It wasn't until the next morning that they went to Dumbledore's office. Harry and Ron had had a hard time convincing Hermione that they needed to get some sleep first, but she had eventually agreed, though they suspected she spent most of the night reading Gryffindor's journal again. They waited until after breakfast to go and find the sword.

Hermione practically ran to the office entrance. "Hurry up! Walk a little faster, you guys. We don't have all day!"

"Actually," Ron told her, "we do. What's the big rush? The sword will still be there five minutes from now."

"Aren't you curious about what's in the chamber?"

"Yeah, but the chamber isn't going anywhere either. Can you slow down? We just ate."

Hermione waited for Ron and Harry before she gave the password. Then they hurried up the stairs to Dumbledore's office.

"Hello? Professor Dumbledore?" Hermone called. There was no reply.

"Looks like he's gone out again," Harry said. "Let's get the sword, but don't disturb anything else. He's got some weird stuff in here."

"No kidding." Ron said. "Take a look at this! I wonder what it does?"

"Don't touch it, Ron!" Harry wasn't entirely sure what it was, but it looked like a yoyo that had long tentacles attached to the string. It crawled away from Ron's outstretched hand and dropped to the floor with a slight "squish."

"Gross!" Ron hurriedly withdrew his hand.

"Look, here's the sword," Hermione said. "Let's get out of here before we mess anything up. I'm not even sure we should have come in here with the Professor gone."

There was just one problem with Hermione's suggestion.

Ron twisted the doorknob. "It's locked! What now?"

"Let me try." Hermione pulled out her wand and pointed it at the door. "Alohomora!"

Ron tried the knob, but it was still stuck. "I didn't really expect that to work on Dumbledore's door," Hermione said. "But it was worth a try."

Ron threw himself against the door. "Help me, Harry, maybe we can force it open." Harry and Hermione both pushed with him, but the door stayed shut.

Ron looked at the others. "Okay, I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions?"

Harry looked around the office and saw a window. "How high up are we? Maybe we can climb down."

They opened the window and looked outside. Several floors of sheer wall separated them from the ground.

"Okay, so maybe we can't climb down. What was this place designed for? Trapping burglars? There's no way out."

"We'll just have to wait or someone to come let us out," Hermione said. She sat down at the desk and started playing with one of Dumbledore's quills. Ron turned and kicked the wall in frustration.

"Ow! That was stupid. What did we go and let the door close on us for? We should have been watching it."

Suddenly, a grinding noise filled the air. Ron stepped back and stared at the spot he had just kicked. A portion of the wall swung out to reveal a passage behind it.

Hermione stood up. "A secret passage! It might lead out of here! That was brilliant, Ron!"

"It was? Oh, yeah, I knew it was there all a long." Ron blushed slightly at the undeserved praise.

Hermione used the lumos spell to light up the nearest part of the passage. It was incredibly dusty, with huge cobwebs dangling form the ceiling. It had obviously been unused for years.

"Bet Fred and George never found this one," Ron told Harry. "Where does it go, do you think?"

Harry shrugged. "No way to tell until we follow it out."

Hermione led the way into the darkness of the passage. They went down a short staircase, then turned right, turned left, went up some more steps, down a ramp, right, right, up another staircase, left…

Harry was the first to see the light ahead. "Look! We're at the end of the passage!" His voice echoed back in the silence of the passage. It was followed by an irritated clicking noise.

"Spider!" Ron yelled. He and Harry held out their wands, but they couldn't see it to cast any spells. The clicking grew louder, but all they could do was wait for it to come. It sounded like the spider was right by them, but they still couldn't see where it was. Frantic, they gripped their wands even tighter.

The spider dropped on them from the ceiling.

Hermione was knocked to the floor. She dropped her wand and the light went out. Afraid of hitting her with his spell, Harry leapt at the spider. He smacked into it headfirst and it tumbled over.

Hermione scrambled out of the way. She ran her hands over the floor hurriedly, searching for her wand. Ron managed to light his own wand, and she picked up hers and pointed it at the spider.

"Harry, get away from it! I can't cast a spell!"

Hearing that she was ready, Harry stood up and jumped out of the spider's reach. He picked up his own wand and pointed it at the spider, casting a spell at the same time as Hermione.

"Stupify!" they both shouted. The spider curled up into a ball and rolled over. Out of breath from the struggle, Harry got a good look at the spider.

"It's huge," he gasped.

Hermione nudged it with her foot. Curled up, the spider still looked nearly as big as she was. Moving, with its legs extended, it had been a nightmare come to life.

She shuddered. "Let's get out of here, now. I don't care where this passage opens out, I can't stay in here any longer."

They reached the end of the passage. Harry pushed open the wall, and they stepped out. Blinking in the bright light, they looked around.

"Oh, no!" Ron exclaimed. "We're in Dumbledore's office again!"

Harry looked around, defeated. Sure enough, they were back where they had started. The wall on the opposite side of the room was still hanging open where they had entered the passage.

Hermione walked over to the door. She looked as though she wanted to blast it down rather than wait in the office any longer. She raised her wand, but before Harry could stop her from blowing the door away, she began to laugh hysterically.

"I don't believe it! We're such idiots!"

"What is it now, Hermione?" Ron asked warily.

"We were trying to push the door open! But from this side, it pulls!" She turned the knob and pulled open the door.

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other. They all laughed.

"Let's get out of here," Harry said. "But how about we don't tell anyone about this?"

Ron pushed the walls closed, Harry grabbed the sword, and they left, still laughing their heads off.

Thank you for reviewing, everyone who has bothered to! I might be updating a little more slowly, because I'm still writing the rest of the story, but I'll try to write quickly!