Disclaimer: Own absolutely nothing!
Dedication: This whole story is was and will be dedicated to the Red Dragons Order!
Chapter 35: Until We Meet Again
The group of ten was hiding in an empty classroom, Hermione having told them she had discovered something of maximum importance. From her glowing eyes and 'no-disobeying' face they soon realized they had to comply with her orders.
"Remember what she said?" Hermione whispered to the group, referring to Rose. "Remember what they all kept saying about Towers?"
"That he was expecting himself to die" Ron replied with a concerned shrug. "He was a weirdo..."
"Not that, pea-brain" Draco said, shaking his head. "She means 'Navrad'. It's been said a few times this evening when referring to Towers"
"Precisely. And Draco?" Hermione said, glaring.
"Yeah?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"The only reason why I'm letting you get away with calling Ron a pea-brain is because we don't have much time."
"I know" he replied with a smirk.
"We need to get to our room and search for what 'Navrad' means, it can't be his name, I'm quite certain I've heard or read something about Navrads somewhere, if I could just remember..." Hermione said, drifting off.
"Study?! In our last night at Hogwarts?! Hermione!" Ron complained, but she turned to glare at him with the worst glare Harry had ever seen on her.
"RONALD WEASLEY!" she roared. "We WILL research the subject NOW because this is our last time at Hogwarts for the whole SUMMER!"
They all backed away a few steps and Harry wondered how she had managed to stress and yell all those words to get a most terrifying effect. As she stood there, mad, tired and ready to kill somebody if occasion may come, he understood it wouldn't be easy to calm her.
"So, um, let's go to the room, shall we?" Neville asked, his voice shaking and everybody realized why he had ended up in Gryffindor after all: it was quite a brave thing to speak to a fuming Hermione. She seemed to calm a little and they left the empty classroom quickly.
Without much ado, they went through the corridors of Hogwarts quickly, of course not encountering anybody: which student or teacher or even caretaker would be out on the corridors in the last night and after the funeral of a former Professor?
When they reached the room, they found it to be as cozy as ever. The fire roared in the fireplace as it usually did and they all started to look through the books in the library under Hermione's command.
/-/-/-/-/-/-
Harry was officially tired and he felt that his eyes were closing. Mark was already asleep. Hermione was still searching through the books as quickly as she could.
The room had again surprised them when they had started reading the books. The bookcase seemed to have an endless number of books and there were more books on the floor than they could have ever fitted in the bookcase, and still the thing seemed to be quite full.
And Harry seemed to be at what was the thousandth book that night. It had been hours and hours of search, it was probably reaching five in the morning. Everybody, except for Mark, had a few books they wanted to take with them for summer. Jane had found a few things about her kingdom and she had put them away. Ron had found some interesting magic books and he was eager to see if he could possibly make things blow up or anything of the sort. Plus, there was a book that spoke of the making of wands and broomsticks. Including practical ideas. Draco had put away some dark magic, dragon and Animagus books. Neville had found some interesting books about plants. Amala had a stack of weird type of magic, Potions and Divination books. Luna had somehow found books on weird creatures. Ginny had found charms books. Harry had a small stack on Animagus transformations, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms and Transfiguration books. And Hermione had stacks of all types of books, of course.
So, all in all, they had found everything but Navrad books. Which was pretty annoying. Harry had stayed awake only because the books were interesting. There had been books on all kinds of creatures, history books with moving pictures in them, a few things about wands and their masters, a few things about the Founders of Hogwarts... And surprisingly new things. He wondered briefly who had made the room. He or she must have been really powerful to do all that... And to think nobody had ever noticed it!
"I've found it!" he heard an enthusiastic voice and he turned to see Ginny smile broadly. "The Navrad thing!"
They all gathered around her –Neville even woke Mark up- and Harry asked Ginny if he could see the cover. She nodded and he could see it was a book with black covers and gold writing on it. It was majestic-looking and the title shone slightly: 'The Book of Beings-Dead and Alive' by Mark Strois.
"Look at the author" Harry said, gesturing to everybody. "Isn't he..."
"The Guardian of Death" Amala whispered.
"You mean, the guy who appeared before Towers' funeral?" Ginny said slowly. "... Is it just me or is there something weird going on here?"
"Read about the Navrad, please" Hermione muttered. "We'll see about this later, ok?"
Ginny nodded and started reading.
"Navrad. Beings nor dead, nor alive. Most of them are said not to have a soul but to be like machines... They serve humans if they are called as they should be. They do not ask for anything in return. They do their task without pondering about it, they do not care if it is right or wrong. They are said to be the creations of ancient wizard and that they were put to guard ancient tombs, like pyramids. They are also called thought-forms. They act as they are told to.
However, besides the typical Navrad, there are legends of intelligent Navrads, beings that have fallen to disgrace, beings that have souls and could think... but they choose not to, they are like sleeping beings that follow orders. However, legend says they can be woken to life by the grace of a truly powerful being or by grace of God himself. I for one believe the legends, but I believe these beings should be called differently, they should have different names... they are not the same with the thought-forms, they were not created by humans. They might even be humans with a tragic past. They might be fallen angels... They might be blessed beings that came to life as Navrads and were given souls, maybe they were graced. I do not know... My father will not tell me, but he knows the truth"
They all looked at each other and stared in silence until Jane finally spoke:
"So... Does that make Towers non-human and cursed?"
"I don't know" Harry replied slowly. "I don't understand..."
Hermione took the book and, after remembering the number of the page, turned to the first page.
"First word" she read and gave a few pages. "Written by Jack Strois"
"That must be his father" Amala said, gaping slightly. "Severus told me about him... Read it"
Hermione nodded slowly and started speaking.
"This book has been written by Mark Strois in 1946 and was finished on the 3rd of May, precisely two weeks before his painful and most unfortunate death. It will never be published. It never was meant to be. There are things here that should never be known by large public... Things a common wizard should not know. Instead, there will be three copies of the book. One shall be in the hands of my dearest child, Severus Snape. He will need it. One shall be in the hands of Albus Dumbledore. He will know how to use it. One shall be given to the ones in need... It has been arranged.
Between these pages there are comments that Mark has written. He has mentioned things other never knew. It is a dangerous book... and therefore you, the reader, should not read the first few lines if you want your life to stay the same as it is.
There are many things in this world unknown to Muggles. There are wizards and wands, magical clothes or books or paintings that move. There are dragons and ghosts... They do not know. Precious few are the Muggles who know of magic if they have no family connection with wizards. But there are some that know.
Also, as hidden as is the wizarding world from Muggles, the same way are hidden the elven, warrior and other worlds to common wizards. Very precious few know of the existence of some of these worlds, whereas others are just unreachable... Paradoxically, there are more Muggles who know about warriors and elves and who visited them in their homes than there are wizards who know of these worlds.
And of course, besides those, there are other circles of power... And very few understand the last, most powerful and the greatest circle of all... The circle of God. Few have reached it. Their names remained in history forever... Jesus Christ, Moses, Gautama Buddha, Mahavira... All these are in the last circle. They are not gods, but God. In that circle, there is no death, nor life. There is Eternity and Bliss. If you reach that very last circle, you reach the ultimate wisdom.
Good luck on your paths... And may you be blessed.
Yours truly,
Jack Strois"
There were again a few moments of silence before somebody said anything.
"So, what's up with everything?" Neville asked slowly.
"I don't know... But I'll take this book with me." Hermione replied. "Come on, let's go to our rooms"
They cast levitating charms over the books and made it to their dormitories. Where they nearly didn't sleep, since it was past 5 o'clock, but that was not the point.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
The fire in the now empty room roared slightly in the fireplace and some flames burst up higher than they should have. The remaining books jumped up in the bookcase easily. The chairs went back to their places. Everything was just as it had been before the ten had come in.
And none of them had known they were being watched by amused eyes.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Severus Snape was just going to bed. Navrad... Now, that had rung a bell in his mind. He had found 'The Book of Beings-Dead and Alive' soon and had read about what a Navrad was in the first hour. After that, he had searched for ways of summoning the things and he had found a few ways... unfortunately for calling a Navrad, not calling the one you wanted. So, finally, at half past five in the morning, he was going to bed.
He collapsed in bed and managed to pull the blanket over himself. He didn't bother switching to pajamas, he just put the clock to ring at eight a.m. He usually woke up at 7 a.m. sharp without even putting the alarm, but this wasn't the case now, since he basically hadn't slept all night. So, he just went to sleep.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Next morning, not just eleven people had problems keeping themselves up. But only those eleven had found out anything about Towers, the others had been either too sad or too scared to go to sleep.
The breakfast finished all too quickly and soon they were all parting and going to the carriages. Amala had winked at her friends and had said she'd be Apparating home from London since she had learned how to do it. It would save her a lot of time.
And just as they were about to leave, Severus had appeared and had dragged the girl away from her friends for a few minutes. Draco snickered to himself and after Amala had come back, he went to find their dear Potions Master. Surprisingly, he came back in one piece.
Soon, everybody was on the train and the ten were in one compartment –of course, they couldn't all sit down at the same time, but it was still worth it-. There were all types of jokes, including Snape-jokes that Amala took surprisingly well. They played some wizarding games, ate as many chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott's Beans as they could –and Draco had the bad luck of getting a dung favored one-.
Too soon for everybody, they were on the platform 9 ¾ and saying their goodbyes, acting as if nobody had died... Because now they knew nobody had. If Towers was a Navrad, he couldn't die, now could he?
After meeting the Weasleys, the Grangers and the Chase-Monroes, Harry finally found Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon and they weren't too happy to see him. In fact, they looked very... sour, especially after seeing Luna –who looked odd even in Muggle clothes- say to Harry in a very dreamy tone:
"Until we meet again, Harry"
"Yeah... bye" the boy replied, waving slowly.
"Stop waving like an idiot boy and come on!" Vernon said.
So, they left, blissfully unaware of the things that would happen. If they'd have been very attentive, they'd have noticed how weird it was to have a perfectly boring trip back on the train. They'd have noticed how weird it was that they felt safe, even if Towers had physically died.
And they'd also have noticed the weird man watching them thoughtfully, the man who had a hunch of how their worlds would be turned up-side down after a very short while. He knew that Towers had been just the beginning. He knew what it took to destroy the Dark Lord. He knew things the teens did not... but there were things that not even he suspected. He knew the past and present, he only had hunches about the future. The future that would soon come...
THE END
Author's Note: I'm... finished. Finished with one of the shortest chapters I wrote in the story. With one of the chapters that isn't exactly the best I've ever written. But it makesup for what will come.
It feels weird to know I finished this story... that from now on I will be writing the sequel. That it will have a different title. Which reminds me: the next story will be called 'Harry Potter and the Legacy of Slytherin'. The whole 'Green Flame Torch' was a hoax anyway, so I'm throwing the possible titles right out the window... ah, well...
I promise that everything gets to be explained until the very end of the story. See you guys soon! Until we meet again...
So, I want to say thanks to everybody who reviewed this story –and please review even years after I last posted, if you wish to-. You were all great! Thanks again...
Thanks to:
Inu-kokoro: I'm glad you like my story and don't worry: sequel coming soon! –I couldn't possibly resist posting soon! :-)
Tsuetsu: Thank you. I have been fascinated with the idea of this type of funerals for quite awhile now... In my original story, the first funeral of the sort was for a very powerful warrior who had a tragic death and since I really liked the character, I gave him the best funeral I could think of. And thank you again for reviewing!
Alcapacien: looks up towards the ceiling with a very innocent expression House Harry? Now, whatever gave you that idea? winks You might be right, you know ;-) But he won't be housing just one person.
Midnight Belle: First of all, I'd like to say... I love your name! Second, I'd like to say thanks for the review and well... I'm just doing the best I can and I'm really pleased to see that the result is good.
Gochan Son: Really dead? Oh, no... Navrads do not die... He's just 'out of order'. You might meet him again. Just not until the Dark Lord is 'vanquished'. As you will see, Towers has quite a lot on his head. coughs But from now on, some people will actually die... As much as I hate to do it. As for the Torch, its mission with Harry has been completed. And you will see just why it came and why it went away. Also, I'm really glad you loved the funeral scene –see Tsuetsu's response above to read more about it-
Kara: Thank you! It's good to know I can intrigue ;-)
Other chapters:
Harryp/charmedfreak: Thank you for all your great reviews! And as for Amala and Snape... Well, she's more mature than some might think, she's in love, she's determined. Hate to bring it to you, but I've got plans for these two. And they'll be quite exciting. Also, Severus has some very interesting secrets to be told...