Kreacher bowed again, looking furious, and then said, "Master Malfoy eats in the Great Hall, he sleeps in a dormitory in the dungeons, he attends his classes in a variety of--"
"Dobby, you tell me," said Harry, cutting across Kreacher. "Has he been going anywhere he shouldn't have?"
"Harry Potter, sir," squeaked Dobby, his great orblike eyes shining in the firelight, "the Malfoy boy is breaking no rules that Dobby can discover, but he is still keen to avoid detection. He has been making regular visits to the seventh floor with a variety of other students, who keep watch for him while he enters--"
"The Room of Requirement!" said Harry, smacking himself hard on the forehead with Advanced Potion-Making. "That's where he's been sneaking off to! That's where he's doing... whatever he's doing! And I bet that's why he's been disappearing off the map--come to think of it, I've never seen the Room of Requirement on there!"
"Maybe the Marauders never knew the room was there," said Ron.
"I think it'll be part of the magic of the room," said Hermione. "If you need it to be unplottable, it will be."
"Dobby, have you managed to get in to have a look at what Malfoy's doing?" said Harry eagerly.
"No, Harry Potter, that is impossible," said Dobby.
"No, it's not," said Harry at once. "Malfoy got into our headquarters there last year, so I'll be able to get in and spy on him, no problem."
"But I don't think you will, Harry," said Hermione slowly.
"Malfoy already knew exactly how we were using the room, didn't he, because that stupid Marietta had blabbed," Jason nodded. "He needed the room to become the headquarters of the D.A., so it did. But you don't know what the room becomes when Malfoy goes in there, so you don't know what to ask it to transform into."
"There'll be a way around that," said Harry dismissively. "You've done brilliantly, Dobby."
"Kreacher's done well too," said Hermione kindly; but far from looking grateful, Kreacher averted his huge, bloodshot eyes and croaked at the ceiling, "The Mudblood is speaking to Kreacher, Kreacher will pretend he cannot hear --"
"Snap out of it, Kreacher!" I said angrily. "She was just complimenting you!"
Kreacher bowed low.
"Alright, fine you've done well," I said, looking back to my essay. "Go get some sleep."
"You'd better go and get some sleep too, Dobby," Harry said.
"Thank you, Harry Potter, sir!" squeaked Dobby happily, and they vanished.
"How good is this?" said Harry enthusiastically, turning to us the moment the room was elf-free again. "We know where Malfoy's going! We've got him cornered now!"
"Yeah, it's great," said Ron glumly, who was attempting to mop up the sodden mass of ink that had recently been an almost completed essay. Hermione pulled it toward her and began siphoning the ink off with her wand.
"But what's all this about him going up there with a 'variety of students'?" said Hermione. "How many people are in on it? You wouldn't think he'd trust lots of them to know what he's doing..."
"Yeah, that is weird," said Harry, frowning. "I heard him telling Crabbe it wasn't Crabbe's business what he was doing... so what's he telling all these... all these..."
Harry's voice tailed away; he was staring at the fire. "God, I've been stupid," he said quietly. "It's obvious, isn't it? There was a great vat of it down in the dungeon... he could've nicked some any time during that lesson..."
"Nicked what?" said Ron.
"Polyjuice Potion. He stole some of the Polyjuice Potion Slughorn showed us in our first Potions lesson... There aren't a whole variety of students standing guard for Malfoy... it's just Crabbe and Goyle as usual.... yeah, it all fits!" said Harry, jumping up and starting to pace in front of the fire. "They're stupid enough to do what they're told even if he won't tell them what he's up to... but he doesn't want them to be seen lurking around outside the Room of Requirement, so he's got them taking Polyjuice to make them look like other people... those two girls I saw him with when he missed Quidditch--ha! Crabbe and Goyle!"
"Do you mean to say," said Hermione in a hushed voice, "that that little girl whose scales I repaired --?"
"Yeah, of course!" said Harry loudly, staring at her. "Of course! Malfoy must've been inside the room at the time, so she--what am I talking about?--he dropped the scales to tell Malfoy not to come out, because there was someone there! And there was that girl who dropped the toadspawn too! We've been walking past him all the time and not realizing it!"
"He's got Crabbe and Goyle transforming into girls?" guffawed Ron. "Blimey... no wonder they don't look too happy these days. I'm surprised they don't tell him to stuff it..."
"Well, they wouldn't, would they, if he's shown them his Dark Mark?" said Harry.
"Hmmm... the Dark Mark we don't know exists," said Hermione skeptically, rolling up Ron's dried essay before it could come to any more harm and handing it to him.
"We'll see," said Harry confidently.
"Yes, we will," Hermione said, getting to her feet and stretching. "But, Harry, before you get all excited, I still don't think you'll be able to get into the Room of Requirement without knowing what's there first. And I don't think you should forget," she heaved her bag onto her shoulder and gave him a very serious look, "that what you're supposed to be concentrating on is getting that memory from Slughorn. Goodnight."
Harry watched her go, feeling slightly disgruntled. Once the door to the girls' dormitories had closed behind her he rounded on Ron.
"What d'you think?"
"Wish I could Disapparate like a house-elf," said Ron, staring at the spot where Dobby had vanished. "I'd have that Apparition Test in the bag."
"She's sort of right, though," Jason shrugged. "Slughorn should be top priority."
"Maybe there's a potion for making people talk," Harry turned to me.
"Maybe," I nodded, "but even if it did exist, it'll take months to prepare and it'll be too late. You have to persuade him. There's only so much you can do."
***
Harry was in a state of great anticipation over breakfast the following morning; he had a free period before Defense Against the Dark Arts and was determined to spend it trying to get into the Room of Requirement.
"Look," he said quietly, leaning forward and putting a hand on the Daily Prophet, which Hermione had just removed from a post owl, to stop her from opening it and vanishing behind it. "I haven't forgotten about Slughorn, but I haven't got a clue how to get that memory off him, and until I get a brain wave why shouldn't I find out what Malfoy's doing?"
"I've already told you, you need to persuade Slughorn," said Hermione. "It's not a question of tricking him or bewitching him, or Dumbledore could have done it in a second. Instead of messing around outside the Room of Requirement," she jerked the Prophet out from under Harry's hand and unfolded it to look at the front page, "you should go and find Slughorn and start appealing to his better nature."
"Anyone we know--?" asked Ron, as Hermione scanned the headlines.
"Yes!" said Hermione, causing both Harry and Ron to gag on their breakfast. "But it's all right, he's not dead--it's Mundungus, he's been arrested and sent to Azkaban! Something to do with impersonating an Inferius during an attempted burglary... and someone called Octavius Pepper has vanished... oh, and how horrible, a nine-year-old boy has been arrested for trying to kill his grandparents, they think he was under the Imperius Curse..."
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