Chapter 17 – A Lot Toto Think About (Hermione).

Brrrark told us, "I sense that you now suspect that we lie to you. I did not know that the yarn in question was dyed. We didn't dye it. We don't know who did. It changes nothing. Examine the yarn closely. It is the same colour as Aesir and Vanaheimer yarn, but it is not their yarn. There are fewer strands within the yarn, they are twisted more loosely, and the yarn feels less smooth. You can't tell as well from the wet piece. Please cut and examine a fresh piece."

Ginny and I did as requested. The yarn was different in every way listed by Brrrark. The knots also were different. The whole closure of the main path looked amateurish. Unfortunately, that meant anybody could have done it. The unskilled can't create a quality product, but the highly skilled can create a product which looks crude. I voiced my conclusion and Ginny agreed. Aagog said that the Veneran smell was older than the Brrrin smell. Both were less than several years old.

"I understand," Brrrark told us. "You trusted us when we returned your children. It was an emotional trusting. Now the logical part of you is concerned that you've spotted something we said, which may not be true. Your logical part always mistrusts your emotional part. One side or the other is always strongest is un. Yours are close to matched, but logic beats emotion, when you are nudged to think further. Now you doubt whether it is safe to send us to Unicorn World to share that world with the few Dark Gods. You half suspect us of being Dark Gods."

"True," I admitted.

"Ask yourself this: what would you do with us, if you thought us to be Dark Gods, when you first met us?"

"I understand! We would have sent you to Unicorn World. That was our agreement with the Dark Gods, whom we captured. That was our plan. So, even if you are Dark Gods, who tricked us, the result is the same, we will contact the Dark Gods on Unicorn World and ask if they are willing to share a part of that world with you."

"Your logic brings you to the same conclusion as your emotions. We all have big questions: why make the yarn look purple? Who did the weaving? Did they disguise their identity by making their work primitive? If the Venerans weren't somehow involved, who obtained a sample of their smell and why do they want to blame the Venerans, rather than another people?"

"Yes, those are the significant questions which I have. I have another big question: "Why did somebody want to focus the Cousins Prophecy on only two unidentified cousins."

"I think that I know the two answers to your question, Minister. As with the Harry Potter-Voldemort Prophecy, they hoped that Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom would compete and become enemies rather than friends. This means that they didn't expect Voldemort to mark Harry Potter with the scar. With this prophecy, they hope to cause fights among your children, while cooperation strengthens your side. The second reason is that they don't wish the next Quest to include all beings who think. That weakens the Quest team. They plan to lure the team into a trap and destroy it. Or to have the Quest never occur."

"That is all possible and I have considered those possibilities. I concluded that I lacked sufficient information to decide. The actual reason might be worse, a greater danger than what I considered."

"Meaning us?"

"And far more. Understanding can build trust. Tell us about your people. If you know of the Neville, Harry, Voldemort triangle of prophecy, then you have studied us a lot. I wasn't thinking about that and didn't sense you rummaging around in my mind. Also, if your people are so old, why does the travel ribbon go from Asgard to our world and then to your old world? Why haven't you asked for help from peoples who are much older than us? I'm certain that the death of your Black Stone is caused by the solidification and cooling of your world's core. You would have known of that threat for a very long exceedingly long time."

"All excellent questions. We will think of a fuller answer, but for now I'll admit that we've studied your people for many years. We study all of the known peoples. We do that, both because we desperately need to be helped by another people, but also because it is what we study. I admit it amuses us. Yes, we've studied the Harry Potter books. We already studied your people, so immediately saw the books as mostly true. We hoped that the Aesir would help us. We studied them for thousands of your years. We thought they would be jealous and destroy us. We are younger than the ancients of Asgard, but our civiliszation did not collapse, when Asgard did. We learned to become disembodied spirits well before Mim and Odin. We knew what both sought. We feared their power and what would immediately become a lust for our secrets. We saw how Odin and his lesser Gods treated other peoples. Our answer did not lie with them. The Vanir and Venerans were already in decline, when we realiszed how much trouble we were in. Neither seemed trustworthy. Your people have been able to help only recently. We knew the spiders for an exceedingly long time but thought them to all be dead. We learned of their survival when we read the Harry Potter books."

"That last part seems as unlikely as a cloaked stranger giving an Acromantula spider egg to Hagrid."

"My story is true; the Hagrid story is untrue. An egg cannot be pregnant. There must have already been at least one other Acromantula on your world. The Hogwarts colony precedes Aragog. Why does the travel ribbon run past Earth, rather than ending there? I don't know. We suspect that the Ancient Aesir had an outpost on Earth. That would have been an exceptionally long time ago. Or the plumbing between worlds was just easier to build like that. I know that you will discuss all of this with Yggdrasil. That is the wise thing to do. We will speak more at an appropriate time. Please decide quickly, whether you will trust us. Goodbye. "

They were gone. We Apparated back to our camp.

Rose approached me as soon as we returned to camp. I was talking to Ron, but Rose pleaded, "Mum only. Sorry, it's what I need, Dad."

We walked to the edge of the park, as far away from the tents and campfire as it is possible to be. There was a bench at the barrier wall. We sat upon it. I had brought a pitcher of cider and two cups. I offered a cup to Rose and filled mine and hers. I waited for her to speak. I had to wait several minutes. She drank. She sat and stared. She drank a bit more.

"I've thought a lot more about what you said to me the evening before Freddie, and I were kidnapped. I realise I was horrible to Asphodel. I bullied her. I really hurt her. She was crying. It will be much harder for her this year, because of me. It was all me. I accused her of ratting out Freddie for his investigation of the mysterious light in the corridor. Freddie said more than once that he trusted her. That he wouldn't have let her in on the secret if he didn't trust her. She had her embarrassing explosion in the Great Hall because I upset her so badly. Freddie tried to protect her. I didn't. It was deliberate. It was so unfair. Asphodel has never done anything to hurt me. You were right that Uncle Neville has done more to keep me safe at Hogwarts than anyone. After he protected me against bullying, I bullied his daughter. I'm ashamed. I've been trying to understand why. I think I saw her as a threat to my leadership of our tight little group, as someone who could demand more of Freddie's attention. I started to react when Ida asked her to talk to her father about needing protection from the Slytherins. That was supposed to be what Freddie and I did, along with Maxwell - use our gang to protect the Gryffindors. It was like I blamed her for using her father, the headmaster, to gain an advantage over me. As if having you as a mother and Ron as a father, or Freddie having his parents, haven't given us an advantage over everyone else in leading our group. Uncle Neville didn't give Asphodel all the advanced knowledge that you and Aunt Ginny gave us. Asphodel never had a personal Auror for protection. If I look at it fairly, like an outsider would, I don't much like me. You were right to scold me. If I could make things right for Asphodel, make it so that she doesn't suffer at Hogwarts for my bad actions, make her feel as if she is able to stay at Hogwarts and not have to run off to Durmstrang, where she will certainly be murdered - I'd do that in an instant. I don't know how to fix this. I don't think it's possible. I have close to destroyed Asphodel, because of my jealousy and need to feel superior."

I waited for Rose to get all of that out, listening carefully without interrupting. Now she was crying. I put an arm around her shoulders, and she collapsed against me.

"I have a few bits of advice. Good people sometimes do terrible things for bad reasons. We've all done things as bad as what you did. We've all hurt friends. It's horrible, but it happens. You have made a start in making things right with Asphodel. You've recognised your error. You are repentant and you are searching for a way to make things right. There isn't a thing you can do to achieve that. It's going to take a lot of little things. You are going to have to do a lot of little things. Asphodel will be teased. She will be picked on, both verbally in a way which goes beyond simple teasing and physically. You must stand up for her in all those cases. You must let the Hogwarts world know that Asphodel is your friend. You also must make a full apology to her. You and Freddie must spend more time with her and encourage the rest of your gang to follow your lead. Most importantly, you must stop thinking about her as competition and stop thinking of the gang as belonging to just you, Freddie, and Maxwell. You also need to apologise to Neville. I know what a good person you are. So do others. You need to give Elvis time to reassure you that you are a good person. I know it doesn't mean a lot coming from your mother."

Rose thanked me and ran back across the park. She is searching for Elvis. I searched for Ron. I found Ron and Harry. They were talking, or rather listening, to an angry McGonagall. She stopped shouting, as I approached. As I got closer, I heard Harry tell her, "...You tell them nothing. I assure you that Iona will say nothing, nor will any of us. It simply isn't your concern."

"Of course, it's my concern. I promised my brother that I would look after Iona, while she was at Hogwarts. It was a solemn promise, which I am determined to keep. It's easy for you to say 'Do nothing', after your son took advantage of my niece. Her reputation is ruined. Her parents are very conservative and extremely concerned about such things."

"The only thing damaging my reputation, Auntie, is you standing here shouting, for the whole camp to hear. I repeat what I told Mr. Potter: nothing happened. Freddie James did not, as you say, 'take advantage of me'. I dragged him into my tent for a cuddle. That's it. That's nothing compared to last term, when Hogwarts failed to protect me from the Slytherin-types I had to bunk with, and half of Gryffindor saw me naked. Freddie was the one who rescued me then."

"You're only twelve-years old!"

"And Hogwarts has aged me fast. What do you want, Auntie? Tell my father and I will be pulled out of Hogwarts, home-schooled, and married off to an old fool in a couple of years. Is that your idea of a workable solution? I didn't need your protection today. I needed it last term."

"You know that's not what I want. I will stress to my brother that you must return to Hogwarts."

"And you really think he will agree to that?"

Iona disappeared as abruptly as she had arrived.

I thought I had better find McGonagall. She wasn't in the camp. I started out across the pasture. As I crested a mild upslope, I saw a figure on one of the benches at the edge of the park. I walked toward it, motioning my Auror to stay where she was. McGonagall was weeping. I sat beside her and placed a hand on her arm.

"I may not say a word to my brother. I realise that. I feel as though I have failed my family, yet again. What Iona said is true. Last year was her horrible time. She and Freddie are happy together. I've been so wrong about Hogwarts. I've pushed and pushed at Neville that Hogwarts can't be Hogwarts without the Slytherin. I thought he was too quick to throw them out. I saw young lives ruined, but they came to Hogwarts to ruin other young lives. Their parents ruined their lives, not us. I thought with Voldemort gone, Hogwarts could become the Hogwarts of my memory. Maybe That Hogwarts was just a figment of a faltering mind. I know we had problems."

"I think it has changed. The Voldemort and Grindelwald crowd are confronted by Ministers of Magic who think very differently from them. They can't stand it and they recruit their children as weapons to continue the battle. They say too much change and going against tradition, but the real tradition that they cling to is Wizards like themselves being totally in charge. The Wizarding world is way behind British society. That's why they are so against the newcomers. The newcomers have lived in the modern world. They won't go back to the days when Wizard aristocrats and Death Eaters lorded over the rest of us. Harry and I are Muggle-raised. That's probably why we see so much to change and don't fear that change."

"What bothers me most is how violent Hogwarts has become. There were always insults and nasty pranks, especially against those not born within Wizarding society, but there wasn't the present desire to destroy. Our opponents wish to preserve what they call traditional Wizard life, by tearing down every institution, which made our world. What was the American rule about children - the one that died with Colin Creevey?"

"William Stratemeyer's Nancy Drew rule: a child cannot be killed or be a killer. That saved Colin, and me, from the Basilisk. It only gives one extra chance to grow up unscathed. It saved Draco, and I guess Harry, when Harry used what should have been a killing curse on Draco. Snape was there just in time, and somehow put all of his lost blood, along with water from a filthy bathroom floor, back into his veins. That lack of sanitation surely should have killed him. Students lived, who could easily have died last term. The fight over the replacement Phoenix ashes could have ended with an Auror killed by a student and another student killed by a very innocent first year. The rule isn't totally gone, but it is weakening. That's a change with the Slytherins. Their parents have convinced them that life is so terrible, that they don't mind dying to turn things upside down. They'd rather die as a martyr than live in a changing magical world. We must watch for that. Now, what really has reduced you to tears?"

"My outburst may have made things worse for Iona. It is bound to leak to my family. My brother is extremely strict Cromwell Protestant. To him, returning to our ancient nature and Light Guardian religions is against his traditional Wizarding Life. Church of England Wizards are following the original cult which burned Witches, but with English Kings allowed to divorce and re-marry. He is a not at all flexible Wizard. He looks down on Witches. Iona is to take over the family business, only because there is no other choice. He could sell, but that is a big hole in family tradition. He hopes that Iona produces a son to continue the business. He would see Freddie as a most unacceptable husband for Iona. Wrong religion. I foolishly made a promise to my brother, which I should have known I couldn't keep. How can I protect any student, if we require them to share a dorm room with students who would have sorted to Slytherin? We've inflicted that upon the poor Hufflepuffs this year. I also mourn my stronger mind and the loss of what I thought Hogwarts could be, even if it never was exactly that. Hogwarts has been my life. If it's not good, then what has my life been worth?"

"Your life has been worth a lot. You fought Voldemort. You helped a lot of students. You are the grandmother of Witch Sculpting and that truly is revolutionary. Don't worry. We'll make a side trip and slip you into Odin's oval. With the purple diamond I always carry, the circle and its charging oval will still work. I just need to tell Ron, Ginny, and Harry and gather up my Aurors and we can be off in fifteen minutes."

"Thank you."