Hogwarts: Era of Darkness

"This is not good…" Quincy said, watching me walk up and down in the common room. It was already close to midnight, and only we remained there as if we were the only people in the castle.

"No, it is bloody not!" I hissed through gritted teeth, looking out the giant glass wall into the lake's deep waters. As our common room was underwater, deep beneath the castle, it was like looking into a different world.

"Plans?" She asked, biting onto her thumb, fidgeting in her seat, her leg moving up and down constantly like she had some kind of seizure.

"None yet." I replied, "But we may already be in trouble; they just yet to act! If the school is what I heard behind the scenes it is, then I am pretty sure they read all the letters going in and out! Opening all the packages! Checking everything!"

"And we used the owls a lot…"

"Precisely… damn it!" I cursed, stomping on the floor, feeling extremely frustrated.

"Should we… stop?"

"We are already too deep; even if we stop, we are going to be… in deep trouble."

"They may not even know about it, Conrad!" She stood up, walked next to me, and got ahold of my right hand. She hesitated only for a moment before hugging it and pulling me closer. "Take a deep breath! Calm down!"

"They may be waiting for us to find it…." I whispered, letting my nerves calm down somewhat. Her touch was like a magic trick, making my thoughts reorganize themselves quickly. I started going through all the times we screwed up with this, and then it hit me. My Father's words… "Trust the Headmaster."

"Hm?" Quincy looked at me, tilting her head to the right.

"My Father's words! It was to trust the Headmaster, and he did help me once… I am going to see him again!"

"Wait! Right now?!" She gasped, not letting my hand go.

"Yes. Right now!" I nodded firmly.

"I am coming too!"

"No," I answered, pulling my hand from her clasp and looking into her eyes.

"If I'm not coming back by morning, we are screwed. Get yourself prepared for the worst! Also… If I come back weird, don't talk to me! Try to find a solution to get me out of an Imperius curse!"

"You think they would…"

"I would," I answered with a shrug, "For sure…."

"Conrad." She wanted to say something, but I just shook my head and left. It was best to get it over with…

…
….
……

I would lie if I said my heart was calm. It was throbbing in my throat, and whenever I managed to gulp it down, it rushed back up, trying to escape from my body. To my surprise, the stone golem did not say anything, just stood to the side, letting me ascend to the Headmaster's office without obstruction.

"It is very late to be out." Headmaster Snape 'welcomed' me with an icy voice, not even looking at me. He was standing before his window, watching the full moon that painted the whole room silver, giving it an eerie sensation.

"I am well aware of it, Headmaster."

"I couldn't have guessed." He replied in a sarcastic tone that made me gulp. "You are safe. For now."

"Wait…" I tried to speak, but my mind couldn't keep up with the sudden development. I was still debating how to ask if our letters were read through… the books we were sent, everything we just did in the past half a year…

"I am the Headmaster of this school." He continued, still not looking at me, not even by the window's reflection that showed his ghostly expression. "The letters of the Sacred Twenty-Eight go through me. Seeing you here… I can assume you will be more subtle going forward?"

"Y-yes… Headmaster…” I answered, feeling all tension going out of my body and I almost collapsed. He refused to look at me, but the words were enough. We were safe! But… now I started thinking about… "Why?" It just… came out without me realizing it.

"While the Lily white shall in love delight, Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright."

"Excuse me?" I asked because I could not hear him whispering.

"You are asking questions about things you have no place to know. Return to your Common Room and act like this conversation never happened."

"Sir-"

"Out."

"Yes... and thank you."

With that, I bowed and left his office, maybe even more confused than ever before. Something was truly going on in the background, and I was still kept in the dark… Well… At least we are safe. Hah… I wonder if Father knew about it? Does he? I will have to ask him about this in the summer! I won't risk writing a letter now; even if the Headmaster is someone who is not going to cause trouble for us, I need to learn from this and be more careful!

"Focus…" I slapped my face, making it echo in the deserted corridor, heading back towards the dungeon, "I need to keep focused. One thing at a time! Yes. One thing at a time, or you will get sidetracked! Potions first. Blood second. Questions third."

"I do have a question. What does a student do in the corridors so late at night?"

My heart sank when I stopped, and I was afraid it would shoot out of my bottom. I knew that overly friendly, stomach-turning voice… way too well.

…
….
……

When I regained consciousness, I recognized the ceiling at once. I was in the infirmary. Sitting up, my head felt light, and I had to hold it with one hand to stop it from spinning.

"Ah…" That is when I felt it… I was… bald. My hair was… gone… all of it!

"Ah, you are up!" Came a laugh, but it was not Quincy… no, it was someone else's. Someone who I did not expect to be here.

"Professor?" I looked up at Lockhart, who was smiling at me, grinning like a kid wanting to be praised. “What… are you… doing here?"

"No worries, no worries! You see, you fell off the stairs!" He chuckled.

"Fell off…?" I twitched my mouth. Not really, I was thrown off it! By the spell of Umbridge! Well, she wanted to place a curse on me as a punishment, but my hand moved by itself, and I performed a shield charm without saying anything. I don't think she noticed in the dark, but the resulting bang threw me backward… I felt and heard my head land first on the marble stairs; there was a crack… and darkness.

"Sleep-walking, eh?" Lockhart grinned, slapping my shoulders, winking at me. "Dreaming about girls? I'll give you some tips later on, champ! Now, you are lucky, you know! I was right around there, patrolling, hunting for nasties, and mended your skull in a jiffy before bringing you here!"

"Mended… my… what?" I touched my head again, feeling the smoothness of it, and I wanted to cry. No, I wanted to bawl.

"Worry not; it should grow back quickly! A little price to pay for living, is it not? Aha!"

"Thanks…" I groaned, forcing a smile.

"Now, now, no thanks needed! We are pals, best buddies even!" He winked at me once more, and I would make any bets that Umbridge ordered him to use this little incident to get close to me… the muppet.

"T-thanks?" I repeated, making him laugh, which, in turn, made me cringe.

"Now, I will let you rest as my class starts in a few minutes! But I will let your little girlie skip it!" Came another disgusting wink as he left, swaggering out of the infirmary like a peacock.

The moment the door swung open, Quincy rushed in from the other side, her eyes puffy, red, and filled with tears. Before I could say anything, she jumped on my bed, hugging me with a stifled cry.

"Owie… I'm fine!" I patted her back, and when she finally pulled back, noticing my new looks, she burst into half laughter, half wails. "That hurts me more… you know!"

"Don't… worry!" She sniffled, rummaging in her robes and pulling out a small bottle. "I saw you when Professor Lockhart brought you in!"

"You did?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I sneaked out after you! Saw what Umbridge did… She sent for Lockhart at once! She instructed him to use this to his advantage!"

"I knew it…"

"That slime!" She fumed, all her tears and laughter evaporating at once, "The swine and the slime, a good pair! Both of them! That pompous powder-nosed cockatrice botched a simple bone-mending spell! Made your head deflate!"

"WFHGAT?!" I shouted, biting down on my tongue in the process, feeling a heart attack was in order.

"Yes!" She nodded with anger, "Madam Pomfrey luckily intervened quickly… only… well… your hair was gone." She held back her laugh once again, switching between emotions so quickly that even I started to find my predicament hilarious.

"I hope it grows back…"

"Here!" She pushed the bottle into my hands, "I just brewed it while you were out! It will regrow your hair in a day or two!"

"Really?! Awesome! You are the best!" I opened it immediately, taking a whiff, but it smelled like a used sock. "Ugh…"

"Haha, don't be like that! Give it to me then!" And with that, she tore it out of my grasp, poured it on my head, and, sitting behind me, started massaging the surprisingly cool gel into my shining, bald crown.

“Mhm… this feels nice…”

"What happened?" She asked quietly, and I recounted everything the Headmaster told me and how I managed to run into Umbridge. "Although, you saw the last part."

"Yes… and she was confused! She thought she had done something… weird. I think she does not even consider that a first-year student could do anything against her."

"Good… easier for us that way!"

"I can't wait to turn that toad into a statue!" Quincy giggled, her tone dangerous and vindictive… which made me feel warm inside. “Oh… and…”

"Hm?"

"Draco is up to something…"

"Why do you say?" I turned towards her, our faces only inches from each other.

"When I went after you… I saw him in another corridor, sneaking."

"Was he trying to get into the Room of Requirements?" I asked, but Quincy gently shook her head, and I could feel her sweet scent spread around us. She smelled… nice. Very nice.

"No… he looked like he was searching for something. I wanted to follow but… but…" She turned scarlet, "I was worried about you…"

"Cute." I grinned, making her look downwards.

"Hauh…"

"He is probably looking for the Chamber of Secrets. I hoped he would find the entrance for us."

"You did?" She tilted her head.

"I did hope he would start looking for it. Or have a brain big enough to start searching for Salazar's hidden secret. The legends are there… with the fact he can now speak to snakes, I was betting on him going after it. We have enough on our plate to deal with to add the searching for it too! Of course, if he proved simple like a muggle and never picked up on it, I would have nudged him a little, but all is well!"

"What if he finds it?" Quincy asked, furrowing her brows.

"Does he know what is down there?"

"I guess not."

"Exactly! It would be suicide. We will know if he finds something… for two reasons!"

"That is?" She asked, forming a small smile and relaxing while my head was starting to regrow its head slowly but surely.

"He disappears with his cronies in tow… so we just need to watch them… or he comes to us for help. We will see… In the meantime, you continue crafting the potions, and I am going to try and get some information out of Lockhart. Maybe we can turn him into another little helper of ours! It wouldn't be bad to have a professor in our pockets! Even if it's Lockhart!"