"So the two of you are going to be the Heads of Gryffindor House?" said Neville at breakfast the next morning when he heard the news. "That's so cool. I almost wish I wasn't graduating. Next year at Hogwarts sounds like it's going to be the best year yet."

"I'll make sure McGonagall lowers the defenses to let you apparate in any time you want to visit," said Ron. "I know she seems so serious, but I've gotten to know her pretty well over the past few weeks, and she really can be very funny."

Harry and Hermione looked at each other, remembering how McGonagall had made them think they were going to have to duel each other in front of the whole school. "Yeah," said Harry. "She has a great sense of humor, even if it can be a bit sadistic at times."

"Say Ron," said Neville. "Who are you and McGonagall picking for Head Boy and Head Girl next year?"

Ron didn't say anything at first. Then he said, "uhm…I'm not involved in choosing them."

"What do you mean?" said Harry. "You're the new Dean of Hogwarts. The Head Boys and Girls and Prefects will report to you. How can you not be involved in choosing them?"

"Well…err…"

All of a sudden, Hermione interrupted. "Don't you see, Harry? Ron can't be involved in choosing them. Not anymore than he was involved in choosing the Head of Gryffindor."

Harry looked puzzled. So did Ginny. All of a sudden Ginny broke out into a grin.

"Really?! Ron?!" said Ginny. "Am I being considered for Head Girl?"

"I can't say anything," said Ron with a serious look and an official voice. "All I know is that McGonagall said she thought it would be better if I wasn't involved in the selection process."

Ginny just sat there with a big smile on her face. Head Girl, she thought. Harry staying here at Hogwarts. Things just couldn't get better. Well, there was only one thing that would make it better. If they could solve the remaining mystery. School was going to be over in a few weeks, and they'd be leaving on the Hogwarts Express. They were running out of time.

"Hey guys," said Ginny. "How about if we visit Hagrid after breakfast? We haven't been to his hut in a week."

The others nodded.

Harry was carrying a plate of buttered toast as Ginny knocked on the door of Hagrid's hut.

"Come in," cried Hagrid's booming voice.

As they walked in, Percival, who was perched on a ledge in a corner of the hut, spotted the toast and flew over to Harry, landing on his arm.

"Hey, little bird," said Harry. "Want some toast?" Harry fed the buttered toast to Percival who gobbled it up appreciatively.

"Percival isn't such a little bird anymore," said Hermione. "Percival is almost as big as Fawkes. And covered with feathers!"

Hermione seemed just a little too excited when she said the word "feathers." "Well, o' course Percival is covered 'n feathers," said Hagrid. "That's wha' happens to birds. Why are you so interested in feathers all o' a sudden?" said Hagrid, suspiciously.

"Oh, nothing," said Hermione. "I was just commenting."

"Percival looks like a pretty good flyer," said Ron. "Has Percival flown outside of your hut yet?"

"No, not yet," said Hagrid. "I been keepin' a pretty close eye on Percival. This is one special bird, yeh know."

"We know," said Harry.

"Percival grew pretty fast," said Hermione. "Percival seems almost like an adult Phoenix, and it's only been two weeks since Percival hatched. Where do you think Percival is going to live? In your hut?"

"Well, I don' really know," said Hagrid. "But I have a feelin' Percival knows."

Everyone looked at Hagrid.

"I have a way with animals," said Hagrid. "And I have a strong feelin' this bird has a plan."

Harry was stroking Percival's feathers while Percival kept gobbling one piece of toast after another. Every once in a while, Harry would take one of Percival's feathers carefully between his fingers and very gently pull on it, just testing. Finally, Hagrid noticed.

"Wha' are yeh doin' to that bird's feathers?"

"Oh, nothin'," said Harry. "Just stroking them."

Hagrid grunted.

Just then Percival finished the last piece of buttered toast. Percival jumped from Harry's hand and flew across the hut, landing on Hagrid's hand. Then Percival leaned forward, its neck stretching forward until its beak was almost touching Hagrid's nose. For a few seconds, Percival looked deeply into Hagrid's eyes. Then Percival's head twisted to the side and the soft feathers on top of Percival's head were gently stroking Hagrid's beard.

"What's Percival doing?" said Ginny.

Hagrid paused for a moment, a tear in his eye. Then he answered Ginny. "I think Percival's sayin' goodbye."

A moment later, Percival jumped out of Hagrid's hand and flew out the hut's open window. All five of them ran out the door of the hut and looked up, watching Percival soaring through the sky. Higher and higher Percival soared, then Percival swooped down into a dive almost crashing into the ground. The Percival broke out of the dive and soared high into the sky again.

"Percival's playing!" cried Hermione.

"Firs' time this bird ever got to really enjoy flyin'," said Hagrid. "This is what you call 'a bird spreading its wings.'"

This time, Percival climbed high into the sky and soared over the top of Hogwarts castle disappearing over the far side. A few moments later, Percival came swooping from around the left side of the castle, passed in front of them, and disappeared around the other side. For almost five minutes, Percival flew in circles around the castle, swooping around the various towers, up and down and around, flying faster and faster. All five of them kept cringing as it looked as if Percival was about to crash into something, but Percival flew gracefully and skillfully, coming close to the stone walls of the castle but never touching them, as if Percival had been flying for years and not just for a few minutes.

Finally, Percival slowed down, and started circling back and forth next to one side of the castle. Eventually, Percival was circling around slowly in front of one particular window. Back and forth and around, flying slowly in front of the window, never leaving it.

"What window is that?" asked Ginny.

"Thas' the Headmistress's office," answered Hagrid.

All five of them stood there, staring at the bird flying gently outside of McGonagall's office. A few minutes later, the window slid open and McGonagall appeared in front of the window leaning slightly outside. She stretched out her arm and opened her hand until it lay flat. Without wasting a second, Percival landed on McGonagall's hand. A moment later, McGonagall brought Percival into her office and shut the window.

"Well, whatter ya know!" said Hagrid, beaming. "It looks like Percival 's goin' ter take the place o' Fawkes. Our new headmistress has herself a Phoenix. Percival's not goin' ter leave Hogwarts after all."

The four friends had happy smiles on their faces. They were glad Percival was going to be staying at Hogwarts. Extra specially glad.

They were in the Gryffindor common room, and Ginny was not pleased.

"Come on guys," she said. "You're all members of the Hogwarts staff. You two are professors," she said looking at Harry and Hermione, "and you're the dean," she said looking at her brother. "You go to McGonagall's office all the time. How hard can it be for you to sneak out with one, little feather?"

"Ginny," said Ron. "McGonagall trusts us. We all have important responsibilities. We can't do any sneaking in her office. Period."

"But Ron," said Ginny. "She basically told you guys to get this stuff out of your systems before the end of this year. Next year you need to set an example. But you still have two weeks left this year for mischief."

"Maybe, Ginny," said Hermione. "But breaking some rules is one thing. Sneaking around in McGonagall's office is another. We can't do that. She trusts us."

Ginny groaned. "But we're this close. We need to get a Phoenix feather. Let's come up with a plan."

"Why bother?" said Harry with a twinkle in his eye. "Our plans never really work, anyway. But I have a feeling this will work out one way or another."

CRACK

Kreacher appeared.

"Good evening, Master Harry."

"Just 'Harry'. Please, Kreacher."

"Kreacher forgot. Sorry, mas… Sorry, Harry."

"Hi, Kreacher," said Ron, Ginny and Hermione.

"Kreacher heard the good news. Kreacher heard that you will all be at Hogwarts next year. Kreacher is happy. Kreacher would have missed all of you."

All of a sudden Harry had an idea.

"Kreacher?"

"Yes, mas… yes, Harry."

"You're good at getting things."

"Kreacher is, yes."

"Could you get something for us?"

"Kreacher would get you anything."

"Do you know Percival?"

"You mean the headmistress's Phoenix? Of course. It lives in the headmistress's office. Just like Fawkes used to."

"Kreacher," said Harry. "Do you think you might be able to get us one of Percival's feathers? Just a small one. One that fell out already. Or maybe a little one that Percival wouldn't even notice. What do you think?"

Kreacher didn't answer. Almost before Harry finished speaking, there was another CRACK, and Kreacher was gone.

The friends all looked at each other. Before any of them could speak there was another CRACK and Kreacher was back. In his hand was a feather.

It was midnight. They were huddled under the invisibility cloak, their invisible legs sticking out the bottom, the Marauder's Map in Harry's hand, making their way through the castle. Pretty soon they were in the Chamber of Secrets, down the tunnel on the right side, standing in front of the second door for the fifth time. They had decided to just go back to the same door they had entered last time, hoping it would still work. They really didn't want to have to start from the beginning flying back and forth between the two doors. They realized they were in luck, as they knelt in front of the door and read the inscription on the bottom.

Come in.

Ginny pushed the door, and it opened easily. They entered the room, and it looked just like it did the first time. A small, bright room with white walls, a white floor and a white ceiling. They looked at the white wall in front of them, the one on which the riddle about King David had appeared.

"Do you think we'll get the same riddles again?" asked Ron.

Before anyone could respond, bright red letters appeared on the white wall opposite them.

NOT SO LUCKY

Ron groaned. "Okay," said Harry. "We're ready for our riddle."

The words disappeared, and the invisible hand began writing slowly on the wall in black.

How can you add eight 8s to get the number 1,000?

They stared at it.

"Come on, Hermione," said Ron. "You're the best at math."

"Well, we're going to have to make numbers out of 8s that add up to 1,000," said Hermione. "Like 8, 88, 888. Let's start by figuring out how many numbers are in the answer."

"How do you suggest we do that?" asked Ron.

"That's easy," said Hermione. "The numbers are all going to consist of just 8s. That means they will all of an 8 in the one's place. And we know they need to add up to 1000. 1000 has a zero in the one's place. So let's see how many 8s we need to add together before there's a zero in the one's place."

Everyone was staring at Hermione.

"Don't you guys understand what I mean?" she said. "Look. Add 8 plus 8. What does that give you?"

"16," the rest of them said together.

"That's right," said Hermione. "It doesn't matter if you add 8 +8, 88+8, 88+88. You always start by adding the numbers in the ones place. And two 8s in the ones place will always add up to 16. And if you add up the one's place and end up with 16, you need to put a 6 at the bottom in the ones place and carry the 1. So your answer will have a 6 in the one's place. We need our numbers to add up to 1,000, which will leave us with a zero in the one's place. So we know it can't be just two numbers that we add. Two 8s in the ones place will always add up to leave us with a 6 in the one's place."

"Okay," said Ginny. "Let's try three numbers."

"I did already," said Hermione. "What's 8 + 8 + 8?"

"That's 24," said Ginny.

"Right," said Hermione. "Which means if we add together three numbers that have an 8 in the one's place, the one's place will add up to 24. Our answer will have a 4 in the one's place, and we'll need to carry a 2. We need our answer to have a zero in the one's place, so it can't be three numbers."

"Four 8s add up to 32," said Harry.

"Exactly," said Hermione. "That would leave our answer with a 2 in the one's place."

"Five 8s add up to 40," said Ron.

"Exactly!" said Hermione. "That's what we need. If we add up five numbers that end with an 8, we'll have a zero in the one's place and a 4 to carry. That works. We need a zero in the one's place. And we know it can't be six numbers. Six 8s add up to 48, which ends with an 8. It can't be seven. Seven 8s add up to 56, which ends with a 6. Eight 8s add up to 64, which ends with a 4. It's got to be five numbers. We're looking for five numbers that are made up of 8s and that add up to 1,000."

"But which five?" said Ron.

"That part's easy," said Hermione. "We know we can't use 8,888, because that's more than 1,000."

"Right," said Harry.

"So the only numbers we can use are 8, 88 and 888. And we know we need to use exactly one 888."

"Why?" said Ginny.

"If we don't use an 888, the biggest number we could use is 88. Using eight 8s, we could make four 88s. But four 88s adds up to only 354. We need to get to 1,000, and we can't do that with just 88s, so we'll need to use at least one 888. But we can't use two 888s. Two 888s add up to 1,776, which is more than a thousand. So our answer will use just one 888."

"Okay," said Ron. "What about the rest of the numbers we need to add up to 1,000?"

"This part is simple," said Hermione. "How about if one of you takes a crack at it?"

"Well," said Harry. "888 uses three 8s. We need to use eight 8s. So our answer will use five more 8s."

"Correct," said Hermione.

"And," said Harry, "we figured out that our answer will have to be five numbers. 888 is one number. So we need four more numbers."

"Correct," said Hermione. "You're almost there."

"So we need to make four numbers out of five 8s?"

"You are there," said Hermione.

"There's only one way to make four numbers out of five 8s," said Harry. "one 88 and three 8s."

"Congratulations," said Hermione. "You solved it."

"Let's check," said Ginny. "We need to add up 888, 88, 8, 8 and 8. What's 888 plus 88?"

They all stared at each other.

Hermione groaned. "It's 976," she said.

"Thanks," said Ginny. "Okay, now we need to add three 8s. 976 plus 8 equals 984. 984 plus 8 equals 992. And 992 plus 8 equals 1,000. We solved it."

Hermione turned to the wall. "The answer is 888 plus 88 plus 8 plus 8 plus 8."

Immediately, the white wall in front of them dissolved and they were standing in the larger purple room. "Oy," said Ron. "I forgot, there's more. Salazar Slytherin is making us work for this. My head is still spinning from the math problem."

"Ron," said Hermione. "That problem wasn't all that hard. I admit, it was a little challenging, but it wasn't super hard."

"For you, maybe."

"Ron, what exactly were you doing growing up when you were supposed to be studying math?"

"Er… well… I…"

"Come on, Ron," said Hermione. "Spit it out."

Well… er… I…."

"He was eating," said Ginny.

Everyone laughed.

"When we were all doing our math homework at the Burrow, Ron was always sneaking down to the kitchen for snacks," Ginny continued.

"Well, I was hungry," said Ron. "You can't expect a guy to do math homework on an empty stomach."

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Come on," said Harry. "It looks like this is going to be a long night. Let's move on."

They walked forward into the newly opened portion of the now-purple room until they were standing in front of the far wall. "Okay, we're ready," said Harry.

The invisible hand wrote slowly on the wall in black.

A man tells his two children to race their horses to a faraway city to see who will inherit his fortune. The one whose horse gets there LAST will win. The children get on their horses, but neither wants to get to the city first, so they just wander on their horses aimlessly for days going nowhere. They realize that this could go on forever since neither of them wanted to get to the city first. Finally, the children ask a wise person for advice. Upon receiving the advice, they jump on the horses and race to the city as fast as they can. What was the advice?

The four friends stared at the wall, silently, thinking. All of a sudden, Ron laughed out loud. "This is an easy one," he said.

"Not to me," said Hermione. "What's the answer?"

"Well," said Ron. "I'll give you a hint. They raced to the city because whoever got their first was going to inherit the fortune."

"No," said Hermione. "The fortune goes to whichever of them gets their last."

"Nope," said Ron. "Read the puzzle again."

Hermione looked at the wall again, and then she laughed also. "It doesn't say the one who gets their last wins. It says the one whose horse gets their last wins. So all they have to do is…"

"Switch horses!" Harry exclaimed. "Then, if they get there first, their horse will get their last. Nice work," said Harry to Ron, as the purple wall in front of them dissolved and they found themselves standing in the middle of the even larger shiny gold room. They walked forward until they reached the far wall. It was gold and blank.

"I think this is the last puzzle," said Harry.

YOU'RE RIGHT

The letters were dark green.

"Okay," said Ron, "give us the puzzle."

The invisible hand wrote slowly on the wall in black.

7 D of the W

12 M in a Y

365 D in a Y

Again, they stared at the wall, thinking. "The letters must stand for words," said Ginny.

"The first one looks familiar," said Hermione. "7 D of the W."

"Those numbers all look familiar," said Ron. "7, 12, 365."

Harry laughed. "You got it?" asked Ginny.

"Yeah," said Harry. "This is an easy one. Think about the number 7. What are there seven of?"

"Seven days of the week!" cried Ginny. "D of the W means Days of the Week."

"And 12 months in a year!" cried Hermione.

"Yup, and 365 days in a year," concluded Harry.

Even as Harry spoke, the wall dissolved and they were once again standing in the gigantic orange room. They walked together to the far wall. Slowly, Harry reached into his cloak and drew out Percival's feather.

"So where should I rub?" asked Harry.

Words appeared in brown on the wall.

Try rubbing here

Harry reached with the feather to rub the letters. As the feather brushed the orange wall, the wall dissolved and the room doubled in size. For the first time, they found themselves standing in the middle of a gigantic red room. They looked to the far end of the room where something that appeared to be a table was standing. Immediately, all four of them broke out into a run heading across the room as fast as they could.

Moments later they were standing in front of a simple, brown, wooden table with four legs. In the middle of the table lay a scroll of parchment wrapped with a red ribbon tied in a neat, little bow.