A/N: Good afternoon my friends.
I hope you like this one and please let me know what you think. Chapter 4: Old Enemies
The following morning, Lily woke to the usual start-of-term chaos that engulfed Gryffindor Tower: 1st years clustered like scared sheep looking for guidance; 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th years chatting excitedly about the previous summer and the year ahead; 5th and 7th years faking confidence.
Lily herself was distracted by a boy - she noticed Cei avoid the other 6th years and glance around the common room as if looking for someone before quickly exitting through the portrait hole.
Unhappy that she had been unable to catch his eye, Lily could not help but frown as she tried to think of ways to get him to notice her.
"What's wrong, Lily?" Rose had crossed the room at the first sign of trouble on Lily's features.
"I don't know, I mean, how do I get Cei to notice me?" Lily's response ended with a sob.
Opening her mouth to respond, Rose quickly thought better of it and thought more about her answer. She wanted Lily to be happy and did not trust Cei; basing her lack of trust on the rumours that circulated the castle about him, especially the one that had caused yesterday's argument between her cousins. The boy was clearly a psychotic. "I think that I he doesn't notice you as you are then he's not worth it."
That sounded like something her mother would say, Lily thought. Ginny had been chasing Harry for several unhappy years before being noticed. Lily had neither the time nor the patience to wait as long. "I doubt I have the time to wait that long, Rose," Lily said gloomily.
"A love potion then?" Rose giggled, excited to be discussing ways of snaring boys. She pushed all thoughts of the target out of her mind as the planning began.
****
"What have I done that Krull deems it necessary to have me followed?" Ogranak was angry that he was not trusted, "I have put out feelers, as asked, and had nothing but positive feedback from them."
Griphook held up a hand, signalling Organak to stop before making sure the door to his private office was closed and no one could overhear them,
"Use your brain, Ogranak," Griphook hissed, "we are all being followed; even Kurzog! Our shaman wishes to be absolutely sure our hearts are pure in the recovery of our greatest sword."
"But..."
"I know we can all be trusted in this, but Krull, perhaps rightly, thinks anyone exposed to humans on a regular basis is being corrupted."
"But.."
"Take some leave, Ogranak, but do not go near your father's estate."
"Why?" Griphook's words were spinning in his head and Ogranak was struggling to make sense of them.
"Because Krull is there. Doing research in to how it was originally lost." Griphook spoke as if to a dim-witted child.
"That defeat is known to every goblin in Europe!" Ogranak protested. Loudly enough for Griphook to check the door again.
"Keep your temper, Ogranak. Lose it outside these hallowed walls and you could lose a lot more.." Griphook paused, softening his tone, "he wants to find a way to break that cursed man's summonning charm. Naturally he doesn't trust the centaurs so is doing it himself."
"He lusts after the power of our ancestors?" Ogranak was wide eyed with interest now.
"For the love of Dedun, keep your mouth shut!" Griphook dominated the room, his black eyes bright with anger. "I need to keep you busy. Take a team to the new site in mexico, make sure you take Bill Weasley with you. GO!"
Ogranak fled from Griphook's office, running as fast as he could from his superior's rage. Taking a calming breath, he found himself outside a newsagents on Diagon Alley.
****
Harry was surprised to see the eagle owl soar into his office; the message it carried could have been delivered by something much smaller:
"A friend said you would love the article on page 7."
Underneath this message was a brand new copy of the Quibbler.
Harry did not waste time looking for a signature, he knew who had sent this message from the words used. Resisting the temptation to go to Gringott's and confront Griphook, Harry glanced out the magical window before starting to decode the message.
"Susan?" He called to his P.A. "Yes, Harry?"
"Could you owl my wife and tell her I'll be late for the family meal?"
"Yes Harry, anything else?"
"Thanks, ah, could you send someone from maintenance down please?"
"Of course." With a smile, Susan left his office and Harry alone with his brooding thoughts.
****
"What are you two giggling about?" Albus accosted his sister and cousin as they entered the great hall for breakfast.
"Cei," Lily answered defiantly, ready to restart yesterday's argument.
Rose looked nervously at her two cousins - who stood like statues facing off against each other - and then the enchanted ceiling, which promised a glorious day. She waved at Professor Longbottom as he sat on the staff table.
"What's got into those two?" A deep voice spoke behind Rose, causing her to shriek and the other two to stare at her.
"Cei?" Rose turned nervously to face him, unsure about how this psychotic would interact with normal people in a crowded area. She found herself staring at his chest and had to take a small step back to look at his face properly. To her surprise and indignation, Cei smiled at the look of suppressed anger on her face and laughed, "My reputation precedes me it seems," he said with a bigger smile, as if laughing at an inner joke. The smile brightened his features and made Rose realise why Lily fancied him.
"It's all lies, built around a fight that's forgotten it's cause," Cei winked at Hugo, who had turned to watch his cousins squabble and who suddenly went bright red. Cei continued, "fortified by my house treating me as an outcast, perhaps because of the solemn mask I wear.. I don't know. At any rate, I'm determined that the real me shall be known this year." Cei laughed at his own bravado, "apologies, I'm not usually so immodest. Just tired of being lonely, you know?"
Just then, a loud shout caught the attention of everyone in the hall; Scorpius charged across the room and shoved Cei away from his girlfriend. Resulting in a rare smile of approval from Albus.
"You stupid welsh mudblood lump, leave my girlfriend alone!"
Before most ears had registered the multiple insults, there was a loud bang. Scorpius was lying helplessly on the Gryffindor table; his head resting in a shattered glass bowl of eggs, his face covered in tiny cuts and his robes littered with other foods. His eyes widened in fear as he noticed Cei's very steady wand pointing at him.
"Cei, my office now, please." Professor Longbottom spoke from behind Cei before leaving, trusting his student to be there within 5 minutes or face worse consequences.
Before turning to follow his head of house, Cei spoke quietly and only to Scorpius, his voice dripping with ice and hate, "Get my lineage wrong again,
Malfoy, and I will enjoy educating you in the finer points of my heritage. I may even show you what happened to your Slytherin friends."
Cei turned to leave, head down, looking penitent, before Scorpius spat at him, hissing "filthy mudblood" as the saliva landed in Cei's right ear.
This resulted in another loud bang as Cei spun on the spot, crouched and then punched Scorpius' still exposed groin. He followed through with an elbow to the Slytherin's adam's apple as the smaller boy jackknifed forward from the pain in his groin.
Scorpius collapsed back on to the table, struggling to breathe.
"Lesson number one, Malfoy: Do not start what you cannot finish." Cei spoke to the now twitching boy before running out of the hall toward's Nevile's office.
Nervous laughter covered the silence that had engulfed the great hall during the altercation before students outside of Gryffindor turned to each other to discuss this latest black mark on Cei's character.
"Albus!" Rose was angry. "Why did you not defend Scorpius?"
"Are you mad? Did you not see the pleasure in his eyes as he hit your beloved? How am I supposed to defend a guy I don't like from a guy hell bent on ruining him? He's so wrapped up in himself he doesn't care about collateral damage." Albus gestured at the Gryffindor's who had been covered by food and broken glass from when Scorpius had initially hit the table.
"Cei was provoked, Rose," Lily tried to calm the two older students with reason. "Surely you heard what Scorpius called him? Al', you should have stood up for Cei, it may have prevented this.." Lily gestured at Scorpius' still twitching form as teacher's arrived to take it to the hospital wing.
Rose sobbed as she saw Scorpius carried away and rushed to his side.
Albus stared at his sister, "I suppose you're right but like he said to Rose, don't side for or against until we've questioned someone.. Hugo?"
"The way Hugo reacted I imagine means he was involved.."
Both Potters turned to their remaining cousin who had watched the whole event with an ever bigger smile on his face. A face that suddenly found the food in front of it very interesting.
****
"Sorry I'm late," Harry spoke from the kitchen entrance to the Burrow, his cloak still fastened from when he'd left the office. He smiled as his mother-in-law hustled over to him and removed his cloak, guiding him to his seat in the process.
"Not to worry dear, you're here now," Mrs Weasley said as she disappeared with the cloak. Re-entering the kitchen she offered him a platter of potatoes before Ginny asked him to explain himself.
"An argument about the importance of a pay rise when national security is at stake and an owl from Neville."
While most ears became interested after hearing 'state security', Ron's reacted to 'owl from Neville'. "What did Neville want?" Ron cut across Hermione asking about security.
Harry smiled as he saw Hermione look daggers at Ron, "Nothing much, just telling me about a Slytherin being taught some manners by undesirable number two..."
"So there is good in 'death boy'?"
"So it seems, the Slytherin was Scorpius.."
Ron and George beamed at this while Ginny and Hermione looked shocked.
"What did Scorpius do?"
"He called the Gryffindor a mudblood and a welsh lump."
"I thought those days were long gone." Mrs Weasley said, "now then Harry, tell us about the maintenance incident."
Harry took a deep breath, "basically I have several methods of conversing with informers and one of them involves using a pin to write a message in an article by putting a hole underneath a letter or punctuation mark etc. Today I got a very important article from an informer who uses this method of communication. So, to get the message I usually pin it over the window to show all the holes at once. It's an old muggle method, Mr Weasley." Harry paused, hoping he wasn't going to fast, "I'll show you later. Anyway, seeing as maintenance want a pay rise, all the windows are full on storms so I couldn't easily unravel the message. To cut a long story short I got my wish and found out that I won't get any information from Gringott's for a while as both my informers have gone to South America. This sucks because one of the most influential goblin religious leaders is setting up camp near Hogwarts and researching an ancient battle that happened on the school grounds. I want to know why he's researching it."
Chapter 3 Chapter 5