(ALL THE INFORMATION ON THIS MYTH OF BALOR IS TRUE…I HAD TO GO THROUGH SEVERAL RESEARCH HOURS ON THE INTERNET TO BRING IT ALL TOGETHER)
It was sometime later when Draco and I were both sitting in the library and researching that Harry and Ron breezed in looking flushed. There were only a few more people left in the library, as it was almost closing time so we were in the corner of the room where we had been for the past few hours.
"None of the other ghosts have any idea of what could have happened to him." Harry said sighing and picking up a book from the center of the table.
Groaning I placed my head in my hands and watched as Draco tried to hide a grin.
"Why are you helping?" Ron asked Draco suddenly.
Truthfully I was curious myself so I waited for his answer in which he replied,
"The sooner you three figure this out the sooner this problem is out of my hair so I can go onto more…productive activities."
I bit my lip to keep the smile away and began reading the book in my hand once more.
"Do we have any idea of what we are looking for?" Ron groaned taking a big brown book into his hands.
"The Evil Eye or the Eye of Balor." I said not looking up at him while turning the page.
That second there was a loud thump behind me and without thinking all three boys drew their wands and pointed them behind me. I whirled around and saw Seamus staring at me in horror with a pale face. I looked down and saw that the source of the noise had been him dropping a book.
"Finnigan?" Draco asked confused.
Seamus continued gaping at me until he finally whispered in his Irish accent,
"What did you just say?"
Furrowing my eyebrows together I asked calmly,
"What are you talking about?"
"Did you or did you not just say the Eye of Balor?"
I was surprised when I saw him cringe at the name.
"Why, yes I did actually." I responded slowly as the three boys slowly pulled their wands down.
"Why?" He asked utterly confused.
"I'm trying to find information on it, would you happen to know anything about it?" I asked standing up, causing Draco to stand up grudgingly as well.
He nodded his head and clenched his jaw before sitting down at a table next to ours.
"You're not going to find it easily in these books as it's an old Irish or rather Celtic myth."
I raised my eyebrows and nodded my head for him to continue.
"You know that Balor was a wizard-king of the Fomorians correct?"
We all nodded our heads in positive agreement.
"Do you know what the Fomorians were however?" He asked.
"A race of demonic giants who were ancient occupants of Ireland."
He nodded his head and continued,
"Balor was given the eye when a curse was laid upon him as he as child had peered into his father's magician's chambers when he was warned not to. The curse however was said that if he opened the eye anything that it fell upon would be killed. Soon the eye grew so big that it took four men to pry it open."
Ron gave a disgusted noise next to me while Seamus continued,
"Apparently it was prophesized that his grandson would be the one to kill him so he locked his daughter away. She however became pregnant with a son named Lugh. After complications the two fought, and when Balor opened his eye to kill his grandson, Lugh threw a stone at his eye and it was knocked out and Balor fell over dead."
We all stared at him in complete silence until I finally asked,
"Why were you so stunned when I mentioned the name?"
"That's the myth me brother used to tell me to frighten me Hermione, it just took me by surprise is all since I haven't heard that name mentioned in years."
I nodded my head and thanked him as he took his book and hurried away from the library.
"Onto Celtic myths then it is boys." I said grinning as the four boys groaned.
After convincing Madame Prince to let us stay after hours we were all sitting in the library pouring over Celtic and Irish books, trying to find more information.
"Why are we trying to find all of this information again?" Draco moaned rubbing his eyes.
"Because we need to figure out the history behind it as to why it would be in a Muggle Studies Classroom." I said.
"Coincidence?" Ron offered.
Harry and I gave him a sarcastic look as I said,
"As the three of us have both come to figure out, there are no such things as coincidences in Hogwarts."
"Think I found something." Draco murmured looking intensely at a few words.
"Well go on then, read it." I said nudging his arm.
Rolling his eyes he took a deep breath and said,
"It basically just says the same thing as Finnigan had said, he's the god of death and the king of the Fomorians, anything he looked at with his evil eye would be killed instantly. His grandson, Lugh, became a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann…" he was about to continue until I held a hand up.
They all looked at me expectantly as I bit my lip and closed my eyes to try and remember where I had heard that name before. My eyes snapped open with a wide grin on my face as I said,
"That's Gaelic for the Tribe of the Goddess Dana. They were ancient rulers of Ireland for almost two hundred years and very powerful at magic. They were the Irish gods founded by the goddess Dana. It was said that they were sworn enemies of the Fomorians."
The three boys looked at me with slacked jaws and replied,
"And you remember this from?"
Rolling my eyes I yawned and closed my eyes while stretching.
"Hermione we've done enough studying today, we all need to get some rest." Ron reasoned.
Nodding my head I closed the books and stood up with Draco, all of us made our way out of the library, not noticing a soft whisper of a song emitted through one of the books on the table.
"Do you really think the professor having that sword is a really big occurrence?" Draco asked when we were back in the infirmary after a scolding from Madame Pomfrey.
"I suppose we'll find out tomorrow when we get more information on it." I sighed.
"More!" He cried out stopping midway with pulling his shirt on.
I turned towards him to give him a scolding remark when I caught sight of his chest. Widening my eyes I couldn't help the smile that crossed my face as I took in the lean muscles of his torso.
"I do believe you're staring Miss Granger." He whispered.
I looked up into his amused eyes and smirked replying,
"And here I believed you had no problem with girls staring at you."
He grinned and took the easy distance between us in half a stride.
"I don't." He said nonchalantly wrapping a free arm around my waist.
Nodding my head since I had nothing else to say I placed my free hand on his arm and gave it a squeeze as he pulled me quickly into him for a kiss.
Draco and I were standing with the rest of the Gryffindors and Slytherins in our class of Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid was standing in the middle of us with a large crate that was shaking.
"Here we go again." Draco murmured causing me to grin as Hagrid lifted the lid off to produce the most vial looking creatures I've ever seen.
"These 're Bertlebees, they need groomin'." He instructed and all of our mouths dropped.
"You want us to give those disgusting things hygiene!" Malfoy bellowed clearly furious.
"Keep yer temper down you don't wanna go excitin' 'em do ya?" Hagrid said as one of the deep purple things began crawling in his arm.
The things looked like giant lizards but with longer legs and deep purple skin with moldy green spots on their heads.
"If yer don't believe me then go 'head and take a look at Caleb Markinson, nasty cut on his cheek."
Malfoy, Ron, Harry, and I all froze with what we were doing and looked up slowly.
"When did that happen Hagrid?" I called out weekly.
"I'd say about…er…a couple o' days ago."
I could tell that my face was pale as Hagrid moved forward and said,
"Blimey Hermione, are you alright?"
I nodded my head weakly and didn't pay attention to the rest of the class, an absolute first for me.
"Just because he isn't the one with the cut on his cheek doesn't mean that he wasn't one of the Deatheaters at your house." Ron argued as we were trudging back up to the castle.
"I guess you're right, it just doesn't fit together for some reason." I argued.
"Come on Hermione, we need to go take a closer look at the sword anyways." Draco said but was stopped when Harry placed a hand on his shoulder and Ron's mouth dropped.
"Hermione?" They both echoed.
Draco and I exchanged a glance and then looked at the now furious Ron and confused Harry.
"You guys if we were to get through this predicament did you honestly think we would act like immature first years and keep up the animosity?" I asked trying to use reverses psychology on them.
It must have worked since they both relented slightly and nodded their heads but I could tell when the cuffs came off there would be a rather large discussion.
"We've got lunch right now so checking out the Muggle Studies classroom should be no problem." I directed and began to move back towards the castle.
When we entered inside I moved straight to the back but stopped instantly causing the others to run into each other.
"You know the common knowledge is to keep putting one foot in front of the other." Draco drawled irritated behind me.
"It's gone." I whispered.
"WHAT?" Harry and Ron asked and moved around me to see as well.
"What is the big bloody deal? So what! The sword is gone is this not a good thing to have something like that gone?"
We all slowly turned towards him with an incredulous look on each of our faces.
"Were you or were you not listening to everything we found out last night? If that sword got into the wrong hands imagine the destruction and death it could cause! The safest place for that horrible thing was in Hogwarts." I said lowering my gaze at him.
"Unless someone in Hogwarts knew that." Draco said.
Harry and Ron exchanged looks with each other and looked directly at Draco.
"Oh you twits of all wonders! I've been handcuffed to someone for at least four months now, I couldn't have possibly taken it!" Draco cried out exasperated.
"No, but you certainly could have told someone about it now couldn't of you?" Harry countered.
"And once again I bring up the issue of being handcuffed, she would have heard." Draco said leaning against the nearby desk.
"I don't doubt that you have your ways of working around that plan…" Ron began but I cut them off and stood in front of the three boys.
"Blaming each other will get us nowhere!"
Sighing I collapsed on a desk and said,
"We need to go to Dumbledore."
"Oh yes and say what exactly? By the way sir, one of the most evil swords ever produced was in Hogwarts for some time, but don't worry it's disappeared along with the only person who would know the full history of it…"
We all stopped short along with Malfoy who had been saying this and looked at one another.
"Coi…" Malfoy began but I cut him off,
"There are no such thing as coincidences in Hogwarts."
We remained silent for some time when suddenly Draco and Harry were both alert.
"What?" Ron and I asked.
Draco and Harry both exchanged a look and brought out their wands at the same time. Truthfully it was actually kind of odd to feel safe at this moment but with Harry and Draco and their obvious skills I wasn't too worried.
"Look we should just leave, whoever or whatever's here is obviously waiting for us to say something important, let's not give it the chance." I reasoned.
Without waiting for a response I dragged the three boys out of the room, none of us hearing the conversation that took place moments later,
"This could prove to be difficult…" A deep voice said.
"What do we do then?" A softer female voice asked.
"We need them separated, especially the girl and Lucius Malfoy's son."
"As you wish…." The softer female voice replied.