JPATNM ~ Chapter 14: In Which Rose's Curiosity Will Hopefully Be Sated

Don’t find fault, find a remedy.
- Henry Ford

Chapter 14:

In Which Rose's Curiosity Will Hopefully Be Sated

~ Rose ~

A whole new chapter opened for Rose with the new semester at school. At first, it felt easier to slip back to the good times she had cursing all her housemates, the moment they looked like trouble. She knew though, that this was not the kind of person she would have liked to become, or her family would be proud of. She was glad that Albus had given her that lecture, knocking some sense into her before she took it so far. During Christmas, she vaguely discussed with her Mum about ideals and competition at school, without admitting to any of the things she had done or the fact that Scorpius Malfoy might, at some degree, perhaps, kind of pose a bit of a competition during classes.

“Well, as far as studying went, I was alone. There was one class I wasn’t the best in class, D.A.D.A. Harry was better when it came to the practical side of it. Harry wasn’t someone I saw as competition though,” Hermione had said.

Ron, who had been poking at the fire across the room had turned, and said, “Of course you didn’t, you were the competition. It’s leviOsa, not leviosA!” he had mocked and Hermione had thrown a cushion in his face.

“What I mean is, use competition to elevate yourself, as a reason to learn more and be better next time. Under no circumstances do not try to belittle others to look better.”

Rose had felt a pang of guilt in her chest. Her mother’s words had hit straight home. “Not even a little?” she had asked, looking for a reason to excuse herself if possible.

“If it truly is just a little. But remember that the more you do it, the more disliked you’ll be.”

“Finally learning,” Ron had said under his breath.

Things felt quite different back at school. Everyone was cheerful, relaxed by the holidays and probably come to terms with their sorting, if they were in doubt or unsatisfied with it. Things were becoming… normal.

“Are you sure they’re not visible?” Albus asked, fumbling with his face. “They feel visible.”

“It’s just your idea because you know they’re there. Stop doing that.” She smacked his hand away with her wand.

“No wands in the hallways, Weasley!” Mr. Crubs called at her. He was mopping an orange puddle on the floor, that was spreading around his legs and sliding away from his mop, as if it had a will of its own. The caretaker’s helper cursed under his breath and changed after the slimy substance.

“Fred and James must be back to spreading panic around the school. They do it so much it’s practically a full time job.”

“That’s expected, after all the plotting they did during the holidays. It’s nice though, that they’re talking again,” Albus said.

She raised her eyebrows, as the slime rose a few inches from the floor, forming something like a mouth and hissed at the assaulting mop. “They’re doing more than that.”

Albus’s fingers went again to his face. “So you can’t see them, right?”

“No. Chill, they’re invisible, my charm works like… well, a charm.”

Rose had seen Albus in his new glasses, only because he could not avoid it anymore. His sight had improved so much with them, that after two days it was practically impossible for him to even go to the bathroom without them. The reality remained though, that he did not want to be seen wearing glasses in school. The two of them had pondered on it and Rose had considered a few solutions, none of which was very easy, or practical. They concluded that an invisibility charm was the best thing they could try.

Rose practiced a charm from a book Hermione had bought in her fifth year and even with her talent for them, it took her a few tries to make it work right. Once she managed to make only one half of the glasses invisible and another time they flickered insanely, visible and invisible and visible again, but until they were on their way back to school, she had absolutely mastered it. The spell though lasted for approximately seven hours and then she had to cast it again.

Albus was so paranoid about anyone finding out about his glasses, that he slept with their case below his pillow, so none of the other first year boys would see them on his nightstand if anything went wrong. All the nervousness and disbelief in the charm’s effect excluded, he was satisfied. Soon, he grew used to it.

“Are we late?” Rose asked. It felt as if they were waiting for hours at the edge of the fifth floor, until the stairs turned to come in front of them.

“Hagrid said at six. It’s five to six.”

“We’ll be late,” she said desperately.

“It’s just Hagrid! I think it’s okay to be a little late. He doesn’t have such a tight schedule.”

The stairs finally came, stopping somewhat abruptly and a small piece of marble was chipped off the edge from the impact. They trotted down quickly, past students walking around lazily, finally done with the classes of the day. They treaded warily outside, avoiding the paths created by other students in the snow; once night came, all of them became sneaky traps of death, as Albus dramatically called them, as they froze and slipped more than engorged seaslugs.

The giant smiled as they came in, shivering from the cold, with palms snuck underneath their green, Slytherin scarves. “There ye are! Thought sumthin’ came up, ‘nd ye wouldn’t make it!”

Albus smiled. “No, we wouldn’t do that again. We’ve cancelled enough times already.”

Hagrid bobbed his head back and forth, dark hair and beard shaking along. “True ‘nough, true ‘nough. Sit, sit, I’ve already got the kettle goin’.”

They chose two of the ginormous chairs on the table and as if in sync, they searched in their cloaks for the presents they had gotten Hagrid for Christmas. With this and that, it was February and they still hadn’t given them; they wanted to do it in person instead of sending them by owl.

Hagrid noticed them on the table, where they pushed them his way. “Ye shouldn’t have!” he said, smiling visibly beneath his thick beard. “Ye’re such adorable thin’s.” He brought a plate full of muffins in the middle of the table and took a seat, to open them. Albus had gotten him a mixture of seeds for differently coloured pumpkins, red, orange, yellow, green and purple, some with speckles and some with lines. Rose had chosen a whistle that was audible only to thestrals. “Useful stuff, thank you.”

He tried the whistle, which made no audible sound, but after a while a whine was heard from outside the hut and on the window it was as if a warm breath removed the frost on the windowpane, but no one stood there. Hagrid took an apple from a sack by the sink and opened the window. “There ye go.” A crunch was heard and an invisible set of teeth bit down on the fruit, retreating in the darkness of the forest with it. “Heh, so glad it works; half o’ those thin’s are such scams!” Rose smiled satisfied. She wouldn’t know if it worked even if she tried it; thestrals were invisible to her.

“I’ll plant the seeds come spring, so make sure ye come see how they turn up, Al,” he said to him. He placed the bag of seeds in a wooden box on the mantelpiece. “So, tell me how ye’ve been. Are thin’s okay in Slytherin?”

They shrugged. “Better than expected. But we’re not quite part of the Slytherins. We’re somewhere in between,” admitted Albus.

“We have friends in other Houses though. Some also play Quidditch with us… or, well, against us. Sometimes we split by Houses in teams, some other times not,” Rose explained.

“So ye’re likin’ Quidditch then?”

“It’s nice,” Albus said.

“What positions?”

“I’m a beater,” Rose said proudly.

Hagrid’s eyes grew huge. “Ye wee thing a beater? For Dumbledore’s sake, are ye serious? Does yer Ma know of this?”

“She didn’t take it well at first. But Dad reminded her Uncle Fred and George were beaters for many years in their teams and they never got badly injured.”

“You should come watch us sometime.”

“Will do, will do. What days are you practicing?”

Albus thought; Professor Bazel had changed the schedule after the vacation. “Saturdays at four and every second Tuesday at six.”

“‘kay, I’ll make sure t’ come then. So this Bazel guy is good, huh? The professors didn’t like th’ idea at first, hiring a squib for a teaching position an’ all. Silly prejudices I say, all of ‘em fitting us into categories. The Giant, the centaur, the squib… DeMolay is trying to take it down a notch with all the foreigners. Dumbledore and McGonagall used to hire people they knew, all British bred an’ born. I like the Headmistress’s ideas, just wonderin’ where they’ll lead the school.”

“I am glad he’s teaching here,” Rose said. “If DeMolay hadn’t brought him here, I wouldn’t know squibs could fly a broom.”

“Not all of them can. Depends on how much magic they got in ‘em. But he’s a nice lad, young an’ hopeful.” A low whine came from somewhere; Rose’s eyes flicked straightaway to the windows. “That ain’t no thestral,” Hagrid said. He swallowed a sip of his tea and stood up again, heading to the back of the hut. The children tensed on their seats, and leaned to that direction curiously. “Ye can come see, but careful, slow movements.”

The sight expecting them was the most adorable thing they had ever seen. Rose let an aww and knelt down on the floor on the right of Hagrid, while Albus peeked from his left. It was a baby unicorn, thin and silver, its legs curled beneath its abdomen and a small bump on its forehead, like the tip of a horn.

“Found tis one wonderin’ the forest fringes; he’s orphaned. Grubbly Plank speaks all gibberish about unicorns wantin’ female attention, but I don’t see her ever comin’ to nurse ‘em if needed. That little fella and I get along just fine without her.”

“Are you going to keep him?” Al asked.

“Only ‘til spring. After most o’ the frost is gone, he’ll be able to look after himself.” The foal whined again in protest. “Anyone want to feed it?” he asked.

“Can we?” Rose asked, trying to keep herself from bouncing on her heels.

“Get a carrot each.” They did and the foal shied away from Rose, but happily ate the carrot Albus was holding. “See? It picked the boy! Grubbly Plank’s got it all wrong about unicorns! I hate this woman!”

“Is she so bad?” Rose asked, while Albus enjoyed watching the unicorn munch on the carrot.

“Not so much now that we’ve split classes. We’re makin’ sure we don’t see each other too much. She got the third years this time though, so I haven’t had Freddie in my class yet. Maybe it’s for the best; I’m getting old and that boy’s a menace!” The children nodded in agreement. “Comes by a lot though, asking me this and that ‘bout dragons. Feels like he’ll be off to Romania with his uncle at this rate.”

“You think so?”

“He does read about them a lot. I saw a book about them in his room at the Burrow,” Rose confirmed.

“He’s gotta get more serious if he wants that; they’re not joking in Romania, they’re doing hard work and they won’t let him off the hook like they do here. They don’t appreciate the humour when it comes to their dragons, ye see.”

“Hagrid! He let me touch him!” Albus exclaimed happily. “Can I name him?”

“I dunno if unicorns answer to names. But do it if ye want.”

Albus sat down, in deep contemplation. In the meantime the foal shifted and got on its feet, nudging the small of Albus’s back with its muzzle. “Wait, I’ll get you more in a second…” he murmured, but was forced to turn around after a series of persistent pushes. “I said…” he trailed off, seeing the foal’s legs. Below the knee they began fading, and the hooves were completely invisible. “Hagrid? Is, is he well? Seems a little…”

“Ah, yeah, don’t mind that. I think he’s got a bit o’ thestral in him. Also the tail. Ah, forgot, you can’t see them. I might ask for Grubbly Plank’s opinion someday, if I feel like it.”

Albus let out a nervous laugh. “It’s like you’re half ghost…” he said, petting his head. “What about Casper? Sounds good?”

“Good ‘nuf for me. Seems to suit him.”

“Casper then.” Casper whined happily and licked Albus’s ear.

Rose nudged the giant with her elbow. “Don’t tell Grubbly Plank this one prefers boys more, she’ll blame it on Casper’s thestral side.”

* * * * *

Rose snapped Flights with Dragons and Wanderings Beyond shut, having finished copying what she needed about the description of the valley where the first Conference for the Agreement of Wizarding Secrecy was thought to have taken place. All that was Binns’s assignment, as expected.

“When will you let me have a proper look at them?” Rose whispered to her cousin. “It’s already been a month!”

“We need to find a safe place where no one will disturb us, I told you!” he replied in a hushed voice. Madam Pince was strolling between the tables, making sure the rules of the school library were not overlooked. She was unnerved by the presence of a Potter and a Weasley in her domain, result of previous experiences with another pairing of the two families.

“I’ve told you the perfect place already. Hagrid’s hut,” she protested.

He shook his head and ran a hand across his face, pushing up the bridge of his nose his invisible glasses. “And I’ve told you why I don’t like it. What happens when Hagrid asks what you’re reading and decides it’s too dangerous and takes the diaries away?”

She leaned her head against her palm. “I don’t know all that many hiding places… Mum wasn’t big about sharing all the secret passages at Hogwarts. Maybe she was kind of worried we’d turn out like Fred and James and not use the knowledge for particularly noble purposes.”

“But those two do! We’ll go ask them!”

“They’ll ask for the reason,” Rose noted.

“We’ll say we want it as a trap for someone! To make a joke!”

“They’ll want in.”

Albus’s face fell, disappointed. “We can just distract them with that thing that Flint did the other day; they’re sure to forget about it.”

“Sounds good. Let’s go find them.” They collected their stuff, and hurried out of the library. If someone was watching at the librarian, they’d see her exhale in relief.

* * * * *

“So let me get this straight. You need us to tell you of a good hiding place,” James said, hands crossed over his chest. Fred leaned thoughtfully with one foot resting against its gilded frame of a portrait of a bespectacled, annoyed wizard,

“Not quite a hiding place… Simply a location hard to reach, where not many students or teachers pass by.”

“And what are we going to earn for this piece of precious information?” Fred asked. The portrayed wizard above him tried to cast a spell at their cousin’s head, but the spell bounced back and as if reflected, it hit the wizard's arm It turned into a wooden log, the weight dragging the wizard off his armchair.

“What do you want?” Rose asked. It was a dangerous question. Those two could ask for the moon and stars and then some.

The two of them exchanged a look. It was peculiar how they had a whole conversation, without anything actually being said. James turned back to his brother. “Well, here’s a quick quiz. How do you get a magical map to reveal its secrets?”

Albus raised an eyebrow. He wrinkled his nose, making a grimace. It was a gesture he had picked up to lift his glasses slightly, without bringing his hand to his face, since that would be a giveaway for their invisible presence there. “Are you talking about the Marauder’s Map?”

“What does this have to do with anything?” Rose asked back. “That’s practically common knowledge.”

Fred’s face twitched slightly. The wizard in the portrait had recovered in the meantime and was shooting shoes and books and all sorts of things at him, exasperated. Maybe Fred felt them. “Then it won’t be too difficult for the two of you.”

“Do they mean the thing that you do, where you tap and say ‘I solemnly swear I’m up to no good’ thing?” Albus asked her, perplexed. Way too simple, Rose thought. All of them must have heard about a million stories about things their parents did with that map.

“Ding! And the answer is… correct!” James said, grinning impishly.

Rose tapped her foot, annoyed by James’s inexplicable excitement. “Alright, so what is it that you want in exchange for telling us about that place now?” The two of them had again one of those wordless conversations. Rose’s fingers itched for her wand, resisting hard the impulse to jinx them both. She held back, knowing if she did, they would never give them any answers.

“I’m good if you let me borrow those self-tying shoelaces from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes next Monday.”

“And?” Rose asked suspiciously, this sounding even simpler than the question.

“Tell us if it was Quincy Goyle who made the hole in the wooden corridor leading out of the castle,” he added.

Rose shook her head, finding them all absurdly strange and simple questions for such a thing. “It was him, of course. I wonder if anyone else at school has the proper size to break those boards.”

“I think Hagrid does…” mumbled Albus.

“Well, here we go then, little Slytherins. Prepare yourselves for the greatest hideout you have ever heard of. It is a little risky. But it is definitely out of the way of all indiscreet bypassers,” Fred said with a grin, removing his shoe from the frame. The wizard behind him huffed quietly and stood up, to head over to a counter where a potion was brewing.

“Oh, you’re not talking about…” James started.

Fred nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Fred assured him. “Only the best for my favourite cousins.”

“You need to be very careful with this one though, Al, because if anything happens, Mum will…” James shuddered. “I don’t even want to think about it.”

“What is this place?” Rose demanded.

“To make a long story short it’s… the Giant Squid’s nest,” James said.

“The Giant Squid’s what? Squids have nests?” Albus asked, his mouth slightly agape.

“I believe that the term lair is more appropriate, but nest sounds more friendly, doesn’t it?” Fred asked, awaiting confirmation.

“And how do we get there? I’ve seen no islands in the Black Lake.” Albus complained. It was the strangest thing they had ever heard about the castle; rooms that gave you your heart’s desire and tunnels leading to Hogsmeade sounded more plausible. But if they weren’t fooling them, that place would be just perfect.

“It is not on the lake, it’s in the lake. I’ll explain the route just once, so listen closely.” Rose leaned forward a bit. “We know two ways in and out. We only suggest the one I’ll tell you about next, but we should warn you there are more. You can go in and out of it swimming, but you have to be crazy to try this in that weather and the nest is really deep, deeper than your little Slytherin common room.

“The other way is to pull a root of the big oak that’s growing next to the shore of the lake. You’ll know it the moment you see it, because it is loose and doesn't plunge itself in the ground. Don’t freak out at that point, the soil will give in, revealing a passage that leads under the lake and to Giant Squid's nest.”

“Better use Lumos and be careful because Nifflers often dig under the school's grounds and show up unexpectedly,” James added. “And which side of the cave you came in from, because there are two more passages, but they’re dead ends.”

“So you’re saying, that we put a root and we get a tunnel to the Giant Squid’s bed,” Rose said, somewhat disbelieving.

“Yes, that’s it more or less,” Fred agreed. “Actually, better pull the root using a spell, it doesn’t give in too easily. Stubborn little thing.”

“And how do you know how to find this place?” Albus asked, scratching the back of his head.

Fred placed a finger over James’s lips before he could reveal anything too crucial. “Those are secrets of the trade.”

“Al, careful with the squid. It probably won’t care for you if it’s there, it sits in the only spot with water in the cave, but you never know.” James looked serious.

“I will.”

“And don’t try to steal anything from the cave, you greedy little things. The myth says that if you do, it will collapse,” Fred warned ominously.

Rose nodded, but discarded the notion as one of their usual theatrics. As if caves have anything worth stealing, she thought. “I hope the cave is there. ‘Cause if not…”

“No shoelaces,” Albus finished the sentence. “And it would be best not to get on Rose’s bad side,” he whispered the last part to them as Rose walked away.

She spun around abruptly. “You’ve also promised me a blue pigmy puff, Fred! I haven’t forgotten!”

“Of course not. I wouldn’t expect you to!” he called back.

Rose and Albus smiled to each other in delight for the hiding place they had been taught about. Little did they know, what the answer they thought was so obvious had offered to Fred and James and what an equal exchange of information the whole affair had been.

“When should we go?” Rose asked impatiently.

Albus thought of the hour. “We missed lunch with all that! Actually, we must already be late for D.A.D.A.!” They ran down the hallway, their joy replaced with the terror of stepping into Orianna Cemola’s classroom late. And so, the adventure was postponed. That couldn’t keep Rose’s eyes from grazing the still frozen lake though, her mind dreaming of the secret cave it hid in its depth.