The Engravings In the Shell

Within the next few days, the three new friends were used to the castle walls by now; Thursday had been a very special day for Ali, James and Fred- for the first time ever, they hadn't gotten lost in the castle!

James had begun to realise that he really missed his family. Even his younger brother, Al! Fred had realised he missed all his siblings that weren't at school yet. He really did miss his mum and dad- but he had Adele, Ari and his ghost teacher Uncle Fred.

Ali was a diffrent story. She didn't tell he friends this, but she actually wasn't that homesick. From America, a little, but from her family? No.

Ali was the middle child- she had an older brother who was nineteen and was currently living in Wisconsin because he was currently going to Norte Dame Univeristy, and a little sister who was ten- just a year younger then her.

Ryan, her older brother, was the sibling who got a lot of the attention becuase he played college football for his university. He was the quarterback- and he was extremely good. His girlfriend wa sals one of the cheerleaders at his school!

Sadie, her younger sister, got a lot of attention too because she was a straight A student- nothing she did was incorrect. She would also fake cry to get her way.

Her parents often ignored Ali; so really, she was a bit happy when she had the chance to get away from them and go to Egland.

On Saturday, James and Fred had gone to the Slug Club- they had planned to bring Ali with them, but sadly, she had gotten detention that night. She had gotten it because she was caught out of bed the pervious night by Argus Filch, the grumpy old caretaker's cat, Mrs. Norris.

"All I was doing was going to the Owlerly!" Was her defense, though, it wasn't good enough for Filch.

"So, did you ever find out who sent it? The shell?" James asked Ali that night in the common room as they were working on they're Herbology homework.

Fred and James were curious to find out Ali's answer.

"No, actually, but I did find something kind of weird when I was looking at it..." Replied Ali.

"What was it?" Fred asked her.

"I don't think it's a good idea to tell you here- how about tonight at midnight, when there won't be anybody in the common room?" She suggested with a shrug.

They agreed to do that.

In James' opinion, midnight had crept upon them too slowly- it was probably because he was waiting for an answer from Ali. Well, that was the most logical answer he could think of.

The other one was that time was slowed down by a freeze ray that would stop time for hours on end.

Though, he knew that this wasn't one of those random superhero movies that had random heat and freeze rays. He sort of wished that it was, actually, but he'd never admit that. It was embarassing, in his opinion.

"Okay, so what was the weird thing?" Asked Fred once the common room was clear.

James listened closely, as Ali told them what she had discovered.

She had apparently took the conch shell with her tonight; so she pulled it out of her robe pocket.

"See this here?" She pointed to the shell.

The conch shell was just like the stereo-typical type of conch shell that you would see in cartoons like Spongebob Square Pants.

It was a light, soft, nice, coral pink color- it seemed to be very breakable, very fragile, as though it had been around for thousands and thousands of years. It was remarkably clean and shiny for a thousand year old looking conch shell; it looked as if it was polished regularly.

James could smell a faint sea breeze and the smell of a nice, clean, and wonderful coast, it's waves crashing into rocks smoothly. He thought it smelt rather nice.

"Look," Ali said, bringing James out of his daydream of the sea. "There-" she used her pointer finger, and motioned to the outer shell of the shell.

James looked at the conch shell closely- where her finger was, there was... What were they?

"There ancient ruins markings- hyrogliphics, almost. But the markings... They're Greek..."

"How do you know this, Ali?" Asked Fred, and eyebrow raised.

"Yea, how do you?" James curiously asked, agreeing with Fred- how did Ali know this?

A tint of a blush was clear on Ali's face.

"Well, uh, my dad, he's a Greek Mythology professor at, uh, London Univeristy and he teaches all about it... He knows Ancient Greek writing... And my mom, she uh, detects hyrogliphics."

"Really? I get my Aunt Hermione would be really interested in that!" James exclaimed, but not too loudly- they didn't want anybody coming down and ratting them out.

He didn't need a Howler from his mother- he knows what it's like to be on the end of her rath. And he doesn't want o be on the end of it infront of the whole entire school. Sure, he's been on the end of it numerous of times, but he didn't want to get a Howler- espicialy infront of the Great Hall.

Oh, how embarassing the thought just was!

"Yea, well," Ali continued, once again, bringing James out of his wandering thoughts.

"She does it in Egypt and the Middle East- she searches for artefacts form long ago, like missing bible pieces and stuff. I don't get to see her a lot. She is on a trip in Jereusluem right now..."

That was the end of that conversation- it was clear Ali wasn't found of her mother, and she prefered her father more.

"Do you know what it means?" Fred eagerly asked, excitment obviously shown in his voice.

Ali rolled her blue eyes at the ginger haired boy.

"No, not at the top of my mind. We can go to the library on Saturday, how about that?"

The boys groaned and Ali rolled her eyes again.

"Well, night boys. See you in the morning." She smiled and walked up the stair cases and turned left to go into the first year girls dorm.

James was very grumpy as he went up to bed- so was Fred, for that matter.

The two boys didn't want to go to the library in four days.

After a few minutes, James could hear Fred's snores, as well as all of the boys in his dorm.

James then finally fell asleep, peacefully, curiosity finally slowing down in his mind so he coul have a good nights sleep.