-1Chapter 5
It was early in the morning at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Even on weekdays, most students would still be in dreamland in their dormitories. Since today was Saturday, many of the teachers were still in their own beds as Harry, Hermione, and Ron headed down to the Great Hall for a quick breakfast before heading into Hogsmeade. The corridors contained a heavy, saddening silence as their footsteps rattled through it's wide, stone pillars. They wanted to arrive early so they wouldn't bump into their classmates while meeting Kingsley Shacklebolt there. An Auror meeting three school children would look very suspicious. When they entered the Great Hall, there was only one lonely looking third year Ravenclaw girl sitting by herself. At the staff table, only tiny Professor Flitwick was sitting there. The house banners seemed to look lonely without the people they were representing. It was one of the few rare moments in which you could actually see the color of the wooden benches at the tables. The three of them sat at the empty Gryffindor table and tried to whisper quietly so the echo of the Great Hall did not give their conversation away.
"Do you reckon the Order's going to give us more information?" Harry whispered quietly.
"I dunno, probably. I mean if they don't tell us anything soon, we won't have any idea what we're supposed to do," Ron said while looking forlornly at the table waiting for his breakfast to appear.
Three heaping servings of breakfast appeared at the table seconds after they sat down. It was complete with pancakes, crumpets, and a jug of pumpkin juice.
"This is slave labor, you know? If anybody just happened to sit here at any time of the day, the poor house elves would have to leave whatever they were doing and cook. Slave labor, I tell you," Hermione said as she stared at her serving of breakfast thinking of how the poor house elf who had made those pancakes had to wake up earlier simply because she, woke up earlier.
Ron opened his mouth to counter that comment but Harry quickly elbowed him hard in the ribs to shut him up. Harry had seen many versions of this conversation and most of them involved Hermione stomping angrily up to her dormitory while Ron sat in the common room muttering under his breath. They were reporting on their mission in Hogsmeade today, he would rather not deal with that the entire day.
After they were full, the three of them proceeded to the Hogsmeade exit. Argus Filch, the caretaker was already prowling around the area, waiting for a permission-less student to try and sneak into Hogsmeade so he could pounce on them.
"Names!" the caretaker asked, or more like demanded in his scratchy voice. It was common knowledge that Filch hated students mainly because he was a squib and would never be able to do magic like the students.
"Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, Gryffindor, fifth-years," Harry said as he watched Filch scan the long list for their names. After all the trouble they have gotten into the past few years, Harry was quite sure that the caretaker had their names permanently engraved into his brain as a bunch of hooligans and trouble makers. But nevertheless, Filch gave them a scowl and a very dirty look as he crossed off their names.
"Don't let me catch you hooligans bringing back dungbombs, or else I'll hang you upside down on the Astronomy Tower and whip your skin raw," he mumbled to himself as he craned his neck to look for his cat, Mrs. Norris to return to him with information about troublemakers to punish.
"If you can get whipped for that, then Fred and George must be reduced to bits and pieces by now," Ron pointed out as the three of them headed down to the Shrieking Shack where Kingsley was going to meet them. He hadn't arrived, so after fifteen minutes of pacing around, Ron and Hermione sat down on the large rocks beside the shack while Harry remained standing and constantly looking for Kingsley. Finally, he arrived.
"Have you found out anything about the Malfoys?" Kingsley asked indicating that he didn't want to only know about Draco, but his family as well.
"So far we've only kind of 'bugged him,'" Harry replied as Kingsley stared quizzically at the word 'bugged'.
"It's this cool tracking spell Hermione found, show him," Ron said answering Kingsley's questioning look and beckoning Hermione to show him the tracking charm.
"Revelio," Hermione whispered and the silver beam of light shot from her wand projecting two images. Kingsley watched in amazement for a few moments and questioned them about what they found out, but was slightly disappointed when they told him they didn't find out anything but the fact that Goyle slept with a teddy bear.
"So what does the Order think the Malfoys are up to?" Harry asked interrupting Ron's vivid description of how loud Blaise Zabini snored the night before.
"Well, You-Know-Who isn't too pleased with Lucius Malfoy and how he claimed to be under the Imperious Curse and all that when he lost his powers. We're guessing that Malfoy would want to present something to him to be in his favor again," Kingsley replied with a hint of doubt in his tone. He stared at the torn wooden flap of the entrance to the Shrieking Shack, he was still mesmerized when Harry spoke.
"What does he want?" Harry asked. He half knew the answer before the words had even left his lips. Whatever Voldemort or Malfoy wanted, it probably had something to do with him. When Kingsley replied however, Harry was shocked.
"Have you ever heard of an object called the Recondite Butterfly?" Kingsley asked them while tearing a blade of grass into little pieces.
Ron and Harry immediately had a blank look on their face. They certainly have never heard of it. They turned their heads to Hermione. She was the only one who actually pays attention to their History of Magic lessons and constantly visited the library. To nobody's surprise, she had an answer to his question.
"It's supposed to be a legendary object, I mean nobody's ever seen one and nobody knows what it's supposed to do, but its supposed to contain all sorts of mystical powers," Hermione replied with the extensive knowledge of a person who spent most of her free time at the library.
"So Malfoy's dad wants to give You-Know-Who something that nobody knows what it does or even whether or not it exists?" Ron asked with his eyebrows raised.
"You're wrong, it does exist. In fact, I know where it is, but not its exact location. Haven't you wondered why the weather's been so cold when summer's barely over?" Kingsley replied with an amused smile to Ron's sarcastic comment.
"So you mean all the wind and fog was caused by the Butterfly? Where is it?" Harry asked quickly. His mind was racing with ways to thwart whatever evil plans the dark side had for the object.
"Hogwarts," he simply replied.
The three of them stared at him for a moment. The legendary object with mystical powers was sitting, right there in the castle.
"If this so-called Butterfly's at Hogwarts the whole time then how come things were only starting to get weird now?" Ron asked interjecting their thoughts.
"It's a mysterious object with unknown powers. Maybe it senses that dark magic is rising," Kingsley said.
"So we have to get to the Butterfly…" Hermione drifted off her sentence with her mind clicking away at possible hiding spots for such a mysterious treasure.
"…before they do," Harry finished the sentence off for Hermione. He, too was gazing at the wonderful, mysterious, and prestigious castle and wondering how many secrets can it's millennia old walls hold.
"Draco Malfoy is the key," Kingsley said as he stood up and left the rocks, leaving Harry, Ron, and Hermione to put their heads together and embark on a treasure hunt.
"Let's head back to Hogwarts right now," Harry said in feverish obsession to find the Recondite Butterfly.
"C'mon it's a Hogsmeade Weekend. We should at least go to the Three Broomsticks for a Butterbeer before heading back," Ron said. He didn't want his plans to have a nice lunch at the cozy pub to be instead spent at the library.
"The Butterfly's more important than Butterbeer!" Harry said. Even if there was a bathtub full of free Firewhiskey in front of him right now, he would be too distracted to try.
"We'll have a quick drink and then head back okay?" Hermione compromised for the two of them. Normally, it was she and Ron that had arguments. She didn't want to have the two of them arguing with something as insignificant as Butterbeer.
"Let's check on Malfoy, then go to The Three Broomsticks," Harry said.
"Okay," they all agreed. The tension, however was not lifted as Harry still anxiously dug his fingernails into his palms.
The familiar beam of light shot from Hermione's wand. The same two images of the Slytherin boys' dormitories. It was the same clutter of Malfoy's beside table. The three of them strained their eyes at the screen to try and find a trace of a clue. Hermione was about to close the image when Harry spotted something.
"Look, what's that on the parchment over there," Harry pointed at the piece of parchment at the corner of the first screen.
"Yeah, hey what is it? Can you magnify the screen or something?" Ron asked while squinting his eyes trying to make out what the parchment said.
Hermione pointed her wand at the screen and muttered a few Latin words, the image in the screen become bolder and bigger. They could now see what was on the parchment.
2 1 3 5 1 8
Loves me, loves me not.
I seek a flower
To give me the answer
I desperately sought.
Fly.
"Is that the clue to the Butterfly?" Harry asked excitedly. Kingsley was right, Malfoy was the key!
"But why would Malfoy have the clue?" Hermione commented. How would he be able to find the message in the first place. Was this even the clue? Or some kind of code?
"Maybe his dad gave it to him," Ron said. The Malfoys were a whole bunch of Death Eaters. It is no surprise that they knew dodgy ways of getting information.
Hermione didn't reply, but continued staring at the screen. Was this the key to the Recondite Butterfly? If it is, what does it mean?
"I better get going," Hermione said as she looked up from her book, 'Ancient Magical Wonders.' The sun had set and it was time to repeat the same trip she had made in the past few days.
"Have you found anything yet?" Ron asked as he stared despairingly at the mountain of books beside the fireplace. The minute they returned to Hogwarts, Harry and Hermione had insisted on a trip to the library. Even though he was eager to solve the mystery as well, he was sick and tired of spending the entire day going through dusty, crumbling books for the clue to the message in Malfoy's bedroom.
"Nope. Maybe we should figure out what the message is saying first," Harry suggested. He, too lacked the patience and passion Hermione had for books, but he had more determination to solve the puzzle.
"Is it some kind of poem? The first line and the second last line sort of rhyme," Ron struggled to make a connection in the words.
"I dunno, maybe we should check 'A History of Wizarding English,'" Harry clambered around and tried not to topple the stack of heavy books as he reached for the leather-bound brick of parchment at the bottom of the pile.
"Well, good luck," Hermione said as she stepped out of the common room.
Her mind was strangely blank as she retraced the familiar steps to the Astronomy Tower. She let her feet think for her brain as her footsteps traced up to the top of the tower. The poem reminded her of herself. She, like the narrator in the poem, seeked something to give her the answer to her situation right now. Was she doing the right thing?
"Have you ever felt lame before?" Draco asked. His pupils seemed to be searching, swallowing the sky in an endless sea of stars.
"I don't know," Hermione replied. She wished that Draco would start taunting her or say something cruel so the hatred in her could be released and her conscience would stop screaming at her. Draco was revealing his deep side, his emotional side, she wanted to run away and tear the world into little pieces.
"Why don't you tell me the truth?" Draco coaxed. His voice was gentle, like it was the other days on the tower. Mostly, they only stood and gazed at the stars in silence. But today was different, today he would talk, and make her talk.
"Does it matter to you? I'm just another girl," Hermione replied letting logic and knowledge slip through her fingertips. The whole situation right now was making her feel lame, very lame. She had spent the whole day trying to find the meaning to a poem that she wasn't even sure whether or not it was the key to the Recondite Butterfly, and here she was standing here every night feeling sorry for a person she wasn't even sure whether or not he was worth her sympathy. Lameness, she was certainly feeling it's vibes.
"And I'm just another boy," Draco replied and walked to the staircase of the tower.
Hermione was surprised. He didn't wait for her to leave, he just left. Just like that. She wrapped the Invisibility Cloak around her and headed back to the Gryffindor Common Room. There was something about Draco that bothered her. The…normalness, without the sneer and smirk. Instead of rejoicing at her progress in gaining his trust, she felt slightly disturbed.
A pair of eyes that had been looking at the invisible figure of Hermione took a sharp turn at the corner of the corridor and disappeared out of sight.