In Between Two Worlds (HP/PJO Crossover)

Chapter 147: The Longbottoms.

The door of the office opened.

"Hello, Potter and Black," said Moody. He saw our hesitation. "Come in, then," he urged

Harry and I walked inside.

Fudge was standing beside Dumbledore's desk, wearing his usual pinstriped cloak and holding his lime-green bowler hat (which was a very strange combo that I was internally laughing at).

"Harry! Karlee!" said Fudge jovially, moving forward. "How are you two?"

"Fine," we lied.

"We were just talking about the night when Mr. Crouch turned up on the grounds," said Fudge. "It was you who found him, was it not, Harry?"

"Yes," he said.Then, he added, "I didn't see Madame Maxime anywhere, though, and she'd have a job hiding, wouldn't she?"

"Neither did I," I agreed.

Dumbledore smiled at us behind Fudge's back, his eyes twinkling.

"Yes, well," said Fudge, looking embarrassed, "we're about to go for a short walk on the grounds, if you'll excuse us...perhaps if you just go back to your class -"

"We wanted to talk to you, Professor," Harry said quickly, looking at Dumbledore, who gave him a swift, searching look.

"Wait here for me," he said. "Our examination of the grounds will not take long."

They trooped out in silence past us and closed the door. After a minute or so, I heard the clunks of Moody's wooden leg growing fainter in the corridor below. I looked around.

"Hello, Fawkes," Harry said.

Fawkes was standing on his golden perch beside the door. The size of a swan, with magnificent scarlet-and-gold plumage, he swished his long tail and blinked benignly at Harry and me.

We sat down in chairs in front of Dumbledore's desk. For several minutes, I sat and watched the old headmasters and headmistresses snoozing in their frames, thinking about what I had just heard.

I felt much calmer, somehow, now that I was in Dumbledore's office, knowing we would shortly be telling him about our dream. I looked up at the walls behind the desk. The patched and ragged Sorting Hat was standing on a shelf. A glass case next to it held the magnificent silver sword Godric Gryffindor. I remembered the terrible day we found it and shuddered at the memory.

I noticed a patch of silvery light, dancing and shimmering on the glass case. I looked around for the source of the light and saw a sliver of silver-white shining brightly from within a black cabinet behind him, whose door had not been closed properly. I nudged Harry and pointed at the cabinet. We hesitated, glanced at Fawkes, then got up, walked across the office, and I pulled open the cabinet door.

A shallow stone basin lay there, with odd carvings around the edge: runes and symbols that I did not recognize. The silvery light was coming from the basin's contents, which were like nothing I had ever seen before. I could not tell whether the substance was liquid or gas. It was a bright, whitish silver, and it was moving ceaselessly; the surface of it became ruffled like water beneath wind, and then, like clouds, separated and swirled smoothly. It looked like light made liquid - or like wind made solid - I couldn't make up my mind.

I wanted to touch it, to find out what it felt like, but nearly four years' experience of the magical world told me that sticking me hand into a bowl full of some unknown substance was probably a very stupid thing to do. I therefore pulled my wand out of the inside of my robes, cast a nervous look around the office, looked back at the contents of the basin, and prodded them.