Little Snake - A Black Legacy

Chapter Thirteen - Guilty

Hazel had received an owl from Professor Fig very early on Wednesday to visit him as soon as possible. She arrived at the office, where the door was open, when she noticed that Fig was not alone. He and Professor Sharp were talking and she was involuntarily eavesdropping. She had tried to make herself heard by clearing her throat, but the two men did not notice the girl.

"You can't be serious. Goblins and Rookwood? That doesn't make any sense" Hazel heard Sharp muttering just then. "That's pretty unusual to say the least" Professor Fig agreed with him. Sharp seemed relatively upset and in disbelief at this information. "Unusual?" he said doubtfully. "It's unthinkable! It..." he continued speaking when Sharp suddenly noticed her.

h, Fig, you have a visitor. I'll see what I find out." Sharp said then, ending the conversation by simply walking away. "E-excuse me, professor. I didn't mean to interrupt you two. The door was open and I had actually made my presence known but..." Hazel said sheepishly, shrugging her shoulders. "It doesn't matter. Come in and close the door behind you" Fig said firmly and waved her in. "You look a little worn out, Hazel. That visit to the Restricted Section - Without my permission, I might add - didn't do your nose much good, I see" he said as he eyed her. "Not just my nose," Hazel muttered, her back still red and green.

"You don't want to know the condition I came out of it, Professor. Believe me. I owe a lot to two of my classmates!" she said, looking at the floor. "Who took care of you? I don't have a report from Nurse Blainey, so you won't have been in the hospital wing?" Fig asked, his voice nowhere near as stern as it had been at first.

"Sebastian Sallow and Ominis Gaunt. They helped me clean my wounds, gave me potions and Ominis closed the deep wounds with a spell" she explained. Fig nodded. "Then I'd like to... although no, I don't really want to know. Tell me about the book" he said, clasping his hands behind his back.

"The book was located under the Restricted Section. I should have been more prepared, I had too few healing potions with me. It was another challenge. Not a very easy one, if I can say that. Almost didn't make it out. The book was in a pensive hall and it revealed another memory to me," she began her story.

"They can tell me about the memory on the side. Let's look at the book first, shall we?" Fig said, and Hazel pulled it out of her Magic Handbook. Fig flipped through it a bit before sighing regretfully. "Some pages seem to be missing. Someone must have found the book before we did" he said when he reached a place with torn out pages.

"I will examine the rest of the book, maybe there will be something useful in it. It might take a while, though. I wonder why it was here, under Hogwarts." Fig said. "I might know, sir. I saw two memories with the book. The man we saw in the first was a professor, Percival Rackham. In the First Memory, he and three other professors were using Old Magic to restore a village after a drought. In the Second Memory, they were talking to a student who started in Fifth Year, just like me. She could also see the traces of the magic," Hazel explained excitedly. Fig pondered. "Why these memories? Maybe the book explains more. Now I have to take it with me to London. The principal insisted that I speak to the minister about George's death immediately after my return," Fig explained, annoyed. You could tell he was tired of traveling.

"What will you tell them?" Hazel asked regretfully. The professor shook his head cluelessly. "I don't know how much to say. George tried to convince the Ministry about Ranrok - unsuccessfully. My instinct is to follow the path we're on and keep the details to ourselves until we know more."