Informer:
The Trio have returned to Hogwarts before their final year to aid Dumbledore in preparations for the upcoming War. Meanwhile a battered former student and death eater returns to the castle as well, seeking for reprieve. A raw form of magic is revealed, and it appears that there are only two people in the world who can tame and control this magic. Voldermont will do anything to achieve this magic. Now, will the Order manage to benefit from this magic, or will it merely fall into the hands of the Death Eaters and seal their fate and the out come of the war?
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Chapter One
"Evening Mister Malfoy may I help you?" Dumbledore questioned as the younger Malfoy strode into his office. He was hardly surprised, having hoped for something similar to happen. Sitting at his table, he waited for the boy to begin, his hand resting gently on Fawkes.
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Meanwhile, at the other end of the castle;
Hermione chewed on her lip, as her mind processed the parchment set in front of her. Her brows frowned in contemplation, she wrecked her brain in search of the evasive code or solution. Turning the paper over and holding it up to the light once more, Hermione breathed in a sigh. She had been going over this parchment for the last six hours, yet she seemed unable to decrypt it. To her it appeared to be a blank parchment void of any markings except for the tell tale signs of being crumpled.
Prepping up her head on her slender arms, Hermione glared at the paper. Surely there was more to it than met the eye, obviously Professor Dumbledore would not send her a black parchment to go over.
"Hermione?"
Hermione turned around as she heard Harry's voice. Harry looked horrible. Mud caked his clothes and his tanned skin was now pale and drawn taunt. Not far behind him was Ron, who looked no better. His freckles stood against his white face, his hair and clothes both damp and dirty from the horrid weather.
"Hey…" Was all Hermione could manage in reply before she returned to her entombment of books, casting various revealing spells on the blank parchment. Harry and Ron accepted it, they were too tired from training to start a decent conversation and collapsed onto the couches surrounding the burning fire of their own private rooms.
Hermione sighed and prodded the parchment with her wand in frustration. Nothing happened. She glared at the parchment, her thoughts swimming. Suddenly a stray memory pulled its tendrils through her mind. She sat up, it was a far shot but what else did she have?
Rushing out of her chair, she raced up the stairs to her bedroom, startling Ron and Harry out of their dreamy state.
Hermione appeared seconds later flipping through an old large book. Ron sighed and settled back down on the couch, his eyes already closed. Meanwhile, Harry, now a bit more attentive, lay on his couch watching Hermione as she flipped through the book, her eyes once more alert and full of fire.
Drawing out her wand once more, Hermione waved it over the parchment, at the same time uttering, "Parungal" To Harry's amazement, the parchment cleared, revealing paragraphs of penned words. Hermione gasped in excitement.
Her hair wild and eyes shining, Hermione smiled, lighting up her entire face. Seeing Harry was awake, Hermione let out a bright laugh and grabbed his hands, pulling him off the couch.
"I solved it Harry! I SOLVED IT!" she uttered, pulling him into an enthusiastic and vibrant dance, mainly involving jumping up and down. "Don't you see Harry, this is just splendid! We cracked their code, gosh just think of the amount of information we can learn from this! It is amazing Harry. Now we actually have a chance, and to think…Harry do you know what this means? This means that we can practically know their every move! Think about the countless things we can do now!"
Harry smiled as Hermione rambled on. He was glad that his two best friends had accompanied him when Dumbledore called him back to school over the summer. Just being with an ecstatic Hermione, had already diminished his sores and pains from the days training. Her radiating joy seemed almost contagious as Harry found himself smiling and nodding, though Hermione was talking too fast for him to provide input, or more so ever, it was too fast for him to comprehend.
"Slow down Mione, too fast." Harry finally injected, when Hermione stopped for breath.
Hermione shot him a charming smile, "Sorry Harry, but this is just amazing!" Hermione broke off as she saw the sate of his clothes. "Harry! Why didn't you say something?" She asked, waving her wand over his clothes, thus cleansing them.
"Thanks Mione, I've got to learn that one." Harry replied. Hermione smiled nonchalantly, already performing the same spell on Ron, before shaking him awake."Com' on its dinner time, wake up!" Hermione shouted into his ear, pulling him off the couch.
Ron woke up with a start. Grabbing his wand hurriedly he shouted, "Rupydols!" before finally realising his attacker. It was too late, Harry standing to his side, got the blast of the spell, his skin turning a tangy orange with green spots.
"Thanks Ron." Harry replied as he murmured the counter spell, his skin returning to its original colour. Ron, bit back a laugh, "Any time Harry, any time" he replied, already following Hermione, who was long gone, out of their portrait. Indeed the door to their rooms was a painting in the liking of them, given by Professor Dumbledore.
Harry sighed, grabbing the parchment and the book which Hermione read from, she had forgotten them in her haste, he hurriedly followed Ron's lead to the Great Hall.
Harry entered the Great Hall and headed to his usual seat opposite Hermione and Ron. As there were only a few teachers staying in the castle, Dumbledore had arranged a sole table to accommodate to their size, or lack of thereof. Sitting down, he found that Hermione's happiness had hardly subsided. Her mood had lifted the dreary entombment which had seemed to suffocate the castle ever since they had arrived. Now, Harry felt as if he was once again in Third year, way before the war crisis had elevated.
"Harry! Did you hear what Ron said? He believes that cupcakes are a model of cups." Hermione said biting into a cupcake.
"No I am telling you Hermione, trust me on this, you are eating a muffler. I had them with Ginny when we went to muggle London, gosh did we have a hard time deciding what to eat!"
Hermione stared at Ron, before finally realising his implications and burst out laughing.
"You mean muffins don't you?"
"muffins scumuffins what ever, their really good anyways." Ron replied good naturally, biting into his own cupcake/muffin.
"MMmmm fabulosae' " He added kissing his fingers in appreciation.
Hermione broke into peals of laughter, "What? Ron fabulosae' is not even a word!"
Harry reached over and picked a blueberry muffin/cupcake from the pile. "Drop the muffin now Potter." Ron stated, glaring daggers at his friend."Never Weasly!" Harry replied, cuddling the muffin/cupcake in his hand.
"I say Potter, put your arms in the air and step away from the muffin." Ron stated.
"I swear Ron you watch too much television." Hermione added, taking a bite into the last cupcake.
"Hermione! What happened to all the muffins?!"
"Muffins? What muffins?" Hermione added innocently swallowing its last remains.
"Hermione! You ate all the muffins!" Harry stated impeachingly, one hand clamped over his mouth in shock and the other pointed at her accusingly.
"I was hungry, plus they're not muffins. They are cupcakes, muffins are larger." Hermione stated knowingly.
"Nuuhh! Nobody touches my muffins without facing the CONCEQUENCES!" There was a split second before Hermione's mind processed Ron's words. Realising his implications, she hurriedly tried to get out of her seat, with no avail.
"CHARGE!!" Ron cried out, pouncing on Hermione and tickling her bloody murder. Harry joined him seconds later, and soon Hermione was gasping for breath, trying fruitlessly to escape their attacks.
"Hurmmm" Professor Dumbledore cleared his throat, as he entered the Great Hall. There was an immediate effect, and the trio quickly straightened and sat at their places. Professor Dumbledore and the remaining staff members then entered the hall and sat at their respective places.During this, Hermione neatly slammed her foot on both Harry and Ron's ankles. "OWWW, what was that for?" They replied in unison, their hands disappearing under the table to massage their ankles. "Sorry, temporary muscle spasms" Hermione replied with a smile, before turning her attention to her headmaster as he opened the meal.
With that, the starters disappeared of the table and were replaced with more solid food. Ron and Harry attacked their plates with gusto, their hunger perked by the presence of food. Meanwhile, Hermione waited patiently for Professor Dumbledore to finish his conversation with Professor Flitwick before telling him of her findings.
Professor Dumbledore's eyes twinkled with pride, as he listened to Hermione's revelation. In actual fact, Severus had told him the revealing spell not too long ago, it was complicated and thus he had given the parchment to Hermione, hoping to give her the experience at spell breaking. It was only when he heard of the spell which she used did his brows narrow, it was definitely not the spell which Severus spoke of, neither was it of any he had heard off before.
"Ms.Granger, might I see the book from which you retrieved this spell?"
Hermione nodded her head and looked for her book, sighing when she realised that she had left it in her room.
Harry, overhearing their headmaster's comment, retrieved the book from the bench on which he had placed it earlier. Hermione whispered thanks to him as she passed the book over to Professor Dumbledore. He flipped through it. Hermione watched him ardently has the old pages were turned by his wrinkled hands, giving her glances of its content.
"Ms. Granger, may I ask how did you come across this book?"
Hermione blushed slightly and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Actually sir, the book was given to me by my mother when I was very young. It was a book of fairy tales if I recall correctly, and there was one in particular about a witch and a hidden parchment. It drew a parallel to my predicament, and I thought it could be a far shot, if I used it, in reference to the same spell which the witch in the story used to reveal the parchment." Now, Hermione's face was tinged with pink due to her embarrassment, slowly, she brought her eyes upwards, to meet those of her headmaster.
Dumbledore flipped through the book once more, turning to a random page, he opened the book and placed it in front of Hermione. "Would you like to read this for me, Ms.Granger?"
Hermione nodded in assent and began to read out loud, her eyes following the words across the page. The story was of a young girl, and a Dragon. Her voice attracted Harry, who had stopped eating to listen to the delightful tale, soon the entire table had followed suit, all mesmerised by the story and Hermione's enchanting voice.
It was only Ron's voice which woke them all out of their demure. Chewing on a piece of porkpie, he looked over Hermione's shoulder to see from where she had spun her tale. To his surprise, he found the book she was reading from completely blank. Swallowing loudly, he uttered, a bit too harshly then he intended to, "Hermione, don't be daft, the bloody book is empty."
Hermione's mouth closed, prematurely ending the story. She turned around to glare at Ron.
"Ron, I was in the middle of the story!"
Ron, faced with an angry Hermione, reddened. Half of him wanted to curb his tongue and escape from Hermione's wrath while the stubborn other wanted him to stand his point of view. Honestly the book was blinking blank he thought to himself. Harry, shaken out of his demure from the story took a glance at the book on the table. Out of curiosity, he picked it up, flipping through it. He breathed in a sigh.
"Hermione, he's right, the book is completely blank."
"Oh don't be ridiculous!" Hermione shot in exasperation, snatching up the book once more and turning through its pages.
The rest of the table, assuming the story had ended, had returned to their dinners.
Meanwhile, Professor Dumbledore was observing the trio ardently. Hermione was trying desperately to prove to her best friends, of the scripture in the book to no avail. Professor Dumbledore lightly cleared his throat, silence ensued among the trio.
"Ms.Granger, if you may, could you kindly flip back to the story from which you were reading from formerly?"
Hermione flipped back to where her thumb had marked the page. To her amazement, it no longer held the story, but instead the pages were filled with scrawls of some sort. She peered closer to comprehend the untidy writings. "I am assuming the page is not the same Ms.Granger?"
Hermione nodded in agreement, unconsciously biting her lips as she tried to decipher the new penmanship which covered the paper.
"Well then in that case, I am feeling quite full," Professor Dumbledore tapped his tummy in content.
"Would you like to join me in my office for dessert?"
Having grown use to their headmaster's random topics of conversation, Harry and Ron hurriedly agreed. Jumping to their feet they steered Hermione, who was still reading the contents of the book, out of the Great Hall and down the corridors to their head master's office.
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