AN: So I believe I'm going to eliminate the Deathly Hallows altogether and replace it with these extra powers. The horcruxes still need to be destroyed but the person bearing all four objects/stones will have a leg up in a matched fight. That's all I'll give away for now. Thanks so much for the hits and reviews! Okay, read on…
Chapter Eight
"And all the roads we have to walk are winding Because maybe you're gonna be the one that saves me
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would like to say to you, but I don't know how
And after all, you're my wonderwall"
~Oasis
"I told you you'd start to smell." A voice woke me, rather rudely I might say though I would expect no less from her.
"I didn't realize I'd have fallen asleep." I groaned while attempting to get the kink out of my neck from the uncomfortable angle to which I had slept last night.
"You people never do. Go get a shower or and some food or something. I'll get started on this mess awhile." She sounded exasperated but I couldn't help but notice the smile/smirk that came out of the corner of her mouth as she turned her head. Had our world not been so screwed up at the moment, I couldn't help but think that we may have made a good team, and even better friends.
'Maybe if we win, who knows.' I thought to myself as I dragged my bag to the girl's bathroom, not feeling the mood for a bath this morning. Not wanting to waste time I showered as fast as humanely, or magically in this case, possible and decided to search out my two female companion helpers at the Great Hall hoping to catch them before they left breakfast. Thankfully I was in luck.
"Can you believe all the people starting to show up already?" Ron asked as I sat down across from him.
It was true the grounds were littered by people who have traveled from every country and continent to pay their respects. Our small school memorial service the other day would by in no means come near as close to the official one for guests and family that would take place this afternoon at sundown, which reminded me that our time was precious.
"Where have you been, Hermione, we couldn't find you last night." Harry asked as he once again pushed food around on his place under the pretense of 'eating'. He still wasn't over blaming himself for Dumbledore's death yet I could tell. And now with having to leave Ginny, he was even more miserable.
"There's something important I'm researching in the library. I promise I'll tell you guys all about it when I find what I need and when we're…safe." It was true, I couldn't hide this information from them anymore. Knowing that by the end of summer, or at least until after the Weasley wedding, when the three of us would take off to help hunt down the horcruxes, I could fill them in on my plan, and Voldemorts.
"Always researching." Ron laughed into his porridge.
"Do you need any help?" Harry, the ever lovable Harry, asked sadly.
"No, I've got help, but thank you. Besides, you guys should probably go start packing anyway. We'll have to leave right after the funeral for home knowing that this makeshift peace that the Dark Lord is offering is only temporary and he could attack right after." For once they didn't fight with me over this, and I knew I could trust them to get it done. Grabbing Ginny and Luna's attention I nodded for them to follow me back to the library.
Two hours later it seemed like we were once again at a dead end.
"Oh pretty! She's wearing my earrings!" Luna happily announced amidst all the quiet. I ran over to wear the blonde was sitting. Ginny, already sitting beside her looked over her shoulder, and from the corner of the Restricted section I could see Pansy's amber eyes narrow in expectation.
"What book is this, Luna?" Sure enough in a picture on the upper right corner there was a woman rising out of the ocean, blonde hair waving in the breeze, and on her ear was a bluish-silver stone, moonstones. The name under the caption read 'Ran, Sea Goddess.'
"It's a book on mythology. I read it to get names for creatures to look for on expeditions with my father." Ginny shook her head and laughed lightly. 'Oh Luna.' The look on her face read.
Knowing that the other girls weren't sure what I was looking for, I grabbed the book from Luna and took notice of something. Not every god or goddess was necessarily wearing jewelry or stones of any kind in every picture.
"Luna, have you read this entire book before?" I asked, knowing it'd be faster to ask her instead of looking through its 500+ pages.
"Of course, many times." She responded as if insulted in a way. The smile on my face grew, knowing that we could have our answer before leaving Hogwarts.
"Do you remember any other pictures of gods, goddesses, or anyone else wearing any particular jewelry or objects?" I knew, being in Ravenclaw, and with the photographic memory of a child, she would remember if she had seen anything.
"There's a picture, somewhere in the Celtic section of a lady wearing Ginny's ring." She mentioned offhandedly. I hurriedly turned to the section on Celtic Mythology and sure enough within minutes I came across Brigid: Celtic fire goddess, under the B section. And sure enough she was wearing Ginny's ring.
"Well that's odd." Ginny exclaimed, suddenly interested now in our search. I knew Pansy couldn't stay away too long and I saw her moving closer out of the corner of my eye.
"A fire goddess, a sea goddess… Something. There's something I'm missing…"
"Alchemy." Pansy's voice rang out from behind us. Ginny turned around, ready to insult the Slytherin for eaves dropping, but I placed a hand on her shoulder to keep her calm.
"This is a private conversation Parkinson." Ginny announced scathingly.
"Ginny, let her speak." But I already knew the line of thinking that Pansy was on. Alchemy was based around the 4 elements: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air.
"The stones or objects to which hold the stones, must represent the four elements of alchemy." I knew her excitement trumped her worry over Ginny and Luna discovering our secret almost friendship. It was nice to see her without her walls up and defensive attitude.
"Yes. So we know that Brigid represents fire as does the carnelian stone, Ginny's ring. Luna's earrings are moonstone represented by the Norse goddess, Ran, who represents water. We just need to find out earth and air. Luna, can you remember any others you saw?" It seemed as though they concentrated mostly on Western mythology, hopefully, which would greatly narrow down our search. That left Greeco-Roman, possibly Egytpian, Sumerian and other Middle Eastern religions.
"Greeco-Roman, there has to be one from there. It was an extremely valuable time for both the human and magical communities." I stated while Luna turned to the section on Greek and Roman gods and goddesses.
"There, Hermione isn't that the same bracelet as yours?" Ginny exclaimed as we reached, Gaia: a.k.a Mother Earth. Sure enough there on the woman's wrist was the very same bracelet I wore.
"It's the woman from my death dream." I replied off handedly. There wasn't a lion seated next to her this time, but it was still the same woman with the long curly brown hair and brown eyes wearing the traditional white toga.
"Huh?" Ginny asked, confused. I explained that she had helped Harry dispose of Snape's book I was in the hospital wing having a near death experience and talking to the woman pictured in book before us.
"So that leaves air then." Pansy exclaimed in an afterthought, though I had already had my suspicions who would be its representation.
"Luna, turn to the section on Middle Eastern mythology." Ginny was still glaring at Pansy, who was in turn ignoring her and Luna was just idly lost in the clouds obeying what I asked her to do. I was already dreading having to explain everything to everyone after we found out who else this would entail and I secretly hoped for someone to come interrupt us at that point.
"The section is broken down into Egyptian, Sumerian, Babylonian, etc. Where do you want to start?" She asked.
"Skip Egyptian and we'll stick with mainland mythologies." She nodded in affirmation and it took us another fifteen minutes before we stumbled across the 'air' goddess.
"Inanna, Sumerian goddess. Also known as 'the lady of sky' or 'Queen of Heaven.'" Luna read as we all looked upon the picture of a beautiful woman with extremely long black hair and brilliant topaz eyes. We all three looked at Pansy at that moment, myself confirming what I had already expected, the other two confused and yet at the same time understanding why I didn't ask the Slytherin girl to leave. Thank goodness it was them and not the boys, they would have tried to strike first and ask questions later.
"She's wearing your necklace." Ginny commented. I could see from the terrified look on the normally guarded Slytherin's face that she wasn't expecting this. I knew then that our secret was safe from the hands of her Death Eater's father. She was as much of a potential victim as the rest of us. Now the difficult part was finding out what this all meant.
"Okay Granger," ouch, Ginny never used my last name unless she meant business.
"Spill." She finished.
So I told them what I knew about the four stones and how Voldemort wanted the four powers to aid him against Harry.
"But why us? I don't understand why the four of us were chosen?" She continued to ask.
"I don't know the answer to that. All I can assume, given our histories or what I know about us, that something in our past, a chance occurrence or a near fatality or some other significant event in our past made these objects appear." I replied to the group, wanting to know the answer's myself and more about what they all meant.
"But Luna is the only one of us who has been in that kind of accident. You've had that bracelet since Christmas, Hermione. It didn't appear after your encounter between Malfoy and Harry." I loved how she was personally trying to ignore the fact that Pansy was now fully included in all this.
"There's something I've been meaning to say about that…" So I told her about my parents.
"Why didn't you say something! Hermione that's awful! I'm so sorry I didn't know!" She had tears in her eyes, and seeing her emotional support nearly made me lose the calm that I've built around myself since the murders.
"It's okay Ginny. I didn't want anyone to know. At least not until after the war was over. I didn't want Harry to blame himself for yet another death." I responded.
"What about you, Parkinson? We know you're loyal to the Death Eaters, what great event did you suffer to force you to team up with us?" I tried to glare at Ginny to get her to be less scathing but she wouldn't let her eyes off the Slytherin girl for a second. I wondered whether she would tell us or not. She glanced at me, knowing that to break the confidence of our circle I had to actively agree. So I shrugged instead.
"I want another swear circle. All of us this time. So what is said here cannot be used for or against us by anyone. Not even the Dark Lord." She stated narrowing her eyes to the crowd.
So for the second time this year I was sworn, literally, to secrecy in the pinky fashion. The four of us linked fingers, and make the oath. Ginny grumbled hers out, while Luna couldn't have looked happier. This new pact bonded us as more than just friends, we were something more, something bigger now.
"All you need to know about me is I was adopted by the Parkinson's not long after I was born. The necklace was left to me by my birth mother. I don't know who she is, or was, and why she left me nor do I know who my birth father was so don't bother asking." Ginny smiled and I couldn't help but notice it wasn't in genuine happiness.
"So that makes you one of us then doesn't it?" She cocked her head to the side and the smile in place turned deadly. I could feel the headache forming already.
"Careful what you say, Weasley." She replied with equal coolness.
"Hermione! Ginny! We have to get going, the funeral starts soon!" Ron shouted as he bolted into the library. Pansy jumped back and pointed her wand in defense.
"What are YOU doing here?" He asked cruelly.
"Leaving. Tell your sister she should watch what she says me, Weasel!" And with that she stormed off but not before giving me a slight wink out of the corner of her eye. Ron shook his head in disgust and turned back to us.
"Hey Luna." He smiled quickly.
"Hello Ronald." She airily replied.
"You guys go on ahead and get dressed. I want to grab a few things first." They nodded and walked out. I 'accio'd' every book I could think of about alchemy and mythology before tailing behind them back to the dorms.
This funeral was more grand then the small one we held two days prior. There were thousands that turned up from just about everywhere. Witches, wizards, Squibs, centaurs, mermaids, and various other magical beings crowded around. It was sweet, and solemn and a great tribute to this great man. I tried to act like the others, crying and holding onto each other for support, but my mind was in overdrive. I wanted to get back and start reading more about these stones, I wanted to know if Dumbledore prepared Harry enough to go hunting down the horcruxes, I wanted to get started and not remain here amongst the innocent any longer. There would be time enough to mourn when this war was done.
As soon as the services were done we left in a hurry. Shuffled by the Weasley's into the already crowded train with others who stayed for the service. Harry was personally escorted back to his aunt and uncle's house one last time to wait until his birthday when the protection against him would come down and he could join the rest of us at the Burrow for the wedding then the departure.
"Meet me in the girl's lavatory, bring Luna." I whispered to Ginny before leaving the compartment we were squeezed into. I walked past the Slytherin coaches and made brief eye contact with Pansy before heading to the girl's bathroom and placing a lock on the door. One by one the other girls filed into the cramped space and I knew we would be able to talk, albeit briefly.
"I pulled some resources before I left on both alchemy and mythology. We've got a month to research what we can before Harry is 17." I purposely left out the whole, leaving to find horcruxes expedition knowing that no one outside of Harry, Ron, Dumbledore, and I knew about it.
"I need all of you to find out what you can too. We'll need a code to place on our letters so that no one else can read them. A charm that without the password will render our letters to self-destruct."
"I got one." Luna mentioned as she taught us the charm.
"What do you want the code name to be?" I asked them.
"Goddesses!" Ginny happily chimed. Three heads shook no.
"Alchemy?" Luna suggested hesitantly.
"No, too easy." I replied.
"Use colored ink. A mark on the outside of the scroll to notify its sender. Then the responder will draw the alchemic symbol to correspond to it and say the name of its goddess for it to open." Pansy requested.
"That actually sounds good. Really good. And secure. It's safe and efficient on many levels and will help hide our identities. Also, I want you all to hide your artifacts until we're certain that the Dark Lord doesn't know about them. Ginny, keep your ring on a chain around your neck. Luna, wear your hair down whenever possible to hide the stones. Pansy, keep your necklace tucked into your shirt like Ginny. I'll wear my bracelet on my ankle and make sure my legs are always covered." Three heads nodded in unison and one by one the girls left the sanctity of the bathroom to return to their compartments. Ginny and Luna were the first to leave. Pansy held back for a moment. She didn't turn around, her hand was on the knob, and she spoke so softly I could barely hear here.
"Granger," it was the first time she called me anything except Gryffindor or Mudblood.
"You're alright." She smiled and left the room. I chuckled to myself as I waited ten minutes before following her out so as not to bring suspicions.
"You too, Parkinson. You too." I replied to myself knowing she couldn't hear me.
