Chapter 105

Ethan and Tracey sat together in the infirmary, in silence, by Daphne's bedside. She was still in the position she had been in when she had been petrified, untouched by time.

Theodore was not with them, he had not even come to see her in the infirmary even once. They knew that did not mean he did not care about what happened though. On the contrary, he was the one who was the most affected out of the three of them.

Two days had passed since the petrification, and not once had he left his room. Who knew what he was doing in there.

Ethan himself was still shaken by what had happened, though for different reasons. He felt stuck in between a rock and a hard place. On whether he should be investigating the Heir and the Beast, or leave it all to the Professors.

He had already told them everything he knew, but he still felt like he could do more. Snape's warning was still in his mind though. What if he ended up muddying the leads, instead of helping?

The thing was, he knew he could not let things go the way they had originally gone. Each petrified victim was a potential death, since they had all mostly been lucky in the original world not to get killed.

But what would be even worse would be Dumbledore getting expelled in this timeline as well. That would just leave the Heir free reign to do whatever they wanted, and that would have devastating results.

Ethan still did not know what the right course of actions was, but he was getting closer to it. He had been going to all of his classes, unlike Theodore, and had been putting 200% effort into them. And that still did not feel like enough.

He was learning new spells, and his personal research on the side in the library was going well too. But all this progress somehow felt useless. Like it amounted to nothing.

Obviously, this was not the right way to go. So, something had to be changed.

"What are you thinking?"

Ethan kept his gaze lowered at Tracey's question, his decision becoming firmer in his heart as he replied, "That it would not sit right with me to just go on with my life as if nothing happened."

"That's not what they are asking you to do. Just that you shouldn't interfere with the investigation, which is a reasonable request."

Ethan smiled slightly, "It's fine, I won't be."

"Somehow I'm struggling to believe you." Obvious, Tracey was not convinced. She looked at him with narrowed eyes, as if to try to look through him.

"Of course I'm telling the truth. I'll be going to the forbidden forest, surely it won't interfere with whatever they are doing."

"What if whatever did this to Daphne is in the forest?"

Ethan shrugged, replying honestly, "I'm pretty sure it won't be. It would be a shit hiding place, with all the creatures already there. It'd stick out like a sore thumb."

Tracey frowned, punching Ethan's shoulder all of a sudden. As he looked at her, his face clearly asking why she did this, she said, "You clearly know what petrified her, but you won't tell me. Stop being a dick and say it already. And don't give me some 'ignorance is bliss' bullshit. Also, I'm coming with you in the forbidden forest."

Raising a curious but mostly amused eyebrow, Ethan pointed out, "These sounded an awful lot like affirmations rather than questions. And why would you even want to come with me in the forbidden forest? I'll just go chat with some centaurs about stars."

One thing that had been bothering Ethan since this summer was his apparent talent for divination, which seemingly came out of nowhere. It had started in the pyramid, and the Third Eye of Destruction confirmed he did have a talent as a seer, seeing how fast he had been progressing with the spell.

It had even been a useful cover with Snape, who now thought his knowledge of the future came from a vision, rather than a past life.

Still, Ethan had many questions about this unexplored talent of his, and he needed an expert's opinion on it. He would have approached Professor Trelawney or Professor Sinistra, but he preferred to keep this away from the Hogwarts' faculty for now.

If they learned he was exploring his talents as a seer, they would probably figure out he was doing this to continue investigating in his corner. And even without taking that into account, he would rather have as few people know about his talent as possible.

Centaurs were notoriously hard to interact with, and he doubted they would blabber off to anyone about him. Actually, he did not even know if he would be able to speak to them himself, but he had to try.

Meanwhile, Tracey warned, "First off, going to see the centaurs is dumb. They are mostly unfriendly towards humans. Also, you still haven't told me what petrified Daphne."

Ethan stretched his back against his chair, which had gotten stiff from sitting for too long, and got up, revealing, "It was a Basilisk. The King of Serpents. Scales as tough as a dragon's. Unmatched venom. Can kill with a glare. And if you look at it through a reflection, you get petrified instead, which is what happened to Daphne. All in all, one of the most dangerous magical beasts in the world. I'd rather fight a dragon than a Basilisk."

"Why do I feel like you want to kill it then? Don't you realize it is suicide?"

Ethan stopped in his tracks, and breathed out, but did not say anything. Simply because he had nothing to say. Of course he knew it was dangerous. In reality, Harry had only ever managed to kill one in the original timeline because he had the help of a Phoenix, who happened to be immune to the death glare of the beast, and gouged out its eyes, but also had the Sword of Gryffindor, an artefact several centuries old capable of cutting through pretty much anything.

Ethan doubted he would get this lucky. He did have some weapons of his own, such as his fire dagger, and he could also count on Miyuki's help, but he doubted they would win against it. Despite knowing that, he just could not sit still.

"What am I saying, of course you do. And you enjoy that. You just can't help yourself, can you?"

Ethan would have felt offended, had it been anyone other than Tracey saying this. Instead, he scoffed, "I don't love it. As a matter of fact, I hate it. I assure you, if I could get seven years of uninterrupted magical schooling, I'd take it over this any day."

"Why do you keep chasing after the bad guy then? It was the same last year. And in Egypt. And why do you always rush at it alone? I know you're smarter than this."

Ethan looked at Tracey, who was looking at him with a serious expression, before his gaze turned to Daphne. Sighing, he said, "This is why I do this. Because when I don't, people get hurt. And yes, I know, I can't carry the world on my shoulders, but I can't just ignore it either, can I?"

He was expecting Tracey to argue with him, to pull out the same arguments as Snape had given him, yet to his surprise, she nodded.

"I get it. If you warn someone about what you know, or take them with you, you feel like it would be your fault if something happened to them. Master Nefartari says you're being stupid, but I get it."