Dark Enough To See The Stars by Oregonian
Summary: Scorpius is looking for answers in the constellation that bears his name. He becomes what he was not, and stumbles into Hogwarts' past, thanks to an unexpected arrival from the heavens.

This is Vicki of Slytherin House, writing for the 2014 TV Challenge. This story is also my final exam of "So This Is Romance" Independent Study Class, 2014, at the Mugglenet Fanfiction Beta Boards.

This story was nominated for the 2015 Quicksilver Quill Award, Best Next-Generation.


Categories: Next Generation Characters: None
Warnings: None
Challenges:
Series: None
Chapters: 6 Completed: Yes Word count: 23392 Read: 11098 Published: 07/22/14 Updated: 07/30/14
Story Notes:
This story is a gift to my fellow Slytherin, Georgia/Draco7052, because she likes Scorpius/Rose. As ever, many thanks to my Gryffindor beta readers, Nagini Riddle and Elaine/Islastorm, who always encourage me. You guys rock!

1. Dark Enough To See The Stars by Oregonian

2. To Bloom For Thee by Oregonian

3. Look To The Stars by Oregonian

4. The Dark Gate by Oregonian

5. The Dark Past by Oregonian

6. Night of Reckoning by Oregonian

Dark Enough To See The Stars by Oregonian
A spate of owls, large and small, tawny and brown, glided into the Great Hall at breakfast time on a cloudless morning in early June. The summer solstice would be arriving soon, and the sky was full of bright sunlight that streamed in through the tall windows from the east, shining in the faces of some of the students seated at the tables, dazzling their eyes and making their hair gleam. The year was almost at its peak.

As he ate his breakfast of eggs and sausage, Scorpius Malfoy kept his eye on the arriving owls, some bearing small letters fastened to their legs, others carrying newspapers, and a few with parcels gripped in their sturdy talons. Scorpius had been watching the owls every morning for the past week, waiting; there was a particular box he was waiting for. He searched each incoming owl eagerly, looking for a box of the right size and shape. It should be easy to spot.

This morning there were not many parcels brought by the owls, and Scorpius feared he would be disappointed again, but suddenly he saw it, a large brown owl entering the hall carrying something that looked just right. Expectantly, Scorpius watched the owl to see if it would go to the recipient he had in mind. Sure enough, it did not circle the room, as many owls did who were searching for their addressees; it flew straight to the head table and landed in front of Professor Longbottom, who picked up the package, turned it over in his hands to read the name of the sender, and then subtly met the gaze of Scorpius sitting at the Slytherin table and gave a slight nod.

Scorpius nodded back and gave Professor Longbottom a quick thumbs-up signal, then turned his attention to his breakfast again. He looked over to the Gryffindor table, where Rose Weasley was eating breakfast with her friends, chatting and paying no attention to the owls or to Scorpius. Even if she had glanced at him, she would have noticed nothing, because Scorpius had arranged that the package would be delivered not to him but to Professor Longbottom, who would keep it in his greenhouse until Scorpius called for it. You had to think of all these details, Scorpius reflected; you had to anticipate all the possible glitches and take steps to prevent them.

But so far, so good. Now he had to talk to Professor Sinistra, the Astronomy teacher. He would catch her attention briefly as everyone was leaving the Great Hall and make an appointment to see her privately in her office later in the day, when they could converse at length without Rose’s noticing anything.

Later in the morning, after his classes, Scorpius climbed the stairs to the corridor where Professor Sinistra’s office was located, near the base of the Astronomy Tower. He rapped on the door and, upon hearing her say, –Come in,” he pushed open the heavy oaken door and entered.

He had never been in Professor Sinistra’s office before, and he let his eyes roam quickly over its contents. There were shelves, some shallow, holding books, and some deeper, holding planetary models and instruments for celestial navigation. Bare sections of the walls were covered by star charts and other charts whose purpose was not plain to Scorpius. Off to one side stood Professor Sinistra’s own personal telescope, a shiny brass instrument much larger that the students’ telescopes, supported on its tall tripod. With a pang of envy Scorpius let his gaze linger on it for a second longer. What a beauty it was!

He tore his eyes away from the telescope and directed his attention to Professor Sinistra, seated at her desk.

–Thank you so much, Professor Sinistra,” he began, –for letting me talk to you. The reason I wanted to talk to you was because there was something special I wanted to do before I left school, and for it I need your help.” Over the years, Scorpius had heard his father and grandfather speaking with people whom they wanted to influence or impress; he had observed how they phrased their sentences for maximum effect, and now he had the skill to do it himself.

Professor Sinistra turned her head slightly and looked at him quizzically out of the corner of her eyes. –Please sit down and tell me what you have in mind.”

Scorpius moved the little wooden side chair to a place in front of the professor’s desk and sat down. He had the impression that Professor Sinistra didn’t get a lot of visitors to her office, given the paucity of guest seating, and indeed he himself had had no dealings with her for the past two years. He had been a competent Astronomy student, but not a remarkable one, and now he wondered if the relationship between the two of them was strong enough for him to receive a positive response to his request for a favor.

He took a deep breath and began. –You know that I was named for a constellation, Scorpius the scorpion. And I believe you also taught my father, Draco Malfoy, when he was a student here. He was named for a constellation too. It has been a custom in my family, although not always followed, to name new family members for stars or constellations. I don’t know why.

–What I would like to do before I leave Hogwarts for the last time is to go up onto the Astronomy Tower platform and look at the constellation Scorpius, get a really good look at it. I know that it’s up in the night sky in June, but low on the horizon. I’ve never had a really good look at it before, even though I’m named after it. I’ve just seen it traced out on star charts in astronomy books. And since it’s up in summer, we don’t really observe it here at school.”

Professor Sinistra looked thoughtful. –Yes,” she agreed, –the best month to view Scorpius is July. But, as you say, at our latitude it’s always low on the horizon, which is a shame because it’s such a beautiful constellation, well worth seeing.”

Scorpius felt encouraged by her words and pressed on, leaning a little forward in his chair. –Would you be willing to bring me up to the viewing platform on some night soon so that I can really see it well before I leave school? Some night when there is no class there and I won’t be disturbing anybody?”

Professor Sinistra seemed pleased by his interest. She smiled as she said, –Yes, I think that can be arranged. I’m glad you still have some of your old interest in the stars, even though you didn’t pursue Astronomy at the N.E.W.T. level.”

–Well, that was because my parents told me to take N.E.W.T. courses that would be good for my career,” Scorpius explained apologetically, –but I always thought it was interesting.” He hoped she would not hold it against him. He leaned back into his chair again, feeling relieved to know that the professor had not rejected his odd request outright. Relaxed and happy, he continued, –Thank you so much for your kindness, Professor Sinistra. This means a lot to me. There’s one more little thing. Would it be possible to allow my friend Rose Weasley of Gryffindor House to come with us?” He waited eagerly; this was the final part of his plan.

To his disappointment, the smile faded from the professor’s face, and her eyes narrowed beneath a frown. –Miss Weasley is your girlfriend, is she not? I have often seen you two together. Why do you want to bring her with you? Is she as keen to see the constellation? Or did you have something else in mind? I’m sure you are aware that the door to the viewing platform has been locked for several years, and not only to prevent a repeat of that tragic event concerning the Ravenclaw student. It is locked to prevent students sneaking up there for romantic trysts.”

This is a setback, Scorpius thought, but I can overcome this. He put the most earnest expression on his face that he could, and leaned forward again, holding both hands open, palms up. His father had taught him about negotiating skills and about body language; this was a posture that denoted sincerity and lack of guile. Body language often spoke louder than words, and Scorpius had learned to trust it.

–If I just wanted some snogging and groping, I could do that anywhere, anytime. I wouldn’t have to come up here with you as a chaperone. And if all I wanted was snogging and groping, I wouldn’t be worth much as a boyfriend. I want to get a good look at Scorpius, including through the telescope. And I want to share it with her. I want her to see what I see and know what I know.” He kept his gaze on Professor Sinistra’s face, trying to read her reaction to his words.

–Why do you care about this constellation all of a sudden?” she asked evenly. Scorpius was encouraged; her suspicions seemed to be fading, but he knew he still had some convincing to do.

–In my family, almost everyone is named after a star or constellation,” he reiterated. –When I was a kid, that was just an odd familial quirk, but now I try to understand it more. Do these stars and constellations mean something, or was I named because someone threw a dart at a star chart?
–When I was a little kid, before I came to Hogwarts, I went to a private school that my parents and some of their friends set up for us kids. Some of the other kids teased me about my name, said I was a creepy-crawly thing, and sometimes they called me Beetle-bug or Earthworm. It pissed me off — er, it made me angry — but I didn’t know how to make them stop doing it. It was just stupid kid humor; they finally grew out of it, but it always made me have mixed feelings about my name, and I’d like to do something about that. I’d like to progress beyond that point. What do I have to identify with, other than a little creature that scuttles around in the dirt and stings people?”

–Did you ever ask your parents why they chose this particular constellation for your name?” Professor Sinistra asked, as if that would have been the obvious first line of inquiry.

–No, I never did,” Scorpius replied, hoping that she would not hold it against him, would not order him to go back home and interrogate his parents before she would entertain a request for a midnight trip to the viewing platform. –In the long run, their reasons, whatever they were, don’t seem important to me. The fact is, I’m the person saddled with this name for the rest of my life, and I need to have my own reasons for being proud of it.”

He looked up hopefully. That ought to do it. If Professor Sinistra still balked at his request, he wasn’t sure what else he was going to say.

She seemed to relax a little; the tension faded from her shoulders and she said, –Very well. What you ask is not unreasonable. I appreciate what you are saying.”

–Thank you so much, Professor Sinistra,” Scorpius said. –This is important to me. Someday I will be naming my own children. I don’t know if I want to continue this tradition or not. It has to mean something. Maybe I can start to figure that out by starting with the stars themselves.”

–You’re young to be thinking about naming your children.”

–Names are important. I want to be sure.”

–When do you want to do this?” Professor Sinistra asked him.

–Well, uh, when do you think would be best?” he stammered, not having had a particular date immediately in mind.

–Visibility would be best at a time when the moonlight is the least. Tell me, Mr. Malfoy, is the moon waxing or waning at present?”

Scorpius was caught short by her question. He had no idea what quarter the moon was in. Frantically he searched his memory for any notice of the moon in the previous few days, but the truth was that at this time of the year, sunrise was so early and sunset was so late that he had paid no attention to the moon. He had nothing on which to base a guess, and he dared not jeopardize the fragile trust between himself and the professor by trying to bluff.

–I don’t know, Professor. I haven’t noticed.” He hung his head a little, a bit of body language to indicate humility. I am throwing myself on your mercy.

–For a supposed lover of astronomy, you are surprisingly unobservant,” she remarked drily. –The moon is waning. But I will give you the benefit of the doubt; you have probably been keeping your nose in your books, studying for your NEWTs.”

He nodded, quite willing to seize on this explanation for his ignorance.

–The new moon will occur on Friday, June seventh, so the sky will be moonless at midnight, dark enough to see the stars very well,” she continued. –July is the best month for seeing Scorpius at a reasonable hour, but you won’t be here in July. On June seventh, Scorpius will be at its highest point…” She picked up a circular star chart from her desktop and rotated an attached ring around it. –…at 1:00 a.m., which is really June eighth. There will not be any classes on the platform that night at that time. Hope that this good weather continues so that the sky will be clear.”


Relief flooded through Scorpius. She was going to do it, despite his foolishness about not knowing the phases of the moon.

–Were you planning to bring your telescope, Mr. Malfoy?” the professor went on.

Uh, oh. thought Scorpius. Another mistake. –Um, I don’t have my telescope with me this year, since I’m not taking N.E.W.T. Astronomy. I was sort of hoping we could use your telescope…” He turned his head to gaze longingly at the gleaming brass instrument that dominated the side of Professor Sinistra’s office. –It’s bigger than mine, and it’s so beautiful…” His voice trailed off. Can’t you see how much I want this? Please say yes. He had never even touched her telescope, much less looked through it.

Professor Sinistra sighed. –Very well, Mr. Malfoy. We’ll use my telescope. I presume that Miss Weasley has agreed to this?”

–I haven’t mentioned it to her yet because I didn’t want to get her hopes up until I knew for sure you would say yes. But I’ll tell her right away. I know she’ll want to come.”

–You’ve made a good choice, Mr. Malfoy,” Professor Sinistra told him, and at first he was startled. A good choice in girlfriends? What did Professor Sinistra know about that? But she continued, –Scorpius is one of the most beautiful of all the zodiacal constellations. It’s a star pattern that actually looks like what it’s named for, made of fairly bright stars in the otherwise rather dull summer sky. And its alpha star, Antares, is visibly red, a real jewel in the darkness.” Scorpius could hear the warmth in her voice. She really does love them, he thought. Lucky for me.

–I will notify your Heads of Houses. Slytherin and Gryffindor, right? Meet me here at my office on midnight of June seventh. And one more thing. Before we go to the viewing platform, we will stop off at the celestial sphere classroom. I want you to demonstrate to me that you understand what you will be seeing.”

She stood up, and Scorpius hastily scrambled to his feet and held out his hand. –Thank you so much. I’ll always be grateful.”

She grasped his hand. –Not at all. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
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To Bloom For Thee by Oregonian
In the late afternoon, when his last class was over, Scorpius went out to the greenhouses to see Professor Longbottom. He found him in his office in Greenhouse Six, the greenhouse where N.E.W.T. level Herbology was taught, surrounded by books and journals in untidy stacks, and various odd plants in pots on the open shelves in front of the expanse of glass. Professor Longbottom turned around in his chair as Scorpius entered and said cheerfully, –Come to see your plant, have you?”

–Yes, sir,” Scorpius replied, flicking his glance left and right to try to spot it.

–It’s here on the bench,” Professor Longbottom said as he rose from his chair and took a few steps to the side of the room. –I didn’t open it up because I thought you’d like to do that yourself.”

–Thank you, sir; I would,” Scorpius replied. –Do you think it’s okay?”

The brown cardboard box was sitting on the bench; it was about seven inches square at the base and about a foot and a half tall. On the sides of the box were printed black arrows indicating –This End Up” and a notice saying –Perishable. Living Plants.”

–I’m sure it’s fine,” Professor Longbottom reassured him. –It’s just an overnight delivery from the Isle of Guernsey.”

–But did the owl keep it upright?” Scorpius persisted. He was worried, not wanting anything to go wrong. He didn’t want to give Rose a damaged or broken plant — that would hardly be a suitable symbol of his love for her.

–Probably not,” Professor Longbottom remarked offhandedly. –But they pack these things very well. The Guernsey greenhouses ship all over Europe. So go ahead, open it up. You’ll see.” He stepped back to let Scorpius approach the box on the bench.

Scorpius drew his wand and ran it along the margins of the box flaps where they were taped with strong strapping tape, then opened the flaps and peered inside. As the professor had predicted, the plant within was braced and padded with cardboard baffles and form-fitting pieces of plastic foam packing. It was so well protected that it looked as if it could have been actually dropped by the delivery owl without sustaining any damage.

He levitated the mass of plant, pot, packing material and cardboard baffles straight up out of the box and lowered it gently onto the bench, then started carefully removing the bracing material that had supported his plant in transit. There was also a clear plastic bag with papers inside it, and he stopped his unpacking for a moment to peel open the bag and check its contents. There were the inventory sheet for the purchase of this plant, a full-color brochure of care instructions, and a sheet which stated that this plant was a patented variety and that propagation of new plants, whether for sale or not, was strictly prohibited. Scorpius assumed that that prohibition did not apply to him; it was a Muggle rule for Muggle purchasers. He himself might need to propagate this plant, and he would not hesitate to do so. It was his plant; he had paid for it, and he could do whatever he wanted.

He turned back to the task of carefully removing the cardboard and plastic, and a few moments later the plant was revealed, its branches tied firmly into a long, narrow bundle with soft plastic strapping. Scorpius cut the straps, and the branches of the plant fanned out into a small bush, a rose bush with a cluster of three blooms at the top of the center branch, and a few unopened buds. He looked the plant over swiftly, searching for broken twigs or leaves, but there were none. It seemed perfect.

–You see, it arrived without a scratch, but you’ll want to repot it into a larger pot,” Professor Longbottom remarked. –The pot it’s in right now, the shipping pot, is much too small. I’ve got everything you need here.”

–Thank you, sir,” Scorpius answered. –Let’s take this out into the sunlight to admire it properly.” Beautiful as the rose bush was in the greenhouse, he felt sure it would be even more radiant in the full light of the open air. He picked up the little pot, and together he and Professor Longbottom went out into the bright sunlight.

As the sun hit the opening petals, they blushed from subtly-striped apricot yellow to dazzling orange and deep red, producing a remarkable display against the deep dark green leaves and mahogany-red growth. The stems were smooth, with very few thorns, and Scorpius idly wondered if he could Vanish the thorns that remained. He put his face down to the flowers and inhaled, but there was only a faint odor.

–They don’t have much scent, sir,” he observed.

–No, these specially bred roses often lose in scent as they gain in spectacular beauty,” Professor Longbottom said, –but it’s worth the trade-off. It looks like a Floribunda…”

–That’s what the catalog said,” Scorpius interrupted.

–…so it should bloom constantly, with several flowers topping each stem. You made an excellent choice. This rose is fabulous. Does it have a name?”

–Yes, it’s called ‘Antares’. I picked it partly for the name.”

–Lucky for you the name you liked was attached to such a beautiful plant. Let’s take it back in and give it some water.”

Scorpius was happy with how events were turning out. Professor Longbottom was pleased with the rose bush, as he would be with any remarkable or beautiful plant, so he could be depended upon for any necessary further assistance, which might be needed, because the whole affair was becoming more complicated than first conceived.

Scorpius had originally intended that he would give the rose to Rose, and that he, Scorpius, would look at the constellation Scorpius in her company, and it would all be just a mildly romantic play on words, a pleasant moment during their last weeks at Hogwarts. But then he had realized that the viewing platform on the Astronomy Tower would be locked and that he would need to solicit Professor Sinistra’s assistance, and the lighthearted moment had morphed into something more weighty. To gain Professor Sinistra’s co-operation he had had to present a far more serious petition involving some fast thinking on his feet, which he prided himself he had managed to pull off successfully. So he would have to play out the role of Serious Amateur Astronomer and Deep Thinker in order to maintain his credibility, and the presentation of the rose to Rose began to seem incongruously trivial in comparison. It too would have to be given more gravitas.

Back in the greenhouse, as he watered the rosebush with a little watering can, he told Professor Longbottom about his arrangement with Professor Sinistra to go up on the Astronomy Tower to look at the constellation of Scorpius through the large telescope.

–The brightest star in Scorpius is Antares, the red star,” he continued.

–I know,” Professor Longbottom said. –Now I see why you picked that particular rose for Rose.”

–Well, I was thinking,” Scorpius went on, turning from the bench where the rose sat, –that I might offer to give a rose like this to Professor Sinistra also, if she likes it, as a gift and remembrance from a student who was grateful for her assistance in granting a special wish.” He knew that he needed to stay in role with Professor Longbottom also because eventually the two professors would discuss this episode with each other, and Scorpius wanted to keep his story straight. –Is there a way that this plant can be duplicated, if she says that she would like to have one? What’s the best way to do that?” It had occurred to him that presenting the rose plant to Rose while giving nothing to the other person present, Professor Sinistra, would be too blatantly obvious as a romantic gesture, and Professor Sinistra had already expressed her scorn for romance atop the Astronomy Tower. The gifts could be tied into sentiment — remembrance of a special event, gratitude for a favor granted, a parting token of the end of their school career. That should work. But he had to be able to come up with a second rose plant. The Guernsey greenhouse might not have another one immediately available.

–Well,” said Professor Longbottom, leaning back against the edge of the bench, –you could use a duplicating charm — there are a few different ones to choose from — if you want to get instant results, but the plants would be absolutely identical, a dead giveaway that they had been duplicated, and the charm would eventually start to fade, so the duplicated plant would have a limited lifespan. Still, that’s what I would do if, for example, I wanted half a dozen plants to decorate a stage for a ceremony, and then Vanish the duplicates afterwards. But if you want to give Professor Sinistra a top-quality gift, something that will live for years, perhaps indefinitely, you really need to go with natural propagation; take a cutting from this plant and root it in a separate pot. But of course that takes longer.”

–How much longer?” Scorpius asked. The second rose plant needed to be fairly quickly available so as not to seem like an afterthought.

–A couple of weeks to develop good roots — we have a good potion to encourage root formation — and a few months to start growing a good scaffold of branches.”

–Would it hurt this rose to take a cutting?” Scorpius asked with concern.

–Not really,” Professor Longbottom replied as he inspected the little bush with his professorial eye. –The piece we take doesn’t have to be very big, and we can get a bit from one of these side branches that’s not budding yet. These things grow so fast, under the right conditions, of course, that you’d never miss it.”

–Thank you, Professor,” Scorpius said with relief. –I don’t know for sure if she’ll want one, but if she does, you’ll help me with that?”

–Of course.”

–We’re going up to the Astronomy Tower on June seventh; I’ll ask her then. But for now, can I keep the rose here in the greenhouse?”

–Sure, but it needs to be repotted soon. How about coming by tomorrow afternoon before dinner and we’ll do it then?”

–Okay,” Scorpius agreed, –but not too big a pot. I’ll still need to carry it up to the top of the Astronomy Tower.”

*****

An hour later Scorpius met Rose in the entrance hall before dinner. It was time to let her in on his plan; he needed to be sure she would be going along with it.

–Hi, Rose,” he greeted her. –I’ve got something you’re gonna like. You’ll never guess.”

–Well then, I won’t even try. What is it?” she asked saucily. Her eyes twinkled brightly in her smiling face, framed by her perky auburn curls. Despite her often serious nature, she seemed happy this evening, perhaps because of the summery weather that brightened everyone’s spirits, and the anticipation of the end of the school year.

–Something special for us to do. I’ve got it all worked out.” Scorpius spoke rapidly in his eagerness to tell her all about it, and the words just tumbled out. –I’m going to go up on the Astronomy Tower and look at the constellation Scorpius through Professor Sinistra’s big telescope, and I want you to come with me. She says it’s okay.”

–Whoa, whoa, wait a minute; you’re losing me. You’re going to do what?”

–I’m going up on the Astronomy Tower with Professor Sinistra to look at Scorpius through her telescope in the middle of the night,” Scorpius repeated more slowly. –Scorpius is only visible in the summer, and we can’t see it from the ground because it’s too low in the horizon. So we’re going up on the tower. This is something special, a favor that Professor Sinistra is doing for me, because I specially asked her to.”

–And she said yes because you’re her favorite Astronomy student? What’s this really about? And why do you want me to come?” Rose asked. But she spoke lightheartedly because it sounded like one of the slightly off-the-wall notions that Scorpius occasionally had.

–I just wanted to look at Scorpius because it’s the constellation I’m named after. And I wanted you to be with me to see it too. We get to look at it through Professor Sinistra’s telescope; isn’t that great? And I have a special present for you too, but don’t bother to ask me what it is because I won’t tell.”

–This all sounds a little daft to me, but sure, I’ll come if you want me to. Are we doing it tonight? What time?” Rose said.

–No, not tonight,” Scorpius told her. –We’re doing it on the night of the new moon, when the sky is dark enough to see the stars at their very best. That’ll be Friday, June seventh. We’ll go up at midnight, and Professor Sinistra will bring her telescope, and I’ll bring your present.”

–Now I’m all a-twitter to find out what it’s going to be,” she said eagerly.

–There’s just one catch,” Scorpius added.

–I should have known. There’s always a catch. Go ahead, what is it?” Rose sighed.

–Professor Sinistra says that when we go up to the tower, we first have to stop off in the celestial sphere classroom so she can quiz us about celestial mechanics before we go up to the platform,” Scorpius explained.

–What?”

–That’s what she said. That’s her condition for taking us up to the platform. You know we can’t go up there by ourselves; it’s locked. So I had to agree. But how hard can it be? She knows we didn’t go past fifth year in Astronomy. She won’t ask us anything tough.”

–Maybe it’s not hard for you, but I don’t remember a lot of that stuff,” Rose protested.

–Aw, I’m sure it’s still in the back of your brain somewhere, in long-term storage. A little revision, and it’ll all be fresh again,” he coaxed her.

–I don’t even have my old books with me,” Rose pointed out.

–Neither do I, but we can borrow from the little kids.”

Rose was silent, thinking this over, while Scorpius waited. Finally she said, –Okay, I’ll do it for you, but you’re asking a lot. I should be spending my extra time studying for N.E.W.T.s, not going over old subjects.”

–Oh thank you,” Scorpius said happily. –It’ll be fun. You’ll see. You won’t be sorry.”

Crowds of students were pushing past Scorpius and Rose to enter the Great Hall for dinner. –We gotta go in now,” he said hastily, giving her a peck on the cheek. –See you later.”

During dinner, Scorpius kept an eye on Professor Sinistra to note when she appeared to be about finished with her meal, and then he rose from his bench to speak with her before she left the hall. He approached her where she was seated at the High Table chatting with Professor Morehouse, the Transfiguration professor, and stood silently until she acknowledged his presence.

–Do you wish to speak with me, Mr. Malfoy?” she inquired in a congenial tone.

–I wanted to tell you, ma’am, that I spoke with Miss Weasley and she agrees with our plans for the evening of June seventh. So it’s all set,” he said.

–Thank you for informing me,” the professor replied, and she turned to Professor Morehouse again and resumed their conversation.

As he turned away for the High Table, Scorpius felt a pang of guilt for leading Professor Sinistra to believe that his chief motivation was to explore the stars, when his first impulse had really been simply to spend some special time with Rose. She probably doesn’t have a lot of students who are interested enough to pursue Astronomy N.E.W.T.s. I’ll bet they’re few and far between. Astronomy is not a subject that figures in many people’s career plans. He suddenly felt a little bit sorry for her; she obviously loved Astronomy, and he wondered if she felt lonely or distanced from the students. It must be hard to teach a subject that most students would never pursue.

That evening, after finishing his other homework, Scorpius opened the Astronomy textbook that he had borrowed from a second-year student and began reading through it, one chapter after another. It was a very rapid read; all the material was familiar to him, and it was coming back quickly because he was just being reminded of stuff he already knew. He thought about how he had struggled with these concepts when he had first encountered them as a young student, and how they now seemed like old friends.

Actually, he was enjoying it, and he remembered that at the time he had found it interesting, even though he had been no more than an average student in Astronomy, back when the pressures of N.E.W.T.s and careers had seemed far in the future, before his decisions had to be based on practicality and economics and what would be good for business.

His thoughts strayed from the words and diagrams on the printed pages in his hands to the brass telescope he had see in Professor Sinistra’s office. He had thought he admired it because it was a beautiful object, an exquisite work of art. He was keenly familiar with things of beauty and skilled craftsmanship; his home in Wiltshire was full of them — rugs, tapestries, paintings, delicate porcelain bowls that were never actually used to hold anything, goblets and platters of precious metals that were similarly never used except as decoration, even a suit of armor that never saw a battle. But Professor Sinistra’s telescope was not just an objet d’art. She used it regularly; it served a purpose other than simply to exist and be gazed at, and he realized that that was what he loved most about it, that it held out the tantalizing possibility of being used, that a person might place their hands on it, put their eye to the eyepiece, and through this marvelous brass instrument see the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, the phases of Venus, or the craters of the moon.

His mind strayed to his own small telescope, now stored in some cupboard in his bedroom at home to keep it from cluttering up the free space in his room. Then he realized that his mother and father must have had telescopes which they used during their school years, stored away so remotely now that no one could remember exactly where they were. He was sure they still had them; they would never have sold them or given them away; that was not the Malfoy custom.

It occurred to him, for the first time in his life, that it had not been necessary to buy him a new telescope when he first entered Hogwarts; he could have used one of theirs. He suddenly felt a pang of sadness for those telescopes abandoned in the dark for so many long years. He would not do that to his own telescope. When he went home for the summer he would take it outside at night, where there were no curfews to prevent him, and look at the stars. His parents would think he was insane. He smiled at the thought.
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Look To The Stars by Oregonian
Shortly before midnight on June seventh, Scorpius left the Slytherin common room and went up to the entrance hall to wait for Rose, carrying a plant-transport basket he had borrowed from Professor Longbottom; this basket had a tall handle that flared out on both sides to accommodate the height and bushiness of a plant. He had thrown a cloth over the basket to conceal the rose, and clutched the handle through the cloth. Back in the greenhouse, a little cutting was already beginning to take root. Scorpius had started it at the same time he had repotted the rose bush because, on further reflection, he had not been able to believe that Professor Sinistra would decline his offer of a little rose bush as a gift.

Rose appeared, descending the marble stairs, dressed in a warm wool cloak against the cold Scottish night. She smiled when she saw the covered basket.

–Are we going to have a picnic on the top of the tower? A midnight feast? Is that the surprise?” she asked merrily.

–No, nothing like that. It’s not going to be a picnic,” Scorpius answered, laughing. –You’ll see. Are you ready to go?”

Rose yawned a little yawn and said, –I guess so. I tried to take a nap after dinner so my brain wouldn’t be so foggy for Professor Sinistra’s inquisition, but I couldn’t sleep much. I’ll have you know, Mr. Malfoy, that I wouldn’t be doing this for anybody but you.”

–And I wouldn’t do it without you,” he replied. Of course not. Her presence was an integral part of the event.

They went back up the stairs and proceeded through the long, dim, silent corridors lit only by torches in sconces on the walls, up a few more staircases, heading towards Professor Sinistra’s office at the base of the Astronomy Tower. The basket, though not heavy, was awkward to carry because of its bulk; it wanted to bump against Scorpius’ leg unless he held it away from his body, and he did not look forward to carrying it all the way up to the top of the tower.

At Professor Sinistra’s office they stopped and rapped sharply on the door, which opened automatically. Professor Sinistra was standing in her office, dressed in a warm-looking cloak like Rose’s, and on the desk next to her lay the telescope, its tripod legs shortened up and neatly folded into a compact bundle beside the body of the telescope itself. Scorpius did not know how long she had been waiting for them, but the hour was the stroke of midnight and Scorpius was inwardly thankful they had not been late.

–Good evening, Professor,” he said as they stood at the door.

The professor eyed his covered basket suspiciously and said, –Are you bringing some special accoutrements necessary for viewing the stars, Mr. Malfoy, or is that a picnic lunch I see? Has it been that long since dinner?”

Scorpius did not dare to laugh, not being able to judge Professor Sinistra’s mood with confidence. –No, ma’am,” he said seriously. –Rose asked me the same thing. I have brought something special as a remembrance of the event tonight, but I don’t intend to take it out of the basket until we are finished. Until then, it will sit quietly to one side.”

–Now you have piqued my curiosity, young man,” Professor Sinistra said in rejoinder. That was a good reply, Scorpius thought. She’s not angry about the basket.

–Can I help you in any way with your telescope?” he inquired politely, but the professor answered, –No, I will Levitate it, thank you. That way I can be sure of its safety, and you seem to have encumbered yourself with enough already. Shall we go up?”

–I will go first,” Rose said, and she walked the short distance to the end of the corridor and began to ascend the winding stone stairway, holding the skirts of her cloak up to avoid treading on the hem.

It was not many steps up to the next level, one floor above the professor’s office, where the side of the tower was still connected to the main body of the castle. Here there was a landing and a door that opened into the celestial sphere classroom. There they stopped, and Professor Sinistra opened the door. –After you,” she said, and they all entered the dark room.

–Illumino,” Professor Sinistra said, and the light came up faintly in the room, which Scorpius and Rose remembered from previous years. The room was spherical, with a transparent floor bisecting the sphere, so that there was a half dome above the floor and another half dome under their feet. The surface of the domes was blue, and positioned over the surface were all the major stars as points of light of varying intensity, the northern celestial hemisphere over their heads and the southern celestial hemisphere below their feet. In the center of the room was suspended a globe of the earth about two feet in diameter, hanging, apparently without support, in the air.

Adhering to the globe was a curious object, a little human figure about three inches tall, holding one little arm pointing directly over its head. The figure had a magnetic base and attached itself by magnetic attraction to the surface of the world globe because underneath its outer skin that depicted the continents and oceans, the globe had a sheath of iron-bearing material. The magnetic figure could be moved over the surface of the globe by hand, entirely non-magically, even by first years who had not yet learned to move objects by use of their wands. Over the generations it had become customary to call the figure –Magman” and to always move him by hand, even after the students had gained the capability to do it magically. Occasionally Magman had been seen to sport a tiny hat or to hold a tiny flag, flower, or wand in his upraised hand. When he was activated, a beam of red light would shine directly upward from his upright hand; where the beam struck on the surface of the celestial dome indicated what Magman could see directly overhead from his location on the globe.

Right now Magman was standing in the middle of the north Atlantic Ocean. Scorpius slid him up to the North Pole and turned on his lights; the red light from Magman’s upraised arm struck the North Star at the peak of the dome. Magman also had secondary lights, a set of green lights that shone from his base and spread out horizontally to create a circle of green light that made a green ring all around the surface of the celestial sphere. This ring indicated what Magman would see at the horizon, where his view of the sky touched the edges of the earth. With Magman standing on the North Pole, the green ring, at about waist height for Rose and Scorpius, cut throughout all the zodiacal constellations on the walls of the celestial sphere.

Scorpius did not know what Professor Sinistra was going to ask him and Rose, but he began to speak anyway. The celestial sphere room was actually fun, and he had never before been in it without a whole class of students, but now it was just the two of them, and he could play with Magman all he wanted.

–If we lived at the North Pole,” he began, –the North Star would always be directly overhead, and the constellations of the zodiac would always be at the horizon, hard to see. All night long, all year long, that would never change. It would be hard to see much of Scorpius or any zodiacal constellation. On the other hand, if we moved to the equator, like Ecuador or central Africa,” and here he reached out and slid Magman down the side of the globe to a location in Africa, –the constellations of the zodiac would form a giant arc directly over our heads, and the North Star would appear on the horizon.” In his new location, Magman’s red light rested on the constellation Leo and the green lights made a vertical circle encompassing the North Star and passing down into the southern celestial hemisphere beneath their feet.

–But we live in Scotland, which is fairly far north, – Scorpius continued as he slid Magman back up the surface of the globe and positioned him on Scotland, –so the North Star is not exactly overhead and the ring of zodiacal constellations is not exactly at the horizon, but a little tilted. As the earth rotates,” and here he pointed his wand at the globe with Magman standing on it and said, –Roto,” and the globe began to rotate slowly, –the constellations of the zodiac appear to rise in the east, skim westward a little above the horizon, and then sink again in the west.”

As the globe rotated, the red light from Magman’s hand traced a small red circle overhead, centered on the North Star, while the ring of green lights, slightly atilt, circled around the celestial sphere like a child’s spinning top that is running down.

Scorpius felt mesmerized. It was the very first time he had ever been able to operate the celestial sphere mechanism by himself and to do exactly what he wanted with it. I wouldn’t be a bad Astronomy teacher, he thought. This is cool. In the back of his mind was the faint idea that it was very odd for Professor Sinistra to let him do this, but as neither she nor Rose spoke, he continued on.

He pointed to the lowest part of the moving tilted green circle and said, –Everywhere that the green horizon circle is below the zodiac, those are the zodiac constellations that are above the horizon for Magman.” He read them off as the globe and Magman slowly revolved. –Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius…”

–Stop!” said Professor Sinistra suddenly, and the globe stopped revolving, with Magman’s circle of green lights skirting under the constellation Scorpius on the wall of the celestial sphere. –Rose, tell me what we are seeing here.”

Rose was startled, not having actually expected to be quizzed by Professor Sinistra about anything in this room because this trip to the Astronomy Tower had been entirely Scorpius’ idea, not hers, and she still wasn’t sure what it was all about.

–Um, it shows the constellations of the zodiac that are visible above the horizon at a certain time of day, that is, a certain time within a twenty-four-hour day…” She trailed off, not knowing what Professor Sinistra was fishing for.

–And what determines whether we can actually see these constellations at that time?” Professor Sinistra pressed her, gazing pointedly at her.

Rose’s brain searched rapidly for the answer, while silence hung in the dim air between them. Suddenly it came to her.

–It depends on whether these stars are up during the daytime or during the night,” she answered, certain that she had given the desired response.

–Or whether the sky is covered with clouds,” Scorpius interjected with a hint of irreverence in his voice. Professor Sinistra shot him a warning glance, and he protested, –But it’s true. That’s a real consideration in this region.”

–Luckily for you,” Professor Sinistra remarked drily, –Scorpius is a nighttime constellation in June, when your view of the heavens is less likely to be obscured by clouds.”

–When is Scorpius above the horizon in daylight?” she asked suddenly, and Scorpius and Rose answered instantly, in unison, –December!”

Professor Sinistra appeared to relax, her facial expression softened, and she said, –I see you have not forgotten everything I taught you in your first year. I’m glad to know that some of it has stuck. One more question. Why do you want to view this constellation from the tower instead of merely walking out onto the grounds and looking up?”

–Because the trees and hills rise above the true horizon,” Scorpius answered slowly, constructing his explanation as he spoke. –Scorpius doesn’t rise very high, and these things can hide it.”

–If we were on a very flat surface, such as a calm ocean to the west of us, we could see it easily,” Rose added.

–Yes,” Scorpius agreed, –but here we must rise above the hills.”

–How else could you do that, besides this tower?” Professor Sinistra continued.

Merlin’s beard! It’s like the O.W.L.s all over again, Scorpius thought. I never intended to go through this interrogation, just to look at a little constellation. It’s like we’re her captive audience and we have to earn the right to go up to the platform.

–Well, any tall building, like a tower, church steeple, a tall building in London…”

–But the bright city lights might block out the stars,” Rose reminded him. –How about on a treeless hilltop or ridge?”

–That’s a good idea,” Scorpius agreed. –Or go high in the sky on a broom.”

–Or in a hot air balloon,” Rose offered eagerly.

–Maybe it would be easier just to travel south,” Scorpius concluded. –We could go to Spain for the summer and stand on the Rock of Gibraltar facing south. That should do the trick.”

–Yes,” Professor Sinistra agreed, smiling. –It’s plain you understand these principles and can apply them in a practical sense. I thing we’re ready to go up to the platform.”

Finally, Scorpius thought. He had the feeling that Professor Sinistra had been having fun with them, in a professorial way. He wondered if this trip was worth having to go through this gantlet of questions and decided that it was, just barely. It was something he really wanted to do, and he felt pleased that he and Rose had been able to acquit themselves so well. Besides, he had gotten to play with the celestial sphere, which most students didn’t get to do.

Professor Sinistra turned off Magman’s lights, made the floor opaque again, and said, –Lumos rubescens”.

They all used their wands to produce red light, left the celestial sphere room, and ascended the stone steps to the top of the spiral staircase, bringing the telescope and the shrouded basket with them. White light would have obliterated their night vision, and it would have taken their eyes as long as an hour to re-adapt fully to the darkness, but red light did not do that. When they reached the wooden door, Professor Sinistra asked Scorpius and Rose to step back a short way so that they could not see her wand movement or hear the spell she spoke softly to unlock the door. It was a particularly strong door-locking spell, for the students’ own safety, and Alohomora could not reverse it.

On top of the tower the air was cool and fresh, and a slight breeze carried a far-away tang of the sea. Scorpius set his basket next to the parapet and asked, –Can I help you, Professor?” as Professor Sinistra began efficiently extending the legs of the tripod.

–This will take me just a minute,” she answered, –but thank you for offering.” Scorpius reflected that she must have set up and taken down the telescope so many times over the years that the motions were second nature, so he did not feel guilty about letting her complete the task on her own. He and Rose both tilted their heads back and stared at the black sky adorned with what seemed like millions of stars, some brilliant and fat, others just tiny points of light, mere pinpricks. From this height, the highest point of the castle, the surrounding hills and trees looked tiny, almost without stature, and the celestial hemisphere over their heads was huge. Both Scorpius and Rose had been here countless times before, in the busy crowds of the Astronomy classes in their younger years, their attention always captured by the milling masses of all the other students and the necessity of completing their night’s assignment while managing their own telescopes and avoiding tripping over the tripods of the others.

This night was different. Tonight the black stillness was overwhelming, and the realm of stars seemed endless. Scorpius easily picked out the Big Dipper, then took a one-hundred-degree bearing off the last two stars of its handle and, craning his neck way back, followed the imaginary line across the dome of the heavens until it reached a bright star, Vega, in the constellation of the Lyre. Then it was a quick matter to pick out the other two bright stars, Deneb in the Swan and Altair, closest to the horizon, in the Eagle, that formed the hallmark feature of the summer night sky, the Summer Triangle. The Swan, its great wings outstretched, was flying down the Milky Way, which formed a wide, whitish band across the sky. Everything was familiar, everything was where it belonged, and he took great comfort in that. Rose too was gazing overhead, rapt by the sight.

–Are you ready to look at Scorpius?” Professor Sinistra’s voice broke the silence, and Scorpius re-oriented himself to the moment.

–Yes,” he said.

–Then find it for me,” the professor ordered, and Scorpius quickly turned himself around to face roughly south and scanned the sky above the horizon for a bright star with a reddish hue.

–There it is,” he announced, pointing in its direction. –I see Antares, and there are the two big pincers arching out above it and to its right. Do you see it, Rose?”

–Yes,” she said, standing at his shoulder. –It’s the red one, right?”

–And you see the pincers?” he continued. –Shaped like this?” He held his arms up at shoulder height, each arm curved into a C-shape, and tilted his upper body to the right.

–Yes, I see them, and its body going downwards, but look,” she said with disappointment in her voice, –we can’t see the lowest part of the body. It’s below the horizon.”

–But I think we can see the tail where it curves up again,” Scorpius said, –Isn’t that right, Professor? Are those two stars just above the horizon on the left — are they the end of its tail?”

–Yes, they are,” Professor Sinistra answered. –People call them the Cat’s Eyes because they are so close together. Their names are Shaula, on the left, and Lesath, on the right. Both names mean ‘sting’. Let me focus the telescope on them.” She put her eye to the eyepiece and soon said, –There, you can see them.”

Scorpius motioned to Rose. –You go first,” he said gallantly, and she stepped up to the telescope.

–Oh, my!” Rose exclaimed. –They’re so big and bright, like liquid fire.” She gazed a few seconds longer, then stepped back. –Now you go.”

Scorpius took his place at the telescope, acutely aware that he was touching it for the first time in his life. Shaula and Lesath leaped into view, looking like two burning orbs. Scorpius was entranced. They’re millions of miles away, he thought. I’m looking at something millions of miles away. The cosmos was so unimaginably vast.

–Imagine a line running from Lesath to Shaula and continuing on towards the upper left,” he heard Professor Sinistra’s voice say. –Move the telescope slowly in this direction and you will come to something we call the Ptolemy Cluster, a close cluster of stars that have condensed from a cloud of gas, new stars. You can see it with your naked eye, Rose. Look hard.”

Scorpius slowly moved the telescope, hoping he was going in the right direction, and all at once a closely clustered mass of brilliant stars like fuzzy-edged diamonds sprang out of the dark field of view, their sudden gleaming beauty far greater than he had expected, taking his breath away. New stars, all close together like a family…

Star after star they looked at, Professor Sinistra telling them the stars’ names and meanings. Many proved to be double stars when seen throughout the telescope. Antares was a red giant, many times larger than their own sun, she told them, with a little star cluster just to the right of it. Another star cluster, the Butterfly Cluster near the scorpion’s tail, actually had the shape of a butterfly as they viewed it throughout the telescope.

Scorpius and Rose spent the better part of an hour on the platform, taking turns looking at first one star, then another, as Professor Sinistra repeatedly repositioned the telescope, until there was nothing more to see of the constellation. Finally they all straightened up and Professor Sinistra began to pack up the telescope.

–I expected we would see the whole thing, being up on the tower here,” Rose said. –It was a disappointment that part of the body was missing.”

–I guess we’ll have to go up in that hot air balloon after all,” Scorpius joked.

–You must understand,” Professor Sinistra explained to them,” that much of Scorpius is below the ecliptic. Do you remember what that word means?”

Rose shook her head, but Scorpius answered, –The line that separates the northern and southern hemispheres of the sky.”

–Yes,” Professor Sinistra said. –Actually, more of Scorpius hangs in the southern hemisphere than extends up into the northern hemisphere. Our friends in Helsinki, only a little closer to the pole than we are, are lucky even to see Antares, much less the scorpion’s body or tail.”

Scorpius was not disappointed. He had seen as much as one could see in Scotland, and he felt content.

–Well, Mr. Malfoy,” Professor Sinistra continued, –have you accomplished what you set out to do? Was tonight a success? What insight have you gained about your name?”

She sounds as if she is challenging me, Scorpius thought, as if she doubts I really learned anything. But I did. He looked his professor calmly in the face and began, –Antares means a counterpart of Ares, the Greek god of war, because it is red like the planet Mars. But what does that mean, ‘counterpart’? Is Antares the trusty right-hand man of the war god, eager to join him in waging war, or is he the opposite of Ares, opposing war and seeking peace? Are they like twins or like rivals? I am Scorpius, so Antares is a part of me, and I must take a stand, make a choice between violence and peace.

–I learned that Scorpius dips farther south into the southern celestial hemisphere than the other zodiacal constellations do. It really is an inhabitant of both hemispheres, part in the north and part in the south. To see it, you need to travel south. It beckons you to leave the comfort of your familiar world and go far away. If you are in the north, you must go south, and if you are in the far south, you must go north.

–If I am Scorpius, then I am standing in a field of stars being born. All around me, fantastic new things are being created. I need to glory in everything that is fresh and new, maybe even create something of my own.

–And Scorpius is a plain, straightforward constellation. It really does look like its name. So many constellations, well, to tell the truth, they could be anything. You could connect the dots in any of a dozen different ways to draw different figures. But Scorpius is unambiguous; what you see is what you get. People should be that way too. I should be that way.”

He paused, asking himself if he truly was that way. He had not been straightforward about his adventure in the beginning, playing a game, trying to manipulate people into believing that he was something he was not. And it had backfired on him. It had turned him into what he had only pretended to be. When did I stop being Scorpius the Clever Player and become Scorpius the Serious Amateur Astronomer and Deep Thinker?

He looked toward Rose and then back at Professor Sinistra. They were staring at him in the pool of dim red wand light as if surprised. They were accustomed to the clever and fun-loving Scorpius, but not the Scorpius who spoke like this.

–You’ve become quite the philosopher, Mr. Malfoy,” Professor Sinistra finally said. –Frankly, I was expecting to see more of the Earthworm and the Beetle-bug here tonight, but it looks as though those characters have finally been banished, and the Scorpion has come into his own.”

Rose looked at him quizzically. She doesn’t know what Professor Sinistra is talking about Scorpius thought. Beetle-bug? Earthworm?

–You’re right, Professor,” he said, –and I’m truly gratified for this opportunity, right before I leave school forever. It was worth losing a night’s sleep for, at least it was for me, and I hope for you too.”

–I’m sorry you didn’t take N.E.W.T. Astronomy, young man,” she said. –You would have been an interesting student.”

Me too, he thought. Me too.

Scorpius took a deep breath and assumed a more jovial mood. –Before we call it a night, there’s one more thing.” He walked over to the edge of the platform, picked up the covered basket, and brought it back to the two women. –Here’s the basket I hauled all the way up here tonight at great inconvenience to myself, and I’m sorry to say there’s nothing to eat in it. Come to think, that was an oversight on my part, but it can’t be helped now. It is a present, a remembrance for tonight, something that I know Rose will like, and maybe you will like it too, Professor.” He pulled the cloth off the basket and pointed his reddish wand light at the little rosebush thus revealed.

–It’s a rosebush,” he said, –and I know it doesn’t look like much in the red light, but maybe we can switch to white light now since we’re done with stargazing, and you can see it better.”

–A rosebush?” Rose exclaimed. –Oh, let’s see it in the white light. Is that okay?”

–I think it would be,” said Professor Sinistra, –but why a rosebush? What is it for?”

–I bought it special for tonight,” explained Scorpius, switching his wand light to white as the others followed suit. –Its name is Antares, and the blooms are a beautiful red, like the star. I got it first for Rose, but there’s a cutting from it growing in Professor Longbottom’s greenhouse for you, Professor Sinistra, if you’d like it. I didn’t know if you’d want a rose or not. But if you do, Professor Longbottom says you can leave it in the greenhouse until it grows bigger, and then whenever you look at it you’ll remember us.” He felt himself talking like the Clever Player again, but maybe it wasn’t all an act, not anymore. He did hope she would like the rose and remember him after he was gone.

–Oh, how pretty,” Rose exclaimed. –Look how red it is.”

–How thoughtful of you. I’m touched,” Professor Sinistra said warmly. –I didn’t expect this. Certainly I will remember you both whenever I look at my rose. It’s lovely. Thank you.”

Upon hearing her words, Scorpius felt the tension drain out of his body, and he belatedly realized the extent to which he had been apprehensive about what Professor Sinistra’s reaction would be.

–Yes, thank you,” Rose chimed in. –But what about you? Is there a rose for you?”

–Oh.” He had not thought of that. The simple –rose for Rose” plan was expanding into a horticultural house party. –I’ll take a cutting from yours after it’s grown a bit bigger. I don’t want to do it now; you’d have nothing left.”

–It’s been an enjoyable and informative evening, but we should be going down now. I think we are finished here, isn’t that right?” Professor Sinistra reminded them.

–Please, could we stay just five minutes more?” Rose pleaded. –I’d like to just look at all the stars one last time. This is probably the last time I’ll ever be up on this tower, and we’ve mostly been looking at Scorpius tonight.”

–We can take five more minutes,” Professor Sinistra, agreed, –but then we must go down. It’s late, and it’s getting chilly.”

–Thank you,” Rose said. Moving closer to Scorpius, she put one arm around his waist and pointed toward the west with her other arm. –Look, there’s Arcturus. I always find it by drawing my hand along the handle of the Big Dipper and then just continue the curve to the next bright star.”

–And over there,” said Scorpius, pointing east, –is the great sweep of stars,” and here he made a sweeping motion with his arm, –that I always associated with coming back to school because they rose in the evening about eight or nine o’clock in the east in September, and if you follow the sweep down to the end, and then drop down just a bit off the curve, it’s Capella, in the constellation of the Charioteer."

–Do you know which constellations are included in your so-called sweep?” Professor Sinistra asked.

She never stops teaching, Scorpius thought to himself. –Uh, Pegasus, Andromeda, and Perseus,” he answered.

–Oh look!” exclaimed Rose suddenly. –Did you see that shooting star? It was a really bright one. It made a big trail.”

–No, but maybe I’ll see another one,” Scorpius said. And a moment later, –Yes! Did you see that one?”

Watching a few minutes more, the three stargazers saw several more shooting stars, points of light streaking across the sky. Turning their heads to look in different directions, they spotted meteors in every quadrant of the sky.

–Wow, this is quite a display,” Scorpius said. –Do you suppose they did it just for us?”

–I’m very surprised,” Professor Sinistra remarked. –There is not any expected meteor shower at this time of year. The next one is the Perseids in late July and August. June is normally a quiet month for meteors.”

–Well, not this year, evidently,” Scorpius replied.

–I’m noticing that some of the meteor trails are long and pretty spectacular, but some are rather short,” Rose observed. –Is that because some of the meteors are smaller and burn up faster in the atmosphere?”

–That’s one reason,” Professor Sinistra replied. –But there’s also another reason, which would apply to two meteors of the same size. Can you think what it is?”

–Is this a quiz again?” Scorpius asked.

–Yes, it is, Mr. Malfoy.”

Scorpius and Rose searched their brains for long seconds but couldn’t think of anything.

–We weren’t taught this in astronomy class, were we?” Scorpius asked in desperation. Please say no.

–Perhaps you weren’t. Here, I’ll demonstrate. Say my fist is the earth,” and Professor Sinistra held up a fist, –and the meteor travels like this…” tracing a line with a fingertip of her other hand passing tangentially past the fist.

–Oh, that would be a long trail,” Rose said, excited by suddenly understanding.

–And if the meteor traveled like this…” and Professor Sinistra’s fingertip moved directly toward her fist.

–Oh my,” Rose said. –That would be a short trail. It would be headed straight toward the earth. Is that what we’ve been seeing tonight?”

–Perhaps some of the short ones are,” Professor Sinistra answered.

–But they burn up in the atmosphere, don’t they?” Scorpius pressed her. –They’re not going to hit the earth, are they?”

–Oh, that would be fun,” Rose exclaimed. –Just imagine, a big old meteor crater right in the middle of the Quidditch pitch.”

–You’re daft,” Scorpius jested.

They turned their eyes to the sky for one last view.

–Look,” Scorpius exclaimed, –there’s a really bright one.” They stared toward the eastern sky. The shooting star was not moving very rapidly across the sky, and as the moments passed it seemed to be getting even brighter, brighter, brighter, until it rivaled a full moon. Colors of yellow, red, and green danced across its brilliant surface, and a low rumbling sound began to penetrate their hearing as they stared, transfixed. Within seconds the top of Astronomy Tower was lit up as brightly as if by daylight, and Professor Sinistra suddenly moved next to Scorpius, threw her left arm around his shoulders, and instantly cried out "Protego!". The infinitely brilliant light filled all their vision. They could not look. Scorpius squeezed his eyes shut, clung to Rose with his left arm, and braced himself for whatever would happen next. There was a tremendous crash, the loudest sound he had ever heard in his life, and a shock that threw him to his knees. He put out his right hand to break his fall and collapsed onto the stone pavement of the tower, pulling Rose down with him. The clatter of falling debris was everywhere. He could hear Rose next to him, screaming.
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The Dark Gate by Oregonian
Scorpius lay on the stone paving of the Astronomy Tower, huddled between Rose on one side and Professor Sinistra on the other. His eyes were still shut, every muscle in his body was contracted, and pain lanced through his knees and arm and forehead where he had struck the stone. But the clatter of falling debris was lessening, as were Rose’s screams, and eventually he opened his eyes. All seemed dark.

–Rose, are you all right? Are you hurt? Talk to me.”

He felt her stirring under his arm, then heard her voice say shakily, –Scorpius, are you there? What happened?”

With effort and a little pain he got himself onto his hands and knees and looked around. The form of Rose was lying on his left side, and the professor on his right.

–Are you okay, Professor? Can you hear me?” Apprehension filled his voice.

–I can hear you, young man, though my ears are ringing. We are all lucky not to have been struck deaf.”

In the light of his wand, lying by itself on the stones of the tower, he could see the professor beginning to move, and he could also see the shimmering of the shield she had thrown up, just seconds before it happened, whatever it had been. The realization came to him that she had saved their lives. Something awful had happened, something catastrophic, but they were still alive, nevertheless.

Slowly he got his feet under him and heaved himself upright. He leaned over and picked up his wand, the better to see how his companions were faring, and his motions seemed to spur their efforts because they both pushed themselves into sitting positions and, with a hand from Scorpius, regained their feet.

–Merlin, Merlin,” Rose repeated, half sobbing. –What happened? What was that?” Scorpius just put his arms around her. He didn’t know how to answer her question.

Professor Sinistra had recovered her wand, and taking a few tentative steps she cast her light around the tower platform. Great chunks of stone were scattered all around, with smaller chunks in between and gravelly bits everywhere. The stony debris filled all the area illuminated by her wand light and stretched away into the darkness on the far side of the platform, near the door.

–Is it over?” Scorpius whispered.

–It appears to me,” the professor said, continuing to stare at the wreckage, –that we have just been struck by a meteorite. In all my life, I never…” Her voice died away and she left the sentence unfinished.

–Holy shit,” Scorpius breathed. He did not ask Are you sure? Instinctively, he did not doubt her; he knew that she was right. It had all happened so fast, but what else could it have been? There was nothing else.

Rose relaxed her death grip on him a little, and he could tell that her breaths were coming more slowly now. His too, he noted. He shuffled a few steps closer to the edge of the area that had been shielded, dragging Rose along with him, to survey the damage. Then suddenly he remembered the telescope. Where was it? Was it out there somewhere, surrounded by rocks, smashed to pieces?

He whipped his head around and looked behind him, pointing his wand wildly left and right to search the debris-free area that had been under the shield. Relief flooded through him when he spotted it finally, lying on the floor of the platform, his wand light glinting off it. Obviously, luckily, the professor had kept the telescope close to her during those final few minutes, so it had come under the protection of the shield. The rose basket was there too, tipped on its side but not destroyed.

–Professor,” he said in a voice that he could not keep from shaking, –that shield — it saved our lives. We might have…”

–You can say it. We might have died. But we didn’t, and that’s what matters.”

–Thank you,” Rose whispered. –Thank you.” Beyond that, she seemed speechless as she clung to Scorpius and stared around her.

–Are either of you injured?” Professor Sinistra asked solicitously.

–I — I don’t think so,” Scorpius said. He ran his fingers over his forehead, feeling for abrasions or the wetness of blood, but there was nothing amiss, and the pain in his knees and arm was ebbing fast. –Are you okay?” he asked Rose as he passed his wand light over her face. –I’m afraid I kind of threw you down on the stone.”

–Yes, I think so,” she said.

–What about you, Professor?” he asked.

–It will take more than a rock from heaven to do me serious harm,” she answered. –The older I get, the tougher I get.” And the quicker, Scorpius thought. He was acutely aware that it was not he who had put up the shield, but rather an old lady who had acted with lightning speed to prevent a disaster.

–I don’t think we need this anymore,” Professor Sinistra went on. –Finite Incantatem,” and the shimmering shield which had miraculously withstood the force of a meteor strike rippled momentarily and disappeared. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, Scorpius thought. They can turn aside an Avada Kedavra; I guess they should be able to repel a meteorite. But suddenly the force of an Avada Kedavra, or of any deed of mankind, seemed minuscule compared to the infinite power of the cosmos. It would take him a long time, he sensed, to sort this all out.

–You don’t think there’s a chance of another one?” Rose asked apprehensively.

–One in a million, one in a billion,” the professor answered, and then her voice softened. –You know, most people go through their whole lives without ever seeing a meteorite fall, much less be standing next to a strike. You don’t know anyone like that, do you?” Rose shook her head. –We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

–Or maybe the right place at the right time,” Scorpius declared, disengaging himself from Rose. He began to walk out among the chunks of rock and detritus, picking his steps between the chunks and casting his light from side to side.

–Wait. Do you hear anything?”Professor Sinistra demanded.

Scorpius stopped walking and turned around to face her and Rose. –No, do you?”

–That’s just it. I don’t hear anything. No voices; no one has come up to the tower. Wouldn’t they have heard when the meteorite hit? Wouldn’t they come to check it out?”

–It was just a single crash,” Rose suggested. –Even if someone woke up they might not know where the noise came from. They’d never think to check the Astronomy Tower.”

–Or they may not have heard anything at all,” Scorpius offered.

–What?” Professor Sinistra said, surprised.

–I remember an old man, a friend of my grandfather’s, who said he was at Hogwarts one year when there was a hurricane that actually damaged the castle, but he was asleep in the Slytherin dorm at the time and didn’t hear a thing, slept right through it.”

–Oh, I know what you’re talking about,” Rose chimed in. –My grandfather was here; he was the Head Boy that year. He’s told us stories about it.”

Scorpius turned to Professor Sinistra. –Were you here that year, the year of the hurricane?”

Professor Sinistra seemed to stand a little taller, and she answered drily, –It’s true that I taught your parents Astronomy, so I am older than your parents, but not as old as your grandfathers, not yet. No, I was not here that year.”

–Oh. Sorry.”

–We should be going downstairs now to notify the headmistress about what has happened,” Professor Sinistra said, and she started to pick her way through the field of debris towards the door.

–Wait,” said Scorpius, and he was surprised by his own boldness in contradicting a teacher, but he didn’t feel like teacher and pupil anymore, but more as if they were equal colleagues facing a new and unprecedented situation. –I don’t want to be rushing down in a panic, babbling incoherently. No one has been injured, and if stones have fallen into the courtyard, we can be sure they didn’t strike anyone at this hour of the night. Let’s look carefully first and make a thorough assessment of the damage, so that we will know what to report.” He stood amongst the stones and waited for the professor’s reaction. Had he assumed too much? That had been pretty cheeky, he knew.

–You may be assured that I did not intend to rush and babble, young man,” Professor Sinistra replied stoutly, –but your suggestion has merit. Very well, we’ll make a quick assessment first. Watch out for holes in the floor. Rose, you take that side, Scorpius, that other side. I’ll do the far side and around the door.”

The three of them moved out onto the rock-strewn area of the platform, their wands making pools of light that illuminated jagged, irregular boulders with smooth, lichen-dotted surfaces and rough, newly exposed, unweathered surfaces where the stone had broken.

–Let me know what you find,” Professor Sinistra called out to Rose and Scorpius.

–Lots of rocks,” came Rose’s voice from the north side of the platform. –Do you think we’ll see the meteorite?”

–I’ll bet not,” Scorpius argued from the south side. –It either punched a hole in the floor and went down the stairwell, or it blasted through the wall and landed in the courtyard.”

–Maybe it bounced off the shield,” Rose suggested as the three of them continued moving slowly around the platform surface, stopping occasionally to inspect something more closely. –How big do you think it was, Professor?”

–Bigger than average, bigger than an apple. Maybe a couple of feet…” The professor’s words were cut off by Scorpius’ shouts.

–Come here! Come here! See what I’ve found!”

Rose and Professor Sinistra turned and made their way as quickly as they could through the rock field towards the place where Scorpius’ light was shining.

–Did you find the meteorite?” Rose asked eagerly.

–No, but look at this!” He waved his light forward and back as they came up beside him, illuminating a long stretch of the parapet wall, or rather, what used to be the parapet wall; a section maybe twenty feet long had been blasted away. In the center of the damaged area the wall, all four feet thick and four feet tall, was completely missing for a distance of about eight feet, and then the edge of the damage began sloping upward for about six feet on either side. Some of the platform floor had been gouged out next to the focal point of the wall damage, but not enough to penetrate through to the stairwell.

With their three wands together, they could see the gap in the parapet even better, the raw and jagged edges of stone, the unsettling view off the edge of the platform, out into the open space of the night sky.

–This is obviously the point of impact,” Professor Sinistra said as they held out their wands from a hopefully safe distance. –The meteor probably splattered as much rock over the edge as fell back on the platform. That was a huge volume of rock. I’m so thankful there was no one below.”

–The meteorite is probably down there somewhere,” Scorpius speculated, starting to walk closer to the edge.

–Stop,” the professor cried out. –Don’t go next to the edge.”

Scorpius stopped and turned his head back towards her, feeling irritated at what seemed to him to be excessive caution. –It’s not dangerous. I’m not going to fall off.”

–I’m not worried about you; I’m worried about the rock. It may be riddled with cracks. It could give way under your weight.”

–Oh.” He had not thought of that, but the professor was right. In fact, she had been right about many things this night. But, surprisingly to him, he realized that he didn’t resent it. The Clever Player would have wanted to be always right, always on top, always in control, but he didn’t feel a need for that now. Next time I too will think about the rock cracks, he thought. As if there would ever be a next time. He almost laughed.

He backed away from the edge and then proposed, –I’ll go over there where the wall is intact and wriggle out on it, lying flat to spread out my weight, until I can look over the edge. Is that okay?”

Reluctantly the professor agreed, and Scorpius made his way beyond the damaged section to a place where the wall was still intact, hoisted himself up onto it between the crenellations, stretched out on his stomach, and peered over the far edge.

–What do you see?” Rose asked.

–Absolutely nothing. It’s all pitch dark down there. If the meteorite is there, I can’t see it. We’ll have to wait until morning.”

As he slid back over the inner edge of the parapet to the tower floor, he heard Rose say, –There’s something odd here. Can you see it, Professor?”

–That big dark area? I confess I don’t see in the dark as well as I used to, but you youngsters can probably tell what it is.”

Scorpius was intrigued by these remarks and scrambled over the scattered rock fragments to get back to the two women and see what they were talking about.

–Where? What are you looking at?”

He came up beside Rose and Professor Sinistra, who were standing about ten feet away from the damaged parapet with their wand lights trained on a point in the partially demolished wall where a square dark area was visible on the broken upper surface of the wall, of which one foot of height still remained.

–It’s not the same color as the rest of the broken stone,” Rose told him, –and it’s got this odd square shape, like it’s a block of black granite or something.”

Scorpius located the spot they were speaking about, and eyed it keenly. It did look odd, different from the rest of the stonework; it did not reflect the wand light in the same way.

He studied the spot for a minute or two but could not determine what it was. None of the other broken surfaces and none of the fragments scattered on the tower had that same black color.

–I can’t tell what it is,” he finally said. –I’ll have to go a little closer,” and he began to take cautious steps toward the area of broken parapet in question. When he was close to the truncated section of the wall, he squatted down, holding his wand in one hand and reaching out with his other hand to feel the black-colored stone. He reached farther, farther, but his fingers touched nothing. Scorpius was confused and disoriented. According to his spatial sense, he should be touching the black rock right now, but he wasn’t. He reached even farther; it was bizarre, as if he had reached out to touch a solid object and his hand had passed completely through it. He was on his knees now, at the edge of the one-foot-high stub of the wall, leaning over the broken edge and waving his hand around, trying to touch something. He lowered his other hand, to place his lighted wand right next to his searching hand, and then he finally saw the light reflecting off of surfaces, vertical surfaces. He stared.

–Oh. Merlin.”

–What’s the matter?” Professor Sinistra called out in alarm.

–What do you see?” Rose asked.

Scorpius felt his throat tighten. –It’s not black granite,” he said.

–What, then?” asked Rose.

–It’s nothing. I mean, it’s a hole.”

–A hole in the wall?”

–No, a staircase. I’m looking at the top of a stair.”

–Are you sure?” This was Professor Sinistra speaking.

–Yes,” he answered. –I’m sure. When I hold my wand down, I can see the steps. I can see one, two, three, maybe four steps…”

–And then what?” asked Rose.

–It’s all dark. That’s as far as the light goes.” He continued kneeling at the edge of the broken parapet, trying to see as far down the astonishing staircase as he could, maneuvering his wand to illuminate the space as much as possible. The steps looked steep, and small rock fragments were scattered on the uppermost.

–Did you know this was here? Did you know about this stair?” he heard Rose say, and he knew she was speaking to Professor Sinistra. He began backing away from the parapet, regained his feet, and rejoined his companions. He did not want to miss any of this conversation.

–No, I knew nothing. No one has ever said anything about another stair up to the tower.” Professor Sinistra seemed to be at a loss for words.

Scorpius shook his head. –It’s bizarre. A staircase. Where does it lead to? What’s down there? And why was the end up here covered up? There must have been some kind of gate, some kind of access on the parapet, something you can’t see, something opened by a spell. You’ve been up here a lot, Professor. Did you ever see something like that, something on the parapet that looked different? Looked like it might have been charmed?”

–I never really looked for that,” she answered slowly, as if she were casting back in her memory, searching for hitherto unappreciated clues and finding nothing. –I’m usually up here at night.”

–Maybe there is no upper gate at all anymore,” Rose suggested. –Maybe they just bricked it up and sealed it because they didn’t want it anymore.”

–We need to go down now and notify the Headmistress,” Professor Sinistra declared. –We cannot stay up here any longer. She needs to know about the meteorite and the damage.”

–And she needs to know about the staircase,” Scorpius insisted.

–I’m glad you’re not proposing to go exploring down that staircase right now, Mr. Malfoy,” Professor Sinistra said.

–Oh, no,” he answered. He was keenly curious to go down the stairs and see where they led, but they looked so black, and he had no idea what he would encounter; it would be safer in the daylight. Daylight was not far off.

He gave the entrance to the staircase one last glance, and then the three erstwhile stargazers and meteor-strike survivors made their way back to the area that had been shielded, gathered up the telescope and the basket, and returned to the heavy wooden door with its iron ring handle, and started down the broad stairs.
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The Dark Past by Oregonian
As they descended the staircase, still amazed by the unbelievable events of the night, Professor Sinistra remarked, –I always wondered why that side of the parapet was so thick. I guess it was built that way to accommodate the staircase.”

Rose added, –It must go all the way down to the main part of the castle, unless it ends partway down. I don’t think there’s room for anything else in this tower except staircases.”

–You’re right,” Scorpius agreed. –And there’s no reason for it not to go all the way. But if it was blocked at the top, it might have been blocked at the bottom also.”

–If it was blocked. It may have simply been closed at the top by a spell, in which case it might well be intact at the bottom,” Rose argued. –Professor Sinistra, is there any room or corridor at the base of the tower that shows evidence of the opening of a staircase?”

–Not that I know of,” Professor Sinistra replied, as the three of them continued down, step by step, towards the corridor. –But the Astronomy Tower was one of the last additions to the main body of the castle. It was not here when the castle was first built.”

–It wasn’t? How far up did the original construction extend?” Rose asked.

–About as high as the ceiling of my office, I think. The celestial sphere classroom is a part of the later addition.”

Listening to this exchange, Scorpius was struck by how Rose’s manner of thinking reminded him of her mother’s. He had met Hermione on several occasions, and he could hear echoes of her analytical thinking in her daughter’s speech.

They proceeded downwards in silence. The vision of the meteorite strike had been pushed out of Scorpius’ mind by the conundrum of the newly discovered staircase. He frowned; something didn’t make sense here. He tried to sort it out in his mind, and suddenly he realized what was bothering him — the two staircases must have been built at the same time, the main staircase that everyone used, broad and well lit, where two or three could walk abreast, and the steeper, narrow, unlit staircase concealed in the wall, where people would be obliged to ascend or descend single file.

He voiced this puzzle by saying, –So why did they need two staircases up to the top of the tower, one broad and easy to climb, the other hidden and narrow, probably built at the same time?”

After a few seconds Professor Sinistra answered, –Maybe the staircase you discovered was never meant for going up. Maybe it was meant for going down.”

–What do you mean?” Rose asked in tones of surprise.

–An escape route from the top of the tower. To prevent being trapped by enemies coming up the main stairs. The Battle of Hogwarts is not the only battle this castle has seen. As you have observed during your years here, this castle is in many ways like a fortress. In the days when it was built, everything was a fortress, as well as whatever other functions the buildings had, such as palaces or churches or guildhalls or monasteries. Everything needed to be defensible. Outside the walls, the world was lawless and perilous.”

Scorpius shook his head faintly. It was strange to think about the earliest days of Hogwarts, when things were not exactly as they were at his present time. An incomplete castle, primitive magic, harsh living conditions, those early witches and wizards all banded together for survival in an environment of danger and desolation…

They reached the bottom of the stairs and headed down the corridor, led by Professor Sinistra. Eventually they arrived at Professor Sprout’s private quarters, a place where Scorpius had never been before, and they banged loudly on the door to rouse the headmistress.

Soon they heard her voice crying out, –I’m coming, I’m coming,” and a few seconds later the door was opened by Professor Sprout, clad in a dressing gown and running her fingers through her hair for a quick comb-out.

Professor Sinistra spoke first.

–Professor Sprout, the castle has been hit by a meteorite. It has broken off part of the parapet of the Astronomy Tower, but I believe that no one has been injured.”

Scorpius was surprised at how terse this initial statement was. There was no –We were up on the tower to look at the constellation of the Scorpion through the telescope, and then we saw a big meteor shower, and we saw one come closer and closer, and it was blazing bright, etc. etc.” Her statement had been stripped down to the barest of essentials: name of the event, damage report, casualty report.

I’ve got to remember that for next time, he thought. It sounded so professional. A detail-filled lead-in, such as he might have given, would have sounded childish. The details can come afterwards, he realized, and a long-winded explanation about why they had gone up to the tower in the first place could come much, much later.

Professor Sprout invited them in to her chambers.

–A meteorite has hit the castle, you say? Sit down. Tell me more. How do you know about this? And why are these children with you?”

Scorpius winced at the word ‘children’; he was already eighteen years old, but he concluded that to Professor Sprout all the students were children.After I leave school, people won’t call me a child anymore, he reflected.

Professor Sinistra settled herself on a chair. She looks tired, Scorpius thought. He and Rose sat upright, side by side on a settee, leaning forward a little.

–I was on the tower with Mr. Malfoy and Miss Weasley to observe through the telescope a southerly constellation that is barely visible in our latitudes. While we were there, a meteorite struck the tower and shattered a considerable portion of the parapet. There is a lot of broken stone on the tower platform, and I am sure there is much stony debris in the courtyard below also.”

–And the meteorite too,” Rose interjected.

–And you say no one was injured?” Professor Sprout continued.

–We three were protected by a Shield charm,” Professor Sinistra explained, –and I greatly doubt that anyone was in the courtyard at that hour.”

–When did it happen?”

–About half an hour ago.”

Scorpius felt impelled to make it clear that Professor Sinistra was the one who had put up the Shield, not he or Rose; she deserved the credit.

–Professor Sinistra put up the Shield faster than I’ve ever seen. She saved our lives, Rose and me. The blow was tremendous; it knocked us off our feet and threw these great boulders everywhere. Didn’t you hear it, Headmistress?”

–Half an hour ago? I was asleep, but I seem to remember hearing something that sounded like thunder, and I vaguely thought that clouds must have come in after I went to bed.”

–No, there were no clouds,” Scorpius asserted. –The sky was perfectly clear.”

–What is the extent of the damage?” Professor Sprout asked, turning to Professor Sinistra.

–A large section of the parapet is gone or partially gone. We think the point of impact was where the parapet meets the platform floor on the side next to the courtyard.”

–Well, our first and immediate duty is to check the courtyard at once, to ensure that no one was there or was injured by falling rock. Then, when the sun rises, we can inspect the tower itself and arrange for repairs.” She chuckled to herself. –A meteorite. My, my. Who would have dreamed it? A meteorite during my tenure. You know, people used to think these things were omens, a long time ago.”

She suddenly became solemn and turned toward Professor Sinistra. –You could have been killed.”

Professor Sprout stood up. –Let me put on my cloak and shoes and we’ll go outside.” She conjured lanterns for all of them, and they all left her quarters, proceeding through the dim corridors to a door that opened onto the courtyard.

–When are we going to mention the staircase?” Rose whispered to Scorpius.

–I don’t know,” he whispered back. –After we check for victims, I guess. She’s right; we do need to do this.”

–There’s nobody here.”

–You’re probably right, but we won’t know for sure until we look. I wouldn’t put it past some people I know to sneak out.”

–Like us!” Rose laughed quietly.

They fanned out into the courtyard, their lanterns held high. Broken stone and boulders met their view, much as they had seen on the top of the tower, but the debris field extended over all the courtyard. Where the boulders had landed on earth, they were partially buried in the dirt; where they had landed on pavement, the walkways were honeycombed with cracks.

Professor Sprout assigned them each a quadrant of the courtyard to search.

–Go over your territory systematically,” she instructed, waving her hand to demonstrate a back-and-forth search pattern. They listened carefully for cries, concentrating on the slightest possible sound, then called out –Is anyone there? Is anyone hurt? Homenum Revelio!” Hearing nothing, they traversed the courtyard, their pools of lantern light moving back and forth as they covered every square inch.

Satisfied that no one had been in the courtyard at the time of the meteorite strike, they reassembled by the door. The deep black of the midnight sky was lightening up; now it was only a dark, velvety blue, and Scorpius noticed that the myriad faint stars he had seen when he was up on the tower were fading out, though the bigger stars still shone brightly. He held his lantern to his wristwatch; it was about three o’clock in the morning. Merlin, what a night! And it wasn’t over yet.

–Did you see the meteorite?” Scorpius asked Rose quietly as they stood by the door.

–Not in my quadrant.”

–Me neither.”

–Maybe we missed it in the dark,” Rose suggested.

–I know an easy way to find it,” Scorpius said.

–What’s that?” Rose asked.

–If they say a Repairing charm, the broken stones will fly up onto the tower to reassemble themselves, and only the meteorite will be left, because it wasn’t part of the tower,” Scorpius told her, feeling ingenious.

–Then you could say Accio meteorite and it will fly right to you.”

–I’m not sure I want a giant space rock flying towards me. Once was quite enough. I’ll let it remain quietly on the ground while I walk up to it.” He laughed softly.

–You know something?” Rose said. –We might not ever find the meteorite.”

–Huh? Why not?” Scorpius asked.

–When it hit the wall, I’ll bet the wall wasn’t the only thing that broke. I’ll bet the meteorite broke too. It’s probably in a thousand little pieces all over the ground.”

–Oh.” He was again struck by how much Rose resembled her mother in the way her mind worked. She thought of everything; nothing escaped her. He felt a momentary flash of pride that she was his girlfriend.

–Well,” he said, –in that case we won’t have a big rock to put in the Hogwarts Museum. We’ll have to Summon a big pile of fragments, and everyone can take a piece home as a souvenir.”

They had re-entered the castle and were walking along the corridor now in the direction of Professor Sprout’s quarters, the two professors in front, discussing the events of the night, and the two students following them. Rose and Scorpius fell silent. They did not know what role they had to play in the further developments, but they did not want to be left out, and they guessed that it would be to their advantage to remain unobtrusive so that they would not be sent back to their dorms.

Scorpius was feeling exuberant with the optimism of youth. Less than two hours earlier he had escaped death by a whisker, but now it seemed, in retrospect, nothing more than a fantastic adventure, and he looked forward with intense curiosity to exploring the mysterious staircase that the meteorite had uncovered.

–I’m anxious to see the damage as soon as it becomes light,” Professor Sprout said as they walked briskly along the corridor. –Frankly, I’m impressed — no, astounded — by the volume of rock ejected by this blast. What time does the sun rise, Aurora?”

–Sunrise is at about four-thirty, though it’s pretty light by four. But there’s something else we have to talk about. There’s more up there on the tower than just broken stone.”

–What do you mean, ‘more up there on the tower’?”

–When the parapet was broken off, it revealed something: a staircase that I have never seen before, leading down into the wall.”

–A staircase, you say? Do you know anything about it?”

–No, I was completely unaware of its presence there until tonight.”

Professor Sprout went on to inquire about the appearance and details of this unexpected find, but the Astronomy professor could not add much more information.

–We will go up there as soon as there is enough light to see,” the headmistress decided, –before the students start waking up.”

They had arrived at her door, and she turned her head to address Scorpius and Rose.

–I think you two can go off to your dormitories now. You have been up much longer than intended, and you must be very tired.”

Scorpius was appalled. To be dismissed now, after all they had been through!

–Oh, no, Professor!” he blurted out. –We can’t leave now, not after what has happened. We have to see this through to the end.”

–Yes,” Rose pleaded. –We’re part of this too. Don’t send us away.”

The professors seemed startled by the vehemence of their protests. –Well, I suppose we can let them stay,” Professor Sinistra suggested. –They’re both of age.”

–Yes,” Scorpius agreed promptly. –I’m already eighteen years old.”

Rose kept her eyes fixed on the professors with a pleading expression on her face.

Professor Sprout looked back and forth at the two students. –All right,” she said finally, –you can stay. We will go back up the tower at sunrise, and you may come with us.”

Gratified by their reprieve, Scorpius and Rose followed their teachers into the headmistress’ quarters again, where the rose basket and the telescope were sitting on the floor, seemingly forgotten, left there when they had all gone out to check the courtyard. What a bizarre night!

Rose and Scorpius sat down on the settee, and Professor Sprout offered to make tea, and opened a box of biscuits. Soon Rose was beginning to nod; her head drooped lower and lower, then suddenly she jerked awake again, and after this cycle had repeated a few times, Scorpius murmured to her, –Just let yourself nap for a bit,” and she laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

He tried to follow the professors’ conversation; they were mentioning the Chamber of Secrets, but he seemed to be missing portions of the conversation, and the next thing he knew was that Professor Sinistra was shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes to see that the room was bright with early daylight, and he realized that he had fallen asleep.

Professor Sinistra was bending over him. –We are going up to the tower again to investigate your mysterious staircase. Do you still want to come?”

Scorpius was instantly alert. Of course he wanted to come. –Wake up, Rose. Time to get up. We’re going back up on the tower.”

Professor Sprout appeared with a camera, saying she wanted to photograph the damage, and Professor Sinistra picked up her telescope. Rose and Scorpius got stiffly to their feet, and they all set off for the Astronomy Tower, Professor Sinistra stopping briefly on the way at her office to drop off the telescope.

–Whatever we find at the bottom of that staircase, we won’t need a telescope to see it,” she said.

Scorpius was tense with anticipation, and his mind was working at double speed. What would they find? Skeletons? Treasure? A basilisk? A closet with dusty odds and ends of broken equipment? The professors too were discussing what lay ahead. From their remarks he inferred that they were continuing their conversation of the previous night when he had fallen asleep. They had apparently concluded that it was not the same as the Chamber of Secrets because the tower had been built too late, after the era of the Founders. But they seemed eager to penetrate this mystery.

Scorpius was surprised at how fast old ladies could walk when they wanted to. When they reached the bottom of the stairs up to the tower, their pace hardly slowed. They began to climb, and it occurred to Scorpius to count the steps as they went up. Then when they started to go down the newly discovered staircase, they could count the steps going down and have an idea of how far they had gone. So he balled one hand into a fist and began to count in the back of his mind: one, two, three… When he reached ten, he released one finger and began again with one, two, three…

They passed the entrance to the celestial sphere classroom. Was it only less than five hours ago that he had been in there playing with Magman? It seemed like an eternity.

When all five fingers were released from his fist, they were fifty steps up, and he started over. By the time they reached the locked wooden door at the top, he had counted eighty-one steps.

–I counted eighty-one steps up to here,” he told Rose. –Remember that.”

Professor Sinistra unlocked the door, and they stepped out onto the platform in the light of the barely-risen sun.

–Merlin’s beard!” Professor Sprout exclaimed. –Look at the destruction! This reminds me of the Battle of Hogwarts. Doesn’t it remind you too, Aurora? You’re right! There’s a big chunk missing.”

It looked so different in the early morning sunlight. The clear sky was a vast light blue dome, starless, though Scorpius knew that up there, blotted out by the sun, were the stars he knew so well from the winter sky. The early morning sun bathed the scene, the tower, the rest of the castle, and the far hills and trees, with hues of apricot and gold.

–Right over there,” Professor Sprout said, pointing to the opposite side of the parapet, –we took a stand and threw deadly plants down on the heads of the invaders. I had some students with me — Professor Longbottom was one of them — they were brave.”

Scorpius was immensely glad that she remembered brave students doing heroic deeds on the tower; that history legitimized his and Rose’s presence there this day. In fact, some of those students had been younger than he was. If they had been allowed to fight, surely he would be allowed to go down the stair. He and Rose would be able to participate fully.

–It will take some strong spell work to repair all this damage,” Professor Sprout went on, and Scorpius vaguely wondered if she would be willing to teach him those spells so that he could assist. He liked being competent, having a large arsenal of tools at his disposal, and feeling that he was in control.

She took out her camera. –I’ll just take a few pictures here,” she said, and she snapped images of the stone-littered platform, the partially demolished parapet, and the view of the courtyard below. –Now show me the staircase opening.”

Scorpius moved over to the broken parapet. It was much easier to navigate around the rock debris in the daylight than it had been at night. He pointed to the location in the jagged stone.

–This is the place. It is obviously a staircase.” What had been hard to characterize in the dark was easy to identify in the light, and the three women clustered around him and peered down into the hole. They could all see the steps going down. Scorpius had been able to see barely four steps the previous night with his wand light, but now he could count six steps before the stair wound out of sight. Gravel was scattered over the surface of the treads. They all stared for a minute or two.

Professor Sinistra broke the silence. –Well, what shall we do?”

–It needs to be investigated,” Professor Sprout answered. –No reason to think it’s any more dangerous than any old abandoned closet or attic.”

Time for me to speak out, Scorpius thought. –I suggest that I go first. I’m the biggest of us all, and if I slipped while standing at the back of the line, I would take you all out like ninepins.” Who knows? Maybe it’s true. –It’s very narrow. We’ll have to go single file. Accio gravel on the stairs!

The gravel rose up and hung before him in the air, and he scooped handfuls and dumped them onto the platform until the stairs appeared to be clear of particles that could roll under their feet.

–Very well, Mr. Malfoy, you may go first.” Professor Sprout agreed. –You seem to have a proprietary interest in this stair, having been the first person to identify it.”

He looked back into the hole of the stairwell, envisioning the descent, and then conjured a belt to tie around his robes and cinch them close to his body. Seeing this, the others did likewise. Scorpius stepped up onto the stub of the parapet, trying not to look over the edge, and began to descend the first few steps.

"Lumos Maximus!"

The treads were narrow, and his feet did not fit on them unless he turned his feet a little to the side. I wonder if people had smaller feet when this stair was built. They were probably smaller in general.

Down a few steps more, one by one, slowly. The stair was beginning to curve around the tower and the morning light was receding behind him. The stairwell was becoming very dark, now lit only by his wand. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten…

He was acutely aware that one misstep, one overbalance could cause him to fall. There had been a time, a few years ago, when he had fallen headfirst down a flight of stone steps at home and had hit his head at the bottom. It had been only seven steps, but he had cracked his skull, and the blood had come pouring out of the crushed bone, instantly forming a big hematoma under the skin. By the time he could be seen by a mediwitch, it had been too late to ameliorate the injury completely; his eyes had blackened and had swollen shut. It had taken two weeks for the hematoma, the bruising, and the swelling to resolve, and even now, three years later, if he drew his fingers lightly across his forehead, he could feel the outlines of the bone callus that had formed above his right eye. He had absolutely no desire to repeat that experience.

Scorpius stopped descending and called back to the women above him.

–There’s no handrail, and I’ll feel a lot safer if I brace both my hands on either side of this stairwell. So I’ll hold my wand in my teeth, which means that I won’t be able to talk so much. Let’s stay about ten steps apart. I’ve gone ten steps now. It was eighty-one steps up; we’ll see how many steps it is going down. Okay?”

Voices floated down to him. –We’ll do that.” –I’ll go next, okay, Professor?” –What do you see?”

–Rough stone walls,” Scorpius called back up. –Be careful; the treads are narrow. Nobody’s in a hurry.”

He gripped his wand in his teeth, braced his hands firmly on the rough stone walls, and carefully descended another step. And another. And another. Lower and lower. Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two.

A memory flashed into his mind; people said that if you went down into a deep well and looked up, you could see the stars in the daytime. He wondered if it was true. But this stairway curved; you could not look straight up. He would not be able to see the stars from here.

Thirty, thirty-one, thirty two. He sincerely doubted Professor Sinistra’s theory, expressed the previous night, that this stair had been an escape route from the top of the tower. No one could flee down this stair. In fact, it would be easier to go up than down because at least you could place the ball of your foot squarely on the tread.

Forty, forty-one, forty-two. He stopped, took his wand out of his mouth, and called out, –I’ve stopped momentarily to talk. I’m at step number forty-two. Maybe we’re halfway down. Are you doing okay?”

For a horrible moment he feared that there would be no answer, but in a few seconds he began to get answers, and he deduced that they had been carrying their wands between their teeth also.

–What do you think?” he called to them. –Do we keep going?”

–So far, so good.” Rose’s voice came down the stairwell. He believed that she was the next one behind him, and the professors were farther back. He could hear faint voices without being exactly able to understand the words, and then Rose’s voice again said, –We’re good. Let’s keep going.”

So he did.

Fifty, fifty-one, fifty-two. His entire body was tense as he lowered himself, step by step, placing both feet on each tread and moving his bracing hands on the rough cold walls with each step, gripping his wand in his teeth.

Sixty, sixty-one, sixty-two. Dear Merlin, let there be something down here that makes this trip worthwhile. Let it not end in a solid wall!

Seventy, seventy-one, seventy-two. Surely it won’t go any farther than the base of the modern Astronomy Tower. Let it not go any lower.

He stopped again, removed his wand from his teeth, and called out, –I’m at step seventy-two now. Merlin willing, I’m close to the end.”

–Oh, I hope so,” Rose’s voice answered. –Did you hear that? He says he’s at step seventy-two now.”

Scorpius could hear other voices farther up and instantly felt encouraged again. They were all still coming; they had his back. He started down once more. Surely this would be the final stretch.

Eighty, eighty-one, eighty-two. To his dismay, the stairs continued down, in violation of his expectation that step eighty-one would be the last. Now his previous conviction was thrown to the wind; he had thought — no, hoped — that he would be able to predict what would happen, but now he realized that that had never been true.

It was decision time. If I turn around now, it will have all been for nothing. I can’t do that. I can’t throw this all away. I am Scorpius. What did I say, that I learned to leave my comfortable home and travel far away? I never meant far into the depths of the castle, but what do I know?

Yet even as his mind debated, his hands and feet kept moving forward. Down, down.

Ninety, ninety-one, ninety-two. And his wand light finally showed him something different. No longer was it the endless descent of steps; it shone on a flat surface, the floor of a passage. He stood there, at the base of the ninety-second step, and stared down the passage, then took his wand out of his mouth and held it forward. The passage was no wider than the stair had been, and as he took a few steps forward he noticed that the roof of the passage was scarcely higher than his head.

People were shorter in those days, he thought.

At the end of the passage, about fifteen feet away, he could see a stair going up again.

What in the world?

He started along the passage. It was a relief to be able to walk on the flat, without having to brace himself and lower himself down, step by step, always fearing a catastrophic fall, but the respite was only for a few seconds, a half dozen strides, and then he was at the foot of the new stair. It was different from the stair he had come down; it was a little wider, and instead of curving, it went up straight.

Thankful for these changes and interpreting them as a sign of progress, he clamped his wand between his teeth again and started up. One, two, three…

But this flight of stairs was short. By the time he had climbed six steps, he could see that they ended a little farther up. And a few seconds later he was at the top. He took his wand in his hand and held it out, and the light from its tip spread out in all directions, illuminating a large, still, and empty chamber.
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Night of Reckoning by Oregonian
Scorpius stood at the top of the short stair and gazed into the room, which was dome-shaped with white walls and a gray stone floor. He did not see any furniture, equipment, or artifacts, or anything like doors or windows in the walls; the stair came up into the room through a rectangular opening in the floor. The room gave him no indication as to why it was connected to the hidden stair.

He pondered a moment, and then remembered the women following him, so he turned and hastened down the short flight of steps again to wait for them. In a few moments he saw someone descending the last few steps of the long stair — feet, robes, face. It was Rose.

–Rose!” he cried out.

–Scorpius! Is that you?”

–I’m here at the end of this little passageway, waiting for you. We’re at the end.”

She hastened up to him and threw her arms around him.

–Oh, Scorpius! That was so weird! Where are we now?”

–I don’t know, but it’ll make a great story someday. Are the professors behind you?” He flickered his glance back and forth between Rose’s beautiful face and the bottom of the long staircase at the other end of the little passage.

–Yes.”

They waited, and within a couple of minutes Professor Sinistra emerged from the stairwell into the short passage, then Professor Sprout, and the passage became filled with wand light. Scorpius was so thankful to see them that he shamelessly embraced them both, and they didn’t seem to mind.

–There’s this little stair behind me that goes up,” he said, disengaging himself from their arms, –but it’s only a dozen steps, and it opens into a room.”

–Well, what are we waiting for?” Professor Sprout declared, and they all ascended to the room at the top of the short stair.

The room was bare. They stood there on the stone floor, looking around at the white walls and the domed ceiling overhead, turning their heads left and right, trying to gain some meaning from this featureless chamber.

–What is it?” Rose asked.

–It reminds me, in shape, of the celestial sphere classroom,” Professor Sinistra remarked. She walked up to the wall of the room and peered at it. –Look. There are dots painted on the wall. I think they represent stars.”

They all moved out of the center of the room to examine the walls. The dots Professor Sinistra had referred to as stars were painted on the walls with black paint, and under them were words painted in tiny antique script. It took a bit of study to puzzle out the letter forms, but the words were names of stars.

Scorpius looked up, directing his wand light toward the peak of the dome. There it was — a black dot that represented the Pole Star. He looked around, located the Big Dipper, and exclaimed, –It’s the northern celestial hemisphere!”

He took bearings off the stars of the handle of the Dipper, and his eye led him to Vega and Arcturus. Looking around him horizontally, he began to identify the patterns of the zodiacal constellations painted all around the rim of the room.

–It looks like a primitive celestial sphere classroom,” Professor Sinistra concluded. –Maybe what they used before the Astronomy Tower was built.”

–This was their classroom?” Rose repeated incredulously.

–I believe that it probably was,” Professor Sinistra said. –You can see the advances that have been made in the new celestial sphere classroom. The stars are now lighted, the floor is transparent…”

Scorpius interrupted her. –This floor appears to be solid stone. You can’t see the southern celestial hemisphere.”

–Yes,” the professor agreed. –It only showed them what could actually be seen in Great Britain.”

–Our classroom’s a lot better,” Rose remarked. Here, there was no rotating earth globe, no Magman figure. If the earliest Hogwarts students had ever had those things, they had long since been stripped out of the room when it was abandoned.

Scorpius craned his neck, looking all around the room. It would have been harder to learn celestial mechanics in this rudimentary room, he thought.

–How did the students get into this room?” Rose wondered aloud.

–I think that the stair that comes up through the floor is original,” Professor Sinistra answered. –Did you notice that the stone on the walls of that staircase is more smoothly dressed? But access to the rest of the castle was probably blocked when the new tower was built.”

–In our celestial sphere room, the door opens from the side,” Rose went on, –like in a regular room, but when you shut the door, its inner surface becomes part of the sphere. I guess they couldn’t do that, so they had to come up through the floor.”

–This is pretty unexciting after that long and risky trip down the stairs,” Professor Sprout said with a sigh. –It looks as if we came down here for nothing special. Your big discovery seems to have been rather a dud, children. I’ll take a few photographs of this old classroom and the passage that leads to it, for Hogwarts history, and then we can go up again. We’ll seal the top when we repair the parapet.”

Professor Sinistra turned from examining the star patterns on the wall to face her fellow teacher.

–I would advise against haste, Pomona. As you say, we’ll probably never make the effort to come down again, so before we leave, I propose that we examine the room as minutely as possible, this being our one chance to do so.”

–What are you looking for?” Professor Sprout asked.

–Why, I don’t know. A tiny dropped item, a revealing bit of graffiti scribbled on the wall centuries ago, who knows what? But we’ll never know if we don’t look.”

Scorpius spoke up. –We looked for injured people in the courtyard, even though the odds were low of finding anyone, but we had to do it. I vote we look here too.”

–Yes,” Rose agreed. –Then we’ll never wonder if we missed something. After all, they built the special stair for this room. Why did they do that, if it was just abandoned?”

–You’ve convinced me,” Professor Sprout conceded. –We’ll see if we can find any clues or artifacts.”

The students and professors began searching the walls, looking for bits of graffiti, signs of hidden cupboards, anything that didn’t seem to belong. They shone their wand lights, all four together, at the top of the domed ceiling to see if anything was odd.

Scorpius glanced at his wristwatch; it was five-twenty in the morning. He started walking around the ring of zodiacal constellations along the walls at about knee height.

–I see something. There’s a gray line through the zodiac that marks the ecliptic. No,” he said, looking more closely, –it’s not a painted line, it’s an incised groove. Let’s see if it goes all the way around.”

He walked along the perimeter of the room, passing Rose, who was crouched down, checking the borders of the stone floor for tiny dropped artifacts but finding nothing.

–Here’s the Scorpion. You can really see how it hangs down below the ecliptic.”

He continued until he made almost the full circle, then stopped and announced, –Here’s something. It looks like a little beetle, right on the groove that marks the ecliptic.”

Professor Sinistra came to his side immediately and looked at his discovery, a little round piece of polished stone.

–I don’t think it’s a beetle,” she said. –I think it represents the sun, to show the sun’s apparent annual movement against the background of the zodiac.”

–Then you think this groove was made to be a track that the beetle runs on?”

–Or else the beetle, as you call it, has worn this groove and created this track. Quick, what zodiacal constellation is overhead at midnight right now?”

–Scorpius,” Rose and Scorpius answered in unison. That had been a stupid question; they had been observing Scorpius through the telescope only a few hours earlier.

–So what constellation is the sun in, right now?” Professor Sinistra persisted.

–That would be six constellations away,” Scorpius answered, and he rattled them off in order. –Ram, Bull, Twins, Crab, Lion, Virgin, Scales, Scorpion…” He began counting on his fingers. –…Archer, Goat, Water Carrier, Fish, Ram, Bull… it’s the Bull. The sun is in Taurus now.”

–And what constellation is your so-called beetle in?”

–Taurus,” Scorpius said slowly. –Freaky…does this mean…this beetle moves? All by itself?”

He reached out toward the bit of polished rock he called the ‘beetle’, but instantly he heard Professor Sprout’s voice.

–Don’t touch it!”

Scorpius jerked his hand back. Rose was staring up at him from her position near the floor, wide-eyed.

–You don’t know if it’s cursed or is under the influence of any dangerous spells. Think!” Professor Sprout said forcefully. –Maybe it’s a coincidence that your beetle is sitting in Taurus right now…”

–Or maybe it’s not,” Scorpius finished. –Maybe it makes a circuit around this room once a year. Merlin, that’s freaky! Sitting down here in the dark, year after year, century after century, going round and round, wearing a groove in the wall.”

–How old is the castle? A thousand years? It’s been around a thousand times?” Rose asked in tones of awe.

–Maybe,” Professor Sinistra said.

–Why did they leave it here when they abandoned this room?” Rose continued. –Did they just forget to take it with them?”

–Or maybe they left it because they didn’t need it in the new room,” Scorpius suggested. –It was just junk to them.”

–That would be a very powerful charm that didn’t wear off for a thousand years,” Professor Sinistra said. –No, I don’t think they forgot it. It has a function.”

–What?” Rose asked.

Professor Sprout spoke up. –I don’t know. And that’s why you mustn’t touch it.”

–Let’s keep looking,” Professor Sinistra reminded them with a sigh.

Sobered, they continued searching the walls. Rose moved out from the edges of the floor and directed her wand light over the paving stones. Back and forth she moved, in a repeat of the search pattern she had used in the courtyard.

Suddenly she gave an audible gasp and fell to her knees, trying to speak but only able to choke out, –I…I…” The others all whipped their heads around, and Scorpius covered the distance to her side in a few long strides.

–What? What?”

She could not speak; she just pointed.

He crouched down beside her and saw it. Embedded in the stone floor of the room was a brass tablet, about three inches by four inches in dimension. On it was inscribed ”Helga Hufflepuff. 943-1045.”

His head swam, and he wasn’t sure whether he was awake or dreaming.

–Professors!” he managed to say, and time seemed to pass in slow motion as they left their places by the wall and joined him and Rose in the center of the room. He pointed to the tablet. –Look!” They bent down and stared, their wand lights trained on the gleaming tablet.

–Helga Hufflepuff….” Professor Sprout breathed. –943 to 1045. Oh, Merlin.”

She straightened up. –Look around,” she barked at them. –See if you can find any others.”

They all stood up except Rose and began sweeping their lights rapidly, almost frantically, over the floor.

Soon, –Here’s one!” cried Professor Sinistra, and they rushed to where her light was pointing. It was another brass tablet. Scorpius dropped to his hands and knees to see for sure what it said.

–Godric Gryffindor. 940 to 1038,” he read in a shaky voice. –Is this…is this…?”

–Keep looking!” Professor Sprout ordered, and again the wand lights swept the floor.

Scorpius felt his heart pounding. His chest was in a vise; he could hardly breathe. His arms were shaking, and it was hard to control the sweeps of his wand light precisely; the beam of light seemed to waver and dance erratically.

–Here, here!” cried Professor Sinistra again, and he almost staggered as he ran to see what she had found. It was a third tablet, and on his hands and knees he read aloud, –Rowena Ravenclaw. 950 to 1003.”

–Are they…?” he began.

–Buried under this floor?” Professor Sprout asked. She did not answer the question, but she had voiced what they were all thinking. It was inconceivable, unbelievable, impossible. No, no, it couldn’t possibly be.

–But no one knows where they’re buried,” Rose whispered. –They’ve always told us that.”

–There’s a name missing,” Scorpius said. It was the founder of his House, Salazar Slytherin. They hadn’t found his tablet. He pulled himself to his feet and began to search for a fourth tablet.

–What are you doing?” Professor Sprout asked him.

–Looking for Salazar Slytherin. He must be here somewhere.” It was true that Salazar Slytherin had had a checkered career at Hogwarts and had fallen out with the three founders whose names were on the tablets they had found in the floor, and that he had eventually left the school, but he was still a founder. Scorpius’ own House was named after him. His tablet must be here somewhere.

–We can all help you look, son,” Professor Sprout said in a gentle voice, –but it’s likely you won’t find it. I don’t think he’s here.”

–Yes, we’ll help you,” Professor Sinistra repeated, and they all swept their lights slowly and carefully over the floor, but, as Professor Sprout had predicted, they didn’t find it.

They regrouped in the center of the room, near the three tablets, and Professor Sinistra said, –Finally now it all makes sense. They built the new tower with its new celestial sphere classroom, and they turned this old one into a mausoleum, and hid it in such a way that they thought no one would ever find it.”

–But why?” Rose asked.

Professor Sinistra explained. –Those were difficult and desperate times. There was terrible superstition and persecution of people who didn’t conform. Even dead bodies were not safe. If your enemies didn’t like what you did, or believed, or stood for, they would dig up your corpse after you had died, to punish you further by desecrating your earthly remains, such as by burning your body at the stake or hanging it from a gallows.”

–How horrible!” Rose exclaimed.

Professor Sinistra went on. –I’m guessing that when the new tower was built, the coffins of the founders were brought here, and this floor was lifted, and the coffins were buried here under the floor, with only the brass tablets as markers. Whatever record of their previous burials that still existed was obliterated, and the official story became that no one knew where their graves were. That way, they could be protected forever.”

–And that little beetle you found may have been charmed to be an everlasting defense. I’m so glad you didn’t touch it,” Professor Sprout added.

–Me too,” Scorpius said. Waves of emotion washed over him because of this incredible discovery.

–I gotta sit down,” he said, and he lowered himself down to the floor and sat there cross-legged. Rose sat down next to him, and he put an arm tightly around her shoulder. Everything was surreal. It had been surreal since last night, without let-up. Rose and the professors were the only real things left anymore.

The two professors managed to sit down on the floor, moving a little gingerly, and Professor Sprout said, –We need to decide what we will do now.”

–Do you have to notify the Ministry of Magic?” Rose asked.

–I don’t have to do anything,” Professor Sprout answered. –I am Headmistress here, and what happens or doesn’t happen at Hogwarts is entirely up to me.”

–You mean you’re not going to tell them?” Scorpius asked in wonderment.

–I haven’t decided what I’m going to do yet,” Professor Sprout said. –It will take a lot of thought. Don’t you agree, Aurora?”

–Yes, indeed, a great deal of thought.”

–When will you decide?” Rose asked.

–Oh,” Professor Sprout said, –I may think about it for the rest of my life.”

–That sounds about right,” Professor Sinistra concurred. –The rest of my life.”

–You mean you’re not going to tell them,” Rose stated.

–What purpose would it serve?” Professor Sprout asked. –The founders have rested here in peace and safety for almost a thousand years. Nothing would be gained by changing that now. The witches and wizards who placed them here had good reasons for their actions, and I will respect their judgment.”

They sat quietly for a few moments, and then Professor Sinistra said, –We need to know, Rose and Scorpius. Can we depend on your silence also? Are you two the sort of people who can keep a secret to their graves? Otherwise, we would have to Obliviate your memories, and I really don’t want to do that.”

The professors gazed steadily at Rose and Scorpius. The seriousness of the situation was very clear to him. He nodded.

–I am the kind of person who can keep a secret to the grave. Rose?”

–I can do it too.”

–Good,” Professor Sinistra said. –You realize the great trust that we are placing in you?”

They nodded.

The professors got up on their feet, and Rose and Scorpius followed suit.

–Are you going to take any photographs in this room?” Scorpius asked Professor Sprout.

–No,” she replied, –but somehow I don’t think I will forget what I saw.” She smoothed out her robes. –It’s time for us to be going back up. Even though it’s Saturday, the castle will be waking up soon.”

–I think that going up will be easier than coming down was,” said Scorpius.

They crossed to the opening in the floor and began to descend the short stair. Scorpius turned his head to take one last look and burn this image of the old celestial sphere classroom into his memory forever. There the founders lay, under a dome of stars. He was glad that it was stars.

They emerged from the top of the narrow stair into the bright light and mild wind on the top of the Astronomy Tower. Scorpius breathed in deep lungfuls of fresh air and thought that nothing else had ever been so sweet. The sky was clear, and the hills were very green. It was beautiful. Even the broken chunks of rock on the pavement of the tower had their own unique beauty, with the daylight glinting off their uneven surfaces.

–What about this hole?” Rose asked, referring to the opening of the stair from which they had so recently emerged.

–Don’t worry,” Professor Sprout reassured her. –We’ll repair the parapet today, and it will be hidden again. Meanwhile, the tower will be strictly off limits. The students can see the debris in the courtyard and look at the broken edge of the parapet from down there. No one will see a thing.”

Scorpius shook his head slowly. Unbelievable.

They went down the broad main stair, so luxuriously easy to descend, and at the foot of it Scorpius turned to Professor Sprout.

–May we go back with you to your quarters for a moment? I left my rose basket there.”

She smiled, and Scorpius knew they were all returned to normal life again, where people could glory in the sunlight and talk about roses. As he, Rose, and Professor Sprout walked back to her rooms, he explained to her about the rose bush and how it was supposed to be a memento of an unforgettable night.

–We never expected that you would be part of it too,” he said, –but you were. I made a cutting of the bush for Professor Sinistra, and I think you deserve one too.”

–You will have to wait a bit for it,” Rose hastened to mention. –Scorpius has been promising to make several cuttings, and we have to let the bush grow a little bigger first.”

Professor Sprout chuckled. –I would love to have a rose bush as a remembrance, and I don’t mind waiting.”

After collecting the rose bush in the basket, Scorpius and Rose made their way down the stairs and through the corridors to the entrance hall.

–They’re going to start serving breakfast pretty soon,” Scorpius said. –Do you fancy something to eat? We can sit together; it’s Saturday.”

Rose shook her head. –I don’t have any appetite. I can’t face food right now. I just need to unwind. Let’s go sit outside.”

They went out the main doors and sat on the grass a little ways from the castle. Rose leaned up against Scorpius, and he wrapped his arm around her.

–We promised never to tell anyone,” she said, staring out over the lawn, –but I’m glad that we can still talk about it with each other.”

–And I’m glad that the professors can talk about it with each other. It’s a big secret to keep.”

–You were brave, going down the stair first without knowing what was there.”

–And you were brave to come down after me.”

–I’m glad you were there.”

–I wouldn’t have done it without you.”

She picked up the rose in its pot from out of the basket resting on the grass beside them and cradled the pot between the palms of her hands.

–This is such a nice gift. I’ll keep this rose for the rest of my life.”

Scorpius felt like the luckiest man in the world. –I’ll keep this one too,” he said.
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