The Oracle's Wake - Harry Potter

10: Veiled Ties and Hidden Agendas

The wall was lined with wooden bookcases, and instead of chairs there were large silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments such as Sneakoscops, Secrey Sensors, and a large, cracked Foe-Glass that Harry was observing, since he had hinged it in the previous year, in the Fake Moody's Office.

"These will be good when we're practicing Stunning," said Ron enthusiastically, prodding one of the cushions with his foot.

"And just look at these books!" Said Hermione excitedly, running a finger along the spines of the large leather-bound tomes. "A Com-pendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions . . . .The Dark Arts Outsmarted . . . .Self-Defensive Spellworks . . . . Wow. . . ." She looked around at Harry, her face glowing, and he saw that the presence of hundreds of book had finally convinced Hermione that what they were doing right. "Harry, this is wonderful, there's everything we need here!"

Laken looked up at the high ceiling, wondering how the room had the space for it. The ceiling seemed to stretch endlessly, the walls lined with shelves upon shelves of books and strange magical objects.

Harry was beaming ear to ear, looking fixedly around at the impressive space. "Dobby was right, the place is perfect." he said, "It's like Hogwarts wants us to fight back!"

Hermione slid to a near cushion, picking Jinxes for the Jinxed from one of the shelves as she began to read. There was a gentle knock on the door. Laken looked around; Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvati, and Dean had arrived.

"Whoa," said Dean, staring around impressively. "What is this place?"

Harry began to explain, giving an idea for Laken to process. She was now sure of this was the place she had read about; the remarkable place in a book about the history of Hogwarts. How the room adapted to the needs of the user, transforming into whatever was required, drowning from the user's thoughts and desires to shape itself accordingly.

Before Harry could finish, more people had arrived and he had to start all over again. Laken checked her watch to see eight o'clock was already near, and Harry moved across the door and turned the key protruding from the lock; it clicked in a satisfying loud way and everybody fell silent, looking at him. Laken stood beside him, seeing the little glances she got from the corner of her eyes.

"Well," said Harry, slightly nervously. "This is the place we've found for practice, and you've — er — obviously found it okay —"

"It's fantastic!" said Cho, and several people murmured their agreement.
Laken felt the same itch in the back of her neck, she tilted to scratch it off when she saw the little smile Cho had given. Laken quickly straightened back and smiled back warmly as soon as she could.

"It's bizarre," said Fred, frowning around at it. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then. . . ."

"Hey, what's this stuff?" asked Dean from the rear of the room, indicating the Sneakoscops and the Foe-Glass.

"Dark Detectors," said Laken, stepping between the cushions to reach them, pointing at the small glass spinning top. "That one starts to spin and whistle when someone untrustworthy is around. While the other —" Laken picked up the Foe-Glass mirror "shows the images of anyone who means the owner harm, allowing the user to see their enemies approaching."

"But, you don't want to relay on them too much, they can be fooled. . . ." Harry said approaching from behind. Laken and Harry gazed on the cracked Foe-Glass; shadowy figures were moving around inside it, though none was recognizable to either of them.

"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first — er —" Harry began until he saw a raised hand. "What, Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader," said Hermione.