Chapter 19: The Study
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville were once again climbing the steps to the Astronomy Tower, this time to put Marcellus into place once and for all. Fawkes was perched excitedly on Harry's shoulder, looking forward to seeing his old friend's study again. Neville had insisted on joining for this part, as he wanted to see with his own eyes that Marcellus would be there to keep the griffons in line.
"My nightmares are finally going to be over," Neville declared triumphantly.
"Until they're replaced by something else," Ron said.
"Anything's better than those awful griffons."
"Shh. What was that?" Hermione asked. Everyone paused for a second and listened.
Harry looked upward and saw someone staring down at them from the railing of the landing, but they quickly stepped back when they saw Harry look up. "Someone's spying on us," he said.
"Are we in danger?" Neville asked.
"We could be," Hermione said.
"Only one way to find out," said Harry. "Wands out."
They all took out their wands and continued up the stairs, quietly this time. They reached the landing where Harry had seen someone staring at them, but no one was there.
"Are you sure you saw someone, Harry?" Ron asked.
"I'm pretty sure I did."
"Wingardium leviosa!" The voice came from above. Harry looked up again to see Dudley on the landing above theirs, leaning over the railing with his giant wand pointed at them.
"Hey!" Hermione exclaimed, reaching frantically for the bag holding Marcellus's painting, which had been levitated out of her hands. Fawkes spread his wings and launched off of Harry's shoulder, flying into the bag and knocking it back into Hermione's hands. He then flew up to the upper landing, chasing its inhabitants down the stairs. It appeared that it wasn't just Dudley up there, but Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle as well.
"Call off your bird, Potter, and fight us wizard to wizard," Malfoy snapped as he drew his wand.
"How did you know where we were going to be?" Harry demanded.
Malfoy laughed. "You're not sneaky, Potter. I've hired a lot of our fellow students to keep an eye on you. My network of spies know you've been hanging around the Divination Corridor lately, which they found rather strange considering none of you are old enough to take that class. Now it turns out there's a new painting in the area, of a kind young lady who was excited to tell us about the boy with the phoenix who placed her next to a handsome knight, all so he could place a painting of 'some old wizard' in her old position, here in this tower."
"That little blabbermouth," Ron muttered.
"It's over now," said Malfoy. "Hand over the painting."
"Absolutely not," said Harry.
Malfoy shrugged. "The hard way, then. Dep-"
"Depulso!" Surprising everyone, it was Neville. Malfoy was knocked off balance, unable to complete the spell. Neville stared at his wand as if he was in disbelief that he was able to cast the spell correctly at such a critical moment.
"Hermione, Run!" said Ron, taking advantage of the moment of confusion caused by Neville to encourage Hermione to make a getaway with the painting. "Depulso!" This one hit Crabbe, knocking him backward into Malfoy, stepping on his foot. Malfoy cried out in pain as Hermione headed for the stairs behind them. Dudley raised his wand to try and stop her, but Harry was faster.
"Depulso!" Harry said, knocking his cousin aside and allowing Hermione to escape up the tower. Lupin's teaching methods proved very effective, as this one spell was the best defensive spell any of the first years knew, but they'd proven they could cast it well.
Malfoy pushed Crabbe off of him, Dudley regained his balance, and Goyle seemed to finally realize that he should probably be doing something, but they were too late. Harry, Ron, and Neville blocked the stairs so they couldn't follow Hermione.
"Give up, Malfoy. Your mother may have killed my parents, and my own relatives may like her more than they've ever liked me, but you and your family are done getting in my way. It's over," Harry said.
"That's a serious accusation, Potter, calling my sweet mother a murderer," said Malfoy as he pointed his wand menacingly at Harry's face. "I suggest you never say that again. My parents aren't above suing a child for that kind of slander, and they have the money to take you down in a court of law." He put his wand down. "But as it happens, I'm tired of doing my mother's busy work. You're not a threat to her, anyway, if it took you this long to get this far. Let's get out of here, it's not worth it." He turned to go and the other Slytherins followed behind him, Dudley looking a bit confused.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry asked.
Malfoy paused and chuckled. "If you don't know, you've just proved my point." He and the other Slytherins disappeared down the stairs.
With the band of bullies gone, the way was clear to do what they'd come there to do. Hermione took Marcellus out of her bag, and they returned him to his original position on the wall.
"It feels great to be back! Just like the old days," Marcellus declared once he was back in place. "My honor has been restored, thank you all."
"Do you think you can keep an eye on those griffons from here?" Neville asked.
"You just attacked the biggest bully in our year, Neville. You're more than capable of standing up for yourself," Ron pointed out.
"I'd still like some protection from those things."
Marcellus laughed. "Neville, it will be my honor to protect you and all the other students in this school from those little monsters." Neville looked relieved.
"Are you still able to open the door to the study?" Harry asked impatiently.
"For you, Harry, I think I can manage. Let's see… Oh, here we go! Careful, now, everything in here is very old." Marcellus's painting swung forward as if hanging to the wall by invisible hinges, revealing a hole in the wall big enough to crawl through.
They all climbed through the hole and entered the secret study of Marcellus the Magnificent, the first people to do so in centuries. There were no windows to provide any natural light, but several torches lined the walls which magically lit themselves as the students entered. It was a pretty small room, just big enough for a desk, a bookshelf, and a couple leather reading chairs. On the desk was a stack of papers, as well as a few quills and an ink well that had long since dried out, and the bookshelf held several books and journals, but also, mysteriously, a large hourglass.
It was to this hourglass that the kids were initially drawn, because, despite the fact that this study had been abandoned for centuries, sand continued to fall through it at a steady pace. And, most unsettling of all, there was very little sand left to fall.
"What do you think is going to happen when the sand stops?" Neville asked, his voice shaking.
"Nothing good," said Ron.
Harry watched the sand fall with a fascination, feeling more sure than ever that he and Fawkes had been reunited just in time. They had to act fast, but what exactly was it that they needed to do?
"There's a note," Hermione said, carefully grabbing an old, yellowed piece of paper off the shelf near the hourglass, taking great care not to touch the hourglass itself as she did so. "Harry, you should read it," she said, carefully passing it over.
Harry accepted the note with a gentle hand, taking care not to damage the old document, and began to read. "When all of the sand has run through this hourglass, the spell that Fawkes and I casted to entrap the evil witch Primrose Bitterwood will finally be broken. Only once this happens can the spell be cast again, renewing her imprisonment for a few centuries more. But any living descendants she may have will gain the power to set her free."
"The witch plans her return to be freed by her blood," Hermione quoted.
A shiver went up Harry's spine as he continued. "She will be able to call out to them, summoning them to her. However, she will not be able to call out to them without my successor and my beloved companion, Fawkes, receiving the same call. When the time is near, Fawkes will choose a new champion to keep the world safe on my behalf. Champion, if you are reading this now, you must travel to the witch's prison on the day my magic fails. You and Fawkes must re-cast the imprisoning spell before the witch's descendants are able to release her. All the details of my spell can be found here in my study. Good luck to you both, and may Merlin be with you."
Silence settled over them all as Marcellus's words sank in. It seemed as though Harry and Fawkes had a very large destiny after all, and Harry was terrified. How was he, a first year magic student, supposed to oppose Narcissa, a full-grown witch, and perform some complex sealing spell that was almost certainly far more advanced than anything taught at Hogwarts, even to the older students?
"What are you supposed to do about all that?" Neville asked, breaking the silence. "You're going to get yourself killed if you try to do all that."
"Thanks for the confidence, Neville," said Harry.
"Did you even hear what I said? I have absolutely no confidence. There's no way that you can do this."
"Okay, well, maybe I'm not ready for all of that just yet," Harry admitted. "But we don't even know how much time we have! If that hourglass has been going for hundreds of years, maybe the little bit of sand that's left will last longer than we think. Maybe I actually have years to prepare."
"I don't know, Harry, Malfoy didn't seem to think you had much time to prepare," Ron said. "He said you're not much of a threat if it took you this long to get this far."
"He probably had no idea what was even in here, how could he? No one's been in here for hundreds of years. He may not have even known that the painting guarded Marcellus's secret study for all we know."
"Either way, there's no harm in looking around for that spell," Hermione said with a shrug. Ron and Neville seemed unconvinced, but they spread out to start looking.
"We can do this, right, Fawkes?" Harry whispered to the phoenix who had perched on his shoulder. Fawkes made a screeching noise before flying off to perch on the back of the desk chair. Harry wasn't sure how to take that, but joined in on the search anyway.
They looked through the shelves, carefully flipping through Marcellus's journals which were filled with his research. It seemed as though he'd spent a lot of time working with Fawkes to learn about phoenix magic, and its potential to be used in conjunction with wizard magic to achieve feats that were previously unheard of. It was fascinating stuff, and Harry would have loved to take his time learning all about how he and his phoenix companion could reach their full potential together. And maybe he someday would, but for now they had to focus on finding the spell that would prevent Primrose Bitterwood's return.
"You would think that if this spell is so important, he would have made it easier to find," Ron commented as he looked through the papers on Marcellus's desk.
"Or at least told us where to look," Hermione agreed.
"I think I found it, Harry," Neville said. He was looking through the files in one of the desk drawers. "I was right, there's no way you're going to be able to do this."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione went over to take a look at what Neville had found. Sure enough, the pages were clearly labeled as the spell that had been used to imprison Primrose Bitterwood. And, as much as Harry hated to admit it, the spell was far outside his skill range as a first year Hogwarts student. The explanation of how to perform the spell spanned multiple pages and featured numerous labeled diagrams outlining complex wand movements that involved the use of both hands moving simultaneously in different patterns, and long incantations with complex pronunciations coupled with explanations of the required tone of voice and even the volume of each phrase. Each step of the multi-phase spell had to be performed in perfect sync with Fawkes, who would be performing his own portions of the spell. Most important of all, Marcellus noted that the spell could only be performed by a bonded phoenix and wizard duo. Harry had never seen anything like it.
"Almost no one can perform magic this advanced," Hermione commented as she glanced at Marcellus's notes over Harry's shoulder.
"Well, that was a waste of time," Ron said. "What do we do now?"
"I'm just going to have to learn the spell," Harry said simply.
"Harry, most of our teachers wouldn't even be able to do this," said Hermione.
"It's my destiny, right? Marcellus's note said so. It's the reason why Fawkes chose me. I'll figure it out."
Ron, Hermione, and Neville all glanced at each other, but didn't try to argue. Harry knew he could make it work. If he couldn't, what was his bond with Fawkes for? If he couldn't, why were his parents forced to choose between his life and theirs?