Five - The Hidden Storage Space
Stepping back into his room he found Ron already asleep, but Dean and Seamus were still talking with each other as they unpacked their trunks. There was a West Ham poster above what he assumed to be Dean's bed and so as he hung up his towel on his bed frame, he gestured to it "West Ham really"
Dean spun around and pointed a finger at him, "don't you start too, I know it's not Quidditch, I've had to listen to Seamus tell me that for the last half an hour"
Seamus grinned clearly proud of himself. He, on the other hand, held his hands up in defence, "I'm not hating on football, I used to play myself," Dean's annoyed demeanour lessened, and he gestured to the poster again "just West Ham"
The annoyed demeanour was back and he got a rolled-up pair of socks thrown at him from Dean. He caught the socks as Dean groaned "shut up"
He couldn't help the grin he gave Seamus in response to that as he threw the socks back to a slightly annoyed Dean. He also didn't shut up as he instead stated "well if you ever want to kick a ball around you know where to find me"
Football wasn't exactly something he was amazing at. But he used to play at lunchtimes with all the boys in primary school and was on the school team until he got one too many red cards and they kicked him off it. So, it would be nice to at least kick a ball around here. Dean threw his arms up, "if I knew someone here would play, I would have brought my ball"
"We can just transfigure something into a ball," transfiguring a football would be a piece of cake and so he imagined it likely wouldn't be long before he was kicking a ball around in the room with Dean and whoever else would join in. Maybe Lily played.
Dean looked completely blown away about that even being a possibility, "you can do that"
Doing it right that second would have probably broken Dean so instead, he responded with a shrug, "I can give it a go"
Dean grinned at him clearly overjoyed at the prospect of playing football. Even if it was just passing the ball around. Seamus put his hand on Dean's shoulder a grin firmly on his face, "I'm telling you, once we teach you to play Quidditch you will never want to play football again"
That prompted Dean and Seamus to resume what he guessed was an earlier argument about Quidditch and Football. He left them to their argument and decided he should probably put his things away. Which meant stuffing his clothes in no particular order or pattern into the drawer by his bed and throwing everything else in the chest at the end of his bed. He placed his newly acquired lump of coal on the windowsill by his bed. When his trunk was empty, he closed it and slid it under his bed.
With that, he decided he was done. His dirty clothes, which were in a pile on top of his chest, were a problem for later. As were the damp and dirty shoes thrown at the base of the chest. It was the first night so theoretically, it should be late enough that the common room was empty. Hopefully neither Seamus nor Dean were snitches. Because they were going to notice when he never came back. He closed the curtains around his bed and then walked out the door and headed down to the common room.
Sneaking around was hopefully going to be easy. Theoretically, everyone should be worn out and not expect anyone to go sneaking around. Which was really the perfect opportunity to go exploring.
As he stepped into the common room, he found it completely deserted apart from Lily sitting in an armchair her legs over the side of the chair, a pad of paper in her lap, a pen in one hand and a half-eaten cookie in the other. Lily had snuck out this far and hopefully that meant she was prepared to join him. He sat down on the side of the chair her legs weren’t over and grinned, “so you coming to explore or what"
Lily did not look surprised that he had just appeared. She had probably heard him walk in, as he was sure his arrival wasn’t silent. Lily shook her head, “nope”
It was a weak no. Like Lily knew she wanted to say yes but first she wanted to test him. If she was worried about the rules, she would still be in her room right now and not in the common room. She also probably wouldn’t have befriended him so easily. He stated "nobody sneaks out of their room just to go to the common room"
Lily shook her head, "you do if you're rooming with know-it-all Hermione Granger, I think she took packing eleven years of learning into a couple of months as a challenge"
Going by the fact Hermione knew all about his family he was going to say she had done a pretty good job at finding out everything she could. Although there were some things you couldn't learn from a book. Probably a few things you had to learn out of a book too, but he was going to ignore that.
Part of him wondered if without him Lily might have gotten on with Hermione or if she still would have annoyed Lily enough for her to still sneak out of her room. He really hoped it was the latter. Not because he didn't want them to get along but because he felt bad that he could possibly be the reason they didn't get along. But not everyone got along in life he already knew that.
He couldn’t help the grin that overtook his face, "come on, you stay here, and someone will force you back up eventually, I can promise no Hermione Granger on our travels"
Lily clicked her pen closed, "we get caught and I think she'll recite the rulebook to us"
As long as no one forced him to read it himself that was fine by him. Anyone could recite rules to him. Didn't mean he was going to listen to them it would instead just be giving him a list of things to do. If Hermione recited any rules to him, they would likely just be what he broke next. He stated “no one has explicitly told us what time we can't go out past or even that we can't go out at all, we get caught and we can feign innocence"
Lily looked him up and down, "I don't imagine you're very good at that"
It was one of the many things in life that he could try but would never work out for him. Not that he was going to admit that. Instead, he got to his feet, “come on, so much to see, so little time”
Lily got to her feat placing both the pad and the pen where she had been sitting moments before, "do I question your lack of shoes or not”
He completely waved the comment off as he headed to the door of the common room. Lily just laughed as she followed him out.
Without the presence of anyone else, the two of them spent ages talking to paintings. Real in-depth conversations. They were also trying to find secret halls and corridors at every turn. Even if the people in the paintings were great conversationalists, they refused to give out such information. Which left him and Lily knocking on a lot of walls to work out if it was hollow behind them or not.
As they walked along a random corridor that for all he knew could have been anywhere debating with a painting, Lily questioned "do you know how to talk quietly"
Talking quietly was never something that had been in his nature. Sev liked to tease him about his inability to whisper every time it got him into trouble. He sighed “I am talking quietly"
Lily threw her hands up in the air, "great we are so doomed," he just offered a grin as Lily let out a sigh, “you’re going to get us both caught and then I’ll have to explain to my family why I got expelled from the crazy magic school before I even went to my first class”
He laughed at the dramatic show Lily was putting on, “even if we do get caught, we’re not getting expelled”
That was when he heard a bang and then some voices. Instantly he was grabbing Lily’s arm as he led her down the corridor in the opposite direction of the news. Lily stated, “if we get caught, I’m telling whoever catches us that you kidnapped me”
He rolled his eyes and laughed as he dragged her through a door closing it behind them. The room had an overwhelming stench of garlic. Like someone had watched too many movies and was trying to ward off vampires. Since it was too dark to see anything, he pulled out his wand and cast the Lumos charm. Lily looked at him with an eyebrow raised, “why did no one tell me the wands are just over-glorified torches”
“Because no one else wants to admit they wasted their money on what is simply a stick,” Lily laughed, and they began looking around the room.
The room had no defining features that told him what kind of class was taught inside the room. Lily began opening the doors of cupboards and so he began doing the same. When he opened a door to find several books on the dark arts, he guessed it was the defence against the dark arts classroom.
The two of them explored just about every space in the room looking for whatever interesting things they could find. Eventually, they moved onto the desk at the front of the room. Lily tried at one of the draws, but it didn’t budge, “who locks their desk draws”
He muttered the unlocking charm before opening the draw, “someone who wants to keep their things hidden from students”
Lily looked at him and then at the now opened draw, “they better teach me that”
It was one of his favourite charms. It allowed him to get into a place he shouldn’t be. He grinned, “they took it off the curriculum, some professors were annoyed when students began breaking into their things”
“I don’t know what sort of students would break into a professor’s things,” he laughed as Lily started to flick through the papers that were in the draw, “you are teaching me that”
Teaching Lily that was absolutely in the realm of possibilities and something he would be more than happy to do. Especially if it meant breaking into more places as a result. He grinned “happily”
Lily pulled out the entire draw and tipped it out upside down on top of the desk. What papers were left in there fluttered to reside on the desk while everything else just dropped harshly onto the desk. Then Lily pulled the bottom out of the draw. With the supposed bottom of the draw out, they discovered more items, “holy shit, it’s got a false bottom, that’s amazing”
In response, Lily beamed and nodded towards the draw, “considering the dust I’d say the current professor using it doesn’t know, that or he’s had this stuff in here for years”
Since they were in what he presumed to be Quirrell’s room, it was a possibility that he had put it in there, back when he was the Muggle Studies professor. Although the more likely option was that it was one of the previous professors that had taught Defence Against the Dark Arts. After all the position had a new teacher each year.
Inside there was a small book that Lily pulled out. Whereas he went straight for the small little balls that were about the same size as a marble. There were seven, all of which were the exact same size. Six of the balls were silver with intricate black markings etched into the metal and the last one was black with intricate bright blue markings. The markings looked as though they might be small symbols but what they were of he hadn’t the faintest clue. Not that he had any idea of what the balls were either.
A voice from just outside the door spurred them into action. He shoved all the balls into his pocket and began pilling all the papers into something that resembled a pile. The second Lily had the false bottom back into the draw he shoved the papers back in as Lily worked on sliding it back into the desk. Then they began picking up the quills, and other things that had been in the draw to return to the draw.
The door creaked open, and a light shined through. Considering his wand was still shining brightly on the desk he guessed being caught was a distinct possibility. But he was never one to give up easily so he muttered the words to a spell that should hopefully not only put out his wand, but whatever light the people at the door were managing to create.
It worked exactly like it was supposed to and he grabbed his wand off the desk, as he crouched down pulling Lily with him. There might have no longer been a light shining into the room, but he wasn’t just going to stand there and wait for them to shine another light in their direction.
There were a few curses shared and the door was slammed closed. The sound of the door closing was followed by two pairs of footsteps echoing away from the room. He let out a breath of relief, “well, that was close”
Lily poked him in the shoulder, although he was not sure that she had been aiming for his shoulder, “close, that was a little more than close”
Sure, it might have been a little close for comfort, but they hadn’t been caught and that was all that mattered. He cast the Lumos charm once again, “was fun though wasn’t it”
“Let's get out of here before whoever that was comes back,” he couldn’t help but agree with that sentiment and followed Lily out of the room. Quirrell was going to have to put his things back into his draw himself.
Once they were out of the room, he ended his Lumos charm and tucked his wand back into his pocket. Lily grabbed his wrist and looked at his watch, “we should be getting back, or we’ll never get any sleep”
When his wrist had been dropped from Lily’s grip, he looked at his watch himself. It was about a quarter past two. Lily was probably right so he nodded “to the common room”
That’s exactly where they set off for. Except it became crystal clear after walking in the direction they presumed the common room to be for what felt like a lifetime neither of them remembered the path back. It didn’t help that when instead of seeing portraits and paintings they should have recognised they were all unfamiliar.
When they got to a completely empty room at the top of a staircase Lily sat down on the windowsill in the room and sighed “at least we are lost in a room with a view”
He rolled his eyes as he sat down beside her and looked out the window. Due to the moonlight, he could make out most of the grounds and then where they ended and abruptly turned into the forest. He couldn’t see the lake at all and supposed that it was on the opposite side of the castle. He looked back at Lily and shrugged “we’re not lost, just directionally misplaced”
For a second Lily just stared at him like she wanted to push him out the window but then her face broke out into a grin, and she stifled a laugh, “you might be a terrible navigator but at least you’ve got a sense of humour”
That got him to laugh himself as he stated, “the world could only give me so much”
There were probably worst things to be than lost with Lily. Lily was great company, and he was sure they’d get back eventually. Lily pushed his shoulder lightly, “tomorrow night we’re bringing some chalk”
That got him to grin harder. Lily was already prepared to sneak out again the following night with him. He leaned back against the wall with a laugh, “I’m sure that will go over really well with the professors”
Lily nodded her head and laughed. Writing on the wall with chalk would definitely end with them both in detention if any of the professors discovered who was behind the sudden lines of chalk on the wall. Lily asked, “so what are those silver ball things”
He pulled one out of his pocket and looked it over. The moonlight negated the need for a light to be able to see it. He dropped it in her hand as he shrugged, “no idea, you find anything interesting in the book”
Lily pulled the aforementioned book from her pocket and shook her head, “no but I only quickly skimmed it, but if you believe the title, it should be about magical urban legends”
That got him to raise an eyebrow, even more, intrigued as to what the little balls were now. But he was also intrigued as to what urban legends were written in a book for it to have to be hidden away in a draw beneath a false bottom. He stated “maybe the book mentions what they are”
Lily handed him the silver ball back, “I’ll give it a read, magical urban legends sound a lot more interesting than the Magical Theory book I’m trying to get through, that one can wait”
Reading in general sounded horrible. But he had to agree a book on urban legends sounded a damn sight better than one on magical theory. He ran his finger over the engravings on the ball, “do what I’m doing, just don’t read any of them”
Lily put the book back in her pocket and laughed, “I’m already behind on account of being new to all this, I don’t need to be behind even further”
That was clearly a misunderstanding. One that probably came with Hermione already seemingly knowing everything. He shook his head “you’re not going to be behind”
It was clear Lily did not believe him. Lily raised an eyebrow, “what makes you think that I’m new to all this stuff and unlike Hermione, I haven’t swallowed my textbooks and absorbed all the information”
That got him to laugh as he decided he’d explain this, “Hermione might have read all the books, but she still has to learn the practical side just like everybody else, plus how many others would have honestly bothered to read school textbooks on their summer holidays”
Lily gestured to him with her hand, “yeah but people like you who grew up with magic already know everything”
He was pretty sure he was an outlier. Sev had taught him a lot but no one else had Sev. The only things Draco had been taught by his parents were some things about the dark arts. He shrugged, “not everyone who grew up with magic knows what they’re doing, they just like to pretend they do, but most parents don’t teach their children much if anything at all, they leave it up to Hogwarts”
If anything, Lily didn’t look relieved, just more confused as she stated “but you already know how to do things”
“Yeah, but I’m different my godfather uses me as his apprentice, after all, why not exploit the free child labour where you can,” he’d been helping Sev on potions for as long as he could remember. Some people made cakes with their parents he made potions. Although they did occasionally make a cake too.
Lily laughed and she finally looked like she might believe him that she wasn’t behind the rest of their classmates. She smiled, “now that I understand, the number of stamps I have stuck on letters for my mum”
Clearly, free child labour from your kids was a universal aspect of every child’s life it didn’t matter whether your parents were from the magic community or not. But helping Sev was one of his favourite things to do so he wasn’t going to complain.
They sat on the windowsill and talked until they got up, ready to try and find the common room again. The entire time was spent laughing as they passed the same portraits repeatedly. A few of the portraits laughed at them. Others yelled telling them to be quiet and that they were trying to sleep.
The two of them nearly walked right past the lady in the pink dress that was at the door to their common room. But Lily grabbed his arm and gestured to it, “is the entrance not behind her”
Immediately he paused. Looked the painting up and down as his face broke out into a grin. It may have taken them an unreasonably long time, but they had gotten back. He pointed finger guns at Lily, “I told you we’d get back, now do you know the password"
If Lily didn’t, finding their way back had been entirely pointless because he hadn’t listened when Percy had said the password. Lily laughed as she turned to the portrait, “Caput Draconis,” the portrait swung open and Lily stepped in, “I’d ask who sneaks out without knowing the password, but you did get us lost”
He followed Lily in threw the opening to the common room, “directionally misplaced,” he pointed at Lily who rolled her eyes at him, “plus I didn’t see you finding the way back either”
It had been fun. Even the getting lost part had been enjoyable. Lily picked up the things she had left behind on the armchair when they snuck out hours before, “I have no idea what you are talking about”
They both walked to the separate doors that led to their dormitories. As he turned the door handle Lily stated “see if any of your roommates have chalk”
He turned back to look over at Lily where she was standing with the door to the girls’ dorms open. It was severely unlikely anyone had chalk. He guessed half his dorm wouldn’t even know what chalk was. He gave her a smile, “I’ll raid their chests”
With that, she gave him a wave and disappeared through the door. He walked through his own door and ran up the steps to his room looking down at his watch as he did so. The time was steadily creeping closer to four. When he opened the door to his room, he found all his roommates in their beds fast asleep with the lights still on. Clearly, the lights being on were not affecting any of their abilities to sleep.
He made his way over to his bed and opened the curtains, pinning them back into place. Then he took his watch off placing it and his wand on the drawer beside his bed. He flopped onto the bed as he waved his hand and muttered a few words, so all the lights flickered off. He was entirely certain he had probably fallen asleep before his head even touched the pillow.