AN: Welcome back to another chapter! With the Cursed Child going on sale tonight I thought I'd give you guys this early. Things are about to get interesting, so let's dive in!
Chapter 7- The Hidden Door
"Wait, I don't understand. There are no half-bloods in America?" Harry asked Tim as they sat in the living area of Hermione's chamber. The fire burned away the November evening chill as did the heat emanating from Crookshanks sitting on his lap.
"Not really, no. In America you either come from two wizarding parents or two muggle ones. No-Maj, as they call them there. Half-bloods really can't be a thing because of Rappaport's Law," Tim explained from the armchair by the fire.
"Rappaport's Law?" Harry asked still confused. Hermione set down her knitting on the couch between herself and Harry.
"I've read about that," She started in Hermione-ish way that made Harry smile, "In 1790 the entire magical community in America was almost exposed, so they created a law that almost completely segregates wizards and muggles. They're not allowed to befriend or marry them, and interaction is limited to mandatory daily activities."
"You're kidding," Harry said in disbelief.
"Wish she was. You can imagine my culture shock coming here then. When you come of age there you even have to get a wand permit."
"Really?" Hermione said intrigued.
"You Americans sure are weird," Harry smirked as Tim laughed. Before Harry could ask another question a knock came from the door.
"Be right there!" Hermione said, quickly getting up from the couch and going to the door. When she pulled it open Professor McGonagall was standing there, "Oh! Uh… hello Professor. What brings you here this evening?"
"Please come with me, Professors," She said, rather briskly.
"Sure, right away. Let me just grab my coat," Hermione said, going over to the coat rack as Harry stood, putting Crookshanks back on the chair.
"Grab mine too," He said to her before looking at a confused Tim who pointed to himself and mouthed 'me too?' Harry just shrugged and motioned for him to come along. He took his coat from Hermione and followed her and McGonagall out the door with Tim close on his heels.
They followed the professor up two floors to the sixth. Her silence made the three of them look at each other, confused and a little nervous about why she needed them. Their curiosity and uncertainty rose as she took them down a corridor not many students used except as a short cut. There were no classrooms in this area and nothing in the corridor itself except tapestries hanging from the walls. Professor McGonagall stopped in front of one with a phoenix on it flying over a forest. When she turned to them she looked over her glasses at Timothy and raised a brow causing him to shift uncomfortably.
"Might as well. You're a Ravenclaw after all," She snipped and turned her attention away from him. Harry could hear him release the breath he probably had been holding while she stared him down.
"Now, I need the upmost secrecy from the three of you. I don't need nosey students poking around. Is that understood?"
"Yes Professor," They said together. She nodded and turned to the tapestry. With a wave of her wand it pulled itself back along the rod holding it up, revealing a large hole in the wall. A scar from the war. Harry pushed down the anxiety he felt that was trying to build inside him. Upon closer inspection, though, Harry realized it wasn't just a hole, but a corridor.
"Secrets of Hogwarts were always your specialty, Potter. I figured if anyone should investigate, it's you and Professor Granger," McGonagall said, as Hermione stepped closer to take a look. Harry pulled out his wand and followed her just inside the opening before turning back to McGonagall.
"So someone blew a hole in the wall and revealed a hidden corridor?" He asked her.
She nodded, "Exactly. Turn the corner, Potter. There's more."
Tim was now becoming interested and followed Harry who was already following Hermione further into the darkening corridor, "Lumos," He heard her whisper. Instantly the tip of her wand lit up in a white light. It bounced off the walls, lighting the way ahead until the corner where the darkness returned.
Hermione looked back at Harry, her face mostly shadowed. He knew what she was asking and gave her a nod of assurance. She took a breath then took the few steps around the corner, "Harry, quick, look at this," Her words made him dart around the corner and he felt Tim at his shoulder, almost running into him as he stopped quickly after turning.
A few feet ahead the passage ended. Instead of the tan stone that made up the castle and the rest of the corridor the back wall was made of grey polished stone with a large, bronze, and elaborate version of the Ravenclaw crest protruding from it.
"It's a door, we are just unsure where it leads and how to open it," They heard McGonagall's voice call from the hall. Hermione stepped closer, running her fingers along the edge where the grey stone met the tan, "She's right. There's a draft here," She said, turning back to them.
"Then, the question is, how do we get in?" Harry looked at them with a smile, moving next to her examining the crest.
"There's probably a puzzle or a riddle, that's how you get into the Ravenclaw common room after all. If Rowena Ravenclaw hid this here then she probably blocked it in a similar way," Tim chimed in as he stepped up to Harry's other shoulder to look at the door.
"Alright, let's see if we can find this puzzle then," Hermione said, determination in her voice as she took her wand and tapped the wall three times before uttering, "Aparecium."
As soon as the tip of her wand touched the stone, gold lettering appeared above the crest; words he'd seen before when he visited the common room looking for her diadem.
"'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.'"
"Ravenclaw's motto," Harry muttered to Hermione beside him.
"Basically translates to figure it out yourself," Tim said, causing the two of them to crack a smile.
"Quick to work I see," McGonagall's voice came from behind and they turned to her.
"Yes, Professor, you've got us intrigued, to say the least," Harry said with a smile. She gave one of her rare half smiles back,
"I want you to investigate and research. See if whatever is in there is dangerous. Can you do that?"
The three exchanged looks before Hermione answered, "We'd be pleased to try, Professor."
"Good. Make sure to keep that tapestry closed whether you're in here or not. We don't need students following in your footsteps," She said with a nearly invisible smirk. At their nods of agreement she offered a simple, "Good luck" and walked off, leaving the three of them to return their focus to the door.
An hour and a half later, Harry and Hermione were sitting against the wall, burnt out on the door puzzle and had resorted to grading the papers she had cleverly summoned from their offices. One of her bluebell flames floating above their heads to light the room. Tim stood, back to them, seemingly frozen as he stared at the door just as he'd been doing for near twenty minutes.
"Tim…" Hermione said, looking up from her essays, "Tim, there's no handle, no trick stones, the crest is in hundreds of separate pieces and only some can even move. We've pressed every single piece like buttons in any order imaginable. There's just no discernable puzzle or pattern to figure out. Maybe it wasn't meant to open after she sealed it."
"No, that can't be right. You're not thinking like a Ravenclaw, Hermione," Tim said, over his shoulder.
"I already told you I'm not a Ravenclaw, Timothy. How can I think like one? What does that even mean to think like one?"
"Ravenclaws are smart but people tend to forget we're also creative, eccentric, even. We see things that most people can't, make jumps to conclusions that don't always make sense at first. Everything is a puzzle to us, even when it doesn't seem like it."
"Sounds like Nargles to me," Hermione whispered in Harry's ear causing a small smile to appear on his face.
"Luna could be right about them you know," He whispered back.
"I'll believe it when I see it," She told him.
"And that's why you're not a Ravenclaw, Hermione," Tim said, turning around. He raised his hand to stop her when she was about to retort, "You're just not crazy enough."
Hermione looked a bit bemused, "Thanks… I suppose."
"Then what would be crazy about this, Tim? It's just a crest on a wall. They're all around Hogwarts," Harry pointed out. Tim's eyes grew a bit wider like a lightbulb just went off and he whipped back to the crest.
"That's a good question… what would be crazy? Crests are very specific, right?"
"Typically, yes. Each little thing means something so every re-creation of the crest has to be exactly the same," Hermione explained, putting down her essays. She stood and walked over to Tim, "What are you thinking?"
"Well… if every crest has to be the same you know what would be crazy, witty even?" He asked, smirking at the two of them.
"What?" Harry asked, getting up from his spot on the floor as well.
"To make it… wait for it… different. It's the pieces that move. They're in the correct spots now; the key is to make them wrong."
"You think so?" Hermione asked, clearly having some doubts while Tim nodded and began changing the moveable pieces, seeming to remember where they all were.
"Yeah I do. Usually it would be to set it right because you have to see the detail to know it's not and fix it but with a Ravenclaw you know what the world thinks is right so you… well, challenge it," He said, turning the last piece on his final words. The stone rumbled in front of them then began to swing open, "Ta-da."
He smiled broadly at them but when it finally swung open and they looked in, his grin dropped quickly and turned to awe. They stepped inside a room that reminded Harry of the Ravenclaw common room. The main room was large and circular with wings going off in various directions marked with graceful arches. The main room itself was two levels, spiral staircases in the corners, and a large circular impressive wooden desk in the middle and in the middle of that, a marble statue of Ravenclaw herself. The room was littered with desks and tables. The walls were lined, every inch, with bookcases. That's right, this was-
"A library! It's a library!" Hermione said, barely able to contain her excitement as she darted forward to the desk.
"It's a huge library," Tim said, practically spinning in circles as he followed Harry in. Hermione had reached the desk and went to touch the book catalog sitting on it.
"Wait, Hermione. Don't! We don't know if anything is in here," Harry warned her as he rushed over.
"Good point. Want to do the honors, Harry?" She asked. Harry nodded, drawing his wand from his coat.
"Homenum Revelio," He said, but nothing happened, "Well, no humans but us at least. Keep your wands out and let's look around before we start looking at books."
So they searched the vast library. It was multiple levels and many doors, all of them leading to more and more books, much to Hermione's growing joy. Finally, when searching the west wing they found another door of polished grey stone, but instead of the Ravenclaw crest protruding from it, it was a hundred disjointed pieces on small tracks in a seemingly random pattern.
"Well, that looks… complicated," Harry said, trying to make sense of the door.
"It doesn't even look like anything," Hermione said, looking at it as well. She looked over to Tim, "Look like anything to you?"
"Not really, no," He said with a shrug.
"Well, come on. We'll come back to it later. Let's clear the rest of the library first," Harry said, and the two nodded in agreement before moving on.
They made their way through the rest of the library, rounding back into the main room. They cast every reveal charm they could think of to find any sort of magical defensives or traps but nothing showed up. As far as they could tell it was just a library and nothing more.
After it was cleared Hermione quickly made herself at home at the main desk with all the catalogs stacked around her. She flipped through the lists of books and writing down titles and numbers of those she found interesting, which may have just been every single one, while Harry and Tim ate sandwiches brought up by the house elves.
"You know… the idea for this library isn't completely unfounded actually," She said, causing the two to pause, waiting to see whether she was talking to them or herself again.
"Really?" Tim asked, after she looked up at them expecting an answer.
"Yeah, a librarian here ninety years ago wrote a paper to try and prove its existence. She went missing after that…" She trailed off then and wrote something down on her papers.
"I don't remember that in Hogwarts: A History," Harry said, before taking another bite of his sandwich.
"It was in a book I read about Rowena Ravenclaw," She said off-handedly before pausing and looking up at him, "Wait, you actually read it?"
"Uh… yeah. I missed this place so I read about it while you were here at school," Harry said, smiling at her when she looked at him impressed.
"Well, if you two are just going to make googly eyes at each other I'm going to go see if I can make any progress on that door. Have fun!" Tim said, almost smugly before taking another sandwich and heading down the hall.
"We were not making googly eyes!" Hermione called after him before she began muttering to herself, clearly flustered, "The nerve of him. Really."
Harry chuckled, "You know he was just kidding."
"But about that? Does he have too?" She asked, exasperated.
"Why not? It's kind of funny," He smiled a bit at her.
"You really think so?" She asked.
The look she was giving him confused him, "Well… yeah, a bit. I mean the thought is kind of ridiculous, right?"
Hermione seemed to become flustered again, "Right, of course. Absolutely ridiculous," She said matter-of-factly, then went back to the catalogs leaving Harry feeling a bit lost and wondering if he had said something wrong.
"Hermione-"
"It's nothing Harry; I'm just overwhelmed by the library. That's all," She said and Harry nodded slowly.
"Okay. I'll uh… go… help Tim with the door then," He said, getting up and leaving the main room. He walked down the corridors till he found Tim standing in front of the new puzzle door with his arms crossed staring intently at it.
"Have you ever heard of a sliding puzzle?" Tim asked, as he approached.
"Maybe…?" Harry looked at the door.
"They're those types of puzzles that have the sliding tiles and one open space; usually it's a picture you have to put together or numbers in the right order."
"Oh yeah, I've seen those."
"Well, I think this is a very big one with lots of tiny little pieces."
"You're kidding, I hope. That'll take forever to solve," Harry sighed a bit and leaning against the wall.
"Probably," Tim shrugged and the two fell into silence. Harry pondered his previous conversation with Hermione, trying to see what he could have said wrong.
"Hey Tim, can I ask you something?"
"Sure," Tim muttered while remaining quite focused on the door.
The words came out far easier for Harry thinking Tim was hardly listening, "Well, I told Hermione that I thought your joke was funny because the idea of us looking at each other like that is ridiculous and-"
"Why'd you say that?" Tim asked, cutting him off much to Harry's surprise.
"Uh well because it is, isn't it?"
"Is it?" Tim asked, simply confusing Harry more.
"Of course it is! She's like my sister," He insisted and was taken aback when Tim started to laugh; a full hardy laugh at that. It made Harry's face grow hot with bewildered embarrassment.
"I'm sorry… sorry, I just… your sister?" Tim said between laughing fits before he finally controlled himself, "I'm sorry but that was funny. I've seen my fair share of siblings. My father has a sister even. And I'm positive that if Hermione were like your sister in any way you'd have the marks to prove it. She seems like the attack when angry type to me."
Harry paused, thinking of when Hermione threw birds at Ron to attack him, punched him anywhere she could when he came back. He recalled how exasperated she always was with Ron. And he realized that she never did anything like that to him. No, in fact she hugged him, comforted him, teased him, held his hand, and … perhaps Tim had a point.
"Okay, maybe not a sister exactly but she is my best friend," Harry told him firmly.
Tim raised his hands up in a mock surrender, "Trust me. I know, in fact, the whole world knows. Seriously though… have you ever considered it? Have you ever considered that maybe, just maybe, you and Hermione could be something more?"
The question stopped Harry's mind dead in its tracks. For a moment it sat in stunned silence, and then proceeded to go into a tailspin. The simple answer was no, no he hadn't, but now he sure was. It completely dazed him, like someone hit him in the face.
It completely occupied his mind, causing him to drift through the next few weeks, sparing every extra moment to these thoughts. He thought back to when Hermione left for Hogwarts without him and she was gone for nearly ten months with only a few visits here and there. It was the longest they'd ever been apart since they met. He remembered how he waited anxiously for every scrap of a letter from her, wrote to her nearly every day, thought about her all the time, wondered if she would like or dislike something, what she would say in every conversation he took part in. He always thought about her smile and her warm brown eyes, counting the days till he could see and hug her again. He even read Hogwarts: A History, not just because he missed Hogwarts but also because he missed her and it is her favorite book. Maybe Tim was onto something… maybe he felt this way because-
"Everte Statum!"
The spell knocked Harry out of his thoughts and onto his back, the wind right out of him, and putting him back firmly into the reality of his lesson with his first years. He groaned a bit and sat up.
"Good job Mr.…" He adjusted his glasses so he would actually see, "Richards. Good shot."
"Weren't you supposed to be demonstrating dodging spells, Professor?" One asked from the back.
"Uh… yes, yes I was. Sorry, I just… went away with fairies for a moment. Let's try this again," He said, and continued his lesson and the one after that, struggling to stay focused. He was more than happy when he got to sit at lunch and go back to his thoughts.
"Harry!" His head shot up as Hermione came running up to the table. He felt nervous, his hands starting to get sweaty, just like he had every time he saw her since his conversation with Tim. He wasn't sure where he stood with her anymore and it was driving him mad, "Are you alright? I heard you got hit with a spell in class today."
"I'm fine; it was just a knockback jinx. I wasn't paying attention. It was my fault," He said, trying to reassure her worried look.
"Is everything okay? It's not like you to not be focused while teaching," She said and touched his hand. He could've swore his heart stopped momentarily and prayed she didn't notice.
"Really, it's fine. I'm fine," He said, nodding more vigorously as she studied him for a moment. She seemed to have decided that he was telling the truth and pulled away from him to pull a letter out of her bag.
"Good, because I wanted to ask you something."
"What?" He said, pulling his hands under the table, trying to look casual.
"My parents invited me to Christmas Eve dinner with them, just them not the rest of the family, and… well… I want you to come with me," She said, looking rather anxious herself.
"You sure? It's a family thing; do you really want me there?"
"Of course I do Harry. You're one of the most important people in my life," She said, causing Harry's stomach to drop.
"I-I am?"
"You're my best friend, so, obviously," She said with a smile that made his insides twist.
"Then yeah, I'll go. Sounds like fun," He smiled back at her. She came round the table and gave him one of her half hugs before sitting down and pulling food onto her plate.
Harry watched her as she talked about what her mother was cooking for dinner and what she was planning on getting Ron and Ginny for Christmas but Harry lost track. Not that he didn't care; he just couldn't focus on her words. Only on her.
His stomach began tying itself in knots. Was this how he'd been feeling the whole time? Had he always liked her and it just took someone asking the right question for him to figure it out? But the biggest question, the biggest dread, hanging over him now, one that arose with his newfound nerves around her, would he ever be the same with her ever again? Or was what they had, the comfortability they had, gone forever?
AN: Hope you enjoyed! And as a note, no I did not come up with those details on American wizarding society those were released by Rowling on Pottermore. Check it out. As Hermione would say, it's fascinating!
