Echo | Harry Potter - George Weasley

Chapter 8: A Happy Holiday, Indeed

Christmas had arrived so quickly at Hogwarts that it seemed one day the grass was still swaying with the gentle morning breeze and the next the grounds were covered in a layer of crisp white snow and Hagrid was dragging in large pine trees to decorate the Great Hall with.

Most students were planning to return home for the holidays and Shaye assumed she was no exception. She had so been looking forward to seeing her family again and telling them all about her first few months at Hogwarts. There was only one day left until the Hogwarts Express would be departing for King's Cross Station and Shaye had every reason to be on it ... until she didn't.

Reaching into her trunk for the last of her books—which she was packing to take home with her so she could study over the break due to Hermione's many warnings about falling behind—Shaye had almost emptied the wooden trunk when she noticed a stray quill at the bottom and bent down to grab it. In the struggle of holding the books in one hand and reaching for the quill with the other, the books began to wobble in her arm and before she knew it the whole pile was tumbling back into the trunk.

Normally, Shaye would have let out a groan of frustration and continued packing, but something had caught her attention. When the books had fallen into the trunk and hit the bottom, the noise they made was slightly ... off. The bottom sounded hollow.

It was such a minute detail that Shaye was sure if she had been even a little bit distracted she would have missed it, but she wasn't, so she didn't. 

Picking the books back up and out of the trunk, along with the quill, Shaye set them aside on the floor and gave the bottom of the trunk a knock. It was definitely hollow. Shaye's excitement began to rise as she searched for a way to pry the wooden board up. After a few seconds of searching, she spotted a small notch and was just able to get her fingernail underneath it. The board was hard to lift—probably on account of it not being moved in a while—but eventually, Shaye had removed it to reveal a false bottom. Inside was a single piece of folded paper.

Looking around to make sure the dormitory was still empty, Shaye picked up the paper and carefully unfolded it. At first, she was unsure what she was looking at, and if it hadn't been for the labelled areas such as The Great Hall and the library, she was sure she never would have figured out that it was a crude map of Hogwarts. 

On the map, in red ink, was a drawn-out path that started at the Slytherin common room and ended in some seemingly random corridor on the fourth floor. 

When Shaye flipped the map over, she saw that there was a note written on the back.

To HC,

This is the hidden hiding place. Please keep it safe for me.

LF

Shaye let out an involuntary gasp and she immediately tucked the note into her pocket for safekeeping. This was clearly something that Hattie had been keeping secure for Lorelei, but what was it, exactly? 

Suddenly, going home for the holidays was the last thing Shaye wanted to do. How could she possibly wait a whole two weeks to figure out what this map led to? She finally had a solid lead tied to her sister and by Merlin's beard, she was going to follow it. 

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Hearing a pair of suitcase wheels dragging along the floor, Shaye looked up from her seat in the Great Hall where she was watching Harry and Ron play wizard's chess and saw Hermione approaching them, bags in hand and ready to leave for the holidays.

As Hermione joined the three, Ron sent his Queen to E5 and the red chess piece came to life, knocking Harry's Knight over with its chair. 

"That's totally barbaric!" Hermione noted.