Chapter Three: The Secret of HufflePuff Mansion
No one besides Ginny knew that Harry, Ron, and Hermione weren't going to school. When September rolled around, they packed their belongings as usual and even went so far as to buy fresh school supplies.
"Don't see any point in this," Ron grumbled as he tipped a large stack of books in his trunk. "Why not just tell everyone the truth? We're dead anyway once they realize the three of us aren't at school."
"Telling your mum we're cutting our last year would only cause a scene," said Harry, remembering a few of Mrs. Weasley's past scenes. "And, besides, telling her would mean explaining about the horcruxes, and Dumbledore advised me to keep it secret."
"Bad idea if you ask me," said Ron, shaking his head. "I mean, if we just told everyone about it -- namely the Order -- they'd set out trying to help."
"I dunno," Harry said, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Sometimes I don't know who we can trust. I mean, look at Snape!" He kicked his trunk shut with a disgusted flourish.
"Guess that's settled," Ron said and slouched miserably onto his trunk. "The problem now is getting that idiot Smith's address."
"Leave that to me."
They both looked up to see Ginny leaning in the doorway.
"Ginny!" Ron yelled indignantly.
Ginny rolled her eyes, "You were talking so loud Mum could've heard you from the kitchen. Anyway, I know about Smith. He's not going back to school either -- not after what happened last year. His family seems particularily hush hush about it."
"Good," said Ron, perking up. "Then you can tell us."
"On one condition."
"Ginny," groaned Harry and Ron.
Ginny lifted her eyebrows, "Alright then." and she turned as if she would march off, but Harry and Ron called her back.
"What is it you want then," Harry said with a fond smirk.
Ginny smiled.
"I can't believe you let her come along!" Ron groaned as he, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny moved up a neat garden path.
"Add Neville and Luna and we might as well have the old gang back," Harry said under his breath.
The garden path led to a large old mansion on the crest of a hill. It was flanked by two spidery trees while the entire estate was surrounded by a tall brick wall. The four of them had been buzzed in through the front gate.
Harry was chilled as he realized he was walking in Voldemort's footsteps. He'd been to the Hufflepuff Mansion before, but that had only been a memory. This was real.
They had barely reached the knocker when the double doors opened a crack and a withered voice demanded, "Your wands, please!"
Ron's nose wrinkled, "Wot?"
"Your wands!"
"No way!" Ron cried."I'm not walking into a strange, old, creepy place without --"
"Of course we'll hand over our wands," Hermione said over him, smiling mechanically.
Once their wands had been collected,they were shown by a young house elf down a hall and into a side room with large, floorlength windows and billowy, white curtains. A fairly plump old witch sat in an arm chair smoking a pipe.
"Oh! Zacharias's friends!" she cried cheerfully in her deep, croaking voice. "Come in! Come in! My Zachy never mentioned having friends before!" She said the namely oddly, almost with disgust.
Ron sniggered, "I wonder why."
Ginny elbowed him. "Oh, yes," she said, "Zach and I dated the year before last."
Ron stared at her, "You're joking, right?"
"Shut up!" Hermione hissed.
"So what brings you fine children to my hall?" the plump woman croaked, rocking in her fluffy armchair. "Parents kept you out of school?"
She was eying Harry closely. She knew very well he hadn't any parents to withdraw him from Hogwarts, knew that the Muggles he'd lived with probably didn't even know what had happened the year before.
"It's more the history of this house, really," Hermione said pleasantly. "Ron's mum promised to homeschool us for our last year, and we've all got this project."
"Oh, really?" croaked the woman suspicously, "And what's that?"
"To reasearch the four founders of Hogwarts," Hermione said with an eager light in her eye.
The others watched her spin out lie after lie in amazement.
"Is that so?" the woman croaked at the rest of them.
Harry and Ron looked at each other and shrugged, "Er - yeah, yeah. That's right."
Ginny rolled her eyes and jumped in with Herminon: "We need a bit of information about their family histories, and since the Smiths are Hufflepuff's only living decendants -- well, we thought such a well-educated pureblood witch like yourself could tell us anything."
The plump witch's eye twinkled as if she knew Ginny's game, but she swelled under the compliments nonetheless.
"Yes, yes, I know quite a bit, more than you'd reckon, youngling. I inheirited this mansion through my father and he through his father's mother. Back when old Hezipah died from the foolish house elf's mistake -- are you alright, Mr. Potter?"
Harry had stirred uncomfortably in his chair. Voldemort had killed Hezipah, not the house elf.
"I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" the woman asked shrewdly, her eyes narrowing.
Harry nodded, "Just -- small cold." He coughed, cleared his throat, and smiled nervously at the witch, who wasn't convinced at all.
The plump witch sat back in her chair and drew on the pipe.
"Well, as I was saying . . . back when old Hezipah died no one was sure what to do. She never really was close to her extended family. Was so certain we'd all steal her prized possessions, see? So when the time came to decide what to do with the family hierlooms and the house, it all went to Hezipah's younger sister, Dora."
"And the hierlooms?" asked Ron.
"Some were stolen, of course," she said, fixing Ron with a beady stare. " . . . why do you ask, young Weasley?"
Harry spoke for him, "It was Dumbledore's dieing wish that the heirlooms be put on display at Hogwarts -- in honor of its four founders."
The plump old woman snorted, "And you four are the ones to do it, eh? I tell you, today's youth . . ."
The four of them merely watched her.
She drew on her pipe, exhaled a ring of smoke shaped like a billowing ship, and watched them a moment before she continued.
"They say that after that old house elf snuffed Hezipah she took the heirlooms and hid them herself. I'd be more than willing to give them over -- if, or course, it really was Dumbledore's dieing wish."
Something like a tear glistened in her eye and when she drew on the pipe again, the smoke expelled from her nostrils in a large phoenix.
Just then, a thin boy with bright blonde hair bounced past the large room, backtracked, and did a doubletake on its occupants.
"What in the blue blazes?" the boy whispered in outrage.
"Zachy, it's your friends come to visit," said the old witch and pulled on her pipe again as she watched her grandson's expression shrewdly.
Zacharias was carrying an armload of books and was probably off to his lessons for that morning. The books fell from his arms with a thud to the carpet. He stood in the large doorway, pale as a ghost and sneering.
"Hullo!" Ron said with a sarcastic wave and a smile.
Zacharias mouthed wordlessly until his eyes fell on Harry. "Potter?" he sneered, "Weasley? Granger?" He looked at his grandmother for an explaination.
The old woman was chuckling.
Zacharias's grandmother's chuckling seemed to help him compose himself. He drew himself up, glaring at the unwelcome guests, "Potter, I want you out of my house -- as if I need You-Know-Who popping up at our door with a killing curse because of you."
"You'd only be so lucky," sneered Ron, rolling up his sleeves. He only half-rose from his seat because Hermione grabbed his arm and forced him down.
"No, Hermione, he's right," Harry said quietly. "Let's go."
"Well," said Zacharias, smirking as the four of them filed past, "you've got more sense than the papers tell, Potter. One more minute and I would have blasted you." He waved his wand lightly as the house elf handed them back their wands on the door step. Then the doors slammed shut in their faces with a resounding bang.
"Bloody idiot," muttered Ron. "They should have a repellent for people like that, if you ask me."
Ron and Hermione had turned to leave, but Ginny called, "Wait!" Harry was still standing on the door step, his wand clenched tightly in his fist and his lips pressed together.
She placed her hand carefully on his shoulder, "Harry?"
Harry didn't turn, "We're not leaving."
"But we were kicked out," Hermione said worriedly.
"Yeah, what do you suggest we do, break down the door?" Ron demanded incredulously.
"Zachy, your tea is ready!" called a pleasant voice from Zacharias's study.
"Excellent!" Zacharias ran with his books to his study where a small table had been set up complete with a tea tray and six stuffed animal friends.
"Mum," Zacharias groaned. "I've told you -- I'm too old for tea parties!"
Mrs. Smith straightened up and beckoned him forward, smiling, "Oh, come now, Zachy, just for old time's sake -- for me? Please?" She rubbed his shoulders and smoothed his blonde hair.
Zacharias slumped into a chair reluctantly, "Alright, alright. But no pictures this time -- and couldI have some pillows a little less pink and fluffy?" he demanded after his mother as she left the room.
"Ah, this is too easy," snickered Ron as he, Harry, and Ginny hovered on broomsticks outside the windows of the Hufflepuff mansion.
Ron had nicked the twins' camera and they were using it now to take pictures of Zacharia Smith as he drank tea with his teddies and pink elephants. In one snapshot he even held a large grossly purple rhino closely in his arms.
"I really don't think this is ethical," piped Hermione from the ground, who hadn't a broomstick. She'd been deemed the lookout and was far below shifting nervously from foot to foot.
"Look at the pot calling the kettle black," laughed Ron. "Aren't forgeting Rita Skeeter, are we?"
"That was different!" piped Hermione indignantly. "She was saying things to harm people! What has Zacharias done?"
"Besides be a git, you mean?" retorted Ron under his breath as he took yet another snapshot.
The picture was badly timed. Zacharias caught the glare of the flash as he was bending to pick a book up from the carpet and froze in a state of fury and horror. Ron flashed another sarcastic smile and waved his camera, Harry and Ginny smirking beside him.
"Alright, Potter, what do you want?" Zacharias demanded once he'd managed to sneak outside and had appraoched his four peers.
"We want to be able to poke around the mansion -- without anyone stopping us," Harry replied.
"Whatever you're looking for, it's not here!" Zacharias sneered.
"But there may be clues that can lead us on, and the sooner we find those clues, the sooner we're out of your hair." Harry waited, his arms folded, as Zacharia's face went through a series of strange expressions.
The Hufflepuff heir was clearly against letting Harry Potter and his friends into his home, but on the other hand, if he did, the four of them would be gone a lot sooner.
"And if I let you in, you hand over those photos," Zacharias demanded.
"After we've had a look around," confirmed Ginny.
"Alright," Zacharias said reluctantly. "But just what is it you're after anyway?"
Ron squeezed Zacharias's shoulder a little too hard, "If we told you, we'd have to kill you. Can't we tell him, Harry?"
Harry and Ginny laughed, Hermione scowled, and Zacharias shook Ron's hand off angrily.
"I can't get you in right now. Go around the back and in about an hour I'll let you in the door. I've got lessons," he said uncomfortably. With that, he straigthened his wizarding hat, turned on his heel, and marched in his bouncy stride back to the mansion.
"He's got more lessons, alright -- with Dinky and Nana Booboo and whatever else he calls those fluffy friends of his," grumbled Ron. "What are we supposed to do for an hour?"
Ginny smiled at Harry.
"Potter! Pist! Potter!"
Harry heard Zacharias's voice as if from a great distance. He'd been swept away in an entirely different world, where peace and equality reigned and Voldemort did not exist -- to put it plainly, he'd been in Ginny's arms. They sat together in one of the great trees on the Hufflepuff property beneath Harry's invisibility cloak, her head on his shoudler, hand in hand, and nothing else in the world had mattered.
Now Zacharias Smith was calling his name and he was plunged once again into the world of worry and woe.
"We'd better hop down," Harry said with a reluctant sigh as he summoned his Firebolt.
"Yeah, alright."
They met Ron and Hermione on the ground. Hermione looked oddly ruffled.
"Ready?" she said breathlessly to Harry.
Harry smiled at the shadow of a dazed, happy expression he was certain Ron had worn only moments before in a private moment with Hermione.
"Born that way," he replied, slapping Ron's shoulder. "Come on."
Zacharias let them in through the back door, standing stiffly beside it and sneering at them as they entered. They descended a stone stair swept in gray cobwebs into the gloom of an old storage room. Harry pulled his wand and had just enough time to whisper Lumos before the door above was snapped shut and they were plunged into darkness.
"We used to have a ghoul down here," came Zachrias's voice from the top of the stairs as he descended in the darkness towards them. They heard him whisper Lumos as the rest of them had and his haughty face appeared in the eerie glow of his wand. "But some great aunt of mine banished it when it kept kidnapping the house elves."
Zacharias was pleased to hear Hermione give a horrified gasp.
"Why are you still here? Just show us the stairs, alright?" demanded Ron roughly.
"I can't very well let the four of you snoop around the house without me. No one else will bother you -- I won't allow it if it will send you on your way -- but I never said --"
"That you wouldn't annoy us yourself," snapped Harry.
Zacharias paused as if biting back his words and glared, his wand light throughing his chin into ghoulish shadow.
"Fine, whatever you want," Ginny said, rolling her eyes. "Where do you want to look first, Harry?"
"This cellar seems the perfect place for clues," Harry answered. "Isn't it where your ancestor hid the family heirlooms?" he shot at Zacharias.
Zacharias stiffened at being spoken to so abruptly. His eyes narrowed as if he was preparing to say something nasty and then he seemed to remember the embarassing snapshots and bit back his words again.
"Legend would have it," Zacharias answered sniffily, "that she hid them in an underground chamber. There were dwarves that she paid to guard the heirlooms night and day and a spell that sucked you into the wall alive if you somehow got past the dwarves."
"Sounds like Gringotts," Hermione murmured.
"Isn't there any light down here at all?" complained Ron.
"If there was I should think I'd have had the sense to have turned it on by now," said Zacharias haughtily.
"I wouldn't," Ginny said, looking nettled.
Zacharias glared at her back.
The four of them spread around the cellar, prodding corners with the light of their wands for clues. The room was full of old furniture and boxes and a large, dusty, old piano stood against one wall. Ron accidently brushed it with his sleeve, remarked that it needed tuning, and moved on.
"Hey," breathed Hermione, stopping Ron with her hand.
"What is it?" asked Harry.
Everyone gathered near Ron and the piano.
Ron was staring at Hermione, "Wot?"
"Whatever you did, do it again," she breathed.
Ron shrugged, backtracked his steps, and pretended to accidentally brush the piano again.
"So what's the big deal?" he asked.
But everyone was staring beyond him. Ron followed their gaze. The lid of the piano had crept open. Ginny stepped forward and hit another key, but nothing happened.
"No, no, move aside," said Zacharias in disgust, elbowing his way to the piano. He rolled up his sleeves, cleared the dust from the bench with his wand, sat down, and dramatically touched a cord with the tips of his fingers.
The piano lid began to creep open again.
"Ah, I was right," Zacharias said in delight. "It's the old familytree song. Great Great Ant Delilah wrote it to record our history." He smiled at the piano and began to play enthusiastically.
The more Zacharias played, the wider the lid of the piano opened. The others watched in amazement. Harry was secretly wondering how Voldemort had figured out the song. Had he forced it from Hezipah?