Summary: In which there is bad music, carrots, dark and dusty places, crisps, and the introduction of the antagonist.
(Short recap: Ron and Hermione are preoccupied in the library, Ginny and Dean are fighting in the Billiard room and Harry is searching for food in the kitchen. This chapter takes place right after Cho and Neville head off to search their room.)
Who Killed Mr. Potter?
Chapter 4 - A Dark Figure
Neville and Cho ended up in a magnificent ballroom complete with couches, a love seat and, to Cho's delight, a beautiful grand piano. The moment Cho saw it she squealed in excitement and started to play a horribly off-key version of the Minuet in G that made Neville's head pound.
"Can you please stop playing that?" Neville asked Cho, rubbing his temples.
"What? Don't you like it?" Cho asked, watching Neville wander around the far side of the room.
Cho shrugged when Neville didn't answer and turned back to the piano, shifting some sheet music around looking for more songs. As she moved a piece entitled "76 Trombones" out of the way, she found a lead pipe about six inches long. She picked it up and quietly slipped it into a red purse that had appeared out of nowhere before starting up a new song.
While Cho continued playing, Neville inspected an armoire behind the love seat and, upon opening the wooden doors, found a collection of statuettes. Hidden among these was a golden candlestick. Neville stared at them for a moment then picked up the candlestick and hid it in an inside jacket pocket. He closed the doors quietly and turned around, head still pounding.
"Can you shut up with that dreadful song!" he shouted at Cho who jumped, stopped playing and turned to face him looking very angry.
Cho looked scandalized and Neville instantly felt guilty over his outburst.
Cho contemplated him for a moment before turning back to the piano. Neville shrugged and started walking around the room, pointlessly flipping up couch cushions.
At that moment there was the sound of a closing door. Both Neville and Cho looked around but didn't see anyone.
"I'm going to go see what that was..." Neville trailed off, slightly distracted.
Meanwhile in the kitchen, Harry was still looking through the cabinets trying to find something to satisfy his rumbling stomach. The cupboards were almost entirely empty but for a few vegetables.
The kitchen door swung open behind him and Ginny stormed in, red-faced and angry. She started pacing around the cutting board grumbling to herself only stopping when she saw Harry. Ginny's expression softened considerably.
"I saw you sneak in here," she told him. "So I decided to see what you were up to."
"Looking for something to eat," he explained. "I didn't have time for a snack after Quidditch practice."
"Here, I'll cut these up for you," Ginny said picking up the knife and chopping up some carrots.
"You don't have to do that you know," Harry told her, turning slightly pink.
"Well, I am the maid aren't I?" she said more viciously then she meant too. "It's okay Harry, I don't mind," she added apologetically, pausing in her chopping and looking at Harry thoughtfully.
A second later, a third person barged into the room.
"I knew it!" Dean yelled furiously. "You just had to follow him, didn't you?"
"Stop yelling at me!" Ginny said. "After all, I am single as of five minutes ago!" She waved the knife threateningly, pointing at Dean accusingly with the tip of it.
Dean and Harry were both rather terrified.
Harry started backing up slowly away from the two of them. All he had wanted were some crisps, so he preoccupied himself with searching for them and trying to ignore the fight. He spotted a bag of potato chips in a nearby cabinet and, as he reached up for them, he lost his balance and fell against a shelf that slid back into the wall. Harry soon found himself tumbling down a dark stairway, head over heels.
"So you were serious when you said we shouldn't see each other anymore!" Dean asked her loudly.
"Why wouldn't I be serious?" Ginny asked incredulously. "You were acting like a possessive git!"
"A possessive git?" Dean glared at her. "Wh-"
"Wait," Ginny interrupted, holding up a hand. "Where did Harry go?" she asked Dean, looking around.
"Huh? Why should I care?" Dean asked.
"Because he's your friend and mine as well," Ginny replied.
Ginny looked around the kitchen until her eyes fell on an open cabinet door, the only open cabinet door. The cupboard was big enough for Harry to hide in but when Ginny looked inside all she saw was a gaping black hole and cement stairs heading down.
"He can't have gone down there," Dean said to Ginny.
"What if someone kidnapped him and forced him to go?" Ginny asked with a squeak.
Both were silent. Then-
"I'm going after him," Ginny told Dean. "You can come with me if you'd like."
Harry slowly got to his feet and dusted himself off. He noticed that he must be in some kind of basement passage similar to the one into Honeydukes. He pulled out his wand.
"Lumos," he whispered and decided to see where it went, feeling safe in this place remembering that it was still only the Room of Requirement.
He walked ahead and decided to open the bag of potato chips that he had fallen down the stairs with, even though they did get a little smashed. As he tried to eat one- handed, the other holding his wand, he came upon another set of stairs. He walked up and opened a trap door above his head, emerging into a dark room with a green rug and a comfy looking sofa.
He settled himself into a the nearby desk chair and, while crunching away on his chips, thought about how Ginny had threatened Dean with a knife. Scary, that one, he thought to himself with a grin. Harry reached in for the last piece of crisp when everything suddenly went dark.
The dark figure rushed silently across the tiled floor; there was a door ahead and the figure slid inside as quietly as they could. The figure snuck up behind the black-haired boy who was noisily eating some muggle potato chips. Good, the figure thought, he won't hear me.
The black-haired boy was sitting at a desk with his back to the door. The figure slowly made a move toward him. Quietly now, easy does it, the figure thought as they slowly raised their arm to strike.
"This place is dusty," Ginny commented as she and Dean meandered through the passageway.
"You're the maid, why don't you tidy it up?" Dean asked her, still bitter about their fight. Ginny made a frustrated noise.
"Why did I ever go out with you?" Ginny muttered to no one in particular. Dean sneezed and wisely did not reply.
Ginny sighed and took the knife out of her apron pocket, studying it in the light from her wand.
"Why did you take that with you?" Dean asked, a tinge of fear in his voice.
"Because I know how to use it almost as good as my wand," Ginny replied a steely note in her voice. She placed the knife back into her pocket
"Ow!" Dean exclaimed as he hit his head on a trapdoor at the top of some stairs.
Ginny sniggered at Dean as they clambered up through the door into total darkness. Dean lit his wand.
"Hello?" Ginny whispered. "Anyone in here...?"
Ginny screamed. She had just caught sight of Harry lying flat on his back, eyes closed and a crumpled bag of crisps in his hand.