C079 - Meeting Two Founders again

The next morning, as another favor, McGonagall met with Lara, Penelope, and I. As an animagus herself and as deputy headmistress, she argued it fell under her perview to register our animagus forms properly.

Ideally, I didn't really want to do that. But while I was a lord and many of my 'kind' got away with literal murder, I also had hundreds of enemies. There only needed to exist rumors that the three of us succeeded in getting our animagus forms, and in case we didn't register, we'd immediately be hurled into Azkaban. At least I would be. That was something I was sure Lucius would do with no small amount of glee.

Ah, yes.

Lucius Malfoy... it seemed my plan didn't come to fruition, or Draco is a remarkably amazing actor, and his wife or one of his cronies continued to pose as him with a Polyjuice potion. With the existence of magic and potions, I shouldn't be too surprised, but the blonde asshole somehow managed to survive the Brotherhood's poison.

For a short moment, I doubted that I applied the wrong poison to the needle, but no. After rummaging through my gear I got from Sir Frye, the poison bottle read 'nerve agent - lethal'. Maybe it didn't work the same on magicals, as in magic surpressed the main chemical of the poison instinctively or he was hauled into St Mungo's the second the effects took place, maybe some sort of ritual made him resistant to all manner of poisons... but survive he did. I wasn't entirely sure in what state he was in since I didn't meet him since then to judge for myself, but I doubted he was completely fine.

Draco looked worried the next few days after Halloween, not frightened or sad - which was the only thing I could really base all my suspicions on.

It would have spared me a lot of trouble if Lucius had just croaked, but I was about to get an item to break into wards. My hope was that I could just kill a weakened Lucius at his home soon.

"Congratulions, you three," McGonagall praised to break me out of my thoughts. She was speaking 'properly' because she was in her official deputy headmistress duty role. "Now, on you go. Show me your forms so that I can record the characteristics for the application."

The three of us changed into our forms, and she scrutinized both the progress and our forms with a critical eye that held quite a bit of approval.

At more than point, I heard her mumble 'marvelous' as I strutted around on the shelves in the witch's office - but it was mostly directed at her fellow cat animagus Lara.

"You may change back, and don't think I didn't see you and your mischief, Mister Macnair," McGonagall eventually instructed with a thin-lipped smile. "You have quite the affinity with human transfiguration, Miss Croft. Are you interested in advancing your studies a little? Your grades in transfiguration would certainly allow for it."

The changed back brunette witch gave the professor a small nod and was handed a book from the shelves in the office. I kind of wondered where mine was since I also accomplished the same thing just three years younger... but Lara really was uniquely suited to the subject. I could admit that she was better than me.

"I'll have the appropriate documents presented to Mister Macnair's lawyer this evening," our transfiguration professor said as she looked at the parchment that had recorded our pecularities. Mine was the off-colored plumage and a thin white line going over my beak where my scar was.

I raised my hand and offered, "I have a letter for him anyway. If you don't mind, you can hand it to me, and I'll have my owl Nyx do the delivery. Just hand the letter to Nitwit. She seems to like doing little errands like that for me."

The professor seemed to miss that I only offered so that Dumbledore couldn't interfere and gave me a pleased nod as she accepted my offer. Instead, after looking at a pocket watch instead of casting 'Tempus', she chased us out since it was about time for classes to start.

I needed to meet with Slughorn, unfortunately.

"Lord Gamp! Fancy meeting you here," the portly old wizard greeted with a huge fake smile once I knocked on his open office door.

A small host of Slytherin students was inside - likely to complain about whatever Snape wasn't dealing with once more. Some of these older students really were unrepenting opportunists and sniveling leeches. In front of Snape, they were like obedient kittens, but the moment his predecessor came back to the school, they sought him out like bullied children who had their lunch money taken.

Sighing deeply, I firmed my mind for another lesson in shamelessness... and potions.

-----

Later that day, I excitedly undressed at the lake, put on my muggle wet suit, and jumped into the lake with my magical pouch.

It was time to collect on a promise.

I was lucky. The kraken wasn't close to the stone slab. Instead, it was paying attention to something near the Slytherin common room of which I found the location of in my dives during the cold October month.

Knowing the trick, I didn't need to swim upside down to solve the disk puzzle this time, so the suction coming from the slab couldn't catch me off-guard like last time. Instead, I more or less stepped through the portal it created and was once more inside the Forge.

Quickly drying myself, I walked forward and intended to patiently wait for the two founders to come back, but their holograms popped up immediately after I took my first steps in the direction of the forge.

"Welcome back, Talion," Hufflepuff's hologram greeted with a warm smile while Ravenclaw only nodded with a shallow but pleased smirk.

"You achieved your animagus form then?"

In answer, I took out the heart feather from my raven form and held it up with a big smile.

Hufflepuff clapped her hand and congratulated, "Very good, little wizard. Doing it as early as you shows that you are diligent and talented."

"What kind of bird was it in the end?" Ravenclaw's image asked.

"A raven," I answered with a cheeky grin and heard Hufflepuff giggle.

"Ravens are omens of change, death, and prophecy," Ravenclaw commented, and a weird pull took the feather from my hand. It floated over to the anvil in the Forge room.

"I bet he already knew that. No need to be so curt with him, Rowena," Hufflepuff chided with a wry smile.

The two bantered a little before Hufflepuff turned to me and asked, "What else is new with you?"

"Oh, uh. I am in possession of your cup. I was able to take it through legal means on the day I was pronounced Lord Gamp in the Wizengamot... that's the governing body that replaced the five magical councils of Britain in-"

Ravenclaw held up her hand and offered, "You explained that last time. We are inside a priceless artifact with more processing power than a hundred human minds. We have not forgotten."

With another wry smile, Hufflepuff interjected, "Congratulations on your lordship, and good for you to have rescued my cup. May I see it?"

I scratched behind my ear and awkwardly answered, "Sorry. I couldn't take it to Hogwarts. It's cursed and was used as a vessel for a horcrux soul shard... under the gaze of the headmaster, I could only leave it in my vault at Gringotts."

Seeing that no emotion showed on Hufflepuff's visage, I kind of got the feeling she already knew her cup was used as a horcrux... and something told me she knew that I knew it was a horcrux long before as well.

I didn't see what happened to my heart feather, but Ravenclaw suddenly waved her hand, and a small pedestal appeared in the room. On it was a box I recognized all too well. In it was a brilliant silver circlet I thought already belonged to me, though it looked slightly different.

"You left it in my room, and it technically belongs to me," Ravenclaw pointed out when she saw the disbelief and loss written all over my face. "But I didn't bring it here to take it from you. You might have noticed that Helga and I cleaned up the school a little."

I dumbly nodded. Those brands on the foreheads of the older male students and the new activity in the greenhouses didn't escape my notice. They happened way too soon after I entered the Forge the first time. So it wasn't too hard to figure out...

"In any case. We noticed a powerful taboo type curse originating from somewhere in the castle. After talking to the hat and my daughter, we learned that this dark lord that you're fighting cursed a position of our professors. It was very disappointing to learn that the current headmaster didn't figure out how to deal with it for so long," Ravenclaw's hologram explained as her form appeared next to her diadem.

"When we fixed what we thought needed fixing in the wards, we decided to clean this curse, too. For that, we needed the curse's anchorpoint. Color me surprised when I learned it was the box holding my diadem," the image of the witch drawled, and I got the feeling she was scolding me.

Sheepishly, I interjected, "I needed more information on curses and enchanting to fully cleanse your diadem, Lady Ravenclaw... and I just wanted it to be kept in a safe place. The Room of Lost Things was as good a place that I could think of. As for the box. It laid there undisturbed for decades... if our current professor in Defense Against the Dark Arts turned out to be any good at his job, I would have left the box with him before the year ended. If he was indeed as good as I suspected, then he could have dealt with the curse by himself."

With a small laugh, Hufflepuff chimed in, "See? I told you he didn't just leave it like this out of carelessness, laziness, or to harm our school."

Giving the witch a small nod as thanks, I turned to look at Lady Ravenclaw again, who looked at me with narrowed eyes.

"Very well. But your little scheme with the professor will no longer work. We couldn't allow such a foul curse to remain in our school. I also took the liberty of redesigning the diadem a little for you. It is too conspicuous to wear outside in its original form. Too many people know of my treasure despite never having seen it. So now it is just a silver band the width of a finger if you wear it with that intent. Plus, you seem to like diving. It was fun weaving a bubblehead charm on it that you may activate with a mere thought."

I was dumbfounded. They went out of their way to do that? For me? Why?

But then I thought about everything Ravenclaw had said since I entered the room. She deliberately admitted that the two of them had much more... 'computing power' while inside the Forge. They told me they could influence the wards, all wards. She managed to take stuff from the Room of Requirement and even talked to the ghost of her daughter and the hat, who once told me only a founder could make it spill all of its secrets... and she said it was fun to change the diadem.

They were offering their help to me and not just 'rooting for me' help. But help-help. It started with the item they were going to craft for me, and now that I thought about it, it didn't seem that they would stop there.

Tentantively, I thanked her and then asked, "In your long lives and your vast knowledge... have you come across a more convenient form of instantaneous travel than apparation? I am about to earn the necessary certificate starting in December since I am already emancipated, but the limitations of that spell are a little inconvenient to use in combat."

Ravenclaw, for the first time, gained a brilliant smile. Proudly, for some reason, she answered, "Our answer in life was the creation of floo travel and bringing the knowledge of portkeys to the isles after buying the necessary books from a French wizard."

I deeply furrowed my brows. The floo network was created by a witch called Ignatia Wildsmith in the 13th century, not by the founders...

"We used it only for our own abodes outside the castle. Miss Wildsmith must have found Helga's book detailing the creation of the floo," Ravenclaw's hologram explained in amusement, and I turned to look at the other founder who had a proud grin on her face.

With a small shrug, Helga Hufflepuff said, "We wanted to keep it as a last line of defense for our students, so it made sense to keep it from the public. But I also don't begrudge Miss Wildsmith for using it to connect the lives of the people. For that, she is worthy of being recognized as the inventor of the 'network'."

"I-I see," I answered with an awkward smile.

"But back to your question. You want to use spatial travel mid-fight? To jump behind an enemy and catch him off-guard or to dodge a wide area spell?" Ravenclaw asked. After all, it did work differently in this world. It wasn't instantaneous, far from it. Apparition needed several seconds of wind up in this universe.

"Yeah. It would be great to appear where I want to in the blink of an eye. Even if it's only as far as my eyes can see," I confirmed unsurely.

It seemed they would really help me with spell creation and the like, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to the test limits of what they would do for me.

It felt both disrespectful and unwise. Right now, I had the goodwill of the two witches... if I asked for too much, I could squander it. If I made them my enemies somehow, that would be a huge loss.

"We'll see what we can do," Ravenclaw promised, her smile still present.

I got the feeling they wanted me to ask for help, and their subtle urging was done on purpose to see if I could figure it out myself.

"So, uh, how long until you finish the ward piercer?" I asked to change the topic. I had a few more things I'd ideally want to ask for, but I didn't want to overdo it just yet.

"Give us a week. And ask the room to provide a passage to the forge. No need to get wet in winter just to meet us. We'll link the Forge to the castle," Ravenclaw instructed while looking into the far distance.

"Okay, let's ignore her for a little. She is already working on that 'blink' spell you asked for," Hufflepuff suddenly said from next to me. "Helena told us you intend to reap knowledge from the soul shards with Legilimency."

Her genial smile disappeared to make way for a concerned frown.

"Come here when you finish your first mind reap. We advise against doing it in the first place... but your mistakes are your own to make. It is good that you are waiting to do it on a mindless beast, but this Voldemort must have been very strongwilled to tear his soul as many times as he did. Don't underestimate how much of him is still there, even in a mere hedgehog."