Chapter 2

Found

I continued to run through the corridor, making my way back to where I last saw them. Gripping my Professor's wand in my left hand, my mind flowed with possibilities. I had half a mind to stop and find out what two wands could do, but determination to tell them overshadowed the want. Why did I have to run all the way down here just to watch people die? I thought, climbing the Grand Staircase seven steps at a time.

Minutes past with only the sound of my footsteps on the smooth floor. It's hard to believe that it's only been a few hours since they returned, I thought. The events from the past hours began to spread to all corners of my mind.

Neville had just come back from surveillance when Ariana's voice pitched through the room. "Neville? My brother wants you to come."

Neville's face burst with happiness. He called out gleefully, "Dane! Seamus! Everyone! They're back! I know it! They're here!"

I had been so focused on perfecting a spell that I hadn't realized he called my name, but when I did, I was jumping for joy. The room filled with excitement as Neville climbed through the girl's portrait and walked the tunnel with her, where they would eventually arrive at the Hog's Head.

An eerie silence filled the room when he vanished. My hand moved to my robe pocket to clutch the few letters Hermione had taken a risk to send. I'm so glad Nex could find her.

Minutes past as the crowd around me stared at the portrait, waiting for the tunnel to appear. Silent, we all were, as if entranced by the expanse of painted canvas. Then, it opened.

Neville crawled out and yelled, "Look who it is! Didn't I tell you?" Out stepped Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

The room filled with cries and yells. Some called to Harry, others to Ron, but my focus was on the woman behind them. "Hermione!" I tackled her in a bear hug. Pulling her off to the side, under one of the Ravenclaw banners, I heard Neville quiet the room. Harry began asking questions, but I could only focus on the bewildered face in front of me.

"We're in the Room of Requirement, aren't we?" she asked with a grin.

"Yup," I answered, smiling back. "Neville was being chased by the Carrows and managed to duck into here. We started showing up after he contacted us. But this room is really amazing! Look around." The walls were lined with hammocks and were covered top to bottom with tapestries representing the three Houses that were here. No Slytherin banners anywhere. There were huge bookcases, stuffed to the brim, some people's brooms, including my Dragonwing, were propped against a wall, and a big wireless took up a corner.

Harry was asking something about the Carrows, and Seamus had answered. Hermione turned back to me and held me in another hug. "Dane… you got my letters, right?"

"Course I did," I said, patting my pocket. "I'm just lucky Nex only delivers at night." I let out a soft whistle and my bat flew down from a hammock he was hanging from and landed on my shoulder.

As I scratched him behind the ears, Hermione patted his back and said to me, "He's such a magnificent animal."

"He's amazing." I looked straight into her eyes and when she blushed I knew she got the implied meaning. We both turned away for a second before I remembered the letters. I whispered, "So, You-Now-Who left a Horcrux here?"

"So you found out?" she whispered back, somewhat astonished.

I shot her a teasing grin and said, "Yup." I pulled out one of the letters and started to continue, but a sudden grunt turned both our heads.

Ron was steadying a sweating Harry. We ran up to them as Neville asked, "Are you alright, Harry? Want to sit down? I expect you're tired aren't –"

"No," interrupted Harry. He looked at Ron and Hermione and said, "We need to get going."

I whispered a question to Hermione, already knowing my answer, "He found out about a destroyed Horcrux?" She nodded slightly.

"What are we going to do, then, Harry?" asked Seamus.

"What's the plan?" I added, trying to hide that I already knew what they were here for. I looked at Harry, thinking I'd talk to him later.

"Plan?" Harry seemed to be straining himself as he continued, "Well, there's something we –Ron, Hermione, and I – need to do, and then we'll get out of here."

Silence replaced the whooping and laughing from before Neville, a confused look on his face, asked, "What do you mean, 'get out of here'?"

Harry rubbed his scar and said, "We haven't come to stay. There's something important we need to do."

"What is it?"

"I – I can't tell you."

A loud rumble that shook the portraits out of their frames interrupted my recollection. A rather large one toppled off and fell my way. A quick muttering of "Wingardium Leviosa" saved me. I continued running as my mind fell prey again to memory.

Harry and Neville argued for a few minutes before the tunnel opened, and Luna and Dean stepped out. After the greetings and explanations, Ginny, Fred, George, Lee, and Cho arrived. Then Harry began to explain the three's purpose here. "There's something we need to find. Something – something that'll help us overthrow You-Know-Who. It's here at Hogwarts, but we don't know where. It might have belonged to Ravenclaw. Has anyone heard of an object like that? Has anyone ever come across something with her eagle on it for instance?" He shot a hopeful gaze at my fellow Ravenclaws and an even more hopeful gaze at me.

"Hmmmm… What about her diadem?" I called out, searching my mind. A murmur of agreement came from the other Ravenclaws. Luna piped up from the arm of Ginny's chair, "Her lost diadem. I told you about it, remember, Harry? The lost diadem of Ravenclaw? Daddy's trying to duplicate it."

Michael Corner rebuked her with an eye roll and said, "Yeah, but the lost diadem is lost, Luna. That's sorta the point."

"When was it lost?" questioned Harry.

Cho answered, "Centuries ago, they say," I could see in Harry's eyes the disappointment those words brought. "Professor Flitwick says the diadem vanished with Ravenclaw herself. People have looked for it, but," she looked out to the other Ravenclaws, "nobody's ever found a trace of it, have they?"

A simple headshake was all the agreement we needed.

Ron spoke up from beside Harry, "Sorry, but what is a diadem?"

"It's a kind of crown," answered Terry Boot, "Raveclaw's was supposed to have magical properties, enhance the wisdom of the wearer."

It was here when I remembered I had a chat with a certain ghost about exactly this matter in my second year.

Luna mentioned something about wrackspurts before Harry cut her off. "And none of you have ever seen anything that looks like it?"

Again, shaken heads forced more disappointment into Harry, and I could see the same in Ron and Hermione.

Cho spoke moments later, ":If you'd like to what the diadem's supposed to look like I can take you up to our common room and show you, Harry? Ravenclaw's wearing it in her statue."

I saw Harry's eyes go vacant again and, catching his whispered, "He's on the move," I knew it was Voldemort. Harry's glance ran from Cho back to Ron and Hermione. "Listen, I know it's not much of a lead, but I'm going to go and look at this statue, at least to find out what the diadem looks like. Wait for me here and keep, you know – the other one – safe." A single dangerous thought sprang into my mind, a muted gasp escaping my lips. They've got one of his Horcruxes on him!

Cho had just gotten to her feet when a fire-eyed Ginny said, "No, Luna and Dane will take Harry, won't you?"

"Sure," I answered.

"Ooooh yes, I'd like to," responded Luna, nodding happily. I heard Cho sit back down and knew her sad look had returned.

"How do we get out?" asked Harry, turning to Neville.

"Over here," he responded, leading us to the small cupboard in the corner and opening the door, revealing a steep staircase. "It comes out somewhere different every day, so they've never been able to find it. Only trouble is, we never know exactly where we're going to end up when we go out. Be careful, Harry, they're always patrolling the corridors at night. But that shouldn't be a problem." He winked at me and I remembered a particularly painful bruise I had gotten on my forehead when the two of us went out on reconnaissance one night.

"Exactly," said Harry, "See you in a bit." The three of us hurried down up the staircase.

At some point during the long climb, Luna had turned to me and said, "Your great uncle is very nice. Did you get the letter he sent? I knew you were worried when he suddenly disappeared from his shop."

I caught a passing glimpse of that day in my mind, remembering that he had gone without a fight – just to protect me. "Yeah," I responded, patting my letter filled pocket.

"It's still as surprising as the first time when you say you're related to Olivander," joked Harry.

After a short laugh, we were silent all the way through the passage. When we came to a wall at the end, Harry pulled out what I guessed was his Invisibility Cloak. He said, "Get under here," as he threw it over Luna.

When he offered a spot to me, I declined, saying, "there's not enough room, we could be seen. And besides," I nonverbally Disillusioned myself, "I'm covered."

"Right." He tossed threw the cloak over himself and pushed the wall, which disappeared. We stepped into the dark corridor and Harry pulled us into the shadows. I poked my head under the cloak and saw Harry rummaging around in a pouch on his neck. "Dane, got your head under here?"

"Yes."

He pulled out a large piece of parchment and I saw it was a map of Hogwarts. Oh, yeah, that's the Marauder's Map.

"We're on the fifth floor," Harry whispered, "Come on, this way." And off we went.

We had made our way slowly, checking the map whenever we could and being as silent as possible. Luna pulled Harry toward the spiral staircase that led to Ravenclaw Tower. "This way."

We climbed in tight circles, eventually reaching a wooden door with a majestic eagle-shaped knocker. Gripping the cool bronze, I knocked., the familiar beak opening up in question. The musical voice asked, "Which came first, the phoenix or the flame."

"Hmm… What do you think, Dane?" asked Luna.

I shot her an invisible smile. "I had the same question two years ago. You're just going to have to figure it out yourself. "

Harry's face was a confused mess. "What? Isn't there just a password?"

"Nope, you get a question. We are Ravenclaws, you know. Wisdom is our thing." I answered teasingly.

"What if you get it wrong?"

"Well, you have to wait for somebody who gets it right," answered Luna, "That way you learn, you see?"

"Yeah… but we can't really afford to wait, Luna," said Harry.

"No, I see what you mean," she responded, "Well then, I think the answer is that a circle has no beginning."

"Well reasoned," I said, in unison with the voice as the door swung open.

I noticed that Harry took a moment to bask in the grandeur of the Ravenclaw Common Room before making his way with Luna to the statue of our House's founder. Atop Ravenclaw's marble head was the diadem, reproduced in magnificent white stone.

Harry stepped out from under the cloak and climbed the plinth, reading the words etched out on the stoner circlet, "'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.'"

"Which makes you pretty skint, witless."

Luna and I quickly turned and saw the woman who spoke. It was Alecto Carrow. Harry had fallen flat on the floor and I knew one of us had to save him. I knew we had a matter of seconds before she would touch her Dark Mark. I whispered to Luna, who was steadily raising her wand. "Stun her! You can do it, I know you can. You've gotten me multiple times, and I'm hard to hit."

"Well, that's be – "

"Do it!" I nearly yelled. Calming down, I added, "Pretend it's just another DA meeting."

BANG! The Death Eater fell to the ground hard, but I could tell by the look on Harry's face that we were too late; Voldemort was on his way.

I fell again out of the memory and continued running down the corridor, still unable to get ahold of Harry, Ron, or Hermione.