A Hogwarts Adventure

Paul Bland

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About this Story: This is a companion piece to the story that follows it, The Mystery of the Siwa School. It was written for Emily’s eighth birthday – at a time when the girls really loved the Harry Potter stories and that seemed a good place to locate an adventure where Emily is the brave soul and Katie stays safely at home.

I was very happy with “Egg and Lettuce” as characters – and with Dino, the runty dinosaur. There are some lovely touches there including the magic objects the children carry and the various prophecies which appear on the walls. There are some adult jokes about the outcomes of the lost gold but the girls didn’t seem to mind the way this finished.

Like the story that follows, this is a transition story. It’s long [at 33 000 words] but still uses naff illustrations and naive captions.

It was that lovely time of evening after bath and before bed when the girls could have their Old Grandad all to themselves to listen to a story. Grandad was getting very old: he was slow and forgetful and sometimes he smelt funny but he still told good stories. Emily was very pleased tonight because her birthday was coming soon and Grandad always had a special story for her birthday. The girls and Old Grandad gathered on the big bed in his room; the air conditioning was on and so they had a blanket to snuggle up with against the cool. Outside, the sun was going down on a winter’s day which was still warm. The nights would be cold, however. It could be very cold in the desert at night.

“Grandad,” said Emily, “can you tell us a scary story?”

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“Goodness me,” said Grandad. “A scary story? I think I know a few scary stories.”

“Not the one about the ferocious koala bear!” said Katie.

“Or the one about the ferocious wombat!” said Emily.

“Do you mean a really scary story then?” said Grandad. “But my dears- you are only little girls! What would you want with a really scary story?”

Katie groaned. How could Old Grandad be so silly? “Grandad,” she said, “I’m nine years old now.”

“Yes,” said Emily. “We go on the Jumeirah Screamer at Wild Wadi.”

“And when I had a loose tooth,” said Katie, “I pulled it out myself. Emily helped me.”

“And we have sleepovers and eat pizza!” said Emily. That settled it: the girls were afraid of nothing and even the scariest story wouldn’t frighten them.

“Very well then,” said Old Grandad sadly. “I suppose that you are all grown up now. Once you were my little girls; now I suppose you are my big girls.”

“You’ve got it, Grandad!” said Emily – and I think she was right.

And this is the story that Old Grandad told.

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Chapter 1: On the Hogwarts Express

Once upon a time there were two little witches who lived with their parents in Dubai. The witches were called Katie and Emily. They were big girls and afraid of nothing. Once Katie had had a loose tooth and Emily had torn it out with a pair of pliers: Katie just grinned a gappy grin after that terrible moment. She wasn’t frightened of the blood and the pain. When they went to Wild Wadi or Sega World, those two little witches would rush for the scariest rides and push timid teenage boys with tattoos out of the way in the queue. At sleepovers, those girls would stay awake and eat pizza pies all night, giggling and telling ghost stories until their poor Daddy came in and threatened to give them a tranquilizing injection. Those little witches were the bravest and best girls in the whole of Dubai.

But even the bravest witches have moments of concern and Katie’s came when she went off to school. Ordinary boys and girls go to ordinary schools; Katie, being a witch, received an invitation to attend the famous Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was the happiest moment of Katie’s long and eventful life when a beautiful brown barn owl brought her the parchment letter inviting her to report to Kings Cross Station in London at 9 am on the first Monday of September to catch the Hogwarts Express to her new school.

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The famous Hogwarts Express taking Katie to Hogwarts

Katie went with Mummy and Daddy and a very envious Emily to Diagon Alley to buy her robes, her spell books and cauldron and finally her magic wand. They saw her off on the platform at the station and there were plenty of tears from them all [everyone except Katie, that is!] as the beautiful red steam train pulled out of the station on its way to the school. I could tell you all about the great adventures Katie had in those first two years of school but this is Emily’s story and so I won’t – except to say that Katie had a splendid time at Hogwarts. The Sorting Hat put Katie straight into Gryffindor House where all the bravest students went. [Remember that the Sorting Hat seemed to put the smartest students into Ravenclaw House, the nicest students went into Hufflepuff House and the most cunning students went into Slytherin House.] Katie made very good friends in Gryffindor, particularly with Ginny Wesley and her brothers George, Fred and Ronald and their friends, Harry Potter and Hermione Grainger. One holiday, Harry and Ron, Hermione and Ginny all came to visit Katie in Dubai. They had fantastic fun – although there were some problems with a magic lamp that Ron had bought in the souk. The Jinn who came out of the lamp made things very uncomfortable for everyone for an afternoon before Hermione could coax it back into the lamp. The poor gardeners who work at Uptown Villas had a lot of cleaning up to do around the pool that afternoon. Emily always dreamed that when her turn came to go to Hogwarts that she would be in Gryffindor House too.

Harry Potter and the Weasley twins in their Gryffindor Quiddich Robes.

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Finally, the two terrible years of waiting were over and Emily’s invitation arrived in the beak of a snowy field owl. With everything packed into a trunk bearing her name in gold letters, Emily was standing with her sister on the platform at Kings Cross Station looking at the giant red steam train engine with the words Hogwarts Express flourished on the side. She waved to Mummy and Daddy as the train pulled out in a magnificent burst of steam and then she was on her way. Katie wanted to sit with Ginny and made it clear to Emily that from this moment, she was on her own. Third year girls didn’t sit with first year girls: Emily would have to remember that too when it came to dinner in the Great Hall. There would be lots of first year Gryffindor girls with whom Emily could sit. She had to make her own friends now and not just count on Katie. Well, that was just what Emily wanted too. She liked Ron and Harry and Ginny very much but she wanted to make her life at Hogwarts different from Katie’s.

All the same, it was a bit scary trying to find a spare seat in the train. Most of the boys and girls knew one another well and were busily sharing summer holiday stories. Finally, Emily found a compartment with just two students in it - a boy and girl about her own age whom Emily realised must be twins. They had the same shy smile, the same curly brown hair and both were wearing glasses. When Emily asked if the seats in the compartment were free, they waved her in.

“Hi!” said the girl, holding out her hand, “My name’s Lettice, but you can call me Letty. And this is my twin brother, Egbert. Most people call us Egg and Lettuce. Get it? It’s a kind of joke – it makes other people laugh anyway. My parents are super bright – they’re professors at a muggle university so you’d think that they would be clever enough not to give their children daft names, but there you are. What’s your name?”

“I’m Emily,” said Emily, “just Emily. My Mum and Dad are bright but they gave my sister and me simple names. Katie’s in third year. I’m a first year. What about you?

“First year- and happy to be on this train going to Hogwarts,” said Egbert. “And will you call me Bert? I’m leaving Egbert at my last awful school. They had the most horrible bullies in that school. I’ve been bashed up, picked on and teased by upper class bullies at a posh school. Let me tell you that you get a superior

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kind of bullying at a posh school, Emily. Those boys were champion bullies; they made me miserable and I hated it. That’s how I came to be so tough.”

“You don’t look tough,” said Emily shyly. She really liked Egg and Lettuce very much; if she hadn’t been feeling so friendly with them, I don’t think that she would have said anything so personal.

“If you don’t think I’m tough then you need glasses!” said Bert recklessly. Bert was liking Emily too.

“I’ve already got glasses!” cried Emily.

“We all have!” said Letty. “Glasses are cool. Being Egg and Lettuce isn’t cool but being Bert and Letty is. And you’re cool, Emmy. We’re going to be good friends, I can see that. Let’s have some lunch.” It wasn’t lunch time at all – barely time for morning tea - but Emily was suddenly hungry and so she opened her sandwiches and the three friends shared everything out.

And that was the start of Emily’s greatest adventure ever. By the time the Hogwarts Express was nearing its destination, the three children had eaten their way through an enormous lunch: sandwiches, cakes, fruit, a packet of ginger nut biscuits and bags of lollies. Just when Emily thought she couldn’t eat another thing, Bert found a packet of Tim Tam biscuits in this backpack. They had cups of tea from the kindly witch who came around with the trolley and over all that food, Emily, Bert and Lettice learned pretty much all there was to learn about one another. Emily was saddened by Bert’s tales of horrible, swaggering bullies – although he told the stories with a grin and Emily suspected that the bullies didn’t win every round. The twins loved Emily’s story of how she and Katie had pushed in to the queue of tough, teenage boys at Wild Wadi.

“Did any of the big boys have piercings as well as tattoos?” asked Letty?

“Well, one had an ear ring, “said Emily. “That’s all the piercings I could see. Lots of them had pimples, though!”

“Didn’t they complain?” asked Bert.

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“They complained plenty,” said Emily, “but I just pushed them aside more. Most tough boys are frightened of little girls!”

Emily told other stories too. Bert was amazed. He could only drool at how tough Emily was when she had to be wormed. If only Emily had been around at his old school to sort out the bullies who had taken his lunch money and locked him in the toilets. She was one sassy lady!

As the Hogwarts Express neared the school, the Prefects came through the train to make sure that the first years were wearing their school robes and were ready to get off at the Hogwarts station. Emily loved the feel of her new robes. She checked yet again that her magic wand was in the secret pocket in her sleeve. Emily looked around the compartment and even she noticed the mess that the three of them had made. There were lolly papers and biscuit wrappers all over the floor. [Emily wasn’t very good at picking up stuff – something she had confessed to Letty as they ate the Tim Tams.] Before they could do anything about the mess, however, a Prefect came in to check on them. She was a tall, cheerful looking girl with long blonde hair who was also wearing glasses. When she saw the mess, she gave the three first years quite a severe look.

“Don’t you three think that you can leave here without cleaning up this mess!” she said.

“Pardon?” said Bert, completely ignoring the mess around him. Emily went to pick up the Tim Tam wrapper but Letty quickly stopped her. Letty and Bert appeared to be experts at foxing teachers and Prefects. Letty just gave the big girl her sweetest smile but did nothing to pick up the litter. Egg and Lettice were suddenly very quiet and demure – as if all the rubbish had blown in from the corridor outside.

When her grumpy stares had no effect, the Prefect groaned in a grumpy way but spoiled it all when she caught Emily’s eye and gave a giggle. She took her wand from inside the sleeve of her black robes; there was a flick of the wrist and in a moment all the litter rose in the air and suddenly exploded into purple smoke, leaving a lovely fragrance of lavender behind. It was the coolest thing that Emily had ever seen.

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“I think you three might be trouble! You’re going to have to learn to clean up after yourselves, that’s for sure. I won’t always be here with my wand to help!” she said. The Prefect put away her wand and left with a grin, looking very pleased with herself.

“Does that spell work on undies and pyjamas?” Emily wondered. Things had a way of sneaking off Emily’s bed and hiding on the floor. It had got her into trouble many times before.

There was no time for dawdling, however, because the train was now pulling in and all the students were finding their trunks and noisily moving out into the corridors. Emily was suddenly frightened: it had been great fun sharing the journey with Egg and Lettuce but the big world outside the carriage now beckoned. For the first time that day, Emily wished that Katie were there to look after her. She was a big girl, certainly, but she could have used her sister at that moment – even if it were just to help carry her trunk. Emily could see a giant figure with a lantern standing waiting. She knew that this must be Hagrid, the Care of Magical Creatures teacher who was a particular friend of Katie.

Hagrid met the first year students from the train.

The students spilled out of the train on to the platform. Everyone except the first years went off to a long line of goblins with wheel barrows. The students put their trunks in the barrows [three trunks to a wheel barrow] and a straining goblin hoisted the barrow up and headed towards the castle gates. Emily thought it was a magnificent way to arrive at Hogwarts. She watched as Katie, Ginny and Hermione disappeared into the darkness of the night. Hagrid waved the lantern and called the first years to him. He tried to be very gruff and serious but even Emily, feeling as anxious as she was, could see that Hagrid was really a big softie. He had an official looking clipboard and lined up all the first

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years and escorted them to a big dray pulled by what looked like a dinosaur. Hagrid piled their luggage in the middle of the dray and helped the first years up to sit on the edge of the dray, their legs hanging over the side.

Before they got started, Hagrid made sure that everyone was safely seated. He was particularly attentive to the dinosaur – an exceptionally ugly animal with green leathery skin and large teeth. The beast also seemed to be rather bruised and missing an ear. Emily was pleased that she was seated with Egg and Lettuce right at the back of the dray and far away from the dinosaur. Katie loved all of Hagrid’s magical creatures but many of the boys and girls were not so sure about some of them.

Dino, Hagrid’s pet dinosaur, liked the look of Emily!

Hagrid seemed very proud of the dinosaur and seemed to enjoy the fear in the faces of the boys and girls. “Now this dray, boys and girls, was given to me by an old Australian bullocky wizard mate of mine who used to have a team of oxen to pull it, loaded up with bales of wool from his sheep station. Well, I haven’t any oxen to pull the dray now; the spiders in the Forbidden Forest ate the last one last week so I have to make do with Dino here. Mind no one upsets him,” said Hagrid to all the first year students. “He’s very skittish and hasn’t been fed today. He’d make a meal of a pair of you.” Hagrid grinned, stroking the awful neck of the beast and the stub of torn ear.

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At this, the dinosaur turned around, lifted its horrible face and licked its chops. One little first year said aloud, “If that thing comes near me, I’m going to vomit!”

Hagrid pretended not to hear. He was used to students not loving his animals quite as much as he did. “Hello,” said Hagrid, consulting his clip board. “It says on my manifest here that we’ve got the sister of young Katie Bland among the first years. Would that be you, Miss?” Hagrid made a little bow to Lettice who giggled at his gallantry.

“It’s me, Professor Hagrid,” Emily called out. She wriggled down off the dray and doing her best to avoid the dinosaur [who looked at her balefully with bright yellow eyes] came up to Hagrid. She felt tiny beside the giant and the dinosaur. “I’m very pleased to meet you. Katie has told me so much about you,” Emily said.

Hagrid was bashful and shook her hand carefully. His hand was the size of a dinner plate. “Now you just come up on the dray beside me, Miss Emily, and you’ll have the best view of Dino here. I think he likes you –he’s purring away. You can pat him if you like.”

Well, Emily did her best and as Egbert had said, she was one tough little girl and as long as you forgot the yellow eyes, green scaly skin, torn ear and horrible teeth I suppose that Dino wasn’t a bad sort of animal.

Hagrid chatted with her all the way to the castle. It had begun to rain heavily and while all the other first years shivered and were soon soaked, Hagrid wrapped his bearskin cloak around Emily and kept her toasty warm. As the dinosaur lumbered slowly towards the lights of the castle, Hagrid talked on and on about Dino.

“He has to live with me at my cabin, you know, because I rescued him from the Forbidden Forest. The other dinosaurs who live there took against him because he was so puny and runty. They were picking on him all the time. You can see what they did to his ear! He helps me about the cabin and he’s so gentle and affectionate. He’s like the son I never had.” There was much more of this and

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Emily was wondering whether she mightn’t be wrong about the dinosaur completely but every time she felt kind thoughts, she would catch the dinosaur looking over his shoulder – right at Emily, and licking his chops greedily.

Hogwarts Castle with the Ravenclaw Tower on the right.

Hagrid must have seen her shudder after one of these displays of interest. “Are you frightened of dinosaurs and such, Emily?” asked Hagrid. “Your big sister, as I recall, isn’t afraid of anything. Why, I’d be sorry to think that you were chicken hearted.”

“Professor Hagrid,” said Emily politely as the dray rolled through the great gates of the castle and the statues of bristling hogs on the top of the gateposts suddenly flashed in the light of a bolt of lightning falling quite close, ”I don’t believe I am. I’m not afraid on anything. It’s just that in Dubai we don’t have dinosaurs so much. We do have camels, though. Would you have any camels in the Forbidden Forest, I wonder?”

Hagrid never got to answer this question because just at that moment the dray pulled up at the great west door of the castle and all the goblins who had pushed the wheelbarrows and had long ago arrived at the Castle door now came hurrying out of the darkness. There were awful squeals as the first years struggled down off the dray in the rain and the goblins swarmed up to take the trunks and luggage through the main door into the dry. Emily jumped down too, remembered to thank Professor Hagrid and found Egg and Lettuce as quickly as

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she could. Then it was out of the gloom and into the glorious brilliance of the Great Hall.

Of course you will know all about the splendid feasts that the boys and girls at Hogwarts enjoyed on special occasions – and the first day of school was a very grand occasion indeed. There were four long tables set for the students; the boys and girls from each House sat at table on long forms. The Slytherins looked magnificently sulky and silky in their silver and green robes. They were a handsome bunch, Emily thought, even though they looked very nasty. Bert recognised them immediately as the types who had made his life at the posh school so miserable. Emily guessed that the evil looking teacher supervising the Slytherins must be the famous Professor Snape. The Ravenclaw students were sitting up with very good manners; they were being shushed by Professor Millicent Mulholland, a kindly looking witch with lovely blonde hair tucked under a canary yellow hat. With her was Professor Flintwick, the tiny Charms teacher and Master of Ravenclaw House. To her astonishment, Emily realised that all the Ravenclaw students were wearing glasses! The Hufflepuffs were being supervised by the magnificent looking Professor Pomona Sprout. They all looked hearty and kind; Emily might have been happy to go into that house – if it hadn’t been for the fact that all her friends were already in Gryffindor. Emily could see Ginny and Katie seated at the Gryffindor table. Ginny waved and showed Emily that she was keeping a seat for her. As soon as the Sorting Hat had called her name, Emily would be with her friends – and ready to eat. Even though she had eaten a huge lunch with Egg and Lettuce, she was already feeling hungry.

The same kind Prefect with the blonde hair who had magiced away their litter and wrappers in the train was now lining up the first years in strict alphabetical order. There was quite a lot of pushing and poking while this was done but Emily, knowing that her name started with B, stayed near the top of the queue. The last poor students were almost pushed back out the door into the storm! A very fierce and refined looking witch with a tartan sash [whom Emily knew at once to be Professor Minerva McGonagall] called for silence. She produced a simple, three legged stool and a battered old black hat with a tear near the brim. This was, of course, the famous Sorting Hat, given to the school by one of its founders, Sir Godric Gryffindor. Sitting for the Sorting Hat was always one of

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the most serious moments in the life of a student at Hogwarts. So much depended on what House one was assigned to. You slept and worked with the other students in your House. You were expected to be loyal and always live up to the values of your House. Your housemates became your best friends at Hogwarts. Now, at this awful moment, there was a hush over the whole school.

“When your name is called, come forward, sit on the stool and put the hat on your head,” said Professor McGonagall, in a strong, cultured Scottish accent. “The Sorting Hat will assign you to your House.” Professor consulted her clipboard and called “Ariadne Applepaum!”

The Sorting Hat at Hogwarts.

A rather shy looking Jewish girl stepped forward as if she were very frightened and Professor McGonagall gave her an encouraging smile. The Sorting Hat was slipped on her head and without hesitation, the Hat pronounced “Slytherin!”

Ariadne Applebaum breathed a sigh of relief and headed for the Slytherin table. It seemed that her mother and grandmother and all her aunts had been Slytherin girls and that was just where she wanted to be. Emily couldn’t think of anything worse than ending up in Slytherin House.

“Byam Bestweather!” Professor called next. This alert but rather scrawny boy was quickly consigned to Hufflepuff. He was welcomed to their table by a great round of applause.

“Emily Bland,” called Professor McGonagall. Emily stepped forward. She caught Kate’s encouraging smile and sat on the wooden stool. The Sorting Hat was

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placed on her head – and Emily immediately felt very, very queer. It seemed that all the secrets she had ever kept to herself – and all the thoughts that she had ever had and never shared – were suddenly out on display.

“Now I wonder,” she heard the Hat thinking. “No doubt this young lady is very brave. I think she’s afraid of no one and nothing. Good material for Gryffindor. All the same, she has a strong brain as well. I’ll put her with the clever ones.” Then in a deep booming voice, the Hat declared: “Ravenclaw!”

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Chapter 2: The Room in Ravenclaw Tower.

“Grandad,” said Emily angrily. “I don’t like this story. It’s scary! I don’t want to be in Ravenclaw! I want to be in Gryffindor with Katie!”

“Dear me,” said Old Grandad sleepily, “I’m afraid that’s where the Sorting Hat put you. It’s never wrong, you know. It knows exactly what house would suit you best.”

“But you’re telling the story!” she said. “Can’t you put me in Gryffindor, please?” For the first time in a very long while, Emily sounded mightily unhappy – even a little scared, I think.

“Well, Emily, you shouldn’t be frightened,” said Old Grandad. “In the next chapter, I think you’ll find out why the Sorting Hat put you there.”

“It had better be a good reason” said Emily. “Remember this is my birthday story.”

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Poor Emily. In all the times that she had dreamt about arriving at Hogwarts and being a big girl she had never once thought that she wouldn’t be in Gryffindor House with Katie. She didn’t know anyone in Ravenclaw. For a moment she was rooted to the stool, too anxious to move. Then she felt the hand of Professor McGonagall on her shoulder – kinder and gentler than you might imagine such a fierce looking witch could be – and she was being lifted slightly and pushed towards the Ravenclaw table where the girls and boys in their smart blue and grey uniforms were waiting for her. Already Professor McGonagall was calling up the next first year: “Purvis Beauchamp!” By the time Emily had found a seat at the Ravenclaw table, Purvis had been consigned to Hufflepuff.

Myfanwy Morgan, the Ravenclaw Prefect

The only face that Emily recognised at the Ravenclaw table was the sweet faced Prefect who had transformed her litter into lavender smoke on the Hogwarts Express. “Hi!” she said kindly, “I’m Myfanwy Morgan, the Ravenclaw Prefect. You’re Emily Bland, aren’t you? I know your sister Katie, and Hermione Grainger and Harry Potter. They’re good friends – and anyone in Gryffindor is a friend of Ravenclaws, you know. But you will love it in Ravenclaw House. It’s cool!”

Emily smiled weakly but said nothing. She liked Myfanwy and was grateful to her for welcoming her to the table but she wasn’t going to be charmed out of her misery for a moment and looked at the table with tear filled eyes. This was not how she imagined starting at Hogwarts.

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“How come everyone in this House has glasses,” said Emily at last as a young black witch with very soft, curly hair was clapped all the way to the Slytherin table.

“Well, I’m not sure about that – but it seems to be true. Perhaps Ravenclaw students need glasses because they read more than the others. Ravenclaw students are the brightest of the lot, you know. Most of the Professors in the school now were in Ravenclaw when they were here as students – even Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall.” Then Myfanwy broke off and said, “Goodness me, what’s this?”

And indeed, there was something quite interesting happening back at the Sorting Hat. Professor McGonagall was flustered for a moment when she found two students with the same surname in the line of first years. She hadn’t been prepared for twins. Of course it was Egg and Lettuce! The line was half way through now and the doors to the storm outside had been closed. Everyone was pleased about this because it had begun to snow outside and the air was very frosty. Emily felt it keenly after the heat of the desert in Dubai.

“Egbert Devereux,” announced Professor McGonagall. On the train, Egg had looked confident and cool; waiting to take his turn under the Sorting Hat, Egg looked shy and frightened. And suddenly Emily could see in his face the marks of pain and sadness that must have been inflicted on him by the years of bullying at his old school. He had made a joke of it on the way to Hogwarts but now Emily could guess something of what he was feeling now. He must be wondering, she knew, whether he could really leave all that horrible stuff behind him – or whether Hogwarts would simply offer more of the same. What if he ended up in Slytherin with the cunning students? Egg looked at the Slytherin table and felt sure that he could see there plenty of the nasty boys who had made him miserable at his former school.

Summoning all his courage, he stepped up to the stool and sat awkwardly. The Sorting Hat went on his head, gave a little chuckle and said, “Another clever one! Ravenclaw!” Emily was suddenly so pleased. She was clapping as loudly as any of the other Ravenclaws at the table and Egg sailed over to sit beside her with a smile on his face as broad as the Sorting Hat itself. In a moment, he was joined by Lettuce. The Hat had taken even less time with her. Now Emily did know someone in her house and her heart was beginning to lift. She looked across at the Gryffindor table and saw with a little stab that Katie was looking

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at her sadly. Emily waved – and smiled a real smile. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad being in Ravenclaw.

After the Sorting Hat came the feast – a fantastic experience for all the first year students as big plates of scrumptious food suddenly appeared at her table. There seemed to be acres of meat pies and roast beef, juicy sausages, bowls of pasta, glossy brown gravy and lovely vegetables. All the Ravenclaws seemed to love the green vegetables best of all “Greens are good for your eyes!” Egg announced, wriggling his nose under his glasses. Finally, when Emily thought she couldn’t eat another thing, the puddings arrived. They were delicious and included her absolute favourite – apple crumble! This was turning into a very good day after all.

The only problem was that the table was rather crowded. Was Emily only imaging it, or was the Sorting Hat putting more than their fair share of new students into Ravenclaw? The benches at Hufflepuff and Slytherin seemed much less crowded than the Ravenclaw tables.

It was true – and the problem this caused quickly became evident once Myfanwy Morgan led the Ravenclaw first years to their dormitories at the top of Ravenclaw Tower. Of course all the students who were above first year knew where they were sleeping and the goblins who had pushed the wheelbarrows from the train station had deposited their luggage in their own rooms. The first years’ luggage had also been allocated to rooms but Emily found to her dismay that her trunk had been left with another one in the Ravenclaw Common Room.

“Here’s my trunk!” said Lettice.

“And mine too!” said Emily. “Does this mean we don’t have anywhere to sleep?”

“I’m afraid it does,” said Myfanwy, “at least for tonight. For some reason, the Sorting Hat has put more than the usual number of students into Ravenclaw. That’s great for us, but it does mean a bit of a squeeze. We’re going to have to open up the attic room at the very top of the tower but it hasn’t been used for many years and will be rather dusty. The house elves will tidy it up for you tomorrow; right now, this will have to be your bedroom.”

If they had been on their own, I don’t think that either Emily or Letty would have liked the idea of sleeping that night in the Ravenclaw Common Room. For a

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start, it was a big room with lots of arm chairs and sofas – all of them rather shabby and worn. It was also a rather grand and gloomy place: the ceiling was high above them and much of the room was in shadows. There were tall windows where the storm beat snowflakes against the glass. It all looked a little spooky. Light came from candlesticks set in the wall and from a big, cheerful fire burning in the giant size fireplace. “Just as well I’m not frightened of anything!” said Emily aloud.

“You’ll see,” said Myfanwy. “In the morning, you and Letty will have your own room at the very top of the tower and you can make it snug and nice. In all my time at Hogwarts we’ve never had anyone in those rooms. It will be very special for you. Tonight, you can pretend you’re camping in a forest. It will certainly be warmer and cleaner than camping. Just imagine that it’s an adventure.”

Dobby the house elf.

And it certainly was. Using the same wand that had earlier disposed of the rubbish in the train, Myfanwy conjured two of the big sofas so that they faced each other in front of the fire. There was a pillow and a warm blanket on each sofa but because the fire was so warm, the girls were sure they wouldn’t be cold. Both the girls quickly found their toothbrushes and their nighties, padded down to the bathroom and back and were just about to blow out the candles when there was a tap at the door. The door opened – and there was Dobby, the

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house elf who was a great friend of Harry Potter. He was carrying a large square shallow box in his hands.

“I heard you wouldn’t be moving into your bedroom until tomorrow, Miss Emily, and so I thought you might just like a pizza pie to eat tonight before you went to bed. Miss Katie was so kind to me last year when I had a cold. She made me lemon and honey drinks and even did the washing up for me when I was on roster but feeling peaky. I do love Miss Katie and I hope that we’ll be good friends too.”

Emily remembered all the things that Katie had told her about Dobby. He was, she always said, one of her best friends at Hogwarts. Emily couldn’t believe that even though she had eaten so much, she could feel like eating another thing – but that pizza smelt just wonderful and maybe just a little piece ...

Then Emily remembered her manners and presented Letty to Dobby. Letty shook hands with Dobby and invited him to stay and share the pizza. Soon the three of them were sitting on the floor in front of the fire, each with a great slice of Pizza Supreme. It was, Emily thought, just like a sleep over at home in Dubai. All they needed now was a ghost story – but as Emily quickly realised, it was one thing to tell ghost stories in the comfort of your safe and ordinary home in Mirdif; it was quite another to tell ghost stories in the Ravenclaw Tower of Hogwarts – where it was almost certain that a real ghost might just put in an appearance. Dobby wisely steered the conversation to safer topics: to the Halloween feast in November and the great Christmas feast that would come in December. The girls loved the pizza and it was quickly gone. Dobby left too, promising them that he would be the house elf to volunteer to fix up their room in the top of the tower tomorrow. He would add, he promised, lots of homely touches for the girls. Despite the cold corridor, the girls had to make another trip to the bathroom with their toothbrushes before the candles could be blown out and they could settle down.

Emily was just exhausted by all the excitement of the day. In the firelight, she thought of the Hogwarts Express, Egg and Lettuce, Hagrid and Dino, the Sorting Hat and the feast – and the snow. As she fell asleep, her eyes were drawn to the fireplace and the intricate carving of the mantelpiece. There was a face carved in the stone – a serious, intelligent face – with glasses and a shy smile. Emily’s last thought before she went to sleep was to think that she should ask Myfanwy the next day who it might be.

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The next day was an exciting, hurried blur for Emily. She met her teachers for the very first time, although she had already met Professor Flintwick, the Charms teacher, because he was Head of Ravenclaw and had welcomed her formally the night before. He gave her [and Egg and Lettuce] a cheerful wink when they came into his class. Professor Snape in the double Potions class before lunch was not nearly as horrible as Emily expected him to be after listening to Katie, Ron and Harry talk about him. But then, Emily was in Ravenclaw – and Professor Snape seemed to be at his nastiest with Gryffindor students.

Emily hoped that the best lesson of the day would be Care of Magical Creatures with Professor Hagrid. After being indoors all day, it was great fun to get out into the crisp autumn air in the afternoon. The snow from last night’s storm had melted but the day was still blustery and fresh. Hagrid was so pleased to see Emily again; this time, she introduced him to Egg and Lettuce who by their respectful comments and friendly smiles made sure that Hagrid would love then just as much as he did Katie and Emily.

Dino, the runty Dinosaur who had been bullied by others in the Forbidden Forest

Unfortunately, the Ravenclaw first years were to have their lesson with the Slytherins – and this was where everything went horribly wrong. Emily instinctively drew back from the confident and proud Slytherin students: they

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had only been in their house for a day or two and already they were behaving with a swagger and a sneer of contempt for everyone else. Emily was very aware of the change in Egg; he was standing beside Emily and his face clouded over when the Slytherins arrived. Emily remembered what Egg had said about the bullies at the posh school he had attended before he came to Hogwarts. These Slytherin students seemed to be just the ones he had hoped to leave behind.

When the class had assembled on the lawn outside his cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid came out to meet them carrying a clip board and a leather sack that looked rather greasy. He wouldn’t teach a formal lesson that afternoon, he said. Instead, he would show off Dino, his pride and joy, and talk about the care and training of dinosaurs. One of the Slytherin students, Ariadne Applebaum, squealed her excitement. She took out her mobile ‘phone and began to video the amazing sight to send back to her aunt in Tel Aviv. And indeed, it was quite a sight! The great green monster was on a leash but padded cheerfully around outside Hagrid’s cabin as the boys and girls drew back in terror. Emily thought that Dino certainly looked a little less ferocious in the daylight than he had the night before in the dark. All the same, the dinosaur grinned broadly and showed his terrible teeth when Hagrid introduced him to the class.

Hagrid told the class how Dino had hatched from an egg; how good and kind he was – and how much he had suffered from the bullying cruelty of the bigger dinosaurs in his peer group. This immediately endeared him to Egg who knew quite enough of what the dinosaur must have suffered.

The greasy leather sack that Hagrid carried smelled of takeaway shops; sure enough, every now and then, Hagrid would open the sack and offer Dino a whole roast chicken which the great beast swallowed without chewing.

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The bullies of Slytherin House who were mean to Dino

“Now be careful,” said Hagrid as one Slytherin girl tried to push behind Hagrid when Dino came close. “He’s as tame as a baby! Watch this,” said Hagrid. He took the leash and ran with Dino, who frolicked like a puppy. Hagrid was suddenly stern: “Sit!” Dino dropped on to his bottom and waited for the command to move. At a tug from Hagrid’s leash, Dino was on his feet and running. “Stay!” said Hagrid. Dino showed considerable restraint, obviously wanting to be up and doing but staying just as he was told. Just when Emily was beginning to think that Dino was almost tame, the dinosaur squinted, made a mighty lunge for the leather sack Hagrid was carrying - and swallowed it whole. Dino just missed taking a large part of Hagrid’s meaty arm with it. Hagrid was cross that Dino had shamed himself in front of the first year students and he was taken back behind the cabin in disgrace.

That was not the end of the lesson, however. Hagrid tried to continue, explaining how important it was to be gentle with dinosaurs like Dino who were sensitive and easily upset. While Hagrid spoke, no one noticed three of the Slytherin boys sneak to the side and around the back of the group. They snuck behind Hagrid’s hut until they cornered Dino.

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The first that anyone knew that there was a problem was the sound of a terrible wail. Then came horrible, raucous laughter. Hagrid stopped the lesson and the whole class ran to the pumpkin patch behind the hut. This was exciting; Ariadne Applebaum continued filming with her mobile.

When the class got to the pumpkin patch, there were great shouts of glee and encouragement from the Slytherins. One of the boys, Walter Slack, was on Dino’s back. He had covered the dinosaur’s eyes with his gown and was now walloping Dino’s torn ears with a metal ruler. Poor Dino was frozen with fear and crying, shaking his ugly green body and trying to buck the boy off. The other two boys, Joe Blake and Mervyn Marsh, were laughing and running in to kick the dinosaur in the belly as hard as they could. They’ve obviously done this sort of thing before, Emily thought.

Hagrid was plainly terrified. He wanted to protect Dino, of course, but at that moment, all his fears were for the Slytherin boys themselves. He knew how strong Dino was when he was aroused and angry: one chump from those terrible jaws could cut a man in half. But Dino, you must remember, had been horribly bullied as a pup and he had no fight in him – only fear. He bellowed wildly in a cry that would break your heart if you heard it; this only made the Slytherin boys all the more aggressive and cruel. That’s what bullies do, I think.

It was Egg who saved Dino. Emily saw his face for a moment, angry and full of pain. Egg knew just what Dino’s cry meant. It had been his cry sometimes – but there had been no one willing to come to his aid when he had been bullied at his old school. Egg had made up his mind that he would never ever stand by and let someone be hurt by bullies again. No matter what it cost him, he would fight back. Letty also knew what was happening and grabbed for her brother but it was too late.

Egg dropped his books and with a strength surprising for a small boy leapt as high as he could up on to the back of Dino, catching the Slytherin boy there and pulling down hard. It was so unexpected that the big boy suddenly slid off Dino’s back, his robe and the metal ruler still in his hands. Hagrid jumped forward just at that moment to catch the leash on Dino’s collar to calm him but the wailing continued for a long while. Egg only had time to get one decent punch in before Slack, Blake and Marsh were on him. While Slack used the metal ruler to hit Egg, Marsh and Blake now transferred their kicks to poor Egg who was on the ground.

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That was enough for Emily and Letty who didn’t hesitate for a moment. They rushed forward to help Egg but just as they reached the poor boy struggling on the ground, the Headmaster himself appeared and the shocked students were silenced and still. Professor Dumbledore always walked the whole school on the first day of lessons to see how the new students were settling down. Hagrid’s class – out in the grounds – was his very last stop. The Headmaster had arrived at just the right time.

Soon afterwards, Egg, Lettuce, Emily, Blake, Marsh and Slack were standing in front of Professor Dumbledore’s silver desk. Slack was sporting a large black eye – the result of the only punch that Egg had managed to get in before the three Slytherin boys attacked him. Emily’s face was flushed and angry: her first day at Hogwarts and already she is in the Headmaster’s office! What would Katie say? Egg’s face was bloodied and one ear was as torn as poor Dino’s had been. Emily watched as blood dropped on to the splendid Persian carpet on the floor. Egg didn’t seem sorry, however: just the opposite. He looked as if he had just won the grand final. Also with them were Professor Hagrid, Professor Flintwick [the Head of Ravenclaw House] and Professor Snape [the Head of Slytherin]. And standing well back but there by Professor Dumbledore’s invitation was Ariadne Applebaum, forlornly holding her mobile ‘phone.

Professor Snape tried to tell the Headmaster that his boys were only being a little excited and enthusiastic - that the real problem was Hagrid’s bringing a savage animal to a class and putting student lives in danger. Slack, Marsh and Blake were really good boys who were just high spirited. Egbert Devereux was, according to Professor Snape, a bully who had attacked the Slytherin students who had naturally defended themselves. When Professor Snape told this story in his silky voice, even Emily [who had seen it all and knew what mischief the Slytherin boys had done] had to admit that it sounded plausible. Professor Dumbledore listened carefully; he looked from Egg to Marsh, Blake and Slack but said nothing. Finally, he asked Ariadne Applebaum to step forward and show him the footage of the lesson she had taken with her mobile phone.

“Thank goodness for technology!” was all that Letty could say afterwards. With a wave of his hand, Professor Dumbledore transferred the grainy video from Ariadne’s phone first to his wand and then to the wall. The pale stone immediately became a large flat screen television set. There on the screen was

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the start of the lesson with Dino on parade and doing his tricks. Then came the unmistakably sound of his cry and then vivid images of Walter Marsh on Dino’s back, the metal ruler beating into Dino’s ea. Then there was the footage of Egg leaping to the poor animal’s rescue. As Ariadne filmed the fight that followed, she had lingered on Blake and Slack as they beat and kicked Egg while he was on the ground. The video had even captured the sickening sound of Egg being kicked and the shocking language of the three Slytherin bullies. When the video was over, even Professor Snape didn’t attempt to defend his students – except to say that they were new to the school and needed a second chance. He was sure that in a little while that they would be ornaments to Slytherin House.

Professor Dumbledore looked like thunder, then in a gentle voice he asked Professor Hagrid if he had any stables or cages that badly needed cleaning out; perhaps Slack, Marsh and Blake could spend some time with a shovel and a wheelbarrow on detention? As it was, Hagrid had been having great difficulty disposing of his dinosaur dung and the three Slytherin boys were told to report to Hagrid’s hut to do their detention on Saturday. Hagrid was sure that if the boys could move the dinosaur dung from the stables to the vegetable patch it would mean excellent marrows for everyone in the spring. Egg was sent off to Madame Pomfret, the Matron, to have his ear mended and the rest of the children were sent off to get ready for dinner. The most miserable student among them, unfortunately, was poor Ariadne Applebaum whose mobile phone had been so handy in showing the Headmaster what had really happened. She would have to go back to her friends in Slytherin House, knowing that because of her video, the truth had come out.

It was clear from the moment the children entered the Great Hall for dinner that night that the story had toured the whole school. The Ravenclaw students stood and clapped as Emily, Egg and Lettuce walked in to take their places for dinner; that was only to be expected, of course. What was surprising was that the loudest cheers came from the Gryffindors; Katie, Harry and Ron and Hermione were wildly cheering – and Katie looked so proud of her sister. [Emily remembered what Myfanwy had said: that the Gryffindors were always great friends of the Ravenclaws.] Egg, who had stood up to the Slytherin bullies, was now the hero of everyone in the school who had ever suffered at the hands of

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Slytherin. Emily saw that not a few of the Hufflepuffs were also cheering. The only ones who looked grim and unhappy were the Slytherins themselves. Walter Slack’s black eye made him look even more sinister and nasty than usual. Emily was liking being in Ravenclaw House more every day!

**

That night when Emily and Letty came up to their room after dinner, they found that their trunks had gone from the common room. Myfanwy was waiting for them and gave a puzzled smile. “I don’t know what you have done to the house elves, Emily, but they have certainly looked after you. Come and see.”

Myfanwy crossed the room to a heavy and ancient wall hanging that showed Rowena Ravenclaw, one of the founders of the school, sitting with a book under an oak tree with a devoted group of students surrounding her. Myfanwy lifted the tapestry aside to reveal a wooden door and a stone staircase that climbed up into the very top of the tower. And there under the circular roof was the most beautiful room. There was a stone floor, lead glass windows that looked out across the castle and the glen, two four poster beds, two dressing tables and two giant oak wardrobes. Another tapestry like the one in the common room hung against one stone wall. This one showed Rowena Ravenclaw brewing a potion in a Hogwarts classroom. Everything in the room shone as if it had been recently polished and cleaned. Emily checked to find that all the things from her trunk had been hung up and put away.

The room itself was lovely but what was most striking were the little touches everywhere. On Emily’s dressing table there was an arrangement of yellow roses in a crystal bowl. A lovely red and brown Turkish carpet covered most of the stone floor. In a dish on Emily’s bedside table there was a bowl of chocolates – and another chocolate was sitting on the pillow of the bed. The doona had been turned down as if this were a grand hotel. It was a little embarrassing that Letty had none of these gorgeous extras. [Emily immediately fixed this by tipping the contents of the bowl of chocolates on to Letty’s bed.] On a simple white card on her own bed were the words, “Welcome to Miss Emily from Dobby. All the House Elves want to say how proud we are of you and Miss and Master Devereux.”

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The lovely yellow roses Dobby left in Emily’s room

The only disadvantage of this tower room was that it was quite a walk to the girls’ bathroom. [That’s probably why it was closed up and only opened when the house was absolutely full.] But it was such a sweet and lovely room that Emily and Letty were immediately glad that they had missed out on getting a room of their own last night. It was worth waiting for this one. Emily was sure that she was going to have a great time at Hogwarts – even if she hadn’t been placed in Gryffindor.

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Chapter 3: Things that Go Bump in the Night.

“Emily, you were so brave to go in to fight for Egg when he was being bashed up!” said Katie. “That was a great thing to do. All the same, Grandad,” said Katie sadly, “what about me? Did Dobby bring me any chocolates and roses?”

“Indeed he did, Katie. And you shared them with all your Gryffindor friends. But then, you always had a nice, snug little room with Ginny and you hadn’t had to fight the bully or sit beside the dinosaur on the dray. These are special things for Emily, you see.”

“It can’t be too bad being in Ravenclaw then,” said Emily. “But the story isn’t very scary now. You can make it even scarier, Grandad. I’m not frightened of anything.”

“Dear me,” said Old Grandad sleepily. “Well, let me tell you what happened that very night.”

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Emily and Letty sat up late that night talking. The room was bathed in bright moonlight and both the girls were excited to be settled in so well. The darkness invited confidences and the girls spoke as if they were very old friends. Letty spoke for the first time about the bullying that Egg had received at his posh school. Emily listened: it was a terrible story. Egg was just a little different from the other boys. Perhaps this was because he was a wizard and they were all muggles; if he had a wand about him he might have settled everything very quickly but he didn’t have that protection and the boys tormented him. The bullies at Egg’s school unfortunately, picked on everyone who was different from them – anyone, I’m sorry to say, who was the least bit timid or uncertain. The bullies took his books and pencils and his lunch money. They liked to corner him in the toilets and punch him. When they were supposed to be playing games at lunch time, they would often find Egg and call him names – horrible names. They never did any of these things in front of teachers, of course: they were too clever for that. The wonderful thing was that Egg was so brave and cheerful through all this. Hoping to come to Hogwarts was what kept him going through the dark times. But there was no doubt, Letty said, that Egg had been deeply hurt by what had happened.

There was a long period of silence before Letty said at last: “He’s kinder now, Emmy. He was always a great brother but being hurt at school has made him kinder to anyone who is in trouble themselves.”

I don’t think that Letty would have told Emily all of this but for the dark of the night and the quiet of the tower bedroom. It was all very private: sad things like this in families usually are. When they had talked it all out, they said their prayers and went to sleep. The last thing Emily did that night was to decide to tell Katie about Egg – or at least, to tell her enough so that she would be alert and vigilant. If there were any problems at Hogwarts, Harry and Ron would be sure to help Egg sort them out.

Emily woke during the night to hear the sound of a girl calling out – almost crying. At first she thought it was Letty; perhaps, Emily thought, she was sad about Egg or sorry that she had told Emily so much of his story. But Letty had seemed as positive as she could be when the conversation finished and the sound seemed to come not from the nearby bed but from far away. Emily lay in bed listening to the crying sound. The night was cold and Emily didn’t want to

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get out of bed but the thought of someone in trouble or in pain finally levered her out of the warmth of her bed and sent her looking.

Emily thought perhaps that there might be another Ravenclaw student in the common room but when she went to the winding staircase, the sound became fainter. There was no one in the common room and the sound was certainly loudest in her own room. Emily went back to bed – more in response to the cold than to anything else – and lay there listening. For blocks of time the sound seemed to fade away and Emily had almost deciding that she had dreamed all of this. Then the sound would return: sad but muffled – as if the person crying out were behind a wall or door. She finally fell asleep and woke to another showery, blustery day.

The next day was so busy that Emily quite forgot to tell anyone about the sad and desperate sound. It was only when she was blowing out the candle and confronted the darkness of the night that she remembered it at all. Letty was almost asleep already so Emily lay still and said nothing. She fell into a deep sleep almost immediately but woke with a start with the sound of the wailing voice quite close to her. Emily sat up with a start. She had already decided that if she heard the sound again that she would wake Letty but this time that wasn’t necessary.

“Emily?” she heard Letty’s voice in the darkness. “Is that you calling out?”

“No, Letty,” said Emily. “I was hoping that it was you.”

“Now I am scared,” said Letty. And in a moment, Emily felt Letty wriggling into her bed. It wasn’t a big bed for two little girls but they snuggled down into their pillows but still the crying came. Emily was sure that she could hear some words in with the crying: “Help me! Please help me! It’s in the Forbidden Forest! Look behind the cauldron! Oh, Help me, please!”

Finally the crying voice stopped – or the girls fell asleep. When they woke in the morning, they might have thought that all of this were a bad dream- but then both of the girls had the same recollection of the sad cry and the troubled voice.

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For three nights, they were plagued by the crying voice. Always there was the same call: “It’s in the Forbidden Forest! Look behind the cauldron! Oh, Help me, please!” Now they didn’t bother to sleep in separate beds. Once the candles were out, Letty would find her way in the darkness to Emily’s bed. Both of the girls were troubled by the sadness in the voice. Finally, after broken sleep and troubled days, the girls could take no more of it. At first they had loved their separate room at the top of the tower; now it was a miserable and dismal place – even with Dobby’s yellow roses and chocolates. But what to do?

Emily and Letty knew that it was time to tell someone about the crying. Letty couldn’t keep a secret like this from Egg: they had known one another’s secrets all their lives. And for Emily, the person she told had to be Kate. Katie would know what to do and after breakfast, Emily found her sister walking back to the Gryffindor Tower. Katie saw immediately how anxious her sister was and steered her out the great west door onto the terrace. There was weak, autumn sunshine on the great granite paving stones and the girls found a spot out of the wind close by where they could talk. Katie listened in silence to the story and to Emily’s great relief, Katie didn’t dismiss it, make fun of her or tell her that this was only the silliness of a first year girl in Ravenclaw House.

“To be sure, Emily,” said Katie at last, “Hogwarts is full of magic and mystery. This is my third year here and I don’t know a fraction of the magic in the walls. It may be a ghost calling you: there are ghosts here, I know, but they seem to be mostly happy souls, you know. Behind the cauldron? I wonder where that might be. Perhaps in the Potions classroom? The Forbidden Forest? Well, that’s one place I wouldn’t be going to look for anything. Harry and Ron have told me about the unicorns and centaurs and giant spiders that live there. And if they aren’t bad enough, now Hagrid’s got himself a dinosaur from the forest as a pet.”

Katie seemed to be turning over all the possibilities in her mind before she spoke again. Finally she said, “Emily, I think you need to tell Professor Flintwick. He’ll know what to do. In the meantime, I won’t tell anyone else. No one at all. Because you see, the voice has been calling to you and Letty. There are a hundred students in the Ravenclaw Tower – but you’re the ones it is calling. Think about that.”

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Emily would have loved to have stopped and talked with Katie for longer. She wanted to tell her about Egg and the bullying and ask her to keep an eye out for anything like that here but there was no time for those confidences. The bell for classes was ringing and the two little sisters who had never had secrets and who loved spending time together went off in opposite directions.

Emily, Egg and Lettice discussed the whole thing in a walk in the grounds of the castle at lunch time. It was cold and blustery but the sun had finally come out. The three friends turned the story over again and again without coming to any solution better than the one Katie had proposed. It had another advantage: Professor Flintwick was their teacher after lunch for Charms. At the end of the lesson, they could ask for his advice.

As it was, telling Professor Flintwick was easier and harder than they thought. The lesson had gone late and when Emily, Egg and Lettuce loitered until everyone else had cleared the room, Professor Flintwick was eager to speed them off to their next class. He also had another class to teach and Emily could hear the second years lining up noisily outside the classroom.

“Please, Professor Flintwick,” Emily said pleadingly, “we have something very important to talk to you about. Can’t you give us just five minutes now?’

Professor Flintwick pointed to the clock in his room impatiently and said, “Important is it, young lady? How important? Now you are Ravenclaw students and should know all sorts of things. Take, for example, rocks, stones and minerals. They’re not all the same substance are they? Some are heavier than others. Some are harder than others. If this were the hardness of minerals scale we were talking about, Emily, I want you to rate the importance of your problem!”

Emily had never heard a teacher talk like this before and it took her a moment to guess what he meant. Egg and Lettuce were quiet; this was Emily’s question to answer. Then Emily remembered something that she had read in a Science textbook she found while she was sitting in the back of her classroom in Dubai. She was bored by the lesson and had opened up the book which had the name of an older boy written inside the cover. It was all about minerals – and their hardness. Emily read it through – and she remembered it, too. Now Emily knew just what to say: the Sorting Hat had been right – she wasn’t in Ravenclaw for nothing! “I would say, Professor,” said Emily calmly, ”that it’s a diamond problem.”

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“Goodness me!” said the Professor, “Well, in that case, we’ll have to do it properly. We’ll need more than five quick minutes for a diamond problem. I want all three of you to come to my office in Ravenclaw Tower tonight. Don’t be late- and eat a proper dinner if it’s diamonds we’re talking about!”

The three friends were elated. Professor Flintwick had taken them seriously – even if he had hurried them off. And that night when they knocked at his study door, they were sure that he would be able to help.

Professor Flintwick’s beautiful office – filled with magical things.

The Professor’s room was full of interesting things: beautiful books and boxes, a canary in a gilded cage and beautiful pictures on the walls that moved about as all the pictures did at Hogwarts. On the floor, there was what looked like a gigantic bear skin rug. Professor Flintwick was a tiny man – much shorter than Emily; Emily wondered how a person his size could kill a bear so big. If Emily had only known that this was not a bear skin but the pelt of a woolly mammoth she would have been even more respectful of the tiny Professor seated at the desk opposite. The Professor sat the children on a sofa and then asked Emily to begin.

The Professor let her talk without interruption right from at the very beginning of the story: with the Sorting Hat, with the overcrowded Ravenclaw Tower

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dormitory and with their new room [long unused by anyone] above the common room. Professor Flintwick paid particular attention to the words used by the sad voice and made Emily repeat these again and again, trying to catch her out with slightly different words. But Emily held to her story simply and everything she said was confirmed by Letty. When Emily had finished, Professor Flintwick was silent for a long time, then he stood up and smiled.

“Bless my soul!” he said simply, “Bless my soul. To think that I would be the Head of Ravenclaw House when all of this happened!”

Emily thought for a moment that he was cross – that he was saying something that might have cast blame on the girls or suggest that they were making up the story. In fact, the Professor clearly believed their story – and only sat lost in thought as he took in what they had told him.

“Do you know who the ghost might be?” asked Egg finally, just to break the awkward silence.

“Oh, I think so,” said Professor Flintwick. “And this is what I want you to do tonight...”

**

Two hours later, the whole of the castle was in darkness. It should have been a full moon but a blustering storm put the whole sky into gloomy grey. The quiet stillness was broken only by the moaning of a squally wind. Egg, Lettuce and Emily were sitting on the Persian carpet in the girls’ tower room, alive to every noise. It wasn’t quite as scary as you might think: there were three of them there and they knew what to expect – even though a moaning ghost wasn’t a nice thing to be expecting. Best of all, Dobby had arrived just moments before they were to blow out the candles with another enormous pepperoni pizza to share.

I think Dobby would have liked to stay on and eat it with them but Emily gently insisted that they leave it with them. The ghost was a very private thing; the girls didn’t even know that she would come if Egg were with them. Soon the

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pizza was gone and the children were sitting with sticky fingers. Emily found that no matter how much she licked them that her hands still kept their wonderful oily pizza smell. She would have liked to go to the bathroom and wash her hands properly but she thought that if she left the tower room for just a moment that she might miss the ghost’s return.

They sat for about an hour in silence, huddled under the doona from Letty’s bed and just when any one of them might have suggested that they forget the ghost and go to sleep there was the unmistakable sound of the wailing voice. At first it simply blended with the high wind. Then it was present, as clear and as real as you can imagine. It was also suddenly cold. Professor Flintwick had warned them that this might happen; at least that made it a little less frightening.

As the three children had planned, Emily spoke first: “We hear you, in your sadness. We are listening. Who are you? And what will we find in the Forbidden Forest?”

“And what about the cauldron?” said Letty. The children had resolved to ask all these questions but Emily, being always especially polite with ghosts and spirits, left out that question. It seemed so many things to ask at once. Emily felt terribly cold. Without thinking, she took Egg’s hand and held it.

Then, just when you might think it couldn’t get any scarier, the voice suddenly had a body of sorts. When Emily tried to describe it for Katie the next day, she could remember many details: the lovely but sad face, the long, dark hair, the rich and elegant clothes and the jewelled crown on her head. Emily fancied that she’d seen this great Lady somewhere before – although she couldn’t be sure that she hadn’t seen her in a dream, perhaps, before she was woken by the crying. She wasn’t a young woman like Myfanwy but then again, she wasn’t an old woman like Nanny. And although sad, she certainly looked kind and regal – like a queen. She held her hands out to the children, then touched their faces. Emily suddenly wished that her hands didn’t smell quite so much of pizza.

“You listened to me,” the Lady said simply. “And you understood. True Ravenclaws, that’s what you are. True Ravenclaws! Now perhaps I can be happy again.”

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“What do you want us to do?” asked Egg. “Tell us, and we’ll do it.” He was just a little bit concerned that the Lady was giving all her attention to the girls.

“You must bring four wise Ravenclaws to this room. And look behind the cauldron,” said the Lady. The answers to all your questions are there, if you have the wit to read. Remember: four wise Ravenclaws. And come soon.”

The lady reached out and touched the children gently on the chin. The cold disappeared and just at that moment, there was a heave of the wind and the storm clouds seemed to part. Moonlight came flooding through the windows; the Lady was gone but the light from the windows fell straight on the tapestry of Rowena Ravenclaw working at a cauldron.

“Why, that’s the Lady!” cried Egg. The same thought came to all of them at the very same time. The woman who had called to them in the night and then appeared to them was the same Lady in the hanging in the common room and in their bedroom. It was Rowena Ravenclaw – one of the famous founders of Hogwarts School.

Lady Rowena Ravenclaw, the Ghost in the Upper Room

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Chapter 4: The Prophecy Revealed.

The next morning was Saturday and without lessons for students and teachers to attend, the whole castle stirred slower and began the day later. Emily, Egg and Letty had talked late into the night but finally fell asleep. When they woke that Saturday morning, they felt sure that something now would happen to solve the mystery. Professor Flintwick would know just what to do. The ghost had told them that four wise Ravenclaws would solve the mystery in the tower room: well, that wouldn’t be hard to arrange, surely. Everyone in Ravenclaw was clever – and being clever was almost the same as wise, Emily thought. Perhaps Professor Flintwick himself would come along and then with Emily, Egg and Lettuce, that would make four wise Ravenclaws and they could get on with the business. Perhaps then they would get a good night’s sleep!

The children did one more thing the next morning; Lady Rowena had told them that they should look behind the cauldron. Well, there she was in the tapestry showing her and some students at work gathered around a cauldron. Even though there were only three of them, surely it wouldn’t hurt to have a little look behind the tapestry just for starters.

And they did. Emily gently lifted the edge of the tapestry, half expecting something horrible to happen. If they had been longer at Hogwarts, of course, they might have been much more careful. They couldn’t know, for example, what horrible creatures could be set to guard things like this in case someone – the wrong person - became too inquisitive. They needn’t have worried: there was nothing behind the tapestry but the bare, stone wall. Emily felt it carefully, hoping to release a hidden door or window but nothing. They might have made a more careful examination but for the fact that Egg was very hungry and wanting his breakfast and Emily and Letty suddenly began to think that mucking about with magic like this wasn’t a very wise thing for anyone to do – and certainly not a Ravenclaw student who were expected to be particularly clever.

It was, unfortunately for the children, the very first question that Professor Flintwick asked once they had found him at the breakfast table. Like Egg, he

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seemed to need his breakfast before he could think. Emily and Letty grudgingly thought that this must be a boy thing and waited as patiently as they could while Professor Flintwick dealt with his marmalade toast. The staff table on the dais had mostly cleared and Professor Flintwick sat the children beside him. This time he invited Lettuce to begin the story, asking Egg and Emily to confirm the exact words that the Lady had said. He listened intently; finally the Professor said: “Now, this is wonderfully interesting and just what I had hoped for. Four wise Ravenclaws, you say. I wonder?” He was quiet for another moment as he fidgeted with his wand in the elegant green velvet sleeve of his robe. “You didn’t touch the tapestry, of course,” he said. “It could be very dangerous – but being Ravenclaws you would have worked that out for yourself.”

Emily, to her great credit, said simply, “We did touch it, Professor. At least I did. I thought, you see, that the message was meant for me and so we might be expected to look there.”

“Did you indeed?” said Professor Flintwick. For the very first time, he sounded a little like Professor McGonagall or Professor Snape.

“I’m sorry, Professor,” said Egg quickly. “We all touched it – not just Emily. If you had been there to hear the sadness in the Lady’s voice – and then her hope when we spoke to her and promised to help. Well, it seemed like a simple thing to do to respond straight away.”

The professor’s tone changed immediately. “I am forgetting that you are young and have only been at Hogwarts for a week. When you have seen more of this place - and know what wickedness there can be in the hearts of men – and women too - perhaps you will be more cautious. Now, for the rest of the day, you must say nothing to anyone – to no one at all, you understand. Emily, I know that you have probably told something of the Lady’s call to you to your big sister in Gryffindor House. I must ask you to tell her nothing of the Lady’s words now. There will be plenty of time later to tell the world what has happened. Right now, it has to be our secret. I want you, tonight, not to go to bed but to wait up in the Ravenclaw common room at lights out. I will meet you there – and bring three other wise Ravenclaws with me. I can promise that by the time you go to bed tonight that we will be well on the way to solving the mystery.”

It was the longest day – and not being able to talk about it with anyone made it all the longer. The best thing was that Katie was busy all afternoon trying out

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for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, riding her broom brilliantly as Harry and Ron tried to catch her with the quaffle. Emily, Egg and Lettuce sat in the top of the stands watching the practice and talking through all the things that the Lady had said and then what Professor Flintwick had said. Each of them was equally baffling.

Dinner was a little easier: Katie claimed a moment of Emily’s time but only to tell her the wonderful news that after her great performance that afternoon, she was going to join the Gryffindor Quidditch team. There was a little party at the Gryffindor table for Katie and Mohan Singh, another Gryffindor student, who had also made the team. Emily had never been so pleased to be left out of anything!

Finally, the night came and even the slowest dawdlers finally sloped away from the common room to bed. Myfanwy Morgan was just on the point of hurrying the three friends off to bed too when through the door came Professor Flintwick – with Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape and the Headmaster himself! All of them looked very interested and excited but spoke in the lowest whispers.

The children were astonished. Only Egg was confident enough to say what all three of them were thinking: “Professor Flintwick, the Lady said that we were to bring four wise Ravenclaws. Professor McGonagall is from Gryffindor and Professor Snape is from Slytherin. And the Headmaster..”

“To be sure, to be sure,” said Professor Flintwick with a twinkle. “But all of these good people when they were students here at Hogwarts were in Ravenclaw House. They were clever – and so the Sorting Hat put them here. And once a Ravenclaw, always a Ravenclaw. Three more wise and clever Ravenclaws are not to be met with anywhere. And so, Miss Emily and Miss Lettice, will you lead the way?”

The little procession climbed the stone staircase and assembled solemnly in front of the tapestry. Emily and Letty had spent a little time after dinner tidying their room; they were very lucky, however, that Dobby had happened by with more roses [deep red ones this time] and more chocolates. He had sensibly used his magic to put Emily’s undies in the washing basket and to lift her pyjamas off the floor and under her pillow. The room looked splendid.

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“I can feel the magic in the room,” said Professor Dumbledore. “Can you feel it, Minerva?”

“I certainly can,” said Professor McGonagall. “It’s not bad magic, though. I don’t think that Lady Rowena would have held with anything like that. But it is a powerful enchantment, certainly.”

“Shall we, then?” said Professor Flintwick? He gently manoeuvred the children to stand between the adults. “Wands out, students, and on guard.”

Katie, Egg and Lettuce stood with their wands out alert and ready- just as their teachers stood. This was a very solemn moment and Emily, I think, was trying to prepare for something amazing to happen. What happened, however, was scarcely more impressive than Myfanwy turning the litter in the railway cabin into lavender smoke. At a gentle wave from Professor Flintwick’s wand, the tapestry on the wall gently rose from the wall, swept through the air and settled itself carefully against the wardrobe.

“Nothing ghastly so far,” said Professor Snape.

“I fancy that ghastly was never Lady Rowena’s style,” said the Headmaster. “Now, let’s get to work on the stone wall.”

“There’s nothing there, Professor Dumbledore,’ Emily said. “We’ve already looked.

“Shall we see then,” said the Headmaster kindly. “Ravenclaws: to work!”

Now, all four teachers stepped forward as if they had practised this action many times. They touched their wands gently together in the air, then to the wall, each of them taking a point opposite the others so that the tips of the wands together formed a kind of square. Nothing happened for a moment, then there was some sweet smelling yellow smoke. Then the wall shivered as if it were made of silk and golden letters began to appear – not all at once, but slowly, as if someone were writing the words with a golden pen.

When the writing had finished, the children heard the most beautiful, musical laugh. And all three of them realised that it was same voice that had called to

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them in the night – but happy this time, and relaxed – as if a terrible weight had been removed from her shoulders.

This is what the golden letters said:

Professor Flintwick then did a remarkable thing. The golden letters remained etched on the wall until Flintwick stepped forward and swept his wand across the lines as if he were hoovering up dust on a carpet. As the wand passed, the letters disappeared; finally, the wall was as bare as Emily had seen it that morning. Professor Flintwick then took a roll of parchment from his sleeve and passed his wand across the lines. As he did so, the words of the inscription were

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To share the treasure, seek behind The tapestry and you will find.

To three children will I show the way To find the key and save the day. One shall be wounded, hurt but

brave. His sister with him, they will save An ancient creature, strong but

sad Ferocious, grim, but never bad. The third from camel country

passes And all three children will wear

reproduced in glorious gold letters on the paper. It was, as Emily told Katie afterwards, the most useful piece of magic she had ever seen. Emily thought that it would come in very handy if you needed to copy someone else’s homework.

Half an hour later, the four teachers and the three students were seated comfortably around a table in the Headmaster’s study. The tapestry of Rowena Ravenclaw and students gathered around the cauldron had been hung on the one part of the study wall that was not covered by book cases. Professor Dumbledore had produced a very large teapot, seven cups and saucers and a plate of Tim Tam biscuits and before the conversation began in earnest, everyone enjoyed the delicious tea. The children were bursting with questions and suggestions but they very wisely remained quiet and waited for the Headmaster to take the lead. But it was Professor Flintwick who spoke first and his voice sounded urgent and anxious.

The brave Sir Godric Gryffindor. He gave the Sorting Hat to Hogwarts

“Now, Headmaster, before we say or do anything, I really must protest. These three students are only first years. You cannot let them anywhere near the Forbidden Forest! They’ll be eaten by spiders or torn apart by vampire bats before they’ve gone a hundred metres into the forest.”

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“Before we jump to conclusions and send anyone into the Forbidden Forest, Filius,” said Professor Dumbledore, “I think we should look very carefully at the prophecy again. It may mean something altogether different from what we first think.”

“Don’t be dense, Headmaster,” Professor Flintwick shaking his grey head. “You were in Ravenclaw when you were a boy here at Hogwarts – you must see as quickly as I do what the prophecy means. Three children: a brother – wounded but brave – a sister and another girl from “where camel passes”. And all will wear glasses! If that’s not Egbert Devereux, his sister Lettice and Emily Bland –newly arrived from Dubai – than I’m much mistaken.”

The evil Salazar Slytherin. He gave the school a monster!

“Egbert is hurt from his fight with the Slytherin boys, I suppose” said the Headmaster, “but does that really mean that he is wounded? And Filius, all your students wear glasses – there’s nothing special in that.”

Now Professor McGonagall spoke – more kindly than you might have thought that someone with so severe a face could speak. “Headmaster, I think that the clinching argument is the reference to Hagrid’s dinosaur. Surely Dino is the

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…ancient creature, strong but sad Ferocious, grim, but never bad.

Professor Flintwick is quite right: everything fits. I’ve a feeling that the prophecy says something very true about this young man. You did have a terrible time at your last school, didn’t you Mr Devereux? Would it be too much to say that you were wounded in that place?” She gently placed her hand on his shoulder as she waited for his reply.

The kind Helga Hufflepuff with her magic gold cup.

Egg had been quiet through all this, his face fixed on the floor. He had been dreading this moment since he read the wall in Emily’s room- and knew immediately what it meant. [He was, you must remember, a Ravenclaw boy and very clever.] He had to give some answer to Professor McGonagall but when he lifted his head at last he caught the brilliant blue eyes of the Headmaster and felt at that moment the most complete sense of trust. Egg hadn’t cried in front of the bullies at his old school. He hadn’t cried when Walter Slack hit him in the head with his metal ruler. But the gentle eyes of the Headmaster turned his heart to water and tears fell now on the carpet – just as his blood had dropped three day before.

And the wise Ravenclaws all had sense enough not to probe or ask anything more – or to notice the tears and the strained silence – although Egg did notice that Professor McGonagall’s hand on his shoulder became not just a touch but a caress.

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“More tea, I think, Headmaster,” said Professor Flintwick at last. Professor Dumbledore was suddenly very busy with the pot and everyone had a top up. Another packet of Tim Tams also appeared and the mood of the little meeting changed.

“The lost gold of Ravenclaw!” said Professor Flintwick. “We’ve all heard about it, you know. I’ve often wondered if it were only a legend – but these old stories seem to have so much truth in them, you know.”

“Can you tell us the story, please?” said Emily.

“You know, I’m sure,” said the Headmaster, “that the Hogwarts School was founded centuries ago by the four greatest wizards and witches of its time. Each one of the founders gave their name to a House in the school – and each one of them gave the school a precious gift.”

The Headmaster stood up and walked to a series of portraits on the wall. He stopped in front of a brave looking person wearing light armour. “Godric Gryffindor was a knight as well as a wizard. He gave the school his sword and the sorting hat. Helga Hufflepuff gave the school her gold cup – a cup that brings joy and happiness to anyone who drinks from it. Salazar Slytherin, of course, gave the school a very nasty monster which he locked up in the Chamber of Secrets. And Rowena Ravenclaw gave the school something even more precious. This castle was once her home, you know. She gave it to the school at the time of its foundation and even though it has been extended and renovated many times, the heart of the school is still her legacy to us.”

“But as you know, or as you should know being Ravenclaw students,” said the Headmaster, “the four wizarding friends fell out in time. Salazar Slytherin left the school in an angry huff and Rowena Ravenclaw was anxious that her final gift to the school would not be lost to anyone like the brooding and evil Slytherin. Rowena Ravenclaw had a great deal of treasure and gold. The story is that it is hidden somewhere here in the castle. That is what the prophecy seems to address. Rowena Ravenclaw always said, I believe, that the treasure would come to the school in her own time – when she chose to reveal the hiding place of the gold. As you can imagine, many people over the years have tried to find it without success. Rowena Ravenclaw was no ordinary witch, of course, and she will have planted the treasure in a hiding place with such strong enchantments that no ordinary witch or wizard could find it. And now, I think that she wants it

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to be found – and by our three young friends here and Professor Hagrid’s monster.”

“You know, Headmaster, that I’ve been thinking that something odd was happening,” said Professor McGonagall. “It seemed so rum that the Sorting Hat put so many students into Ravenclaw this year – and students like Emily Bland and Lettice and Egbert Devereux might once have been assured of a place in Gryffindor. The founders of the school – at least Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw- still seem to be able to cooperate to make things happen.”

Emily, Egg and Lettice were fairly bursting with excitement. Rowena Ravenclaw – even though she had been dead for five hundred years – had called them to do an important job – a job that had been left undone all that time. Sitting up with Hagrid on the dray had been special; getting pizza and roses from Dobby had been special. But being given the job of finding a lost treasure by a ghost – well, that was very, very special!”

“Is the treasure somewhere in the Forbidden Forest?” asked Egg. “If it is, will Dino protect us when we go in to find it?” Egg looked very uncertain at this moment. He knew that Dino – although spectacularly ugly and frightening – was really a big softie and quite a wimp when it came to trouble.

“The treasure is in the castle,” said the Headmaster, “but the key to the treasure’s hiding place is in the forest.”

“The Forest is wild and terrible, Headmaster,” said Professor Flintwick. “Brave wizards and witches have gone in looking for things and never come out. There’s any quantity of monsters and dangers lurking there. I can’t let you send in three of my youngest students. We don’t even know where in the Forest to look for the key. It may be in a lake or pond; it may be in a cave or hidden under rocks. It could be anywhere. I do think that Rowena Ravenclaw might have given us some more direction – at least a hint of where to start.”

The teachers of the school were silent for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts. It did seem a hopeless task: a key is so small and the Forest so big. It was Emily who spoke up at last. “Excuse me,” she started modestly, ”I think we’re missing something. The lady laughed when we accepted the commission to find the treasure – and not a nasty laugh, but a kind, musical happy laugh. She must have thought that she was giving us everything we needed at that moment to find the key. Professor Dumbledore, she said ‘Look behind the cauldron.’

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Well, we looked behind the tapestry, but might there be something behind the cauldron – in the tapestry itself?”

“Bless my soul, Miss Emily, Bless my soul,” said Professor Flintwick. “Of course! Emily, you’re not in Ravenclaw for nothing! Headmaster, will you do the honours for us?”

They were all of them now on their feet gathered around the hanging. There was nothing to be seen in the weaving – nothing to suggest that anything was hidden there but Professor Dumbledore fixed his wand on the picture and gave the command “Roentgen! Reveal!”

There was a moment of crackling quiet, then silver smoke seemed to issue from the cauldron itself. In a moment the cauldron had disappeared from the tapestry revealing a perfectly worked map. It was about the size of a large orange and coloured with little drawings on the side. Professor Dumbledore gave a satisfied grunt, waved his wand in the same way as he had hoovered up the letters on the wall and then swept the map on to a piece of clean parchment from his desk. His finished map was much larger than the original – about the size of a dinner plate. Then for safety’s sake, the same wand swept over the tapestry replaced the cauldron to its original position.

The friends gathered around the map – and what Emily, Egg and Lettice could read filled them with a prickly fear. The edge of the map – showing Hogwarts

Castle and the lake - carried little warning signs that read:

Danger! Enter at Your Own Peril!

Further in there were other signs that read Danger: Horrible Giant Spiders

and Warning: Vampire Bats Patrol this Wilderness.

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Being a Hogwarts map and full of magic, the signs were moving about and every now and then, one of the giant spiders or vampire bats would appear on the map and startle the reader. Emily was feeling very uncomfortable indeed.

“Look here, Headmaster,” said Professor McGonagall, “there’s a gorge or deep valley at the heart of the forest. And look, a lake and a tower.”

The tower was marked “Ravenclaw Tower”. And over to the side there were some words that slid about, finally focussing to form a simple verse:

No door to the tower will ye find The way is blocked to humankind. In the top-most tower take a care The precious key is hidden there.

Only the wisest will discern it And only a Ravenclaw will earn it.

Take the key and if you’re bold You’ll open the door to Ravenclaw gold.

“Well,” said Professor Flintwick,”it all seems to be very easy. Two little girls and one little boy escorted by a sooky dinosaur are going to travel through miles of dangerous forest, past giant spiders, vampire bats and other unnamed dangers to find a tower none of us has ever seen and find a key there – then come all the way back. And who will tell the grieving parents of Emily Bland and Lettice Devereux that their little girl isn’t coming home because we sent them to be killed and eaten in the forest. Will you do that, Headmaster?”

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“Professor Flintwick is right, Headmaster,” said Professor Snape who had been largely silent until this time. “I don’t think that even a Slytherin boy would be able to do this – let alone a girl from Ravenclaw!”

Professor Dumbledore wisely hushed Professor Snape before Professor Flintwick could explode in anger. [He was turning quite purple with anger at the suggestion that a Ravenclaw girl wasn’t as clever and as brave as a Slytherin boy!

“Two things, my friends,” Professor Dumbledore said gently. “Two things. Firstly, Rowena Ravenclaw has given the children this task. She plainly thinks that they are capable of doing this terrible task. We cannot go with the children, but we can give them every assistance we can. But most importantly: are the children willing to go? Even though it will be very dangerous and frightening?”

Everyone looked at Emily, Egg and Lettuce. Have you ever had everyone looking at you, wondering what you will do or say? Now that’s what I call scary. It was Emily who spoke first. “Please, Headmaster, I’ve only been at Hogwarts for a week or so and I can’t do any magic yet. I don’t like spiders and bats. I’m not sure about monsters and such things, having only met Dino – and he is really good and kind, even if he looks horrible. But I would do my best. I’m used to scary things, you know. I had worms once and got rid of those.”

Lettice spoke next. “I can’t speak for Egbert, but the Lady asked us to help her – and we promised we would. If you could have heard her lovely laugh after the terrible crying, I’m sure you would want to try to help her too.’

Egg spoke last of all. “I can’t speak for my sister, Lettice, but I can tell you, Sir, that getting up every day to go to my horrible school last year was more frightening than facing spiders and bats. If it will help the Lady, I’m ready to go along and do my part.”

The Headmaster shook his head. Emily could see that there were tears in his eyes. “Well then, bless you all, bless you all. Flintwick, it looks as if your three students here are as wise and any Ravenclaw, as kind an any Hufflepuff and as brave as any Gryffindor. And they just might succeed where older witches and wizards would fail.”

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“Headmaster,” said Professor Snape, “You forgot to mention that the three of them are as tricky as any Slytherin! And I think they are quite capable of tricking their way out of most situations.” Emily thought that coming from Professor Snape that this was almost a compliment.

“Yes, Severus, they will need all of that to come out of the Forest alive. But I rather think they will,” said Dumbledore.

“When will we go?” asked Emily. “Will we have to wait until the Easter holiday?” No one seemed to have considered when the children and Dino would set out on their expedition.

“I think,” said the Headmaster, “that when a ghost gives you an important job to do that you should do it as soon as you can. You will have to gather some provisions together for this kind of journey, however. Let’s see: it’s Saturday today. I would think you should be on your way at first light on Monday morning.”

Emily looked at her two friends. She had only known them for a week but here they were, ready to set out on an amazing adventure in which any one of them might be killed by spiders or eaten by monsters. And all Emily could think was how much fun all of this was going to be.

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Chapter 5: Into the Forbidden Forest.

The whole of the next day was taken up with planning for the expedition. Egg, Lettuce and Emily spent a long hour together pouring over the map, trying to learn more and more about the journey they would have to take. Every time they looked at the map it became more and more threatening. New terrors appeared on the map: centaurs and unicorns in the deep forest and merpeople in the lakes, for instance. And in the middle of the forest, Emily remembered, there were the dinosaurs who had tormented Dino because he was puny and runty – although he was, as you know, bigger than any elephant.

The worst thing was that all of this was very secret. Emily, Egg and Lettuce were bursting to tell their friends in Ravenclaw that this amazing task had been given to one of them – and not to one of the brave students in Gryffindor or the sly students in Slytherin. Only two other people were allowed to know what was going to happen. Professor Dumbledore asked Hagrid to sit with the children and the map and tell them everything he knew about the route they must take. Here was one piece of luck: Hagrid had actually seen the tower where they must go.

“The Forest wasn’t always as wild and as dangerous as it is now, you know,” Hagrid said quietly. “Once it was an enormous garden and park around the castle where Lady Rowena Ravenclaw and her family could go hunting. Then she gave the castle to the school. The four founders of Hogwarts planted the Forest and assembled the animals and terrors that populate it to scare away Muggles and anyone who might come to the castle with evil intent. The tower that you see on the map was once a lookout for hunters. And as you know from the prophecy, there’s no door into the tower- I’m not sure how you will get in.”

“How will we find our way through the forest?” Egg asked.

“There are paths of a sort through the forest,” said Hagrid. “But you will easily get lost, I fear. The main path leads through the beech and oak trees to the

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palm forest in the gorge. That’s where Dino’s herd lives. I would think that the best thing you can do is walk down the deep gorge and then follow the river down to the lake in front of the tower.”

“Will it take us long to walk?” asked Emily.

“Well, you’ll have to go at the speed of the slowest of you, you know,” said Hagrid. “If you make an early start, I suppose that it will take you all day. It depends on how long you want to stop and have lunch – but stopping in the forest isn’t anything I’d want to be doing. And then you have to find the key and come back again. If you stay overnight in the forest, mind you make a decent fire and keep it burning. Most things that could trouble you at night will stay clear of your fire.”

“Have you been into this part of the forest, Professor Hagrid?” asked Egg.

“Happen I have, you know,” said Hagrid, “but that was many long years ago when I was just a school boy here. I went looking for dragon eggs one season and found the tower as you see it in the map there. It were summer then, of course, and the forest was deep and green. It will be barer now in the early winter - and frosty too, I’ll be bound.”

“Will it be scary?” asked Emily.

“Well, I know that Dino will be frightened to go back into the palm forest. He’s such a timid soul and tender hearted. But he has a soft spot for you three because you were so kind to him when the bullies from Slytherin House were mean to him. I think he’d go anywhere with you, you know.”

The only other person allowed to learn what was happening was Katie. On Sunday, Emily found her sister just before dinner time outside the Great Hall dining room and took her aside into the library which was clear of even the most studious Ravenclaws who had left to get ready for dinner. Katie listened as Emily told the story as clearly as she could. When Emily looked up, she saw to her surprise that Katie was crying. She hugged her little sister fiercely.

“Emmy, you must go, I know,” Katie said. “Lady Rowena has given you this task – and I’m sure you will do it. All the same, I wish I were coming with you. We could look after each other. And I’ve learned to do a lot of magical things that might be helpful.”

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“I’ll come back for sure, Katie,” said Emily, “if I can.” Just at that moment, the gong sounded for dinner and from all parts of the castle, hungry boys and girls began to arrive at the dining room. Emily saw her sister look towards the dining room and she guessed that Katie must be looking for her dinner. The two sisters kissed a little awkwardly. This was one adventure that they might happily have done together. In the Great Hall, Emily went and sat at the Ravenclaw table and was delighted that her favourite – curried sausages – was being offered for dinner. She couldn’t know it but it would be some days before she would have a decent meal again.

Emily was surprised to see Katie come in late. She waved to her sister and after pudding and prayers, the two girls met as they left the hall.

“Wait a moment, I have something to give you,” said Katie. She felt in her pocket and brought out a ring with an orange coloured stone in it. Emily had never seen it before. It was stunningly beautiful – but looked very old. There was some writing around the band that Emily couldn’t read.

“I’ve been keeping this in a special place in my room – for a really special time,” said Katie. Harry gave it to me last year when he came to visit us in Dubai. He says he bought it in the souk –and that he knew as soon as he picked it up that it was magical. He said he thought that it was Egyptian. There’s a deep spell hidden somewhere in it; Harry thought that it might be very lucky. It’s a gentle, good magic, I’m sure. You could use some luck in the Forest, Emmy. Only put it on in the scariest of situations – when you are really frightened.”

The magic ring that Katie gave to Emily

Now the two little girls really hugged and there were some real tears. But with the beautiful ring in Emily’s pocket it was as if Katie were there with her after all. Now, Emily thought, she wouldn’t be frightened of anything.

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It was true: the three children and their dinosaur companion would certainly need some luck. As it was, the children had their wands – but had learned almost no magic. They could conjure light from the tops of their wands and they had already learned to use the wands to start a fire but these were the simplest of spells. It seemed hopeless, but as is so often the way with good people doing kind things for others, good things started to happen. Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape and Professor Flintwick called at the tower common room just as the Egg, Lettuce and Emily were trying to think what clothes they should take. It was going to be hard because they would have to carry everything with them. [It wasn’t fair, said, Egg, to simply load poor Dino up with everything they wanted to take.] The teachers looked solemn but each of them had a twinkle in their eye.

You see, each of the three teachers had a gift for the children. Professor Snape had a magical backpack for them. No matter what one put into it, it never became too heavy to carry on your back. I’m sure you can see why that would be a useful gift. Emily was so pleased to have this present: it meant that she could take her hairbrush, lip gloss and a spare nightie with her without worrying about the weight of the pack. “I can’t let you keep it,” said Professor Snape, “because it belonged originally to the founder of Slytherin House – Professor Salazar Slytherin – who was a great traveller and explorer. Use it as you need to – but bring it back safely.” Professor Snape handed the backpack solemnly to Egg who received it with a kind of bow.

Professor McGonagall had a parcel in her hands that looked like a kind of tartan canvas drop sheet – the kind you put on the floor when you are painting so that drops of paint don’t get on the carpet. “This,” she announced with great dignity. “Is the magical tartan sheet of the great Scottish wizard Urquhart McUrquhart. Over you, this sheet will keep you dry and warm in the fiercest of storms; under you, it will keep you dry and warm in the wettest of bogs and the hardest of frosts. McUrquhart made this magical object to take on picnics in Scotland where it was in constant use. “My dear,” said Professor McGonagall as she gave it to Letty, “Kindly bring it back safely now.” Letty gave a little curtsy as the priceless object was put into her hands.

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A picnic in Scotland – a good place to use the magical sheet of Urquhart McUrquhart

Kindly Professor Flintwick now stepped up and smiled at Emily. He had a battered old billy in his hands with a wire handle and scorched sides. It looked like a piece of junk and if you had passed it in the shed you probably wouldn’t have given it a moment’s thought. “This billy,” said Professor Flintwick, is the magical billy of Bruce McDingo, the famous Australian indigenous wizarding explorer. He explored the deserts of Australia with this billy tied to his swag and his faithful kelpie dog, Brewster, beside him. The billy can boil even in a thunderstorm and make you a cup of tea in moments. There’s magic on the bottom of the billy because you only have to light it up with your wand and flames will come out –even in water. Australians love their billy tea and Bruce McDingo was always a favourite with his mates because he could charm a cup of tea out of the darkest moments. I’m trusting you with this precious magical item, Emily. Bring it back safely now – it is in constant use in the teachers’ common room. All the teachers like a cup of billy tea.

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Bruce McDingo, the famous Australian indigenous wizard who owned the magical billy.

When the teachers had gone, the three friends put their magical treasures out on display. The magic sheet would keep them snug at night; it was carefully folded and put into the magical back pack of Salazar Slytherin. Emily showed her friends the magical Egyptian ring; they all admired it – and wondered just how it could help them. The magical billy of Bruce McDingo was carefully tied with a bootlace onto the backpack. It was too dirty to go inside – and beside, when you needed a quick cup of tea, you needed to have the billy handy.

The three friends checked their things again and again. Letty remembered that they might need a first aid kit and went to get the one from the Ravenclaw common room. Egg decided that he really needed another spare pair of socks and they had to be found and added to the collection. And just when they had zipped up the backpack for the very last time, Dobby turned up with three pizza pies and some vegemite sandwiches. These were all safely tucked into the backpack. Emily had one more thing to add to the backpack. She took the ring that Katie had given her – the magic one that Harry had bought in the souk – and slipped it into one of the zipper pockets on the side of the backpack. How she would use it, she didn’t know but she wanted it to be safe and handy. It would be awful to drop it from her pocket somewhere in the forest.

Only then could the three friends have one last look at the map. The warnings against vampire bats and giant spiders had turned blood red- they looked truly threatening now. It seemed miles and miles from the entrance to the forest to Ravenclaw Tower in front of a lake. Surely, Emily thought as they snuggled down

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into bed, it wouldn’t be hard to escape from the spiders, evade the vampire bats, the dinosaurs, centaurs, giants and monsters, then find the lake and the tower and then the key! None of that was scary- in fact, it hardly sounded like an adventure at all!

The next morning they were up very early. Dobby had heard what was happening and he had brought Emily a cup of tea in bed. It was just breaking dawn as the three friends headed to Hagrid’s hut at the entrance to the forest. The ground crackled with frost and a sinister mist hung over the trees. Egg had the backpack of Salazar Slytherin; the map that Professor Dumbledore had taken from the cauldron was carefully folded into the front pocket. The magic billy of Bruce McDingo was making its own jingling noise as it banged with every step. The task ahead had seemed so easy last night; now, I think even Emily was feeling just a little scared. When they reached the hut, the three friends were delighted that Professor Flintwick, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape and the Headmaster himself were there to see them off. Hagrid had made them all big mugs of tea. Dino waited at the back door, his eyes looking just a little sad and apprehensive. Hagrid had put a kind of harness on him with a saddle; there were actually three comfortable seats arranged in a row on his broad back. He was so pleased when he saw the backpack – and no other luggage. [Hagrid had warned him that he would probably have to drag a cart or a dray with all the things that the three friends would need for exploring.] Hagrid gave each of the children a gentle lift and sat them in the dinosaur saddle. Emily was up front; she gave Dino a gentle rub on the ears and two delicious Smackos that Dobby had brought from the kitchen to give to him.

It was all very solemn. Professor McGonagall waved her tartan handkerchief: little Professor Flintwick produced a flight of golden canaries from his wand that flew around and around the children until they disappeared in a puff of golden smoke; the Headmaster’s eyes twinkled; Professor Snape even smiled encouragingly. But poor Hagrid cried bitterly and blew his nose on a handkerchief the size of the tablecloth. He had come out to meet them with the leather sack full of roast chickens and Egg cleverly found space for it in a pocket of the famous Slytherin backpack. Hagrid was sure that he would never see Dino alive again and he hugged him gently before they parted. . And on that happy note, the friends headed into the deep green forest, Dino following the ancient brick path that stretched ahead and the children swaying gently on his broad back.

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Chapter 6: Spiders! And Bats!

“You were really brave to go into the forest, Emily” said Katie. “Even with all the magic things it would still be scary! I wish I could have gone with you.”

“I wish so too,” said Emily. “Grandad, this story is a bit scary, you know!” said Emily. “I hope it has a happy ending!”

“Dear me,” said Old Grandad, “before the happy ending there are some terrible bits! But Emily, you and your friends were very brave indeed, you know.”

“Can you tell us if the spiders got any of us?” asked Emily. “I hope they don’t get Dino – he’s nice.”

“Well now, let me think. Spiders..”

Dawn was breaking as the little party headed into the forest. Emily took the

map from the backpack and spread it out although it really wasn’t very helpful in

this early stage of their journey. The path climbed gently up a ridge between

the trees which seemed to Emily to be ancient and wise. They were draped with

moss and gave the forest a deep shade. There was a low mist; the forest felt

deep and mysterious.

Dino lumbered along slowly; Emily had had rides on camels and while the view

from Dino wasn’t as good as the one from a camel, it was certainly fun. Soon,

the path faded away and Dino had to carefully pick his path through the tree

roots. Nothing unusual happened for an hour or so and as they had started very

early, everyone was feeling like morning tea rather early in the day. When they

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came to a clearing in the forest at last, Lettuce called a halt and Dino was happy

to stop beside a fallen tree so that the children could get down easily.

The deep forest where the adventure began.

There was a little stream falling over pebbles; Emily tasted the water and it was

icy cold but sweet. The air itself was cold. There was some snow all about them

and what they all wanted more than anything was a hot drink. Egg took the

famous billy of Bruce McDingo, filled it at the stream and put it down on a

mossy rock. He took his wand and without a lot of confidence, he tapped the

billy at the base. Immediately there was a puff of lovely smoke that Emily

recognised immediately as the wonderful smoke that comes from gum tree

twigs. [All Australians know and love this smell!] Flames shot out of the wand

and flickered around the base of the billy. By the time Lettuce had found the

vegemite sandwiches and the tea caddy rattling around in the bottom of the

backpack, the billy was boiling. And the tea from that billy tasted absolutely

scrumptious! Emily made sure that Dino had a big drink of tea too. He was,

after all, a cold blooded animal and he would have been feeling the cold more

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than any of them. Katie found him a roast chicken from Hagrid’s leather bag and

he wolfed that down and licked his chops greedily.

It was while the children and Dino were enjoying the last of the vegemite

sandwiches that Emily first became aware of a strange whistling sound. At first

it was far off, then it was closer – quite close. The mist had thickened and it

was hard to see very far ahead. The whistling seemed to be coming from many

directions at once. The forest had seemed safer when they were sitting on

Dino’s broad back. In the clearing it was beginning to feel sinister and scary.

Egg and Lettuce had heard it too and without making any comment, they quickly

gathered their things and got ready to leave.

It was Dino who was most anxious, however. He kept lifting his ugly green head

and looking all about, trying to see who was making the noise. Then he moved to

the stump where the children had climbed down and stood anxiously waiting for

them to climb back on his broad scaly back. The explorers set off as quickly as

they could, keen to be gone but wondering what the next few steps would bring.

Now that the party had found the stream, their way ahead, at least, was clear.

Egg was sure that the stream was shown on the map, curling down to a bigger

stream that cut into the broad plateau to form the gorge that was their

destination. The stream would take them through the deep forest to the palm

forest in the gorge [where Dino’s tribe of dinosaurs lived] to the lake and tower.

The mist was swirling about them now and the moss on the trees was looking

even more ancient and sinister.

The heavy moss draped from the branches like a wispy shawl; Emily was certain

sometimes that the whistling seemed to be coming from the moss itself. It

became louder and more alarming. Dino was frightened too and picked up his

pace; now he was almost running. And then Emily realised with a horrible jolt

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that the moss hanging from the trees was not moss at all: it was cobweb. They

had arrived at the place on the map marked Spiders!

The ancient trees were covered in moss – and cobwebs.

Dino was now so frightened and spooked by the whistling that when the first giant spiders actually appeared it was only the children who saw them. They were shy at first – peeking out from their webs and then sidiling back out of sight. The largest of the spiders were only about as large as a television set. Emily wasn’t frightened until the big spiders appeared – these were as big as a small motor car. They encountered their first webs across the path too. Emily opened her mouth to call a warning and copped a mouth full of sticky web that tasted foul and took a long while to pull away from her face.

And now the spiders were following Dino; soon there were hundreds of them. The children were frightened by the whistling, by the horrible faces on the spiders and by the fact that no matter how fast Dino ran, he couldn’t get away. What to do? Egg drew out his wand. He was seated at the back of Dino and the nearest spiders closing in on them were almost at touching distance. He could see their terrible jaws and their awful faces. Egg knew very little magic but he was, after all, a wizard and he could feel something strong and powerful coursing through his body. He lifted his arm towards the closest ugly spider and flicked his wand, hoping that something would happen. He had felt like this many

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times last year at his horrible school. The ugly spider reminded him so much of the bullies who had tormented him and made him so miserable. He concentrated all the anger and sadness he had felt in his heart, called to mind the face of the nastiest bully he had met and aimed his wand.

To his amazement, Egg felt the wand surge in his hand as if it had a life of its own. There was a burst of green light from the tip of his wand and a horrible gasp from the nearest spider as it took the full force of the green light right between its horrible black eyes. It fell away with a howl. “I can do magic!” Egg squealed.

One of the giant spiders who chased Emily!

Other spiders quickly took the place of the one who had been stunned by Egg’s spell. The danger wasn’t passed at all. Lettuce and Emily drew their wands and took aim – but nothing happened. Egg, however, was so excited by his newly found power that he let fly with the most rapid round of green fire. He blasted spiders behind him, beside him, in the trees and on the ground. With a heave, he leapt from Dino’s back and confronted the spiders head on. Three or four of the largest spiders took the full force of Egg’s green blast as they opened their jaws and looked intent on swallowing Egg whole. Soon – very soon – the spiders were not chasing the children but fleeing in panic. For a moment, Egg chased after them and the retreating spiders turned into a stampede. The whistling became a wail and a whimper. Dino – puffing and panting- slowed to a trot. Egg

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ran beside him feeling ten feet tall. When they reached another clearing, Dino stopped altogether and Egg hugged him to show that they were safe and well – all of them. And now there was a new sound in the forest. Egg was laughing and crying all at once but soon the laughing took over from everything. He laughed, Letty thought, as he had laughed when they were small – as he had never laughed since he had gone away to the horrible bullying school. And in a moment, Egg’s laugh was joined by the silvery, musical laugh they had heard in the Ravenclaw Tower.

“It’s the Lady!” Emily cried. “She’s with us – now, and here!”

As soon as it started, the laughter was gone but it left the most wonderful tingling in their hearts so that even though there were snow on the forest floor and the air were icy, all three children and the dinosaur himself, I’m sure, felt warmed through and cheerful.

It was with very different hearts that they resumed their journey. The path opened a little too, steadily following the stream. Every now and then, you could see the remains of the old paved path that had connected the castle at Hogwarts with the Ravenclaw Tower near the lake. This part of the forest felt cheerful and bright although a gusting cold wind sent the snow scudding along the forest floor in flurries. When it was time for lunch, everyone was hungry and hopeful that the worst of the journey was over.

In a snowy clearing, Lettuce rummaged through the backpack and found the tartan sheet of Urquhart McUrquhart. She shook it out and spread it on the ground, lifting up one side to form a kind of barrier from the cold wind. It was the first time the children had used the sheet and they were delighted that as soon as it went down, they had a nice, snug shelter. It was warm and clean and even though Dino took up most of the shelter thus provided, they all managed to find somewhere out of the wind where they could relax. Emily offered Dino two more of the chickens; he ate them greedily and then decided to go for a drink at the stream and then off foraging in the forest floor for something more to nibble.

Have you ever got up very early and then spent all morning walking in the bush? It makes you very hungry indeed. As they came to the edge of the deep forest, the children were certainly looking for their lunch. And the good luck that had attended them all morning stayed too. When Emily found the pizza boxes that Dobby had brought them, all three pizzas were still toasty warm and smelling

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wonderful. Emmy shared the Pizza Supreme with Egg and Lettuce. They didn’t know where their next meal was going to come from so they wisely decided to keep the other two pizzas for dinner. Letty this time used her wand to boil the billy; when they had been supplied with hot tea and pizza, the three children decided that it was more like a nice safe picnic at home than a meal in a dangerous forest. The food probably tasted better because they had been in danger – and then safe because of Dino’s stout heart and Egg’s newly found courage.

One of the bats that chased Dino

While Dino snuffled though the undergrowth and bracken, the children looked at the map again, trying to work out exactly where they were. They could see that they had passed through the deep forest with the warnings of spiders; they could see that the paved walkway was marked there too. Soon, Egg supposed, their little stream would join the wider river for the waterfalls into the gorge and the palm forest. Letty had decided to brew another pot of the delicious tea from Bruce McDingo’s billy; she had filled the pot from the little stream and was excited as her wand conjured flames and had the billy bubbling in a moment. Egg and Emily had just packed up their pizza boxes into the magical backpack of Salazar Slytherin and carefully shaken the snow off the tartan sheet of Urquhart McUrquhart when there was a terrible squeal from the undergrowth and a heart wrenching sound that Emily would never forget. Dino came crashing through the bracken, shaking his horrible green head and

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shuddering in agony. And in a frenzied cloud around his head there was a flight of horrible bats.

Of course the vampire bats had been marked on the map- the friends had expected them- but the nasty little drawing on the map were no preparation for the horrible creatures that rushed towards them. The bats were the size of large owls or vultures. Instead of wings and feathers, they flew with huge black wings like umbrellas. Their faces were fierce and their razor sharp teeth were bared. One slice from those jaws would open up a wound. They were blood sucking creatures and I think when the vampire bats appeared that was the only moment that day when the spiders actually appeared less terrible. The thing that Emily remembered most about this moment was the noise – the high pitched screeching of the bats throbbed in their heads; it was joined by the terrible flapping of their umbrella wings and the howls of poor Dino who put his head down and blundered about in misery looking for a place to hide.

Three of the vampire bats who attacked Dino

Egg had solved the problem with the spiders; it was Letty who was the hero of the day during what the children afterwards called “the bat attack!” When the vampire bats flew down like noisy hornets, Egg was quick as a knife to dash forward with his knees bent, his eyes flashing and his wand at the ready. He had grown in confidence since the war with the spiders – Emily said afterwards that he had literally grown ten centimetres but this was probably only because he

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now stood up so straight and proud – and he confidently expected more sparks of deadly green fire to tear from his wand.

But nothing happened. The wand flapped feebly in his hand and as the spitting, squeaking slathering bats closed in on him, I think that poor Egg suddenly felt as frightened as he had ever done at his awful posh school. Letty still had the magic billy of Bruce McDingo in her hands; she had used her own wand to coax the lively red and gold flames that set the water hissing within moments of being set alight. When she saw the danger they were all in – and heard Egg’s frightened gasp and Dino’s terrible howl – she reacted without a moment’s thought.

For a whole year she had watched her poor brother suffer at his school. So many times she had wanted to take on the bullies who had hurt him but Egg would never let her. I think it was as hard for Letty to see the brother she loved being bullied as it was for Egg himself. Now it was different. She had promised herself that she would never stand back and watch anyone in trouble like this. The anger and shame she had felt at her school came bubbling out of her from deep down. It came out in a shout of anger – and it came literally bubbling out of the billy of tea. Letty swung the billy and emptied the whole boiling pot of scalding tea on the first of the vampire bats – the one closest to Egg’s wavering hands and face. The savage creature copped the whole billy full of hot tea right in the face and his terrifying squeals gave way to howls of pain and fear. The bat swung away and went crying into the tree tops.

Letty had no idea what to do now that the billy was empty; she supposed for one moment that she could try to hit the bats with the swinging billy. At least it would be hot and hard. But she didn’t have to think for long because the billy seemed to have a life of its own. It wasn’t empty and another litre of scalding hot, strong tea went through the air to splash over the bat which had headed for Emily. The screaming from the bats as they were scalded with the hot tea was horrible. In fact, the noise was terrific: Dino was howling, the bats were squealing and gibbering, Letty was shouting in rage and excitement and Egg, once the bats began to scatter, discovered his voice and called down curses on the whole of the bat kingdom.

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The magic billy wasn’t finished by a long shot. To the scalding tea was now added the red and gold flames. With the billy resting on a stone or by the creek bank, the flames were brisk but gentle enough; in the hands of Letty, the flames had a life of their own, flicking out and arcing through the air like giant fireworks. They were a perfect match for Letty’s fierce courage and anger. She didn’t need her wand in her hand as Egg had done when he took on the spiders; the billy itself became an extension of her heart and her spirit. While the hot tea brought every one of the lead bats crashing down, the leaping flames took down bats on the wing and on the swoop. They rained down on the whole horrible tribe of bats who very soon took flight and beat the air to escape. As well as the terrible noise, there was an equally awful smell – burnt bat! It smelled like burned feathers or scorched woolly jumper.

This bat was very keen to bite Letty!

When the attack began, the three friends had formed a little protective circle around Dino with their backs together and Letty facing the bats head on. Dino was terrified of the whole thing and tried to nuzzle into Emily for comfort and protection. But to be truthful, once Letty had seen off the first few bats the rest of them proved to be lily livered cowards who struggled to fly away quite as enthusiastically as they had flown down from the moss covered trees looking for dinner.

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The fire from the billy that threatened to burn the vampire bats.

Soon, the squealing of the angry bats was replaced by their frightened cries as they tried to escape Letty’s scalding hot tea and fire. The bats turned tail and flew up and away – with Letty after them, hurling ropes of hot tea and fire that chased them in withering arcs through the bleak branches of the great trees. Letty was laughing now and everyone felt stronger and happier than they had for a long time. Egg’s green fire that had stunned the spiders and Letty’s red and gold fire that had chased the vampire bats fire were the singular brackets of that remarkable day.

Despite the cold day and the snowy sky, the whole world looked suddenly bright. And once again, the laughter of the children was joined by the lovely musical laughter of the Lady – the ghostly sound that filled the forest clearing and their spirits with great hope and energy. Emily just loved the sound: it made her feel good at the very bottom of her heart.

Then, with a puff of steam, the billy was tranquil and ordinary again, hanging in Letty’s hand by its old wire handle. Letty put it down on a rock and hugged her brother, and Emmy and Dino. Would you believe that after all its adventures, the billy was still full of tea? The three friends and their dinosaur companion poured out mugs and enjoyed the tea as much as if it were the finest champagne.

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The magical billy was quiet and still after the vampire bat attack.

The friends packed up their lunch quickly now; all of them thought that that was quite enough excitement for one morning. They were very excited and cheerful – they had, after all, navigated the spiders and bats on the map and had the most surprising success. But all of them – especially Dino – knew that the next step of the journey would take them into the gorge and down into the palm forest – and the herd of ferocious dinosaurs who had tormented Dino because he was puny and runty.

“Well,” said Emily, “you’re rescued us once today, Egg, with your amazing wand work on the spiders. And Letty, you were brilliant on the vampire bats with your magic billy. It must be my turn now to save us from the dinosaur herd. But I don’t for the life of me know how I’ll do that. I’m just a little girl; I hardly know any magic.” Emily sounded quite forlorn and miserable as she said this.

“I don’t think it matters at all what we know or how little we are,” said Letty. “The Lady chose us for this job; if she’d wanted older and wiser witches and wizards she could have asked Professor McGonagall or Professor Snape to find the treasure. No, she asked us. And all we can do is our best.”

“Your best is pretty good, Letty,” said Egg warmly. “When you sent that scalding tea on to the vampire bats – that was just wicked!”

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“And when you blasted the spiders with the green stunning spell – that was pretty good too!” said Emily to Egg. “You know it just seems that we don’t have to know the magic in advance. Somehow we get the magic when we most need it. The Lady told us to trust her; I guess that’s what I’ll have to do when it comes to the dinosaur herd.”

And in the end, that was all that they could do. How do you confront an angry dinosaur? None of the children seemed to know. Emily remembered seeing a grumpy camel once but that was as far as she knew how to manage savage animals. If the map were right, it would be a couple of hours before they would need to know anyway.

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Chapter 7: Into the Palm Forest

“I like Egg and Lettuce, Grandad,” said Katie. “They’re kind and good. And aren’t they brave! Fancy facing up to vampire bats like that. That must have been very scary.”

“What about me?” said Emily. “I have to face the whole herd of dinosaurs.” She sounded just a little bit frightened by this.

“But you’re brave too,” said Katie kindly. “You’ll find a way to see the group through the palm forest, I know. Is it Emily who saves the day next, Grandad?” asked Katie.

“Dear me,” said Old Grandad sleepily. “I quite forget whose turn it is to be the hero this time. Let me think...”

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The palm forest in the gorge of the Forbidden Forest

The little company of friends walked silently all afternoon. Each one of the children was absorbed in their own thoughts. Egg was feeling so proud of his courage in confronting the spiders – but wondering if they would plot a terrible revenge on them on the return journey. Lettuce was still excited about defeating the vampire bats; knowing how good she felt now she was wishing that she had confronted the bullies at Egg’s school long ago. And Emily kept looking at Dino, trying to remember how frightened of him she was the first time that she had met him. What if Dino were three or four times his present size – and instead of being a sook, imagine that he were angry and ferocious. And then imagine ten or fifteen of these animals – all of them trying to catch and eat the children! Emily could see that Dino was becoming more and more restless as the path led downwards to the gorge. He must be feeling just like I am, thought Emily.

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The good thing was that it was becoming warmer. It had started as a dreadfully cold winter’s day and right into the forest there had been snow on the ground and an icy wind. As they neared the gorge, however, the temperature rose. Jumpers were taken off and stored in the back pack; it was feeling distinctly summery. Then the children heard the sound of falling water and saw that the stream they had been following suddenly livened into rapids. They were at the gorge.

If she hadn’t been so concerned about the dinosaurs ahead, Emily would have loved this part of the journey much more than she did. She loved the bush and the first palm trees that they encountered were not the scrubby, ancient date palms of the desert in Dubai; instead they were the glossy green, lively palm trees of the mountains around the Sunshine Coast where Emily had lived in Australia. The palm forest was rich and green and fragrant.

The path followed the side of the gorge down to the base of the waterfall where there was a lovely pool of deep, clear water. It was a perfect place for afternoon tea. If the children hadn’t a mission to complete, they would have liked to have gone for a swim, I’m sure. Emily had a go at charming a cup of tea out of the billy of Bruce McDingo and she found to her delight in the backpack one little treat that Dobby must have slipped in without making any fuss at all. It was a tray of the most delicious lamingtons. Emily, Egg and Lettuce had one each; when Emily offered the tray to Dino, he looked pleased and wolfed the three remaining lamingtons – and the plastic tray and wrapper- in one slurp of his great green tongue. Emily shook her head and remembered that Dino must be feeling hungry after his hard day. She retrieved the leather bag from the size pocket of the backpack and rewarded Dino with three roast chickens. This time he ate them up without scoffing the leather bag as had done with Hagrid when on display to Emily’s class.

As they sat and enjoyed their afternoon tea, Emily turned her attention to the backpack. The tray of lamingtons had intrigued her. She was sure that she had packed their things herself – and she couldn’t remember any lamingtons. Kind Dobby probably snuck them in, she concluded, when they had been making their

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farewells that morning. Probably – but then again.. This was, after all, a magical backpack. The children had been feeling like a nice afternoon tea – and a nice afternoon tea appeared just when they needed it. Perhaps there were other things in the backpack that they could use. The problem was that it was one of those clever European backpacks with lots of little pockets and zippers on the side. Opening each one and inspecting the contents took time – and energy. It would be easy to miss something special in a little bottle or box which was tucked away in a zipper pocket.

Emily beavered away at exploring the backpack while Egg and Lettuce sprawled in the sun and enjoyed their tea. The children were feeling pleased and happy. They had weathered the spiders and the vampire bats; now they were safe at this beautiful pool and waterfall. The tower must be somewhere not far ahead. They would probably see it soon in the distance. Even more importantly, it was warm!

Dino, however, did not share their excitement at all. He kept looking up and peering down the path, alert for the first sign of danger. And he didn’t have to wait long.

Some of the smaller dinosaurs the children encountered in the palm forest.

Suddenly there was a crashing in the palm forest very near to them and a huge dinosaur came lumbering down to drink. The children were frozen with fear and hesitated to move or call out to one another, not knowing what to do next. The animal was enormous but as Emily told Hagrid afterwards, it wasn’t the horrible

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grey/green skin or the sharp teeth you noticed first: it was the sad pearly eyes. For the dinosaur who had happened upon the children was, in fact, a very old gentleman dinosaur and almost blind and deaf.

At first, Dino was as silent as the children were, fearing, I suppose, that the least movement would attract the attention of those ferocious teeth. Then Dino sat up – alert and excited – and something like a smile passed across his face. He bounded forward and pushed himself into the great limbs of the aged gentleman dinosaur, splashing and frolicking in the shallows of the pool.

It was part of the great luck of the day that Dino had happened to meet the only member of the dinosaur herd who would greet him with love and affection. For this was, as you may have guessed, Dino’s old grandfather – the dinosaur who had showered him with love even when he was tormented as a runty disappointment to his bad tempered father [the most savage dinosaur in the forest] and his grumpy, cruel mother. The old Grandad put his head down and Dino nuzzled against his grandfather’s neck. Dino looked excited, happy and sad all at the same time.

The waterfall pool in the Palm Forest

The old dinosaur licked his grandson cheerfully and dropped a little tear himself. Dino quickly remembered his manners and presented his friends to his grandfather. Although he was almost blind and very hard of hearing, the old

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gentleman did his best to extend a welcome by bringing his large and ugly head down to the level of the children’s faces and giving them a smile and a wink. Seeing a full size dinosaur, Emily couldn’t imagine now how she had ever been frightened of Dino when she had seen him that first evening at Hogwarts. Compared with his grandfather, Dino was even, she thought, well, a little runty.

Before anyone could say anything or respond in any way, however, there was more thrashing in the high ferns along the creek and it was clear that other members of the herd were headed down to the pool to drink. The grandfather knew what this must mean and quickly lead the children and Dino into the thickest part of the forest off to the side. The palms and ferns grew thick here because they were constantly splashed by the water from the falls. They took cover just in time to see the most remarkable sight.

Have you ever seen photographs of dinosaurs in a book and wondered whether the animals were really as frightening as they were presented in the pictures? No one had ever taken a photograph of a dinosaur, of course, for a muggle book– although Ariadne Applebaum, I suppose, had filmed the Slytherin bullies tormenting Dino with her mobile phone. No, the dinosaurs in books that we see always seem rather heavy and stupid looking. These dinosaurs, Emily thought, looked dangerous, but also rather clever and intelligent. They were certainly handsome in a rugged, prehistoric way.

Well, Emily might have thought that for a moment – until a fight broke out over who got to the water first. Then the clever and intelligent good looks gave way to awful manners, squeals, abuse and Jurassic bad language. The children were lucky that a fight had developed, I think. The first dinosaur down to the water – a striking yellow and brown lady about the size of a large elephant – lifted her head suspiciously, smelling something in the air that reminded her that she was looking for dinner. She might have darted forward towards their hiding place, I think, but a much larger, more placid dinosaur trampled into her and the fight was on. Emily saw that Dino quivered in fear as this fighting continued – and he was quivering for a long time after the grumpy animals had staggered back into the palm forest.

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The lady dinosaur who smelt Emily at the pool and thought to eat her for dinner.

It seemed to take a long time for all of this to pass and watching dinosaurs fight [after the first hour or so] becomes a little boring. [Egg said afterwards that he could have watched the dinosaur fight for ages more but Lettuce said dismissively that that is just what a boy would say.] While she was waiting, Emily explored more of the zipper pockets of the backpack and that’s when she found the ring that Katie had give her. Katie was certain that the ring was magical – Egyptian, probably- and everyone knew that of all the peoples of the ancient world, the Egyptians were the most famous for their magic. Not knowing exactly what the ring were capable of doing, of course, rather lessened its value. All the same, as soon as Emily picked it up, she felt by the pricking in her fingers that Katie were right: that this was indeed a magic ring and a very powerful one at that.

Emily was pondering how the little band might be able to sneak past the dinosaurs and make it to the bottom of the gorge and as she did this, she absent mindedly slipped the ring on to her finger. It fitted perfectly: this surprised Emily because she did have such skinny fingers. You have to remember that Emily had little experience of magic things –which always have the capacity to adjust to fit the user.

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All at once, there was a gasp from Letty who had been standing right beside her. “Emily!” she cried, “where have you gone? Come back! The dinosaurs will eat you!”

Emily, astonished that Letty couldn’t see her even though she were right beside her, reached for her hand and said simply, “I’m here, Letty!” Now it was Egg’s turn to gasp – both his sister and Emily had disappeared. When Letty reached for Egg, he disappeared too. Dino began to howl in fear – all his friends had deserted him. And then he was gone too.

That’s how Emily discovered the wonderful powers of the ring. Anyone wearing it became indivisible. And if they were holding on to anyone, that person became invisible too. It acted like a magnet with paper clips. Even something as large as a dinosaur like Dino could disappear if he were held by someone held by someone wearing the ring. But as Emily discovered, the magic didn’t always work. It was part of the great wonder of the ring that the magic seemed to come and go when it was needed. Harry had tried the ring on in the souk, of course, but he hadn’t disappeared. Katie and Emily – in the safety of Hogwarts – had also tried the ring and nothing had happened. When the owner of the ring was in great danger, however, the magic powers came coursing through it like electricity when you flick the switch on an appliance at home. Emily couldn’t know it at that moment, of course, but the ring could do other things as well. It made the wearer of the ring invisible at that moment because that was what the wearer desperately needed. In other circumstances, it could do equally wonderful things.

Armed with the ring, Emily now worked out a very clever and cunning way to escape from the dinosaur herd through the palm gorge. It wasn’t as spectacular as Egg blasting the spiders with green fire and it wasn’t as exciting as Letty scalding the vampire bats with billies of tea. But as Professor Flintwick insisted when she told the story back at Hogwarts, it was a very Ravenclaw way to face up to danger of all kinds.

Picture this scene in the warm evening air as the sun was going down on the gorge of the pal forest. An old gentleman dinosaur [mostly deaf and blind] was ambling thoughtfully down the main path following the stream. He moved a little awkwardly – as older dinosaurs will – and if any of the herd saw him they no doubt greeted him with a cheerful hello before turning way to do what dinosaurs do of an evening – mostly fighting and squabbling. None of the herd

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could know that the old gentleman was moving his heavy feet awkwardly because sheltering under his great belly and matching stride for stride were three children and a runty grandson. They were invisible. The smell of the old dinosaur for the three children was not very pleasant, I can tell you. Egg described it afterwards as smelling like old undies needing to be washed. To be fair, Dino never complained about the smell at all. The most important thing was that after an hour of careful walking, the children reached the lower end of the gorge and saw to their consternation that the path ahead was covered in snow. It was cold again and there was a quick hunt in the backpack for jumpers and scarves and gloves. But to their great joy the tower they had looked for so often as the afternoon drew on was rising ahead of them; it was really quite close. They had made it past the last of the great dangers shown on the map.

There were many tears from Dino as they parted from the old grandad dinosaur. Emily wondered how it could be that even grandad dinosaurs could be like human grandfathers: kind and loving – and blind and deaf and a bit smelly. With a hug and a wave they were off on the last stage of their journey.

Dino’s old grandfather who helped the children escape from the palm forest.

Chapter 8: Ravenclaw Tower

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“Grandad”, said Emily, “I was clever, I suppose, but I didn’t need to be very brave, did I? Egg and Lettuce were brave and they did amazing things but all I did was make Katie’s ring work for me.” Emily sounded disappointed; I suppose that after the excitement of scattering the spiders and vanquishing the vampires it was a little tame to walk out of the gorge under the swaying belly of the grandfather dinosaur.

“Now the story isn’t finished by a long shot, Emily,” said Grandad sleepily. “Let me tell you, it’s one thing to stun a swarm of vampire bats and quite another to have to fight a herd of dangerous dinosaurs. I don’t think that even Harry Potter himself could have fought the whole herd of dinosaurs on his own. Sometimes being clever is much better than fighting anyone. And anyway, if you had fought the dinosaurs, you wouldn’t have met Dino’s old grandfather. I think he’s quite a gentleman. I can quite understand what a fine fellow he is.

Emily giggled. She thought that Old Grandad had written himself into the story; the old dinosaur seemed very like grandad himself.

“Anyway,” said Katie, “I can’t wait to see what happens when you reach the tower. Perhaps the scariest part of the story is still to happen!”

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When the children and Dino emerged from the gorge, their spirits rose – and fell. They were excited because in front of them, the stream from the gorge entered a gentle valley. Here it formed a lake in front of a high curtain wall. Beyond that wall was an imposing looking castle tower. It was much smaller than Hogwarts, of course, but it looked splendid in the bright afternoon sunlight. The children knew now that they were near to the end of their quest; somewhere, very close, was the key that the lady had commissioned them to find.

But as they came out of the gorge, winter returned with an icy blast. The ground was covered with snow and the little stream became a slurry of ice and water before setting completely into ice in the lake. Even Dino – a cold blooded animal remember – shivered and looked anxious. It was Emily who suggested that they tie the groundsheet of Urquhart McUrquhart around Dino’s shoulders. This took a little doing because he was so excited to be warming up that he wanted to fidget and wriggle but it was finally done – and Dino walked out on to the frozen lake feeling toasty warm.

Ravenclaw Tower with the wall all around it.

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I suppose that the wisest and best thing to do late that afternoon would be to find a sheltered place to settle for the night. None of the children wanted to suggest this, however- not now that the end of their quest was so close. All they needed to do was to find the gate through the curtain wall, then find a way into the tower itself. They already knew that the tower had no door and each of the children was thinking hard about how they might find their way in. As they were all Ravenclaw students, their thoughts were, as you can imagine, all very good and clever. The only one of them who was not thinking about this was Dino who had, I must tell you, a very little brain. Dino was more a feeling animal than a thinking animal. Even his best friends would probably say that Dino was never going to be famous for his brain. [I’m not sure what House the sorting hat would have put him into if he had come to Hogwarts as a first year student.] Dino was hoping that they would stop for a while anyway; to be truthful, he was hoping that Emily would dig out the leather bag that contained the roast chickens that Hagrid had packed.

It took a whole hour of the dwindling afternoon sunshine to walk right around the curtain wall that surrounded the tower. It was no easy walk. There were ancient forests of beech trees [now covered with snow and icicles] beyond the frozen lake and a sheer cliff face that reached up to a mountain beyond the hill on which the tower had been made. They found a kind of entrance to the tower grounds in the form of a very old looking portcullis – a kind of gate of bars that could be raised or lowered to keep out enemies. It was built into the point where the lake narrowed and became a little frozen river again. Try as they could, the portcullis would not budge. There seemed to be a frozen garden beyond it but how to get through seemed a puzzle indeed. At one stage, Egg picked up a rock and tried to throw it over the wall but it simply bounced back and poor Dino was lucky not to be hit. Egg was forgetting that this was a magical place planted thick with the strongest enchantments to keep away unwelcome strangers.

“But we’re not unwelcome,” said Letty in frustration. “We’ve done everything the Lady asked us to. Here we are, ready to recover the key for her, and the spell still works to keep us out.”

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“I’ve a feeling that the Lady likes us to find our own way through,” said Emily. “She has given us help along the way in the form of the map and in helping you, Letty, to scatter the vampire bats and you, Egg, to defeat the spiders. Right now, I think she’s probably counting on us to use our brains. We’re Ravenclaw students, you know.”

The portcullis gate – locked and impossible to pass.

It was true. Only a clever brain was going to move the portcullis gate – and Emily felt that her wonderful brain at that moment was frozen by the winter ice on the ground. In the end, with night falling, there was nothing for it but to make camp for the night. Maybe in the morning, they would find a way through. Perhaps this was the kind of problem the Lady wanted them to think about. There was a grove of the lovely old beech trees to one side of the frozen lake and the children decided that that would be a good place to camp. The groundsheet of Urquhart McUrquhart was spread on the flattest part of the ground and Egg and Dino set off to gather some firewood while the girls looked through the backpack for the last of the pizza pies.

While they were doing this, the girls made some amazing discoveries. They found the pizza pie, all right, and as Emily and Letty had hoped, it was still nice and warm. They set the billy boiling for tea then continued to explore. In a

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pocket of the backpack they found a lovely sheepskin blanket; strangely, they had somehow missed that particular pocket of the backpack every time that they had opened it. The sheepskin would be ideal for Dino to wrap up in. The children feared [sensibly] that once he fell asleep that he would pinch the whole of the ground sheet for himself.

In another pocket there was a long piece of rope with a loop cleverly worked into one end. When Egg saw it, he thought that it might come in handy collecting the wood for the fire and he took it with him when he and Dino went off foraging in the beech forest. Egg wasn’t really a Boy Scout but he managed to find some nice dry kindling, some fallen branches and a big log which he dragged back to the camp site on the end of the rope which Emily and Letty had found in the backpack. It was a rather large and heavy log but Egg managed it all on his own– even without Dino’s help. The girls were most impressed by this heroic effort.

The girls could not know it, but this was another treasure that would get them out of all sorts of trouble. It was the magical lasso of that great wizard of the Wild West, Aeneas Laredo. As a boy, Aeneas had been a Confederate soldier in the Civil War before coming to Hogwarts as a mature age Slytherin student many years ago and while he was very clever with a gun and could ride a horse better than anyone, much of his later magic went into his magic lasso. Before the great adventure was over, Egg was going to discover how much magic there still was in that old length of rope.

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Aeneas Laredo, the Wizard of the Wild West – and an old boy of Slytherin House.

Soon they had a proper fire going; Dino kept rolling in large stones and Egg arranged these to form a circle to contain the cheerful fire. The log was at the centre of the blaze and although Dino and Egg had collected enough wood to last through the night, the big log would probably burn for some hours. Dino excitedly ate the last of the roast chickens; all that he had left after this was a big bag of the most unappetizing dog biscuits. The children ate their pizza, drank litres of billy tea and then settled down on the groundsheet for the night. They decided that even though their fire would probably warn away dangers in the night, one of them should stay wake to watch at all times. Letty had a wrist watch and divided up the time. Dino wanted to take a watch and Egg diplomatically put him on the very last shift – after him. That way, if Egg stayed awake and alert until just before dawn he could hand over to Dino when most of the danger had passed.

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Even with a tummy full of warm food and wrapped in the warm groundsheet against the frozen ground it was a long night. Emily had the second watch and she was woken from a fitful sleep by Letty’s gentle shake of her shoulder. She had been dreaming of her home in Dubai – and of her warm bed and a nice shower. She woke with a start and wandered for a moment where she was. Letty had one little surprise for Emily as she handed over the watch: she had found in a pocket of the backpack a large bag of liquorice allsorts. Emily counted out her share of the treasure – about ten of the delicious lollies- and ate them one at a time with as long a wait between lollies as she could manage.

Have you ever sat up very late in the dark, watching for dangers and listening for things that might be coming to get you? It is a very scary thing to do. You hear things, for a start- probably quite innocent things. But in the clear moonlight, even normal things [and the magical castle tower was hardly normal] seemed dark and sinister. Emily remembered to feed the fire. The ground around them was dry because of the groundsheet but the fire had melted some of the snow and it was a little slushy underfoot. When her time was up, she was pleased to be able to hand over to Egg.

Egg also kept watch keenly and fed the fire: in fact, he put all the remaining wood on the fire to bring up a nice steady blaze. It lit up the area around their little camp beautifully.

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Egg kept the fire burning bright.

Egg had stretched his watch almost to dawn. The fire still burned merrily although it was mostly glowing coals now. The coals gave a red, gloomy light to a small circle around them. The first real light of the rising sun had turned the sky pearl grey and the great bulk of the tower now loomed above them. The portcullis was a dark mouth. Dino was snoring quietly and Egg didn’t want to disturb the good animal to take his turn at the watch because Dino clearly needed lots of sleep on these cold days. Egg finally woke him and handed him the last of the liquorice allsorts. Egg had only just settled down to snooze when there was a terrific crack – as if a gun were being fired. This was quickly followed by a second and then a third shot. All three children were awake in a moment and Dino had leapt up to see what was happening, his eyes looked frightened in the early morning light.

In the darkness of their watch, each of the children had imagined all sorts of dangers approaching them. Vampire bats and spiders bent on revenge could come through the night after them or perhaps some of the more savage of the dinosaur herd could leave the gorge to attack them. [Emily imagined all these things in the shifting shadows at different times on her watch.] But this new

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danger was nothing like that. Then the ground moved under them – and a crack very near them showed the friends what was happening. The ice of the lake was breaking up. There was hiss of steam as the fire sunk into the icy water. The four friends were marooned on an iceberg not much larger than a dining room table.

Of course, thought Emily in that terrible moment. How could they have been so silly? They had searched for a flat piece of ground near the beech trees to make their camp and build their fire. The ground was flat, they now saw, because it was the edge of the frozen lake. The fire had worked all night to weaken the ice and as they watched, the frozen lake broke noisily into large pieces. And the pieces began to move, shuffling with the power of the stream running beneath them. Slowly at first and then gathering speed, the shards of ice on the lake edged towards the portcullis gate.

The piece of ice on which the four friends were standing wasn’t very large and it wasn’t very stable. As quickly and as carefully as she could, Emily began to pack up all the things that had come from the backpack. She quickly stowed away the dry matches and a box of tissues. She tied the precious billy of Bruce McDingo to its leather string on the side of the pack. Egg and Lettuce between them folded the ground sheet and slipped it into its pocket in the backpack; Dino’s sheepskin blanket soon joined it. The only thing that Egg retained in his hand was the lasso of Aeneas Laredo. Perhaps, he thought, he could use the rope to tie them up somehow and slow the moving ice. Egg then swung the backpack on to his shoulders so that if their little iceberg tipped and they were flung into the icy water they might still recover the backpack and its precious contents. All the time that they were doing this, the iceberg edged towards the portcullis gate.

Then there was another sound – a noisy, lacerating sound of metal scraping on metal. Slowly, as if lifted by a mighty effort, the portcullis gate opened, the metal fence lifting into a space in the stone frame above it. The ice bobbing at the water gate streamed through, quickly now. The ice on which the children were standing now knocked violently against the shards of ice around it and the children fought to stay calm. It seemed at any moment they would be tipped up and thrown into the cold river. Poor Dino howled in fear: he hated ice as only a cold blooded animal can. All the time, their little island was creaking towards the gaping mouth of the portcullis gate. Then, in a mighty heave, they were

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swept under the great curtain wall and into the frozen garden in front of the tower. Now they were travelling at speed.

I think Emily saw the waterfall first. The shards of ice were hurtling down stream and now that they had passed the portcullis gate, they could see that there was another little gorge between the curtain wall and the tower itself. The stream seemed to fall away and then disappear under the tower somehow. If they didn’t escape from the ice now, they would be sucked under and all of them drowned. There wasn’t a moment to spare and Emily took the lead. She took the rope from Egg and tied one end to Dino’s tail. He was howling so loudly that he didn’t even notice this indignity. Then Emily swung the lasso as she had seen cowboys do it in films about the Wild West and aimed for a branch of one the beech trees growing beside the stream.

The icy waterfall where Emily saved them all with the magic lasso.

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“Hold on to me!” she cried and that’s just what Egg and Letty did. The shard of ice collapsed underneath them and only because they were swinging from the branch were they spared falling on to the rocks and the ice that were suddenly below them. The wonderful lasso held them all suspended above the falls, swinging from side to side. Poor Dino howled –it really must have been very painful swinging by his tail - but because he was swinging the most wildly, he actually landed first on the snowy bank. When the three children landed in a tumble beside Dino their cries of relief at being saved were drowned out by the roaring waterfall. All the same, Egg was certain that above the noise of the rushing water he heard again the silvery laughter of the Lady who had been beside them for their whole journey. Lettuce said afterwards while she was telling the story to Professor Dumbledore that swinging from the rope above the waterfall was the most exciting moment of the whole journey. And Egg said that even though Emily had saved that day in the palm forest by being clever, there was no doubt that she had saved them all at the portcullis gate by being as brave as anyone he had ever met. This made Emily blush – but it was probably true!

Have you ever done anything very, very exciting as soon as you wake up in the morning? What you most feel like once the danger is passed is a nice breakfast and no one was hungrier than Dino. They pulled away from the raging water and found a sunny place out of the wind to settle for a moment. Alas, there was no pizza left and no roast chickens. There were the dog biscuit things for Dino but these made a pretty ordinary breakfast – even when washed down with billy tea. At first they thought that there was nothing much for the children- Letty had gone through the backpack carefully the night before looking for a treat which she never found. Can you imagine how surprised they were to discover a metal dish with a cover – and some piping hot bacon and eggs! There were no plates, unfortunately and only three forks to eat it with, but nothing that any of them had ever tasted were as nice. The wonders of the magic backpack never ceased to amaze and delight them. No wonder Professor Snape wanted them to bring it home safely.

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Chapter 9: The Treasure Revealed

“You did it, Emily,” said Katie proudly. “You saved Egg and

Lettuce and Dino too with the magic lasso. That wasn’t just clever – it was brave as well. You could be in Gryffindor for sure!”

“Well actually,” said Emily quietly, “I rather like being in Ravenclaw after all. But Grandad, how do we get into the tower to find the key?”

“I’m just about to tell you,” said Grandad. He was very sleepy now and the story was clearly wearing him out!

After breakfast, the four friends did a little walk around the whole of the tower. It was as the map had shown and exactly as they had feared: there was no door and the tower seemed to stretch above them dramatically. How to get in?

They sat under one of the beech trees in the garden to try to puzzle it out. At one stage Egg took the magic lasso of Aeneas Laredo and swung it up into the air, hoping that it would catch on something and they could climb up the rope.

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Of course that didn’t work and the rope only fell around their ears in a mocking way.

“I knew that wouldn’t work,” said Emily. “We’ll have to find a solution that all of us can share – and poor Dino couldn’t climb the rope, I’m sure.”

Egg was feeling prickly: at least he had tried to do something – even if it hadn’t worked. They sat thinking for a long time. Finally, Letty wandered over to the bare stone of the wall and felt it with her hand.

“Do you remember when we had the first instruction from the lady,” said Letty. “The four wise Ravenclaws – the four professors at school – they made the writing appear on the wall with their wands. I wonder if we could do that with our wands.

Ravenclaw Tower – but how to get in?

It seemed a very simple thing to do but at the point where a sort of path seemed to meet the solid stone wall, the four friends gathered, solemnly. Emily, Egg and Lettuce produced their wands; Dino [having no wand, of course] made do with his tail. They stepped up to the wall and touched the corners of a square in the stone and to their amazement, all four of them felt something strong and wise and powerful coursing through their bodies – like electricity or warm sunshine on a cold day. And sure enough, the stone shimmered and a heavy door appeared. It swung open with a touch and beyond the door, the children could now see stairs leading upwards.

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Now, at the end of their quest, all three children and Dino too felt wonderfully proud of what they had done. They had met dangers, certainly, but they had lived to tell the tale. And each had played a part in bringing them to this point. They took hands as they climbed the long staircase that wound around the tower. They passed doors leading to rooms at many points in their climb but all of them knew that their destination was the top most room of all.

When they reached the room – and the door opened at their touch – Emily and Letty gave a little start. It was exactly like their own room in the top of the Ravenclaw tower- the same gothic windows, the same pale coloured stone walls, the same vaulted ceiling. Instead of their four poster beds and wardrobes, the room contained a single oak table covered with a red velvet cloth. The table stood on a large Persian carpet that covered much of the floor. And on the cloth on the table was a simple gold key. Their adventure, it seemed, was almost over.

Egg had been carrying the backpack and he slipped it off to rest against the wall near the door. Now that they were here, he needed to be able to move freely about for indeed, there were things here that were well worth looking at. All three children still carried heir wands as if they were expecting more danger – even though the tower felt safe and protective after all their adventures.

It was a beautiful, circular room with only one large window. There were lovely tapestries hanging on the stone walls. In the first tapestry, the children recognised Lady Rowena Ravenclaw on a horse leading the hunt with many other richly dressed ladies and gentlemen with her. The second tapestry showed the Lady standing watching while masons and carpenters worked to build what was clearly Hogwarts Castle. It was the next four tapestries that took their breath away, however. The first of these was a forest scene with giant spiders falling from their webs in ancient trees while a boy in glasses with his wand drawn drove them off with green fire. Two girls with glasses [clearly Letty and Emily] were also in the picture looking brave and determined and there was a runty kind of dinosaur in the corner looking terrified.

“Egg!” squealed Letty, “Look at this – you’re an absolute legend. These tapestries must be as old as the ones at Hogwarts – but that’s you there in them being brave!”

“And you’re in the next tapestries, sister!” said Egg excitedly. This one showed the attack of the vampire bats – and Lettuce armed with the billy of Bruce

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McDingo driving them off. The artist had perfectly caught that terrible moment when the billy had erupted with fire and scalding tea to take down the first of the terrible vampire bats.

The third tapestries set Dino sobbing. There was the unmistakable face of his kind old grandfather and Dino and the three Ravenclaw friends huddled underneath his big belly as he swaggered through the palm forest. You could even see that Emily was wearing the precious ring that Kate had given her. Dino was so proud that he had his own tapestry.

The final tapestry showed the scene at the waterfall, with Emily swinging the magic lasso of Aeneas Laredo over the branch of the beech tree while their iceberg island collapsed into the waterfall beneath them. Egg and Lettuce were holding on to Emily in a mixture of courage and terror. Emily could only sigh as she felt herself suddenly brave and wise and hopeful.

“If only I could take this back to show Katie,” said Emily. Just looking at the picture, she felt taller and stronger and more alive.

Then there was a bare patch of stone before the great window looking back the way they had come and without thinking, Emily [now rather used to magical places] raised her wand and touched the stone. Egg and Lettuce did the same and Dino flicked up his tail. Sure enough, the wall quivered like silk and golden words appeared – just as they had on the wall of the girls’ bedroom in Ravenclaw Tower. This is what it said:

You have travelled far, adventurous strangers And suffered many scary dangers:

Dinosaur and snow and fire Giant spider and vampire.

You have brave heart and clever brain

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But innocent you all remain. You have been faithful, true and bold

Now you may have the Ravenclaw gold For only true in Ravenclaw heart

Could make this journey and then depart. In the face in the fireplace turn the key

The gold is waiting there for thee. Look out the window if you dare To see the dangers lurking there. To be safe, return the water way

Trust me – and you shall win the day. Emily had been pleased and enchanted by the writing – and proud too – until she reached the last four lines. She dashed to the window and her heart sunk. For there at the curtain wall of stone were about a hundred of the most ferocious dinosaurs from the herd in the palm forest. They were climbing on one another to get over the wall and into the garden. An enormous troupe of spiders of all sizes [but mostly large] found the wall no problem at all. Even at this distance, you could see their horrible jaws and hear the rustling of their hairy bodies as they swarmed over the wall. Above them was a dark cloud of vampire bats – for whom the wall was no obstacle at all. They were headed straight for the tower window. All three of the terrors of the trail had followed them here and were determined to kill them. All the hope and excitement they had felt as they looked at the tapestries now seemed to be mocking them. It looked as if they had made the long and dangerous journey only to die in the tower!

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“We need to get out of here!” cried Egg. Letty had already made a dash to collect the backpack and put it on. Emily swung the window closed just as the first vampire bat came streaming towards it. The bat slammed into the glass and fell gibbering hundreds of feet to the garden below. The first dinosaurs were at the bottom of the tower; they were trying to climb over one another to get in at the first window far below them. The first spiders were trying to scale the sides of the tower; it was steep and sheer but the cunning spiders were using their webs to fasten on the cold stone and work their way up. Soon Emily saw the first awful spider in the glass looking in on them as the children moved to the oak table in the centre of the room. There was a wild, triumphant look on the spider’s face. Below them, they could hear the first dinosaurs who had reached the windows pelting up the staircase and heading for the door. Dino was terrified and was only soothed by Emmy stroking his ears and telling him that they would find a way out – something Emily herself very much doubted.

“The notice on the wall said to go home by the water way – I wonder what that means?” said Letty. “Perhaps if we run down the stairs we could hide in one of the rooms downstairs.”

“The dinosaurs are there already,” said Emily. Perhaps we should all jump out the window and swim in the frozen lake. Let’s take the key, anyway,” she said. “That’s what we came for, after all.” She scooped up the large gold key and found a pocket of the backpack in which to zip it up safely. “The Lady has never let us down yet. Something will happen.”

And something did. As soon as Emily picked up the key, it started to make the gentlest humming sound. The sound was low but musical and it became louder as time went on. The spiders and the bats clamouring at the window seemed to hate the sound – those pressed closest in struggled to get away – but were crushed by their mates and companions who crowded forward, thinking that as soon as the window broke, they could all pour in and take the children. The humming sound also caused the dinosaurs far below them to bellow with rage and pain. The whole room began to shake and vibrate, then there was a sound like the shot of the ice breaking up on the lake at dawn that morning. The great oak table disappeared. Then just when you couldn’t think anything more terrifying could happen, the floor collapsed beneath them and the children were falling through the air.

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Katie and Emily’s favourite ride – the Jumeirah Screamer.

As Emily told Kate afterwards, it was just like the scariest ride at Wild Wadi – the Jumeirah Screamer. But the Screamer was a slide – you went forward at the same time that you went down. The journey from the top of the Ravenclaw Tower was more like the fastest lift you’ve ever experienced – a drop from the top to the bottom in seconds. There wasn’t time to be frightened or do anything except stand and let it happen. Emily could hear rushing water below and above her the screams of the Vampire bats as they finally broke through the window and tumbled into the tower room. Instead of finding the children, however, all that they found was a great hole in the ground -the exact same size as the Persian carpet on which the table had stood. Then two giant spiders the size of ride-on mowers came falling past them in the darkness. Emily had a tiny view of their terrified faces as they hurtled towards the rocks below. Their mates were gibbering above them in the tower room and in all the pushing and shoving, more spiders fell on every side. Given the terrible noise, Egg guessed that a fight must have broken out between bats and spiders as each blamed the other for allowing the children to escape.

Then, as the carpet came to a stop, the children could hear another sound – the groaning and rumbling of the tower as it shuddered and began to break up. It was, of course, protected by very powerful enchantments to protect the key

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and keep it safe for the true person who rescue it. Now that the Lady’s great wish had been fulfilled, the enchantments disappeared and the tower began to collapse. The children could hear falling masonry, terrified spiders, squealing bats and bellowing dinosaurs. Pieces of stone work now fell beside them. The friends hung on together and prayed that they would soon be out of range of all these terrors.

The speed at which the children were falling quickly slowed and the carpet was almost at a stop when it came through a hole in the roof of what was a great, dark cavern. A little, icy river tumbled through the cavern; it was, of course, the stream that began at the lake and came into the tower through the portcullis gate and the frozen waterfall. Once the carpet reached the river it hovered over the water for some moments – just long enough for everyone to catch their breath- before shooting off, following the stream itself. No sooner had they left the cavern under the tower than there was a mighty whoosh as the tower collapsed into the stream with a frightening heave.

And without any more fuss, the carpet set off for home. Of all the things that happened on that wonderful adventure, this was the most wonderful for all of them and the most surprising for Egg and Lettuce. Emily was much less surprised, I must say. As soon as she saw the Persian carpet she thought that it might be one of those famous magical carpets that you read about in the East. Emily was, after all, a girl who had lived in Dubai and she knew that there were some amazing things to be bought in the souk if you knew what to look for.

All of them, however, enjoyed this part of the journey as the carpet sped through the dark tunnel over the rushing water. In a little while, the stream divided and the carpet banked and followed a tributary stream that climbed upwards. The cavern was dark but not black like night. There were masses of glow worms on the walls of the cavern, casting a baleful light on the magic carpet as it sped upwards. As the carpet sped on, Dino settled and put his huge, ugly head into Emily’s lap. She stroked his ears and wondered how she could ever have been frightened of him when she had first met him hauling the dray for Hagrid. The children were quiet – but confident that the carpet would deliver them from danger. It was one last thing the Lady had done for them.

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A magic carpet like the one the three children used to return to Hogwarts.

After several hours of flying over the running water and hurtling though the deep caverns beneath the Forbidden Forest, the carpet came to a gentle stop and then eased through the mouth of a mossy cave into a patch of thin sunlight in a clearing among the beech trees. The carpet slipped through between the great trees, came out into daylight – and came to rest beside Hagrid’s Hut. They were safely home and back at the very place where the journey had begun. There was a rumbling crash behind them and the children turned to see the mouth of the cave collapse in a pile of great mossy stones. The entrance to the cave leading back to the tower was now sealed forever.

Just at that moment, Hagrid happened to be teaching his Ravenclaw and Slytherin first years Care of Magical Creatures class. They were all gathered around a fine young unicorn whom Hagrid was feeding a bunch of carrots. The class stopped when Dino came bounding up, wagging his tail and licking Hagrid’s hand.

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The edge of the Forbidden Forest where the flying carpet emerged from the ground.

You can imagine the procession that formed to cross the grounds of the castle from Hagrid’s Hut: Hagrid leading the way with Dino bounding beside him, Emily, Lettuce and Egg riding on the carpet like Sultans, and the Slytherin and Ravenclaw first years trailing behind cheering. By the time they reached the castle, word had spread and the whole school emptied to meet them on the steps. The Headmaster, Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape were beaming to welcome them back but no one was more excited than Professor Flintwick. “I knew that you four had the true Ravenclaw spirit! You are real heirs of Lady Rowena Ravenclaw!”

Emily knew just where to take the precious key. She and Letty had camped for their first night at Hogwarts in the Common Room of Ravenclaw Tower. On the big sofa facing the fire, she had studied the strange face carved into the marble mantelpiece and wondered at the hole set into the mouth of that extraordinary face. She was sure that that was where the key would fit.

The Headmaster led the little procession that climbed the steps to the tower. The teachers stood back as the children and Dino [crowding out everyone else] took the key from the backpack and fitted the lock. Letty made sure that Emily had the honour of inserting the key and turning the lock to open the secret hiding place.

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The whole of the fire place trembled and swung as easily as silk fluttering in the breeze. In a deep cavity behind the fireplace was a secret hiding place; in it, there were bars and bars of pure gold – an absolute fortune.

Some of the Ravenclaw Gold which was hidden in the fireplace.

The gasps of everyone present were matched by the musical, lovely laugh of the Lady. This time she spoke – only a few words, certainly, but Emily never forgot those silvery words: “Well done, son and daughters of Ravenclaw!”

When Emily and Letty returned, what they wanted most was a hot bath and a long sleep in their own comfy bed. The Headmaster wisely allowed them to do this. The children slept right through lunch and so their first meal with the whole school was dinner. When they entered the dining room, the school erupted with cheering. Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione stood on their chairs and cheered louder than anyone. The teachers stood and cheered too. Katie came running to hug her little sister. Even the Slytherins, who had heard from Professor Snape about the magical lasso of Aeneas Laredo – a highly esteemed and much loved Slytherin old boy- were happy to cheer. Dobby had alerted the house elves to have all the things for dinner that Emily loved most: curried sausages, cheesy pasta, jelly and honey buzz instant pudding. It was a fantastic feast and when it was over, Professor Dumbledore allowed all the students and staff to go to the Ravenclaw Common Room and look at the big pile of gold that

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the children had found. Hagrid and Dino stood guard and no one was prouder of what they little group of friends had done than Hagrid. He told everyone that Dino had been as brave and as clever as any of the children. I suppose that this was almost true.

Later that night, the children had a special time with the Headmaster and the teachers who had guided them on their journey as they returned the magical objects with which they had been entrusted. Egg proudly handed the billy of Bruce McDingo to Professor Flintwick; it would go safely back to the teachers’ Commmon Room to comfort and nurture busy teachers who needed a stiffener between lessons. Letty returned the groundsheet of Urquhart McUrquhart to Professor McGonnagall; to their surprise, there was still some snow attached to it. Then it came time to hand the backpack of Salazar Slytherin back to Professor Snape. Emily did this – but it was harder than you might first have thought.

They had to retrieve everything form the pockets, you see, and strange things kept turning up. The children quickly found their soiled clothes and dirty socks and smalls. Dobby whisked them away for a wash before anyone could be offended. Katie’s magic ring and Emily’s spare nightie and hair brush were there; so was the lovely sheepskin blanket that Dino had enjoyed so much. Hagrid took it to put in the young dinosaur’s kennel. They also seem to have brought back all the pizza boxes and lolly wrappers from the treats Dobby had given them. [Emily, despite the dreadful litter in the Hogwarts Express, was quite a greenie and hated the thought of leaving litter in the Forbidden Forest.] The happiest find in the backpack was also the most useful later that night in telling the Headmaster and the teachers all the things that had happened to them. For in an inside zipper pocket – carefully folded up and numbered – were the tapestries that the children had last seen on the walls of the Ravenclaw Tower. Professor Flintwick was delighted to show these off – it proved to everyone just how clever and brave Ravenclaw students could be. The tapestries were hung for a whole term in the dining room and Emily, Egg and Lettuce were forced to spend many Saturday afternoons doing guided tours of the tapestries and telling everyone who wanted to hear the story just what had happened.

No one was more interested in hearing these stories than their Gryffindor friends. Harry, Ron and Hermione were so pleased that someone other than themselves were having adventures and doing exciting things. Emily returned the magical ring to Katie with the kind of loving hug and kiss that only sisters

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can give. “Without your ring, Katie,” said Emily quietly, “”we would all have been eaten by the dinosaurs in the palm forest.”

And that’s the end of the adventure but you might be interested to know just one more detail. What happened to all the gold that the children had found? The Governors of the school learned about what had happened when the Headmaster included the story in his monthly report to them. They decided that some of the money should go into the Hogwarts Foundation vault at Gringotts Bank for a rainy day. Some of it would go to improving the plumbing in the girls’ bathroom in Ravenclaw Tower. [After all, it was Ravenclaw gold.] Most of the gold, however, went towards a special scheme to allow poor but very athletic young witches and wizards from Samoa and Tonga to come to Hogwarts on Quiddich sporting scholarships. Down the track, the Governors believed, these imported players would make all the difference to Hogwarts’ prospects of winning the Interschool Quiddich Competition and the Trinatoins Cup. Whether this desirable outcome was worth the losses of many endangered [and protected] vampire bats, rare spiders and extinct dinosaurs was never seriously considered. The Old Boys, however, were pleased to hear about the improved prospects for Quiddich success and that was enough. The Governors did write a letter to each of the three children congratulating them on being such fine young Ravenclaw students. The Governors also generously decided to allow the magic carpet to remain on the floor in the Ravenclaw common room. But the silvery laugh of Lady Rowena Ravenclaw seemed to have been extinguished forever in the Ravenclaw Tower.

It was an exciting time for Egg, Letty, Emily and Dino when they escorted Hagrid up to Gringotts Bank to deposit the gold in the Hogwarts vault. The Goblins on duty had been warned to expect a major deposit and the manager of the bank – a ferocious looking goblin named Heartsbane- made a special point of meeting them and inviting them to tea. This was a great honour – goblins rarely entertain wiches and wizards –but Dino almost spoiled it all be slurping up all the gingernut buscuits that had been put out for them. Still, the visit ended happily. They returned to Hogwarts feeling sure that the precious treasure was now safe.

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Gringotts bank where the Ravenclaw Treasure was placed.

Oh, one last thing: the Headmaster called the children up to his office after their visit to Gringotts to hear all about the goblins and the afterrnoon tea. He was delighted and told Egg, Letty and Emily that he had never had such clever first years. The three children beamed.

Then the Headmaster solemnly shook hands with the three of them and they stood politely and went to take their leave. It was a solemn moment – the very end of their adventure. Professor Dumbledore asked Emily to stay a minute; she looked sorry to be parted from Egg and Lettuce at this important moment but said that she would find her friends before dinner. They left cheerfully; Emily remained behind quite puzzled. What could the Headmaster want?

He closed the door to his study, then took two elegant, creamy coloured envelopes from his desk and offered them to Emily. Emily didn’t recognise the writing on her envelope. One read simply:

Miss Emily Bland. Ravenclaw Tower. The other read

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Miss Katie Bland, Gryffindor House. “I had one last look at that backpack, you see, Emily, before I put it back in my safe. And this is what I found in one of the side zipper pockets.” ...

And that’s the end of the story.

“Grandad,” said Katie anxiously, “what was in the envelope?”

“Oh dear me,” Old Grandad yawned, “You’re going to have to wait for the next story to learn that. Old Grandad is too tired to even think about more adventures. But you can be sure that there was danger and magic and great excitement. Bless me, what good girls you are.”

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