A/N: Thanks to ale-weasley & Forgotton Angel for reviewing.

Researching is futile

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Annora exchanged looks with each other.

"You know us?" Harry looked suspiciously at the elderly woman.

The woman looked harmless enough, but after everything Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been through, they had learned that things were not always as they seemed.

The woman had medium length graying-blonde hair that was parted in such a way that one side of her face was obscured from view. She was wearing gardening clothes and gloves and had smears of dirt on both. In her hands were a shovel and a packet of seeds.

"Of course I do, I've been watching your journey here," the woman answered, smiling kindly at each of them in turn. "Now, come along dears, I need a break."

Harry and the others followed cautiously behind the woman.

When they reached the front door the woman ushered them into the foyer and made a quick wand movement and mumbled some words that none of them heard before entering the house herself and closing the door behind her.

"Let me give you a quick tour, this place is much too large to give a full tour," she said, pulling her gloves off and setting them down on a nearby table. "You'll appreciate this Hermione…" she said, motioning toward a doorway on their right.

"Wait, how do you know her name?" Harry interrupted, clutching his wand and signaling for the others to do the same.

"I know all your names. I told you I've been watching your journey here, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and…Annora, was it?" her asked, looking to each of them in turn and coming to rest on Annora.

"You keep saying you've been watching us. How?" Harry spoke up as Annora looked relieved that Harry's question had taken the attention away from her.

"We'll get to that later. Let me show you all around first."

"I think it's only fair that if you know our names we should know yours," Harry said.

"Oh, yes, of course. My name is Deidre Dearborn."

"Are you a descendant of Rowena Ravenclaw?" Hermione asked. "This is her ancestral home after all."

"Yes, from my father's side of the family. I have lived in this house for over twenty years."

Her interest piqued, Hermione continued her questioning. "Are you the last remaining descendant or are there others?"

A sad expression passed over the part of Deidre's face they could see before she replied. "I'm the last."

"Now," she continued, effectively ending Hermione's questioning, "Let's start that tour."

She led them over toward the doorway and they followed her through the threshold. "As I was saying before, you will like this room Hermione."

Hermione gasped when she surveyed the room they were now standing it. It was a library that rivaled Hogwarts'. It was two stories high for goodness sake!

Ron watched Hermione's face fill with wonder and excitement and rolled his eyes. He would never understand her obsession with books.

After leaving the library (Ron had to grab Hermione's hand and pull her out of the room) Deidre took them across the hallway to the parlor.

There were overstuffed royal blue chairs and a sofa taking up a good portion of the room. In front of the seating places, against the wall, was a beautiful fireplace made of white stone with decorative carvings of eagles etched in it.

"This is one of the few rooms I actually spend time in," Deidre was explaining to them. "This house is so large I don't think I've ever seen every room."

"Do you live here all alone?" Hermione asked, her hand running along the eagle etchings on the fireplace.

"Yes, it's just me," Deidre said, sitting down in one of the chairs and motioning for the others to take seats as well.

Ron, Hermione, and Annora sat down on the sofa as Harry took the other chair.

"Other than the dining room and kitchen, I don't use any other rooms on this floor. I can show you those later, when we eat dinner. And I will show you to the rooms you will be staying in while you are here." Deidre smiled at their confused faces.

Harry and the others looked at each other, but none chose to comment about Deidre's assumption.

Hermione's further questioning was interrupted by the sound of Ron's stomach growling loudly.

At the sound everyone looked over at Ron and he ears turned bright red.

"How about we get some dinner, dears?" Deidre got up from her chair and motioned for the others to follow her to the kitchen.

White cabinets that extended from floor to ceiling ran across one side of the kitchen. Waist high cabinets with blue counters stretched along another wall, a huge window with a view of the nearby creek and gardens took up the third; with the entryway along the fourth wall.

Deidre walked over to the island in the middle of the kitchen and waved her wand around. Pots and pans flew around the kitchen before landing neatly on the island's surface.

"Would you like us to help?" Hermione asked.

"If you four wouldn't mind," Deidre answered as she waved her wand again and food glided over.

"This kitchen looks very modern, much more so than I would have thought considering how old this house is," Hermione commented, pushing her sleeves up and walking over to Deidre.

"It is. Before I lived here, this house had obviously relied on house elves to take care of the home and cook the meals. Since I never liked the idea of enslaving those poor things, I set them free but offered them all the option of staying here, but sadly they all refused. Mind you, I would have paid them if they did want to work, but they didn't like that idea either. So, I remodeled the kitchen so that it was convenient for me to use and cook in."

When Deidre mentioned house elves, Ron rolled his eyes, but Hermione seemed happy, and smiled brightly at Deidre.

Soon, with the help of magic to speed to cooking process along, a dinner of roasted pork glazed with sweet apple sauce, potatoes, peas, pumpkin juice, tea, and trifle was served.

Deidre sat down in the dining room at the head of the long rectangle cherry wood table. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Annora followed suit and pulled out the matching chairs and sat down at four of the remaining place settings.

Everything was delicious and although they did talk a little to each other, they were still on their guard around Deidre. About half-an-hour later, they pushed the plates away from them sighed contently. They hadn't realized how little the sandwiches they had been eating for two days had been able to satisfy their hunger.

"It's only a little after six right now, but if you four would like, I could show you to your rooms so you could sleep. You must be tired from all the walking you had to do to get here," Deidre said, glancing over at the grandfather clock and then to Hermione, who had hidden a yawn behind her hand.

They all agreed and followed Deidre back to the foyer and up the stairs to the second floor.

"There are four bedrooms in this hallway and three bathrooms. One is attached to my bedroom, which is at the end of the hall. You four will be staying in the other three rooms."

She led them down the hallway, stopping at the first door on the left. "This will be Ron and Hermione's room."

"What!" Hermione shrieked, blushing. "We aren't…I mean…We don't…"

"Oh! It is my mistake. When I was watching you, I thought that you were together" Deidre replied, clearly embarrassed about the mistake.

"We are dating, but we don't…" Hermione trailed off turning redder by the second. But no matter how red she got, she could not compare to how red Ron had turned.

"That's fine. The two of you just reminded me of my husband and me. I just assumed you were further into your relationship than you are. That's fine. Hermione and Annora can share the room across the hall, Ron can have this room, and Harry can have the second room on the left. You don't mind sharing a room do you girls?"

Hermione and Annora both shook their heads. "Great. Your room is the first door on the right. There is a bathroom attached to that room. Harry and Ron you share a bathroom.

The four nodded their thanks to Deidre and headed for their assigned bedrooms.

Hermione and Annora opened the door to their bedroom and gasped at the room that was revealed to them.

The room was huge, much bigger than they had expected it to be. On one side of the room was a door, which Hermione and Annora assumed led to the bathroom. Against that same wall was a full-sized canopy bed with violet curtains tied to the posts. Across from that bed on the other side of the room was matching bed.

Against the wall between these walls and next to the doorway they were standing in was a large wardrobe.

Opposite this wall was a window seat; lining this seat were violet and white pillows.

"Is this room okay?" Deidre asked from her position at the doorway.

Hermione and Annora turned around. "This room is so beautiful. Thank you Mrs. Dearborn," Hermione said, answering for both of them.

"Oh, you're welcome dear. I am glad you like it. Have a nice night. Breakfast is at seven, but if you would prefer to sleep in you may. There is some cereal in the tall cupboard close to the sink if you are hungry when you wake up."

Hermione and Annora thanked Deidre again and wished her good night. Once she left the room, the two girls set about unpacking some of their clothing and putting it away in the wardrobe.

After Hermione and Annora finished this task, they went over to one of the door on the other side of the hall to see how the boys were doing.

At Hermione's knock, Ron opened the door to his room. The girls entered to find Harry sitting in one of the chairs in the room.

Ron's room was similar to Hermione and Annora's room, but unlike theirs, Ron's bedroom had only one bed and was decorated with more masculine furniture and colors.

A huge oak wardrobe took up a large portion of one side of the room. A door on the opposite wall led to the bathroom Ron and Harry shared. An oak-framed king-sized bed with blue sheets and a comforter was situated along one of the remaining walls. Blue curtains were tied back to the posts of the bed. Along the wall opposite the bed, in place of the window seat in Hermione and Annora's room was a desk, which matched the other furniture in the room.

Hermione looked over at Harry. "What does your room look like?"

"Just like this, but green instead of blue."

Hermione nodded and sat down next to Ron on his bed. "So what do you guys think of Mrs. Dearborn?"

"I think we need to make sure our wands are within easy reach in case something happens tonight," Harry said.

Hermione looked at Harry, surprised. "Are you that suspicious of her? I think Mrs. Dearborn seems nice."

"She may seem nice, but we have been fooled before," Harry said as Ron smirked.

"You just like her because she has a huge library. And, you like her because she thinks the same way you do about house elves. I saw how happy you were when she talked about setting them free and paying them."

"That is not the only reason I like her," Hermione said, stubbornly, crossing her arms in front of her and glaring at Ron.

Ron smirked again in response.

The four talked for a short while more. Soon, however, Harry and Annora, pleading fatigue, went to their separate rooms.

Hermione started to follow Annora to their room when she was stopped by Ron grabbing her hand.

"Do you have to go yet?" he asked pouting.

Hermione smiled. "I guess I don't have to leave yet."

Ron returned the smile, and pulled Hermione to him.

Having had the chance to go to sleep so early, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Annora were able to get up in time to join Mrs. Dearborn for breakfast.

Their breakfast consisted of eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, pumpkin juice, and coffee.

As Ron slathered on a liberal amount of butter onto his piece of toast, he rubbed his leg against Hermione who was conveniently sitting next to him.

Hermione jumped at the first contact, but after the initial surprise, she smiled over at him, and in response, slid her own leg against his. Deciding to take it one step further, Hermione switched the hand her fork was in, which was awkward because she wasn't left-handed. But, she thought to herself, any awkwardness was well worth it when Hermione slid her hand from Ron's knee to his thigh.

At this, Ron almost choked on the mouthful of toast and eggs he had crammed into his mouth.

"Okay, Ron?" Harry asked, looking up from his plate and across the table at Ron.

"Fine," Ron mumbled around the food. When Harry shrugged and went back to eating his eggs, Ron looked over at Hermione.

"Two can play this game," Ron whispered, so that only Hermione could hear. Hermione bit back a smile.

Ron reached under the table and rested his hand against her knee. But, he didn't stop there.

Hermione had to bit her lip to keep from gasping as she felt Ron slid his hand up her thigh, much higher than where she had rested her hand on Ron's thigh. There was another difference too. While Ron was wearing trousers, Hermione was wearing shorts.

Ron slid his hand up and down Hermione's thigh but was stopped when Hermione pinched the skin on his hand really hard.

He jerked his hand away from her, caught by surprise. He looked over at Hermione to ask her what was wrong when he noticed Harry, Annora, and Mrs. Dearborn were looking at them.

And, he was very embarrassed to note, Mrs. Dearborn was smiling knowingly at them.

Their days at the Ravenclaw castle set into a routine. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Annora spent a lot of their time in the library trying to be as unsuspicious about their research on the Ravenclaw Horcrux as possible as not to get Mrs. Dearborn's attention.

Unfortunately while they did spend much of their time researching, they hadn't really found much, and they were starting to get very frustrated.