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Hogwarts
–Damian Hawthorne–
I should have done more.
That was the thought that continued to ring in his head as he heard the news through the grapevine. The troll was clearly stronger than normal, but he had hoped that the teachers should at least be able to keep it contained before Dumbledore dispatched it.
But his dumbass just overestimated both, the teacher's abilities and the students' intelligence. Apparently, two students were in critical condition right now, in the Hospital Wing. Both of them from Slytherin. That must have created a separate kind of headache for Dumbledore, on top of the headache of having to deal with people who will now question every single security measure inside of Hogwarts, forgetting the fact that Hogwarts was the safest place in Magical Britain.
If not for Tommy boy and his unpredictable ability to pull stuff out of his ass, the troll would have disintegrated before it even had the opportunity to touch the castle's walls, let alone wreak havoc for so long.
It served right for Quirell to be dead. It was all hush hush, but it was being passed around the seniors, with the news coming from the Prefects. Classes were cancelled for the day as well, with the curfew still in effect.
Food was still served in the Great Hall, but students were called in batches, house and year wise, making this particular meal the most silent out of all the ones he had had in the Great Hall. The atmosphere was very sombre, and the only faculty accompanying the students was McGonall, and the expression on her face made sure that no student had the courage to ask her what happened last night.
Her gaze lingered on him for a bit longer than others, which meant Harry had either spilled all the beans or his mind had been read. Whatever it was, it meant he had to be ready to enter a meeting(read: interrogation) with the Headmaster, and spill the beans, so to speak. It was a small matter, as he already had all his excuses ready.
A letter to inform Willian would have been nice, but he didn't have the time and the risk appetite to slip out of the dorm and do so without being detected. No need to risk that when he knew that William would just agree anyway. It was not like William was one of those brainwashed people who viewed Dumbledore as if he was the second coming of Merlin, right? Right?!
Okay, a minor possible hiccup, but overall, he should be fine. The Hawthornes were kind of desperate to get into his good graces, not that they were ever in his bad graces. They probably wanted for him to go one step ahead and declare them as his family, something that was unlikely to happen, simply because of who he was.
Sure, he will be involved, and little Elena and Catherine will always have him as his brother, but opening himself up to that entire family, who were practically strangers to him? Nah. He did not see that happening.
How would that conversation even go?
Hey! You know about that criminal that is being hunted down by multiple countries, the one who just destroyed critical government infrastructure and killed multiple wizards? Yeah, guess what? It was me!
Yeah, that would go so well.
Shaking his head, he looked at Terry, who was reading a book. It may have been the first time such a thing had happened while they were inside their dorms. Sure, Terry did all that was demanded of him, without fail. One could not get into Ravenclaw without atleast being somewhat of a nerd, but that did not mean Terry was as zealous as Hermione was, when it came to the syllabus at the very least.
No, Terry's curiosities lay elsewhere, which is why he was always in a hurry to finish his schoolwork so as to continue being in Ravenclaw, and then move on to whatever subject fancied him at the moment. His reading collection was as varied as it came.
From what he'd heard from the boy's grumblings, he was going to the library today to get his entire catalogue refreshed, to have reading material for the next two weeks. He and Madam Pince had some sort of agreement in place for that, a soft limiter of sorts, placed on Terry's book checkouts. Terry was a model student when it came to that, and Madam Pince was someone his family knew very well, which is why she gave him more books than any first year.
Even so, his collection had now run out, which is why he was doing his homework diligently in the dorm, with his eyes focused on the work in front of him and his tongue slightly out, like a golden retriever.
Terry then sighed and shot him a slightly defensive look when he caught him looking, not that he made any effort to hide, "I was bored!"
"I can see that," he replied dryly.
Terry flushed and then carefully put everything back in place before shooting him a look. He rolled his eyes, whipped out his wand, and cast a spell, dispelling the table he had conjured for the boy. By now, Terry was used to him casting slightly more advanced spells than were believable, even for someone who had grown up in a Noble family and was a genius.
He had impressed the faculty with his spellwork, but even then, he had never gone beyond what was plausible enough for someone who had spent years before getting into Hogwarts, getting trained on spells. Hell, for the most part, the nobles did not train their children magically before getting their wands.
No, all that extra training and secret(read: Dark) spells were only taught after they got their wand, giving all the students more or less the same starting point. It was only during the holidays that the noble students pulled ahead.
They were also more knowledgeable of the noble customs, the way the government worked, more esoteric knowledge about spells & rituals, and how to protect themselves since they were nobles. All of that advantage came after Hogwarts.
He would consider only himself and Harry the ones who had cast magic extensively even before getting a wand. Harry was probably capable of wandless magic at a level not even the Sernios could compete.
So, Terry was surprised when he first showed his level of magic to his only friend in the school, which was a slightly sad thing, but he didn't dwell too much on it. Over time, he got used to it, somewhat.
"I could never understand why you keep your progress a secret," Or Terry could be thinking of some slightly more complex stuff and chose this lull in their day to day schedule to voice out his confusion.
"It's quite simple, my boy," He remarked, sitting up on his bed, and looking out into the very sunny and pleasant weather that they could not enjoy before continuing, "I treasure my silence. I don't want to be hounded at every other step I take, like Harry Potter."
"Yeah, did you hear about Harry Potter? They say he fought the troll and had to retreat after the Troll broke his wand and pride in two." The serious question forgotten, Terry's face lit up as he began discussing what he thought was a secret.
"Don't believe everything you hear, Terry. The truth will come out soon either way. I think the Headmaster will soon call everyone for an announcement. Until then, enjoy the free time we have. You know we have to recover all the classes we missed, right?"
"Yeaah," Terry groaned, slumping in his bed, and that was presumably the end of the conversation.
Soon after, Terry went back to lightly snoring on the bed, courtesy of the very cold air in the room, meanwhile he was left restless, sitting on his bed, waiting for something to happen.
Over these two months, he had come to one solid conclusion. He was really not built for the student lifestyle. Especially after everything he had done, built, and gone through. He had lived a more exciting life in just the past three years than most students here will have for the rest of their lives.
Well, there were always outliers like Tommy boy and maybe some really nutcases like Bellatrix, but guess what? They were either dead or partially dead, and will soon be dead anyway.
There was still no news from the administration about that one death, but he had high hopes for Quirell to be the one. Hopefully, Dumbledore caught the man with a Tommy boy shard on his forehead and ended him on the spot. He didn't even want to think of the situation where any other teacher died. It would…probably make him hunt down Quirell, retrieve the Basilisk and basilisk poison from the basement, make Quirell manifest Tommy boy, and then make him watch as he destroyed all of his precious Horcruxes one by one until only the turban was left, which will be destroyed soon after.
…..
…
And just like that, he thought of that line of action for two seconds and discarded it immediately. It could interfere with the prophecy, and he was not yet at a level he could simply ignore entities like Fate. They were known to be bitches, after all.
After a couple of hours, the news came through the rumors that the two students in critical conditions were the Prefects who were on the lookout for the Golden Trio and were not informed about their safe return, and thus, encountered the Troll, something that made him feel horrible inside. He wondered why Slythering prefects were looking out for Gryffindor students, but he supposed in a moment of crisis, a Prefect was a Prefect, whatever their house may be.
Fortunately, both were supposed to make a full recovery. He was terribly curious about the chain of events there, but it was not like he could just ask someone, right?
Or could he?
Glancing at Terry, he flicked his wand, casting a Stunning charm at the boy, locking the door, and after clearing his throat, called upon the one House Elf who always knew more than he was supposed to.
"Tommy?"
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