64 The Catacombs

It didn't take too long for Casimir to arrive in front of the library's imposing doors. Even with another person being carried on his back like dead weight, it didn't pose him much trouble. If it did, it would've brought shame on himself as an assassin.

Upon arriving at his destination, he discovered that everyone who should be there had already arrived despite the time being a few minutes earlier than their supposed meeting time, including the three other mice who decided to join in on the fun after all.

"See! I told you he'd show up!" Fred told George. By looking for the minute differences that separated them from each other, Casimir finally knew which twin was which. Like how Fred seemed to slouch more than George and was more active in initiating a conversation. "You should really trust Slytherins a little more!"

Hearing the last sentence, Casimir's expression turned a bit complicated. "Cough. I believe that sarcasm was unwelcomed. Though with a little more sincerity, I'd appreciate it. Snakes do deserve their due respect as well."

"Hey, you can't blame us for that, Proulx." Fred laughed, showing that he didn't mean anything serious from his previous comment.

"It's not our fault that you Slytherins have such a bad reputation." George continued, although what he said did nothing to help at all.

"Mm. It's better if the both of you stay quiet after all." Casimir muttered to himself, eyeing a certain corner of the corridor with a playful smile on his lips although there was obviously nothing there.

He tilted his head and turned to look at the unconcious face that rested on his shoulder. Upon taking a closer look, he realized that the boy actually had such attractive facial features. Casimir didn't really notice it previously since the boy always hid them underneath his thick glasses and long bangs.

The only time he had a clear look of his face was when he was replacing the boy's memory and even then, he was too preoccupied to take a clear look.

Now that he had the time, he realized that the boy really was quite attractive. From his charming but resolute eyebrows, his slightly narrowed eyes that were framed by long, dark lashes, a tall and delicate nosebridge, and thin, petal-like lips, all of which were placed on a pale, unconscious face and were covered by long raven hair for the most part of the day.

Casimir quickly turned his face away and coughed awkwardly, swallowing with an inaudible gulp to quench his throat which had inexplicably turned dry.

"Ahem." Fred suddenly cleared his throat, making Casimir turn towards him, pushing his strange reaction to the back of his mind. "Oh right! Since it's not midnight yet, why not tell us who you're carrying on your back?"

"Ah! Now that you mentioned it, he really is carrying someone on his back! I didn't notice til' now!" George exclaimed in an exaggerated fashion.

Casimir's face turned dark. "You only noticed now..?" He sighed to himself and walked towards the library's doors in large strides.

As he passed by George, he roughly shoved Louis' body towards him, not even turning to look if he caught the boy before he fell to the floor.

"Let's go..." Casimir pushed open the doors, revealing an interior of pitch black corridors and cobwebs, completely unlike that of the bright and inviting bookshelves it showed in daylight. "There's bound to be a good show awaiting us tonight."

As the three mischief makers and one sack of potatoes entered the doors, Casimir turned back to give the seemingly empty halls one last provocative look before closing the doors behind them.

Moments after the doors closed, three figures suddenly appeared from what seemed to be out of nowhere.

"Bloody hell! For a moment there, I thought we were going to be discovered!" One of them exclaimed nervously, which was quickly followed by the other two shushing him, one angrily, one helplessly.

"Shut your trap, Ron! We're still not sure if Filch isn't around here somewhere!" Another whispered angrily.

"But doesn't this just prove everything?!" The first one quipped back. "It's obvious that Proulx is scheming something bad! We have to hurry and save Fred and George! Right, Harry?"

The two turned towards the third person who had yet to say anything.

"...We don't know that yet." Harry replied quietly. Despite what he had just seen, he really didn't want to think that someone like Casimir was anything but good. If he was, then what was the reason that he had always saved him? There was probably a reason for him to act like this.

There has to be.

...

"Bugs run rampant... Mice too." Casimir commented as he looked around leisurely. When he said mice though, a certain lady wrapped around on his left arm slithered around restlessly.

Casimir sighed to himself.

They'll find out sooner or later anyways. Not as if I need to hide them in the first place.

With that in mind, Casimir allowed Fleur to slither out of his robe and drop towards the ground. As soon as she did though, Fred immediately noticed as he had been keeping an eye on Casimir from the very beginning and widened his eyes in surprise. "A snake! A snake just came out of your robe! What in Merlin's beard is happening?!"

"What?! What?!" George turned to look as well, attracted by Fred's shout. Upon seeing Fleur however, he actually calmed down. "Oh. A snake." He crouched down indifferently in front of the snake to boop its snoot.

"How can you just touch a snake like that?! What if it's poisonous?!" Fred stepped back, trying to put as much distance between him and the snake as possible.

"First, snakes are not poisonous. They're venomous. Second, most snakes are actually more afraid of humans than we are of them. And third, this one is a vine snake. Not that venomous. The most they can do is kill a mouse." George educated Fred. "Look how thin it is! It can't possibly eat you."

Casimir smiled shallowly. It seems that I found another point where the two are different in.

"Still, it's a snake!" Fred covered his forehead with his hand, seeming to be in disbelief that the other two were so indifferent to it.

...Mice...Food...Please...

The snake spoke! Harry, who was hidden underneath the invisibility cloak,was surprised and turned to look towards Hermione and Ron who were hidden with him. Seeing that they didn't have any strange reactions, he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Maybe he was wrong..?

"Hmm?" Casimir crouched down and flicked Fleur's forehead softly and, with a soft smile, he said, "Alright. You go and have fun. Come back here after an hour though or I'll leave without you."

Although Casimir spoke in English, Fleur still understood and, upon recieving permission, she immediately slithered away happily.

Harry stared at Casimir with a complex emotion. Can he hear them too?

"Is it fine like this? Will it really return?" George asked him curiously to which Fred shouted in reply. "It would be best if it never returned!"

"You should trust snakes a little more. They're smarter than they seem." Casimir smiled at them meaningfully. "A little trust and you'd discover that they're not as bad people make them out to be."

"A little trust and you'd discover they're not as bad as people make them out to be..?" Harry repeated what Casimir said inside his head. Momentarily forgetting that they were supposed to follow behind them and nearly revealed their location before Hermione quickly pulled him back to reality by pinching his arm.

As he recieved the other two's pointed stares, he quickly shook his head to show that he was fine and continued to follow them.

"See here? There are moss growth along the walls." George pointed towards a patch of dark green that covered the cracks between the bricks of the walls of both sides of the corridors.

"Leave it to a slytherin to tame a snake." Ron snorted quietly.

"The air is also kind of musky and the ground is damp." Fred also said his observations, quickly forgetting about the previous snake business.

After walking for nearly five minutes, they found part where the ceiling was partially caved in and constantly dripped dirty water.

"Mm. It should be around here." Fred said as he stared at the ceiling.

"Yes. It should be." George replied, he too staring at the ceiling.

"..." Casimir stayed quiet, unable to catch up to their thoigh process.

"...Right." Fred pulled his sight away from the ceiling and looked around thoughtfully. "I believe we are in the catacombs."

"This part should be directly underneath the part where that big tree grows." George added. "The roots managed to pierce the ceiling and the excess water when it rains flows here."

"So to say... This is directly underneath the dungeons, yes?" Casimir asked.

"Should be." Fred said. "But not all of it."

"What do you mean not all of it?" Casimir was confused.

"Well, there's still that place after all." George answered. "But that's a secret."