The Book
It's a cold grey afternoon in the huge but otherwise quiet library of Hogwarts. Several students were there, bust most preferred working on their homework in their common rooms where they could exchange ideas without Ms Pince shushing them every two minutes. One of these students was, to the surprise of exactly no one, a certain Gryffindor girl. Hermione was rather excited for, when consulting books for Flitwick's class, she discovered a promising book that seemed to have been left there by mistake. With no readable title but old and thick pages, it seemed to be written in a very ancient form of English. Instead of bringing the book to Ms Pince's desk to warn her of a displaced book, she decided to keep her discovery for her. Indeed, even if she definitely wasn't fluent in Old English, she could still read the word "Hogwarts" here and there in the book. Her insatiable mind wanted to know what it was about and was getting full of questions - maybe it was a sort of "Hogwarts a History" but much older ? Maybe it would revealed some hidden paths ? Or maybe it was about the classes that used to be taught in the past ? With these thoughts in mind, she began to collect dictionaries and grammars on old English. She hoped it would be the correct language... if not she would have to search for even older and rarer tongues.
But first, she hid the mysterious book in her bottomless bag before it could attract the gaze of someone else with all the students around. After all, a misplaced book was a lost book, nobody would go looking for it.
***
Back in the Gryffindor Tower, she quickly climbed the steps to her dorm and went to her bed where she spread the result of her hunt, as well as a spare sheet of parchment. Now, to get an idea of the topic of a book, it was usually best to start with the title. Sadly, the plain dark leather of the cover didn't have any word on it. Only a half faded star above a tree in the center, probably serving as an ornament. Bits of silver where still clinging to the lines. It must have been a beautiful book in its prime, but now it was old and dusty, with crackled leather and yellow pages.
Delicately, Hermione opened it and turned the pages until she found the first words, written a bit bigger than the rest.
Geneàtrihtum Thargeliones landes ; handgewrit Erestor.
It looked like an introduction to the subject of the book, but the name of Hogwarts was absent. Instead, two unknown names appeared : "Thargeliones" and "Erestor". Well...that brought more questions than answers.
Sighing, she wrote them on her parchment to investigate later and went back to work.
When it was time for dinner, she had decrypted half of the first page and was fairly sure it was some sort of agreement for using a land and "Erestor" seemed to be the scribe who redacted the document. If she was right, it would mean that maybe this "Thargeliones" was in fact the name of the land in the agreement? But she never heard of that name before! And what was that book doing in Hogwarts' library?
Her head full of questions, she went to the Great Hall.
***
Once at the lions' table, she was greeted by Harry and Ron who where already eating eagerly. "Hi Mione !" To which she answered by a halfhearted hmm. "Ah... What homework is causing you trouble? The charms essay ?" asked Harry. "No, no, not homework, but rather a strange book..." "A strange book ?" frowned Ron "Better not be like second year !" Hermione quickly reassured him that no, it didn't look like a magic book. In fact, the strangest thing about it was that it didn't seem to be about magic at all, if one discounted the appearance of the word "Hogwarts" in some pages. "I don't understand" she said, "if anything it looks like a law text or at least a very official agreement. What was it doing there in the library for everyone to take ?" "And you really don't have any information on what it could refer to ?" asked Harry. "...well I have two unknown names already but that's it." And she showed them her parchment.
"Hmmm... doesn't sound like English names..."observed Ron. "Yes I know, but maybe it's Old English names ? The only thing I got for now is that this one is a place and this one is a person." "And let me guess" sighed Ron, " you want our help to search the library." "Exactly!"
After mumbling a bit, the two boys agreed to help by using Harry's invisibility cape to sneak into the library after curfew and spent the rest of the meal making up hypothesis.
***
"Ouch! That's my feet!" "Sorry! I can't see anything!" "Shhht! Both of you! We'll get caught!" Pressed against eachother under the invisibility cape, the three Gryffindors were trying to sneak out of their tower. Their objective ; the library. To avoid the front doors, they took a hidden passage behind an illusory wall and arrived in the poison section between letter B and C. After checking with the map that nobody was there, they left the security of the cloak and went to the geography section to search for that "Thargeliones".
Half an hour later, they had to admit that no document about "Thargeliones" existed here, and they would have to go to the restricted section. They opened the map to make sure they were still alone and, after seeing it was still the case, went to the back of the library, where the door to the restricted section was. But when they opened it, something was wrong ; someone was there.
As Harry, the map still in hand, opened the door, he froze. In front of him was a dark shrouded figure, intimidating in the cold blue glow of a lamp sat on a desk behind. The figure turned, and the trio could see they were dressed in long black robes over indistinct black clothes. The most striking however was the long black veil on their head, with tiny pieces of metal on the hem reflecting the blue light.
Without much thinking, Harry Ron and Hermione quickly fled and hid under the cloak, not turning back once to see if the figure had followed them or not. Once safe in the cozy atmosphere of the Gryffindor common room, they huddled on a couch.
"...who was that ?" asked Harry, with a trembling voice. "I'm not sure, mate, but that was crazy !" replied Ron. "I don't know either...but didn't the map show that the restricted section was empty?" wondered Hermione.
That was deeply disturbing indeed, as the map was a wonder of magic from which nobody could hide anything. And, according to Sirius and Remus, no being could escape it, except...
"Wait", suddenly jumped Harry, "didn't they say it doesn't work on house elves ?" But Ron frowned "No, they were tall, taller than us, unless it's three house elves on top of each other, that's impossible !" "Well, what were they, then ? Or at least, how come we didn't see them on your map ?" wondered aloud Hermione. "Hey", threw Ron, "do you think we can ask Hagrid ? He might know a thing or two about mysterious creatures !" "Rather say there's no way we're ever asking that bloody toad !" grumbled Harry. "Well, tomorrow is Saturday, we could go and ask him", proposed Hermione. "But, first, let's go to bed, we've had enough excitement for today.”
***
Some weeks before the start of term, a huge storm raged for two nights, doing quite the damage to the Forbidden Forest. As Hogwarts' groundskeeper, it was Hagrid's job to make sure everything was alright and there were no injured creature left unattended. This is how he found hiding in a bush a dog. A bit strange to find in the forest but it sometimes happened that animals from Hogsmeade found themselves lost here. This was a possibility, as the dog was a huge and fluffy golden retriever even if the golden fur was matted with mud. Looking closer he could see the dog had a broken leg ; maybe that was why it was in the forest ?
So he carefully took the dog in his arms and brought it back to his house where Fang was quite excited to meet a new friend, even it was probably temporary. Once the leg seen to, he would go to Hogsmeade and ask around if someone had lost a dog. But for now, he concentrated on cleaning the wound before putting healing paste and a brace to hold the leg. While doing so, he quickly checked and saw his temporary new dog was male and decided to name him Goldie. As he said it, the dog barked once, joyfully, and gave him a great lick on his face.
Now a month and a half after the start of term, Goldie had become a permanent fixture in his house along with Fang. His search for an owner in Hogsmeade was unfruitful and in the meantime he had very quickly gotten used to the fluffy ball of sunshine that was the dog.
One Saturday morning, while he was giving Fang and Goldie their morning meals, he heard a knock at his door and wasn't really surprised to see Harry and his friends there.
“Ah, ‘arry, what ye’r doin here ?” “Hello Hagrid, can we come in ? We have some questions for you.” “Yes yes, come in, there’s someone ye should meet !” “Sure, introduce us !” And the three students entered the house to see not one dog as they were used to, but two ! Fang and Goldie came racing to be the first to greet the guests, almost causing them to fall to the ground.
“Woah there, who’s that, Hagrid ?” asked Hermione. “That's who I wanted you to meet ! That’s Goldie, I found ‘im at the end of summer with a broken leg in the forest. Nobody lost a dog in Hogsmeade so I decided to keep the lil fella. Isn’t ‘e precious ?” “He is, yes”, admitted Hermione, plunging her hands in the long fluffy coat of Goldie who sat there enjoying all the attention.
“Now”, started Hagrid, “What did ye want to talk to me ‘bout ?” “Well… do you happen to know of a humanoid creature who could wander Hogwarts but isn’t a ghost or a house elf ?” asked Harry, a bit unsure how much he could say. “What d’ye mean, other than a ghost or a ‘ouse elf ? There's no werewolf ‘ere since Lupin left !” “Yes, that's what we thought but…” “But we happened to meet someone yesterday and we have reasons to think they are not human”, completed Hermione. “Now that’s mysterious !” exclaimed the half giant. “Can ye tell me what they looked like ?” “Errr, full black clothes ? And a long veil with dangly metal ? But taller than us ?” said Ron, trying to remember any details. “It was hard to see, the blue light made it hard to see any colour.” “Blue light ?” “Yes, there was a blue lamp on the desk behind them, I've never seen anything like it !” “Curious, full black clothes could be a vampire but they don’t need to ‘ide that much at night. But, a veil with dangly metal ? As in, small round pieces all ‘round the ‘em ?” “Do you happen to know who that was, Hagrid ?” inquired Hermione? “Well… I'm just sayin’ ye should ask Ms Pince ‘bout it.” “You think she knows them, then ?” “I’m not sayin’ anythin’”.
After that, the trio stayed a bit more to share biscuits they had brought with them and chat. They exchanged pleasantries while cuddling Goldie, Fang taking a morning nap at their feet. Then, they left to visit the library and see if they could obtain answers from Ms Pince.