And I'm back
Chapter Nine: Hunting the Hunter
January 2nd rolled around far too quickly for Carionax's liking, and with the students return the other founders returned to their portraits, hoping to see if they could find any clues to help with the search, however they had yet to return, however the council arrived before the feast and They sat around the table,
"Let this the 16th meeting of the Slytherin Council 1959 begin, in attendance, are the Keeper, our Knights, The Lord and Duke, The Prince, Hatchling and Queen. Overseeing events, Lord Salazar Slytherin" Hyacinth smiled,
"An Old Business?" Cullen asked,
"The persistence of the hooded figure, and his repeated attacks on students" Carionax told them, "He appeared once over the holidays and Salazar was right, he knows Umbrakinesis… I had to fall back to my own elemental Magic to stop him"
"This is troubling, he keeps popping up" Hyacinth frowned,
"It is rumoured, amoung the learned circles that one whom is skilled in Umbrakinesis can see through any illusions, such as an Invisibility cloak or disillusionment charm" Salazar hummed, "I have never tried though, that might be why your trap never got him"
"It is a worry, however until we learn more it is not something to concern the council" Hyacinth told them, "Another old business is our house points, what do they stand at?"
"315" Ferox replied, "it leaves us in a solid 55 point lead over Ravenclaw who has 260 points, Hufflepuff is in third with 190 points and then Gryffindor in last with negative 25 points, after Hyacinth's 175 point deduction, along with McGonagall's 150 point deduction for the attack on Carionax"
"That is good, we have also won the last two Quidditch matches, that means as long as we score over 120 points in the next match we are guaranteed the Qudditch Cup this year" Domenic told them, "If we score less than 120 points, then we will have to hope Gyrffindor lose to Ravenclaw, otherwise they will win"
"I have been watching the Lion's train" Drake told them, "They are good, but Ravenclaw is far better. Their seeker is exceptional"
"That bodes well" Hyacinth smiled, "Keep up training, I hope that we have both the House and Quidditch cup for Slytherin this year"
"Any other old business?" Cullen asked, "No… onto new business… anyone?"
"I have a piece" Carionax nodded his eyes flicking to Salazar, "During the Holidays I received a number of books of spells, potions and other things, I was bringing them here when I interrupted a meeting in this very room…"
"But no-one can get inside, only the council can" Hyacinth scowled,
"That is true" Carionax nodded,
"But how could you have interrupted a meeting in this room then?" Drake asked,
"Because, there were three people extra in this room, the Lord Gyrffidor, the Ladies Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, meeting with the Lord Slytherin" Carionax replied,
"Merlin's Beard…. They were here?" Kinnard asked, "I heard only rumours they too were around, but to actually meet all four founders of Hogwarts… such a thing is unheard of"
"Indeed, they have portraits in the castle, however, due to their houses abandoning them, they are lost, they have asked us to find them" Carionax told them all,
"Find the other founders portraits…. It will be near impossible" Cullen scowled,
"But not impossible" Carionax replied, "If we can get the Original Founders maps from the restricted section in the Library and a map of Hogwarts as it current is, we can cross reference them…"
"and find the doorway yes, but how do we get into the rooms, they each have a password known only to the council of that house, and as the Council's of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw has not met in over 200 years, it will be impossible for us to find the password to get the portraits!" Hyacinth told him,
"Lord Slytherin, do the other founders know the passwords?" Carionax asked,
"They do, and when you have found one, I shall ask the appropriate one what the password is and you can then retrieve them and bring them in here, it will be…. Interesting to have company all the time, as long as I am not stuck alone with saintly Gyrffindor I will be fine" Salazar replied with a hum,
"I'll ask Slughorn to grant us access to the restricted section of the Library, that will be easy to get the founders map, however a map of Hogwarts as it is now, next to impossible" Drake frowned,
"there is a way, it will require magic's that have not been tapped for over a century, the Castrum spell, it creates a living map of the castle, and it inhabitants" Salazar replied, we could hang it on the wall and use it as a security measure, and hopefully find out whom the attacker is"
"This is all well and good, but we will need to hide it from the other houses, if they hear we have passes to the restricted section of the Library, they will immediate turn hostile as they will believe we are taking the dark arts books that are held within" Cullen frowned,
"That is defiantly agreed, we will need to do it when there are as few students in the Library as possible" Hyacinth frowned
"The Gryffindor Vs. Ravenclaw Quidditch match, everyone will be out supporting their team, it will not look very unusual for Slytherin to have two or three people missing when it is ongoing" Cullen smirked,
"Agreed, so we will have to get the permission to attend the Restricted section of the library on March 25th This way no-one will walk in on us other than the Librarian and she used to be a Slytherin" Ferox summed up,
"Very well, Carionax, please fetch us the largest sheet of parchment you can find, Professor Nightingale may have a large enough one, you don't have do it now before March 25th would be easiest. I shall ask Slughorn for special permission to enter the restricted section, Domenic, Cullen please follow Carionax, ensure he is not attacked, Drake, Kinnard, Tompkin with me… Ferox, please continue to notate
With that the council rose and rushed off.
(25th March)
The council set to work immediately when they awoke, Carionax found a massive sheet of parchment in which they could create a map of Hogwarts, and Hyacinth had the permission note from Professor Slughorn clutched in her hand, Drake and Kinnard would be acting as watchers, while the rest of the council searched for the founders maps.
Slughorn was aware of why the council of Slytherin needed the permission, as did McGonagall, Harris and Ashwell, the heads of houses were very interested in aiding with the recovery of the Founders Portraits, knowing it would be a source of great wisdom and knowledge to them and the school.
Breakfast seemed to drag by as the council spoke calmly and watched the hall, when nearly everyone had slipped out to the match, the council nodded and rose as one, they separated, some going through one way, others heading other ways, so that it did not look too suspicious.
As they arrived at the library they started to take their positions, Carionax would be sitting at a desk near the centre of the room, he was pretending to read a book on dragons while Hyacinth, Cullen, Domenic and Ferox would enter the restricted area.
They worked quickly, however after ten minutes, Hyacinth reappeared, "Hatchling, would you come and help"
"Of course" Carionax nodded and walked forward and entered the area, he walked into the isles and looked down at the books, many were nameless black tomes, however a few had writing on the back,
The Rise of A Dark Lord by G. Grindlewald
The Dark Arts embodied, a guide to everything painful by A. Dread
Darker Arts and Rituals by P. Wulfric
Shuddering slightly he walked to the back area, where shelving units sat, hundreds of scrolls sat, he saw the others delicately removing scrolls and unfurling them on a table, shaking their head before replacing them on the shelves, many he noticed contained strange symbols for the dark arts of summoning or necromancy.
"What's Summoning?" Carionax asked slightly,
"It's a daemonic art, used to summon Daemons or other Dark Creatures… best left well enough alone, even Dark Lord Grindlewald wasn't made enough to mess around with Summoning" Hyacinth told him, looking over a scroll, "Some of these are summoning healing Spirits…. I wonder why Dumbledore hides these away… I mean the ones that summon a Daemon I could understand, but something that is pure and light like this…"
"I Think it might be due to the fact that if drawn incorrectly a summoning circle is dangerous, look at the warnings, if drawn incorrectly… a door is opened to the realm of Daemons" Ferox read,
"Best left well alone then" Hyacinth nodded rolling up the scroll again, as they searched they found ancient documents, written in runes, archaic or some long dead languages, they found treaties that should Hogwarts ever come under attack, they could use to rally magical creatures to their aid, they found maps of Gringotts that showed dozens of hidden tunnels that lead to the deepest vaults and even old letters, so made their eyes burst as they saw the signatures.
"Look… this is a letter sent from Merlin to Morgana!" Ferox whispered, "And look this is from Lord Gryffindor to Lord Slytherin!"
"This is amazing; all this history locked away where no-one can appreciate it" Hyacinth spoke softly, they continued looking through them, finding more complex summoning diagrams and some papers of dark curses or hexes, a couple from Vampires explaining the complexity of Blood Magic, and one that seemed to be written in blood.
"if we don't find it soon we'll have everyone bearing down on us fresh from the Quidditch match" Cullen hissed, as they all continued to search for the founders map.
After ten minutes, they found it, the map looked as Ancient as it was, carefully as they could they rolled it back up and made their move towards the door when they saw them, the entire library was full, and every eye was on them.
"Oh Shit" Hyacinth summed up watching as everyone saw the scroll in their arms….
And done…
Next time: The War of the Houses.