Hogwarts: My Grandmother is the Queen

Chapter 407 Going Home

"Eleanor," Diana swallowed her pudding, "where is she buried?"

"I don't know," Henry said. "After the Spencer family removed her name, they didn't record her grave."

Henry left Sandringham at 7 a.m. on July 3.

Daylight had broken, but the sun hadn't fully risen yet; a thin layer of dew shrouded the rose garden, and water droplets clung to the edges of the petals.

Diana stood at the side door to see him off, holding a freshly cut yellow rose in her hand.

"Here you go." She handed the rose to Henry. "If you put it in water at Hogwarts, it will bloom for several days."

Henry accepted the rose.

The petals were covered with dew, cool and carrying a faint sweet fragrance.

"Thank you, Mom."

Diana hugged him.

Write to me after the full moon.

"I will."

Henry got into the car Eileen had sent, and Diana stood at the door watching him go.

As the car drove out of Sandringham's gates, Henry saw Diana still standing there in the rearview mirror, her figure growing smaller and smaller beside the rose bushes.

The journey to Hogwarts was longer than usual, so Erin arranged for the Floo Network to take her from Sandringham to King's Cross Station, then from King's Cross Station to Hogsmeade, and finally from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts.

The whole process took nearly four hours, with three different FiloNet connection points along the way.

It was noon when Henry arrived at Hogwarts.

The castle was much quieter during the summer vacation. Most of the students had gone home, and the corridors were empty, with only a few students and teachers on duty.

Henry encountered Filch as he dragged his suitcase through the hallway.

Filch was squatting on the floor wiping it when he saw him come in. He looked up, his expression softening a bit—probably because he was less stressed during the holidays and there were no students causing trouble.

"The Duke of Cambridge," Filch said. "Professor Dumbledore said you'd be arriving today. Your room is still in the cellar, and the kitchen is asking if you'd like lunch."

"Yes, thank you, Mr. Filch."

Filch nodded and continued wiping the floor.

Henry dragged the trunk down the cellar stairs. The Slytherin common room was empty, the fire in the fireplace still burning, probably added by the house-elves that morning.

Henry put the box back in his dormitory, placed Diana's yellow rose in the water glass on his bedside table, and then went to sit down by the fireplace in the common room.

He took out the manila envelope Charles had given him and placed the family tree and several documents on the coffee table.

The full moon is tomorrow night. The Queen said he doesn't need to break the seal, but he can stay at Hogwarts.

Dumbledore will be present, the Queen will direct from behind the scenes, and Oswald and Arnold will handle the internal affairs of the Ministry of Magic. He only needs to be a witness.

But Henry needs to confirm one thing.

He stood up, walked out of the common room, and went up the stone steps.

He walked to the end of the corridor on the eighth floor, where the wall opposite the tapestry had completely returned to its calm state.

After passing the gargoyle entrance, Henry stopped outside the principal's office.

The door was open. Dumbledore sat behind his desk, a small box in front of him.

Fox, perched on the perch, saw Henry enter and chirped softly.

"You're back." Dumbledore looked up. "How's Sandringham?"

"Very good." Henry walked into the office. "My mother asked me to bring a rose. She said she'd write to me after the full moon."

"What did your grandmother say?"

Henry sat down opposite him: "She won't let me open the seventh seal."

Dumbledore showed no surprise, as if everything was expected.

He pushed the small box on the table toward Henry: "Your grandmother sent me an urgent letter this morning. It was delivered by Irene herself using the Floo Net, faster than an owl. She said she'll handle the Seventh Seal behind the scenes, and you're only responsible for witnessing it at Hogwarts."

Henry took the box and opened it. Inside was a silver brooch shaped like the round tower of Windsor Castle.

"Your grandmother asked me to give this to you," Dumbledore said. "She said it was Eleanor Spencer's belongings, found in the Windsor Archives."

“Your grandmother was very clever,” he continued. “She knew that some doors couldn’t be opened and some things couldn’t be let out.”

"The full moon is tomorrow night. What will happen that night?" Henry pinned the brooch inside his cloak.

"I don't know," Dumbledore said. "But we'll all be there, and your grandmother's people will be watching inside the Ministry. I'll know immediately if there's any movement under the stone."

Henry nodded, stood up, and prepared to leave.

"Henry," Dumbledore's voice sounded behind him, "your grandmother asked me to tell you something. Eleanor Spencer refused to join the Alliance, not because she didn't want to take sides. It was because she discovered that what lay beneath the Seventh Seal wasn't the Alliance's origin, but its prisoners. She didn't want to release that thing. So she chose to remain outside the Alliance."

Henry paused. "What's that below the seventh path?"

"I don't know," Dumbledore said, "but Eleanor wrote about the Watchmen in her diary."

The Watcher.

Henry walked out of the principal's office and down the stairs.

Dinner was served in the auditorium in the evening. During the summer vacation, the auditorium was only half open, with the four long tables combined into two.

There weren't many students left at school: seven or eight lower-year Gryffindor students, a few fifth-year Hufflepuff students, and a sixth-year Ravenclaw girl whose name Henry didn't know but whose face he had seen before.

He was the only one in Slytherin.

Dumbledore sat at the end of the faculty table, next to McGonagall and Sprout.

Snape wasn't there; he was probably in the cellar dealing with potions, or watching over Barty in his cell.

Henry stood at the window of his cellar room when the full moon was high in the sky.

A steady warmth emanated from the palm of the positioning stone glove, and the main vein flowed slowly beneath my feet.

Just as he was about to turn around and go back to bed, the pulse from the glove suddenly changed.

The frequency increased and the temperature rose, like a sleeping river suddenly beginning to surge.

Then he heard a sound. A very faint vibration coming from the direction of the eighth floor, like someone tapping on the foundation.

And then, three times in a row.

Henry had already taken a step forward. He grabbed the cloak from beside the bed, put it on, left the dormitory, passed through the common room, and ran up the stone steps.

The torches in the corridor had all turned dark green, the color of the Fireballs, but brighter and more vibrant than usual.

They twitched slightly as he passed by, as if guiding him.

When he ran to the eighth-floor corridor, the gargoyle entrance was already open.

The gargoyle itself stood in the middle of the corridor, its gray stone face displaying an expression Henry had never seen before.

It was a mixture of awe and fear.

Dumbledore stood in the doorway of the Headmaster's office, wearing a dark blue robe, without a hat, his white hair falling loose over his shoulders.

on.

Fox stood on his shoulder, the phoenix feathers gleaming gold and red in the green firelight.

Snape stood beside him, his black robes rolled up, wand in hand.

McGonagall was at the other end of the corridor, drawing some symbols on the ground with her wand.

Henry recognized it as a variant of the protective charm; he had seen Flitwick demonstrate it once during training at the Duel Club.

"Henry," Dumbledore turned to her, "you sensed it."

"The main vein is accelerating." Henry walked up to him. "There's movement under the stone platform."

Dumbledore nodded.

"Your grandmother just sent a message through Eileen. Her people confirmed that the Watcher is moving; it sensed the full moon."

"May I come in?"

Dumbledore looked at him for a moment, then stepped aside to let him through the doorway.

"Stand behind me, don't touch the stone platform, and don't use the positioning stone to sense what's below."

Henry walked into the principal's office. The stone platform was still in the same place, but it was different from usual.

The green light shining through the cracks on the side of the stone platform was ten times brighter than during the day, and the entire stone platform was trembling slightly, as if something inside was pushing it.

The light in the gap was no longer steady, but flickering, like a heartbeat.

Snape stood on the other side of the stone platform and said, "This is the frequency of its heartbeat. It stops every three beats, and when it stops, it speaks."

"What did you say?" Henry asked.

"I can't hear you," Snape said, "but one word keeps coming back."

"Return to your place," said Dumbledore.

The stone platform shook again, this time more strongly than before, and Henry could feel the stone slabs beneath his feet trembling.

The green light from the crack in the stone platform suddenly brightened and then dimmed. The whole room seemed to be sucked in by something, and the air, sound, and light were all compressed.

Then Fox called out, and the phoenix's cry broke the compressed silence, high-pitched and clear, as if pushing something back from under the stone platform.

The vibrations of the stone platform subsided, the green light stopped flickering, and returned to a stable but faint brightness.

Dumbledore placed his hand on the stone surface. His palm was pressed against the stone, and he closed his eyes.

Fox flew down from his shoulder and landed on the edge of the stone platform. The phoenix's body heat made the green light on the stone surface slightly warmer.

"The Watcher is asking a question," Dumbledore opened his eyes. "Where is the fourth arc?"

"It wants me to go?" Henry asked.

"No," Dumbledore said, "it was just asking a question."

Snape took a small glass bottle from his robes, inside which was a strand of silvery-white memory.

"Use this." Snape handed the bottle to Dumbledore. "Old Barty's memory contains the frequency of the fourth arc."

He had contact with the receiver; that frequency remained in his memory.

Dumbledore took the bottle and poured the memory silk onto the stone surface.

The moment the silvery-white thread touched the stone surface, the green light in the cracks of the stone platform suddenly brightened.

The stone platform stopped shaking. The entire room fell silent.

Then a voice came from below the stone platform.

It was low, heavy, and clearer than ever before.

"Fourth arc - confirmed."

The green light gradually faded, and the stone platform returned to its original state. The light in the crevices turned into a pale green that was almost invisible during the day.

The vibration stopped, the heartbeat stopped, and the sound stopped too.

Dumbledore withdrew his hand and turned to Henry.

"Your grandmother was right. This door cannot be opened, but the Watcher can be appeased as long as it knows the Fourth Arc is still there. You don't need to open it; you just need to let it feel your presence."

Henry looked at the stone platform. The green light in the cracks had dimmed to almost invisible, but he could still feel a faint warmth in the palm of his positioning glove. The energy beneath the stone platform was still there, only now it was quiet.

"Go back to the cellar tonight and sleep," Dumbledore said. "Eileen will come to fetch you to Kensington Palace tomorrow. Your grandmother will continue to handle the Watchmen's affairs. I'll call you again before the next full moon."

The next morning, he washed his face, changed his clothes, and left the dormitory.

In the common lounge, a tray sits on the coffee table with breakfast fried eggs, toast, and a cup of hot milk.

Dumbledore was waiting for him in the eighth-floor corridor. The door to the headmaster's office was open, and Fox was standing on a perch. He chirped softly when he saw Henry come in.

The stone platform is still in the same place, but the green light in the crack has dimmed to the point of being almost invisible, just like before the full moon.

"Did you sleep well last night?" Dumbledore asked.

"It's alright." Henry sat down opposite him. "Has anything been moved from under the stone platform?"

"No," Dumbledore said. "The Watchmen are asleep."

At noon, Eileen appeared right on time outside the main gate of Hogwarts.

As Henry dragged his suitcase out of the castle, the summer sun shone brightly on the hillside, making the grass glisten green.

He got into the back seat, and the car drove out the gate.

I transferred three times on the Flyway network and arrived at Kensington Palace in the afternoon.

Eileen led him through a side door, where the oil paintings in the corridor gleamed with a dark golden luster in the afternoon light.

He returned to his room, placed the box next to the wardrobe, put the yellow roses in the water glass on the bedside table, and added some water.

He then lay down on the bed, which was softer than the one at Hogwarts, and the pillows were too high, so he pulled one out.

He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was already dark. The streetlights outside the window were on, and the shadows of the trees in Kensington Gardens swayed in the orange-yellow light.

Henry sat up and found that there was an extra blanket on him.

He washed his face, changed into a shirt, and went downstairs to the restaurant.

Diana was alone at the long table. She had changed into a light purple dress and looked up and smiled when she saw Henry come in.

"William and Harry won't arrive until tomorrow. Your father has a dinner party in London tonight and won't be back for dinner," Diana said. "It'll just be the two of us."

Henry sat down opposite him, and the butler brought out roasted lamb chops with mint sauce, asparagus, and stewed potatoes.

Diana poured herself a glass of red wine.

"How's the full moon?" she asked, cutting a lamb chop.

"Nothing happened," Henry said.

"What about your grandmother?" Diana asked.

"She's handling it," Henry said. "I just need to enjoy the summer vacation."

Diana glanced at him but didn't ask any further questions.

She chewed on a piece of lamb chop and swirled her wine glass.

"Your father came back from the British Library with a bunch of copies. He said he was looking up records of royal lands from the Victorian era. I said, 'What's so interesting about looking up those things?' He said, 'I wouldn't understand.'"

Henry smiled slightly.

"William and Harry are coming back tomorrow," Diana said. "They brought a bunch of stones from Balmoral, saying they're going to use them to build a bunker in the garden. Your father agreed, but I don't think it's appropriate. Could you talk to them about it?"

"I'll give it a try."

"What are you trying? Just say no, and they'll listen to you," Diana smiled.