Chapter 28 - The Nevermores
The Slytherin celebrations had gone on all afternoon and evening fuelled by sugar highs of butterbeer and copious amounts of treats. As much as Barney enjoyed being the hero and the man of the hour, who everyone wanted to speak to and congratulate, he needed a break. But every time he tried to sneak out of the Slytherin common room someone would grab him and either make him explain how he caught the Snitch for the hundredth time or start a chant that quickly spread around the room about how he was the best Quidditch player Slytherin ever had. Barney almost preferred it when he was the reserve Seeker and no one cared about him.
Eventually he managed to slip away to his dorm for a few minutes of peace and quiet. He sat on his bed and finally had chance to take it all in. He'd been so caught up in the whirlwind of celebrations that he hadn't had a single moment to reflect on what he'd just achieved. Not only did he finally get to play for Slytherin in a Quidditch match which he had been trying to do for years but he'd just helped them to win the Quidditch Cup for the first time in three years. And to top it off, Thomas was speaking to him again. It was probably one of the best days of his life.
He could still hear the din from the celebrations in the common room but was enjoying the relative peace as he looked at his trunk and began to wonder, how had he really managed to achieve his dream? Was it the work of the Endeavour Stone? Had it somehow been able to manipulate events to ensure this outcome occurred? Or had it merely shown Barney a future that was going to happen anyway? One thing was sure, Barney was going to stop at nothing to find out how the stone worked.
The next day Barney had gathered Thomas, Tabitha and Viola out by the lake. Though it was the weekend there were teachers walking round the school grounds, no doubt patrolling in case there was any sign of the beast again.
"What was so urgent that you had to drag us out here on a Sunday morning?" Tabitha asked, still looking a little sleepy as she lounged on the grass and was tempted to take a nap in the sun right there and then as Thomas and Viola sat beside her.
"This," Barney said as he produced the glistening blue stone from his bag and sat down in front of them, placing it on the grass in the middle of them all.
They all looked at it in amazement and silence as it glint in the sun. Tabitha was eventually the first to eventually speak.
"Is that what I think it is?"
"Yes it's the Endeavour Stone," Barney replied before looking around to make sure no one was close enough to see what they were looking at or hear what they were saying.
"And it was in the box?" Tabitha asked, still looking slightly stunned.
"Yep."
"So how does it work?" Viola asked, not able to take her eyes off the stone.
"Well that's the problem. I'm not quite sure."
"So you haven't tried to use it yet?" interjected Tabitha.
"Well sort off. I was holding the stone and I had this weird kind of dream, only it seemed too real for it to be a dream. Anyway in it I was playing in the final Quidditch game and I caught the Snitch and won the Quidditch Cup for Slytherin. And then a few days later it actually happened."
"So it predicted the future?" Viola said.
"I'm not sure if it predicted it or I somehow showed it what I wanted and then it made it come true."
"Is that all that was in your vision? You winning the cup?" Tabitha asked and Barney desperately hoped he wasn't going too red and making it obvious something was up as he thought back to the moment he kissed her in his vision.
"Yeah it was just that and then I guess I woke up again and was back in my dorm."
"So you just hold it and think of what you want?" Viola said reaching out to grab the stone but then stopped and looked at Barney waiting for his approval.
"Go ahead but I've tried doing that since the first time and nothing else has happened."
Viola picked the stone up and held it tightly in her hands, closed her eyes and began to imagine what she wanted most in the world. Except right at that moment she couldn't really think of anything she wanted. So instead she just thought of a big bowl of ice cream, with seven different flavours, lashings of strawberry sauce, sprinkles and chocolate chips. Though nothing seemed to change. She was still very much besides the lake with the others. She never fell into any dream like state and when she opened her eyes again she found that everyone was staring at her.
"Well?" Tabitha asked.
"Nothing," Viola replied disappointedly as she placed the stone back on the ground. "So what now?"
Barney delved into his bag again and produced Nevermore's notebook which he placed beside the stone. "The answers must be in here. We just need to solve the rest of the pages."
"But you've been trying nearly all year to do that," Tabitha said sounding dejected. "I think maybe you need to face it that maybe some of the journal you'll just never decipher."
"But I've got to. We've come so far to give up now. What's the point in having this stone if we don't know how to use it?"
Barney looked at the other three in turn. They all looked a little despondent but Thomas more so than the others and he had remained rather quiet so far. "What do you think Thomas?"
"Me?"
"Yeah you're being very quiet there. What do you think we should do?"
"I think that stone is a very powerful magical object that we don't understand in the slightest. I think the best thing to do is to give it to Professor McGonagall."
"Oh come on Thomas," Tabitha butted in. "Aren't you the least bit interested seeing if it can make your dreams come true?"
"Not really. You forget I grew up without magic. Where I come from if you want something you just work hard to get it. You don't just use magic to get it. Plus that thing could be dangerous. We have no idea what it really does."
"So you're not going to help?" Barney asked.
"Look Barney I'm glad that we're back to being friends but I don't see how I can help. I've tried helping you decipher the pages so far but we've hit a brick wall. I don't want to see you wasting the rest of the school year trying to solve that journal when you should be concentrating on school work."
"OK so what about you two? You in?" Barney said as he looked at both the girls.
"I'll be going back to America in a few weeks," Viola noted. "If you think I'm going back home without solving this thing to only then hear about how you worked it out after I left and are enjoying everything the stone brings you then you've got another thing coming. I'm in."
"Count me in too," Tabitha said emphatically. "But where do we start? Cos Thomas is right. You've been trying to work out the other pages for a while now and haven't got anywhere. There must be dozens of pages left to decipher."
Barney knew she was right. He had counted and there were twenty-two more pages yet to be unlocked and other than a few decoded symbols here and there they didn't really have much else to go on. And he had exhausted every known magical language, alphabet and symbol system he could think of.
"Maybe it's time you asked Professor Dufour for help?" Tabitha suggested.
"But if I tell him about the stone he'll probably take it away from us."
"Even more reason to tell him," Thomas quipped, but Barney didn't find the wise crack helpful.
"Well don't tell him what it's for," Tabitha noted. "Just see if he can help identify the symbols?"
"No he's already getting suspicious. I'd rather not involve him until it's the last resort."
"Why don't we just start at the end?" Viola suggested. "It stands to reason that when Nevermore was writing this journal he would have finished it when he figured out how to use the stone. So if we just focus on the last few pages then hopefully that is where it will tell us how to use it."
"You're a genius," Barney said as he picked up the journey and flicked through to the back of it however his brief moment of joy was short lived when he scanned the last few pages. Apart from the odd symbol, they were relatively untranslated. But still now they had a plan and something to focus their time on. Hopefully they'd make a breakthrough soon.
Despite Barney, Tabitha and Viola's hard work, the odd input from Thomas (mainly advising them to give up) and some assistance from Conrad and his expert language knowledge, it took them nearly two weeks before they had a breakthrough. And it came from the most unexpected of places but it was a very simple solution.
Barney was in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom on his weekly visit to her, having promised to do so after she had told him about Samuel Eden. He had taken Nevermore's journal along as she had previously told him that Ancient Runes was one of her favourite subjects so he thought she might enjoy helping him trying to decipher the symbols. And it sort of did work. Myrtle seemed very contented for a change as she racked her brains. The only problem was that she actually didn't manage to translate a single symbol, other than a couple Barney already knew.
The breakthrough came as Barney was packing up to leave. He was stood by the sinks as he was packing his bag as he happened to glance in the mirror and saw the journal which was open on the second to last page. As he looked at the symbols in the mirror he noticed something very curious. Now they were reflected they suddenly made sense.
"I know these symbols!" Barney shrieked in delight but Myrtle had already disappeared into the pipes so no one heard him.
As he held the journal up to the mirror and examined them more closely. They were Aquan runes, Professor Dufour had already taught them to him. Barney felt so foolish for having not noticed earlier.
He debated whether to wait until he was with the others to decipher the page but he was too excited and grabbed a piece of parchment and began to write the Aquan runes correctly so they were no longer reversed and then started to translate them. And it didn't take him long. He was well versed in this particular language.
He stood staring at the parchment and his translation and began to wonder what it could mean. the runes represented a series of numbers -
1, 6, 1, 8, 6
Barney guessed it must be some sort of sequence and all he needed to do to reveal the page was work out the next number in the sequence. The only problem was he had no idea what it could be.
As soon as he left the bathroom he went to find the others and made his way to the Great Hall. As he entered he got a high five and a slap on the back from a couple of fellow Slytherins. Despite it being nearly two weeks since Barney had help Slytherin to win the Quidditch Cup, they still liked to congratulate him at every possible moment and Barney hadn't quite gotten use to his new found fame yet.
Thomas and Viola were at the Hufflepuff table but Tabitha wasn't with them.
"Do you have any idea where they went?" Barney asked, looking flustered.
"I don't know. I think she might be off with Hamish somewhere."
"OK well can we go somewhere quiet? I've translated some more of the journal."
Viola was eager to find out more and jumped up from the table, abandoning the rest of her lunch. Thomas was a little more hesitant and remained seated.
"I'm actually meant to be meeting with Ottomaya. We've both got a free period next and she's finally agreed to talk to me," Thomas said, looking a little embarrassed.
Barney knew how much it meant to Thomas to be on speaking terms again with Ottomaya so he didn't push his friend. Instead he left with Viola but not before wishing Thomas luck.
Barney decided to have a quick scout around the grounds to see if they could see Tabitha anywhere before he told Viola what he had discovered. Though all Viola did was continuously ask him questions about what he had found out.
"Lets just try and find Tabitha first and then I'll tell you both."
They were just passing the greenhouses when in the distance Barney spotted two students locked in an embrace, laying near the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Barney recognised the blond curly hair of the boy on top wearing Hufflepuff Quidditch robes and knew instantly it was Hamish. Not particularly wanting to watch Tabitha and Hamish make out he stopped in his tracks and turned away.
Viola spotted the pair in the distance as well and turned to Barney, knowing exactly how he would be feeling. "Lets head back to the castle and find somewhere quiet to talk and you can finally tell me what you've found out."
Barney didn't need to be told twice. He was more than happy to get away from there.
They found an empty classroom on the second floor and Barney quickly retrieved the journal and the parchment with his workings on and explained how he had realised the symbols were reversed.
"So what do the numbers mean?" Viola asked looking puzzled.
"I have no idea. It might be a sequence or maybe a number that had a specific meaning to Nevermore?"
"Maybe we could ask Professor Vector? She does teach Arithmancy after all," Viola suggested.
"No I don't want to involve any teachers until we've exhausted all other possibilities."
"Barney I'm going to be leaving in just over a week. We're never going to get this all solved by then at this rate," she said sounding annoyed.
"Fine we'll ask a teacher. But not Vector. We'll ask Professor Binns. He knew the Nevermores. Maybe he'll know numbers that had a significant meaning to them."
Though Viola wasn't quite so thrilled at this compromise. Knowing how much Professor Binns liked to babble on it would probably take till she left Hogwarts just to get the answer out of him.
Barney and Viola had agreed to go and find Professor Binns after their lessons that day. In the meantime Barney headed off to his Care of Magical Creatures class.
Barney saw Tabitha sitting on grass outside Hagrid's hut as the class waited for the lesson to begin and went and sat next to her.
"Hey Barney, Thomas said you were looking for me at lunch time. Sorry I was busy finishing an assignment for Charms."
Barney thought to himself is that what you call what you were doing? But didn't mention to her that he had seen them. "No worries. I've made some progress with Nevermore's journal. I'll tell you about it after class."
As they were nearly at the end of the school year, some teachers had decided to take a less formal approach to lessons and allowed the students to have some fun. Hagrid was one of those teachers and their lesson consisted of the class being reunited with their Pugwamps. And though it had been a few months since they'd last seen them, their Pugwamps instantly recognised their old carers and were almost as happy to see them as the students were to see their Pugwamps.
The lesson was spent playing with them and Barney had forgotten how cute a Pugwamp's laugh was. He was having so much fun he had almost forgotten about Nevermore's journal as the lesson ended.
"So what did you need to talk to me about?" Tabitha said, reminding Barney of his progress.
"I've managed to work out the clue on the penultimate page. It's a number sequence. Me and Viola are going to ask Professor Binns if it means anything to him as he knew Nevermore. Do you want to come with us?"
"I meant to be hanging out with Hamish. I've been so busy I haven't had chance to see him yet today."
"But you were with him at lunch time," Barney blurted out and then realised his mistake and didn't want Tabitha to think he was spying on her.
"No I wasn't. I was doing my Charms assignment."
"Oh," Barney said sounding a little surprised and he was not only surprised but also confused. As he thought about it more he also got mad but didn't say anything to Tabitha.
"Anyway it won't take three of us to ask Binns. Just let me know what he says," Tabitha said before she grabbed her things and started heading towards the castle, leaving Barney standing there not knowing what to do.
Viola was waiting for Barney in the entrance hall and as soon as he arrived she could tell something was up. "What's wrong? I'd say you look like you've seen a ghost but that's pretty normal around here," she said trying to make a joke and lighten the mood but Barney didn't laugh. "Are you OK?"
"You know we saw Hamish earlier?"
"Yeah but seriously don't keep thinking about it. I know how you feel about Tabitha but put it out your mind."
"No it's not that. It's just... I don't think that was Tabitha he was with."
"What?! What makes you say that?" Viola replied in shock.
"She said she wasn't with him at lunch time."
"Maybe she was just trying to spare your feelings."
"No it's not that. I genuinely don't think it was her.
"Well er... maybe it wasn't Hamish either. I mean they were quite far away. We could have been mistaken," Viola said, trying to think of a rationale explanation but even she wasn't convinced.
"How many other boys on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team have blond curly hair?"
Viola knew the answer was none. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to tell her."
"But you don't have any proof. He'll only deny it."
"So what I say nothing and let him keep cheating on her?"
"No I didn't say that. I mean the scumbag shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. But if you tell Tabitha and he denies it, who's side is she going to take?"
Barney hoped she would take the side of the person who had been her friend since their first year at Hogwarts, but it wouldn't be the first time she had chosen Hamish over him so he wasn't totally sure. Before he could think about it any further Professor Binns floated through the door of the History of Magic classroom and headed down the corridor.
"Lets worry about that in a bit," Barney said as he turned and watched Binns float by. "Professor can we have a word please?"
Binns turned and hovered in the air. "Why certainly Mr Wand. And Miss Dagon. How can I help you?"
"We wanted to ask you about Professor Nevermore," Barney asked.
"Oh the dear poor Nevermores. Both such brilliant teachers but such a sad story..." Professor Binns began to drone on but Barney had already heard all this before.
"It was actually something specific we wanted to ask," Barney interrupted before Binns could talk any further.
"Oh yes of course, what would you like to know?"
"We were wondering if there were any numbers which had specific meaning to them or maybe a date?" Barney said and pulled a piece of paper from his pocket which he had written the sequence on and showed it to them. "It's missing a number at the end."
"We thought maybe it could be a birthday?" Viola interjected. "Or an anniversary?"
"Now let me see," Professor Binns said as he went to scratch his head as he thought but his hand went straight through his skull like it was actually stroking his brain to help him think. "Now they celebrated their anniversary in the spring I seem to recall. May 2nd but as for the year they got married I can not be sure as they were already married when they began teaching at Hogwarts. Vitorious, yes his birthday was most definitely around Halloween. The twenty-six of October I believe. He was thirty-eight when he died so he must have been born in eighteen sixty-four. Yes that would be right."
Viola was already bored listening to Binns but Barney knew they had come to the right person as Binns continued to rattle on.
"Eleanor was a summer birthday. Not long before the end of term if I remember rightly. So June... hmmm you know I can't quite remember."
"Maybe the 1st of June?" Barney interrupted, looking at the first number of the sequence.
"Yes you're right. Her birthday was the 1st of June."
"And what about the year she was born? eighteen sixty-..." Barney said again after looking at the numbers.
"Now how old was she when she died? She was most definitely young. That's what made it so much more of a tragedy. Such a beautiful young thing. In fact there's a portrait of the both of them down here," Binns said as he started to float down a side corridor and Barney and Viola immediately followed him.
Barney felt so stupid. He had never thought about looking for a portrait of Vitorious Nevermore before. The portrait might be able to help him solve some of the ciphers in the journal.
"Professor Binns how much of a person is in their portrait? Like how much does it know about the actual person?" Barney asked and Viola gave him a whack in the arm, annoyed that he had asked the professor another question and she knew they were about to get a long winded answer.
"Why that depends on how much magic is used when the painting is done and how much the subject wants to imprint on their portrait. Some people spend hours talking to their portraits so it knows everything about them, where as some spend no time with their portrait at all so all the picture can do is move about and smile back at you. Unfortunately the Nevermores never got around to spending time with their portrait. It was painted not long before Eleanor sadly passed away. Ah now I remember. Eleanor was thirty-three when she died, it was just a few weeks before her birthday so she would have been born in eighteen sixty-seven."
Professor Binns sudden stopped floating and turned to his left where a portrait hung in an alcove in a deserted corridor. There was a window nearby and the sun outside was shining through and illuminated the painting. Barney stared at the portrait, first looking at Vitorious, finally seeing what the man, who had been on his mind for months, looked like. He was very handsome with dark hair and a thin moustache. Barney could very much imagine him as a teacher though he was disappointed knowing the portrait wasn't going to be much use to him. Then he turned his attention to Eleanor and was gobsmacked. Not by how beautiful she was. But because he recognised her from the vision he had when he had held the Endeavour Stone.