Gabriel woke up late that Saturday. She didn't know what, but there was something big that was going to happen soon, but in the early-morning haze of her mind, she couldn't think of it. It wasn't a test, the exams weren't for a couple of months...Wait, and it was the Quidditch game that Tuesday. Three days away. Gabriel wasn't too sure she was exactly ready for that. Standing up, she felt so lightheaded that she had to sit back on the bed, save herself from falling.
Chiding herself on the fact that she had been eating too much and not exercising enough, she stood up, and went to the showers. Her friend Alanya interrupted her progress, handing her a large parcel of red cloth and a small white package along with it. Gabriel stared at it, but before she could answer, Alanya started dragging her towards the showers.
"You need to get out to the Quidditch field! They have practice today, and it starts in- " she looked at her watch "-five minutes! Get dressed. Eat your breakfast! Hurry up!" Looking down at the two packages she held in her hand, she noticed that the large red one was a crimson Quidditch robe, and the smaller one had some fruit in it. Gabriel started as she looked at the clock in the common room.
"Crap!" she exclaimed, using a quote that she had gotten off of Sarah. "I didn't know it was so blasted late!" With that, Gabriel Gryffindor jammed a kiwi in her mouth and sprinted towards the showers.
# # #
"Sarah! Sarah Slytherin! For the last time, get up!" Sarah blearily opened one gray eye to study the person that had woken her up so rudely. She nearly fell out of the bed when she saw it was Draco Malfoy. She rocketed awake at once, and looked at him.
"Just what in the name of Hades do you think you're doing?" she screamed indignantly. Draco winced. "This is the girl's dormitory!" she finished. Draco sighed.
"I happen to be perfectly aware of that," he snapped back. "I just thought you'd like to know, that Father is downstairs, waiting for us, and he doesn't like to wait!"
Sarah blinked. "Why is your father here?" she asked. Sprite the butterfly flitted in and landed on Sarah's green blanket. Draco sighed.
"Remember? He's going to buy you a broom, and new Quidditch robes? You know," he said, explaining it to Sarah as if she was not bright, "for the game on Tuesday?" Sarah did remember.
"Your father doesn't have to buy me anything. I can ride one of the school brooms, and wear an old uniform. I don't like charity," she snapped at him. He sighed.
"Charity or not, you're taking it if I have to drag you. Get dressed," he commanded, and left.
Sarah groaned and reached for a clean robe that lay wadded at the bottom of her bed. Pulling it on, she shrugged. At least she'd look good for the Quidditch game on Tuesday. She laced up her boots, drug her fingers through her hair (she couldn't find her brush) and wrestled her curls into a high ponytail/really bad looking bun. Sprite flew up and settled in her hair, and she galloped down the stairs.
Sarah was quite afraid when she hit the bottom of the stairs. Draco was there, and right next to him was a figure that could have been his twin, save he was a older and a little taller. The figure had the same color hair; eyes, the same complexion, same thin lips, same slight-sneer, and he even carried himself with the same swagger that Draco had. Sarah snorted with a bit of laughter.
"I can't see the family resemblance," she said, sarcastically. Draco raised his eyebrows, as did the figure, which made it harder for Sarah to control her laughter. She had to bite her lip until she almost made it bleed to keep her composure. The taller figure stuck out his hand for a handshake.
"I have the honor to be Mr. Lucius Malfoy," he said with a slight drawl to his voice, connecting him to Draco's demeanor even more. "I suppose that you would be Miss Slytherin?"
Sarah took Lucius's hand and totally spoiled the moment by slapping him on the side with her free hand. "Nice to meet you too, Luke. I gotta go brush my teeth, so I don't fumigate y'all with my breath. And, I ain't nuthin but Sarah, so you can drop all the formal yatter," she said.
Draco groaned. He knew that Sarah was being overly American just to annoy his father, and his father did not like to be annoyed. Sarah walked by Draco, grabbed his shoulder and smacked him on the back a little too hard.
"'Mornin, Sweetheart." Sarah left. Lucius raised an eyebrow at his son, feeling rather amused.
"Sweetheart?" he asked. Draco blushed.
"She calls everyone that, Father." Lucius Malfoy just shook his head and looked disdainfully at the doorway that Sarah had just exited out of.
"It's kind of sad where the honorable blood of Slytherin has dwindled down to at this modern date and time. I don't even know if she knows much about the noble bloodline to which she belongs..." he trailed off thoughtfully.
Sarah came back in. "I'm ready!" she called cheerfully. Lucius Malfoy nodded, and the threesome left the building.
# # #
Hayley and Robert, seeing that they had nothing else better to do, followed Gabriel out to the Quidditch field, to watch her practice. Hayley was all pins and needles.
"I don't know what to do!" she squealed. "I don't want to cheer for Sarah, and hurt Gabriel's feelings, but I don't want to cheer for Gabriel and hurt Sarah's feelings either!"
Robert just sighed. "I think that you're being a little too uptight about this, Hayley. It's just a game. I don't think you're going to hurt anyone's feelings, no matter what you do. Still, if it bothers you that much, you can just remain neutral."
"But I want to show school spirit!"
Robert sighed, and was about to answer, when Gabriel came flying up.
"Hey you guys, Sarah's over there. Let's go say hi," and with that, she flew off to go see Sarah. Robert looked at Hayley.
"See? She's not taking it that seriously, and neither should you," he said a tad smugly. He got up, offered a hand to Hayley, and they both went over to where the two were conversing.
Draco knew he was in for it when he heard Gabriel calling for Sarah, in her red Quidditch robes. Sarah stopped and smiled.
"Hey Gabriel! What's up? Ready for the match on Tuesday?" As soon as she said that, Lucius Malfoy nearly went off his tack.
"WHAT?! You mean that a player on the Gryffindor team is...is a friend of Sarah Slytherin?!?" Draco swallowed, and turned paler than usual. Gabriel was in earshot when Mr. Malfoy made this irate remark, saw the look on Draco's face, and made a decision.
"Friends? With her?!" Gabriel asked, trying to sound shocked and as disgusted as she possibly could. Sarah was a bit taken aback for a moment, but then saw the pleading look in Draco's eyes, and the laughter in Gabriel's brown ones, and Sarah put on her most evil look she could do without laughing.
"Know yourself, know your enemy, and you shall triumph!" she quoted from an old Chinese book about war. "I'm going to get a new broom, and I hope you and your shoddy skills can manage to come in a close second to the Slytherin superiority!" she was speaking at random, and was having a good time making theatrical quotes up as she went. Gabriel's eyes twinkled.
"Whatever, Snake Girl. You may have the fastest broom in the world, but they can't outwit the Gryffindor chivalry!" she flew back. Sarah grinned, and herself, Draco and Lucius walked off. Draco pulled Sarah behind his father by her sleeve.
"Thanks. I owe you." Sarah grinned and mussed his hair up.
"Nah. That was fun. I'd do it again."
# # #
In a few moments (they Appearated) Sarah found herself on the golden cobblestone road that she had bought her wand on. Smiling, she followed the two Malfoys down the road until they came to a broom shop. They went inside.
It was a small room, basically deserted of people, but crammed full of brooms off all colors, shapes and sizes. A man sat at a cluttered desk, scratching out something with a slightly flattened quill. He looked up as soon as the three entered, and gave a smile.
He was a pudgy, bald man, with two small beady blue eyes that crinkled with kindness and were hidden under a mask of reddish facial hair. He reminded Sarah something of a fatter, older version of Robert. The man scuttled up to them and bowed slightly.
"Mr. Malfoy, Young Mr. Malfoy, and ....Miss Malfoy, perhaps?" Sarah and Draco blushed slightly, and Sarah shook her head so vigorously that Sprite squeaked with complaint.
"No. I'm Sarah Slytherin. Yes, Sarah Slytherin. Yes, relation to the Hogwarts founder. No, I don't want to talk about it." The old man's eyes danced with genuine laughter.
"That's all right, Miss Slytherin. Are you the one that Mr. Malfoy is buying for? My name is Mr. Kindlebark, by the way." He hustled through this, and Sarah smiled. She decided that she liked Mr. Kindlebark. Mr. Malfoy, however, didn't look pleased.
"Enough introductions all ready. Just show her the merchandise." Mr. Kindlebark nodded and bustled Sarah and crew to the back of the store.
"I've got a nice selection here today, and I believe that I can find something that will suit you well, Miss Slytherin. I've just gotten in a new shipment of Nimbus 2001, but, I also have a some nice, new prototype brooms that I think you might like." He produced a box and opened it.
The broom had a dark handle, probably ebony wood, with very light straws, that had little white strands of magic slithering in-between the straws, like snakes. At the top of the handle, engraved in tiny silver letters, were the words 'Cloudburst 4550'.
"This is the Cloudburst four-thousand-five-hundred-and-fifty, and it's the newest in state of the art design," said Mr. Kindlebark, sounding as if he had swallowed a tape recording. "It has auto-brake, a top speed of ninety miles per hour, and handling smoother than butter. It's three hundred gallons," he finished. Sarah gasped, but Mr. Malfoy just sighed and dug into his pocket.
"I'll take two," he said. Sarah was about to protest, but Draco stopped her.
"Don't worry about the cost. Just shut up," he told her firmly. Sarah shrugged. She wasn't used to being splurged on like this, but she could adapt.
Next stop was Madame Milkin's robe shop, where Sarah was fitted for some sleek green robes. Sarah was enjoying herself immensely by the time that this was all over with.
"Thanks, Luke," she said to Mr. Malfoy on occasion of getting an armful of dark green cloth. Mr. Malfoy stiffened when she addressed him in that manner, but he said nothing.
A flick of a wand later, Sarah, Mr. Malfoy and Draco disappeared.
# # #
Hayley was lying on the grass with Gabriel and Robert, just staring at the clouds as they floated by. She blinked and shook her head when a cloud that was shaped like a castle floated by. The visions of that castle were becoming more and more frequent, as well as more vivid every single time she saw it. She was beginning to wonder if she should report it to somebody, when a large shadowy shape blocked her. The large shadowy shape was Sarah, and she was beaming.
"I got loads of stuff! If I hang out with the Malfoys for too long, they'll spoil me rotten!" she seemed genuinely pleased at the idea of being spoiled rotten, like it was some big treat.
"Sarah," Hayley groaned. "You're blocking my sun." Sarah, still grinning largely, settled down on the soft grass with the other four, put her arms behind her head and reclined.
The vision came for Hayley again. The large gray castle, looming over a brown, treeless moor, with rain and lightning falling down....The windows glowed with an eerie, evil purple sheen...The entire area reeked the foul stench of the Dark Arts....Thunder boomed....Wolves howled to the point that it was almost like a house in a scary movie. But, this wasn't a movie, it was real....
Hayley sat up with a start, shivering despite the sunshine outside. She noticed that the other four were doing the same thing. Now was the time to voice her worry. Hayley swallowed hard and spoke.
"You...you guys...didn't happen to...to...see...see anything....odd, did you?" she squeaked, not finding the right words for it. Gabriel, who was toying with a blade of grass, looked up.
"Does it have anything to do with a castle?" Hayley was leaning on her palms when Gabriel said this, and her elbows caved in on her. Sarah, who was clutching her broom like a doll, dropped it, and Robert went deathly pale.
"You've been seeing it too?" whispered Sarah. Even though there was nobody in the premises, she was afraid of someone listening in.
Hayley nodded. "Ever since the first day of class..." she said, remembering the dark castle she had seen in her potion. Robert looked up.
"I....I had a Tarot reading done on that, with Alex..." The three girls looked at each other with suprised shock in their eyes. Robert was so down to earth, that they never expected him to buy into that kind of stuff. He looked up.
"I got three pairs on it; The Quest, Gift of Magic, and...and Death. The cards told me that I was to go an an adventure, get a helpful gift along the way, and have some drastic change in my life....I don't know if it was true or not....Divination is so foggy and fakey...." he trailed off into nothing. Hayley shook her head.
"Divination is so imprecise, it could all just be a coincidence..." Sarah snorted, and Hayley braced herself for a lashing from Sarah's tongue.
"Yeah. Right. We've all been seeing big scary castles from the moment we've been here, we've all been seeing the castles at the same time, Robert gets this freaky message from some magical cards, and it's all a coincidence." Hayley winced at the sharpest edge of Sarah's tongue.
Gabriel propped her head up on her fists. "What we need is a more....more professional opinion," she said matter-of-factly. Robert looked over at her.
"Remember the day we got our wands? Didn't Dumbledore say something about the greatest Prophet of all time, Sybille Sandstone?"
There was silence for a few moments, until Hayley stood up, shaking her head vigorously.
"No. Nuh-uh. There is no way in heck," she protested feebly. Three pairs of eyes stared back at her balefully.
"Do you have any better ideas?" asked Robert, calmly. Hayley shook out her robes and with a sigh, plopped back onto the earth.
"But...but we don't even know where she lives. And this would cost money," she said, trying to stop this idea even before it started. Sarah shrugged.
"Well, Robert over there is the Human Dictionary, he could look it up for us," Sarah pointed out. Robert glared at her, but said nothing. To a certain degree, it was true.
"And I'm sure we could scrape up enough money somehow," Gabriel pointed out. "Isn't that Malfoy kid rich? Sarah could just mooch something off of him."
Hayley felt like she was being cornered. "But...but how will we get there?" The other three looked at each other.
"Those Weasley kids seem to know an awful lot about ways to sneak out of the school. I might be able to talk something off of them," Gabriel said. Hayley still looked worried. Robert sighed.
"Look, Hayley," he said, "do you want to spent the rest of the term - or the school year - having visions about a castle? If we do get caught, it's a month's detention, tops." Hayley stared. It was so unlike Robert to want to break rules that she almost started to laugh. But, even more than Robert was a good student, he hated things he didn't understand. This must be one of those times where the unknown triumphs over the common sense, Hayley thought bitterly.
"Oh, all right, " Hayley said reluctantly. "Where do we start?"
# # #
Inbetween cramming for the Transfiguration quiz that was tomorrow, Robert leafed through a volume about recent Prophets and Seers. It was very difficult, as there were so many lady prophets named Sybille, Sibil, Sibyl, Sybill, or Sibill, it wasn't funny. After leafing through five books without finding anything more than historical information on Sybille Sandstone, Robert began to get frustrated.
He slammed the last book shut, which sent up a cloud of dust, making him sneeze. Madam Pierce gave him a piercing stare over her spectacles, and went back to reading through a very large book with long spindling letters in another language.
Robert blushed and drummed his fingers on top of a book, wondering what to do next. That when the 'Restricted Section' caught his eye. He leaned forward. He knew for a fact that those books told about the location of some witches and wizards, but to get to them was a problem. You needed a note from a teacher.
Robert cursed under his breath. He didn't know how he was going to get a note from a teacher, unless he had a really good alibi. He didn't, and he wasn't a good liar in the first place. But, what about forgery?
He had always been good with a quill, and now was just the time to test those skills. Opening his bookbag, he took out the late pass he had gotten from Trelawney the week before. He was now glad he kept it. Looking at the very loopy script and nearly illegible signature, he sighed, and quietly took out parchment, ink and a quill.
Carefully unscrewing the lid on the ink, Robert wet the tip of the quill. Flexing his fingers, he carefully started to copy the writing.
I have given Robert Ravenclaw permission to check out the book titled:
Famous Witches, Wizards, and Their Locations
For an extra credit project.
Sybill Trelawney
It was sweet and short, to the point. The way Robert wanted it. He was positive of the book name, he had used it before, and the forgery was almost the exact same. But still...
Robert took out his eagle wand and pointed it at the parchment. "Conmistment!" he whispered. A bluish strand whipped out of the eagle's beak and dowsed the parchment. The edges crinkled in, the slight wavers in the loops vanished. 'Conmistment' was a forgery fixing spell that he had overheard from some Slytherin seventh year, and was thanking his lucky stars that he had his ears on sharp that day. Now the only matter was getting through the lie without screwing up. Smoothing out his robes, he stood up and swaggered over to Madam Pierce.
"Madam, I need a book from the Restricted Section," he said as tonelessly as possible. Pierce took the parchment into her hands and looked it over. Robert's knees felt like they were going to buckle in at any moment, and his ears were roaring with shame and nervousness.
"All right, this seems to be in order. Follow me," Madam Pierce walked briskly into the dark, almost unused Restricted Section. Robert sighed with relief.
Pierce led him through a couple of bookshelves before pulling out a large, leather-bound book with silver script on the front, in writing that Robert couldn't read. She blew on it, and the letters rearranged themselves into English. She handed it to him, and he quickly scuttled away from Madam Pierce's gazing stare.
In the safety of his seat, Robert flipped through the entire book until he found the page on Sybille Sandstone.
Sybille Sandstone
Said by many to be the greatest Seer of all time, she has
received many awards for predicting critical future events,
such as wars, global catrosphies, and plagues.
She also set up the first school for those gifted with the Inner
Eye: The Seminary for the Seeing enhanced.
Sybille now lives in a quaint cottage at the edge of the town
of Hogsmeade.
Hogsmeade? Robert blinked. But that was so close! Robert smiled. This might be easier than they thought it would be. He looked for a piece of parchment to copy it down onto, only to find that he had none left. Sighing miserably, he looked over at the yellowed page. He could just memorize it, but the girls would probably want to read it. Madam Pierce seemed to be otherwise occupied, so he took a deep breath and tore the page out of the book.
Shutting the book hurriedly, Robert gave the book back to Madame Pierce, thanked her, and basically left the library at a sprint.
# # #
Gabriel's part in all of this was to find a way out of the school, and she knew that she needed to find the Masters of Mischief to help her out; George and Fred Weasley. She found them in the Herbology hallway, strategically placing Dungbombs in various niches, so when Flitch walked down his patrol, they would all go off at once. Gabriel walked up.
"Fred, George, when are you ever going to grow up?" One of the twins - Gabriel thought it was George - turned away from his work long enough to flash her a boyish smile.
"Whenever Freddie over there does," he said before turning back to stuffing a bomb in a mousehole. Gabriel sighed and started.
"I need to find a way out of the school," she said, carefully choosing her words so they wouldn't get too suspicious or nosey. Both boys turned around at once.
"Really?" Fred asked, eyes dancing with amusement. "So Gryffindor has finally decided to drop the good-girl image. You've come to the right place, young Jedi," he finished, bowing comically. Gabriel rolled her eyes. Sarah had given the twins the spiel on Star Wars a couple of weeks ago, and now they were quite in an obsession with it. George sported a mock-serious look for a few seconds.
"You think we can trust her, Fred? I mean, the secret passages are top secret, you know," Gabriel knew that George didn't mean it, but she also knew that a little bribery didn't hurt things any. She stuck her hand in her pocket, and withdrew a small key ring that had three or four silvery metal poles on it. Twirling it around her finger, she spoke.
"These are muggle lockpicks. They're yours if you show me a passage," Fred squinted at the shiny lockpicks.
"What good will they do? We know all the unlocking charms invented, and you can just use a hairpin for the rest," he pointed out. Gabriel sighed.
"You can block locking charms, and hairpins take forever, I know from personal experience. These babies, on the other hand, only take a couple of seconds to use, and most wizards don't think of blocking muggle lockpicks. You can use them to get into Filch's 'Confiscated and Highly Dangerous' drawer, and if you play your cards right, he won't know the difference." Fred and George looked at each other, thinking on the glorious pranks they could pull off with the lockpick's help.
"You've got yourself a deal!" George said with a big smile on his face. Gabriel smiled back and tossed him the ring of picks. He and his twin looked them over excitedly for a couple of moments, before Fred looked up.
"Now, where were you looking to go with your passage?" he inquired. Gabriel sighed and thought. She didn't know where Sybille Sandstone lived yet, so she thought she would play it safe and go for something general.
"Nowhere in particular. Just out of the school would be nice," she said, as vaguely as possible. Fred and George bit their lips and looked at the ceiling for a couple of moments before speaking.
"What about the one on the second floor? That one just leads out of the castle, but, it's right in the way of Filch's midnight rounds though."
"The one under the tapestry is a nice one, but Flich knows about that one, I'm sure...." Gabriel waited impatiently until the two stopped thinking out loud. Then George snapped his fingers together.
"The one on the-"
"Fourth floor," Fred finished, eyes sparkling mischievously. He nodded at Gabriel. "Come on, Gabby." Gabriel followed the two red-heads up several flights of stairs, through a tapestry, and though a false wall to a small corridor that held some of the teacher's private offices and such in it. George turned to Fred.
"Stand guard, will ya, Fred?" Fred complied, and George started knocking his knuckles against the wall.
"The thing about this one," he muttered more to himself than to Gabriel or anyone else, "is that the location is so bloody obvious, that no one ever thought to look for it..." He trailed off, still tapping the glossy paneled wall. Finally, he hit upon one that sounded a little hollow. George put a fingernail along the edge of the panel, and slid it into the wall. Inside the one-panel thick hole was gaping darkness.
"Lumos," Gabriel said, waving her lion-head wand around. It lit up, and Gabriel peered into the darkness.
There was a short, two-foot long hallway that was as wide as the panel itself, but then it opened up into a small little room that was maybe three yards by three yards. Walking in a little bit, Gabriel saw that then there was a flight of stairs, made out of crumbling stone, that went up into more darkness.
"It's not very safe," George said from behind her, "but it goes out of the school, around to where the Quidditch field is." Gabriel nodded, and walked out.
"It's perfect. Thank you." Fred, back from his lookout, grinned and showed Gabriel the lockpicks.
"No, thank you," he said. With that, George put the panel back into place, and he and his twin left Gabriel in the hallway, squealing over the lockpicks. Gabriel sighed, and left to go find the others.
# # #
Hayley twirled a strand of her hair around her finger. She was so nervous she couldn't stand it. If they were caught doing this, than....Well, if that happened, she'd think about it then. Hayley and Sarah were in a small off-parlor in a little cubbyhole by the Front Hall. Hayley slid farther down on the victorian-style bench she was sitting on. It wasn't very comfortable in the first place, and besides the fact, she had been sitting on it for over an hour. Across a coffee table that was in the middle of the room sat Sarah, in a high backed chair, with her legs swung up over the armrests, picking at a loose thread. She looked positively angry.
Hayley smiled. Knowing the raven-haired girl as well as she did, she knew that Sarah hated sitting on the sidelines; just waiting. She was more of a person to rush headlong into things, without thinking, all for the action. Hayley, on the other hand was a more patient person, more willing to wait before she acted. In fact, Hayley would be perfectly content to forget the entire castle thing and live normally again. But, that wouldn't happen.
Sarah and Hayley perked up at the sound of pattering feet. A few seconds later, Robert came in, with a yellow sheet of paper clutched in his right hand. He had obviously been running, and he plopped in the seat next to Sarah with a heavy sigh.
Soon after that, Gabriel came striding in the room, at a more dignified pace than Robert had exhibited, but, still looked a bit flushed. She sat on the bench next to Hayley, and nobody said anything, until Sarah spoke.
"Did anybody find anything?" Robert nodded, and waved the hand with the parchment on it. Still keeling over from lack of breath, he handed it to Sarah, intending for her to read it. Sarah snatched it up and read, her lips moving along with the words. When she had finished, her face was quite pale.
"She lives in Hogsmeade?! But...but that's so....so close!" Hayley and Gabriel were obviously as shell-shocked as she was. Hayley swallowed, and spoke.
"Before we do anything...stupid, we need a way out of the school," she said calmly, her face turning rather gray. Gabriel cleared her throat.
"Done. I got a passage out of the Doublemint twins," she said, motioning her hands towards the Gryffindor common room. "It cost me a pretty penny, too. Those lockpicks were some of my best ones." Robert, who had caught his breath, looked up.
"What about money? I'm sure that Sybille doesn't run a charity." The foursome was silent for a moment, before Gabriel spoke up again.
"Hey, Sarah," she started. Sarah looked up, knowing what she was going to say before she even said it. "Doesn't that pretty-boy-blonde-head-butterfly-guy have a lot of money?" Gabriel asked. Sarah sighed, and shook her head.
"Yes. But I'm not going to go mooching for money," she finished stubbornly. Gabriel sighed and rubbed her temple.
"What would you say to taking it from him? He wouldn't know the difference."
Sarah was silent.
# # #
The next morning went as usual, as it always had for Draco Malfoy. He got up, got dressed, and got ready for breakfast as normal. His adopted butterfly, Sprite, flitted onto his shoulder, and they were going to go down to breakfast, when he noticed Sarah sitting in a chair. Over the last couple of months, Draco had really grown rather fond of the dark-haired girl and her sharp tongue. His father of course was another story, but for right now, he didn't have to deal with his father.
"Hello, Sarah. Good morning." Sarah seemed to start in her chair uncomfortably, Draco noticed. "Is something wrong?"
Sarah shook her head. "No. But I have a headache. Which reminds me, I've got some medicine in my bag. I'll be a little late for breakfast, if you don't mind." Draco nodded curtly.
"Of course not. See you in a while, then." He watched Sarah trudge up the stairs, not quite thinking of the fact that Sarah never carried any medicine on her. But he shrugged, supposed that it was none of his business, and left.
Up in the privacy in her room, Sarah withdrew the ring of lockpicks that Gabriel had given her last night. She felt so guilty for this.
"Some way to repay your friends, Sarah," she muttered to herself. "Stealing. You're some great, considerate person." When she was sure that nobody else was left, she tiptoed down the stairs.
As it was almost a half-hour into breakfast, the Slytherin common room was deserted, and she could only hope that the boy's dormitory was the same way. It was.
Looking through the beds, she was hoping to find something that could tell her which one was Draco's bed. She found it when she saw the trunk with the initials 'DM' on the front. Sighing miserably, she dropped to her knees in front of the trunk and withdrew her lockpicks.
Inserting two into the lock, she wriggled them around in the keyhole until it popped open. Opening the trunk, all she saw a first was a mess of unfolded black robes. Grimacing, she gingerly started to pull out the garments until they were all in a heap on her left side. What was left now was a book, a piece of parchment, a few small purple velvet sacks, and what looked like a slip of white paper. Curious, she picked up the slip of paper.
It was a very old, creased black-and-white photo of a young man and a baby looking merrily up at them. Both were smiling. Both were waving. Sarah could only assume that this was Draco and Lucius, so she put it back. Then the piece of parchment caught her eye. She was about to read it, when she stopped.
"Sarah Slytherin," she chided herself. "You have no right to invade his private things. It's terrible enough that you're going to steal his money." The prospect of stealing Draco's money was bad enough in the first place when she was just thinking about it. It was worse saying it out loud.
Picking up one of the velvet bags, she opened it and found a small fortune in Sickles, Knuts, and Galleons. Taking it, which she stuffed into the inner pocket of her robe, she hurriedly threw everything back in, and locked the lock.
Feeling like a full-time criminal, she looked morosely at the trunk. She noticed that the picture had fallen out. She started to put it back in, but then she had an inspiration.
"Savuier Marader," she whispered, tapping the picture. The creases smoothed out, the picture was no longer so blurry. Feeling a tad bit better, she tossed the picture on the bed and went back downstairs.
# # #
Robert picked at his food nervously, looking at the Slytherin table. The seat normally occupied by Sarah was still vacant. With the Quidditch game tomorrow, emotions were running very high, most of them with eminity towards the Slytherins. Robert couldn't figure out for the life of him why. In his opinion, it was quite stupid to hate someone just because they were in another house, or over a rivalry between two men that had died about a thousand years ago.
"Robert? Earth to Robert? Do you read me?" It was Alex, and he was worried. Ever since his Tarot card reading, Robert had not been acting like Robert. He had been more distant, misty-like. But now he jolted back to his living senses.
"Huh? I'm fine." In reality, he really wasn't fine, he was jittery, nervous and sweaty, but he thought better than worrying Alex about it.
Sarah entered the hall, as quietly as she could, but it was so bloody loud in there, that she could have entered banging pots and pans and nobody would have done so much as wink an eyebrow.
Gabriel noticed her entrance and motioned her over. Sarah came over, reluctantly so. When she got there, several of the Gryffindors glared at her for being a Slytherin (and for that matter, a Slytherin on the Quidditch team), and having the gusto to approach the table at that date and time. They kept on glaring, until Sarah made them stop.
"What?! I know I'm beautiful, but take a picture, cause it'll last longer!" The Gryffindors stopped staring, and Gabriel grabbed her friend's sleeve.
"Well?" she whispered. Sarah sighed and gave Gabriel back her lockpicks.
"I got the cash," she said miserably. "We need to get the rest of the Peanut Gallery over here so we can talk about it," she said, meaning Hayley and Robert. Gabriel sighed.
"Well, today's Sunday, so I have Transfigurations, you have Astrology, I know Robert has Arithmancy, and I believe that Hayley has Herbology. I have Quidditch practice from 3:00 to 4:30, and from that, don't you have Quidditch practice today too?" she asked. Sarah sighed and rubbed the back of her neck.
"From 5:00 till 6:30, and then dinner is at 7:00..." Sarah swore, making several of the Gryffindors glare at her again, but Sarah paid them no heed. "And it'll probably be another hour before we finish eating and get to the Cubby." The Cubby was their nickname for the small parlor that they always met in. Gabriel sighed and calculated quickly in her head.
"So, it'll probably be around 8:00 before anything goes anywhere," Gabriel finished sighing. The rest of the table, who was downwind of the conversation, looked up. None of them had any idea about what was going on between their Quidditch 'Keeper and the Slytherin Beater, but it interested them nevertheless.
"Shall we go tell the Human Dictionary and Hayley?" asked Sarah, using her favorite nickname for Robert and his brains. Gabriel nodded.
"Yes." They went off to the other tables, leaving the Gryffindors suspicious and a little afraid about what the two were planning.
# # #
Hayley sighed, snapping off dead twigs of a Bringola Iris, which had a lot of pollen in it and made Hayley sneeze. Rosemary offered her a handkerchief, which Hayley took gratefully.
"You know, you sound like you're allergic to this," Rosemary pointed out. I could finish it if you want." Hayley blew her nose, wiped her watering eyes and shook her head.
"I'll be fine," she said with a very stuffy sounding voice. "There's not that much left anyway." Rosemary shrugged and pulled off a dead leaf. She lowered her voice to an excited whisper, and spoke.
"It's my birthday the day after tomorrow, and my parents got me a present. They told me to share it with you," she said with a sly tilt to her voice.
"Rosie, you know you don't have to do that," Hayley said, using her pet name for Rosemary and blushing a bit. Rosemary started to clear some dirt away from the tender roots of the plant before answering.
"I know I don't but I want to." Making sure that Sprout was nowhere in sight, she reached into her pocket and extracted a tiny jar, about the size that lip balm was found in, and flipped it to Hayley. Hayley snuck a glance at it.
It was filled with a white, semi-solid, gel-type matter, and had little sparkling dots in it, that looked a lot like finely ground gold. Hayley unscrewed the lid and took a smell, getting her nostrils filled with a burning scent that made her eyes water worse than they already were. Rosemary snorted with laughter, her pink eyes showing her glee.
"You smell the Oclocka root. It's Invisibility cream. Very expensive, and very hard to make. But, we get all the ingredients for free off of our farm, and nothing's too hard for my parents to make," she finished, swelling with pride. Hayley grinned. Rosemary's family was a great source of pride for her, and she planned on taking over the potion business when she got older.
"So, how do you use it?" Hayley asked, putting the jar safely in her pocket. Rosemary sighed, putting mulch in the pot of the plant.
"You just take a smidgen of it and smear it on your nose. There's not a lot in there, but it'll last a while. It's a lot of fun, and when you're done with it, you just wipe it off," she said, smiling. Hayley smiled back, knowing what help the cream would be.
# # #
Tick-tock. Tick tock. Robert watched the clock as it's second hand slowly swiveled around its face. Professor Victor droned on and on, but it just wasn't penetrating Robert's skull for some reason. He looked at his notes.
Arithmancy was evolved from the early types of muggle math, but was perfected and magicked by Simion the Smart......
His words started trip trotting all over the page and were nearly illegible by the end of it. He noticed that all of the other students were starting to copy something down, so Robert scribbled a line down on his paper, so he wouldn't look suspicious. A part of him was dismayed: he was probably missing something really important, and would be paying for it on some test.
Robert kindly told that part of him to shut up. He didn't care. There were more important things to worry about than not getting 100 percent on a test for once.
He was so shocked that his subconscious thought of that, that his elbow slipped off of the table. Luckily, nobody noticed, and Robert regained his cool composure.
Letting his thoughts wander, he remembered his Tarot spread, and the Death card. Didn't that card mean that a great change was coming? Was this the change that he didn't care about his grades as much anymore? It was too confusing. So, he just looked at Professor Victor and listened to him babble.
# # #
WHOOSH. That was the sound of the Quaffel as it whistled by Gabriel's head. But, the aim was off, and it hit the side of the goalpost instead of going in the net. Katie Bell swooped down to get the red ball, Alicia Spinnet swerved by.
"Come on, Goalie! You need to be more alert to be able to stop the Slytherins tomorrow!" Gabriel gasped in spite of herself. The game! In all of the research due to finding out the dirt on Sybille Sandstone, she had almost forgotten. Harry sidled up to her, while the rest of the team was going off for a water break.
"Are you okay, Gabriel? You look ill." In fact, Gabriel didn't feel too great. She needed sleep, she was nervous, and she had a terrible headache. But she couldn't tell Harry that.
"I'm fine. 'Just a 'lil out of the swing of things, that's all," she said with a smile. Harry didn't seem convinced in the least, but to Gabriel's great relief, he didn't press it any further.
Gabriel landed in front of the water table, where she was promptly squirted in the back with a water bottle by George Weasley. She squealed with mock anger and grabbed another water bottle and squirted it back at him. Pretty soon, the Gryffindor table was engaged in a huge water fight, and for a few minutes, Gabriel forgot her troubles, and just enjoyed getting soaked.
# # #
Sarah sat in the Slytherin locker room, with her hands over her eyes. It was at the end of practice, and after a couple of weeks of Quidditch, she knew better than to look around, lest she wanted to see a bunch of half-naked boys running around. It would be different if they were good looking half-naked boys, but after getting an eyeful of Marcus Flint wearing nothing but a towel....she decided that it was better off if she spared her eyes the agony of it all. Fifteen minutes later, she felt a tap on her shoulder.
It was Draco Malfoy. "We're all dressed, you know. You don't have to hide anymore." Sarah cracked her fingers open and looked around. Everyone was indeed dressed, and filtering into the small meeting room, where Flint was to give them a 'peptalk', otherwise known as yelling at the team until he was purple in the face. Draco got up.
"I don't see what you're so embarrassed about," he grumbled. "It's not like we get totally dressed in here." Sarah turned around and surveyed him with a critical eye.
"Get some muscle on ya, grow about a foot, get a nice tan, and then we'll talk." She turned and walked in the room. Draco stood there for a couple of seconds, not quite knowing what she meant by that. Then, all of a sudden, it came to him. He blushed a furious red.
"That wasn't what I meant!" he yelled after her as he went into the meeting room.
# # #
The chicken potpie was delicious, but Robert couldn't bring himself around to swallow. He was still outrageously nervous, for some stupid reason, and he started to play with his napkin ring. Luckily for him, Alex didn't say anything, as he was getting tired of being asked how he was. It really was getting old. Forgetting his potpie, he downed an entire glass of milk in three gulps, poured another, and finished that one off as quickly as the last one.
Setting down his glass, he caught Gabriel's eye. She quickly nodded to him before turning back to the person that she was talking to. Robert took that to mean that the meeting at the Cubby was still on. He sighed as his dinner vanished from his plate and was replaced with a large bowl of rice pudding. Robert loved rice pudding, but he just wasn't hungry. Alex, on the other hand, was shoveling down the pudding as fast as he could get it on his spoon. Robert watched this with disdain and picked up the cinnamon.
The next thing he knew was Alex prodding him in the arm. "You like cinnamon a lot, Robert?" Robert started and looked down, and saw that he must have zoned out while sprinkling the cinnamon, and now there was a nice large mound on cinnamon on the white-yellow pudding. Looking at it, Robert felt quite green and shoved the pudding away. Instead, he grabbed an orange and began carefully peeling the skin down.
The pudding vanished, and people started swarming out of the Great Hall. Alex looked down at Robert as he stood up.
"There's a Gobstone tournament tonight. Wanna come?" Robert liked Gobstones, but he remembered the meeting with the girls that he had, and shook his head.
"Nah. I'll be back later, kay?" Alex knew better than to protest, so he just nodded and left. Robert watched him leave, and then got up slowly.
# # #
"So, we've got money, the passage, the location, the invisibility cream," Hayley said, ticking the things off on her fingers as she spoke. "I think we're set to go. When should we set out?" she asked. Gabriel sighed and reclined in her chair, totally unexpeting Robert's sudden answer.
"I think we should go tonight," he said abruptly. All three girls sat up quickly. Even Sarah was startled. Robert looked up. "I saw that castle three times today, and I can't wait any longer. We won't be able to go down tomorrow, because of that Quidditch game." Gabriel took a deep breath.
"Well then. I'll see you guys tonight at say, midnight?" Everyone else nodded.
# # #
Sarah drummed her fingers nervously on the edge of the couch. Her friend, Essex, was talking about something excitedly, but Sarah didn't care. She needed it to be midnight, right now. While Essex went on babbling, Sarah felt her pockets, to make sure she had everything.
"Wand, cream, money..." she said to herself. Essex looked at her.
"Are you okay, Sarah?"
"Hmmmm? I'm fine. Go on." Essex went on talking. Sarah looked at the clock. It read ten-thirty. Sarah sighed impatiently and Essex talked on.
# # #
Hayley's hands shook with nervousness as she roused from her bed, staggered into a bathrobe, and smeared some of Rosemary's invisibility cream on her nose and took out her wand.
As soon as she wiped some of the cream on her nose, an odd tingling feeling swept through her body, like it was falling asleep. When the feeling stopped, Hayley turned to look in the mirror that was in the room. There was nothing there. Sighing heavily, and wishing the entire time that she didn't have to do this, Hayley Hufflepuff left her dormitory.
# # #
Gabriel was the first one that had made it down to the Cubby, because most of the house had gone to bed early. Gabriel sat down in one of the chairs and waited with a heavy sigh.
Ten minutes later, she saw something of a shimmering gold color that was walking down the hall. She was about to scream, but shoved her fist in her mouth instead, hoping that it would block the noise. Gripping her wand, she ducked in a corner.
The golden figure walked into the Cubby, and sighed. Gabriel roused her courage and took a peek. When she did, he nearly screamed again. It was a transparent, gold-outlined vision of Sarah. Everything was perfect about Sarah's body shape, her normally black curly hair was now a golden color, and it fell down to gold-outlined shoulders. Sarah turned around at that moment and stared.
"Gabriel?" she asked, sounding a bit timid for once. Gabriel stood up all the way and nodded.
"Yep. You brought the money, right?" Sarah nodded back, and withdrew the purple velvet bag. But the bag was no longer purple; it was a transparent mass, outlined in the golden shimmer, with a golden rope. That was when Robert came in.
Like his counterparts, he was clear, outlined in gold. He sighed and scratched the back of his head with a gold-outlined hand.
"I think we can see each other, but nobody else can. I saw Hayley tiptoeing around, and I think she saw me, and I also saw Filch, but he didn't see me." The other two girls nodded, and at that moment, Hayley came in. She nodded nervously to everyone.
"Let's get on with it then."
Gabriel motioned for the other three to follow her. They did so, through the tapestries, the not solid wall, and up the flights of stairs that Gabriel had been led up earlier. Finally, when they reached the place where the secret room was, Gabriel put her finger to her lips and started tapping the paneled wall.
When she came across the hollow one, she inserted her fingernail and slid the well-waxed panel back into the wall. Her three friends scuttled in the hole, and Gabriel followed and closed it. When they were all in, four sets of lungs exhaled a silent sigh of relief. Then they all reached for their wands.
"Lumos," they all said, as quietly as possible. Four wands lit up, throwing ghostly shadows over the bare stone walls. They all began tiptoeing up the crumbled staircase, which was a task in itself, to navigate over which stairs were safe to put their weight on, and which not to. Finally, the walkway leveled out, and they were able to walk normally again. After about five minutes of walking, the foursome started to run down the stone corridor, trying to buy some more time.
They came to a door at the end of the hallway, and Gabriel motioned for them to stop. She cracked the door open.
They were, indeed, by the Quidditch field, as Fred and George had suggested. Gabriel poked her head out, to make sure nobody was around, and then carefully walked out. Sarah, Hayley and Robert did the same.
"Where to now?" whispered Hayley, knees knocking together, and teeth chattering from nervousness. Gabriel was about to say that she didn't know, when the broom house was. She pointed over there.
"To the broom house. We can fly over there." Sarah seemed to accept the idea willingly, but Robert and Hayley were reluctant to go.
"No," Robert said flatly. "I can't fly." Sarah threw her hands up in the air in exasperation.
"Then what do you suggest to do, Mr. All-Knowing? Walk? That could take over an hour!" Robert shrank back, but Hayley still shook her head.
"I don't like heights." Sarah made a face and was about to retort, when Gabriel put a hand on her shoulder.
"No, let them. They can walk, and all this research on their part can be wasted. Sarah and I will go find Sybille and report what happens." Robert opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off by one of Sarah's infamous glares. But then her look softened a bit.
"It's not hard. As long as you can sit and use your arms, you can fly."
Meanwhile, while Sarah was guiding Robert and Hayley through the finer aspects of flying, Gabriel had plodded over the broom shack, where all the school brooms were kept. She frowned as she realized that the lock shimmered faintly in the darkness; it was spelled against students breaking in with magical spells. But was it spelled against lockpicks?
After her escapade through the school a few times, Gabriel had resolved to always carry lockpicks on her, since there were so many locked niches in the school that were inaccessible by wands alone. Carefully choosing two picks, she inserted them into the lock. There was a fizzing sound, and Gabriel removed the lockpicks just as the smell of melting metal met her nose. She swore, but then heard Robert's voice.
"It's a heat spell, it is. But, I can put a freezing spell on those picks of yours, and they should be able to stand up long enough to the heat for you to pick it open," he said with a sigh, and Gabriel knew that he was still against flying over to Hogsmeade. She nodded, and he took out his wand.
"Frigid Quemos," he whispered, tapping to two locks that Gabriel held in her hand. All of a sudden, a cold so cold it burned met Gabriel's fingertips. Biting her lip, she quickly picked the lock open. Of course, the lock was now so mangled that it would probably never lock again, and one of her lockpicks had melted beyond repair, but Gabriel didn't care. She grabbed three brooms for her friends, and one for herself. She watched in awe as Sarah gently instructed Hayley on how to take off.
If she wasn't so hot-tempered, thought Gabriel, she'd be a pretty good teacher for a subject such as....Potions. When Hayley and Robert had straddled their brooms, Sarah instructed them to jump, and they did so. The magic of the brooms caught them, and they were flying towards Hogsmeade. Even Robert had to grudgingly admit that flying was fun. But about five minutes later, they were over the town of Hogsmeade, and they dismounted.
As Robert hid the brooms under a pile of leaves, Sarah looked about the sleeping town.
"So, Robert, where does she live?" Robert looked around, and shrugged, his ghostly golden form blurring to Sarah's tired eyes.
"I don't know. It only said that she was in Hogsmeade." Sarah's eyes nearly bulged out of her head, and she just barely controlled the overly harsh reaction of slapping him. Sarah didn't have a very sweet temper to begin with, but when she was deprived of sleep, it was even worse. Hayley saw her friend taking deep, calming breaths, and knew that she was trying really hard from spraying them all with her acidic words. She patted Sarah on the back.
"Just calm down Sarah, we'll find her." Sarah glared at her, but couldn't put as much steely fire into her eyes that she normally could, since she was so tired.
While the other three were conversing, Gabriel looked around, and saw a figure, swathed in rags, huddled in front of a dark building. From here, Gabriel could see the red-hot ash and translucent smoke of muggle cigarettes. She pointed this out to her counterparts.
"See that person over there? D'you think that maybe she, or he, could tell us where Sybille Sandstone lives?" she asked. Sarah shrugged.
"I have no idea. But I'm not going to ask her. You go on, Miss Gryffindor, queen of all who is brave. Hayley's got the patience, Robert the brains, and I the slyness. You've got the courage. Go on." Robert and Hayley nodded, and Gabriel reddened at the ears, when she heard Sarah using the typical stereotypes of the houses. She grumbled.
"Oh all right, you cowards." She started to walk up to the figure, but heard Hayley's soft voice behind her.
"Gabby, you've got to wipe the cream off, or she won't be able to see you." she said in a demure voice. Gabriel picked up her sleeve and drug it across her nose. She felt an odd coldness where the cream used to be, and she felt more solid; as sign that she had come back to the visible state. Taking a deep breath, she walked up to the figure.
As soon as she was in a five-foot radius of the person, Gabriel's nose started to detect the acid smells of cigarette smoke, grease, urine and other unsavory things. Her eyes watered, but forced herself to keep on walking. She finally got in front of the person, who still paid her no heed. Gabriel cleared her throat.
"Excuse me, but I'm looking for the residence of Sybille Sandstone. Could you direct me in the right direction?" The figure looked up, and Gabriel swallowed.
The face was scarred and blistered, and the person had one eye without a pupil - it was just white. The lips of the person were thin and almost yellowish, and when the figure leered a smile, most of the teeth were missing, and the ones that he or she did have were very yellow and crooked, and there were black pockets under the gums. The figure flicked its cigarette, sending a red ash onto the pavement.
"Ain' it a wee bit late out for a youn' missy like yehself to be wandrin' the streets alone?" The voice was so raspy and scratchy that Gabriel still had no clue as to the sex of the person. The figure took a deep inhale of the cigarette and blew the smoke into Gabriel's face. Gabriel coughed and tried to wave it away.
"Yes, but I have a late-night appointment with her, and I need directions, please," she said as politely as she could. The figure hacked, and Gabriel backed up a step.
"I don' kno' wha'd yeh be wantin' wi' one o' them prophet people, buh she live' a' the end o' South streeh'. Don' kno' how yeh missed it." Gabriel nodded, and stuck her hand in her pocket, where it found a Sickle. She flipped it to the person, and nodded.
"Thank you." The figure picked up the silver coin and bit into it with its gums, and then put it in its pocket.
"Yeh're welcome." The figure took another inhale of its cigarette and put its head back down into its rags. Gabriel took that as a sign to leave.
"Well?" asked Sarah impatiently when Gabriel returned. Gabriel shook her head and shrugged at the same time.
"He told me that she lived on the end of South Street, though I have no idea where that is," she said with a yawn. The other three wiped the invisibility cream off their noses.
Using the street signs as a guide, the foursome wandered the residential part of Hogsmeade, looking for Sybille's house. Finally, they thought they found it. Robert went up the stairs of the cottage and rapped on the door curtly. There was some rustling inside the house, and Sybille Sandstone appeared.
She had gray hair with a black streak, that was done up into a tight bun. She wore gold-rimmed glasses that sat on top of a long nose the color of sand. Behind them was a pair of amber eyes that blinked sleepily. Despite the time of night, she was clad in a forest green robe, with an elaborately embroidered blue sash that was tied at the bottom with a gold tassel. She looked down at the children.
"I had a vision that you were coming, about your castle," came her sedate voice. "But, my children, it is so late! My Inner Eye will be clouded by the everlasting Sleep!" None of them had any idea of what she meant, but Sarah decided it was time to employ her trump card. Reaching into her night robes, she withdrew the purple bag of money and tossed it to Sybille.
"Maybe that will cure some of your everlasting Sleep," she said, snarling a bit. Sarah had been arisen from her bed, had told a bunch of people lies, called in every favor she ever had to get this far....And she wasn't going to be sent back by some everlasting Sleep. Sybille fingered the moneybag, and nodded.
"Very well, young Slytherin, as I see you are so determined. Come on in, my children, so we can get reacquainted with your Inner Eye!" Eyebrows raised, the foursome followed her in the cottage.
It only had one room, with a pallet on the floor in one corner, and a stove in the other. The walls were painted a pale pink color, and there were several kinds of brightly colored silk tapestries hanging from the walls and ceiling. Bookcases piled high with books, tarot cards, crystal balls, teacups, and all other sorts of things covered almost all other surfaces. A large, round table sat in the midst of it all, a large tapestry serving as a tablecloth. There was a door in the back, but it was closed. Sybille sorted through the shelves and took out a couple of boxes, a large silver goblet, a bottle of something yellow, and a small pouch off. She picked up a candle.
"Come, my children," she beckoned. Robert, Gabriel, Sarah, and Hayley obeyed, and they followed her out the door to the back.
They were in a small, fenced in yard with a single dirt path that wound through a couple of gardens, but lead to a small shack. Sybille beckoned them to the shack.
The shack had a rough, round table around it, and the table had been sawed down, so it was at kneeling height. There were pillows on the ground, and the children took them. Sybille put the candle in the center of the table, and situated herself at the other end from the foursome.
"There will be some serious magic going on here tonight," she said in a voice that sent shivers up Robert's spine. "Please don't be afraid or scream," she said, looking at Hayley. "The neighbors wouldn't like it." Hayley wanted to scream right now, but bit on the feeling.
Sybille picked up the goblet and put it on the table. She then poured the contents of the bottle into it, and took up the black pouch that she had picked up. It was a small, crooked, ivory handled dagger, which was studded with jewels. She grabbed for Robert's hand, and he yanked it back.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked, eyes darting from Sybille to the knife to the exit of the shack. Sybille heaved a big sigh and adjusted her glasses.
"My dear, in order to do advanced Divination, you need sacred oil and blood. I've provided the oil, and you must provide the blood." Robert noticed that Hayley went a little ashen at hat remark - she hated blood. Robert gritted his teeth and held out his palm.
Sybille slit his skin from the bottom of his palm to the tip of his middle finger. It was a very shallow cut, so it didn't hurt much, but it bled quite a bit. Robert waited while Sybille did the other girls. Hayley didn't scream, she just whimpered a little bit as the knife bit into her skin. Then Sybille gouged her own flesh, calmly explaining what to do next.
"Now, put some of your blood into the goblet, young ones, and we shall begin," she said, as if this wasn't out of the ordinary. Robert held his hand over the goblet and let some blood roll off of his fingers and into the goblet. The girls did the same. As soon as Hayley's drops of blood hit the oil, it began to smoke.
There was a colorful explosion, and Robert bit his lip just in time to avoid screaming. When he opened his eyes again, there was colorful fire in the goblet, and white streamers streaking though the air. Robert had seen impressive magic in his time, but nothing like this. When the spectacle was over, Robert looked at himself. He was glowing blue! The girls were glowing too, only for Hayley it was a sedate yellow, Sarah an earthy green, and Gabriel a fiery red. Sybille herself was white.
"The glow is your essence - the stuff that makes Hayley Hufflepuff Hayley Hufflepuff, Robert Ravenclaw Robert Ravenclaw, and so on. Most people's essence is white. Yours is colored because you must have an angel's hand on you, showing you The Way." Sarah shuddered, thinking about some dead person with its hand on her.
Sybille proceeded to take out another box, this one with incense. She lit a stick, and instantly, the little house was filled with the smoky scent of beachwood. She took out the last box, which had some Tarot cards in it. But these were different than the ones that Robert had used in the Divination tower. They were more elongated, and not as generic. Sybille spread them out on the table.
"Choose one card, each of you. You will know which is right for you, as it will stand out." Hayley grimaced and looked at the cards. One of them started to glow a bright yellow, and Hayley supposed that that was what Sybille meant by standing out. So she picked it and waited for the others to do so. When they had all chosen, Sybille picked one out, and they sat in silence for a moment, before Sybille spoke again.
"The cards you chose describe you and your paths. The card I chose represents your castle." Hayley took a deep breath and looked at the others; this was what they had been waiting for. Sybille reached for Hayley's card and turned it over. It was a picture of a small child, laughing and playing. Sybille summed up the card and cleared her throat.
"You," she said looking at Hayley squarely, "Are Innocent. The world of the Innocent is the most wondrous place on earth. The Innocent are carefree, kind, and understanding. But the Innocent can also be taken advantage of, or be trodden upon, by those with cruel hearts or ambitions. But you are also the bearer of much patience and common sense. Sometimes, the Innocent can see the situation clearer than those that are burdened with information," she finished, looking at Hayley. Hayley was confused, but thought that somehow, it might have made a little bit of sense. Sybille turned to Gabriel, and she turned the card over. It had what looked like a woman stringing an arrow on it.
"You are the Wild Woman. A Wild Woman is calm, alert, brave, and trustworthy. She is connected to the world in thousands of ways. While you, Wild Woman, take risks, you carefully observe what you do, and what you think the outcome of the risks will be. But maybe you spend too much of your time clamped up inside. Express your feelings, or you are a Slave in your own world. Open up to your possibilities, Wild Woman. You have more potential than you think, or others know," Sybille finished. Gabriel bit the inside of her cheek. A Wild Woman? She didn't think that she was like that at all. But maybe it did describe her, a little. Sybille had turned to Robert, and his card had a man in a dark green cloak, holding a staff.
"You, my dear Robert, are the Sage. The knowledge of the Sage does not come through book learning, but from personal experience. You may not be a Sage yet, my young one, but, in time it will. You are sober, smart, and gentle, but have a tendency to be critical or cold towards others that were not blessed with the wisdom that you, as the Sage, have. But though those people may not have the knowledge of the world, as you Perceive it, they are Sages in their own rights, and you should not snuff, or abandon them. You have great capacity, and you take things as they come. I See great things for you, Robert," she turned towards Sarah, leaving Robert to his very confused thoughts. Sybille flipped over Sarah's card, which had a picture of a farmer that was lying by a pile of straw, sleeping. Sybille smiled.
"You, miss, are the Queen of Not Doing. You like to abandon your Reality for a while, and just sit and enjoy the Present. You hate being tied down, and will fight a rigorous schedule with all you have, and more. You enjoy doing things just for the sheer pleasure of it, for no profit or reward. But Not Doing can mean that you are hiding from Reality, and that can just end up making you irritable and snappish. Not Doing is one of the finest aspects of life, but doing it excessively can mean you are just hiding behind a mask; shirking your true problems." Sarah looked at Sybille, not quite knowing what she meant. But Sybille had just turned to the last card, and flipped it over.
It was a blank card. The foursome stared at it, and Sybille smiled at them. "This is the Naguel, the unknown. It is the untamed, unpredictable part of this world, the Unexplainable. It is always unseen and rarely sensed. It may be an Omen, or other signs of strange happenings. But no matter what, it always means that the winds of change are blowing. Proceed with caution with your castle, my young friends. Things are NOT what they seem to be." If the foursome was waiting for more, it was not forthcoming. Sarah stared at the blank card.
"That's it!?" she asked, pounding the table with a sleepy fist. "That's all!? We already knew that it was the unknown! That's why we came here, so it wouldn't be unknown anymore!" she yawned. Sybille smiled at her.
"Go to sleep, my friends. Just sleep." Sarah shut her eyes, and knew no more.
# # #
"Wake up, Hayley!" Hayley Hufflepuff groaned and turned over. It couldn't be morning, it couldn't be. "Come on Hayley! We're gonna be late!" Hayley opened her eyes and they met Rosemary's pink eyes, and she shook her again. "You're finally up! Get dressed. I'll be downstairs." And with that, she left.
Hayley stood up and cracked her back as she did so. Gripping the bedpost, she groaned again and hobbled over to her trunk. She had had a funny dream, and it was bothering her. Was it a dream, though? Had she actually gone to go see Sybille Sandstone, or was it just a big dream? But it had seemed so real...How could she tell what was fake and what wasn't? Grunting, she heaved the top of the chest up and picked out a cleanly pressed black robe and slid it over her head. She reached out her hand to get her brush, when she noticed something. She had a small scab running from the tip of her finger to the bottom of her palm. For a few seconds, she stared at it, absorbing what the small mark meant.
It meant that they really had gone to see Sybille Sandstone, and that they had broken about fifty school rules into pieces in the process. It meant that she was Innocent, Robert a Sage, Gabriel a Wild Woman, and Sarah the Queen of Not Doing. It meant that the Unknown was at work, and that they were no closer to solving the mystery of the dark castle then before.
Hayley had to lean back on her heels to absorb it all properly. Feeling strange, she shook her head and went downstairs, in a sort of delirium.
# # #
The day passed in a haze for Sarah, as she went through the motions of the day. It was a bright, clear day, but Sarah thought that the sun was mocking her, and she hated it. She had never wanted cloud cover and rain so badly before, even if the Quidditch game was tonight....The Quidditch game. Sarah groaned, and put her head in her hands. She was in no mood to go flying in the air and go whacking at flying Bludgers. She had a monstrous headache, all of her joints felt like they were rusty and needed to be oiled, her bones creaked, her muscles ached, and she felt like she had just run a mile-long gauntlet.
But, on the other hand, she couldn't just not play her first game. Sure, there were two Beaters, and she could always be replaced, but then the Gryffindors would just think that she was wimping out, and didn't want to play, and besides, her pride wouldn't allow not being competitive because she felt lousy. Besides, Marcus Flint would probably haul off and yell in her ear for another hour, and she didn't think that her ears could take anymore noise.
Sarah just sighed and looked out the window.
# # #
Gabriel changed into her crimson Quidditch robes with a groan. She was worried that she wouldn't play very well today, she didn't feel good, and her mind was on dark castles and Divination, not Quidditch. Fred and George Weasley were giving a very funny peptalk, but Gabriel wasn't hearing it. She was hearing the crack of lightning around the castle, she was hearing the sound of Tarot cards turning over, and the sound of the Unknown doing it's cycle, but she wasn't hearing a pre-game peptalk. Finally, it was over. The Gryffindors huddled for a group cheer, and Gabriel put her hand in the groups pile of hands, and they began to chant the Gryffindor team cheer, but Gabriel didn't join in. She wanted to be somewhere else, but not here.
# # #
Hayley and Robert were sitting in the stands, next to some friends of Gabriel, whose names were Ron and Hermione. They were standing on the bleachers in front of them, and Hayley and Robert couldn't see anything, so they were obliged to stand also. Finally, after much announcing and gibbering done by Lee Jordan, the two teams came out onto the field. Hayley put her head in her hands for a brief moment. She really was in no mood for competition at this moment, but thought better of suggesting to leave. After the captains shook hands, they mounted brooms and took off. Hayley winced along with the crowd when Sarah hit a bludger into Katie Bell's stomach, and cheered when Gabriel made a save. They seemed to be showing no sign of the strain that Hayley felt, but, inside, she was sure that they were.
Halftime came and went, and it was a very close game. 50-45, Gryffindor, the score was. The teams took the field again after a short break, and now the eyes were all looking for the glint of gold that was the Snitch. Slytherin scored, and it was now 50-55.
Then the moment everyone was waiting for: the Snitch's appearance. Harry and Draco vaulted for it at the same time, but Harry's broom was on the inside track, giving him the edge. He went faster and faster, arm stretched out, he was 10 feet...9 feet....8...7...6..5..4..3....2......1....
WHAM! A bludger hit him in the back of the head, making his face fly forward and hit the handle of the broom. He staggered, and the Snitch disappeared again. The Slytherin section of the crowd cheered, while the Gryffindors booed.
"Great shot, Sarah!" boomed Draco as he whizzed by on his Cloudburst. Sarah nodded, and was about to go chasing after another Bludger, when she heard a voice from the crowd.
"Is he all right?" Sarah whipped around, and saw that Harry Potter was weaving about on his broom. The hit with the Bludger must have knocked him off balance. He started to slip off.
Feeling responsible, Sarah maneuvered her broom back, and grabbed the back of his robe as he fell off. The weight of his mass almost jerked Sarah off her broom. In fact, it did. Hanging onto her broom with her right arm, and gripping the back of Harry's shirt, she hung there, swaying, while the crowd and other players watched, horrorstruck.
"HELP ME, YOU FOOLS!!" cried Sarah, red in the face. "I'M GOING TO FALL OFF AND GET KILLED IF SOMEONE DOESN'T H-E-L-P M-E!!" At this request, George Weasley came over and picked up Harry, while Draco assisted Sarah back onto her broom. Harry staggered back to his balance point, and stared. Gabriel came over and stared. Sarah was about to say something, probably to tell everybody to stop gawking so she could play, but before she could do that, something odd happened.
Black lightning split the sky. After it had disappeared, the castle came back to the awareness of Hayley, Robert, Sarah and Gabriel, but more vivid that ever. They could feel the dampness of the air...Hayley screamed....There was some maniac laughter.....Robert screamed....There was high winds....Gabriel clutched her head and let out an unearthly shriek....It was cold and hot at the same time...Sarah whimpered and then screamed....Colors started mixing, twirling, whirling, making the four sick, and then all dissolved into nothing.
Draco reached out and caught Sarah before she toppled off of her broom, while Harry struggled with Gabriel's weight. Ron had caught Hayley before she smashed her head on the bleachers, and Robert had fallen into Hermione's arms unintentionally. They all looked at the fainted individuals in bewilderment, but then saw a very blurry - like a badly taken photograph - image of the castle that the foursome had been seeing since the beginning of the year.
White-hot pain seared up through their arms, and they screamed also. Black magic entwined their bodies, and they blacked out also.
There was another crack of black lightning, and when it cleared, everybody, Hayley, Robert, Sarah, Gabriel, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco - were all gone.
Authors Note: That was long. Have you ever got the feeling where you're just typing and typing and typing and not getting *ANYWHERE*!?!?! I'm so sorry, you guys, but I didn't even get to the castle. This installment was already 24 pages long as it is....-_-. I SHOULD be getting to the castle in the next part....Well, anyway, just review. Did you like the second Tarot card reading? I hope so. It was very fun to write!
~Moxie ^_^
Disclaimer: I don't own any character that is in the series of Harry Potter. I own all the characters that are not in Harry Potter. It's that simple. (I don't know WHY I have to write this....Does anyone ever actually claim to own Harry Potter? Besides J.K. Rowling, that is....^_~)