Hello everyone, I'm here with a new chapter. I finished this chapter early because I won't have time to write next week. I hope I didn't make a mistake while rushing.
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Pa(tre)on.com*(/)arcanedruid
12 November 1942
Rubeus Hagrid's point of view
I was sitting in the parlour of the mansion, talking to Radagian about yesterday's events. I had been called to Dumbledore's office in the morning before I had even had breakfast. I had been told about Raskalov's punishment. According to the story to be told to the school, I was attacked by some pickpockets in Hogsmeade yesterday and Professor Raskalov was injured trying to save me. She will therefore be absent from classes for a fortnight. In reality, she'll have to undergo a mental evaluation in those two weeks. According to Principal Dippet, Raskalov's ritual may have adversely affected his mental state, because trying to kidnap me was the worst course of action. The outcome of the assessment will determine whether or not she can teach. If she received any other punishment, I wasn't told. So I had breakfast and then I came here to see Radagian.
Radagian said, "You dodged a bullet. If you'd drunk the veritaserum we'd have been in a lot of trouble."
Rubeus "Indeed, I was very lucky."
Radagian "Next time you might not be so lucky, you need to be more careful."
Rubeus "What do you think I should do now? About Raskalov?"
Radagian "Of course you should bond with her. What else are you gonna do?"
Rubeus "I don't know. In the past I wouldn't have hesitated. Now I don't know. On the one hand, it bothers me that I can help someone under the maledictus curse and I can't. On the other hand, after she kidnapped me, I don't think I'll be able to approach her the way I used to."
Radagian " Even if you don't like her, you should bond with her. From what you told me yesterday, I understand that she has mastered more than one field. You can't miss such a subordinate. She can also be a teacher to you. I'm limited in what I can do as a portrait."
Rubeus said, "Okay, I'll agree if he wants to, but what about Dumbledore?"
After feeling Dumbledore's magic power and anger yesterday, I had developed some fear of him.
Radagian said, "Give him what he wants. If he brings you a maledictus you can bond with, bond with her, no harm done."
Rubeus "What books shall I give them?"
After that, Radagian quickly told me a few books and their location in the library.
As I was about to collect the books and leave, I stopped and turned to Radagian with something that came to my mind.
Rubeus said, "Now that I think about it, something has occurred to me. Yesterday, Headmaster Carrow told us that according to the agreement you made with us, you couldn't leave any treasure of great value to the school, and you even took an unbreakable oath about it. How did you manage to leave your pocket size at Hogwarts?"
A small smile formed on Radagian's face.
Radagian said, "Let this be a lesson to you. Be careful with your choice of words when making magical oaths and agreements. When I was still alive, the pocket dimension was incomplete. Therefore, the only thing that could be seen as treasure was the sphere and this house. So I managed to leave them here without breaking the oath."
The old fox was apparently quite cunning back then. I left the manor after nodding my head as if I understood. I had books to deliver.
17 December 1942
One of the Gryffindor prefects had told me that Professor Raskalov had sent for me. So I was on my way to the professor's office, which is now next to the Aritmansi classroom. There had actually been two other attacks in the past few weeks. A Ravenclaw and a Hufflepuff I didn't recognise had been targeted. Other than the attacks, the past few weeks had been pretty normal. Apparently Professor Raskalov's mental state was normal enough to teach. Still, outside of her classes, she could hardly move on her own. She was always surrounded by one of the professors who knew about the case. As punishment, Professor Steffonson told me that he had to make a rather large donation to Hogwarts. That's none of my business, though.
Now he had called me to him. She was probably going to explain her decision about the ritual. My guess was that he would accept it because the alternative was worse. She even said that day that the ritual had actually shortened her time.
When I finally arrived in front of Professor Raskalov's office, I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. When I heard Professor Raskalov's voice from inside, I opened the door and went in. Professor Raskalov and Professor Dumbledore were waiting for me inside.
Raskalov spoke while pointing to a chair in front of his desk. "Here, Mr Hagrid, please sit down." Dumbledore was sitting right opposite me. After I took my seat, Raskalov continued speaking in a defeated tone. "As you may have guessed, I have summoned you here to discuss the ritual in question."
I nodded in agreement and she continued. "I would like to do the ritual during the Christmas holidays, if you don't mind."
This was a bit troublesome, I had some things to do during the Christmas holidays. First I was going to go home and transfer the greenhouse tree and the pine tree that turned into a magical tree into the pocket dimension. I was also going to take some materials I left at home, such as the acromantula egg, and go back to school. Then I was going to reveal Riddle. So my holiday was quite full. Still, I think I could find time for the ritual.
Rubeus said, "I will return home on the first day of the holiday and if it is convenient for you, we can do the ritual then."
Dumbledore "May I ask why you're going home, Mr Hagrid, as I understand it might be better for you to stay at school?"
Rubeus said, "I have a few things to collect from home, sir, and then I will probably return to school by train the next day."
During holidays like Christmas, the Hogwarts express ran daily to London. That way I wouldn't have to wait for the holidays to end to get back to school.
Dumbledore said, "I see. In my case, I have not yet been able to contact my Maledictus acquaintance. I'm afraid the earliest we'll see each other is in the summer."
Raskalov frowned, then continued. "I have no problem with performing the ritual during the Christmas holidays. It might even be perfect. After all, I won't be at Hogwarts after Christmas."
Rubeus "Are you going to give up your professorship?"
" Raskalov "Unfortunately, I am no longer welcome at Hogwarts, both because of the events of a few weeks ago and because of the inappropriateness of a relationship between a professor and a student, such as the bond that would form after the ritual."
Oops, I thought he would be a good helper while I was at Hogwarts. Even without Riddle, having a professor to help me would make it easier for me in many things. Not just for school subjects. Her mastery of arithmansy would be very helpful in adapting some of the old spells from Radagian to modern magic. She could also teach me many things that are not taught at Hogwarts, such as rituals. Perhaps I could persuade him to live in a pocket dimension during Hogwarts.
Rubeus "Is there anything I can help you with?"
Raskalov "Thank you for your consideration. There's nothing you can do at the moment. In that case, we could do the ritual on the first night of the Christmas holidays. That will give you some time to rest. The ritual will be magically exhausting to say the least."
Rubeus said, "No problem for me. I can go now."
Raskalov, "Of course you can." The rest of the sentence caught me off guard just as I was standing up. "As soon as you give me your address."
With a small blush on my face, I wrote my address on a parchment and left the room.
20 December 1942
I was wandering the corridors of Hogwarts at a leisurely pace, whistling. There hadn't been an attack yet this week. I hope there won't be. If there is no trouble next week, Riddle will be caught and I will start my peaceful school life for real. So why shouldn't I be cheerful? What I felt with Voxnaturae froze me in my tracks for a moment.
"Fuck."
You know what they say. Speak of the devil and he will be revealed. The Basilisk was on the hunt again. Worse, it was near me. Worse, it was getting closer and closer to me. When I heard the sound of stones rubbing against each other and then the sound of something big and heavy crawling on the floor from the corridor behind me, I became even more sure that the Basilisk was going to attack me and I started running in the opposite direction.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"
One week, just one more week and I'd be safe. Why the hell was this snake targeting me? Or Riddle had discovered something. Lately I'd been spending more and more time around the girls' toilets on the second floor, trying to get more solid evidence against Riddle. I wonder if he suspected something.
As I ran, I grabbed my wand in one hand and one of the demon trap seeds I had alchemically altered in the other. There was a turn to the right just ahead. If I remember correctly. Beyond the turn was a long corridor without windows leading to the dungeons. The perfect place to use the demon trap seed. As soon as I turned right, I felt the basilisk enter the corridor behind me. After a few metres in the corridor, I activated the demon trap seed. I threw it without looking back. The seed suddenly started to absorb magic energy from its surroundings at an incredible speed and started to produce vines. As my back was completely covered with vines, I felt a slight pain and annoyance coming from the basilisk. I think some vines had hit it. When I felt the vines covering the entire corridor behind me, I finally calmed down and took a deep breath. When I slowly turned around, I was relieved to see that the vines covered the entire corridor like a wall. At that moment, I suddenly ducked thanks to a sense of danger coming from behind me. I saw a cutting curse cutting a few vines in the ivy seed, where my head would be right now if it weren't for Voxnaturae. When I turned around, I finally saw the person waiting for me. He started talking at the same time.
"Well, well, well, you amaze me more and more, you disgusting half-blood."
In front of me stood the future Voldemort, Tom 'Fucking' Riddle.
"Tom, why you?"
He continued to speak sarcastically.
Riddle "Oh come on, you really want to play this game? Did you really think I wouldn't notice? Walking around the Chamber of Secrets, trying to keep me under surveillance every time I go to the second floor. Don't play naive, half-blood, you're not convincing...."
At this moment I sent a silent filipendo right in his face. Unfortunately there were about ten metres between us and he easily dodged it.
I couldn't help grinning when an angry expression appeared on his face.
Rubeus "What, did you think I'd expect you to go on with your monologue like an old-fashioned villain?"
Riddle was completely enraged by what I said. Now I know Radagian told me not to fight Riddle, but I still might have a small chance. I'll have to finish this quickly though, I can hear the sounds of the basilisk trying to break through the demon trap wall behind me.
Riddle sends me a curse in a hideous shade of purple that I manage to dodge at the last moment, and I retaliate with a thorny vine that shoots out of the end of my staff. Unfortunately, he easily blocked it with a silent protego.
The son of a bitch was slowly approaching me, taking his time, as if mocking me. I angrily threw two ice blades at him, which hit the same shield spell and shattered, creating a freezing air that chilled the surroundings. Angrily, he spat out a wave of flame from the tip of his staff.
Taking advantage of the smoke screen created by the combination of fire and ice, I manipulated the vine left on the ground after my second attack, grabbed Riddle by the foot and pulled him towards me. At the same time, I cast a thunderwave spell to try to paralyse him. Unfortunately, before the thunderwave touched him, it created a wave of pure black magic energy and created an explosion where the two waves collided. As he was thrown backwards by the force of the explosion, I flew backwards and hit the demon trap wall behind me. Before Riddle could recover, I threw another seed in front of me, creating a demon trap wall between Riddle and me, a wall that would have trapped Riddle if he had been hit by the thunderwave because he was paralysed. I knew the wall wouldn't stop him for long, so I cast a dragon roar spell to draw more attention to our location. At the same time, I heard Riddle's angry voice from behind the wall.
"Enough, Avada Kedavra" The weak point of the seeds was that all the vines came from the same plant, so a single killing curse was enough to kill them all. Thank Merlin the wall stopped growing but the vines were still there. I tried to create a wall of ice in front of me with freezing spells. All I could do now was to buy time until the professors got here. The only reason I had held out so far was because Riddle despised me and was unprepared for druid-style elemental magic. I watched Riddle try to break the wall for about twenty seconds, and then I heard the same angry voice from behind the wall.
"Bombarda Maxima Maxima bombarda" An extremely powerful explosion curse, which I had not even heard of yet, exploded the ice wall unexpectedly. As I lost consciousness from the impact, the last thing I heard was the footsteps coming from the bend behind Riddle.
20 December 1942 night hours
I woke up with a horrible headache. God, I have to stop waking up like this. As the last events before I fainted flashed before my eyes, I suddenly sat up and started looking around frantically. When I saw that I was in the hospital wing, I took a deep breath and calmed down a little. I was a little more relieved when I saw Madame Helgadottir coming out of the compartment allocated to her. I hope Riddle was caught.
Helgadottir said "Mr Hagrid, I would avoid sudden movements if I were you. You have taken a strong blow to your head. Can you tell me what was the last thing you remember before you fainted?"
Rubeus "I was attacked. Basilisk and Riddle...."
Helgadottir "Yes. Mr Riddle, you should thank him. He's the one who found you and kicked the heir out at the last minute. Otherwise you would have been in trouble."
I stared at Madame Helgadottir in amazement, what nonsense was she talking.
Rubeus said, "Madam, Riddle didn't save me. He was the heir. He attacked me with the Basilisk."
For a moment, Madame Helgadottir's mouth opened wide enough to swallow an egg. Then I heard her swearing angrily. Frankly, it was interesting, to say the least, to hear a woman like Madame Helgadottir swearing like a sailor. At the same time, she was trying to send a message to the headmaster with a spell.
22 December 1942
In the hall of the manor, I was telling Radagian what had happened. Apparently, Professor Merrythought and Professor Steffonson arrived just after I fainted. Too soon to give Riddle a chance to kill me, but too late to see Riddle break the ice wall himself. Riddle immediately claimed he was innocent. He said he came here when he heard the noises and found me unconscious. Of course, the professors didn't entirely believe him. After arguing for a while, they decided to lock him up. Unfortunately, thanks to Riddle's good reputation in the past, they locked him in an unused classroom instead of one of the castle's old dungeons. It is not known how much control Riddle's heir status gave him over Hogwarts wards and secret passages, but when I woke up and went to the classroom where Riddle was kept, he had already escaped.
Of course, when it was realised that there was a giant basilisk in the school, they had to evacuate the school immediately. work had begun. The school was closed for Christmas a week early and the Christmas holidays were extended by a week. For those students who could not go home, the school and the ministry arranged for them to stay at inns in Hogsmeade and on Diagon Alley.
Apparently a large team of experts, including Newt Scamender, had been called to the school to deal with the basilisk. There was also a 5000 galeon bounty on Tom Marvalo Riddle's head. As soon as I got home and was alone, I came to tell Radagian everything.
Radagian said, "You fool. I told you not to fight Riddle. You should have entered the pocket dimension the moment you saw him. At most he would have come after you in the future, thinking you had some valuable treasure."
Rubeus "I know, I just thought I'd take a chance."
Radagian "Hmmm, taking a chance. If he'd taken you seriously in the first place. You wouldn't even have had a chance to fight back. The only reason you were able to resist so much was because you had no knowledge of Druid-style elemental magic and he wanted to play with you, if he was serious you would be in your grave by now."
Rubeus "I apologise."
Radagian "What are you going to do now?"
Rubeus "Apart from waiting for Professor Raskalov to come and do the ritual? I'll take care of the greenhouse tree and the pocket dimension, and if I'm lucky, I'll try to spend the rest of the school year in peace."
Radagian "Heh good luck so far I gather you have a talent for attracting trouble."
I couldn't help but smile bitterly.