Seeing the Past, Present, and Future

Confusing Code

Sullivan looked around as he walked in, after checking the door handle several times to see that it was not locked (which wasn't how he had left it). The new professor seemed to be able to tell that someone had been in his office as he was cautious, and Harry saw that his hand kept drifting to his pocket, where presumably his wand was. He slowly sat down and opened his briefcase, casting glances around the room all the while. Harry silently hoped she had put back the papers in the same order they were in before as he certainly seemed to know what order they should have been. Seemingly satisfied, he closed his briefcase and proceeded to the file cabinet, which was only half a meter away from Harry and his friend. Sullivan opened each drawer in turn, scanning through its contents briefly and by the end of his search he was frowning slightly. Harry held his breath. Had he put something back in the wrong place? But the professor didn't seem to have noticed anything as he grabbed his briefcase and left the classroom, giving the empty walls one last suspicious look.

Harry pulled off the invisibility cloak and breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the sound of the door's lock. The girl next to him put her finger up to her lips as a sound of silence but she, too, seemed a bit more relaxed. "Let's go," she whispered after a moment.

Harry nodded and stood up. "Should we use the cloak?"

"Can't be too safe," was her response.

Harry nodded and swept it around both of their hunched over figures. (Really, Harry was the only one that was hunched over but the girl ducked her head slightly too, as though feeling she ought not to be standing up perfectly straight, although she could have at her stature.) They walked slowly back to the Gryffindor common room, only taking off the invisibility cloak when they were standing in front of the Fat Lady's portrait. She swung aside (with a rather reproachful look to the both of them) and they stumbled in. Harry suddenly had the urge to laugh. They had done it--and without getting caught! The young, brown-haired girl to his left also seemed more relaxed than she had when they were going to the classroom.

"Here," she said, forcing herself to focus on the business at hand. "I got a sheet of paper that might mean something. It looks like it's written in--well, code wouldn't be the right word, but it's written rather...choppily," she finished, still not sure whether she had described it well.

"Let me see?" Harry spoke.

"Sure," she replied handing the sheet to him. It was written rather oddly. There seemed to be several columns, each labeled with some acronym, and each column held something different. All of them held numbers except for one column which had a number and then a (seemingly random) word. "DOA," Harry spoke, reading aloud the acronym that labeled the first column. "What could that stand for?"

They both thought for a bit before the young girl finally shrugged. "Hey, I'm really tired. Would you mind if I head to bed? You should probably do the same, too. Wouldn't do for you to fall asleep in some class," she added the last part with a smile.

Harry vaguely nodded, still looking at the sheet. DOA, DOA, what could it possibly stand for? If he knew what just one of the letters it would help. But he couldn't figure out even one; there were countless words that begin with "D" or "A." The "O" might stand for "or" (as he noticed in this column there were two numbers with a dash between them) or "of." But were words like that even included in an acronym?

Harry sighed and rubbed his temples. The only word in the first column was "Painsthorpe" and he had no idea what it meant. It was probably code for something. That or something painfully obvious he was looking over. Perhaps he should be getting to bed. Harry sleepily blinked his eyes and wrapped up the piece of paper in his invisibility cloak, resolving to look at it another day.

A/N: Yes, I know, horribly bad pun. Not intentional, though. And my apologies for this chapter being so short, but this is really the best place to break it, I think. At least I've been updating! And please review…

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or his world.

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