By the end of the weekend, Madam Pomfrey deemed that Rowan would be able to attend classes again. However, before releasing her, Madam Pomfrey sternly warned Rowan to take things slowly and not overexert herself. And if Rowan was feeling ill or lightheaded to come straight to her.
Rowan promised, before finally making her way to the common room that Sunday evening. The 5th and 7th years were hard at work as Alchemy and Bram were reverently passed around though as though they were some sort of holy idols. Rumor had it that if Alchemy is sincerely cared for that the student in question was guaranteed to pass their final exams. Which was utter nonsense of course, but when one is sleep deprived or desperate enough even the strangest of things begin to sound reasonable.
On her way up into the girl's dorms, Rowan ran into the annoying twits, who sneered at her and said, "Well, if it isn't little Miss Breathless?" "Are you feeling ill today?" "Or do you need us to gather the whole common room for you?"
Ignoring the three girls, Rowan walked past them and headed into her dorm room. "You're finally out!" Tiffany exclaimed as though Rowan had been imprisoned against her will rather than resting in the infirmary.
"Yes, I was finally given leave by Madam Pomfrey," Rowan said with a wide grin as she happily climbed into her bed and curled up inside the warm covers.
"Well, you definitely look much better now," Silvia drawled from her warm cocoon. "You had such a chalked-out color before." Tiffany nods her head in vehement agreement as Rowan makes a wry face.
"Girls," Bethanie warningly said, before turning over to smile at Rowan. "It's good to have you back with us. These two won't admit it, but they desperately missed you." Both Tiffany and Silvia flushed as Silvia ducked down her head in mortification.
"That's good to know," Rowan said as they quickly began to chat over lessons and gossip, she might have missed.
To Rowan's displeasure, Bertha Jorkins had spun her fainting as the result of an ill-fated romance between her and the unknown suitor responsible for her heart breaking into two. Sadly enough, this was only Bertha Jorkin's 6th year, and still had one more year of being stuck with her to go. But it could have been worse, it could have always been Rita Skeeter or Umbridge!
After the girls were sound asleep, Rowan once more transfigured her pillow, before slipping out to the bathroom. Instantly she apparated away and winced upon arriving in the hidden Chamber of Secrets. There was a feeling of having overstretched or pressing a finger into a bruise. It would seem that she would not be fully recovered for some time to come.
"Lumos," Rowan said as she held her wand high and walked over to check on the giant vats full of basilisk ingredients. Seeing that the vats were still fine, she reached into her pouch and began to pull out the shrunken ingredients stolen from the deceased Bellatrix's vault.
The skins of strange creatures, some with long spines, others with dropping wings, and other bizarre and rare things. Making sure everything was nicely spaced she returned them back to her usual size, before reaching back into the pouch for the rare potions in jeweled flasks. With a hum, she quickly finished, before stepping back to admire her work in a rather full-looking laboratory.
Turning her back on the lab, Rowan walked over to the empty bookshelf and began to shelve the acquired books from Bellatrix's vault. Not having had much time to read the titles of the volumes during the Gringotts's break-in, she quickly did so now. And she was delighted to find a wide array of reading subjects despite over half being forbidden grimoires and other dark arts volumes.
Grabbing the last two books, Rowan paused as she read the two titles in her hand, Magick Moste Evile by Godelot and Secrets of the Darkest Art by Owle Bullock. The two authors who had started it all. Riddle had read the first book, which only gave him an idea of what a Horcrux was, while the second instructed Riddle on how to do so. It was quite a coincidence to innocently happen across two of the darkest magic volumes of all time. One was to be found in the restricted section of the library and the other was so very innocently misplaced! A rather serendipity of coincidences.
Though still, this did at least solve her problem of having to sneak into Dumbledore's office to acquire the second volume. Flipping open the old black leather volume, Rowan stares at the name of the writer Owle Bullock. Why would anyone dare to record such a vile thing? But then again, why not? Whether good or evil, some things still need to be written down, but in this case, it might have been better to not go into so much precise detail.
Glancing at the time, Rowan sits down in one of the armchairs and turns on a flashlight, before setting her wand on her lap. She quickly skipped through most of the magic that even gave her the shivers. Pausing, she stops to skim through the chapter on Inferi or better known yet as Necromancy.
"The art of raising the dead is quite a puzzling feat. No witch or wizard is ever truly raising the soul of the deceased but rather animating a corpse much like a puppet. The first step is to murder the intended puppet and not allow them a proper burial. The puppet must be kept in utter darkness and not be allowed for a single ray of light to touch them before the first ritual is completed.
Upon the night of a new moon, when darkness reigns supreme, the preserved corpse must be placed in a ritual circle as so described in Magick Moste Evile or in the previous chapters before. The blood of an innocent creature must be shed be it man or beast. But for convenience's sake, a creature's blood would be best."
Rowan stops reading feeling rather sick to her stomach as she briefly skims the rest of the chapter. It was horrifying, to say the least. The amount of death and cruelty required was astonishing, but that had never stopped Riddle. The best example was the army of the Inferi in that cave that guarded the locket. So many of the dead were muggles, most likely vagrants or homeless, but others were very likely many of the witches and wizards that went missing during the first wizarding war.