Hogwarts: Era of Darkness

Our first week came and went pretty quickly. Even with our two new elective courses, our days were not much more packed than before. Of course, we chose the same subjects, Care of Magical Creatures and Study of Ancient Runes. For starters, the former was surprisingly easy, following Professor Grubbly-Plank and learning about nifflers. Quincy found them cute… I found them useful.

"Useful?" She asked me when I mentioned it.

"Their tummies."

Their habit of stealing anything shiny was a problem for many. No wonder we were warned to take off and hide anything like that before class… but for me, the more interesting thing was the fact that their bellies worked as some kind of… magical bag of holding. An endlessly deep one at that. It gave me the idea of getting one. Not a niffler, of course, but a bag like that.

The second extra class was… less exciting. It was okay, and we first began to learn the basics of recognizing runes and tell them apart from nonsense scribbles on a wall. To my surprise, Quincy had difficulty memorizing them, as most looked the same in her eyes. On the other hand, I think I cheated. Thanks to my bloodline… For my eyes, every and all rune was clear and distinguishable; I felt like even naming them all!

Luckily I didn't say that out loud because the name that popped into my head often differed from what our teacher, Bathsheda Babbling, wrote on the blackboard. Silence is gold, and I wasn't thinking about wasting it now. What I found just as interesting as the niffler-situation was that, supposedly, runes were how ancient witches and wizards communicated. Back then, writing had the same power as spells. Then, it diminished increasingly as we advanced, and nowadays, they are only used in artifact making.

"At least you can help me with our runes homework while I help you out with potions!" Quincy sighed, collapsing next to me after our first week. It was an early night, and we had just returned from the Great Hall after supper.

"Sure! Give it to me, and I will write yours too!" I nodded, taking out a parchment and deciding to do it right now. It was straightforward as we only had to copy the actual, known runes from a sample text that we were given.

"It all looks the same to me… or like some crude drawings of a goblin!"

"I think they do use it to this day." I raised an eyebrow, biting onto the end of my quill and quickly scanning our small sample text.

"Really?"

"Just look at their craftsmanship! All their items! The real goblin-made goods are inscribed with runes! Were you listening today or…?" I grinned, and she just rolled her eyes, going pink in the face. "Heh… I will take it as a no."

"It is a bad subject…"

"You just don't like it!" I chuckled, hugging her, writing down the correct runes in a jiffy, and giving it to her to copy. "I think you can still change courses!"

"No!" She answered, almost in a panic, "I will get through it!"

"I'll help~! It's not that bad, you'll see! Every word in it is something that holds power!"

"Huh…" She stopped writing, looking at me weirdly. "You are speaking about it as if you are a master of runes…"

"I… can't really explain it."

"That never bodes well… So we should look into it! I think we should get back to…" Then she stopped, looking around and leaning in, whispering into my ear, "To the Scriptorium!"

"I thought about it too!" I agreed, forgoing complaining about her worries. "But first, I want myself a bag. A niffler-like one!"

"Good idea! It is a neat way to bring away many things we need from there! But… how are we going to get one?"

"Buying it, of course!" I grinned, "Tomorrow is Saturday, and now that we are third-year students, we can ask for leave to go into Hogsmead! I intend to visit Professor Slughorn and ask him to let us go!"

"Ah… I totally forgot about that!"

"Hehe!" With a quick peck on her face, I stood up, stretching, "I brought some gold with me from home, so… let me take you on a date!"

The moment I said it, she almost choked on her saliva and turned as red as a tomato… but she didn't complain. Not that I would let her! I know we have been together for two years now, but… we never went on one, and… how could I look into her eyes then?

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It was a warm, sunny Saturday as we were walking down the dirt road, heading towards Hogsmeade. It wasn't hard to get permission to leave school grounds; we didn't even have to go to Professor Lockhart. As it was both of our first times here, we were marveling at the picturesque image of the village. It was different from the one at home… this was much more… magical. It was more natural for us than the houses the muggles were used to.

Some looked a bit more crooked from the outside, while others were much more colorful, and in the shops' windows, moving posters told us about the recent available sales, or a moving mannequin was inviting us to try a new witch's hat on.

"Want it?" I asked with a smile, watching her be mesmerized by a pair of earrings in one of the displays.

"They are too expensive…"

"But they have a charm applied to them! It says it can protect from any hexes cast upon you!"

"Yeah, sure!" She giggled, glancing at me, grabbing my arm, and snuggling up to me. "Probably there is an asterisk somewhere telling you it means up to year five or something!"

"Err… I can see that happening… Still! It would look good on you!"

"I'm fine! Really! It is nice, but I would not want to spend this much on it! We could buy much more ingredients from its price, and I could make potions that would fetch triple that!"

"Oh, hey! That is not a bad idea! We could sell your potions and make some money out of it!"

"Then," She pecked my cheeks, "buy me ingredients if you want to gift me something!"

"Sure thing! But before that, come!" I dragged her along and entered one of the shops.

“Y-y-you… want me… to…” She stuttered, going red, stopping me at the entrance.

"Huh?" I stopped and realized my error and the source of the misunderstanding. The front was filled with women's undergarments being on sale right now.

"I don't mind… but…" She whispered, looking down at her feet.

“Um… I wanted to buy a pouch… you know…”

"Ah! Y-yes, of course! Yes!" She blabbered on immediately, trying to act as if nothing had happened.

"But now that you mention it…"

"Come, it should be at the back!" She pulled on me so hard I almost fell, and she didn't give me a chance to ask…

"Okay, okay! I get it… Hehe… Don't need to be so forceful, Quincy! And one day, you wouldn't need to wear one anywaaaah?! You good?" I yelped as she stumbled so hard after hearing my words that we fell, and I landed on top of her.

"No… I'm not…" She moaned, her eyes teary and embarrassed… but not because others were looking at us, giggling.

The rest of the time inside the shop was still just as awkward, but in the end, I bought a little, unassuming pouch capable of holding many things. We tested it out at once by purchasing alchemy ingredients, and no matter what we put into it, it ate it up without issues. How wonderful!

To nail down our first actual date, I invited her to Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop… but… that didn't turn out as expected. Somehow, the air inside was stuffy. We sat down and ordered a cake and tea, but… none of us felt it as magical as we had heard it from people in the years above us. The atmosphere was... weird. Overly sweet, so much so that it made us nauseous. Only after ten minutes did we both agree to leave, and we exhaled simultaneously when we were back on the streets.

"Let's not go there again… it was weird." Quincy smiled at me apologetically.

"Agreed. What do you say to go to Honeydukes instead?"

"That does sound better!" She giggled, intertwining her arm with mine, and while heading towards the shop, we failed to realize that others were watching us. Since our arrival…

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"Relax, Regulus… he is not a bad kid."

"That's the point! She is just a kid! Yet look at them!"

"He is a kid too! And it is not like you have a place to speak!"

The two ruddy-faced, travel-weary men were two individuals who, if sawn by Conrad and Quincy, would recognize them as the Rubio brothers. The pair that took care of Neville… in reality, they were the Black brothers, wanted fugitives, and also, the uncle and father pair of Quincy.

"Hell, you should be happy for her! We watched the kid grow up; he is a good one…" Sirius patted his brother's shoulder, pulling him back to the Hog's Head. "Don't make a scene, not now! Be happy we are stationed here and that we were trusted to keep an eye on things!"

"But… he is groping my daughter!"

"No, he is not! Your daughter snuggling up to him! And to remind you... you abandoned her!" Sirius raised a voice but then very quickly went soft as right now, he barely had anybody left besides his younger brother and Neville. If not for the fact the two were present, he would not have known what to do with his life after losing his best friend. "Sorry."

"You are right… you are… right." Regulus sighed as the two sat down back in the pub, and a man with dirty, red hair brought drinks for them before joining their table. He was young under the ugly scars that distorted half of his face, hiding behind his hair… yet his visible eye was as old as the two brothers.

"Thanks, Charlie." Sirius patted his back as the trio were now staying in here, hiding underground, sometimes literally as the Order was preparing for their biggest strike yet against Voldemort.

"I hate the waiting." He whispered, his voice hoarse and sounding like sandpaper thanks to the injuries on his neck. "I can't wait to kill some of them."

"We neither," Regulus replied, knowing how his companion must be feeling.

Looking at him, he knew he was the same as his brother, Sirius. If not for raising his youngest brother Ron, Charles Weasly would probably already be dead. His human eye was either way... Seeing her whole family being massacred while saving the Longbottom kid left a deep scar on his body and his very being. The three of them were, maybe because of this, always the ones to be sent behind enemy lines.

While everyone else was smuggling the 'Chosen One' out of England and into France, using the preparations for the tournament as a cover, they remained back and were their forward units, the spearhead, so to speak. Not that any of them complained… it was all they ever wanted.

"Can we even trust the Anguines?" Charlie asked, making the brothers roll their eyes.

"We lived under his care for a decade!" Sirius snorted as Charlie was more paranoid than any of them.

"Dum-" Regulus started, but after a gaze from his brother, he quickly corrected himself, "He is trusting him. That should be enough."

"I trust nobody."

"We know that." The two retorted at once but left it at that.

"I don't like the smell of his kid." Charlie continued, swiping away his hair and revealing an eye in the burned socket on his face. An eye that was like that of a dragon's. "He stinks of something evil. It courses in his blood… I can smell it."

"Isn't it the dragon blood that you are sensing?" Regulus asked, somewhat doubtful as Charlie always said this about anyone he disliked. "I don't know how you survived the transfusion…"

"..." He didn't answer as he had no answers for that. When he escaped the massacre, seeing the Potters and his own family being slaughtered by Lord Voldemort, he suffered grave injuries. The only thing that kept him alive was the thought of saving his sibling, and to manage to do that, he transfused the lost blood with a dragon's… and lived to tell the tale about it. "I am telling you…" He pressed on, "His son stinks of dark magic… He should be killed in the chaos before we gift that sociopath with another weapon he can use against us!"

"Just… follow the plan… okay?" Sirius said, ending the conversation, but he couldn't help but think about what Charlie said. Although he trusted Angus… He knew his motivations… his son was a liability. Something that could be used by Voldemort to turn one of the key figures in the upcoming operation against themselves…