Chapter 10: Void Storms and Untouchable Letters
Author's Note:Again I apologize for the slowness of the updates. Life sucks.
Samuel and Maria sat at their table mercifully devoid of visitors. The high probability of students dropping in unexpectedly had necessitated them to rise earlier and get dressed. Maria worried about her husband who was nearly at a breaking point over his father and cousin. She'd never seen him worried much over anything but the lack of communication from Elanus and Gene had really started to bug him. He put on a good show but when it came right down to it she knew he was scared.
A knock on the door interrupted the silence. Maria stood up and answered it, expecting to turn away a small crowd of visitors. The other professors said it was improper to allow students in their quarters but this was where Samuel's counseling office was and she wasn't about to turn anyone away. Instead of a small crowd she saw only Ginny Weasley. The red headed girl had a small stack of envelopes in her hands and smiled weakly at Maria.
"Hello, Ginny," Maria said, "How are you this morning?"
"I'm fine, I know the other professors told us not to bother you two in the morning but James said I should probably bring this to you," Ginny said, holding up a small envelope.
"What is it?" asked Maria.
"It's from Elanus, but James couldn't get it open for some reason," Ginny said.
Samuel, upon hearing Elanus' name jumped up and nearly knocked Ginny over trying to grab the letter. Maria grabbed the back of Samuel's shirt and pulled him up before he stumbled over Ginny. The Weasley girl couldn't help but giggle as she saw Samuel looking down at her from an unusual angle, being held up by his wife who was scarcely bigger then she was. Samuel regained his composure and stood up, some how getting the letter in hand. He looked at the seal, an obviously magical blue wax designed to keep prying eyes out. Elanus could sometimes be very paranoid, encoding his letters, putting magic wax on them and even occasionally used such mundane means as disappearing ink.
"Ginny, come in, I'm going to need your help getting this opened," Samuel said as he walked back to the table. Maria led her in and they sat down at the table. Samuel knew what was needed to open the seal. It was typical of Elanus to put an Unbreakable charm on it, as well as several magical traps. Whatever he'd written in this letter was obviously very important. Too important to let even James read it.
"Why me?" Ginny asked.
"You're a fifth year student, the counter spells for this seal are somewhat advanced," Samuel said as he examined the wax, "Do you know the counter for a simple lightning ward?"
Ginny nodded, "Simple," she said as she drew her wand. "Would you like me to cast it at the note?" Samuel nodded and placed the letter face up in front of her, "Careful," he said.
"Electrum Annullos!" Ginny said, pointing her wand at the letter. A small thundercloud formed above the letter and rained on it, soaking it through. "Uh oh!" Ginny said.
"Don't worry about it, he probably coated it in phosphorous so it'd burn up if opened," Samuel said, "Neat trick, but the water will keep that from happening. Now put cast the counter for the unbreakable charm."
"Annullos!" Ginny said, pointing her wand at the wax seal. The blue wax seemed to turn to stone and then cracked apart. Samuel took the envelope and opened it. As soon as he opened it the paper disappeared and a small cardboard box landed on the table. He carefully examined it and then took his pocket knife from his pocket and pried it open. Inside he saw a folded up letter, a small disk shaped object and Elanus' wand. Samuel unfolded the letter and read it carefully.
"Oh thank God, they're safe," Samuel said, handing the letter to Maria, "They'll be here tonight if not tomorrow morning.
"I wish I knew how to do that stuff," Ginny said, "Why's his wand in there?"
"I don't know, take a look at it," Samuel said.
Ginny carefully removed the wand from the boxed and looked it over. She pointed her own wand at it and gasped. "It's dead," Ginny said. "So is his teleporter," Samuel said, turning the disk over in his hands.
"What could have caused that?" Ginny asked, "It would take a big magical backlash to burn out a wand. Like a void storm."
"Very observant, Ginny," Samuel said, "How did you know that?"
"I read a lot of your cousin's old papers, they fascinate me," Ginny said, blushing.
"I'm surprised he let anyone see them," Samuel said.
"My dad convinced him to let me read a few of them," Ginny said.
"What's a void storm?" Maria asked.
"Mostly a myth," Samuel said, "When magic goes haywire it used to be blamed on what wizards called 'void storms'. They're said to be vortexes of nothingness that supposedly drain magic right out of existence, the bane of wizards everywhere. It's a lot like airplane mechanics and gremlins, or miners and kobolds."
"Except gremlins and kobolds are real," Ginny said.
"True enough," Samuel said, "I'll take a look at these later, it is interesting."
Samuel placed the wand, disk and letter back in the box, closed it and touched the latch, "Don't open that," he warned. With book bag in hand he walked out the door to his first class. Maria watched her husband leave and smiled at Ginny, "Thank you for bringing that stuff, he's been unbearable. You've got him thinking now, he has a puzzle to solve."
"Is that good or bad?" Ginny asked.
"Depends on your point of view," Maria said with a grin, "I'm sure you have classes to get to, I know I do."
Ginny nodded and grabbed her wand, "I'll see you this afternoon," she said as she left their quarters. Maria groaned as she shut the door, "Flying lessons, I hate flying lessons," she said to herself as she tied her hair back, opened the door again and left for her first class.
Samuel walked briskly down the halls towards his classroom. His change in mood was obvious to everyone he passed. Several students snickered and made suggestive comments about why Professor Green was so chipper. For the most part he ignored it until a comment was made about Maria and the student suddenly fell on his face. James saw his brother and walked beside him, barely keeping up with his brother's pace.
"There's only two things that make you walk like this," James said, "Either something has really intrigued you or you had a lot of…"
"Don't finish that sentence," Samuel said, "Dad and Elanus will be in this evening or tomorrow, and yes I'm intrigued about something. Elanus sent me a letter written in the code."
"What? Are they alright?"
"Yes, they're fine, they had a run in yesterday," Samuel answered. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an American penny, "The letter he sent is in a box on our dining table, this will open it. Don't remove anything else from the box."
James nodded and walked off to his class. Samuel continued on his way and walked into his empty classroom. The class didn't start for nearly a quarter of an hour, a time which he set aside for students with questions. He didn't advertise that fact except in his classes and made sure they knew it was only for when they really needed to talk to him.
Apparently someone told Pavarti Patil that he was available. Samuel raised an eyebrow as the young Gryffindor, who was not in any of his classes, carefully approached his desk.
"Miss Patil? Is it?" Samuel asked, knowing full well what her name was, "Can I help you?"
"Uh, yes, I think, is this a bad time?" Pavarti asked.
"No, not really, I just reserve this time for students who really need help in my class," Samuel said, "Is something wrong?"
"It's my sister," Parvarti said carefully, "she's acting funny."
"Padme? The Ravenclaw?" Samuel asked.
"Yes, is she in your class? It would be just like her to take this course," Pavarti asked.
"No she's not this semester," Samuel said, "Miss Patil, my class starts in no more then ten minutes. Can we discuss this later?"
"No! She can't know I've talked to you, that's why I came now. I'm really worried about her. She's acting strange, hardly eating, her hair is always a mess, robes are always wrinkled," she said, continuing on with a list of how her sister was not keeping up her appearance. Samuel had nearly tuned her out when she said, "Screams during her sleep," and then he paid full attention.
"Wait, wait," Samuel said, stopping Pavarti, "Screams at night, why? Is that new?"
"Her friends say she has nightmares," Pavarti replied, "She was doing that all summer to, but refused to talk about it to anyone. Just said it was a bad dream. I caught her one morning with her face buried in her pillow. She slept like that the whole night so no one would hear."
"Alright, well if
you're really worried about her, I can speak with her," Samuel said, "For girls
though, my wife or Professor McGonagall generally handles them."
"Hermione said you could make her come
in for Academic Counseling. I don't think she'll talk to anyone any other way,"
Pavarti said.
"Well Hermione is very smart, but she probably didn't tell you that it's against school policy to deceive students like that," Samuel said, "I'll see what I can do though. You better get to class."
Samuel leaned back in his chair and thought for a few minutes. He'd certainly not expected this at all. Pavarti was obviously worried and though she had a strange way of expressing it, she'd told Samuel more about what the problem was then she knew. Sibling instinct was something he trusted almost as much as his own senses.
His students began filing in, and he grinned. Despite all the news he'd heard this morning, things were actually looking better then they had since he got there.
"Ooooo, that woman infuriates me," Maria said as she stormed into Hogwarts from the school grounds.
"Bad lesson?" Hermione asked sympathetically.
"To say the least," Maria replied, "She won't answer my questions, barely tells me anything and generally does everything in her power to make me mad."
"I've never thought that of Madam Hooch," Hermione said.
"You're not nearly thirty years old, American, and taking beginning lessons either!"
"Point taken," Hermione said, "So get Harry or Ron to teach you to fly, they're very good."
"I don't want to learn that bad," Maria said, "No, I've survived worse. I'm going to learn on my own and become a good flyer just to spite her."
Hermione shook her head, "So, Ginny brought your early mail in this morning. What was it?"
"Something from Gene and Elanus," Maria said, "Samuel really wouldn't let me read it to close and I think he put some sort of ward on the box."
"What box?"
"The box in the
envelope," Maria said, "It had a wand, and one of
Elanus' disk things it."
"Disk things?"
Hermione asked.
"It's a long story, but Elanus makes things and they all look like disks," Maria said, "Like that eaves dropping thingy, and the invisibility dome they used last year. I don't think I should talk about it much since he's part of the Department of Mysteries."
"Aaaah, interesting," Hermione said, "So is Mr. Evans coming to start his class?"
"They'll be in tonight or tomorrow morning," Maria said, "Please keep that to yourself, I think it'd be bad if that got out and they couldn't come."
"I understand," Hermione said, "Do you think your husband would let me look at that disk?"
Maria shook her head, "A lot of Elanus' things aren't even known to his own department from what I understand. You'd have to ask him first."
Hermione nodded, "I'll see you around," she said.
Maria watched Miss Granger walk quickly down the hall and shivered uncontrollably for a moment as she did. A few students looked at her oddly and one asked if she was alright. Maria ran her fingers through her hair and smiled then headed towards her living quarters. She found James already inside looking at the box on the table carefully. A pretty auburn haired girl Maria knew to be Jennifer from Gryffindor House sat on the sofa reading a scroll and scratching her head.
"You do know you've just broken about eight school rules just being in here with her," Maria said glaring at James.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Evans," Jennifer said, "I was helping him with some of his studies and he told me he needed to look at something Professor Green left for him. We didn't do anything inappropriate I swear."
"I didn't think you did," Maria said, "Samuel told me not to open that."
"I know Maria. He gave me a penny and told me it would open it. I just can't figure out how," he said, holding up the penny.
Maria took the penny and looked at it, "It's his birth year," she said. She slid the penny underneath the latch and gently pried it up, opening the box. James muttered something under his breath and took the letter from the box.
The Code, as the family had come to call it was something they only used in emergencies, or when they didn't want prying eyes to read their mail. It was a deceptively simple means of communication that he'd come up with. Formatting was the key. To most readers a letter written in The Code was normal, if meticulously spaced. Lines were indented in the strangest places, often in the middle of sentences. The first word or letter, or sometimes phrase of the line below the indention was code. Once arranged in the proper order, which was dictated by the closing line of the letter, the message was clear.
Elanus had signed it with the words "In God's Abundant Grace, E. Green". That meant that the message started on the fourth code word. By using only his first initial he was telling the reader that a few words might have to be added for the message to become clear. This usually meant added a "the" or an "a" in the right place.
James carefully wrote out the words in the order intended and came up with, "Bull attacked hired drug blade of dark mystery danger abated caution advised". He took a deep breath and looked for the last code word. Exhaling he penned the last words, "Fifteen One", referring to their code for "victory".
James looked at the message, although he was sure he knew what it meant. Bull referred to their family and attacked was self explanatory. "Hired drug blade of dark mystery" was a bit more obscure. "Hired drug blade" probably meant "assassin" and "dark mystery" probably meant "unknown origins" or "dark magic", possibly both. "Danger abated" likely meant they thwarted the assassin's efforts and "caution advised" meant he didn't think the danger had totally passed. "Fifteen One" meant they had triumphed with no real harm to themselves.
"They're alright," James said, "they got attacked it looks like."
"By who?" Maria asked.
"A hired assassin apparently," James replied, "A wizard using dark magic perhaps."
"You mean someone put a hit out on your dad and cousin?" Jennifer asked.
"I don't know if it was a hit exactly, but someone apparently wanted them dead," James said, frowning.
"I'm sure they'll catch us up on everything when they get here, I'm sure you two have class to get to," Maria said.
"Our regular classes are over for the day Maria," James said, "We do need to go study, I need to learn five to ten new spells a day to be caught up by the end of this semester."
"Ten spells?" Maria asked, "A day?"
"Professor Longfellow told me I need to have a large repertoire of spells if I'm going to catch up with my class," James replied, "I'll see you and Samuel later," he said, placing everything back in the box and walking out the door with Jennifer.
Maria flopped down on the couch and contemplated a nap. Perhaps she'd better learn a few extra spells too, so she'd be caught up with at least the third year students. Of course she had no real intention of becoming a witch, she did like the fencing classes she taught though.
