Staff of Cybele

Chapter 15: THE THEFT

    If there was one thing that would make Ron forget about last night, it just didn't come. The Invisibility Cloak lay at the bottom of Harry's trunk. Not even magical means would get Hagrid to tell. All weekend, Ron had asked Harry if there was any way he could stop him from offering to loan him twenty galleons. Harry knew quite clearly that while Ron said this to him, he really didn't mean it and would be dearly upset if he couldn't participate in whatever it was that Hogwarts was doing. The only problem with this was that he seemed to be going through an internal struggle.

    They exchanged several ideas, ranging from trips to other countries and staying to learn about them to a school trip to a real international wizarding duel among top world contenders that Ron's dad had been hinting about by owl ever since Hagrid failed to tell Hermione; Ron had written home home about their failed attempt. Hogwarts had once held a tournament but it was among students and while some matches were longer than a few minutes, the only highlights were when Harry had been showing off the power of the Mark of Ancients.

    In fact, the entirety of Hogwarts was dreaming up ideas as well and every time someone asked Dumbledore when they passed him in the corridors, he simply drew an H and a P in the air with his wand. Parvati Patil suggested it was going to be something involving Harry and this had become the general consensus among the entire student body. What it was, on the other hand, was a complete mystery. Harry himself thought, or rather, hoped, that this was Dumbledore's way of just striking up interest.

    But in other affairs, Hedwig had gone missing from her cage and she wasn't in the owlery. This didn't bother anyone, as Hedwig had gone on trips for a few days. Even better, when Dumbledore had once mentioned that they would be revisiting elemental enchantments in Paladism, there was a general murmur of interest. He had also mentioned that they would be doing it outside. And that Raides would be involved. Harry distinctly remembered in his first year of taking Paladism sending a heavy, small stone block crashing up through each and every floor of the castle, up out to the top of the Hogwarts castle roof. He had had the Mark of Ancients at the time and didn't know his own strength...

    "I would not normally be able to do this," he told them as soon as the class had settled themselves into seats.

    Paladism was held in a class in the dungeons, a particularly large room when compared to the other dungeon classrooms, with stone walls, a stone floor and ceiling. Light was provided by means of candles lining the walls and there were no desks, only tables that lined three of four walls, leaving just enough room for people to enter from the thick, wooden door. The wall that didn't have a table was the wall at which the teacher's desk sat.

    Raides had followed Harry from the Great Hall up to his dormitory to collect his books and then down to the dungeons. She was now sitting in front of Harry, her golden head looking up curiously at Dumbledore, her several-foot-long scarlet tail resting upon the table in front of him, horribly spiting Neville. He was still slightly afraid of her. Everyone, including Raides, was very intent on hearing what Dumbledore could possibly want with the mind-bogglingly powerful Staff of Cybele.

    "But given the unexpected discovery of a certain very powerful magical artifact," Dumbledore continued gleefully, "I can show you elemental enchantments like they were meant to be done. I don't know how further we will be able to go, as beyond today's demonstration, there isn't much else. Harry, would you please attempt a Fire Charm on this sword with Raides?" he added, holding up the sword of Godric Gryffindor.

    This sword was quite familiar to Harry at this point, it was the very thing that helped him to kill the basilisk. Fairly long, encrusted with rubies along the handle and hilt, it had the name Godric Gryffindor written along the blade itself.

    Harry got up from his seat, walked around the table towards Dumbledore's desk just as Raides pushed her powerful legs against the floor to jump up several feet. She became engulfed in gray smoke and emerged as the seven foot long Staff of Cybele. Harry snatched her out of the air one handed (ignoring gasps from a few girls) before it hit the ground, scarlet crystal glittering in the candlelight. Just as his hand touched the staff, a glitter of golden sparkles ran the length of the staff, starting from the crystal to the tip of the scarlet tail. Harry never noticed this happening before but, knowing that Raides hadn't been a staff in a few weeks' time, he figured that that was probably just her letting off a little built up magic.

    Harry picked up the ruby-encrusted sword with his left hand and, holding the gigantic staff in his right, aimed the crystal as best he could at the sword and shouted, "Incanto usurponis incendium!"

    The crystal in the lion's mouth glowed white and let off a bang like a shotgun, sending a fiery red light (and more golden sparkles down the length of the staff) a short distance to the sword. And in his very hand, the blade of the sword itself became engulfed in red flames, stopping at the hilt so as to prevent his hand from getting scorched. But even stopping there, the heat from the flame made his hand hot.

    Harry stared, along with the rest of the class. They were taught for a long time that you didn't see the effect of an elemental enchantment and there they were, staring at a fire enchantment on a sword. In spite of their surprise, however, the sword looked magnificient engulfed in a red-hot flame. It crackled and spit ash and Harry hoped that it wasn't eating up the blade.

    "Like to see you fight that basilisk now, eh?" said Raides, giggling, the crystal having disappeared from her mouth. Harry's face turned pinkish.

    "Ah yes," said Dumbledore, beaming. "Legends told of the ancients doing such a thing with enchantments but I never would have believed it unless I saw it with my own eyes."

    Harry held the staff horizontally at his side and swung the sword up, the fire making a whooshing sound as he brought it quickly down through the air.

    Dumbledore attempted to remove the enchantment but it failed horribly, doing nothing but make the fire hiss and spit loudly when the feeble black light hit it. This also nearly burned Harry's hand. Dumbledore asked Harry to remove it -- and he did -- and then asked him to do it again with an ice enchantment. As soon as the icy-blue light connected with the blade, an icicle formed out of light blue smoke, covering the entire length of the blade. It was so cold that Harry felt his fingers sticking to the ice when he touched it. He repeated it once more with a lightning enchantment, causing tiny arcs of lightning to whip around the blade, causing cracks of thunder.

    Dumbledore really wanted to borrow Raides for his other classes but when he picked her up, a low steady growl came out of her mouth... He knew well Raides wouldn't let anyone but an ancient use her but curiosity got the best of him.

    When class ended, Raides followed Harry, Ron and Hermione up to Gryffindor tower to drop their books off and head to the Great Hall for dinner, skirting Dudley in the entrance hall. They wondered about what else Raides could do, knowing that Raides herself, having lost her memory, wouldn't particularly know. While eating, something horrible caught Harry's eye -- or rather, didn't.

    "Dudley," he said.

    "Dudley?" said Ron curiously. "What about him?"

    "I don't see him anywhere at the table. Any of you seen him?" asked Harry, glancing at the Gryffindor seventh years.

    "What d'you care about him?" Ron asked. "Better off without him. C'mon Harry. Hasn't all he ever done to you is be nasty and mean?"

    For a split second, Harry had to agree and yet... Dudley was family. Something at the bottom of his heart, a very small something that was more like an improperly performed Memory Charm, wanted to know where Dudley was. He almost felt a certain responsibility to know that Dudley was okay -- almost.

    "And it's no wonder you don't because he's sitting across from Malfoy at the Slytherin table," Ron added, pointing.

    And suddenly, that small something disappeared without a trace.

    "What?" screeched Harry and Hermione at the same time, peering over their shoulders.

    Sure enough, Dudley was sitting at the Slytherin table, keeping Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle great company.

    "I've seen him talking to them a lot lately," said Ginny, noticing where they were looking.

    "Yeah," said Neville. "I think the hat should have put him in Slytherin."

    "Wonder why it didn't," muttered a voice, Seamus Finnigan's voice, to Harry's left. "He's always wandering around the dungeons. Walking with Malfoy. I don't think I've ever seen him around Gryffindors."

    "Yeah," said Harry, feeling his insides churn horribly and turning to Ron and Hermione and glancing nervously at them, "wonder why..."

    Something kept eating him, the same something that had took it's first bite when the Sorting Hat shouted "Gryffindor!" while sitting upon Dudley's thick blonde head. By the look on Ron's and Hermione's face, it was eating at them, too. Did catching Foresight with Dudley while being sorted really make the hat see a bit of Harry in him? Harry had to go over this in his head time and time again and each time he decided on an answer, it was the same one: yes.

    "Too bad Professor Snape isn't here," said Hermione, to a flood of sharp eyes staring at her, "because then we would know that if Professor Snape liked him, then he really did belong in Slytherin," she finished quickly.

    Harry turned to stare at the back of Dudley's fat head and saw Malfoy waving at him. Malfoy got Dudley's attention, pointed to Harry and, quite suddenly, Dudley shot Harry a look of pure venom. While Harry knew Dudley to greatly despise him, he never knew Dudley to give him such a cold look.

    "What's he smirking at," Ron said, noticing.

    "Who's smirking at what?" Raides said, taking a quick break from wolfing down her dinner.

    Raides looked up and Ron and Harry pointed at Dudley, who quickly changed his face from venom to fright and looked away. She rolled her eyes and went back to chomping on the troll meat Hagrid had been providing. She preferred it greatly to the meatloaf and chicken Harry and Ron were eating. It was a lot thicker and tougher, a fact that made Harry sick every time she mentioned it.

    When the conversation was quickly changed to what Dumbledore's announcement would be ("So forget about Dudley," Hermione said. "What about that thing Dumbledore has been hinting at?"), Harry had a really crazy idea of taking Hermione's advice and asking Dumbledore to, er -- reassess -- the House that Dudley had been put in. He went over it once more while Ron and Hermione were talking to Seamus and Neville about -- other -- famous people they knew with the letters H and P in their name and then shared this idea with them when heading back to Gryffindor Tower.

    "Are you mad?" Ron asked again.

    "Possibly," said Harry. "But what if he really does belong in Slytherin? Will Gryffindor be the first to turn out a Dark wizard?"

    "Ha!" Ron exclaimed. "Dudley? A Dark wizard?" he said incredulously as they reached the top of the marble staircase in the entrance hall. "Have you overheard what the teachers have been saying about him? He gets into more trouble than Fred and George and his grades are like Neville's!"

    "Ron's right, Harry," said Hermione, trying to make herself believe it.

    For some reason, this didn't bother either of them as much as it bothered Harry and he couldn't quite explain it. Something was stinging him and he couldn't pinpoint it. They all watched as Dudley zoomed past them, this time looking in quite a hurry.

    "I overheard a few Gryffindor fourth years saying that he lost us fifty points for purposely casting a Levitation Charm on Professor Flitwick," Hermione went on. "And you know that that charm isn't supposed to move people but he was bad at it and Professor Flitwick fell right out of one of the windows. He nearly broke an arm."

    "He's another Neville!" said Ron, forgetting that Neville was walking behind him.

    Hermione, knowing that Neville was behind her and trying not to let on that she did, said, "Be nice to Neville. He's come along way. He hasn't been in one disaster yet so far."

    "Hermione," said Ron flatly, "we've only been in class for two weeks."

    Hermione shot Ron the look of pure venom that Dudley had given Harry and jerked her head back to show Ron that Neville was there. He stammered for a minute, trying to think of something to say and when Neville told him that he had been going to a summer wizarding school to prepare for the very hard magic that they would be using this year, Ron simply muttered that he was sorry.

    "Password?" asked the Fat Lady guarding the entrance to Gryffindor Tower.

    "Light of Faith," said Hermione. "I remember when you actually used that spell, Harry," she added, turning to him.

    "Don't remind me," said Harry.

    "It was a cool-looking spell though, Harry," said Ron, grinning.

    Rolling his eyes, Harry stepped in behind Hermione and said, "We need to finish that homework for Professor Trelawney. I doubt you've finished all five clouds she wants you to look at and write about."

    "Five what?" said Hermione curiously.

    "The old bag," Ron groaned. "We're doing Cloud Scrying. She wants us to look at five different clouds in the sky, write down what they look like and write a paragraph on what it means for our future."

    "Such boring work," Harry muttered, opening his bag on a table and pulling out his Divination homework. "So far I've got a camel and a leopard and it's due tomorrow. The first day of class I got two and then ever since, I haven't been able to match any cloud in the sky with one from the book... It's not helping that there haven't been many clouds in the sky lately. I think I'm just going to close my eyes and point my wand at random ones. Hey, she hasn't said anything to us making up our homework yet," he added, noting the thinning of Hermione's lips.

    "He's right," Ron agreed. "In fact, she's giving us top marks!"

    Her lips went thinner. Raides, laying by the fire, looked up at Harry and grinned.

    Hermione then looked around the common room, bent lower to Harry and Ron, lowered her voice and hissed, "Why don't you use your heads and go OUTSIDE to try and find a cloud in your book!"

    Ron shot a quizzical look at Harry. They nodded.

    "How about we do that now," said Harry.

    "Good then," said Hermione. "I have work to do for Runes."

    And she was gone.

    "What's eating her?"

    "Probably Dudley."

    "Yeah, well," said Harry quietly, "that's eating all three of us."

    Ron followed him up the spiral staircase to the top of the Tower. The first thing he noticed was that his trunk was open.

    "What's your trunk open for?" Ron said, staring at it.

    "Dunno. I thought I closed it," Harry said, walking over to it and kneeling down.

    "Me either but, you know, make sure you have everything... including the you-know-what," said Ron, referring to the Invisibility Cloak.

    Ron knew that, among all of Harry's things, the Invisibility Cloak (currently the only thing Harry had that he treasured that he wasn't wearing), the Phoenix Bracelet and the Order of Merlin necklace were the only things that would drive Harry mad if he happened to lose them. But as Harry rummaged through his trunk, it appeared that Ron's slight panic was not totally unfounded.

    Harry's rummaging grew faster and faster and while he knew that he had already checked the entire thing twice, he checked it a third time, just in case, before picking the entire thing up and frantically dumping it's contents onto the floor. Breathing heavily, he searched through every item on the floor one at a time.

    He picked up an old, normal cloak (aside from the fact that it had been bewitched with a Warmth Charm) that his dad once owned, took one look at it and then threw it onto his four-post bed, his panic rising.

    "It's not here," said Harry, his voice quivering.

    "What do you mean?" said Ron, his doing the same.

    "What d'you think I mean," said Harry angrily.

    "Well then find it!" Ron said in a high pitched voice.

    "WHAT D'YOU THINK IM TRYING TO DO!" Harry now yelled.

    Harry gave up looking in the trunk and Ron, trying to help, stuffed all of Harry's things back into it. Harry himself, disbelieving of the idea that someone would dare take his cloak -- let alone thinking of how someone could possibly know he had one -- looked under his bed. Then in his bedside cabinet. Then the bed and cabinet of Neville, Dean, Seamus and -- ignoring Ron yelling "Why the hell are you searching my stuff! I didn't take it!" -- Ron's.

    "WHERE -- IS IT!" Harry yelled, looking all around the circular room.

    "Where's what?" said Seamus curiously, coming up the spiral staircase. Harry turned quickly to look at him and didn't notice that his face was still contorted into something quite menacing. Backing up, Seamus said, "I -- it's -- just that we heard you yelling in the common room. I wanted to know what was going on."

    "Someone stole my Inv-" Harry started, trying to keep himself calm, but then, catching himself from saying "Invisibility Cloak" because he didn't want anyone else to know he had one, said quickly, "-- something important of mine." He wondered whether Seamus would ask what it was and asked himself what he would answer with...

    "Search me," said Seamus to Harry's relief. Seamus' eyebrows were raised in curiosity at Harry's behavior. "Didn't see anyone. I just got into Gryffindor Tower."

    Feeling beads of sweat on his hands, trying to fight his suspicion of just about everyone except Ron and Hermione and swiveling himself around the room once more, Harry said, "Well -- well could you ask them if they've seen anything?"

    "Sure," Seamus said, looking quite happy to go. "No problem." And he walked quickly back down the stairs.

    "Harry, calm yourself," said Ron.

    "Calm myself?" said Harry loudly and incredulously, dropping all pretense after Seamus had gone. "That's my dad's cloak and you want me to calm myself? Nevermind Voldemort, if my dad was alive and knew I'd lost it, he'd probably kill me!"

    Harry was forcefully reminded of the fact that he didn't truthfully know WHAT his dad would do. The simple idea that he didn't know what they would do in the event that he did something so hideous nagged at him, bit at him and stung him all over. It was this very, very unwelcome thought that made him even angrier at himself. Ron just didn't understand; Harry doubted whether he ever would.

    And so the real reason had come out. He had lost his dad's cloak and what was it to anyone about how cool it was to sneak about Hogwarts unseen? Who, beside Harry since that was all really mattered anyway, really cared about owning an unfathomably rare magical item? Like the other precious items, it was really only about having inherited something from the other You-Know-Who... What was it to Harry that he had owned -- and now lost -- his dad's Invisibility Cloak?

    Everything.

    Both he and Ron knew that only a Gryffindor could have possibly stolen it as no one else but Gryffindors and the professors were given the password. Surely -- surely Dumbledore hadn't confiscated it -- again? But he wouldn't. When he had done it last year, it was supposedly for Harry's own good and he had told Harry he was going to take it. Somehow, Harry didn't think that Dumbledore was behind this.

    Professor Trelawney's homework lay forgotten.

    "Well don't lose your head at least," Ron said desperately.

    "Don't lose my head," Harry muttered under his breath. "It's a bit late for that!" he shouted. "Don't lose my head..." he muttered again, staring at some space a few feet to the left of Ron.

    "L-let's ask Hermione," Ron suggested.

    "What good's asking her gonna do!" Harry shouted flatly at Ron. "She's in the library!"

    "Who could've taken it, then," said Ron, looking at Harry's trunk, starting to worry more about Harry than the cloak.

    "That's what I'm trying to figure out," Harry said hotly. And then, after a few seconds thought, "I bet it was Dudley. I'm going to find him and wring his neck. He's the only other person that knows around here and he's probably told Malfoy," said Harry. "Let's go get Hermione."

    Ron hesitantly followed Harry down the spiral staircase.

    "Come, Raides," said Harry when he reached the common room, ignoring everyone staring at him. It wasn't exactly hard to figure out that everyone had heard him yelling. "We're going on a trip."

    "I heard you yelling and I thought someone had died," said Raides, grinning and then, seeing the look on Harry's face, she stopped grinning.

    "That just may happen. Now c'mon, I need to find Hermione."

    Raides and Ron reluctantly followed Harry out of the portrait hole and headed toward the library, Hermione's most likely hiding place. Neither of them liked the course of action Harry was taking but they both had different plans. Ron wanted to just throw hexes at Dudley until he gave it up. Raides' method was slightly different and involved Dudley yelling, too.

    Harry walked very quickly up and down stairs, across corridors and through tapestries until reaching the library where Hermione was easily visible. There were no less than three books spread out in front of her along with a large sheet of parchment, a quill and two bottles of ink. It looked like she planned on being there a while.

    "Hermione --" said Harry as he stepped in, trying yet again to keep his voice calm, yet having a hard time because he kept picturing Dudley and Malfoy either tearing the Invisiblity Cloak up or using it for themselves.

    Hermione put her quill down immediately, looking like she expected Harry and gave him McGonagall eyes. Ron sat down on the table.

    "A few first years came running in here, yelling something to me about you yelling so loud that they couldn't hear themself think," she said very seriously. "You'd have thought someone would have died but no, it was just you. What happened?"

    Checking that no one was trying to listen in, Harry sat down in front of Hermione, bent closer, lowered his voice and said, "Someone stole my Invisibility Cloak." Hermione's mouth fell open. "Exactly. I have a strong feeling Dudley did it. Why else would he have run past us in the corridors? Something tells me it wasn't to get a head start on his homework. That won't happen until Voldemort --"

    "Potter!" said a stern voice right behind Harry, making all four of them drop their slightly distressed looks (or in Harry's case, highly distressed) for one they hoped was neutral. Harry wheeled around to be facing the very thin lips of Professor McGonagall. "I daresay Miss Granger has told you what a few first years had said? Explain."

    "I was heading back to my dormitory to get some books and found my trunk open," said Harry, thinking fast. "I just checked to make sure I had everything and I found that I was missing my -- er --"

    "I'll handle it, Professor," Hermione cut in. "Don't worry. All under control."

    While this made Harry feel slightly better right now, he knew in the long run -- in the next five minutes -- it would wear off. Professor McGonagall looked behind Harry to Hermione, then at Ron, then at Raides who had taken up residence under Hermione's desk and back to Harry, examining the looks on all their faces to make sure the situation really was under control. It wasn't, but she fell for it anyway.

    "Very well, Miss Granger," she said, nodding to Hermione. Then she rounded on Harry, peering at him over the top of her square spectacles. "Potter, I want you to control yourself. You haven't had any trouble so far and I expect better as one gets older, not worse. I especially expect the best of seventh years. And besides, what would your father say?"

    That was supposed to make him feel better?

    "I don't know, I haven't spoken to him for more than fifteen minutes," said Harry coldly.

    Professor McGonagall, realizing she had said too much from the look on Harry's face, straightened her glasses nervously and walked out. Hermione immediately put her face back into the one she had before Professor McGonagall interrupted, as did Ron and Raides and very quickly turned to Harry again.

    "So what do you suppose we do, throw curses at him until he squeals?" Ron suggested before Harry or Hermione could speak.

    Both of them stared at him.

    "I had something else in mind," said Raides.

    "No, Raides," said Harry at once. "As much as I'd really like to hurt him, he's going to report it... and we'll all get detention," he added resentfully.

    "If he does have the thing with Malfoy," said Hermione, "then he's probably in the Slytherin common room and I don't have the password for the stone door."

    "If they do something to it, I'll kill them," Harry said angrily, just loud enough for Hermione, Ron and Raides to hear.

    "Calm down, Harry --"

    "I already tried that. He just gets less calm," Ron said in an undertone to Hermione so Harry couldn't hear, saying exactly what Harry was feeling.

    "W-wh-who's to say they don't have it?" Hermione asked, trying to sound comforting. Harry stared. "Okay then so they do have it. What are we supposed to do?" Harry continued staring. "How?" she said flatly. "How are we supposed to get it back? You'll have to tell Dumbledore."

    "Fine, then," said Harry.

    Just as Harry said this, Dumbledore appeared at the library entrance with perfect timing. He strode calmly over to four of them, looking at Ron sitting on the table.

    "Tables are for books and papers, Mr. Weasley," he said, eyes sparkling, "not for sitting."

    "Sorry, Professor..." said Ron, pulling a chair over and sitting on it

    Dumbledore then rounded on Harry, the sparkle slightly fading. "I have been informed, Harry, and I ask that you return to Gryffindor Tower."

    Harry now stared at Dumbledore, then blinked.

    "I AM getting it back, aren't I?" he asked sharply but he immediately felt he shouldn't have said it so forcefully. Dumbledore peered at him just as sharply over the top of his half-moon spectacles.

    "I ask that you return to Gryffindor Tower," Dumbledore repeated calmly, much to no one's surprise.

    And much to Harry's well-hidden annoyance, he, Ron and Raides left Hermione to finish her work and started to head back to Gryffindor Tower. At the entrance hall, Ron stopped but Harry kept going.

    "Aren't you coming outside with me to do the Divination homework?" Ron asked Harry.

    "No, you go," said Harry, still not stopping.

    "You can't copy all of that off me, I think she'll notice THAT," said Ron, not getting what Harry was really thinking and starting to follow him. After a few seconds silence, he then shouted, "WHAT? Oh, come on. Don't tell me you're that upset by Dudley and Malfoy stealing your dad's cloak that you won't do your homework."

    "Yep," said Harry. "That's right." It was Ron's turn to stare. "I can't believe Dudley would do something like this."

    "Can you -- really -- be that surprised, Harry?" Ron asked in a flat tone.

    Harry had to think about this for a bit. While he knew Dudley to be ill-natured and rotten, what exactly would possess him to do such a thing? And then it came to Harry. Perhaps it wasn't all so bad and that it was mostly in his head? No, he concluded very quickly, ignoring Ron's continued stare at the back of his head, it wasn't all in his head. Dudley had continually tortured Harry for ten straight years and then every summer (except the summer that Sirius had stayed at Privet Drive) and he was now trying to continue it at Hogwarts. With Malfoy's help. This angered Harry -- greatly.

    If anything, he had to show Dudley who the boss was. He wouldn't stand for it. He simply wouldn't. He voiced this to a very distressed-looking Ron.

    "All right, I see your point," Ron said. "But you better not do anything because I don't think you want to get on Dumbledore's bad side so quickly this year," he warned, "eh?"

    Harry stopped walking and Ron bumped into him. Harry turned around, dropping his facial expression of great anger and exchanging it for one of great resentment. He stared at the ground for a second then looked up at Ron with a "okay-fine-you're-right" look in his eye. Dumbledore never yelled at Harry whenever Harry had done something worth calling Dumbledore in for. He hated the disappointment in Dumbledore's voice, prefering he yell instead. Not feeling in the mood for hearing Dumbledore's voice to sound so disappointed, he took Ron's advice but that still didn't mean that he was going to do his homework -- Dudley and Malfoy had drawn his mind completely blank as Ron saw Harry to Gryffindor Tower. Ron then went back outside to go cloud gazing.