Chapter 2: 20 October
Getting back through Hogsmeade and into Honeydukes turned out to be easier than Harry expected. Bellatrix was quiet in her confusion and didn't try to fight against them when he and Hermione half-pulled, half-carried her into the little village sweet shop.
What was going to be difficult was getting to the cellar door in the back, as the store was packed with students struggling to avoid the miserable weather outside.
"Hold onto her so she doesn't fall, I'll clear a path," Hermione whispered and very slowly, she let go of Bellatrix. As predicted, the witch couldn't hold herself upright and she fell against Harry, who held her very awkwardly around the middle in both his arms. Meanwhile, Hermione poked the point of her wand ever so slightly out of the folds of the Invisibility Cloak and pointed it at an opposing case of Cauldron Cakes and Pumpkin Pasties.
"Confringo," she whispered and the case exploded, sending pastries scattering all around the shop.
"Who did that? Out of the way, out of the way," said the shop witch, who came bustling out from behind the counter swatting students aside as she stooped to repair the case.
"Now!" Hermione breathed into Harry's ear and, each putting an arm around Bellatrix again, they skirted across the shop and slipped through the cellar door, hoping no one saw them.
The stairs proved to be the tricky part.
"Okay, Harry please tell me these are the only stairs we have to deal with."
"Er...yeah, I think so...might be a few to go up when we get to the school, but other than that, no."
Supporting her between them, Harry and Hermione squeezed through the door and down the rickety staircase, hoping the noise in the sweet shop wouldn't give away the thumping sound that was Bellatrix's black boots dragging against the steps.
The underground passageway back to the school was just as dark and musty as Harry remembered from three years ago. It was also quite cold as it was poorly insulated from the drafts of outside air. The positive side was that they could take off the cloak and travel more comfortably, spread out along the path. He and Hermione each had an arm around Bellatrix to help hold her up so she wouldn't have to put weight on her broken leg, and Hermione held her wand aloft in her other hand to light the way in front of them.
They didn't encounter any other real challenges until they reached the end of the tunnel and Harry caught sight of the trapdoor that would lead them up to the corridor outside the one-eyed witch passageway. Hermione climbed up first and extended her hands down while Harry hoisted Bellatrix up, noticing, though he didn't know why, that the Death Eater's hair smelled quite nice.
How they got Bellatrix through the school and up to the seventh floor, Harry never knew. They scanned the Marauders' Map and after ensuring that the coast was clear, they cut through a passage behind a portrait of a suit of armor and met Ron outside the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy on the seventh floor.
"Harry? Hermione? Is that you?"
"Ssh! Yeah, it's us-under the cloak-"
"Well, let's get in the room-I've got something to tell you."
They were quite accomplished in using the Room of Requirement by this point, having used it to hold an illegal defense against the dark arts practice group the previous year, so when Harry faced it head on, the place where he knew the door would appear, he asked the room to make them a place to hide Bellatrix Lestrange where she couldn't get out ("but she's comfortable and has what she needs," added Hermione) and when the room obliged, they were more than impressed.
"It's outdone itself," said Ron. And it had. The three of them and Bellatrix (still covered by the cloak and supported between Harry and Hermione) were standing in a room the size of a large cathedral, whose high windows were sending shafts of light down upon towering walls of built of what they knew must have been objects hidden by generations of Hogwarts inhabitants.
"We've called on the Room of Lost Things," whispered Hermione. There were piles upon piles of broken furniture, old books, fanged frisbees and other banned items, chipped bottles of congealed potions, scraps of yellowing notes once exchanged between students, journals with names scrawled across the front, hats, jewels, cloaks, rusting swords and a heavy blood-stained axe.
They strolled through an alleyway carved between two towering piles of treasure and on the other side, noticed a small clearing next to the Vanishing Cabinet in which Montague was lost last year. It was the only space in the room mostly absent of other things and in fact, looked like a small bedroom fit in amidst the clutter.
A large bed sat at its middle, fit with purple and black sheets, a number of soft purple pillows and a tall black canopy fixed to its headboard. There was a wardrobe to match, a plush black carpet, a glossy antique mirror and even a door aside the vanishing cabinet leading into a small bathroom, also fully furnished in violet and black.
"It's beautiful," said Hermione.
"Better than she deserves," muttered Ron, but the three of them led Bellatrix into the little clearing anyway. As soon as they crossed what must have been an invisible line, however, a few things happened. First, three black velvet armchairs appeared around the bed as if for Ron, Hermione and Harry to sit in. Second, the noticed that area all around the rest of the room had gone foggy and strange.
"Brilliant, the room's put protective enchantments around this space for us," Hermione said, but in response to Ron and Harry's questioning looks, she went on.
"Bellatrix is confined to this area. She can't get out and no one else can get in except us. I reckon there are also soundproof barriers and invisibility spells in place so that to anyone else in the Room of Lost Things, this space would just appear as another pile of old junk-just like how Hogwarts might appear to outsiders as a condemed building or a rubbish yard, obvious to anyone who's ever read Hogwarts: A History-"
"-So just you, then," Ron interrupted. Harry rolled his eyes at their bickering and occupied himself with helping Bellatrix into bed. She winced a bit as he detangled her from the Invisibility Cloak's folds, but otherwise did not move or speak while Harry settled her into bed and pulled the blankets up around her. He sat down in one of the armchairs across from Ron and Hermione, who weren't speaking to each other.
"So, Ron, were you able to cause a diversion?" Harry asked.
"I didn't have to-that's what I wanted to tell you-Katie Bell's been cursed!"
"She WHAT?!" Hermione exclaimed loudly, forgetting her irritation at his earlier jibe.
"Yeah, I was heading back up to the school with Katie and her friend Leanne from Hufflepuff when all of a sudden they started arguing about something Katie had in her hand-a little package. Katie told Leanne she got it from someone in the bathroom at the Three Broomsticks and she had to deliver it to someone. Leanne told her not to touch it, but Katie did anyway and it sort of came open and Katie rose into the air like the Muggles at the Quidditch World Cup. Anyway, she sort of screamed and Hagrid started running over saying it looked like she'd been cursed-" Ron explained rather quickly to Harry and Hermione's slack-jawed faces.
"Then Hagrid took her back to the castle and me and Leanne had to go see Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape, who took one look at the package-some kind of necklace-and said Katie was lucky to be alive and that she'd probably been imperiused back at the Three Broomsticks. They asked about you two, but I made up some story...said you were shopping with Ginny and I'd decided to come back early and do my Charms homework...do you think -she- could have done that to Katie?" he said, with a jerk of his neck in the direction of Bellatrix's semi-conscious form.
"How could she? She was with us the whole time," said Hermione reasonably.
"But maybe whoever attacked her could have done it," said Ron. But Harry had just remembered something important.
"I bet it was Malfoy," he said. "He was looking at a necklace, in Borgin and Burkes, remember? We saw him-"
"Oh, Harry!" Hermione cut in furiously. "Ssh-you can't speak freely about him or his family in front of her, remember? What if familiar names and events trigger her memories or her...rather uncouth personality…"
"But Harry, he couldn't have," said Ron hesitantly, ignoring Hermione. "Leanne said Katie got it from the girls' bathroom."
"She only said Katie got back from the bathroom with it, not that she got it in the bathroom itself-" Harry and Ron went back and forth about this theory for a short while, though careful not to mention Malfoy by name, while Hermione applied more dittany to Bellatrix's wounds.
Eventually, Harry and Ron left the Room of Requirement to head back to the common room for the night, promising to meet Hermione in the Room the next day after breakfast (as she was to take first watch over the Death Eater, their prisoner of sorts, for the night).
When they rounded the corner and headed for the portrait of the Fat Lady, however, it was to find Professor McGonagall already outside waiting for them. Harry exchanged a worried glance with Ron and checked to make sure the Invisibility Cloak and the Map were stowed neatly in his bag before approaching their often formidable Head of House.
"Potter! There you are!"
"Is something wrong, Professor?"
"I presume Mr. Weasley has told you what happened to Katie Bell?" Professor McGonagall said sharply. Harry nodded. "Then you know I must ask you, Potter, why you were not seen by Mr. Filch returning to Hogwarts with the rest of your classmates?"
Harry shrugged and was, for once, very grateful that Professor McGonagall was not the accomplished Legilimens that Snape was.
"I dunno, he must not have noticed me. Everyone was trying to get in pretty fast, what with the snow and everything," he said, not quite meeting her eye. She looked as though she did not quite believe him, but without any evidence, would have a hard time pressing the matter further.
For a split second, Harry hesitated. He wanted to share with Professor McGonagall his theory about Malfoy, but she was not one to invite confidences and he did not want to spark further suspicion over his day's activities. This was a life-and-death matter, though, and no time to worry about being questioned more closely.
"I think Draco Malfoy gave Katie that necklace, Professor," he said. On the other side of him, Ron shuffled his feet a bit as though keen to put space between him and Harry in his apparent embarrassment.
"This is a very serious accusation, Potter," said Professor McGonagall. "Do you have any proof?"
"No," said Harry, "but . . ." and he told her about following Malfoy to Borgin and Burkes before term started and the conversation they had overheard between him and Mr. Borgin. When he had finished speaking, Professor McGonagall looked slightly confused.
"Malfoy took something to Borgin and Burkes for repair?"
"No, Professor, he just wanted Borgin to tell him how to mend something, he didn't have it with him. But that's not the point, the thing is that he bought something at the same time, and I think it was that necklace —"
"You saw Malfoy leaving the shop with a similar package?"
"No, Professor, he told Borgin to keep it in the shop for him —"
"But Harry," Ron interrupted, "Borgin asked him if he wanted to take it with him, and Malfoy said no —"
"Because he didn't want to touch it, obviously!" said Harry angrily.
"No, he said, 'How would I look carrying that down the street?' " said Ron.
"Well, he would look a bit of a prat carrying a necklace," interjected Harry.
"But Hermione asked Borgin about the necklace, don't you remember? When she went in to try and find out what Malfoy had asked him to keep, we saw it there. And Borgin just told her the price, he didn't say it was already sold or anything —"
"Well, Hermione was being really obvious, he realized what she was up to within about five seconds, of course he wasn't going to tell her — anyway, Malfoy could've sent off for it since —"
"That's enough!" said Professor McGonagall loudly. "Potter, I appreciate you telling me this, but we cannot point the finger of blame at Mr. Malfoy purely because he visited the shop where this necklace might have been purchased. The same is probably true of hundreds of people —"
"— that's what I said —" muttered Ron.
"— and in any case, we have put stringent security measures in place this year. I do not believe that necklace can possibly have entered this school without our knowledge —"
"But —"
"— and what is more," said Professor McGonagall. "Mr. Malfoy was not in Hogsmeade today. He was doing detention with me. He has now failed to complete his Transfiguration homework twice in a row. So, thank you for telling me your suspicions, Potter," she said as she marched past them, "but I need to go up to the hospital wing now to check on Katie Bell. Good day to you all. Dilligrout," she said, offering the password to the Fat Lady as she swept by, leaving Harry and Ron no choice but to file past her without another word.
When Harry went to bed that night, he had a lot on his mind. Who had the package Katie Bell was carrying been meant for? Whoever it was had had a narrow escape-could it have been meant for Dumbledore? Professor Slughorn? Or someone else? Who gave her the package? Was it Malfoy-and was he the same person who had attacked Bellatrix Lestrange and left her unconscious and void of her memories in Hogsmeade that day? Was Malfoy even capable of something like that? What was more, Harry couldn't believe they had managed to successfully hide Bellatrix Lestrange within the walls of , if anything, did she remember?