"This is miserable," I mumbled as I joined my fellow Ravenclaws at the table.
"Not used to the work load?" Cho asked.
"Not used to the fact that the stairs tried to kill me, actually. And I went the wrong way because I was reading. Thank goodness the Grey Lady guided me back." And the fact that there's a missing library book in my room that disappears every time I mention returning it.
"You were reading while walking through the halls?" Morag let out a quiet giggle behind her hand. "Your quite the bookworm, Griffin."
"If you're comparing me to animals, I'd like to be a book dragon."
Padma's brow raised. "Like, all the books you keep hoarded in our room?"
Were Padma and I friends? By that point, I'd like to think so. It was already Halloween, it was bound to happen. We did sleep closest to each other in our shared room.
However, we don't see eye-to-eye on many things, one of those being my unhealthy obsession with owning books but not reading books. Not only that, but I need those books to solve a mystery, thank you very much.
She, on the other hand, was as studious as she was neat, all of her textbooks in the order of her classes on her shelf and her quills all contained in boxes when not in use. She even had a wand stand... who does that?
I noticed Cho ogling a boy seated at the Hufflepuff table. He was generically attractive, with a jawline that could grate cheese and kept brown hair. "Who are you staring at?"
"Hm? No one."
"Cedric Diggory," Roger Davies corrected. "Looker, ain't he?"
I doubled back to take in his features and shrugged. "Relatively."
Cho's face flushed red. "I wasn't ogling at him," she insisted.
"Hopefully not, that's my god brother after all."
She stared at me. "Your..."
"We've written letters to each other since we were small - had no idea he looked like that. Not like I've actually ever met him, but his dad and my dad met at some conference about the control of magical creatures, since my dad helped with the dementors in Azkaban. They hit it off immediately and when I was born, Amos Diggory was my god father."
I sighed.
"Mainly because my dad has no other friends."
"What about that Malfoy?" Mandy Brocklehurst asked, her now being the one to ogle at the average-at-best blond. "Your parents aren't close?"
"Business partners at best." I shrugged. "My dad has a lot of connections. Too many, actually. Not a lot of friends, though."
I looked behind me one more time, noticing that Hermione was missing from the Gryffindor table. "Give me a moment."
When I got to the group of justice-crazy ruffians, my hand slammed against the table between Harry and Ron. "Where's Hermione?"
"Why the bloody hell are you asking us?" Ron questioned, still holding bread in his mouth.
"I'm not asking him, I'm asking you. I saw you seated with her in Charms."
"Well, I don't know where she went."
I clicked my tongue and went out into the halls.
"Hermione!" I called, being careful of the routes that Filch normally took as he prowled the halls.
I clicked my tongue, not realizing that Professor Quirrell was speeding through the halls behind me. It wasn't until he crashed into me that I saw him, but he barely acknowledged my existence before continuing to the Great Hall.
He was a timid teacher, a consistent stutter on each of his words. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't say anything because I looked at him the wrong way. To think that he was the Defence Against Dark Arts teacher.
I continued my search for Hermione, wishing I knew the Accio spell so I could summon her uniform or something.
"Y/N!"
I turned to see Neville and another Gryffindor student running towards me. Thankfully, Filch was no where to be seen, otherwise he'd be yelling at them to walk.
"Neville and..."
"Dean. The bugger dragged me here with him."
"I see... What is it? Did Hermione come back?"
"No, Professor Quirrell just told us that there's a troll in the dungeon!"
I stared for far too long before taking both their wrists. "Then why on earth are you here, come on!"
"Wait, why are we going towards the dungeon?!" Dean questioned.
"I have a shortcut."
That shortcut being how my father studied without his "nightmare of a roommate" (his words, not mine).
I found the corner my father referred to, adjacent to the boy's washroom and the exit leading to the Quidditch field. I placed my fingers between the slight gap and pulled the wall apart, revealing a stairwell behind it.
"Woah..." Dean marvelled.
"I might have to use Obliviate on you after this," I warned jokingly the two as I led them up the stairs.
After a while of silence, Dean spoke up. "So, how'd you find this place?"
"My dad. A bit of an introvert, he was." A bit was an understatement - he only spoke to a handful of people during his time at Hogwarts and he still refuses to say who they were.
We found our way to the top of one of the walls surrounding Hogwarts. "That one over there is Gryffindor's tower. Ravenclaw's is right here."
"Thanks, Y/N," said Neville, who gave me a small smile.
"It's not a problem. Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
As I made my way down to the Ravenclaw common room, I realized that Neville had heard that there was a troll and thought about me. I shook my head as I opened the door. These Gryffindors are too goodie.
No wonder I wasn't sorted into it.
"Where did you go?" Padma queried as I entered our dorm. "I saw you walk out of the Great Hall and suddenly Professor Quirrell comes running in telling us that there's a troll in the dungeon."
I raised my hands in defense. "For the record, I was not the cause of the troll in the dungeon. I just took a different way when I heard. But I do appreciate the worry, Padma."
She frowned in my direction but didn't say anything else.
I picked up a book laying face down on my bed and noticed that it wasn't the page I had left off on. "Did any of you touch this?"
My roommates all looked up and shook their heads, feigning innocence.
The page spoke about the Philosopher's Stone's current whereabouts, revealing that it was once held in Vault 713, the exact vault that was robbed in Gringotts.
But, as I recall, it was emptied that day. My father used to go into the hallways that are now restricted, so something must be different about this year compared to other years.
That vault was robbed, but it was emptied, and suddenly, who emptied it was more important to me than who tried to steal from it.
"Wh-What's happening?" One of my roommates, Mandy, shot up in bed at the sound of my feet hitting the ground.
"Nothing, head to bed." I rushed out of the room and down the stairs to the common room.
I began taking out Hogwarts: A History book that resided on the top shelf, the book about three inches thick.
"What's that for?" Padma had followed me downstairs, curious of what my brain had concocted today.
"At the beginning of the year, they mentioned that we couldn't go to certain places. I wonder what exactly those places hold."
She sat next to me on the floor as I flipped through the pages.
"When it was made, the four houses, prefects, ghosts..." I stopped on the page containing the floor plan of each level in Hogwarts. "Padma, do you know what's here?" I pointed at the room that connected to the restricted area Dumbledore had warned us about.
Her eyes followed my finger and she shrugged. "I don't know. It's restricted area."
"Is it, now?"
"Y/N." Her tone was scolding, and it almost made me feel guilty.
Almost.
•••
Early the next morning, my feet dragged me through the halls, trying to find a way to get to the restricted area without Filch being able to disturb me.
I began pressing against loose-looking bricks, pulling at the noses and spears of statues, but to no avail.
"Hey, Griffin!"
I heard a whisper from down the hall and saw two red-heads poking out from behind the corner. They motioned for me to come over and I did, seeing their giddy grins.
"We've been watching you..."
"For about the past hour..."
"Are you trying to find a secret passage?" they said at the same time.
A smile tugged at my lips. "What gave it away?"
"You know, pressing on the stones..."
"Pulling on statues..."
I glanced behind them, realizing that I hadn't even seen them despite going up and down this hallway for an hour.
They noticed me eying the wall and Fred pulled out his wand. "Dissendium." And the wall opened like a door.
"How'd you find this?" I wondered, not quite seeing them as a very intellectual pair. Or maybe they were and they acted stupid on purpose.
They pushed me into the secret passage and closed the wall behind them.
"After watching you for the past week—"
"That's not creepy."
"—we've decided that you're worthy of knowing. I'm Fred,"
"and I'm George. Back in our first year, we found a peculiar map in Filch's office."
My eyes lit up in intrigue. "In Filch's office?"
"It's yellowed, so it's gotta be old," Fred said. He dug into his cloak and pulled out a blank, folded piece of paper.
I tilted my head. "It's blank."
"For now," they said together. George pulled out his wand and tapped the paper with its tip, reciting, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Slowly, the brown ink began appearing, revealing the nicknames Padfoot, Moony, Wormtail, and Prongs, then the words, "Marauders Map," with an illustration of Hogwarts.
My eyes widened as they handed it to me. "That's..."
"Brilliant?"
"Is the finishing each other's sentences going to turn into a three way thing now?" I unfolded the map within and spotted the moving footsteps, labelled with different names. "Incredible... It even tracks the Animagi!" I pointed at the quick moving paws labelled "Minerva McGonagall."
Dumbledore's footsteps paced around his office.
I saw some early rising students on their way to the Great Hall.
Then, I spotted something, and furrowed my brow. "Fred. George."
"Yeah?"
"Why is your brother sleeping with a... Peter Pettigrew?"
They looked over my shoulder, their faces mimicking my confused expression. "Hm. Maybe he swings that way."
"Do you remember a Peter Pettigrew at the Sorting Ceremony?"
"Now that you say it..." Fred started.
"No, we don't," George finished.
I hummed but didn't say much else. "In any case, do you know who The Marauders are?"
"Not a clue! But whoever they were, they were bloody brilliant," Fred said with a wide grin.
I nodded in earnest agreement. "So this passage leads to..."
"Charms. It opens right next to the class." George shook his head. "Saved us a million times when we were late."
I pointed at a passage in the map. "This one leads to the Great Hall. Breakfast?"
"For sure, I'm starving."
I gave Fred the map. He then recited, "Mischief managed," and the ink disappeared again.
"Brilliant," I repeated.
"Would you like to borrow it?"
I paused, contemplating. If I borrowed it, I might be able to find one, someone who knows how to enter the room that connects to the restricted area, and two, whoever put the library book in my room and perhaps leaving clues to help me solve the newspaper headline.
My hand reached out, but I pulled it back, smiling at the two and saying, "I think I'd like the challenge without the Marauder's Map."
George lifted the map and began shaking it at me as if it were his finger. "We knew we liked you."