The Draught of Living Death Chapter 12: Writing on the Walls, a harry potter fanfic

The Draught of Living Death

A/N: Do you guys know how many times I fill this space with a page worth of ranting and raving and then delete it? Just a thought for the day. Sorry, it's short, will try for longer next time.

Chapter Twelve: Writing on the Walls

Ginny knew that what had occurred the previous night between Harry and herself was far from over. However, knowing that the road ahead was bumpy was still a lot easier than attempting to travel it. Now she was content to let the situation rest and try to approach it later when Harry had less on his mind.

So now, the small group, who had once considered themselves friends, and now did not know how to consider each other at all, began searching the school early the next morning.

"Are you sure that was all Professor Dumbledore said, Harry?" Hermione asked for the fifth time.

"Yes, he simply said that she had discovered the key and may have written it in a potions diary, but the diary was never found."

"It just doesn't make sense though. If she was such a potions prodigy, why does Snape hate you?

"Simple, he hates me because of my father and tolerates me because of my mother," Harry responded.

"If that's tolerance," Ginny muttered, "I'd hate to see outright hatred."

"That's enough out of you young lady," Harry said in a tone that was obviously forced. "I've had enough of that sarcastic attitude for one day!"

"Ugh," Ron interrupted. "Never mind, I just realized if I let you guys suffer, I'm going to end up suffering too… if I admit that I already know what's going on, will you guys please stop flirting in public?"

Ginny looked away and Harry's mouth dropped open in surprise.

"Actually, 'Mione, the look on Harry's face is even better than the suffering look, I'll have to keep this in mind."

"Ronald Weasley," Hermione said in warning.

"Where are we anyway?" Ginny asked, hoping to get everyone's minds back on track.

"According to the map," Harry said, "We're actually in a portion of the castle I've never been in. Supposedly this is where the head girl and head boy make their quarters."

"Better memorize it, Hermione," Ginny said quietly. "We know you'll be here someday."

"Wait," Hermione said. "Wasn't your mother head girl?"

"I believe so," Harry responded.

"So Penelope Clearwater mentioned something to me last year that you might find interesting. I don't know if the head boys do this too, but they might. Every head girl writes along the wall of the bedroom. Penelope said most of the sentences were short meaningless phrases. She also said that some of them were really mysterious, as if they were hiding something."

"Do you think we could get in to the head girls room."

Hermione frowned. "Ginny and I probably could, since the room is still unassigned, but there might be a safeguard to keep boys from entering. Better safe than sorry anyways."

Harry nodded. "You two can check in there, I'd really like to check the head boy's bedroom anyways, just out of curiosity."

Harry and Ron walked carefully into the head boy's dormitory. Ron immediately found Percy's name near the top of the far wall.

"Through a person's mind, you shall find his humour," Ron read out loud. "Now that's just dumb," Ron responded.

Ron and Harry searched for about fifteen minutes before the found James Potter's name hidden in a corner.

"Beware the green eyed monster…" Ron muttered the single phrase written on the wall.

"Well that's not helpful," Harry responded.

~ * ~

Ginny and Hermione, meanwhile, were searching the girl's room. It took them twenty minutes to find Lily's name, but when they did, they began to feel hopeless. Written beneathe Lily's name, were the words:

Tower, Tree, Road, Wave, Green eyes and love, must the chosen one have.

"Well," Ginny said, "That's just weird, isn't it?"

"I guess that's the kind of thing we were looking for then," Hermione told her.

Hermione pulled out a piece of paper and copied the message on the wall exactly.

"Let's go get the boys," she said as she pushed her pen behind her ear.

Outside the door they found the boys waiting for them.

"What did you find," Ginny asked immediately.

Harry just smiled, "nothing helpful. What did you two find?"

"We think it might be directions, but we wouldn't know where to start to follow them."

"Let me see," Harry asked. Hermione handed Harry the piece of paper and he slowly began reading the scribbled directions. He frowned slightly.

"I would imagine Tower would probably be either Gryffindor Tower or the Astronomy Tower. Tree, Road and Wave… well, I'm sure once we're headed in the right direction those will make sense too."

"Can we stop for lunch?" Ron asked, "I'm starving."

"I'm not surprised," Hermione huffed, "You haven't eaten in nearly fifteen minutes."

"He's right," Ginny said, "We'll get nowhere if he's hungry."

Harry laughed. "It's not like we're pressed for time or anything," he reminded them. "No one has these directions except us, we just need to remember to keep it that way."

The group slowly left the hall, the lights sweeping out by magic as they shut the door. The flicker of the single candle that had remained lit caught a shadow as it moved stealthily towards the window.

* ~ *

Harry had just begun to take a bite of his baked squash when a squeak he recognized audibly filled the entire Great Hall.

He barely had time to turn around before he heard Dobby lunging towards them.

"What are you doing here?" Ron asked before anyone had a chance to say anything.

"He has every right to go where ever he chooses," Hermione reminded Ron.

"That's not what I meant," Ron told her. "I meant he never comes in here. I was just wondering what would bring him here at this point."

"No, Master Weasley was correct. Dobby should not be here where the young masters and mistresses are eating."

"So what are you here for, Dobby?" Ginny asked.

"Dobby knows you are looking for potions," Dobby responded, his eyes wandering all over the room.

Harry, worried that Dobby was looking for something to punish himself with immediately stepped directly in front of the nervous house elf.

"Did you have something you wanted to tell us, Dobby?"

"Only that what are you looking for exists, but he cannot say where."

"Dobby, anything you can tell us would be helpful."

"Dobby cannot reveal any information his old master gave to him, or he would still have to punish himself."

"That is ridiculous, Dobby," Hermione told him. "You're old master would never know."

However, before they could wrangle any more information out of Dobby, Dobby was running out of the room.

Harry sat down calmly and continued eating.

"Harry, aren't you going to stop him?" Hermione asked immediately.

"No, and I'll tell you why," Harry put his spoon down and wiped his mouth with his napkin. "Because over the years, I've realized that almost anything Dobby really wants to tell me, I don't really want to know.

"Should we start following the directions after lunch then?" Hermione pressed.

"No, I'd rather take the afternoon off. We only have four more days before school starts, let's enjoy them while they last." Seeing Hermione's look of frustration, Harry sighed. "Fine, we'll start looking tomorrow morning. We'll all get up as early as you want to."

"That's not fair," Ginny whined, "I don't want to get up early."

"What if I wake you up?" Harry asked, mocking her pout.

Ron groaned, "What did we say about flirting in public?"