Chapter Sixteen
The Ties Begin to Bind
"This is too big for us now. Bring in everyone that knows what's going on - Hermione, Ron, Rosalind, you know." Visilio sighed as Harry ran out of the room, then opened his desk, brought out a wooden box, went to the fireplace, and tossed in Long-Distance Floo Powder. "Jimmy Patursa, Columbia Academy! This is an emergency!"
A few seconds later, Patursa appeared in the fire, his sandy hair askew and a half-eaten sandwich in his hand. "What's wrong?"
Visilio pointed at Llewellyn, who was sitting at a desk. Her face was drawn and grim, and she would not look up. "Llewellyn has been withholding information from us. She has been having dreams that indicate a very specific location. Harry found these papers in the fireplace." Visilio handed the fragile sheets to Patursa gingerly.
"What are these words referring to?" he asked, scanning over the legible sections.
"You're going to have to ask her," replied Visilio, pointing at the haggard form at the desk.
Just then, Harry returned with the three other Gryffindors, all of them a little out of breath.
"Llewellyn, I'm going to ask you each word I can read, and I want you to answer me truthfully and entirely. All right?" Patursa requested very tenderly.
"Okay," she whispered. Harry and the others took a seat.
"'Rebirth'?"
"The rebirth of You-Know-Who. His reanimation. His return to power."
"'Under ground'."
"Where the dreams took place. In an underground tunnel or passageway."
"'Bloody'."
"My eyes after the last time I had the dream."
"Are you okay?" interrupted Visilio. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"I wasn't hurt. I was just bloody."
"Give me a second, Matt. 'Damned book'?"
"'The Handbook of Modern Dark Magic.' A book we used in Visilio's class for research. I think it has something to do with everything that's happened."
"Where is it now?" asked Harry.
"I don't know. When I decided to bring it back to the library, I couldn't find it anywhere. It must still be in the dorm"
"I haven't seen it," said Hermione, and Rosalind agreed.
Patursa persisted. "Llewellyn, what's 'Ohio'?"
She sighed. "The Great Serpent Mound."
Visilio and Patursa looked at each other and then back at the students. "What's that?"
"It's a monument made by very early American wizards and witches," answered Hermione. "Located in the Ohio River Valley, it's a mysterious earth work constructed in the 1st century Before the Common Era. It's so old that the Muggles and even the wizarding world have forgotten what it was originally built for. It is in the shape of a coiled and bent snake shaped around an egg."
"How do you know this, Hermione?" asked Patursa.
"Do you know how many hours I spent just memorizing everything in 'A History of Magic' for the O.W.L.'s?"
"Don't ask her," said Ron. "She actually calculated the time."
"Eggs symbolize rebirth," added Rosalind.
Harry was looking at the fireplace, with half of his mind on the conversation, and the other half deep in thought. Then, it seemed like another light had went on in his mind.
"Does anyone else realize what this means?" he said suddenly.
The professors looked at each other and the students were perplexed.
"Llewellyn dreams of an underground tunnel," he explained. "Such as one located in this Great Serpent Mound, right? The mound is in America, and nobody knows its purpose, so nobody knows what's inside it. It's a symbol of renewal, with the egg, right? What's with the snake, then? It can only mean one thing."
"You're not telling me that -" Hermione said quickly after a moment passed.
"Yes, I am." He paused for effect.
"We know where Voldemort is."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ashwinders!" shrieked Llewellyn. Everyone looked towards the fireplace to see three grey snakes with glowing red eyes crawling out of the still- burning blue fire. They were searching for a place to lay their eggs, which were so hot they could set a whole house on fire. Hogwarts was built of stone, of course, still, Visilio would not want his office reduced to cinders. He took out his wand, but Harry stopped him.
"Let me do it," said Harry. He told the snakes to go back into the fire in Parseltongue, and they quickly turned around and returned to the flames. Visilio then extinguished the fire.
"I forgot you were a Parselmouth," said the professor. He thought for a second. "Do you sometimes wish you weren't?"
"Not really," Harry admitted. "But, it can get kind of scary sometimes, especially when the 'Handbook' snake talks to me."
The professors looked at him in shock. "What?" cried Patursa.
Harry realized they didn't know about the book's powers.
"I...have some of my own explaining to do," he said, and he took a seat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The students didn't get back to the Common Room until much, much later that night. Visilio signed a pass for them, in case McGonagall was feeling vindictive, claiming that they stayed for a whole lot of extra help in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but they met no one in the halls.
As a result of that meeting, several very important things were discussed. It was decided that the Great Serpent Mound of the Ohio River Valley was related in some way to the Dark Lord, and was very likely his headquarters in America. It was also decided that the professors would go to the International Wizard Confederacy at the end of the school year after they did some more research on the possibility of Voldemort being in America. Finally, it was decided that the students involved should not do anything more in the hunt for Voldemort, save for the girls to search through their dorm to find that 'Handbook of Modern Dark Magic'.
As it seemed at first, the students now had a huge load off their backs. However, each was determined in their own personal ways not to let the Dark Lord escape from America, and they all defeated him with a different method in their minds. Llewellyn was still as withdrawn as she was before the O.W.L.'s, but she didn't look like she was about to drop dead, like before Harry had discovered the papers in the fireplace.
What the elder students had told Harry came true, and even though they felt like they had the weight of the world on their shoulders, June was a lot of fun for Harry's crowd. Harry, Cho, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Ginny, Rosalind, Lawrence, Draco, and Llewellyn would all hang out together in Hogsmeade every weekend. The others, on what was discovered that fateful Friday night, informed Cho, Neville, Ginny, and Draco, being more or less sketchy on the details.
Someone else who was informed about the revelations was Sirius. Harry wrote a very confusing letter to him, practically in code, to send by Hedwig. He hoped that Sirius would read between the lines (in fact, Harry considered writing there in invisible ink, but decided it was too risky) and get the gist of what was going on.
One thing that all the students looked forward to, whether they were fifth-years who had taken the O.W.L.'s, seventh-years who had taken the N.E.W.T.'s, or any other year who looked forward to end-of-the-year exams, was the final dance. Taking place on the Saturday after finals, the weekend before they left, it would be the last night out for many couples who lived far away from each other.
That Thursday, when most of the students were broiling their brains out over their fourth day of exams, the Gryffindor fifth-years were located in the Common Room. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Llewellyn, and Rosalind were talking quietly about the whole sticky situation they had gotten involved in.
"Patursa has had his ear to the ground, so to speak," Hermione was saying, "He told Visilio that there have been a numerous amount of people who have gone missing in the Ohio River Valley in the past few months, but of course, people disappear all the time."
"Were they Muggles or wizards?" asked Harry.
"I don't know," she replied.
"It shouldn't matter," said Neville suddenly, uncharacteristically firm. He was usually quiet and unpretentious whenever the group discussed the subject.
"Well, I know that -" began Harry exasperatedly.
"What are the professors doing about the missing people?" Neville countered, still unyielding. "Have they done anything to stop You-Know-Who? Have they informed anyone other than us on what we've been figuring out?"
"I...I don't think so," ventured Hermione. "I think they have to wait before they start pointing fingers and trying to put two and two together to make a hundred. This is, after all, a pretty wild thing to suggest -"
"Yeah, and they said that when Harry and Dumbledore told us all that You-Know-Who was back, and we know he is, right?" Neville had a fierce gleam in his eyes, which looked out of place in his usually fretful, round face. "So, what do you guys want to do, huh? Sit back and watch the evidence and innocent victims pile up until the so-called authorities finally figure out what's going on? So we can say, 'Oh, yeah, we knew that was going to happen'?"
He swallowed a lump in his throat and continued. "Can any of you look me straight in the eye and say that you're just going to let You-Know-Who take over again? Tell me, all of you, that you won't be affected if he comes back to power. Which one of you is going to be the one that says he or she will take a backseat to the killings and the tyranny, just so you can't get in trouble for being wrong?" He lowered his voice to a nearly soundless whisper, but they caught his every word.
"Who would you rather be, the one who slightly dulls their reputation because they followed a false, yet plausible, lead, or the one who completely ruins it by not acting when the time to act arrives? This, my friends, is the time to act."
The Ties Begin to Bind
"This is too big for us now. Bring in everyone that knows what's going on - Hermione, Ron, Rosalind, you know." Visilio sighed as Harry ran out of the room, then opened his desk, brought out a wooden box, went to the fireplace, and tossed in Long-Distance Floo Powder. "Jimmy Patursa, Columbia Academy! This is an emergency!"
A few seconds later, Patursa appeared in the fire, his sandy hair askew and a half-eaten sandwich in his hand. "What's wrong?"
Visilio pointed at Llewellyn, who was sitting at a desk. Her face was drawn and grim, and she would not look up. "Llewellyn has been withholding information from us. She has been having dreams that indicate a very specific location. Harry found these papers in the fireplace." Visilio handed the fragile sheets to Patursa gingerly.
"What are these words referring to?" he asked, scanning over the legible sections.
"You're going to have to ask her," replied Visilio, pointing at the haggard form at the desk.
Just then, Harry returned with the three other Gryffindors, all of them a little out of breath.
"Llewellyn, I'm going to ask you each word I can read, and I want you to answer me truthfully and entirely. All right?" Patursa requested very tenderly.
"Okay," she whispered. Harry and the others took a seat.
"'Rebirth'?"
"The rebirth of You-Know-Who. His reanimation. His return to power."
"'Under ground'."
"Where the dreams took place. In an underground tunnel or passageway."
"'Bloody'."
"My eyes after the last time I had the dream."
"Are you okay?" interrupted Visilio. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"I wasn't hurt. I was just bloody."
"Give me a second, Matt. 'Damned book'?"
"'The Handbook of Modern Dark Magic.' A book we used in Visilio's class for research. I think it has something to do with everything that's happened."
"Where is it now?" asked Harry.
"I don't know. When I decided to bring it back to the library, I couldn't find it anywhere. It must still be in the dorm"
"I haven't seen it," said Hermione, and Rosalind agreed.
Patursa persisted. "Llewellyn, what's 'Ohio'?"
She sighed. "The Great Serpent Mound."
Visilio and Patursa looked at each other and then back at the students. "What's that?"
"It's a monument made by very early American wizards and witches," answered Hermione. "Located in the Ohio River Valley, it's a mysterious earth work constructed in the 1st century Before the Common Era. It's so old that the Muggles and even the wizarding world have forgotten what it was originally built for. It is in the shape of a coiled and bent snake shaped around an egg."
"How do you know this, Hermione?" asked Patursa.
"Do you know how many hours I spent just memorizing everything in 'A History of Magic' for the O.W.L.'s?"
"Don't ask her," said Ron. "She actually calculated the time."
"Eggs symbolize rebirth," added Rosalind.
Harry was looking at the fireplace, with half of his mind on the conversation, and the other half deep in thought. Then, it seemed like another light had went on in his mind.
"Does anyone else realize what this means?" he said suddenly.
The professors looked at each other and the students were perplexed.
"Llewellyn dreams of an underground tunnel," he explained. "Such as one located in this Great Serpent Mound, right? The mound is in America, and nobody knows its purpose, so nobody knows what's inside it. It's a symbol of renewal, with the egg, right? What's with the snake, then? It can only mean one thing."
"You're not telling me that -" Hermione said quickly after a moment passed.
"Yes, I am." He paused for effect.
"We know where Voldemort is."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ashwinders!" shrieked Llewellyn. Everyone looked towards the fireplace to see three grey snakes with glowing red eyes crawling out of the still- burning blue fire. They were searching for a place to lay their eggs, which were so hot they could set a whole house on fire. Hogwarts was built of stone, of course, still, Visilio would not want his office reduced to cinders. He took out his wand, but Harry stopped him.
"Let me do it," said Harry. He told the snakes to go back into the fire in Parseltongue, and they quickly turned around and returned to the flames. Visilio then extinguished the fire.
"I forgot you were a Parselmouth," said the professor. He thought for a second. "Do you sometimes wish you weren't?"
"Not really," Harry admitted. "But, it can get kind of scary sometimes, especially when the 'Handbook' snake talks to me."
The professors looked at him in shock. "What?" cried Patursa.
Harry realized they didn't know about the book's powers.
"I...have some of my own explaining to do," he said, and he took a seat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The students didn't get back to the Common Room until much, much later that night. Visilio signed a pass for them, in case McGonagall was feeling vindictive, claiming that they stayed for a whole lot of extra help in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but they met no one in the halls.
As a result of that meeting, several very important things were discussed. It was decided that the Great Serpent Mound of the Ohio River Valley was related in some way to the Dark Lord, and was very likely his headquarters in America. It was also decided that the professors would go to the International Wizard Confederacy at the end of the school year after they did some more research on the possibility of Voldemort being in America. Finally, it was decided that the students involved should not do anything more in the hunt for Voldemort, save for the girls to search through their dorm to find that 'Handbook of Modern Dark Magic'.
As it seemed at first, the students now had a huge load off their backs. However, each was determined in their own personal ways not to let the Dark Lord escape from America, and they all defeated him with a different method in their minds. Llewellyn was still as withdrawn as she was before the O.W.L.'s, but she didn't look like she was about to drop dead, like before Harry had discovered the papers in the fireplace.
What the elder students had told Harry came true, and even though they felt like they had the weight of the world on their shoulders, June was a lot of fun for Harry's crowd. Harry, Cho, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Ginny, Rosalind, Lawrence, Draco, and Llewellyn would all hang out together in Hogsmeade every weekend. The others, on what was discovered that fateful Friday night, informed Cho, Neville, Ginny, and Draco, being more or less sketchy on the details.
Someone else who was informed about the revelations was Sirius. Harry wrote a very confusing letter to him, practically in code, to send by Hedwig. He hoped that Sirius would read between the lines (in fact, Harry considered writing there in invisible ink, but decided it was too risky) and get the gist of what was going on.
One thing that all the students looked forward to, whether they were fifth-years who had taken the O.W.L.'s, seventh-years who had taken the N.E.W.T.'s, or any other year who looked forward to end-of-the-year exams, was the final dance. Taking place on the Saturday after finals, the weekend before they left, it would be the last night out for many couples who lived far away from each other.
That Thursday, when most of the students were broiling their brains out over their fourth day of exams, the Gryffindor fifth-years were located in the Common Room. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Llewellyn, and Rosalind were talking quietly about the whole sticky situation they had gotten involved in.
"Patursa has had his ear to the ground, so to speak," Hermione was saying, "He told Visilio that there have been a numerous amount of people who have gone missing in the Ohio River Valley in the past few months, but of course, people disappear all the time."
"Were they Muggles or wizards?" asked Harry.
"I don't know," she replied.
"It shouldn't matter," said Neville suddenly, uncharacteristically firm. He was usually quiet and unpretentious whenever the group discussed the subject.
"Well, I know that -" began Harry exasperatedly.
"What are the professors doing about the missing people?" Neville countered, still unyielding. "Have they done anything to stop You-Know-Who? Have they informed anyone other than us on what we've been figuring out?"
"I...I don't think so," ventured Hermione. "I think they have to wait before they start pointing fingers and trying to put two and two together to make a hundred. This is, after all, a pretty wild thing to suggest -"
"Yeah, and they said that when Harry and Dumbledore told us all that You-Know-Who was back, and we know he is, right?" Neville had a fierce gleam in his eyes, which looked out of place in his usually fretful, round face. "So, what do you guys want to do, huh? Sit back and watch the evidence and innocent victims pile up until the so-called authorities finally figure out what's going on? So we can say, 'Oh, yeah, we knew that was going to happen'?"
He swallowed a lump in his throat and continued. "Can any of you look me straight in the eye and say that you're just going to let You-Know-Who take over again? Tell me, all of you, that you won't be affected if he comes back to power. Which one of you is going to be the one that says he or she will take a backseat to the killings and the tyranny, just so you can't get in trouble for being wrong?" He lowered his voice to a nearly soundless whisper, but they caught his every word.
"Who would you rather be, the one who slightly dulls their reputation because they followed a false, yet plausible, lead, or the one who completely ruins it by not acting when the time to act arrives? This, my friends, is the time to act."