Interlude: Generic Hero Part IX

Ethan stared at Dumbledore while still lying on the stairs, the blood of the basilisk slowly drenching his clothes. Dumbledore was an enigma to him. He wasn't sure how much Dumbledore really knew, because in the movies he always seemed to know what was happening but rarely acted on the things happening around Harry. Ethan feared that Dumbledore somehow knew that he had bred the basilisk and that he would be thrown out of Hogwarts like Hagrid. The only thing that calmed him down was that Dumbledore smiled at him. He didn't seem angry or the like, which was at least not a negative sign.

So by the time he stood on his two feet again, Ethan had decided to play innocent passerby. "I think I'm fine, Professor. Just a few scratches from the fall. So in a way, the stairs caused more harm than the snake, I guess," said Ethan, who immediately scolded himself, that this wasn't the time for bad jokes.

Dumbledore chuckled "That seems to be the case, Mr. Brown. Thanks to you, I would add. I'm sure Professor Snape is already escorting Sybill to the infirmary." He said, seemingly amused at Ethan's humor, "I think the founders didn't have a situation like yours in mind when they enchanted the stairs to teach the students to be cautious and observant even in a familiar place. I think I will work on the enhancements soon to prevent any further accidents when a student is in a similar situation."

"What do you say, Mr. Brown? Should we move to my office to talk about what exactly happened?" said Dumbledore, and his voice was void of the carefree attitude he just had one sentence ago.

Ethan gulped and slowly nodded, unsure if Dumbledore was just playing with him.

When they made their way to Dumbledore's office, Minerva stayed and began to fix the stairs that got damaged during the fight. When Ethan and Dumbledore arrived at the headmaster's office, Ethan was taken away by the numerous different devices in the room. The pensive in one corner, the phoenix sleeping next to the large wooden desk, and the pictures of the numerous headmasters from Hogwarts behind the desk. Some of these headmasters were eying him curiously, others looked at him with contempt, and some were sleeping soundly.

Dumbledore offered him some Sherbet lemon, but Ethan politely declined, as he was too busy looking at the different tools in the headmaster's office, and he thought that maybe taking some kind of magical tinkering skill might offer some interesting possibilities.

"So, Mr. Brown, is there something you want to tell me?" asked Professor Dumbledore while looking at Ethan over his half-moon glasses that sat on the tip of his crocked nose.

"About the basilisk? To be honest, I was probably the one that was surprised the most, when I saw Professor Trelawney being attacked by a giant snake. At first, I wanted to run away too and hope the beast hadn't seen me, but then I noticed that the snake was cathing up to Trelawney and realized that I needed to help her…" explained Ethan, and retold the whole battle to dumbledore without leaving out the tiniest detail. He didn't even need to lie to Dumbledore, as he really was surprised to see Trelawney being chased by the snake, even though he knew where the snake came from. That he didn't need to lie didn't mean that he dared to look into Dumbledore's face while telling him about the events, as he feared that his face would betray him. The movies had shown him that Dumbledore was more than just good at reading people not to mention that he could use legilimency as well. Instead, he kept his head down and looked at his clenched fists.

"Interesting. Not many would have tried to fight a basilisk with no way of harming them to protect someone else. That the speaking hat put you into Ravenclaw despite such bravery speaks volumes about your curiosity and thirst for knowledge." Said Dumbledore cheerfully.

"Mr. Brown, do you happen to know why the Ministry forbids breeding basilisks?" asked Dumbledore curiously and in a non-accusing way.

"Because they are untameable." Answered Ethan, looking out of the window, still unsure if Dumbledore knew or not.

"That's right. Even though there were some who claimed they tamed a basilisk, in the end they all died a quick death at the creatures hands. So the question is: Why would someone risk breeding such a dangerous creature in Hogwarts?" asked Dumbledore, genuily curiously observing Ethan, who wasn't even looking at him.

"Maybe hunting something? Basilisks have a deadly glare and powerful poison. Spiders, in particular, fear them. So maybe it's related to that? I don't really know." answered Ethan, considering if he should just tell the truth and let Dumbledore deal with Voldemort.

"Interesting, really interesting. But why a basilisk? Why would someone use something so dangerous, something so uncontrollable? No matter how I think about it, I don't see a basilisk accomplishing anything that an experienced wizard couldn't do. So why risk the danger of breeding such a creature if there are so many other options to do what a basilisk could do?" questioned Dumbledore, but his tone made it clear that he didn't really expect Ethan to have an answer to that.

Ethan was thinking about how to answer in a way to end that discussion in a way he wouldn't end up as a suspect.

To his luck, Professor McGonagall came up the stairs, followed by Lucius Malfoy and Cornelius Fudge.

"Sorry, Professor Dumbledore, they didn't want to wait for the end of your meeting with Mr. Brown," said McGonagall, apologetic.

"Is it true, Dumbledore? A basilisk in Hogwarts. Do you know who is behind that? Students could have died." bombarded Cornelius Dumbledore with questions.

"Don't worry, Minerva. My discussion with Mr. Brown was coming to an end anyway. Cornelius, please calm down, take a seat, and we will discuss everything calmly after Mr. Brown has left." Said Dumbledore and conjured some chairs for the new arrivals.

Cornelius immediately took a seat, panting and whipping the sweat off his head.

Ethan was relieved that Dumbledore couldn't question him anymore, and he wanted to leave when he had a sudden idea.

"They are easy to breed." said Ethan loudly, so that everyone could hear him.

"What did you say, boy?" said Lucius, glaring at him.

"Dumbledore's last question to me, why someone would use a basilisk. I think the answer is because everyone can breed them with almost no effort. Just put a toad on a chicken egg, and you get a basilisk. Even a child could do that, and the book with that information is readily available in almost any library, be it Hogwarts or Flourish and Blotts, and I suspect any older wizarding household." Said Ethan and left the astonished Dumbledore and the confused Malfoy and Cornelius behind.

When Ethan was out of the headmaster's office, a smug grin appeared on his face. He knew that Lucius was a school governor and Cornelius was the Minister of Magic, so if he informed Dumbledore that any student had the ability to breed the basilisk for whatever reason, then he would be forced to make a more widespread search for a possible culprit instead of focusing on him. In the eyes of an outsider, he could even be seen as the hero who saved a professor, so it would be difficult for Dumbledore to focus on him. Now he just had to pretend to be the hero who had been at the right place at the right time, even though it felt a little wrong to get the attention because of a situation he had caused in the first place.

The situation was a little like in his old world, where a geriatric nurse in a nursing home poisoned one of the inhabitants to be the hero when he revived them later on. The only saving grace for his own consciousness was that he didn't do it intentionally and wouldn't risk it again.

With the drama that his attempts had caused, he decided to play it safer and just wait for Harry to kill the basilisk in the chamber of secrets before he would steal one of the basilisk's teeth to destroy the diadem.

The next day at breakfast, a shower of owls delivered the newspaper. The headline was "Basilisk attack at Hogwarts," with Cornelius Fudge's face below, where he told the readers that the ministry, the school governors, and the headmaster of Hogwarts had a discussion to find ways to prevent any similar situations from occurring again and that the safety of the students had the highest priority for them.

Just when he wanted to read the article further, Dumbledore stepped forward in the great hall and asked for everyone's attention.

"As rumours travel faster in Hogwarts than any owl can hope to be, I'm sure most of you might have heard about a basilisk appearing at Hogwarts, and that said basilisk attacked students and professors alike. Allow me to provide clarity on this dire matter: The basilisk is dead, and no student or professor was seriously harmed. Nonetheless, in the wake of this incident, the Ministry and our esteemed school governors have deemed it imperative to bolster the safety of Hogwarts and its students. Henceforth, a new set of "prudent" rules will be implemented with immediate effect.

First of all, from this moment on, all Toads in Hogwarts need to be accounted for. That means that every student who owns a toad has to place them in a special cage until the end of the year and is only allowed to take them out under a teacher's supervision, and starting next year, new students aren't allowed to bring toads to Hogwarts. The toads from the toad choir will also be put into special cages, and are only allowed to be taken out under a teacher's supervision. Secondly, the pond in the outer region of the Hogwarts grounds is now a restricted area. The last immediate change will affect the library because a few books will be moved to the forbidden section. After an extensive investigation by ministry personnel, a few additional rules may be added" recited Dumbledore, and the way he said it made clear that he wasn't really agreeing with these reforms.

The reactions to this announcement were quite varied. Especially the students who didn't know how to breed basilisks were confused. A few students just thought it was a joke or a weird prank. Some younger students were asking the older ones for clarification, which in most cases couldn't be given, but some of the students, mostly Ravenclaws, knew about the breeding process, and by the end of the breakfast, every student in Hogwarts knew what a basilisk is and how to breed them.

Ethan was a bit flabbergasted at how the ministry handled the situation. Banning toads and trying to keep the knowledge about basilisks secret were surefire ways to get students to try to breed basilisks. Despite the fact that his toad Felicia would from now on have to live in a cage, the so-called "extensive investigation" worried him a little.

He was sure that no one would be able to put the blame on him, but it still made him a little uncomfortable. He also realized that going to the room of requirement too often might be a little dangerous from now on. At least if he just went there like he previously did. But that was just a minor issue that an invisibility spell could fix. He had already read about the spell, and mastering it should be quite easy.

The next day, Professor Flitwick gave him 50 points for Ravenclaw after their lesson because the headmaster was too busy to do it personally. To Ethan's surprise, that Ravenclaw was now leading with twenty points for the housecup was as much a topic as the basilisk was. After realizing that if Slytherin lost the next and last Quidditch game against Hufflepuff, they would have a real chance at winning the housecup, the students focused more on the last game than the gossip about a basilisk that was already killed, Lucius Malfoy and another person wandering the school and questioning students, or even their own studies.

While he was focusing on that Amy in particular was using her spare time to make a great banner that showed a snake getting eaten by a badger with quidditch rings in the background. Ethan was sure that if Amy was any more knowledgeable in charms the whole banner would show an entire Oscar worthy movie about a snake getting trashed by a honey badger. He was sure about that because he heard Amy asking older students to do exactly that.

Leona, on the other side, was probably the only person who hadn't forgotten about the basilisk. In her opinion, one of the Syltherins had to be responsible for the attack, and Lucius Malfoy was just there so that he could get rid of all the evidence. For that reason, Leona was sneakily following Lucius whenever she heard that he was at Hogwarts. Even Ethan's attempts to convince her to just let go of the topic and focus on studying together with him were ignored. The good thing about that was that he learned about what Lcuius was doing without becoming suspicious by following him personally. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, if one knows Lucius, he didn't try to seriously find the culprit and instead tried to find out about other problems with Hogwarts he could use to weaken Dumbledore's position. In his words, it was a waste of time because they wouldn't be able to find the culprit anyway unless they were allowed to use some unconventional methods that would surely have Dumbledore breathing down their necks.

This attitude relieved Ethan immensely, but that didn't mean he would risk another attempt at breeding a basilisk.

The highly anticipated game between Slytherin and Hufflepuff was a complete farce, as the Slytherins knocked out Cedric Digory by focusing on him from the start and using very debatable methods. While that cost Slytherin the lead at the beginning, in the end, they cached the snitch and won the game.

What followed was a united hatred from all three houses against Slytherin, which, in the end, changed nothing.

After two more weeks, just before their exams, Dumbledore announced another addition to the rules. The school governors, which basically meant Lucius Malfoy, noticed an increasingly high rate of accidents related to potions that were created and sold by students. To counteract these problems, only potions that were tested by a certified potioneer were allowed to be sold in Hogwarts. Which just meant that anyone who wanted to sell a potion in Hogwarts had to ask Snape or Dumbledore for permission because they were the only people who had the necessary qualifications to ratify a potion. The newspaper article naturally phrased it in a way that opened up the question of whether Dumbledore had gotten careless with age and if he was still fit to rule a school.

This basically closed Ethan's business down. At first he thought that he could ask Snape, but Snape just told him that the problem would be solved as soon as he sold the potions outside of Hogwarts and that he should stockpile them or study for the exams until then, because Snape planned to reject every student that asked him to ratify a potion because he didn't want to bother with examining hundreds of potions for no profit and he didn't want to make exceptions. Unsurprisingly, no one dared to ask Dumbledore, which basically meant that the only potions that were sold in Hogwarts were potions that older students had bought in Hogsmeade.

The time of the exams was probably the most relaxed time Ethan had this year. The exams were so easy that he didn't even need to focus on studying the requested topics, which meant he could focus on grinding his skills. In recent weeks, he has decided to focus more on the protego charm than the petrificus totalus charm because he wants to upgrade the spell before attempting to kill Quirrell. He was sure the Ministry would overlook a simple shield charm in case he really was attacked, and as of now, he could only cast the spell with extreme speed but only with the power of a regular shield charm. He hoped the next Tier would tackle exactly that problem.

After the exams ended, Amy directly switched into her holiday preparation mode and practically never left his side. She continuously offered him to come visit her in the summer holidays or suggested that she could visit him. Ethan was even considering accepting her advances until he overheard her talking with Leona. And even if her words were related to quidditch, he was sure she wasn't talking about quidditch when she said he was harder to catch than a snitch in a snowstorm and that she didn't know if she should just try to score a few simple goals on their first game or directly aim to get to the finals even thought she wasn't sure she was ready to win the whole cup on their first game.

After overhearing that, Ethan basically vanished for the rest of the day. He wasn't ready for any of that, even if he only understood half of it. He was in a phase where he barely could imagine a relationship with the hyperactive, quidditch-obsessed, beautiful brunette, but he had to find a way to slow her down. He feared that she might regret it in the future if they did it, and it wouldn't work out for some reason. The fact that he never had a relationship, not to mention having done it, didn't really help with his nervousness and indecisiveness.

Wandering the corridors and thinking about it painfully reminded him that normally his father would have had a totally embarrassing talk about the topic with him, which probably would have been able to ease his worries a little.

The few days after that were a little awkward for him, as he didn't want to dodge Amy any longer but, at the same time, couldn't think about what he heard. Having watched the spectacle for a few days, Leona decided to intervene, and grabbed Ethan to have a talk with him. When he then told her about what he had heard, she explained that first of all, he shouldn't have listened in, and secondly, that Amy always talks like the most confident and bravest person, but in the end, is quite shy and wouldn't do anything if she wasn't absolutely sure that he had the same feelings for her and that her saying these things was just joking about ways to get him to feel the same about her, and that this didn't mean she would jump at him at the first opportunity. At the end of their talk, Leona asked him to at least give Amy an answer because the doubt was driving her crazy.

Before Ethan could make up his mind, they received the results of their exams. Ethan naturally scored full points in all tests, even though he only used half the time to finish his written exams. Leona and Amy almost had full scores, but they missed a few questions in history of magic.

The night before they should go home, he was finally ready to have a serious talk with Amy and asked her to meet up in the room of requirements.

Author Note:

Thanks for reading the story. 

And sorry that it appeares a bit rushed, but I think it would be too much to write as much about Ethan as I did about Atlas, when he is not the Main Character of the story. I mean, if I write anymore about Ethan it could become an independent story and that's not what I want. So I guess only one or at most two chapters about Ethan (take it with a grain of salt because I'm terrible at calculating chapters and the time needed to write them).  I still hope you enjoyed his background story so far, and he appeared like the average Fan fiction Hero.