Harry Potter And The Lord Of Darkness - Chapter 18

Arth was sitting at one of the tables in the Ravenclaw Common Room while massaging his temples. His facial expressions changed at a rapid pace from frowning to curious in a repeating cycle. After letting out a small sigh, Arth reached into his bag and took out a small black book.

The book cover seemed to be made up of a type of Dragon Leather and atypical from normal books, the pages were the color of obsidian.

Arth opened up to the first page and read the pearly white ink that contrasted the black pages.

-The Book of Night

-A book dedicated to the ones I hold dear. I hope that the one who finds this books puts it to good use.

There was a slight rustle as Arth flipped to the next page.

-progression is withheld by the key. Intelligence is just a part

-the night Sky Always watches those who wish to remain hidden. shadows dance under the trees. Yet, mother nature sighs in exasperation as her children play hide and seek. stars dance in the Twilight dark of secrets. Her voice carries across the void as night and nature twirl in a fantasy like manner. an Era must pass for the game to end. Worlds end and Oceans Rise, rip apart the heavens to seek the ones you love. Destruction isn’t the end but the beginning. seek what you find but do not despair.

-backwards is often the way to go when one attempts to recover the past

-sutlucco, are you ready to carry the price?

Arth froze at the final sentence.

Was he ready to carry the price? What price? What was this book withholding?

Arth frowned as he read over the book again. Sutlucco? What was this gibberish? Arth was about to ignore the book and read something else when a phrase caught his mind.

-Progression is withheld by the key.

Arth took in a sharp breath as he turned the page. All he saw was inky darkness. Arth continued flip pages and saw that every single page was blank except for the first and second page.

It was impossible for Arth to progress. Progression was withheld by a key.

Arth felt his chest beat faster and faster as he slowly flipped the book back to the second page. He read over the page again, this time scanning the book for any details he missed.

On his third attempt at analyzing the words, he noticed that a few of the words in the paragraph were oddly capitalized.

Sky Always Yet Twilight Her Era Worlds Oceans Rise Destruction.

There had to be something about these words. Maybe he had to rearrange the words to make a sentence?

There was a small pop as Corvus appeared on top of Arth’s head. He let out an affectionate peep before hopping down to Arth’s shoulders and glanced down at the book curiously.

Arth ran his fingers through Corvus’s feathers, causing Corvus to coo, before focusing back onto the book.

Sky Yet Her Worlds Oceans Destruction.

Twilight Era Always Rise. Destruction Worlds Oceans Yet Her Sky?

Rise Destruction. Sky, Oceans, Twilight, Worlds. Yet Always Her Era?

Arth tried to place the words in a multitude of ways but was met with nothing but failure. Nothing seemed to work. After trying to decode the passage for another hour, Arth decided it would be better to sleep on it.

He turned off the lamp and packed up his things. With the book in his right hand, Arth proceeded to make his way up to his dormitory. He arrived at his own personal room and placed his bag down in his chair. He opened the window covers before gently laying the book on top of his table and got into his bed.

Arth stared at the night sky, his mind filled with thoughts about the book on his tabletop. All he could think about, till the time of his sleep, was the secrets the night was withholding from him.

And Corvus, as Corvus was occasionally pecking Arth’s hand every few minutes for no apparent reason.

The next few days passed by very quickly and the Christmas holidays came to an end. Anytime Arth was free of homework and classes (he could no longer read during classes due to the double nagging he received from Hermione and Daphne), he would spend his time attempting to crack the code in the book.

But no matter what combination of words and odd ideas he tried, Arth couldn’t figure it out. And he was frankly starting to get annoyed.

“Hey Arthur?”

“. . . .”

“Are you okay mate?”

“. . . . I’m fine.”

Ron gave Arth a suspicious look before shrugging. “If you say so, at least you look better than Harry.”

Arth gave a quick glance at Harry. He indeed seemed to be more stressed out than Arth. His face was pale and his glasses were skewed. He was currently staring at his plate with a blank expression.

“. . . . What’s the matter with him?”

“He has a Quidditch match, and Snape is the referee,” replied Ron while giving a concerned look towards Harry.

Arth nodded his head in realization. “Yeah, makes sense he would be scared. I noticed that Professor Snape doesn’t really like Harry that much. In fact, Professor Snape’s doesn’t like Gryffindors that much in general.”

Ron sighed while nodding in agreement. “Are you going to watch the game? You will be rooting for Gryffindor right? There is no way you will be voting for Hufflepuff, right?”

“Sure.”

Arth finished his plate and made his way to the exit when someone tapped him on the shoulder. It was Daphne. “Heya Arth, hows it going?”

Arth shrugged. “Good, how about you?”

“Tiring,” Daphne out a weary sigh. “Homework is a pain. Malfoy is kinda being annoying, but he has been mellowing out. I’ve made a new friend called Tracy, she’s pretty cool.”

“Nice.”

“Are you going to games today Arth? If Gryffindor loses to Hufflepuff, then Slytherin will keep the house cup!”

“Cool.”

“You better be rooting for Hufflepuff Arth! See you at the match.”

Arth absentmindedly nodded his head at Daphne as she went back into the Great Hall.

It seemed like Arth would have to visit the library once more today.