"Em, sorry, are you William?" Ron asked politely. The little puckwudgie turned to look at those people so alien to him. "Yes... why?" he asked suspiciously.
"Are you really the William who saved Isolt from death? Without you this school wouldn't even exist!" Draco congratulated him because he knew that puckwudgies are wary even with the people they know, let alone with those who have never seen; and he also knew that William particularly loved compliments, and thank to them, he began to trust Isolt's husband, one who he had never seen before. Willliam looked at him for a moment, then decided that it was acceptable and did not resist that group of students.
"Listen William, we are looking for Isolt's brooch, the one in the shape of a Gordian knot, do you remember it?" Hermione asked sweetly at that old creature.
"Why do you want Isolt's brooch?" William asked slowly.
"It is very important, we have discovered something that could destroy the whole world. But if you were kind enough to give us Isolt's brooch, we could avoid the catastrophe." Hermione explained gently.
"Only if you tell me exactly what's going on." William said quietly.
"well... you see... at Hogwarts a long time ago, three very powerful rings were created to protect the world. But unfortunately, one broke, and it could explode at any moment because he is no longer with the other two, who have been stolen." she told him with extreme calm, trying to make him understand what had happened.
"Who stolen them?" William asked weakly.
"Salazar Slytherin. And I think you know he was Isolt's ancestor, right?" replyed Harry.
"yes, but Isolt isn't a thief!" William shouted at the maximum volume of his voice, which was equal to the one used by Hermione at the moment.
"Of course, we know, Isolt was nice beautiful person, certainly not a thief." Hermione explained calmly. "it's just that... Isolt's brooch is not a simple Gordian knot, but hidden in it, there's the ring of truth: which instils great empathy and patience, and can pierce people's physical and moral shields. Salazar Slytherin hidden it in the brooch and his family passed it down from generation to generation." Hermione told him.
"Ahh, I always thought that Isolt had a disturbing tendency to read people... So if the brooch, or rather, the ring, will not return to Hogwarts, the other ring could explode in a devastating way?" William asked slowly.
"Yes, it is. We know that you are very attached to Isolt, but please, let us take the brooch, it's really important." Hermione explained carefully to the little puckwudgie who listened to her thoughtfully.
William was silent for a moment; Hermione thought he was looking back on all his appeals from when Isolt was still there. "well, I think it has nothing more to do here than consoling a poor old puckwudgie; and if you really need it, I will be happy to give it to you. It's up there." William said pointing with his finger up, towards the statue. In fact there was something that shone on Isolt's marble robe. It was the brooch.
Hermione took the wand from her pocket and with a spell she detached the pin from the statue and landed it gently on her hand. But she didn't put away her wand; she waved it in the air and hit the brooch releasing a strong glow. When the light dissipated, there were two identical brooches in her hand: the authentic one, which Hermione put in her pocket with her wand, and the copy, which she placed in William's hand.
"It'll be here to console this poor old puchwudgue forever." she whispered closing William's hand around the brooch in his palm.
"Thanks, friends of Hogwarts." William whispered back. "good luck." he greeted them returning to polish the statue with the brooch pinned on his chest.
"Thank you William" said Hermione. The puckwudgie turned with a wink for a moment and then turned again.
The Hogwarts students returned to the inside of the school, and found themselves in a circular room topped by a glass dome. A balcony ran the whole room one floor higher and in the room there were only some statues representing the four houses of Ilvermorny: Thunderbird, Wampus, Horned Serpent, and Puckwudgie. They were standing right where Ilvermorny's new students stood to be sorted, on a golden Gordian knot on the floor.
"it's the room where the sorting takes place, when one of the houses want the student, the Thunderbird beats its wings, the Wampus roars, the stone set on the forehead of the Horned Serpent lights up, or the Puckwudgie will raise its arrow into the air; it would be better to move away from here, or they may sort us." explained Hermione who obviously knew everything about that room.
They were spellbound for a moment to observe the bright room, then they decided it was time to leave to go home. The students walked again down the corridors they had taken following the headmaster, but they were wrong a couple of times lengthening the route a little and getting embarrassed asking the students for informations. The great war heroes of Hogwarts reduced to ask for information lost in a school's corridors.
Only about thirty minutes after leaving William, they managed to get to the door for the principal's office. They went up the stairs and knocked before entering. "come in." the headmaster replied in the usual calm voice.
"Sorry to bother you, but we're here to go home..." Harry began.
"Of course, but I can't see how you can get back to Hogwarts from my office." Commented the man.
"Well you see, this is one of those tricks you learn while trying to prevent an almost worldwide catastrophe." Ron explained quickly.
"Now, if you allow us, we would need a piece of parchment, a pen and ink." Draco said.
"Here you are." He said handing them to Harry.
"I would be really appreciate to see how you will go back to school with what I have given you."
"You are going to be surprised by what you can do with pen and paper; and occasionally a magical portal." Draco replied with his usual vaguely arrogant tone, leaving the headmaster a little surprised.
Harry and Hermione went upstairs with the things they needed to get back to Hogwarts. They were in front of the fireplace with the principal and the others. Hermione quickly wrote "William" in runes and then, after folding the parchment, gave it to the owl. Before the incredulous eyes of the headmaster of Ilvermorny, the owl circled the room and then crossed the bright passage of the fireplace.
"I would advise you not to talk about this to anyone, for any reason, unless it is necessary. Or you will have three former death eaters, a half-crazy woman, a couple of master assassins and three of the most famous heroes, as well as some of the most influential and combative people of the entire magical world, on his heels; and I assure you that it won't be pleasant." warned Draco.
Hermione quickly wrote down the directions for using the portal on a sheet of parchment. "yeah, but maybe, keep this, or rewrite it with more care. To activate the portal you simply have to enter the password in ancient runes on a sheet of parchment, which in your case is William, and give it to the owl above the fireplace. This will open a room that can serve as a vault, and no one can access from other schools, because when you cross the portal you exit directly from the fireplace of the destination, without going through the personal rooms of the school.
Inside the room you will find doors that lead to all the great, and most magic schools on the planet. To activate them, you have to recite the school's motto in the original language and also the password of the school in question, for example if you want to come to Hogwarts, you'll have to say: "draco dormiens nunquam titillandus" and the school password, which unfortunately we cannot reveal; but we are sure that if you really need it, our headmistress Minerva McGonagall, will certainly be available, with the appropriate precautions, to reveal it. We are not aware of all the password of the other schools, if you want you can inquire.
Now remember. This thing is highly secret as it's unknown to the entire wizarding world; as Draco said, we will know if you'll tell someone or you'll use them for purposes out of majeure force. But I think it's a good idea to keep a diary in which you leave this information to generations of future students; in case they need them as happened to us. Goodbye and thanks for everything; we hope it won't be necessary to meet again this way." with this Hermione gave the parchment with all the information on the portals to the principal of Ilvermorny.
She shacked his hand cordially after Harry, then turned around and crossed the fireplace with the others disappearing under the paralyzed headmaster's surprised eyes.
They went to Hogwarts's door and recited the motto and password. Then they crossed the light passage and in few moments of light they found themselves in the principal's office at Hogwarts; because as Hermione had suspected, the marble room can only be accessed from the inside.
They quickly crossed the room, and went out of the office. They found Ginny a few meters away, who was BY CHANCE passing in front of the office.
"Here you are finally! What happened to you?!" she asked them abruptly.
"Calm down Ginny, we went to pick up something overseas." Ron tried to calm her down with poor results.
"You mean that...?!" Ginny continued. Hermione took the brooch from her pocket and showed it to Ginny. "Oh my God, we did it!" Ginny exclaimed trying to be as quiter as possible.
"How's Neville, Pansy, and Blaise doing?" Draco asked.
"Probably well, McGonagall didn't show up. Now that I think about it... Vitious passed once and professor Anemonaeris two, or three times. But I don't think is dangerous." Ginny replied.
"Harry, you and Ron keep it. See if you can detach the ring and bring it back to its original shape." Hermione said holding out the brooch to Harry who took it with a hesitant thread.
"Let's see how the diversion' squad is going." Morgan proposed.
"Yeah, maybe it's better." Ron approved.
They went down the stairs and then into the garden for the greenhouses. But they met professor Anemonaeris a few corridors away.
"What are you doing here, guys?" she asked.
"Oh nothing, you know, it's our school, we study here. can't we just walk around?" Answered Harry evasive. They didn't want to stop and talk with the professor, so they quickly managed to sneak away.
They met McGonagall who was just returning to the castle, at the entrance.
"Good afternoon students, it's a pleasure to see all the houses together, and apparently happy and smiling; I think your ball initiative ended up well." the principal congratulated Harry and Hermione.
The students continued their journey to the greenhouses thanking heaven for returning before McGonagall could get to her office. When they arrived to the greenhouses, they found Neville, and Blaise covered entirely in purple liquid, while Pansy was dirty everywhere, but not in the face and hair.
"what happened?" Ron asked.
"Oh it was totally awesome! Neville practically blew up the greenhouse." Blaise replied excitedly.
"Yeah, awesome for you. I had to use my ninja skills to the full in order not to get my hair dirty with that... stuff. At least I hope the plan worked. "Pansy commented to those who had just returned from Ilvermorny; looking at her dirty robes asking herself if that "thing" would have ever decided to leave her clothes.
"Sure, look!" exclaimed Harry, holding out his open hand with the brooch in front of them.
"Good, at least we have succeeded in our mission. But don't call me anymore for missions that involve getting dirty, especially hair. I don't even know what is this thing. Have you got any idea of how long it takes a girl to wash her hair and make it look decent after something like this purple mud of today has fallen on it?!" sighed Pansy.
"I agree with you," said Hermione.
"Yeah, easy for you, it doesn't matter if you're dirty!" Ginny completed.
"I like the new girl." Morgan commented proudly about the new member of their girl power task force. Those girls were really beginning to understand each other.
They quietly returned to the castle to take a shower, and have a rest; they could finally have a moment's break. They could take a good sleep. One of the two rings was finally in their hands.