First half of book:
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003829962
Previous Chapters:
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003833123
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003838588
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003840013
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003841380
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003842029
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003842653
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003843726
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003844089
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003844089/r/4400000000017564493
Tags:
@SaphireStark @Missy Clara Oswald @CatsAndRoblox @Pervaza972 @Mega.mind.harry.potter
Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Lost Diadem
‘Neville—what the—how—?’ started Harry.
But Neville had spotted Theodore, Allison, and Tracey, and with yells of delight was hugging them too. The longer Harry looked at Neville, the worse he appeared: One of his eyes was swollen yellow and purple, there were gouge marks on his face, and his general air of unkemptness suggested that he had been living rough. Nevertheless, his battered visage shone with happiness as he let go of Theodore and said again, ‘I knew you’d come! Kept telling Ginny it was a matter of time!’
‘Neville, what bloody happened to you?’ said Tracey as she pulled out her bottle of Murtlap Essence and started applying it to the deep cuts on his face.
‘What? This?’ Neville dismissed his injuries with a shake of the head, but still accepting Tracey’s help. ‘This is nothing, Seamus Finnigan is worse. You’ll see. Shall we get going then? Oh,’ he turned to Aberforth, ‘Ab, there might be a dozen more people on the way.’
‘Dozen more?’ repeated Aberforth ominously. ‘What d’you mean, a dozen more, Longbottom? There’s a curfew and a Caterwauling Charm on the whole village!’
‘I know, that’s why they’ll be Apparating directly into the bar,’ said Neville. ‘Just send them down the passage when they get here, will you? Thanks a lot.’
Neville held out his hand to Tracey and helped her climb up onto the mantelpiece and into the tunnel, Theodore and Allison followed, then Neville. Harry addressed Aberforth.
‘I don’t know how to thank you. You’ve saved our lives twice.’
‘Look after ’em, then,’ said Aberforth gruffly. ‘I might not be able to save ’em a third time.’
Harry clambered up onto the mantelpiece and through the hold behind Ariana’s portrait. There were smooth stone steps on the outside: It looked as though the passageway had been there for years. Brass lamps hung from the walls and the earthy floor was worn and smooth; as they walked, their shadows rippled, fanlike, across the wall.
‘How long has this passage been here?’ Theodore asked as they set off. ‘I don’t remember ever seeing it on Marauder’s Map, only the other seven.’
‘They sealed off all of those before the start of the year,’ said Neville. ‘There’s no chance of getting through any of them now, not with the curses over the entrances and Death Eaters and dementors waiting at the exits.’
He started walking backward, beaming, drinking them in.
‘Never mind that stuff…Is it true? Did you break into Gringotts? Did you escape on a dragon? It’s everywhere, everyone’s talking about it, Terry Boot got hit with a powerful Deterioration Hex by Amycus Carrow for yelling about it in the Great Hall at dinner, barely escaped being abducted!’
‘Is he ok?!’ asked Allison, Harry had nearly forgotten Terry was her second cousin.
‘He’s fine, he got away and Hannah healed him right up,’ Neville answered quickly. ‘Now, is it true?’
‘Yeah, it’s true,’ said Harry. Neville laughed gleefully. ‘What did you do with the dragon?’
‘Let it loose into nature,’ said Theodore. ‘Tracey was worried it couldn’t handle itself.’
‘That’s not true, I just was worried it would run into healthier dragons.’
‘But what have you been doing? People have been saying you’ve just been on the run, Harry, but I don’t think so. I think you’ve been up to something.’
‘You’re right,’ said Harry, ‘but tell us about Hogwarts, Neville, we’ve barely heard anything.’
‘It’s been…well, it’s not really like Hogwarts anymore,’ said Neville, the smile fading from his face as he spoke. ‘Do you know about the Carrows?’
‘Hestia and Flora’s Death Eater mum and uncle who teach here?’
‘They do more than teach,’ said Neville. ‘They’re in charge of all discipline. They like punishment, the Carrows.’
‘Like Umbridge?’
‘Nah, they make her look tame. The other teachers are all supposed to refer us to the Carrows if we do anything wrong. They don’t, though, if they can avoid it. You can tell they all hate them as much as we do. Amycus, the bloke, he teaches what used to be Defense Against the Dark Arts, except now it’s just Dark Arts. We’re supposed to practice the Cruciatus Curse on people who’ve earned detentions—‘
‘What?’ Harry, Theodore, Allison, and Tracey’s united voices echoed up and down the passage.
‘Yeah,’ said Neville. ‘That’s how I got this one,' he pointed at the deep gash in his cheek that Tracey was only able to partially heal, ‘I refused to do it. Some people are into it, though; Crabbe and Goyle love it. First time they’ve ever been top in anything, I expect. Alecto, Amycus’ sister, teaches Muggle Studies, which is compulsory for everyone now. We’ve all got to listen to her explain how Muggles are like animals, stupid and dirty, and how they drove wizards into hiding by being vicious toward them, and how the natural order is being re-established. I got this one,’ he indicated to the other slash on his face, ‘for asking how much Muggle blood she and her brother have got on their hands.’
‘Neville, I love the attitude,’ said Tracey, ‘but you’re going to get yourself killed saying like that.’
‘You didn’t hear her,’ said Neville. ‘You wouldn’t have stood it either. The thing is, it helps when people stand up to them, it gives everyone hope. I used to notice that when you did it, Harry.’
‘But you look like my cat’s scratching post!’ said Allison, wincing slightly as they passed a lamp and Neville’s injuries were thrown into even greater relief.
‘Doesn’t matter. They don’t want to spill too much pure blood, so they’ll torture us a bit if we’re mouthy but they won’t actually kill us.’
Harry did not know what was worse, the things that Neville was saying or the matter-of-fact tone in which he said them.
‘The only people in real danger are the ones whose friends and relatives on the outside are giving trouble. They get taken hostage. Old Xeno Lovegood was getting a bit too outspoken in The Quibbler, so they dragged Luna off the train on the way back for Christmas.’
‘Neville, she’s all right, we’ve seen her—‘
‘Yeah, I know, she managed to met a message to me.’
From his pocket he pulled out what at first glance looked like an old piece of scrap paper, and Harry recognized it as one of the bewitched pages that Dumbledore’s Army had used to send one another messages.
‘These have been great,’ said Neville, beaming at Theodore. ‘The Carrows never figured out how we were communicating, it drove them mad. We used to sneak out at night and put graffiti on the walls: “Dumbledore’s Army, Still Recruiting”, stuff like that. Snape hated it.’
‘You used to?’ said Harry, who had noticed the past tense.
‘Well, it got more difficult as time went on. We lost Luna at Christmas, and during Easter Death Eaters raided the different Boot homes in Hogsmeade and tried to get Terry here as well—again they are all ok,’ Neville added when he saw Allison’s horrified look. ‘They got a last minute warning and fled the village and we got a similar message for Terry and hid him in the castle, but that meant he couldn’t help out any more. Anyway without Luna things started getting a little difficult as she, myself, Ginny, Susan, and Ella, we all have become sort of leaders, and when one of us were taken it really made us hesitate. The Carrows seemed to know that I was behind a lot of it, so they started coming down on me hard, and then Michael Corner went and got caught releasing a first-year they’d chained up, and they tortured him pretty badly. That scared people off.’
‘I can imagine,’ said Theodore, as the passage began to slope upward.
‘Yeah, well, I couldn’t ask people to go through what Michael did, so we dropped those kinds of stunts. But we were still fighting, doing underground stuff, right up until a couple of weeks ago. That’s when they decided there was only one way to stop me, I suppose, and they went for Gran.’
‘They what?’ said the four friends together.
‘Yeah,’ said Neville, panting a little now, because the passage was climbing so steeply, ‘well, you can see their thinking. It had worked really well, kidnapping kids to force their relatives to behave, I s’pose it was only a matter of time before they did it the other way around. Thing was,’ he faced them, and Harry was astonished to see that he was grinning, ‘they bit off a bit more than they could chew with Gran. Little old widowed witch living along, they probably thought they didn’t need to send anyone particularly powerful. Anyway,’ Neville laughed, ‘Dawlish is still in St. Mungo’s and Gran’s on the run. She sent me a letter’ he clapped a hand to the breast pocket of his robes, ‘telling me she was proud of me, that I’m my parents’ son, and to keep it up.’
‘Good on her,’ said Harry, ‘and I’m glad that corrupt auror finally got what he deserved!’
‘Yeah,’ said Neville happily. ‘Only thing was, once they realized they had no hold over me, they decided Hogwarts could do without me after all. I don’t know whether they were planning to kill me or send me to Azkaban, either way, I knew it was time to join Terry and disappear.’
‘I’m a bit confused,’ said Allison, ‘aren’t we heading for Hogwarts?’
‘Course,’ said Neville. ‘You’ll see. We’re here.’
They turned a corner and there ahead of them was the end of the passage. Another short flight of steps led to a door just like the one hidden behind Ariana’s portrait. Neville pushed it open and climbed through. As Harry followed, he heard Neville call out to unseen people:
‘Look who it is! Didn’t I tell you?’
As Harry emerged into the room beyond the passage, there were several screams and yells:
‘HARRY!’
‘It’s Potter, it’s POTTER!’
‘Alli!’
‘Tracey!’
‘Theodore!’
He had a confused impression of coloured hangings, of lamps and many faces. The next moment, he, Tracey, Allison, and Theodore were engulfed, hugged, pounded on the back, their hair ruffled, their hands shaken, by what seemed to be more than forty people: They might just have won a Quidditch final.
‘Okay, okay, calm down!’ Neville called, and as the crowd backed away, Harry was able to take in their surroundings.
He did not recognize the room at all. It was enormous, and rather looked like the interior of a particularly sumptuous tree house, or perhaps a gigantic ship’s cabin. Multicoloured hammocks were strung from the ceiling and from a balcony that ran around the dark wood-paneled and windowless walls, which were covered in bright tapestry hangings: Harry saw the gold Gryffindor lion, emblazoned on scarlet; the black badger of Hufflepuff, set against yellow; and the bronze eagle of Ravenclaw, on blue; and what warmed his heart was to see that the silver and green of Slytherin was present too. There were bulging bookcases, a few broomsticks propped against the walls, a painting of an old woman, and in the corner, a large wooden-cased wireless.
‘Where are we?’
‘Room of Requirement, of course!’ said Neville. ‘Surpassed itself, hasn’t it? The Carrow siblings were chasing me, and I knew I had just one chance for a hideout: I managed to get through the door and this is what I found! Well, it wasn’t exactly like this when I arrived, it was a lot smaller, there was only one hammock and just Gryffindor hangings, but it’s expanded as more and more of the D.A. have arrived.’
'And the Carrows can’t get in?' asked Harry, looking around for the door.
‘Some can,’ said the monotone voice of Hestia Carrow, she stood next to her sister. Harry was glad to see that his impression of the twins being gloomy but good-hearted had been correct.
‘But for our mother and uncle Amycus, that’s another story,’ finished Flora.
‘It’s a proper hideout, as long as one of us stays in here, they can’t get at us, the door won’t open,’ said Gryffindor Seamus Finnigan, who like the twins must have been a new recruit to Dumbledore’s army. ‘It’s all down to Neville. He really gets this room. You’ve got to ask it for exactly what you need—like, “I don’t want any Death Eater supporters to be able to get in—and it’ll do it for you! You’ve just got to make sure you close the loopholes! Neville’s the man!’
‘It’s quite straightforward, really,’ said Neville modestly. ‘I’d been in here about a day and a half, and getting really hungry, and wishing I could get something to eat, and that’s when the passage to Hog’s Head opened up. I went through it and met Aberforth. He’s been providing us with food, because for some reason, that’s the one thing the room doesn’t really do.’
‘Makes sense, food is one of the five exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration,’ said Allison casually, Terry Boot’s jaw dropped in astonishment.
‘Slowly we’ve all been gathering and hiding in here over the last two weeks,’ said Susan Bones, who Harry was happy to see was ok.
‘This place even sprouted a pretty good bathroom once girls started turning up—‘ started Seamus.
‘—and thought they’d quite like to wash, yes,’ supplied Lavender Brown, whom Harry had not noticed until that point. Now that he looked around properly, he recognized many familiar faces. Ron and Ginny Weasley, both Patil twins were there, as were Ernie Macmillan, Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, Graham Romsey, Laura Madley, Daphne Greengrass, Niall Urquhart, Ella Wilkins, and to his very pleasant surprise Millicent Bulstrode.
‘It was also the best place to stash Professor Derwent,’ said Ginny, gesturing to the portrait of the old woman. ‘She’s how Potterwatch has been getting inside information about Hogwarts. We had Neville, Luna, Susan, and Ella pretend to steal the Sword of Gryffindor to distract Snape, while Ron and I were under a Bedazzling Hex stealing her from his office.’
‘She has another portrait of herself in St. Mungo’s, and after she promised to be loyal to Dumbledore’s Army we had her give our message to Chiara Lobosca who in turn snuck her out,’ said Ron, continuing his sister’s story. ‘Chiara gave Derwent to Professor Lupin, she relays news back and forth between her portraits, and the rest is history.’
Harry had to admit he was impressed, but before he could say so more questions came.
‘So tell us what you’ve been up to, though,’ Ernie asked Harry. ‘There’ve been so many rumours, we’ve been trying to keep up with you on Potterwatch,’ He pointed at the wireless. ‘You didn’t break into Gringotts?’
‘They did!’ said Neville, ‘and the dragon’s true too!’
There was a smattering of applause and a few whoops; Theodore took a bow.
‘What did you steal?’ asked Ginny eagerly.
Before any of them could parry the question with one of their own, Harry felt a terrible, scorching pain in the lightning scar. As he turned his back hastily on the curious and delighted faces, the Room of Requirement vanished, and he was standing inside some shack, and the rotting floorboards were ripped apart at his feet, a disinterred golden box lay open and empty beside the hole, and Voldemort’s scream of fury vibrated inside his head.
With an enormous effort he pulled out of Voldemort’s mind again, back to where he stood, swaying, in the Room of Requirement, sweat pouring from his face and Allison and Theodore holding him up.
‘Are you all right, Harry?’ Neville was saying. ‘Want to sit down? I expect you’re tired, aren’t—?’
‘No,’ said Harry. He looked at his three closets friends, trying to tell them without words that Voldemort has just discovered the loss of one of the other Horcruxes. Time was running out fast: If Voldemort chose to visit Hogwarts next, they would miss their chance.
‘We need to get going,’ he said, and their expression told him that they understood.
‘Where are we going Captain?’ asked Scarlett Lympsham. ‘What is your plan?’
‘Plan?’ repeated Harry. He was exercising all his willpower to prevent himself succumbing again to Voldemort’s rage: His scar was still burning. ‘Well, there’s something we—Theodore, Allison, Tracey, and I—need to do, and then we’ll need to get out of here.’
Nobody was laughing or whooping anymore. Neville looked confused.
‘What d’you mean, “get out of here”?’
‘We haven’t come back to stay,’ said Harry, rubbing his scar, trying to soothe the pain. ‘There’s something important we need to do—‘
‘What is it?’
‘I—I can’t tell you.’
There was a ripple of muttering at this: Neville’s brows contracted.
‘Why can’t you tell us?’ said Ella Wilkins, she sounded upset. ‘It’s something to do with fighting You-Know-Who, right?’
‘Well, yeah—‘
‘Then we’ll help you,’ insisted Neville.
The other members of Dumbledore’s Army were nodding, some enthusiastically, others solemnly. A couple of them rose from their chairs to demonstrate their willingness for immediate action.
‘You don’t understand,’ Harry seemed to have said that a lot in the last few hours. ‘We—we can’t tell you. We’ve got to do it—alone.’
‘Why?’ asked Ron.
‘Because…’ In his desperation to start looking for the missing Horcrux, or at least to have a private discussion with his gang of friends about where they might commence their search, Harry found it difficult to gather his thoughts and come up with a decent excuse; His scar was still searing. ‘Dumbledore left the four of us a job,’ he said carefully, ‘and we weren’t supposed to tell—I mean, he wanted us to do it, just the four of us.’
‘We’re his army,’ said Neville. ‘Dumbledore’s Army. We were all in it together, we’ve been keeping it going while you four have been off on your own—‘
‘We weren’t exactly on vacation, guys,’ said Tracey.
‘I never said you were, but I don’t see why you can’t trust us. Everyone in this room’s been fighting and they’ve been driven in here because the Carrow siblings were hunting them down, even their own kin. Everyone in here’s proven they’re loyal to Dumbledore—loyal to you.’
‘Look,’ Harry began, without knowing what he was going to say, but it did not matter: the tunnel door had just opened behind him.
‘We got your message, Neville! Hello, you four, I thought you must be here!’
It was Luna and Dean. Seamus gave a great roar of delight and ran to hug Dean.
‘Hi, everyone!’ said Luna happily. ‘Oh, it’s great to be back!’
‘Luna,’ said Harry distractingly, ‘what are you doing here? How did you—?’
‘I sent for her,’ said Neville, holding up the messaging paper. ‘I promised her and others that if you turned up I’d let them know. We all thought that if you came back, it would mean revolution. That we were going to overthrow Snape, the Carrows, make Hogwarts safe again and give it back to Headmistress McGonagall.’
‘Of course that’s what it means,’ said Luna brightly, ‘Isn’t it, Harry? We’re going to fight them out of Hogwarts?’
‘Listen,’ said Harry with a rising sense of panic, ‘I’m sorry, but that’s not what we came back for. There’s something we’ve got to do, and then—‘
‘You’re going to leave us in this mess?’ demanded Michael Corner.
‘It’s not like that,’ rebuttaled Allison. ‘What we have to do tonight, it’s going to drastically help put a stop to this war, it’ll help end You-Know-Who for good—‘
‘Then let us help!’ said Neville angrily. ‘We want to be a part of it!’
There was another noise behind them, and Harry turned. He was now face to face with Fred, George, their best friend Lee Jordan, and—‘
‘COLIN!’ Theodore almost knocked over his mousy-brown haired boyfriend as he wrapped him in a hug.
‘I missed you so dearly!’ said Colin as he planted a thousand kisses on Theodore’s face.
‘And I you, I listened to you on Potterwatch every chance I got, I am so proud of you!’ exclaimed Theodore ecstatically. ‘But how are you here, your birthday isn’t for another couple weeks? You can’t be Apparated without setting off your Trace!’
‘I was told it’s all going down tonight, so I thought, let the Trace be damned!’
But that’s when Theodore’s face fell, as did Harry’s. As happy as the four of them were to see their friends and allies return to Hogwarts, it would be in vane, as they didn’t plan on assisting their liberation at this time.
‘Aberforth’s getting a bit annoyed,’ said Fred, raising his hand in answer to several cries of greeting. ‘He wants a kip, and his bar’s turned into an undesirable underground railway.’
Harry’s mouth fell open. Right behind Colin Creevey came Harry’s old girlfriend, Cho Chang, as well as his friend Hermione Granger. Cho smiled at him.
‘I got the message,’ she said, holding up her enchanted paper, and she walked over to sit beside Padma Patil while Hermione went to Ron.
‘So what’s the plan, Harry?’ said George.
‘There isn’t one,’ said Harry, still disoriented by the sudden appearance of all these people, unable to take everything in while his scar was still burning so fiercely.
‘Just going to make it up as we go along, are we? My favorite kind,’ said Fred.
‘You’ve got to stop this!’ Harry told Neville. ‘What did you call them all back for? This is insane—‘
‘We’re fighting aren’t we?’ said Dean, taking out his page. ‘The message said Harry was back, and we were going to fight! I’ll have to get a wand, though—‘
‘You haven’t got a wand—?’ began Seamus.
Allison suddenly turned to Harry.
‘Harry, I think they can actually help!’
‘What?’
‘There is no true reason they can’t help,’ she dropped her voice and said, so that none of them could hear but Tracey and Theodore, who had come back to their sides, ‘We don’t know what or where it is, We have to find it fast. Many minds and hands make quick work. They don’t have to know it’s a Horcrux.’
Harry looked from her to his other two friends, who murmured, ‘I think she’s right. We at the very least need some Ravenclaws.’ And when Harry looked unconvinced, Tracey added, ‘Dumbledore himself didn’t want you doing everything on your own, Harry.’
Harry thought fast, his scar still prickling, his head threatening to split again. Dumbledore had warned against telling anyone but the three about the Horcruxes. “Secrets and lies, that’s how we grew up, and Albus”...he was a natural...”Was he turning into Dumbledore, keeping his secrets clutched to his chest, afraid to trust?” But then he remembered that Voldemort was against trust, and Harry knew in that moment he had to do the opposite.
‘All right,’ he said quietly to the other three.
‘Okay,’ he called to the room at large, and all noise ceased: Fred and George, who had been cracking jokes for the benefit of those nearest, fell silent, and all of them looked alert, excited.
‘There’s something we need to find,’ Harry said. ‘Something—something that’ll help us overthrow You-Know-Who. It’s here at Hogwarts, but we don’t know where. It might have belonged to Ravenclaw. Has anyone heard of an object like that? Has anyone ever come across something with her eagle on it, for instance?’
He looked hopefully toward the little group of Ravenclaws, to Padma, Michael, Terry, Anthony, and Cho, but it was Luna who answered, perched on the arm of Ginny’s chair.
‘Well, that’s her lost diadem. I told you about it, remember, Harry? The lost diadem of Ravenclaw? Daddy’s trying to duplicate it.’
‘Yeah, but the lost diadem,’ said Michael Corner as he walked over to Ginny’s other side, ‘is lost, Luna. That’s sort of the point.’
‘When was it lost?’ asked Harry.
'Centuries ago, they say, not long after the founder’s time,’ said Cho, and Harry’s heart sank. ‘Professor Flitwick says the diadem vanished with Ravenclaw herself. People have looked, but,’ she appealed to her fellow Ravenclaws, ‘nobody’s ever found a trace of it, have they?’
They all shook their heads.
‘Sorry, but what exactly is a diadem?’ asked Allison to the group.
‘It’s a kind of crown, Alli,’ said Terry Boot answering his cousin. ‘Ravenclaw’s was supposed to have magical properties, enhance the wisdom of the wearer.’
‘Yes, Daddy’s Wrackspurt siphons—‘
But Harry cut across Luna.
‘And none of you have ever seen anything that looks like it?’ They all shook their heads again. Harry looked at Tracey, Allison, and Theodore and his own disappointment was mirrored back at him. An object that had been lost this long, and apparently without trace, did not seem like a good candidate for the Horcrux hidden in the castle…Before he could formulate a new question, however, Cho spoke again.
‘If you’d like to see what the diadem’s supposed to look like, I could take you up to our common room and show you, Harry. Ravenclaw’s wearing it in her statue.’
Harry’s scar scorched again: For a moment the Room of Requirement swam before him, and he saw instead the dark earth soaring beneath him and felt the great snake wrapped around his shoulders. Voldemort was flying again, whether to the underground lake or here, to the castle, he did not know; Either way, there was hardly any time left.
‘He’s on the move,’ he said quietly to his three friends. He glanced at Cho and then back at them. ‘Listen, I know it’s not much of a lead, but I’m going to go and look at this statue, at least find out what the diadem looks like. Wait for me here and keep, you know—the other one—safe.’
Cho had got to her feet, but Allison said rather intensely, ‘No, Luna is the one who knows the most about the diadem, she should take you Harry. Right Luna?’
‘Oooh, yes, I’d like to,’ said Luna happily, and Cho sat down again, looking disappointed.
‘How do we get out?’ Harry asked Neville.
‘Over here.’
He lead Harry and Luna into a corner, where a small cupboard opened onto a staircase.
‘It comes out somewhere different every day, so they’ve never been able to find it,’ he said. ‘Only trouble is, we never know exactly where we’re going to end up when we go out. Be careful, Harry, they’re always patrolling the corridors at night.’
‘No problem,’ said Harry. ‘See you in a bit.’
He and Luna hurried up the staircase, which was long, lit by torches, and turned corners in unexpected places. At last they reached what appeared to be solid wall.
‘Get under here,’ Harry told Luna, pulling out the Invisibility Cloak and throwing it over both of them. He gave the wall a little push.
It melted away at his touch and they slipped outside: Harry glanced back and saw that it had resealed itself at once. They were standing in a dark corridor: Harry pulled Luna back into the shadows, fumbled in the pouch around his neck, and took out the Marauder’s Map. Holding it close to his nose he search, and located his and Luna’s dots at last.
‘We’re up on the fifth floor,’ he whispered, watching Filch moving away from them, a corridor ahead. ‘Come on, this way.’
They crept off.
Harry had prowled the castle at night many times before, but never has his heart hammered this fast, never had so much depended oh his safe passage through the place. Through squares of moonlight upon the floor, past suits of armor whose helmets creaked at the sound of their soft footsteps, around corners beyond which who knew what lurked, Harry and Luna walked, checking the Marauder’s Map whenever light permitted, twice pausing to allow a ghost to pass without drawing attention to themselves. He expected to encounter an obstacle at any moment; his worst fear was Peeves, and he strained his ears with every step to hear the first, telltale signs of the poltergeist’s approach.
‘This way, Harry,’ breathed Luna, plucking his sleeve and pulling him toward a spiral staircase.
They climbed in tight, dizzying circles; Harry had never been up here before. At last they reached a door. There was no handle and no keyhole: nothing but a plain expanse of aged wood, and a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle.
Luna reached out a pale hand, which looked eerie floating in midair, unconnected to arm or body. She knocked once, and in the silence, it sounded to Harry like a cannon blast. At once the beak of the eagle opened, but instead of a bird’s call, a soft musical voice said, ‘Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?’
‘Hmm…What do you think, Harry?’ said Luna, looking thoughtful.
‘What? Isn’t there just a password?’
‘Oh no, you’ve got to answer a question,’ said Luna.
‘What if you get it wrong?’
‘Well, you have to wait for somebody who gets it right,’ said Luna. ‘That way you learn, you see?’
‘Yeah…Trouble is, we can’t really afford to wait for anyone else, Luna.’
‘No, I see what you mean,’ said Luna seriously. ‘Well then, I think the answer is that a circle has no beginning.’
‘Well reasoned,’ said the voice, and the door swung open. The deserted Ravenclaw common room was a wide, circular room, airier than any Harry had ever seen at Hogwarts. Graceful etched windows punctuated the walls, which were hung with blue-and-bronze silks; By day, the Ravenclaws would have a spectacular view of the surrounding mountains. The ceiling was domed and painted with stars, which were echoed in the midnight-blue carpet. There were tables, chairs, and bookcases, and in a niche opposite the door stood a tall statue of white marble.
Harry recognized Rowena Ravenclaw from the bust he had seen at Luna’s house. The statue stood beside a door that led, he guessed, to dormitories above. He strode right up to the marble woman, and she seemed to look back at him with a quizzical half smile on her face, beautiful yet slightly intimidating. A delicate-looking circlet had been reproduced in marble on top of her head. It was not unlike the tiara Fleur had worn at her wedding. It almost seemed familiar to Harry but he couldn’t place from where. There were tiny words etched into it. Harry stepped out from under the Cloak and climbed up onto Ravenclaw’s plinth to read them.
‘“Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.”’
‘Which makes you pretty skint, witless,’ said a cackling voice. Harry whirled around, slipped off the plinth, and landed on the floor. The sloping-shouldered figure of Alecto Carrow was standing before him, and even as Harry raised his wand, she pressed a stubby forefinger to the skull and snake branded on her forearm.
