AN: Hopefully so far you like my story, and the details are at least kind of correct! I try to update as often as I can, when there's nothing to do at work! And I have noticed, it's funny how when you have such established characters, they seem to write the story for you! I have no idea where this story is going ...

I have one review at this stage thank you! minerdude -- I have incorporated an idea into the story (in Chapter Four) so that Harry is not 'alone' in his dormitory at night. Thanks for your thoughts; I did not consider this before!


Chapter Three: The Archway

The prefects whispered their comments and surprise amongst themselves as they followed Dumbledore along the corridor.

"This is unbelievable!" Ron said in an undertone to Hermione.

"Is that an excited unbelievable or a dismayed unbelievable?" Hermione whispered back, putting her arm through his.

Ron blinked. "Er… not sure yet!"

Hermione chuckled.

Malfoy stared at her, but as soon as she caught his eye, he simply looked away, pushing Pansy's arm from his shoulder. Hermione frowned. Git.

"And here we are!" Dumbledore exclaimed.

They had come to a stop somewhere on the third floor.

Hermione started, and whispered excitedly in Ron's ear, "This is the third floor corridor!"

She sighed exasperatedly as Ron gave her a confused look, "You know …Fluffy."

Comprehension dawned on Ron's face as Dumbledore rounded on them to begin his explanations.

"The entrance," said Dumbledore "Is right here, between these two suits of armour."

He indicated a space of about a metre wide, and appeared as a plain brick wall.

"You will remember these particular suits of armour because they are wearing prefect badges." His eyes twinkled.

"Er…" Said Anthony, pointing to the space, "That's just a brick wall."

Talk about stating the obvious, Hermione thought, annoyed.

"Yes, yes," Dumbledore continued, "It certainly is. However, you forget we live in a magical world." He looked at Anthony over the top of his spectacles.

"It is an invisible archway, somewhat similar to the entrance to Platform 9¾."

"Ahh," Hermione realized, as the others nodded their heads.

Dumbledore turned to face the wall, "It is enchanted, with a little help from Demiguise hair."

The others cocked their heads, apart from Malfoy, who nodded, and Hermione, who burst out, "Demiguise hair! They use it in invisibility cloaks, it is amazingly rare!"

Dumbledore chuckled, "Yes, yes you are quite right Miss Granger, although it isn't quite as rare as it's made out to be."

He leaned in to the group, "We have our own… Demiguise here, at Hogwarts." He paused, then added as an afterthought, "In the forest, I mean, not in the castle itself."

The others nodded, as Dumbledore finished, "And it has been enchanted so that no-one but yourselves, apart from staff members, may enter."

He put out an arm, and pushed it through the wall. It disappeared. And, his eyes twinkling back at the group, stepped forward and vanished from their sight.

They looked around at each other bemusedly, before Ernie led Hannah through the wall and disappeared. They were closely followed by Anthony and Padma. Pansy huffed as Malfoy pushed her forward, and glancing back at Hermione, he stepped through as well.

Hermione stepped forward to enter, and as she stepped through the momentary darkness of the wall, she felt Ron hands sitting gently on her waist. She was surprised, but it felt nice and she smiled.


Hermione gasped as she entered the prefect common room. It was beautiful.

The floor was covered in soft, midnight blue carpet. The walls consisted of a regal, dark timber. There were floor-length windows at the far end of the room, leading outside to a large balcony that looked to be the size of a front yard.

"To your left," Dumbledore swept an arm out, "Is your study area, library."

Hermione's eyes widened in excitement and Ron grinned at her.

The wall had two study nooks bent into the wall, with desks and spongy, cushioned bench seats. In between the nooks were ceiling-high bookcases.

"The centre of the room," continued Dumbledore, "your leisure area."

There were squashy armchairs and couches spread in the middle of the room, and a fireplace smack-bang in the centre of the room, which looked more like a campfire.

"And to your right, you have the privilege of your own snack food supply."

To the right, there was a kitchenette set into the wall, with a sink set next to a glass-fronted cupboard. Upon the glass shelves there were an array of food. There was a trash chute. Upon a small bench space was a silver machine that puffed and whirred.

"What is that, sir?" Asked Padma, pointing to the machine.

"That," said Dumbledore, turning to face the machine, "Is a delightful muggle contraption called a coffee-maker."

"However," he added, "It has been… modified. It will also give you tea, pumpkin juice and a limited amount of freshly brewed pepper-up potion, for when you are feeling a little snowed under with your studies."

Padma smiled, and Anthony said, "Cool!"

Trust Dumbledore to remember the little things, thought Hermione appreciatively.

"Over here," Dumbledore directed, gesturing to a doorway next to the kitchenette, "Is the entrance to your rooms. We have already allocated rooms to you, so you will find your names on the doors."

"Your belongings are being moved into your rooms as we speak," Dumbledore added, his hands raised in front of him, answering their unspoken question.

"And before I leave you all to explore, there is one more thing."

Dumbledore turned around to face the archway in which they had just entered through.

"Beside the entrance, you can see your notice board."

Indeed, there was a large board posted on the wall, with several different messages written in different handwriting.

"Here," Dumbledore pointed, "Is your patrol roster, which will update each week. There are other pieces of news. Amended or new rules are posted here, along with notifications of student detentions, for your information."

"And here," he pointed again, "Is a duplicated, mini version of the current house points."

"Nice," murmured Ernie, appreciatively.

"You should have everything you need, but please let me know of any ideas you may have about improving the room."

Dumbledore turned to face them all again.

"Improve?" Squeaked Hannah, "This room is amazing!"

Ernie and Anthony nodded in agreement, and Padma was still staring at the notice board, impressed. Pansy was impressed, but tried to hide it with a smirk. Malfoy just stared at Dumbledore's chest, arms crossed. Ron was grinning widely, and Hermione knew what he was thinking: Awesome.

Dumbledore chuckled, "Well, I'm glad you like it. I will leave you now; I have a staff meeting to get to."

As he turned to go, Hermione noticed the wall on the other side of the archway entrance was covered in mirrors.

"Professor," Hermione asked, pointing, "What are they for?"

Dumbledore looked at the mirrors, smiled, and answered, "Fun mirrors. Just my touch."

The others looked bewildered, but Hermione laughed. She had seen these at a muggle county fair when she was younger.

Dumbledore's face turned serious, and added, "We all need to remember to laugh, when things get too serious."

And with a swish of his cloak, Dumbledore left the room.


Pansy turned and went straight to check out the rooms, and Malfoy headed over to the floor-length windows and disappeared outside.

Hannah and Padma giggled at themselves in the fun mirrors and Ron joined them, before going over to check out what food was in the glass cupboard.

Ernie stood in front of the notice board, reading.

As for Hermione, she headed straight for the bookshelves.

"Wow," She breathed. There were a lot of books there she had not seen before in the Hogwarts library. There were other standard tomes there, and Hermione suspected that they had been duplicated from the Hogwarts Library. The new ones, she realized, may have come from Dumbledore's private collection.

"This. Is. Awesome." Hermione stated, as Ron came up behind her, chowing down a Pumpkin Pasty.

"Mrrrfgh." Ron replied, nodding gleefully.

Hermione rounded on him. "You just had dinner!" She exclaimed, "And not just dinner, the welcome feast! How can you possibly be hungry?!"

Ron had the decency to look slightly disconcerted as he shrugged his shoulders, then headed to the door leading to their rooms, gesturing that he would be right back.

Hermione rolled her eyes and turned to go and explore the balcony, completely forgetting that Malfoy had headed out there.

She pushed open the tall glass door and gasped yet again as she saw the balcony for the first time. It was the size of a small yard and was covered in plush, green grass. There were a couple of small, bushy plants scattered around in big purple, squishy-looking pots. They reminded Hermione of the armchairs Dumbledore often conjured up for himself.

"Wow!" She breathed, as she caught sight of a pond to her right. She bent down to look in the water and saw several spherical fish with legs and feet.

So Gulping Plimpies were real! She giggled; she had to tell Harry and Ron about this!

In the centre of the pond however, was slightly different coloured water with a small set of steps leading into it. Hermione walked over and held her hand over the water – it was warm.

No way – a spa! Hermione thought, excitedly. This is beyond amazing!

She stood and walked around the bush-trees towards the balcony edge, where she initially saw two telescopes aimed at the night sky, but stopped short when she saw Malfoy, who was leaning over the railing, an arm outstretched into thin air.

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked rather politely, before she could stop herself.

Malfoy turned, scowling.

"Granger." He acknowledged maliciously, "Ever stop to possibly consider why it is warm out here?"

Hermione frowned, her retort stopped by the interesting truth of the question. It was autumn, and outside the castle it had been chilly when they arrived. Three floors up on the outside of an ancient castle in autumn should have been freezing.

"Uh…" She replied, unsure of what to say. Was Malfoy actually conversing with her, albeit nastily?

"Warming spell." Malfoy sneered, but turned back to the railing and stuck his arm out again, "But only until… here."

Hermione only remained silent, astonished at Malfoy's apparent politeness.

He turned, scowled at her lack of response, gave her a look of disdain and brushed past her, heading back indoors.

At the same moment, Ron appeared, having finished examining his new room and joining her out on the balcony.

"He…" Hermione started, shaking her head.

Ron looked concerned, and put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay? Was Malfoy being a git?"

Hermione slowly shook her head, but walked over to the edge of the balcony to the railing, and tentatively extended her arm into the night air.

Ron looked at her, perplexed.

Hermione gave a slight gasp, her hand reaching cold night air while the rest of her arm remained warm.

"A warming spell." Hermione repeated Malfoy's words, bemused.

She turned to Ron, explaining, "A warming spell has been put on this balcony, so that we don't get cold out here."

Ron grinned, convinced she was in her right mind, after all.

"You're a smart witch, Hermione," he said, throwing an arm around her shoulders, "I, for one, would never have noticed that."

Hermione only shook her head and smiled, knowing that it wasn't she who thought of it, but Malfoy.

She leaned against Ron's shoulder comfortably for a minute, then thought of Harry.

"We have to go and tell Harry about this!" She said, turning to face Ron.

Ron groaned, "As awesome as we think this is, I somehow don't think he's going to be happy for us."


AN: Notes on the real Harry Potter universe:

Demiguise Hair: Idea from invisibility cloaks: (info from Wikipedia) Located in the Far East, the Demiguise is incredibly hard to find, as it will turn itself invisible if it feels threatened. It is mentioned in DH that many Invisibility Cloaks are actually woven out of Demiguise hair. It is also mentioned that these cloaks become opaque over time. There are a number of different types of Invisibility Cloaks. All are very rare and expensive, and they may be spun from the pelts of Demiguises, magical herbivores that are found in the Far East, or are ordinary cloaks with a Disillusionment Charm or a Bedazzlement Hex placed on them. Over time, these will lose their invisibility ability, eventually becoming opaque.

Gulping Plimpies: In HBP, we learn from Luna Lovegood that Gulping Plimpies can be staved off by means of Gurdyroots. In DH, Xenophilius Lovegood explains Luna's absence by claiming that she is down on the far side of the bridge, catching Plimpies for their supper. He says that many people have asked for the recipe for their Plimpy soup. In Magical Beasts And Where To Find Them, there is a description of Plimpies. Evidently these are approximately spherical fish with legs and feet. It is mentioned that Merpeople can get irritated by their habit of hovering around, and will tie their feet together. A Plimpy with its feet tied together will drift helplessly until it manages to get its feet untied, which can take hours.