The Secret Society Chapter 34

Read Previous Chapter Here

Character Images

Harry had been standing in the same spot for well over ten minutes, his mind frantically thinking about what to do.

All that was needed for the seriousness of the situation to hit him was a complete stop of his instinct to fight. In the place of trying to brute force his way into putting down his opponents, Harry was left with a sinking feeling in his gut. He wasn’t concerned about Warrington or the boy he flung into the wall. Bruised egos and cracked skulls were not things to be overly concerned about, with magic at the healer’s disposal.

It was the boy that no longer had an arm that gave Harry concern. Restoring a limb that had been vaporized was not a thing he had ever heard of, and while he didn’t recognize the name of the boy without an arm, he vaguely remembered that his father was a convicted death eater.

More than worrying about the boy’s missing arm, Harry wondered how much more this soon-to-be-released death eater would want his life. At the moment, the Dark Lord’s followers want to kill him for their hatred of his parents. This would give them, or at least one, a personal grudge as motivation.

“Well, I suppose this is your bad luck, boys,” Harry muttered as he raised his wand and pointed it at Warrington, “Obliviate!”

He didn’t blink as the dark passageway flashed a bright white when the spell struck Warrington in the head. That should have erased the memories of the past week. Still, to be sure, he moved closer to lift Warrington’s eyelids to see his unresponsive eyes and cast another spell.

“Legilimens.”

Harry winced at the resistance he met, but that was expected with the Warrington family behind the boy. However, his short time with the Book was more than enough to break through the feeble defenses that faced him.

It was likely a boon that Warrington was unconscious. Harry suspected it must feel like a shredder going through the mind with how inexperienced he was at this. He ignored the trickle of blood coming out of Warrington’s nose and focused on getting the information that he needed.

A few minutes later, Harry stepped back with a gasp, a slight sheen on his forehead from the effort of using legilimency on someone with shields in place. This ambush had been planned since the day that he humiliated Malfoy in the duel, which meant he needed to erase far longer than a week.

It might require a short-term stay at St. Mungo’s, but Harry didn’t particularly care. Especially since Warrington had brought along the only two coconspirators in his plan. It was possible that Harry missed the others that might have got word on this, but Warrington didn’t think it was important enough to remember clearly, so it wasn’t something he could control at the moment.

“Obliviate.”

Harry turned away from Warrington to repeat the spell on the one with the missing arm. The passageway flashed white again before he finally turned his attention to the boy he had taken out right at the start.

He stared at the blood that was pooled under his head before quickly casting a minor healing spell that would temporarily stop the damage from worsening. Using obliviation on someone with head trauma was not wise, but Harry couldn’t see how it could be avoided.

Since Dumbledore would undoubtedly see this in the future when teaching him the mind arts, Harry was mindful of doing his best to not exacerbate the damage he had already caused.

Unlike his other two housemates, being a little more careful when erasing memories would be the best course of action. Though to do that, he would have to use legilimency beforehand to ensure he wasn't providing the Obliviation Spell too much power, and it would only be possible to do so safely if there were no shields whatsoever.

“Legilimens.”

Harry stopped a few seconds later, giving the boy bleeding from the head a strange look. He reached into the boy's robes and grabbed a paper from an inner pocket, unfolding it to see nothing on it.

That wasn’t what Harry had seen in the boy’s memories. This paper clearly had a map of Hogwarts on it, and more importantly, it also had a dot with Harry’s name listed right above it. A dot that had been in this passageway.

Harry had almost forgotten what Warrington said at the start of the ambush. He had asked if Harry was still in the passageway, and this was likely how they knew.

He was tempted to throw caution to the wind and bulldoze his way through the boy’s memories to find out how to reveal the secrets of this map, but it would assuredly turn the boy into an idiot.

Harry hesitated for a few seconds before firming his resolve. Everything’s going to be fine. Besides, the best way to improve his skill in legilimency would be in practical situations. Nothing could be more practical than trying to glimpse the thoughts from a mind threatening to fall apart.

He could take pride if he managed to get this information without turning his housemate into a simpleton… or worse.

“Legilimens.”

Harry focused on pulling up memories related to the paper. Still, with his poor execution, it was more common to see completely unrelated thoughts. Just when he thought he would have to let go of his restraint, Harry saw what the boy said when he opened the map to make it reveal itself.

He broke the connection and stumbled back with a broad smile, noting that the boy looked pale. Well, paler than he usually did. His spell to stop the bleeding seemed to have failed at some point during the legilimency.

Harry cast it again and frowned when it was less effective than before. Immediate medical care would be needed to save him.

“Obliviate.”

A passageway flashed white again. This time it would be the final one. Harry didn’t waste any time and levitated the three boys out of the passageway as gently as possible. Well, it was mainly the one with the horrendous head trauma he was worried about. The other two, he could care less.

After carefully placing them in the hallway and sealing the passageway, Harry lifted his wand and cast the ever-useful blasting spell. The sound it made was enough to wake the entire castle up, and if not that, the paintings pointing at him and gaping would run to the Headmaster to tell him what happened.

He wasn’t too worried about that. Dumbledore would have found out anyway, and he had self-defense as an excuse. When it's three against one, some mishaps are inevitable.

Harry pulled his cloak over his head and started to speed walk back to the Slytherin common room. It was no longer his concern about what happened to these three. He felt he had been overly generous with the outcome.

Harry strode past the unusually packed common room and was able to get to his room without any unwanted surprises.

When the door closed behind him, Harry pulled the paper from his inner pocket and unfolded it.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Harry’s heart skipped a beat when ink slowly began to fill the paper, revealing the entirety of Hogwarts. And a small dot was standing still near the Slytherin common room, a little to the right, showing just how accurate the map was.

Above it was the lettering, ‘Harry Potter.’

Harry stared at it unblinkingly and walked to the other side of the room.

“… Bloody hell,” Harry whispered in shock when the dot moved to mimic his movement. He had no idea how something like this could exist. It must be able to somehow tap into the wards without tipping off the Headmaster, and if that was true, the creators were geniuses.

“Show me Cassius Warrington.”

Harry shivered when the map moved its focus to the hidden passageway. Forgetting that the passageway existed on the map, around Warrington were the names of the two boys he might have permanently disabled.

Caius Darkmoor and Draven Lockewood.

Those names didn’t mean anything to Harry, but at least he could identify the poor saps in the halls if they were able to return to Hogwarts.

More importantly, the map showed three other names quickly converging on Warrington’s group.

Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall.

Harry watched as the dots of the three staff members reached his housemates, and not a second was wasted before all six were heading to the hospital wing. He kept tracking them until he realized something detrimental to his mental state.

If this map could reveal a secret passageway to Hogsmeade, then whoever had this previously might have also had an opportunity to find out about the Room.

“Show me the seventh floor.”

Harry spent the next few minutes trying to make the map show the Room since he knew exactly where it was supposed to be, but he was thankfully unsuccessful. At least his treasure was still safe from the grubby hands of others.

He folded the map and prepared to turn in for the night with a smile. This day wasn’t full of headaches after all. The possibilities that were opened because of this map were endless.

[Break]

It was only the day after, but Harry was quickly coming to realize how addicting it was to use the map. While he couldn’t snoop in on conversations, the fact that it showed who was around the person he was observing, or stalking if being more crass, told him plenty.

Right now, he was staring at Daphne Greengrass. Her dot had been close to Zabini’s for nearly an hour, which was very out of character.

Perhaps this meant she was going ahead with her plan to use Zabini before throwing him away, but that was doubtful. Harry had seen some of the older students together in broom cupboards, and their dots practically overlapped.

If that was the case with Greengrass and Zabini, Harry wouldn’t be tracking them with such interest. Knowing they were doing the horizontal tango was far less interesting to Harry’s gossip-trained mind. However, knowing they had something to discuss for nearly an hour was very interesting.

Perhaps it was time to take up Greengrass’s offer for reconciliation. Call him self-centered, but Harry had a burning suspicion that this sudden closeness had something to do with him.

“Class dismissed!”

Harry looked up from the map to see Umbridge beaming at the sluggish students in the class as they slowly packed up.

“Do remember what you were taught today! If you encounter any danger, it is the job for the Aurors to fix. You are not required to know what to do, nor should you put yourself in danger!”

Harry nodded firmly after Umbridge ended her short speech on a chirpy note. It had been the same thing she said at the end of almost every class as if repetition would brainwash everyone into agreeing with her.

In all honesty, what Umbridge was saying wasn’t wrong for most witches and wizards. They could barely cast the stunning spell successfully, let alone anything more complex.

“Ah, Mr. Potter! Please stay behind. I need to speak to you about your recent performance.”

Harry nodded again obediently. But her not-so-subtle shaming by saying that out loud in front of his classmates told him of Umbridge’s current view of him.

The jaunt through Diagon Alley with Dumbledore seemed to have reached her ears. Plus, the frequent study sessions with Hermione surely wouldn’t have helped.

Luckily for Harry, Umbridge was comically gullible to flattery, and he didn’t foresee much difficulty in turning this in his favor.

Read Next Chapter Here