Harry Potter had just finished with his last class of the day, and was on his way back to Gryffindor, when something in the dark shadows spoke up not three feet from him.
Something: "Oh, Harry, sir?"
Harry: (somewhat startled) "Dobby? What are you up to?"
Dobby: (obsequeous as usual) "Nothing of importance, sir, just remembering something from long ago. Something I thought you should know about."
Harry: (thinking 'oh, what am i getting into now?') "Huh? What sort of a something?"
Dobby (whispering into Harry's ear): "The notes of one of the original Death Eaters, sir. A friend of my old master kept a notebook, and I remember where he stashed it!"
Harry: (looking quite interested now) "Really? Where?"
Dobby: "Its in a cave, sir. More of a cavern, actually. I've drawn you a map."
Dobby handed Harry what at first glance looked just like a napkin with some scribbly lines drawn on it. That's because that was exactly what it was. But upon closer inspection, Harry could see that the scribbly lines were actually a map, and quite a detailed one at that, showing the position of the cave relative to Hogwarts.
Harry: (examining map) "Hmm, ok... so this box here with the big X on it is... Wow, this is some map!"
Dobby: "Good luck to you, sir. I must be off now."
Harry: (wanting to ask more questions) "But..."
Dobby ducked back into the shadows and was gone. Harry stood there for a moment, pondering the map, and then headed for the library, where he knew Hermione would be studying.
When Harry reached Hermione's usual spot at the library, she and Ron were there studying, and didn't seem the least bit interested in Harry's napkin with the scribbly lines on it.
Herm: (smirking) "Are those your notes from class?"
Ron: (Snicker)
Harry: "Its a map. Dobby gave it to me. It's supposed to show where some Death Eater stashed a notebook years ago."
Harry spread his napkin/map out on the table, revealing the full extent of Dobby's scribbly-line map, and Hermione's and Ron's expressions changed from smugly sarcastic to interestedly amazed.
Herm and Ron, in unison: "Wow, this is some map!"
Harry: "That Dobby can sure draw, can't he? We should get him to draw some pictures to go with this fanfic."
Herm: "Well, if there is a Death Eater's notebook in there, we definitely should go get it. The three of us, around noon Saturday?"
Ron: "Sounds good. We can meet back here, study the map a bit, then head out for that cave."
[Skip to around noon Saturday, back at the library. Nothing happened in the meantime that would interest you, except that Crabbe got into some trouble for scrawling "Dumbledork" on the sidewalk.
Harry: "I got my inviso cloak."
Herm: "My backpack is packed with everything we could possibly need for a spelunking trip."
Ron: "And awaaaaay we go!"
And with that, the three musketeers went beboppin' it across the lawn... well, actually more like they went creeping along, hoping no one would notice, because the cave was in the forbidden forest where they weren't supposed to go. They reached the entrance to the cave within two minutes; surprisingly close by, it was. "Lumos." In they went.
Ron: (noticing a really deep hole in the ground) "Gawd, what a crevasse, I wouldn't want to fall into that!"
Herm: "Oh, my, all these solid black places on the map must be deep pits or crevasses! We'd better take it slow and careful!"
Dobby's amazingly accurate map led them right to a room. With furniture in it, even. The box with the big X on it turned out to be a rolltop desk, which they promptly ransacked, finding a chewed pencil, some balled-up paper, and a notebook! With a green skull drawn on the front of it! And nothing else worth keeping. "Ok, lets get back to Hogwarts." But as they turned to leave, a buzzing sound began to come from... where? It seemed to come from all over.
Then their unmistakable forms appeared, pouring with blitzkrieg fury out from behind every piece of furniture by the thousands, their angry wings beating the air into a...
"!!!! BEES !!!!", they shrieked in unison, running out the door. "Oh crap, holy crap", they muttered in panic, trying to race ahead of the oncoming swarm without falling to their deaths.
There it was, the opening to the outside world. Clutching the notebook, Hermione sprinted out of the cave and into the light of day. Harry followed right after. But Ron had tripped and the bees were swarming all around him. Even worse, they seemed to be actually barring his exit from the cave.
But Hermione noticed something peculiar. They weren't stinging him. What kind of bees act like that? (Ding, light bulb over head) What if those are boggarts? Hermione and Harry both pulled out their wands and, aiming into the thickest part of the swarm, began casting "Ridikkulous", over and over. And sure enough, some of the bees began to transform into other things.
But Ron wasn't getting it. He was already in too much of a panic. Soon he was surrounded by terrifying beasts of every description, and he was screaming and running around, raising the very real possibility that he might run right into a deep crevasse and fall to his death.
Harry tried a different tactic. Rather than try to cast at each individual boggart, he began waving his wand in wild swoops, shouting "Rrrriiiiddiiikkuuuullooouuuussss!!" Well obviously, that didn't work. Harry was at wit's end and was about to go running into the cave and drag Ron out (not a good idea with that many boggarts), when he heard something he most definitely was not expecting to hear.
"Imperio!". And it was Hermione that said it!
Harry peered into the cave, wondering if it was even possible to cast Imperius on a boggart. Apparently not; they seemed quite unaffected. In fact, they swarmed more furiously than ever around Ron, who was now in the dead center of a virtual boggart hurricane, standing there calmly like the eye of the storm, staring vacantly into space with an almost pleasant... Wait a minute! Ron? It wasn't the boggarts Hermione was casting at. She had put the Imperius curse on Ron!
"Pick up your wand and come out here.", she said softly.
Ron reached calmly down, and shooing away a spitting cobra, picked up his wand. Then he strode with serene confidence through swarms of angry bees, heaps of long-fanged vipers, half a dozen Voldemorts, and many other miscellaneous monstrosities, and out of the cave to join Hermione and Harry in the light of day.