C046 - School Year ends & Yet another attack

As I suspected, the only non-Outstanding grade I received this first year at Hogwarts was Potions. Since my theoretical knowledge was on point like in every other subject thanks to my Occlumency and long hours spent in the library, the final grade was still barely an A for Acceptable. But my practical demonstration was very obviously torpedoed by the world's pettiest greasy edgelord.

Purposefully ruining my first try with underhanded means, Snape 'graciously' allowed me to get a second set of ingredients. The fresh plant ingredients were dry, the dried animal ingredients slimy - nobody would have been able to make a passable potion with them in their first year in my opinion. So it came as no surprise that my concoction was graded as P for poor in the end. Essentially a failing grade just above D for Dreadful.

I wasn't involved or interested enough in my potions grade to kill Snape for it by a longshot, but I was half a mind to expose him as a double agent to Rita Skeeter when he sneered in my face after I bottled brown sludge instead of a potion.

It must have been Malfoy who set Snape up to do it because not even Harry was treated like that. Or Snape was possibly tortured by Voldemort after my mother's desertion which in turn grew his dislike for me. I knew my grandfather was tortured by the dark lord and suspected Malfoy was, too, after I saw the magical scars on the blonde ponce's neck when he taught Magical Etiquette earlier this school year.

Snape was definitely narrowminded enough to stick it to me for something another person did to him because my mother was who she was. It was very on brand for Hogwarts' illustrious potion master.

"Are you sure you're not coming home with us on the train?" Hermione asked as we said our goodbyes at the Hogsmeade train station after our last breakfast this school year.

I grinned at her and answered, "Yeah. Flitwick will take me to Italy tomorrow morning. He's organised for me to stay here in an inn in Hogsmeade. Spares me from having to explain to the matron at the orphanage why I'm only back for a single day and then go on an expensive trip to Italy. She'd definitely demand from me to exchange whatever tickets I had in my name to cheaper versions so that I can give the extra to her anyway."

"You're loaded so don't be so stingy. I heard the Weasley twins put in for early graduation to start their joke shop, but Headmaster Dumbledore pulled their application," Mandy argued with a small scoff.

Most of my year mates knew how much the Weasley twins made with their board and card games this school year because they talked about the volume of their sales rather loudly at times in the Great Hall and the math to find out their profits wasn't too hard... and the two redheads never shied away from putting me and my involvement in the spotlight right with them. It was nice and positive press since even Slytherins liked some of their games, so I didn't discourage them.

"Hey, didn't I get you all the games they released for free? Why are you looking at me like I did something wrong here?" I innocently asked as I patted Mandy's head.

"Stop that, you insufferable giant," Mandy silently threatened as she tried and failed to slap my arm away.

I had grown a head taller than even the tallest girl of the first-year-Ravenclaw group. Harry, too, had grown tremendously with the potions from Flitwick and some healthy exercise. With enough food, both of us finally hit puberty induced growth spurts and had to have new clothes ordered at Hogsmeade during the school year.

I gave Harry a last fistbump, handed my owl cage to Hermione, who asked for 'the honor' of looking after my black-feathered companion I stole from the Malfoys while I was in Italy, and walked back to Hogsmeade.

Curiously, I walked into my cousin Gemma Farley on the way to my inn and furrowed my brows when she dragged me into the room I rented for the night after I told her in what inn I was staying.

She waved her wand a couple of times to erect privacy wards and sternly looked at me.

Since she appeared a mute green in my vision and not red, I was in the mood for jokes and quipped, "You're a very beautiful witch, Gemma. But we're too close on the family tree for me to consider you as a love interest."

"Sleep with one eye open and maybe consider setting up some easy alarm wards. You know how to contact aurors?" She asked as she ignored my easy-going smile.

"You skipped the trainride to tell me this?" I countered with a raised brow as I regarded Gemma's facial expressions intently to find out more.

My mind was going through every possible scenario on how this very clear warning could play out.

Someone in Slytherin was trying to put me in my place, or someone in Slytherin ordered a hit on me. One option was more dire than the other... and neither Gemma nor I could contact the authorities.

The Slytherin oaths must already be straining after the warning my cousin had given me and were likely only possible because we were distantly related, and the auror department would laugh in my face if I told them I learned of a possible threat to my person.

Never mind that I was already attacked while in Hogwarts. Common sense was not something to be relied upon in the magical world.

"I am telling you this because my mum would never let me off if I didn't. Don't be stupid about it - someone might have seen us," Gemma countered and walked out without giving me the chance to argue back.

Her severe expression meant many things.

Since it was possible that they knew I was warned, I couldn't go all out and leave behind a messy crime scene. It would result in blowback for the Farleys. Making my attackers disappear was no longer a favorable option either - not if I acted myself.

Gemma must hold me and my strength in high regard if she thought it possible that I could overpower my would-be-attackers as a freshly finished first year student.

"Patrick," I softly called out with an accompanying hand gesture when the door closed and I was alone once more. The gesture meant my house elf was supposed to stay hidden instead of appearing in plain sight. When enough time passed to make me think that my elf was present, I whispered, "Check this room for wards, please."

After gaining plenty of knowledge on ancient runes with continued dreams of the Norse gods over the course of the year, my warding knowledge imparted to me by the talking hat was advancing quite a bit every time I opened a book on the subject. My ocular ability, too, aided me in finding the wards that were activated in the inn room. I couldn't see magic, but magical items, runes, and inscriptions in general stood out to my vision.

"Hmm, I only see this fresh air ward that reduces dust and gets rid of the smells," I commented after checking under every piece of furniture.

"Patrick does, too," my elf agreed as his voice appeared just behind me.

"How are our plans going?" I asked as I sat down at the edge of the bed.

"Your funds are currently at around 31 thousand Galleons. Master Spudmore is done paying your agreed upon funding with the payments he received for broom reservations and the Weesey twin money comes by Gringotts checks now that the two boys have their own account with the goblins," my elf narrated as I heard him snap a finger.

"Miss Skeeter has many questions and asked Patrick to bring these to you when the pidgeon Patrick last charmed dropped off more information."

As soon as he talked, I noticed a bunch of overly perfumed letters on the nightstand.

"Checked for tracking charms and curses?"

"Yes, Patrick did all of that. Patrick also washed the stinkier ones," the elf practically snarled as he confirmed my question.

'Wow, some of them had even more offensive amounts of perfume on them?' I wondered as I scrunched my nose as I smelled the stack of letters.

"Summarize what she's asking of me," I ordered as I opened the first letter.

"Information and sources that she can use..."

"Let her do it herself. She's a grown woman and capable sociopath. There's no need to help her further," I decided as I read the disgustingly sweet extortion-word-vomit from the beetle animagus and waved for the elf to continue with his report.

"Your muggle money is now bigger than eight figures. The three invester muggleborn are reporting big successes. Missy Lobel received almost two million more muggle money from Patrick after she asked. The hedge fund banker stole half of what he made with your money, though," Patrick explained with a dangerous glint in his eyes that I couldn't see since he still stayed invisible.

'Eight figures? Holy hell, Patrick must have been bored out of his mind to attack so many criminal muggle ventures this year... this definitely can't go on... And Patrick can do forensic accounting? I'm still underestimating him, dear lord...'

"He got 400 grand originally, right? Then that's okay. Unless he steals it all, I won't mind. Just don't give him more," I waved away with a small frown.

"Yous is right," Patrick confirmed.

"What about Enchanting Curios?" I asked after organising my thoughts. Enchanting Curios was the magical shop in Leeds that I discovered during the Christmas break.

"Haggy Lucillia sold Patrick a whole bunch of books according to your list. Patrick also buy a lot of pointy knives," the elf explained eagerly. "They are in Goldeyborough."

"Good. The small smithy I had you built is long done, too. Can't wait to do some metalwork after I placed down some wards," I confirmed and inwardly pondered what else I could talk to my elf about before deciding to share my plan for the incoming attack. "Apparently, someone will attack me later. Could you hide outside and inform me about anything suspicious? If it's too many attackers, take us to the Shrieking Shack."

My elf accepted the order, and I had him take my belongings away to the Shrieking Shack regardless, just to not miss anything in case I needed to bolt. I was eager for some magical matches, but I didn't want to commit suicide by fighting off a dozen capable hit wizards.

With just a book on wand lore in hand, a topic I was planning to learn about this summer, I spent the rest of the day in quiet contemplation.

"Four bad wizards are here. Two are talking to the wizard downstairs, the other two are coming up," my elf - still invisible - warned me all of a sudden.

Taking out my wand, putting away the book, and hiding on top of a large wardrobe in a corner that wasn't fully visible from the door when it was opened, I waited on how those two wizards would go about messing with me.

I still wasn't sure if this plan of my mine was simply stupid or if the risk was even worth it. I could just have left and not risked my life...

In any case, Patrick would warn the aurors in a few minutes like planned, and I confirmed the enemy positions with my Eagle Vision. I quickly learned that two of them were downstairs and just stunned the innkeeper from the four red, moving outlines in my vision. But then one of them suddenly turned smaller.

An animagus.

A... lynx? Definitely a taller cat with a short tail.

The locks of the entrance door slowly and silently opened as the animagus and a human attacker stood in the hallway outside.

"Four hitwizards just to deal with one brat? I'm telling you, this is overkill," one of the attackers whispered before turning the doorknob.

My ears were only able to hear it because of a spell that focused my senses slightly - which turned out to work much better for me than it does for regular magicals because my bloodline already enhanced my senses above those of 'regular' people, mundane or magical.

The bobcat animagus immediately sniffed the air the moment the door slightly opened and nodded to the wizard with his hands on the knob.

The wizard immediately whispered 'Homenum Revelio' to reveal to him the presence of anything human in the room. He might not look to the wardrobe first, but him using this spell told me these people were much more prudent and cautious than those two Death Eaters I dealt with in the woods when I visited Sir Frye that first weekend for my assassin training.

Before they could find me, I silently cast Stupefy from a high angle to deal with the giant predator bursting into the room and managed to hit him before the two could react. I cast a second Stupefy at the still-standing wizard, but he put up a shield charm in time.

Mid-jump from my position because it didn't give me much maneuverability, I cast another curse at the slumped form of the animagus just for good measure and charged at the hitwizard.

He threw a spell at me that I managed to deflect before I blinded him by casting an overpowered 'Lumos Maxima' with my eyes closed. Thanks to Eagle Vision, I could clearly make him out even without looking at him.

"You little shit!" The man cursed and then actually, literally cursed as he sent a bone-breaking curse and a few other spells in quick succesion in my general direction that I managed to sidestep.

Another spell that went completely wide, I reached the man and kicked his knee with all of my power with a frontal kick mid sprint.

*Crack*

A gut-wrenching scream echoed through the whole inn as the man wailed after I caved in his knee and made it bend in the completely wrong direction. With another move, I grabbed his arm that was holding the wand and broke it over my rising knee before my still moving body moved past him so that he dropped the wand. I then cast a 'Stupefy' on him and that stopped his screeching.

My momentum had only stopped because I was still holding his arm and used his head to break my speed as I smashed it into the wall behind him. The stupefy was probably overkill, I reckoned.

I grabbed the man's wand from the floor as I watched the two other 'bad wizards' with the red outline scramble to get upstairs after hearing the screams.

Floating the lynx animagus and the unconscious hitwizard into my room and in position, I quickly closed the door and propped up the human wizard of the two to shield me from anything the two could send me after opening the door.

"Patrick, are the aurors called?" I asked in a whisper and heard a small pop.

"Patrick has informed the patrols," a bodyless voice answered quietly.

"Could you knock out one of the two? The one cautiously walking behind the other. I want to hide my prowess as much as possible. The first two were done by getting a drop on them. I don't want them to know I can deal with two alert and cautious wizards. You have my permission to hit his back as hard as you want," I ordered and watched the two hitwizards cautiously prepare behind my door.

Just as the door was blasted open and the man with the broken knee I propped in front of me tanked all the wooden splinters from the destroyed door, Patrick did something to the wizard outside standing behind and was flung across the hallway.

"What the- Derryl??" The wizard who just blasted door shouted and looked to the side.

I took that moment to stand up slightly to sling an 'Expelliarmus' followed by a silent-cast 'Stupefy' aimed at the man's feet.

The hit wizard managed to deflect the 'Expelliarmus' thanks to his quick reflexes, but the stunner aimed at his feet connected, and he was shoved into the wall behind him when I shot another disarming charm his way.

Quickly running out of the room and collecting the two remaining wands, I cast another round of 'Stupefy' at all the enemies.

"Bring me my birch and kelpie wand," I whispered when I noticed the aurors were still not inside the inn.

Patrick appeared next to me and handed me an unassuming wooden stick - a wand that I found in the Room of Lost Things. With the wand lore books I read thus far, I learned that its core was a very unusual material. A tuft of green algae-like hair from the mane of the elusive sea monster - a kelpie, which I suspected to be the race of the Loch Ness monster.

I used the wand Patrick handed me to throw a whole bunch of curses at the four men, including the ones that gave creeping nightmares and the one that urged them to speak the truth unprompted the moment they told a lie.

I also finally learned why veritaserum was a thing with such a curse existing after Flitwick researched it when he learned about the spell after what happened to Penelope. The curse was used by aurors before the truth potion existed, but they stopped when the potion recipe for Veritaserum was published because prolonged exposure to the spell broke the psyche and hypercharged paranoia.

I loved that since I was the caster and not the recipient of the spell.

"Take it back," I ordered as I carelessly threw the kelpie-birch wand that worked much worse than my Ollivander-crafted unicorn-rosewood wand down the hallway where I saw the disillusioned form of Patrick waiting for more orders.

Several moments later where I roughed up my clothing and worked myself up to get a little sweaty - showing that I was much more challenged by this attack than I actually was - and waited for the aurors to arrive.

"The person up there still conscious, slowly drop your wand on the floor and walk outside of the room with your hands in clear view!" One of the two aurors shouted from the stairs with just his head peaking down the hallway.

I did as ordered and shouted back, "I'm Talion Macnair, a first year Hogwarts student. These four men attacked me out of nowhere! I suspect one of these attackers to be an illegal animagus in the form of a lynx or bobcat!"

My body was still tense because the auror was orange, not green, and I was ready to dodge any spell he would send my way immediately.

"Lower your wand, Perkins," a second auror behind the one who ordered me before gruffly spat and walked up the last set of stairs towards me with his wand ready but pointed slightly away from me.

Now, on the first floor, same as me, the gruff auror who was a pale green in my Eagle Vision walked past me to peer through the broken door to watch the 'four attackers'.

"You managed to get all four of them?"

"Professor Flitwick instructed me in the art of dueling. And I was lucky to be in a good position for the first two attackers because my house elf overheard them and warned me," I answered concisely.

"Why are you here all alone?" The auror asked as he checked the four attackers and confirmed they were all unconscious. His eyes narrowed at the bobcat animagus.

As the auror took out his badge and whispered into it after pointing his own wand at it, he gave Auror Perkins, who was still orange in my vision, a suspicious look.

I waited for him to finish talking into the badge before I answered, "Professor Flitwick and I are traveling to Italy first thing tomorrow morning. I am to be a contender for Magical Britain in the upcoming dueling tournament."

"Do you know these men and why they attacked you?" The auror asked, seemingly believing me, and I noticed his wand was still at the ready. He didn't look at me either. He kept looking at Perkins.

It was easy to assume that Perkins did something to arouse this auror's suspicion. Maybe Perkins wanted to stall after Patrick warned the two, or he wanted to stay in a specific area during the patrol that would result in them being late or something.

My paranoia was working overtime once more, and I felt it was fully justified the more on edge the non-Perkins auror was.

"I have not spent any meaningful time in the Magical World outside Hogwarts. My only enemies are students. Most of them are from Slytherin as they repeatedly attacked me during the school year. I know none of these men," I answered and slowly took my wand back after hearing a few tell-tale signs of apparition downstairs and outside.

Still keeping my Eagle Vision active, I noticed two red, one orange, four white, and two green outlines appear in the inn.

Very clearly, a full auror team of reinforcements appeared, and I was safe for the time being. Adding Perkins, a little less than half of these aurors were antagonistic to me as I suspected them to be in Malfoy's pocket or merely part of the same faction. But I had to assume they wouldn't attack me and six of their colleagues.

How reassuring.

"Why is it always you, Macnair?"

I turned to the door and saw Head Auror Scrimgeour look at me with an exasperated scowl.

All I could do in turn was shrug with a helpless smile.