Disclaimer: All recognizable (and copyrighted) characters and plots belong to their respectful owners. I'm just taking them out for a walk.
A/N: I've actually had this written for a bit now, but I was hesitant to post too much before I had my outline completely finished. Given circumstances beyond my control, I still haven't completely finished my outline, but I'm far ahead enough now that I don't mind posting more regularly.
Just finished my fall semester yesterday, so I have until January 9th until classes start again, which gives me some free time to work on this. Maybe there'll be more updates? Who knows? I'm playing this by ear a little bit here.
Chapter 2 The Room of Requirement
Hermione was uncharacteristically agreeable to leaving the book in The Room of Requirement. As cluttered and full as the room was, Harry thought for sure that Hermione would want it somewhat closer under her protective eye. In the time it had taken to sneak from the library to the seventh floor, Hermione had grown quite attached to the damaged tome, muttering to herself about mistreating valuable books and ways in which she was going to try and restore it.
It was too late at night to start reading then, and they were forced to leave it right by the door, carefully marked by a stack of old copper cauldrons and wrapped in a forgotten cloak a hideous shade of puce. Harry led the way back to the common room, feeling anxious. Hermione hadn't explained much about the book, and said nothing more about it when they reached the common room and slipped out from under the cloak. Only that she didn't want them interfering too much.
"I only have a guess and not much else to go on really." She'd said, "So just let me worry about the book for now. I'll let you know if I find anything of interest."
For the next week or so, Harry and Ron didn't see much of Hermione. When not in class or eating as fast as she could swallow food, she was in the Room of Requirement reading A Brief History of Dark Lords. Those rare moments Hermione was in the common room she was usually found scribbling on parchment, making notes about things she'd read from the book and ignored any attempts for conversation. When not doing her usually ridiculous amount of homework she was regularly surrounded by stacks of other books, probably to reference information she had read while in the Room of Requirement. The added stress from so much intense research left her tense and temperamental, often seen with a scowl on her face or heard muttering angrily to herself. She had very nearly forgotten about S.P.E.W. and it seemed the house-elves were thankful for this, as her efforts over the past few years had left them annoyed and hesitant to clean the common room.
Finally, one morning during breakfast, Hermione approached Ron and Harry looking grim but relieved and quite a bit more rested than she'd had for the past week or so. Sitting down to a plate of pancakes and a mug of pumpkin juice she set down a large stack of papers and leaned forward. "I found something in the book," she murmured, laying a hand on the stack of papers "This is all the research I've done, but unfortunately this is all there is in the library."
Harry's eyes fell on the thick stack of paper, "That's all?"
"Your sarcasm isn't appreciated, and if you'd paid attention in History of Magic you might know why that's all." Hermione said haughtily. "That book was one of few that survived a large scale cover up conducted by the Ministry, and even then it hardly made it out unscathed." She sighed, "Half of what I was looking for was torn out, and I still don't know as much as I'd like to."
Ron looked up from his plate. "Dad mentioned something about a cover up to me once. Something about a great war and a Dark Lord or something. Said all records from that time were destroyed, because Muggles knew too much."
Hermione's eyes got bright, "Not all the information. Some leaked through, and I've found a lot of it in the library."
Harry frowned. "But if it's covered up, why would information on it be in the school library?"
"Most of it's in the Restricted Section. I'd bet my wand that Dumbledore had collected the books and put them in there to protect them from the Ministry." She sniffed disdainfully. "He has plenty of respect for books and knowledge."
"So, whaff's in de book?" Ron asked around a mouthful of sausage.
Hermione grimaced at his table manners, but pressed on. "It's all really fascinating. I wish I could keep the book longer, but I think Madame Pince might suspect something. I'll have to return it soon." She passed Harry the notes she had taken. "Skim through that when you get the chance, and be in the common room tonight at midnight. That's all background information on what I found in A Brief History of Dark Lords. It'll make it easier for me to explain what I've found after you've read through all that."
Harry held up the stack of paper and looked at it dubiously. "Hermione, when am I meant to read this? I've got class."
She shot him a look. "When's the last time you actually paid attention in Potions or History of Magic?"
Harry took the sheaf of papers without comment, and went back to his breakfast, ignoring her smug look. The day was spent reading through Hermione's notes, which alone could have been a book. Fifty pages of what was supposed to be references and brief footnotes turned out to be a very complicated summary of a great war that had taken place many ages ago, before recorded history (as far as Muggles were concerned at least). The first ten pages was just a list of names and a short description of who the person was and what they did while the other thirty or so pages was a brief explanation of events, in chronological order, of course, with page numbers for bullet points, of course. Another ten were dedicated to a list of locations, and events that had taken place at them, and on the back of one was a roughly drawn map with such tiny writing and sketches Harry couldn't properly read most of it. A great many of them had the word 'magical' scrawled over them and these areas took up a good eighty percent of the map.
Harry suspected that's why the Ministry had tried to cover up the war, as it seemed the wizards from that time were open about their powers, though only a few names on Hermione's massive list had been labeled with the word wizard. And despite the fifty something pages of information, it really was only the brief history and explanation of the war that Hermione claimed it was. According to a note at the top of the first page, this was only some of the information, and a lot of it was conjecture on Hermione's part. Knowing Hermione, by the time Harry had finished skimming through the stack of papers after dinner, she would already have found all the missing information and was likely planning on compiling a book to fill in the gaps.
Ron felt the same about all of it, and while Harry actually did try and read through most of the information, Ron would skim through briefly, shake his head, and say, "Why are you reading it? You know Hermione's got it all memorized."
Regardless, when they met with her in the common room at midnight, it was to find her with her nose stuck in yet another book, this one written completely in ancient runes, while another small stack of papers contained a translation.
Ron flopped down onto the sofa next to her, "Homework?"
"No," she carefully shuffled her papers to keep Ron from crumpling them. "I'm translating a passage from this book. It's entirely in Ancient Runes, and probably the only one of the books on The Third Age that was left in one piece."
"What's The Third Age?"
Harry sat down across from them, careful to avoid eye contact with Hermione, who had frozen in place, looking shocked.
"Ronald Bilius Weasley, do you mean to tell me that I took a week of my time to write all that out for you, only for you to not read it?" She demanded. She rounded on Harry, "Did you read it?"
"Every word."
Her eyes narrowed sharply. "Where was The One Ring found and by who?"
Ron rolled his eyes, "Hermione, we're not being tested on this."
When she didn't relent Harry racked his brain to remember, trying to avoid looking at her. "Er… A cave wasn't it? And it was found by… Bulbo something or another…?"
"A cave in the Misty Mountains, which would be somewhere in modern day Germany," she snapped. "and it was Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit of the Shire which would be in present day South-West England." Her narrowed eyes pinned him in place for a moment, but then she relented and Harry felt it was safe enough to breathe again. "Close enough. At least Harry read my notes." She sniffed.
Ron looked annoyed, "I read them too! And he didn't even get the answers right!"
"There was a lot of information in those notes Ron; of course he's going to get some of it mixed up!" Hermione retorted. "You'd know that if you'd bothered to read them."
"Oh, come off it-!"
"So, what'd you find in the book?" Harry cut in suddenly. Harry wasn't sure if she was trying to get a rise out of him, or was just trying to make a point, but he wasn't willing to sit and watch the two of them get into an argument over it.
Hermione turned to him. "I'll be honest with you Harry, I'm not sure if I've found anything… solid, but it is fascinating and if you bring it up to Dumbledore during your next meeting, he might be able to elaborate." She glanced over to the window where Dean and Seamus were playing exploding snap, then leaned in and murmured, "I'll tell you when we get to… well, when we get there."
Ron sighed. "I hope all this is worth it."
They stayed in the common room until well after midnight, when Dean and Seamus finally stood, stretched, and made their way up to the dormitory after saying their goodnights. Harry waited a few minutes, to make sure they were asleep, then crept up and got the Invisibility Cloak. This time Hermione let them take their time sneaking through the corridors, which was a good thing. Several times they'd almost run headlong into a ghost, and while Harry was sure they couldn't see them, they might notice someone walking through them, even under the cloak. They stumbled across Mrs. Norris at one point, and had her following them through the corridor for a few very tense minutes, her lamp-like eyes fixed on them, as though wondering what, exactly, they thought they were doing. Filch had appeared out of nowhere not long after, searching for the trouble makers, and when he found none slinked out of sight, looking disappointed. They'd even seen Snape, but he seemed distracted and preoccupied, and barely looked up when Ron cursed because Harry had trodden on his foot by accident.
They made it to The Room of Requirement without any serious incidents, and the moment the door had shut behind them, Ron pulled off the cloak with a relieved sigh. "Thought we'd never make it…"
Hermione had already dived on the book, which she'd relocated to a more convenient spot in the room. Hermione had created a sort of niche in the piles of misplaced odds and ends, using old bookcases and cabinets to provide walls and storage and had draped old curtains across them to create a ceiling, as it were. The effect was something like a room within in a room, and Hermione had found cushions from couches, pillows, and chairs, and had made a nice little studying corner for herself, well hidden from view. It was clear she'd been spending a lot of time here; if the empty tea cups, bottles of ink, stacks of parchment and piles of broken quills were any indication. Several lamps sat idly, half full of oil though magically lit with her bluebell flames, and teetering stacks of other damaged books she'd dug out of other piles were sitting around her studying area in leaning stacks of bent spines and damaged covers. She'd found a wobbly desk to write on, and it seemed she'd taken to trying to restore the most damaged of the books when not reading, as spare spines, quills and clean parchment was scattered everywhere.
"Hermione," Harry started, looking at her little study corner. It was like Hermione's brain had exploded in this one little section of The Room of Requirement, "how often have you been coming up here?"
"Every night for the last week or so," She said, sitting and pulling A Brief History of Dark Lords towards her. "there's a lot of information to sort through. I've found so many books in here about Middle Earth, it's a little alarming. I wouldn't be surprised if Headmasters and Professors had been hiding these books for centuries now… some of them certainly seem old enough."
Ron yawned, "Fascinating. So what'd you find?"
Hermione narrowed her eyes on him, but carefully flipped through the book until she found a dog eared page. "Harry, I didn't put this in the notes." She said as they bent over the book. "It's just too convoluted to try and explain on parchment without weeks more of research."
"And what you gave me was simple?"
"It was background information." She snapped. "And it's important you at least have some inkling of what was going on during Sauron's time."
"Who's Sauron?" Ron asked immediately, but went quiet when he caught sight of Hermione's glower at being interrupted.
"Sauron," she said testily, "was a Dark Lord during the Third Age, one of the parts of Wizard History the Ministry's got covered up. He was really powerful, and really dangerous, but was eventually defeated during the War of the Ring."
"What's he got to do with Volde- sorry." Harry said when Hermione's annoyed look fixed on him, "Go on then."
She huffed, then continued. "There's no simple way to explain everything that went on, but what you need to know Harry is… well. I'm not really sure, because there's no way to be certain of course, but I think Sauron might have… inspired Voldemort." She looked pleased with herself when Harry and Ron's jaws both dropped at this news. She rushed to explain, "There are so many similarities between them! They both took power in similar ways, amassed followers, dabbled in the Dark Arts and when they were defeated they didn't really die. They were bodiless and powerless entities sort of floating about." Her eyes went bright, and she pointed at something on the page, but it was written in runes and Harry couldn't read it. "This is what got my attention. Sauron created a ring of power, so when he was defeated the first time he would be able to come back to power eventually. Some writings say this One Ring had a mind of its own, was almost alive, but that sounds like a load of fairytales and hokum."
Harry looked at her incredulously, "Moving paintings don't bother you, but a Ring with a mind of its own sounds like 'fairytales and hokum'?"
Hermione moved on without him. "For some reason it reminded me of what Dumbledore said to you Harry, about Voldemort's magpie like habit, but I can't put my finger on why." She sighed, "That's why I initially didn't want to show you any of this. There are similarities, sure, but still so many questions…"
"Well," said Harry, "it's a theory. And it's better than what we've got."
"Which is a test tomorrow, because Snape's an arse."
