"May your adventures bring you closer together, even as they take you far away from home." – Trenton Lee Stewart
April 20th, 1992
It had been 2 months. 2 months of fruitless library trips. 2 months of trying to corner different Hogwarts ghosts. Ghosts that, when cornered, simply floated through said corner without even a 'by your leave'. The group of aspiring adventurers had hit a dead end in their quest.
"I'm so bored, and Susan was being a terrible pillow." Harry lamented after a particularly long but fitful history of magic nap. "Hey!" said girl was giving him a betrayed look. "I never signed up to be a pillow and I needed to start taking notes. Exams are fast approaching, and I haven't managed to take any notes at all this year."
"Thats no excuse Susan." Harry gave her a disappointed look and continued; "just do what I am and use the notes that previous students added to your common room library."
Susan looked a little peeved. "Library? We don't have a library in our common room."
"You don't? Where do you do your homework then?" a puzzled harry replied.
"How about in the school's library? You guys have a library in your common room?"
"Yeah," Harry replied. "It's pretty awesome, although, thinking about it I'm not sure the curriculum has changed in around 50 years. The notes I used to study for the end of term exams were from 1948. The subject matter covered was remarkably similar 44 years on."
Susan gave a huff of exasperation. "That's hardly fair. Why doesn't everyone have access to these notes?"
"Be careful Susan, your Hufflepuff is showing." Harry sniggered. "Besides, Ravenclaws don't share things very well. Why give up an academic edge?"
"Whatever." Susan rolled her eyes.
Daphne strolled up alongside them and said to Harry; "I'll pay you 5 galleons to give me a copy of the end of year history exam notes."
"Sold!" Harry shook Daphnes hand and with a smile watched her leave and return to her friend's side.
"You know," Susan smirked, "she's just going to turn around and sell copies of it for 10 galleons, right?"
"Damnit!"
"I'll tell you where the kitchens are for a copy." Susan smiled at him with a twinkle in her eye.
"Sold!"
Padma and Terry just chuckled and led Harry towards the grand staircase. Exiting on to the 7th floor they fanned out to look for anything strange or out of place. Tonks later joined them but was soon distracted by a painting that adorned the wall.
"Barnabas the Barmy?" Tonks read the plaque at the bottom of the frame. "Barmy is right. I've met enough trolls to know that they wouldn't be good dancers."
Harry sidled up beside her and gave an involuntary shiver. "Yeah. I've had my fill of troll ballet for the year. Let's go to the kitchens and grab something to eat. I'm bored again."
The group proceeded to the kitchens. Following Susans instructions they stopped at a painting of a fruit bowl and with a shrug Harry tickled the pare. The pare gave out an audible giggle and the portrait swung open.
The first thing that came to Harry's mind was that he found Santas workshop. If said workshop was a kitchen and not a sweatshop. He had always suspected Santa was a bastard. The stories his aunt Petunia told Dudley as a child had sent alarm bells ringing in Harry's head. First, if there was a mythical workshop making toys for all the good girls and boys, why hadn't he ever received a toy? Second, he felt a kinship with the elves. Always working and on an arbitrary schedule for some fat guy.
Harry shook his head clearing it of his previous train of thought. "Wow," he said. "This place is huge!"
Tonks just nodded and said, "yeah it's pretty cool, isn't it?"
"Wait you've been here before?" harry had a hurt look on his face. "And you never told me?"
"Sorry I thought you knew. It's hardly a secret. The Hufflepuff common room is on the opposite wall. Didn't you see the barrels stacked across from the painting?"
Harry just stood there; mouth open in shock. "Man. I'm making terrible deals today."
They all sat down, and an elf approached them with numerous plates ladened with food floating behind it.
"We's be happy to see you again Ms. Tonky." The elf squeaked happily.
"Thanks for the food, Letty." Tonks then dug into a piece of Shepards pie and groaned in appreciation.
"Did you know that on April 20th, in 1792, France declared war against the King of Hungary and Bohemia, marking the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars?"
Tonks shook her head and started to say she wasn't aware of that fact but before she could harry cut her off and continued; "And in 1889 Adolf Hitler was born. In 1898 America signed a joint resolution that declared war on Spain, Marking the beginning of the Spanish-American war? Most recently today was declared national weed smoking day."
Tonks, Padma, and Terry were all staring at him unsure of how to react to the trivia bomb that was brought up out of seemingly thin air.
"And this matters to us, why?" Tonks was the first to reply. "Also, what do you know about weed Harry?
"It's just a lot of big things happened in history today and we should find something to do that will add to the list, and don't worry about it. I know a guy in Little whinging."
Padma rolled her eyes and said, "what? Start a war?"
"Thats a good idea!" Harry grinned. "Letty? Are the house elves at war with anyone?"
Letty's face grew dark and said, "we's be at war with magical dust bunnies in the come and go room. They's be vicious creatures with big sharp pointy teeths."
"Perfect!" Harry said. Standing to attention he saluted Letty and barked, "Staff Sergeant Potter reporting for duty."
The rest of the gang looked concerned. Padma spoke up and asked, "Harry are you sure this is a good idea? Letty did say there were sharp teeth."
"Forget about the teeth, did she say dust bunnies?" Terry looked confused.
"Bugger that." Tonks jumped up and confronted Harry, "who gave you that rank? You're not a leader."
"I am too! I led us on a successful scouting mission for the stone."
Tonks was now yelling "We ended up running for our lives and another troll got eaten by fluffy!"
"The Mission was a success. We scouted the defences then left in a dignified manner. No one got injured and an enemy combatant was eliminated." Harry had an entirely too smug expression on his face.
"No! This time I will be the leader and we will be smart about this. Letty, show us the room and we will aid you in your struggles."
Letty for her part was just happy to get the students out of the kitchen. The elves were now late starting dinner preparations. "I's be leading you there."
April 20th, 1992
"Hey, we were just here." Terry was watching Barnabas dancing around the troll clubs as they tried to smash the ridiculous man.
"Yous' be needing to thinks of the room yous' desire then be pacing back and forth until the door appears." Letty told them, "I's be going now. Dinner be's needing to be cooked."
Harry started pacing in front of the portrait but was quickly pulled to a stop by Tonks. "Don't you dare." she chastised. "The last thing we need is you opening Pandoras Box."
Harry, feeling particularly singled out today just huffed and stepped back. Flourishing his arm towards the portrait he said, "well go on then captain my captain." Tonks, missing the dead poets reference started thinking out loud; "I can't ask for a room to fight magical dust bunnies. With our luck there would be a room full of them ready to attack. I guess I can ask for the room where the house elves are trying to control the infestation." With a nod of her head, she started pacing back and forth. Three times she turned around and then stopped. She was still facing the portrait of Barnabas the soon to be squashed. "Huh." she scratched her head. "wasn't a door supposed to appear?"
"Turn around you idiots." Terry's voice made them turn to face a rather large wooden door with iron fittings. The door didn't look out of place in a medieval castle, but it certainly stood out in an almost empty hallway.
They all looked at each other and nodded. "Wands out. Be ready for anything." Tonks instructed them while brandishing her wand and after making sure they were ready, slowly pushed the door open.
What greeted them was not an amassed army of magical dust bunnies but what looked to be a large broom closet. A vast broom closet, filled with odds and ends. Desks piled one on top of each other. Chairs stacked to the rafters, leaning hazardously every which way. Cauldrons filled to overflowing with random things. Trunks, some stacked and some open with clothes and other things spilling out of them.
The group just stood there in awe, taking everything in. "this must be the lost and found. A millennia of lost items are probably scattered throughout this room," Harry breathed out.
Padma started to get excited. She could see piles of books, old looking books, probably with lost or forgotten knowledge held within them. She was about to point them out when she was stopped mid thought by a loud sneeze.
"ACHEW!" Terry stumbled back and proceeded to sneeze an impressive six times in quick succession.
"We're under attack!" Harry quickly grabbed a sneezing Terry and dragged him to the ground. Harry was laying on top of Terry shielding him with his body.
Terry for his part was trying to crawl out from under Harry to reach the door. Padma was mid-sneeze, looking for all the world like she was frozen in time and Tonks was casting cleansing and air freshening charms at a rapid pace.
Terry tried to push Harry off of him, but his constant sneezing was making him weak from the lack of oxygen. "Hold on Terry!" Harry shouted. "I'll save you." he started sending off stupefies indiscriminately hitting Padma with a particularly errant one. She collapsed to the ground still mid-sneeze. Of course, this being Harry his wand was also producing a large number of sparks that were flying everywhere. The now downed Padma got showered by the sparks in the ensuing kerfuffle and her uniform was now smouldering.
Tonks, the only one in the room not panicking or comatose; had cast a bubblehead charm on herself and started backing towards the door. Seeing that Harry was doing more harm than good, she summoned his wand and sent a water spell at Padma.
Harry, who was now wandless, protested vigorously to Tonks who just pointed at a still sneezing Terry then to the door. Harry gave her a mulish look but acquiesced. Getting up he dragged Terry towards the door, Tonks followed him with a floating but still unconscious and soaked Padma pulling up the rear.
April 20th, 1992
"Well, that escalated quickly, really that got out of hand fast!"
A dazed yet angry looking Terry; a singed soaking wet disgruntled Padma, and an amused Tonks all stared at Harry.
"What?" Harry questioned them with an all too innocent confused look on his face.
"Don't you 'what me' Potter." Padma looked vexed Harry thought. "You stunned me, set me on fire and then waterboarded me!"
Harry denied everything. "You can't prove I stunned you or set you on fire. Tonks was the one that drenched you. Maybe she's to blame for all of this. I don't even have a wand!"
Padma's angry gaze shifted to Tonks who held up her hands in the recognizable position of peace. "I did hit you with a water charm but that was to smother the fire starting on your robes. Harry was definitely the one that caused all the damage."
"Your assuming things again my dear Tonksy." Harry replied with a shit eating grin.
"I almost died..." Terry mumbled.
"Oh, don't be such a baby. I had you covered." Harry patted him on the back.
"Yeah. More like smothered." Terry grumbled.
"On the plus side did you guys see all the stuff? We could be rich!" Harry's enthusiastic statement perked them up.
Padma smiled. "Yeah, I saw a bunch of old looking books and a coin pouch hanging out of a trunk."
"We need a game plan. Tonks can you teach us the bubblehead charm? Tomorrow we could return and loot till our hearts content."
Tonks shrugged. "Sure, it's not that hard. You just need to concentrate on making sure you fill the bubble with fresh recirculating air, otherwise you can suffocate yourself. I mean the bubble can be easily popped but a few wizards have died in the past because they concentrated too much on the strength of the bubble and then panicked and couldn't pop it quick enough. Natual selection if you ask me."
"Fine, but I need to go change. I smell like smoke and look amess." Padma was holding her burnt tie and sniffing it.
"Meet in the Library after dinner?" harry looked around and after receiving an affirmative head nod from everyone he jumped up and made his way with Tonks and Terry to the great hall.
"I'm starving. Fighting a war takes a lot out of you." Harry chirped. "Can I have my wand back now?" looking at Tonks who reluctantly withdrew his Poplar and Thestral tail hair wand from her pocket. "Just try and be more careful Harry. All wands are weapons but yours is something else." Nodding Harry slipped his wand back into his holster and they continued to the great hall.
Sitting down at the Ravenclaw table Harry and Terry waited for the food to be served. "I wonder what's up with Dumbledore?" Terry looked up from the table to see what Harry was talking about and noticed that the headmaster was looking decidedly unkempt. He wore dark sunglasses and a tie-dye T-shirt. His hair was sloppily tied into a ponytail, and he was gently swaying from side to side. He was looking at the enchanted ceiling. Mouth slightly agape, wait, was he sleeping?
Before Harry could ask Terry about it, Padma joined them. She was wearing a new uniform and had clearly showered if the smell of lavender coming from her wet hair was of any indication. Of course, she had wet hair when she left them, but she definitely smelled of smoke before, not flowers.
The food soon appeared, and they dug in with gusto. The headmaster, having been possibly awoken when Hagrid bumped the table trying to sit down, looked upon the feast in front of him with enthusiasm.
"Weasley has competition tonight." Harry chuckled. Indeed, the headmaster was giving Ron a run for his money. Professor McGonagall was quietly chastising him, but he didn't seem to even notice her stern rebuke.
"April 20th." Harry thought out loud. "The battle of the lost and found and the battle of the gluttons. One for the history books."
