CHAPTER 91: THE ROOM OF HIDDEN THINGS

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Since thou readest in her what thou thyself hast there written,

And, to gladden the eye, placest her wonders in groups;--

Since o'er her boundless expanses thy cords to extend thou art able,

Thou dost think that thy mind wonderful Nature can grasp.

Thus the astronomer draws his figures over the heavens,

So that he may with more ease traverse the infinite space,

Knitting together e'en suns that by Sirius-distance are parted,

Making them join in the swan and in the horns of the bull.

But because the firmament shows him its glorious surface,

Can he the spheres' mystic dance therefore decipher aright?

~

-Friedrich Schiller

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It was almost midnight, Ed was sitting on the couch of the Gryffindor common room. He was staring at the fireplace, the warm flame was crackling softly, and outside, Ed could hear the wind hitting the window.

Right now, Ed was waiting for someone, it was Hermione, as Ed said, he waited for the girl around midnight as she wanted to follow him to the Horcrux location.

Ed then saw the girl he was waiting for walking down the stairs, her face looked really sleepy.

Ed smiled, welcoming the girl. "Are you sure you want to go? You look sleepy."

"I'm fine." She yawned. "It's not like we're fighting people or anything right?"

Ed shrugged. "Who knows, maybe Moody's following me."

Hermione just sighed. "You're too paranoid… let's just go."

Ed hummed and stood up from the couch. He walked to the girl, and once he entered a specific range, they disappeared from the place, blinking to the destination instantly.

Both of them then appeared in front of the supposed entrance of the room of requirement, with Hermione having a look of surprise.

"I thought we're walking here…" Hermione commented.

"Why?" Ed questioned, looking at Hermione weirdly. "It's just wasting time if we walk here."

"I don't know… I thought we'd have a midnight stroll or something…"

Ed sighed and shook his head in amusement. "You want a midnight stroll?" he asked while pointing at the corridor.

"Well, seeing the dark hall… not anymore…" Hermione said gloomily. Looking at the barely lit halls in the night.

Ed chuckled and turned serious when he saw the statue. "Let's go open the room."

The two then walked to the statue, thinking about the 'Room of Hidden Things', and both ran around the space between the two statues three times.

Once they were finished, the door appeared at the wall, opening the entrance of the room.

"Let's enter shall we?" Ed commented, to which both of them just opened the door, and entered the place.

The place was huge, and it was filled with random things, desks, drawers, brooms, chairs, you name it, and the room probably had it.

As soon as they entered it, Hermione coughed lightly. "There's a lot of dust." She gasped.

"Yeah…" Ed mumbled. He then pulled out his wand and used a spell. "Accio Diadem!"

But nothing happened.

Ed shrugged. "Worth a try." He commented.

"So we have to search it manually?" Hermione asked.

"Apparently so…" he answered. "You want to split up? Or just look for it together?"

"Together." Hermione answered decisively. "We'll take our time finding it, it's not like we're racing against time…"

"But the place is quite huge." Ed said, but ultimately shrugged. "Oh well, let's go."

The two then began to search, they scoured the place slowly, searching beneath the desks and drawers.

"It looks like a tiara right?" Hermione asked Ed, who was still searching.

"That's the description…" Ed said. "Harry used it as a mark for the potions book."

She sighed. "Reading it in a book is one thing… actually finding it is another, this place is really huge." Hermione commented.

"That's what I said that we should split up." Ed stated. "It'll be a lot quicker."

"I suppose you're right…" Hermione mumbled weakly. "But we can talk if we do it this way right?"

"I guess…" Ed stated. "Alright, let's talk. Have you read the papers about enchanting I gave you?"

"I haven't finished it yet." Hermione answered. "But it's quite fascinating really, we can use the properties of ingredients to enchant things. It's a marvellous concept."

Ed hummed. "Do you have any questions about it?"

"Not yet." Hermione shook her head. "It's a complicated subject, but once you've got the gist of it, it's easy to understand."

"Well, if you want to practice, you can use the ingredients in the suitcase, just don't be wasteful."

"Will do." She reassured.

Ed hummed again and changed the topic. "By the way, have you got any female friends here besides Daphne and Luna? I rarely see you with a girl…"

Hermione frowned. "Why do you ask?"

"So you really don't have any more female friends huh…" Ed stated, noting her defensive question. "What about your roommates?"

"Lavender and Parvati?" Hermione questioned. "They're okay." she mumbled unconvincingly.

"Hermione…"

"What?"

"I noticed one thing during these four days." Ed stated. "That you are almost always with me from the morning until the evening. You never hung around your female friends at all, not even Luna."

"W-Well…"

"Why are you so attached to me, Hermione?"

"Well… you being my first love and the only man I will ever love is a contributing factor…" Hermione mumbled. "That and growing hormones… as well as me being defensive around the girls that tried to get close to you…"

Ed sighed. "You need to socialize more Hermione, I'll be fine on my own."

"Fine, I'll talk to my friends more often…" Hermione smiled weakly and nodded, but then she saw the item that they were looking for. "I found it!"

Ed hummed as he got closer to her. "Yep, I can tell, I can sense the distortion around it."

"Wait what? so you can sense it? Why did you make us search it manually then?" Hermione frowned.

Ed shrugged. "Good point, this place is really weird to be honest, it's like the space itself is stretched, so I don't want to risk an accident by blinking."

"Well, can't you just tell me the location?"

"I was leading us towards it." Ed pointed out. "Besides, we got to talk right?"

Hermione blushed at the statement. "So you did want to spend time with me…"

"Well, I noticed that you want to talk, so I gave you a chance." Ed shrugged. "Here, give me the thing." Ed gestured to the tiara, and Hermione gave it to him. Ed pulled out the diadem from the box and put it on a desk.

"So now what?" Hermione questioned.

"We destroy it of course."

"The whole thing?"

"Of course not, I don't want to destroy the diadem…" Ed said. "We just need to destroy the horcrux inside it."

"How though? Fiendfyre?"

"It'll damage the diadem if we use the fiendfyre." Ed then pulled out a liquid in a bottle, it looked greenish, and from the looks of it, it was poison.

"Basilisk venom?" Hermione was a bit surprised. "How did you get it?"

"Sneaked into the chamber." Ed shrugged. "Gathered the fangs and extracted the venom from it."

"Will it work though using only the venom?"

"Don't know… let's just try it." Ed said. He then opened the bottle, and poured the venom to the diadem, soaking it completely.

And in the next moment, the diadem started bleeding, and it produced black smoke. It worked.

"Stay back Hermione." Ed commanded, pushing the girl away from the diadem. A couple of minutes later, the smoke dissipates, and the horcrux had been cleansed.

"I guess that's done…" Ed murmured, walking closer to the diadem.

"That's it?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah…" Ed then inspected the diadem, it had been damaged quite a bit because of the corrosive venom, but it's still repairable. "I'll have to fix the damage before I can show it to anyone." Ed commented.

"Can it really make you smarter?" Hermione asked curiously as she started to also inspect the diadem.

"Now? I don't really know… it's been tainted with a horcrux." Ed informed. "You want to try it?"

"I'd rather not…" Hermion stepped back as Ed tried to put the diadem on her head.

Ed chuckled and put the diadem back to the box. "You think we should keep it?"

Hermione shrugged. "We've got no use for it if it can't make us smarter…"

"Then let's try it first." Ed then put the diadem on his head without warning, making Hermione panic.

"What are you doing?! It's dangerous!" she shrieked.

"What? I've cleansed the horcrux Hermione…"

"What if it had some residue or something…"

"There's no distortion anymore, it's fine…" Ed reassured. "Hm… I don't feel anything…"

"So it doesn't have any effect?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know really…" Ed mumbled. "Here, you'll try." Ed tried to put the diadem to Hermione's head, but she stepped back again, a bit afraid of using it.

"What? you don't trust me? It's fine…" Ed said, Hermione ultimately relented, and let Ed put the diadem on her head.

"How do you feel?" Ed asked nervously.

"I- nothing's changed really…" Hermione informed, then she put off the diadem and put it back in the box.

"So it's really not working anymore…" Ed murmured in disappointment. "Oh well, at least I saved the shape of it… it needs a bit of repair, but otherwise, it's fine."

"What do we do with it?" Hermione asked. "Give it to Dumbledore?"

"I don't know really…" Ed thought a little. "If the news came out that the diadem had been found, a lot of wizards would go crazy to have a hand on it… so showing it to the public is a bad idea…"

"Then?"

"Give it to someone who wants to study it maybe?" Ed asked back. "I don't know really…"

"I hear Luna's father is interested in the diadem." Hermione informed. "Do you want to give it to him?"

Ed shrugged. "Sure, why not, let's give it to Luna for her birthday… when's her birthday anyway?"

"Around February." Hermione said. "On the 13th I think."

"Then that's settled." Ed said, closing the box containing the diadem. "In the meantime, we keep it, you can play princess with it for all I care." Ed joked, causing Hermione to snort. The girl then picked the box and hugged it.

"So, what do you want to do?" Ed asked the girl. "Are you still sleepy?"

"A bit…" Hermione mumbled, not looking at Ed.

Ed hummed. "You want to go back? I still have some things to do here." He informed.

Hermione frowned at this. "What do you want to do?"

"I just want to see the vanishing cabinet, nothing too serious." Ed answered, his face showing a 'don't-care' look.

"Well, I can just go with you, it's just hiding the cabinet anyway…" Hermione said, which made Ed shrugged.

"Okay, whatever you want." The two then walked to a seemingly random direction, or at least Hermione thought so, before remembering that Ed could sense items. After about 15 minutes of walking, the two arrived at a seemingly covered cabinet. It was covered with a simple cloth, nothing more.

"Well, here it is." Ed pulled the cloth, revealing the cabinet underneath it. "I sense a constant interference from this cabinet, so I thought that it is the one."

"Constant interference?"

"Like a wormhole I guess." Ed mumbled. "I can feel what's on the other side, so sensing it is a bit strange, like you peek at a hole expecting a bathroom on the other side, instead you found a waterfall."

"I need to study your… powers really, I don't understand what you're saying at all." Hermione snorted.

"Hermione Granger doesn't know something?!" Ed joked.

"Shut up." Hermione punched Ed's shoulder jokingly, her face showing a weak smile.

Ed just chuckled. "Well, I don't know what I'm saying either, so that one doesn't count I guess."

The boy then opened the cabinet, but as soon as he opened it, the hinge broke, making the cabinet door detached from the cabinet itself.

"…" the two were silent about the condition of the cabinet. "Is this really the cabinet?"

"I- I don't know… maybe?" Hermione questioned, "Draco had to repair it first right when he wanted to use it?"

"I didn't know it was this bad." Ed commented. "I was going to use it as well…"

"For what?" Hermione questioned curiously.

"The entrance for our island." Ed said. "It'll be the only entrance. I don't want our kids to constantly apparate in and out of the place…"

Hermione blushed at the mention of kids. "W-Well, you can repair it right?"

"I can." Ed nodded. "The problem is I need to buy the other one first, to make sure that no one would try to do anything while I'm repairing it…"

"You're going to Knockturn Alley then?"

Ed shrugged. "I'll do it later, I just wanted to check the condition of it." He said. "Right, let's go back."

Ed then put the detached door at the side of the cabinet, and covered it back with the cloth, he then put another concealing charm to make sure that people who wandered here won't find it.

"That's unnecessary to be honest." Hermione commented.

Ed shrugged. "Just in case."

The two then walked to the exit of the room of Hidden things, they passed through the old desks and drawers, walking lazily.

"Can I go to the suitcase tomorrow?" Hermione asked expectantly.

"What for?" Ed asked back, curious about the reason.

"I want to look for the dress." She answered straightforwardly.

"It's too early don't you think?"

"I know, but from what I see, the wardrobe is quite extensive." Hermione continued. "So I would like to pick one now."

Ed sighed. "Fine, you can enter the suitcase tomorrow…"

Hermione smiled and held Ed's hand. "Also… I've got a request…" she mumbled.

"You have a lot of requests tonight, Hermione." Ed rolled his eyes.

"Hey I'm serious!"

"Okay, okay, what's your request my lady?" Ed teased the girl with the name calling.

This time, Hermione is the one who rolled her eyes. "Can you teach me how to dance?"

"You can't dance?" Ed was surprised at the request.

"Last time I checked I'm a girl who loves books, not the girl who loves attending formal dances." She pointed out.

Ed sighed. "Didn't your primary school teach you how to dance or something?"

"They did, but I was young." Hermione answered. "I don't remember half of it…"

"Fair enough." Ed hummed. "But how can you dance in the books? I remember McGonagall giving one dance lesson, but that's it, you can't just be a pro at it with only one lesson…"

"I don't know, probably McGonagall opening more classes for dancing that wasn't mentioned." Hermione shrugged.

"Or you've practiced with Victor Krum." Ed added.

"True…" Hermione then side eyed Ed to see his reaction but got none. "You're not jealous?"

Ed rolled his eyes. "Why would I be jealous? I'm not you." He said, making Hermione blushed in embarrassment. "And besides, you two haven't even met yet."

Hermione hummed. "By the way, what's going on with Neville? You've been giving him a lot of books lately… you're planning something?"

"Truly Hermione, you even noticed that." Ed chuckled. "I'm planning to build his confidence really, if he's not shy he can be a really charming man." He said.

"But how's that got to do with herbology and muggle plant books?"

"I'm planning on helping him cure his parents." Ed informed, which made Hermione gasped in surprise. "I won't just help him fully, hell, I don't even know if I can cure them really." Ed continued. "But I was hoping that maybe I can give him a few push on Herbology, maybe combining muggle plant cultivating technique and the herbology of the wizarding world can create new things, new ingredients, ingredients that can cure his parents…"

"That's really nice of you…" Hermione muttered, kissing his cheek.

Ed rolled his eyes. "I'm not doing it for pure kindness Hermione, I need to have my own plantation for the production of magical items, so I hoped that once he graduates, he'll work for us, and I've got a genius in terms of herbology working for me." Ed smirked at his plan.

Hermione snorted. "I take back what I just said, I'm starting to feel like you're becoming Dumbledore more day by day."

Ed chuckled. "I'll try not to be like him in the future. I don't want to be compared to an old man."

The two then finally arrived at the exit, and got out of the place quickly, leaving the place hidden again, until they came back of course.