The Door to Chaos

Chapter 4 - Scaring Ghosts

"Never seen ye before at t'station, have I? I'm Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts."

Riddick turned around with the strange feeling that he should be breaking out into a large grin another of Sirius' friends and clapping some back and looked up. And looked up some more.

The man before him was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. Long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face. Riddick looked from the beetle black eyes crinkled into a smile to the hand the size of a trash can lid he was thrusting at him. The man smelt of forest, leather, dog and a couple other animals Riddick could not identify, and there was a faint smell of something else.

Now here is a man who likes a good brew. He seems "nice" enough too. Manage this right and this guy could become a priceless source of information.

Riddick's smile revealed too many white teeth as his smaller hand reached up to the half-giant for a hearty handshake that left him feeling his hand up for broken bones shortly after.

"Richard B. Riddick. I'm the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher."

The big guy was beaming down at him. "I see that me Morrigan likes yer face and I say, t'animals can always tell. If a Thestral likes ye, ye must be a good man, yer not at all like that nasty she-gorgon t'Ministry sent us the last time."

Harry Potter's head popped out of the carriage again and he shouted some cheerful greeting to the giant.

"Ye know Professor, if ye likes me Thestrals I'd be happy ter show 'em to you in their natural habitude err habit... well where they live. Ye should not look fer too long into the Morrigan's eyes though, some people say that the female Thestrals have strange mind powers, ye know?"

"Interesting."

Riddick noticed that his eyes were returning of their own will to the Thestral's milky way gaze and he wrenched them away and stepped back. He noticed that the other carriages were starting to move in a file towards the lake and the distant silhouette of a huge castle. Hagrid had noticed as well and gestured to the last empty carriage before him. The night-coloured, winged mare standing before it whinnied softly. He growled a soft excuse at her and climbed in the carriage.

I could swear she just told me to get the fuck in now or she'll swish her tail all over my face. And she's way too smart for any honest horse. She's smart enough to match a hellhound that one, perhaps even smarter.

"Ye must hurry Professor or ye'll be too late for the sorting ceremony," Hagrid told him.

Riddick noticed that even though the carriage was moving now at an honest trotting speed, Hagrid, who was still walking alongside, was effortlessly keeping up with him.

"It was real nice talking to ye. Just drop by some evening and I'll show yer around the forbidden forest, there is some really interesting creatures in there for one such as yerself."

Before Riddick could reply, the half-giant gave a strange warbling cry and pointed at the distant castle. The Thestral mare reared up a bit before shooting off, throwing Riddick back in his seat with the sudden acceleration.

A cold wind was ripping the cowl from his head. The air smelled of hot lizard, a smell that he was starting to associate with the Thestrals. It was mingled with wafts of moss and leaves and that distinct humid cool smell of water and tang as their wild ride brought them near the lakeside. Riddick made himself comfortable in the by now nearly flying carriage. He idly observed the pair of huge wings folded before him and wondered what they would look like spread wide.

***

Riddick took his seat on the teacher's table in the Great Hall and tried not to stare at the open sky, now covered in storm clouds over his head. Drawing on Sirius' memories again he knew that it was a magical ceiling, bewitched to look like the sky outside.

The food was plenty and very good and after years of way too many space rations, Riddick appreciated the freshness of it. He had nearly finished his dish of some roasted bird legs with spiced potatoes when he noticed something that nearly stuck the piece of meat in his throat.

A pearly white apparition, very much like the soul he had seen torn out of people by the former Necromonger commander, was floating near the Gryffindor table and staring at him with expressionless eyes. The transparent being was wearing a plumed hat, a tunic with a ruff and an expression of sheer terror.

Riddick looked around him if somebody else had noticed when his gaze met another deceased and empty gaze staring at him; its face contorted in what could only be described as fear. The soft and round looking man with a tonsure and jolly features floated half in, half out of a table and seemed not to notice that two kids had to lean around him to get to their dishes.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up, Riddick's head snapped around and yes, there was yet another one. A grim, silent, glowing ghost, covered with bloodstains, its expression torn between fright and longing.

Bloody hell...

Some students had noticed now and started pointing at him and whispering among themselves.

Mad laughter broke out over his head. Riddick grit his teeth, preventing himself from jumping free of the table. With a loud "pop!" a little man with wicked dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross-legged in the air beside him. He stared from the ghosts to him and back to the ghosts with great interest and obvious delight.

"Oooooooh!" he said, with an evil cackle. "Finally found something more frightening then you! What fun!"

"Peeves! Leave the hall immediately, you know very well that dinnertime is off limits for you, or I may reconsider expelling you from the grounds!"

The severe looking, black-haired witch's eyes shot bolts through her square glasses at the poltergeist.

What the fuck have I done to your god Imam, that he dumps me in this madhouse. Whatever I've done, I did not deserve this.

Most of the people in the hall had stopped eating by now and were staring at him.