Emery dragged Sirius to her favorite place in the library, where she used to sit as a child.

It was near a large window, at the far end of the library, sort of like a hidden nook, away from everyone else. There were two cozy armchairs and a tiny coffee table, as well as a soft, furry rug on the floor.

This was Emery's secret place.

It was so well hidden, that Emery was sure that not even her father knew about it.

She sat on an armchair, while Sirius took the other.

Sirius hunched over the note, looking at it carefully. Beside him, there was a parchment and quill, with half solved letters.

This time, the letter was in the Latin alphabet, but the letters were all jumbled up.

Emery took the note from Sirius, copying it down on her own piece of Parchment.

J EM EMWBE. JR ERHUGNE. HARHNX. FJRD QF. 

OUWM QARPA. RICVAVZ. CUP TLEPG. AUP 73 B.

GMFXI KUOL JRSP CNE MIFX.

Emery looked at the code one more time.

"Any luck?" she asked Sirius. 

"Not much," he replied. "But my conclusion is that one letter can also have more than one meaning. The first letter, J, could either be I or A, since it's a one-letter word," he said. "But when I fill in I and A to replace all the other J's, nothing makes sense."

"Hmm," sighed Emery. "That proves that one letter could have two meanings," she said.

"Wait," said Sirius excitedly. "Do you have a book on codes?"

Emery thought for a moment.

"A book your father used to read, or something?" he added.

"Well, there was one," she said. "He used to use it to make his own codes, then leave for me to solve."

"Bring it," Sirius said. "It might be helpful."

Emery returned ten minutes later, with a thin book in her hand. 

"Sorry I took long, I was looking for the book," she said.

"No problem. I was looking outside. Are those lilies?" he asked, pointing to a bush of white flowers outside.

"Yeah," she said dreamily. "We have peace lilies too, but they're indoor plants."

"Cool," said Sirius, taking the book from her.

Emery moved her armchair close to his, so she could see the book as well.

Sirius opened the book, flipping through a couple of pages. 

"See," he said. "This one's got Morse code."

"Yeah," said Emery. "I found a Morse coded message in my hat."

Sirius nearly dropped the book.

"Wait. He sent a message before?"

Emery nodded. "It was in my hat," she shrugged it off. "I solved it, but it wasn't anything important."

Sirius cocked his head, thinking for a few minutes.

Emery fidgeted, looking at the back of his neck. 

She had a sudden urge to tickle him. Slowly, she raised her fingers to his neck, then began tickling him slowly.

Sirius nearly jumped up. "WHAT'RE YOU- oh, it's you," he exclaimed, glaring at Emery and slapping her hand off.

She giggled. 

"What'd you do that for?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know, your neck just told me to tickle it," she explained.

"Yes, well I'm telling you to stop," he growled, "or I'll tickle you."

Emery hummed, and began drawing Sirius on her parchment.

She was drawing Sirius the Penguin's feet, when Sirius broke the silence.

"What did the letter from your hat say?" he asked.

"It was a bunch of numbers. When I put them together, I realized it was my birthdate," she answered. "I already know my birthday. I mean, I don't see the point of.."

"BINGO!" Sirius interrupted, slapping the code book on the table.

"What?" asked Emery.

Sirius grinned. "He made his own code. A cipher," he said.

He opened a page in the book, and pointed to it. "This is a Caesar cipher shift. You shift all the letters three places forward. To decode it, shift all the letters three places backwards."

Emery's face lit up. "So he used the Caesar Shift?"

Sirius shook his head.

"He used the Number Cipher shift," he said excitedly. "Use the date to solve the code."

"Ohhhh," said Emery, nodding, as she finally understood.

"So we repeat the date again, and again, moving each letter that many spaces backwards?" she asked.

"Yes," he confirmed.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Emery. "Let's start."

Sirius took the parchment with the letters.

"Let's do the first part together," he said. 

"First, write the alphabet on a scroll of parchment," he told her. "I'll align the numbers to the message. Then, I'll give you the letter, and you move it backwards, the number of spaces  I tell you, alright?"

Emery wrote the letters downwards on an empty scroll of parchment.

Sirius wrote the first part of the code , then wrote each number of the date beside it.

𝒥 𝐸𝑀 𝐸𝑀𝒲𝐵𝐸.

1 4 0  4 1 9 6 0.

"There," he said.

 He peered over Emery's shoulder, his nose nearly touching her ear. He could smell her jasmine scent and caught a waft of cookies. Her perfume mingled with the air around him.

He moved closer, suddenly feeling like kissing her smooth cheek. Her hand brushed his face as she moved her hair away, knocking Sirius back into the present.

"Okay, put your finger on J."

Emery put her finger on J. 

"Good," said Sirius approvingly. "Now move it one space back," he said.

Emery moved her finger one space up. "It's I," she told him.

"That makes sense," said Sirius, writing I right below the number. 

"Next is the letter E, move it 4 spaces back."

"A," Emery said, looking up to face him. Their noses were nearly touching, and their eyes locked. Sirius cleared his throat, moving his gaze down and reading the next letter off his parchment.

"M," he said hoarsely. "It's 0, so it's the same."

Sirius and Emery continued working in this manner, until they finished the first part.

Sirius looked at the parchment. 

What does it say?" asked Emery, biting her lip, peeling the skin.

He handed the parchment to her.

I AM ALIVE.

Emery looked at Sirius. 

"He's alive," she whispered unbelievably. And she pulled Sirius into her arms, hugging him tight. All at once, she felt the need to continue decoding the letter, her motivation suddenly increasing.

"Let's do the next part," she said. Sirius nodded, and turned back to the parchment.

They moved on to do the rest of the parts, and about ten minutes later, the whole letter was decoded. 

𝐼 𝒜𝑀 𝒜𝐿𝐼𝒱𝐸. 

𝐼𝒩 𝐸𝒩𝒢𝐿𝒜𝒩𝒟.
𝒟𝒜𝒩𝒢𝐸𝑅.
 𝐹𝐼𝒩𝒟 𝑀𝐸.

𝐹𝒪𝒲𝐿 𝑀𝒜𝒩𝒪𝑅.
𝐿𝐼𝐵𝑅𝒜𝑅𝒴.
𝒯𝒪𝒫 𝒮𝐻𝐸𝐿𝒫. 𝑅𝒪𝒲 𝟩𝟥 𝐵. 𝐹𝐼𝐹𝒯𝐻 𝐵𝒪𝒪𝒦 𝐹𝑅𝒪𝑀 𝒯𝐻𝐸 𝐿𝐸𝐹𝒯.

Emery gasped. "Do you think he's in the Manor?" she asked.

"No," said Sirius. "He said he's in danger," he showed her the message. "He's probably being watched. He's been planning this for so long, it seems. The hat came to you in September, right?"

She nodded. 

"You're right," she said. "In here, it says he wants me to find a book," she said thoughtfully. "Maybe the book has all the answers."

Sirius stood up.

"We're already in the Library of Fowl Manor." he said. "Now we need to find Row 73 B"

Emery stood up as well, then dragged her chair back to its position.

"I know where that is," she said. "This way."

She stood before row 73 B. Craning her head to the top, she pointed at the shelf. "That's the one," she said excitedly, then moved the ladder in place. 

She began climbing, and Sirius grabbed her arm.

"You're not going up there," he said firmly. "You'll fall."

Emery shrugged off his arm. "I won't."

And she began climbing, pulling her dress up and ascending the first rung.

As she went higher, and higher, Sirius' palms began feeling sweaty, and he fiddled with his fingers in fear. He bit his bottom lip and tapped his foot on the ground.

Emery glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, enjoying how nervous he was.

She smirked to herself, letting go of the ladder with one hand.

"WHOA!" she exclaimed.

Sirius jolted out of his state of anxiousness and aligned himself near the ladder, placing his arms below her figure.

Emery burst out laughing.

"You should have seen your face," she laughed. "I was just joking. I wasn't falling."

And she howled with laughter once more. 

Sirius gritted his teeth and growled, as he glared at her. 

"That was not funny, Emery. I was so scared you'd fall," he said. "You're cruel."

Emery giggled once more and climbed higher. 

"But I didn't fall, and it was funny. You should've seen your face."

Sirius ignored her and scowled, feeling stupid to fall for her joke.

When she reached the top, the ladder was rocking slightly, and Sirius was sure she'd fall. 

Emery scanned the bookshelf. 

"Fifth book from the left," she muttered, "fifth book from the left.."

"AHA!" she said, counting the books. Her fingers rested on a thick book with a black spine. There were no words written on the spine, yet it looked old with age.

"I FOUND IT!" Emery yelled.

"Alright, pull it down, and come down, slowly," Sirius emphasized. "And be careful."

Emery grabbed the book, and tugged on it, trying to pull it out from it's place.

She yanked it too hard, and suddenly finding herself tumbling backwards, falling at alarming speed.

"EMERY!" Sirius yelled deafeningly , moving forward to grab her.

Emery closed her eyes as she fell.

When she opened them, she was in Sirius' arms.

a/n: soooo... the code is solved. Did any of you understand the code?

i have a questions for you:

What ship name should I give Emery and Sirius? 

-Emirius / Emerius (I like this one)

-Simery

-Semery

Other:

Please comment your thoughts...

Elsie.