A Surprising Revelation

She received the letter just days before she was set to leave her home and travel to the Burrow to attend Bill and Fleur’s wedding. Delivered by an unfamiliar, nondescript, tawny owl, the letter only contained a few words, giving a date and a time and coordinates to a location somewhere in Scotland. The author of the letter claimed to have information that Hermione needed, and her curiosity was instantly piqued. She knew she should have told Harry and Ron about the letter, in case of a trap, but for some reason she had held back. She wanted to do something helpful on her own for once.

Having passed her Apparition test just one week previously, Hermione concentrated on the coordinates she had been given and Apparated there the next day, the day indicated on the letter. She found herself standing beneath a large tree, on a hill overlooking a very small village. She looked around for the person who had sent her the letter, but there was no one about. She found herself annoyed by that fact, even if she was five minutes early.

Hermione only had to wait a few minutes before she heard the tell-tale ‘Crack!’ of someone else Apparating in the distance. Stepping behind the trunk of the tree, Hermione looked in the direction of the noise, wand at the ready. Her heart was beating faster that normal, and she found herself regretting her decision not to tell the boys about her mission. She realized now how perfect the area was to trap her. The tree she was standing behind was the only protection in the area. Voldemort or his Death Eaters could easily have lured her here and killed her, and no one would even know where to look for her.

Hermione watched as a lone figure walked towards her up the hill. The sun was behind the stranger in the distance, and try as Hermione could, the glare of the sun in her eyes prevented her from seeing the stranger clearly. Squinting her eyes, she heard the figure call out. “Granger?”

Hermione thought she vaguely recognized the voice, but she couldn’t place it. Wand still held high in front of her, Hermione cautiously stepped out from behind the tree, moving directly into the path of the mysterious stranger.

“Nott?” she gasped. “Theodore Nott?” Hermione was surprised to see the tall, stringy, brunette boy who shared a table with her in Arithmancy standing in front of her. She had never even considered him as the author of the letter. She had been forced to work with him in class a few times, so she knew a bit about him. While he was really quite clever and quiet, she couldn’t forget he was also a Slytherin. Nor could she forget the fact that one short year ago, she had stunned his father in the Department of Mysteries battle. Still on her guard, Hermione questioned, “What do you want, Nott? Why did you send me that cryptic letter?”

“Use your head, Granger. It had to be cryptic. If that owl had been captured, we wouldn’t be here now.” Motioning to her wand, Nott demanded, “Get that bloody thing out of my face. If I was going to hurt you, you wouldn’t be standing to point that thing at me.”

Hermione realized he was right. She lowered her wand and tucked it in the sleeve of her cloak, close enough that if she should need to pull it suddenly, it would be close by. “What kind of information would you have for me?” she asked, not understanding why a Death Eater’s son had contacted her.

“Anxious, are you?” Turning his back to Hermione, Nott looked out over the town. “You know my father is in Azkaban because of you, right?”

Feeling brazen, Hermione replied, “Your father should have made his decisions and chosen his allegiances a little more wisely.”

Nott surprised Hermione by chuckling. “Score one for Granger. My father always seemed to choose the wrong side of a battle. It’s a good thing that I inherited my intelligence from my mother. I never did care much for pledging allegiance to one man and becoming a follower in a group.”

Annoyed by not getting any real information, Hermione repeated, “Why am I here? What sort of information could you have for me, Nott?”

Locking eyes with Hermione, Nott shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t really know.”

“This is a complete waste of my time,” Hermione said impatiently, turning away to leave what seemed to be a very unimportant meeting.

“I received a letter shortly after returning home from school. It was from Dumbledore,” Nott revealed, instantly stopping Hermione in her tracks.

“Dumbledore? But Dumbledore is dead!”

“I realize that,” he replied as if he was talking to a dimwitted two-year old. “I’m assuming he wrote it before he died, with instructions to have it delivered upon his death.”

“What did it say?” Hermione asked excitedly, stepping closer to Nott.

Nott smiled as he saw the eagerness written all over Hermione’s face. “The note gave me specific instructions to contact you and have you meet me here. Do you know where we are, Granger?”

“No,” Hermione said softly, wondering where this was going.

Nott nodded towards the town. “We’re looking down on the small village of Rowena’s Glen.”

“Rowena’s Glen? Rowena? Rowena as in Rowena Ravenclaw?”

Nott smiled. “Yes, as in Rowena Ravenclaw, one of the founders of Hogwarts. I was instructed to bring you here and tell you everything I know about her.”

Hermione was stumped. “How would you know anything about Rowena Ravenclaw?”

“This is a day for revelations, Granger,” Nott said smugly. “My mother descended from a long line of powerful witches. She can trace her maternal line all the way back to Rowena Ravenclaw herself.”

Hermione’s face showed how stunned she really was. “Dumbledore knew this? He knew this and he didn’t tell Harry?” Pausing a moment to think about what this meant gave Nott an opening.

“You know, Granger, just because I’m in Slytherin doesn’t mean I’m a bad guy. I have enough common sense to know that you and your friends are involved in something dangerous. The whole wizarding world suspects that Potter is the only one who can defeat Voldemort once and for all. I know it won’t be easy, but if anyone can do it, it’s Potter,” he admitted grudgingly.

“You’re on Harry’s side?” Hermione couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

Nott shrugged his shoulders. “It would be deadly for me to admit that in public, being the son of a Death Eater. I’ve chosen to preserve myself by making my father’s friends think I am on their side, even if I appear neutral in public. Just because I’ve allowed them to believe that doesn’t mean I agree with them. I don’t believe in Voldemort’s way of thinking.”

They both stayed quiet a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts as they looked down at the town below.

“You see that large gray home there, just outside of town? That’s the Ravenclaw home. My mother was raised there. I was there a few times to visit when I was a boy before my mother died.”

Hermione could hear the pain in his voice when he spoke of his mother. She felt bad for him, having lost a mother when he had been so young. “I’m sorry,” she responded quietly.

Nott shrugged his shoulders again, something Hermione noticed he did quite often. Clearing his throat, he started again. “Inside the house, in the entranceway, is a portrait of Rowena. I used to love that portrait. I would sit and stare at it for hours, admiring her beauty. She would talk to me and tell me stories of what Hogwarts was like back in the early days. Her stories were so exciting that I couldn’t wait to enjoy Hogwarts myself. She told me that her days at Hogwarts were the happiest times of her life. She actually fell in love with Salazar Slytherin, you know. She was devastated when his attitude changed and he left the school. Her heart was broken. The only thing she had left of him from their relationship was a tiara he had given her. She’s even wearing it in her portrait.”

“A tiara?” Hermione exclaimed, all of it suddenly making sense in her head.

Nott nodded, looking at Hermione questioningly. He could see that mentioning the tiara had made her agitated.

Trying to remain casual, Hermione asked, “What ever happened to her tiara?”

Nott wasn’t sure why he was being honest with Hermione and telling her everything he knew, but he found he couldn’t stop confiding in her. “I don’t really know. It disappeared from my mother’s family over fifty years ago. Some say it was sold by a wayward relative in need of some quick galleons. Some say it was stolen. We don’t really know.”

It all made perfect sense to Hermione. Dumbledore had put them together in this moment for a reason. The fact that the tiara hadn’t been seen for over fifty years coincided with the time that Voldemort had been making Horcruxes. Harry had told her that Dumbledore was sure Voldemort would have wanted something from each of the Hogwarts founders that he could make into a Horcrux. Harry already had leads on some of the other Horcruxes, but they had been stumped on what the Ravenclaw artifact could have been. Now, because of Dumbledore, the answers were being provided. What made Hermione so certain that the tiara was a Horcrux was the connection it also had to Slytherin.

“I can tell by the look on your face that what I’ve told you today means something to you,” Nott said after noticing the look of concentration on her face.

“Yes, it does,” Hermione confirmed. “I wish I could tell you exactly how you’ve helped us, but I can’t. It’s important to the cause that no one knows Harry’s plans.”

Nott smiled, finally understanding why Dumbledore felt it so important he speak to this one person. He was surprised how happy the situation made him. While he couldn’t support Potter in public, he could at least help in his own way. “I understand, Granger. I won’t keep you.”

Hermione turned to leave, but she couldn’t just yet. She turned back to face the boy in front of her. “Thank you, Theo.”

A grin appeared on his face before he responded. “I hope one day, after all this fighting is done, you’ll be able to tell me how I’ve helped you. I’d like to get to know you, Hermione.”

As Hermione Disapparated, she thought about how much she had gained in one short day. Not only had she gained clues on the hunt for Horcruxes, but she had also gained something she had never expected. A friend.