~The Big Five at Hogwarts~

Chapter 14

Jack

   I carefully slide the door to the Headmaster’s office closed and turn to the Elsa, Hiccup, Merida, and Rapunzel. They all freeze, their eyes as wide as a deer in headlights. Merida kneels down and puts her ear to the floor of the chamber. We have to go back down, Elsa mouths. I shake my head at her. She bites her lip and whispers, “But they’ll come up and catch us eventually. Maybe we can come up with some sort of excuse.” I reluctantly lead them all back down again just as the person downstairs starts to pound on the wall.

            “You come on down here! I know you’re up there!” The voice screams. I can feel my heart rate increase rapidly as the chamber starts to descend. What are we going to do? I should’ve known this wouldn’t work. I am going to be expelled just when I was starting to like this place. I have to admit, I feel kind of bad for getting the others into this, though. Finally we come to a stop right in front of two teachers standing in the hall: Professor Longbottom, and Mr. Flimwater.

            “What do you think you are doing in the Headmaster’s office during Free Time?!” Flimwater is fuming, while Longbottom looks at us thoughtfully.

            “Now Mr. Flimwater, I’m sure these kids have an explanation. Why don’t we give them a chance to talk?” We all start to fidget nervously. I need some sort of reason for five kids to disregard the rules and sneak into a secured office. Then something comes to me.

            “We’re sorry if we broke the rules sir,” I bow my head slightly, “but we desperately needed to inform the Headmaster of recent reports of severe—I was getting by on the big words I had heard Elsa spit out from time to time, but I couldn’t think of anything else. Then, I remember something that Rapunzel had told me.—“bullying. We wanted to report Rapunzel here being bullied.” Longbottom’s eyes widen, and Rapunzel nods vigorously.

            “T-That’s right sir.”

            “Well, that’s no excuse for breaking rules. Especially for a professor,” Longbottom looks at Hiccup. “Now, there are going to be consequences. Was this all of you kids’ idea?” That’s when I make the decision to step forward.

            “Actually sir, getting into the Headmaster’s office was my fault. I just convinced them to help me.” Flimwater raises his eyebrow. He is about to say something before Elsa opens her mouth.

            “Yeah, right. I did this perfectly willingly, Professor. Jack’s just covering.”

            “So did I,” Rapunzel interjects.

            “Me too,” Hiccup adds.

            “We don’t need you lying for us,” Merida says to me.

            “Well, then I guess you all have detention with me. See me after dinner in the library. That includes Mr. Haddock, who is a teacher and will get his punishment from me then.” As we are escorted back to the Great Hall for lunch, I whisper to the others, “you guys didn’t have to do that. Now we all have detention.” Even as I said this, I feel touched that they would do that for me. No one ever has before.

            “It’s no problem Jack,” Hiccup whispers back, “besides; this is our chance to do research on Cribrune since the first plan didn’t work.” I roll my eyes when Elsa says,

            “Yeah, because we just can’t get enough of you.” She smiles playfully. All of us laugh until Flimwater starts glaring at us. “But seriously,” Elsa leans in as we turn a corner, “that was some pretty quick-thinking back there with the bullying story.”

            “Thanks,” I reply, surprised.

* * *

            “This is your punishment,” Longbottom tells us as he slams a dusty old hardback book onto a table in the Library. This library is huge, with towering bookshelves reaching towards the ceiling, and although it’s empty now, there are usually tons of students levitating books off of them and reading in corners.

        "Careful, sir, you may damage an ancient relic,” I mutter. He must have noticed the sarcasm in my voice, because he, Elsa and Rapunzel all shoot me a glare. I shrug my shoulders and look down at the floor. “Anyway, you four will be doing research on Albus Dumbledore before writing up an essay by curfew. And I expect it to be at least one full roll of parchment.” He pauses before saying in a slightly less hard voice, “look; I’m sure you all didn’t mean to cause trouble, and you don’t seem like such bad kids, but this is the way discipline is handled now.” He sighs sadly, and I think I can see the fear Hiccup was talking about. Then he straightens up and it’s gone. “I’ll be off giving Hiccup a little talk, but I’ll check back in about an hour.”

            When he and Hiccup leave, Rapunzel says to all of us,

“You guys! Now we have a chance to find out about Cribrune!” She eagerly runs over to a shelf and starts to pile up books in her arms.

I heave a sigh and sit down in a straight-backed chair. Elsa immediately starts turning pages enthusiastically, while Merida opens up the nearest book to be greeted by a cloud of dust.  The sound of her coughing can probably be heard all the way down the hall, I think as I start scanning a paragraph on famous wizards.

It’s not long before this gets old, of course. By the time a half hour has gone by, I think Merida is asleep and Rapunzel seems to be lost under the pile of books she has collected on her corner of the table.

            “Hey, I’ve got it!” Her blond head pops up out of a blue cloth-bound book triumphantly.

            “Really?!” I say, “What’s it say about him?” Rapunzel looks confused before grinning goofily.

            “Oh, I didn’t find anything about Cribrune, but I did find something to help me with my charms.” I slump in my chair and sigh. I’d been doing that a lot lately.

            “I’ve found Cribe Runes, Tibrunes, and even Cribbunes, but no Cribrune. It’s like this guy is invisible throughout history,” Elsa speaks next.

As I try to wrap my brain around that, I suddenly remember something.

            “Oh hey Merida, you never told us what happened to you guys before we met you in the hallway.” Merida seems to be happy for the distraction, because the excitement is written all over her face when it jerks up from the table.

            “Ooh, I want to tell the story!” Rapunzel begs.

            “Hey, I saw it first, so I get to tell it,” Merida chides.

“Just tell us!” Elsa smiles. She has a pretty smile.

Rapunzel hushes up when Merida continues.

            “While we were outside yesterday, you’ll never guess what we saw! A willowing wisp! It was so small and blue and—and—

“Wispy?” Rapunzel offers. Merida rolls her eyes.

“My mother used to tell me about how willowing wisps lead you to your fate. So, of course we followed it. And for some reason it lead us outside to one of the courtyards!” I pause before answering.

“Well, that’s very interesting, but not very useful.”

“Not necessarily. That courtyard could be important to us in the future. How about we go there later and check it out?” Rapunzel smiles cheerfully.

“I suppose we can, but right now we need to solve one mystery at a time,” Elsa points out. So we all continue flipping open covers and reaching for shelves.

Decided just to add onto Chapter 14. Hope you like it! :)