Chapter 6: Solving a Puzzle with No Pieces

"I cudn't find nuthin', perfesser," said Hagrid, sounding disappointed. "I looked everywhere, even talked to Aragog, the merpeople and the giants. None've them has seen nuthin', they haven't."

"Don't despair, Hagrid. I have had no more luck than you with my searches" replied Dumbledore. "It is all most peculiar. I even went to the place where he fainted in the greenhouse to scan for traces of dark magic. There were no magical traces, good or bad, to be found."

"Whatever shall we do, Albus?" asked Professor McGonagall.

"I believe we need to notify his grandmother, of course. Then we will probably have to notify the Ministry. They will want to send some aurors to look into this. I feel we are at a loss to do more. Severus, do you have any ideas? Is there anything we have missed? What is your opinion?"

"I am sorry, headmaster," said Severus. "Longbottom is a quiet, meek student. I would not expect him to volun…tarily do something so…un…predic…table. Maybe we need to look beyond the realm of normal magic. Perhaps you have some ideas, Gilderoy. After all, this is supposed to be part of your field of excellence."

"O-o-of course, I have some ideas," started Lockhart, oversmiling, as is his nature while expressing his cocksure smoke screens. "I should probably start exploring this, so we can put it to rest. Let go up to my room, to...uh...to get ready."

GIlderoy got up and headed out of the room. The others looked at each other with incredulous expressions. Snape, in particular, looked very disturbed by Lockhart's abrupt, glib disappearance.

"I will dispatch a pair of owls immediately," stated Dumbledore, not saying what everyone was thinking.

The students were all gathering in the Great Hall for dinner. It had been a long day filled with many tests.

"I wonder if Professor Dumbledore has discovered anything more about Neville?" asked Hermione.

"Are you still going on about that?" asked Ron.

"Yes, Ronald," she replied in an irritated voice. "He's a Gryffindor and our classmate, and a friend," she shot back, emphasizing the word friend.

'She's right, Ron," said Harry, looking at him as he made an expression recognizing his lack of discretion and compassion.

They ate, not conversing as much as usual after that exchange. The small amount of conversation they did have focused on the upcoming quidditch match with Ravenclaw and wondering if they were still going to be allowed to go into Hogsmeade considering the situation with Neville.

Percy, who had been talking at the head table, came to the three of them and informed them Professor Dumbledore would like to speak to them at the end of dinner. Naturally, this made them anxious, as it would anyone called to meet with the Headmaster. They hoped for, but doubted it would be to give them good news.

Neville woke up from his nap needing to go potty. The chamber pot was under the table, ready for his use. He took it to the corner of the room and used it, leaving it there as he walked back toward the chair to continue his nap. Suddenly, the clock came to life, whizzing and purring as the numbers spun and rotated in a clockwise direction.

He got a funny, prickly feeling, then a man dressed in strange, purplish robe with unusual patterns resembling runes and astronomy symbols appeared from nowhere. He had very long, grey hair with a matching beard, not unlike a slighter version of Dumbledore. His eyes were a purple, similar to his robe. His expression was surprised but friendly looking.

"I am Zaman Bahar, third director of The Recorders. This is my place," he said with a bit of a flair. "I was wondering if you would ever wake up. Who might you be?"

"Ne-Neville Longbottom, sir," replied Neville in a weak voice.

"Well, Neville Longbottom, how do you come to be here? I have not had a visitor in, well, in longer than I can recall."

"I came in through there," he said, pointing at the dark tunnel. "I found it by accident. I probably should have…"

"…ah, never mind. I should have fixed that years ago. I don't even remember why it is there. There used to be a reason of some kind. Not to worry."

"Wh-wh-what is this place?" asked Neville in a nervous, small voice.

"It's a Recorder's Office, of course.

"What is that? I never heard of a Recorder's Office."

"It is an office where recorders, such as myself, record all of the events of our travels for the Grand Encyclopedic Compendium Universal Library. This room is full of my reports for the library. AH YES!" he suddenly exclaimed. "That is what that entrance is for. It is where the librarians come in to collect reports and to bring new apprentices. Are you my new apprentice? Am I finally going to be replaced and retired? Or, maybe, promoted!"

"No, sir. I am just Neville."

"Well, just Neville," said Zaman in a disappointed voice. "We need to sort you out. It is not proper to just have you hanging around here. I must figure out what to do about you. But first, I need a bite to eat."

A cup of tea smelling of jasmine was steaming in the cup. Beside it was a large, delicious-looking scone and some clotted cream. Opening the candy bowl, he found it full of toffees. He took one and offered the bowl to Neville, who took three or four of the hard candies.

Zaman continued writing a report with the quill on the table as he ate. When he finished, he turned to Neville and said, "This is a recorder report. It details the event we have been observing. The drawers are full of them."

"Yes, sir. I have peeked at a few of them," said Neville sheepishly.

"Good," was the reply. "That is what they are for. They don't serve much purpose if no one reads them. How did you find them?

"They are fascinating. Did you really see all of these things, yourself?"

"Yes, of course," he said in a voice indicating his satisfaction with all that he had done. "All of these are mine. I have gone to many places and seen many things during my time."

"That is fascinating," said Neville, a bit in awe, even though he still did not have a grip on the entire situation. How long did it take you to do this? How old are you? There are a lot of reports in here."

"We have been on Earth since what you call ancient times. Anywhere you see ancient pyramids, we were there, living inside, underneath them. A few of us still do live inside a pyramid. Our team leader lives in a very fancy, modern pyramid in a city called Las Vegas over in the United States. All in all, there are about a dozen of us on Earth, as you call it.

As for me, we don't really measure time like you do. But I will say that I did this job from start to finish on two other worlds before coming here. We only age when we are not inside time doing a report. So it is desperately complicated to quantify age."

"So, you are very ancient," said Neville. "But what about here? There aren't any old pyramids in the UK."

"No, there aren't. We started to build one, but never finished it. I had a different place built over near Wiltshire. The muggles, as you call them, refer to it as Stonehenge. My office was hidden beneath it for a long time."

"That is interesting. Magic folks have lots of theories about that place, too," noted Neville.

"I moved into Hogwarts after it was built. We felt it was an ideal spot to have an office. Several other magical schools are now homes to Recorders. Of course, none of them are aware of that fact. BUT," he continued. "Now we have a complication. What do we do about you? I will have to meet with my fellow recorders and come up with a plan."

"A plan about me?" asked Neville, not liking the way that felt or sounded.