Authors Note: This will likely be my shortest chapter. You'll see more of Snape in the next Chapter.
Disclaimer: Regrettably not mine.
An episode of pain woke him. He stuck his head out of the curtains of his bed to check the time. The clock by the door glowed and read 3:32 Harry tried to go back to sleep but was unable to do so. Defeated he got up and dressed he'd take his potions book down to the common room to study as they had a test today.
As he headed down stairs but before the brace of candles could light at the mid point landing he saw a faint glowing door shaped outline at the landing. When he got there he stopped and felt around where he saw the glow until he found a stone that pushed in which caused a door to swing open. Inside the secret room clean linen was neatly stacked on house elf height shelves. Harry closed the door linen closets didn't interest him.
Down in the common room there where several items that glowed in the dim light of a couple candelabra that where always lit. Most of them Harry knew to be enchanted items. He ignored them to study for that potions test that he had later on today. That was one mark he wanted to get up. Ron and Hermione joined him by 7 to go down to the great hall for breakfast together.
Then it was off to potions and the test. Snape handed the tests out as they came into the room. Along with a new goose quill. 15 multiple choice questions and 3 essay questions. Typical of Snape's end of section tests. The extra studying seemed to help him as he took the test. When he finished he took it and the quill he used to Snape. He handed the test to Snape and dumped the quill into a bucket filled with a gently glowing potion.
Harry blinked and looked at the bucket again. The quills where non magical. Harry expected that they came from the roast goose they had for Sunday's dinner. So why would Snape want them as an ingredient for a potion. "Sir, are the quills used for the solution to enchant a Never out Quill?" Harry asked.
Snape looked up from his correcting. He took Harry's test and added 5 points extra credit. "Correct Mr. Potter. Do you know where the ink comes from?" Snape asked.
"No, Sir." Harry replied.
"For extra credit I'd like a 2 foot essay on the source of the ink for a Never out Quill." Snape said.
"Yes, Sir." Harry said and went back to his desk opening his potion text to the index and started to look up references for ink. By the time every one was finished with the test it was almost time to go. Snape gave them a reading assignment then dismissed them.
As Harry went to his next class he noticed faint outlines of magic on the wall here and there. Usually were there was some form of shadow either from something blocking the light or a dark corner, most where door shaped. That evening after checking the map Harry slipped out of the common room and went to the one that was in a little used corridor near the common room. He had checked this corridor out last year it contained one room with no door on the inside wall and a row of arrow slits on the outside wall. The door outline was to the left of the room. The stone that opened it was near the bottom on the left side.
Harry pressed it and twisted it like the door to the linen closet it opened easily. Once he stepped inside and the door was closed torches began burning. The room was square with a dozen narrow beds along the walls, chests at the foot of each bed. A plank table with benches stood in the middle of the room. Dust covered everything which was very unusual for Hogwarts. It's as if the room had been forgotten. Since there was no lock on the trunks that Harry could see he opened one. The trunk was empty as were the trunks on either side. As he explored the various secret rooms of Hogwarts he came across a potions lab near the infirmary. He also found secret passage ways that where not on the Marauders map. The odd thing was they where straight and he knew that there wasn't any way for them to be like that. At this point he enlisted Ron and Hermione's help.
It was Ron who told Harry what the passages where. The passages where simply two points connected by magic that allowed freight to move between the two points. Once set the points couldn't be moved nor could the paths cross which made them useless for travel unless one was traveling internationally. It was a nearly obsolete method of travel as Portkeys where much better at moving people around.