Ok, CHAPTER 11! Firstly 38 FOLLOWS AND 21 REVIEWS! That's amazing, I really hope you guys are enjoying this. I promised long and exciting, so THE FIRST ADVENTURE OF THE NEW GOLDEN TRIO! The room where all is hidden...you'll have to read to find out. This chapter also goes a little farther towards the direction I'm planning to push this story, but I hope it's a fun one with Hagrid and the return Elodora Williams. Next chapter: Quidditch and Halloween.

As the others turned to look, Scorpius slipped under the table made his way quietly to the double doors, catching Rose's questioning gaze as he slid out of the hall.

Scorpius carefully shut the door behind him, his trembling hands still gripping the scarlet envelope. He felt a bit dazed, and he gratefully slumped against the brick wall, breathing deeply. It was awfully dark in the corridor, and so early it was entirely empty other than a large portrait of a tall man with red hair that reminded him oddly of Rose.

Well that was bloody terrible, Scorpius thought sinking to the ground. He glared angrily at the red slip of paper in his hand, suddenly he had a very strong urge to rip it.

"That was...er, interesting."

Scorpius started, whipping his head up from the letter and promptly slamming it into the cobblestone wall.

"OW! Bloody HELL that hurt." Scorpius winced rubbing the back of his neck. He glanced up slowly, and a oddly familiar smirk swam into view.

"Well done." The girl was small with mousy brown hair and a green badge pinned to her chest.

"Dora!" he grinned, pushing himself up to face his friend. Elodora smiled, but it was oddly strained.

"'Lo Scorp," she mumbled, looking down at her feet. Scorpius frowned, he opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong, but Elodora interrupted.

"This corridors a bit creepy," she muttered, still not meeting his eyes. Scorpius glanced around, it was a little dim, maybe she's afraid of the dark.

"Alright," he said, shifting awkwardly from one foot to another. He gestured for her to follow and, turning silently on his heel, walked towards an empty classroom at the end of the hall, very aware of his footsteps echoing across the stone. As far as Scorpius knew there wasn't any rule about wandering around during breakfast but he certainly didn't want to be caught, especially not by Filch.

"Can we go a bit quicker?" Dora's voice was terse and wary, Scorpius frowned but walked a bit faster. Elodora jumped.

"What was that!" Scorpius pulled his wand from his pocket and turned towards the hall. His frowned deepened, there was nothing there.

"What was what?" he said a bit irritated, tucking his wand into his back pocket. Suddenly there was a loud swish. Scorpius started, pointing his wand towards the dark corner by the marble steps.

"That!" Elodora groaned.

Lumos Scorpius muttered, glancing down at his wand. It gave off a rather feeble puff of light, Elodora snorted. "Well you try then," said Scorpius a bit hurt.

"Lumos!" The tip of the her wand glowed warmly, she smirked at Scorpius who blushed and became very interested in his socks. Elodora turned warily pointing her wand at the dark corner.

"There's nothing there," Scorpius said skeptically, Elodora frowned.

"But I heard..." she shook her head. "Nevermind." She turned and walked briskly towards the empty classroom. Scorpius, feeling a bit stupid, turned to follow her and then suddenly-

"Filth in the corridors, dirty little feets will get them we will my sweet." Scorpius turned to Elodora wide eyed.

"FILCH!"

"RUN!" The two of them sprinted down the corridor, not bothering to check if the caretaker was following-they ripped through passage after passage, Scorpius in the lead, without the faintest idea where they were going. They ducked past a tapestry and hurtled up a staircase, hopping over the trick step. The world seemed to slow down, Scorpius hopped the last step of the staircase, his eyes widening as he spotted a suit of armor and lept to the side, skidding painfully across the marble floor.

Elodora had no such luck, she let out a frightened squeak and covering her face, toppled right into the suit of armor Scorpius had barely missed.

The clanging and crashing could have been heard in the dungeons.

Suddenly there was a loud cackle from the end of the hall.

"Tut tut, ickle firsties out of the hall, naughty naughty you'll get caught!"

Scorpius gritted his teeth angrily.

"Shut up Peeves!" He clamored to his feet, but the poltergeist was blocking his way. Scorpius moved to pass him but Peeves followed him shrieking and cackling.

"Should get filch I should," he said in a saintly voice, his beady black eyes glittering wickedly.

"MOVE!" Scorpius snapped taking a swipe at Peeves just as Elodora called "No!"

"STUDENTS IN THE HALL! STUDENTS IN THE RUNES CORRIDOR!" Peeves bellowed grinning impishly. Scorpius cursed, grabbing Eldoras arm and running towards the end of the corridor, where they slammed into a door. Scorpius groped helplessly for the doorknob, glancing fearfully toward the staircase-

"Honestly," Elodora muttered shoving him out of the way. She ripped Scorpius' wand from his hand and, quietly tapping the lock muttered "Alohomora." There was a loud click and the door swung open. They piled and and slamming the door, pressed their ears against it, listening.

"Won't say nothing if you won't say please."

"PEEVES!"

"Alright, won't say anything if you won't say please."

"PEEVES! Where did they go!"

"Zippity lippity!"

"Alright, please."

"ANYTHING! Told you I wouldn't say anything if you didn't say please!"

There was the sound of something very heavy dropping from very high up and then a great whirring noise and a devilish cackle.

"PEEVES COME BACK THIS-ARG!"

Another loud clang sounded. Scorpius slid away from the doorway, they were in what looked like an abandoned classroom, the desk's were all covered with a thick layer of dust. Scorpius made a face and wiped one off with a bit of his sweater.

"So-er," Elodora hadn't turned around yet. Scorpius tried again. "I was just, er, wondering-well," he blushed helplessly. Dora turned to him and smirked.

"You're wondering why I've brought you to an abandoned classroom in the runes corridor?"

"Well er, yes," said Scorpius blushing furiously. For the first time since he'd seen her Dora met his eyes, her brow furrowed.

"I was just wondering if you were alright-you know, after well," she shrugged weakly, glaring again at her shoes.

"Well, it wasn't exactly pleasant having it done with in front of the school, but it wasn't much worse than I was expecting really." He smiled feebly, but Elodora's frown deepened.

"You thought he would, you know?" She said sounding a bit edgy. Scorpius felt as though the big living monster in his stomach had come back again.

"Well yeah." Scorpius felt a bit stupid. Elodora still looked rather exasperated.

"See I'm a Malfoy," he said, trying a bit desperately to explain why the howler wasn't really unexpected.

"So?" She snapped blankly.

"Well, Malfoy's aren't really supposed to be Gryffindors." She scowled. "There meant to be Slytherins?" Scorpius felt suddenly anxious at the dislike in his friends voice, are they giving her a hard time? But he was distracted by the wide-eyed expression on her face, which was quite funny really, Scorpius suddenly had an odd urge to laugh.

"I keep forgetting you're a muggleborn; you haven't grown up hearing about the wicked Malfoys and their army off darkness." He waved his hands about dramatically, trying to imitate Al, and feeling a bit stupid. Elodora was staring at him uncomfortably.

"We haven't actually got an army of darkness," he said hastily, but she shook her head dismissively. Scorpius racked his brain.

"Wait is this about you being muggleborn?" He suddenly felt very hot in the face. Elodora glanced fearfully at the door and then attempted to turn it into a loud cough.

"YOU HAVEN'T TOLD THEM YET!" Said Scorpius clenching his fist's angrily and glaring at Elodora who shrank into the door. "I'VE JUST BEEN BLOODY DISOWNED AND YOU HAVEN'T TOLD THE SLYTHERIN'S YOU'RE A MUGGLEBORN!

"Scorpius-" she muttered meekly.

"NO! I HAVE TO DEAL WITH ALL THE BLOODY PREJUDICE EVERY BLOODY DAY AND YOU HAVEN'T EVEN TOLD THEM YOUR MUGGLEBORN!"

"Scorpius please it's not my-"

"I DON'T HAVE A CHOICE! I DON'T GET TO BE A COWAR-"

"SCORPIUS! Please quiet down! I wanted to tell them but it's not that easy! I thought you of all people would-"

"Understand?" He said quietly. "No I don't understand how you can hide from the entire bloody school because some people are idiots."

Elodora went very red in the face.

"Your one to talk Scorpius Malfoy," she spatt sullenly, and with one last glare of vindictive fury she wrenched the door open and disappeared into the corridor. Scorpius thought he heard a quiet sob before it slammed.

"So you had a row?" Al asked skeptically.

It was dinnertime and Scorpius had told them what had happened when he left the hall. Al had a large chunk of steak and kidney pie lolling dangerously on the edge of his mouth, but he seemed to have forgotten all about it.

"Honestly Al," Rose grumbled pushing up his chin with a disgusted look. She glanced at Scorpius with a rather sappy expression and then turned back to Al scowling. "Scorpius has just had a fight with someone close to him," she whispered this all very quickly. Al swallowed hurriedly.

"Well he can't have known her that well, we've only been here a week," Al reasoned stabbing another piece of pie with his fork. Rose gave him an I-don't-think-you're-being-very-sensitive look swiveled back to Scorpius.

"Er, Scorp," she said kindly as though he were a very large explosive that might go off at any moment. "Don't you think you may have been a bit, er, hard on Elodora because you were still, er, put-out from your letter?" She met his eye's pleadingly.

"No," Scorpius answered stubbornly. "She was being bloody stupid and she deserved it." Rose frowned and opened her mouth but Al stopped her.

"Leave it," he said. Rose started to object, but she closed her mouth and looked down at her lap. Al glanced at his schedule, which lay abandoned on the table, and cursed.

"First flying lesson on Halloween," he groaned, Rose let out a sharp sigh, however Scorpius was confused.

"What's wrong with Halloween," he asked curiously looking between his two friends.

"Sort of a family taboo," Al started to explain. "My dad's parents died on Halloween and ever since it's sort of been, I don't know cursed." He shrugged. "It's a bit stupid really."

"Oh," Scorpius replied, not really knowing what to say. Rose stood up.

"We should go back to the dormitory, it's almost 2:30." Al's jaw dropped.

"Come on Rosy I've hardly had any dinner!" Rose gave him a pointed look, Scorpius grinned.

"You've had the entire kidney pie Al come on," he said tugging a grumpy Al too his feet. Al groaned and begun to drag his feet towards the double doors.

"Albus Severus Potter," Rose said in a dangerous voice, her eyes narrowing treacherously. "You've had more dinner then most Welsh Green's could take now stop pouting and get the bloody hell over here!"

Al's eye's widened and he scurried to the door grumbling something that sounded like "Grandmum" under his breath.

"So," Al asked turning to Scorpius, they were safely out of the hall now and carefully scaling the marble staircase that lead to Gryffindor tower. "Do you think Filch caught Elodora?" Scorpius winced at her name. "Dunno," he said carefully. "I don't think so, he wasn't there when came out."

"Plus," Albus added grinning, "If Filch had finally managed to catch someone you think he'd announce it to the entire school.

"Al! Don't insult him," Rose said accusingly. "I think he's a perfectly good caretaker,"

"Yeah well you think all teachers are saints," Al pointed out, dogging a slap from Rose. Scorpius snorted, trust Al and Rose to find a way to argue about Filch. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder, Scorpius turned to see Rose eying him carefully.

"Scorpius," she said kindly, "You are alright?" Scorpius frowned at the question, glancing at Al ready for the dark haired boy to crack a joke, but he was oddly silent.

"'Course I am," Scorpius said trying for a smile, "I'm in Gryffindor, and where are they? In stinking Slytherin." Rose returned his smile, but Al furrowed his brow. Scorpius glanced at him. "What's wrong?" he asked curiously.

"Nothing," Al said waving the question away, "It's just, you sound like someone I know." Scorpius tilted his head quizzically, but Al had turned the other way. Without facing him Al said,

"Scop?"

"Mm Yeah Al?"

Where the bloody hell are we?" Scorpius started and look up glancing around for the first time since they left the hall. They were in a large stretch of blank corridor, next to a rather odd tapestry of a man doing some sort of turn in front of a load of pink-clad trolls, one of the more moth eaten ones appeared to be clubbing the man who had just noticed and was shouting rather angrily.

"Is that that one portrait in the charms corridor of that bloke with the red coat?" Scorpius turned towards Al who was squinting at a little man in a sort of poufy tunic. Rose tilted her head.

"No were higher than the charms corridor, that's the fourth floor," she glanced towards the edge of the hall, "We must be at least on the seventh." She turned to look at the odd tapestry and sighed. "Barnabas Barmy should never have tried to teach those trolls ballet..." she trailed off meeting Scorpius' bemused grin.

"Barnabas Barmy?" He asked trying very hard not to laugh. Rose blushed.

"It's not my fault you slept through our history lesson on wednesday." Albus groaned.

"Come on Rosie that class was bloody terrible!"

Rose huffed crossing her arms, Scorpius rolled his eyes and started to pace past the wall.

"If we're on the seventh floor we can't be far from Gryffindor tower," Scorpius reasoned, pacing past the tapestry a second wall. Rose frowned.

"Not necessarily the tower-Oh!" Scorpius who had just crossed the tapestry a third time turned to Rose, who pointed behind him. Scorpius turned bewildered and gasped, were the blank stretch of wall had been was a highly polished door. He flinched back warily, but Al strode forward, grasped the brass handle and pulled it open. Scorpius peered carefully over his shoulder and gulped. They were facing a giant room, much too big to fit were the wall had been. It was white inside, and it may have been spacious if it wasn't piled with so much, well junk. Mountains of clutter stretched across the floor, spiralling up twenty feet, discarded brooms, torn school books, and enough shiny things to keep a niffler occupied for months, splaying across the room for what might have been a mile. A large cupboard to their left was piled with a large charred bust of a little square chinned man. Scorpius' eyes narrowed, an awful lot of the objects seemed to be burned, but why would anyone want to destroy the room?

Before he could stop him Al stepped inside, followed closely by Rose with a wary Scorpius bringing up the end. Rose strode immediately towards a large bookshelf piled high with thick leather volumes, opening one up and fanning it's pages with a calculating expression, Al gravitated to a large black cabinet on the other side of the room. Scorpius kept a firm grasp on the doorknob. Something about this room-

"AAH!"

Scorpius whirled around, Al had opened the odd black cabinet and was staring wide eyed into it, his lip trembling. Scorpius sprinted past the little burned bust, around a stack of keys that appeared to have feathers, skidding to sidestep a very large mirror. He stopped, panting in front of Al, who's face had gone an unpleasant gray color. Scorpius turned slowly to peer over his shoulder, squinting his eyes to see inside the dark cabinet. But there was nothing there. Just the sleek back interior.

"Al there isn't anything there," Rose huffed angrily. Al gulped.

"Exactly," he said, gesturing to his left arm which Al had stuck into the cabinet. But there was nothing there. The arm just sortov, ended. Scorpius felt suddenly very sick, Rose gagged.

"It's still there," Al said quickly, "I can feel it."

"Well it can't have gone on a holiday," Scorpius groaned angrily. Rose mumbled something under her breath, glancing up at Al and back to Scorpius.

"Sorry didn't catch that," Al said in a rather strangled voice.

"Al," she whispered, flinching. "I think you've got to go all the way inside." There was silence at these words, only the sound of paper whistling in the volume Rose had left open only moments ago.

"Al you don't-" Scorpius said quickly, but he had already begun to climb in. Scorpius signed, why am I such a bloody Gryffindor, he thought, let's go in the odd burned room, maybe we'll find treasure!" Scorpius stepped forward, and with a grunt started to duck into the cabinet next to Al.

"What are you-"

"Just because I think your a bloody idiot doesn't mean I'm not coming with you."

Al grinned and shifted over. It was a very large cabinet and they fit easily. Rose gave a sort of half amused half indignant huff.

"Just two words and I could have been a Ravenclaw," Rose muttered wistfully sliding into the cabinet behind them.

"Wait," Scorpius asked quickly. "If we've all gone in here, who's holding the door?" There was a very loud BANG and the cabinet befang to shake. Scorpius pressed his hands to the door and started to rattle it, but it was no use.

"Were sealed in," he said panting, pushing away from the locked door. They tried shaking it, kicking it, heaving against it all at once, but not even Roses Alohomora did anything, they were trapped. The cabinet was still rocking dangerously, Scorpius turned to Al and his jaw dropped. Were his two friends had been a moment ago there was nothing but sleek black paint.

"Scorp!" Rose yelled as though he were very far away. "Al! I can't see either of you."

"Neither can I," Scorpius mumbled, running a hand nervously through his unruly blonde hair. Suddenly he felt a very odd sensation in his gut, like he was very hungry and very dizzy at the same time, his heart started to race, and the cabinet began to spin. Scorpius was pressed against the door, or at least he thought it was the door. His stomach seemed to have forgotten it wasn't meant to be in his throat, he felt as though he was being pressed into a very small space in a very short amount to time, he choked feeling his lungs contract and then suddenly, it was all over.

They were still standing in the sleek black cabinet. Al was panting and clutching his stomach, Rose had gone a rather unfortunate shade of green. Wait! He could see them again!

"Rose I can see you!" Al exclaimed enveloping a blushing Rose in a hugg. "Who would do my history homework if we lost you! Imagine all the papers..." his expression was horrorstuck. Rose pushed him away, poking out her tongue.

"And Scorp!" He cried, "It's already a week in! Losing my best mate would be social suicide." He pressed his hand to his forehead dramatically. Scorpius grind but something in Albus' sentence caught him.

"I'm your best friend?" He asked blushing. Al frowned.

"'Course you are."

Scorpius felt a bit startled. Through all his life he'd never once had anyone say that to him, he found himself a bit touched. Rose however was glancing fervently around the cabinet.

"I think it might be a vanishing cabinet," she murmured squinting to see in the dark.

"A what?" Said Scorpius startled.

"A vanishing cabinet," Rose repeated. "You step inside and it takes you to the other of the pair." Al's face lit up.

"Oh yeah! Dad mentioned one of those once.." Al trailed off. "But if it is a vanishing cabinet, where are we?"

"Dunno," Rose said weakly, "But were not in the room of hidden things anymore."

"The room of hidden things? Really? We find a secret room hidden in the wall piled full of odd dangerous junk and the best you could do is 'the room of hidden things'?" Al looked outraged at her lack of imagination. Rose batted him away. It was then Scorpius noticed her shaky finger pointing towards the corner of the cabinet. The door had silently swung open, and they most certainly were not in the room of hidden things.

They were looking in on a large dimly lit chamber. The tall gilded torches that ran across the cold gray walls reminded him of the great hall, but the resemblance stoped there. It was rather small, especially compared to the burned room and there didn't seem to be anything in it really, except a large black screen and the end of the chamber, the room would have been quite creepy enough without it billowing about menacingly. It was much colder that the castle had been, and Scorpius shivered in his thin T-shirt, hugging his robes around himself in a desperate attempt to keep warm.

"Are we still in the castle?" Al asked cautiously, stepping out of the crowded cabinet and peering about.

"I think so," Rose said hesitantly. "If we are we must be in the dungeons."

Scorpius had followed Al out of the cabinet. The odd black screen was still fluttering very slightly, as though it had just been touch by an invisible hand. Scorpius had the oddest feeling someone was standing behind that veil, so close that if he were only to walk toward it, he might see their hand. The screen swayed gently. He started to walk toward it.

"Scorpius," Rose sounded much more scared than when they had been in the vanishing cabinet. "Scorpius this doesn't feel right." She shifted from foot to foot. He was very close to the screen now it rippled mesmerizing and then...

"Yaxley." It was the faintest whisper, almost like it was never there, and it had come from behind the screen. Scorpius jumped back.

"What was that?" Rose frowned at him.

"What was what?"

"That whisper," he said feeling a bit stupid. Cautiously Rose approached him, setting a careful hand on his shoulder.

"Scorp there wasn't any-"

"Yaxley." Scorpius jumped, Rose stepped back quickly tripping over her foot. Scorpius was inches from the screen his eyes still locked onto it.

"AAAAAH!" A long milky white hand had reached underneath the screen and grabbed his wrist, the soft voice laughed coldly.

"YAXLEY!"

"NO!" Scorpius yelled trying to rip his wrist away from the pale hand. "I'm not Yaxley! You've got the wrong person!" The hand started to slowly pull Scorpius towards the fluttering veil. The blonde boy tried to dig his heels into the ground, but his trainers skidded helplessly across the cool stone.

"SCORPIUS!" Rose called, but her voice sounded far off. Another cold hand stretched out from under the black silk, pale and white with long yellowed fingertips, but this one was even more sickening than the first. It was laden with thin red scars that reminded him of a twisting spiders web, cocooning the smooth pale hand in scarlet silk.

Suddenly something warm gripped his other wrist. He glanced back helplessly. Rose had clamored to her feet and was trying to pull him away from the veil.

"AL!" She screamed.

"What the bloody hell is that thing!" Al asked.

"Hmm let me think...WHO BLOODY CARES HELP ME GET IT OFF HIM!" She gestured quickly to Scorpius, who felt as though his arms were slowly ripping out of their sockets. He was centimeters from the screen now., he clenched his eyes shut ready for impact...but it never came. There was a low hiss and the three of them toppled backward onto the cold stone floor.

Scorpius was panting heavily. He held his palm up to his face, there was a large red mark where the hand had gripped him. He sank onto the floor, why did everything have to happen to him?

"Geroff me!"

"I'm sorry for the way I landed I was a bit busy saving Scorpius from well whatever that thing was!"

Scorpius sat up quickly, glancing around the room. The veil was quiet, the vanishing cabinet was still wide open. He looked to his left, there was a large set of black double doors there, standing slightly ajar. Al and Rose were still arguing.

"I wasn't the one who opened the bloody cabinet-"

"Oh so now this is my fault!" Scorpius signed.

"Will you two shut up for one moment! Let's get out of here." The both turned to him looking startled. Al shook his head quickly.

"Yeah 'course let's go." Al started to walk toward the vanishing cabinet, but Scorpius blocked him, gesturing to the doors.

"Let's not take any more chances."

Al nodded slowly and held out his hand for Rose, who ignored it and hopped up. Scorpius glanced back once more at the black curtain, and with a shudder, pushed open the double doors.

They were in a large hallway, lit by the same torches as the room they'd just left, but crammed full of jars of greenish liquid.

"Look!" Rose pointed, sounding very relieved, at a large stone staircase. As they hurried over to it Scorpius counted the doors. There was only one other. The second corridor in the dungeons, why did that ring a bell? Scorpius gasped.

"The forbidden corridor!" He said dramatically, turning towards Al and Rose. This did not have the desired effect.

"What?" They asked blankly.

"From McGonagall's speech," he said hurriedly, and in a rather good imitation of the headmistress; "The second corridor in the dungeons is to be avoided at all costs..."

"They know that thing is in the castle!" Al asked outraged. Scorpius shrugged.

"You two don't use your brains do you?" Rose asked sounding a bit edgy. "That was a Billowing Barrier." Scorpius stared at her blankly. "Don't you two read! Binns was just talking about them on Wednesday. They were popular during goblin wars because they allowed one part of the body to reach through the otherwise impenetrable wall from the side of the prisoner. The goblins could be forced to make weapons for the wizard who held them captive, and the wizard could still see their hands without becoming vulnerable."

"But those weren't goblin hands," Scorpius said slowly, "Why would someone put, well whatever that thing was behind a Billowing Barrier?"

"Haven't the faintest," Rose answered lightly. "But more importantly, where did they get one? Billowing Barriers," she flinched, "they were outlawed years ago because of the overwhelming death toll of wizards trying to use them."

"Death toll?" Scorpius asked quizzically.

"You can only make a Billowing Barrier-it's awful really-out of a, well, a dementors cape. That's why they're so outrageously powerful and so impossible to find."

Scorpius felt disgusted. He'd heard of dementors, ghastly creatures that feasted on happiness, grandpa Lucius had been around them years ago and he still had fits.

"You can do that?" Albus asked skeptically, "I thought dementors didn't die."

"They don't," Rose answered darkly.

They'd reached the top of the staircase. They rounded a rather sharp corner and reached a large wooden door, Scorpius turned to look at his friends.

"What do you think?" he asked glancing between the two of them. Al shrugged nervously, turning to Rose. The red-haired girl narrowed her eyes and nodded slowly. Best get this done with Scorpius thought, and gripping the iron doorknob, he swung open the door.

The great hall was spread out before them, nearly empty, the glittering golden plates still laid across the table. Scorpius twisted his neck to look at the clock by the teachers table.

"2:50," he said grimly. "We've still got time to visit Hagrid, I've got a few questions for him."