Once they had descended the Horned Serpent tower, Harry and Ana tiptoed to the choir room, huddled together in Harry's invisibility cloak. To Harry's relief, none of the enchanted portraits or sculptures appeared to be watching them – he wasn't sure if there were any petty enough to report students that were up past curfew, but it wasn't something he had any interest in finding out, either.

They continued their silent, methodical trek through the castle until Ana nudged Harry. "In here," she whispered as she pointed to a closed door. She tried twisting the knob, but grunted in dismay as the door refused to open. She uttered a particularly foul four-letter word under her breath, which made Harry nearly jump. "Anastasia!" he exclaimed, barely keeping his voice at a whisper level. "I can't believe you said that… that's so unlike you."

Although Harry couldn't tell, Ana blushed so deeply her cheeks were nearly crimson. "I hope you brought your wand with you, because I left mine in my room," she admitted. "You do know the unlocking spell, right?"

"I do… and I think we're supposed to learn it this term, but we haven't gotten there quite yet," sighed Harry. "Didn't you use it a couple of months ago when you opened Elder Gomer's journal?"

"It's really easy," replied Ana. "I'll guide you through it. The incantation is alohomora – ah-LOW-huh-MOE-ruh."

"Aloe morel," Harry repeated, with uncertainty in his voice.

Ana giggled. "No, no, no. Say it a bit slower. Ah. Low. Huh. Moe. Ruh."

"Ah. Low. Huh. Moe. Ruh," repeated Harry.

Ana nodded in satisfaction. "Much better. Now, you swirl your wand in a reverse sigmoid motion…"

Harry's eyebrows scrunched in confusion. "Huh?

"Use your wand to write the letter 's', but backwards," Ana clarified. And say the incantation while you do it.

"All right," sighed Harry. "Here goes nothing. Alohomora." He swirled his wand the way Ana directed him, and click! Harry turned the knob, and to his delight, the door opened. "We did it, Ana!"

"No, you did it, Harry," Ana said. "Well done!"

The pair found some seats in the rear of the room. Harry handed Ana the book, while he whipped out his wand again. "Lumos."

Ana opened the diary to the first bookmark, and began reading the passages to Harry in an excited whisper. Harry had to remind her to slow down from time to time, but for the most part he kept up fairly well with her pace.

About five minutes into reading, Harry had to interrupt Ana. "I mean, this is all well and good, but I already know the story of how Lucifer fashioned the Orb and gave it to Gormlaith Gaunt… could we, erm, skip to the next part perhaps?"

"Well, you might be familiar with it, but I'm not," Ana replied in a slightly annoyed tone. "This is too fascinating for me to just 'skip over'. If you want me to read the rest of the passage silently, I can do that. I don't think there's all that much more in this section anyway. Just give me a couple more minutes, mmkay?"

"All right," agreed Harry.

Five minutes later, Harry breathed a sigh of relief when Ana squeaked, "All done. Ready for the next part?" She flipped to the next bookmarked section and started reading aloud again, as deliberately as she could for Harry's sake. While he did his best to let her read unimpeded, he did have to stop her a couple of times to clarify unfamiliar words or phrases (which she dutifully obliged).

"When Chadwick and Webster Boot pried the Orb from Gaunt's cold, dead fingers, they were unable to come to a consensus as to how to properly dispose of the artefact. Both of them understood right away that this object of power was not meant to be used by mortals; however, neither of them were able figure out how to destroy the Orb without the use of dark magic.

After much deliberation and arguing, the only logical conclusion they could agree upon was to simply bury the Orb in a vault far below the Ilvermorny castle, in hopes that it would be forgotten. What they didn't account for was that rumours of the existence of the Orb had already leaked to the nonmagical world – no doubt due to numerous eyewitness reports of Gormlaith Gaunt terrorizing the New World – and these rumours persisted for nearly three centuries.

Motivated by greed, Muggle archaeologists and adventurers have encroached on Mount Greylock in hopes of finding the Orb for themselves. Fools, the lot of them. Whether enticed by the prospect of power, or hoping to amass a small fortune by selling to a museum or collector, not one of them has any idea what kind of terror they could unleash should they somehow lay claim to that cursed rod…"

Harry's eyes widened. "Wait… no-maj people have heard of the Orb?"

Ana shrugged. "I guess it's not that much different than finding the Holy Grail or the Philosopher's Stone." She then flipped to the next section:

"The chamber which houses the Orb is protected by a series of magical traps – known as the Three Perlustrations. These trials are designed to keep out any unworthy adventurers from seeking that infernal prize. Only those who possess cleverness, courage, and integrity are deemed worthy enough to pass these challenges. I know not what these tests entail, but they are almost certainly fatal to those who are unfit to seek the Orb."

"Great," moaned Harry. "So I'm probably going to get killed even before I get the chance to destroy the Orb."

Ana shrugged. "If there's a wizard I know that's worthy enough to find it, it's you. You've got all three qualities in spades." But before she could continue reading the diary's passages, a sudden, sharp sound interrupted her train of thought.

"A-hem."

Both children looked up to see the last person they hoped to encounter that evening – Madam L, draped in a lime-green evening robe and matching hair cap, gazed upon the children with dark, scornful eyes. "Do I detect a pair of delinquent children out of bed? Shame, shame…" She wagged a finger at the stunned pair.

The lantern she carried emitted a light so intense that both Harry and Ana had to shield their eyes with their hands. "Now, what in the name of Merlin are you naughty children doing up so late? Do either of you have any idea how late it is?"

"Uhh, midnight?" Harry guessed, but winced when he saw Madam L's reaction.

"Try closer to two," grumbled the cantankerous Potions Master. She pointed a long, wrinkled finger at the ancient brown journal. "So, you two have been reading in the wee hours of the morning? I can't imagine it's for your classes… hmph!" She stuck her nose up in the air, before gesturing for the book. "All right, Miss Harrison. Hand it over."

As Ana slowly closed the book shut, and handed the book to Madam L, Harry spoke up. "I don't think you want to know what's in that book," but he quickly bit his tongue.

"I don't think you're in much of a position to be telling me what I should and shouldn't do, young Potter," snapped Madam L. She snatched the book from Ana and went through the pages rather like a flip book. "This is from the library's restricted section," she gasped. "How in the world did you get your hands on this, hmm? Madam Ballantyne is going to have a heart attack when she hears of this…"

Harry hung his head in shame, and sighed. "Professor Lupin checked it out, Madam L. He let me borrow it for the weekend…"

Madam L shook her head in dismay. "Lupin is just another Limey nitwit – personally, I wouldn't trust a seventh-year student to read a book from the restricted section unsupervised, much less a pair of underclassmen." She flashed the light on the book again, glossing over one of the bookmarked sections for a few quick seconds before she practically dropped her lantern in utter shock. "What in Merlin's name was that buffoon thinking? This is a journal by one of the foremost historians in all of the wizarding world… on the Orb of Exuberance! I'm going to be having some words with my lycanthropomorphic colleague."

"You're not going to… obliviate us, are you?" asked Ana tentatively.

"Trust me, Miss Harrison, the temptation is there," murmured Madam L. "For centuries, the powers-that-be have taken painstaking precautions to conceal the whereabouts of the Orb. To those who have grown up in wizarding families, the object is little more than a tall tale, and we'd like to keep it that way."

"But you can't," pleaded Harry. "I've… been having some nightmares about the Orb for a few months… they seem to get more vivid and more frightening with each passing episode. I need to educate myself as much as I can on the Orb because I've sworn to destroy it!"

Madam L remained unconvinced. "There are plenty of staff members in the castle who can help you with your nightmares. There's absolutely no reason for you be sneaking off after curfew to read books that are off-limits to students. And good luck with destroying the Orb, Potter. You're more likely to destroy yourself in the process." She narrowed her eyes. "Now, what am I going to do with you two?"

"Let me guess, you're going to give us a week's worth of detention," sighed Ana.

The most unexpected thing just happened – Madam L chuckled. "No, Miss Harrison… I have a better idea…"

Meanwhile, at Hogwarts, Daphne Greengrass was enjoying a warm breakfast with her friends in the Great Hall. "It was awful drafty in the Gryffindor tower when we woke up this morning, wasn't it?" she groaned. "The boys are lucky – they're issued long underwear to go with their flannel pajamas, while we freeze our bums off in our paper-thin nightgowns and even thinner underwear! Forget fashion – I want comfort!"

"What about Erebus?" asked Parvati. "He's big and fluffy enough to keep you warm at night…"

"Normally he would be, but he fled to the boys' dormitory just before lights out… he's recently been fascinated by Ronald's rat Scabbers. I mean, it's only natural that cats chase vermin, but Erebus is unusually persistent… I'm not sure why that is."

"You said he may have some Kneazle in him," suggested Parvati. "You don't think that there's more to Scabbers than meets the eye, do you?"

Daphne simply shrugged, before returning to her breakfast. When she finished her breakfast, she whipped out a blank parchment and a quill from her robe pocket, and began writing her latest letter to Ana:

"11 January 1992

Dear Anastasia,

Hiya! How did your holiday break treat you? Did you have a white Christmas in South Bend? It's much snowier in the Scottish Highlands than in Southern England, but it's still chilly – the daytime highs are only a few degrees above freezing at most!

How are the Horned Serpents doing in the Quiz Bowl series so far? The Interscholastic competition is about three months away – it'll be here before you know it! Even if you can't make it to Scotland, there's a chance I may get to visit Ilvermorny during our spring break (which, quite coincidentally, takes place right after the big Quiz Bowl competition).

I also spoke with my parents about the possibility of visiting you in the States this summer, and they said they'll do what they can to make it happen. It's much more difficult for a magical family to visit North America than say, Spain or France, so if we do end up and visit, we may have to pass as Muggles for a few days. Between you and me, I'd love to spend a few days with you as a Muggle girl – I'm English anyway, so I'll at least have an excuse if I seem like a fish out of water! You'll have to tell me what there is to see and do in the Chicago area! I'm sure there's no shortage of non-magical Italian restaurants… I can hardly wait!

How are you liking the British wizarding history books we sent you? Thank Merlin my friend Hermione offered to send them to you on my behalf – while I'm grateful to be a part of the magical world, there are a few things that the Muggle world handles better (or at least more efficiently) and large packages across the world is definitely one of them. While her family isn't hurting for money, I made it a point to reimburse her for generosity as I'm sure it wasn't cheap to send those heavy tomes nearly a third of the way around the world!

There's one other thing I wanted to mention. I saw the group photos you sent me just before the holidays, and I can't help but mention a couple of things. First, you have a very pretty friend in Nova. I only know of her, but apparently she's a distant cousin of mine (most major wizarding families in Britain are tied to each other – the Woodwards and Greengrasses are no exception).

Second, there's something about your friend Harry (other than being a very handsome boy). There was something familiar about him, so I asked my house head, Professor McGonagall, who confirmed his identity. Suffice to say, he's a very special wizard in Magical Britain, but my professor also told the four of us to not make a big deal about him. He's precisely where he needs to be, and he needs to have as normal a childhood as possible. Judging by the photo, he sure seems to be enjoying himself at Ilvermorny. Tell him I said hello!

Your friends Othniel and Tallulah have some very unique first names. I don't think I've ever met anyone named Othniel or Tallulah before. I'm guessing Othniel comes from ancient Hebrew, and I don't even know where to start with Tallulah! Anastasia is uncommon, but at least I've heard of it… in fact, there's a sixth-year Ravenclaw prefect named Anastasia Greystone. She's a little snooty from what I gather, but nowhere nearly as sanctimonious as Percy Weasley (a fifth-year Gryffindor prefect). In fact, Percy asked Anastasia to a date to the Three Broomsticks just before Christmas, and she responded by dumping a big wooden bucket of water on him! Too funny!

I suppose I'm just rambling at this point! I'm getting more and more excited for the spring – both for the warmer weather and the big Quiz Bowl! I can't wait to read your next letter!

With love from Hogwarts,

Daphne"