Hermione looked it over again. It didn't read like Draco's poetry. He had
said, quite truthfully, on two occasions that he had no skill with meter.
'Elven'. Hermione raced her brain to the reference. She remembered back to a Council meeting that had gone completely astray because Ben and Terry had been arguing about the spelling of the above word. She couldn't remember why.
Terry's point had been that no one except J. R. R. Tolkien used the 'v' and that the proper spelling was 'elfin'. Ben argued that 'because' Tolkien retained the 'v', everyone else should, too. Hermione neither remembered nor cared who had won. One fact burned brightly in her mind: only Tolkien spelt it 'Elven'.
She had to find Ben. Cutting through the kitchens to Hufflepuff Tower seemed the fastest way. It was not really a tower at all, really, more of a turret and the rooms below it.
Before the portrait of a large something in white could ask for the password, Hermione pressed her wand to its frame. "Hogwarts Forever," she whispered. It had been George's idea: a universal password to get the 'Council Members' into any House's inner sanctum. The vote had been unanimous, but Hermione had added the wand recognition as an extra precaution when she, Ben, Terry, and Claris set the spells. This had most certainly not been approved by any teacher, unless you counted George, which nobody did.
The portrait swung open, and Hermione ducked in. She scanned the Hufflepuffs lounging around the common room and found Ben in a corner, playing two games of chess at once and losing both of them. Hermione went over and tapped him on the shoulder. "I need to speak to you."
Ben jumped. "Merlin, 'Mione, don't do that to me! You aren't supposed to be here except on emergen-" She thrust the letter into his hand.
"This 'is' an emergency." Ben perused the letter. "It's from 'The Lord of the Rings', right?"
"Yeah, Sam sings it in Cirith Ungol to see where the orcs have taken Frodo."
"Is it a riddle?"
"No, Sam is basically trying to cheer himself up, and the orcs hear him and the orcs hear him and think he's Frodo, and-"
Hermione remembered exactly why she had given up fiction at age nine. "Ben, I need answers that make sense. Quickly."
Ben looked at her, brown eyes dancing. "Someone is trying to give you directions with a poem from the Return of the King?"
"No, Ben." Hermione no longer tried to keep the impatience out of her voice. "Draco Malfoy is trying to give me directions with a poem from The Return of the King. Now are you going to help me or not?"
"Yeah. Come on." Ben stood up, his face unreadable. Hermione followed him out of the common room and down to the entrance hall.
"Where are we going?"
Ben turned on her, his normally gentle expression annoyed. "He's coming from Durmstrang, right? 'In western lands.' That means he's Apparating. How many places can you Apparate to around Hogwarts? That are 'beyond' or 'above' the Anti-Apparation barrier."
"Beyond or- half a sec. 'Above' the barrier?"
Ben, walking backwards, ran a hand through his fine, gold-brown hair. "Yeah, above. Who checked the barrier the other day? There are a couple of towers it doesn't quite stretch to. I patched it up as well as possible, but it just wouldn't cover-"
"The Astronomy Tower," Susan Bones said, pulling off her Invisibility Cloak.
'Elven'. Hermione raced her brain to the reference. She remembered back to a Council meeting that had gone completely astray because Ben and Terry had been arguing about the spelling of the above word. She couldn't remember why.
Terry's point had been that no one except J. R. R. Tolkien used the 'v' and that the proper spelling was 'elfin'. Ben argued that 'because' Tolkien retained the 'v', everyone else should, too. Hermione neither remembered nor cared who had won. One fact burned brightly in her mind: only Tolkien spelt it 'Elven'.
She had to find Ben. Cutting through the kitchens to Hufflepuff Tower seemed the fastest way. It was not really a tower at all, really, more of a turret and the rooms below it.
Before the portrait of a large something in white could ask for the password, Hermione pressed her wand to its frame. "Hogwarts Forever," she whispered. It had been George's idea: a universal password to get the 'Council Members' into any House's inner sanctum. The vote had been unanimous, but Hermione had added the wand recognition as an extra precaution when she, Ben, Terry, and Claris set the spells. This had most certainly not been approved by any teacher, unless you counted George, which nobody did.
The portrait swung open, and Hermione ducked in. She scanned the Hufflepuffs lounging around the common room and found Ben in a corner, playing two games of chess at once and losing both of them. Hermione went over and tapped him on the shoulder. "I need to speak to you."
Ben jumped. "Merlin, 'Mione, don't do that to me! You aren't supposed to be here except on emergen-" She thrust the letter into his hand.
"This 'is' an emergency." Ben perused the letter. "It's from 'The Lord of the Rings', right?"
"Yeah, Sam sings it in Cirith Ungol to see where the orcs have taken Frodo."
"Is it a riddle?"
"No, Sam is basically trying to cheer himself up, and the orcs hear him and the orcs hear him and think he's Frodo, and-"
Hermione remembered exactly why she had given up fiction at age nine. "Ben, I need answers that make sense. Quickly."
Ben looked at her, brown eyes dancing. "Someone is trying to give you directions with a poem from the Return of the King?"
"No, Ben." Hermione no longer tried to keep the impatience out of her voice. "Draco Malfoy is trying to give me directions with a poem from The Return of the King. Now are you going to help me or not?"
"Yeah. Come on." Ben stood up, his face unreadable. Hermione followed him out of the common room and down to the entrance hall.
"Where are we going?"
Ben turned on her, his normally gentle expression annoyed. "He's coming from Durmstrang, right? 'In western lands.' That means he's Apparating. How many places can you Apparate to around Hogwarts? That are 'beyond' or 'above' the Anti-Apparation barrier."
"Beyond or- half a sec. 'Above' the barrier?"
Ben, walking backwards, ran a hand through his fine, gold-brown hair. "Yeah, above. Who checked the barrier the other day? There are a couple of towers it doesn't quite stretch to. I patched it up as well as possible, but it just wouldn't cover-"
"The Astronomy Tower," Susan Bones said, pulling off her Invisibility Cloak.