A/N: Okay! Woo-hoo. (Lol, sugar rush) Sorry the updates have taken a while! I am so stressed from midterms! I woke up thirteen times last night, and I took a shower in my sleep at two in the morning… let's just say I was very tired today, lol! Anyways, here's the next chapter! Enjoy! :- ) Oh, and please, please review and read the first chapters (1-3) of Misread Destiny, the prequel to this story! Thanks!
Chapter 37:
Members of the DA began piling into the Room of Requirements at about five fifty. From there, as not to arouse suspicion by traveling in too large a group, Harry took Dean, Ginny, Lenore, and Tabby one route to the new room, Ron took Gwen, Tara, Alex, and Colin another route, and Hermione took Michelle, Robyn, Draco, and Serena on another route.
Harry's group was all very curious about the new room. "Where is it, Harry?" asked Lenore immediately. Harry grinned.
"You'll see…" Lenore sighed impatiently.
"Are we there yet?" sighed Tabby loudly. After several minutes longer walking, Dean spoke up.
"Where are we going, Harry?" Harry just shook his head as the group began climbing the stairs to the tower. They climbed for several straight minutes.
"Well, who cares that there's no gym here," commented Robyn, "If in this club we have to climb these stairs every day! Honestly, I thought our three story school was difficult, and we had an elevator!"
"Elevator?" asked Ginny.
"A lift, Gin," said Harry quickly. "Like at the Ministry…"
"Oh!" said Ginny. "Why isn't there one here, I wonder?" Harry shrugged. Finally they reached the room. Harry swung open the painting and stepped into the room.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Ginny loudly.
"How did you find this?" asked Dean incredulously, looking around the room in awe. "It's huge! How did we just 'forget?' about it?" Even Tabby had nothing to say.
After a minute, Ron, Gwen, Alex, Tara, and Colin entered.
"Wow!" exclaimed Tara immediately. Her black hair gleamed in the sunlight as she stepped past the window. "This is nearly as good as the Room of Requirements!"
"I know," murmured Alex. "This must've taken ages to find!" Harry grinned. When Hermione and her group walked in a moment later, Harry began the meeting.
"First off, this is going to be the new room. It would be… safer, seeing as the secret of the Room of Requirements somehow leaked out…. Anyway, we will be putting some protections on the room and such, so it's safe. Draco, Robyn, and Serena? What charms or protections have you found?"
Serena Fawcett spoke up first. "I think that, for this room… that the Fidelius charm would work the best."
"The Fidelius?" asked Harry skeptically. He looked over at Hermione. "But that's beyond NEWT standard! How would one of us be able to-"
"Harry?" said Hermione timidly. "I… well, I… to put it simply, I learned how to do it this year." Everyone gaped at Hermione.
"You mean," began Tabby, "that you can do a Fidelius charm?" Hermione smiled and nodded. "How?" asked Tabby incredulously.
"Hermione's… like, a wonder student," said Lenore jokingly.
"I see," said Tabby, a look of superiority etched onto her face.
"Well then," said Harry. "I suppose we could give that a try."
Draco then stood and addressed the group. "I think we should do a password for the portrait, and put up wards up; not dangerous ones, but maybe wards that would let whoever's in the room know that there was a person approaching; like a song could play in the room. And definitely silencing charms, and imperturbable charms."
"Like the ones Mum placed on headquarters?" asked Ron to Harry, Hermione, and Ginny. Hermione suddenly glared murderously at Ron. Harry didn't know what she was doing, until he realized…
"What's Headquarters?" asked Colin interestedly.
"Nothing, Colin," said Harry quickly. Colin shrugged, looking put-off.
"Whatever."
"Right," said Harry. "Any other ideas? Robyn?"
"Yeah, actually," began Robyn. "This is for the castle. There is this charm I found, highly complex, of course, that needs a sample of a person's DNA to work. Then, you create this see-through, glue-like potion. It's in some book in the restricted section. Anyway, you make the potion, and recite this charm that goes with it. The charm will put whatever specified hex you insert into it on a person with the specified DNA if they walk through a door you glue the potion onto."
"I've heard about that," began Hermione excitedly. "It would be so cool to try, if only we could get the DNA of some death eaters…"
"We could try it on Snape," laughed Ginny.
"Or Malfoy," muttered Ron.
"Can you put the DNA of more than one person into the potion?" asked Harry. Robyn frowned.
"I'm not quite sure… you probably could, though…" Harry elapsed into thought for a moment. How would they get the DNA of all those death eaters? Suddenly, a thought came to him. Over Christmas break, they probably could… with Malcolm, the new Slytherin spy, who hadn't been able to attend this meeting…
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After the meeting, Harry stayed in the room a moment longer, thinking. Draco stayed behind as well, to look at the Diagon Alley map, and Ginny and Lenore stayed behind to check the patrol schedule.
"Look," chuckled Draco. "My mother's in Diagon Alley… that's pretty interesting…"
"Yeah," Ginny was saying to Lenore, "Lucky this isn't interfering with Quidditch… I can't wait to patrol my first time! How fun will that be?"
"SHIT!" yelled Draco suddenly. Harry looked up.
"What is it, Malfoy?" he asked, startled. Ginny and Lenore looked up as well.
"Language, language, Malfoy…" joked Lenore.
But Draco didn't retort. His mouth was open in horror. "Y-" he stuttered. "You- know-who… Oh, God… Y-You Know Who… is in Diagon- Al-l-ey…"
"What?" cried Harry, Lenore, and Ginny at once. But before they could look at the map, the room seemed to close in on them. It began spinning, and the lights went out. Harry could no longer see the window. It was pitch black.
Ginny screamed as they abruptly stopped spinning, and Harry was hurled a few feet. Before any of them could say a thing, fiery lights flickered on the wall. Shadows.
"No… Acacia, I won't let you! No! You can't-"
"You were always too meddlesome and intelligent for your own good, Ravenclaw," spat a shadow hatefully. "And now it will be the end of you."
"No, Acacia, listen to me… we all knew, and-"
High-pitched, cruel laughter.
"We were best friends," whispered the smaller shadow. "And your daughter, Amara, how could you-"
"That bastard? She's not Salazar's, or Godric's, or Tholium's, and-"
"What does it matter? So she's not the daughter of one of the evil lord's you supposedly love, when all you want is power-"
"Rowena," hissed the shadow dangerously. "Have you a taste of my dear lord's spells quite yet?" The other shadow shook. "No? Crucio!" The second shadow, presumably Rowena, fell to the ground, emitting ear-splitting, horrified screams of pain. And the other shadow laughed. Acacia laughed. Like Voldemort, she laughed. She seemed to laugh for ever, leaving Harry in a trance.
"Did that hurt, Rowena? Stop wasting my time…. Avada Kedavra!" And the scene dissolved. The lights flickered back on, and the walls stopped spinning. Draco was laying down on the floor, sweating and shaking. Harry was in shock. Ginny was crying defeatedly on the floor, and Lenore's eyes had a vacant expression in them.
"I just saw somebody murdered," whispered Lenore. Harry looked at her pityingly.
"You know?" said Draco, "I don't think we're allowed in a room alone together anymore."
Suddenly Harry was jerked into his senses. "Voldemort's in Hogsmeade? We need to tell Dumbledore…"
A/N: Sorry it was so short! Please tell me what you think of Tabby… and the latest things in this chapter! Review!