Dark circles. .. dark bags under the eyes due to exhaustion or lack of sleep, among other reasons — it wasn't a condition that Quinn wasn't familiar with; he had spent more than his share of all-nighters — but never in his life did Quinn had let himself slip so much that it would cause dark circles to appear on his face.
One of his believes was: 'The number of hours you are awake doesn't matter, as much how you spent those awake hours — sleeping seven to eight hours every day was perfectly fine if the remaining hours spent awake were spent efficiently and diligently.'
The only exception to his track record was the two weeks in Hogwarts after the Sin curse had broken; in those days, Quinn's condition deteriorated so much that he had on more than a few occasions had taken Sleeping Draught just to put himself into sleep — a fact that he loathed because Sleeping Draughts were addictive if taken carelessly over a long period of time.
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh," he voiced with his face buried into his hands, "why is this so difficult. .. it's just pushing a pedestal down into the ground. .. so why can't I solve that."
In the days that Quinn had been going at the weight-pedestal-archway problem, the amount of progress he had made couldn't even amount to an iota — an imaginary number. No amount of force or way to apply said force he tried; the result was the same — the archway the same as it did when he jumped on the pedestal, and that was it — the pedestal refused to budge beyond that.
In frustration, Quinn had attacked the archway wall, but that didn't do him any good — the wall was too tough for him to break through force — not to mention it attacked back with explosions(which didn't harm Quinn anymore, but that didn't make the experience any less pleasant.)
He took a deep breath, opened the notebook on the table, and stared at the pages upon pages of calculations, theories, decisions, possibilities, opportunities, hypotheses drafted by him to beat the mechanism.
"Useless," he flipped a page, "ever more useless," some more, "what was I thinking here, this would never work" — he snapped the book close — "waste of time, all of this." He crossed his hands and stared straight ahead at a random cabinet door in his workshop, thinking how to proceed from here on.
"There's absolutely nothing in there that would tell me how to proceed." As Quinn had observed, the vault room was unbelievably plain; the only extra piece of information from the room was the type of stone it was made from; other than that, the room had told him zilch.
Quinn had even gone back to the entrance hall in case he had missed something. But after a thorough study of everything, the results were disappointed with no gains — even taking the portrait with the architect on it and keeping an eye on it for twenty-four hours had not unearthed any new information.
With a heaving sigh, he got up on his feet and walked into the office. One step into the office, he heard the door chime bell as expected, saturating the room with a filling ting.
"Welcome to AID. How may I be of service today," the customary lines flowed out as he closed the red door behind him. Raising his eyes to the customer met him with familiar faces, "Ivy and Hermione, it's you two again," the Gryffindor girl duo walked to his table, taking their seats, used to visiting his office, "so what's going to be the agenda today?"
"You don't look good," said Ivy worried.
"And you look gorgeous as well, my dear," said Quinn flashing a smile, and that had some effect on Ivy. "I'm lacking some sleep — it's nothing to be worried about."
"Are you sure?" said Hermoine. "We can always come back later."
"It's the middle of the day; I'm not going to sleep just to wake up in the middle of the night.. . Please, I appreciate your concerns, but be relieved it's nothing that a good nap can't fix."
The two girls stared at Quinn for a moment before relenting.
Ivy nodded and continued at Quinn's assistance, "We want to talk to you about our study group—"
"Ah yes, I have heard about that from Marcus, and I recall Eddie mentioning that you were looking for me."
"So you know what we are doing," said Hermione.
"I know that it's a study group for Defense Against Dark Arts and that you've been putting out feelers to see who'll be interested," he had also gotten said feelers from Weasley twins in one of their meets, "you set up your first meet at Hog's Head and from what the chatter I heard and what Marcus told me, it seemed to be a great success — how many of them were there, again," — saying that Quinn opened a drawer and took out a sheet of paper and read from it, — "forty-six people attended the meeting, and all of them signed up."
"What's that?" asked Ivy as both girls stared at the paper in Quinn's hand.
"This is a copy of the list that you guys drafted that day," Quinn passed on the sheet to Hermione.
Hermione, who was in charge of safe-keeping of the list (it falling into Umbridge's hand, would have been nothing less than an apocalypse) stared at the so-called copy, and her jaw dropped when she saw that it wasn't just a list of names — it was an exact replica with original handwritings intact.
"H-How.. . how did you get this?!" exclaimed Hermione.
"It's quite obvious, isn't it?" spoke Quinn. "Someone in that meeting made a duplicate using the doubling charm and gave the copy to me, which I then used to create a permanent copy before the charmed-duplicated vanished.. . of course, the identity of my informant will be kept a secret according to their and my wishes."
Seeing the expression of shock and doubt towards him in Hermione and Ivy's eyes, Quinn sighed, "My motive behind doing this was not to hold this over you, which might be a bit difficult to believe given our history together, but believe me, I'm not trying to gain leverage on the people in the list."
"Then why?" said Ivy, a bit unhappy. "If you wanted to see the list, I would have shown it to you upfront."
"To make both of you feel threatened." — the expression on their faces turned confused — "If I can get my hands on that list so easily, when I wasn't even in the meet, Umbridge can also get her hands on the list and then all of you will be in great trouble.. . so make sure to keep the original safe and," Quinn pointed at the copy, "you can keep that; it's my only copy — as I said, I meant no harm, and it was just an attempt to get you aware of the stakes.. . Even though they know the risks, I don't want Eddie, Marcus, and Luna to get in trouble."
Ivy flourished her wand in hand, and a red zap turned the paper into a pile of dust on the table. Quinn vanished the ash pile and stared at the table to sigh in relief when he saw the absence of scorch marks on the wood.
"Hey, I'm capable enough to burn a paper without surrounding damage," said Ivy.
"I believe you, I promise."
"Ahem," Hermione cleared her throat to gather their attention and continued with haste, "so will you take part in our group?"
"Dumbledore's Army," said Ivy adventurously.
Quinn hummed as if in thought and then glanced at both of the girls.
"No," he said simply.
"Eh, why?" "What's the problem?!"
"There are a few reasons, but the biggest reason is that," he pointed at the place where Ivy had burned the list, "there were no Slytherins on that list — excluding one house while the other three play together is a big no-no."
"We can't take the risk," said Hermione, "if we tell them about our plans, we will be over before we even start — Slytherins will leak our plans to Umbridge; they love her."
"I understand your worries, but what you're doing is to segregate a group because of the actions of a part of said group. I won't pretend what you are saying isn't correct; you would have been shut down a hundred percent if you kept Slytherin in the loop," — he hushed them —, "but there is a good quantity of Slytherins who wouldn't shake Umbridge's hand with a ten-meter pole.. . and your group isolating them form this opportunity doesn't fit right with me — and don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it's your responsibility to get Slytherin students; this is a private group and not a charitable cause, you can take in anyone you want, even Umbridge herself.. . but if you want me to join your group, then you'll have you take in some Slytherins."
If it was someone else, they wouldn't have contemplated even for a second, but the person in front of them wasn't anyone else.
"I can make your decision easier and get you a highly curated list of people who would want to be part of this group and would keep their lips sealed about it.. . I can guarantee that last part."
"Guarantee?" said Hermione.
Quinn nodded lightly.
"What else," said Ivy, not fiving Quinn an answer immediately.
"The group name, Dumbledore's Army," said Quinn with a sigh, "listen I don' mind signing my name on the original parchment as everyone did; it wouldn't be fair to everyone otherwise," circumventing Hermione's charm was easy enough, "but I would prefer if I'm not taken as part of something known as Dumebldore's Amry — so I would seriously suggest changing the name."
"We can do that," said Ivy immediately because even though they had chosen Dumbledore's Army as their group name, that was just because they thought of it as fitting. "We'll get back to you with another name."
"Great. Next, how is this group going to work," asked Quinn, "what's going to be the system of learning because I would only attend in an instructor/tutor capacity — so I would need some amount of freedom on how to conduct things."
"We were actually thinking about letting those good with a spell or concept to teach others. There are close to fifty people with us, so we thought it would be better to conduct it this way," said Hermione.
"Good, that's fine with me. Organize the slots in which you would like me to come in and help out, and I'll be there."
"You won't be there for every session?" said Ivy asking. She thought Quinn would be there every week; she hoped that he would be there every week.
"If you set me up to teach me every week, then I will be there every session," said Quinn shrugging; he didn't mind taking a few hours every week to help out the study group — it would serve as a great break from his others commitments.
"Then we will do that," said Ivy without missing a beat.
Hermione glanced at her best friend. She was folding a bit too easily for Quinn's request. 'Damn, the girl really likes him, huh,' she thought.
"Anything else?" asked Hermione.
"Hmm, nothing I can think at this moment," said Quinn. "I'll get you the list of names for the Slytherin people. You can approach them and tell them that I recommended them to you guys and that I recommend the study group — that will jump up the conversion rate."
"Can you give us an idea who's going to be on the list?" asked Hermione.
"Some of my friends and a few regular clients who I think would like to attend."
The Gryffindor girls knew about the friends, of course. There were only a few that Quinn would call friends.
The conversation seemed to be over when the office door opened up with the door chime ringing. Quinn looked up while Hermione and Ivy turned back to see Luna enter the room with her satchel by her side and a garland of colorful flowers around her neck.
"It's evening," she said.
"A good evening to you as well, Luna," said Quinn in reply.
She glanced at the Gryffindor girls as she walked to beside Quinn. "You look like a A with no chubbiness. A without level cuteness."
"No idea how to respond to that, so I will keep my comments," he smiled.
Luna shrugged before taking out a book from her satchel and handing the ancient leather-bound thing to Quinn. "I got the book that you wanted me to get."
"Thank you," smiled Quinn, and Luna got an entire bar of chocolate in return — something that Quinn didn't give out that much.
Luna unwrapped the chocolate and took an uneven bite out of it as she turned to Hermione and Ivy. "Did you ask him to join Dumbledore's Army?" she asked.
"We did." "They did."
"Then did he agree?" asked Luna.
"He did." "I did."
"That's nice."
"It is." "You bet it is."
While Ivy and Quinn were answering Luna's questions, Hermione was staring at the book in Quinn's hand. "What is the book about?" she asked.
Quinn glanced at the book in hand for a moment. "It's a book about Hogwarts' Architect, Stigweard Gragg. From what I heard from hounding Madam Pince, she says that this book might be written by the man, the myth, the legend himself."
"And why are you looking for it? Also, why didn't you get the book yourself?"
"I'm just curious about the man who designed the castle, and I'm already at the limit at what I can lend out of the library, so Luna got the book for me on her account."
"Stigweard Gragg, was it? He must be quite a person for you to be interested in him."
"The man who designed hundreds of passages inside this huge castle is bound to be really interesting, isn't he?" he stared at the walls above, "Even though Hogwarts wasn't like this at the time it was created, he must've thought that someday his creation would turn out like this. I'm trying to peek into the mind of Stigweard Gragg, attempting to see why he chose to do things as he did; what motivated the man to conceive his creations."
He looked down on him and smiled, "It's a little.. . project of mine that I have taken up this year.. . I think it will be.. . inspiring."
"Inspiration is important," said Luna.
"I think your garland is pretty inspiring, Luna," said Quinn.
"It's an arrangement and color combination that attracts Jauffins. They are supposed to bring luck and make everything go your way. I'm have laid a trap for the Crumpled-Horn Snorcack near the greenhouses and am hoping that one would settle down in the comfy trap."
"The Crumpled-Horn Snorcack doesn't exist," said Hermione.
Luna turned to Hermione and glared at her heatedly.
"It does exist," said Luna.
"It doesn't. There's no proof of it," said Hermione, still not willing to indulge in Luna's 'fantasies.'
"It does exist. The proof is just yet to be discovered," said Luna in a confident return. "I'm going to find it and show everyone once and for all that Crumpled-Horn Snorcack exists." Then the blonde turned to the red door and disappeared into the workshop but not before slamming the heavy, heavy iron-laden door shut.
Quinn looked away from the red door and pumped his brow once at the girls.
"Luna is.. . a complete nonconformist; she lacks self-consciousness and is not afraid to show who she truly was. The only way to truly convince her of something is to make Luna experience it. From the fundamental experience to the most complex things, Luna will only believe in things she has experienced firsthand.. . She believes that the Crumpled-Horn Snorcack exists, and the only way to convince her that it doesn't is for her to herself look for it fail, or for her to find it and show others that she was right."
"What if she never finds and yet never gives up?" asked Hermione.
"Then she will keep looking and keep believing," said Quinn smiling, "it might be a little tacky, but it's a great mind for learning anything. She applies everything she learns just so that she confirm that the words written in the books and those spoken by me hold the truth."
"Isn't that sort of.. . unhealthy," said Ivy.
"Usually, that would hold much truth. But not with Luna. She is intelligent and smart — she is critically aware of where is the line," said Quinn in unbreakable confidence. His time with Luna had taught him that she was far from what one feels when imagining crazy or 'Loony.'
"I still can't relate to how she thinks," said Hermione, not convinced.
Quinn got up, prompting the two girls to get up too, "Well, I'm sure you two would come to realize each other's perspective with all the time you would be spending with each other in the new study group.. . now, ladies, I apologize that we can't talk any longer, but I have some work to do.. ."
"Ah, I see," said Ivy, "then please do send us the names."
"Uh-huh, you'll have them in your hands' first thing in the morning."
As the two were leaving, Quinn spoke the final words, "I'm looking forward to this study group."
"Us too," said Ivy smiling before raising her and waving it, "Well then, bye."
Quinn confusedly raised his hand as well and slowly waved back, "Bye?"
.. .
Outside, Ivy felt her face heat up, and the gaze of Hermione in her back didn't help.
"Bye?" said Hermione.
".. . It just slipped out."
.. .
Inside, Quinn lowered his hand, the smile gradually drained, and he turned back, walking to his table.
"Now, let's get into the messed up mind of the freak Stigweard Gragg," a vein popped on his head, "if this doesn't work, I'm going to dig his tomb and raid his grave."
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Quinn West - MC - Believe it or not, I have a grave robber kit on ready.
FictionOnlyReader - Author - I'm back! Let's get the ball rolling again.
