15 Chapter 14 - Detective Luna (1/2)
”See you, big guy,” Vincent said, patting the Dretle's snout, earning a sad sound that sounded between chittering and a roar.
”In you get,” a wizard in black robes guided the Dretle inside a small bag. Miraculously, the Dretle managed to fit as it disappeared into the bag, ”don't worry kid, us Romanian wizards are specialized in dealing with dragons, although a man-made one is slightly new to us.”
”Thank you, sir,” Vincent said shaking the man's hand, earning a nod before he made his way to Hogwart's gate.
”Finally gone, eh?” Hagrid said, standing by Vincent, ”Don't worry Vince, it'll be fine.”
”Thanks for looking after it Hagrid,” Vincent said gratefully while looking curiously at the big man.
”Hm, what is it?” Hagrid asked.
”Nothing,” Vincent said, ”can I ask you a question?”
”Go ahead, ask,” Hagrid said.
”How exactly did you get expelled?” Hagrid froze as he looked at Vincent slightly nervous.
”We-well,” he spluttered before sighing, ”it ain't somethin I wan to talk abou, sorry Vince.”
”No problem Hagrid,” Vincent said, ”it was rude of me to pry into it in the first place, my bad.”
”No problem Vince,” he said sadly, ”I'll tell you one day, but I ain't ready for tha yet.”
They both stood in silence before Vincent glanced at the castle, ”Well, I'll be heading off now, I'll catch you later Hagrid.”
”A've a good day Vince,” Hagrid waved before heading into his hut.
Vincent was about to head into the castle when he heard a loud thump, followed by a groan of pain. He raised his eyebrows before walking over to the Whomping Willow where he spotted Neville lying on the ground panting.
”Hey Neville,” Neville looked up to see Vincent standing over him.
”Hey Vince,” he grumbled as he got up.
”Having a go at the Willow?” Vincent asked, pointing to the now healed tree.
”I don't know how you do it man,” Neville sighed, ”that thing hits like a hammer, not to mention that it's pretty fast as well.”
”Neville, I'm going to be blunt with you,” Vincent said, ”you probably won't be able to train like this in your life.”
Neville just groaned as he lay on the ground, ”I already figured that out, but mind elaborating?”
”I've trained my whole life on the streets, dodging and blocking physically is what I'm good at,” Vincent said, ”but you're a wizard, you have been taught how to approach combat differently. Focusing mainly on this type of training, you might be able to become physically stronger than all the wizards and witches in your age group, but your ability to wield magic would become neglected to the point that a first-year could beat you.”
Neville was silent for a moment before talking, ”So I should quit training like this?”
”That's not what I mean,” Neville looked at Vincent who sat beside him, ”basically, it all comes down to time management.”
”Eh?” Neville was confused.
”Exactly what I said,” Vincent said throwing Neville a drink, ”you're spending more time on strengthening yourself physically rather than taking the time to improve your skills in magic. So I have a suggestion...”
”Starting from now, you have to spend one to two hours a day studying spells.”
”...” Neville just sat there blankly, ”but that's far harder than exercising. Magic and physical activity are...”
”No different,” Vincent interrupted Neville, ”exercise must be constant, you have to improve yourself little by little every day. Magic is no different. It's just a matter of whether you're willing to push yourself. You do want to become strong right?”
”Yes!” Neville said.
Although Vincent was a muggle, he had all of Neville's trust.
”Here's a couple of suggested spells for you to learn,” Vincent said, writing on a piece of parchment, ”the shield charm is a must. I don't expect you to learn them completely, but if you want to become better, then you won't neglect this.”
”I'll give it a go,” Neville said sheepishly as he looked at the shortlist of spells, ”studying, great.”
...
”Thanks for coming!” Vincent said to his customers as he closed up shop.
It's been nearly four months since the last petrification incident. Since then, the attacks seemed to have stopped. Vincent had also opened up his little food store at the front of his hut. During the weekdays, he'd open for a good three hours a day before closing up shop.
Despite how short the opening hours were, he had gotten a lot of customers and had racked up a fair amount of coins.
”Theo, what do you need?” Vincent greeted the blond Slytherin student waiting for Vincent to finish.
”Can't I wait for a fellow potion-maker?” Theodore Nott said with a neutral tone, ”I just wanted to see how that particular potion was going along.”
Vincent nodded as he pulled out a glass bottle filled with bright green liquid. Theodore Nott was a Slytherin that often joined Malfoy's gang. It was around two months ago when he and Vincent officially met during a potions class. Nott and Vincent had an odd sort of relationship where they would say about five to six sentences per meeting and it was all about potions. A week ago he had asked Vincent to take a look at his potion creation to see if there were any flaws. Despite not liking muggle-borns, he had a small amount of respect for Vincent's skills regarding potion-making.
”A potion that strengthens an item,” Vincent said as he passed the potion to Nott, ”The problem with the original was that it weakened the object when the potion wore off which was, by the way, one day. To improve it, I had to change the amount of some ingredients, mainly the Unicorn hair and the stirring method had some problems with it, so I changed it a little as well. This one allows for the potion to persist through three whole days straight with slightly stronger qualities and the whole weakening situation nullified. Here's the edited version.”
Nott took the potion and recipe with a nod before looking up at Vincent, ”You know I don't like you.”
”Yeah, yeah,” Vincent said tiredly as he locked up the hut, ”screw you too.”
They both stared at each other before laughing to themselves. Nott took out a bag of coins and tossed it towards Vincent who caught it.
”Payment,” Nott said before walking off, not giving Vincent a chance to reject it.
”He's prideful,” Vincent commented to Nyx who shrugged. Blimp just gave a small hiss as it did circles in the air.
He entered the castle to find the trio, Harry, Ron, and Hermione filling out their subjects for the third year in the Great Hall along with other students.
”Still picking?” he said as he sat down, ”you guys are pretty slow.”
”Well, if over half the subjects required magic and we were muggles, then we'd be finished by now too,” Ron grumbled, ”not a lot of subjects don't require magic.”
”True,” Vincent chuckled as he handed them hot dogs, ”anyone hungry?”
The food disappeared from his hands as if by magic. He blinked as he watched them devour the food. Ron he could understand, but Hermione too?
”We-well that was quick,” he chuckled before turning serious, ”I know I've been saying this a lot for the past few months, but I really don't think Hagrid opened the Chamber, let alone raised its monster. That book showing Harry its memories is also pretty suspicious as well. I do think we should give it to Dumbledore or someone”
”I believe that what Tom showed me was real,” Harry argued, ”Hagrid was expelled and the fact that he loves monsters isn't much of a secret.”
”But the monster's description is not even a snake at all,” Vincent frowned.
”You didn't even look at the monster,” Harry said.
”I trust Hagrid,” Vincent said, ”despite his, tendencies, I trust him.”
They were all silent with only the sound of Ron munching on his food.
”Wish I could give up potions,” he mumbled before looking up, ”did I miss something?”
The three sighed. After an hour they made their way back up to the dorm's, running into an anxious Neville.
”Harry — I don't know who did it — I just found —”
Watching Harry fearfully, Neville pushed open the door.
Everyone's eyes widened as they looked at the boy's dormitories. The contents of Harry's trunk had been thrown everywhere. His cloak lay ripped on the floor. The bedclothes had been pulled off his four-poster and the drawer had been pulled out of his bedside cabinet, the contents strewn over the mattress.
”What happened?” Hermione asked surprising Vincent.
”Can girls go into the boy's dorms?” he asked.
”Apparently, girls are more trustworthy than boys,” she explained as Harry searched through his stuff, ”boys can't go into the girls' dorms, but girls can go into the boys', but that's beside the point, what happened?”
”Riddle's book is gone,” Harry said to them with Neville looking confused, ”don't worry about it, Neville.”
Hermione and Ron looked at Vincent before indicating to Neville. He sighed as he pats Neville's shoulder, ”Let's go, I want to check your progress.”
”Uh, ok,” Neville realized that they didn't want him to listen and walked out with Vincent.
...
”Ok Neville, let's see how much you progressed during these past months,” Vincent said pulling two wooden sticks out.
Neville nervously pulled out his wand as he got into a strange posture that resembled a boxer.
”Before we start, what kind of spells have you learned?” Vincent said as he attached a thin rope to both ends of the sticks, making something resembling a skipping rope.
”Just, Expelliarmus,” Neville said going a bit red in shame over just learning a single spell, ”I can only do half a shield charm.”
”Did you try your best?” Vincent asked as he tested his makeshift weapon, using it like a whip.
”...” Neville thought to himself before looking down, ”I did, but it wasn't good enough—”
”If you tried your best, then there's nothing to be ashamed of,” Vincent grabbed both ends before looking at Neville, ”trust me, even if you fail time and time again, as long as you try your best, there is nothing to be ashamed of.”
Neville gave a small smile as he held his wand out thinking, ”Vincent's always like this, he just won't give up on anything will he.”
”Alright, the match ends when one of us is disarmed,” Vincent held his wooden rods up, ”or when one of us admits defeat. We start the moment Blimp hisses. All good?”
”Yeah, I'm all good,” Neville looked determined.
”When you're ready Blimp.”
A whole half-minute passed as Neville and Vincent both stood there silently, weapons raised. Blimp finally swallowed it's egg before hissing, indicating the start of the match.
”Expelliar—?!” Neville saw Vincent throw one end of the rods out, causing him to roll out of the way. He quickly got into a kneeling position before seeing Vincent expertly guide the rod end into a downward strike, causing him to hold up his wand, ”Protego!”
A small transparent wall appeared blocking the strike. He sighed before Vincent moved both his hands to the middle of the rope, shortening the range but allowing for both ends of the whip-like weapon to attack as he swung them around.
”Protego!” Neville gritted his teeth under the endless blows, ”Protego! Protego! Protego!
Due to his imperfect shield, Neville had to move his wand around to block each and every blow Vincent dished out at him. Neville's arm started to numb as he stepped back under the barrage of blows. Suddenly, after one attack, Neville felt Vincent's foot collide with his stomach, making him fall back into a roll to reduce the impact.
”Expelliarmus!” Neville yelled as the spell zoomed in on Vincent, he saw the spell about to hit Vincent before it fizzed out, making Vincent raise an eyebrow as he went to kick Neville's Wand hand.
”Wingardium Leviosa!” Vincent was taken aback before noticing a part of the ground rising fast towards his face.
Vincent merely blocked with his arms as the attack sent him a little bit into the air. Neville, seeing his opportunity, pointed his wand at Vincent.
”This time it'll reach!” he thought before yelling, ”Expelliarmu—?!”
Vincent's shoe smacked into Neville's wand hand, making him drop it in surprise.
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”And that's game,” Vincent smiled as he landed back onto the ground, rolling to reduce any impact.
”You-your shoe,” Neville spluttered while Vincent just laughed as he put it back on.
”Take this as a lesson,” he smiled, ”be prepared for the unexpected.”
”Screw shoes,” Neville muttered, ”ah, I nearly beat you too.”
”You were close,” Vincent said picking up Neville's wand and giving it to him, ”that last spell caught me by surprise.”
”It's a floating spell first years learned,” he mumbled, ”I merely levitated the dirt out of the ground.”
”It was a good move,” Vincent said nodding, ”you might have beaten me if your spell didn't fizz out.
”I got too excited,” Neville said embarrassed, he then pointed at the skipping rope-like weapon, ”mind explaining to me what these are?”
”I thought it would be incredibly unfair if I used my rods,” Vincent said as he spun the wooden ones around, ”not to mention, they hurt far more then wooden ones.”
”Point taken,” Neville grumbled.
They took a break by the stone steps.
”So what was that about earlier?” Neville asked, thinking of the messy room.
”Something of Harry's was stolen,” Vincent said, ”it held information about the Chamber of Secrets.”
Neville's eyes widened, ”Did you find anything out?”
”For the time being, no,” Neville looked slightly uncomfortable, ”in case your wondering, Harry isn't the heir.”
”It wasn't that,” Neville said hurridly, ”I was just thinking, only a Gryffindor could have stolen it right? There's no reason to steal it unless of course, you're the heir and you don't want anyone to find out. If that's the case, then the heir of Slytherin could be in Gryffindor.”
Vincent's eyes widened when he thought about that possibility.
...
Vincent was still thinking about it the next day. He was currently on the Quidditch stands making hot dogs with Luna sitting at his side.
”These are wonderful Vince,” she said as she chewed on her food, ”are you sure I don't need to pay?”
”It's fine Luna,” Vincent smiled at her, ”anyhow, you came rather early.”