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.
"Well, thankfully, this next task shouldn't ask too much of you," Peter started, "As you know, you brought this spectacular room to me and the boys' attention earlier this week. We were all shocked that we hadn't discovered it yet, really, it's quite amazing," he spoke, eyeing the wondrous aspects of the secret room.
"Anyways, when we scoured this room for the first time, James' eye caught something that only legend spoke of. I'm guessing even your French friends know of it," he said, "Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem, he found it."
Hermione stood, not knowing whether to believe what Peter was saying. He was right, she had only heard of it in legend.
"Yes, I've heard of it before. Have you really found it?" Hermione asked, astounded.
"We did, and your task is to find it. I've hidden it somewhere in the room, not terribly difficult but not as easy as you might think."
"All I've got to do is find it though?"
"Yes. And, don't bother using Accio. It won't work," Peter chuckled.
So, Hermione began searching for the diadem that she had only heard about in stories. She checked each cupboard thoroughly before trying charms that would reveal anything hidden. She searched through ever ounce of clutter for what felt like house. She pulled out loose floorboards. She even checked the drain. Yes, even that nasty, poor-smelling drain. And nothing.
"No hints?"
"Nope, sorry."
This was getting difficult. And no Accio? How much longer would this task last? But right as Hermione thought of how much she needed the diadem, a flicker of an idea popped into her head.
"Peter, I'll be right back," she said as she left through the large, pointed door. If she really needed the diadem to get the next clue, the room could just give it to her. At this point, there was no harm in trying.
Hermione paced down the hallway in the way that she learned less than a year before, thinking about her deep desire to get to diadem. Soon enough the pointed door appeared.
"Well done," Peter spoke as Hermione walked through the doors and instantly spotted the diadem laying out in the open on a new table. She picked up the diadem and handed it to him.
Instantly, Hermione felt off. She became plagued with a headache and grew dizzy. Something about the diadem, Hermione thought, why's it like that? Why am I dizz—
"Everything alright, Harper?" Peter spoke once he had the diadem in him hand. His words broke her out of that trance. But the first thing Hermione noticed, was that he was unaffected by it. What was going on?"
"I'm alright, I just need some water, Can I have my next clue?" Hermione said, brushing it all off of her shoulders.
"Yeah, yeah," Peter laughed as he pulled a slip of parchment out from his pocket and handed it to the clever girl, "here."
Slowly, she unfolded the piece of parchment, and read some of the messiest handwriting she had ever come across in her years.
I'm too lazy to write a poem,
So just meet me in the Potions classroom.
Hermione let out a sigh of relief at the ease of the next clue. She could get there in no time.
"So, uh, Harper?" Peter asked, "you got that candy from Honeyduke's, right?"
"Oh, yes I did. Remus has it all now," she lazily replied, "he told me that you were planning on giving some to Emma."
"Yeah," Peter blushed as he ran his fingers through his greasy hair, "just, uh, just checking."
Hermione chuckled as she started for the potions classroom, putting on a fake face by telling Peter, "good luck."
"You too."
The trek from the Room of Requirement to the Potions classroom was about as long as it could get. Hermione raced down seven flights of stairs that were ever changing: it was relatively long walk, especially underneath the weight of the invisibility cloak. A part of her hoped she wouldn't have to worry about that aura that the diadem gave her on this journey around Hogwarts. It made her feel uneasy.
Slowly, Hermione creeped into the potions classroom, thankful that she didn't see her false uncle roaming in his own office.
"James? You there?" Hermione whispered.
And with a not-so-subtle response, James popped his head out from underneath a table and nearly shouted, "Over here, Harper."
"Oh boy do I have a treat for you," he started, and before Hermione could say a second word, he fired back with, "don't worry, the room's charmed so no one can hear a thing. And Slughorn's at lunch. He won't be back for a while."
James seemed rather excited for someone who had spent the day waiting on a girl he had know for about twelve days to come find in a smelly potions classroom. A smile like no other was perched upon his face, and it was no surprise why that smile was there after James explain the next task to the new girl. He could barely get a word out with breaking down in laughed.
"Let me get straight to the point," laughed James, grinning while picking up a vial of a certain potion from the table, "were going to make Filch's cat go mad for Snape. Even though you're going to do it, it's probably my best prank so far this year."
"So that's Amortentia then?" Hermione laughed. She was relieved that this task was more lighthearted than the last one had made her feel.
"Yep," he spoke, picking up the vial and smelling it. "Just curious," he continued as he held out the vial for Harper, "what's it smell like to you?"
Interesting. Hermione had never worked with Amortentia before, let alone smelled it. However, she knew that it smelled of what she was most attracted to. Maybe, even, the person she would love one day.
In an instant, Hermione took a deep smell of the dangerously powerful love potion.
"I smell," she paused, "something smokey, like from a fire. And sugar. And what's that third smell?" she asked herself before taking another whiff. "Wet dog. Why on earth would it smell like wet dog?"
"Curious," James smirked.
"What's your's smell like?"
"Honestly, exactly like Lily. Almonds and minty flavored things, and treacle tart: her favorite treat."
"That's cute."
"Whatever, back to this potion thing, we've got to get some of Snape's hair first. You've got my cloak, Merlin knows where it's been" he muttered.
"Is Snape nearby?"
"He should be making his rounds around this time," James said and he and Harper peered out the potions classroom window in search of their prank's next victim.
"There he is!"
"Go on now, you've got it," James encouraged.
From then on, Hermione made a seemingly difficult task look like clockwork. Underneath James' invisibility cloak, she was shifty with her pair of scissors around Snape's head. After she got back with the victim's hair, James was astounded by her ability to not even have Snape notice. His already-terrible haircut had taken a downgrade, and Snape didn't even lift a finger.
"Amazing."
"Thanks, Potter," Hermione spoke, feeling as if she were back with Harry, "so, what now?"
"Oh, yeah. I've got some candy from Remus," James spoke as he pulled a Fizzing Whizbee that she had picked up at Honeyduke's from his pocket, "and we're going to put the potion on this, and give it to the cat. It's going to be epic," spoke James, more excited than Hermione had ever seen.
The two invisible Gryffindors camped out in the hallway with the potion-coated candy in hand, as they waited for Filch and his cat to pass through the corridors. After a long while of waiting, Hermione tossed the candy to Filch's cat while he wasn't looking. She ate it with delight, started squealing like a pig, and bolted in the direction of the Slytherin common room.
And James and Harper were laughing harder than ever before. Even tears streamed down James' face as a result of him snickering so much.
Soon the time for Harper to begin her last clue was due. After he wiped happy tears from his face, James handed Harper final clue to her from his pocket.
Hermione unfolded the crumbled up parchment, and read her final clue, in which familiar handwriting was present. She didn't know whether to be excited or scared, but she did know that a feeling of nervousness took over her body. And she couldn't quite tell why.
A/N: i really hope you enjoyed this chapter and the other two about harper's initiation, they took forever to write! thanks for 315+ views!
A/N (7/14/20): guys i really took a whole ass week to edit this my bad. i'll try to get to the next one sooner now that the juices are flowing!! lol it seems like 315 views was so long ago. speaking of which, happy 130K!!! that's big time progress, all thanks to y'all. also i don't mean to sELf pRoMoTe but i made like a music inspo book if u wanna check it out. no pressure. also this is a hella slow burn but shhhh u didn't hear it from me but the next chapter might have some progress. maybe. you'll see. actually i am the author so you did hear it from me (that was my attempt at being funny and i don't think it worked! haha! bye for now) - callahan