Epilogue – sort of A couple months had passed since the incident with the book. Hermione had not spoken to anyone about it. However, the fact that it was stashed in her bag kept it actively tormenting her mind.
She had gone to the records library at Hogwarts to search for the others. She found a section of books that recorded all of the students who had attended the school over the centuries…yearbooks of sort. They listed each class, telling the names of the students and the houses in which they were sorted. Special honors and recognitions were also noted.
The first of the four she located Peresila Chandler. She was a member of Gryffindor. She graduated in 1516, serving as a prefect, and as head girl her final year. Thymus Chandler, was also a Gryffindor, was listed as graduating in 1515. He was a chaser on the quidditch team, and quidditch captain his sixth and seventh years. The twins, Rosemary and Artemisia Smith were listed as Ravenclaws. They graduated with highest honors at the top of the school in 1516.
Hermione had smiled, happy to know they had returned home safely and went on to finish their studies. She was particularly impressed with the twins, as she had hoped to accomplish the same feat when she graduated.
Over time she tried every spell she could find and master to learn the secrets of the magic embodied in the book. Nothing she found could crack it, even a littlest of a bit. It appeared to be some sort of ancient, long forgotten dark magic beyond the tongues of anyone she knew of today. As to be expected, this did not have the effect of calming her mind. It kept ramping up her suffering to new levels of torment. She finally reached a point where she could not lower tolerate it, even at the level of an intellectual curiosity. She decided she needed to gather the trusted group and lay the whole thing out on the table. Maybe together they could resolve things.
Ginny had a break in her quidditch schedule over the next weekend. She got with her and arranged that she would come home to The Burrow. It did not take much convincing. Harry and Ron were usually free from auror studies on the weekends. They also readily agreed to a weekend out at The Burrow.
Time passed. When Ginny walked into The Burrow, everyone was still eating breakfast. She sat down, happy to enjoy some of her mother's cooking. There was nothing like it, no matter how fancy the restaurant, that could surpass a good, home-cooked meal.
Following breakfast, the four of them went for a walk. It was a gorgeous autumn day with blue skies, a light breeze and the sounds of birds, frogs and buzzing insects filling the air. The pairs of them walked, linked together as ones without a care in the world. They eventually arrived at a distant spot between the end of the big pond and the trees. Both couples had shared more than one tender moment there over the years.
Hermione stepped away from Ron and plopped down in the grass. The others did as well.
"This was a wonderful idea," said Ginny.
"Yes, Mione," agreed Ron. "It is great to get away from studies and be with you—uh—and with all of us."
"This is really great, Hermione, really," said Harry, "but I can't help be wondering if there is a reason you arranged this. Is there anything more to this?"
"Yeah," agreed Ron. "Is there anything wrong, or is this just because you're a missing us."
"Of course, there is more," chirped Ginny. "Who'd being missing you?"
Ron scowled at Ginny, but before he could say anything Hermione spoke up.
"Actually there is more," she said as she pulled the book out of her bag and dropped it in the grass. "I want to talk to you about this book, or whatever this is."
This caused the expressions of the others to turn to ones of confusion. It was obviously a book. Anyone could see that. What was she talking about?
"Do you remember when I came to Holyhead a couple months ago for your practice and to eat?"
"Yes…sure," replied Ginny. "You had a closed practice before dinner, I went shopping to kill some of the time."
"I remember the practice, but sure."
"Anyway, I found a muggle bookstore…" said Hermione, causing Ron to interrupt her by laughing.
"C'mon," he said, still chuckling as the others kind of glared at him. "Hermione found a bookstore. You have got to admit…I mean just sayin'."
The others finally chuckled a bit. They could not deny it was a bit way too funny that Hermione would have found a bookstore to idle away some time.
"Anyway," continued Hermione, bring the discussion back on track, "I wandered around in it until I found the Magic Section. I thought looking at muggle magic might be amusing. Actually, most of it was pretty silly. Then, stuffed away in the bottom corner was this book. It didn't look like it belonged there, so I pulled it out."
She picked up the book and held it up for the others to see. It looked really old and had some weird symbols with the words 'Can You Find Your Way Home?' written under them. The author's name was Pompeius Dominum.
"It a weird, old book," said Ron, finally breaking the silence.
"Yes," agreed Hermione. "But muggles don't usually have weird old books like this. At least none I have ever seen.
"What are those symbols?" asked Ginny. "Are they supposed to be the title of the book?"
"I guess I would call them the title, but they are really runes, really ancient and obscure ones."
"So it is a magic book from our world?" asked Harry. "And you found it in a muggle bookstore? Why would it be there?"
"Yes, it is a magic book and I found it in a muggle bookstore, but it is more than that. I was pretty sure the title was made of runes, but I had never seen any of them in class. It took me a while to decipher them. After I found them, I repeated them. Why not? The next thing I knew, I woke up in a field in some strange land."
"Blimey!" exclaimed Ron. "What is this book?"
"I don't exactly know, Ron. It is like a portkey to another world, and reading the runes is the key to activating it."
"What are you going to do with it?" he asked with a tinge of nervous apprehension in his voice. "You don't want us to…"
"No, Ron," she said, cutting him off. "I don't want all of us to go there. I never want to go there again. It was an awful place. I almost died at least a dozen times. If I hadn't been really lucky a few times, I would still be down there looking for things."
Hermione went on to detail the search she had to go on to find all of the pieces of treasure necessary to return home. She told of the horrible sandwiches and many other special unattractions. "…And when I put the bar of platinum in the trophy case it started chiming" she continued. "Four people I had never seen before appeared next to me. They turned out to be Hogwarts students from the early fifteen-hundreds. They had solved the runes and been sucked into the book. They never solved it and were killed over time by things like the troll. When I solved the game, we all got to go home. I looked them up in the records library at Hogwarts. They were real students—real people. They are listed in it."
"So what should we do with it?" asked Ginny with a raised eyebrow.
"That is why I asked you all here. I am looking for ideas," said Hermione with a hopeful gaze at the others.
"Can we destroy, like a horcrux?" asked Ron.
"I don't think so. I have tried dozens of spells on it. Nothing fazes it. I guess we could try the Sword of Gryffindor, if any of you know where it is. I tried a basilisk fang I found in my bag. It did not harm it."
"We could take it somewhere and hide it, bury it, or dump it to the bottom of the Black Lake," said Harry. "I thought about that. But things like this seem to have a magic to them that will eventually make them turn up. How did that book get into that muggle bookstore? Peresila and the others couldn't have put it there. That shop didn't even exist in their time."
"Have you taken it to the Ministry?" asked Ginny.
"No. It is a horrible thing to say since I work there," said Hermione with a grim look. "But I don't think that would be wise. They would tinker with it and someone would get hurt, or worse, they would unriddle the magic and who knows then how it might be used?"
"Yeah, right," said Ron. "What about Hogwarts? You could take it up there."
"That's a good idea, Ron. What do you think Harry? Ginny?"
The group decided that Hermione should go up to the school and talk to the professors. The next day she left by portkey to Hogsmeade.
As Hermione walked into the Great Hall, breakfast was just coming to an end. The place was a clamor of students preparing to head off to class. She dodged her way through them as she made her way toward the head table. The first to spot her amongst the chaos was Professor Hagrid.
"Allo, Hermione," he bellowed over the ruckus in his typically cheerful voice.
This, of course, called the attention of the others.
"Miss Granger," said a smiling Professor McGonagall. "This is a nice surprise. It is so good to see you."
Several of the other professors gave her a cheerful greeting. "What brings you here to see us?" inquired Professor McGonagall.
"I have a question—actually a bit of a problem. I am hoping you can help me solve it."
"Why of course we'll try to help you. What is this problem?"
"I found this book," she said as she retrieved it from her bag. "Could we find a quieter place to talk? I want to tell you about it."
"Of course," replied the professor. "Let's get out of this commotion and go up to my office."
"Wonderful," said Hermione.
They made their way out of the hall and up the spiraling stairs to the office of the headmistress. They walked in and Professor McGonagall said as she sat down," Please tell me about this book that you found."
Hermione proceeded to retell her story as Professor McGonagall examined the book. The professor was particularly intrigued by the part about the students from the sixteenth century. By the end, she was aghast by the implications of it.
"If this is all true," she said, looking over her glasses, "then this book is a very powerful device made from an ancient form of dark magic that is unknown today. It is clearly quite dangerous."
"I swear it is all true. All of it," replied Hermione in a very earnest voice. "I even looked up the students in the records library. They were very real people. It is all there."
"Well," said the professor, clearing her throat and adjusting her small, oval reading glasses. "What are your plans for it?"
"That is why I am here," said Hermione, picking up the book from where the professor had sat it down. "We—uh—Ron and Harry and Ginny and I have tried to destroy it. We used every spell we could master. None of them work. I tried the basilisk fang I had saved from the battle. It didn't hurt it, either. I am hoping you might have some ideas on what to do with it."
"Oh—well—I am not certain what we can do with it. Did you take it to the Ministry?"
"No, I was afraid they would want to start tinkering with it. I was scared of what might happen if they had it."
"Yes—well, you are probably right. It might be best they don't get it."
"There has to be something we can do," said Hermione, sounding a little frustrated.
"There is a place in the library. I have never actually seen it or opened it. It is called the Forbidden Section. Have you heard of it?"
"No, professor."
"Well, best you haven't. Professor Dumbledore created it many years ago. He gave me a spell to open it in case something happened to him, but I have never used it. I guess we could put it in there."
"That sounds perfect, professor. Can we go do it, now?"
"Well, I think it is best you know as little as possible about it. I will take it there. Is that okay?"
"Yes, professor. That will be fine."
And so Professor McGonagall went to the library and with the help of Madam Pince, who had to open a secret location in the shelves for the professor to open the Forbidden Section. Once opened, the book was safely locked away.
As they closed the shelves a confundus charm created by Professor Dumbledore was cast by the Forbidden Section making them forget they had been there and what they had locked away. The charm, like so many of Dumbledore's creations, was exceedingly powerful. Not only had it affected Hermione, Professor McGonagall and Madam Pince, but it had also reached out and 'cleared' the minds of Harry, Ron and Ginny. And thus, the book was securely hidden away.