18 The unknown race.

Dan's brain was boiling after he returned to his room. Together with Luna, they wrote a reply letter and sent it with the school owl, who just looked at the two idiots and shrugged her wings in a human-like gesture: I get paid for this, so I'll do it. Their conversation was mostly small talk, but then Dan made a mistake. He asked about the animal on the cover of Luna's diary.

Crumple Horned Snorkack. Such an innocent – albeit strange –name, hid a real monster underneath. This creature, according to Luna, had perfect stealth and was never captured on camera, even with its spiral horn and purple skin. They were experts at hiding their presence, and they were so good that many simply didn't believe in their existence.

But what could be scary about such a silly creature?

Well, apparently, it was of a carnivorous nature. They use their stealth and their horn to attack unsuspecting victims, after which the crumple horned snorkack will follow their victims while they bleed. A wound inflicted by such a horn will close only by a miracle.

Imagine that. You're walking through a mountain forest on a bright morning, no matter why or where, and then suddenly there's a hole in your side that definitely shouldn't be there. Five minutes have later the snorkack has earned itself a warm meal. These little assholes were responsible for most of the disappearances in the mountains, if Luna was telling the truth.

The Blibbering Humdinger, on the other hand, was one of the stupidest creatures, and even on the verge of extinction. It was a bird that could fly without even having proportional wings.

As Dan understood, they flew with the help of magic. And they turned out to be on the verge of extinction, because their bones make the best bases for broomsticks. For hundreds of years, they used their flight abilities to avoid encounters with predators and human hunters, and over time they forgot about the threats. Any creature could approach the Blibbering Humdinger and kill it on the spot, because they wouldn't even try to escape. The last twenty of these birds were carefully guarded in a reserve somewhere in New Zealand.

Dan was ninety percent sure they were Dodo birds.

The impromptu lecture that Luna gave to her only student took four hours – not counting breaks – and for some reason included conspiracy theories. They were the cause of Dan's headache.

'Why would Fudge kill goblins and bake pies out of them? How would a gum disease Bring down the building of Ministry of Magic? Why is this theory called Rotfang at all?!' He blinked. 'Oh, because gum disease rots teeth. I can't decide if that's clever or not.'

But for today he was convinced that Luna was his friend. It was nice.

Stretching in his bed, Dan thought about his next steps. He already had a list of things to do, but now he decided to do the simplest and most important thing on this list. Shake the information from Dumbledore, the old man probably knows a lot more than he needs anyway.

"Mantis, do you want to go with me to passively aggressively interrogate an old man?" Dan asked his little green friend, but he just shook his head and with difficulty turned the page of the book with moving pictures.

Leaving his room, Dan went to Dumbledore's office, walking soundlessly across the halls. There was still plenty of time before the curfew, which meant that Dumbledore was still awake. The portraits on the walls were still talking with each other, a ghost or two flew past his eyes, Dan even noticed a couple of students who were doing something in this part of the castle. It reminded him that he was far from alone in this castle and each of the people were doing something important.

Well, he could suspect what a couple of giggling teenagers were doing in the broom closet was not that important, but he thought it was better not to know.

He was very lucky that the invisibility spell was from the Charms subsection, and not transfiguration. It was far from the easiest to study and required much more control than Dan had, but a couple of weeks of constant practice allowed him to remain unnoticed before the eyes of students.

Reaching the gargoyle in front of the stairs to the Headmaster's office, Dan stopped. He was 80 percent sure it was just an animated statue, but in the world of magic, you could never be sure.

"I need to talk to Dumbledore," he said simply, and the gargoyle stepped aside to let him in. "Thanks pal."

Luckily, Dumbledore was alone in his office, working on a ton of paperwork. Dan was able to see scrolls from Wizingamot, messages from worried parents and something written in Greek before the old wizard paid attention to him.

"Ah, young Khromov, it's nice to see you in the light of day. Of course, it would be better if you were a little less transparent." A spark of fun was visible in the old man's eyes.

Dan lifted the invisibility spell and winced at the feeling of returning warmth. The spell refracted the light around his body in such a way that no one could see the him, but still allowed small particles of light to get into his eyes, which was an obvious tell. Dan read the memoirs of people who taught themselves to look for such refractions of light and it was surprisingly easy, because most often there were two of them, floating in the air like a pair of fireflies.

"Good afternoon to you too, Albus. Unfortunately, today I didn't come for a simple conversation."

Dumbledore didn't lose his smile, but his eyes dimmed a little. "Yes, I expected this day to come, but I thought it would be much closer to the end of the year. You know, very often my students start asking really important questions right then. Although I can't imagine a reason why."

"Their loss," Dan shrugged. "I wanted to learn more about my race, if that's possible. You mentioned an Arwen when you first saw me, I think, is he... relevant to the story?"

This time Dumbledore lost his smile and only sighed heavily. He looked at the shelf with a hundred magical and not so trinkets, pulling a completely transparent crystal ball to himself with a wave of his hand.

"To be honest, I don't know much myself, just what an old friend told me. Arwen was one of the damned, just like you." Dumbledore began and Dan didn't even dare to think of interrupting him. "He was an interesting person during his lifetime, but he was already quite old when I met him.

"For starters, your race is now called Enderman. Quite simple, I admit, but there is a great significance behind this simple name. The ones that brought an end to many things. You see, you– they haven't always been like this; twisted and bloodthirsty creatures who will stop at nothing just to catch up with their prey. No. You were something more, much more.

"Advanced magic that even Merlin himself will envy, a society without plague and conflicts, beauty and longevity. They had everything. Researchers, healers, military, kings and acolytes. But as you can see, now almost everything is lost, perhaps even forever." Dumbledore said sadly, placing the ball on a small red pillow in front of him.

"Arwen did not like to talk about his origin, only once he stumbled, he admitted that he missed his ears and nose," he chuckled sadly, "but I am ready to assume that your race suffered the same fate as the house elves.

"Not many people know this, but house elves are descended from forest elves. A much higher race than themselves. Every house elf and their descendants are cursed exiles, doomed to serve wizarding families as punishment. Of course, I believe that the sins of the fathers should not fall on the shoulders of their descendants, but who am I to judge the forest elves?

"The only thing I can assume is that the Endermen are damned descendants, but of a different race. Maybe dark elves – or Drow, as they are also called – who were cursed for one reason or another. Although even I strongly doubt it, because the Drow were exterminated hundreds of years ago by a wizard of incredible power. Ah, but I'm getting off topic.

"Arwen told me a lot of stories about his life, but only a few were about his origin. Maybe they will help you in the search for the return of the human form, maybe not. Do you have any interest in listening to them?"

Dan agreed almost immediately.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Harry, for the first time in a long time, wasn't happy with his time at Hogwarts. Dementors may not have sucked all the life out of the old castle, but they definitely made things much more depressing. It was this depressing atmosphere that made Harry pay more attention. Unlike other people, he became as sharp as a knife when his thoughts were colored in dark tones.

He began to notice how the twins were preparing pranks in various popular places of the school, how Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil retired for a long time and returned with tousled hair and red faces. A secret note passed there, a flickering shadow here, small things, big things, little could escape Potter's gaze.

Especially when Harry managed to stop thinking about Hermione, he still couldn't get rid of trying to imagine her in the shower.

Therefore, Harry did not immediately notice that all the professors began to behave strangely, especially considering that most of these oddities could be related to the escape of Sirius Black. How Aunt Bella hadn't kicked him out of the family yet was a mystery.

"Harry, mate? Why are you looking at Flitwick like he stole your sweet roll?" Ron asked quietly as Flitwick turned to the blackboard to write something on it.

"... Watch him carefully." Harry replied without removing his suspicious gaze from the old half-goblin.

Flitwick turned and his eyes swept the room, freezing for an extra moment on the desk, where there was definitely no one. Harry checked it out. But the professor did not linger for a long time and continued to speak the lecture in the same clear voice as usual.

"Did you see that?" Harry whispered, this time drawing Ron and Hermione's attention. "What is he looking at?"

Hermione glanced at Flitwick's line of sight, but finding nothing, frowned. "I don't know. Maybe there is something enchanted there that the professor wants to use for demonstration?"

"No," Harry shook his head, "it's something else. He always calls things to himself when he needs something during class. Flitwick has been doing this for the second day in a row and it's starting to worry me."

"You can ask him yourself after class." Ron suggested. "It's not like Flitwick has ever hidden anything from us. I think he will answer."

Harry doubted his words very much, especially considering the first-year fiasco with the Philosopher's Stone.

"Professor Flitwick." Hermione quietly corrected them both, but the professor heard her anyway.

"Yes, Miss Granger?"

Hermione blushed and pursed her lips, which made her look very much like McGonagall - a blushing McGonagall. The resemblance was uncanny.

"Ah- can you give an example of using a spell beyond the obvious?"

Flitwick thought for a moment. "Well, Carpe Retractum is a pretty simple seize and pull charm, so its application is simple. You can use this spell to pull something towards you, or to pull yourself towards something. If you are creative with its use..."

The professor raised his wand into the air and shot a line of red magic into the air, which at the same moment stuck to the ceiling. Waving his wand a couple more times, he made a glowing hammock right under the ceiling of the hall, which remained hanging there. The hammock was still connected by a thin thread to the professor's wand, but it was almost invisible.

"As you can see, this spell behaves the same as an ordinary rope. It came out a little high, of course, but I think it's quite creative."

Harry could have sworn he heard a chuckle from where Flitwick was looking, but there was still nothing there. Gradually, his thoughts returned to the lesson, but he did not forget the strange behavior of the professor.

'Apparently there's something else going on at school that no one knows about. Again. I hope it won't be my problem this time.'