A Walk to Remember - Chapter Nine
Author's Notes: Oh, so sorry for not updating this fan fiction for quite a long time...! I've been quite busy lately and is going to be much busy soon... I hope you guys will stay loyal to my fan fic and keep reading it :) I guess that's all! Enjoy chapter Nine..
Especially dedicated to my best friend, Lisa... ^_^
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Harry walked steadfastly towards the library... he didn't know why he was heading there--but he felt as if someone was leading him... He entered the dark library... looking around vaguely. He heard a book dropping from somewhere. He reached the section and was shocked to see a golden book glittering in front of him.
What's this? he wondered, feeling confused, curious, and anxious. He picked up the golden book, and as he touched it, he felt as if a surge of powerful energy was beginning to flow through him. Strange, he thought, slightly enchanted by the book.
The book suddenly opened by itself, and Harry's scar began to pound with pain. He dropped the opened book, clutching his scar, trying to release the pain. This was getting strange... for as Harry looked around him--he found that he was not in the library anymore. He was, in fact, by the lake.
And yet, as he turned around to see the castle, it was strange... Hogwarts looked rather new--shiny--- What's going on? Harry wondered, walking towards the entrance door and knocked it three times. "My, my, who could it be?" he heard a gentle voice behind the big wooden door.
The door opened and a beautiful young woman's face smiled at him. She had soft blue eyes and her face was kind. "How may I help you?" she asked politely.
"Er--yes--my name is Harry Potter... I'd like to know what.. erm.. what year am I in?" Harry asked softly.
"What year?" the woman echoed, her eyebrows arching in a puzzled way. "Pardon me?"
"Oh, never mind. I'm probably lost..." Harry said, waving his hands absent-mindedly. Extremely lost, in fact.
"Well.. would you like to stay here for the night? You are wizard, aren't you?" the woman said, inviting him in. "Yes--yes, I am," he answered, walking into the Great Hall. How different it looked! There was no elegant chairs, long tables, portraits... surely... surely this wasn't the beginning of Hogwarts? Surely the book didn't take him to the past? For what reason would it do that?
"You look rather curious, what's in your mind?" the woman asked suddenly. Harry, who had forgotten that she was behind him, jumped and said, in a sheepish voice, "No, no, no... nothing!"
"Okay," the woman said. "My name is Helga Hufflepuff. It's nice to meet you, Harry."
"Um, pleasure's mine," Harry murmured, questions exploding in his mind immediately. Helga smiled at him and took his hand in a motherly way; "Come, I'll show you your room.. this castle is newly-built so it has nothing much.."
"Really?" Harry exclaimed loudly. That means he was sent back to a thousand years before his time!
"Yes, me, Rowena, Salazar and Godric built this." Helga replied, chucking.
"Um, so where are they?" he asked.
"Well, Salazar and Godric have gone to Hogsmeade, the little village near here... and Rowena's upstairs. I wonder what she's doing," she said thoughtfully. Harry blinked twice; he couldn't believe he was actually in the four founder's era.
"Oh, wow..." he said without thinking. Helga smiled faintly and lead him towards the library, where Rowena was, sitting on the chair, reading, not noticing that they were there. Helga cleared her throat a little and Rowena looked up, startled.
"Oh, Helga!" she said, smiling. She reminded Harry strongly of Hermione--but with different features. It was strange... Rowena had long black hair with bright brown eyes. Okay, so minus the eyes... Harry thought. "And who's this boy?"
"This is Harry Potter," Helga said.
"Harry Potter..." Rowena's voice trailed off, she looked at Harry directly in the eyes, and made him very uncomfortable. "Very well.. He will be staying here, I suppose?"
"Yes, if you, Godric, and Salazar don't mind, that is!" Helga said.
"Oh, it's really no problem, Helga." Rowena insisted. She smiled at Harry and said, "How old are you, Harry?"
"Uhm--seventeen," Harry replied.
"I see..." Rowena said. The look on her face was strange---it was as if she knew something. She smiled brightly at him and said, "Have a nice stay here, Harry!"
* * *
Hermione was doing her Charms homework in the Gryffindor common room until Ginny came to her, looking despaired. "What's wrong?" Hermione asked immediately. Ginny bit her lip and said desperately, "Hermione, Harry's missing!"
"He's missing? What do you mean?" Hermione said blankly. Harry and her was doing their homework together... it was then she realized that Harry had walked out of the common room.... "Ginny, where do you think he went?" she asked, alarmed.
"He's gone, I don't know where he went! I've search all over the school, the Astronomy Tower... everwhere!" Ginny cried, waving her hands. "Some of the kids said that he went into the library but he wasn't there either!"
Hermione folded her arms, her eyebrows furrowed, trying to solve the problem, but she knew it was impossible. "Ron's missing too," she said suddenly. "Do you think they could be together?" Ginny looked doubtfully at Hermione. "I don't think so... Ron likes to be in private these days...
"But of course he'll let Harry join him--they're best friends!" Hermione insisted.
"Don't you notice? Their friendship is threatening to break." Ginny said, looking down on the floor. Hermione felt devastated. "Think we should ask his friends?" she suggested.
"Probably." Ginny answered, looking around, seeing Seamus talking to Parvati Patil. "Hey, Finnigan!" Seamus turned around and saw Ginny. He said something to Parvati and walked up towards them. "Hey, Ginny." he greeted, in a rather awkward way, of course. Hermione could see Parvati narrowing her eyes at Ginny. He was Ginny's boyfriend a couple of years ago....
"Have you seen Harry?" Ginny asked.
Seamus shook his head and answered, "Nope... I went to look for him a couple of minutes ago and some people said he went to the library. There's some commotion over there--go and check it out."
"There is?" Ginny exclaimed, raising her eyebrows. She took Hermione's hands and practically dragged her towards the library as fast as she could. To their enormous surprise, a large group of students were hovering in front of it, and Ginny's sharp eyes saw Professor Dumbledore and Professor Mcgonagall talking to each other in the library.
They made their way into the library, but Madam Pince pushed them back slightly. "You can't enter. An accident just occured--someone opened the Book of Eden and....
"The Book of Eden?" Hermione and Ginny cried. "The sacred Book of Eden?"
"But she told us we don't need any books!" Hermione said frustratingly.
"Do you think Agnes might be lying to us?" Ginny pressed.
"I don't know--she told us we don't need any books!" she said.
"Silence, please!" Madam Pince said. "We're doing an investigation here! Professor Dumbledore thinks that a student has disappeared after opening it.. It's a puzzling mystery and you two have nothing to do with it, all right?"
The two girl's mind was whirling with questions, and more questions. "Well, we're in the case, because we think that Harry's sucked in the book." Ginny retorted in a rather blunt way.
"I beg your pardon?" Madam Pince said angrily, anger flashing in her eyes.
"Pince, calm down," Professor Dumbledore said behind her. Madam Pince sniffed slightly and went off, grumbling under her breath. "Miss Granger and Miss Weasley, do you know anything about this incident?" he asked them both, looking into their eyes, as though trying to read their minds.
"Yes, actually, we do." Hermione answered. "Give us the book."
"The book is dangerous, Miss Granger. You can't touch it, but you can levitate it--Albus, don't you think it's doubtful that these two girls know anything about this---mystery?" Professor Mcgonagall chimed in. Ginny sighed exasperatingly. Why won't anyone believe them?
"There's a possible way they do know," Professor Dumbledore said quietly.
"But how?" Professor Mcgonagall asked. Professor Dumbledore levitated the book towards Ginny and Hermione. They took a deep breath and touched the golden book together. To their amazement, the book began to light up furiously, almost blinding them all.
"Nothing happened to you! Why--this can't be!" Professor Mcgonagall said, gasping.
"They're the Maidens of Eden," Professor Dumbledore finished for her.
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After Helga dropped him off at the to-be Hufflepuff common room, Harry had the chance to look around, for he had never went into any other common rooms--except for Slytherin's. He didn't feel tired, he felt as if he ought to find out something....
But what? And how could he go back to his time? He knew that his best friends would be extremely worried and they should notice that he was gone.... right? Harry remembered the look on Rowena's face... it was as if she knew who Harry was...
Harry immediately went out of the common room and dashed towards the library. Slowly, he opened the door and saw that Rowena was still there, reading a very thick book. She looked up and saw him. She smiled and said, "Harry, what brings you here?"
"I... um... just want to look around." Harry answered nervously, his stomach lurching slightly.
"Okay... come and sit down, if you want," Rowena said. Harry nodded and sat down in front of her. After some time, Rowena looked up and asked, "Is there anything you would like to talk about?"
"Um--yes, why's this castle built?" Harry asked.
"I thought you knew, Harry. For Hogwarts, of course." Rowena said, smiling at him rather mischievously. Harry stared at her, shocked beyond words. "D'you... know who I am?" Rowena nodded slowly, closing the book. Harry gave an exclamation as he realized that it was the same book that brought him here.
Rowena sighed slightly and said, "I really don't know why Agnes brought you here."
"Who's Agnes?" he asked.
"Why, the Guardian of Eden. Didn't you know that?" Rowena asked, looking at him strangely. "Or didn't Hermione and Ginny tell you?"
"How do you know...?
Rowena grinned and replied, "The Maiden of Wisdom has the divinity power, Harry--and therefore, I'm one of the Maidens of Eden,"
"Maiden...of Eden?" Harry echoed.
"Eden was a beautiful and harmonious world, ruled by the three Maidens of Eden, and the powerful protector, Agnes. It was destroyed, by the people of that world, for their greedy deeds were getting stronger... and their craving of getting power... it was horrible, Harry." Rowena explained. "Alas, the evil sorceress, Adel, decided to take over the world... but the three Maidens summoned Agnes and managed to seal Adel--and Agnes. The Maidens realized that their world was no longer a peaceful world, it was now the world of terror and suffering, and so, the Maidens destroyed their world---
"They actually destroyed it? That's cruel!" Harry cut off.
"It was the right thing to do--they had no choice but to do that. But Eden--it was a very powerful world--filled with powerful magic, enchanting magic, if you want to get technical," Rowena said, smiling slightly. "And so, they used all of their power and sucked all of Eden's power and sent it to the sealed Agnes. The Maidens were sent here.... and their generations of women became the Maidens too." Rowena finished.
"And...? Can you seal off Agnes?" Harry asked expectantly.
"Unfortunately, I can't, for the two other Maidens were murdered," Rowena said darkly. "Oh, yes, I do know who the murderer is..."
"Who...?" he persisted.
"Salazar Slytherin," Rowena said coldly.
* * *
"We'll figure this out by ourselves and if we need help, we'll ask for it from you, Professor." Hermione said in a polite but firm voice. Professor Mcgonagall opened her mouth to protest but the Head Master raised his hand so that she wouldn't say anything.
"Very well, Miss Granger and Miss Weasley. But I would like you to investigate in the library. We don't want any students to get involved. And are you sure that it was Harry who...
Ginny's stomach lurched uncontrollably. She felt exceedingly worried about him--was he dead? Ginny shook her head and answered, "We're not very sure, Professor Dumbledore." Professor Dumbledore nodded and turned to Professor Mcgonagall. "Come now, Minerva. There's no work for us to do here---we should just hope for the best." he said. They both went out of the library briefly.
"Okay... so what must we do?" Ginny asked, turning to Hermione.
"We have to read this first." Hermione answered, pointing to a table. "Let's go." They both sat on chairs and Hermione, furrowing her brow with concentration, leafed through the pages. "We've got to figure out how to get Agnes here. I mean, it worked last time at the Forbidden Forest..."
"What do you mean, it worked? I didn't even summon her," Ginny protested. "Lets just check out the book.." They began to study the book continuously until it was past two hours... Some patted Hermione on the shoulder and she turned around to see Draco.
"I just heard the rumors... what's going on?" he asked.
"Draco... it's really hard to explain," Hermione said with difficulty. "And this is rather top-secret..."
"Oh, fine. I guess you can't share anything with me, huh?" Draco replied.
"No! It's just that--
"It's okay, Hermione. I understand... well, I don't want to bother you two so later!" and with that, he went out of the library. Ginny stared at Hermione with her mouth opened. "Am I imagining things or did Draco just say, "I understand..." instead of "You know what? We're over."---
Hermione chuckled a little and said, "You weren't imagining things, Ginny."
"Strange... is he alienated or something?" Ginny asked.
"I guess... I guess he's changed." Hermione said.
-End of Chapter 9-
Author's Notes: I didn't want to leave you guys a cliff hanger... and cliff hangers drives me crazy anyway. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review! Thank you..
-laughing my head off-