Harry ordered the AI on his wrist to open the map menu.
"Whoa!" He stared at the wall in astonishment. "There's a huge tunnel behind it. According to my map, it goes about ten metres in before I lose it."
"Same on mine. Harry, any ideas how to open the passage?"
"Open!" Harry said instead of answering.
Naturally, nothing happened. Richard looked at his friend as though he were an idiot.
"What?!" Potter bristled. "What if it had worked? Why don't you try something?"
"All right..."
Richard's gaze carefully studied every millimetre of the wall. Suddenly, his mind caught on something odd. The boy concentrated, trying to work out exactly what it was.
Without warning, the lavatory door opened a crack, and a faint draught swept in, as though someone invisible had slipped through. Richard immediately switched to infrared vision, and his instincts proved correct. There was an invisible person in the lavatory with them. Someone short, only a little taller than Harry. Grosvenor tensed, but then the invisible intruder shut the door and appeared in full view, wearing exactly the same sort of black suit and face mask as the boys.
"Harry, Richie, is that you?"
At the sound of Hermione's voice, Richie exhaled in relief. Harry flinched at the sudden appearance of his classmate.
"What are you doing here, Granger?" he asked rudely.
"You weren't at dinner, and I was worried," Granger said, pretending not to notice his rudeness. She ignored Harry and turned her attention to Richard. "Richie, is everything all right?"
"Er..." Grosvenor was momentarily at a loss. "There's a small problem, but... Hermione, I'd rather not drag you into this. Yeah. We can handle it ourselves."
There was such a mixture of scepticism and disbelief in the girl's eyes, along with a stubborn determination to see things through to the end, that it was obvious she had no intention of abandoning her friend and going anywhere.
"How did you find us?" Potter asked, nervousness making his voice irritated and disgruntled.
"The map," Hermione replied calmly. "If you configure the AI properly, it shows every living creature within radar range. You were in the North Wing for quite a while, but I decided not to bother you. What were you doing there?"
Harry's eyes darted from side to side. He didn't know what to do with his hands: one moment he was patting his trousers in search of pockets, the next he was putting his hands behind his back, then clasping them together in front of him.
"Hermione, it's not proper to ask boys what they've been getting up to," Richard said, deciding to turn the whole thing into a joke. "What if we were comparing our willies?"
Hermione's cheeks turned scarlet.
"And who won?" she asked, unable to contain her curiosity.
"Me, of course!" Richard declared confidently.
Rather than being offended, Harry Potter breathed a sigh of relief. He was perfectly happy with that explanation. Anything was better than admitting what had actually happened.
"Hmm..." Hermione gave Harry a sceptical look. "Even through the mask, I can tell Harry looks far too pleased with himself for someone with a little willy!"
"Hey!" Potter protested indignantly. "It's not little!"
"I don't believe you!"
It wasn't entirely clear what Hermione's words referred to—Harry's answer specifically, or whether she simply didn't believe the boys' story at all. Richard was inclined towards the latter; she'd said it in far too pointed a tone for it to mean anything else.
Harry, on the other hand, completely missed the subtext and puffed up his cheeks in offence.
"Richie," Hermione decided to come right out with it, "I want to help you. Will you tell me the truth?"
"Pfff..." Richard let out a long, loud breath. "The truth... Hermione, the less you know, the better you sleep."
"Exactly!" Potter readily agreed.
"Let me guess." Granger looked carefully at the wall behind the boys. "You want to open a secret passage and explore it?"
"Yeah!" Harry nodded eagerly and enthusiastically, privately hoping that would be enough to get the persistent girl off their backs.
"But you haven't been able to," Granger continued.
"We've only just started..." Beneath his mask, Richard was pulling a sour face. He didn't believe they would manage to open the passage.
"You need help!" Granger declared categorically.
"NO!" Harry exclaimed nervously. "Go... Go on... Back to the dormitory!"
"I'm not going anywhere, Mr Potter," Hermione stated firmly. "I'm going to help my friend. And you'd be better off keeping quiet. Your willy isn't big enough yet to tell me where to go!"
"Well..." Grosvenor drawled. "Some help wouldn't exactly hurt. At least with opening the passage and keeping watch. Hermione, you can keep a lookout for us, can't you?"
"You mean watch for teachers and warn you if anyone's coming?" Granger clarified.
"Exactly!" Richard nodded in agreement.
"Of course, Richie," Granger replied. "No problem. I won't even ask where His Lordship picked up criminal slang... How far have you got?"
"To the stage where we have no idea what we're doing," Grosvenor admitted honestly.
Hermione walked over to the sink behind which the passage was supposed to begin.
"This tap has never worked," she said.
"Never?" Richard's eyebrows rose in astonishment. "You mean they haven't fixed it in two years? What does the caretaker get paid for? What are the house-elves doing? Useless layabouts! They've got completely out of hand!"
"Richie, I don't think this sink has ever worked," Hermione shared her thoughts.
Potter perked up and stepped directly in front of the sink.
"Maybe you have to turn the tap?" he suggested.
Without wasting any time, he immediately put the idea to the test. Under Hermione and Richard's inquisitive gazes, Harry tried twisting the tap to the left, then to the right, pulling it towards himself, pushing down on it, and turning the handles in various ways. With every failed attempt, he grew increasingly irritated. Then he noticed a tiny snake scratched into the copper tap. The boy tried pressing it, shifting it back and forth, but once again nothing happened.
"Jus-s-st open already!" he hissed angrily.
And then something incredible happened: the tap flared with an opalescent light and began to spin. A moment later, the sink sank down, disappeared from sight, and revealed the gaping mouth of a wide pipe, inviting them to begin their descent. The only question was: where did it lead?
"Well, would you look at that!" Richard said in surprise. "Didn't work last time. Maybe you weren't expressive enough?"
Hermione drew in a sharp breath. Her eyes wide, she stared at Potter, hardly daring to breathe.
Harry ran a hand over his face, gathering his thoughts. They had to decide what to do. He could feel Granger staring at him. The boy spun around abruptly and demanded:
"What?!"
(End of Chapter)
P@treon: /SadRaven
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