A/N: This is the final chapter of Year 1.
Chapter 15: Victory of the Lions
As I entered the Great Hall, I decided to have some fun with Rowan. As I was looking for her at the Gryffindor Table, I put on the most believable sad face I could muster.
Merula must have noticed my fake sad face and believed it was legit, because when she saw me, she yelled to me across from the Slytherin Table, "Hey, Morgan! I heard you got ousted by Dumbledore. I wouldn't be surprised if he expelled you, just like your freak brother. Family trait, am I right?" She then laughed along with other nearby Slytherins, but I paid her no further attention, knowing she was wrong about everything she said.
"Hey, guys," I said in a mock-glum tone as I sat with Rowan and Ben.
"Oh, hey, Jane!" Rowan answered. "Ben and I were just talking about you. I hope you don't mind that I told Penny Haywood everything that happened inside that room. Of course she's not going to tell anyone else, or at least I hope she doesn't. The whole school already seems to know what happened; at least that there is cursed ice in Hogwarts. I don't think it was Penny's fault, though."
"Are you alright, Jane?" Ben asked in a concerned tone, noticing my fake sad face. "You seem a bit…upset. Did I get you in trouble?"
"No, Ben, it wasn't you," I said, shaking my head.
"How'd it go with Dumbledore?" Rowan asked with equal concern. "He didn't expel you, did he?" Seeing that my face hadn't changed (and, honestly, I was struggling not to change it at this point, as I was struggling to hold back my laughter), she said with dread in her voice, "Oh god, he did expel you! Don't worry; I'll hex him after the Feast. He has to let you stay!"
"Rowan, it's okay," I said with a small chuckle, evidently failing to hold it back any longer.
"No, it's not okay!" Rowan said insistently, making me chuckle more. "How am I supposed to survive next year without my bestie?"
"Guys, it's okay," I said, putting my hands up defensively. "You want to know what Dumbledore said?" Everyone nodded, eager to hear. "He said…" I then paused for dramatic effect, purposefully putting everyone on tenterhooks. "…that despite making many mistakes this year, I have 'demonstrated bravery, compassion, and resourcefulness', and that I 'show great promise' in the years to come. You know what that means?"
"That you're staying an extra year?" Ben said excitedly.
I shook my head. "He said 'years,' plural—as in, for the next six years!"
"Oh my god!" Rowan said, equally shocked. "That's excellent!"
"Amazing!" Ben added.
"Oh, I'm so glad you weren't expelled," Rowan sighed in relief, reaching over the table and hugging me. Ben nodded in agreement. "What else did Dumbledore say? Did he say anything about the ice, or the Vaults?"
"No, he didn't," I shook my head somewhat troublingly. "I only asked about my vision, but he didn't really say anything about that either."
"Vision?" Ben asked, puzzled.
I then nodded to Rowan, allowing her to explain everything to Ben. "Yeah," she said quietly to him. "Jane has been having these weird dreams and visions about a walking suit of armor, and something about a staircase surrounded by mist…"
"And the ice," I added.
Rowan nodded. "Oh, yeah, and the cursed ice, which was what we saw in that room, remember?"
Ben nodded, remembering. "God, that was terrifying. I thought we were going to freeze to death."
"And there were ancient runes written in the ice," Rowan reminded him.
"Were you able to translate them?" Ben asked curiously.
I nodded. "Yeah, they said something about a knight standing guard outside the Vanished Stairs." I then looked to Rowan for clarification, but she shook her head.
"No, they said, 'The Ice Knight stands guard past the Vanished Stairs,'" she corrected me.
"What does that mean?" Ben asked nervously, like he wasn't sure whether he wanted to know the answer or not.
"We don't know," I said, shaking my head, "but we have a theory that it may be connected to the Cursed Vaults. We think it may be what my brother was searching for when he got expelled."
"So…what, your brother went looking for the Cursed Vaults by trying to get past the Knight," Ben asked, looking more and more anxious the more he kept speaking, "but he ended up getting expelled because he got caught trying to get past the Knight, or the Knight caught him?"
"Like I said, we don't know," I said, shaking my head again. "My brother disappeared at some point between getting expelled and being sent home. All I know for sure is that Dumbledore said he'd tell me about the Vaults and what happened to my brother sometime in the coming years; that is, he may not tell me anything the minute we get back to Hogwarts next year. We may not find out anything until Year Three or Four at the earliest." Which is incredibly annoying, I thought, but I decided to keep it to myself.
"Do you think Dumbledore knows?" Ben asked, sounding more anxious than ever. "About what happened, I mean? Like, everything that your brother went through to finding the Vaults?"
"I don't know," I shrugged, "but he seems to have that sort of vibe. It's kind of creepy, to be honest." How a wizard can know what happens in one place without being there himself, I had no idea.
"I'll say," Rowan agreed. She then changed the subject. "Speaking of Dumbledore, it looks like he's about to give a final speech, probably about us beating Slytherin to the House Cup."
"What?" I frowned, puzzled, as I watched Professor Dumbledore walk toward the front of the Hall and stand behind the golden podium.
"Haven't you noticed?" Rowan said in an obvious tone, gesturing to the bright orange banners hanging above our heads. "Gryffindor won the House Cup! It's our first year, and we won! Isn't that exciting?"
"But how did we?" Ben asked, puzzled. "I thought we were fifty points behind Slytherin. It was like that this morning."
"Dunno," Rowan answered with a shrug. "Maybe a Gryffindor managed to get an extra hundred points or something. The question is: who was it?"
"I did," I murmured quietly to myself.
However, Rowan heard me. "You did?" she asked, legitimately shocked. "How? When?"
"Why?" Ben added with equal shock.
"I told you, Dumbledore said he saw great promise in me," I explained, "so he gave me a hundred House Points."
"Just like that?" Rowan asked in a seemingly doubtful tone.
"Yeah." I then frowned. "What, you think Dumbledore made a mistake giving me all those points?"
"No," she said, shaking her head quickly, "but…a hundred House Points?!"
"Wow," Ben said, impressed. "He must have really thought you were doing what was right."
"Yeah. I guess," I said, though I wasn't sure what he was talking about. Even if that was true, the question was: what was it that I did right? I decided to keep that question to myself.
Before I could think up any logical answers to that question, Professor Dumbledore began his final speech. "Another year at Hogwarts has come to an end!" he said, spreading his arms wide. "I hope you all have learned much this year, because I certainly feel like I have learned from you." The moment he said the word 'you,' I suddenly felt his eyes on me. "And now, there is a feast to enjoy and a House Cup to award. In fourth place, Hufflepuff, with 674 points…" Somewhat unhappy cheers were heard from the Hufflepuff Table. "In third, Ravenclaw, with 675 points…" Again, more unhappy cheers. "In second, Slytherin has 744 points…" The unhappy cheering continued once more; however, unlike the other three tables, there were very excited cheers from the students at my table.
"Which means…" Rowan murmured to Ben and I before Dumbledore finished his speech.
"And with 797 points…Gryffindor!" Several more enthusiastic cheers erupted around me. I couldn't believe it! We won the House Cup! "Congratulations, Gryffindor, this year's winners of the House Cup!" Dumbledore continued after the applause died down. "Those of you leaving Hogwarts this year, I wish you the best of luck in the times ahead; you will be greatly missed. As for the rest of you, I look forward to seeing you all next year! Now, please enjoy the feast and enjoy your summer holidays! Farewell to you all!" There was one final eruption of applause as Dumbledore took his seat at the Teachers Table with the other faculty.
"We won the House Cup!" Rowan exclaimed excitedly. "And we didn't get into too much trouble for snooping in the forbidden corridor last night!" She then turned to me and said, "And you must be so proud, Jane, having finally found proof that the Cursed Vaults exist! Now, it's only a matter of time until you find your brother!"
"I know!" I said. "I'm so happy! Now I know he wasn't mad, after all!"
"Cheers to the best year ever!" Rowan declared as she raised her glass. Ben and I followed suit before we tucked into our final meal before we left Hogwarts for the year.
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On the Hogwarts Express back to King's Cross, Ben had a very interesting thought.
"Jane?" he said. "Remember when you said at the Feast that you didn't think Dumbledore would tell you anything about your brother until Year Three or later?" I nodded as he continued, "Well, I can't believe I'm saying this, but what if we all tried to find out more for ourselves? Like, instead of waiting for Dumbledore to say something first, we found out those things sooner, and in secret? Then if Dumbledore finally decided to tell you something, you would already know what he would say, but you could just pretend that you're learning them for the first time so that he won't suspect that you've already investigated everything for yourself."
"Wow!" Rowan exclaimed, legitimately impressed. "That is literally the first time I have heard you say something that does not make you afraid."
"Oh, no, I was already afraid when the words started coming out of my mouth," he replied, shaking his head. "I am especially afraid now that I have said them, and now I wish I could take back everything I just said."
"Too late for that, Ben," she chuckled teasingly.
"I don't know, Ben," I said, answering his statement. "That sounds like a real risk. Even if Dumbledore found out that we were impatient in finding out the truth about my brother, I doubt he would be nice enough to give us a hundred House Points again freely." I then paused, frowning. "Come to think of it, I don't even know why he gave me the hundred points. I mean, we broke about a dozen school rules, snooping in a forbidden corridor, knocking out Mrs. Norris, and breaking into that room with the cursed ice. I don't understand why he, or anyone, would give me House Points for breaking school rules."
"Maybe it wasn't about breaking school rules and discovering the cursed ice," Rowan suggested, which made me all the more confused.
"What?" I asked with a frown.
"Well, you said Dumbledore gave you those points for being brave, compassionate, and resourceful, and you were pretty much all of those things when you saved Merula's life," Rowan explained.
"Jane saved our lives, too," Ben added in a seemingly offended tone, like she was forgetting the fact that they were present as well.
"Yeah, but I don't think it was really to do with us, Ben," she said, shaking her head. "Though, you're not wrong. Merula is our worst enemy at Hogwarts, and Jane had saved her life. She was brave and compassionate to make the choice of saving Merula's life rather than leaving her behind; though, personally I would've preferred the latter, if it were up to me, needless to say. And she used her resources—in this case, the Knockback Jinx—to break Merula out of the ice." She then turned to me. "Dumbledore must have somehow found out that you had saved a life—particularly the life of, possibly, the meanest person at Hogwarts—and therefore, he gave you all of those House Points as a result."
She was right, of course. Rather than leave Merula to die, I chose to save her life by breaking her out of the ice; therefore, she was alive today because of me. "Those with a good heart are willing to save everyone they can, including one's worst enemy," my mum said to me after she found out about my act of kindness toward our Muggle neighbor's daughter when she scraped her knee outside our house on that hot summer day. Those words stuck with me ever since, and I had been treating it like an Unbreakable Vow, and it was one that I was never going to break.
"Wow…" I said after a few moments of letting Rowan's words sink into my head. "I guess…I never really thought about that."
"I've been thinking about it since this morning," she said, waving her hand in a no-big-deal manner. "It's obvious, isn't it? Why else would Dumbledore have given you those points?"
In silence, I continued thinking about why the Headmaster thought I 'showed great promise' in the future. When he said that, maybe he thought I would do something similar to saving the life of my worst enemy, or possibly something much, much bigger. I guessed I had to wait until our return to Hogwarts in September to find out.
A/N: Janelle Morgan will return in: "Year 2—The Vanished Staircase." COMING SOON!