A/N
I wasn't happy with how I ended the last chapter so I added a bit to make it better, so if you read my notes at the end, carry on reading here.
Chapter 3
Graecum est, non Legitur
Everyone stood in shock as they watched Ron, and Goyle, although Harry didn't really care about him, fall through the walls that had definitely been solid just a moment ago. They broke from their daze and Harry ran up and carefully placed his hands against the wall.
"It's just like the barrier at platform nine and three-qua-!" Hermione's exclamation was cut off, as Harry pushed himself through the wall and into the room, the room he had seen from outside the window. Ron and Goyle were standing up, the fact that they had been fighting a moment ago all but forgotten, and glancing about warily.
"Are you okay, Ron?" Harry hurried to his friend.
Ron was rubbing the back of his red-head and grimacing slightly, "Just got a small bump, when this idiot (Goyle growled) ran into me."
The others were making their way inside as well, including Malfoy and Crabbe with curiosity overcoming animosity, and they stood there staring at the wide pillar ahead. On the stone surface was a full length mirror, much taller than anyone currently standing there. Harry and the others suddenly came to a startling realisation and quickly turned around to look at the wall behind them. There was a rectangular frame of wood, just like on the other side of the wall, that marked the entrance to the room and it was exactly what the reflection on the mirror was showing. What the mirror wasn't showing, however, were any of the eight Hogwarts students that had just entered through the hidden doorway.
Ron walked over closer to the mirror and waved his hand in front of it, but nothing happened. He voiced the question on everyone's mind, "Is this a mirror or not?"
No one answered him. Harry took a closer look at the mirror itself. It was framed on three sides with a thin and simple dark wood, but on the top were four animals, ornately carved as part of the frame. A badger, an eagle, a lion and a serpent, the four animals that represented the four houses of Hogwarts. They were all facing towards a large key placed squarely in the centre at the top of the frame, it seemed to be made of a greyish silver metal. Just under the key something was written in a language Harry didn't recognise.
"Apu ovia?" Ron slowly mouthed the word, looking back towards Harry who just shrugged, he didn't have any more of a clue than Ron did about the word.
"I don't think that's right," Hermione said, looking very excited, "I don't think it's written in English... It might be.. hold on a moment, I think one of the books had something like that."
She turned around and carefully made sure that the portal through the wall was still open, and quickly dashed back outside. Sue and Harry looked around the room, but found that the mirror was the only thing of interest. There was the sound of a scuffle and Harry turned back towards the center of the room, where Goyle had pushed Ron away from the mirror and Malfoy was standing in front of it staring intently.
"This looks very old, very valuable." Malfoy muttered, completely ignoring Ron's angry glare. He moved closer to it raising his hands to touch the glass surface, when he suddenly jumped back with a yelp, raising his wand and pointing it all around the room.
The blond haired boy was looking over his shoulders at the mirror, and eventually held his wand pointed in the direction of Ron, who raised his own wand with a snarl, "What do you think you're doing Malfoy! Point that wand somewhere else or I'll stick it up your-"
"Shut up Weasley. There's something in this room..." Malfoy's voice was shaking slightly and there was no bite in his words towards Ron, which made him more uneasy than having a wand pointed at him.
"What are you talking about?" Ernie slowly raised his wand as well, and like everyone else was glancing around the room, looking for a hidden intruder.
"There was.. a shadow.. or something.. on the reflection.. THERE!" Malfoy jumped around and yelled a jinx above the frame of the entrance. The red sparks just hit the stone wall and disappeared harmlessly. Ignoring the startled shouts from the others in the room, he turned back to face the mirror, wand gripped tightly in his hand. Harry moved in closer, passing a panicking Goyle who didn't immediately step in to protect his Slytherin friend, and stared into the mirror standing besides Malfoy. He then saw it too.
It was a dark grey mist, that gathered together to form a shape that might have been vaguely human, then dissipated back to wispy strands. From the reflection, Harry could see that it was floating in the corner of the room, slowly moving down, Harry briefly glanced back and saw that if the mirror was able show the students as well, the mist would be occupying the same space as Sue.
With a snarl, Malfoy once again turned around and pointed his wand with a curse on the tip of his tongue. Harry instantly reacted, grabbing his arm and pointing it towards the ceiling and away from Sue, "Stop it Malfoy! It's not in this room!"
Malfoy pulled his arm away from Harry's grip with an annoyed grunt and glanced again at the mirror, but the shadow had moved and disappeared from view again. Harry kept his eyes on the reflection, as well as Malfoy, and asked, "Sue, just a moment ago did you feel anything?"
"What do you mean?" Sue looked confused and scared.
"Just now, did it feel like.. I don't know.. touching a ghost or something? Or anything else, did you feel any different?" Harry asked again.
"No.. I don't think so?" she squeaked.
"Draco... we should leave..." Crabbe, whom Harry had never heard speak before, whispered softly. Malfoy looked at Crabbe, and then at Goyle who was still warily looking at the corners of the room. The blond haired boy nodded and slowly edged backwards, facing the mirror at all times. He suddenly stumbled, grabbing Crabbe for support and raised a shaking wand towards the mirror.
Everyone in the room could see it this time, the shadow had returned, floating directly in front of the reflective surface, and Harry was sure that it could see them just as well. The others were following Malfoy's example and backing away, slowly and trying not to make any sudden movements. The mist seemed to quiver and shift slightly, taking in the sight of each of them in turn, Harry thought he could feel it's eyes on him and shivered.
It shifted again slightly then it stilled completely, as if holding it's breath. Something was about to happen and Harry didn't want to be in the room when it did. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea and started moving slightly quicker, but Malfoy seemed to have frozen on the spot.
"Hey Draco. Come on!" Crabbe gripped the back of Malfoy's robes and gave it a gentle tug, trying to get him moving again, but the blond boy just stood there, shivering.
The shadow suddenly twisted into a semi-human face, mouth gaped open in a silent scream and crashed into the mirror, which rattled slightly. Everyone jumped back, including Malfoy who crashed into Crabbe behind him, but as he was falling, he raised his wand and gave a frightened shout, "Serpenmorsa!"
With the sound of a whip, a long thin shape shot out of Malfoy's wand. With a hiss, the end reared up and the upper half of a snake, still connected to the wand, bared it's fangs and launched itself at the shape in the mirror. The teeth hit the glass with a sharp crack and was dragged down by it's own weight making a horrible scraping noise, before disappearing with a puff of smoke.
When the smoke cleared Harry saw that the dark shape in the mirror had vanished once more, but he could also see a small chip where the fangs had hit. The glass shuddered and a splinter of glass fell to the floor. Slowly, from that spot, the glass started to crack until it resembled a spiderweb covering the whole surface. It continued until it reached the edges of the frame, and the metallic key snapped in two and fell to the floor. Then the cracks on the mirror started to smoke.
The Slytherins turned tail and ran, pushing everyone out of the way and Harry onto the floor. Ron was trying to help Harry up, at the same time watching in horror as whatever was trapped in the mirror was slowly trickling out of the fractures of the glass, the room seemed to darken and they felt a deathly chill in the air. The vibrations intensified until the wooden animals adorning the top of the frame fell to the floor one by one, breaking apart as they hit the hard stone.
With that everything suddenly seemed back to normal. They could once again feel the afternoon sun and the mirror remained inanimately hanging on the wall, as if nothing had happened.
Ron finally pulled Harry up and said, "Let's get out of here." Harry and the others nodded and were about to turn around when they saw a dim glow coming from the four fallen animals and then once again a mist started to emerge from the broken pieces.
But this time, it didn't feel dark and cold and evil. They stood, staring at it, sensing no danger, as the silvery white mist gathered into a shape of a person, making it almost look like a ghost. Like it's shadowy counterpart had done, it viewed each of them in turn with an expression of appraisal, before finally settling on Sue. It raised it's arm and started floating towards her slowly at first but gathering speed, mouthing unheard words. The Ravenclaw girl flinched back in a panic, and Ernie, who was standing besides her, pulled her towards the entrance trying to get her out. Harry and Ron were sending jinxes towards the ghostly figure trying to slow it down, but the spells were all just passing right through it. Before Sue managed to reach the portal, someone stepped through from the other side.
Hermione had her head in a book and briefly glanced at Harry and started walking towards him, "Finally! I knew it was in one of the-" she did a double take and her head shot up as she stared at the ghost in the room. The ghost seemed to freeze as well and paused to give Hermione a brief look of consideration. It then turned away from Sue and started to glide towards the confused Gryffindor girl.
"Wh..what is that thing?" Hermione squeaked, as she dropped her book and clutched Harry's robes.
"I don't know.,. It's like a.. a.. ghost?" Harry stammered, he then suddenly remembered something he learnt last year during his Defence Against the Dark Arts class. Ghosts can be repelled by magical light. "Get Hermione and Sue out of here! It seems to be after them!"
Ron hesitated for a moment then grabbed Hermione's hand and started pulling her towards the exit, Ernie was doing the same for Sue. Harry took a step towards the spirit, raised his wand and shouted, "Lumos!" Bright light appeared from the tip of his wand and as he directed it towards the approaching ghost it seemed to stop for a second, more out of curiosity than because of the spell itself, but then it started moving again, faster than ever. It passed right by Harry, without giving him a second glance, and launched itself at Hermione.
Ron swore loudly and raised his wand towards it, pulling Hermione behind him, but before he could cast any spells it flew right through him and crashed into a shrieking Hermione. There was a blinding flash of light and when Harry could see again he saw that his two friends were glowing slightly, Hermione more brightly than Ron, then the room stilled once more, with nothing in the room apart from the five students.
Harry ran over to his friends and asked in a shaky voice. "Are you okay?"
"I.. I think so..?" Hermione whispered. Ron was feeling the front of his robes, where the ghost had passed through him, trying to find any signs of injury and just gave a weak nod to Harry.
Sue came over with tears in her eyes, frantically whispering to Hermione to make sure she was okay, while Ernie was standing besides her keeping an eye on the mirror, just to make sure nothing else came out. He managed to say, "Let's go."
Harry was the last to leave, after picking up the book Hermione had dropped. When he was back in the corridor Ron and Ernie were leaning against the wall taking deep breaths and Hermione was saying soothing words to Sue, who had broken down and was crying. Harry felt really bad, it had been his idea to explore the castle after all. It took a few minutes for Sue to calm down, and Harry and Ron spent the time sheepishly picking up the books in front of the door, unsure of how to handle a situation like this.
"I'm sorry, I'm being really silly. I wasn't even the one that was..." Sue broke off, sniffing loudly then turned to her friend with a smile. "Hermione, everyone thinks you should have been in Ravenclaw, but this really proves you were sorted into the right house."
Hermione blushed, looking rather pleased and gently said, "Do you want to go to go see Madam Pomfrey?"
"No, I'm fine. I think I just want to go back to the common room." Sue said with a sigh. "But you should get yourself checked out, and you as well Ron."
"I'll take her to Ravenclaw Tower." Ernie said, walking over to Sue. They left while talking softly, Sue letting out a quiet laugh before turning a corner.
Hermione took the books from Harry and Ron and placed them in her bag, which Harry offered to carry. She mumbled that she was fine, but handed her bulging bag over to him and they started walking towards the hospital wing. Harry and Ron explained to Hermione what had happened in the room when she left to look through her books.
"So that's why Malfoy and his lot all came running out of there..." Hermione said thoughtfully. "I wonder what that black thing was though..."
"You didn't hear anything, even though you were just outside?" Ron asked. "There was a lot of shouting and spells being set off."
Hermione shook her head, "No, it must be part of the spell that hides the room. Even at King's Cross, you can't hear anything from platform nine and three-quarters until you cross the barrier."
The corridors were empty in this part of the castle so there were quite surprised when they noticed a student walking towards them. The dark skinned girl with the pixie haircut was quite familiar to them, she was Hogwarts Champion during last year's Triwizard Tournament, and the current Head Girl. She normally wore a kind smile making it easy for any students with a problem to approach her, but she was coming at them with a frown on her face.
Harry, Ron and Hermione stopped walking when she stood in front of them with her arms crossed, "Have you been duelling in the corridors?"
"No." Harry said quickly.
"Yes." Ron and Hermione said at the same time as Harry, after a brief glance at their friend.
Sammy Omiata raised one eyebrow at Harry, "So you decided to add pimples to your face to make yourself look prettier?"
Harry blushed and raised a hand to his face, feeling the effects of the spell that hit him. He had completely forgotten about it during all that happened in the room. "I.. We didn't.."
"Was it with the three Slytherin second years that ran past me a few minutes ago?" she asked.
"No.. I mean.. they.. we didn't do anything to them.." Harry mumbled.
"Whatever they said, they were lying." Ron said firmly.
The Head Girl looked at Ron suspiciously, "They didn't say anything, they were just running away looking terrified."
"That wasn't us." Hermione told her.
"Hermione Granger, right?" Sammy said, looking at the younger witch. The she turned to Harry. "Hmm.. well if you say so. I would advise you to go see Madam Pomfrey instead of trying to spell it off, it can have nasty consequences."
"That's where we were headed." Hermione answered, before saying goodbye and walking past the Head Girl. The three of them didn't look back and tried walking without looking too guilty. Hermione wanted to tell someone, a professor preferably, what had happened in the room, but Ron and Harry managed to convince her to stay quiet, promising her they would go to a teacher if something bad happened.
They reached the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey took one look at Harry and sighed, "I won't ask." before turning around to get a potion from a cabinet. Harry drank the potion and felt a cooling sensation on his face and when he ran his hands over his cheeks, it was smooth again.
"Are you two alright then?" she turned to Ron and Hermione.
They glanced at each other and gave the matron a guilty look, Ron said, "We're not sure."
"You're not sure?" Madam Pomfrey's nostrils flared, but she took out her wand and slowly started waving it over their heads. "Did you get hit by a spell? A jinx? A hex?"
They didn't reply and after a minute, Pomfrey lowered her wand and gave them a curious look, "I can't find anything wrong with you. What happened?"
"Oh, we thought we might have been hit by a spell and not realised it." Ron said quickly. "It must have missed."
"It must have missed?" she repeated then shook her head in exasperation, "Never mind. If the worst thing that happened was a Pimple Jinx, I'll just stay out of it. But no more duelling or whatever else you're up to, alright?"
"Yes, Madam Pomfrey." they all said.
It was a week before the Christmas holidays and they had been keeping an eye out for anyone who mentioned seeing a shadowy ghost, but nothing unusual had happened since they were in the room with the mirror. Sue, Ernie and Ron all seemed to want to forget it ever happened and Harry was feeling too guilty to push them into any more investigating. He and Hermione, who was still eager to solve the mystery, tried to find any mention of the room in the library but was stumped and the only clue they had left had been what was written on the mirror.
They were in the common room working on a Transfiguration essay Professor McGonagall had set them, Hermione was furiously scribbling on her parchment while Ron was squinting at his. Harry took out a small piece of folded paper from his pocket and opened it and looked at the single word written on it:
'Ἁρμονία'
It was the word written on the frame of the mirror that Hermione managed to remember and carefully copy. It was written in Ancient Greek, and the translation in English was 'Harmonia', a goddess from Greek Mythology. Like the word suggested it meant harmony, a union or working together and from the four broken wooden animals in the room, they thought that it must have something to do with the four founders working together to build Hogwarts, but found no evidence of something like that ever existing from any of the books.
Ron gave a grunt of frustration and put his quill down and rubbed his eyes with his hand. "I think I'm tired."
Harry looked at the clock on the wall, they had only been working for ten minutes and it was still two hours before then normally went up to bed. "It's still quite early."
Ron scratched his head while looking back at his homework, "I'm having trouble concentrating, the words seem to be jumping about. Oh! If this is one of Fred and George's pranks..."
Harry leaned over to read his friend's work, it was slightly difficult to read, being Ron's usual untidy handwriting, but the words weren't moving like Ron was describing. "It seems to be fine to me. Are you feeling okay?"
Ron blinked a couple of times looking bewildered, "Yeah.. yeah.. it's fine now."
With a sigh Ron started writing again, mumbling to himself. Hermione stretched her arms and yawned, giving Harry time to quickly ask, "Can I have a quick look at your essay?"
Hermione was also looking slightly dazed and she pushed over her the parchment without her usual comment of 'you should really do your own work Harry', and the expression of reproval that accompanied it. A look of confusion was forming on his face as he read through her essay, "Hermione, did Professor Binns give you some extra History of Magic homework? Half of it doesn't even seem to be in-"
"What are you talking about?" Hermione snapped at Harry, snatching her work back from him. "It's the essay that Professor McGonagall asked for about turning woodlice into-"
Her eyes darted back and fourth and her jaws dropped as she was reading her own work. She looked extremely confused as she sputtered, "But I.. but I.. I didn't write this?"
Harry gave her a worried look, "Have you been getting enough sleep?"
Hermione ignored him and continued to read the parchment, with a small frown then suddenly her eyes widened with a look of excitement, "Oh! You two need to read this... the parts in English anyway, you can get the general idea.."
She rushed around the table and placed the parchment between Ron and Harry, they both leaned over to where Hermione was pointing, halfway down the text.
Salazar gefeohtan wiþ Godric again, he seem to be getting gealgmódan with each hwílenes dæg. It will become an nehælbæreum rift between the two friends, unless Helga and I can do … the leorningcnihtas are becoming nervous, more and more of them are following in their mentor's fótswaðu and arguments are breaking out amongst them … dréor was spilt today. There seems to be no…
Harry quickly skimmed through a few sentences then looked up to Hermione, "Salazar? Godric? This is something to do with the Hogwarts founders?"
"Yes I think it is! Salazar, Godric and even Helga, I think these are the words of Rowena Ravenclaw!" Hermione seemed absolutely ecstatic.
"But how? Any why is some of it in... this other language?" Harry wasn't as happy as Hermione, his friend had spontaneously started writing about events that happened a thousand years ago, using strange words that even she didn't seem to understand.
At Harry's last word, Hermione flinched and they stared at each other before she whispered, "The mirror?"
"It seems slightly different?" Harry said quickly, staring at the unfamiliar letters. He noticed that Ron still seemed to be reading the parchment and gently placed his hand on Ron's shoulder. "Ron, are you okay?"
"Yeah, this is amazing! Is any of it actually true?" Ron looked almost as excited as Hermione had been, "If we learnt this stuff in History, I'd be paying attention to Binns any day..."
Hermione blinked uncertainly, "Ron... you can read all of it?"
Ron frowned, "Well yeah. Your handwriting's always neat so it's pretty easy. 'Salazar fought with Godric again, he seems to be getting angrier with each passing day...'"
He continued reading out loud until Harry cleared his throat and spoke to him, "Uh... Ron. Half the words aren't in English."
"What are you talking about?" Ron stared at the parchment and blinked a few times. He then jumped back, knocking over his chair and pointed at the table. "Wha.. what.. what's going on."
After a trip to the hospital wing, under the pretence of a stomach ache, revealed nothing other than Madam Pomfrey's short temper for time wasters, they decided to turn to another person for help. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were visiting their eldest son Bill, who was currently working in Egypt, and like last year the rest of the Weasleys (other than Percy) were planning to stay with their uncle. Gideon Prewett, as Harry had learnt earlier this year, was a healer with a speciality in helping people who were somehow unable to tap into their magic. If he could find the smallest traces of magic left in people like that, perhaps he would be able to find whatever magic was affecting Ron and Hermione.
Hermione would spend Christmas with her parents, but was planning on visiting the Burrow on Boxing Day, and they would speak to Gideon then. This time Harry accepted Ron's offer of spending Christmas with his family, although he thought he shouldn't enjoy himself too much and keep an eye on Ron. However it was difficult not to enjoy spending time with his favourite family, Gideon and Kasper were very welcoming and Fred. George and Ginny were all delighted to get away from school for a while. Even Ron, after the little scare in the common room, seemed to be less worried about his situation than Harry was and enjoyed the food and games without a second thought.
Christmas dinner was much more modest affair than Harry had experienced the previous year at Hogwarts, but he enjoyed it immensely. They pulled crackers and laughed, the turkey was juicy and the vegetables perfectly cooked and by the time they finished, everyone was full to bursting. After they finished eating, Harry and Ron were sitting on comfortable chairs, playing a game of chess. Harry was feeling sleepy and was only paying a little attention to the board, Ron also had a tired look on his face.
"Hmm.. bishop to C5..." Ron murmured.
Harry looked up, waiting for the enchanted piece to move and destroy his pawn, but the board was still. Looking closely, he saw that neither of Ron's two bishops were in a spot that could take that square. It seemed unlike his friend to make a mistake like that, "Erm.. Ron. I don't think that's a legal move."
"Oh, right." Ron said, straightening up. "I forgot they changed the rules.."
"Did they?" Harry asked.
"Hmm.. pawn to C5 then..." Ron ignored the question.
Harry just shrugged and considered his own move. He had never actually managed to beat Ron before, he was just too good at this game, but Harry had been getting better since he started playing last year. Maybe if Ron was making silly mistakes like this, he might have a chance of winning the game for once. "Okay, pawn to F4."
"Bishop to B4, and checkmate in seven moves." Ron muttered the last part.
"What?" Harry sat up alarmed and looked at the chessboard. They had barely been playing for five minutes and Harry could see no immediate danger to his king.
"Sorry, I was just thinking to myself." Ron yawned.
Harry took a lot longer to play after that, trying to carefully consider the consequences of each move, but even so, after seven moves his king was surrounded on all sides.
"Alright, we should go to bed if we want to be awake when Hermione gets here." Ron stretched and stood up.
Harry turned away from possibly the worst game of chess he'd every played and followed Ron up the stairs.
Hermione arrived the next morning and joined Harry and the Weasleys for a late brunch. Kasper was unfortunately called into work but she was introduced to Gideon, who made a joke about Ron already having a girlfriend, causing Ron to stutter a denial and Hermione to blush furiously. They helped clear up the table and sat back down, trying to find a moment to talk to Gideon, without the others knowing.
"Mr. Prew- Gideon I mean," Hermione was having trouble calling an adult by his first name, even though he insisted. "Ron said you're a healer?"
"Yep, work at St. Mungos." Gideon replied. "I work with people who have trouble with their magic."
"He said you... that there's some sort of bottle that helps with that?" Hermione had been curious about it every since Harry and Ron mentioned it early in the year.
Gideon pulled out the little bronze coloured bottle from his robes. "Yep. This one's a little temperamental, but it works most of the time."
"How does it work?" Harry asked.
"You really want to know?" Gideon raised an eyebrow at them, Hermione nodded firmly. "Well I work with this, called the Affirmare Charm, and another one that looks similar... Have you heard of the Nullificare Charm?"
Harry vaguely remembered hearing about it before, but could recall exactly when, but Hermione nodded once again and said, "The one Albus Dumbledore is famous for inventing?"
"Yes, that's the one. I'm sure you've learnt at school that the mental state of the witch or wizard can affect the magic being used. Magic can be temperamental when certain emotions are involved, so these are used to negate those feelings to a certain degree." he explained, shaking his bottle.
"And that's enough for squibs to be able to use magic?" Hermione seemed unsatisfied with the answer.
Gideon frowned in thought. "No, there is… It's difficult to explain, partially because I don't know fully myself, but those are slightly different. What I'm told is that the ones that born squibs wear allows them to… recall a sort of stored emotional memory of using magic. I don't know how true it is though, I've never worked with those myself and I only held one briefly, but..."
"But what?" Ron asked curiously, seeing the strange look on his uncle's face.
"It was a bit of a rush… I felt like I could do anything" Gideon said with a wistful expression, before shaking his head and turning back to the others. "But in the end they decided that an Affirmare Charm was enough for me, not that I'm complaining."
Gideon was grinning, but they could obviously tell that if given a choice, he would give up his own little bottle for the other. Fred suddenly asked, "Where can I get one of those?"
"And why, my dear nephew, would you need one?" Gideon said with an amused look.
"Extra magical power? Yes please." said George.
Everyone around the table laughed. "Well because of that very reason, the use of those are heavily regulated. They're quite rare as well and not even all squibs get one, you either have to be well connected or lucky, just for a chance to hold one."
They talked for a while more, but the twins and Ginny seemed to show no signs of wanting to leave. Thankfully, they had planned for this happening.
"I'm really sorry to ask Mr- Gideon I mean, but there's a Potions homework that I'd like your opinion on... as a healer." Hermione said.
"What? It's Christmas!" Fred exclaimed.
Hermione blushed, "I know but... I'm from a Muggle family, so I won't really have a chance to speak to an actual healer. I mean, if you don't mind Gideon."
Gideon gave her a curious look, "Of course, I don't mind."
"Well have fun, we're off for a game of Quidditch." Fred said, "Harry, Ron, you guys coming?"
"Erm, maybe in a bit, Snape usually gives me horrible marks so whatever help I can get..." Harry said as Fred, George and Ginny stood to leave, "You're welcome to borrow my Nimbus."
"Sweet." George said. "Ron?"
"Yeah... in a bit... homework and Snape, you know?" Ron mumbled.
When the three were gone, Gideon turned to Harry, Ron and Hermione, "Alright, what's going on? It's not about homework is it?"
"We..we were wondering if you could see if there was... anything wrong with us?" Hermione said evasively.
Gideon's eyes narrowed, "What do you mean? What happened?"
"We're not really sure.." Ron scratched his head, "We've been to Madam Pomfrey but.. could you just check, and not tell mum?"
"Depends how bad it is." Gideon said while pulling out his wand. He first waved it over Hermione, then Harry and finally Ron, a small frown forming on his face. "Have you been taking any Memory Potions lately?"
"Memory potions?" Hermione asked thoughtfully.
"Yes, well you two anyway." Gideon pointed at Ron and Hermione, then sighed. "I know there's a lot of pressure to do well, but you shouldn't resort to potions to get ahead and besides, they can have really nasty side effects."
"Like what?" Ron said, looking worried.
"Remembering too much, remembering false memories, it could be a lot of things..." Gideon sighed, "When did you last take the potion?"
"A couple of weeks ago.." Harry said.
"Really?" Gideon looked at Ron and Hermione, who both nodded. "Must have been a badly made batch then, the effects should have worn off by now. I'll ask Kas to bring something that might help. But promise me you won't drink any more of the stuff, alright?"
Gideon left them for a moment, saying he needed to get a message to Kasper. Hermione waited until he was gone and pulled a sheet of folded parchment from her pocket and handed it over to Ron. "Here, read this."
"What is it?" Ron took the parchment and unfolded it.
"I've been trying to write down more of Ravenclaw's memories, and I think this one's an important bit, but I'm having a bit of trouble with the Old English. I'm wondering if you could read it like last time?" Hermione said, slightly impatiently.
Ron squinted at the words and as he blinked once, the slightly dazed look came over his face again, "I have trapped the creature in the mirror, the being of strife and discord. My theory was correct, the... Erisian spirit was born from the rift between us, amplified by the magic surrounding the castle. Once it was captured, the students have calmed once more, no longer waging war against those who apprenticed under a different master. Destroying the thing seems to be impossible, not until Salazar decides to return, and if not him a student who bears his teachings. So I shall keep the room hidden, until the rift between the four is healed and the four founders, or our apprentices, stand before the door demanding entrance. I also leave my memory of the incident, in case the spirit manages to escape, for if it is left to roam..."
Ron gulped. Harry asked hoarsely, "What will happen?"
"For if it is left to roam... it will rip apart any ideals of brotherhood, it will pit sister against sister, the castle will slowly decay and Hogwarts shall perish."