Molly Weasley walked to the front desk at St. Mungo’s, sporting her favorite brown overcoat.
“Hello, may I speak to one of the Healers please?” Molly asked politely.
“Which Healer are you speaking of?” the receptionist responded while dipping her head down to peek over her black-rimmed spectacles.
“Umm . . . Healer . . . Lenon?” she replied, unsure of herself.
“There isn’t a Healer Lenon. . . .”
“It was one of the Healers who had taken care of me while I was in here two months ago. Medium height, scruffy face. . . . Any of this ring a bell?”
“No.”
“Nothing at al””
“No.”
Out of nowhere, a Healer crept up quietly behind Molly and tapped her on the shoulder gently. “Molly! How are you feeling?!” The Healer motioned to the receptionist that she’d be with him.
“Next!” the receptionist called while huffing out a sigh.
“So Molly, you feel better? No sore arms or legs?” the Healer questioned while guiding her into a sitting room. He shut the door behind him and gestured for Molly to sit down.
“Yes, much better! And no, no sore arms or legs! I’m perfectly healed!”
“Our Healers do a terrific job, don’t they?” questioned the Healer, over expressively.
“Yes, yes they do. But that’s not why I’m here. I’m wondering about that cure you’ve been working on. How is that coming along?”
“Well, we’re about a quarter of the way done, and all is running smoothly. We just hit a little snag toward the beginning, but all is fine now.”
“Well, that’s good. Do you still think that it could cure millions?” Molly questioned, hesitantly placing her purse on her lap.
“Yes. It’s quite a miracle we ever came across this. It really was a good thing that Remus had this medical case, but ””
“He still died though!” Molly expressed, trying to refrain herself from tearing up.
“Molly, I understand your pain and how devastated you must be. Just stay focused with me here. Think about it. Your friend could save half of the Wizarding race!”
“If it’s such a miracle to have come across, then why should half of the Wizarding race be cautious about getting this disease?”
“The Dark Side has already perfected this toxin. They are the ones who actually make it. They could release a huge amount into the Wizarding world at any time. I’m guessing that they haven’t had it perfected for long. If they had, they would have used it against us by now. That’s why. It could be a major threat to us at any moment. Remus may not be the first death due to this cause.”
***
The Great Hall was full of buzz in the morning about the recent load of snow that had fallen over night. The Great Hall had hardly been filled, however. Only about five students, including Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been in there. The other load of students had gone home to their families due to Christmas Break.
“I love Christmas,” Hermione expressed while hugging Ron’s arm.
“Yeah, it’s quite the season . . . so, you two are a couple now, are you?” Harry questioned while taking a mouthful of eggs.
“Yup!” Ron declared, proud of himself for becoming a man, despite the fact of how shy and nervous he had been around girls before.
“After all these years,” Hermione hummed while resting her head on Ron’s shoulder.
Dumbledore walked hesitantly toward the three teenagers. He sat down lightly next to Harry and began speaking, “How’s your morning?” he asked calmly.
“Er..fine, Professor,” Harry replied questionably. “Did you just come here to ask us how are day was so far?”
“Well . . . no. You have three of the Six Stones of Berfulema so far, correct?” Dumbledore asked while quieting his voice so only the three could hear.
“Yeah, they’re up in my trunk,” Harry replied while Ron and Hermione just sat there on the opposite side of the table, listening.
“You have three more to collect. One of those three is the Ash Stone. As you know, Hermione, I previously told you that the Ash Stone was placed in the Forbidden Forest””
“Yeah,” Hermione said while sitting back up.
“It’s no longer in there. The Ash Stone now lies in the depths of the Earth””
“Wait, hold on. Why did you move the stone? And if you moved it, why couldn’t you have just given it to us?” Hermione asked. The three of them began to listen more intently than before after learning how important this was.
“I haven’t moved the stone. After Fredrick realized how intent we were on finding these stones, he moved it to a new location. See, Fredrick knows where all the stones are. There are certain people destined to find these stones. When he discovered that we in fact were the ones destined to find the stones, he became furious. As you probably guessed, he doesn’t like us very much. He cannot use the stones himself to put into the arch on the cliff. The reason? The creator cannot use them for his own cause. He, hoping that someone like Draco was destined for them, believed that he could control the alternate world.” Dumbledore explained dryly.
“That’s really confusing!” Ron expressed.
“Think about it,” Dumbledore proclaimed sullenly while walking away.
“So the Ash Stone is somewhere new. . . . Wait! We don’t know where it is now!” Harry said while trying to get Dumbledore’s attention.
Dumbledore hadn’t noticed and continued to walk away.
“Well then. I guess we’ll need to catch up on that later. So Ron, have you finished your Potions assignment?” Harry asked while finishing his breakfast.
“About halfway done,” he said while taking out his paper from his robe’s pocket.
“Can I see it? I’m having some trouble with mine,” Harry responded.
Hermione suddenly bolted up in laughter. “HELP? FROM RON?!” Ron turned at her with a glare. “I’m sorry, it’s just . . . you aren’t too bright!” Hermione laughed and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Thanks for your support,” he said sarcastically. “Here Harry, you can have a look.” Ron handed over his papers and smiled.
Harry scanned Ron’s paper and wrote down some notes on his hand.
“Thanks, Ron!” Harry exclaimed.
Harry began to pass the paper back to Ron when he accidentally knocked over his Pumpkin Juice. It spilt all over Ron’s paper and seeped through. The ink smudged and blurred and turned into rows of black splotches.
“Ah, no!!” Ron shouted, trying to dry his paper.
Harry’s guilt grew as he had just ruined his friend’s homework. “Ron, I’m so sorry!” He tried to help dry his paper, but was not successful. “Err....I ” I ” I have notes. . . .” Harry said while showing Ron his hand which had been scribbled on.
“Worthless now. . . .” Ron said while getting up from his seat. He walked over to the crackling fire in the Great Hall. He threw his paper in the fire. The still dry pieces erupted in flames while the wet pieces didn’t do much. Ron watched as his paper sunk into the embers of the fire. Strangely, the damp pieces of the paper erupted in flames.
That’s odd, Ron thought. He watched as it continued burning. It stopped sinking though, almost as if it had hit something. Ron grabbed a long brass rod from the stand which sat to the left of the fireplace. Poking around where his paper had been, he felt something hard, something other than wood. He ran back over to the table and grabbed his own Pumpkin Juice from where he had been sitting. When returning back to the fire, he doused it with the juice he had been drinking previously. It sizzled as a large cloud of smoke rose up and out into the Great Hall. Ron grabbed the brass rod and moved the pieces of wood out of the way. While stooping down to a lower level, he noticed a small glint in the fire. He kept his view of that object and slowly maneuvered it out of the fire. A stone clattered to the floor, red and dazzling.
“Harry!” Ron exclaimed while motioning for him to come over.
“What, Ron?” Harry asked while walking to his side.
Ron pointed to the floor where the stone lay. “It’s the Fire Stone! Harry, I found the Fire Stone!”
“Ron, keep it down! You don’t want everyone knowing about the Stones now do you?!” Harry yelled in a hushed whisper.
Ron turned around and noticed two other students besides the trio sitting at the opposite end of the Great Hall.
“I don’t think anyone heard . . .” he said quietly while pointing behind him. “They’d had to have had pretty good hearing to be able to hear me across the Great Hall.”
“Your probably right, but Ron, this is brilliant! We’re one step closer to our purpose!” Harry leaned down and picked up the stone.
“AH!” Harry exclaimed, throwing the rock back onto the ground. His skin turned to a light red and had the impression of the stone encrusted into it.
“Did I mention that Stone was sitting in the fire?”
“Hmm, no, you forgot to mention that!” Harry shouted while shaking his hand vigorously. “Bloody hell, Ron, how hot was it in there?!”
“It was fire . . . you tell me. But, come on! Even now?”
“Guess so!” Harry continued shaking his hand, trying to figure out a way to cool it down. He rushed out of the Great Hall and out of Hogwarts. He fell on his knees and placed his hand deep beneath the snow. A gave a sigh of relief as a cool sensation rushed through his body.
A sudden snowball hit him square in the back. He took a quick spin around and saw Ron with a second snowball in hand.
“Ron, not now!” Harry expressed while standing up. “Wait, hold on . . . Ron, please tell me you grabbed the Stone off of the ground!”
“Yeah, I grabbed it before I came out to pelt you in the back,” he laughed with another snowballl in hand.
Ron threw the snowball which hit Harry in the chest.
“Oh, you’re going down!” Harry shouted while packing a clump of snow together. While throwing his freshly made snowball, Hermione rushed out of the building.
“Don’t act like children! Ron just found the Fire Stone! Let’s focus on that and not on sn””
A snowball suddenly hit Hermione on the leg.
“Whoops, must have slipped,” Harry explained.
Hermione joined in on the snowball fight. An eruption of laughter arose as three friends began having a snowball fight. Something they hadn’t done since they were kids.
***
“They’re almost done collecting the stones,” Voldemort hissed. “They’re doing the job for us. When they’re done collecting the stones . . . I’ll kill the three, take the stones, and evil will finally reign.”
“Yes, my Lord,” Fredrick replied while bowing at Voldemort’s feet. “I am now your loyal follower.”