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So far... The reborn Hermione befriended Harry, Luna, and the Weasleys at a much younger age and even though Voldemort died early, she has formed the Cathesis League to fight corruption, elevate justice, and ultimately seek cooperation between Muggles and Magical societies. Ravenclaw's Diadem is needed to save Mrs Lovegood so Hermione, Luna, and Ginny must search in Albania. Now read on...

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Chapter 27

Ordeal By Enigma


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Little Pleaders

"Mummy, please may we hunt for treasure in the woods?" Luna stood by Hermione and Ginny with a toy bucket and spade and a pleading, unrefusable, entirely-innocent expression in her eyes.

Mrs Lovegood left the breakfast dishes to wash themselves and turned around. "I suppose so – as long as you all wrap up warm."

"And may we take sandwiches and things on the expedition? We'll be back in time for tea."

Pandora smiled. "Promise me you'll all stay together and come back early if you're cold?"

"We promise," the three girls echoed each other.

"Very well, take your trainer wand and send up loud crackly red sparks if... if you get lost."

Luna giggled. "You know I never get lost!"

"I know you don't, darling – but just in case there's a problem, I'll hurry to find you."

Mrs Lovegood set to with her wand and soon had packs for all three girls. "There are hot-charmed drinks in there too, so be careful – and don't go too far into the woods."

"Oh, Mummy, we can never go further than halfway, can we?"

Luna's mother frowned – but with an expectant smile on her lips. "Why not?"

"Because if we go further than halfway into the woods then we'll be coming out again, won't we?"

"Very well, off you go – and be good, won't you children?"

"We will," chorused the three friends.

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The Quest for the Lost Diadem

As soon as the children entered the sparse strip of woodland below the hill and were out of sight of the house, Hermione took the small chunk of brown pottery out of her bag.

Luna was explaining to Ginny, "Well, I didn't say which woods, did I? So you see it doesn't count as a fib, does it? – oh, is that the Portkey?" There was a trace of disappointment in her expression. Perhaps she'd been expecting a more exciting symbol to commence their grand adventure.

Hermione nodded and looked at her watch. "Set for nine o'clock. We're a bit early."

They looked around, each with their own thoughts. The day was bright but the wintering trees were bare of leaves. The only movement was a chaffinch foraging amongst the scattered ground clutter, and a slight swaying of branches in the cold breeze. Ginny shuddered and wrapped her scarf more snugly around her neck.

"Don't worry, Albania's milder than this," said Hermione, nervously examining her watch again. "Right, let's not leave it till the last second – take hold." She held out the piece of pot and two thick-gloved hands fumbled out, clumsily knocking it down into the drifts of leaf litter. They all dived and began scrabbling.

"Find it quickly! There's only half a minute to go!"

"Summon it!" cried Ginny.

Hermione hesitated, knowing a fragile object can break under a forceful summons if it were wedged or obstructed. Luna found the enchanted object first by taking off a glove and feeling for it amongst the loose material – the others seized it only moments later. Then, in a swirl of dead leaves, the three young witches vanished, leaving the startled chaffinch to speed away up to the safety of the trees.

Sunshine and warm air greeted them as they touched down amongst the shrubbery within a high-walled garden. They quickly tucked away their heavy travel cloaks, scarves and gloves into Hermione's bag and began trudging alongside the wall looking for a gate that would lead them outside so they could fly away. Ginny said they'd find it faster if they flew on their broomsticks. Luna smilingly suggested they fly over the wall and unlock the gate from the other side. Hermione scowled at her wit and pulled the three forgotten brooms out of her copious bag.

Once outside, the three glided low for Hermione's sake, and she'd cast invisibility on them all so they could follow the road signs without being seen. For most of an hour they chatted, Luna waved unseen at the big Muggle trucks and wobbled the girls' tightly-packed brooms – much to Hermione's consternation, but Ginny kept a firm grip on Hermione to keep her upright. On and on they sped, pausing here and there only for Luna to look at the sheep and cows in the surrounding fields, until finally the suburbs of Peshkopi came into view. The concealment spell was just beginning to wear off by the time they had skirted the city and headed east towards the wooded mountain slopes and their final destination: Gyp Rrezikshme.

"What exactly are we looking for?" piped up Ginny, once they were so far into the wilderness there was no further need for invisibility.

Hermione tried to control her rapid breathing before she answered; she was glad of her friends' company but they'd had to gradually fly higher to skim the great oak forest and without Luna and Ginny pinning her in securely on either side, she'd have been more than anxious. "She said the forest had been funnelled into a long chasm so I suppose we should be looking for any ridges jutting out from the mountains ahead."

"Who said?" Luna asked, raising her voice against the wind billowing her hair. Her blonde tresses had grown down over her shoulders again during the year, and now the buffeting of the slipstream rendered the strands as straggly as ever they were.

"Uuh... someone who knew where the treasure was."

"She told you that?"

Hermione confirmed that she had.

"So she buried a valuable treasure, asked a sphinx to guard it, yet told you where it is?"

"Mmm... not exactly." Hermione knew Luna was playing twenty questions: trying to find out all she could from seemingly innocent inquiries.

But Luna persisted. "You said she told you she hid it and where – so she 'not exactly' asked a sphinx? Inexactly...? Indirectly? She asked someone else to ask the sphinx! Or someone else did it anyway, and she only knew about it?"

Hermione did not answer.

"Who might it be, I wonder?"

"Look, I can't–"

"What about there?" said Ginny, pointing ahead.

"Where?" said Hermione, glad of the diversion.

"Those long lines of rocks sticking up through the trees ... where that eagle's flapping about – see?"

Hermione shook her head. "Can't see anything..."

Ginny saw where she was looking. "No, further – by the side of that crag."

"Way out there? I thought you meant..." Hermione stiffened on the broom and the others felt Hermione dragging back and slowed with her. "Down! Get down below the canopy out of sight!"

The three swooped down a little to treetop height where they could still glimpse the creature above the leafery. "Ginny, that must be miles away! You didn't really think that was an eagle did you?"

"Well, uumm..."

Luna wasn't speaking. She had a kind of far-off rapturous expression on her face and was murmuring dreamily to herself over and over, "A real sphinx... it's a real live sphinx..."

Hermione tried to convey the seriousness of the situation. "It must be guarding the place from the air and might attack on sight. I should have known. We'll have to continue at ground level," said Hermione.

They descended through thick foliage and slowed their broomsticks almost to walking speed a few feet above the ground. An earthy, organic smell enveloped them and the density of branches closing in overhead cast a gloom over the company. A deathly stillness held the forest in its embrace. Hermione was affected by a sense of the long years from her previous life when Voldemort's loveless spirit had wandered here in painful desolation after he had murdered James and Lily.

After they had flown in silence for over a mile, their mood had become even more sombre, and the route was becoming so tangled they had slowed almost to a halt. Luna said, "You should tell us everything, don't you think?"

They landed when they found a fallen log to sit on, and Hermione drew out three hot beakers of tea. She thought long and hard before speaking. "It's for your mother, Luna. ... I know everything. Why you tried to visit Hogwarts and–"

Luna breathed out, "Man's greatest treasure..."

Hermione nodded. "I found a memo at the school and I guessed what it meant. I realised your mother was seeking the lost diadem so I decided to help."

Luna stared over the warm drink clutched between her hands. "You spoke to the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw?"

"We made a bargain. Your mother may use the diadem once only, then it must be returned to Hogwarts. Do you think she'll agree?"

Luna gazed inwardly. "Mummy will be so, so happy. I'm sure she'll promise – but I'll be in so much trouble..."

"It was the Bloody Baron who–"

"–Excuse me, but what are we talking about?" said Ginny.

Hermione explained. "The ghost of Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter haunts Hogwarts. She ran away with her mother's diadem but her mother sent a man after her – a would-be suitor. He tracked her down here in this forest, but when she heard him coming she hid the diadem. When she refused to return with him, he became violently angry. He... he killed her."

Ginny's cry of surprise was only partly subdued by her hand.

Continuing, Hermione said, "He searched around for the diadem without success then, filled with remorse, he first chanted an ancient ritual to summon a sphinx to guard the area, then killed himself. Both their ghosts returned to the castle where Rowena was dying – heartbroken by her daughter's betrayal of her trust."

"He's another Hogwarts' ghost?" said Luna.

"He is now known as the Bloody Baron."

Ginny said, "But if he couldn't find the diadem then what chance have we?"

"Helena told me she hid it in a hollow tree at the narrow end of the ravine over a thousand years ago. The tree will be long gone by now but we can use magic to search the soil. It must still be there or the sphinx would have flown."

"Why couldn't the Baron have used magic?"

"He was distraught, beside himself with grief. Who knows what was going on his mind?"

"That is so romantically dreadful," said Luna mournfully. "We must not let Mummy have the diadem until she promises to honour Lady Helena's wishes."

Hermione sighed. "First we have to find it. Come on, drink up, and we'll walk the rest of the way."

As they proceeded, Hermione sensed the unseen rock walls of the chasm were pressing the forest trees inwards. There had never been any kind of track underfoot to follow, and there still wasn't, yet the trunks of the great oaks left so narrow a gap that just one route presented itself – and often only in single file.

The girls had again lapsed into a thoughtful mood by this time, mindful of what might lie ahead, and had ceased all conversation so they might pay more attention to their surroundings. But they had only the muffled stillness to listen to, for no birds sang, no wind stirred the leaves, not even a mouse scurried through the loose detritus underfoot. Looking up, the sky was obscured completely now – the only indication of its whereabouts being a faint glow here and there in the higher canopy. That was about to change.

Not far ahead they could see a patch of grass illuminated from above. As they approached, it was evident that the trees had been forced to space themselves out around a pool to form a tiny clearing – but to their dismay, the way beyond that appeared blocked by even more densely-packed oak. Yet before they emerged, a great wafting of air caused them to hold back in alarm. Descending into the glade was the sphinx, her baleful glare fixed on the intruders.

The creature stood proud, assessing them for a few moments, then settled herself down to silently await their incursion into its territory. Luna had been only half right – the sphinx was hideously beautiful, and beautifully hideous. For a moment, Hermione perceived her as centaur-like, for her shoulders and upper arms were bare – as were her throat and breasts – but there the likeness ended. The tawny fur-covered forearms stretching out before her ended in paws glinting with half-concealed claws. From the powerful deltoids of the beast sprang vast feathered wings folded close about her flanks and back. A mane of long dark-brown hair – reminiscent of a male lion's authority or perhaps a haughty Egyptian queen – framed her astonishing features, emphasising the high cheek bones, the expressionless eyes, and a jaw that, while distinctly feminine, boasted an outline suggestive of large, hidden fangs. She uttered not a word.

The three girls were unsure what to do. The narrow corridor down which they had arrived gave them a little protection, for surely this winged monster could not force its way between the tightly-packed oaks. Should they enter the glade? They would be at the creature's mercy if they did.

Pressing the others back, Hermione leaned forward and peered about. She whispered back over her shoulder, "There are two other passages forking away through the trees, one left, and one right. I could run round the water to either of them but I'm not sure I'd make it, and anyway, it seems unlikely it would be that easy."

Keeping her eyes on the sphinx, she stepped backwards until she bumped into Ginny before turning around. "This is where you two return," she whispered. "Wait for me where the trail widens. If I'm not back by–"

Her companions protested vigorously. "And do what?" said Ginny. "Fly our broomsticks all the way back to Ottery?"

Luna said, "And what if there are other dangerous creatures about? A Manticore is as deadly as a sphinx and could follow us where she can't. Besides, this is what we came for."

"No!" said Hermione, quite firmly, and folding her arms to emphasise her position.

"Can't you... you know, make us all non-solid, and go right through?" said Ginny.

"I might, but remember the view from overhead? There's a very long way to go yet, so that would only get us across the clearing safely and a little way into the trees again. I can't maintain that magic for more than a few minutes."

"So? Isn't that all we need?"

"And what then? Who knows what that thing is capable of? I don't fancy upsetting her, do you? Imagine us running to we-don't-know-where with that creature flying ahead of us!"

"Then do your... thing again," said Ginny.

"For how long? I don't like getting into something I don't understand and having to repeatedly use exhausting magic – it would leave us vulnerable, maybe helpless."

"Oh, for Merlin's sake!" Ginny pushed past Hermione and strode out into the clearing. The sphinx immediately lifted itself up to tower over the little girl and released a terrible roar that shook the nearest trees and collapsed Ginny to a trembling cringe.

Hermione had already drawn her true wand and rushed forward to Ginny's side, with Luna right behind her.

"Declare your purpose here or be devoured!" thundered the noble chimera.

Hermione froze. Everything depended on her saying the right thing. Luna gazed dozily up at the tiny gap of blue in the canopy above.

Ginny rose shakily to her full height again, but her voice was both squeaky and shaky. "If you p-please ... w-we're looking for the l-lost diadem of R-Ravenclaw!"

The sphinx growled ominously, "Then together you may ask a single question. But be warned, on alternate days I speak only truth or only lies."

The Weasley girl glared and put her hands on her hips in a pose she'd so often seen her mother use to dominate a situation. "Then how are we supposed to–?"

The sphinx roared its fury once again and stepped forward. Ginny tentatively moved one leg half a step back but held firm. Hermione clamped a hand over Ginny's mouth and drew the audacious girl slowly backwards to the relative safety of their entryway.

"Don't waste our question!" hissed Hermione. "If we choose the wrong path then..." She slashed a hand across her throat.

"But it's an impossible question!" pouted Ginny. "We can never know whether the sphinx is telling the truth or not."

"There must be a way. We all need to discuss it and think before doing anything impulsive. Luna, have you got any ideas what the – WHERE'S LUNA!"

Luna was still before the sphinx, dreamily examining her shape and size. The creature glared at her for a while, then settled itself down again.

"Luna!" hissed Hermione "Get back here!"

"Oh, sorry!" said Luna, and came scurrying back. "She's wonderful, isn't she!"

Hermione rolled her eyes.

The three girls sat down together to decide what to do. Hermione and Ginny occasionally made a suggestion but mostly they just sat and thought. Luna, who had remained at the threshold of the little glade continued to stare up at the little patch of sky above. Most of the next hour passed and still Hermione was perplexed. Ginny had given up entirely and was all for running down one path or another, whatever happened. Luna remained still.

"I think you're right," Hermione said to Ginny at last. "Obviously there is no direct solution. I think it's some sort of test of character but what response should we make?"

"Let me ask something." Luna was on her feet.

"No Luna!" cried Hermione. "We need to analyse it a bit more first!"

But Luna fearlessly approached the sphinx and, pointing to the path on her right, said, "If we could ask you tomorrow, does that way lead to the diadem, what would you reply?"

The sphinx replied, "Yes."

"Thank you," said Luna, and walked instead towards the other entry. "Come on, it's this way."

"WAIT! WAIT!" yelled Hermione and Ginny together, but Luna was already on the trail. With a terrified glance at the sphinx, they ran after her.

"We're with her!" Ginny shouted over her shoulder, as they dashed into the narrow passageway.

"What were you thinking, Luna!" cried Hermione.

"You just guessed, didn't you?" said Ginny. "It was a lucky guess."

They trudged on, lapsing again into silence as the path narrowed until they were often bunched up, one behind the other, once more.

"Oh, I know!" Ginny's sudden cry startled them. "If she'd said 'no' then we'd have come back tomorrow and asked again, right?"

"We can't. We were only allowed one question," replied Luna.

Excitedly, Hermione butted in, "But that must mean we're allowed one question every day because she not only answered you today but told you what her answer would be tomorrow!"

"No, I only asked if we could ask tomorrow. Her answer was what she would say if we could ask it tomorrow – but she knows we can't."

Hermione blinked at that. Ginny gaped. They all fell mute again as they trudged onward.

"So... today... she was lying, right?" said Ginny at last.

Hermione sniffed. "Of course not. The sphinx was telling the truth."

They continued walking.

"Well, Luna?" huffed Hermione. "Which was it? Was she telling the truth or lying?"

"I honestly don't know," said Luna.

A cry of frustration came from Ginny. "I knew it! You just guessed like I said."

"Sshhh... I'm trying not to think because there must be at least two more."

"WHAT!" shrieked Ginny. "Two more sphinxes? No way!"

"Why?" frowned Hermione.

"Because this path is much too narrow for the sphinx to chase and eat us so it would not have been too difficult to race our brooms over the pool and past her, would it?"

"You mean...?" said Ginny, nervously biting her lip.

"Well, there must be a second sphinx to prevent anyone else entering from above while we kept the first one occupied – that's the sphinx we first saw from a distance on our brooms. And if this were the wrong way then a third sphinx would devour us when we reach the next little clearing. That's why there's just enough sky above for them to fly down."

Hermione and Ginny stopped. Ginny said, "But you said this is the right way!"

Luna paused to look back at the other two. She had a puzzled expression on her face. "No, this is the left way."

Hermione released a long breath of exasperation. "Luna, are we safe down this path or not, yes or no?"

"Only until we reach the next sphinx. Come on." She turned and strode off. After a moment's hesitation, her companions followed.

After a long while, Ginny grumbled, "How much further? I'll be all gristle by the end then it won't want to eat me."

"Sshhh... I'm trying to think," whispered Hermione, "that riddle was really hard but I'd almost got it."

Luna whispered that she herself was trying not to think. "–and the next one might be hard."

As they rounded another thick grouping of trees there was a glimmer of light ahead.

"Wait, wait!" hissed Ginny. She slowed down, uncertain of their prospects.

But Hermione stopped completely. "I think I've got it!"

Luna came patiently back.

Hermione took a deep breath. "If this is the correct way then the other way – the one you pointed to – is the wrong way. So if the sphinx was telling the truth then she'd have to honestly tell you that tomorrow she'd lie and say 'yes' – right? But if the sphinx wasn't telling the truth then she'd know that tomorrow she'd tell the truth and say 'no' – so she lied about what she would say tomorrow and said 'yes' – right?"

"But that means she'd have said 'yes' whether she's lying or not!" grumbled Ginny.

"That's right!" smiled Luna. "You've got it at last. Come on..."

"But how do you know this is the way then? I mean, I'd really like to know before we become dinner."

Luna looked at her very oddly. "Because if I'd pointed to this path then she'd have said 'no' whether she was lying or not, wouldn't she?" She set off again with the others in pursuit.

They saw the next clearing from afar, for the sun had risen during the morning to illuminate a more spacious, dipped area with room for half a dozen sapling oaks to stretch up and adorn the place with their youthful vigour.

"It's a sweet little fairy dell!" cried Luna. "See?"

"She's got wings – but that's no fairy," said Ginny, pointing to the opposite side.

When it saw them, the waiting creature did not merely roar – it emitted a lengthy siren-like shriek that hurt their eardrums, and revealed teeth like the needles in a giantess's sewing box.

Hermione looked around for two exits but saw none.

"It's behind her," whispered Ginny. "No chance of brooming past this ugly great buzzard."

Another shriek was uttered – louder than the first – and the beast was clearly salivating. "Is that your answer?"

Ginny clutched at her ears and held on until they stopped ringing. "No, no, I was just telling the others about your... hugely... great-cious... erm... buzzom?"

Luna said to the sphinx, "If you wish an answer then what is your question?"

Clearly disappointed at having to remain hungry for a while longer, the sphinx settled down, drew in a great breath of air, then began to speak:

"One summer, Hilda Natts and her parents moved to a new home in the centre of a neat row of seven redbrick houses. Over the next few weeks she tried hard to make friends but was disappointed to find the occupants had little in common. Although they all had single children they were each of a different age from 11 to 17, all were only interested in one school subject, and they varied as to pets and even their favoured form of transport. What was worse, four of them were in different houses at Hogwarts while the other three attended European schools."

"WAIT! WAIT!" cried Hermione, pulling out her notebook and pen. "What was that bit again?"

But the sphinx paid no more attention to the little girl's cries than if they'd been the sizzling of a sausage in a frying pan just before breakfast. She continued:

"Annoyed, the girl persuaded her parents to paint their house a different colour to the others, but the little dog next door on the left barked every time they climbed the ladder, and anyway, the day after, the others had all done likewise except for the smart Ravenclaw on her immediate right. The Gryffindor's house was blue. It was nearest the quietest pet and as far away as possible from the owl that hooted every night atop its white chimney. The bird's mistress liked to study the magical plants she grew in her garden but was so angry when next door's pig broke through their adjoining fence and ate her dirigibles one Sunday, that, after herding it back, she walked off with his broomstick all the way to the canal and with a churlish "Voila!" threw it in. As usual, he blamed Silas Blimple, the Latin scholar who lived in the purple-fronted home, despite that entire family having driven to the coast for a long weekend."

Hermione groaned, fingers cramped around her ball-point pen, scrabbling for all she was worth. Ginny was trying to help by pointing out her misspellings. Luna was, once more, gazing up at the sky.

"Galorian Pim was a spoilt twelve-year-old and permitted to Floo-in ingredients so he could prepare potions in the basement which he'd then been testing on his mouse. The poor creature had escaped next door but sadly was eaten by the dog while its owners were away. In consequence, the Pims' house was repainted black at Galorian's insistence.

"Seventeen-year-old Irwin loved Charms lessons most of all. He came from a long line of Doughty pure-bloods and lived next to the green house. Caradoc Slink had the largest pet and frequently leaned over the wall of his garden to scoff at the members of the Dolus family resident there. Akbar Ahmadi was the youngest of the seven children in the little row of houses and already missed being able to use the family carpet to get about. If his pet was a dove and there was a toad in the garden of the yellow house, then who had the fish?"

"Oh, I love general knowledge questions!" cried Luna, sitting down on the warm grass to scatter her thoughts away.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "No, Luna, it's an elimination logic problem. I know this one. It's based on Einstein's riddle but that only had five houses. You need to be a genius to work it out in your head. However..." She sat down beside Luna and dug out her notebook. "There are fewer than 5000 combinations so I should be able to work them all out in less than an hour." She drew out a large pad of graph paper, a twelve-inch ruler, and several marker pens.

"Well I don't like pig boy," said Ginny, joining them on the ground. "He sounds like a stinking Slytherin to me. And Silas must be a Muggle if he studies Latin and his family drive a car. The French-speaking girl who likes walking probably goes to Beauxbatons, but she's got the owl so it can't be her. I rather fancy Irwin because he was the only one smart enough to leave his house red, so he's probably a Ravenclaw, plus he's old enough to Apparate so perhaps he keeps his fish in the canal."

Hermione, who, by now, had already ruled several neat horizontal and vertical lines and put Hilda Natts in the middle, snorted her derision. "That is the daftest–"

"Ginny's right – oh, sorry," said Luna, and continued gazing up at the little patch of sky above.

"Luna! Aren't you even trying to solve this one?" said Hermione, her red marker pen poised deftly over the column to the right of Hilda.

"Try?" Luna frowned. "I thought it was your turn?"

Hermione let out a long sigh. "There are no turns, Luna! The first one to come up with a sensible, convincing answer should be the one to answer the question."

She neatly shaded in the fifth column and held it up to what little light descended from above so she could peruse the effect. "Now... the little dog goes on the left... oh, there's not room for 'little' now. I suppose just writing 'dog' will do." She reached for her pencil.

"I could draw the little dog for you if you like," said Luna, helpfully.

"Erm... hadn't you better get started on your uuh... not thinking thing?"

"Well, it would be nice to draw the sphinx while we're all waiting for you," pouted Luna. "Excuse me, Miss Sphinx, do you mind if I draw you while we're here?"

"Be my guest," the sphinx smiled, licking her lips hungrily.

Hermione looked up and stared. "Luna, what are you doing? We're supposed to be solving the riddle."

"But Ginny and I did solve it, so it would be lovely if–"

"WHAT!" Hermione looked back and forth between the other two girls. "You think it's Irwin Doughty just because he might be a Ravenclaw so – d'uh! – he must keep a fish in the canal? That's plain barmy!"

"No, because a Dolus is a type of magical fish similar to the herring only it's red. It can't be the Muggle's pet because usually they can't see them, and all the other creatures are accounted for. Also, there's not enough information to work it out the hard way."

Hermione swallowed hard. Then she took a deep breath before whispering, "Okay, this is what we do... we edge away back into our safety tunnel then I call out the answer from there, right?"

"Our answer is Irwin Doughty," said Luna to the sphinx. "It was quite interesting, thank you."

"AAAGGHH!" cried Hermione leaping to her feet and dragging Ginny with her.

"Very well," hissed the sphinx, and moved sulkily away from the next passage entrance through the trees.

Luna confidently led the way with the others following. As they walked along, Hermione secretly decided to let the little blonde girl answer the next question first to save wasting any more time. Yes, that was the smart thing to do, she nodded to herself.

But even as they approached the end of this tight passage through the forest, not even Hermione could have anticipated the horror that lay ahead of them that would test even Luna's sufferance. It was to be a trial not only of their intellects but of their character and courage too.

Alongside the others, Luna's nerve was overwhelmed as they entered the next clearing, and she sank to her knees in a near-faint, Ginny beside her, and finally Hermione. The sphinx that stood there was far larger than her sisters and even more terrible in its grandeur and its warning cry. Looming high over them, a howl began as a banshee wail that rose in pitch and power to became a virtual tempest. The beast's wiry fur gathered a maelstrom of lightning that sizzled through the surrounding trees, singeing leaves and preventing any escape. The sky fell black as night and sank upon the girls, a whale of pressure compressing their flesh and bones down to breaking point.

Hermione could sense an awful presence far, far greater than herself – real or imagined no longer mattered. She had no right to be here, she knew. A lowly human, what entitled her to enter the domain of this god-like beast? SHE who commanded the world to grovel? SHE whose piercing glare was ice and fire? Those eyes now held hers, owned Hermione's soul and clutched her heart out from her chest. The features of this goddess were glory and dread from which no one could turn by will. The colossus shamed Hermione's audacious intrusion to where she could not live one moment longer without the sphinx's forgiveness.

The ground was shaking heavily beneath Hermione and no longer able to even kneel, she fell utterly prostrate, hugging the sharp ashen filth in an attempt to lower herself further into it – to render herself less than nothing. She could hear Ginny and Luna crying.

"HOW ... DARE ... YOU ... DISTURB ...ME?" the thunder-goddess declared. "I who am the absolute beginning of the end, and the very end of time and space! I who am essential to creation, and surround everywhere!"

The wailing of both Luna and Ginny came to an abrupt end with their final death-cries in the jaws of the beast. Unbearable fear was breaking Hermione apart as crawling through her mind came the knowledge that the gaping maw of the death-sphinx was descending upon her too. As she was consumed, its breath was a scorching gale: "Answer me! What am I?"

I'm so sorry, Ginny! ... So sorry, Luna! In that moment, the gasping broken wails of both Luna and Ginny was repeated – only to be sundered a second time. Once more the mighty fangs crushed Hermione inside a searing furnace: "Answer me! What am–?"

Hermione screamed above the whirlwind, knowing, with absolute certainty, that she was right. "You're nothing but a symbol! You're the letter E!"

For a few moments a delicious silence took her in its arms, then birdsong could be heard. The warm sun lit her tear-streaked face; the rasping sound of Luna and Ginny breathing caressed her ears; the scraping ash had become the softest green moss. She sobbed for a while, knowing the sphinx had winged away, leaving all three girls freed by Hermione's answer.

Humbled that only another uncontrolled déjà vu experience had saved the lives of her friends, Hermione went to comfort them. Ginny could not speak, and Luna only in soft monosyllables.

In a dreamlike drowse, Hermione led them onwards without conscious purpose. Eventually the great stone cliffs that marked the end of the rift came into view and reminded her of why she had come. Alone, the young witch searched among the trees there for any obvious place to cast her spells, until at last she was compelled to use her wand to blindly scan for traces of magic. By this means she narrowed down her search to an area the size of a modest garden, and set to work.

The two other girls watched in a stupor as she called forth a wind to drive away the swathes of leaves and twigs that obscured the ground then, on hands and knees, crawled about, feeling the soil between the spread of her hands. They had never known magic like this but were too numb to do ought but observe. Hither and thither, Hermione seemed drawn in a spiral until at last she hit against a large oak blocking her way.

"Within its roots," they thought she murmured, before again feeling around the bole of the tree, down the bark, pushing her arms into the tangles of woody snakes that burrowed between the clods. Partway around the first side, she paused. Though still greatly subdued by shock, Luna came at last to join her.

"It's here!" breathed Hermione. "I can sense magic here."

She used a gentle summoning charm but felt the resistance of the thick roots so stepped further out from the tree and hauled sideways with her wand. The diadem came through the earth then, reluctantly at first, but eventually emerging like a fish being landed onto the ground. Hermione slowly lifted up the strange tiara, cleansed it of the still-clinging soil, and held it high so they could see the fruit of their endeavour and of their suffering.

The crown was a delicate circlet, its silver tarnished by the centuries spent in the earth, but the words, Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure, remained visible, glinting goldly in the leaf-scattered light of the setting sun. Mesmerised, she and Luna gazed upon the priceless relic. Even Ginny was drawn at last to look upon the wonder, though she had not spoken one word since the encounter with the third sphinx.

"We'd better go," said Hermione at last, after seeing Ginny's expressionless eyes, and glancing up at the darkening sky.

After stowing the tiara in her bag, she Apparated her friends directly to Devil's Deep in Hungary. Lost in thought, they did not question where they were, but Luna did gaze blankly around the imposing rock of the receiving cell where they stood while Hermione regathered her magical strength. Not long after, they had reached the bell tower, where Hermione rested briefly yet again, then they were swiftly back in the fringes of the woods near to Luna's home.

The winter sun had not yet set in this northern latitude, but was diminished by hazy cloud. Mrs Lovegood met them on the track down the hill. "Are there you are! I was beginning to wonder if you'd forgotten the time. I'm about to make tea."

"I'm sorry, Mrs Lovegood," said Hermione. "We should have come sooner. Ginny's tired out. I think she should go straight to bed."

Luna needed no persuasion to join her in an early night's sleep, leaving Hermione to talk with Pandora at the kitchen table...

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The Pledge

Mrs Lovegood was no fool. She sensed there was something more to be known about the children's day in the woods. As she stirred the tea in the pot, she studied Hermione's expression. When the pot lid finally clunked down, the young girl did not wait to be asked.

"I know why Professor Dumbledore would not allow you a parental visit, Mrs Lovegood," she began.

Pandora's eyes narrowed. "Luna would never willingly break a promise. What did you do to her!"

Hermione shook her head. "Luna said nothing. I worked it out myself."

"Impossible."

"I saw the headmaster's memo to his deputy."

Mrs Lovegood rose angrily to her feet. "You enticed my daughter all the way to Scotland! How? Who took you! How did you get in? You'd no right without speaking to me first!"

Hermione did not disabuse Pandora of her assumption. "The need was very great."

"How? What do you mean?"

"Luna would not have told you, and I ask you not to tell anyone else, but I sometimes have... visions. I saw you endangered by a powerful spell – by the very spell you are trying to create."

Pandora sank slowly down into her seat once more. "I knew there was more to you than is evident. A child long-burdened can sound older than her years. A young girl should play while she can – you act more your age when you do. What happened to you, Hermione, or were you born with this gift? I often see suffering in your eyes."

Mrs Lovegood remembered the tea then, and began to pour.

"Because I see much that will happen if care is not taken. Great wisdom is needed to create the most advanced spells; you will fail without sufficient... wit."

Hermione's teacup rattled against its saucer in Mrs Lovegood's hand. She lowered it carefully before her guest. Her voice trembled too when she finally was able to speak. "You've s-spoken to her haven't you? The Grey Lady?" Pandora's voice dropped to a strained whisper. "Has she told you where it is?"

"Mrs Lovegood, I know precisely where Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem is."

By now, Pandora's face had turned quite pale, and she clutched at her cheeks in astonishment, her lips silently framing the word "Where?"

"You may use the diadem once only. I need your word, Pandora." There was a new authority in Hermione's tone.

"She agreed?" In a wonderment, Mrs Lovegood finally said. "The Founder's daughter herself? ... She'll allow me to...?"

Hermione nodded. "Once only. ... Your word, Pandora."

"Then I so pledge." Mrs Lovegood inclined her head almost in obeisance – but to whom or what, Hermione could not tell.

A kitchen table strewn with tea things seemed too lowly a place to reveal a grand treasure. Hermione went instead to a small corner beside the fireplace upon which stood only a simple pottery vase. She removed the vase to the hearth while Mrs Lovegood drew nearer, puzzled, but with an unthought suspicion dismissed out of hand for more likely explanations. Pandora should have paid the notion more heed. Her poor heart could scarcely comprehend that which Hermione drew from her bag and reverently placed on display.

Mrs Lovegood stared for several seconds, then knelt at the altar in an attitude of devotion, a prayerful murmur breathing from her lips, "Long have I sought thy measureless wisdom, O, Rowena..."

Hermione left her in the fireglow while she returned to the table to sip her tea. She watched Mrs Lovegood piously cleanse away the tarnish with her wand, leaving bright silver and glittering gems. The woman conjured up a brass-bound box of cedar and placed the diadem within it before bringing it back to the table. As the reality of what she held sank in, her lips began to tremble and there were tears welling in her eyes.

"You cannot imagine how much this means to me, Hermione, not only as a sacred antiquity but..."

"It's for Luna isn't it – your new magic? But she needs her mother far more than any spell."

Pandora nodded, and finally hot tears spilled down her cheeks. "I w-want s-so much for her to do well."

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Promises

Though chastened, Ginny and Luna were closer to their normal selves after a good night's rest, and ready to return with Hermione to the Grangers home for half a day of Potions study.

Meanwhile, after Hermione had enchanted the diadem with the once-only protection she'd described, Pandora had hidden it away in a safe place. Hermione reassured her she might keep using it on the one problem until it was complete.

"If the development of any stage of your magical spell becomes obscure, place the diadem on your head and focus on the task in hand; Lady Helena assured me that inspiration will not be long in coming. Once you have accomplished your final aim then the diadem will return itself to Hogwarts under the Grey Lady's stewardship, until needed again by future heads of the school."

Pandora smiled. "And you'll test it for me like you said? To evaluate how best to employ the textbooks I bewitch?"

"I'll be glad to. I shall continue working with Luna and our other friends just as we have been doing."

"Thank you so much, Hermione," said Mrs Lovegood. "I'm sure Luna will have the best possible start in September. Now, you three, promise me you really are going to Hermione's for the morning and not off on some wild adventure!"

"We promise," smiled the three girls.

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—oOo—

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Author's Notes

Questions – keep 'em coming! Skye suggested I consider splitting the story 'books' into separate fics because it is getting long already. My reason for aiming for one long epic is, admittedly, selfish: all the most popular fics are very long and have thousands of readers and reviews! (Go to story browser, select Harry Potter, then filter in order of follows or favourites.) What do others think?

Lily and Jhotenko queried Calla's reason for selling the mirror so cheap. She's sex-hungry and when Adam showed personal interest in the little girl's frock she saw him as a sad, lonely, and vulnerable male. It was inconceivable to her that this big, pathetic-looking guy wouldn't fall for her charms. She didn't know the mirror could be retuned or split, so she saw its only value to Adam would be to communicate with her – why else would he buy a single two-way mirror? She believed they had an understanding so she saw the mirror as payment for his 'services' but at the same time expecting an opportunity to wheedle it back. :D

Lily also wondered about Neville. Don't worry, I've got big plans for Neville and you'll see more of him before Hogwarts starts. But for now, he's only seeing Harry and still avoiding Hermione. :)

Brit-speak for those who don't know: little plastic bucket and spade sets are traditional British seaside toys for building sandcastles. :)

All of the riddles were traditional and modified by myself. I hope nobody did an Hermione and started making notes on graph paper for the Einstein riddle! It became so complicated with seven houses that the clues were becoming ridiculously lengthy (for use in a story) so I cut it short. :)

Thanks to everyone for comments and reviews. These are most welcome and very encouraging. Let me know of any weaknesses or faults – I'm always trying to improve my writing so feedback is really useful. :)

– Hippothestrowl

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