Begin to Hope

"Uh, Ria, do you really think that was the best thing to do?" Maverick asked as hurried along the oddly empty corridors.

"Of course. That little slut. I hope she chokes--"

Maverick looked at me curiously.

"Not on him! You little pervert. I just meant in general." I stopped at the intersection of a large hallway and a staircase. "Where is the library?" I mused out loud, looking around for any signs.

"Over there," Maverick said, pointing down the staircase. "On the left, I think."

We hurried down the stairs and to the left. We found ourselves entering a library, larger than that at Hogwarts or the Ministry or anything else that I had ever seen before.

"Wow," Maverick whispered, "It's huge!"

The walls of books seem to stretch for miles in every direction. Right inside the door was a grumpy-looking lady seated behind a desk.

"Names?" She demanded, her quill at the ready to take our information done.

"Ria and Prosper Truth," I told her. She wrote it down and asked, "What subject are you looking for information on?"

"Uhh... Dumbledore," Maverick replied.

Her head snapped up, looking at us both in alarm. "What would you two children want to read about him for? How about I find you a nice picture book instead?"

"We're not children." I insisted. "We want to find out about him because--" I lowered my voice and leaned in so she could hear, "We heard someone saying today that he may have been right. And I just don't know what they were talking about! I wanted to find out information about him so I could prove them wrong."

The women's eyes grew wide and she immediately started scratching things away on her parchment. "Do you know who this blasphemous individual was?" she demanded, looking up at us like a stupid-looking bird.

"Not a clue," I shrugged, "I should have gotten the girl's name--however, she was blonde-haired and blue-eyed. I'd say search the castle for her." Without another word I pushed past the lady's desk. Her mouth had dropped open and she was gazing into space as though thinking really hard.

We wandered up and down the aisles for quite awhile, exclaiming out loud amusing titles to each other.

"Hey, Prosper, look at this: Discovering the Dark Lord In Yourself. 2000 pages. A light read, don't you think?"

"Oh, that's nothing! How about So, You Wanted To Love A Muggle? 140 Useful Tips of Cleansing Yourself."

And so it went on, the two of us, finding books on all subjects and all degrees of hatred of non pure-bloods.

At the end of one of the aisles, tucked between two books about Grindelwald, I found a list of the numerous books that were banned from appearing in the library, most of them pertaining to showing any half-bloods or Muggle borns in a positive light.

After looking through the list twice thoroughly, Maverick groaned and let it drop from his fingers.

"How are we to ever find out any information if all of this is banned?"

I shook my head. "I have no idea."

Just then a loud screeching infiltrated my eardrums. I held my hands over my ears and looked around.

"What is that?" I yelled to Maverick.

The screeching stopped as suddenly as it began and instead a loud voice came on over what I supposed to be the intercom Klaus had mentioned.

"Would William Truth please report to the Ninth Floor Main Hall, please? I repeat, Will Truth to Ninth Floor Main Hall."

The intercom was switched off and I turned to Maverick with a stunned look on my face.

"You know, the name 'William Truth' seems vaguely familiar..." Maverick muttered to me, looking around suspiciously.

"That's because that would be Klaus, you dolt!"

"Oh, right!" A look of dawning comprehension crossed his face. "But what would the Ninth Floor want with him?"

"I don't know. Maybe they want to neuter him." I replied sarcastically.

We continued searching, but my mind was on Klaus. What could the Ninth Floor Main Hall want to do with him? What was even on the Ninth Floor?"

I turned around in circles, spotting someone in the next aisle over just standing there flipping through a book. I gently tip-toed my way over and tapped them on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, sir, I have a question." I asked meekly.

"Yes?" The man turned and looked down at me and I was delighted to see that it was Jeremy.

"Jeremy! I didn't think I'd see you again!"

"Ria, what a nice surprise! How are you doing? Getting acquainted with the school, I hope? I heard about your unconsciousness, though. That sucks. Sometimes happens a lot, though, you know."

Maverick stood awkwardly behind the bookshelf, hiding from view. He motioned for me to ask the question.

"But as long as you're okay now, that's fine. Ah, yes, you wanted to ask me something?"

I was hopping back and forth from one foot to the other nervously, studying Jeremy's face while he talked, looking for clues as to whether or not he was a good person. Could he be trusted? Was he really on Voldemort's side? Oh, what was I thinking? I couldn't confide in anyone here.

"I was just wondering--they called Will up to the Ninth just now. Can I ask what's on the Ninth Floor?"

"Why, that's the Dark Lord's special meeting rooms, of course. It's where he and his favorite followers discuss his plans. One usually has to be a Level Nine or Ten to even go up there. I wonder what they want with Will, though?" He put a hand to his face and massaged his chin thoughtfully. Noticing the look on my face, he continued, "Oh, yeah. I heard the announcement as well. Kind of weird, you know? I hope they didn't catch him with anything. Have you been hanging around with any suspicious individuals lately?"

I shook my head. "But Klaus, he--"

"Well, just stay out of trouble, you kids. I'll catch you later." He put the book he had been clutching back on the shelf and exited before I had a chance to respond.

I shook my head, feeling more confused than I'd been before talking to Jeremy.

Maverick, making sure Jeremy had left the library, approached me silently from behind. "What'd Jeremy say?"

I watched as a small child, probably around three or four, waddled down the next aisle and stopped at a corner of one of the bookshelves, peering around it cautiously, as if trying to avoid detection from his mother.

"The Ninth Floor is where Voldemort himself is located." I whispered over my shoulder. "He has special meetings and everything up there. What would he want with Klaus?"

"Could somebody have ratted us out?" Maverick asked, the panic obvious in his voice.

"No...they couldn't have possibly. How could anyone have known our true motives?" I paused for a moment, thinking. "But if they did--wouldn't they have called us up there too?"

The child I had been watching jumped suddenly as his mother appeared from out of the shadows and called his name. She lifted him into the air, resting him on his shoulder and criticizing him under her breath. The boy beat his little fists against his mother's back, urging her desperately to release him from the confines of her arms. Ignoring his pleas, she turned, looking for the exit, but instead spotting us.

"What are you looking at?" She asked nastily. She whipped around and stalked off in the opposite direction, waving her hips about wildly as she went.

"Wow, what a bitch." Maverick said, but I could tell he was aroused.

I shook my head, as if to clear all thoughts from it, and looked down at the book Maverick was holding.

"Did you find anything?"

"What? Oh, yeah, I did!" He pointed to a spot in the book and began to read out loud quietly. "It has been said that the Dark Lord, who fears no opposition by this point, has grown more lenient, maybe even more docile in his elder years, and although he is aware of several rebellious groups, he has not shown any initiative to strike them down. One might even say that he seems faintly amused by others' attempts at breaking down the empire that he has worked so hard to create. Rockwough would say --"

"Skip that. Go to the next part. Does it mention us at all?"

"Okay, fine... skipping... here! Over the past several years, there have been three major groups that have shown resistance to the Dark Lord; among these, one located in America, one in England, and one in France. These three groups have sustained nearly one hundred members each and thrive brilliantly in their own environments. However, the Dark Lord feels that these are off no threat to him, and he lets them live. For, as we all know, if the Dark Lord wanted to, he could smite down these groups within hours, if not, minutes.Man, this author is really kissing Voldemort's ass, isn't he?"

I sighed, taking a seat at an oddly placed table situated in the middle of the aisle. Maverick followed suit, sliding into the chair next to mine. He set the book down between us and we began to read silently to ourselves the rest of the chapter, hoping against hope that there would be another mention of where to find these other so-called 'rebellious' groups'. However, after another half hour of reading, we had found nothing.

"So what do we do? It seems that we won't be able to find out anything more about this suspicious Gabrielle character unless we go talk to her ourselves." Maverick continued scanning through the book but I knew it was to no avail.

"I don't know. I guess we go find Will and see what he thinks. We might have to search for her ourselves." I said grimly

"What -- you mean, like -- leave the castle and go out looking for her? She could be anywhere!"

"Yeah, well -- let's just go find Will." I stood up quickly, nearly knocking over the chair I had been sitting in, and grabbed Maverick's arm to pull him to his feet as well.

We put the books we had been flipping through back on their shelves and crept out of the library. We headed back upstairs toward our room, getting lost only twice.

As we turned down our hallway and made our way closer to our room, we began to hear an inane gigging, almost like someone choking a screeching cat.

Maverick only shrugged at the noise when I made a face at him, wondering what it was.

We hovered about the door, wondering whether or not we should enter. The noise was growing louder, so obviously it was coming from inside our room. I didn't know if Klaus was in there choking someone else or not. Finally, in a burst of courage, Maverick grabbed the handle and flung the door open, revealing a scantily clad Kristy lounging about on Klaus' lap, where they had cuddled up together in a chair in front of the dying fire in its hearth.

Maverick looked on in disgust.

"So you were that awful noise we heard all the way down the hall?"

Kristy and Klaus leapt apart at the sound of Maverick's voice, looking surprised at being found out. She grabbed her clothing, which had fallen to the floor beside the chair and tried desperately to cover herself up.

"Um... maybe I should get going." Throwing her clothes on as fast as she could, she gave Klaus a kiss on the cheek before straightening up and smiling at me smugly. "So long, Ria." She sauntered out of the room, head held high, slamming the door behind her loudly.

"What a hoe!" Maverick cried as soon as she left the room. "Man, you will get every STD known to man if you sleep with that girl. I don't recommend it. I mean, man, she is hot, but seriously--"

"Maverick, shut up." I said, irritated at his mindless babble. "Klaus, I'm going to ignore the fact that had Maverick and I not entered the room at the time we did, you would probably no longer have your virginity, and instead--"

"Who says I still have my virginity?" he asked with a smirk that made me so angry that I wanted to slap it right off him. He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head, studying my expression smugly.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again. I was really mad. Extremely mad. Ready to burst with anger. "Klaus, I'm going to ignore that remark as well, as Maverick and I have something to talk to you about."

Maverick nodded, sensing the growing tension in the room, and took over. "We found very little about Gabrielle Delacour in the library, and Kerry and I think the only way to go about finding out about her is to-- well, to go and actually find her. In France."

Klaus' smirk slowly faded from his face. "Find her? What would we do that for?"

"Well, how else are we going to find her? We can't just send an owl out blindly to search for her!" I threw myself onto the bed nearest the door and buried my head in my pillow. My voice came out muffled as I spoke.

"We'll send another owl to our grandmother and tell her to search for her." he said simply, sniggering slightly at 'our grandmother'. "It'll be simple enough. And it leaves us here to schmooze with our good old buddy Voldy."

"Oh, which reminds me -- did you go up to the Ninth Floor? What did they want there?" I asked eagerly, looking up at him.

He looked at me solemnly. "Oh, boy, that was an adventure. Seriously, let me tell you all about that."