Chapter 41: Bragging Rights
Friday December 6th, 1991
"Come now! Keep up! D-don't fall behind!" Professor Quirrell shouted across the courtyard.
The students continued to run. Their breath ran ragged in puffs of frosty air. "Easy- for him- to say." Lee panted as he ran to Melissa's right. "He doesn't- have- to run."
"No talkback, Mister Jordan!" Quirrell's voice bounced from the startline. "If your time b-back is below average, I'll have you pr-acticing in deTENtion!"
"Blimey! How does he do that?" Kenneth Towler exclaimed from somewhere behind her.
"Who knows." Jacinth muttered.
"Don't ask, just keep running!" Beatrice Vance gruffed, a worry in her voice as their chunk of students slowly fell behind.
Melissa kept her eyes forward, trying her best to break through into the middle-tier group. As the students rounded the corner, she noticed Adrian, Victoria Cromwell, and Senga Kettleburn well in the lead. It ended up being an advantage for her, especially as she noticed each of them start leaping at random intervals.
Pitfalls ahead. She thought immediately. Keeping her wits about her, Melissa started to veer forward and away from Warrington and aimed her sights behind Angelina Johnson, who was running neck and neck with Amy. Approaching the bend, she was able to catch Johnson's leaps and timed them to her own pace. With barely a need to watch for the pitfalls, she jumped over them effortlessly, sparing precious seconds into her time. This method she copied again as she found the faster group started making bends in their stride. This one confused her, as they seemed to be dodging invisible items. Nevertheless, she kept her eyes on Johnson and followed her lead.
One, two, right, four. One, two, three, four. Left, two, three, four.
She ran into the beat, counting to two before turning a fast right. A smart move, as on two, a wooden pillar appeared seemingly out of nowhere. She banished the observation from mind, keeping to the metronome of Johnson's pace.
All around her, students began to stutter and trip or run straight into the sudden pillars. Many of them fell behind in their placements of the race. Fortunately, Melissa managed to keep at the pace without misstep, bringing her to finish the race in 7th place amongst her peers.
"Ad-d-mirable work, everyone." Quirrell remarked over the group. "Miss Cromwell. Miss KE-ttleburn. G-good job, as usual. Excellent sense of your sur-roundings!"
"Thank you, professor." The two girls gave toothy smiles at the praise.
"Mister Jordan. I'm afraid your time is far worse than your p-past work. I am assigning you an hour to-morrow morning for p-personal training."
"But I didn't come last!" Lee complained.
"No, but those with slower times are st-still faster than they were at the start of term. They have improved. You have not."
Lee groaned at the reasoning. His hand rubbed up and down his shin, which had been scrapped up while attempting to dodge a pillar. Quirrell ignored the groan of protest and walked over to Melissa, looking down at her with a raised brow. "Your time is much improved, Miss Ben-nett; however, you c-can't claim your actions as success." He chastised. "In f-fact, for the midterm exam I will make sure no one can c-copy each other's moves."
"I understand, professor." She replied in monotone.
"Good." The man nodded and walked away to speak with the other students.
After the class ended, the walk to Herbology became its own round of chastisement. "I don't get why he's so hard on you." Jacqueline complained on her behalf. "Watching how others move to learn your surroundings is a brilliant idea. You ought to be congratulated for it, not reprimanded."
"I know." Melissa groaned.
"I'm more surprised that you just took it." Adrian commented. "You've never been afraid to challenge a professor when they're being unfair, even Professor Snape, but you never argue with Professor Quirrell."
The others nodded at that observation, but Melissa simply shrugged it off. "I figure it's better to just take it with Defence professors. My reputation is odd enough as it is with that class."
Amy snorted. "I'll say."
"But to make a simple observation is not a bad thing." Domonkos added. "As long as you don't say things in a rude way you should be fine."
"I'm not sure Melissa is capable of that." Jacqueline smiled playfully.
Melissa narrowed her eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Domonkos offered an answer. "It means that when people wish to quote you, they must omit many words."
The group chuckled at the awkwardly truthful example. Melissa, meanwhile, rolled her eyes. "You're all just too sensitive."
"Tell that to the Wizengamot." Jacqueline teased. The rest of the group laughed and teased the girl the rest of the way to class.
Per usual, Friday afternoons were spent in the Room of Requirement. While usually alone, on this day Harry came with Melissa to look for the diadem. Though, clearly, he wasn't enjoying the wide-sweep search tactic.
"What about a jewellery store?"
"I tried something like that. It didn't show up."
"Dark and cursed artifacts?"
"Didn't work. Also, don't touch anything with a red X painted on it. They all showed up in the room, that time."
"So that's why you asked to borrow that paint can." Harry pondered further for room ideas. "Sacred relics?"
Melissa stopped in her scrummaging to look at him. "That's not a bad idea, but I don't think it's technically a sacred object."
"There's no harm in asking the room." He pushed.
"I suppose. If we don't find it today I'll try that next time." The girl shrugged and continued with her work. With a wave of her wand, she pulled apart the mound, cataloguing and replacing the pile as she combed through it.
"...Remus Lupin is staying for Christmas." Harry commented, eyes on his own pile of Hogwarts junk.
Melissa filtered the comment as if it were another item in the pile. Valuable or trivial information? "And how do you feel about that?"
"I don't know." Harry paused for a moment. "I've read Lupine Lawlessness; Hairy Snout, Human Heart; Wanderings with Werewolves; every book seems to have it's own opinion on what werewolves are like."
"Well…" Melissa clicked her tongue. "I suppose you can argue it's because werewolves are people, and people are all different. Good ones, bad ones, fun ones, grumpy ones. Can you write a book that describes people as a whole?"
"I suppose not." Harry considered. "If I had to go by what people say about him… Sirius talks about the trouble the Marauders all got into in school. Though Hagrid says that Lupin was always quiet and polite."
"Then reserve your opinion of him for when you get to know him in person." The witch shrugged. "Sounds easier than thinking about him as just 'their werewolf friend'."
"I never said that." Harry argued.
"I know, I'm just saying, is all. …Besides, a werewolf for an uncle can't be any more dangerous than being friends with a basilisk."
Harry snorted into a laugh. "Alright, that's a fair point. Though I don't think Caireen thinks of me as a friend."
"Whatever, I'm still counting it. I'd take a friendly werewolf over a man-eating snake, any day."
Harry rolled his eyes and gave his head a shake. "I keep telling you, she isn't going to eat you."
"You say that, but if she ever petrifies or eats me, you owe me 100 galleons."
"And how would I pay you if she eats you?" He teased.
"I don't know," Melissa whined, "I'll come back as a ghost and tell you what to do with the money."
Harry chuckled at the ridiculous idea. "Or I refuse so that you have to stay around forever."
"Aw, how sweet of you, Harry Baby." She cooed in faux sweetness. "And I'll spend the rest of your life playing a ghostly accordion every time you try to sleep."
Harry lifted his head, distracted to the point that some items fell from his levitation spell. "You wouldn't."
Melissa flashed him an evil grin. "Wanna bet?"
His stare went flat as he judged the seriousness of the threat. "...Fine. 100 galleons it is."
"THERE WE GO!" Cheered the saccharine-voiced teen. Revelling in triumph, she turned back to her pile and continued the search.
Harry, meanwhile, stewed over the ghostly threat. "If that's how it's going to be, I'm taking the diadem to Caireen, myself. You're not allowed to become a ghost, even if it's an accident."
"WORKS FOR ME!"
Thursday, December 12th, 1991
I want to find objects owned by the Hogwarts Founders
I want to find objects owned by the Hogwarts Founders
I want to find objects owned by the Hogwarts Founders
On the third command, the door to the Room of Requirement revealed itself to the young student. The girl rolled her shoulders back and released a breath of air. "Let's see if this works."
Opening the door, Melissa walked into a small room, one that still managed to be cluttered with rotting desks, tattered clothes, cauldrons, and rotted writing implements.
"More junk. Great." She muttered to herself. Nevertheless, she walked further into the room. Beyond the worn and worthless items, she did come across some other, somewhat interesting items. A bronze horn engraved with the Hogwarts crest, books caked in so much dust that they will likely disintegrate if touched, shields with the Hogwarts crest, rings and brooches she had seen before in the "fashion room" attempt, and a handful of items with red X's painted onto them. That last discovery had the girl feeling somewhat sheepish, only for that feeling to be replaced with confusion that the Hogwarts founders would leave such items unattended at a school of all things.
As she continued to inspect the room, a glint of silver caught her eye. Putting down the jewellery box in hand, Melissa walked towards a bookshelf where the shine caught her eye. The source of the glint appeared to be the spine of a book on the bottom shelf, adorned in beaten silver instead of leather or skin. Curious at the clean and shining spine, Melissa pulled the book off the shelf. The cover was of the same beaten silver, bound with a gourd-shaped keyhole and it's corners accented by embedded emeralds circled by etchings of serpents.
Must have been really valuable to him to have a refreshment charm keep it shiny like this after all this time.
Her finger traced along the edges of the keyhole. It wasn't perfectly gourd-shaped. The top circle has ridges to it, almost like a step pyramid. That, or…
Melissa turned back to the collection of rings. Fishing through them, she came across a ring stylized with a coiled snake, fangs at the ready to strike. Lifting it, she measured the outline of the ring to the outline of the keyhole, finding it to be a perfect match. The Founders were way too predictable. Smirking at the find, she placed her thumb through the oversized ring and fit it through the book.
"YOWWWW!" A sharp pain greeted her as if her thumb was being stabbed through by a thick thorn. She struggled to remove the pained thumb, taking two jerks until it freed completely. Letting the book fall to the floor, she moved to pull the ring off her finger. It slid free without issue, though a trail of blood streaked across her thumb as she removed the offending jewellery. The thumb wasn't too badly stabbed, she was somewhat happy to observe, but there was a circular hole punctured through the top of the thumb. Looking back to the ring, she found the ring to be bloody both from the band and from the fangs of the coiled snake. Narrowing her eyes, she turned her eyes downward to the silver book, finding the latch to have popped open to be read.
"Okay, seriously, what sort of jackass makes a sacrifice-locked book?" Sucking the blood from the wound, she put the ring back onto the table and picked up the silver book one-handed to put beside the ring. While she waited for the bleeding to stop, Melissa skimmed over the first couple pages of the book. It was hand-written, like any book from that age. This one, though, didn't appear to be in old English. Honestly, it didn't look like any real language. It had a normal alphabet, sure, but none of the letters spelled a reasonable word.
Cheepa'na faehaie Salazar Slytherin
Well that, at least, had two identifiable words. Even if they are just his name. Flipping through the pages, she came across a section titled Feispah Olla Kestofesheez. Below it was a list of words in the same, unusual language in a column. In a second column was a list of words written in English. Melissa's eyes snapped wide as she realized the purpose of the columns.
"No way!" She whispered in amazement. She scanned through the list of words, searching for a link of familiarity. She came across a collection of simple words: hello, open, goodbye. Sounding out words from the first column, she found them to sound half-familiar to her. Words heard only a moon-turn ago. "Holy shit!"
I have to tell Harry!
"You realize we have midterms to study for, right?" Susan asked as Melissa paced across the corridor.
"Didn't ask you to come." Melissa grunted as she walked with intent. Honestly, she didn't want anyone other than Harry to be here right now. Unfortunately, barging into a group of first years and announcing you have something "incredible" to show has a bad habit of gaining interest for others that are not Harry. That said, she was so excited to show Harry the book that she barely cared that Kevin, Hannah, Justin, and Susan had all followed after them to see the 'incredible find'. When the door appeared, the four first years gasped in awe. Melissa and Harry, though, gave little care to the appearance and simply walked in.
"What is this place?" Hannah asked.
"Looks like this place hasn't been used in ages." Kevin noted.
Melissa ignored the queries and simply marched in with a fast pace, grabbing the still-open silver book and practically thrusting it into Harry's hands. "Take a look!" She ordered eagerly.
Harry looked at the writing and quirked his head. "It looks like a bunch of gibberish to me."
"Let me take a look." Justin asked. Head poking over Harry's shoulders, Justin scrunched his face in confusion. "I've never seen a language like that."
"Can I see it?" Susan asked. Harry turned it for Susan to see. Reading it over, she shook her head. "It doesn't look like Gobbledegook."
Melissa groaned loudly in frustration. "Read it out loud!"
Taking the book back, Harry glanced over the words and read them out loud. It took about half a dozen words for Harry to stop and read them over again with a clearer annunciation.
"Sounds spooky." Hannah commented.
Harry, meanwhile, looked up at Melissa with wide eyes. "It's in parseltongue!"
"The snake language?" Hannah asked.
"What!" Susan gasped.
"Snakes have a language?" Kevin asked.
Susan turned to Harry in confusion. "How do you know that?"
"I speak it." Harry answered simply.
"WHAT?" The Hufflepuff girls yelped at once.
Melissa rolled her eyes. "Calm down, you lot. I already know what you're about to say, and there's nothing wrong with speaking a language."
"But it's Dark!" Susan argued. "Only dark wizards speak parseltongue."
"Oh for goodness sake." The teen huffed. "It's an inherited ability. Does Harry Potter, Boy Who Lived, son of Lily and James Potter, your friend, seem like a dark wizard to you?"
Susan blinked, taking in the question. They both looked at Harry, then back to Melissa with a look of sheepishness. "No." They both answered. "Sorry, Harry." Hannah added.
"Exactly. Because inheriting an ability doesn't mean anything to the person who inherits it."
Justin and Kevin looked at the exchange, lost over the high energy between the other girls. Harry met each of their eyes, offering a small shrug over it. "It's really not a big deal. Most snakes only want to talk about food and a warm place to sleep, anyways."
That comment caused Justin to chuckle. "I'll bet. Though maybe there are magical snakes around that have more interesting things to say?"
"Maybe." Harry shrugged. With how Hannah and Susan were reacting, there wasn't much point in bringing up Caireen, now.
"Well the good news is that you now have a nifty book in a language that only you can read." Melissa summarized.
"Oh! Maybe we can get it translated?" Kevin suggested. "Better, make a whole dictionary on snake words."
"The author already started one near the back." Melissa pointed out.
Kevin lit up at the thought. "That's brilliant! We should take a look after exams!"
"That's a good idea." Harry nodded. Satisfied with the plan, his hands moved to shut the book. Fortunately, Melissa jumped in before it closed completely.
"Hold on! You can't close it now!" She ordered. "It was painful to open in the first place. Here, let me." Bringing out her wand, she took an old chair and transfigured it into a wide but shallow box. "Here. Put it in this with the pages open. If it closes, you'll need this ring. Trust me, you do not want to try it yourselves!"
Gently, Harry placed the book and ring inside and closed it up. Carefully lifting it up, he offered the box to Kevin, who took it eagerly before stepping out of the room. One by one the others followed suit. Each asking further questions of Melissa as they did so.
As Harry was just about to walk out the door, a glint of metal caught the corner of his eye. Stopping a moment, he turned to see a small, metal object lying on the floor under one of the desks. While the others walked out, he made his way back in, crouching down to pull out the small object. The object was a worn, silver tiara adorned with a large, oval-shaped sapphire. Harry's mind froze as he realized that the tiara is very likely the same one they've been looking for this past month. He almost called Melissa back into the room to confirm with her. The thought ended quickly, though, as the voices from his housemates drifted in as a reminder that this wasn't something his friends should be subjected to. Especially Susan and Hannah, who will likely react badly to the explanation of why this tiara is so important. So, instead, he hid the tiara in his robe and raced off after the others.
"Hey, Melody," he half-whispered as he began walking with the rest of the group, "I just had an idea for Caireen's place. Can I talk to you about it after class?"
"Sure, Houdini." The girl replied. Though the reply was simple, a quaver of uncertainty in her voice acknowledged a greater importance to the meeting.
"Good." Harry nodded. "I'll see you there, then."
"You have got to be kidding me!" Melissa's shout echoed within the confines of the second-floor loo. "The diadem wouldn't show up under jewellery, sacred relics, or dark artifacts; but the one time you're there it shows up outside of the junk room?!"
Harry reeled at the girl's annoyed surprise, yet found himself looking at the diadem curiously. "When you put it that way, it does sound a bit strange."
"No kidding." She huffed. "Stupid 'boy-who-lived' plot luck. I call hacks!"
"...I'm going to pretend that I understand what you're talking about." …Not that he wanted to know. Sometimes it's better to leave what Melly says to the unknown.
Said girl waved her arms apart dismissively. "Whatever, at least you found it. Now we can get this over with." She grabbed one of the brooms Harry snuck in and gave him a hopeful glance. "I get to stay in the corridor, this time, right?"
Harry rolled his eyes and gave a teasing smile. "Yes, scaredy cat, you get to stay away from the big, scary, man-eating snake. Open."
As the passageway opened up, Melissa kicked off into the air. "You know, it doesn't sound nearly as mocking when you point out that it is a big, scary, man-eating snake."
"You only say that because you can't talk to her. Caireen isn't so bad once you get to know her." With that, Harry kicked off as well and flew down into the hidden chamber below.
Melissa could only watch in awe as the eleven year old boy flew off happily into the jaws of the basilisk's lair. In her own reluctance, the girl urged her broom forward. "Seriously, kid, you get full bragging rights."
That said, maybe learning parseltongue with Entwhistle isn't a half-bad idea.
Author's Notes: The parseltongue "writing" is something I got out of a website called theparselmouth com which makes sounds of "parseltongue words" based on whatever you write in it. UNFORTUNATELY, since Adobe Flash was axed I can no longer use the site. If anyone knows how to go around that issue, I'm all ears.
Cheepa'na faehaie Salazar Slytherin = Journal of Salazar Slytherin
Feispah Olla Kestofesheez = Parseltongue Dictionary