Images of the staircase, the tunnel, and the wall haunted Rose's dreams. They lingered on her mind during classes, and they crept up on her in conversations. She couldn't stop wondering what was inside the tunnel, why it was there, and whether it had been discovered before. How could it not have been? There were hundreds, if not thousands of generations of students before hers. Or was it possible that the whole thing was imagined? Was Rose simply tired, and had a hallucination?

Her mind was racing as she stepped out of the Fat Lady's portrait on Friday morning. She took her normal route down to the Great Hall and was just about to sit next to Kayleigh when a sudden thought struck her.

"James!"

She ran to take the vacant spot next to him. "James, I need to know now. Do you or do you not have a map of Hogwarts?"

"Whoa," he seemed alarmed, "What's wrong?"

"Answer me!"

Rose always was a fierce little witch, just like her mother. "Well, yeah, but I didn't think you'd still be getting lost after a w-"

"I'm not getting lost! I just... need to check something."

"You know, Rosie, I'm not sure that I can disclose such classified information to ickle firsties. If you need a map, I would suggest asking our dear Headmistress."

"For goodness sake, James! I need to check something!"

"Certainly if it's something so important, you could tell your favorite big cousin, couldn't you?"

"Fine. Last night, I was taking a shortcut up from the library, and I tripped on the steps-"

"Typical you."

"Shut up. Anyways, my head hit the wall and there was some kind of crack in the stone, and through it I saw a tunnel. I just wanted to know if I was hallucinating or if that really exists or- or if you knew anything about it?"

"I'm on it, Rosebud. Thanks for the tipoff!"

And with that, James departed, leaving Rose in the dark again.

Dear Mum,

Al and I are still getting along just fine, the fact that he's in Slytherin doesn't matter much. James told me he's trying out for Seeker this year, Uncle Harry should be proud.

I've started talking to a girl in Gryffindor named Kayleigh. She's so interested in Wizarding history, the Second Wizarding War, and the Battle of Hogwarts. She expects that because I come from an old pureblood family that I know a lot about it. Oh, but don't get me wrong, we're becoming close friends! She doesn't seem to have any close family members that write her or anything, I feel bad and wish I knew how to help. I've been getting quite homesick, everything seems to remind me of home. But classes are going good and I think you'd be proud that I have a pretty good knack for schoolwork, so far. Send Dad my love and I can't wait to spend the holiday at home and at the Burrow.

Love Rose.

With a lick, Rose sealed the envelope on her way to the Owlery that evening. She hoped her mother wouldn't mind waiting until the weekend for a reply. Oh well, not every assignment could be on time. It was only her first week, after all.

Other than finishing all of her homework before Monday, Rose did not have anything to do this weekend. She thought of perhaps asking to walk the grounds with Albus or Kayleigh, or maybe she'd ask James if it'd be okay to watch the Gryffindor Quidditch trials coming up tomorrow. Wondering faintly whether she would even want to watch, Rose almost ran headfirst into none other than Scorpius Malfoy.

"Hey, watch where you're going ginger!" Scorpius yelled slightly too loudly before looking up and recognizing her, "Oh, hi Rose," he said apologetically, his voice a bit more faint.

"Hello, what brings you here?" she asked, trying to be polite despite his sudden rude outburst.

"Oh you know, sending to Dad," he held up the parcel in his hands.

"What would you need to send back to him?"

"He uh, well he gave me the wrong book... for my birthday," said Scorpius softly, as if a book were a kind of embarrassing secret.

"Ha, I wish I had that problem! My mum gives me way more books than I know what to do with! I like reading some, but not as much as her. She tried packing the whole contents of my bookcase in my school trunk, but we'd have needed two, and that's where I put my foot down."

He laughed slightly, looking awkward. "Oh well... I like to read," he said, again looking as if it were something to hide.

"That's nice," Rose added shortly, not knowing what else to say.

"Yeah. Uhm, Al was looking for you today I think."

"Oh, okay, thank you," she said, receiving another small smile in return before walking past the Slytherin boy and outdoors.

On her first steps on the Grand Staircase, Rose walked right past Albus Potter with nothing but a hello, which insinuated that he'd not been looking for her at all. What it meant that Scorpius told her that simply to get her to leave him, she did not know nor care much.

All of the Gryffindors seemed overjoyed that the first week of school was, at last, over. The whole student body seemed to be celebrating the weekend together, in fact. Ravenclaws in every corridor spoke of their new Quidditch team that held their tryouts just hours ago, and none were more pleasant than the New Marauders, who could be seen at any time throughout the afternoon dancing about the Grand Staircase, entertaining many watchful passerby's. The only quiet place left in the castle was the Library, where Rose sat, deeply absorbed in her Defense Against the Dark Arts homework.

Rose wasn't alone, it appeared, as many of the other students had similar ideas. Ravenclaws cluttered most of the desks available with a few Gryffindors and Slytherins mixed in. Hufflepuff alone was absent, presumably because of their bright and chatty nature.

Around six thirty that evening a disturbance reached the ears of those in the Library.

"Just what did you think you were doing?" carried Professor Serkent's voice, "Defiling the school walls, how dare you?"

"We weren't sir, I only tripped and fell into the wall, the bricks seem to be falling apart," came the voice of Fred Weasley, scared yet convincing.

"Any bricks can fall apart with the aid of a Reducto curse lad, certainly you and your friends must know this?"

"We didn't cast-" James retorted, also with worry.

"A simple charm can remedy that lie, now come, up to the Headmistress' office."

"But sir!" said a fourth voice, most likely from one of the twins.

The voices faded up the staircase as Rose, too distracted to continue her homework, packed up her things and followed them towards the shortcut. She tiptoed up the steps, certain that Professor Serkent and the boys were well on their way to the seventh floor, and searched for the crease in the wall she had discovered several nights ago. It did not take much searching, because where there used to be the slightest sliver of a crack there was now a gaping, dusty hole behind which was a long and round tunnel.

Not wanting to get in trouble yet too curious to control herself, Rose stepped through the hole and into the dusty darkness. "Lumos," she whispered, but her wand would not light. "Lumos!" she repeated, more forcefully. Her wand flickered, then died. For a third time, Rose shouted the incantation, and at last her wand provided a dim light, enough to see around her some.

What was revealed were many stone doors down what seemed an endless passageway. Examining one closely, Rose saw a crest of Hufflepuff etched just above the door handle. Upon turning the handle, Rose was not surprised to learn that the door was locked. As she tried several doors, she noticed that each door had a crest, and each crest belonged to one of the four Houses. When Rose was nearing fifteen doors down the tunnel, the light in her wand flickered again and was extinguished. What was more, she could hear a voice coming from the stairs.

Sprinting towards her only way out, Rose ducked through the hole, dashed down the staircase away from the voice, and into her Charms classroom, which was empty. She waited there for a minute or two before deciding it would be safe to leave. Kayleigh was walking from the library, and Rose stole the opportunity to catch up with her.

"Hey!" Kayleigh said, spotting Rose, "What were you doing in Flitwick's classroom?"

Rose paused. "I left my quill in there this morning and decided to go back for it," she lied quickly.

"But we didn't have Charms this morning, that was yesterday, wasn't it?"

"Yeah uh, that's what I meant. I just saw it was missing and went back for it but it uh... wasn't there."

"I see," Kayleigh didn't seem convinced, but she must have shrugged it off because it was conversation of Charms class that carried them up to Gryffindor Tower.

"Weasley, you're in big trouble," said James, the following morning as he caught Rose leaving her dormitory.

"What?" she said, affronted.

"Professor Serkent caught us investigating that tip-off you gave me, and McGonagall gave me, Fred, and the twins detention tonight!"

"Really?" she cried, "I'm sorry James!"

"Yeah, you better be, because Fred and I have Quidditch trials, and if we have to leave early before we can try out it'll be all your fault."

Rose wasn't convinced she was entirely at fault, but as Quidditch has always been a sensitive topic for James, Rose didn't mention it. "How did you get caught?"

"Well Fred's Reducto spell didn't cast as quiet as we thought it would, and our favorite Professor just happened to be coming down from the sixth floor and well, he saw."

"You blew up the wall?" Rose asked, deciding not to tell James that she treaded where they hadn't been able to.

"Er - yeah."

"You idiot!"

"Watch your mouth or I might tell McGonagall who told me to blow up the wall in the first place," said James with a smirk.

"I didn't tell you to blow up anything," she snarled.

"We'll see about that," and he left.

I'm sincerely sorry for the HUGE gap in updates, I was on a horrible writer's block and I hope you can forgive me! It definitely won't happen again anytime soon!