-CHAPTER TWELVE-

Ever since the quartet discovered the truth about Uris Amos, it hadn't left their minds. Especially Albus's mind. He hadn't stopped thinking about the Sacred items or Uris Amos. He frowned. The more he thought about it, the more he felt like the information of what they had gathered left out something important. Either that or he was overthinking and hadn't gotten a decent good night's sleep.

As for the girls—Rose and Avery—they had more things on their mind than the Sacred items or Uris Amos. Both of them drew a study schedule and color-coding their notes. As for the boys, not so much which was why every time they are gathered at the common room for study sessions, it causes conflicts.

"Rose, the exams are weeks away,"

"Ten weeks," Rose snapped at Danny. "That's not ages! You do realize that you need to pass these exams in order to go into second year, right?"

"And judging by where you stand, I'd say you wouldn't last that long," Avery replied as she resumed reading.

"Har har,"

"The same goes for you too," Avery snapped at the other boy who seemed, for the moment, distracted. She frowned. "Albus!"

"What?" he snapped back to reality.

Avery sighed. "Oh for goodness sake…"

Danny rolled his eyes. "I still don't see why you two are fuzzed up over the exams. You two already know everything."

"Are you crazy?" Avery thundered. "There are tons and tons of content to read and to review over. I should've began over a month ago. What was I thinking?" she moaned.

"And I never should have brought that book out. Because it keeps being distracted for certain people. Albus!" Rose hollered.

"Gimme a break already," Albus snapped. Danny sniggered.

Unfortunately, the teachers seemed to be brutal when it came to homework. They piled so much homework over Easter holidays that it wasn't much fun as it was on Christmas. It was hard to relax with Avery or Rose when both of them were rehearsing what spell does what and how to perform them correctly. Growing with boredom and yawning, the boys spend their time with the girls at the library to try to get rid of the extra credit as much as they could.

"I think my brain is having a melt down from all of this," Danny groaned as he rubbed his head.

He looked over to Albus who was furiously flipping through pages of the Potions book.

"How the hell can you stay focus for so long?" Danny asked.

"It's easier when you have someone in the family who helps you to stay focus," Albus muttered.

Danny sighed as he stared out at the window. Today was really a fine day—first one they had all week. The sky was blue and cloudless and the familiar smell of summer hung in the air.

"Bloody hell," Danny muttered.

Rose stared at her cousin with a frown upon her face. The more she studied him, the more she realized that he actually looked troubled instead of being focused. She sighed, having an idea of what could possibly on his mind.

"Albus, you need to let it go," Rose said.

Albus sighed. "I just can't. I can't help but to feel that we're missing something. Like there's more to the book than what's it telling us."

Rose shook her head. "Sometimes, it's better not dwell on certain things. You must let it go."

"Yeah, I suppose…" he muttered. The boy trailed his eyes to the side until he saw someone at the far corner. It was none other than Scorpius Malfoy who was sitting alone at the table. He seemed to be studying for the exams as well since there were tons of books spread out.

"Hey, uh—I'll be back. I've got something to do," Albus stated which earned a nod.

Night finally came but that didn't let Albus to have a good night's sleep. He kept on tossing and turning; his mind being plagued with the forbidden corridor. Albus opened his eyes and gave out a frustrated sigh as he took off the covers.

Damn it. This sucks.

He resumed staring at the ceiling with his chain of thoughts running inside his head. Perhaps…just maybe it would do him good if he actually go out to that corridor to get some clues or something. Like exploring more of it. There's have to be something that's happening over there.

Albus quietly climbed off his bed and tiptoed to Danny who was snoring.

"Danny," Albus whispered.

"Mfph," he muttered incoherently.

Albus rolled his eyes. "Danny!" he said quietly again.

The same answer came again and by then, Albus let out a harsh whisper which actually woke Danny up.

"What?" he grumbled.

"I want to check out the corridor and I need you to come with me,"

"We're not allowed to get out at this late, remember? We would be in huge trouble," Danny whispered.

Albus looked in thought until an idea came to him.

"I think it's time to get my dad's old cloak again."

And no sooner or later, Albus and Danny were hidden underneath the cloak—it wasn't easy getting it back from James, needless to say. The two were roaming around the common room, heading towards the door. However, they didn't get too far since there were voices that made them stop in their tracks.

"I knew this would happen. Honestly, you too. You don't ever think, do you?" a voice scolded them.

"And didn't I specifically told you not to think about it?" the second one replied.

Sighing, Albus took off the covers and in front of them were Rose and Avery who were shaking their heads while Avery had her arms crossed over her chest.

"Seriously…?" Danny said. "Why are you two up?"

"Obviously to stop you duh," Avery stated.

Rose quirked an eyebrow. "Oh to hell with it," she groaned. "If you're going then we're coming with you!"

Avery opened her mouth slightly and gave her an incredulous stare. "Are you serious? Do you now know how much trouble we would be in?"

"Well we just can't have these two roaming around," Rose said. "We're going. Final saying," she said firmly.

And so, the quartet found themselves in the forbidden corridor but as they were walking around, one question would always remain. Just exactly what they are looking for?

"Right, we're here…" Albus announced as he took off the cloak. Being distracted, Albus dropped the cloak and began to move forward, slightly pushing Avery and Danny out of the way.

It was silent until Danny spoke.

"So, uh, what exactly are we looking for?" he asked as he scratched his head from confusion.

"Something that's out of the ordinary. The last time I was here, I saw a shadow or at least I think it was. If we could find that again then we may be able to discover more secrets that lies within in this corridor. Then, after that… we could apply the riddle Peeves talked about," Albus answered.

Rose nodded. "Sounds good enough for me."

After five minutes or so had passed, the group decided that they had enough of exploring. They haven't found anything but Albus was desperate and didn't want to leave without something. Maybe if they found evidence, maybe this whole puzzling mystery would finally leave Albus's mind.

"Alright, I give up. I didn't find anything. Whoever is behind this mystery sure knows how to cover their tracks," Avery replied.

Danny nodded. "Yeah and uhm, I hate to tell you this Albus but maybe you're overthinking this. Maybe there's never puzzle to begin with."

Albus stopped in his tracks and turned around to face him. "What do you mean?"

"Well maybe the Headmaster just told us this corridor was forbidden just to scare us off and keep us out of trouble," Danny said.

The boy shook his head. "No, no way. Why would the Headmaster kid around with these kind of things? It seems…seems kind of absurd, doesn't it? Why would he even mention it in the first place? No, the Headmaster would never pull a joke."

Danny sighed. "Well whatever it is, let's get just go back before we get into trouble."

Avery nodded. "Danny's right. Believe me, I have no desire to get detention."

Albus sighed. "Alright,"

As the quartet began to walk back, Danny suddenly tripped over something and he let out a grunt.

"Bloody hell. They just had to have no light here," he muttered.

Rose rolled her eyes but it wasn't until then that something caught her eye.

"Wait a minute," Rose hissed as she went back to the spot where Danny tripped. "Look! There's something on the ground."

But before they could go even further, they heard a voice followed by Albus's voice: "Come on! This way!"

However, the quartet didn't got too far since the minute they turned around the corner, Flich's face loomed suddenly out of the darkness.

"Well, well, well," Flich said, grinning cruelly. "Oh dear, we are in trouble."

Albus had left the invisibility cloak at the other side.

Author's Note: Oh no…Just as they found something, they got caught and by Flich. What else could go wrong? Toodles!