Chapter 26 - The Endeavour Stone
Barney didn't know what to do as he pulled the brilliant blue stone from the box and held it in his hands. It seemed to almost radiate and he could have sworn he saw faint figures as he looked into it. Maybe deep within the stone it was showing you what you wanted?
Barney heard a noise and realised it was one of his dorm mates coming. Quickly he put the stone back in the box and hid it under his pillow. As they walked in he looked a little flustered but they didn't notice anything as they got ready for bed.
That night as everyone else quickly fell fast asleep, Barney lay awake thinking of what to do now. Should he tell anyone about the stone? Usually he would tell Thomas but seeing as he wasn't speaking to him right now that was out of the question. Maybe Tabitha and Viola then? Or should he wait until he knew more about the stone and how it worked? After all what good was the stone if he didn't know how to use it?
The next morning after hiding the stone and box at the bottom of his trunk he headed down to breakfast and bumped into Tabitha just outside the Great Hall.
"How's Thomas?" Barney asked.
"He's not a happy boy."
"Well it's not like I caused problems with Ottomaya on purpose!" Barney protested.
"Look I wasn't having a go. I know it's not your fault. But I think you should give Tomas a bit of space. He'll calm down eventually and then you can talk to him. I'm sure by the weekend it will have all blown over."
Barney wasn't so optimistic. And with Slytherin's last Quidditch match against Hufflepuff this weekend, he could do without having the added pressure of being at odds with his best friend. Plus he had lessons with Thomas all morning so it was going to be hard to avoid him.
After breakfast Barney headed to Potions and decided to take Tabitha's advice and sat at the back of class with Velyan and Marek who both spent the whole lesson talking about the Quidditch match whilst Professor Slughorn tried to teach them a potion to help you concentrate, which was ironic as he could have done with that potion right now as he was completely unable to concentrate on his lesson or anything his friends were saying.
At the end of the class Slughorn allowed them all to take a small vial of the potion with them, enough for one dose but he told them all to use it wisely.
His next lesson was going to be even trickier to avoid Thomas as he had Ancient Runes and they always sat together in this. Barney went into the classroom and took his usual seat but was disappointed when Thomas walked in and sat elsewhere. He tried to not think about Thomas too much as he got on with the work Professor Dufour had set them but he was finding it hard to think of anything else, so much so that he debated taking the concentrating potion already.
He didn't know if it was the fact that he was sat alone or that he was visibly struggling to do the work, but Professor Dufour seemed eager to come over and check on him. "Everything OK Barney?" Dufour said, seemingly genuinely concerned.
"Yes it's fine thanks. Just struggling a bit with this text," Barney lied.
"Did you have any luck with that puzzle you were trying to solve last week?"
"Oh that. Sort of."
"Well if you get any more and need some help I'd be happy to assist. I do like a good brain teaser."
"Thanks, though that might sort of be cheating getting a teacher to help," Barney said, not wanting to show Dufour Nevermore's journal even though he would probably be very helpful in solving the rest of the ciphers.
"Well I won't tell if you don't," Dufour said with a wink and left Barney to it.
As the week went on the school work piled up. And what with Silvanna insisting they practice Quidditch in every free moment, Barney barely had time to look at the stone or decide what to do about it. And with Thomas still not talking to him he was having a very miserable week.
One evening Barney headed out to Quidditch practice on a very wet and windy day. It seemed no one wanted to be there except Silvanna. Everyone was tired and miserable as they hovered on their brooms, soaking wet, listening to Silvanna yell instructions at them over the noise of the gale.
"Right Beaters I want you to to take aim at the Chasers, try and hit them off their brooms."
"For real?" Effie Eton, a fourth year who was also one of the Slytherin Chasers asked worriedly.
"Yes for real," Silvanna barked back. "In a match they'll be coming at you for real so you need to practice being able to stay on your broom when you're hit by one. As for the Seekers you need to practice on your speed and endurance. I want you to fly around the pitch a hundred times at speed.
"Seriously?" Barney questioned back. "We'll be knackered. I've barely got the energy to stay on my broom as it is."
"Yeah Silvanna that is asking a bit much of us," Velyan added.
"Need I remind you that Hufflepuff currently have a one hundred and thirty points advantage over us going in to our final game. If we want to stand a chance of winning the Quidditch Cup we need to win big so I need everyone ready for a tough match. Now get to it!"
Everybody reluctantly flew off and started practising their drills and manoeuvrers, knowing that arguing back to Silvanna would only result in more time spent out in the atrocious weather.
"At this rate we'll all be too tired or injured to play Saturday," Barney moaned to Velyan once they were out of ear shot of Silvanna and began to fly their laps.
By the time practice had ended everyone was battered, bruised and exhausted as they trudged through the mud back to the castle. Barney just about had the energy to stand up for a few minutes in a hot shower to warm himself up before he fell into bed. He would actually be glad when this last match was over as it would mean he wouldn't have any more Quidditch practice for the rest of the year. Silvanna had actually managed to make him hate flying, something he never thought he would.
Barney didn't even have time to think about Thomas, Nevermore or his school work. He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Despite sleeping through till eight in the morning, Barney still woke feeling exhausted and headed down to breakfast for another day of school and by the time it got to the last period his tiredness had only grown.
Luckily Barney's last period he had free and though he wanted nothing more to go and chill he knew he had a stack of school work that he was behind on that needed doing. He headed to his dorm and was glad to find it empty and got out his textbooks and began his History of Magic essay. But quickly in he wasn't haven't much luck. Trying to remember the dates of when various magical laws were passed was not his strong point and he was having to look something up in his textbook almost with every sentence he wrote and it was taking ages. He knew at this rate he wasn't going to get anything done when he remembered Slughorn's Potions class and the vial he had given them. He opened his trunk and fetched it out, finding it next to Nevermore's box which held the Endeavour Stone. He took both items out, placed the box on his bedside table and uncorked the vial. Thinking that right now was a good a time as any to need to be able to concentrate better he downed the contents in one and felt a warm sensation inside his stomach. Though he wasn't sure if the potion has worked he got back to the essay anyway but before he knew it he had completed two parchments worth of writing before he even looked up from the pages. This potion was good. He only wished he had more of it.
Barney was about to start on his next assignment when he saw Nevermore's box on the side and picked it up. He touched the correct symbols and it opened revealing the stone which still seemed to radiate towards him like it was trying to entice him to use it. If only he knew how to.
Barney held the stone in his hands and it seemed warm, like it was giving off an energy. He started to think of all the possibilities of what the stone could give him if it truly did what it was believed to. He began to think of what he wanted most in the world and closed his eyes as he imagined hard.
Barney felt dizzy as he opened his eyes again. He tried to stand but his legs felt funny and it took him a few seconds to find his balance. He decided he had been working for long enough and needed to get some fresh air to clear his head.
He walked through the Slytherin common room which seemed oddly quiet and made his way up from the dungeons. As he walked through the corridors someone shouted across to him.
"Good luck with the match!"
Barney looked over but only got a brief sight of the person and didn't recognise them as he continued walking.
The corridors seemed busy as Barney headed to the Great Hall thinking it must be dinner time. As he entered more people came up to him and started to wish him good luck with the Quidditch match. Didn't they know he wasn't even going to be playing?
He sat at the Slytherin table and couldn't see any of his friends there and he really hoped Silvanna hadn't organised another Quidditch practice he didn't know about as she would no doubt give him a barrage of abuse for missing it.
Barney looked around the hall and something seemed odd. The Great Hall looked slightly different to him but he couldn't quite but his finger on what it was. He looked over to the the teacher's table and was shocked to see the people sat there were not any teachers he recognised. There was a skinny woman with short red hair in scruffy robes, a plump man in black robes with a bald head and a rather pretty woman with long blonde hair, maroon robes and a rather friendly smile who seemed to be looking directly at him. Barney smiled back before turning to his fellow Slytherins to ask who the new teachers were when he realised he didn't recognise any of them either.
"So are you ready for the match today Barney? I'm sure you're going to be great," a young boy with black hair said to Barney across the table but he had no idea who he was.
"Sorry who are you?" Barney asked puzzled but before the boy could answer someone else interrupted.
"You'd better get down to the pitch Barney. The match will be starting soon and they can't start without Slytherin's star Seeker."
"What? The match is now? Where's Velyan?" Barney said thoroughly confused.
Before he could say any more he found himself being swept up in a crowd of people and heading out to the school grounds. To his surprise it was light outside when it should have been getting dark as the evening drew near. Had he fallen asleep in his dorm and woken up the next morning?
Barney began to lose the urge to question what was going on and seemed to be caught up in the euphoria as he happily walked with the others as they continued to wish him luck and complemented him on his flying skills.
As the crowds headed to the stands Barney walked onto the pitch and found he was already wearing his Quidditch robes even though he didn't remember dressing in them that morning.
"Ah Barney you're here at last," a man with blond hair and a beard who was hovering on a broom and holding a whistle said with delight. "Right now that Slytherin's Seeker is here we can begin the match."
"Wait where's Velyan? And Madame Hooch?" Barney asked but before he could even look around at the other players the man had blown the whistle.
Barney looked down to see he was already on a broom. And it wasn't just any broom. It was a brand new Lightningbolt. Barney looked down at it in awe and had no idea how he had come to own the broom. But there was no time for questions, the match had started and already players were zooming around the pitch.
Barney quickly rose on his Lightningbolt above the stadium and looked down to survey what was happening and scanned the pitch for any signs of the Golden Snitch. Below him players in the green and yellow robes of Slytherin and Hufflepuff whizzed around and he could hear the distant sound of the cheers from the crowd.
Where was the Snitch? And where was Velyan? Before he could ponder these questions and more he saw something flash across the pitch and immediately dived down towards it. As he got closer he could see it was the Golden Snitch. He looked around and couldn't see Hufflepuff's seeker anywhere, having obviously not spotted the Snitch like Barney had but he knew it wouldn't be long before they noticed him giving chance and came after it themself.
As Barney sped along he was amazed at how fast his broom could go and how easy it was to handle. It was almost as if he was floating and flying unaided as he dodged in and out of other players who went past him in a blur.
Still he could see no sign of the opposition's seeker but he still had the Snitch firmly in sight as it darted around the pitch. He briefly looked back at the scoreboard and the score was still nil - nil. If he caught the Snitch now not only would Slytherin win the match but they would win the Quidditch cup as well.
He pushed on harder and the broom found even more speed as he closed in on the Snitch. It was now less than a foot in front of him as he manoeuvred the broom in every single direction the Snitch took. No matter how much the Snitch flitted about, Barney was flying superbly and never lost it and he was gaining on it.
It was now only a few inches in front of him. Barney reached out his hand but he was still just a little too far away to grab it. He willed his broom on more as he noticed everything seemed silent. The whole of the rest of the world was blocked out from him as if only he and the Golden Snitch were the only two things in existence.
He reached out again and the tips of his fingers touched the Snitch put he couldn't get a grip on it so he lunged forward and he almost thought he was going to fall off his broom but he somehow managed to keep balance as he steadied himself and looked into his hand. He was holding the Snitch.
"Barney West has caught the Snitch! One hundred and fifty points to Slytherin. Slytherin win!" an announcer called out breaking the silence.
Barney brought his broom down to the ground with the Golden Snitch still glinting in his hand as players started to rush towards him to congratulate him. The crowd was a chorus of cheers and Barney felt on top of the world and the next second he was almost literally on top of the world as the players hoisted him into the air and began to parade him around the stadium.
Barney was so caught up in the excitement of it all he hadn't really taken in what was happening. He looked down at the players who were carrying him and realised they were not his Slytherin teammates. He didn't recognise a single one of them. He began to look around the stands and again couldn't see anyone he knew. Not one of his friends from Hufflepuff, Gryffindor or Ravenclaw was in the stands watching him. But then he saw Tabitha. She was on the pitch with a beaming smile and walking towards him as the other players put him back down on the ground and dispersed.
Barney's mind raced with what to say to her but he didn't even get a chance. Tabitha walked right up to him, took both of his hands in hers and kissed him and everything else seemed to fade away.
Barney's head was pounding as he opened his eyes. He was laying on his bed with his textbooks scattered around him and the Endeavour Stone lying beside him. It must have all been a dream. But it had seemed so real.
Barney sat up and his head was spinning. He could hear a commotion in the common room and quickly but the stone back in it's box and hid it in his trunk before going to see what was going on. But as he got there everyone was leaving.
"What's going on?" he asked Genevieve who was just about to leave herself.
"Someone's been attacked," she replied.
"By who?"
"The beast!"
Barney left with her and they headed up to the main entrance hall where Professors Sinistra and Featherstone were walking in with a stretcher floating between them.
"Make way!" Sinistra shouted sternly to the hordes of students who had gathered there.
As the stretcher passed him Barney looked down to see who it was. It was Ottomaya.