just smiled at her and mouthed “thanks!” “I hope the Sorting is over quickly this year,” Harry muttered from across the table. “Me too. I’m starving!” moaned Ron. The Sorting of the new first year students was quickly accomplished, and Professor Dumbledore stood up long enough to tell everyone to “tuck in.” A happy murmur from the students confirmed that they were too hungry to do anything but eat. While they were eating, the Gryffindor House ghost, Nearly Headless Nick, told them about the hubbub in the kitchens caused by Peeves earlier in the evening. “Peeves was upset of course about not being allowed to attend the start of school year feast,” he explained. “He had asked the ghosts for permission to come this year. The Fat Friar thought we should give him a chance, but the Bloody Baron wouldn’t allow it. Considering how much Peeves likes to throw things around and cause general chaos, I agreed with the Baron.” “So what happened in the kitchens?” Ron asked. “Peeves threw things around and caused general chaos,” Nearly Headless Nick responded with a sigh. “The house-elves were all terrified, and it took some time to remove Peeves and return the kitchen to rights, so the elves could get on with their cooking.” Hermione stared up at the ghost incredulously. “We have house-elves here at Hogwarts?” she gasped. “Well, of course,” he said calmly. “There must be over a hundred house-elves at Hogwarts. How did you think all of the cooking and cleaning was accomplished?” Hermione was truly upset and started talking angrily about “slave labor” and the need for “payment, sick leave, pensions, and holidays.” She pushed her plate away in disgust and refused to finish her meal. Nearly Headless Nick and Ron both tried to talk to her, but she was clearly in no mood to listen to either one of them. It came as something of a relief when Professor Dumbledore rose to begin the start of term notices. He began with the usual warning that Mr. Filch, the caretaker, had banned several more joke items from the castle. The full list of over four hundred banned objects, many of them Zonko’s products, was posted outside his office door. The warning about the Forbidden Forest being out of bounds was expressed, as it was every year, with a pointed look at the Gryffindor House table. “And, now, I must inform you that the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup will not be held this year.” Gasps filled the Great Hall, and Harry was looking around wildly at the twins who both appeared to be in the early stages of shock. “No Quidditch?” Ginny scowled as she whispered under her breath. “Instead, we will be hosting a grand event this year which I’m sure you will all greatly enjoy. This extraordinary competition hasn’t been held in over a century, but this year, we will be having ….” The Headmaster’s voice trailed off as the doors to the Great Hall banged open, and a wizard made his way slowly to the staff table. Anna strained to catch a glimpse of the strange man who was limping and leaning heavily on a walking stick, as he moved along the far side of the hall closest to the Slytherin table. Judging by the way he was moving and the clumping noise, she thought he might have a wooden leg. A particularly bright flash of lightning briefly illuminated the far side of the Great Hall. Hermione gasped, and Anna blinked as she caught sight of the man’s face. Beneath his shaggy dark gray hair, he was covered in scars. Some of his nose was missing, as though it had been hacked off with a jagged knife. One eye had obviously been lost at some point in the man’s life, and replaced with a magical eye that moved about constantly and unblinkingly. In short, with his heavily scarred and battered face and body, he looked like someone who had just barely survived a horrific war involving very close combat. Professor Dumbledore shook the stranger’s hand, and greeted him quietly, before turning his attention back to the stunned student body. “I would like to introduce your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher…Professor Moody,” he announced. A few quiet murmurs were heard around the hall. Harry glanced at Ron. “Moody?” he said quietly. “Is that Mad-Eye Moody?” “Yeah, I think so.” Dumbledore cleared his throat loudly. “To continue with my announcement, this year at Hogwarts we will be hosting the Triwizard Tournament!” Excited whispers broke out in the hall making it clear that at least some students knew what this was. “For those of you who have never heard of the Triwizard Tournament, I will give you a brief explanation. It was established long ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry. An impartial judge selects a champion from each school to compete, and those three wizards take part in three tasks. The winner of the event will be awarded the Triwizard Cup and a thousand Galleons of prize money at the end.” He paused as several students gasped. “We will soon be welcoming small groups of students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, as well as their Heads. Please make these students feel welcome at Hogwarts. Besides being a competition, this event is a wonderful opportunity to meet foreign witches and wizards and establish bonds of friendship.” “I’m entering!” Fred quietly announced to his friends and family at the Gryffindor table. All around the hall, other students were softly proclaiming their intentions to enter the competition. “Now,” the Headmaster continued. “I know that many of you are eager to participate in this event; however, I must tell you that an age restriction has been agreed upon by the Heads of the three schools, and by the Ministry of Magic. No one under the age of seventeen will be permitted to submit their names for consideration.” Angry muttering broke out amongst the students, and Fred and George were glaring rebelliously at Professor Dumbledore. Everyone was dismissed shortly thereafter and began making their way to the dorms. The Gryffindors trudged up the stairs, with the twins at the rear of the long line grumbling about the age restriction and plotting possible ways of getting around the rule. ******************************** **************************************** ************* Anna waited anxiously for Neville to emerge from Professor Moody’s office. She had talked Harry, Ron, and Hermione into going ahead to the Great Hall for dinner. The first week of classes had been going well enough. She had paired up with Neville in Herbology, and he had helped her learn the correct technique for squeezing the pus from the bubotuber plants. They had managed to make it through their first Care of Magical Creatures lesson without incident, which was an impressive accomplishment considering they were working with animals Hagrid called Blast-Ended Skrewts. Anna had prevented Neville from accidentally melting a cauldron in Potions with a hasty Freezing Charm. They had been fortunate that Professor Snape was distracted by another student at the time. Both of them had generally felt pretty comfortable about their lessons…until today. Anna had been shocked when Professor Moody started demonstrating the Unforgivable Curses on spiders, starting with the Imperius Curse, then the Cruciatus Curse, and finally the Killing Curse. She had grimly watched first Neville, then Harry as each curse was performed. After the demonstration, the students had taken notes on each curse until they were dismissed. Neville had been visibly shaken by the lesson, and Professor Moody had asked him to come in to his office for a cup of tea. Anna stood just around the corner from the defense professor’s office waiting for Neville to come out and chewing her lip nervously. When he came around the corner, she could see that his eyes were red, as though he had been crying. “Neville,” she said softly, touching his arm. “How are you?” “I’m okay,” he assured her. “Professor Moody lent me a book about magical water plants. He said Professor Sprout had told him I’m a good Herbology student.” He smiled slightly. “You’re a great Herbology student,” Anna said firmly. “Are you ready to go up to the common room?” He started nodding and then stopped. “You haven’t had anything to eat. Let’s go down to the Great Hall. Even if we missed dinner, the pudding should still be out.” They made it down just in time to have large helpings of butterscotch bread pudding and chocolate mousse. |
| Reviews 144 |
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