Chapter Twenty

Stirrings in a Restless Night

As the week wore on and Jennifer and Severus settled into their normal routine, their priority turned to the homework of the day, upcoming tests, and making sure students actually paid attention in class. They were just as unaware as the rest of the school that something deep within the school itself was not quite so calm. Dumbledore had to leave on an errand, or perhaps he would have noticed the soft echo of whispers that seemed to drift from the walls. They only grew quiet when one of the living inhabitants appeared, passing by and chatting among themselves, oblivious to the whispers around them.

Jennifer had stayed up later than normal, sipping on a gentle herb tea in hopes to soothe her heartburn, tiredly sifting through the journal in hopes of discovering something new. Finally the pain let up and she quietly stepped into her slippers and went to bed, pausing only long enough to let her bat back inside before shutting the window and going into the other room.

Had she but turned around, perhaps she would have noticed the journal flipping pages on its own where she had left it on her table. Even as she closed the door behind her, a candle flickered to life beside the book before it flickered out again.

It was Corey Willowby who had found he couldn't sleep that night, but for what reason he wasn't quite sure. After tossing and turning for a while he had completely lost track of the time, aware of Doug softly snoring in the bed across from his. Finally he sat up, feeling strangely alert as if someone were calling him. Unsure of where to go, Corey put on his shoes and his robe and slipped out into the common room. It was then that he was aware of eyes on him and realized it was coming from the paintings around him. Well, of course they were looking at him, Corey thought to himself, he was the only student up at an unusually late time of night. Why wouldn't they be curious? But somehow, Corey thought it was more than that. On a whim, he decided to look around at the painting between the windows at the painting of a wizard wearing a familiar, floppy hat and leaning on a sword. The painting, which to Corey's knowledge was the most inactive of those in the Gryffindor rooms, seemed very much aware of him at that moment, smiling gently at him with a keen glint in his eyes.

"Well, don't just stand there, do something," a voice inside him said, and he wasn't entirely sure it was his own. Taking a step back, Corey rushed up the stairs and grabbed a hold of Doug's foot, quickly covering his mouth when Doug sat straight up and acted like he was going to scream.

"Shhh, something's going on. I may need your help," Corey hissed at him, throwing Doug's robe over his head.

"Are you mental?" Doug said, getting hushed again. "It's the middle of the night!"

"I know, but we have to get up," Corey insisted. "The paintings are acting all weird."

"When don't the paintings around here act all weird?" Doug wanted to know.

"Not like this," Corey said, and before Doug knew it he found himself following Corey down the stairs into the common room, glancing up at the painting. The painting was still looking at them, slightly amused as he nodded to them both.

"Corey?" Doug whispered, staring at the painting.

"Yeah?"

"The painting of Godric Gryffindor, did you see it just nod to us?"

"Yeah," Corey said, turning to Doug. "He wants us to do something."

"Like what?"

"I dunno," Corey shrugged. That was when the door opened with a soft creak. Corey and Doug looked at the open door and the almost imperceptible smile on the Fat Lady's face, before glancing at each other.

"If we're caught out there this time at night, it'll be detention for sure. Maybe even for the rest of the year. Goodbye spring dance, goodbye Hogsmeade…" Doug said as he continued to follow Corey towards the open door. "My family will disown me. And your Dad will hang you up by your toes."

"Nah, he hasn't done that in over a year," Corey said as they headed out into the corridor.

"That makes me feel a lot better," Doug said sarcastically. "Where are we going, anyhow?" Corey paused and looked at the paintings, but they all seemed to be too busy reading to notice them.

"I guess we're going to the library," Corey said.

"Wonderful," Doug said. "We can pick up a copy of that Muggle book we've been studying in class. Crime and Punishment."

"Would you calm down?" Corey said. "You could have stayed."

"And let you travel around down here by yourself at night? You're bound to get in some sort of trouble, and I'm sure they'd think I was in on it even if I didn't come. So, I might as well be here instead of getting blamed for something I didn't do," Doug reasoned.

Corey grinned at him as they slipped down the back stairs, barely able to see in the dimmed corridors as they made their way in to the library. Shivering from the creepiness of the long shadows cast by the bookshelves and the soft, yet eerie light peeking through the windows, the two boys stepped further in.

"Okay, so we're here, now what do we do?" Corey asked in a low voice, looking around suspiciously.

"How am I supposed to know? This was your idea," Doug said.

Suddenly something caught his eye and he squinted in the darkness. Moonlight shone across the worktables that ran down the center of the room, creating a lacquered shine down the center of each one. But the shine on one of the tables was broken, and Doug had quickly realized that something was on the centermost table. As he stepped cautiously over to the looming shadow, he finally recognized the tiny figure and picked it up off the table.

"What is it, Doug?" Corey asked, peering cautiously around each bookshelf as he stepped over to him.

"It's a chess piece," Doug said, holding it out to him. "But more than that, it's a black king. You don't think that's a coincidence, do you?"

"No, I think someone is trying to tell us something." Corey said.

"Well it's obvious, isn't it? The information needed to get to the king must be in the library," Doug said. "But why in the world did we have to wait into the middle of the night to find this out?"

Just then there was a clanging sound and the two of them looked around, not seeing what caused it. Grabbing Corey's shoulder, Doug dragged him behind a bookshelf, and the two of them stood quietly so that they could listen.

"It has to be here somewhere," a soft voice whispered. It was a strain to hear it, and Corey found himself holding his breath, waiting for more.

"I'm sure the spell he used is down here somewhere. Ah, here's a likely volume to try," said another voice with a slightly louder whisper.

"Don't forget to silence it first," the other voice said.

"It's all right, I know what I'm doing," said the second.

Doug tapped Corey and began to sneak towards the back, and as Corey followed behind, he realized with certainty that the voices were sounding louder the closer they got to the Restricted Section.

"Even if you do find the spell, I don't think we'll have enough power to break it," the first said. "And who says that Snape didn't booby trap it?" Corey held his breath again. Someone was trying to break one of his Dad's spells?

"I didn't see any traps, and it's a chance we're going to have to take," the second said. "Here, I think I've found it."

"Hurry up, before we get caught. I'd hate to have to explain this," the first said.

But Corey was determined to be the one they'd have to explain it to. Anybody trying to dispel one of Snape's spells couldn't be up to any good, and Corey wasn't about to let it happen without a fight.

As Corey drew up his hands defensively, Doug had pulled out his own wand, and the two of them crept closer, finally spotting the wavering light of a dim lantern on the far side of the Restricted Section. With a nod as a signal, the two boys dove around the corner ready for anything, only to meet up with a pair of screams and the sound of a lantern crashing to the floor, snuffing out the light within.

Silence followed, until at last a cautious voice sounded out in the darkness.

"Danny?" Corey asked.

"Yeah?" Danny whispered back.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Getting a book. What are you doing here?"

The sound of a cat meowing in the distance paralyzed them into silence again.

"We have got to get out of here. Someone's likely to have heard that scream," Taylor whispered.

"I have to copy that spell first," Danny said insistently. "I don't want to have to do this again."

"Wait a minute, what are you doing that you have to dispel one of Snape's spells?" Corey demanded, getting hushed by Doug.

"Not now, I'll explain in a second," Danny hissed, relighting the lamp long enough to get out a parchment, muttering a phrase made an exact copy of the spell in her hand. "Okay, got it. Let's get out of here."

"Where to?" Doug asked, resigned to being led around.

"Let's go to our practice room," Taylor suggested. "It's sound-proofed so nobody should hear us talking, and it's far off the main corridors."

On the way, Corey explained what had happened to them, and Doug handed the piece over to Danny to look at just as they stepped in. Closing the door, the sconces flickered to life on their own, and Danny nodded as if in confirmation.

"This piece may be small, but it's the same exact design as one of those on the larger chess board," she said.

"So it is definitely a clue; the king can be found in the library, or at least information to find him," Taylor said.

"But Craw and Granger have been over that library looking for clues to find Craw before," Corey pointed out.

"Yes, but that was before she got the journal," Danny reminded him.

"Craw found the journal?" Doug said in surprise.

"Wait a minute, how do you know she has the journal?" Corey said, squinting at her. "I hadn't told anyone about that."

"Well if you must know, it's because I'm the one that gave it to her," Danny said. "You see, I happened to read a note on Snape's desk one afternoon before Christmas that said he was looking for it, and when I saw it was an anonymous bidder, I couldn't help wonder if Uncle Lucius hadn't bought it. It took me awhile, but I found it tossed into a box of random books in one of the wooden drawers below the bookshelves in the mansion library. It didn't appear as if it was something he would miss so I, well, borrowed it permanently." The three boys stared at her. "Don't look at me like that, it isn't as if that journal didn't really belong to Professor Craw. Besides, I felt like I owed the Snapes one," she said with a shrug.

"You know, you're pretty sneaky when you wanna be," Doug commented.

"Doug, I'm a Slytherin, we're born that way," Danny said dryly. "Now come on, back to business. I suppose you're wondering by now what we were doing in the library."

"That had crossed our minds, yes," Corey agreed.

"Well, before I sent the book to Snape, I read through it once to see if I could find out where Craw was going when he left the school," Danny said. "And it appears that Janus Craw thought the Cauldron was taken to the Westernmost Isle."

"The Westernmost Isle? But that's just another name for Tir Na Nog, isn't it, really? Sorta like a symbolic reference?" Doug asked.

"Rather, it's supposed to be one of the main gates to Tir Na Nog, where Callum's Seal was first brought," Taylor said. "The island itself has been called a lot of other names, like the Isle of Dead Kings, and the Island of Apples."

"Isn't 'Island of Apples' just another name for Avalon?" Corey asked, awed spite of himself. "I thought that was supposed to be in Glastonbury."

"Only if you're from Glastonbury," Doug quipped. Taylor nudged him.

"I think I had better sit down," Corey decided.

"No, we can't, we don't have enough time. Not if, well, Taylor and I were planning to get something else done tonight, and if we don't hurry, we're going to be missed, Saturday or not," Danny said. "Come to think of it, maybe you had better stay here, that way you won't get into trouble if we do get caught."

"Wait a minute, what are you planning on doing?" Corey demanded, looking very serious.

"Do you remember what Caprica told us when she first talked about the Cauldron? She told us that Salazar was the last person who knew where the Cauldron was before it was taken. Which means, if Slytherin was the one who originally hid it, he may have left a clue to where it's hidden at. That would also explain how Craw might have found out it was on this fabled island, if Slytherin left a clue somewhere," Danny said.

"Wait a minute, I hope you're not thinking what I think you're thinking," Corey said, sitting up straight. "You can't go down there! It's insane! Besides, even if you did get past Dad's blocks, you can't get to the Chamber without being a Parselmouth."

"I already thought of that. I spent all of last week using my extra time in potion class making up animal speaking potions. Madame Granger didn't seem to notice, or if she did, she didn't say anything," Danny said, showing them her bag full of potions. "They only last for a minute or two, but I should have enough here to get us through what we need to."

"Do those things even work on snakes?" Doug asked.

"I've seen Sagittari use them with coatls," Corey mused. "It might work."

"So, what do you think, do we go down?" Danny asked impatiently.

"If you're going I'm going," Taylor told her in a tone that seemed to indicate he'd repeated that often in the last few days.

"You're not going to get past that seal without help, and even then I somehow doubt it's that easy," Corey said, shaking his head. "But I'll give it a go."

"All for one and one for all," Doug shrugged, nodding. "Let's just hope nobody has to try and figure out where are corpses are in a few days."

"Actually, I think I got an idea of something else that might help us while we're down there," Corey said, getting up. "Come on, let's get moving. I need to step by Dad's office before we go. I just hope he hasn't changed the password since he got back," Corey said as the four of them slipped down the back stairs.