Chapter Four: The Pectal
The rest of the day went fast. Christian had the seventh year and third year Ravenclaws and Gryffindors before lunch, and 6th year Slytherins and Ravenclaws after lunch. But he couldn't stop thinking about Hermione. He was sure her eyes had turned silver when she countered the pleasure charm the first time. When he thought about it, everything fitted so perfectly. He had to talk to the Headmaster, before something happened to Hermione.
Right after his last lesson for the day, he found his way up to the Headmaster's office. He knew he would probably be there at this time of the day. However, he wasn't alone. When Christian entered the office he found Professor McGonagall there.
"Ah, Christian. May I ask how your first day as a teacher was?" Professor Dumbledore asked, eyes twinkling.
Christian smiled. "Very good, Headmaster, I must say, though best with the seventh years. Never met any students so willing to learn. Now, I haven't met very many of them as a teacher yet…" he added as an afterthought. Professor Dumbledore chuckled, and Professor McGonagall looked at him approvingly.
"Very well, Christian, but I doubt you came here to chat about lessons. What is bothering you?" Dumbledore asked and silently dismissed McGonagall with a nod.
Christian stopped her. "No, wait. This concerns both of you." McGonagall looked at him curiously, and Dumbledore waited expectedly. "It is about Miss Hermione Granger of your House, Minerva," he said, remembering to call her by her first name. McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "I suspect that she is a Pectal," he continued.
Minerva stood so fast that she overturned her chair. "What!" she gasped.
Harry had never seen her that surprised. "A Pectal, Minerva," he repeated.
"A Pectal, you say?" Dumbledore asked. "What makes you believe that?"
"We are working on pleasure curses, and she showed an extraordinary sense for magic. She did it on first try. None of the others managed that," the young Professor said.
"But that could be explained simply, as Miss Granger always has been the top student at Hogwarts." McGonagall argued.
Christian nodded. "Yes, I know, Minerva, but when I saw this I decided to try a comfort curse on her. She pushed it away within two minutes, and I'm sure her eyes turned silver for a second or so."
McGonagall was utterly baffled, while Dumbledore looked thoughtful. "Indeed, Christian, if she is, she'll need training, and I'm afraid I have very limited knowledge on this subject."
"I can tell her all there is to know about Pectals," Christian said. "After graduating I spent a year researching about Pectals and Citatios. Didn't really count on meeting one, but I found it very interesting. I can tell Miss Granger everything that is known about them, though it's not much. And we have to be sure first anyway." Christian frowned. "However, training will be a problem. A normal wizard or witch can only give advice; it must a Citatio to properly train her. Even though a Citatio can train himself, a Pectal cannot reach the full extent of her power by self-training. At least that is what is said." Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore raised an eyebrow each. "We cannot trust the scripts fully, because they're so old, but I wonder if she isn't the Pectal the prophecy spoke of," Christian continued, as if speaking to himself.
McGonagall cleared her throat. "The prophecy, Christian?" she asked.
Christian snapped out of his thoughts. "What? Oh. The prophecy. It's an old prophecy I found in a very old book in a library in France. It speaks about a prophecy told by Rowena Ravenclaw. It is mentioned in other books as well, but in this book the entire prophecy was written. Ravenclaw was a Pectal and Trance Predictor, and she was married to Godric Gryffindor, who was a Citatio. It sounded like this:
'Darkness of World shall rise,
Two Children of Power shall stand.
One shall be of Eagle and Lion blood,
The other of the Snake,
With their strength they must fight,
The Darkness of World shall fall'
'But Danger is ahead,
As Power hate Power,
As Power distrust Power
As He and She are betrayed
But Children of Power must stand by trust.'"
Christian paused. "I think it was like that. Two Children of Power is a Pectal and a Citatio. Both words means 'Power' in an ancient language, which is not spoken among humans any longer. And the prophecy mentions a 'he' and a 'she', so it must be one Pectal and one Citatio. 'Darkness of World' must be Voldemort." McGonagall flinched, but Christian didn't notice. "But I don't know about 'Power hate Power', and 'Power distrust Power', or 'betrayed'. Does Miss Granger have anyone she hates or distrusts? Or has someone betrayed her? If she is the Pectal the prophecy is talking about, there is a Citatio too somewhere, who is important in this fight. If the prophecy is correct, Miss Granger needs him in this fight against the 'Darkness'."
Both Dumbledore and McGonagall looked thoughtful. Finally Dumbledore spoke up. "We need to find out if she really is a Pectal. Do you know how to do that?"
"Yes, I do, at least I think so. All we need is a crystal ball." Christian said. And then he added, muttering under his breath: "I hope."
"Very well. I'd like you to bring Miss Granger up here tonight after dinner. Minerva and I will be here then." Dumbledore said.
"Okay," Christian answered and turned to go.
"And Christian?"
"Yes?"
"Call me Albus."
Christian smiled. "Right, Albus."
~*~
When Christian had left, the two sat in silence, thinking. Finally McGonagall spoke.
"Albus, if she is a Pectal, and if she is the Pectal, then she'll have to fight You-Know-Who."
Dumbledore sighed. "Yes, Minerva, she must, and almost all alone, if we cannot find the Citatio."
McGonagall looked at him suspiciously. "I think you know more about this Citatio than you say you do," she said.
Dumbledore merely smiled. "Well, Minerva, you were about to tell me something when young Christian came?" Dumbledore said, ignoring what she'd said.
Minerva sighed. "I came to report Remus and Sirius's movements. There is nothing new about either You-Know-Who-"
"Call him Voldemort, Minerva, or Tom Riddle."
"Well, nothing new about him, or about the Golden Mask. He turns up when Death Eaters attack, and disappears as soon as it is over. The only thing we know is that he is very powerful. In fact, we can't be sure that it is a male even. We've got reports of what he's done, and it's really impressive. He calls lightning from the sky, shots curses from his palm or his sword, sometimes his wand, he can stun at least ten with one Stupefy, etcetera. He's never even hurt. But the point is that no one has ever spoken to him, except a small boy he saved when he captured Pettigrew. The Aurors would give anything to know who he is."
Dumbledore looked highly amused. "Well, Minerva, I suspect that we know both what he is, and who he is." McGonagall looked both confused and surprised at this, and Dumbledore continued. "I do believe that The Golden Mask is the Citatio the prophecy spoke of."
"Oh."
Dumbledore chuckled as he found the Deputy Headmistress lost for words. "You see, Minerva, when Rowena Ravenclaw made her prediction -yes, Minerva, I knew about it- a man named Slandrin Slytherin, brother of Salazar Slytherin, became jealous, as it was obvious that one of them would be of Rowena and Godric's blood, One shall be of Eagle and Lion blood. Slandrin then cast a curse over Ravenclaw, a curse that made it impossible for any of her children to be either Pectal or Citatio. However, Salazar Slytherin then turned against his brother. Though it is true that Slytherin thought pure-bloods were better than muggle-borns, it was Slandrin who thought this, and not Salazar. It was also Slandrin who caused the split among the founders.
Indeed, Hogwarts don't have four founders, but five. However, Salazar was furious with his brother, and tried to undo the curse. Unfortunately he didn't manage to undo it completely, only weaken it. So only when one of Slandrin's descendants declared their love to one of Rowena and Godric's descendants, the curse would be broken.
Years went on, and one of Slandrin's descendants, a girl, was married to a man named Draco Malfoy, one of Mr. Malfoys ancestors, his great, great, great, great, great grandfather I think. Already then the Malfoys were intolerant of muggle-borns, and when their youngest son turned out to be a squib, he was disowned and placed with a muggle family, not knowing who he really was."
"Does this have anything to do with the Citatio?" Minerva inquired.
"Indeed, Minerva." Dumbledore answered. "The muggles who adopted him were named Lanarin and Fredrich Evans."
McGonagall gaped. It seemed like she tried to say something, but not a word came out. "W-w-what? E-evans? Not- not like in Lily Evans?" She finally managed to say.
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, André Malfoy, or André Evans as he was called his whole life, was Lily Evans's, later Potter, great, great, great, great grandfather. Seventh year Draco Malfoy here at Hogwarts is Lily's sixth cousin removed once.
However, James Potter was one of Godric's descendants, so when Lily and James married, Slandrin and Rowena's blood was united in Harry Potter, and the curse was broken. I think the Golden Mask, as he is called, is a Citatio, and that this Citatio indeed is Harry Potter. I also believe Miss Granger really is the mentioned Pectal, as she is a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, as also one of his descendants turned out as a squib. The other of the Snake, the prophecy said, something Slandrin ignored. I think it is talking about Salazar as the snake, as Slandrin had a falcon as his house animal. His house was removed from both Hogwarts and history books; Salazar made sure of that," the Headmaster said.
If McGonagall had been shocked before, it was nothing compared to now. If she had been standing, she'd probably have fainted, but fortunately, she was sitting safely in a chair.
Dumbledore chuckled at her expression. "And therefore it is so important that we find Harry. It is possible that the boy has forgiven me, because of the potion I was given, but I don't think I can ever forgive myself. How betrayed he must have felt, when his Headmaster, who had always supported him suddenly believed he was a murderer?" Dumbledore shook his head sadly. "I hope that I someday can say it to him, face to face at least."
He fixed his twinkling eyes on McGonagall. The usual twinkle, which had been gone the last two years, was slowly returning. "We have to tell Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger the truth. I believe Miss Granger hates Harry for what she believes he did; with Mr. Weasley I don't know. There have been so many different stories about this in the newspapers, that I don't think they know what to believe. The only one who has been close to the truth is Marice Newman," he said, his eyes twinkling even more.
McGonagall managed a dazed: "Yes, Albus," before she left the office and decided to go to her rooms to sort out the last few minutes' information, and get out of her shocked state.
~*~
Christian smiled and removed the listening spell he'd placed on the Headmasters office. So he'd figured it out. Well, he wouldn't find Harry before Harry decided to be found. However, he had to be careful. Dumbledore was a very intelligent and observant man, and as long as he hadn't taken any mind-potions Harry would trust him with his life, but for the time being he preferred to be in hiding. If 'Christian' did anything suspicious, Dumbledore might start to suspect something, and investigate. As Christian he could be close to Dumbledore and The Order of Phoenix, where Dumbledore was the leader, and watch their movements, and he was free to do almost whatever he wanted.
Dumbledore and Sirius were the only ones he trusted, and even though he and Hermione were destined to fight Voldemort, he didn't trust her. He could maybe, with a bit time, forgive her and Ron and all the others, but never trust them again. And though he respected both Remus and McGonagall, he'd learned an important lesson; also the Hogwarts professors were humans, and humans make mistakes. He remembered his trial, if you could call it a trial, that is and though he'd been saying again and again that he was innocent, no one believed him, except Sirius. Not even Dumbledore had believed him, and at the time he was the one he hated the most. It was later he finally found out what had happened, and had of course forgiven him instantly. After a while the hate he felt for the others had dissolved too, but some bitterness and anger would always be there. But he knew better than to hate. Hate eats at you from the inside, until it destroys you. He'd soon learned that hating people is a waster of time and energy.
It had been a good idea to eavesdrop; now he knew about that curse, which he hadn't known about before. Very interesting, he thought. Especially the last bit… Yes, that was interesting indeed. Malfoy was a distant cousin… Harry snickered.
Malfoy would drop dead to the ground if he ever heard that…
~*~
Hermione sat at the Gryffindor table and listened to the other girls, who chattered about boys, the new professor, homework, the new professor, their families and the new professor. It was quite annoying. However, though she wasn't talking about him, she was thinking about him. There was something about him…something… weird. She couldn't explain it. She sighed as Lavender launched into telling how sexy he was when he was sitting propped on his desk, with that gorgeous smile, that hair and those eyes. Honestly! The girl couldn't talk about anything but boys! The next second Lavender turned dark blue. The other girls went silent a moment, before bursting into laughter. Lavender sat totally clueless, until she discovered her new appearance. She shrieked loudly.
"Who did this?" she screamed. The whole hall then noticed and started laughing. Lavender started searching for the prankster, but that wasn't easy; it could be anyone. Even Hermione had to smile. Lavender was currently throwing a huge temper tantrum, when Professor Atos came up behind her. He cleared his throat, and the whole hall immediately went silent, it was like magic; not even Dumbledore could manage that.
"Why don't you all go back to your meal?" he asked. "As far as I know it is usually very tasty." In the next second the hall was back to normal.
Lavender turned to the Professor. "Professor, look what someone did to me!"
Professor Atos managed to suppress a smile out of sheer politeness. "I've noticed," he said and removed the colour with a flick of his wand. "However, Miss Brown, there is not much I can do, besides ask everyone in here who did it, and I doubt anyone would admit it."
Hermione smiled, as it was obvious to her that the whole thing amused him, though no one else noticed that.
"Miss Granger," he said, and she turned to look at him. "Would you please come with me? The Headmaster wants to speak with you." What could that be about? She thought, but followed him out of the Hall, not noticing the envious glares she got from the other girls.
~*~
In the Headmaster's office Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall were waiting for her. Professor Atos closed the door behind them. Hermione looked around, confused. Why should three professors want to talk to her?
"Please sit down Miss Granger, we have something to tell you." Professor Dumbledore said. As she sat down, Dumbledore leaned forward and looked her directly into her eyes. "What we are going to tell you now might change your life forever, Miss Granger, maybe for the worse. However, we must know." Now Hermione was utterly confused. Know what? "Your Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor suspects that you are a Pectal," the Headmaster said. Hermione arched her eyebrows. "Do you know what a Pectal is, Miss Granger?" he asked.
"N-no, not really sir. I've read about Citatios, and it told about the Pectal being the Citatio's female counter-part. I don't know what that means, though," she answered.
Dumbledore nodded. "Well then, I'll ask Professor Atos to explain this to you."
Professor Atos stepped forward, holding a small crystal ball in his hand. "Miss Granger, when I tried the pleasure curse on you earlier today, you managed to counter it within two minutes the first time, which is very impressive. But not only that, your eyes turned silver, and instead of creating a shield around your mind so the curse would just bounce off, you absorbed it. I felt the connection between you and my wand disappear. It was just… gone." Hermione looked at him shocked. She hadn't realised she'd done that! "You also absorbed the colour charm I cast at you, and stored it inside of you, however not all of it, as I had to remove it afterwards. You painted Miss Brown fairly nice down there." His lips twitched.
"It was me? I did that?"
He grinned. "You did, and I guess that sooner or later someone will feel the effect of the Comfort curse too." His face turned serious again. "If you indeed are a Pectal, Miss Granger, you are extremely powerful. They are, as you mentioned, the Citatios' female counter-parts, and every time a Citatio is born, a Pectal is born too, or the other way around. However, little is known about them. There exist writings of the Citatios' Powers, of what they might be able to do, but no such thing is written about the Pectals. History has almost ignored them and centred the attention on the Citatio. The only thing we know for sure, is that the Pectal's eyes turn silver when they use their power, just as the Citatio's eyes turn gold."
Hermione nodded. "But why isn't there anything written about Pectals?" she asked.
Professor Atos shrugged. "Honestly I don't know. Sexism maybe." He saw Hermione's eyes narrow. "You must remember that the last Pectal and Citatio lived a thousand years ago. Females didn't have the same respect as males, or the same social status, and therefore were mostly ignored when the history books were written." He looked thoughtful a minute. "We have to test if you really are a Pectal, and if the books I've read are right, I know how to do it." He showed her the crystal he held. It was completely white. "Inside this ball I've stored a stunning curse. If you are a Pectal, you should be able to withdraw the curse from the ball without your wand, store it inside of you, and then send it out again." He held the ball up. "You have to trust your instincts."
Hesitantly Hermione reached out a hand and took the ball, and instantly she felt the magic inside it. What should I do now? She thought. She tried to reach out with her mind, tried to recall what she'd done earlier that day, and suddenly she felt it. Like a small knot. As if the curse was a thin, thin thread, with a knot at the end. She tried to take it, but couldn't. Then she understood it. The knot was what held the curse inside of the ball, and she had to untie it, or maybe cut it. Carefully she imagined that the knot untied itself, willed it to untie. And it did. A sudden flash, and she stood there with a small ball of glass, no longer white, but see-through. She looked up and saw a grinning Professor Atos, a surprised Professor McGonagall, and an amused Professor Dumbledore. When he saw her confusion, Professor Atos laughed and conjured up a mirror. Hermione gasped and dropped the ball to the floor. It shattered.
Her eyes were gleaming. The pupils and the irises were silvery, and small silver threads were spreading over the rest of the eyeballs.
"Now, Miss Granger, try to release the curse," Professor Atos's voice reached through her dazed mind. Yeah, right. Release the curse. "Just try to push it away like you did earlier." Push? Push. She pushed against the invisible orb, which was the curse, willed it to get out. Slowly it 'moved', if you could call it that inside a person's mind, and just before the curse reached the 'surface' of her mind, the border between mind and not mind, -her subconscious mind- took over, and the curse was directed through her arm and out. Unfortunately, as the curse shot through her palm, she raised her arm and directed it against Professor Atos. The white light hit him and sent him flying backwards, hitting a bookcase and crumpling to the floor. As if from far away, Hermione heard Professor McGonagall gasp, as Professor Dumbledore rushed forward to check on his now unconscious Professor. Hermione sank back into the chair; she hadn't even realised she'd been standing. As she slowly returned to normal mode, she realised what she'd done. She heard Professor Dumbledore mutter an 'enervate', before helping the dazed Professor Atos to his feet, and then repairing his bookcase. Professor Atos stumbled forward when the Headmaster let go of his grip, and just barely managed to grab onto a chair before he fell.
He groaned. "Did anyone get the number of that bulldozer?" he muttered drowsily while rubbing the back of his head.
"I'm so sorry, Professor!" Hermione said, almost hysterically. "I-I didn't mean to-"
"It's quite all right, Miss Granger, I asked you to do it, but could you and your twin-sister please stop screaming? It gives me a terrible headache," he said, and it took a couple seconds before Hermione realised what he meant with 'twin-sister'. He was seeing double.
Professor McGonagall now was in her right place. She quickly helped the poor Professor to sit down, and then ordered briskly that he should go to the Hospital Wing.
Professor Atos took a deep breath. "Minerva, I'm fine. Honestly, I'll be okay in an hour or so." Then his eyes unfocused a second, before he smiled at Hermione. "Why thank you, Miss Granger, but you didn't need to do that," he said, and Hermione realised she'd used the already stored Comfort curse… err, charm at him. Then he again had to assure McGonagall that he was fine. Unfortunately, McGonagall hadn't been Head of Gryffindor House for years and years for nothing.
"Christian, the strength in that curse was ten times what is normal. No stunning curse I've seen has sent the victim flying into the wall. You need to go to see Poppy." She said.
His objections hit the wall, and before you could say 'Stupefy', he was on his way out of the door and down to the Hospital Wing, muttering angrily under his breath, leaving Hermione giggling hysterically, partly due to the strain she'd been through, and partly because her Professor just had been ordered around like a small child by another of her Professors. Even Dumbledore was chuckling. Finally Hermione managed to get out of her hysterics, though she was still smiling widely. She turned to Professor Dumbledore again. She didn't really know what to do now. However, Dumbledore had his plans ready.
"Miss Granger," he began. "As you see, you are a very powerful witch. You understand that you have to train your powers, and that it has to be kept secret?" She nodded. "Not even Mr. Weasley must know." She nodded again. "I need you to read some material on Pectals. It is a book in the Restricted Section, which contains a few paragraphs on Pectals and Citatios. It is called Magical History: Great Wizards And Witches and their Power."
"I have that in my dorm, Professor," she said.
Dumbledore smiled. "Very well. Read what you find about Pectals there, and then come to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom on Saturday, at four o' clock. We'll be there, and then we'll start your training, though there isn't much we can do for you, I'm afraid, you must do most of it yourself." Hermione nodded. Dumbledore sighed; now came the worst part: Getting Hermione to believe in Harry's innocence. If she believed and told Ron, he'd believe it to, Dumbledore thought.
"Miss Granger, I will now tell you something which is a highly classified Ministry secret." Hermione's eyes widened. "I believe you've read the Daily Prophet during the summer?" Without waiting for an answer, Dumbledore continued. "I want to tell you the truth about Harry Potter. The absolute truth."
Hermione went deadly pale.
~*~
That night Hermione couldn't sleep. She lay tossing and turning, thinking about her being a Pectal, and Harry. It didn't really sink in. So Harry was innocent, he really was. She wanted to deny it, but knew that she would end up believing it.
Deep down she knew why she tried to deny it. She was ashamed. Ashamed that she could accuse Harry of such a thing, ashamed that she had hated him the last two years because of what he'd done. What she'd thought he'd done. And it wasn't just that. Finally, after two long years, she dared to admit to herself that she'd had feelings for her best friend of four years. She'd felt so betrayed, so utterly betrayed. And now she'd hated him for two years because she'd made a mistake. It was terrible; she'd even wanted him dead.
Hermione cried herself to sleep that night, and she dreamed of Harry.
She dreamed that he smiled at her, and drew his hand through his messy hair and was just drop dead gorgeous, and that he laid his arms around her, and kissed her passionately, and Hermione wished it would never end. But just as he kissed her, Hermione woke up.
When she realised it was only a dream, she began to cry again. She'd give anything to get Harry to forgive her, if they ever met again. But it was hopeless, and she knew it. She fell into an uneasy sleep again, and when she woke up the next morning, the dream was just a vague memory.
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