Fic: "Goyle's War", for magnolia_mama
Title: Goyle's War
Author: meddow
Recipient: magnolia_mama
Characters: Gregory Goyle, Ron Weasley
Rating: PG
Summary: Voldemort has fallen and Hogwarts along with him and now a new wizarding world exists, one that does not seem to have a place for Gregory Goyle.
Author's Notes: Thank you very much to jadeddiva and nathaniel_hp. Your contributions were both invaluable.
Goyle's War
I hope you are happy with your choice. History is written by those who win, and you have certainly avoided becoming a loser. But neither have you become one of them. Should they win there shall be no place in the world for you, Gregory; you shall be forgotten, taunted or ignored. I wish you luck in your pursuits.
L. Malfoy
---
It was amazing how quickly a house could change. A few months were all it took for it to lose its scent and with it any familiarity. Gregory Goyle returned with his suitcase in hand to find himself a visitor in his own empty home. As he wandered around the small cottage, one that had been in his family for a century, he found himself wondering what to do next.
There was no more Hogwarts. There would never be a final dinner and even if it still stood, his seven years would still be over in a week. He was an adult now. A man with a house and responsibility, or so the executor of his father’s estate had told him. He had debts to pay and would need a job.
But where? A few months ago his future had been set - there was always employment for muscle in a war. When it was over, he’d get a job for the Malfoys or the Notts. Draco or Theodore would have set him up in a nice position, something simple. He didn’t mind what he did so long as there was not much effort or thinking involved. But then he had said ‘no’ and ended his future.
Gregory’s stomach groaned and he realised there were more immediate matters to be dealt with. The cupboard held little, only preserves. Anything fresher was covered in mould. He studied each item one by one deciding whether to risk scraping off the mould and devouring it but in the end nothing seemed fit for consumption.
Without an Apparition licence he found himself walking three miles to the nearest shop in the nearest town, a Muggle store which only accepted Muggle coins. He only had a few of those, but enough for a loaf of bread.
Gregory ate his jam sandwiches at his family’s dining table alone.
---
Gringotts was not hiring. Not that they would give him a job even if they were. Thick as two bricks he was, according to the goblin clerk that had helped him to his vault. But Gregory did not need to be told that, he knew it already.
There was not as much money as he had hoped so he walked around looking at the signs on the store fronts. Places were not hiring, or if they were they took one look at him and sent him away. Being a pureblood got you nowhere these days, it had become just as Draco had feared. But Draco was wrong in one respect: Gregory’s name still preceded him. He knew this because no one wanted a Goyle on their payroll.
He found himself back in his empty home, but at least now with some cheese, ham and eggs. Gregory stared at the food he had bought and realised he had little idea of how to cook it. And so it was sandwiches again with a side of cheese-on-toast.
---
He found a book of cleaning spells, one of the few books his parents had owned, and went about trying to make his house his home once more. Cleaning the kitchen, the lounge, the dining room and his own room. Still, it was not the same. It was the silence that Gregory could not stand. No longer could he hear the heavy steps of his father roaming about or the dull rumblings of his voice. The wooden house creaked and groaned and sometimes caught him off guard, but no one ever called and no one ever wrote, not since the letter Lucius Malfoy had sent him. And who would, all of those he had once stood by were now on trial or in Azkaban and determined never to speak to him again. Eventually he tried music, the wireless and even letting his owl loose inside the lounge, but all Gregory managed to do was discover was that there was no substitute for humanity.
He wanted out of his house, he wanted to run away. And so he tried Diagon Alley once again. But there was still nothing for him there. Not a single employer interested. They wanted OWLs and NEWTs and counting skills, all well beyond his ability. Gregory had never had the head for doing anything but following simple orders, or at least that was what Draco had said and Gregory was inclined to agree.
The streets of Diagon Alley were full of people again. During the last year - before Harry had made his stand at Hogwarts and the Dark Lord and his forces had collapsed along with the walls of the school - the streets had been empty. Now adults were taking their children shopping again. Displays were once again filled with the greatest wares the store had to offer instead of warning posters and protective devices. All around him banners and streamers still hung from the walls and the lampposts, colourfully declaring that Britain was once again free of the Dark Lord. A new day had dawned, it had been declared. One free of prejudice and fear.
But this thought did not please Gregory. Other people were happy about it, but what could he do except wander the streets alone, passing the time between rejections and then return to his empty home? He missed Hogwarts. He knew it was destroyed and he knew that even if it stood, his friends would no longer be there, but he missed it. At least when he was sitting in class he had something to do. His Professors' declarations that he was an imbecile never bothered him because there he had status. It did not matter than he was dumb and had no skills because all the smaller students would do anything he wanted them to do. They had been afraid of him then.
As he walked along he spotted one of those people that would have run from him sticking a poster to the wall by Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes.
Before he had really thought through what he was doing, Gregory walked up behind Neville Longbottom and tapped him on the back.
“Longbottom.”
Neville spun around with his wand produced and a look of fear, before seeming to recognise Gregory and exhaling as he relaxed.
“Go away,” he said.
“Yeah, piss off, Goyle,” came another voice from him. Gregory turned to find Ron Weasley standing behind him, with his wand drawn.
“I didn’t…” Gregory wanted to tell Ron that he had not done anything, but words failed him. He could never seem to say what he wanted when he wanted to.
“We don’t want skrewt crap like you outside our store,” one of the Weasley twins said as they both walked out of the front door.
Outnumbered and astonished at how quickly they had all had their wands pointed at him, Gregory decided to lie to get out of the situation. “I was looking at the poster.”
Neville stepped to the side with a cautious look, and Gregory could finally read the poster, aware that every eye in the street was now on him.
HOGWARTS NEEDS YOU
Join the volunteer rebuilding effort.
Every day 8am - 6pm
Hogwarts grounds
No experience required
Lunch provided
All help welcomed
“I didn’t think it would be something you’d be interested in,” Neville said.
“I’m not,” Gregory replied quickly. He could not be interested in anything the Gryffindors were interested in. They were Gryffindors - blood traitor Gryffindors at that - and he was a Slytherin. It was just wrong that they should agree. “I just wanted to see what it was about.”
“Yeah, well, now you can do us all a favour and piss off,” Ron replied.
“Shut up, Weasley,” he sneered.
He noticed Ron Weasley eyeing him. Knowing he would not win, Gregory turned and skulked off.
---
Gregory arrived home still in a foul mood and sat down with a force that nearly broke the chair. He remained there for the rest of the evening, with little to do, no plans and angry at Longbottom and the Weasleys. He missed Crabbe. They would have had a good go at the Weasley’s together, complaining about how they wandered around the school like they owned it. Just because they were all smart and good at Quidditch and most of them ended up being prefects, and then Draco would interrupt and say how they had to pretend to own Hogwarts, it was the only thing they could afford.
Gregory smiled thinking about those discussions in the Slytherin common room. Of course, there was no longer a Slytherin common room, the Dark Lord had destroyed it and with Weasley and Longbottom running the rebuilding effort it would probably not be rebuilt.
He stared at his father’s arm chair and wondered whether it was such a bad thing if there would no longer be a Slytherin. He did not know. He did not know anything anymore, he had not known that much when he had said no and got himself into this mess. All he knew was that he did not want any more people to die.
He did not regret not joining Crabbe, but he did not like what had happened to him now. He was alone and he had little money and nobody wanted him. The only place that was taking anyone was swarming with Gryffindors who hated him.
He looked around the house once more, to the empty lounge and a silence so loud it filled every room. He could not take another day being alone and bored. Even if it was swarming with Gryffindors, working at Hogwarts had to be better than his home, Gregory decided.
---
It was Luna Lovegood who was manning the table underneath the marquee taking down names and assigning tasks, which made Gregory feel better. Luna was a strange girl. No matter what he and Crabbe did, it never seemed to bother her - and they did some awful things during his third year. Eventually they had given up having become bored. She never seemed to have held it against him though, even when she became friends with Potter and Weasley.
Behind her was the familiar figure of Professor McGonagall chatting away to older volunteers, many of them professors. She had her back to him and none of the others seemed to notice him, which suited Gregory. The last thing he wanted were endless questions of why he was here.
“Gregory Goyle,” Luna dreamily said as she wrote down his name. With that Professor McGonagall turned around and seemed to eye him up.
“Good to see you here, Mr Goyle,” she said before returning to her conversation.
“You can work with Ron,” Luna said.
“I’m not working with him.”
Luna didn’t look up. “Or you could help Neville sort out the greenhouse.”
“Not Longbottom.” Gregory hated herbology and really did not like the idea of Neville Longbottom - the only person in his year who came close to being as hopeless as himself and Crabbe - giving him orders.
“You can’t help Susan sort recovered property. She’s already got more people than she needs. Though Justin may need some help making lunch for everyone.”
Gregory groaned, he was not going to spend his day making sandwiches.
“Isn’t there anything else?” he asked, desperate not to be sent home.
“There’s moving rubble.”
“I can do that.”
“It’s with Ron Weasley,” Luna said, still not looking up from where she was writing.
“Fine,” Gregory moaned.
“They’re over by where the Great Hall was,” she answered finally looking up. “I know what you did and I think it was brave,” she added.
Gregory froze, unsure what to make of what Luna was saying.
“It was nothing,” he mumbled before turning and walking out of the marquee.
---
Ron Weasley glared at him as he walked over towards the crowd gathered by the rubble. Gregory glared right back. It was Ron who first turned away and then began instructing the gathering of what needed to be done.
Piles and piles of stone needed moving so they could rebuild on top of it. The decent sized pieces were to go to one side to be used again and the rest was to be transfigured into sponges for easy removal. To avoid showing everyone else how bad he was at transfiguration, Gregory focused on the larger pieces of stone, levitating them and moving them to all the others.
Everyone working seemed to have either been in his year, the year above or the year below. He supposed everyone else had a job they had to go to and could not spend all their time cleaning up rubble for nothing. Though he wished he was surrounded by less people who knew him. Not a single one of them spoke to him. So Gregory told himself that he did not mind, he didn’t want to speak to them either. He just focused on keeping his floating rubble from hitting anyone.
As lunch was called everyone walked off and met with their friends. It was just like the old days of meals at the Great Hall, everyone sitting in their groups except now they sat on the Hogwarts lawn underneath the summer sun with sandwiches perched on paper plates.
Gregory wandered over to the food tray to find sausage rolls, bacon and egg pies and fresh garden salads. Grinning at the thought of eating something other than sandwiches and baked beans he pilled it high onto his plate, while everyone else seemed to be watching him. He ignored them and looked for a place to sit. Again everyone was looking at him, except Ron Weasley, sitting next to Longbottom and seemed to be making a great deal of effort not to look at Gregory.
Gregory sat down in a quiet spot away from the rest of them and ate his lunch in silence.
---
The monthly letter he received from his mother arrived the next morning. She prattled on about her life in France with her husband and her twin daughters and never once mentioned Gregory’s father or the war or bothered to ask what had become of Gregory.
He kept on thinking about his mother throughout the morning. He knew he had to write back and say something about what his life was like. He could make something up he supposed.
He could ask her for money, he also thought, something to keep the cottage with. But she wouldn’t give it to him. She hated the cottage. He remembered her screaming about it to his father before she left. In Gregory’s memories of her, she was always screaming at his father.
Gregory was so distracted by his mother he forgot to look where he was levitating his piece of stone, and before he could realise what he was doing it collided with another stone, breaking the charm on both of them and sending them hurtling towards the ground. They landed with a loud and threatening thump only feet away from Hannah Abbott who let out a yelp as she dived out of the way. The charm she was holding in turn broke and another lump of stone fell down through the air, hitting and smashing a nearby table holding glasses of water and pumpkin juice, sending liquid and splinters flying everywhere.
Shocked at what had nearly happened, Gregory spun around noticing everyone was glaring at him.
“I’m sorry,” he quickly muttered, though he did not think it was loud enough for anyone to hear.
“You idiot! Someone could have been killed!” Ron Weasley yelled, his wand pointing at nothing. Gregory realised he must have been levitating the rock that his had hit.
“I’m sorry!” Gregory yelled back, more angry at Ron than apologetic this time.
“You shouldn’t even be here,” Ron remarked snidely.
“Shut up, Weasley,” Gregory replied, pointing his wand at Ron.
“That’s the best you can come up with? 'Shut up'? You really are the dumbest lump in Britain,” Ron yelled back.
“Mr Weasley! Mr Goyle!” Professor McGonagall interrupted. She had walked over from the marquee with Professor Flitwick and former Professor Lupin following behind her. “That is quite enough.”
“I think it’s time for lunch,” Lupin mentioned.
Gregory stormed off towards the food table and piled onto his plate more food than the day before. As he turned to find a place to sit he noticed everyone crowding around Ron, who was again glaring at Gregory. Knowing when he was not wanted, Gregory walked away from where everyone else was to sit determined to find a place of his own somewhere closer to the castle.
The grass around the castle was strewn with small pieces of rubble, most of it stone, but occasionally glass and wood and even pieces of porcelain, canvas and fabric. It didn’t really appeal to Goyle to risk sitting on a piece of glass and so he continued walking around the castle, plate in hand, looking for a spot to sit. He walked on to the back of the castle where it appeared nobody had started to clean up the area.
Still angry at Weasley, Gregory kicked a small piece of stone. It sailed through the air, but instead of coming to rest where it landed, it disappeared.
Curious about what had happened, Gregory wandered over to where the rock had landed to find a dark hole lying there. The sun was shining in and he could make out a stone path. It was part of the school, he realised. Some part of the underground classrooms that had survived. Gregory smiled at his discovery; the Slytherin common room was below ground level. Maybe that was what had survived.
For a moment he thought to go and tell one of the others of his discovery, but quickly decided against it. He was the only Slytherin present and if the Slytherin common room was the only one that had survived, then maybe they would get jealous and close it off and he wanted to have one last look around before they did.
Gregory crouched down and slipped into the hole. He walked for a few feet in darkness along a hard stone ground before remembering he could use his wand to light his way. As he cast Lumos, the room he was in was enveloped with light, revealing it was not the familiar dungeon corridors he had walked down in school, this was a corridor completely unfamiliar to him. He thought of turning back, but when he saw something green glitter in the distance he decided to press on.
He walked closer to the glitter and discovered four emeralds set in the walls. Realising his money woes had been solved, Gregory held his wand up them to investigate closer. As he did, he noticed what the emeralds were - the eyes of two stone serpents, and he was standing at the entranceway of a much larger room, dimly lit, but not as dark as the corridor.
Gregory stepped through the entrance and his mouth fell open. Before him stood the most magnificent room he had ever seen, more magnificent to Gregory than the Great Hall or Malfoy Manor or the Ministry of Magic. Stone pillars decorated with serpents held up a sweeping cavern of a room, illuminated by slivers of light peering through gaps where the roof had given in. Gregory walked further in and found that the back half of the room had collapsed, limiting its size.
All he had heard was that the entire school had been destroyed by Harry and the Dark Lord. He had found the last surviving piece of Hogwarts all by himself. And this meant he was the only person who knew of the existence this room. Gregory liked that thought and grinned to himself.
But then Gregory’s stomach groaned and he realised that the lunch break was nearly over. He stepped out of the cavern and back towards the emeralds. He stared at them and considered stealing them off the wall for a moment, but decided against it. Somehow vandalising the one place left felt wrong. It was the unwritten rule of Slytherins, you could do whatever you wanted to the rest of the school, but you never harmed your own house. That was where your loyalty was. Besides, he still had weeks before the debt needed to be paid and something could turn up. So long as his room remained a secret the emeralds would remain where they were and nobody would ever miss them.
---
People still did not seem to be talking with him the next day, but Gregory did not mind. Professor McGonagall had split up the clearing group into two separating him from Weasley and Gregory was now taking ordered from Professor Flitwick, but he did not mind that either. Instead he focused on the task at hand while thinking about his lunch break.
Piling his plate once more with food he could not get at home, he passed everyone else on the lawn, including Weasley who was once again sitting with Neville, and headed off towards his cavern.
He found the hole in the ground and this time took his lunch with him. Sitting down cross-legged in the middle of his secret room, Gregory ate his lunch while constantly straining his neck to get an idea of his surroundings.
With all the snakes, he wondered if it had been an old Slytherin common room. Being so old and proud it certainly had a Slytherin feel to it. On finishing his food, Gregory began investigating, occasionally passing through the shafts of sunlight, the warmth causing his skin to tickle.
The chamber had indeed been shortened by the rock fall at the other end and looked pretty solid. So Gregory decided to follow the tunnel to where it led. He found that it ended with collapsed dirt only feet from the entrance to the grounds.
---
Gregory could not help but think of his hidden chamber all day. But that afternoon, they finished clearing the second area of rubble and moved further on. As Professor Flitwick explained where was to be cleared next, Gregory realised that eventually his room would be discovered, and the thought of that really bothered him.
The owl from Gringotts that was waiting for him on his return that evening further added to his worry. They were once again reminding him of the debt that needed to be paid. He added the letter to the pile that he had been collecting since his father’s death and as he did he stumbled across the letter Lucius Malfoy had sent him the day after he had stood his ground and told Crabbe 'no', he would not be leaving with him to join the others.
…Neither have you become one of them. There is no place in the world for you Gregory. You shall be forgotten, taunted or ignored…
He had not known it at the time, but now he realised that Lucius Malfoy had been right. There was not place in the world for a pureblood Slytherin in Ron Weasley’s world and, just like him, there would be no place for his snake-decorated chamber in a Gryffindor world.
He had to think of something. Something that would save both him and the chamber. But what? He did not know what to do and he had nobody to ask for help. Gregory wished then more than any other time in his whole life that he was just a bit smarter.
---
“Do you want to sit with me?” Luna’s question broke Gregory’s thoughts. He looked up to find her looking at him from the other side of the table. He had been looking over the plans for the new Hogwarts. It was going to be very much the same as the old Hogwarts.
“You always wander off alone. I thought you might want someone to sit with,” Luna continued.
Why was she being nice to him, Gregory wondered. He had been so horrible to her that he found her kindness unsettling. It was not as if he ever made an attempt to apologise either.
“No,” Gregory muttered. He quickly turned and walked away.
As he walked around the school he suddenly had an idea. They wanted to rebuild Hogwarts just as it was. Maybe if he took it upon himself to clean out the underground chamber and better yet, to make it greater, maybe they would save it and maybe they would accept him. Maybe then they would realise then that a Slytherin could belong.
Gregory smiled to himself later as he began to move the rubble away from where it had capsized. He was going to fix the chamber and make it great, and when they discovered it they would be so surprised.
It was not as easy as he expected though. He realised quite quickly, when he moved a piece of rubble and the showers of dirt came down from the ceiling and the room threatened to collapse, that the cave-in was preventing the rest of the roof from falling in. He had to secure the pillars first to make sure they did not collapse, and that took spells he did not know.
---
For the first time in his life, Gregory Goyle found himself willingly in a library. The Hogwarts library was out of the question, but the Ministry Library in London was still open for business. He had to fill out endless forms to be allowed to borrow anything and the librarian seemed to be annoyed that he did not know how to look up anything on his own and had to keep asking for help. But eventually he returned to his cottage with a book on building charms.
He arrived the next day with the book in his backpack and spent his lunch in the chamber practising strengthening and holding charms from the chapter on structural integrity. When he was finally satisfied that he could get it to work his lunchtime was over and Gregory realised he had another problem - he did not have much time.
The weekends made things worse in this respect. It seemed that every wizard in Britain converged on Hogwarts to help with the rebuilding on the weekend, wizards of all ages, sizes and backgrounds. With the grounds being cleared up so efficiently, it really put the pressure on Gregory to be able get his work done in his lunch-break quickly.
It was not working though. It took a week just to get the pillars stable and another to make sure the broken roof did not fall in, and all the time he worried that a charm would go wrong and something would happen and all they would find would be his body crushed underneath at tonne of earth. He wondered then if they would notice if he had gone. Luna Lovegood was the only one who had made an effort to speak to him.
Still, he preferred spending his time there at Hogwarts than at home. It was still quiet as the dead; still not anything like it had been when his father was there.
---
He liked the roof as he finished it, still with the holes that let sunlight filter down. He had considered fixing it, but that was too difficult a spell. Instead of just charms it would involve transfiguration, and Gregory hated transfiguration. He had never been good at it.
He stood and stared at the pile of rubble still filling the chamber. Unfortunately he could not think of any way to get it out without transfiguring it into something smaller. The entrance was only big enough to fit him down and some of the pieces were three times the size of him.
Things had been so much easier with Draco around. Draco always knew what to do and only when it had involved pretending to be a girl that Goyle had minded following his orders. But Draco would not have helped with a project such as the one that Gregory was undertaking. Draco never cared for labour; that was what he and Crabbe were for and that was the way it worked until his sixth year when Draco had run and he and Crabbe were left to devise ways to make the lives of Muggle-borns leave the school without him.
Gregory pointed his wand at a nearby piece of wall and tried to turn it into a sponge like they had been doing on the surface. Nothing happened. He concentrated harder, to the point where he felt like he was giving himself a headache. Still not much happened, some circle-like marks appeared on the surface.
Gregory gave a yell and kicked a nearby rock in frustration. It flew and hit the wall with a clank. Another weekend was approaching and more and more of the school was being cleaned up and he was never going to be able to fix his room on time. He had secured the roof and the pillar, but there was no change to indicate any of the effort he had put into it.
He finished his lunch break that day angry and irritated and seeing Neville Longbottom happily joking about something with Susan Bones just made him more irritable. Neville Longbottom was just as useless as he was, at least he had been before the war had started, and now he was seen as a skilled wizard. Deciding that he did not want to see Neville happy, Gregory made a deliberate turn on his walk back from the cavern to pass the rows and rows of plants sitting neatly in ceramic pots that Neville had been working on. He approached a particularly delicate looking one and was just about to kick it over when Gregory had an idea.
Plants needed sunlight to grow, he knew that much. And the chamber was filled with shafts of sunlight. So he could put plants in the chamber. He would clean it and then decorate it with potted plants to make it look better and then they would know the effort he had put into it.
Gregory was so pleased with his idea he forgot to kick over the plant pots and wandered back to work not noticing that Neville was now regarding him with suspicion.
---
He used the spells he learned from his own home to clean the chamber. With more patience and care than he knew he had within him, Gregory swept away the soil that lined the floor, fixed the cracks in the stonework and cleaned out the dust from every possible nook and cranny he could find. The chamber stopped looking like ruins and began to resemble a temple. Albeit it was a temple with a cave-in still in place, but a well cared for ancient monument nevertheless.
But time was still running out. The work party was moving closer and closer to his spot and Gregory began to hide the entrance by placing a rock over the hole in the ground. But one disastrous Sunday even more people than expected arrived and they moved so close to the hole that Gregory found himself incapable of slipping away in his lunch break. Instead he had to sit there eating a state of anxiety, worried because he now had a vision of what it should look like and knew it still needed much more work.
As people began to leave for the day, Gregory lagged behind. When he was certain nobody was watching he headed for the hole in the ground. He decided that if he could not work on it during the day, he would work on it during the night. He reasoned that it could not be possibly be worse than spending a night in his house.
He pottered around cleaning for an hour and then emerged to find the grounds abandoned. Gregory made his way over to Neville’s potted plants and found some fancy shrubs that looked like they would not attack him. The summer sun having not set, he was able to place them underneath a spot where light shone through. He continued on into the evening, until the sun set late at night, and from then on had to work with the light of his wand and the moonlight.
Goyle worked through the night, until he could not keep his eyes open any longer and fell asleep with his head resting on his arms.
---
“It can’t be!”
Gregory awoke to Ron Weasley’s astonished voice.
He opened his eyes with a jerk. It took a moment.
“What is it?” Neville Longbottom asked.
Realising he had fallen asleep behind a pillar and out of view, Gregory picked himself off the ground and leant against it so they would not see him.
“It’s the bloody Chamber of Secrets! What else could it be?”
Gregory’s stomach sunk. He turned to the pile of rubble.
“I think it’s beautiful,” Luna’s voice rang out.
“There’s my missing plants. The one’s that got nicked last night,” Neville said. Gregory could here his footsteps moving towards him.
“Keep back!” Ron yelled.
“Why? Voldemort’s dead.”
“This is what started it all!” Ron yelled. “This room! And Goyle’s been restoring it!”
“How do you know it was Goyle?” Luna asked.
“Who else has been sneaking around the place?” Neville asked.
Gregory saw a jet of red light whiz by and hit a nearby pillar, sending a pile of rock fragments showering into the air.
“He’s trying to bring Voldemort back,” Ron muttered.
Another jet of light whizzed past and hit another pillar. Gregory realised he had to do something before all his work was undone.
“I wasn’t,” he yelled as he ran out from behind the pillar.
In all his life Gregory Goyle had never seen Ron Weasley looking so angry.
“Then why restore it?” Neville asked.
“Because…” Gregory found himself stuttering over his own word. Because like him it was the only one of it’s kind left. Because it was beautiful. Because it gave him shelter. None of that came out.
“Ginny nearly died here!” Ron yelled. He pointed his wand and walked forward. Gregory found himself reaching for his wand, but was unable to find it. He glanced to where he had been sleeping.
“Don’t,” Luna cried out. She was standing behind the two boys.
Neville grabbed Ron’s arm and snatched his wand off him.
Ron spun around and Gregory saw Neville glaring at Ron.
“Why?” Luna asked, her voice, unlike Ron’s and Neville’s, was not full of accusation but curiosity. It made Gregory feel just slightly more at ease.
“I didn’t know,” Gregory offered as an explanation.
“Course you didn’t. It would have taken thought to figure it out,” Ron snidely remarked.
“Stop calling me an idiot!” Gregory yelled.
“You just found a room decorated with snakes and decided to restore it then? You are an idiot.” Ron said.
“I wanted a place! I wanted to fit in!” Gregory yelled.
"Your Dad was an idiot, too,” Ron continued.
With that Gregory lunged for Ron. Nobody was allowed to call his Dad an idiot. Though Ron was taller, Gregory had more bulk, and he managed to get a good smack into Ron’s nose before they ended up on the ground, both scrambling to get a punch or a kick in at each other. He could hear the noise of Neville and Luna screaming at him in the background, but Gregory was too busy trying to hurt Ron to notice what they were saying. Eventually Ron managed to get a good punch in at Gregory’s left eye. But before Gregory could hit Ron back, he felt strong arms around his.
Gregory was pulled up by Professor Lupin and Neville. He struggled and fought against them, but they were stronger than they looked. Realising it was pointless he stopped, just as Ron was doing across from him against Seamus and Dean.
“Mr Goyle! Mr Weasley!” Gregory turned his head to find Professor McGonagall standing there looking furious. “What is the meaning of this?”
“He’s been restoring the Chamber of Secrets!” Ron yelled.
“Is this true?” Professor McGonagall turned to Gregory.
Gregory wanted to run away as fast as he could, but Neville and Lupin held on strong.
“I didn’t know,” he repeated.
Professor McGonagall seemed to be thinking about his answer for a moment.
“I wanted to fit in. I thought that…It’s the…,”Gregory replied helplessly. “I’m sorry.”
Then Lupin and Neville relaxed their grip and Gregory broke free. He ran out of the Chamber not looking back. He ran over the grounds past the people who were arriving for the day, through the gate and to Hogsmeade where he could floo away.
He arrived home and burst in through the door, ignored the owl from Gringotts and sank into his armchair, trying to hold back the despair he felt. He had ruined his only chance to be accepted because of his stupidity, just as his father had died for his stupidity.
Gregory’s mind turned to his father. As simple as he was, he had always looked out for Gregory, gone to work every morning and paid the bills. He had cooked and cleaned and made sure Gregory made it to the Hogwarts Express on time. He had tucked Gregory in at night when he was small and hugged him goodbye. Gregory’s father had cared him and now he was gone, murdered by the Dark Lord for making a mistake and now Gregory had no idea of what to do, or who to turn to.
For the first time since the news of his father's death had been broken to him, Gregory cried.
---
Gregory sat there in silence just thinking as the day stretched out. Sometimes thinking about his Dad. Sometimes thinking about loneliness. Sometimes thinking about nothing in particular. He just sat there thinking until, still tired from the night before, he fell asleep.
He awoke to a bang on the door.
He wondered if Professor McGonagall had told the Aurors on him and they were coming to arrest him. Azkaban did not sound so bad, he thought. Yes, everyone there hated him, but at least the Dementors were gone and he wouldn’t have to worry about finding a job any more.
Slowly Gregory got up and walked towards the door. He pulled it open not to find Aurors, but Ron Weasley standing on his doorstep holding out Gregory's backpack and wand.
“I’m sorry,” Ron muttered as Gregory snatched them off him.
“Professor McGonagall and Neville and Luna and Hermione, they’ve all had a go at me. Said I’ve been an idiot," Ron continued.
Gregory turned away intending to shut the door.
Ron took a step forward and stopped him. “And they’re right…” he muttered. He seemed to be having a hard time saying what he was saying. “I shouldn’t have taken things out on you.”
Gregory glared at him.
“And I really, really shouldn’t have said what I said about your Dad.”
“My Dad’s dead,” Gregory replied in a monotone, trying no to let the grief that had made him cry well up again. He would not cry in front of Ron Weasley.
“So’s mine,” Ron replied bluntly. “And my Mum’s sick. She’s in St. Mungo’s and she doesn’t know who I am anymore.” Gregory realised then why Ron had been so angry.
“My Mum’s in France with her new family and she doesn’t care,” Gregory replied.
Ron nodded.
“Was it the Dark Lord?” Gregory asked.
Ron nodded again. “It was Voldemort.”
“Voldemort killed my Dad, too.”
They just stood there a moment not saying anything.
“It’s not right,” Gregory said, voicing for the first time the opinion that had caused him to turn away from his friends. “My Dad’s pureblood. So was your Mum and Dad. The Dark Lord said he wanted the purebloods to be in charge because we were better then everyone else. But he was killing them.”
“That’s why you didn't follow Crabbe and Nott when they left to join him, wasn’t it?”
“I love my Dad. Other people probably loved their parents too. I didn’t like the killing,” Gregory replied.
Ron nodded. “That’s probably the smartest thing I’ve ever heard anyone say."
“Shut up,” Gregory grumbled. He was not going to take any more of Ron’s insults about his intelligence.
“I’m not being sarcastic. If more people had thought like that then maybe my parents would be alright,” Ron said.
Gregory looked at him. They both stood there uncomfortably in the doorway, unsure what to do next.
“I’m going home now. I hope you're coming back to work on Hogwarts.”
“You going to be there?” Gregory asked.
“Nah. I think it’s time I stopped avoiding visiting my Mum. I’ll see you there some time though.”
With that Ron Apparated away. It was only then Gregory thought to ask about the fate of the Chamber of Secrets. It was too late now though. He would have to find out tomorrow.
Gregory shut the door and wandered into the kitchen realising he was hungry. As he did he spotted an owl waiting by his chair with a letter beside it. Probably from Gringotts again, Gregory figured as he removed the letter from the owl’s leg.
Except he found the letter to have the Hogwarts letterhead and to be in Professor McGonagall’s handwriting.
Dear Mr Goyle,
Due to your abrupt departure this morning you would not have heard my decision that the Chamber of Secrets should not be destroyed. Instead it shall be put to use as a room for all Hogwarts students to enjoy. This decision was only reached on noticing the remarkable work you have put into restoring and improving the chamber.
As you may or may not be aware, Hogwarts is in need of new groundskeeper. I urge you to apply to the position. The dedication you have shown in the past few weeks had proven you to be the ideal candidate and should you apply, the position shall be yours.
It is a position that involves maintaining the Hogwarts grounds and one that has many of the privileges of a Professor attached including accommodation and food.
I hope to see you back at work tomorrow. If we are to continue with the restoration and conversion of the Chamber of Secrets, your experience shall be valued.
Yours sincerely,
Professor M. McGonagall.
Gregory clutched the letter tightly and smiled. It was everything he wanted. He had a place. It was a new world and in it he had a place.
Author: meddow
Recipient: magnolia_mama
Characters: Gregory Goyle, Ron Weasley
Rating: PG
Summary: Voldemort has fallen and Hogwarts along with him and now a new wizarding world exists, one that does not seem to have a place for Gregory Goyle.
Author's Notes: Thank you very much to jadeddiva and nathaniel_hp. Your contributions were both invaluable.
Goyle's War
I hope you are happy with your choice. History is written by those who win, and you have certainly avoided becoming a loser. But neither have you become one of them. Should they win there shall be no place in the world for you, Gregory; you shall be forgotten, taunted or ignored. I wish you luck in your pursuits.
L. Malfoy
---
It was amazing how quickly a house could change. A few months were all it took for it to lose its scent and with it any familiarity. Gregory Goyle returned with his suitcase in hand to find himself a visitor in his own empty home. As he wandered around the small cottage, one that had been in his family for a century, he found himself wondering what to do next.
There was no more Hogwarts. There would never be a final dinner and even if it still stood, his seven years would still be over in a week. He was an adult now. A man with a house and responsibility, or so the executor of his father’s estate had told him. He had debts to pay and would need a job.
But where? A few months ago his future had been set - there was always employment for muscle in a war. When it was over, he’d get a job for the Malfoys or the Notts. Draco or Theodore would have set him up in a nice position, something simple. He didn’t mind what he did so long as there was not much effort or thinking involved. But then he had said ‘no’ and ended his future.
Gregory’s stomach groaned and he realised there were more immediate matters to be dealt with. The cupboard held little, only preserves. Anything fresher was covered in mould. He studied each item one by one deciding whether to risk scraping off the mould and devouring it but in the end nothing seemed fit for consumption.
Without an Apparition licence he found himself walking three miles to the nearest shop in the nearest town, a Muggle store which only accepted Muggle coins. He only had a few of those, but enough for a loaf of bread.
Gregory ate his jam sandwiches at his family’s dining table alone.
---
Gringotts was not hiring. Not that they would give him a job even if they were. Thick as two bricks he was, according to the goblin clerk that had helped him to his vault. But Gregory did not need to be told that, he knew it already.
There was not as much money as he had hoped so he walked around looking at the signs on the store fronts. Places were not hiring, or if they were they took one look at him and sent him away. Being a pureblood got you nowhere these days, it had become just as Draco had feared. But Draco was wrong in one respect: Gregory’s name still preceded him. He knew this because no one wanted a Goyle on their payroll.
He found himself back in his empty home, but at least now with some cheese, ham and eggs. Gregory stared at the food he had bought and realised he had little idea of how to cook it. And so it was sandwiches again with a side of cheese-on-toast.
---
He found a book of cleaning spells, one of the few books his parents had owned, and went about trying to make his house his home once more. Cleaning the kitchen, the lounge, the dining room and his own room. Still, it was not the same. It was the silence that Gregory could not stand. No longer could he hear the heavy steps of his father roaming about or the dull rumblings of his voice. The wooden house creaked and groaned and sometimes caught him off guard, but no one ever called and no one ever wrote, not since the letter Lucius Malfoy had sent him. And who would, all of those he had once stood by were now on trial or in Azkaban and determined never to speak to him again. Eventually he tried music, the wireless and even letting his owl loose inside the lounge, but all Gregory managed to do was discover was that there was no substitute for humanity.
He wanted out of his house, he wanted to run away. And so he tried Diagon Alley once again. But there was still nothing for him there. Not a single employer interested. They wanted OWLs and NEWTs and counting skills, all well beyond his ability. Gregory had never had the head for doing anything but following simple orders, or at least that was what Draco had said and Gregory was inclined to agree.
The streets of Diagon Alley were full of people again. During the last year - before Harry had made his stand at Hogwarts and the Dark Lord and his forces had collapsed along with the walls of the school - the streets had been empty. Now adults were taking their children shopping again. Displays were once again filled with the greatest wares the store had to offer instead of warning posters and protective devices. All around him banners and streamers still hung from the walls and the lampposts, colourfully declaring that Britain was once again free of the Dark Lord. A new day had dawned, it had been declared. One free of prejudice and fear.
But this thought did not please Gregory. Other people were happy about it, but what could he do except wander the streets alone, passing the time between rejections and then return to his empty home? He missed Hogwarts. He knew it was destroyed and he knew that even if it stood, his friends would no longer be there, but he missed it. At least when he was sitting in class he had something to do. His Professors' declarations that he was an imbecile never bothered him because there he had status. It did not matter than he was dumb and had no skills because all the smaller students would do anything he wanted them to do. They had been afraid of him then.
As he walked along he spotted one of those people that would have run from him sticking a poster to the wall by Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes.
Before he had really thought through what he was doing, Gregory walked up behind Neville Longbottom and tapped him on the back.
“Longbottom.”
Neville spun around with his wand produced and a look of fear, before seeming to recognise Gregory and exhaling as he relaxed.
“Go away,” he said.
“Yeah, piss off, Goyle,” came another voice from him. Gregory turned to find Ron Weasley standing behind him, with his wand drawn.
“I didn’t…” Gregory wanted to tell Ron that he had not done anything, but words failed him. He could never seem to say what he wanted when he wanted to.
“We don’t want skrewt crap like you outside our store,” one of the Weasley twins said as they both walked out of the front door.
Outnumbered and astonished at how quickly they had all had their wands pointed at him, Gregory decided to lie to get out of the situation. “I was looking at the poster.”
Neville stepped to the side with a cautious look, and Gregory could finally read the poster, aware that every eye in the street was now on him.
HOGWARTS NEEDS YOU
Join the volunteer rebuilding effort.
Every day 8am - 6pm
Hogwarts grounds
No experience required
Lunch provided
All help welcomed
“I didn’t think it would be something you’d be interested in,” Neville said.
“I’m not,” Gregory replied quickly. He could not be interested in anything the Gryffindors were interested in. They were Gryffindors - blood traitor Gryffindors at that - and he was a Slytherin. It was just wrong that they should agree. “I just wanted to see what it was about.”
“Yeah, well, now you can do us all a favour and piss off,” Ron replied.
“Shut up, Weasley,” he sneered.
He noticed Ron Weasley eyeing him. Knowing he would not win, Gregory turned and skulked off.
---
Gregory arrived home still in a foul mood and sat down with a force that nearly broke the chair. He remained there for the rest of the evening, with little to do, no plans and angry at Longbottom and the Weasleys. He missed Crabbe. They would have had a good go at the Weasley’s together, complaining about how they wandered around the school like they owned it. Just because they were all smart and good at Quidditch and most of them ended up being prefects, and then Draco would interrupt and say how they had to pretend to own Hogwarts, it was the only thing they could afford.
Gregory smiled thinking about those discussions in the Slytherin common room. Of course, there was no longer a Slytherin common room, the Dark Lord had destroyed it and with Weasley and Longbottom running the rebuilding effort it would probably not be rebuilt.
He stared at his father’s arm chair and wondered whether it was such a bad thing if there would no longer be a Slytherin. He did not know. He did not know anything anymore, he had not known that much when he had said no and got himself into this mess. All he knew was that he did not want any more people to die.
He did not regret not joining Crabbe, but he did not like what had happened to him now. He was alone and he had little money and nobody wanted him. The only place that was taking anyone was swarming with Gryffindors who hated him.
He looked around the house once more, to the empty lounge and a silence so loud it filled every room. He could not take another day being alone and bored. Even if it was swarming with Gryffindors, working at Hogwarts had to be better than his home, Gregory decided.
---
It was Luna Lovegood who was manning the table underneath the marquee taking down names and assigning tasks, which made Gregory feel better. Luna was a strange girl. No matter what he and Crabbe did, it never seemed to bother her - and they did some awful things during his third year. Eventually they had given up having become bored. She never seemed to have held it against him though, even when she became friends with Potter and Weasley.
Behind her was the familiar figure of Professor McGonagall chatting away to older volunteers, many of them professors. She had her back to him and none of the others seemed to notice him, which suited Gregory. The last thing he wanted were endless questions of why he was here.
“Gregory Goyle,” Luna dreamily said as she wrote down his name. With that Professor McGonagall turned around and seemed to eye him up.
“Good to see you here, Mr Goyle,” she said before returning to her conversation.
“You can work with Ron,” Luna said.
“I’m not working with him.”
Luna didn’t look up. “Or you could help Neville sort out the greenhouse.”
“Not Longbottom.” Gregory hated herbology and really did not like the idea of Neville Longbottom - the only person in his year who came close to being as hopeless as himself and Crabbe - giving him orders.
“You can’t help Susan sort recovered property. She’s already got more people than she needs. Though Justin may need some help making lunch for everyone.”
Gregory groaned, he was not going to spend his day making sandwiches.
“Isn’t there anything else?” he asked, desperate not to be sent home.
“There’s moving rubble.”
“I can do that.”
“It’s with Ron Weasley,” Luna said, still not looking up from where she was writing.
“Fine,” Gregory moaned.
“They’re over by where the Great Hall was,” she answered finally looking up. “I know what you did and I think it was brave,” she added.
Gregory froze, unsure what to make of what Luna was saying.
“It was nothing,” he mumbled before turning and walking out of the marquee.
---
Ron Weasley glared at him as he walked over towards the crowd gathered by the rubble. Gregory glared right back. It was Ron who first turned away and then began instructing the gathering of what needed to be done.
Piles and piles of stone needed moving so they could rebuild on top of it. The decent sized pieces were to go to one side to be used again and the rest was to be transfigured into sponges for easy removal. To avoid showing everyone else how bad he was at transfiguration, Gregory focused on the larger pieces of stone, levitating them and moving them to all the others.
Everyone working seemed to have either been in his year, the year above or the year below. He supposed everyone else had a job they had to go to and could not spend all their time cleaning up rubble for nothing. Though he wished he was surrounded by less people who knew him. Not a single one of them spoke to him. So Gregory told himself that he did not mind, he didn’t want to speak to them either. He just focused on keeping his floating rubble from hitting anyone.
As lunch was called everyone walked off and met with their friends. It was just like the old days of meals at the Great Hall, everyone sitting in their groups except now they sat on the Hogwarts lawn underneath the summer sun with sandwiches perched on paper plates.
Gregory wandered over to the food tray to find sausage rolls, bacon and egg pies and fresh garden salads. Grinning at the thought of eating something other than sandwiches and baked beans he pilled it high onto his plate, while everyone else seemed to be watching him. He ignored them and looked for a place to sit. Again everyone was looking at him, except Ron Weasley, sitting next to Longbottom and seemed to be making a great deal of effort not to look at Gregory.
Gregory sat down in a quiet spot away from the rest of them and ate his lunch in silence.
---
The monthly letter he received from his mother arrived the next morning. She prattled on about her life in France with her husband and her twin daughters and never once mentioned Gregory’s father or the war or bothered to ask what had become of Gregory.
He kept on thinking about his mother throughout the morning. He knew he had to write back and say something about what his life was like. He could make something up he supposed.
He could ask her for money, he also thought, something to keep the cottage with. But she wouldn’t give it to him. She hated the cottage. He remembered her screaming about it to his father before she left. In Gregory’s memories of her, she was always screaming at his father.
Gregory was so distracted by his mother he forgot to look where he was levitating his piece of stone, and before he could realise what he was doing it collided with another stone, breaking the charm on both of them and sending them hurtling towards the ground. They landed with a loud and threatening thump only feet away from Hannah Abbott who let out a yelp as she dived out of the way. The charm she was holding in turn broke and another lump of stone fell down through the air, hitting and smashing a nearby table holding glasses of water and pumpkin juice, sending liquid and splinters flying everywhere.
Shocked at what had nearly happened, Gregory spun around noticing everyone was glaring at him.
“I’m sorry,” he quickly muttered, though he did not think it was loud enough for anyone to hear.
“You idiot! Someone could have been killed!” Ron Weasley yelled, his wand pointing at nothing. Gregory realised he must have been levitating the rock that his had hit.
“I’m sorry!” Gregory yelled back, more angry at Ron than apologetic this time.
“You shouldn’t even be here,” Ron remarked snidely.
“Shut up, Weasley,” Gregory replied, pointing his wand at Ron.
“That’s the best you can come up with? 'Shut up'? You really are the dumbest lump in Britain,” Ron yelled back.
“Mr Weasley! Mr Goyle!” Professor McGonagall interrupted. She had walked over from the marquee with Professor Flitwick and former Professor Lupin following behind her. “That is quite enough.”
“I think it’s time for lunch,” Lupin mentioned.
Gregory stormed off towards the food table and piled onto his plate more food than the day before. As he turned to find a place to sit he noticed everyone crowding around Ron, who was again glaring at Gregory. Knowing when he was not wanted, Gregory walked away from where everyone else was to sit determined to find a place of his own somewhere closer to the castle.
The grass around the castle was strewn with small pieces of rubble, most of it stone, but occasionally glass and wood and even pieces of porcelain, canvas and fabric. It didn’t really appeal to Goyle to risk sitting on a piece of glass and so he continued walking around the castle, plate in hand, looking for a spot to sit. He walked on to the back of the castle where it appeared nobody had started to clean up the area.
Still angry at Weasley, Gregory kicked a small piece of stone. It sailed through the air, but instead of coming to rest where it landed, it disappeared.
Curious about what had happened, Gregory wandered over to where the rock had landed to find a dark hole lying there. The sun was shining in and he could make out a stone path. It was part of the school, he realised. Some part of the underground classrooms that had survived. Gregory smiled at his discovery; the Slytherin common room was below ground level. Maybe that was what had survived.
For a moment he thought to go and tell one of the others of his discovery, but quickly decided against it. He was the only Slytherin present and if the Slytherin common room was the only one that had survived, then maybe they would get jealous and close it off and he wanted to have one last look around before they did.
Gregory crouched down and slipped into the hole. He walked for a few feet in darkness along a hard stone ground before remembering he could use his wand to light his way. As he cast Lumos, the room he was in was enveloped with light, revealing it was not the familiar dungeon corridors he had walked down in school, this was a corridor completely unfamiliar to him. He thought of turning back, but when he saw something green glitter in the distance he decided to press on.
He walked closer to the glitter and discovered four emeralds set in the walls. Realising his money woes had been solved, Gregory held his wand up them to investigate closer. As he did, he noticed what the emeralds were - the eyes of two stone serpents, and he was standing at the entranceway of a much larger room, dimly lit, but not as dark as the corridor.
Gregory stepped through the entrance and his mouth fell open. Before him stood the most magnificent room he had ever seen, more magnificent to Gregory than the Great Hall or Malfoy Manor or the Ministry of Magic. Stone pillars decorated with serpents held up a sweeping cavern of a room, illuminated by slivers of light peering through gaps where the roof had given in. Gregory walked further in and found that the back half of the room had collapsed, limiting its size.
All he had heard was that the entire school had been destroyed by Harry and the Dark Lord. He had found the last surviving piece of Hogwarts all by himself. And this meant he was the only person who knew of the existence this room. Gregory liked that thought and grinned to himself.
But then Gregory’s stomach groaned and he realised that the lunch break was nearly over. He stepped out of the cavern and back towards the emeralds. He stared at them and considered stealing them off the wall for a moment, but decided against it. Somehow vandalising the one place left felt wrong. It was the unwritten rule of Slytherins, you could do whatever you wanted to the rest of the school, but you never harmed your own house. That was where your loyalty was. Besides, he still had weeks before the debt needed to be paid and something could turn up. So long as his room remained a secret the emeralds would remain where they were and nobody would ever miss them.
---
People still did not seem to be talking with him the next day, but Gregory did not mind. Professor McGonagall had split up the clearing group into two separating him from Weasley and Gregory was now taking ordered from Professor Flitwick, but he did not mind that either. Instead he focused on the task at hand while thinking about his lunch break.
Piling his plate once more with food he could not get at home, he passed everyone else on the lawn, including Weasley who was once again sitting with Neville, and headed off towards his cavern.
He found the hole in the ground and this time took his lunch with him. Sitting down cross-legged in the middle of his secret room, Gregory ate his lunch while constantly straining his neck to get an idea of his surroundings.
With all the snakes, he wondered if it had been an old Slytherin common room. Being so old and proud it certainly had a Slytherin feel to it. On finishing his food, Gregory began investigating, occasionally passing through the shafts of sunlight, the warmth causing his skin to tickle.
The chamber had indeed been shortened by the rock fall at the other end and looked pretty solid. So Gregory decided to follow the tunnel to where it led. He found that it ended with collapsed dirt only feet from the entrance to the grounds.
---
Gregory could not help but think of his hidden chamber all day. But that afternoon, they finished clearing the second area of rubble and moved further on. As Professor Flitwick explained where was to be cleared next, Gregory realised that eventually his room would be discovered, and the thought of that really bothered him.
The owl from Gringotts that was waiting for him on his return that evening further added to his worry. They were once again reminding him of the debt that needed to be paid. He added the letter to the pile that he had been collecting since his father’s death and as he did he stumbled across the letter Lucius Malfoy had sent him the day after he had stood his ground and told Crabbe 'no', he would not be leaving with him to join the others.
…Neither have you become one of them. There is no place in the world for you Gregory. You shall be forgotten, taunted or ignored…
He had not known it at the time, but now he realised that Lucius Malfoy had been right. There was not place in the world for a pureblood Slytherin in Ron Weasley’s world and, just like him, there would be no place for his snake-decorated chamber in a Gryffindor world.
He had to think of something. Something that would save both him and the chamber. But what? He did not know what to do and he had nobody to ask for help. Gregory wished then more than any other time in his whole life that he was just a bit smarter.
---
“Do you want to sit with me?” Luna’s question broke Gregory’s thoughts. He looked up to find her looking at him from the other side of the table. He had been looking over the plans for the new Hogwarts. It was going to be very much the same as the old Hogwarts.
“You always wander off alone. I thought you might want someone to sit with,” Luna continued.
Why was she being nice to him, Gregory wondered. He had been so horrible to her that he found her kindness unsettling. It was not as if he ever made an attempt to apologise either.
“No,” Gregory muttered. He quickly turned and walked away.
As he walked around the school he suddenly had an idea. They wanted to rebuild Hogwarts just as it was. Maybe if he took it upon himself to clean out the underground chamber and better yet, to make it greater, maybe they would save it and maybe they would accept him. Maybe then they would realise then that a Slytherin could belong.
Gregory smiled to himself later as he began to move the rubble away from where it had capsized. He was going to fix the chamber and make it great, and when they discovered it they would be so surprised.
It was not as easy as he expected though. He realised quite quickly, when he moved a piece of rubble and the showers of dirt came down from the ceiling and the room threatened to collapse, that the cave-in was preventing the rest of the roof from falling in. He had to secure the pillars first to make sure they did not collapse, and that took spells he did not know.
---
For the first time in his life, Gregory Goyle found himself willingly in a library. The Hogwarts library was out of the question, but the Ministry Library in London was still open for business. He had to fill out endless forms to be allowed to borrow anything and the librarian seemed to be annoyed that he did not know how to look up anything on his own and had to keep asking for help. But eventually he returned to his cottage with a book on building charms.
He arrived the next day with the book in his backpack and spent his lunch in the chamber practising strengthening and holding charms from the chapter on structural integrity. When he was finally satisfied that he could get it to work his lunchtime was over and Gregory realised he had another problem - he did not have much time.
The weekends made things worse in this respect. It seemed that every wizard in Britain converged on Hogwarts to help with the rebuilding on the weekend, wizards of all ages, sizes and backgrounds. With the grounds being cleared up so efficiently, it really put the pressure on Gregory to be able get his work done in his lunch-break quickly.
It was not working though. It took a week just to get the pillars stable and another to make sure the broken roof did not fall in, and all the time he worried that a charm would go wrong and something would happen and all they would find would be his body crushed underneath at tonne of earth. He wondered then if they would notice if he had gone. Luna Lovegood was the only one who had made an effort to speak to him.
Still, he preferred spending his time there at Hogwarts than at home. It was still quiet as the dead; still not anything like it had been when his father was there.
---
He liked the roof as he finished it, still with the holes that let sunlight filter down. He had considered fixing it, but that was too difficult a spell. Instead of just charms it would involve transfiguration, and Gregory hated transfiguration. He had never been good at it.
He stood and stared at the pile of rubble still filling the chamber. Unfortunately he could not think of any way to get it out without transfiguring it into something smaller. The entrance was only big enough to fit him down and some of the pieces were three times the size of him.
Things had been so much easier with Draco around. Draco always knew what to do and only when it had involved pretending to be a girl that Goyle had minded following his orders. But Draco would not have helped with a project such as the one that Gregory was undertaking. Draco never cared for labour; that was what he and Crabbe were for and that was the way it worked until his sixth year when Draco had run and he and Crabbe were left to devise ways to make the lives of Muggle-borns leave the school without him.
Gregory pointed his wand at a nearby piece of wall and tried to turn it into a sponge like they had been doing on the surface. Nothing happened. He concentrated harder, to the point where he felt like he was giving himself a headache. Still not much happened, some circle-like marks appeared on the surface.
Gregory gave a yell and kicked a nearby rock in frustration. It flew and hit the wall with a clank. Another weekend was approaching and more and more of the school was being cleaned up and he was never going to be able to fix his room on time. He had secured the roof and the pillar, but there was no change to indicate any of the effort he had put into it.
He finished his lunch break that day angry and irritated and seeing Neville Longbottom happily joking about something with Susan Bones just made him more irritable. Neville Longbottom was just as useless as he was, at least he had been before the war had started, and now he was seen as a skilled wizard. Deciding that he did not want to see Neville happy, Gregory made a deliberate turn on his walk back from the cavern to pass the rows and rows of plants sitting neatly in ceramic pots that Neville had been working on. He approached a particularly delicate looking one and was just about to kick it over when Gregory had an idea.
Plants needed sunlight to grow, he knew that much. And the chamber was filled with shafts of sunlight. So he could put plants in the chamber. He would clean it and then decorate it with potted plants to make it look better and then they would know the effort he had put into it.
Gregory was so pleased with his idea he forgot to kick over the plant pots and wandered back to work not noticing that Neville was now regarding him with suspicion.
---
He used the spells he learned from his own home to clean the chamber. With more patience and care than he knew he had within him, Gregory swept away the soil that lined the floor, fixed the cracks in the stonework and cleaned out the dust from every possible nook and cranny he could find. The chamber stopped looking like ruins and began to resemble a temple. Albeit it was a temple with a cave-in still in place, but a well cared for ancient monument nevertheless.
But time was still running out. The work party was moving closer and closer to his spot and Gregory began to hide the entrance by placing a rock over the hole in the ground. But one disastrous Sunday even more people than expected arrived and they moved so close to the hole that Gregory found himself incapable of slipping away in his lunch break. Instead he had to sit there eating a state of anxiety, worried because he now had a vision of what it should look like and knew it still needed much more work.
As people began to leave for the day, Gregory lagged behind. When he was certain nobody was watching he headed for the hole in the ground. He decided that if he could not work on it during the day, he would work on it during the night. He reasoned that it could not be possibly be worse than spending a night in his house.
He pottered around cleaning for an hour and then emerged to find the grounds abandoned. Gregory made his way over to Neville’s potted plants and found some fancy shrubs that looked like they would not attack him. The summer sun having not set, he was able to place them underneath a spot where light shone through. He continued on into the evening, until the sun set late at night, and from then on had to work with the light of his wand and the moonlight.
Goyle worked through the night, until he could not keep his eyes open any longer and fell asleep with his head resting on his arms.
---
“It can’t be!”
Gregory awoke to Ron Weasley’s astonished voice.
He opened his eyes with a jerk. It took a moment.
“What is it?” Neville Longbottom asked.
Realising he had fallen asleep behind a pillar and out of view, Gregory picked himself off the ground and leant against it so they would not see him.
“It’s the bloody Chamber of Secrets! What else could it be?”
Gregory’s stomach sunk. He turned to the pile of rubble.
“I think it’s beautiful,” Luna’s voice rang out.
“There’s my missing plants. The one’s that got nicked last night,” Neville said. Gregory could here his footsteps moving towards him.
“Keep back!” Ron yelled.
“Why? Voldemort’s dead.”
“This is what started it all!” Ron yelled. “This room! And Goyle’s been restoring it!”
“How do you know it was Goyle?” Luna asked.
“Who else has been sneaking around the place?” Neville asked.
Gregory saw a jet of red light whiz by and hit a nearby pillar, sending a pile of rock fragments showering into the air.
“He’s trying to bring Voldemort back,” Ron muttered.
Another jet of light whizzed past and hit another pillar. Gregory realised he had to do something before all his work was undone.
“I wasn’t,” he yelled as he ran out from behind the pillar.
In all his life Gregory Goyle had never seen Ron Weasley looking so angry.
“Then why restore it?” Neville asked.
“Because…” Gregory found himself stuttering over his own word. Because like him it was the only one of it’s kind left. Because it was beautiful. Because it gave him shelter. None of that came out.
“Ginny nearly died here!” Ron yelled. He pointed his wand and walked forward. Gregory found himself reaching for his wand, but was unable to find it. He glanced to where he had been sleeping.
“Don’t,” Luna cried out. She was standing behind the two boys.
Neville grabbed Ron’s arm and snatched his wand off him.
Ron spun around and Gregory saw Neville glaring at Ron.
“Why?” Luna asked, her voice, unlike Ron’s and Neville’s, was not full of accusation but curiosity. It made Gregory feel just slightly more at ease.
“I didn’t know,” Gregory offered as an explanation.
“Course you didn’t. It would have taken thought to figure it out,” Ron snidely remarked.
“Stop calling me an idiot!” Gregory yelled.
“You just found a room decorated with snakes and decided to restore it then? You are an idiot.” Ron said.
“I wanted a place! I wanted to fit in!” Gregory yelled.
"Your Dad was an idiot, too,” Ron continued.
With that Gregory lunged for Ron. Nobody was allowed to call his Dad an idiot. Though Ron was taller, Gregory had more bulk, and he managed to get a good smack into Ron’s nose before they ended up on the ground, both scrambling to get a punch or a kick in at each other. He could hear the noise of Neville and Luna screaming at him in the background, but Gregory was too busy trying to hurt Ron to notice what they were saying. Eventually Ron managed to get a good punch in at Gregory’s left eye. But before Gregory could hit Ron back, he felt strong arms around his.
Gregory was pulled up by Professor Lupin and Neville. He struggled and fought against them, but they were stronger than they looked. Realising it was pointless he stopped, just as Ron was doing across from him against Seamus and Dean.
“Mr Goyle! Mr Weasley!” Gregory turned his head to find Professor McGonagall standing there looking furious. “What is the meaning of this?”
“He’s been restoring the Chamber of Secrets!” Ron yelled.
“Is this true?” Professor McGonagall turned to Gregory.
Gregory wanted to run away as fast as he could, but Neville and Lupin held on strong.
“I didn’t know,” he repeated.
Professor McGonagall seemed to be thinking about his answer for a moment.
“I wanted to fit in. I thought that…It’s the…,”Gregory replied helplessly. “I’m sorry.”
Then Lupin and Neville relaxed their grip and Gregory broke free. He ran out of the Chamber not looking back. He ran over the grounds past the people who were arriving for the day, through the gate and to Hogsmeade where he could floo away.
He arrived home and burst in through the door, ignored the owl from Gringotts and sank into his armchair, trying to hold back the despair he felt. He had ruined his only chance to be accepted because of his stupidity, just as his father had died for his stupidity.
Gregory’s mind turned to his father. As simple as he was, he had always looked out for Gregory, gone to work every morning and paid the bills. He had cooked and cleaned and made sure Gregory made it to the Hogwarts Express on time. He had tucked Gregory in at night when he was small and hugged him goodbye. Gregory’s father had cared him and now he was gone, murdered by the Dark Lord for making a mistake and now Gregory had no idea of what to do, or who to turn to.
For the first time since the news of his father's death had been broken to him, Gregory cried.
---
Gregory sat there in silence just thinking as the day stretched out. Sometimes thinking about his Dad. Sometimes thinking about loneliness. Sometimes thinking about nothing in particular. He just sat there thinking until, still tired from the night before, he fell asleep.
He awoke to a bang on the door.
He wondered if Professor McGonagall had told the Aurors on him and they were coming to arrest him. Azkaban did not sound so bad, he thought. Yes, everyone there hated him, but at least the Dementors were gone and he wouldn’t have to worry about finding a job any more.
Slowly Gregory got up and walked towards the door. He pulled it open not to find Aurors, but Ron Weasley standing on his doorstep holding out Gregory's backpack and wand.
“I’m sorry,” Ron muttered as Gregory snatched them off him.
“Professor McGonagall and Neville and Luna and Hermione, they’ve all had a go at me. Said I’ve been an idiot," Ron continued.
Gregory turned away intending to shut the door.
Ron took a step forward and stopped him. “And they’re right…” he muttered. He seemed to be having a hard time saying what he was saying. “I shouldn’t have taken things out on you.”
Gregory glared at him.
“And I really, really shouldn’t have said what I said about your Dad.”
“My Dad’s dead,” Gregory replied in a monotone, trying no to let the grief that had made him cry well up again. He would not cry in front of Ron Weasley.
“So’s mine,” Ron replied bluntly. “And my Mum’s sick. She’s in St. Mungo’s and she doesn’t know who I am anymore.” Gregory realised then why Ron had been so angry.
“My Mum’s in France with her new family and she doesn’t care,” Gregory replied.
Ron nodded.
“Was it the Dark Lord?” Gregory asked.
Ron nodded again. “It was Voldemort.”
“Voldemort killed my Dad, too.”
They just stood there a moment not saying anything.
“It’s not right,” Gregory said, voicing for the first time the opinion that had caused him to turn away from his friends. “My Dad’s pureblood. So was your Mum and Dad. The Dark Lord said he wanted the purebloods to be in charge because we were better then everyone else. But he was killing them.”
“That’s why you didn't follow Crabbe and Nott when they left to join him, wasn’t it?”
“I love my Dad. Other people probably loved their parents too. I didn’t like the killing,” Gregory replied.
Ron nodded. “That’s probably the smartest thing I’ve ever heard anyone say."
“Shut up,” Gregory grumbled. He was not going to take any more of Ron’s insults about his intelligence.
“I’m not being sarcastic. If more people had thought like that then maybe my parents would be alright,” Ron said.
Gregory looked at him. They both stood there uncomfortably in the doorway, unsure what to do next.
“I’m going home now. I hope you're coming back to work on Hogwarts.”
“You going to be there?” Gregory asked.
“Nah. I think it’s time I stopped avoiding visiting my Mum. I’ll see you there some time though.”
With that Ron Apparated away. It was only then Gregory thought to ask about the fate of the Chamber of Secrets. It was too late now though. He would have to find out tomorrow.
Gregory shut the door and wandered into the kitchen realising he was hungry. As he did he spotted an owl waiting by his chair with a letter beside it. Probably from Gringotts again, Gregory figured as he removed the letter from the owl’s leg.
Except he found the letter to have the Hogwarts letterhead and to be in Professor McGonagall’s handwriting.
Dear Mr Goyle,
Due to your abrupt departure this morning you would not have heard my decision that the Chamber of Secrets should not be destroyed. Instead it shall be put to use as a room for all Hogwarts students to enjoy. This decision was only reached on noticing the remarkable work you have put into restoring and improving the chamber.
As you may or may not be aware, Hogwarts is in need of new groundskeeper. I urge you to apply to the position. The dedication you have shown in the past few weeks had proven you to be the ideal candidate and should you apply, the position shall be yours.
It is a position that involves maintaining the Hogwarts grounds and one that has many of the privileges of a Professor attached including accommodation and food.
I hope to see you back at work tomorrow. If we are to continue with the restoration and conversion of the Chamber of Secrets, your experience shall be valued.
Yours sincerely,
Professor M. McGonagall.
Gregory clutched the letter tightly and smiled. It was everything he wanted. He had a place. It was a new world and in it he had a place.