Sorry, it's short again. More soon! Thanks for the reviews and favourites!
Chapter 54
Quotes and Notes
On the first day of the new term James was eating his breakfast at the Gryffindor table, he had once again woken early and was first to the Great Hall, slowly now the hall was filling up; the excitement at returning to the castle and catching up with friends surrounded him.
Rangi had introduced his plan to the rest of the team just as he had said and after some skeptics from Molly, it had been deemed "possible", which was, thought James, probably the best they could do. The rest of the team would be informed of the plan today and then the real training would begin. The Slytherin-Ravenclaw match was was on Saturday and then they would know for sure what they would have to do to stop Slytherin from winning the Quiditch Cup.
As James was thinking about this, as he so often was, Blue entered the hall and ran up to him, eyes bright and excited,
"James, I think I've got it, I think I've made the connection!"
"What connection?" Asked James feeling mildly confused.
Blue slid onto the bench next to him,
"I've written out each one of these jumbled notes and after researching each one I've finally found a connection."
James nodded in interest, glancing around and leaning in towards his friend.
"You see, each one is a quote from history. Some Muggle, some wizard, all kinds of dates and countries and situations and at first I could find no link whatsoever. However, now that I've checked up on every single one I see that I've been totally wasting my time!"
James didn't see why Blue was so happy about this, he had worked for hours over Easter and now he'd just found out it was all pointless?
Blue continued, "While I've been busy trying to find connections between time and place and person I've completely overlooked the most obvious connection of all - subject matter! After translating or uncoding each message I can now see it, it's so clear, every quoteis about, or at least connected to; Arms."
"Arms? They're just a load of quotes about arms!"
Blue laughed, "Not arms, you moron;" He said indicating his own arms, "Arms."
James looked at the notes, indeed they did seem to be about arms but not the arms James had been thinking of; weaponry, artillery, firearms.
"See, here's a quote from the first wizarding war and here's another from a Medieval Battle in France, this one here, though not directly about arms itself was a quote from Gumpgreser, credited with being the best goblin weapon forge of the 3rd century."
"This is great!" Exclaimed James.
"Yes but I'm still quite confused about it. The quotes are anything but similar and rather than focus on war or battles themselves the only ting they all have in common is a mention of or a relation to arms. Take this one for example, 'To Arms! To Arms! TheBritish are coming! ToArms! ToArms!', it's a quote from the American Revolution which features heavily on arms but has no other kind of connection with say this one here, 'Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.' a quote by Samuel Taylor Coleridge a nineteenth English poet. Also the notes have contradicting messages, some are pro-arms use and others are against!"
Blue wrung his hands in frustration, "And then of course, there's the biggest problem of all..."
James looked at his preoccupied friend in concern, willing him to go on.
Blue fixed him with a sharp look, "Where is there a connection to the castle? Where is the next clue?"
Albus had enjoyed his shot trip home, his parents had been delighted to see him and Lily had been overjoyed. James had not visited home this year but Albus hadn't been too disappointed, he was back on speaking terms with James and all in all things were good between them but even still it would have been a little awkward being back home with him again and they probably would have only fought.
Philip had also returned home though Rangi had stayed too and Rose, Amanda and Paul had also gone home. Only one day back at school and the holidays already seemed miles away. The common room was crowded with noise and clutter, the classes had picked up exactly where they'd left off without any time for easing back in to the curriculum and to Albus's dismay, he already had a ton of homework.
Even still, it was nice to be back again. Hogwarts was so familiar now and Albus couldn't believe that just a few months ago he had been absolutely terrified of this big, unfamiliar place. And yet at the same time, it was equally hard to believe that he had been there almost eight months and would soon be finished his first year! They were on the home-stretch now; nothing between them and summer.
But Albus had another reason to be glad to be back. All through the holidays Albus had kept remembering back to that closet in Heep's office, the unchecked possible hiding place of his father's cloak. Some time this term, as soon as possible; he was going to get in there and then finally, one way or another, he'd have closure.
James, Alex, Blue and Letitia sat in a circle in the common room lit only by a single candle in the center and the moonlight streaming through one of the tower windows.
It was late but not too late. The other boys in the dorm had already gone to bed and as it was a school night they planned to turn in soon too. They were debating the latest clue, searching desperately for a link with the castle. As they sat throwing around a few rough theories and ideas a thought struck James,
"Hey Blue, you said the only link between the notes was a mention of armory right?"
Blue nodded.
"Then, Hogwarts being a castle and all, what do you think the chances are that it has an armory?"
Blue gasped. James knew he had struck gold.
"How will we find out!" Squealed Letitia.
"The Map!" Exclaimed Alex jumping to his feet and rushing to James's bed.
He practically crawled under James's bed before reappearing clutching the worn parchment. James never heard anyone say "I solemnly swaer that I am up to no good" so fast. He was even surprised that the map understood him. Meanwhile Blue had also left their little circle. He was sitting on his bed flipping through a copy of "Hogwarts: A History". James started to feel a little useless as his friends pored over their selected texts so as Letitia flew over to peak over Blue's shoulder James crawled over to Alex.
"I can't believe it, I can't find anything about a weaponry or armory in here!" Blue said frustrartedly, "I mean, it makes sense - it is a castle, it must have been built with one!"
"I got it." Said Alex.
James turned back from Blue and stared at Alex's finger on the yellow parchment. Armory was indeed on the map only now it was called by a different name. Under the scratched out "Armory" were two words; "Caretakers Office" and below that, over a tiny dot, "Heep".
A/N: Guess where we're going for the next chapter! I already have a bit of it written and unlike the last couple of chapters it's going to be a full-on action scene so it should be good fun for both of us! Really hope you enjoyed this, not very exciting but it's all building up for something. So glad to be back writing more again! Thanks everyone!
