A/N: Yes, you all read that right. We've reached the title chapter! Time for (some of) the questions to be answered, and others to be asked.
I'm pretty essayed out after the semester, so this is one of those times when I'm not a huge fan of grammar. Sorry if there are any overly hideous errors. The other issue that I've discovered with revising and posting after following chapters have already been written is that I always feel like I'm repeating myself, and sometimes can't tell when something is actually too repetitive.
Anyway, after this chapter there should be only around nine or ten left. The pieces are moving into position...
Enjoy! Also, Happy 2012!
Disclaimer: Same as always.
Chapter 29: The Sylvarum
Once more the massive trees stood before them, filled with light. Scorpius stared at them in awe. Albus looked around and discovered that the house-elves that had brought them here were no longer here. Instead, two of the large elves approached them. They were barely distinguishable from each other, still wearing the identical green cloaks.
The elves stopped in front of the four children, eyeing each of them in turn. Neither made any sound, and none of the children dared make any sound either.
In unison the elves turned, beckoning for the children to follow them. They strode between the trees with long, gliding strides, and the children had to move quickly to keep up.
Other elves moved to and fro between the trees, and even more passed above on the wooden bridges. This time they seemed completely oblivious to the children's presence. Albus guessed that this time their arrival was expected...
As they went deeper into the illuminated woods, each tree was larger than the one before it. The light was growing steadily brighter, and the children soon felt the need to shield their eyes as they walked. The elves did not seem to be at all bothered by the brightness.
The elves that were leading the children stopped. Scorpius saw them stop and held out his arms to stop Albus and Rose on either side of him, since by now they were walking with their hands over their eyes. Allison crashed into his back.
They were standing in front of a tree. Or at least it appeared to be a tree. If it was a tree, then it was larger than any tree that any of the children could ever imagine. The bark stretched out on either side of them, barely curving at all into the distance.
One elf grabbed onto Scorpius and Rose with each hand, the other onto Albus and Allison. A loud crack later, they were all standing in a long hallway. From the looks of the walls of the hallway, it was carved into the tree itself. The walls, floor and ceiling were all one big mass of wood, and at intervals the rings of the tree could be seen. The hallway went on and on through the rings, until in the distance a brown door could be seen, darker than the wood around it.
The elves walked down the hall towards the door. There were other doors all along the hallway at irregular intervals, but Albus kept his attention focused on the door straight ahead of them.
Headmistress McGonagall looked out the window of her office at the night sky outside. She enjoyed looking at the stars, but tonight it was the moon that drew her attention. It was one night short of full.
During the full moon in April, she had heard howling, but no werewolf had appeared on the grounds. Yet she had a feeling that tomorrow night something was going to happen.
She wanted Harry here. He could deal with Teddy, without harming him.
Walking over to her fireplace, she threw in some floo powder, hoping that this time he would be in his office.
Lily let out a squeal as her father tickled her. Harry had come home early tonight, having nothing to do at work. The two major lingering cases were at a standstill, as he still had no access to Mr. Black and Teddy was still missing.
Teddy's absence was preoccupying him so much that he really couldn't worry about the problems at Corner Industries right now. There had been another theft, a small one, but Harry had barely given it a thought.
Ron had just left, after accompanying Harry back. Though Ron had other assignments, he was just as worried about Teddy as Harry was, and was also putting off his smaller cases to help Harry look. But they had no leads.
McGonagall withdrew her head from the fire, letting out a sigh. Once more she had intruded upon an empty office. But this time no secretary had shown up.
She debated whether she should try the Potter home. But she didn't want to disturb the Potters with a simple hunch.
Things would be okay. If Teddy showed up as a werewolf, she would deal with him.
And she would have help. Hogwarts always provided help.
Harry knew that tomorrow night was the full moon. And he knew where Teddy would want to go, if he were in fact being driven by Lycan instincts.
Victoire was at Hogwarts.
Harry had gone there in secret the night of the full moon in April, and stowed away atop the Astronomy Tower, from where he had a view of all edges of the grounds. He disliked being atop that tower again, remembering the Headmaster who had died up there. But he had thought it a necessary task, for the protection of the students.
No werewolf had appeared that night. Nor had Teddy appeared in human form.
Harry debated with himself about whether he should return tomorrow night.
There was little else he could do. He would return, just in case. The students needed to be kept safe.
It seemed like forever before the elves and the children reached the door. They walked on and on, and it barely seemed to get any closer.
When finally they reached the door, it opened on its own. The children shielded their eyes against the bright light that emanated from within. The elves simply strode into the light, and with some hesitation, the children followed.
It took a while for their eyes to adjust so that they could actually see anything. They were in a massive, circular room. The wood was embedded with large jewels of different colors, which reflected the light in colorful sparkles.
In the center was a huge pit, from which the light emanated. Within the pit, the light seemed to ebb and flow, as though it were liquid.
Around the pit sat more than thirty elves on large green cushions. They all looked at the children with expressionless faces.
There was a crack, which sounded not nearly as loud in this room as it usually did in the outside world. Kreacher stood in front of them. The red and green towels that he wore as a makeshift tunic reflected the light as though they themselves had tiny jewels within, and the gold locket that he wore seemed to shine, as the angled surface acted like a mirror in the brightness of the room.
There was another, far louder crack, and the children looked around, not seeing where it had come from. Then, from high up, an elf floated down and hovered over the center of the pit, standing on the air itself. This elf was somewhat larger than the others, but wore the same green cloak and looked at the children with the same expressionless face.
James lay in bed, unable to sleep. His mind was flooded with anticipation.
Tomorrow, Uncle George would arrive, and then the truth about Michaela Black would come out.
He dreaded the answer. He didn't want to think of Michaela as evil, not when she was the girl that popped up in his dreams so often, but at the same time, he couldn't think of her as good. She simply did too many things of questionable nature, and he couldn't help but think that she was behind the murder of Jonas Zabini.
His heart sank a little more each time the notion passed through his mind.
Tomorrow, something big would happen. Something very big. And he almost didn't want it to.
He wished that, at least, he had his wand with him.
Theo patrolled the hallways in silence, lost in thought. Victoire had once again asked him to take her patrol, as she wasn't feeling well. This had been going on for days now, with her not wanting to patrol at night.
Was she afraid of something? He looked around nervously, holding his lit wand aloft. The shadows seemed to spread in all directions.
A sound caused him to turn suddenly. A staircase moved in the Grand Staircase down the hall. He walked towards it.
Standing on the landing, he watched as the staircases moved all around him. He looked up towards the seventh floor, where the portrait of the fat lady hid the Gryffindor Common Room. Behind that portrait lay Laura, no doubt by now fast asleep.
Theo shook his head. He knew this infatuation wasn't real. Kevin had done something to him, at the same time he had done something to Victoire.
He had to fight it, or else he was going to wind up getting himself in real trouble.
The large elf's mouth opened, and suddenly a series of sounds filled the air. The noises came from no particular direction, as though the air itself were producing them. Albus could tell the sounds were words, but he was clueless as to the language.
When the elf's mouth closed, the noises stopped. Then Kreacher spoke.
"What you see before you is the Sylvarum."
Albus frowned, not knowing whether Kreacher meant the large elf or the pit of light or the room as a whole.
"The Sylvarum is made up of the collective memory of all of the Sylvar, containing all the observations they have ever gathered."
"It's a pensieve!" exclaimed Rose. Albus looked closely at the pit, and saw that the liquid light within did in fact resemble memories in a pensieve, though these memories were significantly brighter than the usual ones.
"It serves as the collective mind of the Sylvar, guiding them in everything they do."
"Greatest Strength and Brightest Hope from Remembering the Past," Rose quoted. She had asked her mother about the runes on the Sylvar amulet that Uncle Harry had given her, and her mother had said those words.
Kreacher looked at her in surprise. "That is the Sylvar motto."
Above, the large elf's mouth opened once more, and again the sounds came out of the air.
Once the elf was finished, Kreacher translated once more. "You have been brought here to view a specific set of memories relevant to all within Hogwarts School. There is a danger within the school, one that the Sylvar fought long ago and which now threatens the students. You must be made aware of this danger." Kreacher looked straight at Scorpius as he said this last part, sending a chill down the boy's spine.
Kreacher turned towards the pit, still speaking the words of the large elf. "Step forward, students of Hogwarts, and witness the memories of the Sylvar."
A loud crack filled the dormitory. Sarah poked her head out from around the curtain, making sure none of her companions had awoken. No sound came from behind any of the other blue curtains.
"Young Mistress called for Perry?" Perry asked in a soft voice.
"Yes," Sarah replied. "I need you to do something for me... and for a friend of mine."
The house-elf bowed low. "Perry will serve his young mistress, and his young mistress's friend. What do they require?"
Sarah bit her lip, hesitating for a moment. "I need you to watch James Potter."
The house-elf straightened and looked at her in confusion.
"Do it subtly. Make sure he doesn't know you're watching."
"Perry guesses that it is Miss Black's wishes that prompts his young mistress to ask this of him."
"Michaela didn't ask me to do this, but yes, I'm doing it for her. Don't let him come near her."
Perry was silent for a moment, then nodded. "Perry will watch Mister Potter for Miss Black, and for his young mistress. Perry will not let Mister Potter approach Miss Black, and Perry will make sure Mister Potter does not know he is watching."
"Thank you, Perry," said Sarah.
But the house-elf continued. "Perry is very good at confusing Mister Potter. He did it before to make sure that Mister Potter and Miss Black didn't kiss, even though he had to put rotten egg all over Miss Black to do it."
Sarah's eyes widened. "That was you?" That was the reason that Michaela had gone on such a rampage against James, and they still weren't on remotely peaceful terms since that incident.
"Master Sam made it quite clear that Mister Potter and Miss Black should not kiss anymore. Master Sam wants Miss Black to be with him."
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Master Sam," she muttered under her breath. "I'm going to kill 'Master Sam.'"
"Perry does not wish Mistress Sarah to kill Master Sam."
"I'm not actually going to kill him, Perry."
"Perry is aware of the humor."
She couldn't believe that Perry was responsible for the ongoing rivalry. All of a sudden, all the quarrels between the two seemed so... useless.
And she couldn't believe that she had hexed James's friend Daryl over the same trivial issue. She felt ashamed of herself.
Receiving no further orders, Perry bowed low once more. "Perry will carry out his young mistress's wishes."
Flint lay awake in bed, fighting to control his rage. He couldn't believe what Warrington had done. She had sacrificed the match in order to save the opponent. It was the most humiliating incident Slytherin had ever endured in quidditch.
The Slytherin Common Room had been silent this evening. Everyone was shocked and furious. Warrington had betrayed her house, a betrayal such as Slytherin had not felt since Draco Malfoy's numerous failures during his last two years at Hogwarts.
She was going to pay. He was going to make her pay. He was going to make her experience so much more pain than what she might currently be going through for her idiocy.
The children stood on the edge of the pit, looking down into it apprehensively. Kreacher now stood behind them, waiting. All the Sylvar in the room were still watching them expressionlessly.
"Are we supposed to jump?" Allison asked, fear evident in her voice. They couldn't see anything below the liquid light.
Rose leaned out over the light, looking down at it. "I suppose so," she replied, steeling her resolve.
She made to jump, but Allison's hand shot out and grabbed her arm. "Wait!" At that moment, Scorpius jumped. His feet left the wood and swept out over the light. For a moment, he seemed to hover over nothing, then he went downwards. The Gryffindors watched until he disappeared into the light.
They waited. Nothing.
Finally, Rose jumped, this time before Allison could stop her. She went out and down, disappearing into the light just as Scorpius had.
Albus glanced at Allison. The girl was staring at the place where Scorpius and Rose had disappeared, wide-eyed. It didn't look like she was about to make any move to go in after them.
Reaching down, he took her hand in his. "Come on. It will be okay."
She didn't appear to have heard him. Then, after a second, she nodded.
In unison, they leaped out over the light. Albus had the briefest sensation that he was flying, and grasped tightly onto Allison's hand. Then, quickly, the flying turned into falling, and the two sped downwards into the light.
