Waffle

Tw: murder

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The office door opened.

“Hello, Harry. Hello, Luz” Beamed Dumbledore,clad in a large pink, blue, and white robe. It was flowing marvelously, despite them being inside, and no windows being open. He’s using magic to make his robes flow like that, Harry figured. Of course, he is.

Harry walked inside, he had only been in Dumbledore’s office once before; it was a very large and beautiful circular room, lined with pictures of the previous heads of Hogwarts, all of whom were fast asleep.

Cornelius Fudge was standing beside Dumbledore’s desk, wearing his usual pinstripe cloak and lime-green bowler hat.

“Harry!” Fudge cried jovially, “How are you?”

“Fine,” Harry lied.

“We were just talking about the night when Mr. Crouch turned up by the woods,” Fudge explained, “It was you two who found him, correct?”

“Yes,” Luz said, “But Krum was there too,”

“And I didn’t see Madame Maxime anywhere,” Harry added, thinking it pointless to try to pretend he hadn’t overheard what they had been saying, “And she’d have her work cut out for her if she wanted to hide anywhere,”

“Yes, well,” Fudge said, looking embarrassed, “We’re about to go for a short walk in the grounds, if you’ll excuse us… perhaps you two should head back to your classes.”

“We wanted to talk to you, Professor,” Harry said quickly

“Wait for me here,” Dumbledore said, “Our examination of the grounds will not take long,”

They hiked out the door silently, leaving Luz and Harry alone in the room.

“Ohmygosh is that a phoenix!?!?” Luz blurted as soon as the door closed, she clearly had spotted Dumbledore’s phoenix. “¡Ay, que lindo! What’s your name?”

“His name is Fawkes,” Harry told her. Sure enough, she was petting the large scarlet phoenix that lived in Dumbledore’s office.

Harry took a seat in front of Dumbledore’s desk. For several minutes he sat and watched the old Headmasters, Headmistresses, and Headmagisters snoozing in their portraits, hearing Luz coo at the phoenix.

Harry looked around the room and saw the hat that had sorted him into Gryffindor on his first day at Hogwarts. Sitting next to it in a large glass case was a large silver sword with red rubies encrusted in the hilt. Harry recognized it as the same sword he had pulled from the sorting hat when he was in the Chamber of Secrets. He was gazing at it, wondering how it had come to his aid just when he needed it,when he noticed a patch of silvery light beaming onto the glass case.

Looking to find the source of the light, Harry spotted a large amount of light emanating from a large black cabinet that was tucked into the corner, whose door had not been closed properly. Harry hesitated, but eventually, curiosity got the better of him and he got up and opened the door all the way.

A small stone basin lay inside the door, lined with odd runes that Harry did not recognize. The light seemed to be coming from the odd contents of the basin, the likes of which Harry had never before seen. He couldn’t tell if the substance was a liquid or a gas. It was a bright, whitish silver, and was moving ceaselessly.

Harry wanted to touch it, but four years of magical experience told him that touching an unknown magical substance was a very stupid idea.

Luz, however, did not seem to have such inhibitions, as she declared, upon noticing what Harry was doing, “Hey, you found something magical. I'mma put my face in it!”

“Luz!” Harry screamed, but it was too late, she had stuck her face in the substance and fell in as though there was no bottom to the bowl. Harry, not wanting her to be left alone in there, dove in after her, silently scolding himself for how stupid it seemed.

His head did not hit the stone bottom. Instead, he felt like he was being dragged downward through ice-cold molasses.

He seemed to land in a large room, unlike any he had ever seen at Hogwarts, somehow, no one seemed to notice the two teenagers that had just fallen from the ceiling into the room. Instead, they were all silently staring at one corner of the room, as if they were waiting for something or someone.

Harry looked up at the ceiling, expecting to see the circular window through which he and Luz had fallen, but it wasn’t there. The ceiling was nothing but dark, solid stone.

Harry noticed Luz seated at his right, looking somehow much less bewildered than he was. On Harry’s left was one Albus Dumbledore.

“Professor!” Harry said in a sort of strangled whisper. “I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to, I was just looking at that stone basin in the cabinet of your office, then Luz…” He trailed off.

“Where are we?” Luz asked.

“I’m not sure,” Harry answered, then turned back to Dumbledore, “Professor, where are we?”

Dumbledore didn’t move or speak. He ignored Harry completely. Just like everyone else, he was staring at the far corner of the room, where a large door stood closed.

Harry gazed, bewildered, at Dumbledore, then around the room, then back at the professor. Then it finally dawned on him.

“I think we’re in a memory!” Harry and Luz said in unison.

Luz decided to prove this by getting up, walking into the center of the room, and shouting “Azura/Hecate is a more canon-compliant and better ship than Azura/Lucy!”

No one reacted.

“I knew it,” She said, sitting down.

(The memory stuff proceeds as it does in the book, I ain’t typing all that)

“Take them away!” Barty Crouch Sr. roared at the Dementors, spit flying from his mouth, “Take them all away, and may they rot there!”

“Father! Father! I wasn’t involved!” Barty Crouch Jr. pleaded, “No! No! Father, please!”

“Harry, Luz,” A soft voice said in his ear, “I believe it is time to return to my office,”

Harry, startled, turned around. There was an Albus Dumbledore to his left, watching the younger Crouch get dragged away, and there was an Albus Dumbledore on his right, looking directly at him.

He took Dumbledore’s arm, and Luz took the other. The world around him dissolved into blackness, and Harry felt himself rising into the air. He felt as though he did some sort of slow-motion somersault, and he landed, disoriented, in Dumbledore’s office.

“Professor,” Harry gasped, “I’m sorry, we shouldn’t have- the cabinet door was sort of open and-”

“I quite understand,” Dumbledore sighed, lifting the basin and carrying it to his desk. He motioned for Luz and Harry to follow him. “Curiosity is a very powerful thing,”

“What is that thing?” Luz inquired.

“This? It is called a Pensieve,” explained Dumbledore, “I often find, and I’m sure you know the feeling, that I simply have too many thoughts crammed into my head. At times like these, I can use the Pensieve to siphon the excess thoughts from my mind, pour them into this basin, and examine them at my leisure.”

Harry couldn’t truthfully say that he had ever felt anything of the sort.

“You mean that stuff’s your thoughts?” Luz blurted.

“Certainly,” Dumbledore clarified, “Let me show you,”

Dumbledore drew his wand out from his robes and placed it near his temple. When he took the wand away, a strand of his silvery hair seemed to be clinging to it. But Harry soon realized that it was, in fact, a glistening strand of the same strange, silvery-white substance that filled the Pensieve.

Harry saw his own face in it. Dumbledore placed his wand in the bowl and swirled it around, his face transformed into that of Snape’s, who was saying something about his Dark Mark getting clearer.

“I was using the Pensieve when Mister Fudge arrived for our meeting, and I put it away rather hastily. It is quite unsurprising that it caught your eye.” Dumbledore said.

“I’m sorry, professor,” Harry mumbled.

“Curiosity is not a sin,” Dumbledore said, shaking his head, “But we should exercise caution with our curiosity.”

“So, children, before you got lost in my thoughts,” Dumbledore said quietly, “you wanted to tell me something,”

“Yes, err, we both had dreams-” Harry started.

“Were these dreams connected in any way?” Dumbledore interrupted.

“I’m not sure, professor,” Luz admitted, “I don’t know what Harry’s was about, but I doubt they were,”

“And why do you doubt that, Miss Noceda?” Dumbledore gently inquired.

“Well, this was the third time I’ve had this dream, and it’s the same every time.” Luz explained, “It starts with something similar to a past event, but never happened like that. It’s like back in Halloween of ‘22 when Belos possessed my friend Hunter… You know who Belos was, right?”

“Yes, I thought it wise to learn a bit about the Boiling Isles when your principal decided to enter this tournament.”

“Well, he possessed my friend Hunter and forced us to fight him. And the first part is much like that. But instead of being in a Human Realm graveyard, it seems to be in the Throne Room, but it looks like it’s been abandoned for some time. And also Hunter is with us, but also fighting us.”

“As in there are two of him?” Harry asked.

“Yes,” Luz answered, “Then, the Hunter we’re fighting makes a fatal blow on me, and then I open my eyes inside of Belos’ mind. Then things go just as they did when I was actually in his mind in August of that year, until the very end, where Hunter doesn’t save me from Belos’ scythe. Then I wake up, always at four thirty AM.

“Interesting,” Dumbledore said, clinging on to every word. “And as for you, Harry?”

(Harry explains his dream, then asks Dumbledore about his scar and stuff. Again, I don’t really wanna type something that would be word-for-word from the book)

“Professor,” Luz inquired, “Do you think perhaps you could explain why I have been having my dreams?”

“Hmm,” Dumbledore sighed, “That is less clear to me, as I know less of your situation. Is there anything one of you has done that could have bonded your souls?”

“Ummm,” Luz stopped and stroked her chin, “Well, the only thing I can think of is when he possessed the Heart of the Titan, he killed me. I came back later, but he did kill me for a bit. Could that have done it?”

“Yes, especially if it was via magical means, taking a life with magic leaves the souls intertwined, this normally does not have any sort of effect, but if something were to bring back the victim, it leaves their souls tangled together.”

“Is that how I got linked with Voldemort?” Harry inquired.

“That is exactly how you got linked with Voldemort.” Dumbledore exclaimed, “The Killing Curse does that, but your mother’s sacrifice saved you, tying your souls together.”

Luz yawned, “Oh, I guess I should get back to my girlfriend,”

“Yes, I have kept you for much too long. Good luck on the Third Task next week!” Dumbledore called as Harry and Luz left the office.

“I can’t believe it! You’re going to help me make a Palisman of my own!” Hermione gushed excitedly as they neared the grand Palistrom tree in Forearm Forest, luckily, it was not too far from the Owl house.

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” Hunter admitted, “Have you decided what animal you want to make it?”

Silence.

“Hermione?” Hunter asked, concerned.

He looked around and didn’t see her anywhere.

“Hermione!” He called, getting a bit scared.

She was nowhere to be found. He kept calling her name but kept being met with the same eerie silence. As though even the birds had disappeared.

The next thing he knew, he was falling.

“Hunter!” Hermione called, “There you are! I tripped on a root or something, but when I got up, you were nowhere to be found.”

“That’s odd, you seemingly disappeared,” Hunter added.

He looked around them, they had clearly been moved to somewhere else via magic. The trees were not in the same layout, the grand Palistrom tree that all carvers held sacred was missing, in the rough spot Hunter thought it should be, there was a familiar blue sapling.

Hunter decided to question his surroundings “Where-?”

“Caleb!” An unknown voice called out. A woman came into view, she seemed to resemble the Clawthornes in many ways, the same wild hair, the same paper-white skin. She wrapped Hunter in a tight hug, “There you are! I was getting worried when you weren’t at home! What has happened to your face? Are you alright?”

“Uhh,” Hunter managed, but Hermione was quicker, her wand was out in a flash.

“Let go of him,” She warned, “Or you will learn why I am considered the most gifted Witch of my age,”

The woman released Hunter, allowing him to breathe, “And just who are you? I thought I knew everyone on the Boiling Isles,”

Hunter tried to interject, “I don’t mean to be rude, but-”

“Not now, Caleb,” The woman said, getting out her cardinal Palisman, “Let me handle this,”

That Palisman, Hunter knew it all too well. It looked just like, no, it couldn’t be.

“Flapjack?” He asked, placing his hand on his heart, right where Flapjack had sacrificed himself for Hunter.

The cardinal animated itself and fled into Hunter’s hands, Waffle came closer to say hi to his fellow songbird.

“I-I don’t understand…” He mumbled, “H-how are you-”

“Evelyn?” a new voice called, “Where did you go? Philip came over for supper!”

The woman, Evelyn, stared at Hunter in disbelief, they stared at each other in stunned silence until the new voice walked all the way to them.

“Evelyn?” he asked, “What are you doing? And who are these two?” He gestured to Hunter and Hermione.

“Hermione Granger,” She answered quickly, “And this is Hunter, erm, I don’t think I ever actually heard your last name.”

“Clawthorne,” He said, choosing to take the name of the woman who had basically adopted him.

“If you’re a Clawthorne, then why haven’t I seen you at any family reunions?” Evelyn said, “Actually, you look so much in appearance like the Wittebane twins, I’m willing to bet good snails that they’re who you’re really related to,”

“Are you joking? He looks nothing like me!” The real Caleb objected.

“Hast thou looked in a mirror?” Evelyn countered quickly, “You two are identical! The only difference is the scarring on “Hunter”’s face”

“Caleb! Evelyn! Aren’t you two going to come back? I brought Caesar salad” An all too familiar voice called.

“No, that voice, it can’t be…”

“That’s him, isn’t it?” Hermione asked.

Hunter nodded solemnly.

Caleb and Evelyn left the two time-travelers alone as they approached an all-too-familiar house.

“Is that the Owl House?” Hermione asked, seeming to recognize the building.

“I think so,”

“May we join you for supper?” Hermione asked politely.

“Well, of course!” Caleb replied, “What kind of hosts would we be if we turned away guests?”

Hermione followed Caleb inside, Hunter trailing close behind her.

Hunter looked around and was amazed at just how different the Owl House looked. Obviously, Eda’s wanted posters and other assorted items weren’t present. But it was almost unrecognizable. Hooty wasn’t even at the door. Hunter doubted that the building had its nickname without the residence of Hooty or Eda.

“Please, take a seat,” Evelyn insisted as she led them to the dining room, (which Eda used as a storage room). “Caleb and I will have dinner prepared shortly.”

Hunter and Hermione both sat at the round, mahogany table. Philip sat next to Hunter.

“So,” Philip started, “Why do you appear identical to my brother?”

“I can assure you, it’s merely a coincidence,” Hermione insisted, “Hunter and I are from very far away. We were brought here by some strange magic. It’s very kind of your brother and Evelyn to allow us to stay for the night.”

“Well, of course, we’re giving you room and board,” Caleb insisted from the kitchen, “No honest man of God would turn away those in need.”

Philip didn’t seem to like Hermione’s answer but seemed to decide that it wasn’t worth bothering with.

A few minutes later, Caleb and Evelyn emerged from the kitchen, both of them carrying plates of food. Evelyn seemed to be struggling to carry all of her plates, she had one in her left hand and two in her right. Hunter stood up to take one, but Hermione was faster. She drew her wand and whispered, “Wingardium Leviosa” just in time. One of the plates slipped out of her hand, but instead of clattering to the floor, it floated in the air.

“Thank you, young lady,” Evelyn said, undisturbed by the magic.

All of the plates got set at the table, Evelyn and Caleb took seats next to each other. They held their hands together and stared into each other’s eyes. Evelyn rubbed her other hand on her belly.

The food was delicious, as far as Hunter was concerned. It tasted oddly nostalgic, even though he had never had it before. Caleb said that it was one of his mother’s old recipes from back home.

“Now that we have a baby on the way, I guess I’ve been feeling nostalgic from when Philip and I were boys,” Caleb admitted, “Mom always made the best food. She always ended up in charge of the village potlucks back in Connecticut.”

“You have a baby coming?” Hunter asked, “Well, congrats!”

“Thank you,” Evelyn said, “We weren’t sure at first if it would even work, him being a Human and all,”

“But by the grace of God above he has given us the miracle of life!” Caleb exclaimed, almost preachy in tone.

“Have you thought of a name yet?” Hermione asked.

Evelyn replied, “Unlike where Caleb and his brother come from, here in the Boiling Isles, we do not name a child, we allow them to name themselves at the age of six. It’s a bit of a rite of passage for young witchlets.”

“Now,” Caleb added, “If we did it my way, they would be named Ruth for a girl, or Joseph for a boy, and then the middle name after one of Evelyn’s parents. Could you imagine it? Ruth Ophelia Clawthorne, or Joseph Claudius Clawthorne. They have a nice ring to them, don’t you think?”

Clawthorne… Hunter thought, no wonder she seems so familiar. She’s an ancestor of the Clawthornes.

Eventually, long after the sun had set, Evelyn went upstairs to bed, that was when the real show began.

Philip left through the front door, Caleb rushed after him to wish him a good night.

Philip used his brother’s kindness as his downfall.

“Good night, Philip!” Caleb said after hugging his brother. Caleb turned around to return inside to his wife.

Pulling a jagged knife from his pocket, Philip raised his hand to strike his brother in the back.

“No!” Hermione yelled, “Expelliarmus!”

The knife flew out of Philip’s hand, soaring toward Hermione, who caught it with ease.

“What have you done?” Philip begged, “I was going to save his soul! Now he is sure to be sent to Hell!”

“Philip?” Caleb asked, “What are you talking about?”

“Your soul!” Philip insisted, “I was trying to save your soul! You associate too closely with these Witches and heretics! I was going to save you before it was too late!”

“What are you talking about?” Asked Hermione.

A burst of green vines emerged from Philp’s hand, grabbing the knife out of Hermione’s hand.

“You Witches are too far gone. In order to save your souls,” He said, raising the dagger once more. Hunter and Hermione were too shocked to react. “Decisive action must be taken.”

He brought the dagger down. Deep red blood burst forth from Caleb, who screamed in agony.

“Why?” He begged with his dying breath, “Why would you kill your own brother?”

Caleb went limp, nearly a minute passed before anyone reacted.

“You’re-” Hunter accused through tears, “You’re a monster,”

“No,” Philip insisted, “I’m not a monster, I’m a savior! I will cleanse this world of sin if it’s the last thing I-”

“Stupify” Hermione shouted, “Come on, Hunter, let’s find our way back to where we belong,”

She dragged Hunter through the woods, and they eventually found the time pool that had brought them back in time.

Hunter went first. When he came out the other side, it was as though no time had passed. The sun still shined in an orange sky, and Dell was still patiently waiting for them by the Palistrom tree.

Hermione came behind him, looking thoroughly scarred for life.

“He…” She muttered, “He… he kill- he killed his own brother…”

Hunter was speechless.

“Hermione!” Dell called cheerfully, “Are you ready to carve your Palisman?”

Hunter looked back at her. Hermione’s eyes were full of shock.

“Hermione? Hunter?” Dell asked, “Is something wrong? You look like you saw a ghost,”

“He…”

Dell’s face grew increasingly concerned, “Who?”

“Philip…” Hermione muttered, “He… he…” She shook her head. “How could anyone be so horrid?”

“What did Philip do?” Dell asked.

“He killed… He killed his own brother.”

Dell’s face went from worry to comfort, “You’re okay Hermione. You’re safe, I’ll make sure of it,”

He silently called his Palisman and signed for it to find Eda.

“It’s okay Hermione,” He reassured, “You’re safe here,”