The Fifth House
Disclaimer: To avoid being sued, I do not own Harry Potter, Hogwarts, or anything that in any way shape or form seems familiar from the books. I own the plot and A few characters.
Author's Note: Hey guys! I'm really sorry about chapter eleven, but it's all good now. Thanx for the reviews, I really appreciate them! I'm up to 63 now, and I only thought I'd get, like, ten for the whole story. I guess I thought wrong. By the way, there are some really long names in this chapter, but they all translate from another language, so I have to keep them the way they are for plot reasons.
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Rock n' Roll! {A special thanx to Kirina for suggesting R words}
Curtains Up!
Chapter Eleven
Harry woke up very early on the first day of lessons. This year he was unusually very excited about school. Maybe not the school part, such as lessons and homework. It most definitely not the homework that got him so excited. Maybe it was the fact that he'd get to see everyone again, even if it meant going through the usual boring lessons. He'd seen most of the people he'd wanted to. But he hadn't seen Hagrid yet. Harry didn't know what classes he had today; they hadn't gotten the schedules yet.
"How can you even be awake?" Ron asked him as he, Harry, and Hermione walked down several staircases to the Great Hall. Harry noticed that Ron had bags under his eyes and seemed to be yawning every few seconds.
"Ron, some people are actually happy to get back to school," Hermione said.
"Then I guess I'm definitely not one of them," Ron said through a yawn.
When they arrived at the Hall, there was a stack of schedules on the Gryffindor table. Hermione sorted through them and found three fifth-year ones.
"As if our day couldn't get any worse," Ron said, looking very annoyed with everything.
Harry looked down at his schedule. He groaned.
9:00 History of Magic
11:00 Divination
Lunch
1:00 Potions
2:30 Potions
The three worst subjects in the history of school, and all on the first day. First they'd be bored out of their minds by Professor Binns lectures of Goblin Rebellions. Then, they'd get their futures told nonstop for an hour, and Harry knew the Professor said he'd die-again. According to Professor Trelawney, Harry was always in extreme danger. After lunch, they'd get to spend some quality time with Harry, Ron, and Hermione's least favorite people: Professor Snape and the Slytherins. Hermione was the luckiest of them all; she had Arithmancy instead of Divination.
"Hey Hermione! Ron! Harry!" a voice called from somewhere.
They turned around. Kylie was jogging to them. "Hi guys! What's up?" she asked.
"Hi. We're just brooding over our most unfortunate luck of schedule for today," Ron said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"We have History of Magic, Divination, and double potions. Our day just gets worse and worse," Harry explained.
"Except for me. I have Arithmancy instead of Divination," Hermione added.
"History of Magic isn't so bad, I've heard, if you just daydream about something. Divination is actually kind of fun- just go along with whatever the teacher says- pretend like you care. It's actually quite funny if they really believe you. And potions can't be that bad-you just do what Snape says and try to make a potion that almost looks ok," Kylie said.
" I guess so, but you can't know Snape that well in just one day. Sure, maybe he's nice to you, but wait until you see how many house points he takes off Gryffindor. He hates anyone who isn't a Slytherin, but he hates Gryffindors especially," Harry answered.
"He's really that bad to you guys?" Kylie asked.
"Yeah, just awful. He takes off points just for helping someone," Hermione said.
"That's too bad. Well, I have to go get my dragon hide gloves and still get down to some hut, 'cause I've got Care of Magical Creatures first, and I hear you shouldn't forget your gloves for that," Kylie said. "Bye!"
"Bye," Hermione said. Harry waved, and Ron did nothing.
"Ron, are you ok?" Hermione asked him, noticing his confused face.
"It's just, I don't get it! How can she be so happy about lessons she hasn't had at this school ever?" Ron said.
"The world may never know," said Hermione.
* * * *
The halls were freezing throughout the day. It was still September, and even the cold climate couldn't be that cold. If it was icy now, it would be glacial in the winter.
As cold as it was in the halls where students roamed, chatting about lessons, people, and other things, it was very warm in one part of the castle. There was a perfect temperature in the Atrium Terces {Hall of Terces}. Eight people were in the hall, each going through Book of Malus each of them looked deeply intrigued, except one of them.
"Isn't this kind of risky, though? I mean, couldn't we get caught?" asked the concerned boy.
"So long as we are honest with each other, and do not mention, in any form, anything that goes on here outside this hall, we will not be discovered. It worked the first time, it will work again," said another student.
"You see, we have an advantage over the school. Far over the school, if you want more detail. None of the many headmasters or headmistresses this school has ever had knew about us. With the exception, of one," another student said.
"How did that headmaster know about us?" asked the very interested boy.
"Headmistress, actually. She had inside connections. You will gain knowledge of her in the future. But it won't be long, no Terces sodalis can possibly take part in any movement of our society without knowing of her," said one person.
"Can you tell me anything about her? A name, maybe?" asked another boy.
"Very well. Her name was Lady Macabryne Maldade. She was Hogwarts twenty-fifth head, and the noblest by our standards. She had a wolf called Spokelse, who protected her. She enjoyed playing Chinese checkers," said a student in a monotone.
"Is that all you can tell us?" prompted the boy.
"I can tell you no more," said the other student.
The eighth student walked into the hall from a door at the top of a long, winding staircase. She was holding a large bound book in her hands.
"This is not the time to learn of Lady Macabryne Maldade. Though you should know that when you speak of her, you must say her full name, or one of us may think otherwise, which will get you a most terrible chastisement. Moving on, now is the time you will receive your names. I know, you all have names already, but when your portrait is in this hall in a thousand years, you will be known by your new name,' she said hurriedly.
"I didn't know we'd be receiving new names today," said one student.
"You will never know what will be happening the next day, nor will we. The reason is that plans change, and we must change with them, so it isn't right to arrange anything for tomorrow. Especially with the many complications we shall face this year," she said.
"If we don't think about tomorrow, then how can you say we'll face anything in the future?" asked one very irritated student.
"That's a good point, it shows that you will fit in well with Terces. There is an exception to every rule; this is the one for this. There are some things that we know will come to pass, that fate has shared with us," she said, smiling wryly.
She continued. "Your name, by the way, shall be Bortkommen," she said to the fifth year boy.
"What kind of name is that?" he asked her.
"A kind of name that describes you very well," she said, with a slight edge to her voice.
"What if we don't like our new name?" asked the other boy, very nervously.
"Then too bad for you. You get what you get, and if you don't like the name itself, you will at least like the meaning," she said. "My name, by the way, is Hekserienne, but you can call me Enna," said the girl.
"Why do we have messed up names that sound really bizarre?" asked Bortkommen.
"As strange as you think they may be, they all have meaning. In your houses, you were sorted by what you were supposed to be. Your new names tell who you are," said Hekserienne.
"But how will we know who we are if we don't know what our names mean?" Bortkommen asked, he was getting irritated.
"You may never know. You must seek the answer out yourself. Only when you know who you are will you know what you are being called by. However, if you do get to the bottom of this, you may or may not like the answer you find. Only when you are sure, and can prove, that your name isn't fitting can it be changed. Then the process starts all over again. However, a shorter form of your name, which we'll call you if you want, is Brann, if you like that better," said Hekserienne.
"Why is Terces such a complicated thing? Or is it a movement of some sort? A place? What exactly is Terces?" asked Brann confusedly.
"I am glad you asked that question. It shows you have the full potential. Terces is not a thing, nor a movement. It is a house, but not truly, at heart, every Terces sodalis knows that. You were placed in the house of Terces in your first year, but it is not a house, exactly." Brann only looked more confused.
"Right now, you are in Terces. When you were born, you were in Terces. When you die, you shall be in Terces. You see, Terces is not a place. Terces is a state of mind," she said.
"Oh, and that makes it all so much easier to understand," Brann said under his breath.
Hekserienne shot him a death glare. "Your sarcasm will only make it more difficult for you. You do not have the option to leave, however. Once Terces calls out to you, you have only two choices. The obvious choice, of course, would be to stay with it. It will make your life much more difficult to do otherwise," she said.
"And what would the other choice be?" he asked her.
"Death," she answered hotly.
Hekserienne continued as if nothing had happened. "I shall give you others your names now."
She turned toward a second year girl. "Your name shall be Stralende, but if you want to shorten in a bit, we can call you Strella, as it is the only shortened form of the name."
"All right, then," said Strella, not looking disappointed.
Enna turned to the scared looking boy. "Your name shall be Skjulte."
"Is there a shorter version? I'm not sure I can pronounce that…" said the boy nervously. Enna smiled.
"Yes, there is a shorter version of every name. We shall call you Skully," said Enna. 'Skully' looked despaired at the thought of his name.
Enna turned to the last girl and smiled. "Finally we have our last sodalis. You are to be called Ren. The shortened version is Ren," said Enna, beaming.
"That's a nice name, it sounds nice," Ren said.
Enna smiled. "It has a nice meaning, too," Enna said.
"Hold on, you know the meanings of our names? That's not fair!" Brann complained.
"You know that it is, Brann, stop complaining. However, to explain better, I will tell a little more history," Enna snapped.
She continued.
"To begin with, it is important for you know that the base of Terces is history. When Terces was founded, it took many months of research to discover the abandoned powers we have now. It was found in a very old book, which is very sacred to us now, and it took vast amounts of endurance to free the power. Actually, there are several powers. Until we meet again, what you need to know is that you should never neglect the History of Magic, because it was a third of the reason why Terces succeeded."
"So there's one power, but there's several powers? How many? How does anyone manage that?" asked Brann.
"There is one main power, and four smaller ones we control. It takes four powers to have any of them work," answered another girl, that the four new sodalises did not know the name of. "By the way, my name is Reelle."
"How come we don't know their names?" asked Ren, pointing to two other people.
The two other people are very important. Ren, Brann, Strella, and Skully should know their names.
Tell them.
"They are Sammen, call him Sam, and Plikttro, call him Plikttro," Enna answered promptly.
"Oh, okay. Can we go now?" Strella asked. She looked exhausted.
"Yes, this gathering of Terces is adjourned. You may all leave, I have to get some things together, I'll lock the entrance," Enna said.
"Hold on, when is our next gathering?" Strella asked.
"We meet every time the moon changes. Our next meeting will be on the Full Moon. That is September the twenty-second, for those of you who do not study lunar charts," Enna answered pointedly at Skully.
"It's not my fault! I'm only good at one subject!" Skully defended.
"And what would that be? Failing?" Brann said in a taunting voice.
Enna watched Brann, Skully, Strella, and Ren leave the hall. She looked at Reelle, who smiled.
"They'll get along in time, they'll have to," Reelle said, as though she read Enna's mind.
"I remember when we all didn't get along at first. We hated each other. But hard work and perseverance brought us together, and look how much we've accomplished now?" Plikttro said.
"When the need for power is so strong, people come together easily. It was always that way, it always is that way, it always will be that way," Sam said.
"I suppose so. You three better get back to your dorms. I'd recommend the tunnels, as students are always wandering on this night. I'll tidy up the things, and get everything in its place," Enna said, hoping to get them to leave.
They nodded, but Enna saw the smile Reelle was trying to hide.
Reelle knew why Enna liked to stay later. She usually didn't even go back to her cozy common room on gathering nights. It was just too nice to stay the night in the Terces library, reading up new ways to enhance the powers.
But no matter how much Enna searched or tried, the other power just wouldn't cooperate.
It was untamable.
But that would never stop Enna from trying. Every meeting night she'd stay in the library. She never went to the school library, no, it was pointless. They had no books that would help Terces at all. This may be because no one in the main school, including students, teachers. Headmaster, and staff {including Mrs. Norris} knew about Terces. Only Terces knew about Terces, and that was the only way it could be.
It was the only way It would have it.
Anyway, Terces library was so much more complete. It contained every book the school library had, and then about ten thousand more. There was no restricted section, as most of the books would be considered restricted anyway. It was the only library in the world that had every edition of Hogwarts, a History.
It was Enna's heaven.
She hummed to herself as she leafed through some random book about enchanted objects. It had been on the very highest shelf out of twenty-seven, and the best books were always on the highest shelf. Enna was flipping the pages until she got bored and returned the book to its proper place on the shelf. Every book had to put back in its proper place, or else they would get annoyed.
Enna didn't notice when an article fell out of the pages.
She climbed slowly down the ladder. When she stepped off of it, she slipped on the article. It was a rather large piece of paper. She bent down to pick it up, when she heard the sound of a swift wind. She immediately stood up straight and stepped on the article, hiding only part of it.
What are you doing?
"I-I'm doing nothing of any importance, just looking through some books," she answered.
Then why are you standing on a Daily Prophet article? Are you hiding it from me?
"No, I'd never hide anything from you. A piece of paper fell out of a book, and I just bent down to pick it up when you came," she answered in partial truth.
I see. Read the article aloud.
Enna picked up the paper and started to read.
" 'Dark Lord strikes again'. That's the header. It reads:
The Dark Lord has killed yet another innocent person, this time a muggle. The victim, by the name as Alyssa Grisley, was found dead yesterday morning, September first, at King's Cross Train Station. No reporters were allowed on the scene, details are classified information. Funeral services will be private.
Writes Renee Skeeter,
Temporary correspondent"
I think you need to find more information, and quickly. Or else I'll get angry. And you don't want me angry.
"Of course I'll find out more. But is it that important if Voldemort strikes again? Won't it mean a good diversion for us?" Enna asked.
Of course. That's why you need to find out more.
"I see," Enna answered.
Then she heard the wind again, this time blowing away. She breathed a sigh of relief. She hated being contacted by It. It was inescapable.
But It would follow her for the rest of her life and beyond.
* * * *
If you exited Terces Hall through the tunnels, and got to the Entrance Hall, then you could say that the event first occurred ten staircases, three trick steps, two tired ghosts, and four secret passages away.
It happened in the Gryffindor dormitories first that every occupant woke up suddenly. Then the Ravenclaws; it moved up three more staircases to wake the Hufflepuffs, and finally continued to the dark, dreary Slytherins in their dungeons.
Every student in the school was awoken by it. Every teacher, staff member, and even the headmaster did not wake. Every animal stirred; every staircase creaked {even without anyone walking on it}; every door swung open and closed several times. Every sink froze over. Every fire went out. Every creature in the Forbidden Forest went silent.
And every single living being felt a burning to icy pain.
Curtains Close!
Author's Note: That chapter took forever to write, I don't know why. Maybe it was all those breaks I had to take to look up some crazy translation on the web.
Fun.
Words of Wisdom: It takes hundreds of carrots to improve your vision, but only one onion to make you cry.
Go figure.
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I love you all!
Ciao!
~Starry