The Original Heretic

xii.

aberforth eventually gave in, revealing that the portait of his daughter on the mantle was actually a secret passageway, where a beat up looking boy came to us. he excitedly greeted the trio, and introduced himself to me as neville.

as we walked down a tunnel, neville explained how hogwarts had been overrun by death eaters, and was now heavily influenced by the dark arts. i was horrified to hear about the torture going on by them, and that only increased my want to fight. after a bit more conversation, the tunnel opened up into a grand room full of students, who began cheering madly at the sight of the trio. everyone began greeting them, and i stood of to the side.

"where are we?" i asked an asian girl wearing ravenclaw robes.

"this is the room of requirement." she replied, and i looked around properly.

"it accommodated all of this stuff for you guys? wow." i said impressively. "for me, it was normally a little room with a couch for me to read on right next to a fireplace. i'm brit, by the way." i introduced myself.

"cho, nice to meet you." i smiled. she was a lot nicer than rita made her seem.

we watched as the trio was being interviewed, when suddenly, harry grabbed his head. i sped over to them immediately, and heard gasps at my speed.

"does he know yet?" i whispered, and he nodded.

"the ring. he's found out it's gone." harry straightened up. "we need to get going."

"what can we do to help?" neville asked.

"i- well- dumbledore gave the three of us a mission, that we need to do-"

"we're dumbledore's army. let us help." another boy spoke up. "we've all been driven to this room by the carrows, and we want to help!"

we were interrupted as the passage behind us opened up again, and people began piling through. luna and dean, two identical gingers, a black boy with a big smile, and another ginger, a girl, who grinned at harry.

"we got the call-"

"-and we came." the twins said, holding up their enchanted galleons.

"what's the plan?" ginger girl asked.

"they can help us." i muttered quietly to the trio. "we tell them what we're looking for, just not that it's a horcrux."

hermione and ron agreed, causing harry to sigh.

"okay." he yelled, and everyone quieted down. "we need to find an object here. it might have belonged to ravenclaw? and it's missing, does anyone know of an object like that?" he asked, and i looked at him incredulously.

"why didn't you say this earlier? you're looking for the lost diadem of rowena ravenclaw. i couldn't tell you where to find it, but there's a statue of what it looks like in the ravenclaw common room." i stated. "does a ravenclaw want to go there with harry and show him, please?" cho stood up, but the ginger girl quickly stopped her.

"luna, you'll show him, won't you?" she eyed cho, who sat back down grudgingly. luna agreed, and the two went under the invisibility cloak and left.

"right! harry will be gone briefly, let me explain what's going on!" i yelled, and everyone quieted again. before i could start, the passageway opened up yet again, and a whole load of people came through. a sophisticated witch stood next to a slightly shabby looking werewolf, and i couldn't help but bristle when i saw him. a few more people who looked like graduated students, bill and fleur, and an older looking ginger couple came in.

after figuring out that all the gingers were weaselys, and the names of most of the people in the room, i spoke back up.

"you guys don't know me, and i would be concerned if you did. my name is brit kaldottir, and i'm an old friend of professor mcgonagall. i may not look it, but i am very, very old."

"how old?" one of the twins yelled, and their mum slapped his head.

"fred!"

"that's alright. i've lost track of the exact amount of years, but i'm roughy 1,100 years old." i saw everyone gain a look of surprise, confusion, or impress and i grinned. "i'm a creature that's not very common, but very powerful. a heretic, which is basically a combination of witch-" i opened my hand to let flames fill it, "-and vampire." i let my face show, and a few people stumbled back in shock.

"wicked." i heard ginny mutter, and i winked at her.

"my promise to minnie was to keep the trio safe, and all i can say is that they put themselves into way too many dangerous situations. for instance, i have never in a thousand years seen, let alone ride a dragon." i laughed lightly, and everyone else did too.

"anyways, if what i think is about to happen is going to happen, we need to be prepared. lord moldy wart is most likely on his way here, and i just wanted you guys to know. this might be the biggest battle of your lives, and i'm proud to be standing on this side. that's all, thank you." everyone rose up clapping, and i walked to the side of the room to get to know some of the weasley family more. i was talking to ginny about some of the magic i could do, and how our spells were different when harry burst in the room. he took a double take at all the extra people who had arrived in his absence, then spoke up.

"voldemort is coming, they're barricading the school. go to the great hall, they're evacuating the younger students. and we're fighting."

everyone let out cheers, and surged out the door. i waited for more people to go by, then walked up to harry.

"until the end, potter."

"we can do this, brit."