Chapter 15

The Vault of Mystery

Harry and Ron sat up in the Gryffindor common room until well after midnight, pretending to do homework while they waited for Hermione to return. She never reappeared, however, and Ron worked himself into a state, alternately worried and furious with her.

"She's just being stubborn," Ron muttered when they finally gathered up their books and trudged back up to their dormitory. "I can't win. If I did what she's doing, you'd tell me I was a prat. But are you going to call her a prat for acting like that? I don't think so."

Harry wisely decided to say nothing one way or the other on that matter. He and Ron decided to head up to their beds after Harry posted the Quidditch practice sessions for the next few weeks on the common room bulletin board

By the time they came down to breakfast the next morning, however, Hermione was already in the Great Hall, reading the Daily Prophet and otherwise acting as if nothing had happened. She greeted them absently as they sat down across from her and began helping themselves to breakfast.

"So," Ron said casually, after a minute or so of silence. "Anybody we know dead?"

"No," Hermione replied without looking up. "Nobody's dead."

"So what're you reading?" Harry pressed, hoping to get her talking, for once.

"This Vault story from Gringotts," Hermione replied. "It's getting really fascinating. There's going to be a competition over it now."

"A competition?" Ron repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's – oh, here," Hermione handed the paper to Ron. "You can both read it for yourselves."

Gringotts Announces Mystery
Vault Tournament

Gringotts Wizarding Bank announced yesterday that it would sponsor
a tournament allowing eligible witches and wizards to attempt to open
the so-called Mystery Vault, an artifact discovered in a seldom-used
section of the Bank, in a series of competitions that will begin in the
near future.

"Gringotts, dedicated to making the Wizarding banking experience as
novel and exciting as possible, has decided to give the public a look
into how some of our most dedicated employees, the Cursebreakers,
go about their work. The Mystery Vault, which has been in our keeping
for at least 30 years, is being made available to the Wizarding public a
chance to experience the exhilaration of discovering real treasure, just
as our employees do," the Bank's Chief Goblin said in a statement read
by the Bank's Truth-Speaker, Gornuk.

Some in the Wizarding community, however, maintain that it is very likely
that Gringotts Cursebreakers, as well as Gringotts goblins, have attempted
to open the mysterious vault, with unfortunate results. "Let's just say," one
source told the Prophet, on condition of remaining anonymous, "there's a
reason why the Chief Goblin is on holiday right now." It has been rumored
but not confirmed that the Chief Goblin, in attempting to open the vault, had
all of his fingers and toes magically stuck together.

Details of the Tournament competition are still spotty, but the Bank has stated
it will release further information in the next day or two.

"Wonder if it was Bill who gave them that quote," Ron wondered with a grin. "He thinks the Chief Goblin is a skinflint."

"The Chief Goblin?" It was Jon, walking up to where they were seated, who had spoken. He sat down next to Hermione and nodded to her. She smiled and nodded back. Jon looked at Harry. "I think one of the goblins in the bank mentioned a Chief Goblin while we were there."

Ron, who had just given Harry a significant look as Jon sat next to Hermione, said, "Yeah, he's in charge of the Bank. You remember that Vault you and Harry almost got a look at? It looks like they're going to allow wizards to have a go at getting inside it!" Ron looked up dreamily. "Can you imagine how much gold something that big could have in it?"

"Can you imagine how hard it will be to get into it if Cursebreakers like your brother haven't been able to?" Hermione said skeptically. "Ron, you can't really be imagining that you have a chance!"

"Well, why not?" Ron said, looking at her crossly. "Besides, it doesn't have to be me alone – we could all have a go at figuring it out together."

Hermione stared at him with a "have you forgotten?" look on her face. When Ron only stared blankly at her, she said evasively, "I think we've got bigger ducks in the pond than that, don't you?"

"What – oh." Ron stole a look at Jon, then lapsed into silence.

But Jon, putting eggs and sausages on his plate, looked shrewdly at Harry and asked, "What ducks?" He began cutting one of the sausages.

"Nothing," Harry said. "We just have a lot of studying to do this year for our N.E.W.T.s."

"I suppose so," Jon said quietly, swallowing a piece of sausage. "Since you no longer have a job as 'the Chosen One'."

"Now what's that supposed to mean?" Harry asked, just as quietly.

"The other boys in my dorm room have been talking a lot about you, and Neville," Jon said, looking at Harry as he cut up his eggs. "The word is that, last year, you were 'the Chosen One' and destined to destroy Voldemort.

"Now, however," he continued, turning to look at Hermione and Ron, both watching him steadily. "It looks like Neville Longbottom did what you were supposed to do, and now he's riding high while you've been left behind."

"Watch it, mate," Ron growled. "You don't know what you're on about."

"I think I do, 'mate,' " Jon shot back. "We've been studying Voldemort in America too, and come up with some pretty unpleasant ideas about him."

"Such as?" Harry prompted.

"Such as, how could a wizard that had his own Killing Curse rebound on him survive it?" Jon said in a low voice. "By rights either he, or Harry, who he'd intended to kill, should be dead." He pointed to Harry's forehead. "The Killing Curse hit Harry but didn't kill him. It rebounded on Voldemort. From what I've read it destroyed the house and Voldemort's body, but left Harry unharmed except for the scar on his forehead.

"Yeah, we know all that," Ron said dismissively. "We were there, in the Ministry, when it happened. So what's your point?"

"The point is, if Voldemort was able to come back once, he may be able to come back again."

Neither Harry, Ron nor Hermione said anything in reply. None of them would risk giving out a clue of how close Jon was to being right.

After breakfast was over they left for their morning classes, a double Charms and Potions. Both passed uneventfully, although in each class Malfoy took every opportunity, when no teacher was watching, to remind Jon of their upcoming duel by waving his wand suggestively or threateningly. For the most part, Jon ignored him or merely smiled in return, a gesture which seemed to inflame Malfoy even more.

After lunch, (at which Ron made sure that he was seated next to Hermione, not Jon) Hermione gathered up her books and dashed off to her afternoon classes, along with Jon, while Harry and Ron returned to the Gryffindor common room. Dean Thomas came over to check with Harry about Quidditch tryouts on Saturday afternoon. Harry confirmed they were set; what he didn't like, but said nothing about, was that there were very few people who'd signed up so far. Satisfied, Dean went on his way, leaving Harry and Ron to discuss practice schedules and strategy for the year, something Harry was still having trouble getting interested in.

Both he and Ron had other thoughts on their minds. Ron had seized upon the idea of competing in the Vault Tournament being organized by Gringotts. "It's got to be full of treasure, don't you think?" Ron kept saying, while Harry, tired of Quidditch formations and organizing practices, had gotten out his Charms homework and was reading through the text. "A vault that big could have maybe a hundred thousand Galleons in it, maybe more, don't you think, Harry?"

"Definitely more," Harry said, baiting Ron, though Ron's dreams of fantastic wealth left him gormless about Harry's intentions. "Maybe a couple of hundred thousand, maybe more."

"You think so?" Ron marveled. "It would be so cool to win that!"

He was still daydreaming about the Vault when Jon returned to the common room after Arithmancy class. "How's it going?" Jon said as he stopped at the table where Harry and Ron were sitting.

"Okay," Harry replied. He still wasn't sure what to make of their conversation earlier in the day. There was something about Jon that made Harry vaguely uneasy, something he couldn't yet identify.

"You saw that Vault when you were with Harry in Gringotts Bank, didn't you?" Ron asked Jon suddenly. Jon dropped his book bag on the floor next to a chair and sat down.

"Yeah, a little of it, at least," Jon nodded. "They were still raising it up out of a lower level, so we only got a glimpse before they kicked us out."
"How much gold do you think is in it?" Ron asked him baldly.

Jon considered a moment. "I don't have any idea," he said finally. "I suppose there could be a lot. It's pretty big."

"I think we ought to go check it out this weekend," Ron said to Harry. "We've got liberty then, you know."

"I don't think the board of governors allowed seventh-years weekend liberty so they could go running off to London," Harry averred. "Besides, it's like a nine hour train ride."

"We could Apparate," Ron suggested eagerly. "Or even take a Floo to Fred and George's."

"That's a long way to Apparate in one go," Harry said dubiously. He had never traveled that distance by himself, although he and Dumbledore had Apparated from Hogsmeade to a spot near the sea where they found the cave hiding the fake Horcrux. He had never considered how far they had traveled, but it must have been at least as far. He had no idea whether Ron could make that trip on his own or not.

"Oddly enough, the subject of the Floo Network came up in our Arithmancy class today," Jon put in. "We were discussing some of the mathematics of connecting all the different fireplaces and Professor Vector mentioned that even though restrictions on the Floo Network have been cut back, the school only has a few connections back on, mostly to the Ministry."

"Dammit," Ron growled. "I don't fancy riding a broom all that way, either."

Jon was looking at him curiously. "You know," he said slowly. "I do have a way for us to get there in a few hours without much hassle."

"And what's that?" Ron said suspiciously.

"I think I'd rather show you," Jon said mysteriously. "But we have to go into Hogsmeade to see it. There's an abandoned house there –"

"You mean the Shrieking Shack?" Harry cut in. "We know about it, everybody does."

"Well," Jon continued, "I needed a place to store some of my things that were a little too – er – big to keep here at the school. I found a room in the house that was big enough to accommodate everything."

"You're joking!" Ron said incredulously. "Even Fred and George could never find a way into the Shack!"

"We did," Harry reminded him.

"Well, that's different," Ron demurred. "Course we found a way in! But it damn near killed us!"

Harry looked back at Jon. "So what are you telling us? That you have a way for us to get to London hidden in the Shrieking Shack, and you want to show it to us?"

"Yes," Jon replied. "I would like to see that Vault again myself. I don't know if we could figure out a way to open it, but three heads are better than one."

Harry was silent for a moment. He looked at Ron, who looked back at him, hopeful; that surprised Harry a bit because he didn't think Ron would go for the idea of Jon getting them to Diagon Alley. "I suppose we could sneak out later tonight, when it's dark," he said, slowly.

"Excellent!" Ron enthused; several people glanced over their way, and he continued softly. "What time should we leave, then?"

"Why don't we do it now?" Jon suggested.

"Well, for one thing, we'd be seen," Harry replied. "We can't just walk out the front door and down to Hogsmeade in the middle of the afternoon. For another, Filch would probably stop us, and we'd get detention."

"We can use the secret passageway out of this room down to the school grounds." Jon pointed out.

Harry and Ron looked at each blankly. "What are you talking about?" Ron finally said. "There's no secret passage out of here."

"Yes, there is," Jon said. "It's over to the left of the fireplace; it leads down to the base of the tower, where there's an exit to the outside."

"You're mental," Ron scoffed. "My brothers Fred and George knew every inch of this castle – they never said a thing about a passageway out of the common room."

"And I have a map that shows every secret passageway at Hogwarts," Harry added. "I've never seen that on the map."

"Well, there's one way we can find out," Jon said plaintively; he took out his wand. "But I'd hate to reveal it right in front of everyone."

Ron looked decidedly skeptical; for a moment Harry thought he was going to call Jon's bluff. "Hang on a second," he said. "Jon, go put your books in your dorm, then come up to ours." They all picked up their books and went up to the stairs to the boys' dormitories. Jon stopped off at his room and Harry and Ron continued up to theirs. They threw their books onto their beds and Harry was getting into his trunk when Jon appeared at the door.

Harry pulled his Invisibility Cloak out of his trunk. "Know what this is?" he asked, showing it to Jon.

"It looks like an invisibility cloak," he said. "That's a good idea – we can cross the grounds over to Hogsmeade without being seen."

"We won't have to go that far," Harry said. "But first let's check out that secret passage of yours." They went back down the steps until they were just out of view of the common room.

"We'll have to be quiet," Harry cautioned Jon. "The cloak won't prevent anyone from hearing us if we make too much noise, understand?" Jon nodded, and Harry pulled the Cloak over the three of them. Huddled together somewhat uncomfortably, they made their way slowly down the steps, past a group of laughing fifth- and sixth-years, and over to the fireplace. Fortunately, no one was sitting nearby.

"Here we are," Harry whispered. "Now what?"

Jon took out his wand and said, "First, a precaution. Muffliato," he said. Harry recognized the spell he'd learned from Snape's Advanced Potion-Making book, that caused persons nearby to hear an unidentifiable white noise, keeping them from hearing nearby conversations. How did Jon know it?

Jon, reaching out under the cloak, passed his wand wordlessly over a brick in the wall, which glowed momentarily blue. "You saw that?" Jon asked. Harry and Ron nodded.

"I'm surprised nobody ever found this before," Jon said. "The password isn't that difficult once you know the door is here. The trick is to find it in the first place, since it doesn't respond to the usual magical revelation spells."

"How'd you find it, then?" Ron whispered.

"I know a few revelation spells," Jon smiled. He reached under the cloak, touched the brick with his hand, and said, "Sudnallitit mauqnun sneimrod ocārd!" With a soft creak a small section of the wall opened inward, revealing a dark stairway. Carefully squeezing through the door, they started down the stairs after closing the door behind them.

Jon said "Lumos!" and the tip of his wand lighted, showing them a stairway that curved around as they descended. After a dozen steps Harry stopped and they removed the Invisibility Cloak, then proceeded at a more normal pace. The stairway wasn't very wide, not more than three or four feet, and the walls were of the same stone as the walls of Gryffindor Tower itself. It continued to curve around the Tower, taking them around several times before they reached the bottom, where they found a small, bare room.

Jon moved to one of the walls. "The door will be in this wall," he said. He passed his wand over the wall again and one of the stones glowed blue. Touching it, he repeated the phrase he'd said before and the stones moved of their own accord, much like the brick wall did in the courtyard of the Leaky Cauldron for the entrance to Diagon Alley.

"Nox," Jon said, putting away his wand. He looked at Harry. "We're ready for the Invisibility Cloak again, I think – and for your shortcut."

Getting back under the cloak, Harry, Ron and Jon stepped through the doorway and into the air. They looked behind them, finding Gryffindor Tower looming above them. "Alright," Harry said. "Let's go." They moved eastward, toward the garden and greenhouse, but veered north before reaching getting too close; Harry expected one of Professor Sprout's classes was going on now.

Less than a hundred yards away loomed the Whomping Willow, a large (and very dangerous) tree; its branches would attack anything that approached too close to it, as Harry and Ron had first found out at the beginning of their second year, when they flew Ron's father's Ford Anglia into its branches as they were trying to land on the grounds. They stopped a short distance away, out of reach of its branches.

"I've heard about this," Jon said, looking up at the tree. "It attacks anyone who gets too close."

"Or anything," Harry added, remembering what it had done to his Nimbus 2000 during his third year.

"And it had a go at my dad's car in our second year," Ron added. "We got away, but the car ran off into the Forbidden Forest. It's probably still running around in there."

Jon looked at him curiously for a moment, then turned to Harry. "So why are we looking at it now?"

"There is a passageway between this tree and the Shrieking Shack," Harry explained, grinning as he saw Jon's eyes widen in surprise. "We can travel between here and there a lot faster than we could walking under the Invisibility Cloak."

"Cool!" Jon said, grinning himself. Then he nodded at the tree. "But how do we get inside, and how do we keep the tree from knocking us silly?"

Harry pointed toward the tree. "See that knot on the trunk there, on the left?" Jon squinted, following his finger, then nodded.

Harry looked around on the ground. "We need a long branch or something, to push it…" But before he found anything long enough, Jon had pulled out his wand and pointed it at the Willow under the Cloak.

"Extendo," he said softly, and his wand stretched out until its tip pressed against the knot. Instantly the Willow, whose branches had been swaying ominously, froze in place.

"Huh! I'll have to remember that one," Ron said as they hurried forward to where a gap in the roots revealed a earthy tunnel.

"Ron, go first," Harry said. "Jon, you follow him. The passage isn't very tall, we'll have to walk stooped over." Jon watched Ron slide into the hole; he looked at Harry, then shrugged and followed him. Harry looked around quickly, and seeing no one around, removed the Invisibility Cloak and followed them down the hole.

At the bottom, Ron had lit his wand and began crawling on hands and knees along the tunnel, with Jon close behind him. Harry stuffed his Cloak into one of his robe pockets, lit his own wand, and followed them.

After several minutes of crawling, the tunnel began to rise, then twisted, leading to a small opening into a dusty room. They each stepped through carefully and straightened up, Ron sighing as he had been the most cramped. "The Shrieking Shack," he said softly, raising his wand to light more of the room as Jon and Harry joined him.

"Where to from here?" Harry asked Jon, who was looking around.

"Good question," Jon said, looking around. "I never came into this room." He walked out into the hallway, his wand held high, then motioned for them to follow. They walked down the hallway toward the back of the house. The hallway turned to the left, into what may have been a small dining area; Jon walked into it and up to one of the walls. He passed his wand in front of it in a pattern of moves and a door appeared. He tapped the doorknob, saying "Jonathan Crown," and the door swung open.

Jon led them into a much larger room of what must have been the house's kitchen. There were no other doors or window in the room; one wall was bare, while two of them were covered in cupboards and countertops. The last wall had an assortment of brooms on it, none of which Harry or Ron recognized. All of the brooms, however, were obviously for racing or Quidditch.

"Whoa!" said Ron. "You did all this?"

"Yep," Jon nodded. "I wanted to bring my hobbies with me, assuming I'll have any time to get to them."

In the middle of the room was a large, covered object that was clearly an automobile of some type. Both Harry and Ron approached slowly while Jon watched them with a grin.

"My pride and joy," he said, and with a gesture from his wand the cover flew off, revealing the car underneath. Both Harry and Ron gasped in surprise and delight.

The car before them was a vintage American sports car Harry recognized as a Chevrolet Corvette. It was a deep pearlescent blue with a black convertible top and chrome side-pipes. Harry looked through the windows; the seats were black as well, with a black dashboard, wooden steering wheel and chrome shifter. It looked like about every other car Harry had ever seen, but there were a few gauges and buttons he didn't recognize.

"It's a 1966 Corvette," Jon said. "I've had it about a year now; my uncles helped me find one in decent condition and I've been tinkering on it for a while now."

"Is it magic?" Ron wanted to know, his nose against the other window.

"Oh yes," Jon smiled. "Wouldn't be nearly as much fun otherwise."

"How fast will it go?" Harry asked.

"On the ground, I've had it up to about 130 m.p.h.," Jon said. "In the air… well, it's topped out at about 300 m.p.h., but above 250 it begins to vibrate so I usually don't go faster than that."

"Three hundred m.p.h.?" Ron whistled. "I don't think Dad's Anglia would do much above 100, even in the air." He looked in the car again. "But it's only a two-seater! How can we all get to Diagon Alley in that?"

"I'll show you." Jon raised his wand. "Accio keys!" Out of nowhere a set of keys shot through the air and into his hand. He unlocked the driver's side door and pulled the backrest of the driver's seat forward, then stepped in. He seemed to disappear. "Follow me," his voice, coming out of thin air, beckoned them. Harry followed him, imitating his actions.

He sat down in a seat that, looking forward, he saw was just behind the driver's seat. To his right was a space and two more seats, with Jon sitting in the farther one.

"Move over," Jon said, motioning Harry toward him. "So Ron can get in. Come on in, Ron!"

A moment later Ron stepped in and sat in the seat Harry had just vacated. There was a whole section of seats behind the two front ones that couldn't be seen from the outside. There was another seat behind them, a bench-style seat that looked as if it could accommodate four people comfortably. Windows along the side allowed a clear view of the walls of the room they were in. In front of them, the passenger's seat was now much more roomy, easily able to accommodate three or four people side-by-side.

"Very impressive," Harry said, looking around. He really was impressed; this car was as spacious inside as some of the Ministry cars they'd been in were, even though the Ministry cars were far larger on the outside.

"Thanks," Jon said. "I figure with an airspeed of about 250 m.p.h. we should be able to fly to London in about two to two-and-a-half hours or so, depending on the winds."

"One question," Ron said, looking at the wall in front of them. "How d'you get it out of here?"

"The wall ahead will open on command," Jon pointed. "I've got a button on the dashboard that will do it automatically when it's pressed. I put about everything I could think of into this car – it's got an invisibility mode so neither Muggles nor Wizarding folks can see it. It's also been stealthed–"

"What's that mean?" Harry asked.

"It's invisible to radar," Jon explained. "Radar is a scanning technology Muggles use to track flying objects. There's also a detector for GPS, which is a Muggle locating system, so I can know exactly where I am. And it's got an autopilot, so once you're headed in the right direction the car pretty much flies itself."

Most of what Jon was saying was going over Harry's head. There was something, however, he wanted to see. "Let's get out," he said to them. "I've got a question about the brooms."

They clambered out of the back seat and Jon locked the door. The Corvette looked just like a normal car again; you couldn't tell, just by looking at it, that it was anything other than a classic American automobile.

Harry turned to the wall with several broom hanging from it. "Do you fly these?" he asked Jon.

"I used to," Jon said. "My uncles are both into racing brooms. They build and race them in circuits across North America."

"They build racing brooms?" Ron said, sounding impressed. "Wicked!"

"A few of these I recognize," Harry said, pointed to some of the brooms on the wall. There's a Cleansweep Eleven –"

"Same as mine," Ron put in.

"– and that's a Nimbus 2001. And there's a Firebolt. But some of these I don't recognize at all," Harry finished.

"Some of these are what I flew for my uncles when I was racing in the junior circuit," Jon explained. He took one of the brooms down and handed it to Harry, who examined it closely, with Ron watching keenly. It felt as finely balanced as his Firebolt; its shaft, like his broom was of fine, highly polished ash, and the tail twigs were perfectly tied and streamlined.

"How fast will this go?" Harry asked.

"It will accelerate to 150 m.p.h. in about 12 seconds," Jon said. "They built that about the same time the Firebolt came out. They weren't too happy with it, though."

"Huh!" Ron said. "I wonder why – naught to 150 in 12 seconds is pretty ruddy fast!"

"It doesn't handle as well as a Firebolt," Jon said, replacing the broom on the wall. "For Quidditch and other air sports, you need to be able to make tight turns and rapid speed and direction changes. Let me show you one over here." They walked over to one of the countertops where another broom was sitting in a cradle.

"I've been working on this design for a month now." Jon picked up the broom and handed it to Harry, who hefted it experimentally. It felt even lighter than his Firebolt. "I've been working off of the specifications for the Firestar," Jon continued. "The Firestar will do zero to 160 in 12 seconds – this one should do zero to 175 in 10 seconds. It will also brake from 100 m.p.h. to zero in about four seconds."

Ron let out a low whistle. Harry asked, "What about handling?"

"At speed it has a turn radius of 50 feet, though I doubt if anyone could handle the acceleration unaided, so I've got a Levitation Charm that opposes the direction of acceleration. You can turn that on and off, if you want; there are times when you want to feel just how fast you're going, and sometimes you don't."

Ron was looking the broom over closely now, examining the shape of the shaft and tail. "Blimey, Harry," he said, hefting the broom. "Just think what we could do against Slytherin with something like this on our side!"

"It would be sweet," Harry agreed. Even though he wasn't as enthusiastic about Quidditch now as he had been in previous years, it would be very satisfying to outfly Malfoy and the other Slytherins on their Firestars.

"When's your first game this year?" Jon asked.

"We play Hufflepuff the last Saturday of October," Harry said, recalling their schedule.

"How about this, then," Jon proposed. "I can build six more brooms like this one in a few weeks. I have all the raw supplies; it's just a matter of applying the enchantments. By the beginning of October at the latest, you can each have one of these with enough time for a few weeks of practice before your first game."

"That would be excellent!" Ron said excitedly. Another thought brought him up short. "But why would you want to make seven of these brooms just to give them away?" Harry, who had wondered the same thing, waited for Jon's reply.

"I'm looking at it as an investment in my House while here at Hogwarts," Jon said. "If Draco Malfoy's parents can buy seven Firestars for the Slytherin team, I can certainly put in enough time for the Gryffindor team to have a competitive advantage."

Harry nodded. "I can accept that," he said, "In fact, it's a good example for you to set, especially as someone coming in from outside our country. One thing," he added, as Jon smiled at his comments. "I would like to take a turn on one of these brooms before you begin making them, to see how they fly."

"I agree," Jon said readily. "Do you want to try it now?"

"Now?" Harry said, looking around. The room didn't seem nearly large enough to fly a broom in…

But Jon's wand was out and he gestured at the blank wall, which split open to reveal the dank, overgrown garden behind the house. Harry stared through the opening for a moment. "I thought we didn't want to be seen," he objected.

"I was thinking you'd wear your Invisibility Cloak," Jon replied mildly.

"Oh." Feeling faintly sheepish for not thinking of it immediately, especially since he'd flown using the Cloak before, Harry got it out and covered himself, then stepped onto the broom. "I'll be right back," he said, then shot out through the opening and into the air over Hogsmeade.

If Jon had actually made this broom, Harry thought, he'd certainly done a magnificent job of it. The broom responded instantly to his every motion, moving almost as if it could read his thoughts as well as his grip on the handle. Harry zig-zagged back and forth across the sky over the Shack, being careful not to fly too fast so his Invisibility Cloak wouldn't come off. He wished he could do a full-out acceleration, but he didn't want to subject his Cloak to that kind of speed. Wishing he had more freedom to fly, he dove back toward the Shack and into the opening, landing lightly in front of Jon's car.

"How was it?" Ron said as Harry pulled off his Cloak.

"Awesome," Harry said, handing the broom back to Jon.

"Can I have a go?" Ron asked eagerly.

"I think we need to get back to school," Harry said, not wanting to risk having Ron fly the new broom under his Invisibility Cloak. Ron looked frustrated but said nothing. "I'm sure Jon will let you check out the broom on the pitch," Harry said. Ron shrugged as if to say, "Fine."

Closing the opening in the wall with his wand, Jon replaced the broom on the countertop and they exited into the small, dusty dining area, where Jon Vanished the door. They made their way back through the passageway to the Whomping Willow. Harry, going first with Invisibility Cloak on, emerged and immediately hit the knot on the trunk, freezing the Willow. Standing over the roots with the Cloak over him, he waited anxiously as Ron and Jon joined him under it, and they moved off toward the base of Gryffindor Tower through the hidden door at its base, and up the long spiral staircase to the common room.

Since they couldn't see through the secret doorway, getting back into the common room was a bit more difficult. But Harry, used to making sure of what was on the other side of doors before opening them, had thought about that. At the top of the hidden stairway he pulled the Marauder's Map out of one of his robe pockets and activated it while Ron lit his wand and held it up for them to see.

"Wow," Jon said, seeing it for the first time. "Very cool map!"

"Very useful, too," Harry said, examining the common room to see who was there. It was fairly full but no one was near the fireplace. Aiming through the door, Harry cast Muffliato on a few students sitting alone in various chairs so they wouldn't hear the creak of the door when they opened it. Jon touched the door, repeated the words he'd used to open it the first time, and they moved slowly, under the Cloak, through the open door into the common room.

"Let's head for the stairs," Harry said softly, and they moved across the room, avoiding a few students who passed near them as they entered the room through the hole in the wall. Once out of view of the common room, with no one else around, Harry pulled off the cloak and they ran up the stairs to Jon's dorm room, the fifth one up. There was no one else in it at the moment.

"This was Fred and George's dorm room," Ron said as they entered. He walked up to one of the four-poster beds. "This was the one Fred used."

"That one's mine," Jon said, sitting down on the end of the bed and looking down at himself. There were still bits of dirt on his robe; he pulled out his wand and began using it to vacuum them off. Harry and Ron followed suit with their own robes.

"What year are your roommates?" Harry asked as he finished cleaning off his robe.

"Second year," Jon said, sounding a bit rueful. "I never realized boys that age were so interested in rude noises and gross stuff."

"I hear you, mate," Ron said feelingly. "I don't think I've had a conversation with anyone below sixth year yet this term. Not that I want to, either," he added.

"What was the spell you used to open the passageway door?" Harry asked.

"It's 'Sudnallitit mauqnun sneimrod ocārd'," Jon repeated the words slowly. It makes more sense if you say it backwards, though: 'Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus' – 'Never tickle a sleeping dragon.'"

Harry laughed. "The Hogwarts motto!"

"I'm going to work on the Charms homework a bit before dinner," Jon said, grabbing his book bag. "Anyone want to join me?"

Harry and Ron got their book bags and joined Jon in the common room. A little while after they sat down Hermione, her last class of the day over, joined them. Ron kept looking at her and Harry could sense it was not in suspicion – he was nearly bursting to tell her what they had seen, but not unless Jon broached the subject first.

Jon, however, was concentrating on his homework and wasn't talking much. He remained mostly silent as well while they ate dinner in the Great Hall. It wasn't until later in the evening, after they were back in the Gryffindor common room, that Ron managed to get Harry and Hermione away by asking for her help in finding a book in the Library. After casting the Muffliato spell at Miss Pince, the librarian, Ron told Hermione of the afternoon's events, with Harry filling in details that Ron glossed over.

"That's pretty amazing," Hermione agreed slowly after Ron had told her about the common room's secret passageway and the shop Jon had set up in the Shrieking Shack. "How could we have missed that secret passageway all this time? How could Fred and George have missed it?"

"That's what I said too!" Ron agreed quickly. "But there it was! We went down through it!"

"He showed you all that stuff in the Shrieking Shack?"

"I even flew on the broom," Harry reminded her. "It was amazing."

"And tomorrow night he's going to have a wizard's duel with Malfoy in the Room of Requirement," Ron added

"I remember," Hermione sniffed. "But is that wise? We know what Malfoy is capable of now."

Ron took the remark wrong. "Maybe you should tell Jon how much you care about him. Maybe that would stop him from going."

Hermione groaned, closing her eyes. Opening them again, she looked hard at Ron. "Maybe when you learn that I can be friends with someone other than you, Ron, you'll figure out why I'm concerned," she sighed, then picked up her book bag and hurried out of the Library, leaving Harry looking exasperatedly at Ron.

"What?" Ron said, looking back at him, irritated by Harry's look as well. "She just won't admit how she feels about him!"

"Ron, we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow night, either. Malfoy might beat him. What do we do if he uses something like Sectumsempra on him? When I got Malfoy with it last year, if Snape hadn't been right there, he would've died." And, come to think of it, Harry added to himself, why had Snape been right there, right by the boys' bathroom, when that happened?

"Well, it's the Room of Requirement, isn't it?" Ron said, reasonably, he must've thought. "If we need something to be there, it will be, right?" Harry had no response for that.

"Do you think he'll beat Malfoy?" Ron asked suddenly.

"I dunno," Harry said. "Jon's obviously smart and good with magic, but Malfoy – he's got something up his sleeve. I just know it," he finished, feeling convinced he was right somehow. "We should be ready for anything tomorrow, from him, or from Crabbe and Goyle."Ron nodded, and by unspoken agreement they grabbed their book bags and left the Library for the common room, where it was already nearly deserted. Neither Jon nor Hermione were there and, their resolve to do more studying rapidly crumbling, Harry and Ron made their way up to their dorm room to turn in for the night, each going over in his head the events of the day.