Chapter 22 - Love is in the Air
When they had returned to the castle after taking their Pugwamp to see Hagrid the Quidditch match had ended. Much to Barney's relief, Slytherin had won and to Tabitha's relief even more no one had been stretchered off injured like she'd seen in her vision.
Thomas was glad to see they had made up and the three of them had spent most of the weekend together, though Barney knew it was also because Hamish was busy with Quidditch practice as he had his game against Gryffindor coming up, but he didn't complain.
And both Barney and Tabitha were sad (along with the rest of the Care of Magical Creatures class) when they had to hand their Pugwamps back. But they had managed to keep it contented for the rest of the time it was in their care and they hadn't argued once. Though Barney was worried with the Pugwamp gone whether the happy facade might start to slip, but for now all was going well.
One morning at breakfast Barney had decided to join Thomas and Tabitha at the Hufflepuff table but instantly regretted it when not long after he had taken his seat, Hamish had joined them.
"Hey Barns, not sitting with the other low life of Slytherin today?" Hamish said in jest after giving Tabitha a kiss hello.
Barney didn't know what annoyed him up more. The jibe about Slytherin, being called 'Barns' or watching him kiss Tabitha.
As Hamish started to talk about his match with Gryffindor that was being played that weekend Barney instantly zoned out. He usually loved talking about Quidditch but he had no interest in making conversation with Hamish. Though a conversation with Hamish was usually very one sided as he loved to talk about himself so much.
Hamish had been jabbering on for at least five minutes and hadn't seemed to have noticed that no one else had said a word. He only stopped speaking when owls started to fly in to the Great Hall to deliver the post.
Barney never received any post as his mum, being a muggle, didn't understand how owls worked and Thomas' family were the same. Tabitha occasionally received letters and gifts from her brother and grandma but she never received anything from her dad except on her birthday. Hamish on the other hand had three sisters, two brothers and numerous aunties, uncles and godparents so received something almost daily, if not an entire bundle and today was no different. He opened the first one and it was a card from a relative wishing him luck in the Quidditch match which started him off talking again about the subject.
Further down the Hufflepuff table a large package for Viola had landed with a thud and everyone was intrigued to see what it was but they were all disappointed when they saw it was only a book.
Barney had just about had enough of listening to Hamish and was about to make an excuse to leave when thankfully Hamish noticed the time and realised he had somewhere he had to be and dashed off after giving Tabitha another kiss goodbye, which annoyed Barney some more.
"We should be going too," Thomas noted to Tabitha. "We've got Herbology and we need to go collect our specimens of Snotgrass we've been growing for class."
Barney had enjoyed the gruesome delights of Snotgrass in class last week so he didn't envy them. And as he had History of Magic first thing he was in no hurry to get to class so he hung behind as the others left.
"Hey Barney," Viola said as she came and took a seat opposite him. "You'll never guess what arrived today?"
"Er... a book?" Barney replied unenthusiastically.
"Not just any book," she said as she placed it on the table and slid it across to him.
The leather bindings were very worn and the writing on the front was faded from age but he could just about make out the title. "The Magusarian Lexis," he read aloud, looking puzzled. "What is it?"
"You've never heard of Magusarian?"
Barney shook his head.
"It's only one of the oldest wizarding languages," Viola replied and opened the book and started to flick through the pages. "I thought some of the symbols in Nevermore's journal had looked familiar and it was only when I was home over Christmas I remembered where I had seen them before. It was a painting we had in our house and I asked my dad about it and he said it was Magusarian. But it's a dead language no one speaks it of uses it anymore and haven't done so for hundreds of years."
Barney started to get excited when Viola showed him a page with a symbol on which he recognised.
"Viola you're amazing," he said as he stared at the page.
"Thanks, I'm just sorry it's taken so long to get the book. I had my dad look for one. He had to contact nearly every wizarding library in the world. He finally managed to find one in a private collection in Italy but lucky he knew the owners so they agreed to lend it to me so we need to take special care of it."
Barney had stopped listening, he was too busy looking at the pages with his eyes lit up like a child's on Christmas morning. He was tempted to ditch his History of Magic class so he could start work on deciphering the next page of the journal but Viola had her own class to get to and she didn't want to let the book out of her sight. But they agreed to meet up in their free period later so they could work on it.
Barney's History of Magic class went by slow. Usually this class went by slowly because Professor Binns teaching style was so boring but with the thought of deciphering another page of Nevermore's journal in his mind, Barney spent the whole lesson watching the clock, which made the time seem to go even slower.
As soon as the lesson was over he was out of there and headed to the library where he had agreed to meet Viola. When he arrived she wasn't there yet so he took a seat at a table and waited for her. But as he was doing so he was startled when he heard a scream come from behind one of the bookcases and he immediately went to go investigate. As he rounded the bookcase he saw Professor Pomperduke laying on the ground with a book on top of him, seemingly attacking him.
"Help please!" Pomperduke yelled out.
Barney was about to pull out his wand when a flash of light soared past him and hit the book, knocking it off Pomperduke. He turned around to see Madame Pince standing there with her wand raised and then turned back to Pomperduke who was still laying on the ground, looking flustered.
"Professor you know you always need to be careful when handling The Monster Book of Monsters," Madame Pince said with a scowl as she stepped past Barney and picked up subdued book and quickly fastened it's safety strap before it re-awoke. "What on earth were you doing?"
"I... I... didn't mean to. I don't think it was strapped up securely," Pomperduke stuttered as he got back onto his feet, straightened his clothes and looked incredibly embarrassed. "I... I... err had better be going."
Professor Pomperduke made a hastily exit from the library as Madame Pince checked over the book to make sure she hadn't done any permanent damage to it with her curse. "How that man ever got a teaching job here I will never know," she said under her breath as she placed the book back on the shelf and returned to her desk.
Barney headed back to his table and was glad to see Viola had arrived.
"What's going on?" she asked as Barney took his seat next to her.
"Oh nothing. Just Pomperduke being Pomperduke as usual."
Viola took her newly acquired book from her bag whilst Barney found the page in Nevermore's journal with the Magusarian symbols on and they began to decipher the code.
The Magusarian language was very extensive with over five hundred characters so it took them a while to translate the brief paragraph. But once they had they looked down at the page, even more confused than they were before -
I never was but always will be.
You travel towards me but can never reach me even though I am always there.
"What does that even mean?" Viola asked looking puzzled.
"Maybe we translated it wrong?" Barney pondered but after double checking they both knew it was right.
Barney knew they needed some more help so at lunch he found Thomas and Tabitha and brought them to the courtyard where Viola was waiting with the translated page though they had no idea what it meant either.
"Maybe it's death?" Tabitha suggested. "We're all heading towards it."
Barney thought it sounded a pretty morbid thought but knew she might be right until Thomas pointed out that you can reach death by dying.
"What about a horizon?" Thomas then added.
"But horizons exist. 'I never was' makes it sound like something that doesn't exist," Viola noted and they didn't seem to be getting anywhere.
"So we need to think of something that doesn't physically exist yet somehow does?" Barney said as everyone sat in silence and didn't seem to have a clue what the riddle could be referring to.
Even by dinner time no one had any better suggestions to the answer to the riddle and Barney sat looking glum at the Slytherin table as everyone else enjoyed their food.
"You OK Barney?" Everard asked between mouthfuls of food.
"Yeah fine. Just not hungry tonight."
He spent the rest of dinner in silence thinking over the riddle but all it did was give him a headache. He was looking forward to getting back to his dorm and getting an early night, hoping with a fresh mind tomorrow he might have more luck at cracking the riddle. However everyone was held behind in the Great Hall as Professor McGonagall had an announcement to make.
"Good evening students," McGonagall said as she addressed them all and the hall was silent.
Everyone was wondering what she was going to announce and there was a slight air of trepidation and worry as no one knew if it would be good news or bad.
"Firstly I want to thank everyone for making our American friends feel so welcome this school year. I've had nothing but positive feedback from Professor Night and our four exchange students on their time so far here. So as a reward and to show our guests an extra special time we have decided to throw a Valentine's Ball."
The hall erupted in excited cheers of excitement and McGonagall had to wait until the commotion had died down before she began to speak again.
"And as an added bonus our four students who went to Ilvermorny will be returning for the night to enjoy the ball with you. This will be a formal occasion so make sure you have your best dress robes ready and ensure to brush up on your dance moves. Thank you all and goodnight."
As McGonagall and the other teachers started to exit the hall all the students started discussing with their friends what they were going to wear and who they were going to ask to be their date for the ball.
But Barney wasn't as excited as everyone else. He felt a ball was an unnecessary distraction. And the thought of finding a date for it filled him with nothing but dread. Everyone he knew seemed to already be coupled up including the one person he would have actually liked to go with.
The next day everyone was still talking about the upcoming ball and Barney was already sick of hearing about it. Things did get any better when he got to Potions class that day and Professor Slughorn told them what they'd be brewing.
"Well everyone, seeing as the Valentine's Ball is just around the corner it only seems fitting that you should have a go at making some Amortenia. Now as this is a very powerful love potion, which will cause the drinker to have an infatuation with whoever gave it to them, I won't be letting any of you take a sample of it away from the classroom. But the potion does have the distinct property that it has a different aroma for each person who smells it depending on what attracts them. So it may give you some hep if you're still not sure about who to ask to the ball."
The class quickly turned to the Amortenia page in their Advance Potion Making textbook and busily started preparing their ingredients, though Barney seemed to show a distinct lack of enthusiasm compared to the rest of the class.
"Do you need a hand?" Tabitha asked as she spotted Barney sitting there just staring at his textbook.
"No it's fine," Barney said as he finally started to make the potion.
The potion itself was pretty straight forward to make so everyone in the class ended up with a potion coloured white with a mother-of-pearl sheen and steam raising up from it in spirals, much to Professor Slughorn's delight.
"Well done everyone. A most excellent batch of Amortenia produced by all. Now take a deep breath in of the vapours and lets see what you can smell."
Everyone looked at their potions a little hesitantly but Silvanna seemed unconcerned and was the first to have a smell.
"So Miss Silvas, what do you smell?" Slughorn asked.
"I can smell butterbeer and pumpkin pasties and honey."
"I think she's just hungry," Tabitha jokingly whispered to Barney and Thomas.
Everyone else started to smell their potions and discussed with their friends what they had smelt. Marek Dorn had smelt vanilla, lime and rain and Roblin McGregor smelt chocolate, leather and Garlic!
"What did you smell?" Tabitha asked Thomas after watching him take a deep breath of the vapours.
"Er... freshly baked bread, coconut and..." he paused to take another smell, "... and new books I think. What about you?"
"I got mint, cut grass and wood polish," Tabitha answered. "Well Hamish does play Quidditch so that explains the wood polish."
Barney thought the whole thing was stupid as he listened to the pair of them. A lot of people played Quidditch and Thomas was looking for a girl who smelt of bread, coconut and books. Who actually smelled like that?
"So what about you?" Tabitha said turning to Barney.
"What about me?"
"What does it smell like to you?"
Barney didn't want to answer. He recognised the aroma straight away as soon as he had smelt it. It was vanilla, lavender and jasmine, the exact same smell as the perfume Tabitha wears. "It was cut grass, the seaside and... roast beef," he lied, thinking quickly on his feet and he was glad when the lesson was over.
"I need to run back to my room to grab my Charms textbook," Tabitha said as she packed the rest of her things away. "I'll see you in class Thomas. Barney don't forget we're meeting up at lunch time tomorrow to do our Care of Magical Creatures assignment."
"Of course. See you tomorrow," he replied and suddenly froze as Tabitha left.
"What's up?" Thomas asked, seeing his friend staring off into space.
"That's it!"
"What's it?" Thomas replied looking confused.
As everyone else started to leave the lesson he told Thomas to wait there and grabbed Viola and brought her over to their desk. Once everyone had left the classroom he burst out with it.
"I think I've solved the riddle."
"Really?" Viola asked, sounding surprised. "What is it then?"
"It's so simple. We're all heading towards it all the time it but we never get there because when we do it moves because it never actually happens."
"What are you talking about?" Thomas asked, wondering if his friend had lost the plot as he wasn't making any sense.
"It's tomorrow. The answer is tomorrow," Barney jubilantly announced and Thomas and Viola were silent as they recalled the riddle and went over it in their head seeing if Barney's answer fitted.
"I think you might be right," Thomas said.
"Well what are you waiting for?" Viola declared enthusiastic. "Try it out in the journal."
Barney grabbed the journal from his bag and opened it at the right page and with his quill he wrote the word 'tomorrow'. They all held their breath as they wait to see if anything happened. And slowly words started to appear on the page and they all began to read them -
So far I've been unable to figure out how the stone works. All attempts to elicit a reactions from it have failed. I'm not even sure what kind of reaction the stone will give. My studies into it's history and lore have mentioned a range of ideas including that it grants the possessor's wishes, that is only merely shows you your desires but doesn't give them to you and that it can alter reality. However one common theme I have discovered in the mentions of the stone's past is that it is said to be cursed. There seems to be a trail of death where the stone is concerned. Everyone who has possessed the stone seems to have eventually either gone mad or met with a premature death. Sometimes I wish I'd never found it.
"Well that is ominous," Viola declared as Barney read the page for a second time. "And also not very helpful."
"This is going to be a lot harder than I thought," Barney said frustratedly and placed the journal back in his bag.
Thomas hadn't said a word since the page had revealed itself. He was just stood there in silence looking a bit unwell.
"Are you OK?" Barney asked.
"Yeah but Barney I think you should seriously think about putting the box and the journal back where you found them. This doesn't sound good."
Barney had already heard about the stone supposedly being cursed so this wasn't anything new to him. And he knew about how Nevermore had died by being struck by lightning and his wife disappearing but he wasn't convinced that had anything to do with a so called curse. This revelation hadn't put him off. If the stone really could grant your wishes, nothing was going to stop him finding it and figuring out how it worked.