Hello! I apologize for taking forever to post. For once, I have a really good excuse! My dad accidentally deleted our Internet, and refused to accept help in trying to right his mistake. Anyway, this looks like it'll be the second-to-last or maybe third-to-last chapter in Eyes Like Yours. I'd love it if you folks checked out my new fiction I just started. I'm really excited about it. I prefer writing in first-person voice, so it's been really fun so far. It's called Knowing the Mirror. Anyway, that's plenty of ramble for now, so here goes:
Chapter 16: The Necklace and Margaret
"This book," Hermione said, a dusty, maroon book with old stones encrusted around the edges dropping from her hands onto Ginny's desk, "is the key."
"A Sorcerer's Source for Sources of Strength," Ron read from the cover. He snorted. "What moron titled this thing?"
"Apparently someone named Stigma Sterner," Ginny said, pointing to the gold script on the bottom of the cover."
"And Stigma Sterner is a genius, Ron" Hermione said tartly. "Just you wait."
Harry pulled the book toward himself and flipped through it to the first page of text.
"Have you read this thing, Hermione?" he asked, brushing dust off the pages as he turned them.
"No," she replied. "My parents bought it for me at Diagon Alley last summer, but I couldn't fit it in my trunk, so they took it home for me, and I haven't had a chance to read it yet. But I've skimmed over some things, and it looksfascinating."
Rays of dusky gold-orange sunlight slipped through the sheer curtains in the corner, shedding just enough light on the book's pages.
Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Harry were gathered around the old, scraped up desk after a long day of cleaning the Burrow.
They had just finished dinner, and had muttered quick excuses before fleeing the dining room table and leaving Mrs. Weasley to do the dishes herself and shake her head in bewilderment. Meanwhile, the four youth anxiously assembled in Ginny's room, (as Ron had irritably decreed his room off-limits) to comb through the book Hermione had asked her parents to owl to her as soon as possible.
"Sorcerers have long marveled over the vast array of power-sources available to the magical world. This book is intended to serve as a tool for magical beings and creatures in discovering how they may develop certain attributes, blessings, and most of all, strengths from special substances." Harry looked up from the book.
"See, I told you this was perfect!" Hermione said, looking pleased. "Go on to page eight." Harry nodded and flipped through the book. He scanned page eight before reading it aloud:
"Many of the strongest sources of strength are solid objects, most commonly stones, such as the Philosopher's Stone (see page 49)."
"Ah, we don't need to turn to page 49," Ron said, grinning. "I never realized how popular that rock was."
Ginny looked confused, but shrugged it off as Harry grinned fleetingly at Ron and continued:
"Gemstones are sometimes powerful sources of strength, as well. The color of a gemstone is pivotal in effecting the way it will influence an individual. Some gemstones actually detract from a magical being's power, while others magnify certain aspects of power, and yet others strengthen power overall.
"Garnets increase physical strength, and are useful for warriors seeking extra masculinity and power. The great warlock warrior Knight Gregore Scotch Fitz-Harold was famous for his amazing strength. Fitz-Harold embellished his power by wearing a special helmet incrusted with large garnets. Unfortunately, the garnet-encrusted headgear actually sealed his fate, as it became too heavy as Fitz-Harold fought the Roman Empire in 800 AD, and Fitz-Harold's head became too heavy and fell off as he tried to battle with the Roman soldiers.
"Rubies seal romantic relations, and are said to stimulate sexual arousal. When a ruby is presented to a loved one, it seals the love between the two, and will bind the two in undying love until the gemstone's destruction.
"Diamonds are similar to rubies, in that they possess eternal power that seals covenants for eternity when charmed to an individual's name or heritage.
"Sapphires are said to increase intellect. However, this is only true of some sapphires. This is because" Harry stopped reading and looked up at Hermione. "Hermione, this is all fascinating, but there's nothing about amber in here."
"Actually, Harry, you're very wrong," Hermione said confidently. "Go on. And no skipping. I swear it's in here. I checked in the index before dinner."
Harry grumbled a bit but continued.
"This is because of the ancient witch, Rowena Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw was among the four geniuses whom founded Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. One day she was researching with her co-worker, Godric Gryffindor, in a mine when she stumbled across a large amount of sapphires. The stones intrigued her so, that she spent decades in the mine, researching and studying the gemstones. When Ravenclaw died, she requested her burial in her favorite sapphire mine. Legend has it that the knowledge Ravenclaw was so famous for actually seeped into the sapphires she was buried with over time. Known as Rowena Sapphires, stones from her burial spot are said to improve brainpower."
"Aren't we looking for information about amber?" Ron interrupted.
"Be patient," Hermione snapped. "I want to hear this." She seemed strangely interested in the entire book's content.
"'Course you do," Ron muttered. "Just so you can annoy me."
Hermione rolled her eyes at him, sending him a pitying look.
"Amber's next," Harry said, cutting between his friends' feud. And he continued reading:
"Amber is a fascinating gemstone, with powers including the ability to relieve hyperactivity and stressed nerves of one who wears the stone.
"Legend has it that Amber provides sorcerers with special enhanced powers. Also unique to amber is the special bonding power between the stone's "protector" and the gemstone.
"The strongest, purest Amber actually seeks new protectors when its owner moves on to the afterlife. In extreme cases where a protector dies without a chance to pass the gemstone on to its decided next protector, the former protector may actually rise from the dead for a short period of time to give the Amber to its next owner and guardian."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," Ginny said suddenly. "This is it!"
Hermione nodded, looking pleased.
"So your mum must've received the amber necklace she wore from somebody who died during the first part of her first year at Hogwarts," Ron said.
"And after she did, her grades, which were lacking before, suddenly improved," Hermione said.
"And we all know your mum was a powerful witch, so the amber must've given her enhanced powers," Ginny said.
"So she was a protector of that amber necklace?" Harry mused. "I wonder where she got it?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione said excitedly.
Harry looked at her blankly, and then at Ron and Ginny to make sure he wasn't the only one in the dark.
"No," Ron said.
Hermione looked slightly put out that she was the only one getting it, but she went on excitedly anyhow.
"Who died in Lily's first few weeks of school?"
"Margaret McGonagall?" Ginny said in shock. "You think she was the protector?"
"Why not?"
"But Amber is supposed to relieve hyperactivity and stressed nervesHarry just read that. And if I remember correctly, McGonagall's daughter was not calm. She was always tense and anal about her grades and being the best…"
"Listen to this," Harry suddenly said, pointing to a spot in A Sorcerer's Source for Sources of Strength.
"Amber is powerful, but some individuals may overpower the substance with his/her own aspirations to succeed. In such cases, the Amber's power may leave the veins of its protector and move on to a new protector. The loss of the Amber's strength may cause an individual to slip into a state wherein his/her brain entirely freezes up and ceases to function normally, and in extreme cases, it may lead to the shutting down of the brain."
"Hey, looks like we've got this figured out!" Ron said. "Thank Merlin. I was so sick of all the mystery dung…"
"It's not all figured out, Ron," Hermione said contritely. "For example, we still don't know for sure if our whole amber theory is correct. And also, even if it is, we don't know why Harry's eyes changed, too. You'd think it would just be his mum. And we don't really understand why his mum's eyes changed. Nor do we know if it's even possible for amber to change a person's eye color."
"Nor do we know why Hermione is so obsessed with this whole thing," Ginny cut in, raising an eyebrow at Hermione.
"I love mysteries," Hermione said stiffly. "Anyway, so we have a load to figure out still. Keep reading, Harry."
Harry looked hard at the book.
"I can't see a thing," he finally announced. "Sorry, Hermione. Let's just let everything we learned sink in for now."
Hermione clearly didn't want to do that, but Ginny and Ron agreed with Harry, so she reluctantly agreed.
"I hate all this bloody cleaning," Ron yawned. "Just plain tires me out."
As Harry closed the book, Mrs. Weasley's voice suddenly filled the room.
"If you lot care, we have dessert down here." Ron was on his feet instantly, and Harry followed suit.
"We just ate an enormous dinner. Are you two truly still hungry?" Hermione marveled.
"We're growing men. We're always hungry," Ron said with a grin. Harry nodded fervently.
"Always hungry," he agreed. He grinned at the expressions on Ginny and Hermione's faces, and the two young men darted for the door.
"You want more food?" Hermione asked Ginny doubtfully.
"Yeah, I suppose I do," she said, staring after the door for a long moment. And she stood up, stretched, and followed after the boys. Heaving a sigh, Hermione stood up and followed her friends down to the kitchen for brownie sundaes, despite the fact that she was entirely full from dinner still.
"Summer's almost over," Ron said sadly as he scooped up another large mound of vanilla ice cream and homemade brownie with his fork. Hot fudge dripped from the fork as he held it midair for a moment and looked wistfully out the window, at the warm night sky.
"I'm excited for school," Ginny said. "It's been a weird summer, and I want to get back to living like normal." She swirled her ice cream around absently with her spoon, lost in her thoughts. She suddenly realized Harry was watching her, and she stopped and smiled strangely at him. He smiled back and quickly looked away.
"I want to go read some more," Hermione said.
"What's the point?" Ron retaliated. "It'll just give you more information to analyze. Aren't you tired?" Hermione just smiled merrily and pushed her untouched sundae away.
"Not really, Ron. Good night, everyone."
Ron watched as Hermione pushed her chair back and walked toward the stairs, and suddenly he was on his feet.
"I'll help you," he said quickly. When Harry and Ginny looked at him oddly, he just shrugged. "What? Can't have her solving the whole mystery by herself, can I?" Harry tried not to smirk too much as she shrugged nonchalantly.
"Reckon not. Good luck, you two."
As Ron and Hermione headed up the stairs, Harry turned to Ginny and the two stared at each other for a long moment, and then burst into laughter.
"I can't believe those two," Ginny sighed as she calmed down. "They've got it so bad for each other, but they just won't say so."
Harry seemed slightly surprised by this.
"You think Hermione likes Ron?" he asked. He had been guessing that Ron liked their best friend ever since he found a broken Viktor Krum figurine under his bed on Boxing Day fourth year, but he hadn't ever seen any evidence to prove that Hermione felt the same.
"Boys," Ginny tisked, shaking her head and tutting. "You're so oblivious." Harry raised an eyebrow at her.
"Why do you say that?"
"Take Dean for example. I liked him for weeks and weeks, but he just didn't get it. Seamus told me Dean said he'd go out with me, so I dropped the most obvious hints ever, but he just didn't get it, so I finally had to ask him out myself." She shook her head. Harry was surprised to hear her speak of Dean, as it had only been, what, three days since they broke up?
Ginny saw his surprise and laughed softly to herself.
"You're surprised to hear me talking about Dean? We weren't all that serious, Harry. And I wan planning on dumping him before school. Anyway, my point wasn't even to talk about himit was to support my belief that menboys, guys, whateverare oblivious to even the most obvious hints girls send them. Like Ron."
Harry raised an eyebrow at her.
"Are you trying to send me some sort of hint right now?" he joked, wishing she'd say yes, but her answer was no surprise to him, as it was very typical of Ginny.
"Funny, Harry," she said, rolling her eyes. "Oblivious and conceited. That's how you all are."
"Nice to know you think so highly of my kind," Harry mused.
Mrs. Weasley, who had been taking down wash from the clothesline in the yard, came in while he was speaking.
"How are the brownies, dears?" she inquired.
"Excellent," Harry said, grinning at her. Ginny suddenly giggled.
"What?" Harry asked, narrowing his bright green eyes at her.
"You have a big piece of brownie in your teeth," she said, gesturing. "It looks pretty funny."
Harry slid his tongue over his teeth and smiled widely at her.
"Still there?" he asked.
"Nope. You got it out." She grinned at him and shook her head. Mrs. Weasley headed for the stairs with a basket of clean clothes, observing the two with mild interest.
Ginny finished her ice cream as Harry took his and Hermione and Ron's bowls to the sink.
"School starts back in exactly one week," she said as she set her spoon down. "You ready?" Harry shrugged.
"I dunno. It's all pretty routine by now." But as he spoke, the depressing recollection that Sirius wouldn't be popping into the fireplace or sending him owls with code names this year struck, andHarry suddenly wished very much that things wouldn't be returning to normal, just so he wouldn't recognize the changes Sirius's death would bring.
"Harry?" Ginny looked concerned. "What's wrong?" Jolted out of his depressing musings, Harry looked up at her and smiled a small smile.
"Nothing. I'm fine." And he stuck out his right hand. Ginny eyed it questioningly, and then slowly held out her right hand, unsure of what he expected her to do. As Harry shook hands with her, Ginny smiled and shook her head.
"You're mad, you know that?" she said. And then she looked closely at him, and her eyes softened. "If you ever want to talk, Harry…" She didn't have to finish, and Harry, uncomfortable with her keen perception, shrugged it off with a joke.
"That's good of you, Gin. I've tried to talk to Ron before, but he just doesn't seem to understand my emotions, and Hermione never lets me talk."
Ginny swatted him on the arm.
"Shut up. I'm serious." Harry grinned.
"I know, I know. But I swear, I'm not entirely psycho yet. I'll let you know when I need counseling."
"Everyone needs counseling," Ginny said seriously. "Everyone needs to talk to people and get stuff off their chests every now and then." Harry tried not to look as uncomfortable as he felt.
"Probably. But I'm fine. Really," he said, not bringing his eyes up to meet with hers.
Suddenly, he felt Ginny's body tense next to him.
"What?" he demanded, looking sharply at her.
She pointed, looking slightly embarrassed.
"I keep seeing those weird little spiders," she said. "I'm not really a bug-person."
Normally, Harry would smash any small creature causing distress, especially to Ginny, but there was something about those bronze spiders…Therefore, he was pleasedwhen the bug moved so quickly into a dark corner that he couldn't have killed it even if he wanted to.
Harry went to bed with a heavy conscience. He wasn't really in need of talking about Sirius, but it still caused him extreme guilt and grief to think about that night at the Department of Mysteries, and he missed Sirius more than anyone could understand. He could use some advise about Ginny, and Ron definitely was the wrong person to turn tom and Hermione would offer the typical twisted and complex girl view, which wasn't really what he wanted right now.
After tossing and turning for a few hours, fatigue overcame him and Harry fell into a deep sleep.
It was just after the crack of dawn that Hermione was up the next morning. Anxious to continue researching amber with a refreshed perspective, she took A Sorcerer's Source for Sources of Strength down to the kitchen and studied various sections while drinking her morning tea and orange juice.
When Harry and Ron stumbled into the kitchen around half past nine, she was still absorbed in the book. She barely even noticed the boys, so after they finished their toast and ham, they headed back upstairs to get showered and dressed before helping Mrs. Weasley finish the cleaning, leaving Hermione to continue her righteous and strangely interested pursuits.
As Ron pulled on an orange t-shirt over his wet, poorly towel-dried hair and over his torso, Harry attempted to tame his damp hair at least a little bit with a comb.
"Oi, mate," Ron said, but before he could finish, he crashed to the floor. Harry turned from the mirror and looked down at Ron.
"What's wrong?" he asked, alarmed.
Ron got up painfully.
"Would you mind moving that bloody box?" he snarled. "What the hell are you trying to do? Kill me with all your stuff?"
"Sorry," Harry said sincerely, and he bent down to pick up the scattered contents of the threatening box.
As Harry tossed miscellaneous items back into the box, like a broken watch, a miniature model broomstick, a book called The Black Truth, a stack of playing cards, he came across something that aroused his interest.
It was an aged, yellow envelope, folded in half, with a black stamp that read "CONFI." Harry lifted the envelope up and sat down on the floor, examining it with interest. Unfolding it, he noted that the stamp actually read "CONFIDENTIAL."
It was sealed shut, and looked like it had never before been opened. An official-looking seal was imprinted in the center, and for a moment Harry hesitated, unsure of whether or not he should open it. The wizarding world was sometimes different. Maybe the seal meant something?
"What is that?" Ron asked, still massaging a spot on his calf where he crashed into the box.
"Dunno," Harry said with a shrug. "Shall we see?"
Of course, he didn't even need to wait for an answer, as he knew exactly what Ron would say.
A/N: CLIFFHANGER! Wooo! Ha ha, sorry. I could help it. So the story's wrapping up. Thanks to all who reviewed last chapter!
Nightwing 509: Thanks for reading! Sorry about the wait. :)
fire-icecat: Thanks for the advise, and the review. I'd love it if you checked out my new fic (hint hint)
KMK: They'll figure it out pretty soon here, probably before school. Thanks for reviewing!
HecateDeMort: (grins) It's funny that your reviews are among my favorites. Thanks!
Lady Urquentha: Thank you:)
bahjcb: You read it all in one sitting? I'm glad it didn't give you a headache. I tend to complicate things. Anyway, thanks!
Annmarie Aspasia: Thank you:)
WolfMoon: Thank you, and now I feel guilty about taking so long!
MsMissProngs: Thanks for reading, and the above comment applies to you, too.
Kaiden: Aww, thanks! I don't know what else to say, except blush with pride. :)
SweetSouthernGal: Thank you:)
tina7610813: I love reading your predictions. Thanks!
Auramistealia: Thank you:)
So review this chapter and I'll be very pleased, as it's probably my last in this story that I'll be able to reply to! And I promise to compose a poem in recognition of you lovely readers and especially reviewers. Thanks:)
