Their robes billowed and swirled around them as they splashed across the flooded vegetable patch to double Herbology, where they could hardly hear what Professor Sprout was saying over the hammering of raindrops hard as hailstones on the greenhouse roof.
The afternoon's Care of Magical Creatures lesson was to be relocated from the storm-swept grounds to a free classroom on the ground floor and, to Ron and Harry's intense relief, Angelina sought out her team at lunch to tell them that Quidditch practice was cancelled.
"Good," said Harry quietly when she told him, "Because we've found somewhere to have our first Defence meeting. Tonight, eight o'clock, seventh floor opposite that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by those trolls. Can you tell Katie and Alicia?"
She looked slightly taken aback but promised to tell the others; Harry returned hungrily to his sausages and mash. This morning, Harry had told them about his encounter with Dobby last night, and Dobby's idea to use the Room of Requirement for their Defence lessons.
"What?" Harry said thickly as he found Hermione watching him.
"Well...it's just that Dobby's plans aren't always that safe. Don't you remember when he lost you all the bones in your arm?"
"This room isn't just some mad idea of Dobby's; Dumbledore knows about it too, he mentioned it to me at the Yule Ball."
Hermione's expression cleared. "Dumbledore told you about it?"
"Just in passing," said Harry, shrugging.
"Oh well, that's all right then," said Hermione briskly and she raised no more objections.
The four of them had spent most of the day seeking out those people who had signed their names to the list in the Hog's Head and telling them where to meet that evening.
At half-past seven Allison, Harry, Ron, and Hermione left the Gryffindor common room, Harry clutching a certain piece of aged parchment in his hand. Fifth years were allowed to be out in the corridors until nine o'clock, but they kept looking around nervously as they made their way up to the seventh floor.
"Hold it," said Harry warningly, unfolding the piece of parchment at the top of the last staircase, tapping it with his wand, and muttering, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
A map of Hogwarts appeared upon the blank surface of the parchment, and tiny black moving dots, labelled with names, showed where various people were.
"Filch is on the second floor," Harry said, holding the map up to his eyes and scanning it closely, "and Mrs. Norris is on the fourth."
"And Umbridge?" Hermione said anxiously.
"In her office," Harry said, pointing. "Okay, let's go."
They hurried along the corridor to the place Dobby had described to Harry, a stretch of blank wall opposite an enormous tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy's foolish attempt to train trolls for the ballet.
"Okay," Harry said quietly, while a moth-eaten troll paused in his relentless clubbing of the would-be ballet teacher to watch. "Dobby said to walk past this bit of wall three times, concentrating hard on what we need."
They did so, turning sharply at the window just beyond the blank stretch of wall, then at the man-size vase on its other side. Allison had her eyes closed, thinking over and over again, We need somewhere to learn to fight...We need a place to practise...somewhere they can't find us.
"Look," Hermione said sharply, as they wheeled around after their third walk past.
A highly polished door had appeared in the wall. Ron was staring at it, looking slightly wary. Harry reached out, seized the brass handle, pulled open the door, and led the way into a spacious room lit with flickering torches like those that illuminated the dungeons eight floors below.
YOU ARE READING
WE'LL TAKE ON THE WORLD ; h.j.p.
Fanfiction─ "i won't let go with you by my side, the calm, the storm we'll face it all." She had read about love all her life. Never had she imagined she would ever experience it herself, especially with dark forces rising to power and a war approaching fast...
