An Ateez x Harry Potter Fanfiction
This fanfiction also appears on my wattpad (usually upload there first).
House Guide:
Gryffindor: Jongho, Wooyoung
Hufflepuff: Yunho, Seonghwa
Slytherin: Mingi, San
Ravenclaw: Yeosang, Hongjoong
Check here for other chapters:
10/29/24 - it's been a long time since I last updated. Ateez are already having another comeback, too! November 15th, just in time for the full moon. Curiously, they're also starting to release the promotional materials on the New Moon (in Scorpio). New moons are a time where everything is hidden, and full moons illuminate everything. I wonder what's in store for us?
Chapter 13 - Ancient Magic
"What do you mean it isn't safe?" Hermione whispered. The four of them held their breath as they waited for an answer. It felt like it took forever. Jongho's heart rate sped up. Did this mean they'd have to get into another fight tonight, just like they had back at the lake?
And surely this wasn't another random university test, right?
The Grey Lady looked off into the distance. "The ghosts have mobilized and are collecting information. Someone is trying to breach the new defenses, and none of the professors are responding save Trelawney. Her attempts to recruit helpers have been unsuccessful and we are unsure why..."
"They've been charmed," Hermione said. "It was done to us not long ago, along with professor McGonagall. We're on our way to convince her—"
"You wouldn't be successful, even were I to allow your passage. She's cast enchantments to keep everyone out this evening. There's been whispers from the portraits, but none of us can get in. Peeves was banished quickly after he tried."
"Professor Blackburn," Hermione said darkly. "He seems to be behind it all. We only found out by accident."
The Grey Lady nodded slowly. "Yes...it makes sense," and then her gaze suddenly darted towards Jongho. She stared at him as if he had called her name. The others shifted to look at him, too.
"Do you know him, Lady?" Hermione asked tentatively. And to the surprise of everyone, the ghost nodded and stared off into the distance again. But Jongho didn't know her, so this was news to him. He was about to open his mouth to ask about it when Peeves appeared out of nowhere.
And in his hand was the last thing that any of them expected to see: a giant book. He stared at them with a look that was extremely out of character, too. A mix of pity and sadness. It set Jongho on edge almost as much as it did to see the book in his hands.
"Take this with you, and find your friend," The Grey Lady said. "He attempted to pass here earlier as well, the one with the ancient mark," she said and looked pointedly at Jongho again. He tilted his head and raised his eyebrows in surprise, but said nothing. Hermione looked at him quizzically. "We sent him to your affiliate common room, Hawthorne. It is lucky that all of you were sorted into the same place."
"Can you see the affiliations, then?" San asked. The Grey Lady nodded. "A special precaution and a bit of ancient magic that was re-discovered recently, yes. The ghosts can see at a glance who belongs where, now. Should you need that information, never hesitate to call upon one of us." Again she looked at Jongho, and again he had no idea why she was so interested in him.
"Once you reach Hawthorne, simply say 'Albus Dumbledore' and the dormitories will grant access. It is a fail safe of sorts, another security feature that is being tested. Use it and you will find your friend. This tome may be the answer to many events this evening."
Peeves silently handed the book over to Hermione and disappeared again. The Grey Lady faded where she floated. Almost at once, Hermione turned and led them back across the passageway, down the tower steps, and back towards the Gryffindor common room. Once there, she re-traced the path they had learned to the Hawthorne space.
The hallways were mostly empty. They only had to hide and wait a few times. But no one noticed them, and there weren't any problems.
Hermione sang an off-tune lullabye for the owl statue, and once again it tapped its wing against the stone behind it. The stones reformed into an archway and the four of them piled through. Luckily, the room was deserted once they made it all the way in. Hermione didn't remove the partial invisibility spell, though. It was probably better to be cautious given everything else.
Especially with professor Blackburn around.
The last time they saw him, it looked like he had been trying to track Mingi down with the stone. But since Blackburn wasn't waiting outside the common room, that meant one of two things: that he had already found Mingi, or...something made him give up. Jongho hoped it was the latter, although the outcome of that could be just as worrying.
San and Seonghwa were busy looking in every direction, too. Jongho remembered that they hadn't gone exploring earlier like the Gryffindor's had. So this was all new to them.
Once the four of them reached the hallway that lead to the dormitory area, where the Gryffindor's hadn't been able to explore earlier, Hermione whispered the fail safe password. She looked back at the rest of them and nodded, and they returned the gesture. Together they stepped into the space, and it didn't refuse them. It felt like they passed through a small waterfall at first, but the sensation faded quickly. Hermione shook her head as if she remembered it from somewhere, but said nothing and kept going.
The hallway rounded and turned into stairs that went straight up. At the top of these was a landing with three directions. Straight ahead was a long hallway with doors – probably the first floor of dormitories. And then to the left and right were spiral stairs that went up further. One side was marked blue, and the other red.
"Which way do you think he'd have gone?" Seonghwa said. Hermione watched them as they considered. Knowing Mingi, he probably would have found the most practical place, but Jongho wasn't sure what that was given the situation. If he knew he was being hunted, would that mean the top most room to make it hard on anyone, or the first one to get any attacks over with?
San seemed to be contemplating the same thing, because his brows were furrowed. It wasn't common to see him thinking this hard - he always knew the answer to everything, and relatively quickly. But this was definitely a tough scenario, and searching could take forever. There were so many rooms just on the first floor alone.
Seonghwa had a sudden idea and flung a finger into the air. "Ah," he exlcaimed. They all looked at him. "Check the book. The Grey Lady said it might help with all this. Maybe they left a clue in there somewhere."
Hermione's face brightened, and she opened it right away. But instead of letting her turn the pages, the book jumped to life and flipped through on its own. Hermione blinked at it in shock, but didn't intervene. The pages rustled to a sudden stop at a specific spell. Hermione read it, and furrowed her brows the further down the page she got.
"What's it say?" San asked, trying to nudge closer. He didn't always like technical things like spell books, but he hated being out of the loop even more. Jongho had never seen someone so curious about new things as San was.
"I think it's a way to...well, essentially create something like the stone that Blackburn was using to find the trace. But it's...complex. I've never seen anything like this before. And--" she tried to say, but the book flipped the page on her as if it was sighing in exasperation.
"Oh," she said. "That's much more manageable. Lux vestigium revelare," she said, and waved her wand up, down, and then in a spiral. Nothing happened, so she read the instructions further. Seonghwa and San were both looking hard at it, too. Jongho scanned around them again to make sure no one else was around. All quiet, so far.
"I think it's got to be like a song," Seonghwa said. "Look, here, there's musical notation." He pointed a long finger towards a tiny scribble on the page. Jongho was amazed at his friends' eye for detail, because he never would have seen that hidden among all the other stuff on the page. "But it doesn't say the actual notes," Seonghwa finished.
At once the book seemed to sigh again and violently flipped towards the beginning this time. This page had a bunch of melodies recorded, all labelled with letters. Hermione scanned them and settled on one that had "LVR" written next to it.
"I'm...not the greatest at holding a tune," she admitted.
"On it," San said, and immediately sang the spell while doing the movement. A bright light popped into existence in front of them. Jongho felt a little sick to his stomach, and shared a look with Hermione. This was exactly like when Blackburn used the stone earlier. The light raced up the blue stairwell, and they followed.
Landing after landing, they climbed higher and higher. It seemed to Jongho that he had been right –going up as far as possible was a very practical solution. But he was secretly glad that they didn't have to check every room the hard way.
Finally at the top landing, the light darted down the hallway towards the second last room. And there, it fizzled and went out. Jongho instantly felt much better. The four of them shared a hopeful look before they darted down towards the door. But just as they reached it, it flung open and they met with the end of four wands.
"Who's there!" Yunho shouted as loud as he could. Sometimes, Jongho felt like all of his friends should have been in Gryffindor. There was no hesitation or shake in Yunho's voice. Just pure determination. But then again, Hufflepuffs were usually pretty brave when their friends were at stake. Seonghwa was often the same way, and it extended to his plants and creatures, too.
"It's us!" Jongho yelled, and Hermione removed the partial invisibility spell from them. The four friends lowered their wands.
"Thank heavens," Yunho said, looking visibly relieved. He smiled at Jongho, and Jongho returned it.
"Yeah, tonight has been wild," Hongjoong added. "I didn't really know what to expect anymore but I'm glad it's you guys."
San lifted an eyebrow and asked, "We're not the first ones to get here, I take it?"
"Just...well, come in and let's talk," Hongjoong said and scanned the halls. It looked like he expected someone else to pop out of nowhere at any moment.
"Wait," Yeosang said. "Where's Wooyoung?"
Shit. He had taken Darcy to the hospital wing. And then...
Crap. Blackburn. Did he go there instead of looking for Mingi? Would he do anything to Wooyoung if he found him there?
"I'll go," San said. "I've got the potion, just in case he got what you guys got."
"You shouldn't go alone," Jongho said and frowned. "Just in case. None of us should be travelling alone tonight. We don't know what's going on."
"I can go with him," Hermione offered.
Jongho thought of a million reasons she shouldn't, though, and shook his head. "If Blackburn sees you, he's...well, after what happened, he'll probably get suspicious."
She blushed ever so slightly, but nodded and hugged the book tightly. "Oh. Yes - that," she said quietly. Jongho couldn't hide his expression of concern, and he felt like the biggest jerk for reminding her of the fabricated destiny she'd been given tonight. He promised himself that he'd make it up to her, somehow. But for now, he didn't know what to say. The others were looking at her with questions in their eyes.
Luckily, Seonghwa guessed about the situation and filled the silence. "I'll go. I'm used to sleuthing anyways, and the professor won't recognize either of us even if he sees us. Potion," he held out his hand towards San. San offered it to him, and Seonghwa took a sip. Once he handed it back, they turned and were about to trot away when Hermione called out to them again.
"Wait," she said. They stopped and turned. "Blackburn looks like Dumbledore, but he's a lot shorter and with a bunch of scars all over him. He's wearing blue robes with stars tonight. If you see him, hide. And if...Darcy is awake, find a careful way to get your friend's attention. Don't let her see you there. I think," she said and took a deep breath. "That she's involved in this, somehow. But I don't know whether it's of her own volition or not."
"Fair," San said and smiled. Seonghwa nodded. And the two of them turned again and left.
******************
Jongho and Hermione filed into the room. Yeosang's eyes kept darting between them both, and Jongho could practically see the questions he wanted to ask. But that would have to wait until later. For now, they had to figure out how to get the trace off Mingi. And fast. That had to be what the Grey Lady meant. Jongho didn't know why, but he started to feel like Mingi's secret was somehow the reason behind everything going on.
He looked at Hermione once she sat down, and didn't even need to say it. She seemed to read his mind and think the same. At once she looked at the book, and the book flipped itself open to a new page. She studied it, and Hongjoong leaned over to try and read it, too.
"How to remove the lux maledictionis," he said quietly.
"What's a lux maledictionis?" Yunho asked innocently. Mingi looked from him to Hongjoong to Hermione. He seemed a lot more cheerful than he had been since the platform. Instead, it was Yeosang who looked put out and upset. Jongho felt bad for Yeosang, and made a mental note to clear that side of things up as fast as he could once the rest was dealt with.
"I think," Jongho said, "That it's whatever was cast on Mingi. The trace. The thing that we couldn't get off him. We saw a professor use a stone that had the same light as we saw in the room of requirement, and then he followed it."
Hermione nodded along.
"And you got this book from...?" Yeosang asked, looking between them with a frown.
"A ghost," Jongho said and shrugged.
Yeosang raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Ghosts can't carry things."
"Peeves can," Hermione provided, and Yeosang went a little pink but said nothing. "They probably decided to get it ready just in case you came back that way. They offered it pretty much straight away."
"Why would we go back that way when they told us absolutely not to under any circumstances?" Hongjoong asked quietly.
No one had an answer for that. Clearly they had a lot to talk about, but none of them knew where to start.
Yunho sat down beside Mingi. "For now, let's just do one thing at a time. What does it say we have to do?"
"Well," Hermione said and looked back at the book. "It depends on music, judging by these notes, and something else. I can't quite make this out." She pointed to a symbol that was repeated at various points in the spell diagram. Both Hongjoong and Yeosang leaned closer. This was their specialty, as the Ravenclaws of the group.
"Isn't that from..." Hongjoong said and gave Yeosang a knowing look. Yeosang returned it and nodded. "Yes, I think so. And luckily I didn't need much help decoding that part. It seems to mean falling, or suddenly moving back."
Hermione blinked up at him, and Yeosang acted out what he meant. He jerked his arms back as if he was falling, and then realised how ridiculous he looked and blushed.
"This is a lot more involved than spells we've learned so far," Hongjoong summarized.
"Yes," Hermione said. "We had to sing a bit earlier for the spell that helped us find you. This one...looks like it needs wand movements, singing, and more general body movements. I suppose the Grey Lady did mention something about ancient magic. I haven't come across spells like this before."
"Hang on," Hongjoong said with a dark look. "I was young when it happened, but...didn't that Umbridge person try to ban anything fun during her reign"
Hermione's eyes widened as she realised what he was implying. "She did. We all thought it was just for control and fear but..."
"But what if it was to hide something else at the same time?" Hongjoong said.
"Like accidentally stumbling across an ancient spell?" Yeosang offered.
"Maybe that's what this is, and maybe there's a reason they don't want us to have access to it," Jongho said. Everyone looked at him and went silent again. They were all thinking hard.
The spell they had used to find Mingi seemed to have gone okay, but if this was an old type of magic...then there was no telling what they were getting themselves into.
"I think," Yunho said after some time, "that we should give it a try, just in case. We need to get the trace off of Mingi first, and then we can figure out the rest later."
"Wait," Hermione said. She had the same type of look on her face that San often had when he was two steps ahead of everyone. They waited for her to share what she thought. But instead of speaking to them, she spoke to the book.
"Where did you come from?" she asked it, and at first nothing happened. But then, slowly, the book turned to a page near the back that was covered in a bunch of scribbles and symbols. It was hard to make anything out. Hongjoong and Yeosang got closer to inspect it, while Mingi and Yunho shared a look.
Jongho, meanwhile, couldn't stop thinking about the expression on Peeves face, and the way the Grey Lady had suddenly stared at him as if she saw something he couldn't. The whole interaction felt weird, and important, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it could be. He was starting to get a bad feeling about it all.
"I've seen some of these symbols before," Yeosang said. He looked like he was in the middle of adding more, but decided against whatever it was. He stayed silent and continued to look at the page. Yunho's expression was full of suspicion for the briefest second.
Jongho happened to catch it. There were still so many secrets between them all. Would they ever get to the bottom of anything? At this point, they would need the entire night to finish talking about what each of them knew and experienced over the summer.
And then it hit him. What if someone else was using the trace to try and find out the same things? Maybe it was a silly idea because he didn't know everything that happened. But in that moment, Jongho felt it was important to share.
"I don't think we should remove the trace," Jongho said, and everyone stared at him. Mingi looked shocked, while Hongjoong and Yeosang weren't too happy about the idea. Hermione was studying him with a neutral expression.
"Why not?" Yunho asked calmly. Out of their entire friend group, Yunho was the one who was most open to other perspectives. He was a gentle soul through and through, and Jongho was grateful for it in that moment. It gave him confidence to share what he was thinking just then, even though he wasn't sure of the idea himself.
"If even the teachers are under some sort of enchantment," Jongho said slowly, "then it's possible that the ghosts are, too. It's a little too convenient that they handed us this book, which is the answer to all of our problems. So what if we cast this spell and it makes everything worse? What if they're waiting for us to do it so they can find something out?" And as if the book agreed with him, it snapped itself shut. Hermione jumped as it bounced against her and stared at it in surprise.
Everyone sat in silence until they heard slow footsteps down the hall.