An Otherworldly Experience (Tom Riddle Era)

Chapter Sixteen

Finding the bathroom was easy, Kelli found, because it was the only bathroom Myrtle Warren ever commuted to over breakfast, lunch and dinner. And she, only being a third year, was being bullied by other third-year students of an array of different houses, even Hufflepuff.

"Guess how many of y'all got detentions?" Kelli asked once after dinner, hearing what they were saying.

"You have to-"

"Don't do that to her," another student whispered, "She beat Riddle the other day in duelling club, probably using dark magic."

"Oh my God, I am right here, I can hear you," Kelli told them though they were already in their own worlds.

"Watson would never use dark magic!" shouted the Hufflepuff in her defence.

"Seriously, detentions, anyone," Kelli mused, knowing they weren't listening.

"Oh, you're only saying that because you-"

Kelli pulled out her wand and silenced the five girls. "Detentions, all of you. Now go away. And I don't need your names, there's a list in the teacher's office and they'll assign your punishments."

Kelli didn't want to deal with them, she'd just assign them lines and that wasn't really enough for bullying.

"Thank you," Warren told Kelli. "But they'll just come back."

"Well, three of them," Kelli replied, putting her wand back in her robes. "Bet you for a week."

"Why would I bet that?"

"Something to feel superior over them when they come back," replied Kelli, then realising that was such a Tom thing to say.

"Can't you . . . do something?"

Kelli looked at her, thinking Well I'm trying it so that you live. "Like?" asked Kelli. "I guess we could bring it up in a talk with the other prefects, but unless we're there, not much can be done."

Kelli turned to the sinks and glanced at the taps, as though looking for cleanliness before finding the one she wanted that indicated that this was, indeed, the Chamber of Secrets entrance.

Then she washed her hands.

"But you're a prefect and you're at least better than half the seventh years in magic."

"What's your name?" Kelli asked, knowing she'd never asked for it despite knowing it.

"Myrtle. Myrtle Warren."

Kelli nodded. "Tell you what, I'll give you something within the week that'll help you let me know when you want help. We don't need to-"

Kelli stopped talking, the door opening. Kelli looked over at the door and said, a very sweet tone, "I'm sorry, I'm just having a chat here, did you mind waiting just a moment?"

The fifth-year Ravenclaw, Kelli recognised her from classes but didn't know her name, looked at Warren, opened her mouth to say something, snapped it shut when she looked at Kelli and said, "I'll keep people away."

"Thank you," Kelli sung, not sure if it was because Kelli was a prefect, if Kelli would start a fight, because Kelli apparently used dark magic or because Kelli had some nasty Slytherin friends. Either way, Kelli was thankful for the help.

The door closed.

"As I was saying. We don't need to tell anyone about our arrangement, I'll show up whenever you need me."

"We can meet, uh, well . . ."

"I'll find you," Kelli told Warren easily, before saying, "I'd better get started on it, then. See you soon."

Kelli stepped out, thanked the fifth year guarding the door and head down to the Hufflepuff common room. Time to get started on that map if she's going to have a decent idea on what Tom was up to and where he was.

Map making was not Kelli's forte. She could not draw but she was expected to draw a floor plan. There were no other maps of the Hogwarts castle that she could find and copy off of. So that was what Kelli was doing, drawing a terrible map of Hogwarts with a charmed quill for neatness and an ink that had the moving solution in it, and disappeared and reappeared with Kelli's set of chosen words, which she spent a lot of time contemplating if she wanted to recreate the yet to be created Marauders Map by saying, 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good' and 'mischief managed', but decided against it anyway.

Kelli hadn't really figured it out yet but she was still drawing. She reckoned it should be a phrase or something from her day and age, but did she want it too funny or serious? She was using it for serious matters - but she really did have that kind of humour.

She'd put the protean charm on an already charmed chunk of metal. The protean charm was basically what Hermione had used on the DA galleons - the original was changeable and anything that happened to the original, it would happen to the replica. It was already charmed to go cold when being held tightly.

"Why're you drawing a map?" Elizabeth asked, appearing out of nowhere to Kelli.

Kelli spun towards her friend, moving faster out of fright than anything else. "You frightened me," Kelli chuckled, putting a hand on her chest as if that would help calm her down. "Side project," Kelli told her friend, "I'm trying to make a map of Hogwarts that'll help me do my prefect jobs far easier."

"How will it do that?" Elizabeth asked, frowning but looking quite curious either way.

"So, there's this charm I found in the restricted section-"

"Hardcore, nerd."

Kelli grinned at her friend. "Anyway, the charm I found by being a hardcore nerd, it's got a lot to do with map making and I can charm it to show me where people are in the castle."

She tilted her head. "That's kind of stalkerish. Will I be able to borrow it?"

"Sure, but you can't take it with you. At the moment, I'm creating it to help a student from being bullied." And to actually stalk Tom Riddle but that wasn't going to be said aloud.

Elizabeth nodded with a smile. "Sometimes, I wonder if you actually belong in Hufflepuff with your hardcore nerdiness and your constant fighting, and then you say stuff like that and I know you do."

Kelli smiled, replying with, "Sometimes I wonder if you belong in the same house because you say stuff like that. You don't have any redeeming features."

Elizabeth laughed and left her to it with a grin, knowing that she need not apologise to Kelli, probably going off to find Lauren.

And so, the brunette looked back down to her map and finished the section of the map before moving to the next room.

It took her four days to finally get the damn map done and chose her words to be, a somewhat paraphrased and reordered quote from Naruto that she had chosen as her favourite. 'The bonding of fists under the sunset sky'. And to disappear the ink, 'I was not invited.'.

"Why?" Lauren asked, frowning a little bit.

"It's a quote from a muggle story," replied Kelli. "I found it quite amusing, and in context, I still do. Anyhow, what're the chances someone here will say that to a piece of parchment?"

"I suppose," Elizabeth replied with a smile. "Though, what was the context?"

"As best as I can explain it, there was a fight amongst a bunch of similarly aged people, quite angry at one person although another one was defending that one person even if that one person was trying to fight him too. Quite a battle royale. Another character, a fighting fanatic, to say the least, runs in from the distance, under the sunset shouting, 'Why was I not invited to the bonding of fists under the sunset sky!?' or something to that effect and joins the fight. Though the story is much better because you get to know the characters and know why any of this would happen."

"Sounds odd."

"It was. The story is odd, annoying, strange and inspiring. It's good."