Hermione Declares War

Hermione:

She did not go to sleep. The same frenzy that had worked Rosalie into a mess of mush now consumed her. She sat with the three books propped open all night long in the library, writing and scribbling and crossing out on sheets of Muggle paper and summoning different books from the shelves.

She must have passed out, though she couldn't remember when, because when she came to, Harry was shaking her. "Good morning," he whispered. "Madam Pince wants you gone. She says just because you have a new position doesn't mean you can ever do this again."

"The doors were unlocked," Hermione said through a yawn.

"They could have unlocked just for you," Harry pointed out. "The castle is doing weird things lately." He peered around at everything. "What have you been doing?"

"Hunting," Hermione said. "Hunting Horcruxes."

Harry sat down. Hermione spread out her work. "I spoke to Dumbledore and he already knew about them. He thinks that Voldemort may have used items belonging to the founders and these three items in this story – a really powerful wand, a stone that can bring people back from the dead, and an invisibility cloak that can hide you from death itself. I also listed every single thing I could think of that every belonged to the founders."

"How many are we looking for?" Harry asked.

"Seven," Hermione said.

"Seven!" Harry repeated, alarmed. "You'd better bring this down to breakfast so that you don't have to repeat this."

"Is Rosalie there?" Hermione asked. She handed Harry the three books she'd come with and he accepted them without comment as she flicked her wand and gathered the papers together into one nice, neat stack. "This is her work."

"No idea," Harry said. "But I'm practicing listening to the castle. That's how I ended up here."

"How?" Hermione couldn't understand it. Rosalie could whip Umbridge out of the castle and Harry could find her before she'd even woken up. But she didn't know what she was doing.

"Just trying to act on impressions," Harry said. "I tried speaking to Sir Nicolas about the Bane of Hogwarts, but he died in the fifteenth century, long after the Founders."

"I haven't tried to talk to the Bloody Baron," Hermione said. "I haven't had the time, really."

They made it to the Great Hall. Draco was sitting among some third years at his house table, but some Ravenclaws from the next table over had hopped over and he appeared to be teaching them a transfiguration strategy. Harry cleared his throat. "That reminds me," he said, kicking the floor a little. "McGonagall… well, it turns out Neville went and told her I was a fair teacher. She asked me to keep up the club until they can get a new teacher. Except they'll put it in the space we usually had defence every day and then divide up the students two years in a class, one class a week. She's arranging new schedules."

He rubbed the back of his head. Hermione laughed. "So," she bumped him with her hip. "You really are going to be the Defence teacher? You'll do great."

"I'm not sure," Harry said. "All this new stuff has been filling my head." He paused. "Do you think I ought to teach them about Horcruxes?"

"No," Hermione said with certainty. "Not while we have so many people bitter about the resorting." That could be a recipe for disaster. She pictured Pansy Parkinson and shivered.

Rosalie was not at her table or anywhere else in the Great Hall, and it did not feel right tell Harry without telling Rosalie, since she had put all the work in and had been so distraught over it. So she kissed him on the cheek and ran down to the Dungeons.

As she ran in, Millicent was headed out. "I thought you were gone, Granger," she said. Not terribly unkindly, but without much warmth. "Thought that was your replacement in your bunk and we'd scared you away."

"And ruin my plans here?" Hermione asked. "Never."

She dashed up the stairs, opened the dorm door, and found Rosalie still fast asleep in her bed. She slept like she'd died there, completely still and on her back (who slept on their back, anyway?), and with her fingers visible wrapped around the top of the covers. For all Hermione could tell, she might have fallen asleep in the very action of pulling the covers up.

If she were Rosalie, she'd want to be woken up. So she only hesitated for a moment before touching her shoulder and shaking her.

Rosalie returned to earth slowly and released the covers to stretch her arms above her head. "Sorry to wake you," Hermione said. "But I made progress!"

Rosalie sat up, still stretching, and then looked around. "Goodness," she said. "I should have asked you days ago, Hermione. You're a miracle worker."

"Well, I'm good at putting things together," Hermione said, trying to be modest. "And I got help. Dumbledore already knew about the Horcruxes."

"He did?" Rosalie perked up, then immediately deflated. "Oh. There are more of them?" Another pause, and she perked up again. "Does he know what they are?"

"Hang on, I promised Harry I'd tell him too. Let's head up to breakfast before they stop serving food!" She offered Rosalie a hand and pulled her out of bed. Then she pulled out the shrunken things she'd not worked on aside from organising them and offered them to Rosalie. When Rosalie saw them, the blood drained out of her face.

"Oh," she said. "Thanks. Did you get to all of them?"

"I organised them all. Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing!" But Rosalie took the papers back a little quickly.

Hermione pursed her lips, then decided it was time to unlock them. "I did see you were using the name Rebekah Barnes, if that's what you're worried about."

Rosalie's smile came on but missing something behind it. Like a loading screen after the main processor had short-circuited. She slowly deflated. "It's… like a penname."

"Yeah," Hermione said, because she wasn't sure what else to say. "Well, come on. You'll love what I've found out, Rebekah." She had been about to press and say that she knew that Rosalie had been posing under the name Amelia, but suddenly found herself unable to. Rosalie was her friend now, and even though Hermione didn't know who she was, she was feeling a little nervous that the person she did know would leave.

Hermione turned toward the door, but Rosalie caught her hand suddenly. She pulled Hermione back toward her, then put her hands on her shoulders to guide Hermione to straighten her frame in front of her. When they were again standing face-to-face, she took a step back and a deep breath.

"Please don't tell the boys," Rosalie said. "But… Amelia wasn't my cousin. Amelia was my name I was living under."

Well, if she was going to be honest, then so was Hermione. "I already knew," she said. "And Harry does too, for the record. I told him when I suspected it."

Rosalie's eyes widened and her mouth fell open. "What?" she asked.

"I knew Amelia wasn't a real person," Hermione said. "I asked about you on my last day in Wigan. Went to go get a pie and you weren't there. No one knew Rosalie. No one knew about any cousin either."

She waited, wondering if Rosalie was going to say anything else, then nodded to the door. "Are you ready to leave now?"

Rosalie's eyes fixed on something in the doorway though, and a little more panic arose in her eyes. Hermione turned and recognised the ghost of the Bloody Baron in the doorway. "Hello, Baron," she said. "You okay?"

The Baron peered from left to right. She had never heard him speak before and wasn't sure if he would now. Then he did, in a raspy voice. "I never come up here. Not decent to be around the young ladies. But I overheard you about horcruxes last night in the common room."

Hermione glanced to the side to see if Rosalie was hearing the same thing she was. Rosalie was already looking at her for the same reassurance.

The Baron withdrew into the hall a little more. "One is here in the castle. Only the Ghost of Ravenclaw knows where it is."

As if he were frightened that said ghost would come down and kick him in the front teeth, he jumped into the floor and was gone.

Hermione and Rosalie both took a moment to catch their breaths, having not realised they were holding them. Then Hermione looked up at Rosalie. "I never understood," she said, "Why they're gone so fast? In movies and such, they drop this information on us and then run. How do they know we've heard what they said? What happens if I approach afterward and say, 'Sorry, I heard only the ghost of kitten's paw knows where it is', and there's nothing in the library on that?"

Rosalie clapped her hands together sharply and gestured with both hands towards the floor. "I always think that!" she said. "I can't hear people right half the time when they're speaking to me, let alone when they're running the other way!" She huffed and crossed her arms.

Hermione shook her head and then stared at the spot the Baron had disappeared through. "I've never heard his voice either," she said. "Rosalie, you said you've been speaking with the ghost of Ravenclaw, right?"

"To be honest with you both," Draco said after Hermione had finished recounting the long tale, "I don't think its necessary to bring the Ravenclaw Ghost into this quite yet."

"Well how are we supposed to find it?" Hermione asked irritably. "Search the entire castle?"

"Of course not, Granger. The castle's searched every night. Think about it." Draco crossed his arms and looked at her expectantly. Hermione was absolutely bewildered. "Granger, the castle is cleaned every night. That means that the castle is searched and inspected. Every night."

Hermione turned a little red. "So you think that the house elves have it?"

"Nope," Draco shook his head. "They report to the Heads of House on things they find. Don't ask how I know."

"I know how you know," Rosalie said. "Professor Flitwick confiscated Pansy Parkinson's book of dark magic and Professor Snape mentioned he hadn't thought it was worth the fight."

"You don't seem to care," Hermione noted disapprovingly.

"A book's a book," Rosalie said, shrugging. "I think information should be free, and I don't really care if it's forbidden."

Hermione wrinkled her nose. That thinking was dangerous and foolhardy, she thought, and she wasn't impressed with Rosalie's decision. "Of course," Draco interrupted her thinking. "I would never have anything of the sort…"

"To the point, Malfoy," Hermione broke in quickly when Rosalie opened her mouth - presumably to request said book.

"Name the one place the elves don't clean," Draco said, sitting up straighter.

"The Chamber of Secrets," Harry said.

"The Room of Requirement," Rosalie said instead. "Because it's not always active to clean."

Draco pointed to Rosalie for victory. It seemed they were thinking alike. "To be fair," Draco said to Harry, "That was a bloody good guess. I completely forgot about it."

"Want to give it a go before our next class?" Hermione asked.

"I'm not going to charms class anyway," Rosalie said. "I've got loads of time!" She was already halfway to her feet, but everyone else jumped up in excitement and she ended up being the last up. They left, quickly heading to the Come-and-Go room.

Draco took to pacing the floor in front of the Barney tapestry, muttering under his breath. "We need the room where the horcrux is hidden… please give us the room where the horcrux is hidden… show us where the horcrux is hidden."

A door appeared made of rough planks bolted together. Harry opened it and stepped in. Hermione heard him say, "oh Merlin's beard…"

Inside were piles and piles of stuff, as far as the eye could see. Mountains of broken items, twisted parts, wires, brooms, cauldrons, books, pillows and duvets. Empty bottles and expired tins… it was completely astonishing and it seemed to go on for miles.

Rosalie seized Harry by the collar and pulled him back out.

"Nope!" she exclaimed, pushing him into the hall. "Nope, nope, nope. Nope! We're trying a shortcut first." She then began to pace in front of the door, over and over, and then a smaller metal door appeared in its place. Only as tall as Rosalie was and slightly wider than her, so Harry and Draco would have needed to duck to get through, but also about six square feet forming a three by two – the size of a moderate closet. Inside was a pedestal, and on it, was a silver crown.

"For future reference," Draco said. "How did you do that?"

"I asked for a small room and gave the dimension size I wanted, and asked that it contain the horcrux," Rosalie said, then paused. "What future reference?"

"That's brilliant," Draco replied. "Good thinking."

Rosalie did not budge. "Future reference?" She repeated.

Draco sighed irritably. "I received a letter back today from home. I believe the item – they call it a Vanishing Cabinet – is in the Room of Requirements by the instructions they gave me. But let's handle this first."

Harry approached the crown, examining it. It was slender, with a large sapphire in the centre. He made to pick it up, and Rosalie stopped him. "Hold on," she said. "It feels hostile."

On the floor appeared some very thick dragonhide gloves which Rosalie picked up. She pulled them on and they were just her size, then picked up the crown and turned towards Hermione. "Use your wand and cast a detection spell, please? I want to make sure this is safe to touch before we actually touch it."

Hermione had not had the chance to cast a detection spell before, but she remembered the incantation easily. She muttered under her breath and traced the air above the crown's slender slopes. The diadem suddenly took on a black glow. Hermione nodded her head from side to side. "So, black means a heavily cursed object. Usually one to do with death," she explained. "So to be honest, I'm not sure if the detection spell is pulling 'horcrux' or something else entirely."

"Unfortunate," Rosalie muttered. "Is it possible… I mean, this does contain a soul fragment… could it be hostile to us? Can the diadem, in and of itself, decide to kill one and influence another?"

The lights seemed to become dim suddenly. Hermione stared at Rosalie. "Sorry, what did you call it?" she asked.

"A diadem."

"Hold it still." Hermione bent down on one knee. Her blood was starting to boil. However, she forced herself to breathe as she examined the surface of the diadem. She noted some scratches purposefully made along the diadem's left side and using her wand to point them out to the others. "Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure," she rehearsed. "This is the lost diadem of Ravenclaw."

Draco, Harry, and Rosalie all glanced between each other. Once Harry had met both of their eyes, he looked back to Hermione. "What's the lost diadem of Ravenclaw?" he asked.

"Rowena Ravenclaw wore it and enchanted it herself to enhance her wisdom," Hermione said, sputtering. "This is a… priceless artifact, and he's… he's gone and defiled it!"

She was angry. Angrier than she could remember being in a very, very long time. She couldn't breathe and her hands were shaking as she huffed at the beautiful diadem. Harry took her shoulder. "Hey," he said. "I think the magic is getting to you."

"You don't understand, Harry, it will need to be destroyed now!" Hermione exploded and turned and kicked the door. It rattled in the hinge. "This diadem has been lost for centuries! And now it's back and it's-"

"Hermione!" Rosalie said in a sharp tone. She set the diadem down on the pedestal again and removed the gloves. "You and I are the most brilliant people in this school. The whole school! We're both extremely clever and what I lack in focus you make up for. And these two are not as far behind us as they think they are." Behind her, Harry and Draco began hiding smiles. Hermione found herself breathing again as Rosalie set her chin at her usual confident angle. "We will find a way to destroy the horcrux without destroying the diadem," she said. "Everything will be alright."

Hermione nodded with a deep breath and looked back at the unassuming jewellery on the pedestal. "You're right," she whispered. "But I'm still furious as what he's done. I'm going to hunt every one down and if I can, I'll strangle Lord Voldemort with my bare hands. I declare war on these horcruxes."

"Basilisk venom is an extremely poisonous and corrosive substance," Dumbledore rehearsed with both Hermione and Rosalie mouthing nearly every word along with him. "It can kill a person in under a minute, as Mr. Potter had a close experience with."

Harry had not been mouthing along with Dumbledore, but staring at Riddle's diary with the hole burned through it, nodding hollowly along with every word.

Dumbledore stood and walked towards where the Sword of Gryffindor was laid alongside one wall, as if it had been examined recently. "I am confident," Dumbledore said, "That Gryffindor was the only founder that Lord Voldemort did not manage to find an artefact of that would have been possible to be made into a horcrux. The only two anyone knows of are Gryffindor's sword-" he laid this on the table next to the diary with a thud, "and the hat." Dumbledore nodded to the Sorting Hat which sat as if inactive on the fireplace mantel. "The sword was soaked in the basilisk venom when Harry killed the basilisk and appears to have infused itself into the metal. This would have destroyed any horcrux on the sword, and I believe the sword now has the ability to kill the horcruxes for you, should you manage to find any more."

"I intend to find them all," Hermione said, brushing her hair back. "I have a list. There's the resurrection stone, the cloak of invisibility, and the elder's wand from the story, to begin with."

"I can narrow those three options down to one," Dumbledore said. He reached into his robes and pulled out his own unique wand, with the bumps all the way down the length, and put it on the table. All four students stared and Hermione felt goosebumps arise on her skin.

"That's the Elder Wand?" Draco asked.

"Yes," Dumbledore said, in a plain tone.

Draco leaned down to stare at eye-level with it. "Can I try it?" he asked.

"Certainly," Dumbledore said. "But mind your cleaning spells when you're done. Getting used to the power can take a moment."

Draco hesitantly picked up the wand. He eyed a pen on Dumbledore's desk and muttered a banishing incantation. The pen rocketed off Dumbledore's desk faster than Umbridge out of Hogwarts and imbedded itself in the wall. Draco cursed and Hermione fought the urge to box his ears. He jumped up and ran to the wall, only to say, "I think your pen is… well…"

"Pancaked?" Dumbledore asked, eating a sweet from his dish on the desk.

"Well," Draco said, "I sort of… see daylight through the hole here. I'm not sure where the pen went."

Dumbledore nodded. "Keep practicing," he called. "Hogwarts will heal the hole herself."

"So you've got the Elder Wand," Hermione said. "And do you know where either of the other two are? The stone or the cloak?"

"The cloak is with its rightful owner," Dumbledore said, serenely even though he seemed to be picking his words carefully. "I have personally examined it and know that it is not a horcrux. I do not believe Voldemort has any way of finding it."

"Okay," Harry said, "Then that leaves the stone."

"Yes, it does leave the stone," Hermione. "And, Professor, another question…" She put her fingertips together. "Have I ever… been under this cloak before?"

Harry frowned. "What cloak have you been under other than mine?" he asked. Then, he thought about this for several seconds. "Wait a moment…"

A tickling charm caught Harry in the chest and toppled him to the ground, where he convulsed with compulsive laughter. "Ma-Malfoy!" He yelled.

"You dingwat!" Draco snapped. "I knew you had a cloak! I knew it, I knew it… Pansy never believed me, but-"

"Draco, maybe you ought to give that back to Professor Dumbledore!" Hermione snapped. "This is rather important – unless you'd rather deal with Voldemort forever?"

"Nonsense," Dumbledore said. "He has only cast five spells with it. And he's only just started to realise how much magic he has to put behind a spell. Notice how Mr. Potter is still conscious? Mr. Malfoy is figuring out his limits. You don't push down a child who is learning to walk."

"Well, he really shouldn't have hit Harry at all…"

"Mr. Malfoy has served several detentions that you got out of because of that cloak," Dumbledore said, just as kind as ever. "Consider his point of view while he performs the countercharm." He gave a meaningful glance to Draco.

"Er… I've forgotten it…"

"Finite Incantatem," Hermione said irritably.

"Ah, of course."

Harry caught his breath slowly and set up his knocked over chair. When he had enough breath, Hermione reached down and helped him up. "You said you'd examined the cloak," Harry said. "You're the one who gave me mine, from my father. Is it the same?"

Dumbledore nodded. Very, very slowly. Hermione stared at the movement and felt that her brain was speeding up. She thought about every muscle and what it might mean. And then had a thought and decided it might be better to move on. "The stone," she said. "Any ideas?"

"I have several hunches," Dumbledore said. "Tom is a surprisingly sentimental and superstitious person. I have known him since he was eleven years old. As Harry knows, Tom grew up in a Muggle Orphanage. That orphanage no longer exists, but there may be one in the area. I have devoted the last few years to finding out places he studied abroad, as well, but that orphanage is the closest one."

"A Muggle orphanage?" said Rosalie, who had been quiet all this time.

"Yes, Ms. Spinks," Dumbledore said.

"Hm," she said. "What was the name of the orphanage?"

From Hermione's point of view, Harry was exchanging glances with Dumbledore, and trying to exchange glances with her too. Dumbledore and Rosalie's composures matched each other's perfectly. As if nothing was suspicious or odd about this. Draco was summoning books off the shelves and sending them back, getting the hang of the wand.

"Wool's Orphanage," Dumbledore said. "In the borough of Lambeth, in London."

"Not too far from you, Harry," Rosalie said.

Harry stared at her. "Are you kidding?" he asked. "It's a whole hour between us, Rosalie!"

"Sorry. I forgot Europeans think twenty minutes is far."

Hermione looked back down at her list, shaking her head. "We found Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem today. It's a horcrux."

Hermione had not seen Dumbledore shocked yet. She looked up and saw that his eyebrows had risen, he'd frozen mid-chew, and was staring at her as if he were trying to decipher a joke.

"We're planning on experimenting with it, to see if we can move the Horcrux out of it safely," Hermione said. "We're worried about other curses on it, though, so we're moving it with oven mitts so far."

"Where are you keeping it?" Dumbledore asked.

"In my trunk in my Dorm," Hermione said. "It's locked, and-"

"You will move it out of there at once, Ms. Granger," Dumbledore said firmly. "The Horcrux will become aware of you trying to destroy it. It will attempt to seek out help. If any Slytherins who are endeavouring to support Lord Voldemort find it, the diadem will trick them and coerce them into saving it."

"Where should we keep it?" Hermione asked. "We can't risk just leaving it in a spare room. My trunk's got dozens of spells on it, so if that's not good enough…"

Dumbledore stood up and walked to the window. He peered out on the grounds for a moment, thinking. "Once upon a time," he said in that same cheery tune that old Muggle Disney films did, "There were four founders."

"Sir?" Harry asked. Draco had frozen in playing with the Elder Wand.

Dumbledore turned around. "Perhaps the castle has reconfigured itself to accommodate a headmaster. I wonder if we can convince it to open a study area that only you can get into. If not any area that only you can get into."

Hermione was stumped at this idea. "Hogwarts, A History, doesn't mention it at all," she said.

"No," Dumbledore agreed, "But they lived here, didn't they?"

Hermione nodded, then looked back at her list. "Salazar Slytherin had a locket he wore. Helga Hufflepuff had a cup. She was pictured with it in a portrait. But it was so long ago – they could have any number of items."

"I wonder," Dumbledore said, retaking his seat, "if I were to raise this with the Order…" He gave a meaningful nod to Draco, eyeing Hermione. "Especially Mundungus."

"Just don't give away too much," Hermione said. "Er, um, Draco? The Order is-"

"I know what the Order is," Draco said. "I wasn't aware you did, though."

"We stayed there over the summer," Hermione said, then paused. "How do you know-"

"The Death Eaters are aware of the organisation because of Professor Snape," Draco said, glancing to Dumbledore. "Which I have suspected you already knew, because-"

"Severus is completely trustworthy," Dumbledore said to Harry and Hermione. "He and I debated releasing that information prior to him actually doing so."

"And by the way, I won't tell anyone I suspect you were staying with the Weasleys or Potter's Godfather," Draco said. "Who I know was never a Death Eater."

Dumbledore eyed Draco. "I would advise against taking the dark mark, if you haven't already," he said. "It causes irreparable damage to your magical abilities."

Draco started and a book knocked him in the head. He stood up, scowling, while they all laughed. "I'll keep that in mind," he said.

"Well," Dumbledore said. "It's about time for you to pop off for classes. Unless you have any more guesses?"

"The snake," Harry said, beside Hermione. She nodded – it had been the last item on her list. Harry huffed a little, seemingly reminded that he was angry at Dumbledore, then said, "I've been having dreams about a hallway in the Department of Mysteries. Sometimes from Nagini's – the snake's – perspective. I wonder if that's because there' s a soul fragment in her."

Dumbledore's eyebrows once again shot up. "I had not considered that," he said. "That snake has grown to an exceptionally large size. And, Harry, how are your occlumency classes going?"

Harry shifted uncomfortably. "With Professor Snape, badly. But Draco has been helping me with the concepts and Hermione tests me."

"Right, good," Dumbledore said. "Well… keep me updated."

"I'm popping out with Dobby to the Muggle world," Rosalie said at dinner. "Have any requests while I'm out?"

"You wot?" Draco demanded, face falling. "Um, take me with you!"

Rosalie laughed and kissed his cheek. "Sorry, love. Not this time."

Hermione tapped her fork twice on the chinaware as she thought. "I assume you're going to look into Tom Riddle, right? I don't need to ask about that?"

"Nope!"

"I've got all I need," Harry said. "But Draco-"

"I've got a list," Draco muttered, and withdrew a piece of parchment from his pocket. It was small, about two inches squared, but like a muggle movie he flicked it and it fell into a list almost a foot long. "Let me check and make sure it's all on there."

Hermione couldn't see the whole list, but she did see "pinballs" at the top of the list. "Sounds like you'll have your hands full," she said. "I'll probably look into the problems with the diadem while you're gone." Then, she got that eerie feeling that someone was watching her, and looked over her shoulder. No one except for the Grey Lady of Ravenclaw was there, and she looked as if she'd only just looked away. Hermione stared a moment and then became aware of Harry speaking.

"Hermione, love? Do you need help?"

"What'd you call me?" Hermione asked.

Harry's face turned tomato red. "I just… heard Rosalie and Draco, so… bit not good?"

"No, no, it's fine. Just… a first."

"Thought you went out with an International Quidditch Star?" Draco demanded.

"Right? I could have had him call me love instead of Hermy-o-ninny."

They all laughed, but Rosalie a bit harder. She wiped a tear out of her eyes. "Oh, Shakespeare," she said, and plucked the list out of Draco's hand. "Bye now!" And she left towards the front of the Great Hall in a bit of a dash.

Draco leaned his face in his hand. "How romantic are you both planning on being tonight?" he asked. "I might join you if it doesn't sicken me."

"Well, we wouldn't want to be the second people to ditch you." Harry laughed. "Where should we start? Moving Horcruxes, hunting them, or hiding them away from students?"

"There's three of us, and three tasks," Hermione said. "We can figure it out."

They arose, taking their suppers with them, but before they'd made it to the end of the Ravenclaw table, they found their path blocked by Ron Weasley, who looked between the three of them somewhat unsurely. "Hey," he said. "Seems you three are off. Looks exciting."

For a moment, Hermione wasn't sure what to do. Harry's and Draco's expressions had closed off to neutral. Draco's was expected, but Harry still shared a room with Ron. She supposed they hadn't been getting on as Harry had made friends elsewhere.

"Per usual," she replied, a little frosty. "Are you missing the chaos? Draco said a few months ago that he hadn't been missing anything by not being friends with Harry."

Behind her, both boys stilled. She realised they were in a sort of battle position. What, was she the ringleader now? "You did say that, didn't you?" Harry asked.

"And I bloody well stand by it, Potter. You're a menace to society."

Harry laughed. "Ditto, Malfoy."

Ron watched the exchange happen. "Where are you off to?"

"We've got several missions happening," Hermione said. "Are you wanting to tag along? Some of it will be in the library, I warn you."

Ron shrugged. "Maybe just for a bit," he said, and shouldered his bag. "It's… been a while. Would be nice to catch up."

"Have you eaten yet?" Harry asked. "We're bringing ours and can wait for you if you want to grab something."

Ron quickly filled a plate and then the four of them headed down towards the Slytherin Common room without an official declaration until they were near the dungeons and Ron asked, "Isn't this the way to Slytherin?"

"Yes," Hermione said. "So, Ron, we have a cursed diadem – it's like a crown – in my trunk. And we need to figure out a safe place to keep it while we're trying to remove the curse from it."

"We also have a list of other items that may be cursed," Draco told Ron. "I've been reckoning we ought to send Dumbledore to his meeting with pictures to show your order. I think that's the best chance of Mundungus Fletcher recognising it."

"You told him about the order?" Ron asked, frowning towards Harry. "His parents are Death Eaters."

"He was already aware of the Order," Harry told Ron. The conversation felt a bit stiff coming from him. "And it's not like Malfoy's set to become a Death Eater by default. Think we'd hang around with him if he was?"

"You did for four or so months," Draco reminded Harry.

"Timing, Draco, timing."

"Draco?"

"It's still Malfoy to you, Weasley. They can call me by my first because they're friends."

Some light bickering broke out behind Hermione about that statement. But it didn't seem particularly meaningful or mean, so she tuned it out and gave the password to the common room and held the door open for the three not-Slytherins. The first thing Ron said inside was, "It hasn't changed a bit."

Draco furrowed his brow. "It wot?" He asked.

Harry grabbed both their shoulders as Hermione began to head up the steps towards the Girls' Dorms. "Woah, mates, let's have that conversation down here while Hermione heads up. The stairs, remember?"

"Oh, right."

"What? We can't go into any of the Girl's Dorms?"

Hermione frowned. "Do you think we could waive that rule for the purposes?" She asked. "I mean… the dorm is a much better place for…" She glanced around. Some students were in the common area, and glancing with interest in their direction. That was the thing about Slytherin. When you get a bunch of ambitious people together, they all look around and wonder who's got something that can lift them above the others. Very limited privacy. Probably why the common room was designed to appear more secluded.

"Go ahead and give it a try, Hermione."

Hermione put a hand against the wall and tried to seek out Hogwart's underlying spirit. "We need these stairs to stay in place," she whispered. "Please don't move the stairs."

She looked back down. Harry raised a foot and began the trek up, but Ron and Draco stayed in place. On the fourth stair, the steps slanted into a slide, and with a yelp each, Harry and Hermione slid down the steps and rolled over each other on the thick carpet. She ended up beside him and facing the stairs as she caught her breath. "Bugger," she whispered and got up before reaching down a hand to help Harry – second time today. "Rosalie can get the castle to throw Umbridge out just yesterday and strike people with lightning and I can't get the stairs to stay?"

"Right?" Harry asked, equally irritated.

The stairs jumped back into their normal appearance and Draco put a hand against the wall and closed his eyes in concentration. He thought and thought and then put a foot on the first step. Then the next, then the next, then the next. "I think I got it," he said from the sixth step. "Come on up behind me."

"How'd you do that?" Ron asked, following him up.

"Because I'm just that good," Draco said. "In fact, I'm too good to be true!"

Hermione scoffed and Harry rolled his eyes, but both started on their way up the stairs. Draco had entered the Girls' Dorm room first and had asked Millicent Bulstrode to leave, so she stormed down past them as they got up. Hermione went to her trunk and whispered the passcode, then opened it up. She pulled out an empty Amazon box with far too much room in it, but it had been what Rosalie had on hand. Then she took out some oven mitts and opened the diadem on the floor.

The moment it was exposed to the air, they felt it. A hate-filled pull trying to draw them in to touch it.

"Er, is it just me, or is that thing speaking?" Ron asked nervously.

Draco withdrew a pen and folded paper from his robes. "Write down what it says to you," he directed. "Well, Granger, since we can't keep it in here, we need to figure out a place we can keep it. You clearly have no aptitude for asking the castle for favours, and Rosalie is gone, so I suppose I should do that."

"Unless you've got a talent for doodling?" Hermione asked. "It was your idea to – Ron, don't touch it!"

Ron had been reaching towards the diadem. "Oh, is it that kind of cursed?" He asked.

"Very cursed, Mate," Harry said. "I can doodle fine, but I've not got any clue what Slytherin's locket or Hufflepuff's cup could look like."

"I can find you the reference for both," Hermione said. "Draco, you work on a better holding room for us. Maybe do what Dumbledore recommended… oh, you know what?" Hermione turned to Harry. "I can cross visit Dumbledore twice off my BINGO card."

Harry thought about that, then said, "I can cross off getting a girlfriend."

Hermione laughed, then Draco made a sound like he was going to be sick. "Oh, lay off," she told him. "You and Rosalie are so much more forward!" She took Harry's hand. "The portrait of Hufflepuff with her cup is in the corridor adjacent to the kitchens. Salazar's locket is in this book here-" She flicked her wand at her trunk and a copy of "Symbols of Wizardry" floated out of her trunk. "-Page three-four-seven."

"That's auspicious," Harry said.

"I know." Hermione took a seat beside the Horcrux. "While you work on that, I'm going to see if I can get this to transfer to something else. Maybe…" She pulled a piece of Muggle paper from her trunk. It would be easy enough to destroy. Just rip it in half, right? She pulled out her wand and set about poking and prodding at it.

It wasn't a very effective place to work. Twice, one of the girls knocked. One for pyjamas and one to go to bed. Hermione hid the diadem both times, but Dumbledore had been right. It was starting to realise that they intended to destroy it. The work Hermione was doing became harder. Intrusive thoughts kept popping up in their minds. Harry abandoned his doodle – which everyone agreed was above par with what they'd expected – and began to help Draco. The two looked extremely odd with their eyes closed, sitting cross legged in front of the other and muttering, but it needed to be done.

When a third knock came from a girl who wanted to go to bed, they packed up the diadem and brought it down to the common room with them again. There, Harry and Draco sat in front of the fire. Hermione and Ron sat at a nearby table, where Ron frowned at the two others. He still occasionally wrote down when he heard the diadem say something, and his notes were helpful. So far, Hermione had learned that the diadem could offer power, threaten safety, and tell someone that to walk off with it would be correct.

"What're they doing, exactly?" Ron asked Hermione as he stared at Draco and Harry.

Hermione was starting to go cross-eyed from the effort of examining the diadem. "We're supposed to be able to chat with Hogwarts, now that we're Heads-in-Training or whatever," she said. "Rosalie is the best at it. You saw what happened to Umbridge? Well, she communicated with the castle and got it done. I can't get the castle to do anything for me, yet."

"Well, you never liked magic that didn't require skill or memorisation."

"True," Hermione admitted. "How has your schoolwork been going, since I got moved?"

"I can read without your help, Hermione." Ron sounded a bit bitter.

She felt guilt bite at her. "Right. I'm sorry. That was vain of me."

"A bit, yeah."

"Well, I apologise."

"Hermione?" Harry called from the floor. "Come join us for a second."

"You need me, too?" Ron asked. He and Hermione both stood up.

"Sorry Ron, just Hermione, because she's a head. Can you keep an eye on the diadem, please?"

Ron sat back down with a sour expression. On the floor, Draco and Harry moved to make room. Hermione sat down so that their knees were almost touching and forming a sort of triangle. For a moment, she watched what they were doing. They had their eyes closed and were sat almost perfectly straight up and down. Their hands rested on their knees and they took deep, slow breaths. Obviously, Draco's idea over Harry's. Finally, when she was sure she had the form right, she closed her eyes and took deep breaths as well.

Slowly… in and out. Focusing. Was her breathing too deep? No, no, not the point. Focus…

"Guys," Ron said, somewhat in the distance.

Focus…

"Oi! Mates! Wake up!" Ron snapped.

Hermione opened her eyes with a jump. "What? We were barely in for a minute!" she exclaimed.

"No, it's been fifteen! And look!" Ron pointed to a previously blank wall in the common room, where an ornate black door with green accent paint and an emerald handle had appeared in the wall. Other students, for the common room had filled as people came back for bed, stared at it and a few tried the handle, to no avail. Ron had the box with the diadem in it diligently pinned under his arm.

Harry and Draco made it to their feet before Hermione and so Harry held out a hand for Hermione and pulled her to her feet. Draco went to the door and pushed through the throng of twenty-odd students to reach for the handle. But when he tried it, it was still locked.

A few Slytherins stared at him. "Where'd you come from?" they asked. "You're in a different house now." They hadn't seemed to have noticed Ron yet.

Hermione took the boxed diadem from Ron and kept it under her arm as they moved. The box felt hot to the touch and seemed to be impacting her mood. She hoped this door would be the answer to their issue.

She put her hand on the handle and felt it stick to her hand like a magnet. "Oh!" she exclaimed. It grew very hot very quickly, then simmered down again. She took her hand off and stared at it. Even though it had not been hot enough to brand, there was now a green word in her palm, along her thumb line. The lifeline, if she was correct. "Slytherin," it said. And on the emerald doorknob was a very ornate letter "H" for Hermione.

She swallowed and twisted the knob again. This time, the door opened.

Inside was extremely dark. Hermione withdrew her wand. "Lumos," she said, and the light emanating from her wand revealed an extraordinarily dusty mess. "Oh dear…" she whispered.

Tread marks appeared in the green carpet as she stepped forward. The dust was inches thick. There were some old trunks stacked to the immediate left with busted lids and rotting planks and broken latches. Against the second wall was what had once been a very nice four-post bed. Not a king size – probably something between a full and a queen size. The canopy had rotted away and dumped most of the remaining velvet onto the crumpled mattress, which had no sheets. You could see several springs poking out of the mattress. Beside the bed on one side was a nightstand whose single drawer had rolled out of it on a broken hinge. A book whose leather had completely broken away from the pages was inside.

Above the bed, a chandelier hung at a tilt. Hermione couldn't tell how it could hang at a tilt at first, because it only hung from a central point. Then she got close and realised that hundreds and thousands of spiders had built their home into a single side of the chandelier, so that the heavy side was laden with what looked like a bee's nest of burst egg sacks.

A wardrobe with one door broken off, a rug with mouse droppings scattered everywhere, and a second door matching the one she'd come through were also within the room.

"This place is a dump," Ron said from the doorway, staring at the chandelier without trust or hope.

"It reeks," said one of the Slytherin girls, holding her robe sleeve over her mouth.

Hermione walked to the other door and braced herself for another tattoo across her hand. This door was locked. "Alohomora," she whispered, and the eons-old lock unclicked. She twisted the knob without problem and shone her light inside.

The other room was in just as bad shape as the first. A larger, much grander chandelier hung in the middle of the room. The carpet in here was brown… or, at least, it looked brown in this light.

The room was circular and had four cardinal points. Hermione was standing at the southmost point, looking down a slightly-sloped walkway that ended in a sitting area with a large round table set in the middle of it. The walkway continued to the left, right, and forward of that table and led up to different doors at right angles to each other. And in between each doorway was a flat area where an old desk, an old trunk, and an old safe each could be seen. Everything was mouldy and crumbling.

Harry, Draco, and Ron had followed her in. A few other Slytherins were poking around and wrinkling their noses at the destroyed space.

"Alright, Potter," Draco said under his breath. "There are now three places that the house elves don't clean."

Hermione set off down the walkway. It was curious how there were no house colours here. Except for the door they'd come through. The diadem's box was hot against her arm still.

She made it to the middle of the room and examined the bare table. Nothing interesting there. Then she turned and looked at the three doors they had not come through. Immediately, the pattern broke out for her. "Harry!" she said. "Look, Gryffindor. And Draco, Hufflepuff!" She pointed at the two that lay left and right to the Slytherin door. Up ahead was the Ravenclaw door.

"Funny to have rooms for the other founders in Slytherin," Harry said doubtfully. "It's a long way from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw towers." Still, he headed up towards a door that was painted bright red, with gold leaf accents. The handle was a large ruby.

When Harry took the handle, she could tell his palm stuck too by the sound of surprise he made. But then he twisted the handle, opened the door, and said, "Lumos." Then, he jumped away with a yell.

Hermione ran up the walkway to see what the matter was. Inside was a room similar to the one they'd first come through, but not so terribly destroyed. The chandelier had fallen and the candles were cracked. The wardrobe and nightstand were still shut tight. The bed still had sheets. But laying on that bed was the skeleton of a man, clothes still on but moulded away, and his head turned to stare at them. Hermione cut off a scream.

"Oh my," she gasped. "Oh – oh my!"

"Is that… Godric Gryffindor?" Harry asked, breathlessly. He looked quite ill.

Hermione hesitantly crept forward. Underneath the skeleton was a bright red cloak with hundreds of holes eaten in it. She remembered Godric Gryffindor's portrait and nodded to Harry numbly. "I think it is. He must have died here." She looked around. "These rooms… must have been the founder's rooms that Dumbledore was talking about."

Similarly to the Slytherin room was another door on the opposite side of the one they'd come through. Harry walked over and twisted it open, and then opened the door into the faces of Fred and George Weasley, who looked just as surprised to have a door hit their faces as Harry was to hit them. "What- Harry?" they demanded.

"Oh, bugger, I'm sorry Fred and… everyone?"

Hermione looked over Harry's shoulder and her mouth fell open.

For on the other side of the door, even though it was across the entire castle, was the Gryffindor common room.

The next chapter will be called The Deck is Stacked and is a very fun one. I'll post it early if I get five reviews.