Chapter 30: GETTING A CLUE
The rest of the day continued without event, discounting Sirius waving Harry good-bye and leaving. The very next morning during Divination was nasty business indeed and Harry knew it would leave a foul stench in his nose through the rest of the day and probably the next few days.
Seventh years had started haruspicy.
Hermione was pinching her nose with both hands while putting her dragon hide gloves on one-handed to manage the internal organs of a dead demiguise. Neville flat out refused at first to even attend this class but Professor Trelawney assured him he would fail if he didn't.
"Fragrodorus!" Harry shouted, pointing a finger up in the air.
The spell worked, to his surprise, showering the area around him with a misty pink cloud.
"What," said Harry, annoyed, who noticed Parvati Patil was staring at him, "never seen magic done without a wand before?"
She quickly went back to Lavender Brown and began poking at the remains of their demiguise.
"This is absolutely disgusting," said Dean Thomas, getting a good whiff of the pink cloud that was dying away. "Harry, do that again."
Harry did it again, after putting his own dragon hide gloves on and picking up a very disgusting, squishy demiguise heart and feeling ready to give up his breakfast. He was looking at it, holding it at arm's length when Professor Trelawney walked over.
"Ah, yes," she said in a voice just as misty as the pink cloud. "Notice the fine lines making up the rings around the heart?" And then, to no one's surprise, she looked down at Harry, her classic tragic look firmly in place. Then she walked away, hanging her head low.
"Oh please," Harry snapped. "Give me a break. Are you going to predict my death again? No, wait, don't tell me. I'm going to suffer through another horrible experience in about two months?" Professor Trelawney nodded gravely. "Someone's going to die, are they?" said Harry, shaking his head in disgust.
"Maybe you shouldn't say that," Ron whispered in Harry's ear.
"Are you on her side?"
"No," said Ron hastily.
"Good. Then grab the stomach out of Dean's hand. I'm going to need a new one because mine falls out of my body every time she does that," said Harry angrily.
Wednesday evening, Professor McGonagall pulled Harry aside as class was ending.
"Potter, a quick word," she said to him. "You might know what this is about."
Harry was hoping it was about the Yule Ball (something he didn't think he'd ever find himself looking forward to just three years ago). Much to Professor McGonagall's surprise, he smiled a big smile and for this, she gave him a strange look.
"So this time you're not embarassed -- oh yes," she then said suddenly, nodding, remembering her promise to Harry that Cho could go with him. "Before you ask, the answer is still yes, mind you I -- very well. The Yule Ball will take place December the eighteenth. You can tell everyone the date of the trip to the United States will be announced at that time. Off to lunch, Potter."
"She said yes again?" Hermioned asked Harry incredulously when they were half way to the Great Hall.
"I'm going to write to her tonight," said Harry eagerly, "I can't wait. The Ball is going to be great this time. It's the eighteenth of December and Dumbledore's going to announce the date of the trip to that school in the United States then, too."
"You seem -- er -- really happy about this?" said Ron cautiously.
"Yes!" Harry replied excitedly. "Just as long as we don't find out anyone else is a half-giant or that someone is going to grow fangs and spit poison, it'll be the best night I've ever had at Hogwarts!"
He turned, grinning broadly, to look at the faces Ron and Hermione were wearing and noticed something very strange: they hadn't looked at each other ever since he told them about the Ball.
Just as per his promise, Harry sent Hedwig with a letter to Cho telling her the date of the Yule Ball after dinner before he even looked at all the homework Professor Flitwick gave them on Apparating. Dropping all pretense of not being very happy to see her again, he said he couldn't wait and again signed it, after much hesitation, with Love Harry.
His suspicion about Ron was confirmed the next morning when he was awoken by the sound of Ron's voice.
"Hermione," he was saying in a sort of hushed whisper so no one would hear, and Harry, hoping to not be seen, looked around for Hermione but couldn't find her, "I -- I -- d'you wanna -- wanna go to the -- er -- Yule Ball with me? No, no, I sound like I'm -- Hermione," he continued to try, now in a confident sort of voice, "-- will you --" but he broke off, letting out a sigh of desperation and then said just as desperately, "I'm in trouble..."
Harry forced himself with all his might to stop himself from bursting out laughing as Ron finally arose from his four-poster and got dressed for breakfast. He let Ron go down without him because he didn't think he'd be able to keep a straight face. Harry dressed himself and noticed that Dean, Neville and Seamus had already gone; Ron probably thought that either Harry had gone or it was still safe to assume he was asleep. Much to Harry's joy, Ron was sadly mistaken. He did feel slightly guilty though; he'd never want to be caught doing something like that.
Harry had just as hard a time looking at Ron at all during breakfast and was glad to get away from him during Care of Magical Creatures. Ron was avoiding Hermione, and Hermione, noticing this, kept trying to ask Harry what was up with him but Harry didn't want to answer. He would rather spend a class with Blast-Ended Skrewts than have Ron find out he'd heard him trying find the courage to ask Hermione to the Ball.
All through the period, Harry noticed, Ron was walking up to Hermione, opening his mouth to say something but then he would just walk away and back towards the Dodo Birds Hagrid had collected for the lesson. Interesting creatures, thought Harry, given their strange ability to vanish in a puff of feathers and reappear elsewhere. Many times he thought he had one licked but it just screeched and blew feathers in his face.
Lunch was a very strange affair to say the least, what with Ron avoiding Hermione's eyes and going suddenly silent when she went to talk to him but Harry knew exactly how he felt because the same had happened to him. Asking Cho to the Yule Ball just three years ago made Harry's insides shrivel up, especially when she said she had already accepted someone else's invitation. But Ron had to ask eventually, or Hermione might do the same thing to him. At the end of Transfiguration before dinner, Ron went right up to her.
"Hermione, I --" he said, but broke off very suddenly, did an about face and walked straight out of the classroom.
"What's wrong with him?" Hermioned asked Harry.
"Don't ask what's wrong with him, ask what will be wrong with yourself after I tell you this," said Harry, resolving to tell her because he didn't think Ron would ever be able to finish. "You know what I heard him talking about to himself when I woke up this morning?"
"What?" Hermione asked curiously.
Harry giggled to himself for a second before answering with, "He was finding the courage to ask you to the Ball. I thought I was going to die laughing. I knew it, he fancies you!"
"You're joking," she said, going as white as the fur she had been wearing partway through the lesson. She then clasped a hand to her mouth and quickly walked out. Harry didn't think she was going to try and find Ron.
"What is it with you two!" Harry called after her, sighing, shaking his head, and following her.
He got to the Great Hall to find Ron and Hermione acting awkwardly. They were talking to each other in terse mutters. Harry didn't think that Ron had asked her yet and had no doubts in his mind that Hermione hadn't brought it up. He sat down next to Ron who was sitting opposite Hermione. But he couldn't take anymore.
"Ron, would you just say to her what you've been trying to say since you woke up this morning?" Harry said. "I heard you talking to yourself."
This made Ron go as white as the napkin in his hand -- which when compared to Hermione's fur, made the fur look gray -- while Hermione's face quickly became the color of Ron's hair.
"Yes," said Hermione stiffly, "yes, I will, Ron."
"Thanks," Ron muttered in Harry's ear.
"So," said Hermione once the awkwardness had died away, "you have any idea what that -- that thing in your box does? What's it called?"
"It's called an Explicatrix," Harry explained, "or Cybele's Orb."
"Our dear old friend Cybele?" Ron asked Harry, quickly putting his chicken leg down.
"The very same," Harry assured him.
"What's it got to do with helping you out with the task?"
"Hermione, you can't decipher these runes on it, can you? Accio orb!" he said sort of loudly, sticking his finger up.
It didn't come. He tried again but still it would not come and then he gave it one more try, shouting the words and jamming his fist in the air. The Explicatrix, in it's box, came soaring through the air and landed on top of his closed fist. He grabbed the box with his other hand and showed it to Hermione.
"You're getting very good at Summoning Charms," said Ron.
Harry grinned at him. Hermione took the box from Harry, and took the Explicatrix out of it, giving the runes a searching look but then just shook her head.
"I haven't seen those before," she said, upset that her studies had failed her. "And what is with the golden mist inside of it? Why does everything glow golden? The Mark of Ancients glows golden," she went on angrily, "Raides glows golden, the stupid mist in this orb glows golden... Harry, have you ever made golden sparks come out of your wand on accident?" He nodded his head. "That might explain why it tried to -- er -- attack Professor Dumbledore."
"Well, I don't know," Harry told her, "and that's going to be a good explanation when I hear it, I'm sure."
He smiled half pleasantly and poked his roast beef with his fork, picking at it, not looking like he was going to take another bite out of it.
"You like starving yourself, don't you?" said Ginny who had been listening in.
Harry glared at her but then stuffed a forkful into his mouth.
November ended and December rolled around, bringing sleet and snow to Hogwarts. Harry had a job not falling along with the other Gryffindor seventh years when Hagrid had brought a bunch of creatures to class one day that liked to stand on the frozen-over lake. It was more of a lesson in figure skating than anything else and Hagrid agreed to let anyone wear any kind of foot wear they wanted. Harry immediately thought of the white dragon hide boots he had bought the previous year. As such, he had more traction than anyone else but was still prone to slipping. Even Raides was having trouble staying on her feet.
"IPSE LEVIOSA!" Harry bellowed, pointing his wand at himself because he didn't have the patience to try it without it at the moment.
He floated five feet off the ground after coming out a skid while trying to run away from one of the ice dwellers chasing him down. It glared up at him, it's beady white eyes narrowed in hate and Harry stuck his tongue out at it. One was pulling on Raides' tail but ceased abruptly after she let out a roar that made Hagrid jump so high up on the ice that when he landed, the ice beneath him cracked. Harry grabbed her as the Staff of Cybele, strengthened the ice with a charm and demanded that she not roar again. She sportingly agreed, given that the ice dweller that had bitten her tail was yelping in fright for the rest of the class every time she went near it.
"You really ought to try to figure out what that orb does, Harry," Hermione said bossily for the fifth time that Saturday. Harry was holding it in it's box in his lap, sitting in the common room by the fire, staring at it. "You don't want to --"
"Repeat the experience from the egg last time, I know, I know," Harry groaned. "But, I mean, look at it, what is there to it? Try as I might, I can't get anything to appear in it, I never had any good experiences with crystal balls, you know that (well, except for Peeves)."
"Maybe we could go to the library and look up on it?" Ron suggested. Harry and Hermione stared at him. "What? That's what Hermione always suggests. Thought I'd just save her the effort."
Hermione giggled and Harry noticed that the two of them were holding hands on the way to the library, the Explicatrix in it's box in one hand, Raides as the staff in the other.
"You don't know anything about it, Raides, do you?" Harry asked her as they rounded Madam Pince.
"My memory is just as useful as Neville's at this point," she replied gloomily.
"That's not nice," Hermione burst out angrily.
"It's true."
Hermione gave Raides an exasperated look and sat down with Ron at a table. The first book to catch Harry's eye was Ancients Artifacts of the We-Do-Not-Remember Century. Hermione had picked up another one. There was a brief mention in the one Harry was looking at in the chapter on ancient crystal balls about one orb that contained a silvery, smoky mist called Cybele's Orb but said it never existed.
"Oh that's nice," said Harry sarcastically.
"What is it?" Hermione and Ron asked in unison, standing up. Raides transformed into the great golden and scarlet lion.
"Remember when we went searching for Raides, all those books said that she never existed? Yeah? Well, the same thing for this stupid ball."
"Oh and look at this," said Hermione, frowning. "This one says it was a yellow ball with black smoke inside of it --"
Harry threw his arms up in disgust at once. Hermione stared at him.
"And now there are mixed reports of what it looks like!" he said sarcastically cheerily. "What is it with things changing?"
In the minute he was examining it, she was still staring at him.
"What?" he said irritably.
"What are you waiting for?" she said. "Grab it, it'll change!"
Ron looked excited. Harry breathed a sigh of exasperation and put a finger on top of it. The effect was instantaneous.
The Explicatrix let off a mound of misty gray smoke and began to expand slightly. When it emerged, it had grown barely an inch but enough to crack the box. The blue had turned into scarlet and the silvery, misty smoke had become the all too familiar golden glitter of the Mark of Ancients. Harry picked it up out of the box which fell apart.
"Very interesting," said Harry, not at all interested. "Raides at least did something when I grabbed her. This isn't; I don't hear a thing. I don't want to see another artifact from the ancients for as long as I live."
"This is Cybele's Harry," said Ron matter-of-factly. "It can't be all bad."
Harry gave him a searching look and knew, deep down, he was right but what did it do? Harry, Ron and Hermione poured over book after book, even getting permission from Madam Pince herself to search in the Restricted Section of the library. Their search -- three hours worth -- yielded nothing. When Harry accidently let it roll off the desk, he panicked but when the Explicatrix hit the floor, it did nothing but continue rolling.
"At least we know it can't break," said Ron.
Harry picked it up, repaired the box with his wand, enlarged it slightly and put the ball back in it.
"I still wonder though," Harry pondered, "why?"
"Why what?" Hermione asked curiously.
"We know a Hufflepuff was the last one to touch Raides since before she was locked in the Book of Memories and now -- those were Ravenclaw's colors -- so a Ravenclaw was the last one to touch Cybele's Orb since before it was lost. I wonder where it was and how Dumbledore came across it? And it would still be a good thing to know why these were hidden for so long. I mean, I can see why Raides was hidden, she's just a danger to anyone," said Harry, smiling innocently at Raides who grinned back. "But, the ball, it just doesn't seem to do anything."
"You just need to figure out what it does like you did with your mom's bracelet," said Hermione as if it wasn't anything at all, referring to the time Harry had accidently found out a bracelet his mother had could produce fireballs and heal wounds.
Harry picked up the Explicatrix and closed his eyes, holding it between both his hands, hoping something would happen. Absolutely nothing happened aside from a Hufflepuff second year giggling at him when he opened his eyes.
"Why would someone want to hide Raides?" Harry burst out again. "I overheard Madam Pomfrey talking to Professor McGonagall about her when I woke up after drinking -- that day. She said something about -- about magic so forbidden it shouldn't even be mentioned. Sirius came in and after he saw me, Madam Pomfrey then said she wanted to show Professor McGonagall something and they left. Why do I have a feeling that was this?" said Harry, waving the Explicatrix which disturbed the golden misty smoke inside of it.
Hermione noticed that her mouth was open upon Harry talking about "magic so forbidden" and closed it.
"More dangerous than Clades Ultimus?" said Ron, his mouth hanging open too. "What can be more dangerous than Clades Ultimus? Something to blow up the whole world?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Ron," Hermione scoffed. "That only happens in books and movies. Besides, if someone wanted to blow the world up, what would they have to rule over? You'd have to be pretty sick --"
"Like Voldemort," said Harry, staring at the Explicatrix again.
"-- and that wouldn't make sense anyway."
"He has a point," said Ginny, striding over.
"Hey Ginny," said Harry. "And moreover, why do these things change size..."
"Trying to figure out your clue?" said Ginny but then she spotted the ball he was holding and gaped at it. "I -- I saw Sebastian trying to figure his out when -- er -- Neville and I were walking around the lake."
"You're into Neville?" said Ron, grinning as Ginny went pink.
"Sebastian has something that resembles a wizard's compass," said Ginny hastily, "but I didn't get a good look at it. He started smiling, stood up to his full height and went on to me about how proud his parents," she went on, with a half glance at Harry, "back in his country are of him. Honestly, I want to hurt him."
"You and everyone," said Ron. "Adrianne was talking to her sister the other day as we were leaving Defense Against the Dark Arts and it sounded like they were angry at someone. The only name I caught was Sebastian."
"He's Karkaroff's boy," said Raides. "Fits perfectly. Karkaroff has this edge about him I don't like."
"He used to be a Death Eater," said Harry and Ginny turned from red to white faster than you could say "oh my." Ron smiled weakly at his sister. "I don't think I ever told you this but I once fell into Dumbledore's Pensieve. I was watching a bunch of Azkaban trials, Crouch's, Karkaroff's and Bagman's. Karkaroff was giving off lots of names, said he denounced that he ever worked with Voldemort. He gave them Snape's name."
"SNAPE WAS A DEATH EATER?" Ginny bellowed which made a lot of faces turn in her direction.
"Now that the whole school is going to know, sure," said Raides.
"Sorry," Ginny muttered.
Harry eyed her hotly for a moment but then said loudly so everyone could hear, "Dumbledore vouched for him, says he trusts him. Snape is actually spying on Voldemort for us now so I don't think it's a good idea to go badmouthing him."
Some people didn't look totally convinced but most went back to what they were doing.
"Sorry," Ginny muttered again.
"Oh and I find out why Madam Maxime keeps giving Karkaroff all those dirty looks," said Hermione with a triumphant smile on her face.
"It's because he was a Death Eater, isn't it?" asked Ginny.
"No," said Hermione firmly. "I was doing -- doing something with Hagrid last Friday and overheard Madam Maxime talking to him about it before I walked in. Don't tell anyone, but, he took out a lot of school funds from the education program and put it into security. You know that huge ship? They sold the old one to a museum, collected enough money to buy a new one. He's deathly afraid Voldemort will find him and kill him. Madam Maxime hates him because he's more worried about his own skin than his students' learning experience. With the way he acts, you can't blame her."
Hermione finished her speech grinning savagely as Harry, Ron, Ginny and Raides all broke out laughing. Harry knew Hermione had stopped herself from mentioning in front of Ginny that she was doing lesson plans with Hagrid; no one else was to know.
"What a prat," said Ron. "I never liked him."
"You should have seen what Hagrid did to him once when he insulted Dumbledore," Harry said. "Picked him up and slammed him against a tree. It was a little out of -- ok far away from -- Hagrid's usual self but it was nice to see Karkaroff get his comeuppance."
"He shouldn't be doing things like that, though!" said Ginny, sounding worried. "People already don't like him because he's half giant. But from what you three tell me, and from classes, he seems really nice," she added hastily, seeing Harry, Ron and Hermione giving her a dirty look.
Harry didn't get any further on the Explicatrix aside from knowing it was another shape-intention changer, as he, Ron and Hermione were now referring to the ability of Raides and the Explicatrix to change shape when held by an ancient. This still puzzled them. Harry mentioned that Dumbledore said that the staff changed it's shape depending on the type of wizard holding it to give an easy clue as to the wielder's intent, if they were a good wizard or a bad wizard.
Harry himself was very glad to know that when he held something it turned into the shape of Gryffindor House, golden and scarlet lion and everything and not, say, Slytherin. He once thought he belonged in Slytherin in his second year when he found out he could speak Parseltongue. To make matters worse, Dumbledore then told Harry that he possessed many qualities Voldemort prized in people... resourcefulness, determination and disregard for rules. But his spirits were raised greatly when he saw the name engraved on a ruby encrusted sword he had pulled from the school Sorting Hat: Godric Gryffindor.
Staring at the Explicatrix later that night in his four-poster, he wondered how exactly, when he put the hat on his head, did the sword manage to fall out of it when something very strange happened to the Explicatrix. He had been sitting there, staring at it uselessly for about a half hour when all of a sudden, the golden misty smoke inside started to form into a shape. But then a second later as it became shapeless again, Harry was sure he imagined it. He was quite tired...
Harry put the Explicatrix back in it's box, laying his Order of Merlin necklace, Phoenix Bracelet and golden wristwatch next to it. He stared at the Order of Merlin plaque, feeling, but resisting, a slight urge to hold it. There was no reason and he didn't really know why he wanted to, but he felt a little better knowing he stopped himself from doing it. A few minutes later, his eyes wandering between the golden, misty smoke of the Explicatrix to the fire dancing around the band of his mother's bracelet, his eyes had closed and he had fallen asleep. He would worry about Cybele's Orb in the morning. After all, he had until February the twenty-eighth.
The rest of the day continued without event, discounting Sirius waving Harry good-bye and leaving. The very next morning during Divination was nasty business indeed and Harry knew it would leave a foul stench in his nose through the rest of the day and probably the next few days.
Seventh years had started haruspicy.
Hermione was pinching her nose with both hands while putting her dragon hide gloves on one-handed to manage the internal organs of a dead demiguise. Neville flat out refused at first to even attend this class but Professor Trelawney assured him he would fail if he didn't.
"Fragrodorus!" Harry shouted, pointing a finger up in the air.
The spell worked, to his surprise, showering the area around him with a misty pink cloud.
"What," said Harry, annoyed, who noticed Parvati Patil was staring at him, "never seen magic done without a wand before?"
She quickly went back to Lavender Brown and began poking at the remains of their demiguise.
"This is absolutely disgusting," said Dean Thomas, getting a good whiff of the pink cloud that was dying away. "Harry, do that again."
Harry did it again, after putting his own dragon hide gloves on and picking up a very disgusting, squishy demiguise heart and feeling ready to give up his breakfast. He was looking at it, holding it at arm's length when Professor Trelawney walked over.
"Ah, yes," she said in a voice just as misty as the pink cloud. "Notice the fine lines making up the rings around the heart?" And then, to no one's surprise, she looked down at Harry, her classic tragic look firmly in place. Then she walked away, hanging her head low.
"Oh please," Harry snapped. "Give me a break. Are you going to predict my death again? No, wait, don't tell me. I'm going to suffer through another horrible experience in about two months?" Professor Trelawney nodded gravely. "Someone's going to die, are they?" said Harry, shaking his head in disgust.
"Maybe you shouldn't say that," Ron whispered in Harry's ear.
"Are you on her side?"
"No," said Ron hastily.
"Good. Then grab the stomach out of Dean's hand. I'm going to need a new one because mine falls out of my body every time she does that," said Harry angrily.
Wednesday evening, Professor McGonagall pulled Harry aside as class was ending.
"Potter, a quick word," she said to him. "You might know what this is about."
Harry was hoping it was about the Yule Ball (something he didn't think he'd ever find himself looking forward to just three years ago). Much to Professor McGonagall's surprise, he smiled a big smile and for this, she gave him a strange look.
"So this time you're not embarassed -- oh yes," she then said suddenly, nodding, remembering her promise to Harry that Cho could go with him. "Before you ask, the answer is still yes, mind you I -- very well. The Yule Ball will take place December the eighteenth. You can tell everyone the date of the trip to the United States will be announced at that time. Off to lunch, Potter."
"She said yes again?" Hermioned asked Harry incredulously when they were half way to the Great Hall.
"I'm going to write to her tonight," said Harry eagerly, "I can't wait. The Ball is going to be great this time. It's the eighteenth of December and Dumbledore's going to announce the date of the trip to that school in the United States then, too."
"You seem -- er -- really happy about this?" said Ron cautiously.
"Yes!" Harry replied excitedly. "Just as long as we don't find out anyone else is a half-giant or that someone is going to grow fangs and spit poison, it'll be the best night I've ever had at Hogwarts!"
He turned, grinning broadly, to look at the faces Ron and Hermione were wearing and noticed something very strange: they hadn't looked at each other ever since he told them about the Ball.
Just as per his promise, Harry sent Hedwig with a letter to Cho telling her the date of the Yule Ball after dinner before he even looked at all the homework Professor Flitwick gave them on Apparating. Dropping all pretense of not being very happy to see her again, he said he couldn't wait and again signed it, after much hesitation, with Love Harry.
His suspicion about Ron was confirmed the next morning when he was awoken by the sound of Ron's voice.
"Hermione," he was saying in a sort of hushed whisper so no one would hear, and Harry, hoping to not be seen, looked around for Hermione but couldn't find her, "I -- I -- d'you wanna -- wanna go to the -- er -- Yule Ball with me? No, no, I sound like I'm -- Hermione," he continued to try, now in a confident sort of voice, "-- will you --" but he broke off, letting out a sigh of desperation and then said just as desperately, "I'm in trouble..."
Harry forced himself with all his might to stop himself from bursting out laughing as Ron finally arose from his four-poster and got dressed for breakfast. He let Ron go down without him because he didn't think he'd be able to keep a straight face. Harry dressed himself and noticed that Dean, Neville and Seamus had already gone; Ron probably thought that either Harry had gone or it was still safe to assume he was asleep. Much to Harry's joy, Ron was sadly mistaken. He did feel slightly guilty though; he'd never want to be caught doing something like that.
Harry had just as hard a time looking at Ron at all during breakfast and was glad to get away from him during Care of Magical Creatures. Ron was avoiding Hermione, and Hermione, noticing this, kept trying to ask Harry what was up with him but Harry didn't want to answer. He would rather spend a class with Blast-Ended Skrewts than have Ron find out he'd heard him trying find the courage to ask Hermione to the Ball.
All through the period, Harry noticed, Ron was walking up to Hermione, opening his mouth to say something but then he would just walk away and back towards the Dodo Birds Hagrid had collected for the lesson. Interesting creatures, thought Harry, given their strange ability to vanish in a puff of feathers and reappear elsewhere. Many times he thought he had one licked but it just screeched and blew feathers in his face.
Lunch was a very strange affair to say the least, what with Ron avoiding Hermione's eyes and going suddenly silent when she went to talk to him but Harry knew exactly how he felt because the same had happened to him. Asking Cho to the Yule Ball just three years ago made Harry's insides shrivel up, especially when she said she had already accepted someone else's invitation. But Ron had to ask eventually, or Hermione might do the same thing to him. At the end of Transfiguration before dinner, Ron went right up to her.
"Hermione, I --" he said, but broke off very suddenly, did an about face and walked straight out of the classroom.
"What's wrong with him?" Hermioned asked Harry.
"Don't ask what's wrong with him, ask what will be wrong with yourself after I tell you this," said Harry, resolving to tell her because he didn't think Ron would ever be able to finish. "You know what I heard him talking about to himself when I woke up this morning?"
"What?" Hermione asked curiously.
Harry giggled to himself for a second before answering with, "He was finding the courage to ask you to the Ball. I thought I was going to die laughing. I knew it, he fancies you!"
"You're joking," she said, going as white as the fur she had been wearing partway through the lesson. She then clasped a hand to her mouth and quickly walked out. Harry didn't think she was going to try and find Ron.
"What is it with you two!" Harry called after her, sighing, shaking his head, and following her.
He got to the Great Hall to find Ron and Hermione acting awkwardly. They were talking to each other in terse mutters. Harry didn't think that Ron had asked her yet and had no doubts in his mind that Hermione hadn't brought it up. He sat down next to Ron who was sitting opposite Hermione. But he couldn't take anymore.
"Ron, would you just say to her what you've been trying to say since you woke up this morning?" Harry said. "I heard you talking to yourself."
This made Ron go as white as the napkin in his hand -- which when compared to Hermione's fur, made the fur look gray -- while Hermione's face quickly became the color of Ron's hair.
"Yes," said Hermione stiffly, "yes, I will, Ron."
"Thanks," Ron muttered in Harry's ear.
"So," said Hermione once the awkwardness had died away, "you have any idea what that -- that thing in your box does? What's it called?"
"It's called an Explicatrix," Harry explained, "or Cybele's Orb."
"Our dear old friend Cybele?" Ron asked Harry, quickly putting his chicken leg down.
"The very same," Harry assured him.
"What's it got to do with helping you out with the task?"
"Hermione, you can't decipher these runes on it, can you? Accio orb!" he said sort of loudly, sticking his finger up.
It didn't come. He tried again but still it would not come and then he gave it one more try, shouting the words and jamming his fist in the air. The Explicatrix, in it's box, came soaring through the air and landed on top of his closed fist. He grabbed the box with his other hand and showed it to Hermione.
"You're getting very good at Summoning Charms," said Ron.
Harry grinned at him. Hermione took the box from Harry, and took the Explicatrix out of it, giving the runes a searching look but then just shook her head.
"I haven't seen those before," she said, upset that her studies had failed her. "And what is with the golden mist inside of it? Why does everything glow golden? The Mark of Ancients glows golden," she went on angrily, "Raides glows golden, the stupid mist in this orb glows golden... Harry, have you ever made golden sparks come out of your wand on accident?" He nodded his head. "That might explain why it tried to -- er -- attack Professor Dumbledore."
"Well, I don't know," Harry told her, "and that's going to be a good explanation when I hear it, I'm sure."
He smiled half pleasantly and poked his roast beef with his fork, picking at it, not looking like he was going to take another bite out of it.
"You like starving yourself, don't you?" said Ginny who had been listening in.
Harry glared at her but then stuffed a forkful into his mouth.
November ended and December rolled around, bringing sleet and snow to Hogwarts. Harry had a job not falling along with the other Gryffindor seventh years when Hagrid had brought a bunch of creatures to class one day that liked to stand on the frozen-over lake. It was more of a lesson in figure skating than anything else and Hagrid agreed to let anyone wear any kind of foot wear they wanted. Harry immediately thought of the white dragon hide boots he had bought the previous year. As such, he had more traction than anyone else but was still prone to slipping. Even Raides was having trouble staying on her feet.
"IPSE LEVIOSA!" Harry bellowed, pointing his wand at himself because he didn't have the patience to try it without it at the moment.
He floated five feet off the ground after coming out a skid while trying to run away from one of the ice dwellers chasing him down. It glared up at him, it's beady white eyes narrowed in hate and Harry stuck his tongue out at it. One was pulling on Raides' tail but ceased abruptly after she let out a roar that made Hagrid jump so high up on the ice that when he landed, the ice beneath him cracked. Harry grabbed her as the Staff of Cybele, strengthened the ice with a charm and demanded that she not roar again. She sportingly agreed, given that the ice dweller that had bitten her tail was yelping in fright for the rest of the class every time she went near it.
"You really ought to try to figure out what that orb does, Harry," Hermione said bossily for the fifth time that Saturday. Harry was holding it in it's box in his lap, sitting in the common room by the fire, staring at it. "You don't want to --"
"Repeat the experience from the egg last time, I know, I know," Harry groaned. "But, I mean, look at it, what is there to it? Try as I might, I can't get anything to appear in it, I never had any good experiences with crystal balls, you know that (well, except for Peeves)."
"Maybe we could go to the library and look up on it?" Ron suggested. Harry and Hermione stared at him. "What? That's what Hermione always suggests. Thought I'd just save her the effort."
Hermione giggled and Harry noticed that the two of them were holding hands on the way to the library, the Explicatrix in it's box in one hand, Raides as the staff in the other.
"You don't know anything about it, Raides, do you?" Harry asked her as they rounded Madam Pince.
"My memory is just as useful as Neville's at this point," she replied gloomily.
"That's not nice," Hermione burst out angrily.
"It's true."
Hermione gave Raides an exasperated look and sat down with Ron at a table. The first book to catch Harry's eye was Ancients Artifacts of the We-Do-Not-Remember Century. Hermione had picked up another one. There was a brief mention in the one Harry was looking at in the chapter on ancient crystal balls about one orb that contained a silvery, smoky mist called Cybele's Orb but said it never existed.
"Oh that's nice," said Harry sarcastically.
"What is it?" Hermione and Ron asked in unison, standing up. Raides transformed into the great golden and scarlet lion.
"Remember when we went searching for Raides, all those books said that she never existed? Yeah? Well, the same thing for this stupid ball."
"Oh and look at this," said Hermione, frowning. "This one says it was a yellow ball with black smoke inside of it --"
Harry threw his arms up in disgust at once. Hermione stared at him.
"And now there are mixed reports of what it looks like!" he said sarcastically cheerily. "What is it with things changing?"
In the minute he was examining it, she was still staring at him.
"What?" he said irritably.
"What are you waiting for?" she said. "Grab it, it'll change!"
Ron looked excited. Harry breathed a sigh of exasperation and put a finger on top of it. The effect was instantaneous.
The Explicatrix let off a mound of misty gray smoke and began to expand slightly. When it emerged, it had grown barely an inch but enough to crack the box. The blue had turned into scarlet and the silvery, misty smoke had become the all too familiar golden glitter of the Mark of Ancients. Harry picked it up out of the box which fell apart.
"Very interesting," said Harry, not at all interested. "Raides at least did something when I grabbed her. This isn't; I don't hear a thing. I don't want to see another artifact from the ancients for as long as I live."
"This is Cybele's Harry," said Ron matter-of-factly. "It can't be all bad."
Harry gave him a searching look and knew, deep down, he was right but what did it do? Harry, Ron and Hermione poured over book after book, even getting permission from Madam Pince herself to search in the Restricted Section of the library. Their search -- three hours worth -- yielded nothing. When Harry accidently let it roll off the desk, he panicked but when the Explicatrix hit the floor, it did nothing but continue rolling.
"At least we know it can't break," said Ron.
Harry picked it up, repaired the box with his wand, enlarged it slightly and put the ball back in it.
"I still wonder though," Harry pondered, "why?"
"Why what?" Hermione asked curiously.
"We know a Hufflepuff was the last one to touch Raides since before she was locked in the Book of Memories and now -- those were Ravenclaw's colors -- so a Ravenclaw was the last one to touch Cybele's Orb since before it was lost. I wonder where it was and how Dumbledore came across it? And it would still be a good thing to know why these were hidden for so long. I mean, I can see why Raides was hidden, she's just a danger to anyone," said Harry, smiling innocently at Raides who grinned back. "But, the ball, it just doesn't seem to do anything."
"You just need to figure out what it does like you did with your mom's bracelet," said Hermione as if it wasn't anything at all, referring to the time Harry had accidently found out a bracelet his mother had could produce fireballs and heal wounds.
Harry picked up the Explicatrix and closed his eyes, holding it between both his hands, hoping something would happen. Absolutely nothing happened aside from a Hufflepuff second year giggling at him when he opened his eyes.
"Why would someone want to hide Raides?" Harry burst out again. "I overheard Madam Pomfrey talking to Professor McGonagall about her when I woke up after drinking -- that day. She said something about -- about magic so forbidden it shouldn't even be mentioned. Sirius came in and after he saw me, Madam Pomfrey then said she wanted to show Professor McGonagall something and they left. Why do I have a feeling that was this?" said Harry, waving the Explicatrix which disturbed the golden misty smoke inside of it.
Hermione noticed that her mouth was open upon Harry talking about "magic so forbidden" and closed it.
"More dangerous than Clades Ultimus?" said Ron, his mouth hanging open too. "What can be more dangerous than Clades Ultimus? Something to blow up the whole world?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Ron," Hermione scoffed. "That only happens in books and movies. Besides, if someone wanted to blow the world up, what would they have to rule over? You'd have to be pretty sick --"
"Like Voldemort," said Harry, staring at the Explicatrix again.
"-- and that wouldn't make sense anyway."
"He has a point," said Ginny, striding over.
"Hey Ginny," said Harry. "And moreover, why do these things change size..."
"Trying to figure out your clue?" said Ginny but then she spotted the ball he was holding and gaped at it. "I -- I saw Sebastian trying to figure his out when -- er -- Neville and I were walking around the lake."
"You're into Neville?" said Ron, grinning as Ginny went pink.
"Sebastian has something that resembles a wizard's compass," said Ginny hastily, "but I didn't get a good look at it. He started smiling, stood up to his full height and went on to me about how proud his parents," she went on, with a half glance at Harry, "back in his country are of him. Honestly, I want to hurt him."
"You and everyone," said Ron. "Adrianne was talking to her sister the other day as we were leaving Defense Against the Dark Arts and it sounded like they were angry at someone. The only name I caught was Sebastian."
"He's Karkaroff's boy," said Raides. "Fits perfectly. Karkaroff has this edge about him I don't like."
"He used to be a Death Eater," said Harry and Ginny turned from red to white faster than you could say "oh my." Ron smiled weakly at his sister. "I don't think I ever told you this but I once fell into Dumbledore's Pensieve. I was watching a bunch of Azkaban trials, Crouch's, Karkaroff's and Bagman's. Karkaroff was giving off lots of names, said he denounced that he ever worked with Voldemort. He gave them Snape's name."
"SNAPE WAS A DEATH EATER?" Ginny bellowed which made a lot of faces turn in her direction.
"Now that the whole school is going to know, sure," said Raides.
"Sorry," Ginny muttered.
Harry eyed her hotly for a moment but then said loudly so everyone could hear, "Dumbledore vouched for him, says he trusts him. Snape is actually spying on Voldemort for us now so I don't think it's a good idea to go badmouthing him."
Some people didn't look totally convinced but most went back to what they were doing.
"Sorry," Ginny muttered again.
"Oh and I find out why Madam Maxime keeps giving Karkaroff all those dirty looks," said Hermione with a triumphant smile on her face.
"It's because he was a Death Eater, isn't it?" asked Ginny.
"No," said Hermione firmly. "I was doing -- doing something with Hagrid last Friday and overheard Madam Maxime talking to him about it before I walked in. Don't tell anyone, but, he took out a lot of school funds from the education program and put it into security. You know that huge ship? They sold the old one to a museum, collected enough money to buy a new one. He's deathly afraid Voldemort will find him and kill him. Madam Maxime hates him because he's more worried about his own skin than his students' learning experience. With the way he acts, you can't blame her."
Hermione finished her speech grinning savagely as Harry, Ron, Ginny and Raides all broke out laughing. Harry knew Hermione had stopped herself from mentioning in front of Ginny that she was doing lesson plans with Hagrid; no one else was to know.
"What a prat," said Ron. "I never liked him."
"You should have seen what Hagrid did to him once when he insulted Dumbledore," Harry said. "Picked him up and slammed him against a tree. It was a little out of -- ok far away from -- Hagrid's usual self but it was nice to see Karkaroff get his comeuppance."
"He shouldn't be doing things like that, though!" said Ginny, sounding worried. "People already don't like him because he's half giant. But from what you three tell me, and from classes, he seems really nice," she added hastily, seeing Harry, Ron and Hermione giving her a dirty look.
Harry didn't get any further on the Explicatrix aside from knowing it was another shape-intention changer, as he, Ron and Hermione were now referring to the ability of Raides and the Explicatrix to change shape when held by an ancient. This still puzzled them. Harry mentioned that Dumbledore said that the staff changed it's shape depending on the type of wizard holding it to give an easy clue as to the wielder's intent, if they were a good wizard or a bad wizard.
Harry himself was very glad to know that when he held something it turned into the shape of Gryffindor House, golden and scarlet lion and everything and not, say, Slytherin. He once thought he belonged in Slytherin in his second year when he found out he could speak Parseltongue. To make matters worse, Dumbledore then told Harry that he possessed many qualities Voldemort prized in people... resourcefulness, determination and disregard for rules. But his spirits were raised greatly when he saw the name engraved on a ruby encrusted sword he had pulled from the school Sorting Hat: Godric Gryffindor.
Staring at the Explicatrix later that night in his four-poster, he wondered how exactly, when he put the hat on his head, did the sword manage to fall out of it when something very strange happened to the Explicatrix. He had been sitting there, staring at it uselessly for about a half hour when all of a sudden, the golden misty smoke inside started to form into a shape. But then a second later as it became shapeless again, Harry was sure he imagined it. He was quite tired...
Harry put the Explicatrix back in it's box, laying his Order of Merlin necklace, Phoenix Bracelet and golden wristwatch next to it. He stared at the Order of Merlin plaque, feeling, but resisting, a slight urge to hold it. There was no reason and he didn't really know why he wanted to, but he felt a little better knowing he stopped himself from doing it. A few minutes later, his eyes wandering between the golden, misty smoke of the Explicatrix to the fire dancing around the band of his mother's bracelet, his eyes had closed and he had fallen asleep. He would worry about Cybele's Orb in the morning. After all, he had until February the twenty-eighth.