Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery Year 6

Chapter 16

TRIGGER WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS A MENTION OF VIOLENCE.
"May I have your attention please?"

The great hall fell silent. Dumbledore was behind the owl lectern, preparing to make an announcement. With not much left until the holidays, and the fact that Dumbledore rarely made announcements like these, murmurs arose from the crowd about what this could possibly about.

"Good morning, students. I'm sure you've heard about the wizard from Mahoutokoro who has been associated with Professor Rakepick that the ministry has been trying to track down. Last night, said wizard was spotted near Hogwarts grounds. To prevent students from getting attacked by him, all of you are required to leave campus for the Christmas holidays, and shall not be expected to return to school until either the wizard has been sighted elsewhere, or until ministry reinforcements have been assigned to Hogwarts. In the meantime, classes will resume as usual. Your professors have been warned not to conduct lessons outside their designated classrooms or areas. As students, you will not be allowed to leave Hogwarts grounds. Students found disobeying this rule will be punished accordingly..."

A few more rules later, Dumbledore let the students resume their breakfast. The Gryffindor sixth-years, who had been copying Rowan's-ahem, discussing-their Charms homework until then, immediately changed the subject to the 'ministry reinforcements' Dumbledore was referring to.

"Do you think there would be DRAGONS guarding the school?!" squealed Charlie.

"Dumbledore said 'the ministry', not 'Gringotts'," said Dani.

"Can we get Angelica to send in a few-"

"As if Albus Dumbledore himself would take such a thing from a 20-year-old junior worker," interrupted Ben.

Talbott arrived at the Gryffindor table as they began arguing about whether or not some weird, dangerous creature was in the school's near future. "Hey Dani, I intercepted this from a giant white owl. It was a quill, but I untransfigured because I heard that's what you guys do with them. It became this letter. I think it's in Japanese. Since the Mahoutokoro wizard is in the area now, that might have stopped him from receiving it."

"Awesome, thanks Talbott. Rowan, can you translate this over the holidays or something?"

"Am I your slave now?"

"Yes?"

Rowan pocketed the letter as Jae said, "I've learned a bit about ministry threat levels from the guys off Knockturn. Since Patricia Rakepick used an unforgivable curse on a minor, and this wizard is headed for Hogwarts of all places, it'll probably be dementors, which means we probably won't be setting foot out of the castle anytime soon after Christmas."

"That's all too bad," said Corey. "I think it'd be cool of aurors showed up."
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"So... Will you be... Doing anything interesting over the holidays?"

"I'm spending Christmas with the Weasleys. You?"

"Well..." Merula said enviously. "Nothing. Just me and my empty house. That's why I always choose to stay here. That's off the table now, though."

"Don't you have, like, a legal guardian? Because even if you've already had your birthday, you still aren't a legal adult to, you know, the muggle people."

"My aunt drops by every once in a while to make sure I'm not dead."

The girls get to the door. "How long do we have?" asked Dani.

Merula checked her watch. "About half an hour, leaving us nearly fifteen minutes to get to the carriages with the others."

Dani nodded. "Keep an eye on the clock." She transformed into a dog while Merula got under Dani's invisibility cloak. They were doing a more detailed search of the Black Lake before the holidays and they weren't taking any chances with being spotted.

The cloak kept Merula mostly shielded from the cold morning air. She looked around the bare earth near the lake, noting nothing out of the ordinary, while Dani sniffed pebbles near the shore.

Merula decided to check out the large boulder further out, because, well, why not. Creeping around the corner, Merula takes the turn and finds herself face to face with a man. He was tall, and had shoulder-length black hair. More importantly, his robes were completely white.

Forgetting that she couldn't be seen, Merula screamed and ran towards the castle. Dani heard the scream, saw the wizard come out from behind the boulder, and also tried to head back.

It seemed like they were going to outrun the wizard-until Merula tripped and the cloak came flying off. She was quickly knocked down by a spell, and the last things she remembered were the sound of a dog racing towards her as quickly as her paws could carry her, an accented voice yelling "THE DOG!", and another flash of red light before blacking out.