Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K.R. except this brief story.
A/N: The "Ravenclaw Rings" belong to Noodle, though the idea of climbing across the rooftops belongs to both of us. After seeing the back cover of the Chamber of Secrets I have always thought it would be fantastic to explore the entire castle, outside and in, thus this story was written. It was written for Noodle, who encouraged me to write and therefore although I have no relationship preferences this story does, Noodle's preferences.
Ode to the Back Cover Book 2 (English Version)
Harry Potter scrambled along the rooftops and looked towards the East, there was a glow building in the sky even though it was still early. He had a few hours to get things done though, there was no need to worry. He went across the flat roof above the Charms classrooms and slid down the steep roof on the other side until he was on the edge of one of the highest walls in the castle.
He turned around and felt down with his foot until it reached one of the Ravenclaw Rings. When he had his foot steady he dropped down, catching hold of the invisible rings from sheer practice. He climbed down the wall, past the tall windows of the main Charms classroom.
When he was a few feet above the roof below he dropped and immediately slid down the slate tiles to the edge where he hung for a few moments. Across a gap was the Hufflepuff wing. Harry could have stayed up high in the first place and gone around the gap and now he could have climbed down the wall he was over and then back up the other one, but Harry was Harry so he jumped.
He grabbed hold of the window ledge on the opposite wall and pulled himself up onto it. He reached out to his left and grabbed hold of the ring nearest the window. Planting his feet and using his weight to hold him to it he walked sidewise across the wall, grabbing onto a new ring with every step.
He turned the corner and pulled himself onto the gently sloping roof. Taking a deep breath he looked out to the lake that was still black, none of the dawn light had yet touched it's surface. Harry had to admit that he liked this time of day, it was a sort of in between time, just after the nocturnal creatures had retired, but before the creatures of the daytime – professors and students included – rose to face the day. At this time in the morning Harry felt as though he was the only being in the world.
With one last look at the silent, black lake Harry walked down the roof and turned around to let himself down onto the window ledge below. He had learnt quite quickly in his time using the Ravenclaw Rings that the professors had probably once used them too. They had wisely put very powerful charms on the windows of the common rooms, strengthened over the ages, to stop any students eager to tour the grounds under the cover of darkness getting out or any prospective young lovers in. Harry was someone they hadn't bargained with.
He pulled a roll of velvet out of his pocket and unrolled it on the sill, revealing all manner of little gadgets that were a must have for anyone who wanted to roam free in the castle. His godfather had given them too him for his birthday and Harry had found them as important to his nocturnal life as his invisibility cloak and map.
After carefully checking the window he selected a tool and very carefully slipped it between the wood, with a few jiggles he was able to force back the lock. He got his fingers under the window and pulled it up and after rolling up his roll of lock-picks he dropped into the Hufflepuff Common Room.
He rolled as he hit the floor and grinned at the gloom. Like a cat he crept across the room until, "Hi, Harry, what are you doing in our common room?" and he tripped over a footstool.
"SHIT!"
"Are you okay?" asked Justin Finch-Fletchley.
"Yeah," said Harry, cursing under his breath as he tried to rub some life back into his shin.
Justin helped him to his feet and grinned at him, "Clever of you that – did you climb up the wall?"
"No, down," said Harry.
"Why are you in here?" he asked.
"I was trying to get to the kitchens," said Harry. "This is the quickest way."
"Yeah well, I think the others probably heard you swear, you ought to be going," said Justin. "Tell me how you got in some time, we may be on the ground floor, but it's impossible to get out…"
"I will," said Harry. "Tomorrow. I have to be going now."
Justin nodded to him and pointed to the stairs on the other side of the common room. The Hufflepuff Common Room was split in two, upper and lower with about two metres difference. Thus the stairs on the other side of the common room lead up to a trapdoor.
Harry muttered his thanks, promising to tell Justin how he got in tomorrow again and went up the stairs. He pushed open the trapdoor and came out in a corridor. The trapdoor snapped closed behind him and he couldn't make it out in the floor at all. He knew roughly where he was though so he continued down the corridor to the kitchens.
He tickled the pear in the portrait at the end of the right corridor and entered the kitchens. A small figure immediately sprinted across the kitchens and hugged him tightly and suddenly he was surrounded by the eager faces of the House-Elves.
"Harry Potter has not come to see Dobby for a very long time," said Dobby. "Has Harry Potter been very busy?"
"Actually I have, Dobby," said Harry. "And I was wondering if you could do me a favour."
"Dobby would do anything for Harry Potter!" squeaked the House-Elf.
"Could you make me up a picnic in a basket and have it up on top of Gryffindor Tower in less than an hour?"
"Dobby would love to get that for Harry Potter," said Dobby. "Does Harry Potter require anything else that Dobby could get him?"
"No, I'm alright," said Harry. "But if you could do that, it'd be great."
Harry managed to escape the kitchen after only a chocolate éclair and a swig of pumpkin juice. He ran down the corridor was about to go up the stairs in the entrance hall when he heard voices, Filch and Snape. Without another thought he raced back down the nearest passage and found himself heading down into the dungeons towards the Slytherin Common Room.
Filch and Snape were still approaching and recalling the password to the Slytherin Common Room from the day before yesterday's post-final celebrations he muttered, "Labrys," and entered the common room. No-one appeared to be up yet and he hoped Snape and Filch would carry on past, no such luck.
As the wall began to move back, stones grating slowly like they did in those cheap, horror movies Dudley often watched on day-time television in the holidays. Harry looked to the nearest portal, a gloomy light illuminating it in the darkness, and he ran towards it.
The portal lead into a narrow passage with an alcove half way along with a rather disturbing statue in. Harry continued along the passage and entered a room he immediately recognised as a dorm, a girl's dorm at that. He gulped heavily and moved backwards, again he was out of luck though as one of the sleeping girls sat up and looked groggily at him. For a few moments they were both silent and then Pansy Parkinson screamed at the top of her lungs and Harry ran back down the passage.
He saw Snape running down the passage just in time and climbed up into the dimly lit alcove, hiding behind the statue. One of the odd spikes scratched his cheek and he could feel a thin trickle of blood running down to his jaw. He checked his watch, though he was barely able to see it, and he saw that the sun was still yet to rise, he still had time even if it wasn't very much.
"But I saw him, professor," Pansy Parkinson was whining as she trailed after Professor Snape.
"I have no time for adolescent fantasies, Parkinson," he snapped.
Harry paled at the thought of being in anyone's adolescent fantasy, let alone Draco Malfoy's girlfriend's. He heard her traipse back to her dormitory after a while after checking to see if the coast was clear exited the Slytherin Common Room as swiftly and stealthily as was possible.
He walked quickly up the corridor and into the entrance hall, rolling his feet to keep his footsteps silent. It took him a few minutes to get to the right floor walking up the stairs in that manner. When he heard a bang from ahead, indicating Peeves was there, he had to turn off prematurely and ended up walking along a long gallery looking out on a the forbidden forest.
He went to the window to see if he could see how far the sun had advanced in the sky; it still appeared to be safely behind the mountains. Another danger was fast advancing down the corridors in the form of a dust-coloured cat that was the bane of every student's existence, Mrs. Norris. She set eyes on Harry and as quickly as he could he wrenched open the window and climbed outside, grabbing onto the nearest ring and pulling himself out of view, slamming the window shut with his foot.
With a heavy sigh he rested his head against the cold stone in an attempt to cool himself down. He could hear Filch talking to Mrs. Norris back in the gallery and he decided that he ought to stick to the Ravenclaw Rings in future.
After consideration he decided to distance himself from the gallery and head for the roof. When he hauled himself up onto the roof and he realised he was in trouble. He was on the roof of one of large wings off from the main castle and unfortunately it was built so there was no way over to the main building except though the covered, stone walkway between. That meant either dropping down about fifty feet onto the walkway, there were not rings down to it, and perhaps missing or going inside the building and risking detention and having a hundred or so points taken off Gryffindor.
There was perhaps a way through, the Ravenclaw Common Room was directly below him and ran right through the building, with windows on the side he was on and a window right by the walkway, he would be able to go along the outside and not be caught.
He ran across the roof and looked down at the drop, even on the walk-way it was a long way down to the ground, or rather the roof of yet another part of the castle. For a few moments he wished he had brought his broom, but of course that was impossible. He had learnt the hard way that there were too many charms cast on the castle for that to work, someone on a broom would just drop right out of the air if they got too near the castle.
Catching his breath he went back to the other side of wing and looked over to the East, he still had time to do this. He gently lowered himself down onto the rings and climbed down until he was level with one of the large windows in the Ravenclaw Common Room.
He removed his lock-picks from his pocket and he was inside in a few moments. He had been in the Ravenclaw Common Room once or twice before, strictly unofficially of course, but the window had never seemed that high off the floor before. He turned around and let himself drop onto a bare patch of floor where he couldn't break a leg by falling on a chair.
As he dropped he hit accidentally caught his foot on a wooden fixture and landed heavily on his arm. He cursed and hoped he hadn't woken anyone up. Trying not to make noise he rolled back his sleeve to see a foul looking bruise beginning to form on the inside of his arm. He winced and looked across the common room to see the window cursed again.
From above it was very hard to judge heights and the windows by the walkway were obviously those of the dormitories. He was going to have to go through one to dormitories to get to the window. Fortunately he knew that it would be the furthest one to his right so he wouldn't have to go through them all.
The Ravenclaw Common Room was quite airy and open compared to the other Houses' common rooms, instead of having the door to the dormitories all up separate staircases the doors were all on a balcony that ran around three quarters of the room, one wall having the long windows.
Harry went up a staircase as quietly as was humanly possible. He went through the door that would hopefully lead to the right window and winced when he stepped inside. It was yet another girl's dorm, if anyone ever found out about this or saw him they were going to get ideas.
He crept across the floor and opened the window, but stopped when he heard a groggy mumble from one of the beds, "Harry?"
Harry very slowly turned around, "Yeah?" he asked as though he had every right to be there.
"What are you doing here?" asked Cho Chang, yawning.
"Would you believe that this is a dream?"
Cho gave him a rather confused frown and Harry was overjoyed to realise that she was not a morning person. She snuggled back into her pillows and Harry climbed out through the window, letting it slip shut behind him.
He put a foot over onto an ornamental ledge on the covered walkway and reached across to grab one of the rings. For a few moments he was standing over an incredible height that would have meant certain death if he fell and then he pulled himself entirely onto the ornamental ledge, grabbing the ring with his other hand.
He made his way hand over hand across the outside of the walkway, wishing that there was a window large enough for him to get inside the walkway, he would then add to himself that walking along the walkway would certainly mean being caught.
Once on the other side and back on the main caste he climbed up to the roof to get his bearings Gryffindor Tower, his destination, wasn't far away and sun was still behind the mountains, but only just. He set off across the rooftops, thankfully the main castle had flat roofs, or at least flatter roofs. He reached Gryffindor Tower in good time and looked up at the windows above him, there were too many of them and he hadn't even been into the dorm the normal way, let alone from the outside.
Setting his jaw he grabbed onto the fist Ravenclaw Ring and began to pull himself up. When he reached the ledge above the window of the Gryffindor Common Room he sat down, drumming his fingers on the bust of Colocasia while he thought about how to get into the fifth year girls' dormitory.
Hermione had once told him that she had watched the sunset from the window in there, which meant it faced West. Perhaps if he picked one of the Western dorms at random. Leaving the ledge he climbed up to one of the window on the West side of the tower and peered inside.
It certainly looked like a girl's dorm, Harry had to wonder if even seventh year girls would have some of the things that were lying around in there though. He applied his skill with a lock-pick and swung the window open to let himself inside.
It had been quite a hot spring and the girls had left their curtains open. He walked along the beds for that shock of colour and was about to reach the end when he heard the bathroom door swing open. Before he could think of anything better he ducked to the floor and rolled under the nearest bed.
He saw a pair of bare feet pad across the floor and then a towel drop to the floor. He closed his eyes tight and let himself fear discovery rather than anything else. Who would be up at this hour anyway besides one of the girls from the Quidditch team? Harry wasn't entirely sure he would be able to look them in the face again at practise if they found out he'd been in here while they were getting dressed.
Harry opened his eyes in time to see whomever it was pulling on a pair of pink socks? Who wears pink sock? Harry found himself thinking. Despite their taste in clothing he suddenly saw that their shoes were right by his head and when they reached under to get them he would be discovered.
As surreptitiously was at all possible he pushed the shoes out from under the bed. When the girl had finished putting on her socks and reached down to pick up her shoes he could hear very mumble a little sign of puzzlement under her breath and he knew she frowned.
Harry watched the girl put on her shoes and then drop down to see under the bed. For a moment Harry could have sworn his heart stopped and then she smiled at him and laughed, "Hello, Harry. I think you got the wrong dorm… I was hoping you were Seamus."
"Hi, Lavender," said Harry weakly.
"Do you know where Hermione went?" asked Lavender as though she often found famous, young wizards under her bed. "Only she was leaving as I got up and I was wondering where she was going."
"Probably to see Ron," said Harry, trying to sound as casual as her. "Er – what are you doing up so early?"
"I'm going to have a walk with Seamus," said Lavender with a rather dreamy smile. "I have to get ready you know."
"Ah," said Harry. "Well if I could just be going."
"Okay."
Harry slid out from under her bed and gave her another apologetic smile before leaving her dorm very quickly. Once outside he could have sworn he heard her giggle. He went down the stairs to the common room and finally had a stroke of luck as no-one was there. He could at least get the right dorm from down here too and the moment he got the right one he shot up the stairs.
Before he went inside he straightened out his clothing, wiped the scratch on his cheek and rubbed the bruises on his arm and leg. Once inside the dorm he saw who he wanted immediately and went over to her bed. He sat down on her bed and leaned very close to her, brushing a strand of red hair from her face.
"Ginny, wake up. It's me," he whispered.
Ginny muttered and looked at him through bleary eyes, "Who ar – Harry?!"
"Hush, not so loud," whispered Harry. "I have a surprise for you, if you'd come with me."
"I – er - have to – to get changed," said Ginny, blushing.
Harry nodded, "I'll wait outside."
He walked to the window and swung it open, climbing out onto the ledge. He heard Ginny's curtains draw shut behind him and a rustling of fabric before she tapped him on the shoulder, still slightly red. He grinned at her and held out his hand.
"Come on."
"Out there?" asked Ginny, peering out of the window.
"It's not hard," Harry assured her and stood up on the sill.
He helped out and she looked down until he let go of her hand and grabbed hold of the nearest ring to the window. She watched him climb up and onto the roof and then lean over a crenel to smile at her.
"Reach out to your right and you'll feel a ring," said Harry. "Grab onto it and I'll help you the rest of the way."
In a daze Ginny did as she was asked and he grabbed onto her other hand. He pulled her up onto the roof and she immediately grinned. There was a picnic laid out top of the flat roof and it looked thoroughly lovely. He smiled and handed her a glass.
"You must have gone to a lot of trouble," said Ginny, sitting down on a crenel.
Harry sat down next to her, "A little, but it was worth it I think," he said with a smile. "Happy sixteenth by the way."
"Thank-you," said Ginny, her smile overcoming her blush. "Oh… look, Harry. Doesn't the sun rise look beautiful over the mountains?"
"Yeah," sighed Harry happily.
Ginny gave him and puzzled look before returning to look at the sun rising over the peaks in the East. Harry rested his head back against the merlon behind him and smiled.
A/N: It is meant to rather skip through very quickly, that is the style of the story. Don't review me saying that the style of the story is rather odd, it is meant to be like that. And in case you're wondering, Ginny is in her fifth year and Harry is in his sixth. Extra points to anyone who spotted the lame link while Harry was sitting on the ledge by the way and answers from my roommates don't count.
For readers of my story The Chess Piece, I am currently revising it. There ought to be an expanded version with all of the fight scenes in etc. out quite soon. And it won't drop away towards the end, I have to admit that it did and I was going to correct that before I put it up on the internet, obviously I ended up not doing that, but we all make mistakes, forgive and forget.