Chapter Fourteen

Model Students

They got back in time for the Halloween Feast, although none of them were really hungry or in any mood for the festivities. Andrew and Halbert returned to the common room to find Conner and Stew running some poker games with an ante mixed with candy knuts and even a sickle or two. Zoë and Zack, who had already done fairly well in the first couple of rounds, decided to pull out and followed them up to the dorms.

"We're awfully sorry about the house, Andrew," Zoë said.

"Where are you going to live now? I mean, during holidays and such," Zack asked.

"I don't even think Mum and Father knows the answer to that yet," Andrew sighed.

"Well, you could always stay with us," Zoë suggested.

"What, are you nuts? Put Uncle Severus and Dad in the same house together? The mansion would be totaled within a week!" Zack said.

"Thanks Zoë, but I'm afraid Zack's right. I doubt they'd accept even if it was offered," Andrew said, stepping in the room. The four kids paused at the door then, looking thoughtfully at a large wardrobe that hadn't been there before.

"What's in there?" Zack said curiously, trying the handle. "It's locked."

"Hang on, there's a note on your bed, Andrew," Halbert said, picking it up and handing it to him. Andrew opened it, taking out a key as he read the note.

"Oh, it's my things from my room!" Andrew said. "I suppose they thought it'd take up too much space having it all out somewhere."

"Anything fun in there?" Halbert asked.

"Yeah! Let's play Stop the Dragon!" Zack suggested.

"Alicia hasn't finished painting the new dragon yet," Andrew said, pulling out a few models. "I don't suppose you would want to play Stop the Fire-breathing Bunny?"

"Wow! Did you make this?" Halbert said, opening the door of one of the buildings so he could look inside. "Why, it's a little public house!"

"That's the Three Broomsticks, it's part of Hogsmeade. Hang on. Zack, help me pull out the folding table," Andrew said, the two of them fitting it between his bed and the window as he set up his wooden models.

"This is amazing! You did all of this yourself?" Halbert asked.

"It's a serious case of LEGO deprivation if you ask me," Zack said. "But they are good. Zoë and I painted some of them too, didn't we?"

"Yes, and we made our own figures, where are they?" Zoë asked.

"I keep those all in a special box, so that they're not wandering about. Would you like to make a figure?" Andrew asked, having to step in the wardrobe to get under his bed for the box he was looking for.

"Oh yes!" Halbert said. "This is so detailed, I almost feel like I'm there!"

"If you turn the lights off in the room, all of the buildings lights will turn on because they'll think it's nighttime," Zoë said.

"I'll get it!" Zack said, snuffing the candles out by blowing on the end of his wand as if it were a smoking gun. Zoë rolled her eyes. One by one the lights of the town turned on as Andrew began setting down figures of himself, his siblings and his cousins. Immediately the girls ran to Honeydukes, while Zack ran to the joke shop. Aurelius followed behind Zack and spied on him from the window. Andrew's figure went to the Deli, sitting down with a tiny wooden sandwich.

"Andrew, you are a genius, mon ami," Halbert declared. "I think the only thing lacking here is Hogwarts itself."

"Yeah, Hogwarts!" Zack agreed. "When are you going to start on the castle?"

"Oh, that's why I'm making the small clay statuette in Art Club to put beside the town," Andrew explained. "I've decided that it just wouldn't be possible to do the whole castle. It's just too big, and there are too many rooms and passages. I couldn't possibly get them all as accurate as I'd like."

Zoë and Zack looked at each other thoughtfully.

"We might know a way," Zoë said after a moment. "But then, it's a very big secret."

"Yes, an awfully big secret," Zack agreed. "But she's right, she does know a way you can actually build it."

"All right, go on then," Andrew said curiously as the twins glanced at Halbert. "He's all right. He's in the Pact."

"All right," Zoë said. "You see, the other night when Dumbledore was away, you know, right before art club, I borrowed something from his office."

Andrew stared at her.

"You did what?"

"Well, it's not like it's exactly his… let me go back a bit. Remember when Zack and I first got into trouble in Snape's class and we got sent to Dumbledore's office while he and Dad duked it out? Well, Zack was looking for the candy dish, you know, the crystal one with the odd color and all of the sherbet in it. Anyhow, he saw this parchment in a drawer, and that's when he saw the nicknames on it, and one of the names was Dad's!"

"It was a map," Zack said. "A map to the castle, and apparently, Dad was one of the people that wrote it."

"So, when you told us about the watch going missing and all that stuff with Ciardoth, we thought it might be something to handy to have about. So, I went and got it," Zoë said.

"Are you crazy?" Andrew said. "Do you realize what sort of trouble you will get into if anyone realizes you've stolen something out of Dumbledore's office? You'll be expelled for sure!"

"I don't care, I hate this school," Zoë shrugged, bringing out the map. "Besides, I think you'll change your mind when you see it."

"I'm not going to change my mind. And you don't mean that about hating the school," Andrew said.

"I want to go to school with my friends, and learn normal subjects as well as magic, and be able to go home every night and sleep in my bed instead of beside a bunch of strangers," Zoë said. "And I want to go somewhere where teachers don't treat the students like dirt. So if you want to turn me in, Andrew, go right ahead. But take a look first," she insisted, pulling out the map. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

"Don't you always?" Zack replied.

"Hush, that's what the writing on the parchment told us to say," Zoë said as she tapped the map. And a moment later, there it was and Andrew stared with amazement at the Marauder's Map.

"Incredible," Andrew said. "It's almost like something my sister might come up with. Look at all of these names! There we are!"

"Do you think you could make a model using this?" Zack asked.

"Maybe," Andrew said. "Although I'd still have to see what's in each room to do the interiors, and I'd need a place to build it. I don't think I should build it in here."

"Certainly not," Zoë agreed. "A boys' dormitory is no place to put a work of art."

"Then where do we put it?" Halbert wondered.

"Well, why don't we look and find a place?" Zack suggested, unfolding the map as the group gathered around.

Jennifer had often found that there was no better way to drown her sorrows than over a bubbling cauldron with a tedious and complex formula within. So the moment her last class left with an unusually large amount of homework to mope over, Jennifer turned back to her experiments, attempting to ignore the flickering lights around her as they indicated the presence of Wild magic.

Another House Elf, she told herself. Probably Mercy, in fact. If there had been any besides Jennifer herself aching from the loss of the Broom Closet, it was her; wandering purposelessly through the school whenever she wasn't needed in the kitchen. It had always been her home, since Terra Pince owned it as a summer cottage, and the castle seemed to overwhelm her. Letting out another sigh, Jennifer glanced at a sheet of numbers and measurements floating nearby before reaching for a pouch of Sleep Sand, first dusting her hands in Alchemist Dust so that no stray grains stuck to her hand as she carefully counted each one before letting them fall into the cauldron.

Finally adding the last drop of azalea oil, she sat back to watch it simmer, then suddenly realized that Severus had been standing there watching her.

"I hope this isn't another attempt at trying to find out what my modified Subtle Slumber has in it. If so, I think you've gone a bit overboard," he said expressionlessly.

"No, it's a sleep potion with a dream inducer. I'm borrowing a formula for a popular memory enhancer to see if I can't heighten subconscious memories so they invade the dreams more often."

"It's been tried before, you know," Severus said quietly. "I spent a lot of time looking those formulas up when your memories were gone."

"Yes, but the alchemists that wrote them aren't as determined as I am to find it. I know there are a lot of evil spells out there that can't be undone, but this isn't one of them. I think I'm proof of that."

"Yes, but most people didn't have the benefit of being bonded to a Unicorn to aid them," Severus pointed out.

"What Keki did was give back the part of myself I had lost to help bridge the gap between my mind and my memories," Jennifer said. "So what I really need to do is find a way by spell or potion to create that bridge for the people that need it."

"If there is a way, you'll find it," Severus nodded, glancing at the paper in his hand. "I had a talk with Sirius this morning and he gave me a list of wizard houses in the area. I thought you might like to take a look at it," he said, gazing at it. "Some of them are even reasonable, a few in Hogsmeade."

"Thanks, but I'm really not interested," Jennifer said, turning her attention back to her potion.

"Wouldn't you like to get in some place before Christmas?" he asked.

"No, not really," Jennifer said shortly, heading to the supply shelf.

"Yes, well, I suppose we could easily stay here for Christmas, but hardly for the summer holidays. You can't avoid this forever," Severus said gently.

"And what's wrong with renting? The children are old enough we can actually spend our holiday abroad if we wanted, something along the Riviera perhaps. There are all sorts of places we could explore. I don't want tied down to a house again, not when it's not really necessary. As you said yourself, this is our home."

"Ours, yes, but hardly the children's. And personally, I would rather not live out of a Storage Wardrobe for any longer than necessary," Severus said.

"I don't want another house," Jennifer said stubbornly.

Suddenly the cauldron began to sizzle and boil over, and Jennifer began exclaiming in frustration at being distracted from her work. Severus decided perhaps the best course of action was a quick exit. It was then that he spotted the group of Slytherin walking casually down a side corridor and decided to take a detour, slipping quietly behind them.

"First Minister Weasley, now Minister Brown," Heph said, shaking his head as he handed Stock the paper. "I can't believe they're quitting over this. Here you are, there's the resignation letter, word for word."

"I knew the moment Rummert told me he was going to argue against the charter, things weren't going to go well. He's really one of the best counselors in the country," Stock said.

"Then how come you're still stuck with your parents then?" Heph taunted him.

"Dumbledore has been interfering, of course, and with his pet Malfoy no less. But he did hit your arguments on the head, Aurelius. It's like you've been saying all along. If your mother hadn't gotten involved with that mudblood in the first place, none of this ever would have happened."

"Exactly," Aurelius said. "Maybe now they'll finally wean that mutt and let him go back to his own kind, not that I care what they do any more. I can get along without them."

"Too true," Stock agreed.

"And I am looking forward to finally having some sort of normal life after being stuck in that 'let's all be friends' rubbish town. Anything's an improvement from that," Aurelius said as the three of them turned into the Great Hall. Severus stood leaning against the wall, lost in thought. Finally he turned and headed back in the other direction.

Halbert yawned sleepily as he looked over at Andrew, who was rummaging around in his storage wardrobe.

"You're not going to start on the project tonight, are you?" he asked.

"Just checking my supplies," Andrew said. He closed the cabinet and got out the map, gazing at it thoughtfully. "Zoë and Zack are going to round up everyone for a lunch picnic, and we'll start on it then. This take a lot of lunchtimes, though," Andrew said thoughtfully as he flipped through the map, glancing at all of the rooms.

All was quiet in the halls with only a few teachers out and about, including his father, walking at a rapid pace towards the back of the castle. Suddenly he took a detour into the staff room, and Andrew found himself watching curiously, wondering what he was doing there that late.

Just then, he saw another name appear at the bottom of the steps to the Owlery, walking in the corridor his father had just been in. Andrew stared in surprise, for it was the name 'Aurelius Snape,' walking quite dangerously close to the staff room on his way towards the back staircase, apparently heading back towards the Slytherin rooms. A moment later, Severus exited the door again, and for a minute Andrew was sure that Aurelius would be caught. Instead, his father went the opposite direction towards the main stairwell. Andrew found himself breathing a sigh of relief as his brother made it safely back. He folded the map, wondering what Aurelius was doing sending letters out so late at night. Who did he know that wasn't in school that he would write to?

Putting the map under his pillow, Andrew sighed softly. Everyone had grown so far apart over the last few months, but none so much as Aurelius, barely even acknowledging them anymore. Making up his mind to try and find a way to put things right, Andrew fell asleep, drifting in and out restlessly until he finally got up to go to breakfast the next morning.

The moment Aurelius arrived in the hall, Andrew got his attention, standing to one side of the room where no one could hear them over the morning commotion.

"Well? What is it?" Aurelius asked, tired and grumpy.

"The rest of us are getting together for lunch and I was hoping you'd come too," Andrew said.

"What? Under that beastly tree? No thanks!"

"Oh, we're just meeting at the tree, we're actually going somewhere else," Andrew assured him. "We were going to work on a new model of mine of Hogwarts castle."

Aurelius chuckled in disbelief.

"Look, Andrew, I know you're very good with your models, but you're talking about hundreds and rooms and more secret passageways than you can even begin to imagine," Aurelius said.

"Yes, I know, that's what I thought too until Zoë and Zack showed me a secret," Andrew said mysteriously. "And if you come, then you'll get to see it too." At first it looked to Andrew as if he were going to say no. But if there was one thing that Andrew knew was completely irresistible to his brother, it was a secret that he didn't know about.

"All right, I'll be there. Same time, I imagine," Aurelius nodded to him, then headed to over to his friends. Andrew smiled to himself, suddenly feeling his appetite return and was ready for second helpings.

It was the Whomping Willow who announced to the others that Aurelius had arrived, its branches almost groaning as they moved threateningly in his direction as if daring him to get any closer.

"Who invited him?" Zack said with irritation. Zoë elbowed him.

"I did of course," Andrew said. "Welcome back, Rel."

"Welcome back!" Alex and Alicia said with Mandria, Rose, and Halbert echoing less enthusiastically.

"I hope you don't expect me to get near that thing again?" Aurelius said, jabbing a thumb towards the tree.

"Don't worry, it won't even know you're here in a moment," Rose said, crawling underneath and touching something Aurelius couldn't see. Suddenly it straightened, becoming real quiet, and Rose motioned him forward. "Come on, hurry."

"This way, Aurelius, before he wakes up again," Andrew coaxed. Just then Alex disappeared from view and Aurelius blinked, curious in spite of himself as the others waved him closer. "Hurry, before anyone happens by and sees us."

Finally making up his mind, Aurelius ran forward and spotted a strange opening he had never seen before, sliding in just in front of Andrew and landing in a wide tunnel. Andrew lit a few candles around a rickety table that Zoë and Zack had 'borrowed' from the supply room, taking out his model kits.

"A secret passage? I've never heard of this one," Aurelius said. "Where does it go?"

"Hogsmeade, to a trap door that leads to a hill above Keki's Grove," Zack said. "There used to be a haunted shack there, but there's just a foundation and the floor now."

"It's not a surprise that you don't know about it. I doubt anybody would be brave enough to search this tree for such a thing if one didn't know it was here," Alex said.

"And how is it exactly do you know it's here?" Aurelius asked.

"That secret I told you about, of course," Andrew said, taking something out of his pocket.

"I'll tell him! After all, I borrowed it," Zoë said. Andrew handed it over to her as she tapped the map and said the words, the rest of them eagerly gathering around it. "It's a map of the entire castle. Dad and Remus made it, and two others we don't know yet."

"They made this?" Aurelius asked with mixed alarm and awe as he studied the names walking along the halls. Most were in the Great Hall, the names scrunched up next to each other in eight columns, plus several teachers with bigger names along the top and in the staff room right behind it. Not seeing his parents' names, Aurelius flipped it open to find them having lunch in Severus' office. "This is amazing," he murmured.

"We're going to use it to make the castle model. We can get it pretty close with this," Andrew said.

"Well yes, but not all of the secret passages are listed here," Aurelius mused.

"Are you sure?" Andrew asked with a frown.

"Positive. Look, Alex, there's no mention of the one that connects Slytherin to the classrooms or to your rooms," Aurelius pointed out.

"I'm not sure we could make a model of that one even if we tried," Mandria put in. "Didn't that cover several stories in the castle at once even though it was flat?"

"Yes, but there must be some physical place for it. Maybe there's a dead floor somewhere… you know, a floor we skip in the castle that's being used for that," Alex said. "And now that you mention it, the Chamber of Secrets isn't on here either."

"Of course not," Zack rolled his eyes. "Nobody knew for sure if that existed or not for years and years. Harry found it. It wouldn't be on there."

"So much for having a complete model," Andrew sighed.

"Perhaps we could just ink it in?" Alicia offered, gazing at it.

"You might accidentally break it. We don't know how it was made and we can't ask them without giving away that we have it," Zack said.

"We'll just have to modify the model on our own," Andrew said, writing down some numbers to come up with a good scale. "But we're going to need to find out where that particular passageway Aurelius is talking about is."

"Fine. Let me borrow the map, I'll find it for you," Aurelius sighed.

"Oh no. I just got done letting Andrew use it. It's my turn," Zoë said. "I'll find the passages myself. There's a Hogsmeade trip this weekend, and many of the staff will be gone. We can look for them then."

"Come on, everyone, you can help me by starting on some of the furniture. We're going to need tons of desks and chairs and bookshelves. Alicia, you're in charge of making all the equipment look accurate. Meanwhile, Zacchius, you can help me with the construction of the building itself."

Aurelius sighed again, gazing dubiously at the project and wondering if they were even going to manage getting it done before they graduated, let alone by the end of the year. But his mind soon drifted as he worked on his makeshift table, wondering if he really cared all that much. There were more important things to be concerned about.

Zoë and Zack impatiently waited outside the Great Hall that Saturday morning until Andrew and Halbert came out.

"About time! We were thinking about leaving you behind if you had any more helpings," Zack said. "Guess we'd better get Alicia. Where is she now, Zoë?"

"Still in the Trophy room," Zoë said.

"What does she do in there?" Zack sighed as the four of them started walking. "She's in there all the time."

"Hey, look, there's Aurelius in Snape's office. What do you suppose he's up to?" Zoë wondered.

"It's Hogsmeade day, isn't it? He's probably trying to talk him out of some spending money," Andrew grinned as they went up the stairs. But before they actually got there, Alicia met them in the hall. "Ready to go exploring?"

"Yes, and I already found out the floor we're looking for. It's the thirteenth floor. Come on," Alicia said, leading the way.

"Wait a minute, how do you know?" Zack asked suspiciously.

"A friend told me," Alicia said, heading up the stairs.

"A friend? Who?" Andrew asked curiously.

"No one any of you know," Alicia said enigmatically. "Don't worry, she won't tell on us. In fact, she seemed rather amused by the idea that we're trying to make a model."

"No one any of us know, but someone who knows where the passage is," Zoë repeated dubiously. "Is it a student or a teacher?"

"Well, neither anymore," Alicia admitted. "But if you don't mind, I promised her I wouldn't tell anyone without her permission. Come on," she said. Andrew and Halbert looked at each other thoughtfully. Well, Andrew thought, at least she wasn't trying to hide the fact that she was talking to someone like Aurelius was, and Alicia didn't keep anything out of the Pact a secret unless she had a good reason. Curious, the four of them followed behind her as she counted the floors, stopping at the twelfth floor and looking up. "No, don't go up the staircase. Stay on the bottom few steps."

"What's wrong?" Zack said.

"You won't get up that way is all," Alicia said, glancing behind her at one of the paintings. "Pass By Bypass," she said to the heavily ringed wizard wearing a hat that looked like a great purple bubble on his head. He merely nodded to her and gestured, the staircase suddenly moving until it faced exactly the opposite of the corridor they had come out of. As they climbed up, Andrew noticed the painting of a door…or was it? No, he realized as they actually came close to it. It was a real door with a frame around it…positioned directly above the landing to the stairwell they had come up so that there would be little chance for anyone to find that out accidentally.

"Can't you even give us a hint to how you learned this?" Halbert said with awe as they opened the door and stepped into a hallway. The walls were flat grey stone, lacking any real distinctive qualities at all. It also wasn't lit, so when they came to the first intersection, all three corridors looked dark and narrow.

"Hang on a moment," Andrew said, getting out a piece of paper. "I need to map this so we don't have to come back."

"Are you sure this can be mapped?" Alicia said, peering out a small peephole down the right hall. "Look, this one leads to one of the corridors near one of the towers. Divination, I think," Alicia said, Andrew looking through the peephole after her.

"Astronomy," Andrew said, writing it down.

"But how can it be? The towers are all accessed from the second floor," Halbert said curiously. Zack walked further down the hall to look in the next peephole.

"Look over here! This seems to lead to the room Pyther's been using for our art classes," Zack said. "In fact, I think I'm looking out one of the paintings in the room. I bet we could scare the wits out of him using this."

"Oh, please don't," Alicia said. "You know how nervous he is, he'd probably faint dead away."

"Good thing he's technically already dead then," Zack said, earning a dirty look from Alicia.

"That room is on the second floor too, isn't it? It seems as if these doors are in no particular order," Zoë said with frustration, going farther down and looking in another peephole. "See? This one leads to the corridor near the hospital wing. It doesn't make sense."

"Well, maybe, unless…"

"Unless what, Andrew?" Halbert asked as he thought it out.

"Well, unless we were looking at it from straight down. Here, Zack, give me the Marauder's Map for a moment," Andrew said, folding the map so he could see more than one floor at once. "See, look. The art room is actually situated just a floor below that corridor. This whole floor then is, well, vertical. Well it's not really, it's horizontal, but it's charmed to behave like it's vertical," Andrew said. "If I'm right, then that corridor behind us goes to rooms above us, and the one opposite the way we came in mainly goes side to side. Come on."

Eagerly they worked their way through some of the passages, stopping to peek and check where they were for Andrew to note, comparing them with the map. It was exciting to see his theory proven, making his way systematically to the kitchen, stepping out with satisfaction into the storage pantry, holding the door open for the others and shutting it behind them.

"Figures that we'd end up here," Zack snorted as Andrew handed the map back to Zoë. She shoved it in her pocket without looking at it.

"All this adventuring is making me hungry," Andrew admitted with a grin.

"I totally agree!" Halbert said, loading up on snacks before they stepped into the kitchen. "Francie? Any spare sandwiches for a group of hungry explorers?" He suddenly stopped short, causing the other four to bump into him as they tried to come out the door. "I mean a group of hungry homework type explorers… history… very exciting work. Perhaps explorers is not the right word, mes amis?"

"Halbert, what the h… history, right!" Zack amended quickly as he saw Snape standing by the door. Severus gave them a look of complete cynicism, stepping over to them with a disapproving frown.

"I'll take the map if you don't mind," Severus said.

"Map? What map?" Zoë said with enough sincerity to win her a poker game.

"The one you stole from Dumbledore's Study. If I were you, I would produce it promptly before we all take a nice long walk up to see the Headmaster himself," Severus threatened.

"I don't have any map, Uncle Severus," Zoë said.

"Professor Snape," he snapped at her.

"I have it," Andrew said, getting everyone's attention as he took out a sheet of parchment and handed it to him. Snape glanced at it and rolled his eyes. "Sorry, I didn't know I wasn't allowed to copy it."

"This isn't the map I was talking about! Where's the Marauder's Map? The one that your father told you all about and enticed you to take it for him?" Snape snarled.

Zack laughed outright.

"You really think we'd take orders from our own father about anything? Boy, you are an idiot," Zacchius said.

"Talking disrespectful to a teacher is another ten points from you, Mr. Black!"

"Teacher? Where?" Zack said with surprise. Plucking him by the collar, Snape ordered them all to march out the door and down the hall towards the stair, Zack complaining loudly asking him to let go. As they passed the staff room, Hermione looked out with surprise.

"Problem, Professor Snape?"

"Nothing I can't handle, thank you, I'm just taking these trouble makers to Dumbledore's study," he said curtly.

"Actually, Professor Dumbledore isn't here. Neither is McGonagall, they're both already at Hogsmeade," Hermione said. "And since that's the case, can I ask again what the problem is?" The expression on Snape's face suddenly changed, and Andrew couldn't help but notice how strangely tense he looked.

"I have it on good authority that Miss Black here managed to acquire a certain map from Professor Dumbledore's study which she has yet to produce, and Mr. Black has decided to let his mouth decide a more prudent coarse of action is required."

"And the other three?"

"I caught them all lurking in the passageways and exhibiting suspicious behavior they have yet to explain!" Severus said, squinting at them.

"We were just exploring!"Alicia protested, looking pleadingly over at Hermione. "Andrew wanted to know how this specific type of passageways worked."

"Yes, and I figured it out too! You see, if you pretend you're looking at the passages from above them, and you go down one of the corridors…"

"Thank you, Andrew," Hermione said.

"I made a map. Professor Snape has it," Andrew admitted.

"And it's the only map we have!" Zoë blurted out. "Go ahead, check if you like!" she said, turning out her pockets. The rest of them followed suit, producing nothing but a few candies, pens and colored chalk. Hermione got out her wand, making a circle movement with it as she pointed it at them.

"Reveal Concealed," she intoned, waiting a moment. Suddenly, four large packages of biscuits and bags of sandwiches popped out from under Halbert and Andrew's shirts and trousers. As they looked forlornly at their stash now on the floor, Hermione sighed and shook her head.

"Professor Snape, I think you might want to question this good authority of yours about your information. Professor Dumbledore hasn't mentioned anything to me about any stolen items out of his office, and I think he would have before he left for the day if it was something important, don't you?" Hermione said calmly. Snape, however, was squinting at the students. "And considering that I know two of these children are confined to the castle without even Quidditch to look forward to on the weekends, I think it's only natural that they might be looking for something to do."

"Then, Professor Weasley, if you believe that is all that it is, might I suggest that you offer them something more constructive to fill their time," Snape said carefully, his smile thin and cold. Hermione looked thoughtfully at them before nodding.

"Perhaps you're right, Professor Snape," she agreed. "Mr. and Miss Black, I understand you expressed some interest in joining the paper at one point. I believe Editor Pensington was trying to make copy today, and she would love to have the five of you helping out. I'm sure you'll be done before dinner, so you'll have plenty of time afterwards to go to the library or your dorm rooms and study for awhile," she added cheerfully. As Zoë began to leave, Hermione cleared her throat. "Actually, the journalism room is the other way, third floor, straight up the stairs, fifth room from the landing."

"Thank you, Professor," Andrew said, picking up his food before the five of them walked in that direction. Alicia gave her father a wary look as she passed by, leery of the scowl Snape was giving them as they passed.

"I thought you were planning to go to Hogsmeade this trip, Severus," Hermione said questioningly after they left.

"Yes, until it occurred to me I was leaving as much trouble behind as I was taking with me," he said. "Whatever it was they were doing, Hermione, it was hardly innocent."

"Go, Severus, I promise I'll keep an eye on them. I doubt they can get into much trouble merely copying and addressing newspapers," Hermione reassured him.

"That remains to be seen," Severus said dubiously, but reluctantly nodded and made his exit. Hermione shook her head as she watched him go, then went back into the staff room.

In the meantime, Zoë quickly doubled back and ran into the kitchen, pushing open the door of the pantry and searching around. Andrew suddenly appeared beside her, helping her look.

"Where did you put it?" Andrew asked.

"Just inside the door on this little rack, but I don't see it now!"

"I still can't believe you just dropped it!"

"Well what did you expect me to do, let him search me? It's got to be here."

"Perhaps a House Elf picked it up. Francie?" Andrew called.

"Master Andrew!" Francie said. "Need more sandwiches?"

"No, Francie. My cousin dropped something, a map, have you seen it?"

"No, Master Andrew! But I will ask!"

"Quietly, please! It's a secret!" Zoë hissed.

"Now who would a House Elf tell?" Andrew sighed, turning back around. Suddenly, he frowned. "Zoë, did we close the secret passage when we came out?"

"I don't know, why?"

"Because it's open," Andrew said. Zoë turned to stare at it a moment before looking back at him worriedly.

"Now what do we do?" she murmured, the two of them searching one last time before they reluctantly went to tell the others.