The Snake and the Emerald Apple

Gormlaith

"Potter!" said a gruff voice behind Harry. "Stay after class."

Harry nodded at Professor Moody who limped with his wooden leg to his desk.

"What was the meaning of that?" whispered Neville. Harry shrugged, after all, it was nothing new for a teacher to want to discuss something with a student after a lesson. However, he was curious; Barty had the Voynich Manuscript for well over a week, and Harry hoped the educated man had found a solution to their dilemma.

Harry looked around the classroom and lay his gaze on Ron and Hermione sitting at a table together. They were busy working on the text that Professor Moody had practiced as an exercise. They were expected to write a report on the tell-tale characters a wizard had when going to use a Dark Curse. Harry used the Unforgivables for this, as these are cast with a lot of strength and determination, which made these well recognizable in the wizard's posture.

However, he noticed that many of his classmates would rather make the comparison with lighter spells as if just writing about the Unforgivables was enough to succumb to the temptations of the Dark Arts. Harry had spoken to Neville and helped the boy get started with his report; without dodging the Unforgivables.

Harry overheard Hermione arguing with Ron about the different dueling poses wizards used. Ron had a solid foundation of knowledge- probably learned from Bill- and wanted to use it in his report. However, Hermione talked about the benefits of using literature to support your research and didn't want to use Ron's case studies.

Harry shook his head. It was an individual assignment; Ron was allowed to do whatever he wanted, but it looked like Hermione was getting the upper hand in the discussion. However, there was nothing he could do, his relationship with Hermione had not improved and he was afraid that this would never happen again. Some things were too bad to come back to; Mudblood was certainly an example of this.

The minutes crept by and Harry could no longer focus on the text he was reading. He wanted to know what Barty had to tell him and regularly took a glance at the man he was thinking about. When class was finally over, he jumped out of his chair and walked over to Professor Moody's desk.

When all the students had left the room, the professor locked the door and cast some privacy spells. Only when he was sufficiently reassured, he went to his desk and took out the Voynich Manuscript from the top drawer.

"Harry, come and have a look," said the battered man in an enthusiastic voice.

Harry walked to the desk and looked at what the man was so excited about. He looked through the pages that lay open, but couldn't find anything that would provoke such a reaction.

"Um, Barty? What is it I should look at?"

The man rolled his eyes, the magic eye rolled wildly into the eye socket, wilder than the other eye. A thick, calloused finger pointed to a sign at the bottom of the page.

"That's what I'm looking at, brother," he said in an impatient voice.

"Yes? What does it mean?" Harry asked with a frown on his face.

"What does it mean?! What does it mean?!" said Barty exasperated. "It's the symbol of Dark Sorcerer Gormlaith."

Harry gaped at Barty, not understanding what the man was talking about. He was forcefully pushed onto a chair, facing the professor.

"In the 17th century, Gormlaith Gaunt killed her sister Rionach and her husband William Sayre for betraying the family's belief in full-blood supremacy and providing aid to neighboring muggles. She did this by setting fire to their house. Gormlaith then took their child, her cousin Isolt Sayre, and imprisoned her for twelve years, hoping she could raise her in the family traditions of thoroughbreds. Isolt eventually fled to the new world and helped found Ilbermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with her Muggle husband James Steward," said Barty in full teacher mode.