A/N: Thanks for the reviews! To:
Pavel: Thanxieeee for telling me that. Really. I'll try to make it more exciting next time, well maybe this time. Lol
NiennaAlatariel: Oh! I've never thought about it! Thanxxxxx for that one. Knock Grammar Worm Out lol
Also, this is a long chapter for 2 reasons.
First: This is a well-plotted story, (Of course no match for Dan Brown) so it might be hard for you to remember the details if I divide Level 1 of the Game into 2 chapters or so.
Second: I'm going to Manchester and I'm gonna stay there from 3rd of July to 17th. It's a student exchange, or I won't stay there for that long. So I will not be updating for quite a while. This long chapter serves kinda as 2 chapters in this case.
Rate: General
Disclaimer: I did not invent PC Game. And anything Harry Potter is not mine. They belong to JK Rowling... Poor me...
Chapter One
Level 1
Draco stared at the scene before him. The grassland he just sat on vanished, replaced by a deserted town. At least deserted in Draco's opinion. Suddenly, a screen popped up. He jumped again.
"Find Hermione Granger." It said. Draco blinked.
What???!!! Nothing more???!!! And...and Granger??! Why should I find that Mudblood? Thank you very much! Unbearably useful indeed! Draco pushed the screen aside and began the game.
He walked through the narrow streets, looking around curiously. This was the least place for traveling. Houses on both sides of the streets were silent, with no lights on and no smoke coming out of the chimneys. A ghost town, it might be easier to find Granger here, Draco thought with sarcasm.
He finally stopped. There was nothing here, and even worse, he didn't have the faintest idea where the bloody exit was!
What? Dead end?! Now use your brain. If I made Draco stop dead now the story wouldn't be able to continue! And you wanna see the rest part of it, right? So keep your eyes open and mouth shut!
As I was saying, Draco was completely lost. He leant against a wall and sighed, looking up at the crystal sky. If only...
There was suddenly a movement behind the wall, and with a squeak, the door beside Draco swung opened. A girl walked out soundlessly, "Draco Malfoy." She whispered.
Draco was nearly scared out of daylight. He turned suddenly towards the girl and asked sharply, "What?!" But what he saw made his jaw drop.
"Granger! Granger you are here?! All the time???!!!! Wait it can't be that easy! I've found you, but nothing happens. You..."
The Hermione Granger tapped her fingertip on his lips before continuing her ghostly whisper, "You are to find Hermione Granger. Your worst enemy."
"Hey! You're Granger aren't you?!" Draco asked, utterly lost. "Aren't you?" He examined the girl uncertainly, as if expecting her to burst into an old witch at any moment. Bushy brown hair. Brown eyes. Isn't she Granger?!
"She whom you seek is nowhere to be found." The girl laughed before turning on her heels and heading down the street.
"Hey wait! What do you mean? Nowhere to be found?" Draco ran after her, considering this girl was the only living thing he could see here.
The girl kept running, apparently pretending not to have heard Draco's question. Draco sighed. It seemed the only sensible thing to do now was to keep up with her and gave up the question.
Thirty minutes later
"What...Where are you going?" Draco asked finally, unable to resist his curiosity. "And honestly, is all your streets here that long?? We've been walking like this for centuries!"
"Which question shall I answer first?" The girl was still walking merrily, singing a strange song as she walked. Draco began seriously doubting if she was a human after all. If she was, then considering his experience with women...
"What are you singing now?" He asked.
"It's a song of worship for our goddess, Eirahnco. We go to attend a ritual every month in honour of her. The Mighty Goddess of the Gate." Seeing Draco raising an eyebrow at this, the girl explained. "The Gate to Power. It's only a 15 minutes' walk to the ritual now. This is the main road to the Plaza, so it's particularly straight. Otherwise, it'll take us hours to reach there from such a remote area where I live." Draco grinned. An irrelevant question answered all his doubts.
"I see..." Draco nodded. So they went on in silence. Draco was beginning to feel that things were as bad as he thought now, not knowing that 15 minutes later, his jaw would drop to the ground. Again.
"Here." The girl finally said, turning a corner. They were now facing a grand Plaza with a high podium in the center. Generally it was for a statue or something similar, but this podium had nothing on it. Draco opened his eyes. He closed them. He reopened them. No this wasn't true...
The girl ran to join the crowd now singing around the podium, but Draco did not move. What he saw was not a normal crowd. It was a crowd of Hermione Grangers.
"What the hell is this..." He muttered. A whole town of Grangers are out there, and the instruction told me to find Hermione Granger! He laughed bitterly to himself, "This is getting far better than I expected."
After he finally collected himself, Draco moved towards the singing crowd, expecting the whole lot of Grangers to vanish with every step. Well it didn't happen.
Finally, Draco stepped into the circle drawn on the Plaza. "Excuse me." He asked uncertainly.
Several Grangers turned to him and stopped to giggle. More heads turned. And finally, the whole Plaza was looking at him. Draco felt his cheeks burning. "Well, clearing throat, which of you is the ... ... Hermione Granger?"
Several girls burst out laughing. "No...no... I don't know anyone here who's called Hermione Granger. I'm Rosa." The girl looked up and down at Draco, looking amused.
"And I'm Asor." Another girl beside Rosa piped. Several girls laughed. "R-O- S-A, Asor."
"Draco Malfoy." Draco nodded nervously at the crowd. "If you don't know that Granger, I'd... ... ..."
"I thought you were a new comer." Rosa cut in.
"A new comer?"
"I thought you came to worship Goddess Eirahnco with us." Rosa smiled.
"Well..." Draco looked around, "You're worshipping that goddess here?"
"Yeah."
"It seems you don't have the habit of putting up a statue or something for her."
"Oh no we don't." Rosa shook her head as the others continued with their worship, with occasional odd looks at Draco. "Eirahnco is nowhere but in our hearts. We don't show her to people outside."
Draco nodded.
"You want to join us?" Rosa asked with an odd expression, apparently trying to keep her face straight.
"No thank you." Draco answered hastily before running away from the Plaza.
7 hours later
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!"
"Good morning, Mr. Malfoy."
"Wha.... What the...." Draco got up from the ground and edged away from her.
"Mr. Malfoy." The elderly lady took a step further.
"DON'T! Don't come near me!" Draco shouted, breathing hard. In front of him was an old version of Hermione Granger!
Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger!!!!!!!! Oh god why everyone I see is Hermione Granger??!!
"Com'ere lad! You're destroying my garden!" The elderly Granger said, a bit annoyed now. Draco made a mental notice of how horrible Granger might look when she was 70 years old.
Ten minutes later, Draco was sitting on a bench, listening to Old Granger nagging into his gracious ears. God bless them. Draco thought.
"As I was saying, if you want to find a girl, there're many good girls here..."
"I do NOT want to find a girl. I'm looking for Granger!" Draco told the Old Granger for the thousandth time.
"Oh yes. Then how does she look like?" Old Granger asked curiously. Draco groaned. He couldn't just say 'everyone here looks like Granger' could he?
"Well..." Draco said vaguely.
"Girls mainly go to the seaside, young man." Old Granger remarked. "Why not go there to have a look?"
Draco imagined Hermione Granger screaming at the seaside and sighed. "Alright, thanks." Determined that this Old Granger would never say anything useful, he stood up and went back to the street.
"Tales are more than what they can do." He heard a voice behind and turned. Another Old Granger now took his place and was chatting with the Granger just now.
"Aye." The first Old Granger nodded.
Is everyone Shakespeare here?! Draco thought furiously.
He wandered aimlessly in the street filled with Grangers watching him as he passed.
"She whom you seek is nowhere to be found, She whom you seek is nowhere to be found...Goodness I'm going mad..." Draco wandered into a bookstore.
"Hey Draco!" A Hermione tapped him on the shoulder. Draco turned.
"Hi...er..." He replied.
"What? You forgot me?! I'm Rosa!" The girl looked offended.
How AM I supposed to remember you if everyone here looks the same?! Draco thought.
"What are you looking for?" She asked curiously, "Never seen you here before."
You never saw me until yesterday. Draco thought wearily before replying, "Well, you know, looking for something about Eirahnco." That's the only thing he knew, after all.
"Oh! Really! Well if you are interested you can ask me about it. I know a lot!" Rosa offered proudly. "Why don't we go to the seaside."
"What?" Draco stared. Old Granger surely told him girls here like the seaside, but it never occurred to him that they liked it that much."
Rosa laughed at his expression. "Come! It's not far from here."
Maybe another hour's walk will do. Draco thought with sarcasm.
5 minutes later
Surprisingly, the seaside was quite near. How come I never hear the tide? Draco thought with wonder. "So, what are you taking me here for?" Draco asked, examining the whole lot of Grangers screaming under the sunshine.
"Come and see the Temple of Eirahnco!" Rosa shouted merrily to Draco.
"You don't have to shout like that, Rosa." Draco muttered uneasily. People were turning in their direction now.
Rosa led Draco up to a mountain of rocks. Finally, when they had climbed to the top, Draco looked down, astonished at the view in front of him. Under him was a vast sea of clouds, extending to the far end of the world. He couldn't see any Hermione below now. And it was unusually quiet.
"The Temple of Eirahnco." Rosa said.
"Where?" Draco looked around, "I can't see anything!"
"On the rock lie stains for the intelligent and worthy to follow." Rosa was almost whispering now.
"Look, why don't you just say 'you can follow the stains on the rock to get there'? It'll surely be a lot easier!" Draco said impatiently, tired at the way people were speaking here.
Rosa was silent. Draco rolled his eyes. It reminded him of that "She whom you seek is nowhere to be found." The girl who said that remained silent as well when he asked what that meant.
People are weird these days. He thought.
"I'm leaving you here now." Rosa said with a smile, "The Goddess is for people to find alone."
Draco was about to say that he didn't really mean to find Eirahnco when something suddenly struck him. "Wait. You said Eirahnco was nowhere but in people's heart."
Rosa's smile broadened. "Aww you remembered!"
"Yeah but you spoke of the Temple of Eirahnco. And you say by following the stains on the rocks, I can actually find the goddess. What's that rubbish abo..."
Draco turned to Rosa, but she was already gone.
"Damit." Draco frowned. He sat down on the top of the rock mountain (Not Rocky Mountains) and sighed heavily.
"She whom you seek is nowhere to be found." Draco gave a hollow laugh. If she's nowhere to be found, why ask me to find her?... And this... Draco examined the marks on the rocks, it seems to be leading downhill. And this leads to the goddess? But Rosa said it's nowhere to...
Draco's eyes widened. "Nowhere to be found." He said this out loud. "She whom you seek is nowhere to be found. Eirahnco is nowhere. This leads to her Temple..."
The next thing he knew was that he began following the marks like a hunter after a deer.
Thirty minutes later
The marks had led Draco to a running spring. And they ended here suddenly. On the last rock, however, words were marked.
"No matter how, one can not escape the sin." Draco read aloud, "What the hell is this now?!" He sat down again, lost for the millionth time today.
The spring brought Draco a cool breeze. He looked down as water flew down to the sea. It was as clear as crystal, and every rock beneath could be plainly seen. That lifted Draco's mood for a bit. Mark this: Only a bit. He was still frowning. Somewhere not far from where he sat, a bird was singing on a rock tip just above the water. The rock looked odd. With that stain on it.
Wait a minute.
Stain?
Stain!
Draco narrowed his eyes as he examined the rock carefully. Clear enough, there was a letter "E" carved into it.
"E?" Draco frowned. "E what?"
A small voice piped in his head. "Eat?"
Draco waved the thought off. "Eirahnco." He was surprised at how quick he was this time. Yeah, Eirahnco, but there was only the letter "E" there. Draco curiously walked towards the rock. The water there was shallow. Good. He stepped onto the rock.
He gasped.
Now clearly before him, was another rock marked the letter "I".
Twenty minutes later
"C."
"O."
"Yes!" Draco landed safely on dry ground. Now standing before him was the solemn and grand Temple of Eirahnco.
"Wow." Draco said as he walked the grand Hall of the Temple. It was a massive worshipping ground, but there was no sign of Hermione Granger. Not even a fake one. This place was deserted.
"Hello?" Draco's voice echoed the Hall. Nothing. Absolutely empty.
"She whom you seek is nowhere to be found." Draco recited, a bit disappointed. He had come to the inner Hall of the Temple, and there in front of him stood a statue of a goddess built against a wall, about the same height as Draco. He raised an eyebrow. So small? Draco sighed and began marching around, examining the ceiling.
... ... ...
He saw a head.
He saw a neck.
Draco stared. He looked up to the sky and saw a massive statue of the same goddess standing in front of him. The 'wall' just now was actually a part of her dress. "Oh my..." Draco admired.
"We often have two statues built. One smaller, one larger. The smaller one was called the Taler. People used to tell legends of Eirahnco in front of it." He remembered Rosa telling him on their road up to the rock mountain. "Of course." Draco whispered. "Taler."
So basically this is a place for old witches to tell tales. Draco smiled inwardly. "Tales are more than what they can do." He laughed. This was so sarcastic.
"On the rock lie stains for the intelligent and worthy to follow.. No matter how, one can not escape the sin." Draco shook his head, bad rhyming. I'll make it sound more reasonable... He thought.
"She whom you seek is nowhere to be found.
Tales are more than what they can do.
On the rock lie stains for the intelligent and worthy to follow.
No matter how, one can not escape the sin." Draco pictured the 'poem' in his mind.
The last words are found, do, follow, sin, nothing really rhymes or means anything at all. he thought, trying to find the same pronunciation in it but failed.
"Okay you're being boring, Draco." The small voice inside him piped again.
"Shut up!"
Draco thought about the poem again, laughing at the fact that the last letter of each sentence strung together and formed the word "down".
Maybe the first letters form the word "rise". Draco shrugged as he realized that they only formed "Ston", and that was nothing. Sounds like "Stone" though. Draco was completely bored now. Maybe by adding a "E" or something. Eirahnco? Draco thought. That forms "Stone Down". Does that mean I have to knock that rock down? Draco watched the 'Taler" with suspicion. Something struck Draco. But he couldn't make out what. "Knock that rock down?" he laughed, "Quite creative, Draco."
He focused on the poem again. "She whom you seek is nowhere to be found, Tales are more than what they can do, On the rock lie stains..."
"On the rock lie stains..." Draco stood up suspiciously. He walked towards the Taler and stood on tiptoe, looking down on the rock it was carved from. There was a stain.
A marble to be precise, pressed into the rock.
Draco pressed the marble, uncertain what might happen next. Suddenly, the rock in front of him collapsed, it was hollow inside.
At least it must be once carved hollow. For there was something inside.
A someone, to be precise.
"Rosa?" Draco asked in surprise as the girl inside opened her eyes.
The chocolate eyes focused on him for a while before narrowing to a line. "Malfoy!" She hissed. "Why are you in my..."
Hermione Granger looked up in horror as she began realizing where she exactly was right now. She quickly jumped out of the space. "What the..."
Draco wasn't looking at her. He was staring at something behind her, mouth open. "What the HELL." Draco finished for Hermione.
The wall behind the hollow space Hermione Granger just stood was rising like a door. And soon, they saw an opening just fit to go through. Draco walked towards the opening.
"Wait! You can't leave me here!" Hermione demanded. "What the hell is going on?"
"You've got a lot to catch up, Mudblood." Draco smiled at her. "Of course, Eirahnco is the Goddess of the Gate..." He whispered, turning back to the opening. A screen was floating in midair, with the words "Level 1 Complete. Step forward to exit."
"Wait!!!" Hermione practically screamed.
Draco stepped forward.
END LEVEL 1
A/N: Okay that was really long wasn't it? Hope you enjoy it. Again, I'll not be able to update before 17th of July, if there isn't any change of the schedule. Anyway, tell me what you think of this chapter!
Pavel: Thanxieeee for telling me that. Really. I'll try to make it more exciting next time, well maybe this time. Lol
NiennaAlatariel: Oh! I've never thought about it! Thanxxxxx for that one. Knock Grammar Worm Out lol
Also, this is a long chapter for 2 reasons.
First: This is a well-plotted story, (Of course no match for Dan Brown) so it might be hard for you to remember the details if I divide Level 1 of the Game into 2 chapters or so.
Second: I'm going to Manchester and I'm gonna stay there from 3rd of July to 17th. It's a student exchange, or I won't stay there for that long. So I will not be updating for quite a while. This long chapter serves kinda as 2 chapters in this case.
Rate: General
Disclaimer: I did not invent PC Game. And anything Harry Potter is not mine. They belong to JK Rowling... Poor me...
Chapter One
Level 1
Draco stared at the scene before him. The grassland he just sat on vanished, replaced by a deserted town. At least deserted in Draco's opinion. Suddenly, a screen popped up. He jumped again.
"Find Hermione Granger." It said. Draco blinked.
What???!!! Nothing more???!!! And...and Granger??! Why should I find that Mudblood? Thank you very much! Unbearably useful indeed! Draco pushed the screen aside and began the game.
He walked through the narrow streets, looking around curiously. This was the least place for traveling. Houses on both sides of the streets were silent, with no lights on and no smoke coming out of the chimneys. A ghost town, it might be easier to find Granger here, Draco thought with sarcasm.
He finally stopped. There was nothing here, and even worse, he didn't have the faintest idea where the bloody exit was!
What? Dead end?! Now use your brain. If I made Draco stop dead now the story wouldn't be able to continue! And you wanna see the rest part of it, right? So keep your eyes open and mouth shut!
As I was saying, Draco was completely lost. He leant against a wall and sighed, looking up at the crystal sky. If only...
There was suddenly a movement behind the wall, and with a squeak, the door beside Draco swung opened. A girl walked out soundlessly, "Draco Malfoy." She whispered.
Draco was nearly scared out of daylight. He turned suddenly towards the girl and asked sharply, "What?!" But what he saw made his jaw drop.
"Granger! Granger you are here?! All the time???!!!! Wait it can't be that easy! I've found you, but nothing happens. You..."
The Hermione Granger tapped her fingertip on his lips before continuing her ghostly whisper, "You are to find Hermione Granger. Your worst enemy."
"Hey! You're Granger aren't you?!" Draco asked, utterly lost. "Aren't you?" He examined the girl uncertainly, as if expecting her to burst into an old witch at any moment. Bushy brown hair. Brown eyes. Isn't she Granger?!
"She whom you seek is nowhere to be found." The girl laughed before turning on her heels and heading down the street.
"Hey wait! What do you mean? Nowhere to be found?" Draco ran after her, considering this girl was the only living thing he could see here.
The girl kept running, apparently pretending not to have heard Draco's question. Draco sighed. It seemed the only sensible thing to do now was to keep up with her and gave up the question.
Thirty minutes later
"What...Where are you going?" Draco asked finally, unable to resist his curiosity. "And honestly, is all your streets here that long?? We've been walking like this for centuries!"
"Which question shall I answer first?" The girl was still walking merrily, singing a strange song as she walked. Draco began seriously doubting if she was a human after all. If she was, then considering his experience with women...
"What are you singing now?" He asked.
"It's a song of worship for our goddess, Eirahnco. We go to attend a ritual every month in honour of her. The Mighty Goddess of the Gate." Seeing Draco raising an eyebrow at this, the girl explained. "The Gate to Power. It's only a 15 minutes' walk to the ritual now. This is the main road to the Plaza, so it's particularly straight. Otherwise, it'll take us hours to reach there from such a remote area where I live." Draco grinned. An irrelevant question answered all his doubts.
"I see..." Draco nodded. So they went on in silence. Draco was beginning to feel that things were as bad as he thought now, not knowing that 15 minutes later, his jaw would drop to the ground. Again.
"Here." The girl finally said, turning a corner. They were now facing a grand Plaza with a high podium in the center. Generally it was for a statue or something similar, but this podium had nothing on it. Draco opened his eyes. He closed them. He reopened them. No this wasn't true...
The girl ran to join the crowd now singing around the podium, but Draco did not move. What he saw was not a normal crowd. It was a crowd of Hermione Grangers.
"What the hell is this..." He muttered. A whole town of Grangers are out there, and the instruction told me to find Hermione Granger! He laughed bitterly to himself, "This is getting far better than I expected."
After he finally collected himself, Draco moved towards the singing crowd, expecting the whole lot of Grangers to vanish with every step. Well it didn't happen.
Finally, Draco stepped into the circle drawn on the Plaza. "Excuse me." He asked uncertainly.
Several Grangers turned to him and stopped to giggle. More heads turned. And finally, the whole Plaza was looking at him. Draco felt his cheeks burning. "Well, clearing throat, which of you is the ... ... Hermione Granger?"
Several girls burst out laughing. "No...no... I don't know anyone here who's called Hermione Granger. I'm Rosa." The girl looked up and down at Draco, looking amused.
"And I'm Asor." Another girl beside Rosa piped. Several girls laughed. "R-O- S-A, Asor."
"Draco Malfoy." Draco nodded nervously at the crowd. "If you don't know that Granger, I'd... ... ..."
"I thought you were a new comer." Rosa cut in.
"A new comer?"
"I thought you came to worship Goddess Eirahnco with us." Rosa smiled.
"Well..." Draco looked around, "You're worshipping that goddess here?"
"Yeah."
"It seems you don't have the habit of putting up a statue or something for her."
"Oh no we don't." Rosa shook her head as the others continued with their worship, with occasional odd looks at Draco. "Eirahnco is nowhere but in our hearts. We don't show her to people outside."
Draco nodded.
"You want to join us?" Rosa asked with an odd expression, apparently trying to keep her face straight.
"No thank you." Draco answered hastily before running away from the Plaza.
7 hours later
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!"
"Good morning, Mr. Malfoy."
"Wha.... What the...." Draco got up from the ground and edged away from her.
"Mr. Malfoy." The elderly lady took a step further.
"DON'T! Don't come near me!" Draco shouted, breathing hard. In front of him was an old version of Hermione Granger!
Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger Hermione Granger!!!!!!!! Oh god why everyone I see is Hermione Granger??!!
"Com'ere lad! You're destroying my garden!" The elderly Granger said, a bit annoyed now. Draco made a mental notice of how horrible Granger might look when she was 70 years old.
Ten minutes later, Draco was sitting on a bench, listening to Old Granger nagging into his gracious ears. God bless them. Draco thought.
"As I was saying, if you want to find a girl, there're many good girls here..."
"I do NOT want to find a girl. I'm looking for Granger!" Draco told the Old Granger for the thousandth time.
"Oh yes. Then how does she look like?" Old Granger asked curiously. Draco groaned. He couldn't just say 'everyone here looks like Granger' could he?
"Well..." Draco said vaguely.
"Girls mainly go to the seaside, young man." Old Granger remarked. "Why not go there to have a look?"
Draco imagined Hermione Granger screaming at the seaside and sighed. "Alright, thanks." Determined that this Old Granger would never say anything useful, he stood up and went back to the street.
"Tales are more than what they can do." He heard a voice behind and turned. Another Old Granger now took his place and was chatting with the Granger just now.
"Aye." The first Old Granger nodded.
Is everyone Shakespeare here?! Draco thought furiously.
He wandered aimlessly in the street filled with Grangers watching him as he passed.
"She whom you seek is nowhere to be found, She whom you seek is nowhere to be found...Goodness I'm going mad..." Draco wandered into a bookstore.
"Hey Draco!" A Hermione tapped him on the shoulder. Draco turned.
"Hi...er..." He replied.
"What? You forgot me?! I'm Rosa!" The girl looked offended.
How AM I supposed to remember you if everyone here looks the same?! Draco thought.
"What are you looking for?" She asked curiously, "Never seen you here before."
You never saw me until yesterday. Draco thought wearily before replying, "Well, you know, looking for something about Eirahnco." That's the only thing he knew, after all.
"Oh! Really! Well if you are interested you can ask me about it. I know a lot!" Rosa offered proudly. "Why don't we go to the seaside."
"What?" Draco stared. Old Granger surely told him girls here like the seaside, but it never occurred to him that they liked it that much."
Rosa laughed at his expression. "Come! It's not far from here."
Maybe another hour's walk will do. Draco thought with sarcasm.
5 minutes later
Surprisingly, the seaside was quite near. How come I never hear the tide? Draco thought with wonder. "So, what are you taking me here for?" Draco asked, examining the whole lot of Grangers screaming under the sunshine.
"Come and see the Temple of Eirahnco!" Rosa shouted merrily to Draco.
"You don't have to shout like that, Rosa." Draco muttered uneasily. People were turning in their direction now.
Rosa led Draco up to a mountain of rocks. Finally, when they had climbed to the top, Draco looked down, astonished at the view in front of him. Under him was a vast sea of clouds, extending to the far end of the world. He couldn't see any Hermione below now. And it was unusually quiet.
"The Temple of Eirahnco." Rosa said.
"Where?" Draco looked around, "I can't see anything!"
"On the rock lie stains for the intelligent and worthy to follow." Rosa was almost whispering now.
"Look, why don't you just say 'you can follow the stains on the rock to get there'? It'll surely be a lot easier!" Draco said impatiently, tired at the way people were speaking here.
Rosa was silent. Draco rolled his eyes. It reminded him of that "She whom you seek is nowhere to be found." The girl who said that remained silent as well when he asked what that meant.
People are weird these days. He thought.
"I'm leaving you here now." Rosa said with a smile, "The Goddess is for people to find alone."
Draco was about to say that he didn't really mean to find Eirahnco when something suddenly struck him. "Wait. You said Eirahnco was nowhere but in people's heart."
Rosa's smile broadened. "Aww you remembered!"
"Yeah but you spoke of the Temple of Eirahnco. And you say by following the stains on the rocks, I can actually find the goddess. What's that rubbish abo..."
Draco turned to Rosa, but she was already gone.
"Damit." Draco frowned. He sat down on the top of the rock mountain (Not Rocky Mountains) and sighed heavily.
"She whom you seek is nowhere to be found." Draco gave a hollow laugh. If she's nowhere to be found, why ask me to find her?... And this... Draco examined the marks on the rocks, it seems to be leading downhill. And this leads to the goddess? But Rosa said it's nowhere to...
Draco's eyes widened. "Nowhere to be found." He said this out loud. "She whom you seek is nowhere to be found. Eirahnco is nowhere. This leads to her Temple..."
The next thing he knew was that he began following the marks like a hunter after a deer.
Thirty minutes later
The marks had led Draco to a running spring. And they ended here suddenly. On the last rock, however, words were marked.
"No matter how, one can not escape the sin." Draco read aloud, "What the hell is this now?!" He sat down again, lost for the millionth time today.
The spring brought Draco a cool breeze. He looked down as water flew down to the sea. It was as clear as crystal, and every rock beneath could be plainly seen. That lifted Draco's mood for a bit. Mark this: Only a bit. He was still frowning. Somewhere not far from where he sat, a bird was singing on a rock tip just above the water. The rock looked odd. With that stain on it.
Wait a minute.
Stain?
Stain!
Draco narrowed his eyes as he examined the rock carefully. Clear enough, there was a letter "E" carved into it.
"E?" Draco frowned. "E what?"
A small voice piped in his head. "Eat?"
Draco waved the thought off. "Eirahnco." He was surprised at how quick he was this time. Yeah, Eirahnco, but there was only the letter "E" there. Draco curiously walked towards the rock. The water there was shallow. Good. He stepped onto the rock.
He gasped.
Now clearly before him, was another rock marked the letter "I".
Twenty minutes later
"C."
"O."
"Yes!" Draco landed safely on dry ground. Now standing before him was the solemn and grand Temple of Eirahnco.
"Wow." Draco said as he walked the grand Hall of the Temple. It was a massive worshipping ground, but there was no sign of Hermione Granger. Not even a fake one. This place was deserted.
"Hello?" Draco's voice echoed the Hall. Nothing. Absolutely empty.
"She whom you seek is nowhere to be found." Draco recited, a bit disappointed. He had come to the inner Hall of the Temple, and there in front of him stood a statue of a goddess built against a wall, about the same height as Draco. He raised an eyebrow. So small? Draco sighed and began marching around, examining the ceiling.
... ... ...
He saw a head.
He saw a neck.
Draco stared. He looked up to the sky and saw a massive statue of the same goddess standing in front of him. The 'wall' just now was actually a part of her dress. "Oh my..." Draco admired.
"We often have two statues built. One smaller, one larger. The smaller one was called the Taler. People used to tell legends of Eirahnco in front of it." He remembered Rosa telling him on their road up to the rock mountain. "Of course." Draco whispered. "Taler."
So basically this is a place for old witches to tell tales. Draco smiled inwardly. "Tales are more than what they can do." He laughed. This was so sarcastic.
"On the rock lie stains for the intelligent and worthy to follow.. No matter how, one can not escape the sin." Draco shook his head, bad rhyming. I'll make it sound more reasonable... He thought.
"She whom you seek is nowhere to be found.
Tales are more than what they can do.
On the rock lie stains for the intelligent and worthy to follow.
No matter how, one can not escape the sin." Draco pictured the 'poem' in his mind.
The last words are found, do, follow, sin, nothing really rhymes or means anything at all. he thought, trying to find the same pronunciation in it but failed.
"Okay you're being boring, Draco." The small voice inside him piped again.
"Shut up!"
Draco thought about the poem again, laughing at the fact that the last letter of each sentence strung together and formed the word "down".
Maybe the first letters form the word "rise". Draco shrugged as he realized that they only formed "Ston", and that was nothing. Sounds like "Stone" though. Draco was completely bored now. Maybe by adding a "E" or something. Eirahnco? Draco thought. That forms "Stone Down". Does that mean I have to knock that rock down? Draco watched the 'Taler" with suspicion. Something struck Draco. But he couldn't make out what. "Knock that rock down?" he laughed, "Quite creative, Draco."
He focused on the poem again. "She whom you seek is nowhere to be found, Tales are more than what they can do, On the rock lie stains..."
"On the rock lie stains..." Draco stood up suspiciously. He walked towards the Taler and stood on tiptoe, looking down on the rock it was carved from. There was a stain.
A marble to be precise, pressed into the rock.
Draco pressed the marble, uncertain what might happen next. Suddenly, the rock in front of him collapsed, it was hollow inside.
At least it must be once carved hollow. For there was something inside.
A someone, to be precise.
"Rosa?" Draco asked in surprise as the girl inside opened her eyes.
The chocolate eyes focused on him for a while before narrowing to a line. "Malfoy!" She hissed. "Why are you in my..."
Hermione Granger looked up in horror as she began realizing where she exactly was right now. She quickly jumped out of the space. "What the..."
Draco wasn't looking at her. He was staring at something behind her, mouth open. "What the HELL." Draco finished for Hermione.
The wall behind the hollow space Hermione Granger just stood was rising like a door. And soon, they saw an opening just fit to go through. Draco walked towards the opening.
"Wait! You can't leave me here!" Hermione demanded. "What the hell is going on?"
"You've got a lot to catch up, Mudblood." Draco smiled at her. "Of course, Eirahnco is the Goddess of the Gate..." He whispered, turning back to the opening. A screen was floating in midair, with the words "Level 1 Complete. Step forward to exit."
"Wait!!!" Hermione practically screamed.
Draco stepped forward.
END LEVEL 1
A/N: Okay that was really long wasn't it? Hope you enjoy it. Again, I'll not be able to update before 17th of July, if there isn't any change of the schedule. Anyway, tell me what you think of this chapter!