Chapter 10 – I've Got It!
In the days following their argument, Harry and Draco spent as much time together as possible, which turned out to be all of their time. They flew about the Hogwarts grounds together for nearly an entire day, stopping in the kitchens for lunch. Draco brought his Snidget out after lunch and the two seekers raced around after the little bird. Draco even beat Harry to the Snidget twice. That night they lay out on the Quidditch pitch and spent hours looking at the stars.
"There's the constellation I was telling you about, the one that Sirius was named after. See it?" Harry pointed towards the sky with the hand that wasn't entwined with Draco's and Draco nodded from beside him. There was a moment of silence before Draco spoke.
"Did you know that there's a constellation named after me?" Draco asked with pride evident is his voice.
"Named after you? Don't you mean the other way around?" Harry teased back.
"Of course it's named after me. Why shouldn't it be, hmm?" Harry coughed something that sounded like 'conceited' and Draco punched him lightly on the arm. A few minutes later they were snogging enthusiastically, all thoughts of constellations forgotten.
The following day Harry and Draco slept in since they hadn't gotten back to Gryffindor tower until two in the morning. Harry suggested a swim in the lake and by three o'clock that afternoon they were standing by the edge of the calm, smooth water. They made their way into the lake and Harry ducked under the water to wet his hair. When he came back up Draco's head was still dry.
"Don't want to get your hair wet, love?" Harry teased.
"Not particularly," Draco huffed back. "I'll have to wash it a million times before it gets clean again! Look at this water."
Harry laughed softly at Draco's response and moved towards Draco for a kiss. "I'll be happy to wash it for you," he said. Pressing their lips together, Harry wrapped his leg behind Draco's and pulled them out from under him. Harry broke the kiss as Draco went under the water and in a few moments Draco came back up sputtering. Harry swooped in for another kiss before Draco could retaliate and Draco seemed to forget avenging his soaking wet hair.
Their playful swimming continued until dinner and went to bed right afterwards, too exhausted from swimming for more than a few lazy kisses. They fell asleep quickly wrapped in each other's arms.
After a few days of fun a thunderstorm started. Since they couldn't go outside Draco suggested that they work on the prophecy, much to Harry's disappointment.
"Term is starting in a week Harry. We need to figure this out before then!" Draco really wanted to decipher the prophecy before he had classes to worry about. Harry however had a different idea.
"I think we should leave the prophecy until after the start of the term. Once it starts we won't see each other as often. I want to spend as much time with you as I can before then." Harry looked to Draco who was considering what he had just said.
"Besides," Harry started again, "working on the prophecy would give us an excuse to get together often."
"Who said we needed an excuse? We can get together whenever we want. Wouldn't you rather spend our time together during the year on other things?" Draco asked as he winked at a blushing Harry.
Harry sighed in mock defeat. Draco's idea sounded incredibly appealing. "That's a good point. Let's get this thing done!" Harry picked up a book from the stack on the table and sat down, flipping through the pages. Draco laughed and sat down beside Harry and looked through the pages of his own volume.
Hours later, Draco was still looking through the books with Harry's head on his lap. Harry had fallen asleep half an hour before and Draco had decided not to disturb him. Draco set down the book he was looking at and picked up the next one in the pile. It was an old and tattered leather-bound book and it looked somewhat promising. He wanted to find the runes soon and his frustration was becoming unbearable. He opened the book and saw that it was written in French. Draco, having learned French from his mother, began to read sections of the text. One section in particular caught his eye:
"...this ancient language was used in France for recording very secretive and important documents. A translation table can be found on the following page..."
Draco read the passage aloud to himself, trying not to get his hopes up. Turning the page he saw the runes that made up the prophecy along with their modern-day equivalents. Draco jumped up from the couch in his excitement, causing Harry to fall to the floor.
"Ugh what was that for Draco!" Harry complained. He had been enjoying his sleep.
"I found it! Look!" Draco said excitedly, shoving the book under Harry's nose. Harry tried to read it but he couldn't.
"Draco what language is this!"
"It's French. Look there." Draco pointed to the translation table. Harry looked at it for a moment, then his eyes widened.
"This is amazing Draco! Come on lets translate this thing!" Harry exclaimed as he pulled the parchment containing the prophecy out of his pocket. The boys translated the runes but couldn't make any sense of them when they tried to read them.
"It's just a jumbled mess of letters. And lots of them! We'll never figure this out," Harry said, sighing in defeat. Draco reached for the book and pulled it towards himself.
"Maybe this says something about it..." Draco read a few paragraphs and found what he was looking for. Harry watched as Draco's face lit up.
"Find anything?" Harry asked, knowing that Draco had.
"Yeah...there's a pattern we have to follow to put this all together."
"Is it hard?" Harry asked, hoping that it wasn't. If it was, the translation could take hours...days...
Draco spoke, interrupting Harry's train of thought. "Not really. We have to take every fourth letter from beginning to end and repeat that until we've covered all of them." Draco smiled. He was rather pleased with himself for his discovery.
"Well let's figure this out. I want to go to bed," Harry said with a yawn. Draco picked up a blank sheet of parchment and handed it to Harry along with a quill.
"How about you write down the letters and I read them to you," Draco suggested. Harry nodded to Draco and Draco started dictating the letters to him.
A few minutes later Harry had the prophecy written down in the form of a string of letters. He stared at the parchment in front of him, still trying to make sense of it. "Draco! It's not in English. What are we going to do now?" Harry whined. Things were looking hopeless to him.
"Let me see," said Draco, taking the parchment from Harry. "It's in French Harry. It says..." Draco studied the parchment intently, translating the French inside his head. He finished reading it and frowned.
"What is it?" Harry asked. The frown on Draco's face was worrying him slightly.
"Hmm. Let's owl Dumbledore and let him know we've translated it. Then we can try to figure out exactly what it means." Draco pulled out a fresh piece of parchment and quickly scribbled a note to Dumbledore. He sent it off with Hedwig and returned to Harry.
"What does it say Draco?" Harry asked again. He was getting impatient.
"The power of the wand is not great enough to end the rule of the Master of the School of Concordiae."
Harry paused for a moment, processing what he had just read. "It doesn't make sense. The School of what? Concordiae? That's not a normal word!" Harry looked at Draco, who seemed equally perplexed.
"Maybe it's from another language. Or it could be an English word that isn't used anymore." Draco suggested. The phrase sounded vaguely familiar to him but he couldn't place it.
"I sure hope so otherwise this will never make any sense." Harry sighed.
"Maybe we should wait for Dumbledore. He's good at figuring these kinds of things out. Plus I'm too tired to really analyze it at the moment. It's almost one in the morning," Draco said, indicating the clock and stifling a yawn.
"Okay hun," Harry said offering his hand to Draco. "Let's go to bed." Draco took Harry's hand and let Harry lead him to the dorm. The boys stripped off all their clothes with the exception of their boxers and lay down in bed. Harry snuggled into Draco and sighed happily as Draco wrapped his arms around him.
"I'm glad we found out what the runes were," Draco said to Harry.
"You found the runes Draco. Though I was also being incredibly productive, sleeping and all."
Draco chuckled at Harry's comment. "G'nite Harry," Draco whispered and kissed the top of Harry's head.
"Night Draco." Harry's breath tickled Draco's neck and he shivered. Harry kissed Draco softly and rested his head on Draco's chest. The boys soon drifted off into a deep sleep.