Chapter 13-The Pearl's Catch

"Let's see, here. You murdered a hoard of a dying breed of magical spiders, desecrated a gravesite, and went into the Forbidden Forest under direct contradiction of my rule, breaking a decade-long treaty for what, exactly?" The assistant headmaster stepped forward in the grimy room, putting his nose directly into Rose's face.

She opened her mouth for a moment, but it took a spell for the words to leave. "Ah...you see the spider incident wasn't exactly our fault…It's a little hard to explain."

"Try starting from the beginning," he said through gritted teeth.

She nodded. "Albus?" The boy looked at her like he was going to tear her head off, a piece of coagulated blood dropping from his ear and sticking on the floor. "Right, I guess I'll tell it, then."

"That would be best."

"You see, we…ah…saw a…a…a snuffleupagus…Or at least I did! I thought I did."

"Snuffleupagus?" he asked, genuinely perplexed. "I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar."

"Ah, yes, the, uh…snuffleupagus. Care to help me out, here, friends?"

"It's a furry, orange, elephant-like creature," Albus said, "with large eyes. It's a famous myth."

The man stared at her deadpan face for a moment, but shook this off. "And Rose led you all on this chase for the snifflegus, is that right?"

"Snuffleupagus," Rose muttered under her breath.

"Because I'm sure we all know how much Rose Weasley loves to believe in myths and conspiracy theories. That's why we all see her reading The Quibbler with such gusto."

Leo had the strangest feeling their headmaster somehow knew that Rose was kind of girl who would not be caught dead reading such a newspaper. Being the head of the Auror department at the Ministry, Rose's uncle, Harry Potter, had probably made friends with the man, so naturally he must've kept a close eye on Rose. Leo imagined this was not only for the man's hopes she would become as great a study as her mother, but also to snitch information to her father. Being a friend of Albus, Leo had been forced to hear endless complaining from the girl about the sexism of her family.

"Oh, but it wasn't her, you see." Leo turned to see Carina speaking in her usual, oddly lopsided voice. "I do enjoy the merits of the snuffleupagus. Such a fascinating creature. Runs at such a slow pace according to accounts I've read. I really thought we could corner it. Alas, such luck has never been afforded to one with legs so short as mine. With intentions so impure."

He stared at her for a moment, dripping with blood, a long piece of spider's flesh sitting fuzzy between her black eyes. He nodded as he looked at her, trying to snap back to his senses.

"Right," he said. "Um...yes…I see, so it really wasn't—"

"The suffleupagus, few people know, is a cruel, harsh creature despite its outer appearance. You know those eyes? Have you ever seen them in person? I have. Everyone else was so lucky not to have. Do you know why they look so harmless?"

"Ah…miss, it's really no big—"

"So they can trick innocent animals to the slaughter. Yes. It's quite entrancing to see one. Like a little song being played over and over and over and over and over…" She closed her eyes softly and began to hum a scratchy, simple tune.

The headmaster didn't look quite so angry as eager to get the insane girl out of his office. "Ah, yes, yes! You know, I think I have head of this snuffleupagus! Haha! Some rumors floated around in my own day! Well, you all can leave now, I think. Yes, run along! No harm done really!"

She grabbed his arm, staring straight into his eyes. There must've been something there because he froze, wide-eyed. "But I'm not finished warning you. You have no idea what it is capable of. The nightmares that will haunt you. But don't ask them away. No. The good dreams are the worst."

"Ah…"

"The good dreams lure you out to it and consume you in an ocean of happiness before it slashes your throat and leaves you to bleed out on the stone floor of a cave, your skeleton rotting with its other victims."

"Well, it's been lovely chatting, really! You may go now. Get cleaned up! Haha!" He practically pushed them back through his door.

Carina gripped the threshold and turned around so her head scarcely looked attached her own body as dried spider peeled from her cheek. "Are you sure you don't need to know more? You will find this in no book. It has destroyed them all. Or rather the humans who worship it."

"I think I'll manage," he told her truthfully. The doors slammed anxiously behind them. She smiled lightly to herself before walking down the stairs. He jumped down to meet her at the bottom of the steps.

"Alright," he admitted. "I am officially terrified."

"Oh, grand. You should be."

"What on Earth is a snuffleupagus?" Patricia asked.

"I don't know. I saw it once on television," Rose sighed. "I will never watch that again. It is honestly the strangest thing I've ever seen. I don't understand why muggles so enjoy it so."

"Mates, don't tell me that wasn't freaky," Leo said to the others.

"What wasn't freaky?" Rose asked.

"Are you quite serious?! What just happened!"

"Leo, Albus is the son of Harry Potter and I'm his niece. Of course he let us go. Let's just get to the bathroom to scrape these guts off us," Rose said. She grabbed Patricia's hand and dragged her down the hallway, Albus pausing to look back, giving Carina an odd look, and shooting down the hallway after them.

As soon as they were out of sight, he grabbed Carina's arms and pushed her into an empty classroom, slamming the door behind him. "Tell me what's going on. Now."

She looked up at him, eyes solid and dark as the dungeons beneath their feet. "You're going to have to be more specific."

"You know what I'm talking about!"

She looked straight at him without so much as blinking an eye. "I don't."

"What just happened out there? We were just attacked by goblins that were coincidentally taken out by a hoard of spiders!"

"Oh, there was nothing coincidental about that, I assure you." She looked down. "But I'm sorry I couldn't tell you before. You see, I had to be sure I wasn't wrong. To be completely honest, I can't believe they found us so quickly. They must have a way to detect the Living Pearl. A potion or spell…"

"What is the Living Pearl? And why is it inside me?!"

"I told you. The Living Pearl is a magical artifact made by a goblin named Baxg. At first, it was unwanted by goblin kind, but when they discovered how powerful it was, they all wanted it. As goblins are prone to. The Pearl has the power to enhance a body's natural abilities and is wanted by virtually every goblin alive; however, it hasn't been seen since Baxg's death."

He lifted his shirt and touched his bellybutton where he could feel something solid within him. He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it before. "Until now," he finished.

"Until now," she nodded. "The only question is how you got it."

"Wait a minute," he said, looking up at her. "You don't know?"

She shook her head. "My story is…complicated."

"Well, start talking."

She turned to look back out the window as rain began to patter against the glass. But he instantly realized it wasn't the rain she was staring at. "No, I'm going to bed," she decided and began to walk past him.

He snatched her arm and pulled her towards him so their faces were inches apart. His chest moved up and down like a pump, but it was like she didn't breathe. Though he was holding her wrist, he couldn't feel a heartbeat. Yet she was anything but dead. Something was just slowing inside of her. He could feel it. Her skin was cool to the touch like a glass that'd just been filled with ice water in his hands. He'd never felt that before. It made goosebumps grow along his arm.

She turned her head up so her hair of black storm clouds revealed a sheet of a face with eyes dark holes spliced with bits of lightning. "You don't want to see me when the sun goes down," she promised him.

He let go and she walked out of the classroom, leaving him to listen to the rain bang against the windows.

Leo sat in Charms class, thinking about that girl. She kept flashing from his view like a fish he was trying to catch, slipping through his fingers until it flopped back into the water. He knew if he just grabbed and squeezed, it would stay there. It wouldn't be able to escape. She was like that, he was sure. She was a magician, but in the end, all her tricks were illusions. She'd made a mistake. She'd taken a risk that Saturday and he needed to know why.

"Remember," Flitwick instructed. "There are certain types of spells that can be changed with different wording once the spells become more complex. Magic is a diverse language. If a single syllable of spell is out of place, you could turn your friend into a frog instead of making her laugh. If the spell is in a language you don't understand, don't take the textbook's word for it and guess. Pronunciation is everything."

"Professor," Rose asked, raising her hand. The class groaned. Give it a rest, Leo thought. Ever since she'd discovered she was terrible at charms, she was an informational machine. She had all the concepts down. In fact, she had the highest test scores of anyone in the school. She just always failed the practical. "Is it true many wizards can develop their own spells in English?"

The professor hesitated gadding at the front of the room for a moment. "The answer is more difficult than you may think," Flitwick finally responded. Just then, the bell tower clanged and the students rushed out of the class quicker than blood from a head injury. Leo was with them until he paused at the door. Rose sat alone in the classroom, watching Flitwick. The man walked to a shelf and took down a cuckoo clock surrounded by glass so the inner workings could be seen. "Magic, Miss. Weasley, is like trying to tell time." He set the clock down in front of her on her desk so they could stare at it ticking away the seconds. "We try to harness it to use to our own advantages. Like telling time, there are so many ways we can do it. There are pendulum clocks, incense clocks, quartz clocks, water clocks—"

"I know you like clocks," Rose interrupted him. "But what does that have to do with new spells?"

He sighed, looking down at his mechanical wind-up. "We can design many different clocks of the same type, but they all must have the same basic components. Most people, given the materials, can manage an egg timer, Miss. Weasley, but few can make a mechanical watch that will run off of gears and a pendulum. You're of the few that think on such complex terms." He placed his hands on the clock. "You can't think for something simple like an egg timer. You weren't designed for hexes and charms to come easy. It takes a different kind of work than you've been giving."

"But—."

"Good day, Miss. Weasley."

Rose got up and stiffly walked past Leo, out of the classroom.

"Wow," she whispered harshly. "That did not even remotely begin to answer my question."

Looking back to Flitwick, Leo had the feeling she was wrong.

Charms being his last class of the day, Leo walked slowly through the hallway, dragging his feet as his mind became absorbed in what had happened. He needed to find Carina. He needed to ask her everything she knew. But she seemed intent on remaining evasive. She must've known his schedule because he hadn't seen her once since that Sunday night in the abandoned classroom. She'd looked so small and pale. They were in the same year, but she looked no older than a third year, a tiny little thing with a baby face. Thinking back, he might've been able to run a hand straight through her face so his fingers passed to the other side. She blended in so well with the window behind her, like she was made of night. He had this sick feeling in his stomach, like he didn't want to know why she was the way she was.

Throughout the week, he'd tried to catch her. He took Jeremy's place in History of Magic, but the seat beside him was empty. When he looked across the room in Potions, her spot near the other Hufflepuffs was vacant. She didn't want him to know something and if he couldn't find out what, at least he could discover why.

He walked into the library. It was chock full of people. It appeared the girls enjoyed doing their homework nearest to the Quidditch athletes. They were filling out parchment on the floor as they giggled beside a group of filled-in teenage boys. It made him sick to look at. Something was funny in their heads. Like little bugs got in through their nose and ears and bacteria coated their eyes so everything was a competition. Who could get a boy to like them? Prize for whoever acts the most like a klutz.

Leo shook his head and breathed, trying to focus on his task and bring his encounter with the goblins to the front of his mind.

"It was Jagobin!" "Jagobin! He knows!" "Jagobin? How? How? How? He couldn't know!"

He was someone, probably a goblin, who wanted the Living Pearl. Leo remembered that much, but Carina had told him it was made by a goblin named Baxg. The only thing was Baxg wasn't a goblin's name. It clearly belonged to a dwarf. It was the difference between a Norwegian name and an Indian one. It was weird. So he started there.

He ran his fingers along the spines of the Ds of the magical creature section. There weren't many books on dwarves. Only a few thin copies with spines that hadn't even been cracked. He took them down from the shelf and laid them out on the table. None of them sounded too promising. Dwarfish Philosophy, The Biology of Dwarves, and, but of course, Dwarfish Mining Effects on the Economic Downturn of the Nineteenth Century. The next few hours might've taken a while if George hadn't announced her presence.

"Reading up on dwarves, I see," she said. "For your newspaper?"

Yeah, because everyone enjoys reading articles about tiny people with beards down to their feet who haven't changed their ways in hundreds of years. Loads of news there, Leo thought bitterly. "No," he sighed. "Sadly, something else entirely."

"Say, I've read that one."

Leo looked up. "You have? Which?"

"There, A Code of Pickaxes. Far more interesting than the title suggests." No, don't sit— She took a seat opposite him at the table and leaned over the wooden structure, opening the volume. "It's a biography about a young dwarf named Dallen Ruby who was the first in three generations to leave his clan. It's very shameful for a dwarf to do that, you know. Family and code are extremely important to them, but he got into some trouble and he and some of the other dwarves were banished. Anyway, he off and befriended a goblin inventor. Some Bale or Bag or the like."

"Baxg?"

She shrugged. "Maybe. You heard of him?"

"Somewhat. What about him?"

"You don't want to read it for yourself?"

"Let's leave the reading to Ravenclaws and Rose."

George smiled. For a Fourth year, she was really quite pretty with a shaggy pixie cut to match eyes the color of mahogany.

"Baxg and Dallen chanced to meet and became quick friends. It's no wonder why. Baxg was a designer of complex magical items and Dallen was good with his hands and resourceful with finding materials. If Baxg dreamt something up, you could be sure Dallen could assemble it. Still, goblins and dwarves never did get along well, so the pair was odd. They spent over a decade together and became quite well-known in certain parts of the globe."

"What happened?" Leo asked.

"The two had a spat over a new item Baxg had created."

It didn't take him half a second to ponder what it might've been. "The Living Pearl?"

She gave him a look. "Ah, yeah, that's right. You know it has the power to enhance a body's abilities. Dallen thought it was too powerful for just one person and its effects should be limited. In the hands of an everyday wizard, it wouldn't do much, but can you imagine if a powerful and insane wizard like You-Know-Who were to get ahold of it? The Ministry of Magic would never be able to stop him."

"That could be a problem," Leo admitted.

"Baxg wanted to keep it for himself in all its power. He had absorbed it already and there was something Dallen didn't realize until only years later."

Leo knitted his eyebrows. "What?"

"The Pearl doesn't only enhance your good qualities, Leo. It makes your bad ones more salient than they ever were. Baxg was always pig-headed and proud. When Dallen suggested the Pearl should be lessened in power or even destroyed, he may not have backlashed if it wasn't for the Living Pearl inside of him. He chose to master his genius through the Pearl and that very thing became his downfall."

Leo touched his hand to his naval and for a moment, thought he could feel the power of the Pearl flowing in his blood. "His downfall?"

"Baxg, becoming ever more engrossed in the Pearl's effects after over a year of having it, bragged to whoever would listen about his genius and the Living Pearl. Most of the world at that time was convinced that Baxg was just a mad inventor living in the mountains. Scarcely anyone even knew of Dallen. As it goes, those looking for more power always keep an ear to the ground for how to get it and there was one goblin who believed immensely in the Living Pearl. When Dallen and Baxg finally parted ways, Jagobin captured—"

"Jagobin?"

"What is it?"

"Nothing, go on."

She gave him a look. "There's a lot in here. Are you sure you don't want to—"

"I told you once I don't want to read it; that should be enough for you! Why are you always so annoying?!" he snapped. He wanted to slap her for being so pushy. Like they all were. So pushy, pushy, pushy. Mine, mine, mine. All about me. Look at me. Do what I say. What if he didn't want to do what she said?!

She sat up in the chair and looked at him. "I wasn't trying to pester you, Leo. I just—"

"You just—What?! Merlin, I'm tired of this! Don't you think I can make my own bloody decisions?!"

She stared at him, her head shaking for a brief moment, like she didn't understand something. She looked like she was about to say something, but shouldered her bag and shoved her way through the people, out of the library. Leo stared after her for a moment, cursing how irritating the girls at this school always were, but he stopped. He grabbed the Pearl inside him and breathed. The Pearl doesn't only enhance your good qualities, Leo. It makes your bad ones more salient than they ever were. Was that him just now or the Pearl? He'd always been irked by girls' habits, but he felt like he'd just jumped from zero to sixty kilos on a broom and he wasn't feeling the whiplash until now. One minute, he was talking normally and the next he wanted to tear her head off and kick her in a pile of limbs on the ground.

He felt his limbs go numb like he'd taken too much of a pain potion and was dropping off. He squeezed his eyes shut and grabbed the book before him, bracing himself for the images unfolding in his mind. Living his life in hatred while his other friends were married. Worse, beating his wife if he'd managed to get one and feeling no remorse afterwards. Abusing his daughter and not caring. He opened his eyes and looked down at the book in front of him. George had flipped it open to a page with a picture of a short, stalky little man with a hat pressing down over his wild hair, standing beside a grinning goblin with a twisted nose. Scrawled across the bottom in black ink, My Best Friend.

Leo walked up to Madam Pince and slammed the book on the table. "I'd like to check this out," he said. "If you please."