Shitza: This chapter is very much sounding like my old religion lessons in Nordic myths and legends. Yet to clear out some question marks beforehand I am going to leave some notes before we start, some maybe interesting facts or glossaries:

Dag/Day

Måne/Moon

Lögh/ a old Swedish words in the meaning of washing/bathing etc. You'll find the information about it down below.

Sol/Sun

Midgård/ what the Vikings described as the world. The Middle Earth.

Ps: As Swedish has some extra vocals in the language I am also leaving phonetics for these. Å is pronounced as ou in bought, ä as ea in wear, ö as i in bird.

Chapter 6 Cassandra Ridgeback

"I'm not so sure I should tell you this." Cassandra said holding her arm in a sort of protective manner. "You would probably think I have been completely weird after this."

"Come on Cass, we are all weird here. Well, just look at it, Harry went after a ghost, Ron was kidnapped by a hag, Hermione and Draco have been flirting with the most unimaginable things and I was close on becoming a vampire, now what could be worse then that?"

"Suppose this" Cassandra said and cleared her throat.

---Cassandra's Tale---

One of Scandinavia's really famous old cultured were the Vikings, and with the Vikings there was religion. The Vikings believed in different close nature-related gods whom the most important or oldest of these were Odin. The gods lived in the paradise where the dead once would come to.

There were of course other gods; famous among these are Tor, Freja, Frej, Tyr, Loke, Balder. The old religion has for the most died out, some still believes, but not as intense as in the old times. Yet it has left its marks upon the culture, four of the days in the week are in Swedish name after these. Tisdag/Thuesday is named after Tyr, Onsdag/Wednesday is named after Odin, Torsdag/Thursday and Fredag/Friday. The remaining of the days are named of the two most important light on the sky, Måndag/Monday and Söndag/Sunday. The last was the same day everyone had by unwritten rules, a washing day when people bathed, cut their beards and so, Lördag/Saturday.

By that time every day had a meaning of some higher power, so when it was Måndag it was the day of the Moon. Tisdag was Tyrs dag/Tyr's day. Onsdag was Odin's day and so on. Lördag came from an ancient word called lögh, which means bathing and cleaning, Originally it was the seventh day in the week. Söndag was Solen's dag.

"Cass, stop rambling at get on with the story instead, this is boring!" Draco said.

"You know Cass, sometimes you are even worse then me!"

Cassandra sulked, but they were right. She loved giving out facts, but often she could give out too much.

Okay then, as you heard me tell the gods were really important, and they still live on. But for Muggles these are just some legends. Yet as there's also witches and wizards they have told me a great deal about the legends and about the parts in the legends that actually were true. In the stories of ragnarök/ which is the same as the world's end, one of the famous stories of the God of Thunder and war, Tor, fought against the great snake of Midgård. In the story they both would end up as dead, Thor would kill the snake but then die of his poisons. Now witches and wizards of that time stopped continued believing in those stories even after Scandinavia was transferred to the Christians and their believes and the reason was because of this giant poisonous snake which often appeared in their dreams. Some even said they had seen it.

Now, I wouldn't have told you this story, if it weren't so that I was up to visit an old friend of mine. She told me a day before my arrival she had seen the snake once more, which made me really curious. She could even describe how huge it was and how it looked. I followed that description as I went out, in a rowing boat, towards an island. I spent three days flying over the waves looking for it without any results. I started to think she had to be joking, when all of sudden, the fourth day, I came back to the island to discover that something was down there, right under me. I knew this because of a giant hole in the ground I had never seen before, the creepy thing was that where the hole was, used to be my resting spot after a long sleep.

I brought a torch with me as I walked down, it wasn't a pleasant journey, I can say. The hole was big, but also filled with skeletons of ravens, foxes and even deer's. Imagine how disgusted I felt, and how stupid I feel now. After all I am not Parsel, so I still cannot understand what I did.

Yet I followed the trail further and further down. I came so far that I could bet I had reached the inner centre of the earth. Yet of course I was wrong, I had just been following that creature's cave all the way towards the North Pole. It took me days to walk; I believe I was gone for at least a month. Sometimes when I dared I transformed and flew some miles, just to get somewhere, but as soon as I heard any kind of sound I changed form again and hid myself. I was dead scared of course, after all with the size of that long tunnel, I knew that thing had to be BIG!

When I finally came to the end, these really cold winds met me and I had to transform my robe into one really thick armour of clothing. I followed the snakes' trail towards a new cave, and for the first time of my life I felt empty. It felt as if all my theories had been crashes in one time.

The snake was in reality a moving statue, transfigured by some old warlock since thousands of years ago to haunt the north from all the folk stories. I found the facts and potions the old man had used, he had been a healer, who had been thrown out from his village. As he swore to revenge them he made this moving snake to haunt them and everyone else, even after his death.

As I went back I caved in that cave, and I hope that snake will not come back again. It was such a beautiful creation and since I gave the description to some researches (wizards) I don't want it to return, since it would probably be destroyed if it did. I don't know what has happened since, newspapers don't tell you much.

---End Tale---

"Not to bad Cassie, you helped solve one of those mysteries of this world. All though I wish I could have seen that snake!" Draco said taking a sip from his wine.

Old Albus Dumbledore woke up, smiling. The dream he had had was a good one, so free, so relaxing. But he hoped it would remain to become reality.

Outside the war was rising, and nothing would ever become what it used to be. Old Albus sighed and got back to sleep.

Thanks to:

Chocheryl, who reviewed most of the chapters in this story, thanks for your reviews and for those nice words.

End Notes: This was it, the fic is finished and I hope you liked it. Now after this, I suppose it will give me more time with my other fics, whom all are half finished and I hpe I will be able to finish soon.

Shitza