Using the information they'd gotten from Sirius, Ron and Ginny snuck away on the Sunday afternoon to go looking for the secret room they'd been told about. Now Ron was no longer friends with Harry and Hermione, he didn't really have anyone to miss him as he disappeared from Gryffindor Tower, while Ginny also didn't have the type of friends that would wonder where she was. It meant the pair got away from Gryffindor Tower easily, although they did it separately as they were still giving everyone the impression they were still fighting.

"Where now?" Ron asked as the pair met up around the corner to Gryffindor Tower. "Which floor did Sirius say we would find the room?"

"He wasn't sure," Ginny confessed. "All he could remember was that it was on one of the higher floors."

"What did Remus say?" Ron questioned, not being able to remember much himself. "He's not as forgetful as Sirius. His information will be more accurate."

"He can vaguely remember the room, but he didn't use it much," Ginny replied. "However, Sirius used to use it for privacy with girls. Remus wasn't exactly a heartbreaker in school."

"I suppose being a werewolf puts a dampener on your love life," Ron mused.

"I don't know, it doesn't seem to be bothering Tonks," Ginny answered with a chuckle. "She seems quite into Remus."

"It won't work," Ron dismissed with a wave of her hand. "They're too different, and the age gap is massive."

"It's not that big of a gap," Ginny argued.

"Focus, Ginny," Ron snapped at his little sister. "We're not here to discuss the love lives of other people. Let's get searching for this secret room."

"Okay so we're looking for a bare patch of wall in a deserted corridor, opposite some sort of large tapestry," Ginny said, focusing on the task in hand.

With an idea of what they were looking for, the Weasleys set out to find the secret room. As it turned out, it only took them fifteen minutes to locate what they thought was the correct area of the castle. As Sirius had described, they found a deserted corridor with a large patch of blank wall opposite a large, colourful tapestry.

"What now?" Ron asked.

"We pace in front of the wall, thinking about what we want from the room," Ginny answered. "Once we've done that three times, a door should appear and we should get what we want."

"Do you want to do the honours?" Ron asked his sister.

"Okay, but you keep watch," Ginny replied. "We don't want the entire school finding out about the room."

Ron moved away from Ginny to keep watch, while his sister tried to summon the secret room. However, Ginny had barely paced the floor in front of the wall once when Ron heard footsteps and voices approaching the corridor where they were. Running back to his sister, he warned Ginny of the approaching disturbance and the pair managed to duck into an alcove at the end of the corridor just in time to see Harry come strolling into the corridor with Daphne on his arm.

"What are they doing here?" Ginny hissed to her brother.

"The same as us from the looks of things," Ron muttered in response as Harry began pacing the floor like Ginny had just been doing.

"How do they know about the room?" Ginny questioned. "You don't think Sirius told him, do you?"

"Nah, I think Sirius just remembered the room," Ron replied, watching the action as a wooden door appeared in the middle of the blank wall. "They obviously found out about it another way."

"I wonder how," Ginny mused.

Ron quietly shushed his sister as his interest was grabbed by Harry trying to open the door to the secret room. However, it looked like the door wouldn't budge, no matter how much Harry pulled on it. Ron smirked at Harry's inability to open the door, but the smile was wiped off his face when the door suddenly sprung open and Hermione appeared from the room. Ron and Ginny watched as the pair had a brief exchange of words, before Hermione went back into the room and shut the door, causing it to disappear. Harry and Daphne shared a shrug as they turned and disappeared the way they'd come.

"Great, not only Harry knows about the place, but Hermione does as well," Ron grumbled. "Just great. This room won't be any good for us to use."

"How long do you think they've known about the room?" Ginny asked thoughtfully.

"Does it matter?" Ron questioned with a shrug.

"This could be the answer as to how the Death Eaters got into school last year," Ginny pointed out.

"Ginny, it's a room on one of the top floors of the castle, not a secret passageway," Ron protested with a snort. "This is probably just the room Harry and Hermione used to meet up with Malfoy in secret. Now they're older, Hermione and Malfoy are just using the room to shag in."

"What a lovely picture you paint, Ron," Ginny muttered. "I still think it's worth checking out though. If we're careful about what we wish for, we can see the room they've been using the most."

"It's worth a try, I suppose," Ron conceded. "But I think we need to wait until the room is empty. It looks like it can only be used as one room at a time."

"We'll just have to stay here until Hermione and Malfoy leave," Ginny replied.

It was nearly an hour later before Hermione and Draco emerged from the room, and when they did, Ginny and Ron were forced to watch the pair exchange several kisses before they exited the corridor. Ron and Ginny waited until they were sure no-one was coming back, before sneaking out of the alcove and once again trying to gain access to the secret room. However, instead of trying to get a room where they could meet with fellow minded people wanting to get rid of the dark, Ginny tried to get the room where Harry, Hermione and Draco had spent the most time together.

"Well, this is it," Ginny announced as a door appeared in the wall.

"Let's see what's inside," Ron said, pulling open the door.

When the pair stepped inside the room they were shocked to find themselves in some sort of storage cupboard. Exchanging baffled looks, the two siblings set about exploring the room. Ten minutes later all they'd found was pile of junk, some of it seemingly left in the room decades ago.

"This can't be right," Ron moaned for the tenth time. "Why would they meet up in a junk room like this? There's not even anywhere to sit."

"Makes no sense to me," Ginny replied as she scanned a bookshelf, stuffed full of various bits and bobs. "Wow, look at this," She gasped as she pulled a silver tiara off the shelf and placed it on her head.

"Stop messing about Ginny," Ron tutted at his sister.

"But this must be worth a fortune," Ginny said, taking the tiara off her head and polishing it with her top.

"It doesn't matter, it's not ours," Ron said, snatching the tiara off his sister and placing it back on the shelf. "And this is pointless. I don't know what they've been doing in this room, but we're never going to work it out."

"Maybe there's another room they've been using," Ginny mused. "I might not have gotten the right room."

"We can always try another time," Ron replied. "But right now, it's nearly dinner time and I'm hungry."

"We'll come back another time," Ginny agreed. "And I think if we're going to start our own Order, we need somewhere different to meet."

"Yeah, we can't risk using this place," Ron said as they took a final look around and exited the room, unaware a figure had witnessed them leaving the corridor.


C.O.T.D.


After getting back to Hogwarts, Harry was eager to spend some time with Daphne. Even though they'd seen each other over Christmas, they hadn't had any time alone. So after lunch on Sunday, he'd suggested that the pair spent the afternoon together. After taking a walk around the grounds, the pair had returned to the castle and Harry had suggested they use the magical room to summon a warm fire and snuggle up beside it. Daphne had been up for the idea, and the pair had set off, planning on spending the afternoon in front of a roaring fire.

Sadly, they'd been too late and when they arrived at the room, they found it already occupied. Harry hadn't been too impressed that Hermione and Draco were using the room, but his aunt had refused to leave the room. In the end, Harry and Daphne had ended up in the secret room in the library.

After spending the afternoon with Daphne, Harry had headed back up to the secret room to see if his aunt and best friend were still in residence. He entered the corridor just in time to see the door open, but when it wasn't Hermione and Draco exiting the room, he darted into an alcove to avoid being seen. From the alcove he watched as Ron and Ginny exited the room and hurried away with their heads together.

"Sly buggers," Harry muttered. Clearly the pair's falling out had all been an act, and just like he'd suspected, Ginny had being trying to play him all along. "But what are they doing in the room?"

Puzzled by the fact, Ron and Ginny had been in their secret room, Harry emerged from the alcove and lost in thought, he headed off to grab some dinner. Harry sat down beside Hermione in the Great Hall, and as they ate he quietly told her what he'd witnessed.

"How long have they known about the room?" Hermione hissed.

"I have no idea," Harry replied. "Have you ever seen them near it?"

"Nope," Hermione replied with a shake of her head. "And they've never tried to get in while Draco and I were using the room. It could be a fairly recent development."

"Maybe they found something out over the holidays," Harry suggested, glancing down the table to where the pair were sitting separately and ignoring each other. "And all that's an act. They were as thick as thieves when I saw them."

"Maybe you were right," Hermione conceded. "Maybe we've been underestimating the Order, and they are going to be a threat. We need to know what they were doing in our room."

"I can follow them with the invisibility cloak," Harry suggested.

"Good idea," Hermione replied. "But I want to talk to Mum as well. We need to know if there's anything they could be doing that could prove dangerous to us."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, but I don't want to take any chances."

Harry fully agreed with his aunt, and the second they finished eating they headed down to the dungeons to Beth's office. Fortunately, Beth was in her office going over work for the upcoming week when the pair entered the room.

"Is everything okay?" Beth asked in concern. It was very rare for Hermione and Harry to pay her a visit at school, but it was especially weird considering they'd only just returned from the Christmas break.

"Not really," Harry answered as he and Hermione sat down and he explained what he'd just seen.

"And you have no idea how long they've known about the room, or what they were up to in it?" Beth double checked.

"Not a clue on either," Harry replied. "Should we be worried?"

"I'm not sure worried is the right word, but I certainly don't like it," Beth admitted. "Especially given what is in the room."

"What is in the room?" Hermione asked.

"One of your father's Horcruxes," Beth answered. "He pointed it out to me last year. He was rather surprised to see it to be honest. He knew it was somewhere in the room, but it's so big and holds so much junk, he didn't expect to see it again."

"Should we move the Horcrux?" Harry asked. "The Order don't know about them, but why risk it. Let's move it and get it back to Grandpa."

"I think that is a very good idea," Beth replied with a nod. "If you bring it to me, I can get it back home easily enough."

"We can do it now," Hermione offered as she jumped to her feet.

"Hermione, aren't you forgetting something?" Beth called after her daughter in amusement.

"What?" Hermione frowned.

"We don't know what we're looking for," Harry pointed out with a chuckle.

"Right," Hermione said sheepishly. "So what are we looking for?"

"A diadem," Beth answered. "It's silver and it once belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw."

"A diadem, that's like a tiara, isn't it?" Harry checked.

"It is indeed," Beth confirmed.

"Like the tiara Hermione was throwing around the place when we found the cabinet," Harry taunted, grinning teasingly at his aunt.

"I didn't know what it was, did I?" Hermione shot back. "If I'd known what it was, I would have been more careful with it."

"So you've seen it?" Beth checked.

"We haven't only seen it, but we know exactly where it is," Harry replied with a grin. "We can be back with it in under ten minutes."

"Good, go and get it and bring it to me," Beth ordered. "And try and work out what the Weasleys are up to. I don't like surprises, and something tells me they're up to something. More than likely something to do with the Order. Let's not give the Order a chance to strike at us. Keep your eye on the pair, and if necessary, call in back-up of the adult variety. If they're going to be a threat, we'll get rid of them."

"I like that idea, a Weasley free Hogwarts," Hermione replied with a wicked smirk.

"It might well come to that," Beth said.

Grinning at the possibility that they could be getting rid of the Weasleys for good, Harry and Hermione headed off to grab the diadem for Beth. As predicated, it took then under ten minutes to head up to the room, grab the diadem and return to the dungeons. The pair then left Beth to get it safely back to Voldemort, while they headed off to discuss the best way to keep tabs on the two Weasleys. Whatever the pair were planning, they weren't going to succeed, not if Harry and Hermione had anything to do with it.