79 Chapter 79: The Hidden Lemon Message
Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands
July 30th, 999
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It had taken a while, but Selena and Erik did find something about high-humans. It was in an old book from Rowena's collection that was so old that if it was not because of magic it would have decomposed itself. But even so, the passage that mentioned high-humans was not helpful at all. It only contained speculations that the first man to have ever been created mentioned in the Bible, Adam, was a higher form of a human being.
"Our research has come to nothing!"
Erik said one night after their last incursion inside Rowena's library had come to nothing.
"Calm down, Erik. The information is bound to be somewhere. We just have to find it."
Selena said, trying to calm down her fiance. To add to the calming effect she stood up from her seat, walked to the armchair that Erik was seating, and plopped on his lap. The result was pretty obvious when she felt Erik's hand snaking through her legs. His touch was doing things to her head that she couldn't describe, and, not wanting to hold back, she jumped at his lips with hers. This impromptu kiss quickly evolved into a making-out session. Things were getting hot between the young adults and hands were sliding under the summer clothes to grope body parts. It was then that the duo heard the sound of someone clearing their throat as a means of getting attention.
"Uh-hum…"
The duo froze in mid-kiss. Slowly, both turned their heads to where the sound had come from, and, to their horror, they saw Rowena Ravenclaw looking at both of them with a disapproving look.
The verbal lash that they received that day was legendary. Rowena didn't hold back, just like the duo of young adults didn't hold back from making out in the Common Room of Ravenclaw's Tower. Mid lash, Selena got fed up with it.
"We are going to marry in one year, mom. And we are perfectly healthy young adults. Erik has his needs, just like I have mine. If you don't like it, then how do you expect to have grandchildren?"
Selena said to her mother with a look on her face from someone that got wronged. Rowena made a gesture with her hand like she wanted to refute her daughter's point, but she remembered being young too. Hell, she remembered the stories that Godric Gryffindor used to tell them when he got drunk. Then, she let out a sigh.
*sigh*
"Just… Just don't do it in public and don't do anything that you would regret later."
Rowena said to the duo. She then turned to leave the Common Room just to stop. She had remembered why she was looking for the duo. Rowena then turned back to face the young adults.
"By the way, did you both go through my library?"
Rowena asked. She had found some of her books out of place when she was searching for some information.
"Yes, mother. Erik and I were searching for a term in it, but we didn't find anything useful."
Selena replied to her mother, who nodded her head in understanding.
"Can I know what the term was?"
Rowena asked her daughter, who turned to Erik and gave him a long look. Erik just shrugged in reply.
"High-humans. Erik found something that mentioned it and we were looking to know more about it. Apparently, it is the evolved form of humans that can only be triggered individually."
Selena said, replying to her mother after having turned back to look at her. Rowena made a humming sound and put a hand on her head like she was trying to nudge something inside her head.
"High-humans, uh? I remember hearing legends about them. But I never found anything concrete about it."
Rowena said to her daughter and future son-in-law. She looked at them and saw some expectation in their eyes.
"The legends said that High-humans could live forever. It was a gift given to them by magic together with an individual gift particular to every one of them. Some could fly, while some could turn invisible at wish. It's a very irregular legend, and I fear that I don't know much more to tell about "
Rowena said again to the duo and then turned and left the Tower's Common Room. Erik and Selena looked at each other and sighed at the same time.
"It was not what we were looking for."
Selena commented.
"But that is a beginning."
Erik said, adding to Selena's comment.
"We will have to work with it."
Selena said to Erik, who nodded his head in agreement.
–
Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands
February, 14th, 1000
–
It was their final semester at Hogwarts for Erik and he was frustrated.
"More than six months and we got nothing more!"
Erik said in a loud voice. He was in an unused classroom's office inside the castle together with Selena. This classroom, like most of the other classrooms, had a teacher's office annexed to it with its own fireplace, and the duo of future lovers had taken it for themselves as a private place for their study and makeout sessions. They sure didn't want to repeat the same that happened last July.
"Calm down, love."
Selena said while closing grandpa Jeo's journal. She was re-reading the thing by the nth time. Just to be sure they didn't miss anything. Selena put the journal aside and walked to where Erik was pacing from one side to the other in the office. She then cupped his face with her hands and made her look at him.
"Calm yourself down, Erik. You know very well that getting all bothered will not help us solve this mystery!"
Selena said to Erik, who stopped and looked at his fiancee's eyes.
*sigh*
"You are right…"
Erik said, after letting out a sigh. Selena then gave him a big smile.
"Of course I am right."
Selena said to Erik, who managed to give her a smile of his own.
"It's just… It's just that this thing about High-humans is bothering me a lot."
Erik said while taking Selena's hands from his face to his hands.
"You don't say…"
Selena said to Erik while making an amused face. Erik just rolled his eyes at that.
"Tell me, why did I teach you about sarcasm again?"
Erik asked Selena, who giggled at him.
"Because you love me~"
Selena replied to Erik.
"Yeah, I do love you."
Erik said with a small smile and took Selena's hands to his mouth and gave them a tender kiss. But then, he frowned a little. Her hands had a light smell of lemon to them.
"Selena, love? When did you mess with lemons?"
Erik asked his fiancee, who cocked her head to the side in a signal of confusion.
"Lemon? The last thing that I remember doing that had something to do with lemon, was that lemon-herb infusion that you made for me three weeks ago. Why do you ask?"
Selena replied to Erik.
"Well, your hands have a very light smell of lemon to them."
Erik explained to Selena, making her take her hands to her nose and sniff them.
"Hmm… I don't smell anything. It must be your imagination."
Selena said to Erik. The young wizard then took Selena's hands again and sniffed at them, confirming the smell.
"Nope, not my imagination. Your hands, definitely, smell like lemon."
Erik said to Selena and took another sniff at her hands.
"Lemon juice to be more precise."
He added.
"Well, after dinner I did wash my hands with that soap that you gave me, but they don't have any scent like the corporal one that you gave me."
Selena said to Erik. He had explained to her that most diseases were caused by tiny organisms that resembled monsters that entered our bodies through our mouth, eyes, and nose. She doubted him at the beginning, but then Erik had disassembled an old telescope used for astronomy and used its lens to build something that he called a microscope and introduced her to the micro-world, as he dubbed it. After that, she had gotten the mania of always washing her hands with soap regularly. The impromptu biology class had been revealing and frightening at the same time to Selena.
"After that, I've been with you the entire time here, reading grandpa Jeo's journal."
Selena said to Erik, who looked at her and then at the journal which was at a small table by the armchair that Selena was seated. Erik raised an eyebrow at that and a wild idea crossed his mind. It was about an experiment that he had done as a child back in his past life, where he had written 'secret' messages to his father using lemon juice. Erik walked to the journal and took it in his hands. He then opened it and started sniffing its pages. The journal had a very light scent of lemon on it. Erik quickly flipped the pages of the journal until he was on the last pages of it, which were empty. He then sniffed the pages again and hit the jackpot. The smell of lemon on the last seemingly blank pages was stronger.
"You sly old man."
Quickly, Erik started to move with an objective. He summoned an oil lamp and glass protection for the flame. He ignited the lamp and waited for a little for the glass to get hot. Selena was watching Erik with curiosity, but he didn't say anything. When the protective glass was at a high temperature, Erik took the journal and opened it at the blank pages. Carefully, he started to rub the page on the hot glass. Selena, who was watching it from the side, saw how like magic, words started forming on the before blank pages.
"I one told grandpa Jeo how we could send secret messages to other people by writing it while using lemon juice instead of ink. When dry, the stuff written on the paper will be invisible. That is until you heat the paper with enough heat. The lemon juice would have softened the fibers of the paper in that part of the paper, which will then easily burn when exposed to heat when compared to the rest of the paper."
Erik said, explaining to Selena what he was doing.
"And here we have, a secret lemon message revealed with heat."
Erik said while taking the journal away from the heated glass. On its page, was the continuation of the journal. Erik and Selena were looking at it in amazement.
"Amazing."
Selena said.
"Yeah, it is. Better of all, It doesn't reveal itself with the use of revealing magic."
Erik replied and then took the journal back to the glass lamp and continued to 'burn' the rest of the message on paper. Half an hour later, he had in hands the complete journal. Erik looked at it with anticipation, and then looked at Selena.
"Wanna read with me?"
Erik asked his fiancee, who nodded her head in agreement. He then went to the armchair and took a seat on it. Selena walked to Erik and sat on his lap. Erik then took the journal, opened it, and started to read its contents.
The new part of the journal was, basically, a letter to Erik at the beginning where the old hermit was making fun of him by having taken so long to discover the hidden part of the journal. It was like he knew that Erik would get frustrated at the high-human thing. He then proceeded to explain what a high-human is, what were its gifts of being one, and, finally, how to become one. The base of it was a ritual that the person, after attaining very good control over his magic, could do. In it, the person doing the ritual would summon the creational forces of the universe to judge him. If the person got a pass, he would evolve. If the person didn't, he would die.
"You know, this ritual sounds a lot like those Chinese stories."
Selena said to Erik when they made a pause in the reading.
"Yes, it does. Maybe the stories have some truth mixed on them."
Erik replied to Selena. The couple continued to read the journal that had an explanation on how to verify if you were ready for the ritual, how to start it, and how to be sure that you were in a safe place for it because the ritual would bring the attention of the world to the person doing it.
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