DISCLAIMER:
I do not own, nor am I affiliated with the Harry Potter/Wizarding World universe. This is purely fan fiction, written for fun. All original and canon characters, events and places are owned by J K Rowling.
The Australian school, places and characters are of my own invention.
Witchery
Whew, my ADHD took me on a 12 hour hyperfocus researching various historical figures and events, and writing a whole backstory for Pandora's Box and what it contains, where it came from and how to open it! Clues shall be revealed in drips and drabs now I have them! Enjoy
Chapter 7 – The Library
"As in, the old Greek legend?" Iris looked at her friends quizzically.
"Huh? Muggos have heard of that?" Eddie said, surprised.
"Not the Greek legend," Arin cut in. "This one was on a ship called Pandora that was shipwrecked a couple of hundred years ago on its way back from catching some escaped Dark Wizards."
"Yeah," Eddie interjected around a mouthful of grapes, "Some Aurors took the Pandora to hunt down a group of Dark Wizards that had taken over some other ship and escaped to Taihiti with the Box."
"The story goes, they got the Box back, and there was a huge duel but the Aurors eventually won. They were bringing the Box and the wizards back when it somehow sank on the Great Barrier Reef. Most of the dark wizards drowned but most of the crew survived. The Box was lost in the wreck." Fae told them.
"Then the wreck was found by Muggos in the 70's and of course the Abernathy's who were only just out of school disguised themselves as Muggos to tag along. They somehow got the Box back from the wreck and it's been in their museum ever since, it was one of the very first pieces they collected."
"What's in the Box?" Iris asked.
"Nobody knows." Eddie replied. "It's got all kinds of magical seals and protections on it. Nobody has ever been able to open it."
"Me and Eddie saw it in the museum once." Fae said. "It doesn't look like much but it feels really weird to be near it."
"My Grandfather says its cursed." A small voice piped up. They all turned to stare at Velia who seemed mortified that her input caused everyone to look at her and she went red and stopped speaking.
"What kind of curse?" Eddie asked eagerly. At first, she didn't answer but after a moment Velia almost whispered; "Anyone who has touched it has died within a year."
"That can't be right," Fae interjected, "The Abernathy's have had it for forty years and they have to have touched it during that time, and they haven't died."
"I wish I knew what was inside. It must be really valuable if people keep stealing it." Eddie mused.
The news was all over the school. Sitting in the Main Hall, Iris could hear almost everyone discussing it, not just her group. There hadn't been any dark wizard activity in Australia for years, so it was indeed big news, shocking and exciting.
Lucinda Abernathy was in Kakadu house, so Arin and the girls begged Eddie to find out whatever he could about the break-in from Lucinda in the common room that evening. He flatly refused to actually approach and talk to the Year 12 girl, but said he would listen out for anything interesting.
When the conversation eventually turned to Quidditch trials and teams, Iris remembered Taj's letter. She drew a spare piece of parchment, a quill and ink out of her bag, folded it and neatly tore it – one half bigger than the other.
Dear Taj, she wrote on the smaller half.
I just finished my first day of classes. I only got to use my wand in Defensive Magic learning the spell to call for help in an emergency. The rest was just taking notes. My friends say there is a magical museum with all kinds of magical artifacts to see. Maybe we can go some day. I will have more interesting things to tell you by the end of the week, I bet.
Love, Iris.
She decided she definitely would not be telling anyone at home about the Abernathy's break-in, she had absolutely no desire to be taken out of school almost as soon as she had arrived because of her father's fears.
"I need to send this back to my brother." Iris waved the piece of parchment, "Where do we go to send letters?"
"Oh, the Owlery." Fae replied. "I'll ask Sarissa where it is."
The girls got up, Arin opting to remain and enjoy some afternoon tea with Eddie and the others in their yeargroup.
Sarissa pointed them in the direction of the Owlery. Their path took them out of the Main Hall and instead of out the main door, they wound their way through several rooms and corridors to exit out the back of Nyambi House instead. This brought them to another, larger stretch of lawn which the crossed into the gardens. Following a bricked path that snaked through the trees they quickly arrived at a tidy stone tower with a doorway. It wasn't very tall, just one flight of steps up to the many windowed dome which was the owl's home.
"Can you see yours?" Fae asked as the girls wrinkled their noses at the smell, gazing around at the many snoozing owls. Eventually Iris spotted Obi Wan tucked into a spot high up by the ceiling and called to him, unsure if this was proper Post Owl procedure or if he would even recognize his new name so soon. He seemed to, as the handsome brown owl woke at once, seemed to shake himself alert before gliding down to land on her shoulder.
"Take this back home, Obi." She said, scratching him gently on the back of the neck as Fae attached her letter for her. Obi hooted softly and immediately launched himself into the air and swooped out of the nearest empty window, winging his way home.
Just as they were leaving, Iris almost bumped into Kendra and her friends coming in.
"Watch it!" Kendra snapped.
"You watch it." Iris retorted, and kept walking down the path back toward the House.
Kendra muttered something under her breath that Iris didn't hear, and her friends sniggered. Iris stalked back down the path, Fae right at her side – doing their best to ignore the obnoxious other girl.
"Come on," Fae said when they were out of earshot of the Owlery. "I want to visit the Library."
"Why do you want to go to the Library?" Eddie asked in disgust when they got back to the Main Hall and told the others. "We haven't even been given any homework yet."
"To see if there's anything we can find on Pandora's Box, dumbass." Fae snipped back. "Pictures of it, too."
"Ugh, you guys can, I am going back to Kakadu common room to play Exploding Snap with Mohammed." Eddie replied, snatching a sandwich off the stack on the table to take with him as he left.
"I'll come, I love Libraries and I have heard a lot about the one here." Arin shrugged.
They made their way back out of the Main Hall and Fae led them down a wide hallway that they recognised from getting to a couple of their classes earlier in the day. Past the classrooms and down to the very end, were two large wooden doors with fancy metalwork that swung inward with ease when Fae pushed against them.
They found themselves walking on thick lush carpets that silenced their footsteps. All three stopped and gazing around, awestruck.
The Library was a fair bit larger than Iris had expected. Once again, she wondered how on earth that so many rooms in wizarding buildings seemed larger on the inside than they did on the outside. She wondered if this was where muggos got the idea for Dr Who's Tardis.
Directly in front of them was an ornamental, free-standing narrow staircase that branched out in the middle in a Y shape, and up to either side of the room, allowing access to a balcony that wrapped around the entire library allowing access to the higher shelves. Books, hundreds of books. Thousands of them sat on shelves that lined the walls. Small brass plaques every few feet indicated the letter of the author names for that section.
The Librarian's desk and counter was just inside the doors to their left, currently unoccupied. There were large windows down either side of the large room allowing light to flood in. Study desks and chairs were grouped here and there, with larger desks for groups tucked into cozy alcoves in the wall.
"Wow." Iris said, turning slowly. Her eyes went up, and she discovered that every surface that wasn't covered in bookshelves or windows, was covered in bright, beautiful paintings. The ceiling was covered in them, not a sliver of plaster could be seen between them.
"Where do we start?" Fae turned her eyes to Arin.
"Hullo you kids." A warm friendly voice came from one of the alcoves and a very strange gentleman appeared. He was of average height, and old judging by his shock of white hair that stood out all around his head. His wrinkled face creased into a cheery grin at the sight of them and he came over to greet them like an old friend who hadn't seen them in a while. He was wearing the craziest shirt of all different colours that made it look like a mosaic put together by a blind person.
"Are you Mr Welltree the Librarian?" Arin asked.
"That's me." He replied in a warm, welcoming voice. "But call me Uncle Reggie. Everyone does. You three must be new, I haven't met you before and I never forget a face."
Fae introduced them all and he nodded at each in turn, committing their names to memory.
"Now what are you three doing in a Library on your first day at school? I don't normally get Year 7's in here until the end of the week." He asked. Iris liked him immediately. Never before had she met somebody who just felt so friendly, warm and welcoming right away.
"We wanted to find out more about Pandora's Box. The one from the ship, not the Greek myth." She told him. "Do you have any books about it?"
"Sure I do, sure I do. Come in and sit down and Uncle Reggie will find you something." He beckoned them to follow as he moved further into the Library with a spring in his step. They followed him, and he sat them down at one of the desks near the staircase.
"You wait there just a minute." He said and bounced up the staircase to the balcony and they craned their necks to follow his progress. Muttering to himself, Uncle Reggie hurried down the length of the balcony and came to a stop a third of the way down. He raised one hand and skimmed over a row of books as though checking off each one until he found what he was looking for.
"Ahah!" he said happily, plucking a book from its shelf. Then he moved to a different section and the process started again. In the end, he returned with four different books for them to read. The whole process had taken only minutes.
"Here we go. Wizarding Treasures Lost At Sea, by Richard Delaware. This one was written back in the twenties, before the Abernathy's found it. The Mysteries Of Pandora's Box, by Mrs Emma Abernathy herself, the authority on the subject. Here's A Locked Box by Madam Volakis and The Merry Men by a muggo called Dennis Walker. That's an old one so be gentle with it."
"A muggo book?" Fae asked uncertainly.
"I suppose so, I never read it." Uncle Reggie shrugged.
"How will this have anything to do with Pandora's Box?" Iris asked.
"Dunno mate, you'll have to read it and find out." Uncle Reggie grinned. "But my books never lie. Pop them on me trolley when you're done." He indicated a library trolley next to his desk with a thumb jerked over his shoulder and with that, he wandered off down the back of the Library humming a jaunty tune to himself.
"His books never lie?" Iris asked her friends. Fae shrugged.
They each took a book, leaving The Merry Men for last and began searching through them for information on Pandora's Box. There wasn't much information outside of what they already knew, but The Mysteries Of Pandora's Box had a picture. They crowded around to look at it.
"That's it." Fae confirmed, "That's what I saw at the Abernathy's."
The box was of medium size, wooden and it looked very old. The wood was shiny and smooth, the lock and hinges a brassy colour. It had some strange markings carved into the lid.
"It says here, that Pandora's Box is a fairly new name and before the ship Pandora set out to recover it from the dark wizards who stole it, it was known as 'The Box Of Ruin'." Fae read.
"That's just creepy." Arin said.
"It looks evil and its true name sounds evil." Iris shuddered, "I would hate to think what kind of trouble it would stir up if it was opened."
The trio kept reading. Fae read that the box had been stolen from a witch named Marie de Bougainville back in 1789. It had been in her family for over 300 years before that, but it was unknown where the de Bougainville family had originally got it from, as it was much older than their family histories showed. The de Bougainville family had since died out, and no known ancestors were alive today to claim the Box.
"Maybe one did?" Iris suggested.
"What do you mean?" Arin wrinkled their brown in confusion.
"Perhaps the thief is a long lost descendent of the de Bougainvilles and decided to take it back?" Iris elaborated.
"Why would they?" Fae said, "All they would have to do is go to the Abernathy's and ask for it, if they were rightfully a de Bouganville heir.
"Maybe they had no proof they were?" Iris shrugged.
The rest of Pandora's Box was academic information on the markings on the box, theories on its origins and age, and a whole lot of more boring stuff they weren't keen to read through.
The other books mentioned the box in passing, just a couple of paragraphs in Wizarding Treasures Lost At Sea and the only interesting thing mentioned in A Locked Box which discussed many different locked boxes, chests, trunks and even cabinets in the wizarding world – was a short paragraph at the end of the chapter on Pandora's Box.
"It is said, that 'The Box of Ruin' carries a curse. All who dare to lay their hands on its accursed timber will find their end within a year ." Arin read.
"That's what Velia said." Fae snorted, "If that's true how come the Abernathy's are alive and well 40 years later?
"The origin of the Box, and its curse are lost in the mists of time." Arin continued, "Though there are many legends of its origin, so far no truth to these tales that can be confirmed."
Iris turned to the final book and began flicking through The Merry Men.
"Anything in there?" Fae asked, closing her book.
"I don't think so, it just seems to be a Robin Hood story." Iris said, rifling through the pages.
"Robin who?" Fae asked.
"Wizards don't know about Robin Hood?" Iris glanced from Fae to Arin and back. They shook their heads. "Oh, well it's a story about a guy hundreds and hundreds of years ago in England who rebelled against Prince John, who was trying to steal King Richard's throne while he was away. Prince John raised all the taxes and Robin Hood used to rob the rich and give to the poor, saving people from starving." She summarized, remembering her favourite movie from when she was younger. "They always call his followers his merry men, for some reason."
At that moment, a group of older students came in, talking quietly among themselves and the three of them glanced up.
"I don't think we will find anything else today." Fae stretched, "Come on, let's go and check out the gardens before dinner."
The three of them rose, and put the books back on the trolley. Iris almost put The Merry Men back, but at the last minute decided to check it out and read it. She had always loved Robin Hood stories.
Uncle Reggie sauntered over, all happy smiles.
"Find anything useful?" he asked.
"Yes, sort of." Fae replied.
"Sort of is better than not at all." Uncle Reggie grinned. He took the book Iris offered. "Taking this one?" he asked. She nodded.
He pulled out a list on a clipboard and wrote the title of the book, and Iris' name down. He pulled a wand out of his pocket and tapped the book with it, then returned it to her.
"You've got it for a fortnight," he said. "If you forget to bring it back, it'll tell you."
"It talks?" Iris asked, bewildered.
"In a way." was all Uncle Reggie said, winking. They left the Library, talking about what little information they'd found.
At dinner, the three of them went to sit at the Kakadu table with Eddie to share what they had discovered. Eddie, Mohammed and a couple of other students listened in and they spent all of dinner discussing the possible contents, and location of the Box.
It turned out that Eddie didn't learn anything from Lucinda, he only overheard her friends reassuring her that her parents would ensure that the Museum and their home would get even better security, and that the Auror department would be sure to find whoever was responsible. Nobody came up with a theory on the Box's contents that was particularly likely, but they had fun discussing it all the same.
After dinner, the three of them went up to their common room. They found the right corridor and the candlestick without too much trouble and ascended the spiral staircase. The girls' roommates Jess and Rosalie had beat them there and were setting up a game of Pennant with Velia, and Arin's roommate, Danni.
"Hey, you guys, come play with us." Rosalie called. They went right over and sat down around the board.
"Velia took some convincing but she said she'd play." Rosalie added. "Having three more will make it extra fun."
"Actually, I think I'll sit it out." Velia said quietly, glancing around at everyone briefly but not meeting anyone's eye for more than a second. "Its better played with even numbers." And before anyone could convince her otherwise, she got up and disappeared into the dorms.
"I think she's really shy." Danni told them quietly.
"Let's ask her to come down to the Quidditch pitch with us tomorrow." Rosalie replied, "I'm sure that once we get to know her a bit, she will end up being really nice."
"Sure, Rose." Jess said. "Now, how does this game work?"
The following morning, Iris woke to the sound of whispers from the other girls. The scent of sea air and sounds of the ocean and seagulls flooded the room, making Iris sit up. Her bed faced the window directly and what she was seeing just didn't make any sense.
"What?" she asked the room at large, confused.
Yesterday and the day before, the view from their dorm-room window was mostly of the sky, partly the roof of Nyambi, and partly of the eastern part of the gardens and the scrubby hills beyond.
Right now, she was gazing at the clear blue sky and the glorious, uninterrupted view of the ocean from the top of the hill that Nyambi House was built on. The smaller windows at the top of the room were open, letting in the breeze.
"I don't know!" Rosalie replied, hurriedly shoving clothes on and tossing her pajamas haphazardly onto her bed. "This is so weird! I'm going to ask somebody in the common room." And with that, she scurried out of the door, Jess right behind her. From the sounds of things, other girls from the other rooms in their corridor were just as befuddled as they were.
Velia just sat and gazed out the window in silent delight as Fae and Iris got dressed, ready to follow the others out of their bedroom.
"It's probably another practical joke." Iris said.
"It's pretty cool, though! For a prank." Fae replied.
The views from the common room were equally as spectacular, also of the ocean.
"It's Wednesday." Brick said to the Year 7's who clamoured around him wanting to know what was going on. He turned and left the Common room without further explanation, leaving them just as confused as before.
"That's it? Its Wednesday?" one boy asked Brick's retreating back. "What in Yagan's left nostril hairs has that got to do with anything?"
Fortunately, Sarissa was more forthcoming.
"Every Wednesday, we get an ocean view. Nobody knows why, but every window in the house will show the beach, and the sea. It will be back to normal, tomorrow." She assured them.
The Year 7's were amazed to see the glorious ocean views from the corridors. As well as their classrooms, during every lesson that day. Every single window at Nyambi overlooked the distant beach and the glorious blue ocean that stretched on forever, even the windows on the other side of the house that didn't even face the ocean.
The most bizarre part was stepping outside any of the back or side doors onto Nyambi's veranda, which were still leading into the gardens or onto the lawn as they always did. Even crazier, was stepping back into the house and looking through an open doorway to the gardens, then glancing at the window beside it which showed the magnificent ocean view.
"This place is amazing!" Iris said to her friends at lunchtime, and they had to agree. "This is the absolute best house ever!"
That evening, when she went to bed after her shower, Iris was surprised to see that somebody had left a single Tim Tam on her pillow. She crunched it down in delight, as she threw back the light blanket and climbed beneath just her sheet. Even with the frost-fire cooling the room, it was still too warm to sleep under anything more than the sheet.