Chapter 18
The Potion of the Undead
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and the other things I've written for disclaimers.
Author's Note: Hey people!!! So what happened last chapter? Oh yeah! Harry and his friends get their awards, and Glory's four friends tell the Gryffindor trio that they found out EVERYTHING about the Voldemort-Malfoy-Glory scheme. They were all going to meet at the Room of Requirement, but when Harry, Hermione and Ron got there, the Ravenclaw girls were attacked. Glory was really sad, and when Harry was about to tell her about Malfoy and Voldemort's plots, Malfoy told her instead, and she ran out of the room screaming. So, here's the next chapter!! Pleaser read and review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"We get to visit Joy today?" asked Harry to Hermione as him and his friends walked in the corridors to the common room.
"Yes," responded Hermione. "They found out what she has isn't contagious, so we can visit her. She's doing a lot better too!"
"When can we expect her to be going back to classes?" asked Ron.
"I'm not exactly sure, but at least a week from now."
"Oh look, there's Glory!" pointed out Harry.
Glory was walking sadly alone in the hallways, and when she realized they were in the hallway, she became happy to see them. Glory rushed over to them, grinning uncontrollably.
"Hi, guys!" she said.
"Hi," said Ron, who was surprised at the dramatic change of Glory's attitude.
"Hello, Princess!" said Hermione.
"Hi, Glory!" said Harry.
"I'm so glad to see you all," said Glory. "It looks like you were rushing somewhere. Where are you going? There are no classes today."
"We were going to visit Joy," said Hermione.
"Really? How wonderful! I would go too, but I'm going to visit my friends in the Hospital Wing. Uhm...I wanted to ask you..." she said, stuttering. "C-could you maybe come over to my rooms tomorrow?"
"We don't have the Ravenclaw password," said Ron. "How are we going to get in?"
"It's okay, I'll tell the entrance painting to let you in free of password," she said. "I'll ask permission from Professor Flitwick for you to come in first. I'll send you a letter stating if you can come or not, all right?"
"Where would your rooms be in the Ravenclaw common room?" asked Harry.
"All you have to do is go to the girls' dormitories - don't worry, I'll tell the girls before you come - and then you'll see a large, old-fashioned wooden door. There's a telecom near the door."
"What's a telecom?" asked Ron.
"Do you know what an intercom is?" asked Glory.
"Ron doesn't, but Harry and I do," said Hermione.
"An intercom is a kind of device attached to the wall, so two people in certain places are able to talk to each other. The telecom is like that except that it's quicker, clearer and the person using it can actually see the other person instead of just hearing them."
"Is it just me or is everybody using muggle-inspired gadgets?" said Ron.
"Muggles are actually quite interesting, and their way of technology is amazing," said Glory. "Us witches and wizards have such a comfortable lifestyle with magic that we don't bother inventing things to modernize our lives."
"What would we do in your rooms?" asked Harry.
"I could show you around, show you my newest inventions and things, and then we can play that board-game we played at Christmas time."
"During the time we're there, could you help me put up a website on your computagram?" asked Hermione.
"Of course!" she said gladly. "What do you want your website to be about?"
"I want to make a computagram website for my organization, SPEW, which is short for 'Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare'. It's to give house-elves their freedom, wages, and to treat them as equals."
"Sure, I'm all about being nice to house-elves," said Glory. "They do a lot of hard work for us; they deserve our respect."
"But I also think they should have wages, or even their freedom."
"I've known a lot of house-elves, and they seem to like their jobs," said Glory, looking at Hermione strangely.
"They've been brought up to like it!" exclaimed Hermione. "They should be treated like we treat wizards and witches: wages, proper jobs, food, clothing, etc."
"Technically, if you just give them a uniform in the first place- Oh forget it, I'll just help you set it up, all right?"
"Sure! When should we meet you?"
"It'll be in the letter."
"Okay, see you then- "
"Wait a minute," interrupted Harry. "Sorry about the interruption, but I wanted to ask you how you were feeling, you know, after yesterday."
"What are you talking about?" asked Glory.
"You know, when I met you at the Great Hall. I wanted to tell you something about your friends, then Malfoy brought you in an empty classroom to tell you something and you screamed out."
"Pardon?" questioned Glory suspiciously and confusingly. "I don't remember that at all."
"You ran through the corridors, crying and burying your hands in your face. You let out this huge shriek."
Glory looked completely blank.
"I'm sorry, I don't remember," she said, shaking her head. "All I remember is staying in my rooms for dinner because I wasn't feeling well. I think I should go now, bye!"
"Bye!" said all three of them.
Harry couldn't believe what had happened; Glory didn't recall at all what had happened yesterday.
"I can't believe it," said Harry. "She doesn't remember a thing!"
"Do you think she was lying because she was embarrassed?" asked Hermione.
"She seemed pretty blank to me," said Ron.
They headed to the common room, where they would meet Joy in her rooms. Once they were in the common room, they went to the girls' dormitories ("Harry! Ron! Would you stop fidgeting?" ordered Hermione when they went there) and approached the massive door. Harry noticed the telecom Joy had shown him before.
"How do we get in?" asked Ron. "It's obviously locked."
"Just use the telecom," said Harry, pointing to the little screen near the door.
"So that's a telecom!" said Ron with his eyes open, as he looked closely at the little screen, almost pressing his nose on it. "Bloody brilliant! How do we use it?"
"Joy explained all of this in her letter," said Hermione. "You just press the button-" she said as she pressed the button, "- and wait for a beeping sound and Joy, or a house-elves, to appear on the screen."
A tiny beep was heard, which followed the appearance of a tiny, chubby house-elf in a maid's uniform on the screen.
"Hello, dis is da residence of Princessa Joysinious," said the house-elf on the tiny screen. "May I aska yo' namesi and yo' businessa?"
"We're Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley," replied Hermione clearly. "We're here to visit the Princess."
"Da Princessa is expecting yo'," said the little creature. "Yo' may come in."
Suddenly, the door quickly opened, as did all the very many doors behind it. Shocked and slightly scared, they walked into the opening entrances which lead them to a cozy living room with a Moroccan theme to it, with wonderful colours and lovely furniture. They saw Joy on the couch in the middle, covered almost completely with various blankets (her head was the only thing not covered). She looked drowsy and shivery. She had a steamy porcelain-pink goblet on the table next to her.
"Hey, guys!" she said in a faint voice. "Don't worry, I'm not contagious. You can sit anywhere you like."
Harry approached the circle of comfy furniture with his friends as he sat down on a cozy chair to Joy's left. Ron sat on the chair closest to Joy, and Hermione sat comfortably on the sofa across from Joy.
"Do any of you want anything to drink or eat?" she asked.
"No," they all said in reply.
"Are you doing all right?" asked Ron, clutching Joy's hand.
"Not that great," she said in a wheezy voice. "I'm doing a lot better though. My throat was so weak and sore that I couldn't talk, I could barely move and I couldn't do the charms I tried to practice. Actually, I looked a lot skinnier in the morning than I did before."
Harry listened to the description closely, realizing how close her symptoms were to the symptoms Cho and Glory's friends had from the attacks. Could she have been attacked?
"Did you hear about what happened to Glory's friends?" asked Harry. "The ones who were going to tell us all about the secret information?"
"Yes, I have!" said Joy. "It's awful, isn't it? My poor sister... She has other friends and all, but it still wouldn't be the same. It would be like if I lost all you three. Did you visit them?"
"No, we haven't yet," said Hermione. "We think they probably won't remember anything."
"That's true," said Harry. "Cho didn't remember what happened, so the other four probably won't. I heard you didn't remember anything the night before the morning you became sick."
"Yeah, I don't remember anything at all, meaning that all I remember is shutting my eyes and suddenly waking up feeling absolutely horrible."
"That's so strange," said Ron.
"Do you think you could have been attacked?" asked Harry.
The whole entire room went silent. Joy looked at him strangely and sipped a bit of her steaming goblet.
"Why would I have been attacked?" questioned Joy. "Malfoy, nor anyone planning with him, could have come in here. The house-elves never leave the rooms, and the only one who knows my password is Glory, and even if she did tell someone, she would get horrible acne. We made a contract not to tell anyone of the passwords, which had a kind of jinx on it."
"That sounds like what we did last year," said Harry, remembering the contract they made for Dumbledore's Army. "But Tiffany said that what you had wasn't a virus, and that it had something to do with Lord Voldemort and Malfoy."
"Did you happen to think that they could have been wrong?" asked Joy, taking another sip of the mixture.
"But all your symptoms, they make it seem as if you were- "
"I wasn't attacked!" said Joy in a loud and scratchy voice. "I just told you!"
"Then what do you have?" asked Harry.
"I don't know, but it doesn't matter. I'm getting better."
"It does matter! If you, the Princess for Magic, was attacked, then it would really matter!"
"I haven't been attacked!" shouted Joy. "Don't you dare argue with me again!"
Harry trembled at Joy's shouts. He had never heard her shout before. Why didn't she want to listen to what he had to say? She was sounding a bit bossy too. If she was attacked, they obviously did something to her personality. He tried to give up on what he was trying to say.
"I'm sorry," said Harry. "I was just worried- "
"You're worried for the wrong reason," said Joy.
"But- "
"Could you just stop bringing up the subject?" demanded Ron.
Harry remained silent. Why couldn't Ron understand?
"Harry, I am so sorry I said those things," apologized Joy quickly. "It's a part of the things I'm experiencing. I start to get a short temper once in a while. The truth is, I-"
Joy unexpectedly yelped in pain and clutched her hand to her head. She looked like Harry when he had a pain in his scar.
"What's wrong?" asked Hermione in worry.
"Nothing, it's- OW!!"
She gripped her hair and bit her lip as if she couldn't take it.
"Love, are you all right?" asked Ron, looking very worried.
"I- I think I'm all right. Let's just drop the subject," she said as she took another sip of the pink porcelain goblet.
"What's that stuff you're drinking, honey?" asked Ron.
"It's chicken mixture," said Joy, sipping it a bit more. "It's a kind of potion made with chicken. It tastes really good. It's basically the only good thing that's good about being sick."
"Is it like muggle chicken soup?" asked Hermione.
"Yes, it is. Actually, it was a witch who invented it. There's only one difference: the muggle kind doesn't have as much flavour as this kind. Oh, and there are no chunks of ingredients in the mixture either."
"Oh, I almost forgot!" gasped Hermione. "Here's all your homework."
Out of her bag, she pulled a few papers and notes and handed them to Joy.
"Thanks, Mione!" she said. "So, did any of you do anything else today?"
"We talked to Glory, who invited us over to her rooms," said Harry.
"That was nice of her!" said Joy. "Anything else?"
"Actually the other day, I was thinking of telling Glory of what's happening. You know, Malfoy's schemes and everything. I thought she should know."
"She was with Malfoy too!" said Ron.
"Harry!" said Joy in a disappointed look. "You could have been in great danger!"
"You're always putting yourself in danger!" said Harry.
"I'm a lot stronger than you are, and I'm supposed to serve my people. That's what leaders like me or supposed to do."
"Anyway, I was about to tell her, but then Malfoy wanted to tell her something. He was going to tell her his schemes with Lord Voldemort. He brought her to an empty classroom, but then Glory came rushing out - screaming!"
"Oh dear!" gasped Joy.
"I know, it's awful. I tried asking her if she was okay from the day before, but she said she didn't remember a thing."
"That's peculiar," said Joy.
"After that scene," said Hermione, "we argued a bit about the Prophecy, that Voldemort or Harry had to die at the hand of the other."
"That Prophecy?" said Joy. "And what did you argue about it?"
"I was saying to Harry that the Prophecy might have meant that one had to die while the other lived, but one could have been killed by someone else. That would explain why you and Glory killed him."
"But Dumbledore talked to me in the beginning of the year," said Harry, "and he explained that the war wasn't actually meant to kill Voldemort. He also said that everyone ignored the Prophecy, and that they thought it could have been done with a large army and powerful leaders."
"Obviously, it didn't work," said Joy. "Dumbledore was telling us all about the Prophecy before the war and that it might not have been possible to kill him. Only a few believed him. My sister and I believed him, and we were so scared to fight in the war. We thought we might be the ones getting destroyed! Some people were actually considering having you in the war, Harry."
"Really?" gasped Harry.
He had wondered why he wasn't participating in the war that summer, although Joy said that he could have fought in the war made him tremble. He thought of all those people dying, those endless days of battling... He was still puzzled how happy and perky Joy was, or was she?
"Yeah, they were thinking of bringing you, but Professor Dumbledore said it was a bad idea. He didn't want you to get hurt. He really cares about you, you know."
"I'm really grateful for that," said Harry with a smile.
"Anyway, Professor Dumbledore thought that the Prophecy could have meant the person who could defeat him was you, but a powerful army might be able to as well. And as I said before, we were wrong."
"It's a shame," sighed Ron. "You fought really hard."
"We still managed to defeat him in the war!" said Joy, being optimistic. "We won!"
"The greatest thing about being you being my girlfriend is that you can change a bad perspective into a good one," said Ron, and pinched her cheek affectionately. "You're always making me happy."
"That's the key to being perky!" she said.
"I think we should go," said Hermione, looking at her watch. "We're waiting for a letter from Glory, and you should catch up on your homework."
"You're absolutely right," said Joy. "I'll see you soon. I'm probably going to be able to leave my rooms in about 4 days time. Hey, I just remembered! The Chudley Cannons game is next Saturday. Do any of you want to see it on my teleview?"
"Teleview?" asked Harry.
"It's like a television, except with wizard qualities. You know, a remote control that can't be lost, a lot more channels, you can watch shows that you've missed, you can browse and find any kind of show in the world - whatever!"
"You have a teleview?" questioned Ron. "Here?"
"Of course I do! It's in one of the other rooms."
"That is so cool!" exclaimed Ron. "We only use a radio in my house, because we can't afford a teleview..."
"That's okay, Ron. Maybe I'll buy you one for Easter. My family's getting a new one at the palace, so you can have the older one."
"Really?!?!?!" shouted Ron. "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! We're getting a teleview!"
"Like Ron commented before, it seems like there are so many new things that were muggle-inspired," said Hermione.
"Actually, the person who invented the teleview was a wizard who was muggle-born," said Joy. "Even so, I don't think it's too bad having all these things inspired by muggles. It's all about luxury, I say! Sometimes, I think they might have it a bit easier than we do. When my sister and I become Queens, we're going to try and inspire a new age to the wizarding world: technology. OK, maybe it's my sister who's a bit more excited about technology. If there's something that takes a lot of concentration and brain power, she'll love it."
"Glory seems so multi-talented," said Harry.
"She is, but it's more in a scholarly way. She doesn't take the time to enjoy beauty, non-serious things and things that don't involve using non-stop thinking, like make-up and Quidditch for examples! I'm telling you, that girl can't relax. Well, see you!"
"See you too!" they all said, leaving the room as all the doors opened to them.
As they walked into the common room, they saw a giant hippigryph lying on the Gryffindor carpet. Once it saw the three of them as they exited the last door, it stood up and walked majestically to them, with a large pouch dangling from its neck.
"It's Tsarina!" said Hermione, as she slightly bent her knees (the hippigryph was so large Hermione didn't have to bend down that much) and opened the pouch from it's neck, bearing Princess Glory's coat of arms. She pulled out an enveloped letter from the pouch. It had a wax seal bearing her coat of arms and on the front it said in calligraphic letters: To Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley in Gryffindor. She opened it and examined it. "Here's what it says:
Dear Harry, Hermione and Ron,
After consulting Professor Flitwick about our meeting, I have received permission for your visit tomorrow, at 2 o'clock at my rooms. The painting of Rowena Ravenclaw is instructed to open the entrance for you, free of password. If you need directions, just ask Luna Lovegood. She told me that she knew you. It will be my pleasure to see you then.
Sincerely,
Princess Glory (signature)
Her Royal Highness Princess Glorificous Elizabeth Tatiana Victoria Nefertiti Dumbledore-Illiermo, Princess of Magic, future Queen of Magic/Queen of the Wizarding and Magical World, Order of Merlin (second class), winner of the Norwellum Potions Prize, Norwellum Inventions Prize and 5-time winner of the International Duelling Championships
P.S. I seriously need to shorten my name.
Harry giggled at the commentary at the end, surprised that Princess Glory had a sense of humour. Ron stood dumbfounded, and Hermione looked quite interested at all the things she had done.
"I never knew a name could be that long," said Ron, shaking his head.
"I think someone has broken the world record for longest name," said Harry.
"World record?" questioned Ron.
"Muggles keep track of all the weird, outrageous and extraordinary things in the world and things they've done, and they're always trying to break world records. There have been world records for longest fingernail, oldest man, tallest mountain- "
"Muggles actually find those things interesting?" asked Ron. "Father will ever be interested to know that! What a ridiculous way to waste your time doing absurd things like- Oh no, Fred and George will be trying to break one sooner or later."
"Norwellum Prize!" said Hermione amazed. "That's like the Nobel to muggles, and she's won it twice! How extraordinary!"
"Why is her name so long?" asked Ron.
"People like her have long names and large titles," said Hermione. "I can't wait until tomorrow. I can't believe it... Norwellum Prize... twice..."
"I hope Hermione doesn't stay like this," said Ron. "She sounds like my sister, Ginny. Next thing we know, they'll build a shrine dedicated to Glory!"
*****
"Are you sure this is the way to the Ravenclaw common room?" asked Ron, as they walked down hallways they hadn't walked down before.
"Of course I'm sure!" stated Hermione. "I memorized all the instructions Luna Lovegood gave me."
"Just when I thought we escaped from that loony bin," sighed Ron.
Harry remembered Luna Lovegood, who was the Ravenclaw girl, now in her 5th year, who Harry had met the pervious year. Luna was quite an interesting character, and quite abnormal as well. Luna had followed him and his friends to the Ministry where they had thought Sirius was being attacked. It was, in fact, not true, and had led to the death of his poor godfather... Harry tried snap out of that awful mood. I'm sixteen and I should act more mature now, thought Harry.
They finally arrived at a large painting of a woman dressed in old-fashioned robes, looking distinctively intellectual. At the bottom of the painting was a tiny plaque, which read: "ROWENA RAVENCLAW, FOUNDER OF RAVENCLAW HOUSE". The woman in the painting was reading a book, but she looked up when she realized the three were there.
"Hello, dears!" she said sternly but kindly. "I see that you were the three Gryffindor students Her Royal Highness described to me. I welcome you into my house, as you may enter."
She smiled at them, as the entrance quickly opened. The entrance revealed a wonderfully decorated room, which looked incredibly like a study for a great witch or wizard. Most of the furniture had bronze or blue colour. There were statues of eagles here and there, and even eagles carved into the furniture. There were cases of books everywhere with a few interesting wizard or scholar tools, such as a few telescopes, globes and cauldrons. The common room had a globe ceiling, with a bronze and crystal chandelier dangling from the middle of the ceiling. There was a large marble fire place at the centre of the room. Above the mantelpiece was another portrait of Rowena Ravenclaw, and below the portrait was a lovely turquoise and ivory pendant of an eagle in a glass case.
In the middle of the room, there was a large fountain. It had two statues facing each other: one of the Greek goddess Athena, goddess of knowledge, who had an owl perched on her shoulder, and a statue of Rowena Ravenclaw. At the bottom was a statue of an eagle perched onto an open book, with its wings wide open. Water splashed out from the beak of the eagle and owl, the head of Athena and the wand of Ravenclaw. At the edge of the fountain's pool read the words: "FOUNTAIN OF RAVENCLAW".
"I can't believe it!" said Ron. "Ravenclaw gets a huge fountain, and now Slytherin has a small fountain. Why doesn't Gryffindor have a fountain?"
"How am I supposed to know?" asked Harry. Harry was still looking around the room, marvelling at its decor.
"Harry! Ron! Hermione!" shouted a voice from the other side of the room. It was Luna Lovegood, who was reading a book and was wearing a scrunchy made out of ball-shaped onions. She ran towards them, excited to see them again.
"Hi!" she said with a smile. "I haven't seen you two, Harry and Ron, in such a long time!"
"Yeah, it's too bad about that," sighed Ron.
"You're here to meet Princess Glory, right?"
"Yes, we are," said Harry. "Are you friends with her?"
"Not exactly," she said. "We talk once in a while, but we're not considered friends. I love listening about her inventions and things like that. She's pretty interesting. I've been asking my father to put a story about her in The Quibbler for ages."
"She won the Norwellum Potions and Inventions Prize, did you know that?" asked Hermione. "I just found that out yesterday, and I still can't believe it."
"Yes, I've heard about that. I think she won the Norwellum Potions Prize for that perfected were-wolf potion, and she won the Norewllum Inventions Prize for inventing
contact lenses that able you to see through walls and things like that. It's used for the army now."
"That's so interesting!" said Hermione. "I hope she can show us her prize-winning potion and invention."
"Where's the door to her rooms?" asked Harry.
"It's in the girls' dormitory over in the corner there," said Luna, pointing to a door at their right. "Inside there, you'll find a large wooden door. You can't miss it."
The three of them followed Luna's instructions, and found the massive door in the girls' dormitory that Glory and Luna had talked about. Even if he had been in a girls' bathroom and the Gryffindor girls' dormitory before, he still felt uncomfortable being in the Ravenclaw girls' dormitory. Ravenclaw girls going up the spiral staircase looked at Harry and Ron strangely, giggling amongst themselves.
The door was wooden, and of course, massive. It had a large coat of arms on the front (Glory's obviously). On the side was a small telecom. Harry pushed the red button of the telecom. There's was a small beep, and on the screen appeared another chubby house-elf.
"Allo, dis is da residenca o' da Princessa Glorificusa," said the chubby house-elf, just like Joy's house-elf had said. "May I aska yora namesi and yora businessa?"
"Our names are Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger," replied Harry. "We're here to meet Princess Glory."
"Da Princessa 'as beena awaitin' yor orrival," said the house-elf. "Yo may enter."
Just like at their visit to Joy's room, all the doors immediately opened, as they entered every single one of the entrances. Those entrances led them to a large room decorated in an English Renaissance-style decor, with antique chairs and tables lavishly carved, with several cozy couches and chairs sewn with a wonderful design. Around the room were a few strange instruments like those in Dumbledore's office. There were paintings here and there, sleeping or reading a book. There were 3 doors in the room, and a large spiralling staircase. In the corner of the room was a desk which had a computagram resting on it.
Sitting on one of the cozy chairs was Princess Glory, sewing quickly and daintily at a large, green silk cloth with a bottle of her favourite soda, Fizzy-up Vinkshim Soda, on a table at her side. She looked up at them, and quickly dropped the cloth and ran to them and hugged them tightly.
"Oh, I am so glad you're here!" she said, hugging Harry at the moment. "I've been so lonely these couple of days. I'm almost always surrounded by my four friends. Sit down and make yourselves comfortable."
She gestured at them to sit on any of the comfortable couches. Harry, Ron and Hermione all sat on the 3-person couch while Glory sat on her antique chair, just finishing up sewing a design on her silk cloth.
"Did you want anything to eat or drink?" asked Glory.
"No thanks," they all said.
"There, done!" she said, as she unravelled it and raised it up, revealing a very complex design of the Magical Table of Elements. "I made it for Professor Snape. He told me he needed a Periodic Table, so I volunteered to make it for him."
"You actually talk to that creep?" asked Ron.
"He's not quite a creep to me," said Glory, looking a bit disappointed at Ron. "He's actually quite nice. He's just had a bad past concerning Gryffindors, and Harry's father."
Harry knew what she meant. In his 5th year, he had seen in the Pensieve how awful James and Sirius had teased Professor Snape. Of course, it didn't matter now. Both of them were dead, or better said, brutally murdered.
"I can see you're quite good at needlework," remarked Hermione.
"Oh yes, I'm very good at it. Joy's better at crafts using glue though. I'm really bad at that, everything I try making with glue becomes a sticky mess."
"You're quite multi-talented," said Harry. "So far we know you're a great politician, public speaker, dueller, warrior, teacher, inventor, scientist, needlework...
Is there anything else?"
"I'm great at computagrams," she said. "I'm also pretty good at cooking too. I can also act."
"Really?" asked Harry. "You can act?"
"Absolutely," responded Glory. "My sister and I are wonderful actresses. Hermione, did you want to get started on that computagram website?"
"Sure!" she said, as she leaped off the couch and headed to the computagram.
"It'll take about half an hour to do this," said Glory, talking to Ron and Harry. "You can look at the inventions around the room if you like. You can even check out the door on your right. It contains a few of my Norwellum trophies and other inventions and potions. If you need to ask me something, just ask away and I'll answer your question. Just try not to break anything."
Harry and Ron looked at the little instruments which made tinkling sounds and puffed out smoke. Ron encouraged Harry to go into the room on their right. They slowly opened the door, revealing a large and dim room lit by glowing lanterns along the wall. There were shelves and shelves of strange-looking bottles, inventions and books.
Harry and Ron walked inside the large room, leaving the door open. Harry noticed a small table show-casing two silver trophies with miniature silver statues of a large globe and a wand across it. There was also the potion and the invention, with a display on a presentation board containing information about the two creations. There were tiny gold labels at the bottom, and each label was different. The first label said: 'NORWELLUM POTIONS PRIZE, 1993, HER ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCESS GLORY'. The second label said 'NORWELLUM INVENTIONS PRIZE, 1994, HER ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCESS GLORY.'
Near the Norwellum Potions Trophy was a large bottle of neon-yellow fluid. With it, was a presentation board covered in information about ingredients, the effects, instructions and chemical theories about it. Near the Norwellum Inventions Trophy was a glass containing a glass square holding up two strange-looking contact lenses inside with a presentation board displaying further information and pictures of how it worked. "Ron, come here!" said Harry. "I found where the prizes are."
Ron rushed to Harry's side, bent down and glared into the glass case that was showcasing the awards.
"It's magnificent," said Ron.
"She won the Norwellum Potions Prize in her 3rd year, and the Norwellum Inventions Prize in her 4th year."
"In my 3rd year, I couldn't even make a proper Potion to save my exam mark!" said Ron. "I'm still surprised I can do it now. I've improved very much, but I could never create a new kind of potion."
Ron stood up as they both headed in different directions, exploring the room with all the many inventions and potions. Ron explored the side containing potions, and Harry explored the side containing inventions. Everything was categorized in alphabetical order. Harry walked through the tall aisles, looking at all the interesting inventions from the Abacus of Magic, using magical beads which multiplied as much as you wanted and changed magically, to the Zoological Animated Globe Encyclopaedia, which was a globe on a platform containing buttons where any magical or Muggle animal would appear where you could also research the information about it.
"Hagrid would love that invention," mumbled Harry.
In between those two inventions were many other inventions, such as the Magic-Pen, which was a silver tube with a rubber grip in the middle with a pointed edge at the bottom, an odd tube-like part which was copper, and a few buttons at the top. The object was held up on two little sticks on a platform, which contained a label. Harry read it to himself:
The Magic-Pen
A modernized version of the Muggle pen. It is a metal tube containing a liquid called olacid ink, which can switch colours depending on heat and temperature. The buttons on the top activate the heat inside the pen which can change the ink into different colours. It has a rubber grip to insure a comfortable fit into the user's hand. At the top is a copper tube which can suck back up the ink if a mistake is made, and the ink is recycled. The ink-quantity refills 5 times, and the olacid ink, sold separately,
can be added in using a tiny closable hole on the side.
Along the way, Harry spotted another invention, called the Voice-Writing Parchment role. On display was a piece of parchment, which seemed strange to Harry.
"There's nothing on it," said Harry. "It's just a plain piece of parchment."
Suddenly, writing started to appear on the parchment, which was exactly what Harry said. It read in printing, "There's nothing on it. It's just a plain piece of parchment."
Marvellous, thought Harry to himself, as he examined more inventions. While walking along the aisles, two small questions appeared into his head. He rushed to the door where he spotted Hermione explaining to Glory about SPEW, making Glory look more suspicious and freaked-out the more she explained. Glory also spotted Harry and was glad to turn to him and stop listening to Hermione.
"Harry, do you have a question?" asked Glory.
"Yeah, I do. It's just two simple questions, really."
"It's okay, I'll answer it."
"Do you have your own laboratory in your rooms to create all your inventions?"
"No, I don't," answered Glory. "I use the school's laboratory, or I go to Snape's room, who loves watching and talking to me about my potions."
"I have another question. Do you personally use any of your inventions, even in class?"
"Sometimes I do for homework purposes. In class, I only use the Magic-Pen and Voice-Writing Parchment for copying notes. I have to put a spell on the parchment, though. It sometimes writes down things that other people are saying while the professor is speaking."
"Great, thanks for answering my question!"
"No problem," she said as she turned back to the computagram screen with Hermione. As Harry walked back into the room, he could hear Glory pleading to Herminone. "You've told me enough about how house-elves should be free. Can we go onto creating your guest book?"
Ron was starting to look at the Inventions section when Harry came in, so Harry decided to visit the potions section. There were a lot of rare ingredients and strange-shaped bottles. There were many potions such as the De-Poisoning Potion and the Lost Voice-Healing Potion. When Harry was about to explore through the aisles containing potions starting with q-t, he spotted a door-shape cut out of the wall, which he had almost not seen. Harry wondered if Ron saw the mysterious door cut out of the wall.
"Ron," called Harry in a whisper.
"Yeah, Harry?" whispered Ron back.
"Come, I found something."
Ron rushed to where Harry was standing.
"What is it?" asked Ron.
"Look, don't you see?" said Harry.
"See what?"
"The door cut out of the wall!" whispered Harry harshly as he pointed his fingers along the edges of the cut-out door.
"Wow, it's a cut-out door in the wall. Is it open?"
"I don't know, probably not."
"I'll check," said Ron, as he pushed the door-shape open. He pushed it along the edges, put it didn't work. He examined it, and realized there was a camouflaged doorknob. "First I don't see the door, then I don't see the doorknob. This entrance is very-well hidden."
"Maybe we shouldn't go in," said Harry as he gave it a second thought.
"Great, so you brought me here for nothing?"
"I'm just worried if we're going to find out something very personal about Glory."
"Harry, there are so many personal things about girls that it's hard not to stumble across one of them once in a while. I'll see if the doorknob's open." Ron turned the doorknob, and the door opened automatically. "Wonderful! It opens."
"I see a key-hole," said Harry, looking carefully at the doorknob. "Do you think Glory might have forgotten to lock it?"
"Stop worrying and come on!" said Ron in a frustrated voice. "First you're the one making us take chances, now you try and stop us. Make up your mind, won't you?"
Harry shrugged as Ron opened the door a bit wider. Inside was a large stone staircase. Harry and Ron entered and stepped onto the staircase, as Ron closed the door behind them. They descended down the cold stone staircase into a chilly dungeon-like place, which was very dim-lit.
After walking down the whole entire staircase, they stepped into a large, circular stone room with a few candles here and there, and there were shelves all around the room. Harry looked at a spiral-shaped bottle which said on the bottom: ELECTROCUTED ASHWINDER BRAIN. Harry cringed at the thought of a snake's electrocuted brain. Ron walked to where Harry was standing and looked at the bottle he was looking at.
"Ew!" shrieked Ron. "Electrocuted Ashwinder brain. A serpent's electrocuted brain, that's nasty. How do you get it in the first place? Do you first electrocute the Ashwiner and take out its brain, or do you take out the Ashwinder's brain and electrocute it?"
"I have no idea," said Harry. "Let's just forget about it."
Ron and Harry split up to look at all the weird ingredients, tools and cauldrons. They were pretty nasty stuff in Harry's opinion. He wondered why Glory had it in the first place.
As he walked into a tiny pathway at the back of the room near the stairs, he saw some kind of chest. It seemed very old and its lock was rather large.
"Ron, I need you to come here again!"
"What now?" questioned Ron as he turned to his side to get into the passageway.
"Look at the chest!"
"What about it?"
"There might be something interesting in it."
"Then what are you waiting for? Open it and find out!"
Harry took out his wand to unlock the chest.
"Alohamora," said Harry
The chest burst open, revealing a large rectangular plastic container with neon-green fluid. On the container read a label that said: POTION OF THE UNDEAD.
"Potion of the Undead?" questioned Ron. "What's that all about?"
"Look, there's a notebook inside!" said Harry, as he pulled out a red-covered notebook pushed to the side of the chest. He opened it and flipped through its pages. "Here's an explanation!"
Harry read the description and explanation of the Potion of the Undead aloud to Ron:
'Potion of the Undead
created by Princess Glory'
"So it was created by Glory," said Ron. Harry continued:
'A potion of neon-green colour which was created by Princess Glory. It is a sister potion to the Potion of Bone, Flesh and Blood. Unlike its sister potion which requires the remains of an almost dead or close-to-death wizard/witch, this potion requires something belonging to the deceased, and a drop of their blood (or something with their blood on it). It is used to bring back a person from the dead, or to bring a dead one's spirit or energy back to a greater state, with more powers or to its original strength and state of mind.'
Harry, whose eyes were wide in fear, looked up from the notebook.
"Do you think this might have something to do with Malfoy and Voldemort?" asked Ron.
"I think it definitely has something to do with them," said Harry. "Actually, I think we just found the answer to how Voldemort came back to life."
"But how?" asked Ron.
"For the potion, you need something belonging to the deceased," stated Harry. "I remember before our 2nd year that Lucius Malfoy was selling some items to a shop in Knockturn Alley. Remember? He had some of Voldemort's belongings!"
"Of course, he had Tom Riddle's diary! He could have used some of his other stuff at home to use for the potion! What about the blood?"
"What about it?" asked Harry.
"It says you need their blood or something with their blood on it," stated Ron. "Where would they get that?"
Harry thought about that question, and suddenly thought of the time in Charms
class when Princess Glory answered Seamus Finnigan's question of if they had blood on them.
"Yes, we had some blood on us," Harry remembered Glory say to Seamus. "Our swords had the most blood. Everything was cleaned though, except for one of my gloves which was completely covered in blood. I can't clean the blood off, so I can't use it anymore."
"They used the glove," said Harry. "They used Glory's glove with all that blood on it she couldn't get off. You know, the one she was talking about in Charms?"
"Of course!" said Ron. "But how would they use it? It said in the book that it can be used to bring back someone from the dead, or to bring a dead person's spirit or energy back to a greater state, with more powers or to its original strength and state in mind."
Harry thought more about this, and then he remembered something else Glory said during the presentation.
"His dead body looked pretty weird," she had said. "Some kind of smoke was rising from it. I read that it kind of happens to Dark wizards... or maybe not. I'm not too sure."
"There was another thing Glory said during the presentation," said Harry. "Remember when she said that Voldemort's dead body had some kind of smoke which was rising from it?"
"Yeah, that was pretty gross!"
"Of course it's gross, but maybe it wasn't just smoke. It could have been his spirit!"
"You think that the spirit lifted from his body when he died?" asked Ron.
"Probably. She said she wasn't too sure if that happened to Dark wizards, so it possibly doesn't happen. Voldemort's spirit most likely tried to contact the Malfoys, and he could have wanted Draco Malfoy to meet Glory so he could gain power once again. Do you think he knew Glory had this potion?"
"I don't know. He does know a lot of things. We'll investigate that later."
"So, what would this be?" asked Ron, pointing to the case filled with the potion.
"Duh! It's the Potion of the Undead!"
"Isn't Glory the only one who has access to this place? If this is the Potion of the Undead, then that means they already used the belongings of Voldemort and the glove with his blood. Glory wouldn't have made the potion, could she have?"
"I don't. Wait, wasn't there a hypnotist who was kidnapped?"
"Yeah, in the beginning of the year."
"Do you think the Death Eaters kidnapped the hypnotist to hypnotize Glory?"
"It could be possible, but could it work? Isn't she too powerful?"
"Yes, she's powerful, but they could have hypnotized her anyway."
"But where and when would they get to hypnotize her?"
Harry thought about that. He raced through his memory of the year so far, especially his first night back at Hogwarts. He remembered that he had seen a moving object in the sky.
"Did you see something strange in the sky the first night of our 6th year?" asked Harry.
"Yeah, I did!" exclaimed Ron. "I wasn't sure was direction it was going. Some kind of moving object, maybe even a large creature. Harry, do you think that maybe a Death Eater flew into the castle with a hypnotist?"
"It could be so, Ron."
"There's so many spells surrounding the castle," said Ron. "How could they get in?"
"Someone could have let them in Hogwarts," said Harry. "Maybe- "
"Malfoy, of course!" shouted Ron. "When do you think they might use this potion stuff, so Voldemort will return?"
Harry looked at the potion, and trembled at something he had noticed.
"So?" questioned Ron, trying to get an answer from him.
"A quarter of the potion is gone," mumbled Harry, still looking at the potion.
"What are you talking about?"
"It's not completely full!" said Harry. "There's only 3 quarters of it!"
"So?"
"They used it already, Ron!" shouted Harry. "They already used it!"
Ron shivered after hearing what Harry said, and looked blankly at him in fright.
"I think we should go," said Ron quickly, hurrying out of the passageway and into the circular room.
Harry quickly locked the chest back up with a charm and followed Ron out of the stone room, up the stairs and into Glory's room filled with inventions and potions. Once they were out of the strange dungeon, they took a deep breath from running. Glory peaked inside the room and found Ron and Harry standing there.
"Sorry about taking so long," apologized Glory. "We can play 'Battle for the Mystic Empire' now."
"Wonderful, I love that game!" said Ron, as he rushed out of the room as Harry followed him.
Hermione was pulling a table to the centre of the living room with four chairs around it. Glory rushed into one of the other doors in the room and came out with the box of the board game. She immediately sat down, put her empty soda bottle aside and took out the game. As she opened the board and placed the pieces, Ron asked a question.
"Glory, I know this might sound rude but... Some days you act really mean and some days you act really nice. What's with that?"
Hermione kicked Ron under the table and Harry gave him a murderous look. Despite that, Glory still looked calm.
"That's an interesting question, Ron," said Glory. "Actually, I have no idea why I act like that. It's not mood swings or anything like most teenagers get."
Harry suddenly thought of the year before when he was having major mood swings.
"I just can't help it," she said. "It's as if... It's as if something is inside of me and is making me do those horrible things. I am actually really nice, it's just those times that make me seem ruthless."
"Don't worry about it, Glory!" said Hermione, patting her on the back. "We know you don't mean to be awful those days. Let's just start the game."
"Who wants to be who?" asked Glory, holding up the four playing pieces.
All of them picked the characters they had picked at Christmas, and then played the exciting game. Glory, like before, won the game. They had an extraordinary time, and Glory gave them all a warm goodbye when they left. There was something about the wink Glory gave Harry that reminded him so much of Dumbledore.
"That was quite an interesting visit," said Hermione as they left the Ravenclaw common room.
Harry looked back at the painting of Rowena Ravenclaw, as she tried to fight off the knight, Sir Cadogan, who was trying to kiss her hand and flirt with her.
"You are the most beautiful dove I have seen in all my quests for bravery!" said Sir Cadogan, trying to create a pick-up line. "Would thy pretty lady go out with ye?"
"For the last time, no!" she shouted. "I'm not sure what's wrong with you male paintings that always try to ask me out. Besides, you're such a mule! My animal is the eagle, not the dove! I have more import things to do, and we're just paintings! My goodness, you are just as ridiculous as Salazar Slytherin."
*****
"Thank goodness I feel better!" exclaimed Joy when her and the others were in the Gryffindor common room by themselves. "It used to feet like a burden to woke up."
"We're all glad you're all right," said Ron as he put his arm around Joy's shoulder.
"Did they find out what you had that made you sick?" asked Hermione.
"No, and to tell you the truth, I don't care. As long as I'm well, I'm happy."
" 'And that's the key to being perky'," quoted Ron from Joy when they had visited her when she was sick. Ron gave Joy a big kiss on the cheek which made her giggle.
"What did you do at Glory's visit?" asked Joy.
"She helped me set up my website on SPEW!" said Hermione.
"SPEW?"
"It stands for the 'Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare'."
"Oh, is that your organization to help create respect and kindness to house-elves?"
"Not only that. It's so they could be free and do whatever they want, or have wages."
Joy's smile suddenly curved into a confused frown.
"Don't they like what they do?" asked Joy.
"That's because they grew up to be that way. If they really tried, they could make themselves better."
"But they can't make themselves better, because they grew up that way!"
"That is an absolutely wonderful point," said Ron, happy that Joy made a great comment about SPEW (which if you hadn't noticed, he completely despised).
"What about those house-elves like Dobby?" said Hermione. "He wants to be free!"
"I agree with you on that one," said Joy. "There are some house-elves like Dobby who want to be free, and I encourage their freedom. You just have to understand that there are some house-elves who want to keep their jobs."
"Even so, they should get wages for what they work for!"
"They already get a comfortable home and food, they don't really need money," said Joy. "Besides, doesn't money lead to greed?"
"Excellent point!" said Harry gladly, just like Ron.
"Hermione, it's not that I want to put you down or anything," said Joy, "but you have to understand that there are some house-elves who like what they do. I understand the main idea about equality, and I like it! I'm actually thinking of enforcing respect laws to house-elves when Glory and I become Queens."
"Really?" said Hermione as her face lit up.
"Of course, and I'll dedicate that law to you. Just don't get carried away with this SPEW thing, all right?"
"All right!"
"What else did you do when you visited Glory?" asked Joy.
"Harry and I saw all the cool potions and inventions Glory invented," said Ron.
"Wow, you must have had a good time!"
"It was so cool!" said Ron. "Do you have any inventions?"
"There's a vault in one of my rooms where I keep a few things like make-up, potions for beauty and things like that. So far the most scientific discovery or invention I've made is a potion that can cleanse dirty rivers and such. I'm working on it so it can restore the whole entire ecosystem, or to use separate potions that will take care of individual things."
"That sounds like a wonderful idea," said Hermione.
"We also made our own little discovery," said Harry.
"What do you mean?" asked Hermione, who was entirely clueless of what Harry had said.
"Ron and I found the reason how Lord Voldemort returned from the dead."
"What?" questioned Hermione angrily. "You never told me that!"
"Well we found the reason," continued Ron. "It's from a potion called 'The Potion of the Undead'."
"It's a sister potion to the Potion of Bone, Flesh and Blood, which is what restored Lord Voldemort to his original form in my 4th year."
"Oh my goodness!" gasped Joy. "Why was that in her rooms?"
"It was a room which the entrance was hidden where the collection of inventions and potions were," said Harry. "The potion was in a chest in that hidden room."
"There was a notebook inside the chest, that talked about the Potion of the Undead," said Ron. "It said that Glory created it."
"W-what?" stuttered Joy in complete shock. "Potion of the Undead? She never told me about that! And it's a sister potion to the Potion of Bone, Flesh and Blood! That's a potion of the Dark Arts!"
"It's true," sighed Harry. "We found out that it's used to bring back a person from the dead, or to bring a dead person's spirit or energy back to a state stronger than they have at the moment, with more powers or to its original strength and state of mind."
"I can't believe this is true," gasped Joy. "Never did I think this could happen."
"The information said that it needed the belongings of the dead person and their blood. Lucius Malfoy has a few things that had once belonged to Lord Voldemort, and Glory had a glove that was covered in blood and wouldn't come out.
"We think that the spirit from Lord Voldemort rose from the body, because Glory said that some kind of smoke or steam was coming out, and it could have went to the Malfoys and told them about their plot to use Glory to gain power."
"We also think that Malfoy hypnotized Glory into giving them the potion with the kidnapped hypnotist," said Ron. "Do you think it's possible to hypnotize her?"
"The hypnotist who was kidnapped was one of the most famous in the world," said Joy. "He probably could have hypnotized her."
"We think they came and hypnotized her at night," said Ron. "Harry and I saw a dot flying in the distance during our first night of our 6th year. If it was a Death Eater with the hypnotist, Malfoy could have let them into the castle."
"This is so horrible! I can't believe this is happening to my own sister!" shrieked Joy. "I can't even believe my sister created such a potion. Really, to bring back the dead!"
Harry thought over that phrase: 'to bring back the dead'. He thought of the people he knew, or could have known, who were dead: his dear parents, Sirius, and even Cedric Diggory. He maybe, just maybe, could have used that potion to bring them back from the dead. He probably couldn't, considering that he didn't have their blood. If he did, he could see them again...
"Harry, what's wrong?" asked Hermione. "You look so sad!"
"Nothing," he said, quickly wiping away a tear. "It's nothing, really."
"I know it's something," said Joy. "You have something on your mind. It's okay, you can tell us."
"It just... That potion could bring back the dead, right? I was thinking and imagining if it could be possible to bring back my parents and Sirius."
"Harry, I'm so sorry," said Joy. "I shouldn't have made my last sentence so ridiculous. Harry, no matter how unfair someone died, it's never a good idea to bring them back. It isn't meant to be. Just think, they're somewhere better now, in heaven."
"I just wished they hadn't died like that," said Harry, as another tear rolled down his cheek.
"It's okay," said Joy, rubbing the tear off his cheek. "Your friends are here for you. It's so scary though, thinking about this potion and Lord Voldemort returning to power. He might get so powerful, the only person who could stop him is himself, but you also have to include the theory of the Prophecy."
She said this staring right at Harry and winking at him, as if she was trying to tell him something. Harry didn't understand the message though, and tried to ignore it.
"Anyway," said Harry, making himself serious and changing the subject, "the one thing we didn't solve is how Lord Voldemort knew that Glory had that potion."
"Oh, I know- OW!!!!!"
Joy shrieked in pain and clutched her hands to her head, just like she had done before.
"What's wrong? What's happening?" said Ron.
"It's nothing. I just want to tell- OW!!!!"
Her pain was obviously worse than before, and tears started to drop down her cheeks. Fortunately (and unfortunately), no one was there in the common room but them. When the pain got worse, Joy squeezed her arm.
"It burns!" shouted Joy.
"Joy, I seriously think you should go to the Hospital Wing," said Ron.
"Yeah, I'll go to the Hospital Wing," she said to herself, still clutching her arm.
"I'll go with you," volunteered Ron.
"No, I'll go alone," said Joy. "I just need to-"
She grabbed the nearest piece of parchment, nearest quill, dipped it in ink and scribbled something quickly. She shoved it into Harry's hands and ran out of the common room. Harry looked at the paper that she had given him, which read in quick and sloppy writing: 'She doesn't know Occlumency,'.
"What does it say, Harry?" asked Ron looking worried.
"It says, 'She doesn't know Occlumency," said Harry.
"What does that mean?"
"I guess when she means 'she', she means Glory," said Hermione.
"So? What does 'she doesn't known Occlumency' mean?"
"It means... that it could be easy for anyone to look inside her thoughts!" shouted Harry in discovery. "Remember when I had to take Occlumency last year? It was because Lord Voldemort could read my thoughts! Obviously, he could read Glory's thoughts, and he could see that she was inventing the Potion of the Undead!"
"Of course!" said Hermione. "It all makes sense now. I wonder if this is what the Ravenclaw girls found out."
"In a week I'll ask them about it," said Harry. "They'll be able to speak and talk to me. I'll ask them about what happened then."
*****
As Harry said, after a week had passed, Harry visited Tiffany, Vicky, Ruth and Lucy in the hospital wing. Harry opened the door slowly and peered into the room. Madame Pomfrey was nursing the four skinny Ravenclaw girls: the blonde, pig tailed Lucy Landerville, the freckled, cherry blonde-haired Tiffany Sealious, the chubby brunette Vicky Plumber with the puffy ponytail and the fragile, small, black-haired Ruth Simmore. All of them had a bag of green-purple-blue Timplewimp Paste connected to their arm. Harry could hear their wheezing; it was awful.
"Hello, Mr. Potter!" greeted Madame Pomfrey, as she stood up from adjusting Ruth's bed. "Are you here to see the four girls?"
"Yes, and I also wanted to see-" Harry tried looking for Cho in the room, but she wasn't there. "Where's Cho?"
"It's past a month, Mr. Potter. She left the Infirmary today."
"Really? She's better now? Will she play in the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Quidditch game?"
"I'm afraid not," sighed Madame Pomfrey. "We don't want her to over-work herself. She might be out of the hospital wing, but she still needs to take it easy. Would you like me to leave so you can speak to the four girls?"
"Yes, that would be great," said Harry. Madame Pomfrey nodded and hurried off into her medical office.
The four girls were lined up in four beds in a row on one side of the room. Harry pulled up a stool next to Tiffany, who had turned her head slowly and recognized Harry.
"Harry... you're here..." she said with a weak smile.
"Yes, I am. Are you all right?"
"Well... we're not too well... We're better... than when we... first came in here..."
"A lot... better..." wheezed Lucy.
All the girls had turned their heads and were looking at Harry. Even Vicky, who was the farthest away from Harry, struggled to sit up.
"Do any of you remember what had happened at your attack?"
"No," answered Ruth.
"Anything, at all?"
"I... think I... might remember... something..." wheezed Vicky.
"What do you remember?"
"I remember we were... all going... somewhere... I remember... someone scaring us... from behind... I can... remember a... bright... red... light... actually, multi-coloured... and our screams... After that... I only... remember... waking up... in the... hospital... wing..."
"Are you the only one who remembers anything from the attack?"
"I can't... remember... anything..." said Ruth.
"I can... only remember going... somewhere..." said Tiffany.
"I remember... the screams... and... colours..." wheezed Lucy.
"Do you remember where you were going, and why you were going there?"
"No..." answered Lucy. "We have... no idea..."
"Can you remember the day of the attack, before you were attacked?"
"I remember... the lessons..." answered Ruth.
"I can... remember... just a bit..." said Vicky.
"We... both... remember... the classes... a bit..." said Tiffany, speaking for her and Lucy.
"Do you remember talking to me that day?" asked Harry.
"We... talked... to... you?" questioned Ruth.
"Yeah, you wanted to meet with me," said Harry. "It was Tiffany who talked to me, then it was her and Lucy."
"We... don't remember... at all... speaking... to you...that day..." said Tiffany.
"You wanted to tell me some secrets," said Harry. "Do you remember any secrets or information about Princess Glory and Malfoy?"
"No..." wheezed Lucy.
All the others shook their heads, telling him that they didn't know any information that would be secret.
"Oh, all right. I appreciate you talking to me," thanked Harry.
"Don't... mention it... Harry..." said Ruth.
"We... were... glad... to talk... to you..." said Vicky.
"It's time for dinner," said Madame Pomfrey with a trolley of trays of food, pushing it towards the girls. "I think it's best if you leave, Harry."
"All right. How long will they be staying in here?"
"About a month and a week or so," sighed Madame Pomfrey. "It's a lot worse than Cho Chang's attack. You found her a lot sooner than we found these four girls. Ms. Chang had, let me think, at least half of her magic, blood and fat sucked out of her. This time, the four have at least 2/3 gone. It's a shame. I hope they find the culprit to the attacks."
"Me too," said Harry. "It's been wonderful talking to you all. I'll see you soon."
Harry walked out of the Infirmary and to the Great Hall. I guess we might never find out all the secrets they found out, thought Harry.
Author's Note: Next chapter's going to be called "Quidditch Comes Back to Hogwarts". The Quidditch field will finally be ready to be played on. Pretty short but interesting chapter. Oh, and one more thing:
PPPPLLLLLEEEEAAAASSSEEE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Potion of the Undead
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and the other things I've written for disclaimers.
Author's Note: Hey people!!! So what happened last chapter? Oh yeah! Harry and his friends get their awards, and Glory's four friends tell the Gryffindor trio that they found out EVERYTHING about the Voldemort-Malfoy-Glory scheme. They were all going to meet at the Room of Requirement, but when Harry, Hermione and Ron got there, the Ravenclaw girls were attacked. Glory was really sad, and when Harry was about to tell her about Malfoy and Voldemort's plots, Malfoy told her instead, and she ran out of the room screaming. So, here's the next chapter!! Pleaser read and review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"We get to visit Joy today?" asked Harry to Hermione as him and his friends walked in the corridors to the common room.
"Yes," responded Hermione. "They found out what she has isn't contagious, so we can visit her. She's doing a lot better too!"
"When can we expect her to be going back to classes?" asked Ron.
"I'm not exactly sure, but at least a week from now."
"Oh look, there's Glory!" pointed out Harry.
Glory was walking sadly alone in the hallways, and when she realized they were in the hallway, she became happy to see them. Glory rushed over to them, grinning uncontrollably.
"Hi, guys!" she said.
"Hi," said Ron, who was surprised at the dramatic change of Glory's attitude.
"Hello, Princess!" said Hermione.
"Hi, Glory!" said Harry.
"I'm so glad to see you all," said Glory. "It looks like you were rushing somewhere. Where are you going? There are no classes today."
"We were going to visit Joy," said Hermione.
"Really? How wonderful! I would go too, but I'm going to visit my friends in the Hospital Wing. Uhm...I wanted to ask you..." she said, stuttering. "C-could you maybe come over to my rooms tomorrow?"
"We don't have the Ravenclaw password," said Ron. "How are we going to get in?"
"It's okay, I'll tell the entrance painting to let you in free of password," she said. "I'll ask permission from Professor Flitwick for you to come in first. I'll send you a letter stating if you can come or not, all right?"
"Where would your rooms be in the Ravenclaw common room?" asked Harry.
"All you have to do is go to the girls' dormitories - don't worry, I'll tell the girls before you come - and then you'll see a large, old-fashioned wooden door. There's a telecom near the door."
"What's a telecom?" asked Ron.
"Do you know what an intercom is?" asked Glory.
"Ron doesn't, but Harry and I do," said Hermione.
"An intercom is a kind of device attached to the wall, so two people in certain places are able to talk to each other. The telecom is like that except that it's quicker, clearer and the person using it can actually see the other person instead of just hearing them."
"Is it just me or is everybody using muggle-inspired gadgets?" said Ron.
"Muggles are actually quite interesting, and their way of technology is amazing," said Glory. "Us witches and wizards have such a comfortable lifestyle with magic that we don't bother inventing things to modernize our lives."
"What would we do in your rooms?" asked Harry.
"I could show you around, show you my newest inventions and things, and then we can play that board-game we played at Christmas time."
"During the time we're there, could you help me put up a website on your computagram?" asked Hermione.
"Of course!" she said gladly. "What do you want your website to be about?"
"I want to make a computagram website for my organization, SPEW, which is short for 'Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare'. It's to give house-elves their freedom, wages, and to treat them as equals."
"Sure, I'm all about being nice to house-elves," said Glory. "They do a lot of hard work for us; they deserve our respect."
"But I also think they should have wages, or even their freedom."
"I've known a lot of house-elves, and they seem to like their jobs," said Glory, looking at Hermione strangely.
"They've been brought up to like it!" exclaimed Hermione. "They should be treated like we treat wizards and witches: wages, proper jobs, food, clothing, etc."
"Technically, if you just give them a uniform in the first place- Oh forget it, I'll just help you set it up, all right?"
"Sure! When should we meet you?"
"It'll be in the letter."
"Okay, see you then- "
"Wait a minute," interrupted Harry. "Sorry about the interruption, but I wanted to ask you how you were feeling, you know, after yesterday."
"What are you talking about?" asked Glory.
"You know, when I met you at the Great Hall. I wanted to tell you something about your friends, then Malfoy brought you in an empty classroom to tell you something and you screamed out."
"Pardon?" questioned Glory suspiciously and confusingly. "I don't remember that at all."
"You ran through the corridors, crying and burying your hands in your face. You let out this huge shriek."
Glory looked completely blank.
"I'm sorry, I don't remember," she said, shaking her head. "All I remember is staying in my rooms for dinner because I wasn't feeling well. I think I should go now, bye!"
"Bye!" said all three of them.
Harry couldn't believe what had happened; Glory didn't recall at all what had happened yesterday.
"I can't believe it," said Harry. "She doesn't remember a thing!"
"Do you think she was lying because she was embarrassed?" asked Hermione.
"She seemed pretty blank to me," said Ron.
They headed to the common room, where they would meet Joy in her rooms. Once they were in the common room, they went to the girls' dormitories ("Harry! Ron! Would you stop fidgeting?" ordered Hermione when they went there) and approached the massive door. Harry noticed the telecom Joy had shown him before.
"How do we get in?" asked Ron. "It's obviously locked."
"Just use the telecom," said Harry, pointing to the little screen near the door.
"So that's a telecom!" said Ron with his eyes open, as he looked closely at the little screen, almost pressing his nose on it. "Bloody brilliant! How do we use it?"
"Joy explained all of this in her letter," said Hermione. "You just press the button-" she said as she pressed the button, "- and wait for a beeping sound and Joy, or a house-elves, to appear on the screen."
A tiny beep was heard, which followed the appearance of a tiny, chubby house-elf in a maid's uniform on the screen.
"Hello, dis is da residence of Princessa Joysinious," said the house-elf on the tiny screen. "May I aska yo' namesi and yo' businessa?"
"We're Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley," replied Hermione clearly. "We're here to visit the Princess."
"Da Princessa is expecting yo'," said the little creature. "Yo' may come in."
Suddenly, the door quickly opened, as did all the very many doors behind it. Shocked and slightly scared, they walked into the opening entrances which lead them to a cozy living room with a Moroccan theme to it, with wonderful colours and lovely furniture. They saw Joy on the couch in the middle, covered almost completely with various blankets (her head was the only thing not covered). She looked drowsy and shivery. She had a steamy porcelain-pink goblet on the table next to her.
"Hey, guys!" she said in a faint voice. "Don't worry, I'm not contagious. You can sit anywhere you like."
Harry approached the circle of comfy furniture with his friends as he sat down on a cozy chair to Joy's left. Ron sat on the chair closest to Joy, and Hermione sat comfortably on the sofa across from Joy.
"Do any of you want anything to drink or eat?" she asked.
"No," they all said in reply.
"Are you doing all right?" asked Ron, clutching Joy's hand.
"Not that great," she said in a wheezy voice. "I'm doing a lot better though. My throat was so weak and sore that I couldn't talk, I could barely move and I couldn't do the charms I tried to practice. Actually, I looked a lot skinnier in the morning than I did before."
Harry listened to the description closely, realizing how close her symptoms were to the symptoms Cho and Glory's friends had from the attacks. Could she have been attacked?
"Did you hear about what happened to Glory's friends?" asked Harry. "The ones who were going to tell us all about the secret information?"
"Yes, I have!" said Joy. "It's awful, isn't it? My poor sister... She has other friends and all, but it still wouldn't be the same. It would be like if I lost all you three. Did you visit them?"
"No, we haven't yet," said Hermione. "We think they probably won't remember anything."
"That's true," said Harry. "Cho didn't remember what happened, so the other four probably won't. I heard you didn't remember anything the night before the morning you became sick."
"Yeah, I don't remember anything at all, meaning that all I remember is shutting my eyes and suddenly waking up feeling absolutely horrible."
"That's so strange," said Ron.
"Do you think you could have been attacked?" asked Harry.
The whole entire room went silent. Joy looked at him strangely and sipped a bit of her steaming goblet.
"Why would I have been attacked?" questioned Joy. "Malfoy, nor anyone planning with him, could have come in here. The house-elves never leave the rooms, and the only one who knows my password is Glory, and even if she did tell someone, she would get horrible acne. We made a contract not to tell anyone of the passwords, which had a kind of jinx on it."
"That sounds like what we did last year," said Harry, remembering the contract they made for Dumbledore's Army. "But Tiffany said that what you had wasn't a virus, and that it had something to do with Lord Voldemort and Malfoy."
"Did you happen to think that they could have been wrong?" asked Joy, taking another sip of the mixture.
"But all your symptoms, they make it seem as if you were- "
"I wasn't attacked!" said Joy in a loud and scratchy voice. "I just told you!"
"Then what do you have?" asked Harry.
"I don't know, but it doesn't matter. I'm getting better."
"It does matter! If you, the Princess for Magic, was attacked, then it would really matter!"
"I haven't been attacked!" shouted Joy. "Don't you dare argue with me again!"
Harry trembled at Joy's shouts. He had never heard her shout before. Why didn't she want to listen to what he had to say? She was sounding a bit bossy too. If she was attacked, they obviously did something to her personality. He tried to give up on what he was trying to say.
"I'm sorry," said Harry. "I was just worried- "
"You're worried for the wrong reason," said Joy.
"But- "
"Could you just stop bringing up the subject?" demanded Ron.
Harry remained silent. Why couldn't Ron understand?
"Harry, I am so sorry I said those things," apologized Joy quickly. "It's a part of the things I'm experiencing. I start to get a short temper once in a while. The truth is, I-"
Joy unexpectedly yelped in pain and clutched her hand to her head. She looked like Harry when he had a pain in his scar.
"What's wrong?" asked Hermione in worry.
"Nothing, it's- OW!!"
She gripped her hair and bit her lip as if she couldn't take it.
"Love, are you all right?" asked Ron, looking very worried.
"I- I think I'm all right. Let's just drop the subject," she said as she took another sip of the pink porcelain goblet.
"What's that stuff you're drinking, honey?" asked Ron.
"It's chicken mixture," said Joy, sipping it a bit more. "It's a kind of potion made with chicken. It tastes really good. It's basically the only good thing that's good about being sick."
"Is it like muggle chicken soup?" asked Hermione.
"Yes, it is. Actually, it was a witch who invented it. There's only one difference: the muggle kind doesn't have as much flavour as this kind. Oh, and there are no chunks of ingredients in the mixture either."
"Oh, I almost forgot!" gasped Hermione. "Here's all your homework."
Out of her bag, she pulled a few papers and notes and handed them to Joy.
"Thanks, Mione!" she said. "So, did any of you do anything else today?"
"We talked to Glory, who invited us over to her rooms," said Harry.
"That was nice of her!" said Joy. "Anything else?"
"Actually the other day, I was thinking of telling Glory of what's happening. You know, Malfoy's schemes and everything. I thought she should know."
"She was with Malfoy too!" said Ron.
"Harry!" said Joy in a disappointed look. "You could have been in great danger!"
"You're always putting yourself in danger!" said Harry.
"I'm a lot stronger than you are, and I'm supposed to serve my people. That's what leaders like me or supposed to do."
"Anyway, I was about to tell her, but then Malfoy wanted to tell her something. He was going to tell her his schemes with Lord Voldemort. He brought her to an empty classroom, but then Glory came rushing out - screaming!"
"Oh dear!" gasped Joy.
"I know, it's awful. I tried asking her if she was okay from the day before, but she said she didn't remember a thing."
"That's peculiar," said Joy.
"After that scene," said Hermione, "we argued a bit about the Prophecy, that Voldemort or Harry had to die at the hand of the other."
"That Prophecy?" said Joy. "And what did you argue about it?"
"I was saying to Harry that the Prophecy might have meant that one had to die while the other lived, but one could have been killed by someone else. That would explain why you and Glory killed him."
"But Dumbledore talked to me in the beginning of the year," said Harry, "and he explained that the war wasn't actually meant to kill Voldemort. He also said that everyone ignored the Prophecy, and that they thought it could have been done with a large army and powerful leaders."
"Obviously, it didn't work," said Joy. "Dumbledore was telling us all about the Prophecy before the war and that it might not have been possible to kill him. Only a few believed him. My sister and I believed him, and we were so scared to fight in the war. We thought we might be the ones getting destroyed! Some people were actually considering having you in the war, Harry."
"Really?" gasped Harry.
He had wondered why he wasn't participating in the war that summer, although Joy said that he could have fought in the war made him tremble. He thought of all those people dying, those endless days of battling... He was still puzzled how happy and perky Joy was, or was she?
"Yeah, they were thinking of bringing you, but Professor Dumbledore said it was a bad idea. He didn't want you to get hurt. He really cares about you, you know."
"I'm really grateful for that," said Harry with a smile.
"Anyway, Professor Dumbledore thought that the Prophecy could have meant the person who could defeat him was you, but a powerful army might be able to as well. And as I said before, we were wrong."
"It's a shame," sighed Ron. "You fought really hard."
"We still managed to defeat him in the war!" said Joy, being optimistic. "We won!"
"The greatest thing about being you being my girlfriend is that you can change a bad perspective into a good one," said Ron, and pinched her cheek affectionately. "You're always making me happy."
"That's the key to being perky!" she said.
"I think we should go," said Hermione, looking at her watch. "We're waiting for a letter from Glory, and you should catch up on your homework."
"You're absolutely right," said Joy. "I'll see you soon. I'm probably going to be able to leave my rooms in about 4 days time. Hey, I just remembered! The Chudley Cannons game is next Saturday. Do any of you want to see it on my teleview?"
"Teleview?" asked Harry.
"It's like a television, except with wizard qualities. You know, a remote control that can't be lost, a lot more channels, you can watch shows that you've missed, you can browse and find any kind of show in the world - whatever!"
"You have a teleview?" questioned Ron. "Here?"
"Of course I do! It's in one of the other rooms."
"That is so cool!" exclaimed Ron. "We only use a radio in my house, because we can't afford a teleview..."
"That's okay, Ron. Maybe I'll buy you one for Easter. My family's getting a new one at the palace, so you can have the older one."
"Really?!?!?!" shouted Ron. "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! We're getting a teleview!"
"Like Ron commented before, it seems like there are so many new things that were muggle-inspired," said Hermione.
"Actually, the person who invented the teleview was a wizard who was muggle-born," said Joy. "Even so, I don't think it's too bad having all these things inspired by muggles. It's all about luxury, I say! Sometimes, I think they might have it a bit easier than we do. When my sister and I become Queens, we're going to try and inspire a new age to the wizarding world: technology. OK, maybe it's my sister who's a bit more excited about technology. If there's something that takes a lot of concentration and brain power, she'll love it."
"Glory seems so multi-talented," said Harry.
"She is, but it's more in a scholarly way. She doesn't take the time to enjoy beauty, non-serious things and things that don't involve using non-stop thinking, like make-up and Quidditch for examples! I'm telling you, that girl can't relax. Well, see you!"
"See you too!" they all said, leaving the room as all the doors opened to them.
As they walked into the common room, they saw a giant hippigryph lying on the Gryffindor carpet. Once it saw the three of them as they exited the last door, it stood up and walked majestically to them, with a large pouch dangling from its neck.
"It's Tsarina!" said Hermione, as she slightly bent her knees (the hippigryph was so large Hermione didn't have to bend down that much) and opened the pouch from it's neck, bearing Princess Glory's coat of arms. She pulled out an enveloped letter from the pouch. It had a wax seal bearing her coat of arms and on the front it said in calligraphic letters: To Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley in Gryffindor. She opened it and examined it. "Here's what it says:
Dear Harry, Hermione and Ron,
After consulting Professor Flitwick about our meeting, I have received permission for your visit tomorrow, at 2 o'clock at my rooms. The painting of Rowena Ravenclaw is instructed to open the entrance for you, free of password. If you need directions, just ask Luna Lovegood. She told me that she knew you. It will be my pleasure to see you then.
Sincerely,
Princess Glory (signature)
Her Royal Highness Princess Glorificous Elizabeth Tatiana Victoria Nefertiti Dumbledore-Illiermo, Princess of Magic, future Queen of Magic/Queen of the Wizarding and Magical World, Order of Merlin (second class), winner of the Norwellum Potions Prize, Norwellum Inventions Prize and 5-time winner of the International Duelling Championships
P.S. I seriously need to shorten my name.
Harry giggled at the commentary at the end, surprised that Princess Glory had a sense of humour. Ron stood dumbfounded, and Hermione looked quite interested at all the things she had done.
"I never knew a name could be that long," said Ron, shaking his head.
"I think someone has broken the world record for longest name," said Harry.
"World record?" questioned Ron.
"Muggles keep track of all the weird, outrageous and extraordinary things in the world and things they've done, and they're always trying to break world records. There have been world records for longest fingernail, oldest man, tallest mountain- "
"Muggles actually find those things interesting?" asked Ron. "Father will ever be interested to know that! What a ridiculous way to waste your time doing absurd things like- Oh no, Fred and George will be trying to break one sooner or later."
"Norwellum Prize!" said Hermione amazed. "That's like the Nobel to muggles, and she's won it twice! How extraordinary!"
"Why is her name so long?" asked Ron.
"People like her have long names and large titles," said Hermione. "I can't wait until tomorrow. I can't believe it... Norwellum Prize... twice..."
"I hope Hermione doesn't stay like this," said Ron. "She sounds like my sister, Ginny. Next thing we know, they'll build a shrine dedicated to Glory!"
*****
"Are you sure this is the way to the Ravenclaw common room?" asked Ron, as they walked down hallways they hadn't walked down before.
"Of course I'm sure!" stated Hermione. "I memorized all the instructions Luna Lovegood gave me."
"Just when I thought we escaped from that loony bin," sighed Ron.
Harry remembered Luna Lovegood, who was the Ravenclaw girl, now in her 5th year, who Harry had met the pervious year. Luna was quite an interesting character, and quite abnormal as well. Luna had followed him and his friends to the Ministry where they had thought Sirius was being attacked. It was, in fact, not true, and had led to the death of his poor godfather... Harry tried snap out of that awful mood. I'm sixteen and I should act more mature now, thought Harry.
They finally arrived at a large painting of a woman dressed in old-fashioned robes, looking distinctively intellectual. At the bottom of the painting was a tiny plaque, which read: "ROWENA RAVENCLAW, FOUNDER OF RAVENCLAW HOUSE". The woman in the painting was reading a book, but she looked up when she realized the three were there.
"Hello, dears!" she said sternly but kindly. "I see that you were the three Gryffindor students Her Royal Highness described to me. I welcome you into my house, as you may enter."
She smiled at them, as the entrance quickly opened. The entrance revealed a wonderfully decorated room, which looked incredibly like a study for a great witch or wizard. Most of the furniture had bronze or blue colour. There were statues of eagles here and there, and even eagles carved into the furniture. There were cases of books everywhere with a few interesting wizard or scholar tools, such as a few telescopes, globes and cauldrons. The common room had a globe ceiling, with a bronze and crystal chandelier dangling from the middle of the ceiling. There was a large marble fire place at the centre of the room. Above the mantelpiece was another portrait of Rowena Ravenclaw, and below the portrait was a lovely turquoise and ivory pendant of an eagle in a glass case.
In the middle of the room, there was a large fountain. It had two statues facing each other: one of the Greek goddess Athena, goddess of knowledge, who had an owl perched on her shoulder, and a statue of Rowena Ravenclaw. At the bottom was a statue of an eagle perched onto an open book, with its wings wide open. Water splashed out from the beak of the eagle and owl, the head of Athena and the wand of Ravenclaw. At the edge of the fountain's pool read the words: "FOUNTAIN OF RAVENCLAW".
"I can't believe it!" said Ron. "Ravenclaw gets a huge fountain, and now Slytherin has a small fountain. Why doesn't Gryffindor have a fountain?"
"How am I supposed to know?" asked Harry. Harry was still looking around the room, marvelling at its decor.
"Harry! Ron! Hermione!" shouted a voice from the other side of the room. It was Luna Lovegood, who was reading a book and was wearing a scrunchy made out of ball-shaped onions. She ran towards them, excited to see them again.
"Hi!" she said with a smile. "I haven't seen you two, Harry and Ron, in such a long time!"
"Yeah, it's too bad about that," sighed Ron.
"You're here to meet Princess Glory, right?"
"Yes, we are," said Harry. "Are you friends with her?"
"Not exactly," she said. "We talk once in a while, but we're not considered friends. I love listening about her inventions and things like that. She's pretty interesting. I've been asking my father to put a story about her in The Quibbler for ages."
"She won the Norwellum Potions and Inventions Prize, did you know that?" asked Hermione. "I just found that out yesterday, and I still can't believe it."
"Yes, I've heard about that. I think she won the Norwellum Potions Prize for that perfected were-wolf potion, and she won the Norewllum Inventions Prize for inventing
contact lenses that able you to see through walls and things like that. It's used for the army now."
"That's so interesting!" said Hermione. "I hope she can show us her prize-winning potion and invention."
"Where's the door to her rooms?" asked Harry.
"It's in the girls' dormitory over in the corner there," said Luna, pointing to a door at their right. "Inside there, you'll find a large wooden door. You can't miss it."
The three of them followed Luna's instructions, and found the massive door in the girls' dormitory that Glory and Luna had talked about. Even if he had been in a girls' bathroom and the Gryffindor girls' dormitory before, he still felt uncomfortable being in the Ravenclaw girls' dormitory. Ravenclaw girls going up the spiral staircase looked at Harry and Ron strangely, giggling amongst themselves.
The door was wooden, and of course, massive. It had a large coat of arms on the front (Glory's obviously). On the side was a small telecom. Harry pushed the red button of the telecom. There's was a small beep, and on the screen appeared another chubby house-elf.
"Allo, dis is da residenca o' da Princessa Glorificusa," said the chubby house-elf, just like Joy's house-elf had said. "May I aska yora namesi and yora businessa?"
"Our names are Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger," replied Harry. "We're here to meet Princess Glory."
"Da Princessa 'as beena awaitin' yor orrival," said the house-elf. "Yo may enter."
Just like at their visit to Joy's room, all the doors immediately opened, as they entered every single one of the entrances. Those entrances led them to a large room decorated in an English Renaissance-style decor, with antique chairs and tables lavishly carved, with several cozy couches and chairs sewn with a wonderful design. Around the room were a few strange instruments like those in Dumbledore's office. There were paintings here and there, sleeping or reading a book. There were 3 doors in the room, and a large spiralling staircase. In the corner of the room was a desk which had a computagram resting on it.
Sitting on one of the cozy chairs was Princess Glory, sewing quickly and daintily at a large, green silk cloth with a bottle of her favourite soda, Fizzy-up Vinkshim Soda, on a table at her side. She looked up at them, and quickly dropped the cloth and ran to them and hugged them tightly.
"Oh, I am so glad you're here!" she said, hugging Harry at the moment. "I've been so lonely these couple of days. I'm almost always surrounded by my four friends. Sit down and make yourselves comfortable."
She gestured at them to sit on any of the comfortable couches. Harry, Ron and Hermione all sat on the 3-person couch while Glory sat on her antique chair, just finishing up sewing a design on her silk cloth.
"Did you want anything to eat or drink?" asked Glory.
"No thanks," they all said.
"There, done!" she said, as she unravelled it and raised it up, revealing a very complex design of the Magical Table of Elements. "I made it for Professor Snape. He told me he needed a Periodic Table, so I volunteered to make it for him."
"You actually talk to that creep?" asked Ron.
"He's not quite a creep to me," said Glory, looking a bit disappointed at Ron. "He's actually quite nice. He's just had a bad past concerning Gryffindors, and Harry's father."
Harry knew what she meant. In his 5th year, he had seen in the Pensieve how awful James and Sirius had teased Professor Snape. Of course, it didn't matter now. Both of them were dead, or better said, brutally murdered.
"I can see you're quite good at needlework," remarked Hermione.
"Oh yes, I'm very good at it. Joy's better at crafts using glue though. I'm really bad at that, everything I try making with glue becomes a sticky mess."
"You're quite multi-talented," said Harry. "So far we know you're a great politician, public speaker, dueller, warrior, teacher, inventor, scientist, needlework...
Is there anything else?"
"I'm great at computagrams," she said. "I'm also pretty good at cooking too. I can also act."
"Really?" asked Harry. "You can act?"
"Absolutely," responded Glory. "My sister and I are wonderful actresses. Hermione, did you want to get started on that computagram website?"
"Sure!" she said, as she leaped off the couch and headed to the computagram.
"It'll take about half an hour to do this," said Glory, talking to Ron and Harry. "You can look at the inventions around the room if you like. You can even check out the door on your right. It contains a few of my Norwellum trophies and other inventions and potions. If you need to ask me something, just ask away and I'll answer your question. Just try not to break anything."
Harry and Ron looked at the little instruments which made tinkling sounds and puffed out smoke. Ron encouraged Harry to go into the room on their right. They slowly opened the door, revealing a large and dim room lit by glowing lanterns along the wall. There were shelves and shelves of strange-looking bottles, inventions and books.
Harry and Ron walked inside the large room, leaving the door open. Harry noticed a small table show-casing two silver trophies with miniature silver statues of a large globe and a wand across it. There was also the potion and the invention, with a display on a presentation board containing information about the two creations. There were tiny gold labels at the bottom, and each label was different. The first label said: 'NORWELLUM POTIONS PRIZE, 1993, HER ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCESS GLORY'. The second label said 'NORWELLUM INVENTIONS PRIZE, 1994, HER ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCESS GLORY.'
Near the Norwellum Potions Trophy was a large bottle of neon-yellow fluid. With it, was a presentation board covered in information about ingredients, the effects, instructions and chemical theories about it. Near the Norwellum Inventions Trophy was a glass containing a glass square holding up two strange-looking contact lenses inside with a presentation board displaying further information and pictures of how it worked. "Ron, come here!" said Harry. "I found where the prizes are."
Ron rushed to Harry's side, bent down and glared into the glass case that was showcasing the awards.
"It's magnificent," said Ron.
"She won the Norwellum Potions Prize in her 3rd year, and the Norwellum Inventions Prize in her 4th year."
"In my 3rd year, I couldn't even make a proper Potion to save my exam mark!" said Ron. "I'm still surprised I can do it now. I've improved very much, but I could never create a new kind of potion."
Ron stood up as they both headed in different directions, exploring the room with all the many inventions and potions. Ron explored the side containing potions, and Harry explored the side containing inventions. Everything was categorized in alphabetical order. Harry walked through the tall aisles, looking at all the interesting inventions from the Abacus of Magic, using magical beads which multiplied as much as you wanted and changed magically, to the Zoological Animated Globe Encyclopaedia, which was a globe on a platform containing buttons where any magical or Muggle animal would appear where you could also research the information about it.
"Hagrid would love that invention," mumbled Harry.
In between those two inventions were many other inventions, such as the Magic-Pen, which was a silver tube with a rubber grip in the middle with a pointed edge at the bottom, an odd tube-like part which was copper, and a few buttons at the top. The object was held up on two little sticks on a platform, which contained a label. Harry read it to himself:
The Magic-Pen
A modernized version of the Muggle pen. It is a metal tube containing a liquid called olacid ink, which can switch colours depending on heat and temperature. The buttons on the top activate the heat inside the pen which can change the ink into different colours. It has a rubber grip to insure a comfortable fit into the user's hand. At the top is a copper tube which can suck back up the ink if a mistake is made, and the ink is recycled. The ink-quantity refills 5 times, and the olacid ink, sold separately,
can be added in using a tiny closable hole on the side.
Along the way, Harry spotted another invention, called the Voice-Writing Parchment role. On display was a piece of parchment, which seemed strange to Harry.
"There's nothing on it," said Harry. "It's just a plain piece of parchment."
Suddenly, writing started to appear on the parchment, which was exactly what Harry said. It read in printing, "There's nothing on it. It's just a plain piece of parchment."
Marvellous, thought Harry to himself, as he examined more inventions. While walking along the aisles, two small questions appeared into his head. He rushed to the door where he spotted Hermione explaining to Glory about SPEW, making Glory look more suspicious and freaked-out the more she explained. Glory also spotted Harry and was glad to turn to him and stop listening to Hermione.
"Harry, do you have a question?" asked Glory.
"Yeah, I do. It's just two simple questions, really."
"It's okay, I'll answer it."
"Do you have your own laboratory in your rooms to create all your inventions?"
"No, I don't," answered Glory. "I use the school's laboratory, or I go to Snape's room, who loves watching and talking to me about my potions."
"I have another question. Do you personally use any of your inventions, even in class?"
"Sometimes I do for homework purposes. In class, I only use the Magic-Pen and Voice-Writing Parchment for copying notes. I have to put a spell on the parchment, though. It sometimes writes down things that other people are saying while the professor is speaking."
"Great, thanks for answering my question!"
"No problem," she said as she turned back to the computagram screen with Hermione. As Harry walked back into the room, he could hear Glory pleading to Herminone. "You've told me enough about how house-elves should be free. Can we go onto creating your guest book?"
Ron was starting to look at the Inventions section when Harry came in, so Harry decided to visit the potions section. There were a lot of rare ingredients and strange-shaped bottles. There were many potions such as the De-Poisoning Potion and the Lost Voice-Healing Potion. When Harry was about to explore through the aisles containing potions starting with q-t, he spotted a door-shape cut out of the wall, which he had almost not seen. Harry wondered if Ron saw the mysterious door cut out of the wall.
"Ron," called Harry in a whisper.
"Yeah, Harry?" whispered Ron back.
"Come, I found something."
Ron rushed to where Harry was standing.
"What is it?" asked Ron.
"Look, don't you see?" said Harry.
"See what?"
"The door cut out of the wall!" whispered Harry harshly as he pointed his fingers along the edges of the cut-out door.
"Wow, it's a cut-out door in the wall. Is it open?"
"I don't know, probably not."
"I'll check," said Ron, as he pushed the door-shape open. He pushed it along the edges, put it didn't work. He examined it, and realized there was a camouflaged doorknob. "First I don't see the door, then I don't see the doorknob. This entrance is very-well hidden."
"Maybe we shouldn't go in," said Harry as he gave it a second thought.
"Great, so you brought me here for nothing?"
"I'm just worried if we're going to find out something very personal about Glory."
"Harry, there are so many personal things about girls that it's hard not to stumble across one of them once in a while. I'll see if the doorknob's open." Ron turned the doorknob, and the door opened automatically. "Wonderful! It opens."
"I see a key-hole," said Harry, looking carefully at the doorknob. "Do you think Glory might have forgotten to lock it?"
"Stop worrying and come on!" said Ron in a frustrated voice. "First you're the one making us take chances, now you try and stop us. Make up your mind, won't you?"
Harry shrugged as Ron opened the door a bit wider. Inside was a large stone staircase. Harry and Ron entered and stepped onto the staircase, as Ron closed the door behind them. They descended down the cold stone staircase into a chilly dungeon-like place, which was very dim-lit.
After walking down the whole entire staircase, they stepped into a large, circular stone room with a few candles here and there, and there were shelves all around the room. Harry looked at a spiral-shaped bottle which said on the bottom: ELECTROCUTED ASHWINDER BRAIN. Harry cringed at the thought of a snake's electrocuted brain. Ron walked to where Harry was standing and looked at the bottle he was looking at.
"Ew!" shrieked Ron. "Electrocuted Ashwinder brain. A serpent's electrocuted brain, that's nasty. How do you get it in the first place? Do you first electrocute the Ashwiner and take out its brain, or do you take out the Ashwinder's brain and electrocute it?"
"I have no idea," said Harry. "Let's just forget about it."
Ron and Harry split up to look at all the weird ingredients, tools and cauldrons. They were pretty nasty stuff in Harry's opinion. He wondered why Glory had it in the first place.
As he walked into a tiny pathway at the back of the room near the stairs, he saw some kind of chest. It seemed very old and its lock was rather large.
"Ron, I need you to come here again!"
"What now?" questioned Ron as he turned to his side to get into the passageway.
"Look at the chest!"
"What about it?"
"There might be something interesting in it."
"Then what are you waiting for? Open it and find out!"
Harry took out his wand to unlock the chest.
"Alohamora," said Harry
The chest burst open, revealing a large rectangular plastic container with neon-green fluid. On the container read a label that said: POTION OF THE UNDEAD.
"Potion of the Undead?" questioned Ron. "What's that all about?"
"Look, there's a notebook inside!" said Harry, as he pulled out a red-covered notebook pushed to the side of the chest. He opened it and flipped through its pages. "Here's an explanation!"
Harry read the description and explanation of the Potion of the Undead aloud to Ron:
'Potion of the Undead
created by Princess Glory'
"So it was created by Glory," said Ron. Harry continued:
'A potion of neon-green colour which was created by Princess Glory. It is a sister potion to the Potion of Bone, Flesh and Blood. Unlike its sister potion which requires the remains of an almost dead or close-to-death wizard/witch, this potion requires something belonging to the deceased, and a drop of their blood (or something with their blood on it). It is used to bring back a person from the dead, or to bring a dead one's spirit or energy back to a greater state, with more powers or to its original strength and state of mind.'
Harry, whose eyes were wide in fear, looked up from the notebook.
"Do you think this might have something to do with Malfoy and Voldemort?" asked Ron.
"I think it definitely has something to do with them," said Harry. "Actually, I think we just found the answer to how Voldemort came back to life."
"But how?" asked Ron.
"For the potion, you need something belonging to the deceased," stated Harry. "I remember before our 2nd year that Lucius Malfoy was selling some items to a shop in Knockturn Alley. Remember? He had some of Voldemort's belongings!"
"Of course, he had Tom Riddle's diary! He could have used some of his other stuff at home to use for the potion! What about the blood?"
"What about it?" asked Harry.
"It says you need their blood or something with their blood on it," stated Ron. "Where would they get that?"
Harry thought about that question, and suddenly thought of the time in Charms
class when Princess Glory answered Seamus Finnigan's question of if they had blood on them.
"Yes, we had some blood on us," Harry remembered Glory say to Seamus. "Our swords had the most blood. Everything was cleaned though, except for one of my gloves which was completely covered in blood. I can't clean the blood off, so I can't use it anymore."
"They used the glove," said Harry. "They used Glory's glove with all that blood on it she couldn't get off. You know, the one she was talking about in Charms?"
"Of course!" said Ron. "But how would they use it? It said in the book that it can be used to bring back someone from the dead, or to bring a dead person's spirit or energy back to a greater state, with more powers or to its original strength and state in mind."
Harry thought more about this, and then he remembered something else Glory said during the presentation.
"His dead body looked pretty weird," she had said. "Some kind of smoke was rising from it. I read that it kind of happens to Dark wizards... or maybe not. I'm not too sure."
"There was another thing Glory said during the presentation," said Harry. "Remember when she said that Voldemort's dead body had some kind of smoke which was rising from it?"
"Yeah, that was pretty gross!"
"Of course it's gross, but maybe it wasn't just smoke. It could have been his spirit!"
"You think that the spirit lifted from his body when he died?" asked Ron.
"Probably. She said she wasn't too sure if that happened to Dark wizards, so it possibly doesn't happen. Voldemort's spirit most likely tried to contact the Malfoys, and he could have wanted Draco Malfoy to meet Glory so he could gain power once again. Do you think he knew Glory had this potion?"
"I don't know. He does know a lot of things. We'll investigate that later."
"So, what would this be?" asked Ron, pointing to the case filled with the potion.
"Duh! It's the Potion of the Undead!"
"Isn't Glory the only one who has access to this place? If this is the Potion of the Undead, then that means they already used the belongings of Voldemort and the glove with his blood. Glory wouldn't have made the potion, could she have?"
"I don't. Wait, wasn't there a hypnotist who was kidnapped?"
"Yeah, in the beginning of the year."
"Do you think the Death Eaters kidnapped the hypnotist to hypnotize Glory?"
"It could be possible, but could it work? Isn't she too powerful?"
"Yes, she's powerful, but they could have hypnotized her anyway."
"But where and when would they get to hypnotize her?"
Harry thought about that. He raced through his memory of the year so far, especially his first night back at Hogwarts. He remembered that he had seen a moving object in the sky.
"Did you see something strange in the sky the first night of our 6th year?" asked Harry.
"Yeah, I did!" exclaimed Ron. "I wasn't sure was direction it was going. Some kind of moving object, maybe even a large creature. Harry, do you think that maybe a Death Eater flew into the castle with a hypnotist?"
"It could be so, Ron."
"There's so many spells surrounding the castle," said Ron. "How could they get in?"
"Someone could have let them in Hogwarts," said Harry. "Maybe- "
"Malfoy, of course!" shouted Ron. "When do you think they might use this potion stuff, so Voldemort will return?"
Harry looked at the potion, and trembled at something he had noticed.
"So?" questioned Ron, trying to get an answer from him.
"A quarter of the potion is gone," mumbled Harry, still looking at the potion.
"What are you talking about?"
"It's not completely full!" said Harry. "There's only 3 quarters of it!"
"So?"
"They used it already, Ron!" shouted Harry. "They already used it!"
Ron shivered after hearing what Harry said, and looked blankly at him in fright.
"I think we should go," said Ron quickly, hurrying out of the passageway and into the circular room.
Harry quickly locked the chest back up with a charm and followed Ron out of the stone room, up the stairs and into Glory's room filled with inventions and potions. Once they were out of the strange dungeon, they took a deep breath from running. Glory peaked inside the room and found Ron and Harry standing there.
"Sorry about taking so long," apologized Glory. "We can play 'Battle for the Mystic Empire' now."
"Wonderful, I love that game!" said Ron, as he rushed out of the room as Harry followed him.
Hermione was pulling a table to the centre of the living room with four chairs around it. Glory rushed into one of the other doors in the room and came out with the box of the board game. She immediately sat down, put her empty soda bottle aside and took out the game. As she opened the board and placed the pieces, Ron asked a question.
"Glory, I know this might sound rude but... Some days you act really mean and some days you act really nice. What's with that?"
Hermione kicked Ron under the table and Harry gave him a murderous look. Despite that, Glory still looked calm.
"That's an interesting question, Ron," said Glory. "Actually, I have no idea why I act like that. It's not mood swings or anything like most teenagers get."
Harry suddenly thought of the year before when he was having major mood swings.
"I just can't help it," she said. "It's as if... It's as if something is inside of me and is making me do those horrible things. I am actually really nice, it's just those times that make me seem ruthless."
"Don't worry about it, Glory!" said Hermione, patting her on the back. "We know you don't mean to be awful those days. Let's just start the game."
"Who wants to be who?" asked Glory, holding up the four playing pieces.
All of them picked the characters they had picked at Christmas, and then played the exciting game. Glory, like before, won the game. They had an extraordinary time, and Glory gave them all a warm goodbye when they left. There was something about the wink Glory gave Harry that reminded him so much of Dumbledore.
"That was quite an interesting visit," said Hermione as they left the Ravenclaw common room.
Harry looked back at the painting of Rowena Ravenclaw, as she tried to fight off the knight, Sir Cadogan, who was trying to kiss her hand and flirt with her.
"You are the most beautiful dove I have seen in all my quests for bravery!" said Sir Cadogan, trying to create a pick-up line. "Would thy pretty lady go out with ye?"
"For the last time, no!" she shouted. "I'm not sure what's wrong with you male paintings that always try to ask me out. Besides, you're such a mule! My animal is the eagle, not the dove! I have more import things to do, and we're just paintings! My goodness, you are just as ridiculous as Salazar Slytherin."
*****
"Thank goodness I feel better!" exclaimed Joy when her and the others were in the Gryffindor common room by themselves. "It used to feet like a burden to woke up."
"We're all glad you're all right," said Ron as he put his arm around Joy's shoulder.
"Did they find out what you had that made you sick?" asked Hermione.
"No, and to tell you the truth, I don't care. As long as I'm well, I'm happy."
" 'And that's the key to being perky'," quoted Ron from Joy when they had visited her when she was sick. Ron gave Joy a big kiss on the cheek which made her giggle.
"What did you do at Glory's visit?" asked Joy.
"She helped me set up my website on SPEW!" said Hermione.
"SPEW?"
"It stands for the 'Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare'."
"Oh, is that your organization to help create respect and kindness to house-elves?"
"Not only that. It's so they could be free and do whatever they want, or have wages."
Joy's smile suddenly curved into a confused frown.
"Don't they like what they do?" asked Joy.
"That's because they grew up to be that way. If they really tried, they could make themselves better."
"But they can't make themselves better, because they grew up that way!"
"That is an absolutely wonderful point," said Ron, happy that Joy made a great comment about SPEW (which if you hadn't noticed, he completely despised).
"What about those house-elves like Dobby?" said Hermione. "He wants to be free!"
"I agree with you on that one," said Joy. "There are some house-elves like Dobby who want to be free, and I encourage their freedom. You just have to understand that there are some house-elves who want to keep their jobs."
"Even so, they should get wages for what they work for!"
"They already get a comfortable home and food, they don't really need money," said Joy. "Besides, doesn't money lead to greed?"
"Excellent point!" said Harry gladly, just like Ron.
"Hermione, it's not that I want to put you down or anything," said Joy, "but you have to understand that there are some house-elves who like what they do. I understand the main idea about equality, and I like it! I'm actually thinking of enforcing respect laws to house-elves when Glory and I become Queens."
"Really?" said Hermione as her face lit up.
"Of course, and I'll dedicate that law to you. Just don't get carried away with this SPEW thing, all right?"
"All right!"
"What else did you do when you visited Glory?" asked Joy.
"Harry and I saw all the cool potions and inventions Glory invented," said Ron.
"Wow, you must have had a good time!"
"It was so cool!" said Ron. "Do you have any inventions?"
"There's a vault in one of my rooms where I keep a few things like make-up, potions for beauty and things like that. So far the most scientific discovery or invention I've made is a potion that can cleanse dirty rivers and such. I'm working on it so it can restore the whole entire ecosystem, or to use separate potions that will take care of individual things."
"That sounds like a wonderful idea," said Hermione.
"We also made our own little discovery," said Harry.
"What do you mean?" asked Hermione, who was entirely clueless of what Harry had said.
"Ron and I found the reason how Lord Voldemort returned from the dead."
"What?" questioned Hermione angrily. "You never told me that!"
"Well we found the reason," continued Ron. "It's from a potion called 'The Potion of the Undead'."
"It's a sister potion to the Potion of Bone, Flesh and Blood, which is what restored Lord Voldemort to his original form in my 4th year."
"Oh my goodness!" gasped Joy. "Why was that in her rooms?"
"It was a room which the entrance was hidden where the collection of inventions and potions were," said Harry. "The potion was in a chest in that hidden room."
"There was a notebook inside the chest, that talked about the Potion of the Undead," said Ron. "It said that Glory created it."
"W-what?" stuttered Joy in complete shock. "Potion of the Undead? She never told me about that! And it's a sister potion to the Potion of Bone, Flesh and Blood! That's a potion of the Dark Arts!"
"It's true," sighed Harry. "We found out that it's used to bring back a person from the dead, or to bring a dead person's spirit or energy back to a state stronger than they have at the moment, with more powers or to its original strength and state of mind."
"I can't believe this is true," gasped Joy. "Never did I think this could happen."
"The information said that it needed the belongings of the dead person and their blood. Lucius Malfoy has a few things that had once belonged to Lord Voldemort, and Glory had a glove that was covered in blood and wouldn't come out.
"We think that the spirit from Lord Voldemort rose from the body, because Glory said that some kind of smoke or steam was coming out, and it could have went to the Malfoys and told them about their plot to use Glory to gain power."
"We also think that Malfoy hypnotized Glory into giving them the potion with the kidnapped hypnotist," said Ron. "Do you think it's possible to hypnotize her?"
"The hypnotist who was kidnapped was one of the most famous in the world," said Joy. "He probably could have hypnotized her."
"We think they came and hypnotized her at night," said Ron. "Harry and I saw a dot flying in the distance during our first night of our 6th year. If it was a Death Eater with the hypnotist, Malfoy could have let them into the castle."
"This is so horrible! I can't believe this is happening to my own sister!" shrieked Joy. "I can't even believe my sister created such a potion. Really, to bring back the dead!"
Harry thought over that phrase: 'to bring back the dead'. He thought of the people he knew, or could have known, who were dead: his dear parents, Sirius, and even Cedric Diggory. He maybe, just maybe, could have used that potion to bring them back from the dead. He probably couldn't, considering that he didn't have their blood. If he did, he could see them again...
"Harry, what's wrong?" asked Hermione. "You look so sad!"
"Nothing," he said, quickly wiping away a tear. "It's nothing, really."
"I know it's something," said Joy. "You have something on your mind. It's okay, you can tell us."
"It just... That potion could bring back the dead, right? I was thinking and imagining if it could be possible to bring back my parents and Sirius."
"Harry, I'm so sorry," said Joy. "I shouldn't have made my last sentence so ridiculous. Harry, no matter how unfair someone died, it's never a good idea to bring them back. It isn't meant to be. Just think, they're somewhere better now, in heaven."
"I just wished they hadn't died like that," said Harry, as another tear rolled down his cheek.
"It's okay," said Joy, rubbing the tear off his cheek. "Your friends are here for you. It's so scary though, thinking about this potion and Lord Voldemort returning to power. He might get so powerful, the only person who could stop him is himself, but you also have to include the theory of the Prophecy."
She said this staring right at Harry and winking at him, as if she was trying to tell him something. Harry didn't understand the message though, and tried to ignore it.
"Anyway," said Harry, making himself serious and changing the subject, "the one thing we didn't solve is how Lord Voldemort knew that Glory had that potion."
"Oh, I know- OW!!!!!"
Joy shrieked in pain and clutched her hands to her head, just like she had done before.
"What's wrong? What's happening?" said Ron.
"It's nothing. I just want to tell- OW!!!!"
Her pain was obviously worse than before, and tears started to drop down her cheeks. Fortunately (and unfortunately), no one was there in the common room but them. When the pain got worse, Joy squeezed her arm.
"It burns!" shouted Joy.
"Joy, I seriously think you should go to the Hospital Wing," said Ron.
"Yeah, I'll go to the Hospital Wing," she said to herself, still clutching her arm.
"I'll go with you," volunteered Ron.
"No, I'll go alone," said Joy. "I just need to-"
She grabbed the nearest piece of parchment, nearest quill, dipped it in ink and scribbled something quickly. She shoved it into Harry's hands and ran out of the common room. Harry looked at the paper that she had given him, which read in quick and sloppy writing: 'She doesn't know Occlumency,'.
"What does it say, Harry?" asked Ron looking worried.
"It says, 'She doesn't know Occlumency," said Harry.
"What does that mean?"
"I guess when she means 'she', she means Glory," said Hermione.
"So? What does 'she doesn't known Occlumency' mean?"
"It means... that it could be easy for anyone to look inside her thoughts!" shouted Harry in discovery. "Remember when I had to take Occlumency last year? It was because Lord Voldemort could read my thoughts! Obviously, he could read Glory's thoughts, and he could see that she was inventing the Potion of the Undead!"
"Of course!" said Hermione. "It all makes sense now. I wonder if this is what the Ravenclaw girls found out."
"In a week I'll ask them about it," said Harry. "They'll be able to speak and talk to me. I'll ask them about what happened then."
*****
As Harry said, after a week had passed, Harry visited Tiffany, Vicky, Ruth and Lucy in the hospital wing. Harry opened the door slowly and peered into the room. Madame Pomfrey was nursing the four skinny Ravenclaw girls: the blonde, pig tailed Lucy Landerville, the freckled, cherry blonde-haired Tiffany Sealious, the chubby brunette Vicky Plumber with the puffy ponytail and the fragile, small, black-haired Ruth Simmore. All of them had a bag of green-purple-blue Timplewimp Paste connected to their arm. Harry could hear their wheezing; it was awful.
"Hello, Mr. Potter!" greeted Madame Pomfrey, as she stood up from adjusting Ruth's bed. "Are you here to see the four girls?"
"Yes, and I also wanted to see-" Harry tried looking for Cho in the room, but she wasn't there. "Where's Cho?"
"It's past a month, Mr. Potter. She left the Infirmary today."
"Really? She's better now? Will she play in the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Quidditch game?"
"I'm afraid not," sighed Madame Pomfrey. "We don't want her to over-work herself. She might be out of the hospital wing, but she still needs to take it easy. Would you like me to leave so you can speak to the four girls?"
"Yes, that would be great," said Harry. Madame Pomfrey nodded and hurried off into her medical office.
The four girls were lined up in four beds in a row on one side of the room. Harry pulled up a stool next to Tiffany, who had turned her head slowly and recognized Harry.
"Harry... you're here..." she said with a weak smile.
"Yes, I am. Are you all right?"
"Well... we're not too well... We're better... than when we... first came in here..."
"A lot... better..." wheezed Lucy.
All the girls had turned their heads and were looking at Harry. Even Vicky, who was the farthest away from Harry, struggled to sit up.
"Do any of you remember what had happened at your attack?"
"No," answered Ruth.
"Anything, at all?"
"I... think I... might remember... something..." wheezed Vicky.
"What do you remember?"
"I remember we were... all going... somewhere... I remember... someone scaring us... from behind... I can... remember a... bright... red... light... actually, multi-coloured... and our screams... After that... I only... remember... waking up... in the... hospital... wing..."
"Are you the only one who remembers anything from the attack?"
"I can't... remember... anything..." said Ruth.
"I can... only remember going... somewhere..." said Tiffany.
"I remember... the screams... and... colours..." wheezed Lucy.
"Do you remember where you were going, and why you were going there?"
"No..." answered Lucy. "We have... no idea..."
"Can you remember the day of the attack, before you were attacked?"
"I remember... the lessons..." answered Ruth.
"I can... remember... just a bit..." said Vicky.
"We... both... remember... the classes... a bit..." said Tiffany, speaking for her and Lucy.
"Do you remember talking to me that day?" asked Harry.
"We... talked... to... you?" questioned Ruth.
"Yeah, you wanted to meet with me," said Harry. "It was Tiffany who talked to me, then it was her and Lucy."
"We... don't remember... at all... speaking... to you...that day..." said Tiffany.
"You wanted to tell me some secrets," said Harry. "Do you remember any secrets or information about Princess Glory and Malfoy?"
"No..." wheezed Lucy.
All the others shook their heads, telling him that they didn't know any information that would be secret.
"Oh, all right. I appreciate you talking to me," thanked Harry.
"Don't... mention it... Harry..." said Ruth.
"We... were... glad... to talk... to you..." said Vicky.
"It's time for dinner," said Madame Pomfrey with a trolley of trays of food, pushing it towards the girls. "I think it's best if you leave, Harry."
"All right. How long will they be staying in here?"
"About a month and a week or so," sighed Madame Pomfrey. "It's a lot worse than Cho Chang's attack. You found her a lot sooner than we found these four girls. Ms. Chang had, let me think, at least half of her magic, blood and fat sucked out of her. This time, the four have at least 2/3 gone. It's a shame. I hope they find the culprit to the attacks."
"Me too," said Harry. "It's been wonderful talking to you all. I'll see you soon."
Harry walked out of the Infirmary and to the Great Hall. I guess we might never find out all the secrets they found out, thought Harry.
Author's Note: Next chapter's going to be called "Quidditch Comes Back to Hogwarts". The Quidditch field will finally be ready to be played on. Pretty short but interesting chapter. Oh, and one more thing:
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