Chapter 4: The Chalice Of Ezryon
Harry was lying back on his mattress, staring at the ceiling and thinking about the incident at the ministry when Hermione came into the room. She was wearing her pink pyjamas and brushing her wet hair having just finished taking a shower.
"You send the reply?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah," Harry replied continuing to stare upwards.
"You told them that I'd be coming too didn't you?" Hermione asked, placing her brush on the desk and sitting down on her bed.
"Yeah," Harry replied distractedly. Hermione sighed.
"This is really bugging you isn't it? This thing with Lucrid."
"I know I shouldn't be worrying but... well, there's something just not right about it."
"Well Harry, there's nothing much I can say. I think you should just forget about it... It's not your problem." Hermione moved a sleeping Crookshanks to the bottom of her bed and then climbed under the covers. "Please just try and get some sleep. Next week you'll be back at The Burrow with Ron... and then you can ask Ron's dad about it. After all he does work at the ministry."
Hermione shut her eyes and quickly fell asleep while Harry continued to stare into space. His mind filled with thoughts of Voldemort and whether or not Lucrid really was working with him before Harry eventually managed to drift off into a deep sleep.
*
Harry's next week with the Grangers was a lot of fun, much more than it would have been with the Dursleys. Hermione showed him around the village and took him to a discreet place where he could use his Firebolt and practice his Quidditch technique. He also got to do one of the things he'd never done properly before. Harry went shopping in the Muggle world. He'd been a few times before with the Dursleys but it had never been any fun and he was delighted when the Grangers told him he could pick out something for himself.
Saturday morning came along very quickly and Harry and Hermione were both preparing to leave. Harry had eaten breakfast, showered and dressed, and was now packing away his stuff in his trunk, including the homework Hermione had forced him to do. He was dumping his textbooks into his chest when Hermione popped her head around the bedroom door.
"Hurry up Harry, they'll be here soon," she ordered sternly.
"I've just got a few more things to pack away," Harry replied placing his inkpots and quills into his trunk.
Hermione closed the door and went back downstairs. Harry finished packing, then took his trunk and Hedwig's cage down into the Granger's living room.
"Oh here, let me take that for you Harry," Mr Granger said seeing that Harry was struggling with his case. He took it and placed it in front of the sofa and Harry placed Hedwig's cage on top of the mantelpiece.
"All set," Harry said smiling.
"Harry, you'd best move away from the fireplace," Mrs Granger said warningly.
"What? Why?" Harry asked, but before anyone could reply, a strange whooshing and whistling noise filled the room. Harry felt a strange warm wind blowing against the back of his legs. He turned round and looked down at the fireplace to see a green flame burning brightly and at that moment Harry knew what was going to happen, but before he could leap out of the way something shot out of the fireplace and hit Harry's legs. Harry fell forward but fortunately whatever had shot out of the fireplace broke his fall. Harry shook his head and opened his eyes and was met with the stunned face of Ginny Weasley. Harry hastily rolled off of her and stood up, as did Ginny. Harry looked up, reddened faced, at Ginny who was blushing worse than he was. Her face was almost as red as her hair. Harry felt extremely embarrassed at the thought of being on top of Ginny Weasley. "I - I'm sorry," Harry stuttered.
"It's all right," Ginny replied, continuing to stare at the ground.
There was an awkward silence, then the green flame burst in the fireplace again and another person shot out. A boy Harry's age, with red hair stood up and dusted off his clothes.
"Ron!" Harry cried happily.
"Alright Harry?" Ron said smiling.
The fireplace burst into green flames again and someone else flew out onto the Granger's floor. A man with red hair just like Ron's and Ginny's stood up clutching a flowerpot.
"Hello Harry. Hello Hermione," Mr Weasley said with a gleaming smile.
"Hello Mr Weasley," they both replied.
"Ah Giles, Sheryl. Lovely to see you again," Mr Weasley said resting the flowerpot on his arm and shaking both the Grangers' hands.
"And you," Mr Granger replied.
"And your house is looking as lovely as ever... Ooh! What might this be?" Mr Weasley picked up and small round ornament made from china. There was a lid on the top, which could be lifted up. Mr Weasley pushed the lid up and a beautiful tune began to play. He jumped in fright and dropped the music box to the floor causing it to shatter. "Oh my god!" he cried. "I am so sorry... I just wasn't expecting... What was that?"
"It was a music box," Mr Granger said. "Never mind, we can get a million more, just forget about it."
"Thanks ever so much for letting Hermione stay for the rest of the summer," Mrs Granger said gratefully, trying to change the subject.
"No trouble, no trouble at all. Thank you for looking after Harry on such short notice." Mr Weasley turned to Harry. "I'm sorry about all that business with Charlie but these things can't be helped."
"That's all right. By the way, how is he?" Harry asked.
"Well the burns are pretty nasty..." Mr Weasley said.
"But he'll live," Ron cheered brightly.
"Right, ready to go?" Mr Weasley asked Harry and Hermione.
"I think so," Hermione replied. She grabbed her trunk and Crookshanks hopped on top. Harry picked up his case and Ron grabbed Hedwig's cage. Harry then approached the Grangers.
"Thank you so much for looking after me and... Well, for everything," he said.
Mr Granger smiled and Mrs Granger looked as though she was about to burst with tears.
"Don't mention it Harry," she said, wrapping her arms around him. "If you ever want to come and stay again you only have to ask."
"Thank you Mrs Granger," Harry managed to reply despite Mrs Granger's crushing grip.
"Ok then, Floo Powder! Floo Powder!" shouted Mr Weasley holding out the flowerpot.
"Will we be all right taking our stuff with us through the fireplace?" Harry asked.
"Of course you will, just as long as you keep hold of it," Mr Weasley replied.
"Yeah, because if you let it go then it could fly out of anyone's fireplace." Ron was grinning at his dad who was looking slightly annoyed with him for saying that.
"What is it?" Hermione asked suspiciously.
"Dad's had to deal with a lot cases of things flying out of fireplaces," Ginny replied.
Things like this were part of Arthur Weasley's everyday job as he worked in the 'Misuse of Muggle Artefacts' office at the Ministry of Magic.
"Yes, well lets not get into all that," Mr Weasley said wanting to get off the subject. "Now Ginny, if you take Crookshanks and then there's no worry of her flying off the top of Hermione's trunk. And Ron, if you take Harry's trunk and he can carry Hedwig's cage. Better if he carries something small seeing as how he's not really used to this sort of thing."
Everyone took what he or she was supposed to carry and then Hermione stepped up first to collect her Floo Powder. She reached into the flowerpot and pulled out a handful of dusty coloured powder. Then with her trunk in one hand and the Floo Powder in the other, she turned and said goodbye to her parents and stepped into the fireplace.
"The Burrow!" she called, and she threw the Floo Powder at her feet. A green flame exploded in the fireplace and Hermione was whisked away.
"You next Ginny," Mr Weasley said, ushering her into the fireplace.
Ginny used her Floo Powder to return to The Burrow, Ron followed her, and then it was Harry's turn.
"Go ahead Harry, and don't worry, I'll be right behind you," Mr Weasley said enthusiastically.
Harry breathed deeply and stepped into the fireplace.
"The Burrow!" he shouted. He clutched Hedwig's cage tightly, then threw the powder to the ground and the green flames rose up around his body. He felt his body being swept from the Grangers living room, and with his hand wrapped tightly around the handle of the cage and his eyes shut even tighter, he stood a straight as a board as he spun around at great speed. The air was whipping his face and creating a high pitched whistling noise in his ears. Eventually, he felt himself slide out onto a hard surface. He opened his eyes to find himself on the wooden floor of the house Harry knew as The Burrow.
"You ok Harry?" Ron asked pulling him to his feet.
"Still in one piece," Harry replied. He raised Hedwig's cage to his face and peered in. "How are you doing?" he asked his pet owl. She hooted shakily and was looking around nervously; she had obviously never had such an experience.
Harry looked around the small, cramped wooden room that he was now standing in. Ginny and Hermione were sitting at a long wooden table with nine chairs set around it. There was sink filled with dirty crockery that was cleaning itself and an unusual clock hung on the wall which told you where each member of the Weasley family was at that present time.
The fireplace then exploded in green flames again and Mr Weasley slid out. He got to his feet and look around at everyone.
"Everyone ok?" he asked.
"We're all fine dad," Ron insisted.
"Great. Well now, let's get everyone sorted out. Ginny, would you help Hermione take her stuff upstairs?"
Ginny and Hermione got off their chairs, grabbed Hermione's chest, and hauled it out of the room, followed by Crookshanks.
"Ron, will you take Harry's stuff up to your room for him?" Mr Weasley asked.
"Sure," Ron replied. He took hold of Harry's trunk and heaved it out of the room. Harry smiled at Mr Weasley and made his way to the door.
"Uh, not you Harry," Mr Weasley called.
"What?" Harry said turning round.
"I just had to get rid of them so I could get you alone."
"Alone? What for Mr Weasley?" Harry asked.
"Sit down," Mr Weasley said uneasily. Harry got the feeling that something was wrong. Nevertheless, he pulled out a chair and sat down. Mr Weasley grabbed a newspaper off the kitchen sideboard and sat opposite Harry. He then unfolded the newspaper and laid it on the table for Harry to see; it was the same newspaper Hermione had shown him. Harry looked at the bold headline, then down at the picture of the evil, murderous Lucrid Valhalla, and finally his eyes wandered down to the pictures of Acle Nordelph, Rupert Pudprince, and Marcus Filby, the victims of Lucrid's attack.
"I've already seen this," Harry said looking up at Mr Weasley.
"Oh, so you know all about it then?" Mr Weasley asked.
"Yeah, all about Lucrid, and the people he murdered. I wanted to ask you about this."
"Good, because I wanted to talk to you about it."
"What did you want to tell me?" Harry asked curiously.
"It's just that this newspaper story is not one hundred percent accurate," Mr Weasley said.
"What?" Harry said confused. Mr Weasley pointed to one of the lines of text in the article, which read 'The minister insists that nothing was stolen.' "What about it?" Harry asked. A short pause then followed. "Something was stolen, wasn't it?" Mr Weasley looked down at the ground and nodded. "What was it?" Harry asked insistently.
"The Chalice of Ezryon," Mr Weasley replied looking up at Harry.
"Why's it not mentioned in this story?" Harry asked.
"Because no one knew that the chalice was at the ministry," Mr Weasley said. "The chalice is a legendary item used for many things involved in the dark arts but because it is so powerful and valuable, the members of the ministry decided not to destroy it, but to hide it away."
"When was this?" asked Harry.
"It was about fifty years ago when ministry officials found the chalice. As it was such a feared item, they promised to destroy it but you know what people at the ministry can be like, naive and changed by power. Instead of destroying it, they hid it deep within the ministry, put all sorts of spells and enchantments around it as security. They thought that one day they may be able to find a use for it and now look what's happened."
"So who knew about the chalice?"
"The secrecy around it was watertight. Only a handful people in the ministry knew, including the minister for magic himself. No one else, no press, and the ministry didn't want to mention it now and cause a huge frenzy."
"And you?"
"I was told by Fudge himself, he trusted me."
"Did Dumbledore know about it?"
"Yeah, but I'm sure that man would've known even if he hadn't been told about it."
"What can the chalice be used for?" Harry asked, continuing his string of questions.
"It is mainly used as potion enhancer but it can be used for many other things."
"How did Lucrid manage to get the chalice?"
"Well he'd been working with the ministry for seven years so he had a good chance to learn everything about the place. My guess is he was planning to steal from the moment he joined, and he was extremely talented with magic so he would have no problem in breaking the spells around it. It was also a nightshift so there wasn't so many people in the building to see him."
"Ok now, just one more question. Why did Lucrid steal the chalice?"
"I don't know. No one knows for sure why he stole it."
"But you're telling me because you think Lucrid's working for Voldemort don't you?"
"Of course I do," Mr Weasley said sternly. "Both you and Dumbledore tell me that he's returned. I doubt you'd both be lying to me but those fools at the ministry refuse to accept it. They're just lying to everyone; they're trying to make people feel safe but I think everyone has a right to know the truth."
"There's nothing we can do," Harry said. "The ministry makes the rules, not us. But there was no Death Eater called Lucrid Valhalla which makes me wonder."
"Harry, not all of Voldemort's followers were made Death Eaters you know," Mr Weasley said. "He saw some of them as unworthy. Lucrid may have been one of them."
"I'm not sure," said Harry rubbing his head which was hurting from all this stuff he was trying to take in. "So... Lucrid killed those other ministry employees obviously because they saw him trying to steal the chalice. He stole the chalice and ran off because he wants the chalice for Voldemort? Is Voldemort going to try and make some sort of potion to make himself more powerful?"
"I don't know Harry," Mr Weasley replied. "All I know is that this year is going to be tough for you, but don't worry. I'm here if you ever need anything."
"Thanks Mr Weasley," Harry said gratefully.
"That's all right. Now off you go. Ron will be wondering where you are."
Harry pushed his chair away from the table and stood up. He walked silently across the room, then turned and looked over at Mr Weasley who was looking angrily at the newspaper on the table. Harry bit his lip and breathed heavily, then turned and headed up the stairs.
