As they reached the Ravenclaw common room door with a pair of aurors outside playing cards amongst themselves, looking like the very picture of professionalism. These were the fools that were supposed to be protecting him.
The enchanted door knocker spoke quickly, "What can you catch, but not throw away?" challenging them with a riddle.
...
Finally entering his dorm room, he picked up some parchment and quill and quickly wrote a letter to his godfather, explaining why he needed the books before handing it to Penny to read. "Covers everything?" he asked, wondering if she wanted to add anything to the letter.
Normally, he would just use the mirrors for such a request, but he felt it was better that he had at least some mail coming to and from Hogwarts that he wouldn't mind being read, since it wouldn't look right if he never received or sent any owls at all. He did, of course, plan on telling Penny in the near future about them, as soon as he was sure she could detect a mental intrusion via Legilimency.
"Looks fine," she said, handing him back the letter to seal up and address to Sirius Black.
"Serenity," getting 'his' owl's attention, "could you please take this to Sirius Black, my godfather?" he said, holding out the letter. Seeing that Serenity was still unmoving, just waiting for something, caused him to sigh in realization. "How many pieces of bacon do you want?" Lifting up her claw talons and making a two sign, "Two?" he asked, which was quickly confirmed with a nod of her head.
"Agreed," he said, handing her the letter, which was quickly taken from his hand before flying out the window into the night sky. Penny's snigger could be heard shortly thereafter.
...
(1 Week Later)
The first couple of weeks back to school had been the same as it had been every other year—tiresome as she slowly got herself back into a routine of studying for her exams and completing her assignments. Now she stood patiently outside her head of house's office door while she went over what she was going to say for what felt like the thousandth time, waiting for her head of house to answer.
'Damn, why did I have to do this alone?' She wondered once again why Harry had insisted that she tell the professors what she had discovered by herself. Her mind went over all the different reasons for why Harry had said she should do it this way. 'The Head Girl position,' she realized suddenly. 'That was his motive and goal all along, but why? That was easy to figure out now that she was thinking more like a detective; it always came down to power and influence with him.'
"How is he not wearing green and silver?" she asked aloud, not realizing that the office door had opened and her head of house was present.
"Green and silver doesn't match my eyes, Miss Clearwater," the Charms Master joked, taking her by surprise at his sudden appearance.
"Sorry, sir, I was thinking of a friend," she offered in explanation.
"Of course, not Percy by any chance?" the Head of Ravenclaw House enquired.
"No, sir," she replied, slightly amused that he thought it was Percy capable of such strategy.
"Now, Miss Clearwater, what can I do for you?" the short man asked.
"I wanted to show you something, sir. It's about the Chamber of Secrets," she said, catching her head of house's full attention.
"Very well then," he said, gesturing for her to enter his office. "What is it you want to show me?"
Reaching into her handbag, she quickly pulled out the crude map she had sketched. "I've been trying to solve the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets. It occurred to me over the holidays whilst watching a non-magical crime drama that mapping the various locations of the attacks could give us an operation zone or 'hot spot' to focus our search," she said, whilst laying out the map on the desk.
"I've marked all the attacks in red. You'll quickly notice that all of them have happened on the second floor, with the girls' bathroom there being the nexus of all of them," she added, jabbing her finger on that particular dot as her head of house looked over the map.
"Most interesting, Miss Clearwater," he answered, whilst closely examining the offered map for himself.
Smiling at the praise, "Thank you, sir," she said, feeling more confident now that the idea hadn't been outright rejected as silly.
"What do you think the monster is then?" the Charms Master said suddenly, catching her off guard.
"I don't know, sir," she admitted.
"I'm sure you have some theories—humour me," he encouraged.
"Well... we think it's a snake. After all, Slytherin himself was a Parselmouth, so it makes sense that it would be a snake, but we can't find any matching descriptions in the creature index cards," she said, suddenly realizing her mistake.
"We?" he probed, catching her slip.
"Mr. Potter and I have been working on theories, with Miss Patil assisting us," she said, spreading the credit amongst her Ravenclaw friends to take the full brunt off Harry.
"Ah." He suddenly smiled. "Green and silver would suit him very well indeed; I do often wonder how he ended up in my house at times." Clearly realizing who she was talking about earlier, he continued, "Do you mind if I take this and show the rest of the staff?" he enquired, holding up the map.
Shaking her head, "Of course not, sir," she said, allowing him to take the map.
"Any reason why Mr. Potter isn't here?" the Charms Master enquired, clearly trying to understand the enigmatic second-year a little better.
"He said it was my idea and that I should take the credit for it," she explained, gesturing to the simple map, not mentioning her own conclusions about Harry's motives since it felt like a betrayal of his trust. Her magic twinged a bit at the idea. "He only pointed out things that I had overlooked," she admitted.
"Very well, Miss Clearwater," the Head of Ravenclaw House accepted.
...
'This is too easy,' he mentally noted while he slipped into the Gryffindor common room, noting that there were far more students up and about than he had expected for this time in the evening.
Normally, at this time of the night, most Ravenclaws would be in bed fast asleep or studying in private in their rooms. Pressing his back up against the wall, he was once again grateful for his father's cloak. He silently and patiently watched the room, waiting for it to clear enough for him to pass unnoticed by its occupants.
He took in the sight of the Gryffindor common room, finding it appealing on several levels, as he watched the various groups relax on the very comfortable-looking chairs by the fireside. He mentally noted any design or layout ideas that he might want to use in the future, at his home or in his various businesses. It was hard to stop thinking like a businessman with long-term plans, no matter the situation.
His parents would have spent seven years of their lives in this room, working on assignments, joking, playing games, falling in love, and generally enjoying life at school. Another group burst into sudden laughter. Several minutes passed in silence as he continued to vigilantly watch the room, noticing the lack of bookshelves and the small study area off to one side. Another major difference was the fact that they had separate dorm rooms, one leading to the girls' and another to the boys'.
Eventually, a group broke away as it got later, boys heading off to the right, the girls heading off to the left and climbing their respective staircases. He silently followed the boys up the stairs until he arrived at the second-year boys' dorms.
He slowly opened the door, his wand in hand, ready for action if need be; it proved unneeded as he heard the familiar sounds of deep snoring from the room's occupants. Examining the room to see if he had made the right choice, he recognized Longbottom's features dozing in one of the four-poster beds, the bed sheets displaying the Gryffindor house colours and emblem as the bed sheet rose up in time with the boy's regular breathing.
Pulling his attention away from Longbottom to look around the rest of the room, he found a mixture of glasses of water on the bedside tables, books and clothes dumped haphazardly across the floor along with bits of parchment and quills, before coming to a single conclusion, 'Gryffindors are messy, and probably the house-elves' favourites due to all the messes they create.' Another random thought occurred to him, 'A busy house-elf is a happy house-elf.' The idea seemed to resonate with him, and rough outlines of plans started to form.
'Happy, unpaid workers who thrive on having as much work as they can get.' Now that certainly merited more thought. He turned his attention back to the job at hand.
...
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