Chapter 13: Malfoy and the Room of Hidden Things

Shortly before Halloween, Harry decided to tell his friends about the Muffliato spell. "Hey, Hermione," he said when he caught up with them after his break, "I found a spell that should work well for us. You know for when we need to talk in private."

"Really, Harry, that is great," Hermione enthused, bouncing in place, her frizzy hair flying. " I looked all over the library and the ones I found can all be broken easily. Where did you find it?" she asked, with a furrow of her brow, not understanding how she could miss finding the spell, while Harry could find it.

"I found it in that potions book. Don't worry I tested it before I told you about it. I went to the Room of Requirements and checked it out there," the messy-haired wizard explained, hoping that she wouldn't argue about it, but liking her enthusiasm. He could tell she was definitely a girl. "I set up a dummy that made noise, put the spell on it and tried to take it down. It worked and the only counter-spell I found was in the book. I think this is what we need. It doesn't completely block the sound, but it makes it muffled and distorted so people can't hear what you are saying." He braced himself for the argument he knew was coming.

"Harry, are you sure we should be using a spell from that book? I still don't like that you are using it, even though Professor Snape said it was okay. I have kept my peace about it, but I don't like that there are spells in a potions book. It doesn't make sense," Hermione berated, her good mood destroyed with just the mention of that thrice damned book. To her way of thinking Harry was doing something stupid by reading it and practicing the spells in it. They really didn't know who wrote it. What if the spells were Dark?

"Hermione, I've researched it," Harry argued back, leaning against the wall his arms across his chest and legs crossed at the ankles. "I tried finding the spell in the library and couldn't find it anywhere. I think whoever wrote the notes creating their own spells. That is why I tested it," he said pointedly, his green eyes flashed. "You really need to quit treating me like a child," he all but spat. "I wouldn't cast a spell on someone without trying it out on a dummy first. I'm mature enough to know that some spells can kill. I thought you had more faith in me than that."

Hermione seemed to want to argue a lot lately and he was not sure why. Maybe she felt that she was the only one growing up, which was weird 'cause she complimented him on the train, but she still treated him and Ron like they were children and it was really starting to get on his nerves.

"Okay, Harry, if you say you tested it then I'll let it go. I don't like that you are trying unknown spells from an unknown person, but if you say it worked we will try it," Hermione conceded, ignoring the rest of his statement. She still felt that he was being reckless, but really what harm could a silencing spell do.

"Okay, here's how it works," Harry said, standing, circling his wand above their heads and saying the spell. All noise from around them became muffled and distorted showing them that it had indeed worked.

"This is great Harry," Ron said as he listened to the muffled noise. "Yeah, I also looked at some other books and couldn't find anything in them either. I think this one will work fine."

At least someone trusts me, Harry thought, giving his friend a big smile.

"Now I can tell you about Malfoy," the taller boy said, leaning forward to make sure they heard his whisper, surprising both his friends. "He's been sneaking into the Room of Requirements at night. I'm not sure what he is up to, but it can't be good," he stated with a proud look on his face, as if he accomplished something they hadn't.

"How do you know that, Ron? Are you following him?" Hermione questioned with her eyebrow raised, hoping that wasn't the case since that would mean that he was out after curfew.

"No, I borrowed Harry's map. The Room of Requirements isn't on the map, is it? That's where he disappears, on the seventh floor. If he's not there then he is pacing his room for hours. I'm sure he is up to something," the redhead stated, nodding his head in finality and feeling very sure of himself. He didn't trust that little ferret and he was dead sure he was a Death Eater.

Harry didn't even know Ron had borrowed the map. That did explain what Ron was looking at each night. Harry never even noticed it was missing. His friend must banish it back to his trunk when he was done. "Ron, you aren't leaving the dorm with it are you?" he questioned his best mate.

"Nah, I'm not sneaking out of the dorm. I just watch him from the comfort of my bed. I don't have your Invisibility Cloak and I know better than to borrow that. I just know that slimy snake is up to something. I was hoping we could follow him one night or see if we can get the room to show us what he is up to," Ron said in a hopeful voice.

"Why didn't you ask if you can borrow my map? You know it is one of the few things I have left from my dad and Sirius," Harry snapped, letting the hurt show in his voice and on his face.

"That's one of the reasons I didn't leave the room with it. I know how important it is to you. And after what you said on the train, I didn't think you'd believe me that Malfoy is up to something," Ron said, putting his hand on his best mates shoulder, trying to placate him. "Now that you know that he's sneaking around, I was hoping we could find out what." He dropped his hand when Hermione started in on him.

Harry thought about it for a few minutes, while Hermione talked to Ron about borrowing things that were not his. He snorted and thought, Like she had room to talk the way she wanted to borrow books from his library without asking.

He tuned the conversation back in. "Okay, here is what I'm going to do. On my next free period, I'll go to the Room of Requirements and see if it'll show me what Malfoy is up to. But Ron," he said meaningfully, turning to get closer to his mate and leaning in so the redhead could see his face clearly, "I don't want you borrowing any of my things without asking first. Don't I have the right to some privacy? The things in my trunk are mine and you," poking a finger to the other boy's chest, "should ask first."

"Okay, sorry, we'll do it your way first," Ron complied, backing up so Harry wasn't in his space anymore. He wasn't sure what he did wrong, they were best mates after all, and they should share everything. Well, maybe not the birds.

"Right, my next free period in tomorrow afternoon, so I'll check it out then," Harry said, standing straighter and shrugging his shoulder. He could tell Ron really didn't get it, maybe with time he would. He waved his wand and took down the silence spell.

The next day he paced in front of the Room of Requirements I need to know what Malfoy is up to, he thought as he paced.

A light wooden door appeared and Harry carefully went inside. There he saw the biggest mass of stuff he had ever seen. Most of it was junk from the looks of it.

There were piles and piles of unwanted items laying around. Some of them reached the ceiling. There were shelves everywhere, which had more odds and ends on them. There were quite a few trunks as well and some of them were full.

He figured there must be things in here that was thousands of years old. He thought he caught a glimpse of jewels. He looked on with awe, what he could do with all this left him speechless. Maybe he could find more books and stuff in those trunks, but first he needed to see what Malfoy was up to, so he started to look around.

Following the footprints in the dust, he went towards the middle of the room. A space that was clear of dust came into to view. In the middle of that space was a large wooden cabinet. It looked to be broken. I wonder if this is what he is working on. Hmmm, what does it do?' He vaguely remembered seeing a similar cabinet in Burgin and Burkes. If there were two did that mean that they were connected? Harry decided not to take that chance, shrunk the cabinet and put it in his bottomless bag.

"Dobby, Winky," he called. He figured they could go through some of these trunks and shelves and see if there was anything that he could use, like some of the books that weren't too bad off. He didn't feel like it was stealing since it seemed no one wanted whatever was in the room. Besides, he could always give any books he didn't need to the school library and pay for the rest with a donation.

The two elves popped in.

"Harry Potter, why are we in the Come and Go room?" Dobby asked his green eyes wide as he looked around the room in wonder. He had been here before and this is where the Hogwarts house elves put lost and forgotten things. Yet, it never stopped impressing him the things humans threw away.

"I was hoping you two could go through some of this… junk and find me some useful books and things. I don't want you to go through all of it," Harry added, "just the trunks and shelves. If you can empty a few of the trunks and put anything you find useful in there, that'd be great. You know what I need; parchment, ink, books, clothes and anything of value. Especially if you find things like Invisibility Cloaks and other such useful tools. If you find anything Dark it should probably be put in the Black family vault," he softly ordered, hoping this would give the two house elves something to do. There couldn't be much work for them at Grimmauld Place now that it was clean. It wasn't really big enough for three house elves. "Hey, Dobby, are the curse breakers still going through the vault?" he asked.

"Yes, sir, Harry Potter, sir. They is still going through it. They is saying to Dobby that they may be needing another month to be finishing. There were many Dark things in Harry Potter's house and vault," Dobby answered, still looking around the room eyes wide with excitement and wonder that he would have such a great task.

"So, do you two think this is something that'll keep you busy for a while? I'm sure you are getting bored at Grimmauld Place," Harry asked the elves.

"Yes, sir, Harry Potter, sir. Dobby is being most bored at sir's house. There is not being enough work for us. We is trying to share, but we is starting to fight on who is going to do what and Harry Potter's Mrs. Wheezy is still doing all the cooking when the Order is there. This is being a good solution to our problems, sir," Dobby said, finally looking at his Master. "The Great Harry Potter is a kind master. Thinking about his house elves. Dobby is thinking that Harry Potter is the greatest master of all time. He is so very kind." He ran and hugged Harry's knees in a tight grip.

"Winky is thinking this is being just what she is needing. Winky is thinking that Kreacher would be most happy if Winky and Dobby is leaving the house to him. Winky will be most happy sorting through this for Harry Potter," Winky said with enthusiasm, nodding her head and bouncing in place, also pleased to work on such an important assignment.

"That's great, both of you," Harry beamed at them, gently untangling Dobby from his legs. Then he turned serious, "Remember there are other people who will try and use this room. Try not to be caught, I don't want you hurt. I use this room every other day, so I know you won't be able to get in during that time. It's the afternoons on Monday, Wednesday and Friday just before dinner and every night at 1 a.m."

"The Great Harry Potter is trying to make himself greater," Dobby gushed, nodding his head as if it were a perfect idea.

"Yeah, well, I think that Malfoy is sneaking up here at night, but I don't know when. I know he is in his dorm when I come here. So just be careful," Harry said, ignoring the compliment. And with that Harry left the room, and let the two house elves work.

He hoped they didn't try and do the whole room. There was over 1000 years' worth of rubbish in that room. They would wear themselves out. Oh well, he would check on them in a week, and see how they were faring. He then got a thought; he really needed to write to Spearhead about Godric's Hollow, it would give them more to do when he left school.

Since he gave up the rest of his free period to the house elves, he decided to go to the library and see if he could find anything out about the cabinet. He'd tell Ron and Hermione about it when they got out of class. There he saw Katie reading, so he joined her and talked about non-essential things just trying to get to know each other.

He met up with Ron and Hermione on the way to the Great Hall, so he stopped them and put up the Muffliato spell. "Hey guys, I think I found out what Malfoy was up to. We're going to have to do a bit more research to know if what I found was something bad, but I found this room in the Room of Requirement, which had loads of junk," he stated, waving his hands wide in front his body and above his head, showing just what he meant by loads. "In the middle of a clearing was a cabinet. I remember seeing one just like it when I got lost in Knockturn Alley that first summer, remember, Ron?" he waited for Ron to nod in acknowledgement. "So I took the cabinet, shrunk it, and put it in my bag. I figured if there were two of them that can't be good."

"See I told you he was up to no good," Ron said smugly, crossing his arms and giving Hermione a self-righteous look, knowing that he had been right.

"Ron," she snapped defensively, "just because Harry found the cabinet doesn't mean that Malfoy was doing something wrong. It could be for a class project or something. Harry is right we need to do more research," she said, shaking her head and wondering how he could be so cynical.

"Well if Ron is right, then it is a good thing I found the cabinet and if Hermione is right, then hopefully Malfoy will find something else to work on. There was heaps of things in that room; if it's for a school project I'm sure he can find something else," Harry said, trying to divert yet another argument. He took down the spell and they headed for dinner, his two mates still glaring at one another.

After dinner they, Neville, Luna and Ginny headed to the library to do their homework. It was pretty much a nightly ritual now. After the homework was done Hermione headed into the stacks and found some books for them to look up the cabinet in. They were trying to find if the two were connected somehow.

The next day, Harry looked a Malfoy and saw that his pointed face was paler than normal. His hair was uncombed and slightly greasy and his clothes rumpled and disarrayed. He looked scared. He didn't know what had the blond so scared, but felt it had something to do with the cabinet. He had hoped that he had been wrong and that Hermione had been right. On the other hand, a school project wouldn't put the fear he saw in Malfoy's eyes there.

He wondered if it was too late to help Malfoy. He may not like the git, but he really didn't want anything bad to happen to him. And if Malfoy was frightened that could only mean Voldemort or his father. He vowed he would find out if he could help. It must be his 'people saving thing' as Hermione called it. Maybe he could ask Snape.

After the DADA class, a few days later, he stayed behind and told Ron and Hermione to go ahead of him. "Professor, I'm worried about something and thought you could help," the young Gryffindor started tentatively. "Well, really, I'm worried about someone and since they're in your House, I thought you might like to know." He pushed a little, hoping that the truce held.

"And who do you think could possibly need help from me. I thought you and your little friends hated all things Slytherin," Snape sneered, glancing at the brat to judge just how truthful he was being. He knew that Harry and his friends only cared for themselves.

"Well, sir, you'd be wrong in that assumption. My grandmother was Slytherin and so in Andromeda Tonks and I have nothing against either of them. I have nothing against you being Slytherin either. I just have something against the way you treat me and my friends," Harry stated a sincere looking in his eyes, hoping to get through his snarky professor. "I'm worried about Malfoy. I think he's up to something. We know he was working on something here in the castle and when we found out what it was, we hid it. Now he seems to be really afraid. I'm not sure if he's a Death Eater or not, but I think Voldemort has threaten him or his family. I don't want to see him hurt by this and was hoping you could help him."

"What was it you found, Potter?" Snape asked, already knowing what Malfoy was tasked with, but he wasn't going to tell this child.

"I'd rather not say, Professor. Let's just say, it's well hidden now and can't be used to harm anyone," Harry answered, hoping that that would be the end of that line of questioning.

"Very well, I will ask Mr. Malfoy if he is in need of assistance. I would think you will do well to stay out of it from here on out and let me handle it. I want you would keep all this to yourself, well besides your little friends," Professor Snape answered firmly, figuring that if they were going to hold a truce he would do well not to be too snarky or confrontational. Though he was shocked that Potter was thinking of someone besides himself and a Slytherin at that, maybe there was hope after all.

"Thanks, Professor. I really hope it's not something that can't be helped. Hermione says it's my 'people saving thing', but I do hope you can help him." And with that Harry turned and fled the room while things were going well, not wanting to push his luck.

"What was that all about, Harry?" Ron asked when they met in the hall.

Harry cast the Muffliato and answered him. "I was hoping he could help Malfoy," he shrugged it off like it was no big thing. "I think that he is being threatened by Voldemort, 'cause if he is a Death Eater he's not a very good one. If you watch you'll see he is terrified of something and that started after we found the cabinet."

"You want to help Malfoy? Why? He has been nothing but a complete git to you since the day you met," Ron asked his face had gone slack with awe; eyes widened and mouth open, showing the feeling of great surprise.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I want him hurt or dead. He's still a human being, Ron. Can you really say that you want him tortured or dead?" Harry asked, trusting that his mate really didn't want that. He knew Ron was a hot head, but he was sure that he was not a cruel man.

"Well, no," Ron answered, scratching his head in slight confusion. "Now that you put it that way I don't want to see the ferret hurt like that. I mean it is one thing to throw punches or jinxes, but that is all. I mean, we never really set out to hurt one another, but I still don't trust him. I know he's still up to something and I think we should still watch him."

"We will, I don't think he's going up to the Room of Requirements anymore. I haven't seen him leave his room on the map in days." Harry had decided that he would keep an eye on Malfoy to see if they were right about the cabinet and the git had not returned to the Room after the night he removed it.

"Well, that's good then, at least we put a stop to something. Wonder what else he's up to," Ron said with a thoughtful look on his face.

Harry shrugged and the conversation dropped there.

A week later, he called the elves to him in the Room of Requirement. They arrived with a 'pop'. "Hey how are you two holding up?" he asked, his face a mask of concern. "I want to make sure that you're not working too hard."

"Dobby is doing great, Harry Potter. Dobby is having the most fun time working in this room. There is many, many things that Harry Potter, would be liking. We is putting them in the trunks and is taking them to Grimmauld Place for Harry Potter to be looking at," Dobby said, bouncing from foot to foot, hats tipping wildly, his too big socks threatening to slide off his feet.

"Winky is agreeing with Dobby. We is only finding a few Dark things and we is taking them to Harry Potter's Black vault, just like Harry Potter is telling us to do," Winky said also dancing from foot to foot, her little tea towel swaying with her motion.

"So this isn't too much for you? You're having fun?" Harry asked, seeing they were indeed excited. Both house elves nodded so quickly that their ears slapped against their heads. "That's great, just do what you can and try not to work too hard. Dobby, I need you to come during my free periods, before I put the timer up, and bring me a few of those trunks so I can go through them and more of the Dark books from the Black family vault. Winky, can you see if you can sell any of this stuff? " he asked.

Harry had decided that there might be some things in here that could be sold and then he could make a private donation to the school. He reached the conclusion that he could also make a contribution for the cost of anything he kept. Also if there were books that he couldn't use they could be donated as well. That being decided made him feel a little better about cleaning out the room for his own purpose.

"Yes, sir, Harry Potter, sir," Dobby said, giving a mock salute; long thin hand flat against his forehead, palm out. He knew he could get away with that with the Great Harry Potter. He had the bestest master in the whole world.

Winky looked at him like he was foolish to tease the master, but he didn't care. Winky also gave her approval of the chore and started working.

"Good you guys can work in here now," Harry said and left the room. They had not found anything about the cabinet and he really wanted to know what Malfoy was up to, so he went to the library to do some more research.

And so it went, Dobby would bring trunks and books to his master, before he set the timer, and Harry would spend half his time going through them.

There were plenty of trinkets in the trunks and the teen had no idea what they were for, so he put them back to be sorted out later. There were six Invisibility Cloaks, so far, though most looked past their prime. He figured they had a year or two left. He'd give them to his friends and whoever he started dating seriously. It did make him wonder just how long his had been the family and why it was so special.

There were weapons of all shapes and sizes and plenty of wands and holsters. He'd distribute those as well and whatever wasn't chosen he would send to Ollivander's or the Junk Shop for them to resell. All the money found was put in his vault to be given as a support for school brooms, since most of the ones found here were useless.

He added the books to his three compartment trunk to be studied. He put all of his Dark books he read in another trunk, so Dobby could take them to the library at Grimmauld Place. He studied his magic, and tried to do the spells from the books. He got to where he was ahead of what was being taught now —wandlessly and wordlessly. He spent more time sorting through all the stuff then he did studying, but he did set eight hours aside to do some dueling on the dummy. He kept up his exercise, and was now in pretty good shape.

All of this made him feel good, now all he had to do was figure out what Voldemort was up to and how to defeat him. That and he was still worried about Halloween.