To those who reviewed, thanks for the reviews, glad you like
the story! :o) These next
2 chapters are sort of interim ones, and then things pick up again
during Christmas.
[Silimay, I saw your post in your author profile. There's a
Latin dictionary URL which
I used for my fic, which I've lost at the moment but I'll email
it to you if I find it. And I
still can't access your website.]
~ Kim (gryffindor1970@yahoo.com) :o)
------------------------------------------------------------
HARRY POTTER AND THE JADE DRAGON
------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter XIX
The Secret of the Storeroom
The darkness
pressed around them while
They clambered down in single file.
"Potter! I want a word with you!"
Harry, who had been bending over his bag, looked up and saw
that Professor McGonagall
was looking sternly at him. Their Transfiguration class had just
ended, and all the others
were busy packing their bags and leaving.
"She doesn't look like that unless something's wrong,"
he muttered to Ron. "Tell Shan I'll
be a bit late, will you?"
Ron and Hermione looked sympathetically at him, and then left.
Harry gathered his things,
and went up to the front.
Professor McGonagall was looking displeased.
"Severus Snape says that you sent Draco Malfoy flying
into the lake a few days ago,
Potter," she said. "Not only are you not supposed to
use magic between classes, but it is
extremely thoughtless of you to immerse a fellow student in a
freezing lake in the middle
of winter!"
Harry said nothing. He didn't intend to give Robert away.
"Well, Potter?"
Harry looked at Professor McGonagall. She was looking angrier than ever.
"Yes, Professor."
Sparks seemed to fly from Professor McGonagall's eyes.
"You don't deny, then, Potter, that you did it?"
A quiet voice spoke from the doorway.
"He didn't do it, Professor, I did."
Professor McGonagall looked up sharply. Harry turned around.
Robert was standing there. Ron must have told him and Shan,
Harry thought. He grimaced
at Robert, to indicate that he should go away.
Robert, however, was coming over to them. Professor McGonagall
seemed rather taken
aback. She looked down at Robert, who was looking calmly up at
her.
"Harry wasn't the one who threw Malfoy in the lake, Professor; I did."
Professor McGonagall glanced swiftly at Harry, then back at
Robert again. Harry knew
what she was thinking. Both she and Dumbledore wanted the exchange
programme to be
a success, and they were reluctant to punish any of the Tian-Long
students.
"Very well, Potter," she said crisply, looking at
Harry, "you may go. I will have to discuss
with Lady Wen-Li about how to deal with this."
Harry glanced at Robert, who was looking his usual deadpan
self. He hesitated, then
picked his bag up and left the room.
Shan was waiting outside, together with Ron and Hermione.
"What's happening to Robert?"
"Dunno," said Harry. "McGonagall says she's going to speak to Lady Wen-Li."
Shan looked worried. She seemed about to say something, but
stopped because someone
was coming down the corridor.
It was Jeanne, looking very tired. Harry also thought she looked
rather upset, though she
smiled at them as she passed. She seemed in a hurry, though, and
didn't say anything.
Harry, watching her make her way down the corridor, found himself
wondering what she
and Snufflegint had been doing near the Forbidden Forest.
Professor McGonagall now came marching out of the classroom
together with Robert.
She ignored them, but Robert gave Shan a smile as he went past.
He looked smaller than
ever next to Professor McGonagall, because she was so tall.
"Relax, Shan," said Ron, as the two of them disappeared
down the corridor, "I tell you,
Robert can take care of himself. Look at him, calm as a breeze."
Harry had planned to bring Shan and Robert to have a look at
the owlery, but there was
no point now. Their next class was Charms, so Shan left them and
went back to the
common room while they made their way to the Charms classroom,
although it was still
early. Hermione had managed to persuade Professor Flitwick to
give them a lesson on
Hover Charms.
"Wonder what's happening to Robert," said Hermione,
later during the class, as she
suspended a large dictionary in the air.
"Probably nothing much," said Ron, trying without
much success to lift Trevor, Neville's
toad, off the ground. "He'll probably get a detention, that's
all."
Hermione said nothing, but there was a rather odd look in her
eyes. Harry, noticing,
wondered if there was something in what Ron had been saying, after
all.
"That Robert's pretty creepy-looking, huh, Hermione?"
said Ron casually, obviously
trying to test her. "I bet, if he doesn't change his glasses
one day, no girl'll ever look
at him."
Hermione looked very angry, and the dictionary hit the floor with a loud thump!
"He's not creepy-looking! He's one of the nicest boys I've ever met!"
She pointed her wand at the dictionary again, but she was so
cross that her spell also
caught tiny Professor Flitwick, who was walking past, and sent
him sailing ceilingward.
Hermione, realising what she was doing, hurriedly lowered him
to the floor, apologising
profusely.
"Quite all right, my dear," he chirped. "I see you've more than mastered it!"
"See what I mean?" Ron muttered to Harry, as Hermione,
frowning, made the dictionary
hover a few feet above the ground again, "I tell you, she
fancies him!"
Harry wondered why this should bother Ron so much, especially
since he was spending
so much time with Pixie himself.
"And he's such a runt," Ron went on, turning back
to Hermione, "I'd like to see which
girl'd ever want to be with him all of them are probably
twice his height!"
The dictionary came falling to the ground again.
"You are so small-minded, Ron," Hermione said angrily.
"Any decent girl would like Robert.
Look how fond Shan is of him!"
"That's because she's his cousin!" said Ron, looking
at her with a queer gleam in his eye.
"She's just nice to him because he can help her with her
schoolwork!"
"That's not true!" said Hermione, unconsciously raising
her voice. "She's likes him because
he's nice! You're just jealous of him because he's such a good
student and you're not!"
"What d'you mean by that?" said Ron heatedly. "Me,
jealous? Why should I be jealous?
The fellow's starkers anyway, spending half his time talking to
that mad Merlion and the
rest of it reading imbecile comic books!"
Harry, seeing that the rest of the students had stopped Hovering
their books and were
looking curiously at them, decided that things were getting out
of hand.
"Drop it, Ron," he said. "You know Robert's all right. He's not odd, just quiet - "
"Yes, he's not odd!" snapped Hermione, getting more
and more worked up, "He's a nice
person! Much nicer than that silly little airhead you're always
with!"
"What did you say?" snarled Ron, his face going red,
"Don't you call her an airhead! You're
just - "
"Students! Please!" Flitwick had come over. He pointed his wand at both of them in turn.
"Tranquillus!"
Both Ron and Hermione seemed to calm down somewhat. They contented
themselves
with glaring at each other, before resuming with their Hover Charms.
Hermione was
scowling at her dictionary, which was hovering over Ron and looked
in imminent danger
of falling on top of him. Ron was glaring at Trevor, who was still
refusing to rise so much
as an inch in the air.
The two of them refused to speak to each other after that,
and Hermione, on reaching
the Gryffindor common room, settled herself in one of the squashy
armchairs, defiantly
reading a book she had borrowed from Robert.
Shan was in a corner, working on one of her Tian-Long assignments.
As usual, she had
Robert's completed essay next to her, and was occasionally referring
to it. Several of the
Gryffindor first-years, having never seen anyone do calligraphy
before, were sitting next
to her, watching curiously as she wrote her essay in neat, flowing
strokes. They leaned
forward intently as she placed some water on her inkstone, ground
a stick of ink against it,
and dipped her brush in it.
Robert wasn't around, and neither was Chee Chong. Harry guessed
that the latter was in
Snufflegint's chamber, restoring the Imperial scrolls. Fatty was
busily talking to someone in
his crystal globe, while Pixie and Lavendar and Parvati were watching
some of the other
Gryffindors playing with the Pandas.
Ron, who didn't want to be in the same room with Hermione,
said grumpily, "Let's go to the
library."
"OK," said Harry. He went over to Shan and asked
her if she wanted to come, but she smiled
and shook her head.
"I want to keep an eye on Ping and Pong," she said,
as a burst of giggles erupted from Parvati
and Lavendar.
Harry, going up to the dormitory with Ron to keep some of their
books away, saw that Ping
and Pong were greedily scooping honey out of a huge jar.
Ron was still grumbling about Hermione.
"She's so impressed with that Snufflegint as well! Saw
him the other day looks like a cold
clod. One look from him is enough to make your blood freeze!"
Harry, since Ron had brought the subject of Snufflegint up,
found himself unrolling the Marauder's
Map to have a peek at it. He looked at the Forbidden Forest; Jeanne
and Snufflegint were there
again.
Ron was coming over. "I'm ready to gowhat're you looking at?"
Harry showed him.
"Jeanne and Snufflegint," he said. "I saw them
in the same place yesterday. Thought she was
showing him around the grounds, but they just seemed to be staying
in the same spot. And
they're there again, today!"
Ron didn't look too interested. His mind was still on Hermione
and Robert, and he said the
first thing that came into his head.
"Maybe she's having an affair with him."
Harry gave a snort of laughter.
"Right, sure, Ron. The man is so old, he's practically at death's door!"
Ron looked sheepish.
"All right, it's stupid. I just don't trust the fellow, that's all. He gives me the shivers."
Harry, still laughing, took the Map away, and rolled it up.
"C'mon," he said, picking up his bag and grinning at Ron, "let's go to the library."
The library was rather crowded that day, but they managed to
find a quiet spot away from
the other students, and settled themselves there.
Harry started on his Transfiguration homework, but Ron seemed distracted.
"Guess I shouldn't have said all that stuff just now,"
he said, looking out of the window. "I
don't really have anything against Robert. OK, so she's right,
he's a better student than me."
He fiddled with the strap of his bag, looking gloomy.
"Hm," said Harry, trying to concentrate on his essay.
Ron, seeing a large, thick book on the
table which some other student must have left behind, pulled it
over and began absently riffling
through its pages. It was a Who's Who of the Wizarding World,
S - Z.
"Maybe Snufflegint's in here," he said, after a few
moments. He searched through the book for
a while, then stopped at one page, and started reading.
Harry, finishing one sheet of parchment, pushed it aside and
glanced at Ron. He seemed quite
absorbed in the book.
"Found anything interesting?"
Ron read a few more lines, then tore his eyes from the book and looked at Harry.
"Interesting life he's had, this Snufflegint," he said. "He's even joined a Pugilistic Sect before."
Harry was rather startled. "What?"
Ron shoved the book over to Harry. "Have a look."
Harry dragged the book over, and looked curiously at it.
Snufflegint, Septimus A.
Born 9th September 1802, Invercarven, Argyll.
Education : 1813-1819 Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
1820-1825 Apprentice, Monadhliath Observatory
1825-1848 Astronomer, Monadhliath Observatory
1848-1854 Chief Astronomer, Monadhliadth Observatory
1855 - 1887 : Master of Astronomy, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft
and Wizardry
In 1887, Snufflegint left Britain and
"Skip the beginning," said Ron, who had come over
to Harry's side of the table. He pointed
at a paragraph further down. "Read that!"
"Not much is known about the years 1940-1952. Snufflegint,
on re-entering the Imperial Court in
1953 and resuming his role as advisor to the Emperor, refused
to divulge his whereabouts during
that period. It is rumoured, however, that he joined the notorious
Tomb Sect, one of the Pugilistic
Sects near Xi-An, whose black-robed and hooded members are known
for their skill in Black Magic
and the Dark Arts."
Harry stared at the book, unsure what to think. Snufflegint? A Pugilist? Skilled in Black Magic?
"What d'you make of it?" said Ron, looking fascinated.
"The guy probably knows Internal
Magic! Dabbled in the Dark Arts!"
Harry put the book down.
"How can he join a Sect?" he said. "He's not even Chinese!"
Ron shrugged. "Who knows? Anyway, it's just a rumour. Maybe it's not true."
He pulled the book back to his side of the table, and resumed reading.
Harry tried to continue writing, but now he couldn't concentrate.
Ron was holding the book
up and reading, and Harry found himself staring at the call number
on the spine of the book.
"There should be a Who's Who with A to D, as well,"
he said to himself. He got up and went
to look for it.
He found it. Who's Who in the Wizarding World, A - K.
He carried it back to the table, and
opened it.
"What's up?" asked Ron curiously.
Harry had finished looking at all the D pages, but he hadn't found what he'd been looking for.
"Nothing," he mumbled, closing the book in disappointment.
Ron looked at him, puzzled. "Who were you looking for?"
Harry stared at the book for a few moments, feeling rather
stupid. Then he looked at Ron and
said rather reluctantly, "Deorg."
Ron looked startled. "Deorg?"
"I know it's dumb," said Harry. "It's justI
remember something Snufflegint said to Jeanne - about
him being very interested in shape-shifters. And I haven't
seen Deorg's face, but he's tall, and has
a deep voice, and wears black robes, like the Tomb Sect members
do."
Ron remained silent for a few moments, digesting this.
"Are you saying that Snufflegint is Deorg?"
he said at last. "But - he can't be. You told me Deorg
has been in Siberia during the last few years, while Snufflegint's
been in Tian-Long, teaching!"
"I know," said Harry. "It's just a wild guess.
I'm not saying they're the same person, but maybe
there's some connection between them."
Ron looked serious.
"You think Snufflegint's out to harm Jeanne?"
"Well - no," said Harry hastily. "I mean, I
can't say. OK, I admit I don't really like him, but he
doesn't seem evil to me. Just that the Map's shown him and Jeanne
doing something together in
the Forbidden Forest two days in a row - kind of weird, isn't
it?"
Ron thought about it, then shrugged. "We can just ask Jeanne."
But Harry wasn't going to let Jeanne know that he had been
spying on her again. After thinking
about it for a while, he decided that whatever Jeanne was doing,
it was none of his business.
Maybe Snufflegint just liked watching shape-shifters transform,
and she was obliging him. He
shoved Who's Who, A - K aside, and resolutely bent over
his essay again.
Later that evening, both Robert and Chee Chong turned up together in the Great Hall for dinner.
"Professor McGonagall gave me detention," said Robert,
in answer to their questions. "I spent
the afternoon helping Chee Chong restore the scrolls."
"Oh," said Shan, looking relieved. "Did you find anything interesting?" She looked hopeful.
"Lots," said Robert cheerfully, and he and Chee Chong
looked at each other and grinned. "The
way in which the Lunar Mansions came to be developed is quite
interesting. I didn't know such
a detailed description of it existed. It starts off at the beginning
of - "
"I didn't mean that," said Shan, crossly.
Then, seeing Chee Chong looking rather puzzled, she
quickly said, "I mean - we already know that the Lunar Mansions
thing is there. What I meant
was, did you find out what the other scrolls contain?"
"Some of them are definitery the Chou Pei Suan Ching,"
said Chee Chong, "but we have not
lestored the rest. We have been working on the Lunar Mansions
first, because Plofessor Sinistra
wants those."
Shan looked disappointed.
"Master Li-Kai is not preased because I am very slow,"
added Chee Chong, looking at Robert.
"He was happy that Yuan-Ming came. He told him that he can
come back anytime he wants, and
continue helping me."
"I'll go," said Robert, seeing Shan looking at him,
"since I got him into this. In fact, we're going to
work on it again after dinner. The Lunar Mansion scrolls are quite
interesting."
"Does Professor Snufflegint stay around and supervise you all the time?" Harry asked, casually.
"No," said Chee Chong. "Most of the time, he
is in his office, just next to the chamber. But every
afternoon, flom two to four, he will go out."
"Where?" asked Ron at once.
Chee Chong shrugged. "I do not know."
"What's he doing in his office?" asked Harry.
"I do not know," Chee Chong said again. "He
keeps the door shut. And if I ask him anything, he
will always come out of the office and rock the door behind him."
Harry looked at Shan, and saw that she was looking intrigued.
Ron, too, was looking rather excited.
Was Snufflegint up to something?
"All right, Robert," said Shan, after dinner, as
they left the Great Hall and Robert and Chee Chong
started heading back to the Astronomy Tower, "it's great
that you're helping Chong. Now you can
try finding out what Master Li-Kai is doing inside his office."
Robert didn't look enthusiastic.
"He's probably sleeping," he said. "That's what
he does in Tian-Long. He always sits in the library,
nodding off, when he's doing his translations."
"This is different," said Shan firmly. "Li-Kai
is not the type to volunteer to restore old scrolls,
especially scrolls that only contain common information. He has
better things to do. And he
doesn't leave China easily. I tell you, he's come back to Britain
for something."
Robert, seeing her looking so earnest, smiled at her, and then
went off with Chee Chong. Shan,
following as the rest of them made their way back to the common
room, quietly asked Harry
if the missing storeroom door had reappeared.
"No," said Harry, adding, "and the storeroom
window, which is usually visible from the grounds,
is gone as well."
Shan glanced around to make sure no one was listening, then
said softly, "last night, I happened
to pass by the corridor, and I saw something interesting."
Harry looked at her, surprised.
"I transformed into a postal dragon; I wanted to have a look around the castle," she explained.
She glanced at Ron and Pixie, who were in front. "As I
was flying through the corridor, I saw
Professor Dumbledore entering it. So I stopped, just on impulse,
and perched myself near the
ceiling. And then, what do you think I saw him do?"
She looked at Harry, grinning.
"What?" asked Harry, looking at her in suspense.
"He stopped halfway, and took out his wand, and tapped
it on the blank wall," said Shan, "And
a door appeared, and swung open."
She looked at Harry, as if enjoying the effect her words were having on him.
Harry looked impatiently at her.
"And then - ?" he prompted.
"And then, he went in, and the door closed and disappeared
again," she said. "After that I waited
for ten minutes, but he didn't come out, so I left."
Harry felt excited. He mused over this news for a while, then
asked, "What did Dumbledore say
to make the door open?"
Shan shook her head.
"I couldn't hear." She looked at him, and seemed
to read his mind. "If you're going to look for it
tonight, I'm coming along."
Harry hesitated. The Invisibility Cloak wasn't large enough
for four, and he didn't want to leave
either Ron or Hermione out. He knew Hermione might not want to
go anyway - it would be
breaking rules, and trying to find an invisible storeroom door
would seem a waste of time to
her. But she was good at Charms, and the most likely of all of
them to be able to figure out
how to get the door open.
However, he had Shan to thank for this information, and besides
she would know which part
of the wall Dumbledore had tapped with his wand. In the end, much
as he hated to, he decided
he'd have to leave Ron out. He and Hermione were still not speaking
to each other anyway.
So he told Hermione about the door. She seemed a bit doubtful
at first, but seeing that Harry was
determined to go, finally agreed. They arranged to meet at midnight
in the common room, and spent
the rest of the evening looking up Opening and Unlocking spells
in their Charms spellbooks.
When Harry came up to the dormitory, he found Ron already asleep.
He waited till Neville and the
others had gone to bed, and then, as he was about to leave, began
to feel guilty. Maybe four people
would be able to squeeze under the Cloak.
He tried rousing Ron, but Ron refused to wake up. He simply
grunted and turned around, and
began snoring again. Harry, afraid of making too much noise and
waking the others, finally gave
up. As he covered himself with the Invisibility Cloak and moved
toward the door, he noticed that
Robert and Chee Chong's beds were still empty.
The castle seemed very quiet as the three of them made their
way to the corridor, their spellbooks
tucked away in their robes.
It was dark when they arrived; the corridor was not lit. Shan
lit her wand, and stopping about
halfway down the corridor, looked at the wall.
"I think it was here," she said.
Hermione took her spellbook out, and removing the Cloak from her arm, opened it.
"Adaperio," she muttered, reading from the
book, and tapping the wall with her wand. Nothing
happened. She tried the next few charms. "Aperio! Exsolvo!
Refringo!"
The wall stayed as blank as ever.
"Let me try," whispered Shan, when Hermione had exhausted
all the known charms. She
extinguished her wand, and began tapping the wall with it, muttering
incantations in Chinese.
After a while, she couldn't think of any more. They looked at each other.
"We should have asked Robert to come," said Hermione,
at length. "He'd probably know
what to do."
"Maybe the door's shifted," suggested Shan. She transformed
her wand into a wooden staff, and
moved down the corridor, knocking softly at the wall. After about
seven steps, she stopped.
"Did you hear that?" She knocked again. "It sounds hollow!"
She reached out a hand, and feeling around, caught hold of something.
"I think I found the doorknob," she said. She tried turning it, but nothing happened.
Feeling excited, Harry watched as Hermione stuck her hand out
from under the Cloak again,
so that she could see her spellbook, and went through the incantations
once more. When she
had finished, Shan transformed her staff back into a wand, and
did likewise.
"It's not working," she said at length, sounding discouraged.
They stared at the wall, feeling rather dejected. Then, Hermione remembered something.
"There's one more," she said. She tapped at the invisible door again. "Alohomora!"
For a second, nothing happened. Then, the faint outline of
a door appeared in the light of Shan's
wand. The outline became more distinct, and then the door, with
a faint creak, swung open.
Harry heard a slight noise behind him. Heart thumping, he turned
around. Chee Chong, with
Chester on his shoulder, and Robert were standing a few feet away
from them. Chee Chong's
eyes were wide, looking at the door and Hermione's wand, which
was sticking out from under
the Cloak. Robert, however, was looking directly at the three
of them.
Shan stepped out from under the Cloak and hissed crossly at them.
"What are you doing here?"
"We just finished restoring the Lunar Mansion scrolls,"
said Robert, looking at the door with
interest. "We'll go away, if you want us to."
Shan hesitated, and Harry knew she wanted him to come along. He took the Cloak off.
"No need," he said. "We were just saying, a
short while ago, that we should have asked you
to come."
So all five of them entered the room, closing the door behind
them and holding their lighted
wands up in front of them. The storeroom looked just as Harry
remembered : empty boxes
were strewn on the floor - it seemed that Filch never bothered
to tidy up here - which was
carpeted with dust.
"What is it you are looking for?" asked Chee Chong,
looking around the room with a
perplexed expression on his face.
Harry, deciding that Chee Chong was discreet enough to keep
the Marauder's Map a
secret, briefly explained about seeing Dumbledore vanishing and
re-appearing.
"We should test each object in the room, then," said Shan, "in case one of them is a Portkey."
They joined hands, so that if one of them disappeared the rest
would follow. Harry was at
one end, holding Chee Chong's hand; he found himself feeling rather
disappointed that it
wasn't Shan who was next to him.
They tried out all the objects in the room, but none seemed
to be a Portkey. Harry even
pushed the wooden chest aside and went down through the trapdoor,
and managed to
open the door behind the ivy; but other than being able to get
out into the grounds, nothing
else was revealed to them.
"Well, maybe I was mistaken," said Harry, feeling
rather downcast. Chee Chong looked at
Chester, who was looking grumpy.
"I must bling Chester back to the dormitory," he
said. "He is tired. He does not rike the
Astronomy Tower - it is too cold for him there."
Harry, feeling that he had been wasting everyone's time, started
toward the door. Robert,
reaching it first, tapped it with his wand, and it flew open at
once. They were filing out when
Chester suddenly leapt off Chee Chong's shoulder, and back into
the room.
Chee Chong gave an exclamation of surprise, then went back
in after him. Harry, standing
just outside the door, heard a familiar voice approaching, singing
a rude song.
"Peeves is coming," he hissed. "Quick, get back in!"
They hurried back into the room and shut the door. Chester
had flown over to the wooden
chest, and was hopping around on it, evading Chee Chong's attempts
to catch him.
"Chester!" said Chee Chong crossly, and then began
to scold him in Chinese. Finally, he did
a Summoning Charm, and Chester, struggling, shot into his hand.
"I do not know what is wrong with him," he said.
Robert was looking thoughtfully at the chest. He went over
and tried opening it, but it seemed
to be locked. He then took his wand out, and pointing it at the
chest, said something softly in
Chinese.
There was a slight, clicking sound, and the lid of the chest
swung smoothly open. The five of
them bent over it with their lighted wands, and looked in. The
chest had no bottom. A ladder
was attached to one end, leading down into pitch darkness.
Shan looked excited. "Let's go down!"
Robert caught hold of her sleeve. "Not so fast, Shan. We don't know what's in there."
He stuck his wand, still lit, into his belt, and then climbing
into the chest, went down the ladder
first. Harry, watching him disappear, followed him. Shan went
next, then Chee Chong, and
Hermione.
"Leave the lid open," Harry heard Robert calling from below.
After a few minutes, they reached the bottom. A round tunnel,
hewn in rock, stretched away
in front of them. Strangely enough, the place did not feel enclosed.
The air was fresh, and even
as they stood there, a breeze blew in through the tunnel, caressing
their hands and faces.
"I think the tunnel leads outdoors," said Robert,
sounding surprised. He started off down the
tunnel, the others following.
After less than a minute, Harry thought he saw a faint light
in front of them. They rounded a
bend, and stopped short in surprise.
The tunnel opened out onto the side of a cliff. Dawn was breaking,
and the sun was just about
to rise above the encircling mountains. A fresh, cool breeze was
blowing, and in the distance
they could hear singing : haunting voices were rising and falling,
as if welcoming them to a new
and undiscovered land.
-