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Chapter 16: The Golden Serpent
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"Estrella brillente."
"They are the most beautiful," said the Fat Lady, smiling as her portrait swung aside, revealing to Adrienne the massive entrance into Gryffindor Tower.
Adrienne made her way through the crowded room, bits and pieces of conversations pounding through her head. She scanned the room for Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but figured they were probably still in the library. Adrienne stopped in her tracks, deciding whether she should go down and find them. She again began making her way towards the spiral staircase, deciding that she'd see them tomorrow.
"Hey Adrienne, we have Transfiguration tomorrow, why don't you sit in the back, away from everyone else, that way we'll be safe," called Parvati as Adrienne walked by the exotic looking girl. Parvati laughed shrilly and leaned over to speak with Lavender, their eyes flitting towards Adrienne.
Adrienne cast them a sarcastic smile and made her way up the stairs. She paused at the top and looked back down over the crowded common room; this was the first time she'd seen any of them since the dueling tournament, and not one had wished her congratulations. Not one had told her she did a good job.
"I still think Harry did the best; sure, the new girl did some fancy stuff," came a voice behind her.
"Well, I'm glad we won, whether she broke the tie or not," came another.
Adrienne stood still, straining to hear. The voices grew closer.
"We could have won without her, we don't need some American storming into our school with her dueling title to win for Gryffindor."
"What kind of spell did she do anyway?" the other girl asked after a quick second.
"Who knows; she was probably just showing off. I mean, I heard she can't even do basic transfiguration: She once messed up and transfigured McGonagall. And then look at the Quidditch match; she had to go and fall off her broom. I bet it was just for attention."
The voices were directly behind Adrienne now, but Adrienne still didn't move. Two girls walked past her and began to descend the stairs, not so much as glancing at Adrienne, completely involved in their conversation. As they rounded the curve Adrienne finally saw their faces.
"I don't think she fell on purpose, Monica," said the nicer of the two, a red head, "Ron likes her anyway."
"Ginny, I don't care. Something about her seems off."
Adrienne turned and headed for her dormitory, casting a last glance down the hallway before she entered. The dormitory was empty, the curtains open, and the moonlight casting a shadow onto the shiny, newly washed floor. Adrienne walked over to the window and looked up into the dark night sky.
She was alone, alone in a school that somehow felt like her home, but not. The entire Gryffindor common room was full of people who thought she was trying to take the attention away from Harry Potter. To most of them, she was the American girl who had come to prove her superiority.
"Ridiculous," Adrienne muttered.
She was the girl who broke the dueling tie, but yet she couldn't master transfiguration. Adrienne walked over to the tall mirror on the west wall. She stared at herself for several minutes. Her black hair was a little longer than her shoulders now. Her green eyes shone dim in the light; no sparkle danced across them. Her ivory skin looked pale white in the moonlight. She reached up and touched her finger to the mirror, watching her reflection follow her hand. Adrienne shook her head dejectedly; she had a very bad feeling. Her hand slid several inches down the mirror, almost as if it had moved itself. Adrienne slowly looked back into the mirror, lowering her hand.
In the moonlight, her reflection stared back at her; the same reflection she had always known, but, adorning the mirror now was the faint, but still evident smudge of her finger: The trace of a lightening bolt, right where her forehead was reflected. Adrienne stared into the mirror, her mouth slightly open. Ever so slowly, she raised her hands to her hair. She carefully started pulling back strands, making a very sloppy bun at the top of her head, letting choppy strands fall from it, making her look like if she had a very shaggy boy's haircut. Adrienne stared back into the mirror, strands of her hair hanging sloppily around her face. She blinked, her eyes resting on her reflected forehead.
"Merlin," she murmured.
* * * * *
"Adrienne?"
Adrienne didn't move. She lay quietly behind her closed drawings, her school robes still on, her makeup still covering her face, her wand still in her pocket.
"Adrienne, you awake?" asked Hermione quietly.
Adrienne didn't answer. Hermione didn't call again, but Adrienne could hear her opening her beside cabinet, no doubt to pull out a pair of pajamas. The muffled shuffle of feet and chatter soon filled the room as the rest of Adrienne's roommates entered.
"Shhhh, Adrienne's asleep," said Hermione in a loud whisper.
"Miss America, eh?" asked Parvati loudly, hoping Adrienne would hear.
"And what do you mean by that, Parvati?" asked Hermione, her voice rising slightly. Adrienne pulled her robes around her tightly.
"She thinks she's so great. She won the dueling tournament. She made all those goals at the Quidditch match. It's all about her," replied Lavender's distinct airy voice.
"What are you talking about?" asked Hermione sharply.
"Adrienne thinks she's better than all of us. She even said that she didn't need the rest of the Gryffindor team; she said that she could defeat anyone here at dueling," said Parvati smugly.
"And where did you hear that?"
"Draco. He heard her saying . . ."
"Draco! As in Draco Malfoy? What are you thinking; he hates all Gryffindors. He's just angry that Slytherin lost; he's lying. You're willing to believe a Slytherin?" asked Hermione exasperatedly. There was silence for a second and then,
"That's not the point. Look at her in Transfiguration, she's horrible," responded Lavender. Adrienne heard Hermione drop her bag onto the ground.
"You are just angry because Friday she told you Divination was a huge conspiracy and you were all quacks for buying into it," defended Hermione.
Adrienne lay in bed silently. So, that was what this new Anti-Adrienne campaign was about. First, she offended Parvati and Lavender by discrediting Divination. Secondly, she made poor Draco mad. Adrienne rolled her eyes.
"So what if I can't do Transfiguration," she muttered, rolling over, "Who needs it anyway?"
* * * * *
Adrienne woke up at her normal time the next morning. She crawled out of bed, shaking her head upon realizing that she had never taken off her school robes. She pulled them over her head and reached under her bed to pull out a crumpled pair of running pants and a top. She sat back on her bed, slipped on a shoe, and stared out the window as she laced it. The sun hadn't begun to rise, but this didn't bother Adrienne: She liked running in the dark. She found it the best way to think, and she needed to think now.
Adrienne quietly pulled out her trunk, lifted the lid, and rummaged for her Firebolt. She pulled it out, accidentally letting it slam shut. She winced, looking around fervently to see if she woke anyone up. She hadn't. Adrienne walked towards the window and opened it, breathing in the fresh, cold air. She climbed onto the sill, her broom in her hand, and jumped. Adrienne fell, the air whipping her hair straight up, the windows of the floors rushing by her. She pulled herself onto her broom, flew the remainder of the distance to the ground, and landed quietly. She looked around to make sure no one saw her, then carefully hid her broom behind a bush next to the castle wall. Adrienne had taken to always exiting and entering the castle through the window when she went running, so she could avoid the possibility of running into Filch or Mrs. Norris. Adrienne pulled her right leg up behind her, stretching, and shivering slightly.
"I forgot my gloves again!" she moaned as she took off, her feet first moving slowly and then more rapidly, one after another, her eyes straight ahead. She followed the perimeter of the grounds, losing herself in her effort, in her stride. Faster and faster she ran, her breath becoming ragged, her heart pounding inside of her chest.
Adrienne shook her head, her thoughts drifting back to the conversations from the previous day. What was Dumbledore thinking? Did he actually think she could perform a blocking charm that didn't exist? And where did he get the idea that Professor Hartel had been teaching her to work spells without the incantations.
"Only Perfects can do that, he should know that," she told herself, quickening her pace.
Now half the Gryffindors believed that she had a superiority complex. So perhaps she wasn't thrilled at Professor McGonagall being her dueling coach. Perhaps she wasn't thrilled at being a co-Captain even though she had more experience. However, she didn't place herself at a superior level. Sure she could do things others couldn't, but others could do things she could never do. She could never play seeker. She could never ever be a real seer, nor would she ever become an animagi.
"Ha! Me an animagi ?" she whispered to herself between her rapid breaths, "That would be a disaster." Adrienne's mind slipped back to her inability to do Transfiguration.
"Remember Adrienne, focus. Your mishaps are from lack of focus, and only you can change that." That was what Professor Hartel had said. Adrienne stopped dead in her tracks, leaning over to catch her breath. Professor Hartel believed in her. Professor Glenn believed in her. Adrienne slowly straightened, a smile breaking onto her face.
"They'll be surprised when they see me this Christmas," she whispered, vowing to figure out a way to fix her Transfiguration problem. "They won't know me."
* * * * *
"Please take your seats right away; you will need the entire hour for this exam," said Professor McGonagall as the Gryffindors and Slytherins filed into the Transfiguration classroom. Groans sprang up through the class. Adrienne followed Ron towards the table that Hermione and Harry had claimed. Parvati and Lavender walked past them, their heads held high.
"New divination technique? The higher the air you breathe, the smarter you get?" asked Adrienne calmly. "If you were that worried about the exam, maybe you should have studied, or do you already know what's on this exam, oh Goddesses of the Future?"
Lavender and Parvati shot her an evil look and took seats in the back saying loudly, "I think it would be best if we did this exam in France, Professor, I think we'll be safe from Adrienne there."
Professor McGonagall looked at them, her lips thinning and her eyes narrowing, and the smirks melted right off of Lavender's and Parvati's faces. Adrienne leaned back in her chair smiling, 'stupid frauds.'
"For your exam you are to transfigure the object I have written on your scroll," said Professor McGonagall, and with a flick of her wand, rolled scrolls appeared in front of each student.
"Now, none of these transfigurations can be done right away. You will have to do several to get the desired result; begin now, and no discussion, or I'll give you a zero."
Adrienne slowly pulled out her wand and set it next to her scroll. She looked down, and closed her eyes, concentrating. What to concentrate on? That was a problem, and after a minute or so, Adrienne decided to concentrate on picturing the transfiguration actually happening, because if she could do it in her mind, she might actually be able to do it for real.
Professor McGonagall sat at her desk quietly, a pile of parchment in her hands. She watched with amusement as Hermione Granger flew through transfigurations left and right, finally, finishing and placing her finished product, a sapphire, at the edge of her table. McGonagall turned her attention to Harry next to her, who had one eyebrow raised and his head cocked, as if he were finding the weakest point of his scroll, which he was supposed to transfigure into a yellow and pink spotted beetle.
In the back, Parvati had her hands raised in the air, her fingertips touching, and she was silently chanting something; Lavender was doing the same. Professor McGonagall rolled her eyes, 'do those two girls have to consult their inner eye before doing every single transfiguration?'
McGonagall turned her attention to Draco, who was hunched over his paper, his eyes sweeping the room, no doubt trying to see how the other students were doing their exam. McGonagall almost laughed, almost; hadn't he realized yet that there was no possible way to cheat on a Transfiguration exam?
She turned her eyes back to the right side of the room, to Adrienne, who was still sitting silently, her eyes shut, her face relaxed, her wand lying on the table next to her still unopened scroll. McGonagall adjusted her glasses to see Adrienne better, dearly hoping that Adrienne wouldn't mess up again. She shuddered remembering her brief stint as a newt, 'thank goodness Miss Granger knew what to do, or I could have been like that for a while.'
'I can do this,' Adrienne told herself. She opened her eyes, and reached for her scroll, unrolling it, her hands trembling slightly. In Professor McGonagall's clean handwriting were the words, "porcelain china plate with a checkerboard pattern of blue and pink."
"Great," she muttered, picking up her wand. She couldn't just transfigure her parchment. They had been studying Step Transfiguration, Transfiguration that consists of multiple steps to get from one object to another.
"The first step," Adrienne whispered, gripping her wand tightly, "get checks, hmm, how about a checkerboard." Adrienne raised her wand, 'focus now,' she reminded herself. She shut her eyes, picturing an image of checkerboard and flicked her wand. She waited a few seconds and then opened one eye, and then the other, staring in disbelief. There in front of her was a checkerboard, a perfect checkerboard. No slime, no newts, no quicksand, no smoke, no anything... just a checkerboard.
Adrienne pointed her wand at the center of the board, 'next, blue and pick colors.' She shut her eyes, restoring the image of the checkerboard in her mind, and changing the black to a light blue and the red to a light pink, flicking her wand for a second time. This time she opened her eyes after great hesitation, not believing that she would be able to pull of two uneventful transfigurations in a row. The fact that no one had screamed and no loud bangs had accompanied the flicking of her wand, prompted her to slowly opened her eyes. In front of her was now a blue and pink checkerboard.
Professor McGonagall sat at her desk, shocked, her wand hanging limply in her hand; she didn't think she'd need it this time, Adrienne actually had things under control. She watched as Adrienne closed her eyes for a third time. A look of hesitation streaked across Adrienne's face, but then, as Professor McGonagall leaned forward in anticipation, Adrienne's wand-hand flicked again, and a blue and pink checked porcelain plate appeared. Professor McGonagall reached across her desk for her grade book, found the name Miles, now followed by the name added in pencil (Potter) and wrote - 100%.
* * * * *
"I can't believe I did that you guys!" exclaimed Adrienne as she, Ron, Hermione, and Harry sat around their usual table in the back of the Gryffindor common room.
"I can't believe it either," replied Harry softly.
Adrienne threw a crumpled piece of parchment at him. "You shut up. You're only jealous that you've never transfigured such a gorgeous plate before," she replied her eyes narrowed in a playful way.
Harry glared at her. "Right, like I need to transfigure a plate when I can transfigure a beetle that looks like it walked under a painter's easel?" he shot back, lobbing the parchment back at her.
"All right, you are acting like children," interrupted Hermione.
"Yeah, you fight like brother and sister," added Ron, looking up from his Potions essay. Professor Snape had assigned them a very nasty essay on the uses of Yeltsrup Plants in sleeping potions. Harry smiled at Ron's remark, raising his eyebrows.
"Maybe we are, Ron," he said jokingly. Adrienne stopped smiling quickly and looked down. She looked back up at Harry who winked at her. She stared at him for a second, remembering her image in the mirror the previous night and the Sorting Hat: 'Do you know who you are?'
"Is something the matter?" asked Hermione, reading the quick change in Adrienne's expression. Adrienne looked at her, breaking into a large smile, raising her eyes to the ceiling.
"No, what could possibly be the matter? I just got my first perfect score on a Transfiguration exam!" she responded, hoping that she sounded convincing. She must have because Hermione smiled her congratulations and turned back to her essay.
Silence slowly fell over the common room as, one by one, students made their way to their dormitories. By midnight only Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Adrienne were left.
"It's different when it's so quiet," said Adrienne as she put her finishing touches on her Potions essay.
"It's better when it's quiet," answered Hermione, who had just finished her essay also.
"It's so serene," sighed Adrienne.
Ron looked at her and rolled his eyes "Why do girls always like it quiet; I like it noisy!" he said and Hermione shook her head, smiled, and pulled her curly hair back into a pony-tail.
TAP. TAP. TAP.
The group looked around the various windows to see who would be delivering post this late. A few windows down, a white owl fluttered in the growing wind.
"Hedwig?" exclaimed Harry, squinting and jumping up to let his beloved owl in. It was indeed Hedwig, a very wet and wind tousled Hedwig.
"What are you doing here?" asked Harry as he opened the window.
She flew in, and Harry, with great effort, pushed the window shut. He shook his head to get some of the rain out of his hair as he made his way back to the table. Hedwig was sitting in front of his desk, looking very bedraggled.
"Who sent me a letter?" he asked, reaching for the parchment attached to her leg. Once he unhooked it, he slowly unrolled it and began reading.
"It's from… Snuffles," he said right away. Adrienne looked up, intrigued, but no further information was provided into the identity of the sender.
"What does he say?" asked Hermione, worry flying across her face.
Dear Harry,
I'm sorry I haven't written in so long, but as you know I have been on errands for Professor Dumbledore. Thanks for all the letters from America. I'm glad you loved the Gallows, that was your mother's favorite place. She'd go there all the time to shop; I think James got a little sick of it after a while. Well, I don't have much I can tell you, but some odd things have been happening.
You haven't by any chance heard that the Golden Serpent disappeared, did you? That has the Ministry in a right flap, but Fudge won't accept that Voldemort took it - all evidence points to him. I'm not quite sure about the significance of this; Dumbledore knows more than he is telling me.
I just wanted to tell you that I'm going to be in the area for quite a while, so we can talk then. Keep your eyes out for old Snuffles, and remember food. Food is good. Congratulations on your dueling win, and say hi to Ron and Hermione. Keep safe,
Snuffles
"What's the Golden Serpent?" asked Ron right after Harry finished reading. Harry looked up quickly.
"Oh, I found a book about that in the library yesterday. There's some kind of legend about it. It was made by some kind of wizard called a Perfect," Harry explained, folding up the letter.
"A Perfect?" asked Ron.
"They were a small sect of very powerful ancient wizards who could do magic without a wand. The Perfect Art was the original art of magic. What we practice isn't as powerful and it's known as modern magic. The Perfects practiced ancient magic, and the last one died over three thousand years ago," said Hermione causally as if this was common knowledge.
"Oh," was all Ron said.
"And this Perfect was the last one, so, he placed all the Perfect knowledge - because like we learn magic, the Perfects had to learn how to use their powers - into a pendent that was shaped as a Golden Serpent. The legend is, when a true Perfect wears it, all the knowledge of the Perfect Arts will be transferred to the wearer. But, if someone who isn't a Perfect puts it on, and places his hands against those of the Perfect, all the knowledge will be transferred to the wearer of the necklace," continued Harry.
"So," prompted Ron.
"So, if the other person were evil, and a very powerful wizard, he could learn the Perfect Art and use the power for evil instead of good. Perfects who practiced ancient dark magic were known as dark Accabadians," answered Adrienne.
"So basically, this Golden Serpent holds the only way for a Perfect to access all their powers?" asked Ron.
"Basically," replied Harry.
"Why would You-Know-Who want it?" asked Adrienne quietly.
"Well, if he could get the Perfect to allow him access to the information, he'd be more powerful than anyone. He'd be undefeatable. Not even the Perfect would stand a chance against him because the Perfect would never learn how to correctly use his powers," said Hermione, her face screwn up in thought.
"So You-Know-Who must think that there is a Perfect in existence today," mused Ron.
Hermione nodded. "But that would mean the Perfect would have to consent to allowing him access to the information, and I don't think anyone except his Death Eaters would want to help him."
Harry's mind flipped back to the graveyard from last year. He shuddered at the thought of Voldemort getting even more stronger. Voldemort had risen through the help of him, Harry; he hadn't wanted to help, but he hadn't had a choice. Harry looked around the table.
"Knowing Voldemort, the Perfect won't have a choice."
This comment was met with silence. Hermione shifted uncomfortably in her chair and Ron looked down. Adrienne didn't move, she just sat there shivering.