Chapter 2: Getting Lost

The circular room was bright when Hermione woke. She pulled back the curtains to see Lavender and Parvati almost out the door.

"We can wait if you want?" Parvati said.

"It's ok, I'll see you down there," she replied. After quickly showering and dressing, Hermione descended the stairs to the common room, and saw Neville, Haydrien and Ron sitting on the chairs.

"Took you long enough, Hazel," Haydrien commented without looking up from the book in his hands.

"No one said you had to wait for me," she shot back.

"Well where would be the fun in that?" He added a wink to his wicked grin when he glanced up at her.

"So are we going then?" she snapped back. It was too early to be this irritated.

"At your leave, princess," Haydrien said sweeping into a mocking bow, after opening the portrait hole.

"I'm going to kill you one of these days," she said so low under her breath the words didn't even reach her own ears. He smiled wickedly at her.

"You can try." Hermione stared at him shocked, but it quickly turned into a scowl. She knew one thing for sure, either she was going to kill Haydrien Black or he was going to be the death of her. Hermione slid passed him and out the portrait hole.

"Fido and Shadow, you coming?" Haydrien called back into the common room.

"Who's Shadow?" Ron asked.

"Why, you of course. Always one step behind Fido, you are," he replied then walked out of the portrait hole, leaving Ron searching for words and Neville sighing.

Hermione stopped at the first junction of the hallways. "Crap," she mumbled.

"Something wrong, princess?" Haydrien said from just behind her. She ground her teeth together as she turned to face him.

"No," she spit out.

"Ok, well lead on." Hermione turned back to her choices: right, left, forward. She knew they turned left onto this hallway, but was it farther up? She sighed. When she looked back at him, his mischievous grin set her off.

'I don't care if we ever get there; I am not asking him for help,' Hermione thought as she turned right and stalked down the hallway. Haydrien followed in the shadows. The hallway twisted and turned. She tried to remember if this was the right way, but there were so many people there last night.

They came to another junction: left or forward? This didn't seem right. But turning left should meet up with the hallway from last night. So she turned. She heard a soft chuckle from behind her. Anger boiled inside, but she refused to look back.

And they continued, each junction was a new puzzle and they were hopelessly lost. Hermione tried going back the way they came, but nothing looked the same. She turned around on the spot looking every way. She even stared out the window, but that offered no reference as to which way to go. Her stomach growled painfully.

"Beautiful out there. Looks like it would be great for a picnic, don't you think Hazel?" Haydrien said behind her. Hermione spun to face him, anger burning in her eyes. He just smiled. Her hands snaked into fists at her sides.

CRACK.

The window behind her cracked down the center through the metal ribbing that decorated the pane of glass. Fear flashed over her face.

"Quite powerful, aren't you Hazel?"

"You don't know anything about me," Hermione spat through clenched teeth. She tried to breath, to regain control. Haydrien reached around her and ran a single finger down the cracked glass. He pulled his finger away, a single large drop of blood shining on the tip of his finger. She looked at him horrified and then he brought the finger to his lips.

"If you say so, Hazel," he replied in a low voice. "Are you hungry? I know the way. All you have to do is ask." Hermione looked down defeated.

"Show me."

"Please?" The anger rose again and the widow next to them shattered complete. He laughed and she slid down to sit on the floor. "This way." He started walking down the hallways, but turned when she didn't follow. "Coming?"

Hermione didn't answer. She could feel everything so close to the surface, so powerful. 'Breathe,' she commanded herself. Hermione breathed in as deep as she could, but knew it was still too shallow. She could see Haydrien cock his head to the side out of the corner of her eye.

'Breathe,' she commanded again, closing her eyes. Hermione took another breath, then another. Breathe in, breathe out, the crack disappeared behind her. Breath in, she stood, breath out, the glass flew back into place. One more time, the glass was whole again.

"Lead," she barked out coldly.

"That's my girl," he said as he turned, but so softly she couldn't be sure that's what he said at all. Two turns later, he stopped at a three way intersection. He walked toward the blank wall instead of turning left or right. Reaching up, he pressed on a single brick that was just within his reach. The wall slid open to reveal another passageway.

"This way, Hazel," he said glancing back. Hermione followed in awe. The end of the passage spat them out right next to the Great Hall. As they stepped out, a tapestry covered the opening. Hermione turned to feel the passage through the tapestry but it was as hard as stone. "Come, Hazel, food awaits." And with that they entered the Great Hall, finally.

~XxXxX~

Haydrien rose from the table.

"Well I'm off to go get into some trouble, anyone want to join me?" he said. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I actually wanted to go check out the library," she replied.

"That sound fun, I go along for that," Neville said.

"Alright. And Hazel, if you get lost, just whistle," Haydrien said. She replied back with an icy glare. 'Well at least he didn't mention my little incident,' she thought. He walked away and Hermione shook her head in confusion.

Neville, Ron, and Hermione set out for the library. As they reached the door, they saw Lavender and Parvati stumbling towards them.

"We made it," Lavender said.

"Finally," Parvati added.

"Where have you been?" Hermione asked.

"Hopelessly lost," Parvati complained.

"I thought we were going to die of starvation wandering these halls," Lavender said. Hermione tried her best not to roll her eyes at their dramatics.

"Well, best go eat then," she said, excusing them to continue. After the girls left, a sad realization hit her: she had no idea which way the library, or anything else for that matter, was.

"OK, so which way are we going?" Neville asked.

"You don't know?" she asked, hopelessness flooding in. Both boys shook their heads. "How did you find your way here?"

"Oh well, we ran into Fred and George and they said to go right and then follow it the whole way, so we went straight instead until we hit a dead end and then went left. It lead us right here," Ron said.

"Wait, but they said to go right," Hermione replied.

"Exactly," he nodded. She looked helplessly as Neville.

"Fred and George like to play jokes, so we did the opposite of what they said," he explained.

"Is that how everyone is here?"

"No, not really, well to varying degrees, but not as bad as Fred and George. They are the worse—or best in some options."

"Well OK then. But that still doesn't help us get to the library," she said. And she really wanted to see all those books.

"The library, Miss?" a male voice said. Hermione turned around, but no one was there.

"Umm, who said that?"

"Sir Ick of the Lost Marsh, at your service." She turned again and heard him clear his throat. "Behind you miss." Hermione looked behind her and all she saw was…a painting, of course.

"Hello, Sir Ick, do you know where the library is?"

"Why of course. You go this way past three junctions and then turn left at the next. That will take you to a set of staircases. You will want to go up the fifth floor on the east side. (If you are not sure which side is east, ask the paintings.) Then it will be down that hallway on your right. You cannot miss it. If you have trouble, all the paintings know the way."

"Thank you very much, Sir Ick." And they were off. It was surprising easy getting around with directions.

Once in the library, the agreed on a table to sit at and then separated to go find books. Hermione returned with her arms full. Ron was sitting with one book in front of him that seemed to be about broom construction. Neville had one book in his hands and another beside him.

"That's a lot of books, Hermione," Neville said looking over his own volume.

"Well, I've never been in a magical library before. There is just so much new material to read."

"You don't have to read it all today. The books will still be here tomorrow."

"I know. This is just a bit of light reading." Neville and Ron exchanged a look, but didn't comment again as they each delved into the text before them for the next three hours.

~XxXxX~

"Oh Merlin, I'm hungry," Ron said. Hermione looked up.

"You should be, it's lunch time," she said looking at the clock. "We should head back." As they stood, she looked back at the table.

"What is it Hermione?" Neville asked.

"Nothing, just a new adventure, and new things to learn."

"I know it's a bit crazy, and I've always known I was going to Hogwarts. Can't image how it must be to learn about all this when you turn thirteen," Neville said.

"It was definitely interesting," Hermione said, but couldn't quite keep the bite out of her words.

They headed back towards the stairs that lead them there. After hitching a ride on staircase heading down which stopped at the opposite side, they got off and waited for another staircase to connect to take them the rest of the way down. And they waited. And waited.

"Bloody hell, are we ever going to be able to go down?" Ron complained.

"At this rate, we're going to miss lunch," Neville chipped in.

"Well, there has to be another way down, perhaps down this hallway we can find a painting to ask for directions," Hermione said.

"Anything is better than waiting for a stupid staircase," Ron agreed. They headed down the hallway till they met a junction a few steps later.

"A painting," Hermione said, happy for directions.

"Lot of good that's going to do us. It's empty," Ron said.

"But, but why is it empty, that doesn't make sense. Surely there should be someone sitting in that chair."

"Not all painting care to sit around all day. I'd imagine it'd be quite boring."

"Well, what now?"

"Do you hear that?" Neville asked. As they stopped to listen they could hear a quiet roar.

"Maybe we're next to the great hall," Ron said hopefully. "Sounds like a lot of students." They headed in the direction of the noise. Towards the end of the hallway, a door was open a crack.

They stepped inside, but it wasn't the great hall. It was a giant room. In the center lay a large three headed dog, each head snoring at different times. They froze. Neville let out a low whistle.

"That is one giant dog," he said softly. Then its eyes snapped open. One pair of eyes stared straight into Hermione's as it started growling menacingly. Neville grabbed her arm and yanked her out before slamming the door shut. At their backs the door locked with a hiss.

"Wow, that's a rather strong locking spell. What have you lot got yourself into now?" a voice called from the shadows. 'Let me be wrong,' Hermione thought before glancing at the origin. 'Not that lucky.' "Hey Hazel, Fido whistled and here I am," Haydrien said as he slid into a bow.

"How did you…" Ron trailed off.

"Don't worry about it, Shadow, don't want you to strain yourself." Neville eyed him warily.

"You've been following us all day, Haydrien? Just waiting to pop out?" Hermione accused.

"Now, Hazel, I do have better things to do that follow you around like a lost puppy," he looked at the other boys with raised eyebrows. She rolled my eyes then pinned him with a I'm-not-buying-it glare. "Don't believe me, Hazel? Ask Fido, I'm sure he would've known." Neville's eyes narrowed.

"Neville?" she asked concerned.

"We should get to lunch," Neville replied. Haydrien smirked.

"You want to lead the way, Hazel?"

"You arse," she murmured under her breath. Haydrien laughed.

"This way guys," he said heading back the direct they came or at least they thought it was.