Hogwarts Legacy: The Price of Power

Rathbone

With barely a month until the Easter Holidays, a kind of anxious dread began to permeate the seventh-year students of Hogwarts. This nervousness was mirrored only in the Professors' abject refusal to let up on them at all, piling on more and more work, until Dracaena found it nearly impossible to find time to even think about what Professor Fig had told them, much less act on it.

"We need to do something soon," she whispered to Sebastian and Ominis during Charms, after scanning the area for any eavesdropping portraits. "We've left it long enough as it is!"

"Where would you suggest we start?" Sebastian frowned, trying to cast Avis nonverbally and succeeding only in producing a puff of feathers instead of a flock of little birds. "I've got another meeting with the Ministry this weekend, and I'd like to have some kind of plan in place before then."

"Will you be able to find anything out, do you think?" Ominis asked, leaning close. His shoulder bumped Dracaena's, and she tensed, longing to put her arms around him, but he was still distant, still stepping back from her when she tested the waters.

"Probably just the layout," Sebastian muttered. "Fig's right, we don't really have a plan at all. Even if you did impersonate Black, Drac, what would you even say? 'Oh, I heard the Ashwinders are making a resurgence and you're in on it, care to share?'"

"Of course not," she said. "We're out of our depth here, I know that, but we need to do something. I'd prefer to just go and have a mooch around, I'm sure no one would question it if Black did that. We could save bothering Minister Nott for another time."

"Sensible," Ominis said. "Gideon's not stupid, you'd need to do a flawless impersonation if you're going to get anything past him. He and Black got on quite well at the social gatherings my parents used to throw."

"Right, so we'll put breaking into the Ministry on the back burner for now," Sebastian said, waving his wand again and cursing as something resembling a rubber chicken fell out of the end of his wand with a squawk. "So what do we do? Look for the book, or talk to Pratt?"

"Well, I imagine anything Pratt's got to say would help us figure out what's going on," Dracaena said. "But I'm really curious about that book, and Professor Reid keeps eyeing me whenever we're in the Great Hall. I think if we don't go and find it soon, he'll ask someone else, and we won't get to read it."

"Alright, find the book first," Sebastian said, grinning as he finally managed to produce a tiny flock of birds that circled his head, cheeping merrily and earning him ten points.

Ominis sighed. "I'm still convinced this is a bad idea," he muttered. "But I get the feeling you don't care."

"Of course we care," Dracaena said, brushing his arm. To her surprise, he didn't move away this time. "We'll be careful, and extra alert, okay? We'll make sure we're safe. Besides, it's like Fig said, we're all capable. But if you think we should wait..."

Sebastian elbowed her and glowered as Ominis raised a brow. Dracaena felt her cheeks heat up.

"Blatant attempts to appease me aside," Ominis said, coolly. "Finding the time to do all of this is going to be difficult. Professor McDougall warned me that if my coursework doesn't improve, he's going to fail me in Muggle Studies. I need to do better than scraping an 'Acceptable,' I'm teetering on the edge of 'Poor.'"

"Yeah, me too," Sebastian admitted. "I'm just managing E's at the moment, and I don't want to risk slipping below when the NEWTs come around. I..." he shivered, paling. "I'm not going back."

"Alright," Dracaena said. "We'll focus on our work tonight and tomorrow and try and get everything done. We'll go and find the book on Wednesday, we've got a late morning after that so we should have some time to catch up on anything we've missed. That'll give us some breathing room before you go to the Ministry, Bassy. You're right, you need to make sure you get good grades."