take the path of safety, far from this danger.
Snape magically locked his Spinner’s End house and Apparated to Hogsmeade. He did not plan to come back home after this meeting.
He walked slowly down to Hogwarts in the warm air of August and directly to the Headmaster’s office.
***
‘He’s preparing something,’ he summed up for the headmaster.
‘You could not make him talk?’
‘No. He was boasting about something coming up to Hogwarts thanks to him.’
‘You said you do not believe it had to do with Voldemort?’ the headmaster asked again.
‘Malfoy made it sound this way, but I do not think it can be. He would have to put more people in the confidence if it were. Knowing Lucius, he is trying to serve his own interest; he hinted that he would kill two birds with one stone. He kept that elusive, though.’
The headmaster looked preoccupied.
‘He did not seem to have put his son in his confidence, either,’ Snape added.
‘Young Draco, right?’ the headmaster checked. ‘I think we should take that seriously. If it was just some nasty dark arts prank, he would have included his son in the fun.’
‘I’ll pay him another visit before the semester starts,’ Snape offered.
‘Thank you, Severus. We received your trunks. I take you are entering your Hogwarts quarters again?’
‘Yes, I will spend the last week of the holidays here. I want to go on with the research on Magi before the semester starts.’
Dumbledore’s eyes caught the dark ones.
‘The documentation I gave you is, I’m afraid, very incomplete,’ he apologized to the Potions Master.
‘I intend to look into external sources later on. As for now, I took time to analyze the material you and Professor Flitwick have passed to me.’
Dumbledore gestured to Snape to elaborate.
‘I have few facts. I know more legends. I’m not even close to discovering how to link them together and with her.’
Dumbledore did not comment on this but gave Snape a piercing look.
‘Are you intending to share your findings with Miss Philius?’ he asked in his usual direct fashion.
‘Yes,’ Snape answered simply.
Dumbledore didn’t ask more.
Back in my office, I summoned several files and opened Cybele’s previous year’s essay file, where I wanted to archive the ones she had sent me over the summer.
How Cybele’s knowledge worked was now drawn clearly. She was omniscient as far as the Muggle world was concerned. She needed to learn everything from the wizarding world, which she was doing easily as she needed to hear or read anything but once to know it.
I peered quickly through the essays before I archived them. Cybele had been working regularly and willingly on these reports, but I had come to wonder if she was now so anxious to decipher who she was and where she came from.
She was young and had been distracted easily. Her first year in Hogwarts had confronted her to a variety of people. The blind way she developed friendship had led her into some childish conflicts.
I let my thoughts linger on Cybele and Draco for a while.
‘Master?’
‘Eslis.’
‘It is the time Master tell Eslis to come, Master.’
‘Yes, come in, Eslis.’
The Elf entered reluctantly the dark office and stood in front of the desk. Snape did not offer the Elf a seat and started directly.
‘You have called a student a Magian. I would like to know why.’
Eslis twisted uncomfortably on the spot, unsure if he would be scolded or punished for doing what the Potions Master was accusing him of.
‘Yes Master, I is calling Miss Cybele a Magian, because she is a Magian, Sir.’
‘What differentiates a Magian from a Witch, in your eyes?’
‘Magi don’t do magic, Master.’
‘Miss Philius can do magic. Explain!’
Eslis choked. This master wanted him to give him information but was contradicting him. It was very distressing as he had to answer to direct questions but was not supposed to contradict a Hogwarts Master. Snape noticed.
‘Tell me what you know,’ he confirmed.
‘Magi is magic. Witches has magic powers so they can do magic. Witches is not magic.’
Snape knew better than to press the point. Elves would not elaborate on such a scholastic matter. They were intelligent and perceptive creatures but they couldn’t formulate abstract thoughts better than that in English. Their language, Elfish, defied human logic and even Dumbledore himself admitted to get quickly lost each time he tried to practice it.
‘Tell me everything you know about Magi,’ Snape ordered.
The Elf complied, delivering much information in one breath. Snape did not react to any. He had read through all this already. But the Elf was mixing history and legend as if one. Elfish knowledge, combined with Cybele’s very existence, was confirming what he suspected: legend was history.
As Eslis was going on, Snape started to let his quill run on the parchment on and off to consign few new elements.
After the Elf was dismissed, Snape sat back on his chair. He was holding a piece of parchment reading,
Magi are cursed by Love.
Rowena Ravenclaw didn’t lose her tiara.
The Elf had refused to elaborate on this last statement. It had escaped him in his emotion because he had started to plead with Snape at the second statement. Magi are cursed by Love! Master must help Miss Cybele, Miss Cybele needs protection, Rowena Ravenclaw didn’t lose her tiara. At this point the Elf had walked right into the fire place barefoot, repeating, ‘Eslis must keep Hogwarts secrets.’
‘I still don’t see how…’ Snape thought out loud long later, still holding the parchment in his hand, sitting in the darkening office.
‘I’ll pass by the library,’ Cybele said after a quick breakfast with the Gryffindor boys.
‘Cybele, it’s the first day of class, you won’t even find another Ravenclaw there. You’ll beat even Hermione on this one!’
‘Who? Look, Madam Pince sent me the rudest note over the summer. I left Hogwarts without giving back this tale compilation I’ve had for ever. The longer I wait, the worst it will get and I may as well pick a novel. Don’t you worry; since when have you seen me overstrain myself over studies?’
George made an artificial caught which sounded very much like ‘Potions’.
‘Yes?’ Cybele asked in a mockingly dangerous voice.
‘Nothing, you chose a nice fat book and enjoy; see you tomorrow!’
Cybele made it directly for the literature section after Madam Pince’s lengthy lecture over the Tales of the Wandering Wand. She had already reached the double row when she spotted someone on the couch, hidden behind a paper they were reading. She thought it may be Caroline but at second glance, it looked like a boy. She let her school bag drop noisily on the floor and Draco lowered the newspaper to see who was there.
He looked back down at the paper now on his lap so quickly that his eyes had already fallen back on the printing when it hit him that Cybele had been smiling at him. He looked up again immediately. But Cybele had already passed behind the shelf to scan the books’ spines.
She had smiled quite automatically at recognizing her once friend. She didn’t regret it. After all they had been friends, they were friends, it was the same; she didn’t like the idea of giving up so easily on friends. She also realized the moment she had seen him that she had been somewhat missing his assuming, sufficient and inconsequent self. Draco had not returned the smile or greeted her, however, and she now wished she could find some book quickly and go… only she could not properly concentrate long enough to read a full title right now. She angrily stuffed back the Tales of the Wandering Wands in its right place.
Draco had leapt to his feet and followed Cybele from the other side of the shelf. She had almost reached the end of the row and was trying to focus on the book in front of her when she locked eyes with Draco, who was standing on the other side of the books and the shelf.
‘Hi.’
‘Hi Draco.’
‘Did I see you smile?’
What a git! ‘I should think you did not or you would have greeted me.’
‘Well I do now. How were your holidays?’
Cybele started walking back toward the central aisle, still trying unsuccessfully to spot a good title.
‘Fine. I was at the Jordans’, they’re a great family.’
Draco followed her on the other side, glancing at her over the books.
‘Yes, a very good family, ancient one.’
‘It’s not here nor there. What have you been up to… genealogy?’
Oh no, it’s not getting there again… ‘No, just hanging around with, you know, my childhood friends… whom I was trying to escape from for a while, as you see.’
‘Better than nothing, for a while…’
They had reached back the central aisle and Cybele had said the last facing directly Draco.
‘I’ve been missing you,’ he stated simply, looking fierce, as if defying her to ridicule him.
‘I’ve been missing you too.’ Cybele made the first move and somehow the next second they were hugging each other. They let go quickly but were both beaming at each other now. ‘Will I see you around, then?’ she asked.
‘You definitely will, whether your friends like it or not,’ he answered.
‘You know I’m not gonna put with any of your bad behavior this year, right?’
‘I think I can handle… It’s worth it. Here, try this, it’s a classic.’ He put a book in her hands, a light kiss on her cheek and was gone before she could react to this unusual behavior.
She needed to talk to the boys.
‘Were you with him?’ Caroline had just arrived to the library. Monday morning History of Magic class was already beginning downstairs.
‘With whom?’ Cybele asked as she hugged her friend.
‘Malfoy, I almost bumped into him on my way here. He looked very pleased with himself. That is, until he saw me,’ she added suspiciously.
‘Yeah, he was here,’ Cybele answered innocently. ‘Shall we be serious and study history or catch up on our holidays?’ she asked, eager to change topic.
‘What about a bit of Muggle history, before we catch up?’ suggested Caroline. She looked excited about something.
‘What should I know about Muggle history?’ Cybele asked, intrigued.
‘Well, you remember how I reckoned I would not be of any help researching about the Magi over the summer because I was in the Muggle world. Well, I didn’t want to tell you in a letter, but I did find things, a lot!’
She handed Cybele a laser-printed A4 paper and several photocopies of a book.
‘It’s incredible, look! I was getting bored one afternoon and I absent-mindedly searched it,’ Caroline was telling.
Cybele had opened her mouth and was not reacting, so Caroline started to explain, misinterpreting her friend’s silence.
‘I mean I made a search on Internet… means… oh never mind. See what it said. It’s the printed one.’
Cybele read through. How could she have not thought about it earlier! Like Caroline had, she had dismissed Muggle knowledge on such a magical matter. Now all the Muggle information about Magi was coming back to her mind. Really, what was the point having limitless knowledge if it would not just kick in when one needed it? She didn’t need to read Caroline’s papers, as she knew all this already.
‘You are right, this is incredible,’ she simply said.
‘So, then, I went to the town’s library. There was not much, actually, but I copied the most interesting documents.’
Cybele complied to pretend to read, but Caroline saved her the pain.
‘Basically,’ she explained, ‘Magi were a tribe and it’s the origin of the word Magic itself in English! In most languages really… In the Muggle world, it refers to an ancient Persian tribe or more precisely to a religion, the followers of Zoroaster. But Muggles believe them to have had magical abilities, such as reading the stars, brewing potions. They are seen as the inventors of magic. But basically, Muggles viewed them as a heretic sect, so they were persecuted and they don’t exist anymore. That’s more or less it, but you may find some of the references useful, too. It’s quite fascinating, actually. They distinguish Magian, the creators of magic and Magavans, the ones who have magic. That makes me think of you and us,’ she concluded.
She stayed silent for a while, as Cybele was pondering this too.
‘Do you think it means there could really be other types of sorcerers? One who would have appeared long before wizards? Ones nobody would know about, and you would be one of them?’ Caroline resumed eagerly.
‘Well, Eslis knows about them,’ Cybele pointed out.
‘Yeah, but there aren’t any but one book in the all Hogwarts library mentioning them. And they are a Muggle legend...’
‘Professor Snape will tell me more. He said he would, this term. Can I show him your printouts?’
‘They are yours,’ Caroline started. She hesitated a while and seemed to make her mind about something.
‘That’s what you are doing with Snape in these tutorial of yours, isn’t it? He’s trying to find out about your special abilities, isn’t he?’ she asked boldly.
Cybele then only realized what she had just let slip. She locked eyes with her friend but didn’t need to think twice to know she could trust her.
‘Yeah,’ she admitted simply, ‘that’s what we are doing. You know, I think he may be thinking I’m a Magian, too.’
‘Did he mention something?’
‘No, it’s more the way he reacted, well, the way he didn’t react, when I mentioned Eslis called me like that. This and one thing he said on our first meeting last year, too.’
‘Fancy a hot chocolate in the kitchens by the end of the week?’ Caroline suggested unexpectedly.
Cybele smiled.
‘Maybe you are right. I could ask Eslis. All right then; see you there Saturday evening! I’m gonna be late for Defense Against the Dark Arts… And thanks for the research!’ She waved the papers in a goodbye out of the library.
I was left in the literature section, to ponder over what Cybele had so lightly admitted. I knew she had lost her parents, she didn’t know who they were “ put it like that “ she didn’t know who she was! She had admitted her amnesia to me last year after the incident with Eslis. She didn’t know where she was coming from. And now it sounded like she didn’t even know what she was!
I let myself think about my friend for a while. There were a lot of mysterious things about her, really. The amnesia was one thing, and the strange magical powers too, of course. But I would still have found her intriguing even without that. She was a top student, but never talked enthusiastically about the classes, except for Potions and Herbology, and she spent a ridiculously small amount of time studying, following the Gryffindor twins most of the time. Then she admired Snape, which was a one and unique occurrence among Hogwarts students as far as I knew. This and the friendship with Malfoy were in my point of view in natural contradiction with being friend with Eslis, the Gryffindors and myself.
Thinking about Malfoy, Eslis was right. Her friendships were likely to put her into trouble. The look the boy gave me earlier when he bumped into me, like he would have to wash his clothes after brushing me. I had to put with the idea of my friend being his friend. Because I didn’t doubt they would be friends again. I even suspected Cybele to be slightly infatuated with him (knowing how Cybele would be blind in friendship, I’d rather not imagine how she would reveal in love!) Could I put with it? Could the twins put with it? Could Cybele herself put with it?
Aghast, I started to think back about the incredible discovery I had made this summer. Who would have thought the Muggle world contained so much more information about a Magic legend than Hogwarts library? Then it hit me that what I was looking at right now, the literature shelves, I had discarded just the way I had discarded the Muggle library. I was in the only section of the library where I had not lost my time casting the revealing spell. What if…?’
‘Carta Revelo “Magian”; Carta Revelo “Magi”,’ I chanted waving the large loopy wandwork of the spell in direction of the two literature shelves.
Three books zoomed to me, which I took eagerly. Two were Muggle books. The first opened itself in its middle, where the word “Magian” shined for a second in the middle of a page. The pages turned by themselves, showing the word “Magian” shining in several pages around the middle. I read through quickly. It was just a fantastic epic story in which the word “Magian” could as well have been replaced by “wizard” or “sorcerer”. I took the second Muggle book in my hand and contact with my hand made it reveal itself in turn. This time it was a compilation of Muggle tales and the fifth tale involved a “Magian”, and old wise man with magical powers. Nothing there either. I put it aside and curiously pull over the wizarding title. It was a tale compilation too. It opened itself to show the title of the last but one tale. Tale of the Times of the Magi.
The tale started with the exact same words as the introduction of Lost Antic Enchantments.
‘At the origins of Magic, when Magi were It, before they hit the curse and liberated It from within, before parchment and quills, is it true what they say? Magic was wordless, Magic was wandless.’
Mafalda Wimbury had been quoting this tale, without footnotes. That must mean that the tale was famous enough among wizards to be considered public knowledge. I read on.