Chapter 8: Read It and Seek

Words: 2,791

Recap: After the surprising revelation of Hagrid's past. The three of us intend to get the bottom of one of the old legend of the school.

A week of having learned from Professor Heckler about the Dark Arts, showed you enough how he teaches his students. He would lecture his class by referencing the book, he would often bring a magical being in class and demonstrate how to handle them as he lectures, but almost at every lecture he would derail his topic into a weird sort of praise toward one of the Four Founders or at the school itself.

When the bell rang for lunch time, the class huddled around without meaning to, walking toward the Great Hall where food was ready for them to partake.

Instead of doing just that however, Lily Evans was standing in front of the DADA Professor's office. Her arm raised to knock but not, sighing dejectedly at her bad luck. Before any part of her mind could convince her otherwise, Lily finally forced herself to knock.

"Yessssh?" Lily gulped nervously, wishing strongly that Sev or Percy would be here but they agreed it would arose a slight suspicion when kids from different house would ask the same specific question.

She opened the door and her eyes roamed at the interior. The office has changed since the last time she's been here. There were more bookshelves enough to easily mistake the place for the library, there were recognizable words and title but most looked like were written from Old English. Gone were the couches and coffee table that gave the room a homey feel. The walls were decorated with maps, paintings the founders in various poses, and old decor she wouldn't surprised if it was an artifact. The place looked more like his personal study than his work office.

"Ah, Misssh Lily Evanss," Lily snapped her eyes back to her teacher, "to what do I owe you your presshence?" he gestured his hand for her to take a seat in front of his desk and she was glad she took it. She didn't know how long she could hide her shaking knees otherwise.

"I...I've been wondering to ask this for some time, but...may I ask more about the Four Founder of Hogwarts from you Professor?" It was hard to hide her nervousness as kept fiddling with her finger, hopefully he would think her of being shy.

That finally made him perked up from his book, "Why Misssh Evansss, I didn't know you had such interesssh."

"Oh I loved Hogwarts and so I've been trying to look into on it's history and how it was created, but there doesn't seem to be any information regarding the Founders personally and it struck me as strange."

"Well, I can only hypothesized that they were all very private about their personal Hissstory. Not many could quite gather such information unlessssh you're a direct desshendent of them or trying really, really hard to uncover it."

"Then can you teach me about them? I thought if anyone could inform me about the Founders it'd be you Professor, seeing how well informed you are."

Heckler rubbed his chin in thought, "True, you won't find anyone with my kind of knowledge anywhere but even I have my limits on what I know."

"It would still be much helpful, I'm really curious about them and you're the only reliable help I know at this particular topic." Lily inwardly cringed that she might not be subtle in her act, but rolled with it anyway. Thankfully, Professor Hecker didn't seem to mind and was contemplating her request.

"Hmm, very well." The Professor relented, "What would you like to know Dear?"

'Okay, Lily. Remember, subtle and gradual.' she ordered herself and took a deep breath, bringing out her true feelings of her curiosity about Hogwarts ou before finally asking, "Why don't we start with the earliest information you know about them?"

"You must mean their origin story. Sadly I don't have that depth of knowledge but I do know why four seemingly different people, of different background, decided to create a school for young wizards and witches."

"I knew not how they came to be," he began, "but at some point in time, they were involved in a war...well, I say war but compared to the recent war we were exposed to, it was more of a skirmish between muggles and wizards, and might even be start of the old long practice of wizard persecution."

"In the old days, wizards instead of being discriminated against were once very highly regard. They were obligated to work for the king, to advise him as his advisor and to fought for him as his knights. One would think that one's birth to wield magic are fated to live a life of wealth and comfort with the king as their sponsor and master in life. It was a given fact. There weren't a conventional way for a wizard to track one another as we do now so most wizards live their lives without knowing they were one. Especially muggleborns."

"Yet, some wizards began to feed idea that their gift should make them superior to muggles, and that they should bow down to them, including the king. These things caused unrest and shook the once lovely peaceful kingdom - now that I think about it, it's not that different to what we're experiencing, history bounds to repeat itself. Anyway where was I? Ah yes - The war lasted for 50 years and it tore the kingdom apart."

"I can imagine it clearly in my mind," The professor whispered with wistful tone, an edgy smile came to place, "the discrimination between two kinds of being, the unrest, the bloodshed, the scream of anger and fear echoing the masses."

Lily was beginning to feel impatient, she wanted to ask straight to the point but couldn't without rousing suspicion so she cleared her throat, "Professor?"

"Oh, my apologies, got carried away. It was a war between muggles and wizards, you might think the answer to that skirmish was obvious. But then few wizards such as Muggle Borns and Blood Traitors had prefer to side with the muggles, thinking their gift is god's way to serve the king and masses in need. The number was in their favor and so the King's side won."

"You would think things would go back to how they were with the rebels going into hiding,m or sentenced to death. Oh but instead, it was the point where everything changes. The King who had to experienced the war became afraid of the wizard's potential and for another rebellion, so he tricked the wizards that had help them in the war and sentenced then to death. Announcing a new rule that it is forbidden for anyone to use wield magic."

That got Lily's attention, "Wait, but what about Merlin? Wasn't he a known wizard that got to work under King Arthur?"

"You're very well informed. Yes, Arthur was the only ever royal muggle that came close to putting peace between wizards and muggles had he not died so soon."

"And how is all this related to the founding of Hogwarts?"

Professor Heckler chuckled, "Patient Misssh Evanssh, I wassh just getting to that. The wizards began to hide or flee, but it didn't stop the muggle's hunt for them. It wasn't as bad as the Witch Hunt around the 18th Century which was ghastly, but many victims were hunted and given the death sentence all the same. Most were children." Lily gasped, horrified at the revelation but Heckler didn't stop. "It couldn't be help, most children were not attune with their magic just yet so they are prone to accidentally invoke it. This is when the Four Founder came in, deciding to accommodate the children all over England a safe haven. So they went out of their way to build a school at a remote place up north to do just that and preserve the wizarding community."

Lily didn't need to fake her interest at the history lesson she was given, "So you're saying that Hogwarts isn't originally a school but a way for the Wizards to hide all the childrens from the hunting masses?"

"Correct, and it worked too. There was a bit disagreement as you may know at the start of the school founding and Slytherin decided to estranged himself from the others."

Lily perked up, finally they were getting close to her chosen topic. "I heard of that, something about the Chamber of Secret? Do...do you think it's real? That something here is after Muggleborn?"

"Do you really want to know my honessh opinion?"

"Okay," she wisely decided not wanting any said confirmation of anything deadly was in this school, "then what about the other Founders? Surely they must have their own secret chamber of something? I would think Gryffindor, being his rival and all, would want to have his own super secret chamber tucked within this school."

Professor Heckler eyed critically at her and Lily nearly bristled at his sharp gaze, her heart pounds of what he might see through from the few utter words and the tale tell of her body movement, "As a matter of fact yessh, all four of them had their own hidden chamber being used in some form whether the school's know it or not. My findings are all just hypothesis from resssearch. For example, I had confirmation from previous graduates of Hufflepuff's Room of Requirement. A room that would randomly appear in the 7th Floor with everything you need, I still have trouble on how it appears. Then there's Ravenclaw's Tower of Entry, whatever that is, the only reason I could confirm its existence was from The Grey Lady and it was tough getting it out of her. Lastly…" Heckler paused. Biting his lip before finally answered, "Gryffindor's Chamber of Legacy."

Lily immediately perked up, "I knew it! So what does the legend specifically says about this one?"

Heckler looked conflicted, he did open his mouth but before he could say anything there was a loud bang and crackling sound outside the room that made them jumped on their seats.

The boom and crackling resounded again from the door, followed by the unmistakable sound of children's laughter. Professor Hecker seemed eager to address the problem whatever it was outside. He shooted Lily an apologetic smile but showing his jagged colored teeth didn't reassure her, "Pardon me, looks like I have a student to sort to." Then he got up and made long hasty stride to the door, and slamming it closed. His shout was muffled when it did.

Lily cursed at her luck. 'Perfect' she thought, 'Just when he was about to say something juicy, he had to be called out.'

Being alone in the office, if possible, made her more nervous than before. Her eyes kept darting around the room, to the assortment of beast being kept, the shelves of foreign books, the many interesting artifact and trinkets strewn around along the shelves, table, and hanged on the walls.

Then her eyes locked at the book laid innocently on his desk. The same book she observed he kept on hand or at arm reached in class. Most likely, the same book Percy saw him with at the night of his suspicious act.

Lily glanced back at the door. Closed and there were no sign of anyone coming over to his office. With a split second decision, she bit her lip hard before finally coming at the desk.

She cautiously touch the book, afraid it might trigger a trap-like spell, and instead felt the smooth leather beneath her fingertips. The Hogwarts insignia sewn artistically on the cover with great precision. She sunked a breath, finally turning the first page.

She couldn't quite read the writing as it was no different to Professor Heckler's usual chicken scratch but that was only the many side notes made around a different handwriting that was almost obscured. It was written in foreign language, Old English to be precise and mixed with a few Latin but that was as far as she knew, and there was no translation to help her understand so she had to rely for the side notes.

She skimmed the words, turning the page in haste. Some underline words of the journal were being pointed by what she assumed was the translation. There was one side note that had list of rooms she recognized of Hogwarts but most had been crossed out. Most words were too cryptic for her to understand, like "Begin the climb, wolf howl?" and "Beware of Bloat Cookies!" There was also random fun facts such as "Underground wine cellar, possibly Ravenclaw's secret stash" or "Torture chamber under the Weeping Angel Statue, in front of the dungeon." The last bit almost made her shudder through her whole body. There was even a page that was almost covered with the current owner's writing that the page's original writing was barely salvageable. Until she stopped at one page that took her notice.

'FIRST PRIORITY! Unknown Architect → Aaron Swagger'

'Open Password Spell'

'Private Tower? Sanctuary'

"Architect? And what kind of name is Swagger?" she mused. Lily committed the writing to her memory, closed it, and rushed toward other door. Her heart banged her chest, excitement of a new discovery made her feet leap and wanted to get out as fast as she could before the memory slip away.

She opened the door and instead of the wide open hallway, her face smashed into a soft wall before she could stopped herself. The "wall" toppled a bit, before realizing she had bumped into James.

"James, what are you doing here?"

James was bewildered for a second before schooling his expression, "I should ask you the same thing. Quite odd of you to be in this office alone. Sneaking around aren't you? I knew you had it in you Evans." James tried to give her a bright disarming grin he knew would charm most girls and women.

Lily wasn't the slightest impress and glared at him, knowing a diversion tactic when she met one. "If you must know, I was just talking to Professor Heckler to discuss about a few materials I didn't quite understand which he happily obliged. Not everyone has a prank in mind like you do James. Should I be worried what you are up to?" there's an underlying threat in her tone as she crossed her arm in challenge to him. James was not expecting to be cornered like this and gulped.

"Is it so hard to believe that I came for the same reason? Look I got the book and stuff," he said and showed her his DADA textbook he had on hand.

Lily didn't let off her suspicious glare but decided she did not care on what kind of mischief he had in store and to leave him be. Not wanting to be involved in any way of the trouble he had in store. She shook her head and left him to his own device. The door to one Professor's office laid open, enticing one naughty Gryffindor to work.

. . .

Before it was time for dinner; Severus, Lily, and me reconvene on what her little mission got us and listening intently what she got for us. At the end though as great as she was at it, I was a bit miffed.

"Why didn't you ask him?!" I almost cried aloud.

"I didn't think it was important!" she defended.

"But Lilyyy," I whined, "I know you're just as curious as I am on why the Hades did they decided to put "Don't Tickle the Sleeping Dragon" as their school motto. I mean...in what context does that motto work for a school? And how in Gaea's name led them to put it in a school motto at all?! It's been in my mind since last year and no one knows the answer."

"I don't know! If you're so curious, ask him yourself!"

Severus moaned at the ridiculous fight we're having and I didn't miss him rubbing his temple in circle. "Can't we put aside the useless conversation and addressed the critical information we just got."

"We got critical information?" I asked, genuinely not knowing where his thought was going.

Lily on the other hand was beaming, "Care to share the rest of the class?"

"Not yet, it's still more of a guest but I think I have something in mind about the line concerning The Architect. But testing that theory would mean we've got to sneak through the castle past curfew, tonight."

"Uuh...Sev, You do remember I have detention tonight right? With James constantly on my side?"

Sev made a rare mischievous smile and I felt there were ants crawling on my spine. Looks like he already had a plan on mind.

AN: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

And yes, it's new year in my time zone. To be specific? I'm updating exactly at midnight.

Sorry that this chapter is a bit in the short side, and unfortunately I'm going have to have a week break again. Coming up a Scavenger Hunt is harder than I thought. I was never good at it so go figure I had a hard time writing it. Hope my best would be enough to satisfy you all.

Anyway, good night and Peace Out!