I wish I could say that the good time rolled after that, unfortunately for me, out venerable Headmaster showed up again the next day and ordered me to lift the curse or face the risk of expulsion. Apparently, Janus's father did indeed have some influence, enough that he could throw his weight around sufficiently to get Dumbledore to lean on me, despite the fact that I think he thought it was a fairly creative punishment. I did what I was told; Janus was not worth risking getting kicked out two years early.
I wasn't ready yet.
I could always get the little tit later if he misbehaved again. And he probably would.
Not that Janus got off scot-free. No sooner had he gotten his pecker back then Dumbledore slapped him with detention that would last until the winter break, about two months and change, and he got docked a significant amount of house points, which would make him hugely popular with his housemates I bet.
A bit of a slap on the wrist if you ask me... But then I don't run this school so I suppose I have to give Albus a break.
After that life at Hogwarts returned to its usual meandering weirdness, with the notable change that Nel now showed up at my room every now and again, nowhere near as often as Lys, but she'd show up at least twice a week on average and stay for a while, or join me at Hagrid's for a chat. And when I say chat I mean to sit quietly and listen and maybe read a book if she was feeling adventurous. She was always reading which I found odd for a Hufflepuff, reading was more a Ravenclaw thing.
I did try to entice her to join me in my endeavors, or to learn to cast magic wandlessly, but she showed little interest in doing either. At best she'd shown an interest in the Room of Hidden Things and would sometimes join me for one of my many exploratory excursions into the depths of this most mysterious locale. Which was what we were doing now. Now that the winter break was here and the castle was mostly empty I could afford to spend some real time exploring the place more in-depth. Lys had gone back to her family for the hols, but for some reason which she wasn't telling, Nel had not. I don't know if this was unusual for her or not, and didn't feel comfortable trying to pry into it too much in case it turned out to be something I really shouldn't be poking my head into. I did make a note to remember to give her a once over after the coming summer break, just to make sure there wasn't anything abusive going on there.
We were currently standing in front of a new discovery, a new unexplored section of the room. I'd immediately dubbed it the Taxidermy section due to the family of stuffed unicorns that was fronting it, complete with foals. "Well, that's tasteless, and a bit dark."
"It is fine," Nel said quietly. "Wizards did not have a hand in their deaths; age, accident, and predation lay to blame here. Wizards mealy made use of the result."
"Oh…" I rolled that around in my head for a moment before shrugging. "Still, they went to the effort of actually stuffing them. That's still kinda creepy."
"They did a good job." Was Nel's unsympathetic response. "Very lifelike."
"I don't think you take my moral outrage seriously here." I mock complained.
"That's unfortunate." She told me while tracing a dainty finger along the unicorn's neck over its neck and up along its horn. It was a testament to the strength of the hormonal cocktail burning through my blood that I actually found that simple act erotic. I really needed to get laid, but the kind of women that would find a sixteen year old appealing was not the kind I wanted anything to do with, so... I was fucked.
"You could at least make an effort." I grumped. "This is quality material I'm just wasting on you like this."
Nel didn't deign to respond and instead choose to wander off down one of the many trash corridors. I huffed a quiet laugh and smiled softly to myself. Many would probably find her rude, but I liked her attitude. Nothing fazed her. I could admire that. I had to wonder if her gift was to blame. The things she had likely seen. I bet it must be both amazing and horrifying in turn. The amount of war and death she must have seen was likely far more then any sane person would ever want to see.
I shook those thoughts loose and filed them away for later, if I remembered, and turned my attention back to the crime against magic. The section didn't only have the stuffed skins of unicorns on display, but skeletons as well, and there were other creatures there too, though the only one that I found to be as impressive as the unicorns was a huge Thunderbird. That thing must be worth a fortune to a wandmaker. Thunderbird feathers might not be as rare and coveted as those of a Phoenix, but they were still more popular then dragon heartstrings in some places.
I couldn't even begin to imagine how something with such innate values could get lost. Only in the fucking wizarding world.
I'd have to consider coming back and plucking this big chicken later, all those feathers might come in useful for something. They were used in some potions if I recalled correctly. I'd have to look it up.
Next to it stood another stuffed horse, this one some sort of Pegasus, it was white so it was probably not an Aethonan, and it was much too small to be an Abraxan and since it didn't look like a bat horse, that left Granians as the likely species. I noted that the wings were much bigger then I would have expected.
There were some Griffins, a Hippogriff and a whole slew of stuffed Pixies. Why would you stuff a Pixie? They were like the magical version of rats for Christ's sake. And they like to bite. I rubbed at my shoulder which arched at the memory. Damn crazy wizards.
Bored of the dead animal display I wandered aimlessly for a bit until I came upon a tower made of old trunks. Being the inquisitive sort I naturally started to open them. Most of them were empty; others contained the belongings of wizards and witches long since gone from Hogwarts. It was mostly old clothes, some school books, and occasional pictures. And porn of course. And money. Not much, but I gathered it up to add to the pile never the less.
Waste not, want not.
"Drew."
I startled and turned to where Nel was standing looking at me. "Geez! Let a guy know! I almost had a heart attack."
Nel didn't bother to apologize for shortening my life instead she turned around and walked back the way I assume she came. "Come."
I looked after her, mystified. "Alrighty, that wasn't suspicious at all."
Still, I didn't hesitate to hurry off after her and quickly caught up. "Did you find anything?"
"Yes."
I wanted for her to elaborate before I mentally slapped myself straight. "And that would be?"
"You will see."
"Oh come on, tell me!" I pleaded impatiently. "Just a hint."
Instead of answering Nel just pointed forward and following her finger I noticed that there was a light at the end of the corridor that was different from what the multitude of chandeliers that doted the cavernous ceiling inside the room. To steady, and too bright to be candlelight. Couldn't be daylight either, it came from the wrong direction, and I didn't see a wall so…
Eager to see what Nel had found I broke into a jog that ate up the distance in moments. What I found was not that I'd have expected, even if I hadn't expected anything.
It was about the size of a bus waiting booth and made out of brass and glass, it was sectioned of into two compartments, a small one that occupied the lower section of the structure that contained two large glass jars, which I assumed to contain water by the look of it, some vats which content I couldn't even guess at and a lot of copper piping leading towards the roof of the upper part of the structure which appeared to be a miniature greenhouse. The light I'd seen came from a small orb on the ceiling of the greenhouse that shone brightly in the dim light of the room. And at closer inspection, I could see the piping from the lower section ended up in what looked like a primitive sprinkler. An automatic irrigation system is most likely.
Amazing enough there were actually living plants inside the greenhouse. Very strange plants. A type of plant that looked like it was made almost entirely from copper. Only the main trunk of the plant appeared to be wood.
"It was Helga Hufflepuffs," Nel stated.
I snapped my head around towards her in astonishment. "No shitting?"
Nel shrugged.
"Huh… well, don't that just beat all." I commented as I took a closer look at the plants inside. "What kind of plant is that anyway? I haven't seen anything like it in the Herbology books I've read." I asked and turned a curious eye towards Nel.
Nel simply shrugged again. "I think it was very precious to her."
"Really?"
Nel nodded. "When she was old and near death, she hid this here, why go to the effort if it was not valuable to her."
"Mmm." I nodded absently. "Probably some kind of potions ingredient." I reasoned.
"For what?"
"Well, I suppose we will just have to ask her," I said before fishing out the Eye of Hades from where it lay hidden beneath my robes. "Helga Hufflepuff!"
Immediately a tall rotund woman dressed in a yellow medieval-style dress and cloak faded into being before us. I wouldn't call her fat exactly; plump would be a better description. Generously curvy perhaps. Maybe even thicc. She had a round face and a large mouth that was stretched into a wide friendly smile and brown eyes that glittered merrily. Her hair was a nutty brown color fashioned into two braids that hung down past her shoulders to rest between her very generous bosoms. Yum. I'll have some milk, please.
I noted that she looked far younger then she appeared in most of her portraits, definitely younger then Rowena, and definitely younger then she had been when she died, which had been of old age. She eyed us curiously for a moment before speaking. "Well, it was about time you summoned me. I was starting to think you never would."
Take a bit off guard I tripped over my own tongue a bit answering her. "Ah… o-okay. Um, did you want something?"
"Oh nothing much, just to meet you really. The other side can get a bit dull occasionally, most there like it, but I don't mind so much when something happens to stir things up a bit. Even if it is being summoned back to the world of the living." She leaned in a bit closer and stage whispered to me. "Bit uncomfortable being here you see."
"Uh, yeah… I won't keep you long." I assured her.
"Oh don't mind me, dearie." She assured me right back. "Now what can I do for one of my students?"
"Uh… right, right. Well I… we! Found this greenhouse of yours." I said and pointed towards the greenhouse in question, using Helga's momentary distraction to gather my wits. I'd expected her to be grumpy and irritable like all the other shades I'd summoned. Her sunny disposition had thrown me for a loop. "We've never seen a plant like that."
"Oh! Well, would you look at that. I didn't expect it to survive this long. But then the dwarves do build things to last." Helga said with a nostalgic look on her face. "I'm not surprised you haven't encountered the plant before, it was very rare in my time, I don't doubt it's the same now. I was lucky to find even one specimen, even luckier to manage to make it grow in a controlled environment."
"What's it called?" I asked.
Helga shrugged. "It didn't have a name back when I was alive; at least Salazar never mentioned it to me. It was he who wanted it you see. Had been searching for it for a long time, or so he said, a bit obsessed with it really, if you ask me." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Never did find out what he wanted with it now that I think about it. Anyway, I found it by chance one day and took it back to Hogwarts thinking to make a gift for him when he returned to us…" She trailed off, looking a bit sad.
"Only he never did." I finished for her.
"No." She said, a bit sadly, before crossing her arms under her generous… endowments. "Prideful old bastard. He just had to be difficult didn't he." She grumped before sighing and giving us a small smile. "But look at me going on, I don't imagine you are interested in an old woman's regrets."
"Didn't you ever talk to him on the other side?" Nel asked, speaking for the first time.
Helga shook her head. "No, he refuses to have anything to do with us. Godric taunting him about his descendant doesn't help I imagine," She huffed before leaning towards Nel. "One thing you best remember young girl; boys, they are nothing but trouble. Sometimes fun trouble." She said with a wink. "But mostly they are just silly and stupid, always crashing around without looking where they are going. You must always remember that they need a firm hand to direct them to where they need to go."
"I've noticed." Was Nel's deadpan reply.
"Yeah, that's not mean or anything," I told them dryly.
Helga just laughed at me and Nel almost cracked a smile. There was a twitch at the edge of her lips, just for a moment. That counted.
I wondered about the need for the woman to gang up on a guy whenever there were more than one of them around. I had a bad feeling about this.