Chapter 76. The Tome

After arriving at Honeydukes, Pansy, Draco, and I began making our way to the Joke shop, but a sudden whisper through the wind caught my attention. I paused in my tracks, and swiveled my head to look where it emanated from. “Lucas? What’s wrong?” Pansy asked, looking back at me, before glancing at the shop front I was looking at, Tomes and Scrolls. ‘It almost sounded like…’ I thought, but spoke somehow knowing they both didn’t hear the strange wisps of words. “You guys can go on ahead, I’ll catch up.” I said, my eyes not leaving the store front.

“Don’t take too long.” Draco said, wanting to see the joke shop much more than the shop on Tomes. Pansy wasn’t far behind him, leaving me in silence, the only sound was the hustle and bustle of others walking around in the streets. I slowly made my way inside the store, an old man glancing at me before losing interest. My ears slowly began to ring, the very same ringing I heard when discovering Val. It only grew louder as I made my way to the back of the shop.

With each step, it grew louder, beginning to pierce my ears with its high pitched sound. I could hear nothing else, my footsteps grew distant, my heart sounded silent, my gasps for breath seemed fake. My head began to split in pain as I approached closer to the bookshelf in the back, reminding me to take my medicine, but I forgoed that motion and looked at a black Tome without a title on its spine. Grasping at it, the ringing suddenly stopped, leaving me with the sudden, creepy feeling of silence. I licked my dry lips, and slowly pulled it from the shelf, looking at it from every angle.

It was a quite large book, with about two inches of pages between its bounding black leather. However, something felt unsettling about that leather, it didn’t feel like normal dragon, or even cow hide I was accustomed to. It felt spongy to the touch, like I could almost leave an imprint of my finger in the hide. Finally cracking the book open, I could see it filled with ancient runes written in red ink. I wasn’t great at Runes, however something about these felt strange. Those that I could read were gibberish. Containing words that shouldn’t go together. ‘Door hassle rupture… What does that mean?’

Suddenly a small piece of parchment fell from between the binding of the book onto the ground. I quickly picked it up, and to my shock, I could see Runes written in order with the same runes, written in a different order in parallel to the others. “Could it be that simple?” I wondered in confusion, trying to translate the text to test it.

If you are reading this, then you are worthy of holding the torch I have created. Enjoy the wails of their agony, and cries of anguish. Watch as they writhe from their own personal hells. Laugh at their minds slowly degrading into nothing, leaving naught but an empty husk. I shall grant you these pleasures, take my dominion and gain dominance over all that is fear. Become King of Fear itself. Ekrizdis.

I felt myself sicken as I continued to read further and further, but couldn’t stop my eyes. My disbelief of this Tome, written in red (what I hoped) ink, drew my gaze at what else it had to say. So many questions revolving around it, so many blood curdling, hair raising, sickening questions, but questions nonetheless. My own curiosity forced my hand as it turned the page. What was written was a recipe for a very difficult potion, the most difficult I had ever seen before. With ingredients reminiscent of insanity potion, however much different halfway through. I could only imagine how he tested the potion before perfecting it.

“Lucas?” My name being called, I was forcefully yanked from my thoughts, as I slammed the book back shut with a gasp. “Don’t-! Huh?” I was about to angrily tell Hermione off, but paused at the sight of her. I stumbled in my words, my sickening feeling fading to make way for something else as I looked at both Hermione and Chiara. “You- uh… You changed your hair.” I said, looking back and forth between them, not knowing what to say. “What do you think?” Hermione smirked while slowly combing her hair with her fingers.

I frowned while turning away, unable to see either of them for some reason. “I would say anything is an improvement from your rat’s-nest of before.” I quickly answered, feeling my face suddenly flush. Hermione let out a humph, not yelling at me in anger, but perhaps just seeing through my badly masked indifference. “H-Hi Lucas…” Chiara then spoke up, giving a small wave. Her hair which was normally just above her shoulders, now was somehow much longer, giving her a more sultry look, completely offset by her shy responses. A nervous beauty.

“Hi…” I responded back, leaving everything in an awkward silence, her strange kindredness still burning within me whenever we were together. The closest feeling I had with anyone else would have been the new teacher, but not nearly as much as I felt with her for some reason. We weren’t acquainted enough to really discuss with one another, and I didn’t want to close that gap. “What were you reading?” Hermione suddenly asked, trying to move the conversation along. I still couldn’t look at either of them directly, just focusing my gaze on the shelves of books and scrolls while scratching the back of my head. “Nothing much, I was just going to use this as a medium to study my reading capabilities on Runes.”

Hermione hummed, unable to stop herself from smiling at Lucas’ embarrassed face as she nodded. “That is a good idea, perhaps I should take one for myself.” She glanced at the shelf, but her mind was still affixed on Lucas’ blushing face, unable to look at her directly in her eyes. She couldn’t help but enjoy the fact that Lucas saw her this way. ‘But why?’ She suddenly thought, her hand stopping over a book as it came to her mind. Why did she like that? Over all the things he had done that caused her so much grief, even now at this moment, she still enjoyed being around him. Was that the reason she started taking lessons with Professor McGonagall? To stay close with him?

“Regardless, I’ll be going now.” Lucas muttered, passing by her, gently taking her wrist and moving it away from the shelf so he could get through. Hermione hid a wince of shock as he silently moved to the counter to pay for his book, leaving Hermione grasping at the spot he touched. He brought so much confusion in Hermione, so much so that she hated him, but couldn’t bring herself to avoid him when a chance presented itself. She did want to be with him, but hated the fact that he didn’t want to be close with her. Finally that epiphany struck her, that was why she felt so confused all the time.

She was left alone in the shop, together with Chiara. She grasped at her necklace, but felt a renewed sense of vigor. She had come this far in her lessons, already done with her potion, and now seeing his reaction to her, unable to stop his usual mask of superiority from cracking after seeing her in a different light. She knew that she could have a discussion with him after becoming something that he couldn’t hurt. Hermione glanced at her friend, still clinging on to her, watching Lucas finishing his purchase silently. ‘I’ll be able to tell her too…’

Inside the three brooms inn, I met up with Draco and Pansy, as they tried getting me to guess which magical product did what while we sipped butterbeer. I pushed the Tome out from my mind as I enjoyed the games we played together. It wasn’t long before our time was up, and we headed back to school. Nearing the back of the group, I heard that same whispering of the wind again, and looked back. There I spied a black hooded creature slowly moving behind the trunk of a large tree, a Dementor. ‘Dementor… Ekrizdis… Ekrizdis created the Dementors.’ A sudden realization sunk in my stomach, turning it into a knot while the book seemingly burned in my pocket.

“Peterson! Hurry up!” Filch yelled at me, making me jump. I gasped gathering my wits once again, the image of the hooded figure now gone from where I had seen it before. Running towards the rest of the group, I made it back to Draco and Pansy, Draco mistook my slightly strange demeanor as missing Hogsmeade already, but Pansy wasn’t so sure. “Is everything okay?” She asked in a whisper. All I could do was shake my head with a shrug, and tell her honestly. “I don’t know.”