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shinyrockalaska · 3 years

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Acceptance (or: Charlie's incident)

Summary: Charlie decides to drink Amortentia, just to see if it could affect him, so he could feel the same things everyone else around him seems to feel. Unfortunately, he didn't check who's Amortentia he was drinking...

Word count: 3.3k (my longest fic so far!)

More about the inspiration for this at the end of the post!

Enjoyy <3

He didn't plan it.

Well, yes, he thought about it a few times before, but only theoretically. He never intended to try and do something so drastic to change himself.

But he was in the sixth year and he was seventeen and everybody already had too many expectations of him.

They all acted as if they knew everything about him, who he was going to be, what he was going to do... he couldn't change it, he couldn't tell them they're wrong because he didn't know what was right. Yes, he's a kind and caring person. Yes, he sucks at school because he just can't focus or stop daydreaming. He's messy and obsessive and is definitely going to work with dragons after graduation. They all knew it, and so did he. But that's it, the rest was a blur.

He should've felt lucky. At least he always knows what he wants to do after graduation. Some of his friends, like Tulip and Ben, still had no clue, and they were all stressed out about it. But they all somehow fitted in. With the outsiders, yes, but most of the time Charlie felt like he's an outsider even to the outsiders.

Some may say it's because no one has ever seen him wearing any short clothes, not even in the summertime. He always walked around hiding in his big green coat. Or maybe because of his weird specific fears, that no one else seemed to share or to be scared of it as much as he did. Not even Ben. Or probably, because he never dated anyone and never talked about it with anyone. Charlie thought it was all of those things, that made him himself, but, weird. He never hated himself and was quite proud of being different. But in the end, it doesn't matter. Even the proudest quirky kids would choose to be normal - to fit in - if they could. So you can see why now, at seventeen, he felt that desire to fit in.

Every dinner with his family, his mum would nag him to try and find a nice girl. More for herself than for him, really. Because most wizards and witches find their partners at school. All of his friends already started to go out with each other and whatever student they liked at the moment. There were couples everywhere. EVERYWHERE. And he still couldn't figure out what's wrong with him and why he's not interested in any of that. Even the religious kids, the anxious kids, the awkward kids- all talked about their crushes non-stop. Not everyone dated, of course, but they all talked about it, and the pressure was high. All he ever heard around him was sex, kissing, dates and love. Whatever that was.

The worst part was that his friends were actually supportive.

At first, they would beg him to tell them who his secret crush is, which student he liked. They wouldn't listen whenever he told them that he doesn't have one. But they all calmed down after a while and he explained that he just doesn't care about this stuff. He just doesn't.. feel the need. And they accepted it. Accepted him. But now he was just being put in another box. They stopped talking about their crushes with him because they knew he wouldn't understand. And that was just not true. But could he argue with him when it's so clear they know him better than he knows himself?

So that was the situation he was in. That's why after a super frustrating Amortentia class, where everyone around him kept blushing and giggling at the smell of their own and everyone else's cauldrons, where his friends all sent him sad smiles and kept telling him how jealous they are that he has nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of, where he had to lie and tell Snape fake smells because, of course, he smelled nothing, he just couldn't take it anymore. He decided it was time for a change.

So when the class was dismissed, he stayed nearby. And when Snape left the classroom, he scooped some leftover potion into the weird-shaped glass bottle and drunk it without thinking, without hesitating, and without even knowing who's cauldron it was.

It's Amortentia, after all. The strongest love potion. If it increases those love feelings to others, then he might actually feel something, be somewhat normal.

He felt guilty for doing it and had to stop himself from running to professor Snape so he would give him the antidote right away before anything bad will happen. He knew the potion just cause obsession and trouble, but he had to know, at least for a little while, what's it like to be kind of in love.

At first, he didn't feel anything different. Lunch was normal, Care of magical creatures was normal. He felt dizzy at History of magic, but maybe it had more to do with the boring lesson than the potion itself. Charlie was disappointed but somewhat relieved when still nothing had changed by dinner time.

That is, until, Merula has entered the room.

He forgot that tiny, little, important detail that now he was madly in fake love with whoever brewed that potion. Which was, how unlucky for him, Merula. But now he didn't care about it. All he wanted to do was stay with her from now on and forever.

"Charlie, are you okay? You look a little sick," Barnaby commented about his appearance. "And a bit pale," Tonks added, but Charlie preferred to ignore his friends' concerns. "Have you ate something bad?" Rowan questioned, "is it because of potion class?" That question made him nervous, of course. "N-no! I'm just tired.. w-why would it have to do anything with p-potion class?"

"Because you smelled nothing, right? You're not upset about it, right?" They all looked at him with that same sad-apologetic smile as always. He hated it. Just because he's different doesn't mean he needs to be treated differently. "Guys, I'm fine. I don't care. It doesn't matter. Being yourself is the best thing anyone can be! Why would I want to be anything else but myself?" Maybe he was trying too hard to hide it. He sighed, "please just stop giving me those sorry faces. I don't need your pity, I-"

From the corner of his eye, he spotted Merula leaving the room. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said and hurried up after her.

He couldn't pick up the nerves to talk to her so he just followed her around to the Slytherin house in the dungeons. Then, he had to go to sleep, but he couldn't stop staring at the ceiling, smiling, and dreaming about Merula.

"What's up with him?" Ben asked as he entered their dorm. Jae shrugged, "I think he's been drugged." And when Ben's face showed panic he laughed, "just kidding, he's probably thinking about dragons."

Normally, Charlie would be tired after sleeping less than six hours, but he had an amazing dream about him and Merula on a date with candles and chocolate and all he wanted was to feel her hand in his own.

"Are you alright, Charlie..? You still look pretty sick," his friends told him at breakfast. "I'm more than fine, I've never felt better," he said with this wide fuzzy exaggerated smile and the fake spark in his eyes. He barely touched his food, he just kept staring at Merula. And his friends noticed.

"Why are you looking at the Slytherin table? Who are you starting at? Awwww did you finally got a crush?" Normally he'd be embarrassed by this question, which always made him feel unease. But this time, he wanted to be with Merula so badly, that he welcomed any help. "It's Merula, can you maybe get her attention? I really want to kiss her! And maybe.. more? I already thought about names for our kids! Human names even! We'll have a perfect life near the dragon reserve!" He babbled.

"What?!?! You can't be serious! That's- that's just- no!!" They were shocked and a bit disgusted. "It doesn't make sense, Charlie.. you hate Merula!" Talbott said, making Charlie angry, "well, maybe you don't know everything about me!" He shouted, and many students' heads turned around to look at him. "Ever thought about it? That maybe I am more than the way you see me? More than the things you see in me?!" He kept shouting, making his friends feel embarrassed, as they lowered their heads. "Yeah, that's what I thought," Charlie frowned. "Now, if you'll excuse me I'm going to ask out Merula!" He shouted this sentence too, causing Merula to look at him, disgusted, and run out of the great hall immediately. He shot one last angry look at his friends, before storming out of the room, after Merula.

"As you all know I'm an expert in love and-" Andre started to say quickly but got cut off by Diego. "I think we can all agree I'm the love expert."

"True," Jacob's sibling said, "you promised to get me dates at the third year and you still haven't! Diego's been more helpful than you.."

Andre was irritated, "That.. that doesn't matter!! Can't you see that Charlie is-"

"Poisoned!" Rowan cut him off, "he's drugged on Amortentia!"

"No way! It's too hard to- oh no! He probably drunk it yesterday after class!" Penny was frightened.

"Dang it, Charlie! What do we do now??"

"We'll have to tell a professor. Even if he'll hate us. We have to do it before he does something stupid like actually making a move on Merula!" Rowan stated, horrified.

"Merula wait! Please, let's talk!" Charlie shouted, running behind her, and she surprisingly stopped. He caught her a few halls past the great hall, on the way to the dungeons. she almost got away from him. He took her hand and started talking, blushing, stumbling on his words. "I can't imagine my life without you! We will be so perfect together, don't you think? Let's run away and start a family together! Do you like dragons? I was thinking we could live next to the Romanian dragon sanctuary and have at least two kids. Do you like the names Violet and Jade? I think they're perfect! I picked them because it's like your eyes and the Slytherin colour. And also not dragon names! Oh, I feel so safe and happy around you. Can you tell me about yourself and your family and life and beliefs and every little detail possible?" He was now hugging her, clutching to her as close as he can.

"This is unsettling in so many ways, Charlie. Stop it now. I don't know what sick game you're playing but cut it now before I'll have to hex you, or call someo-"

"Game? No, no! This is love, baby! Don't you see it?" Charlie felt heartful, in a way he never felt before. And he liked it, being fearless. Feeling warm and being somehow full of love. "Did someone dared you to do it? Have you been drinking elixir to induce euphoria? Oh no, don't tell me you're-"

"Merula! I'm so sorry for Charlie's behavior." McGonagall called out from the end of the hall, followed by Charlie's friends. "What are you doing here?! Go away! I don't need you! I have my Merula! Don't ruin this for me! I deserve to have love too!" Charlie screamed and clung to Merula even more than before.

"Charles Weasley come with me right now!" McGonagall was furious. No student has ever acted like that.

"No! I'm staying here with the love of my life!" He tried to kiss Merula's hand who just pulled it out of his reach immediately, disgusted and uncomfortable. "Don't talk to me ever again, freak." She said and walked away.

"No! Don't leave me! We can make it work!" Charlie screamed as he hurried up after Merula, who now went from fast walking to running. McGonagall grabbed Charlie's arm and stopped him. "you're coming with me now, I cannot believe you!" she said loudly, disappointed.

"No!!! You can't stop me from being happy and in love! This is me, just go away! I have to get Merula back!" He was hysterical, tears running down his face. He cried so much his head started to ache, but he didn't care. he had to follow Merula. Had to be with her. He'd rather die, give up on dragons even, than not spend every single minute of his life now with Merula.

But McGonagall pulled him away from any hope to fulfill his dreams, all the way to her office. He kept cursing his friends, who looked very ashamed and worried, as he got dragged away from them. None of them laughed at the scene he caused.

"Drink this. NOW." McGonagall ordered, but Charlie refused. "I will not let you drug me and prevent me to have this! Let! Me! Go!" He screamed, caughting McGonagall off guard. But it wasn't the first time something like that happened, it just never got out of hand to be like... Charlie's case.

"Stupify." McGonagall cast the spell on Charlie, with a heavy heart. She hates using magic on students. Still, she poured the love-potion antidote liquid down his mouth and watched as he slowly got back his consciousness. She looked at him, all confused as he tried to remember what happened.

"Who did this to you? Was it Merula? She didn't look quite satisfied with your obsession but that doesn't mean it's not her. So tell me, who drugged you with love potion?" McGonagall asked him in both compassion and anger.

"What? Oh you mean the Amortentia.." he lowered his head, "it was.. me?"

"What?! This is beyond belief, Charlie! Why would you do that to yourself? You know it's a dangerous potion! You know the consequences! I expected better than yo-"

"That's exactly the problem!" He cut her off, rudely, "Everyone always expecting all sorts of things from me! I can't be everyone's version of me! I don't want to! I barely even want to be me! You wouldn't understand but I just had to fit in!!"

Charlie never in his life yelled like that at anyone or anything, especially not a professor. But he didn't care anymore. He was sick of everything. McGonagall was surprised again, it was very unlike him to behave that way.

"I- Charlie, listen." He looked at her a bit worried and ashamed. "You don't need to be fixed. You know that using potions and magic to change yourself is bad, especially if it's illegal.." she gave him an alerting look. "I can't tell you how to feel or who to be, but I want you to know that every person is different than the others and there is absolutely not a thing that is wrong with being yourself. Being different is good-"

"As someone who's been different his entire life, I can assure you it's not. Everyone always says it's wonderful to be extraordinary and different and special and whatever, but even the proudest weirdest kids would choose to be like everyone else and fit in if they could.." Charlie said, focusing on the wall rather than McGonagall's eyes, playing with the zipper of his coat.

"Maybe you need to have more pride, Charlie. You're a very unique person, let those special things about you define you by your choice, instead of being ashamed of them. I encourage you to find that strength to let go of the shame and fear in you and to just.. be yourself."

"Pride is stupid," Charlie murmured quietly, "it's something I had no control over. it's not a drawing I made that I put a lot of effort and time into it, so I'm proud of it. No. It's something I couldn't even choose, something I can't change. There's no pride in having no control."

"Well, could you have chosen to be a Gryffindor?"

"Uh, no, but.." Charlie went quiet, thinking.

"I know, you wanted to be in Gryffindor, but if you happened to be in Hufflepuff, wouldn't you still have some house pride in you?" McGonagall asked him.

"I guess.." Charlie shrugged, still upset.

"We cherish pride in us, based on what we learn from our surroundings as we grow up. But society is not always right. In fact, most of the time it's even wrong. And so, you need to be your own society, sometimes. Be the change you want to see in the world, and even if you're different than the way it seems society tells you to be, it doesn't mean there's something wrong with you. You need to accept yourself just like you would've accepted any of your friends, and just like you would want the world to accept you. Even if you turn out to be completely different than the person you thought you are. understand?"

Charlie nodded. He felt, not for the first time, like McGonagall can read minds. She answered all of his worries and questions and feelings, with her calming words.

McGonagall let him off of his classes for the rest of the day and he decided to write a letter to his family, explaining how he feels. He asked them to be kind and understanding, as he has no control or any choice over his feelings. He wrote down everything that bugged him in the past years. The letter was far too long, and contained seven full written pages. In the end, Charlie decided he won't send it yet. he felt better, but still wasn't ready to face his family's reaction to his incident and different behavior. He felt as if it might disappoint them. it was ridiculous, he knew, they would love him no matter what. Even so, seeing those words, his words, written down in those pages, in his own handwriting, made him smile. It was his choice, to write them, to use them. And he won't let anyone tell him it's wrong.

At dinner, he sat with his friends as usual, worried about what his friends might say. He didn't want them to be worried about him, but he knew they were, after what he did...

"Hey guys, thanks for, uh.. you know... watching out for me.." he said, nervously.

"Sure thing! How are you feeling, Charlie? Better? You're not mad at us for calling McGonagall, right..?" His friends were just as worried as him.

"I'm feeling much better, relieved. I don't know what I would've done if you didn't call McGonagall.. you really saved me.."

He could see Merula sitting next to Ismelda, and glaring at him, furiously.

"You could've chosen a better person to fake fall in love with," Andre joked.

"Yeah, even in this I didn't have a choice or any luck," Charlie laughed, a bit uncomfortable as this subject was still upsetting sometimes.

"How much trouble did you get to from that talk with McGonagall? We haven't seen you all day, so we figured you've got punished real hard.." Ben said, carefully.

"Well, I need to write an apology letter for Merula.. but I got off easy."

"Your mother's not going to like it.." he heard one of them saying, but even that part was okay.

"McGonagall promised not to tell my parents if I'll agree to meet her once a week and talk to her about what's bothering me, instead of bottle it inside me... she wants me to have more pride, and she trust me to choose the right time for me to tell my parents about this incident."

His friends smiled at him, and he smiled at them back.

He tried not to feel nauseous, remembering how foolishly he acted that day, convinced he has to fit in. He still sometimes thought it would be better for him to be like the rest. But he can't. So when he felt that way, he reminded himself of McGonagall's words and named all the good things in his life, and the things he does have control over.

Charlie knew from the moment he drunk the Amortentia, that life might not be easy for him, always having to be the odd one out.

But it was his own life, and he should be proud of what he has.

---

Wow! Finally! I had this idea for like a year and I've been trying to write it ever since, so this definitely took time...

---

I really like how it turned out, I hope you'll like it too. This is how I see Charlie.

The fic was inspired by another beautiful fanfic (here's a link) where Charlie almost drinks the potion but ends up not doing it.

Even though it's not canon, to me, Charlie is the closest thing we have to an aromantic and asexual representation, and it's just so, so important to have that. It took me years to feel comfortable with me being like this, I'm still working on it, and I think a big part of it is because we don't see anything about it in the media or anywhere else really.

Self-acceptance is harder when it comes to aros and aces because it's just so different than other romantic/sexual orientations, it's hard to define lack of attraction, but it doesn't mean it's bad!

Everyone is valid, and I know knowing this doesn't make it immediately better, but it helps to remember it. I don't want people to be afraid of who they are, to feel like they need to be fixed, to have to hide away.

So now, it's the end of pride month but you and I- we're still here! And we can still shine bright and be proud of ourselves for coming so far! The truth is always right, don't be afraid of it. 💜💚

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #charlie weasly #hphm fanfic #hphm fanfiction #harry potter fanfic #harry potter #harry potter fanfiction #aroace charlie weasley #acceptance #asexuel #aromantic #tge representation I needed #idk what to tag as always

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carewyncromwell · 3 years

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Zut alors! This art sure makes this Cinderella AU look like...well, a Cinderella AU, doesn’t it??

One critique I have about many Cinderella adaptations is about how the “ugly stepsisters” are either portrayed as one-dimensionally bad so as to make our Cinderella look more saintly by comparison or given just enough dimension that one could see them as secondary victims of their mother’s abuse and yet aren’t given an ending that frees them from it the way Cinderella does. And yes, obviously in many of those cases, the stepsisters jump in on abusing Cinderella too, but it’s a learned behavior the stepsisters acquire from their mother and, in some cases, one could also point to there possibly being an element of the child joining in on their parents’ abuse of their sibling, etc. as a method of self-preservation. There are a few adaptations where one stepsister “reforms” themselves while the other doesn’t, but in this story, I wanted to show that -- as unpleasant as the entire Cromwell clan is, including Carewyn’s cousins -- there’s some logic to how they behave. And in Claire Cromwell’s daughters’ cases in particular, they’re just as trapped by the expectations of their gender as Carewyn is, arguably more so because they’ve lived with Charles their whole lives and the importance of marrying well has been drilled into them much more than it ever was for Carewyn. Although it’s obvious how much worse Carewyn’s situation is compared to her cousins, I kind of liked the idea of showing how a character in the “ugly stepsister” role would feel, being constantly outdone by her relative despite her best efforts. And even in Carewyn’s canon, she does project a “perfect paragon” affect that irritates characters like Merula to no end, so this isn’t too much of a stretch. Doesn’t mean Iris is a good person or anything, but what can I say, I like giving my antagonists understandable motivations.

In Carewyn’s canon, she becomes a robin Animagus. Part of it has to do with their size and coloring; part of it has to do with their symbolism (being associated with spring and, in the Christian tradition, selfless kindness, as they either earned their “red breast” when they sang comfortingly in Jesus’s ear while he bled on the cross or when they got burned fetching water for souls stuck in Purgatory); and part of it is because “Robin” was my deceased paternal aunt’s name, as well as my middle name! 🧡

Previous part is here -- whole tag is here -- Katriona “KC” Cassiopeia belongs to @kc-needs-coffee -- and I hope you enjoy!

x~x~x~x

On Charles’s instructions, Carewyn was returned to the tower room at the back of the Cromwell estate, this time with thick ropes tied her wrists together and lashing them to the legs of the cot set up in the corner. As Blaise finished securing Carewyn to the bed, he went out of his way to scold her that all of this was her own doing for trying to abandon her family before departing.

Carewyn tried everything she could to get free, but within an hour, she determined that there was nothing sharp enough in the room that she could use to cut her bonds, even if she could move more than two feet in either direction. And so, in utter frustration, she collapsed to the floor, her eyebrows knitting tightly over her closed eyes.

Talbott, she thought, please warn Orion...please, make sure he’s safe...

She wished she could simply have faith in Talbott, but being unable to do anything to protect Orion made Carewyn feel number and more afraid than she’d ever felt near the battlefield between Florence and Royaume.

A moment later, Carewyn was startled by the sound of the door being unlocked. When it opened, she found Iris standing in the doorframe. Claire’s middle daughter was decked out in a striking dark blue and emerald satin gown and a dark blue feathered mask, and her dark hair was put up in a beautiful braided bun trimmed with peacock feathers.

“So you are locked up here,” said Iris.

Carewyn raised her eyebrows very dully. “So I am.”

Iris’s face, for once, didn’t look particularly haughty. Her blue eyes, the same color and shape as Carewyn’s, swiveled over her cousin’s frame, taking in not just her bound ankles but the sewn-up back of her green dress. The dark-haired Cromwell looked almost disconcerted.

“This is your own doing, you know,” Iris said in a slightly higher voice than normal. “If you’d just left Prince Henri to me...done what Grandfather told you to do...”

“Blaise has more than given me that lecture already, thank you,” Carewyn said coldly.

Iris’s expression turned very offended.

“So much for you not talking out of turn!” she said scathingly. “I would’ve thought you’d have learned your lesson, after what Grandfather did to you...”

Her eyes flickered over to Carewyn’s back again. Carewyn could see the discomfort and macabre fascination swimming in her eyes -- as if part of her wanted to see how bad the scars were, and yet the thought made her feel nauseous.

Perhaps it was the compassion Carewyn felt, seeing her cousin struggle with feeling any kind of pity for her circumstances after how long they’d always hated each other...but she couldn’t help but address her a bit more gently than usual.

“Just because Grandfather says something doesn’t mean it’s right.”

Iris scowled. “Just like you, to be ungrateful, after everything our family’s done for you...”

She turned her back on Carewyn as if to leave.

“I’m not just talking about myself,” Carewyn murmured. “I’m talking about you.”

Iris stiffened, stopping in the doorframe.

“I heard Grandfather yell at you, when you first came home,” said Carewyn.

“So what, you want to rub it in my face?” Iris huffed, sounding rather like a snake bearing its fangs after being stepped on. “Boast about how you always twist everybody around your little finger, without even trying?”

Carewyn couldn’t help but cock her eyebrows. “Boast? Iris, the only thing that’s twisted around here are the ropes that have been tied around my wrists -- and they hurt quite a bit.”

“You know what I mean!” said Iris impatiently. She crossed her arms, her shoulders sulking. “Stop being so...so bloody witty, will you!? You’ve always been so witty -- able to talk about absolutely nothing with complete strangers...even people you don’t want to impress! And then, all of a sudden, all those people can do is talk about you. Like Prince Henri...every time we talked, the conversation would always end up coming back to you and the dresses and shoes he wanted to make for you!”

Carewyn’s face became a bit more solemn.

“The Prince and I are friends,” she admitted. “It was never anything more than that.”

Iris sniffed. “And I suppose it was ‘never anything more than that’ with Duke Lestrange either?”

“I didn’t even know Duke Lestrange,” Carewyn said exasperatedly. “And I had no interest in him romantically either. I think I made that quite clear both before and after you ripped my dress so badly that it exposed my undergarments.”

“And yet even then, you still charmed him!” said Iris, whirling around to glare at Carewyn. “You didn’t want anything from him, so why did you talk to him? Why did you smile and act all nice with him?”

“Because it was the polite thing to do!” said Carewyn, flabbergasted. “Because he was a guest! And one doesn’t have to get something in return to have a reason to show someone respect! It’s not something to be treated as a transaction!”

Iris’s face appeared more surly than ever as she looked away, adjusting the skirt of her gown.

Carewyn looked down at her bindings and then back up at Iris’s back. She exhaled slowly through her nose, as an idea started to prickle at the sides of her brain.

“...Iris...I’m sorry if I’ve wronged you,” she said softly. “I never had any intention to sabotage you...I know how much a proper marriage would endear you to our family.”

She took a deep breath.

“If you want me out of the way...then I’ll go.”

Iris looked at Carewyn, startled. Carewyn stared her intently in the face.

“Just undo my bindings,” she said, “and leave the door unlocked...and when you and the others return from the ball, I’ll be gone. You’ll never have to live with me again.”

Iris stared disbelievingly. Carewyn’s eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly, betraying some desperation.

“Grandfather won’t have to know it was you,” she said. “No one would know except for me and you, and I won’t be here to tell anyone. Please...just let me escape.”

Let me get out to warn Orion. Let me save Orion.

Iris stared at Carewyn for another long moment. Then, very slowly, her eyes narrowed.

“You...you really want this,” she said lowly. “Don’t you?”

Carewyn gave her a very serious look. Iris’s eyes narrowed that bit more, darting from her face to down at her bindings and back.

“...Well, then...”

She bent down, took hold of Carewyn’s bindings...and tightened them sharply.

“Ack -- !”

Carewyn couldn’t quite choke back a yelp of pain. Iris shot back up to her feet, her eyes burning with resentment.

“You probably want to live your own life just as much as the rest of us do,” she said. “Only you keep stopping me from starting my own life, by charming every man I could persuade to marry me. So I guess it’s only fair I make sure you can’t escape either.”

She strode for the door, snatching it up and glaring at Carewyn one more time.

“At least tonight I won’t have to worry about you catching anyone else’s eye. You’ll be locked up here, far away from the ball, and unable to charm anyone.”

And with this, she slammed the door behind her and locked it with a loud CLACK.

And so all Carewyn could do was sit helplessly on the floor, bound tightly to the bed, as the sound of her family’s carriages clattered off of the estate and toward the palace of Florence. Carewyn couldn’t even look out the window to watch them go.

She tried several more times over the next hour to try to break free of her restraints, but as the sun grew lower and lower in the sky outside the window, she once again found herself falling still. All she could do was hope and pray and think of Orion...pleading with every entity of fate and justice that he was still alive. Soon enough she found herself falling off into a restless sleep in her uncomfortable position on the floor.

This is why, when she heard a bizarre CRASH from downstairs, Carewyn was slow to react, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. It took her a moment to even gather her thoughts enough to try to escape her bonds again, so as to try to figure out what was going on. Once she did, however, she caught the sound of a voice calling out.

“Miss Cromwell! Miss Cromwell, are you there?”

Carewyn’s heart leapt in a combination of disbelief and delight.

“Baroness!” she cried.

She tried to get up and run for the door, only for the rope around her wrists to hold her back.

“Ack -- Baroness, I’m here!”

There was a sound like two sets of footsteps quickly climbing the stairs. Then, after a moment, she heard Talbott’s voice.

“Carewyn, stand back! We’re going to get you out of there -- let me just adjust this -- ”

Carewyn was glad she was tied up away from the door when a few minutes later, it was thrown off its hinges with another CRASH.

Talbott and Baroness McGonagall came running through the dust into the room. At the sight of Carewyn on the floor, Talbott immediately ran over to try to undo her bindings.

“They’re -- they’re too tight!” he hissed in aggravation.

“Leave it to me,” said McGonagall sharply. “Focus on the spell keeping that door off its hinges: once your concentration breaks, it’ll return to the way it was.”

She materialized a knife from the pocket in her gown and, with a strong SNAP, cut the thick cord attaching her to the bed, which helped her pull the rest of the bindings off of Carewyn’s wrists.

Once her hands were free, Carewyn threw her arms around both her and Talbott’s shoulders, hugging them both in gratitude and relief. Within a second, though, she’d pulled away to look at them both urgently.

“Baroness, we need to move fast...my grandfather -- ”

“Yes, Talbott told me,” said the Baroness curtly. “Quickly now -- ”

She swept back down the stairs, Talbott and Carewyn at her heels. Once they crossed the threshold, the door magically floated back up behind them, slamming back into place with just as much force as it had been blasted off.

“The palace of Florence is at least three hours from here,” explained Talbott as they ran down the stairs. “I knew I couldn’t stay transformed that long, and I’ve never flown so far before -- didn’t reckon it’d be smart to try to fly somewhere I’ve never been and risk falling right out of the sky on the way, so I decided to go get the Baroness instead. Fortunately, on our way back here on foot, we collided with Badeea, and she was able to ride on ahead to the palace and tell the Weasleys the change in plans -- ”

Carewyn’s eyebrows furrowed. “‘Change in plans?’”

Talbott smirked broadly, showing teeth. “Yeah -- the plan to bust you out of here.”

Carewyn gave a start.

“It was KC and Bill Weasley’s idea,” Talbott explained. “After I delivered Cosimo’s message to you and took a break to recuperate from flying, I turned back into an eagle and headed to the palace. Figured Prince Henri would want to know the state you were in and might be able to do something to help. Unfortunately he couldn’t -- Charles Cromwell’s wealthy enough that he’s ingratiated himself to the King and Queen, and as your legal guardian, there isn’t much anyone else could do, unless you decided to run away. But Bill and Charlie didn’t like the thought of you being stuck there. Bill had already told Charlie to hold onto this coach he was fixing for the royal family, so they could use it to smuggle you out of the Cromwell estate and take you to their family’s house. And KC realized that the perfect night to do that would be the night of the ball, when the entire Cromwell family is supposed to be in Florence and you’d therefore be left completely unguarded. So Bill, Charlie, Badeea, and I decided to stay behind while everyone else at the palace headed out to Orion’s ball, so that we could come get you.”

Carewyn could hardly believe what she was hearing. Her eyes had gone very wide.

“You...you mean you all put this together, just to help me?” she said shakily.

Talbott’s face was very serious as they reached the ground floor. “Of course we did. You’re a good person, Carewyn -- you don’t deserve being trapped here.”

Carewyn’s eyes welled up with emotion despite her best efforts.

“Talbott...” Her lips spread into a weak, overwhelmed smile. “I...thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Talbott said brusquely. “We’ve still got to get you to Florence.”

In the distance, Carewyn could hear the sound of a coach pulling up in front of the estate. McGonagall with her long legs reached the door of the manor first, and she unlocked and opened it, sweeping out into the courtyard. When Carewyn and Talbott darted after her, Carewyn gaped.

The broken royal coach she’d gone to help Charlie bring to the Burrow was as good as new, as clean, shining, and upright as it likely was when the King and Queen first purchased it. And sitting up in the driver’s seat was --

“CAREY!”

Charlie, dressed in a white-feathered black hat and a dark red velvet doublet trimmed with silver scales, dropped the reins connected to his and Bill’s chestnut horses and Badeea’s gray horse and leapt right off the coach and over to Carewyn. Jumping off the boot of the coach was Bill, dressed in a brown suede coat decorated with silver trim, and climbing out of the coach itself was Badeea, dressed in silver-dusted white satin.

“Charlie!” cried Carewyn. “Bill! Badeea!”

The Weasley brothers launched themselves at her, throwing their arms around her and squeezing tight. Unfortunately the wounds on Carewyn’s back made her crumple slightly, flinching away from their touch with a barely suppressed hiss of pain.

“Carey?” said Bill, instantly concerned.

“I’m all right!” Carewyn said very quickly. “I’m all right...”

Her blue eyes flooding with emotion, she threw her arms around both Charlie and Bill in return, squeezing them back.

“It’s so good to see you,” she whispered.

Bill’s eyes were very emotional too as he cradled the back of her head with his hand. The joy Carewyn felt just at the memory of her friends days earlier was back in full. She thought it’d be a long time before she’d ever see them again...and yet they were here. They’d come for her when she’d needed them most...

Badeea came up beside Carewyn, her dark eyes very concerned as she trailed a hand lightly along the stitching at the back of Carewyn’s dress.

“Carewyn...your dress...”

The ginger-haired woman gave her a reassuring look. “It’s all right.”

She looked around at all of them, taking in their fine clothes.

“Then...we’re all going to the ball ourselves?” she asked uneasily. “That’s the new plan?”

“Yep!” said Charlie brightly. “Andre had been working on some costumes for us, so we could all attend his mother’s New Years masquerade, before the whole thing at the border went down. He wasn’t able to finish any of them...but I borrowed a spare doublet from Andre’s closet for Talbott and Badeea was able to finish decorating the costumes that were closest to being done...”

He pointed out the “scales” on his doublet, while Bill held up the sleeve of his brown suede coat to show off the sparkly silver painted trim.

Carewyn’s eyes widened. “That paint...is that -- ?”

“The paint Orion gave me? Yes,” Badeea said, beaming as she showed off the shiny “fur” detailing she’d applied to her own hijab. “It’s the first time I’ve ever purposefully applied my paints to fabric, but for a first try, I’d say it turned out pretty well. Your shoes and dress look even better, though...look!”

She moved over to the open door of the coach and pulled out a gray and orange gown and a pair of shoes.

The chest was decked out with reddish-orange feathers arranged in a rounded heart shape, while the rest (made out of gray satin) was painted to look like it was covered in feathers. And the shoes...they were truly the most beautiful dancing slippers Carewyn had ever seen. The heels were made of colorful pumpkin diamond, while the shoes themselves, made of cloth, were nonetheless painted in a way that it looked like yellow, red, and orange stained glass. There was even a sheen on each panel, no doubt made with the slightest brush of the silver paint Orion had given Badeea, that made it look like it was sparkling.

Carewyn brought up a hand to tentatively hold the skirt of the gown, staring in disbelief and awe. Badeea’s dark eyes were sparkling with pride.

“It’s a robin, see?” she said. “Andre thought it’d be the perfect way to apply your supposed ‘favorite color’ -- ash gray -- to your dress. He originally wanted to trim your shoes with more diamond, but after seeing everything on the battlefield, he was reluctant to spend any more money on materials. So I tried to make it look like it was made of diamond anyway...it didn’t quite work out the way I hoped, but I don’t think it turned out too bad.”

“Badeea...it’s beautiful,” breathed Carewyn, her eyes trailing over the “stained glass” slippers.

Despite this, though, she whirled on the others with a severe expression.

“...But I can’t go to the ball! My entire family will be there, as will Lord Malfoy and Patricia Rakepick -- none of them would let me get within twenty feet of Orion -- ”

“They will if they do not recognize you,” said McGonagall crisply. She turned to Badeea and extended a hand. “The mask, please.”

Badeea handed McGonagall a hand-painted robin mask to her. McGonagall then set about tracing a yellowish-gold spell in mid-air, which she then lightly tapped with the mask. In an instant, it sparkled with traces of golden light.

McGonagall then placed the mask in both of Carewyn’s hands.

“This mask has an illusionary enchantment placed on it,” she said solemnly, “one that will activate solely for you, while you are within the gates of Florence’s palace, for today only. While you wear it, you will appear, to the person seeing you, as a beautiful stranger. You will not look the same to any two people...meaning that, were anyone to try to identify you later, no one would be able to agree how tall you are, how slender, how old...not even any physical features like hair or eye color.”

McGonagall’s expression then turned very grave.

“Just be sure that you leave the palace before the final stroke of midnight. Once the next day begins, my spell will break no matter what I might do...and if you’re still in the palace when that happens, then I daresay there’ll be plenty of people there who will recognize you.”

Carewyn nodded. Considering how willing Charles was to commit treason and murder, the last thing she wanted was for her grandfather to know she’d made it to the ball and who had helped her get there.

“I understand,” she said.

“I will not fit in the coach with you,” said McGongall as she glanced at Talbott, “but I can maintain the illusion for the rest of the night, even from a distance. And I know my apprentice will do everything he can to make sure you get back to Royaume safely, once Orion is out of danger.”

Carewyn’s eyes became a little smaller and softer. “Thank you, Baroness...for everything.”

McGonagall’s usually stern face softened noticeably as she brought a hand to gently rest on Carewyn’s cheek.

“Godspeed, Miss Cromwell.”

And so Carewyn, Badeea, and Talbott all climbed into the coach. Once they were all inside, Bill -- playing the role of footman, snapped the door shut behind them and leapt up onto the boot of the coach.

“Let’s go, Charlie!”

With a nod, Charlie bounded back up into the driver’s seat, snatched up the reins, and flicked them sharply with a “YAH!” The three horses charged off, pulling the coach right off the Cromwell estate and toward the reddening horizon.

On their way to Florence’s palace, the group got themselves dressed. Carewyn politely averted her eyes as Talbott changed into the handsome purple velvet doublet Andre had been wearing when Carewyn first arrived at the palace, and then Talbott climbed out onto the boot of the carriage with Bill while Badeea helped Carewyn get dressed.

When Carewyn took off her dress, Badeea saw her injured back for the first time. The artist’s gasp of dismay was silent, but she nonetheless trailed a cool, gentle hand along Carewyn’s bare back.

“I don’t think your gown will hide these,” Badeea murmured. “It’s cut low, to show off your back.”

Carewyn set her jaw grimly. “Then we’ll just have to leave them. Once I reach the palace and the Baroness’s illusion is activated, no one should be able to see them anyway.”

Badeea nodded grimly, her dark eyes very sad as she helped Carewyn pull the gown over her head.

“We all worried Lord Cromwell wasn’t treating you well,” she confessed, “but...I don’t think any of us thought he’d do something like this to you.”

Her usually serene expression betrayed a flicker of resentment.

“He’s a horrible man,” she said very softly. “Just...horrible.”

Carewyn offered Badeea a weak smile, bringing a hand onto her shoulder and squeezing to show some reassurance.

Charlie had never been to the palace of Florence before, but he was fortunately able to follow the many, many sets of long tracks left by other carriages and carts from Royaume that had already left for Florence’s capitol. He set the horses off at the fastest gallop he could manage without endangering his passengers, and within three hours, Charlie caught sight of some more carriages in the distance. He rushed to catch up with them, pulling up just behind them as they headed through the open gates of the Florentine palace.

The palace of Florence couldn’t have been more different than Royaume’s. While Royaume’s castle was white stone with extensive hedge gardens and many rounded towers trimmed with pointed dark rooves, Florence’s was made of tan-colored clay bricks stacked a mile high with geometric railings along the edges of towers and beautifully carved marble columns and arches framing the interior courtyard. It was also lit up with dozens of torches, making it blaze with golden light in the night. The warmer color palette, in contrast to Royaume’s palace’s pure white marble and clean lines, made Florence’s palace look significantly older, even though it was just as well-maintained. Carewyn couldn’t help but wonder what sorts of interesting histories she might read, if she could take the time to look over the yards of text etched into each column and wall.

“I think I see Andre’s coach!” said Charlie.

He pointed out a coach parked almost directly in front of the grand staircase. Its coachman was tending to their horses.

“He must not have arrived too long ago,” said Bill. He looked at the others through the window of the coach. “Do you have the masks ready, Badeea?”

Badeea lightly waved the last mask she’d been painting back and forth to help it dry. “Just about...”

Carewyn could also see the white coaches belonging to the Cromwell family parked on the far right end. She could even see her horse among the white steeds pulling them -- it kept pulling at its reins tensely, as if not liking being lashed together with its fellows to the coach.

Charlie pulled up in front of the castle, as far back and as far left as he could, so that they could stay close to the gate in case they needed a quick exit. As soon as they came to a stop, Bill pulled open the door of the coach.

“Are you ready, Carey? Your hair and dress okay? Got your mask?”

“Yes,” said Carewyn.

“Go on, then -- we’ll be right behind you.”

Carewyn nodded determinedly and quickly climbed out of the coach, holding her skirts up so as to keep them clear of her “stained glass” slippers.

Charlie couldn’t help but gape. “Whoa, Carey...the Baroness wasn’t kidding! You don’t look like yourself at all!”

Carewyn blinked. “Really?”

“Yeah! You’ve got, like, blond hair and green eyes -- like some emerald dragon!”

“You look like a brunette to me,” said Bill sheepishly.

“We can gush about the Baroness’s talent for illusions later,” Talbott cut them off brusquely. “Carewyn -- go find the King.”

Carewyn nodded. Turning her gaze toward the palace, she ran straight for the stairs, charging right past the guests that walked more leisurely up the stairs and ignoring how their heads turned in her direction.

Orion...please don’t let me be too late...!

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ramblings-of-a-mad-cat · 4 years

Note

Approximately how close is Luca to the rest of the hphm gang? Like... A number out of 10 ? He seems like a cool character and i kinda wanna know more about his relationships with the lot... Sorry for bothering

You certainly aren’t a bother! I welcome questions like these and find them flattering! If anything, this will help me define Luca and their relationships because I’ve been wishy-washy about that, for sure. (Oh, just so you, Luca uses they/them.)

Rowan - 11/10. This is Luca’s best friend, no question about it. The closest and most important bond in their life, second only to Jacob. At this stage I very well might just ignore the whole concept of MC and Rowan becoming distant because even though Luca does have a twin, they tend to see Rowan as having that level of importance and trust. Needless to say, Y6CH18 completely shatters Luca’s world and leaves them spiraling, and they still are.

Ben - 6/10. It was stronger in the early days, when Ben was still timid. Luca never wanted to believe Rowan’s theory about him, they always trusted Ben. But when he abandons caution for recklessness, Luca is about driven mad trying to keep him safe. It’s stressful, it’s not fun, and admittedly Luca’s opinion of Ben sinks at this point.

Penny - 8/10. These two have always been close, the dearest of friends, and Luca will defend Penny to anyone who talks trash about her behind her back, which is definitely possible for people who get as popular as her. Going off of canon, MC and Penny tend to hang out a lot, and that works fine because they’re Housemates and best buds. Penny’s parents adore Luca too, so that’s nice.

Merula - 9/10. One of the major contenders for a potential end-game. I pretty much wrote Luca around their interactions with Merula. From first, they never hated her. Simply found her perplexing and mildly annoying. They didn’t blame her for the Bulbadox powder incident. Even then, they were showing her mercy. This inkling of mercy eventually evolved into genuine care and protective instincts toward the Slytherin witch who reminds them so much of their brother.

Bill - 6/10. A solid pal, like a big brother. He doesn’t fill the hole that Jacob left behind, but I chose my URL for a reason, and Bill would be there for Luca and they’d get along quite well. Sharing solidarity in how they both trust Rakepick, and heartbreak when that comes back to bite them.

Skye - 8/10. This is just the story of Merula and Luca, but translated to Quidditch and without the phase of being opponents. Luca was very wary around Skye and not impressed by her at first. But by the end of Season 1, they had grown fond of her, felt loyal to her, and despite being keenly aware of her flaws, they stuck up for her and tried to gently guide her toward making smarter choices.

Murphy - 5/10. They aren’t that close. Not that they aren’t friends, because they totally care, and Luca appreciates his company. But compared to the other folks on the team, Luca and Murphy are friendly with each other, but haven’t really opened up or connected on an especially deep level.

Orion - 8/10. This right here, is the guy who fills the hole that Jacob left. I can’t quite explain it but there’s something about his wisdom and serenity that Luca just latches onto. They seriously admire him, enjoy his company, and want to make h him proud. They’re basically in awe of Orion, and he seems to see a lot of potential in Luca as well.

Rath - 5/10. A relationship that was initially built upon uncertainty and fear gradually evolved into being an unconventional friendship through the events we see in the Rath TLSQ. Luca never wanted to be at odds with Rath, but admittedly it does feel a little awkward to trade friendly and affectionate banter.

Tonks - 9/10. A complete disaster, an absolute nightmare that is constantly spawning chaos...but she’s just so damn lovable, and it’s not like Luca doesn’t have a history of surrounding them-self with people who are equally dodgy. Tonks is one of their closest friends, though she also felt slightly awkward around them for a while, as Luca’s aunt is Alice Longbottom, who was victimized by Tonks’ own aunt, though obviously Luca never holds this against her.

Tulip - 9/10. Another contender for end-game, and could even share them. Tulip swept Luca off their feet almost immediately. Whatever winds up happening, it’s safe to say she was their first crush, and they always found her amazing. Growing very close to her in Year Three, especially thanks to their mutual connection to Merula. I like to think that Tulip knows she needs someone to reel her in now and then, even if she won’t admit it. Luca does that for her.

Barnaby - 6/10. Similar to Murphy, it’s not that there’s any issue in this relationship, because there absolutely isn’t. Luca simply didn’t grow as close to Barnaby as to some other people, but they always thought very highly of him and similar to Ben, they were protective of him and wanted to keep him safe from harm. Also, his hugs were always amazing.

Ismelda - 5/10. Luca had ambivalent feelings toward her for a while, after Year 3. They’re not really a hateful person, but they weren’t very fond of her. Made a couple of attempts to make peace, but they didn’t really go anywhere. After “Crushed” they came to understand her more and begin to develop pity, which only evolved further by Year 6, at which point they would unironically hang out with her. She begrudgingly appreciates the company.

Charlie - 6/10. Like Bill, he has a warm and cordial friendship with Luca that is able to flourish more regularly as they share classes, and Luca could honestly listen to Charlie talk about dragons all day. They don’t always understand, but Charlie’s presence is calming, and that’s why they like it.

Andre - 4/10. Luca and Andre get off on the right foot, but they barely talk. To Luca, Andre is that one friend that they wish they could get to know better, and feel bad because they never have time for them. Andre is so disconnected from the plot, but he does nice things for MC like making them outfits, Luca would appreciate it.

Jae - 7/10. In my headcanons, Jacob and Jae knew each other before Jae was at Hogwarts. So Luca and Jae were friends when they were young, but fell out when Jacob disappeared. Avoiding each other until Year 5, whereupon they reconciled and reconnected, becoming better friends again.

Badeea - 5/10. Obligatory clarification that this is due to them simply not being very close, not because there’s any bad blood, there isn’t. Luca thinks highly of Badeea and admires her abilities and she admires their heart and kindness. There isn’t much more to say about the friendship than that.

Liz - 6/10. Luca seriously respects her and always has. Sure, she’s a bit odd, but they more than agree with her about a lot of things that most people wouldn’t. They care about the well-being of creatures too, and Liz is always fun to be around, even if her personality is a bit prickly. She gets along well with the likes of Penny and Barnaby, no way she wasn’t going to like Luca.

Diego - 3/10. Okay, this one is actually due to some friction between the two characters. Diego just entirely rubs Luca the wrong way, and he eventually catches on to that. They’re never enemies or anything, but they’re also not really friends either. I just feel like Diego would be the most sexual person in general, and Luca’s very ace, so it’s a struggle for them to coexist.

Talbott - 6/10. Luca’s very fond of him, and grows to sympathize with him during his quests. Talbott is just such a relatable guy, and while Luca isn’t the most anti-social, they understand the instinct. I also like to imagine that they’re less pushy than MC is in-canon, and that Talbott appreciates this. Luca is the one cat that Talbott can tolerate.

Chiara - 8/10. She’s closer to Luca, because they do share a House, so how could they not be? She was part of their friend group since Year 1, alongside Tonks, Penny, and Rowan. These two have a lot in common. They’re both socially awkward, but caring Healers who are on the quieter side but carry dark secrets they aren’t responsible for. Of course they connect.

Beatrice - 9/10. These two would become the most unlikely friendship, but would quickly become close. Beatrice is the chaotic type Luca gravitates toward, and Luca has the gentle energy of someone like Penny without the appearance of being pretentious or trying to control Beatrice. I think she’d very much appreciate that and latch onto Luca the way she did Ismelda. I see these two understanding each other quite well as time goes on.

This was fun! Thank you for sending it my way!

#Luca Fawley #HPHM Headcanons #Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

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ryollie · 4 years

Text

mc house challenge!

okay i’ll be honest, i was pretty on the fence about doing it since i felt like ollie has the traits of all houses and it’s boring to generalize an individual because they’re from this and that house. but then i realised i’m overthinking this and its just for fun lol ! challenge started by @kyril-hphm , got tagged by my bf and a few friends! more info under the cut!

❤️ Gryffindor!Ollie

Ollie doesn’t keep his status as Harry Potter’s son lowkey, he flaunts it. He’s more confident and grows his hair out, but ties it when it gets too long. He also copied Jacob’s split eyebrow! He openly uses his Veela allure to his advantage and isn’t afraid to do so. He’s very determined and starts learning how to duel seriously so it can help him in his search for the vaults. His love interest would probably be Jae Kim - they’re both into mischief and contraband goods, except that Ollie is more sly when it comes to avoiding being caught, thanks to his father’s invisibility cloak.

💛 Hufflepuff!Ollie

The most evil version of Ollie amongst the four. (Yes, Mash Potatoe is holding a knife. Peace was never an option.) His diligence and need to succeed in finding Jacob has made him distant from everyone, and he works hard to research and uncover clues to help him piece together the puzzle of the cursed vaults. He feels as though he can only depend on himself to work the hardest to find Jacob, so he doesn’t bother recruiting others to help him. His love interest would be Penny Haywood - they get closer and bond after Beatrice got involved with the vaults. She works very hard to help her sister and Ollie finds her the most dependable out of everybody.

💙 Ravenclaw!Ollie

He questions how he even got sorted into Ravenclaw; he’s not brimming with wisdom like the average Ravenclaw. Often, he can’t answer the portrait’s question and he’s locked out of the common room until some passing Ravenclaw pities him and helps him. He’s frustrated at his lack of knowledge but doesn’t have much interest in studying - he spends a lot of his time drawing in his sketchbook; he’s brimming with creativity. (It’s filled with beautiful paintings and animated doodles of his crush!) He’s created specific spells of his own to make his drawings stand out, making him and Badeea good friends. He’s very close to Talbott, and often confides in him about his crush. His love interest is Slytherin!Angel, who is jealous of how close he is with Talbott.

💚 Slytherin!Ollie

The original Ollie - kind and loved by everybody. He has the traits of all the houses combined in one, but his ambition to prove his worth put him in Slytherin. He’s wary of strangers but extremely kind and loving once he’s confirmed they have no ulterior motive in befriending him. He comes off as naturally flirty and isn’t even aware that he’s using his Veela allure passively. He learns to control his Veela powers in the later years. He radiates chaotic energy and is generally the jokester amongst his friends - Angel, Lian, Wen and Catherine. He’s always doing reckless things against his better judgement and his friends have to make sure he doesn’t get into trouble. With the help of his friends, he searches for Jacob and the vaults. His love interest is Talbott, and they’ve been together since Year 3. Mash Potatoe is also the puffskein ruler.

#this took foreverrrrrrrrrrrrr pls appreciate this #ollie potter #hogwarts mystery #mc house challenge #about ollie #ness draws

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serpentes-lupus · 4 years

Note

1, 2 and 20 for the Preferred Ship?

HPHM MC X Preferred Ship Questions

1. Who is your MC preferred significate other?

The preferred shipping of my muse is with Talbott. It’s a rather strange pairing because Tarra is a very extroverted person and Talbott is reclusive. But I feel like those opposites help balance the two of them.

Tarra is there to bring out Talbott from his shell and be more engaging, while Talbott helps Tarra have a more calm of mind.

2. When did they start developing feelings for each other?

Tarra started developing feelings for Talbott after the Animagus event. She never met anyone so introverted and she wanted to know more about him. So when it came to becoming his friend and learning more about him, she saw him in a new light. She didn’t want to pity him for his past but she didn’t want to appear insensitive, so whenever she saw him afterward, she would give him a quick wave of hello or sometimes bring him a small pastry after dinner. In truth, she didn’t fell for him hard and fast, but slow and steady. The more she spent time with him, the more she began to fancy him. Thus leading to the First Date event.

As for Talbott, it took some time. Talbott first saw Tarra as a chaotic, bombastic energetic person. But after she aided him in finding his necklace, he saw her differently afterward. Throughout having classes together and assisting each other in Transfiguration, Talbott realized that Tarra is a pretty good friend. He also realized that, despite her extroverted personality, Tarra did crave privacy. Especially after the fiasco that the Daily Prophet has done to her and her family. He offered her his spots of privacy and keeps her company whenever she asks of him. With these moments of togetherness, they got to see more of what they really were. Talbott may not have realized it yet, but he was developing feelings for her and these feelings came to light after the First Date event.

20. Who is the most protective between them?

It was tough but I can see Talbott being more protective than Tarra. Just by a little. Because he lost his whole family and is pretty much alone. So, of course, he would do whatever he can to protective anyone he cares for, not wanting to lose any more loved ones.

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cursebreaker-lilith · 4 years

Photo

A chart featuring Lili’s relationships to the canon characters! ....minus Badeea, Diego, and Chiara because I ran out of room and also bc they’re the characters in my ‘I can’t decide if I want them to be proper love interests or not’ club and uh idk how to put that on there lol

Color guide and relationship explanations beneath the cut!

color guide:

light green = friends

dark green = best friends

teal = familial relationship

dark yellow = acquaintances

light yellow = former friends

purple = doesn’t trust/allies and not friends (and one place where it’s dark blue whoops)

red = crush

pink = former crush/thought it was a crush

Lili + Rowan: Best friends!!! Almost co-dependent to an unhealthy degree....

Lili + Barnaby: Lili’s best friend after Rowan!! Super affectionate to each other! Ultimate platonic friends (once Barnaby realized that feeling he felt was just friendship and not romantic feelings...)!

Lili + Ben: Probably the most complicated relationship here. She befriended him out of pity and continued their friendship because of his skill at Charms. He’s had a crush on her since they were 11 and she stood up for him which no one had ever done before. Then the Red Robed Wizard Reveal tm happened and Lili dropped him and ignored him, though he tried to make it up to her. 6th year ony drives a deeper wedge between them as Lili can’t stand his recent behaviour.

Rowan + Ben: Rowan actually had a mild crush on him in 2nd-4th year and they went to the Celestial Ball together, but then the Reveal and that crush went woosh and she ignored him alongside Lili. Ben never liked her romantically and went with her because Lili said he should.

Lili + Penny: Close friends and each other’s crushes for years. Crushes ended in 5th year when both were kinda jerks to everyone around them. Remained good friends.

Lili + Talbott: Get paired together on a project and both are majorly disgruntled by it but grow closer. Briefly date in 6th year, but Talbott freaks out at it ‘going too fast’ and they stick to being friends.

Lili + Bill: The big brother Jacob should’ve been to Lili tbh

Lili + Charlie: At first she only knew him kinda vaguely, but she’s come to really enjoy his presence and goes to him when she needs to be low key.

Bill + Charlie: Brothers! Love each other lots, though they don’t necessarily always understand each other and Charlie has a lot of Feelings tm about trying to fill Perfect Brother Bill’s shoes.

Bonus Ben + Charlie: bc wow how could I have forgotten to add their relationship here I think about it constantly. Ben was bullied for being scared all the time, and even though he was a Quidditch star no one really hung out with Charlie because of his dragons obsession and people saw him as a weirdo, so the two became close over being sorta social rejects in Gryffindor. At the end of 4th year, Charlie was really conflicted over what happened and Ben is Ben and accepted the idea that no one wanted him around. They made up at the beginning of 5th year, though it was a colder relationship than before.

Lili + Jae: Lili likes Jae and finds him useful and hilarious and she doesn’t trust him as far as she can throw him. In a better world, they’d probably be closer friends.

Lili + Tulip: After finding out that Tulip had purposefully not told her about Jacob’s room, Lili instantly decided she was an undesirable but necessary ally. Lili does not like Tulip and will likely never change her opinion because she’s really pissed that someone would keep her brother’s things from her. Lili will talk to her about the Cursed Vaults, but they do not hang out and Lili does not consider her a friend. This really, really hurts Tulip’s feelings but Lili doesn’t really care. In a better world without the Vaults, they’d probably get along smashingly as while Lili isn’t a prankster, she has no problem being an instigator to pranks.

Lili + Merula: Hate each other’s guts for a while. Then Lili gave up her Frog Choir spot and Merula gained a small crush (even if Lili was a total ass about it). While they’ll never be friends, by the time of 5th and 6th year they’ve become reluctant allies similar to Lili and Tulip above. Lili will probably never totally befriend her, but she’s learned to be civil and that’s progress.

Lili + Ismelda: Lili doesn’t really like Ismelda but she considers her all bark and no bite. Ismelda hates Lili because she thinks Lili and Barnaby are gonna end up dating and is jealous.

Tulip + Merula: Former best friends turned rivals turned allies.

Merula + Ismelda and Barnaby: Merula doesn’t consider them friends so much as allies and henchmen. On the flip side, they DO consider Merula their friend and are hurt whenever she treats them awfully.

Barnaby + Ismelda: Barnaby still considers Ismelda a friend even if they don’t talk much. Ismelda still has a huge crush on him.

Lili + Tonks: Tonks is a fun person and Lili really likes her, but similar to Jae she does not trust her in the slightest. Tonks is good for when Lili wants to feel like a normal kid.

Lili + Liz: Friend of a friend. Lili is good friends with Barnaby and Charlie. Liz is also good friends with them. The four of them have hung out together. That is the extent of their friendship.

Lili + Skye and Orion: Lili is not on the Quidditch team, but both Rowan and Barnaby are so she knows them by association. She finds Orion hilarious and chill, and Skye has great hair but is too much a dumb and rude jock for Lili.

Lili + Andre and Murphy: Yeah, I coudln’t think of a way to bring them in so these two are in the black box of ‘Lili doesn’t know em.’

and then for the ones i couldn’t fit in lol

Lili + Diego: They met in Dueling club (which Lili was only briefly allowed to join) and Lili found his flirting hilarious. He’s with Tonks in that he’s someone Lili goes to to feel normal. They went on a date once, but only one date.

Lili + Badeea: It usually takes a while to warm up to people, but Lili immediately liked Badeea. She respects her talent as an artist (Lili can do hand crafts but painting escapes her) and Lili is actually pretty good at astronomy (she doesn’t like it being so late at night--she likes her beauty sleep) and finds Badeea talking about it fascinating.

Lili + Chiara: Chiara has always been a vague acquaintance, and they only really got to know each other in 3rd year when they became partners in Herbology. Lili finds Chiara’s capacity for kindness awe-inspiring.

#hphm #harry potter hogwarts mystery #hogwarts mystery #hphm mc #jacob's sibling #lili brooks #art be mine

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cursed-ice-spirits · 4 years

Text

Assassins Don’t Cry

In this universe, Rebecca is still a loner, still an outcast, still the girl who pushed Merula in her first day at Hogwarts. Her brother is dead from trying to find her curse and her parents are split up, and she’s still sent to the Caldwells, who are still assassins who use demons to kill. But one thing changed. The actions of her mother’s family are released to the world on the day she escapes from them, every kill her mother has made is listed on the Daily Prophet and there are rumors that Rebecca killed a man herself. Some are sympathetic, including the Son of the Boy-Who-Lived (aka Ollie Potter @ryollie), others... not so much.

Rebecca didn’t like Ollie Potter at first. It was not of the boy’s fault but after all the whispers of the ‘Chosen One’s Son,’ she grew annoyed at the slightest mention of him. She never liked gossip or nonsense like that so it certainly didn’t help that much.

So it came as a surprise that she found herself growing close to Penny Haywood, famous for being the most popular girl who drinks in gossip.

Who knew Pretty Penny Haywood would be friends with Rebecca Lord, the loner artist who adores dwelling in Charms? Which is how Rebecca finds herself being pulled out of the library to be introduced to Penny’s new boyfriend.

“Penny,” she groaned, looking longingly at the library. “Do I have to meet your boyfriend?” She asks and wrinkles her nose at the thought. Third-Years and her peers around her are already dating around. Frankly she doesn’t understand the fuss but whatever makes Penny happy.

Penny looked back at her, a sly smile playing on her lips. “I told you, you need to talk to people other than me. I thought introducing you to my boyfriend is a good start.”

“What and shoving me to Talbott wasn’t enough?”

“He’s a loner like you! He doesn’t count.”

Rebecca resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Wow, Haywood. How rude.”

Penny only ignored her and merely tugged her to the direction of a young boy with white fluffy hair. “Ollie is one of the sweetest people I know, so I hope he’s a good start to being social and having friends, Merlin knows you need them—“

Rebecca rolled her eyes and tuned her out, and watched as she lifted a hand to cup it over her mouth, calling “Ollie!!” at the top of her lungs, and noted that the boy looked oddly familiar-

Wait a minute, Rebecca thought, realization dawning on her as the boy turned around, finding herself meeting bright green eyes with her own hazel eyes. Oh, motherfucker-

Ollie Potter stood before her, green eyes glimmering curiosity as they flickered from Penny to her. Of course, Penny Haywood would date Ollie bloody Potter, Rebecca screams internally. Pretty popular Penny Haywood with her pretty long hair and sparkling eyes WOULD date Ollie Potter who has a snake and puffskein for pets and emeralds as eyes, what the fuck-

“Ollie,” Penny said happily, pushing her in front of her. “This is Rebecca. A friend of mine. Rebecca this is Ollie.”

Rebecca fought the urge to hide behind the blonde. “Hi,” she said, eyeing him warily. Is he arrogant? Is he kind? She never knows with the rumors.

Ollie flashes her a smile, although his eyes shone with cautiousness. Rebecca approves. “Hi,” he greets back.

It never really went farther than that. Rebecca never voluntarily approached him and they never exchanged a word other than a passing “hello” unless Penny decided to drag her into a conversation, which Rebecca doesn’t really fancy as she ends up being a third wheel anyway. One thing that came out of it was Rebecca’s opinion of him going down to merely “he’s okay” but never more than that. When they did truly talk, it was ironically after their breakup.

Lazily floating through the air, Rebecca held on to her broom with one hand and leaned to the right, a frown flickering on her face when she noticed someone sitting on the fountain lid, someone with white fluffy hair.

She knew only one person with white fluffy hair. Remembering what Penny told her (and did, she thought with a flush) she urged her broom down, hair blowing past her shoulders as she flew closer to the Slytherin.

“Potter,” she spoke up, hovering above his head. She watched him jump and look up, her lips curling into a smile as she watched his expression shift. “A knut for your thoughts?”

“Um…” Emerald eyes flickered away nervously, then back at her and she rolled her eyes.

“I’m not going to bite, y’know,” she said, drifting closer to the ground and hopping off. She carefully placed her broom down and sat next to him, glancing over to him. “Penny told me some stuff and I decided to drop by.”

“Oh,” he said, his eyes drifting to his lap. “How much did she told you?”

“Only that you two broke up,” she told him, yanking her shoes and socks off and setting them on the ground beside her broom. She dipped her feet in the water and stared as the water curled around them, feeling none of the coolness as she turned a frown to him, “What’s up with that anyway?”

With those words, he spilled. He talked about Talbott and his apparent fling with him, how he obliviated him of his memories with him and how he only recently regained them. Her frown only deepened as he continued on to explain his confrontation with Talbott, which lead to the breakup. Thinking back, Rebecca thought it was strange that he’ll spill his guts out to someone he only knew through Penny but considering she is close to her, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise that he told her because of that.

“And I’m assuming you’re sitting here thinking about your feelings for both of them,” she said once he stopped to catch his breath. She pretended not to notice the tears on his cheeks, merely passing him a tissue.

Ollie rubbed his eyes and nodded. “Yeah I… I don’t know whether or not my feelings for Penny are actually genuine, or if it’s because of the memory wipe,” he said softly. “I’m scared that I was using her this whole-”

She splashed water at him with her foot, not flinching when he recoiled, turning wide eyes at her. “Oi oi, stop that,” she said, folding her arms. “Penny doesn’t blame you for this mess. How do you even feel during your relationship with her?”

Ollie opened his mouth, then closed it, frowning. “Strange...” Ollie furrowed his brows and drew his legs to his chest. “Like… Like something’s missing.”

“Elaborate.” Rebecca moved her feet back and forth, watching the water swish around her feet.

“It only grew stronger as I dated her,” he continued. “Sometimes during a date, I’d reach out to touch her face and then get a weird flashback of doing the same to someone else, someone I now remember as Talbott,” he mused softly.

Rebecca held her temple. “Oh dear, this is a mess.” She held up a finger. “I’m going to be very very harsh here, but it’s realistic and I don’t like sugarcoating things.” She looked at him in the eye. “Either way, both of them are going to be hurt. Talbott is going to be hurt and even if you say that you don’t care, he’s still someone you loved in the past and before that, a dear friend. Penny’s going to be hurt too. Whatever if it’s you choosing Talbott or the feelings you had for her really is because of the memory wipe.”

Ollie flinched violently and squeezed his eyes shut. “I don’t want to hurt her,” he murmured. “She’s a nice girl — I was happy with her, really.”

“She’ll move on. Both of them,” Rebecca said, feeling pity. The poor guy, stuck in such a horrible mess. “Heartbreak is hard.” She closes her eyes, remembering the deep ache that she can’t place a finger on what it means months before. “The only thing we can do is move on.”

“Yeah,” he muttered, his eyes flickering to her. “You would know how that feels, right? You liked her.”

Rebecca’s brow furrowed. “I didn’t like her that way,” she denied. “Did I…?” She trailed off, thinking about her times with Penny. The pain in her chest whenever she saw her with Ollie, the butterflies in her stomach when she smiled at her… “Oh Merlin, I did.”

Ollie gave her a little smirk and despite the fact that it was at her own expense, it makes her pleased to see it. “I noticed you always have this pained look in your eyes around us and sorta pieced it together,” he admitted. “Your eyes will always linger on her. She makes you happy, right? I know you make her happy too.”

“I’m not going to be a rebound for her,” Rebecca said quietly. She bit her lip and thought about her curse, trying not to think about her inevitable death. Not wanting to turn the water to ice, Rebecca drew her legs to her chest. “And it wouldn’t work out. I don’t have feelings for her anymore. I moved on and I don’t want to force myself to like her again.”

“Well, Penny was a rebound for me in a way.”

“Potter!”

“In a way! I…” he trailed off and frowned at her. After staring for a few minutes, he pushed, “Are you sure about that? Are you sure you moved on? You really don’t like her anymore?”

“Yes, I’m sure.” Rebecca folded her arms defensively across her chest. “What are you going with this, Potter?”

Ollie cocked his head to the side, still frowning. “You don’t look like you’ve moved on. You sound unsure, less certain.”

Rebecca opened her mouth, then closed it as she thought about her feelings toward Penny. “I don’t really know, but I’m not in a rush to figure it out. I’ll know eventually.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe you should do the same. Take a break from romance. Think about your feelings. Love is complicated and this whole situation is messy, so maybe time will help you think.”

Ollie averted his eyes. “Maybe. I don’t know, I’m just confused on how I feel. About both of them.”

“Love is complicated,” Rebecca repeated. “Love sucks and burns you from the inside and leaves you wanting more. Yeah it’s beautiful and it keeps you going, but it also hurts you. It takes time to figure it out and it’s exactly what you need right now.”

“I… guess,” Ollie said, closing his eyes. He gave her a small smile and Rebecca immediately pushed away the feeling of awe raising inside of her. “Thanks, Rebecca.”

She patted his shoulder and pulled away, lifting her feet out of the water to pick up her broom. “Not a problem.”

—————

4th Year was off to a great start. After the horrible summer she had, she’s been getting flashbacks upon flashbacks and it certainly doesn’t help with all the negative spotlight on her. She’s learned to never walk alone unless she wanted to be tripped and it’s fairly easy, finding herself walking with Andre or Penny to classes

But she can’t be so lucky continuously, because Andre and Penny don’t share some of her classes. They can’t stick with her 24/7. So it’s really no wonder she finds her foot getting snagged against something and proceeding to tumble to the ground hard.

In the corner of her eye, she notices someone moving toward her, only to be pushed away by a wall of people that circled around her. She appreciates the effort though, even as a foot slams into her side.

“Seriously?!” Samuel Lockwood laughed as he looked down at her, smirking. He was the one who tripped her. She knew this for sure. He kicked at her again. “You’re still here?”

“Stop crying for attention,” Someone— she can't tell who it is, but it was familiar for sure — sneered, aiming a kick at her. “We know you’re not the victim here.”

“Murderer.” Kick.

“Why would Dumbledore let someone like you be in school?” Kick.

“No mommy to protect you here.” Belinda Murray sneered. Kick.

“You’re no better than a death eater.” Kick.

“Hey—“

“Nobody wants a murderer here.” Kick.

“Get out while you can. It’s better for all of us.” Kick.

“Egwu and Haywood really lowered their standards for you huh?” Kick.

A long time ago, she would have fought back with everything she got using her teeth and nails, but she’s not that person anymore. Her time with the Caldwells taught her fighting back will only make it worse and that lesson won’t be unlearned anytime soon. Rebecca felt herself going slack, letting blow after blow rain down on her. Just let it happen and it’ll be over soon…

“Hey!”

Slowly, the kicks stopped. Confusion swept over her, and she lifted her head just in time to see Ollie driving his fist into Lockwood’s gut, a furious expression etched on his face. Rebecca winced as Ollie grasped Lockwood’s collar, swinging back and punching him in the face and covered her eyes, peeking from under her fingers and staring in disbelief at the scene she’s witnessing, because it’s the first time someone other than Andre or Penny defended her.

“Ollie?”

Ollie glanced at her and dropped Lockwood like a rag doll. In seconds, he moved to her side, smiling gently despite the fact that he just beat up one of her main bullies. “Hey,” he said, stretching out a hand to her and letting her take it, before wrapping his hands around her arms and pulling her to her feet. “Let’s go. We need to get you to the Hospital Wing,” he said, then shot everyone around them a glare, “and away from these scum.”

Averting her eyes, Rebecca refuses to look at him, opting to instead lean her weight against his shoulder. Not that it was hard. She felt a hand taking her arm and wrapping it around his shoulders, and she has to force herself not to recoil away.

There’s this sort of… ringing in her ears that drowns out the whispers that rose as Ollie tugged her pass the crowd. She doesn’t need to hear the whispers to know that they’re talking about her, not even with Ollie’s frequent glares aimed at the crowd around her. Too busy trying to put one foot over the other, she doesn't realize where she’s going until her foot hits something hard.

Stopping in her tracks, her eyes slowly moved down, going first to her bag, ripped up with one of the straps cut cleanly off, then to her ink-soaked textbooks laying haphazardly on the ground, and finally, her sketchbook ripped and shredded beyond recognition.

Ba-thump. She can’t seem to move. Everything in there, her dreams and passions and the love poured into its pages ruined and gone.

Ba-thump. And then Ollie is standing in front of her, holding her shoulders gently in his hands as he calls out her name, his brow furrowed with concern, concern that only grows when she doesn’t respond.

Ba-thump. She can’t fucking b r e athe

They must have stolen it from her while she was being beaten and ripped it up. Lockwood’s work, she can see his h an dwr i ting, etching slurs and insults on the remains of the pages.

The archer tugs back the string, releasing the arrow, and her world comes crashing down, and a single tear rolls down her cheek

“Caldwells don’t cry.”

She doesn’t need to look up to know it's her grandfather and her shoulders raise in panic, trying desperately to suck in air and failing and failing and failing. Phantom hands are wrapping around her arms and throat and squeezing tightly and she can’t breathe. Get off get off get off get off-

STOOOOOPPPPP.

A wave of calmness suddenly washed over her. It sends shivers of warmth down her arms, her legs, her torso, splashing over her like a warm hug. It’s soft, kind, and it makes her relax… and she hates it. She has never been fond of things in her mind and if it can force her to calm down like this, it gives her a reason to hate it even more. She had struggled against it, panic rising at the foreign presence in her mind even as a voice drifted in her mind, drowning out her grandfather’s voice. But the more she struggled, the stronger the calmness grew, and eventually, her vision clears and she finds herself stumped on the ground. Through blurry vision, she can see Ollie sitting at a respectful distance, talking gently.

“Can you hear me now? Nod once if you do. Good good, slow your breathing. You’re still gasping for air. Breathe in to 4. Breathe out to 4. 4 in. 4 out. That’s it.”

Slowly, she started getting back to reality. The calmness is still there and she hates it, she doesn’t know what it is but it manages to keep her calm and she wants it out of her head if it can control it. She doesn’t know what it is, but it’s coming from Ollie and she doesn’t like it. When he saw her breathing slow into a normal rate, he smiles and reaches over, stopping when he sees her immediately flinching away from his hand.

“Can you get up?” He asked softly. She shook her head and jerked it away, refusing to make eye contact. “I’m going to pick you up, okay? You still need to get to the hospital wing.”

Rebecca doesn’t answer, even as he carefully hoists her on his back and starts moving to the Hospital Wing, even as he carefully pushes through the corridors.

Because she doesn’t think she’ll ever see him the same way ever again.

—————

Rebecca never seems to be able to sleep in the hospital wing. Every time Pomfrey told her to rest and every time, she ends up laying on her back and staring at the white ceiling, watching the time tick by. Her hands were covered with gloves and spelled with a sticking charm so she won’t pick at her cuticles from sheer boredom, and her sketchbook is still destroyed, so she can’t draw. But either she attempts to go to sleep, or run around the hospital wing and risk agitating her injuries AND angering Pomfrey.

So attempt to sleep it is.

Groaning, she rolls on her side, ignoring the dull aches in her side, and goes to close her eyes, when she hears flapping wings whooshing over her head. It can’t be Aurora, it’ll be silent. So, opening her eyes, she very nearly jolts out of her bed when she finds herself face to face with a white crow seeing by her bedside.

“WHAT THE FU—” She starts to shout, before the bird shifts from a bird, to Ollie bloody Potter, who jumps on her bed and slaps a hand over her mouth.

“Shush!” He whisper-yells, sounding panicked. “Do you want to wake up Pomfrey?”

“I’m sorry if I’m surprised when I find right in the face of a white crow, who - by the way - was you!” Rebecca whispered to him, pulling his hand off her mouth and scooting over to allow him room to sit. As mad as she is about… whatever that was, maybe he’ll be here to explain. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

Ollie shrugged and sat cross-legged on the bed. “I wanted to check on you and give you this,” he murmured, pulling out a sketchbook, her sketchbook. “I managed to fix it while you were here — I had a lot of trial and error but it’s good as new And… I was a bit impatient to wait until morning.”

“My sketchbook!” Rebecca gasped, taking it in her hands with care. It's definitely it. It has her name on it. She carefully flips it open. The pages weren’t shredded and she can see the lines where the rips were. The stitching is back to its normal tension and even the best ends were straightened out. None of the slurs and insults were written on her drawings. It was as if nobody touched it. “Thank you but… Check on me?” She frowned, carefully sitting up. “Why? You’ve done enough when you forcefully calmed me down and took me to the hospital wing.”

She didn’t mean for it to sound so harsh but it did because he flinched and looked down guiltily. “Right, about that,” he sighed. “I’m… sorry for being terrible at comforting you.” She folded her arms and waited as he struggled with his words. “I’ve never been good at comforting people, at all, so I always took the easy way out. I’ll never know what to do if I didn’t have my veela powers-”

Her eyebrows went up. “You’re a veela?” She blurted out loudly before she could stop herself. Wincing, she lowered her face again. “That’s what the feeling from before was?”

A flash of amusement flickered over his face. She couldn’t see in the darkness very well, but she knew it was there. “Yeah, only ¼ though. My father was ½ and my grandmother was full veela. You didn’t know?”

Rebecca rolled her eyes. “People talked about the Son of The Chosen One so many times, it’s getting a bit creepy. I’ve long since tuned them out. I wanted to know about people when I talk to them, and not from other people who have already formed a biased opinion of them. Don’t look so surprised,” she told him, seeing the agape look on his face. “Why do you think I never looked at you with starry eyes?”

Ollie closed his mouth and his shoulders relaxed. He’s smiling, contented; relieved even. “Sorry,” he murmured. “People look at me and never think of just Ollie. They just see the son of Harry Potter.”

She sighed. “Too bad for them. They don’t see the real you. By the way,” she reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I forgive you. You did it in the only way you know how to. Just… don’t do it without warning me next time unless you absolutely have to, alright? Promise?”

Ollie smiles wider and touches her hand. “Promise.”

#this is so bad and im sorry it took so long but i hope it makes you happy #ily ness #ollie potter #penny haywood #rebecca lord #lockwood gang #hphm #hphm fic #hphm fanfiction #hphm fanfic #hogwarts mystery #lunar writes

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catherinestark-hphm · 5 years

Text

September 1st, 2019

Catherine smiled bittersweetly as she waved the Hogwarts Express goodbye, as if her youngest daughter, who was beginning her first year, could still see her.

She couldn't believe little Miranda was already going off to Hogwarts, time passed too quickly. It seems that it was only yesterday that Mira was accidentally using her magic to turn Gizmo pink, now she was off to learn how to be a proper witch, make friends for life and live experiences that would mold her for the future.

A gentle hand on her shoulder indicated Catherine that it was time go leave, so she looked at her husband's crimson eyes and smiled. Talbott smiled back, comfortingly.

Everything was going to be fine, she has done this twice already. Now all they had had to was wait for the first letter from Miranda.

"Do you think she'll be in Slytherin, mum?" Ezra, her twenty-year-old son, and only as well, asked as his eyes, equal to his Father's, continued staring to where the Express disappeared off.

Catherine placed a comforting hand in her son's cheek, Ezra was the middle child but he's always been so protective over Miranda, "Whatever house our little love bird lands on, will gain a fantastic witch."

Ezra's worried features softened, not only at the warm touch of his mother, but also at her comforting words, "You're right."

"Pity Hazel couldn't be here, but I don't blame her," Talbott commented as the three began making their way out of the hidden platform.

Catherine smiled knowingly, Hazel was her oldest and fantastically like Talbott in every aspect, except for her golden eyes, "She is a good Auror, like her dad," she didn't miss the proud smile Talbott tried to hide, "She'll come home for dinner though, I can't wait."

"Is Aunt Rowan coming as well?" Ezra inquired casually before the three walked through the secret passage wall, leading them to the muggle train station.

Catherine smirked, "You just want to know if Meredith will show up, don't you?"

Ezra huffed, avoiding her eyes with a shy look on his face.

Catherine chuckled as she wrapped her arms around her husband, resting her head there in a blissful moment. After all she went through, she was happy that she could now enjoy a peaceful life with her family.

Talbott wrapped a hand on her torso, holding her gently as Ezra walked behind them.

"Catherine!!"

Halting her steps, she instantly grinned at the sight of a man with messy black hair and bright green eyes, waving at her as he and his large family approached them while stepping out of the passage behind them.

"Amor?" Catherine called out softly as she waved at the man with a welcoming smile.

"Yes, dear?" Talbott responded, his heart skipping as it did when she called him by that endearing name.

"Perhaps we're gonna need more plates at the table tonight, Harry and his family might come for dinner as well."

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thecursedvaultchild · 5 years

Text

The Aftermath

What happens after the Battle of Hogwarts.

Timmy's Last, A Promise (by @hogwartsmysterystory ), and Talbott's Revenge all occur before this. Your Father's Eyes Part 3 (also by @hogwartsmysterystory ) is after this.

MCs in here are Lau King @slytherin-puffskein , Lith Thorne @slytherinliththorne , Jason Novak @death-or-sleep , Chloe Travers, Kaina Malin @zuulosdovah , Skylar Morningstar @angrynar , Ethren Whitecross @hogwartsmysterystory

---

She was exhausted. It ran through her tongue through her arms through her legs. It was like having the Jelly-Legs Curse cast through her whole being. Or maybe someone had Vanished all her bones. Her body was battered and bruised, she was probably bleeding somewhere. Her clothes were so torn up it looked like she had just fought death. The thought made her set her jaw grimly. She had fought death. And Death Eaters.

The Auror dragged herself through the castle. They had won, thank Merlin for Harry Potter, but here was the aftermath. Blood stained across the stone floor, wailing echoed through the halls, bodies were strewn about. So many of them were children. Her heart ached at the sight. She knew there'd be those that died. She pitied them. And in a way, envied them. Dying is easy, living is harder. She knew it all too well.

Familiar faces passed her sight. Liz Tuttle helping the centaurs find their wounded, face streaked with tears. Barnaby Lee helping Lau King to the Great Hall. She swore she'd kill those that had hurt him one day. Lith Thorne stood to the side, more silent than she'd ever been at school. She swore she'd make her laugh again one day. Jason Novak with his glasses shattered, helping carrying a body. She swore she'd get him to tease her about her fashion sense one day. Chloe Travers, blood stained across her hands as she ripped masks off corpses. She swore they'd drink and share secrets late into the night again one day. Anyone who claimed Slytherins were cowards didn't know what it was like to look at an approaching danger that might have family amongst the enemy and decide whether to fight them or choose to live another day and help others.

She also saw others from different Houses. Some she hadn't seen in years. A group of redheads gathered around a stretcher. She'd leave the Weasleys alone in their grief for now. A blonde woman passing out potions with a wavering smile. She'd hug Penny soon. Twins, one with short hair and one with long hair, were comforting shocked students. She'd speak to the Khanna twins later.

Talbott. Where was Talbott? She hadn't seen him since he went after… She clutched her side tighter, fingers curling into the cloth. She hoped he was alive. Oh mercy, she hoped with all her heart he was alive and she wasn't yet again left all alone in this dreary world.

With no direction to go back in the mass of destruction, she wandered into the courtyard. Her blood still ran cold remembering how just hours ago Voldemort had stood there across the way, claiming victory and killing Harry Potter himself. Now there was no definite line as dead and living on both sides were mingled without. One group in particular vaguely caught her eye. A solemn man black-haired with white streaks, a short blonde fidgeting with her wand, a woman with a long and wild mane cradling a man with caramel hair...

"ETHREN!" She knelt beside him, gripping his shoulder and shaking him. "Merlin no… he can't be dead. He can't be!"

The blonde woman, Kaina, was it? Right, his fellow Gryffindor. They were friends and in the Order together but it'd been so long, she'd nearly forgotten. The healer looked on helplessly. She must have tried everything she could… but no one can stop death. Not even Skylar could, with his connection to the dead. She could only see the grief in his eyes but otherwise he was stock still.

She looked up at the sobbing, wild witch. She grabbed her robes and shoved her wand in her face. "Did you do this, Snyde? Did you kill him?! Answer me, you witch!"

The Death Eater struggled only a little. "NO! I DIDN'T! Why would I kill him, Charn?! I was trying to save him… and then the idiot saved me…" Tears streaked across her pale face. Summer let go, sitting back on her feet. He was gone…

"Merula. What happened?"

The other woman collapsed into her arms, shoulders heaving, grip tight. It was just like the time after the Cursed Portrait Vault and the tough Slytherin had woken her up with her sobbing. Summer held her. She listened as she heard everything that happened. From the night she had visited Ethren to the battle just fought to the—

"Charn! I have a child! Please… my son… Our son. They'll throw me into Azkaban and, and…" The broken witch hissed to the other one who was just as shattered.

She simply rubbed her back soothingly, ignoring the pain and anger bubbling within her.

Skylar's gaze narrowed. "The Aurors won't get to you, Snyde. I'll hide you."

"They already have."

They looked up to see Talbott, dried blood streaking down his face. His eyes were dark. "Charn already has you."

Summer felt the guilt that only Talbott could make her feel She should've been doing her job as an Auror hunting down Death Eaters after the battle.

"There won't be anymore bloodshed tonight. But you will be going to Azkaban, Snyde." He glared at Skylar. "And nothing will change that."

Merula looked defeated. "I give myself up." Her voice was flat and dull. She let go of Summer as if she hadn't been clinging onto her former rival for comfort and gently brushed Ethren's hair out of his face.

Swallowing back more tears, Summer reached up for her husband's hand and took it. His grip was tight and almost bone-breaking. She didn't know what it meant and she's not sure she wanted to know. But he's alive. And that's all that matters. She pressed her lips firmly against his calloused palm, closing the promise he gave her. He slowly closed his fingers back around hers once she removed her head. His hand was shaking. He too stared at his decreased friend. Ethren had broken his curse… only to die saving his lover.

They stayed there for a long few moments. She had lost so much. It didn't seem… well, it didn't seem fair she had to lose this idiot too. But fair or not, he was dead.

And after standing there for a while, Talbott pulled her up to her feet and she numbly obeyed, leaning against him. "I'm came back, like I promised you." His breath was hot in her ear. "Now we have work to do. We can succumb to grief later, when Death Eaters and werewolves aren't on the loose, still terrorizing innocents. I'll take Snyde to the Astronomy Tower. You do what you can."

She looked at him, searching his tired gaze. Her thumb rubbed against the blood on his cheek, getting it off. And she kissed him. Fierce and hard with so much unsaid in it. But Talbott and her always had that knowing of what was left unsaid. He pulled her close to him.

It was all too short and he was letting her go, gently pushing her aside and yanking Snyde to her feet. He had no sympathy for Death Eaters.

"Let's go, Snyde."

She offered no protest and let the justice-driven Auror lead her away.

A child… She had whispered, voice desperate. Her rambling was so fast and low-spoken, Summer wasn't sure anyone else had heard. Her child. His child. She looked down at her close friend. His teal eyes were still open. She hoped the child had his father's eyes.

And she got up and left the courtyard. Leaving Ethren Whitecross behind. Skylar followed, slipping his arm around her shoulders.

Her gaze once more swept the destruction. The battle had been won. Voldemort was dead. But the wounds it left would take a long time—and more than a few bottles of firewhiskey—to heal.

Fin.

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slytherin-puffskein · 5 years

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Redemption

- Part One -

@elloraticart // @a-bear-at-hogwarts

* * *

At last, after months and months of studying and silently cursing over homework, the school year was finished, and everyone was ecstatic. Finally, vacations were just around the corner ! Finally, students could lounge in their house and simply relax after the pile of exams they had to go through ! It was needless to say, no one could stand still, and it was very well demonstrated in the Clocktower Courtyard.

Several students were present and were chatting together, discussing of what they might do for the summer and also thinking of what the upcoming school year had in store for them (although the amount of persons asking themselves that question was pretty low). Most importantly, however, friends were saying goodbye to each other, and swearing that they will write letter after letter.

( will these promises be kept ? Who knows. Sometimes, no matter how well-intentioned you are, you simply forget to do what you have to do )

“You better write to me, Lau King” Tulip said with a smile. “I’m sure we’ll be able to come up with all sorts of pranks...”

Laurent King giggled, and excitedly nodded.

“You can count on me, Karasu. I am, in fact, already starting to get ideas...”

And the mischievous glint in his brown eyes confirmed Tulip that he was telling the truth. That man truly had one idea after the other, and she absolutely loved it. With Laurent Dorian King, you never get bored.

Immediately, Tulip turned to Penny, smiling at her. Of course they weren’t alone: it was the end of the year, so they had to take that opportunity to talk to their friends ! With the two redheads were Penny Haywood, Rowan Khanna, Ben Copper, Liz Tuttle, Badeea Ali, Talbott Winger, Jae Kim and Barnaby Lee.

Barnaby Lee, who was oddly silent.

Barnaby Lee, who was doing his best to not stare at Lau for too long.

And to not see how beautiful he looked on that day.

His smile, his freckles, his hair, everything in him seemed ethereal, and it made Barnaby’s heart skip a beat whenever he landed his gaze on him... and whenever he remembered he wasn’t his, because of all the things he had to do in order to protect him from his family’s wrath.

( “You really thought you had a chance with me, Lau ? Like, really ?” )

He clenched his fists. No, don’t think about it. It was for his own good.

( “That’s almost laughable. Almost. But I can’t help but feel pity for you… you and me ? Seriously ? You, someone who can’t even afford a uniform his size ?” )

Merlin, did he have to be that cruel !? Couldn’t he just have simply said it would be better for them to not be together ? Why did he had to say all of this ? Once again, Barnaby considered Merula’s past claims about him.

( ‘Your dad is right, you really have no brains, Lee’ )

Maybe she was right, after all. Maybe his dad was right, after all.

Since that because of his idiocy, Lau now refused to even look at him. When that man wanted to, he could hold serious grudges, and now Barnaby was a victim of that.

And he had to watch, unable to do anything, because how on earth will Lau forgive him ? Even if Barnaby were to reveal everything he had said wasn’t sincere, it put it’s mark on Lau anyway, and that mark hurt him like hell... that’s not something you forget that easily.

So he had to endure all of the remorse he felt.

And he had to endure Laurent Dorian King dating Talbott Winger.

( Endure. Why are you using such a bad word ? He’s happy. Lau is happy, isn’t that what you wanted since the beginning ? )

Indeed, and immediately guilt started to wash over him, because he had just realized how selfish his thoughts had been.

( Lau isn’t my property. He can love whoever he wants )

( But... I want to love him so bad... )

Talbott Winger was currently standing by Lau’s side. He wasn’t that into demonstrating affection publicly, but their pinkies were linked together as they discussed with Liz about the upcoming summer. Apparently, Tuttle was going on vacations with her mom, and it sounded definitely fun.

Barnaby himself didn’t really have much summer plans. Staying home, mostly.

Soon enough, they were all huddled together, talking about all the shenanigans that occurred during the year (most of which including Lau and Tulip’s pranks)... then, it was time to go to the End of Year Feast. Gently, Lau kissed Talbott’s cheek, and the Ravenclaw found himself blushing softly... and as everyone was heading back inside, Barnaby gathered enough courage to speak up:

“Lau ?”

Swiftly, the redhead turned around, and his gaze turned to ice as he saw Barnaby.

Barnaby, the man he had loved, and who rejected him so harshly, so heartlessly.

Talbott stopped walking, and glanced over his shoulder to see what was happening.

Barnaby swallowed with difficulty.

“Can... can we talk, please ?”

Silence, and an awfully long one. At last, Lau nodded, and gestured Talbott to wait for him in the Great Hall.

And finally, ever since that dreadful rejection, Laurent King and Barnaby Lee were alone together.

Barnaby’s eyes, filled with regret and longing.

And Lau’s, filled with hatred and bitterness.

He had looked at Merula like that. He had looked at Snape like that.

But never at Barnaby.

“What is it, Lee ?” he asked at last, venom filling his usually clear and musical voice.

And that voice has the strength to break Barnaby’s heart.

( He hates me )

“I... I...”

Lau raised an eyebrow, and Barnaby found himself fumbling with his own words for a good few minutes... until he managed to speak at last:

“I’m sorry...”

“Sorry !?”

Lau tried to say that in anger, but Barnaby had been able to feel a silver of shock in his voice.

“Y-Yes, I...”

( Ok, Barnaby. Deep breaths... deep breaths, and say all )

“I... What I did, I did it to protect you. I know it sounds ridiculous when said that way, but... my parents, Lau. Yes, they’re in Azkaban, but... they would have found out about you, one way or another, and they would have done something to you. Probably torture you, even kill you, and... and I refused to take that risk”

“Seriously, Barnaby ? You know I can defend myself”

“Yes, but... I didn’t want you to deal with all of this. To deal with... loving me. It’s far too much of a toll”

And in the end, no one would have been happy. Absolutely no one. Lau, or even Barnaby, would have ended up in a puddle of crimson blood.

“I’m sorry I was that harsh with you... I just really needed you to hate me, so my parents will in no way know about you. I figured if you stopped talking to me, they’d... leave you alone ?”

The longer Barnaby talked, the softer Lau’s gaze got, but he couldn’t fully get rid of the anger residing in it. It will probably stay for a long, long time.

Suddenly, Barnaby reached into his pocket, and pulled out the boutonniere Lau had gifted him. Shock immediately took over the redhead, and Barnaby smiled wanly.

“I... I kept it. Because I... because I love you, Lau. I can’t believe I’m saying this…I really, really shouldn’t be, but…I’m in love with you.”

He took a step forward, and smiled. A real, genuine smile.

“A-And I don’t care, now ! You can defend yourself, and I can totally defend myself too ! So-So we’ll fight ! We’ll fight against my parents’ will, and we’ll be together and love each other ! Maybe even have a Puffskein, I know you love Puffskeins, and we’ll name it-”

“Barnaby”

That managed to stop him from speaking any more, and he gazed at Lau with longing eyes.

“Yes... ?”

( Please say you love me )

Lau smiled, ever so sightly.

( Please kiss me )

But then, he shook his head, sniffling.

“I... I’m sorry, Barnaby. I’m dating Talbott now, and... and I love him. And I want to be with him”

Of course. Barnaby should have expected that. He felt his heart crush itself into his chest, splattering against his ribcage, but he succeeded in forcing a nod anyway.

“I... I get it, Lau. I just... wanted you...”

( To be with me. PLEASE )

“... to know...”

“Well... I know, now”

Silence. They each have no idea of what to say.

And gently, a flower petal from the boutonniere fell off, and landed on the ground.

#my writing #lau king #barnaby lee #barnalau

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mst3kproject · 5 years

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The Cyclops

If you asked me why this movie was never on MST3K, I would guess that it was simply too obvious. I mean, we’ve got Bert I. Gordon. We’ve got Lon Chaney Jr from The Indestructible Man, we’ve got Gloria Talbott from The Leech Woman, we’ve got Dean Parkin from War of the Colossal Beast, we’ve got superimposed bugs trying to look big, we’ve even got a giant radioactive guy with only one eye! There’s nothing here we haven’t seen before - except for Bert I.’s attempt at a really cheap sci-fit adaptation of The Odyssey.

Yes, you read that correctly.

In Guayjorm, Mexico (Guayjorm?), Susan Winter is looking for her fiancé Bruce Barton, a pilot who went missing three years ago. Along with her are Lee, another pilot; Russ, an old friend of Bruce’s; and Marty, a shady prospector who’s funding the expedition. The Mexican government thinks they’re up to no good and deny them permission to enter the area, but of course they go in anyway, and land in a valley which Marty declares to be full of uranium. Maybe that’s why all the wildlife there is twenty times the normal size… and wait until you see what’s become of Bruce!

I’ve seen enough of these movies that I was honestly surprised the plane didn’t crash. It was certainly set up to crash: a voice on the radio warns of dangerous downdrafts, and there’s the laughable bit where Marty freaks out and punches the pilot. The characters need the plane to escape again and Bert I. Gordon couldn’t afford to destroy even a model of one, and yet this sequence is shoved in to make it look like we’re going there, apparently just because movies are supposed to have plane crashes in them.

The effects here span Gordon’s usual range, from surprisingly convincing to absolutely risible. The first giant animal in the movie is a big skink that crawls through a gap in the rocks, and the shot in which we see Russ staring at it is very nice. The eyelines match up well, and things like the actions of the giant hawk we see a little later are timed perfectly with the actors reacting to them. Then mere minutes later, we’re treated to a transparent iguana straight out of King Dinosaur. The skink and the iguana then fight, in a scene that’s shot like it’s the T-Rex vs Spinosaurus fight from Jurassic Park III but is actually just two lizards rolling around.

The makeup that transforms Dean Parkin into a one-eyed monster is awful… I’m not even sure what’s supposed to have happened to the right side of his face. Did the radiation actually melt it or what? The prosthetic the same actor wore as Glenn Manning in War of the Colossal Beast was infinitely better. The giant’s roaring is just somebody yelling “rawr!” and the bits where he’s supposed to be touching and picking up the smaller humans are absolutely dreadful. On the other hand, the part where he fights a giant snake is clearly an actual boa constrictor wrapped around the actor’s body, and I’m glad the opening credits listed a ‘Snake Fight Supervisor’ who kept either party from getting hurt.

Performances run a similar gamut. Most aren’t great. Lon Chaney Jr. is full of enthusiasm, cradling his scintillator as if it’s the One Ring, but comes across as a man with no idea what he’s doing. I don’t think this is the way Marty’s character was written – he was meant to be a criminal mastermind, rather than a buffoon – but it does work. The characters of Lee and Russ are too bland for the actors to do much with them, but Gloria Talbott does her best with what she’s given and makes Susan’s obsession both touching and a little creepy.

Poor Susan gets belittled by just about everybody in this movie. The Mexican official we meet in the opening scene straight-up tells her to her face that she’s crazy and that her companions will betray her. The men talk about her in similar terms behind her back, and make snide comments about women’s intuition. At best they feel pity for this poor soul, clinging to lost hope. Even Russ, who knows her best and understands her need for closure, talks down to her about her quest, calls her hysterical, and treats her as something that really ought to belong to him if only she could understand that Bruce is dead! The idea that she might not be interested in him is never suggested and I do wonder what this love triangle was like when Bruce was present.

At the same time, the movie treats Susan with a surprising amount of respect. She’s very much the same sort of ‘helplessly watching woman’ narrator as Audrey Aimes or Joyce Manning and she does a lot of screaming and running, but she wears practical clothing and we’re clearly expected to sympathize with her desperate hope even as we, too, suspect it’s a lost cause. After being told over and over that she’s borderline delusional, the end of the movie vindicates her faith in Bruce: he is alive, just not in the form she expected. At the end she finally gets the closure she needs, able at last to grieve and move on.

If I’m talking about -isms I should mention that Lee keeps bragging that he’s good at tracking because he’s ‘one sixteenth Indian’, later upping this to a half when he manages to sneak by the giant unseen and finally to ‘full-blooded Indian’ when he finds the way back to the plane after they get lost. ‘Primitive’ peoples don’t have skills or knowledge, they’re good at these things by instinct, because they’re basically animals, right? ‘Native American’ isn’t a set of diverse cultures, it’s just being good at finding your way in the woods!

You guys don’t care about any of that, though. You want me to get back to the Greek Mythology stuff.

Gordon’s script takes a number of things from The Odyssey. First of all, we have the premise of venturing into an unknown wilderness in search of one’s way home to a lost love. On the way our heroes encounter storms, madmen, and monsters, and end up as prisoners in the cave of a one-eyed, wilderness-dwelling giant who blocks the way out with a giant stone. Before escaping, they must blind the giant with a fire-tipped spear. This is certainly the best-known part of the Odyssey, and people who haven’t come near reading the poem are still familiar with it from sources as diverse as The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad to Ducktales. The allusions to it are obvious and intentional.

But it doesn’t stop there. Gordon also seems to have visited another ancient poem that discusses Polyphemus the Cyclops – Ovid’s Metamorphoses. This contains a sequence (Book XIII, lines 738-897) in which the monster falls in love with a beautiful woman, the sea-nymph Galatea. She rejects him because of his ugliness, choosing instead to run off with the handsome river god Acis. This story presents the Cyclops in a much more human, even tender, light – his romantic advances towards Galatea are awkward, but they are sincere. What makes him a monster is how he responds to her rejection by killing her chosen lover.

Several parts of The Cyclops seem to reflect this legend. The giant Bruce is certainly as gentle as he can be towards Susan, while hostile to his romantic rival, Russ. There’s also the fact that when Susan sees the giant she immediately rejects him. She must know that the giant disfigured man living among the wreckage of Bruce’s plane and hanging on to objects like his watch can only be Bruce himself, but she refuses to accept it, even when she sees how he responds to her. She needs Russ to tell her what happened before she can finally bring herself to face it.

Which brings us to the fact that in another way, this is of course a remake of The Amazing Colossal Man. We have the fiancée searching for her lover whom she knows has come to harm but not what form that harm has taken, only to find he’s been irradiated and grown huge because his cells won’t stop dividing. Unfortunately, it’s not nearly as thoughtful a movie as Colossal Man or War of the Colossal Beast. Both those films tried to make Glenn Manning’s plight a metaphor, the first for cancer and the second for social problems. Neither fully succeeded, but they did give you things to think about. The Cyclops uses the same premise to put a twist on some well-known mythology, but unfortunately it doesn’t do anything with that.

The Metamorphoses was something of a comment on The Odyssey. It suggests that the reason Polyphemus was in such a foul mood the day Odysseus showed up was because Galatea had just rejected him, thus giving the monster feelings, motivations, and a story of his own. Bruce in The Cyclops is just a big, ugly, angry guy, and without seeing his descent into monsterhood he’s not the tragic figure Glenn Manning was trying so hard to be. Susan’s denial and her need to have somebody else tell her what she’s encountered are touching, but don’t say much about the mythological motifs they’re tacked onto. The idea of Penelope going out to search for Odysseus rather than quietly weaving a shroud and waiting for him could be interesting, but again, it’s not really used. Gordon had some great ideas but all he really wants to show us is superimposed lizards.

The ending also leaves a couple of important questions unresolved. I think we’re supposed to believe that everybody got back to Texas okay and Russ and Susan lived happily ever after… but part of me worries they all got thrown into prison in Mexico for flying over restricted airspace, and after all that radiation they may not grow huge but I bet their tumors did. How sweet.

#mst3k #reviews #the cyclops #mister big #episodes that never were #50s

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carewyncromwell · 4 years

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Ficlet: This’ll Be the Day That I Die [Part 1]

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...Okay, this is all @dat-silvers-girl’s fault. XD She wrote some good!Rakepick fic, and...well, I got inspired!

I really don’t see Rakepick as someone who could conceivably be “good” exactly, but I still wouldn’t put it past Jam City to try to turn her into the game’s Snape where she was “really on the side of good all along” (and we ALL know how well the fandom has accepted that rationale for why Snape’s actually a noble hero *snort*). But yeah, so this ficlet will explore a quasi-sympathetic Rakepick -- a gray interpretation that people could find some pity or sympathy for, but not really a hero. This story is set at the end of year 6, around and in the Sunken Vault. Just like that...other Sunken Vault-centric sixth-year AU ficlet I wrote...heh...

A few things to keep in mind about year 6 for my MC Carewyn Cromwell’s story, since I haven’t fully written all this yet --

Post-Redacted, Ben, Merula, and Carewyn have all started their journeys back from their respective extremes and grown from their bad experiences. Ben has realized that he and his friends aren’t invincible and, although he’s still reckless and determined to protect, he feels the need to atone for his past mistakes. Merula, although still stubborn, angry, and vengeful, has realized that she doesn’t want any more of her friends to die, and so has sort of gotten over the whole “I don’t need you” thing. Carewyn has realized that she can’t take the burden of fighting R squarely on her shoulders and that shutting her friends out makes them less safe, as well as started to open up and rely on her friends more. And the three of them, Charlie, and Bill (the other two people who were present in the Portrait Vault) all have a hand in founding the Circle of Khanna, with the other four all rallying around Carewyn as leader. As shown in Carewyn’s previous gameplays, Carewyn and Rakepick also have a running “foil” dynamic in my storyline, with both having a lot in common in how they behave and attract others to them, and you’d best believe that’s going to be touched on here.

I would also like to credit @missnight0wl for developing the concept of both a Fake and Real!Jacob, which I reference briefly in this, even if I sort of took it in a slightly different direction (you can read more about my thoughts on that theory applied to Jacob and Carewyn Cromwell’s storyline here, if you want). You're awesome, hon! <3

Hope you enjoy!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It had been a struggle for Carewyn, Jae, and Tonks to escape R in Knockturn Alley. With help from Jacob, who’d swooped in at the last minute, they’d managed to escape and take the Floo Network back to Hogwarts.

As soon as the two Cromwells, Jae, and Tonks arrived back at school, they rushed out onto the grounds to find the others.

“Carey!”

Bill rushed over, Diego and Chiara at his heels.

The eldest Weasley swooped down on Carewyn (still disguised as Patricia Rakepick) and snatched her up in a relieved hug. Chiara and Diego halted on either side of Bill, both of them hovering around Carewyn too.

“Carewyn, are you hurt?” Chiara asked at once, her gray eyes sweeping over Carewyn and searching for injuries.

“I’m alright,” Carewyn assured her with Rakepick’s voice, squeezing Bill’s back in return. “We’re all alright...”

“Thank goodness!” breathed Diego. His face was unusually pale as he gave Carewyn’s shoulder a light squeeze. “You gave us a scare, sweet General!”

“Your hour was almost up, and you hadn’t gotten back yet,” said Chiara, her voice much quieter than Diego’s, but no less anxious. ��We thought you might run out of time...”

As Bill pulled out of the hug at last, he blinked at the sight of his best friend’s red-robed brother, whose blue eyes were narrowed critically on Bill’s face.

“Jacob?” he said in surprise.

“Rakepick ended up crashing the meeting while I was still there,” Carewyn explained. The Polyjuice Potion she’d taken was wearing off, making her slowly shrink as she shed her Rakepick disguise. “R cornered me, but Tonks and Jae came and got me, and we were able to escape. Jacob helped us fend off Rakepick.”

“And that weirdo fake Jacob,” said Tonks with a deep frown. “Who was that guy, Carey?”

“Blaise Cromwell,” Jacob answered for Carewyn, his voice a very cold murmur. “He’s Mum’s younger brother -- prospective heir of the Cromwell clan.”

“Mum’s brother?” said Carewyn, startled. Her voice still sounded like Rakepick’s, but the lines on her face had faded and her bangs were growing back now.

Jacob nodded. “He’s been using Polyjuice Potion for months now, stalking around Hogwarts, pretending to be me. Through Ashe I’d heard something about Pince and Filch having seen me near the library a while back -- I haven’t entered the castle since I was expelled, so I knew something was up. I’d only just figured out what was going on when I found you.”

Carewyn’s eyes widened in realization.

“A while ago, I met someone who looked like you in your old room with Sickleworth, who had a White Quill from R. At the time I’d assumed it was you -- but if that was Mum’s brother...is that why he tried to convince me to join, when R captured me? Because we’re family?”

Jacob nodded again, his blue eyes darkening with a bitter, almost demonic kind of anger. “Old Grandpops Cromwell knew you’d never join R of your own free will -- but they knew you’d do anything to try to help me. Originally they’d thought to blackmail me into their ranks, and then, through me, coax you to join. Once they had both of us trapped, they could also snag Mum. But, well, then I ‘went rogue,’ so they had to get crafty.”

“Then you were with R?” said Jae, raising his eyebrows suspiciously.

Jacob’s eyes fell to the ground in shame. He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down in his throat.

“...Yes,” he said at last, his voice barely more than a murmur.

Carewyn had finally finished transforming back into herself. With a flick of her wand, she quickly adjusted the sizing of the Rakepick-inspired ensemble Andre had made for her, and took hold of Jacob’s shoulder, squeezing it tightly.

“None of that matters now,” she said very firmly, her gaze moving over the others. “I was able to pinch this, while everyone in R still thought I was Rakepick.”

She held up the greenish coral key. Jacob’s eyes widened at the sight of it.

“The key to the Sunken Vault!”

“It looks just like one I took from Sickleworth last year,” Carewyn assented, as she took out the other key from the inside of her robes with the same hand, holding them both up so the others could see. “They’re a matched set. The one I found unlocks the outside door: this one -- ”

“Unlocks the inside door!” finished Jacob, looking excited and relieved beyond belief. “The one to the chamber that contains the final pillar -- Pip, you’re brilliant!”

Everyone turned to look at Jacob, their eyebrows all furrowed with interest.

“You know what the inside of the Vault looks like?” said Tonks.

“Then you’ve been there before,” surmised Chiara softly.

Jacob’s excitement and relief ebbed from his face, making him look much more grim.

“When I was still at school, trying to unlock the secret of the Vaults, and break the curses...my friends and I reached the Sunken Vault pretty early on,” he explained. “We had reason to believe that it was the real one, with the others all being decoys -- so we thought to bypass the fakes and break any and all curses they could inflict by going straight to the real one. But...”

Jacob’s voice quieted noticeably. His head fell, obscuring his eyes in the shadow of his bangs.

“...we miscalculated.”

Carewyn shifted to rest her shoulder against her brother’s. Jacob gave her a soft, grateful smile.

“The leader said,” Carewyn plowed on, “that the final pillar contains the Vaults’ so-called ‘treasure’ -- and that once we get inside, all we have to do is touch the pillar to open it, just like the others.”

“And once we open the pillar, that should break the Statue Curse,” said Bill, “just like with the other Vaults.”

“One could deduce that, yes,” said Jacob dryly, before turning to Carewyn with much more visible concern in his face. “We’ll have to move fast, Pip – once R discovers their key is missing, they’ll no doubt be right behind us, to try to get it back...”

Carewyn nodded solemnly.

“We don’t have any time to lose,” she agreed. She turned to Bill. “Are the others all assembled?”

“We split into teams around the Lake’s perimeter,” said Bill with a nod. “Ben’s with Tulip, Andre, Fred, and George on the left side, closest to the school – Merula’s with Ismelda, Beatrice, Penny, and Cedric at the back, closest to the Willow – and Charlie’s with Barnaby, Liz, Talbott, and Badeea on the right side, by the Forest.”

“Ben and Merula decided that, once you got back, we would gather together, if anyone shoots up gold sparks – return to the school, if they shoot up red – and prepare to enter the Vault, if they shoot up green,” said Diego, as his lips spread into a roguish smile. “We await your orders, General.”

Biting back an amused smile at Diego’s usual “charmer” air, Carewyn turned to Jae and Tonks, who both looked determined, and then to Chiara, who gave her a soft, encouraging smile. Carewyn then gave Jacob and Bill a small smile before she very purposefully took ten paces toward the Lake.

With a deep breath, she raised her laurel wand in a high arc over her head.

“Verdimillious!”

A green flare shot out of Carewyn’s wand before bursting apart into a dozen little green sparkles that rained through the air.

~*~

“Here, Pip – take a sip of this.”

Still struggling to breathe, Carewyn took the potion bottle Jacob offered her and took a quick swig. She gasped for air as her gills sealed up and oxygen once again flooded her lungs.

“Thanks,” she breathed.

Jacob passed the bottle next to Merula, then to Ben, and Charlie. He let Charlie pass it to Bill.

Charlie clutched his throat as he took a large gulp of air.

“Whew – that’s not pleasant. Maybe we should’ve gone with the Bubble Head Charm, like the others...”

“Aw, but that’d be too easy!” said Jacob with a grin. “Besides, gillyweed gives you flippers as well as gills – you saw how much faster we were able to swim, compared to the others...”

“Jacob’s right,” said Bill as he cleared his throat. “I’m glad Penny thought to collect some from Snape’s storeroom, even just for a few of us.”

Carewyn straightened up, holding her wand aloft, as she looked at where they’d arrived.

Through the free-standing set of doors at the center of the underwater stone garden at the bottom of the lake was the Sunken Vault. It was a massive chamber, one larger than any of the others, with a very high ceiling and walls made of sea-green-tinted glass. It was also filled with countless clusters of stone statues – dozens upon dozens of petrified witches and wizards, frozen in time.

Little by little, the rest of the Circle of Khanna entered in clumps behind their ringleaders. Andre and Carewyn exchanged a look as he came up beside her and looked out over the mass of statues.

“There’s got to be over a hundred of them...” the Style Wizard murmured, half awed and half intimidated by the sight.

“I notice they’re all facing the door,” said Talbott grimly. He indicated the statues and then the double doors behind them with a nod of his head.

“And a lot of them look like they’re running, look,” Badeea pointed out softly, “as if they're trying to escape...”

Ben cast his gaze over the green-tinted glass ceiling, his eyes narrowing critically. “That’s got to mean there’s some sort of trap in here – something that could petrify you if you get too close, or make a wrong move – ”

“Guess I should’ve expected fighting a couple dozen grindylows and a giant monster squid would be the easy part,” said Ismelda sardonically.

“His name is Toby, thank you very much,” said Fred airily.

“Tobias Tentacalino the Third,” added George.

“You named the Giant Squid?” Cedric asked, stuck somewhere between gawking and laughing.

“Well, it would've been rude to keep yelling 'Hey, you ugly brute!' at him, wouldn't it?”

Carewyn looked up at Jacob, ready to ask him what he thought should be their next move, but he’d already walked a good five paces in front of them, stopping in front of one of the statues. His wand arm had gone slack at his side as he studied its face.

Carewyn came up beside her brother to look at the statue too.

It was of a very pretty girl who only looked about a year older than Percy, with the largest, most striking eyes Carewyn had ever seen. Her short hair seemed to flap behind her despite being made of stone and she had her mouth open and a hand out in front of her, as if she was yelling at someone to get back. Most notably, this statue -- unlike the others in the room -- wasn’t wearing robes, but slightly outdated bell-bottoms, jellies, and an open vest over a collared shirt with a Hogwarts tie tied loosely around the neck.

This one was newer than the others – and as Carewyn looked over the statue’s anxiously exclaiming face and then her brother’s miserable, shame-filled expression, her eyes widened.

“Olivia Green,” she breathed.

“Who’s Olivia Green?” asked Merula in rather blunt confusion.

Jacob bowed his head, his lips curling up in an odd, haunted smile.

“The most unassuming, yet soothing presence you could find anywhere in the world,” he said softly. “A talented writer – a stellar guitarist...a free spirit with a laugh like a fairy’s and an appetite like a Puffskein’s...who never felt the need to show off her intelligence, even if she’d likely read even more books than me and she was wiser than witches five times her age. Never the most popular girl at school in a social sense – but admired by just about everyone for her sensibility, her patience...her unapologetic individuality...”

His blue eyes grew a little smaller as he brought a hand up to the statue’s extended, warning hand and placed his open palm against hers.

“...She was...one of the only friends I’ve ever had.”

He managed to keep his voice from cracking, but Carewyn could tell it was a struggle. She immediately reached out and wrapped both of her arms around her brother’s wand arm at his side, squeezing it to show support. Jacob glanced at her, his eyes rippling with pain even as he attempted a weak smile.

“When Ashe, Olivia, and I arrived here, back in our fifth year,” he murmured, his eyes once again drifting to Olivia’s anxious stone face, “we tried to open the interior door without the second key -- Alohomora – Bombarda – I even tried Transfiguring it so there’d be a big enough hole that we could walk through. But all our efforts did...was activate the Petrification Curse in full. The door shot spells in all directions. We tried to duck and cover at first – but once one of the spells grazed Olivia’s wand and turned it to stone, we realized it was too dangerous to stay, and we tried to retreat. We almost made it...but just before Olivia could reach the door...one of the spells hit her square in the back.”

Jacob closed his eyes, his eyebrows knitting tightly over them as if he was trying to block out the memory from his mind’s eye.

“I tried to pick her up, to carry her out, but she was turning to stone too fast. Her feet were already locked to the ground. She pushed me off her and told Ashe and me to go...to save ourselves...”

His fist holding his wand clenched at his side, shaking visibly.

Penny came up on Jacob's other side, looking from him to the statue of Olivia with pity in her eyes.

“So you and Duncan kept going after the other Vaults...because you wanted to break the curse on Olivia,” she whispered. “To save your friend.”

Jacob gave a single, ashamed nod.

“It’s my fault Olivia’s parents have lost their daughter all these years. If I hadn’t suggested opening the Vaults out of order – if I hadn’t suggested mucking around with the door...none of it would’ve happened. I couldn’t not try to make it right. But then of course R tangled Ashe and me up in their web trying to get to the Vaults themselves, and...well, you know what happened after that.”

Carewyn nodded sadly. After that, Duncan had died while working on a dangerous potion for R, presumably to deal with the Cursed Vaults...and, of course, Jacob had been expelled, only to then end up trapped in a portrait and being left in the Portrait Vault for seven years by Rakepick.

'After everything Jacob already went through, for Rakepick to use and betray him like that...'

She felt another stab of resentment toward the ex-Professor.

Ben came up on Carewyn's other side, his brown eyes solemn.

“We'd better get moving.”

Carewyn exhaled through her nose, but nodded, releasing Jacob's arm gently.

“Yes,” she agreed, her tone becoming much more authoritative as she turned back to the others. “We don't have much time – R is going to figure out that their key is missing, and when they do, they'll be heading for Hogwarts looking for us. I don't know if they know we have the other key – but I don't want to wait to find out how long it'll take for them to figure out we've come down here. I'll need some volunteers to stay here at the perimeter, so that they can warn us if anyone's coming.”

“Leave that to us, Carewyn Cromwell,” said Tulip, sharing a broad grin with Tonks. “You know we can give any 'unwanted guests' a proper welcome.”

“Maybe I should stand guard too,” said Liz, “just outside the doors. “That way I can keep an eye on the creatures in the Lake – if they're acting strangely, it'll tell us someone's coming.”

Carewyn nodded to Liz. “That's a good idea.”

“I'll help you keep an eye out, Liz,” Barnaby said with a determined smile. “And if anyone does come, I can help hold them off – with my wand and these!”

He punched his palm with a light clap to make his point. Carewyn gave him a large, proud smile.

“You can always send up red sparks, if there's trouble,” said Charlie. “Then we can come help.”

“Might take a bit of time for you to go help them, if there is,” Jacob pointed out grimly. “This chamber's a good hundred feet long...and these statues are spaced so close together, it's not easy to navigate quickly.”

Carewyn's eyes drifted across the field of stone statues and the doors as she considered this.

“Any thoughts, Badeea?” she asked. Badeea was very good at thinking outside the box.

“Hmm...” murmured Badeea, resting a fist over her lips thoughtfully. “It seems what we need...is a way to communicate with each other and assist each other over a long distance. We'd need something that could be both a telephone and Apparition, simultaneously.”

“But we can't Apparate here,” grumbled Merula. “This Vault isn't like the Portrait Vault – it might be under the Lake, but we're still on school grounds.”

“And Muggle items don't work near Hogwarts,” Andre pointed out, “so I don't reckon a – what was it, 'tell-a-phone?' – would work very well down here, either.”

Beatrice's eyes suddenly lit up excitedly.

“Not a real telephone...but maybe a human one! When we were little – ” she indicated Penny and herself, “ – we used to play a game with the Muggle kids in our neighborhood called 'Telephone!' You sit in a circle and whisper a sentence in someone else's ear, then that person whispers it into the next person's ear, and so on, until you're right back where you started.”

Penny suddenly looked excited too. “So we can make a chain! And if someone's in trouble, then there'll be someone else close enough that they can come and help!”

“Brilliant!” said Bill.

He looked at Carewyn and the two exchanged a broad smile.

“Then that's what we'll do,” said Carewyn. “As we walk along, we'll break off one by one. Space yourselves about ten feet apart. If this room's about a hundred feet long, and there's – ” she did a quick head-count, “ – twenty-two of us...and Barnaby and Liz are outside the double doors, with Tulip and Tonks inside...then that will still leave us with a team of eight, once we reach the inside door. Let's go!”

~*~

After a lot of walking, Carewyn finally reached the Vault. With most of her friends having peeled off to create their chain, the only ones still with her were Jacob, who stayed consistently on his sister's left side; Bill, who stayed consistently on her right; Charlie; Ben; Merula; Penny; and Talbott.

The inside double doors of the Portrait Vault were nearly identical to the outside ones, being a mile high and made of aged, but beautifully sculpted white marble with silvery veins – and just under the braided marble knocker on the right door was another intricately carved keyhole.

Carewyn approached the door, her hand brushing away the cobwebs that had crusted over the keyhole.

'Moment of truth...'

She glanced at Jacob. His blue eyes softened noticeably as he gave her an encouraging nod.

Smiling back, Carewyn reached a hand into her “Fakepick” robes and withdrew the second coral key.

As soon as the key had come within a foot of the keyhole, however, it suddenly started to shake violently in Carewyn's hand.

“Huh!?”

“Carewyn!”

Ben immediately dashed over to her side, his shoulders tensed in visible concern. The door started to vibrate too, humming lowly in response to the key's presence. Then, little by little, a little pinprick of light appeared over the left knocker, cutting into the doors as it started etch glowing silvery-white words into the marble.

Lôcian reccendôm:

Cetus mæðelcwide dêaðian sîn fyrdwerod.

Læccan sîn hêahstrengðu, ongifan êower ferhð.

Hearra wan−hafolnes canne simble ðurhwunian sigelêas fore môdlufu:

âbredwian micellic ge sê milde râd sê time.

Ben glanced from Carewyn up at to the door, his eyebrows knitting together tightly over his eyes.

“What is that?”

“It looks like some kind of warning,” said Talbott, his hawk-like eyes narrowing upon the shining words. “A 'Beware, All Ye Who Enter Here' sort of message.”

Carewyn nodded in agreement. She'd thought the same thing.

“What language is that, though?” asked Penny with a frown. “It looks...like Welsh, or something...”

“It's not Welsh,” said Jacob firmly. “It's Old English.”

“Can you read it?” asked Carewyn.

“I can try – but I admit, my Old English isn't half as good as my Latin. Or my Greek, or my Runes...hell, even my French is probably better, and I only...”

Noticing the faintly critical look on his sister's face, he brushed off the end of his sentence quickly.

“...Right, then. Let's see...”

He took a step forward, rolling up the sleeves of his scarlet dress robes. Once he'd angled his hand over the letters to cast a shadow over them, he found it easier to read the first line.

“...Lôcian reccendôm...lôcian means 'to look'...so that'd be something like 'look at this,' or 'read this' – 'take heed'...”

“'Beware, all ye who enter here,'” Talbott recurred dryly, shooting a smirk over at Carewyn, who couldn't completely bite back an amused grin.

Jacob's frown deepened, dipping into the creases of his face. “The next line, I'm not quite sure. 'Dêaðian' means 'to kill' and 'fyrdwerod' can either mean 'host' or 'army'...but this first word, I have no clue. It's not Old English – if anything, I'd say 'Cetus' sounds more like Latin...”

Carewyn stiffened. She barreled over to her brother's side to better read the inscription.

“Cetus,” she breathed. “Like the constellation! Firenze suggested I study it, after I consulted him about Trelawney's supposed 'prophecy.' In Astronomy terms, the constellation lives in an area of the night sky called 'the Sea' – it's named after a sea monster from Greek mythology, which Perseus slew in order to save the princess Andromeda.”

Jacob suddenly looked very excited. “Perseus! The hero who killed the Medusa, yes! He'd taken Medusa's head after slaying her, allowing him to use her magical gaze to turn his enemies to stone!”

“Just like the Statue Curse!” realized Bill, his mouth spreading into a huge grin too.

“But what does it mean?” asked Merula impatiently. “Is there some ancient monster inside that's going to try to kill us?”

“There could be – there was a Hungarian Horntail in the last Vault,” Charlie pointed out.

“Don't remind me,” groaned Bill.

All of a sudden, the group was interrupted by a strange crackling sound behind them. Carewyn turned, and her breath stilled her throat.

Back in the direction of the doors came a burst of red distress sparks. Then another came right after, knocking into the first set and making a slightly larger firework-like explosion.

“Tulip and Tonks must be in trouble!” said Ben, his voice hard with concern. “We have to go and help them – ”

“No,” said Merula sharply, throwing an arm up in front of Ben to try to physically stop him. “Diego and Ismelda are closest – they'll be able to get to them faster than we can!”

“If they sent up more than one flare, it's got to be urgent!” argued Ben, shoving Merula's arm out of his way. “We can't just do nothing!”

“We're not doing nothing!” Merula snapped back. “The whole reason we set up that human chain...thing...is to make it so there's someone close by to help them, while we deal with the Vault!”

“Merula's right,” said Jacob. “The best way to help them, at least right now, would be to break the curse and get the treasure first. If R has caught up already, then we're nearly out of time to stop them.”

“And if R has caught up already, then I don't intend to stand by and not protect my friends!” snarled Ben, using his height to get right up in the shorter Jacob's face, who looked noticeably irritated at the younger Gryffindor lording over him. “I am not going to let anyone else die!”

“Enough,” Bill reproached them both with a tone of great finality. “This is no time for fighting.” He turned to Carewyn and added a bit more lowly, “What do you want to do, Carey?”

Carewyn looked up at Bill. The eldest Weasley glanced from her to up at the red sparks, visibly concerned. She could tell he, at least, felt for Ben's position.

She pursed her lips solemnly, thinking. It took her a moment to figure out how to articulate her thoughts properly.

“...Merula and Jacob are right: the reason we set up the human chain was to give us time. But if R is here, then we should have some of the Circle's leadership there to meet them – to lead the charge against them.”

“Then you should go, Carey,” said Charlie.

Carewyn looked up at Charlie in surprise. Her fellow Fireball looked more serious than she'd ever seen him as he reached out with both hands and took hold of her shoulders, his brown eyes more blazing than dragon fire.

“You, Ben, and Bill go,” he said firmly. “I'll stay here with Merula and Jacob.”

Carewyn felt as though he was saying,“I'll protect your brother, while you protect mine.” Her blue eyes softened visibly even as her face grew more solemn, and she inclined her head in a single nod, took his hand holding her right shoulder, and gave it a squeeze, as if silently returning the promise.

Jacob looked stricken.

“No,” he said sharply, as he rose to his feet. “I'm coming with you, Pip – ”

“You are not,” said Carewyn very softly.

“Pip – !”

“You need to translate that message!” she shot him down coldly. “You're the only one who can. And as you said, if R's here, we need to open that Vault and break the curse properly before it's too late. We can't afford the door going crazy like it did the last time you were here – we have to do everything the right way this time. No short-cuts.”

Jacob looked incredibly tense, almost terrified. It made his face look so much younger than before – the dark, haunted shadows around his eyes all the more opaque and stark.

Compassion flooding her chest, Carewyn reached out to take a hold of her brother's face in both hands, trying to comfort him.

“Jacob...I know...neither of us is very good at trusting others to help again, just yet...but right now, that's what I need from you – to trust me. ...Please.”

The two Cromwell siblings held eye contact for a long moment, Carewyn's gaze very gentle and Jacob's incredibly turbulent. Then, at long last, Jacob's face spread into a very weak, watery smile and he reached out, grabbing the back of Carewyn's head so he could pull her into a tight, almost suffocating hug.

“You've grown up so much, Carewyn,” he murmured in her ear.

The Slytherin Prefect's face broke into a soft smile as she wrapped her arms around his chest and hugged him back.

“Well, I was able to catch up to you a bit while you were gone,” she teased as lightly as she could.

Jacob gave a tiny, tear-soaked chuckle. He clutched at the back of his sister's head, trailing a hand through her loose red hair; even though his hand was trembling with emotion, his grip was steady.

“If there's anyone I have absolute faith in,” he said, his voice even softer than before as he shut his eyes and tried to fight back his tears, “it's you.”

Once the two Cromwells had broken apart, Carewyn turned to Merula.

“Take this,” she said, handing Merula the coral key. “Open the Vault once it's safe to do so.”

Merula gave her a dry smirk. “Hn! You might be leader, Cromwell, but you don't have to tell me what to do.”

Her pink eyes then grew a bit more serious.

“Just...don't get yourself killed, all right?” she said a little more lowly.

Carewyn nodded reassuringly. “You too.”

A third and fourth set of red sparks shot up into the air on the other side of the chamber.

“It must be serious, if they're sending up even more sparks,” said Carewyn, her eyes narrowing in concern and urgency. “I'll fly ahead in my Animagus form – ”

“We'll fly ahead,” said Talbott firmly.

Carewyn looked at Talbott, taken aback.

“Seems like there's not much point in keeping secrets when we're in the middle of a life-and-death situation like this,” he said, smiling wryly.

He immediately transformed into an eagle, spreading his wings and doing a quick loop around her head in the air. Carewyn just as quickly transformed into a robin, and the two flew off toward the doors.

Bill glanced at the other members of the Circle of Khanna, dumbstruck.

“...Did any of you know Talbott was an Animagus?”

“Nope,” said Charlie.

Ben and Penny shook their heads.

“I did,” said Merula, smiling a bit guiltily. “But I found out by accident; Cromwell and Winger made me swear not to tell.”

Bill blinked. “...Well, I guess that explains all the bird puns.”

Brushing this revelation off, he charged off back through the field of stone statues toward the front doors, Ben at his heels.

~*~

As she and Talbott flew overhead, Carewyn caught sight of her friends down below passing messages of what was going on back up toward the interior doors. She even caught sight of some of them – Fred, George, and Andre – turning to face Ben and Bill as they ran after her and Talbott, trying to quickly brief them on what was going on without stopping their advance.

Talbott as an eagle, who with his wider wingspan kept overtaking Carewyn, looped back around in his flight pattern so that he was once again next to her. He gave a shrill cry to get her attention – once he'd caught her eye, he indicated something below them with a pointed nod of his head.

When she looked down, Carewyn saw what had delayed the “telephone” call about what was going on in reaching the interior doors before they left – Chiara, who had been positioned between Badeea and Jae near the center of the room, had left her position and was now quickly darting and weaving through the statues back toward the front doors, past the others.

'Someone's hurt,' Carewyn realized immediately. It was the only reason Healing expert Chiara would've abandoned her post – and why she would've looked that scared.

She flapped her wings harder, trying to follow Chiara toward the doors. When she and Talbott arrived, Carewyn felt her breath still in her throat.

Collapsed in front of the double doors were Barnaby, Liz, and Tulip, their motionless bodies splayed limply on the stone floor. Tonks stood in front of the other three, conjuring shields to protect them, as Ismelda and Diego struck out in turns against the red-haired, cloaked woman who had arrived.

It was Patricia Rakepick.

Chiara reached Ismelda and Diego just before Carewyn and Talbott did. After sharing some words with Ismelda, Chiara took a deep breath and then bravely plowed through the fray, trying to reach Tonks. Rakepick, spying Chiara's divided attention, lashed a spell at her, throwing Chiara off of her feet and knocking her backwards to the ground.

'NO!'

Fear pulsed through Carewyn as she and Talbott both dove for the ground. Talbott went straight for Rakepick, swooping down on her with his sharp talons out.

“AUGH!”

Talbott's talons slashed at Rakepick's wand arm, drawing blood. He didn't stay long, though – within seconds, he swooped up, just barely dodging Rakepick's counterattack, as he returned to the air, doubling back to urge on Bill and Ben.

Carewyn transformed back into a human while still mid-air, pointing her wand at the ground.

“Spongify!”

She bounced back down to the ground safely, dashing over to Chiara's side.

“Chiara – are you all right?”

“Carewyn,” breathed Chiara, her face betraying a soft smile at the sight of her for a fleeting moment, before she immediately became more urgent. “I'm fine...but Barnaby isn't – Rakepick shot him with something after he tried to put her in a choke-hold, and he's bleeding badly – ”

“Then we need to get you over to him now,” Carewyn cut her off, her voice hardening in an attempt to hide her anxiety.

Hoisting Chiara back up onto her feet, Carewyn dashed across the floor alongside her. As they ran, Diego and Ismelda lashed out in turns against Rakepick – Rakepick blocked both of their spells with one magical shield before chucking an lightning-like violet spell straight at Ismelda's chest.

“GAH!”

Ismelda crumpled up on the ground, hunching in on herself and clutching at her chest. Diego charged forward, his dark eyes narrowed in righteous fury.

“You vile – !”

The Dueling Champion lobbed several silent hexes at Rakepick, which she blocked one at a time.

“Mastered non-verbal magic, then, Mr. Caplan?” said Rakepick coolly, her lips curled up in a small smirk. “I suppose I should expect nothing less from the 'best duelist at Hogwarts.' I wonder if the same can be said for you, Miss Cromwell?”

Without warning, Rakepick had whirled on Chiara and Carewyn, who had darted behind her, and blasted a black flare at them. Carewyn quickly summoned a silent Shield Charm to block it.

“Chiara, go!” she yelled over her shoulder. “Go help Barnaby! Venio Saggita!”

A hail of red-feathered arrows shot through the air at Rakepick, which the older witch disintegrated with white light from her wand.

“Learned that trick from Jacob, I assume?” said Rakepick.

“Among others,” Carewyn said icily.

“Impressive. Allow me to show you a few of mine – ”

Diego, anticipating Rakepick was going to attack, had wordlessly summoned ropes from his wand, which he sent flying at Rakepick. The ex-professor, however, seemed to have likewise anticipated Diego's move, for she raised her wand, grabbing hold of the ropes in mid-air, and transfigured them into a single, whip-like cord that she then lashed back at Diego. Diego tried to block it, but the magical rope wound around his legs, arms and neck like some inky black snake. It squeezed, making him unable to move – and then within seconds, it flared a horrible, fiery blood-red, and Diego began to scream in agony.

“AUUUUUGGGGGGGHH!”

Carewyn's heart clenched in terror. “Diego!”

“Diego!” cried Tonks and Chiara.

“Venenum Ardere, Miss Cromwell,” said Rakepick, her gaze rather cold upon the writhing Diego. “Otherwise known as the Flaming Venom Curse, or simply the 'Snake's Bite.' An old favorite of Grindelwald's, back in the day, when he wanted to play with his food.”

“You cack-head twat!” swore Tonks furiously. “Petrificus Totalus!”

Rakepick blocked Tonks's attack effortlessly, before raising her wand up to her lips and breathing a stream of blue flame at her. Tonks also tried to block it with a Shield Charm, but the fire wasn't attacking her – instead it latched itself onto the floor, winding around in a tight noose-like shape around Tonks, Chiara, and the wounded Barnaby, Tulip, and Liz.

“Tonks!” screamed Carewyn. “Chiara!”

“Carewyn!” cried Chiara, visibly terrified.

Tonks tried to put the flames out with a stream of water from her wand, but instead of going out, the flames lashed out at them in retaliation.

“Protego Totalum!” cried Chiara.

Golden-white light sprang from the end of her wand and formed a large bubble-like barrier between them and the blueish fire.

“Protego Diabolica,” said Rakepick, her gaze colder than ever upon Tonks. “A Shield that incinerates any enemies of its castor, while leaving their allies unharmed. I'd suggest you stay put, Ms. Tonks.”

“Stupefy!”

Rakepick quickly dived to the right as the red Stunning spell just barely whizzed past her ear.

Bill and Ben had finally arrived, Talbott flying overhead in eagle form. Talbott immediately flew over toward the blue flames – he tried to fly down close enough to reach Tonks, Chiara, Barnaby, Liz, and Tulip, but the flames lunged out at his talons and tail feathers, forcing him to withdraw.

“The only way out of those flames is by going through them, Mr. Winger!” Rakepick called up to the large eagle, almost tauntingly. “Though, as I said – I wouldn't try it unless you knew I didn't consider you an enemy!”

Diego's shoulders shook violently as he struggled against the flaming red bonds in a vain attempt to break them. His struggle only seemed to make the bonds around his limbs and neck tighten and burn hotter – he couldn't hold in the horrible chokes of agony erupting out of his throat.

“I'm impressed you're still standing, Mr. Caplan,” said Rakepick coolly. “But I wouldn't struggle too much. The more you fight, the tighter the bonds get.”

“Help Diego,” Ben told Bill urgently. “I'll handle Rakepick!”

He barreled over to Carewyn's side, standing shoulder to shoulder with her. Rakepick's eyes flickered at Ben, losing most of their amusement.

“You'll handle me, will you?” she said very lowly. “You mean like you did back in the Forest?”

Ben's brown eyes flared with hatred. “Bombarda!”

Rakepick wordlessly blocked Ben's spell, lashing out her arm at him. Ben and Rakepick once again traded blows, but this time Ben wasn't fighting Rakepick alone. Carewyn attacked Rakepick from the other side, making the ex-professor dodge her spells while simultaneously blocking Ben's.

“You're going to need stronger spells than that, Mr. Copper – Miss Cromwell!” Rakepick called over the blasting and popping of their spells. “I can keep blocking and dodging all day, I'm more than used to it...”

Talbott transformed back into a human in mid-air, leaping down to the ground next to Carewyn too.

“Confringo!”

Rakepick blocked the Ravenclaw's Blasting Curse without looking at him. Her eyes merely flickering over her shoulder in Talbott's direction, she flung out her arm, pointing her wand at one of the rows of stone statues lined up near the door.

“Piertotum Locomotor!”

All of a sudden, a row of six statues lurched to life. One of the tallest, a middle-aged wizard with a short goatee and long flowing robes, seized Talbott around the neck with one hand, hoisting him off the ground as it strangled him. Talbott choked for air, struggling to breathe well enough to cast a counter-spell, but he couldn't take in enough oxygen to properly verbalize any incantation.

“Talbott, hold on!”

Ben dashed forward, raising his wand.

“Red – !”

Before he could finish casting his Reductor Charm, however, Ben's wrist had been seized tightly by the statue of Olivia Green. She twisted it behind his back with an awful snap – Carewyn couldn't hold back a small scream when Ben gasped out in pain.

“BEN!”

“I might think twice before fighting too hard against your new opponents, you two,” said Rakepick, as the remaining statues surrounded Talbott and Ben and grabbed their other limbs to restrain them, “considering they're currently fighting you against their will. I daresay Jacob in particular would be rather unhappy if you damaged Miss Green, Mr. Copper.”

Hatred lashed at Carewyn's insides. “Rakepick, you – !”

Bill abandoned the restrained Diego at last to join Carewyn's side. His handsome, freckled face was contorted with a kind of righteous fury Carewyn had never seen before – like a lion protecting his pride.

“Rakepick!” he snarled. “This ends NOW!”

Standing shoulder to shoulder, Bill and Carewyn attacked with ferocity. Rakepick did have to put in a bit more effort fighting the two of them than she had most of the others. Carewyn had always been a proficient duelist in her own right, and Bill – being the adult member of the Circle of Khanna and having also trained under Rakepick – was a credible threat. Plus, considering how well Bill and Carewyn knew each other's respective dueling styles, they could bounce spells off each other.

“Incendio!”

“Immobulus!”

“DEPULSO!”

Rakepick had been able to block Bill and Carewyn's individual spells, but their combined Banishing Charm was enough to rock her Shield to its core. Carewyn then took advantage of Rakepick's weakened center of balance to point her wand at the ground under her feet.

'Bombarda!' Carewyn thought fiercely.

Rakepick stumbled backward with a cry, landing on the ground – Bill barreled forward.

“STUPEFY!”

Rakepick had to roll out of the way to avoid Bill's spell, but she suddenly found him on top of her. She wouldn't be able to block him with him that close –

“Demitto!” Rakepick bellowed, pointing her wand at Bill's feet.

All of a sudden, Bill felt the ground collapse under him – he was thrown forward, his chest and chin slamming hard into the ground.

“AH!”

Rakepick had conjured a sinkhole in the floor, one that sucked Bill's legs down into the marble like quicksand. Bill quickly tried to raise his wand, but it was no use: the ground had swallowed up his wand arm when it had collided with the stone.

“Hold on!” cried Carewyn, pointing her wand at the floor ensnaring Bill. “Ascendio! Impedimenta! Finite Incanctum!”

But the light of Carewyn's spells was swallowed up by the stone. Bill struggled to yank himself out, but it only served to make the stone pull him down further.

“Sorry, Miss Cromwell, but those spells won't work,” said Rakepick. “No Charm will work.”

Carewyn blocked Rakepick out fiercely. She was lying – just like she always lied –

“Reparifarge! Restituo Maxima!”

Untransfiguration didn't seem to have any effect either. Bill only seemed to sink faster – his chest was now half-submerged in stone.

Her heart slamming against her ribcage, Carewyn desperately ran over to her best friend, seizing his only free arm and pulling with all of her strength.

“Hold on – I'll get you – ”

“Carey, no!” rasped Bill. “Get back – !”

BAM.

Carewyn was slammed into the floor face-first with the force of Rakepick's Blasting Curse.

“Carey!”

“Carewyn!”

“General!”

Carewyn could hear the terrified cries of her friends behind her. She looked up, terror pounding in her chest – Talbott was completely trapped in the hold of the three statues holding him; Ben had been beaten within an inch of his life by the statues trying to restrain him and was now nursing not just a broken arm but several horrible bruises on his face; Diego had finally collapsed to the ground in a heap, his shoulders quaking as he struggled to stay conscious; Ismelda was shuddering uncontrollably in pain on the floor; the noose of blue flames was slowly tightening around the others, making Tonks and Chiara huddle over the injured Barnaby, Liz, and Tulip so they could maintain their own golden-white Shield Charm around them; and Bill was now almost completely submerged, struggling to keep his head above the quicksand-like stone.

“The only way you can save all of them is through stopping me, Miss Cromwell,” Rakepick said, her voice rising. “If you even can.”

Her eyes flashing with rage, Carewyn smacked the air with her wand, hurtling a cutting spell right at Rakepick's face. Just like before, though, Rakepick blocked it. Carewyn silently lashed out again and again – shooting ice and fire and scarlet bursts of light – but nothing she used got through Rakepick's Shield Charm.

“I told you, Miss Cromwell!” cried Rakepick, her voice suddenly much harsher than before. “You'll need a stronger spell to get through my Shields! You know there are a select few spells that a Shield Charm can't block – ”

Carewyn halted in her attacks, her eyes going very wide.

A select few – yes. Carewyn knew what those were – those three Curses, that even a Shield Charm couldn't block...

Her wide blue eyes suddenly grew very dark, flooding with a colder, harsher emotion than she'd ever known before. It felt like poison coursing through her veins.

“NO!”

'Levicorpus! Incendio! AVERTE SACTUM! REDUCTO!'

One by one, her non-verbal spells bounced off Rakepick's Shield Charm. The ex-professor seemed to be getting impatient – her eyes widened with a strange, almost frustrated glint upon Carewyn's face as she raised her own wand.

“Crucio.”

Her Cruciatus Curse hit Carewyn straight on in the chest.

Never before had Carewyn ever experienced such blinding, white-hot pain. It was as though a thousand tiny needles were stabbing her from all directions, into her skin, into her head, into her eyes, into every single nerve in her body. It made her fall back and crumple up in on herself, as if subconsciously trying to shield herself from the pain, but there was no use – no defense –

That scream she heard – it wasn't hers, was it? That terrible, agonizing cry, like that of a dying animal...

Suddenly, all at once, the pain ceased. Carewyn slumped forward, gasping for air. She could feel tears and sweat streaming down her face.

“That is what I will do to every single one of your friends, when they come to aid you, Miss Cromwell!” Rakepick shouted. “I will torture them all, just like I did with Miss Snyde – and then I will kill them, just like I did Miss Khanna!”

The memory of Rowan's empty, lifeless black eyes was a knife in Carewyn's heart: one that almost physically injured her, making her hunch in on herself.

Rakepick stood over Carewyn, her eyes gleaming. But there was no triumph there – it was a fierce emotion, whatever it was, but it didn't seem happy in the slightest.

“If you want you and your friends to live,” she said softly, “you'll have to kill me.”

“No.”

Rakepick was so taken aback by the fierceness of Carewyn's voice that she nearly flinched. “What?”

The Slytherin Prefect was still hunched in on herself with her eyes downcast, and she was careful not to step on her “Fakepick” robes as she precariously stumbled back to her feet. She lifted her head, her blue eyes flaring with pure hatred upon Rakepick's despite the lingering pain trembling through her shoulders, as she raised her wand again.

“I said...” she said very quietly and coldly, “...no.”

Rakepick's expression was oddly stricken for a moment: disbelieving and horrified, and almost...moved. Then her blue eyes narrowed to slits.

“You – !”

As she raised up her wand arm as if to back-hand Carewyn with another curse, however, Rakepick suddenly found her arm engulfed in throbbing black-colored light. Then her arm was twisted painfully behind her, dislocating the limb with a terrible CRACK before it flung her violently to the ground.

Carewyn stared from the badly injured, gasping Rakepick to where the spell had originated.

Jacob Cromwell plowed out of the field of statues. His teeth were bared and lightning-like electric blue sparks crackled dangerously from his raised Aspen wand. His almond-shaped blue eyes were also darker and scarier than Carewyn had ever seen them – they were so devoid of light or humanity, they resembled a demon's.

“Jacob!” gasped Carewyn.

Jacob barreled forward, snatching Rakepick up the ground by her broken wrist and sticking his still crackling wand in her face. Rakepick gave a choked grunt of pain as her gold-tipped wand clattered to the stone floor.

“You want to die so badly, Rakepick?” the elder Cromwell snarled. “For pointing your wand ANYWHERE near Pip, I'll more than oblige that request – ”

“Jacob, NO,” Carewyn cut him off with ferocity.

Jacob looked at his sister, the demonic gleam still clinging to his eyes – but the light flickered back into being upon seeing Carewyn rushing over to Bill. With Rakepick being Disarmed, the cursed rope binding Diego and the circle of blue flames had vanished, the statues holding Talbott and Ben had gone still, and the floor had stopped inhaling Bill and froze back into place – and so Carewyn could now blast apart the stone with relative ease.

“Bombarda! Ascendio!”

She levitated Bill out of the wrecked stone and back down onto the floor. As soon as his feet touched the ground, the eldest Weasley lunged forward and enveloped Carewyn in a big, relieved hug.

“Thank Merlin, Carey!” he breathed, squeezing her for dear life.

“Ismelda!”

“Diego!?”

Merula, Charlie, and Penny led the rest of the Circle of Khanna onto the field, over to their comrades.

“Carey -- Bill, are you okay?” said Charlie, his forehead crinkled with anxiety.

“We’re all right,” Bill reassured him.

Carewyn brought an arm around Charlie’s shoulders and gave him a comforting squeeze. Charlie leaned his head beside hers, smiling in relief.

“Through the ‘tell-a-phone’ we’d made, we heard that Rakepick was the one at the front,” he explained. “Jacob wanted to drop everything immediately, and I reckon Merula did too, but we tried to stay focused on the Vault. Once we got the message that you and Bill were fighting Rakepick alone, though, we decided we had to cut our losses and come help you...”

“I’m glad you did,” said Bill.

Penny rushed over to Ben with a Wiggenweld Potion, while George helped Ben hold his broken arm still so Badeea could properly mend it. Cedric was able to wrap Diego's arm over his shoulders and help him to his feet, but Ismelda seemed unable to stand.

“Ow! No, no – don't help me up, no!” she hissed in pain, still clutching at her chest and fighting back tears of pain as Beatrice tried to support her. “I can't – every time I move, it feels like I'm being stabbed – ”

“The Heart Shard Curse,” said Jacob. His voice had abruptly shifted back to his usual, over-confident, “scholarly” tone. “Makes you feel like there's broken glass in your chest. A Wiggenweld Potion should help with that.”

Penny pulled out another bottle of Wiggenweld Potion from the inside of her robes and coaxed Ismelda into taking a sip.

“I'm fine, Cedric,” Diego grumbled stubbornly, as he tried to support himself on his own. “Chiara – the others, are they – ?”

“We're fine, Diego Caplan.”

Tulip straightened up, holding her forehead as if she'd been clubbed over the back of the head. Liz shook her head lightly too and adjusted her glasses so she could look everyone over.

“Tulip,” breathed Carewyn. “Liz, thank goodness...”

“They were just Stunned,” said Chiara gently. “And Barnaby's doing better already, aren't you, Barnaby?”

“Ow,” mumbled Barnaby, but he gave Carewyn a smile too. “Yeah – I'm all right, Carewyn...you don't need to be afraid anymore. At least – not about me, anyway – this place is still really creepy and all.”

Carewyn's eyes softened slightly. Merula came up beside Carewyn and Bill, her pink eyes boring into Rakepick still in Jacob's grip.

“So it was you,” she sneered. “Not so tough now, are you, Rakepick? Now we can finally make you pay, for what you did to Khanna – to all of us – ”

“I told Jacob no, Merula, and the same goes for you,” said Carewyn very harshly, her eyebrows knitting together impatiently as she shut her eyes. “I don't want Rakepick to die.”

Merula whirled on Carewyn, completely flabbergasted.

“Cromwell, she killed Khanna! She just finished torturing you! She was about ready to kill all of us – she even said she planned on killing all of us! If your brother hadn't shown up – ”

“But he did,” said Carewyn firmly. “And he overpowered her. And now – Incarcerous – ”

She bound Rakepick's limbs very tightly with a set of black ropes from her wand. Rakepick struggled slightly, her face very white as she stared down at her bindings.

“ – when we're finished with the Vaults, we can turn her over to the Aurors, and she can go to Azkaban for the rest of her life.”

“Maybe you're satisfied with that, Cromwell, but I'm not!”

Merula shoved herself right up into Carewyn's personal space, her pink eyes flaring with anger.

“Rakepick betrayed us – all of us, back in the Portrait Vault! She stole seven years of your brother's life – of your life – and she has made everyone at Hogwarts less safe! You aren't the only person with an opinion that matters here! Rakepick deserves to die!”

“She does,” Carewyn said quietly.

“Then why are you protecting her!?”

Carewyn glanced from Merula to down at Rakepick. The ex-professor was still not looking at any of them – her eyes were locked on the floor, while barely seeing it – but her lips were pursed and she'd gone very still. She was listening intently to the conversation.

Carewyn was silent for a long moment, contemplating how best to articulate what she was feeling. Then she took a deep breath.

“...Rakepick...is not someone whose opinion should be listened to...but for everything she's said that wasn't true, she was right about one thing.”

She swallowed.

“...She and I...are very similar.”

Jacob roughly seized Carewyn's shoulder. “Pip, you're nothing like – ”

“Jacob, please,” Carewyn cut him off with a forceful attempt at calm.

Her eyes drifted away, landing absently on the open air over Rakepick's head.

“You said it yourself, Merula – for someone who hated her so much...I did sound a lot like her. I did think a lot like her. At the time I pushed it away, not wanting to think about it – but it's true. We're both people who...gather others around us...who put on this caring mask, and encourage and inspire others...while never truly trusting them with the truth of who we are...or what we think. We both have done anything we had to, in order to get at the Vaults. We both have manipulated the people who relied on us and led them into danger for our own benefit. ...We both...are liars, through and through.”

Her eyes flickered to Bill, who likewise had opened his mouth to argue, but the words stilled in his throat when she shook her head.

“But for all the things we have in common...I have no intention of following her path. I told her once that I didn't need to use the Cruciatus Curse, or any other Unforgivable Curse, in order to save Jacob, and I meant it. I will not let her prove me wrong in that. I will not treat her life as disposable, the way she did Rowan's. And I will not give her the satisfaction of escaping the consequences of her actions – not even by dying.”

Carewyn's eyes flashed with steely determination.

“I want her to live a very long, lonely life – locked up where she can never hurt anyone again, with only her own failure as company. Just as I want Rowan to always be remembered...I want her to be completely forgotten...for no one to speak her name, with hatred or admiration. At least in Azkaban, her life can be a reminder. A reminder...that there is no glory for people like Patricia Rakepick.”

There was an echoing silence. Carewyn was aware of Rakepick breathing rather heavily, but she didn't look at her. Instead she looked at Merula out the side of her eye.

Her old rival's eyes were downcast as she took in what Carewyn had said. After a long moment, she exhaled through her nose quietly.

“...You really think anyone could forget what she did?”

Carewyn's eyes softened. “Maybe not right away. But hopefully someday.”

Merula looked up at Carewyn, her pink eyes boring into her face. “I won't forget. I won't forgive.”

“I understand,” said Carewyn softly. Her eyes drifted down to Merula's right shoulder. “...I just don't want you to throw everything away – all the growth you've gone through, all the potential you have...everything you've become, and the brilliant future you're owed, because of that.”

Although Carewyn wasn't looking her in the face anymore, she could see a shift in Merula's expression out the side of her eye. She felt an arm loop over her shoulders – Carewyn looked up to see Jacob resting his head against hers, his solemn frown buried in her hair as he closed his eyes.

“Pip is right,” Jacob said lowly. “As much as I don't think Rakepick deserves to live...hell, as much as I would still love to rip her limb from limb, slowly and painfully...”

He opened his eyes and looked down at his younger sister with a sad smile.

“...A future...a real future...is something worth sacrificing for.”

Bill nodded, smiling a little more fully. “It's something worth fighting for.”

“Something worth working for,” said Penny earnestly.

“Something worth living for,” said Ben at last. He glanced at Carewyn, offering her a supportive smile.

At long, long last, Merula gave in. She inclined her head in a single, halfhearted nod.

“All right, Cromwell,” she said lowly. “We'll turn her over to the Aurors.”

Her lips spread into a much cockier smile. “Now let's go break that Statue Curse, shall we?”

The other members of the Circle of Khanna shared smiles.

Rakepick, however, reacted in a way no one expected.

“NO!”

In an instant, she'd thrown herself against the black ropes binding her, trying to hurl herself to her feet.

“Carey – !”

“Watch out – ”

Bill, Charlie, Merula, and Ben all moved forward, prepared to restrain her, but Rakepick managed to get right up in Carewyn's face. She was whiter and filled with a kind of visible panic that no one had ever seen on her face before.

“Miss Cromwell, listen to me – you must not break the curse!”

[To be continued...]

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ramblings-of-a-mad-cat · 4 years

Note

I hope you're ready for more crossover clownery from me because now I gotta know what factions you could see the HPHM squad being a part of if they were in Skyrim

Infinity War: The most ambitious crossover ever-

nostagliastardew: Hold my honingbrew mead.

This is going to be fun. First, a few disclaimers. Obviously, the College of Winterhold could apply to each and every single one of the characters, since y’know, school of magic and all. I’m going to ignore that because it’s way too easy. Second, I’m also going to be ignoring that realistically, almost none of the characters would ever join some of the less moral factions in Skyrim.

The Companions of Jorrvaskar.

Since they’re all about honor and glory, this would be a good place for more traditional Gryffindors like Bill Weasley. Likewise, their status as werewolves and their utter acceptance of that state of being means that Chiara would be able to find a home among them. I can see Skye Parkin wanting to prove herself among them as well. Not sure if Orion would join them, but he definitely has Harbinger energy, and not just because he’s Quidditch Captain.

The Bards College

“Old” Ben would settle here. It’s the most harmless faction with the least risk of danger, as all they do is make pretty music. Of course, then they would start burning down King Olaf and he would run inside, terrified. I also think Diego would love it here, as music and dance go hand in hand.

The College of Winterhold

First of all, Rowan would lose it upon arriving at the College’s library. They would never want to come out. It’s seriously the perfect place for them, even if they wouldn’t really take advantage of the whole “You can study taboo magic here.” thing. The one who would make use of that is Penny, as she learns all kinds of new potions recipes and pushes the potential of Potions magic further and further. Badeea would further her study of spell invention and portraits.

The Thieves Guild

When considering the Thieves Guild, one must also consider the Nightingales. I think we have three characters who are an absolute perfect fit - say it with me everyone: Tulip, Tonks, and Jae. Especially Jae - he almost reminds me of Brynjolf. Their lawlessness gives them real Thieves Guild energy, and with her methodical skill-set, Tulip would make for a brilliant Guildmaster.

The Dark Brotherhood

First of all, Talbott. He’s such a loner that he likely wouldn’t seek out any of these. But this is the one faction where you don’t apply to join, they come to you and make the invitation. As you’ve pointed out, this is one of the best examples of the found family trope ever, and I think Talbott would gravitate to that. You know who else would? Beatrice. I can see her and Babette becoming best friends immediately. Liz might also like it here, if only because she would get to befriend a Frostbite Spider who is....literally...named “Lis.” Oh my god, that’s a match made in heaven.

The Greybeards

Charlie Weasley, and I think you know why. He would do anything to speak to their leader. I also see him approving of the Way of the Voice. If nothing else, he’d have a real bone to pick with their Greybeards’ rivals, who hunt dragons for a living. Seriously though, just imagine Charlie as an old man with one of those marvelous beards.

The Blades

While I’m not sure that Alanza herself would want to join, as she doesn’t seem to be that interested in clubs, I feel like the Blades would very much want her as a member. She’s so friendly that she would be able to bring in new recruits, and her natural gift with creatures means that she could stop dragons from being quite so hostile. That being said, Alanza probably wouldn’t want to be used like that. For some reason, Murphy also seems like a good fit. I just feel like he and Esbern would instantly become best friends, y’know?

The Dawnguard

Similar to the Companions, but less about honor and more about justice. Not so much mercenary work as it is exterminating perceived evil. New Ben would feel right at home here. For some reason, I also feel like Barnaby would be a good fit. He’s got that dueling skill, and those protective instincts.

The Volkihar Clan

I definitely see Merula and Ismelda joining the Vampires. Merula’s obsession is with proving herself as the strongest and increasing her power. I’m certain that’s why she went after the vaults in the first place. She’s also not above using the Dark Arts, or at least trying to learn them - she supposedly knows the Killing Curse, but then again, there’s a difference between having been taught that spell and having actually used it. Likewise, Ismelda would join the clan just to spite her sister and her family. They’d still find solidarity, just in a group even more power-hungry and socially hated than Slytherin House.

I really have no idea where Rakepick would go.

Like I said, I’m ignoring the inherent evil of some of these factions. At this point, I still believe Rakepick is the kind of person who would take advantage of a faction to learn more and further her power, but I don’t see her letting herself be confined. She wouldn’t bow to any greater power, certainly not the Night Mother or some Harbinger/Arch Mage. She does whatever the hell she wants. Seriously, I pity any Daedra that tries to outwit this cunning Gryffindor, who is actually foolish enough to believe that she is the plaything in the situation. I firmly believe Rakepick would break them. Leave them completely humiliated - assuming that she was feeling merciful. Anyone who tried to mess with her would wind up soul-trapped and turned into a lawn ornament. You know what I’m saying, don’t you? I think you do. Rakepick is the Dragonborn.

#The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim #Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

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batgirl-87 · 5 years

Note

For the hphm ask thing 3, 12, 13, 15 (seeing if Donna has a chance 😘😂) and 17

Donna always has a special place in Keira’s heart 😉💜

3. Do they have any accent or speak a language other than English?

Since she and Jacob were primarily raised in Canada, and are now attending school in the UK - yes they have an accent compared to the rest of their schoolmates. They probably still have a hint of an Irish accent or at least pick up on one easily when they hear one, combined with their Canadian accent - yeah, they talk funny =p

Keira speaks English, French, some Russian, and I love the headcanon that Slytherins learn sign language to speak to the Merpeople.

12. What are their thoughts on Death Eaters?

Well, she likes their black cloaks and masks and their flare for the dramatic (imagine her at the 1994 World Cup in awe of their symbol in the sky like ‘damn, that’s awesome. Don’t agree with their views but… that is so cool. I want my own symbol in the sky!’ *insert batsymbol here* =p ‘UGH, I want a cool mask and a cape!’ - I can’t escape my Batgirl self). They may also inspire her to get matching tattoos with her friends =p (BILL WE’RE GETTING MATCHING CURSE-BREAKER TATTOOS!)

But besides the ‘aesthetics’ she does not agree with their viewpoints at all. She is not a blood purist despite being a Black. She’s technically a Half-Blood since she’s part Undine! Fortunately she was not brought up in the Black household like Sirius but even if she was doubtful she would believe in all of that anyway. Of course she would just roll her eyes and ignore it instead of speaking out loudly against it and acting out like Sirius.

She thinks judging others based on their blood status is stupid and ridiculous. There are rarely any pure bloods out there any more and a good chunk of those who are are from incest so no thank you there! Are the Weasley’s the only pure blood family without incest!?

And while she considers a morally grey individual - hey, if she needs to torture someone for valuable information especially if it’s about someone she cares about she’ll do it. She’ll torture someone by having them watch her physically torture someone they care about in front of them - whatever. If she needs to kill someone to protect her friends and family then fine by her, she won’t lose sleep over it. She’ll seek revenge if someone harms those she’s close to. She has quite the dark side herself and it will come out when it comes to protecting those close to her - those Death Eaters clearly are harming innocent people and take things too far and that’s not okay. Seeking revenge on someone who’s wronged you or those you care about, she can understand that. Harming innocent people - nope.

So, not a Death Eater, against their views and morals, but kind of dig the aesthetics =p

13. Their ACTUAL worst fear and how it manifests itself in a boggart?

You mean Voldermort isn’t her worst fear!? - Duh, of course not =p That clown Voldermort was way scarier!

While she does have a fear of spiders (I feel you Ron!) - facing off against that Acromantula in the Forbidden Forest seriously causes her a lot of anxiety and I believe the first time she saw that giant spider in the Forest she froze in fear, petrified, and Charlie had to hoist her over his shoulder and run away =p - I think her worst fear is having no one really care about her, only using her or pitying her, and ultimately being alone.

And not like single or having to do things alone like she needs constant companionship because she actually requires her alone time, but more like… All of her “friends” are not really her friends, maybe just using her and manipulating her or pitying her, or if she opens up to them she’ll be rejected, all of her family rejecting her or dying.

She grew up with half of her family wanting nothing to do with her and the other half were all already passed away, so when her mom passed away all she had was Jacob - it was them against the world. And then he left. Now she doesn’t believe he would every become evil, join a cult, be a Death Eater, or whatever, so that’s not really a fear of hers, but him being dead would be devastating and she doesn’t know if she could cope with that. And then when Jacob began to attend Hogwarts and reclaim his Black family name, encouraging her to do so as well, Keira had hope that she could reunite with some surviving members but… well obviously Sirius is in prison, Regulus passed away, and the rest of the family refuses to acknowledge their existence despite proving their Black bloodline. When she discovered Tonks and her were related, one of the happiest moments of her life honestly!

When Keira began to attend Hogwarts she felt completely and utterly alone, Jacob was gone and she had no real family nor did she know anyone in the UK. Then when she met her wonderful guardian while she was going to school and they developed almost an instant bond, finding out about his “monthly visitor” caused her a lot of anxiety that something was going to happen to him - what if someone found out and he was taken away or killed?! And then all her wonderful friends she has met through her years at Hogwarts - she can’t help but be a little suspicious about why they want to be her friend, especially when she’s putting them in danger constantly. Do they actually like her? Nah, can’t be =p (She has some insecurity issues!) And what if something bad does happen to them because of her?! She doesn’t want them to get hurt or killed!

So essentially the boggart would probably be those she cares about, her friends and family, either dead or telling her they never cared about her, never were her friend, and want nothing to do with her. Who could ever care about her? And who would want anything to do with her when it’s her fault those who are dead were killed!? It would vary from person to person, for instance Jacob would be dead and Rowan would claim she was never really her friend, just used her or felt bad for her or whatever but never really cared about her or liked her and no one ever really would, Bill would say he was only her friend/surrogate older brother because he felt bad for her but couldn’t wait to graduate to get away from her, and Tonks would tell her they’re not family and also wants nothing to do with her. Probably also playing on her own insecurities.

Hope that makes sense!

15. Sexuality?

Demisexual

17. Who is their best friend and their worst friend (from the friend list?)

From the Friend’s List:

Best Friend: Bill Weasley …Or Talbott Winger (HE MAY DENY IT BUT IT’S TRUE!!! =p)

Don’t get me wrong, I love Barnaby and they are also very close but Bill really is her ultimate best friend and the only reason she would become a Curse-Breaker - if she could work with him as partners. And Tonks is her cousin =p I guess Charlie is also her best friend? Nah, it’s Bill.

Worst Friend: Tulip Karasu

Not from the Friend’s List:

Best Friends: Wilhemina Fujita, Belladonna Walker, Arnian Raes 😘 💗

Thank you for asking!!! 💜

#trentadepresso #hphm #hogwarts mystery #hphm mc #my mc #asks #ask game #thank you so much for asking

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carewyncromwell · 4 years

Text

Dead!MC Challenge AU ~ Carewyn Cromwell

...Blame @dat-silvers-girl. Just...blame her. *sniffles*

This is set at the end of year 6, centering around the Sunken Vault. In my version of year 6 (which has yet to be written and will probably be modified as more game chapters are released), Merula and Ben have started on their own arcs back to the “center” so to speak after the death of Redacted -- Merula by acknowledging that, despite her pain, anger, and feelings of vengeance toward Rakepick, she doesn’t want any of her other companions to die; and Ben by acknowledging that, however strong he can make himself and however much he might try to protect his friends, he can’t prevent death, so he can only do his best and try to make up for his previous failings. Merula’s still quite angry and Ben’s still quite obstinate...but they both have kind of rallied around Carewyn as co-leaders of the Circle of Khanna, so I think I’ve written them quite a bit more likeable than they are currently. XD;

As for Jacob Cromwell, one thing to keep in mind for my version of Jacob specifically is that he struggled with very suicidal thoughts after losing Olivia and Duncan, when he was forced to work with R, and ESPECIALLY while losing his mind trapped in a Portrait for seven years. The one thing that kept him going was the thought of his little sister, Carewyn, and the thought that she needed him. This is something I hope to tackle at the end of year 6 during the Lakeside confrontation between Carewyn and Jacob.

And yes. This is an AU. Carewyn is not going anywhere, I promise.

TW: Murder, character death, suicidal emotions, violence.

~~~~~~~~~

“Go, Carey!” Tonks shouted, her words muffled by the Bubble Head Charm around her head.

She blasted a pair of angry Grindylows away with a blast of violent, steaming bubbles from her wand. The red hot sparks agitated the Giant Squid, and Diego, Tulip, and Barnaby swam over, counterattacking with their own Bombardment spells.

“Carewyn, go! Now!” barked Talbott, his own gruffer words similarly muffled, as he conjured ropes from his wand and yanked a Grindylow off of Penny’s back. “We’ll cover you!”

Carewyn hesitated.

“But -- ” she tried to say, but the Gillyweed she’d eaten made her words only come out as one large bubble.

Ben grabbed hold of Carewyn’s shoulder, looking from her to the stone courtyard below them. As he’d also taken Gillyweed, his words also came out as a cluster of bubbles.

“We’re running out of time,” Carewyn could see his lips mouth solemnly, holding up his wrist so that his watch (frozen on the time 8:13) was visible so as to make his point clear.

Carewyn’s jaw clenched. She knew Ben was right. The dose of Gillyweed they’d taken wouldn’t last much longer, and the Merpeople had signaled to them that they’d seen Jacob swimming down this way less than an hour ago. He’d no doubt have already reached the Vault -- and if her suspicion was right, Jacob was walking right into a trap --

Nodding decisively, Carewyn turned to Charlie and Merula, who’d both swam through the murky water to her and Ben’s side, blasting several more Grindylows away.

Like Carewyn and Ben, they had the gills and webbed feet and hands that came with ingesting Gillyweed. There hadn’t been enough for everyone in the Circle of Khanna, so the others had improvised with Bubble Head Charms. Ironically enough, the people who’d ended up eating the Gillyweed Penny had collected and saving an extra dose for the return trip were the same ones who’d gone to the Portrait Vault the previous year.

“Come on!” Carewyn said to Ben, Charlie, and Merula, even if they couldn’t properly hear her.

She swam up to Bill urgently, placing one of her webbed hands firmly against his chest.

“Stay here,” she said very sharply.

Bill’s eyes widened.

“What?!” she could see his lips mouth in horror as a large bubble burbled out of them.

“You lead!” Carewyn tried very hard to keep her words simple, since they could only come out as bubbles. “I have to go!”

“NO!” Bill’s vehement denial came out as an even larger bubble.

“Bill, please!” Carewyn shot back more frantically. She squeezed the front of his shirt anxiously. “No time! Lead them! Help me! Protect them!”

She gestured desperately to the others struggling to fend off the Giant Squid and Grindylows. Bill had to be the one to lead them -- he was the strongest of them, and Carewyn knew he was capable of leading them in her stead. He was the only one she trusted with the others’ safety.

Bill looked beside himself. As the oldest of the group, he’d always wanted to protect the others, and he’d already sort of become one of the core members of the Circle of Khanna just based on his position as their assistant teacher. But Carewyn had always been one of his closest friends -- she was like a sister to him, except that she protected and inspired him too, rather than him largely looking after her like he did his real younger siblings. She’d encouraged him with his Cursebreaking from day one, and she was always the one who helped him pick himself up when he was at his lowest point. He’d gone to every single Cursed Vault with Carewyn, and he knew this last one was going to be dangerous...the thought of his best friend going without him -- of him not being there for her, when she was clearly so scared --

Merula let out a cluster of urgent bubbles Carewyn couldn’t understand, since she wasn’t facing her properly, though Carewyn did turn around in time to see Ben add, “We have to go now!”

Charlie grabbed hold of Bill’s sleeve, his other arm looping tightly around Carewyn’s shoulders. She couldn’t make out everything what he was saying, given the amount of bubbles flooding out of his mouth, but her fellow Fireball stared his brother down with a fierce expression.

“ -- Bill -- got her -- won’t let -- to Carey -- promise!”

Bill looked from Charlie, to Ben and Merula, to Carewyn, his expression almost helpless. Traces of bubbles started to form in the corners of his eyes.

Then, clenching his jaw, the eldest Weasley boy grabbed onto both Charlie and Carewyn, cradling the backs of their ginger heads with each of his hands in a physically distant, but raw kind of hug. When he released them, his brown eyes were blazing with both determination and desperation.

“I’ll be -- right -- behind you!” he said very firmly and deliberately, to make sure they understood.

‘Please be careful,’ his expression was pleading with them.

Carewyn gave Bill her best reassuring smile and released his shirt. Then, turning on her heel in the water, she swam straight down to the sunken courtyard that she knew held the doors to the final Cursed Vault, Charlie, Ben, and Merula at her side.

~*~

The underwater courtyard was a spooky place. It was sparse and seemingly endless, dotted with the cracked pillars of some long-abandoned stone pavilion. Algae and moss encroached upon the ruins from all sides -- it was the only life seemingly brave enough to broach the water surrounding the empty stone urns and the intricately tiled mosaic floor. Creepiest of all were the countless statues that littered the sea floor -- dozens of stone fish, grindylows, mermaids, and other underwater life that seemed to have been petrified while trying to swim away.

Carewyn followed the lines of statues with her eyes, back to what they’d been running away from -- and at the back of the Courtyard, she saw a broken stone staircase leading up to a set of double doors not unlike the ones on the other Cursed Vaults.

She waved her arm to get the others’ attention, pointed ahead, and then kicked off through the water, leading them toward the doors.

These doors were unusual from the off-set, for they seemed to be connected to nothing. They merely stood on their own, with nothing but a stone archway over the doors’ frame. It was like the walls and structure it had been a part of had been wiped away.

Ben immediately swam over to the door and tried to yank it open by its door handle. When it didn’t open, he shot several different colored lines of bubbles at it, likely Alohomora and Bombarda.

Merula shook her head.

“Don’t bother!” she mouthed deliberately through a stream of bubbles. “It must -- be like -- the door -- in the -- Portrait Vault!”

She looked at Carewyn.

“Well?” she mouthed through another clump of bubbles. “Any bright ideas?”

Carewyn thought she knew.

Glancing from Merula to Charlie, she slipped the key that Sickleworth had found in the Red Cap’s hole and given to her the previous year. She swam up beside Ben and brushed aside some of the algae covering the door’s knocker, to find a rusted, ornate keyhole.

With a deep breath, Carewyn slipped the coral key into the iron keyhole and with some difficulty turned it.

The door gave a great, booming CLICK. The sound gave a profound ripple through the water, and both doors were abruptly flung open, white light pouring out of them. It was so bright that it was impossible to see anything beyond -- but the lake water Carewyn and her friends swam in seemed to be magically warded away from the archway, rather than flowing through it. It was almost as if the light and water were two similarly charged magnets pushing back against each other.

Carewyn swallowed back the lump that had formed in her throat and looked over at the others.

All three of her companions looked paler than she’d ever seen them. Even Ben, who that entire year had acted so puffed-up and fearless, was unable to hide the trembling hand at his side.

A rush of pity washing over her, Carewyn reached out and took Ben’s hand. The Gryffindor looked down at Carewyn, startled.

“Together?” she asked him. Even though she tried to keep her voice strong, she knew Ben wouldn’t have been able to hear it properly, and it couldn’t disguise how pale she was.

Her restrained fear in her face and the support Carewyn showed despite it, however, made Ben’s eyes soften visibly. He squeezed her hand very tightly, pressing their shoulders together as he rested his head on top of hers in a strange, abridged sort of hug. Then Ben pulled away, looking down at his first real friend with a smile warmer and braver than she’d ever seen on his face.

“Until the end,” he mouthed through a cluster of bubbles.

Carewyn smiled more fully, her blue eyes sparkling. Charlie smiled at Ben too, and he reached out and took his dormmate’s other hand. Carewyn then turned to Merula on her other side and extended a hand to her.

Merula looked from Carewyn’s hand to up at her face and, with an oddly tentative expression, reached out and took it. Once the two were holding hands, Merula gave Carewyn a very tiny smile.

“Let’s do this, Cromwell,” she mouthed.

And the four swam right into the light.

~*~

As soon as they’d crossed the threshold, the group found themselves landing on their feet on the floor of a perfectly dry room. Carewyn felt her gills contorting and flaring with pain, unable to take in the flood of oxygen.

Thinking quickly, she blinked through the spots pounding at her eyes and took the potion Penny had brewed to undo Gillyweed’s effects out of her light gray “Glam Cursebreaker” robes. She splashed a drop of it on her tongue, before quickly hurrying to do the same for the others.

“Charlie, here -- “ she wheezed, as her gills began to slowly seal up and she found it easier to breathe again. “Ben -- Merula, open your mouth, come on -- ”

Her friends gasped for air as Carewyn looked up at the room they’d entered.

This Vault was not like the others. It was a lot bigger, with sea-green-tinted glass walls and clusters of even more stone statues concealing its true size. Unlike the ones outside the Vault, though, these statues were human. Many were dressed in flowing robes and, like the petrified victims outside, looked terrified and were frozen mid-step as if running for the door. One statue in particular caught Carewyn’s eye.

It was the statue of a very pretty girl who looked only about a year older than Percy. Her petrified short hair flapped freely behind her like a stone cape and she had the largest, most striking eyes Carewyn had ever seen. Most notably of all, however, was the tie around the neck of her loose collared shirt.

‘She was a Hogwarts student,’ Carewyn realized.

Judging by the slightly outdated bell-bottom jeans, jellies, and open vest she was wearing, this girl had to have been petrified between eight to ten years ago...

A murky memory rippled over Carewyn’s mind -- the face of the Grey Lady, talking about her brother and his friends...

Carewyn’s eyes widened upon the pretty statue.

“Olivia Green,” she breathed sadly.

“CAREWYN!”

Carewyn and the others all looked up.

Running through the field of statues toward them was a young man with long, curly dark hair and dressed in bright scarlet dress robes.

“Jacob!” Carewyn cried in relief.

She ran to him. Jacob seized hold of her, looking terrified.

“Pip, you’ve got to get out of here -- !”

“Jacob, you’re walking into a trap,” Carewyn said urgently. “R’s here -- they’re going to sacrifice you in order to unlock -- ”

“CROMWELL -- !”

It happened so fast that Carewyn never even had a chance to react to Merula’s scream.

In an instant, a flare of green light had shot across the room, right over Jacob’s shoulder and straight into Carewyn’s forehead, just over her right eye.

Carewyn’s head flinched back and she froze, her blue eyes very wide upon her brother’s face. Jacob stared into her eyes, his entire frame shaking as he saw the light leave them --

“No -- no!”

Carewyn collapsed into Jacob’s arms, her head falling slack against his chest.

“CAREY!” screamed Charlie.

He and Merula both lunged forward. Ben, who did not immediately move, was the only one clear-headed enough to see the swath of dark red sweeping out of the shadows to encircle them.

“PROTEGO MAXIMA!” Ben bellowed.

His shield formed around him, Charlie, Merula, and Jacob like a giant, golden-white bubble, shielding them from the multicolored spells that assaulted them from all sides.

Charlie reached Jacob at last. He seized the back of Carewyn’s light gray robes, bringing a hand up to her neck to try to lift her head.

“Carey -- !”

Charlie’s breath hitched in his throat.

Her blue eyes stared up at him, but they didn’t see him. There was no consciousness or life there -- it was like she was looking right through him...or, rather, like she wasn’t looking through those glassy eyes at all.

Charlie’s wide eyes flooded with tears.

“No...no...”

Merula seized Carewyn’s shoulders, her face filled with desperation as she tried to shake her.

“Cromwell, don’t you dare -- don’t you DARE! Not now!”

Her pink eyes were flooding with tears as her voice rose angrily.

“We made it, Cromwell! This was the last one! The last Vault! And now you’re backing out?! You can’t go down like this, you coward! Come back! COME BACK, YOU -- !”

She was overcome with grief. She clung onto her old rival’s shoulders like it was all she knew how to do, gnashing her teeth and sobbing helplessly.

Ben was frozen where he stood, his wand hand shaking as he tried desperately to maintain the shield over their heads as more violent, colorful spells were lasted at them. He couldn’t let the shield fall -- he had to protect them -- had to protect his --

The memory of Carewyn talking to Charlie in the Hog’s Head in fifth year rippled over his mind.

“I know it’s going to be dangerous in there…but I’ll do whatever I have to, to protect you.”

Yet Carewyn hadn’t even gotten the chance to fight back -- she didn’t even get the chance to go down fighting, the way she should have -- the way she would’ve deserved --

Two lines of tears leaked out of Ben’s eyes and he clenched his jaw in a frantic attempt not to break down.

Charlie had buried his face into Carewyn’s long hair to hide the guilty, grief-stricken tears streaming down his face.

He’d promised Bill -- he’d promised that he wouldn’t let anything happen to Carewyn -- he’d failed her -- failed Bill -- it was all his --

Shaking worst of any of them, however, was Jacob. He held his younger sister like she was a doll, his expression almost as lifeless as Carewyn’s. The color in his face and the light in his eyes were also gone, even as his whole body was rattled with quaking, tear-less shudders. His hands clutched at Carewyn’s back, and his empty eyes trailed over her ghostly white face.

“Morning, Pippa!” Jacob’s own voice as a boy echoed over and over again in his ears. “Sing us a song, Pippa!”

“ACK!”

Ben was thrown roughly off his feet when his powerful shield came crashing down under the weight of the spells barraging it. There was an unpleasant snap as he collided with the floor, and he gave a choked yelp of pain -- one of the bones in his leg had fractured.

All at once, Jacob, Charlie, Merula, and Ben were surrounded by an endless wall of dark scarlet robes.

Out of the wall came a trio of figures, also dressed in dark scarlet hoods, though the one in the center had intricate black trim on theirs.

“Fetch the corpse,” he instructed the figure to his right.

Merula leapt to her feet.

“Over my dead body!” she snarled.

Standing over Jacob, Charlie, and Carewyn’s body, she started blasting spells at the figure who’d approached. The hooded figure, however, was clearly very talented, judging by how they blocked every one of Merula’s spells with methodical precision. Once they’d gotten close enough, they blasted Merula off her feet, throwing her back into one of the stone statues, which shattered under her weight.

“We weren’t intending to kill all of you -- at least not right away,” said the figure very coolly as they raised their wand. “But you did say ‘over your dead body,’ so I suppose I can oblige -- ”

“Confringo!”

Out of nowhere, a light blue blast of magic slammed straight into the figure’s chest with a loud BAM. The force of the Blasting Curse was so strong that it slammed the figure to the ground in an unconscious, bloodied heap.

Ben shakily got up, standing on his injured leg with amazing resilience despite the pain he was clearly in.

“Get back!” he hissed at the group of hooded figures.

The Leader, however, merely chuckled.

“Ah -- this was the one you used the Imperius Curse on, wasn’t it, Blaise? A rather feisty pawn, I must say -- a bit like Duncan Ashe.”

Jacob’s whole body gave a horrible lurch at the sound of Duncan’s name, though his hollow eyes never left Carewyn’s lifeless face.

One of the robed figures in the background mumbled something to the leader, sounding almost hesitant. The leader shot the voice’s owner a look over his shoulder.

“We needed a sacrifice to enter the Vault -- the ‘ultimate price.’ And since Jacob Cromwell was the one who tried to open the column in this Vault, it was he that needed to pay up.”

Charlie’s eyes widened, his expression contorting with horror, fury, and pain.

“It wasn’t Jacob’s life you wanted,” he whispered. “You weren’t luring him here -- you were luring...”

“The most valuable thing in Jacob’s life,” the Leader said very crisply. “We thought that one of his best friends might do the trick...but even with Duncan Ashe’s body, the Sunken Vault’s column would not open, since the other Vaults had been opened out of order. So we needed someone to reopen the Vaults for us -- someone with Legilimency and a vested interest in breaking the curses...Jacob was already getting rebellious at that point, so he was out of the question. Even if we threatened his family’s lives, we knew he would turn on us the instant he found out what price had to be paid. And the treasure in that Vault is one I’ve chased for quite some time -- I have no intention of losing it now.”

The Leader raised his wand, pointing it right at Jacob.

“Imperi -- ”

But before the Imperius Curse could land, a blast of black magic collided with the Leader’s hand.

The Leader screamed in agony as his hand was wrenched backwards, snapping the bones of his wrist with a horrible CRACK.

Jacob straightened up, releasing Carewyn so that Charlie alone was holding her. The red-haired Gryffindor looked up at Jacob -- but what he saw was even more terrifying than the hoard that surrounded them.

Jacob’s wide blue eyes had lost all trace of light or humanity. Their pupils were as small and black as pitch, devoid of all consciousness or sanity, as if the young wizard had been possessed by some horrific beast.

Jacob raised his wand high, and the black magic around the Leader’s hand hoisted the man up into the air, right off his feet. Then, in an instant, it tore into the Leader’s flesh, ripping his wand arm right off as if the man were made of paper, and threw him to the ground.

All at once the mass of scarlet robes devolved around Jacob. Blasts of red, yellow, black, and white raged, missing Charlie and Carewyn’s body by mere inches.

“PROTEGO MAXIMA!”

Ben stumbled over to the others, holding his wand aloft to stabilize the Shield Charm around them. On the other side, Jacob cut down the scarlet-robed figures one by one with unmatched, untamed ferocity, his dark, empty eyes consumed with rage.

Merula stared at Carewyn’s older brother through the clear shield, her posture shrinking as she hunched in on herself, closer to Charlie.

“He’s...he’s gone mad,” she whispered. She was visibly shaken.

Charlie clung to Carewyn’s prone frame that bit more tightly, as if subconsciously wanting to shield her from the sight.

Jacob Cromwell had gone mad -- mad with grief.

~*~

Bill swam down to the underwater courtyard as fast as he could, the rest of the Circle just behind him. At the back of the courtyard was a open set of double doors with bright white light pouring out of it.

Bill could feel his gills starting to seal up -- he’d either have to swim up to the surface and put on a Bubble Head Charm very quickly, or he’d have to hope there was air inside the Sunken Vault --

“Come on!” he urged the others on, and though his words came out as a large bubble, he was able to beckon them to follow after him as he headed for the bright light.

Bill gasped for air when his feet met the floor. He brought a hand up to his neck, feeling his gills sealing up.

‘That was close,’ he thought.

Then the eldest Weasley caught a strange sound -- a familiar voice.

“Jacob, wait -- wait -- !”

Rakepick?

All sense forgotten, Bill dashed forward, toward the source of the sound.

“DOLORE ARDERE!” roared a young man’s voice. “DISCUTIO MAXIMA!”

“JACOB!”

Up ahead, Bill could see Patricia Rakepick and Jacob Cromwell hotly engaged in battle. Rakepick was on the defensive, with Jacob lashing out at her violently.

“I never meant for this to happen!” Rakepick said, sounding more frightened and fragile than Bill had ever heard her sound before. “I wouldn’t have hurt her -- I never would’ve -- !”

“AVADA KEDAVRA!”

Jacob’s acid green Killing Curse missed Rakepick’s ear by inches.

Bill dashed forward, raising his wand and pointing it at Rakepick.

“STUPEFY!”

Because Rakepick was so focused on Jacob, she couldn’t react fast enough to avoid Bill’s scarlet spell before it collided with her shoulder. The ex-professor froze up and, her eyes rolling closed, she collapsed, Stunned.

Although Rakepick had fallen, however, Jacob hadn’t lowered his wand. Instead he moved as if to grab her, raising his wand as it lit up with dangerous violet sparks.

“Hey!”

Bill grabbed Jacob’s shoulders, shoving him away from Rakepick and holding him back so he couldn’t get closer.

“It’s over!” he urged Jacob. “She’s down!”

It was only as Bill was holding Jacob that he noticed the countless bodies strewn across the floor.

Jacob yanked and shoved against Bill’s grip like some mad dog.

“LET ME GO! LET GO OF ME, I’LL KILL HER -- I’LL KILL HER, FOR WHAT THEY -- !”

“Take it easy!” Bill reproached him sharply. “Calm down -- ”

“Bill!”

Bill looked up over the raging Jacob’s frame and his heart leapt.

“Charlie! Thank goodness -- ”

As soon as the word left his throat, however, he saw the thick tear tracks on Charlie’s face -- on Ben’s...Merula’s...

Bill’s eyes widened.

“Carey...where’s Carey?”

Charlie looked up at his brother, guilt staining his face. Then his eyes again filled with tears as he stepped backward, bent down, and scooped something up off the ground, carrying it over with some difficulty.

It was Carewyn. Her eyes were closed as if she were sleeping, but her face was whiter than a sheet and her frame was motionless and limp in Charlie’s arms.

Bill’s heart spasmed horribly in his chest.

“NO!”

He shook his head desperately, his eyes shooting to Ben, to Merula, to Charlie -- but none of them could give him the comfort he sought.

Bill began to shake horribly, his hands clenching and unclenching over what they were holding -- what was he holding? He didn’t even know --

Carewyn dead -- Carewyn gone...it was too horrible for him to comprehend. How did it happen? How could it happen? Was it Rakepick? Had she -- !?

He wasn’t there -- he couldn’t --

Bill looked down at his hands, still clutching onto Jacob Cromwell’s shoulders.

That’s right -- he’d been holding onto Carewyn’s brother --

Jacob had stopped fighting against Bill’s grip. It was as if Bill asking about Carewyn had shot him out of his vengeful trance -- he’d abruptly gone slack, his shoulders quaking as he stared around at the unconscious and dead bodies littering the floor of the Vault, his eyes moving over them while barely seeing them.

Bill inhaled shakily, failing to fight back the tears overtaking his vision.

“...Jacob...you...”

Jacob peeled himself out of Bill’s hold, turning very precariously on his heel so that he was facing the others. Merula, Ben, and Charlie all flinched back as Jacob moved over to them, stopping in front of Charlie. He brought his hand up under Carewyn’s head and gently cradled it as he bent over her, resting his head on her chest.

“...Is...all right with the world, Pippa?”

His question was choked and broken -- a shadow of the cocky, confident voice he usually had.

But of course it was...for without Carewyn -- the one person who had been the little flare of light that could always beat back his darkest despair -- Jacob Cromwell was nothing but a shadow.

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