Chapter 27 It's in the Blood
Teddy coughed and waved his hands in an attempt to dispel the swirling dust. The book must not have been touched in quite some time, so when he had pulled it off of the shelf, it had disturbed years, if not decades, of dust.
He and Hermione had been in the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library for the last five days. They had poured through almost every book without finding a clue about what magic Delphini had used on Harry.
The House Elves, wanting to help them with their quest of curing Harry, had been supplying them with food and a steady stream of coffee and tea. Hermione thanked them politely but wouldn't allow a drop or crumb to pass through the library doors. Instead, the trays were placed in Teddy's office.
Teddy tried not to think about food, but he was starving and wanted to break for lunch. He would check this book and if he couldn't find anything, then he would beg Hermione to take a break with him. His stomach growled loudly in protest of this decision.
He slammed open the heavy black carved wooden cover and marveled at the lack of ingenuity of the writers of dark magic books, as every single cover was heavy and black. He skimmed the first few pages, flipping them back and forth.
"Hermione, can you come here a second?"
"Hmm? What?" Hermione shifted her bleary eyes from the massive black book in front of her to Teddy.
"This book," he said motioning to the huge tome in front of him, "I can't read it."
Hermione rose slowly, and Teddy could see she was exhausted, just like him. He fervently hoped they would find something soon as they were down to one last row of books.
Hermione turned the book and mimicked Teddy's motions, flipping through the first few pages.
"Well, this is odd," Hermione exclaimed. "The first page is written in Runes. I haven't translated Runes in ages, but I believe it says this book was written by Professor Dumbledore!"
"What?" Teddy replied with an incredulous expression on his face.
"Let's bring it to the headmaster's office and ask the Professor."
"Right!" Teddy said, slamming the book and shaking loose another decade of dust, which set the pair to coughing. He hefted the book and in a strangled reply, "Let's go."
They dashed up the familiar curving staircase and into the office. The portraits of past headmasters had lined the walls for centuries to advise and sometimes annoy the current headmaster, or in this case, headmistress.
Hermione was devastated to find Dumbledore's portrait was empty. Teddy slammed the heavy book on the empty desk as the current headmistress was nowhere to be seen.
"Now what?" He exclaimed.
Hermione cleared her throat and in a loud, clear voice, "Gentlemen and lady." She smiled at Professor McGonagall. "We need to speak with Professor Dumbledore. It's urgent. Can you tell us where he is?"
"I'm over here visiting with Professor Fortescue," Dumbledore replied. "Ah, Mrs Granger-Weasley! Mr. Lupin! How can I help you?"
"Professor, it's about Harry. He's been hexed, or something. He's gravely ill and we're searching for a clue on how to help him."
The headmaster portraits all started to exclaim at once, the loudest being Professor McGonagall. "Not that poor boy again." "What's happened?" "What can we do to help him?"
"Professor," Hermione continued without explanation, "this book says it was written by you, but I'm unable to read it. I'm hoping it contains the answer we've been looking for."
Professor Dumbledore's face paled. "I certainly hope nothing contained within that book has been done to Harry. If it has, then I hope and pray it can be reversed. I warn you; this book contains some of the darkest magic in existence. You should never remove it from Hogwarts or mention it to anyone. If it were to fall into the wrong hands, then it could be devastating to all."
"Now, with that being said, to read it, you will need these," a ghostly pale hand reached from the portrait holding a pair of half-moon glasses.
Hermione reached for the glasses, handling them carefully. She had never seen Professor Dumbledore without them, not even in death had they been removed.
"Thank you, professor."
Hermione sat at the empty desk, placed the glasses on her nose, opened the book, and began to read.
