The Search of the Castle
The search for Wicked Vengeance began in earnest. The searchers were able to quickly eliminate entire sections of the castle. Ronald Reuel and Michael Dawlish went straight to the Sphinx at the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room and asked, “Has Reginald Dennison of Slytherin ever come here to answer a question?”
“No,” said the Sphinx.
The boys focused their search on the study rooms at the base of Ravenclaw tower, but now they knew they did not need to search the dormitories.
In the tower opposite, Alma Krauss and Gurpreet Kaur asked a similar question to the painting that guarded the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. “No Slytherin student has crossed this threshold in over thirty years,” the painting told them. That begged another question, but there was no time to ask it. The girls went to the library to help the search there.
The Hospital Wing, too, was quickly eliminated. Not only was the Hospital Wing always staffed while school was in session, but it was thoroughly cleaned daily. There were some storage cupboards that the Healing staff rarely accessed, but since neither Reginald nor any of his troop took Healing Arts, they wouldn’t even be able to access those cupboards.
The Badger’s Den, likewise, was spared a search. No non-Hufflepuff could cross the threshold. If Reginald had even drawn near, he would have set off alarms, and the Badger Guards would have shown him off.
Liam quickly conferred with Dave and Paul. “We need to go from top to bottom, and from bottom to top,” said Liam.
“We’ll go up to the fifth floor and start there,” said Dave.
“Jill and I will start in the dungeon, then,” said Liam.
“Meet you in the middle!” said Paul. Off they went.
Morwena made a quick survey of the secret room. She looked under the sofa and in the hearth. She didn’t expect to find anything. I would have been astounded if Dennison had gotten in here, she mused.
She went next to the Slytherin common room. She found Freya and Aiden searching the First Year boys’ dorm room. “Find anything yet?” she asked them.
“Many things,” said Aiden. “Coins, cufflinks, a sock. Nothing important.”
“I’m going Downstairs to join the others. There’s four of us, but we have more territory to cover. The Upstairs is your responsibility. Go slow, be thorough.”
“We will,” said Freya, a hint of irritation in her voice.
Aiden and Freya made a thorough search of the dormitories before moving on to the Upstairs study rooms. On his knees, peeking under a plush chair, Aiden felt his heart leap into his throat. There on the stone floor was a black notebook.
“There’s something here,” he whispered. He reached his hand under the chair and pulled out the book. He leaned up against the chair while Freya sat next to him.
“Is that really it?” asked Freya.
Aiden opened the book. No ornate lettering greeted them. There was only some rough, nearly illegible handwriting.
W: Bitters B: Cross
1. e4, e5
2. Nf4, Nc6
3. Bc4, Bc5
4. b4, Bxb4 ….
Freya let out a heavy, irritated sigh. “Oh my god, is that chess?”
“Yes, it’s chess,” said Aiden glumly. “I’m taking it with me, though, so we don’t keep discovering it.”
In the library, a sudden change had come over Lara, as Sadie had inadvertently activated Lara’s prophetic powers.
“Are you asking the cards?”
Sadie steadied her nerves and said in a clear voice, “Yes.”
The two sat down at a study table opposite of one another. Lara drew out her prophecy deck from a pocket of her coat. She shuffled the cards and then flicked two cards onto the tabletop.
“I get two cards?” asked Sadie.
“Yes,” said Lara, still in her deep, eerie voice. “But you may only pick one. They represent a choice you must make. One or the other.”
“What choice?”
“I know not,” said Lara. “It is something kept in the deepest realm of your heart.”
The two cards were equal distance from Sadie. With a sudden move of her hand, she flipped over the card on her right. There on the card was an image of tall trees. She peered down and studied the image. Sunlight, cutting through the many trees and branches, illuminated a dirt trail cut into the side of a long, sloping hill.
“I think I’ve been there,” said Sadie. “Those are redwood trees. This is in the Santa Cruz mountains! My family spent a couple of years in California. We returned to England so that I could go to Hogwarts. My wand came from this region.”
Her voice rose with excitement. “I was thinking about going back there! I was debating whether I should go there or someplace I’ve never been before, like Japan. As much as I loved California, I was just nine years old. There was a lot that I didn’t understand.”
She studied the card further. “Down the hill, there’s a creek running, and if you follow the trail, it leads to a little village. Is there someone there I’m going to meet? A boy?”
“Before you see him, you will hear his voice and the strumming of his guitar,” said Lara. “His song will touch your soul. Your smile will alight his heart, and your laughter will be a melody he will never forget.”
“Wow! That’s amazing! What was on the other card?” Before Lara could answer, Sadie flipped the card over. The picture was blank. “There’s nothing there.”
Lara’s voice was returning to normal. “There would be a boy waiting for you wherever you went, but it would not be the same boy. You can only choose one path and one boy.” With a warm smile, she added, “I think you have chosen wisely.”
Sadie reached across the table and gave Lara a hug. Lara tensed and suppressed her prophetic powers’ impulse to delve deeper into Sadie’s future.
“Let’s find this book, shall we?” said Sadie. She had shaken her blue mood, and her voice was bright and cheerful. “This is where I’d hide a forbidden book. On a shelf beside a hundred thousand others! We’re in the haystack. Let’s go find the needle!”
“I agree,” said Lara. Her voice had returned to normal, and her eerie aura completely dissipated.
Sadie’s mind raced ahead, her voice rising with her excitement. “The restricted section would be the perfect place to stash a book like this. You never go up there to browse. You’re supposed to find your book and get back to your studies. It could sit on the shelves for years and no one would see it because they were never looking for it!”
The two girls went book by book through the shelves in the restricted section of the library. Alma and Gurpreet joined them after going through the general studies’ shelves. The girls chatted back and forth to each other as they discovered new and interesting books, but the dangerous book with its plain leatherbound cover was not there to be found.
At noon, the hunting party met in the Great Hall for lunch. The elves provided grilled cheese sandwiches, bowls of tomato soup, and apples. Dave Evans asked Umberto, “Did you have any luck?”
Umberto shook his head. “We found some good hiding places,” he said, “but we didn’t find anything in them.”
“I found something,” said Aiden. He drew out the leather book. “Thought this was it for sure. Found it under a chair. Turns out it was a bunch of chess games.”
Umberto took it and looked at it. “Bitters and Cross! They’ve both graduated by now. This book must have been under that chair for a few years.”
“May I see it?” asked Ronald Ruel. “I love studying chess matches.” Umberto handed it to him. Ronald gazed avidly at the algebraic notations. “The Evans Gambit! Well played.” Looking to Umberto, he asked, “May I keep this?”
“Be our guest,” said Umberto.
Lara, Morwena, Alma and Gurpreet were engaged in conversation. Across the table from Lara sat Liam and Gillian. Jill touched Liam’s hand and created a private telepathic link between them.
Guishar looks happy. Is that a good sign? Are we gonna find this thing today?
Liam had not paid Lara any mind since he became Gillian’s boyfriend. He gazed at Lara now and pondered what her mood meant. Most days, she was still an enigma to him, but he at least had some experiences to draw from now.
No, he decided.
No? What do you mean, no?
When she’s on the verge of something serious, reasoned Liam, she gets all dark and spooky. No, she’s figured out we aren’t going to find it today. She’s decided to relax and have a good time with her friends.
Gillian huffed in irritation. Why are we here then?
Lara turned her head towards them, her brown eyes piercing, and suddenly her voice was in their heads. We had to come. We must search for the book and keep searching until we find it. For, we will find it. Someone here in this room, at this table, will find it.
Lara turned back to her friends as if nothing at all had occurred between them. Gillian, however, was shaken. How did she do that? I make these telepathic links so that no one can overhear my private conversations. No one has ever done that to me before!
Liam shrugged. That’s a powerful witch, right there. She hides it well, but there’s way more to her than meets the eye. That Dennison kid doesn’t know what he’s up against.
Aiden said to Umberto, “We’re done searching the Upstairs. Do you need help Downstairs?”
“No,” said Umberto. “We’re not done, but we’ve got a good system going. See if there’s an area of the castle that needs checking.”
Aiden looked up at the ceiling. The rain was pouring down.
After lunch Aiden went out into the Entrance Hall. He peered into the sheets of rain at the castle grounds. Freya, lingering behind him, asked, “Where are you going?”
“I don’t know.” He turned to face her. “I don’t think it’s here, that’s all. I think it’s out there somewhere.”
“Out there? In the rain and the snow? It would get ruined!”
Aiden shook his head. “Even the diaries and journals we buy at Flourish and Blotts have enchantments on them against water damage. Think of the spells this book has on it! It can curse women who touch it!”
He turned back to the doorway. “He hid it out there somewhere. He and Carter. They disappeared into the fog that one day and came back with their pantlegs wet. They must have been walking through the grass, not on any path. They went to the forest or something. It’s out there somewhere.”
Freya crossed her arms tight over her chest. The last thing she wanted was to go out searching in the rain. “The forest! It could be anywhere, then. We could be out there in the rain for hours and never find it!”
She tugged on Aiden’s sleeve. “I asked Wennie if anyone’s been down to the wharf yet, and she said no. Nobody goes down to the wharf! We only use it once a year. It’s a great hiding place.” She pulled again on his sleeve. “Come downstairs with me and help me look. It’ll be cold down there, but at least it will be dry.”
Aiden relented. “You’re right. It’s a good place to look. Let’s go.”
The two spent a few minutes looking for the foyer where the First Years gather before being brought into the Great Hall for sorting. “I really wasn’t paying attention when Professor Gregor brought us here that first night,” said Freya. “I was just following everybody else.”
“It’s got to be near the Great Hall,” said Aiden. “It was a short walk from the foyer to the hall doors.”
“Here it is!” she called. There was a little room right behind the Grand Staircase. At the back of the room stood a door.
“Have you been down here since Sorting?” asked Freya.
“No. Have you?”
“No. I hope the door isn’t locked.”
It wasn’t, but the torches weren’t lit. Aiden drew his wand and, with a wave, lit them. Down the stairs they went, into the cold gloom. “The stairs seem solid enough,” said Aiden. I’m not feeling any loose stones.”
“No,” said Freya. “I think they would fix any stones that came loose, so the First Years wouldn’t trip and hurt themselves on their first day on campus.”
They came to the wharf, a u-shaped stone pier edged with dark green water. Iron bars blocked the opening onto the lake. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen it like that,” said Freya.
“I guess they close the gate when school is out of session. They closed the gate during the Battle of Hogwarts. There’s a whole chapter in the book about the Mer-people fighting to keep the Dark Lord’s men from breaking the gate and entering the castle from below.”
There were several boats stacked on large wooden racks. “They look like giant shoes that way,” laughed Freya.
“I’ve seen cars stacked like that.”
“Who would have that many cars?” asked Freya.
“Rich Muggle collectors. They can’t enlarge their garages the way we can.”
“I guess not.”
Using their wands as flashlights, they looked around the boats for anything that looked out of place. “The elves must clean this place regularly,” said Freya. “I don’t see a speck of dirt or dust anywhere.”
Opposite the boats was a chest and a rack of shelves. In the chest were blankets and life preservers. On the shelf, they found a first aid kit and a tackle box full of hooks and lures. There were spools of fishing line. Next to the rack, they found two long rods.
“Who goes fishing on the lake?” wondered Freya.
“Maye Mr. Hagrid fishes,” suggested Aiden.
“But what about the Mer-people?” protested Freya. “I bet they wouldn’t like it if they got snagged on a hook!”
They made another slow circuit of the place, but they found no other hiding places. “Oh well,” said Freya. “It was a good idea. This was more fun than trudging out to the forest in the rain.”
Near the stairs, there was a bench. Freya sat down on the bench, while Aiden sat on the stone steps. Aiden asked, “What do you know about the Dennisons? Your family and Reggie’s family, don’t you run in the same circles?”
It was an innocent-seeming question, and Aiden asked it in as much an off-hand manner as he could manage. Yet, Freya knew well that, among Slytherins, there are no innocent questions. Nor is advice or information ever given freely. Though she could not (not yet, anyway) divine his purpose, she could see the hunger in his eyes for any information she might have on the Dennisons. She would tell him what she knew, and she need not name her price in advance.