Greetings. This story has of right now over 100k views, and over 1000 followers. Many who reviewed has begged for longer chapter, and I will try to deliver. Previous chapters are all in the range of 2000-2500 words, and I will from now on try to write chapters with at least 3500 words. While not planned, I will also include characters and items from the Nasuverse from now on, in an attempt to fix the mistake that was the marriage contract mentioned in chapter 4. Thank you all for enjoying this story.
Getting Stoned on the Third Floor
When they came down for breakfast the next morning, they noticed the teachers that sat at the head table all had a sombre look on their faces. Well, all except Snape who had his customary look of disgust and indifference plastered on his face. When all students had been seated, Dumbledore stood up and addressed the gathered students.
"Students of Hogwarts," he began. "It is with great regret that I must inform you that as of last night, Professor Quirrell is missing, and presumed dead."
After waiting for the murmurs from the students to quiet down, he continued.
"Late last night, the wards detected a massive surge of magic on the grounds, and right after that, Professor Quirrells presence disappeared. Therefore, all classes are cancelled for the rest of the week, while we teachers assist the Aurors in investigating Professor Quirrells disappearance. When the classes begins again next week, I will take over as the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for the rest of the year. Please assist the Aurors to the best of your abilities, and, most of all, stay calm."
With that, Dumbledore sat down and everyone started to eat. Halios and Seren shared a glance, as they now knew what it was that had attacked the Unicorns in the Forbidden Forest. Standing up, they went over and sat down next to Hermione and Neville. Hermione was the first one to break the silence.
"From the looks on your faces, I would say you know something about the Professors disappearance."
Both Seren and Halios nodded. "We think it was Quirrell who was responsible for the attacks on the Unicorns in the forest, since it fits with what happened last night. As Dumbledore said, the wards felt a massive surge of magic last night, and then the presence of Quirrell disappeared. At the same time, the cleansing light my mother sent in response to my prayer would have registered as a massive magic surge, and it did destroy the corporeal form of that which attacked the Unicorns."
Neville frowned. "So what will you do now?"
Halios shrugged her shoulders. "If they come asking, I will tell them the truth, but I will not search them out, as they might not believe me."
Hermione looked a bit miffed at that, for despite understanding Halios reasoning, she still believed that authority figures should be obeyed at all times. The breakfast continued with all the students talking about what had happened, rumours running rampart as they speculated on what could have happened. Some of the speculations were; a spell had backfired and killed him (Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff), a dark wizard had killed him as an initiation rite (Gryffindor in general, but mostly Ron Weasley), magic had decided he was unfit for its gift and thus erased him (Slytherin) and a multitude of different theories, ranging from dragons to aliens, coming from a mixture of students of all ages and backgrounds.
After breakfast, Halios, Hermione, Neville and Seren went down to the Black Lake so that they could talk undisturbed. Sitting down on some rocks at the shoreline, Neville turned to Halios and Seren and asked; "So, what happened last night?"
"Well," Halios began. "After we had split up, Seren and I went into the forest quite a bit. After a while, we saw something silvery on the forest floor. It was some kind of liquid. Following the silvery trail, we came to a clearing. In it, there lay a unicorn, badly wounded. The silvery thing we had seen, was its blood. As we stood there, I suddenly felt something dark and evil approach the clearing from another part of the forest. Not long after that, a dark figure entered the clearing. It looked kind of weird. It was going low, barely half my high, and was dressed in some sort of cloak, with shadows gathering around it, making it impossible to see any features. The thing approached the unicorn and began to drink its blood. It was at that time, it noticed us. As it slowly came towards us with ill intent clear, I prayed to my mother, who, by being the Deadric Prince of Light and Lady of Infinite Energies, seeks to destroy all things evil and the undead. It was she that sent the light you saw, and it was the light that destroyed the entity, which now we know was Quirrell. Unfortunately, it was only his physical body that was destroyed, the spirit possessing it was able to flee, but it will not return."
Both Neville and Hermione looked a bit shell-shocked after that bit of information, but felt better after learning that the evil part wouldn't return. Spending the rest of the morning at the lake, just enjoying the day, their discussions soon came to orbit around what could be on the third floor. Both Hermione and Neville were quiet happy not knowing what it was, but Halios and Seren felt a small desire to find out. They both decided to talk to the other one about perhaps exploring the third floor some time later.
When lunch came, they went inside to eat, and after that they went to the library so that they could study and finish their assigned homework. After dinner, they spent another hour in the library, this time only looking up interesting facts for fun. Soon, it became time to return to their common rooms, and get ready for the night. After saying goodnight to Seren, Halios went to sleep.
Dream
The first thing Halios noted, was the multi-coloured butterflies that fluttered around her. Then she noticed the presence of two beings she knew very well. Turning around, she gave them a bright smile.
"Mother, Father, it is good to see you."
Meridia smiled. "You as well, my dear child. Since you are probably wondering why we have called you to us in spirit, let us explain. Your father has been searching the realm you are in for something to break the contact you were forced into last year, and we believe we may have found something.
"Oh, yes." Sheogorath began with a grin. "I found a priest in whom madness lurked. Said priest is on the other side of the planet, in a country called Jalapeño. Wait, no… That's a fruit… Jpeg? No, no… Ah! Japan!"
Despite knowing of the weird quirks the Mad God had, both Halios and Meridia gave him a strange look, before continuing.
"Anyway. From the mind of that priest, we learned about another hidden world of magic users called mages. Said mages are rule by something called 'the Mage's Association', which apparently is an international, self-preservative and self-defense organization formed by practitioners of magecraft for the purpose of controlling, concealing, and developing Magecraft. Magecraft is the name of the type of magic they practise. The Mage's Association is split into three groups; The Clock Tower, which is located in London, interestingly enough, and has the largest concentration of magical knowledge of all types in the world, Atlas Academy, which concentrate on alchemy and lies somewhere in the mountains of Egypt, and the Wandering Sea, a nomadic gathering of mages in the northern Europe, that tries to study the magic of the gods."
"Interesting…" Halios injects.
"Yes, it is." Meridia nods at the statement. "Anyway. The difference between Mages and Wizards, is how they use magic. As you know, wizards and witches have a core that generates magic. Whether the core is physical or spiritual is not known, only that it exist. Mages, on the other hand, doesn't have a core. Instead, they absorb the energy of the world in order to perform their crafts. They also have something called circuits inside them that they use to move said energy around their body. Another difference is the way their magic works. Since wizards and witches uses their own energies in order to do magic, they are only limited by how much energy they can produce. Mages, since they use the worlds' energy, are bound by the laws of nature. For example, an average witch or wizard can create something with his or her magic that will last for days, maybe even weeks of months, before it disappears. Something created out of magic by an average mage will only exist as long as said mage is holding it, or maybe a minute or so afterwards, if the mage uses enough energy. This is caused by the world seeing the created thing as un-natural, and thus rejects it."
Smiling at the look of interest on their childes face, Sheogorath interrupts Meridia. "Perhaps we should get to the point of why we called her here, yes?"
"Oh, of course." Meridia says with a small blush on her face. Turning back to Halios, she continues. "One thing the mages' are really good at, is the creation of magical items. These items become stronger the longer they exist, sometimes even becoming divine in nature. In fact, a few of these items are very similar to or own Daedric Artefacts in power. One of these items is a dagger called 'Rule Breaker'. Rule Breaker has the ability to destroy all types of magic its blade touches, including magical contracts."
This causes Halios to become more alert. "Does this mean we can use Rule Breaker to cancel the marriage contract?" she asks.
Meridia shakes her head. "Unfortunately, Rule Breaker has been missing for almost a millennia, and many believes it has been destroyed. While we probably could find it, it would take longer than we have before the contract activates."
Halios looks a bit sad at this.
"Ah, but there is a way around that!" Sheogorath says with a huge grin on his face. "A Few hundred years ago, a group of mages from three families created an artefact known as the Holy Grail. They used this artefact to summon the spirits of seven heroes in order to create a ritual. This ritual was called the 'Heaven's Feel', and is in form of a tournament. Each of the heroic spirits, called Servants, is summoned by a mage, called a 'Master'. These seven pairs of Masters/Servants then battle it out in a city in Japan called Fuyuki, and the last pair standing is granted one wish each by the Grail. This happens every sixty years, and so far, there has been no winners."
"And that has to do with our problem, because..?" Halios asks, confused.
"Ah, you see, the sprits that are summoned will keep their skills and items from when they were alive, and one of the spirits that can be summoned is the original owner of Rule Breaker." Meridia explains. "And the next ritual will take place in about three years. This gives us the opportunity to manipulate things so that you will be chosen as a master, and make it so you summon the spirit that has Rule Breaker. It will also give us more time to learn about these mages' and the things that exist in their magical world."
"Now, return to sleep, and know that once the school is over, we will meet with all those who are touched by the contract and tell them what we plan on doing."
Giving her parents a hug, Halios lets her minds fall back into deep sleep.
The Waking World
When she woke the next day, Halios had a smile on her face. After telling Seren about what she learned that night, they went down for breakfast. They spent the time before lunch just talking and having fun, except when an Auror who looked like a Redguard came and asked if they knew anything about what had happened to Professor Quirrell. Once they had told him what had happened that night, he thanked them and left. The rest of the day was spent with Halios teaching Seren, Neville and Hermione the basics of Nirn magic. Hermione and Neville was firmly in one school each, namely Alteration for Hermione and Restoration for Neville. Seren, though, was split between two schools, Destruction and Conjuration. Under the guidance of Halios, they made great progress in their chosen schools. Neville could now heal minor cuts and bruises, and even something like a sprained wrist or ankle. Hermione had great fun with the Candlelight spell, and was beginning to get a hang on the Oakflesh spell, though it could still only protect against minor things, such as insect bites, rather than the types of damage it was designed for.
Seren was cackling in glee as she was firing large cones of fire from her hands out over the lake, and from time to time, summoning and re-summoning a Conjured Dagger, just to get the hang of it. After having spent some time researching it, Halios had discovered the conjured knifes and daggers worked very well when it came to potion making. The edge of the blades were always sharp, and while the dagger/knife was a magic construct, it was passive. That meant that the magic of the knife/dagger didn't disrupt the inherent magic of the potion ingredients. Plus, the fact it was easy to dismiss and re-summon the blade between uses, made it so there was no need to clean the blade in order to avoid contaminations of the ingredients.
Soon, it was time for dinner, and as the evening progressed, Seren and Halios were getting ready to explore the corridor on the third floor. After saying good night to Neville and Hermione, they started to make their way towards the Ravenclaw tower. But once they were close to the forbidden corridor, they snuck away towards it. Once they got there, they found a locked door. Making sure no-one was close by, Seren used the spell Alohomora to open the door, and they quickly stepped in, closing the door behind them.
Turning around, they came face to face with three giant hound heads. Reacting on instinct, Halios immediately cast a Paralyze spell on the creature. After a few moments, when they were sure the spell had worked, they relaxed a bit and took a better look at the three-headed monster. They discovered that it was a Cerberus, a three-headed guard dog normally found in Greece. They remembered having red about Cerberuses during their free time in the library, and knew they could put the Cerberus to sleep with music. But, since neither of them could play any instruments, nor had the knowledge to use their magic to create music, Halios decided that an over-charged Sleep spell would have to do while they searched the room.
Once the Cerberus was asleep, they began searching the room, and they soon found a hatch in the floor. Once they had opened the hatch, they looked down, but all they could see was darkness. Looking up at each other, they started discussing what they should do to get down the hatch without injury. It was during this discussion that they noticed the breathing pattern of the Cerberus had changed. As they slowly looked over towards the door, they saw a now awake Cerberus that looked ready to attack. Since the Cerberus was now blocking the door, the only place they could go was down the hatch. Looking at each other, they quickly jumped down the hatch as the Cerberus started to move towards them.
After a few seconds of free-falling, Halios and Seren landed on something soft.
"Ouch… Are you okay?" Halios asked Seren.
"Yeah. Any idea of what we landed on?"
"No, but by the looks and the smell of it, it's some sort of plant."
It was then the plant started to move, its vines quickly binding the two and starting to strangle them.
"What..? It… It's attacking us!" Seren said with a tone of panic in her voice. "We need to get out of here!"
"It's a plant, use fire!" Halios instructed as the vines almost reached her neck. Together, they gathered their magic and unleashed bouts of flames towards the main body of the plant. The light and heat of the flames caused the plant to retreat, and it wasn't long before they were free. Quickly, they moved away from the plant, down a corridor towards a room. As they came closer to the room, they could hear the quiet fluttering of many wings. Walking into the well-lit room, they saw a door on the other side, three brooms next to it, and some type of small birds flying up near the ceiling. After a closer look, they noticed that the birds were in fact keys. Since they couldn't open the door, they could only assume that amongst the keys was the one which fit the doors' lock.
"Well, it seems we need to use the brooms and try to find the correct key, if we are to continue on." Seren said, reaching out for one of the brooms. Only to be stopped by Halios.
"Wait. It would take us ages to catch the right key, so let me try something else, first."
Halios then took out a pin of some kind, and a thin piece of metal, before kneeling down next to the door and starting to fiddle with the lock.
"What are you doing?" Seren asked, confused.
"Well…" Halios began. "My father has been teaching me how to pick locks, and since we can't open this one with magic, I though…"
With a click, the lock opened. Giving Seren a triumphant smile, Halios put away her lock-picking tools and opened the door. As soon as the door opened, the keys began to dive towards them in high speed.
Going slightly pale, Seren barked out an "Oh crap!", before pushing Halios through the door, following her and slamming it shut behind them. The sound of keys hitting the door just moments afterwards showed that she had done the right thing.
"That was too close…" Seren said, the adrenaline making her breath as if she had run a couple of miles.
"Yeah," Halios agreed. "Thanks for that, by the way."
"No problem. We are friends, aren't we?"
Halios simply answered with a small, happy smile, before looking around with a small scowl on her face. "What is this room, anyway?"
The room looked like a giant cave, with a small stone bridge leading up to a platform, which was covered in darkness. Slowly, they moved closer to the platform, and when they were just a few steps from it, it was illuminated, showing a giant chess-board, complete with on-scale chess-pieces.
On the other side of the board, they could see another door. "It would seem like we have to play and win before we can continue." Seren said.
"Yes, but neither of us are very good at chess." Halios said, while thinking things through. "Hmm, do think we could go back and get the brooms from the previous room and just fly around this thing?"
"Perhaps," Seren answered. "But we would have to be really fast so that the keys don't attack us again."
"If we can just open the door a little bit, I can use a Telekinesis spell in order to get the brooms without putting us in more danger."
"Well, it's worth a try." Seren said with a shrug. Moving back to the door, Seren pushed it open just enough to let Halios summon the brooms to them. The brooms had been charmed to stop all types of summoning, but that only worked for wizarding magic. The divine type of magic Halios had access to, was able to overpower the charm on the brooms, and soon two brooms were in her hands, and Seren had quickly shut the door again. Giving one of the brooms to Seren, they soon soared through the air, moving around the chess set and landing in front of the next door.
Opening the door, a hideous smell met them. Looking into the room with tears in their eyes due to the smell, they saw the corpse of a troll. Apparently, whoever put the troll there, had forgotten to feed it, and as such, it was now dead and had been for at least a month.
"I think I'm going to be sick…" Seren was going paler by the second, and soon she bolted away from the door and started heaving.
Deciding that she had to do something about the smell and the corpse, Halios began casting her most powerful fire spell. Whatever magical resistance the troll had when it was alive, it seemed to have disappeared when it died, and soon there was just a heap of ashes where the corpse once lay. While the smell of burning flesh was in no way pleasant, it was still infinitely better than the smell of the rotting corpse of a troll in a closed environment. Holding their breaths, they quickly ran across the room to the door on the other side. After a few moments they had opened it, stepped through, and closed it behind them. In the room they now stood, there was a pedestal, on which seven bottles of different kinds stood. Next to the bottles, a piece of parchment lay.
As they stepped closer to the pedestal, fire sprang up both behind them, and across the room where the next door was. Now trapped in the room, they searched the pedestal for clues about what to do. On the parchment, there was a riddle.
'Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,
Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,
One among us seven will let you move ahead,
Another will transport the drinker back instead,
Two among our number hold only nettle wine,
Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.
Choose, unless you wish to stay here evermore,
To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:
First, however slyly the poison tries to hide
You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;
Second, different are those who stand at either end,
But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;
Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,
Neither dwarf nor giant hold death in their insides;
Fourth, the second left and the second on the right
Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.'
"A riddle?" Halios looks at Seren. "Let's see if we can figure this one out. Let's see… The second from the left and the second from the right contains the same thing, and since the second from the right is the largest bottle, they have to contain the wine, since the largest and the smallest bottle are poison free. So, after we remove them, the bottles directly to the left of those two are poison, so we can remove them too. The bottle furthest to the right takes us back, so that means… This one lets us move forward!" Halios says, and points to the smallest bottle. "Let's see, if we split the content, it should be enough to get us both through… Right, are you ready?"
Seren nods and takes a sip from the bottle before handing it over to Halios, who does the same. After taking a deep breath to calm their nerves, they quickly steps through the fire and opens the door to the next room. They could feel the fire, but it felt like a really hot bath, rather than painful heat.
The next room had only one door, which was the one they came through, so it had to be the last room. It was empty, except for a large mirror which was standing in the middle of the room. Moving closer to the mirror, they both stared at what they saw in the mirror.
"Do you see what I see?" Seren asks quietly.
"That depends on what you see."
"I-I… I see, well, us. You, me, Neville, Hermione, my parents… but, we are older. Maybe in our late teens, or early twenties. My parents are standing behind me, smiling. Neville and Hermione stands next to one another, but a bit to the side, as if they are a couple. They are also smiling. You are standing to my left, and to my right is a man, but I can't see his face. All I can make out of it are the colours blue and red. We all seems so… Happy."
"That is similar to what I see. I see all my parents. James, Lily, Mother, Father, they are all standing behind me, smiling. You, Hermione and Neville are also there, standing a bit to the side. And just as you said, we all look older. Next to me is Tonks, and another figure. I can't make out if it's a male or a female, but we are all looking happy and content."
"Do you think the mirror shows the future?" Seren asks.
"I don't know…" Halios answers, and begins to examine the mirror some more. On the top part of the frame she sees an inscription:
'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.'
"Hmm, Erised stra ehru oy tube cafru oyt on wohsi… OH! I show not your face but your hearts desire! So the mirror shows not the future, but our deepest desires."
Looking back into the mirror, Halios sees something that confuses her. The representation of her in the mirror, blinks at her, before taking a red stone from her pocket, shows it to her and puts it back.
But when it does so, Halios feels something drop into her pocket. Reaching in, she takes out the same stone her representation had shown her just moments ago. Too tired to think more about it right then, Halios turns to Seren and says; "I think we have found what's been hidden here. Come, I'll open a portal to our dorm room, so that we don't have to deal with the stuff we passed coming here on the way back."
Seren nods and soon they are lying in their beds, thinking about what they had seen that night.
And that's the end of this chapter. This is the longest chapter I've ever written, and the length I will try to keep for all upcoming chapters.
Next time: The group figure out what the stone is, the school ends for the year, there is a meeting at Gringotts and the summer begins.
Until then.
Baleygr
