Spells in Silence

Chapter 30: New Journeys

Hazel crested a short hill and glanced down at the small hamlet that was now visible from her vantage point.

This was the kind of middle-of-nowhere village that had dotted the English countryside for centuries and would continue doing so for possibly forever.

A sleepy town that the rest of the world and time itself seemed to have forgotten. The kind of place where surely nothing of note ever happened.

It was therefore both surprising and not so in the slightest to discover that the little town of Godric's Hollow was the birthplace and resting place of generations of wizards.

Readjusting the rope on her satchel over her shoulder, she started her tired walk down the hill.

Until just a couple of weeks ago, she had never heard of this place and had little to no reason to seek it out. That all changed when she was browsing the bookstores on Diagon and Knockturn Alley looking for useful reference material.

The bulk of her worthy finds had in truth come from a few secondhand stores – including a dog-eared book about something called 'hedge magic' and as well as a ratty primer on divination from the late eighteenth century she was itching to sink her teeth into – but her digging also found easily a dozen books on the war that rocked the wizards' world from the late 1960s up until Halloween of '81.

Considering her reputation among the wizards, she figured it was prudent to read up on just what had happened that led to that fateful night.

Most of the books had been disturbing, not to mention frustrating. Part of that was because she still, even after so much reading, did not know the name of this terrifying wizard who was responsible for her own story; the bravest book of the lot labeled him one single time as 'the Dark Lord V—', but otherwise it was all 'You-Know-Who' and 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'. She was, however, starting to understand the source of the fear. The same book that was willing to give her his initial also discussed a spell they called the Taboo, a curse straight out of a horror novel where saying his name out loud either directly summoned his followers to the speaker or else 'only' allowed them to teleport to people who stood against them. It certainly put Mr. Ollivander's comment about his name inviting death to one's doorstep in a clearer light.

The other source of her frustration was that none of the books said what happened after You-Know-Who's death. They talked about him murdering her parents and then somehow murdering himself when he tried to curse her, but if the books were to be believed, that was the end of it. He had led an army of all things; what happened to them?! All that was said was that wizards he placed under an incredibly powerful mind-control spell woke up and went back to their normal lives, but surely he could not have held all of his army in his thrall?

She knew how difficult it was to control just one person, as she had discovered when she and Hedwig had been attacked by that grief-crazed wizard. And this You-Know-Who figure was meant to have done this to as many as several hundred people? All at once? The mysteries of magic were immense, but this seemed too big to be believable. At that point, if he wanted to become a king like some of the books claimed, why hadn't he just mind-controlled the government and forced them to name him king of the wizards? She was no expert in politics, but that sounded much more straightforward and would have taken a lot less time.

Her brain later reminded her of McGonagall's words, about how she needed to be kept safe from the Death Eaters and the other people who followed him. She supposed that answered one question, that there were people who supported him in truth without coercion. She still did not understand why they would care that much about her now after a full decade, but clearly the professor believed they still existed and were out and about in the world.