Chapter 92: Siege at Hogwarts

Ravenclaws' Home, North of Scotland

May 15th, 1060

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Five years had quickly passed. After the first visit, Gandul continued to periodically visit them. She and Selena had hit well and were now very good friends. Gandul had even helped Selena with some lessons on Nordic magic in trade for lessons on magecraft. Gondul, Erik's grandmother had tried to contact him during this time but she was refused a visit. Gandul had tried to convince Erik to meet her, but Erik had said that she had her chance when he was born and walked away when she discovered that he was a male. That certainly strained their relationship with Gandul, but the Valkyrie understood where Erik was coming from.

Erik and Selena's peace was interrupted when they felt a bell resonating with them. It was Hogwarts' summon system, the school seemed to be in danger. And by the urgency of the summon, a very grave danger. Not wanting to waste time, Erik and Selena immediately transported themselves to the school's Great Hall.

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Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands

May 15th, 1060

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The castle's population was in panic. At the beginning of the night alarms started going off around the school. The Professors acted quickly to calm the students while the Headmaster and its Deputy went to see what had caused the alarms to go on. When they reached the borders of the castle wards they had an unbelievable vision. An army of around five thousand… things were surrounding the school. The ones at the front of it were clawing at the wards constantly, trying to brute force through them. Behind the army, stood a group of five black cloaked individuals.

When they saw the Headmaster and his Deputy, they demanded the school to surrender peacefully or suffer the consequences. Of course they didn't surrender. They had faith in the school's wards.

"Do you even know what you are attacking?"

The Headmaster asked the group.

"A magic castle that would be perfect as our new lair."

One of the people from the group replied. The Headmaster and his Deputy started laughing at him.

"The morons don't even know what they are doing."

The deputy commented.

"Yes, but their numbers are a danger for the population of Hogsmeade. Send a quiet message and then have them move inside our wards."

The Headmaster replied quietly to his deputy to not give away his move.

Unfortunately, the attacking group had noticed something amiss and sent a pair of the group to check on Hogsmeade. They had taken the village as irrelevant and had solely focused on the castle. They found the Deputy Headmaster finishing the evacuation of the village and attacked the man fiercely. The deputy was gravely injured while defending the last people escaping inside the wards and was now receiving treatment in a bed inside the infirmary of the castle.

The castle's population was now reunited inside the Great Hall together with the villagers of Hogsmeade that took refuge inside the castle. They were having lunch when the chime of a huge bell was heard. All of the students, villagers and most of the staff showed a face of confusion at the sound. They had never heard that bell chime before inside the school. But the Headmaster and the more senior staff of the school had a smile on their faces. The Ravenclaws were coming back.

Ten minutes later, a white magic circle appeared at the end of the Great Hall, shocking the students and villagers. In the middle of it was the school's shield. The magic circle shined brightly and most of the people turned their faces away from it. The Headmaster was standing by it when it started to fade, revealing the image of two people. They were Erik and Selena Ravenclaw.

"Lord and Lady Ravenclaw. I welcome you back in the name of the castle's population."

The man said, giving a bow to the couple.

"Thank you, Headmaster. But please, let's leave the pleasantries for later. I understand that we have a situation at hand."

Erik said before the hEadmaster could continue.

"Of course, Lord Ravenclaw. The situation is as follows…"

The headmaster then explained the entire situation to the couple.

"... And now the poor Hilbert is in the medical wing and the healers don't have much hope for him."

The Headmaster finished reporting. Earlier, the healer had talked to him and said that if Hilbert, his Deputy, could make it through this night, his chances of surviving would go up. Erik stood in place thinking about their next steps for a time. He then turned to Selena.

"Selena, please go check on this army of them. I will first go to the infirmary to check on our Deputy. We will plan better after we have all the information in our hands."

Erik said and Selena nodded her head in confirmation. She then glowed blue for a brief second before starting to float above the ground. Selena quickly flew out the Great Hall to observe the army of this group, applying a disillusionment charm while flying. The students were watching the incredible feat of magic with open mouths and wide eyes. Erik smiled at that and walked out of the Great Hall while hearing one of the teachers, the one who taught the basics of magecraft he supposed, explains to his students that what Lady Ravenclaw had used was a magecraft spell to fly.

Erik walked through the corridors while mentally checking on the state of the wards. They were still at full strength and showed no signals whatsoever of weakening. And that was good but Erik was already planning on how to add some new stuff to them and keep all working in perfect sync.

Arriving in the infirmary, Erik entered and encountered the healer going one more time over the sleeping body of a man who was heavily bandaged. Erik approached the healer and after greeting her, he asked to take care of the wounded man. The healer, who was one of the more senior staff of the castle and still remembered who Erik was, allowed, and Erik then started to do his own scans on the man.

Corruption. The wounds were heavily laced with corrupted magic and were eating away any source that tried to heal the Deputy. For a normal healer, this would be a challenge, and even so the Deputy would have to live with heavy scarring that would affect some of his freedom of movement. But for Erik? These wounds were no problem. First, he created a handful of micro-monster. The quantities were so big that they formed a white blob above Erik's hand. Of course, Erik had made a show of casting some unknown magic to cover the existence of his sacred gear. He then slowly lowered the white blob into the man's bandaged chest, which quickly disappeared through it, entering the man's body. Their objective: to refine corrupted magic. If the corrupted magic was fighting magic that tried to heal him, Erik would start by removing it from the equation. The result was immediate. The deputy's wounded body started to convulse and some faint black vapor started to seep out of his body. Erik quickly started to charge a healing magecraft spell and barked to the Healer to have some potions on hand together with anti-scarring cream. The Healer scrambled to fulfill the orders and when he was back, Erik's healing spell was already doing its work on the deputy. Five minutes later, the spell was finished. He had managed to treat and close all of the man's wounds and his micro-monsters had already finished their job and left the body to finish refining the corrupted magic that they had eaten.

Erik left the Deputy in the hands of a baffled Healer to finish the treatment and walked back to the Great Hall. On the way to it, Erik met with Robert's ghost. The two old friends talked a little while walking/floating to the Headmaster's Office, where he would wait for Selena. He and Helena had been the ones to call for them.

Greg, the guardian gargoyle statue, moved away to give passage to Erik when he arrived in front of it. Erik then entered the office just to find it exactly like he had left it, except for some personal additions made to it by the current Headmaster like the items above his desk. Robert had floated away to see if the other ghost had any additional information on the attackers, leaving Erik alone in the place while he waited for Selena.

Erik looked around the office with some nostalgia.

In one corner of it was an old friend of his. He walked to it and took it in his hands.

"Hello, Avish."

Erik said in a low voice and put the sorting hat in his head.

"Well, that's a surprise. Hello to you too, Erik. Or should I call you Lord Ravenclaw?"

The hat said in Erik's head making the man smile.

"You can call me whatever you like, Avish. You are a friend, after all."

Erik replied to the hat.

"I see that you had some adventures along the years."

Avish said while browsing through some of the most recent memories of Erik.

"Yes, Selena and I traveled a lot. We settled for a little rest, but we will be continuing our trips soon. I was thinking of going east."

Erik replied, talking a little about their next travel plans.

"Yes. I can see that. But you came back to help the school."

The hat said while looking at the very recent memories of Erik and the reason for his return.

"Of course that I came back to help the school. I will always come back to help the school."

Erik said firmly. His resolve was shown in his voice and Avish could feel it too.

"But only when they really need it?"

The hat asked.

"Only when they really need it. Like now. If I would come at every little thing that happens, the magical community would not grow up and always depend on me or my wife to save their arses."

Erik replied. He knew that it was a problem with all humans. They tended to flock to people with power to solve their problems and he didn't want that to happen with him or his wife.

"Agreed. In that case, you will need this."

The hat said while nodding his 'imaginary head'. Erik was confused about what Avish had said to him and was going to ask what he had meant but felt something heavy hitting his head.

"Ouch."

Erik exclaimed and took the hat off to see what had hit his head. When he did this, he saw something shining inside the hat. It was made of silver and had a big ruby encrusted to it. Erik's eyes went wide. He knew what that was. Erik quickly grabbed it and swiftly pulled it out of the hat. And he was right in his guess. It was Godric's sword, the sword of Gryffindor.

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