A/N: As promised, the next chapter!
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own Harry Potter. Or fortunately, depending on how you look at it.
Chapter Twelve
The Riddle Box
Esme entered the Hogwarts Common Room that night feeling jumpy. The excitemment from the tournament had not yet worn off; she felt giddy, and had to sit down before she threw up- or worse, fainted.
"Go on, then!" Fred was saying as Victoire's hand hovered over the lid.
"Yeah, go on!" Emma encouraged. Esme perched on the back of the armchair she'd been sat on as all the older students gathered around to watch. Victoire tried to open it, but to no avail; instead, she got out her wand and tapped it, muttering, "Alohomora".
The box lid opened all by itself, and a bright gold light spilled out of it, making everybody blink. A soft tune came up from the box, wordless but nonetheless pretty. Esme yawned, feeling tired; Victoire pulled a slip of parchment from the box and slammed the lid shut. The music was cut off, and everybody was blinking, fully awake once again.
"What's it say?" the sixth year Kirk Juan asked curiously. Victoire cleared her throat before reading aloud.
"I sing to you
Until your eyes fall heavy;
I make pain come and go
Before you're ready
Beware the pain of my song
And the sleep it brings;
If I have may way you will never awake
Fly away on death's sweet wings..."
Victoire looked up, her blue eyes wide and frightened.
"Hmm... sounds like some sort of dark creature," Matthew Byron said after a while. "Maybe try checking out the Beauxbaton's library?"
"Yeah, I'll do that," Victoire said, still looking terrified.
The next day Esme met Laura outside the Beauxbaton's library; the older girl held the tarnished box in her hand. If it weren't for that, Esme might not have recognised her friend; her hair was short and spiky, and bight neon orange. Her eyes, in contrast, were neon green, and glimmering with excitement.
"Have you opened it yet?" Esme asked. Laura shook her head.
"No, I'll do it now. In here!" She grabbed Esme by the sleeve and pulled her into an abandoned classroom opposite the library. Then she tapped her wand to the box and muttered: "Alohomora."
The box lid flew open, and a horrible screeching came from it. Esme let out a pained cry and flung her hands over her ears; it did nothing to drown out the awful noise. Black smoke began to rise from the box, making her cough; then the noise was cut off, the smoke cleared, and Laura was staring at the box in contempt. In her hand she held a crumpled piece of parchment, which she now unfolded. She read through it twice, then thrust it over to Esme. Esme read what it said:
We are not to be seen
But instead to be heard
Our teeth are sharp and our claws ready
Of our voices, you would not hear a word
Our language makes your ears bleed
Our teeth make you hurt even more
Our bite is worse than our bark
You will come away a shadow of what you were before...
"...Esme?" Laura asked hesitantly. Esme looked up, and saw Laura's green eyes wide with fear. "What am I going to do?"
"Research," Esme said fiercely. "Lots and lots of research. Victoire's riddle- we heard hers last night- sounded just as frightening. But you wont be in any real danger, the teachers will step in and help if worst comes to worst."
"Okay," Laura said, breathing deeply as if to calm herself down. "So... to the library?"
"Yup," Esme agreed. "Put the box in your bag, you never know... it might come in handy."
"Since when?" Laura asked, her face scrunching up as she put the box into her bag.
"You never know when you might need to make someone's ears bleed," Esme joked, and Laura snorted. The two of them made their way into the library, and Esme stopped for a moment.
The library was made of the same stone as the rest of the school. It was huge, bigger than the Great Hall, with a large glass dome for a roof. The walls were full of shelves and there were more shelves arranged in a sort of maze-like pattern; in the large gaps between several shelf-walls there were long tables with little lamps and a spare quill and parchment for students.
"C'mon, the Dark Creatures section is this way," Laura said, and led Esme through the unnavigable maze. How does she know where she's going? Esme wondered.
"These three sections here," Laura finally said, waving at three gaps to enter the rows of tables. Two of them were empty, but in one Esme spotted Victoire, Fred, Emma and a boy wearing Beauxbaton's uniform.
"You go and start looking stuff up," Esme told her, "I'm just gonna go say hi to Victoire."
"You what? Oh, okay then. I'll be at the far end one!"
Esme walked into the small section- which Esme had decided to call 'Bookrooms' for lack of a better word- and walked over to where the Hogwarts students and Beauxbaton's boy were sat.
"Hey," she greeted, and Victoire looked up.
"Oh, hi Esme!" she greeted. "Isn't this place huge?"
"Yup!" Esme agreed. "Found anything yet?" Victoire's face fell and she shook her head.
"The closes thing we've found so far is a Siren, or maybe a Raven Mocker. I doubt it's those two, though."
"Oh well," Esme said. "Just keep searching!" With that, she bade them goodbye and went to find Laura. The Metamorphmagus had changed her appearance, so now her hair was long again, this time in wavy auburn. When she looked up, Esme saw that her eyes were blue.
"Hey," she said. "Sit down, and pick up a book!" She gestured to a large pile of books, and Esme grinned. Sitting down, she took one off the top, and began to read.
A/N: Wouldn't you just looooove the Beauxbaton's library? I would! So, next chapter uploaded straight away!
-Invisi
