For three weeks, Amanda had witnessed the larger part of Gryffindor disappearing on Thursday evenings. She had determined that this time, she was going to find out why. She stationed herself in the common room, pulling out a book to make it look like she was studying. In reality, she was watching everyone around her, waiting for them to begin slipping away.
It was half past seven when the first group left the room. At five-minute intervals, others began casually standing up and leaving . Amanda waited until the fourth group had gone before following,
As luck would have it, this group included Ginny Weasley. They had barely made it to the stairway before Ginny turned and yelled at Amanda, "Quit following me!"
"I – I wasn't"
"Yes you were. Leave me alone!"
Amanda slunk away, but decided to try her luck with another group. They were less observant and she was able to follow them all the way to a hallway where one of them paced back and forth until a door appeared. As soon as they went inside, the door disappeared. Frustrated, Amanda headed back to her dorm.
The next morning, she confronted Neville. "Where do you guys go?"
"What?"
"The room, with the door that appears and disappears, what are you doing there?"
"I can't talk about that."
She pleaded with him, but he refused to offer any information.