Chapter 48: CHAPTER 48: THE NIGHT OF SOLACE

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The group then was now looking at the giant hole, confused on how they will get up.

“So… any ideas?” Richard questioned the group, he was also confused on how they would get up.

Ed sighed in surrender, “Just walk close to me.” He said, “I’ll bring you up.”

Ron frowned, “and how will you do that?”

Ed raised his eyebrow, “You ever wondered how I got down here Ron?”

Ron thought hard, and something clicked in his mind, “Right…”

The group then quickly gathered around Ed, staying close to the boy as close as possible. “Okay, here goes.” Ed said, and the next moment, everything turned black around them, scaring them a bit, but it quickly passed, and soon they were in Myrtle’s bathroom, facing the entrance of the chamber.

“H-How?” Harry stuttered, confused about what just happened.

“Magic is an incredible thing Harry, if you think about it, you can do it with magic, best remember that.” Ed advised vaguely, which made Harry even more confused and just nodded blankly.

Then Fawkes exited the hole, his fiery wings were quite noticeable, and everybody was quickly aware of the bird, and Fawkes flew to Harry’s shoulder, perching on it.

“All right Fawkes, guide us to Dumbledore.” Said Ed to the bird. Fawkes nodded and flew again, this time towards the corridor, making the halls glow golden.

“Okay, let’s follow the bird.” Ed said to the group, which they nodded in agreement, following the bird in an instant, they ran through the halls, their footsteps were echoing, so everyone near them could notice them running, and a couple of minutes of running later, they were now in McGonagall’s office, Fawkes was perching in a nearby window, pointing its head at the door, as if telling them to enter the office. And enter they did.

As soon as they entered, a woman shrieked at the sight of them, “Ginny!”Ed looked at the woman, and noticed that it was Mrs. Weasley, her eyes looked puffed and bloodshot, and her hair was quite messy. She then looked at Harry, who was beside the redhead girl.

“You saved her! How did you do it?!”

“I think we would like to know that also.” McGonagall interrupted softly, looking curiously at the group.

“Er…” Harry stammered, but then he collected himself again, he looked at Ron, who was also standing nervously because of McGonagall’s accusing glare. They both nodded to each other, and walked to the desk, Harry placed the sorting hat and the destroyed diary on it, while Ron leaned the sword beside the desk. Harry then told the story, on how he went to Myrtle’s bathroom to find the chamber, how Richard and Daphne were waiting for them, how all of them fought the basilisk in the chamber, how the sword was given to him by the sorting hat.

Dumbledore, who was sitting in the corner of the room listening to the story nodded in understanding, then he spoke, “Curious…” he whispered loudly, earning the attention of all the people in the room, “What interest me the most is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny to be able to do his bidding flawlessly…”

“What?” suddenly questioned the sobbing mother, “You-Know-Who? Enchant Ginny? — No, that can’t be… Ginny didn’t- she hasn’t… has she?”

Ed chuckled, diverting the attention to him, “You already know how he did it Professor, why are you acting like this?”

Dumbledore frowned at Ed’s statement, “And what is it, may I ask Ed?”

“I told you, remember? When you called me to school last term.”

Dumbledore frowned even more, he took the diary that was placed on the desk, and quickly examined it. “This is it?”

Harry nodded, “It was that diary… Tom wrote it during his Hogwarts days I suppose…”

“Simply Brilliant,” commented Dumbledore, “Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago, at Hogwarts. He disappeared after leaving the school . . . travelled far and wide . . . sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognizable. Hardly anyone connected Lord Voldemort with the clever, handsome boy who was once Head Boy here.”

“But, Ginny,” said Mrs. Weasley. “What’s our Ginny got to do with him?”

“His d-diary!” Ginny sobbed. “I’ve b-been writing in it, and he’s been writing back all year —”

“Ginny!” said the flabbergasted Mrs. Weasley, “Haven’t I taught you anything?! Never trust a suspicious magic item! And looked at where they got you…”

Ginny just nodded obediently, still sobbing heavily. “I didn’t know… I found it in my cauldron when we were buying school supplies last year…”

Dumbledore then interrupted the two, his face showing a kind smile, “I believe Miss Weasley should be escorted to the hospital wing right away.” He said, “This has been a terrible ordeal for her, it’s best to let her rest for a while, there will be no punishment for her, as Lord Voldemort is famous for tricking even the wisest of wizards and witches.”

Mrs. Weasley blankly nodded, escorting Ginny out along with Mr. Weasley, who was sitting quietly in the corner of the room, still deeply shaken at the tragedy.

“Minerva, I believe that this all merits a good feast, may I ask you to alert the kitchens?” Dumbledore continued as soon as Mrs. and Mr. Weasley went away.

“Right, I'll let you deal with these troublemakers.” She said while exiting the room, leaving the old man to deal with the kids.

“So,” Dumbledore said, sitting on one of the chairs available. “Is there anything else you want to tell me? Miss Greengrass? Miss Granger? Mr. Neil?”, continued the old man, then he stared at Ed intently, “Ed?”

Ron looked hesitant, he eyed Ed a little bit, he seemed to want to tell Dumbledore about Ed’s plans, that he knows that this will happen, but didn’t do anything, but what Ron didn’t know, that Dumbledore sort of knew as well, as he send that phoenix and the sorting hat to them but didn’t intervene directly. he thought for a while, but ultimately decided against it, as Ed suddenly spoke.

“Professor, I need to ask, there won't be any exams are there?” Ed asked, surprising the group, the questions seemed out of place for the scenario.

Dumbledore smiled, “You guessed correctly Ed, I planned to cancel all the exams this term as the situation isn’t really in the right state right now.”

Ed nodded, “Then I wish to leave early for professor on June 1st, I have some… troubles I need to sort out.” He said weakly as Hermione grabbed his robe tight, worried at the upcoming trial.

Dumbledore eyed Ed curiously, “What sort of trouble Ed needed you to leave early?”

“Let’s just say it’s… otherworldly.” He answered, earning curious looks from Harry and Ron, as Daphne, Richard, and Hermione frowned because they knew about the trial.

Dumbledore nodded, “Very well, I do hope you solve whatever trouble you need to face, and good luck as well.”

“Thank you professor… I certainly will need it.” He mumbled the last part, still scared of the outcome of the trial.

“Now, I believe you all need to return to your respective dorm room, but Harry, stay for a moment, I will continue to talk to you.”

Except Harry, everyone nodded, leaving the boy-who-lived and the old man alone, the group then went on their separate ways, Richard and Daphne went back to their respective dorms, Ron went to follow his mother, while Ed and Hermione walked back to the Gryffindor tower.

Ed now was walking awkwardly with Hermione, who still has his robe in her hands, limiting his movement.

“Err… Hermione? Can you release your hand on my robe please? It’s quite hard to move.”

Hermione was quite embarrassed and instantly released her hand, “Sorry…”, she said. Ed sighed at Hermione’s antique, he looked at her lonely right hand, and decided to hold it with his left. “There, you can hold my hand if you want…” he continued, making Hermione blushed profusely and look away from Ed, but her hand didn’t release Ed’s grip, but instead tighten it.

Ed just chuckled and walked towards the Gryffindor common room, and stood in front of the Fat Lady portrait, who’s looking at the two of them with concern.

“Is it true? A student from our house has been kidnapped?” she asked.

Ed nodded, “It’s true, it was Ginny Weasley, she’s been saved though, the chamber of secrets won’t bring us trouble again.”

The fat lady sighed in relief, and opened the portrait without the password, surprising Ed a bit.

“Thanks… I guess.” He murmured to himself. The two then entered the common room, where their fellow housemates were waiting for a tinge of news on what exactly happened.

“Ed! Hermione!” one of the Gryffindors shouted as he saw them enter the common room, making the other Gryffindors quickly surround them, looking for answers. Hermione, who realised that they are surrounded, suddenly panicked when she realised that she’s still grabbing Ed’s hands, and quickly released it, but it was too late, some of the Gryffindors saw this and snickered, making her blushed even more, Ed however, was clueless as he’s too busy fending off the lions that want answers.

There were words that came out of the crowd, like ‘What happened?’, ‘Did someone die?’, ‘Who’s the victim?’, or ‘Who’s the heir?’, and Ed was overwhelmed by it, he instantly took out his wand, point it at his throat, and casted, “Sonorus.”

“SHUT UP WILL YOU!?” he shouted as loud as he could, amplified by the spell. The room instantly went silent, he can even maybe hear the sound of a dropped pin now, and he spoke once again, “Okay, I’ll answer your questions as best as I can, but please, let Hermione through first, she’s quite shaken, she needs rest right now.”

The crowd then made way for Hermione to go to her room, she looked at Ed with tired eyes and red face, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She said, and hugged him in front of the crowd, making some of them smirked. She released the hug reluctantly with a red cherry face, and ran off to her dorms, leaving Ed alone in the den of lions.

Ed sighed tiredly, “Okay, what do you want to know?”

The Gryffindors instantly barraged Ed with questions, and he of course answered them all, but he left behind the identity of the Heir of Slytherin, that’s for Harry or Dumbledore to tell, and a couple of hours of answering questions later, Ed finally can rest on his bed, he’s not tired because of the fight in the chamber, he was tired because of the questions, and at that evening, he slept like a log, skipping the feast altogether, and missing the announcement that the exams have been cancelled, but he already knows that.

The next morning, Ed woke up with a mild headache, he groaned while he stood up from the bed, and scanned the surroundings, he saw that no one was here, ‘Huh…’ he thought, ‘What time is this?’, he then walked towards a clock nearby, and saw that it was eleven in the afternoon, which surprised Ed a bit, as he rarely woke up late.

“Shit, I need to do my routine…” he said to himself and quickly changed his clothes to a more suitable one, and he rushed to the lake, doing his ‘morning’ run for about thirty minutes, and went back to the dorm room to enter the suitcase, finishing his routine with spell practices.

But when he was climbing down the ladder, he noticed a certain bushy-haired girl was sitting on the sofa of the living room, reading a book that Ed didn’t know the title of.

“Hello Hermione, when did you get in?” he asked the girl, startling her a bit. “Oh, Ed…” she said, “I entered when you were still asleep.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up then?” he asked, his feet now on the ground.

“Your face is too peaceful, I don’t have the heart to wake you up.” She giggled.

Ed shook his head in amusement, “After I’m done doing the routine what do you want to do?”

Hermione thought for a while before answering, “I don’t know, what do you want to do?”

Ed shrugged, “I don’t know… cook for you?”

“You already did that a couple of times… do something new for once.”

Ed scowled, “Fine, how about just teaching you magic?”

“You did that every weekend.”

Ed sighed, “Then what do you want to do?”

“I don’t know.” She said with a straight face.

Ed cursed under his breath and just left the girl alone, walking to the training area to practise a combination of magic that he thought of a couple weeks back. He entered the room, locked the door, casted a silencing spell so the outside won’t bother him, and took a deep breath.

“Gilligan.” He called the owl.

“Need something?” he answered while appearing behind Ed’s back.

“Can you expand this room? I need more space than this.”

“I can.” The owl answered, gliding towards an empty wall, he tapped the wall, then it shook, revealing a complicated array of buttons. He clicked one of the buttons, and the room suddenly turned big in an instant, no warning, no movement, nothing.

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“Fucking hell Gilligan, you need to teach me these mechanism next time.” Ed commented.

Gilligan sighed, “You and your dirty mouth Ed…” he said, “Anything else?”

Ed nodded, “Yeah, can you count the statues that I can make right now?”

“Sure.” The owl answered, his face showing a bored expression.

“Right,” Ed said, he took a stance, his wand in his left hand and he stood like he was some sort of a conductor in an orchestra.

“Legio Glaciem.” He murmured.

Then, the room turned cold, patches of ice suddenly appeared from nothing on the ground, slowly spreading up, making some sort of knight statues, each with their own weapons, they had swords, shields, maces, spears, pikes, and many more, their size are about three feet tall, their shoulders are broad and looked like it could handle a hit or two. The room was not full of it, only filled in half as Ed now was sweating like crazy, even though the temperature was quite cold.

“What’s the count?” he asked, while gasping for air a bit.

Gilligan scanned the rows of statues for a while, before answering, “two hundred.”

“That’s good…” he said, “Now to actually wake them up.”

He took a stance once more like before and murmured another incantation.

“Piertotum Locomotor.”

The statues instantly moved, their hands were now grabbing their weapons tightly, once he saw Ed that was standing in front of them, they saluted him in unison, making a loud thumping sound.

“That’s fucking cool.” Ed said weakly, “I’ve got my own army now…”

Ed then looked at Gilligan and asked the owl, “How long does it take to fully conjure the statues?”

“One minute.” The owl answered decisively.

Ed sighed, “Too slow…”

“That’s good enough Ed, this idea is already mad enough for a twelve-year-old boy like you, it’s better to use the black hole method.”

Ed shook his head roughly, “I’m not confident enough to escape it Gilligan, at least let me try this way first.”

Gilligan stared at Ed, his face showing a blank expression, “Very well, pray to the Guardian of Knowledge that you will come out of this ordeal alive, as I do not know what the councilman is planning for your trial.” He said, and before Ed could say anything, he disappeared again, making Ed sighed deeply. After that, Ed worked on the series of spells that he thought of, he worked on the speed and the efficiency of it, but ultimately, it did nothing, as the spell-chain was quite complicated and draining.

There was one thing he missed, though, he forgot about the time he spent inside the room. He had locked the room, and casted a silencing spell in it, making Ed practically impossible to hear the sound of the door being knocked, and on the other side, Hermione was fuming, as it was now in the evening, Ed had fucked up real bad, as he was supposed to spend time with Hermione today, and yet he accidentally locked himself up to practice for about 4 hours.

“Ed! Come out of there!” Hermione shouted angrily, pounding the locked training room door, “You said you would be spending time with me today!”

But Ed didn’t hear it, he kept training over and over, his body doesn’t even look sweaty anymore, he looks like he dipped in a sweat pool, but he doesn’t quite care, only when Gilligan appeared again that he snapped out of his training mode.

“Ed.” Gilligan called from behind him, startling him. “You should stop, it’s already evening, that little girl is quite furious at you.”

Ed froze on the spot, “What?” he said, fearing that he heard him correctly.

“It’s already evening.” Gilligan repeated, “The little girl’s outside the door.”

Ed gulped, “Why didn’t you remind me!?” he shrieked, dreading the thought of facing Hermione’s wrath.

Gilligan stared at Ed innocently, “You didn’t tell me to remind you, I came here now because it’s getting quite annoying hearing the girl shouting at the door.”

Ed glared at Gilligan, giving him the middle finger, he then slowly walked to the door, preparing himself for the ordeal that would come, and took a deep breath. He opened the door rather dramatically, fearing for his life, as he slowly opened the door, it suddenly was slammed opened by the other side, and Ed saw it, the furious Hermione standing in front of him, her arms are crossed, her eyes staring at him dead in the eyes, he felt like his soul was being violated by her stare, he gulped loudly, and he produced a nervous chuckle, hiding his fear.

“H-Hi H-Hermione…” he stammered, trying not to make eye contact with her.

“Why did you lock yourself up? Are you trying to avoid spending time with me?” She spoke calmly, but Ed can tell that she was not calm whatsoever as venom was laced on every word, making Ed more nervous.

“N-No… I-I just forgot about the time…” Ed continued weakly, “I-I’m sorry…”

Hermione narrowed her eyes, she scanned his soaked body and dirty clothes, then her gaze softened as she seemingly thought of something, she sighed in surrender and spoke.

“Come on.” She said as she grabbed Ed’s arm and pulled him towards the living room, “I made hot chocolate.”

Ed was definitely confused and scared at the same time, ‘The hell, does she have bipolar disorder or something? Changing moods so easily…’

Ed then was dragged to the living room, Hermione pulled him so hard that his wrist hurt a bit, but it was not his priority at the moment, his priority is to figure out what this girl is planning. Ed then was told to sit in front of the fireplace and Hermione ran of to Merlin knows where, Ed becoming more confused by the minute, then the girl came back, bringing spare clothes and a towel in one hand, and wand in the other, with two floating mugs beside her, she had already changed to her casual clothes, seemingly ready to sleep.

“Change your clothes and wipe the sweat.” She said as she gave him the towel and clothes, then she flicked her wand so that the mugs were put on the coffee table.

“Um… Hermione? I need to change here?” Ed questioned, making Hermione blushed, “Of course not! Change in the library!”

Ed sighed and did what he was told, he moved to the library, wiped the sweat off his body, and changed his clothes to a cleaner and less smelly one. After that, he went back to Hermione, who was now in a comfortable position with a blanket around her, and a book in hand. She noticed Ed’s presence and made space for him in the blanket, confusing Ed.

“You want me to snuggle with you?” Ed asked, and Hermione nodded weakly with a cherry red face, avoiding eye contact with Ed.

Ed chuckled, “That’s quite daring of you Granger.” Ed said, making her blushed even more, but in the end, Ed complied and entered the blanket, sitting beside Hermione comfortably. “You know it’s summer right?”

“I asked Gilligan if he can change the temperature a bit so it’s a bit more comfortable…” she answered shyly.

Ed narrowed his eyes, ‘That owl…’ he thought, but ultimately shrugged as he leaned closer to Hermione, “What do you want to do next?”

Hermione gave him the book that she was holding, Ed took it and saw the title, ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carve’, Ed was quite surprised and raised an eyebrow at the girl beside him. “Short Stories?”

The girl shyly nodded, her head now resting on Ed’s shoulder, hiding her embarrassed face, “Read it for me?” she pleaded weakly while playing with her fingers, a sign of nervousness.

“You’re a bit young to read these stories don’t you think?” Ed commented, making Hermione snort, “Don’t talk about ‘too young’ when you yourself read these kinds of books while you’re younger than we are now.”

Ed chuckled, “All right, fine…” he said, he opened the book and rested his head on Hermione’s bushy hair, and began to read the book, “Okay, Story one: ‘Why Don't You Dance?’…”

Ed continued to read the story loudly, he didn’t read it too fast, and not too slow either, it was just right for Hermione as she listened closely, the stories were… interesting to say the least, like the title said, all of them were about love one way or another, she listened, as hours passed by, Ed read the passages, she frowned, she giggled, and she blushed, but once they were finishing the story that was titled "Tell the Women We're Going", she suddenly made Ed stop reading.

“Okay, stop.” She said while furrowing her eyebrows.

“What’s wrong?” Ed asked, confused at the sudden stop.

“The story is a bit dark don’t you think? Just because the girls refused to talk to the men, one of them killed the girls…”

Ed chuckled, “I warned you, yet you didn’t listen.”

Hermione groaned, “You know what?” she said, standing up from the sofa, “Play a piece for me.” She continued while pointing at the piano in the corner of the room.

Ed looked sceptical at Hermione, “You never asked me to play before, why now?”

“I just want you to take your mind off the trial a little…” she said, stating her intent over the matter.

Ed sighed tiredly, “You don’t have to worry about that Hermione, I’ll be fine.”

“I know you’re not Ed.” She said, “You never trained this hard before, so you must be quite worried.”

Ed ignored the statement and stood up from the sofa, walking towards the piano, “All right, I’ll play you something.”

Hermione nodded and sat again in the corner of the sofa, preparing to listen to Ed.

Ed sat in front of the piano, he opened the lid that was covering the keys, and flipped the page of the music sheets, he then stumbled upon a piece that was called “Clair de Lune.”

Ed began to play, he first played like an agitated man, but the tone peaked into beautiful rolled high notes that reminded people of a harp, then he played more demandingly, and the notes were much faster, but it was simpler and subtler. The tune doesn’t have a grand climactic, but it has a relaxing yet nostalgic melody, but it came tumbling down as the piece continued, the melody became sad, it was mysterious and melancholic, and yet it was still a relaxing melody that can put people to sleep in no time.

As Ed were playing, Hermione looked at him with longing eyes, her mood became somewhat complicated, tomorrow was the day that her parents were supposed to be revived, but somehow, she’s not happy at all, instead she was worried, worried that Ed might not come back from the trial, worried that the councilman that Ed was talking about will erased her memories about Ed, about the time that they have spent together. But all of that thoughts were soon washed away by the tune of the piece, her mind became peaceful for a moment, making her drowsy, longing for sleep.

As soon as Ed finished the piece with a soft tune, he breathed in the cold air that was in the room, then he turned around to see Hermione, sleeping peacefully with a smile on her face. Ed sighed in content of the sight and walked to the girl, covering her with the blanket they just used.

“You’re going to be the death of me Hermione…” Ed mumbled, then he walked away from the living room, deciding to leave her alone to sleep. Ed entered his bedroom in the suitcase and just sat on the bed, but then Gilligan appeared, but Ed didn’t get startled, at this point, he already got used to it.

“Hello Gilligan…” Ed greeted.

“Ed, tell me honestly, what are you going to do with the girl?” he straightforwardly asked.

“I don’t know…” Ed answered, being as honest as possible, “At first it was just pity, but somehow… it turned into something more.”

“You have to decide Ed, or I’m afraid that you will accidentally consider her as your partner, and you will be stuck with her for life.”

“How does that even work, Gilligan?” asked Ed in confusion, “How will I ‘Accidentally’ consider her as my partner?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know that answer Ed.” said Gilligan, “It is your heart that will decide that, not yourself. you might deny that you didn’t choose someone as your partner, but the heart never lies.”

Ed sighed, “I’ll try to avoid it, Gilligan, but we’re still kids… how can this ‘curse’ make us choose our life partner when we’re still this young?”

“I’m afraid it’s the rules Ed… I’m not the one who made it or ‘cursed’ our family.”

Ed nodded blankly, and Gilligan continued, “By the way… The hunters are outside, in the common room waiting for you.”

“It’s midnight already?” Ed said, a bit surprised at the time.

Gilligan nodded, “Yes, so I suggest you come out now.”

“Okay.” Ed stood up, readying himself, “Take care of Hermione and her parents will you? Tell her to bring my suitcase home as well.”

Gilligan once again nodded, and Ed disappeared from the room, blinking towards the common room, leaving Gilligan alone.

Gilligan then also disappeared, now in the living room, looking at the sleeping Hermione, “Good luck Ed, everyone will be waiting for you.”

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