"Does this frighten you?"
"No. It's their reactions that may frighten me."
Hermione put a hand on Harry's back. "Well, you can't make them wait forever."
Harry took a deep breath and walked through a velvet curtain. They were in an underground cavern nestled deep in the earth, under the bedrock. The chairs and table grew out of the floor and small birds that looked like bright orange hummingbirds flitted around cooling the air with the flapping of their wings.
"I think you know why we're all here." Harry pulled a book out of his robes and let it fall on the table. Both Nyssa and Nicolai went pale as the others just looked at the book curiously. "It's time for you to talk."
"What do you want to know?" Nyssa asked furtively.
"Why you've been withholding information." Harry was furious.
"We weren't withholding information," Nicolai said in a tired voice.
"Something like this happened before." Harry said, his voice shaking with rage. "It was the reason for your war, wasn't it?"
"We don't know for sure—" Nyssa started.
Nicolai snorted loudly. "Maybe your records aren't complete, but ours are." He pushed out his chest proudly as if he had been solely responsible for recordkeeping for hundreds of years.
"It's not that they aren't complete," Nyssa snapped at him. "But it comes down to the writer of the records, doesn't it? How do you know what was exaggerated and what wasn't?"
"We are not allowed to pick sides when the records are written," Nicolai insisted, and it was Nyssa's turn to snort.
"What is this book?" Mikhail asked curiously.
"The Origin Papers," Nicolai said softly. "And both our sides were written down.
"We both have a copy, but I can only open the white cover and he the black," Nyssa filled them in.
"How did you get a copy?" Nicolai asked.
"Dumbledore's personal library." Harry said hotly. "And I can open both sides."
Everyone at the table gasped.
"What did you do?" Nyssa asked, her eyes wide and staring at the book.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked in a puzzled tone, his anger cooling quickly at this new mystery.
"In order to open the book, you have to have performed a ritual and have drunk a nasty potion." Asta made a face.
"Unless…" Nicolai pursed his lips.
Nyssa narrowed her eyes at Harry. "Unless he's tried to restore a balance."
"Settle a score on a large level, as it were. For the universe."
"Well, he did kill Voldemort," Hermione said, pointing out the obvious.
"But did he strike at the man, or what made the man?" Nyssa asked curiously
"Both." Harry turned pink. "I was enchanted."
"Well, that changes everything!" Nicolai said, looking at Nyssa in wonderment.
"You're the Page Turner," Nyssa said in awe.
"What's a page turner?" Harry asked, genuinely bewildered.
"There was a prophecy—"
"Oh, bloody hell! Not another one!" Harry groaned.
"You went for the problem both root and stem," Nicolai explained patiently. "And you saved the universe."
"How?" Harry asked.
"Voldemort wasn't the only abused child out there," Nyssa said ominously. "And you saved whoever it was from their abuser somehow. It must have been one of the men you killed. This child will be a changer of worlds."
"But thankfully not a destroyer of them." Nicolai nodded.
"But that's not why we're here, is it?" Asta asked. "It's something in the book."
"Ginny and I will continue to be feeble until the remedy is fetched from the Jotun. The door is in Atlantis. You know where it is. It's how you asked them to join us. Oh, I'm sure you have some sort of alarm system," Harry waved his hand. "But they're not likely to come every time someone yells 'eek!' are they? You'd have had to send an ambassador for something with such little notice."
"Two ambassadors, actually," Nicolai squirmed. "We had to be in agreement for our plea to be heard."
"That makes sense." Hermione nodded. "It wouldn't do to have them show up every time you had a row, would it?"
"How did you get there?" Harry asked them.
Now Hermione knew the reason for this meeting. They had a map and she had a key. They would have had to have knocked, but she didn't.
It would have been nice of Harry to warn her, though.
"We took a boat—"
"I mean, how did you find it?"
"It's never been lost!" Nyssa said frustrated.
"The island ceased to exist, it didn't sink… exactly," Nicolai tried to explain.
"What happened to it?" Hermione asked.
"A long time ago a volcano exploded and it created a land bridge to the continent," Mikhail said, as if he were desperate to impress Asta with something. "The people on the continent saw the depravity on the island and invaded, scourging it of evil."
"It was thought that they were wizards practicing out in the open." Nyssa nodded.
"It was?" Mikhail and Hermione both asked.
"But there were no secrecy laws back then!" Harry exclaimed.
"Exactly." Asta nodded sagely. "So, when wizards went bad, they went very bad."
Hermione shivered. "The place we're looking for is on land?"
"Oh no, it fell into the ocean again," Nicolai said assuredly. "Earthquake eons ago. Underwater and in a cave carved into the side of a cliff.
"So, someone has to dive to it. That doesn't sound too difficult." Hermione folded her arms. "Unless there's something else."
"Well…" Nyssa faltered. "There are a couple trials just to make sure you aren't there to cause mischief."
"In Jotunheim? Are you serious?" Hermione laughed.
"You will be let in no matter what," Asta said gravely. "And I should go as well."
"That makes sense," Hermione said before Nyssa could say anything. "It's her native land, and I have a key."
"So, how will we be represented?" Nicolai asked sharply.
"With me," Mikhail said quietly. "I have to."
The table went silent. Even Nicolai held his tongue.
"Err… why?" Harry finally asked.
"Because I have to meet her family," Mikhail mumbled. "She has one. Other than the Amazons, I mean. It is our tradition."
Nicolai took a deep breath and let it out, as if he were resigned to the situation. "We will also send Pieter—"
"You certainly will not!" Hermione barked out incredulously. "He's the father of a newborn! His wife will kill him and come after you next."
Nicolai blinked as if this had never crossed his mind.
"Sending Severus would be smarter," Asta pointed out. "He's the mate of the Keymaster."
"If we did it that way there won't be any trials," Nyssa pointed out. "They all have a good reason for being there."
"Severus will have to be joined," Nicolai said stiffly.
"Let me talk to him," Hermione said. "He'll be reluctant at first."
"Then I will happily leave the headache to you," Nicolai said, looking satisfied for once.
"You'll have to sell it as an excellent research opportunity," Harry remarked.
"Now that's something I can do." Hermione smiled.
"Remind him that you'll go without him," Asta snickered.
"He's doomed."