Chapter 39
The Unexpected Development
“So all Gryffindor did was marry a Muggle? Seems like a rather stupid reason to leave the school to me.”
It was a bright Saturday morning and, wanting a break from the indoors and studying, Ginny had suggested they take a walk across the grounds. While there was still a good amount of snow on the ground, it was sunny, clear, and just warm enough for a pleasant walk. Harry had just finished filling her in on everything that had happened in the diary.
“Well, I guess back then it was a pretty big deal. Even Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw seemed pretty startled. They were a lot nicer to her than he was though.”
“Slytherin seems like a complete git.”
“He is. Er, was,” agreed Harry. He was still slightly shocked at the way Slytherin had treated Godric’s wife-to-be.
“But now we know why they call Wulfric Gryffindor the Half-Blood Prince, though, don’t we? He really was a Half-blood.”
Harry smiled. “Yeah, Ron’s pretty happy about that. That was his theory from the beginning. It still doesn’t explain the Prince part though.”
“That’s true,” said Ginny with a shrug. The sun reflected off her bright red hair, turning it almost gold. She shook her head and laughed. “I still can’t believe you found it. I mean, headmasters have been searching for that diary for centuries, but you were the one who found it! Don’t you think that’s amazing?”
It was Harry’s turn to shrug. He didn’t feel he was any smarter than the headmasters were, he simply had something that they hadn’t. Parseltongue. He was about to say so when Ginny interrupted him.
“But what I really can’t believe,” she said in an indignant tone as she aimed a punch at his arm, “is that I missed the whole thing because you didn’t come get me, you stupid, great prat!”
Harry winced and rubbed where she had punched him. Ginny hit hard for a girl.
“I told you already “ I looked for you but you weren’t around.”
“I was just up in the dormitory studying. Some of us have OWL’s coming up, you know. You could have sent Hermione to get me.”
“Well, we were in a bit of a hurry, weren’t we? And how was I supposed to know you were up in the dormitory?” replied Harry in his own defense. “I guess from now on if you don’t want to be left out you had better always be where I can find you.”
Ginny rolled her eyes and laughed. “Fine. I forgive you. So now what? When do we find the fourth diary?”
“Well, the third diary showed some small stone room with a window in it that I’ve never seen before. Dumbledore seems to know where it is, though. We’re supposed to go have a look later today, just before the Quidditch match. He reckons the library should be empty by then””
“What? The room is in the library?” Ginny interrupted, an amused look on her face.
“Er…yeah. Why?”
“Well, remember when we snuck into the Ravenclaw common room to find the second diary, what we told Hermione when she asked where we got it?”
Harry thought back. They had been worried that Hermione would turn them in for breaking into the Ravenclaw common room, so Ginny had come up with a quick lie.
“You told her we found it in a hidden room in the library.”
“I just said the first place that came to mind. Turns out I’m a genius,” she said with a shrug. Harry laughed.
“Sorry, you were saying?”
“Oh yeah. Even though we know where the room is, Dumbledore reckons the diary’s been nicked out of there as well. Probably all we’ll find is another note.”
“But that will tell us where the last diary is, won’t it?”
“Hopefully. We’ll see.”
They rounded a corner of Hogwarts’s outside wall near the lake and turned back towards the castle. Harry took a deep breath, savoring the fresh, cool air. Ginny had been right; it was good to get outside. As they turned to make their way towards the greenhouses they saw two people walking towards them. Harry didn’t give them much thought; there were quite a few students out on the grounds at the moment, but after a little while Ginny nudged him.
“Oh look. It’s Cho and Michael.”
Harry looked up. She was right. Cho Chang and Michael Corner were walking towards them.
“Listen, Harry, will you do me a favor?” Ginny asked suddenly, an urgent tone in her voice.
“Er…sure.”
“Thanks. Just play along. I’ll explain later.”
The next thing he knew Ginny had moved closer to him and slipped her hand into his. It was soft and warm. Just as Cho and Michael came within speaking distance she let out a gleeful laugh and slapped him playfully on the chest.
“Oh Harry, you’re so funny!” she said as though he had just told a very good joke. Then she looked at Cho and Michael suddenly, as though she hadn’t seen them there.
“Oh! Hey Cho, Michael.”
Harry wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but he noticed that Michael looked somewhat crestfallen and that Cho blushed slightly.
They walked by without saying anything else. Once they were out of earshot Ginny took her hand out of Harry’s and sighed in relief.
“Thanks. Michael’s been dropping hints that he wants to get back together. I don’t want him to think it’s even remotely possible. And I hear Cho still fancies you. Honestly, if those two don’t even like each other anymore, why are they still together?” she said as she shook her head disdainfully.
Harry nodded, unconsciously rubbing the fingers of the hand Ginny had just held across the base of his palm.
“Anyways, what d’you think about Hufflepuff’s team? You’ve flown against Summerby before, haven’t you? D’you reckon I can outfly him?”
They spent the rest of the time discussing Quidditch and Seeker strategies, Ginny doing most of the talking as Harry had suddenly found it hard to speak. When they arrived back in the common room Hermione shot over to him with an anxious look on her face.
“There you are. Professor Dumbledore wants to see you in the library right now.”
Harry wished Ginny and Ron luck (they were just leaving for the Quidditch Pitch before the start of the match), then quickly made his way back out of the common room and down to the library. He entered to find it mostly empty (the majority of the students also getting ready for the Quidditch match) other than a group of adults gathered towards the far side of the room that turned out to be Dumbledore, Professors McGonagall and Grendelhall, and Madame Pince, the librarian. As he walked towards them he saw that they were standing in a small semi-circle around a short, very narrow staircase that had suddenly appeared in the library floor. Apparently it was the passage to the hidden room he had seen in the diary, because Harry had never seen it before or had even been aware it was there. They looked up as he approached.
“Ah, here he is. Thank you for coming Harry,” said the headmaster. McGonagall gave him a curt nod, Grendelhall smiled, and Madame Pince shot him her usual look of disapproval.
“But this is foolish, Albus,” she said. “There is nothing down there, it’s simply an unused, empty room. You yourself told me that years ago.”
“Yes, I recall that conversation, Irma. But that was before we had Harry.”
Madame Pince looked from the headmaster to Harry with a scrupulous, slightly annoyed look in her eye, obviously trying to see what was so special about him.
“Shall we?” said Dumbledore cheerfully, ignoring the confused look on her face. He motioned the others down the stairs.
Harry followed Professor Grendelhall down the steep, narrow staircase of about ten steps into a small room underneath the library floor. Once he was in it Harry recognized it immediately as the room in diary; cramped, perhaps only seven by seven feet, a large rectangular window on the far side, a short, wooden chair looking out of it, and a small wooden bookshelf to the left, its two shelves completely empty. It looked like it had been used as no more than a secret reading room; the type of place Hermione would be ecstatic to know about. It was also considerably brighter and friendlier than the room in the Astronomy Tower.
“Well, I suppose we should try the traditional way first,” said Dumbledore as the last of them crammed into room. He stepped forward, removed his wand, and said the words from the end of the third diary.
“Invenio Altus”
Nothing. Madame Pince raised her eyebrows, clearly not amused.
“Ah, just as expected,” the headmaster said, completely nonplussed. He took a step back, making room in front of the bookcase.
“Harry, if you will.”
Harry walked up to the bookcase, noticing that it looked exactly like the one in the Astronomy Tower. He sank down to his knees and checked the wall behind it. Sure enough there was the tiny, curved shape of a snake etched into the stone. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and did his best to clear his mind. When he opened them he looked straight at the marking and imagined a living, writhing snake.
“Show me your secretsss.”
He heard someone behind him gasp. The marking began to glow and there was a small whooshing sound. It had worked. A small bit of folded parchment had appeared on the bookshelf in front of him.
“You see, Irma? There are mysteries in this school that you can only unlock if you have the right key,” said Dumbledore pleasantly to a surprised Madame Pince. “Go ahead Harry.”
Harry picked up the old parchment and unfolded it, noticing that the note was considerably shorter than the last though it was written in the same harsh, black writing. He read it out loud, the four professors listening intently.
“Friend of Slytherin, seek ye the place nigh to Hengist’s village where our hallowed father dwelt, midst stone and grime, foul earth and slime. There, memorial eternal to his travail, lies the key to discovering the traitor’s seed.”
Confused at the meaning of the note, Harry looked up at the professors. Madame Pince looked shocked, though he was pretty sure it was more because he had just spoken Parseltongue and made a hidden note appear out of one of her bookcases than because of anything the note said. McGonagall and Grendelhall had just turned their heads to face Dumbledore, who was looking thoughtfully at the note.
“’Hengist’s’s village?’ Does it mean Hogsmeade?” asked McGonagall.
“I believe it does. May I?” he answered, holding his hand out towards Harry.
Harry gave him the parchment. Dumbledore scanned it quickly with a thoughtful look on his face, then looked up and smiled.
“I believe I have heard mention of this place before. The various legends we have state that shortly after leaving Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin resided in a cave next to Hogsmeade. He did so in order to avoid being detected by the other schoolmasters, presumably while he worked on the Chamber of Secrets.”
Harry’s heart began to race. The final diary was in Hogsmeade.
“Excellent,” said McGonagall with a nod.
“Good work, Potter,” said Grendelhall, her wrinkled face cracking into a smile.
“Shall we?” said Dumbledore, motioning up the stairs. They ascended the short staircase and emerged back into the library. A fourth-year Ravenclaw girl across the room was peering curiously at them, obviously surprised to see five people appear out of a hole in the library floor that hadn’t been there before. Madame Pince told her off for not being at the Quidditch match as Dumbledore bent over and tapped his wand on three strange circular markings on the floor. The stone staircase began to rise, slowly becoming part of the floor again. He turned to Madame Pince.
“Thank you for your assistance, Irma. Now, if you’ll excuse us,” he said politely, making it clear that the next part of the conversation didn’t involve her. She shot him a resentful, somewhat scandalized look, then walked off. Harry barely noticed any of this, however, as he was already thinking about retrieving the next diary.
A cave, it was in a cave somewhere in Hogsmeade. They could go after it right now. Maybe they could even have it by that night…
“Now, there are dozens of caves around Hogsmeade,” Dumbledore said in a low voice so only they could hear. “I will consult with the other headmasters. I would imagine some of them, Mortimer in particular, will know something about this. In the meantime, Minerva, will you please track down Professor Binns and see if he has any idea?”
“Of course, Albus,” replied Professor McGonagall. She quickly walked off. Dumbledore turned towards Harry and Professor Grendelhall and continued in his low voice.
“Now, it will take some time for our spy to discover how much Voldemort knows about the diaries “ at least two weeks, I am guessing “ so that will provide us with some time to find the cave, as well as deal with some other matters. Grishelda””
Harry felt like his heart had just dropped into his stomach.
“What…we’re not going after the diary right now?” he interrupted.
“No Harry, we are not,” Dumbledore replied simply. Harry was stunned.
“But…we can get it right now…we know where it is…” he stammered.
“Ah, but don’t forget who else most likely knows where it is,” the headmaster replied as Grendelhall nodded, for some reason looking amused with Harry’s reaction. Noticing the disappointment in his face, the headmaster put his hand on Harry’s shoulder and leaned towards him.
“Look, I know how much you want to go after the final diary. I know how anxious you must be to see this mystery unraveled. I feel the same way. But we need to be patient.”
Harry couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Wait? While they had Wulfric Gryffindor within their grasp? It seemed absurd. Apparently sensing this reaction, the headmaster shook his head.
“There are still too many questions unanswered, Harry. We need to give our inside contacts (Harry assumed he was referring to Professor Snape) some time to find out how much Voldemort knows about this. He caught us completely off guard last time, and I do not intend for that to happen again. Besides, there are other issues at play here that make it advantageous for us to cautious.”
“But…what about Voldemort’s army? Isn’t he about to attack?”
The headmaster shook his head. “Our sources tell us Voldemort won’t be able to challenge the Ministry for several months yet, that he is planning to wait until sometime in the summer. He is attempting to recruit the Gilbrathian Trolls to his cause, and that will not be easy. So we do have the luxury of time. Not much, but enough to be careful. I know you don’t want to wait, but you need to trust me on this.”
Harry tried to process everything Dumbledore had told him. He still didn’t see why they should wait and had no idea what Gilbrathian Trolls were, but he realized Dumbledore never did anything without thoroughly thinking it through.
“He’s right, lad,” said Grendelhall in her crackly voice. “This isn’t the time to be hasty.”
Harry acquiesced, nodding to show that he understood. Dumbledore smiled in approval and removed his hand from his shoulder.
“Excellent. I will alert you as soon as we are ready to retrieve the final diary. In the meantime, we have some other issues to take care of. There is still the small matter of finding out who told Bellatrix Lestrange that you would be in the crypt that night.”
This piqued Harry’s interest. The headmaster turned towards Professor Grendelhall.
“Grishelda, will you?”
“Certainly, Albus,” she crackled, then turned her attention to Harry. “Look, somebody alerted that old wart Lestrange that you were going down to the crypt. I have a feeling whoever it was has been watching you for some time. I have a pretty good idea who it is, but I’m going to need your help in order to find them out. Ron Weasley’s help too, actually. Can you two stop by my office this Thursday after classes?”
Harry agreed, curious as to what her plan was all about.
“Excellent. See you then.”
Harry Potter and the Legacy of the Founders by VoldemortsPatronus
Chapter Notes: I guess there really are three unexpected developments in this chapter, actually. Let's play a game - if you're the first to guess which one the chapter title is referring to, you win a super prize!*
*prize won't actually be that super.
Chapter 40 is pretty much done too. Again, thanks for your comments.