The Crystals of Hiraj

Nicholas was walking down a long hallway in flames. He had to hurry, something was coming behind him. He started to run. The hallway was burning, smoke stung his eyes, but Nicholas continued running. He had to get there before the thing behind him caught up.
Nicholas’s mother was there beside him, running with him, but she was getting tired. She lagged behind. Nicholas encouraged her, but she couldn’t keep up. She fell to the ground, gasping for breath. Nicholas bent down to help her.
“Go on, son. It can’t get to you. You have to go! Leave me!” And Nicholas ran on in the burning hallway. The smoke entered his mouth, spread its bitter taste in his throat. Behind him he could hear his mother’s screams. I can’t go back. I have to escape. I have to escape, or all is lost.
His father was in front of him, urging him on. Nicholas ran to catch up. They ran together, tears forming from the stinging smoke. All of a sudden, Nicholas’s father tripped and fell. Nicholas heard a crack. His father’s leg was broken. Nicholas bent down to help him.
“Go, go! Sacrifices must be made! You have to go! RUN!” Nicholas left his father. Smoke poured into his lungs. Nicholas coughed. His father’s screams rose behind him. I have to go on. What’s a few deaths to the life of the world? I have to leave.
Elizabeth, his little sister, was on his side. She was weak, and kept on falling onto the dirt floor. Then Holly was there, and she picked Elizabeth up. And together they ran, smoke obscuring their eyesight and making them cough. But then Holly tripped and fell, Elizabeth tumbling out of her arms. Nicholas bent to help them.
“No, Nicholas. This is too important. You have to escape. They need you out there.” And Nicholas ran on. Smoke covered every inch of his body, his throat was dry and his eyes were dark. Behind him he heard Elizabeth cry,
“NICHOLAAAAAAAAS!”
No! It can’t do that! She’s only five years old! I will not fail again!
He was a giant. He burned with power and fire and rage. Nothing could defeat him now. He would save them. Nicholas slowly turned back and walked huge, lumbering steps back to where he had left his sisters. The ground trembled as he came. Smoke still surrounded him, but it didn’t matter now. I am the spirit of the ember. He finally reached his sisters, and looked at It. He looked without fear. I have the courage to prove.
And as he defied It a voice whispered above his eyes,
You are the first.

***

Nicholas woke up in sweat. That burning hallway, the smoke... felt as if they were real. And It. He couldn’t remember the face, but it had been a face to fear. Only his first night at Hogwarts, and he was already having nightmares. He got up from bed to get a drink. As he filled his glass, he noticed a black mark above his left eyebrow. It was soot.

Nicholas took his glass of water down to the Common Room. Noticing it was one in the morning, Nicholas sat down in one of the armchairs near the fire. He wasn’t ready to go back to bed yet. Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming down the stairs to the bedrooms. It was Holly, her eyes red from crying, and her clothes dripping water all over the floor. When she saw Nicholas, she ran to him and started crying on his lap.
“I... I... I’m so sorry... I left you, and mom, and dad, and Elizabeth. I left you to drown. I’m so sorry. There was nothing I could do... There was nothing to do!” she sobbed on his pillow.
“What happened, Holly?”
“It... It was a dream... But it was like it was real. My hair is wet! I was in a long hall filling with water, and you all were drowning, but I had to go on, I had to continue on my path, or all was lost. And then I drowned...” and she started sobbing again.
So that’s what would have happened if I had not turned back. I would have burned.
Nicholas heard footsteps again, and saw Emily stumbling down the stairs, looking lost. She walked over to the twins, wandering around the room on her way. A feather was stuck in her hair.
“We were on a bridge. I was too scared to see him,” she said faintly. “We all fell, the birds killed us.”
“Emily, you’re not making any sense,” said Nicholas gently, pulling the feather out of her hair. “Did you have a dream too?”
“I was too scared. Too scared to know! It wasn’t a dream. I had a feather in my hair.”
“Maybe you should go back to sleep. You’re not being coherent.”
“No. We have to wait for Jeffrey. He said he was coming. Before the birds got him.”
And she was right. Jeffrey came down, crying silently. He went to Emily and said,
“I’ll never abandon you. You’ll see, I’ll always be with you.”
“Do you want some water?” Nicholas asked them. “You seem to have had tough dreams.”
Jeffrey nodded. Holly went on crying, and Emily started sobbing on Jeffrey’s shoulder. Nicholas went and brought down glasses of water for the other them, then brought out Chocolate Frogs. By three in the morning, they felt better and went back to bed.

***

Emily yawned and looked around the dorm. Her red velvet bed curtains were drawn back, and she could see that she was the only left in the dorm.
Oh no, I’m late! Emily hurriedly dressed and combed her hair. She grabbed her books and ran down the stairs and out of the Gryffindor tower. On the way down to the Great Hall she suddenly tripped and fell hard on her face. Ouch! She had missed a vanishing step. Limping, she finally got to the Great Hall to see everyone leaving breakfast.
“Where were you, Emily?” Jeffrey grinned.
“I tripped on a vanishing step,” Jeffrey burst out laughing. “It’s not funny!”
“Here, I got your schedule. We have Charms first.”
Holly and Nicholas walked up behind him.
“Here, we saved you some bacon. We figured you’d be hungry after last night.”
Last night. Emily barely remembered what they had done, but she remembered her dream. It was painful just to think about it.
“Thanks for the bacon. We better get going if we want to get to Charms on time. I heard Hogwarts is easy to get lost in.”

***

Holly couldn’t wait for Charms class. Her mom had told her all about the different classes she had taken at Hogwarts, and Charms sounded the most useful to Holly. Charms could be adapted to any situation. Herbology was useless unless you wanted to be a botanist, and Potions were too time-consuming to make and easy to buy. History was said to be absolutely boring, and Transfiguration took years of practice to master. Defense Against the Dark Arts was unimportant now that Voldemort was gone. Only Charms was always useful and easy. Holly already knew the Lumos Charm well enough, she had practiced it all summer.
When they got to the classroom, Professor Peepshaw greeted them amiably. She was a short, old witch with long white hair and gray robes.
“There is more to magic than just waving a wand and saying some words. You have to have the intention, the gesture.” After a long lecture on theory of magic, she left them with their notes and their wands to practice the Lumos spell. Holly paired up with Emily.
“Lumos!” A small sphere of water appeared over Holly’s wand. And in that sphere, a faint light appeared.
“Lumos!” The light shone brighter. Holly stared at the light. It seemed that there was something hidden in the light, some hidden picture.
“Lumos!” The light grew even brighter, brighter, and the ball of water exploded and sent water all over Holly’s face. Emily laughed.
“I’ve never seen Lumos work like that before...” Professor Peepshaw was standing over them. “Usually it goes like this. Lumos!” A small light appeared on the end of her wand, like a Muggle light bulb without the light bulb around it. “I don’t understand why it doesn’t work like that for you. Try to make it work the normal way, if you can, in the future, Miss Parker.”
Holly frowned at her back as she walked away.
“What’s the problem with an abnormal light?” Emily grumbled. “Lumos!”
The end of her wand sparkled, but didn’t light.
“Lumos!”
A tiny light appeared over Emily’s wand. It stayed there for a while, then moved towards the teacher. The little light zigzagged around the classroom before landing in Professor Peepshaw’s hair.
“Lumos!” Emily whispered. The light slowly grew, until it was the size of an apple. It looked as if Professor Peepshaw had a tumor in her hair. Emily chuckled,
“That’s for condemning strange Lumos spells.”
By now the class had noticed. No one dared say anything, but Madison Spencer started laughing. The teacher looked confused. She reached into her hair, but Emily whispered,
“Nox.” The light vanished from Professor Peepshaw’s hair. The whole class burst out laughing. Professor Peepshaw dismissed them in a huff.
Emily was still laughing when they walked out of class. Jeffrey came up to them and said,
“Emily! Why did you do it? You could have gotten a detention!”
“She berated Holly for having a light that didn’t look the right way. A stuffy old-fashioned teacher like that deserves to be laughed at. Shouldn’t we defend our friends? And ourselves? If she had noticed that I can move around my light or that your light is a glowing rock, she would have been unhappy at us, too. I’m so happy that Dad taught us Lumos during the summer.”
“Aunt Parvati would be unhappy if she heard about this.”
“Don’t be a spoilsport, Jeffrey. And she wouldn’t care, she’s used to it. She’s already had Peter, Rachel, Allison, Molly, and Nina causing trouble. Elise is the only rule-abiding one, and she’s a Ravenclaw.”
“Hurry up, or we’ll be late to History of Magic!” Nicholas had just come back from talking to Matthew Helenst.
And they all hurried off.

***


History of Magic was as boring as her father had said it would be. Since Professor Binns was a ghost, he hadn’t retired or died as most of her father’s other teachers had. He droned on and on about the importance of History and Emily almost fell asleep. Unfortunately, Nicholas woke her up.
“What?”
“Holly, Jeffrey, and I agreed that we would take turns taking notes in History of Magic. It’s Holly’s turn today.”
“So?”
“I found this in my history book.” He showed her a piece of paper. It read:

When the Two as One come to age
Caught up in a girlish rage.
Their destined friends will help them seek
The powers of the mild and meek.

“Sounds like a bunch of nonsense. Like the stuff my reads for her clients. She’s a seer.”
“It looks like a prophecy,” said Nicholas. “It had to be important, or I wouldn’t have gotten it. Do you it talks about me?”
“Prophecies are usually a load of gibberish thrown together that sounds cool. So you could say this is a prophecy. Now let me sleep.”
“But–”
“It’s a prank or something, Nicholas. Don’t worry about it.” And she went back to sleep, Nicholas grumbling at her.

The Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was waiting for them when they returned from lunch.
“I am Annabelle Delacour, you Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.” She stood as if waiting for an answer. “Now, come on, all of you get up and say ‘Good afternoon, Professor Delacour!’”
“Good afternoon, Professor Delacour.”
“Very good, very good. Now I will pass out paper and markers, and you will all make nametags.”
“What is she doing?” whispered Emily to Nicholas. She was sitting next to him again; Jeffrey was off with Holly introducing her to all the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws who were on Harry’s side, and thus followed Emily’s lead.
“No talking during class, Miss Potter. Five points from Gryffindor.”
“What? Everyone else...” No one was saying anything. “I’m sorry Professor.” she mumbled.
“Thank you, Miss Potter. Now that I have passed out the paper and markers, you may talk.”
Emily groaned, “That was so unfair. How did she know my name if she needs nametags?”
“You look very much like your father, Miss Potter,” said the teacher as she passed by on her. “He talks a lot about you. I hope that you will prove to be all that he claims you are.”
Once Professor Delacour was safely across the room, Emily whispered to Nicholas,
“Watch. Lumos!”
A small light appeared on the tip of her wand, and it slowly floated around the room, going along the walls until it reached Professor Delacour’s head. The small light planted itself there.
“Lumos!”
The light swelled, bigger and bigger, in the teacher’s hair. The students started laughing as it grew to the size of a melon. Then it burst, causing a wind to rush through the room. Professor Delacour stared right at Emily.
“Fifteen points from Gryffindor, Miss Potter. The only reason I’m not giving you a detention is that its the first day of school. I expected... better, Miss Potter. You and Mr. Parker seem to have a penchant for causing trouble. Mr. Parker, sit next to Miss Fortescue. Miss Potter, sit next to... Miss Malfoy.” Professor Delacour smiled.
Emily gasped at the unfairness of it all. How had Professor Delacour known it was her! And now she had to sit next to Sasha! Nicholas had to sit next to a complete airhead who talked only about the last Muggle play she had read, but that was better than sitting next to her rival, the person she had hated her whole life! Professor Delacour hates me.
“Hey Emily,” said Sasha as Emily sat down next to her. Sasha was grinning.
She’s mocking me.
“Leave me alone, Malfoy.”
“Whatever you say, Potter,” and Sasha continued making her nametag humming the last Weird Sisters song.
Emily sighed. This was going to be a long year.

***

Holly walked back up to the Common Room and staggered into an armchair. She had spent most of the day with Jeffrey meeting new people and remembering old acquaintances. Jeffrey seemed to know most of the first-years and half of the second- and third-years. All the names she had learned and faces she had encountered were all jumbled up in her head. Meeting new people was very exciting, but now Holly just wanted to sleep. Unfortunately, Nicholas and Emily were coming to talk to her.
“Look what I found on my pillow when I went up to the dormitories,” said Nicholas, handing her a piece of paper.

Hair of gold and eyes of coal
As innocent as a little foal
He who unleashes the fury of Fire
Will grow to be the noble white squire.

“What do you think? I found the first verse in my History book, and now there’s this. Emily says it may be referring to me.”
“What are you talking about? What is this?” Holly was very confused.
“It’s a prophecy! I got the first four lines this morning, and these are the next four lines. Here, I’ll show you the first paper.”
Nicholas took out the other verse from his pocket. Holly read it, then said,
“Wow. You really think this is about Nicholas?”
“You two are really gullible. I still think this is a prank. But if it isn’t, the second verse says ‘hair of gold and eyes of coal’. Nicholas is blond, and his eyes are really dark. So that verse is likely about him,” said Emily. “Apparently you’re going to be a white squire, Nicholas.” She laughed.
“If I got this, is has to be important. Didn’t you say your dad said that it was important to have us on your side? This could be why!” said Nicholas stubbornly.
“Whatever you say, white squire,” chuckled Emily.
“Hey!”
“Anyway, Jeffrey and I are going to sneak out tonight. Dad always said Hogwarts was better at night. Do you want to come?” asked Emily.
“But that’s against the rules!”
“The rules are made to be broken, Nicholas. You really are ‘as innocent as a baby foal’”
“I’m staying. I want to figure out what this prophecy means.”
“Okay. What about you, Holly?”
“I just want to sleep.”
“Well, have fun not breaking rules, scaredy-cats!” said Emily as she went to get Jeffrey.
“We’ll think about you if you get caught!” laughed Nicholas.
And Emily and Jeffrey went upstairs to wait until nightfall.