Inside My Mind (A Harry Potter Fanfiction)

Chapter XVI

Hogwarts, Unplottable Location, Scotland, Great Britain

Thursday the 31st of December 1992

1:00 PM

Hermione, Ron, and Bella were in the library trying to decipher the riddles, and it was proving difficult. Everything about it was just difficult. She couldn't understand how to go about the riddles.

"This is getting so tedious! We don't have any leads whatsoever!" Bella complained and Ron nodded in agreement.

"I thought there would be a little something to go on! We've got nothing and we've been reading for months now!" Ron sighed. Hermione glanced at her two best friends, carefully. She needed to do something other than nag them, she knew it. They would just get mad at her. So, she'd say a useless fact.

"Did you know Grindelwald's sign wasn't a Rune or anything but a symbol?" Hermione said, matter-of-factly. Bella nodded, absently as she stroked the locket she had gotten for Christmas. She took it off only when she had to and when she did, she placed it in a heavily warded box.

"Yes, It's the symbol for the three gifts" Bella said, reading through the books. She felt the stillness of Hermione and Ron next to her and they were watching her with wide eyes.

"What three gifts, Bella?" Ron asked, quietly. Bella looked at him in shock. She couldn't believe he didn't remember.

"It's not important just that fairytale, the Tale of the Three Brothers. You know they were really people! The Peverells and that symbol was their coat of arms. I think I'm related to them through the Potter line...oh Merlin! Where's the fairytale book?" Bella demanded. Ron passed her the book and Hermione glanced at it.

"I hadn't even bothered to read that one! I can't believe I was so flippant about it. Read it aloud" Hermione commanded. Bella nodded.

"There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight. In time, the brothers reached a river, too deep to wade through, and too dangerous to swim across. However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands, and made a bridge appear across the treacherous water. They were halfway across it, when they found their path blocked by a hooded figure, and Death spoke to them. He was angry that he had been cheated out of three new victims, for travelers usually drowned in the river. But Death was cunning. He pretended to congratulate the three brothers upon their magic, and said that each had earned a prize for being clever enough to evade him" Bella began. She passed the book to Ron who looked a little put out.

"What's wrong?" Hermione questioned. Ron pointed at one word in the text.

"When Mum used to read it to us, she always said midnight. It gave it a little more suspense, I suppose" Ron said. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Well, for our purposes, its twilight. Now would you read?" Bella snapped before gesturing towards the book. Ron nodded, trying to calm her down a bit. He wasn't in the mood for one of her own moods.

"So, the oldest brother, Antioch, who was a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence. A wand that must always win battles for its owner, a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered Death. So, Death had crossed to an Elder Tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a wand from a branch that had hung there, and gave it to the oldest brother" Ron started. Hermione's eyes widened and she pointed down to wear they had written the riddle down.