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Chapter 66- Emo Slytherin Edge Lords.

The sun had now begun to shine weakly on Hogwarts again. Inside the castle, the mood had grown more hopeful. There had been no more attacks since those on Ernie Macmillan and Nearly Headless Nick. Madam Pomfrey was pleased to report that the Mandrakes were becoming moody and secretive, meaning that they were fast leaving childhood.

I remember her telling me, "The moment their acne clears up, they'll be ready for repotting again," kindly one afternoon, not that I'd asked. "And after that, it won't be long until we're cutting them up and stewing them. Then Argus, Mrs Norris, the Creevey boy and Macmillan will be up and running again. As for Nick... I'll leave that to the Headmaster." She told me, and I nodded along politely, not replying as my mind was on more important things.

Still, even though we had gone so long without an attack, we still had it on our minds as somebody wasn't willing to shut up about it. Peeves really wasn't helping matters as he kept popping up in the crowded corridors singing, "Oh, Potter, you rotter~, oh, what have you done~? You're killing off students, you think it's good fun~" with a little dance routine to match. Needless to say, even without any attacks, Harry was very much suspect number one and had dirty looks cast at him wherever he went. I just ignored him and his friends and everything happening apart from my classes, and I was more focused on my dilemma.

My dilemma is that I am getting nowhere with trying to find Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem even though I have a direct link to it. It was so easy in my head. Literally. I had the curse in my head trapped, and the trap was being kept in Hogwarts purely by the Horcrux; that was what was powering it. So it made sense that with the curse trapped, I could somehow trace it back to its source, the Diadem. And then, with the Diadem in hand, I could manufacture a way to find the other Horcruxes through its connection since they are all made from the same soul. Then I find the book and get rid of it before anyone dies. And then Bob's your uncle. Job done.

Yeah, not so much. See, nobody had ever tried to do what I am trying to do. Pretty much because no one has ever had the need to or the capability. Most curses as insidious and elaborate as this one are usually written off as untreatable, and that was when they weren't being powered by a goddamn Horcrux. Oh yeah, usually, you can only trace a curse back to its source if you have in-depth details on it. Trust me, I have done the research, and only somebody who knows the ins and outs of the curse can trace it to its source. Which means you pretty much have to be the one who did the curse to find it.

Still, I doubt anybody has tried to trace a curse through the usage of their mind. This must be a very unique situation I am in as this powerful curse only affects the mind and so I am in a good position to counter it since I am perhaps the utmost authority on mind magic. However, the situation I have found myself in is unprecedented. Even my best book, the black magic book on mind magic, didn't have anything to say about this, and I had to go back home to check it (I'm not risking bringing it to Hogwarts).

I had even searched the Hogwarts Library restricted section for anything that could help, not taking anything out as I am sure Dumbledore keeps a strict eye on it, not wanting another repeat of Voldemort. I found no mention of anything that could help aside from a brief mention of Horcruxes in the book Magick Moste Evile. That's the book with the face that screams, by the way. I had to quickly shut it the first time I opened it and use a silencio to read it. Madam Pince wasn't a happy bunny when she came to inquire about the sound, but I just claimed I stubbed my toe and screamed. If there was one woman in the whole of Hogwarts safe from my machinations, it would be that old bat. Dreadful woman.

Anyway, I had no information to help me in my endeavour. Apart from maybe the book Secrets of the Darkest Art, but to get my hands on that I would have to infiltrate Dumbledore's collection in his office or ask the man himself for it. Safe to say I won't be doing either of those. I don't need Dumbledore to become a problem for me this year or in the future. The man has a lot of power in this country, and he could make things very difficult for me if he wanted to. No, it's better to keep this as low-key as possible.

So I had to make do with trial and error, and I was very much not enjoying it, primarily because of the lack of results. I keep trying different ways to trace it back to its source, even taking the Revelio spell and modifying it, but nothing ever really works. Don't get me wrong, I get very excited and get my hopes up and times since I feel like I have a trace, and I start to follow it, but I end up in the most random of places. At first, I thought it was taking me to places that had something to do with Salazar Slytherin, as the soul inside the Horxrux is a descendant of his, but I went to lots of places.

I found myself in a corner of the library, but there were just first-year books there. I found myself in the kitchen, but nothing and I had to leave with a full stomach as the House Elves wouldn't let me go without some grub. I thought the trails were leading me to Slythering stuff because I ended up going to the girls' bathroom, which is where the Chamber of Secrets entrance is. And then, on one occasion, the trace led to the Slytherin house dormitory, and I had to sneak in at night after having taken the password from a student's head. Obviously, the password was Ausu Serpentes, which probably means douchbag snake in English.

I found nothing there either, by the way; I just ended up creeping into the room of a bunch of sixth-year girls who were just quietly doing their own things. The boy in me was disappointed they weren't doing each other's nails and having pillow fights like a slumber party, but I digress. I quickly left, not wanting to be a creep. But I came across creeps on my way out of the dorm. There wasn't anything in the common room aside from a few people when I came in, but on my way out, things had changed.

There were no longer any of the younger years about, in fact, given the heights of the only people in the room I would say it was only seventh years left. But it was hard to tell because the lights had been completely turned off, the space in complete darkness, and even the windows looking out to the black lake had curtains drawn in front of them to stop any possible light coming in. The only thing illuminating the room was the lit candles that had been spaced equidistant through the room, showing me at least a bit of what these students were doing. 

They were all cloaked in thick black robes that had the hood pulled up, shadowing their faces and preserving their anonymity. Spaced around in a circle, they all kneeled on the ground, one hand firmly on their knee and the other clutching a wand in the other, which they held against their chest, right in front of their heart. They were all kneeling towards the centre, where there was a box put on a pedestal. Right in front of the box was another cloaked person, kneeling before the box with their head against the ground as they worshipped it. 

"We pay homage to Salazar Slytherin. The only true founder and visionary." The person in the centre said, their voice distinctly sweet and feminine, but resounding around the room with authority nonetheless. The people around the room repeat what she says, all together, in one voice that sounded really fucking creepy to me. So fucking creepy that I was beginning to think that maybe Tom Riddle had gotten his claws into somebody here, but then the leader talks again.

"We worship the great snake. Please protect those of us with the purest blood from those who wish us harm. Protect us within these walls from those lessers who would see us culled." The girl in the middle talked again and again the drones surrounding her repeated it. However, instead of worrying me, the words actually calmed me down and stopped me from overreacting. These were just some scared kids.

Obviously, the fact that a pureblood kid had been attacked and petrified had some of these running scared, and with Harry Potter being prime suspect number one, they weren't feeling exceptionally safe. Not with Malfoy and how he treated Harry and antagonised him. These kids were worried. And so, being the edgy and emo kids they were, they got gathered for a little ritual circle thing in hopes of protection. It isn't even a proper ritual. They are just doing some improv. They clearly don't know anything about rituals. They don't have any blood, sacrifices, or runes set up. Just candles and them in a circle.

"We offer our blood, the purest of the pure." The woman raises her head, and with me staring straight at her and with the candle in the middle of the room lighting up her face, I can see who it is. "We offer our ancient blood." Gemma Farley, a seventh-year Slytherin student with short brown hair kept in a pixie bob with a lythe body and perky breasts and a pert ass that I had noticed sometimes in y classes but never given her any more thought, just thinking her a snobbish rich bigotted girl. That same girl rolls up the sleeve of her robe, exposing her thin forearm and holding it over the box.

With silent casting, she uses her wand to cut her arm open, allowing blood to flow out and off of her arms to drip into the box. She definitely cut a vein because the red life juice was bubbling out of her forearm and pouring into the box. I get a bit worried, thinking she might just end up killing herself and contemplating intervening to stop the stupid girl since an actual student death could really flip things on its head. "We beseech you to protect this pure blood." Thankfully, the girl heals herself with a quick Episkey, healing the cut, before standing up and moving to the side.

"Now, those of you who wish to be protected from the danger threatening us all this year. Approach the box and do the same. The might of our pure blood will protect us." She speaks, clearly, the gang leader, and at her words, the others nod. Getting up next from the circle, a student moves to the centre, kneeling before the box and repeating the actions of Gemma Farley, including everything she says. Ah, her fearmongering has got them all following along. Clever girl if she has done this all in order to get a bit of a following and raise her position, or an idiot if she thinks this will actually work.

Either way, this is just a bunch of edgy Slytherins having an edgy meeting, saying edgy things and doing edgy stuff like slashing their wrists. I see no reason for panicking or interrupting their fun. They are really just idiots spilling their blood into a box and hoping that the mic of their "pure" blood will have some almighty power. There isn't even anything special about the box, just a plain wooden thing. Oh well, this isn't my problem. However, I will probably keep a closer eye on Miss Farley in case she is more than she lets on.

I quickly leave the Slytherin common rooms, thankful for the spiralling staircase. I go up so nobody sees the door open and close as I exit and promptly make my way back to my room to get some sleep. Searching for this bloody thing is going to kill me.

So, here I am again, following the trail to wherever the hell it is going this time. Given that I am not on the seventh floor where the Room of Requirement is, I can assume it isn't leading me to the fucking tiara or whatever the fuck it is. Shit, I am so pissed. Still, I have to follow it. Gather more information to work out where it's going wrong or if something is interfering with it so I can perfect it and find the fucking thing.

Of course, I am doing this at night when everybody is in their dormitories, and there are only a few annoying prefects or teachers that I have to avoid, which is not hard. I don't need people asking questions and discussing why Professor Lockhart is being so weird and shady, especially not with people paranoid and fearing, which will make them jump to conclusions and possibly lynch me. No, sir, I do not want the Harry Potter treatment.

Strangely enough, I am once again in the dreary Slytherin area of the school. Normally, people call it the dungeons, but it's not really the dungeons. There were actual dungeons in the school, but one of the previous Headmasters sealed off that area of the school. So, with the Slytherin floor being the lowest you can go, it was termed as the dungeons by everyone. So here we are, not that far from the entrance to the Slytherin House dorm, and I have been led to the corner of a hallway, the trail stopping at a solid wall.

Having had previous experience with this trail that is so goddamn annoying, I know that there is something here, even if I can't see it. Some quick and thorough inspections revealed to me a doorway hidden in the wall. A powerful Revelio pointed directly at it, resulting in the outline of the opening shining brightly in my eyes. The trail was going into there. Feeling around, I found no handle or anything. There must be a specific way to open this.

Casting the revelio spell again, I analysed the door intensely, having to redo the spell multiple times to get a look at every inch of the door. In the bottom left of the door, there was a flame insignis, and within the insignia was a three-headed snake. The left head had a calculating and cold gaze, the middle head had a dazed and dreamy look, and the right head had a sharp gaze that seemed to cut through anything. 

A Runespoor, and given the expressions of the snake, they can only be the planner, the dreamer and the critic. Runespoors are said to have each head with a different function. The left head was the planner, and it decided where the Runespoor was to go and what it was to do next. The middle head was the dreamer, and it is common for a Runespoor to remain stationary for days, lost in glorious visions and imaginations. Finally, the right head was the critic, which evaluated the efforts of the left and middle heads with a continuous irritable hissing, and its fangs were highly venomous. It was common to see Runespoors with the right head missing, as the other two heads often banded together to bite it off when it criticised them too much. Because of this, Runespoors rarely lived to a great age.

So, three heads and fire. Looking around the hallway, I searched for anything to do with fire and or the number three. There were three unlit braziers in the corridor, which were styled in such a way that you wouldn't notice they were braziers without looking closely. That fulfils the condition three, not for the fire. I walked up to them and let off a little

 Incendi at each one, lighting them silently, not wanting to alert anyone. When the final one was lit, the door began to slide open, the door disappearing into the wall, revealing a staircase descending into darkness.

Well, the Diadem definitely isn't down there, but it seems I have stumbled onto something intriguing. With a Lumos, I begin to descend, entering a dark hallway with a door at the end and on the wall to the left is some kind of stone outcrop painting thing of a person talking to a snake. No doubt, a Parselmouth. Walking to the end of the hallway, I approach the door. It is made of pitch black stone, with designs of snakes crawling around on top of it, writhing on top of one another. Again, there isn't a handle or anything, and I get the feeling if I were to touch it, the snakes would come alive.

Hearing something, I lean forward slightly and close my eyes trying to focus. I hear a very faint hissing. So faint that I could barely hear it. Opening my eyes again, I once again observe my surroundings. The door is covered in snakes, the sculpture on the wall of a man speaking to a snake, which my mind is now informing me is called a relief, and the soft hissing I can hear.

I need a Parselmouth if I want to advance any further.

I'm playing One Piece Odyssey as I am a big fan of the series. You can find that on the link below on my youtube and twitch.

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