Matches
When Lee and George finally rejoin the rest of the group, the map is already back in Fred's pocket. "What the hell were you doing?" asks Ginny, crossing her arms over her chest and raising her head indignantly.
"Money, we earned a good sickle," her brother explains, dangling a bag of coins in front of her nose.
"George!" Hermione looks at him crookedly, but is soon silenced by a satisfied shrug and Jordan's arm around her hip. "You see, Granger, you have to think big." Lee's comment succeeds in diverting attention from the lecture and leads them forward. They follow the dotted line, and end up reaching the huge X on the map: they are, now, in the very old disused classroom.
"Well, here we are." Ron's voice rings out against the stone walls and is lost among the dusty desks.
Luna looks around and stares at the dust jumping in a beam of light: perhaps that is the treasure they have been searching for more than an hour. Hermione, still clutched in Lee's arms, tries hard to hide the satisfaction that is painted on her face.
"I search the cupboards, will someone help me?" Harry tries to raise his companions' spirits and carefully heads for the large dark wooden doors. He is soon joined by his best friend and Neville. Ginny and Luna begin to look under the desks with little hope.
"I look in the desk drawers," Fred interjects, blowing dust off the knobs. George is soon at his side, giving him a shove and making him laugh. Perhaps that, Lee thinks instead, is the real treasure: being all together. The mood seems to strike Hermione, too, who kneels down and checks in the small cabinet beside the blackboard. "Could this be it?" she then asks, pulling a pretty black leather box out of the compartment. "There's a card in it, too."
"Yes?" Ginny, already quite close, takes the piece of parchment in her hands. "There are instructions on how to open it!" The prefect leans the heirloom against the desk and wipes his palms to remove the dust.
"Well, what does it say?" Ron's little hops to the left and right indicate to everyone else that he's out of his depth.
"'If you wish to open me, approach a burning fire in the Muggle way you must,' and then he adds in parentheses to bring the flame closer to the lock."
"In the Muggle way?" Lee scratches his jaw and casts his gaze at the only two who can solve the riddle. Harry and Hermione are looking at each other confused: why would there be an object in a magical school that can only be opened with matches?
Luna runs her hands over the small metal trim - now rusted - covering the corners. "What a pity, I don't like the idea of destroying the box."
"How do you think Muggles light fires?" the Chosen One asks her, a little upset.
"With fire throwers, right? Dad showed me them once."
Hermione holds back a laugh, "No, we don't come out with flamethrowers to start fires, but we do come out with matches--they're little wooden sticks about that long, with a colored rod at the end."
"I doubt we'll find one at Hogwarts, though," Harry concludes, slumping into one of the dusty chairs in the first few desks. "It ends there."