It had been an entire week since Adelaide had first met her new resident and she hadn't seen him since; not going to the bathroom, not leaving for class, not in class but that wasn't expected at such a large school, not in the cafeteria. It was like he didn't exist anymore. I guess if she thought back to last year, she had a few residents like that so she shouldn't think about it all that much. But there was something strange about the boy with the lightning scar. Not strange I guess. Not like keep-my-eye-out-for-him strange. Different maybe? Unique? Intriguing? She couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was, but she really wanted to talk to him, get to know him. Most of the time she didn't force herself on residents, letting them come to her if they really wanted to be social and whatnot but this was different. She felt something in her chest tighten anytime she thought she might get that chance. Not that she was thinking about it all the time, she had her plate full and she was determined to have a great last year but every now and then he crept into her head.
She forgot about the mysterious Brit as she entered the rehearsal room. They were dancing today so Addy was there early to stretch and clear her mind. It was only going to be her and her leading man anyway. She could tell that Saturday morning rehearsal was going to become her favorite.
Hours later, Harry was walking through the Walgreen Drama Center. It is on what is called North Campus, a separate part of the University's campus that could only really be reached by car/bus. He really had no business here except to explore. He couldn't stand to spend another minute in a library with Ron and Hermione. It seemed hopeless. Why would there be a Horcrux here, in the muggle world? Voldemort loathes everything to do with muggles. It's against all he stands for so how could anything here be related?
As Harry continued down the stark white hallway, he heard beautiful music coming from one of the rooms. The door was open and he looked in. It was almost as drawing to him as the phoenix song. There was a girl inside who looked familiar. Brown, sunkist hair swirled around her as she leapt and spun her way around the room, captivating Harry with her graceful moves and hypnotizing him with her angelic humming. She didn't notice him once the dance was finished and began singing as she gathered her things, preparing to leave.
When she turned to face Harry, a couple of things happened. First, his scar felt funny. It wasn't searing hot pain, it was closer to the prickling feeling he'd first started experiencing back in his first year. But it was more pleasant. Second, he recognized her but couldn't remember her name. It was Harry's RA. He froze, unsure what to do knowing he should be here.
"Harry?" Adelaide asked, her heart beating at lightning speed, with just a small flutter mixed in. She still got nervous anytime people caught her singing or dancing. On top of that, she didn't know this kid at all.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude." Harry started saying.
"That's okay, I should get back anyway." Adelaide replied. She hurriedly threw her stuff into her bag. "So, what are you doing on North Campus?"
"I, uh, was just taking a look around." Harry replied trying to come with something to say. "My friend Hermione told me about this, er, place to study so…"
"The Dude, yeah I have a couple of friends who like to treck up here to study in the peace and quiet. It's over thataway." Adelaide said stepping out of the dark entrance hall to the studio and pointing through the glass wall of windows.
"Yeah, I walked through it. I was just looking around."
"Okay, well, welcome to the Walgreen. I spend a lot of time here." Adelaide replied, standing awkwardly. She hadn't quite gotten her breath to calm down yet.
"It's, er, nice." Harry replied, feeling more awkward then he had with Cho Chang.
"You don't have to lie. It's kind of hideous…which is funny since it's a creative building. I mean, it houses a creative department. You'd think it'd be pretty and not stark white." Addy laughed a little.
"Yeah," was the only response Harry could think of. His mind was a little bit focused on his scar.
"So, where are you headed right now?" Adelaide asked, looking at her watch.
"I was gonna poke around a bit more, see what's up here." Harry replied.
"Okay, I'd love to stay and give you a tour," Adelaide started saying and thought she could see a bit of a hesitant look on Harry's face, "but my mom is coming into town for a bit and she's most likely sitting impatiently out front in her car. If you wanted a ride back, though, she would absolutely swing by Lloyd and drop you off."
"Er, no thanks. I think I wanna stick around a bit more." Harry heard his voice say although there was something in him that really wanted to go with her.
"Okay sure. Well, have fun!" Adelaide said as she started walking down the hallway toward the main lobby area. She abruptly turned and yelled down while walking backwards, "I don't know if you know or not but the South Commuter bus which picks up in front of Pierpont right there," she said pointing to a building through the windows, "drops you off right in front of Lloyd."
"Thanks." Harry called. He watched Adelaide walk down the long hallway and round the corner. Through the multiple windows he saw her get into the passenger seat of a red car and remained still as the car drove away, one hand absentmindedly touching his scar. He made his way back to where he had left Hermione and Ron. Harry decided that telling Hermione and Ron about his scar would cause huge problems and it would be better to keep it to himself. They had enough to worry about trying to figure out the last Horcrux and its connection to this muggle university. The longer they were away from England and the magical world, the more desperate they grew. Without any way of knowing what was happening, they didn't know how many of their family and friends might have been killed or how much power Voldemort had managed to get for himself. For all they knew, they'd go back to a world under completely Death Eater control that wasn't looking for any saving. It was also strange to Harry that Voldemort hadn't sought international power, unless the wizard world here was just so far undercover that he didn't know about it. They had not encountered anything in their research so far to suggest any magical heritage to the university or even any magical presence on campus. Harry began to harbor the silly idea that maybe there weren't American witches and wizards. Maybe it was stuck in Europe only.
By the time Harry reached the study room that the three of them had sequestered for themselves, he had fully decided not to mention anything about even seeing Adelaide to either of his friends. It was simply unimportant. He knew that Hermione would just be angry that Harry was still connected to Voldemort and that he wondered off so far. Ron would spend way too much time thinking and pondering out loud which just make Hermione even more angry. When he opened the door, he was nearly attacked by a bushy-brown haired creature.
"Harry, where have you been?" Hermione asked. Harry was internally impressed with her ability to sound concerned, angry and happy all at once.
"I went to get some food and some air. It's a little stuffy in here, not all of us are used to holing up with books for days without end." Harry said, trying to muffle the sounds of his tummy with his arm. If she heard the growl, she would know he was lying.
"Harry, we need to figure this out! And this place isn't like Hogwarts which has a rich history to begin with, but its so spread out and so varied. And we don't know what we're looking for even." Hermione began. It was the same thing she said anytime anyone sounded tired or disgruntled that they were spending so much time and effort on their research.
"What do we know again?" Ron asked, sensing danger. He asked this frequently whenever he felt tensions rise or that they were feeling hopeless.
"Well, Dumbledore left the book of children's tales and the book on the University of Michigan. As we couldn't figure out the children's tales we came here. He circled the housing section so we all "enrolled" as transfer students and each got into different dorms in different areas of the campus to see what we could find. But so far nothing. I just don't understand! There is nothing linking any of the people who the dorms are named after with anything remotely magical." Hermione replied, going back to her notes and putting her head inbetween her hands.
"Could the Horcrux just be hidden in a dorm?" Harry replied.
"How are we going to be able to find it when there are over 17 different dormoritory buildings in different areas of campus that are each at least three floors. And we don't know what we're looking for!" Hermione retorted.
"Maybe this is part of Voldemort's past?" Ron hypothesized. "Maybe he spent time here when he was younger."
"Doing what?" Hermione asked. "Going to frat parties? He doesn't strike me as the type."
"I don't know Hermione!" Ron said, getting frustrated. "Maybe Dumbledore wanted us to get out of England, to save us. Maybe he thought we would fail so he sent us on a wild goose chase."
"Maybe Dumbledore didn't give us the book after all. Maybe it was Scrimgeour who gave it to us to get us out of the way." Hermione said.
"No, that's Dumbledore's handwriting, I'm sure of it." Harry replied. He had considered that briefly as well.
"Maybe Dumbledore was telling us to get out the magical world forever and get a normal education. Leave it all behind us." Harry snapped.
"Harry –" Hermione said sympathetically. She got up from the table and went to lay a comforting hand on his shoulder but he moved away.
"All I'm saying is that we can't know why Dumbledore sent us here because he's dead. I wish he wasn't but he is. It's pointless for us to try to get into his head because we can't. We just need to stop trying to think like Dumbledore and start trying to think like us."
The room was filled with silent energy. The trio were beyond words, they'd been through so much together already. Hermione and Ron shared a look that spoke novels and Harry just stared. There was definitely a lot to be said for the romance between his two best friends but it certainly left him feeling more alone than ever.
"Harry – " Hermione started to say but stopped. She wasn't sure what to say.
"I'm gonna go, think things through for a while." He was out the door without another word and walking down a hall. He didn't know which direction and he didn't know where he was going but he couldn't sit there anymore. He was itching to get moving, they were waiting too long.
The afternoon sun shone brightly as Harry exploded out of the Duderstadt building walking toward the bus stop Adelaide had pointed toward. He decided he wanted to walk to the dormitory to think about things, things which didn't make sense. He cut across a field and into a patch of trees that seemed to go forever. What was Dumbledore thinking leaving us such obscure clues? He overestimated our intelligence if he thought these clues would mean anything to us. But maybe they were onto something back there. A thought occurred to Harry as he walked. What if he had wanted us to take classes here? It is a university, maybe there's something we're missing. By the time Harry got to his room, he had decided that it would be best to try to get to a few classes tomorrow and he knew exactly which ones he was going to attend.