The Right to Refuse

If you were unfortunate enough to be born into a certain kind of family, you could never be as careless as an ordinary child. Some people liked sweets and would crumple the wrapper into a ball after unwrapping one. Others would carefully smooth it out and save it. Such habits had become part of daily life.

Pete's mother worked at St Mungo's and rarely came home. Whenever she did, mother-and-son bonding meant shopping. She bought a great many clothes, yet there were hardly any clothes of hers in the house. Where had they all gone?

Only people who needed multiple identities would need disguises. Susan had once said she wanted to drink Polyjuice Potion and become a boy so she could play Quidditch. If Pete's mother drank Polyjuice Potion like Susan wanted to, she could impersonate women of every height, build, and shape—and every one of those women would need clothes. The house they lived in might have been one of some organization's secret bases, though Pomona did not know whether that had anything to do with what Madam Sprout and Professor McGonagall had called "one of us."

There were few wizards, and after enough time had passed, everyone became a familiar face. The best solution was to steal appearances from Muggles. Perhaps the Death Eaters were not torturing Muggles merely for fun. Perhaps wizards had borrowed their faces, and that was why the Death Eaters interrogated them so brutally.

Being dragged into a war that had nothing to do with you was terribly unlucky. War only seemed wonderful once it was over. Those who hoped to gain fame, status, or even power through war would drag everyone into hell, yet in some people's eyes, they were heroes.

Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts' new headmaster, had a Phoenix for a pet. A Phoenix! A Phoenix!!! That creature was rarer than a Unicorn! Where on earth had he gotten a Phoenix to keep as a pet? Thinking of his crooked long nose, Pomona inexplicably felt vindicated. Whoever had done it, that punch had been magnificent. They deserved an Order of Merlin.

Pomona had never wanted to punch an old man as badly as she did now. Generally speaking, old people were considered weak, and bullying one was terribly undignified. But unlike Muggles, the older a wizard became, the stronger he was. Thus, the thought of punching Dumbledore was like her wish to keep many handsome and talented young men—it could only exist in fantasy. If she dared put it into practice, she would surely bring trouble upon herself.

A Phoenix was also known as an immortal bird. After that damned bird died, it would be reborn, then let out cries again and again that reptiles hated. It and the Basilisk were natural enemies.

Basilisks did not occur naturally. The first recorded Basilisk had been bred by Herpo the Foul, a Greek dark wizard who spoke Parseltongue. Parseltongue was not some ancient language, either, but a language Herpo had invented in order to control it. Since the Middle Ages, creating a Basilisk had always been considered illegal, but it was easy enough to conceal. Keeping such a monster as a pet was far more impressive than keeping a six-inch Runespoor.

Lily said that she and Petunia had once tried to secretly keep a kitten together in a cupboard, but their mother discovered it. Their father was allergic to cat hair, so they had ultimately been unable to keep it. Many children had the habit of secretly keeping pets. Who knew whether Tom Riddle had secretly created a Basilisk as a pet while he was at school?

Unicorns pooped, and Basilisks needed to eat. Pomona had once asked Professor McGonagall why they did not cut down on food expenses, because no matter how much adolescent boys could eat, Hogwarts prepared far too much food, far too lavishly. Nearly every long table had leftovers, yet the next meal was always fresh. She had always wondered what happened to the leftovers. Now she understood. Someone was feeding leftover food to a Basilisk.

Roosters could lay eggs now, so what else was impossible? She had kept hearing a snake-like rustling sound. It was not a sound any ordinary snake or magical snake she knew could make. She had never heard Parseltongue before. In any case, she prepared for the worst.

The Hogwarts kitchens were as lively as ever, but the House-elves did not look happy. They were deeply worried. One of their kind had been attacked, and any one of them could be next.

When Pomona entered, they did not enthusiastically receive her as though she were a king. One after another, they set down their work and stared at her with watery eyes, as though they were looking at a savior. Their gazes made every hair on Pomona's body stand on end.

"I have questions for you." Pomona barely maintained her composure as she called out, "Who will step forward?"

The House-elves looked at one another, but not a single one stepped forward.

"Don't worry. I won't hurt you." Suppressing her anger, Pomona continued, "You are supposed to stay in the castle. I want to know why Robby left and went to the greenhouses."

"A wizard said that if Robby did not obey their orders, they would give him a piece of clothing," said one House-elf from within the "crowd."

"How did you know? Did you visit him?"

"I was with him at the time." At last, the elf stepped out. It looked... no different from any other House-elf. "That wizard said that if I dared tell anyone, he would give me a piece of clothing. Oh, Professor, Spark did not know what to do!"

Spark covered its face and burst into tears. The other elves' ears drooped, and they all looked dejected.

"Was he wearing a Hogwarts uniform?"

"Yes, Professor. Lady Rowena Ravenclaw told us that only people from Hogwarts could command us."

"Then I am telling you now that if a student threatens you with clothing again, you may ignore him." Pomona pressed a hand to her throbbing forehead. "I will tell Headmaster Dumbledore that, apart from the work you were already required to do, any additional work must be approved by the Head of House and the headmaster. You belong to Hogwarts. Do you understand?"

The elves whispered among themselves in their own language for a while before falling silent again.

Pomona did not expect the elves to suddenly rebel like goblins and fight for their own rights. That was simply their nature. She just did not want to see anything like this happen again.

"Your name is Spark, right? Come with me!" Pomona called to the elf from before. The other elves looked at it strangely, as though it were an outcast.

"Fine, then tell me this. Is there a Basilisk at Hogwarts?" Pomona asked it outright in front of everyone. The elves all sucked in a sharp breath.

"Where did you hear of that, Professor?" an older-looking elf asked.

"I heard the sound it made in the corridor." She wanted to imitate Parseltongue, but the sound was too strange for her to reproduce. "Have you been feeding it leftovers?"

"No," said the older elf. "It still retains a snake's habits and only eats mice. We only give it food when it cannot get enough to eat. It is omnivorous."

"When does it get hungry?"

"Before winter. Like snakes, it needs to hibernate."

Generally, snakes were more active during the hot summer. But to store fat for hibernation, they came out to hunt during the warmer days of autumn. At the thought of the "fresh flesh and blood" she had just seen in the corridor, Pomona's stomach hurt. Merlin's wand, this school needed tighter security!

"But we give the leftovers to the merpeople in the lake. They like human food very much."

Pomona screamed.

It was not her fault. Only two days ago, she had crossed the surface of the Black Lake in a small boat. She knew magical creatures lived beneath the lake, but she had not known they were merpeople.

The Ministry of Magic classified Basilisks as five-star creatures and merpeople as four-star creatures. She had wondered why the little boats could move without oars. It was not because Pringle had used magic, nor because the boats were magical items like flying brooms. The merpeople beneath the lake had been carrying them across the water.

She had wondered why Hogwarts had a boathouse, yet no dating couples ever thought of taking a boat out onto the lake. So that was why.

If the merpeople were in a bad mood, they could overturn the boat and drag the annoying person down to their home for a visit. Without silent casting, she could not defeat them underwater. Most importantly, she could not swim. How lucky had she been to survive until now?

No wonder the older students applauded so enthusiastically when the new students arrived in the Great Hall. Welcome to Hogwarts—this school was filled with maddening things everywhere, just like a Muggle mental hospital. Once she had trained a replacement Herbology professor, she would leave this school! She had the right to resign!