Chapter 21: Rest of Year 1

The rest of the trip was quite uneventful. Grandma Rosier gave a bunch of books about spell magic, basic Latin, and the theory of creating spells. After hearing about his talent in creating spells, she encouraged him to try to create as many spells as possible, but Toby knew that his talent for creating spells was fake. He decided to just pretend to try and create new spells. Every day, he would fake explosions, to signify that he failed. By January 1, he 'created' a new spell and showed it to Grandma Rosier.

This actually caused a huge commotion since Grandpa Albernotch wanted Toby to share all his spells with everyone, but Alyssa stopped him. Alyssa's training was not slack either. Apparently, Grandma Rosier taught Alyssa the entire first-year course taught by Durmstrang in one week. Albernotch trained her combat awareness skills by repeatedly dueling with her and having some of the other wizards randomly fire nonlethal spells at her.

Finally, the winter holidays came to an end and school started again. Wizarding families sent their children to King's Cross station to board Hogwarts Express. On the train, Alyssa, Toby, Cedric, and Wilson sat in the same compartment.

Cedric broke the silence and started talking," My dad took me around to his friends and started showing me off. He claimed that I valiantly fought, but finally became a hostage to The Alliance. I swear, each version of the story is more horrendous than the last."

Wilson barked a laugh," If your dad knew that you became a part of a dark Alliance, I'm pretty sure he would place you under house arrest for a decade."

Cedric rolled his eyes," Enough about me, what did you guys do?"

Toby casually ran his hand through his hair and said with a pretentious voice," Oh nothing much, I just created a new spell."

Wilson threw his hand up," At this point, I give up."

Just then, Cassandra entered the compartment. She sat down beside Toby and said," Alyssa, I'm willing to join."

Alyssa gave a light smile and raised her hand," Welcome to The Alliance."

Cassandra shook Alyssa's hand.

"Great, now that she's here, let's begin the meeting," said Toby, bringing everyone's attention toward him.

"I think the next step of the plan is to build our organization," said Toby.

"Makes sense," said Prefect Wilson,"We need to gather prestige for Alyssa and build up her reputation."

"Yes, but I am talking about her own personal forces," said Toby.

"Why? Doesn't she have the Alliance," asked Cedric.

Toby shrugged, not willing to explain the delicate nature of hereditary forces. Cassandra noticed this and helped Toby explain.

"The Alliance is the power she gathered by her last name. They are not her personal forces," said Cassandra," Every famous person needs their own forces. Grindelwald had his Acolytes, Dumbledore has the Order of the Phoenix, You-know- who has his Death Eaters. Similarly, Alyssa needs a name for her own forces."

Cedric looked at Cassandra with surprise," You really know a lot about this."

Cassandra flashed a smile," Thanks, I did my research beforehand."

Alyssa thought for a while and said," Any suggestions?"

Wilson said," How about Death Knights."

"No, It sounds like the name of a cartoon." said Toby," I like the name, Phantom Troupe."

Cedric vetoed that idea," It sounds like a name for a group of criminals."

"We are criminals," argued Toby.

"How about Pandora's Box?" Cassandra's voice tore through their arguments," It represents us. Pandora unleashed death, agony, and despair into the world, but hope stayed with humanity."

No one expressed any dissatisfaction with that statement. "Then it's settled, our group will be called Pandora's box." With Alyssa's words, a new organization was established.

Cassandra took the lead in taking out a notebook. She gestured to everyone to listen to her and said," There are a few things to take care of for an organization. First of all, a location to meet up."

"I already know a perfect place," interjected Toby.

"So do I," said Wilson," We'll compare the places later."

"Then some token to represent our identity. Let me take care of this," Cassandra asked for Alyssa's permission to which Alyssa gave her consent.

"Lastly, expansion. We need to decide who to add and who we can trust."

Seeing that the Hogsmeade Station was coming up, Alyssa put an end to the conversation, and said," We'll talk about this tonight. Let's also finalize a location to meet up later."

….

In Hogwarts, most of the students chattered about what they did in the holidays. During the holidays, many students who had gone home envied the lively snowball fights taking place at Hogwarts, while those in Hogwarts longed for the cherished time spent with their families by the students who had returned home. While eating dinner, Dumbledore made an announcement.

Dumbledore stood up, and clinked his glass," Attention everyone, I have an announcement. Ms.Ilona has resigned, so Professor Snape will be taking care of her classes for the rest of the year. Please stand up for the Hogwarts School Song.

After that horrendous song, the students slowly went back to their respective dorm rooms. At night, Toby snuck out of the Ravenclaw dorm and came to the commonly agreed spot.

Alyssa glanced at her pocket watch and said," We have about half an hour, so show us your spot quickly."

Toby took them to the West wing of the Astronomy tower and climbed the stairs. Walking to the seventh floor, he paused near the tapestry of Barnabas the Barney. Cedric looked around," Is it behind the portrait?"

"Not exactly," chuckled Toby. He walked forward and backward near the Portrait muttering," I need a perfect place to build a secret dark organization."

Suddenly, a door appeared in the tapestry. Walking in they found a dark room filled with white mist on the floor. Burning torches adorned the walls. It was spacious, but the eerie temperament made the room look smaller. The black marble floor was slightly cracked as if it was eroded due to time. The torches were burning with green flames. At the center of the room, there was an unlit fireplace.

"Greek Fire," muttered Alyssa," These flames can even burn underwater. It's amazing how these flames are not out of control."

"This room is amazing," exclaimed Wilson,"I didn't know that Hogwarts had a place like this."

"Oh my god!" Cassandra exclaimed,"There's a portrait of Salazar Slytherin here."

Everyone followed her eyes to see a portrait of the founder of Slytherin. He had stern features, a wide forehead, a sharp gaze, and his eyes were closed. He was wearing green and silver medieval robes. The frame of the portrait was made of silver, adorned with silver. Two Platinum snakes coiled on the bottom of the portrait.

"Is he animate?" asked Wilson,"Most portraits in Hogwarts can move and talk right?"

"I guess he needs to be awakened," said Alyssa,"Some portraits are sealed and can only be awakened with a key-word."

"Since it's Salazar, I think that the key word is in Parseltongue," said Toby.

"Unfortunately, none of us know Parseltongue," said Cedric.

"Leave him be, now that we have a location, we need to redecorate this place," said Alyssa.

Cedric took up the task. Alyssa offered him a thousand galleons to buy some stuff, but Cedric only accepted 3 quarters of it. Wilson also promised to bring some furniture from the Muggle markets as well. Cassandra took the task of creating something to keep us in contact.

The rest of the year passed by calmly. Throughout the year, Hufflepuff and Slytherin were neck in neck in the competition for house points, but Professor Snape took every chance to decrease points for Hufflepuff whenever he could.

Toby created a spell as usual every month. He also decided to note down some of the spells in the book so that other members could learn them. He wrote the spells Aoratos, Aguadiffino, Corrosus Caligo, and Vertical Pedes(A new spell to walk up on walls.) It took some time, but other people were also able to cast the spells after practice. Toby also stole the Vanishing Cabinet from the room of requirement and shrunk it down. He decided to take it back home and let someone fix the cabinet.

The final exams were literally a breeze for them. Alyssa came in first place, followed by Cassandra. Toby was good in the practicals, but he barely passed in potions and History of Magic. Snape gave him an Acceptable for his potion while he gave Exceeds expectations for almost every Slytherin student.

Wilson was probably the most ecstatic one out of all of them. He received an outstanding grade in Defense Against Dark arts. When asked to show a charm, he performed the Aoratos spell instead of the usual Disillusionment curse. In Defense against Dark Arts, he chose to display an Agudiffindo, taking down the dummy wizard in front of him.

In the end of the year celebrations, Slytherin was barely leading by ten points, allowing Slytherin to win the House Cup seven times in a row. Honestly, none of the Hufflepuffs seemed to care about the cup, but Gryffindors were hit the most. If Slytherin lost the cup, Toby was pretty sure that Gryffindor would party more than Hufflepuff. When Headmaster Dumbledore announced the start of the farewell dinner, the atmosphere in the entire auditorium became warm again.

In King's Cross Station, Toby and Alyssa said goodbye to the other members of Pandora's Box. Alyssa also reminded them to not forget their tasks. Watching his friends walk away, Toby looked at Alyssa and said," Now what?"

"Now, we train. I hope you can create some strong spells because starting from next year, things will start to get rough," said Alyssa.

"Oh boy…" muttered Toby.