Note from Kim : Ginny Weasley, about the jade dragon, here's
a hint : Shan's father
used to call her "Little Jade Dragon".
Thanks for the reviews. I've reviewed a few people's fics,
so if your review alert isn't on,
pls check your account. Silimay, I did take a look at your fics,
but there was no time to
read them that day ... and then the next day I saw that you had
revamped them!
I'll review them when I have the time. :o)
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HARRY POTTER AND THE JADE DRAGON
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Chapter XV
Final Week
That is my home
of love; if I have ranged,
Like him that travels, I return again
~ W. Shakespeare
Shan was
right; there were all manner of strange people in the City. There
were tall
wizards, their heads shaven except for a long pigtail at the back,
armed with long willow
staffs. There were witches in white robes, with deadly-looking
daggers in their belts, each
with a jade amulet at her throat. There were also many men in
colourful silk robes, with
tigers and cranes and dragons embroidered on them, and a square
of cloth in front of their
robes, signifying rank. These, Shan said, looked like officials
from the Imperial Court.
"It's really odd," said Shan, looking around as they
made their way out of the square where
the dragons were tethered. "I've never seen a crowd like
this in Long-Shan before, it's usually
quite an isolated place. And I haven't even seen some of these
Sects before - they're not the
ones who usually come to Tian-Long to conduct trials. I can't
imagine why the Court officials
are here, either. I'd heard some were here, and have been trying
to visit the school, but for
some reason Lady Wen-Li won't let them in. They've been leaving
a large pile of gifts outside
the school gates for her, every day."
"Maybe it's her birthday," said Ron, looking with
interest as a group of wizards in brown robes
went past.
Shan laughed, but Hermione dismissed his suggestion with a scornful look.
"It's strange, seeing so many Pugilists here," Shan
repeated. "It's as if there's going to be some
meeting of the clans here, or something."
Ron and Harry looked interested.
"Maybe there'll be a Duelling Tournament," said Ron
hopefully. "Fatty's mentioned that all the
Pugilists sometimes meet, to see which Sect has the most skilled
fighters. That would be
something to watch, huh, Harry?"
Robert had seen someone.
"Look, Shan," he said quietly, "Master Wei."
They all turned to look. A wizard in black robes was striding
up to them, smiling. The long sabre
at his side was sheathed in black and silver, and a silver kylin
hung round his neck.
Shan and Robert greeted him, and they started conversing in
Chinese. Harry fumbled around in
his pocket for the Translator, while Ron and Hermione watched
with interest.
Before Harry could bring the Translator out, the wizard had
taken a few steps back and unsheathed
his sword. The others watched, startled, as he hurled it straight
at Robert.
Robert didn't bother to take his wand out. He made a small
gesture with his hand, and the sword
suddenly slowed down, swung around, and went flying back toward
the wizard.
Master Wei caught the sword deftly, and transformed it back
to a wand. He waved it, and small,
bright bolts of light began shooting from it at Robert, so fast
that they could hardly be followed
with the eye. Robert, however, didn't move. He calmly stood there,
looking at the bolts of light,
and they fizzled out and faded away when they were just inches
from him.
Master Wei smiled, and transformed his wand back to sword form.
Sliding it back into its sheath,
he came forward and ruffled Robert's hair, and said something
to him. He then smiled and nodded
at the others, and took his leave of them.
Harry had been watching, transfixed, the Translator lying forgotten
in his pocket. Ron's eyes were
popping out of his head.
"What was all that about?" he asked.
Shan gave a small sigh, as they continued making their way into the City.
"He has been pestering Robert about joining Shao-Lin Academy
for ages," she said. "He says he
should go there after graduating from Tian-Long, and that he expects
to see him there next autumn."
"Shao-Lin Academy?" said Hermione. "I read about
it in A Survey of the Pugilistic Arts in China.
That's one of the oldest and most well-known Duelling schools."
Shan nodded, not looking too happy.
"Robert ought to go, then," said Harry, wondering
at her expression. "I should think he wouldn't
have any trouble getting in."
Robert was walking next to Shan, almost hidden from view.
"Probably not," he said, sounding noncommital. "I'm too small to be a Pugilist."
"What?" said Ron, "We just saw - "
"What is Master Wei doing back here, Shan?" said
Hermione, interrupting, "He used to teach at
Tian-Long, didn't he?"
Shan nodded, pushing her glasses up her nose, and looking rather puzzled.
"He taught us Protection Against the Black Way,"
she said. "I asked him why he was in the City,
but he was tight-lipped about it. He just smiled and said he had
some personal business here."
The Pugilists and the Court Officials were not the only ones
around. There were also a fair number
of people who looked like they were from the Press. Harry's heart
sank when he saw them; although
they must have come to the City for another purpose, he felt sure
Ron and Hermione were not going
to go unnoticed. It was easier for Harry, with his black hair,
to blend into the crowd here, but Hermione's
hair was brown and bushy, and Ron's red hair was very obvious,
especially as their heads were bare;
they had stopped wearing their hats when they had come to China,
because hats were not part of the
Tian-Long uniform.
He was right. He had the Translator on now, and before long,
heard a voice saying from behind,
"Look, there are some foreigners here as well. We can try
interviewing them too."
Harry started walking faster.
"The press are coming after us," he muttered to Ron
and Hermione. "Get Shan and Robert, and
let's get out of here."
They wriggled their way through the crowd and extricated Shan
and Robert from a shop where
they had been buying moon-cakes, but not before someone shouted,
"Look! Isn't it Harry Potter?"
"Better run," said Robert, looking back. "There's quite a crowd of them gathering."
He disappeared swiftly down one of the narrow alleys, the rest
following. They could hear sounds
of pursuit behind, and several camera flashes going off.
"You go ahead," said Robert, stopping suddenly. The
rest dashed past, but Harry, running behind
Ron, turned back to look. Robert had conjured up a large, thick
spider web across the alley. The
reporters in front of the pack, hot on their heels, ran straight
in and became thoroughly entangled in it.
Gasping for breath and laughing at the same time, Harry and
the others ran on through the maze of
alleys. Robert conjured up an illusion of fire next, then turned
and followed them, leaving a trail of
obstacles in his wake, including a grand piano and a large purple
gorilla.
The fire stopped the reporters for a while, till they realised
it wasn't producing any smoke. Taking
out their wands, they ran through the imaginary fire and continued
the chase, obliterating the obstacles
with spells of their own.
Robert was now resorting to conjuring banana peels and puddles
of oil. Finally, they reached the
square. Shan quickly untethered WindStar, while the rest mounted
her. The press, in the meantime,
had formed a solid wall around them, and were firing questions
at Harry in Chinese.
"Mr Potter, a few words with you."
"Mr Potter, have you learned to speak Chinese?"
"Mr Potter, what are you doing in Long-Shan?"
"Are you attending Tian-Long Academy? Is that why Tian-Long students are with you?"
"Are you here for the same reason as the great Pugilistic
Sects? Can you tell us why they are here?
What is the great secret?"
"Even the Emperor has sent his envoys to the Celestial
City. Mr Potter, have you plans to visit the
Imperial Court?"
"He doesn't understand Chinese," shouted Shan, waving
her sword threateningly at them, and
mounting WindStar.
A strapping reporter with a face like a bulldog pushed his way to the front.
"No problem at all," he said in English, in a sing-song
voice like Fatty's, "I'm from the South China
Wizard's Post. Mr Potter, a few questions, please."
WindStar, annoyed by the camera flashes, gave a snort and raised
her head, glaring at them. She
unfurled her batlike wings, and the crowd of reporters fell back
slightly. Shan took hold of the reins,
and WindStar promptly launched herself into the air, leaving the
horde of reporters and cameramen
still shouting and gesticulating at them. A few more camera flashes
went off as they rose up in the
air and headed back toward the school.
"Barking," said Ron, shaking his head, and looking back at them.
"Looks like even the press don't know why the Sects are
assembling here," said Shan, looking
intrigued, as the school and its grounds came into sight. "It's
really curious. They can't just be here
to select those students who are graduating - there aren't that
many such students, not so that it
would take several months to set trials for, anyway."
Fatty and Chee Chong didn't turn up for dinner. Pixie, however,
appeared just as Ting-Ting was
taking their orders.
"Fatt's father's business has failed very badly,"
she said, in answer to all their queries. "Yu-Lin
and Draco Malfoy's fathers must somehow have managed to bring
it about, but how we don't know.
The family is almost bankrupt. Chong's parents' farm has also
been destroyed by a freak storm.
Yu-Lin's father must have got someone to magic it up, of course,
but there's no proof either."
She sat down on a chair, looking dejected, and most unlike her usual gay self.
"I guess Taiwan and Singapore are too far away for Yu-Lin's
father to have done anything to the
rest of us," said Shan, looking at Pixie, and then at Robert.
"What - what happened to Chester's ashes?" asked Hermione delicately.
"Chong scattered them in the river," said Pixie,
with a sigh. "He and Fatt have sneaked down to
the City to get drunk. Lady Wen-Li let Fatt off lightly - she
just gave him ten demerits. She gave
me detention, thoughI spent the whole afternoon at the Caverns,
cleaning the yard there of
dragon dung."
She looked mournful as she said this, but then remembered something
else, and her face
brightened slightly.
"Yu-Lin has been suspended from school," she said
with gloomy satisfaction. "She deserved
to be expelled, only her father is too influential. She left the
office weeping copiously. Your
Draco Malfoy has also been suspended from the exchange programme,
he should be
returning to Hogwarts tomorrow. He's the one who's been flooding
our bags with ink. He
managed to destroy the letter from Yu-Lin's father - Lady Wen-Li
left it on her desk for
just a minute, and he burnt it to ashes, said his wand 'slipped
by mistake'. Now there's no
proof left, and even if there was, it's unlikely Yu-Lin's father
would be taken in - he has
cronies in the Chinese Magical Administration they're all
a corrupt lot."
Harry knew he should feel pleased Malfoy was being punished,
but he felt too sorry for
Fatty and Chee Chong to rejoice much. He knew how obsessed with
money Fatty was,
and besides, Fatty had seemed convinced that Harry was going to
bring him good luck.
Although he knew Madam Tang's prediction had been a load of rubbish,
Harry couldn't
help feeling slightly guilty, as if he hadn't done his duty.
"What was in that jar that Lady Han-Yin pulled out of Malfoy's bag?" asked Hermione.
Pixie shuddered.
"Those were ink-slugs," she said, looking revolted.
"They're attracted to parchment, and
they secrete ink from their bodies, after which they completely
dissolve and disappear.
Draco Malfoy must have got them from one of the Black Magic trick
shops in the City -
that's in a seedy area, where all the brothels and opium dens
arewe're forbidden to go
there. He's been getting his owl to bring them to our dorms at
night, and dropping them
in through the window when everyone's asleep."
Dinner proceeded quietly after that; everyone seemed to be
feeling subdued. Harry felt
rather glum; their stay at Tian-Long had been fairly pleasant
so far, and it seemed a pity
that the exchange programme should end like this.
"Are we still going to the lake?" Shan asked, after
a while. Pixie had suggested, some
time ago, that they buy some moon-cakes and walk down to the lake,
as the Tian-Long
students always did during the Mid-Autumn Festival which had already
taken place in
September, and they had planned to do it that night.
"But Fatty and Chee Chong aren't here," objected Hermione.
"It's full moon tonight, though," said Pixie, looking
sentimentally at Ron. "I asked Lady
Wen-Li, and for your sakes she said we could go, though she told
me I didn't deserve to.
She doubled the length of my detention, to make up for it."
"We might as well go," said Shan. "Fatt and
Chong will be feeling down the entire week;
I doubt if they'd go anyway. And the Mid-Autumn Festival is always
celebrated when the
moon is full."
So, armed with the moon-cakes they had bought that afternoon,
they started to make their
way down to the lake. Pixie had also brought a collection of pretty
little lanterns along, which
she had made herself. These were very colourful, and came in the
shape of various animals.
"Pixie made those," said Shan to Hermione and Harry,
as Robert lit the lanterns with his
thumb, and Pixie tapped them with her wand, so that they floated
up and hung in mid-air.
"Her father is a folk craftsman, carving ivory and jade and
all that sort of thing."
The lanterns were floating in the air in front of them, bobbing
up and down, as they walked
through the grounds. After a while the Moon-Gate came into sight,
in the distance. They
saw that the doors were open, and a large group of people was
entering the grounds.
The students stopped in surprise, and looked at them.
"Those are the Emperor's envoys," said Shan, watching
the procession of wizards in their
embroidered silk robes. "It looks as if Lady Wen-Li has finally
allowed them to come into
the school."
Some of the press appeared to be trying to get in as well,
but to Harry's satisfaction, he
saw the brown watch dragon driving them off with a jet of flame,
just before the doors
of the Moon-Gate swung shut.
They proceeded on their way. At the lake, they got into one
of the Chinese junks moored
there. Robert seated himself in front, and tapped the bow with
his wand; the junk started
to move out into the middle of the lake, the lanterns still bobbing
up and down in front of
them.
"Ooo, this is nice and romantic," breathed Pixie,
sitting close to Ron, and looking up at the
moon in satisfaction. "The Mid-Autumn Festival is a time
for romance, you know."
"Yes, but this isn't the real Mid-Autumn Festival,"
Hermione began tartly. She was cut
short by a loud squeal from Pixie, who had been trailing her hand
over the side of the junk.
Something large had emerged from the water, and there was a snapping
of jaws before
the creature vanished under the surface again.
Pixie had snatched her hand back, still intact, and retreated
some distance from the side
of the junk. Robert peered over the side, then whistled. After
a few moments, Sang Nila's
large head appeared out of the water.
"That Merlion's got it in for me!" said Pixie shrilly,
looking accusingly at Robert. "This is
the second time he's almost taken my hand off!"
"He's only playing with you," said Robert placidly, before turning and facing the front again.
Pixie contented herself with another glare at Sang Nila, then
sat down next to Ron again,
keeping herself well away from the water. Hermione said nothing,
but looked at the Merlion
with approval.
Robert guided the junk toward the end of the lake where the
peach orchard was, because
Hermione and Ron had heard about the Talking Tortoises, and wanted
to meet them.
However, when they reached there, there was not a tortoise in
sight. They searched high
and low, but found no trace of them.
"I guess they've gone somewhere to sleep," said Shan
apologetically, "although I would
have thought they'd still be awake. Those we saw that time - "
she broke off, remembering
that the flight with the Silverwing was still a secret, and gave
Harry a guilty grin.
Ron and Hermione looked rather disappointed. Even the peach
trees had let them down.
Their green foliage was now devoid of flowers, and the carpet
of blossoms on the ground
had disappeared.
They contented themselves with sitting on the shore of the
lake, eating the moon-cakes,
and watching the lanterns bobbing up and down.
"Wonder what the Emperor's envoys are doing here,"
said Pixie thoughtfully, watching a
peacock lantern bobbing up and down above her. "Probably
wants to ask Lady Wen-Li
a favour; they say ever since someone broke into the Imperial
Archives a few months
back, he's become paranoid, keeps an escort of guards around him
wherever he goes."
Hermione looked interested.
"Someone broke into the Archives?" she said. "What did they steal?"
"No one knows," said Pixie. "The Imperial Spokesman
wouldn't say, just said it's the fact
that someone managed to break in that's important. Even so,"
she added, "a huge search
has been mounted for the culprit. I'm willing to bet that something
important was stolen.
Maybe that's why the Officials are in Long-Shanthe thief
might have taken refuge in this
area."
"There are all those Pugilists in town too," pointed
out Shan. "I'm sure they're not just here
to select students."
They discussed it a while, but couldn't come up with anything.
Harry and Ron were still
hoping that a Duelling Tournament would be held, but with only
one week left at Tian-Long,
it seemed unlikely they would be able to watch it, anyway.
"Well, if there's one, you can tell us about it when you
come to Hogwarts," said Ron gloomily,
as they got up to go.
"We won't be able to watch it either," Shan reminded
him, "We'll be coming to Hogwarts the
day after you leave here."
They boarded the junk and headed back to the other end of the
lake, Sang Nila following them
all the way. As they disembarked, Robert said he would stay with
Sang Nila a while longer, so
the others left him and made their way up the steep steps leading
to the bamboo grove, stumbling
a bit in the dark. As they were leaving the grove and heading
back to the school, Shan suddenly
pulled at Harry's sleeve and said quietly, "There's a light
in the hut."
The others were in front, and didn't hear. Harry turned to
look. The windows of Mrs Chen's
small hut, visible in the distance, were lit.
Shan stared at the hut for a while, then started off toward
it. Harry hesitated; he looked at the
others. Hermione was far in front, with Ron and Pixie trailing
some distance behind her, looking
quite absorbed in each other. He watched them for a moment, then
turned and followed Shan.
"Look, the animals are still there," said Shan, in
an odd voice. Several mountain wolves were
sitting outside the hut. A few deer vanished into the darkness
of the surrounding trees.
They came up to the doorway, and looked in. The walls of the
hut were flickering with light
from the fireplace, and Jeanne was seated at a table. She must
have been clearing Mrs Chen's
belongings away, because the hut looked bare now, and some boxes
were stacked neatly
near the door.
Jeanne looked up, surprised, when they came in. Shan did not
look pleased to see her. She
hesitated a second, and did not greet Jeanne. Then she looked
over at the fireplace, and her
face brightened. Harry, turning, saw that one of the wolves was
lying by the fire.
"Look, it's my wolf, the one I was talking to a month
ago," Shan said softly. Ignoring Jeanne,
she went over to the wolf, and sat down next to it.
Harry watched her, feeling rather exasperated, then went over to where Jeanne was sitting.
"Hullo," he said, as she looked at him and smiled, "Are you tidying up here?"
"Not exactly," she replied, looking around the hut.
"I cleared most of Mrs Chen's things
several days ago. I just came by tonight to look for a set of
jade cups which she said she
wanted me to have, to thank me for looking after her. She said
they were hidden in a box
in a corner of her cupboard, but when I cleared everything out
I couldn't find them anywhere."
Harry looked at the table at which she was sitting. The leftovers
of the herbs that he'd seen
the night Ron had brought his robes to be altered lay scattered
there. He glanced at the
fireplace; a cauldron was bubbling over the fire.
He looked at Jeanne again; she was now putting the herbs back
into a box, and was taking
a goblet out.
"What are you - ?" he began, and then he suddenly turned and looked at the wolf by the fire.
The hut was dark, and Harry couldn't see the wolf clearly.
Shan was curled up next to it,
talking cosily. It lay there quietly, as if listening to her,
then turned and looked enigmatically
at Harry.
Harry went over to the door and looked out. The sky was clear
of clouds, and the bamboos
were silhouetted blackly against a moon that looked decidedly
full and bright.
He went back to Jeanne, who had been watching him with a small
smile on her face. He
looked at her a moment, then bent down and whispered, "Is
that wolf who I think it is?"
Her smile grew broader, and she nodded.
Harry turned to look at the wolf again. Shan was lying down
now, using the wolf's back
as a pillow, and gazing into the fire.
"Let her be, Harry," said Jeanne quietly, glancing
at them. "Remus doesn't mind her talking
to him, and he's been very discreet. He's refused to tell me anything
that she's told him."
Harry looked at the goblet and herbs.
"Does he still need the tonic?" he said. "I thought"
She gave a small sigh.
"He still falls ill whenever he transforms. We don't know
why. Curing him of being a
werewolf hasn't solved everything, you know"
She paused and looked at the wolf, and seeing that it was looking
at her, smiled at it.
She then turned back to Harry.
"Because the cure is a secret, he can't publicly clear
his name. There'll still be difficulty
if we were to decide to leave Hogwarts and find work elsewhere.
People still shun him."
She looked over at the fireplace again. Shan, tired out by
the day's activities, seemed to
have fallen asleep. She was still using the wolf's back as a pillow,
her face half-hidden in
its fur, one arm around its neck.
Jeanne looked thoughtfully at her.
"You can leave her here, Harry," she said quietly,
"I'll wait till she wakes up. There's
something I need to talk to her abouther mother left a message
for her, the day she
died."
Harry looked at her in surprise, then nodded. He stood for
a few moments, looking at
the wolf and sleeping girl, then said good night to Jeanne, and
left the hut.
Shan looked her usual self the next day, and Harry couldn't
tell whether Jeanne had
succeeded in talking to her or not. They had Geomancy that morning.
Now that both
the Potions and Black Way Masters had gone, Lady Han-Yin had taken
over Potions
again, and Lady Wen-Li had substituted the Black Way class with
Geomancy, which
was also taught by Madam Tang. She would, however, often replace
teaching them
feng-shui with her other, more beloved Divination topics,
like I Ching. Today, she
was droning on about the Ten Heavenly Stems and the Twelve Earthly
Branches.
The students were in no mood to listen. The incense in the
room was making them all
feel sleepy, and there was an end-of-term feel in the air, because
this was their last week.
Fatty and Chee Chong had not appeared in the dormitory the
previous night, but they
turned up at breakfast, looking tired and red-eyed. Chee Chong
seemed more depressed
about Chester than his parents' farm, for he said the rice had
already been harvested,
and they only had to rebuild their small house.
Fatty was looking resigned.
"I've got some business projects of my own," he said.
"They're small affairs, but I'm going
to try helping my father start over again. There's a project Mui
Sing and I are working on
that may turn out quite well." He looked earnestly at Harry.
"Don't worry, Harry. Madam
Tang said you are going to bring me good luck."
Harry groaned inwardly. He felt like telling Fatty that Madam
Tang was probably as much
a fraud as Professor Trelawney.
Crabbe and Goyle were looking insecure without Malfoy around,
and they were also
looking rather ill. After the class, Crabbe went over to Shan
as she was handing in her
homework to Madam Tang, and mumbled something to her. She looked
surprised,
then nodded.
"He and Goyle are not feeling well," she said, coming
back and picking up her bag,
"I'm going to bring them to see the school healer."
Ron's eyes gleamed.
"Let's follow along," he said, as Shan and Robert
disappeared out the door with
Crabbe and Goyle, "This is too good a chance to missimagine
seeing Crabbe
and Goyle being stuck full of needles."
Pixie and the others had gone for their other classes, so only
Ron, Harry and Hermione
were left. They followed at a distance. Crabbe and Goyle looked
like two blimps,
waddling along behind Shan and Robert.
They waited outside the sickroom. After about half an hour,
Shan came out, together
with Robert.
"Master Yao is doing acupuncture on them," she said,
giggling a bit. "They have been
eating too many wintermelon sweets. They bought the sweets from
an unlicensed shop
in the forbidden district - Master Yao is going to report them
to Lady Han-Yin, because
they know they weren't supposed to go there. Anyway, the sweets
have been doctored
so that the more you eat, the hungrier you get. It's a ploy, to
get customers addicted to
the sweets. And there were warnings on the wrapper that the sweets
can cause obesity,
but Crabbe and Goyle couldn't read them because they were in Chinese."
A series of loud groans came from the interior of the sickroom.
"Can we go in and watch?" asked Ron, looking as though this news had made his day.
Shan grinned, but shook her head.
"'Fraid not," she said. "They've had to undress.
You'll have to content yourselves with
listening."
The remainder of the week flew by. It was a queer week; the
school now seemed to
be full of visitors all the time. Lady Wen-Li had now also allowed
the Pugilists entry
into the school, and Harry and the others could see them wandering
around the grounds
at times. It appeared, though, that they were not being allowed
to stay in the palace,
for most of them seemed to be making camp in the grounds, by the
lake or on the cliff
overlooking it.
On the morning of the last day, Jeanne came looking for Harry,
and found him with Ron,
just about to enter the Green Dragon common room.
"I'm leaving a bit earlier," she told them, lowering
a large box she was carrying to the floor.
"First of all, Lady Wen-Li has managed to obtain the loan
of some scrolls from the Imperial
Archives, which Professor Sinistra has requested to study."
She pointed at the large box,
which had the seal of a golden dragon stamped on it.
Harry stared at the seal, startled. "Is that the Emperor's seal?"
Jeanne nodded.
"The scrolls are too precious to send together with our
usual luggage," she went on, "so
I'm bringing them back with me. Professor Dumbledore said it'd
be better to get them into
Hogwarts as soon as possible."
Harry looked at the Imperial Seal again. That scroll on Liu
Pei's deskit had borne a
similar seal
"I also need to bring Crabbe and Goyle back to Hogwarts,"
said Jeanne, looking resigned.
"Severus has heard about what happened to them here, and
they're in disgrace now. Lady
Han-Yin sent someone down to the City to ask around and find out
how often they have
been seen around the Forbidden Area, and it seems they have been
sneaking out illegally
and going there almost every weekend. They're to return a bit
earlier, and let Madam
Pomfrey shrink them back to normal size."
"Oh," said Ron, trying not to look too pleased.
Jeanne looked at the expression on his face, and her eyes twinkled.
"See you all back at Hogwarts, then," she said.
Harry was still thinking about the scroll.
"Jeanne," he said casually, as she bent down to pick
the box up, "do you happen to know
why the Emperor's officials are all hanging around the school?"
Jeanne's expression didn't change, but Harry fancied she tightened
her hold slightly on
the box.
"I can't say, Harry," she said, giving a small shrug,
and returning his gaze calmly, "You
would have to ask Lady Wen-Li; she's the one who's allowed them
into the school."
She smiled, then turned and left.
Harry went into the common room with Ron, thinking.
"What's up, Harry?" asked Ron curiously. "Why'd you ask her that?"
Shan was sitting in a corner of the room doing her homework,
with Robert and
Hermione next to her, discussing books. Hermione had discovered
that the one way
to draw Robert out of his customary silence was to talk to him
about schoolwork or
about books, and she had struck up a sort of friendship with him,
since the time he
had erased the ink from her essays.
Harry looked at them. He didn't want to tell everyone about
Liu Pei's scroll - he hated
to admit it, but he didn't really care for Pixie to know - but
he didn't mind telling Shan
and Robert. If the scroll turned out to be important he would
definitely have to tell one
of the Tian-Long students anyway, because the scroll was in Chinese,
and there was
no way he or Ron or Hermione were going to be able to figure out
what was on it.
"What did Jeanne want, Harry?" asked Hermione, who
had seen Jeanne through the
door.
Ron, for some reason, looked displeased that she was discussing
books with Robert,
but said nothing as he and Harry sat down next to them.
"She's going back to Hogwarts a bit earlier," said
Harry. "Lady Wen-Li borrowed
some scrolls for Professor Sinistra from the Imperial Archives,
and Dumbledore wants
them in Hogwarts as soon as possible."
He looked at Ron, who was still looking quizzically at him.
"The night I let Yang-Kang out from under the bell,"
he said to Ron, "I saw a scroll in
Liu Pei's office, on his desk. It had the Imperial Seal on it."
The others were also listening.
"The scroll had a star chart on it," Harry went on.
"And those scrolls Jeanne is bringing
back must have something to do with astronomy, they're for Professor
Sinistra. I was
just wondering if there's any connection."
Ron shrugged. "Well, what if there is?"
"There's more," said Harry. "After Yang-Kang
left, I was at the end of the corridor
outside the office, looking out of the window. When I turned around,
I saw someone
leaving through a door at the other end of the corridor, and after
that when I went to
look for the scroll again, it was gone."
They stared at him.
"Someone stole an Imperial scroll?" said Shan. "Did you see who it was?"
The words "Dementor" and "Deorg" came into
Harry's mind, but he dismissed both
of them as ridiculous.
"It was dark," he said. "I only know that the
person was tall, and hooded, and robed
in black."
The others looked intrigued.
"What's in your mind, Harry?" said Hermione. "D'you
think one of the scrolls Jeanne
is bringing back is Liu Pei's scroll?"
"I'm not sure," said Harry. "But those envoysthey've
been hanging around for days.
They've been snooping all around the palace and the grounds, as
if they're looking for
something."
Shan glanced at Robert, then looked at Harry.
"Harry," she said, "are you saying that those
scrolls were the articles stolen from the
Imperial Archives?"
"I don't know," admitted Harry. "I mean, I definitely
don't think Lady Wen-Li could
have stolen them, of course. But something odd is going on."
The rest were looking excited now.
"This is interesting," said Shan, always glad of
an excuse to look for an adventure,
"It's good that we're going to Hogwarts. Since the scrolls
will be there, we can try
peeking at them if we have a chance."
Hermione frowned at this idea, obviously thinking it would
be a violation of rules.
Ron was looking doubtful.
"It isn't likely that the scrolls were stolen," he
said. "If they were, the thief wouldn't
let them get out of his hands."
"Maybe the thief's trying to get them out of the country,
since the Emperor's men
are all hot on his heels," said Shan, stubbornly. "The
thief must have influenced Lady
Wen-Li not to allow any of the visitors to stay in the palace,
so that they can't get
near the scrolls. That's why they're all camping in the grounds."
"All of you aren't thinking clearly," announced Hermione,
"Professor Sinistra specifically
requested those scrolls; they can't have been stolen."
"Maybe Liu Pei's scroll was the article that was stolen,"
suggested Shan, "and the thief
has slipped it in among the other scrolls."
Robert had been remaining silent, as usual, but he now looked at Harry.
"You said you looked at Liu Pei's scroll, Harry," he said, "What was on it?"
"Well" Harry hesitated, trying to remember,
"Besides the star chart, there were a lot
of Chinese words; but it was so old and dirty, it was hard to
make out anything. I couldn't
recognise any of the constellations."
"You wouldn't be able to," said Robert. "The
ancient Chinese astronomers had a different
way of mapping the sky from those in the west."
"Really?" said Hermione, "How interesting! I'd love to - "
But at this moment, Pixie came over to join them. Harry didn't
have the heart to tell Ron
to keep Liu Pei's scroll a secret from her, but to his relief,
when Ron started telling her
about it, she didn't seem interested at all. She started chattering
about some other matter
instead, until Ron finally gave up.
They were to leave after lunch. Lady Wen-Li had arranged for
the stone pillar Portkey
to be placed just outside the entrance of Green Dragon Pagoda,
and once they had
finished lunch - they had taken it in the Hall of Dragons, since
it was their last day - they
left through the main entrance of the Hall, and started off toward
the Pagoda.
Harry fell behind a bit, because two first-years stopped him
for an autograph. He obliged
them cheerfully enough, since he was leaving anyway, then hurried
to catch up with the
others. He was passing one of the classrooms when he suddenly
heard a familiar chirping
noise.
Harry turned around sharply. The sound was coming from a group
of students, standing
near the door of the classroom. He knew that sound; he had been
listening to it almost
every night, for several weeks.
He went up to the group, tugging at the Translator to make sure it was around his neck.
"It's a very good specimen, Yin-Ling, I can vouch for it."
"One gold piece is too much. Anyway, how can I take your
word? I've got to see it in
action first."
Mui Sing, Fatty's friend from White Tiger, was standing there,
talking animatedly to a
girl from Crimson Phoenix. Two other girls were standing by, watching.
Mui-Sing was
holding a little bamboo cage, with her cricket Mu-Lan inside.
Or was it Mu-Lan?
"It's too noisy," added the Crimson Phoenix girl,
looking at the cage. "Listen to it!
Lai-Fong tells me it has been keeping all the White Tiger students
up every night with
its chirping."
The cricket chirped again. Harry, too excited to listen any more, hurried forward.
"I'll buy that cricket!" he said, feeling
around in his pocket. "How much are you asking
for it?"
The girls turned to look at him, surprised. Mui Sing looked
startled, and then a cunning
expression came over her face.
"Three gold pieces," she lied.
"What?" said Yin-Ling in Chinese, her eyes widening,
"You only asked me for one gold
piece, just now!"
Harry, however, was in no mood to bargain. He took out three
gold pieces and gave
them to Mui Sing, who began to look sorry she hadn't asked for
five.
Harry took the bamboo cage from her, and then, clutching it
tightly, dashed excitedly
after the others. He reached the top of the stairs leading to
the entranceway, and saw
them just about to leave the palace.
"Chee Chong!" he shouted. "Hi, Chee Chong, wait up! Chester's alive!"
The group at the door turned to look at him. Harry sprinted
down the stairs, waving
the bamboo cage in excitement.
"It's Chester!" he panted, stopping in front of them.
"Mui Sing had him all the time.
That wasn't Chester Yu-Lin killed, Chee Chong - it was Mu-Lan!"
Chee Chong, his eyes wide, had come forward, and was staring
at the cricket as if he
was afraid to believe his eyes. The cricket looked perkily back
at him, its antennae
waving slightly, and then let out a couple of quizzical chirps.
"That's Chester, all right!" exclaimed Fatty, in
a strangled voice. "I'd recognise that
chirping anywhere!"
Chee Chong took the cage, his hands shaking slightly. The rest
all stood around
watching him, and grinning.
"Chester!" he said, as he slid the door open, and
Chester came crawling out, his
antennae waving enthusiastically. He hopped onto Chee Chong's
shoulder, and sat
there, looking pleased; he gave off a few happy chirps.
Chee Chong's face was very red.
"Thank you, Hally," he said, getting his English mixed up in the emotion of the moment.
Harry just grinned, and felt extremely pleased with himself. Fatty looked at him.
"I know she's been trying to sell her cricket," he
said, obviously referring to Mui Sing.
"How much did you pay her for it?"
Harry told him. Fatty looked outraged.
"That's daylight robbery!" he said, scowling. "Let me talk to her. This won't do she can't - "
"Drop it, Fatt," said Shan, in an undertone. "Look
at Chee Chong's face; those three gold
pieces were worth it."
Lady Wen-Li and Lady Han-Yin were now coming down the stairs
from the Hall of Dragons,
to see them off, so they all turned and went out of the palace,
and made their way to the Pagoda,
where the Portkey was.
Harry, Ron and Hermione gathered round the pillar, and turned
to have a last look at the school.
The green House dragon was perched over the entrance of the Pagoda
as usual, watching them.
The five House Pagodas rose high up into the blue sky, and the
golden roofs of the palace were
shining in the afternoon sun, against a backdrop of mountains.
The bamboo grove could be seen
in the distance, and behind that, the Caverns were just visible.
Hermione gave a small sigh.
"Time really flew, didn't it?" she said. "I
lost track of it, because they've been following the Lunar
calendar here."
Lady Wen-Li and Lady Han-Yin were smiling, and nodded at them.
Shan, with LeafSong peeking
out of her pocket, grinned and said, "See you at Hogwarts
tomorrow evening."
Robert, next to her, just gave them his usual quiet smile.
Chee Chong and Fatty were waving and
smiling, the latter's eyes disappearing into two small slits,
and the former with Chester on his head,
who seemed to be waggling his antennae at them in farewell too.
Pixie was squealing tearfully,
"See you soon!" She looked as if she wanted to kiss
Ron good-bye, but with Lady Wen-Li and
Lady Han-Yin there, didn't dare to.
Harry, Ron and Hermione grinned and nodded at all of them,
and then they placed their hands on
the Portkey. Harry felt that familiar jerking feeling behind his
navel, and then they were leaving China,
speeding back to Hogwarts in a howl of wind and swirling colour.
END OF PART ONE
PART TWO COMING UP SHORTLY :o)
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Chinese Notes :
If you'd like to know more about the Mid-Autumn festival, go to http://www.chinapage.org/Moon/moon-festival.html