The Gathering: The New Order of Merlin Book 1

86. The final straw

Another weekend passed by quickly. Saturday, Merlin had tried to follow Dobby again, only to find him in Diagon Alley, waiting in a long line of house elves who were grocery shopping. Not in the mood to wait for hours again, Merlin apparated back, but then immediately regretted it since he had to report for the final detention with the greasy-haired Potions Master. He was so done with that waste of time. He could do without the constant cleaning and handling of dangerous substances for a while.

Then, there was the Dueling Club. He got lucky, having been paired with the same Slytherin boy who had bullied Colin before. Merlin used only mild and harmless jinxes on his opponent, yet the boy lost bladder control anyway. Nope, Merlin wasn't sorry for his behavior at all. Some people fully deserved public humiliation.

And then, there was Harry taking everyone by surprise by speaking Parseltongue. That Hufflepuff boy was lucky Harry was there to protect him from the snake but neither he nor others around understood that. It would be even harder now to convince everyone Harry wasn't the Heir of Slytherin.

Merlin still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that Harry was a Snakelord. This was crazy. He didn't know there were any of them still around.

Just like Dragonlords could command dragons, Snakelords could command snakes. The Great Snakes were nearly as powerful as the ancient Great Dragons but with the added danger of having a sinister nature. While dragons were proud, noble creatures, snakes were deceitful and preferred to aid only those who had malicious intentions. That was the reason why they were always associated with Dark Magic and evil sorcerers. Even Morgana, Merlin's greatest nemesis, had a preference for them, and while she wasn't a Snakelord, they obeyed her simply because they appreciated her vindictive nature.

It was a relief that all of those evil creatures were long extinct and the only snakes left for Harry to command were non-magical.

Another Monday came, and it already started stressfully. By the time he got back to the dorm last night, Jack was already asleep. Melin didn't think much then about why the boy had gone to sleep so early, but now, he was suspicious because Jack had left the dorm before Merlin woke up and then he didn't show up for breakfast or Charms class.

He had been sneaking out a lot lately, almost as much as Merlin had been, usually, under the pretense of studying. At least Merlin's lies were better. Of all excuses the boy could come up with, studying was the least believable. Merlin was tired of this endless game of guessing and suspecting. He wanted to know the truth already.

He kept tapping his finger on the desk and eyed the door again as Flitwick was going over the theory behind the Repairing Charm. He wanted to search for the boy. He knew a useful spell that he could release through the castle to scan all of its hallways at the same time. Maybe he could excuse himself for a bathroom break, Flitwick would probably let him go.

"ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK!" a panicked voice sounded in the hallway.

Flitwick stopped talking and everyone went quiet, listening.

"NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATAAAACK!"

Flitwick jumped off his desk and hurried to the door. The students followed. Everyone from the nearby classrooms spilled out into the hallway and gasped in shock at the scene.

The screaming was produced by Peeves who was flying in circles through the hall spooked by seeing the ghost of Nearly Headless Nick, who instead of being his normal translucent white, was now black, smokey, and frozen in the air with his head dangling from his neck.

More concerning was that there was a petrified Hufflepuff boy laying stiff on the floor, staring at the ceiling with a look of shock, and right next to him was Harry Potter, very much alive but scared.

Students started murmuring among themselves.

"I knew Potter was the Heir of Slytherin!"

"Didn't I tell you Justin was next? Potter marked him last night!"

Merlin had enough of the rumors so he immediately dived into Harry's mind.

Harry was in a state of panic and his thoughts were jumping all over the place. He wanted to run but was so scared of what was happening, he felt frozen in place.

"Caught in the act!" another Hufflepuff boy screamed at Harry.

Harry's thoughts became even harder to keep track of but then Merlin saw what he needed to see: Harry just remembered how he was walking down the hallway and tripped over the body of the petrified boy. He was innocent.

McGonagall led Harry away while the victims were taken to the Hospital Wing and the students were ordered to go back to their classrooms. Merlin watched a boy waft the ghost away with a fan and his eyes fell on the poltergeist who was flying around frantically.

"Peeves!" He walked up to the spirit.

"I'm scared but there's chaos. Need to stay for chaos," the poltergeist spoke to himself while unable to hover in place.

"Peeves, focus. Do you know where Jack is?"

The spirit's black eyes widened. "I just saw him."

"Tell me where you saw him."

"Jack-Friend was limping to his dorm. Peeves helped."

Merlin used the havoc of the moment to slip away from the crowd unnoticed and run to the Gryffindor Tower.

Another child was attacked right under his nose! His investigation was taking too long, and this time, even the ghost of Sir Nick was affected and he couldn't wrap his mind around what powerful Dark Magic he was dealing with that even the spirits of the dead were not safe from it. There was no more time left for tiptoeing around. He had to know the truth immediately.

Merlin ran up to his dorm and found Jack on the bed, reading a book. The boy looked up at the clock on the wall.

"Are the classes over this early?"

Merlin tried to calm himself down so the boy wouldn't notice how he was fuming inside. "Where were you?"

Jack pointed to one leg which was wrapped in a bandage. "I hurt myself and had to go to Madam Pomfrey."

Merlin scrutinized the boy and reminded himself to sound non-threatening. "What happened?"

"I was clumsy. I was running, and just playing with Elsa. It was stupid. I tripped and fell into a chair."

"If Madam Pomfrey healed you, why didn't you come to class?"

"She tried to heal it but for some reason, her spells wouldn't work all the way. So, it's difficult to walk and she told me to stay in bed for a couple of days. Thankfully, unlike McGonagall, she falls for my tricks so I convinced her to let me spend that time in the dorm."

The boy smirked, proud of himself for having manipulated her.

Merlin asked, "Why would her spell not work? She's a competent healer."

"I don't know. She was stumped too. Anyway, so she just cleaned it and wrapped it up. It will have to heal on its own."

Merlin wasn't buying any of this and made an effort to not roll his eyes. This underbaked story reeked of a cover-up. There was no way that so many coincidences could follow the boy.

"Jack, is that really what happened?" Merlin asked and waited for the boy to look him in the eyes, upon which he tried to dive in to hear his thoughts. When it didn't work, he tried harder and yet he heard nothing as if trying to interrogate a stone statue. How was he doing that?

"Yes," Jack said but then looked away, just a like a liar would.

Merlin's eyes shifted to Colin's bed. The lack of the boy's cheerful voice stung his ears. And now, another boy joined him in the Hospital Wing. He couldn't let any more children get hurt. He had to take action. It was time to pull out Veritaserum and find out the truth.