Eccentric Wizard Chapter 11: Night walk (Patreon)

Beta read by DOOMRAIDER

Edit 1: beta read and added 600+ words.

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-Main Hall-


"You're joking."


It was dinnertime. I finished telling Hermione what had happened after I went to pay a visit to Marcus Flint at the Slytherin Quidditch team clubroom. 


I could see Draco paying close attention to the conversation as well, his fork playing with the piece of broccoli on his plate.


"Seeker?" She said, "But first years never get to join the quidditch team so early on, the minimum requirement is to have a distinction in flying class and receive a letter of recommendation from a Hogwarts teacher… how did you get ANY of these requirements?"


"Money," I said nonchalantly while taking another bite of my plate of strawberry shortcake. "And I promised Snape to no longer disturb him for more potions." 


Surprisingly, he accepted to write me a recommendation letter and didn't mind my continuous presence. Though the only condition was for me to take his class and after-class lessons seriously, any moment of 'juvenile misbehavior' would be met with him putting an end to our little remedial classes. 


I didn't fear such a condition, because I did take my time with him learning about potion making seriously. There was a time for fun and a time for seriousness, I needed to balance these two out before getting too caught up on either side.


As for the Draught of Peace potion, I successfully brewed a single bottle all on my own… on my seventh attempt in the span of a week. Now, this was not because the process of brewing such a potion was time-consuming or anything, it barely took half an hour to make one. But the problem came from Snape imposing that I try each of my attempts. 


If there was one thing one must know about the Draught of Peace, was that, ironically, it was a difficult potion to brew, requiring that the brewer follow the directions carefully, because making a mistake can have drastic consequences. Adding too many of the ingredients, for instance, will put the drinker of the potion into a deep—and possibly irreversible—sleep. 


That wasn't such a big deal for Snape as he had antidotes prepared for such cases. So basically, for nearly a week, I would wake up every morning in a daze. Too weak to even talk, walk or even keep my head straight during classes. Fortunately, Hermione was there to help me out, passing me the notes I missed and becoming my tutor for subjects and topics that I was too tired to listen to back in class. It saved me on more than one occasion with Professor McGonagall asking random questions and targeting me twice after she saw me nearly pass out during class.


I managed to have the potion done after Snape only taught me the instructions once. The directions for making the potion were very detailed though, I even wrote it in my notebook; 'Ingredients must be added in the exact order and amounts specified, and the potion needs to be stirred 7 times, both clockwise and anti-clockwise. Before the addition of the final ingredient, hellebore, the temperature of the flames needed to be lowered, and the potion was allowed to simmer for seven minutes. Its ingredients were powdered moonstone, syrup of hellebore, powdered porcupine quills, and powdered unicorn horn. It should be a turquoise blue when finished and simmered before being drunk.'


It was after I successfully managed to brew my first authentic Draught of Peace potion, that Snape actually congratulated me! In his own words, "Hm, at least you are slightly at the same level as those fifth-year dunderheads for this potion." 


That counted as an enormous win in my book!


As to test whether the potion worked or not, I decided to try out its effects and walked towards 'The Great Lake' the next day. Still having half a bottle left, silvery vapor came out of the bottle as I opened the cork. I gorged the content and walked up to the water till I was knee-deep. Usually, my thalassophobia would act up just like it did when I sat on the boat to Hogwarts; but it didn't. My hands didn't shake or swear, I wasn't having vivid hallucinations of some underwater monsters and sharks coming at me. I felt relaxed… but only for an hour, as slowly the uncomfortable feeling came back gradually and I ran back to shore.


"Jarius!" Hermione's voice woke me up from my daze.


"Wu—oh sorry! I got lost in my thoughts."


"Are you feeling alright?" She asked, worried about my health. Couldn't blame her really, she basically had to take care of me during the entire week. She even dragged me back to the Slytherin commons when I had once fallen unconscious while walking in the corridors, for a girl her size; she certainly packed quite the strength.


"If you fall asleep right here then I'll ask Draco and Blaise to pick you up this time. My arms are still sore from carrying you around all the way to the dungeons… I still can't believe those Gryffindors laughed at us, instead of helping me!"


"The twins helped," I added.


"If your definition of help is becoming cheerleaders and blasting my ears with their horrible cheering and singing then you have problems." I laughed at that image, though I did feel bad about making Hermione do so much for me. So, I decided to teach her how to brew the Draught of Peace potion as well—she was quite pleased.


Though I did feel my pride take a hit as she managed to brew the potion on her second attempt… an eleven years old girl beat me in potion-making. Here I was, thinking that my additional years of living would have given me the edge in beating these kids when it came to education. Guess I needed to humble myself a bit.


"Again, I can't believe you got to become a Seeker, that's an important role as you can basically win the whole game by yourself!"


"Not really," Draco added, deciding to join the conversation. "It ends the game and gives my team a few more points. So if our opposing team has a very large gap in points that couldn't be overcome with a snitch, then we would lose anyways."


"Though I've only seen a single team still lose after catching the snitch." Even Blaise got interested and shared some information. "But the gap in points should be more than 150 points… that's not an easy thing to accomplish."


"So, why did you decide to become a seeker?" Draco asked, "I thought you would have gone for a position like a chaser or a beater."


"Well…" Blaise continued, "Being a beater is a very popular choice amongst the houses because it requires skill and speed which they excel at. And the chasers are also popular because of the prestige that comes along with being skilled at flying. So yeah, why seeker of all things? Not that there's anything wrong with that, just curious."


"I told you already because I don't want to get hurt. Granted, I can end up breaking a bone or two as a seeker, but chances of it happening are lower compared to the others." I answered simply.


No one was safe in Quidditch.


"Hmm… true enough," Blaise agreed, "You should have chosen something where you wouldn't risk getting injured as I did."


"You played Quidditch?" Hermione asked.


"Yes, I played a match with friends a few months before joining Hogwarts. I was a chaser, which didn't last that long before I got hit by a bludger in less than 10 minutes!" He chuckled at that memory. "My friend ended up winning the match though since he was able to catch the snitch. I was totally useless after that, I think I even fainted and threw up on him!"


We all laughed, except Hermione who looked a bit confused.


"That sounds scary, I don't think I can ever push myself to try the sport.?" She asked somberly.


"I am sure you can!" I encouraged her, "Just make sure you get someone to teach you the basics before you start playing, otherwise you'll end up crashing into a wall and breaking your bones!"


This made her laugh, "Oh no! I would never play Quidditch until I am ready to accept the risks involved in it. I'm sure my parents won't agree with that anyway."

That was understandable.

"It's fine, go ahead and learn Quidditch at a later date. You have other things to focus on now like school work for starters—but I'd argue you're doing too much studying already. It's important to have a break once in a while."


She nodded and agreed, "Yeah, I guess I need to prioritize my my free time more than my studies more everything else. But it's not wrong to be curious about the subjects as well, after all, this is a place where you need to be smart and cunning in order to survive!"

"I agree with her, if she wasn't here then we would have had a bloody boring evening everyday with all the assignments McGonagall keeps handing out." Theodore said.

"True."

"You guys suck," Hermione sighed.

She looked around at everyone before turning back to me. "And Jarius, thank you for teaching me how to brew that potion." 


"Oh yeah, no problem. You would have learned to make it on your own in a matter of months or next year." I wasn't even trying to be nice or anything like that. Hermione was already studying subjects reserved for older students daily. 


"You still haven't explained to me how you got accepted, still missing a grade for flying!" Hermione brought back the topic. "I mean, how is money going to help you here? You can't exactly bribe the school for fake grades."


"But you can bribe the captain who can accept you without a grade." My smirk was showing. "Guess what they got," I asked them.


"200 galleons?" Theodore said, a fair guess but unfortunately, he was wrong.


"Nope!"


"You blackmailed them?" 


"Hey, just kind of brother am I to you?" Draco and his wild imagination.


"A mansion?" Blaise spoke this time.


"No, I am not capable of doing that and my father would try to kill me… for real this time." Even the wealthiest man in the wizarding world wouldn't give up a house so easily—much less a mansion. And I was still an eleven years old kid. "I think you have a warped view of the rich, Blaise."


"You used a potion on them?"


"..." I felt like both my brother and friend didn't have a good image of me… I wasn't some sort of evil dark lord or something.


"No, none of those." I waited to get their attention and slowly whispered. "I ask my father to become our team's sponsor and gift us all with Nimbus 2000s." 


Now that shocked them.


"You did what!?" 


"I want one as well…"


"Why didn't I think of doing that as well!?" Well, he kinda did, the Draco from the movies got the idea in his second year.


I could see Hermione doing the mental calculation and the closer she came to the actual amount, the more her eyes grew wider and her jaw dropped as well. "Even if he bought them in a batch with a discount, that's still 300 galleons per broom… So in total, he paid 2100 galleons!?" Yes, it was indeed a lot of money, if converted into pounds then that would cost around one hundred thousand pounds in value this year. That was an enormous amount of wealth to anyone, even for my family it wasn't something to be taken lightly. But if it served the purpose of showing off then Lucius wouldn't care.


"You want one?" I asked her, getting a frown from both Blaise and Theodore who most likely wanted to have one as well. They could be jealous all they wanted but Hermione was my first friend, so the honor went to her first.


"No, thank you. I rather fear high altitude and still need to get accustomed to it during Madam Hooch's class." She continued. "Still, you must be the youngest house player in Hogwarts, I do not know any other first-year quidditch players." She turned to give Draco a look. "I bet someone's not pleased."


"Mind your own business, Granger." At least he didn't call her using any derogatory names. Aside from the Pansy incident, the first-year students have slightly warmed up to Hermione's presence even with her being from a Muggle family. A small part of it was due to me being friends with her, most likely. But she also earned their respect with how many points she was winning for our house.


Just this morning during Professor McGonagall's class, she managed to perform a Switching spell. A branch spell from transfiguration, its utility came from the ability to simultaneously transfigure two objects or living beings to each other—thus the name-switching spell. She earned another ten points for her accomplishment and even had the Slytherin kids applaud her.


This was a great accomplishment in my eyes. Many of them grew up with the idea that Muggle-born wizards and even half-bloods could not perform to the same level as a pure blood. But with Hermione blitzing through every course like a prodigy, they couldn't help but acknowledge her, as her success benefited them as well. But of course, there were outliers…


I carefully glanced at Pansy who was talking with some second-years and even third-years. She no longer bothered the girl but I could feel that she was up to something.


"When are you starting training?" Asked Draco. "I want to join in as well." Even though an official Slytherin Quidditch team only had seven members, the club had more than that. They would form two teams and have a match as training. Draco could join and train with us as well while having fun. I have even been amused by the idea of us switching places and him playing in the official team on occasion. We were twins, after all, a bit of hair grooming and a change in our speech pattern then no one would notice… I think. Wouldn't hurt to try.


"We're going to win for the seventh year in a row!" Theodore exclaimed in jubilance. "Imagine the Gryffindor's face, when I'll brag about our win." Now that's not a guarantee. In the movie, Harry and his team who by grabbing the snitch… with his mouth. 'There's no guarantee that I'll be able to get it before him. Fate and luck might play a dirty trick and have him catch it regardless of my presence.'


{Break}


After dinner, everyone retreated to their dorms and was done for the day. Everyone was tired and decided to go to an early sleep. Hermione had chosen to study and finish her homework in the common rooms, with my three roommates and me, getting some help as well. Not so much on my end as I just needed to catch up on what I missed this week. For being the first year of Hogwarts, they certainly did give eleven-year-old children a lot of work. 


I could see Daphne and Tracy looking at our group, probably wondering if they could receive some help as well but were a bit intimidated to approach us. Pansy was nowhere to be seen, Milicent was with her and basically, no one other than us was in the room.


"I just don't understand how you got enough time to study both first-year material and fifth-year stuff!" Blaise was massaging his temple from all the stress he got from the pile of homework he had to finish for tomorrow. "I can barely get through Professor McGonagall's class alone."


"Exactly, are you using some kind of fast learning potion? If so then I'll happily buy some off of your hands!" Theodore said as he was writing his third page on Snape's assignment. 


"Unfortunately for both of you, I just work hard and have fun when all my assignments are done."


"Hn!" Draco snorted in amusement. "What fun? All I see you doing is reading more books when you're done."


"Exactly! It's fun, don't you think so?"


"..." Everyone around the table went silent.


"I told you, girl, you have some serious issues." I couldn't help but comment.


"No, I don't! Learning is fun and interesting, we are literally getting taught how to use magic! How can none of you be excited about such a thing?" 


I think I had an idea why.


"Because most of the students became used to magic." She gave me a disbelieving look. "It's true, most of us grew up surrounded by magic and spells. What you find new and exciting, many just don't see it that way. For them, it's just as impressive as math or biology class in a regular school. Sure, there are people who are genuinely interested in magic, just like you, despite growing up in the wizarding world—but they are not as numerous as one might think." Blaise nodded at my explanation and Hermione still couldn't completely wrap her head around people getting desensitized by magic.


"Except quidditch, no one can get tired of that," Draco said.


Theodore agreed, "We're going to crush everyone this year!" He, just like everyone in Slytherin, was quite prideful of our team's success. It wouldn't be long before word spread around about our team getting the latest Nimbus 2000s, which will only make everyone even more assured of our victory. 


"Let's flatten them!" Blaise and Theodore both high-fived each other.


Hermione just rolled her eyes and we all continued our work.


…


-Midnight-


A few hours later, everyone had gone back to sleep.


Blaise was snoring loudly as a whale and Draco didn't stop muttering random things and I'm pretty sure that Theodore farted a few times. 'Too many beans for dinner…'


I sat by the window while looking at the sky like I always did, with Whiteley by my side we just continued to gaze at the many stars and just marvel at their beauty. Yes, it was just a simple sky, but after being stuck in the dark void for so long; you learn to enjoy such simple sights. The owl always remained calm during such moments and not his usual arrogant self.


"Is everyone sleeping?"


"..."


"Because there is a large Acromantula spider roaming inside the room."


"..."


Aside from hearing Blaise's continuous snore, everything was quiet. I got down from the window and dropped Whiteley on my shoulders. Taking a single Draught of Peace bottle with me, I quietly left the room and the Slytherin dungeon—making sure to not wake up the paintings.


"Alright, Whiteley. If you hear the slightest noise of someone walking through the halls or see and hear a car; signal me." The owl gave me a single hoot as confirmation. 


"Dobby."


Poof!


A cloud of smoke appeared in front of me and the little elf presented himself with a bow. 


"Dobby greets master Malfoy!"


"Shush!" I quickly warned him. "Not too loud, someone might hear us." Before he could enter a tantrum about how sorry he was and wanting to punish himself, I immediately asked him for the thing I wanted for him. "Did you do as I instructed?"


"Indeed," a small scroll came to his hand with sparks of white light. "Dobby has carefully mapped some parts of the castle. But many areas were locked or banned from Dobby entering. Dobby even heard rumors about the Come and Go Room from the kitchen chef but could not manage to find or learn more about it." 


The castle held many secrets, that was a known fact by everyone. It existed for a thousand years, and many great wizards came and went from this very place. It wouldn't be surprising for there to be another secret chamber aside from the one with the basilisk somewhere around her. Though this Come and Go Room did sound interesting, I would look into more in the future.


"No worries, you're still new here. We will map out more of the castle in time. But did you find the room with the guard dog?"


"Yes!" I once again motioned the elf to zip it. "Oh, Dobby begs for forgiveness—"


"—I forgive you," I whispered harshly, the elf just couldn't stay quiet for long. "Alright, go back to… wherever your room is, I'll call you in a few moments so be prepared with the other task I gave you."


With a nod, Dobby puffed away in smoke and left me, along with Whiteley, alone. Grabbing the potion, I took a deep breath and drank the brew in one swing. The taste was still awful and disgusting but I didn't have a choice.


Feeling the cool feeling encompass my body and mind, as if I was suddenly dropped into a relaxing hot spring, experiencing no fear, doubts, or stress whatsoever. 


Looking at the map, I could see the enormous amount of work and dedication Dobby added to his task. Though it didn't have the entire castle planned, it was enough for me. Following the path carefully, going through many sets of changing staircases and halls, making sure to not cause any noise, and having Whiteley fly around to account for the area for anyone. As an owl, the bird didn't make any noise while flying. He did find Filch and the mysterious walking set of armor prowling the corridors on more than one occasion. With the potion's effect still running its magic inside my body, I never panicked or got startled when Flitch almost caught sight of me or Whiteley. Some of the paintings that weren't sleeping caught my owl flying around but I didn't mind them, there were many students in Hogwarts with Snowy owls.


I even almost encountered a ghost dressed like a Joker, they called him Jeeves, if I remember correctly. Fortunately, Whiteley once again saved me from getting caught by flapping his wings whenever he sensed someone approaching.


After twenty minutes, I arrived in front of a simple locked door with a padlock blocking any sort of entry.


Taking out my wand—Johnathan—I conjured a charm. "Alohomora." The padlock opened itself with a small clicking sound, I didn't bother to quicken myself with the approaching sound of footsteps behind me and proceeded calmly inside the room before closing it.


"Hm? Did I hear someone?" Filch said, looking around for a bit and shrugging. "Must have been the wind."


I sighed in relief, I was safe from now, I walked further inside the dimly lit room and came looking straight at the large monstrous dog in front of me—a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads and four paws. 


'Yeah, that's a freaking Cerberus alright.'


And it was about to wake up…