Quinn stayed in his office for a while after Hermione and Ivy left his office. Thinking about what had happened in the last few minutes.
At first, Quinn was dead set on getting them into trouble. The only motive in his mind was to catch them, force them to reveal what they were doing, and then throw them to the professors. He was ready to throw his family's weight around if Dumbledore tried to pull some favoritism bullshit.
But, as he talked to them and Ivy Potter told him she suspected him of being the Heir of Slytherin, it stunned Quinn, shocked at the idiocy, and while it didn't extinguish his anger, it did lower it to a level where he didn't want them to get into trouble.
So, he decided to suck Ivy Potter and Hermione Granger into the quagmire of debt. He gave them an option, to do whatever the hell he wanted from them, with no questions asked. It was always good to have favors saved in the bank for later use.
But, the thing that happened next was the most surprising. Ivy Potter asked him for information; it dazed him for a moment. Typically, he wouldn't have given that type of information, but something in him wanted to impress, so he dished out the information.
Now that he sat, Ivy Potter's actions impressed. She was resourceful and quick to act, and if forced to admit, quite daring.
The last thing at the door was just theatrics to solidify an impression. And a way of warning them not to try something that they would regret.
His payment for the information was to get the Marauder's Map. He could have gotten the map by himself, but he felt it would be less work for him if he outsourced the acquisition of the map to someone familiar with the current owners.
As for what he wanted from the map? He just wanted to check something out, and then the map would be returned back. His Recon was better than the Marauder's Map. He had no desire to possess the Marauder's Map.
"Alright, let's leave," muttered Quinn, stood up, and after giving the office one last look, Quinn exited the office, looking in behind him, resetting the sensory ward on the door.
Quinn had a free hour, so he decided to walk to the kitchen and grab something to eat. He was hungry after all the shouting he did.
Quinn walked down the grand staircase and was on a moving staircase climbing down.
As he was halfway through the staircase, he saw a fifth-year Slytherin student also coming up the stairs from the ground floor.
'Terence Higgins,' identified Quinn as he looked at the older student. It made him wonder what Terence Higgins was doing here, but he had just crossed the entrance to the grand staircase, so Quinn assumed the Slytherin was going there.
Ravenclaw and Slytherin met eyes while they were on their respective staircase. Quinn saw an apathetic look from the Slytherin, and Terence saw the same expression from the Ravenclaw.
The two climbed up/down their sets of stairs without a single word to each other. The two did glance at each other from the corner of their eyes.
Quinn paused his steps, and he didn't know why but Terence Higgins attracted his attention. He turned back to look at the Slytherin student and saw that Terence was also staring back at him. The two stared at each other; none of the two blinked or removing their eyes from each other and maintained firm eye contact.
Terence Higgins seemed satisfied with the stare-down, turned back, and walked away from Quinn.
Quinn's eyes lingered on the Slytherin for a moment longer before he similarly turned away and walked away.
'Terence Higgins,' thought Quinn. 'He seemed interesting.'
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- (Scene Break) -
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After having a hearty meal, Quinn neared the Ravenclaw common room. His belly was full and happy, and with a soft smile on his face, he reached near the common room and caught the sight of a prefect standing near the corridor which led to the entrance. Quinn wasn't going to greet the prefect and just walk into the common room, but the prefect called out to him.
"West," the prefect called, "There is an emergency curfew until further notice. Professor Flitwick said that no one is to remain outside."
Quinn's legs stopped and turned towards the prefect, "Oh? Why is that?"
"The Slytherin's monster struck again," he explained. "They found Hermione Granger petrified near the library, and Ivy Potter is missing."
She leaned in and whispered, "The Heir of Slytherin left another message, right underneath the first one." There was a pause before she spoke the message, "Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever."
The gears in Quinn's mind moved at a rapid speed as he connected the dots.
'They must have gone to the library to verify the information.' Quinn had given references, so it wasn't a wild assumption. 'And the Heir of Slytherin attacked.'
Quinn looked at the prefect and nodded, "Thanks for the hard work. I will go to the common room right away."
The prefect nodded, and Quinn left, but the moment the prefect turned her back, Quinn disappeared out of sight.
Quinn, who made himself invisible and silenced his footsteps, looked at the prefect and cast magic.
The Ravenclaw prefect was on the guard/guide duty saw a rubber ball bounce in front of her, and it bounced away to a bend. She furrowed her brows and walked to the bend in the corridor, but when she looked, the ball wasn't anywhere to be seen.
She felt something, causing her to turn back. The result was the same, and there was nothing to be seen.
And for Quinn? He was already far away from the prefect and was walking towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
The magic he used on the prefect was illusion magic. The rubber ball was an auditory and visual illusion to draw the prefect away from the direction he was going. And the slight presence near her back was just a tactile sensation of wind brushing against to make her look towards the common room so she wouldn't notice the invisible Quinn is he was slightly noticeable while walking.
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- (Scene Break) -
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Moaning Myrtle's bathroom was a second-floor girls' lavatory. It was situated right above the Great Hall. Myrtle Warren's death had caused the restroom to be placed out of order, not functioning as a typical restroom since the tragedy.
When Quinn entered the lavatory, still invisible and the sound of his clothes and shoes silenced, his eyes shined when he saw the vast hole in one stall.
'He is already in,' thought Quinn. By 'he' Quinn meant Harry Potter as he was sure that Voldemort would know more about the Chamber and would close the tunnel down.
The invisible boy wasted no time and jumped right into the pipe tunnel. It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as broad as his, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons.
Quinn held himself back from screaming out of part excitement and part fear at the sheer length of the slide ride.
The second Quinn exited the tunnel, he came across a nervously fidgeting Ron Weasley in his spot. The redhead Weasley was repeatedly glancing at the path going inside.
Seeing that, Quinn frowned and immediately sent a mental probe into Ron's mind and found why he was standing here.
The gist of the situation from Ron's mind was that they found the information on Hermione just like the canon. Harry, just like the canon, figured out the location, and he did it in almost instantly.
'This Harry Potter is smarter,' Quinn remarked in his mind. 'But...'
The part different from canon was that Harry and Ron came down here alone, without Lockhart or any professor at all.
'He might be smarter, but coming here alone was dumb.' Quinn didn't even think that he, too, had come here alone with no assistance.
Harry had told Ron to wait here and if he didn't return in an hour, go and call someone. Ron had tried to refuse and accompany him, but Harry had convinced his best mate to stay here.
Quinn moved along, leaving behind Ron Weasley, who didn't know that someone had passed by without him knowing.
After walking on the path, Quinn reached a bend, and when he turned on it, he saw a solid wall with a circular hole in it.
'Alright, this is it,' thought Quinn and just stood there. He stood near the circular hole and tried to listen to any noise coming from inside. Quinn had no intention to go inside till he got some confirmation that it was safe to go inside.
Harry Potter might have survived the Basilisk without any counter to the Basilisk's death gaze, but Quinn West wasn't taking any chances.
After a while and a few rumbles and tremors, Quinn finally heard a yell.
"NO!" Quinn heard from who he thought was Riddle screaming. "LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU! YOU CAN STILL SMELL HIM! KILL HIM!"
"Alright, that is the cue," Quinn whispered as he just heard Riddle scream at the Basilisk to find Harry by smell, which meant that the Basilisk was blind. "Good riddance to the death glare."
Walking inside, Quinn saw towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place. After crossing the hallway slowly, taking his time, not hurrying at all, cruising along the path as he heard more shouts and some phoenix singing, he finally saw the giant face statue, the mouth open.
He would have spent time just watching the face statue, but his eyes were stuck on the enormous green-scaled body of the Basilisk. As Quinn walked closer, he saw Harry Potter half-sitting, supporting his body with the stone wall behind.
But, Harry Potter was unconscious. Fawkes the phoenix cried some tears on Harry Potter's wounds.
"You're dead, Harry Potter," said Riddle's specter. "Dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Potter? He's crying."
He ignored the specter for a second and paid attention to Harry Potter. He could see the pained expression on Harry's face ease, but the boy-who-lived was still unconscious.
Fawkes stopped crying, and then there was a bright flash of fire, and the majestic turkey bird turned into ash.
'Burning day?' exclaimed Quinn. From the ashes, a baby phoenix poked its head out. The newly born bird, who was really ugly, and looked like a decrepit-looking, half-plucked turkey, glared at the specter of Tom Riddle with its young eyes.
Burning Day was the name of the day in which a Phoenix burst into flame and was reborn from the ashes.
'What a sucky timing,' Quinn shook his head. This event was different from the canon, as Fawkes' burning day was much before the current day.
"I am impressed that you managed to kill the Basilisk with the help of the dumb bird. I wasn't expecting to lose the Basilisk today," Riddle's specter smirked and chuckled as he looked at the unconscious body of Harry Potter. "But, it doesn't matter. In a few minutes, I will return to this world of the living."
"It is a pity that even with the phoenix's tears, you won't be able to leave here alive."
He turned to look at the face statue of Salazar Slytherin, "I will make my ancestor proud and return the name of Slytherin back to its intended glory. And it will start with the sacrifice of the boy-who-lived and his sister. My future self somehow died by his hand, and today I will take revenge."
The specter looked back to the body of Harry Potter, intending to finish the boy, but his brows furrowed when he saw a stone dome over the place where the diminutive phoenix sat.
"It is really a pity," specter-Tom heard a voice from his back. He turned back to see a boy standing as he looked down at his host and the petrified body of Ivy Potter. "You came really close to coming back to life, you know? Really close."
Specter-Tom Riddle clutched Harry Potter's wand in his hand, the wand which was the sister to his own.
"You..." he peered at the boy. "You are Quinn West." He knew about the boy, the so-called smartest of his age. And the owner of the weird consultation of his in Hogwarts.
Quinn looked down at the host of Tom Riddle's diary-Horcrux.
"Terence Higgins," Quinn spoke. "So, I found Tom Riddle possessing you interesting and not the guy itself. I didn't see that coming."
Quinn looked at the specter that was a soul-split molded into Horcrux.
Specter-Riddle saw Quinn raise his hand towards him, and the next second he found the wand flying from his hand into the air before it paused for a second in the air and rushed into Quinn's hand.
"Wandless magic!" specter-Riddle exclaimed at the magic.
"Yup," Quinn smiled as he fiddled with the wand. "I am pretty good at it... Why am I being modest? You are going to be dead shortly. I am really good at it."
"Me, Dead?" specter-Riddle laughed, but his eyes were eyeing Quinn critically. The boy had come out of nowhere and had just taken the wand from him.
"Of course," he replied as he moved towards the Basilisk head while putting gloves on his hands. "A Horcrux doesn't mean immortality, you know?"
Specter-Riddle's eyes sharply narrowed as he growled, "How did you know?"
Quinn smirked as he put his hand on one of the Basilisk fangs and pulled it out in one fell swoop.
"You have been here for the entire year," Quinn said as he appraised the venomous fang. "So, you must have heard about my consultation service. I am an information dealer, so of course, I know what is happening in my territory."
Scepter-Riddle started to feel nervous as he saw the boy move towards his diary/container with the fang in his hand.
"What are you doing?" Scepter-Tom yelled and followed after Quinn, "Answer me!"
"Do you know that Basilisk venom can destroy Horcruxes? It is quite ironic, you know, Basilisk and Horcruxes were Herpo the Foul's creations." He stood on top of the diary-Horcrux and grinned towards the Horcrux projection, "He created magic that wouldn't allow him to die, but at the same time, he created something that could destroy said magic."
The projection glared at Quinn, and immediately Quinn felt a mental attack hit against his shields.
Red, violet, and green hues switched on Quinn's nape before settling on the green. He pursed his lips before smiling, "It won't work, that mental attack. I have shields powerful enough to deflect the attack. But, I have to say, you are better than me at legilimency. I can't induce mental pain with mental attacks yet. I haven't reached that far yet."
Specter-Riddle didn't speak and shot out a scarlet jet of magic towards Quinn, but it met an invisible shield before it could reach Quinn.
"It is useless," Quinn's soft voice reached the specter. "You aren't my match without a wand, and even if you had a wand, I still would have crushed you."
A farewell smile graced Quinn's lips as he spoke, "So, Tom Riddle, or as you like to be called, Lord Voldemort, it is a farewell. Goodbye." All the while, Specter-Riddle kept shooting low-level spells at Quinn, but Quinn's shield defended against them without taking a major load.
Quinn seized the basilisk fang and plunged it straight into the heart of the book.
There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming over Quinn's gloved hands, flooding the floor. Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing, and then the specter was gone.
Silence except for the steady drip of ink still oozing from the diary. The basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it.
Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Quinn looked up to see Terence Higgins stirring up and immediately sent a stunning charm towards the waking up Slytherin, knocking him out. Quinn didn't want anyone else to see him here.
"I have to move quickly," murmured Quinn and hurried towards the Basilisk and took out six vials from his robes, and with a twitch of magic, the vials expanded into their original size. The original vials had quite a large volume.
One by one, the beaker vials were placed below the fangs. Quinn focused his magic on the muscle that released the venom from the secondary venom ducts in the fangs and exerted a lot of magic to milk out the Basilisk venom.
He completely filled the six big beaker vials with venom, and Quinn was sure that there still was a lot of Basilisk venom in the venom sac.
"Hot damn," Quinn expressed his admiration. "Basilisk body sure is magic resistance. Even the inside is quite tough." He had forced a lot of magic on the muscles that pushed the venom out of the fangs.
After retrieving the lids for the special beakers, Quinn transmuted the caps on the beaker vials to create six closed cylinders. His eyes flashed with delight as he saw the six full vials, yellow briefly flashing on his nape.
"This is more than enough," nodded Quinn. He currently had no plans for the venom other than to use it to destroy the Horcruxes. Even one of these vials was way too much for destroying all the remaining Horcruxes.
Quinn stared at the Basilisk smelly mouth. A yellow flashed on his nape, and he broke a dozen fangs from the Basilisk. Eying the fangs with a captivated look. The fangs were wrapped into thick bundles of cloth and then pocketed into Quinn's robes.
Looking around, Quinn took in the scene and smiled. "Not bad for a day's work. Not bad at all."
His eyes saw the petrified Ivy Potter and muttered, "You better come back to normal. I want that payment paid to me this year."
Quinn turned invisible and walked away from the ordeal without looking back, not forgetting to vanish the stone dome from over the ugly baby bird.
If he wasn't in stealth mode, Quinn would have hummed a song in joy.
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-*-*-*-*-*-
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Blue - S L O T H <-- > A C E D I A
Pink - _ U S _ <-- > L U X U R I A
Red - W R A T H <-- > I R A
Yellow - G R E E D <-- > _ _ A _ I T I _
Violet - P R I D E <-- > S U P E R B I A
Green - _ N V _ <-- > I _ V I _ I A
Orange - _ L _ T T _ N _ <--> G U L A
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-*-*-*-*-*-
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Quinn West - MC - Basilisks, gone~! Horcrux, gone~! Venom, have it all~!
Specter-Riddle - Horcrux - Ooooh, he dead. So dead.
Harry Potter - Basilisk Slayer - Props to the dude.
Fawkes - Pheonix - Going from big-beautiful turkey to baby-ugly turkey.
Ivy Potter - Petrified - Even when turned to stone, her creditor wants the payment - Pitiful.
Terence Higgins - Slytherin - Random dude victim to Lucius Malfoy's decision.
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-*-*-*-*-*-
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