A Harry Potter Quest: He who was not

Traits gained: Traits give you no roll bonusses but are there to describe your character instead.

True Ravenclaw – Some things are interesting. Mind you, not all things and you can't really choose what you find interesting, but in general you are a being defined by his curiosity. It gives you and advantage in learning new things, but it also leaves you with a focus as fickle as the wind.

I am not afraid of dying – It is not that you don't fear; you are not a Gryffindor. You feel terror and experience fear just as anyone else. But you are not afraid of dying. There is no reason to be afraid of the unavoidable. You will live your life to the fullest and answer as many of the questions that linger on your mind as you can. But when it is time… you will smile and go.


Present Date: 4th​ October 1993
Current Wand: Fagus wood, Phoenix feather core


Uncovering the truth by Rita Skeeter.


The front-page title of the Daily Prophet was as simple as it was brilliant. It made you feel anxious about the fact that you may be losing out on something interesting and let you contemplate if it was worth the three Sickles that it would cost you.

It was early in the morning, only an hour before classes but the Great Hall was already packing and if you didn't take the newspaper to keep yourself busy, then someone may get the idea that they could approach you.

You wanted the first weekday after The Incident to be one of normality. Well, as far as that was possible at least. Most students hadn't been hurt in any way or come into contact with The Spirit as they called her now. The initial panic had soon transformed into curiosity and fascination as there was no reason to live in fear - not after a year with an open Chamber of Secrets. Hogwarts student had become resilient. They had become strong and durable… and they had become a pain in the ass for you.

Ignoring the eyes you felt on the back of your head, you looked at the picture of the blonde journalist that was winking at you from her front-page article, as if she knew that you would eventually give in.

And she would be right about that.

"Here you go", you said, as you put the silver coins into the small pouch of the News-Owl.

→ - 3 Sickles

The bulky owl was three times the size of Peque and looked like she would have fought you to death if you had as much as thought of not paying her the proper amount. Her large size was likely needed to carry more than one newspaper at a time. The owl looked down at her purse and shook her head in pleasure as she received the coins.

"Hoot Hoot", she said, letting go of the newspaper, before making her way up into the air to search for the next customer willing to pay.

One week ago, you could have sat here, read your newspaper and would have been bothered by no one. Not a soul in the entire hall would have felt the need to talk to you or even bothered about looking your way. Sadly, that had changed dramatically. The first few days after The Incident had been quite stressful for someone like you who desperately needed his peace of mind.

Instead of your usually silent daily routines, you had been confronted with a number of reocurring inquiries; people had been pestering you with questions.

How had you known Sally-Anne's name? Why hadn't the spell worked on you? Was it true that you had dueled The Spirit side by side with Professor Flitwick? Had Sally-Anne been one of your ancestors? How had you known how to stop her?

When they realized that you wouldn't answer any of their questions, they started approaching your classmates. Only when they had realized that even those closest to you didn't know a thing, people started to whisper behind your back. Just loud enough that you could hear their every word… and just near enough that you could never escape their eyes for long.

Taking another bite of your croissant, you spread the pages of the newspaper out to read the newest article in a series of essays talking about The Incident. This one happened to be on the frontpage of the Daily Prophet… just like all newspapers had done for the last few days.

Journalists knew how to get their moneys worth out of anything that was remotely interesting to the public.


My most loyal readers managed to contact me a few hours after The Incident, asking if I wanted to speak up about it and inform Wizarding Britain about what had occurred.

I asked them for patience.

My kind editor asked me a day after The Incident why I had still not sent him an article for publishing.

I asked him for faith.

My friends asked me, when it was that I wanted to finally speak the truth that the Nation was seeking.

I asked them for support.

Because today, my very most dearly loved witches and wizards, today is a day of truth. Today is a day of virtue. I will tell you the story of how I went to school with a girl that was as extraordinary as she was dangerous. A girl that was as frightening as she was kind. I will tell you the story of my friendship with Sally-Anne Hudson.


You halted for a moment, trying to remember the Archives. Your memories were fading. With every passing day the names and dates in your head got a little blurrier. While you had a fine mind, even for you it was difficult to remember all data that you had seen while looking through the documentation of past Hogwarts students. Most of those that you remembered were because you had heard the names before and even of those you had forgotten about half already.

Rita Skeeter you had known. She, you remembered; born in 1950, sorted into first class in 1961. Which meant that Rita Skeeter was lying through her teeth. Rita Skeeter had not only been sorted in one of Sally-Anne's inactive phases. No, not only that. Rita Skeeter's entire education had been outside of Sally-Anne's active phases.

Sally-Anne had been active from 1950 to 1957 and then again from 1970 to 1977. Rita Skeeter had gone to school from 1961 to 1969.


I was a young girl. Afraid and happy at the same time, looking forward to the grand adventure that…

You skipped a few parts.

… Sally-Anne was the best friend I ever had. We talked into the nights and laughed. We played and giggled. We were like sisters…


It was astonishing how brazen her lies were.

No article had made the connection yet as to when Sally-Anne had been active. While large portion of the wizarding world had experienced dizziness as they regained their memories once the spell had been broken, most didn't experience anything.

Only about a third of Wizarding Britain's previous Hogwarts students had been sorted in an active phase. You had not grown up in this country but you had taken your time to learn as much about your new home as had been possible, which meant that you knew that only an elite part of the population had even studied at Hogwarts.

While it was the only officially accounted school by the Ministry, it wasn't the only educational center. Most children were homeschooled or went into some of the smaller schools around the country.

An education at Hogwarts was reserved for basically three groups: Those that were wealthy, those that were connected to the Ministry and those that were Muggleborn. This was why every single Hogwarts student was special in a way and why most of those that graduated made a name of themselves in their later lives.

Having only a third of such an elite group report about past events with a ghost that they had forgotten about until last week, meant that there was quite a bit of skepticism in the rest of the population. You suspected that it would take some time and investigation for them to figure out who exactly had been under the effects of the spell.

And here you had Rita Skeeter using the missing link, as to who had been under the effects of the spell and who hadn't, to put herself in the spotlight.

For most of the ex-students there had been no such dramatic an effect as there had been with the Hogwarts Professors. They had only been inconvenienced in their daily routines. While most people had gone through only two months of mind magic, the teachers had experienced a heavier subversion of their own magic. Having been confronted with Sally-Anne's magic year after year seemed to have let her magic fester only deeper into their minds. Rumors were that Snape had been out of it for an entire day.

Your eyes searched for the chair to the center of the teachers table. Dumbledore's place was still suspiciously empty.

Out of your periphery you saw a head turning to you. Before anyone got the wrong idea, you submerged your head deep into the newspaper again.


… and that she wanted to be like me, she said. That I was what she had always been looking for. Back then, I didn't understand the meaning of her words, dear reader. But now I do. Sally-Anne Hudson wanted to be just like me, and it is my fault that I was not old enough to simply break her spell. I was not strong enough to save her. I am at fault for what happened, because in the end… she just aspired to be my friend.


Wow.

There were truly despicable human beings out there.

If you hadn't known that she was lying, you would have felt bad for reading something as intimately written. As if she was laying her thoughts out into the open for the reader to analyze and scrutinize. Knowing that it was all fake let you see how perverted and sickening the woman really was.

There she was, out in the open and presenting herself as a hero. Rita Skeeter was a liar - and she was really good at it. It made you rethink some of your past evaluations of people.

"Well Rita", you whispered into the newspaper. "Better hope that Sally-Anne's magic doesn't come haunting you for this."

You turned the page to get a look of what else the Daily Prophet had to offer. There was an ad for Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands – as if anyone in the country didn't know him… but he had to keep his name relevant, you guessed.

You skimmed over the next few articles.

Is the young wizarding generation in peril?: Exclusive excerpts from a new sensational essay

Muggle Type-Writer: The Hidden Advantages to scribing the Muggle way

Save Sickles by ordering fashionable shoes

There was nothing of worth to be learned there. It took you four pages, until you found something interesting again:


Sirius Black has been sighted.


Why only page 5? DC 40 (INT + EMP + Perk) → 1D100+10 → 93(83 + 10) → Success!


It was interesting how far back the Daily Prophet had chosen to put an article about the most famous Sirius Black. Two months prior, this would have been front-page material, with a close-up photograph of the deranged murderer to attract as many buyers as possible.

Even with newer revelations there was no reason to put it behind page two. There was nothing of interest between The Incident and Sirius Black. Was there a reason for this?

Keeping in mind what Professor Binns had taught you in his only interesting class this year, it was more than possible that the Ministry had been betting a lot of goodwill by stationing Dementors at Hogwarts. Black had been a fugitive for three months already, likely keeping himself out of their grasps without any resources or any wand.

And there may lay the exact problem; he was making the Ministry look incompetent.

First breaking out of what was thought to be an unbreakable fortress and then keeping a few steps ahead of the ministry for months. It was possible that someone in the Ministry had pressured the executives of the Daily Prophet to put this new article about Black as far away from the frontpage as possible.

You folded the newspaper to pull the article up as you took another sandwich out of the mix. With food in the one hand and the newspaper in the other, you stood up, making your way out of the Great Hall and into the direction of your next class.


An article by E. Limus

Sirius Black, the most infamous prisoner — of Azkaban, — has been sighted in Dufftown by an astute Muggle. The Muggles think that he is just an ordinary criminal, they don't have a clue how dangerous, powerful and vindictive Black can be (not that you could expect more from them).

The female Muggle communicated, via a machine called Telephone, the Muggle Crime Watchers Hotline, and immediately the Ministry of Magic Witch Watchers were informed. Minister Cornelius Fudge was taken by surprise and sent Witch Watcher Special Forces to the Village, but when they arrived there, Black was gone.

The Minister was absolutely disappointed to lose Sirius Black. The situation got worse when hundreds of Dementors turned up making the small Dufftown population quiver in panic. It took more than 4 hours for the Special Force to tranquillize what was a great shock for those Muggles.


If this was the least Ministry-critique wording that had been possible, it was easy to understand why the article meant bad publicity. The Ministry had fudged their first good lead since Black's escape and not only that… they had shown an absolute lack in control over their Dementors.

Hundreds of Dementors in a small town with defenseless Muggles.

There was no mention of Muggles that had been hurt, but there was absolutely no mention of no one having been hurt either. It was ominous to say the least.


Sirius Black, escaped from Azkaban Prison, leaving the wizard community very apprehensive and in panic, the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, has already asked all the Wizards to be really careful and act with caution and to not attempt to use magic against Black. The Minister only asks to notify immediately by owl the Ministry of Magic or the Witch Watchers Sirius Black Hot[line].


"Hey! Watch where you're bloody going!", someone cried out as you stepped on a foot, not looking up from the article.

"Oh", you said as you took another bite of your sandwich. "Sorry."

You continued your journey through the corridor without your eyes ever leaving the newspaper even for a second.

---

Present Date: 4th​ October 1993
Current Wand: Fagus wood, Phoenix feather core

You were the first to stand up from your place in the last row of the class. Professor Lupin had still not officially dismissed you, but he couldn't blame you for wanting to flee the scene before your classmates had time to catch up to you and try to bother you.

The interest in your person was visibly dying down even after only a few days of silence, but it was still much higher than you had ever experienced and that was unnerving you quite a bit. Pushing the door open with the help of your wand, you rushed out of the door while you were still shouldering your small bag. Your septs carried you into the corridor outside and you were already planning your escape route; only one corridor down to reach a thick curtain that would lead you into a passage that was hidden away. You could make it…

"Basques", someone said from behind you, trying to rob you of the fast escape route you had planned.

No.

You still could get away. You didn't need to talk to people. Just ignore them like you always did.

"Hey, Basques. Wait up", the female voice said again, before you heard fast steps of someone approaching you. "Hey!" she said when she had reached you, grabbing your arm to come closer and accommodate to your fast pace without slowing you down.

You turned your head to look at the face of your would-be attacker to see the green eyes of someone who usually wasn't so abrasive and forward in nature. Megan Jones clung herself tight into your arm, pulling herself closer and pushing you forward with her at the same time.

"What are you doing?" you asked her.

"Just keep on walking", she said. "You don't want the others to catch you, do you?" There was amusement in her voice, as if she was hinting at something that laid beyond what her words meant.

"I don't know what you're talking about," you said.

"Sure", she said, smiling at you. "You're not trying to escape everyone. That's why you're always walking while reading something nowadays and why you were the first one to leave the Great Hall after… what happened."

"Do you even know that Professor McGonagall gave Ravenclaw 50 points for what you did?", she asked you, still not making any sign of wanting to leave your company.

You sighed visibly as you reached the corner. Then you directed your steps to the left to get into another corridor, before pushing you and her – ignoring her gasp – through the thick curtains and into a hidden floor. Only when you were inside did you take your arm out of her tight grip, before moving further down into the floor.

"Wow", you heard her say, standing at the entrance for a few seconds before you heard her fast steps following you again. "Quite a way to make yourself even more mysterious", she said. "Do you kidnap all the girls you talk to, Marques?" she asked you with a weird tone in her voice that you couldn't quite place.

"No, I'm not stupid", you said. It wasn't that you were bad with people per se, it was simply that you were quite easily agitated by them. You didn't like that exact feeling that was building up inside you right now.

"Look, Basques", Megan Jones tried again, after a few moments of silence in which she was only following you down the hidden floor. "I…" she tried.

"I don't know how to do this. I'm not usually one to talk to people I don't know."

Only when you reached trapdoor at the end of the impasse, did you take time to stop and look at the Hufflepuff girl. Until your shared hours in Runes Club you had never exchanged a single word with her. Where was this sudden change coming from?

"What do you want?" you asked, a little bit more aggressive than you would liked, but it was hard keeping the irritation out of your words when so many people kept bothering you. You were not the type for this.

Instead of giving her time to respond, you leaned down to grab the handle to the trapdoor below. The handle needed to be pushed down for the door to fall open, revealing an old step of stairs.

"I just wanted to thank you."

Her words made you stop in your tracks and look up again. Megan had abandoned the aggressive facade she had been showing you just a minute prior. Her eyes were focused on the wall behind you instead, as if she didn't know where to look at instead.

"I wanted to say thank you, because before this I've felt empty at times", she said. "Alone and as if I didn't belong… and I never knew why that was. It was as if something was missing… as if I had forgotten something."

You let your eyes focus on the stairs below. There was no reason for you to watch as tears were building up in her eyes.

"But now I remember why that is. I finally remember my first few months at the Castle. I…" she said, before raising her hands to her face to rub her eyes. "I had forgotten about my friend and you brought the memories back. That's why I wanted to thank you."

You didn't know how to answer that. You knew that there was more to her words than just what she had said. There was more to her hurt than just having forgotten something. But you didn't ask. Because in the end, you knew that this was the way she'd wanted to deal with.

"Jacob", you said, as you stood up to offer her to go down the stairs first.

"What?", she asked, looking at you with red puffy eyes.

"It's Jacob. Not Basques."

---

What do you want to focus on this month?

You have 10 Normal Actions and 5 Personal Actions.
2 Normal Actions can be exchanged for 1 Personal Action.


Social

[ ] Case 2: I am afraid of dying – Your first case has given you a new perspective onto things. When someone dies, how are they turned into ghosts? Are they fully here or is it only an afterimage, stuck in between both worlds. Professor Binns often calls students by the wrong names and gives the wrong houses points… but does he? There is system to the madness. (Costs 2 actions)

[ ] Quidditch Round 1, Ravenclaw vs Gryffindor – It's time for the first game of the year and while you have a lot of things that you'd like to focus on, most of the school will be present here. Go and watch the Quidditch Game. It could be interesting and if it is not, well you will be high enough up to watch the clouds instead. Win-Win.

[ ] Write a Letter (Free Action) – Specify to whom it is that you want to write and what you want to talk about

[ ] Random Encounter – Just… Go and live your life. You don't need to plan everything in your life out.



School & Work

[ ] Business School of Hogsmeade (Multiple Actions on this count as multiple rolls stacking) – This is the first year, in which you can go to Hogsmeade. Good that you've been planning for this since first year: Buy Books, Ingredients, Joke Shop Articles, Instruments and other things. Go and look, if you can make some money by buying things for first and second years. Roll for how many are interested and then for how much they want to spend. Take 10% of their spending as a fee.

[ ] Stage II, A Shadow behind the Paintings (Multiple Actions on this count as multiple rolls stacking) – Most pupils go through their life at Hogwarts without ever looking beyond what they can see. You have already taken a first step in getting a better understanding of the structures surrounding you. Now you only need to dig deeper. (Find passages going out of Hogwarts.) Multiple DC thresholds to see how many you find, from low to very high.

[ ] Stage I, Dreams of old (Takes 2 Actions) – The book your father gave you is one without adornment as decoration, nor is there any title to find on the old leather binding. There is not one word written on the pages of the old tomb and your father gave you nothing but one clue: It has something to do with memory magic. What is this riddle about?

[ ] In Search of New Spells – Go into the library and look for new spells that you could try to learn. If you have some specific effect in mind, write it down.

[ ] In Search of New Potions – Go into the library and look for new potions that you could try to learn. If you have some specific effect in mind, write it down.

[ ] Do Something – Be creative. Or go and do nothing. Your decision really. Specify what you want to do.


Personal Actions

[ ] Train, Learn, Achieve – Specify what you want to train or study

[ ] Do your research – Learn a Spell, a Potion or something different that is available to you at the moment

---