The Lost Prophecy | Year One

The Fifth Secret Passageway

For the fourth time in a row, Phoenix found herself spending the night on one of the sofas by the fireplace in her common room. Several books were sprawled in front of her on the table as she examined a vaguely sketched blueprint of the Hogwarts Castle that she had stumbled upon in an old textbook of Muggle Studies.

The blueprint held several sketches of the Castle, but they were predominantly of the West and East Towers, along with a couple of outlines of the Castle Grounds and the Quidditch Pitch. Phoenix groaned in annoyance at the lack of drawings of the Dungeons and angrily muttered to herself, "It's as if we don't even exist."

Phoenix folded the blueprint and tossed it aside onto the pile of books. She had been trying to make sense of what she had seen that day for almost the entire week, but she was no closer to finding out any information than five days ago. She leaned back against the pillow and stared at the empty portrait above the mantle.

She often wondered where the old wizard had disappeared, but she firmly believed that Emrys would appear again. Hence, she would occasionally glance towards the frame, hoping to catch a glimpse of his piercing, ocean-blue eyes.

As time passed, her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, till she could no longer keep them awake. She was slowly drifting into a deep slumber but was abruptly awakened by the voice of someone calling her name. Phoenix bolted awake and looked around frantically, but no one was in sight.

"I'm losing it," Phoenix mumbled under her breath and was about to go back to sleep when a bright light emerged through one of the books. She quickly dug past the books, when her eyes landed on her two-way mirror. She gripped the mirror and looked into it, hoping to see who had called her name face but ended up staring at her own reflection.

"Jack?"

"Phoenix! Finally! There you are! I've been trying to get in touch with you for days now, love. Why haven't you been answering us?" said, Elena as her face appeared in the mirror. Phoenix gave a weak smile as she waved at her, "Hey, Mum. Sorry, I've just been a bit busy with classwork," she replied, as Elena raised an eyebrow at her.

"I was, truly," Phoenix insisted, as she turned the mirror around to show the pile of books on the table, "The amount of homework we end up getting before each weekend is horrifyingly absurd."

Elena chuckled as she looked down at her daughter's tired face, "Well, I do hope you're keeping up with our classwork too, young lady."

"Yes, Mom," Phoenix muttered, "How could I forget?"

"Good, good. Now, that I've gotten hold of you, would you care to tell me how far along you are with your subjects?"

"I'm doing fairly good in most of the subjects, Mum. But I have to admit my Herbology and Astronomy skills aren't up to the mark, but I'm trying my best to keep up. Draco's been helping me with Astronomy a lot and Nevs is –"

"As glad as I am to know that you are doing well in your magic classes, I was talking about your regular subjects," Elena said, interrupting Phoenix, who looked quite agitated. 

"They are my regular subjects Mom," Phoenix said, as she looked straight into Elena's eyes.

"Well, then might be. But you and I both know I wasn't talking about them," Elena replied, "Your regular education is very important too, just because you are a witch it doesn't mean you forget your roots, Phoenix. You've been an exceptional student all these years at school and I want to make sure it stays that way."

Phoenix looked away from Elena and remained silent. She wasn't in a mood to argue or explain herself, so she simply nodded.

"Use your words, Phoenix. I want you to promise me that –"