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The Grand Tour of Hogwarts



They’d been walking through the hallways of Hogwarts for over three hours, opening doors and peering inside in hopes of stumbling upon the mysterious Hall of Ancestors. They hadn’t discovered anything more exciting than Neville Longbottom asleep in his office, the jelly doughnut smooshed beneath his nose as he snored loudly.

“‘nother bloody broom closet,” Hagrid called from ahead of them.

Ermalene sighed and pushed open another classroom door and pulled it closed behind her, moving onto the next.

Andy frowned, shutting the door he’d opened. “This hardly seems effective,” he commented.

“At least I’m getting the grand tour of Hogwarts,” Ermalene said, only mildly sarcastically.

“There’s that.”

“Boys’ toilet…” Hagrid called, “Girls’ toilet…”

Andy laughed, “Maybe the Hall of Ancestors is hidden behind a mirror in a toilet like the Chamber of Secrets was. Maybe one of us ought to try ‘n speak Parseltongue to the sink basins as we go along, ‘ey?” He grinned.

“Don’ know any Parseltongue meself,” Hagrid replied, “But if we don’ find nothin’ today we could always come back through with Harry’s help. Sure he’d be willin’ ter give snake-speak a try…”

Andy looked at Ermalene and whispered, “I was only kidding.”

Ermalene smiled and wiggled her tongue like a snake at him, making a silly hissing sound.

Hagrid’s thumping footfalls echoed through the castle as they continued on their way up one of the changing staircases to the next floor and he led them down another corridor, lined with pictures. Ermalene was paying more attention to all the moving paintings than to checking behind the door ways. By this point, Hagrid was quite a ways ahead of her and Andy and was opening every door and not finding anything interesting anyway. The paintings, however, were very interesting indeed. The subjects were practically falling over themselves in attempts to keep up with Andy and Ermalene, whispering to each other, fighting their way through each other’s frames, gawking as the teens walked along.

“What’s going on with the paintings?” Ermalene whispered to Andy.

“I dunno,” he replied, watching them, too. “They’ve been actin’ funny for a bit now, I was watching them about an hour ago, doin’ the same thing.” He shrugged.

“Strange,” Ermalene said.

“Very,” Andy agreed.

“Hagrid,” Ermalene called out, getting his attention. He turned and in the process knocked over a large coat of armor onto the floor with a clatter. The helmet fell off and the back and breast plate split apart and there was a great crash of shattering glass and several old sherry bottles lay in broken pieces on the ground.

“What in the name ‘er Casper is all this?” Hagrid shouted in surprise.

Ermalene made a face, “Empty liquor bottles.”

Hagrid sniffed the air. “Those’ve been there a long while, I reckon. Prob’ly belonged to Sybil Trelawney.” He shook his head, “Old divination teacher, back in the day,” he added, “Before the centaurs took over the post officially. She had a fondness o’ sherry.”

Ermalene aimed her wand and said, “Reparo!” and the glass collected itself back into several bottles. The three of them worked together to put the armor back together and carried the bottles off to a rubbish in one of the classrooms just around a bend in the hallway. The bottles clunked into the bottom of the bin and as Hagrid replaced the lid on the bin, Andy nudged Ermalene and Hagrid with his elbows.

“Look,” he whispered.

In the corner of the room was a ghostly woman. She hovered serenely, staring at them, having just come through the back wall, her jaw dropped as she stared at them.

“Why that’s the Grey Lady, Helena Ravenclaw,” Hagrid explained. “She’s the one the Bloody Baron killed. Hallo, Miss Ravenclaw, ma’m,” he said loudly, as though she were hard of hearing.

“I am dead, not deaf, thank you,” she said in a snobby sounding voice.

Hagrid’s eyebrows shot up his forehead in surprise. He’d clearly not expected a reply from her. “Sorry,” he muttered, looking red in the face behind his wooly beard.

She rolled her eyes at him, and didn’t leave, but instead turned back to looking at Ermalene with an unwavering stare. “What is it that you are looking for?” she asked, her voice more gentle than it had been when she’d spoken to Hagrid.

Ermalene swallowed nervously, “The Hall of Ancestors,” she replied. “I’m trying to find out about my blood relatives. I was adopted and I don’t know who --”

“You are Ermalene Talon,” the Grey Lady interrupted, her voice strong and knowing.

Andy’s eyes widened. “How’d you know her name?”

The Grey Lady didn’t even look at him, she just stared at Ermalene. “You say you seek the Hall of Ancestors?”

“Yes m’am,” Ermalene answered. “Do you know the way?”

“Yes,” the Grey Lady answered.

“Could you show me?” she asked, her voice pleading.

Helena Ravenclaw stared at Ermalene, her jaw set. “You’ll only have more questions,” she said.

“But aren’t questions the only way to gain knowledge?” Ermalene asked, taking a step toward the Lady, imploringly. “Isn’t your house all about knowledge?”

“It has become to be so, but once it was about wisdom,” she replied.

“What’s the difference?” Andy questioned.

The Grey Lady glanced at him. “Spoken like someone who possesses neither.”

“Hey,” Andy said, affronted.

“The difference between knowledge and wisdom is that one can be infinitely knowledgeable without a clue about how to use the information which has been gained by them. Wisdom is the ability to know what best to do with the information,” Helena said. “It is far too often that one is smart beyond measure of any test, yet entirely unwise.”

Hagrid stepped up. “Couldn’t yer show us where the Hall o’ Ancestors is?” he asked point blank.

The Grey Lady looked at him with dark eyes and shook her head, “No,” she said. “I do not believe I can. It is best not to. It isn’t a wise decision.”

“But the girl wants ter know who her family is and s’long as there’s sommat we could do ‘bou’ helpin’ ‘er, we ought’er try, ought’n’t we?” Hagrid asked.

“Please?” Ermalene added.

The Grey Lady frowned, staring down at the floor in front of Ermalene. She waited, seeming to chew on her lower lip, as though thinking intently. Finally, she looked up. “The things contained in the Hall of Ancestors have been kept silent for a great many centuries,” she said. “I - I’m afraid of what shall happen if they come to the light of day.”

“What sort of things?” Ermalene asked. “What’s in there?”

“Secrets long buried,” Helena Ravenclaw replied. “Dark things.”

“But Dumbledore always said that the best way ter deal with the dark things is ter expose them to a lit’l light,” Hagrid said.

The Grey Lady closed her eyes. “Fine,” she said thickly. “But I shall bring along only the girl.” She opened her eyes and stared into Ermalene’s. “You come alone.”