Chapter 189
Chapter 189
When the last few pieces of pumpkin pie vanished from the golden plates, dinner was finally over.
Suer gave a tremendous belch and waited for the interminable school song to reach its conclusion.
As ever, the Weasley twins were the last to finish. For all his exposure to their artistic efforts, Suer had no idea what tune they used at the end. At least it was not a funeral march.
Harry and Hermione left early at Professor McGonagall’s signal–during the school song, no less.
It appeared that Professor McGonagall had endured quite enough of it…
On the way back to the dormitory, everyone Suer passed gave his shoulder a hearty slap, whether they knew him or not.
By the time he lay on his bed, it felt as though his shoulders were about to fall apart.
“Can you teach us the spell you used to drive away the Dementor? Suer? Suer?” Justin called several times without receiving a reply.
“Shh… he’s asleep. Any spell capable of driving away a Dementor must be difficult. We’ll have plenty of time to ask him,” Morn said. “It’s been a tiring day. We should sleep early too.”
Suer did not hear Justin. Just as Morn said, he was exhausted and fell asleep the moment he touched the bed.
He was pulled into a space of pure white. Above, below and on every side, there was nothing but white, without a single landmark.
Was this the Misty Dreamscape?
Suer could not help raising a hand to touch his head, but then noticed something wrong.
Colour. Suer looked down at himself. He was still wearing the wizarding robes in which he had arrived, their yellow-and-black stripes strikingly vivid.
“It seems this isn’t the Misty Dreamscape… so where am I?”
“Is anyone there?” he called tentatively, but there was no answer.
He did not feel the slightest discomfort. On the contrary, he was full of energy.
He called several more times, but still received no response, not even an echo.
Suer could only sit cross-legged on the ground and think hard.
“Has my special power finally arrived?” A possibility suddenly occurred to him. “Does this mean I can practise magic here, build up my skill and emerge invincible?”
“Then whenever I see Voldemort, I can hit him with a maximum-power Avada Kedavra and–ah, peace and quiet at last.”
“If that’s how it works…” Suer slapped his forehead, scrambled to his feet, spread one hand and shouted, “I need a wand.”
An imaginary crow flew overhead, cawing into the silence.
“No…” Suer suspected his pose was wrong, so he tried several different ones from his hazy memories–the transformation poses of giant heroes and special police warriors, and even Cardcaptor Sakura…
“System? System darling? Little system? Are you there?”
…
None of them worked. Not one.
After spending quite some time striking mortifyingly dramatic poses, nothing had happened.
He dropped dejectedly onto the ground, propped his chin on one hand and furrowed his brow.
“Suer. Suer, wake up. Suer.” A voice sounded above the space. That was… Justin’s voice?
Suer hazily opened his eyes. Dim yellow light and yellow-and-black bed hangings filled his vision. Justin was shaking him, while Morn watched with concern.
“Were you having a nightmare? Was it because of the Dementor?”
“We heard you shouting, ‘Tiga… the light of the galaxy is calling me…'” Justin’s lifelike imitation left three imaginary black lines hanging from Suer’s forehead.
“There was more,” Morn added. “‘O Key that conceals the powers of darkness, reveal your true form before me! I, Suer, command you under our contract–release!'”
“And who is System? System darling? Little system? Is that the name of the Dementor you drove away?”
“Your expression was terrifying. We had to wake you,” Morn said, fear in his eyes.
Oh, good heavens. Suer wanted nothing more than to grab the wand beside his pillow and cast a Memory Charm on Justin and Morn. This was mortifying.
Fortunately, they had no idea what any of those lines meant…
“Oh, did I? I suppose it was a nightmare…” Suer pulled the blanket over his head, muffling his voice. “I’m all right now. Thank you for waking me.”
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Morn remained worried.
“I’m fine.”
When Suer fell asleep again, he did not return to that pure-white space. Nor did he have the same dream over the following days.
After dwelling on it for a few days, he dismissed the strange experience as nothing more than a dream.
The first Ancient Runes lesson began. Suer sat in his chair and opened An Easy Introduction to Ancient Runes, with a copy of A Dictionary of Runes beside it.
“My name is Bathsheda Babbling, and I teach this subject.” A middle-aged witch in a tall hat and spectacles faced the class from the lectern. She pushed her glasses up her nose. “In modern magic, traces of almost every incantation can be found in ancient runes. For example:”
Professor Babbling used her wand to draw a symbol in the air. It resembled a shield.
“It means ‘defence’, and the correct pronunciation is ‘Eihwaz’. Some of you may notice that portions of many defensive incantations overlap with the sound of this word.”
“Runes have many pronunciations. Sounds that are almost identical often carry completely different meanings.”
“For example…” The professor waved her wand, erased the shield and replaced it with an abstract image of two clasped hands.
“‘Ehwaz’. This word is translated as ‘cooperation’.”
“As you can see, Ancient Runes is a precise discipline, which means you must approach it earnestly and carefully.” Professor Babbling’s glasses seemed prone to slipping. She had already pushed them up several times while speaking.
“Choosing my course shows that you have some interest in it. I am pleased to have several more students this year, but I must warn you in advance that learning Ancient Runes is a tedious process, a conversation conducted with books. I do not expect you to understand how marvellous the magic within these symbols can be.”
“But in my lessons, I expect you to remain attentive. The foundations of runes are extremely important, and there are many things I shall explain only once.”
“Now, let us begin our first lesson. Open An Easy Introduction to Ancient Runes. We shall start with the simplest sounds.”
The classroom immediately filled with rustling pages. At least at the beginning of the lesson, with Professor Babbling’s lively presentation, everyone remained deeply interested.
Hermione sat beside Suer with a sheet of parchment spread before her. She sat perfectly straight, quill in hand and ready at any moment.
Once all their courses began, Suer saw almost nothing of her outside lessons. He could speak to Hermione only briefly during class. He had seen her timetable: she had chosen every subject.
She was so busy that she needed to be present at Arithmancy, Muggle Studies and Divination at nine o’clock simultaneously. Unlike the almost scientific subject of Arithmancy, Divination relied primarily upon crystal balls and tea leaves.
It sounded impossible. How could one person divide into three and attend three lessons at once?
It was not scientific, but it was certainly magical.
A Time-Turner… Suer’s gaze settled upon the metal chain that occasionally showed at Hermione’s neck.