Nightmare (Harry Potter OC Fic)

14. Rumours

Tiberius began to notice how much Kei started to hang out with Gina. It was more than usual. Any free time the pair had was spent with one another. So this is how they felt when I was with Clem, Tiberius thought to himself. The only time the best friends hung out was when Gina was with Jaqen.

Finally, after nearly two months of watching Kei flirt with Gina, there was a problem. Not with them, but with Alastor. There was a rumour that Professor Snape's storage was broken into in the middle of the night— Alastor and Mr Filch were both present when Snape found out. Making the decision to check up on Alastor, Tiberius pulled Kei aside and gave her the news.

"What'll Alastor do?" she asked.

"I bet he's devised some kind of plan to figure out who it was," Tiberius said confidently. "Reckon it's that Durmstrang Headmaster, Karkaroff. You know he was a Death Eater."

"But he got dismissed?"

"Only because he ratted out his little buddies," he scoffed, taking two steps at a time.

Kei had to rush up the steps to keep up with him, panting as she made it to the platform, "slow down, Reese's. Merlin fuck, he's not going to disappear."

Tiberius all but knocked on Alastor's door as he barged into the office. Alastor was at his desk, standing over a small cauldron when they barged in. In a quick movement, he placed a spell over the cauldron, closed his trunk, and raised his wand at the two.

"What're you—?"

"What happened?" Tiberius asked quickly, cutting his father off.

"Hello, Alastor," Kei said softly, smiling at him.

He ignored both of them and stalked over to the pair, "who do you think you are to barge into this office unannounced?"

Kei shrunk in on herself as Tiberius raised his brow and answered, "your son."

Alastor's gaze softened and he turned around before limping over to his desk, "that's all fine and dandy, but what're you two doing here?"

"Heard a rumour someone broke into Snape's stores," Tiberius sighed and sat on the little couch with Kei.

"Yeah, probably some snot-nosed kid," he dismissed. "Nothing to worry about."

Tiberius leaned forward, "don't think it's Karkaroff? He's always been a little suspicious."

Dismissing his son once more, Alastor responded, "Karkaroff is a priss who wouldn't try anything with me here, more or less in Dumbledore's presence. And Barty Crouch is here. Too much Ministry presence for him to try. He'd be setting himself up for failure."

"You're not wrong," Kei said, "but you still don't think he could be responsible for—"

"No, it's most likely a student," Alastor scoffed, cutting Kei off.

She simply nodded. Seeing that there was nothing else that could be said, Tiberius stood up and said his goodbyes to Alastor while pulling Kei out of the office.

"That was a lovely talk," they mumbled. Tiberius shot Kei an annoyed look, causing her to raise her hands in defence. "Any news on the soulmate stuff?"

"No," he sighed, "I haven't found anything but the legends. Fucking sucks."

The week progressed with nothing important and the second task finally came around. Tiberius and Kei were accompanied by Vic, Gina, and Jaqen. Kei felt very left out in the group, Tiberius and Vic talking about some Defence project while Gina and Jaqen made googly eyes at one another. Looking out at the Black Lake, Kei noticed the judges' stand, a floating platform, and only three of the four champions. Harry Potter was nowhere in sight.