Disclaimers: See Chapter 1 for more info.
Frodo spent much of the next week pondering over how to obtain Slughorn's true memory. He came to no resolution. The very idea of Slughorn simply giving him the memory was next to impossible. There was no way he could find out what Sauron was up to. Most likely, he resolved to hearing the same spiel from Hermione.
"You need to go and get Slughorn's memory." She said.
"What if I can't find it?" Frodo shrugged. "What then?"
"Well, you'll just have to try again." Hermione told him.
Frodo's gaze turned elsewhere. There was Aria, heading towards the Ravenclaw table. Well, he would resolve this with Hermione some other time. Hopefully, Aria wouldn't keep him away too long. Then again, who knew.
"Frodo, are you listening to me – oh!" Hermione understood. She huffed. "Well, I wouldn't want to keep you from your girlfriend."
"Hermione, I'm telling you Aria's not as bad as you think she is." Frodo said, standing up. "I'm going to bring Aria over here for a moment."
"Humph! Hearing voices. The nerve." Hermione said, smugly.
"Just trust me. I know what I'm doing." Frodo said, heading towards Aria. It took him some time, but eventually he brought his girlfriend over to Hermione. It was time to make amends. "Hermione, Aria, I think you both deserve an apology."
"I don't. I don't have anything to apologize for." Hermione said, annoyed. She asked Frodo, "What did you think would happen? I'd apologize?"
"I don't have anything to apologize for either." Aria admitted aloud.
"Don't you have something better to do with your time?" Hermione asked, frustrated.
"Why you—" Aria was stopped by Frodo's hand.
"Just be considerate of other people." Frodo whispered in Aria's ear.
"This whole mess wouldn't have started if it weren't for Hermione being suspicious of me." Aria snapped, softly. "If anyone deserves an apology from Hermione, it's me."
Hermione shook her head. "You'll never learn."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Aria asked, dumbfounded.
"It just means that you and hearing voices isn't going to help your case." Hermione told her, point blank. "Now, if you stop believing that there's voices and simply tell everyone the truth – that maybe you're failing a class or maybe there's a unicorn following you – somewhere along those lines, someone's going to listen to you."
Aria closed her mouth. Frodo could tell she wanted to say something more, but he couldn't get it out of her. She just froze on the spot, hurting. Eventually, she said something else.
"Look Hermione, I'm not going to go back and lie about my voices." Aria admitted, curtly. "You may be smart, but you don't know a thing about the fantastic or voices. For once, take off the logical cap and just believe in something. I know Harry does and Frodo. So why don't you?"
"Aria, I'm trying to help." Hermione said, not understanding.
"By asking me to lie about who I am." Aria shook her head. "Don't try to change me." She jerked off of Frodo's hand, returning to the Ravenclaw table in frustration.
Hermione shook her head, too. "She'll never learn."
"That's because you're not giving her a chance." Frodo told her, serious. "The first sign of truthfulness, and you go about and deny her that right."
"The voices talk is a bit farfetched, Frodo. Any logical person would know that—"
"Didn't you hear a word she said?"
"Of course I did!" She added. "I just think that hearing voices is a bad omen. That's not going to change."
Frodo fell silent. He broke it by saying, calmly, "I'm going to go look for Lotho."
"Maybe you should go find Slughorn." Hermione said, continuing to eat her lunch.
He said nothing else. He just left the Great Hall. There was no sense in convincing Hermione. Maybe it was better to leave the matter rest. He would just have to tell Aria to not talk about her voices in front of Hermione. That was the only way to end it. He wondered how she would take it.
After going up flights of stairs and walking down the seventh-floor corridor, Frodo made it to the wall where the Room of Requirement stood. He learned from Harry and Ron that maybe Malfoy and Lotho were using this secret room as their base. It explained why they thought Malfoy and Lotho disappeared from the school.
"I need to know where Malfoy and Lotho are. What room they're using." Nothing happened. "Hullo? Hullo – oh." He needed to calm down and focus. "I need a place where Malfoy and Lotho are keeping things. I need to know it now."
Still nothing. He shook his fist. He didn't know what those two scallywags were up to. One thing was for sure: he wasn't entering this room, no way, no how. And the bell didn't ring just yet. Maybe he'd try another room. The smithy room. That room brought him such joy and wonder. After finding the right portrait, Frodo climbed through and entered the room.
It was the same as he remembered it. Anvils on the stone steps and a huge stone fireplace, complete with a lit fire. There were also racks for storing weapons and hangars for the smithy tools. He sighed. Great. What could he find in this room that he hadn't explored yet? He heaved a sigh, approaching the stone fireplace.
"You wouldn't happen to have a secret or two. Would you?" Frodo asked the stone fireplace.
There was a crack from the flames and a dinging sound. Something fell on the floor. It was a large coin with an inscription on the front and back that read: Some things that are lost have a way of returning to oneself. We just need to know where to look.
Frodo threw the coin against the wall. Great! That wasn't going to help. Something else fell out. A glass orb. He grabbed it and held onto it. There was a message inside: There are Seven Horcruxes. There was also a face in the orb. A female voice spoke and sounded an awful lot like Professor Trelawney. "The Chosen Ones are coming to vanquish the Dark Lords. The Dark Lords do not yet know what these Chosen Ones are capable of. Neither can live while the others survive." The voice faded as did the face.
He searched for the slot where the orb had come from. Cautiously, he put the orb back into the slot. A moving picture protruded from the fireplace's stone wall. There was a werewolf, but also Sauron, ready to attack the werewolf. He was losing, but now he fled. The word seven crept up again. Was the whole room going insane? What would Sauron want with seven Horcruxes? What was the point?
The lights flickered on and off. It was time to skedaddle out of that room. Frodo charged towards the portrait hole and fled back into the corridor. It was almost time for class.
.
Frodo spent the evening in the Ravenclaw common room. There was nothing better to do with his time, but read and study. His gaze meandered to Aria. It was time to tell her his feelings towards her spat with Hermione.
"Aria," Frodo sat down with her at one of the tables, "I think it would be wise if you didn't speak about your voices in front of Hermione. She doesn't understand." He tried to reason with her. "I know you don't like it, but what would you do in this situation?"
"I'm not going to lie and say I don't have them. The voices are a part of my life. It's not something you can lie about." Aria shook her head. "Hermione's wrong. She doesn't understand." She added, "Look, I know you want to play the advocate, but I'm just getting comfortable talking about them. Please, let me do what I want."
"Aria, maybe if we tried to reason with Hermione – let her see what is truth – then maybe this whole mess will be resolved."
"Hermione's too logical for her own good. She's a lot like Susan Pevensie from 'The Chronicles of Narnia'books. They're both logical and all they care about is proof. If something's not written in a book or isn't fact, then they're not going to listen to those who go on belief, like me." Aria told him flat out. "So, who are you going to believe? Me or Hermione?"
"I'm not getting into this argument." Frodo told her, serious. "Maybe Hermione has a point. Then there's Sam who also thinks logically. He's smart. He cares about home. Give them both a chance."
"I do give Sam a chance." Aria told him. "Look Frodo, Sam's a homebody. Harry has Hermione and Ron. Next to Luna… look Frodo. Not everything happens in books."
"You used to be a bookworm. What happened to that?" He asked her.
She shrugged. "Well, I don't know how many people go on belief. A lot, most likely." She added, "Seriously, though. How many people, in this school, talk about voices?" She spoke more softly, concerned, "And folk outside of school thinks you're going to fail on your quest. Sam gets the glory. Nearly everyone gets their glory moments. I guess that includes you, in the books."
"That's what everyone thinks." He asked her, curious. "What do you think will happen? Who is more right?"
"Personally, I think you'll succeed. You'll find a way to beat this." She added last, "Hermione just thinks too logically for her own good. She's not going to understand voices. Calling them a bad omen and then treating me the same. What kind of a friend does that? We may have gotten along when we were younger, but my views aren't the same as hers. I don't know what people see in her." She said last, "Anyway, goodnight Frodo." She stood up and walked towards the girls' dormitory.
"Goodnight." Frodo said, returning his gaze to one of the windows. It was clear that Aria still had some issues. Whether this would affect her friendship with Hermione remained to be seen. For all Frodo knew, he hoped they would come to an understanding. For now, he would just have to grin and bear it.
Thanks for reading. :)