The Next Adventure

What lies beneath...

"Calm down Liz, I can barely understand you..." said a tall man with light brown hair to the teenage girl standing beside him.

"Professor, I followed Mr Potter after your meeting and you want believe what I've discovered!" , a girl around 17, with hair as black as coal and green sparkly eyes said full of excitement to her teacher.

"And why were you following him may I ask?" said the professor crossing his arms.

Liz rubbed the back of her neck with her hand.

"That...is..not important..." she said.

Her teacher gave her a cold look, but shortly after, he sighted and said:

"All right, let's hear it."

The professor waved his hand and one area of the room without furniture filled with blue smoke. When it cleared, two velvet armchairs and a small wooden table were filling the empty spot. On the table, there was a silvery tray holding two ceramic, filled with tea, tea cups.

The professor sat down and turned to his student. He pointed his arm to the empty armchair and said:

"Shall we? The tea is freshly made in the kitchen..."

A smile was drawn to the girl's face. She swiftly sat down and took her cup of tea in her hands. She twirled it between her palms, looking at her reflection on the tea until she was certain she had relaxed enough to go on with her story without skipping parts out of excitement.

"Well, right after your meeting, I turned into a raven and followed him. He walked to that big park in New York... Central Park." She said calmly this time.

"Central park you say? I didn't considered Fleamont to like parks." The professor said, still having a few doubts about the importance of his student's story.

"Well it was getting pretty late, and most people were gone. He leaned to a tree and I could tell he was waiting for someone... and I was right. "

"Really?" Said the professor, suddenly more interested in the story. "Who was it?" He asked.

"I didn't catch his full name... Hector...Georger...Greoger..." Liz mumbled trying to remember.

"Hector?" The professor wondered "Is it..."

"Hector Granger!" Said the girl proudly to have remembered, the exact moment her teacher said the same name.

A moment of silence followed. The teacher left his mouth hang open, breathing anxiously in the realisation of the importance of the situation. His eyes started searching the room for a solution until they were fixed into the wooden library across the room. The professor stood up and raced to the spot he was so intensively looking at, jumping over a few furniture on his way there. The girl watched him curiously, surprised with the older man's reaction, as he searched in his priced library with some much fierce that he was throwing all the book he was uninterested in all over the room, not caring of their fate but the one's he was looking for.

At last, the professor cried victoriously while holding a large book in a red leathered cover, taken from the depths of the library's second shelf ,in both of his hands. Liz read the title confused:

"A simple guide for cooking delicious magical pies...".

She raised one eyebrow and looked at her professor as he just told her he was going to attempt winning a wizarding cooking competition instead of dealing with...whatever the situation was.

The man spoke without looking at his student, as if he knew she was looking at him with goggled eyes, almost bigger than an owl's.

"Don't judge a book by its cover dear..." he said calmy. "Literally this time !". He laughed quietly by himself at his cold joke and opened the cover of the book. He started searching its pages for something and only when he reached a part in the middle of the book, he stopped. For that part and until the end of the book, squared holes, layered one on top of the other, were delicately cutten in each of the pages. That way, a paper nest was created inside the book, withholding a light blue crystal star with a moon rock placed in the middle. The professor took this item carefully, trying not to scratch or leave fingerprints on the clean crystal.

Not caring about the book anymore, he left it to fall on the ground and join its roommates.

"What is that?" asked Liz, softly, charmed by the jewel's beauty.

"This is a generator." Responded the man raising both of his eyebrows. "I left it in this improvised safe when I retired. But I guess it's time to restore this place to its former glory.".

And with that he moved a thick curtain made of roots at the other side of the room and with a wave of his hand, waved away the rest of the plant parts on the now naked wall, revealing a way to an other room.

Liz looked amazed. The older wizard clapped his hands once and the room in front of them filled with light. They both entered the room and the curtain closed behind them. It was bigger then the other one. The walls were covered by shelfs filled with lots and lots of small vials and boxes. A large black cauldron was hanging over a fireplace with no fire across the room. Lots and lots of roots were hanging from the ceiling, glowing so the room would be enlightened. The heart of the room was a big round well with no roof and filled with crystal clear water to the top.

The professor used his free arm to lift and secure the right sleeve of his robe. After that, he leaned over the well and reached the bottom of it with his pinky. The water was conpletely transparent and Liz could see everything her teacher was doing. She watched him leaning even more over the water and putting the star in a star shaped hole in the bottom of the tiny lake that fitted the crystal like a glove.

In a matter of seconds the water started to glow. The light of the roots brightened and all the dust was immediately cleaned off the room. The professor wiped his arm on his robe placed his hand on the rock wall surrounding the well and said looking at his reflection on the glowing water:

"Show me Fleamont Potter"

A few round waves were created on the water, turning the water's blue light into a multi coloured image.

And there they were. Harry in the Minister's office, along with Natasha and the Minister, Fleamont Potter ,himself.

"...the Deatheaters have been busy" said Fleamonts image and the professor backed away from the pont, taking his hand of the wall. The image blurred and finally disappeared.

"Is Mayflit here?" He asked without taking his eyes away from the waters.

"Yeah, why?" Said Liz tentatively.

"I'll need his assist."

And after that the man exited the room and went straight to a brown owl's with white details cage, took a piece of paper and his quill and wrote only a few words:

Fleamont,

I understand why you didn't tell me this secret of yours, but now I know. I also know that this is not a battle you can win by yourself. Fighting a friend can be harsh. I know.

                                                     Merlin