Chapter 37

On the Saturday night, Dobby woke Harry up.

"What is the matter, Dobby?" Harry asked half asleep.

"Sorry, Master Harry, Sir but you told me to wake you if someone entered the passageway between the school and Chamber of Secrets," Dobby replied.

Harry started dressing immediately. As soon as he was in his trunk, Harry Portkeyed to the trap free area in the passageway between the school and the Chamber of Secrets. When he arrived, he found Ginny unconscious from trap that had been triggered. Harry levitated the unconscious Ginny into his arms. He replaced the trap that had been tripped and poured Firewhiskey down Ginny's unconscious throat. Once he was sure Ginny was drunk enough, he took Ginny to Hogsmeade. Harry used Ginny's wand to break into the Three Broomsticks, and he placed Ginny into a chair with a half empty bottle of firewhiskey in her hand. Harry then removed all traces from Ginny of the trap she triggered and left her there. Once finished, he then used a time turner to go back to bed.

The next morning, Harry informed Hermione of what had happened last night and what he did. Hermione broke into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

"Ginny is going to be very angry at Tom for getting her into trouble," Hermione said when she finally got herself under control.

"A redhead's temper is legendary, and I am wondering if this is going to have any impact on our plans," Harry said.

"I doubt it since Tom already has a strong hold over Ginny by now. It takes a lot of control to take over someone without them knowing. The only problem will be the reactions of her brothers."

"You are right. Her brothers are not going let her do anything by herself, and she will probably be locked in at night so that she cannot leave."

"Tom is resourceful and he will think of something. This fits perfectly into our plans since the incident will be interpreted as Voldemort being angry that his followers deserted him so he decided to get drunk. That will be later," Hermione reassured Harry.

When they arrived at breakfast later than usual, all the Weasleys were absent, which was not surprising in the least. Mandy dragged Hermione into the seat next to her.

"You're going love the gossip I have got for you. I know that you don't like Draco but this gossip is all about him," Mandy said as soon as Hermione was seated. "As you know the Slytherins have been trying all week to offload any illegal contraband they had. The Weasley twins have been buying most of it. Anyway, the reason became clear this morning. It seems that Professor Snape, their Head of House, was doing an inspection of every dorm. It seems that all the Slytherins knew about it, and they were trying to offload as much they could. Snape was still able to find quite a bit of contraband, and about a third of the house now has detention or has lost house points.

During the inspection, Snape had found a copy of all his notes in Draco's possession. He did not think his godson stole his notes, but believed that someone else from Slytherin was cunning enough to make Draco their scapegoat. Draco still got detention for not being smart enough to avoid being used as a scapegoat. That is why he looked so miserable this morning.

"How did you find out?"

"Tracey Davis from our year told me, she believes that all the other houses are going to be inspected today as well."

"Why does she think the other houses are going to be inspected as well?"

"They found a lot of contraband."

"We need to warn the Weasley twins," Harry said.

"Don't worry. I am sure the Slytherins will tell them since a lot of the Slytherins could not live without the services that the twins provide," Mandy said reassuringly.

"I still want to make sure that they have been warned," Harry said.

"I will accompany you," Hermione said.

As soon as they were out of sight, Harry said to Hermione, "I think we might have lost the diary."

"Where are Ginny and the twins now?" Hermione asked. Harry took out the Marauders' Map and searched for the Weasleys. They were all in the headmaster's office.

"There is nothing we can do now. I say we grab some breakfast before we move all but our essential equipment out of Hogwarts," Harry suggested.

"That seems like a good idea. I think I will grab some fruit so that I can work while having my breakfast because in all likelihood our dorms are going to be one of the first inspected."

"Do you have that much stuff?" Harry asked.

"No, not really, but I want to check my stuff after I cleared everything out to make sure I did not leave anything. Then I will check your stuff as well to make sure that you did not forget anything."

"Do want me to check your stuff?" Harry offered. This got an outraged reaction from Hermione.

"I don't think so, buddy. I will get one of the girls to check my stuff for me," Hermione said in response to his offer.

A little later, after Harry had finished clearing his non-essential stuff, Hermione came along and started checking Harry's stuff. Hermione found one of Harry's Invisibility Cloaks. She was pleased to note that Harry had put away the Marauders' Map and his spare wands. When Hermione showed Harry, the Invisibility Cloak she found, he just replied with an embarrassed "Oops."

"What if the Professors found it? They would have confiscated in a second."

"I know. At least it is not my Dad's family heirloom."

"How about your Basilisk armour and protection necklaces?"

"I am wearing a set of the Basilisk Armour and one of the protection necklaces. The rest is not here at Hogwarts."

"I think you should take it off and give it to Dobby to put in my old home for now."

"But I feel naked without it on…" Harry complained.

"Do you prefer feeling naked for a few hours or letting the Professors know how we can overcome curses fired at us?"

"Okay. I will take it off," Harry said knowing she was right.

While Harry was changing out of his Basilisk Armour, Professor Flitwick arrived with Professor McGonagall accompanying him.

"Everyone stop what you are doing. This is a surprise inspection for contraband materials," Professor Flitwick announced. "Prefects gather everyone up and have them gather over there."

"What do you consider contraband materials?" a student asked.

"Anything on Filch's list and anything that can cause harm to others," Professor Flitwick explained. This relaxed most students but caused others to worry.

When Harry finally came out of the toilets without his protective necklace or Basilisk Armour there was a group of prefects and Professor McGonagall going through all the stuff in their dorm.

One of the Prefects looked up as soon as he noticed Harry. He then said, "Harry, please go down to the common room. We are conducting a surprise inspection."

"Okay," Harry said before heading to the common room. When he arrived, two prefects and Professor Flitwick searched him before being let him pass.

"Is this legal?" a fellow Ravenclaw student asked.

"Actually it is part of the charter, even though it has not been done in years," a seventh year student stated.

"Have they found any of the Weasley twin's catalogues yet?" Harry asked.

"Even if they do find it, The Professors will think it is just a history textbook. Only students can see it as a catalogue. Why do you think they have not been caught yet?"

"What about the prefects?" Harry asked.

"If they don't use the service themselves, then they know that their classmates will kill them if they blabbed. I think that anyone caught with contraband purchased from the twins will not admit they got it from them. This would make their classmates mad at them, and the twins will never deal with them again. It would be worse than almost anything the professors could come up with," another Ravenclaw student explained. All of a sudden, Professor McGonagall and the Prefects came from the Second year dorms. Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick conversed for a few minutes, and then Professor Flitwick asked loudly, "Mr. Corner, do mind explaining why you have girl's underwear in your trunk?"

"It is not what you think..." Michael Corner said quickly. "Cho and Marietta told me to take Luna's underwear."

"Cho and Marietta, do you mind telling why you made Mr. Corner steal Luna's underwear?"

"It was a game; that is all."

"Miss Lovegood, are you wearing any underwear?"

"No, Sir."

"Do you have any underwear?"

"No, Sir."

"Miss Chang and Miss Edgecombe, it is not a game when you steal someone's underwear. You have both got one month's detention with me. Mr. Corner you have a week's worth of detention."

"Is it not a bit harsh?" Professor McGonagall tried to intercede on their behalf.

"This has nothing to do with you Minerva; this is an internal house matter," Professor Flitwick said threateningly.

"Don't blame me when they go Dark..." Professor McGonagall said.

"If we don't show them that the behaviour is wrong, how are they supposed to know? Actions without consequences lead to Darkness; it is not caused by making people responsible for their actions," a very angry Professor Flitwick forcibly replied. Professor McGonagall decided to back down quickly, seeing how mad Professor Flitwick was.

"Mr Potter, I need to see you," Professor McGonagall announced.

"I don't think so; do you remember the agreement between the headmaster and me?" Harry said.

"Professor Flitwick, you may deal with him," Professor McGonagall said before walking away, unhappily mumbling under her breath.

"Yes Professor. What do you want to talk to me about?"

"Why do you have such a big trunk?"

"I like to have a little private place of my own. I have looked it up, and it is not against the rules. The only reason why most students don't have trunks like this is because of the cost of getting such a trunk. Did you find anything else that you wish to question?" Harry asked.

"No, nothing from you. Only a few of your classmates had some slight issues with a small quantity of items, but nothing major so far. However, we still have to complete the third years and above," Professor Flitwick replied.

The Ravenclaw students were kept in their common room while the two professors and the prefects continued the search for illegal items. At lunch time, they were all finally let out. Harry and Hermione went immediately into an empty classroom where they called for Dobby to get their items back. They retrieved their Basilisk Armour, protective necklaces, Invisibility Cloaks, the Marauders' Map and two time turners. They put on their protective gear before using the time turners to their maximum capability. Hermione immediately did the time spell.

"It is an hour after breakfast," Hermione said.

"The inspection would already have commenced. This means that we have an hour's gap where we don't know the location of Ginny. It is enough time for her to hide the diary if the Professors have not taken it from her. This could definitely ruin our plans," Harry said.

"I don't think so. She is still considered as possessed until they destroy the diary. Where is Ginny right now?"

"She is currently in the second floor girls' toilet. It looks like she is serving detention since Filch is with her as is Percy as well. That must be a cruel detention since she hates those toilets."

"Well the Professors think she sneaked out of Hogwarts, broke into the Three Broomsticks and got drunk. Dumbledore probably took suspension and expulsion off the table as possible punishments, so that would be the next best punishment," Hermione speculated.

"We should search through Ginny's things to make sure she did not leave the diary in her room."

"You can't go into the girls' dorm, remember. I will search Ginny's things while you warn the twins about the upcoming surprise inspection."

"Okay," Harry said. Hermione headed off to the Gryffindor first year girl's dorm to search Ginny's belongings. Harry then searched the Marauders' Map to find the Weasley twins, only to discover they were in the Gryffindor Common Room with their brother, Ron. Since this time round he was a Ravenclaw student, going into the Gryffindor Common Room was not a good idea. He quickly wrote a message on a piece of paper informing them of the inspection before turning it into an airplane, like they did in the Ministry.

Since there was nothing he could do until Hermione came back, Harry looked to see what was happening on the Marauders' Map. Snape was in his classroom with Draco and a few other Slytherins, probably conducting detention. Professors Vector, Sprout and Lockhart were in the Hufflepuff common room and quarters, most likely conducting an inspection. Seeing Lockhart, Harry was reminded that he should look at the reports and photos that the house elves obtained on Lockhart.

"Dobby," Harry called.

"Yes. Master Harry, Sir?"

"Can you get me the reports and photos of Professor Lockhart?" Harry asked. Dobby quickly returned with the requested items.

"Is that all?" Dobby asked.

"Yes. Thank you Dobby," Harry said absent-mindedly as he read the reports. It appeared that Lockhart was sleeping in his classroom rather than going into his quarters or his office. In fact, he spent as little time in his quarters or office as possible. That why it had such little effect on him so far. Harry then went to Lockhart's quarters and put house-elf wards around the rooms. This would mean that Lockhart would have to go into the rooms himself if he wanted anything from them. He was planning a night time excursion to Lockhart's classroom to put a redirection ward around Lockhart so that his mail went to his office instead of to him. It was during this planning that Hermione arrived.

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked.

"I am trying to get Lockhart to go to his office more since he has been avoiding his office and private quarters as much as possible. In fact, he has being sleeping in his classroom," Harry said.

"Why don't you strip him down to his underwear and put him into a deep sleep? His first Monday class will find him in that undressed state and asleep. If that does not make him sleep in his private quarters, then we will have to think of something else," Hermione suggested.

"That sounds like a good plan. Did you find the Diary?" Harry asked.

"No I could not find the Diary. But I did find a lot of pictures of you plus an entire book where she has practised signing her married name, Ginerva Molly Potter," Hermione said cheekily.

"Never going to happen… I will kill myself before I do that again," Harry stated emphatically.

"Did you tell the twins about the inspection?"

"I sent them a message via paper aeroplane since I cannot go into their common room."

"Let's plan this excursion together. After that, we can go to lunch and see if the twins got your message," Hermione suggested.

It was halfway through lunch before the Weasley twins arrived with their brothers and Ginny. Harry finished his lunch and waited for the twins to be alone so that he could talk to them. Near the end of lunch, Harry decided he could not wait any longer so he approached the twins, who were in a deep discussion with their siblings.

"George, Fred, can I talk to you?" Harry asked. The twins looked at each other before nodding.

"We will speak to you later," George said to Ron, Percy and Ginny.

"Sorry for interrupting you back there; I hope I did not interrupt anything important," Harry said.

"No problem, you are going hear about anyway so we might as well tell you. Professor Snape knows about it, so I doubt he will keep his mouth shut. Ginny was found drunk at the Three Broomsticks this morning. She lucky she was not expelled, suspended, or charged for burglary. We are organising a rotating schedule where we watch over her since she claims she was sleep walking," George replied with concern over his sister's behaviour.

"Sorry to hear about your troubles. So how did she get out of the burglary charge?" Harry asked.

"Professor McGonagall had to call on a favour to get the charge dropped. She was not happy about it, but the Headmaster forced her to. In fact, if Professor McGonagall had her way, Ginny would have been suspended. Dumbledore would not hear of it while Snape, the git, was pushing for expulsion."

"Anyway, did you get my message?"

"We did. Thank you for the warning but it was not necessary. When the Slytherins started trying to sell us things on the banned list, we knew something was up. We moved all our stuff into an empty classroom."

"I think you better go now, as I think your dorms will be searched right after lunch."

"See you later, Harry," the twins said as they left.

That evening, after dinner Dumbledore got up to make an announcement.

"As you all will have noticed, we have just completed a surprise inspection of all students. I am disappointed to note how much contraband we discovered. Please familiarise yourselves with the list of banned items," Dumbledore stated, which brought a smile to Filch's face that looked extremely out of place.

"Let us hope that it will not be necessary to repeat the inspection," Dumbledore said while looking directly at Professor Snape. Then Dumbledore sat down.