𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐑 ❧ sirius black

XII - Sugar, Fire, and Wet Dog

After being given the next clue written in the neatest handwriting of all, Hermione pretended to think after reading it for a second time. Yes, Hermione was smart. She knew that the clue led to the Room of Requirement before Alice could lift a finger. What else could "three paces left, three paces right," lead to?

However, this was Harper, not Hermione. Harper didn't have a year a familiarity about this particularly secret room under her belt.

"This one's tricky," spoke Frank as Hermione continued to read the parchment over and over, her eyes only brushing across the poem.

But, to Harper's benefit, she had already encountered the room earlier in the week. When the library was full and Hermione was looking for a place to study, she repeated the steps that she took the year prior, and the room presented itself to her. Hermione, of course, shared this with her new group of friends, acting as clueless as any new student would have. And before she knew it, the room of requirement became a regular study spot to Hermione when she needed a true sense of peace and quiet (these 1977 students surely didn't keep the library as quiet as Hermione was used to).

Pretending to be confused, Hermione stalled for a moment before saying, "I think I know where this one leads," to both Frank and Alice. Within moments, Hermione ditched her roommate and her boyfriend at the lake, knowing without a doubt that she needed to go to the Room of Requirement for the next clue and task.

The morning had gone by quite quickly for Hermione. Running from clue to clue, she pictured that this sort of scavenger hunt would come to a close before supper-time, if she were to make good time. However, Hermione began to focus more on the fact that her character had only been present at the school for less than two weeks. Rushing through the hunt would only draw suspicion, which is the last thing that Hermione could take at the moment.

With the afternoon rising, Hermione thought it no better time than to sit down for a meal. If she needed to stall, might as well get some of the Hogwarts kitchen's finest out of it. And for nearly a half-hour she munched on whatever the Gryffindor table had to offer, eating back what she didn't have time for this morning.

By the time she finally walked Hogwart's long corridors and climbed the moving staircases to the seventh floor, it was over an hour past noon. Chances are whoever was waiting for her behind that hidden door had a feeling this particularly hard clue had taken significantly more time to Harper to break down.

And after he had waited for what felt like forever, Peter, the man behind the door, took a sign of relief when Harper sneaked through the door that she finally made appear.

"Oh, good, you're here," Peter spoke, rather enthusiastic for someone who had been sitting in an empty room for a few hours at minimum.

"Took me long enough," Hermione laughed back.

Stepping back into the room that she had spent so much time on last year brought back memories to Hermione. But it wasn't the same, she knew that. And that realization made it harder for her to be sane in this time.

Peter stood in the same place she had when she dueled Ron for the first time. The same place where Harry taught her how to spawn her patronus, and where she and Ginny were taught what Umbridge wouldn't teach them. Oh how she missed them.

Instead, now, that rat took their place. His quivering smile made Hermione sick, only on the inside of course. Harper knew nothing of the sort. To her, Peter was normal. For now.

"How was the lake?" he asked.

"I'm a little tired now, but it's nothing I can't handle," she chuckled back, which Peter stuck his hands in his pocket.