School: Durmstrang, Year 1

Main Prompt: [Action] Searching

Additional Prompts: [Object] Dungbombs

Theme: Your theme focuses on the exploration of academic information that is considered secret or dangerous, and also consider what comes from this.

Wordcount:1199

Ginny hid around a corner from the Headmaster's office, her heart pounding as she waited for the signal from Luna. Looking across the hallway to Neville, who nodded at her determinedly, she knew that they had to do this.

Luna was setting off a dungbomb in the dungeons in order to attract Snape and the Carrows so that they could access the office undisturbed. Luna had volunteered to do that bit, and really, it was the least dangerous bit of the plan. If caught, she could deny any association with them.

They were there because they needed to get the Sword of Gryffindor from the office and maybe find some information as to why Dumbledore had left it to Harry-not that she expected to find anything. She expected Snape to have cleaned out the office when he'd been given the post, and to have searched every nook and cranny on behalf of Lord Voldemort.

"Gin," Neville whispered as they waited. "Gin, if we search for and find the sword, do you even have a plan to get it to them? No one knows where they are! No one has even seen them since their Ministry escapade!"

Ginny hadn't thought that far ahead in their plan. "I'm not sure, but we'll figure something out. Get a message to Hermione somehow. She's smart enough to figure out how we can meet. We'll just have to search for them."

She knew that was a silly idea, and from the look on his face, so did Neville. However, neither of them were able to comment on it because Luna's signal had just shown up. Her hare patronus appeared right beside Ginny's elbow, and her voice came from it. "I'm around the corner from them; they're all preoccupied now. Go, I'll be there soon."

The sound sent a jolt of nerves through Ginny. She never considered herself a terrified sort of person, but anyone would be nervous doing what they were doing. With a last look at Neville to gain courage, the two of them broke from the corner and quietly made their way towards the statues that guarded the entrance to the Headmaster's office. In the days of Dumbledore, most people could easily guess the password by paying attention to whatever his favorite sweet was at the time. From Licorice Wands to Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, as long as you were observant, it was easy. It was not the case for Snape. However, they had spied on him several times in preparation for this, and the very last time, they had overheard him giving the password to Professor Flitwick before a meeting they were having. It was the last piece they needed to enact their plan.

"Resurrection Stone," Ginny whispered as they approached.

She had been surprised when they'd discovered that. Snape didn't seem the sort to read children's stories, after all. However, the statues moved slowly, revealing their hidden passage as they did so. Moving up the stairs as quickly as they dared, they saw the statues return to their place. There was no going back now.

Entering the office, Ginny stared around in wonder. She had expected Snape to have completely redone the office to rid it of any association with Dumbledore, but most of the expensive instruments that Dumbledore had left to the school were still there. The desk was in the same place, and all the portraits of the previous Headmasters were still there. The only change was behind the chair at the desk. There was a new painting behind it, and seeing the image of the man, wearing his familiar half-moon spectacles and sitting in a chair asleep, made Ginny's heart seize in grief.

"Dumbledore," she whispered. She had never been particularly close to him, but it was still extremely shocking to see a rendition of the old Headmaster sitting there.

"Let's do this quickly," Neville whispered, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. With a nod, the pair started to search the room for both the sword and why Harry, Ron, and Hermione would need it.

After a few minutes of looking around, Ginny felt her initial hope that this would go quickly fade away. The sword had been located immediately, on a shelf mounted to one of the walls. Information on it, however, was proving much more elusive.

After twenty minutes, Neville said, "Still nothing?"

With a sigh, she said, "Nope. But I don't want to leave just yet. There has to be something here."

With a glance towards the door, Neville said, "Okay… ten more minutes, then we're leaving with the sword." With a nod, Ginny continued her search.

A minute or so later, the door to the office opened. Ginny turned, heart jumping into her throat, to see Luna walk in, looking anxiously behind her as she did so. "Only just managed to slip away," she said. "There were so many people, I would have been spotted."

"It's okay," Ginny said with a sigh, giving herself a moment to allow her heart to settle. "Let's keep looking. We'll leave in a few minutes."

With an extra pair of eyes, Ginny hoped that they would soon find something, and she was right. Searching behind Dumbledore's old Lunascope, she found an old, crumpled piece of paper. It seemed to be a page ripped from a library book.

"Look!" she exclaimed, holding the page up for the others to see.

Neville and Luna both walked over to see what she had found. The labels across the top identified it as a page from Magick Moste Evile, which sounded like a book about Dark Magic.

Reading the page, Ginny realized that they were definitely onto something.

"Horcruxes?" Luna said. "I know about those; Dad did an article on them once. Extremely Dark spell."

Reading the page, they saw that a Horcrux was an item in which there was a piece of someone's soul.

"Merlin, this is awful," Neville murmured. "I guess it's important, but why?"

"Not sure." Ginny shrugged. "We'll have to do more research, but keep the page with us for now. Let's see if we can find anything else."

For another couple of minutes, they resumed their search. Ginny made her way to the desk, which had so far been avoided. Looking underneath, Ginny saw a piece of paper attached to the bottom. Slowly removing it, she saw that it appeared to be the ripped part of a letter of some kind.

-Love, Lily.

Ginny stared at the small scrap of paper, trying to figure out what it meant. Something sick started to well in her chest. Lily? As in, Harry's mother, Lily? Shaking her head, she realized that she had to be wrong. Lily was a pretty common name, after all.

You don't really think that, her brain told her. She didn't know what this meant, but she didn't want to tell the others about it just yet. Slipping it into her pocket, she stood up quickly.

"Guys, let's go," she called. "We can't risk staying in here much longer, we're bound to be-"

"Caught?" a dark and dangerous voice said, opening the office door. The three friends turned slowly to face their discoverer.

Snape.