B.Q. Book Two: Black Princess Ascendant

Chapter 16: Alternative Instruction

Disclaimer: Did Hogwarts's heads of house, or at least McGonagall, seem to view their role as a mere formality and rarely have any real interaction with the students under their guidance? If so, I don't own the Harry Potter franchise; it belongs to J.K. Rowling, Scholastic Press, Warner Bros., and whomever else she sold the rights to.
______________________________

Jen,

Return to London next weekend. We need to have a talk about your latest stunt. I'd rather not bring it to our Head of House's attention if I don't have to.

Aunt Narcissa

Jen refolded the short, terse letter that had arrived that morning and pursed her lips. "Well, that's probably not a good sign," she finally muttered before waving her hand vaguely over the parchment and setting it ablaze. Perhaps immediately sending her new 'follower' to her aunt had been a bad decision in hindsight, but in her defense, what else was she to do with Skeeter after performing the actual enslavement? Cissy would have a much better idea of how to use an utterly loyal servant for their House's benefit than she did.

A shrill ringing came from a nearby desk, and she dispelled the alarm charm on her pocket watch and summoned it to her hand. In addition to dealing with her aunt's obvious displeasure, she also had a meeting to attend with the head of Ravenclaw, and considering how disgruntled he had been over the weekend, she doubted this was good news, either.

Could she not just get a break for a week?

At least the room's cleaned out and ready for my experiment, she reminded herself as she pulled the door of the abandoned classroom she had commandeered closed behind her, her finger then running along the line of nauthiz runes she had carved into the wood above the knob. Each symbol glowed faintly as her magic touched it, increasing the friction between the door and frame until no force would be able to move the wooden panel. Add a little illusion to the mix, she thought as she wove the glamour and bound it to the inverted raidho at the end, and no one will even think to check for hidden runes. They'll assume I'm using a locking charm, which means they'll waste their time trying to magically pick an unlocked door.

Making her way up to the fifth floor, she passed the entrance to the common room and stopped in front of a portrait depicting four witches playing a card game. "I have an appointment with Professor Flitwick."

The painting swung outwards at her announcement, and she stepped into the room beyond. It was quite clear that this was the domain of a quarter-goblin; not only was everything but two chairs on the near side of the desk much smaller than would be useful for a full-sized human, numerous swords and hammers lined the walls above a collection of low bookcases. At the back of the room hung a large tapestry, which depicted a grand battle between wizards and goblins in a gilded cavern.

"The final battle of the goblin rebellion of 1756?" she asked, running her eyes over the scene. As far as she could remember, that was the first and only time humans had been able to take the fight to the goblin's home turf. Of course, considering the outcome, once was all that had been necessary.

"That it is," Flitwick replied absently, all his focus on the cups of tea he was preparing. "The goblin nation still hasn't forgiven humans for that little trick, intentionally ignoring that it was no less dishonorable than many actions they themselves took in the war. In fact, the goblin name for Gringotts' main lobby translates to 'the Hall of Treachery'."