A Traveller's Tale
by Greta Jameson
4. Ashes Burning
The first day of September finally arrived. Poor Harry had been prisoner at the Dursleys all summer. When he had written to object, Dumbledore had told him it was for his own protection. He had packed and been ready to leave for days. So when Mr. Williams and Mr. Swanson, officials from the Ministry of Magic, came to escort him to Kings Cross, he bid quick goodbye to his Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and Cousin Dudley, and jumped into the waiting car. The last thing he heard his uncle say was, "You are staying at school for Christmas, aren't you?"
"Glad to be going, Harry?" inquired Mr. Williams.
"You bet," was Harry's half-hearted reply. In truth, he was happy to be free of the Dursleys, but was full of foreboding about the coming school year. Over the summer, he had been tortured by many bad dreams and sleepless nights. He knew that he had escaped Voldemort, but that the Dark Lord would keep trying to kill him until he succeeded or was again disembodied.
As the car sped towards the city, Harry grimly watched the people they passed - children playing, people washing cars - and knew that none of them lived so close to death's shadow as he did.
His mood finally improved when they reached the station, and he heard Hermione yelling, "Harry! Harry! Wait for me!" She came running up and gave him a hearty hug.
As do most boys his age, Harry grew a few inches that summer, and filled out in the shoulders a bit, so he wasn't so small anymore. Hermione too was taller and . . . what was it? Prettier? Happier? Maybe a little of both. She wore her hair tied back with a clip of cherrywood and mother of pearl. Harry found himself looking at her, and had to force himself to stop.
She gave her parents a goodbye hug and ran through the portal followed by Harry and his escorts. Much to their discomfort, Mr. Williams and Mr. Swanson also boarded the train with them and said, "We'll be with you all the way to Hogwarts. If you need anything, just let us know," as they disappeared into the compartment next to their own. Ron and Ginny Weasley finally arrived, and when Hermione saw them, she flung open the window of the train and yelled: "Ron, over here!" After a bit of hustle and bustle, they all sat together on the train.
Ron also noticed that Hermione seemed a combination of more confident and better looking. "So, how's Vik-tor?" he asked mimicking his eastern accent.
"Fine. My parents and I went to visit for a few days before their dental surgery conference in Vienna."
"He played even better than usual this summer; did you see him in the finals?"
"No. We're just friends, now," she said fingering a copy of The Prophet on her lap. So, Ron, did you go anywhere?"
"Nope, I did an internship at the Ministry. My father wanted to show me how rewarding a career in government could be, and all he succeeded in doing was making me NEVER want to work there. Mostly I just copied documents and made tea for people. But, I suppose I did learn one neat thing,"
"What's that?" Harry and Hermione asked in unison.
"How to solve puzzles."
"What sort of puzzles?" Hermione asked with interest.
"Word puzzles, codes and ciphers and stuff like that.
"Really?"
"Yeah. And at least according one of my dad's friends, I'm pretty good at it too."
"So, how do you do it?"
"Well, let's say you want to send a message to each other that only you two could read, you'd use a code, right? The safest method to use is something called a one-time pad - which is exactly what it sounds like, a code used for one message only. But those are really hard to break, so let's use an easy example. You still with me?"
"Yeah," she said brightly.
He took out a piece of parchment from his pocket that had been folded so many times in so many different ways that it looked ready to fall apart. On the paper was a table of letters arranged in rows and columns.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A
A A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
B B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A
C C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B
D D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C
E E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D
F F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E
G G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F
H H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G
I I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H
J J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I
K K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J
L L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K
M M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L
N N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M
O O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N
P P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
Q Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P
R R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q
S S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R
T T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S
U U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T
V V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U
W W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V
X X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W
Y Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X
Z Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
"Ugh! It looks like the alphabet repeated over and over."
"Almost. Actually, it's shifted one letter over in each consecutive row and column," he said covering up only two adjacent rows. "Think of a message to send and I'll show you how it works," he said handing her a pen.
She smiled at his use of the muggle tool, and wrote:
HI HARRY, GOOD TO SEE YOU
"Great, now one method would be for you two to agree to always shift letters a certain amount forwards or backwards. So, if you agreed to always shift "A" for "H", then the message would encipher like this," he said as his quickly wrote:
OP OHYYF NVVK AV ZLL FVB
"You see "H" plus 8 equals "O"; "I" plus 8 equals "P"; "H"8 again = "O"; "A"8 = "H", and so on. Another simple key choice that varies a bit, and would be slightly more difficult to break would use a keyword that kept repeating or the first letter of the day of the week that the message was written. So on Monday, the key letter would be "M" and on Tuesday, the key letter would be "T"."
"That was fun"
"Yeah, 'cause we had the square and the key." It's a bit more challenging if you just have the enciphered message."
"Then what do you do?"
"That's where the fun really begins," he said with a gleam in his eye. Go ahead, encipher a short message to Harry, and I'll break it for you."
She took a few minutes to write the code, and handed him a piece of paper:
OAKZAFY QGM S YJWSL QWSJ
He looked at the message and took the key square on his lap and quickly scribbled:
WISHING YOU A GREAT YEAR
"How did you do that?"
He smiled widely, "Lucky first guess actually. Today's Sunday, so I figured you would do the last thing I said. Now, if my lucky guess didn't give me anything but gibberish, first thing I'd do is a frequency count - to see which letters appear the most number of times and in which positions in the words. Let's see, two "Qs" starting words, two "Ws" and two "Js" in the middle or ends of words, and here . . .here's the repeated couplet "WS" in the last words and a lone "S" just prior. In a simple system like this, that lone "S" has got to be a vowel, an "I" or an "A", because in English we never use any consonants or any other vowels alone like that. In fact the most frequently used letters are, in descending order, "E, T, N, O, R, I, A, S". Your message is actually a good example, 'cause there's little repetition."
She smiled proudly over her choice of words.
"Anyway, now you start guessing and substituting letters. I would guess that "W" was an encoded "E", and then I would guess that "S" was either an "A" or an "I", because those make the most common couplets with "E". So, at this point, the only thing that may be correct is the "EA". The next step would be to examine the two "Qs", and ask yourself which words you can make with "EA" as the second and third letters."
She started going through the alphabet, and reciting them, "BEAR, BEAN, BEAT, DEAR, FEAR, FEAT, GEAR, HEAR." And finally said, "Oh, there's lots".
"Yeah, well without any further information, you would have to consider them all."
This was beginning to sound less and less like fun to Hermione, and she glanced over to Harry who was staring out the window watching the countryside speed by.
"I'm loosing you, aren't I? Well, anyway, you get the idea. That was actually a really easy example. Sometimes they can get really tough, substituting pairs or triplets of mixed numbers and letters for single or double letters. One of the muggle Ministries uses supercomputers to break codes - that's where my Dad's friend works. Both wizards and muggles have been doing this for centuries. That's what I love to read about, is the history of codemaking and breaking. Back in ancient Greece, in Sparta I think it was, they used to write codes on strips of leather called skytales. And these leather strips would be wound around sticks. . .
Hermione had never before been happy to see Crabbe and Goyle, but their arrival made Ron finally stop talking. Harry noticed the absence of Ron's voice and turned to stare. They didn't say a word. They didn't goad Harry, tease Ron, or insult Hermione, he just stared vicious, hateful stares. After too many seconds of silence, Mr. Swanson, the taller of the two Ministry escorts appeared and said, "Ah, Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle, how good to see you. Ready for the new school year men?"
Crabbe offered a brief, "Yes, thanks," and moved along down the train.
"What was that all about?" asked Hermione.
"Haven't you heard?" Ron asked raising his eyebrows. "The Ministry came down hard on the Malfoys for a change; they raided the manor twice over the summer and took lots of very valuable Dark Arts stuff. And it's all because Harry witnessed the assembly of Deatheaters, and named names."
"But I thought that Mr. Fudge didn't believe him?"
"He didn't, but others apparently did. My Dad said the Ministry is in chaos, and in the raids, the hands and arms moved without the knowledge of the head if you know what I mean."
Harry shared a worried glance with Hermione and hunkered down for the rest of the trip.
by Greta Jameson
4. Ashes Burning
The first day of September finally arrived. Poor Harry had been prisoner at the Dursleys all summer. When he had written to object, Dumbledore had told him it was for his own protection. He had packed and been ready to leave for days. So when Mr. Williams and Mr. Swanson, officials from the Ministry of Magic, came to escort him to Kings Cross, he bid quick goodbye to his Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and Cousin Dudley, and jumped into the waiting car. The last thing he heard his uncle say was, "You are staying at school for Christmas, aren't you?"
"Glad to be going, Harry?" inquired Mr. Williams.
"You bet," was Harry's half-hearted reply. In truth, he was happy to be free of the Dursleys, but was full of foreboding about the coming school year. Over the summer, he had been tortured by many bad dreams and sleepless nights. He knew that he had escaped Voldemort, but that the Dark Lord would keep trying to kill him until he succeeded or was again disembodied.
As the car sped towards the city, Harry grimly watched the people they passed - children playing, people washing cars - and knew that none of them lived so close to death's shadow as he did.
His mood finally improved when they reached the station, and he heard Hermione yelling, "Harry! Harry! Wait for me!" She came running up and gave him a hearty hug.
As do most boys his age, Harry grew a few inches that summer, and filled out in the shoulders a bit, so he wasn't so small anymore. Hermione too was taller and . . . what was it? Prettier? Happier? Maybe a little of both. She wore her hair tied back with a clip of cherrywood and mother of pearl. Harry found himself looking at her, and had to force himself to stop.
She gave her parents a goodbye hug and ran through the portal followed by Harry and his escorts. Much to their discomfort, Mr. Williams and Mr. Swanson also boarded the train with them and said, "We'll be with you all the way to Hogwarts. If you need anything, just let us know," as they disappeared into the compartment next to their own. Ron and Ginny Weasley finally arrived, and when Hermione saw them, she flung open the window of the train and yelled: "Ron, over here!" After a bit of hustle and bustle, they all sat together on the train.
Ron also noticed that Hermione seemed a combination of more confident and better looking. "So, how's Vik-tor?" he asked mimicking his eastern accent.
"Fine. My parents and I went to visit for a few days before their dental surgery conference in Vienna."
"He played even better than usual this summer; did you see him in the finals?"
"No. We're just friends, now," she said fingering a copy of The Prophet on her lap. So, Ron, did you go anywhere?"
"Nope, I did an internship at the Ministry. My father wanted to show me how rewarding a career in government could be, and all he succeeded in doing was making me NEVER want to work there. Mostly I just copied documents and made tea for people. But, I suppose I did learn one neat thing,"
"What's that?" Harry and Hermione asked in unison.
"How to solve puzzles."
"What sort of puzzles?" Hermione asked with interest.
"Word puzzles, codes and ciphers and stuff like that.
"Really?"
"Yeah. And at least according one of my dad's friends, I'm pretty good at it too."
"So, how do you do it?"
"Well, let's say you want to send a message to each other that only you two could read, you'd use a code, right? The safest method to use is something called a one-time pad - which is exactly what it sounds like, a code used for one message only. But those are really hard to break, so let's use an easy example. You still with me?"
"Yeah," she said brightly.
He took out a piece of parchment from his pocket that had been folded so many times in so many different ways that it looked ready to fall apart. On the paper was a table of letters arranged in rows and columns.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A
A A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
B B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A
C C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B
D D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C
E E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D
F F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E
G G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F
H H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G
I I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H
J J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I
K K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J
L L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K
M M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L
N N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M
O O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N
P P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
Q Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P
R R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q
S S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R
T T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S
U U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T
V V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U
W W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V
X X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W
Y Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X
Z Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
"Ugh! It looks like the alphabet repeated over and over."
"Almost. Actually, it's shifted one letter over in each consecutive row and column," he said covering up only two adjacent rows. "Think of a message to send and I'll show you how it works," he said handing her a pen.
She smiled at his use of the muggle tool, and wrote:
HI HARRY, GOOD TO SEE YOU
"Great, now one method would be for you two to agree to always shift letters a certain amount forwards or backwards. So, if you agreed to always shift "A" for "H", then the message would encipher like this," he said as his quickly wrote:
OP OHYYF NVVK AV ZLL FVB
"You see "H" plus 8 equals "O"; "I" plus 8 equals "P"; "H"8 again = "O"; "A"8 = "H", and so on. Another simple key choice that varies a bit, and would be slightly more difficult to break would use a keyword that kept repeating or the first letter of the day of the week that the message was written. So on Monday, the key letter would be "M" and on Tuesday, the key letter would be "T"."
"That was fun"
"Yeah, 'cause we had the square and the key." It's a bit more challenging if you just have the enciphered message."
"Then what do you do?"
"That's where the fun really begins," he said with a gleam in his eye. Go ahead, encipher a short message to Harry, and I'll break it for you."
She took a few minutes to write the code, and handed him a piece of paper:
OAKZAFY QGM S YJWSL QWSJ
He looked at the message and took the key square on his lap and quickly scribbled:
WISHING YOU A GREAT YEAR
"How did you do that?"
He smiled widely, "Lucky first guess actually. Today's Sunday, so I figured you would do the last thing I said. Now, if my lucky guess didn't give me anything but gibberish, first thing I'd do is a frequency count - to see which letters appear the most number of times and in which positions in the words. Let's see, two "Qs" starting words, two "Ws" and two "Js" in the middle or ends of words, and here . . .here's the repeated couplet "WS" in the last words and a lone "S" just prior. In a simple system like this, that lone "S" has got to be a vowel, an "I" or an "A", because in English we never use any consonants or any other vowels alone like that. In fact the most frequently used letters are, in descending order, "E, T, N, O, R, I, A, S". Your message is actually a good example, 'cause there's little repetition."
She smiled proudly over her choice of words.
"Anyway, now you start guessing and substituting letters. I would guess that "W" was an encoded "E", and then I would guess that "S" was either an "A" or an "I", because those make the most common couplets with "E". So, at this point, the only thing that may be correct is the "EA". The next step would be to examine the two "Qs", and ask yourself which words you can make with "EA" as the second and third letters."
She started going through the alphabet, and reciting them, "BEAR, BEAN, BEAT, DEAR, FEAR, FEAT, GEAR, HEAR." And finally said, "Oh, there's lots".
"Yeah, well without any further information, you would have to consider them all."
This was beginning to sound less and less like fun to Hermione, and she glanced over to Harry who was staring out the window watching the countryside speed by.
"I'm loosing you, aren't I? Well, anyway, you get the idea. That was actually a really easy example. Sometimes they can get really tough, substituting pairs or triplets of mixed numbers and letters for single or double letters. One of the muggle Ministries uses supercomputers to break codes - that's where my Dad's friend works. Both wizards and muggles have been doing this for centuries. That's what I love to read about, is the history of codemaking and breaking. Back in ancient Greece, in Sparta I think it was, they used to write codes on strips of leather called skytales. And these leather strips would be wound around sticks. . .
Hermione had never before been happy to see Crabbe and Goyle, but their arrival made Ron finally stop talking. Harry noticed the absence of Ron's voice and turned to stare. They didn't say a word. They didn't goad Harry, tease Ron, or insult Hermione, he just stared vicious, hateful stares. After too many seconds of silence, Mr. Swanson, the taller of the two Ministry escorts appeared and said, "Ah, Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle, how good to see you. Ready for the new school year men?"
Crabbe offered a brief, "Yes, thanks," and moved along down the train.
"What was that all about?" asked Hermione.
"Haven't you heard?" Ron asked raising his eyebrows. "The Ministry came down hard on the Malfoys for a change; they raided the manor twice over the summer and took lots of very valuable Dark Arts stuff. And it's all because Harry witnessed the assembly of Deatheaters, and named names."
"But I thought that Mr. Fudge didn't believe him?"
"He didn't, but others apparently did. My Dad said the Ministry is in chaos, and in the raids, the hands and arms moved without the knowledge of the head if you know what I mean."
Harry shared a worried glance with Hermione and hunkered down for the rest of the trip.