The door creaked open as they started to exit the room. "What is it?" asked Ron listening carefully.
"It sounded like the noise the mirror makes when we cross it." Blaise said a little bewildered.
"How strange we had the impression that someone was near the room yesterday too. What if someone is spying on us?" Harry asked.
"Well, I don't know, maybe we're just paranoid... but it would be better to be more careful." Said Hermione in the middle of the line with Ginny.
"Watch your back." Ginny warned them suspiciously. The rest of their journey to the great hall was peaceful, but they checked every corner, every corridor, they could no longer trust them.
In fact, where they had always met, even that night, there was a small group of Death Eaters outside the protective barrier of Hogwarts.
"Good evening." Megan said when the Death Eaters appeared. "It depends on you." Said Nancy Cohen. "We'll see." Megan passed a piece of parchment where a few lines of ink glittered.
"The eagle and the owl fly high in the sky, above the white horse that runs with the dog and the fox in the amaranth field." The Death Eater turned the sheet and read the other sentence. "The crocodile devoured the fox under the apple tree." What is this, a joke?" she asked suspiciously of the information that had been brought to her.
"no, it's their key." said the spy hoping that they wouldn't ask her what she didn't know
"And what should that mean?" she asked, not yet fully convinced.
"that's up to you to find out, I'm a spy, not a translator. It's a encrypted language. That will allow them to find the rings I told you about. Those who would allow us to return to power in less than a month." Megan said keeping a calm tone to hide her fear that she would be asked what she didn't know.
"well, we will have them analyzed. If these are right and you'll do your job, then we will succeed in our mission. Good evening." Nancy said disappearing together with the other Death Eaters, leaving Megan alone, in the forest, hair waving furiously in the wind, thinking about what must have been a polite threat.
The cold and rainy days of February passed quietly and the heads' group had spent a month gathering information on the Slytherins; Draco and Blaise had also managed to get the official book that was in the Slytherin common room, without anyone noticing.
They had searched far and wide for information, literally everywhere, in every single book they could find; until they had made a complete idea of what they thought had happened.
That mid-February afternoon they would meet and finally understand how things had gone.
"Well, put the notes you have collected on the table." Said Hermione, addressing the others who were walking into the room.
"Draco, Blaise, what did you find?" She asked the two Slytherins who had just arrived.
"The Dragonlears' ring apparently continued his descent on Voldemort's side, probably until him, but they lost track of it." Blaise said quickly as if it were a feared question.
"Okay. Someone take a sheet of parchment and write down the entire family tree of the Gaunts." Hermione said summing up the list of things she thought useful.
"already done." Draco replied proudly, putting on the table a sheet with the whole tree starting from Salazar Slytherin.
"Harry, what have you found?" She asked, turning to Harry Ron and Neville.
"We read the whole story of Ilvermorny; and made a brief summary of the most important things:
-Isolt Sayre was born around 1603 from two families of pureblood wizards, his father was William Sayre, a direct descendant of the famous Morrigan, and his mother was Rionach Gaunt, direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin. She lived a perfect childhood, with parents who loved her and were very helpful with Muggles, helping them thanks to their magic. However, at the age of five, an attack on the family home caused the death of both her parents; instead Isolde was "rescued" from the fire of her home by her aunt, her mother's sister, Gormlaith Gaunt: a witch obsessed with blood stereotypes; who didn't want Isolt to grow up with parents so close to Muggles.
Gormlaith prevented Isolt from going to Hogwarts because she claimed that she would learn more by staying at home, and that it was not that great, even though Isolt wished so much to go also prohibited Isolt to get a magic wand. Isolt then discovered that Gormlaith had killed her parents and kidnapped her; then she decided to run away; she stole Salazar Slytherin's wand that had been passed from descendant to descendant to her aunt, and brought it with her, with the only thing she had found in her old, burned, home: her mother's brooch in the shape of a Gordian knot.-
At this point in the book there were both illustrations of Isolt's wand and brooch. And here a curiosity arose: the brooch has a close resemblance to one of the rings you had shown us from the book we had found in the room. Have you got it here?" asked Harry gesturing.
"of course, always in the bag" Hermione replied putting the book on the table and starting to leaf through it in search of the illustration they had talked about. "here" she said stopping at a page where there was an accurate drawing of the truth' ring. But not of the other two. Harry took the Ilvermorny story book and placed it next to the little diary.
"it's the same!" exclaimed Hermione. The center of the Gordian knot, formed by the golden string that was supposed to be open was instead closed in a cricle. This cirle had blue stones all over the perimeter and a bigger one on the top. It was the ring of truth.
Everyone gasped and gathered around the books to see the illustrations when Ginny burst out. "then we have to go to Ilvermorny!"
"there is still another thing" Morgan stopped them.
"I looked at another specific book on the structure of the school; and in the principal's office of Ilvermorny, there is the exact same fireplace that is in ours. So out of curiosity I also looked at Durmstrang and Beauxbatons; and guess the coincidence? The same fireplace in all the principal's offices."
"What if we could somehow access to them from there?" asked Luna.
"We have to go into that room, who knows what's in there now." said Ron.
"Okay, so now we know where one of the rings is. Let's get it back and then look for the other. Now I need a plan to get to the fireplace, to the principal office." Hermione explained.
"I can do the diversion." Neville announced. "But I need at least two more people."
"Who's going?" asked Harry, looking for volunteers.
"I'll go" Blaise proposed.
"Me too." Ginny said.
"When is the next trip to Hogsmeade?" Harry asked.
"Two weeks," Morgan replied.
"Neville, you've to organize a diversion that must keep everyone away from the office, expecially McGonagall, as long as possible. Then we need a lookout." Harry continued.
"I'll do that." Morgan replied.
"We'll go on Sunday morning; but if we can find the portal we will go to Ilvermorny the same day, because we don't have time to organize another plan, we need to find the rings. Okay?"asked Harry. The others nodded and this time collected EVERY trace of their passage.
"We'll go out staggered, it would look to suspicious together. I have a bad feeling." Ginny said.
In the first group to come out were Harry, Ron, and Neville; seconds: Morgan and Luna; then the others would go. As soon as they opened the door Harry stopped suddenly. "damn, again! The steps! Someone is following us!" he exclaimed with conviction.
"Morgan, you will have to be very careful when you stand in front of the office door going back and forth; be careful that there is no one else going back and forth in front of that door." Harry warned suspiciously.
The first group disappeared in the darkness of the secret passage, then the second, and the third just left. They went out and headed for the corridors on the right. But a few meters ahead, Pansy Parkinson appeared in front of them.
"What are you doing here?" asked Draco glaring hangrily at her. He hadn't forgiven her for what had happened to Hermione.
"Are you the spy?!" Blaise interrogated attacking her at a wall with an hand on her shoulder and one with wand pointed at her.
"Hey hey hey hey, calm down, I'm not the spy." Pansy muttered freeing herself from the trap. "By the way... I have just seen Megan come out of the secret passage from which you have just come out."
"You mean she's the spy?!" Ginny urged.
"yeah, probably." she confirmed in a calm and relaxed voice.
"listen Hermione..." she started rubbing nervously her hands turning toward the girl. "Don't you dare..." Draco warned her but pansy gestured him with an hand to shut up.
"I absolutely didn't want the poison to have this effect on you. I put a simple sleep potion, someone must have exchanged it. And I also think I know who, at this point. But we can't frame it. This is the functionality of the potions, don't leave any proof." Pansy explained.
"I'm really sorry; I was jealous because you, who have always been hostile to Draco were happy with him, with Blaise... while I couldn't. But I didn't want it to end like this. Forgive me Gr/ Hermione?" asked Pansy shyly. She seemed genuine.
Hermione thought about it for a moment looking at that hand shyly extended towards her. "I forgive you." She replied, then shake Pansy's hand and drag her into an unexpected hug.
"Thank you, Hermione, maybe we can even try to be friends; what do you think?" "of course, it will be a pleasure."
Draco and Blaise were paralyzed by the unpredictability and speed with which Hermione and Pansy had solved everything.
"I'd say we got our old Pansy back." Draco declared. Then with Blaise went to hug their lost friend whom they had hoped to come back for so long. "oh please stop it, I'm out of practice." Pansy muttered in the hug.
"well, I would say that there are no more reasons to be hostile to you. So..." Ginny began, but was interrupted by Hermione who dragged her into the embrace.
"I think it will be nice to try to hang out with someone other people, beside snakes." Pansy commented as she stepped away.
"Anyway, if you need something, tell me, now I know that there is something serious going on. If it wasn't so, I would be very surprised to see five of the most famous Gryffindors in the whole wizarding world come out of the same secret passage with two of the most known Slytherins also accompanied by one of the few Hufflepuff warriors and the one and only Luna Loony Lovegood." Pansy pointed out.
"Given that we cannot let you go around with this secret information, you can choose: either we will erase your memory, or you will join us." Ginny warned her smiling.
"I would say the second. What are you doing?" asked Pansy.
"ah, nothing special, just trying to avoid a world catastrophe." Ginny commented.
"yeah, but we can't tell you now and here, walls have ears; expecially this ones." Draco stopped the others from speaking.
"We need someone for a diversion. So Ginny, you're going to do the lookout and Morgan is coming with us." Hermione explained in a whisper.
"Go to Neville Longbottom with Blaise when you can, he'll explain you the plan." Draco informed her.
The group went on and Pansy on the opposite side but stopped and turning around and called them "wait!" the others turned. "Thanks." she admitted.