THE DADA MANSION

CHAPTER FIVE – Nearly there

They all woke up stiff the next morning. Clearly, comforting charms had not been placed on the camp beds. Harry supposed that this was a part of the test of the mansion; Ron certainly seemed to think so, he wouldn't stop complaining.

After listening to Ron complaining non-stop whilst they ate breakfast (cold cereal), Harry finally lost his temper and snapped, "Would you just shut up! We are all just as sore as you."

Hermione looked taken aback by Harry's sudden show of anger, but chose not to comment, she just turned and headed into the small bathroom that had appeared in a corner of the kitchen.

Seamus yawned loudly, "I wonder what we'll have to do today, I hope it's not too hard, I don't feel like spending my weekend doing hard work," he paused, saw the look on Hermione's face, and continued, "but I know how important this is to our education, so I shall endeavor to do my very best."

Ron's snort of laughter was by no means quiet or subtle.

There wasn't much talk for a while as they ate. In a short space of time, they had all finished and the bowls and cutlery flew themselves off into the sink and began washing themselves, and the camp beds disappeared.

"So," said Harry, "what are we going to do now?"

A door appeared where the girl's beds had been.

"It looks like we go through that door," said Ron obviously.

Hermione looked at him, "Very perceptive, Ron."

Harry looked around, "Wands out," he said.

Seamus walked so that he was closest to the door, "It's my turn to do something," he said, taking the door handle in his hand and pulling it open. A very narrow corridor stood before them.

"Wow," muttered Hermione, "this looks just like one of the servant passages from the turn of the century."

Harry looked at her, "I agree. So is this likely to mean that we're going to face some old curses, or is it just decoration?"

Hermione shrugged, "I can only guess at that, but it would be a good idea for everyone to keep in mind these may be old curses."

"Does that mean the curses are going to be easier or harder to break?" asked Lavender.

"Unfortunately, it could mean either one of those two. Some of the ancient curses were a joke compared with today's standards; however, there were also quite a few which are stronger than anything we learn at Hogwarts. All I can suggest is to be wary and alert," replied Hermione.

They crept into the hall, Ron shutting the kitchen door behind him as he left.

"Wouldn't it make sense to leave a gap in between us?" asked Harry. "That way, if something jumps out at us, or whatever, we'll be able to deal with it easier and faster."

Hermione nodded, "I agree."

They started walking down the hall, following Seamus, and leaving a gap of about five paces or so separating each person. They skulked up the hallway, pausing to try and open each door that they passed. They were all locked. All except for one, right at the end of the hallway. Seamus cautiously opened the door, then backed away quickly, knocking Neville over in his haste, as if he were expecting someone to come flying out of it and start using the Unforgivable Curses.

It was a small, dark and damp cupboard-sized room. Ron pushed his way to the front and stuck his head in the room. "Cool," he said. Fears and precautions forgotten, he stepped into the room and started looking around, tapping the walls.

Harry stepped forward, "That sounds hollow." Following Ron's lead, he stepped into the room and started not tapping on the walls, but running his hands along them, as if he were trying to find...

They all jumped back. A hatch in the wall had slid away, revealing an old, narrow and tall staircase.

"My turn to lead, I suppose," said Neville, pushing his way to the front of the group. He started slowly up the stairs, followed by Seamus, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Lavender.

It was not the most pleasant place to be, thought Harry. The stairs creaked every time someone shifted their weight; it had a horrible musty smell, as if it no fresh air had passed thorough it in a long time, and it was narrow, so narrow it was almost hard to balance yourself.

Neville was nearly half way up the stairs as Harry put his foot on the first step. As Harry looked up, Neville seemed to wobble, nearly regained control, then toppled backwards onto Seamus, who in turn fell onto Harry, who landed with a thud at Hermione's feet. He heard a sudden outburst of giggling from Lavender as he got up and brushed himself off. All of a sudden it seemed to set the rest of them off; Hermione and Ron were laughing so hard at the comical incident that had just happened that they needed to support each other in order to remain upright.

Harry just glared at them, a bit to embarrassed to put together a scathing comment to them. He, Seamus and Neville pointedly ignored their three laughing companions, and turned, ready to start going up the stairs again.

"Neville," said Harry, enunciating his words clearly and pointedly, "it's just a trick stair, like the ones in the castle, so all you have to do is jump over it." The peals of laughter continued from behind him. Starting to get annoyed, he turned on them, "Are you three just going to stand there laughing all day, or are you going to come with us so we can," he looked at Hermione, "pass this subject?"

Ron kept laughing, "Yep, we're just gonna keep on."

Hermione let out a few more giggles, then stopped. "Sorry, Harry." she choked out, clearly still containing a few laughs.

Harry glared momentarily at her, then spun on his heel and started walking up the stairs, followed, at a distance, by Hermione. The giggles below subsided only when Harry, Seamus and Neville had successfully jumped over the trick stair. Harry managed to reach the top of the staircase without any other mishaps. It was only then that he turned and saw Ron and Lavender sober up and start climbing the stairs.

As Harry reached the last stair, he stopped suddenly, nearly making Seamus lose his balance as he bumped into Harry.

"Ouch, why did you stop?" he said indignantly.

Harry leaned towards the wall slightly, allowing Seamus a clear view of what Harry was facing.

"Oh," said Seamus, "A blank wall. What do we do now?"

"Well, we could-" he started to say.

"Try Alohamora," interrupted Hermione.

"-try Alohamora," finished Harry. "Thank you, Hermione," he called down, sarcasm seeping in slightly. He was almost certain that he heard a 'you're welcome' float back up the stairs. Gritting his teeth, Harry turned his concentration to the blank wall in front of him. Pulling out his wand, he said, "Alohamora!" and the wall slid open in front of him. Somewhat surprised that such a basic charm had worked; Harry stepped through the gap with some trepidation. Nothing happened though, and Harry was starting to think that this mansion was just a bunch of anti-climatic tasks. Nevertheless, Harry didn't move more than one step into the room. He simply stood and surveyed it first. Once again, it was a relatively unremarkable room, a large, square bedroom with a four-poster bed not unlike the ones that were in the dormitories in Gryffindor Tower, with a matching large wardrobe and a door directly opposite the hole Harry climbed out of. He couldn't see anything that looked dangerous or suspicious, so he gestured for Seamus to follow him through. Soon they were all standing rather stiffly in the bedroom, as if they were expecting monsters to jump out and attack them from every direction.

Ron shook his head, said, "This mansion is boring," and went to sit down on the bed. When nothing happened, Hermione followed him and sat next to him, tapping her wand thoughtfully on her hand. Harry looked around the room, but he wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings until he approached the door at the other end, when suddenly a fire sprung up, burning high, too high for them to get past it. Harry jumped instinctively away from the flames.

He turned back to face the bed, his heart beating fast. Ron got up to see if Harry was all right, and guided him to sit on the bed, next to Hermione. It only took Harry a few moments to recover his heart rate, but he sat without saying a word for a few more moments, feeling slightly stupid.

Hermione looked sideways at Harry, "Are you ok?" she asked, concerned.

Harry sat up straighter, "Yes, I'm fine. It just shocked me for a moment, that's all."

Satisfied that his best friend was all right, Ron flopped on the floor, stretching out. "Well, I hope our assessed trip later this year is as easy as this." He looked up and saw a glare from Hermione. "No, really, Hermione; why can't I look forward to an easy assessment? What is so wrong with that?"

Hermione was just starting to argue when she was cut off by an exclamation from Ron. "What is it?" she asked.

Ron just ignored Hermione and began to slide himself across the floor towards the bed where Hermione's legs were dangling off the edge.

"Ron, what are you doing?" asked Harry, bewildered at Ron's behavior as he slid himself on the floor between Hermione's legs, extracting a yelp of disgust from Hermione and Harry simultaneously.

He kept crawling until he was nearly completely under the bed, when they heard a ripping noise, followed by Ron's head popping out, cheerfully looking at them and waving a bright purple bit of parchment.

"Look," he said, completely unnecessarily, as they were all staring at him.

Regaining her composure faster than anyone else, Hermione asked, "Well, what is it, Ron? Is there anything written on it?"

They all gathered around Ron as he unfolded the parchment and read from it:

'Look in the wardrobe.'

Ron looked up at the faces surrounding him, then turned to look at the wardrobe. "Well, what do you say we try it?"

Hermione stood and walked over to the wardrobe. As she stood next to it, it vibrated slightly and then stayed still. Lavender wandered over, and she and Hermione stood very still, listening and watching it for any sign of movement.

After a few minutes, the wardrobe had rattled only occasionally, giving off no signs of deadly danger, so Neville wandered over. "What do you think it is? Could it be a boggart?"

Hermione suddenly stared at the door with immense concentration, "I don't think so, Neville."

Neville looked affronted, "It fits, Hermione: it's in a dark, enclosed space which is rattling occasionally. That's textbook for a boggart."

Hermione shook her head, annoyed, "Fine, Neville, if you're so sure it's a boggart, then you take care of it."

"Alright, I will."

Hermione and Lavender moved away from the wardrobe to where Harry and Seamus were standing.

Neville paused, clearly hoping that he had been correct in his assumption. He pointed his wand at the doorknob, and the door came flying open, followed by...

"Snape!" exclaimed Lavender.

Snape walked menacingly forwards, his eyes focused on Neville, who concentrated hard, then said, "Riddikulus!" The familiar whip crack sound was heard, and Snape appeared in a woman's dress, complete with a stuffed vulture hat.

Hermione turned her back on Snape as Ron, Seamus, Lavender and Harry began laughing; nothing quite compared to a cross-dressing teacher for laughter, but Hermione didn't care. Nothing had been going right for her so far in this mansion. She turned back, sat on the bed and thoughtfully watched everyone else enjoying themselves. Why was this trip into the mansion going so well, she wondered. Surely it had been set up this way to lure them into a false sense of confidence? Harry noticed Hermione watching them thoughtfully, and went to sit down next to her.

"What's wrong, Hermione?" he asked.

She just shook her head, "Something's not quite right; why is this mansion so easy?"

Harry just shrugged, "What's wrong with it being easy? And what happened to this not being, and I quote, '...not going to be the easy stuff...like getting past boggarts'?"

She glared at him, "That's exactly what's got me worried; I really thought it was supposed to be a lot harder, a real test of our abilities."

Harry started to reply, but was cut off by Ron, who let out another loud exclamation.

"Another one? What – oh," he said, turning to face the group. "We've got a test here, folks."

Hermione scrabbled off the bed and over to Ron, quickly reading this new parchment over his shoulder.

"Well," said Harry, "what is it?"

Ron looked up, "We've got to write the answer to three questions on this parchment."

Neville looked around, "There's no quill in here."

Harry looked around. Neville was right; nowhere in the room was a quill.

"So, well just have to conjure one," said Ron.

"I'll try," offered Lavender. "I had to read some books when I was in detention with McGonagall that discussed conjuring quills that don't need ink."

Hermione looked surprised that Lavender would remember such a thing, but she nodded, "Go ahead."

Lavender smiled, then took out her wand and concentrated hard. After a few minutes, she managed to make a quill appear. Smiling proudly, she turned to the group, "We'd better do it quickly, I have no idea how long the quill will last."

Hermione grabbed the parchment and read it out, "Question one: What does Clause 73 of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy state? Question two: Who is 'Dodgy Dirk'? Question three: During the International Confederation of Wizards meeting in 1962, what was it that the Goblins did not agree on?"

Harry and Ron looked at each other, then at Hermione, as did Neville, Seamus and Lavender.

"Well, you should know most of those answers, Hermione," said Ron. "After all, you were usually the only person who paid attention in Binn's class."

Hermione glared at Ron, "Yeah, and you're the person who takes my notes and copies them, Ron," she snapped back, making Harry smirk. She turned to him, "Don't you smirk at me, Harry. You're just as bad a Ron. Honestly, if it weren't for me, you two would have failed nearly every class."

"Umm, not meaning to interrupt," Lavender interjected, "but I honestly don't know how long that quill will last for."

"You're right," said Hermione. "We should get on with this."

Hermione sat on the bed with the quill in front of her, and looked around expectantly. "Clause 73 of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, er – I read this recently, ah, what was it?" she muttered. "Something to do with the governing body's responsibility."

Harry racked his brain, he was sure that he too had read this recently. "Er, was it to do with the control of creatures?" he asked.

"Magical creatures, I think," said Seamus.

Hermione hastily scribbled this down. "Ok, it stated that each country's governing body was responsible for the concealment of it's magical creatures." She looked around, to judge everyone's opinions.

Harry nodded, as did Neville and Ron.

"Alright, question two: Who is 'Dodgy Dirk'?" Hermione looked around, clearly not having a clue who this person was.

"Do we have a time limit?" asked Neville.

Ron peered over Hermione's shoulder at the parchment. "It doesn't say anything about that, but I guess we shouldn't take too long, not only because of the quill," he said, looking in Lavender's direction, "but even if it doesn't say, it'd be just like Snape to put a time limit on each test and not tell us."

Harry looked at Ron, "Agreed," he said.

"Same here," said Seamus.

"So we'd better hurry," stated Hermione. "Does anyone know who this 'Dodgy Dirk' is? Or shall we skip to the next question?"

"Next question," decided Harry.

Hermione looked back at the parchment, "During the International Confederation of Wizards meeting in 1962, what was it that the Goblins did not agree on?" she paused, thinking, while everyone else just looked confused, "I remember a reading a reference to this... what was the meeting about?"

Something jogged in Harry's memory, "Was it in Fantastic Beasts, Hermione?" he asked.

She looked up, "Of course! The Goblins refused to agree on some of the species that were to be hidden by each country." She once again scribble the answer, and was just re-reading question two when the quill disappeared. "Damn it!" she said. "I think I had something more about question two..." she trailed off as the parchment erased itself and a new message appeared "Continue." She showed the parchment to everyone else.

"Continue to where?" Harry asked, seeing that the flames blocking their exit hadn't subsided.

Ron shrugged, "Dunno, mate. Maybe there's some other sort of test-"

His voice trailed off as a table appeared in the middle of the room with a loud pop, followed by another. He spun around to the source of the noise, and saw that a toilet had also appeared.

"Well, from the looks of it, I'd say we continue to lunch," said Seamus.

"Isn't it a bit early for lunch?" asked Lavender. "It's only... what? It's eleven already!" She looked around the room, "Why does the time seem to pass so fast here?"

"Time flies when you're having fun," said Harry.

Hermione giggled as the rest of the group looked confused at the Muggle joke.

"Well, I say we make the most of this food," Ron said, gesturing to the selection of sandwiches that had appeared behind Hermione on the bed.

They quickly filled themselves up on the sandwiches, washing them down with flagons of pumpkin juice that had appeared alongside them. After everyone had taken their turn at the toilet, it disappeared along with the remnants of their lunch. At the same time, the flames guarding the exit door quickly reduced themselves to ashes.