Albert had a solemn look as he walked through the corridor, a stack of paper was in his hand as he knocked on the door of Professor Flitwick's office impatiently. It had been a few days since he had a talk with Flitwick about the bullying case in Rowena's house, and while it was a serious accusation, out of their relationship as a master and apprentice in the past, the charm professor decided to indulge his thought and letting him investigate privately.
"Come in!" He heard the voice of his old master from the office. When he entered the room, he saw the goblin-descendant professor was still sitting on his chair while checking some papers on his desk seriously, an unfamiliar big frown could be seen on the face that usually held a warm smile in. "Ah, Albert. Are you done with your investigation? I also have something to tell you, so be prepared."
Albert was surprised that Flitwick also expecting his presence, but he decided to put that aside and put all the papers he brought on the desk.
"What is that?" Flitwick was gobsmacked before groaning tiredly at the sight of another stack of papers Albert worked on, thinking it would be another addition to his never-ending mountain of paperwork. "Can it wait for one or two days? I still have a lot of things to do here, come on!" He said exasperatedly.
"Unfortunately, it cannot wait, Professor." Just like Albert who was surprised to not see the familiar jolly smile on his face, Professor Flitwick also had the same expression when he didn't see the usual playfulness on Albert's expression. That was when he knew it was serious. "Okay, I will read it first."
Albert nodded, taking a seat on the couch near the fireplace in the office, his eyes never left the charm professor. As time went by, Albert who kept observing Flitwick's reaction nodded in satisfaction when he saw several different expressions keep changing one after another on the goblin professor's face, meaning the charm professor didn't know anything beforehand. Shocked, outraged, disbelief, rage, all of those emotions flashed by as Flitwick questioned himself, "How can I not know this?"
"While it might be because the culprits were clever enough to avoid your attention, maybe it was also due to your negligence," Albert spoke bluntly. "Think about it, Professor. How many times have you ever visited your tower and asked the student's wellbeing except when they had to go to the infirmary?"
Normally, Flitwick would be furious if someone was questioning him for his care toward the Ravenclaw students. However, this time, he was too speechless, couldn't deny the accusation as the proof was already in his hand.
Yes, the papers he just read from Albert were the proof reports of bullying that happened inside the House of Intelligence. Originally, Albert was only investigating the bully Luna had suffered to see how excessive it was considering the girl had only been in Hogwarts for a week. He checked the book that tracked the students' detention to see whether Luna had ever been in one due to her bullies or not and asked Madam Pomfrey for her medical record to check if Luna had ever been there during her time in the school.
As a result, the only physical wound Luna suffered was probably from tripping jinx and the other silly prank curse that could be reserved by any professor just with one wave of their wand. No detention by her name had ever been recorded, which showed that she was still following the rules seriously. As for the psychological bully like ostracizing her, calling her name, or even mocking her father's occasion, while it was bad, technically, there was no rule broken by anyone, which gave him a headache for a moment.
That was until Madam Pomfrey who heard what he was doing pointed him in a new direction.
"It is off the record, right?" The school matron asked hesitantly. After receiving the nod from Albert, she waved her wand, incanting a spell, and a second later, new files suddenly flew straight to her arms after being summoned from afar. "What I do right now is on the edge of breaching my medical oath, so I will not say anything to you. Just treat it as some useless random files thrown away in the trash bin, okay?"
Until now, Albert was still a bit dumbfounded to see Madam Pomfrey risking her life like this. That meant whatever it was inside the file, it must be something important that only she knew and she needed to vent out.
Curious, he read the files carefully, flipped the paper one by one. The more he read though, the more his face turned ugly.
The files were the medical reports of several Ravenclaws students spanning from the year 1938 up to last year. At first glance, it was just normal medical reports from random students compiled by Madam Pomfrey. However, after scrutinizing them carefully, Albert realized one thing.
The medical reports of almost 50 different students ranged from fifty years ago to last year were similar, from several wounds because they were tripped somewhere in the castle due to their carelessness in their first week, moving to a wound caused by simple curses that could be disguised as simply misfiring in practice in their first month, and the wound got more outrageous to the point of bones breaking in fifth year and some girls even got pregnancy in their last year.
It was as if they suffered from the same thing, which was ridiculous when Albert thought about it.
But when Albert also checked the detention records of all of those students in the medical reports, a shiver ran down his spine as he found out each one of them had a similar set of detentions with the same exact causes, as if each one watched the detention records set by the predecessor first before committing the same exact crime.
After some investigating and even trying to reach out to some of those Ravenclaws who had graduated before, Albert reached one conclusion, all of those wounds and detentions were caused by a group of people which the victims were trying to hide, either because of threats or blackmail. To put it simply, there was systematic bullying happened in Ravenclaw every year, which still continued and was inherited by new generations even after people graduated.
The modus operandi was to pick up one person from every generation to be ostracized by his or her peers while the older ones would start to do mean things such as hiding the school things, using the victim as a dummy for spell training, humiliating, to the point that even one student died, even if that happened one time only in 1940. After figuring out about this, Albert was shocked, never expecting the quiet and studious Ravenclaw to have that kind of dark secret.
The thing that boiled his anger more was the fact Luna also had the indication of suffering bully from the same group, which to Albert's annoyance, he still didn't have any idea who were the culprit.
"How could this happen under my nose?" Flitwick breathed, his face red full of rage. Albert just sat on his couch silently, letting his old master process the information he just got. "Have you already told Albus?" The charm professor finally asked.
"No." Albert nodded truthfully. "I want to make sure you know about it first and let you decide whether to involve the headmaster or not."
After pondering for a second, Flitwick jumped from his seat, grabbed some floo powders from his desk, and went to the fireplace immediately.
"I will call him first. Wait a second."
After throwing it, he disappeared from the office, leaving Albert alone for a while. It took only a few seconds before Flitwick came back from the same spot, but now, the charming professor brought the headmaster who had the same exact seriousness on his face.
"Okay, Fillius. Tell me what happened."
It seemed Flitwick didn't tell Dumbledore what happened and just told the headmaster to go to his office for an urgent matter. Flitwick didn't waste the time, giving Albert's report for him to read while explaining the situation.
After having an idea of this situation, Dumbledore sighed tiredly as if he had grown older a few years just in a couple of seconds. "Are you sure you don't have any idea about this, Fillius?"
"I swear to my magic and my honor as the warrior of the Flitwick family that I have no idea about all of this," Flitwick swore immediately.
Albert was surprised by Flitwick's bold swear, because swearing to the honor of the family is a big thing in goblin culture and if it was proven wrong, he would be expelled immediately from his family. However, that boldness was the reason that convinced Dumbledore that Flitwick was indeed ignorant and innocent in this matter.
"I remember Poppy reported the same a few years ago and I just brushed it off, thinking it was a coincidence. In my defense, that was the recovery time after the war, so I didn't have too much time to think about it. It seems I was wrong, though." Dumbledore sighed regretfully.
"To be honest, this is hidden from the others pretty well," Albert said. "If you noticed, they always choose the target with weak backgrounds such as a muggleborn, a half-blood, a pureblood with weak strength, or something like that. For example, this Ian Peterkin." He picked up one of the medical reports.
"He was a student from my generation, which to my knowledge was a quiet one. After investigating his whereabouts, I tried to reach him out to ask about this matter, and to my surprise, even though he is living in the muggle world right now, he chose to keep his mouth shut, not willing to say anything."
"So, either threat or blackmail, huh?"
"Yeah." Albert nodded to Flitwick's question. "And since this happened for a long time and continued over several generations, that meant the victim wasn't just one person, but a group of people with the same idea. The fact that they chose Ravenclaw as their base camp suggested they had a strong tie with that house, probably former students."
He paused for a second before adding, "To be honest, this is how Ravenclaw would commit a crime in my opinion. Subtle, silence, without no one being able to notice anything. If not for me investigating Miss Lovegood's matter, I don't know how long until someone actually discovered this matter."
Flitwick clicked his tongue, unhappy with the accusation to his house. However, he couldn't deny it, as the evidence of the crime was already in front of him. He just didn't want to believe all of that happened under his nose, as if the culprits were mocking his ignorance.
They sat in silence for about a few minutes, pondering about the dark secret of Ravenclaw house that they just stumbled into it accidentally. For all the three could remember, Ravenclaw was always identified with nerdy and studious people, not some conspirators like Slytherin. This was a rude awakening that forced them to re-evaluate their perspective about the claws.
"We need to clean your house, Fillius." Dumbledore finally said.
"I know about that, but from where do I need to start?" Flitwick sighed helplessly.
"Why, professor, do you forget about this?" Albert waved the medical reports with his hand. Flitwick was confused for a second before his face lightened up in realization. "You are right! In those medical reports, there are still students who haven't graduated yet! I will investigate them too! Oh, and speaking of which, I have a letter for you, Albert. At first, I don't know why she would send it to you, but after this conversation, maybe it will be another clue."
"Oh?" Albert raised his eyebrow slightly. The moment he saw the name of the sender, Albert realized that maybe, his old master was right. "Let me see it first." He quickly ripped the envelope and flipped the letter open, starting to read it out loud.
To
Albert Adrian Shafiq
Potion class, dungeon
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Dear Professor Shafiq, it is a pleasure to communicate with you. I have heard a lot about your brilliancy twenty years ago and I admire you a lot for the sheer amount of power you wield at that time.
I wanted to take a moment to speak with you about my daughter, Marrietta. I heard from an anonymous source that you encouraged the Gryffindor Quidditch team to bully her. That poor, sweet, innocent girl. I hope she can withstand this unfairness for a while, for sure I will notify Cornelius about this.
Oh, and I heard you tried to reach out to our former colleagues, Ian Peterkin, Samantha Smith, Zahir Shah, Brian McGill, and several more people. I might know why you were approaching them, and if I could give you some advice, I would discourage you from investigating more. While curiosity is good, I know you heard what it did to the poor cat, and I know what it did to the poor McKinnon family.
I hope you can make a wise decision before disaster comes to greet you.
Best Regard,
Marjorie Edgecombe
Director of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes
Ψιλάλημος στῇ στόματί / Psilalimos tē stōmati
The moment Albert said the last words, the letter suddenly burst into fire, catching Flitwick and Dumbledore off guard. However, the moment he realized what those words meant, Albert reacted quickly, waving his hand swiftly to transfigure one of the medical reports in his hand into an iron safety box, securing the ashes from the burned letter.
"What the hell was that?!" Flitwick shouted with wand ready in his hand, the battle instinct he honed in the dueling ring for almost half a century kicked in.
"That was Psialimos, the Greek's forced written unbreakable vow," Dumbledore said grimly. "It was used to ensure someone from afar to not break the confidential information, worked by using the ashes from the burning paper as the catalyst. Once the spell was incanted, the paper would burn immediately and wind would come out of nowhere, spreading it so that the people close somehow breathed those ashes. Once it went inside your body, the moment you spoke what was inside that paper, it would burn inside, giving you the most painful experience of being burned without being able to pass out until you died. Good job with the quick reaction, by the way, Albert."
"Yeah." Albert nodded, putting the safe box he just transfigurated carefully. "So, Majorie Edgecombe, huh? It seems she wants to retaliate for her daughter while also provoking my reaction."
"What did you do to her daughter?" Dumbledore asked curiously.
"Well, since she bullied Miss Lovegood, I asked the service from the infamous Weasley twins to pay her back, and somehow, all of the Gryffindor's quidditch squad was involved."
Flitwick coughed hard while Dumbledore howled. "You mean, that incident was crafted by you?!"
"Of course, no!" Albert defended himself. "I am just the backer here."
Flitwick just shook his head helplessly, couldn't figure out what was inside his former apprentice's head. "Okay, let's figure out what the letter is."
The three of them turned serious once again, remembering the content of the letter.
"First, there is no way it is not a group thing. I know Marjorie, and while she was smart, she wasn't that brilliant to come up with something massive like this." Flitwick started to analyze.
"Then, they want to do everything in silence, and they had a good researcher. That vow wasn't popular among the Greek magical society, only used by a master toward his apprentice." Albert continued.
"We also know they have a lot of backers in the higher-up positions." Dumbledore mused. "With how familiar they are with Cornelius, I am afraid their influence is bigger than our expectation."
"They also have spies everywhere." Flitwick reminded. "They even observed their victims and know who just visited them. The same could be said in this school. We can just assume all of the claws are suspicious." Even though it was hurt for him to say, Flitwick was still objective, knowing his house was the biggest suspect in this case.
"They also have someone with a high rank in the DMLE," Albert said grimly. "The murder of the McKinnon family was only known by that department, and the fact they mentioned it even though it would give us a clue means they wanted to provoke me."
For Albert, the McKinnon family always had a soft spot in his heart since his fiancée came from that family. The McKinnon family was also the first one who tell the public the danger of the dark lord Voldemort, and in 1969, the pair of Michael McKinnon and Zara McKinnon somehow reportedly died of illness, just a year after they started telling that.
Since he was the fiancée of the eldest family, Albert had the privilege to know the inside information, and he figured out it wasn't an illness that killed them, but a quick 'Avada Kedavra' to send them to the other world coupled with complex transfiguration to disguise the cause of their death, and the file of this murder case was hidden as a top secret by the DMLE to prevent chaos back then.
"So, is it the death eater situation back again?" Flitwick asked with the same grim tone. "It is the exact same situation, isn't it? The hidden organization who infiltrated the ministry and we didn't even know about it, feel familiar?"
Albert and Dumbledore groaned, knowing that Flitwick was right.
"What should we do now?" Flitwick asked once again.
After pondering for a few seconds, Dumbledore rose from his seat, his expression was serious, something that people didn't see often. "I will reach out to Cornelius to see how much influence they have over our minister, and I will also investigate anyone in the ministry who came from Ravenclaw. Fillius, you investigate your students and all the professors who came from your house too. Try to figure out as much as possible without noticing them who were in this storm and who were not."
"Okay." The goblin-descended professor nodded.
"As for Albert…"
"Don't worry, I will call her." Albert grinned ferally.
"Her?" Flitwick was confused.
"Probably the only girl who had the guts to show her grudge toward Professor Dumbledore in public."
"You mean her?!" Flitwick widened his eyes in realization. "Is she willing to help us, though?"
"Don't worry, even though she has a grudge against Professor Dumbledore, I know she is willing to help me. And this would be in line with her hobby too, so nothing bad would happen."
Dumbledore who knew who was the girl Albert was talking about just snorted shortly. "Don't let her get caught doing something illegal, okay?"
"Don't worry, she is more professional in this compared to you." Albert waved the concern nonchalantly.
"Well then, I will leave her to you. I will probably also talk about this to Minerva, but other than her, I will be careful with whom I speak, and I hope you two can do it. We don't know who were they, what was their purpose, or even if is there any of them around us, so don't be careless, okay?"
The two former master and apprentice looked at each other before nodding solemnly at the same time.
"We get it."
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Author note
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