The Forgotten Dumbledore

Chapter 4: The Black Lake

It was a violin.

  I was shocked as I trudged to the side courtyard in the Hogwarts grounds. Pureblood girls, I had once read from a book, were not allowed to do anything but dance and play the piano to fix a nice image for the family. It was said that piano and dancing painted the picture of “superiority”. And Malfoys, filthy rich and superior, must’ve vowed to do just that. But instead, Ellinor went and became a violinist! I was by every means stunned. I never measured how much rebelity she had. But now, after she nearly got a Howler, I deduced, she would probably get rid of the violin. I could not help but feel sympathy for her and the violin. Nope, I can’t let Ellinor give up her dreams, I thought, I have to do something. I got up, still wrapped in my thoughts, and went to join Ellinor in the hall to eat breakfast. 

  “Why are you so late?” Ellinor asked, still a little frosty, “The pancakes are getting lumpy.”

  “Sorry,” I apologized softly as I slid into my seat. “I went to jog a bit.” Ellinor nodded and I sat down to munch on the soft pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries Ellinor saved me.

  After two periods of Transfiguration, we finally had a free period.

“Let’s go to the library,” Ellinor suggested.

“Sure thing, let’s dive into book heaven,” I replied excitedly. 

“What a bunch of weirdos,” said Chloe to her best friend Melanie in Hufflepuff.

 Melanie nodded and said, “Yeah, who goes to the library in free periods, what a bunch of nerds.”

“What did you say?” I gritted through my teeth.

“Nothing,” said Chloe and sashayed back to their dorms laughing.

“I still don’t get why the sorting hat put them in Hufflepuff, aren’t they mean enough to be in Slytherin?” Ellinor grumbled. 

“But isn’t your family in Slytherin?” I asked. “Anyway, Melanie’s probably a lackey, so she’s loyal enough.”

“Uhhh… whatever,” retorted Eliinor and continued walking. 

I quickly catched up and we pushed open the heavy wooden door. We stepped inside the massive library and went to the column which holds history books about Hogwarts. Suddenly, a book fell out from the shelf and landed in my hands. 

“What’s that?” Ellinor asked as I brushed the thick dust off the book cover.

The cover says The Secrets of Hogwarts written by Nicholas Flamel in brown leather. I opened the thick book and the book immediately flipped to a page about the Philosopher’s Stone as if it’s telling me something. We quickly scanned the information and gasped at the wonderful blood maroon stone. I immediately thought of someone who might know about the Stone — Hagrid.

  “Come on,” said Ellinor, “Go borrow the book and let’s get to Hagrid’s class.” and so we left the library.

  We arrived at Hagrid’s breathlessly as he talked about caring for a unicorn. Class finally finished, and we waited at Hagrid’s hut for him as I showed him the book.

  Hagrid wasn’t looking at the book, but staring at Ellinor. “What’s wrong?” I muttered to Ellinor, who raised her eyebrows at my obliviousness. Hagrid. Malfoy. Ohhhhhhh…. Mustn’t have been on good terms, then. 

“Oh uh… we would like to ask you something,” I said casually.

“Yeah, sure,” replied Hagrid.

I opened the book and showed him the stone.

“Oh, um… that’s nothing,” Hagrid quickly said. “It’s not in the school anyway, and um…”

  Ellinor glanced at me. “Worst liar ever,” she muttered to me quietly, so only I could hear.

“Ellinor!” I said and glared at her, “ I thought we said we would talk to Hagrid KINDLY.”

 “Yup, I talked to him kindly alright. I didn’t talk about him kindly, and frankly, he wouldn’t have known if you didn’t yell about it. Thus, that particular rule wasn’t in your rulebook” I suppressed an eye-roll.

“Hagrid, we know it is something special to the school, so can you tell us what it is?” I asked in my most polite, persuading voice ever.

  “Geez, if you know it’s something special to the school, why did we come here in the first place?” muttered Ellinor.

  “Listen ladies,” said Hagrid, “It’s not that I don’t wanna tell you, but it is against the school rules to tell and I promised Professor Dumbledore that.”

  “Professor Dumbledore’s my grandfather Hagrid,” I said slowly looking at his shocked face as Ellinor gave me a look that expressed “you said we shouldn’t expose your identity so easily”.

  “Elleiana,” Ellinor told me coldly, “We know that a Gringotts vault was almost broken into the day most students would go to Diagon Alley. The third floor corridor is off limits, and the door leading to it is locked. We also know that there has been a strange growling sound coming from it every day at mealtimes,” Ellinor cocked her head and stared straight into Hagrid’s eyes arrogantly, and I found myself wanting to ask her when she knew this and why she didn’t tell me before, “and we now know of the philosopher’s stone. What more do you expect to get from that man?”

  “Hagrid, please!” I pleaded again, pointedly ignoring Ellinor.

  “Fine, but if things get wrong, don’t blame me,” replied Hagrid gruffly, finally giving up.

  “What are you trying to obtain again?” Ellinor asked me. I rolled my eyes this time.

  “What the stone is,” I reminded her, and Ellinor scoffed.

  “It’s a philosopher’s stone,” emphasized Ellinor.