/hi/One person speaking to another
/hi/ One person speaking to everyone
Gwydion's Conservatory of Magical Arts
Chapter 14: Of Being in the Know
It was Halloween and absolutely nothing exciting had really happened at
Hogwarts this year. In fact, other than Harry's disappearance, things had been
normal at the school. (As normal as things could be at school for magic.) Ron
Weasley was bored. Without his best friend to wreak havoc in some sort of way,
everything was peaceful. There had been no nightmares, no secret clubs, and no
crazed DADA teacher working for Voldemort. (Even though before Sirius might
have been considered crazed, there was none of that anymore without Harry around.)
Out of sheer boredom Ron had even started a potions essay a full two days before it
was due! Right now he was sitting in front of the Gryffindor common-room fire just
starring into the flames. He sighed.
"You miss him don't you?" Hermione approached her boyfriend. Their
relationship had struggled a lot since Harry's disappearance. Before, they had been a
happy couple, doing everything together. But now there was a distance, each having
his/her own guilt over the Harry situation. People had even thought that the two
had broken up because they seemed to never even bicker anymore!
"Yeah…this year has been so…peaceful…its odd." Ron replied. Hermione sat by
him absent-mindedly on the sofa.
"Do you think that he is ok?" Ron asked.
"Well we would know if Voldemort had him by now…goodness Ronald, no need to
shiver! I'm sure that wherever he is he is safe." She sounded like she was trying to
convince herself just as much as she was trying to convince Ron. Deciding that this
was too sad of a subject Ron went on.
"What did you find that was so interesting about Gwydion's?"
"Apparently the school dates back further than Hogwarts, it was the first wizarding
school in all of Britain, maybe in the world. The exact dates have been lost.
Apparently to get in you have to be directly related to an ancient wizard family.
Rumors speculate that you had to be related to King Arthur or Merlin, or someone
else from the same time period. Its even rumored that the Gwydion student's line
were the sons and daughters of Lancelot and Guinevere, Arthur's wife. Of course
the students and teachers are completely closed mouth about it. No one has even
admitted to being a student of the school in public before. That is why this whole
exchange thing is weird. Why now after all these years is the school opening for
others to see?"
"Maybe they are sick of hiding?" Ron suggested lazily, obviously just letting Hermione speculate out loud.
"No, there has to be another reason." Hermione suddenly sat up very straight.
"That's it! I have to go to the library…I'll see you later Ron…"
"Wait! Its almost curfew! Hermione!" Ron called out after her. He let out a deep
sigh…he better follow her to make sure she didn't get into trouble…whatever it was
that she found out better be important…
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"You know something," Sirius Black informed his best friend, Remus.
"No, of course I don't Padfoot…"
"Yes you DO! You were always bad at lying! And you only call me Padfoot when you want something out of me! Tell me."
Remus rubbed his temple. "Sirius…"
"Don't try to lie. What are you hiding Lupin? Is it something about the Order? About Voldemort?" Suddenly something dawned on him. "Harry?"
The way Lupin winced gave it away.
"You know where Harry is? Where is he? Is he ok? Have you talked to him? Why hasn't he been brought home? WHY DO I NOT KNOW WHERE HE IS!"
"Now Sirius…"
"You do! You do know where he is! Moony, you have to admit it."
The werewolf caved. "Ok I do know where Harry is, somewhat at least."
"WELL WHERE IS HE? Remus please tell me he isn't with Voldemort? He hasn't been taken has he?"
"No, Voldemort doesn't have him. But I can't tell you where he is…he is safe though. I'm sorry, Dumbledore's orders."
Sirius grabbed the front of Remus' robes. "HE'S MY BLOODY GODSON! I HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW WHERE THE HELL HE IS!"
Even though he was a calm man, it took almost all the Lupin had not to either a. tell
his best friend where Harry was or b. beat the hell out of the enraged man.
"You will have to take that up with the Headmaster. I have some work to complete for the Order, goodnight Sirius."
Sirius let go of the werewolf, opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it.
He did this a couple of times before saying, "I will, goodnight Lupin." He left to go
have a 'discussion' with Dumbledore.
Remus didn't feel one bit sorry for the headmaster.
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"What do you mean class is canceled? Doesn't she know that today we are
figuring out what our animagus forms are?" Harry asked quite indignantly.
"I'm sure she does, but Ria does what Ria wants when she wants it. Stop
complaining we have the rest of the year to figure it out! I hear that this is going to
be a very exciting announcement!" Ondra, trying to calm Harry down.
"It better be," he grumbled. He and the others had been working for the last four
weeks on pure theory that Fiona had dubbed necessary. The-Boy-Who-Lived was
not known for his patience. Not happy at all, he entered into the Rec room, where
everyone was waiting for the two of them.
"Last as always Potter? Does being an international savior mean that you always must be fashionably late?" Mac teased.
"Oh shut up," came the reply.
Ria cleared her throat. "That is quite enough, I might have to silence all of you again. Now please sit down everyone, whether you are Savior of the Wizarding World or some runt from Canada."
Harry sighed, they really never got tired of teasing him about this.
"Anyway," Ria continued, "I have a very important announcement to make to all of you."
"No! I thought you called us all here to tell us all how pretty we all look today."
Ria shot a fake glare at Harry, and ignored his comment.
"We are going to be having visitors in two weeks time. They will be spending a week
and a half observing school life here, and then you will be switching to see what their
lives are like."
Harry had a bad feeling about this.
"But Ria, no one, I mean NO ONE in the history of the school has been here except
those members of Gwydion's family. Even you and Matt, though only distant
cousins, are family members. Isn't there some kind-of unwritten rule about this?
The outside world doesn't even know the qualifications that they need to get in here!"
Al exclaimed. That was the most powerful speech, and maybe the longest one that
Harry had ever heard Al say.
Ria pursed her lips. "In other situations the school was not under the same dangers
that are around now, especially with Voldemort back. We need all the allies we can
get. If anything were to happen to this school, we would need another, safe place to
go. There is only one other place in Europe that has even remotely close to the same
defenses as this school."
'Uh oh,' Harry thought. 'Please, please, please don't let her say…'
"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardery has kindly excepted our offer of a
little…exchange. This will provide you all with an opportunity to make friends with
those of your age from Hogwarts. The 5th years, as they are called there, will be
coming to visit us here at school, in exchange for us going to see them a week before
Christmas break. Because we don't have a real break where you guys can go home
for Christmas, I thought that this was a great idea for a little break from your studies.
You will all be required to participate." When she said all she gave a pointed look at
Harry.
"No. I won't."
"Yes, you will. You don't have a choice, I have made it an official requirement for completing your year here. If you don't, than you have to repeat, elsewhere of course."
"Fine." With that Harry charged out of the room, slamming the door behind him. A
window and some light bulbs exploded as he left.
Ria sighed. "Would someone like to go talk to him?"
The students stared at her.
"Do we look like we have a death wish?" Kris asked. "We all have defense with that boy, we don't want to be on the wrong end of his curses."
There was a nervous shiver around the entire room, at the very thought.
"I should just let him cool off then?" Ria asked.
"Yeah." Came the reply from everyone.
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Ron sat, bored, as always, while Hermione frantically searched through about a
million books in the library. The girl was on Madame Pince's good side, and
managed to convince the librarian to let her and Ron spend time after curfew in the
library.
"I found it!" Hermione yelled.
"Found what?" Ron asked lazily.
"I found out where Harry is…"
AN- HA! I updated in like two days! This has to be some sort of record for me! I know, I'm evil with that little bit of a cliffy…review and who knows maybe this will become a common event!
As for who Gwydion is, I have gotten several e-mails and reviews about this. Really I am going to reward all of you for what you came up with, you just have to be a little patient with me. You guys came up with a lot more information, than even I knew. I hope you got the hint in this chapter, Gwydion is the other name for Sir Lancelot, as well as his son.
Don't forget to review!
Meg
