Shack in the Woods

Hallowe'en Night

Rose appeared with Taltria and Alavel in Albus's office. As always, Albus remained calm as she appeared, more so because he knew what was coming.

"Thank you for–"

"I'm not letting him compete," Rose said.

"Rose, he hasn't got–"

"I SAID NO!" Rose screamed.

Albus took pride in the fact that he was one of the few professors – no, people – to whom Rose would open up. His victory was lessened a little by the fact that, more often than not, this involved Rose screaming at him.

"Rose, it's alright."

"No, it's not! You said make the challenges difficult and life-threatening to a seventh-year! Now a fourth-year is being forced to compete! No one knows what he can do better than me! He'll die!"

"My Lady."

Rose glared at the Nimblewright Albus was certain to be Alavel.

No one spoke for a minute, although Albus wasn't sure why. He initially assumed they were talking to her, but realized that they couldn't be. Rose didn't tend to her face or body when "pathing", so it was always obvious when she did.

After a time, Rose turned back to Albus.

"I'm calm," she said.

"Thank you both. First, we've got the business of figuring out who put poor Mr. Longbottom's name–"

"Don't call him poor," Rose said. "He's not."

"Alright, but we still must determine how his name got into the Goblet of Fire." He turned to Alavel and Taltria. "You're sure no one got past you?"

"We can account for every second of the past day, Lord Headmaster," Alavel said.

"While any other day I'd find that amusing, please refer to me as 'Professor Dumbledore' for the time being."

"Yes, Professor Dumbledore. We can list off every student that passed the age line."

"No name was placed into the goblet for which we cannot account," Taltria added. "It didn't flare up unless a name was thrown into it."

Albus nodded, then folded his hands in front of his face.

"How many people in this world know the name 'Arcrel'?"

"My friends," Rose said. "Maybe the Twins, probably Brain's parents, Moon's dad, you, Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall, maybe Professor Lupin. Probably Wormtail. I don't know, I mention it a lot."

"What about its full name?"

"What?" Rose asked.

"I mean," Albus said, sliding a burnt piece of parchment towards her, "how many people know the name 'Arcrel Academy of Artificing'?"

Rose looked down at the parchment, then back up at Albus.

"That's more specific. Brain, Moon… I can't think of anyone else." She looked down at the parchment again. "Toad was entered under Arcrel?"

"He was, and the longer we cover that up, the worse it looks for us."

Rose frowned at the parchment, then glared at Albus. He tensed up for another outburst.

"I didn't do this!" Rose shouted. "I'm not stupid enough to enter him under Arcrel, and I thought you'd be clever enough to realize that I wouldn't put my friends in danger!"

Albus stood up, hoping to intimidate her into submission, forgetting for a moment that Rose was no normal girl. He realized his mistake when Rose hopped onto his desk, putting them at eye-level.

"Listen, Old Man, I–"

Rose stood in front of him, her mouth still open, but didn't make a sound. She didn't breathe or blink. Albus glanced to his left at Fawkes's perch, noting that the phoenix still moved.

Time hasn't stopped, Albus thought, although a little disappointed.

Rose slowly closed her mouth, then backed up off Albus's desk.

"I'm sorry for snapping like that," Rose said.

"I will accept your apology, so long as you tell me what happened just now."

"As I told him to do, Alavel informed Uncle Oz when I got carried away."

Albus nodded, thankful to have a restraint on the girl, and briefly lamented the absence of such a restraint the previous year. He took a moment to gather his thoughts before proceeding down a dangerous path.

"Given the circumstances, I would rather we resume control of the tasks."

"What?!"

"My Lady–"

"How many times do I have to tell you that I didn't do this?!"

"I believe you, but I might be the only one."

Rose laughed, and Albus realized he was starting to lose her again.

"Sure you do," she said.

"Please calm down."

She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths.

"I know you have no reason to enter one of your friends," Albus said. "I took a risk in letting Taltria and Alavel patrol the Goblet of Fire, because I thought this wouldn't happen. If almost any other student had been entered, then we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Unfortunately, it was one of your friends, entered under your old school, while your creations stood guard, all of which makes you look terribly guilty."

Rose continued her breathing, but kept her eyes locked on Albus.

"The problem with which we are now presented is that two Hogwarts students are entered in the Triwizard Tournament, one of our own students is in charge of designing the tasks and securing the Goblet of Fire to prevent just that from happening, and the second Hogwarts champion just so happens to be that student's friend. If your part in this comes to light, everything will point to us attempting to rig the tasks in Hogwarts's favor."

"Is there any chance we can get Karkaroff and Maxime to understand the situation?" Rose asked.

"It's not likely," Albus said. "It's possible that Madame Maxime will understand, but Professor Karkaroff is too caught up in the competition. He won't see it as a crisis, but as an attempt at winning by any means necessary."

"I don't suppose we can blackmail him, can we?" Rose asked. "Is it common knowledge that he used to be a Death Eater?"

"How do you know that?"

Rose shrugged. "I've been through the DMLE's records on Voldemort. I know every Death Eater by name."

"When was this?"

"Last year when I was tracking down Hufflepuff's Cup. Madame Bones said someone called in a favor to let me look over her records on Voldemort while she looked the other way. Thanks for that, by the way."

Albus frowned, not understanding the girl's words.

"What do you mean?"

"Who else could call in a favor like that?"

"Of course."

Albus concentrated on the previous year. He might've called in a favor with Madame Bones. The whole fiasco was still such a blur. Depressed students, stressed out teachers, and screaming little girls that broke his things. Add to that an earthquake, a man he was certain was guilty turning out to be innocent, and a man he was certain was dead turning out to be alive, and you got one complicated year.

"Returning to your original question, we'd have to explain to them who you are and why I chose to allow you to design the tasks."

Rose stared vacantly at his desk, once again showing no signs that she was communicating with anyone. She never blinked, which Albus found a little off-putting.

"You promised I could work on them," she said in a voice that Albus nearly didn't hear. "I already finished the first two, and I start building the third one tomorrow. I made a ring of telekinesis over the summer to help. You promised I could. That was the deal; I follow the rules, and you let me build the tasks."

When Albus looked at Rose, he saw something he never expected to see: a brokenhearted little girl. It tugged at his heartstrings, and he hated it.

There might be a way out of this.

"What is your plan for Mr. Longbottom?"

"I'm putting him through everything Ali put me through," Rose said. "Survival training, combat, everything that pops into my head. Unlike last year, I can ask Ali for her help."

"What can you do that's hands off?" Albus asked.

"Everything," Rose replied. "Survival training's just putting him in the Forbidden Forest and having him find his way out. I'll have Int watch him so he doesn't die. Ali did that with me when I first started out, and I learned a lot."

Albus thought carefully about the words he was about to use. If he used the wrong words, everything would fall apart, because the request he was about to make would surely not sit well with the girl.

"I'll allow you to continue with the tasks, but you've got to promise me that you will spend as little time as possible with Mr. Longbottom."

Albus stared down his student as she considered his words. He didn't know what was going through her head, but her silence made the situation tenser with every passing second.

"I won't abandon him if he needs me," Rose said. "If he needs me."

While her words didn't sit well with him, Albus knew it was the best he was going to get.

"Okay. And as a reminder, you may not tell any of your friends about the tasks."

"I know!"

"Right. On to the next order of business: Who put Mr. Longbottom's name in the Goblet of Fire?"

Rose shrugged.

"I don't know, but I think I know how to find out."

"If you find out on your own, you must involve me at every step. I will then–"

"That's not gonna work," Rose said.

Albus thought his next move through, then nodded.

"I guess it's time, then."

"Time for what?"

Albus reached into his desk and took out a box. It unfolded into a map, then the map expanded upward into eight floors. He took a few figurines from the same drawer and placed them on his map of Hogwarts.

"This," he said, holding up a small red and black figurine, "is you." He placed a large snake on the map. "This is the Basilisk. When you ran off, it was just outside the Hospital Wing, waiting for you to leave so it could kill off your friends."

"Yes," Rose said slowly.

"According to your friends, Ms. Lovegood was restored within a minute of defeating the Basilisk." He knocked the snake over and put a white figurine in one of the beds in the Hospital Wing.

"With you so far."

"This is where your story stops making sense. According to the reports from Professor McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey, you arrived in the Hospital Wing no more than seven minutes later." He held up another figurine. "You were underground, so Lockhart couldn't have detained you for more than 30 seconds, and that's being rather generous to Mr. Lockhart. You didn't bother turning him to stone, so you were already at close range. That means he likely didn't last two rounds before you punched him. You were also wearing a bandoleer containing explosives that no one has seen before or since, meaning you've never had occasion to use it otherwise."

Rose's eyes lingered on Albus long enough for him to see it: fear.

"Taltria, Alavel, wait outside for me."

"My Lady–"

"Just do it!" Rose's voice cracked. Her creations reluctantly obeyed. When she looked at Albus again, she'd regained her composure, but not enough that he couldn't still see her fear.

"Since I see you're not going to comply until given no other choice, I'll continue." He waved his wand and the figurines rearranged themselves. He placed a dragon on the board, near five figurines that represented Rose and her friends. "Do you know when we are?"

"Hallowe'en," Rose said.

"Very good. We have never identified this dragon nor how it came to be inside the grounds. I've consulted with several experts who all say they've never seen something like it. Through the castle, you were able to detect its presence, as well as the presence of something else a month prior. That something else has never been identified… by us, that is."

He waved his wand again and moved his own figurine and Rose's into Ravenclaw Tower.

"Which brings me to last year in Ravenclaw Tower. Of all the tricks I've seen you use, sensing the presence of a specific animal behind a wall and up a flight of stairs isn't one of them." He paused, hoping Rose would volunteer the information, but when she didn't he continued. "Unless you spoke with the castle."

Albus knew he was on the right track because Rose still wouldn't speak a word. Her face had returned to neutral, which meant she was hiding something.

At least she's not lying.

"Finally, over the summer you told me that something stopped you from communicating with your family last year, and it somehow involved Hufflepuff's Cup," Albus finished.

"I never said it–"

"You didn't need to. You asked Atrien about it, who directed you to Susan and Amelia Bones. Immediately after these events, you were missing from the grounds, and when you returned, you had Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew in hand within the day."

Rose stubbornly refused to answer him, but once again, Albus chose to focus on the fact that she still wasn't lying to him.

"So let's review: something awoke within the castle, sent a dragon-snake after you and your friends, delayed you in the Chamber of Secrets, stopped you from communicating with your family until you collected Hufflepuff's Cup, and helped you find a lost cat in Ravenclaw Tower. Now you wish to use methods you won't explain in order to find out who put Mr. Longbottom's name in the Goblet of Fire. This paints a rather clear picture of something living inside the Chamber of Secrets about which you won't talk, but can see everywhere in the castle at all times and affect the wards that protect Hogwarts as it pleases, thus enabling it to set up some sort of communications barrier. It also possesses a host of creatures, of which the Basilisk may have been one, one of which required the use of heavy explosives to subdue."

"Don't."

"Don't what?"

"You want to know if that's all true, and then you're expecting me to spill everything now that you know."

"That would be best."

"I can't." Rose visibly shook as she spoke. "He'll kill you."

A wave of Albus's wand folded the 3-D map of Hogwarts back into its box.

"Is he a threat to the students?"

"Not if no one knows he's there. No one else on this plane knows he exists."

"Why are you so afraid of him?"

"Because he killed me," Rose replied. "I've got a contingent revivify on myself in case I die, so I survived the fight, but… he'll kill you or the students if he thinks you're a threat."

Albus thought long and hard about what to do next. Whatever this thing was that lived in the Chamber of Secrets had Rose terrified, which meant it was no laughing matter. It was capable of killing Rose, which likely meant the only person in Hogwarts that stood a chance against it was Albus himself. It could see and hear everything, which made it both an invaluable ally and a formidable foe. Rose believed that it posed no threat to the students, but she wouldn't say more than that.

"However you find out about the Goblet of Fire, I want to know who it was as soon as you do," Albus said. "I won't speak of your mysterious friend to anyone, but if you believe he poses a threat at any time, inform me immediately."

Rose nodded, a hint of fear still present in her eyes.

"When you find out who it was, we will work out a plan to expose the culprit."

"Okay," Rose said. "I… I…"

"There's no need to be worried. I'll be quite alright. Perhaps concerned that I'm being watched, but alright."

Present Day

Albus wasn't sure if it was good or bad that Rose appearing in his office no longer startled him. He didn't care for the girl's nonchalant attitude towards boundaries, but it didn't surprise him that she showed up at random.

"What do you know of Barty Crouch, Jr.?" she asked.

"His father sent him to Azkaban over ten years ago, where he died."

Rose frowned and pointed her eyes to the ceiling. "What about his mother?"

"I'm afraid I don't know."

"So it's possible that his mother could've died in her son's place?"

The specificity of Rose's answer put Albus on edge. Someone was feeding her information.

Must be her new friend, Albus thought.

"Why would you say that?" he asked, hoping to coax more information about her supplier out of her.

"Because Junior's got his father under the Imperius Curse," Rose replied. "I thought I'd tell you before I made my next move. You wanted me to keep you updated and all that."

Another aspect of Rose's attitude putting Albus on edge was how calm she was. There was no joy in her eyes, just… apathy. Albus made a mental note to watch Rose's attitude more carefully in the coming days.

"I appreciate you following through on that, but there is something else I need your help with."

"With which you need my help," Rose corrected. "My brother hates it when people put prepositions at the end of their sentences."

I wouldn't have thought our languages translated so cleanly.

"Fair enough. First, may I ask how Mr. Longbottom's name got into the Goblet of Fire?"

Rose paused for a moment, her eyes returning to the ceiling.

"Senior transmuted a piece of parchment to be identical to the goblet's surface," she said without taking her eyes off the ceiling. "He had a fading rune on it, so it turned back into a piece of parchment the second we opened it. That flare we saw when you announced it was it registering Toad's name. It also released a… confusion charm on the goblet to trick it into thinking there were four schools."

"Do you mean a Confundus Charm?" Albus asked.

"That." Rose's gaze returned to Albus.

It concerned Albus how trusting Rose seemed of her source, but at the moment, he had nothing else.

"So do I get to go after him or not?"

"Let's say it is Crouch. Does he pose a threat to any other students?"

Rose's gaze returned to the ceiling.

If I'm going to communicate with this… entity, then perhaps it'd be easier to do it without going through Rose.

"Not to Toad, no."

"And anyone else?"

Albus waited patiently for Rose to finish staring at the ceiling. He didn't take his focus off her, lest he risk missing some small detail about her interaction with her friend. The more Albus knew about their relationship, the better.

"Scarface was the original target," Rose said. "He is in no more danger than he would be otherwise."

"Rose, that's not–"

"If you want to know anything else, you'll have to ask someone else."

Albus took that as a sign that they were through helping him. He had what he needed; he had Crouch's name, and an assurance that Neville was in no immediate danger, apart from being a champion in the Triwizard Tournament.

"Thank you, Rose."

"You're welcome."

"Now, there is something else with which I need your help."

Rose beamed at him and his proper use of prepositions.

"It's regarding one of your ideas for the second task."

"Which one?"

"The one that's less likely to get them killed."

Rose frowned and tilted her head.

"The one that doesn't involve monsters from another world."

"Oh, that one!"

"Yes, that one. In order to put it in place, we'll have to know a lot more about the champions. I'm sure you know plenty about Mr. Longbottom, but we'll need more information on the others."

"Can't we just ask Maxime and Karkaroff?"

"They're not as observant as I am."

"Figures." Rose tilted her head again. "I'm sure I can figure out something. Did you have an answer about the other ideas?"

Albus had hoped to avoid the topic of Rose's… suggestions on the second task, especially after watching four students nearly die in the first. Worse yet were the loose guidelines he'd given her regarding the third task. He hoped he wouldn't regret giving so much freedom, but he had a horrible feeling that he would.

"I'll give you the small ones, if you can get the necessary information. But you can't have both the big one and the medium one."

Rose pouted and folded her arms.

"Fine. I can't see how I'd get a kraken here anyway."

"Then it's settled then. That will be all, Rose."

Rose nodded and vanished, leaving Albus alone to plan his next move.

He didn't know anything about Rose's friend in the castle, and he was hesitant to look into the subject. If her friend found him snooping around, it could put Albus – or worse, the students – in danger.

What concerned him the most was that the entity was drawing Rose to him. Was he appealing to her chaotic nature? What was his endgame? What was significant about Hufflepuff's Cup? How long had he existed? Why hadn't he made a move until now? Was he connected to Voldemort? What was his interest in Rose?

Albus had a lot of questions, but he was more concerned about Rose than about finding the answers. It wasn't that different from watching Tom slip away all those years ago. What made it worse was that there was someone actively pulling her away from him.

I won't fail this time, Albus promised himself.

Rose appeared in the Chamber of Secrets and found Sally sitting in a black and emerald throne.

"What's with the chair?"

"I grew tired of sitting on the floor." He held his hand out expectantly. "I helped you."

"Yup." Rose reached inside her picnic basket and took out a small ring with a black gem in it. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Sally said, taking the ring from her. "Where do you want to go from here?"

"Why did Crouch put a name in the Goblet of Fire?" Rose asked without thinking.

"The final task is completed when a champion grabs the cup. The cup brings him or her out of the task, but Crouch intended to alter it to bring the champion to a graveyard. Junior would meet the contestant there, whom he would ensure would be Scarface, restrain him, then use his blood in a ritual to resurrect Voldemort."

"I thought this lot couldn't do that!"

"Not exactly, which brings me to this," Sally said, holding up the ring. "Marvolo Gaunt's Ring, Hufflepuff's Cup, and Slytherin's Locket are all what they call 'Horcruxes'."

Rose rolled her eyes.

"Can't this lot use normal words?"

"A Horcrux is a soul fragment bound to a physical container. It functions as an anchor to the rest of the soul, but can only be created by fracturing the soul, which in turn can only be done by killing someone. The worst wizards made one or two, but Voldemort made several."

Rose looked around the Chamber of Secrets, then turned to Sally.

"No chair for me?"

A wave of Sally's hand produced a simple wooden chair.

"Thanks," Rose replied dryly, sitting in the chair across from Sally.

"That wraith you saw fly out of… whatever his name was is what remains of Voldemort… I can't keep saying that name, it's too ridiculous. Tommy hasn't got a container, but the ritual would create a new one and draw his soul to it."

"Why are we collecting them?"

"There are two ways to kill someone like Tommy. The first is to destroy each Horcrux, then kill the man. Tommy has split his soul so many times that he'd be trapped in limbo, never moving on. His soul's too damaged, so it will remain trapped here."

"And the–"

"The second is to collect each Horcrux and alter Tommy's mind to force him to regret what he's done. Each soul fragment will rejoin with the primary soul, allowing us to kill him and send his soul where it belongs."

As Sally spoke, Rose envisioned it all in her mind. Rejoining pieces of a soul sounded like a good thing, although something about soul fragments struck her as familiar.

"What about the diary?" Rose asked. "That had his soul in it too, didn't it?"

Sally remained silent for longer than Rose would've liked. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Sally."

"The truth will make you angry. A lie risks losing your trust."

Rose crossed her legs in her chair.

"I'll try to understand. You helped me keep Toad safe, and you haven't tried to kill me recently."

Sally reached into his throne and produced a familiar black book. He placed it on the arm of his chair.

"It has his soul in it," he said.

"I destroyed that."

"I fed the idea to your friends to take the diary and intercepted them on the way. I switched it for a fake, keeping the original in a safe place. Unfortunately, I had to avoid suspicion, so the person with the fake needed to become possessed by the Heir of Slytherin."

Rose clenched her fists, using every ounce of focus she had to keep the word "unfortunately" in her mind.

"Tommy?"

"Cruentius."

"Little Moon?"

"I really am sorry, Rose," Sally said. "Were I to make the same choice now, I'd choose a different host, or find a way around it entirely."

"Why not let me destroy it?"

"If just one of these is destroyed, there's no way to salvage Tommy's soul. I had originally intended to let them be destroyed, but I anticipated you being… different. When I heard your story of Sentrum last year, I knew you'd never want to trap a person's soul like that."

"Why go through that at all?!"

"Because Lucius Malfoy was expecting the Basilisk to attack, and if nothing had happened, he'd become suspicious. He is easily the most clever of Tommy's followers, and not the person I want asking questions."

"Have you got any idea what you did to Little Moon?" Rose asked, trying hard to keep her anger down. "What you put her through?"

"Right now, what I'm doing is monitoring her dreams every night to ensure that she never experiences any more of what Valignatiejir did to you."

Sally's response caught Rose off guard.

"Why?"

"Whatever makes my life easier. Right now, it's simply easier if you trust me."

Rose nodded. Did she trust him? She thought back to the past year. He'd stopped her from going to her family, but only to get her attention. After that, he'd helped her out during Pettigrew's attack on Hogwarts, then helped her kill Valignatiejir and restore time. He'd even helped save her friends.

"I trust you Sally… Salazar."

"Call me Slytherin," he said. "That name means far more to me than any other."

"Sly. I'll call you Sly."

"Okay," Sly said, approving just as much of his new name as his old one.

"Since we're being honest and trusting each other, why do you want to kill Tommy?"

Sly stared at her with the same disinterest Crookshanks often had.

"I see Tommy as a foolish teenager who thinks he's tougher than everyone else simply because he's been through some hardship. He kills people in my name, and if people are going to do that, I'd rather they have the decency to kill the right people. After all, my name's all I've got left."

Rose nodded again, then decided the subject needed to be changed.

"I've got to collect information about the other champions. Think you can help?"

"I know the names of two people at Hogwarts: you and Dumbledore. Why would I know anything about the other students if I don't bother to learn their names?"

"Good point."

"Why don't you have the NPCs do it? You do care for them quite a lot."

Rose let out a small, involuntary laugh. "If I didn't know any better, Sly, I'd say you were jealous."

"After almost a thousand years here, Little Rosie, I don't feel much of anything anymore."

Rose laughed at her sort of friend like the immature child she pretended to be, then vanished from the Chamber of Secrets.