Chapter Six: When Harish is Gone…
"Harish," both twins said, walking into the study. "I thought we were going to be working—"
"—on the ritual to find Jugson today."
"We are," Harish replied, not looking up at them. He was sitting at the desk by the window, writing on a piece of parchment.
There was silence for a second.
"Okay," Fred said slowly, breaking the silence. "When?"
"Hmm?" Harish asked.
"When?" George repeated. "What are you even doing?"
"Writing a letter," Harish said. He scratched out a few more words and then signed the bottom with a flourish. "I need someone to head up DA now that I'm gone, so I'd figure I would send a letter to Dean, telling him to take my place and send him a galleon that controls the others."
"Ah," both twins replied in understanding.
Harish attached the letter to the leg of an owl they had gotten for the joke shop and sent it off. Then, he led the twins down the stairs to the bare room that was in between the joke shop and their flat. The young man then walked up to the wall opposite and waved his wand in front of it. A coin slot appeared, into which Harish slipped his fake galleon. The wall disappeared and his coin whipped back into his hand.
He then led the twins in the room beyond that.
It was dark, lit only by two torches, and almost completely empty. There were a few tables, a cauldron or two, and a board to which Harish had posted everything he knew about his mission: this included information on Quirrel, on Jugson, and anything else linked to the mysterious woman that continuously tried to get the upper hand on his father.
On a table that was against the far wall was an enormous book. Neither twin knew where Harish had gotten the book, but they decided it was best not to ask. Harish led them over to it and heaved the book open with a grunt. Then, he flipped to the desired page and bent over to see what he could make out of the small words in the dimly lit room.
"This here says that the ritual has to be done on the Winter Solstice," George said, following the line of words with his finger.
"This looks complicated," Fred commented. "A potion…a long Gaelic incantation…"
"It should be," Harish replied. "This is supposed to be the most accurate ritual for finding someone's exact location."
"It has to sit in the moonlight for exactly three hours," Fred continued. "…and look at the ingredients! Draught of lunar poison? Where are we going to get that?"
"Most likely an apothecary in Knockturn Alley," Harish replied.
They were silent, and then Harish clapped his hands together.
"Well," he said. "Let's get cracking! We need to make a list of these ingredients and I need the two of you to go and find them for us."
The twins groaned and set to work.
LINE-BREAK
After his last class of the day, Draco slipped away and made his way to the Room of Requirement. Earlier that day he had heard Montague talking about when he had been shoved into the Vanishing Cabinet—which was now being stored in the Room of Forgotten Things.
Draco paced back and forth, repeating "I need to see the place where everything's hidden," over and over again. He came to a halt as a door materialized beside him. Then, he pulled on the handle and entered the room.
Instantly, the teen stopped in awe. He was standing in a room the size of a large cathedral, whose high windows were sending shafts of light down upon what looked like a city with towering walls, built of what Draco knew must be objects hidden by generations of Hogwarts inhabitants. There were alleyways and roads bordered by teetering piles of broken and damaged furniture, stowed away, perhaps, to hide the evidence of mishandled magic, or else hidden by castle-proud house elves. There were thousands and thousands of books, no doubt banned or graffitied or stolen. There were winged catapults and Fanged Frisbees, some still with enough life in them to hover half-heartedly over the mountains of other forbidden items; there were chipped bottles of congealed potions, hats, jewels, cloaks; there were what looked like dragon eggshells, corked bottles whose contents still shimmered sinisterly, several rusting swords, and a heavy, bloodstained axe.
Draco slowly walked forward into one of the many alleyways between all this hidden treasure. He turned right past an enormous stuffed troll, walked a short distance further, and luckily ran straight into the broken Vanishing Cabinet.
Now Vanishing Cabinets were powered by runes. Each Vanishing Cabinet had three rune clusters, each located in a different spot on the cabinet. Draco knew this, of course. He had interrogated Montague to find out what happened when he had been stuck in the Vanishing Cabinet the previous year. Through this interrogation he had learned that the one in Hogwarts connected directly to one in Borgin and Burkes. After Draco had learned this, he went and read up on Vanishing Cabinets.
Draco spent the next few minutes trying to find the three rune clusters. He only found two, however. One of the two was also so complicated and small that he knew he had no hope of doing the entire task by himself.
"I need Hermione," he muttered.
Draco, of course, could not get Hermione straight away for the first DA meeting of that year was scheduled to start in less than half an hour. He packed up his things and quickly made his way back to the entrance of the room. He stepped outside the room and watched as the door disappeared. Then, he summoned the room they used for DA and went inside to wait.
Ten minutes later, other people began to arrive.
Dean was one of the first to show up. He and Draco merely nodded at each other before Draco resumed reading a book on Runes and Dean paced slowly in front of the door. Then, the rest of the members of DA trickled through the door in large groups—now that Umbridge was gone, there was not an urgent need for a lot of secrecy (though they preferred that no one be told about it still).
Once they were all there, and sitting on cushions on the floor, all of the students looked around, not quite sure who they were supposed to be looking to for direction. Dean then stood up and cleared his throat.
"So I'm going to be in charge for the next two years," he told them. "I suppose we'll start by talking about our plans for this year."
Hermione raised her hand.
"Yes, Hermione?" he asked.
"I think we should recruit more members," Hermione suggested.
Dean nodded.
"Especially since a good number left Hogwarts last year," Dean agreed.
"And we should focus on more complex spells," Draco added. "We could all figure them out together."
The others murmured their assent.
"So it's decided then," Dean said. "I will make some plans and contact you using the coins as to when our next meeting is."
And with that they began to catch up, while others left. Draco rushed after Hermione when he saw her leave with Daphne and Ginny.
"Hermione!" he called.
"Yes?"
"How good are you with Runes?"
LINE-BREAK
Harish stood across from his father, his wand held aloft.
"Well?" Voldemort said. "Give me your best."
Harish hesitated, not really wanting to attack his father, but finally sent out a Stunning Spell, deciding to start low. Voldemort flicked the spell with apparent ease. Jostled into action, Harish increased intensity of his spells, sending out an assortment of cutting curses, jelly-legs jinxes, and stunning spells all at once. Still, Voldemort still managed to deflect all his spells.
Then, suddenly Voldemort disappeared and Harish felt something poke into his back. He turned to see his father standing behind him with his wand in his back.
"And you would be dead," the Dark Lord announced with a smug smile.
"Could you teach me how to do that Apparating thing?" Harish asked eagerly.
"I suppose I could…" Voldemort replied with a mock sigh.