Chapter 115: Preparations and Warm-Up (1/2)
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
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Quinn and Filius exited the hospital wing after Quinn's hands had healed enough. Poppy had bandaged them up and told Quinn not to move them. She finally told him to return after he was done to complete his recovery.
”Professor, would it be alright if we take a detour?” requested Quinn to the diminutive goblin at his side. ”I would like to change out of these clothes.”
Quinn straightened his clothes to show that the front of his shirt was stained in blood. The bloodstains were from when Quinn had wiped his knuckles that had the Accionites' blood on them with his shirt.
”I wouldn't feel comfortable when I have blood on my clothes. Especially when I am about to visit the Headmaster.”
Filius looked at and saw that Quinn's clothes were indeed stained with blood.
”If you want, Mr. West, I can vanish that blood off your shirt,” offered Filius, knowing that it wouldn't be good for a child to walk around with blood on his clothes.
”I appreciate the offer, Professor, but I would like to change these out. Even if these clothes were cleaned of the blood, I'll still be uncomfortable in them,” replied Quinn.
Filius nodded and accepted Quinn's request, ”If that is so, then we can take a detour to change your clothes. I'm sure that the Headmaster won't mind.”
'Excellent, he is indeed a good messenger,' thought Quinn. He felt positive that things would end up without any complications.
Quinn and Filius climbed up to the fifth floor, but then, Quinn turned to the opposite direction from the Ravenclaw dorms. Filius asked, ”Where are you going, Mr. West?”
”To the A.I.D. classroom, Professor. I have a set of clothes there,” answered Quinn. ”I don't want to go to the dorms and worry my friends.”
”I understand, Mr. West. Let's proceed to your office, then” nodded Filius, empathizing with Quinn.
Quinn and Filius walked to the A.I.D. office and Quinn invited his Head of House inside.
”Professor, please, make yourself comfortable. I'll change my clothes, and we'll be off in no time,” said Quinn. He aimed his hand at the client chairs while he unlocked the workshop door and entered inside.
He closed the door behind him and immediately started to move quickly.
'I don't have much time. Let's get everything over with quickly,' thought Quinn, a few things moved in the workshop.
One of the drawers opened, and a few sheets of paper flew out from the ream of paper inside. From the same drawer, a fountain pen flew out after the sheet of paper.
On the other side of the workshop, a cabinet opened, and from inside came a white short-sleeved t-shirt, a grey-and-white dynamic work jacket, and red-grey-black work trousers.
As Quinn started to change his clothes, the fountain pen uncapped and glided across the page. It penned the words Quinn wanted.
By the time Quinn was done dressing up, the pen had penned two-and-a-half pages of words.
The pages flew towards a side of the room, and after two glows of light, Quinn exited the workshop. His work was done.
”Let's go, Professor. I'm ready,” said Quinn, dressed in new clothes. His jacket wasn't zipped up, so the white t-shirt he was wearing inside could be seen.
Filius saw Quinn dressed up in new clothes and nodded before he hopped out of his chair.
”Excellent. Let's go, Mr. West.”
As the two exited the office, Filius couldn't help but ask, ”What are you using to light up the room, Mr. West. I was surprised to see no candles in the room.”
”I knew you would ask about them, Professor,” laughed Quinn. ”I used rune applications on metal platings designed to work as light sources. I used the basic Lumos spell as a base inspiration and then worked up from there. I had to specify the dispersion, color tone, warmth, and intensity. The resulting rune cluster was what you saw up there.”
Quinn had already thought of pitching his light-rune designs in the summer break to his grandfather and Lia. This was another thing that could bring a revolution in the existing industry and could replace the standard everlasting (long-lasting) candles that were used everywhere.
Flitwick looked at his smiling student and asked, ”Why are you smiling, Mr. West? From what I've told you, you are in trouble.”
He was a little concerned because Quinn wasn't showing any of the signs that would be visible after what had transpired. Quinn was cavalier and engaging instead of silent and shocked.
”I'm alright, Professor. I understand the situation I was in and how things could have turned out if things had gone differently. If you are thinking why I am so casual about the situation,” said Quinn as the smile drained from his face. ”This is my attempt at self-preservation through disassociation. I'm detaching myself from the situation by acting like it's nothing serious. I wanted to change clothes because they made me think that blood could very easily have been mine.”
Quinn sneakily glanced at Filius to see if his lie worked. From the moment Quinn had opened the door, he hadn't been scared in the least. He had assessed the situation and made sure to secure his safety before taking any action.
All of them would find that Quinn's behavior was consistent throughout the ordeal, as from the very first words in which Quinn had joked about disturbing the conversation between the Accionites and Marauders to him acting goofily with Poppy he had acted in a similar way.
”... I see, Mr. West,” said Filius after a pause. ”Please be assured that those people will be brought to justice, and the faculty will do its best to improve security. I personally will make sure that none of my students are harmed.”
”Thank you for your kind words, Professor. They mean a lot,” smiled Quinn. He chuckled as he continued. ”I'm guessing that the Shrieking Shack passage will be closed down.”
”Definitely, Mr. West,” smiled Filius. ”No more outside castle visits for you.”
”Aw, that's lame!” laughed Quinn, not worried about it because he knew many more passageways that would allow him to sneak out of the castle.
As the student and Professor continued to talk, the pair arrived at the Headmaster's office.
'Alright, let's see how this goes,' thought Quinn as Filius said the password. The entrance opened.
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- (Scene Break) -
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Lily and Ivy Potter practically rushed to the hospital wing. They had been told that Harry had come close to being kidnapped by the terrorist group called Novellus Accionites, who had infiltrated Hogwarts and had captured Harry in broad daylight.
They were semi-relieved to hear that the attempt was thwarted because the Marauders had been partying in the Shrieking Shack.
When they heard that Harry was resting at the hospital, both mother and sister ran to see Harry.
Inside the hospital wing, they saw Poppy tending a sleeping Harry while casting some spells at Harry's head.
”Poppy, how is he?” asked Lily, her eyes stuck to her son.
Poppy turned to her colleague and gave her the same answer that she had given the father.
”He hit his head on the ground. Other than that, he is fine. He's sleeping and will wake up in a while.”
She waved her wand, and two barstools came gliding for Lily and Ivy to sit down.
”This was close, wasn't it?” said Poppy as she herself took a seat. ”To think they used the tunnel made for Remus. I used to guide him to that house every month when he was still a student here.”
Everything from the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack, including the passage that joined the two, had been added after Remus Lupin had sent back the reply in which he said he would be attending Hogwarts.
The school had added these landmarks to ensure that Remus could go through his lycanthrope transformation in isolation and continue to study at the school with no one knowing about his condition.
Every evening, Poppy would guide the then-teenager Remus to the Shrieking Shack. The house had been commissioned by the school and got its name because, in the absence of Wolfsbane potion, Remus would bite and scratch himself due to a lack of humans to infect.
Albus Dumbledore encouraged the rumors about the house being haunted because they would keep people from approaching the building, making it a safe haven for Remus to go through his monthly transformation.
”James, Sirius, and Remus were lucky to be there. To think Remus's condition would help thwart the attempt,” sighed Lily as she ran a hand through Harry's hair.
”They were indeed lucky,” Poppy, too, sighed. ”To think not only those three were at the shack for Remus, but the kidnappers also used the same route… and finally Quinn also used the same passage.”
Lily and Ivy both looked up at the Matron, who was shaking her head at her semi apprentice's antics.
”... Quinn?” asked Ivy, surprised to hear that name in the current situation.
”Yes, apparently that child had been sneaking in-and-out of the castle to visit Hogsmeade outside of the Hogsmeade weekend. He used that passage as his sneak route. Today, after he was returning from Hogsmeade, he chanced upon the tense situation and saw wands pointed from both parties.”
”How's he?” asked Lily with wide eyes, looking around to see if Quinn was lying on another bed.
”He's fine. Filius took him to meet the Headmaster. Quinn punched the man who was holding Harry hostage,” sighed Poppy, thinking about Quinn's hands. ”That child's hands were in bad shape. He, a fourteen-year-old, hit an adult enough times to draw blood and break his bones. Despite this, he smiled the entire time.”
A fourteen-year-old wasn't developed enough and had low strength. Poppy realized that, and when Quinn told her that he broke the man's jaw, she imagined from checking Quinn's hands how many times Quinn had to punch to break a person's face.
Quinn's knuckles would've been injured way before accomplishing what he had. So Poppy realized that Quinn had ignored the pain and had kept hitting.
While Poppy was thinking about Quinn, Ivy, too, was thinking about him.
She couldn't believe that Quinn had once again saved Harry from another dangerous situation. Ivy had just managed to put aside the thoughts about Quinn's slip about the Chamber of Secrets, but now this happened, and she again thought about Quinn.
From her very first year, Quinn West had been a part of her school life one way or another. He would always be connected to the bizarre and wild incidents that happened to her and her friends.
In the first year, he had warned them about the Philosopher's stone's chambers, and she was sure that he had been inside those chambers.
In the second year, he had caught her trying to sneak into Slytherin's common room; he had told them about the Basilisk and the Chamber of Secrets and saved them from the monster inside the chamber. He had found things before anyone else and seemed to know everything about what was happening.
In her third year, he had made Hermione take him to the past because he wanted to save himself by creating a time travel loop. How did he get injured? She still doesn't know because Quinn was somehow able to avoid that entire line of questioning. Then she saw Quinn produce the biggest Patronus she had ever seen.
She thought that those few hours completed the yearly quota of interaction with Quinn West, but now that she heard this, Ivy realized she was wrong. He had saved her brother and had gotten injured while doing it.
Ivy remained silent in her thoughts as Lily and Poppy continued to talk about the incident that took place today.
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