SA & RoF - Chapter Three, "Seer of Stone"
Chapter Three
Seer of Stone
The first few weeks at Hogwarts were hectic but undeniably fun. From the portraits that could talk and move from frame to frame, to the castle’s constantly changing floor-plan that made it easy to end up in places you never expected, every corridor was an adventure. Solana and Jowan were certain that there was some kind of pattern to the moving walls and floors, and they were keen to figure it out.
Even though they were in different houses, Solana and Jowan had quickly become best friends. They spent most of their time outside of class together, either reading in the library or exploring the castle and environs.
As for the classes themselves, Solana couldn’t get enough. Even though they were starting small, she knew that these basic spells would lead to big results in later years. She beamed with pride when Professor Leorah complimented her brewing technique in Potions, and Solana was the second person in their year to successfully transfigure a match into a sewing needle (she was edged out only by Morrigan Hemlock, who was already an apparent transfiguration prodigy). Meanwhile, Jowan struggled with some of the more practical classes, but he loved History of Magic, a class that made most students fall asleep at their desks.
Within a couple of months, the chaos had settled somewhat-or at least they had become more used to it. Though Solana knew that she would never be bored by magic, she no longer stared in open-mouthed shock every time she saw someone cast a spell. She was starting to feel more at home with the magical world than the one she’d left behind. She couldn’t imagine going back to a world without magic, fantastic beasts, or Quidditch. Oh, Quidditch! After seeing it for the first time during the Gryffindor-Slytherin match, Solana instantly fell head over heels for the fast-paced high-flying sport.
“You really should have gone,” Solana told Jowan after the game. He had insisted on staying in the library to finish his Charms essay. She might have joined him, but thankfully she had finished her essay days ago.
“I told you, I don’t really like sports,” Jowan replied. He frowned down at his textbook. “What’s the third difference between charms and transfigurations, again?”
“Power of the spell, permanence of the effect, or properties of the result?” asked Solana.
Jowan rolled his eyes. “And they call us Ravenclaws the know-it-alls.”
“Do you want to read mine?”
“No,” said Jowan. “Professor Torrin caught us the last time we tried that.”
“Because you were only meant to make your own conclusions,” Solana chided, “not copy me verbatim.”
Jowan sighed and shut his book. “It’s no use, I can’t focus.”
“What’s wrong?” Solana asked. Her thick, dark brows furrowed with concern.
Jowan glanced nervously around the room. They were in a somewhat remote nook of the library where they liked to go for a bit of solitude- when it wasn’t already occupied by older students who wanted a private place for snogging. There didn’t seem to be anyone nearby, though Jowan still scooted his chair closer to Solana’s just to be safe.
“I saw something strange this afternoon,” he said in a hushed voice. “I wanted to ask Professor Torrin about the assignment, so I went down into the dungeons to find him.”
“He was at the game,” said Solana.
“I figured that out,” Jowan said dismissively. “That’s not the strange part. It’s just… I saw the door to the repository.”
Solana leaned closer. She had been dreadfully curious about the repository ever since Professor Irving mentioned it during the start-of-term feast. “We’ve both seen the door before,” said Solana. It was heavy and seemed to be made out of steel, with intricate designs on its face and two key-holes, but no visible knob. “I think all of the students know where it is. What’s so strange about that?”
“I saw Professor Uldred trying to get through the door.”
“Is that all?” Solana scoffed. Honestly, Jowan was so paranoid sometimes, and it was always caused by the oddest things. “He’s a teacher, he’s probably allowed to go in the repository.”
“I thought that, too, but he couldn’t get in,” Jowan said. “He tried all sorts of spells and none of them worked. He looked furious.”
Solana frowned thoughtfully. “But if he isn’t allowed in the repository, what could he possibly be after? What would Irving want to keep away from even the other professors?”
“I don’t know,” said Jowan. He shuddered. “But when I saw Professor Uldred… it was like there was something wrong with him. He didn’t even seem human.”
“Shouldn’t we tell Professor Irving and the others about this?”
“They’ll never believe us over Uldred. They’d just say we’re imagining things,” said Jowan. Solana had to nod in agreement. She had spent most of her life being told that she was just imagining things. From what little Jowan had revealed to her regarding his own past, it was much the same for him.
If something sinister was going on, it was up to them to figure it out.
Though nothing out of the ordinary-or at least, as ordinary as things ever were at Hogwarts- occurred for several weeks, Solana and Jowan became obsessed with the repository and what might be hidden within. They lurked around the dungeons near the door whenever they had time, but Professor Uldred never made a return appearance, and his classes seemed no different than usual.
Admittedly, his class was the only one that Solana could honestly say she disliked. Uldred encouraged his students to learn hexes and curses, and then use them on one another in class. He claimed that the only way to really learn about Dark magic was to experience it first-hand, but the amount of bullying that went on in his classroom was truly shameful. Solana had to be on constant alert, ready to defend her weaker classmates at a moment’s notice.
“He has a point, though,” Jowan admitted one day. “It isn’t really the spells that are Dark, it’s the person using them.”
Solana frowned skeptically. “A dagger has a point too, but I don’t think you’d like it very much if Professor Uldred started handing those out to students.”
“Alright, I get it,” Jowan said. He continued to hold more interest in the Dark Arts than Solana would have liked, however. But she had bigger things to worry about, such as finding out what was being kept in the repository-and more importantly, if there was a way for Uldred to get his hands on it.
Solana and Jowan’s investigation seemed to be going nowhere, until one night they had a breakthrough while staking out the repository door. They were hiding behind the statue of Eleni Zinovia, an ancient prophetess, waiting to see if anyone would try to get in. But it seemed that this night, like so many others, had been a waste of time.
Jowan sighed and rubbed his eyes. “I don’t think anyone’s coming. Maybe we should just turn in for the night.”
“There must be a better way to find out what’s in there,” Solana said.
“Be wary of the path you seek to tread, children,” the statue said suddenly, “for it is surrounded by fire.”
“Ah!” Solana and Jowan practically jumped out of their skins before laughing at themselves. “I always forget the statues here can do that,” Jowan said with a grin.
Solana glanced up at the statue, which was much taller than the pair of first-years hiding at its base. To her knowledge, none of the statues could move on their own (unlike the suits of armor, which liked to walk around between classes). The statue’s head was turned, as if the subject was looking over her shoulder. Coincidentally, this pointed her gaze directly at the repository door.
“Excuse me, Madam Zinovia,” said Solana. “Do you know what the headmaster is hiding behind that door there?”
“I know indeed. It is a Dark, forbidden thing,” the statue replied. “But the headmaster only holds one half of the key, and one half of its secret.”
“Half of the key?” asked Jowan. “But there are two keyholes in the door… That must mean that the headmaster only has one key. So who has the other one?”
“Professor Greagoir,” Solana guessed. “He’s the deputy-headmaster.”
“That makes sense,” said Jowan. He frowned. “If there is a Dark object in the repository, it’s no wonder that Uldred wants to get his hands on it. He’s mad for Dark magic.”
“You must not do what you are thinking of doing,” said the statue. “Your nightmare shall endure until the Rod of Fire is cast aside, and its end will be marked by the sign of the griffin.”
One of Solana’s brows arched. “What does that mean?”
“Ambiguous rubbish, it could mean anything,” Jowan scoffed. “I can do it too.” He spread his arms wide, as if making a grand proclamation. “The sun grows dark, but lo! Here comes the dawn!”
“But what was that about a ‘Rod of Fire’?” asked Solana.
The statue was utterly silent for a long moment. If Solana didn’t know better, she’d say that it seemed almost sheepish.
“Perhaps I have said too much,” it said eventually, and refused to answer any more of their questions.
With the clues provided by the statue, Solana and Jowan had the same destination in mind: the library. They spent the next several days searching for information about the Rod of Fire, but found nothing.
“We’re going about this all wrong,” Jowan said eventually. “If this ‘Rod of Fire’ is so forbidden, they wouldn’t leave information about it lying around in the open. But there could be something in the restricted section.”
“Maybe, but we’ll never get in,” said Solana. “We’d need a signed pass from one of the professors.”
“We’ll get Professor Sweeny to sign it,” Jowan suggested. “Everyone knows his mind is starting to go. He probably won’t even ask us what we need it for.”
Professor Sweeny was a sweet old guy, but Jowan was right. Sweeny didn’t even remember many of his students’ names. They were able to procure a signed pass from him with surprising ease.
But even after several hours of searching in the restricted section, they were unsuccessful. In the end they decided that they must have misinterpreted the statue’s words. Perhaps the Rod of Fire was just as much ‘ambiguous rubbish’ as the rest of the supposed prophecy.