CHAPTER 14 - CLUES

In the blink of an eye, a whole month had passed, Andrew and Hermione acquired a certain level of notoriety among teachers, it was agreed that they were the best students in the first year. Their efforts have contributed so much to the points of the house that they are currently in the lead.

At that moment, walking through the corridors of the fifth floor, Andrew was trying to find clues to the visions he had on his first day at Hogwarts, since that day, there was no other sign as to what that could have been, besides, neither Snape nor Dumbledore said another word on the subject, and even if he asked, they always strayed from the subject or asked him to forget about it.

Unfortunately, Andrew's curiosity could not be handled so simply. In the last week, he was breaking his head trying to find something that could be a fake wall, after all, he still remembered when they talked about a wall that hid something behind it and that was on the fifth floor.

If possible he would even like to make some research on the matter, but the only books he thought would have any information about it, would be the books that tell about the construction of Hogwarts and its secrets.

The problem is that most were just obvious copies of other books, or had just a bunch of made-up nonsense, like one that said that in the deepest chamber at Hogwarts it was possible to find an inexhaustible source of gold.

While he was lost in thought, someone touched him from behind.

Turning around, he looked surprised at what appeared to be armor without anyone wearing it.

Confused, he didn't know what to do or how to react, that was until the armor pointed to the left, the moment he turned to look, a pie flew in his face causing it to fall to the ground.

Stunned, he looked in the direction the pie came from and watched as the Weasleys twins walked up to him.

"So, what do you think of the pie?" George asked.

"We had a lot of work to do it, we wanted the taste to be quite -" Fred stopped for a moment, then the two said at the same time. "Memorable!"

Hearing his words Andrew instinctively tasted the pie and his face turned green, it tasted like ... rotten milk.

"Ugh! What is this made of !?"

"The main ingredient is (Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans!) Haha!" Fred replied.

"Oh and thank you for being our guinea pig!" said George as helped Andrew got up. "Now can you tell us why you have been wandering around these parts for the last week?"

"This..."

"Look, a friend once taught us that if you have a problem you can't solve alone, you can ask for other's people help." Fred started, then George continued. "After all, you aren't a god that can solve everything on your own."

Sighing he told them his objective, and after explaining a little about what he wanted, the twins looked at each other, then looked at him again.

"Are you crazy?" They said at the same time.

"Do you even know what you are trying to mess with?" said George.

"No..." Andrew replied a little dejectedly.

"Then, let us show you," Fred replied.

After that, they took him to a secret passage hid behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy, after walking for a minute, they stopped and showed him a blank paper.

"This little beauty's taught us more than all the teachers in this school," said Fred as he opened it.

Then, George touched it with his wand and said. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

As he said that, words, colors, and forms filled it, making it look like a map.

"What is this?" Andrew asked with curiosity in his eyes.

"This, my friend, is the key to be successful here in Hogwarts," said Fred with a smile on his face. "But let us show you what we were talking about."

He pointed to a name in the map, that was currently inside the Slytherins common room, 'Leonard Whiteford'.

"Do you know him?"

"Uh, Professor Flitwick mentioned him once."

"Good," George said, "But, I bet he didn't mention Rowan Khanna."

Seeing the twin's serious expression, Andrew gulped and asked.

"Who is him?"

"He was Leonard's best friend, and a good person, we had the pleasure of meeting him, unfortunately, he is now lying inside a coffin," said Fred. "The reason for this is the cursed vaults if you truly want to get involved in this matter..."

"We suggest you try to talk to him, Leonard and his brother, seemed to be extremely connected to the cursed vaults, perhaps you will be able to find what you are looking for," George concluded.

"Now we have to go, but seriously, try not to die."

After leaving the passage and biding his farewells, Andrew thought about the twin's words and shuddered, he didn't want to believe, but he was truly connected with some dangerous problem in Hogwarts, sighing he decided he would first research about those Cursed Vaults, before trying to talk with Leonard.

The next day, he went to the library and researched all the books he could about the Cursed Vaults, in the beginning, he only found some things, but remembering the twin's words, he thought that maybe he could discover somethings if he talked to the older students, and fair enough, he finally found some clues with the Gryffindor veterans, apparently, there is one person that could give him detailed information on the cursed vaults there, a boy called Ben Copper.

However, apparently he and some other students from other Houses, all disappear during the day, some say that they gather to do something, but no one knows what, fortunately, someone that knew a little bit more of the secrets inside Hogwarts, pointed him to Professor Flitwick and said that maybe he could help.

So, after some days waiting for the charms class, the first thing he did was to arrive early, and hope he could talk to the Professor before the class started.

Fortunately for him, this time the Professor was already inside the classroom waiting for the other students.

"Oh, welcome Mr. Jacobs, you can take your seat if you want to wait inside the classroom until the class starts," said Flitwick with a smile on his face.

"Thank you, Professor, but I was wondering if I could talk to you about a private matter first, I promise it won't take long," said Andrew, as he bowed to the Professor.

The professor looked at him curiously and said.

"Very well, and how can I be of help, Mr. Jacobs?"

"Well, I was trying to find one of the students from Gryffindor, but I discovered that when he leaves his class, he disappears without traces, and after asking around, someone told me, that if I wanted to find him, I had to talk to you."

Professor Flitwick nodded.

"Hmm, I don't know if I can tell you, Mr. Jacobs. The matter related to Ben Copper and some other students is related to events that started to happen more than 7 years ago, and only Dumbledore has the permission to talk about it, and besides, the activity his involved with, is bounded to end this year, so I don't know if its worth for you to waste your time with it, but if you truly wish to continue, I suggest you find a second to accompany you when you visit Dumbledore."

"Uh? Why?" Andrew asked confused.

"I can only tell you that whoever you call, should at least have the same level of talent for charms as you, so if you want my opinion you should ask the girl that always stays with you, Hermione Granger, she will be of great help to you in this matter."

"Thank you, Professor Flitwick!" Andrew bowed once again.

"Hoho, no worries, I wish I could help more, but unfortunately my hands are tied."

After finishing his talk with Flitwick, Andrew sat and waited for Hermione.

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PLEASE, READ THE NOTES BELLOW!

Hey guys, how are you? I would like to ask you, what are your thoughts on this chapter, I'm planning to give more focus to Andrew's problem in the next few chapters, also should I make Ron and Harry part of it? If I do so, this will inevitably, increase their experience with duels and dueling charms, right now I only plan to take Hermione with him, and only make Harry and Ron participate in those matters after the Halloween event when the troll mess up some things and almost kill Hermione in the movies/book, however, those other things won't help them with duels anymore since they wouldn't be present in this event specifically that I'm planning to write.

Anyway, I hope you are liking so far, because I am, haha. I think the only problems the story has right now (from a plot point of view) is the lack of development on Andrew's own adventure, also, I don't know if you noticed, but I'm trying my best to make sure the character still have their original personality, only changing things that Andrew is directly related to, like him being Snape nephew.

I have done some research and I know that when Snape show some feelings, they are usually disguised as "scorns and scolding", and considering his own relationship with the original story, I didn't want to make him too close with his sister, only enough so that he would worry about her and her child and at least, consider them family, I still need to work this relationship with her in the story, but don't worry, most things still remain as they were originally supposed to be, like him being Draco Malfoy godfather and Lucius Malfoy friend, it was even for this reason that I mentioned that Andrew's father had a bad relationship with James Potter, you could say, that things worked out because he was part of Snape's group during his time in Hogwarts, although in the end, he didn't follow Voldemort and instead end up going against him.