GREY WINGS || A Hogwarts Story

Chapter Twenty-One

TW- I dunno, it just gets a bit dark.

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Two more weeks passed in the dark castle. Grey settled into his routine, never fully lowering his guard, but still trying to make the most of his captivity. 

The benefit he found in learning dark magic, was understanding how to counter it. Rosier was a much more competent teacher compared to the reptile man and always made sure to teach them the countercurses. Granted, it was only because she liked to make them duel and didn't want to clean up the accidents. But both Richard and Grey were putting more practice into the defensive magic behind her back and had actually picked up some useful tricks. If they ever sat there OWLs, Grey was certain they would both get Os in Defense against the dark arts. 

Grey had not received a reply or sent any more patronus messages. He didn't want to push his luck, besides, he was sure he hadn't got an answer from Hogwarts because they thought it too risky. 

Over the last fortnight, Grey had endured three more visions too. However, once again he directed them to useless things, twice to random public transport incidents and most recently to the creepy yet odd discovery that the Hogwarts thestrals had had foals. But Grey knew that Grindelwald was growing more frustrated and suspicious at the lack of results. He'd noticed the man's cold glances and snide remarks towards Richard were increasing and by the fourth Friday at Numengard, he was positive if he didn't give Grindelwald something in his next vision, Richard would suffer the consequences. 

Of course, he'd voiced these fears to the Slytherin but Richard was far too consumed with his research to be concerned. Nearly three weeks on from their conversation with Aurelias, Grey was losing hope that they'd ever find anything in the tiny library. 

Nevertheless, Richard persisted. They had learnt a new spell, Discoperiet, which could translate languages into your native tongue depending on the second word of the spell. To translate things into English, the incantation was Discoperiet Anglicus. Even with the ability to read all the books, they had still found nothing. Granted there were hundreds of texts but after reading several dozen over the last few weeks, Grey was feeling thoroughly discouraged. 

That fourth Friday at Numengard, after a particularly uncomfortable lunch, Grey was pacing anxiously around the small library, while Richard poured over a Danish novel about binding magic. 

"There's a lot on unbreakable vows," He muttered absentmindedly. 

"Do you think unbreakable vows are worse than blood pacts?" Grey pondered while tracing his fingers along the wooden shelves. 

"I don't know, they both sound as bad as each other."

Grey made a noise of agreement. 

"I wonder if blood pacts are as lethal to break, I wouldn't be surprised-"

But Grey paused mid-ramble, staring at the shelf he'd been tracing. He was positive he had just touched what felt suspiciously like a small button. After a moment's searching, he found the anomaly. It was practically unnoticeable to the passing eye but sure enough, a little round lump, no bigger than a counter, stuck out from the low shelf. 

"What wouldn't you be surprised about?" Richard queried, still consumed in his book.

Grey didn't respond. With a heavy beating heart, he attempted to press the piece of wood. It sunk into the shelf. A quiet click sounded across the room and Grey swivelled to see a panel by the door had flipped open. 

"What did you do?" Richard moaned as Grey scurried over to inspect the compartment. 

To his excitement, he found a book inside and when he pulled it into the dim light, the familiar silver embossed vial glimmered in 2D on the leather cover.