Harry Potter and the Jade Dragon. Chapter 18


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HARRY POTTER AND THE JADE DRAGON
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Chapter XVIII

The Door That Disappeared


"You'll see me there," said the Cat, and vanished.
Alice was not much surprised at this, she was
getting so used to queer things happening.

~ Lewis Carroll, "Alice in Wonderland"

The minute Jeanne disappeared, Shan turned to Robert.

"Robert, why'd you do that?" she said reproachfully. "We had a golden opportunity to
look at the scrolls, and you threw it away. And you sabotaged poor Chongnow he'll
have extra work to do, in addition to our assignments, and you know he's a slow student."

Robert seemed quite unrepentant.

"He loves Astronomy, Shan," he said mildly. "He wanted to do it. And he's the only one
among us who's studied ancient Chinese script. If you want to find out what's in the scrolls,
we'd have to ask him to help us, anyway."

Shan was not appeased.

"You know you can easily pick up ancient script, like you pick up everything else."

Robert, seeing how cross she was, looked amused.

"Chee Chong is discreet," he said. "I don't see why we can't let him in on the secret."

"Shan, I'm sure we don't mind Chee Chong knowing," said Hermione, taking Robert's side.
"Right, Harry?" She looked meaningfully at Harry.

"Er - yeah," said Harry. If it had been Pixie they were talking about, he would have objected,
but he didn't really mind telling Chee Chong about Liu Pei's scroll.

Shan still looked rather cross as they started back down the Tower. She fell behind with Harry,
letting Hermione and Robert go in front. Robert took several new books out of his bag, and
showed them to Hermione.

"He's not really interested in the scrolls," she grumbled, looking at the two in front. Harry
saw that Robert had bought a new comic book, Gilbert the Grindylow. "He just wants
to have more time to read all his books."

On their way back to the common room, they passed through a corridor lined with rooms
used mostly for stores, including the storeroom that Harry had discovered two years ago,
the night he'd encountered a werewolf in the Forbidden Forest. He'd never gone back since
then, or used the secret passageway that led to the entrance behind the ivy, but every time
he happened to pass this way he would always idly glance at the storeroom, and wonder
if Jeanne and Lupin still used the passageway to enter the grounds, every full moon.

Today, however, Harry noticed something rather strange. When they reached the place
where the storeroom door usually was, it wasn't there. He looked up and down the corridor.
It sometimes shifted itself to another part of the corridor, as so many of the doors and
windows in Hogwarts did, but this time, it seemed to have vanished altogether.

He stopped for a moment, and Shan, next to him, also came to a halt. "What's the matter?"

Harry looked up and down the corridor again, then continued after Hermione and Robert.

"Nothing, really," he said, still scanning the walls. "I thought there was a storeroom along this
corridor, but the door seems to have disappeared."

"It'll probably turn up another day," said Shan, glancing around as well. "I still can't get used
to the way everything keeps moving, around here."

She fell silent, after that. Harry shot a glance at her. Since that day by the lake, she had never
spoken about her mother's death, and he wondered whether she had gotten over it. When
the others were around, she always seemed cheerful, but when she was alone with him or
with Robert he would sometimes catch a rather hopeless expression in her eyes, or a
despairing look on her face. He also noticed that although she was more outgoing than
Robert, she seemed to rely on him for a lot of things, like schoolwork, as if she had no
confidence in completing anything by herself.

They found Ron in the common room and told him what had happened. He had been busy
with Pixie earlier, but she had now disappeared somewhere with Parvati and Lavendar.
Ron had got the hint that Harry wasn't very keen about letting Pixie know about Liu Pei's
scroll, and although he was a bit hurt, he didn't really mind not telling her, since she seemed
totally disinterested in the matter anyway.

Chee Chong did not appear until dinnertime, and since the rest of the class was there, they
couldn't mention Liu Pei's scroll. They could, however, ask him what Snufflegint had asked
him to do.

"There are many scrolls there," he said, "More than fifty. They are all very old and dirty. He
taught me to lemove the dirt with a special blush; you must move the blush in small fricks, like
this," - he made a flicking motion with his hand - "but not too hard, or you will damage the
parchment."

He poked his fork into a potato, looking tired.

"What is on the scrolls?" asked Shan, trying not to look too interested.

"Most of them, there is too much dirt to see," said Chee Chong, "but some are better. Those
I can read look rike an old copy of the Chou Pei Suan Ching."

"The what?" said Harry, startled.

"The Chou Pei Suan Ching," repeated Chee Chong, looking earnestly at him. "It is an old
Chinese astronomical manual."

Ron looked impressed.

"What does it mean, in English?" he asked.

Chee Chong didn't know the English translation. He looked at Shan and Robert for help.

Robert, seeing that they were now looking at him, said, "The Arithmetical Classic of the
Gnomon and the Circular Paths of Heaven."

"Huh?" said Ron, looking totally lost.

Harry, glancing at Hermione, was relieved to see that even she was looking blank.

"It's a very old text," said Robert. "But I don't know why Professor Sinistra would want this
particular copy. We have a good one in the Tian-Long library."

"She does not want it," said Chee Chong, looking mournful. "I heard her talking to Master
Li-Kai. She is only intelested in ten of those scrolls, which contain an account of the
deveropment of the Lunar Mansions. But Master Li-Kai, he said we might as well lestore
all the scrolls for the Emperor."

"How long does it take to restore one scroll?" asked Shan, looking concerned.

"Very long," said Chee Chong, "I do not know how I can do all this and my assignments as
well."

Shan gave Robert a look as if to say, "I told you so!"

"What are Lunar Mansions?" asked Hermione.

"The Chinese equivalent of the Zodiac," said Robert. "The ancient Chinese mapped the
stars along the Celestial Equator into twenty-eight constellations, not twelve. Each is called
a Lunar Mansion." He glanced at Lavendar and Seamus who were sitting nearby, and added,
"It's quite, er, common knowledge."

Harry and Ron looked disappointed; they knew what Robert was trying to say. The scrolls
mentioned so far weren't important enough for someone to have stolen them from the Imperial
Archives.

Harry decided to have one more shot.

"The scrolls are usually wrapped in silk, aren't they?" he said casually. "What's the colour of the
silk?"

Chee Chong looked surprised at the question. Shan hurriedly said, "Probably yellow; that's
usually the colour of the Emperor. Right, Chong?"

"No," said Chee Chong, still looking puzzled, "They are wrapped in brue silk."

Harry looked at Shan. So, he had been wrong - Liu Pei's scroll probably wasn't among those
Imperial scrolls. They had been barking up the wrong tree.

"It doesn't mean anything," said Shan, when dinner was over and they were going back to the
common room. "The thief could have removed the yellow silk and wrapped the scroll in blue
instead."

"Well, yeah," said Harry, feeling slightly disheartened, "But we're probably just wasting our time
anyway. Maybe Liu Pei's scroll isn't important after all. Maybe he just happened to pick it up
somewhere, and was looking at it to kill time."

"But it was an Imperial scroll," pointed out Shan. "And somebody thought it important enough
to steal."

"Not all the scrolls in the Imperial Archives contain significant information, Shan," said Robert,
who had been listening. "A lot just have historical value."

"Right," agreed Harry gloomily. "And I don't even know if that figure in black took it or not. For
all we know, the wind blew it out the window, or something."

They had their first Divination exchange class the next day. Shan and the others looked intrigued
when they discovered that they had to climb a ladder to get up to Professor Trelawney's room.

"Ooo, this is so quaint, Ronniekins," said Pixie, when she saw the classroom with its chintz
armchairs and pouffes. "So much more interesting than our classroom at Tian-Long!"

Hermione, who disliked Divination in general and Professor Trelawney in particular, was looking
unenthusiastic. Professor Trelawney did not seem to be around, so they settled themselves in the
armchairs and pouffes to wait. Parvati and Lavendar had, of course, willingly volunteered to attend
all the Divination classes, but to Harry's surprise, both Seamus and Dean turned up for the first
class as well.

"We've got a bet on," whispered Seamus, so that Lavendar wouldn't hear. "This can be considered
a new class, and we're betting that Trelawney will predict one of the Chinese students is going to die."

"Not likely," said Ron. "Harry's in this class. And so far she's reserved all her fatalistic predictions
for him."

"Who're you betting on?" asked Harry.

Dean and Seamus both spoke at the same time.

"Chee Chong." "Robert."

Robert and Shan, who were sitting nearby, heard Robert's name being mentioned, and looked inquiringly
at them.

Hermione, looking disapproving as she always did when speaking about Professor Trelawney, explained
that their Divination teacher's favourite way of greeting a new class was to predict someone's death.

"Hm," said Shan, not looking impressed. She disliked Divination, and usually spent most of Madam Tang's
classes playing with LeafSong on the sly.

A slight movement to Harry's left caught his eye, and he saw that Professor Trelawney had appeared in
her habitual silent, unnerving way. Adjusting her gauzy, spangled shawl, her innumerable chains and beads
hanging around her spindly neck, she glided over to her winged armchair by the fire, and seated herself in it.

"Welcome," she said dreamily, surveying the Tian-Long students in turn with her enormous eyes, "I bid
our young friends from the Middle Kingdom a warm welcome."

The Chinese students, who had been looking at her in fascination, didn't seem to know what to say to
this. Robert was looking deadpan, Shan polite, and Chee Chong respectful. Pixie giggled nervously,
while Fatty was looking slightly sceptical. Fatty had lost some faith in Divination ever since Madam
Tang had failed to predict the failure of his father's business, although he continued to assure Harry,
to the latter's chagrin, that he still believed Harry would one day bring him good luck.

"Doubtless you have been thoroughly schooled in the ancient techniques of Chinese Divination,"
Professor Trelawney continued dreamily. "I now have the privilege of revealing the knowledge of
the Diviners of the western world to you." She suddenly shot a look at Fatty. "Tell me, boy, are
your business projects doing well?"

Fatty scowled and said, "tolerably."

"One should not be too certain, my dear," said Professor Trelawney solemnly. She glanced at
Parvati and Lavendar, who were listening to her breathlessly.

"The hours Fate has entrusted to us to share are few," she went on, turning back to the Chinese
students again, "And so there are many secrets of western Divination that I will not be able to
impart to you. Today, and for the next few weeks, we shall apply ourselves to the reading of
tea-leaves. Then, after Christmas, we shall spend a fortnight contemplating the movements of
the stars and planets. The final weeks shall be devoted to crystal-gazing."

She then instructed them to pair up, as Harry and the others had in their third year, and filled
their teacups for them.

Seamus and Dean seated themselves between Fatty and Chee Chong, who were together,
and Shan and Robert. Harry found himself with Hermione, because Ron had teamed up with
Pixie. Seating themselves next to Robert's table, he heard Shan whispering, "This is such a
waste of time!"

Professor Trelawney, her beads glittering in the firelight, moved from table to table, listening
to see if they were interpreting their tea-leaves properly. Finally, she came over to Chee
Chong's table. Seamus and Dean watched in excitement as she picked up Chee Chong's
teacup, which Fatty had been examining.

"Let me see" she murmured, looking critically at the cup, "The sparrow an illness in
the family," - turning the teacup - "Oh!" she started, and gave a shrill cry.

Dean, who had bet on Chee Chong, was leaning forward and listening eagerly.

Professor Trelawney turned to gaze at Chee Chong, a mournful expression in her eyes. "My
poor boyI am distressed, to have to break the news to you..."

Harry and Hermione were also watching with interest.

"Poverty, my dear," said Professor Trelawney, turning the teacup around in her thin hands
and staring sorrowfully at it, "You have the shattered bowlextreme povertyyes, the
bowl is brokenhunger till the end of your days"

Chee Chong looked alarmed, while Harry felt indignant. It seemed cruel, however
unintentional, to remind Chee Chong that his family's farm had been destroyed. Seamus
grinned at Dean, who was now sitting back in his chair, looking disappointed.

Professor Trelawney moved over to Harry and Hermione. She did not stay with them
long, because Hermione persisted in wearing a scornful expression on her face. Moreover,
Professor Trelawney had been feeling annoyed with Harry lately, having noticed that
neither he nor Ron seemed to be taking her classes very seriously. Harry, seeing her
look around the room, had a feeling that she was searching for another victim; her eye
fell on Robert.

Robert, who had been quietly reading Gilbert the Grindylow under the table, quickly
hid it when he saw Professor Trelawney approaching. Seamus, pretending to examine
Dean's teacup, winked at Dean and mouthed the word "Ten Galleons" at him.

Professor Trelawney picked up Robert's teacup, which Shan had been looking at, and
turned it around. She was so absorbed that she hardly noticed Seamus and Dean
coming over; they were peering over her shoulder, holding their breath.

"The dragonone of your family is in danger, my child"

Harry and Hermione, wondering if Seamus would win his bet, had also come over.

"A full moona great surprise lies in store for you"

Ron and the others, wondering why they were crowding around Professor Trelawney,
had now come over as well.

Professor Trelawney's huge eyes suddenly widened, and she gave a soft, gasping
scream. Seamus, seeing this, leaned forward and looked anxiously at her.

"Ohmy dear boymy poor childit cannot be"

"What, Professor?" said Seamus, looking at her intently, "What is it?"

Professor Trelawney was looking at Robert, her eyes brimming with tears.

"My poor, dear childmy heart bleeds for youI should spare you the fell
news"

"Oh," said Parvati, glancing at the cup, "Oh, Professor, you don't mean - "

"My dear," said Professor Trelawney, gazing at Robert, her voice throbbing with
emotion, "My poor, dear boy, I must break the news to you. My dear, you have
the Grim!"

"Yes!" said Seamus loudly, punching a fist in the air. Then, realising what he'd done,
he went extremely red, as the rest of the class turned to look at him.

There was an uncomfortable silence as Professor Trelawney slowly turned her
enormous eyes on Seamus.

"My dear boy," she said at length, looking severely at him, "I need not say, as I
think we all know, that it is extremely unfeeling of you, to say the least, to rejoice
in the ill-fate of one of your fellow students."

Parvati and Lavendar were looking in a shocked and horrified manner at Seamus,
who was still rather red. Dean tried to suppress a snort of laughter.

Professor Trelawney turned back to Robert.

"My child," she said, "It rends my heart to be the one to inform youbut we must
be bravelife is such, often so, that our destiny is not ours to choose."

Robert looked up at her, his glasses reflecting the surroundings. Seeing that Professor
Trelawney expected him to reply, he searched his mind for an appropriate response.

"Yes, ma'am," he said.

Professor Trelawney frowned slightly.

"My dear," she said, "Perhaps, though I fail to see how it can be, the import of what I
have said seems to have been lost on you. My dear, you have the Grim! The giant dog,
the midnight shadow, that haunts the graves of the dead! My dear, it is an omen - the
omen of death!"

Robert gave a small sigh, hardly noticeable, and flicked a glance at Shan who, always
protective of her cousin, was looking disapprovingly at Professor Trelawney. Seeing
that Professor Trelawney was looking expectantly at him, he tried to think of something
more interesting to say, but couldn't.

"Yes, ma'am," he said again. Then, when she continued to look at him, added mildly, "As
you say, ma'am."

Dean and Seamus sniggered, then hurriedly turned it into a cough and a sneeze. Professor
Trelawney began to look rather impatient.

"My boy," she said, drawing herself up slightly and looking severely at Robert, "You do
not realise the significance of this omen! The Grim, the ghostlike canine that prowls the
tombs of those who have passed on, usually strikes fear into those with the awareness of
its import! Death approaches, my child! Your death! The Grim is an omen of death, of -"

Harry could see that Shan had had quite enough of Professor Trelawney, and braced
himself as she opened her mouth to say something in Robert's defence. Hermione, however,
beat her to it.

"That's enough!"

Everyone turned to look at her.

Hermione was looking very cross, and her face was rather red.

"You've said enough!" she said impatiently. "We got it the first time around! You don't have
to keep hammering it in, as if we have no brains of our own!"

Professor Trelawney looked highly affronted. Parvati and Lavendar, ever willing to champion
their favourite teacher, hurriedly tried to smooth things over.

"Ignore her, Professor," said Parvati, looking darkly at Hermione. "We understand the
importance of what you said."

"Professor, we appreciate your efforts," said Lavendar, looking anxious, "someone had to
be burdened with the unwelcome task of breaking the news to Robert; I'm sure he agrees
with me." She looked at Robert, who merely looked expressionlessly back at her.

Hermione gathered up her things.

"I've had enough for today," she said flatly. With a scornful glance at Professor Trelawney,
she left the classroom.

Professor Trelawney chose to ignore this, and somewhat mollified by Parvati and Lavendar's
loyalty, dismissed the class in a dignified manner. Dean, scowling, took ten Galleons out of his
wallet and gave them to Seamus. Ron, leaving together with Harry and Pixie, was frowning.

"What's up?" said Harry.

"Hermione," said Ron, looking highly displeased, "Since when is she so defensive of Robert?
She's been awfully chummy with him lately. Know what, Harry - I think she fancies him!"

Pixie giggled. Harry looked startled.

"Robert?" he said. "Come off it, Ron. It's just Trelawney you know Hermione doesn't like
her."

Ron was still frowning.

"She likes him," he insisted. "I've seen her looking at him with a funny expression on her face.
And she grabs every chance that she can get, to discuss books with him!"

Pixie giggled again.

"Well, what about it, Ronniekins," she said, dimpling, "It'd be a good thing, wouldn't it? Then
she might get him away from Shan, and give Harry a chance!"

Ron did not reply, but continued to scowl darkly. Harry, privately wishing someone would
throttle Pixie, fell behind, and saw Shan and Robert smiling at some joke.

"What's so funny?" he asked, hoping they hadn't overheard.

Shan gave him a broad grin.

"Our teacups," she said, pushing her glasses up her nose and shaking slightly with mirth, "We
forgot that we were supposed to swap them. That was my teacup that Professor Trelawney
was looking at, all the time."

Later that day, Harry happened to pass through the Stores corridor again, and noticed that
the storeroom door was still missing. He felt slightly intrigued. In the two years since he'd
discovered the hidden passageway, the door had always been there, every time he'd
passed this way. The most it did was shift up and down the corridor a bit. Moreover,
there was quite a large area of wall between two of the doors, as if they were leaving
ample room for the storeroom door to come back.

However, it wasn't peculiar for a door in Hogwarts to disappear, so he decided not to
make too much of it. He was just turning the corner at the end of the corridor when he
heard faint footsteps, and looking back, saw that Dumbledore had entered from the
other end.

Harry continued round the corner, but then, something made him stop. He could hear
Dumbledore's footsteps coming down the corridor. Harry was just estimating that he
was about halfway down the corridor, when the footsteps stopped. After a few moments,
the sound of a door opening and closing could be heard.

Harry went back to the corner and looked round it. The corridor was now empty. He
stood there for a moment, then continued making his way back to the common room.
It didn't mean anything; Dumbledore had probably gone into one of the other rooms.

"But the rooms along that corridor are mostly for stores," thought Harry. "There aren't
any teachers' offices or classrooms there. Why should Dumbledore be inspecting the
stores?"

On an impulse, he turned and started off in the direction of the Entrance Hall instead.
Leaving the castle and entering the grounds, he headed for the part of the castle where
the ivy had been growing. It was winter now, and the ivy had lost all its leaves, exposing
the wall behind. The door of the passageway was not visible. Harry felt sure it was still
there, and that one just needed the right incantation to make it appear. He looked up to
see if the storeroom window was there, but it wasn't. It, too, had disappeared.

He stared at the section of blank wall where the window was supposed to be. Had it
shifted itself elsewhere? Feeling curious, he turned and made his way back to the
Gryffindor common room and up to his dormitory, and took the Marauder's Map out.
He wanted to see which room Dumbledore had gone into.

To his surprise, the Map showed that Dumbledore wasn't in any of the rooms along that
particular corridor.

He searched through the whole Map, thinking Dumbledore might have left by now and
gone to some other part of the castle, but he couldn't find him anywhere.

He looked at the corridor again, and blinked. A small dot labelled 'Albus Dumbledore'
had suddenly appeared, in the exact spot Harry remembered the storeroom to be. The
dot then moved out of the storeroom and down the corridor, and back to Dumbledore's
office.

Harry felt rather excited. What did this mean? Was the storeroom still there? Why had
Dumbledore not shown up on the Map? He couldn't have Apparated. Had he opened
another Vortex, like the one that had brought Harry to Kamchatka?

He looked at the Map again, and by chance, something else happened to catch his eye.

Jeanne and Professor Snufflegint were in the school grounds, in a place far from the
castle that Harry had never ventured to before. It was on the other side of the lake,
at the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest.

He watched them curiously for a while, wondering what they were doing there. He
thought that Jeanne might be showing Snufflegint round the grounds, but they were
staying in the same spot and not going anywhere. After about ten minutes he grew
tired of watching them, and rolled the Map up and placed it back in his trunk.

He wondered again about Dumbledore and the elusive storeroom. Dumbledore doesn't
need to go to the storeroom to open the Vortex, thought Harry. Perhaps he had Portkeyed
somewhere, and the Portkey was in the storeroom. That seemed more likely. But where
had he gone? Wherever it had been, Dumbledore hadn't spent very much time there.

He spent the rest of the day wondering about it, but couldn't come up with anything. He
thought of putting his Cloak on that night and going to the corridor to snoop around, but
decided against it.

"It's none of my business, anyway," he said to himself, as he lay in bed with Ping at his feet.
"And Dumbledore won't be pleased if he were to catch me poking my nose into his affairs."

Having decided this, he turned over and closed his eyes, and eventually fell asleep.

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