P.S. For those who were wondering, 'Caedesmort' is pronounced 'See-Days-Maurt' :)
Raven That Flies At Night: Your review made me so happy :) Thanks so much for sticking with this story...
Star Chaser 17: The Hidden Kingdoms
Unedited...
The four of them sped down the long corridor like maniacs with Isabella nursing a rather painful stitch on her side.
"Okay, HOLD YOUR HORSES. Everyone!" Lily yelled and grabbed Isabella by the hand to stop her from running amok.
Without even waiting for the boys, Lily quickly pulled out a long piece of parchment and her Self-Refilling Quill. "Okay, let's recount everything we know! Start talking, Iz!" she practically screamed, scribbling frantically on the parchment as the boys skidded to a halt beside them.
Isabella racked her mind, taken aback quite a bit for suddenly coming under the spotlight. "Okay, okay! Er... We know that the... The Founders belonged to the Sacred Age—?" she started.
"—Correct!" Lily exclaimed, "and that we know NOTHING about it, because—"
"—there isn't a single book written about the time!" said Sirius.
"Yes! Because, Mávros Slytherin was the foulest, most HATED wizard the world ever saw!" growled Lily, her quill now punching holes in the parchment. "What else?" she demanded.
"The Founders hail from one of the Four Hidden Kingdoms—!" James offered.
"—Woldorin, Caedesmort, Armindale, and Elvedoria!" Isabella counted on her fingers.
"Excellent! And?" Lily looked up.
"And Regulus smuggled in stuff that are rumoured to be Portkeys that would transport us to these kingdoms!" said Sirius.
"And what are we supposed to do there?"
"Find the last of the Founders' HEIRLOOMS!" Isabella screamed so loudly, Sirius, albeit grinning teasingly, literally had to wrap his hand around her face to shut her up!
"Very good!" Lily yelled, sounding nearly as deranged as her best friend too. "So, that makes it four heirlooms for four founders!" she cried, scribbling manically.
"One question, though!" Isabella mumbled from behind Sirius's large hand. Wrenching free from under his death grip (and shaking off the butterflies that had hijacked her entire body), she said, "Who the hell are the Hadens?"
"I know!" spoke a new voice, making them all jump up in fear.
Isabella whipped around to find Peter miraculously appear out of thin air behind them! Surreptitiously pocketing what looked like a very thick piece of parchment, Peter jogged towards them looking red in the face and completely out of breath. Isabella scrunched her eyebrows together: if he'd been running, she would've heard him for sure and yet she hadn't...
"I know who the Hadens are!" Peter wheezed again.
"Good Godric, Peter!" James exclaimed happily.
Sirius gasped. "THERE you are!" he grinned, putting his hand out for Peter to smack it in greeting.
Lily blinked and looked from one to another.
"Where did you COME from?!" she almost shouted, FULLY under adrenaline pump now.
"The library!" he heaved and bent double to catch his breath. "Did some... Reading..." he said, coughing between breaths while leaning on to Sirius for support.
"Well, go on, then! Tell us what you know!" James added anxiously.
"Well, yes, of course!" he said, finally straightening up. "This is what Moony had been working on for weeks now," he said and rolled out a large parchment that housed a crudely drawn map and tons and tons of notes scribbled on in neat handwriting. "Alright, so... From what I understand," he mumbled to himself whilst studying the parchment for a little while, "oh yeah, Moony thought the story you told us all of the Mávrodian Era, Izzy, had far too many potholes, like it was missing several important details that we would need to know before we land our feet in the Hidden Kingdoms," he started and everyone nodded eagerly.
"So, if you look here," he said pointing at the map, "you'll realise that Ceadesmort is located along the coast of the Aegean Sea, which means they were mostly sea-people spending all of their time in bewitched ships while Armindale and Elvedoria were located in this region," he said, running his finger on the region slightly north-west of Caedesmort, "in the Woods. Woldorin, however, was the farthest kingdom of all, located in the high mountains!" he said, placing his finger on the far north and exactly opposite to Caedesmort.
"And after poring over Moon's notes and other texts, it is clearer now as to why the four kingdoms were even at war with each other—!" he said and held his breath feverishly. Grinning triumphantly at Sirius, he added, "You're going to love this one, Pads—they were after... a STONE!" he finally exclaimed.
Sirius and Isabella gasped, their eyes flying open in revelation.
"The STONE!" they screamed in unison before staring at each other in awe.
"Exactly!" a very red Peter nodded, continuing on with his story. "Now, Izzy, you read about Wizard Everard and learnt that Irvette was his sister, but what you did not know was that he had three more sisters. And their maiden names were, wait for it," he said, pausing dramatically, brimming with inconceivable excitement, "Aglæca Malvolia Haden, Leonora Alleria Haden, Ebonee Danelle Haden, and Irvette Aerwyna HADEN!" he bellowed and clicked his fingers charismatically while Isabella's hand flew to her mouth.
"The HADENS! So, they were the Hadens?" she squealed, struck with wonderment.
"YES!" he grinned, his eyes twinkling delightfully with glee. "The four Haden sisters were born of royal blood and were married off into each of the four massive and wealthy factions or kingdoms or dominions or whatever it is that they were called back in the day (but let's just stick to 'kingdoms' for now). Initially, the four kingdoms would simply battle with each other from time to time to establish supremacy over the other. However, things got extremely serious when suddenly one day, someone let slip the news of the infamous 'Haden Heirloom'. The heirloom was believed to be a magical stone which would make one immortal... Naturally, the husbands of these four sisters got hungry for power and that's how, a war among the four kingdoms eventually broke out!"
A shocked silence followed that long speech as everyone tried to wrap their heads over the enormity of it all.
"So, THAT'S what happened..." James started, running his finger through his messy locks. "That's why they were perennially at war..."
"And THAT'S why everyone's so bloody interested in this shit!" Sirius said, echoing his tone. "That's why the Ministry is here today! Everyone wants to know what happened with the Stone and everyone WANTS IT!"
"Exactly! And that's why Bagnold slammed Dumbledore for even considering the prospect of keeping this in-house!" exclaimed a very shaken Lily.
"This is unbelievable!" exclaimed James.
"Hold it, mate, there's more!" said Peter, holding out his finger and getting all of their attention one more time. "Remember the tale of the One-Eyed Witch?" he asked.
"Uh huh! Yes! Yes, we do!" exclaimed Isabella, her heart hammering in her chest as the tension built up.
"Well, from what I could gather, the fabled One-Eyed Witch behind Hogwarts might actually be real, because records say that the rumoured Portkeys were last seen in the possession of a witch who fits the description PERFECTLY!"
"Merlin's beard! That means—"
"—Yes, Pads!" Peter laughed loudly, nodding vigorously and almost on the verge of tears now. "That old hag you saw Regulus talking to last month might be HER!" he squeaked.
A collective gasp went up in the air as everyone broiled in mind-numbing revelation!
"Wicked..." said James, his hand now permanently plastered over his mouth while the others . "You're a bloody GENIUS, Pete!" he finally exclaimed, and laughed out loud before throwing his hand him and shaking him up good while Peter grinned sheepishly.
"And all thanks to Moon-Moon and his notes!" laughed Sirius, thumping Peter appreciatively on the back. "It'd be a shame, though, if he died on us today, the poor lad!" he guffawed, making James double up even more with laughter.
"SHUT UP, Sirius, that's your best friend you're talking about!" Lily half-chided, half-laughed.
"So?" he sniggered, most insensitively, making the girls roll their eyes.
"Alright, time's running out. Let's get moving!" Isabella smacked her hands together. "Off to Filch's, right?"
"Right!" James said and threw the Invisibility Cloak over Lily and Isabella's head when suddenly Peter smacked his head, "Ah, bloody hell, I almost forgot!"
"What's the matter?" asked James, pausing mid-way.
"We're dealing with Filch!" Peter spat out grudgingly and spoke specifically to James and Sirius.
Lily frowned. "So?" she asked, while James and Sirius muttered, "OH!" as if they'd suddenly been hit by yet another crisis of sorts.
"So, only he can distract him," said Sirius, grinning for full measure at the scorn on Peter's face. "Go on, then, Worm! Do your thing, we'll be right behind you!" he said, smacking him encouragingly while the girls blinked.
Isabella and Lily exchanged confused looks.
"Why? What—HOW?!" Isabella stuttered, really annoyed by these games now.
Sirius burst out laughing even more while James grinned on arrogantly. "Move it, Sugar Lips!" he said, ushering her into the Invisibility Cloak most teasingly.
...
The four of them were huddled together under the cloak at the end of the corridor that led to Room 234-00.
"How much longer?!" Lily rasped impatiently, making Sirius and James go, "Shhhhh!"
"Patience, Grumpy!" Sirius hissed into her face and turned his head back to the corridor, waiting for Merlin-knew-what!
And then it happened.
Meowing and growling its guts off as if prepared to burn the whole castle down to ash, a rust-coloured cat appeared around the corner, hurtling after a large rat running amok down the corridor and straight towards them.
"There he is! Any second now!" James hissed happily into Isabella's ears as they watched the death-crazed look in the bulging, yellow, lamp-like eyes of Mr. Belphegor, a most hateful cat of the WORST kind, chasing after the terrified little rat. The cat hissed and meowed loudly, every now and then swiping its paw menacingly at the poor rat making it squeal and scream in fright, plunging the whole corridor into bedlam!
"Oh, NOT THIS AGAIN!" came someone's muffled, irritated voice, followed by the sound of a door bursting open on the right. "Ah, YOU FILTHY LITTLE RAT! Leave him alone, LEAVE HIM ALONE!" bellowed an indignant Filch and hesitated for a moment, internally battling between rescuing his precious cat and staying behind to guard his precious office.
After a moment of deliberating on the problem, however, Filch seemed to have chosen his cat over everything else, because Isabella saw him slam his door shut, lock it with a very heavy padlock, test the strength of the said padlock before hurtling after the chasing duo.
"I am going to KILL you tonight, you FILTHY BEAST!" they heard him scream as he went hurtling down the corridor and as far away from his office as possible.
"Okay, this is it!" hissed James, checking if the corridor is entirely rid of Filch. "We need to get a move on THIS INSTANT, let's go, let's go, let's go!" he whisper-yelled, and the four of them darted forwards when, suddenly, a MUCH bigger problem manifested itself in front of them—Slytherins...
Giggling and whispering in hushed voices, a whole bunch of snarky heads, at least seven of them, peeked from behind gargoyles and statues at the opposite end, as if they'd been hoping Filch would leave his office unattended for just a while too!
Panic descended on the four of them under the cloak, as they watched the bunch of clods stealthily come out of hiding and inch closer to the door of Room 234-00.
James practically slapped his own forehead in frustration while Sirius looked like his head would explode any second now.
"NOW what?!" Sirius whisper-growled at the rest of them, as if hoping they'd suddenly spring up with brilliant ideas, while the Slytherins continued to scheme in the background.
"Careful, Goyle!" they heard Lucius hiss from behind a suit of armour stationed closest to the door.
Harley Goyle immediately darted back into his hiding place and so did the rest of them.
"Oh my god, they're getting closer! Think of something, people! ANYTHING!" Lily snarled under her breath as the situation steadily moved from bad to worse!
"Okay, everyone, don't move till I give you the GO sign!" they heard Lucius whisper-yell excitedly to his nosy friends. "Need to check the lock first!" he leered, signing with his hands for the benefit of those who were much farther away from him.
"What the hell do we do?" whined a panic-stricken James.
Sirius suddenly gasped.
"I've an idea!" he said, making them all jump up in fright. "YOU!" he said, pointing at Isabella. "Go talk to him!"
"WHAT?!" Isabella mouthed, horrified and eyeing him like he'd finally lost all the screws in his head.
"Just go talk to him! Distract him till we slip in, you IDIOT!" he whisper-yelled.
"NO WAY! NO BLOODY WAY!" she protested. "I won't do it! Sirius, I'm not joking! Let me go!" she whispered-barked, struggling to get out of his death grip.
"It's the only way, Izzy!"
"NO WAY! Sirius, please! I don't want to! You can't MAKE ME—!" she hissed but before she could even FINISH her sentence, he had shoved her forwards and out of the Invisibility Cloak for the whole world to see!
Alarmed at the very least, she froze in place as Lucius's eyes fell on her.
All hell broke loose that instant, because he was looking at her like he'd seen a ghost and she was looking much, MUCH worse!
"Bella?!" he squeaked and quickly scanned the corridor to check if his dense friends hadn't yet compromised their hiding spots. Combing his hair nervously and almost shaking on the spot, he turned back to look at the ghost-white face of Isabella.
"Wh—What? You... Lu—Lucius!" she hiccoughed, following it with a fake grin. "Wh—Er..." she said, scratching her head most clumsily and sweating more than ever.
"Erm..." he stammered too, quite taken aback. "What are you... Doing... Here?" he said, nervously looking over his shoulder one more time.
"Well, I..." she said, racking her brains for words—ANY WORDS. "I came here... Er..."
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Well I... I was... I was looking... For you!" she finally said.
Lucius frowned. "Looking for me?" he asked, scoffing nervously. "Why on earth were you...? Er... Okay, er... Well, here I am!" he stuttered, coughing and forcing a grin and sounding ridiculously nervous.
Isabella fake-laughed along too, still trying to come up with a plan.
"So er... What is it?" he asked, finally shaking himself awake and getting fully under her spell. "Something happen? You look distressed," he said, inching closer to her.
Isabella, though, could nearly feel the tension growing in the space with agitated clicking of tongues, tapping feet and exasperated sighs resounding all around her and that was coming from both the Gryffindors and the Slytherins. And the longer she stood there, the more anxious Lucius got.
Quickly steeling another look back at the where her friends were waiting impatiently, she turned back to Lucius, hardly breathing at all now!
"Bella?" Lucius called out, making her crash-land back to earth. "What?" he asked, suddenly getting suspicious. "D'you mind telling me what's going on?" he yelled.
"Er... I dunno how to... Er... Lucius, I..."
"YES, Bella! What is it?" he asked, almost imagining the worst by now.
"Lucius..."
"Just tell me!"
She said it like a slap to a face.
"Sirius kissed me!" she yelled.
Time stopped.
"WHAT?" he yelled, his eyes bulging out of his skull.
"WHAT?!" James and Lily whisper-yelled, their heads swivelling towards a shocked Sirius inside the cloak.
Sirius simply stared dumbfounded. "Oh, shit," he whispered, unable to come to terms with what he was witnessing.
"Wh-What...? Like... When?" Lucius simply asked.
"Today! Er... A couple of hours ago..." Isabella blurted and surreptitiously started to lead him away from the door.
"Merlin, she's actually going with that..." Sirius breathed, and literally had to hold on to James so as to not collapse, while James and Lily simply gaped at him from the side, their jaws hanging open.
"I, I, I... I don't quite know what to do, Lue, I need your help!" she stuttered and put one hand behind her back and started barking out instructions to her friends.
"Well, beats me! I don't know what to do either!" Lucius growled, roughly running his hand through his silky blond locks.
"HEY!"
Rabastan Lestrange emerged from behind a large stone gargoyle several feet away. "We didn't come here to see you stick your tongue down her throat, ya know?" he growled
Almost as if the rest of them couldn't agree more, several more heads appeared all around them and it was instant pandemonium!
Isabella frantically looked around to see ANY signs of her friends in all this madness!
"Yeah! Ditch the Mudblood and get a move on, already!" yelled Ted Farley said, stepping out and putting his hands on his hips even as Albert Crabbe dragged his massive weight out of the tiny space behind his winged gargoyle.
"What?! No, no, no! What is this?!" she blurted out, wildly scanning her vicinity, as more people trickled out and closed the gap between them.
"Yeah, you know what? I'm just going in!" called out Harley and nudged Lucius roughly to side to get to the door.
Horrified beyond words, Isabella suddenly screamed, "JAMES! DO SOMETHING!"
Almost as if the heavens had heard her, a hand suddenly stuck out of nowhere and squirted a rather nasty jinx at Goyle, hurling him high up in the air and down the other end of the hall!
Panic broke out instantly!
The Slytherins drew out their wands too and Lucius still looked scandalised to say the least. Before anyone could even wrap their heads around what was going on, Sirius and James had jumped out of the cloak and started throwing random curses and jinxes and charms and spreading the party out while Lily frantically worked on the lock!
"What the hell are these scums doing here?!" Adrian Pellert called out, wrestling with James while Isabella sent Harley howling down with a nasty nosebleed.
"Precisely what I wanted to ask you!" Lucius growled at Isabella whilst blocking a hex from Sirius.
"Lily, the LOCK!" James screamed.
"I'm WORKING ON IT!" she howled back.
"I'm sorry, Lucius!" yelled Isabella while continuously throwing curses out to keep the snakes at bay.
"GET THEM, LADS!" bellowed Rabastan and conjured a brilliant Shield Charm that blocked out all spells from the Gryffindors!
"Lily, they're coming!" Sirius yelped even as the three of them watched the boys hurtling towards them like a predator charging its prey!
"IT'S OPEN!" she screamed and grabbed the back of Isabella and Sirius's sweaters before dragging them backwards.
James jumped in front of them and attacked the company as fiercely as possible whilst running towards the door himself. And just when Isabella thought things couldn't get any worse, she saw the distant silhouette of Filch followed by the rat and the cat running hysterically towards them once again!
"Don't let them get away!" bellowed Albert Crabbe just as Isabella and Sirius and James stepped into the room. Albert put his hand out to reach for the door's handle but Sirius and James expertly jumped behind the door and put their full body's force onto the wood and slammed it shut on his face!
The last thing Isabella heard was the fierce growl of a cat, the slurpy bark of Filch and a scream of rat before her eyes got shrouded in darkness.
Her heart was pounding in her chest as she scrambled up to her feet even as several hands banged against the door, trying to wrench it open.
"Everyone gather around QUICKLY!" screamed Lily, casting a rather odd locking charm on the door that ensured the door was sealed shut for good measure.
"I might've DIED today!" wailed Peter, making Isabella nearly faint in surprise.
"Peter?!" she screamed, but the boys seemed completely unperturbed.
"You were FANTASTIC today, Pete!" said James, thumping him hard on the back and managing to grin mischievously despite the soup they were all in.
"Okay, everyone, on the count of three!" yelled Lily, as she magicked the Wigentree, the miniaature chess board and the dagger into her bag and held her hand above the ship-in-a-bottle piece.
All the boys gathered around her and put their hands out too like she did.
The banging on the door had gotten much worse by now.
"One..."
Isabella heard the splintering of the hinges on the door.
"Two..."
One more bang and the door would blast open!
"THREE!"
"I'VE GOT YOU!" screamed Filch as the door burst open.
All five hands slammed against the cool glass bottle at once and almost instantly it happened—Isabella felt a massive tug on her front as she and the rest of her friends jerked forwards uncontrollably. And even as they hurtled further and faster away from Filch's office, Isabella could still see him bolting towards them with his hands outstretched, as if ready to devour them alive!
The five of them sped forwards in the wake of howling winds and swirling colours and all of a sudden, it felt as though the glass beneath her hand suddenly slipped of her grip and that the five of them were being squeezed into a very tight tube. On and on they went, this time flying straight towards the ground from a great height.
"Gurglin' Gargoyles! Look, there!" she heard Sirius yell from her right.
Fighting against the strong wind, she turned her head around and the view took her breath away: howling and churning right in front her eyes was a great big ocean on it and braving the terrible waves was the hint of a massive, green, old-fashioned ghost-ship, of three masts and five sails each... And the five of them were hurtling straight towards it!
"Izzy, I'm scared!" Lily screamed from her left, her face marred with mortal peril.
On and on they went, falling like a brick towards the sea and just when she thought they were all going to crash and die against the solid wood, they started to slow down and almost float towards the raging ship like a feather caught in breeze.
Braving the instantaneous kick of nausea that engulfed her, Isabella felt her feet slam against the ground, the smell of the sea taking over her nostrils entirely; Lily bumped into her from behind, followed by James, Sirius and a very sick Peter.
Roaring and howling in the wind, the ship sailed on, cutting through the thrashing waves, and as quickly as she found her footing, she was thrown off her feet as the ship rocked unexpectedly. Scrambling back to her feet, she looked around for her friends only to find James and Sirius standing stalk-still and staring at something in her far left with their mouths hanging open.
"Blimey..." muttered Peter, as he got up to his feet too in slow motion, and looking in the same direction as James was.
Twirling her around, Isabella felt her breath hitch in her throat at the sight that awaited her: there, standing tall on one of the highest mountain peaks, several thousand feet above the valley below, in an island far, far away, was the massive and most ancient castle of Caedesmort... The castle itself was an eerie white structure now marred by overgrowth and algae. It was a cluster of seven seven slim, white towers bunched tightly together to form one of the oddest castles Isabella had ever set her eyes on...
"So, the heirloom is in there?" asked Isabella.
"No," said Sirius, stepping next to her. "This ship is unmanned…"
"So?" asked Lily.
"Every time a capital comes under attack from neighbouring kingdoms, it was common practice in ancient times to stow away all of the castle's treasure in a ship and enchant it to guard the coast and the treasure until the caster of the spell himself returns to reverse it… And since this ship is magicked to rage on in this fashion right off the coast of the Caedesmortan kingdom, it only means the heirloom is somewhere here, in this ship."
"What if the caster of the spell never returned?" asked Peter.
"The ship would simply sail on forever till the end of time, guarding its contents in the fiercest way possible," he shrugged, matter-of-factly.
"Are you telling me we need to fight this ship now?" asked Isabella, too exasperated to even freak out.
Sirius simply smirked. "Makes you wish this day was rather about the kiss now, doesn't it?" he grinned, winking teasingly at her.
"You and I are going to have words, Williams," Lily said icily, as the five of them tiredly watched the sun shining down on them.