Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Harry Potter. I write this for my amusement and for others to enjoy, not for profit.
A/N: This chapter is one of the reasons why I wanted to write this story. The genre of this chapter is…Adventure!
"Regular
Talking"
'Thoughts'
Spells
Sound
Effect
(Time)
His Next Destiny
by MingShun
this chapter briefly looked over by Smith119.
-o-o-o-o-
Chapter 4: Saving the One you Loved
-o-o-o-o-
It was quiet in the second year boys' dorm. Silver curtains were drawn as the majority of them were already sleeping when Harry quietly staggered in.
Settling himself down on the side of his bed, he struggled to regain his breath from the midnight's escapade. After escaping from Filch's grasp, Harry found himself dodging Snape as well. Surprising, considering his current house affiliation, but not unexpected. If there was one constant that Harry believed, Snape wasn't going to be fair to him no matter what house he was in. Okay, maybe one of several constants, he darkly muttered...misfortune always seemed to be around the corner as well.
After struggling past Snape he found himself dogged again by a surprisingly persistent Filch. It was his extensive knowledge of the secret passageways of Hogwarts that finally saved him. He had managed to escape the caretaker's grasp when he found a passageway that his pursuer didn't know about.
He wasn't worried about being spotted. If questioned tomorrow, he would just reply that he had no idea what they were talking about, he was sleeping at that time. As long as it wasn't Dumbledore or Snape, he would have no trouble convincing them of that lie.
But...
"If only I had the map!" he exasperatedly sighed as he thought of the trouble that the Marauder's map could have helped him avoid.
"What map?" came a sleepy voice. Harry immediately sealed his mouth and froze in place.
"What map?" the voice persisted.
Harry remained quiet. After hearing the same question a third time, the curious owner of the voice fell silent once again. Perhaps dismissing it as his imagination. At least, Harry hoped so. Pulling his feet up from the foot of his bed, he carefully closed the curtains and laid down to sleep.
'The map!' He realized as he quickly sat up again. If he had the map, he could track Ginny's position. He would be able to sneak into her dorm when she wasn't there.
But where was it?
He could only think of two places: in Filch's office or in the possession of the Weasley twins. Knowing how often the Weasley twins were in Filch's office, Harry quickly crossed Filch's office off of the list of places to search.
So if the Weasley twins had it, where would it be?
"Where...where...where...whre...were...w-" he repeated in his head as his thoughts became more and more fuzzy. Before long, they had derailed and he was fast asleep.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
The owl's began soaring overhead as they began delivering packages to the students.
A tawny owl landed in front of Simon Henry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. Unlike the other owls, this one was delivering a letter from home.
Simon picked it up and read about how Rose was recovering, how Mum had to beat some sense into Dad when he had the crazy idea to run for Minister of Magic. They missed him, hope he wrote back soon, and try to talk some sense into his twin.
As he bit into a juicy looking muffin, he decided to write back after he finished breakfast. As for Harry...he looked at the Slytherin table. Harry hadn't come in yet. Maybe later then.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Today was going to be just as bad as the last one, he realized as his eyes slowly opened. Surprisingly, no one bothered to wake him from his slumber this time. Pulling his wand from off the dresser, he gave it a swish while mumbling...
Tempus,
The spell dimly appeared, revealing: Tuesday, January 5th, 8:26AM. Breakfast had already started.
After cleaning up, he arrived in the Great Hall for breakfast. There was small talk going on at the Slytherin table when he arrived. There were a few scattered greetings, to which he dutifully returned. He listened in on the conversation that was occurring.
"Any further news about the heir?"
"Not since a month ago."
"That's far too long"
"Aye, if I were the heir, there would be attacks everyday. Look at those mudbloods laughing. Pretty soon they'll forget how fearful they were before the break."
"Maybe the heir is waiting for that, so his next strike will be more devastating."
"Waiting for them to let down their guard?"
"Yes."
The table remained silent after that.
Before they left for Herbology, Harry noticed Ginny talking with the other Gryffindors.
-o-o-o-o-
He sighed. Yes, Herbology was as boring as ever. But Harry was more concerned with the plant in front of him.
What was originally green and lush was rapidly fading to brown. Despite how parched it looked, he raised the spout of his watering can to stop the flow of water. Overwatering was bad for plants as well. He looked down sadly at the helpless plant and sighed again. This was his Mandrake. It had grown sickly in his absence.
'Why didn't anyone care for it when he was away?' He raged quietly. He sighed and held his wand above the plant.
"Lumos" he whispered. The tip of his wand started to glow.
'Enjoy,' he despondently thought as he did what he could to keep the plant happy while it was still alive.
-o-o-o-o-
On the way to potions, Harry bumped into a first year Gryffindor girl holding a booklet that looked suspiciously like the diary.
He wasted little time in jerking it from her hands amidst her protest. He quickly flipped through it. His sharp experienced eyes noted that while the pages were blank, the writing was merely hidden away from the public eye with a charm that was easy to remove. This was a diary, but it wasn't TMR's diary.
He was suddenly tackled from the side, dropping the diary in the process. Landing heavily on the floor, he was suddenly attacked by several Gryffindors of varying years. His wand out of reach, the best he could do was to protect his head from the violence.
The attack stopped as quickly as it started. The reason why was soon revealed.
"Getting into trouble a little early, Potter?" It was Snape.
"Sir it's..."
"How many times have I told you that just because your in my house doesn't mean I will look the other way when you get into trouble? 10 points from Slytherin for fighting Mr. Potter," Snape said as he took the book from Harry's hands.
"Sir!"
"Don't you have a class to attend to Mr. Potter?"
"Yes sir..." Harry quietly said as he walked away.
As he headed towards potion, he started to wonder. What if Ginny didn't have the diary this time?
-o-o-o-o-
Harry deliberately made a half stir more.
"Potter, I see that even with your glasses you're blind as a bat. 5 points for not reading the directions more carefully."
'Funny how he should mention bat,' The former Boy-Who-Lived thought as he continued to work, unaffected by the threats.
Snape's class was an interesting study.
As he had quickly discovered, Snape still treated him unfairly despite his house affiliation. In fact, he was the only Slytherin that actually lost points. However, Snape must have hated losing to the Gryffindors even more. After tallying up the scores on a small piece of paper, he noticed that he had taken second when he combined the point losses of the Gryffindors. This was without Simon's help. With Simon in the mix, he instantly took third.
-o-o-o-o-
"Harry!"
Harry turned to see who was calling for him.
Ah! This was the one who took first place in the points lost department, even beating out the combined score of his fellow Gryffindors. Harry couldn't say that half of the points lost were legitimate, but Snape was the teacher. What could he do about it?
"Simon?" Harry said, telling Simon that he had his attention. Harry couldn't help but let a trace of bitterness slip into his voice.
"Harry. Mum and Dad asked me to talk to you," his brother started.
"About?"
"Well, you see...they want you to stop associating with the children from the Dark families. They told me that you're becoming dark because of their influence. They told me not to say that to you, but I think that it's so obvious that there was no need to hide it"
Harry thought about it for a moment. In the first place, he wanted to put a lot of distance between the other Slytherins and himself. However, given his current situation and the fact that they were the only ones willing to associate with him.
"I'll think about it," he finally replied.
"Great! I'll let Mum and Dad know. See you later Harry," Simon said.
Harry watched as his counterpart ran towards the owlery.
-o-o-o-o-
"Password?" the fat lady asked. It was when he fumbled in his mind for the password that Harry soon realized why he didn't know it. Along with that realization, he noticed that the room guardian was staring rather intently at the badge emblazoned on the chest of his robes.
"I..uhh.." He turned around and quickly departed from the Gryffindor area before he was discovered.
Once hidden away, he began to think about what he had just learned. The password...he didn't know it. That wasn't good. The secret passages that he remembered leading into the Gryffindor dorms...they were all inside of the Gryffindor common room. He had to somehow pass the fat lady before he could sneak around the Gryffindor dorms.
-o-o-o-o-
He made it to the lunch room several minutes later. Taking a seat at the Slytherin table, he noted that they were watching him silently. Annoyingly, they even made a show of turning their eyes away when he looked in their direction.
He stopped paying attention to his tablemates' activities to stare in the direction of the Gryffindor table. Ginny wasn't present for lunch. 'Curious, but it wasn't troubling,' he vehemently thought. He had more important things to think about, and he turned to look at the twins. They were laughing and joking with the other Gryffindors of their year.
As he munched on a small corned beef sandwich, he continued to stare intently at the Weasley twins as he thought to himself, 'Where would they keep the map?'
-o-o-o-o-
The Slytherins once again found themselves in the presence of their longtime rival, the Gryffindors. The battlefield this time was History of Magic.
Both sides were losing though.
"...of 10 years was not to last since in 1243, a goblin uprising led by the goblin warlord Rodrog the Cursed..." Binn's lecture continued in his monotone voice.
With a plunk, Harry himself finally blanked out.
Binns won.
-o-o-o-o-
After Professor Binn's History of Magic class, Harry sought out Professor McGonagall.
Standing in front of the wooden door, he reached up and gave it two sharp knocks.
"Enter." came the muffled voice from inside.
"Professor?" Harry announced as he entered her office.
"Mr. Potter? I have been expecting you. Please stand there for a moment," with that she lifted a large stack of parchment from her large ancient desk.
"Here is the work that I would like you to complete," she said as she handed her burden over. "You have a month to complete these assignments. I will be in my office during normal hours should you wish to report on your progress or request some help. Good Day Mr. Potter," McGonagall crisply said before returned to her seat and sat down again.
For a lightened work load, it was still rather thick in his opinion. Thank Merlin McGonagall was kind enough to place a featherweight charm on the stack. Once outside of her office, he gave a long suffering sigh.
-o-o-o-o-
After supper, when it came time for all of the students to be in their common rooms, Harry was found outside wandering the halls near the entrance to the Gryffindor common rooms.
He finally stopped wandering and after saying "open said I," entered a secret passageway that had suddenly appeared in front of him. He didn't exit at the other end, instead he sat down and listened carefully. The other end of this tunnel was positioned near the painting of the fat lady, and the thin wall separating him from the hallway outside made it possible to hear sounds from the other side. It was an ideal spot to eavesdrop for the password. Strangely, not many Gryffindors knew of this passage.
He jerked awake from an impromptu nap when someone said, "Lionheart." He heard the distant sound of a painting swinging open.
He had the password. They weren't going to change it until the end of the week. He paused as he remembered that the fat lady stared at the Slytherin crest when he came to her earlier. 'He needed a way to hide his identity', he thought as he left from the way he came.
On his return trip, he narrowly avoided Filch twice.
-o-o-o-o-
The entrance to the Slytherin common room revealed itself. He pushed it open and entered.
"Where were you?" asked Draco who was sitting upright on the couch. Nott, Crabbe, Bulstrode, and Goyle comprised the other Slytherins that were awake at this time.
"Does it matter?" Harry asked..
"No. No, I suppose it doesn't," Draco cooly replied. "If you're caught, however," Draco left off the threat.
"Fine. I'm going to bed. See you in the morning."
"Harry," Draco called out.
The raven haired boy turned around to see what Malfoy could want now.
"Seriously, watch yourself. If you're caught, we won't be able to hide your nightly activities from my godfather."
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Harry groaned before he reached over for his glasses and wand.
Tempus,
Nothing happened. Bloody wand. He concentrated.
TEMPUS,
The words Wednesday, January 6th, 7:33AM appeared in front of him. It was Wednesday, early morning.
-o-o-o-o-
The owls began soaring overhead as they began their daily delivery. Harry was surprised to find an owl land in front of him. After taking the letter and giving the owl a piece of bacon, he settled down to read.
We are watching you.
Crumpling the parchment into a ball, he threw it away uncaringly. At least, that's what it looked like on the outside. Internally, he was wondering who could have sent it.
-o-o-o-o-
Flitwick gave him a detention for skipping class two days ago. Tomorrow night, 8PM.
Harry merely nodded in disinterest.
-o-o-o-o-
Checking that his disguise was in place, he entered the Gryffindor common room and headed for the 4th year dorms.
After poking around the room a little, he left. It was too risky breaking into the twin's trunk with this wand.
He didn't find what he was looking for.
-o-o-o-o-
The lunchroom was in full swing by the time he removed his disguise and came over.
Ginny was present, but she appeared a bit peaked. 'Maybe it was the peas from yesterday, they did taste a little strange,' he halfheartedly thought. He really hoped another girl was carrying the diary. Ginny didn't deserve this.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Tempus,
Thursday, January 7th, 10:33AM. A day after he had made a brief search of the twin's room.
"Potter, 5 points for playing with your wand. Is my class not exciting enough for you?"
"No sir." 'Greasy bat.'
-o-o-o-o-
The borrowed wand hummed happily as he disabled the traps and opened the trunk. He glanced at the wand sitting in his side pocket. Useless piece of junk.
His wand just sat in his pocket, completely oblivious to his hostile thoughts.
-o-o-o-o-
The map wasn't in the twins' trunk, he finally concluded as he carefully returned everything and reengaged the traps.
-o-o-o-o-
Having skipped lunch, his stomach was growling furiously by the time dinner came around.
He paused only briefly to notice that Ginny wasn't present again. His appetite disappeared. 'She has the diary, doesn't she? No...no. Someone else has it. Once I get the map, I'll find out who has it and save her from Riddle.' But, he tried thinking optimistically, even if Ginny did possess it he still had a little time. Just a little longer Ginny, hang in there.
-o-o-o-o-
Harry left Flitwick's classroom and headed toward the Gryffindor common rooms once his detention with Flitwick ended. It seemed like Flitwick was just as fair as McGonagall when it came to school matters. While he was still greeted with a stern look, this detention wasn't as ruthless as Snape's or Filch's.
Once he arrived, he found a darkened alcove on the wall directly opposite of the one that the Fat Lady's painting hung on. It was from here that he watched the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. He had a different target this time.
Neville arrived late in the night. However, the twins failed to reveal themselves by the time he decided to return to the Slytherin dormitory.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
He didn't see her inside of the Great Hall, so after a quick sandwich he quickly disappeared citing that he had homework to finish. It wasn't too far from the truth.
Passing under Madame Pince's watchful gaze, he soon found her within the library.
"You're Hermione right?" Harry asked as he approached her table. He was banking on the assumption that this was the first time that the two were meeting.
The bushy haired girl looked up from her book. She quickly looked down, her brown hair hiding her expression.
The two sat in silence for a moment, as Harry continued to stare at her. It looked like she was reading and ignoring him, but he was beginning to worry.
"Hermione?"
That did it. Slapping her book, the girl looked up to regard him with a vicious look. "I hate you, leave me alone already!" the girl shouted. Before he could salvage the situation, Hermione started to cry. Harry knew right then that it was time to leave. Especially since Madame Pince was coming this way to investigate the commotion.
So he had met her already. What did he do this time?
-o-o-o-o-
Tempus,
... Saturday, January 9th, 12:26AM. Friday had finally carried over into Saturday. What a long night. 'Two hours and nothing to show for it,' he sighed.
Harry cancelled the spell and hid his wand away. Just a little longer. This was for Ginny.
Several minutes later...
"-nix"
He jumped at the sudden voice and quickly shrank into the dark corner as a passageway opened up next to him. Harry gaped in surprise as the twins left the new opening and continued on their way.
"Such a great passageway Fred ol' buddy."
"I'll say, same password for both ends and it leads straight to the boys' dorm."
Harry immediately worked to commit the password to memory, this was too good to be true.
"Why do you suppose Percy was in the common room anyway?" George asked.
'So that was why the twins took this passage,' the eavesdropper quickly thought.
"He's probably studying all night again, the git," Fred said laughing.
Their voice dimmed as they moved further and further away. Harry crept out and hurried to follow.
-o-o-o-o-
After taking several passageways, they finally arrived at, lo and behold...another stone wall! Forget Voldemort destroying this castle, Harry was going to shove his way to the front of the line if this kept up.
His sarcastic thoughts abruptly ended when he noticed Fred remove a torch from the wall.
Two taps from a surprisingly solid flame and the password, "Prankster's Sanctuary," and the wall hastened aside to allow passage through.
The twin that was holding the torch returned it to its original spot before both of the redheads entered the room.
Harry crept closer and peered inside.
There! On that table! That was the map. He now knew where they kept it.
In his happiness, he forgot to hide when George glanced back at the door. And that was when things went downhill.
"Oi, Fred. Looks like we have a tagalong."
"I do believe you're right George," Fred agreed. He was silent for a moment, "Harry Potter again? It looks like the wanker hasn't learned not to mess with the Weasleys yet."
Oh no. Harry thought as he turned and hightailed it out of there.
They were taller. It was only natural that they were faster. It was inevitable that he would be caught eventually.
During their chase, he glanced back for a brief moment, only to realize...were they skipping after him? Great, they were playing with him. 'They probably have the map on them,' he bitterly realized. It was the only reason why the twins weren't worried about losing him. Several spells flew over his head as he leapt around a corner.
The twins finally danced around the corner only to be confronted by a surprising sight. Their quarry had disappeared.
"Rats. Lost him."
"Did you bring the map?" Fred asked.
"No, I thought you had it."
"It looks like we'll have to let the arse escape this time."
"We'll get him later. He can't escape us forever."
The two returned from the direction that they came.
Crouched within a large indentation in the wall, Harry released his breath and stood up from his guarded position. He was fully prepared to duel the two of them, and he had a vast repertoire of spells to choose from, fast reflexes, and a good bit of combat experience. He held his wand up to glare at it.
But with this piece of junk, he didn't think he could win.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Tempus.
Saturday, January 9th, 5:12AM flickered into view. It canceled itself a few moments later. The wand was getting worse. Pretty soon he wouldn't be able to use it.
Harry slowly sat up in his bed. It was a good thing that today was part of the weekend. He had forced himself to remain awake for the majority of this morning.
Sneaking out was fairly easy, and the night patrol was sparser than before.
The entrance to the twin's secret room was also sealed shut, indicating that they had probably finished whatever they came down here to do.
"Prankster's Sanctuary," Harry commanded as he gave the door a twin tap from the solid flame of the torch in his hand. It opened without protest.
Upon entering, Harry was dismayed to realize that the room was almost bare. Quickly removing some traps with a small pillbox that he had charmed earlier with another wand, he went about searching what was left.
No map. No prank supplies either. The twins had moved their base of operation. He quietly left and returned to the dorm room.
-o-o-o-o-
He didn't bother with the wand. The mechanical clock read about 4:30 when he finally woke up. The sun was up, but setting, so it must have been in the afternoon.
He realized his mistake after he stepped through the entrance to the boys' dorm.
He was now wearing makeup and a dress.
Draco and the other boys decided to skip dinner to remain in Snape's office until the bat found the countercharm.
Harry was past caring however as he calmly entered the Great Hall alone amidst the laughter and jeers, smoothed the dress and sat down to eat. He was still groggy and wanted to return to bed as soon as possible.
--o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Tempus
Wednesday, January 13, 7:20AM. It was a few days after the dress incident.
Harry regarded the glowing time with a little bit of happiness. It had been slow going, but he had followed McGonagall's advice to trust the wand. It stopped being a dead weight yesterday evening.
However, it still worked to make his spellwork difficult. Bloody wand. The spell immediately canceled itself out. He bit back a curse.
It was too early to prepare for the day and head to breakfast, so he sat down to think. While she had been present to every meal for a while now, Ginny was looking paler by the day. It wasn't the food. Just yesterday, the house elves had served meatloaf, one dish that Harry knew Ginny would never turn down. And he didn't have any stomach problems this morning. So if it wasn't the food, maybe she was being bullied. This week he had started trailing her when he had the chance...no luck. Ginny got along with almost everyone that she met. Even if she was being threatened, she had a strong following to back her up.
He couldn't deny it anymore, she possessed the diary.
It had been almost a week since he had last tried for the map. He had made very little progress in the area. The twins were far more cautious than before...making it difficult to even follow them. He didn't have time to continue trying to nab the map from the twins. He had to take that diary without it.
-o-o-o-o-
As he laid in bed that night, Harry quickly tried to formulate another plan to seize the diary. The only one that he could think of was a stupendous distraction.
A small smile formed on his face. He really had to thank the twins for teaching him this recipe. But first, he needed supplies. He already had a wand, so firecrackers and a few simple potions ingredients.
Filch's office would have the firecrackers that he needed.
He had most of the potions ingredients from his intermediate potion's kit. However there was one ingredient that he didn't have. There was only one place that he could think of where he would most likely find it. He wanted to avoid it, but he couldn't think of an alternative. He had to ransack Snape's stores for the potion ingredients.
Cakewalk? Yeah...right.
--o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Tempus.
Thursday, January 14th, 3:12AM. The time quickly extinguished itself. It was early the next morning. He wanted to gather the firecrackers today.
Getting into Filch's office was easy enough. He took a moment to wonder whether he was becoming a night owl with all of this sneaking around at night. He shrugged as he swiped what he was looking for.
He had classes later. Best to get some sleep first.
-o-o-o-o-
Tempus.
Thursday, January 14th, 9:03PM. Two hours after curfew. This was the time when Snape should be out patrolling the corridors looking for fresh blood...err children to prey on.
Unless he was in two places at once, this meant that his office and storeroom were unprotected. Now was as good a time as any to ransack it.
As he was preparing to sneak into Snape's room, it occurred to him...why hadn't he been using disillusionment charms? How about silencing charms? Merlin's Beard, wasn't he supposed to be a wizard?
-o-o-o-o-
This wand was becoming very irritating.
He relaxed for a moment before trying again. His shoe glowed a brief yellow. Setting it down, he was happy to note that his footsteps sounded muffled. He briefly considered silencing himself but a glance at his wand told him not to. Silent magic would be impossible to cast.
He approached the door to the classroom. It was locked. With a loud sigh, he pulled out the wand.
-o-o-o-o-
There! He silently opened the cupboard and reached for the required item. He froze when the door to the storeroom flew open.
"Who's there?" Snape demanded into the room.
He didn't move. He couldn't. He was standing in the middle of the room with nothing to hide with. Sneaking past Snape would be impossible, his shoes still made some noise.
The solution swiftly revealed itself.
Snape glanced around twice more before his eyes came upon the open cupboard. With that, Snape left the room...shutting the door in the process. There was an odd squelching noise. Harry sighed, he was locked in.
He reached into the cupboard and grabbed some of the explosive substance known as Snot-of-the-Blast-Ended-Skrewt. Stupid ingredient.
With that, he walked up to a secret passage that he had recently discovered.
"Open the damn door you god-forsaken wand." the wall slid aside without hesitation.
It was a strange password, he could only guess that whoever came up with it had a habit of locking himself out of his own room.
--o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Tempus.
Saturday, January 16th, 1:13AM. Had it been three hours already? He had been working on a variant of the Weasley Twin's Wildfire Whiz-Bangs since dinner let out on Friday.
Harry was holed up in an unused classroom surrounded by boiling cauldrons and other assorted junk as he attempted to create the special firecrackers that he would need for the distraction. That was why the Weasley twins never sold this variant, the amount of work and time required to assemble one of these was far from profitable.
The original versions were quicker to create because they merely required a complicated charm layered on top of the firecracker. By using a potion for part of the creation process, you simplified the charm required and it made the special firecrackers far harder to get rid of.
However, even with a simplified charm, the wand that he was holding was causing him tremendous trouble.
In fact, he was at the point where he was wildly swiping the wand while incanting the charm.
This time there was a spark but it still wasn't enough. In a fit of frustration, he hurled the wand straight out the window.
This was immediately followed by a vicious oath as he realized what he had just done.
-o-o-o-o-
Finding another wand proved more difficult than he had thought. It was surprising how in a school of magic, where wands were as common as quills, you couldn't find a spare wand laying anywhere when you needed one.
In the end, he had to sneak into Filch's office again for a spare wand.
With a wave and an incantation, the borrowed wand hummed delightedly before the firecracker glowed for a moment. It was ready.
-o-o-o-o-
(Later that day.)
Tempus.
"It's 12:20PM. Wand giving you trouble again Harry? Strange, didn't it match you perfectly before? Why is it fighting you now?" Nott said as he canceled the spell and put his wand away.
"Maybe your wand isn't agreeing with your magic."
"Wasn't your wand the wood of a dying cedar tree with the essence of a vengeful ghost encased within? It should work well with any dark wizard," Blaise wondered aloud.
The others looked at him expectantly. His tired mind slowly processed that they were waiting for his reply. If a wand that worked well with dark wizards wasn't working well with him. They were suspicious. "Oh," Harry stalled thinking as quickly as he could, "then maybe its all of these light spells that I've been casting for class."
"Yes, that does make sense. You should remove some pests in the forbidden forest with that wand so that it will be more agreeable with you."
"Why are you so tired anyway?" Millicent asked.
The half-awake boy mumbled a quick response to the others at the lunchtable before he rested his head in the cradle of his arms. After creating the firecracker, and returning the borrowed wand, he had spent most of the morning sneaking around school grounds searching for the bloody stick that he had thrown out the window.
-o-o-o-o-
A disillusioned figure slowly approached the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. He took a deep breath to calm himself before he pulled out the cursed stick.
Tempus.
Sunday, January 17th, 12:05AM. This was the best time to do this. After partying most of the night, many of the students should be in bed by now. However, a few of the partygoers should still be awake and once this starts they'll awaken their buddies. Today was now Sunday. So once this distraction takes hold, the students will watch for a long time before they return to bed since there were no classes today. He estimated that he had about 45 minutes to search, at best, once he lit the firecracker.
He carefully set the Wildfire Whiz-Bang down. Here goes.
-o-o-o-o-
There wasn't much time. He started ripping through Ginny's belongings, uncaring about the state that he was leaving them in. Where was that thrice damned diary?
There was one spot left. He reached forward and seized the pillow from the bed. Dammit. It wasn't there!
The entrance to the first year girl's door opened.
-o-o-o-o-
There was a shriek from upstairs. He really didn't have much time. Already, he could feel the atmosphere of the dorm change from amused to hostile. This was an ugly situation. If they caught him, he wouldn't make it out alive.
Where? Where was that entrance that the Weasley twins pointed out the other night? Entrance to the boy's dorm right?
He cursed, and quickly jumped through a fake wall to hide. There was the sound of several feet passing by. Probably to check on the girls. There was no sound for several moments.
He dashed out and continued his search. He found several minute differences in the walls that indicated another secret passage, but he had opened all of these before. See, This one led to the common room, that one was the one he just came from, that one over there...he paused and cursed again. He was wasting time. There was another set of footsteps.
He hid again until they disappeared. Where? He looked down. The floor! Shifting the rug, This-this spot looked different. Fantastic! He hurriedly bent down.
"Nix" he whispered. Nothing happened. He cursed.
Wait, maybe nix was part of a longer password. Think...
"Phoenix," he quickly whispered. Nothing happened.
More footsteps, this time coming down slowly and disappearing at random intervals. They were searching..
"Dammit. Ponix. Fonix. Monics. Enix. Unix. Sticks!" Aggh, that didn't even have the right form.
Onyx! He frantically whispered.
Nothing happened for a moment. Then the floor shifted to reveal an opening as well as stairs leading downward. He ran in without hesitation, calling Onyx as he ran downwards. Hopefully the same password that opened the door closed it too.
It was so dark in the tunnel that he nearly tripped on a second set of steps that led upwards. He regained his balance and started heading upwards. He collided with the exit at the other end soon after. He fell in a heap before he stood up and dazedly tried to recall the password. There was the distant sound of several feet tramping downwards. Merlin's beard, why didn't the entrance seal itself? What password did he use to enter?
Oh.
"Onyx!" The passageway opened, and he was in the darkened hallways that led to the Gryffindor common rooms. The firecrackers were still going strong, but it looks like the crowd was more concerned with the girls' dorms. The hallways were devoid of bystanders. But he couldn't relax yet. Harry had little doubt that everything would end here if he were caught. Without a second thought, he took off in a random direction struggling to regain his bearings.
There, that wall.
He ran straight for it, hitting it with such force that the wall fell away, revealing another secret passage.
The distant sound of pursuit dwindled away as he left the passageway and continued to head downwards. As he passed them, several paintings voiced their dislike at being so rudely awakened. He quickly took another passageway. This one forked in several directions, making it harder to track him. He picked one at random and hurried through.
Once he left the passage, he quickly slowed and began to wander aimlessly. Upon seeing the trophy room, Harry started to plan a route that would take him from the third floor and down to the kitchen.
He hadn't wandered far when he heard footsteps. Needing no prompting, Harry quickly found a hiding spot.
"You there!" someone shouted from the darkened hallway of the third floor. The booming voice continued to echo for what seemed like minutes.
There was no reply.
"Come out from behind that suit of armor so that I can see you," the person said in a much lower tone of voice.
"Me?" Harry calmly asked as he stepped away from the armor. His occlumency shields were up and hiding away the nervousness that he should have been feeling.
There were three of them. Gryffindors. None of them were prefects, though two of them appeared to be in their seventh year. The third one was probably in her fifth year. All three were panting heavily, as if they had been running around all night. Perhaps chasing somebody.
"You! What are you doing out at this time of night, Slytherin?" the 7th year boy asked, getting right to the point. His emphasis of 'you' was not lost on our hero. Guess they knew who he was already.
"Wandering," Harry replied after a moment of thought. He regarded all three cooly for a moment. "What are you three doing at this time of night?" he challenged.
"Now listen here you slimy..." Before the girl could continue, the fifth year held a hand in front of her to tell her to stop.
"How come you're all sweaty?" the fifth year asked.
Harry just raised an eyebrow, "Slytherins don't sweat..." ...Because they're cold blooded snakes. He was working to change his views in light of recent events, but it was the first defense that came to his mind.
"Okay you arrogant arse, why does it appear that you've been running? And don't give me that bull that Slytherins don't run," the fifth year replied.
"Filch," he succintly said. The fifth year and the seventh year boy relaxed, however the seventh year student started to eye him skeptically.
"Where did you find Filch?" she casually asked.
"Trophy room," he calmly replied calling her bluff.
"Mm hmm...tell me more."
Harry sighed, "He found me wandering through the Trophy room. Soon after, he followed me to a darkened corridor. There, I found a small windowless room hidden behind a heavy wooden door. I hid there." he said as he recounted an adventure from seven years ago. He barely stopped himself from adding that he found a giant three headed dog when he turned around.
"I suppose after Filch lost you, you found your way back here where we found you right?"
"Why?"
"Because little guy, we're going to have you show us where you ran to," the fifth year jeered.
Having little choice, Harry led them to what was known as the forbidden corridor last year.
They came upon a wooden door in the darkened corridor. After rapping it twice, the seventh year boy pronounced that it was oak. Despite its weight, the door swung open easily with magic and the three gazed inside.
Two of the party members sighed, "He's not the one. Come on, hopefully the others had better luck."
"He's lying!" the seventh year girl quickly said. "What if he knew about this spot beforehand?"
"Den, we've wasted enough time. Come on already," the fifth year girl replied.
Alone again, Harry returned to the classrooms on the third floor. Here, he quickly located a pair of doorways that were standing a foot apart. Rapping twice on a spot between them, he quietly said...
"Merlin's Pointy Hat," he watched as the two doorways were shoved aside as a third one slowly grew into view. He opened the new doorway and stepped into an unlit passageway. A blast of cold immediately assaulted him, almost freezing the sweat that clung to his body. Using his wand to light the way, he slowly picked his way through the chilly path.
When he left the passageway, the cold became ten times worse as a strong icy wind blew against him. He struggled for balance as he stood on a thin ledge outside of Hogwarts.
It was too cold for this!
With that thought, he quickly reentered the passageway and returned to the third floor.
After taking the main steps down to the first floor, he opened the final passage that he would need for tonight.
In the basement, directly below the Great Hall, a painting of a peach opened up to eject its occupant. Without hesitating, Harry hurried up to the painting on the opposite side of the hallway. With skill born from years of use, he tickled the pear, pulled the handle and entered the kitchen.
As the elves asked him what he would like to eat, he breathed another sigh of relief. Now it was up to luck to determine whether he had escaped suspicion.
--o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Tempus.
Sunday, January 17th, 9:05AM. A bit late for breakfast, but there should still be plenty to eat. He was still tired from the firecracker diversion that he performed a few hours ago.
He couldn't help but worry as he entered the Great Hall the following day. His plan worked out fairly well and he escaped without being identified. But what if someone, somehow, had known it was him?
Once he sat down, however, he knew that he was safe. The ones most likely to know who was responsible were the twins. Since he hadn't encountered a prank yet, he was fairly confident that the twins were just as confused over who was responsible.
There was a great deal of gossip in the Great Hall that morning. In fact, over half of the room was remarkably cranky, the firecrackers themselves refused to disappear when they were banished. Instead, they multiplied. It was a remarkable piece of work, but, since people could rarely sleep with so much noise, many were less than appreciative of the prank.
Dumbledore stood up and signaled for quiet. The clamor in the room slowly died down. "I would like to ask the student who was responsible for last night's events to reveal himself."
No one stood up. Harry himself ate calmly, using his occlumency training to the fullest to frustrate the casual scan that he knew Dumbledore was performing. His hand shook slightly as a slight breeze seemed to pass over him.
"Very well then. If no one is willing to admit to it, I must ask that whoever is responsible does not repeat such an act. We will be watching to make sure that this does not happen again," the aged wizard said, indicating the professors to his left and right.
The headmaster sat down and the volume within the room swiftly increased again.
Inwardly, Harry was furiously wondering where the diary could have disappeared to.
-o-o-o-o-
A/N
Details:
I'm unsure about whether Slytherin and Gryffindor take the same History of Magic class
I wish I had the first book next to me. Anyhow, I had to start making up details about the third floor such as the oak door in the forbidden corridor.