Chapter 6

The First Clue ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Harry, Kate and Hermione walked quickly to the Great Hall in hopes of finding Draco. On the way Kate told them about what she saw.

"I was just sitting there in my common room reading about the Avada Kadavra curse, when I noticed the eerie quietness of the common room."

"What?

"How could you tell?" Harry asked sounding kind of rushed.

"Let her finish, she obviously wasn't done yet." Hermione stated matter-of- factly.

"As I was saying, I noticed that there was no one else in the common room except me. I started to feel kind of, well, unsafe, with all of the recent events and all.

"And out of nowhere, an outline of a face appeared in the fire in front of me. It said ' Let me out please, I will tell you whatever you need to know, just get me away from him' And then the face made a screaming look, and vanished, then I ran to look for you two, and here we are."

"Well what does this mean?" Hermione was the first one to speak after the long silence.

"I don't know." Said Harry and Kate together.

"I hate having this as our responsibility, I can't keep up with school and worry about the black crystal!" yelled Kate in an outburst of tears. Like they say, stress can kill (lol.)

"I agree, can't they like exempt us from our O.W.L's or something? I mean the fate of the wizarding world is kind of resting in our hands!" Hermione said.

"I think we should go to Dumbledore." Harry said quietly.

"What was that?" Kate asked.

"I think we should go to Dumbledore, I mean he has to know something about this stuff, I mean he's DUMBLEDORE!" Harry said.

"Of course! Why didn't we think of this sooner?" Hermione said with dawning apparent on her face.

"Let's go then." Kate said, getting over her tears.

They started in a different direction from the great hall towards Dumbledore's office where the statue of the gargoyle stood guard.

After they walked the tiring walk they stopped at the gargoyle, they realized that they didn't know the password. But Harry knew that Dumbledore always used some type of wizard candy as his password. He quickly told this to the others and they started guessing, they got it on the first try.

They stepped onto the spiraling staircase and started climbing up to Dumbledore's office.

"I didn't think that Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans would be it, he doesn't exactly prefer those as his candy to eat." Harry said surprised.

They reached the door to the office and heard voices inside.

"They know somehow, someone must've told them." Came the voice of Snape.

"Well, who would have told them?" Questioned the voice of Mcgonagall.

As Harry and the rest of them stood outside the door, they could obviously tell what the professors were talking about. But why would it be bad for them to know?

"Minerva, Severus I know that they are only children, but they're smart children at that." His hand hit the table with a small slam. "I just hope they handle this maturely, if they actually know anything about it. We should ask them how they know."

"Well, you can." Said a new voice. "They're right outside the door waiting for you."

Harry, Hermione, and Kate burst into Dumbledore's office only to see three very tired looking professors, and a face in the fire.

"Sirius?" Harry and Hermione asked in unison.

"Ah Harry how are you?" Came Sirius' cheerful voice.

"Please all of you sit, oh and where is Mr. Malfoy?" Dumbledore asked.

"We don't know sir." Hermione answered dryly. She had been under a lot of stress this year; she took up more classes than she could handle, and now she was back on using the time turner.

"Severus, please go and get Draco Malfoy, and give his current professor my apologies for my taking him out of class."

"Yes sir." With that Snape was quickly leaving Dumbledore's office, his billowing robes behind him.

"I'm sorry Harry, Dumbledore, but I have to go, I'm upload!sing someone else's fireplace, so bye everyone, and good luck!" Sirius' head then dissapeared.

Harry couldn't stand it any longer; he wanted to know what was so bad about them knowing about the black crystal.

"Professor, if you don't mind me asking, er." Harry didn't know how to put his question. But Dumbledore knew what he was getting at.

"Why we're concerned about you knowing?" Dumbledore finished Harry's thought.

"Well, you see, this is a very complicated deal, because you don't know the half of this. For, as you know, Voldemort," Katie winced at his name." Its okay Katie you should call the dark lord by his name, for we do not fear him, because you are the wizards that are going to stop him."

"But why us?" Hermione asked. But she already knew why because earlier that day. she had read Dumbledore's star, and she knew what was coming, for she had accumulated another power. Not only could she read a person's star, she could connect her mind to that person, and read what they were thinking, so it was like an extended power. She hadn't told anyone yet. Not even Harry.

"I believe you already know the answer to that." Dumbledore said with a faint twinkle in his eyes. You could never get anything past Dumbledore. Harry had given Hermione a confused look, and was about to ask what he meant by that statement, when Snape walked into the office with Draco.

"Mr. Malfoy, so good of you to join us." Dumbledore said with a smile.

"Professor Dumbledore, I have something to say." Malfoy said quietly, "My father won't allow me to fight against the dark side, he wants me to get the crystal for him, and fool all of you."

"I have a feeling that he wasn't supposed to tell us that." Harry whispered to Hermione.

"Your right Harry, I wasn't supposed to tell you that." Draco directed his attention back to Dumbledore. " I don't want to become a death eater, but according to my father I don't have a choice."

There was a long silence and finally Dumbledore spoke.

"What about your mother? What does she have to say about these matters."

"Well my mother you see, er.. Well.." A tear slowly dropped down Draco's cheek.

Harry looked at him, He then looked at Hermione, who looked like she was about to cry as well, and she was looking at Draco rather sympathetically.

"What's wrong with him?" Harry asked Hermione, he knew that she would know, because she probably read his star.

"Narcissa is dead." Hermione said quietly. But not quiet enough, because Draco heard her.

"How did you know?" Draco asked.

"I read your star." Hermione said, having a sudden interest in her hands. "I'm sorry."

"No, its ok." Malfoy said giving Hermione a weak smile. "I wanted someone to know I just didn't know how to tell or who for that matter, thank you Hermione, you did always know everything."

Wow. Draco's gone through a complete change since he raped me. He's almost like a friend. I know that he's going to be good he can't be evil in this. He can't be our enemy, not again. Harry had been thinking along the same lines.

"Ok, Mr. Malfoy you may sit now, and Severus you may return to your class, same goes to you Minerva." With that, Snape and Mcgonagall left Dumbledore's office, and returned to teach their classes.

"Now, all of you. The answer to Hermione's earlier asked question, is that this is all put on you because you are the heirs of the four founders of Hogwarts. Hermione you are the heir of Ravenclaw, Kate you are the heir of Helen Hufflepuff, Draco, you are the heir of Salazar Slytherin. And Harry you are the heir to Godric Gryffindor."

Harry and Hermione already knew this of course. Harry had figured it out when he used Godric Gryffindor's sword against the basilisk. Hermione confirmed this by reading his star. She found out by reading her own star, but after she found out she promised herself that she would refrain from reading her own star.

Everyone just figured that Draco was the heir to Slytherin, he seemed like the perfect Slytherin-type. He has obviously changed completely. Poor Kate just thought she had an odd shaped scar on her hand. She was the most surprised out of all of them and looked like she was about to faint. She was extremely pale.

"You four have to be the ones to defeat Voldemort and the dark side, because you have the power to obtain the black crystal. Therefor no one else could possibly perform this act. I would if I could, but I can't. So it is up to you four to do this, and Draco. We will figure out what to do. I will have a talk to your father myself if it comes down to that, which hopefully it won'. An if he still doesn't agree then you will have to sneak it, or I will have to force him to agree. Our whole world is depending on you."

"Professor, I don't understand, why am I part of this?" Kate asked. "I'm not like the rest of them." She motioned to the three heirs sitting next to her. " I'm not Harry Potter, I'm definitely no Hermione Granger, and I'm not Draco Malfoy. I'm just Kate."

And when you think about what she said, it was true. She hasn't fought against Voldemort a number of times. She isn't the smartest witch of her year. And she wasn't clever or witty like Draco. So why was she part of this?

"There is a power deep within you, that you haven't found yet." Dumbledore answered with wisdom apparent in his voice.

"You may all go now. And don't worry about the stone yet, it's not in any immediate danger, but I will notify you of anything. Thank you, and have a good lunch!" Dumbledore said with a wave and a smile.

The four students left his office in silence, and slowly walked down the stairs. It was quite an awkward silence, someone had to break it, and that person was Harry.

"Who actually feels like eating?"

"I have to go get something from my room, but I'll meet you guys I the hall. Ok?" Hermione said, somewhat out of breath.

"Are you ok?" Harry asked concerned.

"Of course I'll meet you guys in a few. Bye!" Hermione yelled already turning the corner.

The remaining three kept walking to the hall, when they heard an awful sound.

A scream.

Not just any scream.

It was Hermione's scream.

*`*`*`*`*`

A/n: ok guys I thought this was a little longer than the other chapters, I know its still not very long, but review and tell me what is the first name of Ravenclaw. I forgot, and also will you tell me any mistakes you saw? Thanks, and if I still haven't explained something that I mentioned at the beginning of the story, please tell me, because I'm sure I did.. Lol. Refer me to our friends! Lol. k thanx for reading the next chappie should be up in a few days. ~Brie~