- Location
- New Zealand
Present Date: 8th June 1994
Current Wand: Fagus wood, Phoenix feather core
The pieces were falling together in an unexpected way, but you finally had been able to have a full nights sleep. Well, at least four hours of it.
Only now did you consciously realize that you hadn't been eating well since you had found Sirius and subsequently Pettigrew. You tried to force yourself in the morning, but it was difficult to feel hunger, when a riddle was not solved yet.
"Jacob, I am talking to you," Megan said, bringing your attention back into the real world. She was snipping her fingers. Her eyes were of sorrow, but you also knew that she was getting fed-up with the situation.
"Jacob, you can't just sit here and do nothing about this," Megan said, frustration evident in her voice.
"That is the opposite of what I am doing." You said. "I am almost there. I know Black is an Animagus," you looked around before you lowered your voice, as you saw a few more students in the courtyard around you. "Pettigrew is also and most probably, Potter was one, too."
A few seconds passed, before you said: "Potter Senior, I mean. Not the other-…"
"I know who you are talking about," she said as she grabbed for your arm and turned to you fully. "I am not talking about the riddle, Jacob. I am talking about you knowing how to get to a serial killer and not sharing it with anyone."
You shook your head, but she continued as if you hadn't: "You have to tell someone, like the head of your house or the headmaster. It's not safe to keep this information to yourself."
"I can't just give up on the case. I have to solve it myself," you said stubbornly.
"Why?" Megan almost shouted at you, frustration in her voice. "You practically did. No one can find him and you know how to get him with this …" when she realized that she had raised her voice, she lowered it for the last word. "Map of yours." She then whispered loudly leaning forward.
A part of you knew that she was right. Another much more stubborn part did not want to accept it. So, you started spinning words together.
"What I know is that Black was imprisoned at least partly for something that did not happen," you said. "I know that the supposedly good guy is hiding as a rat with children around him and I am very sure of the fact that Black, Pettigrew and Potter learned how to transform to run around with the wolf."
Megan's eyes widened when she realized that two Slytherins were passing you by. Both of you stayed silence until they had crossed the courtyard far enough that they would not hear you again.
"I cannot say who is the good person in this … because they are all not telling the truth. Why did Lupin not share the fact that the man who killed a family father and a mother is an Animagus? Why is Pettigrew hiding, when he is one of the good guys? What is Weasley's involvement in this?"
You knew yourself that while all of this was true, this was not the real reason. It had to be you, who solved this. Only then it would count. But you could throw in one more doubt into the mix: "Why would the headmaster not look for Black himself? If I can find him … it is difficult to believe that he cannot."
Megan's expression softened, her hand still rested on your arm.
"What could be a reason for him to not to?" She asked.
"I don't know," you admitted.1d100+25 #Detective Roll (People) = 27
Megan sighed in return.
"I understand that you want to solve it yourself, and I understand that it is a complicated mess. But this isn't just a game. There could be serious consequences if you don't tell someone. People could die." The grip of her hand around your arm tightened.
You shook your head again. "I have already told you before that I don't do this to be good." You repeated something that had come up in your very first real conversation that you ever had with the person next to you. A person that by now … knew you probably the best out of all your friends.
"You can be as irresponsible as you want with your own life, Jacob." She said as her hand retreated from your arm. "You're barely eating, you're barely sleeping, you're utterly obsessed with this case. It's not healthy. But that's your decision."
She was watching you intently as you looked at the ground before you.
"Just don't be irresponsible with the life of others."
You nodded without actual agreement. You knew that Megan meant well.
"Fine." You said in the end, conceding a point.
"I will give it one try. If that…" Ignorant, bothersome, limited? There were many words that would describe your DADA teacher. None of them were good. "… person does not come up with something himself, I will leave and not try again."
"Thank you," Megan said simply.
Your eyes met. And while you were annoyed by the compromise, she was giving you a weak smile.
You liked her.
And right now, that was a very annoying feeling.
You forced a smile back and made her laugh in return.
"You are such a bad actor!"
undefined
I'm happy that Jacob is finally reaching and telling someone things, even if it's only one person. He needs someone to tell him when to slow down, stop or just get other people involved.
New entry: Animagus Transformation – Transfiguration. This may not be one of the most difficult pieces of magic, but it may be one of the hardest to achieve. An Animagus (pl. Animagi) is someone who can transform themselves into an animal and back again at will and without a wand. The ritual to start alone will take months, you will have to learn new skills that will be useful only for that and only then the actual learning part for the transformation can start. Now you start to understand why there are so few Animagi around. The time it takes to make your body and soul react to the change is completely out of proportion to the benefits it brings you. Acquiring the skill takes most people two to five years. Every Animagus is required to register with the Ministry of Magic at the Animagus Registry. This registration includes revealing one's animal form and one's distinguishing markings. The penalty for failing to register as an Animagus is a sentence in Azkaban. But you are not that worried about that last part. [Requires Transfiguration skill of at least A- & Potion skill of A+), DC: 4000.
Well this is quite the hefty project. If we ever want to seriously pursue it, we're going to have to come up with a way to reduce the DC, otherwise there's no way we're taking like 50 actions to try and get this thing up an running. Even worse they might be personal actions.
Present Date: 15th June 1994
Current Wand: Fagus wood, Phoenix feather core
You had fought it for an entire week, as you looked for a way out of this predicament. You kept observing Pettigrew, Lupin and the elusive Black in any free minute you could find in the week before the exams.
Pettigrew's life was mind numbingly boring. You followed the rat around when it was not in the Gryffindor common room or with Weasley as much as you could without being noticed. And you never once saw him turn back into a human. But you had learned of other things.
Most important; the rat missed a finger. You remembered how weird it had been that specifically only a finger of him was found. What kind of incompetent forensic work would come out with such a result? Only one finger was there, so the body must have been disintegrated? Was there such an abundance of spells like that when the Dark Arts were involved that this was a logical thing to come up with?
It did not matter.
Pettigrew was a complete and utter waste of time. And because Black spent most of his time far away, outside of the map, you had only come to see his dot moving around a few times. Mostly at night, always to hide away in the Shrieking Shack.
Which left you with the last interesting party of this.
The one you had tried not to talk to. But you had promised Megan, so after a week you did.
"Mr. Basques," the pale man said. You had never been as well informed about the current moon cycle as you were right now. The man before you had 26 hours until he transformed into a werewolf. And right now, you could definitely see how hard those last hours must have felt to him. He looked like a dead man walking. "How can I help you?"
One dead, one living as a rat, one a crazed criminal and one a werewolf who went through hell once a month. You could not imagine a group of friends more out of luck than them.
A few seconds passed by, in which Professor Lupin smiled at you weakly, sitting across the table in his office.
You had thought about this very moment for days. You brainstormed with Megan how to best approach the topic. She had advised you to be sensitive and first talk about classes. She wanted you to say how much you appreciated the professor and thank him for his work this past year. Only then, should you slowly zoom in on the real topic.
Megan had proposed a good approach.
"Professor, was the Shrieking Shack build specifically for you or was it placed for other werewolf students as well?" You asked instead.
Professor Lupin's smile faltered, and he fell back in his seat as if hit by a punch. The man was looking at you with shock and disbelief. "I-I'm sorry, Mr. Basques." He stammered, before trying to catch himself. "What are you saying?"
Time passed, in which you calmly watched his expressions.
"What is this about, Mr. Basques?" He asked again after a few moments of silence. "Who said I am a werewolf?"
You raised your eyebrows at him, trying to act like Justin when he played the innocent: "I did," you simply stated. "It took me like two months, but that was not the question. The Shrieking Shack? I knew that it couldn't be part of the original build-out. It seems like an afterthought in architecture and symbolism. Why would it be connected to Hogwarts?"
Your fingers tipped against the table between you and the professor. Your words were quick, your voice uncaring.
"I let it be, maybe it was a place for staff. Maybe the tunnel had been added because someone wanted to add some Hogwarts feeling to it – even though they did not understand that there should always be a riddle connected that teaches children something about magic." You sighed, as you saw that Lupin was gaining his composure back.
"Do you really want me to bother you with how I came up with the real reason for the building or do you want to just tell me the answer, Professor?" You asked.
Professor Lupin looked at you with a mixture of shock and sadness in his eyes. "Mr. Basques," he said quietly. "I am not sure how you discovered my secret, but I can assure you that it was not my intention to deceive anyone. I have always tried to keep my condition under control, and I have never intentionally put any of my students in danger."
You nodded, understanding the weight of his words. "With all due respect. That was not the question, Sir." Your eyes didn't leave his saddened expression. "I think that you are a competent man, but a bad teacher. I do not think that you want to actively harm children. Professor Snape would have to know that you were a werewolf and if he knew, then the headmaster knew as well."
Lupin looked a little hurt. "You think I am a bad teacher?" He asked.
Oh. You had said that part out loud, huh? You were not good with people when you were this annoyed and antagonistic.
"Yes, I do." You answered, without clarifying it further.
"Why do you think that, Mr. Basques?" Lupin asked, leaning forward a bit, not breaking the eye contact now that he had caught up to the conversation.
"I asked you about something and you told me that I could not do it." You knew deep down that it sounded childish. But to hell with it. No one could tell you that you were not good enough for anything.
"The Patronus charm, you mean?" He asked. "I am sorry, but it is a very advanced charm. Even though … Maybe it would have been possible with you. I may have misjudged."
That train had left the station a long time ago.
"So, was the house built for you specifically?" You asked, completely changing the topic. You did not care about his praise. He would not learn from you that you had mastered the spell by yourself.
Lupin hesitated a moment. But then he nodded: "Yes, it was."
"And your friends learned to be Animagi to join you in there, every moon cycle?"
His face was as pale as the piece of parchment in front of him. This time the shock in its expression was limited to a bit of widening eyes.
"Who have you talked to, Mr. Basques?" Lupin asked, now more serious than before. You had hit a nerve with him.
You completely ignored his question, grabbing the wand inside your pocket before continuing. "So, why would you tell no one that Sirius Black was an Animagus? Why not spill the secrets on someone that supposedly killed a man so close to you. Someone that learned to transform into an animal just to support you in your hard times?"
Your eyes stayed on him, watching his frame like a hawk. But instead of an aggressive movement or a sudden attack, you saw a man crumble in front of you.
It was difficult to stop now. So, you continued.
"It takes even the most talented years to become an Animagus. Why would you not spill the beans on the person that killed the parents of one of your very own students, Professor?"
There was no confrontation left in Lupin's expression. The smile had disappeared a long time ago, as he looked at you saddened and hurt. He had been only physically weak when you had come here, but now he seemed hurt emotionally as well.
"Mr. Basques," he said, his voice a mere whisper. "Please leave my office."
Your eyes stayed on him for a moment longer. Then you nodded, letting the wand drop inside your pocket before standing up. The disgust for this man had left your heart. Now there was an emptiness as you saw him sitting there, looking like a broken husk.
You left his office without a next step in mind. But with an answer at least. Lupin was not doing this to hide anything. He was just a weak man, who had lost a lot, someone who had just given in and was dragged along by the tides.
And you had done your best to throw him deeper into the water.
To anyone else Jacob must come off as such an asshole here, he was completely uncaring of his Lupin's feelings, only trying to crack him open for the answers he can give. Worst part is he didn't need to be so heavy handed and break the man even further.
It is very interesting how a chance of perspective can completely alter how Lupin is percieved, in the original series he comes across as a cool teacher who dispenses good advice and has been hurt. Here he seems utterly pathetic. Very well done I reckon.
Present Date: 16th June 1994
Current Wand: Fagus wood, Phoenix feather core
It was Thursday and for most students this meant that there were four days left to the first exam. For you, that was not the appropriate cycle of time. You were counting days differently at the moment.
Today was the day of full moon for example. It was also day 17 since you had discovered that Pettigrew was alive and day 1 since you had emotionally wrecked a broken fool.
You would wait for this night to pass, gift him one more day of recuperation and then you would go to Lupin and tell him all about Pettigrew. You would say sorry, because that was what was expected – but not because you felt it. Then he could decide what to do with both the rat and the dog.
And you, would have admitted defeat.
Now that you knew that the professor was not hiding something out of malice, there was no real reason left that you could put up against Megan's argument.
You were sitting in the owlery, a tower outside of the castle. Peque had left for a hunt, but the darkness up here gave you clarity as you watched the full moon high up in the night sky. It was already past curfew, but sleep did not find you easily these days.
Your eyes fell on the map next to you again, folded to show you Lupin's room. He had not been moving for hours before the transformation, but his dot had become much more active afterwards. In any given day, you would have wished to see such a creature up close. But it was very difficult to find any motivation at the moment for anything that didn't bring you closer to finding out the truth behind the tragedy of the Potters.
Rubbing your eyes, you sighed and looked up at the moon again.
It seemed that you had failed. Besides attacking Black yourself or catching Pettigrew there was nothing left that you were able to do.
Why was it so frustrating to lose? When had it become such a difficult thing for you?
"I fucking hate this." You said to no one in particular.
You felt constrained by so many things. People, expectations, laws and morals and each of them was taking away from your possibilities here. You almost decided to disregard everything and just hunt Black yourself … but what if. What if he was innocent? Could you guarantee catching him without alerting the Dementors? Could you for sure say that you would learn the truth after having him? That you would not give him over to authorities on false premises?
No, you could guarantee neither of these things, which why everything was so frustrating. You had learned so much but had not come closer to the truth.
Your eyes fell onto the map again.
This time something had changed. Where you expected only the name of your professor, running up and down like a crazed animal inside his chambers, now another name appeared: Peter Pettigrew.
Your eyes widened in shock.
Pettigrew stood right next to the door and stayed there for a second or two, then the dot started moving to the right, quickly moving down the floor. Your eyes stayed by Lupin's room, though. There, the dot that marked your professor, the one who was not himself this night, left the room.
The werewolf was standing in the floor of an open castle full of children. You panicked, already in the midst of standing up and grabbing your wand. A few seconds later, you had jumped over the balcony of the owlery. High up over the school ground, you ran towards the castle as you unfolded the map before you. Your boots finding safe ground high up in the sky.
Lupin's dot was moving at a speed that was unbecoming. The werewolf was seemingly following behind Pettigrew's dot, almost catching up to him as he was led down the floor, then a staircase.
Running above the air, you unfolded more of the map until you had to come to a halt for a moment to open it up completely. You struggled with the parchment, while you tried to think ahead. Where would they run towards? The direction was … to the exit.
Pettigrew was leading the wolf outside the castle? Your eyes darted over the possible route. And thankfully you did not see a single name between them and the door.
You let out a breath, that you hadn't realized you had been holding until now. A few moments later Pettigrew already reached the outsides of the castle. The werewolf close behind him. It seemed as if the wolf had slowed down and not killed the rat.
Did it recognize him? Did it know it had to follow to flee?
Your eyes darted around the surrounding of the castle. Where did Pettigrew want to go? Could you catch him? Was this the moment he fled the castle?
Where would you go to if you were Peter Pettigrew?
A rat. Someone who had spent years in hiding. Afraid of the consequences of hist actions.
Nothing.
You came up with nothing.
It was difficult to find an answer for someone you could not understand. So, instead. You looked around at random.
It did not take you long to find more.
The thing was … what you found on the map did not make any sense.
The first part was strange but not out of question; Shrieking Shack was not as desolated and empty as it was usually. You saw a name that was not unexpected: Sirius Black. But you also saw some names that you did not expect there: Harry Potter, Ron Weasly & Hermione Granger.
It threw up some questions, but it was not as strange as the next thing you found:
You saw an additional name that you really did not expect right next to the other dots: Peter Pettigrew.
Your eyes darted back to the place near the castle where Pettigrew and Lupin were running still. They were clearly heading into the direction of the Shrieking Shack. But how was Pettigrew in two places at the same time?
"Fucking Time Turners." You said. "Fucking pendejos!"
Even your mind could not process everything at once. But still, there was more to unpack. The last one was really the strangest of them all. Another name was standing near the Shack. This one you really did not expect.
Jacob Marvan Basques.
There were two Pettigrews and there was one additional … well, you.
The you that was someone else was standing near the Shack and it was moving back and forth. After a while it retraced its steps and started anew.
Your eyes jumped to Pettigrew and Lupin who were closing in on the Shack from the opposite position. The dots in the Shack were only moving inside of it.
So, you focused on yourself again. It was still moving. There was a pattern to it. You followed your dot with your eyes. Where you found it difficult to empathize with Pettigrew, this action was very clear to you. It was forming letters!
"F-o-r-e .." the last two letters were not needed. Forest.
Your eyes darted over the map, up into the north as you looked around the dark forest to find what the other you was trying to communicate to you. You found it quickly. Another dot.
Remus Lupin.
A second werewolf Lupin, just on his own, somewhere in the north of the forest.
There were three were time travelers on your map. Pettigrew, Lupin and one of them was you. And you were pointing yourself into the direction of the second Lupin. What was the reason for this?
The dot with your name continued its spelling movements on the map.
Your real you, high up in the sky, started running again at the same time, heading into the direction of the dark forest, where a werewolf was waiting for you that you had to find for some reason. Your eyes stayed on the Shrieking Shack as the pair from the castle closed in. Lupin and Pettigrew arrived. It was a bit away from the dot with your name, but the other you had noticed. He came to a stop.
When Lupin finally detached from the Pettigrew dot outside of the Shack, it headed directly for the building.
Your other dot started moving again. This word it only spelled once.
Fight.
Then it started moving into the building as well.
The insides were pure chaos. The dots of your classmates were moving around the building as soon as the werewolf jumped into their midst. Very soon after, Black had fallen out of the building and stopped moving. The next happening you only caught fully because you were closely tracking all names at the same time, actively trying to remember what happened while running through the air. You did not fear falling, because every step caught the solid air below you.
The Pettigrew that had been in the Shrieking Shack closed in on Granger in the chaos. The wolf was moving quickly away from the window, where it had thrown Black out. Suddenly it was heading right towards Potter.
Everything happened in the span of two seconds; Pettigrew disappeared out of the map. The dot that was there inside the building, was suddenly not anymore. And the next moment, your dot – the one that was not you right now, entered the building right behind Potter.
The moment the dot appeared, just a second after Pettigrew had disappeared, Lupin disappeared also.
There were now the dots of Granger, Weasley, Potter and You in the building. The dot of Black was right outside of it, still not moving. The Pettigrew that had not entered the Shrieking Shack was running away, into the north as it left chaos behind.
He had brought the werewolf with him to guarantee his other self to flee. A genius move that was out of leftfield. He had taken out Granger's Time Turner and used it himself to flee thanks to the Wolfs involvement, but Pettigrew was the one who had brought the wolf in the first place. Something that was only possible because he had fled.
It was a causality neutral timeloop.
Your eyes stayed on the dot with your name for one more second, before you searched the second Lupin in the forest again.
You saw one more thing before throwing the map into your pocket: Severus Snape was closing in on the Shrieking Shack.
A closed time loop had appeared, and it seemed, that you had copied it. Your dot had allowed for Pettigrew to flew in time, but then saved everyone by throwing Lupin back with a similar method. You did not know if Potter had been hurt (the werewolf had reached his frame before disappearing), but everyone seemed alive.
So, you would need to repeat the thing. You would need access to a time turner first … and there was one waiting for you attached to a werewolf in the forbidden forest, that had probably been waiting there for the last hour. And it seems as if it had lost the fight against you last time, so it was probably pissed.
So, you just needed a win there? Then you would travel back in time, save the others and then … then somehow resolve the Black situation.
Things had gotten much worse than when you had been in the owlery, contemplating your life and misery just a few minutes ago.
You were walking straight into danger, with no plan besides the knowledge that it had worked before. Even if you were alive, you had not seen the state you would be in soon, when you would become the other dot. Nor had you seen what your classmates looked like.
One bite and your carefree life was over.
You took your newest invention out and put the Goggles on. The light around you changed.
A fight for life and death then.
Possibly the most difficult thing you had ever done.
But you were smiling from ear to ear, while running through the darkness.
So uh, let me get this straight and someone please correct me if I'm wrong because wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff is confusing as hell.
So the OG main characters end up at the Shrieking Shack with Sirius and Pettigrew as normal somehow. Difference being that Lupin doesn't come out because he's transforming in his room this time, possibly depressed after Jacob tore him apart. Pettigrew transforms into his normal self, there's a scuffle and he uses Hermione's time tuner to go back in time.
Pettigrew, as a rat, then goes and grabs Lupin and leads him to the shack to cause a whole bunch of chaos and then the rat keeps running in a bid to escape. Lupin as a wolf goes nuts potentially biting or injuring Harry and Sirius, with the latter also having a chance of being dead. At this point, Jacob 2 with a time turner steps in and takes Lupin and himself back to the past, probably fights Lupin and gets away to do... something we don't know about yet.
So current Jacob is now on his way to the timeturner he uses to send Lupin into the past from the Lupin he sent to the past so that he can send Lupin to the past and tell his future self (Jacob now) how to get the timeturner to start this whole thing off.
Through all of this only one question remains...
Where are the dueling club rolls for May!?!
Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot about Snape trailing behind Lupin, that's kind of important.
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