The Fifth House
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, and I'm not making any money off of this. That would be rather nice, but that's just not how the world does things.
Author's Note: Okay, the story stays as is. Just imagine that nothing in the fifth book happened.
Anyway, I hope you've all been well? Are we all having relaxing summers {or winters, if you live south of the equator}? It took a little while to get this chapter up and going, just because I was out if it a little. But now I'm all good, and ready to write.
Read.
Review.
Return! {A special thanx goes out to Ravenclaw@heart for giving me this R word!
Curtains Up!
Chapter Twenty-Six
"One week is all the time we have," said Enna in the Atrium.
"Is that a lot or a little?" Brann asked.
"Both," Enna said, sighing.
"How is it both?" Skully asked.
"Well, we do not need to worry about planning anything, I've got it all together with Plikttro, Reelle, and Sammen, you all just need to listen and do what we say," Enna said smiling.
Terces was setting up they're next major operation: the first Quidditch match.
"Oh, but before, we get into that, can I tell you all something?" said Strella, who looked rather excited.
"Yes?" Enna asked patiently.
"I think I've found out what my name means," Strella said.
"Really? So early in the school year, too…" Plikttro said.
"Yes. I was up late after our last meeting in the library we have here. It took ,me weeks of research," Strella said.
"That gives the rest of us a lot of hope," Brann said sarcastically.
"Brann, just because you have probably neglected the idea of actually researching your name's meaning doesn't mean that no one else has been responsible," Reelle said, smiling at Strella.
Reelle and Strella were both in charge of one of the four powers together, so they were very good friends.
"So, tell us, what have you come to know 'Stralende' means?" Hekserienne asked with a flourish.
"It means 'brilliant'," Strella said, beaming.
"I applaud you, for being the first to discover the meaning of your name. Yes, you name does mean brilliant," Enna said, smiling.
"So, we're actually calling her 'brilliant?" Brann asked.
"She is brilliant," Enna said.
"I didn't mean it that way, I meant that we're calling each other adjectives? Not actual names?" Brann asked.
"Yes, because names can be anything you want to name someone," Plikttro said.
"But that makes it seem like she's actually from the house that the staff put her in," Brann said.
"No, no! Brann, don't ever say that!" Enna said.
"What'd I do? What'd I say?" Brann asked, confusedly.
"To say that Terces is in any way like any of the other four houses is one of the most offensive and insulting things that you can do as a sodalis!" Sammen said.
"Strella is brilliant in ways other than schoolwork! You can be brilliant in many ways, you know. There are different types of intelligence, and you can just as easily excel in any of them," Reelle explained.
"Oh, sorry, then. But, I really didn't know," Brann said quickly.
"Well, don't you ever say anything like that again!" said Enna, "This is your only warning," she finished.
"Okay, okay… But can we please move on to plans for the match? I've been looking forward to that for a while now," Brann said.
The eight sodalises quickly resumed their work on plotting their next big move.
* * * *
Harry was in his dorm alone when he got his next turn in the Crevi Game. He picked up the two dice and dropped them at the same time. He watched them spin around before they both fell into stillness.
Harry first looked at the gold die, which showed the number 7. The second die was much more interesting to look at, with all of the small pictures. The picture that was face-up gave Harry a very strange feeling. The picture was that of a wolf, a wolf that looked much like the wolf stamped on P.1 Rebirth's letters. Harry gulped. He waited a few seconds before a piece of parchment appeared before him. He read it.
You move forward seven spaces. The space you land on says:
"To win this game, make the most of meeting the group that is the host."
You are again the fifth person to take your turn.
Out of eight players, eight remain.
~Game Host~
Harry was just a little bit confused. Did this mean that he had to meet the host? If so, hadn't Mundungus Fletcher said that Terces was hosting the game, because that could cause some problems for Harry. And even if he was supposed to meet Terces, how could that happen? Wasn't Terces supposed to meet in ultra-secret places?
Harry's questions were answered when he felt a light breeze start up around him. The breeze turned into a heavy wind, which became so harsh that Harry had to close his eyes. He was partially aware that somewhere, someone was calling out his name. But he couldn't tell who it was, because the wind stopped suddenly, and Harry found himself falling forward into a room where he'd never before been.
He was in a magnificent hall, with very hard stone floors. The walls were draped with dark violet curtains, and there were many portraits. Harry did a double take on the portraits, realizing that they were not paintings of people. They were paintings of wolves.
Harry inhaled quietly and stood up, looking around a bit more. At one end of the hall there was a gigantic purple swirled marble fireplace. There were no doors, and no windows. Although there was a large staircase. Harry heard a sound that perhaps had been there all along, but Harry hadn't noticed it until now. It was similar to the sound of running water, therefore also similar to the sound that existed in the room where Harry met with Mundungus Fletcher and the others.
Harry looked around, trying to find out where the sound was coming from. It occurred to him that maybe the sound was coming from no specific place. But this hardly satisfied him as an acceptable answer.
Harry looked at the ceiling, thinking maybe the sound was coming from there. It seemed like an unlikely idea to him, but if the Great Hall's ceiling could reflect the weather outside, than it was possible that this ceiling could make sounds.
How could Harry have known that the unlikely choices were always the ones that Terces was likely to chose?
Indeed, the sound was coming from the ceiling. Harry found himself gazing at its swirling opal form for quite a time before a voice brought him to reality.
"What are you doing here?" a girl asked Harry.
Harry snapped into the real world and took a moment to study the girl before answering. She didn't appear to be angry, which was good.
She had long brown hair and purple eyes, and Harry remembered her as one of the people he'd seen on the last night before he returned to Hogwarts earlier that year. She wore lots of jewelry, and she was wearing white robes.
"I don't know," Harry answered truthfully.
"How did you get here?" she asked.
"A game brought me here. I had no choice at all," Harry explained.
The girl looked pensively at Harry. "The Crevi Game, you mean?"
Harry nodded yes.
"Well, what did the picture show?" the girl asked.
"It was a wolf," Harry said.
"And the message?" she inquired.
"It was something like, 'To win this game, make the most by meeting the group who's the host'," Harry said, trying to remember.
The girl nodded. "Alright. I'll tell you what the game requires me to tell, but absolutely no more. I suppose you know who the group is?" the girl said. Harry nodded.
"First of all, I have to say that I am the only one of us here right now, everyone else has left. I believe that to say you 'met' someone in this game, you have to introduce yourselves and the like?" the girl asked.
"I guess so," Harry said, not feeling ready to give up his name just yet.
"Okay. My name is Hekserienne, but people call me Enna. I started Hogwarts one thousand years ago. When the headmaster felt that they had to put me in one of those houses, they put me in Slytherin, then changed to Ravenclaw, then changed to Hufflepuff, then they put me in Gryffindor," Enna said.
Harry felt very strange talking face to face with someone from the secret society that he was trying to help destroy. It was difficult to tell if she knew he was involved in that or not.
"I'm Harry. The Sorting Hat sorted me into Gryffindor. I started at Hogwarts five years ago," Harry said. He didn't plan to tell any more than he had to.
"Gryffindor? You seem like you would be more of a… well, not as much of a Gryffindor," Enna said.
"Well, Gryffindor is the only house I'd ever want to be in," Harry said defensively.
"Oh? You'd never make it in any of the others?" asked Enna, who was walking in slow circles around Harry now.
Harry didn't answer.
"You mean to tell me that you are purely Gryffindor, nothing else at all?" Enna asked.
"Yes."
"But you speak Parseltongue?" Enna asked.
"How'd you know that?" Harry asked after a few minutes.
"Mundungus Fletcher told me," Enna said.
"But Fletcher said that no one except-" Harry started.
Enna was grinning.
Harry inhaled quickly. He knew that by saying he knew Mundungus Fletcher gave away a lot to Enna.
"Isn't this enough to qualify as meeting someone?" Harry asked, waiting for the game to bring him back too Gryffindor Tower.
"As the host of the game, we can change the rules just a little," Enna explained.
"But when can I leave?" Harry asked.
Enna stopped walking, so that she was standing in front of Harry facing him.
"I'm afraid, Harry Potter, that I can't let you do that."
Curtains Close!
Author's Note: I'm sorry that chapter took so long, but it required some looking back at previous chapters. And I'm also half sorry for leaving you at a cliffhanger again. I'm only half sorry because I love ending things that way. I like the not knowing that goes on.
Words of Wisdom: How lucky I am to have something worth saying good bye to,"
~Unknown
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I love you all!
Ciao!
~Starry