Chapter 66 – Trial and Error
Wrotkill led the way unwaveringly down the path to the stables and Harry was wondering why they going there. He kept his questions to himself as he felt he would get some explanations sooner than later.
What Harry saw when he got to the stables was reassuring and puzzling at the same time. He was glad to see Hagrid of course but the half-giant was holding onto a bridle that seemed to float in midair a couple of feet over Harry's head. Hagrid let the reins drop as he knelt down to give Harry a hug. Wrotkill waited until Hagrid had stood again before he walked up beside Harry. "This is your ride to where you must make your selection Baltek."
Harry looked forward and back from where the bridle hung but could not see anything. Wrotkill came up and placed a hand on Harry's arm and he suddenly saw a creature that made him step back in alarm. "That is a thestral Mr. Potter; he will be your steed for the next day."
Harry cast a nervous look at the creature that seemed to be a cross between a horse and a dragon. A shiny black coat covered a skeleton-thin body that was attached to a pair of huge muscular but very reptilian looking wings. A long hairy neck held up a long skinny mournful face that somehow reminded Harry of his Aunt Petunia. A long wispy tail that grew out of the ridges that ran down the creature's spine replaced the forked tale that Harry expected from a creature that seemed to have born from someone's nightmare.
Hagrid was throwing a thick blanket over the top of the thestral and Harry had a sinking feeling that he wasn't going to have the luxury of a saddle to ride on. Harry turned back to Wrotkill and waited for any sort of further instructions.
"This will be your ride Mr. Potter to the location of a number of Everwood trees. The ride there and back is itself part of the endurance task. If you fall off or fall asleep on your trip, the task is over."
"You are not accompanying me then Master Wrotkill?" Harry asked.
"This is your trial and yours alone. Once you reach the grove of trees you must gather by morning and bind yourself to it by means of blood and mind."
"How am I to do that particular part Master Wrotkill?" Harry was trying to figure out the steps for his trial as he cast nervous looks at the snorting beast.
Wrotkill produced bit of folded parchment and handed it to Harry. "These are your instructions. You are not to open them before you have gained possession of your staff. If for any reason, you are not able to bind the staff to you, you must leave it there and return without. Just mount up when you are ready to return and the thestral will return here. There is no failure associated with an uncompleted trial, just a lack of success and the ability to try again."
"In a year" Harry said flatly. He took the parchment and put it into a pocket in his jeans.
"That is correct. You have taken a difficult road and have made remarkable progress for a human. I expect you to find the staff you desire but I am not sure if it will be today or not. You should not be discouraged if it doesn't happen the way you want now; you certainly have the talent to wield such an instrument of power."
"Thank you for the counsel Master Wrotkill. Are there tools where the trees are located to harvest the staff?"
Wrotkill shook his head. "Only the tools nature provides; you have a strong mind and back Baltek; use them and your magic wisely and you shall be rewarded."
Harry saw that Hagrid had thrown two bags over the neck of the beast and he left the goblin to talk to Hagrid. "There's food for both of you and a blanket. Her name is Chinira and she won't wander too far from where ya land as long as ya feed her. She's the fastest of the thestrals we have; I hope it will cut down on the time you're aloft."
"Thank you Hagrid. If all goes well, I'll be back tomorrow about this time." Harry cast a look around before he let Hagrid give him a boost to the back of the thestral. Harry tried to find a comfortable position as Hagrid grabbed up the reins and handed them to Harry. "Keep your wits about ya Harry; there may be other dangers around."
Harry nodded and saw that Wrotkill had held up both arms and then brought them down suddenly. A spell let his hands and encircled the thestral for a moment. The thestral launched itself down the trail, running and flapping its long wings. If Harry hadn't been so nervous, he might have enjoyed the moment of launch when the beast lept into the air and the wings beat them skyward.
The beat of the wings soon settled into a pattern and Harry opened his eyes to see that Chinira was indeed a speedy beast. The ground seemed to flow by at a rate close to Harry's broom as the thestral climbed for altitude. Once they had gotten high enough for Harry to get really nervous about losing his grip, Chinira wheeled around and headed in a southwest direction. Harry hung on and tried to get used to the irregular movement of the thestral; not only were the wings beating up and down but the hoofs of the magical beast seemed to be making some purchase on the air itself. The combination of the various movements caused more than a few heaves of his stomach before Harry finally got used to uneven gait.
Harry was glad that he had practiced a large number of wandless spells under Hermione's direction. He had to cast a warming spell after about ten minutes in the air and had to renew it periodically after it wore off. Harry had lost sight of the ground after about a half hour in the air as Chinira entered a huge system of clouds. The only indication Harry had of the passing of time was his wristwatch and the infrequent breaks between one system of clouds and the next.
After an hour and a half Harry was definitely feeling uncomfortable and started squirming around on the blanket that had been thrown over Chinira's back. Harry raised himself up to get some relief for his backside but found he couldn't maintain the position very long without digging his heels into Chinira's side. Harry eventually lay forward and rested his face against the thestrals neck for a while and got some pressure off his bum. He was definitely going to give the individual who thought of this piece of torture a good talking to when he returned to see Wrotkill and Dumbledore.
The second hour passed and went into the third hour and Harry wondered why he hadn't asked where in the world he was going to. He had no idea if he was going to be flying for another five minutes or another five hours. A specific time or destination might have helped his disposition. It was a full hour later as Harry was sure that he had blisters where blisters shouldn't be that Harry remembered - cushioning charms. It proved a little difficult to cast that spell wandlessly but Harry managed to do it and breathed a very welcome sigh of relief as he sat back on the blanket.
It was of course when Harry found some relief that Chinira banked suddenly and started making her descent. Harry checked his watch and found that he had been travelling almost four hours in the air. Harry held on as Chinira broke her quick descent and landed at a gallop on a wide trail that led through a forest. Harry tumbled off the thestral almost immediately and landed hard on the ground, almost knocking himself out. He lay there resting on his stomach for quite a few moments before Chinira walked back to him and prodded his hip with her narrow muzzle. "Ok, Ok. I'm getting up." Harry held the reins as he slowly stood and got used to holding up his weight again.
Harry patted the neck of the thestral and walked down the trail to where he heard some water running. Finding a stream at the edge of a clearing near the trail, Harry removed the pack of two bags and the blanket from Chinira's back and led her to the water. Harry watched her drink for a few minutes and then decided to do the same. He was lying down on his stomach and cupping up his hands to bring the cool water to his mouth when Chinira brought her head around and dropped a mouthful of water right on the middle of Harry's back. Harry flinched and then splashed some water back up toward her. 'Just what I needed now, a beast with the Weasley twins' sense of humor.'
Walking back to where he had dropped the bags Harry opened both of them and surveyed the contents. One bag held a bunch of semi-frozen ferrets and melons and Harry held one of the ferrets up for Chinira. She took it rather daintily from his hand and gulped it down in two or three bites. Harry flinched a little at the crunching sound and rolled one of the green melons away from him. Chinira followed its progress and nibbled on it a bit before folding her wings down completely and settling down on the grass. She finished the melon and then seemed to settle down and fall to sleep.
Harry tied Chinira's food back up and then went to find someplace a little more protected to take care of some personal business of his own. Coming back Harry decided to do some scouting around to see if he could find the Everwood trees Wrotkill said were here. Harry took an apple out of his sack to eat as he started his scouting. There was only a few hours of daylight left if Harry was any judge of it and he needed to get the staff and be bonded to it before daylight came. Suddenly Harry didn't feel so confident about being successful in this trial.
It was a short walk from the clearing Harry stopped at until he came upon the first of the Everwood trees. After all the research he had done with Hermione and Professor Sprout made it was easy to identify the smooth greyish bark with the glossy green leaves that grew in bunches of threes. A few steps more brought Harry to the base of three trees growing in a triangle. Harry increased his pace and soon counted 23 that were grouped in an area roughly about the size of two city blocks. Most were mature trees that had reached about sixty feet in height and about two feet in diameter at the base. Harry sat down gingerly in what he hoped was the center of the grove of trees and started thinking about how he was supposed to separate a branch or chunk of the tree he needed from the incredibly dense material.
Harry checked his pockets to see what, if any, help he had brought with him. A thorough search revealed a few coins, the pocketknife that Remus Lupin had given him the Christmas before and a muggle pen he kept for emergencies if his quill broke. Harry took off the two empty wand holsters he had and added them to the meager pile. Harry looked at his hands and the Gryffindor and Potter family rings appeared. There were some jewels in the settings of both rings but Harry was not going to pry them out of their settings to use them in some rude form of ax or other tool. He wasn't sure how to do that anyway.
Looking around at the fading light, Harry decided he had best find a suitable branch or tree to try and separate a staff out of. He finally found a limb on one tree that looked about the perfect length and thickness. He would have to trim a few feet off the end when he got it down to the ground but hoped that the bonding ritual would allow him to shrink and trim the branch by magic or some other means.
Unfortunately, the branch he selected was about twenty feet off the ground but Harry thought he might be able to get up to the branch he wanted if he used the ropes that Hagrid had used for tying up the bags of provisions.
The impending darkness led to another problem or two for Harry. Light to see by and a need to scare off whatever sort of beasts might exist in this area. As much as Harry didn't want to delay his climb on the Everwood tree he had chosen, there were more important matters to take care of first. Harry started collecting up some of the old and dried out branches that he found lying around on the ground. The first time he came to a branch that he thought was Everwood, Harry looked at and held it for a couple of long minutes. That size and length was just about perfect for what he needed for his staff but it was dead inert wood. After checking it thoroughly with his magic, Harry added it and a few other everwood branches to the pile he had started near the base of the tree he needed to climb. He got tired of fetching and carrying and finally held out his hand and wandlessly cast an 'Accio' spell a few times to bring a night's supply of kindling and larger pieces of wood for the fire he planned to light.
Harry returned to the little clearing where he had left Chinira and the provisions and brought them both back to where he was setting his climb up. After feeding the thestral two more ferrets and a melon, Harry removed the rope that held the bags closed and hefted the bags up into a nearby pine tree to keep Chinira or other scavengers from getting to them.
The next problem was light. Harry set up six Everwood branches in the ground around the base of the tree he wanted. He cast the Incendio spell on one piece of pine he held in his hand. The second try of this caused the thin stick of wood to burst into flame and he used that to light the other everwood branches he had stuck upright. He saw that the semi-circle of light would burn slow and constant for a long time. Harry set up a small fire away from the trees where there was a clear space on the ground.
Harry suddenly grew a little light headed. He had been doing a fair job of wandless magic and without the bond magic or Hermione to sustain him he was rapidly becoming both tired and sleepy. Harry checked his watch and saw that it had just turned 9 o'clock in the evening. He really wanted to lie down and take a quick nap but didn't trust himself not to sleep the night away. So instead of lying down, Harry ate a couple of the meat pies that were in his bag of provisions and went back to drink some more water from the little creek he had found.
Making his way back to the Everwood tree, Harry started climbing. He had to jump a little to get to the first branch but after that it was relatively simple to reach and climb to the next branch up. The problem came when he was directly below the branch he wanted. There was a gap in the branches of about eight feet and Harry realized that jumping up might not be the safest course of action. That's why he brought the rope up with him; knotting the ropes together Harry threw the rope upwards. It took three tries before the rope went over the limb and Harry could grasp both ends of it. He tried putting his weight on it on the chance that his weight alone would be enough to break it off from the trunk but that didn't happen. In fact the limb barely bent under Harry's weight.
Harry used arm strength to climb up the rope by walking his way up the trunk. He hoisted himself onto the branch and sat for a few minutes while he thought about the next part of his plan. He knotted one end of the ropes around his waist and then tied it off on the branch that was directly above him. Harry had seen too many Roadrunner cartoons to try cutting off a branch he was actually sitting on since he didn't want to end up in a broken pile on the ground.
Pulling out his pocketknife Harry tried scoring a notch at the junction of the branch and the trunk of the tree. A few minutes later he gave up on that idea as he had worn a groove in the blade of the knife. Harry sat with his back against the trunk and rethought his options. In fact, he thought so hard about his options that he fell asleep and was only awoken when he lost his balance and almost fell off his perch. Giving thanks for the foresight of tying himself off Harry checked his watch and found that it was almost 10:30. Mentally berating himself for losing some time, Harry turned back to his problem.
Harry had not seen any sharp rocks in his initial search that he could use to pound on the everwood junction and cut the branch off. That left his magic. Harry quickly went through the mental list of spells he knew but kept coming back to the one that caused him to cast his first spell with his wand; the one that cut the huge chandelier in Ollivander's wand shop in an effort to kill Hermione and Ginny. Climbing up to the next branch Harry tried lying as flat on it as he could and reached down as far as he could with one hand. Gathering up his magic as best he could, Harry focused on the spot where the branch met the trunk of the Everwood tree.
"Diffindo!" Harry saw the light of the severing curse leave his hand and hit where he wanted it to. A bunch of dust and wooden chips were thrown back into the air when the spell hit and Harry had to cover his mouth and nose with the sleeve of his shirt to keep from breathing in the mixture. Harry closed his eyes briefly as a little wind passed through the tree, clearing the air. Harry looked at the branch below him and saw that the branch was still in place but there was a notch at the junction. The severing spell hadn't been powerful enough to cut all the way through the limb. Harry would have to try again.
Harry though was desperately tired at the point of the night. He had a long day's travel on the back of the thestral and had used a lot of wandless magic before he actually tried cutting the branch off. Letting himself down to the cut branch Harry was a little relieved to feel that it settled a little bit under his weight. He felt with his fingers and found that the slice had cut about a third the way through the branch. Harry next thought was that he to somehow put a wedge in that cut to force it open and give him a target for the next Diffindo spell he had to use. But that would mean another trip down and then back up the tree so Harry decided to do without.
Harry wished that Hermione was here with him. He knew that it would only take her a minute or so to figure out how to solve the problem of the partially severed Everwood branch. Harry resisted the temptation to drop his mental shields and seek her advice or the comfort that just her presence gave him. He had been forbidden any contact with Hermione specifically as Wrotkill knew about their connection.
Harry gave a sigh and turned back to the branch. He untied one end of the rope and carefully made his way down the trunk until he was beneath his target again. He didn't like what he was prepared to do next. Harry stood next to the trunk and threw one end of the rope over his branch. He caught the end and pulled the branch down, exposing and widening the cut he had already made. Another Diffindo spell cut the branch about halfway through but Harry wasn't sure he had enough magic left in him to cast one or more cutting spells to finish separating the branch.
Aside from the immediate problem, Harry was also concerned about how long the bonding ritual was going to take. He also wondered if he was reaching the end of his endurance and magic to cast spells wandlessly. 'Stupid rules and even stupider conscience.' Harry should have taken a good look at the paper Wrotkill have given him when he first landed to see how long the bonding ritual took. He was scared that the instructions would have disappeared if he didn't follow the goblin sorcerer's exact instructions. Too late to second guess things now though.
Harry made a decision to try and finish the cut with a different spell. He thought he had enough left to finish the job and protect himself at the same time. Harry cast a shield spell that protected his upper body and hoped it would be enough. He held the shield with one hand and gathered up his magic carefully. Harry took a good look around and the put his face against the side of the tree trunk. Holding his other hand up Harry took a settling breath and then yelled out his spell at the branch. "Reducto!"
Harry tried to put the shield and the tree between him and the place the spell would hit. He partially succeeded; the blast recoil caught an arm and part of his shoulder, spinning him around. Harry lost his grip on the tree and the rope and anything else he had planned on. Harry was torn from his place on the tree and tried catching the first or second branch he saw on his way down toward the ground. He glanced off on thick branch before another one hit him on the back, knocking the wind out of him. Harry's last glimpse in the uncertain light from the torches he had made was one of the thicker bottom branches rushing up at him. Harry's last thought as he tried to move his hands to catch himself that he was wrong. The thick branch was not coming up at him but he was hurtling headfirst downward at it! Harry tried to roll to the side to avoid it but he was too slow and the branch hit him a somewhat not-so-glancing blow on the side of his head above his left ear. Harry heard one more impact as the blackness and pain overwhelmed him!
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His head was holding all the cathedral bells in the world and the sound of their ringing covered up the flashes of pain that Harry felt coming from a lot of different places. Harry could feel his pulse throbbing in a couple of different areas of his body and hoped he wasn't bleeding too severely. Before he even tried to move, Harry tried doing an inventory of the parts of his body that didn't hurt. That list was unfortunately very short.
Harry groaned and made the effort to roll from his side where he ended up to his back. That effort seemed to take a lot of time and made him very dizzy. It wasn't quite funny that lying flat made the world spin around. Once that feeling and the nausea that accompanied it passed, Harry started checking on the state of his body from the toes up. Once he had flexed his toes and ankles successfully without having anything complain or not work, Harry moved on to his hands and arms. The little finger of his right hand was numb and felt strangely out of place; it was dislocated if any of Harry's past experience was an indicator.
His left hand was sticky with blood and the pain seemed to come from the knuckles on his first two fingers and thumb. Harry remembered trying to grab some branches as he fell out of the tree; evidently his left hand had impacted against the hard wood and been scraped or torn in the impact. Harry felt some major stiffness and heat from his right elbow and shoulder and cursed himself mildly for using a blasting curse when he was so close to the target. The thought of the target made Harry realize that he needed to get up and find the piece of Everwood he hoped had separated from the tree. Both knees seemed ok so Harry bent them to put his feet flat on the ground.
Harry reached up with one hand to touch the greatest area of pain - the spot right above his left ear. He wasn't surprised to find some blood and that an area about the size of his hand was extremely swollen and tender to the touch. He added the pain from his back into the equation and was suddenly glad he had the ability to move at all. Even if the height had only been about twenty feet, the impact from hitting the branches on the way down and the ground might have left him paralyzed or worst.
Something wet and warm suddenly hit Harry's cheek and he became aware that something or someone was breathing noisily right over his head. Thinking of dire possibilities, Harry tried rolling quickly to one side to get away from whatever was over him. His body refused to obey his panicked thoughts and he only managed to get to his front. The breathing came closer again and Harry wondered if he had enough strength or focus to try that Reducto spell against whatever kind of animal was near him.
Before Harry could organize his thoughts or marshal his power, he was poked gently and heard a familiar chuff that caused him to relax. It was Chinira! The thestral was the one that had come to investigate him. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not at his panicked thoughts of just a few seconds before. He managed to struggle to his hands and knees but had to rest there in that position as he got dizzy again.
As yet Harry hadn't tried to actually open his eyes. From his hands and knees, Harry pivoted around so that he was sitting on the ground. He was very careful in his movements because he wasn't actually sure that he was mostly ok. The dizziness seemed to come and go and Harry was starting to think that a concussion was a definite part of his difficulties now. The first thing Harry did was try to reset the dislocated pinkie; he unfortunately had had a lot of practice at this but not since he had come to Hogwarts. A sharp tug and twist and the finger was back in its normal place; very sore but at least functional.
Finally risking opening his eyes, Harry saw a number of blurry images that stabilized after a few seconds of intense focusing. The torches he had made out of the dead everwood branches had burnt down and a few of the half dozen had gone out for whatever reason. How Harry had not loss his glasses was the only bit of luck he could actually list. Harry tried raising his head to see if the branch he had targeted was lying on the ground somewhere close or still attached to the trunk. His neck wouldn't cooperate and Harry decided not to push it until he recovered a little more.
Another push came to his shoulder and Harry was able to reach up and touch Chinira's muzzle and the bridle that was still on the thestral. "I've really messed this up Chinira. I've gone and seriously hurt myself although I think I'm lucky and haven't broken anything."
The reins attached to the bridle fell over Harry's shoulder and Harry grabbed on to them. He pulled gently on one side and saw that Chinira moved around so that she was standing in front of him. "Good girl. Do you suppose you could stay right there for me?"
Harry pulled down on the reins and was rewarded when Chinira raised her head and gave Harry a small boost to his feet. He swayed momentarily and then went back down to his knees with another spot of dizziness. Harry gathered the reins in one hand and put the other on the ground to stabilize himself. He wearily got to his feet again but had to lean on the thestral for a number of minutes until he felt strong enough to stand by himself. Taking the reins in one hand, Harry limped away from the shadow of the Everwood tree with the thestral walking gently by his side. A dozen paces away Harry dropped the reins and picked up one of the torches that was still burning.
Walking a little unsteadily back to the area where he had fallen, Harry began searching the ground for what he hoped was a freshly fallen limb. He had no luck and finally gave in to the suspicion and peered upward. The branch he had worked on had mostly been cut off by the blasting spell. It had fallen down and only a couple fingers breadth of bark and wood held the future staff to the tree. There was a possibility Harry could just peel the branch down and separate it if he could climb the tree again. Harry wasn't sure he wanted to try that with the spells of dizziness he was currently having though.
A piece of the torch he was holding collapsed and the flame fell on Harry's hand. He dropped the torch on the ground and had to quickly stomp on it as the little bit of flame threatened to catch and spread. When the torch was totally out Harry looked around and realized that he had failed in his trial. There was enough light to see the shape of Chinira a dozen feet away and he could see a lightening of the sky to the east. Dawn was approaching and Harry had neither the staff nor done the bonding ritual. He must have been unconscious for a number of hours after blasting himself out of the tree.
Harry was too tired and in too much pain to cry over the lost opportunity. He made his slow way back to where Chinira grazed and just sat on the ground and watched the sunrise. When he could see clearly enough Harry retrieved the bags of provisions from the pine tree. He dumped the majority of the remaining ferrets and melons on the ground and hoped that Chinira had enough sense to just eat her fill. He grabbed some breakfast for himself before returning to the small stream he had found to get a drink of water. He grimaced when he saw a reflection of himself and hoped Hermione wouldn't be too upset at his appearance. He made the best he could of washing off the dried blood he could see and dipped his shirt in the cool stream to press in against the side of his head. That helped banish the worse of the remaining dizziness and Harry hung the shirt up on a branch to dry out when he got back to where the Everwood tree was.
There was one more thing Harry wanted to do before he began to make the preparations to mount Chinira and fly back to Hogwarts. Harry dug in his pants pocket and brought out the bonding instructions that Wrotkill had given to him. Harry was not too surprise that when he unfolded the piece of parchment that the writing disintegrated and blew away on the morning breeze. He suspected that would be the case since he didn't have the Everwood staff but he had hoped he would have time to see what the bonding ritual entailed. Harry sat on the ground and succumbed to a small nap before he fell over and woke himself up. It seemed to help ease his fatigue just a little bit.
Two hours after the sun broke the horizon, Harry had done a final inspection of the area around the tree he had climbed and managed to find the pieces of the rope he had tied together. Harry planned on using the rope to tie himself to the reins just in case another dizzy spell hit him while they were flying. He had placed the blanket on the back of the thestral and managed to cast a couple of cushioning charms on it and a heating spell upon himself.
Harry talked to Chinira as he gathered up the reins in his hands and tried mounting to her back. He was too weak to manage the jump successfully and was looking around for a high rock or a low branch to help him when the thestral surprisingly went down on her front knees. Harry hugged the thestral's neck and promised her a good treat when they returned to Hogwarts. Chinira regained her feet after Harry mounted her and her wings beat the air in loosening up her flying muscles.
Directing her to the longest stretch of open pathway, Harry dug his heels into Chinira's side and yelled out that they were going home. The quick gallop of the thestral down the path jolted Harry's back but he grimly hung on until they were in the air again. Harry relaxed and tried to find the most comfortable position for the long flight ahead of them.
Four hours and many heating charms later Harry noticed that Chinira was beginning to spiral down and just floating on the breeze as she descended from the height she had coursing through. Harry was glad to finally break through the clouds and see Hogsmeade below him and Hogwarts just a few wing beats away. Harry saw a small number of figures standing by the stables and as they got closer he identified Wrotkill, Hermione, Professor Flitwick, Neville and Susan. Harry had expected Dumbledore and Hagrid there to welcome him back but he just concentrated on keeping his seat as Chinira landed and jogged back to the stable.
Chinira came to a stop in front of the group of people and Professor Flitwick grabbed the reins when Harry finally untied himself and dropped them. Harry got down from the thestral but Susan and Neville stopped Hermione from immediately rushing to his side. Harry approached Wrotkill as Professor Flitwick led Chinira away and into the stable itself. Harry bowed to the sorcerer but straightened up slowly. "My apologies Master Wrotkill but my trial was not successful. I did not succeed in finding and bringing back the staff I desired."
Hermione choked pout a sob and hid her face into Neville's shoulder briefly. Wrotkill came over to stare up into Harry's face. "I can tell you made a true and determined effort at your goal. I had no expectations either way on your success, but now we have more time to prepare you for next year's trial."
"Thank you for your help anyway Master Wrotkill. Do you want a recounting now?"
"In due time we shall talk about what you have undergone Baltek. For now though, you need take hold of my staff." Wrotkill held his staff out parallel to the ground and Harry placed one hand on it. The goblin sorcerer spoke something softly and a wave of magic left the staff and flowed into Harry.
Harry cried out as a sharp wave of magic passed through him and he bowed his head acknowledging the healing spell that Wrotkill had cast. All his aches, pains and dizziness had instantly vanished! Other than very tired and a little hungry, Harry was exactly as he was before he mounted up on Chinira the day before.
Going down to one knee, Harry spoke in gobbledygook to the sorcerer. "Thank you Master Wrotkill. Long life to you and your family and a quick and bloody death to your enemies!"
Wrotkill nodded his head and gave the goblin equivalent of a smile before he raised his arms and silently vanished. Harry turned just in time to catch a frantic Hermione as she launched herself in to his arms.
Hermione was crying, and couldn't seem to stop even after Harry gave her reassurances that he was really all right and that Wrotkill had healed up his hurts. He cast a quick gaze around and saw that Neville and Susan seemed to be upset also.
'Hermione, tell me what's wrong.'
Hermione finally released her clutch on her boyfriend. She started twice to talk before she got her words out. "There was another attack on students while you were gone Harry! Dumbledore and Hagrid have been removed too!"