Son Of Riddle

Chapter Twenty-Seven - The plan; part two

The week of winter break finlly came, and the castle seemed devoid of life, as most of the students went home for christmas. The Chaos Quartet used the mostly empty castle at their advantage, not only could they set an obscene amount of traps for the absent students for when they returned, but they were also able to use the potions ingredients in the sopposed-to-be-secret potions cabinet behind the potions classroom to make the polyjuice potion.
Half the week was over before they finally finished it.
"Finally, I was beginning to think we'd have to come up with a last minute plan." Lucy sighed as they gathered cups.
"Now we just have to hope the house eleves don't do anything rash as us while we're gone, otherwise we're toast." Benjamin said.
"They should know what to do." James said. "They don't act like it most of the time, but they're actually very dutiful and skilled. The dark lord won't keep just any house elves, they have to be exceptional."
"That's a relief, I was afraid Sloth would just, I don't know, sleep the whole time as me, and McGonnagle would know that something was wrong." Adam said.
"Sloth only sleeps when he's not sopposed to be doing anything, he's wise awake when he has a task to do." James reasurred.
"So..." Lucy started. "That means Lust won't just flirt with random people as me, right?"
"Well, Lust only flirts with the house elves, so I think you'll be fine on that end." James said as they walked back to the chamber of secrets. "Also, you're going to fight Rodolphus Lestrange, and your tarnished image is what you guys have been worried about?"
"First of all," Adam said. "It's not just a tarnished image, it's expellation we're worried about because McGonnagle knows how we act, and yes, we are in face quite worried about it. Second of all, you and I are both experienced fighters so getting expelled is the most of my worries."
"I can't go back to the states." Benjamin agreed with a shiver.
James poured the polyjuice potion into the cups they gathered with a sigh. He snapped his fingers and four of the house elves appeared out of thin air.
Sloth stayed where he had appeared on the floor, practically asleep, but the others were unphased and ran towards James, apart from greed who kicked Sloth awake and they both scrambled to catch up with the others.
"Alright, we have 7 hours to find and confront Rodolphus." James said as the house elves crowded around him. "When the polyjuice potion wears off, just pretend to be normal house elves working around Hogwarts. If McGonnagle comes, try to stall her as much as you can. We should be back before tonight."
The house elves all nodded in understanding. Sloth was wide awake and greed wasn't looking around for something to steal.
James handed them all a glass of Polyjuice potion and they gratefully took them and downed them, and if they hated it, they didn't show it.
The quartet watched in amazement as the four small house elves transformed before them. They grew taller, wider and started to grow hair. Their faces started to bubble and grow and their bodies contorted in almost grotesque way, until standing before them were four identical versions of themselves.
"Woahh..." Lucy stepped forwards and poked her counterpart's face.
"Hey!" Lust jumped back, indignant. Her voice was even identical to Lucy's.
"Ok..." James had a thoughtful look on his face. "What was my first memory of flying?" He asked greed.
"When your father instructed a death eater to teach you how to fly and you impetuantly jumped on the broom and declared you didn't need help." Greed said, as though he was describing a picture in front of him. "You then crashed into a tree because you got cocky and tried to fly backwar-"
"Let's leave the details for another time." James cut him off and gave him a death glare. "Anyways..." He walked over to stand in the middle of all the house elves. "Today is the day where we go to confront Rodolphus. You don't have to do much, other than pretend to be us for a day."
"What do we do if McGonnagle sees through the potion?" Pride asked. "We won't be able to come up with an alibi."
"The only thing we can do is hope she pardons us for saving Hogwarts." James said.
"And what if you arent' back before we change back to ourselves?" Lust asked.
"For that, I have hidden another stash of the same batch of potion in the chamber of secrets. We only had enough ingredients to make one batch so there should only be enough for two days, but I doubt we'll be gone that long."
He turned to the rest of the quartet. "You all know the plan already."
"How do we know whether or not he's still at the boars head inn?" Lucy asked.
"Oh, I know for a fact that he's not there." James answered. "But I know this man, I trained with him for seven years. I know exactly where he'll be. Are you ready?"
Adam nodded.
"Yuph." Benjamin said, his answer muffled by the blood pop in his mouth.
"No, but I never will be so yes." Lucy answered, her whole body slightly shaking.
James pulled out four small vials of a teal, not quite translucent potion. He handed one to each of the quartet. "This is a recall potion. Hold onto me and drink this and you'll be transported to where Rodolphus is hiding." He explained.
"Is it safe?" Lucy asked, closely examining the vial.
"About as safe as something like this gets." James answered. "Much safer than apparation, I can tell you that."
"Do we have to drink them all at the same time?" Adam asked.
"Basically, yes. Otheriwse yours might wear off before mine and you'll be left behind."
He pulled the cork off the vial, and the others did the same.
"Down the hatch." Benjamin declared right before pouring int into his mouth.
For a moment, nothing happened. The quartet exchanged quizzical glances, until Adam suddenly burst into a group of bubbles.
Benjamin recoiled, and his high pitched yelp was stifled by him too, bursting into bubbles and now floating in air.
James grinned at Lucy. "Like the spell?"
"I don't think-"
Lucy's response was interrupted by bubbles.
James finally disappeared into bubble clusters and floated away.

About as suddenly as they disappeared, they found themselves in front of a large, black and green Victorian-style mansion. Vines grew up the sides of the house and curled around the spires that sprouted from the pointed rooftops.
"This is one of my father's old mansions." James said.
"It sure looks pretty well kept for being abandoned for ten years." Benjamin commented.
"Exactly." James said. He turned away from the house to face them. "Do you all remember the plan?"
They nodded in unison. "We pretend to be trying to become death eaters and we catch him by sirprise." Adam said.
"And if he doesn't believe us, we just battle him there." Benjamin said, putting another piece of candy in his mouth.
"Where do you get all that candy?" Lucy asked, confused.
"My belt." Benjamin answered simply, gesturing to his belt, which also held several other different types of candy, and something that looked like... seaweed?
They had learned not to ask about the things Benjamin hoarded.
Just as they were about to walk up to the door, Lucy pulled James aside.
"Hey, remember that time when we were trapped in that cage with the centaurs and-"
"And I asked if you wanted to be in a relationship because that's what people with a crush do." James finished for her. "Yes, I remember."
Lucy's face blushed crimson. "...We never did that, did we?"
James shook his head. "We had too many other things occupying our time."
"Well..." Lucy scratched her head, thinking of what next to say. "If we succeed in doing this, do you wanna be in a 'relationship' for real?"
James nodded. "If we succeed, yes."
Lucy beamed. "Ok, deal."
They ran up and joined the other two.
"What are you smiling for?" Adam asked her, a tad confused. They were about to fight a rising dark lord, and she was smiling?
She waved him off. "It doesn't matter."
Together, the four of them walked up to the door of the mansion, completely prepared for whatever would come next.