Chapter Seventeen Peeves
At half past eight in the evening Peeves zoomed down the hall, talking to himself as usual, having the run of the almost empty castle. He didn't seem to have nearly as much fun when the school was not in session and tended to be even more mischievous to the point of being destructive than usual. Not for the first time in Hogwarts memory did the suits of armor in the hallway fall to the ground in pieces leaving Filch to rant and rave and threaten to rain destruction on Peeve's head ( all to no avail). He was about to do the dominos thing again, laying in midair with his bare toes within reach of the first full suit of armor, when Snape and Remus came walking up the hallway.
The poltergeist did not like the dark teacher, although Snape rarely bothered to even acknowledge his presence. Now, Peeves gazed in wonder as Snape and an almost perfect double presented themselves along with the werewolf, Remus Lupin.
"Doublezy-troublzy Snapey-Pooh," Peeves sniped. "Who's that handsome devil that's following you?" He laughed hysterically and zoomed into the rafters when one of the twin Snapes shot a freezing charm at him. It missed. He had gotten out of hand since Dumbledore's death and it seemed no one could tame him; least of all Snape, and the Bloody Baron was nowhere to be found.
The man, or his double, frowned at him and hurried on. Remus stopped and looked up. "Peeves have you seen anything of Harry Potter?" He spoke kindly and the poltergeist drifted down towards him pretending to be concerned.
"Why should we see Potty Wee Potter, Luney Lupin? Peeves asked. "Schoolzies is out and Hogwarts is our own. Those snot-nosed kidzies can stay away." He pouted and did what he had been daring to do for an hour. He blew a gust of wind towards the suits of armor and started them toppling towards one another. The noise was deafening. Lupin frowned and walked on, ignoring the rubble left behind.
The poltergeist surveyed his handiwork and floated along the corridor towards the main hall having missed Harry's entrance into the school. He was not as blind when Hermione and Ron walked in.
The two ignored his presence and stood talking in the entrance. Peeves was, if nothing, the ultimate eaves-dropper.
"Where do you think we should search?" Ron asked, looking around. "It looks abandoned doesn't it? Never been here when there wasn't someone around, Hermione. It's kind of spooky."
"Well why don't we check Gryffindor Tower first," Hermione suggested. "Maybe Professor McGonagall is in Dumbledore's office or her old office and we can check there." Her eyes drifted upwards and she stood staring at the poltergeist. There was a strange look on her face.
"What?" Ron asked looking around quickly. "What is it?"
"Peeves," she answered slowly, deliberately. "Peeves, the poltergeist."
Ron searched the ceiling and found him. "Yeah, what about him? He'll be shouting out for Filch if we're not careful. You there!" he shouted at Peeves. "Get away!"
Peeves took the opportunity to swoop down and yank at Hermione's hair. "Are we having a home-coming?" he sneered. "Come to see the werewolf?"
"Is he here then?" Hermione answered, pulling away in exasperation. "Is Remus Lupin here? Who's with him? Harry?"
Peeves cackled gleefully. "Won't tell! We shall call Filch. Filchy!" he screamed and did a double somersault off of a gargoyle near the ceiling and swam down towards them, doing a breast-stroke in mid-air off the tall tower, snorting and shooting raspberries in their direction.
"What do you want to ask him for?" Ron complained and turned away. "Have you gone mental? Peeves isn't going to tell you anything."
Hermione stood still and continued to stare at Peeves. "At least we know Lupin is here, Ron," she spoke quietly. "Ron?"
"Yeah, what?"
"Peeves is a poltergeist," she said.
"Spotted that one have you?" he said and glared up at the him, looking puzzled. "So what?"
"Aren't poltergeists supposed to be indestructible?" she asked. Ron shrugged and she shook her head slowly and turned away. "Let's go to Gryffindor Tower first." She moved away and it was Ron's turn to stare at Peeves before following.
Peeves zoomed off down the hall beside them, gliding along at eye level. They ignored him completely until he went off down another corridor looking for someone else to irritate.
It was almost the last place they looked and it was by chance only that the room revealed itself. They were passing the Room of Requirement and Ron was saying out loud, "We've just got to find him. We've got to find Harry. If he's not here then where is he? We've got to find him!"
He was pacing in the corridor and the door suddenly appeared. Hermione stared at it and then him and exclaimed, "Of course! Why didn't we think!" She hopped off the window sill she had been sitting on and walked to the door and opened it.
The lounge in Harry's parent's house was warm and cozy with a fire in the hearth and illuminated by lamps strewn about the room. Harry was sitting in a chair reading.
"Hello," he said and smiled at them.
...
At the same time, Lupus was swallowing the greenish-yellowish liquid that Snape had concocted which would prevent him from making the changes to a werewolf. He knew from experience that he would remain confined in the broom closet adjacent to Snape's potion's classroom since he could not control the feral emotions that often took over. However, he was safe to humans and mostly to himself.
"Potsy Potter friends are here!" Peeves announced as he hopped from shadow to shadow in the room. He was not often found in Snape's classroom or private residence and this was unusual. Snape glared at him and Remus handed the goblet back to him. "Don't know where Potter is."
"Sounds like we're all here together except for Harry," Remus commented. "Will you go find them and check on them?" He didn't bother to acknowledge the poltergeist's help.
Snape nodded and closed the door of the broom closet on him.
"And let me out in the morning will you?" he shouted through the door. Peeves sat up in the corner of the small room. "Let me outttttttt! Pleazzzzze!" he moaned and then giggled. "Do you suppose the doppelganger will let you out in the morning, Luney?"
Lupin stared at him and then turned back to the door. He had forgotten to check once again if he was in Snape's company or the doppelgangers'.
…
In the course of looking for Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, Snape stopped at McGonagall's classroom, saw it was empty and assumed that she was in Dumbledore's office. And although it had been the true Snape that had closed Lupin up in a room next to his office, he was not inclined to think much about him since he was safely tucked away for the night. Nor was he interested in traipsing all over the school looking for Potter's friends. Instead, he headed for the library, forgetting that he was the only one who knew where Remus was- that is-with the exception of Peeves.
...
"Harry you could have been caught!" Ron gasped when his friend told them about the narrow escape and apparating to Pivate Drive.
"I think that we all have to be careful about that," Harry said. "I don't know how they are locating us but they seem to be checking in on everyone I ever knew or at least keeping watch on them."
"To tell you the truth," Hermione broke in, "I'm glad we are here. This is a perfect hiding place. I have some ideas about destroying the Horcruxes and we are near the library. I can go in to research. I think that you two can try and figure out where the Hufflepuff cup might be. We have the locket."
Harry was nodding. "If I'm right, I think I have one of them, too. I brought it along and hid it out on Hogwarts grounds."
"Well you need to find Remus. I think maybe Snape is with him," Hermione said.
"He was. I overheard them talking on the grounds," Harry admitted. "I followed them in. I don't want them to know we are here just yet, Hermione." He begged her with his eyes to understand and not ask questions. She stared at him steadily for a few minutes and then turned her eyes away.
"What about Slughorn," Ron asked, "what did you learn from him?"
Harry grimaced. "I don't know that he was very helpful. He said that the object that holds a Horcrux can be destroyed but that doesn't necessarily destroy the piece of soul inside. There's a danger in believing that it's also gone. A person can be fooled. I don't believe he knew much."
"But how do you go about destroying it...the piece of soul.... without turning out like Dumbledore did?" Ron asked.
"A non-human can do it," Harry said. "That's what I've learned. I don't know all the details. The problem is, I can't put anyone at risk. I mean like Dobby or Firenze, or even Remus and Hagrid who are both half-human. I don't know any other non-humans."
"That's just it, Harry," Hermione began excitedly. "You do."
He frowned. "Like who?"
"Suppose we were to use someone like Peeves?"
Both Ron and Harry sat staring at her blankly.
"Don't look at me like that," she exclaimed. "Why not Peeves? Or for that matter.... Snape's Doppelganger?"
"I wouldn't mind getting rid of a few of Aragog's relatives," Ron admitted. They stared at him for a moment and then threw in more ideas.
"Like the three headed dog, Hagrid had guarding the Sorcerer's Stone," Hermione said.
"I wouldn't mind using a dragon or two," Harry said and broke into a grin. "Do you think a boggart could be used?"
"Better yet," Ron added, "Blast-ended skrewts. But how exactly do you use a creature to destroy a Horcrux?"
Harry rubbed his chin and studied the small room. It was identical to his parent's home, at least as far as he could see. He had not paid a lot of attention to it when he was there. Now he wished it were the real thing and he could be sitting by a fire chatting away with his friends about Quidditch instead of this topic. "I'm not saying it's going to be easy but from Slughorn's description it's a matter of transferring the soul into a different vessel- a creature," he explained. "He said something about an animal's soul and a human soul not being able to co-exist."
"Yes, but isn't Voldemort's snake a Horcrux?" Ron asked. "It didn't die."
"That's true but let's not let that stop us from considering it," Hermione added. "We know so very little about the whole thing I think I'll take advantage of the school being empty to go down to the library. You both might think about other ways to handle the problem."
"In the meantime, let's find a house elf and see if we can get something to eat," Ron said, smacking his lips, as if the other issue was now history.