Omg I'm actually posting a thing on time! Everyone try to stay calm!
Thank you for reading. As always, comments are very appreciated, so let me know what you think. :)
Chapter Nine
The second day of exams was at least somewhat better than the first after finally getting some rest. The heat, the stress, and the pain blooming out from my scar were still troublesome, but at least I could remember a bit more and stop myself from falling asleep in class.
Our Herbology practical was fairly simple and straightforward. All we had to do was re-plant the Flitterblooms we'd been growing during the last few months from their pots to the garden. I was glad to have something uncomplicated to focus on for at least a little while. Professor Sprout asked me if I'd like to take a cutting home, but knowing that my aunt and uncle would never allow me to keep a magical plant in the house, I had to decline.
That night, Hermione, Neville, Malfoy, and I searched the Forbidden Forest again for the Yeerk Pool and found nothing. Every time I rounded a tree I expected Voldemort to suddenly reappear—but to my relief, he never did. We never saw him, and if he saw us, he chose not to reveal himself.
Wednesday night we had to take our Astronomy practical, forestalling any chance we might have had to continue searching. One at a time, we were called up to the Astronomy tower and had to locate the constellations and planets that Professor Sinestra named.
As the week continued, I became more and more anxious that Voldemort would make his move at any second. I had to remind myself that he wouldn't dare try anything while Dumbledore was around. The more frustrating thing was that we still couldn't find the Yeerk Poll and we still had no idea who any of the Controllers were.
But I went to bed on Wednesday with one happy thought: that there was only one more day until we could prove once and for all that Ron wasn't a Controller.
We had written exams every day that week, which remained difficult for me. After Thursday's written exam was the Transfiguration practical, where we had to turn a mouse into a silver snuffbox. There weren't any whiskers on my final snuffbox, though there was a tiny pair of silver ears that got me graded down.
Afterwards, Hermione asked me if she could use Hedwig to send a letter to her parents. Once we asked Neville to keep an eye on Ron, I walked with Hermione to the owlery. She was babbling excitedly about the exams and reviewing her answers, looking for mistakes.
"I don't think I forgot anything on my Charms exam, but I am a bit worried about my Transfiguration exam, I think I might have misunderstood one of the questions, and I think I mixed up two of the answers," Hermione said nervously. "I've just been so tired and thinking about other things. I'll just have to do that much better on the potions exams tomorrow, I suppose—"
"Hermione," I said. "Calm down, you're going to do just fine. Trust me, you could do a lot worse. I'll be lucky if I don't fail everything."
I told her about all of the trouble I was having with my exams as we climbed up the stairs of the owlery. We found Hedwig in her customary spot.
"Hello Hedwig," I said softly. I'd gained a new appreciation for owl hearing from personal experience and tried to keep my voice down around her ever since. "Could you take this letter to Hermione's parents for me?"
I put the letter in Hedwig's beak and petted her head. She stretched her wings before flying out of the owlery. Hermione and I watched as she flew away.
"I wonder how they do that," I asked suddenly.
"What?"
"You know, find people, deliver letters to them," I said. "She doesn't know where your parents live after all."
"I wrote their address on the envelope," Hermione said.
"But it's not like she can ask for directions," I said. "And she can't read. At least I don't think so."
Hermione shrugged. "It must be something to do with magic."
"Like they're magically able to locate people?" I asked. Hermione nodded. We continued to watch Hedwig until she had flown out of eyesight
It finally hit me like a Bludger to the head. I whipped around to stare at Hermione. "That's it! I can't believe we didn't realize it before!"
"What?" Hermione asked. She thought about it for a second, and seemed to come to the same realization that I had. "You mean—we can use our owl morphs to find the Yeerk Pool? But why haven't we been able to find it until now?"
"We didn't have a letter!" I said. "It must only work if the owl is trying to deliver something!"
Hermione considered that. "Maybe… It could work, couldn't it? We could actually find the Yeerk Pool!"
"Come on, we've got to tell the others!" We ran all the way down the stairs and back across the grounds to the main castle.
After letting Neville know what we would be doing, we found Malfoy studying in the library with Crabbe and Goyle.
"No, no, no," he was saying. "We've been over this—Akhenaton died in 1363 BC, not 1633 AD. Honestly, could you at least try to pay attention? And curved ivory wands were used by the Egyptians in the second millennium, not the first."
"Sorry," said Goyle.
Crabbe spotted us first. "What are you doing here, Potter?"
"Malfoy, we need to talk to you," I said breathlessly.
Malfoy's eyebrows rose. "Alright. Crabbe, Goyle, you're doing alright here, aren't you?"
We left the library and went down one of the corridors. There was a tapestry on the wall that hid a spiral staircase. The staircase was a shortcut down to the second floor, but it would also serve our needs as a private place to talk. We stood close together in the gloom, tiered on three consecutive steps.
"What is it?" Malfoy asked. "What's going on? Have you found the Pool?"
"No," I said. "But we might have found a way to find it."
"We're going to use our owl morphs," Hermione said. "Owls can find anyone in the world to deliver mail, even if the person sending it doesn't know where they are, so we're going to write a false letter addressed to someone in the Yeerk Pool and use that ability to find its location."
Malfoy's eyes widened. "That's brilliant!"
"Do you think it will work?" I asked.
"I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't," Malfoy said. That reassured me. Malfoy was raised in the wizarding world, after all. He'd know more about how owl post worked than me or Hermione. "Do you have any parchment to write the letter?"
Hermione reached into her bag and pulled out a parchment and quill. "What shall we write?"
"We're not actually going to deliver it," I said. "We've just got to put what we're looking for on the outside.
Despite my words, Malfoy wrote a brief message on the inside. A thoughtful expression appeared on his face before he signed it with a grin. Then he folded the parchment into a square and wrote an address on the side, which he showed to us to check for our approval:
To - any Controller
Yeerk Pool
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Hogsmeade, Scotland
"Right, that should work," Hermione said with a nod.
We quickly went outside and searched for a good place to hide while we morphed. Deciding on the far side of the Quidditch pitch, which was currently empty, we ran across the grounds until we were in the hiding spot.
"Who wants to be our delivery owl?" Malfoy asked.
"I'll do it," I said. I waved my wand over my clothes. "Gearwe Awendendylic!"
"There's no one around," Hermione said, peeking around the edge of the Quidditch pitch.
I closed my eyes and morphed into Hedwig. Within half a minute, I had finished the transformation. [Okay, give me the letter.]
Malfoy held out the letter, and I snatched it with my beak. It was a little unusual trying to take off while carrying something in my mouth, but once again the owl's instincts helped make up for my lack of experience. I soared up over the Quidditch pitch.
"We'll be along in a couple seconds!" Hermione called.
I flew higher, looking forward to finding the Yeerk Pool at last. Soaring over the lake, I thought I would be compelled to fly towards the Forbidden Forest. But something… something seemed to be calling me. Something in the back of my mind, like the owl's instincts. I carefully tried to focus on that call.
Suddenly, the world seemed to be lit up with glowing lines. I couldn't exactly see them, but I could feel them. It felt like they were laying across the ground below, marking out several different paths. And the brightest… But that couldn't be right. The brightest one would lead me right back to the school. There had to be some kind of mistake…
I felt a pull. The owl's instincts were threatening to take over. It had to follow that path. That path was what it was meant for, what it lived for. The siren call of that invisible magic line was irresistible. I found myself flying in the direction it told me without conscious thought.
Shaking my head, I finally regained control of my mind. [Hermione, Malfoy, it's telling me to go back to the school. Don't morph; I think we have to go inside and you've got to come open doors for me.]
As I crossed the lake again, I could see two tiny figures race across the grounds from the Quidditch Pitch. I followed the path from the boathouse up the cliffs that faced the lake. Swooping through one of the large arched gateways leading to the paved courtyard, I found I could go no farther without help, so I perched on the railing of the upper walkway to wait for the others.
The paved courtyard was a popular hang-out for the Slytherin students, so I usually avoided it. A large group of older students were sitting together, apparently relaxing after the day's exams. Smaller clusters of younger students were also scattered about. I eavesdropped on some of their conversations only to find that it was actually pretty mundane and wouldn't have been unusual to hear in the Gryffindor common room. Disappointed by the lack of juicy gossip, I returned my attention to the entrance.
At long last, Hermione and Malfoy appeared. They spotted me on my perch and started to cross the courtyard.
"Hello, Malfoy!" called one of the Slytherin second years, named Artemus Pike. He smirked at Hermione. "So, what's she doing here? Got yourself a little Mudblood girlfriend, have you?"
"Ugh! Don't be disgusting, Pike," Malfoy sneered. "I'd never and you know it."
"You're such a know-it-all, Granger, I'd think you'd know that we don't like it when Gryffindors come here acting like they own the place," said Pansy Parkinson, a girl in our year. "But I guess going where you don't belong is what Muggleborns do best, isn't it?"
"The school doesn't belong to you," Hermione said, standing up proudly even though there was a slight quiver to her voice. "I don't need your permission to be here."
By then, the older Slytherin students had noticed the confrontation and a few had wandered over.
"Hello, dear, you must be lost," one of the girls said, her voice sickly sweet with mocking kindness. "Little Gryffindor girls don't belong here."
"What did you bring her here for, Malfoy?" asked one of the boys, shoving Malfoy's shoulder slightly, though he kept his expression friendly. "Got a thing for Gryffindors, eh?"
"Yeah, I saw you eating breakfast with them the other day," said a second boy. "Is it fun, being the Gryffindors' pet Slytherin?"
"I'm not anyone's pet, least of all Granger's," Malfoy said disdainfully. "Now leave us alone. We're just passing through on our way to—to meet Professor Snape."
"Really? Why didn't you go the other way, then?" The first boy sneered.
"Because this way was closer," Malfoy said. "And I don't have to explain myself to half-blood trash like you, anyway."
The boy scowled as some of the crowd started to laugh. Malfoy shoved past the other Slytherins, dragging Hermione along by the sleeve of her robes.
Pike chuckled. "Wonder how you'll explain to Lucius Malfoy that his son turned out to be a Muggle-lover."
Malfoy whirled around and drew his wand. "Retrogenus!"
Pike let out a startled shout and toppled to the ground, accompanied by gales of laughter from those around him. It appeared that he had been hit with an accomplished knee-reversing hex.
"Anyone else wants to call me a Muggle-lover, I'll do much worse to you!" Malfoy shouted. He led Hermione the rest of the way to the stone veranda I was perched on. I swooped down after them, landing on Malfoy's shoulder.
Behind me, I could hear someone shout, "Why don't you go home, Muggle!"
[Are you alright, Hermione?] I asked.
"Yes, I'm fine," she said, though she sounded a bit subdued. She and Malfoy exchanged awkward glances before quickly looking away. "Where do we go now?"
[Right, through that doorway there,] I said. The doorway led to a long spiral staircase, which carried us underground.
"What does this mean?" Hermione asked as we walked down the steps. "The Yeerk Pool is under the school?"
"Impossible," Malfoy said. "We walk through here every day, someone in Slytherin would have noticed something by now. Maybe something's wrong with your tracking senses, Potter."
The spiral staircase led to a curved hallway with rough stone walls and round lanterns hanging from the ceiling. At the end of the hallway there was a door leading to a long corridor with several others branching off of it, all lined with torches. As we passed, Malfoy pointed out where each of the corridors went. This was far beyond anywhere I'd ever gone in the dungeons, but that strange line continued to pull me in the direction I had to go.
Eventually, we passed through an arched doorway into a round room with a massive curved staircase. We went to the center of the room and looked up to see that the staircase seemed to go on forever. Though where we stood was roughly carved from slightly damp stone, we could see that as it went higher, the simple stone incline changed to marble steps and the dank walls faded into to smooth grey concrete.
[Where does this go?] I asked
"To the sixth floor, beneath the north tower," Malfoy said. "The third-years and up use it as a shortcut to and from the Divination classroom."
"Where does that corridor go?" Hermione asked. She was pointing to another archway on our left. I could hear water flowing from somewhere beyond it.
"The natural cave system beneath the school," Malfoy said. "At the end there's another staircase that leads up to the east corner of the Transfiguration courtyard. But there's nothing down there but some rocks and torches, I've walked through there more times this year than you could count."
[But the owl is telling me that we have to go down there,] I said.
Malfoy sighed. "We're not going to find anything."
"Come on, this is the best lead we've gotten," Hermione said.
"Alright, alright," Malfoy said. He led the way down into the cave. It was a narrow tunnel that sloped down from the staircase tower and curved to the left. We followed the tunnel as it snaked through the rock and soil, Hermione and Malfoy's footsteps echoing all around us.
The sound of flowing water got louder, until the tunnel widened into a long cavern where stalactites (or were they stalagmites? I always get them mixed up) hung from the ceiling. The path stayed to the left of the cavern and continued out of sight as the tunnel narrowed once more. To the right of the walkway was a drop off cordoned off by a metal safety railing. The sound was coming from there. Hermione walked over and Malfoy followed. A few feet below the walkway, there was a narrow river that flowed so fast there was a light spray rising from it.
"Where is that river coming from?" Hermione asked. "The lake?"
"No, it's actually flowing to it," Malfoy said, looking pleased to have found something he knew that Hermione did not. "I think it comes from a spring in the mountains to the north. That's where the school gets its fresh water. This isn't far from the place where it drains out into the lake."
"How interesting," Hermione said, leaning over the railing to peer more closely at where the water entered the cavern.
"In fact, the lake itself is more like reservoir, because water drains out of it continually— there's a large underground river that can actually be used to travel by magical boat from the ocean to the lake, though in recent history it's been blocked off with protective charms so that water and fish are all that can travel through it," Malfoy explained. "Hogwarts actually receives a lot of its magical energy from this river and the lake, because—"
"Jiang's Observation of Water, which states that any movement of a body of water generates magical energy, its strength determined by the water's mass, the amount of movement and the sum of its contaminants," Hermione quoted. "I remember reading that the school is powered by water in Hogwarts, a History. But I thought that was all the lake, I never realized that there was a river beneath the school."
"Of course you know about Jiang's Observation," Malfoy muttered sullenly. "Jiang Min was the first to argue that water—rather than fire—was the most magical element because of her Observation. In fact, Jiang's Observation is the foundation of all potion-making. We have a tapestry of her in the Slytherin dormitories."
"Well, from what I understand, fire—"
[Come on, I'm not here to watch you two talk about water,] I said finally. [We've got to find the Yeerk Pool in case you've forgotten!]
"Er—sorry," Hermione said sheepishly.
[Just keep going down the tunnel,] I said.
We continued down the path as the tunnel around us narrowed. There was a curve to the right, followed by a tight curve to the left.
"We're almost to the staircase," Malfoy said. "I told you there wasn't any—"
The invisible line suddenly tugged in the opposite direction.
[Wait, stop!] I said.
"What?" Malfoy asked, freezing in place. "What's wrong?"
[Turn around, walk back the way we came,] I said.
Slowly, Malfoy and Hermione did as instructed.
[There! Stop!] I said. The tug was very powerful now. We were close. But it was leading me somewhere that didn't appear to exist—all I faced was a solid stone wall, the same as any other section of the tunnel.
"There's nothing there," Hermione said.
[Things in the wizarding world aren't always how they seem,] I said.
Malfoy raised his hands, palms facing out, and took a few slow steps towards the wall. His hands faded through the rock. With another step, he and I had passed through the illusion.
We were standing on a metal platform in a small, dark cavern. Below the grate of the platform I could see a short waterfall. Ahead of us, the tunnel continued out of sight.
Hermione emerged through the illusion behind us a second later. As it was too difficult for human eyes to see clearly in the darkness, she drew her wand. "Flammula Ceruleus!"
Her signature bluebell flames radiated from her wand and hovered around us in the air, giving enough light for her and Malfoy to see.
"Oh my God," Malfoy breathed. "This… this has been here the whole time. I've been walking right by it all year."
"What should we do?" Hermione asked.
I considered it for a few minutes. Deeper in the tunnel I could faintly hear… splashing. Something humming. Growls. [We'll leave this for now. We know where it is, that's the important thing. Tonight will be the end of the three days—we'll tell Ron. About everything. Then we can come back, all five of us.]
"Alright," Malfoy said. "Now let's get out of here before somebody comes by."
We walked back through the illusion and continued down the tunnel until we reached a long spiral staircase. At the top, there was a small chamber that led to the Transfiguration courtyard.
"It's all clear," Hermione said.
I swooped down from Malfoy's shoulder and de-morphed. I realized that I was still carrying the letter in my mouth. On a whim I opened it up to see what Malfoy had written inside.
"'Attention Alien Slugs: This is a notice of eviction. Please remove yourself from this planet immediately. Failure to comply will result in a severe thrashing. Signed, the Animorphs'," I read, laughing. "Animorphs? Who are they?"
"They're us, genius," said Malfoy, though he looked a bit self-conscious about it. "Animal morphers—Animorphs. Makes sense, I thought."
"That's the dumbest name I ever heard," I said. Malfoy looked a bit stung at first, but he quickly realized that I was teasing him and kicked me in the shin.
As I tore up the letter and stuffed the pieces in my pocket, planning to throw them in the common room fire later, I couldn't help but smile. Everything was finally starting to work out.
