The Kindly Ones

The Kindly Ones

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Chapter Six

It wasn't a dark and stormy night. It should have been, but there's the
weather for you. For every mad scientist who's had a convenient thunderstorm
just on the night his Great Work is complete and lying on the slab, there
have been dozens who've sat around aimlessly under the peaceful stars while
Igor clocks up the overtime.
-- (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens)

There had been a feeling of tension since everyone boarded the train at the start of the day.
The new arrivals, and the students returning from their holidays, were noisily saying goodbye
to their respective families before boarding the train. The air was still loud and boisterous
as they settled in but there was a sense of foreboding clinging to it.

Making sure he would get there early, to avoid anything going wrong at the last minute, Harry
had managed to get to the train safely. Hermione and Ron were both Prefects this year, and he
wished them the best, but it meant they spent most of the train trip annoying the lower years,
and preventing fights amongst the houses.

He had managed to find a space to himself at the front of the train and a quick snarl at
anyone who tried to enter stopped anyone joining him. All he needed was a happy optimist
bounding in here talking about what fun the school year was going to be. In fact he felt like
saying ‘Bah Humbug’ to the next cheery first year foolhardy enough to show him his
face.

As Harry boarded the carriages led by Thestrals, that would take them up to Hogwarts, he
saw Ron and Hermione getting into the carriages of some second year Gryffindor boys, who had
set off a firework in the train, and whom they obviously didn’t trust to be left alone together,
before they reached the castle. It was clear that they would have no chance to talk until later.


He didn’t know if he should tell them about his changes, or if he should keep quite. As he
settled back in his seat, after staring blindly at the other occupants, he thought about what
their reactions would be. Immediately a mental image of Hermione, sticking him down with a giant
pin like a bug specimen under glass as she dissected him, came to mind. He laughed to himself.
Well their reactions couldn’t be any worse then that.

As he watched the school get closer and the lights grow, he shook his head.
What chance would there be of him hiding all this from his friends? It wouldn’t work.
It didn’t take a Hermione to see that every time he tried to keep the really important
information away from them, something would go wrong. He had been thinking about it on the
train and when you consider big things, discovering you’re another species of magical
bounty hunters is pretty big. He just had to tell them; that would be easy, right?

As Harry walked into the hall and the sight and sound of hundreds of students hit him, a
clicking thumping noise filtered into his hearing. It was so quite that he could barely hear
it but it trickled through his ears and down his spine. The sound had been hidden in his
subconscious since he walked down the stairs at the Leaky Cauldron but now in front of so
much magic he could hear it. Walking into the hall he was pushed by the other students trying
to get around his slower self. As he got closer to people the noise grew deeper, not louder.

Walking towards his friends that he could see sitting at the head of the Gryffindor table,
bunched together, he passed by the other tables and as he walked slowly a scent touched the
back of his throat. It smelled rotten and ripe and as he thought about it, the smell reminded
him of rotten raw chicken. A smell he was familiar with after the Dursley’s.

It wasn’t strong but the smell was catching at the back of his throat and made his nose turn up.
This had never happened before when he entered the dining hall. He would have to add it to his
list of weird things that were happening to him.

Gently biting his bottom lip Harry tried to ignore the smell. He was going to have
to go into the library and look up Erinyes; and go through the rest of those papers
his grandmother had left him. He was going to have do research ‘Oww’ ‘mental wail’.

‘Other teens go through puberty with only virulent acne and raging hormones and inconvenient
sexual arousal to worry about, he had to be special and become whatever the hell he was.
The world was seriously fucked up.

Inside the hall, Harry finally got to meet up and talk with his friends. "Hi Harry" Harry
grinned and smiled.

"Hi Ron, Hi Hermione I hope you didn’t scare the littlies too much. We
don’t want them too afraid, at the start of the year."
Hermione grinned as she sat down.

"Why would that be, putting the fear of Prefects into the first years is kind of fun."

"Ha, Ha I knew it, you like being in power, you probably get off on it."
Ron pointed a finger at Hermione, who was sitting opposite him and laughed.

"I can just see you now with a riding crop striding around the front of a class room."
Hermione grabbed his finger and twisted it up.

"Okay, guys give it up. What have you both been up to during the holidays?"
Just as Ron was about to speak, rubbing his finger and poking his tongue out at Hermione,
someone at the high table spoke.

"Students, Staff, and other assorted members of the audience, I welcome you back to Hogwarts or,
if this is your first year: Beware of the Penguins. "
After the first few sentences most of the student body ignored their Headmaster and got back
to the important task of eating and talking with their friends.

"So what were you up to during the hols?"
Harry thought about how he could answer this, ‘Oh I don't know, it turns out my grandmother
was a cross between a hag and medusa and I'm one too but don’t worry I won’t hurt anyone!’
Maybe sarcasm wasn’t the way to explain his holidays.

"Oh you know, nothing." No one looked surprised at his answer. "Herm what did you get up to?"

Hermione had been talking with Neville who had brought a small book out of his pocket
and was showing it to her.
"Well, I went to my grandparents for a few weeks. It was great; they live down south.
Their local library let me get a library card and take books out without having to pay
a deposit, like so many libraries are doing today. You know, books should be available
to everyone. It isn’t right when a public library starts charging."

Hermione’s rant was stopped when Harry placed his hand over her mouth.
"We got it! Paying for books: bad. New topic please."

"The twins were taking their experiments to the limit when we went home."
Ginny leaned over the table and picked up the book Neville had shown Hermione.

"Mum blew her top when Dad’s birthday came round and his cake blew up and six near
naked women poured out and started singing ‘Happy Birthday.’"

Ron was grinning as he remembered the illusionary girls who had dance a conga around
the living room after bursting from the cake "I don’t know Ginny, I think Dad got a
thrill out of it; if one went by the look on his face! I wish I had a camera."

"Yeah well Mum wasn’t that happy. She chased the twins around the house for hours!
Then remembered the illusion and dispelled it."
Looking up at the high table Ron sighed; Dumbledore was still droning on.

"And that is why the twins are moving out in a couple of weeks. The birthday cake
was the straw that broke the camel’s back, I think. The rest of the holidays were
filled with their experiment’s and since we were stuck hidden away we couldn't leave."

"So you were hiding during the holidays?" Hermione was quietly; still fuming over the
injustice of a world in which she had to pay to take books out from a library.
There was a series of ‘Yes and Yips’ from the group of friends. The rest of their
conversation was just the usual talk that people have when they meet up after a break.

‘Hi how are you? You’re not dead! You haven’t been abducted by aliens, that’s good!
Let’s talk about me.’

At the head table someone coughed; when the student body kept talking and ignoring
the teachers, someone coughed again. Again this was ignored; someone grumbled and a
shower of green sparks shot out over the students who went, all suddenly, very quiet.

A pleased looking Professor Snape gave the Headmaster a sarcastic bow and sat down.
"Now that I have your attention. I have several points I wish to mention and that you must
know. Hagrid has been having problems during the summer months with denizens of the Forbidden
forest wandering onto Hogwarts. No one is to go within a hundred meters of the forest.
It does not matter if you think you hear someone calling for help or offering you sweets
. You are to call for a member of staff if you hear, or see, anything stranger than usual.

This year, Hogmead’s weekends are be closely supervised by the teaching staff; more will
be explained by your head of house; so if you were planning on sneaking anywhere, I am sorry.

Finally, we have a new assistant caretaker this year. He will be helping Mr Filch in his tasks.
Our caretaker has been feeling unwell lately. Please treat Mr Scuta as you would Mr Filch. He
has the same powers to grant detentions and take house points as Mr Filch. You will probably see
him around the grounds sooner or later. Now I believe it is time to start heading back up to
your rooms. So, Good Evening. I hope you all have a splendid year."

Slowly walking out of the hall, Harry managed to corner Ron and Hermione by themselves.
"Guys, do you think you could meet me in the room of Requirements, tomorrow night?"
Both nodded quickly and watched Harry speed up and almost run out of the hall.

They all missed the look of one Slytherin who had seen the three golden ‘Gryffindorks’ leaving.
‘Self-righteous, ego-centric, fuckin’ hypocrites.’ Draco mumbled under his breath as he
watched them leave.

Sitting in the Caretakers office Mr Filch watched his new assistant over his desk. Filch
was wrapped in layers of fluffy blankets and woolly jumpers. A big box of tissues sat beside
him and he was surrounded by a pile of used ones. A steaming mug of lemon tea sat in front
of him right beside a stack of files.

"You are very lucky Mr Scuta, that those miserable Weasley twins are long gone from these halls.
Sniff . . ."
Across from the miserable Filch sat the new caretaker, Mr Scuta. The man was young, his
dark blonde hair pulled back in a tight braid. He was looking at a sick Filch with concern.

"I hope that you are hale and merry soon Mr Filch. These long and dusty halls are not for the
weak of constitution."
Filch pulled the mug close to him and took a deep sip of the hot drink.

"Madam Pomfrey whom you met yesterday, says I just have a pepper up immune flu it should clear
up in a few weeks but until then I need your help. Sniff... If you give these students
one moments weakness, they’ll exploit it, the little bastards. Sniff... And just call me Noel."

Picking up a folder on Filch’s desk, the new caretaker smiled.
"Thank you Noel I will. It is just terrible when the younger generation takes advantage.

Just terrible. You said you were going to show me the problem cases."
Filch grinned evilly " Well that which you are holding in your hands includes the many deeds
committed by one Harry Potter. A blot on this fair school if ever there was one. Sniff . . . "

The dark green robe that Mr Scuta was wearing shivered. "That wouldn’t happen to
be the-boy-that-lived? Well you hear what it says in the paper,
but you don't want to believe it."
Filch sneezed and crumpled up another tissue.

"Oh Mr Scuta, Harry Potter is one of the most disobedient children I have ever had
the displeasure to clean up after. Sniff... You have to watch him and his sly little
friends; they‘re always sneaking around; where they‘re not meant to"

Mr Scuta gasped. "That is horrible. I will have to keep my eye on Harry Potter.
And please, call me Alaric; we will be working together." Looking at the long list of
misdeeds in the file Scuta smiled. "I must keep an eye on all the students."

Deep with Hogwarts in a room never seen on the Marauders map. A place no one had
entered in millennia, sat a figure wrapped in shadows. It stared into a candle flame
that never burnt down. It had been at the same level since the door was shut. No dust
or clutter filled the room; the air did not move and if the figure had not been mumbling,
nothing would have seemed alive.

‘He’s here, He’s here, He’s Here, He’s here, He’s here. He’s Here. He’s here, He’s here.
He’s Here’. The figure’s thin lips kept repeating the words until the sounds, eventually,
made no sense. Suddenly It stood up and did a little dance in the middle of the room making
the flame of the candle flutter in the breeze. The Erinyes was in the castle,
its prison would be broken and it would be free. It’s hard won connection to the
outside world was finally going to be used. There was something else in the castle,
as well as his Erinyes but it didn’t matter. They were going to be free.

What fun could be had in bright sparkling world all ready to be broken. A thousand
images of smashing the sky like a plate of glass slid through the figure’s mind. He
was going to be Free.

Authors Note
A new chapter and so many new questions, but you will have to wait and keep reading.