'Making sure you're still far beyond them?' Katie asked, laughing at the slightly contemptuous face he had pulled after watching Zacharias Smith only manage to shield his back and promptly get disarmed for a fifth straight time.
'He's not very good is he,' she remarked.
'Maybe he's only planning on running away like Umbridge insists so he only wants to protect his back,' Harry suggested, as Smith's wand bounced across the floor to land next to Katie's foot.
'I am not,' Smith scowled, retrieving his wand.
'You're not going to last very long in a duel, then,' Harry smirked.
The Hufflepuff seemed to consider responding, but wisely thought better of it, and stalked off. Even in Harry's state he could wipe the floor with someone like Smith.
'I think that's enough for one meeting,' Neville announced loudly after about half an hour. Smith had finally managed to produce a charm that covered his entire body, even if it was still too weak to deflect him from more than the weakest spells.
'Keep an eye on your badges for the time of the next meeting,' Hermione added, 'we'll try to organise them around things like quidditch.'
The other students gradually dispersed in the direction of their common rooms. Harry followed Katie out, then excused himself, pretending to head towards the hospital wing before disillusioning himself and doubling back.
'You think we should hide the list in there?' Hermione asked Neville, looking thoughtfully at the wall where the Room of Requirement would form.
'Yeah,' Neville nodded confidently. 'Not much chance of anyone finding it, someone in the group might guess that's where we've put it, but I don't expect anyone else too.'
Hermione considered it for a while then turned and opened the door to the room. Harry cast a second charm, to muffle the noise of his footsteps, and slipped through the door after them. He nearly walked into Neville's back, as he and Hermione stared around them in wonder.
Harry didn't blame them, the Room of Hidden Things was quite spectacular. He suspected that it was from here that the room procured everything it provided that could be removed. There were towers of furniture, mountains of books, which Hermione was eyeing covetously, bottles, wands, and vast quantities of every item ever banned from Hogwarts.
'We need to put it somewhere we will be able to find it,' Hermione said, still slightly enraptured by the room. They strode a few paces into the room, standing next to the large bust of a particularly ugly looking warlock.
'He'll do as a landmark,' Neville grinned, 'we won't be able to forget that face.' Hermione laughed, and placed the list underneath the bust. She drew out her wand and cast a couple of spells, ones that Harry couldn't recognise from the wand motions alone.
'A anti-summoning enchantment,' she explained to Neville, 'just in case anyone finds out it''s in here and tried to find it.'
Smart.
Harry himself would not have been able to find it without considerable luck if he hadn't followed them in. Carefully he crept up alongside and past them, crouching down in a small gap across from the bust next to a tarnished, silver circlet and a small collection of dusty bottles of fire whiskey. He still had to lean precariously back out of their way when they left, putting a hand on the floor next to the sapphire adorned tiara to balance himself.
The door closed with a dull thud, and he dispelled the disillusionment with a sigh of relief.
'Accio ink, accio quill,' he murmured, sure that somewhere within the room he would find something passable to write with, and pulled the list out from under the bust.
Unscrewing the lid of his newly acquired bottle of ink he began to cast the charms that Fleur had cast in from of him, wincing each time he finished one and felt it take its toll.
Selecting the least broken quill of those he had summoned, he blew off the dust and began to draw, watching as the ink faded from the page.
It was a simple drawing, a circle, labelled with runes for creature, keeper and home, then a meandering trail that led from it to a final rune, Ehwaz, the Futhark representation of advancement and progress. Ambiguous enough to allow him to later twist its meaning however he needed to entice Umbridge into following it.
Harry smiled in satisfaction as the ink faded from sight. The route led past Hagrid's hut and out into the forest. It was a path he wasn't ever likely to forget taking, and the last time he ever trusted Hagrid's directions.
Follow the spiders, he smirked.
Casting a handful of new charms on the reverse of the list to prevent any of the enchantments he had added being easily noticed or altered, he pondered briefly the best way to lead Umbridge to the list and whether he should further tamper with it. He couldn't remove the anti-summoning charm on the off chance that those who were on the list of names were questioned, and he couldn't take off his own name without all but confessing his guilt.
Umbridge would need to be able to find it, make use of it, then later discover the map he'd left for her. Which meant she needed to know where she was looking when entering the room.
Harry picked up the circlet, giving it a curious stare when it chittered at him softly, and then placed it on the bust of the warlock. It made a memorable landmark now, one that he could easily feed back to the Pink Professor.
Marietta Edgecombe could easily be induced let slip the landmark and location of the room to Umbridge. She would find the list and Dumbledore would be out of the way, then Harry could find some way for her to discover the map on the reverse and its activation phrase to get rid of Umbridge as well. It was simply a matter of timing.
He pressed the tip of his wand against the parchment, wracking his brain for a suitable activation phrase, one that Dumbledore might conceivably have chosen.
Of course, he realised, what could be more appropriate for a man who would sacrifice a child to save a country.
'For the Greater Good,' he whispered, smiling at the delightful irony and watching the parchment darken to reveal the map before tucking it back under the bust.
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