Chapter Three—Mysteries of History

Hermione was not the only one reading by the common room fire that evening. Ron had borrowed a book called A Magical History of the Twentieth Century from the library and was trying to catch up on what he hadn't been able to listen to in class. Ginny had joined them, as well; she was in her fifth year, and already irritable about the amount of homework she had been set. As she wrote, she was muttering about the various teachers and how horrible they were being. And Harry, of course, was engrossed in The History of Hyrule.

He had read the introduction, which was shorter and less dry the second time, possibly because he was more awake, and was just finishing "Chapter One: The Creation". It was an interesting story about how the planet and all life on it had been formed by three deities: Din, goddess of power; Farore, goddess of courage; and Nayru, goddess of wisdom. Harry was just imagining what it would be like in a society that worshipped Them when he remembered what Dumbledore had told him. Everything in this book was true. When he recalled this, he actually made a small exclamation of surprise. Ron looked up.

"What?"

"Oh… It's just an interesting book, that's all."

Hermione, who had broken her focus on Herbs of Africa, became absorbed again, and Ginny hadn't so much as paused in her low, rapid fuming. As Harry turned to begin "Chapter Two: Holy Relics and Temples," Ron asked in an exasperated tone, "Don't you have any work to do, or are you just going to relax all night?"

"This is work!" Harry said indignantly.

"You really should start on those Charms review questions or your Herbology diagrams," Hermione said without looking up. She was now carefully copying an illustration of a Deku Baba onto her parchment to label its parts; they had to do such pictures for six different plants. Harry looked briefly at her work, considering it. She was probably right.

"Yeah, I'll do the Charms stuff," he sighed, picking up his backpack. "That shouldn't take too long."

"I've never seen you actually wanting to read," Hermione commented, still working without pause.

It wan unusual, Harry knew, for him to be interested in a history textbook, but this one was interesting. It read like a story, and he could tell he hadn't even gotten to the good part yet. He was also curious about those two pictures of Ganondorf and Link. Who were they? Why did they hate each other? Would there be other pictures in this book of people that he had seen in his dreams? Why did he have these dreams at all?

They worked in silence for at least another hour. Ron closed his book with a sigh of relief as he took his last note at around eight thirty, then picked up his Charms questions. Moments later, Hermione put down her last Herbology diagram, a Flying Bean sprout, and picked up her own Charms work just as Harry finished his. Ginny was scribbling a conclusion to her paper for Snape; as she wrote her last words, she declared, "That ought to keep the old idiot happy. I need a break." Shoving her books and paper into her bag, she left the fireside to join some of her fellow fifth-years in a game of Gobstones. Ron watched her go.

"She'll regret not staying on top of her work," he said darkly.

"She's doing better than her friends," Harry pointed out.

"And it's not as if you have any right to criticize!" Hermione snorted. "As I recall, you didn't do any homework your first week of fifth year!"

"Yeah…well, I was training for Quidditch," Ron muttered, avoiding her gaze. He turned to Harry and pounced on the change of subject. "Speaking of which, Harry, we need two new Chasers this year. Have you done anything about tryouts?"

"Oh, not yet. I'll talk to Madam Hooch tomorrow booking the pitch. I'll put a sign up, too…"

Harry pulled out a scrap piece of parchment and scribbled on it, "New Chasers needed for Gryffindor Quidditch team. Tryouts soon."

Hermione, reading over his shoulder as she passed behind him on her way to return Herbs of Africa to her dormitory, snorted. "Oh, Harry, please. Let me."

She took the parchment from it and deleted the words with a tap of her wand. In their place, she wrote in careful, curly letters:

Notice from

Gryffindor Quidditch captain

Harry Potter

Are you skilled on a broomstick?

Do you want to help our team beat Slytherin for the Quidditch championship the third straight year?

Gryffindor needs you!

Two of our best Chasers have graduated, and we need new players to follow in their footsteps!

Keep watching the notice board for more information on how you can become Gryffindor's new star!

Everyone is encouraged to try out!

"You see?" Hermione said, showing Harry her sign. "Now that attracts attention and interest!"

And she proudly strode across the room to pin up the sign, where several people immediately turned their heads towards it and proved Hermione right.

"You could use her," Ron said with a smirk. "For PR and organization and stuff like that."

Harry and Hermione both looked at Ron, then each other.

"Want to?" Harry asked.

"Sure," Hermione answered.

"Hey— I wasn't serious!" Ron said.

"No, but it was a good idea," Hermione told him with a shrug, as she picked up her Charms again and set off working.

That night, Harry had his most convoluted dream to date. Or it might have been two dreams. He still wasn't sure.

First, he just saw darkness for several minutes, but he somehow knew it was not simply the darkness of his closed eyes. Then, gradually, a dream began. He saw Voldemort's face, the only pale thing in a dim room lit by a fire. Voldemort was walking across the room to open the door; when he did, a short and rather thickly built man hastened to bow.

"Yes, Nott, I have been expecting you… Enter. You have news?"

"I do, my Lord," panted Nott, still stooped in a half-bow as he shuffled into the dim room. "I have worked tirelessly on the task you assigned me, and I am delighted to say that I have at last—"

"Spare me your elaborations," hissed Voldemort. "Tell me, have you found him?"

"I—Well, yes, we have found…in a manner of speaking… You realize, of course, that he is not alive, in the conventional sense, and waiting to be found…b-but nonetheless, we have located what remains of him on this, er, plane on existence."

"And where is he?" Voldemort demanded.

"He—that is, the evidence of him—"

"You are far too rambling, Nott," said Voldemort in a dangerously quiet voice. "You underestimate what I can comprehend, and you therefore give me unnecessary buffering details."

Looking shocked, Nott stammered, "No, my Lord, never! I—"

"Do not contradict me. Give me a location."

"Yes…yes…" Nott muttered, continuing to look flustered as he fumbled in his robes for something. He pulled out a piece of parchment and handed it to Voldemort, explaining, "Off the coast of Ireland. In the southeast… that is, west of here…"

"I am familiar with the geography of Great Britain and Ireland," Voldemort cut him off, taking the parchment. "It is marked on this map?"

"Yes, my Lord. Or, as near as I could calculate. It is a very precise thing to document…"

"You may go, Nott," Voldemort told him, "and have Lucius sent to me."

Continuing to bow awkwardly as he backed out of the room, Nott babbled on, "Yes, my Lord… of course… I will."

Voldemort opened the map as Nott quietly closed the door behind him. It showed Ireland, and just as Nott had said, a place off the southeastern coast was marked with a small red X and its coordinates. As Voldemort gave a low chuckle of satisfaction, the scene began to fade away. Yet it had only just begun to do so before all was suddenly darkness again.

But it wasn't the darkness of dreamless sleep. It was the darkness of a person lying awake in a room in a house in a town completely unpolluted by artificial light. Gradually, the person's eyes adjusted, and some features of the room became visible: a small wooden table, a small wooden desk. Everything in the room was wooden, including the floor, ceiling and walls. Actually, there was only one wall, because the room was a circle. Harry had a funny feeling this was a tree house; he also suspected it was Link's house.

Harry sat up, or rather, the person as whom he was dreaming sat up; to judge by the body this point of view was attached to, he was younger than Harry himself, ten or eleven years old at the most. He was sleeping in his clothes, which consisted of a green tunic and leather belt. A matching hat lay on the floor next to the bed, where he had tossed it before falling asleep.

Link yawned, rubbed his eyes, and ruffled his hair before standing up and stretching. He grabbed his hat and shoved it on as he padded on bare feet to the open door, where a pair of brown leather boots stood. After slipping them on, Link went out into the warm night.

His house was in the top of a tree, and he climbed down a ladder to reach the ground. Harry saw that he was in the middle of a forest, or, more accurately, in the middle of a small town in the forest. All the houses were, like Link's, carved into trees, but they looked as though they had grown organically into the trunks and branches rather than having been imposed upon them. Pollens drifted slowly through the air, some of them glittering mystically. This place was more attuned to nature than any Harry had ever seen.

Link was making his way to the edge of the forest settlement, where thick vines grew over a high ledge of rock. With the grace of a cat, Link climbed the wall and reached a large, hollow trunk which formed a sort of entrance into what was otherwise a solid wall of greenery. The trees on the other side were just as thick, and though they thinned in some areas, they still looked like random and labyrinthine confusion to Harry. Yet Link navigated the woodland as easily as if he were following clear paths. He was taking a winding route with few variations in appearance—a rock here, a forest pool there… The whole place was disorienting in the extreme, but Link clearly knew it well. He was unfazed to find himself in a large clearing that marked the beginning of a hedge maze; this, like everything else in Link's world, had apparently occurred naturally. And, like everything else, Link knew it like the back of his hand and wove his way through easily.

On the other side of the maze was the strangest thing yet. It was another clearing, but this one was at the top of a flight of stairs, and the first thing Harry noticed was a large stone slab on the forest floor, carved with a simple design. The second thing was a doorway, which sat atop an overgrown wall like the one Link had climbed to enter this place. A stairway had once led up to this structure, but it had long crumbled away, and all that remained now was a stone pillar and a few half-intact stairs high overhead, near the door itself. Link crossed the clearing towards this structure, looking into its black depths.

"Hi, Link. I kind of thought I'd see you here tonight."

The voice shocked Harry instantly, not only because he hadn't noticed there was another person in the clearing, but also because that person was speaking in a language he had never heard before and yet could somehow understand.

"Hi, Saria," answered Link in the same language; he was not startled by the presence of another person. He was looking at a tree stump now, and Harry saw that a young girl was seated on it. She had blended in with the moss, leaves and ivy behind her, because her boots, shorts, sweater, eyes and even hair were all green. Link sat on the ground before her, legs sprawled in front of him as he leaned back on his elbows.

"You were having nightmares, weren't you?" asked Saria quietly. Link sighed and looked up at the stars in the clear night sky.

"One of the weird ones… You know, with the man who speaks a different language."

There was a long pause, during which a few notes of flute-like music quivered through the air. Link looked down; Saria had brought a roundish, tan-coloured instrument to her lips and was playing on it a quiet, slow song.

"What were you having nightmares about?" asked Link.

The music stopped abruptly.

"Same as always," Saria mumbled in answer, staring down at the instrument in her hands. "The dark man… but this time it was worse."

"Why?" asked Link nervously.

"I saw him here," Saria said softly, looking around the clearing.

Now it was Link who was shocked. "Here? But he couldn't come here, he's not a Kokiri!"

"I know it doesn't make any sense. But none of our nightmares ever really do, do they?"

Link laughed bitterly. "That's sure true. Do you think that means they won't come true then?" He sounded hopeful.

"No… I still think they will," she said sadly. "I just have a feeling…"

There was another protracted pause, during which Saria put the instrument to her lips again. Before she could start playing, Link said, "I'm surprised you came here. I would think you'd be a little bit scared."

Smiling shrewdly, Saria eyed Link and asked, "Would you be a little bit scared to come here?"

"No," Link answered quickly, sitting up straighter. "I just thought you might be."

Saria laughed, explaining, "I had to make sure everything was okay here. This place is important to me."

"Yeah… me, too. I'm glad nothing's wrong."

"So am I. I think we need to get cheered up a bit, don't you?"

Link grinned. "How about some music, ocarina girl?"

Saria began to play an upbeat, childish tune, and Link began tapping his feet in time to it.

"How about some dancing, Link?" Saria suggested between notes.

"Come on, Saria, I'm no good."

Saria shrugged. "I've seen you dance."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Link demanded indignantly.

Grinning, Saria said, "Prove me wrong."

"I plan on it!" Link laughed, jumping to his feet. He began to turn and jump around playfully, with no sense of rhythm, and Saria had soon dropped her ocarina to join him. They grabbed hands and spun around in a circle, until they were both so dizzy that they collapsed in a heap on the grass in exhaustion. The sky had begun to lighten by the time they stopped giggling and lay still on their backs, staring at the sky.

"We're always going to have fun, aren't we?" said Link.

Saria didn't answer.

"Saria?"

He looked over; she was dozing off.

"We'll be best friends forever, Link… no matter what…" she murmured softly, her eyes fluttering closed.

They lay there, content with the moment that felt as though it would never end, and discontent with the uncertain future they knew was coming all too soon.

Harry woke up confused; that one dream—or was it two?—had taken up his entire night's sleep. But that wasn't nearly as strange as the fact that Link had apparently dreamed about Voldemort. It was one of many things that left Harry utterly lost.

Did all this mean that Link was a Seer, and made prophecies about occurrences thousands of years in the future? Or did it mean that Harry had simply constructed a dream out of random pieces of information in his brain? If that was the case, they did any of the places he had seen exist? Did Saria, Link's best friend, exist? And what about the fact that they were speaking a different language? Was that the second tongue that The History of Hyrule was written in?

"We're going to be late, Harry, let's go!" came Hermione's voice, breaking into Harry's thoughts. He blinked, and snapped himself into the present.

"Oh…right," he said vaguely, piling his books into his bag. He had been sitting in the library with Ron and Hermione during a long break between classes, but now it was time for them to go to Astronomy.

"You look tired," Ron observed, frowning. "Are you still not sleeping or something?"

"No. I'm sleeping okay. Just…thinking."

"About that book?" asked Ron and Hermione in unison.

"About a dream I had last night."

"A nightmare?" Hermione asked fearfully.

"Not really… It'll take too long to explain now, I'll tell you later."

He continued to formulate theories about various parts of the dream right through Astronomy. For example, Link had said that only Kokiri could go to the place where he and Saria were; according to the book, the Kokiri were a race of people who lived their entire lives within the south eastern regions of Hyrule, which were called Kokiri Forest and the Lost Woods, and were children of about ten years old developmentally from the moment they came into existence (grown like plants rather than born like babies) until they died. So all this information tallied, since presumably Link and Saria had been in Kokiri Forest somewhere.

But each answer like this led to more questions. For example, if he was a Kokiri, why were there pictures of Link as a fully grown man? And why did Harry often dream of him doing things outside the forest? And, most importantly, how could Link have descendants?

Harry also wondered why Saria was such a minor part of Harry's dreams if she was such a major part of Link's life. Perhaps Ganondorf had done something to her. If that were the case, it would explain Link's murderous rage against the man; Harry knew that it was very easy to wish for someone to suffer if they had hurt someone you loved.

"Harry…Harry!"

"Huh?"

Ron chuckled, and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"You really have to start paying attention to the real world, Harry," she scolded him.

"I am paying attention," Harry said defensively. "I just haven't been sleeping well—"

"Oh, honestly, Harry," she snapped impatiently, "you said just before the class that you had been sleeping fine!"

"Did I? Well, maybe a little…"

Ron raised his eyebrows at Hermione. "He's not even making sense to me now."

Harry knew he was barely coherent; his mind was elsewhere. "Look, I just… Let's just go work on some homework…we don't have another class, do we?"

Hermione looked as if she wanted to lecture him again, possibly for not knowing his own schedule, but Ron headed her off by saying, "No, we don't. Want to go up to the library or the common room?"

"The library's closer to the Great Hall, and it's almost dinner time. We should be able to get our Astronomy mostly done before then, shouldn't we?"

"Do you even know what the Astronomy homework is, Harry?" Hermione asked suspiciously. Harry, who had copied down the assignment without really reading it, showed her what he had scrawled at the bottom of his notes, about an essay on spiral galaxies.

"Told you I'm paying attention," Harry said, trying to sound hurt by her unjustified accusation as he put his notes away again.

They worked in the library, as planned, until dinner, then made their way down to the Great Hall together. Once they were seated, Harry pulled out The History of Hyrule to read as he ate, and Ron laughed out loud through a mouthful of steak.

"Are you trying to outdo Hermione?" he asked after he had swallowed.

Hermione glowered at them both, and said sanctimoniously, "I don't consider than an insult."

Harry shrugged. "It's getting good," he answered Ron's question by way of explanation. He was halfway though "Chapter Two: Holy Relics and Temples," and he planned to finish it by the end of dinner. The next chapter was called "The Early Wars," but Dumbledore's list instructed him to skip to "Chapter Seven: The Quest of the Hero of Time," and he was planning on it. According to his picture caption, Link was the Hero of Time, and he was what Harry was most interested to read about.

Just to satiate his curiosity slightly, he flipped ahead to the beginning of chapter seven to look again and Link and Ganondorf's pictures. Before he reached them, however, he paused on the page just before, which was taken up with portraits of other characters who would presumably come into play. One of them instantly caught Harry's attention.

She was a young girl dressed all in green; she even had green eyes and green hair that framed her smiling face and long, pointed ears that matched Link's. She was also holding a roundish object which Harry recognized from his dream as a musical instrument. An ocarina. Around her head fluttered a pale green sparkle with wings. It looked like a fairy, and thinking back, Harry realized that it had been present in the dream, too. He simply hadn't paid it any mind, because Link hadn't. This picture was labelled, Saria I (7214-7008 BCE) – Sage of Forest.

It was the dates that sent Harry reeling. She was seventeen years older than Link! Of course, he reminded himself, Kokiri didn't age, so that wouldn't matter…but Link aged. That fact still bothered him. Besides that, Link had lived about seventy years, and while this seemed like a respectable life span to Harry, Saria had lived for over two hundred! Why were they so different? Had Link perhaps died in battle, at a young age by Kokiri standards?

There were other pictures as well. A gruff-looking man who greatly resembled a large, brown rock with arms, legs, a beard, and powerful muscles. Darunia (7221-7011 BCE) – Sage of Fire. (7202-7180 BCE) – Big Brother of the Gorons. So this person, like Saria, had lived roughly two hundred years…

A woman who resembled a blue fish with shimmering skin and large sapphire drop earrings, standing on two webbed feet and smiling sweetly as the sparkling fins on her arms fluttered slowly. Princess Ruto Zora (7198-7007 BCE) – Sage of Water. So she was Link's age, but had vastly outlived him…

Another woman, who looked as though she belonged to the same race as Ganondorf, with bronze skin, a large gem set in her forehead, and a long ponytail of hair so flaming red that it put Ron to shame; she also had the same sharply defined nose and normal-sized ears that Link's rival did, and dressed in the same manner that looked Arab-inspired in colour and style, but while Ganondorf's clothes were clearly fit for warfare, hers were intended primarily to keep cool in hot regions. Nabooru (7212-7008 BCE) – Sage of Spirit. (7194-7180 BCE) – Queen of the Gerudo. She, too, had lived a long time, but she had reigned as queen for only fourteen years, very early in her life, and, unless Harry was mistaken, at more or less the same time Ganondorf had…

The last woman, rather intimidating in appearance, with steel grey hair pulled back fiercely behind those distinctly pointed ears, her face decorated in what looked like war paint around the eyes, which suited her stern expression; she was dressed in sleek battle attire, complete with some sort of rod in her hand that might have been used to discipline a horse, or for some other purpose. Lady Impa (7236-7025 BCE) – Sage of Shadow. She had been born before any of the others…

Finally, an elderly man of a short, thick build, dressed in rich, red robes, the sleeves of which hung past his hands, and though he was almost completely bald, except for a circle of white hair, he had a short beard of the same colour; his ears, too, were pointed, his blue eyes were vibrant and piercing, and he was clearly not a man to be toyed with. Rauru (7254-7159 BCE) – Sage of Light. He had lived most of his life before any of the others were even born…

On the opposite page were two pictures of children. The first could only be Link: he had the same clothes and eyes of his older incarnation, he was armed with a small sword and wooden shield, and his face was already hardened by fighting. As Harry looked at him, a blue sparkle like that which glittered around Saria flew out of his hat. It was, of course, another fairy, but Harry was sure it hadn't been in his dream.

Sir Link I Hero (7197-7123 BCE) – Hero of Time.

Yet in this picture, he was just a child. He couldn't have been much more than ten years old…

Next to him stood a girl of about the same age, wearing an elaborately decorated white and purple dress that suggested great wealth. She was adorned with golden jewellery, but had the same serious expression that Link wore. It seemed that she, too, had known suffering in her short life… And, Harry noticed abruptly, she was wearing a crown atop the golden hair which flowed down her back. It was the same shade as Link's, he noticed. So were her eyes. In fact, they looked very much alike, now that he thought about it. How odd.

Queen Zelda I Hyrule (7197-7123 BCE) – Seventh Sage. (7180-7123 BCE) – Queen of Hyrule.

This small girl would grow up to be a queen who would reign for fifty years—but she, like Link, would die at a comparatively young age…

No, wait. She had died at a young age already, hundreds of years ago. Dumbledore had said this was all true.

"Is something wrong, Harry?" came Ron's voice. "You're not eating. Hey, mate, what's up?"

For Harry had just looked up, his face blank with bewilderment.

"I…just…I'm trying to figure out these pictures… I'll look at it later."

He closed the book firmly, not wanted to look into the faces of the children on page 111; he didn't want to think about their mysteriously painful futures, so far in the past.